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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Recipe for Diamonds, by
+Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne
+
+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 Recipe for Diamonds
+
+Author: Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne
+
+Release Date: January 26, 2010 [EBook #31083]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Recipe for Diamonds
+
+NELSON'S LIBRARY
+
+
+[Illustration: Weems stuck up his left arm, and sighted the pistol over
+his elbow-joint.]
+
+
+
+
+
+THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS
+
+
+
+C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE
+
+
+
+Thomas Nelson and
+Sons, London, Edinburgh,
+and New York
+
+
+
+
+_UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_
+
+
+THE OCTOPUS.                    _Frank Norris._
+
+WHITE FANG.                     _Jack London._
+
+THE PRINCESS PASSES.            _C. N. & A. M. Williamson._
+
+THE MAN FROM AMERICA.           _Mrs. H. de la Pasture._
+
+SIR JOHN CONSTANTINE.           _"Q"_
+
+A LAME DOG'S DIARY.             _S. Macnaughtan._
+
+FORTUNE OF CHRISTINA M'NAB.     _S. Macnaughtan._
+
+THE BATTLE OF THE STRONG.       _Sir G. Parker._
+
+THE TRANSLATION OF A SAVAGE.    _Sir G. Parker._
+
+INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS.          _A. and E. Castle._
+
+IF YOUTH BUT KNEW!              _A. and E. Castle._
+
+JOHN CHARITY.                   _H. A. Vachell._
+
+HIS GRACE.                      _W. E. Norris._
+
+MATTHEW AUSTIN.                 _W. E. Norris._
+
+CLEMENTINA.                     _A. E. W. Mason._
+
+THE AMERICAN PRISONER.          _Eden Phillpotts._
+
+THE HOSTS OF THE LORD.          _Mrs. F. A. Steel._
+
+THE LADY OF THE BARGE.          _W. W. Jacobs._
+
+THE INTRUSIONS OF PEGGY.        _Anthony Hope._
+
+QUISANTE.                       _Anthony Hope._
+
+THE KING'S MIRROR.              _Anthony Hope._
+
+THE GOD IN THE CAR.             _Anthony Hope._
+
+No. 5 JOHN STREET.              _Richard Whiteing._
+
+THE ODD WOMEN.                  _George Gissing._
+
+MARRIAGE OF WILLIAM ASHE.       _Mrs. Humphry Ward._
+
+ROBERT ELSMERE.                 _Mrs. Humphry Ward._
+
+HISTORY OF DAVID GRIEVE.        _Mrs. Humphry Ward._
+
+
+_Shortly._
+
+WOODSIDE FARM.                               _Mrs. W. K. Clifford._
+
+MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE, AND THE BEAUTIFUL LADY.  _Booth Tarkington._
+
+THE PIT.                                     _Frank Norris._
+
+AN ADVENTURER OF THE NORTH.                  _Sir G. Parker._
+
+THE WAGES OF SIN.                            _Lucas Malet._
+
+
+_NELSON'S LIBRARY._
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: In this e-text, characters with macrons are
+preceded by an equal sign and enclosed in brackets, e.g., [=a].
+Characters with breves are preceded by a right parenthesis and
+enclosed in brackets, e.g., [)a]. Superscripted characters are
+preceded by a carat, e.g., 2^a.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+   I. BIG GAME                                            3
+
+  II. HALCYONII DIES                                     15
+
+ III. VAGABOND                                           27
+
+  IV. MR. WEEMS AND HIS PURCHASE                         46
+
+   V. WANTED, A PASSAGE                                  69
+
+  VI. FORE AND AFT SEAMANSHIP                            81
+
+ VII. A DIPLOMATIC REMOVAL                              102
+
+VIII. TWO EVENINGS                                      115
+
+  IX. TALAITI DE TALT                                   132
+
+   X. WITH A THREE-ANGLED HOE                           146
+
+  XI. THE RED DELF AMPHORA                              166
+
+ XII. A PROFESSIONAL CONSPIRATOR                        182
+
+XIII. AT A MALLORQUIN FONDA                             204
+
+ XIV. HEREINGEFALLEN                                    217
+
+  XV. CAMARADERIE                                       226
+
+ XVI. CRUELLY INTERRUPTED                               240
+
+XVII. VENTRE A TERRE                                    258
+
+
+
+
+THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS.
+
+
+
+
+[_Extracted from the home correspondence of George Slade Methuen,
+Esq., which was written at his hired place on the Foldenfjord._]
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+BIG GAME.
+
+
+... The first shot was just a rib too far back, and though it staggered
+him, he didn't stop to it. Out tinkled cartridge number one and in went
+a second, and "_cluck_" said the breech-block. And then as he slewed
+round, I got the next bullet home, bang behind the shoulder. That did
+it. He tucked down his long Roman nose, and went heels over tip like a
+shot rabbit; and when a big elk that stands seventeen hands at the
+withers plays that trick, I tell you it shows a new hand something he
+hadn't much idea of before.
+
+We ran up eagerly enough. "_Meget stor bock_," shouted Ulus, and
+whipped out his knife, and proceeded to do the offices, being filled
+with strong glee, which he imparted to the driving rain, the swishing
+trees, and my dripping self.
+
+And, by Jove, his highness was a beauty too! Antlers in velvet, of
+course, as is the fashion with all Norwegian deer at this time of year;
+but there were eight points on each, and they've got the most approved
+"impudent" downward curve. What with no _rype_ and few trout, I'd
+been feeling rather down on my luck all these long weeks till now; but
+this big elk turned the scale. Glad I came.
+
+September nights drop down early here, and day was getting on, so we
+hurried up with the work, and loitered not for tempting admiration. Off
+came the coarse-haired pelt, pull by pull; and away dropped head and
+neck, after a haggle through sinew and vertebrae; and then we got heavy
+stones and built in the meat securely, lest the lynxes should thieve
+the lot. It all took time, and meanwhile the weather worsened steadily.
+The rain was snorting down in heavy squalls, and often there were
+crashes from amongst the pines. But the _stor bock's_ trophies
+repaid one for these things.
+
+At last we got through the obsequies, shouldered the spoils between us,
+and started.
+
+It was slow passage. On this primaeval ground one is so constantly being
+baulked. There are so many knotted jungles of splintered rock, such
+frequent swamps, so much fallen timber. And, moreover, the watercourses
+and torrents were all new-bloated with the rain, so that we had to cast
+about for fords, and then to grip one another at stiff arm's length, so
+as not to get swept adrift whilst wading amongst the eddying boulders.
+And when at last we did come to the lake, we saw there in the gray dusk
+a thing which caused Ulus to offer up hot words in Norsk, which were
+not words of prayer.
+
+To remind you again of where we were:--
+
+Some eight miles distant in crow-flight was the salt-water fjord. From
+it two mountain walls sprout out towards the north. At first the valley
+between these is filled with land which is mostly forest. Then comes a
+lake, hemmed by two precipices. Then another two-mile-wide strip of
+forest. Then another lake, with shiny granite walls running up sheer
+two thousand feet, so that of the fosses which jump in cream over the
+brinks above, only the stouter ones reach more than half-way down.
+
+We were on the farther side of this last sheet of water, and across it
+lay our only practicable way to the coast--to home, dinner, dry things,
+and other matters longed for. And on this lake a lake-sea was running,
+short, quick, and steep, which is the wettest of all seas for small
+craft to tackle. The boat which had carried us up was one of those
+_retrousse_-nosed punts peculiar to the country, the very worst
+possible breed of craft for the weather. She would not face it for
+thirty seconds. Her turn-up snout would fall off the moment we left the
+shingle, she would fill and swamp, and we should be left a swim without
+having in any degree furthered our cause. Wherefore I also bowed to the
+inevitable, but like Ulus I said things. There was no chance of
+reaching the abodes of men by any other route. We were booked till the
+gale chose to ease--at any rate till morning; and for myself, I
+contemplated a moist bivouac under streaming Jove, with one clammy
+elk-skin for a joint coverlet.
+
+But luckily Ulus was a man of the land besides being a vagrant hunter.
+He led back into the forest. A score of yards from the margin, in an
+overgrown clearing, was an abandoned _saeter_ hut. It was in none
+of the best of repair, was seven feet square inside, and held five feet
+of head-room under the roof-tree. It was about half filled with dried
+birch-bark, piled up against the farther end. It also contained a rude
+wooden trough and ball for pounding up coffee, three sections of
+pine-stem for seats, and a rusted old stove which had not been worth
+carrying away.
+
+Four words made a division of labour. Ulus set off to revisit the
+_stor bock_, Se going with him in case there should be any doubt
+about the track. It was my task to create a blaze with the dry,
+spluttering birch-bark, and collect a stack of solider fuel to feed it
+with. Afterwards I went and stopped the more obvious gaps in the roof
+with turf and logs, and by the time these things were done hunter and
+hound had returned. Then we wrung the supersaturation of wet from our
+clothes, and Se had a centrifugal shake; and so prepared, we went
+inside. Thanks to wasteful use of an absent person's store of
+birch-bark, the place was warm as an oven. Such an atmosphere was
+grateful and comforting. Se indeed revelled in the heat too much at
+first, and pressing over near its source, thrust out a moist black
+nose, and got the full effect. There followed a hiss and a howl, and a
+sulky retreat to the farther angle. Then we two bipeds hacked off
+gobbets from the venison, and taking us sharpened sticks, roasted and
+charred and toasted the meat in the doorway of the stove and over the
+gap in its lid. And in time we made a satisfying meal, though the
+courses straggled, and their texture was savage. And so on to pipes,
+and water boiled in a pewter flask-cup with whisky added, whilst the
+injured Se champed over juicy rib-bones in his corner.
+
+The hum and crackle from the stove, the grinding of the gray dog's
+teeth, the bumping and hissing of the gale outside, the boom of the
+cascades at the precipices, made up most of the sounds for that
+evening. Of chat there was a paucity. My knowledge of Norsk extends to
+few parts of speech beyond the common noun; and Ulus, ignorant person
+that he is, has no Sassenach: pantomime makes our usual phrase-book.
+Talk under these circumstances is a strain, and we were too tired for
+unnecessary athletics. So we smoked, and pondered over the slaying of
+the great deer.
+
+In a while we discarded the stump-stools and trundled them aside. A
+bunk ran along the farther side of the hut where the bark had been
+stowed, but I had my doubts about its vacancy, and surrendered it to
+Ulus. His hide is tough; he had no qualms. I spread for myself a spring
+mattress of birch-bark upon the floor. Se annexed the clammy skin. And
+so we were all satisfied.
+
+One does not wind up watches in these regions, and as time is
+arbitrarily marked off by the cries of the gastric juices, I cannot
+tell you how the hours were reckoned up that evening. I think we two
+humans verged into a semi-torpid condition after that barbaric meal.
+Repletion, heat, and fatigue were too strong a combination for complete
+wakefulness; and though perhaps not exactly asleep, we were, like
+hibernating animals, very dully conscious of passing events. Se's
+condition was inscrutable. His eyes were closed, but that is no
+criterion. He may have been asleep. But yet he possessed certain senses
+more keenly active than ours. As evidence of this, when the night had
+worn on to a tolerable age, we heard him give a growl in
+_crescendo_, and then a short yap.
+
+Se in general is undemonstrative to a degree. Hence the short
+culminating bark, which might have been overlooked if emanating from
+another dog, in his case commanded attention.
+
+I rose on an elbow, but could hear no new sound except the soft rustle
+of Ulus's wet clothes. He was moving too. There was a pause. Presently
+he whispered "_Bjorn_," and I saw in the stove's faint glow the butt of
+the Martini steal across to me.
+
+You can lay your life to it I was awake enough then. What sportsman in
+Norway would not tingle with delight at the chance of getting a bear?
+Ulus had slipped a thong round Se's throat, and that wily hound was
+mute. He was as keen on _bjorn_ as either of us, and being gray,
+and vastly experienced, he knew better than to bay or otherwise create
+a disturbance.
+
+"_Patron?_" whispered Ulus.
+
+I loaded cautiously, not sending the lever quite home, so as to avoid a
+click, and nodded. Then we slipped our knife-sheaths round to the
+hip--for a shot in the dark is apt to wound only and cause a
+red-mouthed charge--and then the door was opened.
+
+We stooped and went outside. The rain was tumbling in sheets; the night
+was dark as the pit, and very noisy; we could make out nothing. Se
+strained forward in the leash, neck thrust out, nose on high, up wind
+towards the lake shore. As we neared the edge of the clearing a falling
+branch struck me across the face. The pine-needles stung, and I
+stopped, blinded for the moment. Then Ulus gripped my shoulder and I
+wiped the tears away, and saw dimly a dark shape coming out of the
+trees. The Martini swung up, and I squinted along the barrel. A
+mountain-ash was in the line of fire, swishing, swaying, so that it was
+impossible to aim; but the animal was coming along bravely--had not
+seen us probably--and so I determined to hold the shot till I could
+make sure.
+
+The beast came nearer, dodging amongst the stems.
+
+Suddenly, as it got into an opener space, I noted that it was erect.
+This surprised me, for I had heard that bears never reared on to their
+hind feet till wounded. Still you can bet that I intended to shoot
+first and inquire afterwards.
+
+But just at that moment Ulus screamed "_Nei bjorn_," and hitting
+up the rifle barrel, brought my finger sufficiently hard on the hair
+trigger to cause explosion. The shot went Lord knows where. I swore,
+and when the echoes had finished bellowing, I heard the bear swearing
+too. Then I began to sweat, for it dawned upon me that I had been
+within an ace of deliberately potting a man.
+
+Ulus also used powerful language, and by letting drop the word
+"_Finne_," gave me to understand that he supposed the intruder to
+be a Laplander; but it seemed to me that the shape that loomed through
+the trees was too big for one of those dwarfish aborigines. And,
+moreover, although I only caught the import of the stranger's words by
+tone and not by literal meaning, I could have taken affidavit that none
+of them were Norsk.
+
+However, we did not stay in ignorance long. Before the powder smoke had
+been all driven away by the rain the intruder was out of the trees, and
+had pulled up in front of us, chuckling. Then--"Hallo! an Englishman?
+How we islanders do get to out-of-the-way chinks of the globe!"
+
+He paused, and I began to apologize--to say how sorry I was, and work
+up a neat speech generally--when he cut me short.
+
+"Nearly sent me to the happy hunting grounds, sir? Well, perhaps so,
+p'raps not. I've seen men missed at shorter rise."
+
+I was a bit piqued at this, and said something about being pretty
+useful with a rifle.
+
+He laughed again. "We won't quarrel over it, sir, anyway. I expect
+we're both of us satisfied as it is. My hide would have been no use to
+you; and for myself, I'm quite content to wear it a bit longer. It fits
+tolerably enough. But you've a camp somewhere hereaway, haven't you? I
+thought I caught the gleam of a flying spark from down by the shingle
+yonder. That's what brought me up."
+
+I explained how we had got pinned in by the gale, and the quartette of
+us went back to the _saeter_ hut. The newcomer feasted there off
+elk-venison (contriving to cook it, I noticed, much more cannily than
+we had done, though with exactly the same appliances), and between
+whiles he was told of the chase of the _meget stor bock_--the
+tracking, the view, and the place of the bullet wounds. Afterwards,
+when we got to pipes and the last drainings of the grog, he explained
+his presence.
+
+"I expect the wandering Englishman is about as scarce up here as the
+hoopoo, even when he's got a rifle or a rod in his fist; and as I've
+neither the one nor the other, I must be very much of a _rara avis_,
+and quite the sort of animal to shoot on sight. Fact is, I was round on
+the fjord there with my boat, and from what my eyes showed me, and from
+what a local _topografisk_ chart told, the country on the norrard side
+was much as God stuck it together. I wanted to see a strip of that sort
+up here, so I fixed a rendezvous and slipped ashore. As it turned out,
+the map is a pretty bad one, and I lost time in _culs-de-sac_. Finally
+came this lake with the steep flanks. I couldn't see to prick out
+another course, and I was just casting about for a rock that held a dry
+lee when I saw your light. And now, as I hear you chaps yawning and as
+I'm about spun out, 'twouldn't be a bad notion to turn in."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+HALCYONII DIES.
+
+
+It is a tolerably insane amusement for a foreigner to go tramping over
+wild fields and valleys in Northern Norway with no other guide than the
+thing they call an ordnance map and a bit of a pocket-compass. And to
+do the same without intent to slay the beasts, the birds, or the fish
+of the country seems, to my way of thinking, even more mad still.
+Perhaps I am peculiarly constituted, but that's the way it strikes me
+personally. So I was rather curious to know what make of man it was
+that did these things.
+
+Overnight I had seen little of him that was not heavily shadowed. The
+stranger preferred to do his own cooking, saying that he was used to
+it, and had elected to heat his meat at the doorway of the stove.
+Through this gap little radiance escaped. The only matters illuminated
+were the slices of venison, the toasting-splinter, and the hands that
+held it alternately. These last, being the solitary things one's eyes
+could make out, naturally were glanced over more than once. They were
+slightly above the medium size for hands, and long in proportion to
+their breadth. The fingers were tapered like a woman's. The nails were
+filbert-shaped, and grimy with recent climbing. The palms were hard.
+The knuckle-side was very brown, and showed the tendons prominently.
+They were those lean, nervous sort of hands which you find out at times
+can grip like thumbscrews.
+
+My couch was an uneasy one, and I awoke early. The visitor was snoring
+away on the log-floor, looking comfortable and contented.
+
+He was a man of about two-and-thirty, dark, tall, and well-built. His
+clothes were those of the merchant seamen--that is, they smacked in no
+degree whatever of the sea. Indeed, the only outward things which
+connected him with the water were certain weather stains. He wore a
+moustache cropped somewhat over close, and the teeth then showing
+beneath it, though white, were chaotic; and, moreover, there was the
+purple ridge of a scar running from the corner of his mouth which might
+advantageously have been hidden. A beard also would have become him,
+for his chin verged slightly to the cut-away type, and a three-days'
+stubble looks merely unkempt. He would never have been a beauty, but
+groomed up he would have made a very passable appearance amongst other
+men, although the scar near his mouth, and another similar emblem of
+roughness over the opposite eye, would have made him a trifle
+remarkable.
+
+After staring there dully for pretty nearly an hour, it began to dawn
+upon me that I had seen this man before somewhere, though under what
+circumstances I could not for the life of me remember. That his outward
+person was that of the ordinary deck-hand ashore went for nothing.
+Besides, he had spoken overnight of "my boat." That evidently meant
+yacht, and might stand for anything from an eight-hundred ton steamer
+downwards.
+
+The more I puzzled over his identity the less hope I seemed to have of
+guessing it.
+
+At last he woke, yawned, stretched, and sat up. Then he looked at me
+and whistled. Then, "Slidey Methuen, by all that's odd! Fancy stumbling
+across you here!"
+
+Still I couldn't put a name to the man, and after a bit of hesitation
+told him so bluntly.
+
+He laughed, and said he didn't wonder at it. It was only eight years
+since last we had met, but in that time he had been about the world a
+good deal, and, as he himself expressed it, "got most of the old
+landmarks ground off his face, and new ones rubbed in." He was Michael
+Cospatric.
+
+I had to take his word for it. There didn't seem to be a trace left of
+the man I had known at Cambridge, either of manner or outward form.
+However, Cospatric of C---- he was, fast enough; and after the manner
+of 'Varsity men, we started on to "shop" there and then, and had the
+old days over again in review.
+
+We had both been of the same year, and although in a small college that
+argues some knowledge of one another, we were by no means in the same
+set. In fact, up there Cospatric had been rather an anomaly: a man in
+no clique, a man without a nickname, a man distinguished only by the
+halo of his exit. He came up, one of a bunch of fifty-two
+undergraduates, joined all the clubs, was tubbed, rowed four at the end
+of his first October term in a losing junior trial eight, and was
+promptly shelved. He was never in evidence anywhere, but was reported
+to be a subscriber of Rolandi's, and to spend his time reading novels
+in foreign tongues. As he seldom kept either lectures or chapels, a
+chronic gating fostered this occupation. His second October he again
+navigated the Cam in a junior trial. He lugged with the arms incurably
+and swung like a corkscrew, but we had five trials on that term, and
+men were wanted to fill them. So he rowed and raced, and again helped
+his crew to lose, and then was shelved as hopeless. He was a man of no
+account. Not three men, out of his own year, knew him by name.
+
+At the beginning of his second Easter term he began to distinguish
+himself. Of all places, he started to do this at the Union--an
+institution few of us C---- men belonged to. There was a debate upon
+something connected with Education. An unknown person got up and
+savagely attacked existing methods as being useless, impracticable, and
+in the interests of the teacher and not of the taught. "Of what use to
+society is a College fellow?" he asked, and answering, "Of none, except
+to reproduce his species," backed up his case with such cleverness that
+a majority grew out of nothing. Johnians howled; Trinity men and Hall
+men cheered with delight; Non-Colls hissed and made interruptions; and
+as the ragged-gowned crowd trooped out, a universal cry went up of,
+"Who the devil is he?"
+
+We undergraduates at C---- were not much moved by this exploit,
+because, as I have hinted, the Union was not in our line. We rowed and
+danced and drove tandem; never preached, except to election mobs. We
+quite agreed with Cospatric that Classics and Mathematics, and Natural
+Science as she is taught at Cambridge, are one and all of them useless
+burdens, not worth the gathering; but we were not prepared to say with
+him that we hungered after the acquisition of French, German, Spanish,
+Norsk, and Italian, or eke Lingua Franca or Japanese.
+
+The higher authorities saw the matter in a different light. Master and
+fellows looked upon Mr. Cospatric as a dangerous heretic--much, in
+fact, as Urban VIII. and his cardinals regarded Galileo--and resolved
+to make him recant. The senior tutor was chosen as their instrument. He
+was an official with what were described as "little ways of his own."
+He hauled Cospatric. Union speech and revolutionary sentiments were not
+referred to. The delinquent was (amid a cacophony of "Hems") accused,
+on the strength of coming up Chapel with surplice unbuttoned, of being
+inebriated within the walls of a sacred edifice. He was not allowed to
+speak a word in his own defence. He was gated for a week at eight, and
+coughed out of the room.
+
+An eminently steady man, and conscious of being at the moment in
+question sober as an archangel, the iron of the accusation and
+punishment entered into his soul. For gatings as a general thing he
+cared not one jot. He had lived his year and a half in an atmosphere of
+them. Whether free or chained, he had always stayed in his rooms after
+hall, preferring the green-labelled books to any other evening
+companionship.
+
+But to this present confinement, a piece of obviously rank injustice,
+he determined not to submit; and in consequence spent a dreary evening
+parading the streets, not arriving back till close upon twelve.
+
+He kept in College. The porter sent up his name. He was again hauled,
+and again, without being allowed to say a word in his own defence,
+gated for the remainder of the term, and given to understand that he
+would be sent down for good if he cut a single gate.
+
+The sentence was barbarous. A call at the Lodge and a patient
+explanation to the Master would probably have set matters right. But
+Cospatric was not the man such a course would occur to. Some
+long-slumbering demon rose within him, and he indulged heavily in
+College Audit in hall. Afterwards he came to my rooms, where there was
+a conclave of some sort going on, and made a statement. It was his
+first recorded appearance in any one's quarters but his own, and his
+first recorded look of excitement, and consequently his words were
+listened to. He did not stay long. He told us in forcible language that
+as the College authorities had seen fit to take it out of him, he
+intended to do the like by them, and we might form ourselves into
+umpires of the proceedings. Then he departed, and next morning joined a
+knot of us who were gazing with admiration at the stone angels beside
+the clock, who, during the hours of darkness, had been helmeted with
+obscene earthenware. No ladder in the College could reach that
+decorated statuary, and as the porter did not see fit to risk
+_his_ neck over such a ghastly climb, decorated they stayed till
+mid-day, and our court teemed with ribald undergraduates.
+
+The succeeding morning there was another raree-show. The College
+skeleton--framework of a long-passed don, so tradition stated--had
+been, by help of a screwdriver and patience, untombed from its dusty
+resting-place at the top of the Hall staircase. It had been dressed in
+some flashy Scotch tweeds well known as belonging to the junior tutor,
+and perched astride of the weather-cock. Again the position was
+impregnable, and again the trophy drew delighted crowds till long past
+mid-day.
+
+And so one puerile outrage succeeded another, scarcely a day passing
+without some new triumph of the kind to report. Cospatric leaped at one
+bound into a public character. Of course every soul in the place knew
+that he was at the bottom of it all--the dons getting the news through
+the gyps--but no one in authority was smart enough to bring anything
+home to him. He even took to keeping lectures and chapels, which piece
+of pharisaism put, to our mind then, the finishing touch of this comedy
+of revenge.
+
+It all seems a great piece of foolery when one looks back, but at the
+time we thought it high-minded and justifiable rebellion. We assembled
+in the court, and cheered after the senior tutor had been three parts
+smothered in his bed by a red-pepper squib dropped down the chimney;
+and on the morning after the Master's laundry was raided, and the linen
+(belonging to both sexes) distributed amongst the crows' nests in the
+avenue, I think special trains must have been running into Cambridge,
+so thick was the throng of sight-seers.
+
+There is no doubt about it that Cospatric came to be a young man of
+much renown in those days.
+
+Had he been a popular person beforehand, far-seeing friends would have
+advised him to retire on his laurels after, say, the first half-dozen
+exploits. But as it was, there was no one amongst the newly-formed
+acquaintances sufficiently interested in the hero of the moment to
+forgo his own personal anticipations of enjoyment. The man was egged on
+unthinkingly, although a moment's thought must have pointed to a
+certain deluge ahead.
+
+And that deluge came, as usual, from an unlooked-for quarter.
+
+Cospatric, in all his sober senses, was helping an overcome roisterer
+across the court late at night. The junior tutor arrived, and ordered
+Cospatric to his rooms. Cospatric went obediently, waited in the shadow
+of an archway, and returned to the overcome one. Enter once more the
+junior tutor; nothing said to the roisterer; Cospatric to pay an
+official call at twelve-thirty on the morrow. There is no use giving
+detail. They had a College meeting next day, and sent him down for an
+offence that was absolutely trivial; and every soul in the College, the
+culprit included, saw the justice of the injustice.
+
+He came down the steps from the Combination room in triumph, and we
+chaired him round the court in a bath, some hundred and twenty men
+forming in procession behind, and singing an idiotic march-song from a
+current burlesque. Then we went to his rooms, and he sat on two tables,
+one above the other, with a tea-cosy on his head, and held an auction
+of his effects, which those of us who happened to possess any ready
+cash bought up at long figures. He had no plans for the future, so we
+stuck a false moustache on him, corked his eyebrows, and thus disguised
+kept him smuggled in our rooms for ten days, during which time Bacchus
+created Babel. And then we had him photographed in various
+attitudes--singly, and surrounded by groups of admirers--and then we
+went out with him to the station, saw him in a train for Liverpool
+Street, and--that's all. He was never viewed or heard of again. His
+period of brilliance up there was very comet-like.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+VAGABOND.
+
+
+"Hysterical madness" was the definition Cospatric clapped on to that
+culminating episode of his Cambridge life; "but," he added, with a
+chuckle, "I did enjoy myself whilst the fun lasted. That's just typical
+of the particular fool I am. Nature intended me for clown in a
+third-rate travelling circus. The father made up his mind I was to be a
+big thing in the lawyering way. The two clashed, and the present state
+of affairs is the result. If some far-seeing guardian could only have
+averaged matters, I might have turned out very differently. I'd have
+made a good courier, for instance, if such an animal had been in demand
+nowadays; or a continental drummer, if the commercial part of the work
+could have been left out; or even a passable navy officer. As it is,
+I'm nothing; I'm no mortal good to anybody: and I have a very tolerable
+time of it. Look, that's my boat."
+
+We had worked our way down past the intervening barriers of water and
+wood, and were walking on the fjord shore. Rounding a bluff, we had
+suddenly opened out a small cutter of some six-and-twenty or thirty
+tons, riding to her anchor in the mouth of the river. One concluded
+that she was a yacht, as she was flush-decked, and had a skylight
+instead of a cargo-hatch amidships; but her lines were a good deal of
+the dray-horse type, and as for smartness, she did not know the meaning
+of the word. I expect traces of this opinion showed in my face, for
+Cospatric saw fit to explain.
+
+"I learnt my sailoring in an untidy school," he said--"tramp steamers,
+coasting schooners, collier brigs, and timber barques; and those aren't
+the sort of craft that rub neatness into a man. Our motto in the little
+drogher yonder is to keep her afloat with the least possible bother to
+ourselves. We never lie in swagger harbours to be looked at. There
+isn't a burgee or a brass button on board. Strict Spartan utility is
+very much the motto of the ship's company. Hence, for example, you find
+the decks brown and not white, and yet I can assure you that they are
+absolutely staunch. She scarcely leaks a tear anywhere; and although
+she's beamy and heavy-bowed and deep, she isn't such a sluggard either,
+especially when it's blowing. In fact, dirty weather's our strong point
+with that ugly duckling of a cutter. She'd sail most of your dandy
+craft slick under water if it came on really bad. And we got it a week
+ago by the Dogger here, and last year just to s'uthard of the Bay, as
+foul as I've ever seen it anywhere."
+
+"Here's our boat," I cut in. "My headquarters are in that house at the
+other side of the river. I'll drop you at your craft as we cross."
+
+"Not a bit of it, man. You must come and see me now we are here; and,
+besides"--here he chuckled--"perhaps the belly of the old cutter isn't
+quite so uncouth as her hide. You can send Ulus on with the impedimenta
+if he wants to report himself."
+
+So we did that--dropped down with the ebb, stepped over the rail,
+bidding Ulus go his ways with boat and news and trophies. As our shoes
+clattered on the grimy deck-planks, a close-cropped head bobbed up
+through the forehatch, bowed, and retired.
+
+"That's Celestin," said Cospatric, "my professional crew. He's
+principally cook; and at times he's a very good cook, as you may learn.
+There's another man below; my mate, part-owner with me. We're a
+queerly-assorted couple, but we've rubbed on very well together this
+past eighteen months."
+
+He led the way down the ladder, and I followed. The inside of the
+cutter was certainly "not so uncouth as her hide." Indeed, seldom have
+I seen a cosier cabin, and I have been into a good many of one sort and
+another. The items of furniture and fitting had evidently been picked
+up from over a very wide area, but they had been selected with taste,
+and harmonized thoroughly. The effect aimed at was comely comfort, and
+that effect had been thoroughly gained.
+
+One thing only seemed out of balance with the whole. The forecastle
+door was a narrow sliding panel well over to port. All the starboard
+side of the bulk-head was filled by a piano, which was bevelled off at
+its lower right-hand corner so as to fit against the sheathing.
+
+Cospatric followed my glance. "Yes, it's an upright 'grand,' and
+German, specially made. It is rather bulky for the size of the ship,
+but you see we're a bit musical here. Haigh plays. By the way, you
+haven't seen Haigh yet."
+
+He called out, and his mate came down the narrow alleyway from the
+after-cabin. He was a tall, lean, smooth-faced man, with moist black
+hair that was partly sleek and shining, partly bristling out in
+straggling wisps. His face was dewy, and his eyes perpetually blinking.
+Cospatric asked him to play something. He peered at me for a moment or
+two as though taking my measure, and then went to the piano and gave
+vent to a particularly low comic song.
+
+"Forecastle tastes," thought I; "that upright grand's a wasted
+instrument."
+
+Aloud I expressed conventional thanks. Haigh had another blink or two
+in my direction, and then broke into Gounod's "Chantez toujours,"
+singing it very passably. He hadn't much voice, but he knew how to
+sing.
+
+"Like that?" inquired Cospatric.
+
+"Remarkably," said I.
+
+"Better than the other?"
+
+"A hundred per cent."
+
+"Then keep the same stop out, Haigh, and go ahead."
+
+And Haigh turned to the piano and rattled off half a dozen other
+goodish ballads. Then he said he was tired, and straggled out on a sofa
+and blinked at the ceiling, whilst Cospatric and I wallowed in
+Cambridge shop again. It's extraordinary how men do like to talk over
+the follies of those old times. And afterwards Celestin indulged us in
+dinner, a regular epicurean feast, washed down with decent wine, a
+thing worth much fine gold after a month and a half in Norway.
+
+"You do know how to take care of yourself on this craft," I observed to
+Cospatric that evening.
+
+"We don't live like this at sea, you know. It's regular ship's fare
+with us then. And so, you see, we appreciate little bouts of
+_gourmandise_ when we get into port. Personally, I've got that
+principle somewhat ingrained. In fact, I've rubbed along that way ever
+since I got adrift from England and respectability. The system has its
+drawbacks, but from my point of view it makes life worth living. I've
+had roughish spells between whiles, but I'm so peculiarly constituted
+that a short bright spot of comfort makes me forget the disagreeables
+that have gone before, and wipes the slate clean for a fresh start."
+
+During the days that followed, when not shooting or fishing, I was
+generally on that ugly little cutter. Two things drew me: firstly (I'm
+sorry to own), the fare, which was so vastly superior to my own; and
+secondly, yarns. There was another attraction later, but I did not know
+of it then.
+
+Those yarns of Cospatric's were tales one would not forget. He told of
+things which are not written down in books. He had travelled because he
+couldn't help it, and consequently had seen and done things that more
+well-to-do travellers are debarred from. He had housed amongst the most
+iniquitous places on God's earth, from Callao to Port Said; he had
+wandered from Yokohama to Mandalay; he had been trimmer on a
+Shaw-Savile boat; he had served as mate on a Genovese timber barque.
+
+He told of all these matters with an open contempt, in which Haigh
+(when he did not happen to be dozing) readily joined him. The pair of
+them had both knocked about the world largely. But it was not because
+they liked it. It was the Fates that had ordained their first cycle of
+vagabondage. This new mode of living in a shifting house--to wit, the
+ugly cutter--was taken up because sea-roaming had been so thoroughly
+ingrained into their natures that as yet neither of them had found a
+spot he cared to settle down in permanently.
+
+The rolling stone aphorism had been pretty accurately fulfilled in
+Cospatric's case. He had gathered during the greater part of his
+nomadic life little moss which he could convert into a bank-note
+equivalent. Another man might have utilized some of the material; he
+lacked the skill to set it in vendible form. With one solitary
+exception, his gains during those vagrant years may be summed up under
+two heads. He had gathered a knowledge of certain orders of his species
+that was both extensive and peculiar; and he had amassed a collection
+of tattooings that was unique for a European. The former he cared not
+one jot about, displaying his intimate acquaintance with the shadier
+side of the world's peoples with apologies; but in the latter he took
+an almost childish pride. They were not, he pointed out, the rude
+frescoings of the British mariner, who outlines a diagrammatic female
+with a sail needle, tints her with gunpowder, and labels her with the
+name of his current lady-love to prevent mistakes. Such crude efforts
+have their good points; for instance, they promote constancy. But they
+are hideously inartistic, and, moreover, to a man of ordinarily fickle
+nature, are apt to bring in very damning evidence at the most
+inopportune moments. Whereas (still according to Cospatric) the higher
+types of these human frescoes spell Art, with a very big A, and form a
+portable picture gallery which no spasmodic poverty can ever induce one
+to pawn or otherwise part with.
+
+The adaptability of the medium for artistic design is a matter open to
+argument. However, Cospatric bore upon his person better specimens than
+I have ever seen before. He had sat to none but the most noted artists
+of Burmah and Japan, and the outcome of their brushes--or, rather,
+needles, as I suppose it should be termed--was in places more than
+remarkable. Buddhas, nautch-girls, sacred white elephants, serial fairy
+stories, and the rest were all worth studying; but I think the
+_chefs-d'oeuvre_ of the two artistic centres were a peacock and
+a multi-coloured dragon. The bird stood before a temple (on the mid
+forearm), serenely conscious of its own perfection. Every feather on
+its body was true to life, every spot on its tail a microscopic wonder.
+The beast (or the creeping thing, if you so prefer to name it) twined
+round one of his lower limbs, leaving the dent of its claws in the
+flesh, and resting its squat, outstretched head on the centre of the
+knee-cap. And so cunningly was the creature perched (as its owner
+gleefully pointed out) that the least movement of his crural muscles
+set the jagged backbone a-quivering, and the slobbering lips to mumble
+and mow. Cospatric said that dragon was a most finished piece of
+workmanship, and worth all he had cost.
+
+"That's the worst of really good tattooing," he explained, _a propos_
+of this beast; "it's so infernally expensive to get the best men.
+You've no idea how they are run after. But luckily they've a soft place
+for a real connoisseur, even though he comes from the West. And,
+besides, I've got such a grand skin...."
+
+Music and dinners absorbed his spare cash when such were available; but
+out in Burmah and Japan neither were to his taste, and consequently all
+ready funds were wont to be sunk in corporeal decoration.
+
+Whether the outlay seems judicious I will not say. It was not my hide
+that these uncanny limners operated upon.
+
+Another of Cospatric's tastes was one I could chime in with more
+readily. He did not flaunt it, by any means. On the contrary, he kept
+the thing hidden, and I stumbled across it only by accident. Moreover,
+it was a stroke of luck for me that I did so, as my want of knowledge
+had been a bar to any intimacy; whereas, once in his confidence upon
+this point, we got on together swimmingly, and I had a good time.
+
+It was an unpremeditated return to the yacht late at night with news of
+bear that helped the discovery. Ulus had brought the tidings just as I
+was going to bed that his _bjorn_-ship was expected to call at a
+neighbouring farm to polish off the remains of a sheep; and as bear was
+the only sort of local game which Cospatric considered worth powder and
+ball, I thought I'd knock him up for the chance of a shot. So I went
+out, and tramped down to the shore opposite to where the ugly cutter
+was riding. But I did not hail. I stood there and listened--listened
+with some wonder and some delight--I believe I gaped. The strings of
+the "upright grand" were in motion, but they were giving vent to
+neither ballad tune nor comic jig. And chiming in with them were the
+notes of a violin, played tunefully, accurately, boldly. That last, I
+knew, must be Cospatric's. I had not seen the instrument here as yet,
+but I remembered he was supposed to be rather good on it up at
+Cambridge.
+
+After a bit I pulled myself together and hailed. The music ceased
+abruptly. Cospatric's head appeared through the hatch, and Cospatric's
+voice inquired with a good deal of impatience what I wanted.
+
+I told him about the bear, and then added a few words in praise of the
+music. "Why ever didn't you let me hear your concert before?" I asked.
+"Did you think it was a case of pearls and pigs?"
+
+"That's exactly the reason! I didn't know you cared for anything more
+advanced than those ballad affairs. However, if that's a wrong idea,
+I'm very glad. We'll have some tunes together after this, and perhaps
+Haigh and I may knock out an item or two that's fresh to you. But for
+the present, as you suggest--_bjorn_. I'll be with you on the sand
+there in nine seconds."
+
+As for the bear, of course he didn't turn up, and we three and Se spent
+a particularly cold night in the open, with absolutely nothing to show
+far it. In this there was nothing surprising. It was quite in the
+ordinary way of business. Only Cospatric, who is at heart no sportsman,
+murmured, "Small potatoes."
+
+It was not till a couple of days afterwards that we got on the subject
+of music again. We came at it this way: the cutter was going to work
+south and west again, and it was proposed that I should join her.
+"Don't go down in one of those beastly coasting steamers," said
+Cospatric. "They'll give you five sorts of cheese for breakfast, and
+poison you at all other meals. You'll live in an atmosphere of dried
+fish and engine-room oil, and you'll be driven half-mad by children who
+squall, and other children who rattle the saloon domino-box all through
+the watches. You'd much better come with me. I'll drop you at a
+steamer's port in the Channel somewhere some time. You aren't in a
+hurry. Come, and hear Haigh play again."
+
+I said I preferred duets.
+
+"All right, you shall hear the humble combined effort," said he; and
+then, after a good deal of pumping, I got more out of him as to whence
+sprang his powers.
+
+"The thing's simple enough," he said. "I was fond of fiddling, and I
+stuck to it. I used to scrape at Cambridge, if you remember, as
+probably you don't, and had some goodish lessons there. Afterwards,
+when I got on the wander and took to pawning things, my spare shirt
+went frequently, but I always managed to stick to that little black box
+somehow. And I played on forecastle heads and on beaches and in
+sailors' lodgings ashore, and occasionally I got a week or so's lessons
+from a good man ashore; and then I heard concerts and good orchestras
+all up and down. And so, you see, I picked it up that way.... No, I
+don't play from paper much, but Haigh's a bit of a kindred spirit, and
+between us we evolve things. And now let's talk of something else--say,
+the ptarmigan prospects for next year; you'll be good on that."
+
+                      *     *     *     *     *
+
+Now I am fond of music--ordinary music, that is--and I can appreciate a
+good song or well-performed operas such as _Carmen_ and the
+_Yeomen of the Guard_, or even a classical concert if it is not
+too long. In fact, I had always plumed myself on being what one calls
+"very tolerably musical." But these two were streets in advance of such
+mediocrity. To begin with, they had a strong contempt for most vocal
+efforts, considering them as merely a sop for the outside public.
+Orchestral music was their formula for the highest form of the art, and
+orchestral music they accordingly played, that queer creature Haigh
+blinking over the upright grand, and Cospatric behind him bringing
+sounds out of his violin such as I never heard amateur produce before,
+with a combined result that was always marvellous, and sometimes verged
+upon that abstract goal, perfection.
+
+They seldom had a screed of notes before them. Either they knew the
+stuff by heart, or, what seemed more likely, there was some sympathetic
+link between them which kept both instruments unerringly to the theme.
+I could not find how it was done; I could only acknowledge the results.
+
+It was by no means always within my powers to appreciate their work.
+Sometimes the charm of what they played was too esoteric for my
+understanding. The sounds were unmeaning to me; not infrequently they
+were absolutely discordant. But I had confidence enough in the
+superiority of their intellects over mine not to condemn, still less to
+scoff. At these times I held my tongue. Genius is not improved by
+irreverent criticism.
+
+I spoke with Cospatric one day about keeping all these creative gifts
+to himself. Why did he not share them with the outside world?
+
+He gave a bit of a shudder. "Don't suggest such an idea," he said.
+"It's my one sensitive place. All the rest have been hammered dull in
+my roamings. I must keep that as it is."
+
+And then at another time: "You know I can't conceive of a sensitive
+man, be he musician or painter, or even writer of romance, who would
+put out his very best for an indiscriminate public to browse upon or
+trample over. He knows and feels the thing he has created to be a
+beautiful thing and an original thing, and he has been at much pains to
+arrive at it, although there were special items in his own constitution
+which helped him. And he can be sure that there are a large percentage
+of pigs in the public by whom his pearl will not be appreciated. Its
+shape and its colour are new to them; and not having come within the
+range of their limited vision before, therefore its building must be
+altogether wrong. But that is not the worst. Spoken babblings one might
+be deaf to; written stuff is sure to be cut out by a friend and posted
+for you to enjoy with your morning's coffee. Those infernal newspapers
+get hold of the thing you have made, and their verdict depends upon the
+individual taste of some anonymous 'we.' He may not like your sardines,
+and accordingly, though it does not therefore follow that sardines are
+unfit for human food, he proceeds to slate sardines with all his tricks
+of satire and argument, and to cover the maker and even the eater of
+sardines with ridicule."
+
+He stopped then, and I asked if he had been catching it somewhere.
+
+He laughed, "No, I've never had my name once in a paper that I know of;
+not even under the heading of Police Intelligence. I'm singularly
+uneager for fame. I'm only talking from what I've seen occasionally.
+That's been warning enough for me. It must sour a man to be jeered at
+in that sort of way, and, thanks, I prefer not to be soured. I've no
+superfluous sweetness."
+
+                      *     *     *     *     *
+
+All this may seem rather absurd, but I give it just to show what manner
+of a man Cospatric is when you come to know him intimately. No one from
+meeting him casually would guess that he had failings of this sort. In
+fact, you would take him for a very tough subject indeed, inured to
+hardship in the past, and liking hardship in the present for its own
+sake. As an instance: instead of taking his ugly cutter down coast by
+the inner passages, he must needs get out into the open water, which is
+at this time of year exceptionally unquiet, from sheer delight at
+getting kicked about. Indeed, when we picked up an equinoctial gale
+half-way across, and had our hands exceedingly full to keep the boat
+afloat, the man fairly revelled in the scene and the work; and what's
+more, that sleepy, straggling person Haigh did too. It wasn't in my
+line at all. I've not the smallest objection to getting cold and wet
+when there is a big elk or a good bag of grouse in question; that's
+different. But when one is perpetually half-drowned and frozen in a
+little tub of a sailing craft, I fail to see where the fun comes in.
+Still, in spite of the hard, rough time, I should have been sorry to
+have missed that hammering across the North Sea and the trip down
+Channel to queer old St. Malo. There was one strong redeeming
+feature--Cospatric's accounts of his hunting after the Raymond Lully
+inscription. He and I took one watch between us, and to the
+accompaniment of northern gale and northern spindrift, he yarned about
+a chase under southern skies for an object which I believe to be an
+absolutely unique one. He was one of the men who were scouring after
+that Recipe for making Diamonds lost to this world since the death of
+its original finder in 1315.
+
+
+
+
+[_Follows, an account of the contention for the blessed Raymond
+Lully's Recipe, as given from Michael Cospatric's own lips._]
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MR. WEEMS AND HIS PURCHASE.
+
+
+... Genoa no doubt has its drawbacks. Incessant rain, perennial stink,
+and big prices can go to make up a heaven for few people. But for
+taking the taste of really bitter hard times out of one's mouth, the
+place has its good points.
+
+I'd been catching it bad just before. I'd got on my beam-ends in
+Oporto, and couldn't afford to be fastidious about a berth.
+Consequently, I'd found myself in a rotten old Genovese tramp barque
+that most of the crew had run from because they thought she'd founder
+next time she put to sea. Of course the owners didn't want to see her
+again, and the skipper had been doing his best to play into their hands
+all the way down from the Baltic. His mate had contrived to baulk his
+losing her during the previous half of the trip, but got sick of the
+job and cleared when he found the chance. It was into the mate's shoes
+that I stepped; and having no interest in the insurance policy, and
+placing a certain value on my own hide, I continued at the same game.
+We'd a beautiful chance four days out. We picked up a sou'easter off
+St. Vincent, and the putty began to tumble out, and she got more of a
+basket than ever. We'd only ten of a crew all told, and there wasn't a
+man of them that had had a whole watch below since we got our
+clearance. Fore t'gallant mast had gone like a carrot at the cap, and
+mizzen-mast head was so sprung that she wouldn't bear the spanker. She
+was squattering along under the two lower topsails only, and we amused
+ourselves by betting when they'd split.
+
+She was so infernally full of water that she steered like a haystack;
+and as any one in the waist got half-drowned every minute, long spells
+at the pumps weren't popular.
+
+We couldn't make our easting a bit, and the old man kept saying that we
+should never get through the Straits. That was by way of preparation,
+but I understood what he was up to and said nothing.
+
+At last he put it to me squarely. 'Twasn't good enough going on like
+this. The barque would have to be "Lost at Sea"--luckily the boat down
+yonder amidships was a thumping big one.
+
+I said open-boat cruising in a December Atlantic wasn't an amusement I
+hankered after, and then asked him bluntly how much he was going to
+clear out of the job.
+
+He said, "Nothing;" called a large squad of saints to witness that the
+loss of his vessel would ruin him; and then, changing tack, promised
+that I should make a good thing out of it.
+
+But when I tried to pin him, it was no go. He wouldn't make me out a
+cheque; he wouldn't put pen to paper in any way; he wouldn't even
+pledge his owners for a figure; and I damned him for a slippery
+Maccaroni, and swore I'd drive his old tramp in between Genoa pierheads
+just to square up his meanness. He daren't knife me, because the crew
+would have understood why, and raised a wasp's nest; and he had to play
+the sailor, because I promised him if he piled her up anywhere I'd go
+to the nearest Italian consul and report him; but I'll give the man
+credit for keeping me in blacker Hades during the rest of that crawl
+across than I ever knew existed before. However, he got settled with
+when once we were snugly into harbour, and was a long fortnight in
+hospital repairing damages. That's where an Englishman scores. Whip
+away the _coltello_ from the back of his belt, get him to put up
+his hands, steer clear of his feet, and you have a southerner on toast.
+
+After living like a brute--and acting, of course, so as not to spoil
+the completeness of the part--for all that time, I naturally set to
+doing what the sailor man always does under the circumstances. I got
+ashore, and started washing the taste out of my mouth. Every man does
+this according to his own lights, and perhaps mine were a trifle out of
+the general groove. Lodging I was not fastidious about, neither did I
+long for drink, nor clothes, nor women. So I put up at a bit of an
+upstairs _albergo_ in the Via S. Siro, where one who knows the
+ropes can get a decent room for a _lira_, and spent my time and
+money in having daily a real good dinner and hearing some tip-top
+music. And, by Jove, I did enjoy myself. It seemed almost worth going
+through the bad spell, just for the sake of the contrast.
+
+But, more's the pity, my pay had been small, and it fractionized
+rapidly. The spree could only be a short one.
+
+However, I wasn't going to run matters too fine this time and get
+cornered again, as had been my fate at Oporto, so I loafed amongst the
+shipping offices during my mornings, and had the good luck to stumble
+into a berth on one of the American liners. It was only as third mate,
+to be sure; but then she was a big ship, and I, professionally
+speaking, was a small man. I hadn't exactly been schooled for the sea,
+you know, so you can guess I was feeling pretty comfortable over it.
+
+It's just spells like those which prove to a man how thoroughly life is
+worth living.
+
+The end of my tether was not long in coming. A man, when his shore
+riotings are thoroughly systematic, as mine were, can calculate his
+days of revelry to a nicety. I had arrived at my last two twenty-lire
+notes. I was going to finish up with a ten-lire dinner, then spend four
+lire for entrance and a seat at the Carlo Felice to hear "Cavalleria
+Rusticana," leaving part of six lire for bed, morning coffee, and other
+sundries, besides twenty odd to carry on the war with before I got my
+advance on the steamer. Being stone-broke when you go on board doesn't
+matter if you ship forward; but aft, to start with bare pockets may get
+you a bad name.
+
+I had maundered out to the Campo Santo that last day, and on the road
+back, just after passing through the walls, an Englishman who had lost
+himself asked the way to the market-place. He was a little bit of a
+self-important chap, with a gruff, coarse voice, and schoolmaster
+written in large letters all over him. He knew no word of Italian, and
+was evidently feeling lonely to a degree; and so, as I had no objection
+to chatting with a countryman, we paced off together and dropped into
+conversation. He was "doing" North Italy with a circular ticket, and as
+he had read it all up with much thoroughness beforehand, he was very
+naturally much disappointed with the reality. "S. Mark's was too small,
+and Venice was most unhealthy. The sanitation of that part over the
+Rialto Bridge, where the butchers' shops were, was a disgrace to the
+country. The Duomo at Milan was squat, ugly, overrated, and the hotel
+charges in that city were most exorbitant. Turin might be a good place
+for shopping, but he had not gone there for that purpose. And Genoa,
+again, was unsanitary." In fact, he was the stereotyped travelling
+Briton, so full of melancholy discontent and disappointment that one
+wondered why he did not commit suicide or go home. And as, add to this,
+he laid down the law with the true schoolmaster's dogmaticalness on
+every conceivable subject that cropped up, from music to tattooing, you
+can guess that he had in him the makings of a very objectionable beast
+indeed. However, he was so appallingly ignorant of all the matters he
+plunged amongst as to be correspondingly amusing, and for that reason
+alone I didn't give him the go-by at once.
+
+We were passing a bookseller's shop, where he caught sight of a mangy,
+leather-bound MS. in the window, and said he'd ask the price. He didn't
+know in the least what it was about, and didn't seem to care; but
+saying that he would make a good profit out of it at Quaritch's, went
+into the shop. I didn't offer an opinion about his last statement, but
+just followed. He was demanding "How much?"
+
+"Vous parlez francais, m'sieu'?" asked the bookseller.
+
+"Nong, mais this gentleman here parlez Italiano.--I say, will you
+translate for me? Ask the fellow what he'll sell this for."
+
+I did, and the bookseller started a long yarn about the MS. having come
+out of the Marchese di Somebody-or-other's library, where it had lain
+undisturbed for several thousand years. "Signor," said he, "the book is
+of inestimable value, and I cannot part with it for less than thirty
+lire."
+
+I repeated the gist of this to my man--Weems was his name, by the way,
+of New, Oxford, so he said--and told him he could get the thing for
+about twelve lire, if he cared about it. And, to cut the yarn short, he
+did buy it for twelve-fifty, and left the shop feeling that he had been
+swindled out of at least half a crown.
+
+"What's your purchase about?" I asked when we were in the street again.
+
+He hadn't looked; didn't see that it mattered much; the stuff was old,
+and that was the main thing. All these old MSS. were valuable, and
+Quaritch was sure to buy it at a good price.
+
+I still had my doubts about that last, but didn't argue. It was his
+affair, not mine.
+
+Finally, he suggested dining together, and (as he had been in Genoa
+exactly twelve hours) laid down the law without the smallest hesitation
+as to which was the best place to go to, and what was best to have. By
+that time I had got about sick of his society, and said bluntly that,
+as I knew Genoa thoroughly, I was not going anywhere in the Galleria
+Mazzini, as he suggested, but to somewhere in another direction; and,
+further, that as his idea of his menu and mine didn't appear to
+coincide in any one item, we had better bid one another good afternoon.
+But the horror of loneliness loomed near him again, and for one of the
+few times in his life he changed front without argument. He would
+grant, upon second thoughts, that I must know best about such a matter,
+and would take it as a great favour if he might place himself under my
+guidance. After which, of course, I could not say anything except that
+I should be proud to act as his _cicerone_.
+
+We had our meal--which was to be my last good one for many a long day
+to come--and a beauty it was. Even my North of England grammar-school
+master could not but admit the excellence, although he grumbled at the
+price. Afterwards we went through into the _caffe_, and I offered
+him a good cigar, saying that if he had been undergoing a course of the
+local vegetable he would appreciate it. However, the creature didn't
+smoke; and as he also didn't drink black coffee, and as I did both, he
+took occasion to point out to me at some length that I was deliberately
+crumpling up my constitution. To turn the conversation, I suggested
+over-hauling his recent purchase. He seemed sorry to cut short his
+sermon, but finding that I was paying no attention, asked what the book
+was.
+
+"It's a diary," said I, "written in Spanish, or to be more accurate,
+Catalan; and," I added rather maliciously, "I'm afraid you won't get
+much of a fortune out of Quaritch for it, as there seems to be nothing
+here except the merest tittle-tattle."
+
+His face lengthened for a moment at the idea, but the old cocksure
+manner came back again, and he pooh-poohed my valuation with lofty
+superiority.
+
+"I presume you are not an expert in such matters as these--er--Mr.
+Cospatric? No, of course not; it couldn't be expected. But let me
+assure you that I did not make this outlay with my eyes shut. Trust me
+for knowing what I was about." He turned over some dozen of the yellow
+pages, looking at them curiously. "That _y_ there standing by
+itself means 'and.' H'm, yes. The thing's clear enough when one looks
+into it. I don't profess to translate this old MS. at sight. You see
+the--ar--the writing's crabbed; and my time is too much occupied to
+study it carefully. No, I shall just sell the thing to the man I
+mentioned as it stands. To return to what I was telling you about the
+use of tobacco, though. Whether you consider the matter from a
+scientific or merely from a rational point of view----" And away he
+steamed again, whilst I conned over the tangled quill-work.
+
+My inattention was purposely obvious. I had got thoroughly sick of the
+man, and wanted to drive him away. But he had only his own society to
+fall back upon, and he had evidently the good taste to object strongly
+to that. And so he preached on.
+
+There was only one other person at our end of the _caffe_, a dark,
+good-looking man with blue spectacles, who sat at an adjoining table
+with an _Eco d'Italia_ before him, sipping cognac and sugar. But
+when Weems tried to drag him into conversation, the curse of the Tower
+of Babel applied the _cloture_, and, "Ignorant lot, these
+Italians," said the schoolmaster, going on to show with many statistics
+and arguments that English, being founded on dead languages, was
+irrevocably destined by the Fates to become the universal tongue of all
+terrestrial peoples.
+
+I looked at the clock. Half an hour yet before the doors of the Carlo
+Felice opened. The steep street outside was wet and miserable. I went
+back to turning over the old book. The pages were a queer medley,
+superbly uninteresting most of them, and tedious to spell out. There
+were the usual Spanish flourishes of lettering and expression, and when
+one had winnowed away all this chaff, it needed a great deal of hunger
+to make one appreciate the grain. In fact, I was on the point of
+closing the old scribble book through sheer weariness, when my eye lit
+on something which, as I read it further, made me fairly sweat.
+
+Weems droned on with his sermon, and I chucked in question and retort
+from time to time, just to keep him at it. I was wanting to gain time
+for a little argument of my own. It was a case of should I keep what I
+had found to myself, or should I share it with Weems? Common sense
+said, "Don't be a fool. If Providence has chucked a good thing in your
+way, stick it in your own pocket. That self-sufficient idiot will be
+none the wiser." But the plague one calls Honour kept shoving in all
+manner of objections. By Jove, how a rational-minded cad would have
+scored there!
+
+In the long run Honour, confound it, got a bit of a balancer which
+helped it to win. I'd a light purse; Weems seemed better off; he must
+supply the trifle of shot necessary for the pair of us; and together we
+should split the proceeds. Yes, that would be the idea. And besides, on
+second thoughts, there'd be lashings and lavings of plunder for both.
+No need for a bit of sharp practice on my part after all. So up I
+spoke:--
+
+"See here, signor, you've had the carpet for long enough, so give me a
+turn. This twaddling old screed which you were going to sell without
+ever skimming it through holds what means nothing more or less than a
+thumping great fortune for each of us. You've heard of Raymond Lully?
+No? Well, he was an old swell who flourished in the twelve hundreds,
+and who was by trade rake, philosopher, quack, fanatic, organizer, and
+martyr. He hailed from Mallorca--or Majorca, as you English persist in
+calling it--and he wrote books on Apologetic Theology, Dogmatic
+Divinity, and Practical Alchemy. Also he penned this diary, which has
+evidently been kept pretty snug so far, and thanks to its general
+dreary tone, no one has read the memorandum on page the last but one."
+
+"Let me see," interrupted Weems, stretching out his hand for the
+volume.
+
+"It's of no use to you, as you can't read Spanish. However, I'll tell
+you what's here; only let me gently remind you first that if it hadn't
+been for my knowing the language and conning some of this stuff
+through, the book would have passed out of your hands without your ever
+having learnt a word about it. Shall I go on now? It's a bit
+important."
+
+"Yes, we are practically alone here. That person with the blue
+spectacles speaks no English, and there is no one else within earshot.
+But you are slightly in error about my ignorance of Spanish, Mr.
+Cospatric!"
+
+"Yes, yes; you know _y_ means 'and,' don't you, and that _si_
+stands for 'yes,' and all the rest? But don't let's bother about that
+now. Just marvel at this wonderful find. If the old gentleman had only
+written 'R. Lully, His Book,' on the title-page or at the conclusion,
+some bibliophile would have picked the thing up for a certainty, and
+read it with the view of finding what I have found; and part of the
+world's history would be different. But as it is, Lully happily omitted
+his signature, and in consequence the memorandum of where the Recipe
+could be found has never been read since the day it was written."
+
+"But," broke in Weems, "what is this all about? I can't understand what
+you are driving at, except that the book is a diary of Raymond Lully's,
+whose name, of course, I recollect clearly enough now."
+
+"My dear sir, whilst this old quack was trafficking with alchemy, and
+trying to discover the elixir vital, or the philosopher's stone, or
+some other myth like that, he accidentally found out a method whereby
+common wood charcoal may be crystallized."
+
+"What!" gasped the schoolmaster, "made into diamonds! Great heavens,
+how was it done? Tell me quick."
+
+"He doesn't give it here. This diary was evidently a private one which
+he carried about with him, and it was liable to be destroyed. So he
+wrote up the Recipe in a quiet place where no one would stumble on it,
+and where, as he remarks, he could send his heir to if he thought fit
+to do such a thing. But still, I don't think that there is much fear of
+the secret having been given away. In the first place, we should
+undoubtedly hear of it if any one was manufacturing real diamonds for
+the market, as the diamond mines of the world are all known, and their
+output most strictly regulated. And, in the second place, he had a
+strong reason of his own for not divulging the formula. Listen, and
+I'll read. 'If,' he says, 'diamonds were made common and cheap so that
+the lower orders of people might obtain them, I can conceive that much
+dissension would arise. For the nobles, finding their stored gems to
+have become in a sudden of no richness, would be deeply embittered
+thereby--they and their woman-kind. And the common folk, being able to
+flaunt jewels equal to those of their betters, would wax arrogant and
+dissatisfied; and though being in reality no whit better off than
+before, would deem themselves the inferiors of none and the superiors
+to most; in support of which vain dreams they would strive to their own
+sore detriment. For as in the beginning the sons of Adam were equal,
+and as of their descendants some rose to be of ruling classes through
+mental and physical fitness, so if all men were to be levelled again
+to-day, to-morrow they would be uneven once more, and the next day more
+uneven, the weak getting trampled under foot, and the strong fighting a
+red path upward with their ruthless sword.'"
+
+"I need hardly inform you," interrupted Weems, "that those crude ideas
+of political economy are not what we modern thinkers accept. Even John
+Stuart--but I will tell you about that afterwards. Please let me hear
+how the diamonds are made. Never mind about the other twaddle. It pains
+one to listen to it."
+
+"As I told you, the actual Recipe is not in the diary here. Lully wrote
+it out, so he says, in imperishable form, in a place where he conceived
+it would pass down through the centuries absolutely undisturbed. I am
+not quite so confident about that as he is, as I know the
+inquisitiveness of the present generation better than he could imagine
+it. But to cut the story short, he found a way into one of the Talayots
+of Minorca, carved his secret upon the plaster of the interior, hid the
+entrance again, and came away. He says that the Talayot was believed by
+the Minorcans to be solid throughout, and adds that his only confidant,
+the priest who helped him to gain the internal chamber, died of a fever
+two days afterwards. Then he mentions the name of the spot--Talaiti de
+Talt, near Mercadal--and says if you dig a man's length down in the
+middle of the side facing seaward, you'll come across the entrance
+passage. Oddly enough, I've been at Mercadal myself, when a brig I was
+on was weather-bound in Port Mahon; and though I don't recollect this
+Talaiti de Talt, it's very probable I saw it, as we overhauled all the
+Talayots in the neighbourhood."
+
+"By the way, what is a Talayot? I'm--ar--sorry to confess
+ignorance----"
+
+That last made me grin, which he saw, and didn't like a bit. However, I
+pulled my face together again, and explained. "'Talayot' is a generic
+term for the groups of prehistoric remains which lie all over the
+island. There are monoliths, short underground passages, duolithic
+altars, and rude pyramids. Talaiti de Talt is evidently one of these
+last."
+
+"Old?"
+
+"Tolerably. The race of men who put them up were extinct before the
+Egyptian pyramid-builders came upon the scene."
+
+"I don't quite see how that can be. You must understand, Mr.
+Cospatric----"
+
+"Oh, what does it matter, man? If it pleases you, I'll grant that
+Cheops and Co. took to architecture first. But, anyway, these Minorcan
+pyramids were up long before Lully's time, and that's enough for us.
+The Recipe's there, just waiting to be fetched. We must drink success
+to this."
+
+A waitress brought us filled glasses, and we toasted one another. Then
+I told Weems openly enough about my financial position, and asked him
+to advance me enough for passage money. I said I knew the language and
+the route and all the rest of it, and the outlay for the pair of us
+would be very little more than what it would cost him to go alone. In
+fact, I was going on to sketch out the trip, and tot up the items of
+cost, when he cut me short, and coldly intimated that he did not intend
+to part with a cent. He did not even plead poverty. He gave no reason
+whatever.
+
+I stared at him for a minute or so blankly. That he would refuse what I
+asked had never occurred to me. At last I blurted out, "Why, good God,
+man, I needn't have told you about the thing at all. If I'd held my
+tongue, you know very well you'd have parted with the book in absolute
+ignorance of what it contained."
+
+"I might or might not have looked into it, Mr. Cospatric. That is as
+may be. But the most ordinary honesty would have compelled you to speak
+when I did. Perhaps I refused your request too abruptly just now.
+Believe me, I am not ungrateful for the service you have rendered. In
+fact, I should like to prove my obligation. But I could not have you
+labour under the error that you are entitled to a half share of
+whatever profits may accrue. This Recipe is mine, entirely mine, Mr.
+Cospatric, and it is not likely that I am going to put you in the way
+of annexing a share of it. Of course, legally, you have no claim on me;
+but as you say you are in indigent circumstances, I am willing to
+stretch a point, and do more than I otherwise should. I will give you
+the remainder of my circular ticket. That will take you back to
+England, let me see--via----"
+
+"You scurvy little blackguard," said I, beginning to lose my temper,
+"aren't you afraid of being killed?"
+
+He got very red, and exclaimed pompously, "Don't you attempt bombast
+with me, Mr. Cospatric. I am as safe from your personal violence here
+as I should be at home."
+
+"Then," said I, "you must live at a tolerably lively place, for here
+there are at least four men knifed every week, and more when things are
+brisk."
+
+"I shall put myself under the protection of the police if you threaten
+me," said he, evidently beginning to feel a bit uneasy.
+
+"And I should like to know how the devil you would set about doing that
+same? Why, my blessed rustic, supposing you knew the lingo, which you
+don't, and you went up to the local substitute for a bobby, and said
+you wanted to get under his cloak, d'ye know what he'd do? Why, run you
+in straight away. And in quod you'd stop; there isn't a soul in the
+city here who'd say a word for you." Of course all this was a bluff,
+but I knew the average Briton has an intense belief in official
+lawlessness on the Continent, and I thought I'd reckoned up this
+specimen pretty accurately. It looked as if I was right. He changed
+tack promptly, dropped the dictatorial schoolmaster, and started
+fawning. I seemed to have mistaken his motives. As a man of science, he
+naturally took an intense interest in this Recipe, and wished to have
+the administration of it entirely in his own hands. But, of course, I
+must have known that as a gentleman he would feel bound to divide any
+fortune that might proceed from it equally with me.
+
+As a point of fact, I hadn't understood this. I had also overlooked the
+item that he was a gentleman, and even then did not recognize it. But I
+kept these trifles to myself; and as he was evidently trying to bury
+the hatchet, I got out my spade as well. And for the rest of that
+evening we were as civil to one another as a couple of smugglers with
+one load of bales.
+
+We were to work the thing together on his coin and my experience, both
+of which were equally necessary; and as for the plunder, there'd be a
+belly-full for the pair of us, and a lot to spare. Thank goodness women
+existed; and as long as they didn't die out, the inhabitants of this
+globe would always buy diamonds, if the market was not over-glutted.
+
+And we'd start by the train which set off westward along the coast at
+7.10 the next morning.
+
+When we get comfortably to Mahon, thought I, I'll tell Mr. Schoolmaster
+that the proof of the pudding can be found near the Recipe, for,
+according to the illustrious doctor's account, he has buried in the
+floor of the Talayot a fist-full of diamonds from his own manufactory.
+But as the little chap seems keen enough already, I'll let that stand
+over for the present. If at any time he wants an extra spur, it will
+come in handy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WANTED, A PASSAGE.
+
+
+It had been agreed that we were to start off next morning by the 7.10
+train, and half an hour before that time saw me standing before the
+Columbus statue in the Piazza Acquaverdi. Weems was such a mighty
+squeamish little creature about the proprieties that I thought an old
+dunnage-sack would scandalize him, and so had purchased a drab
+portmanteau for my kit at the cost of half my remaining capital. I
+intended to have no more breezes with him if it could be avoided.
+
+The minute-hand of the clock above the central entrance of the station
+crept up to the vertical, and began to droop. Cab after cab rolled up
+over the flagstones and teemed out people and properties. Still my man
+came not. He had distinctly said he would be in good time, as he had
+baggage to be registered, and disliked being hurried. It began to look,
+in spite of his bragging about never having overslept himself in his
+life, as if he had been late in turning out.
+
+The clock showed three minutes past the hour, and the big hand, being
+on the down grade, began to race. I walked through the rank of waiting
+cabs, and stood by the pillars of the central doorway. If we missed
+this train we should lose a day. The 9.35 didn't go through, as we had
+seen from the time-table overnight. It only landed one at Marseille.
+
+The crowd of incoming people began to lessen, and finally ceased
+altogether. The last passenger passed through on to the platform, and
+the officials locked the waiting-room doors. We had missed that blessed
+train.
+
+I cursed Weems vigorously, and set off to Isotta's, where he was
+staying, to beat him up, swinging the drab portmanteau in my fist, as I
+didn't want to pay for leaving it, as somehow or other economy seemed
+to me at that moment to be a strong line.
+
+The Swiss day-porter was just coming down. He was a gorgeous personage
+who could have saved the architect of Babel his great disappointment,
+and at first he knew nothing of Mistaire Weem. Evidently the
+schoolmaster had not been generous. So I inquired in the bureau for my
+man's number, intending to beat up his room then and there, but was met
+by the staggering announcement that the signor had cleared by the
+Marseille train which left Genoa at 3.30 in the morning. But there was
+a letter for me.
+
+I tore the limp envelope, and read:--
+
+    "GRAND HOTEL ISOTTA, _Genova, Tuesday_.
+
+    "DEAR SIR,--Upon consideration I must return to my original
+    decision. I fear I shall have left Genoa before you receive this,
+    but do not trouble to give me any thanks. The balance of the
+    circular ticket is very much at your service.--Yours faithfully,
+
+    "R. E. WEEMS.
+
+    "--COSPATRIC, ESQ."
+
+The little beast had done me brown.
+
+It was getting on for eight o'clock then. I glanced at a time-table. He
+was due to leave Marseille at 8.4. By Jove, if I could have trumped up
+any charge that would have held water a minute I'd have had him
+arrested by wire. Anything to delay him! I was just savage mad. And I
+was as helpless as a figure-head.
+
+I swung out into the Via Roma wondering what to do next. Common sense
+said go and take up my berth on the American steamer, and quit crying
+for the moon now that it had bounced out of reach again. But I was far
+too wild to listen to any sane sober plan like that. I couldn't swim
+out to Minorca, and I could not fly; but I told myself grimly that I
+was going somehow, and if Weems had got there first and collared the
+Recipe, he'd just have to hand over--or--well, it would be the worse
+for Weems. I shouldn't buy lavender kid gloves to handle him with.
+
+All that day I hunted about, trying to get a passage across to the
+islands; needless to remark, without success. The mail steamers run
+there from Valencia and Barcelona only, and though there are occasional
+orange boats passing between Soller in North Mallorca and Marseille,
+they aren't to be depended on. By a singular irony of fate, I did come
+across an old white--painted barque which had just come out of Palma in
+ballast; but her skipper only told what I knew full well in my own
+heart, that I might very likely wait three years before I found a craft
+going the other way.
+
+There seemed nothing for it but to go like a sensible Christian by
+train round the coast, and then across from one of the two Spanish
+ports by the regular ramshackle mail steamer. And so I bowed to fate,
+and converted the drab portmanteau and all its contents into the
+compactest form. The lot didn't fetch much. By dint of tedious
+haggling, I scraped together twenty-three lire thirty; and without
+selling the clothes on my back, and one other item, which I had rather
+sell the teeth out of my head than part with, I didn't see a
+possibility of getting more by that sort of trade. However, I had only
+collected this slender store in the hopes of increasing it, and as soon
+as night came down and such places are open, I marched off to a
+gambling hell which I knew of in the low part of the town near the
+harbour side. The way lay through many passages and up many steps, and
+it was by no means a place to which the general public were admitted.
+In fact, in its style it was far more exclusive than the _salle de
+jeu_ run by Monsieur Blanc's successors at Monte. But I had been
+there before, and knew how to get the _entree_.
+
+The whitewashed walls were grimy, the two naked gas-jets jumped and
+hooted spasmodically, and those who knew said that the atmosphere was
+reminiscent of a slaver's hold. The officials wore their shirt-sleeves
+rolled up for greater ease in movement, and no gentleman was allowed to
+enter the room till he had deposited his knife outside the door.
+
+With the fluctuating population of a seaport, one might reasonably
+expect to find most nationalities represented at such a seductive spot;
+but, as a point of fact, the operators on that night were almost
+exclusively Italians. The sailor, take him in the bulk, is a tolerable
+fool all the world over; but the northerner has some grains of sense
+though he is a sportsman, and roulette with twenty-six numbers and a
+zero is a trifle too strong an order even for him.
+
+I had fixed my desires at a hundred and twenty lire. Less would not see
+me through; more I was not going to try for.
+
+In that assembly a man who plunges half-lire pieces on every spin of
+the ball is a man who means business; and the _dilettanti_ soon
+let me press through to a stool at the table. Going on _pair_ and
+_impair_ or the colour was not to my taste. Either luck was going
+to stand by me that evening, or I was going to be broke; so I planked
+my money haphazard on four numbers every time, and didn't handicap
+myself with a system. I'd a distinct suspicion that the bank had even a
+greater pull than was apparent on the surface; but there was no chance
+of investigation, and I submitted to the fact that chances all-told
+stood about two to one against me.
+
+The play was slow, and for ordinary people unexciting, though you can
+guess it did not send me to sleep. I won a little, and lost a little;
+but on the whole was able to shove a ten-lire note every now and again
+into my pocket. It doesn't do to leave such trifles about in some
+places.
+
+A clock outside chimed ten, and I could count up sixty-four lire fifty.
+What with Italian tobacco and Italian garlic and Italian humanity, the
+air had got something too awful for words. The arteries inside my skull
+were playing some devil's tune of _Thumpetty Bump_ that caused me
+to see mistily, and to wish for an earthquake which would rearrange
+terrestrial economy. In short, I couldn't stand it any longer, and so
+went out for a few minutes' spell in the open.
+
+But I didn't luxuriate over-long. The thought occurred to me that Weems
+was already at Cerbere, and in another hour and forty minutes would be
+having his baggage examined by an individual in green cotton gloves at
+Port Bou, previous to pursuing his career of conquest down into Spain.
+And by this time my grudge against that schoolmaster person had grown
+to be a very big one indeed. So I gave up parading the muddy
+paving-stones, and turned back into the _biscazza_.
+
+A new arrival had turned up during my absence, a long, lean Englishman
+named Haigh, whom I had met casually once before. His nerves seemed in
+a delicate condition, for when the water-logged gas jumped, he jumped
+too, and, moreover, tried to do it as unobtrusively as possible, as if
+conscious and not over-proud of the failing. But he was gambling keenly
+and coolly enough, picking his notes one by one from a leather
+pocket-book, blinking over them to make sure of their value, and
+watching them unfailingly gathered up by the grimy paw of the croupier
+without an outward sign of regret.
+
+I looked on a minute, thinking what a queer fish he was, and then
+elbowing in to the table started afresh on my own trading.
+
+Fortune seemed to have improved by the rest. Three rattles of the pea
+brought my total up to a hundred and fifteen francs in Greek, French,
+and Italian money.
+
+A hundred and twenty was certainly the original goal, but I had a
+precious great mind then to let the other five slide. In fact, I drew
+away from the table intending to stop. But instead of quitting the
+place there and then, I was fool enough to argue the position out
+solemnly to myself, with the result that I eventually decided the whole
+affair from beginning to end to be entirely of the nature of a gamble,
+and naturally felt bound to test whether the luck was going to hold any
+longer.
+
+Indecision's my strong point, and many's the time I've had to pay for
+it. If I'd cleared out on the first impulse, I should have been
+comparatively affluent. As it was, ten more minutes beside that greasy
+baize cleared me down to the lining.
+
+However, if I had made a donkey of myself, it wasn't an altogether
+novel experience, and I was philosopher enough not to weep over it. So
+I crammed my fists into my pockets by way of ballast, and sauntered to
+the door for a trifle of property which the regulations had made me
+leave there.
+
+Whilst I was picking my own particular weapon from amongst the armoury
+Haigh joined me, announcing that he also was cleaned out; and adding
+that he was not altogether sorry, as those flickering gas-jets bothered
+him.
+
+The observation, if slightly illogical, was very explanatory; and so
+thinking that he'd be none the worse for being looked after, I said I'd
+stroll back up into the town with him. As we went up through the narrow
+streets he imparted a long detail of woe; but he maundered over it
+considerably, and whether the lady who was mostly in question was his
+own wife, or some one else's wife, or no wife at all, was a point still
+hidden from me when we sheered up in front of his hotel. Here he got
+more mournful still, and quitted the tale of his past ill-treatment for
+a more pressing question of the present.
+
+"Yes, here we are, old chap, and I'm awfully sorry I can't ask you in
+to have something. But the fact is, I'm not in very good odour there
+just at present. My bill d'ye see's been galloping for the last three
+weeks, and at lunch to-day the proprietor fellow said he couldn't wait
+any longer for my remittances. He said that if they didn't come by
+evening he'd rather I went, leaving my baggage behind by way of
+souvenir. I'm afraid the two portmanteaus aren't worth very much, as
+I've--er--disposed of most of the contents, and supplied the weight by
+pieces of iron kentledge done up in one or other of the daily papers. I
+had a notion that I should have raised funds this evening, but
+circumstances intervened which--er--you understand, made me somewhat
+worse off than before. Of course if I went in there they might put me
+up again for to-night; but that proprietor fellow might be about, and I
+shouldn't care to meet him. He's such a nasty way of looking at a chap.
+So I think, on the whole, I shall just go down and sleep on my boat."
+
+"Your boat?" I repeated in a dazed sort of way.
+
+"Yes," said Haigh, blinking at me anxiously; "just a little cutter I've
+got down there in the harbour. But I say, dear chappie, you aren't
+taking it unkindly that I don't ask you in here, are you? 'Pon my
+honour, if I weren't dead stony broke I'd give you a drink either in
+this place or----"
+
+"Damn your drinks, you lucky man. If your boat and my knowledge doesn't
+transmogrify us from a pair of stone-brokes into a couple of bloated
+millionaires, I'm a Dutchman. Come along, man. Come along now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+FORE AND AFT SEAMANSHIP.
+
+
+It has been my fate to put to sea in some of the worst-found craft that
+ever scrambled into port again, but of the lot, that ugly little cutter
+of Haigh's stands pre-eminent.
+
+She possessed no single good point in her favour. She had swung in
+harbour so long that everywhere above the water-line she was as staunch
+as a herring-net. Her standing rigging, being of wire, was merely
+rusted, but her running gear was something too appalling to think
+about. As for her bottom, if she had been turned up and dried for a day
+(so Haigh cheerfully averred), there would have been enough bushy cover
+on it to put down pheasants in. Fittings, even the barest necessaries,
+were painfully lacking, as the man had been living riotously on them
+for over a month and a half. A Chinese pirate could not have picked her
+much cleaner. What he was pleased to term the "superfluities of the
+main and after cabins" had gone first, fetching fair prices. Afterwards
+he had peddled his gear little by little, dining one day off a
+riding-light, going to a theatre the next on two marline spikes and a
+sister-block, and so on. His ground tackle, long saved up for a
+_bonne bouche_, had provided funds for that last night in the
+gambling hell, where we both got cleared out together; and the balance
+that was left didn't represent a mosquito's ransom.
+
+Haigh told me all this as we walked back again down the narrow streets
+to the quay, and I suggested that although Mediterranean air was good,
+we couldn't exactly live on it during the passage across. But he
+pointed out that as his dinghy was very old and rotten, it would be
+quite a useless encumbrance on the cruise; and so, dropping me on board
+the cutter, he sculled off again to swap this old wreck for provisions.
+
+I roused out a weather-thinned mainsail, black with mildew, and bent
+it; and by the time that was on the spars, he had completed his barter,
+and had been put on board again by a friend.
+
+We had a dozen words of conversation, and then got small canvas hoisted
+and quietly slipped moorings. The night was very black, and thick with
+driving rain; and we slid out through the pier-heads unquestioned save
+by a passing launch which hailed, and was politely answered in
+gibberish.
+
+There was a singular lack of formality about our departure which was
+much to be regretted. But there was some small trouble about big
+accumulations of harbour dues and such minor items, which would have
+had to be settled in return for a clearance _en regle_; and,
+remembering how history was galloping, we could not afford the time to
+deal with them. And so, after a narrow squeak of being cut down by a
+big steamer just outside, we found ourselves close-hauled under all
+plain sail, making a long leg with a short one to follow.
+
+"Funds wouldn't run to the luxury of a chart," observed Haigh when I
+inquired about this trifle, "but I had a look at a big Mediterranean
+track chart at the place where I bartered the dinghy, and the course to
+Port Mahon is due south-west, as near as no matter."
+
+"As near as no matter," groaned I in response.
+
+"Why, my dear chap, we really can't indulge in the extreme niceties of
+navigation. We've got a compass, which is fairly accurate if you joggle
+it with your finger occasionally, and we can fix up a lead line when we
+get in soundings, and I dare say we can make a log. D'you mind having a
+spell at the pump now? I'm a bit out of condition."
+
+The leaking decreased as the planking swelled to the wet, but other
+unpleasantnesses began to show themselves. One of the greatest, to my
+way of thinking, was the way we were victualled. To begin with, there
+were twenty-three bottles of vermouth, straw-jacketed, and carefully
+stowed. Then there was a bag of condemned sea-biscuits, which Haigh
+pleasantly alluded to as "perambulators." And the list of solids was
+completed by half a dozen four-pound tins of corned beef, and a hundred
+and fifty excellent cigars which had not paid duty. There was an iron
+tank full of rusty water which "had to do," as refilling it might have
+entailed awkward questions. And, lastly, there had been brought on
+board a very small and much-corroded kedge anchor, which, as it was the
+only implement of its kind that we possessed, gave much force to
+Haigh's comment that "it might come in handy."
+
+To tell the truth, when the cold sea air blew away the glamour of
+plotting and planning, and I was able to tot up all these accessories
+with a practical mind, I was beginning very much to wish myself well
+off what seemed a certain road to Jones.
+
+Haigh, on the other hand, seemed supremely contented and happy.
+Yachting as a general thing, he said, he found slow; but this cruise
+had an element of novelty which made it vastly entertaining. He had
+never heard of any one deliberately getting to sea quite under such
+circumstances before. He didn't uphold the wisdom of the proceeding in
+the least, for when I grunted something about the world not containing
+such another pair of thorough-paced fools, he agreed with me promptly.
+In fact, he was in far too jovial a humour to argue about anything, and
+by degrees I began to fall in with his vein. "Let's split a bottle of
+vermouth," said he, "and drink confusion to every one except our two
+selves." And we did it.
+
+The breeze lulled at daybreak, and northed till we had it nearly fair.
+
+"This is great business," said Haigh. "I'll bet you five hundred pounds
+that we make the islands in the next twenty-four hours. I.O.U.'s
+accepted." He slipped off the after-hatch, and dragged up from the
+counter a venerable relic of a spinnaker, which was one vivid mottle of
+mildew. The sail was duly mocked and set. The wind was freshening, and
+our pace increased. The cutter and her parasitical escort kicked up
+enough wake for a Cardiff ore-steamer.
+
+"Who says a foul bottom matters now?" said Haigh. "Who will suggest
+that she isn't kicking past this scenery at nine knots? Bless the ugly
+lines of her, we mustn't forget her builder's health. Hand up another
+bottle of that vermouth and the dipper."
+
+We lifted her through it all that morning at a splendid pace, the wake
+boiling up astern like a mill-tail. The two booms did certainly make
+occasional plunges which might have jarred timid nerves, but such a
+trifle did not disturb us.
+
+"It's the best bit of racing I've ever done," said Haigh. "There's a
+pig of a following sea, and the wind's squally. Just her weather. If
+we'd only got another craft trying to beat us, the thing would be
+perfect. We should have some inducement to carry on then."
+
+Whilst we were eating our mid-day meal (on deck, of course) that
+variegated spinnaker went "pop," splitting neatly from head-cringle to
+foot-rope. It was my trick at the tiller, and so I was tied aft. Haigh
+peered round at the ruin, and returned to his occupation of knocking
+weevils out of his biscuit. He didn't think it worth while to budge,
+and so we let the canvas blow into whatever shaped ribands it chose. If
+we couldn't carry the sail, we didn't want it.
+
+The wind hardened down as the day went on, and every knot we went the
+sea got worse. The ugly cutter slid down one wet incline, drove up the
+next, and squattered through the hissing crest with a good deal of
+grumbling and plunging and rolling and complaining. But she had a good
+grip of the water, and with decently careful steering she showed but
+small inclination to broach-to or do anything else she wasn't wanted
+to. She might not be a beauty; she might be sluggish as a haystack in a
+light breeze; but, as Haigh said, this was just her day, and we were
+not too nervous to take advantage of it. Still, considering her small
+tonnage, and the fact that all her tackle was so infernally rotten, she
+took a tidy bit of looking after. You see, we might be reckless about
+our skins, but at the same time we were very keenly anxious to make the
+Balearic Islands.
+
+The thing that I mostly feared was that our old ruin of a mainsail
+would take leave of us. If once it started to split, the whole lot
+would go like a sheet of tissue-paper. However, whether we liked it or
+not, we had to run on now. The wind and sea were both far too heavy to
+dream of an attempt at rounding-to. And, indeed, even if we had
+succeeded in slewing her head to the wind without getting swamped in
+the process (the odds on which were about nine hundred to one against),
+it was distinctly doubtful as to whether she would deign to stay there.
+Small cutters are not great at staying hove-to in really dirty weather.
+
+And so we topped the boom well up, hoisted the tack to prevent
+overrunning the seas, and let her drive; and whilst Haigh clung on to
+the tiller and its weather rope, I busied myself with a bent
+sail-needle at stitching up any places within reach on the mainsail
+where the seams seemed to be working loose.
+
+Soon after dark that night--and I never saw much more inky blackness in
+my life--we came across a deep-laden brig which very nearly gave us a
+quietus. She was running sluggishly under lower fore-topsail, wallowing
+like a log-raft in a rapid, and doing less than a third of our
+knottage. We possessed neither side-lamps nor oil, and showed no light;
+and as she had not a lantern astern, we got no glimmer of warning till
+we were within a dozen fathoms of her taffrail. Haigh couldn't give the
+cutter much helm for fear of gibing her and carrying away everything,
+and consequently we did not clear that brig's low quarter by more than
+a short fathom. Had we passed her to starboard instead of to port, we
+should have fouled our main boom, and--well, we shouldn't have got any
+farther.
+
+As we tore past, the white water squirming and hissing between the
+vessels' sides, a man leaned over the bulwark, with his face looking
+like a red devil's in the glare of the port light, and shook a fist and
+screamed a frightened venomous curse. Our only reply was a wild roar of
+laughter. As we drove off into the mist of scud ahead, I looked back
+and saw the man staring after us with dropped jaw and eyes fairly
+goggling. He must have thought us mad. Indeed, I believe we had taken
+leave of some of our senses then.
+
+"Vermouth's cheapening," said Haigh. "Pass up another bottle. If we do
+happen to go to Jones, it 'ud be a thousand pities to take the liquor
+down with us undecanted."
+
+Don't get the idea that we were drunk all through that wild cruise,
+because we were not. But one thing and another combined to make the
+excitement so vivid, that with the liquor handy it did not take much
+inducement to make us tipple pretty heavily. We were vilely fed,
+bitterly exposed, heavily overworked, unable even to smoke--and--the
+vermouth was very, very good.
+
+As the seas swept her the ugly cutter's planking swelled, but before
+she became staunch a fearful amount of water had passed into her.
+Haigh, who was in no sort of condition, got utterly spun out by a
+five-minutes' spell at the pump, and consequently it had been my task
+to restore the incoming Mediterranean to its proper place again. It was
+a job that wearied every nerve in my body. The constant and monotonous
+heaving up and down of a pump-handle is probably the most exhausting
+work existent; and soon after passing that deeply-laden brig I pumped
+her dry for (what seemed) the ten thousandth time, and toppled on the
+deck dead beat.
+
+"Look here," said Haigh, "you get below and turn in. I'm quite equal to
+keeping awake until further notice. I'm never much of a hand at
+sleeping at the best of times; and just now I'm well wound up for a
+week's watch on end. If you're wanted, I'll call you. Go."
+
+I slipped down without argument, dropped into a bare and clammy bunk,
+and slept.
+
+                      *     *     *     *     *
+
+Haigh never roused me. I woke of my own accord, and found daylight
+struggling in through the dusty skylight in the after-cabin roof. After
+yawning there a minute or so, I conquered laziness and returned to the
+deck.
+
+Those who think the Inland Sea is always calm ultramarine, under a sky
+to match, should have seen it then. The colouring was all of grays and
+whites, with here and there a slab of cold clear green, where a big
+wave heaved up sheer. It was awfully wild. The sea was running higher
+than ever, and the gale had not slackened one bit. The brine-smoke was
+hissing through our cross-trees in dense white clouds.
+
+Haigh greeted me with a nod and a grin. His hat had gone, and the dank
+wisps of his hair were being fluttered about like black rags; his
+narrow slits of eyes were heavily bloodshot; his face was grimy and
+pale, his hands grimy and red; his clothing was a wreck. He looked very
+unpleasant, but he was undoubtedly very broad awake. He resigned the
+tiller and rope, and began gingerly to stretch his cramped limbs,
+talking the while.
+
+"D'ye see that steamer, broadish on the weather-bow?"
+
+I looked, and saw on the gray horizon a thin streak of a different
+gray.
+
+"I rose her a quarter of an hour ago," he went on, "and bore away a
+couple of points so as to cut her off. I'm thinking it wouldn't be a
+bad idea to speak her if it could be managed, and find out where we
+are. As we haven't been able to rig a log-ship and line, and as the
+steering has been, to say the least of it, erratic, our dead reckoning
+has been some of the roughest. Personally, I wouldn't bet upon our
+whereabouts to quite a hundred miles. Ta-ta."
+
+He went below to smoke, leaving me fully occupied with the steering. We
+rose the steamer pretty fast, and in half an hour could see her
+water-line when she lifted. She was a fine screw boat of three thousand
+tons, racing along at eighteen knots, and rolling with the beam sea up
+to her rails, in spite of the fore and aft canvas they had set to
+steady her.
+
+Haigh came back to deck, blinking like an owl at the growing day. "Look
+at the gray-backs chivying her," said he. "Aren't the passengers just
+sorry for themselves now? And won't they have some fine yarns to pitch
+when they get ashore about the hardest gale the captain ever knew, and
+their own heroic efforts (down below), and all the rest of it? I've
+listened to those tales of desperate adventure by the hour together.
+Passengers by Dover-Calais packets are great at 'em."
+
+All this while we were closing up. The steamer's decks were tenantless
+save for a couple of lookouts forward in oilskins, bright varnished by
+the spin-drift, and a couple of officers crouched behind the canvas
+dodgers of the bridge, and holding fast on to the stanchions. I was
+clearing my throat to hail these last, when Haigh turned and told me I
+might save my wind.
+
+"Never mind," he said; "I know her well. She's the _Eugene
+Perrier_, a Transatlantique Company's boat, one of the quick line
+out of Algiers for Marseille. Look at your compass, and note the course
+she's steering--N.N.E. and by E. That's from Cape Bajoli straight for
+Marseille. They run both ways between Mallorca and Minorca without
+touching. Hooray! who says our luck isn't stupendous? Here we are, not
+having made enough southing, and heading so as to fetch Gibraltar
+without sighting the islands at all; and then in the nick of time up
+comes a _dea ex machina_ in the guise of the _Eugene Perrier_
+to shove us on the course again. In main-sheet, and then, blow me if we
+won't have a bottle of that vermouth by way of celebrating the event in
+a way at once highly becoming and original."
+
+We made a landfall that afternoon off some of the high ground in
+North-east Mallorca, and Haigh gave over champing his cold cigar-butt,
+and delivered himself of an idea.
+
+"Isn't there another harbour in Minorca besides Port Mahon?"
+
+I said I believed there were some half-dozen small ones.
+
+"Any this west side?"
+
+"Ciudadella, about in the middle."
+
+"Know anything about it?"
+
+"Nothing, except the fact of its existence; and as we have no vestige
+of chart, I don't exactly see how we are to learn anything more."
+
+"Precisely. Then, my dear chap, to finish this cruise consistently,
+Ciudadella must now become our objective. It would take us another day
+to run round under the lee of the island to Port Mahon, and days are
+valuable. The cutter's only drawing five foot five, and with our luck
+at its present premium you'll see we'll worry in somehow without piling
+her up. Perhaps we may get some misguided person to come out and con
+us. Of course we'll take him if any one does offer, and owe him the
+pilotage; but I'd just as soon we navigated her on our own impudent
+hook. It's no use having a big credit on the Universal Luck Bank if you
+don't draw on it heavily. The concern may bust up any day."
+
+Luckily for us the gale had eased, or we should never have been able to
+put the cutter on the wind. But as it was, with a four-reefed mainsail
+and a bit of a pocket-handkerchief jib, she lay the course like a
+Cowes-built racing forty; and if she did ship it green occasionally,
+there was no rail to hold the water in board. We didn't spare her an
+ounce. We kept her slap on her course, neither luffing up nor bearing
+away for anything. That was the sort of weather when the ugliness of
+the old cutter's lines was forgotten, and one saw only beauties in
+them. She might send the spindrift squirting through her cross-trees,
+but with the chap at the helm keeping her well a-going, she'd smoke
+through bad dirt like a steamer.
+
+We rose the low cliffs of Eastern Minorca about half-way across; but
+rain came on directly afterwards, and in the thickness we lost them
+again. In that odd way in which things one has glanced through in a
+book recur to one when they are wanted, I had managed to recall
+something I had once conned over in a Sailing Directions about
+Ciudadella. The harbour entrance was narrow--scarcely a cable's length
+across--and it was marked by a lighthouse on the northern side, and a
+castle or tower or something of that kind on the other bank. The town
+behind, with its heavy walls and white houses, was plainly visible from
+seaward, and the spire of the principal church was somehow used as a
+leading mark. But whether one had to keep it on the lighthouse or the
+castle, I could not recollect. Neither could I call to mind whether
+there was a bar. In fact, I could not remember a single thing else
+about the place; and as Haigh remarked, what little I did recall
+(without being in any way certain about its accuracy) was of singularly
+little practical use. But this ignorance did not deter us from holding
+on towards the coast in the very least. We might pile up the cutter on
+some outlying reef, but we were both cocksure that our stupendous luck
+was going to set us safe ashore somehow. _Et apres_--the Recipe.
+
+We held on sturdily, lifting slant-wise over the heavy green rollers
+till we were within half a mile of the land, and could see the surf
+creaming to the heads of the low cliffs, and could hear the moaning and
+booming as it broke on rocky outliers; and then easing off sheets
+again, we put up helm and ran down parallel with the coast. Being
+blissfully ignorant of anything beyond a general idea of Minorca's
+outlines, we had to keep a very wary lookout; for a heavy rain had
+started to drive down with the gale, and looking to windward was like
+peering through a dirty cambric pocket-handkerchief. Indeed, we made
+two several attempts at knocking the island out of the water, each
+sufficiently distinct to have made any ordinary sailorman in his sane
+senses get snugly to sea without further humbugging. And the afternoon
+wore on without our seeing either the lighthouse, the castle, or the
+town we were looking for; and just upon dusk the coast turned sharply
+off to the eastward.
+
+"That looks like a bay," said Haigh, squinting at the land that was
+rising and falling over our weather quarter. "If we hold on as we are
+going, we ought to pick up the other horn of it." So we stuck to the
+course for three hours, and then came to the conclusion that the point
+we had seen must have been the extremity of the island, and that we
+were at present heading for a continent named Africa, then distant some
+two hundred nautical miles.
+
+The discovery cast a gloom over the ship's company. Our nerves were in
+a condition then for taking strong impressions. For myself, all
+lightheartedness flitted away. The ugly cutter's good deeds were
+forgotten, and she appeared nothing more nor less than an ill-formed
+cockle-shell. The gale was terrific. I was bone-weary; also the most
+particularly damned fool on the globe's surface.
+
+What Haigh's personal conclusions were I do not know. He said nothing,
+but stood propped against the weather runner, mumbling over an unlit
+cigar and peering into the mist.
+
+After a while he turned. "Here, give me the helm, Cospatric, and do you
+get your strong fists on the main-sheet. We'll put her on the wind
+again, as close-hauled as she'll look at it. It's no use ratching up to
+windward again hunting for Ciudadella, as ten to one we'd miss it a
+second time. We'll just run along the lee coast here for Port Mahon.
+There, now she's heading up for it like a steamer."
+
+There was silence for a while, and we listened to the swish of the seas
+and the rattle of the wind through the rigging. Then Haigh delivered
+himself of further wisdom.
+
+"It's a queer gamble this, take it through and back, and it's
+remarkably like roulette in being a game where a system doesn't pay. As
+long as we worked haphazard we did wonders. As soon as we tried to do a
+rational thing, and make that harbour at Ciudadella, we got euchred.
+Well, I dare say we both know how to take a whipping without howling
+over it. So for the present let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we may
+drown. Knock me a biscuit out of the weevils, old chappie, and give me
+likewise vermouth and corned horse."
+
+Had the wind remained in its old quarter, we could have made one board
+of it all up the southern flank of the island; but, as if to accentuate
+the fact that we had already drawn more than our share of good fortune,
+the gale veered round to the east, and settled down to blow again in
+real hard earnest, bringing up with it a heavy sea. It was tack and
+tack all through the night, and we were always hard put to it to keep
+the ugly cutter afloat. Indeed, when some of the heavier squalls
+snorted down on to us, we simply had to heave-to. It was just a choice
+between that and being blown bodily under water.
+
+The dawn was gray and wretched, but from the moment we sighted the last
+point the weather began to improve. The air cleared up, the gale began
+to ease, and when we ran in under Fort Isabelle just as the sunrise gun
+was fired, we saw that the day was going to turn out a fine one.
+
+The long snug harbour of Mahon, which was in the days of canvas wings
+almost always filled with craft refuging, is now in this era of steam
+usually tenantless. So it was a bit of a surprise to us to find the
+English Channel Fleet lying there at anchor. The big war steamers were
+getting their matutinal scrub, and were alive with blue-and-white-clothed
+men. They looked very strong, very trim, very seaworthy, and the bitter
+contrast between them and our tattered selves made me curse them with
+sailor's point and fluency. Not so Haigh. He didn't mind a bit; rather
+enjoyed the _rencontre_, in fact; and producing a frayed _Royal I_----
+blue ensign, ran it up to the peak and dipped it in salute. If I
+remember right it was the _Immortalite_ we met first, and down went the
+_St. George's_ flag from her poop staff three times in answering
+salutation, whilst every pair of eyes on her decks was glued on the
+ugly cutter, their owners wondering where she had popped up from. And
+so we passed her particularly Britannic Majesty's ships _Anson_,
+_Rodney_, _Camperdown_, _Curlew_, and _Howe_, and dropped our kedge
+overboard (at the end of the main halliards) close inside the
+torpedo-catcher _Speedwell_.
+
+The strain was over. We staggered below and dropped into a dead sleep.
+Had there been a ton of diamonds waiting on the cliff road beside us,
+with half Mahon rushing to loot them, we could not have been induced to
+budge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A DIPLOMATIC REMOVAL.
+
+
+Individually the Minorcan is very amiably disposed towards the
+inhabitants of those other islands, Great Britain and Ireland. It is a
+matter of Spanish history that Minorca for many years groaned under
+English rule; and as prosperity has steadily decayed since the native
+article has been substituted for this reign of tyranny, it is not
+wonderful that the average Minorcan has a hankering to groan again.
+Indeed, he says as much with a candour that would be refreshing to
+haters of Victoria R et I's expansive _raj_. But the Carabinero
+who guards the public morals holds (in the bulk) different opinions. He
+has no wish to be, like Othello, the possessor of a gone occupation;
+and by way of marking this distaste, he is apt on occasion to be uppish
+with the chance foreigner.
+
+By force of circumstances, Haigh and I were in the way of finding
+ourselves in no slight difficulties. The Briton in his own insular
+ports is a very slipshod person with regard to the papers of small
+craft--especially pleasure craft. He looks upon those last with a
+favourable eye, and watches their going and coming with small concern.
+The peoples of the Mediterranean are constructed in different fashion.
+At the larger ports they are suspicious; but at the less frequented
+spots, firmly disbelieving that men can ever yacht for mere pleasure,
+they always take it for granted that any small craft is laden with
+explosives and conspiracy, until it has been most clearly and
+exhaustively demonstrated that such is not the case. Of course the
+orthodox papers and clearances from one's port of departure form the
+initial proof of innocence and harmlessness; and equally, of course,
+the lack of formality which had signalized our departure from Genoa
+prevented the display of these. And in addition, other matters combined
+to make our characters look still more shady.
+
+We must have been boarded by the authorities soon after bringing up to
+our anchor, and I was dimly conscious of a stooping person in uniform
+staring in at us through the cabin door. But I was far too weary to
+wake or take any notice. However, the sight must have worked a dream
+into my sleep, for I remember imagining that official's feelings when
+he gazed at the mildewed desolation of the ugly cutter's interior, when
+he contrasted her size with the infernal gale she must have been
+sailing through to make the harbour, and when he noted that her entire
+crew consisted of two persons very much out of ordinary yachtsmen's
+uniform. And then I had visions of further inquiries; the official glee
+with which more unsatisfactory items were arrived at; the head-shakes
+of the British Vice-Consul; and--and then after that a deluge of lurid
+complexion.
+
+These maundering cogitations must have spread themselves over a
+considerable time, for when Haigh roused me up, he said that I had
+slept very nearly round the clock. I pulled myself together and stared
+at him. He was looking distinctly excited; and this, seeing that he was
+usually a very calm sort of fish, was remarkable.
+
+"Never say our luck has broken," said he. "I've just performed a
+regular four-cornered miracle. That port-authority person called again
+about two hours back, and it began to dawn upon me that we were done
+for. He fairly bristled with suspicion. I could see it even in the set
+of his clothes. If I'd told him that as soon as our fleet was gone you
+and I were going to take possession of the island in the name of the
+king of Ireland, he'd have believed it. But I temporized, having no
+yarn ready, and luck came down in a tornado. Not one Spaniard in a
+thousand has a soul above a single miserable liqueur--glass; but this
+one was the exception. He supped down that vermouth, pannikin after
+pannikin; and as he got more drunk, so did I get more eloquent. I
+believe at my strongest then I could have blarneyed Old Nick into
+giving me a draughty corner."
+
+"But what in the plague did you say to the man? How could you get over
+the fact of having no clearance papers, and all the rest of it?"
+
+"Simplest thing in the world, my dear chap, when once I'd grasped the
+idea. The cutter put out of Savona some two months ago--this being a
+fact, as I put documentary evidence under his nose to prove. Then she
+sailed to Corsica, and lay in a tiny coaster's harbour where there was
+no Captain of the Port or any one else who could scribble on stamped
+paper. There we stayed all the time till the crew deserted, and we
+ourselves were evilly entreated, the yacht being gutted by unprincipled
+natives. _Apres_, you and I brought her across here alone, knowing
+this to be the abode of bliss. Of course, in his sober senses he'd
+never have believed a word of it; but, thanks to that lovely vermouth,
+he swallowed the whole yarn, lock, stock, and barrel, and wrote me out
+the wherewithal, and then tumbled off to sleep, swearing by three local
+saints that he wanted to go to the same heaven I landed at."
+
+"But," said I, "when he's sober, he'll be down on us like a thousand of
+bricks."
+
+"Not a bit of it, my dear boy. Don't you know that all Spaniards can
+look upon a murder without emotion, but no Spaniard can see a drunken
+man without being filled with loathing? Our beauty on the locker there
+will be the last to give himself away. But never mind raging about this
+now. I woke you up for something else. Come on deck. There, do you see
+that steamer just opening out from the Hospital island? That's the
+_Antiguo Mahones_, the mail-boat from Barcelona. Unless he's
+broken down somewhere, your man Weems should be on board."
+
+"I'm afraid not. According to the book of Steamer Sailings I looked at
+in Genoa, he ought to have left Barcelona three days ago."
+
+"Precisely; but, old chappie, you don't know the _Antiguo
+Mahones_. Now I do. She was built on the Clyde in the early
+'sixties, and has seen much service under the Red Duster. When she grew
+old and outclassed, she followed the way of all steamers, and was
+bought by a Mediterranean firm who quite understand her infirmities and
+nurse her accordingly. Her skipper is far too sensible a person to put
+to sea in anything approaching blowy weather, even though he does carry
+his most Catholic Majesty's mails; and the passengers are quite the
+class of people to appreciate his caution. _Manana_, if you will
+remember, is the motto of the nation."
+
+"Well, if that's the case," I broke in, "it seems to me our best plan
+will be to get ashore now, and go for our pickings in Talaiti de Talt
+without further delay. Weems is always seasick, so he told me, from the
+moment he leaves shore. He said it was a sign of a highly-organized
+mind, hinting that it was only coarse-fibred people who could keep
+their victuals under hatches in a roll. And so, as the _Antiguo
+Mahones_ has been getting kicked about in big swell ever since she
+left Barcelona inner harbour, it's pretty safe to bet that Master Weems
+has had the business part of his little soul churned completely out of
+him, and that he'll go and lie up at Bustamente's Hotel for a day or
+two to recruit. He'll never guess we're here, and consequently will see
+no cause for hurry. And besides, these Fleet sailormen will make an
+additional argument towards lying low for a bit. He'll see how they
+wander about in batches into all sorts of unexpected places, and he
+will be very chary about rootling up the cache whilst they are in the
+neighbourhood and likely to disturb him."
+
+"There's a good deal in that," commented Haigh, blinking at the shabby
+black steamer thoughtfully. "You'd better pop down below in case he has
+ventured his little self on deck, and should happen to twig you. But
+still it's best to be on the safe side." He chose a cigar, lighted it
+and puffed for a minute, and then took it out of his mouth and grinned
+at the glowing end. "Look here. The fellow doesn't know me from Adam.
+I'll slip ashore, and see if I can't find snug quarters for him where
+he'll be out of the way of doing mischief."
+
+"What piece of devilry are you up to now?" I inquired a bit anxiously;
+for Haigh's vagaries, from what I had seen and heard of them, ranged
+between wild and mad, and having got so near the Recipe, I didn't want
+to get in any mess that would baulk us at the finish. "You aren't going
+to shoot the man, are you?"
+
+"Haven't got anything to shoot him with. No, I'm not going to lay hands
+on him at all. But I think I can get some one else to do it for me.
+It's no use asking my scheme, because I haven't got one. It's only a
+vague idea that has occurred to me, but there's no harm in giving it a
+trial. Only I must be off now, or the passengers will be landed before
+I get to the quay."
+
+He took my hat and went on deck. I heard him hail some one in a passing
+boat, and presently he was taken off the cutter. I stood up and looked
+cautiously through the main skylight, so as not to be viewed by any
+chance from without. The steamer was being brought up alongside the
+quay with true Spanish caution and slowness, warps being sent in all
+directions, boats flying about, a couple of anchors down, windlass and
+steam-winches thundering. An English launch was lying-to close by, her
+crew highly amused at the display. And the quay was black with people
+enjoying their bi-weekly sensation.
+
+Slowly the _Antiguo Mahones_ swung parallel to the quay wall, and
+then a derrick chain was hauled out and I heard the scrape of the big
+gangway as it drew along the gravel, and the thud of its iron-shod heel
+as it fell on deck and bridged the intervening two fathoms of water.
+But the black hull of the steamer blotted out all view of the people
+beyond it, and on the cutter I could learn nothing more of what was
+going on till Haigh came back.
+
+The last glow of sunset had died away. The white walls and red roofs of
+the town up there on the cliff were already beginning to be hazed out
+by darkness, and the soft yellow splashes of lamplight were growing in
+number.
+
+I sat down, and cut up a cigar for my pipe.
+
+The situation did not please me at all. The more I thought it over, the
+more I remembered how uncertain Haigh was, and how likely he was to
+bring about some fiasco out of sheer devilry. If I'd had a boat I
+should have cut ashore there and then, and made off to Talaiti de Talt
+without delaying a single moment. And as it was, with no boat, I more
+than once got to my legs with the intention of swimming, but could
+never quite screw up my mind as to whether it was really advisable to
+do so.
+
+I kept cursing myself for this womanish indecision; but even that
+didn't improve matters. I could not figure out what to do for the best.
+And consequently I stayed where I was, and mumbled and mowed in black
+fury.
+
+Haigh was in all about an hour and a half gone, and returned very much
+cock-a-hoop with himself. He was brought on board by a smart boat rowed
+by four men; and telling them to wait, he came down below.
+
+"Hullo, Cospatric! you're looking as black as a Soudanese stoker with
+the stomach-ache. Did ye think I'd been tampering with the interests of
+the firm? Not a bit of it, man. Thanks to his own natural cussedness,
+I've just fixed your schoolmaster beautifully. The stars in their
+courses are backing up our stupendous luck. Some gentlemen of the
+anarchist persuasion have been blowing up men and women and marble
+seats in the Plaza Real at Barcelona. Indiscriminate shooting on the
+part of the troops followed, and cables were sent to all parts to watch
+for escaping assassins. The affair happened after the _Antiguo
+Mahones_ sailed, so far as I can make out; but, of course, to the
+Spanish official mind that is a mere matter of detail. In these cases
+Spain expects that every man this day will exceed his duty. Weems being
+the only foreigner on board, and having the looks of a man who would
+not steal a potato, was naturally spotted at once, and a sub-officer of
+Carabineros demanded his passport. Weems, not knowing a word of
+Catalan, looked helpless. An interested mob collected, and stared and
+made suggestions. None of them could speak a word of English. Weems got
+pale, and offered the Carabinero half a peseta. Had the bribe been a
+big one and tendered privately, it might have carried weight; but as it
+was, the offer was an insult.
+
+"At this point I pushed through the crowd, and offered my services as
+an interpreter. I can imagine the little worm was never so humbly
+grateful in his life; but when I told him that his passport was wanted,
+he was the cocksure schoolmaster ape in a moment. Such a thing was not
+requisite for travelling in Spain; it was utterly superfluous; I might
+be ignorant of the fact, as so many people were, but he could assure me
+it was so. A clerk at a tourist agency (in some provincial town at
+home) had told him all about the matter. And so he had got no passport.
+Would I explain these matters to the person in uniform, and inform him
+that he would be pilloried in the _Times_ if he did not take great
+care of what he was about.
+
+"As this couldn't well be improved upon, I put it into Spanish,
+verbatim, and the Carabinero's suspicion grew to certainty. 'Did I know
+the senor?' 'No, never clapped eyes on him before.' 'But he was a
+countryman of mine?' With a suggestive shrug of the shoulders, 'I
+devoutly hoped not.' 'Then it was his duty to make the senor his
+prisoner.'
+
+"I imparted this information to Weems, who sweated. 'Can't you do
+anything for me, sir?' he implored. I was afraid I could not, and
+though I felt pretty sure that he'd be let out of durance vile in about
+half an hour, I didn't tell him so. However, as he and his escort were
+going off, another thought dawned upon me. 'Are you a Mason?' I asked.
+'Yes,' said he. 'Then take the tip and make yourself known. I'm not one
+myself, but I know the fraternity is pretty thick here. Ta-ta.' Now the
+Freemasons of Mahon are the Halt, the Shoemaker, and the Discontented,
+and they are banded together solely because they are 'agin the
+Government;' and so, with our luck at its present premium, if they
+don't assist to keep Weems laid by the heels longer than otherwise
+would be the case, I'm a Deutcheman."
+
+"Poor devil," said I. "What a state of mind he'll be in!"
+
+"'Twon't kill anybody, and it'll do him good. Besides, he thoroughly
+deserved twice as much as he's got."
+
+"That's a fact; and I must say you've paid the score cutely."
+
+Haigh grinned. "I've Irish blood in me, old chappie," said he, "and
+that means a natural taste for amateur conspiracy and general
+devilment. But don't let's stay jawing here any longer. We're both due
+for a good jaunt ashore, and there's a bran-new tick here to guarantee
+us every mortal thing (bar one) which we want. And for that one, which
+is almost always a ready-money commodity, it will do us good to wait
+till we've tapped the late blessed Raymond's bank."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+TWO EVENINGS.
+
+
+For a rapid, short-lived acquaintanceship, above all other animals upon
+this terrestrial sphere, commend me to the Continental drummer. To
+commence, he is always easy to chum with quickly, and always ready to
+make the first advances. He is a salted traveller. He knows what is the
+best of everything, how to get it, and, moreover, how to get it
+cheaply. He never plagues you with "shop," or secondhand guide-book
+extracts, or sentiment about scenery and sunsets. Cheeriness and
+_bons mots_ are part of his stock-in-trade; brazen good-fellowship
+is his strong specialty.
+
+Haigh and I went up to our hotel, asked for a bedroom, and in Spanish
+style got a suite of apartments. We were just in time for dinner, and,
+having arrived _en prince_ in our own vessel, were going to be
+billeted amongst the _habitues_ of the place--garrison soldiers,
+petty "proprietors," and priests--who sat round the superior table in
+the big room. There we should have been in company that was vastly
+respectable and prodigiously slow. But nearer the street entrance was
+another smaller room, occupied chiefly by the commercial fraternity,
+and thither we went, the landlord fully comprehending our taste.
+"Gentlemen do like to have a bit of a fling to rub away the salt, don't
+they, senores?" said he.
+
+There is no shyness about the drummer. Before we had eaten our
+preliminary olive, the fat man at the end of the table had struck up
+conversation with Haigh; and before the _sopa_ was out of the
+room, my next-door neighbour, a dapper Marseillais in the ready-made
+clothing line, was calling me _amigo_. Whilst he helped himself
+from amongst the red sausages and beans and beef and pork and other
+trifles on the dish which held the next course, the fat Cuban sketched
+out a plan for the evening; and as he doused his salad with
+full-flavoured oil, my little Frenchman endorsed the proposal of the
+flaxen-haired timber agent opposite that they should stand treat. And
+while we munched our burnt almonds for dessert, some one ordered in a
+bottle of bad sherry (which, being imported, is naturally thought more
+of than the good country wine), and we agreed that we were all dear
+friends, and had known one another intimately for a matter of ten
+years. And then we rerolled fresh cigarettes, got our hats, and went to
+a _cafe_, six of us, where we crammed our _petits verres_
+with sugar-knobs and lighted them, meanwhile drinking bitter black
+coffee till the blue demon of the brandy should have flickered away.
+You know the style; it's the usual way of beginning.
+
+After some half-hour's stay in the _cafe_ we seperated--Haigh and
+the Cuban going off to a dance, whilst the little Frenchman carried me
+off elsewhere. He had not defined our destination very clearly, and I
+had not made inquiries, caring little where I went; but I was a little
+put out at finding myself, after passing a guard of soldiers who stared
+curiously, and going down many flights of steps, in an anarchist's
+club.
+
+Perhaps the government of his most Catholic Majesty Alfonzo XIII. can
+hardly be termed paternal; but that was nothing to me. Politics I
+abhor, and anarchistic politics I particularly loathe. But as beating
+an abrupt retreat would have been rude, and as unnecessary rudeness is
+not one of my characteristics, I made the best of it, and stayed and
+looked about me.
+
+One room of the place had been fitted up as a kind of chapel, with
+ecclesiastical candles and other properties on a table at the farther
+end, with portraits of Mazzini, Gambetta, Prim, and other worthies of
+the Red Kidney on the walls, and with orderly pews on either side of
+the central aisle. In this cellar temple a preacher was just winding up
+a fervid discourse on the comparative merits of melinite and blasting
+gelatine as we came up, and a minute later I was being introduced to
+him. I think he was the leanest man I ever came across. He stood good
+six feet high, and couldn't have weighed more than seven stone. You
+could almost see the bone of his face through the thin covering of
+skin; and if one might judge from the fact that his smart black
+frockcoat fitted like a stocking, it was fair to surmise that he was
+actually proud of his leanness. One got the idea that all the
+nourishment of his body had gone out into his long white beard.
+
+We went out of the general hall into a smaller room, where we sat and
+smoked.
+
+Taltavull, my new acquaintance, was simply charming. Till that night I
+had thought that an anarchist could only attain to his peculiar creed
+through the most comprehensive ignorance; but this man had arrived at
+the result through the diametrically opposite path. He spoke almost all
+European languages with fluency, and knew Lingua Franca, Arabic, and
+Sanscrit. I never met any one so widely read; nor was his reading
+superficial; and he possessed a memory that refused nothing. He could
+quote verbatim page after page of such writers as Schopenhauer,
+Voltaire, Mazzini. And far better than this, he had studied men of
+every grade in the living flesh. What his nationality was I couldn't
+say, though I should guess him as either a Pole or an Italian; but it
+is certain that he had had the constant _entree_ to places where a
+man of his opinions would presumably be looked upon with round-eyed
+horror. And yet he owned to never concealing his views from any man.
+"The sublime importance of our end, Monsieur Cospatric," said he,
+"justifies any means taken to attain it. We are associated with
+dynamite? Justly. Dynamite is a deplorable necessity."
+
+If Taltavull had merely kept on in this strain, I should have put him
+down as one of those human paradoxes a man is bound to meet if he
+vagabondizes much, and should have forgotten him and his gruesome
+schemes and ideals by the next day. But he touched upon a theme which,
+in view of the purpose which had brought us to Minorca, made me cock my
+ears with a new interest.
+
+"It is this dynamite," he said, "that is at once our strongest weakness
+and our greatest weapon. Were it not for terrorism, the official
+upholders of old _regimes_ would crush us out of existence as
+venomous reptiles. For instance, you noticed a guard of soldiers at the
+door as you came in? At the least disturbance down here those men would
+fire mum-chance amongst the throng, and be delighted at the chance of
+doing so. You see our school of thought is recognized, and though hated
+it is respected. They, thanks to their dread of certain reprisals,
+recognize the truce so long as we are not engaged in active and open
+war against society. This is a great advance, monsieur, is it not?"
+
+I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"You are not in sympathy with us?"
+
+"Not in the very least," I told him frankly. "Your principles are far
+too explosive for my taste."
+
+Taltavull waved a bony hand deprecatingly. "The universal complaint,
+monsieur. It is the one great drawback to our Cause that we have as yet
+discovered no means of propagating it save only by the theory of
+devastation. It is only strong men and, I regret to say it, desperate
+men who can accept the gospel of dynamite. There are teeming millions
+of others ready enough to blow up society as it is at present
+constituted, but who shrink from the only means we have to propose."
+
+"Then in your heart of hearts," said I, "you must know that you can
+never succeed."
+
+The man smiled. "If even dynamite were taken away from us, I should not
+despair of success, monsieur. With it I am confident; the end is only a
+question of time. But I hope to hasten the consummation. There is
+another method, which if attained and properly applied, could, I most
+strongly believe, reduce society to one dead and happy level. And,
+monsieur, I believe the Fates have chosen me to be the prime instrument
+in this matter. I shall invent or refind the talisman, and then it will
+be in my own hands to sweep out the grades from all the people of the
+earth, and tear down all their laws. Think of it!"
+
+"By Jove, senor," said I, "universal anarchy! That's a strong order."
+
+"It is possible, though, and I believe probable. With my talisman it
+can be done. I have thought over every tittle of the means through
+patient years of waiting, and I am confident that I, and I alone, can
+uproot all existing institutions when once I have this trivial lever."
+
+Taltavull was stalking up and down the room like a long black spectre.
+He had forgotten my presence. His fanatical schemes enwrapped his mind
+completely. There was a minute's silence, and then I said half
+jokingly,--
+
+"They'd make you king of the anarchists."
+
+I must have repeated his thoughts, for he replied instantly in a
+half-whisper, "They must;" but perhaps remembering that the admission
+was a damaging one, he stopped in his walk and addressed me with folded
+arms and lowered brow.
+
+"I beg of you to spare me such jest, Monsieur Cospatric. This is the
+one subject I have at heart; it has occupied my life-work; to it I have
+surrendered fortune, station, everything. Whether or no I look for a
+recompense cannot interest you."
+
+"Oh, all right," said I; "sorry I spoke. A comprehensive ignorance of
+all brands of politics must be my excuse."
+
+He stared at me thoughtfully for a minute, and then: "I fear you think
+me a visionary, monsieur, or even worse, a trifler with men's lives. If
+you are illiberal, you may deem me no better than a common murderer.
+Our need is misunderstood, misrepresented. But I will not attempt to
+defend it with you now--some other time perhaps. Let me tell you of my
+great hope, and then you will understand how little it has to do with
+the bloody holocausts we are so unfortunately associated with." And
+then this strange creature began to unfold a scheme of policy which
+seemed to me the maddest my ears had ever listened to, and yet with
+cogent method in its madness. Briefly, he wanted to produce diamonds in
+huge quantities, and sow them broadcast over the globe. As gems they
+would then be no longer valuable. Castes would cease to exist. And then
+governments could be stamped out.
+
+Viewed in the light of after recollection, the whole thing seems
+absurd, even paltry. But as I heard it then, declaimed with hot,
+earnest fluency by an enthusiast who had spent long, clever years over
+his case, it appeared to prove itself up to the hilt. Of course his
+arguments must have been warped, and his premises utterly false; but so
+cleverly were they compiled that I could not detect the flaws, and in
+spite of the outcry of common sense, which shouted "Wrong, wrong, wrong
+" at the close of each period, I felt myself agreeing implicitly to
+every clause. And when at length he stopped, exhausted with his own
+enthusiasm and vehemence, I nodded a tacit agreement, and questioned
+nothing.
+
+"You must wonder," he went on, after a little pause, "what brings me to
+use this world-forgotten spot as a workplace; why I come to a town
+where there are eight women to one man, to an island whose whole energy
+is not equal to that of the smallest city on the Continent. Have you
+heard of Raymond Lully? Yes? Then you may remember that he was born at
+Miramar in Mallorca, and lived much of his life in these Balearic
+Islands. It was an old journal of his which I found in Rome that first
+gave me the embryo of my idea. I went round to Barcelona, and crossed
+to Palma. In the Conde de M----'s library I found in other manuscripts
+mention of the same thing. Beyond doubt that queer mixture of a
+man--missionary, fanatic, quack, what you will--had made diamonds as
+far back as the year 1280. He owned to having stumbled across the
+Recipe accidentally. Like other alchemists of his time, the
+transmutation of metals was his aim, and the crystallization of part of
+his graphite crucible was quite a matter of chance; but it occurred
+most surely; and he analyzed the why and wherefore, and wrote down the
+method of working in a place where he says it would last for all time
+unless he chose to divulge it."
+
+"Great heavens!" said I, jumping up, "then you've got it?"
+
+The anarchist smiled sadly. "I have searched and searched and searched,
+and have had others on the quest for me. But so far our efforts have
+been all unsuccessful. I can understand your excitement"--("Thank my
+several stars you can't," thought I, settling back into my chair)--"You
+think my great regeneration is already in commencement? You may even
+have had trivial qualms about your own relatives' trinkets? No,
+Monsieur Cospatric, the time has unfortunately not yet come."
+
+"You cannot expect me to condole with you."
+
+"You say you are a non-combatant, and that is better than I could have
+expected. You English as a rule are singularly averse to our
+propaganda. But wait and see how affairs order themselves."
+
+"It will be a long time to wait. I'm afraid you'll never find the
+Recipe."
+
+I had risen to my legs to say good-bye. Taltavull gripped my hand in
+his bony fingers. "You don't know me, Monsieur Cospatric. We
+anarchists never give in. I shall not cease searching for this Recipe
+till I find it, or until I learn for certain that it has been
+destroyed. Buenas noches."
+
+"Good-night," said I, and went out into the moonlight. My little
+Frenchman had gone long ago, and so I strolled alone down the steep
+cobbled street, conning over many things. Verily this life is full of
+strange coincidences.
+
+Haigh was at the hotel. I met him coming out of the room
+_vis-a-vis_ to ours across the passage. We went in to our
+quarters, and sat in wicker-lined rocking-chairs (relic of the time
+when the Yankee had Port Mahon for a rendezvous), and he told me many
+things. "But," he concluded, "it was the music that drove me out. Those
+dark-eyed factory girls were just fine, and _la marguerita_ as a
+dance perfection. But the orchestra was an addition I couldn't stand at
+any price. It was something too ghastly for words. All the brass sharp
+and the strings screechy. So I just skipped, came back here, and
+forgathered with a lone, lorn Englishman on his first trans-Channel
+trip. He was a splendid find. Needless to say, he's going to write a
+book about his travels, and as he seemed eager for information, I gave
+him a lot. Honestly, he's the most stupendous Juggins it's ever been my
+fate to meet; and that's putting the matter strongly, for since I've
+been--er--on the wander, I've come across most brands of fool."
+
+"What manner of man is he to look at?"
+
+"Oh, middle height, tweeds and cap all to match and new for the trip,
+big brown eyes that look at you dreamily, and a rather Jewish face. Not
+a bad-looking chap by any means, but oh, such a particularly verdant
+sort of greenhorn. The only one point on which he showed a single grain
+of sense was in refusing to play poker with me. He didn't want to
+offend me; he hoped most sincerely that I should take no offence, but a
+friend had extracted a promise from him before he left home to play no
+card games with strangers. The fact was, he was really so unskilful
+with cards. I wasn't offended, was I? His candour was so refreshing
+that I could truthfully say I was not."
+
+I tried to talk about my evening, but Haigh would not listen. Said he:
+"I'm not interested in that particular kind of nonsense. If you haven't
+embraced the glorious principles of anarchy, old chappie, that's enough
+to tell. You've met a wise man who's a damned fool, and I've met a fool
+who, in points, is a wise man; and I prefer my own find. If you'd heard
+him talking about his book that is to be, you'd have stood good chance
+of choking with suppressed emotion. It's going to turn out a great
+success. He will spend quite three weeks here and in Mallorca, so as to
+'do' both islands thoroughly. And then he would like to go to Ivica,
+but didn't know whether it was advisable to risk it. Could I advise
+him? Were the people there very savage? Oh, my Juggins, my Juggins, you
+were something too delicious for words when you got on that tack,
+evidently wanting authentic adventures to be enlarged upon for the
+great work, and obviously fearing most tremendously to encounter the
+same. You won't go to Ivica, I can see that; but I'd bet all I'm worth
+that the chapter on 'My Adventure with the Brigands' will appear with
+full detail. I've a bit of imagination myself, and I guess I gave you
+enough subject-matter to fudge it from most thrillingly."
+
+"Hard lines to stuff the poor wretch too much."
+
+"Not a bit of it, dear boy. The great stay-at-home B.P. will swallow
+the yarn chapter and verse, and know for certain that poor harmless
+Ivica is a den of robbers; Juggins will believe it all, smoke, flash,
+and report, after he has retailed it twice, and will pose as a hero;
+and I, I've had my amusement. You should hear him talk about the
+illustrations, too. He can't draw or paint; hasn't a notion of either.
+And he's never taken a photograph. But a friend advised him to get a
+hand camera of the 'Absolutely Simple' pattern, and he's been exposing
+plates right and left. A pro.'s to develop them when he gets home if he
+can succeed in passing them through the Customs, and if he doesn't get
+the thing confiscated for getting pictures of fortresses, both of which
+(he informs me) are mighty and great dangers. And, by the way, that
+reminds me. He got spilt off a donkey this afternoon, and damaged his
+nose and jolted up the camera. Being blissfully ignorant of the
+picture-machine's mechanisms he doesn't like to meddle with it, but
+'I'm afraid something's gone inside, Mr. Haigh, because it rattles when
+I shake it.' So thinking I owed the chap something for the fun I'd had
+out of him, I said I'd get you to fix it up for him. You've been
+bottle-washer to a photographer for a bit, haven't you?"
+
+"Something in that line, but I've no tackle here."
+
+"Oh, that's all right. Here's his dark-room lamp, and the shutters to
+this room are solid. They'll keep out the moonlight."
+
+We swung-to the coverings over the windows, and put a lighted candle
+behind the cherry-glass shade, and then I took the little camera out of
+its leather case. It was a cheap quarter-plate, and the jar had started
+up two of the angles.
+
+"The rest of the illustrations for that book will have to wait till
+this is coopered up," said I.
+
+"Are the plate-things inside spoiled?" Haigh asked.
+
+"No, they're all right so far as exposure to light goes. However, I'll
+look. Phew! what a mess! Every blessed one smashed except the last
+couple. Your man will have to go over his ground again to replace
+these."
+
+"What's that contrivance?" asked Haigh, who was peering over my
+shoulder.
+
+"A spare dark-slide to use instead of the big plate-holder. Empty.
+Look, I'll put the two sound plates in there, and you can tell the
+Juggins that he can put those in his pocket and take the camera to a
+photographer man to get mended. Not that I expect that any one can do
+it here. But he can try."
+
+"All right, thanks. It'll be rather a blow to him, but I must break it
+gently. Well, ta-ta, good-night. I think you'll own I've picked up most
+amusement for this evening?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+TALAITI DE TALT.
+
+
+I woke with daylight, and roused Haigh. "We should get away at once," I
+said to him. "We've dawdled woefully. If we'd possessed a grain of
+sense between us we should have started the moment we stepped ashore.
+Weems may be cooped up still, but that's only guess-work on our parts.
+It's quite possible he cleared himself directly after you left, and
+went to the Talayot straight away."
+
+Haigh blinked at me sleepily. "You're in the deuce of a flurry, old
+man. Been having evil dreams? That's the rancid oil they cook with
+here. It always has that effect at first. But you'll get used to it
+soon and like it, and think ordinary oil insipid."
+
+"Oh, confound you, dry up. Look here, we must start at once."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Tramp it. Funds won't run to a vehicle."
+
+"My dear chappie, you don't know the extent of my feebleness. I
+couldn't walk two miles to save my life. Nature may have intended me
+for a pirate or a highwayman, because on shipboard or horse-back I can
+do tolerable service. But the good dame never built me to be a footpad.
+So if this old pyramid place is to be looted, you must go and do it
+yourself."
+
+"But, my good fellow, think what there is at stake. Dash it all, man,
+how do you know I shan't collar the thing and make a clean bolt with
+it?"
+
+Haigh grinned. "I'll take my chance of that."
+
+"You'd better not. I've never set up for being obtrusively honest."
+
+"Oh, go to Aden."
+
+"But really, I'd take it as a favour if you would come."
+
+"Well, if you make a point of it, I suppose I must, though I fail to
+see the necessity for a pair of us making ourselves uncomfortable. Look
+out of window. The sky's Prussian blue, and there isn't a breath of
+wind. It's going to be a broiling day. However, dear boy, at your
+behest I'll make a martyr of myself; and if transport is to be procured
+on tick, I'll overhaul you. Only understand clearly that neither for
+you nor any one else can I do a physical impossibility. It is
+absolutely out of the question for me to walk."
+
+That was all I could get out of him, and so I set off, very uncertain
+as to whether or no he would follow.
+
+I walked out through the clean uneven streets just as the townspeople
+were beginning to stir, passed under the massive towered gateway in the
+old walls, and got on to the level road which reaches half-way across
+the island. The waking hour was earlier here. The hawks and eagles were
+patrolling the morning air with diligent sweeps. The country-folk were
+bringing in loads of farm-produce on big brown donkeys and little gray
+donkeys. These last all gave a courteous "Bon di tenga,"[1] and I
+noticed that most of them stared at me somewhat curiously. It was not
+my dress that they looked at--it was my face that drew their stares;
+and after a mile or so's pacing it was borne in upon me that anxious
+thoughts had caused my forehead to knit and my mouth to pucker. I made
+the discovery with some contempt. Haigh had told me more than once that
+I should never make a gambler, and he was right. In principle I
+accepted the theory that "what was written was written," but in
+practice I couldn't help imagining that a ready-penned Fate might be
+partly erased by much rubbing.
+
+      [1] The common salutation throughout the Balearic Islands is
+      _Bon di tenga_ from an inferior to a superior, to which the reply
+      would be _Bon di_. Frequently, however, the first of these is
+      clipped down to the last word, which is pronounced "T[=a][=i]n-g[)a]."
+      After dark it becomes _Bon nit_, or _Bon nit tenga_, according
+      to social standing.
+
+I refilled my pipe and looked around me. Old Lully had shown some
+_nous_ in choosing a country to carry his secret. There is small
+fear of Minorca's population ever growing excessive. Not even Connemara
+can show such stone heaps. The walls which divide up the tiny fields
+are often ten feet thick; there are rubble cairns on all the many
+outcrops of rock; there are boulder-girdles round the trees; and yet,
+despite these collections, the corn and the beans and the grass grow
+more in stone than soil. One almost wonders that the Minorcan does not
+build up stone circles round the cows' legs whilst they are grazing.
+Perhaps the _Doctor Illuminatus_ might have hesitated if his
+prophetic eye had seen an invasion of British; for the Briton is a
+destructive animal with pig-like instincts of rootling up everything.
+But the foreigner's tenure of the soil (and stones) was not a long one,
+and I fancy that the country's face, save for some of the better roads
+that seam it, is much the same as it was in the year of our Lord
+thirteen hundred and nothing.
+
+Now, the Minorcan is not possessed of the slenderest reverence for the
+prehistoric monuments that spot his island, and if he wanted them for
+domestic purposes, he would not hesitate to take the top from a
+duolithic stone altar, or the roofing flags from a subterranean
+gallery. And he would quarry from the pyramids to find the wherewithal
+for his pig-yard gateposts without the smallest flush of shame, for
+vandalism is a word that has no Minorquin equivalent. But the abundance
+of stone elsewhere has saved the fashioned stone that those dead races
+piled up when this world was young, and the gray Talayots squat upon
+their old sites in undiminished numbers. Indeed, in a way, one might
+say that there are more of them now than there were in the venerable
+alchemist's time, for spurious Talayots may be seen in every direction.
+These latter-day edifices have one advantage over the hoary prototypes.
+Their purpose is clearly defined. We know that they were not intended
+for the burial-places of kings, or for temples to conceal sacerdotal
+rights, or for observatories, or even for granaries. They were simply
+run up by men who wanted to build shelters for cattle or pigs or sheep
+on some plan which would expend a maximum of material on a minimum of
+basement. They simply represent an incident in the perpetual war
+against the stones, and show the way in which crude minds attain their
+ends. If Minorca had been peopled by Americans (as once, indeed, nearly
+happened), light tramways would be laid down in every direction, and
+the stones carted to the edges of the island, and there tipped into the
+sea; and then the ground would be free, the farmer rich and unhappy.
+But as matters are ordered at present, these things are beyond the man
+of the soil's grasp; and so he remains poor and hard-working and
+contented.
+
+The broad road led on past whitewashed farm-houses and pink-flowered
+almond gardens, past peasants and mule-teams scratching up the rocky
+soil with primitive one-handled ploughs, past patches of brown
+vine-stumps and gnarled olive-trees squirming out from among the
+boulders; and close on either hand ran the low wooded hills, with their
+burden of ilexes still filmy with the morning mists. The road was a
+road a London suburb might have felt pride in, so smart was the
+engineering that made cuttings and embankments to reduce the gradients,
+and culverts to carry off the side-water, and dressed freestone bridges
+to cross the many streamlets. But at the eighth kilometre post (I think
+it was the eighth) this road showed itself worthy of the sunny
+government of Spain by ending abruptly in a fence of wheelbarrows and
+gang-planks. The continuation was to be gone on with, _manana_;
+meanwhile young wheat had sprouted eight green inches in the track.
+
+At this point the diligence course to Ciudadella branches off to the
+northward, turning again after a while due west on to General
+Stanhope's road. But that was nothing to me then. Turning my back upon
+it, I took another path, in woeful disrepair, which led me down by many
+windings between high stone walls and straggling clumps of prickly
+pear. There were few houses to stop the view--only some two or three
+farm buildings. Cottages can scarcely be said to exist. The labourer
+either lives in the towns, or else he lodges under his master's roof.
+But the high walls and the hummocks shut one in, and I was perpetually
+having to climb one or the other to make sure of my whereabouts, for my
+sailing directions to the Talayot had been rather vague ones.
+
+The air was still and close, and already the sun had crept high and was
+burning fiercely. It was blazing hot, but in spite of that, and the
+ruggedness of the track, I was walking my fastest. Talaiti de Talt was
+somewhere close ahead, and the knowledge made me tingle from ear to
+toe. Forced stoicism wouldn't act.
+
+At last, getting on a rise of the road where I could see over the
+winding walls ahead, I made out a Talayot sprouting gray from amid its
+green jacketing, barely half a kilometre away; and from the description
+given at Mahon, that must be the very one I had worked so hard to
+reach.
+
+The limit of self-containment was passed. Excitement bubbled over. I
+picked up my feet and ran for all I was worth.
+
+Just past the bottom of the slope was a small farmhouse, lying a little
+way back from the road. The Talayot was close beyond. A thought struck
+me, and I pulled up, panting and, in spite of myself, laughing. A new
+complication seemed to crop up. From the moment of reading old Lully's
+journal in the Genovese _caffe_, it had never occurred to me till
+then that the Talayot belonged less to me than to anybody else. Now,
+seeing the whitewashed farm buildings close beside this old pyramid I
+had come to loot, the idea that the modern owner might raise objections
+came upon me in a flash; and although the matter was serious enough, as
+Heaven knows, still its grimly humorous side cropped uppermost, and for
+the life of me I could not help being tickled.
+
+Of course any one will see that I might have waited till dark, and have
+done my searching when all the world of provincial Minorca was snugly
+slumbering. But that idea did not occur to me then, and if it had done,
+I should not have listened to it. I was far too keen on going ahead
+without further stoppages. The grasping fingers of Weems loomed always
+in the near distance.
+
+If I had only possessed a spare dollar or two, the thing would have
+been simple; but not owning a peseta, I had tremors. Still there was no
+help for it, and so following the _en avant_ principle, I swung
+the gate, and walked up between the orange-bushes to the little
+farmhouse. Two dogs sprang out from somewhere, barking furiously; but I
+like dogs, and never feared one yet, and that pair were soon reduced to
+oppressive civility. A small girl appeared, drawn by the uproar; but
+the sight of a stranger made her bolt mutely within doors. And then a
+woman came--a fat, tall, slatternly woman, whose husband was dead (she
+said), and who owned the farm which circled Talaiti de Talt.
+
+She was garrulous to a degree, and her voice--as is usual with the
+voices of cats and women out there--was harsh and grating. But I did
+not dam the flood of her eloquence (outwardly, at any rate), and so she
+went on till she was tired. Then I thanked her, and blarneyed her as
+well as I was able, although that wasn't much, as I never have been
+much of a hand with women. But the outcome of it all was that I might
+most certainly overhaul the old stone heap (which was her irreverent
+name for the historical pyramid) as much as ever I chose. And when she
+had given the permission, it struck me that I could have got it just as
+easily without having spent an hour and a half in the baking sun-blaze
+beating about the bush. But then, you see, I was so confoundedly
+nervous, and didn't guess that beforehand.
+
+However, as I was turning off down the orange grove again, the bulky
+senora seemed to think that something might be made out of it after
+all, for she called out to know whether I wouldn't like Isabelita to
+accompany me--Isabelita being the small girl, then engaged at
+unravelling a bamboo for a whitewash brush under the shade of the
+family date-palm. Or was there nothing else she could do for me?
+Everything of her poor stock was entirely at my disposition. My thanks
+were profuse--most profuse--but I would not rob her of anything, not
+even of the _hermosita's_ time. It would be my great pleasure to
+make that little angel some trifling present as I came back that way
+toward Mahon; at which time I might also wish to buy an orange or two.
+So until then.
+
+"_'Tenga_," said the woman, with a large fat smile.
+
+"_Bon di, senora_," said I, with a sweep of the hat, and turned off
+down the path and into the road again. Gad! wasn't I feeling jubilant
+then?
+
+I felt that the woman was following me with her eyes, and didn't dare
+to hurry; for it seemed to me, so worked up was I, that if I had broken
+into a run she would have seen at once what I had come for, and would
+have contrived to get this great thing for herself. The mere fact of my
+displaying any interest at all in such a useless cumbersome hulk as a
+Talayot must have filled her with suspicion. But then I had thought of
+this, and had corrected her when she guessed me for French, telling her
+my true nationality, knowing that the Continental reputation of the
+Englishman stands good for any unexplainable eccentricity. And so I
+clogged my feet with an effort, and walked on, soberly looking ahead of
+me.
+
+So great was the maze of walls that it was difficult to tell where the
+road ran for more than a score or so of yards ahead. But at last I
+traced its sweep close by where a great single-slab altar stood on its
+massive pillar, with a sacred stone-circle jutting out of the bushes
+around it. On the other side was the pyramid, sorely broken by man and
+the weather, but still showing dressed gray stone courses in patches
+amongst the rank scrub which bristled over it. Even from there I could
+make out that the general contour of its base was circular, and not
+square as I had somehow or other expected, and I began to see trouble
+in finding that side "nearest the sea" where Lully had dug into the
+entrance-way.
+
+As I drew nearer, the tumbled nature of the stone-work disclosed itself
+further, and I began to have fears lest the central chamber should have
+caved in and hidden the Recipe effectually and for always by crumbling
+its lettering into dust. But then I called to mind other Talayots I had
+seen before near Mahon and Alayor and Mercadal and Ciudadella, where
+the entering passage led from aboveground by a rapid incline, and where
+the cavity, when it existed, had doubtless been near the apex; and from
+this I took heart, thinking that whether or no there had been a chamber
+in the upper part of the building, and whether or no it existed still,
+didn't particularly matter to me. The Diary had certainly pointed to a
+room stowed away beneath the very keel of the edifice; and as long as
+that stood firm, the rest might telescope to any extent for all I
+cared.
+
+By this time my leisurely pace had brought me up alongside the Talayot,
+which loomed big and squat at the other side of the wall. I turned and
+looked behind me. The fat woman at the farm was out of sight. Then I
+climbed the wall, and from the top glanced down the road which led from
+Alayor, and saw a sight which made me curse like a kicked
+_arriero_. Walking briskly up the stony track was a little man in
+unmistakably British tweeds. "An infernal prying tourist," thought I,
+"by all the powers of evil. Bear-led by a native, and coming to see
+Talaiti de Talt for a thousand. If he sees me he'll spot me at once and
+want to chum, and then he'll get inquisitive and won't go away."
+
+Down I dropped into cover.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+WITH A THREE-ANGLED HOE.
+
+
+It is curious how no two people can speak the same words with identical
+intonation. Perhaps this is noticeable to some men more than to others.
+I know some folks never forget a face, others a walk; but for myself,
+though these things may pass from memory, a voice once heard never
+escapes me. I suppose it is because I have been at much pains to
+distinguish between sounds. I'm rather musical, you know.
+
+And so as I lay squatted there beneath a sloe-bush, and the tones of a
+voice grating as those of the corncrake came to me through the chinks
+in the wall, I knew that Weems was at large once more, and pressing on
+with his errand.
+
+I might have expected him, and yet his arrival was a bit of a surprise;
+and on the spur of the moment I could not for the life of me think what
+was best to do. One couldn't nobble the man, and still I didn't intend
+that he should read that Recipe. So, being unable to make up my mind to
+any other course of proceeding, I just cowered quietly where I was and
+awaited developments. As it turned out, these were not very long in
+coming. Weems had lifted up his voice to get rid of his guide, and the
+guide, in eloquent Minorquin, was refusing to understand. At last the
+schoolmaster, in desperation, translating his arguments into silver,
+called to mind a word from some American novel, and commanded his
+attendant to "vamose." Then the native poured out thanks, pocketed the
+cash after a great show of refusing it, and went; and Weems, waiting
+till he was out of sight, climbed the wall. He was a bit chary of
+stepping down amongst the prickly scrub on the inner side, and so as he
+was taking his time about it, I stood up and watched him. He did not
+see me till he was firm on his feet again; but when he did slew round,
+he stepped back with a gasp as though some one had rammed a sail-needle
+into him.
+
+However, he pulled himself together quickly enough--I give him credit
+for that--and slipped a hand into his coat pocket, which I noted was
+bulging with some heavy weight--presumably a pistol. Then he resorted
+to what I suppose he considered diplomacy, and remarked that it was a
+lovely country.
+
+"Damn you," said I, "you didn't come here to talk to me about scenery,
+did you? Because if that's the case, I'd rather you'd quit for a while.
+I've got some business on hand here that I want to work out alone. So
+git, you mean little brute."
+
+"And I also have a trifling piece of research to make, for which I
+desire complete privacy. And this, Mr. Cospatric, is a point upon which
+I am prepared to insist."
+
+Hereupon out came the revolver, a cheap pin-fire tool, brilliantly
+nickel-plated. Weems fingered it with unholy awe, and his face began to
+bleach. He wasn't used to the situation.
+
+"Did you get that thing in Marseille?" I asked.
+
+"No, sir. I procured it from an acquaintance in Mahon this morning. And
+acting upon his advice, I shall not hesitate to use it if you press
+me."
+
+The little man's manner as he struggled between dignity, greediness,
+and common funk was so irresistibly funny that I roared.
+
+"You need not fear my failing to be as good as my word," he snapped
+out. "They don't hang people in Spain."
+
+"You fool, of course they don't. They garrote. And as the inhabitants
+of these islands, take them as a whole, are as mild and peaceable a lot
+as one could find on the face of the globe, a bit of murder would
+strike them as being in such bad taste that you'd wear the iron collar
+as sure as you'd earned it. But that's not the point. You're not going
+to shoot me----"
+
+"Then you will go away."
+
+"I shall do nothing of the kind. You are not going to shoot me, simply
+because you can't. Man alive, I've been racketing about the evil places
+of this world ever since I left Cambridge, and this isn't the first
+time I've looked down the small end of a pistol. If you'd seen as much
+shooting as I have, you'd just jump with astonishment at the awful big
+percentage of men who get missed even by good shots, and at short rise.
+And you! You, you small swab, I can see by the way you're holding it
+that you've never had a revolver in your fist before this day, much
+less fired one at a 'live mark. Put the thing back in your pocket, and
+behave like a rational being."
+
+"I shall do nothing of the kind," said Weems, sticking up his left arm,
+and sighting the pistol over the elbow-joint.
+
+By this time he had got into such a pitiable funk that I was afraid
+lest out of sheer nervousness his finger might press home the trigger
+any minute. The chances were big against his hitting me, but I knew
+that the report would bring spectators, and those I most particularly
+didn't want. Still, I could not see any means of getting the weapon
+into my own hands without its going off. It was impossible to "rush"
+him. The dozen yards which separated us was one solid tangle of
+scrub-bushes interwoven with brambles. It would have taken at least
+forty seconds to tear through them, and in that time he could most
+assuredly snap off all six chambers, however big a duffer he might be.
+This would bring up some of the country people without fail; and
+besides, out of the six, he might fluke one shot into me. About that
+last possibility I didn't trouble my head much, as it was remote; but
+the other was a fatal objection. A good satisfactory row with the
+natives would effectually upset the apple-cart for both of us.
+
+So I put it to him squarely that, come what might, I didn't intend to
+go and leave the coast clear for him; and that if he fired a shot,
+whether or not he jugged me and tasted _el garrote_ into the
+bargain, he would most assuredly not get hold of the Recipe.
+
+These points seemed to strike him as strong ones; and as, being unused
+to such strong emotions, he was by this time in very nearly a fainting
+condition, he saw fit to ease the strain from his nerves by beginning
+to treat for terms. How much would I go for? He had bills in his
+pockets for francs and pesetas, which amounted in all to eighteen
+pounds four shillings and some odd pence English. That was the absolute
+sum-total of all he possessed out of England. If he handed it over,
+would I promise to depart forthwith?
+
+I think it caused him no real surprise to learn that I would do nothing
+of the kind.
+
+"Look here," he went on, "I'll tell you what I'll do as well. I'll send
+you a ten-pound note from England when I get back there, if you'll give
+me your address."
+
+"Oh, go to the devil!" said I, beginning to get in a fury with him. "If
+you're on for bargaining, I'll give you my bill for five hundred at two
+months to clear out."
+
+"You can't expect it, Mr. Cospatric----"
+
+"Of course I can't expect you to sell your chances for a mess of
+pottage; still less need you have thought me idiot enough to do such a
+thing. Now look here, you are new at the scrapping game, whereas I am
+not by any means. So in case of a tussle the odds are big that you'll
+finish underside. And, besides, if you have a bit of a whip-hand over
+me, I'd have you remember that until I've got my terms, you are
+standing under a Damocles arrangement which may tumble on your hat at
+any moment. And it doesn't take much of a wizard to tell that your
+nerves aren't good to stand that strain for over-long."
+
+"The heat----"
+
+"Oh yes, the heat's making you sweat streams, and sending your face
+chalky-green, and setting your knees to play _castanetas_ in
+_cachucha_ time. We'll call it the heat. Anyway, it's exposure to
+an atmosphere that you aren't accustomed to, and it doesn't suit you.
+You'd better try a change, or else you'll topple off in a
+faint--perhaps you'll die. Now look here: it's just foolery to let this
+Dog-in-the-Manger Company hold the stage any longer. Let's recast it,
+and play 'The Partners.' Come, what do you say? It's only a three-part
+piece, and there's a thumping good treasury to draw upon."
+
+"Three parts!" shrieked Weems, lifting up his pistol on to his elbow
+again, where it gleamed like a dancing mirror in the hot sunshine. Then
+as another thought struck him, he lowered the weapon to his side once
+more, and broke out into the ghost of a smile. "Oh, I see. Yes, of
+course. Two for me, Mr. Cospatric, and one for you. That's much more
+right and proper."
+
+I chuckled, and mentioned that one Haigh and myself were going shares
+over this matter, and that I didn't intend to see Haigh defrauded; and
+then the battle of words began over again.
+
+By this time I was so thoroughly sick of the brute's meanness that I
+made up my mind stubbornly not to give way a single peg. He argued, he
+prayed, he commanded, he threatened; he appealed to all my better
+feelings individually and then collectively; but it was no good. All
+that he could get out of me was an assurance that he might feel himself
+very lucky if he fingered the proffered third, and a threat that if he
+didn't accept it quickly he'd find himself empty-fingered
+altogether--and probably minus a sound vertebral column into the
+bargain. And in the end he sobbed out an agreement to the terms, and
+then flopped down amongst the bushes, deadly sick.
+
+This last development I was not altogether unprepared for, and, had it
+seemed good to me to do so, I might have taken advantage of his plight
+to grab the nickel-plated weapon and repudiate the treaty--as he most
+assuredly would have done by me had the positions been reversed. But
+over-reaching that kind--euphemistically termed "keen business
+instinct" by some--has never been among my catalogue of acquirements
+(more's the pity), and so I just hung round till he had disburdened his
+stomach and recollected his wits a bit, forbearing to interfere either
+by word or deed.
+
+"It's the heat," he explained at last.
+
+"We'll log it down as such," said I, to prevent argument, "and for
+God's sake don't let us squabble any more. If you're right again, we
+may as well turn-to and get at the _cache_ without further
+dawdling. You have a spade, I suppose?"
+
+"A spade! Oh dear, oh dear! what an oversight. If you'll believe me,
+Mr. Cospatric, I never remembered that digging implements would be
+required till this moment. The excitement of the last few days----But
+don't let us speak of that now. We must use your spade in turn."
+
+I laughed. "It strikes me we're a pair of first-class fools. I haven't
+got one either. We both put out from Mahon in such a flaming hurry that
+accessories never got a thought. Well, we must get one here if we can,
+though that's doubtful, seeing that the native hoe, which is pick and
+shovel combined, is the popular instrument hereabouts. However, I'll go
+and see if something can't be got. Give me a couple of pesetas, will
+you?"
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Why, to hire the thing, or buy it if needs must."
+
+"But why should I pay----"
+
+"Damnation man, because I don't own a brown cent. Go scout for a tool
+yourself if you care to. I'm not keen on the job. Only you don't speak
+the language, and I thought you'd prefer to sit still and recruit a bit
+more before beginning to bustle about again."
+
+"Oh, I beg pardon," said he, and counted out the money in copper and
+small silver.
+
+I turned to the Talayot, and climbed to its top. Two fields off,
+towards clustered Alayor, a man was guiding a single-handed plough
+drawn by a small ox and a sixteen-hand mule. Scrambling down again, I
+went in a bee-line across the intervening walls. The ploughman saw me
+coming, and nothing loath, pulled up his team and desisted from
+scratching the furrow any further. A chat was just the thing he wanted.
+
+I could not get clear of him for a good half-hour, and in the end was
+only able to raise what I expected--to wit, a broad-bladed triangular
+hoe with a short crooked handle. However, as we did not propose to go
+in for any systematic navvying, and as there was nothing better to be
+got, back I went with it, and found Weems quite alive again, and on the
+prowl for what he could find.
+
+"The soil has been turned up here in places," said he, pointing, "and
+this is just the side where, according to Lully's diary, the entrance
+passage lies. And if you notice, there are other patches rooted up
+yonder, and again yonder."
+
+"Pigs," said I. "This island's celebrated for them, and so is Mallorca.
+Black, elegant, well-to-do swine, that are exported to Spain in
+steamer-loads. They're the most celebrated breed of porkers in Europe.
+But never mind them now. Which do you spot as our point of
+commencement?"
+
+"Somewhere between where we are standing and that palm-bush."
+
+"Very well, then. We'll set to work at the other side of this fallen
+wall-stone; and here goes for the first drive."
+
+For a while we took spell and spell about at the hoe, working like
+fiends. I had stripped to the vest at the first set-off, and by degrees
+Weems let his eagerness overpower dignity till he had discarded a
+similar number of garments. There was not a breath of air stirring, and
+the sunbeams poured down upon us in a brazen stream. Being used to hard
+work, I naturally could do the larger share; but to give the little
+schoolmaster his due, he did stick to it for all he was worth; and
+though he did drop more than one hint that such physical toil was
+degrading to a man in his station, he didn't try to shirk doing his
+just portion.
+
+The ground was desperately hard to get through. There was very little
+soil. What we came across chiefly were stones fallen from the sides of
+the Talayot woven together by a network of roots. Over these we hacked
+and sweated and strained, and tore our hands and wrenched our sinews.
+And by degrees the heap of big stones and smaller stones and rubble and
+earth and other debris grew larger amongst the bushes, and our jagged
+pit sank deeper.
+
+Those hours were the only ones in which I ever felt the smallest
+respect for Weems. He hadn't chucked away his bless-you-I-know-best air
+by any means. For instance, scorning example, he plucked a prickly pear
+off a clump that grew out of the Talayot, and sucked the pulp out of
+the skin in spite of seeing me devour one in other fashion. And then he
+complained of the damnableness of a needle-sown palate. Also he
+persisted in following his own theories about the extraction of the
+large stones, although these seldom came off. But he stuck at work like
+a Trojan, and one can't help having some respect for a man who keeps
+his thews in action.
+
+Whilst the white sun burned to overhead, and whilst it fell half-way to
+the water again, did we hack and grovel and wrench, till our pit was
+well-nigh twelve feet deep, and we were beginning to have dismal
+forebodings that we were either delving in the wrong place, or that
+Raymond the philosopher had lied most unkindly. But at last, when we
+were both nearly sick with weariness and growing disgust, we came upon
+a flat stone which rang hollow when the hoe struck it, and in an
+instant our hopes sprang to a feverish height again.
+
+Weems tugged at the edges of the stone, screaming and swearing in his
+excitement; but it had lain in that bed for many ages, and would not
+budge for such puny efforts as his. From the lip of the pit I was
+bawling at him to come up out of the way; but not until he had strained
+himself well-nigh senseless would he unlock his fingers from their
+grip, and even then he would not voluntarily resign his place. But I
+could not wait. Sliding down into the pit, I hoisted him on to my
+shoulder and gave an upward heave, and then turned-to with the hoe,
+battering savagely.
+
+The flagstone was of granite, and I doubled up my weapon but scarcely
+splintered the hard surface. So the edges had to be dug round
+laboriously; and even then, when thoroughly loose, the weight was so
+great that I could scarcely lift it. But at last the great slab was
+heaved up on edge, and below there lay a hole whose blackness almost
+choked the falling sunbeams. The sight of it--or the wet earthy smell
+which came through--somehow made me shiver.
+
+I looked up. Weems was craning over the edge of the pit, his eyes
+goggling, and lips drawn back from his clenched teeth. He looked
+unpleasant, to say the least of it, and a thought dangerous as well.
+There was a bit of the wild beast peeping out somewhere.
+
+"Come along," said I.
+
+"How can we see?"
+
+"Oh, I forgot that. Feel for matches in my coat pocket."
+
+"I've better than matches. A candle; what do you say to that?"
+
+Still he stayed glowering at me.
+
+"Well, why the devil don't you go and get it, man?" I asked.
+
+"Oh yes, to be sure," said he, and disappeared.
+
+"You'll go mad, my son," thought I, "if your delicate nerves are kept
+under this strain much longer," and leaned back panting against the
+side. The fellow seemed to take a long time hunting for what he wanted,
+but at last I heard the sound of his footsteps and looked up.
+
+Lucky for me did I look up then too, for my eye caught a glint of the
+white sunshine as it was reflected off some bright surface, and with
+the inspiration of the moment I stepped into the opening at my feet and
+fell noisily through amid a small avalanche of rubble. Picking myself
+up, I looked out from the darkness, and saw, as I expected, Weems
+standing at the brink above nervously fingering the nickel-plated
+revolver.
+
+"What have you got that blasted thing for?" I sang out.
+
+"Oh, you see--er--there's no knowing what one might meet with down
+there--er--and it's well to be ready--er--in case----"
+
+"You lying little viper."
+
+"Oh, I assure you----"
+
+"Thanks, I want none of your assurances. But I'll give you one. If you
+put a foot below here, I'll cave in your head with this hoe."
+
+Then he began to whine; and then, as I was stubborn, he swore to shoot
+me as I came out, which I believed him quite capable of doing; and so
+matters were again at a deadlock.
+
+"Very well," said I at last. "As I won't trust you an inch beyond my
+sight, heave that revolver down first, and then I won't touch you. If
+you stick to it, I know you'll try to make cold meat of me in the hopes
+I shan't be found down here."
+
+"But you might shoot me, Mr. Cospatric--by accident, of course."
+
+"Make your dirty little soul comfortable on that score. If I wanted to
+be quit of you, I've got ten fingers quite capable of squeezing the
+life out of your miserable carcass."
+
+"Still, I think I'll unload it first, if you don't mind."
+
+"Go ahead," said I, "if it amuses you." And out came the cartridges one
+by one, and then the weapon was tossed down to me. One hand grip on the
+barrel and another on the stock, a good strong pressure of the wrists
+together, and that gaudy little weapon was effectually spiked.
+
+"I may come in safety now?" asked Weems, after watching this operation
+with a groan.
+
+"You won't be touched by me if you behave yourself, although you do
+deserve half-killing. But mind, if I catch you playing any more pranks,
+I shall just do as I said--strangle you. See those fingers? They're
+lengthy, and they're ve-ry strong. _Sabe?_"
+
+Down he came, heralded by a brown tricklet of soil and a few stones. He
+knelt at the edge of the opening for a moment, and I saw his white face
+peering down with "funk" writ big all over it. But he soon mastered his
+scruples, and dropped through on to the flooring beside me, though a
+nervous upward lifting of one elbow showed that he wouldn't have been
+surprised at getting a blow. However, I didn't meddle with him, but
+only bade him curtly enough light that candle.
+
+The sulphur match spluttered and stank, and I'm blessed if his fingers
+didn't tremble so much when it came to lighting the wick that he
+dropped the burning splinter altogether. I grabbed the things
+impatiently enough out of his hands, got a light, and led the way.
+
+The walls beside us sloped in towards the top, where they were bridged
+by flat slabs some foot or eighteen inches above my head. The passage
+had been built before men knew of the arch. Under foot the ground was
+hard and dry, and as I should guess, we passed over some dozen yards of
+it before we came into the chamber. That was built in much the same
+way, with the courses overlapping, and the top crowned with a great
+flat flag instead of a keystone. But with the architecture of the
+Talayot we bothered our heads little then, and indeed our solitary
+candle showed it up but poorly. Right opposite the entrance a strip of
+the wall had been plastered, and at that the schoolmaster and I sprang
+with a simultaneous rush.
+
+There was some writing on it!
+
+Steadying the flame in the hollow of my hand, I held it near and
+withdrew the guard.
+
+"Good God," shrieked Weems, "what's that!"
+
+The one word I saw was--_Hereingefallen_, scrawled in white
+letters, and on the ground beneath was a piece of billiard chalk. There
+was nothing on the plastered surface beside, except the scratchings of
+a knife-blade. Some one had been there, read the Recipe, and then
+obliterated every letter.
+
+In a flash these things occurred to me, and I turned to see my
+companion collapse on to the ground like an empty sack. It required an
+effort to avoid following his example. The shock was a cruel one.
+
+The thing had been there. The old diary had lied in no single item. And
+here the treasure had been snatched away from us when it was almost
+within our grasp. And--then came the most strange conclusion of all--by
+some one who knew we were to follow.
+
+Haigh was out of the question. He knew no German. It was no elaborate
+joke of his. But who could it be? I sat down on the earthen floor with
+my head between my fists trying to think it out. _Hereingefallen!_
+Yes, "sold" indeed. But who, who, who had done it?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE RED DELF AMPHORA.
+
+
+The candle, stepped in a puddle of wax, burnt up steadily. There wasn't
+the ghost of a draught in the place. The walls were dry-built, but
+their thickness was so great that no breath drove in from the outside,
+and the air of the chamber was heavy and earthlike. The place was
+bone-dry. I picked up the billiard chalk, and felt that the green paper
+wrapping was crisp and stiff. The name of Rolandi et Cie. was printed
+upon it, but there was nothing which told me whence it came or how long
+it had been there. Only that scribbled word _Hereingefallen_ on
+the newly-scraped plaster seemed to fix a date on the spoiler's visit.
+It appeared to me that no one would have taken the trouble to chalk up
+a jibe unless he had good reasons for supposing that some one else
+would come after to read and appreciate it. And yet this was only a
+guess. The whole affair was too mysterious to make out any settled
+theory from the slim data which lay before me.
+
+I got up, and went down the entrance passage, taking the candle with
+me. Going on past the place where we had broken in, I found marks where
+another roofing flag had been moved and replaced. It was under the spot
+where we had noted the torn-up turf, and I came to a conclusion that
+the sleek black pigs of Minorca had been maligned. But--well, what was
+the use of puzzling on? Much best to shrug the shoulders, say "Kismet,"
+use strong language according to taste, and accept for granted that
+every man's fate was writ big upon his forehead.
+
+A blurred noise of moaning came down the passage-way from the black
+heart of the Talayot. "That other poor devil's coming to his senses
+again, and is feeling lonely," thought I, and retraced my steps. The
+little man was talking a bit incoherently, whimpering to himself the
+while, and mopping his face with a clammy pocket-handkerchief. He was a
+tolerably poor sight.
+
+"Look here, my son," said I: "you've lost your starch, and you'd better
+go home."
+
+"Whatever did I come for?"
+
+"Why, to grab something that you've missed, and that I've missed too.
+It's best to be philosophical over it, and clear out quietly and not
+gossip. Personally, I can do all the necessary ridicule myself. I'm not
+over-ambitious about spreading the tale, and getting indiscriminate
+chaff thrown in from all four quarters of the compass."
+
+"Then you think there is no hope of getting the Recipe at all."
+
+"The event is with Allah, and I am not in his confidence."
+
+"I must request you not to be profane in my presence, Mr. Cospatric."
+
+"H'm! I'm feeling as if a little profanity would do me good just now."
+
+"Then let me use the word 'blasphemy.' I object strongly to having my
+ears polluted by it. Blasphemy----"
+
+"Oh, curse you," I broke out savagely, "stow that rubbish. After
+coquetting with murder, you've little call to preach about minor
+morals. I guess we're both fairly rabid just now, and if nagging is
+your favourite safety-valve, you'd better screw it down; otherwise
+you'll get hurt."
+
+We stood there facing one another, the candle feebly illuminating us up
+to the knees, the upper parts of our bodies showing only in dim
+outline. For a good five minutes neither spoke. At last Weems announced
+his intention of departing, and was promptly given leave to go anywhere
+from hell upwards. He went down the passage-way, but, being too short
+to reach the gap in the roof, asked for assistance. I blew out the
+candle and went and hove him up, and afterwards climbed to outer air
+and sunshine myself. He was standing by the lip of the pit, clenching
+and unclenching his fists, shivering, sweating, and periodically
+groaning.
+
+A thought struck me, and I promptly gave him the benefit of it without
+reserve.
+
+"We're in a nice pickle, Mr. Weems, aren't we? You've spent a lot of
+the money you're so close-fisted about, and will have to travel cheap
+if you mean getting home again. And I'm in a ten times worse fix. I've
+chucked up a steamer-berth at Genoa; I'm on a God-forsaken island where
+there's next to no sea-traffic; and I've run up debts with no prospect
+of repayment. It looks a bit as if jail's somewhere very close under my
+lee. And whom have we to thank for it? Why you, my sportsman, and no
+one else."
+
+"Great heavens, what do you mean?"
+
+"Why, that word _Hereingefallen_ shows that the chap who looted
+this Talayot knew we were on the track; and as I haven't mentioned a
+word about the affair to any one except Haigh, it stands to reason
+you've split."
+
+"I assure you, Mr. Cospatric----"
+
+"Oh, very likely you didn't do it on purpose. But you've got into
+conversation with some smart fellow, who's pumped you carefully without
+letting you get an inkling of what he's got hold of."
+
+"Upon my word of honour as a gentleman, sir----"
+
+"Faith, gentleman! your word of honour! What's that worth?"
+
+"I must say you are very--very--er--rude. I would have you remember
+that I am a graduate of Oxford, and as such----"
+
+"Of course take brevet rank as 'gentleman.' An 'M.A. and a gentleman.'
+Lovely!"
+
+"And you," shouted the little man, with a sudden spasm of rage--"you
+who presume to lecture me are a man who has been expelled from Cambridge,
+a man of no means and no profession, a blackmailer--a--a----"
+
+He spluttered and stopped for want of epithets.
+
+"Blackleg," I suggested, "_chevalier d'industrie_, and all the rest of
+it. Very well; I'll admit the whole indictment if it pleases you.
+And"--I laughed, and stopped to load and light a pipe--"and now let's
+stop slanging one another like a pair of drabs in a sailor's pothouse,
+and go our several ways. I'm sure I don't want to see your face again,
+and I don't suppose you're anxious to feast your eyes on mine."
+
+"I'm not," said Weems.
+
+Those were the last words I heard him speak. We climbed the roadside
+wall to set off, he towards Alayor, and I by the way I had come, and,
+so far as I know, never set eyes upon one another again.
+
+I strolled heavily on, musing sourly enough to myself, and feeling
+utterly dispirited. There had been moments when life had appeared to me
+to be of a very dusky gray, but never before had I seen it all black,
+with no single tinge of lighter colour. I looked back over my vagabond
+existence, and thought what a hopeless muddle it had been. Even Weems
+was to be envied, although his trade was the one trade on earth which I
+most thoroughly loathed.
+
+In fact, till I opened the main road to Mahon the blue devils were in
+full possession, and made the most of their time. But there a flash of
+memory pulled me up all-standing, and caused me to give hoots of joy
+and delight, and sent me to the right-about whence I had come, at a
+very different pace.
+
+                      *     *     *     *     *
+
+It was late that night when I dragged my feet up the hotel stairs to
+our quarters; and as I had fed on nothing that day save prickly pears
+(which have but a transient effect on the stomach) and oranges (which
+are not much more filling), I told Haigh to order a big dinner, at the
+same time mentioning that I hadn't got the Recipe.
+
+"The feeding-hour's past, dear boy," said he, blinking at me anxiously,
+"and the regular meal's over. I'm afraid I've strained our credit a bit
+to-day. Don't you think the best thing we can do is to stroll down to
+the cutter, fill your tummy on corned horse there, and help me slip
+moorings unostentatiously after dark? I'm afraid our spec. has rather
+missed fire here, and I don't want to expiate the offence by a spell of
+_carcel_. You see I've kept out of that so far during these vagrom
+years, and I don't want to break record before it's necessary."
+
+I laughed boisterously. "Prison be damned! Look there!" And I pulled
+out of my jacket pocket a little two-lugged red earthenware pot, and
+poured out a chinking heap of something that glinted with many colours
+in the lamplight. "Look there! Essence of rainbows, a good half-pint.
+Who says half a loaf isn't better than no bread?"
+
+"Good Lord!" said Haigh. And after a pause, "Who have you been
+robbing?"
+
+"Grub first, and then yarn. I've borne the burden and heat of the day,
+and I'm very nearly cooked."
+
+"But are you sure they ain't duffers?"
+
+"Duffers, your grandmother! Look at 'em."
+
+"Can't see very clearly to-night, dear boy. Day's been a bit wet,
+thanks to my Juggins and his kind efforts. But I'll soon find out." And
+off he went to the window with a handful of the crystals, and scratched
+the glass with them, satisfying himself that they were really diamonds.
+
+"Michael Cospatric," said he, "'tis a great man y'are, and I'll just go
+down and let on to the landlord in confidence that you're an American
+marquis travelling incognito."
+
+The resources of the hotel had distinct limits, but Haigh's influence
+and eloquence strained them to the very verge that night. I did not
+merely feed--I dined; and in consequence spoke of the day's heat as
+glorious sunshine, saw only the humours of Weems's freaks, and even
+passed over the disappointment at the loss of the Recipe without
+painting it in over sombre colours. It isn't in my nature to be
+miserable or morbid when I've either a good meal under my belt or the
+means of getting others stowed within my pockets; and so being
+possessed of both these desiderata, I freely admitted to Haigh that
+this terrestrial life was thoroughly well worth living.
+
+"One thing is clear," said Haigh, as I relit my pipe after finishing a
+full and exhaustive account of the day's doings--"Weems hasn't been
+pumped. You've bawled the story abroad yourself."
+
+"How's that, and where?"
+
+"In the _caffe_ at Genoa. You said there was a man sitting beside
+you?"
+
+"Not beside, but comparatively near--say a dozen yards off. Yes, I
+remember him--a good-looking fellow in coloured pince-nez. But he'd 'no
+Sassenach.' Weems had been talking to him just before, and had found
+out that. And so as he and I spoke in nothing else but English, I don't
+see how the other could have made out what we were jabbering about."
+
+"Do you always parade all your accomplishments, dear boy? Not much. I
+also never make fifty breaks at billiards before a mixed audience. And
+your friend with the spectacles was the same. Moreover, he saw that
+Weems was a garrulous little beast, and not inviting to talk to. So he
+just followed the John Chinaman trick and said 'No sabe,' and listened
+unnoticed."
+
+"Commend me for a most particular greenhorn."
+
+"Not of necessity. It's an easy mistake to fall into, dear boy. And,
+besides, I don't know that you were trapped that way, after all; it's
+only a guess on my part."
+
+"By Jove, you must have hit upon the right thing, though, and for this
+reason. I only told Weems about the Recipe. I kept back the item about
+specimens being buried under the writing, as a sort of _bonne
+bouche_; and as matters turned out, never told a soul about it. So,
+you see, the man who looted the Talayot could certainly not have
+overhauled the Diary, or he would never have left this little red urn
+full of gems. I found it where Lully buried it six hundred years ago,
+the lid waxed over, and stamped with an alembic and the man's own
+family coat of arms. Gad, I wonder where that signet ring's got to
+now."
+
+"Never mind that trifle, old chappie. We've got enough of the
+gentleman's family jewellery to be able to do without a trumpery gold
+ring. It's the rest of the legacy that I've got my covetousness upon
+now. Where's that gone to? You didn't happen to inquire of your
+farmeress person whether she'd had any other visitors with
+archaeological tastes during the last few days?"
+
+"I didn't; but I don't think she knew of any one being about on that
+tack, or she'd have told me about it. The woman was garrulousness
+personified."
+
+"Still there's no harm in returning there to-morrow and pushing
+inquiries a little further."
+
+"Not the least. It stands to reason some one has been inside the
+Talayot; and thanks to this island being a small one, with a good
+average of inhabitants to the acre, we should, if we push inquiries far
+enough, find out who the explorer was and when he went there."
+
+With that we left the subject, and Haigh went on to relate what a day
+he'd had with the Juggins before that worthy finally tore himself away
+to catch the Mallorca steamer; which topic, being treated with a
+humorous touch, kept us in merriment for the rest of the evening.
+
+Next day I lazed, and Haigh, taking his turn on duty, rode down to the
+neighbourhood of Talaiti de Talt, and brought back news that mystified
+us still further. The good woman who owned the farm knew nothing about
+the matter, neither did the ploughman from whom I had bought the
+three-angled hoe; but a stonemason in the cemetery above Alayor
+reported as follows:--
+
+He had seen three men, strangers, come up the road from Ferreiras and
+walk down that towards Alayor. The time was after midnight, and as he
+had finished the work which had detained him so long--to wit, opening a
+vault for the reception of a fresh tenant on the morrow--he strolled
+homewards after them. But as they passed on straight through the town
+he got a bit curious, and, keeping out of sight, followed astern, along
+the narrow country roads which led to nowhere special. He saw them pull
+up before the great tumble-down Talayot which stands opposite the big
+stone altar, and watched them produce lantern, shovel, and pickaxe, and
+begin to dig; after which, feeling that his interest had evaporated (so
+he said), or, more probably, being oppressed with sleepiness, he
+returned to Alayor, and soon had his head under the bedclothes.
+
+Now this was all understandable enough; but when that inquisitive
+tombstone artificer deliberately affirmed, in spite of many attempts to
+shake his memory, that the spoiling of the Talayot had taken place on
+the night immediately preceding our arrival in Mahon and the arrival of
+his most Catholic Majesty's mail steamer _Antiguo Mahones_, then
+it seemed to Haigh and myself either that somebody was lying most
+blackly, or that we ourselves could not believe certain of our own
+senses which we had hitherto considered strictly reliable. For during
+the gale there had been absolutely no steam communication with Mahon
+from the Continent, and to Ciudadella steamers never run at any time.
+
+"Of course," said Haigh, slowly swinging round the contents of his
+glass and blinking thoughtfully at them--"of course there's the cable,
+which nine days out of ten is in working order. And as this show seems
+to be run on lines suitable for some place half-way between Egyptian
+Hall and the Bethlehem Institution, we need be surprised at precious
+little. But the idea of your _caffe_ friend with the spectacles
+cabling across for some one here to copy the Recipe for him and send it
+back by post is a leetle too strong. Of course the chances are several
+millions to one against his knowing a soul in the island, much less the
+address of such a person; but even supposing that did occur, and he had
+an intimate friend here, we'll say, for the sake of argument, at
+Ferreiras, why should he trust that friend? He must see the friend
+would understand that the opportunity was one which would not occur
+again in several score of lifetimes; and he might lay his boots on it
+that the friend, be he never so confidential and honest, would not fail
+to profit by the matter for his own ends. Because, you see, this earth
+is peopled by human beings and not archangels. And besides this
+trifling objection, doesn't it strike you that the message would never
+land in the confidential friend's fingers at all?"
+
+"I don't quite see that."
+
+"It's simple, though. The message is handed in at Genoa. I think
+there's a through wire from there to Marseille. Thence it goes to
+Valencia, by which time it has been overhauled by at least three
+telegraph clerks and all their intimate friends. One cable crosses to
+Ivica, another continues on to Mallorca, and a third crosses to this
+island. Knowing the weakness of the Spaniard for making his work as
+cumbersome as possible, it's a small estimate to say that the message
+is--or ought to be--fingered by at least six more men before it gets to
+the delivering office. And do you suppose that out of all those poor
+devils of telegraph clerks there wouldn't be at least one who would
+forswear his vows and pocket the information? No, no; 'tisn't good
+enough. If your man was smart enough to eavesdrop, you can lay to it he
+wasn't a sufficiently stupendous idiot to shout his secret down a
+telegraph wire."
+
+"There's such a thing as cipher, though."
+
+"There is," said Haigh dryly; "but I think we can make bold to leave
+that out of the calculations. The odds are piled up star-high, as it
+is, against Mr. Spectacles having a confidential agent here at all whom
+he would be inclined to trust with such a job. But when you suppose
+that the pair of them have a ready-arranged cipher in full working
+order, why, then, infinity is a small figure for the chances against
+it. Cabling is out of the question, old chappie. In fact, set alongside
+of that the idea of flying across carries ordinary probability with
+it."
+
+"And as," I added, "the port captain at Ciudadella wires that he has
+had no single incoming vessel during the last ten days, and we know
+that none have come into Port Mahon except the fleet and the _Antiguo
+Mahones_ and ourselves, we've arrived at the most unpickable
+deadlock that two grown men ever scratched their heads over."
+
+"That," said Haigh, "is about the size of it; and so I vote we just let
+the Recipe slide, and enjoy ourselves on the other goods the gods have
+kindly provided. Come across to the next room. The conductor of the
+opera company's staying there, and if the opera company's rank bad, the
+conductor, at any rate, is a musician."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A PROFESSIONAL CONSPIRATOR.
+
+
+Up till that time I knew nothing of Haigh's gifts in the musical line,
+and a bit of a revelation was in store for me. It did not come all at
+once. The conductor of the opera company ("_reputado maestro D.
+Vincente Paoli_" the lean handbills styled him) opened the concert, and
+it was not until he and Haigh had some difference over the accentuation
+of a note in an air from Bizet's _I Pescatori di Perle_ that my
+shipmate strode over the piano stool.
+
+The old professional's face was amusing to watch. Good-natured contempt
+for amateur theory was very plainly written on it at first. That gave
+way to surprise and wonder; and then these merged into undiluted
+admiration.
+
+Haigh had given his version of the disputed passage, and then saying,
+"This is rather a fine bit too," had played through the Moor's fierce
+love song; after which, without any words being spoken, he verged off
+into other melody which we could appreciate even though we failed to
+recognize its origin. It was all new to us, and after a while we began
+to see that the player was his own composer.
+
+He peered round from time to time, glancing over his shoulder at our
+faces, and once stopped to ask if we were bored.
+
+"No, go on," said Paoli. "I never heard music like that before. It is
+new. I do not say whether I like it. I cannot understand it all as yet,
+I who can comprehend all that even Wagner wrote. But it is wonderful.
+Continue.--No, nothing fresh, or my ears will be dazed with surfeit.
+Play again that--that piece, that study, I know not what you call it,
+which ran somehow thus"--the Italian hummed some broken snatches.--"It
+seemed to show me a procession of damned spirits scrambling down the
+mountains to hell, with troops of little devils blackmailing them on
+the road. I know not how you call the thing, and like enough I have
+totally missed its motive; but there is something about it that holds
+me, fascinates me, and I would hear it again that I may understand."
+
+Haigh grinned and complied, and then he played us more of his own
+stuff, the most _outre_ that human ears had ever listened to, and
+we marvelled still further. But having by this time fallen in with his
+vein, we both of us could appreciate the luxuries he was pouring out.
+
+"Signor," said Paoli enthusiastically, when it was over, "if you chose,
+you could found a new school of music."
+
+"And call it the Vagabond School, eh?"
+
+"Your airs are wild and weird, I own, but, signor, there is melody in
+every note of them."
+
+Haigh shrugged his shoulders. "Such melody, _maestro mio,_ as only
+the initiated can appreciate. You have been a wanderer, _maestro_,
+and so has Cospatric; therefore you understand. But the steady,
+industrious stay-at-homes, the people who think that they know what
+music really is, and what its limits are, and all about it, what would
+they say to these queer efforts of mine? They would not even dignify
+them by the word 'distorted.' They would call them unmitigated bosh,
+and set me down as a virulent maniac. No, signori, I am not ambitious,
+and so I shall not lay myself open to that sort of snubbing. Come
+across to the other room for cigarettes and vermouth."
+
+And there we sat till the melancholy chaunt of the _sereno_
+outside told us it was five o'clock, and, with the blessing of God, a
+fine morning.
+
+A certain black box, my one piece of salvage from the wreck at Genoa,
+came up from the ugly cutter next afternoon, and I am proud to say that
+my violin added another link between us.
+
+For the next three days we had as good a time as one need wish to
+enjoy. Every evening after his duties at the theatre were over the old
+Italian called us round his piano, and we feasted on what we all three
+loved. And then the opera company took steamer to fulfil an engagement
+at Valencia. Haigh was for accompanying them. Amongst other reasons he
+had a bit of a penchant for the soprano's understudy. But I said "No,"
+reminding him of the other business we had in hand, and pointing out
+how much time had been frittered away already.
+
+"Oh, as to that," said he, "I think we may as well pat the pocket that
+holds what we've got, and resign ourselves to Kismet with regard to the
+rest."
+
+"It's scarcely wise to throw the sponge up yet. I am not hopeful, but I
+don't despair."
+
+"I'm letting the thing drop from my mind. However, if you've an idea,
+old chappie, let's hear it."
+
+"What do you say to taking up another partner?"
+
+"To what end? I fail to see what use a third would be. Still, give the
+proposed partner a name."
+
+"Taltavull."
+
+"Phew! I say, I rather bar meddling with politics, especially the
+white-hot explosive politics that he affects."
+
+"So do I. I hate 'em. Still, if there's anybody able to ferret out
+where that Recipe's got to, and make the present holder disgorge, that
+long, lean, respectable-looking anarchist is the man. To begin with, he
+has a far cleverer head on him than either of us can run to, and from
+what I told you about his theories, he'll be as keen as knives when
+once he's shown the scent."
+
+"But the man's not more than human," objected Haigh. "I don't see that
+he'll be able to squint farther through a brick wall than either of us
+could."
+
+"He has more chances, for this reason: he's mixed up with social
+undercurrents whose flow we can neither trace nor follow. These will
+take him to places where we could not get, and show him things that we
+could not find."
+
+"Which fine metaphor boiled down signifies that you want to bring the
+man into partnership because he is a professional conspirator."
+
+"Put it that way if you like. Also you must not forget that you and I
+are at present dead-locked."
+
+"So that we have all to gain and nothing to lose. Precisely; old man,
+you've put it in a nutshell. The only other thing is, do you think
+Taltavull would play fair?"
+
+"We must risk that. It isn't a matter one could make out a paper
+agreement over, and sign our names to across a charter-party stamp. But
+I think, from what I saw of him, Taltavull is not the man to do an
+unfair thing to any one who treats him well. But, as I say, we must be
+prepared to risk it."
+
+"All right then," said Haigh; "so far as I'm concerned, I'm quite
+willing. You do the recruiting. We might call ourselves the Raymond
+Lully Exploitation Company, Limited."
+
+I went out there and then about the errand, and found Taltavull at his
+own house, sitting in a huge stuffed armchair. He was reading
+_L'Intransigeant_, and marking in blue pencil the points where he
+considered its racy blackguardisms were not sufficiently pungent.
+
+The furniture of a Spanish sitting-room is made up, as a rule, of
+whitewash on the walls, and a good supply of eighteenpenny rush-seated
+chairs scattered about the tiled floor. This is on account of the
+climate, which at times makes all appearances of coolness to be highly
+appreciated. But the anarchist was not a Spaniard, nor an Italian, nor
+anything else so narrow. He was a man of no nationality, and
+cosmopolitan, and sublimely proud of that expansiveness. Consequently,
+he had taken his ideas of furniture from a more northern island, and
+had his room well crammed with massive mahogany and dark oak, with the
+upholstery in dull crimson velvet. To be sure, no style could be more
+unsuited to the climate, but then, on the other hand, it was a standing
+witness of his emancipation from all restraint. The thing might bring
+him discomfort, but that was a secondary matter, and he was prepared to
+suffer for his faith's sake. Certain hard and fast principles always
+came first with him, and in the heavy mahogany and the hot plush velvet
+none of them were violated.
+
+He put down his paper when I was announced, and said he was glad to see
+me; and I honestly believe that the phrase of welcome was no empty one,
+even before he knew what I had come about. He seemed--I say it without
+conceit--to have taken a fancy to me at our first meeting.
+
+The gist of my tale came out pretty rapidly, although I skipped no
+details, but waded through chapter and verse; but before it was half
+told, Taltavull had sprung up from his seat, and was pacing backwards
+and forwards over the thick carpet, fiercely waving his long arms, and
+looking for all the world like a mechanical frock-coated skeleton. I
+broke off, and asked half-laughingly if I had offended him.
+
+"I deem you, senor," cried he, "the greatest benefactor that my cause
+and I have ever known. I shall feel myself standing to the chin in your
+debt, whatever your conditions may be."
+
+And with that I went on to the end of the yarn.
+
+"Senor Cospatric," said he, when the last had been told, "it is
+directly contrary to the tenets of our creed to assist one
+individual--much less two--in piling up wealth beyond the due
+proportion. But it is also our fixed maxim to deal honourably with
+those who do the like by us. You, Don Miguel, are one of our enemies, a
+passive one, it is true, but none the less an enemy, because you are
+not for us. Also I see with sorrow and certainty that you will never
+become a convert. There is something in your blood, some hereditary
+taint of conservatism, which forbids it. But for all that, you shall
+find that we anarchists can keep faith with our opponents. You shall
+have your rigid eighteen months' monopoly of the diamonds before we
+begin to stir the market and set about revolutionizing the world."
+
+"Always supposing you can manage to finger the Recipe, which, as we
+stand at present, seems a by no means certain thing."
+
+"Pah, _amigo_, you are half-hearted. I"--he struck his narrow
+chest fiercely--"shall never think of defeat. From the outset I shall
+go into the business with intention to succeed. Of my methods you may
+not learn much, for to those beyond the pale we lock out secrets. But
+could you know how far our brotherhood extends, and how deep is the
+responsibility with which each member is saddled, you would have more
+faith in the mighty weapon whose hilt I, Taltavull, grasp between my
+fingers."
+
+"Don't you go and involve Haigh and myself in a political row."
+
+"No word of what is happening will pass outside the bounds of our own
+clique."
+
+"I just mentioned the matter, y'know, because you anarchists have got
+the reputation of not sticking at much."
+
+"My dear Don Miguel, a statesman in your own islands once evolved the
+policy of Thorough. We have adopted the selfsame principle. Nobody and
+nothing must stand in the way of our ends. We stand up for humanity in
+the mass. _Bourgeois_ society is bound to go under. And to hasten
+its downfall any one of our members is proud to offer himself as a
+sufferer, or as even a martyr to death, for the Cause. We aim at
+producing a state of society in which men may live together in harmony
+without laws. You must see that we are merely extreme philanthropists,
+and that our motives are pure in the extreme. And, _amigo_, you
+must disabuse your mind from the vulgar illusion that we are nothing
+but a band of brutal assassins who murder only through sheer lust for
+blood."
+
+I started some sort of apology, but he cut me short.
+
+"My dear fellow, you haven't put my back up in the very least. A man is
+bound to misunderstand us unless he is on our side; because if he does
+understand and appreciate, and has any claim to the title of man, he
+could not help being an anarchist. But now let us drop the question and
+get to the work of the more immediate present. I am going to the
+telegraph office first. Let me accompany you back as far as your
+hotel."
+
+"When shall I see you again?" I asked, as we parted at Bustamente's
+doorway.
+
+"When I find where the Recipe is."
+
+"And that will occupy how long? A week?"
+
+Taltavull laughed. "You will see me to-morrow afternoon at the latest,"
+said he.
+
+Confidence is said to be infectious, but I can't say that my hopes were
+very highly excited by Taltavull's sanguineness of success. As to
+Haigh, he had scoffed at the idea of tracing up the Recipe from the
+first, and all I could tell him about the new power on the scent would
+not change his cheerful pessimism. "The whole loaf we are not going to
+get, dear boy," was his stated opinion; "and we may as well be
+contented with the crumbs we've grabbed, and enjoy 'em accordingly.
+There's the dinner bell. Let's go and make merry with the drummers."
+
+However, true to his word, and not a little to our surprise, Taltavull
+turned up about four the next afternoon and told us that he had been
+successful. There was a little subcutaneous pride to be noted as he
+made the announcement, for, after all, he was a human man as well as an
+anarchist, and had done a thing which we deemed very nigh impossible.
+But he kept this natural exultation under very modestly, saying that
+all credit that might be due was owing not to him, but to the great
+organization. We were merely offered a proof, he said, of what the
+anarchist body could encompass when once their machinery was put in
+motion. And then, having given us the broad fact, he proceeded to show
+out details. Or rather, to be strictly accurate, he gave us a string of
+results, without any hint as to how they had been arrived at, a certain
+amount of mystery being the salt without which no secret society could
+possibly exist.
+
+Put briefly and in its order of happening, the story ran as follows:--
+
+The raider, as we had already faintly surmised, was none other than the
+man with the spectacles in the Genovese _caffe_. His name was
+Pether--N. Congleton Pether; he was of Jewish extraction, and he was
+stone-blind. He had been much in Africa, and it was in the southern
+part of that continent that an accident deprived him of his sight. The
+injured eyeballs had been surgically removed, and artificial ones
+mounted in their stead. The man was clever in the extreme in hiding his
+infirmity; for a week none of the hotel people where he was staying in
+Genoa even guessed at it. Casual acquaintances scarcely ever detected
+the missing sense.
+
+English being his native tongue, Pether had naturally lost no word of
+the discussion over Weems's manuscript, and directly the little
+schoolmaster and myself had left the _caffe_ he had beckoned his
+servant Sadi, who was within call, and had gone off on his arm towards
+the harbour. There he threw money about right and left, and the
+information he wanted was given glibly. A freight steamer consigned to
+some senna merchants would be sailing for Tripoli at noon on the
+morrow. To the skipper of this craft he betook himself, and bargained
+to be set down unostentatiously in Minorca. It would mean a very slight
+deviation from the fixed course, and what he paid would be money into
+that skipper's own pocket. You see Pether knew how to set about
+matters. Had he gone to the shipowners, he would as likely as not have
+failed, or at any rate been charged an exorbitant fee; but by applying
+to a badly paid Italian seaman who was not above cooking a log, he got
+what he wanted for a thousand-franc note.
+
+The senna steamer made for neither Ciudadella nor Port Mahon. Her
+doings were a trifle dark, and she did not want to be reported. But her
+skipper was a man of local knowledge, and remembered that there were
+three small harbours on the northern coast of Minorca, used exclusively
+by fishermen and _contrabandistas_. Further, being a man of guile,
+he understood the ways of the outpost Carabinero. He knew that if an
+open boat were seen to come into one of these village harbours from
+somewhere out of vague seaward darkness, the local preserver of the
+king's peace and the king's customs would not be rude enough to look in
+that direction. That uniformed worthy would understand that some
+gentleman in the neighbourhood wished to land a cargo, probably of
+smokable tobacco, free of duty. He would know that if he interfered, he
+would probably test the chill sensation of dull steel jabbed between
+the shoulder blades before many days were over. He would expect that in
+the ordinary course of events judicious short-sightedness would be
+rewarded by notes for many pesetas, and American tobacco in generous
+quantity. And he would reroll and smoke his Government cigarette,
+placidly non-interferent, thanking his best saint for the happy time to
+come.
+
+And in fine it was managed in this very fashion. The senna steamer
+hove-to in the twilight some three miles off-shore, and a boat put into
+the tiny sheltered bay of Cavalleria just two hours after nightfall.
+The boat scarcely touched the beach. She disgorged herself of two
+passengers and a small lot of luggage, and departed whence she had come
+in scared haste.
+
+A Carabinero, with his back ostentatiously turned to the newcomers,
+leaned on his rifle, whistling mournfully. Sadi wrapped a greasy note
+round a pebble, and chucked it to the man's feet, whence it was
+transferred to the pocket of his ragged red trousers without comment,
+and then the pair took their way up past the carvel-built fishing-boats
+into the straggling village street.
+
+Cavalleria has no regular _fonda_, or even _casa_, but there is a shop
+where they sell wine, and black tumour-covered sausages, and white
+bread, and _algobra_ beans, and Scotch sewing cotton. The whole village
+knew of their arrival, and were gathered in this shop to meet them when
+they came in. Few questions were asked. The Spaniard of the lower
+orders has a most Hibernian weakness for anything smacking of
+conspiracy, or any enterprise which is "agin' the Government." Pether
+saluted the audience with one mysterious grin, which they appeared to
+consider as fully explanatory, and then inviting them all to drink with
+him, put down a peseta,[2] and received much change in greasy bronze.
+"_Dos reales_" was the price of that piece of lavish entertainment, the
+old twopence-halfpenny still holding sway in out-districts against the
+more modern decimal notation.
+
+      [2] A _peseta_ is worth rather less than a franc at the usual
+      rate of exchange.
+
+And then a guide was wanted.
+
+Every able-bodied man amongst the villagers offered his services for
+nothing. His time and all that he possessed was entirely at the
+disposition of the senores. The choice was embarrassing. But at last
+one rope-sandalled hero was selected, and the trio set off into the
+night between the great rubble walls. The most of their luggage had
+been left to go to Mahon by mule pannier on the morrow. They only took
+one small box with them, slung by a strap over Sadi's shoulders. But
+the guide carried pick and shovel.
+
+They struck the main road and held on along it till they reached the
+cemetery, and there struck off through Alayor, and on down the narrow
+lanes to Talaiti de Talt. Sadi and the Spaniard dug, and being used to
+the exercise, and working in the cool of the night, deepened their pit
+rapidly. Only the stars watched them at their labours. Pether was not
+able to look on; he could only listen.
+
+As day was beginning to gray the sky the entrance tunnel was unroofed,
+and down the two foreigners dropped into it, Sadi leading. The man of
+the soil feared ghosts and crouched at the lip of the hole. Also, being
+ignorant of all other tongues save Minorquin, he understood no word of
+what was being said beneath him.
+
+But of a sudden a noiseless light of blinding whiteness flared out from
+the inside of the Talayot; and after an interval of black-velvet gloom
+it flashed out again. His fears still were strong, but curiosity
+trampled them under foot, and the man in the rope sandals dropped
+noiselessly on to the floor of the tunnel. Again the intense white
+glare shone out, and the watcher saw words of writing on the farther
+wall of the Talayot, and him of the spectacles holding his wooden box
+so as to face them. Afterwards, by the light of a candle, he who had
+made the flashes scraped this lettering from the plaster with his
+knife, and his companion, laughing, scribbled something else on the
+blank place. And then, as the cold earthy atmosphere was beginning to
+make him sweat, the son of the soil climbed out again.
+
+"Great Caesar!" exclaimed Haigh, when the narrative had reached this
+point. "I'm beginning to have an inkling of how it was all worked out.
+If that chap photographed the inscription by magnesium flashlight, I
+verily believe I know where the plates----But don't let me interrupt
+yet. Finish the tale first."
+
+And so Taltavull went on.
+
+The uncanny sights which he had witnessed impressed the Cavalleria
+fisherman mightily, and when he received a valuable banknote, he helped
+fill up the hole and departed, fully determined to hold his tongue. The
+man with the spectacles said that evil would assuredly befall if he
+spoke of the things he had seen, and that fisherman believed him
+implicitly.
+
+The two raiders walked rapidly down the narrow lanes till they came
+upon the broad road at that point where it is interrupted by a hedge of
+wheelbarrows and gang planks. Coming down the other branch road
+opposite to them was the zinc-roofed diligence, which had left
+Ciudadella in chill darkness at a quarter to five. At their sign the
+driver brought the ramshackle conveyance to a stand, and they squeezed
+into the stuffy interior. Then with an _arre-e-ee_, and an
+impartial basting with the short whip, the four wretched horses got
+into their shamble again, and forty minutes later were climbing in and
+out of the clean dry holes in Calle Isabella 2^a at Mahon. They only
+had one hitch in their enterprise. During one of these bumps in the
+uneven street the door flew open, and the camera fell out on the cobble
+stones with a thud and a sound of splintering glass.
+
+"And I thought that man a Juggins," said Haigh, "and imagined I was
+blarneying and greening him _ad libitum_, whilst all the time he
+was bamboozling me--me--me, gentlemen. But, Senor Taltavull, are you
+perfectly certain the fellow is blind? I think you must be mistaken
+there."
+
+"He is stone-blind; but, as I told you, he is marvellously clever at
+concealing it. You are by no means alone in being deceived."
+
+"But, _amigo_, he looked at me when we were talking, and pointed
+out things about the room, and, in fact, used his eyes the whole time.
+Brown eyes they were, and good to look upon."
+
+"I tell you he is very, very clever, and as his great conceit is to
+hide his infirmity, he uses all his wit to do it. Sadi, his servant,
+had helped him to explore the room beforehand, so that he knew exactly
+where everything lay. And the sound of your voice would tell him where
+to direct his gaze during a conversation. But call to mind anything
+where immediate vision was necessary. Did you never ask him to read a
+letter or anything of that kind, and not notice (now that you are
+reminded of it) that he somehow or other evaded doing so?"
+
+"No, no---- By Jove, yes, I did though. I asked him to play cards, and
+he wouldn't from conscientious motives or some rot of that kind."
+
+"There you are, then."
+
+"Right. Of course he couldn't see the pips. And this was the man I
+thought I was having on for a Juggins. And this is the man who has got
+the Recipe for Diamonds locked up in a photographic double dark-back.
+That is, unless he's taken it out and got it developed."
+
+"So far as I can make out," said the anarchist, "the negative is still
+undeveloped. Pether took it to Palma, and he has it there now, not
+daring to trust it in a photographer's hands, and not being able to
+develop it himself. Senores, I believe it will be for us to unlock that
+tremendous mine of potential energy. Mallorca, I regret to say, is too
+strictly Catholic to be a profitable sowing ground for our propaganda,
+but we have scattered adherents here, and these are working their best
+for us. But our presence in that island is imperatively demanded.
+Unfortunately, the next steamer does not sail for two days."
+
+"Then we'll take the cutter," said Haigh. "Wind's in the sou'-sou'-east
+and lightish, but if it holds as it is we should make Alcudia Bay by
+early to-morrow morning, and from there could hit off the railway at La
+Puebla and get to Palma."
+
+And to this Taltavull and I agreed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+AT A MALLORQUIN FONDA.
+
+
+Our preparations for that short sea trip were few and simple. Taltavull
+exchanged three small diamonds for cash, which enabled us to settle
+outstanding accounts; Haigh procured a basket of bread, hard-boiled
+eggs, and vermouth bottles; I made two or three chandlery purchases,
+and gave the rigging a bit of an overhaul. It was in the gloaming when
+we got the anchor, and night when we stood out between the dismantled
+old fort and the obsolete new one at the harbour's mouth, and got into
+open water.
+
+Wind was fresh at first, and the ugly cutter's stem hissed through the
+water like red-hot iron; but as the moon rose into a steel-blue sky
+amongst bright white stars, the breeze dropped till it scarcely gave us
+steerage-way. Haigh sat smoking at the tiller throughout the night;
+Taltavull and I patrolled the narrow decks, chatting. We none of us
+felt inclined for sleep.
+
+Dawn came with a flash of vivid green, the sulphur-coloured disc hard
+upon its heels. We were then off the south-western corner of Minorca,
+with the high ground on the northern parts of the sister island
+standing up clearly against the horizon. Even from that distance we
+could make out with the glasses a watch-tower on the peninsula which
+divides Pollensa Bay from Alcudia. Up there the sentinels of those
+naked slingers who loved wine and women when the world was young had
+peered over the blue sea for a first sight of Roman or Carthaginian
+pirate galley.
+
+"Happy times when those men lived," said the anarchist; "there were few
+laws to trouble them."
+
+"Happy indeed," echoed Haigh, "for a boy with a taste for liquor and
+ladies, and who thought unlimited head-breaking a pleasing diversion."
+
+In the middle of the channel a steamer passed us on her way to Algiers.
+She was the _Eugene Perrier_, the very Transatlantique Company's
+boat that had put us on our course again during that wild, tearing race
+from Genoa.
+
+The fact was pointed out, and we looked her over again as one looks at
+an old friend who has rendered a big service.
+
+"Bit of a change this day from that, isn't it?" said Haigh.
+
+"About as big as they make 'em," I admitted.
+
+"I'm not so sure that I care for it, though," said he. "It had its
+strong points that trip."
+
+"Especially when it was over," I agreed. "Yes, it's fine to look back
+at."
+
+"It has one or two memories that will stick. You trying to catch up the
+slits in the mainsail as fast as the wind slitted them, with the
+knowledge that we'd probably go to glory if you got behind; I shan't
+forget that. And I think the face of that man we laughed at on the brig
+will stick. Also one or two other items. But as you say, old chappie,
+it's nicest to look at from beyond."
+
+The day flushed hotly as it wore on, and still the breeze kept light.
+We slid through the water slowly, leaving scarce a trace of wake behind
+us. Haigh smoked and drank vermouth; Taltavull busied himself below
+with dealing, on paper, with tremendous sums of money; I bathed at
+intervals, diving from the bowsprit end, and climbing aboard again by
+the lee runner.
+
+It was a lazy, dreamy passage that of ours across the channel, and most
+enjoyable withal; but there was a strong lure dragging us on, and I
+think all of the ugly cutter's complement were unfeignedly glad when
+she opened up abeam both of the high headlands which bound Alcudia Bay.
+There is one lighthouse, on the northernmost cape, and we passed
+another on an island about half-way in, both in mocking contrast to the
+old round sandstone tower which rears itself amongst the palmetto scrub
+about a mile outside the _puerto_. What that old crumbling castle
+was for it is difficult to see, for in the days when it was built there
+was no known artillery which would throw a ball half-way across the
+shallow bay.
+
+"The lazaretto," said Taltavull, pointing to a grim, gray fortress
+farther along the shore, with high limestone walls, and lookout towers
+at the corners. "Heaven help the poor cholera-stricken wretches whose
+fate it is to be boxed up in that prison! It helps to show, however,
+what a rabid hatred the Mallorcans have of all manner of disease. Read
+George Sand's book about the island if you want to understand that. She
+brought Chopin here long ago, and wintered with him at the Valledemosa
+Convent, hoping to save him from consumption. The people in the village
+there are as hospitable as any in the world as a general thing, but
+they ostracized these two because of their dread and loathing for
+sickness, and deliberately tried to starve them out."
+
+"Brutes," said Haigh.
+
+"I think," commented the anarchist, "that they'd a perfect right to act
+as they did. They chose to, and that was sufficient. That's my creed."
+
+"Poor creed," said Haigh. "Cospatric, stand by with that mud-hook, and
+we'll bring to by the schooner here. It's getting very shallow."
+
+We brought up to an anchor, snugged down, and then hailed a boat and
+got put ashore where the fishing craft were riding to their bowfasts,
+and discharging scaly rainbows on to the stone quay. The inevitable
+Carabinero gave us an examination, and then we made our way up from the
+little port village through beanfields and vineyards and oliveyards,
+past an old Roman amphitheatre on to the double-walled town.
+
+Very Asiatic in appearance is Alcudia as one approaches it, with its
+yellow and white houses, its domes, its crumbling amber walls, with
+ragged date-palms scattered here and there, and dusty green clumps of
+prickly pear scrawming about everywhere. But as a walled city its days
+are done. The massive gateway with its pitting of Saracen round-shot
+has no guard. The two fosses are planted thickly with grotesquely
+gnarled olive-trees. The streets are clean and the houses are in good
+repair, but there is a lazy old-time air about the place that would
+clog the hurrying feet of even a sight-seeing American.
+
+We fetched up at the _casa_ and had dinner, which commenced with a
+dry soup of ochre-coloured rice. It was a curious meal all through, and
+across the little well-yard we could watch the cooking done in earthen
+pipkins of various sizes, each over its own charcoal fire. Then we went
+into the _cafe_--an irregular room, with the roof partly supported
+on arches, concrete floor, and heavy odour of rancid oil and Government
+tobacco--and sat on rush-bottomed chairs round a little deal table to
+sip our cognac and discuss on the next move.
+
+"Now that we are coming to close quarters," said I, "it's beginning to
+be borne in upon me that our proceedings are very lawless."
+
+"Anarchistic, to say the least of it," observed Haigh.
+
+"We are simply acting on the principle of the 'greatest good for the
+greatest number,'" said Taltavull. "Pether is one; you are two, and I
+flatter myself that I and my Cause make an important third; the
+interests of the one must go under in favour of the interests of the
+three."
+
+"Which being interpreted," said I, "is, that if A has a watch, and B,
+C, and D are poor men with pistols, the watch of necessity changes
+hands. It may be natural enough from your point of view, but it's
+devilish like highway robbery from mine."
+
+Taltavull shrugged his shoulders hopelessly. "I shall never convert
+you, _amigo_," said he.
+
+"I tell you what it is," said Haigh. "Senor Taltavul's conscience is
+satisfied, and so much the better for him. You and I, Cospatric, are
+too poor to afford the luxury of consciences. Pether, it seems, has
+this Recipe in the form of an undeveloped photographic negative.
+Perhaps he had no particular title to it in the first instance; but
+then, on the other hand, nor had we. Correctly speaking, I suppose the
+thing either belonged to the owner of the Talayot, or else, as
+treasure-trove, should revert to the crown. But on the glorious
+principle of 'no catchee no havee,' I think we may leave these two last
+out of consideration. Under ordinary circumstances, I should have
+barred jumping on the chest of a man who is afflicted with blindness;
+but as this particular individual has seen fit to humbug me to the top
+of his bent, I shall waive that scruple. Senor Taltavull, I'm with you
+in this to anything short of justifiable manslaughter. And
+Cospatric----"
+
+"Won't pin himself, in spite of that scrawled insult of
+_Hereingefallen_," I cut in. "So that's how we all stand. And now
+easy with the debate, for if I'm not a lot out in my reckoning, there's
+a pair of cars coming in through the glass door yonder that understand
+English."
+
+We stood up and bowed, foreign fashion, as the newcomer seated herself
+at a table near us, and she had soon drawn Haigh and the anarchist into
+conversation. She had just purchased a Majolica bowl, under repeated
+assurance that it was a piece of the genuine old lustre-ware. My two
+companions (as I learnt with surprise) were enthusiasts and experts on
+the subject, and they both assured her that the specimen she had
+procured was undoubtedly spurious. It seems there is a factory at
+Valencia where the bogus stuff is made, and a large trade is done in it
+with the curio-collectors. And, moreover, every house on the island has
+been searched by local pottery-fanatics, and every scrap of the
+authentic lustre-ware stored in their salons or museums. Afterwards,
+they went on to the vexed topic as to whether the ware had ever been
+manufactured in the island at all. Haigh was of opinion that it had
+been made in Valencia, and carted over to Italy in Mallorcan craft,
+which were in the Middle Ages great carriers in the Mediterranean. This
+would easily account for the name Majolica. Taltavull held that it was
+a genuine product of the island, though he was bound to admit that no
+remains of manufacturing potteries had as yet been discovered. And so
+they went at it hammer and tongs, deduction and counter-deduction,
+proof and counter-proof; and the owner of that glittering mauve-marked
+bowl which had started the discussion threw in a well-considered word
+here and there to keep the argument well alive.
+
+Women are not in my way to talk to, but I sat in the background
+watching this clever stirrer-up of conversation for want of anything
+better to do. She was a woman with dark hair, just tinged with gray,
+with features that would have been pleasant enough if they had not been
+a trifle over-hard. She was neatly but not showily dressed, and wore a
+little jewellery of a ten-years-back fashion. She retained her hat and
+jacket, and one got the idea that she habitually wore them, except in
+bed.
+
+In fact, she was one of that cohort of masterless women who are so
+copiously spread over the Continent. You find them from Trondjhem to
+Athens, from Nishni to Cadiz, seldom far from the beaten track, never
+under breeched escort. They speak three popular languages fluently, and
+usually know some out-of-the-way tongue such as Gaelic or Albanian or a
+Czech patois. This one seemed quite at home with Mallorquin. They
+generally display the bare left third finger of the maiden; but even
+when that critical digit is gold-fettered, you are not always satisfied
+that they have ever called man husband. They always carry guide-books,
+note tablets, patent medicines, and hand-satchel. They are very
+reticent about their own affairs, and correspondingly curious about
+yours. And finally, if one may hazard a generalizing guess, they mostly
+seem to hail either from the New England States or the south of
+Scotland.
+
+Probably because I showed no desire to cultivate her acquaintance, she
+began to throw out stray questions for my answering, not about the
+cream and mauve lustre-ware--about which I knew nothing--but on other
+points.
+
+"It's a strange thing," said she, "how nations like the Spanish which
+have beautiful languages are always cursed with harsh voices to speak
+them with. I wonder if the converse holds true?" So I had to mention
+Norsk and Norwegians.
+
+And, again: "All the peasantry in Mallorca seem to know one tune and
+one only, in a minor key, with a compass of three whole tones. It is
+not unmusical, but, like the _sereno's_ chant, it is hard to
+catch." As I happened to know the air, the least I could do was to dot
+it down in her note-book when she asked me to. The book flew open as
+she passed it across the deal table-top, and showed the name "Hortensia
+Mary Cromwell" written on the flyleaf.
+
+And then she found out that we had come across from Port Mahon in a
+yacht, and discovered besides that I was a sailor and vagabond by
+trade, and fairly drew me. To an appreciative listener I can always
+talk about the sea, and the sights of the sea, and the smells of the
+sea, and what those men do who make their livelihood by journeying
+across the big waters. And as this Cromwell woman spoke back
+intelligently about these matters, I liked her, and sat there talking
+when the others went out to make a call. Nor did the experience weary
+me, for when they returned after midnight, we were sitting
+_vis-a-vis_, with our feet on the edge of the _brazero_,
+talking still.
+
+There was no nonsense about her. She was a salted traveller, and had
+seen and done many things, and we had a score of tastes and sympathies
+in common. It isn't often I'd give two sous to speak to any woman a
+second time; but I liked her, and said, when she went upstairs, that I
+hoped we'd meet again, meaning what I said.
+
+Taltavull's lean face was gloomy and threatening that evening. He told
+me that his correspondent in Palma had been arrested.
+
+"The poor man's only crime was that of spreading our propaganda," said
+he, "and his only real enemies were the swarming priests. He naturally
+spurned their warnings with contempt, as every true anarchist must do,
+and continued sowing the good seed amongst his Roman Catholic
+neighbours. And so the Bishop went to the Captain-General, and our
+Cause was given another martyr."
+
+"Sad," said Haigh, "isn't it?"
+
+"I shall write them a fair warning," continued Taltavull, with a frown,
+"and if the poor fellow is not instantly released I shall give orders
+to blow up the Cathedral, the _Lonja_, and the Moorish palace
+where the Captain-General resides. I do not think that they will press
+matters to extremes after that. The Cathedral is one of the finest
+specimens of Gothic ecclesiastical architecture extant in the Spanish
+dominions; the Exchange is certainly the finest piece of Gothic secular
+work in the world; and the old Saracen palace is a thing these
+miserable _bourgeois_ set immense store upon. It would be a
+tremendous blow to take them away, but if they press me I shall not
+spare the lesson. I've already wired our head office in Barcelona for a
+consignment of dynamite."
+
+"I wish you hadn't such confoundedly destructive notions, old chappie,"
+said Haigh. "It's the one drawback to you as a companion. Good-night,
+and give me a day's warning when you're going to blow anything
+up!--Good-night, Cospatric--or, rather, good-morning."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+HEREINGEFALLEN!
+
+
+It did not seem that I had been very long turned in when Haigh came to
+my bedroom and woke me.
+
+"Come across to my room," said he, "and see our anarchist shipmate in
+the process of going crazy."
+
+"Whatever do you mean?" I asked, sitting up.
+
+"I don't quite know whether I mean what I say, but anyway, come and see
+for yourself."
+
+So I flung off the quilted coverlet, and pattered over the tiled floor
+on my bare feet, and across the corridor, and saw the anarchist dressed
+in his long black frockcoat, and apparently in nothing else. He was
+dancing with fury, reeling out a continuous string of the most venomous
+Spanish oaths--which, by a peculiar irony of a man of his creed, are
+drawn almost exclusively from an ecclesiastical basis--and at intervals
+pounding with one bony fist at a crumpled letter which lay in the palm
+of the other.
+
+Had I not witnessed the fact with my eyes, I should not have imagined
+it possible that he could so lose his self-possession. I knew him to be
+a man of strong emotions, but I had always believed him capable of
+keeping them under iron control.
+
+"We have been fooled, laughed at, betrayed!" he screamed. "The wretch
+that holds the Recipe has been playing with us. 'Us' do I say? He might
+have played with you and been forgiven. You are but tools; you do not
+even belong to the inner brotherhood. But he has trifled with me; he
+has dared to make sport of me--Taltavull--whose edicts have caused
+thrones to totter, whose hand will soon sweep all thrones away. That
+can never be forgiven. He cannot live and expiate that insult."
+
+From one of his pockets the old man drew a revolver and held it up,
+resting the barrel on a crooked arm, and aligning the sights at an
+imaginary enemy.
+
+"You two, my comrades, must help me in this just vengeance."
+
+"Not much," said Haigh, peering at him coolly through half-shut eyes.
+"I've put my name down for a little gentle highway robbery; but if
+ordinary murder is to be added to the scheme, you may transfer me to
+the retired list. I'm not burdened with many scruples, but making cold
+meat of a gentleman for the small crime of sticking to his own property
+happens to be one of them."
+
+"And the woman who has helped him, and who has also put shame on us?"
+
+"My dear fellow, you can't expect me to indulge in fisticuffs with a
+lady--especially one with such a catholic taste in Majolica
+lustreware."
+
+Taltavull stamped and swore afresh. "And this insult--will your cold
+northern blood permit you to swallow that unresented?"
+
+"My swallowing power has its limits, Mr. Taltavull; so slow down.
+There's an old adage about thieves quarrelling, and we three should do
+best by not falling out with one another. Come, let's try back a bit.
+What the devil is this eighteen-cornered insult you're so furious
+about?"
+
+Taltavull thrust the letter into his hand, and stalked away to the
+window muttering in his beard.
+
+I looked over Haigh's shoulder, and read with him:--
+
+    "FONDA FORGET-WHAT, ALCUDIA, MALLORCA,
+    "_Tuesday morning, 1.37 a.m._
+
+    "MOST WORTHY SENORES,--Once more let me write 'Hereingefallen,' and
+    if two of you fail to appreciate its delicate and subtle import, I
+    am sure that the polyglot Mr. Michael Cospatric will courteously
+    interpret.
+
+    "Your arrival here came to me, I own, as a trifling surprise. I had
+    not expected such pressing attention.
+
+    "It may please you to learn that I nearly joined your conclave
+    during the course of last evening. Mrs. Cromwell's prolonged
+    absence made me anxious, and I descended the stairs from our joint
+    sitting-room, and I was within an ace of entering the _cafe_ where
+    you were all four seated to inquire after her whereabouts. But,
+    with my hand on the latch of the door, a sound met my ear which
+    caused me to pause. It was the well-known mellow voice of my friend
+    Mr. Haigh, raised in argument. I recognized it in an instant. It is
+    a conceit of mine to study voices, and a peculiar talent never to
+    forget them.
+
+    "To enter might have caused unpleasantness. Being a man of peace, I
+    consequently forbore to enter, and waited in my room till Mrs.
+    Cromwell returned. You had been most generously profuse in your
+    explanations. From one or another of you she gathered all there was
+    to know. Senores, you have been most solicitous after my humble
+    welfare. Senores, I would have you accept my most profuse thanks.
+
+    "I regret that the pressure of circumstances forbids my taking
+    formal leave of you. But at an early hour this morning, when you
+    will still be stretched upon your virtuous pallets, Mrs. Cromwell
+    and I set off for the port of Soller. We shall have our morning
+    coffee at Pollensa, and eat our lunch at the convent of Nuestra
+    Senora del Lluch. And there we shall leave the carriage. But we
+    shall not spare time to pay our devotions at the shrine of that
+    celebrated black virgin. Mules will be waiting to take us through
+    the ilex forests, and down the canyon, and over the high mountain
+    track, and down that cleverly-built pass-road to the lovely valley
+    of Soller.
+
+    "Do you know Soller, senores--the prettiest little valley in
+    Europe, full of the scents of the orange and the lemon trees with
+    which it is planted? No? then visit it when you have the chance. I
+    regret that we shall not be there to receive you. But we go on to
+    the little port of Soller, where a feluccre is lying stern-on to
+    the quay waiting for us. By nightfall we shall be in the lift of
+    the swell, standing out between the lights at the tiny harbour's
+    mouth.
+
+    "Our destination? Senores, believe me, I blush for joy whilst I
+    write. Mrs. Cromwell is about to honour me by adding her hand to
+    the heart she has already bestowed upon me.
+
+    "As regards that undeveloped negative, which Mr. Cospatric (with
+    the skill acquired when he was bottle-washer to a photographer) so
+    kindly put into the portable dark slide, my wife will take lessons
+    in the art in some quiet town on the mainland, and when
+    sufficiently skilled in technique will develop out its secret, and
+    share with me the great reward.
+
+    "I do not know that I am indebted to M. Taltavull for any matter,
+    but I should be sorry to leave unrequited the interest he appears
+    to take in my welfare. If he will send his address to 'Poste
+    Restante,' Cannes, Monte Carlo, or Hyeres, I shall be proud to send
+    him a delicate wedge of our wedding cake. I trust, however, he
+    knows my name; for here I shall only sign myself, senores, your
+    infinite superior,
+
+    "L'AVEUGLE."
+
+"That's delicious," said Haigh when he had finished reading.
+
+"But the insults, senor," said the anarchist, turning round again.
+
+"Beautiful!"
+
+"Have you read those burning gibes?"
+
+"The humour of the thing's transcendental."
+
+"Senor Haigh, look at that letter calmly."
+
+"I am doing. Isn't the satire something lovely? My mellow voice! Ho,
+ho, ho! And Cospatric's experiences as a photographer's bottle-washer!
+Grand!"
+
+The anarchist began to stamp about in a new access of fury, and so
+Haigh changed his tone.
+
+"Laugh when you're licked, my dear fellow," said he. "Believe me, it's
+the best way, and Lord knows I ought to be an authority."
+
+"We're differently constituted, senor."
+
+"Faith, I grant that same's true."
+
+"This loss means more to me than it does to you."
+
+"You are making it do so, certainly. But there, for God's sake, don't
+let's be asses enough to quarrel. Here, smoke."
+
+We all three lit cigarettes, and there was a silence for some minutes.
+Then Haigh broke out again,--
+
+"Phe--ew!" he whistled. "Have they gone posting to Soller after all?"
+
+"Eh?" said Taltavull.
+
+"I mean, isn't this all a blind? Wasn't that letter written just to put
+us on the wrong track? Why should the man have taken the trouble to
+make all that long screed just for the sake of jeering, when he
+wouldn't be here to see what effect his smart sarcasms would have?
+Besides, if he showed his route, he might think we could work the
+telegraph wires and get him and his blessed feluccre stopped in Soller
+Port till we came up. Now, here or Palma are the orthodox outlets to
+this island. What's the best way to Palma?"
+
+"La Puebla, and rail from there."
+
+"Bet any one an even ten pesetas that Mr. Pether has cleared by the
+early train from La Puebla."
+
+"The same road leads out of here till it branches, whether one is going
+to Pollensa or La Puebla," exclaimed the anarchist, with a fresh access
+of excitement. "I can wire friends at both places, who can find out for
+me which way they have gone. I will go and do it at once."
+
+He rushed away to the stairhead till Haigh shouted, "Put on your
+trousers, man, first!" and then he turned to his own bedroom.
+
+"He don't take a whipping well," said I, as the gaunt figure
+disappeared.
+
+"Ruffle a fanatic," said Haigh, "and you'll soon see that he's all
+superfluous nerves and useless springs."
+
+
+
+
+[_There breaks in at this point an extract from the life-history of
+Mr. N. C. Pether, which bears upon the main narrative. It is told by
+himself._]
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+CAMARADERIE.
+
+
+... Again I distinguished the Belgian drummer's steps coming aft along
+the deck planks. "They are all so sick below," said he, "that I could
+endure it no longer." He sat down on the saloon skylight beside me.
+"You see that low hummocky island we are coming to, out yonder on the
+port hand? Cabrera, monsieur, where they say Hannibal was born, and
+where they hope and expect M. Blanc's successors will find a
+resting-place for their tables when France and Italy hound them out of
+Monte Carlo. I was over in Cabrera the other day. I ran across in the
+little packet from Palma. There's a lovely harbour there--almost as
+good as the one at Mahon; and the place holds two hundred people, who
+are planting vines and building fortifications. My faith, it will be a
+heavy change if they make that into the fashionable gambling hell of
+Europe.
+
+"You are regarding the island--you see its contours; now shut your
+eyes.
+
+"'_Messieurs faites vo' jeu._'--There's the big fast Steamer that
+has just run over from Marseille in ten hours with a full passenger
+list of French, English, Russians, and Americans. Few have braved the
+sea-trip just to idle about the _casino_ as they used to do near
+Monaco. These are men and women who have come for hard business at the
+tables, and who for the most part expect to break or be broke.
+
+"There is a gorgeous hotel awaiting them at the head of the harbour,
+where they dress and dine, and then out they go, down the avenues of
+rustling date-palms (which bear electric lamps amongst their ochre
+fruit-clusters), and so on, to the most sumptuous building in the
+world, the new Cabreran _casino_.
+
+"It differs hugely from the old temple of chance on the edge of the
+Continent--that _enfer sur terre_ set amid a _paradis_. There
+is no ornate concert-room here, or theatre or opera house. There is not
+even a _salon_ for gossip and smoke and exercise. The whole is one
+enormous _salle de jeu_, and the clink of gold against yellow gold
+is the only instrumental music. The cartwheel five-franc piece is
+nowhere permissible now, and at the _rouge et noir_ tables
+hundred-franc notes are the smallest stake. There is a change in
+everything except in the croupiers and the chefs, and the actual tables
+and machinery over which they preside. Even the atmosphere is new. The
+old dry heat is no more. In its place is a moist warmth, heavy with the
+scent of heliotrope and tuba roses. It seems as if one of the scent
+factories at Hyeres had staved its vats somewhere close at hand. Change
+everywhere. Mesdemoiselles les cocottes----But I weary m'sieu' with my
+twaddle. '_Rien ne va plus._' The farce is over.
+
+"Regard that brown promontory yonder, the easternmost horn of Palma
+Bay. With permission take my _lunette_. So; now you cannot fail to
+see. A ship of the Romans laden with pottery struck there in time past,
+filled, and went down in deep water. The fishermen often bring up in
+their nets unbroken pieces from her cargo, crocks and pipkins identical
+in shape and texture with those the islanders use to-day. Ah, m'sieu',
+but they are ignorant, these Mallorcans, and happy in their ignorance.
+Food is so easily gained that none need starve; they have the best
+climate imaginable, free from the sirocco which plagues Algeria, and
+from the mistral which kills one on the Riviera; they are too indolent
+to meddle with politics; they live in a lotus-land of beauty and ease.
+We should despise them, monsieur, but I fear many of us will envy their
+lot."
+
+The _Antiguo Mahones_ was threading her way through a fleet of
+small fishing-boats, as I could tell by the reduced speed, the hooting
+of the siren, and the constant and prolonged rattle of the steering
+rods. Soon she would bring up to the quay in Palma harbour. Why should
+I not get ashore there and work out the hard problem that was engaging
+me?
+
+So far I had made no scheme of ultimate route. The meeting at the Mahon
+hotel with that cheery _chevalier d'industrie_ Haigh, and the
+knowledge that that more robust brigand, his blustering, heavy-fisted
+partner Cospatric, was close at hand, had given me little leisure to
+plan far ahead. All my time was occupied in thinking how to fool the
+one and keep out of sight of the other till I could make escape from
+their immediate vicinage.
+
+But having once cleared from the island, it seemed to me that all
+probable danger of our future meeting was passed; at any rate, Mallorca
+would be the most unlikely spot to run foul of them in. So when the
+commercial traveller had turned away to look after his own affairs
+again, I got hold of Sadi, and told him to pull our traps together and
+pay up what we owed.
+
+Sadi turned and set about fulfilling the order without a question. That
+is the best of Sadi. He never wants to know the why or wherefore of
+anything. Within limits he is the perfection of a servant for a man
+such as me.
+
+I had trusted Sadi with many things, and so far he had never failed me.
+I felt sure that he liked me, which was more than I would have said for
+any other member of the human race. But all the same, if he had seen it
+worth his while to rob or betray, I'd a pretty strong notion that blood
+instinct would prove too strong, and he'd do it. You see, Sadi's mother
+was half Arab, half Portuguese; his father was all Portuguese--jail-bird
+Portuguese; his youth had been spent in Marquez, which is on Delagoa
+Bay; and these things do not breed immaculate honesty calculated to
+stand every strain.
+
+I may have wronged Sadi. As I say, he never failed me. But I felt that
+there might reasonably be a limit to his faithfulness, and to let him
+have the solving of that inscription which I carried about my person
+locked in a fleckless photographic plate might very well have
+outstepped that limit. It would have been a heavy test on an
+archbishop's honesty.
+
+So I did not intend to employ Sadi about this matter except as a last
+resort. I wished to let this, the most valuable secret the world
+contained, be known to no one except myself, if it could be so
+contrived. I desired to get it stored within my brain alone, and then
+to destroy the only other trace of it that was existent.
+
+Yet labouring under my peculiar disadvantage, the task appeared a
+hopelessly impossible one.
+
+As I went down the gang-plank and ranged up against Sadi's elbow,
+walking with him past the wine casks and other litter on Palma quay, it
+seemed to me that after all I should have to accept the risk and
+recruit this companion's aid. But such a decision was far too momentous
+to be hurriedly jumped at. The Recipe was safely locked in the
+yellow-green film. To most of the world its very existence was unknown,
+and I did not think that either Haigh or Weems or Cospatric would ever
+guess the manner in which it had been carried off and transferred to an
+invisible shape. Yes, the dark slide and its contents seemed safe in my
+possession, and as we entered the sacking-floored carriage that was to
+take us up to our _Fonda_, I registered a resolve concerning it.
+_Pace_ accidents, I would cudgel my own resources for one entire
+year before I gave in and sought external aid.
+
+At the Fonda de Mallorca I took, in Spanish fashion, a three-roomed
+suite, and for one entire day did not move out of their whitewashed
+fastnesses.
+
+I sat thinking, thinking, and thinking, and felt my brain grow duller
+with every effort.
+
+"This will not do," I told myself. "I am used to fresh air, and
+sunshine, and the sound of voices, and I must live amongst all these as
+usual if I am to puzzle out this riddle. The answer, the key, if it
+comes at all, will arrive in a snap and a sudden, and won't be got at
+by tedious pondering in an uncomfortable hermitage."
+
+So the next morning I spent on the roof chatting with a girl who was
+hanging out clothes to dry on the roof adjoining, sniffing the scent of
+the oranges which came from a roof-garden across the street, toasting
+myself under the hot sun, and getting fanned by the sweet sea-air that
+poured up over the housetops from the curved bay beyond.
+
+A bell clanged below, and I went down the steps to luncheon. The
+landlord, according to his wont with strangers who were entered as
+_Senor_ and not as _Don_, intended that I should join the
+drummers' mess; but I was in no particular mood for that racy assembly
+just then, and bade Sadi take me to the dining-room at the other end of
+the house, where I sat down amongst garrison officers, proprietors come
+in from the country, and members of that bachelor fraternity which
+lived at the club opposite, and had their two principal daily meals
+here. They all knew one another, and had their well-worn cycle of
+conversation. They were tolerably cultured men, who rose superior to
+patois, and spoke pure and beautiful Castilian.
+
+No one addressed me, and I did not open my mouth for speech. Probably
+it never dawned upon them that I understood a word of their tongue. We
+Anglo-Saxons abroad have not a reputation for being polyglot, and I
+never advertise my own small linguistic attainments unless specially
+called upon to do so. I do not care particularly for the trouble of
+talking myself, and one scores sometimes by a taste for silence. I made
+rather a good point that way once in a certain Genovese _caffe_.
+
+When that _desayuno_ had progressed as far as cold pickled tunny,
+which came as a fourth course, we had an addition to the party. There
+was a light pattering of feet along the tiles to the doorway, and I
+felt the men around me bow--as they bowed to each newcomer. I joined
+them in the salute, and heard with surprise, as the fresh arrival went
+round by the table-head, the rustle of skirts--of tweed skirts, or else
+of rough serge, I could not be certain which.
+
+She took a seat opposite to me. The waiter placed before her a basin of
+soup. It was a Mallorquin soup, which consisted for the most part of
+slices of bread and a few slips of greens soaked in a very thin stock,
+with an egg broken over the whole so that the boiling mixture poached
+it lightly. Also there was a little oil added--native rancid oil. This
+sounds very nasty, but like the taste for olives, if a taste for that
+soup is once developed, it fascinates. Myself, I like this soup. The
+woman opposite did not. She told the waiter to take it away, naming it
+by its proper Mallorquin name.
+
+"The _arte de cocina_ of our island is not for every one's palate,
+I fear, senora," observed one of the men beside her. "It is not every
+foreigner who takes to it like your countryman _vis-a-vis_."
+
+Till then I had been uncertain of her nationality, though I had had my
+suspicions of it, for the Anglo-Saxon walk differs from the gait of the
+southern nations; but on this slender introduction we dropped into
+conversation, and spoke in English of those desultory matters which one
+does chat upon to a casual hotel acquaintance.
+
+We others had ended our meal before she was midway, and the Spaniards
+had finished their cigarettes and coffee before she rose.
+
+"You say, sir," said she, when she pushed the dish of burnt almonds
+finally away and rolled her napkin into its ring--"you say, sir, that
+you are staying here some time. So am I. It is my happiness to know the
+island well. If I can be of any use to you, command me. I see, with
+regret, that you are blind."
+
+I'm afraid I frowned angrily. She had touched me on my only sore point.
+"Madame," I said, "I congratulate you on your clear-sightedness. I
+flatter myself that I conceal my blindness from most people. I dare lay
+a heavy wager that none of the others who have been sitting round this
+table has so much as guessed at it."
+
+"I had--that is, I knew some one intimately, sir, whose eyesight had
+been destroyed. So you see I naturally noticed trifles about you which
+would escape others. But you may trust me not to mention a word about
+it. _Adios, senor, y diez mil perdons._"
+
+She rose and bowed. I did the same. I was angry with the woman and yet
+attracted by her, and at the same time ashamed of being so. I suppose
+these three conflicting emotions combined to make me careless. Anyway,
+the next thing that happened was that I, who never stumbled, found
+myself blundering over a rush-seated chair, and sweeping two
+dessert-plates from the table as I clutched out to preserve my balance.
+The waiter, who was in the room, rapped out a good round obscene oath
+of surprise. Nothing but the woman's action could have prevented his
+discovering my infirmity. She laughed amusedly, and said in Spanish,
+"Why, senor, one might think you were blind. You should look to your
+path even when you are very polite." And then she drew near me at the
+corner of the table, and rested her elbow against mine as skilfully and
+unobtrusively as Sadi himself could have done it.
+
+"You see, I know better than to grip you by the arm," she said,
+dropping into English again.
+
+"You have a skill and tact that not one in a million possesses. I am
+deeply grateful." We were at the foot of the stone stairs. I had my
+hand on the slim iron rail.
+
+"You will be able to get back to your rooms now?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"Then again buenas."
+
+"Adios. But shall I not see you again?"
+
+She laughed quietly. "Whenever you please, sir. I shall probably be
+staying in this hotel for some time yet."
+
+"Would you," I began, and felt myself to flush as I spoke, though no
+novice at chatting with most kinds of women--"are you in a hurry, that
+is? Would you come out into the _patio_ down the passage yonder
+and sit awhile? We shall find some hammock chairs, and if the glare off
+those tall white walls hurts you, there is an awning to pull down."
+
+She assented very gracefully, and we sat there for a couple of hours,
+afterwards strolling out past the great amber-coloured cathedral, and
+on to the walls, whilst the sun sank into the water beyond the little
+lateen-sailed fishing-boats that dotted the bay. With clever,
+unobtrusive tact she made herself my eyes. Into her talk she infused
+the tale of the quick and the still things we passed in our stroll,
+never entering into pointed descriptions, but rather mentioning them in
+her chat as though they were of interest to herself alone.
+
+And afterwards, in the evening, she was kind enough to come to a box I
+had secured at the opera-house--a building which is almost equal to La
+Scala--and I had the delight of _seeing_ Balfe's "The Talisman"
+acted, as well as of listening to the music.
+
+She was a woman of perfect self-reliance. She had seen men and women
+and places. She knew well how the restrictions of society were ruled,
+but she was quite capable of mapping out her own line of conduct to
+suit her own ideas. At least I deduced as much, though we exchanged no
+single word upon the subject. There had arisen between us a
+_camaraderie_ that for me was delightful. Sadi was good, but his
+companionship had its limits. She was all Sadi was, and more. It would
+be a poor compliment to say she was everything a male comrade could be.
+She was woman through it all. She was thoughtful, bright, amusing,
+resourceful.
+
+Yet we never verged beyond the bounds of mere _camaraderie_, nor
+do I think that either of us wished to do so.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+CRUELLY INTERRUPTED.
+
+
+For the life of me I cannot say now who proposed it. I think the scheme
+must have been evolved spontaneously between us. But the fact remains
+that next morning saw Mrs. Cromwell and myself driving out through the
+city _puerto_ by the railway station and the _Plaza de Toros_, and out
+along the level road across the plain, towards the hills that skirt it.
+She knew the island thoroughly--knew every inch of it, one might
+say--and understood and appreciated the people of all grades. I could
+not have found anywhere a more interesting companion.
+
+The old Mallorcan nobility, the oldest in Europe, are but little in
+evidence. They stay indoors, and outside their old palaces one hears
+little about them. Even in Palma, where times change but slowly, times
+have changed for them. They are woefully hard up--the result of heavy
+gambling in a past generation, and the depreciation of land in this.
+Indeed, with one exception, all classes down to the peasants are poor;
+but they are not unhappy. It would be impossible to find a race more
+contented with their lot. There is no absolute poverty. Bean porridge
+can be got almost for the asking, and if one eats bean porridge enough,
+one is not hungry. Their other wants are very few, and they are easily
+supplied. So that, practically speaking, every one, even the very
+poorest, is well off.
+
+Life for the Mallorcan does not consist of making money. He rather goes
+to the other extreme, and takes it as meant for doing nothing in, for
+chatting, for smoking indifferent cigarettes, for strolling about under
+a melodramatic black cloak with crimson plush lining, and for other
+enjoyments. He has no marked objection to money when it comes to his
+hand, but he will neither stoop nor climb to gather it. Allah has given
+him a lovely and fruitful island, with a perfect climate, and a store
+of philosophical contentment, and a theory of life called the
+_manana_ theory which utterly eliminates hurry. He wisely does not
+try to go against these things that Allah has arranged, and
+consequently most of his time is spent in rigorous _far niente_.
+
+It is only the women of Mallorca who work when they have got nothing
+else to do. In these frequent intervals they whitewash their dwellings
+and neighbourhood generally, which gives sanitation and neatness.
+
+Of the only wealthy class in Mallorca she seemed reluctant to speak.
+They were converted Jews, locally known as _Chuetas_. I found she
+had somehow imbibed a notion that I too was a Jew; but when I
+emphatically denied the impeachment, and said that I strongly hated
+Jews, she told me about these _Chuetas_.
+
+They are the Christianized lineal descendants of those Spanish Jews who
+in the old days disliked the alternative _auto da fe_, and
+preferred to 'vert. To-day they are a caste distinct to themselves,
+intermarry, and are loathed by all the other natives with a great
+loathing, and have no communications with outsiders except upon
+business. Needless to say, this last item is a large one, and in
+reality accounts for all the others. The Mallorcans are an easy-going
+race, and if they get hard cash to-day, repayment is a matter for
+_manana_, and therefore unworthy of consideration. And so the
+_Chuetas_ have contrived to get the upper hand all through the
+country. They might be forgiven for neglecting to toil and spin, for
+that is the custom in general favour; but the other idiosyncrasy
+rankles, and from noble to _puta_, every soul hates, abhors, and
+detests them. A man, an Englishman, who had not entered the island till
+middle life, told how he came there with tolerant notions, and thinking
+the treatment of these tribesmen unjust, cultivated the acquaintance of
+many of them. But he said he soon had to give them up. Their language,
+their thoughts, their sentiments, their mode of life, were alike
+disgusting. He understood why that low-grade _puta_ who had been
+offered marriage by a wealthy _Chueta_ had spat in his face by way
+of answer. They were utterly unfit to associate with. It was the old
+tale: kick a dog for centuries and he becomes an utter cur, and cur he
+will remain for centuries to come. And yet by a ghastly irony, the most
+devout of the devout Palman Catholics is the hated and despised Palman
+_Chueta_.
+
+The mules were dragging our carriage across the plain whilst she told
+me these things about the people, and at intervals she served me as
+eyes to note the beauties that we passed. There were orchards of
+almond-trees that seemed from a distance to be bearing a crop of
+snowflakes, till one came nearer and could distinguish the delicate
+pinks and mauves of their blossom; there were bushy algobras with rich
+green foliage; oranges, bearing the last of that juicy crop which, when
+fresh gathered, melts in the mouth like ice; olive-trees, with dry gray
+leaves and trunks so grotesquely gnarled as to suggest arboreal pain.
+The hot sun above, dappling the young corn and filling the stone
+water-conduits with soft tree-shadows; the tinkling twitter of unseen
+birds; the repose everywhere, made up a charm which my poor words
+refuse to utter. And yet she made me feel it all, and more besides.
+
+We approached the cup-edge of the mountain. To a Spaniard all trees
+except fruit-trees mean so many cubic feet of wood for building or
+charcoal. As Spain and Italy both know, climates change when the
+forests go, and the crops suffer from long droughts or heavy deluges
+which sweep the soil bodily away in spite of laboriously-built stone
+terraces or concrete-lined water ducts. But that is for _manana_.
+The timber is wanted for to-day, and down it comes. Yet from a merely
+scenic point of view this ruthless axemanship is hardly to be deplored
+where we were then. The rocks were bare, save for scattered dark-green
+dottings of pine or ilex perched where they could not readily be come
+at; they were full of fantastic shadows; they were shaven, gray, and
+rugged; they were unspeakably grand.
+
+The crags closed in as we went on, and the hiss of the stream which had
+neared the road began to drown the bird-songs. Some of the hills beside
+us were clothed with green shrubs, and some were gaunt and bare, of
+homely gray splashed with red. Ahead there was a wee white house,
+apparently balanced like an eagle's nest in an inaccessible eyrie. The
+orchards had gone, but the stony land was still scratched up to receive
+crops, and laboriously terraced to keep the soil from being swilled
+into the sea.
+
+The hills pressed farther together into a rocky gorge, with the rut of
+the road perched high on one side, and the stream brawling away fifty
+feet below. Goats with tinkling bells were flitting about the crags
+like so many brown flies. One began to wonder whether the road was not
+a _cul-de-sac_, and whether Valledemosa did not lie in some other
+direction. There seemed absolutely no outlet except for wings.
+
+But with an angle of the gorge one opened out a new scene. Another wide
+valley lay ahead of us, through which the road wound steeply, past
+women gathering the purple olives from the turf beneath the trees, past
+laden orange-trees, and sprawls of prickly pears, and fields of
+sprouting beans.
+
+And then we came to two yellow gate-posts, on one of which was the date
+1063, whilst the other bore this inscription: "VITAE IN INTROITV AEDIS
+SANCTAE EXUS."
+
+"Valledemosa is here," said my companion, "the village beside that
+convent where Madame Dudevant brought Chopin to die, and from which she
+took him away full of new life. The mules will bait here. It is for you
+to say whether we go on or return to Palma."
+
+"From the day when I lost my eyes to this day," was my reply, "I have
+never known what it was to see the shapes that God has builded on the
+face of the earth, or the colours with which He has painted them. Mind,
+I have never whined for the sight that was taken away from me. I have
+accepted my _Kismet_, and have made it as bright as thought and
+contrivance could manage. I believe, without egotism, that there are
+few blind men who have trained themselves to be as conscious of their
+surroundings as I am. But my powers have great limitations. However
+preternaturally sensitive a man may be to all manner of sounds, he
+cannot tell everything from sound alone, not even though his sense of
+touch besides is laboriously refined. Without the gift of sight there
+must always be (so I had been forced to decide) a black gaping hiatus
+which it seemed that no human power could fill. Of my helpers, till
+yesterday, Sadi was the only one who showed the least fraction of
+talent; yet even his best efforts could scarcely throw a glimmer
+through the cloud.
+
+"But to-day you have done what I believed no breathing person could do.
+You have worked a miracle. You have made me to see as with mine own old
+eyes. Heaven grant that this is not all a dream to be waked up from."
+
+We spent that night at the Archduke's _hospitar_ at Miramar--near
+Raymond Lully's birthplace--where free housing is given to any
+passer-by for three days, with olives, salt, and oil, the typical trio,
+provided. In the evening I told her across the _brazero_ a tale
+that had never crossed my lips before, the tale of how I had lost my
+eyes. I took her in my story to the south of Africa, and led her out
+over green rolling veldt to a hawthorn-crowned kopje, where we lay out
+of sight amongst the bushes. I explained to her that I was a diamond
+merchant, and that I was waiting there for men who were to bring me
+stones for sale. And then I told how, instead of those I expected,
+others came out of the soft black tropical night, in turn mistaking me
+also for some one else. They thought I was there for I.D.B.--I, an
+honest trader--and not daring to kill, had loaded their guns with
+rock-salt. I told her how the first charge had struck me full in the
+face and destroyed my sight for ever; how I had got up and fled
+shrieking away, and then lay hid for days in a clump of karoo-scrub
+nursing my hideous pain, and wishing for the death which would not
+come. And then I sketched to her the way that Sadi had found me, and
+nursed me, and been with me in all those groping after years, paying
+full tribute to his devotion.
+
+When I had finished she said she wanted to ask me one question, if she
+might do so without offence.
+
+"Nothing you would say," I replied, "can annoy me."
+
+"Then tell me, Mr. Pether, were you a registered diamond merchant out
+there?"
+
+"I was. I swear I was. Had I been there for Illicit Diamond Buying I
+should have deserved all I got, and more besides. But after being
+blinded, where was the use of trying to retaliate? of proving it was
+all a mistake? of pressing for a money recompense? Imprisoning a man,
+or fining him, or even blinding him in turn, could not restore my
+eyes."[3]
+
+      [3] _Note, by another hand._--Inquiries pushed by me,
+      Taltavull, through the agents of my brotherhood in the
+      neighbourhood of Du Toit's Pan, have elicited the following
+      communication: "Pether, more generally known as Conkleton, was a
+      regular Jew Kopjewalloper from Petticoat Lane. He had abundance
+      of money, and was the pest of the diamond fields. Several of his
+      runners were caught and convicted, but no case could ever be
+      framed against him in person, as he flourished before the days of
+      Diamond Registration. However, the charge of I.D.B. grew so
+      strong against him that at last the boys took the law into their
+      own hands and rock-salted him. Afterwards he disappeared. The
+      lesson appeared to have been sufficient. Rock-salt, so they say,
+      when fired into the skin, hurts." The name of my informant cannot
+      be divulged; but he is a most earnest worker in the Great Cause,
+      and I, Taltavull, will pledge my credit on his veracity.
+
+      (Signed) TALTAVULL.
+
+      _Anarchist Headquarters, Barcelona._
+
+And then I went on to tell her how it was a pure platonic love for
+diamonds themselves that had turned me to trade in those lovely stones;
+how their iridescent glitter delighted my eye, and how the very act of
+handling them in their dull, rough, uncut state was a joy to me that
+almost amounted to monomania. The theme pleased her, and she asked me
+to go on. I had not spoken of diamonds once during all those long years
+of darkness, and to discourse about them again to any one who took the
+obvious interest in them that she did was for me an indulgence nothing
+short of delicious. And when we parted for the night, and I found
+myself once more alone, I was almost surprised that I had said nothing
+about this new enterprise in the diamond industry which fortune had
+thrown in my way. "I feel sure," I told myself, "that she will share
+this great secret. She is the one person in this world for me to trust.
+But I cannot part with it yet. Besides, I have only known her two days.
+Time enough when we get back to Palma."
+
+We went out afoot after breakfast next morning, and during all that day
+I revelled in the beauties of Miramar, the finest piece of cliff and
+coast scenery in Europe. There is one of the many watch-towers here, a
+gray old building whose architect was dead before the Pharaohs or even
+the Phoenicians began to pile stones together, and yet the old citadel
+has not bent one inch to all that string of time. We ascended half-way
+outside up a ladder, and entered a small domed chamber. Then we climbed
+together on to the roof, which is half a covered sentry-house, half a
+balustraded lookout post. We could hear the rattle of the surf creaming
+away twelve hundred feet below, and could look down almost sheer into
+the many-hued blue water; and behind there were mountains rising
+steeply up into the clouds. The view was incomparable.
+
+Then we went down again, winding along a narrow path that was edged
+with flowering heath, and gained a jutting crag which seemed almost to
+overhang the water; and going on farther amongst the wind-brushed
+pines, we came to another spot which we had previously viewed from
+above. It was a little round stone oratory perched on the crest of a
+jutting pinnacle, and linked to the main rock by a narrow causeway
+which rested on a slender arch. It was lit by a lantern in the roof,
+and over the altar was the marble effigy of a man of years.
+
+I do not know why it was, but as we stood on the balcony outside that
+tiny chapel, leaning over the rail, and listening to the murmur of the
+woods beside and of the waters beneath us, I almost felt impelled to
+there and then show my companion that little wooden case I carried in
+my breast-pocket, and tell her of the vast and wonderful secret it
+contained. In fact, I believe it was the very greatness of the impulse
+which made me resist it. I am the last man to be called superstitious,
+but it seemed to me then that old Lully's shade was hovering near his
+birthplace, and was busying itself in my direction. I did not like the
+guidance, and so resisted it; and directly afterwards we strolled back
+across the bridge, and on through the woods again.
+
+I cannot, I will not tell in detail how the next few days passed. The
+little idyl concerns no one but myself--and one other--and there is no
+reason to desecrate them by bawling its delicate folds abroad. Suffice
+it to say that we went on through Deya to Soller, and then taking
+mules, climbed the mountain passes to the convent of Nuestra Senora de
+Lluch.
+
+"You can stay here if you choose," observed my companion, as our mules
+drank out of the fountain basin in the courtyard. "Inside the big
+doorway yonder is written up '_Silencio_' and '_Vir prudens
+tacebit_,' but the monks are not overstrict, and, like the Archduke
+at Miramar, they offer free hospitality to all wayfarers. If you have
+never stayed in a convent of this kind before, the experience will
+amuse you."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Oh, I shall go on to Pollensa, and you can join me there, if you
+choose, to-morrow."
+
+"But why not remain here?"
+
+She laughed. "I'm afraid I belong to the anti-monkish sex. True, they
+might offer me house-room--I do not say they wouldn't--but I do not
+care for putting myself in the way of being refused."
+
+"Then," said I, "I don't think a convent is very much in my way just at
+present. I will push on for Pollensa too."
+
+And so thither we went together, covering the short distance to Alcudia
+on the afternoon of next day.
+
+But at Alcudia there was a rude awakening, and, thanks to a woman's
+wit, a narrow escape awaiting me. It turned out that Cospatric and
+Haigh had added brains to their own council in the form of a
+scoundrelly anarchist, and were hot-foot upon the trail. Mrs. Cromwell
+heard my name mentioned as she came back into the _cafe_ from some
+small errand in the town, and instead of returning to the sitting-room
+upstairs, ordered coffee and sat down near three strangers who were
+talking in English. She was soon in conversation with them, and from
+one and the other cleverly elicited the whole tale of their adventure.
+They seemed overjoyed, poor fools, to discover in her tastes for
+pottery, music, and tattooing, and waxed garrulous without the smallest
+suspicion. Much was incomprehensible to her, but she sat on there far
+into the night, thinking that what she could learn might be of service
+to me.
+
+Made anxious by her absence, I had descended the narrow stairs to
+inquire after her, and nearly burst in upon their conclave. A
+recognition of their voices made me pull up with my fingers on the
+latch, and then return with a cat's tread to the place whence I had
+come.
+
+A week ago my first impulse would have been to evacuate the spot there
+and then, so that even if I were followed, my start would be a good
+one. But the last few days had changed me much. From being absolutely
+self-reliant, I had grown to be curiously dependent again. I shrank
+from taking a flight alone. And, moreover, there was another thing that
+held me back: I could not bear to rush away so suddenly from my
+companion. It seemed to me that if I deserted her then, I should never
+see that woman more; and rather than that should befall, I was prepared
+to brave anything. So I waited in that bare, whitewashed sitting-room,
+and waited and waited till she came, fearing desperately for the safety
+of my great treasure, yet determined to expose it to any risk rather
+than beat retreat alone.
+
+It was a torturing vigil.
+
+                      *     *     *     *     *
+
+The clocks had long struck midnight, and the _sereno_ had several
+times raised his dirge-like chaunt in the street outside, before my
+companion came to me. She wasted no time in preliminaries. I think she
+could see by my outward expression that I knew how danger threatened,
+and so she told in as few words as possible what she had learnt. "I
+hope you can understand it," she said at the conclusion. "I confess the
+most is gibberish to me, but it seemed to concern you, and so I thought
+would be interesting."
+
+"I am deeply grateful. But let me explain."
+
+"Don't think it an obligation, Mr. Pether. There seems to be some
+little mystery about the matter, and I do not want to pry into your
+affairs."
+
+"I wish you would."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because then I could feel that you took an interest in me."
+
+"Believe me, I do--a deep interest."
+
+I groped and found her hand. It pressed mine with a slight tremble.
+
+"You pity me because I am blind."
+
+"I am deeply grieved for your misfortune."
+
+"Ah"--I dropped the hand, and sighed regretfully--"only pity. But,
+then, what else could I expect?"
+
+"What would you have?" she asked softly.
+
+"I had hoped for love. I had prayed that I might be loved, as I love."
+
+And then? Why, honestly, I do not know how it came about, but in a
+minute or so each knew concerning the other all there was to tell.
+
+"I should not even mind resigning the Recipe now that I have got you,"
+I told her.
+
+"Ah, but," she said, with a little laugh, "if we are going into
+partnership, you and I, the interests of the firm must be looked after.
+There is no packet leaving the island for two days, so you must wire
+Sadi in Palma to hire a steamer and have it ready for us. The train
+leaves La Puebla at 7.55. We will go down to meet it by that."
+
+"But Cospatric and his friends will most certainly go by the same
+train."
+
+She put her lips to my ear and whispered, and then we laughed, and I
+took paper and pen and wrote a long letter.
+
+She read over my shoulder.
+
+"Admirable. Monsieur l'Aveugle, your friends will either stay here and
+rave, or else start on a wild-goose chase across the mountains to
+Soller. And we, you and I, Nat, we will go far away, away to----"
+
+She did not finish the sentence. She stooped and kissed me instead.
+
+
+
+
+[_Michael Cospatric again resumes speech._]
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+VENTRE A TERRE.
+
+
+"Now," said Haigh, as the anarchist reappeared dressed, and tore away
+down the stairs, "it seems to me a reasonable supposition that there's
+movement in front of us to-day, and so it's as well to prepare for it.
+I'm not a breakfast eater myself, and coffee and cognac will be all I
+can manage; but I'd advise you, as you are talented in that direction,
+to stow away as much solid food as you can lay your hands upon. The
+Lord knows what wild paper-chase that frock-coated idiot will try to
+lead us on when he turns up again. That is always supposing he does
+turn up, for, to tell the truth, I shouldn't be surprised if he made a
+bolt of it at this stage of the proceedings, and just played on for his
+own hand. And to let you into a secret, dear boy, I shouldn't be very
+savage if he did sell us in that way. We've got some good plunder as it
+is, and there'd be a devil of a lot of bother with one thing and
+another if we set about to collar the rest."
+
+"I can't say," I observed, "that I should object to being a billionaire
+myself. I've never tried the sensation, and I dare say there are
+drawbacks to it; but still, after a man's been beastly hard up all his
+days, he doesn't mind going to a little trouble to make a big haul."
+
+"You're energetic, old man; I'm not, and that's the difference between
+us. When I've specie in my pocket, I've never been in the habit of
+exerting myself to grab more till that's spent. I adopt the principle
+which obtains hereabouts, and shrug my shoulders, and say,
+'_Manana_.' However, if you're still on the gathering tack, I'm on
+for helping you to the limit of my small ability. Only, as I say, I'm
+not wonderfully keen on it from my own point of view."
+
+We breakfasted at leisure, the one sketchily, the other with emphasis,
+according to our appetites, and had just lit tobacco when the
+swing-doors of the _cafe_ clashed and the anarchist rushed in.
+
+"I have ordered a carriage," he exclaimed. "Come at once; we must meet
+it at the stable. There is no time to drive round here. We shall barely
+catch them as it is."
+
+"Ho, ho!" said Haigh placidly; "so you've hit off the trail, have you?
+Pollensa and Soller, is it?"
+
+"No, senor; your guess was a true one. They drove off to catch the
+Palma train at La Puebla. But come at once, or I must go alone."
+
+So we went off with him to the _establo_, climbed into a
+sacking-floored shandrydan, and rattled boisterously through the narrow
+streets of Alcudia. Once on the broad level road beyond the walls, the
+driver, who had already received his orders, made the cattle stretch
+out into a canter, and the pace was pretty smart. But it did not equal
+Taltavull's impatience, and every minute or so out went his head and
+beard bidding the driver to hasten and hasten; and the driver, crouched
+there in his little penthouse, rumbled out fierce _arr-e-ees_, and
+prodding forth a blue-sleeved arm beneath his blanket, lashed the
+scraggy mules into a gallop.
+
+"Good for any one with a torpid liver this," said Haigh.
+
+"Senor," exclaimed the anarchist, "how can you have the face to speak
+of trivialities at such a moment? Is it nothing to you what we have at
+stake?"
+
+"On the contrary, it is decidedly something. But I don't let that
+confounded Recipe worry me unduly, as you appear to do. Cospatric, give
+me a match--there's a good fellow."
+
+The old man glowered on him sourly, and turned to urge the driver for
+increased speed.
+
+We flew past the brown vine-stumps, and the mule-gins above the wells,
+and the many ducts and gutters which drain the marshes, our animals
+steaming as they strained at the traces, and the driver jerking about
+like some frenzied jumping-jack as he forced them on. The pace was
+almost racing pace, and to be in a race always warms one's blood. I
+began to share Taltavull's excitement. He was looking at his watch ever
+and anon, at each time crying that we should have scarcely time to meet
+the train. And yet it was evident that the mules could go no faster.
+
+I cast about me for some means of increasing the pace, and I was not
+long in hitting off an idea. It was not very brilliant, but I thought
+it worth sharing, and so spoke,--
+
+"Look here, Monsieur Taltavull: if we chuck some of the ballast
+overboard, the mules will have less to drag, and we shall go faster.
+The only thing is, have we enough money with us to afford it?"
+
+"Explain, explain! I cannot understand your barbarous sentences."
+
+"Why, we can smash off the lid and most of the sides of this ramshackle
+Noah's ark till it's as light as a Kentucky trotting wagon. The only
+thing is, we must pay the driver cash down, or he may object and stop,
+and we shall lose time that way."
+
+The anarchist unbuttoned his waistcoat, and, ripping away the lining,
+brought out a sheaf of notes. "A man," said he, "who never knows one
+minute whether he may not be arrested and have his pockets cleared the
+next, should never be without these. Senor Briton, use your big
+strength and tear away all that seems you good. I will satisfy the
+driver."
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Haigh. "If there's one thing I do love, it's
+destruction. Cospatric, I'll bear a hand here. Now, then, heave with
+those big shoulders of yours; tear and rip; splinter and smash; don't
+spare; the thing's got no friends. Use your feet, old chappie, if you
+want to; all's fair here. Faith, look at that worthy farmer toting up
+his mule-cart load of seaweed for manure!" He broke off into a roar of
+laughter, and hove a cushion right against the man's gaping mouth as we
+tore past. "If he doesn't go home and report us to his wife and cronies
+as stark staring maniacs, I'm a Scotsman. _Whoop_! work away, Don
+Miguel. There's more joy over one brick hove through a windowpane than
+in a whole house furnished on the hire system. Ain't we making a bally
+wreck of it? Good business! Wrench away the back of this seat, and I'll
+lug off the steps. _Arr-e-ee!_ Send those beasts along, Pedrillo.
+Make 'em burn the ground."
+
+The lust for destruction, when once thoroughly lit in an able-bodied
+man, is not an easy flame to extinguish, and in consequence we went
+ruthlessly on with the dismantlement of the carriage, till even
+Taltavull, hardened destructor as he was himself, was fain to call upon
+us to leave off.
+
+"But don't you think," said Haigh, "that we might just snap the thing
+in two amidships, and leave the hind wheels and all the back part
+behind? It would ease the load by at least three hundred-weight, and I
+think we could all perch on the foot-board in front. I'm sure the pole
+would keep it right side up."
+
+However, it was judged that quite enough was done already; and though
+Haigh seemed inclined to argue, further freaks were put a stop to by
+another incident turning up.
+
+The pace had slackened.
+
+Taltavull shrieked for the driver to quicken, and the driver used the
+butt of his whip-stock with true Southern mercilessness.
+
+"Why, that poor brute of a near mule has a stone in its shoe," Haigh
+called out. "It's going dead lame."
+
+"I know," said Taltavull. "It's a great nuisance, but it can't be
+helped. The stone may be knocked out again."
+
+"The stone won't be knocked out again. It's jammed firmly in, and gets
+set tighter every time it touches ground. The mule's in awful pain."
+
+"I can't help that."
+
+"By God, I can though. Here, pull up."
+
+"Senor Haigh, you must be mad."
+
+"I may be that, but I'm hanged if I'll sit here and see that poor
+miserable mule tortured. Here, Cospatric, stand by to grab this elderly
+person if he interferes.--And now, Mr. _Cochero_, pull 'em up in
+their tracks or I'll do it for you."
+
+The driver did as he was bade willingly enough, and Haigh nipped down
+and levered out the stone with his knife. I stayed where I was. I had
+my arms full. To be accurate, they were wrapped round the third member
+of our trio, who was wriggling like a demon, and foaming at the mouth
+in his wrath.
+
+But after all the halt was only a short one. "All clear," shouted
+Haigh, thirty seconds after he had descended. "_Arr-e-ee_, and
+away you go, my tulip. Not much time lost there, Senor Taltavull, after
+all."
+
+The anarchist favoured him with the most poisonous look of hatred that
+I ever beheld, and spoke with shut teeth: "If we fail through this
+halt, Senor Haigh, look to yourself."
+
+"Thanks," replied Haigh, squinting at him coolly enough; "I'm quite
+capable of doing that same, so think well before you play any pranks."
+
+We didn't talk much after that, but squatted upon our ruin like three
+bears, the mules meanwhile being sent along for all they were worth. It
+would be hard for me to say how long we took over the passage, as I
+didn't clock it, but I dare bet that we covered the ground in record
+time for a four-wheeled conveyance.
+
+Only once Haigh spoke. "If we miss this 7.55 train, when's the next?"
+he asked.
+
+"Five fifty-five in the afternoon," returned Taltavull gloomily.
+
+"Surely there's a train out of La Puebla before. The service can't be
+as fragmentary as all that."
+
+"Yes, another train leaves there at 2.45 for the San Bordils Junction;
+but it doesn't go through, and there is no connection on."
+
+"And how far is it by road to Palma?"
+
+The old man did not know, and so I mentioned that the fifty-five
+kilometre post was by the quay at Alcudia Port.
+
+"Oh, come," said Haigh, "that isn't so bad after all;" but what he
+meant I did not understand, as he relapsed into silence again. But we
+were pulling in the last knots very rapidly then, and presently we
+passed the cemetery, and got into the wished-for La Puebla. We tore
+through the place with the one casualty of a small black porker run
+over and left squalling in the road, and pulled up before the station
+in time to see the 7.55 train steam out along the metre-gauge track.
+
+Taltavull rushed into the waiting-room, and tried to storm the
+barricade, offering threats, money, anything to have the train stopped,
+if only for three seconds, whilst he got on board. But the officials
+were stolid and obdurate; they were unaccustomed to hurry and flurry,
+and they refused to do anything to help him; and the old man came out
+to us again, wringing his bony hands, and using language that was
+plaintive and powerful alternately.
+
+Meanwhile Haigh had shown unwonted activity. The populace of La Puebla,
+roused by our furious passage through the town, had followed hot-foot
+after us to stare at the ragged vehicle, and to throw ten score of
+questions at the driver, who, from a casual acquaintance of most of
+them, had sprung into a public character. So hurried had the summons
+been that many of them--of both sexes, save the mark--had apparently
+run out of doors in the apparel which served them under the bedclothes.
+Through this crowd Haigh shouldered his way, with a leery grin which
+seemed to win every heart (more especially the female ones), and went
+over to a double-muled carriage that was drawn up in front of the
+little _casa_ across the way. It was a private carriage, and the
+coachman naturally did not own the animals; but Haigh flourished under
+his nose three hundred-peseta notes, and before that mine of wealth the
+man's honesty fell. With his own hands he started untracing his cattle.
+
+Seeing what was in the wind, I stepped down and with ready help from
+the crowd set free the jaded animals that had brought us so far; and
+before our frock-coated companion had well emerged from the station
+again, we had picked him up and were off once more as hard as we could
+pelt. He was a goodish man at plotting and planning beforehand, that
+same Taltavull; but when it came to brisk action, he wasn't always
+prompt enough. A bit of a reverse seemed to daze him.
+
+"It's money that makes the world go round," remarked Haigh after we had
+got beyond the cheerful howls of the crowd, and our two fine mules had
+settled down to a steady hand-gallop. "If you look, you'll just see the
+tail end of the train swinging out of sight round that curve. If we
+have any luck, and the engine yonder doesn't forget its dignity and
+exceed the orthodox Spanish crawl, we should overhaul 'em before they
+make the next station. Our present pace is distinctly good. It's a
+clinking fine pair this I've requisitioned, and from the condition
+they're in, it's plain to see they haven't been rattled along like this
+for a longish time. I guess somebody'll be wrath when he sees the two
+screws his coachy has swapped for them. However, the resultant ructions
+are for _manana_, and suffice it for the present we're having a
+regal time. Come, cheer up, Monsieur Taltavull; you aren't half
+enjoying yourself."
+
+"It is terrible this uncertainty," groaned the old man, the words being
+jolted out of him in gasps. "We do not know whether or no the wretches
+are in that train after all. We may even be racing away from them.
+Senores, you have been too precipitate."
+
+"Precipitate?" rejoined Haigh; "not a bit of it, _amigo_. Both
+'wretches,' as you are pleased to style them, are in a drab-lined
+first-class compartment in the middle of the centre coach. I saw Madame
+Cromwell looking at us through the window, and took off my hat to her.
+She bowed, and mentioned our presence to M. l'Aveugle. So you see they
+understand our game, and see that we have tumbled to theirs. Three
+A.B.'s to a clever woman and a wily blind man. The latter combination
+is slightly the weaker of the two, and therefore is allowed start
+according to the ordinary handicap. Nothing could be fairer. I'm open
+to back either side for a win in anything up to ten carats of
+diamonds."
+
+Bar accidents, it seemed to me certain that we must overtake the train;
+but as we went along, the Book of our Fate read otherwise. Apparently
+that was the only day in the record of the world when a Spanish train
+had run true to time, and with anything approaching speed. There was
+only one explanation for it: our rivals must have "got at" the
+engine-driver. However, be that as it may, we hung very closely on to
+their heels, and always viewed them when the course of the line was at
+all straight.
+
+Indeed, at the junction of the Manacor branch the train was still in
+the station as we drove up outside at a furious gallop; but before we
+could get in and past those infernally placid officials, she steamed
+out again, and we had a desperate run along the platform for nothing.
+At least, Taltavull and I did. Nothing could induce Haigh to pick up
+his feet for anything quicker than a walk.
+
+We lost ground over this excursion, as the old man was so infernally
+blown with the sprint that he could scarcely totter back to the
+carriage; and by the time we had got under way again, the tail of the
+train was a good two kilometres ahead. But the mules were all the
+better for the short breather, and entering gamely into the spirit of
+the thing, stretched out into a long swinging lope that kept the chase
+from gaining a single inch.
+
+It was their frequent halts at the little wayside stations that helped
+us on, and if we had only had the gumption to fly on past the junction
+when we were level, we should have been able to board the train at the
+next stop without hurry. However, we only discovered that afterwards,
+and as the mistake once made could not be rectified, we held grimly on.
+
+Hills bothered us a little at times, and the windings of the road added
+to our handicap; but when at last we came down to the semicircular
+plain on whose edge Palma stands, we thought we saw victory ahead.
+
+"There's between eight and ten kilometres to do," said Haigh, "and as
+it's all on the flat and straight, we should, with luck, be home first,
+and waiting to meet them."
+
+"Don't you be too cocksure," said I. "It isn't all over but the
+shouting by a very long chalk. If you notice, there's been some rain
+falling here, and down on the flat there's been a lot by the look of
+it. I'm afraid that will mean heavy going for our wheels."
+
+As we got down to the level this evil prophecy showed itself a true
+one. There was gluey mud on the well-made track often three inches
+deep, and though our driver flogged industriously, the tired mules were
+seldom able to muster up anything better than a lumbering canter. We
+had the train in sight all the time, and could see that we were
+dropping astern at every stride. It was very mortifying.
+
+But as the race neared its close Fortune again pulled a string in our
+favour. A distant whistle screamed, and we saw the train gradually
+bring up to a standstill alongside a signal-post. The respite was not
+for long, for the barrier was soon withdrawn, and she steamed into the
+station; but it had enabled us to see the pair we were chasing come
+sharply out of the buildings, enter a carriage, and get driven away
+through the gate into the city.
+
+"What now?" demanded Haigh.
+
+"On after them," exclaimed the anarchist.
+
+"What! in this rattletrap?"
+
+"Of course," said I.
+
+"But everybody will stare."
+
+"Oh, what the devil does that matter?"
+
+"Why, for myself, I must say that in a fashionable place like this,
+with a lot of girls about, I----Hullo! that settles it, though."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Look ahead, dear boy. There's a heavy cart just shed a wheel slap-bang
+in the middle of the _puerto_. The way will be blocked for an hour
+at least."
+
+"Out we get then, and follow 'em to earth on foot. Thank goodness, the
+streets are very crowded, so their carriage won't be able to get along
+at more than a foot's pace."
+
+Our pursuit was not very rapid. Haigh flatly refused to move at
+anything beyond a smart walk, saying that he should collapse if he did.
+I could have run them down if I had wished, but had no hankering for a
+row in the public streets, and so stayed with my shipmate. And
+Taltavull we kept with us whether he liked it or not. I do not think,
+though, that he was very keen to race on alone. "They cannot get out of
+the island, senores," said he, "as no steamer leaves to-day, and they
+must understand by this that they cannot escape us. I suspect that they
+will go to the Fonda de Mallorca, and await us there to treat for
+terms."
+
+So we wound our way down the narrow, busy streets (wherein every fifth
+building was put to ecclesiastical uses), and finally landed out into
+the head of the Calle de Conquistador, where another surprise awaited
+us.
+
+The hotel is in the middle of the hill, and as we arrived in sight of
+it we saw our two birds, accompanied by a dark-complexioned chap (whom
+I took to be Sadi, Pether's confidential valet), get out of the vehicle
+which had brought them so far, into another smarter one, which drove
+off at a rapid pace as soon as they were under the tilt.
+
+Taltavull started wringing his hands. "What now? what now?" moaned he.
+
+"The Lord knows," said I. "Where's the nearest hack-stand? Say, quick."
+
+"At the bottom of the street."
+
+"Well, here's a tram going down. Up you jump."
+
+The three of us hung on the tail-board, and rode to the bottom of the
+Calle de Conquistador, where we exchanged to the most likely-looking
+vehicle we could see.
+
+"You saw that carriage that just rushed by down towards the harbour?"
+
+"_Si, senor_," grinned the driver.
+
+"Then after it like blue hades, and there's a hundred pesetas for you
+when we're alongside."
+
+"_Ah, senores, muchos grac----_"
+
+"Drive, you scoundrel; don't talk."
+
+Away we went again, clattering, jolting, rattling, till the teeth of us
+were fairly loosened in their steps. Sharp to the right it was, past
+the Longa, and on by the tram-lines alongside the old walls; then an
+S-turn; and then a sweep round to the left; always with the
+tram-lines beside our tires. We were heading out for the white suburb
+which is beneath the Bellver Castle, and what harbourage the fugitives
+could hope to find in that direction we couldn't for the life of us
+imagine. But that was their affair. Our business--or the business we
+made for ourselves--was to get within speaking range.
+
+Up the hill we spun, and through the pretty suburb, with its
+orange-trees, and its tattered palms, and its sprawling clumps of
+prickly pears; and past Porto Pi, the silted-up Carthaginian harbour;
+and then, leaving population and tram-lines behind, we opened out on to
+the magnificent road that sweeps round the western horn of Palma Bay.
+But always at a fixed distance in front of us hovered a billowing halo
+of amber-coloured dust, which no frenzied strain on our part could
+bring a metre nearer.
+
+Once where the road wound in stately zigzags down the cliff of a slope,
+our driver took the ditch and cut an angle, heading across the rough
+ground which intervened; but the pace had to be lessened, and the
+carriage was nearly wrenched to pieces, and the experiment was not
+repeated. We had lost time by it.
+
+And so the race continued, and the monotony of it dulled our interest
+in surroundings.
+
+We thought only of the conclusion. Where the actual winning-post could
+be we had given up trying to conjecture. "It seems," Haigh remarked
+once, "that those two fools have made up their minds to race round this
+five-franc bit of an island for so long as we three fools choose to
+chivy them. It's a mad set-out whichever side you take it from, and the
+fun's evaporating. I don't know what you chaps are going to do, but the
+next chance I see I'm going to get down for a drink. I'm parched within
+an inch of dissolution."
+
+How long this state of things went on I can't tell. I was bruised by
+the bumping from hat to heel, and was much engaged in fending myself
+against further abrasions. But at last a sharp cry from the driver
+roused me to look out of one of the window-ports, and I saw that we had
+opened out a small bay that was backed by a high rocky island of red
+and yellow stone. One end of the island showed a curious profile of a
+man's face, and I recognized it as Dragonera; but what the bay was
+called I didn't remember, though I had a sort of dim recollection of an
+anchorage for small craft there.
+
+Anchorage it was sure enough too, for as we rose the inlet further, I
+saw a small screw boat riding there to some sort of moorings and
+lifting languidly to the swell. She was an ex-yacht, Cowes or Clyde
+built for a wager, of the sort one sees in small Mediterranean ports
+for the petty coasting traffic; a lean, slender craft of some eighty or
+hundred tons register, with all her pristine smartness thoroughly
+submerged in southern happy-go-lucky squalor. There was a faint gray
+pencil of steam feathering away from her escape-pipe, and as we drew
+nearer I saw she had hove short, and was ready to break her anchor out
+of the ground at a moment's notice.
+
+Another cry from the driver called off my attention. The carriage ahead
+had stopped; its three passengers had descended, and hand in hand were
+running over the rough ground towards the shore. A small dinghy was
+waiting for them at the edge of the shingle. So there had been method
+in their mad scurry after all.
+
+Our driver cursed and _arr-e-e'd_ and forced his cattle into a
+scrambling gallop, and we drew up with the deserted carriage, whose
+mules were standing straddle-legged, and panting as though they were
+going to burst. He pulled up there, but Haigh snatched hold of the
+reins through the front window, and turning the animals off the road,
+sent them with a yell into the palm scrub that fringed it. The poor
+beasts took fright and sprang off at fresh gallop, the carriage leaping
+and bumping after them like a tin kettle at a dog's tail, till at one
+jolt stronger than the rest it lost balance, and fell over with a
+splintering crash to its side.
+
+We were all heaped over to leeward amongst a tidy heap of wreckage; but
+we soon managed to scramble out, and saw the fugitives making rapid
+going towards their boat.
+
+"Now, Cospatric, ye wiry divil," shouted Haigh, "run for all you're
+worth, and put Pether in your pocket."
+
+Off I started, and measured my length twice in the first fifty yards.
+The ground was awfully uneven, and the palmetto scrub so thick that one
+could not see where to tread. The trio ahead were close upon their
+boat, and it seemed to me an absolute certainty that I should be too
+late. But a fresh crashing amongst the spiky shrubs behind made me turn
+my head, and I saw the absurd figure of the old man charging down on a
+mule that he had cut adrift. He passed me like a flash, his face
+glowering like a fiend's, and he reached the shingle just as the dinghy
+had got two boat-lengths away.
+
+The passengers were encouraging the two sailors at the oars to every
+exertion; but Taltavull pulled up as his mule's feet splashed in the
+water, and whipping out a blue revolver covered the two rowers and
+sharply bade them stop. They easied in the middle of a stroke, and
+raised their oar-blades, glistening and dripping.
+
+"And now, Senor Pether, I hold you covered. I am a dead shot, and if
+you carry the Recipe a yard farther away you bring your fate upon your
+own head. I, Taltavull, swear it."
+
+I saw Mrs. Cromwell lean over and cover the blind man's body with her
+own. Sadi also made a movement, apparently for the same purpose. But
+Pether waved them both back. He slipped a hand into his breast-pocket,
+and brought out the little mahogany case.
+
+"Here it is, Senor Taltavull. You'll share the contents with your two
+friends?"
+
+"Yes," exclaimed the old man, stretching out his bony hands; "I have
+promised."
+
+"Then there you are, Senor Taltavull," said the other quietly. He
+deliberately drew back the shutter, exposed the yellowy-green film to
+the full sun-glare, and flung it from him with a sideways jerk.
+
+It flew circling to the anarchist's feet; and for a moment we were all
+so paralyzed with the action that no one spoke or moved. Sooner than
+share or surrender, the man had deliberately destroyed the Recipe for
+good and all.
+
+The anarchist was first to act. Slowly I saw him raise his weapon, and
+as if fascinated I could not move to interrupt him. With a leathery
+grin of cruelty he had brought it to bear, and in another moment there
+would have been murder done. But at that instant a flash of something
+brown shot by, and Taltavull and his mount were bowled over amongst the
+palmettos.
+
+A cavalry reinforcement had arrived. Haigh had cut loose another of the
+mules, and had deliberately ridden the old man down.
+
+"It's an old polo trick," said he, with a pleased grin. "Useful when a
+man persistently crosses you; quite simple when you know
+it.--Good-afternoon, Mrs. Cromwell.--Afternoon, Juggins, dear boy. Let
+me congratulate you on drawing this game. I thought we were going to
+gather in the beans.--Eh, what's that?"
+
+Taltavull was sitting up amongst the scrubs, and was shaking a
+trembling fist at the boat and snarling out the word "iconoclast."
+
+"'Iconoclast' indeed. Faith, that's the pot libelling the kettle most
+unjustly.--I say, Cospatric, just take that melodramatic old fool's gun
+away from him, and wring his neck if he won't behave himself.--My dear
+Mrs. Cromwell, I must really apologize for our companion. I assure you
+that nothing but stress of circumstances could have driven us into such
+dubious society. Well, the fun's all over now, and I hope you and Mr.
+Pether bear no ill-will. I'm sure Cospatric and I harbour no grudge."
+
+Mrs. Cromwell gave an order, the boat backed in to the shingle, and we
+found ourselves shaking hands with one another, as if we were dear
+friends who had always worked for one another's welfare.
+
+"Mentone and Paris will be our neighbourhoods for winter and summer,"
+said Pether, "and you two men must contrive to beat us up somehow and
+compare notes over this mutual score."
+
+"Ladies are seldom averse to jewellery," said Haigh. "Will Mrs.
+Cromwell deign to accept from Mr. Cospatric and myself this small
+packet of diamonds, to be mounted as she sees fit?"
+
+In fact, for the space of half an hour we were fulsomely civil to one
+another; and then they bobbled off in the dinghy, and the yacht took
+them I know not where; and we, after putting Taltavull in one of the
+carriages, drove off ourselves to Palma in the other.
+
+"Faith," said Haigh, "it's a different man I am this day from when I
+saw you first in Genoa, old chappie. But after all this fresh air and
+exercise I must really go on the rampage for a bit. Come now, Palma for
+a few days, and then we'll hark back to the ugly cutter and go off
+somewhere else. Where shall we go?"
+
+"Note which way the wind blows, and start before it."
+
+"Right," said Haigh. "There's nothing like having definite plans
+beforehand."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
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