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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 161, May
+1904, by Various
+
+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 Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 161, May 1904
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: February 10, 2012 [EBook #38820]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRAND MAGAZINE, MAY, 1904 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dianna Adair, Jonathan Ingram, Ernest Schaal,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: "WITH THE BOUND OF A TIGER HOLMES WAS ON HIS BACK."]
+                           (_See page 492._)
+
+
+
+
+                          THE STRAND MAGAZINE.
+
+    Vol. xxvii.                MAY, 1904.                   No. 161.
+
+
+
+
+                     THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.
+
+                           By A. CONAN DOYLE.
+
+        Copyright, 1904, by A. Conan Doyle, in the United States of
+        America.
+
+              _VIII.--The Adventure of the Six Napoleons._
+
+
+It was no very unusual thing for Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, to look
+in upon us of an evening, and his visits were welcome to Sherlock
+Holmes, for they enabled him to keep in touch with all that was going on
+at the police head-quarters. In return for the news which Lestrade would
+bring, Holmes was always ready to listen with attention to the details
+of any case upon which the detective was engaged, and was able
+occasionally, without any active interference, to give some hint or
+suggestion drawn from his own vast knowledge and experience.
+
+On this particular evening Lestrade had spoken of the weather and the
+newspapers. Then he had fallen silent, puffing thoughtfully at his
+cigar. Holmes looked keenly at him.
+
+"Anything remarkable on hand?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, no, Mr. Holmes, nothing very particular."
+
+"Then tell me about it."
+
+Lestrade laughed.
+
+"Well, Mr. Holmes, there is no use denying that there _is_ something on
+my mind. And yet it is such an absurd business that I hesitated to
+bother you about it. On the other hand, although it is trivial, it is
+undoubtedly queer, and I know that you have a taste for all that is out
+of the common. But in my opinion it comes more in Dr. Watson's line than
+ours."
+
+"Disease?" said I.
+
+"Madness, anyhow. And a queer madness too! You wouldn't think there was
+anyone living at this time of day who had such a hatred of Napoleon the
+First that he would break any image of him that he could see."
+
+Holmes sank back in his chair.
+
+"That's no business of mine," said he.
+
+"Exactly. That's what I said. But then, when the man commits burglary in
+order to break images which are not his own, that brings it away from
+the doctor and on to the policeman."
+
+Holmes sat up again.
+
+"Burglary! This is more interesting. Let me hear the details."
+
+Lestrade took out his official note-book and refreshed his memory from
+its pages.
+
+      [Illustration: "LESTRADE TOOK OUT HIS OFFICIAL NOTE-BOOK."]
+
+"The first case reported was four days ago," said he. "It was at the
+shop of Morse Hudson, who has a place for the sale of pictures and
+statues in the Kennington Road. The assistant had left the front shop
+for an instant when he heard a crash, and hurrying in he found a plaster
+bust of Napoleon, which stood with several other works of art upon the
+counter, lying shivered into fragments. He rushed out into the road,
+but, although several passers-by declared that they had noticed a man
+run out of the shop, he could neither see anyone nor could he find any
+means of identifying the rascal. It seemed to be one of those senseless
+acts of Hooliganism which occur from time to time, and it was reported
+to the constable on the beat as such. The plaster cast was not worth
+more than a few shillings, and the whole affair appeared to be too
+childish for any particular investigation.
+
+"The second case, however, was more serious and also more singular. It
+occurred only last night.
+
+"In Kennington Road, and within a few hundred yards of Morse Hudson's
+shop, there lives a well-known medical practitioner, named Dr. Barnicot,
+who has one of the largest practices upon the south side of the Thames.
+His residence and principal consulting-room is at Kennington Road, but
+he has a branch surgery and dispensary at Lower Brixton Road, two miles
+away. This Dr. Barnicot is an enthusiastic admirer of Napoleon, and his
+house is full of books, pictures, and relics of the French Emperor. Some
+little time ago he purchased from Morse Hudson two duplicate plaster
+casts of the famous head of Napoleon by the French sculptor, Devine. One
+of these he placed in his hall in the house at Kennington Road, and the
+other on the mantelpiece of the surgery at Lower Brixton. Well, when Dr.
+Barnicot came down this morning he was astonished to find that his house
+had been burgled during the night, but that nothing had been taken save
+the plaster head from the hall. It had been carried out and had been
+dashed savagely against the garden wall, under which its splintered
+fragments were discovered."
+
+Holmes rubbed his hands.
+
+"This is certainly very novel," said he.
+
+"I thought it would please you. But I have not got to the end yet. Dr.
+Barnicot was due at his surgery at twelve o'clock, and you can imagine
+his amazement when, on arriving there, he found that the window had been
+opened in the night, and that the broken pieces of his second bust were
+strewn all over the room. It had been smashed to atoms where it stood.
+In neither case were there any signs which could give us a clue as to
+the criminal or lunatic who had done the mischief. Now, Mr. Holmes, you
+have got the facts."
+
+"They are singular, not to say grotesque," said Holmes. "May I ask
+whether the two busts smashed in Dr. Barnicot's rooms were the exact
+duplicates of the one which was destroyed in Morse Hudson's shop?"
+
+"They were taken from the same mould."
+
+"Such a fact must tell against the theory that the man who breaks them
+is influenced by any general hatred of Napoleon. Considering how many
+hundreds of statues of the great Emperor must exist in London, it is too
+much to suppose such a coincidence as that a promiscuous iconoclast
+should chance to begin upon three specimens of the same bust."
+
+"Well, I thought as you do," said Lestrade. "On the other hand, this
+Morse Hudson is the purveyor of busts in that part of London, and these
+three were the only ones which had been in his shop for years. So,
+although, as you say, there are many hundreds of statues in London, it
+is very probable that these three were the only ones in that district.
+Therefore, a local fanatic would begin with them. What do you think, Dr.
+Watson?"
+
+"There are no limits to the possibilities of monomania," I answered.
+"There is the condition which the modern French psychologists have
+called the 'idée fixe,' which may be trifling in character, and
+accompanied by complete sanity in every other way. A man who had read
+deeply about Napoleon, or who had possibly received some hereditary
+family injury through the great war, might conceivably form such an
+'idée fixe' and under its influence be capable of any fantastic
+outrage."
+
+"That won't do, my dear Watson," said Holmes, shaking his head; "for no
+amount of 'idée fixe' would enable your interesting monomaniac to find
+out where these busts were situated."
+
+"Well, how do _you_ explain it?"
+
+"I don't attempt to do so. I would only observe that there is a certain
+method in the gentleman's eccentric proceedings. For example, in Dr.
+Barnicot's hall, where a sound might arouse the family, the bust was
+taken outside before being broken, whereas in the surgery, where there
+was less danger of an alarm, it was smashed where it stood. The affair
+seems absurdly trifling, and yet I dare call nothing trivial when I
+reflect that some of my most classic cases have had the least promising
+commencement. You will remember, Watson, how the dreadful business of
+the Abernetty family was first brought to my notice by the depth which
+the parsley had sunk into the butter upon a hot day. I can't afford,
+therefore, to smile at your three broken busts, Lestrade, and I shall be
+very much obliged to you if you will let me hear of any fresh
+developments of so singular a chain of events."
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+The development for which my friend had asked came in a quicker and an
+infinitely more tragic form than he could have imagined. I was still
+dressing in my bedroom next morning when there was a tap at the door and
+Holmes entered, a telegram in his hand. He read it aloud:--
+
+"Come instantly, 131, Pitt Street, Kensington.--Lestrade."
+
+"What is it, then?" I asked.
+
+"Don't know--may be anything. But I suspect it is the sequel of the
+story of the statues. In that case our friend, the image-breaker, has
+begun operations in another quarter of London. There's coffee on the
+table, Watson, and I have a cab at the door."
+
+In half an hour we had reached Pitt Street, a quiet little backwater
+just beside one of the briskest currents of London life. No. 131 was one
+of a row, all flat-chested, respectable, and most unromantic dwellings.
+As we drove up we found the railings in front of the house lined by a
+curious crowd. Holmes whistled.
+
+"By George! it's attempted murder at the least. Nothing less will hold
+the London message-boy. There's a deed of violence indicated in that
+fellow's round shoulders and outstretched neck. What's this, Watson? The
+top steps swilled down and the other ones dry. Footsteps enough, anyhow!
+Well, well, there's Lestrade at the front window, and we shall soon know
+all about it."
+
+The official received us with a very grave face and showed us into a
+sitting-room, where an exceedingly unkempt and agitated elderly man,
+clad in a flannel dressing-gown, was pacing up and down. He was
+introduced to us as the owner of the house--Mr. Horace Harker, of the
+Central Press Syndicate.
+
+        [Illustration: "HE WAS INTRODUCED TO US AS THE OWNER OF
+                    THE HOUSE--MR. HORACE HARKER."]
+
+"It's the Napoleon bust business again," said Lestrade. "You seemed
+interested last night, Mr. Holmes, so I thought perhaps you would be
+glad to be present now that the affair has taken a very much graver
+turn."
+
+"What has it turned to, then?"
+
+"To murder. Mr. Harker, will you tell these gentlemen exactly what has
+occurred?"
+
+The man in the dressing-gown turned upon us with a most melancholy face.
+
+"It's an extraordinary thing," said he, "that all my life I have been
+collecting other people's news, and now that a real piece of news has
+come my own way I am so confused and bothered that I can't put two words
+together. If I had come in here as a journalist I should have
+interviewed myself and had two columns in every evening paper. As it is
+I am giving away valuable copy by telling my story over and over to a
+string of different people, and I can make no use of it myself. However,
+I've heard your name, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and if you'll only explain
+this queer business I shall be paid for my trouble in telling you the
+story."
+
+Holmes sat down and listened.
+
+"It all seems to centre round that bust of Napoleon which I bought for
+this very room about four months ago. I picked it up cheap from Harding
+Brothers, two doors from the High Street Station. A great deal of my
+journalistic work is done at night, and I often write until the early
+morning. So it was to-day. I was sitting in my den, which is at the back
+of the top of the house, about three o'clock, when I was convinced that
+I heard some sounds downstairs. I listened, but they were not repeated,
+and I concluded that they came from outside. Then suddenly, about five
+minutes later, there came a most horrible yell--the most dreadful sound,
+Mr. Holmes, that ever I heard. It will ring in my ears as long as I
+live. I sat frozen with horror for a minute or two. Then I seized the
+poker and went downstairs. When I entered this room I found the window
+wide open, and I at once observed that the bust was gone from the
+mantelpiece. Why any burglar should take such a thing passes my
+understanding, for it was only a plaster cast and of no real value
+whatever.
+
+"You can see for yourself that anyone going out through that open window
+could reach the front doorstep by taking a long stride. This was clearly
+what the burglar had done, so I went round and opened the door. Stepping
+out into the dark I nearly fell over a dead man who was lying there. I
+ran back for a light, and there was the poor fellow, a great gash in his
+throat and the whole place swimming in blood. He lay on his back, his
+knees drawn up, and his mouth horribly open. I shall see him in my
+dreams. I had just time to blow on my police-whistle, and then I must
+have fainted, for I knew nothing more until I found the policeman
+standing over me in the hall."
+
+"Well, who was the murdered man?" asked Holmes.
+
+"There's nothing to show who he was," said Lestrade. "You shall see the
+body at the mortuary, but we have made nothing of it up to now. He is a
+tall man, sunburned, very powerful, not more than thirty. He is poorly
+dressed, and yet does not appear to be a labourer. A horn-handled clasp
+knife was lying in a pool of blood beside him. Whether it was the weapon
+which did the deed, or whether it belonged to the dead man, I do not
+know. There was no name on his clothing, and nothing in his pockets save
+an apple, some string, a shilling map of London, and a photograph. Here
+it is."
+
+It was evidently taken by a snap-shot from a small camera. It
+represented an alert, sharp-featured simian man with thick eyebrows, and
+a very peculiar projection of the lower part of the face like the muzzle
+of a baboon.
+
+"And what became of the bust?" asked Holmes, after a careful study of
+this picture.
+
+"We had news of it just before you came. It has been found in the front
+garden of an empty house in Campden House Road. It was broken into
+fragments. I am going round now to see it. Will you come?"
+
+"Certainly. I must just take one look round." He examined the carpet and
+the window. "The fellow had either very long legs or was a most active
+man," said he. "With an area beneath, it was no mean feat to reach that
+window-ledge and open that window. Getting back was comparatively
+simple. Are you coming with us to see the remains of your bust, Mr.
+Harker?"
+
+The disconsolate journalist had seated himself at a writing-table.
+
+"I must try and make something of it," said he, "though I have no doubt
+that the first editions of the evening papers are out already with full
+details. It's like my luck! You remember when the stand fell at
+Doncaster? Well, I was the only journalist in the stand, and my journal
+the only one that had no account of it, for I was too shaken to write
+it. And now I'll be too late with a murder done on my own doorstep."
+
+As we left the room we heard his pen travelling shrilly over the
+foolscap.
+
+The spot where the fragments of the bust had been found was only a few
+hundred yards away. For the first time our eyes rested upon this
+presentment of the great Emperor, which seemed to raise such frantic and
+destructive hatred in the mind of the unknown. It lay scattered in
+splintered shards upon the grass. Holmes picked up several of them and
+examined them carefully. I was convinced from his intent face and his
+purposeful manner that at last he was upon a clue.
+
+"Well?" asked Lestrade.
+
+Holmes shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"We have a long way to go yet," said he. "And yet--and yet--well, we
+have some suggestive facts to act upon. The possession of this trifling
+bust was worth more in the eyes of this strange criminal than a human
+life. That is one point. Then there is the singular fact that he did not
+break it in the house, or immediately outside the house, if to break it
+was his sole object."
+
+"He was rattled and bustled by meeting this other fellow. He hardly knew
+what he was doing."
+
+"Well, that's likely enough. But I wish to call your attention very
+particularly to the position of this house in the garden of which the
+bust was destroyed."
+
+Lestrade looked about him.
+
+"It was an empty house, and so he knew that he would not be disturbed in
+the garden."
+
+"Yes, but there is another empty house farther up the street which he
+must have passed before he came to this one. Why did he not break it
+there, since it is evident that every yard that he carried it increased
+the risk of someone meeting him?"
+
+"I give it up," said Lestrade.
+
+Holmes pointed to the street lamp above our heads.
+
+  [Illustration: "HOLMES POINTED TO THE STREET LAMP ABOVE OUR HEADS."]
+
+"He could see what he was doing here and he could not there. That was
+his reason."
+
+"By Jove! that's true," said the detective. "Now that I come to think of
+it, Dr. Barnicot's bust was broken not far from his red lamp. Well, Mr.
+Holmes, what are we to do with that fact?"
+
+"To remember it--to docket it. We may come on something later which will
+bear upon it. What steps do you propose to take now, Lestrade?"
+
+"The most practical way of getting at it, in my opinion, is to identify
+the dead man. There should be no difficulty about that. When we have
+found who he is and who his associates are, we should have a good start
+in learning what he was doing in Pitt Street last night, and who it was
+who met him and killed him on the doorstep of Mr. Horace Harker. Don't
+you think so?"
+
+"No doubt; and yet it is not quite the way in which I should approach
+the case."
+
+"What would you do, then?"
+
+"Oh, you must not let me influence you in any way! I suggest that you go
+on your line and I on mine. We can compare notes afterwards, and each
+will supplement the other."
+
+"Very good," said Lestrade.
+
+"If you are going back to Pitt Street you might see Mr. Horace Harker.
+Tell him from me that I have quite made up my mind, and that it is
+certain that a dangerous homicidal lunatic with Napoleonic delusions was
+in his house last night. It will be useful for his article."
+
+Lestrade stared.
+
+"You don't seriously believe that?"
+
+Holmes smiled.
+
+"Don't I? Well, perhaps I don't. But I am sure that it will interest Mr.
+Horace Harker and the subscribers of the Central Press Syndicate. Now,
+Watson, I think that we shall find that we have a long and rather
+complex day's work before us. I should be glad, Lestrade, if you could
+make it convenient to meet us at Baker Street at six o'clock this
+evening. Until then I should like to keep this photograph found in the
+dead man's pocket. It is possible that I may have to ask your company
+and assistance upon a small expedition which will have to be undertaken
+to-night, if my chain of reasoning should prove to be correct. Until
+then, good-bye and good luck!"
+
+Sherlock Holmes and I walked together to the High Street, where he
+stopped at the shop of Harding Brothers, whence the bust had been
+purchased. A young assistant informed us that Mr. Harding would be
+absent until after noon, and that he was himself a newcomer who could
+give us no information. Holmes's face showed his disappointment and
+annoyance.
+
+"Well, well, we can't expect to have it all our own way, Watson," he
+said, at last. "We must come back in the afternoon if Mr. Harding will
+not be here until then. I am, as you have no doubt surmised,
+endeavouring to trace these busts to their source, in order to find if
+there is not something peculiar which may account for their remarkable
+fate. Let us make for Mr. Morse Hudson, of the Kennington Road, and see
+if he can throw any light upon the problem."
+
+A drive of an hour brought us to the picture-dealer's establishment. He
+was a small, stout man with a red face and a peppery manner.
+
+"Yes, sir. On my very counter, sir," said he. "What we pay rates and
+taxes for I don't know, when any ruffian can come in and break one's
+goods. Yes, sir, it was I who sold Dr. Barnicot his two statues.
+Disgraceful, sir! A Nihilist plot, that's what I make it. No one but an
+Anarchist would go about breaking statues. Red republicans, that's what
+I call 'em. Who did I get the statues from? I don't see what that has to
+do with it. Well, if you really want to know, I got them from Gelder and
+Co., in Church Street, Stepney. They are a well-known house in the
+trade, and have been this twenty years. How many had I? Three--two and
+one are three--two of Dr. Barnicot's and one smashed in broad daylight
+on my own counter. Do I know that photograph? No, I don't. Yes, I do,
+though. Why, it's Beppo. He was a kind of Italian piece-work man, who
+made himself useful in the shop. He could carve a bit and gild and
+frame, and do odd jobs. The fellow left me last week, and I've heard
+nothing of him since. No, I don't know where he came from nor where he
+went to. I have nothing against him while he was here. He was gone two
+days before the bust was smashed."
+
+"Well, that's all we could reasonably expect to get from Morse Hudson,"
+said Holmes, as we emerged from the shop. "We have this Beppo as a
+common factor, both in Kennington and in Kensington, so that is worth a
+ten-mile drive. Now, Watson, let us make for Gelder and Co., of Stepney,
+the source and origin of busts. I shall be surprised if we don't get
+some help down there."
+
+In rapid succession we passed through the fringe of fashionable London,
+hotel London, theatrical London, literary London, commercial London,
+and, finally, maritime London, till we came to a riverside city of a
+hundred thousand souls, where the tenement houses swelter and reek with
+the outcasts of Europe. Here, in a broad thoroughfare, once the abode of
+wealthy City merchants, we found the sculpture works for which we
+searched. Outside was a considerable yard full of monumental masonry.
+Inside was a large room in which fifty workers were carving or moulding.
+The manager, a big blonde German, received us civilly, and gave a clear
+answer to all Holmes's questions. A reference to his books showed that
+hundreds of casts had been taken from a marble copy of Devine's head of
+Napoleon, but that the three which had been sent to Morse Hudson a year
+or so before had been half of a batch of six, the other three being sent
+to Harding Brothers, of Kensington. There was no reason why those six
+should be different to any of the other casts. He could suggest no
+possible cause why anyone should wish to destroy them--in fact, he
+laughed at the idea. Their wholesale price was six shillings, but the
+retailer would get twelve or more. The cast was taken in two moulds from
+each side of the face, and then these two profiles of plaster of Paris
+were joined together to make the complete bust. The work was usually
+done by Italians in the room we were in. When finished the busts were
+put on a table in the passage to dry, and afterwards stored. That was
+all he could tell us.
+
+But the production of the photograph had a remarkable effect upon the
+manager. His face flushed with anger, and his brows knotted over his
+blue Teutonic eyes.
+
+              [Illustration: "AH, THE RASCAL! HE CRIED."]
+
+"Ah, the rascal!" he cried. "Yes, indeed, I know him very well. This has
+always been a respectable establishment, and the only time that we have
+ever had the police in it was over this very fellow. It was more than a
+year ago now. He knifed another Italian in the street, and then he came
+to the works with the police on his heels, and he was taken here. Beppo
+was his name--his second name I never knew. Serve me right for engaging
+a man with such a face. But he was a good workman, one of the best."
+
+"What did he get?"
+
+"The man lived and he got off with a year. I have no doubt he is out
+now; but he has not dared to show his nose here. We have a cousin of his
+here, and I dare say he could tell you where he is."
+
+"No, no," cried Holmes, "not a word to the cousin--not a word, I beg
+you. The matter is very important, and the farther I go with it the more
+important it seems to grow. When you referred in your ledger to the sale
+of those casts I observed that the date was June 3rd of last year. Could
+you give me the date when Beppo was arrested?"
+
+"I could tell you roughly by the pay-list," the manager answered. "Yes,"
+he continued, after some turning over of pages, "he was paid last on May
+20th."
+
+"Thank you," said Holmes. "I don't think that I need intrude upon your
+time and patience any more." With a last word of caution that he should
+say nothing as to our researches we turned our faces westward once more.
+
+The afternoon was far advanced before we were able to snatch a hasty
+luncheon at a restaurant. A news-bill at the entrance announced
+"Kensington Outrage. Murder by a Madman," and the contents of the paper
+showed that Mr. Horace Harker had got his account into print after all.
+Two columns were occupied with a highly sensational and flowery
+rendering of the whole incident. Holmes propped it against the
+cruet-stand and read it while he ate. Once or twice he chuckled.
+
+"This is all right, Watson," said he. "Listen to this: 'It is
+satisfactory to know that there can be no difference of opinion upon
+this case, since Mr. Lestrade, one of the most experienced members of
+the official force, and Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the well-known consulting
+expert, have each come to the conclusion that the grotesque series of
+incidents, which have ended in so tragic a fashion, arise from lunacy
+rather than from deliberate crime. No explanation save mental aberration
+can cover the facts.' The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution
+if you only know how to use it. And now, if you have quite finished, we
+will hark back to Kensington and see what the manager of Harding
+Brothers has to say to the matter."
+
+The founder of that great emporium proved to be a brisk, crisp little
+person, very dapper and quick, with a clear head and a ready tongue.
+
+"Yes, sir, I have already read the account in the evening papers. Mr.
+Horace Harker is a customer of ours. We supplied him with the bust some
+months ago. We ordered three busts of that sort from Gelder and Co., of
+Stepney. They are all sold now. To whom? Oh, I dare say by consulting
+our sales book we could very easily tell you. Yes, we have the entries
+here. One to Mr. Harker, you see, and one to Mr. Josiah Brown, of
+Laburnum Lodge, Laburnum Vale, Chiswick, and one to Mr. Sandeford, of
+Lower Grove Road, Reading. No, I have never seen this face which you
+show me in the photograph. You would hardly forget it, would you, sir,
+for I've seldom seen an uglier. Have we any Italians on the staff? Yes,
+sir, we have several among our workpeople and cleaners. I dare say they
+might get a peep at that sales book if they wanted to. There is no
+particular reason for keeping a watch upon that book. Well, well, it's a
+very strange business, and I hope that you'll let me know if anything
+comes of your inquiries."
+
+Holmes had taken several notes during Mr. Harding's evidence, and I
+could see that he was thoroughly satisfied by the turn which affairs
+were taking. He made no remark, however, save that, unless we hurried,
+we should be late for our appointment with Lestrade. Sure enough, when
+we reached Baker Street the detective was already there, and we found
+him pacing up and down in a fever of impatience. His look of importance
+showed that his day's work had not been in vain.
+
+"Well?" he asked. "What luck, Mr. Holmes?"
+
+"We have had a very busy day, and not entirely a wasted one," my friend
+explained. "We have seen both the retailers and also the wholesale
+manufacturers. I can trace each of the busts now from the beginning."
+
+"The busts!" cried Lestrade. "Well, well, you have your own methods, Mr.
+Sherlock Holmes, and it is not for me to say a word against them, but I
+think I have done a better day's work than you. I have identified the
+dead man."
+
+"You don't say so?"
+
+"And found a cause for the crime."
+
+"Splendid!"
+
+"We have an inspector who makes a speciality of Saffron Hill and the
+Italian quarter. Well, this dead man had some Catholic emblem round his
+neck, and that, along with his colour, made me think he was from the
+South. Inspector Hill knew him the moment he caught sight of him. His
+name is Pietro Venucci, from Naples, and he is one of the greatest
+cut-throats in London. He is connected with the Mafia, which, as you
+know, is a secret political society, enforcing its decrees by murder.
+Now you see how the affair begins to clear up. The other fellow is
+probably an Italian also, and a member of the Mafia. He has broken the
+rules in some fashion. Pietro is set upon his track. Probably the
+photograph we found in his pocket is the man himself, so that he may not
+knife the wrong person. He dogs the fellow, he sees him enter a house,
+he waits outside for him, and in the scuffle he receives his own death
+wound. How is that, Mr. Sherlock Holmes?"
+
+Holmes clapped his hands approvingly.
+
+"Excellent, Lestrade, excellent!" he cried. "But I didn't quite follow
+your explanation of the destruction of the busts."
+
+"The busts! You never can get those busts out of your head. After all,
+that is nothing; petty larceny, six months at the most. It is the murder
+that we are really investigating, and I tell you that I am gathering all
+the threads into my hands."
+
+"And the next stage?"
+
+"Is a very simple one. I shall go down with Hill to the Italian quarter,
+find the man whose photograph we have got, and arrest him on the charge
+of murder. Will you come with us?"
+
+"I think not. I fancy we can attain our end in a simpler way. I can't
+say for certain, because it all depends--well, it all depends upon a
+factor which is completely outside our control. But I have great
+hopes--in fact, the betting is exactly two to one--that if you will come
+with us to-night I shall be able to help you to lay him by the heels."
+
+"In the Italian quarter?"
+
+"No; I fancy Chiswick is an address which is more likely to find him. If
+you will come with me to Chiswick to-night, Lestrade, I'll promise to go
+to the Italian quarter with you to-morrow, and no harm will be done by
+the delay. And now I think that a few hours' sleep would do us all good,
+for I do not propose to leave before eleven o'clock, and it is unlikely
+that we shall be back before morning. You'll dine with us, Lestrade, and
+then you are welcome to the sofa until it is time for us to start. In
+the meantime, Watson, I should be glad if you would ring for an express
+messenger, for I have a letter to send, and it is important that it
+should go at once."
+
+Holmes spent the evening in rummaging among the files of the old daily
+papers with which one of our lumber-rooms was packed. When at last he
+descended it was with triumph in his eyes, but he said nothing to either
+of us as to the result of his researches. For my own part, I had
+followed step by step the methods by which he had traced the various
+windings of this complex case, and, though I could not yet perceive the
+goal which we would reach, I understood clearly that Holmes expected
+this grotesque criminal to make an attempt upon the two remaining busts,
+one of which, I remembered, was at Chiswick. No doubt the object of our
+journey was to catch him in the very act, and I could not but admire the
+cunning with which my friend had inserted a wrong clue in the evening
+paper, so as to give the fellow the idea that he could continue his
+scheme with impunity. I was not surprised when Holmes suggested that I
+should take my revolver with me. He had himself picked up the loaded
+hunting-crop which was his favourite weapon.
+
+A four-wheeler was at the door at eleven, and in it we drove to a spot
+at the other side of Hammersmith Bridge. Here the cabman was directed to
+wait. A short walk brought us to a secluded road fringed with pleasant
+houses, each standing in its own grounds. In the light of a street lamp
+we read "Laburnum Villa" upon the gate-post of one of them. The
+occupants had evidently retired to rest, for all was dark save for a
+fanlight over the hall door, which shed a single blurred circle on to
+the garden path. The wooden fence which separated the grounds from the
+road threw a dense black shadow upon the inner side, and here it was
+that we crouched.
+
+"I fear that you'll have a long wait," Holmes whispered. "We may thank
+our stars that it is not raining. I don't think we can even venture to
+smoke to pass the time. However, it's a two to one chance that we get
+something to pay us for our trouble."
+
+It proved, however, that our vigil was not to be so long as Holmes had
+led us to fear, and it ended in a very sudden and singular fashion. In
+an instant, without the least sound to warn us of his coming, the garden
+gate swung open, and a lithe, dark figure, as swift and active as an
+ape, rushed up the garden path. We saw it whisk past the light thrown
+from over the door and disappear against the black shadow of the house.
+There was a long pause, during which we held our breath, and then a very
+gentle creaking sound came to our ears. The window was being opened. The
+noise ceased, and again there was a long silence. The fellow was making
+his way into the house. We saw the sudden flash of a dark lantern inside
+the room. What he sought was evidently not there, for again we saw the
+flash through another blind, and then through another.
+
+"Let us get to the open window. We will nab him as he climbs out,"
+Lestrade whispered.
+
+But before we could move the man had emerged again. As he came out into
+the glimmering patch of light we saw that he carried something white
+under his arm. He looked stealthily all round him. The silence of the
+deserted street reassured him. Turning his back upon us he laid down his
+burden, and the next instant there was the sound of a sharp tap,
+followed by a clatter and rattle. The man was so intent upon what he was
+doing that he never heard our steps as we stole across the grass plot.
+With the bound of a tiger Holmes was on his back, and an instant later
+Lestrade and I had him by either wrist and the handcuffs had been
+fastened. As we turned him over I saw a hideous, sallow face, with
+writhing, furious features, glaring up at us, and I knew that it was
+indeed the man of the photograph whom we had secured.
+
+But it was not our prisoner to whom Holmes was giving his attention.
+Squatted on the doorstep, he was engaged in most carefully examining
+that which the man had brought from the house. It was a bust of Napoleon
+like the one which we had seen that morning, and it had been broken into
+similar fragments. Carefully Holmes held each separate shard to the
+light, but in no way did it differ from any other shattered piece of
+plaster. He had just completed his examination when the hall lights flew
+up, the door opened, and the owner of the house, a jovial, rotund figure
+in shirt and trousers, presented himself.
+
+      [Illustration: "THE DOOR OPENED, AND THE OWNER OF THE HOUSE
+                      PRESENTED HIMSELF."]
+
+"Mr. Josiah Brown, I suppose?" said Holmes.
+
+"Yes, sir; and you, no doubt, are Mr. Sherlock Holmes? I had the note
+which you sent by the express messenger, and I did exactly what you told
+me. We locked every door on the inside and awaited developments. Well,
+I'm very glad to see that you have got the rascal. I hope, gentlemen,
+that you will come in and have some refreshment."
+
+However, Lestrade was anxious to get his man into safe quarters, so
+within a few minutes our cab had been summoned and we were all four upon
+our way to London. Not a word would our captive say; but he glared at us
+from the shadow of his matted hair, and once, when my hand seemed within
+his reach, he snapped at it like a hungry wolf. We stayed long enough at
+the police-station to learn that a search of his clothing revealed
+nothing save a few shillings and a long sheath knife, the handle of
+which bore copious traces of recent blood.
+
+"That's all right," said Lestrade, as we parted. "Hill knows all these
+gentry, and he will give a name to him. You'll find that my theory of
+the Mafia will work out all right. But I'm sure I am exceedingly obliged
+to you, Mr. Holmes, for the workmanlike way in which you laid hands upon
+him. I don't quite understand it all yet."
+
+"I fear it is rather too late an hour for explanations," said Holmes.
+"Besides, there are one or two details which are not finished off, and
+it is one of those cases which are worth working out to the very end. If
+you will come round once more to my rooms at six o'clock to-morrow I
+think I shall be able to show you that even now you have not grasped the
+entire meaning of this business, which presents some features which make
+it absolutely original in the history of crime. If ever I permit you to
+chronicle any more of my little problems, Watson, I foresee that you
+will enliven your pages by an account of the singular adventure of the
+Napoleonic busts."
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+When we met again next evening Lestrade was furnished with much
+information concerning our prisoner. His name, it appeared, was Beppo,
+second name unknown. He was a well-known ne'er-do-well among the Italian
+colony. He had once been a skilful sculptor and had earned an honest
+living, but he had taken to evil courses and had twice already been in
+gaol--once for a petty theft and once, as we had already heard, for
+stabbing a fellow-countryman. He could talk English perfectly well. His
+reasons for destroying the busts were still unknown, and he refused to
+answer any questions upon the subject; but the police had discovered
+that these same busts might very well have been made by his own hands,
+since he was engaged in this class of work at the establishment of
+Gelder and Co. To all this information, much of which we already knew,
+Holmes listened with polite attention; but I, who knew him so well,
+could clearly see that his thoughts were elsewhere, and I detected a
+mixture of mingled uneasiness and expectation beneath that mask which he
+was wont to assume. At last he started in his chair and his eyes
+brightened. There had been a ring at the bell. A minute later we heard
+steps upon the stairs, and an elderly, red-faced man with grizzled
+side-whiskers was ushered in. In his right hand he carried an
+old-fashioned carpet-bag, which he placed upon the table.
+
+"Is Mr. Sherlock Holmes here?"
+
+My friend bowed and smiled. "Mr. Sandeford, of Reading, I suppose?" said
+he.
+
+"Yes, sir, I fear that I am a little late; but the trains were awkward.
+You wrote to me about a bust that is in my possession."
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"I have your letter here. You said, 'I desire to possess a copy of
+Devine's Napoleon, and am prepared to pay you ten pounds for the one
+which is in your possession.' Is that right?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"I was very much surprised at your letter, for I could not imagine how
+you knew that I owned such a thing."
+
+"Of course you must have been surprised, but the explanation is very
+simple. Mr. Harding, of Harding Brothers, said that they had sold you
+their last copy, and he gave me your address."
+
+"Oh, that was it, was it? Did he tell you what I paid for it?"
+
+"No, he did not."
+
+"Well, I am an honest man, though not a very rich one. I only gave
+fifteen shillings for the bust, and I think you ought to know that
+before I take ten pounds from you."
+
+"I am sure the scruple does you honour, Mr. Sandeford. But I have named
+that price, so I intend to stick to it."
+
+[Illustration: "I BROUGHT THE BUST UP WITH ME, AS YOU ASKED ME TO DO."]
+
+"Well, it is very handsome of you, Mr. Holmes. I brought the bust up
+with me, as you asked me to do. Here it is!" He opened his bag, and at
+last we saw placed upon our table a complete specimen of that bust which
+we had already seen more than once in fragments.
+
+Holmes took a paper from his pocket and laid a ten-pound note upon the
+table.
+
+"You will kindly sign that paper, Mr. Sandeford, in the presence of
+these witnesses. It is simply to say that you transfer every possible
+right that you ever had in the bust to me. I am a methodical man, you
+see, and you never know what turn events might take afterwards. Thank
+you, Mr. Sandeford; here is your money, and I wish you a very good
+evening."
+
+When our visitor had disappeared Sherlock Holmes's movements were such
+as to rivet our attention. He began by taking a clean white cloth from a
+drawer and laying it over the table. Then he placed his newly acquired
+bust in the centre of the cloth. Finally, he picked up his hunting crop
+and struck Napoleon a sharp blow on the top of the head. The figure
+broke into fragments, and Holmes bent eagerly over the shattered
+remains. Next instant, with a loud shout of triumph, he held up one
+splinter, in which a round, dark object was fixed like a plum in a
+pudding.
+
+"Gentlemen," he cried, "let me introduce you to the famous black pearl
+of the Borgias."
+
+Lestrade and I sat silent for a moment, and then, with a spontaneous
+impulse, we both broke out clapping as at the well-wrought crisis of a
+play. A flush of colour sprang to Holmes's pale cheeks, and he bowed to
+us like the master dramatist who receives the homage of his audience. It
+was at such moments that for an instant he ceased to be a reasoning
+machine, and betrayed his human love for admiration and applause. The
+same singularly proud and reserved nature which turned away with disdain
+from popular notoriety was capable of being moved to its depths by
+spontaneous wonder and praise from a friend.
+
+"Yes, gentlemen," said he, "it is the most famous pearl now existing in
+the world, and it has been my good fortune, by a connected chain of
+inductive reasoning, to trace it from the Prince of Colonna's bedroom at
+the Dacre Hotel, where it was lost, to the interior of this, the last of
+the six busts of Napoleon which were manufactured by Gelder and Co., of
+Stepney. You will remember, Lestrade, the sensation caused by the
+disappearance of this valuable jewel, and the vain efforts of the London
+police to recover it. I was myself consulted upon the case; but I was
+unable to throw any light upon it. Suspicion fell upon the maid of the
+Princess, who was an Italian, and it was proved that she had a brother
+in London, but we failed to trace any connection between them. The
+maid's name was Lucretia Venucci, and there is no doubt in my mind that
+this Pietro who was murdered two nights ago was the brother. I have been
+looking up the dates in the old files of the paper, and I find that the
+disappearance of the pearl was exactly two days before the arrest of
+Beppo for some crime of violence, an event which took place in the
+factory of Gelder and Co., at the very moment when these busts were
+being made. Now you clearly see the sequence of events, though you see
+them, of course, in the inverse order to the way in which they presented
+themselves to me. Beppo had the pearl in his possession. He may have
+stolen it from Pietro, he may have been Pietro's confederate, he may
+have been the go-between of Pietro and his sister. It is of no
+consequence to us which is the correct solution.
+
+"The main fact is that he _had_ the pearl, and at that moment, when it
+was on his person, he was pursued by the police. He made for the factory
+in which he worked, and he knew that he had only a few minutes in which
+to conceal this enormously valuable prize, which would otherwise be
+found on him when he was searched. Six plaster casts of Napoleon were
+drying in the passage. One of them was still soft. In an instant Beppo,
+a skilful workman, made a small hole in the wet plaster, dropped in the
+pearl, and with a few touches covered over the aperture once more. It
+was an admirable hiding-place. No one could possibly find it. But Beppo
+was condemned to a year's imprisonment, and in the meanwhile his six
+busts were scattered over London. He could not tell which contained his
+treasure. Only by breaking them could he see. Even shaking would tell
+him nothing, for as the plaster was wet it was probable that the pearl
+would adhere to it--as, in fact, it has done. Beppo did not despair, and
+he conducted his search with considerable ingenuity and perseverance.
+Through a cousin who works with Gelder he found out the retail firms who
+had bought the busts. He managed to find employment with Morse Hudson,
+and in that way tracked down three of them. The pearl was not there.
+Then, with the help of some Italian _employé_, he succeeded in finding
+out where the other three busts had gone. The first was at Harker's.
+There he was dogged by his confederate, who held Beppo responsible for
+the loss of the pearl, and he stabbed him in the scuffle which
+followed."
+
+"If he was his confederate why should he carry his photograph?" I asked.
+
+"As a means of tracing him if he wished to inquire about him from any
+third person. That was the obvious reason. Well, after the murder I
+calculated that Beppo would probably hurry rather than delay his
+movements. He would fear that the police would read his secret, and so
+he hastened on before they should get ahead of him. Of course, I could
+not say that he had not found the pearl in Harker's bust. I had not even
+concluded for certain that it was the pearl; but it was evident to me
+that he was looking for something, since he carried the bust past the
+other houses in order to break it in the garden which had a lamp
+overlooking it. Since Harker's bust was one in three the chances were
+exactly as I told you, two to one against the pearl being inside it.
+There remained two busts, and it was obvious that he would go for the
+London one first. I warned the inmates of the house, so as to avoid a
+second tragedy, and we went down with the happiest results. By that
+time, of course, I knew for certain that it was the Borgia pearl that we
+were after. The name of the murdered man linked the one event with the
+other. There only remained a single bust--the Reading one--and the pearl
+must be there. I bought it in your presence from the owner--and there it
+lies."
+
+We sat in silence for a moment.
+
+"Well," said Lestrade, "I've seen you handle a good many cases, Mr.
+Holmes, but I don't know that I ever knew a more workmanlike one than
+that. We're not jealous of you at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are very
+proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow there's not a man, from the
+oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad to
+shake you by the hand."
+
+"Thank you!" said Holmes. "Thank you!" and as he turned away it seemed
+to me that he was more nearly moved by the softer human emotions than I
+had ever seen him. A moment later he was the cold and practical thinker
+once more. "Put the pearl in the safe, Watson," said he, "and get out
+the papers of the Conk-Singleton forgery case. Good-bye, Lestrade. If
+any little problem comes your way I shall be happy, if I can, to give
+you a hint or two as to its solution."
+
+
+
+
+                   _The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt._
+
+              Copyright, 1904, by George Newnes, Limited.
+
+    [These Memoirs, written by the greatest actress of our time,
+    will give not only the story of her career in the theatrical
+    world, but also in social life, in which she has, of course, met
+    nearly all the celebrated people of the day, from Royalties
+    downwards, and will be found throughout of the most striking
+    interest to all classes of readers.]
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--HOW I BECAME DESTINED FOR THE STAGE.
+
+I arose one September morning, my heart leaping with some vague thought
+of coming joy. It was eight o'clock. I pressed my forehead against the
+window-panes and gazed out, looking at I know not what. I had been
+roused with a start in the midst of a beautiful dream, and I rushed
+towards the light, as if in the hope of finding in the infinite space of
+the grey sky some explanation of the feelings that possessed me--the
+anxiety, and yet the bliss, of expectation. Expectation of what? I could
+not have answered that question then, any more than after much
+reflection I can do so now. I was on the eve of my fourteenth birthday,
+and I was in a state of expectation as to the future of my life. That
+particular morning seemed to me to be the precursor of a new era. I was
+not mistaken, for on that September day my fate was settled for me.
+
+                             [Illustration:
+  "I HAD BEEN ROUSED WITH A START IN THE MIDST OF A BEAUTIFUL DREAM."
+                    _From a Drawing by G. Clairin._]
+
+As if hypnotized by what was taking place in my mind, I remained with my
+forehead pressed against the window-pane, gazing in imagination through
+the halo of vapour formed by my breath at houses, palaces, carriages,
+jewels, pearls, which passed in fantasy before my eyes. Oh! what pearls
+there were! And there were princes and kings also; yes, I saw even
+kings! Oh! how fast imagination travels when left by its enemy, reason,
+free to roam alone! In my fancy I proudly rejected the princes, I
+rejected the kings, I refused the pearls and the palaces, and I declared
+that I was going to be a nun. For in the infinite grey sky I had caught
+a glimpse of the convent of Grand Champ, of my white bedroom, and of the
+small lamp that swung to and fro above the little Virgin which our hands
+had decorated with flowers. The king offered me a throne, but I
+preferred the throne of our Mother Superior, and I entertained a vague
+ambition to occupy it on some distant day. The king was heart-broken and
+dying of despair. Yes, _mon Dieu_! I preferred to the pearls that were
+offered me by princes the pearls of the rosary I was telling with my
+fingers; and no costume could compete in my mind with the black _barège_
+veil that fell like a soft shadow over the snowy white cambric that
+encircled the beloved faces of the nuns of Grand Champ.
+
+I do not know how long I had been dreaming thus when I heard my mother's
+voice asking our old servant, Marguerite, if I were awake. With one
+bound I was back in bed, and I buried my face under the sheet. Mamma
+half-opened the door very gently and I pretended to wake up.
+
+"How lazy you are to-day!" she said. I kissed her, and answered in a
+coaxing tone, "It is Thursday, and I have no music lesson."
+
+"And are you glad?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, yes," I replied, promptly.
+
+My mother frowned; she adored music, and I hated the piano. She was so
+fond of music that, although she was then nearly thirty, she took
+lessons herself in order to encourage me to practise. What horrible
+torture it was! I used very wickedly to do my utmost to set at variance
+my mother and my music mistress. They were both of them excessively
+short-sighted. When my mother had practised a new piece three or four
+days she knew it by heart, and played it fairly well, to the
+astonishment of Mlle. Clarisse, my insufferable old teacher, who held
+the music in her hand and read every note with her nose nearly touching
+the page. One day I heard, with joy, a quarrel beginning between mamma
+and this disagreeable person, Mlle. Clarisse.
+
+"There, that's a quaver!"
+
+"No, there's no quaver!"
+
+"This is a flat!"
+
+"No, you forget the sharp! How absurd you are!" added my mother,
+perfectly furious.
+
+A few minutes later my mother went to her room and Mlle. Clarisse
+departed, muttering as she left.
+
+As for me, I was choking with laughter in my bedroom, for one of my
+cousins, who was very musical, had helped me to add sharps, flats, and
+quavers to the music-sheet, and we had done it with such care that even
+a trained eye would have had difficulty in immediately discerning the
+fraud. As Mlle. Clarisse had been sent off, I had no lesson that day.
+Mamma gazed at me a long time with her mysterious eyes--the most
+beautiful eyes I have ever seen in my life--and then she said, speaking
+very slowly:--
+
+"After luncheon there is to be a family council."
+
+I felt myself turning pale.
+
+"All right," I answered; "what frock am I to put on, mamma?" I said this
+merely for the sake of saying something and to keep myself from crying.
+
+"Put on your blue silk; you look more staid in that."
+
+Just at this moment my sister Jeanne opened the door boisterously, and
+with a burst of laughter jumped on to my bed and, slipping under the
+sheets, called out: "I'm there!" Marguerite had followed her into the
+room, panting and scolding. The child had escaped from her just as she
+was about to bath her, and had announced: "I'm going into my sister's
+bed." Jeanne's mirth at this moment, which I felt was a very serious one
+for me, made me burst out crying and sobbing. My mother, not
+understanding the reason of this grief, shrugged her shoulders, told
+Marguerite to fetch Jeanne's slippers, and, taking the little bare feet
+in her hands, kissed them tenderly.
+
+     [Illustration: MME. BERNHARDT'S SISTER, JEANNE, AT THE AGE AT
+                WHICH SHE IS DESCRIBED IN THIS CHAPTER.
+                     _From a Photo. by Delintraz._]
+
+I sobbed more bitterly than ever. It was very evident that mamma loved
+my sister more than me, and this preference, which did not trouble me in
+an ordinary way, hurt me sorely now.
+
+Mamma went away quite out of patience with me. The nervous state in
+which I was, together with my anxiety and grief, had quite exhausted me.
+I fell asleep again and was roused by Marguerite, who helped me to
+dress, as otherwise I should have been late for luncheon. The guests
+that day were Aunt Rosine; Mlle. de Brabender, my governess, a charming
+creature whom I have always regretted; my godfather, and the Duc de
+Morny, a great friend of my godfather and of my mother. The luncheon was
+a melancholy meal for me, as I was thinking all the time about the
+family council. Mlle. de Brabender, in her gentle way and with her
+affectionate words, insisted on my eating. My sister burst out laughing
+when she looked at me.
+
+"Your eyes are as little as that," she said, putting her small thumb on
+the tip of her forefinger, "and it serves you right, because you've been
+crying, and mamma doesn't like anyone to cry. Do you, mamma?"
+
+"What have you been crying about?" asked the Duc de Morny. I did not
+answer, in spite of the friendly nudge Mlle. de Brabender gave me with
+her sharp elbow. The Duc de Morny always awed me a little. He was gentle
+and kind, but he was a great quiz. I knew, too, that he occupied a high
+place at Court, and that my family considered his friendship a great
+honour.
+
+"Because I told her that after luncheon there was to be a family council
+about her," said my mother, speaking slowly. "At times it seems to me
+that she is really idiotic. She quite disheartens me."
+
+"Come, come!" exclaimed my godfather, and Aunt Rosine said something in
+English to the Duc de Morny which made him smile shrewdly under his fine
+moustache. Mlle. de Brabender scolded me in a low voice, and her
+scoldings were like words from Heaven. When at last luncheon was over,
+mamma told me, as she passed, to pour out the coffee. Marguerite helped
+me to arrange the cups and I went into the drawing-room.
+
+Maître G----, the notary from Havre, whom I detested, was already there.
+He represented the family of my father, who had died a few years before
+at Pisa in a way which had never been explained, but which seemed
+mysterious. My childish hatred was instinctive, and I learnt later on
+that this man had been my father's bitter enemy. He was very, very ugly,
+this notary; his whole face seemed to have moved upwards. It was as
+though he had been hanging by his hair for a long time, and his eyes,
+his mouth, his cheeks, and his nose had got into the habit of trying to
+reach the back of his head. He ought to have had a joyful expression, as
+so many of his features turned up, but instead of this his face was
+smooth and sinister. He had red hair, planted in his head like couch
+grass, and on his nose he wore a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles. Oh, the
+horrible man! What a torturing nightmare the very memory of him is, for
+he was the evil genius of my father, and his hatred now pursued me!
+
+ [Illustration: _From a_]  THE HAVRE NOTARY IN HIS OFFICE. [_Drawing._]
+
+My poor grandmother, since the death of my father, never went out, but
+spent her time mourning the loss of her beloved son, who had died so
+young. She had absolute faith in this man, who, besides, was the
+executor of my father's will. He had the control of the money which my
+dear father had left me. I was not to touch it until the day of my
+marriage, but my mother was to use the interest for my education.
+
+           [Illustration: _From a_]  FÉLIX FAURE. [_Drawing_]
+
+My uncle, Félix Faure (no relation of the late President), was also
+there. He was a very delightful man, handsome, too, and he had a deep,
+sympathetic voice. I loved him dearly, and, indeed, I love him now,
+although I have not seen him for a long time, as he has buried himself
+alive at the Grande Chartreuse, to await there, far away from the rest
+of the world, the time when he will rejoin those whom he loved so
+dearly.
+
+Seated near the fireplace, buried in an arm-chair, M. Lesprin pulled out
+his watch in a querulous way. He was an old friend of the family, and he
+always called me "_ma fil_," which annoyed me greatly, as did his
+familiarity. He considered me stupid, and when I handed him his coffee
+he said, in a jeering tone: "And is it for you, _ma fil_, that so many
+honest people have been hindered in their work? We have plenty of other
+things to attend to, I can assure you, than to discuss the fate of a
+little brat like you. Ah, if it had been her sister, there would have
+been no difficulty," and with his benumbed fingers he patted Jeanne's
+head, as she sat on the floor plaiting the fringe of the sofa upon which
+he was seated.
+
+When the coffee had been taken, the cups carried away, and my sister
+also, there was a short silence. The Duc de Morny rose to take his
+leave, but my mother begged him to stay. "You will be able to advise
+us," she urged, and the Duke took his seat again near my aunt, with
+whom, it seemed to me, he was carrying on a slight flirtation. Mamma had
+moved nearer to the window, her embroidery-frame in front of her, and
+her beautiful, clear-cut profile showing to advantage against the light.
+She looked as though she had nothing to do with what was about to be
+discussed. The hideous notary was standing up by the chimneypiece, and
+my uncle had drawn me near to him.
+
+My godfather, Régis de L----, seemed to be the exact counterpart of M.
+Lesprin; they both of them had the same bourgeois mind, and were equally
+stubborn and obstinate. They were both devoted to whist and good wine,
+and they both agreed that I was thin enough for a scarecrow. The door
+opened and a pale, dark-haired woman entered, a most poetical-looking
+and charming creature. It was Mme. Guérard, "the lady of the upstairs
+flat," as Marguerite always called her. My mother had made friends with
+her, in rather a patronizing way certainly, but Mme. Guérard was devoted
+to me and endured the little slights to which she was treated very
+patiently for my sake. She was tall and slender as a lath, very
+compliant and demure. She had no hat on, and was wearing an indoor gown
+of _indienne_ with a design of little brown leaves.
+
+    [Illustration: MME. GUÉRARD, THE GREAT FRIEND OF SARAH BERNHARDT
+    _From a Photo. by_]      WHEN A CHILD.            [_Delintraz._]
+
+M. Lesprin muttered something, I did not catch what. The abominable man
+gave a very curt bow, as Mme. Guérard was so simply dressed. The Duc de
+Morny was very gracious, for the new-comer was so pretty. My godfather
+merely bent his head, as Mme. Guérard was nothing to him. Aunt Rosine
+glanced at her from head to foot--Mme. Guérard was by no means rich.
+Mlle. de Brabender shook hands cordially with her, for Mme. Guérard was
+fond of me.
+
+My uncle, Félix Faure, gave her a chair and asked her to sit down, and
+then inquired in a kindly way about her husband, a _savant_, with whom
+my uncle collaborated sometimes for his book, "The Life of St. Louis."
+
+Mamma had merely glanced across the room without raising her head, for
+Mme. Guérard did not prefer my sister to me.
+
+"Well, as we have come here on account of this child," said my
+godfather, looking at his watch, "we must begin and discuss what is to
+be done with her."
+
+I began to tremble, and drew closer to "_mon petit dame_," as I had
+always called Mme. Guérard from my infancy, and to Mlle. de Brabender.
+They each took my hand by way of encouraging me.
+
+"Yes," continued M. Lesprin, with a laugh, "it appears you want to be a
+nun."
+
+"Ah, indeed?" said the Duc de Morny to Aunt Rosine.
+
+"'Sh! Be serious," she remarked. Mamma shrugged her shoulders and held
+her wools up close to her eyes to match them.
+
+"You have to be rich, though, to enter a convent," grunted the Havre
+notary, "and you have not a sou." I leaned towards Mlle. de Brabender
+and whispered, "I have the money that papa left."
+
+The horrid man overheard.
+
+"Your father left some money to get you married," he said.
+
+"Well, then, I'll marry the _bon Dieu_," I answered, and my voice was
+quite resolute now. I turned very red, and for the second time in my
+life I felt a desire and a strong inclination to fight for myself. I had
+no more fear, as everyone had gone too far and provoked me too much. I
+slipped away from my two kind friends and advanced towards the other
+group.
+
+"I will be a nun, I will!" I exclaimed. "I know that papa left me some
+money so that I should be married, and I know that the nuns marry the
+Saviour. Mamma says she does not care, it is all the same to her; so
+that it won't be vexing her at all, and they love me better at the
+convent than you do here!"
+
+"My dear child," said my uncle, drawing me towards him, "your religious
+vocation appears to me to be mainly a wish to have someone to care for."
+
+"And to be cared for herself," murmured Mme. Guérard, in a very low
+voice.
+
+Everyone glanced at mamma, who shrugged her shoulders slightly. It
+seemed to me as though the glance they all gave her was a reproachful
+one, and I felt a pang of remorse at once. I went across to her and,
+throwing my arms round her neck, said:--
+
+"You don't mind my being a nun, do you? It won't make you unhappy, will
+it?"
+
+Mamma stroked my hair, of which she was very proud.
+
+"Yes, it would make me unhappy. You know very well that, after your
+sister, I love you better than anyone else in the world."
+
+She said this very slowly in a gentle voice. It was like the sound of a
+little waterfall as it flows down, babbling and clear, from the
+mountain, dragging with it the gravel, and gradually increasing in
+volume, with the thawed snow, until it sweeps away rocks and trees in
+its course. This was the effect my mother's clear, drawling voice had
+upon me at that moment. I rushed back impulsively to the others, who
+were all speechless at this unexpected and spontaneous burst of
+eloquence. I went from one to the other, explaining my decision, and
+giving reasons which were certainly no reasons at all. I did my utmost
+to get someone to support me in the matter. Finally the Duc de Morny was
+bored, and rose to go.
+
+"Do you know what you ought to do with this child?" he said. "You ought
+to send her to the Conservatoire." He then patted my cheek, kissed my
+aunt's hand, and bowed to all the others. As he bent over my mother's
+hand, I heard him say to her, "You would have made a bad diplomatist,
+but take my advice and send her to the Conservatoire."
+
+He then took his departure, and I gazed at everyone in perfect anguish.
+
+The Conservatoire! What was it? What did it mean?
+
+I went up to my governess, Mlle. de Brabender. Her lips were firmly
+pressed together, and she looked shocked, just as she did sometimes when
+my godfather told, at table, some story of which she did not approve. My
+uncle, Félix Faure, was looking at the floor in an absent-minded way;
+the notary had a spiteful look in his eyes; my aunt was holding forth in
+a very excited manner; and M. Lesprin kept shaking his head and
+muttering, "Perhaps--yes--who knows? Hum! hum!" Mme. Guérard was very
+pale and sad, and she looked at me with infinite tenderness.
+
+What could be this Conservatoire? The word uttered so carelessly seemed
+to have entirely disturbed the equanimity of all these people. Each of
+them seemed to me to have a different impression about it, but none
+looked pleased. Suddenly, in the midst of the general embarrassment, my
+godfather exclaimed, brutally:--
+
+"She is too thin to make an actress."
+
+"I won't be an actress!" I exclaimed.
+
+"You don't know what an actress is," said my aunt.
+
+"Oh, yes, I do. Rachel is an actress!"
+
+"You know Rachel?" asked mamma, getting up.
+
+"Oh, yes; she came to the convent once to see little Adèle Sarony. She
+went all over the convent and into the garden, and she had to sit down
+because she could not get her breath. They fetched her something to
+bring her round, and she was so pale--oh, so pale! I was very sorry for
+her, and Sister Appoline told me that what she did was killing her, for
+she was an actress, and so I won't be an actress, I won't!"
+
+I had said all this in a breath, with my cheeks on fire and my voice
+hard.
+
+I remembered all that Sister Appoline had told me, and Mother
+Sainte-Sophie, too, the Superior of the convent. I remembered, too, that
+when Rachel had gone out of the garden, looking very pale and holding a
+lady's arm for support, a little girl had put her tongue out at her. I
+did not want people to put out their tongues at me when I was grown up.
+There were a hundred other things, too, to which I objected, and about
+which I have only a vague memory now.
+
+My godfather laughed heartily, but my uncle was very grave. The others
+discussed the matter in a very excited way with my mother, who looked
+weary and bored. Mlle. de Brabender and Mme. Guérard were arguing in a
+low voice, and I thought of the aristocratic man who had just left us. I
+was very angry with him, for this idea of the Conservatoire was his.
+"Conservatoire!" This word frightened me. It was he who wanted me to be
+an actress, and now he had disappeared, and I could not talk the matter
+over with him. He had gone away smiling and tranquil, patting my head in
+the most ordinary yet friendly way. He had gone off without troubling a
+straw about the poor little, meagre child whose future was being
+discussed. "Send her to the Conservatoire," and this phrase, that had
+come to his lips so easily, was like a veritable bomb hurled into my
+life. I, the little, dreamy child, who that morning had rejected princes
+and kings; I, whose trembling fingers had only that morning told over
+whole rosaries of dreams and fancies; I, who only a few hours before had
+felt my heart beat wildly with some inexplicable emotion, and who had
+got up expecting some great event to happen during the day! Everything
+had given way under that phrase, which seemed as heavy as lead and as
+murderous as a cannon-ball. _Send her to the Conservatoire!_
+
+I guessed somehow that that phrase was destined to be the finger-post of
+my life. All these people had stopped at the bend of the road where
+there were crossways.
+
+_Send her to the Conservatoire!_ I wanted to be a nun, and they all
+thought that absurd, idiotic, unreasonable. Those words, "Send her to
+the Conservatoire," had opened up a new field of discussion, widened the
+horizon of the future. My uncle, Félix Faure, and Mlle. de Brabender
+were the only ones who disapproved of this idea, but they were in the
+minority--a passive minority which felt for me. I got very nervous and
+excited, and my mother sent me away. Mlle. de Brabender tried to console
+me. Mme. Guérard said that this career had its advantages. Mlle. de
+Brabender considered that the convent would have a great fascination for
+so dreamy a nature as mine. The one was very religious and a great
+church-goer, and the other was a pagan in the purest acceptation of that
+word, and yet the two women got on very well together, thanks to their
+affectionate devotion to me.
+
+Mme. Guérard adored the proud rebelliousness of my nature, my pretty
+face, and the slenderness of my figure; Mlle. de Brabender was touched
+by my delicate health. She spent no end of time trying to smooth my
+refractory hair. She endeavoured to comfort me when I was jealous at not
+being loved as much as my sister; but what she liked best about me was
+my voice. She always declared that my voice was modulated for prayers,
+and my delight in the convent appeared to her quite natural. She loved
+me with a gentle, pious affection, and Mme. Guérard loved me with bursts
+of paganism. These two women, whose memory is still dear to me, shared
+me between them, and made the best of my good qualities and my faults. I
+certainly owe to both of them this study of myself and the vision I have
+of myself.
+
+The day was destined to end in the strangest of fashions. Mme. Guérard
+had gone back to her apartment upstairs, and I was lying back on a
+little straw arm-chair, which was the most ornamental piece of furniture
+in my room. I felt very drowsy, and was holding Mlle. de Brabender's
+hand in mine when the door opened and my aunt entered, followed by my
+mother. I can see them now--my aunt in her dress of puce silk trimmed
+with fur, her brown velvet hat tied under her chin with long, wide
+strings, and mamma, who had taken off her dress and put on a white
+woollen dressing-gown. She always detested keeping on her dress in the
+house, and I understood by her change of costume that everyone had gone
+and that my aunt was ready to leave. I got up from my arm-chair, but
+mamma made me sit down again.
+
+"Rest yourself thoroughly," she said, "for we are going to take you to
+the theatre this evening--to the Français."
+
+   [Illustration: THE THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS, TO WHICH SARAH BERNHARDT WAS
+     TAKEN TO SEE HER FIRST PLAY WHEN HER DESTINY FOR THE STAGE HAD
+   _From a_]                BEEN DECIDED.                 [_Photo._]
+
+I felt sure that this was just a bait, and I would not show any sign of
+pleasure, although in my heart I was delighted at the idea of going to
+the Français. The only theatre I knew anything of was the Robert Houdin,
+to which I was taken sometimes with my sister, and I fancy that it was
+for her benefit we went, as I was really too old to care for that kind
+of performance.
+
+"Will you come with us?" mamma said, turning to Mlle. de Brabender.
+
+"Willingly, madame," she replied. "I will go home and change my dress."
+
+My aunt laughed at my sullen looks.
+
+"Little fraud," she said, as she went away, "you are hiding your
+delight. Ah, well, you will see some actresses to-night."
+
+"Is Rachel going to act?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, no; she is ill."
+
+My aunt kissed me and went away, saying she should see me again later
+on, and my mother followed her out of the room. Mlle. de Brabender then
+prepared to leave me, as she had to go home to dress, and to say that
+she would not be in until quite late. She lived at a convent where old
+maids and widows were taken as boarders, and special permission had to
+be obtained when one wished to be out later than ten at night. When I
+was alone I swung myself backwards and forwards in my arm-chair, which,
+by the way, was anything but a rocking chair. I began to think, and for
+the first time in my life my critical comprehension came to my aid. And
+so all these serious people had been inconvenienced, the notary fetched
+from Havre, my uncle dragged away from working at his book, the old
+bachelor, M. Lesprin, disturbed in his habits and customs, my godfather
+kept away from the Stock Exchange, and that aristocratic and sceptical
+Duc de Morny cramped up for two hours in the midst of our bourgeois
+surroundings, and all to end in this decision: _she shall be taken to
+the theatre_!
+
+I do not know what part my uncle had taken in this burlesque plan, but I
+doubt whether it was to his taste. All the same, I was glad to go to the
+theatre; it made me feel more important. That morning on waking up I was
+quite a child, and now events had taken place which had transformed me
+into a young woman. I had been discussed by everyone, and I had
+expressed my wishes--without any result, certainly; but all the same I
+had expressed them, and now it was deemed necessary to humour and
+indulge me in order to win me over. They could not force me into
+agreeing to what they wanted me to do; my consent was necessary; and I
+felt so joyful and so proud about it that I was quite touched and almost
+ready to yield. I said to myself that it would be better to hold my own
+and let them ask me again.
+
+After dinner we all squeezed into a cab--mamma, my godfather, Mlle. de
+Brabender, and I. My godfather made me a present of some white gloves.
+
+    [Illustration: THE HALL AND STAIRCASE OF THE THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS.]
+
+On mounting the steps at the Français I trod on a lady's dress. She
+turned round and called me a "stupid child." I moved back hastily and
+came into collision with a very stout old gentleman, who gave me a rough
+push forward, so that I felt inclined to burst out crying.
+
+     [Illustration: THE BOXES OF THE THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS, FROM ONE OF
+               WHICH SARAH BERNHARDT SAW HER FIRST PLAY.]
+
+When once we were all installed in a box facing the stage, mamma and I
+in the first row, with Mlle. de Brabender behind me, I felt more
+reassured. I was close against the partition of the box, and I could
+feel Mlle. de Brabender's sharp knees through the velvet of my chair.
+This gave me confidence, and I leaned against the back of the chair,
+purposely to feel the support of those two knees.
+
+When the curtain slowly rose I thought I should have fainted. It was as
+though the curtain of my future life were being raised. Those columns
+("Britannicus" was being played) were to be my palaces, the friezes
+above were to be my skies, and those boards were to bend under my frail
+weight. I heard nothing of "Britannicus," for I was far, far away, at
+Grand Champ, in my dormitory there.
+
+"Well, what do you think of it?" asked my godfather, when the curtain
+fell. I did not answer, and he laid his hand on my head and turned my
+face round towards him. I was crying, and big tears were rolling slowly
+down my cheeks, the kind of tears that come without any sobs and as if
+there were no hope that they would ever cease.
+
+My godfather shrugged his shoulders and, getting up, left the box,
+banging the door after him. Mamma, losing all patience with me,
+proceeded to review the house through her opera-glass. Mlle. de.
+Brabender passed me her handkerchief, for my own had fallen, and I had
+not the courage to pick it up.
+
+When the curtain rose on the second piece, "Amphitryon," I made an
+effort to listen, in order to please my governess, who was so kind and
+so conciliating. I remember only one thing about it, and that was I was
+so sorry for Alemène, who seemed to be so unhappy, that I burst into
+audible sobs, and that everyone, much amused, looked at our box. My
+mother was most annoyed, and promptly took me out, accompanied by Mlle.
+de Brabender, leaving my godfather furious. "_Bon Dieu de bois!_" I
+heard him mutter, "what an idiot the child is! They'd better put her in
+the convent and let her stop there."
+
+My teeth were chattering when Mlle. de Brabender, helped by Marguerite,
+put me to bed. Mme. Guérard was there too; she had been listening for my
+return, as though foreseeing what would happen.
+
+I did not get up again for six weeks, and only narrowly escaped dying of
+brain fever.
+
+Such was the _début_ of my artistic career.
+
+                          (_To be continued._)
+
+
+
+
+                   THE MUTINOUS CONDUCT OF MRS RYDER.
+                           BY MORLEY ROBERTS.
+
+
+Although Watchett of the _Battle-Axe_ and Ryder of the _Star of the
+South_ were cousins, there was no great love lost between them, and all
+unprejudiced observers declared that this lack of mutual admiration was
+in no way due to Captain Ryder. That they remained friends at all was
+owing largely to his infinite good nature, and to the further fact that
+Mrs. Ryder pitied Mrs. Watchett.
+
+"I wonder she goes to sea with him at all," she said. "If you were one
+quarter as horrid as your cousin, Will, I should never go to sea till
+you came ashore."
+
+But she always went to sea with Will Ryder. It was their great delight
+to be together, and there were few men, married or single, who did not
+take a certain pleasure in seeing how fond they were of each other. He
+was a typical seaman of the best kind; he had a fine voice for singing
+and for hailing the foretopsail yard; his eyes were as blue as
+forget-me-nots, and his skin was as clear as the air on the Cordilleras
+which peeped at them over the tops of the barren hills which surround
+the Bay of Valparaiso. And Mrs. Ryder was just the kind of wife for a
+man who was somewhat inclined to take things easily. If she was as
+pretty as the peach, she had, like the peach, something inside which was
+not altogether soft. Her brown eyes could turn black--she had resolution
+and courage.
+
+"You shall not put up with it," was a favourite expression on her
+tongue. And there were times, to use his own expression, when she made
+sail when he would have shortened it. In that sense she was certainly
+capable of "carrying on."
+
+Both vessels were barques of about eleven hundred tons register, and if
+the _Star of the South_ had about twenty tons to the good in size she
+was rather harder to work. It is the nature of ships to develop in
+certain ways, and though both of these barques were sister ships it is
+always certain that sisters are never quite alike. But as they belonged
+to the same Port of London, and were owned by two branches of the same
+family, all of whose money was divided up in sixty-fourths, according to
+the common rule with ships, they were rivals and rival beauties. But,
+unlike the more respectable ladies who owned them, both the vessels were
+fast, and it was a sore point of honour with Ryder and Watchett to prove
+their own the fastest.
+
+"If she only worked a little easier, I could lick his head off," said
+Ryder, sadly.
+
+But there was the rub. The _Star of the South_ needed more "beef" on her
+than the _Battle-Axe_. She wasn't so quick in stays. By the time Ryder
+yelled "Let go and haul," the _Battle-Axe_ was gathering headway on a
+fresh tack.
+
+"And instead of having two more hands than we are allowed, we are two
+short," said his wife, bitterly. "If I were you, Will, I'd take those
+Greeks."
+
+"Not by an entire jugful," replied Captain Ryder. "I remember the
+_Lennie_ and the _Caswell_, my dear. I never knew Valparaiso so bare of
+men."
+
+"And we're sailing to-morrow," said Connie Ryder, angrily; "and you've
+betted him a hundred pounds we shall dock before him. It's too bad. I
+wonder whether he'd give us another day?"
+
+But Ryder shook his head.
+
+"And you've known him for years! He's spending that money in his mind."
+
+"But not on his wife, Will," said Mrs. Ryder. "If we win, I'm to have
+it."
+
+"I'd give him twenty to let me off," said Ryder.
+
+But Connie Ryder went on board the _Battle-Axe_ to see if she could
+induce her husband's cousin to forego the advantage he had already
+gained before sailing. She found him dark and grim and as hard as
+adamant.
+
+"A bet's a bet and business is business," said Watchett. "We appointed
+to-morrow, and, bar lying out a gale from the north, with two anchors
+down and the cables out to the bitter end, I'll sail."
+
+His wife, who was as meek as milk, suggested humbly that it would be
+more interesting if he waited.
+
+"I ain't in this for interest; I'm in it for capital," said Watchett,
+grinning gloomily. "The more like a dead certainty it looks the better I
+shall be pleased."
+
+Mrs. Ryder darkened.
+
+"I don't think you're a sportsman," she said, rather shortly.
+
+"I ain't," retorted old Watchett; "I'm a seaman, and him that'd go to
+sea for sport would go to Davy Jones for pastime. You can tell Bill that
+I'll give him ten per cent. discount for cash now."
+
+As Mrs. Ryder knew that he never called her husband "Bill" unless he
+desired to be more or less offensive, she showed unmistakable signs of
+temper.
+
+"If I ever get half a chance to make you sorry, I will," she said.
+
+"Let it go at that," said Watchett, sulkily. "I got on all right with
+Bill before you took to going to sea with him."
+
+"He was too soft with you," said Bill's wife.
+
+"And a deal softer with you than I'd be," said Watchett.
+
+"Oh, please, please don't," cried Mary Watchett, in great distress.
+
+"I thought you were a gentleman," said Connie Ryder.
+
+ [Illustration: "'I THOUGHT YOU WERE A GENTLEMAN,' SAID CONNIE RYDER."]
+
+"Not you," replied Watchett; "you never, and you know it. I'm not one
+and never hankered to be. I'm rough and tough and a seaman of the old
+school. I'm no sea dandy. I'm Jack Watchett, as plain as you like."
+
+"You're much plainer than I like," retorted his cousin's wife, "very
+much plainer."
+
+And though she kissed Mary Watchett she wondered greatly how any woman
+could kiss Mary Watchett's husband.
+
+"If I ever get a chance," she said. "But there, how can I?"
+
+She wept a little out of pure anger as she returned to the _Star of the
+South_. When she got on board she found the mate and second mate
+standing by the gangway.
+
+"Is there no chance of these men, Mr. Semple"?
+
+"No more than if it was the year '49 and this was San Francisco," said
+the mate, who was a hoary-headed old sea-dog, a great deal more like the
+old school than "plain Jack Watchett."
+
+"Why doesna the captain take they Greeks, ma'am?" asked McGill, the
+second mate, who had been almost long enough out of Scotland to forget
+his own language.
+
+"Because he doesn't like any but Englishmen," said Connie Ryder.
+
+"And Scotch, of course," she added, as she saw McGill's jaw fall a
+little. "I've been trying to get Captain Watchett to give us another
+day."
+
+"All our ship and cargo to a paper-bag of beans he didn't, ma'am," said
+Semple.
+
+"I--I hate him," cried Connie Ryder, as she entered the cabin.
+
+"She's as keen as mustard--as red pepper," said Semple; "if she'd been a
+man she'd have made a seaman."
+
+"I've never sailed wi' a skeeper's wife before," said McGill, who had
+shipped in the _Star of the South_ a week earlier, in place of the
+second mate, who had been given his discharge for drunkenness. "Is she
+at all interferin', Mr. Semple?"
+
+Old Semple nodded.
+
+"She interferes some, and it would be an obstinate cook that disputed
+with her. She made a revolution in the galley, my word, when she first
+came on board. Some would say she cockered the crew over-much, but I was
+long enough in the fo'c's'le not to forget that even a hog of a man
+don't do best on hogwash."
+
+Which was a marvellous concession on the part of any of the after-guard
+of any ship, seeing how the notion persists among owners, and even among
+officers, that the worse men are treated the better they work.
+
+"She seems a comfortable ship," owned McGill.
+
+And so everyone on board of her allowed.
+
+"Though she is a bit of a heart-breaker to handle," said the men
+for'ard. "But for that she be a daisy. And to think that the bally
+_Battle-Axe_ goes about like a racing yacht!"
+
+It made them sore to think of it. But it also made the men on board
+their rival sore to think how comfortable the _Star of the South_ was in
+all other respects.
+
+Owing to the fact that the _Battle-Axe's_ crowd was sulky, the _Star of
+the South_ got her anchor out of the ground and stood to the north-west
+to round Point Angelos a good ten minutes before Watchett's vessel was
+under way.
+
+"That's good," said Connie Ryder. "I know they're a sulky lot by now in
+the _Battle-Axe_. And our men work like dears."
+
+It was with difficulty she kept from tailing on to the braces as they
+jammed the _Star_ close up to weather the Point. For the wind was
+drawing down the coast from the nor'ard, and Valparaiso harbour faces
+due north. She was glad when they rounded the Point and squared away,
+for if there was any real difference in the sailing qualities of the
+rival barques, the _Star_ was best before the wind and the _Battle-Axe_
+when she was in a bow-line.
+
+"And with any real luck," said Mrs. Ryder, "we may have a good fair wind
+all the way till we cross the line."
+
+It was so far ahead to consider the north-east trades, which meant such
+mighty long stretches in a wind, that she declined to think of them. And
+she entirely forgot the calms of Capricorn.
+
+"We're doing very well, Will," she said to her husband when the
+starboard watch went below and the routine of the passage home
+commenced.
+
+"It's early days," replied Will Ryder. "I fancy the _Battle-Axe_ is in
+her best trim for a wind astern."
+
+But Mrs. Ryder didn't believe it.
+
+"And if she is, she mayn't be so good when it comes to beating."
+
+She knew what she was talking about and spoke good sense.
+
+"It's going to be luck," said Ryder. "If either of us get a good slant
+that the other misses, the last will be out of it. But I wish I'd had
+those other two hands. The _Star_ wants 'beef' on the braces. Mr.
+Semple, as soon as possible see all the parrals greased and the blocks
+running as free as you can make 'em."
+
+And Semple did his best, as the crew did. But Mrs. Ryder had her doubts
+as to whether her husband was doing his. For once he seemed to think
+failure was a foregone conclusion.
+
+"I think it must be his liver," said Mrs. Ryder. "I'll see to that at
+once."
+
+But instead of looking up the medicine chest she came across the Pacific
+Directory.
+
+"I never thought of that," she said. "He's never done it, now he shall."
+
+She took the big book down and read one part of it eagerly.
+
+"I don't see why not," she decided, and she went to her husband with the
+request that he should run through Magellan's Straits when he came to
+it.
+
+"Not for dollars," said Will Ryder. "When I'm skipper of a Pacific
+Navigation boat I'll take you through, but not till then."
+
+"But look at all you cut off," urged his wife, "if you get through."
+
+"And how you are cut off if you don't," retorted Ryder. "When I was an
+apprentice I went through in fine weather, and I'd rather drive a 'bus
+down Fleet Street in a fog than try it."
+
+She said he had very little enterprise and pouted.
+
+"Suppose the _Battle-Axe_ does it?"
+
+Ryder declined to suppose it.
+
+"John wouldn't try it if you could guarantee the weather. I know him."
+
+"You never take my advice," said his wife.
+
+"I love you too much," replied Will Ryder. He put his arm about her, but
+she was cross and pushed him away.
+
+"This is mutiny," said the captain, smiling.
+
+"Well, I feel mutinous," retorted Connie. "I wanted you to steal two of
+your cousin's men and you wouldn't. I'm sure they would have come, for
+what the _Battle-Axe_ owed them. And you wouldn't. And now I want to go
+through the Straits and you won't. The very, very next time that I want
+to do anything I shall do it without asking you. Why did you bet a
+hundred pounds if you weren't prepared to try to win it?"
+
+"We'll win yet," said the skipper, cheerfully, "We're only just
+started."
+
+The two vessels kept company right down to the Horn, and there, between
+Ildefonso Island and the Diego Ramirez Islands, the _Star of the South_
+lost sight of her sister and her rival, in a dark sou'-westerly gale.
+With the wind astern as it was when they squared away with Cape Horn
+frowning to the nor'-west the _Star_ was a shooting star, as they said
+for'ard.
+
+"If we could on'y carry a gale like this right to the line, we'd 'ave a
+pull over the _Battle-Axe_, ma'am," said Silas Bagge, an old fo'c's'le
+man, who was Mrs. Ryder's favourite among all the crew. He was a
+magnificent old chap with a long white beard, which he wore tucked
+inside a guernsey, except in fine weather.
+
+"But we can't; there'll be the trades," said the captain's wife,
+dolorously.
+
+"I've picked up the sou'-east trade blowin' a gale, ma'am, before now,"
+said Bagge; "years ago, in '74 or thereabouts, I was in the
+_Secunderabad_, and we crossed the line, bound south, doing eleven
+close-'auled, and we carried 'em to twenty-seven south latitude. There's
+times when it's difficult to say where the trades begin south too. Mebbe
+we'll be chased by such a gale as this nigh up to thirty south."
+
+"It's hoping too much," said Mrs. Ryder.
+
+"Hope till you bust, ma'am," said Silas Bagge. "Nothin's lost till it's
+won. If we can only get out of the doldrums without breaking our hearts
+working the ship, there's no knowing what'll 'appen. 'Twas a pity we
+didn't get them other two 'ands, though."
+
+And there she agreed with him.
+
+    [Illustration: "'HOPE TILL YOU BUST, MA'AM,' SAID SILAS BAGGE."]
+
+"Me and Bob Condy could 'ave got Gribbs and Tidewell out of the
+_Battle-Axe_ easy as easy," said Silas, regretfully. "'Twas a lost
+hopportunity, and there you are."
+
+The honourable conduct of his skipper in vetoing this little game seemed
+no more than foolishness to Bagge.
+
+"When we comes to the Hequator and it's 'square away' and 'brace up'
+every five minutes till one's 'ands are raw, 'twill be a grief to every
+mother's son aboard," said Bagge, as he touched his cap and went
+for'ard.
+
+But now the _Star of the South_ went booming on the outside of the
+Falklands with a gale that drew into the sou'-sou'-west and howled after
+her. She scooped up the seas at times and dipped her nose into them, and
+threw them apart and wallowed. The men were happy, for the fo'c's'le
+didn't leak, and the galley-fire was kept going every night to dry their
+clothes. At midnight every man got a mug of cocoa, and those that rose
+up called Mrs. Ryder blessed, and those that lay down agreed with them.
+The _Star_ was a happy ship. There was no rule against playing the
+concertina on a Sunday in her fo'c's'le, and the men were not reduced to
+playing "blind swaps" with their oldest rags for amusement, as they were
+in the _Battle-Axe_. And yet every man in the _Star_ knew his time for
+growling was coming on, with every pitch and send of the sea.
+
+They picked up the trades in nearly 30deg. south, with only a few days
+of a light and variable breeze, and the trades were good.
+
+"But where's the _Battle-Axe_?" asked Mrs. Ryder.
+
+She kept a bright look-out for her, and deeply regretted that her
+petticoats prevented her going aloft to search the horizon for John
+Watchett. She rubbed her hands in hope.
+
+"I do believe, Will, that we must be ahead of him," she declared, after
+the south-east trade had been steady on the _Star's_ starboard beam for
+a week.
+
+"Not much ahead," replied Will.
+
+And just then Bob Condy, who was aloft on the foreto'gallant yard
+cutting off old seizings and putting on new ones, hailed the deck.
+
+"There's a sail on the port beam, sir."
+
+"Take a glass aloft and have a look at her, Mr. McGill," said the
+skipper. "No, never mind, I'll go myself, as you've never seen the
+_Battle-Axe_ at sea. I know the cut of her jib, and no mistake."
+
+So Will Ryder went up to the maintop-gallant-yard, and with his leg
+astride of the yard took a squint to loo'ard. He shut up the glass so
+quick that his wife knew at once that the distant sail was the
+_Battle-Axe_. As he came down slowly he nodded to her.
+
+"It is?"
+
+"Rather," said Ryder. "I'm sorry we've no stun-sails. We're carrying all
+we've got and all we can."
+
+"And to think he's as good as we were on our own point of sailing!" said
+his wife, with the most visible vexation. "Can't you do anything to make
+her go faster, Will?"
+
+    [Illustration: "MRS. RYDER SAT ON A HEN-COOP AND NEARLY CRIED."]
+
+And when Will said he couldn't unless he got out and pushed, Mrs. Ryder
+sat on a hen-coop and very nearly cried. For if the _Battle-Axe_ had
+done so well up to this she would do better in the dead regions of the
+line, and the _Star_ would do much worse. There the want of a few more
+hands would tell. The _Star_ was no good at catching cat's-paws, and
+short-handed she worked like an unoiled gate.
+
+"If I'd only done what Silas Bagge wanted," she said, "we'd have been
+all right. To think that the want of a couple of hands should make all
+the difference."
+
+It was cruelly hard, but when vessels are undermanned at any time, less
+than their complement means "pull devil, pull baker," with the former
+best at the tug of war.
+
+For days there was nothing to choose between the vessels, save that the
+unusual strength of the trades gave the _Star_ a trifling advantage.
+Every night Watchett took in his royals. This Ryder declined to do,
+though he often expected them to take themselves in.
+
+"What did I say, ma'am?" said old Bagge. "I told you it _could_ blow
+quite 'eavy in its way in the south-east trades."
+
+And thus it happened that what the _Star_ lost by day she pulled up by
+night. And presently the _Battle-Axe_ edged up closer and at last was
+within hailing distance. Watchett stood on his poop with a
+speaking-trumpet, and roared in sombre triumph:--
+
+"I'm as good as you this trip on your best p'int, Ryder!"
+
+"Tell him to go to--to thunder," said Mrs. Ryder, angrily. Nevertheless,
+she waved her handkerchief to her enemy's wife, who was standing by
+"plain Jack Watchett."
+
+"You've done mighty well," said Ryder, in his turn, "but it isn't over
+yet."
+
+Jack Watchett intimated that he thought it was. He offered to double the
+bet. He also undertook to sail round the _Star of the South_ in a light
+wind. He offered to tow her, and made himself so disagreeable that Mrs.
+Ryder, who knew what became a lady, went below to prevent her snatching
+the speaking-trumpet from her husband and saying things for which she
+would be sorry afterwards. But Ryder, though he was by no means a saint,
+kept his temper and only replied with chaff, which was much more
+offensive to Watchett than bad language.
+
+"And don't be _too_ sure," he added. "I may do you yet."
+
+"Not you," said Watchett. "I'm cocksure."
+
+They sailed in company for a week, and gradually, as the trade lessened
+in driving power, the _Battle-Axe_ drew ahead inch by inch. And as she
+did Mrs. Ryder's appetite failed--she looked thin and ill.
+
+"Don't feel it so much, chickabiddy," said her husband.
+
+"I can't help it," sobbed Connie. "I hate your cousin. Oh, Will, if
+you'd only let me entice those two men from him. Bagge was sure that
+Gribbs and Tidewell would have come."
+
+"It wouldn't have been fair," said Ryder.
+
+"I--I--wanted to win," replied Connie; "and it'll be calm directly, and
+you know what that means."
+
+It _was_ calm directly, and very soon everyone knew what it meant. For
+it was a real fat streak of a calm that both vessels ran into. And as
+luck would have it the _Battle-Axe_, which was by now almost hull down
+to the nor'ard, got into it first. The _Star of the South_ carried the
+wind with her till she was within a mile of her rival. For a whole day
+they pointed their jibbooms alternately at Africa and South America, to
+the North Pole and the South. What little breeze there was after that
+day took them farther still into an absolute area of no wind at all.
+
+"This is the flattest calm I ever saw," said Ryder. "In such a calm as
+this he has no advantage."
+
+They boxed the compass for the best part of a week and lay and cooked in
+a sun that made the deck-seams bubble. At night the air was as hot as it
+had been by day. The men lay on deck, on the deck-house, on the
+fo'c's'le head.
+
+"This is a bally scorcher," said the crews of both ships. "Let's
+whistle."
+
+They whistled feebly, but the god of the winds had gone a journey, or
+was as fast asleep as Baal. And day by day the two vessels drifted
+together. At last they had to lower the boats and tow them apart.
+Watchett was very sick with the whole meteorology of the universe, and
+being a whole-souled man, incapable of more than one animosity at a
+time, he found no leisure to spare from reviling a heaven of brass to
+taunt Ryder. At the end of the week he even hailed the _Star_ and
+offered to come on board and bring his wife.
+
+"I don't want him," said Connie Ryder: "I won't have him."
+
+And as she said so she jumped as if a pin had been stuck into her.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked her husband.
+
+"Nothing," said Connie. "But let him come!"
+
+She went for'ard to interview the cook, so she said. But she really went
+to interview Silas Bagge. When she came back she found Watchett and his
+wife on board. If she was a little stiff with Watchett he never noticed
+it. As a matter of fact, the whims and fads and tempers of a woman were
+of no more account than the growling of the men for'ard. He was too much
+engaged in cursing the weather to pay her any attention.
+
+"This licks me," he said; "in a week we ain't moved--we're stuck. 'Ow
+long will it last, Bill?"
+
+"It looks as if it might last for ever," replied Ryder. "We've struck a
+bad streak."
+
+The women had tea and the men drank whisky and water. Although Watchett
+didn't know it, two of his hands left the boat and were given something
+to eat in the galley by Mrs. Ryder's orders. It was Bagge who conveyed
+the invitation, with the connivance of the mate, for whom the word of
+the captain's wife was law.
+
+"'Ave some marmalade and butter?" said Bagge. "Does they feed you good
+in the _Battle-Axe_, Gribbs?"
+
+     [Illustration: "'AVE SOME MARMALADE AND BUTTER?' SAID BAGGE."]
+
+"Hogwash," said Gribbs, with his mouth full. "Ain't it, Tidewell?"
+
+Tidewell, who was a youngster of a good middle-class family, who had
+gone to sea as an apprentice and run from his ship, agreed with many
+bitter words.
+
+"As I told you, we lives like fightin'-cocks 'ere," said Bagge. "When
+you're full in the back teeth, we'll 'ave your mates up. We likes to
+feed the pore and 'ungry, don't we, doctor?"
+
+The cook, to whom Bagge had confided something, said he did his best,
+his humble best.
+
+"The _Star's_ an 'appy ship," he added. "We know what your ship is."
+
+The other two men came up in their turn and were filled with tea and
+biscuit and butter and marmalade till they smiled.
+
+"This is like home," said Wat Crampe, who was from Newcastle.
+
+"It wass petter--much petter," said Evan Evans, "and ass for the
+captain's wife, she iss a lady, whatefer."
+
+That evening Ryder and his wife returned the call and were rowed to the
+_Battle-Axe_ by Bagge, Bob Condy, and two more of the men. Bagge and
+Condy went into the fo'c's'le. They lost no time in condemning the
+_Battle-Axe_ and in lauding their own ship.
+
+"This 'ere's a stinkin' 'ooker, mates," said Silas Bagge; "why, our
+fo'c's'le is a lady's droring-room compared with it. And as for the
+grub, ask them as come on board us this afternoon. What d'ye say,
+Gribbs?"
+
+"Toppin'," said Gribbs. "It's spiled my happetite 'ere."
+
+"It wass good," said the Welshman; "it wass good, whatefer."
+
+Bagge took Billy Gribbs aside on the deck and had a talk with him.
+
+"Oh, Lord!" said Gribbs. "Oh, what?"
+
+"Straight talk," replied Silas; "_she_ said so."
+
+"Do you mean it?"
+
+"Do I mean it?" replied Silas, with unutterable scorn. "In course I mean
+it. It will sarve them right as it sarves right."
+
+Gribbs held on to the rail and laughed till he ached. "It's the rummiest
+notion I ever 'eard tell on."
+
+"Not _so_ rummy!"
+
+"Wot!" cried Gribbs, "not so rummy? Well, if it ain't so rummy, I'm
+jiggered. I'll think of it."
+
+"Do, and tell your mate Tidewell."
+
+"If I tell Ned, 'e'll do it for sure. 'E's the biggest joker 'ere!"
+
+"Then tell him," said Silas.
+
+That evening Ned Tidewell and Billy Gribbs acted in a very strange way
+on board the _Battle-Axe_. Without any obvious reason they kept on
+bursting into violent fits of laughter.
+
+"The pore blokes is gone dotty from the 'eat," said the pitying crowd.
+"We've 'eard of such before."
+
+"Why shouldn't I laugh?" asked Gribbs. "I'm laughin' because I'm a pore
+silly sailor-man and my life ain't worth livin'. If I'd died early I'd
+ha' been saved a pile o' trouble. I was thinkin' of my father's green
+fields as I looked over the side this afternoon."
+
+"Was you really?" asked the oldest man on board. "Then you take my
+advice quick and go and ask the skipper for a real good workin' pill of
+the largest size."
+
+"Wot for?" asked Gribbs.
+
+"Because you've hobvious got a calentoor," said the old fo'c's'le man.
+"And chaps as gets a calentoor jumps overboard. Oh, but that's well
+known at sea by those as knows anythin'."
+
+But Gribbs laughed.
+
+"The worst is as it's catchin'," said his adviser, anxiously; "it's
+fatally catchin'. I've 'eard of crews doin' it one hafter the hother,
+till there wasn't no one left. In 'eat it was and in calm."
+
+"Gammon," said Gribbs. But he was observed to sigh.
+
+"Are you 'ot in your 'ead?" asked the anxious and ancient one.
+
+"I feels a little 'ot and rummy," said Gribbs; "but what I chiefly feels
+is a desire to eat grass."
+
+The old man groaned.
+
+"Then it's got you. Mates, we ought to tie Gribbs up, or lock 'im in the
+sail-locker, or 'is clothes will be auctioned off before long."
+
+But Gribbs kicked at that, and just then eight bells struck.
+
+"I'm turnin' in," said Gribbs, "and I'm all right."
+
+But at six bells in the first watch he was missing, as was discovered by
+old Brooks, the authority on calentures. He waked up Ned Tidewell, who
+was extraordinarily fast asleep.
+
+"Where's Gribbs?"
+
+"Not in my bunk," returned Ned, who with Gribbs was one of the few who
+still dossed in the fo'c's'le.
+
+"Then 'e's gone overboard for sartain," said Brooks, in great alarm;
+"there was the look of it in his eye, and in yours too, youngster. These
+long calms is fataller than scurvy. I shall go aft and report it."
+
+He reported it to Mr. Seleucus Thoms, the second mate, who came for'ard,
+and roused the watch below from the deck-house and t'gallant fo'c's'le.
+When all hands were mustered it was certain that Gribbs was missing.
+
+"This is a terrible catastrophe," said Seleucus Thoms, who had a
+weakness for fine language, derived from his rare Christian name, of
+which he was extremely proud. "My name is not Seleucus Thoms if he
+hasn't gone overboard."
+
+"'E was rampagious with laughter in the second dog-watch, sir," put in
+old Brooks. "And 'e talked of green fields, the which I've 'eard is a
+werry fatal symptom of calentoor."
+
+"Humph!" said Mr. Thoms, "there's something in that."
+
+And when he went for'ard old Brooks was as proud as a dog with two
+tails! Though he usually spent the second dog-watch daily in proving
+that Thoms was no sailor, this endorsement of his theory flattered him
+greatly.
+
+"I've been mistook in the second," he said, as Thoms went aft. "He's got
+'orse sense, after all. I shouldn't be surprised if he'd make a sailor
+some day."
+
+And Thoms reported the catastrophe to Watchett.
+
+"Drowned himself?" roared the captain; "drowned himself? And who's
+responsible if you ain't?"
+
+He came on deck in a great rage and scanty pyjamas and mustered the crew
+aft, and roared at them for full ten minutes as if it was their fault.
+When he had relieved his mind he asked if there was anyone who could
+throw light on the matter, and old Brooks was shoved to the front. He
+explained his views on calentures.
+
+"Never 'eard of 'em," said Watchett.
+
+"And I think, sir, as Tidewell 'ere 'as the symptoms."
+
+"I haven't," said Tidewell, indignantly.
+
+"Wild laughin' is a known symptom, sir, and Tidewell was laughin' 'orrid
+in the second dog-watch," insisted Brooks; "I'd put him in irons, sir."
+
+But Watchett was not prepared to go so far in prophylaxis.
+
+"If any of you 'as any more symptoms I'll flog 'im and take the
+consequences," he declared. He went below again unhappily, for he wasn't
+quite a brute after all.
+
+"This is a mighty unpleasant thing," he said to poor Mrs. Watchett, who
+cried when she heard the news. "It's a mighty unfortunate affair. Gribbs
+was the smartest man in the whole crowd and worth two of the others."
+
+But still the great and terrible calm lasted, and the morning was as hot
+as yesterday and the sea shone like polished brass and lapped faintly
+like heavy oil against the glowing iron of the sister barques. At dawn,
+which came up like a swiftly opening flower out of the fertile east, the
+vessels were just too far apart for hailing, and Watchett signalled the
+news to the _Star of the South_.
+
+"Lost a man overboard!" said Ryder. "That's strange; I wish to Heaven
+we'd found him!"
+
+When he told his wife she seemed extraordinarily callous.
+
+"Serves him right," she said.
+
+And it was wonderful how the crew of the _Star_ took the news. They had
+never seemed so cheerful. They grinned when Watchett came aboard.
+
+"This is an 'orrid circumstance," said Watchett. "I never lost a man
+before, not even when I was wrecked in the _Violet_. And this a dead
+calm!"
+
+"Your men aren't happy," said Mrs. Ryder, "and you don't try to make
+'em. If I give you three seven-pound tins of marmalade and some butter,
+will you serve it out to them?"
+
+      [Illustration: "'YOUR MEN AREN'T HAPPY,' SAID MRS. RYDER."]
+
+But Watchett shook his head angrily.
+
+"I'll not cocker no men up," he declared; "not if they all goes
+overboard and leaves me and the missis to take 'er 'ome. And what's
+marmalade against 'eat like this?"
+
+He mopped a melancholy brow and sighed.
+
+"It will help them to keep from gloomy thoughts," said Mrs. Ryder. "The
+_Star of the South_ is a home for our men."
+
+"And two run in Valparaiso," retorted Watchett. "And I on'y lost one."
+
+He took a drink with his cousin and went back on board the _Battle-Axe_,
+and spent the torrid day in getting a deal of unnecessary work done. And
+still no flaw of lightest air marred the awful mirror of the quiet seas.
+Early in the first watch the boats were lowered again to tow the vessels
+apart. At midnight, when the watch below came aft and answered to their
+names in the deep shadow of the moonless tropic night, Ned Tidewell did
+not answer to his name.
+
+"Tidewell!" cried Thoms, angrily and anxiously.
+
+And still there was no answer, but a groan from old Brooks.
+
+"Wot did I tell you?" he demanded. "I seed it in 'is eye."
+
+They searched the _Battle-Axe_ from stem to stern; they overhauled the
+sails in the sail-lockers; they hunted with a lantern in the forepeak;
+they even went aloft to the fore and main tops, where once or twice
+someone who sought for coolness where no coolness could be found went up
+into what they jocosely called the "attic." But Ned had lost the number
+of his mess.
+
+"More clothes for sale," said the melancholy crew, as they looked at
+each other suspiciously. "'Oo'll be the next?"
+
+Brooks declared to the other fo'c's'le men that the next would be Wat
+Crampe, or Taffy, as they called the Welshman.
+
+"There's an awful 'orrid look o' the deep, dark knowledge of death in
+their faces," declared old Brooks. "They thinks of the peace of it and
+the quiet, and smiles secret!"
+
+Next morning Watchett hailed the _Star_ and told the latest dreadful
+news. And at the end he added, in a truly pathetic roar, "Send me them
+tins o' marmalade aboard, and the butter."
+
+And when Mrs. Ryder superintended the steward's work getting these
+stores out of the lazaret, she smiled very strangely. She said to her
+husband: "If he loses another hand or two the _Battle-Axe_ will be no
+easy ship to work, Will."
+
+"I wouldn't have believed the matter of a hundred pounds would have made
+you so hard," said Ryder. And Connie Ryder pouted mutinously, and her
+pout ran off into a wicked and most charming smile.
+
+"I'm not thinking so much of the money as of our ship being beaten," she
+said.
+
+And poor Watchett was now beginning to think the same of his ship. Like
+most vessels, the _Battle-Axe_ required a certain number of men to work
+her easily, and her luck lay in the number allowed being the number
+necessary. With two hands gone a-missing she would not be much superior
+to the _Star_ in easiness of handling, and if more went a week of
+baffling winds now or later, when the north-east trade died out, might
+give the _Star_ a pull which nothing but an easterly wind from the chops
+of the Channel to Dover could hope to make up. He began to dance
+attendance on his crew as if they were patients and he their doctor. And
+the curious thing was that they all began to feel ill at once, so ill
+that they could not work in the sun. A certain uneasy terror got hold of
+them; they dreaded to look over the side, lest in place of an oily sea
+they should look down on grass and daisies.
+
+"Daisies draws a man, and buttercups draws a man," said old Brooks.
+
+"Don't," said Crampe, with a snigger. "You make me feel that I must pick
+buttercups or die."
+
+"Do you now?" asked Brooks. "Do you now?"
+
+And he sneaked aft to the skipper, who was turning all ways, as if
+wondering where windward was.
+
+"I'm very uneasy about Crampe, sir," he said, with a scrape, as he
+crawled up the port poop ladder. "'Is mind is set on buttercups."
+
+"The deuce it is!" cried Watchett, and going down to the main deck he
+called Crampe out.
+
+"What's this I 'ears about your 'ankering after buttercups?" he
+demanded, very anxiously.
+
+"I _did_ feel as if I'd like to see one, sir," said Crampe.
+
+"Don't let me 'ear of it again," began Watchett, angrily, but he pulled
+himself up with an ill grace. "But there, go in and lie down, and you
+needn't come on deck in your watch. I can't afford to lose no more mad
+fools. And you shall have butter instead of buttercups."
+
+     [Illustration: "YOU SHALL HAVE BUTTER INSTEAD OF BUTTERCUPS."]
+
+"And marmalade, sir?" suggested Crampe. "Marmalade's yellow too, as
+yellow as buttercups."
+
+"Say the word agin and I'll knock you flat," said the skipper. But,
+nevertheless, he sent the whole crowd marmalade and butter at four bells
+in the first dog-watch.
+
+"Hoo, but it iss fine," said "Efan Efans." "Thiss iss goot grup whatefer
+and moreover, yess!"
+
+"They scoffs the like in the _Star_ day in and day out," said Crampe;
+"if I can't roll on grass I'd like to be in her."
+
+And that night both Crampe and Evans disappeared.
+
+"I believe I 'eard a splash soon after six bells," said old Brooks.
+"Mates, this is most 'orrid. I feels as if I should be drawed overboard
+by a mermaid in spite of myself."
+
+And Watchett went raving crazy.
+
+Ryder came on board the _Battle-Axe_ as soon as the latest news was
+signalled to him. Mrs. Ryder declined to go, but she gave him a timely
+piece of advice.
+
+"Don't let him off the bet, Will, or I'll never forgive you."
+
+"I won't do that," said her husband, hastily, as if he hadn't been
+thinking of doing it.
+
+"And if he asks for a man or two, you know we're short-handed already."
+
+"Tell me something I don't know," said Ryder, a trifle crossly. Even his
+sweet temper suffered in 115deg. in the shade.
+
+"I dare say I could," said his wife, when he was in the boat; "I dare
+say I could."
+
+Watchett received his cousin with an air of gloom that would have struck
+a damp on anything anywhere but the Equator.
+
+"This is a terrible business," he said. "I never 'eard of anything like
+it. Every night a man, and last night two!"
+
+Ryder was naturally very much cut up about it, and said so.
+
+"Will you have some more marmalade?" he asked, anxiously.
+
+"Marmalade don't work," said Watchett, sadly; "it don't work worth a
+cent. Nor does butter. I'd give five pounds for some green cabbage."
+
+A brilliant idea struck Ryder.
+
+"Why don't you paint her green, all the inside of the rail and the
+boats?"
+
+"She'd be a beauty show, like a blessed timber-droghing Swede," said
+Watchett, with great distaste. "But d'ye think it'd work?"
+
+"You might try," replied Ryder.
+
+"And now you've got the bulge on me," sighed Watchett; "with two 'ands
+missing from both watches, she'll be as 'ard in the mouth as your
+_Star_. You might let me off that bet, Bill."
+
+"No," said Ryder, "a bet's a bet."
+
+"But fairness is fairness," urged Watchett; "there should be a clause in
+a bet renderin' it void by the act of God or the Queen's enemies."
+
+"There isn't," said his cousin, "and you forget you wouldn't help me
+about those two hands I wanted."
+
+"Oh, if you talk like that----"
+
+"That's the way I talk," said Ryder, remembering the wife he had left
+behind him. "I'm sorry."
+
+"Hang your sorrow," said Watchett. "But I'll lose no more, and 'tain't
+your money yet."
+
+"Will you and Mary come on board to tea?" asked Ryder.
+
+"I won't tea with no unfair person with no sympathy," returned Watchett,
+savagely.
+
+And when Ryder had gone he set the crowd painting his beautiful white
+paint a ripe grass-green.
+
+"Watch if it soothes 'em any," he said to Seleucus Thoms. "If it seems
+to work I'll paint 'er as green as a child's Noah's Ark."
+
+And that night there was no decrease of the _Battle-Axe's_ sad crowd, in
+spite of the fact that he did not act on his impulse to lock them up in
+the stuffy fo'c's'le. For soon after midnight Mr. Double felt one side
+of his face cooler than the other as he stood staring at the motionless
+lights of the _Star of the South_, then lying stern on to the
+_Battle-Axe's_ starboard beam.
+
+"Eh? What? Jerusalem!" said Double. Then he let a joyous bellow out of
+him. "Square the yards!"
+
+For there was a breath of wind out of the south. Both vessels were alive
+in a moment, and while the _Battle-Axe_ was squaring away the _Star's_
+foreyard was braced sharp up on the starboard tack till she fell off
+before the little breeze. Then she squared her yards too, and both
+vessels moved at least a mile towards home before they began fooling all
+round the compass again.
+
+"Them hands missin' makes a difference," said Watchett, gloomily. "Less
+than enough is starvation."
+
+As they fought through the night for the flaws of wind which came out of
+all quarters, the short watches of the _Battle-Axe_ found that out and
+grumbled accordingly. But it was a very curious thing that the _Star of
+the South_ was never so easy to handle.
+
+"That foreyard goes round now," said old Semple, "as if it was hung like
+a balance. This is very surprisin'. So it is."
+
+He mentioned the remarkable fact to McGill when he came on deck at four
+in the morning, and so long as it was dark, as it was till nearly six,
+McGill found it so too. And both watches were in a surprisingly good
+temper. For nothing tries men so much as "brace up" and "square away"
+every five minutes as they work their ship through a belt of calm. But
+as soon as the sun was up the _Star_ worked just as badly as she did
+before.
+
+"It's maist amazin'," said McGill.
+
+During the day the calm renewed itself and gave everyone a rest. But
+once more the breeze came at night, and the amazing easiness of the
+_Star_ showed itself when the darkness fell across the sea. Ryder and
+Semple and McGill were full of wonder and delight.
+
+"The character of a ship will change sometimes," said Semple. "It's just
+like a collision that will alter her deviation. This calm has worked a
+revolution."
+
+Because of this revolution the _Star_ got ahead of the _Battle-Axe_
+every change and chance of the wind. She got ahead with such effect that
+on the third day the _Battle-Axe_ was hull down to the south'ard, and
+when the fourth dawn broke she was out of sight. This meant much more
+than may appear, for the _Star_ picked up the north-east trade nearly
+four days earlier than her rival, and a better trade at that. When the
+_Battle-Axe_ crawled into its area it was half-sister to a calm, while
+the _Star_ was doing eight knots an hour. And as there was now no need
+to touch tack or sheet, there was no solution of the mysterious ease
+with which she worked in the dark. How long the mystery might have
+remained such no one can say, but it was owing to Mrs. Ryder's curious
+behaviour that it came out. She laughed in the strangest manner till
+Ryder got quite nervous.
+
+"These chaps that jumped over from the _Battle-Axe_ laughed like that,"
+he told her, in great anxiety.
+
+And she giggled more and more.
+
+"Shall I try marmalade?" she asked. Then she sat down by him and went
+off into something so like hysterics that a mere man might be excused
+for thinking she was crazy.
+
+"They're not dead!" she cried; "they're not dead!"
+
+  [Illustration: "'THEY'RE NOT DEAD!' SHE CRIED; 'THEY'RE NOT DEAD!'"]
+
+"Who aren't dead?" asked her husband, desperately.
+
+And, remembering something which had been told him years before, he took
+her hands and slapped with such severity that she screamed and then
+cried, and finally put her head upon his shoulder and confessed.
+
+"Was it mutiny of me to do it?" she asked, penitently.
+
+Will Ryder tried to look severe, and then laughed until he cried. "What
+ever made you think of it?"
+
+"It wasn't a what; it was a who," said his wife; "it was Silas Bagge."
+
+"The dickens it was," said Will, and with that he left her.
+
+"Call all hands and let them muster aft," he said to McGill, who, much
+wondering, did what he was told. The watch on deck dropped their jobs
+and the watch below turned out.
+
+"Call the names over," said Ryder, sternly.
+
+"They're all here, sir," said McGill.
+
+The skipper looked down at the upturned faces of the men and singled out
+Silas Bagge as if he meant to speak to him. But he checked himself, and,
+going down to the main deck, walked for'ard to the fo'c's'le. The men
+turned to look after him, and there was a grin on every face which would
+have been ample for two. Ryder walked quietly, and pushing aside the
+canvas door he came on a party playing poker. He heard strange voices.
+
+"I go one petter, moreover," said one of them.
+
+"I see you and go two better," said a man with a Newcastle burr in his
+speech.
+
+Then Ryder took a hand.
+
+"And I see you," he remarked. They dropped their cards and jumped to
+their feet.
+
+"What are you doing here?" he demanded. And there wasn't a word from one
+of them; they looked as sheepish as four stowaways interviewing the
+skipper before a crowd of passengers.
+
+"Get on deck," said Ryder. And much to McGill's astonishment the
+addition to the crew appeared with the captain behind them.
+
+"Divide this lot among the watches," said Ryder.
+
+Leaving McGill to "tumble to the racket," he walked to the mate's berth
+and explained to him that henceforth the _Star of the South_ would go
+about as easy by day as by night.
+
+"Then they're not dead!" cried Semple.
+
+"Not by a jugful," said Ryder, nodding.
+
+"This is very lucky, sir," said the mate, smiling.
+
+"It's confoundedly irregular, too," replied the skipper, as he rubbed
+his chin. "Are you sure you knew nothing of it, Mr. Semple?"
+
+"Me, sir! Why, I'd look on it as mutiny," said Semple; "rank mutiny!"
+
+"It was Mrs. Ryder's notion, Semple."
+
+"You don't say so, sir! She's a woman to be proud of!"
+
+"So she is," replied Ryder. "So she is."
+
+He went back to his wife.
+
+"You'll win the hundred pounds now, Will?"
+
+"I believe I shall," said Ryder.
+
+"And I'll spend it," cried his wife, running to him and kissing him.
+
+"I believe you will," said Ryder.
+
+It was a happy ship.
+
+
+
+
+                _The Size of the World's Great Cities._
+                         BY ARTHUR T. DOLLING.
+
+
+Those imposing agglomerations of houses and dwellers we call cities (in
+most cases political or commercial capitals) have shown a notable rate
+of progress during the last two or three decades. More and more do the
+centripetal forces at work in almost every nation make for the growth of
+the capital at the expense of the rural community. A century ago a
+million human beings dwelling side by side under a single municipal
+government was almost of itself one of the great wonders of the world.
+Men spoke of London with bated breath and wondered where it would all
+end. Reports of monster cities in China with a population double that of
+London were dismissed as travellers' tales. Travellers' tales, verily,
+they have proved to be, seeing that Peking even to-day has fewer than a
+million souls. But what would our forefathers have said of these
+twentieth-century "wens," these "gloomy or glowing, febrile and
+throbbing concentrations" of human life, numbering not merely two, but
+three, four, and even five millions of souls?
+
+ [Illustration: LONDON: THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNTY OF LONDON, WITH WHICH
+    THE OTHER CITIES ARE COMPARED, IS SHOWN BY THE SHADED PORTION.]
+
+Let us take London as the basis of our diagrams. London is an
+indeterminate quantity. It may mean the City of London, which comprises
+only 673 acres, or it may mean the Administrative County of London,
+which boasts nearly 117 square miles, or 74,839 acres, or Greater
+London, which embraces the Metropolitan Police district, and has an area
+of no less than 692 square miles, or 443,420 acres. If we take the
+second of these Londons we shall find it to consist of twenty-nine large
+and small cities, ranging in population from 334,991 to 51,247
+inhabitants. These are called the Metropolitan boroughs; but as it is
+rather geographical size than population which here concerns us, we may
+state that the largest of these boroughs is Wandsworth, with an area of
+9,130 acres, and the smallest is Holborn, with 409 acres. The average
+area of these boroughs, if we exclude the City, is about four square
+miles. Within these borders of London--which must not be confounded with
+Greater London--there were in 1901 4,536,541 souls, living in 616,461
+houses. Within this area, besides buildings, must be counted 12,054
+acres of grass, including the public parks and gardens.
+
+If we take Greater London we embrace a far wider and yet still a
+homogeneous community, for it cannot be denied that the adjoining
+boroughs just outside the pale of the administrative county are policed
+from the same centre, are London to the Post Office, and commonly regard
+themselves, what they must soon be officially, as an integral part of
+the Great Wen. Greater London--within the fifteen-mile radius--is far
+more homogeneous and compact than Greater Chicago, for example, or even
+than Greater New York or Greater Boston. We have here an aggregation of
+6,580,000 inhabitants and, as we have already seen, 443,420 acres. But
+perhaps the fairest estimate of London is the natural one of a single
+mass of buildings, without any unoccupied or unimproved areas. This
+gives us a solid, compact city of 85,000 acres and 6,000,000
+inhabitants; extending from Edmonton on the north to Croydon on the
+south, and east and west from Woolwich to Ealing. Nor can one doubt, at
+the present rate of expansion, that even more distant areas than Croydon
+will eventually be included, although the Scotsman may have been a
+little "previous" who addressed a letter to a friend at "Bournemouth,
+S.W."
+
+  [Illustration: A MAP OF PARIS PRINTED UPON A MAP OF LONDON, SHOWING
+                  THE RELATIVE SHAPES AND SIZES.]
+
+In the following article we propose to compare with London the sizes of
+the chief cities of the world and, by printing a black map of each city
+upon a map of London, to display their relative magnitude at a glance.
+Let us see, to begin with, how Paris compares with London as represented
+in the above diagram.
+
+At a _coup d'oeil_ we perceive that the French capital is for its
+population remarkably small in area, a fact clearly owing to its fixed
+military barriers, which make growth upward rather than outward.
+Consequently, dwellers in Paris often have six or eight pairs of
+stairs to climb where the dweller in London has but two. There have
+been repeated agitations for municipal expansion, but so far nothing
+has been done to annex the surrounding communes. Paris has a
+population of 2,700,000, living in 75,000 houses, and an area of over
+thirty-one square miles. If, however, the agglomeration of houses be
+taken--including the suburbs--the area is forty-five square miles and
+the population 3,600,000, although, as yet, this is not actually and
+geographically Paris.
+
+              [Illustration: BERLIN COMPARED WITH LONDON.]
+
+Berlin, a mere village a century ago, is the third city of Europe in
+point of population, and its growth since 1870 has been phenomenal, as
+we shall see. Yet the technical barriers which enclose the city remain
+precisely what they were more than forty years ago, and Berlin is still
+as it was in 1861, compressed within twenty-eight square miles, six
+miles long and five and a half wide. At the close of the Franco-Prussian
+War Berlin, now the capital of a new empire, became a paradise for
+builders. Streets of houses appeared almost as if by magic, and the
+whole aspect of the city became changed. From being the worst lighted,
+the worst drained, and ugliest capital in Europe it has become one of
+the finest, cleanest, and handsomest of cities, and its population has
+more than doubled. Berlin now boasts within its boundaries 1,857,000
+inhabitants. But without there is, in Ibsen's phrase, "the younger
+generation knocking at the door," and Greater Berlin might have a
+population of 2,430,000, with an area at least treble, extending,
+indeed, as far as Potsdam. Berlin's actual increase from 1800 to 1900
+was 818 per cent., multiplying its population by nine.
+
+              [Illustration: VIENNA COMPARED WITH LONDON.]
+
+"The transformation of Vienna" has for nearly half a century been a
+watchword amongst the progressive party in the Austrian capital. The
+example of Paris--with which the Viennese love to be compared--has,
+since 1858, brought to the fore innumerable Haussmannizing projects, all
+of which have tended to the city's amplifying and beautifying. The
+second or outer girdle of fortifications has been taken down; the
+barriers thus removed, fifty suburbs became, in 1891, part and parcel of
+the capital. Before this time Vienna was twenty-one English square
+miles, or one-third less than Paris; afterwards it covered sixty-nine
+square miles, besides having by the process added half a million to its
+population, which now stands at 1,662,269. But Vienna does not intend to
+be stationary in the coming decade. The fever of the municipal race for
+territory is upon her also. She is now reaching out for the adjoining
+town of Floridsdorf across the Danube, together with four other
+communes, having a population of 50,000; and this step increases the
+area of Vienna to about eighty-two square miles, nearly thrice the size
+of Berlin. Naturally such a large territory for a population smaller
+than a third that of London would comprise much open ground, especially
+as there is great overcrowding in the industrial districts. And, as a
+matter of fact, over five-eighths of Vienna is woods, pastures and
+vineyards, and arable ground, while above a tenth of the total area is
+made up of parks, gardens, and squares. The cost of making Vienna so
+vast has been enormous; but it has not been borne by the ratepayers to
+any oppressive extent, because the appropriated military ground and
+sites of fortifications have yielded a handsome profit, and municipal
+improvements in the annexed districts have, of course, enhanced the
+value of property. Moreover, the most acute observers are convinced
+that, if Vienna had not roused herself to material self-improvement, her
+prestige, which is already threatened by Budapest, would ere this have
+completely vanished. After the Austro-Prussian struggle and the
+marvellous rise of Berlin and Budapest, the city on the Danube would
+have sunk to be the Bruges of the twentieth century.
+
+          [Illustration: ST. PETERSBURG COMPARED WITH LONDON.]
+
+There is, perhaps, hardly a capital in the world so badly situated as
+St. Petersburg. To its north and east is a desolate wilderness, and to
+its south is a mighty stretch of marshland, and it is 400 miles from any
+important commercial centre. Yet, built at the behest of an Imperial
+autocrat, it has risen steadily into magnitude and wealth, at the cost
+of hundreds of thousands of human lives.
+
+St. Petersburg is, as all the world knows, built on a swamp, or
+low-lying alluvial deposits, at the mouth of the Neva. These cover
+altogether an area of 21,185 acres, of which 12,820 are part of the
+delta proper of the river and 1,330 acres are submerged. In consequence
+of its origin and present condition the city is naturally subject to
+inundations, but these, owing to the admirable public works and
+precautions taken, are not of frequent occurrence. Of the area of the
+city, 798 acres are given up to gardens and parks, while a third of the
+whole area is densely overcrowded, the average in some districts being
+one inhabitant for every ninety-three square feet and some dwellings
+containing from 400 to 2,000 inhabitants each. As for the population, it
+is now 1,248,739, to which if that of the suburbs be added (190,635),
+the Russian capital is the fifth city of Europe. Yet in area it is far
+too small; overcrowding is universal, in spite of the 1,000 dwellings
+that are erected annually, and the mortality is appalling.
+
+            [Illustration: LIVERPOOL COMPARED WITH LONDON.]
+
+Liverpool is about six miles long by about three broad, the area being
+13,236 acres. It has a population of 686,332 within boundaries less than
+half the size of Berlin or Paris. But it comprised only 5,210 acres in
+1895. In that year, feeling cramped, Liverpool annexed an area of 8,026
+acres. Of the total area, there is comprised 772-1/2 acres of parks and
+gardens.
+
+              [Illustration: PEKING COMPARED WITH LONDON.]
+
+Peking, as we may see, is a walled city of oblong shape, and contains a
+total area of about thirty square miles. The two chief divisions are
+known as the Tartar city and the outer or Chinese city. The population
+is now about 1,000,000. Writing twenty years ago Sir Robert Douglas
+thought that a population of a mere million was "out of all proportion
+to the immense area enclosed within its walls. This disparity," he
+continued, "is partly accounted for by the fact that large spaces,
+notably in the Chinese city, are not built over, and that the grounds
+surrounding the Imperial Palace private residences are very extensive."
+
+What would he have said of Chicago, New York, Budapest, or, indeed, of
+any modern capital "expanded"? To us, at the beginning of the twentieth
+century, a million inhabitants seems a very respectable population
+indeed for a city of only thirty square miles, and in this respect we
+can no longer sneer or be astonished at the "peculiarities" of Oriental
+cities.
+
+              [Illustration: BOSTON COMPARED WITH LONDON.]
+
+Boston is one of the older and more conservative American cities which
+have lately been seized by the expansion fever, and now proudly refers
+to its "Greater Boston." But this is as yet only a term, and the new
+Boston metropolitan district, embracing all the area within a circle of
+ten miles from the State House, is hardly yet a distinct municipality.
+It will doubtless soon come about, and in that case twenty-two towns and
+cities will be taken to the bosom of "the Hub," and the total population
+will be close upon a million and a quarter. At present the area of the
+city is over thirty-seven square miles (24,000 acres), or just the size
+of Chicago a decade ago, of which 2,308 acres are common open spaces and
+126 acres ponds and rivers, in addition to numerous squares, gardens,
+and playgrounds. The length of the city is eight miles and its greatest
+breadth about seven miles.
+
+ [Illustration: COMPARED WITH LONDON.--THE SOLID BLACK AREA REPRESENTS
+       THE ACTUAL BUILDINGS OF CHICAGO; THE GREY AREA COMPLETING
+                    THE ADMINISTERED CITY.]
+
+Exactly one hundred years ago the American Government built Fort
+Dearborn, on Lake Michigan. In 1831 there was a village of one hundred
+people on the site; to-day the city of Chicago has spread out (rather
+too generously, its rival municipalities think) until it comprises
+190-1/2 square miles and a population of 1,698,575. But only some
+seventy square miles of this area is improved, and less than fifty miles
+built upon. As there are also 2,232 acres of parks and open spaces,
+Chicago cannot be said to be overcrowded; especially when one remembers
+the great height of most of the buildings in the business quarter.
+Chicago's expansion, in truth, follows the lines laid down by the early
+Western boom "cities," which were prairie wilderness one week, were
+surveyed the next, had a population of twelve, one man to the square
+mile, and applied for a charter the week following, and elected a Mayor
+and Corporation. The next week the boom was over and a mere shanty
+remained to mark the site of Boomopolis.
+
+   [Illustration: NEW YORK COMPARED WITH LONDON, THE SOLID BLACK AREA
+            REPRESENTING THE ACTUAL BUILDINGS, THE GREY AREA
+                   COMPLETING THE ADMINISTERED CITY.]
+
+Before 1898 the city of New York lay partly on Manhattan Island, a long
+and narrow strip of land at the head of New York Bay, thirteen miles
+long and twenty-two square miles in area, and partly, although to a very
+trifling extent so far as population was concerned, north of the Harlem
+River, and on several small islands in the bay and East River. The total
+area was forty-two square miles, within which was a population of
+1,515,301 souls. But in the aforementioned year the great arms of the
+city flung themselves out and gathered to its bosom so many of the
+outlying parts and people as to bring the total area of Greater New York
+up to 307 square miles, and the population to 3,437,202. It must be
+confessed that much of this huge municipal territory has been rather
+irrelevantly brought in--especially Staten Island (area 57·19 square
+miles), which is separated from New York proper by the width of the bay.
+But, on the other hand, other and nearer towns, such as Jersey City and
+Hoboken, were excluded, for the reason that they were in another State.
+Within Greater New York are included 6,766 acres of parks and open
+spaces, which is but little more than half that of London; yet the
+proportion of unoccupied land not under the control of the city is, of
+course, many times as great. The actual agglomeration of buildings in
+Greater New York--excluding Staten Island--covers barely 51,000 acres,
+or eighty square miles, as is shown in the diagram. Less than 5,000
+acres is built upon in Staten Island.
+
+
+
+
+                         _Some Novel Banquets._
+
+                           BY THEODORE ADAMS.
+
+
+The art of him who prepares the banquet has reached, in these latter
+days, a distinction of novelty which might reasonably make the
+gastronomer of fifty years ago hold up his knife and fork in wonder. It
+is a novelty born of the desire for change. No longer does the
+dinner-giver merely prepare, with the aid of his costly _chef_, the menu
+for his guests and the viands on it. He--or, more properly, she, because
+of the present prominence of the fair hostess--tries not only to set a
+pretty table with flowers and cutlery of gold. The giver of dinners is
+ever thinking of that which will make the banquet memorable to the
+guest, and, in some cases, even wonders what the Press will say about
+it. This means to lie awake at night, and in such nightly vigils many
+wondrous things have been evolved.
+
+Thus we have come to hear of banquets under conditions that make the
+imagination reel, and arouse speculation as to what the dinner of the
+twenty-first century will be like. When thirty-two people sat about on
+horseback a year ago, in a temporary stable, eating from dishes handed
+to them by waiters dressed as grooms, it seemed as if the top notch of
+_bizarrerie_ had been reached. But, as the German says, _noch nicht_.
+
+   [Illustration: A HORSEBACK DINNER IN A HOTEL BALLROOM, THE TABLES
+                   BEING CARRIED IN FRONT OF THE SADDLES.
+                       _From a Photo. by Byron._]
+
+This remarkable horseback dinner was given in the great ballroom at
+Sherry's by Mr. C. K. G. Billings, of New York, and, as it was intended
+to celebrate the construction of a new stable, the rumour went round
+that the banquet would be held in the structure itself. The guests,
+however, met at Sherry's, and were escorted to a small banquet room,
+where a long table, in the form of an ellipse, was lavishly banked with
+flowers. The centre space was occupied by a stuffed horse, which cast
+his glass eyes curiously upon the assembly as the oysters and caviare
+were served. So convinced were the guests that this was the real and
+much-talked-about equestrian dinner that their surprise was great when
+they were asked to follow their host into an adjoining room.
+
+"Here," according to the report of one who was at this famous banquet,
+"there had taken place an amazing transformation, for the decoration,
+the waxed floors, and everything of the world of indoors had been
+obliterated. A space sixty-five by eighty-five feet in the centre of the
+room had been enclosed by scenery. The guests were in a land of winding
+roadways, of brooks which coursed through green meadows, and of giant
+elms. There were cottages, vine-covered, and at the edge of a country
+estate was a porter's lodge. Far away stretched fields of grain. Over
+all was the blaze of a summer sun, for above in a vault of blue were
+strung electric lights. On all sides was the country, and in the middle
+of the room, rising in a pyramid, were geraniums, daisies, and roses,
+all blooming as if in the air of June. Above them a palm formed the apex
+of a pyramid thirty feet at the base. The floor was covered with long,
+velvety grass. Around the centrepiece were arranged thirty-one horses
+waiting for their riders. Mr. Billings's mount stood near the door,
+gazing into the geranium bed. How the steeds got up to the ballroom is
+no mystery in these days of large lifts, and they were well-trained
+horses, who cared not for lights and unusual conditions. Each guest
+found his mount by means of a horseshoe-shaped card attached to the
+saddle of the horse, just as he had been guided to his seat at the
+preliminary banquet by means of the bits of Bristol-board at each
+cover."
+
+Between every two horses there was placed a carpet-covered block, from
+which the diners swung into their saddles, where, from little tables
+placed upon the pommels, they ate their splendid dinner. The horses
+showed little nervousness. Their trappings were yellow and gold, making
+pretty contrast with the costumes of the servants, who wore trousers of
+white buckskin, scarlet coats, and boots with yellow tops. Towards the
+end of the feast the horses were treated with a consideration due to
+their efforts, for a turkey-red fence surrounding the floral pyramid was
+discovered by the guests to contain feeding-troughs in which had been
+placed a plentiful quantity of superior oats. After dinner the horses
+were taken from the room by the grooms, small tables and chairs were
+brought in, and the guests sat down to an after-dinner chat as if in a
+beautiful garden.
+
+   [Illustration: A DINNER OF THE NEW YORK EQUESTRIAN CLUB, THE TABLE
+                      REPRESENTING A HORSE'S HEAD.
+                       _From a Photo. by Byron._]
+
+The horse has figured in a less ambitious, though perhaps quite as
+attractive, manner at the dinners of the Equestrian Club, which meets in
+New York during the winter once a month. For one of these banquets was
+arranged a rural scene with trees, shrubs, and beautiful beds of tulips
+and hyacinths, the whole floor being covered with stage grass. The table
+represented a horse's head, chairs being placed around the neck, while
+the head proper of the horse was a mass of flowers, with eyes, nose, and
+mouth displayed by means of ornamental and many-coloured flowers. The
+bridle, particularly, stood out strongly in brilliant red. The menu was
+formed in the shape of a horse's head, with a small bit and bridle made
+of leather and steel attached to it.
+
+             [Illustration: A DINNER INSIDE AN EASTER EGG.
+                       _From a Photo. by Byron._]
+
+The use of effective scenery at such functions is growing more common.
+Perhaps the most effective use to which it was ever put was at the Proal
+banquet of April, 1903, when thirty-five ladies dined within a monster
+Easter egg. The egg itself towered to the top of Sherry's ballroom and
+extended almost to the outer walls. Outside the egg was represented a
+farm on which chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, pigs, lambs, and
+guinea-pigs disported to the life--for they were really live. The
+ballroom had been turned into a fine landscape, with scenes representing
+fields and pastures, with flowing brooks near by, and farmhouses,
+windmills, and hayricks in the distance. One or two mirrors reflected
+parts of this landscape, which had been arranged to express that longing
+for "green fields and pastures new" which comes to all who live a city
+life when spring appears.
+
+In every respect the farm was true to life. A farmer with blue overalls
+and smock passed in front of the guests, followed by a flock of geese.
+Pigs ran between his legs, and the spring lamb frisked upon the green.
+Rabbits munched their carrots until, timid at the sight of strange
+people, they hid themselves in the straw which lay about. Around were
+scattered the implements of labour, as if the farmers had just left
+their work. There were scythes, mowing-machines, milk-pails, and
+milking-stools to be seen. Every detail, in fact, had been thought of
+necessary to make the illusion complete, and the guests--all of whom had
+been kept in ignorance until they came into the room--were justly
+astonished at the sight.
+
+The egg itself, with its shell of white, was geometrically perfect, and
+brought to mind the famous tale of Sindbad and the gigantic roc. The
+shell was fashioned with light timber bands bent to the required shape,
+and the supports were covered with green, all making a delightful
+arbour-like effect. The table was oval in form, hollowed in the centre,
+within which were floral decorations representing the white and yellow
+of an egg. Daffodils and jonquils were used for the yolk, while lilies,
+candytuft, and other white flowers were freely used. The air was filled
+with fragrance from these blooms. Mrs. Proal sat at the head of the
+ornamental table, with her guests around the oval. Music was provided by
+a band of negro musicians, who, seating themselves on wooden benches
+outside the dining-room, sang plantation melodies. The waiters were
+dressed as farm-labourers in gaily coloured shirts and smocks, with
+wisps of straw upon their heads. Fortunate, indeed, were the thirty-five
+women who took part at this unique banquet, for the farm and its giant
+egg had come into existence only for a single day, to be destroyed when
+luncheon was ended and its use was over.
+
+ [Illustration: THE GUESTS OF THE KETTLE CLUB DINNER WITH THE KETTLE IN
+                           WHICH THEY DINED.
+                       _From a Photo. by Byron._]
+
+We already begin to see in these dinners the existence of a new form of
+humour. This is shown even better in the so-called "babies' dinner"
+given at Sherry's by a Philadelphia organization called the Kettle Club.
+This club, composed of gentlemen who summer in the Adirondack Mountains,
+and who eat their forest meals round a vast and fragrant kettle,
+recently decided to admit five new members, or "babies." The only
+condition of candidacy was that the "babies" should show due
+appreciation of the honour conferred upon them. The result was a banquet
+such as had never been held before. To it were invited the older members
+of the club. The ballroom resembled a forest glade. Round the walls were
+painted forests with real trees in the foreground, to one of which was
+hitched a hunting-horse. The scenic effects included a dark blue cloth
+which represented a sky, with a moon in the distance and twinkling
+stars. In the centre of the room rested on a tall mound a huge kettle,
+twenty-five feet high and twenty-eight feet in diameter, with a door at
+one side reached by a rustic stairway. There was a circular table within
+the kettle, around which sat the guests, each with a wine "cooler" at
+his side.
+
+In the centre of the table, perfectly dark when dinner began, was a bed
+of tall flowers on the floor, nine feet below. Suddenly, when this hole
+was lighted, was revealed a magnificent display of orchids, with a vine
+of pale purple flowers. Below sat a negro with a banjo, who sang and
+played throughout the evening for the pleasure of the guests. The menu
+card showed a picture of the kettle, into which five babies were
+climbing, the faces of these being those of the five new members, each
+with a teething ring, a nursing bottle, and a rattle. Souvenirs of the
+occasion were given to the guests in the form of small kettles, each
+with the name of the guest and the club motto, "Take the Kettle,"
+painted on the side. This same inscription appeared on the structure in
+which the banquet took place, as shown in our illustration. Here we may
+note the part which the backcloth played at this noteworthy function.
+
+           [Illustration: THE OLD GUARDS' "MOCK-MENU" DINNER.
+                       _From a Photo. by Byron._]
+
+Another novel dinner was that given by a well-known New Yorker, Colonel
+O'Brien, to the Old Guard of Delmonico's, known to fame as the guard
+that "dines but never surrenders." For this affair two menus had been
+provided, one as a joke, the other for consumption. The mock bill of
+fare contained a list of dishes which _might_ have been provided. For
+example, under the heading of oysters were the words "half shell," which
+the waiters solemnly set before the assembled gentlemen, minus the
+bivalves. These being removed made way for the next item, which, being
+"cream of celery" and presumably a soup, was found to be small tubes of
+celery with cold cream inside. Through all the regular courses the joke
+was carried, with amusing success, the joint being spring lamb with
+"string," or French, beans. What was the astonishment of the guests to
+find served for this course a woolly toy lamb on a spring, which
+squeaked when pressed, and wore dried beans on a string around its neck!
+The humour of the dinner came with the continued surprise at the
+ingenuity shown by the preparer of the feast, and it can be truly said
+that each item tickled the guests immensely. With the woolly lambs this
+band of gastronomers were especially pleased, and it was at the moment
+when these ridiculous toys were handed round to the well-proportioned
+diners that our photograph was secured.
+
+           [Illustration: THE "LYRE DINNER," THE TABLE BEING
+                         IN THE FORM OF A LYRE.
+                       _From a Photo. by Byron._]
+
+A few years ago Mr. Sherry himself was returning with the _impresario_,
+Maurice Grau, from Europe, and as the result of a wager upon the ship's
+"run" Mr. Grau was given a splendid dinner. It is now known in
+gastronomic history as the "lyre dinner," for the table was arranged in
+the form of an enormous lyre. Long gilded ropes covered with pretty
+vines represented the strings, while, to carry out the idea of the
+instrument, there was a golden cloth on the inner side of the table.
+Into this were woven mauve orchids, with electric lights sparkling under
+the green leaves, thus bringing out sufficient brilliancy to please the
+guests and not to affect their eyesight. Between each two seats of the
+table was a wine "cooler," sunk into the wood in such a way that the
+neck only of each champagne bottle showed above the edge. The banquet
+was attended by those best known to music in New York, and its
+brilliancy has probably never been surpassed.
+
+
+
+
+                          _A Doubtful Case._
+               BY MRS. EGERTON EASTWICK (PLEYDELL NORTH).
+
+
+When, in the year 189-, a weakness of the throat prevented me from
+preaching for a time, I had considerable difficulty in persuading Allan
+Fortescue to take my place in the pulpit.
+
+He had been amongst us rather more than two years; and although an
+ordained priest in the Church of England, and a man of considerable
+ability, was without preferment, and, apparently, content to remain so.
+
+How came it, I often wondered, that he stayed on in our quiet village,
+with no apparent interest or occupation in life beyond his garden and
+his books?
+
+Nor, when he at length consented to my proposal and preached his first
+sermon in Stony Lea, was my perplexity lessened. His diction was that of
+a classical scholar, but his words were also the outpouring of a
+sensitive, warm-hearted man; I could have fancied that in these
+impersonal utterances he sought compensation for years of enforced
+silence and isolation.
+
+He had attracted me from the first. Manly, genial, but strangely
+reserved, Sir Lewin Maxwell and myself were, I believe, the only
+visitors who had gained admittance to his cottage.
+
+When I so far induced him to change his habits as to help me with my
+weekly sermons Sir Lewin Maxwell was abroad. He had left Stony Lea for
+the Riviera in November, and now, early in May, the fact of his marriage
+had just been announced. No particulars, however, concerning the bride
+had reached us, and the appearance of the newly-married couple at the
+Hall was looked for with much interest and curiosity. They did not come
+until June, and then, by the express desire of Sir Lewin, were met by no
+demonstration of any kind; indeed, no one, I believe, except the steward
+and myself knew the exact date or hour at which they were to be
+expected.
+
+On the Sunday following their arrival, therefore, glances were turned
+with some eagerness towards the Hall pew, but it was occupied only by a
+stout, elderly lady, who could not assuredly be Sir Lewin's
+newly-married wife.
+
+No sooner, on that day, had Allan Fortescue in due course mounted the
+pulpit than I became aware of something amiss. From my position in the
+chancel I could not see his face, but the pause which preceded his
+announcement of a text was just long enough to cause uneasiness, and his
+voice, when at length he broke the silence, was harsh and unnatural,
+although, when once fairly started, he spoke with even more than his
+usual fervour.
+
+When I reached the sacristy after the service Fortescue had already
+left, and as I was preparing to follow him I was accosted by the lady
+whom I had seen in the squire's pew.
+
+      [Illustration: "SHE TURNED TO ME AND INQUIRED WHETHER I WAS
+               AWARE OF THE TRUE CHARACTER OF THE MAN."]
+
+My visitor's comely, good-tempered face was flushed with heat and
+nervous indignation. After abruptly closing the sacristy door upon the
+two of us she turned to me and inquired whether I was aware of the true
+character of the man I had admitted to my pulpit, adding that it was
+with the greatest difficulty she had refrained from walking out of the
+church.
+
+Somewhat startled, I asked for further explanation, whereupon she gave
+me, at considerable length, the particulars I will here try to relate as
+concisely as possible.
+
+It seemed that about five years previously Allan Fortescue had been
+engaged as resident tutor to Mrs. Llewellyn's only son, and in that
+capacity had accompanied the family to Llidisfarn, a solitary,
+old-fashioned place in Wales. The house was occupied for the greater
+part of the year by a gardener and his wife as caretakers; but during
+the residence of their mistress these people retired to their own
+cottage. Mrs. Llewellyn brought with her two old and faithful
+servants--both women. Her party further included her niece and ward,
+Edith Graham, now Sir Lewin Maxwell's wife. The evening of her arrival
+Mrs. Llewellyn retired early to her room and to bed. The latter was an
+antiquated four-poster; the canopy had been removed for the sake of air,
+but the curtains remained, and on the night in question, the weather
+being boisterous and the room draughty, had been drawn so as to have
+only a small opening at the foot. Before retiring Mrs. Llewellyn had
+taken from her travelling-bag an ebony and silver casket which contained
+some valuable diamonds. She had intended placing the casket in an iron
+safe near the head of the bed, but had found the lock rusty from disuse;
+consequently, being exceedingly tired, and believing there could be no
+fear of burglars in this quiet and remote place, she left the casket on
+the dressing-table.
+
+The dressing-table faced the door of the room, and to cross from one to
+the other it was necessary to pass the foot of the bed.
+
+     [Illustration: "A FIGURE CARRYING A SMALL READING-LAMP PASSED
+                             THE APERTURE."]
+
+In the dead of the night Mrs. Llewellyn awoke, feeling sure that someone
+was stirring in the room, and, as she became more fully conscious, saw
+on the ceiling above her a dim reflection of light. Almost at the same
+moment a figure carrying a small reading-lamp passed the aperture
+between the curtains at the foot of the bed, going towards the door, and
+she recognised, to her amazement, the tutor, Allan Fortescue. She
+described herself as being too surprised and terrified to call out; it
+seemed but a moment before the door was closed and she was in darkness
+and alone. Then she struck a light, sprang from the bed, and went to the
+dressing-table. The ebony casket was gone. Even then she gave no alarm.
+Except her son and Allan Fortescue, only women were in the house; and
+she reflected that it would be safer and wiser to wait until the
+morning. That the thief should dispose of the diamonds during the night
+was virtually impossible. Also the circumstances were otherwise
+peculiar. Allan Fortescue was at that time the avowed admirer of Miss
+Graham, and for her sake an open scandal was, if possible, to be
+avoided.
+
+The following morning, however, after hours of sleepless anxiety, Mrs.
+Llewellyn summoned the tutor to the study, made her accusation, and
+demanded the return of her property.
+
+He did not attempt either to explain or deny his presence in her room
+during the night, but appeared to treat the idea of theft as a ludicrous
+jest, and stoutly maintained that the jewels were not in his possession.
+During the altercation which followed Miss Graham entered, and Fortescue
+at once explained the situation.
+
+Apparently to his surprise, Miss Graham took the affair very seriously,
+and seemed to feel that the evidence against him was overwhelming. She
+pleaded, however, so piteously that for her sake he might be spared from
+public disgrace that Mrs. Llewellyn finally consented to allow him to
+leave the house, upon the understanding that he should seek no further
+intercourse with any member of the family, and that he should never
+again undertake the duties either of a clergyman or a tutor. Under these
+circumstances he at last seemed to realize the seriousness of his
+position; he went away that morning, maintaining towards the end an
+obstinate silence. The most rigorous search, made at his own request,
+among his possessions failed to reveal the diamonds, which, indeed, had
+never since been heard of.
+
+I also gathered that, although made fully aware of the penalty to be
+incurred by any breach of the conditions named, he had steadily refused
+to bind himself as to his future.
+
+That afternoon, as soon as I was at leisure, I walked down to Allan
+Fortescue's cottage.
+
+Shocked and distressed as I was at the story, I felt many points in it
+needed clearing up, and was inwardly assured that, if he would, he had
+the power to explain the whole matter satisfactorily.
+
+He opened the door himself.
+
+"I know," he said, abruptly, before I could speak, "why you have come.
+Mrs. Llewellyn was with you this morning; I saw her rustling up towards
+the sacristy. Don't let charity bring you any farther."
+
+I signed to him to let me come in.
+
+"We can't talk on the doorstep," I said. "Of course, it is all a
+mistake."
+
+He let me come to the study; then, as he closed the door behind me, he
+said:--
+
+"There is no mistake. I was there--in her room that night. She saw me."
+
+"You were not there to take the diamonds," I persisted.
+
+"I was not there to steal the diamonds; I will own so much."
+
+"In that case, who did steal them, if stolen they were? No pains should
+have been spared at the time to discover the actual thief. Even now it
+might not be too late, if you would only account for your presence in
+the room."
+
+"The actual thief----" He began restlessly to pace the floor. "What if I
+were to say that I took the diamonds--with my own hands?"
+
+"I should answer that you must have been in some way unconscious of your
+actions."
+
+My confidence seemed to touch him; he looked at me, and for a moment I
+hoped I was to gain some enlightenment; then he said, slowly:--
+
+"I was never in my life more completely master of myself. And now there
+must be an end of my confessions."
+
+I saw that to question him further would be useless, and shortly
+afterwards took my leave. As we parted he grasped my extended hand.
+
+"I owe you an apology," he said, "for having brought this annoyance upon
+you, and I don't know how to thank you for your patience with me."
+
+A few days later an invitation reached me to dine at the Hall. Any
+intercourse between Allan Fortescue and Sir Lewin Maxwell had inevitably
+ceased. Sir Lewin, not unnaturally, accepted Mrs. Llewellyn's view of
+the case, but he did not quarrel with me for taking my own line, and
+young Lady Maxwell seemed almost grateful for my belief in the possible
+innocence of her old lover. She was a most charming woman, with an
+habitually sweet and gracious manner, rendered only more attractive, I
+at first thought, by a variableness of mood which brought suggestion of
+possible storms.
+
+An accomplished musician, her talent made a link between us. Often,
+indeed, during the earlier part of our intercourse she became associated
+in my mind with the harmonies of Beethoven, whose creations she rendered
+with remarkable skill and feeling. Later, however, I noticed an increase
+of nervous restlessness, an expression in her eyes as of some haunting,
+eager desire, little in keeping with the works of the master, which,
+however full of variety, are to my mind always instinct with a great
+satisfaction and repose.
+
+For some time I was inclined to attribute these signs of disturbance to
+the neighbourhood of Allan Fortescue, and to think that he would have
+done well to leave the village. But, so far as I could see, he
+studiously avoided all chance of encounter with any of the Hall party;
+and, without definite reason, I had not the heart to suggest that he
+should become once more a wanderer.
+
+In this way some few months passed without noticeable event. Sir Lewin,
+I thought, at times looked careworn and more aged than the passage of
+months would justify, but he seemed, if possible, more entirely devoted
+to his wife than in the earlier days of their marriage. Then, one Monday
+afternoon early in April, as I was riding homewards from visiting an
+outlying district, a curious thing happened.
+
+My way led me through Oxley Dell, a piece of road bordered on each side
+by Sir Lewin's woods, through which to the right a bridle-path leads by
+a short cut to Stony Lea. The path and immediate neighbourhood are but
+little frequented, owing to an old story of a murder and a subsequent
+ghost.
+
+   [Illustration: "A WOMAN SUDDENLY APPEARED FROM AMONG THE TREES."]
+
+As I neared the Dell I saw Allan Fortescue tramping along the road in
+front of me, but before I could overtake him he turned aside into the
+bridle-path. There I presently followed, and had him once more in view,
+when a woman suddenly appeared from among the trees and accosted him.
+Allan raised his hat, and the two walked on together; the meeting had
+the air of an appointment.
+
+Having no wish to play the spy I turned my pony's head, but I was ill at
+ease. The tall, graceful figure of the woman, enveloped though it was in
+a long rain-coat, had been ominously familiar, and as I jogged slowly
+homewards I resolved that I would call that evening on Allan and have
+the matter out with him.
+
+I found him in better spirits than usual, but when I explained my errand
+he seemed somewhat disconcerted.
+
+"Ah! you saw us," he said, and bent to knock the ashes from his pipe;
+then added, "You are sure, I suppose, of the identity of the lady?"
+
+"As sure as it is possible to be without having seen her face to face."
+
+"Still, you might be utterly mistaken. Would it not be better, for the
+sake of--the lady chiefly concerned in your mind--to give her the
+benefit of the doubt?"
+
+His eyes met mine fully, I answered question with question.
+
+"Do you think you are dealing fairly with me? Strictly speaking, perhaps
+this is no affair of mine, and yet----"
+
+"And yet you have been extraordinarily good to me, and deserve that I
+should be open with you. I can only ask you to trust me a little
+farther; to believe that the meeting you witnessed to-day cannot
+possibly injure the lady you are thinking of except through your
+interference, and that it was as far removed from being of a sentimental
+nature as though I had met my grandmother."
+
+The Friday following this interview I received a visit from the squire;
+he looked ill and harassed.
+
+"I am vexed," he said, "about Edith. She went to town for a day's
+shopping on Wednesday and has not returned. She was to lunch with Mrs.
+Llewellyn and come back for dinner. She has frequently made these little
+excursions of late. In the evening, however, I got a telegram to say she
+was detained by the dressmaker, and yesterday morning a letter to the
+same effect. This morning I had no letter, but half an hour ago I met
+General Anson--he had just arrived by the three o'clock train. He told
+me that he had seen Edith having lunch at Franconi's with Fortescue.
+They did not see him--his table was behind theirs--but as he left the
+room he passed close to them and heard Fortescue say, 'To-night, then,
+without fail, by the seven-thirty.' 'So,' the old man went on, 'I
+suppose Lady Maxwell comes down to-night, and Mr. Fortescue is to escort
+her. I thought there was a coolness--that he was under a cloud.' I
+laughed, and told him it was a case of mistaken identity."
+
+"And Fortescue?"
+
+"He went to London yesterday; I happen to know that."
+
+I must here mention that Stony Lea, although but a small village in
+Kent, has a good train service, and is but an hour's run from town. I
+looked at my watch. It was barely four o'clock. "Why not," I said, "go
+up to town by the four-forty-five, and travel down yourself with Lady
+Maxwell when she is prepared to come? You could be in Belgrave Road
+before six o'clock."
+
+"Will you come with me?" he asked.
+
+I consented; and by 6.30 we were in Belgrave Road.
+
+Mrs. Llewellyn's house had an empty, uninhabited air, and the servant
+who came to the door said his mistress had been out of town for a few
+days. Lady Maxwell had been staying there during the week. She had
+driven out in the morning and not returned until four o'clock; then,
+after a cup of tea, she had gone out again, walking; she had said she
+was leaving town that evening, and would return about half-past six in a
+cab for various parcels that were awaiting her.
+
+"Quite so," Sir Lewin said; "she is travelling down with me. I will wait
+for her here," and he walked straight into the drawing-room, whither I
+followed him. The room opened into the hall. Presently a hansom drove
+up; Lady Maxwell got out and entered the house with a latch-key. Sir
+Lewin moved towards the door of the room as though intending to meet
+her, when the arrival of another cab made him pause and look round. Lady
+Maxwell ran lightly upstairs; the door was ajar and I heard the
+swish-swish of her skirts. The second cab was a four-wheeler; Fortescue
+descended from it, and the electric bell of the front door tingled
+persistently in the silence of the house. Then we heard him asking for
+Lady Maxwell, and almost before the servant could reply Sir Lewin was on
+the doorstep. Fearful of what might ensue I followed him from the room;
+I saw him touch Fortescue on the shoulder, and Allan's start of surprise
+and, apparently, dismay; then the two men entered the hall together.
+
+"Now," said Sir Lewin, "kindly explain your presence here and your
+business with my wife."
+
+Allan's answer was unexpected.
+
+"I think," he said, quietly, "I will leave that to Lady Maxwell
+herself."
+
+They had spoken so far in low tones and with outward calm; now Sir Lewin
+muttered angrily some words which I could not hear, and raised his arm.
+
+     [Illustration: "SIR LEWIN MUTTERED ANGRILY SOME WORDS WHICH I
+                 COULD NOT HEAR, AND RAISED HIS ARM."]
+
+I stepped forward.
+
+"Come into the drawing-room," I said hurriedly in his ear. "Don't make a
+public scene."
+
+He shook me off, but at that moment another and more importunate voice
+intervened.
+
+"My dear Lewin, you here? How exceedingly fortunate! Now we need not
+rush for that seven-thirty train; you and dear Edith can stay to
+dinner."
+
+There was a darkening of the doorway, a rustle of garments, and Mrs.
+Llewellyn advanced with outstretched hands.
+
+Sir Lewin stared in blank amazement. Allan smiled.
+
+"I was in the cab," went on the lady, "waiting for Edith. Mr. Fortescue
+kindly drove with me from the station, and I had intended to travel down
+with her, trusting, my dear Lewin, to your hospitality to put me up for
+the night. I am so sorry I have been unable to return before, to be with
+the dear child all the time."
+
+She had talked us all to the drawing-room door.
+
+"I still quite fail to see," began Sir Lewin, stiffly, "how Mr.
+Fortescue----"
+
+"I will explain," said Lady Maxwell. She had come down the stairs
+unheard, and now advanced towards us. Her face was as white as the gown
+she wore, her eyes looked wild and startled. "Come with me," she added
+to Sir Lewin, and led the way to a small back room. He followed her
+without a word.
+
+"Pay the cab," said Mrs. Llewellyn, cheerfully, to the servant, "and
+bring all those packages in. Sir Lewin and Lady Maxwell will remain to
+dinner. Mr. Greyling and Mr. Fortescue, please come in, and let me offer
+you some refreshment."
+
+She moved towards the dining-room and, the door being safely closed,
+fell gasping into a chair. There was wine upon the side-board; Allan
+poured some into a glass and brought it to her. She sighed heavily as
+she took it. "How all this is to end, Heaven only knows!"
+
+"I think," said Allan, "there is nothing further for me to do. If you
+will allow me I will bid you good-night."
+
+She looked at him curiously, the wineglass half-way to her lips.
+
+"Can you," she said, "trust your vindication to us?"
+
+"Entirely. It has come to be the last thing I think about," he answered,
+sadly; "and, if she may in any degree be spared, I beg that it may be
+the very last thing in your mind also."
+
+A few minutes later Allan and I left the house. We dined in town and
+travelled back to Stony Lea together; but he offered me no explanation
+of the events of the afternoon, and I respected his silence.
+
+Nearly a week passed before I heard anything further about the matter.
+
+Then, one morning, Sir Lewin called upon me; he and Lady Maxwell had
+returned only the previous night from town. He made no reference to the
+circumstances of our last meeting, but asked me to come to the Hall that
+afternoon, as his wife was far from well, and anxious to see me.
+
+I went accordingly and found her alone, lying upon a couch in her
+morning-room and looking sadly, terribly changed.
+
+"I have asked you to come," she said, when I had taken a seat beside
+her, "because I want to tell you the truth about Allan Fortescue; he has
+suffered all these years through my fault, and I must make what
+reparation I can before----It was I who really had the diamonds; I
+wanted them, and I employed him to bring me the casket; he did this
+quite innocently, as you will hear, not knowing what it contained. I had
+seen it on the dressing-table when I went to say good-night to my aunt
+just after she had gone to bed--about nine o'clock; but I was equally
+afraid either to take it then or to return to the room in the dark later
+on. Yet the chance seemed too good to be lost; I had never seen the
+casket left exposed before; it was always kept under lock and key. On my
+way downstairs I met Allan Fortescue, and we went together to the
+drawing-room. As we sat chatting by the fire, the plan I afterwards
+carried out occurred to me. The talk turned upon ghosts, and he said he
+should much like to meet one. Then I told him, truly, that one room in
+the house was said to be haunted by the spirit of a lady who had died
+there mysteriously on her return from a ball at which she had promised
+her lover to elope with him. I explained that nothing had been disturbed
+since the morning she was found there, dead in her chair before the
+mirror; but instead of the room to which the story really attached I
+described the one I had just left, and dared him to visit it after
+midnight. He said he had no fear, but I added that I should not believe
+in his courage unless he brought me as a proof a small ebony casket
+which had always stood upon the dressing-table. He laughed and said he
+would do even that, and I promised to meet him in the conservatory the
+following morning before breakfast to receive it and hear his
+experiences. He was quite strange to the house and did not know how any
+of the bedrooms were occupied except his own and his pupil's, which were
+in another wing. In the morning he handed me the casket as arranged. You
+know the rest; you see he was helpless in my hands."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me," I asked, "that you wrecked a man's life for a
+few jewels?"
+
+  [Illustration: "'DON'T JUDGE ME TOO HARDLY,' SHE SAID, PITEOUSLY."]
+
+"Don't judge me too hardly," she said, piteously. "I was in terrible
+straits. I had been staying with some of my father's relations in town,
+and had learned much of a side of life concerning which Aunt Mary knew
+practically nothing. I owed a great deal of money, and was afraid to
+tell her about it. When I had the diamonds I was able to put off the
+most threatening of my creditors with promises of payment, and, later,
+one of my cousins helped me to dispose of the stones. I told him they
+were some jewels of my mother's which had just been made over to me.
+Aunt Mary would hold no intercourse with my father's family, so I had no
+fear of awkward explanations. When I was twenty-one I came in for a
+little money, all that was left of my mother's fortune, and I gave Aunt
+Mary some fresh jewels. You see, I had inherited certain tendencies from
+my father--perhaps in the beginning there was some excuse for me; you
+will understand when I say that he died from a hurt received in a
+gambling quarrel when I was about twelve years old. The house and all he
+possessed were sold to pay his debts, and Aunt Mary took charge of me.
+It was a great change. To me at all events my father had been good
+always, and I loved him dearly.
+
+"As to Allan Fortescue, when he found how I had tricked him he was
+furious, but I managed to see him alone and persuaded him to accept the
+situation. You see, I had contrived things so that his speaking would
+have been of very little use unless I had chosen to confess--only his
+word against mine. Of course, I was dreadfully upset when I found that
+Aunt Mary had seen him. That was just what I had not counted upon; but I
+couldn't go back then and give up the jewels--I couldn't. I promised him
+that, if he would keep silence, I would never be reckless and
+extravagant or wicked again; and for a long time I kept my word. But
+life was dreadfully dull, and the thought of what I had done made me
+wretched; if Allan had been prosecuted I don't think I could have borne
+it--I must have spoken out. As it was, I became subject to dreadful fits
+of depression, and I think Aunt Mary was very glad to get me safely
+married, as she called it. For a time, then, I was very happy; for I
+loved Lewin dearly, and I tried to forget. Then, finding Allan here,
+seeing the wreck I had made of his life, brought back to me all my
+trouble. I began to crave again for excitement of any sort. Lewin
+thought I was ill, and at first used to give me champagne as a tonic.
+
+"When we were in town last year I got back into the old set, from a
+different standpoint, and with more money at command----"
+
+Once more she stopped, but I would not again interrupt her; I felt that
+the whole sad story must be finished now.
+
+"I don't know," she continued, presently, "how Allan Fortescue
+discovered what was going on, but he did. One day I received a
+communication from him--I can't call it a letter--telling me that he
+knew the sort of life I was leading, and that unless I kept my promise
+to him he would speak and tell Lewin the truth even now. He knew and
+could prove where I had sold the diamonds. In reply to that I induced
+him to meet me in the Oxley Woods, and persuaded him to give me a little
+more time. I promised to tell Lewin that very night about my debts.
+Instead, I went to London. I really meant to start afresh; but I thought
+I could raise some money and get fairly straight without saying anything
+to my husband. I--I stayed longer than I meant. Allan came to look for
+me. He followed me to the places where he thought I was likely to be--he
+must have kept a watch upon me for some time past--but our meeting at
+last was accidental. I was really at my wits' end, and I went into
+Franconi's with Allan to talk things over. We saw General Anson leave
+the place, and I think that made Allan decide there must be no more
+concealment; also, I suppose he felt it was useless to trust me any
+longer. He went straight from me to Aunt Mary and fetched her. She knew
+that he must be speaking the truth. I had promised to go home that night
+anyhow; but I don't know what I might have done if I had been left to
+myself. Then you and Lewin appeared----It is better as it is--I should
+never have had the strength, the courage--I am so sorry--so sorry--for
+Lewin--for myself--for Allan--for my little child that is coming----"
+
+She turned her face to the wall, and I saw her slight frame shiver with
+voiceless, choking tears.
+
+There is little more to tell. Lady Maxwell lived only a few months after
+she had made this confession. Her child survived--a son--and there are
+three men who watch over that boy with perhaps exaggerated solicitude
+and love--his father, Allan Fortescue, and myself.
+
+Will he reward our care? I think so. He has his mother's face and charm,
+but in character he takes after Sir Lewin. Allan Fortescue has remained
+in the village as my curate. I trust he may never leave me, and that the
+bishop may see fit hereafter to appoint him vicar in my stead; I am
+growing old.
+
+
+
+
+                       _Illustrated Interviews._
+
+                     No. LXXXI.--DR. EDWARD ELGAR.
+
+                         BY RUDOLPH DE CORDOVA.
+
+
+                             [Illustration:
+     _From a Photo. by_] DR. EDWARD ELGAR. [_George Newnes, Ltd._]
+
+"If ever this votary of the muse of song looked from the hills of his
+present home at Malvern, from the cradle of English poetry, the scene of
+the vision of Piers Plowman, and from the British camp, with its
+legendary memories of his own 'Caractacus,' and in the light of the
+rising sun sees the towers of Tewkesbury and Gloucester and Worcester,
+he might recall in that view the earlier stages of his career, and
+confess with modest pride, like the bard in the 'Odyssey':--
+
+    Self-taught I sing; 'tis Heaven, and Heaven alone,
+    Inspires my song with music all its own."
+
+                             [Illustration:
+   _From a Photo. by_] DR. ELGAR'S HOUSE AT MALVERN. [_George Newnes
+   Ltd._]
+
+It was in November, 1900, that these words were spoken by the Orator
+when the University of Cambridge honoured itself by conferring the
+honorary degree of Doctor of Music on Dr. Elgar, whom one of the most
+distinguished German writers on music declared to be "the most brilliant
+champion of the National School of Composition which is beginning to
+bloom in England."
+
+The encomiums which Germany--the acknowledged leader of the world in
+music--has showered on Dr. Elgar have at length been reflected in
+England, which has awakened to the fact that to him at least that much
+misapplied word "genius" belongs by right divine. That awakening was
+marked by the three days' festival in the middle of March, when Covent
+Garden Opera House reverted to an old custom and for two glorious nights
+became the home of oratorio, with a concert on the third night. That
+festival is unique in the history of music, for it is the first time an
+English composer has been so honoured.
+
+However gratifying the applause of the public may be to the worker in
+any art, his greatest pleasure must properly come from his
+fellow-workers, who know the difficulties which have to be surmounted
+before the desired effect can be produced.
+
+"Was not Herr Steinbach, the conductor of the Meiningen Orchestra, among
+the others who said that you have something different from anybody else
+in the tone of your orchestra?" I asked Dr. Elgar, as we sat in his
+study at Malvern, with a great expanse of country visible through the
+wide windows.
+
+                             [Illustration:
+     _From a Photo. by_] DR. ELGAR'S STUDY. [_George Newnes, Ltd._]
+
+"I believe so," he replied; "and that remark has been one from which I
+have naturally derived great pleasure.
+
+"You know," said Dr. Elgar, as he settled down to talk for the purpose
+of this interview, in accordance with a long-standing promise made in
+what he came to regard as an unguarded moment--"you know, since you
+compel me to begin at the beginning, that I 'began' in Broadheath, a
+little village three miles from Worcester, in which city my father was
+organist of St. George's Catholic Church, a post he held for
+thirty-seven years. I was a very little boy indeed when I began to show
+some aptitude for music and used to extemporize on the piano. When I was
+quite small I received a few lessons on the piano. The organ-loft then
+attracted me, and from the time I was about seven or eight I used to go
+and sit by my father and watch him play. After a time I began to try to
+play myself. At first the only thing I succeeded in producing was noise,
+but gradually, out of the chaos, harmony began to evolve itself. In
+those days, too, an English opera company used to visit the old
+Worcester Theatre, and I was taken into the orchestra, which consisted
+of only eight or ten performers, and so heard old operas like 'Norma,'
+'Traviata,' 'Trovatore,' and, above all, 'Don Giovanni.'
+
+                    [Illustration: DR. EDWARD ELGAR.
+                   _From a Photo. by E. T. Holding._]
+
+"My general education was not neglected. I went to Littleton House
+School until I was about fifteen. At the same time I saw and learnt a
+great deal about music from the stream of music that passed through my
+father's establishment.
+
+"My hope was that I should be able to get a musical education, and I
+worked hard at German on the chance that I should go to Leipsic, but my
+father discovered that he could not afford to send me away, and anything
+in that direction seemed to be at an end. Then a friend, a solicitor,
+suggested that I should go to him for a year and see how I liked the
+law. I went for a year, but came to the conclusion that the law was not
+for me, and I determined to return to music. There appeared to be an
+opening for a violinist in Worcester, and as it occurred to me that it
+would be a good thing to try to take advantage of the opening, I had
+been teaching myself to play the violin. Then I began to teach on my own
+account, and spent such leisure as I had in writing music. It was music
+of a sort--bad, very bad--but my juvenile efforts are, I hope,
+destroyed.
+
+"Although I was teaching the violin I wanted to improve my playing, so I
+began to save up in order to go to London to get some lessons from Herr
+Pollitzer. On one occasion I was working the first violin part of the
+Haydn quartet. There was a rest, and I suddenly began to play the 'cello
+part. Pollitzer looked up. 'You know the whole thing?' he said.
+
+"'Of course,' I replied.
+
+"He looked up, curiously. 'Do you compose, yourself?' he asked.
+
+"'I try,' I replied again.
+
+"'Show me something of yours,' he said.
+
+"I did so, with the result that he gave me an introduction to Mr., now
+Sir, August Manns, who, later on, played many of my things at the daily
+concerts at the Crystal Palace.
+
+"When I resolved to become a musician and found that the exigencies of
+life would prevent me from getting any tuition, the only thing to do was
+to teach myself. I read everything, played everything, and heard
+everything I possibly could. As I have told you, I used to play the
+organ and the violin. I attended as many of the cathedral services as I
+could to hear the anthems, and to get to know what they were, so as to
+become thoroughly acquainted with the English Church style. The putting
+of the fine new organ into the cathedral at Worcester was a great event,
+and brought many organists to play there at various times. I went to
+hear them all. The services at the cathedral were over later on Sunday
+than those at the Catholic church, and as soon as the voluntary was
+finished at the church I used to rush over to the cathedral to hear the
+concluding voluntary. Eventually I succeeded my father as organist at
+St. George's. We lived at that time in the parish of St. Helen's, in
+which is the mother church of Worcester, which had a peal of eight
+bells. The Curfew used always to be rung in those days at eight o'clock
+in the evening, and I believe it is still rung. I made friends with the
+sexton and used to ring the Curfew, and afterwards strike the day of the
+month. My enthusiasm was so great that I used to prolong the ringing
+from three minutes to ten minutes, until the people in the neighbourhood
+complained, when I had to reduce the time. On Sunday the bells were
+supposed to go for half an hour before service, from half-past ten to
+eleven. The performance was divided into certain parts. With a friend, I
+used to 'raise' and 'fall' the bell for ten minutes, chime a smaller
+bell for ten minutes or so, and at five minutes to eleven I would fly
+off to play the organ at the Catholic church.
+
+             [Illustration: AN EARLY PORTRAIT OF DR. ELGAR.
+                          _From a Photograph._]
+
+"You ask me to go into greater details about my musical education. I am
+constantly receiving letters on this point from all over the world, for
+it is well known that I am self-taught in the matter of harmony,
+counterpoint, form, and, in short, the whole of the 'mystery' of music,
+and people want to know what books I used. To-day there are all sorts of
+books to make the study of harmony and orchestration pleasant. In my
+young days they were repellent. But I read them and I still exist."
+
+If only cold type could suggest the humour with which those words were
+spoken!
+
+"The first was Catel, and that was followed by Cherubini. The first real
+sort of friendly leading I had, however, was from 'Mozart's
+Thorough-bass School.' There was something in that to go upon--something
+human. It is a small book--a collection of papers beautifully and
+clearly expressed--which he wrote on harmony for the niece of a friend
+of his. I still treasure the old volume. Ouseley and Macfarren followed,
+but the articles which have since helped me the most are those of Sir
+Hubert Parry in 'Grove's Dictionary.'"
+
+"How did these various authorities mix?" I interrupted.
+
+"They didn't mix," was Dr. Elgar's reply, "and it appears it is
+necessary for anyone who has to be self-taught to read everything
+and--pick out the best. That, I suppose, is the difficulty--to pick out
+the best. How to forget the rubbish and remember the good I can't tell
+you, but perhaps that is where his brains must come in.
+
+"It would be affectation were I to pretend that my work is not
+recognised as modern, and I hate affectation, yet it would probably
+surprise you to know the amount of work I did in studying musical form.
+Only those can safely disregard form who ignore it with a full knowledge
+and do not evade it through ignorance.
+
+"Mozart is the musician from whom everyone should learn form. I once
+ruled a score for the same instruments and with the same number of bars
+as Mozart's G Minor Symphony, and in that framework I wrote a symphony,
+following as far as possible the same outline in the themes and the same
+modulation. I did this on my own initiative, as I was groping in the
+dark after light, but looking back after thirty years I don't know any
+discipline from which I learned so much.
+
+"So you insist on my telling you some more of my early struggles and my
+early work? I was interested in many other things besides music, and I
+had the good fortune to be thrown among an unsorted collection of old
+books. There were books of all kinds, and all distinguished by the
+characteristic that they were for the most part incomplete. I busied
+myself for days and weeks arranging them. I picked out the theological
+books, of which there were a good many, and put them on one side. Then I
+made a place for the Elizabethan dramatists, the chronicles including
+Baker's and Hollinshed's, besides a tolerable collection of old poets
+and translations of Voltaire, and all sorts of things up to the
+eighteenth century. Then I began to read. I used to get up at four or
+five o'clock in the summer and read--every available opportunity found
+me reading. I read till dark. I finished by reading every one of these
+books--including the theology. The result of that reading has been that
+people tell me I know more of life up to the eighteenth century than I
+do of my own time, and it is probably true.
+
+"In studying scores the first which came into my hands were the
+Beethoven symphonies. Anyone can have them now, but they were difficult
+for a boy to get in Worcester thirty years ago. I, however, managed to
+get two or three, and I remember distinctly the day I was able to buy
+the Pastoral Symphony. I stuffed my pockets with bread and cheese and
+went out into the fields to study it. That was what I always did. Even
+when I began to teach, when a new score came into my hands I went off
+for a long day with it out of doors, and when my unfortunate--or
+fortunate?--pupils went for their lessons I was not at home to give
+them.
+
+"By the way, talking about scores, it will probably surprise you to know
+that I never possessed a score of Wagner until one was given to me in
+1900.
+
+     [Illustration: DR. ELGAR AS A MEMBER OF HIS QUINTET, FOR WHICH
+                          HE WROTE THE MUSIC.
+                      _From a Photo. by Bennett._]
+
+"In the early days of which I have been speaking five of us established
+a wind quintet. We had two flutes, an oboe, a clarionet, and a bassoon,
+which last I played for some time, and afterwards relinquished it for
+the 'cello. There was no music at all to suit our peculiar requirements,
+as in the ideal wind quintet a horn should find a place and not a second
+flute, so I used to write the music. We met on Sunday afternoons, and it
+was an understood thing that we should have a new piece every week. The
+sermons in our church used to take at least half an hour, and I spent
+the time composing the thing for the afternoon. It was great experience
+for me, as you may imagine, and the books are all extant, so some of
+that music still exists. We played occasionally for friends, and I
+remember one moonlight night stopping in front of a house to put the
+bassoon together. I held it up to see if it was straight before
+tightening it. As I did so, someone rushed out of the house, grabbed me
+by the arms, and shouted, 'It will be five shillings if you do.' He
+thought I had a gun in my hand.
+
+"The old Worcester Glee Club had been established as long ago as 1809
+for the performance of old glees, with an occasional instrumental night.
+At these last I first played second fiddle and afterwards became leader,
+as, after a time, I used to do the accompanying. It was an enjoyable and
+artistic gathering, and the programmes were principally drawn from the
+splendid English compositions for men's voices. The younger generation
+seemed to prefer ordinary part-songs, and ballads also were introduced,
+and the tone of the thing changed. I am not sure if the club is still in
+existence.
+
+"It was in 1877 that I first went to take lessons of Pollitzer. He
+suggested that I should stay in London and devote myself to violin
+playing, but I had become enamoured of a country life, and would not
+give up the prospect of a certain living by playing and teaching in
+Worcester on the chance of only a possible success which I might make as
+a soloist in London.
+
+"The thing which brought me before a larger public as a composer was the
+production of several things of mine at Birmingham by Mr. W. C.
+Stockley, to whom my music was introduced by Dr. Wareing, himself a
+composer, and still resident in Birmingham. At that time I was a member
+of Mr. Stockley's orchestra--first violin."
+
+In this connection it is interesting to break Dr. Elgar's narrative to
+tell an anecdote which Mr. Stockley relates. When he decided to do
+something of Dr. Elgar's, he asked him if he would like to conduct it.
+"Certainly not," Dr. Elgar replied; "I am a member of the orchestra and
+I am going to stick in the orchestra. I am not recognised as a composer,
+and the fact that you are going to do something of mine gives me no
+title to a place anywhere else." The piece was a success and the
+audience called for Dr. Elgar, who came down from among the fiddles,
+made his bow, and then went back to his place.
+
+    [Illustration: REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A PAGE OF THE FULL SCORE OF
+                      "THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS."]
+
+To resume. "Don't suppose, however," Dr. Elgar said, "that after that
+recognition as a composer things were easy for me. The directors of the
+old Promenade Concerts at Covent Garden Theatre were good enough to
+write that they thought sufficiently of my things to devote a morning to
+rehearsing them. I went on the appointed day to London to conduct the
+rehearsal. When I arrived it was explained to me that a few songs had to
+be taken before I could begin. Before the songs were finished Sir Arthur
+Sullivan unexpectedly arrived, bringing with him a selection from one of
+his operas. It was the only chance he had of going through it with the
+orchestra, so they determined to take advantage of the opportunity. He
+consumed all my time in rehearsing this, and when he had finished the
+director came out and said to me, 'There will be no chance of your going
+through your music to-day.' I went back to Worcester to my teaching, and
+that was the last of my chance of an appearance at the Promenade
+Concerts.
+
+"Years after I met Sullivan, one of the most amiable and genial souls
+that ever lived. When we were introduced he said, 'I don't think we have
+met before.' 'Not exactly,' I replied, 'but very near it,' and I told
+him the circumstance. 'But, my dear boy, I hadn't the slightest idea of
+it,' he exclaimed, in his enthusiastic manner. 'Why on earth didn't you
+come and tell me? I'd have rehearsed it myself for you.' They were not
+idle words. He would have done it, just as he said. He never forgot the
+episode till the end of his life.
+
+"Two similar occurrences took place at the Crystal Palace: rehearsals
+were planned which never came off, so I was no nearer to getting a
+hearing for big orchestral works.
+
+"Mr. Hugh Blair, then the organist of Worcester Cathedral, saw some of
+the cantata, 'The Black Knight,' and said: 'If you will finish it I will
+produce it at Worcester.' I finished it, and it was produced by the
+Worcester Festival Choir. This cantata then came under the notice of Dr.
+Swinnerton Heap, to whom I owe my introduction to the musical festivals
+as a writer of choral works. He had known me for a good many years as a
+violinist, but it had never occurred to him to talk to me about my
+composing, and he knew nothing of it.
+
+"It was through Dr. Heap that I was asked to write a cantata for the
+Staffordshire Musical Festival, and, shortly after, the committee asked
+me to provide an oratorio for the Worcester Festival. They were 'The
+Light of Life,' performed in Worcester Cathedral, and 'King Olaf,' at
+Hanley.
+
+"Since then it has been a record of the production of one composition
+after another until we come to 'The Apostles,' and my new overture 'In
+the South,' produced at Covent Garden; the one great event that
+particularly stands out is the production of the 'Variations' by Dr.
+Richter, to whom I was then a complete stranger.
+
+"For a long time I had had the idea of writing 'The Apostles' in pretty
+much the form in which I hope it will eventually appear. As you know,
+there have been oratorios on many points of Jewish and Christian
+history, but none had shown how Christianity has risen. I take the men
+who were in touch with Christ, the Apostles in fact, and show them to be
+ordinary mortals rather than superhuman men, as they are generally
+represented in art. I was always particularly impressed with
+Archbishop Whately's conception of Judas, who, as he wrote, 'had no
+design to betray his Master to death, but to have been as confident of
+the will of Jesus to deliver Himself from His enemies by a miracle as He
+must have been certain of His power to do so, and accordingly to have
+designed to force Him to make such a display of His superhuman powers as
+would have induced all the Jews--and, indeed, the Romans too--to
+acknowledge Him King.'
+
+"In carrying out this plan I made the book myself, taking out lines from
+different parts of the Bible which exactly express my conception. How it
+was done the following chorus will show you, for you will notice that
+the references to the text are printed in the margin:--
+
+    The Lord hath chosen them to stand before Him, to serve
+    Him.--_II. Chron._ 29, 11.
+
+    He hath chosen the weak to confound the mighty.--_I. Cor._ 1,
+    27.
+
+    He will direct their work in truth.--_Isa._ 61, 8.
+
+    Behold, God exalteth by His power: who teacheth like Him?--_Job_
+    36, 22.
+
+    The meek will He guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach
+    His way.--_Ps._ 25, 9.
+
+    He will direct their work in truth.--_Isa._ 61, 8.
+
+    For out of Zion shall go forth the law.--_Isa._ 2, 3.
+
+"You will notice that occasionally, as in the third extract, I have used
+the words in their meaning that appears on the surface, and not in the
+real meaning of the sentence which may be found in any commentary. To
+keep the diction exactly the same I have not gone outside the Scripture
+except in one sentence from the Talmud in the case of the watchers on
+the Temple roof.
+
+"It was part of my original scheme to continue 'The Apostles' by a
+second work carrying on the establishment of the Church among the
+Gentiles. This, too, is to be followed by a third oratorio, in which the
+fruit of the whole--that is to say, the end of the world and the
+Judgment--is to be exemplified. I, however, faltered at that idea, and I
+suggested to the directors of the Birmingham Festival to add merely a
+short third part to the two into which the already published work, 'The
+Apostles,' is divided. But I found that to be unsatisfactory, and I have
+decided to revert to my original lines. There will, therefore, be two
+other oratorios."
+
+This definite pronouncement of Dr. Elgar's cannot fail to evoke the
+warmest anticipations on the part of the music loving world.
+
+It is worth noting here that shortly after "The Dream of Gerontius" was
+produced at the Birmingham Festival, in 1900, Herr Julius Buths, the
+famous conductor of Düsseldorf, was so struck with it that he determined
+to produce it in Germany and himself translated the libretto. So great a
+success was this performance that "The Dream," which one of the most
+celebrated German musical critics has declared to be "the greatest
+composition of the last hundred years, with the exception of the
+'Requiem' of Brahms," was repeated at the Lower Rhine Festival, a thing
+hitherto unheard of in the annals of English music, and at the Lower
+Rhine Festival on Whit-Sunday "The Apostles" is to be given.
+
+Dr. Elgar has a delightful and most acute sense of humour, so that I was
+sure I should not be misunderstood if I ventured to ask a question about
+his "musical crimes."
+
+He smiled. "But which of my musical crimes do you mean? From the point
+of view of one person or another I understand all my music has been a
+crime," he replied, lightly. Then he added, "Oh, you mean 'The
+Cockaigne,' 'The Coronation Ode,' and 'The Imperial March' especially.
+Yes, I believe there are a good many people who have objected to them.
+But I like to look on the composer's vocation as the old troubadours or
+bards did. In those days it was no disgrace to a man to be turned on to
+step in front of an army and inspire the people with a song. For my own
+part, I know that there are a lot of people who like to celebrate events
+with music. To these people I have given tunes. Is that wrong? Why
+should I write a fugue or something which won't appeal to anyone, when
+the people yearn for things which can stir them--"
+
+"Such as 'Pomp and Circumstance,'" I interpolated.
+
+"Ah, I don't know anything about that," replied Dr. Elgar, "but I do
+know we are a nation with great military proclivities, and I did not see
+why the ordinary quick march should not be treated on a large scale in
+the way that the waltz, the old-fashioned slow march, and even the polka
+have been treated by the great composers; yet all marches on the
+symphonic scale are so slow that people can't march to them. I have some
+of the soldier instinct in me, and so I have written two marches of
+which, so far from being ashamed, I am proud. 'Pomp and Circumstance,'
+by the way, is merely the generic name for what is a set of six marches.
+Two, as you know, have already appeared, and the others will come later.
+One of them is to be a Soldier's Funeral March.
+
+  [Illustration: REDUCED FACSIMILE OF MS. OF "POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE."]
+
+"As for 'The Imperial March,' which was written for Queen Victoria's
+Diamond Jubilee of 1897, it would, perhaps, interest you to know that
+only on January 22nd last it was given in St. George's Chapel, Berlin,
+at the unveiling of the memorials of Queen Victoria and the Empress
+Frederick, and Dr. G. R. Sinclair, of Hereford Cathedral, played it on
+the organ.
+
+                             [Illustration:
+  _From a Photo. by_] GOLF ON MALVERN COMMON. [_Foulsham & Banfield._]
+
+"How and when do I do my music? I can tell you very easily. I come into
+my study at nine o'clock in the morning and I work till a quarter to
+one. I don't do any inventing then, for that comes anywhere and
+everywhere. It may be when I am walking, golfing, or cycling, or the
+ideas may come in the evening, and then I sit up until any hour in order
+to get them down. The morning is devoted to revising and orchestration,
+of which I have as much to do as I can manage. As soon as lunch is over
+I go out for exercise and return about four or later, after which I
+sometimes do two hours' work before dinner. A country life I find
+absolutely essential to me, and here the conditions are exactly what I
+require. As you see," and Dr. Elgar moved over to the large window which
+takes up the whole of one side of his study, "I get a wonderful view of
+the surrounding country. I can see across Worcestershire, to Edgehill,
+the Cathedral of Worcester, the Abbeys of Pershore and Tewkesbury, and
+even the smoke from round Birmingham. It is delightfully quiet, and yet
+in contrast with it there is a constant stream of communication with the
+outside world in the shape of cables from America and Australia, and
+letters innumerable from all over the world."
+
+In the house itself there are not many evidences of Dr. Elgar's
+productions, but prominent in a corner of the drawing-room is the laurel
+wreath presented to him at Düsseldorf when "The Dream" was first
+produced. The leaves are brown to-day, but the scarlet ribbon is as
+bright as the memory of the music in the enraptured ears of those who
+have heard it. In his study are two prized possessions, the one a
+tankard made by some members of the Festival Choir at Hanley at the time
+of the production of "King Olaf." The inscription, taken from one of the
+choruses, is, appropriately, a Bacchanalian one:--
+
+        The ale was strong;
+        King Olaf feasted late and long.
+
+                                    --_Longfellow_.
+
+Next to this is a cup, also specially designed by Mr. Noke, of Hanley,
+to commemorate the performance of "The Dream." On one side is a portrait
+of Cardinal Newman and on the other a portrait of Dr. Elgar, with the
+following inscription from the work itself:--
+
+    Learn that the flame of the everlasting love
+    Doth burn ere it transform.
+
+
+
+
+                       _Off the Track in London._
+
+                           BY GEORGE R. SIMS.
+
+                II.--IN THE ROYAL BOROUGH OF KENSINGTON.
+
+
+The sun shines brightly on the gay Kensington thoroughfare in which I
+meet my artist _confrère_ and prepare to wander off the track in a
+district which is held to be the wealthiest in the Empire.
+
+It is a winter morning, but the sky is blue, the air is balmy, and the
+flood of sunlight gives a Rivieran aspect to the stately mansions and
+pleasant villas that we pass on our way to the point at which we are to
+turn off and make our plunge into one of the strangest districts of
+London, a district of which its rich neighbours have no knowledge,
+although it lies at their doors.
+
+A walk of a few minutes and we have left wealth and fashion behind us;
+the gay shops have vanished, the well-dressed people have disappeared as
+if by magic. The mansions and the villas have given place to the long
+streets of grey, weather-beaten, two and three story houses, in which
+the local industry writes itself large in white letters.
+
+Here we are in Notting Dale and in the heart of Laundry-Land. In every
+house in street after street the blinds of the ground floor are down as
+though someone lay dead within. But if you look from the opposite side
+of the street you will see that in every room above the blinds lines are
+stretched from wall to wall, and from these lines wrung out details of
+the washing-tub are hanging. If you cross to the dilapidated railings of
+the sorry little patch that was once a front garden and peer into the
+basement you will see that laundry work is in full swing. The blinds of
+the ground-floor rooms are probably drawn because the hand laundresses
+do not like to be criticised too closely by the neighbours, who are also
+their business rivals.
+
+The street is typical of a dozen others. You may see again and again
+that broken-down little front garden, with its stunted trees, strewn
+rubbish, and the little wooden, lop-sided railing that looks as though
+it no longer thought the patch it once guarded worth standing up for. On
+the window-sill of the top floor of a score of houses you may see a
+lonely, empty flower-pot that looks more like a handy missile in an
+emergency than an adjunct of window gardening. The rain-sodden,
+blackened stucco meets you at every turn, and when you have counted the
+twentieth cat sitting on a sill or a doorstep washing its shirt to snowy
+whiteness you begin to wonder why the local influence has not made
+itself more widely felt. Everybody inside the houses is washing for
+other people, everything is conducted with scrupulous cleanliness and
+under official inspection, but there are plenty of streets adjacent to
+Laundry-Land in which only the cats make themselves conspicuously clean.
+
+A little farther away towards Latimer Road are the great steam laundries
+employing a small army of young women, who at the dinner hour will turn
+out and make every street in the Dale a forest of white aprons.
+
+But all the streets of Laundry-Land are not given up to useful industry.
+A portion of the district is so notorious as a guilt garden that it has
+been called the London Avernus. It is packed with common lodging-houses,
+a large number of them for women, and it has streets of evil reputation
+in which almost every window is broken and stuffed with rags. The
+Borough Council has now in hand a splendid rehousing scheme which will
+vastly improve the district, but we must take it as we find it to-day.
+
+We turn out of the sunlight, and entering a narrow doorway descend into
+the basement of a typical lodging-house. The house is known locally as
+the "Golden Gates," a name bestowed upon it in a spirit of badinage by a
+client with a sense of humour.
+
+The kitchen is crowded with women, young and old. Some are sitting on
+the benches around the wall, one or two are making a late breakfast; an
+old woman is cooking something at the red coke fire.
+
+As a rule there is little conversation in a lodging-house in the morning
+hours. I have been constantly struck by the note of moodiness, not to
+say sullenness, which hangs over the company during the hours of
+daylight. The men are, as a rule, more communicative than the women.
+Women of the class that drift to the doss-house are not inclined to
+exchange confidences with their neighbours.
+
+But the kitchen of the Golden Gates as we enter it has one talkative
+occupant. As soon as our eyes get accustomed to the gloom, which is only
+relieved by a ray of light filtering through a small, dust-covered
+window, we notice that a tall woman in faded finery and an astrachan
+hat, and with some traces of refinement in features and bearing, is
+standing in the centre and chaffing the others. One or two smile at her
+jokes, but the majority are wholly indifferent, wearing that air of
+sullen aloofness which is peculiarly characteristic of a woman's
+lodging-house.
+
+I have not intruded on the privacy of the ladies of the Golden Gates
+without a show of justification. To enable my companion to make a sketch
+of the scene, I have resorted to an expedient which permits me to make
+certain inquiries of a semi-official nature, and to attract the
+attention of the guests while my _confrère_ is at work. If they were
+aware that they were being sketched it is quite likely that there would
+be trouble, and my comrade might find himself in as unpleasant a fix as
+did a photographer who once went with me to the Chinese quarter in
+Limehouse, for "Living London," and attempted to take the proprietor of
+an opium den and some of his clients. The photographer emerged
+unscathed, but the camera required a considerable amount of repair.
+
+Fortunately I have an inquiry to make which puts my audience in sympathy
+with me, and my _confrère_ is supposed to be making notes of the
+information supplied as to the last movements of a woman who had used
+the house for some time and had mysteriously disappeared.
+
+During the whole time the lady in the dingy astrachan keeps up a running
+fire of chaff, which materially assists us.
+
+       [Illustration: "THE LADY IN THE DINGY ASTRACHAN KEEPS UP A
+                          RUNNING FIRE OF CHAFF."]
+
+She welcomes us to the "Hotel de Fourpence," and says, though it isn't
+exactly the Carlton, it is quite comfortable when you get used to it.
+She interlards her bantering remarks with French words, and we come to
+the conclusion that she is a governess who has drifted down.
+
+It is no uncommon thing to find men and women of education in the lowest
+lodging-houses of London. I have found a clergyman in one of the worst
+dens of Flower and Dean Street. In one of the Dale lodging-houses there
+is a woman whose father had his town house and his country house and his
+villa in the South of France.
+
+This woman in the astrachan hat is a striking contrast to her
+surroundings. Most of the other inmates are of the usual type--women who
+have drifted down from honest industry to vagabondage, or have been born
+to it.
+
+Returning through the Golden Gates into the sunshine, we make our way to
+Jetsam Street. That is not its real name, but the one I have given it.
+This is a street of black and battered doors, of damaged railings, and
+of broken windows. On the doorsteps here and there stand groups of
+slatternly, unkempt women. From the windows above a tousled head
+occasionally appears. Many of the houses here are common lodging-houses;
+but some of them are in the hands of the house-farmers, who let them out
+in furnished rooms at a shilling a day. We enter a room which is
+unoccupied and take stock of the furniture. It consists of a bed, two
+chairs, and the wreckage of a dirty deal table.
+
+In this room a man and his wife and children are accommodated at night,
+but the shilling paid only entitles the family to remain there until ten
+in the morning.
+
+At that hour they are turned out and their tenancy ceases. If they wish
+to renew it they can do so in the evening, but not before.
+
+These people, who are paying six shillings a week, or seven shillings
+where Sunday is not a free day, for a single room, have to spend the day
+in the streets. Many of them make their way to the public parks and
+sleep on the seats or on the grass. Some of them beg, some of them hawk
+trumpery articles. They are probably paying eighteen pounds a year for a
+wretched room, and yet in the house-farmer's hands they are homeless
+every day in the week.
+
+Jetsam Street is flooded with golden sunshine as we pass through it, but
+the sunshine has not made the inhabitants light-hearted. Half-way down
+the street a man and a woman are fighting. The man is delivering a
+series of kicks in the style of La Savate at the woman, who is defiant
+and nimble and defends herself with her jacket, which she has taken off
+and uses both as a guard and as a weapon.
+
+      [Illustration: "ONE OR TWO WOMEN STANDING ON THE DOORSTEPS
+                    WATCH THE PROCEEDINGS."
+
+One or two women standing on the doorsteps watch the proceedings, but
+apparently without interest. An old woman proceeding to the public-house
+for beer turns her head for a moment and then passes on her way. A
+little boy in rags passes the fighting couple and takes no notice
+whatever. It is an ordinary incident, and has no special attraction for
+the neighbours.
+
+Presently the man succeeds in planting a blow that sends the woman down.
+She is up again in a moment and faces him, prepared to continue the
+contest. But he thinks he has scored a point and is satisfied.
+
+"Now I'll go to the workhouse," he says.
+
+"And the best place for you," answers the woman.
+
+The man thrusts his hands in his pockets and slouches off. The woman
+puts on her jacket and strolls away. If we were to investigate the
+circumstances that have led up to the fight, we should find that we had
+been assisting at a Notting Dale version of the story of Carmen, Don
+José, and Escamillo, only Carmen in this case is a laundry girl, Don
+José is an idle ruffian, and Escamillo is another, only of a bolder
+type.
+
+In Notting Dale the women are the principal wage-earners, and the
+district is infested with a contemptible set of men, who are loafers or
+worse. It is a common thing in the Dale for a man to boast that he is
+going to marry a laundry girl and do nothing for the rest of his life.
+
+It seems difficult to realize that such a scene and such a street can
+exist within a stone's throw of a quarter crowded with the wealth and
+fashion of the capital. But wherever you step off the beaten track in
+London a hundred surprises await you.
+
+I do not wonder at the fight in Jetsam Street which fails to rouse the
+lookers-on from their midday lethargy, for I am an old traveller in this
+strange land. But I must confess that it gives me a little shock when at
+the end of the street I come upon a man in the last stage of consumption
+sitting propped up with pillows in an arm-chair on the doorstep.
+
+  [Illustration: "BROUGHT OUT TO SIT A LITTLE WHILE IN THE SUNSHINE."]
+
+He has been brought out to sit a little while in the sunshine. The poor
+fellow has, I ascertain, taken his discharge from the infirmary a few
+days previously. He wants to die at home--at home in Jetsam Street!
+
+The picture I have had so far to draw is a painful one and a squalid
+one. But it is typical of the neighbourhood, and could not be omitted if
+in these travels off the track I am to give a faithful account of the
+London that is so little known even to Londoners.
+
+Let us hasten through the sordid streets, looking up at the blue skies
+and ignoring the squalid houses, and make our way to a more romantic
+spot.
+
+"The Potteries!" How odd this description of a portion of Kensington
+sounds, yet the district we are now in is known by this name, and yonder
+is what remains of the kiln.
+
+Here in the Potteries the spell of the old romance still lingers, for
+this is the district of the gipsies. In front of it is the pleasant
+recreation-ground, Avondale Park, which the County Council has made
+beautiful for the children of the Dale, and just round the corner is
+hidden a space where, year after year, the gipsies came with their vans
+and encamped for the winter. And close at hand are cottages and gardens,
+to which ducks and geese give quite a rural appearance.
+
+   [Illustration: "THERE ARE ONE OR TWO VANS LEFT TO MARK THE SPOT."]
+
+The gipsies are not here this winter, but there are one or two vans left
+to mark the spot where, until quite recently, the sons and daughters of
+Egypt pitched their "tans" in the heart of fashionable Kensington. Some
+of them, yielding to the force of such modern ideas as the sanitary
+inspector and the School Board officer, have given up the fight for
+existence in a dwelling-van and have gone to live under a roof like the
+gorgios, though a gipsy of the true Romany blood believes that nothing
+but ill-luck will attend the Romany chal or the Romany chi who lives in
+a house.
+
+To-day the children of the gipsies are, many of them, in the Notting
+Dale Board School and the fathers and mothers are in the lodging-houses.
+One of the wanderers, who in the old times used to pitch on the vacant
+ground of the Potteries, so far fell into Gentile ways as to take a
+lodging-house and run it himself. He and his wife became noted
+characters in the Dale, and when he died a little time ago the gipsies
+came from far and near and gave him a genuine Romany funeral, with all
+the ancient rites and ceremonies of the great Pali tribe who wandered
+out of India long centuries ago and gave the word "pal" to our language
+to signify brother.
+
+Though the gipsy camp has departed and the ground will know it no more,
+the surroundings are still suggestive of the old days. Hard by a
+dwelling-van left, like the rose of the poet, blooming alone is the shed
+of a chair-caner, a handsome, prosperous-looking man, who is working in
+the open and singing at his congenial task. The battered carts, the old
+chains, the broken wheels, the pigeon lofts, and the wooden sheds
+standing on a patch of waste ground remind you of the pictures you were
+given to copy at school when you were in the drawing-class. If there had
+only been a mill handy the resemblance would have been complete, but the
+chimney of the old kiln dominates the scene and takes the mill's place.
+
+Here the note of Jetsam Street has disappeared. All around are
+respectable working-class dwellings and stableyards. A little farther up
+is a double row of cottages with a paved way between them that seem to
+have been lifted bodily out of a Yorkshire mill town and dropped with
+their quaint out-houses on to the confines of Kensington. When you come
+upon Thresher's Place you rub your eyes and wonder if it is possible
+that five minutes' walk will bring you out on Campden Hill.
+
+In the mews round about the Potteries are the remnants of the Italian
+colony that drifted here some years ago, when Little Italy in
+Clerkenwell began to be encroached upon by the modern builder. The
+majority have now drifted farther afield, to Fulham and Hammersmith.
+
+But there are still a fair number of the children of the Sunny South in
+the Dale. You may see the organs in the early morning being polished up
+outside the houses, and if you go into the yards you may discover the
+ice-barrows packed away in the coach-houses, waiting for the
+disappearance of the baked-chestnut season and the coming of summer.
+
+Here, in a large coach-house in a mews, is a proprietor of ice-cream
+barrows hard at work repainting his stock in gorgeous colours. Brilliant
+streaks of red and green light up the dreary place where the signor is
+working. When we look in upon his artistic proceedings he is filling his
+studio with melody. He is singing an air from "Il Trovatore" in his
+native Italian, and at the same time painting an Italian girl in her
+national costume on the panel of an ice-barrow.
+
+A little farther down the mews we climb the crazy staircase that leads
+to the loft, and find a middle-aged widow occupying it with five
+children.
+
+We have arrived at an awkward moment, for the widow is in tearful
+converse with the Industrial Schools officer.
+
+One of the children has been caught the previous night begging. Children
+are not allowed to beg in the streets to-day, and if it is found that
+the parents send them out or have not sufficient control over them to
+keep them in the little offenders can be taken before a magistrate and
+sent to an industrial school, to be trained for more reputable
+occupations in life.
+
+The widow declares that the boy was not sent out by her, and weeps
+copiously while she relates her story. She has five children and no
+money. I don't think the officer is very much impressed. I am afraid he
+knows more about the widow and the begging boy than he cares to reveal
+in the presence of strangers. He gives the woman a kindly warning, and
+leaves her with the intimation that if any more of her children are
+caught begging she will be invited to pay a visit to the magistrate.
+
+The Industrial Schools officer has a busy time in the Dale, for there
+are many young children living in vicious and criminal surroundings, and
+it is his task to remove them at the first opportunity, in order that
+they may have a chance in life. The work the industrial schools are
+accomplishing is invaluable. Under the Act a careful guardianship can be
+exercised by the State until the rescued boy or girl has reached the age
+of eighteen. There is no coming out of the industrial schools and
+returning to the evil surroundings now. But the task of the officer who
+has to see that the lads and lasses do not, after their school days are
+up, return to their evil associates is not a light one. He has
+occasionally to exercise the ingenuity of a Sherlock Holmes in order to
+get on the track of "one of his young people" who has mysteriously
+disappeared from the place that has been found for him or her.
+
+Not long ago a young girl who had been sent to Canada, and was supposed
+to be doing well there, was discovered dressed in boy's clothes back
+again in the Dale with her uncle and aunt, who were undesirable
+companions for her. The girl had in some way managed to get her
+passage-money and come home, and had hoped, disguised as a young man, to
+escape the vigilance of the Industrial Schools officer.
+
+Through a couple of streets and we are back in common lodging-house
+land. There is one long street in which the houses are registered from
+end to end. Some of them look like shops with the shutters up, others
+like private houses that have come down in the world. But every room is
+packed with as many beds as the law permits, and the common kitchen is
+reached by the area steps.
+
+At one of the houses along this street a man and a woman are standing at
+the door. The woman has only one arm and one eye, the man has no arms.
+But they are a highly popular couple, and a good many of the
+lodging-houses in the street belong to them. The lady is said to be
+quite equal to quieting any disturbance among the lodgers with her one
+hand, and the man displays the most remarkable skill, suffering
+apparently little inconvenience from his loss. When you have seen him
+take his pipe out of his mouth with the empty sleeve of his jacket you
+will understand how he is able, with his wife's assistance, to keep his
+rough _clientèle_ well in hand, and to compel their respect.
+
+There is one feature of Notting Dale which strikes you forcibly if you
+go into a local crowd engaged in a heated argument, and that is the
+preponderance of the rural accent; for this is a district in which the
+evil of rural immigration has written itself large. Thousands of honest
+country folks crowd up year after year to the great city that they
+believe to be paved with gold. Of those who come in by the Great Western
+a large percentage drift to the Dale, failing to find room in the
+districts around the terminus; and in the Dale a process of moral
+deterioration goes on which is a tragedy.
+
+The husband fails to find the work he expected would be ready to his
+hand in busy London. The little savings are soon gone; the man and his
+wife are driven to the common lodging-house, or, if there are children
+with them, to the furnished room. The wife perhaps goes to the laundry
+work. The husband's enforced idleness often ends in his becoming a
+confirmed loafer, contented to live on what his wife can earn. There is
+in Notting Dale a large working population living cleanly by honest
+industry, but the country folk who have been unfortunate at the
+commencement of the struggle for life in London cannot avail themselves
+of the cleaner accommodation and the better environment. They are forced
+into the area which is given over to the vicious and the criminal, and
+they gradually sink to the level of their neighbours.
+
+Many a tale of heroic struggle against evil surroundings do the women
+tell who come before the School Board officials to explain the
+non-attendance of their children. Sometimes it is the man who has had
+the moral strength to resist, and with tears in his eyes will tell of
+the healthy, country-bred wife who came with him one day from the
+far-away village full of hope, but who has yielded to the awful
+environment, deserted his home, and left his children to fall into evil
+companionship.
+
+There is no sadder chapter in the story of London than that of the
+light-hearted country folk who come to it full of courage and hope, and
+gradually sink down under the evil influence of a slum to which their
+poverty has driven them, until they themselves are as criminal and as
+vicious as their neighbours.
+
+For them little can be done, though now and again the brave men and
+women who are working in the good cause succeed in rescuing them, even
+though they have fallen to the lowest depths of the abyss.
+
+But for the next generation the hope is greater. High above one of the
+most notorious streets in the Dale tower the great buildings in which
+the children are gathered together and educated and taught the
+principles of right doing.
+
+This is the thought that comes to me as, fresh from our pilgrimage of
+pain, we stand in the big playground and watch the little ones filing
+out in the sunshine to go to their homes. Some of them are well clad,
+the children of honest, hard-working folk who love them and care for
+them. But many are going back to miserable dens where there is neither
+love nor care, where there is no respect for the laws of God or man.
+
+        [Illustration: "MANY ARE GOING BACK TO MISERABLE DENS."]
+
+They cannot all be saved from the evil environment that awaits them, but
+they come day after day to the schools, and there they fall under an
+influence which, if they are not inherently bad, will stand them in good
+stead through all their lives.
+
+We watch the little ones as with the light-heartedness of childhood they
+trip away, some to the meal which loving hands have prepared for them,
+others to crowd and clamour at the doors of the mission-house, where the
+free meal stands between them and the hunger pain, and then we turn into
+a street that bore formerly so ill a name that the authorities changed
+it, to remove the stigma of the address from the few decent people in
+it.
+
+In five minutes we are once more on the beaten track and in the heart of
+Royal and aristocratic Kensington.
+
+
+
+
+                     [Illustration: DIALSTONE LANE
+                             BY W·W·JACOBS]
+
+        Copyright, 1904, by W. W. Jacobs, in the United States of
+        America.
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+The church bells were ringing for morning service as Mr. Vickers, who
+had been for a stroll with Mr. William Russell and a couple of ferrets,
+returned home to breakfast. Contrary to custom, the small front room and
+the kitchen were both empty, and breakfast, with the exception of a cold
+herring and the bitter remains of a pot of tea, had been cleared away.
+
+"I've known men afore now," murmured Mr. Vickers, eyeing the herring
+disdainfully, "as would take it by the tail and smack 'em acrost the
+face with it."
+
+He cut himself a slice of bread, and, pouring out a cup of cold tea,
+began his meal, ever and anon stopping to listen, with a puzzled face,
+to a continuous squeaking overhead. It sounded like several pairs of new
+boots all squeaking at once, but Mr. Vickers, who was a reasonable man
+and past the age of self-deception, sought for a more probable cause.
+
+A particularly aggressive squeak detached itself from the others and
+sounded on the stairs. The resemblance to the noise made by new boots
+was stronger than ever. It _was_ new boots. The door opened, and Mr.
+Vickers, with a slice of bread arrested half-way to his mouth, sat
+gazing in astonishment at Charles Vickers, clad for the first time in
+his life in new raiment from top to toe. Ere he could voice inquiries,
+an avalanche of squeaks descended the stairs, and the rest of the
+children, all smartly clad, with Selina bringing up the rear, burst into
+the room.
+
+"What is it?" demanded Mr. Vickers, in a voice husky with astonishment;
+"a bean-feast?"
+
+Miss Vickers, who was doing up a glove which possessed more buttons than
+his own waistcoat, looked up and eyed him calmly. "New clothes--and not
+before they wanted 'em," she replied, tartly.
+
+"New clothes?" repeated her father, in a scandalized voice. "Where'd
+they get 'em?"
+
+"Shop," said his daughter, briefly.
+
+Mr. Vickers rose and, approaching his offspring, inspected them with the
+same interest that he would have bestowed upon a wax-works. A certain
+stiffness of pose combined with the glassy stare which met his gaze
+helped to favour the illusion.
+
+"For once in their lives they're respectable," said Selina, regarding
+them with moist eyes. "Soap and water they've always had, bless 'em, but
+you've never seen 'em dressed like this before."
+
+Before Mr. Vickers could frame a reply a squeaking which put all the
+others in the shade sounded from above. It crossed the floor on hurried
+excursions to different parts of the room, and then, hesitating for a
+moment at the head of the stairs, came slowly and ponderously down until
+Mrs. Vickers, looking somewhat nervous, stood revealed before her
+expectant husband. In scornful surprise he gazed at a blue cloth dress,
+a black velvet cape trimmed with bugles, and a bonnet so aggressively
+new that it had not yet accommodated itself to Mrs. Vickers's style of
+hair-dressing.
+
+"Go on!" he breathed. "Go on! Don't mind me. What, you--you--you're not
+going to _church_?"
+
+Mrs. Vickers glanced at the books in her hand--also new--and trembled.
+
+"And why not?" demanded Selina. "Why shouldn't we?"
+
+Mr. Vickers took another amazed glance round and his brow darkened.
+
+"Where did you get the money?" he inquired.
+
+"Saved it," said his daughter, reddening despite herself.
+
+"_Saved_ it?" repeated the justly-astonished Mr. Vickers. "_Saved_ it?
+Ah! out of my money; out of the money I toil and moil for--out of the
+money that ought to be spent on food. No wonder you're always
+complaining that it ain't enough. I won't 'ave it, d'ye hear? I'll have
+my rights; I'll----"
+
+"Don't make so much noise," said his daughter, who was stooping down to
+ease one of Mrs. Vickers's boots. "You would have fours, mother, and I
+told you what it would be."
+
+"He said that I ought to wear threes by rights," said Mrs. Vickers; "I
+used to."
+
+"And I s'pose," said Mr. Vickers, who had been listening to these
+remarks with considerable impatience--"I s'pose there's a bran' new suit
+o' clothes, and a pair o' boots, and 'arf-a-dozen shirts, and a new hat
+hid upstairs for me?"
+
+"Yes, they're _hid_ all right," retorted the dutiful Miss Vickers. "You
+go upstairs and amuse yourself looking for 'em. Go and have a game of
+'hot boiled beans' all by yourself."
+
+    [Illustration: "'WHY, YOU MUST HAVE BEEN STINTING ME FOR YEARS,'
+                        CONTINUED MR. VICKERS."]
+
+"Why, you must have been stinting me for years," continued Mr. Vickers,
+examining the various costumes in detail. "This is what comes o' keeping
+quiet and trusting you--not but what I've 'ad my suspicions. My own kids
+taking the bread out o' my mouth and buying boots with it; my own wife
+going about in a bonnet that's took me weeks and weeks to earn."
+
+His words fell on deaf ears. No adjutant getting his regiment ready for
+a march-past could have taken more trouble than Miss Vickers was taking
+at this moment over her small company. Caps were set straight and
+sleeves pulled down. Her face shone with pride and her eyes glistened as
+the small fry, discoursing in excited whispers, filed stiffly out.
+
+A sudden cessation of gossip in neighbouring doorways testified to the
+impression made by their appearance. Past little startled groups the
+procession picked its way in squeaking pride, with Mrs. Vickers and
+Selina bringing up the rear. The children went by with little set,
+important faces; but Miss Vickers's little bows and pleased smiles of
+recognition to acquaintances were so lady-like that several untidy
+matrons retired inside their houses to wrestle grimly with feelings too
+strong for outside display.
+
+"Pack o' prancing peacocks," said the unnatural Mr. Vickers, as the
+procession wound round the corner.
+
+He stood looking vacantly up the street until the gathering excitement
+of his neighbours aroused new feelings. Vanity stirred within him, and
+leaning casually against the door-post he yawned and looked at the
+chimney-pots opposite. A neighbour in a pair of corduroy trousers,
+supported by one brace worn diagonally, shambled across the road.
+
+"What's up?" he inquired, with a jerk of the thumb in the direction of
+Mr. Vickers's vanished family.
+
+"Up?" repeated Mr. Vickers, with an air of languid surprise.
+
+"Somebody died and left you a fortin?" inquired the other.
+
+"Not as I knows of," replied Mr. Vickers, staring. "Why?"
+
+"_Why?_" exclaimed the other. "Why, new clothes all over. I never see
+such a turn-out."
+
+Mr. Vickers regarded him with an air of lofty disdain. "Kids must 'ave
+new clothes sometimes, I s'pose?" he said, slowly. "You wouldn't 'ave
+'em going about of a Sunday in a ragged shirt and a pair of trowsis,
+would you?"
+
+The shaft passed harmlessly. "Why not?" said the other. "They gin'rally
+do."
+
+Mr. Vickers's denial died away on his lips. In twos and threes his
+neighbours had drawn gradually near and now stood by listening
+expectantly. The idea of a fortune was common to all of them, and they
+were anxious for particulars.
+
+          [Illustration: "THEY WERE ANXIOUS FOR PARTICULARS."]
+
+"Some people have all the luck," said a stout matron. "I've 'ad thirteen
+and buried seven, and never 'ad so much as a chiney tea-pot left me. One
+thing is, I never could make up to people for the sake of what I could
+get out of them. I couldn't not if I tried. I must speak my mind free
+and independent."
+
+"Ah! that's how you get yourself disliked," said another lady, shaking
+her head sympathetically.
+
+"Disliked?" said the stout matron, turning on her fiercely. "What d'ye
+mean? You don't know what you're talking about. Who's getting themselves
+disliked?"
+
+"A lot o' good a chiney tea-pot would be to you," said the other, with a
+ready change of front, "or any other kind o' tea-pot."
+
+Surprise and indignation deprived the stout matron of utterance.
+
+"Or a milk-jug either," pursued her opponent, following up her
+advantage. "Or a coffee-pot, or----"
+
+The stout matron advanced upon her, and her mien was so terrible that
+the other, retreating to her house, slammed the door behind her and
+continued the discussion from a first-floor window. Mint Street, with
+the conviction that Mr. Vickers's tidings could wait, swarmed across the
+road to listen.
+
+Mr. Vickers himself listened for a little while to such fragments as
+came his way, and then, going indoors, sat down amid the remains of his
+breakfast to endeavour to solve the mystery of the new clothes.
+
+He took a short clay pipe from his pocket, and, igniting a little piece
+of tobacco which remained in the bowl, endeavoured to form an estimate
+of the cost of each person's wardrobe. The sum soon becoming too large
+to work in his head, he had recourse to pencil and paper, and after five
+minutes' hard labour sat gazing at a total, which made his brain reel.
+The fact that immediately afterwards he was unable to find even a few
+grains of tobacco at the bottom of his box furnished a contrast which
+almost made him maudlin.
+
+He sat sucking at his cold pipe and indulging in hopeless conjectures as
+to the source of so much wealth, and, with a sudden quickening of the
+pulse, wondered whether it had all been spent. His mind wandered from
+Selina to Mr. Joseph Tasker, and almost imperceptibly the absurdities of
+which young men in love could be capable occurred to him. He remembered
+the extravagances of his own youth, and bethinking himself of the sums
+he had squandered on the future Mrs. Vickers--sums which increased with
+the compound interest of repetition--came to the conclusion that Mr.
+Tasker had been more foolish still.
+
+It seemed the only possible explanation. His eye brightened, and,
+knocking the ashes out of his pipe, he crossed to the tap and washed his
+face.
+
+"If he can't lend a trifle to the man what's going to be his
+father-in-law," he said, cheerfully, as he polished his face on a
+roller-towel, "I shall tell 'im he can't have Selina, that's all. I'll
+go and see 'im afore she gets any more out of him."
+
+He walked blithely up the road, and, after shaking off one or two
+inquirers whose curiosity was almost proof against insult, made his way
+to Dialstone Lane. In an unobtrusive fashion he glided round to the
+back, and, opening the kitchen door, bestowed a beaming smile upon the
+startled Joseph.
+
+"Busy, my lad?" he inquired.
+
+"What d'ye want?" asked Mr. Tasker, whose face was flushed with cooking.
+
+Mr. Vickers opened the door a little wider, and, stepping inside, closed
+it softly behind him and dropped into a chair.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my lad," he said, benevolently. "Selina's all right."
+
+"What d'ye want?" repeated Mr. Tasker. "Who told you to come round
+here?"
+
+Mr. Vickers looked at him in reproachful surprise.
+
+"I suppose a father can come round to see his future son-in-law?" he
+said, with some dignity. "I don't want to do no interrupting of your
+work, Joseph, but I couldn't 'elp just stepping round to tell you how
+nice they all looked. Where you got the money from I can't think."
+
+"Have you gone dotty, or what?" demanded Mr. Tasker, who was busy wiping
+out a saucepan. "Who looked nice?"
+
+Mr. Vickers shook his head at him and smiled waggishly.
+
+"Ah! who?" he said, with much enjoyment. "I tell you it did my father's
+'art good to see 'em all dressed up like that; and when I thought of its
+all being owing to you, sit down at home in comfort with a pipe instead
+of coming to thank you for it I could not. Not if you was to have paid
+me I couldn't."
+
+"Look 'ere," said Mr. Tasker, putting the saucepan down with a bang, "if
+you can't talk plain, common English you'd better get out. I don't want
+you 'ere at all as a matter o' fact, but to have you sitting there
+shaking your silly 'ead and talking a pack o' nonsense is more than I
+can stand."
+
+Mr. Vickers gazed at him in perplexity. "Do you mean to tell me you
+haven't been giving my Selina money to buy new clothes for the young
+'uns?" he demanded, sharply. "Do you mean to tell me that Selina didn't
+get money out of you to buy herself and 'er mother and all of
+'em--except me--a new rig-out from top to toe?"
+
+"D'ye think I've gone mad, or what?" inquired the amazed Mr. Tasker.
+"What d'ye think I should want to buy clothes for your young 'uns for?
+That's your duty. And Selina, too; I haven't given 'er anything except a
+ring, and she lent me the money for that. D'ye think I'm made o' money?"
+
+"All right, Joseph," said Mr. Vickers, secretly incensed at this
+unforeseen display of caution on Mr. Tasker's part. "I s'pose the
+fairies come and put 'em on while they was asleep. But it's dry work
+walking; 'ave you got such a thing as a glass o' water you could give
+me?"
+
+The other took a glass from the dresser and, ignoring the eye of his
+prospective father-in-law, which was glued to a comfortable-looking
+barrel in the corner, filled it to the brim with fair water and handed
+it to him. Mr. Vickers, giving him a surly nod, took a couple of dainty
+sips and placed it on the table.
+
+"It's very nice water," he said, sarcastically.
+
+"Is it?" said Mr. Tasker. "We don't drink it ourselves, except in tea or
+coffee; the cap'n says it ain't safe."
+
+Mr. Vickers brought his eye from the barrel and glared at him.
+
+"I s'pose, Joseph," he said, after a long pause, during which Mr. Tasker
+was busy making up the fire--"I s'pose Selina didn't tell you you wasn't
+to tell me about the money?"
+
+"I don't know what you're driving at," said the other, confronting him
+angrily. "I haven't got no money."
+
+Mr. Vickers coughed. "Don't say that, Joseph," he urged, softly; "don't
+say that, my lad. As a matter o' fact, I come round to you, interrupting
+of you in your work, and I'm sorry for it--knowing how fond of it you
+are--to see whether I--I couldn't borrow a trifle for a day or two."
+
+"Ho, did you?" commented Mr. Tasker, who had opened the oven door and
+was using his hand as a thermometer.
+
+His visitor hesitated. It was no use asking for too much; on the other
+hand, to ask for less than he could get would be unpardonable folly.
+
+"If I could lay my hand on a couple o' quid," he said, in a mysterious
+whisper, "I could make it five in a week."
+
+"Well, why don't you?" inquired Mr. Tasker, who was tenderly sucking the
+bulb of the thermometer after contact with the side of the oven.
+
+"It's the two quid that's the trouble, Joseph," replied Mr. Vickers,
+keeping his temper with difficulty. "A little thing like that wouldn't
+be much trouble to you, I know, but to a pore man with a large family
+like me it's a'most impossible."
+
+Mr. Tasker went outside to the larder, and returning with a small joint
+knelt down and thrust it carefully into the oven.
+
+"A'most impossible," repeated Mr. Vickers, with a sigh.
+
+"What is?" inquired the other, who had not been listening.
+
+The half-choking Mr. Vickers explained.
+
+"Yes, o' course it is," assented Mr. Tasker.
+
+"People what's got money," said the offended Mr. Vickers, regarding him
+fiercely, "stick to it like leeches. Now, suppose I was a young man
+keeping company with a gal and her father wanted to borrow a couple o'
+quid--a paltry couple o' thick 'uns--what d'ye think I should do?"
+
+"If you was a young man--keeping company with a gal--and 'er father
+wanted--to borrow a couple of quid off o' you--what would you do?"
+repeated Mr. Tasker, mechanically, as he bustled to and fro.
+
+Mr. Vickers nodded and smiled. "What should I do?" he inquired again,
+hopefully.
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure," said the other, opening the oven door and
+peering in. "How should I?"
+
+At the imminent risk of something inside giving way under the strain,
+Mr. Vickers restrained himself. He breathed hard, and glancing out of
+window sought to regain his equilibrium by becoming interested in a
+blackbird outside.
+
+"What I mean to say is," he said at length, in a trembling voice--"what
+I mean to say is, without no roundaboutedness, will you lend a
+'ard-working man, what's going to be your future father-in-law, a couple
+o' pounds?"
+
+Mr. Tasker laughed. It was not a loud laugh, nor yet a musical one. It
+was merely a laugh designed to convey to the incensed Mr. Vickers a
+strong sense of the absurdity of his request.
+
+"I asked you a question," said the latter gentleman, glaring at him.
+
+"I haven't got a couple o' pounds," replied Mr. Tasker; "and if I 'ad,
+there's nine hundred and ninety-nine things I would sooner do with it
+than lend it to you."
+
+    [Illustration: "MR. VICKERS ROSE AND STOOD REGARDING THE IGNOBLE
+                   CREATURE WITH PROFOUND CONTEMPT."]
+
+Mr. Vickers rose and stood regarding the ignoble creature with profound
+contempt. His features worked and a host of adjectives crowded to his
+lips.
+
+"Is that your last word, Joseph?" he inquired, with solemn dignity.
+
+"I'll say it all over again if you like," said the obliging Mr. Tasker.
+"If you want money, go and earn it, same as I have to; don't come round
+'ere cadging on me, because it's no good."
+
+Mr. Vickers laughed; a dry, contemptuous laugh, terrible to hear.
+
+"And that's the man that's going to marry my daughter," he said, slowly;
+"that's the man that's going to marry into my family. Don't you expect
+_me_ to take you up and point you out as my son-in-law, cos I won't do
+it. If there's anything I can't abide it's stinginess. And there's my
+gal--my pore gal don't know your real character. Wait till I've told 'er
+about this morning and opened 'er eyes! Wait till----"
+
+He stopped abruptly as the door leading to the front room opened and
+revealed the inquiring face of Captain Bowers.
+
+"What's all this noise about, Joseph?" demanded the captain, harshly.
+
+Mr. Tasker attempted to explain, but his explanation involving a
+character for Mr. Vickers which that gentleman declined to accept on any
+terms, he broke in and began to give his own version of the affair. Much
+to Joseph's surprise the captain listened patiently.
+
+"Did you buy all those things, Joseph?" he inquired, carelessly, as Mr.
+Vickers paused for breath.
+
+"Cert'nly not, sir," replied Mr. Tasker. "Where should I get the money
+from?"
+
+The captain eyed him without replying, and a sudden suspicion occurred
+to him. The strange disappearance of the map, followed by the sudden
+cessation of Mr. Chalk's visits, began to link themselves to this tale
+of unexpected wealth. He bestowed another searching glance upon the
+agitated Mr. Tasker.
+
+"You haven't _sold_ anything lately, have you?" he inquired, with
+startling gruffness.
+
+"I haven't 'ad nothing to sell, sir," replied the other, in
+astonishment. "And I dare say Mr. Vickers here saw a new pair o' boots
+on one o' the young 'uns and dreamt all the rest."
+
+Mr. Vickers intervened with passion.
+
+"That'll do," said the captain, sharply. "How dare you make that noise
+in my house? I think that the tale about the clothes is all right," he
+added, turning to Joseph. "I saw them go into church looking very smart.
+And you know nothing about it?"
+
+Mr. Tasker's astonishment was too genuine to be mistaken, and the
+captain, watching him closely, transferred his suspicions to a more
+deserving object. Mr. Vickers caught his eye and essayed a smile.
+
+"Dry work talking, sir," he said, gently.
+
+Captain Bowers eyed him steadily. "Have we got any beer, Joseph?" he
+inquired.
+
+"Plenty in the cask, sir," said Mr. Tasker, reluctantly.
+
+"Well, keep your eye on it," said the captain. "Good morning, Mr.
+Vickers."
+
+But disappointment and indignation got the better of Mr. Vickers's
+politeness.
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+"A penny for your thoughts, uncle," said Miss Drewitt, as they sat at
+dinner an hour or two after the departure of Mr. Vickers.
+
+"_H'm?_" said the captain, with a guilty start.
+
+"You've been scowling and smiling by turns for the last five minutes,"
+said his niece.
+
+"I was thinking about that man that was here this morning," said the
+captain, slowly; "trying to figure it out. If I thought that that girl
+Selina----"
+
+He took a draught of ale and shook his head solemnly.
+
+"You know my ideas about that," said Prudence.
+
+"Your poor _mother_ was obstinate," commented the captain, regarding her
+tolerantly. "Once she got an idea into her head it stuck there, and
+nothing made her more angry than proving to her that she was wrong.
+Trying to prove to her, I should have said."
+
+Miss Drewitt smiled amiably. "Well, you've earned half the sum," she
+said. "Now, what were you smiling about?"
+
+"Didn't know I was smiling," declared the captain.
+
+With marvellous tact he turned the conversation to lighthouses, a
+subject upon which he discoursed with considerable fluency until the
+meal was finished. Miss Drewitt, who had a long memory and at least her
+fair share of curiosity, returned to the charge as he smoked half a pipe
+preparatory to accompanying her for a walk.
+
+"You're looking very cheerful," she remarked.
+
+The captain's face fell several points. "Am I?" he said, ruefully. "I
+didn't mean to."
+
+"Why not?" inquired his niece.
+
+"I mean I didn't know I was," he replied, "more than usual, I mean. I
+always do look fairly cheerful--at least, I hope I do. There's nothing
+to make me look the opposite."
+
+Miss Drewitt eyed him carefully and then passed upstairs to put on her
+hat. Relieved of her presence the captain walked to the small glass over
+the mantelpiece and, regarding his tell-tale features with gloomy
+dissatisfaction, acquired, after one or two attempts, an expression
+which he flattered himself defied analysis.
+
+He tapped the barometer which hung by the door as they went out, and,
+checking a remark which rose to his lips, stole a satisfied glance at
+the face by his side.
+
+"Clark's farm by the footpaths would be a nice walk," said Miss Drewitt,
+as they reached the end of the lane.
+
+The captain started. "I was thinking of Dutton Priors," he said, slowly.
+"We could go there by Hanger's Lane and home by the road."
+
+"The footpaths would be nice to-day," urged his niece.
+
+"You try my way," said the captain, jovially.
+
+"Have you got any particular reason for wanting to go to Dutton Priors
+this afternoon?" inquired the girl.
+
+"Reason?" said the captain. "Good gracious, no. What reason should I
+have? My leg is a trifle stiff to-day for stiles, but still----"
+
+Miss Drewitt gave way at once, and, taking his arm, begged him to lean
+on her, questioning him anxiously as to his fitness for a walk in any
+direction.
+
+"Walking 'll do it good," was the reply, as they proceeded slowly down
+the High Street.
+
+         [Illustration: "HE BECAME INTENT ON A DERELICT PUNT."]
+
+He took his watch from his pocket, and, after comparing it with the town
+clock, peered furtively right and left, gradually slackening his pace
+until Miss Drewitt's fears for his leg became almost contagious. At the
+old stone bridge, spanning the river at the bottom of the High Street,
+he paused, and, resting his arms on the parapet, became intent on a
+derelict punt. On the subject of sitting in a craft of that description
+in mid-stream catching fish he discoursed at such length that the girl
+eyed him in amazement.
+
+"Shall we go on?" she said, at length.
+
+The captain turned and, merely pausing to point out the difference
+between the lines of a punt and a dinghy, with a digression to sampans
+which included a criticism of the Chinese as boat-builders, prepared to
+depart. He cast a swift glance up the road as he did so, and Miss
+Drewitt's cheek flamed with sudden wrath as she saw Mr. Edward Tredgold
+hastening towards them. In a somewhat pointed manner she called her
+uncle's attention to the fact.
+
+"Lor' bless my soul," said that startled mariner, "so it is. Well!
+well!"
+
+If Mr. Tredgold had been advancing on his head he could not have
+exhibited more surprise.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm late," said Tredgold, as he came up and shook hands. "I
+hope you haven't been waiting long."
+
+The hapless captain coughed loud and long. He emerged from a large red
+pocket-handkerchief to find the eye of Miss Drewitt seeking his.
+
+"That's all right, my lad," he said, huskily. "I'd forgotten about our
+arrangement. Did I say this Sunday or next?"
+
+"This," said Mr. Tredgold, bluntly.
+
+The captain coughed again, and with some pathos referred to the tricks
+which old age plays with memory. As they walked on he regaled them with
+selected instances.
+
+"Don't forget your leg, uncle," said Miss Drewitt, softly.
+
+Captain Bowers gazed at her suspiciously.
+
+"Don't forget that it's stiff and put too much strain on it," explained
+his niece.
+
+The captain eyed her uneasily, but she was talking and laughing with
+Edward Tredgold in a most reassuring fashion. A choice portion of his
+programme, which, owing to the events of the afternoon, he had almost
+resolved to omit, clamoured for production. He stole another glance at
+his niece and resolved to risk it.
+
+"Hah!" he said, suddenly, stopping short and feeling in his pockets.
+"There's my memory again. Well, of all the----"
+
+"What's the matter, uncle?" inquired Miss Drewitt.
+
+"I've left my pipe at home," said the captain, in a desperate voice.
+
+"I've got some cigars," suggested Tredgold.
+
+The captain shook his head. "No, I must have my pipe," he said,
+decidedly. "If you two will walk on slowly, I'll soon catch you up."
+
+"You're not going all the way back for it?" exclaimed Miss Drewitt.
+
+"Let me go," said Tredgold.
+
+The captain favoured him with an inscrutable glance. "I'll go," he said,
+firmly. "I'm not quite sure where I left it. You go by Hanger's Lane;
+I'll soon catch you up."
+
+He set off at a pace which rendered protest unavailing. Mr. Tredgold
+turned, and, making a mental note of the fact that Miss Drewitt had
+suddenly added inches to her stature, walked on by her side.
+
+"Captain Bowers is very fond of his pipe," he said, after they had
+walked a little way in silence.
+
+Miss Drewitt assented. "Nasty things," she said, calmly.
+
+"So they are," said Mr. Tredgold.
+
+"But you smoke," said the girl.
+
+Mr. Tredgold sighed. "I have often thought of giving it up," he said,
+softly, "and then I was afraid that it would look rather presumptuous."
+
+"Presumptuous?" repeated Miss Drewitt.
+
+"So many better and wiser men than myself smoke," explained Mr.
+Tredgold, "including even bishops. If it is good enough for them, it
+ought to be good enough for me; that's the way I look at it. Who am I
+that I should be too proud to smoke? Who am I that I should try and set
+my poor ideas above those of my superiors? Do you see my point of view?"
+
+Miss Drewitt made no reply.
+
+"Of course, it is a thing that grows on one," continued Mr. Tredgold,
+with the air of making a concession. "It is the first smoke that does
+the mischief; it is a fatal precedent. Unless, perhaps----How pretty
+that field is over there."
+
+Miss Drewitt looked in the direction indicated. "Very nice," she said,
+briefly. "But what were you going to say?"
+
+Mr. Tredgold made an elaborate attempt to appear confused. "I was going
+to say," he murmured, gently, "unless, perhaps, one begins on coarse-cut
+Cavendish rolled in a piece of the margin of the Sunday newspaper."
+
+Miss Drewitt suppressed an exclamation. "I wanted to see where the
+fascination was," she said, indignantly.
+
+"And did you?" inquired Mr. Tredgold, smoothly.
+
+The girl turned her head and looked at him. "I have no doubt my uncle
+gave you full particulars," she said, bitterly. "It seems to me that men
+can gossip as much as women."
+
+"I tried to stop him," said the virtuous Mr. Tredgold.
+
+"You need not have troubled," said Miss Drewitt, loftily. "It is not a
+matter of any consequence. I am surprised that my uncle should have
+thought it worth mentioning."
+
+She walked on slowly with head erect, pausing occasionally to look round
+for the captain. Edward Tredgold looked too, and a feeling of annoyance
+at the childish stratagems of his well-meaning friend began to possess
+him.
+
+"We had better hurry a little, I think," he said, glancing at the sky.
+"The sooner we get to Dutton Priors the better."
+
+"Why?" inquired his companion.
+
+"Rain," said the other, briefly.
+
+"It won't rain before evening," said Miss Drewitt, confidently; "uncle
+said so."
+
+"Perhaps we had better walk faster, though," urged Mr. Tredgold.
+
+Miss Drewitt slackened her pace deliberately. "There is no fear of its
+raining," she declared. "And uncle will not catch us up if we walk
+fast."
+
+A sudden glimpse into the immediate future was vouchsafed to Mr.
+Tredgold; for a fraction of a second the veil was lifted. "Don't blame
+me if you get wet, though," he said, with some anxiety.
+
+They walked on at a pace which gave the captain every opportunity of
+overtaking them. The feat would not have been beyond the powers of an
+athletic tortoise, but the most careful scrutiny failed to reveal any
+signs of him.
+
+"I'm afraid that he is not well," said Miss Drewitt, after a long,
+searching glance along the way they had come. "Perhaps we had better go
+back. It does begin to look rather dark."
+
+"Just as you please," said Edward Tredgold, with unwonted caution; "but
+the nearest shelter is Dutton Priors."
+
+He pointed to a lurid, ragged cloud right ahead of them. As if in
+response, a low, growling rumble sounded overhead.
+
+"Was--was that thunder?" said Miss Drewitt, drawing a little nearer to
+him.
+
+"Sounded something like it," was the reply.
+
+A flash of lightning and a crashing peal that rent the skies put the
+matter beyond a doubt. Miss Drewitt, turning very pale, began to walk at
+a rapid pace in the direction of the village.
+
+The other looked round in search of some nearer shelter. Already the
+pattering of heavy drops sounded in the lane, and before they had gone a
+dozen paces the rain came down in torrents. Two or three fields away a
+small shed offered the only shelter. Mr. Tredgold, taking his companion
+by the arm, started to run towards it.
+
+Before they had gone a hundred yards they were wet through, but Miss
+Drewitt, holding her skirts in one hand and shivering at every flash,
+ran until they brought up at a tall gate, ornamented with barbed wire,
+behind which stood the shed.
+
+The gate was locked, and the wire had been put on by a farmer who
+combined with great ingenuity a fervent hatred of his fellowmen. To Miss
+Drewitt it seemed insurmountable, but, aided by Mr. Tredgold and a peal
+of thunder which came to his assistance at a critical moment, she
+managed to clamber over and reach the shed. Mr. Tredgold followed at his
+leisure with a strip of braid torn from the bottom of her dress.
+
+    [Illustration: "AIDED BY MR. TREDGOLD AND A PEAL OF THUNDER, SHE
+                       MANAGED TO CLAMBER OVER."]
+
+The roof leaked in twenty places and the floor was a puddle, but it had
+certain redeeming features in Mr. Tredgold's eyes of which the girl knew
+nothing. He stood at the doorway watching the rain.
+
+"Come inside," said Miss Drewitt, in a trembling voice. "You might be
+struck."
+
+Mr. Tredgold experienced a sudden sense of solemn pleasure in this
+unexpected concern for his safety. He turned and eyed her.
+
+"I'm not afraid," he said, with great gentleness.
+
+"No, but I am," said Miss Drewitt, petulantly, "and I can never get over
+that gate alone."
+
+Mr. Tredgold came inside, and for some time neither of them spoke. The
+rattle of rain on the roof became less deafening and began to drip
+through instead of forming little jets. A patch of blue sky showed.
+
+"It isn't much," said Tredgold, going to the door again.
+
+Miss Drewitt, checking a sharp retort, returned to the door and looked
+out. The patch of blue increased in size; the rain ceased and the sun
+came out; birds exchanged congratulations from every tree. The girl,
+gathering up her wet skirts, walked to the gate, leaving her companion
+to follow.
+
+Approached calmly and under a fair sky the climb was much easier.
+
+"I believe that I could have got over by myself after all," said Miss
+Drewitt, as she stood on the other side. "I suppose that you were in too
+much of a hurry the last time. My dress is ruined."
+
+She spoke calmly, but her face was clouded. From her manner during the
+rapid walk home Mr. Tredgold was enabled to see clearly that she was
+holding him responsible for the captain's awkward behaviour; the rain;
+her spoiled clothes; and a severe cold in the immediate future. He
+glanced at her ruined hat and the wet, straight locks of hair hanging
+about her face, and held his peace.
+
+Never before on a Sunday afternoon had Miss Drewitt known the streets of
+Binchester to be so full of people. She hurried on with bent head,
+looking straight before her, trying to imagine what she looked like.
+There was no sign of the captain, but as they turned into Dialstone Lane
+they both saw a huge, shaggy, grey head protruding from the small window
+of his bedroom. It disappeared with a suddenness almost startling.
+
+"Thank you," said Miss Drewitt, holding out her hand as she reached the
+door. "Good-bye."
+
+Mr. Tredgold said "Good-bye," and with a furtive glance at the window
+above departed. Miss Drewitt, opening the door, looked round an empty
+room. Then the kitchen door opened and the face of Mr. Tasker, full of
+concern, appeared.
+
+"Did you get wet, miss?" he inquired.
+
+Miss Drewitt ignored the question. "Where is Captain Bowers?" she asked,
+in a clear, penetrating voice.
+
+The face of Mr. Tasker fell. "He's gone to bed with a headache, miss,"
+he replied.
+
+"Headache?" repeated the astonished Miss Drewitt. "When did he go?"
+
+"About 'arf an hour ago," said Mr. Tasker; "just after the storm. I
+suppose that's what caused it, though it seems funny, considering what a
+lot he must ha' seen at sea. He said he'd go straight to bed and try and
+sleep it off. And I was to ask you to please not to make a noise."
+
+Miss Drewitt swept past him and mounted the stairs. At the captain's
+door she paused, but the loud snoring of a determined man made her
+resolve to postpone her demands for an explanation to a more fitting
+opportunity. Tired, wet, and angry she gained her own room, and threw
+herself thoughtlessly into that famous old Chippendale chair which, in
+accordance with Mr. Tredgold's instructions, had been placed against the
+wall.
+
+    [Illustration: "SHE THREW HERSELF THOUGHTLESSLY INTO THAT FAMOUS
+                        OLD CHIPPENDALE CHAIR."]
+
+The captain stirred in his sleep.
+
+                          (_To be continued._)
+
+
+
+
+                       _Wild Western Journalism._
+
+                            BY AN EX-EDITOR.
+
+
+One of the most thrilling occupations that a human being could follow in
+the old days--say a brief generation since--was that of editing a
+newspaper in a small American town. There was a fulness in the life, a
+feverish activity in the office and a perpetual spice of danger out of
+it, that made all other callings seem trivial. Things have changed a
+great deal in the past few years, but even yet Wild Western journalism
+can boast a flavour--a tang of its own. There is no other Press in the
+world quite like it; there is no similar body of men like those who
+engineer it. To our old friends, Mr. Pott, of the _Eatanswill Gazette_,
+and Mr. Slurk, of the _Eatanswill Independent_, their Occidental
+followers of the _Arizona Arrow_ and the _Tombstone Epitaph_ bear but
+faint resemblance. Perhaps in the birth-throes of English journalism--in
+the era of the _Mercurius Pragmaticus_ and the _Scot's Dove_--the
+vicissitudes of editors were not dissimilar to those endured by the
+Colorado and Texas editor of yesterday, who was often his own publisher,
+his own printer, and his own editor rolled in one--and not only that,
+but was forced to perform these functions with a six-chambered revolver
+reposing gracefully, yet ominously, on his desk. As to his Protean
+character there has been little if any improvement. I cull the following
+from a recent issue of the _Yampa_ (Oregon) _Leader_:--
+
+    The great city papers think they are smart in having a large
+    staff, and, although we have not published ours before, we shall
+    do so to take some of the conceit out of the city brethren. The
+    editorial staff of the _Leader_ is composed of: Managing editor,
+    V. S. Wilson; city editor, Vic Wilson; news editor, V. Wilson;
+    editorial writer, Hon. Mr. Wilson; exchange editor, Wilson;
+    pressman, the same Wilson; foreman, more of the same Wilson;
+    devil, a picture of the same Wilson; fighting editor, Mrs.
+    Wilson.
+
+      [Illustration: Facsimile of newspaper, "Tombstone Epitaph"]
+
+By no means exaggerated is the description of a Western editor and his
+environment which was given some years ago by the authors of that
+amusing novel, "The Golden Butterfly." Prototypes of Gilead P. Beck
+could be found in abundance throughout the region west of the
+Mississippi. One of the most extraordinary characters and one of the
+most delightful was the late Alvin S. Peek--"Judge" Peek of
+Dakota--whose boast it was that he had "run" papers in nine different
+States and territories, had shot eleven men who disagreed with his
+opinions--three of them fatally--and had never swallowed a word he had
+ever written, and who died universally respected in bed and at the ripe
+age--for Dakota--of fifty-one years.
+
+But apart from any personal contact with the men who make the newspapers
+of the wild and woolly West it was once my experience to receive and
+peruse weekly many hundreds of their productions--"exchanges" they are
+called--and ranging from the _Mother Lode Magnet_ of California and the
+_Tombstone Epitaph_ of Tombstone, Arizona, to the _Arkansas Howler_ and
+the _Mustang_ (Colorado) _Mail_. Many a pleasant evening have I spent
+over them, and I still prize a scrap-book containing things to me as
+funny as I could find in any collection of wit and humour in the world.
+There is reason for this, because the backwoods and prairie Press of
+America is the nursery of American humour. It produced Mark Twain, Bret
+Harte, Petroleum V. Nasby, Joshua Billings, J. M. Bailey, Bob Burdette,
+Bill Nye, John Phoenix, and F. L. Stanton, to mention only a few of the
+humorists of international renown. I was well acquainted with Stanton at
+the time he was editing, printing, and publishing the famous _Smithville
+News_. _Texas Siftings_, the _Arizona Kicker_, and the _Burlington
+Hawkeye_ have made the peculiarities and amenities of Western journalism
+familiar to English readers. Albeit, scattered through a dozen States
+and territories are thousands of small newspapers, eking out a
+precarious existence--full of native humour and sentiment--of which not
+even the resident of Chicago and St. Louis has so much as heard. How
+precarious that existence is may be judged from the following editorial
+appeal in the _Gem_, of Flagstaff, Arizona:--
+
+    Have you paid your subscription yet? Remember even an editor
+    must live. If the _hard times_ have struck your shebang, don't
+    forget turnips, potatoes, and corn in the shock are most as
+    welcome as hard cash at the _Gem_ office. Also hard wood. Our
+    latch-string is always out, or same (_i.e._, the turnips, etc.)
+    can be delivered to our wife, who will give receipt in our
+    absence.
+
+One of the pleasing fictions preserved by the Western Press is, as we
+have seen, that of a plurality of editors. To these supposititious
+editors the most extraordinary titles and functions are bequeathed. On
+the front page of the _Rising Star_ (Texas) _X-ray_ no pretence of a
+numerous staff is made--Mr. Albert Tyson boldly announces himself as
+"horse, snake, lying, and fighting editor," while his motto is, "Do unto
+others as you would have them do to you, and do it _fust_!"
+
+In mining districts or in the new territories, where a "tenderfoot" is
+made welcome in the "'eave 'arf-brick" fashion, the career of an editor
+is one of constant risk and turmoil. If he is young and inexperienced
+there are always lawless spirits ready to take a rise out of him, just
+for the pleasure and excitement of the thing.
+
+                             [Illustration:
+                         The Rising Star X-Ray
+
+        ALBERT TYSON, HORSE, SNAKE, LYING, AND FIGHTING EDITOR,
+
+        Entered at the Rising Star Post-Office as Second-class
+        Mail matter. Published every Friday.
+
+        "DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO TO YOU, AND DO
+        IT FUST"
+
+                               Editorial
+
+                                  -0-
+
+        This is 1901, have you resolted any yet? If you have
+        been making a dozzen New Year resolutions and breaking
+        them all in about 30 days, try the plan this time of
+        making only six and see if you can't keep your integrity
+        with at least three of them.
+
+        In this New Year, A D 1901 make a grave effort to "Do
+        unto others as you would have them do to you, and do it
+        FUST"
+
+                                 0 0 0
+
+        The Mav Enterprise has gone into hence,--is a mournful
+        corpse. She died, according to a hasty post mortem
+        examination, of a malignant attack of impecuniosity
+        fever or financial strangulation.
+
+                                 0 0 0
+
+        The X-Ray makes a motion that the people of Eastland
+        county instruct their next Representative to the
+        Legislature to introduce a bill in that honorable body
+        against the sale of toy pistols, firecrackers, and
+        torpedos of every description.]
+
+Even in the civilized Southern States to the east of the Mississippi
+editing was not fifteen years ago a healthy pastime. On one occasion,
+when I was assisting a friend in Georgia, a citizen in a high state of
+excitement entered the "editorial sanctum"--they are very particular
+about the dignity of these epithets in America--and riddled the walls
+and my desk with bullets from a revolver.
+
+Luckily, I happened not to be there, but in the composing-room, engaged
+in making-up the editorial page. My eye dwelt lovingly on a neat row of
+paragraphs, one beginning in this wise:--
+
+    If our esteemed (but chronically overheated) fellow-townsman,
+    Sam Beale, will take our advice, etc.
+
+ [Illustration: "THE MALLET GRAZED MY EAR AND CRASHED INTO THE WALL."]
+
+At that moment three shots rang out in deafening succession. My
+journeyman "comp." dropped on his knees under the composing-case, and I
+was just deciding on my own line of conduct when the door was flung
+violently open, and Mr. Samuel Beale and I stood face to face. There
+were no words--none which I could bring my pen to write--but a heavy
+printer's mallet lay at one end of the make-up stone; this "our esteemed
+(but chronically overheated) fellow-townsman" seized and flung with all
+possible force straight at my head. Had his aim been true I should never
+have lived to tell this tale. As it was, the mallet grazed my ear and
+crashed into the wall, and the next object I saw was Beale wrestling
+with the door in a frantic effort to escape. The conclusion of this
+anecdote doesn't matter; but my printer was, I believe, finally obliged
+to haul me off the body of the prostrate Mr. Beale, upon whom I then and
+there felt it my editorial duty to take summary vengeance. Afterwards I
+wisely went armed, my victim having openly threatened to shoot me on
+sight. But the quarrel was eventually patched up, my chief inserting the
+following characteristic _amende_:--
+
+    The _News-Democrat_ having on divers occasions, through a
+    misapprehension of the true circumstances, stated that our
+    esteemed townsman Sam Beale was a liar, a thief, and the
+    meanest skunk in the whole State of Georgia, we beg hereby
+    to retract this, and declare that our knowledge is solely
+    confined to Pawnee County. Shake, Sam, and be friends!
+
+One of the arts which a Western editor must understand is that of
+"padding," especially in his local "society" items.
+
+Thus a Missouri paper, the _Hannibal Hornet_, is responsible for the
+following string of "personals":--
+
+    Dec. 7th. Miss Sadie James, of Tarrant Springs, is visiting her
+    friend, Miss Annabel S. Colver, at the house of Miss Annabel S.
+    Colver, on Decatur Street.
+
+    Dec. 8th. Miss Annabel S. Colver gave a party in honour of her
+    guest, Miss Sadie James, who is visiting her at Miss Colver's
+    beautiful home on Decatur Street, at which all the youth and
+    beauty of Hannibal were present in full force.
+
+    Dec. 9th. Miss Sadie James, of Tarrant Springs, was observed out
+    sleigh-riding with her charming hostess, Miss A. S. Colver, and
+    their neat turn-out was shortly joined by several others.
+
+    Dec. 10th.  Miss Sadie James terminated a pleasant visit to
+    Hannibal and returned to Tarrant Springs.
+
+But occasionally it happens that an exquisite item of "society" falls in
+the editor's way, without his having to do any "padding" at all, as in
+this from the _Fairplay Flume_, published in the flourishing Colorado
+"city" of Fairplay:--
+
+    MARRIED. MARKHAM--SEELY.--At the residence of the groom's
+    parents one of the most up-to-date weddings took place. (There
+    had been an agreement between the bride and groom not to be
+    married in the old-fashioned way, but to change the mode a
+    little.) Therefore they were married at the residence of the
+    father of the groom, Peter J. Seely, Esq. The groom wore a long
+    pair of overalls and a cutaway coat. The bride wore a calico
+    dress and apron. They both looked the picture of health, and
+    were ably assisted--the groom by the bride's sister and the
+    bride by Mr. Sam Meadows, a particular friend of the groom's.
+    After spending a couple of weeks in the West they will return
+    and settle down in their pleasant home, "Swandown"; Burlap, the
+    furniture man at Five Forks, having already the contract to see
+    that their home is properly furnished during their absence.
+
+      [Illustration: FAIRPLAY FLUME, THE BLISS BREEZE, THE ARIZONA
+    ARROW, THE CREEDE CANDLE, THE RIFLE REVEILLE, THE MUSTANG MAIL,
+                        THE MOTHER LODE MAGNET]
+
+As to the titles of many of these Western productions, it might be
+supposed these spring from the fertile brain of some incorrigible
+humorist. But this is not so. Nothing could be more real--"alive and
+kicking"--in Anno Domini 1904, than the _Creede_ (Colorado) _Candle_,
+the _Arizona Arrow_ of Chloride, Arizona, the _Rifle Reveille_, the
+_Rising Star X-ray_, the _Bald-Knob Herald_, the Dallas _World Hustler_,
+the _Kosse Cyclone_, the Blooming _Grove Rustler_, the Carrizo
+_Javelin_, the Noyales _Oasis_, and the Devil's Lake _Free Press_. The
+names of some Western towns are fantastic to a degree, and the editorial
+love for alliteration is strong. Thus we have the _Bliss Breeze_, the
+_Mustang Mail_, and the Searchlight _Searchlight_ in addition to those I
+have mentioned. What more natural in the "city" of Tombstone, Arizona,
+than that the newspaper should be entitled the _Epitaph_? Or that an
+_Epitaph_ should take as naturally to obituaries as a duck to water or
+an Arizonian takes to his "gun"?
+
+               [Illustration: JAKE MOFFATT GONE SKYWARD!]
+
+    As we feared on hearing that two doctors had been called in, the
+    life of our esteemed fellow-citizen Jake Moffatt ered out on
+    Wednesday last, just after we had gone to press. Jake was every
+    inch a scholar and a gentleman, upright in all his dealings,
+    unimpeachable in character, and ran the Front Street Saloon in
+    the very toniest style consistent with order. Jake never fully
+    recovered from the year he spent in the county jail at the time
+    of the Ryan-Sternberg fracas. His health was shattered, and he
+    leaves a sorrowing widow and nary an enemy.
+
+      [Illustration: Newspapers: "THE JAVELIN. The Flagstaff Gem.
+                   The Oasis. The Oklahoma Hornet."]
+
+The Tombstone men are handy with their "shooting-irons," as may be
+judged from the accompanying cheery advertisement last Christmas time.
+
+                     [Illustration: TURKEY SHOOTING
+                      Wednesday, December 23, 1903
+                       North End of Fifth Street
+                                -------
+                          Use Any Kind of Rifle
+                                -------
+            AT 50 YARDS,
+                Turkey's Head Exposed, 25c Per Shot
+            AT 200 YARDS,
+                Entire Turkey Exposed, 25c Per Shot
+            To Draw Blood Entitles You to the Turkey
+                                -------
+            SPORT BEGINS AT 2 P. M.
+                                -------
+              Turkeys Now on Exhibition at Saylor's Store,
+                  Allen. Bet. Fourth and Fifth Streets]
+
+The chief advertisements in the _Epitaph_, as in the other papers in the
+ranching country, consist of cattle-brands--_i.e._, rude outlines or
+silhouettes of equine or bovine quadrupeds, marked with the peculiar
+sign which distinguishes their ownership from others. By this means any
+strayed or stolen cattle are readily identified.
+
+            [Illustration: CATTLE-BRAND ADVERTISEMENTS.]
+
+As to the technical aspect of all the papers, which have so much in
+common, the reader may like to learn something. How are they produced so
+as to cover expenses in a "city" which boasts often fewer than one
+thousand inhabitants, rarely reaches two thousand, and not seldom has
+but five hundred souls? The answer is, in the first place, to be found
+in the invention of patent "insides" or "outsides." These are sheets
+ready printed on two of the four outside or inside pages; or, if it
+should happen to be an eight-page paper, six pages would be set up and
+printed at some great centre of population like Chicago or St. Louis.
+The invention is of English origin, but owes its vogue in America to A.
+N. Kellogg, who in 1861 was editing a little paper at Baraboo,
+Wisconsin. When the Civil War broke out his printers left him for the
+front, and, unable to get out his journal, he wrote to the publisher of
+the Madison _Daily Journal_ for sheets of that paper printed on one side
+only with the latest available war news. The blank side the enterprising
+Kellogg filled up himself with big "block" advertisements and local
+items and the inevitable political "editorial," without which no
+American newspaper, however small, would be complete in its editor's
+eyes, although it is rarely read. In a short space of time other country
+editors followed Kellogg's example, and the Madison daily was printing
+newspapers for thirty different Wisconsin papers on one side of the
+sheet. The enterprise grew, Kellogg directed his entire attention to it,
+and ended by founding a business which to-day prints two thousand
+different sets or editions of patent insides.
+
+At one time the same formes were used for hundreds of papers, only the
+titles, headings, etc., being changed to suit each customer. But now the
+editors of the _Oasis_ and the _Hustler_ have at least a hundred
+different styles of paper to select from. As to the cost, the editor
+pays hardly more than what the blank paper is worth, for the ready-print
+companies derive their profit from the advertisements, for which they
+reserve several columns of space. These country papers are usually sold
+in "bundles" of nine hundred and sixty copies, but the circulation may
+not be one-half of that figure.
+
+We have seen that editing is a precarious livelihood, yet the editor
+manages to get along somehow. I have seen it publicly stated that there
+are four classes of men who usually own these small papers: farmers'
+sons who are too good for farming and not quite good enough to do
+nothing; school-teachers; lawyers who have made a failure of the law;
+and professional printers who have "worked their way"--these last two by
+far the most numerous class. They derive their chief profits from
+advertisements, for it is a point of honour with the local bankers,
+storekeepers, implement dealers, lawyers, doctors, liverymen, and
+blacksmiths to advertise in the local paper. Then there is the annual,
+and occasionally the semi-annual, circus advertisement, which may bring
+in as much as a hundred dollars, "if a picture of the elephant is thrown
+in." In the cattle-raising districts, as in Arizona, the different
+cattle-brands fill up a large part of the paper, as in the case of the
+_Tombstone Epitaph_. But besides the patent "inside," the editor of the
+little paper has another convenient expedient for filling up his
+columns. He can buy stereotype plates--that is, columns of interesting
+matter in thin sheets. These are made to fit metal bases with which he
+is supplied, and which he keeps in stock. Plates and bases being "type
+high," or level with the type of the newspaper, are cheap to send by
+rail, and being furnished to hundreds of other journals are of far
+higher literary character than the editor could turn out himself for
+treble cost.
+
+I have said little of illustrated journalism in the Far West; but, as
+the accompanying reproduction humorously suggests, it is--inexpensive.
+And it may also betray the fount whence the authors of that amusing
+brochure, "Wisdom While You Wait," drew some, at least, of their
+inspiration.
+
+                             [Illustration:
+      PHOENIX'S PICTORIAL, And Second Story Front Room Companion.
+      Vol. I]          San Diego, October 1, 1853          [No. 1
+
+          Mansion of John Phoenix, Esq., San Diego, California
+
+       House in which Shakespeare was born, in Stratford-on-Avon]
+
+
+
+
+                            The Red Counter.
+
+                           BY L. J. BEESTON.
+
+
+                                   I.
+
+Vétérin gathered up from the table the papers which his captain pushed
+toward him. He said, moodily:--
+
+"I am surprised at _you_. We shall all be killed while you are making
+love here. You may be very emotional, but you will have to tell that to
+the German advanced guard."
+
+Nicolas La Hire rose and took his sabre from a chair in this, the best
+room of the _auberge_. He was commanding a scattered remnant of
+cuirassiers who were shadowed by a Prussian force. It was his intention
+to join the main body, but not only were there many obstacles in the
+way, but he had fallen very desperately in love with Rachel Nay, the
+sweetest and prettiest girl in Orgemont. He replied--by no means
+offended by the familiarity of his officer, for whom he had the greatest
+friendship:--
+
+"You are needlessly alarmed. Besides, love speaks louder than a
+bugle-call."
+
+        [Illustration: "LOVE SPEAKS LOUDER THAN A BUGLE-CALL."]
+
+"But not so loud as a bomb, and that is what we shall get very soon. I
+am not afraid--I; but there is a time for making love and a time for
+making war. Then, consider your family. A farmer's pretty daughter is no
+match for a La Hire. And in any case you will not get her, for she is
+promised to that rascal Simon Mansart, who lives in the château on the
+hill yonder"; and Vétérin pointed through the unshuttered window, across
+the village, where the cottages bore a covering of snow, and the frozen
+road, to where a clump of acacias crowned an eminence.
+
+"That is what troubles me," answered La Hire, beginning to pace the
+room. "If she is married to that man, whom she detests and fears--to
+that miser, that creature----!" he broke off suddenly, then continued:
+"It is a burning shame that this pure girl, this sweet Rachel, this
+wild-flower----!"
+
+"Oh, come," interrupted Vétérin, shrugging his shoulders contemptuously,
+"if you are going to dilate in that strain----"
+
+"Silence!" shouted La Hire; "you go too far." He muttered, in an
+undertone, "I cannot leave her, loving her as I do, loving me as she
+does, for I greatly fear that this vulture Mansart will be too strong
+for me when I am gone."
+
+"Then visit him," said Vétérin. "Have you not a sword to threaten with?
+Better still, have you not gold to offer? That will persuade him, if
+anything can."
+
+La Hire thought for a moment; then he said, "That is not at all a bad
+idea. I will go now.... We will leave to-night. You will give the word.
+Laporte is moving on Besançon, which is in a state of siege. We really
+ought to join him three leagues from here, if only these confounded
+Prussians will let us alone." He went out, murmuring, "I must see Rachel
+before I go."
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+"You hear what I say, Monsieur Mansart?" thundered La Hire.
+
+Simon did not reply, nor did his eyes fail before the stern gaze of the
+captain of cuirassiers. A crafty smile touched the corners of his thin
+lips, and he stroked with either hand the heads of two immense mastiffs
+that crouched on the floor by his side.
+
+"Mademoiselle Rachel Nay does not need your attentions. You will not
+molest or annoy her in any way. Your gold, which, if report says true,
+you have spent your life in wringing from whom you can, cannot buy a
+woman's heart, and hers is pledged to me."
+
+Simon smiled still more craftily. He knew that his parsimony had made
+him notorious; he knew that the widow and the fatherless had little
+cause to love him. His heart had shrunk in the grip of his miserly
+instincts. But he was not afraid as he answered:--
+
+"I shall take my own course, monsieur. Who are you to dictate to me? I
+care not for your clanking spurs, your fierce looks. I have influence
+with Mademoiselle Rachel's parents, who are very poor, and I shall use
+it to the uttermost. I pit my gold against your handsome face and
+swaggering manner. We will see who will win."
+
+"Listen!" said Nicolas, in a voice hoarse with anger. "I will descend to
+make terms with you, though, _mon Dieu!_ there is little reason why I
+should. Since money is as vital breath to you, I offer you five thousand
+francs if you will withdraw your suit."
+
+"I refuse."
+
+"Ten thousand, then?"
+
+Mansart laughed and snapped his dry fingers.
+
+"Come, I offer you fifteen thousand francs, and not a sou further will I
+go."
+
+Simon was visibly moved, and his hands rested nervously upon the heads
+of his great curs; but he controlled the rising temptation and answered,
+bitterly:--
+
+"It is clear that you fear me or you would not make such overtures. I
+decline your offer."
+
+"Think well! I will never yield this girl."
+
+"That is unfortunate, for I certainly intend to win her."
+
+"Be careful!" said La Hire, in such a terrible voice that the mastiffs
+growled and bared their teeth.
+
+And instinctively, though he meant nothing, his hand groped at the hilt
+of his sabre.
+
+Mansart half rose from his chair. "You forget my dogs," he snarled.
+
+"And you forget the Prussians, who cannot be far off," replied the
+other; and when he perceived that the warning had a distinct effect he
+followed up his advantage. "You will have to take care of yourself here,
+monsieur, and yet greater care of your gold. I warn you that a Prussian
+force is shadowing us, so that they will almost certainly take this
+direction, if that is comforting for you to know."
+
+Mansart turned pale.
+
+"And as they have a couple of field-pieces, you may expect a display, by
+Jove!"
+
+He had scarcely spoken the words when a deep sound, a heavy thud, which
+appeared to come from a long distance, startled him.
+
+"Malediction! A gun!" exclaimed the captain.
+
+He had scarcely spoken when a second and much sharper report sounded.
+The shell had burst. Faint shouting came from below in the village.
+
+"The 'Blues' have come after all," said La Hire, and he went out.
+
+Looking northward he saw a tiny cloud drifting across the stars. It was
+the smoke from the cannon which had been discharged. In that direction a
+ridge broke the flatness of the fields, that were buried under a sheet
+of ice. He muttered to himself:--
+
+"They are there, on the escarpment. They will put a few shells into the
+village and turn us out, and we must retreat--as usual. I do not care if
+I can withdraw them from Orgemont." His eyes grew tender; he was
+thinking of Rachel.
+
+"Are they here--these Germans?" asked a fearful voice at his elbow.
+
+Mansart also had quitted the house. That note of war, which was the
+first he had ever heard, had terrified him.
+
+"You may be sure of it," said the other, laughing. "And it is to be
+hoped that you have some good things in your larder, for if these
+Prussians visit you you will find that they have the stomachs of
+wolves."
+
+A bugle sounded.
+
+"They will be expecting me," murmured La Hire.
+
+It was frightfully cold. The air, like the earth, seemed frozen, biting
+the lungs and making it difficult to breathe. The swaying branches of
+the trees in the garden appeared to be trying to obtain a little warmth
+by the exercise. The final crescent of the moon had risen, and her pale
+gleam upon the fields seemed to have become petrified also with the
+cold, and permanent.
+
+La Hire had no sooner made up his mind to move than a red flame glowed
+on the summit of the escarpment, and passed. It was quickly followed by
+a second heavy thud--the report of a six-pounder field-gun. A bright
+light appeared upon the sky, moving swiftly.
+
+Something uttered a wail; something rushed amongst the acacia trees in
+the garden, flinging down branches and tearing up earth. There was a
+splitting report, sheeted flame, a terrible cry.
+
+The night closed down as before, scarcely disturbed by that burst of
+passion.
+
+La Hire relaxed his grip of the garden soil. He lifted his face, which
+was covered with earth.
+
+"_Ciel!_ I thought I was done for," he muttered.
+
+He rose from the prostrate position into which he had flung himself, and
+looked around with eyes that were still dazed by the explosion.
+
+"Simon--Simon Mansart! Are you still alive?" he called.
+
+A loud burst of derisive laughter came from one of the lower windows of
+the house.
+
+"Go! The Prussians are waiting for you!" cried Mansart.
+
+La Hire shrugged his shoulders, then stepped briskly from the garden to
+where an orderly waited with his horse.
+
+And as he rode away he felt his love swell and rise in his heart, and a
+mad longing to see Rachel once more gripped him; to feel on his lips the
+soft touch of her lips, and round his neck the clinging fingers once
+clasped there. And this wave of passion that ran through his veins
+seemed to unstring his nerves, weaken his purpose, and cast a mist of
+love over his courage.
+
+He found Vétérin waiting impatiently for his appearance; and he led his
+men southward, tempting the Prussians and drawing them from the
+village.
+
+
+                                  II.
+
+Weeks passed. The battles with the Germans, that were scarring the land
+and so many hearts, only threatened Orgemont.
+
+Now Simon Mansart lay very ill, and it was said that he was dying. At a
+late hour that night Rachel received a letter. It was from Mansart, and
+ran as follows:--
+
+"RACHEL,--I am very ill, and have but a few more hours to live. Will you
+wed me, dying? This is a strange request; but if for one brief hour I
+might call you wife it should not make you sad, and it would give me
+happiness.... I have a considerable sum of money with me in this house,
+which represents the greater part of my fortune. I am anxious that you
+should possess this when I am gone. I have papers drawn up making over
+to you the whole of this sum. Only your signature is needed and all
+becomes yours, even while I live. I would have it so, fearing that you
+might say, 'If he should not die after all!' In any case you will be
+rich. But have no fears; I am sinking, and can scarcely hold this pen.
+Rachel, you have scorned my offer of marriage; at any rate you cannot
+scorn me now. Let me call you wife; let me hold your hand for my final
+but sweetest hour.--SIMON MANSART."
+
+Old Joseph Nay, when this letter was read to him, slapped his shrunken
+thighs. "And I wished, when you were born, that you had been a boy!"
+cried he. "What a piece of fortune this is! At last I hope you will show
+some sense. Quick, and get ready. I will take you round in the cart. It
+is a frightful night, but one does not get a fortune every day on such
+terms. Then one must respect the request of a man who is dying." And he
+went out, adding to himself, "We are so poor that this is nothing less
+than a godsend."
+
+Rachel had turned very pale. She had greatly feared Mansart living; now,
+at his last moments, he still threatened her peace. Seeing marriage only
+in the holy light it has for lovers, she shrank from this thing.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+A month passed.
+
+One day the hamlet was thrown into a state of excitement.
+
+A horseman came dashing bravely up the rough, snow covered road. He was
+a splendid figure. He wore a steel helmet with streaming plumes, a
+glittering cuirass, red breeches, and immense boots to his knees. A
+sabre leaped at his side, and foam flew from the red jaws of his
+magnificent horse. His bronzed face carried a formidable scar, that
+added to the fierceness of his appearance. He reined in his charger with
+a most telling effect.
+
+"Where is Mademoiselle Rachel Nay?" he demanded.
+
+They brought her to him. He sprang off his horse, removed his helmet,
+which he placed in the bend of his left arm, and bowed with gallantry,
+while his eyes showed his appreciation of the girl's beauty. He was
+Philippe Vétérin.
+
+"I have come for you, mademoiselle," said he, trying to soften his
+voice, that had been roughened in the war.
+
+The blood crept from Rachel's cheeks.
+
+"And with a message from Nicolas La Hire, who is my friend. He is
+wounded--ah! pardon my stupidness, I am too abrupt; the hurt is not
+much, but enough to prevent his coming for you. _Mon Dieu!_--do not look
+so frightened, my pretty one; I have the best of news--news to bring the
+blood again to those smooth cheeks. Listen! We ambushed a whole host of
+Prussians, and we cut them to pieces. La Hire was equal to any two of
+us. The colonel vowed he would give him whatever he asked for. 'Then
+send,' said Nicolas, 'to Orgemont, which is three leagues from here, and
+fetch my sweetheart to me, that I may kiss her lips.'
+
+"We cheered him, mademoiselle, for it appealed to our hearts and made us
+think of the women whose love is ours, and who are waiting for us. 'It
+shall be done,' said the colonel, 'and you shall wed her, La Hire, if
+that be your present wish. Then she can return to her parents to wait
+for you until we have finished the war.'
+
+"This is my errand, pretty one. I have come to fetch you. Ah! you are
+paler than before. Courage! You shall have such a wedding that every
+woman in France shall envy you. The church bells will peal while our
+sentries guard the roads, the guns will salute you, and each breast that
+a cuirass hides will swell with the cheers that we shall give you. My
+sword, why am I not Nicolas La Hire!"
+
+Rachel tried to speak, but there was such a weight upon her heart that
+the words she would have uttered stopped in her throat. At length she
+said, faintly: "I--I cannot go: it is impossible."
+
+The trooper laughed outright. "_Pardonnez moi_," he cried, "I said that
+I have come for you, and without you I dare not return, or I should be
+compelled to fight my regiment, one by one. Mademoiselle, you will
+obtain a horse, and you will accompany me; that is as certain as my name
+is Philippe Vétérin." He twisted his moustache, and a flash almost of
+menace sparkled in his black eyes.
+
+They were without old Joseph's cottage as they spoke, and Rachel drew
+Vétérin in, closing the door against the little crowd of villagers, who
+turned their attention to the trooper's charger. She said, in a
+heart-broken voice:--
+
+"Nevertheless, I cannot accompany you. I am married already; I am
+another man's wife."
+
+                [Illustration: "I AM MARRIED ALREADY."]
+
+The trooper gave back a step; then he laughed harshly--a contemptuous
+laugh.
+
+"Oh, oh!" said he, shrugging his shoulders, "that is a different matter.
+All the same, it is bad, bad news for La Hire," and he moved toward the
+door.
+
+"Stay!" said the girl, flushing hotly at his derisive tone. "I have a
+message in return for yours. Will you tell Nicolas that, though he must
+come no more to Orgemont, though he must not see me again, I am wife in
+name only. Maiden I am still, before God, and, for Nicolas's sake, shall
+always remain so. You will tell him, monsieur, that he had been gone but
+a few weeks when Simon Mansart----"
+
+"Ah!" interrupted Vétérin, "I have heard about him."
+
+"----when Simon Mansart fell ill. At the point of death (so it seemed
+to all of us) he besought me to wed him, for he loves me almost as much
+as he loves his gold. And he offered me in return all his money that is
+hid in his house. I refused. It was pointed out to me that Monsieur
+Mansart had no one to whom to leave the wealth which he had accumulated,
+but he asked nothing better than to leave it to me if I would grant him
+one brief hour in which to call me wife, that, holding my hand, he might
+pass the last great barrier. I refused again. Then they made it clear to
+me that certain papers only wanted my signature, and even while Monsieur
+Mansart lived his wealth became mine--so certain was he that he could
+not recover. Again I declined this offer. I was told that I should hold
+sacred the prayer of one who loved me and was dying; that it would not
+be only right, but an act of nobleness to render his end peaceful and
+happy. Still I refused."
+
+"Ah! Yet you yielded!" sighed Vétérin, moved to his heart by a tear that
+was trickling down one of the soft brown cheeks.
+
+"For my parents' sake. They had their way at last. They are very poor;
+the war has tried us greatly. Against my heart, against my conscience, I
+said 'yes.' That night I signed the papers and was wedded to Monsieur
+Mansart; that night he held my hand as I sat by his couch, and he looked
+into my eyes with a terrible gaze of love."
+
+"And he lived? My sword! I could swear he was not so ill as he said. The
+cunning rascal!"
+
+"It was God's will. I have not seen him since then, and will not.... You
+will tell Nicolas all this, monsieur; and you will give him these papers
+and ask him to destroy them, lest he should say, 'Rachel married this
+man for the money.' I thought at first that I would send them back to
+Monsieur Mansart, for you may be sure I shall not touch this money that
+has come between Nicolas and me. And you will tell him that he must not
+grieve for me, because I am not worthy of his remembrance."
+
+"And I shall tell him that you love him still. Is it not so,
+mademoiselle?" said Vétérin, huskily.
+
+"Yes, yes!" Rachel answered, struggling with her rising tears. She
+caught the trooper by the arm, clasping his great muscles with her two
+hands, and her breath fanned his face. "Tell him that--that I love him
+as much as--as I despise myself; that my heart, which I gave to him,
+must always be his; that all my thoughts are of him, are with him
+wherever he goes. And you may tell him, monsieur, if you like, that my
+heart is breaking--no, no; you must not say that! He would come to see
+me, and he must not. Oh, _mon Dieu_!"
+
+The clinging fingers tightened round the soldier's arm; the voice broke
+off into a sob. Vétérin's eyes were wet. He blinked fiercely.
+
+"Take him my message. Tell him all this. But you cannot, wanting my
+voice and my eyes, in which he used to read every thought. Yet you will
+remember how I looked and what I said. And you will tell Nicolas that I
+love him as he taught me to, that without him all the world has grown
+dark, and that I shall love him until I die!"
+
+The trooper caught her to him, for he felt that she was falling. Rachel
+controlled herself by a strong effort, and she pushed him gently toward
+the door. Vétérin turned to give one last look at that supplicating
+figure, with the dishevelled hair in sweet confusion about the
+tear-stained face; then he went out. He muttered, in a voice that he
+might not have known as his own:
+
+_Peste!_ It seems to me that this Simon Mansart is very much in the
+way!"
+
+
+                                  III.
+
+On the evening of that day Simon Mansart was sitting alone before a
+handful of fire when he heard his big dogs barking with anger. As the
+disturbance continued he went to the door, and he thought he perceived
+without, in the black night, a blacker shadow beyond the gate.
+
+"Will you call off your lambs?" shouted a voice.
+
+"Who are you? And what do you want?" cried Mansart, always terribly
+suspicious of strangers, and especially those who arrived after dusk.
+
+"You do not know me, but I have come on your business."
+
+"Then you will come again when it is daylight, my friend," and he began
+to close the door.
+
+"Very well," was the immediate reply. "I am determined to see you now,
+and if your dogs attempt to stop me they must take the consequences."
+
+Simon laughed incredulously; but when he heard the iron gate scream on
+its rusty hinges, and when he heard the growls of the dogs, he
+exclaimed, vehemently, "Take care! You will be torn to pieces!"
+
+"I shall at least kill one of your dogs first," was the determined
+reply.
+
+"Stop! I will call them off," said Mansart, who would never have yielded
+had he the smallest doubt of the other's resolution. He whistled his
+great curs off; but he was sorry that he had done so when he perceived
+his visitor, who was a French trooper, swaggering and fierce, and who
+could have crushed Mansart in his strong arms.
+
+"May I come in?" said he, and he advanced so persistently that the other
+was compelled to retreat before him. He closed the door and stood before
+it--tall, erect, commanding.
+
+"Your errand, monsieur?" demanded Simon, trembling with rage, yet
+afraid.
+
+"How dark it is in here! And what a little fire for so cold a night!"
+
+"We do not need light to talk by, and I am warm enough."
+
+"And poor enough. Is it not so? It is about that that I have come."
+
+Mansart grew more polite. He had signed away a fortune to a girl who
+loathed him. When peace should come the courts would make good her
+claim. So that any overture, any compromise, was welcome.
+
+  [Illustration: "MY NAME IS PHILLIPE VÉTÉRIN," SAID THE CUIRASSIER.]
+
+"My name is Philippe Vétérin," said the cuirassier, folding his arms
+with their gauntleted hands, and fixing a stern look upon Mansart.
+"Captain Nicolas La Hire is my friend."
+
+"And my enemy," muttered Simon, his deep-set eyes flashing.
+
+"I have come to Orgemot on his behalf."
+
+"Ah! Is he wounded?"
+
+"He is."
+
+Mansart rubbed his hands together.
+
+"But not badly. Unless you are going to listen to me, I think it likely
+that La Hire will pay you a visit one of these days."
+
+Simon sank uneasily into his chair. "What has this to do with me?" he
+demanded. "And how is it that you are here?"
+
+Vétérin went on steadily. "I am here with a message for Mademoiselle
+Rachel Nay, that sweet girl----"
+
+"That name is hers no longer. Also you will keep your compliments until
+I ask for them," interrupted the other, savagely.
+
+"You are her husband; that is true enough. To you I bear a message also.
+Yet I can scarcely call it that, since what I am about to propose to you
+is entirely an idea of my own, and which I should like to mention in the
+interests of my friend Monsieur Nicolas La Hire. It is of a most unusual
+nature. Here it is. Rachel married you believing that you were at
+Death's door. But the door wouldn't open. Good for you, bad for her, bad
+for Nicolas, whom she loves. Now, La Hire loves this girl; she is as
+indispensable to his happiness as your money is to yours. Mark that."
+
+There was a pause. Then Mansart said, "What do you mean?"
+
+"That I have come to offer to restore to you these papers, which
+represent the fortune which you have bestowed upon your wife. Ah! not so
+quick. There is one condition attached. You must release this girl."
+
+A terrible light of joy leaped into Simon's face, but it died away
+instantly. "The thing is impossible," he said. "She is my wife; we were
+lawfully wedded, remember. How, then, can I release her? How can she be
+wedded to another?"
+
+"Yet La Hire has sworn that only as her husband will he kiss the lips of
+his love again."
+
+"But, monsieur, how can it be? See for yourself!"
+
+Vétérin continued, imperturbably:--
+
+"Certainly, if I restore to you these papers, which I am sure you would
+be glad to get back, that would scarcely break the bond between you and
+Rachel; yet I am about to yield them to you. It follows, then, that you
+will still call her your wife and enjoy your own as well? I am afraid
+that it does, but there is an 'if' in the case; for though I am
+perfectly willing to give you these papers, yet it is just possible that
+they may cost you your life."
+
+"My life!"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+Mansart crouched back. "You are threatening me?" said he, hoarsely.
+
+"By no means. Look here."
+
+Vétérin advanced to the table, upon which he emptied a handful of small
+counters. "There are thirteen of them," he said. "You will perceive that
+twelve of them are white and that the other is red. Will you count
+them?"
+
+"Oh, I take your word for it."
+
+"Yet you had better count for yourself. That is right. And now I will
+tell you my idea, which is so unusual and so dramatic that I rather
+pride myself upon it. I throw these ivory discs into my helmet and cover
+them with a handkerchief--so. And I ask you, if you are a man of
+courage, to raise one corner of the handkerchief and take out a single
+counter. If it be a white one--as is almost certain to be the case--I
+hand you the papers in my possession and I wish you good-night,
+enjoyment of your hoarded gold, and happiness with Rachel. But if it be
+the solitary red one--and that is extremely unlikely--then--then--if it
+be the red one, I say----"
+
+The cuirassier broke off and regarded the other steadily. Mansart had
+turned livid. "Go on," he said, in a shaking voice; "why do you stop? If
+I should draw the red one--what then?"
+
+Vétérin shrugged his shoulders as he answered, "In that case I should
+ask you to fight with me."
+
+"Ah! you would murder me!" said Simon, recoiling.
+
+"Pardon, I have _two_ pistols here. It would be fair fighting."
+
+"It is horrible, monstrous! I will not listen to you."
+
+"Almost as terrible as wedding a maid whose soul has been given to
+another; almost as monstrous as coming eternally between two hearts that
+beat for each other," was the stern response.
+
+"I tell you that I will not hear of it," repeated Mansart, frantically.
+
+"Then you will be a great fool. I wish I stood in your shoes. The
+chances of life are twelve; of death, one. And even then it will be fair
+fighting--though, by my sword, I shall do my best to kill you. Consider.
+But a moment separates you from your wealth. Come, it might have been
+over and forgotten by now."
+
+"Monsieur, if you are a gentleman, if you entertain toward me no
+sinister intent, you will leave my house at once."
+
+"Very well, I will go," said Vétérin, and he moved toward the door. He
+opened it and was about to pass out when the querulous voice of Simon
+called to him again.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"The chances in my favour are not sufficient."
+
+"What a coward it is!"
+
+"Add six more to the number and I will agree."
+
+The trooper laughed and tossed half-a-dozen more of the white discs into
+his helmet. "There you are," he said. "Take one; you are perfectly
+safe."
+
+"Shake them well together," whispered Mansart, who appeared to be almost
+fainting with the excitement of this terrible gamble.
+
+Then he put his hand under the handkerchief and into the steel casque.
+He withdrew it slowly. The trooper snatched away his helmet to prevent
+any trick, and Simon looked at the disc which his fingers held.
+
+It was the red one!
+
+ [Illustration: "HE REMAINED GAZING FIXEDLY AT THAT SYMBOL OF DEATH."]
+
+And he began to mutter; inarticulate words, such as one may use under
+the spell of some strangling dream. He remained gazing fixedly at that
+symbol of death. A rush of blood mounted to his forehead, swelling the
+veins, then as quickly died away, leaving him pallid.
+
+"Ah!" said Vétérin, "how unfortunate for you!"
+
+Mansart retreated a few steps, crouching back like a wild beast that has
+received a wound, which simulates an approaching end, and which holds
+its remaining strength together waiting for its destroyer to draw near.
+
+"You must acknowledge that it does not look like chance," went on
+Vétérin, who was cool as ice. "Eighteen to one! _Ma foi_, it is
+astonishing." He placed two pistols upon the table.
+
+"Come, monsieur," he exclaimed, suddenly, in a hard, rasping voice. "You
+will play the man, will you not?"
+
+Mansart appeared unable to reply; perhaps he could not. His look was
+steadily directed upon the trooper, whose slightest movement he observed
+with the most intense anxiety.
+
+Vétérin examined the pistols, while he threw more than one furtive
+glance at the other's passionless face. He pushed a pistol toward Simon.
+"I think you had better defend yourself," he said. "I am going to hold
+you to your word," and he stepped back, raising his own weapon.
+
+"Stop!" exclaimed Mansart, in a choked voice. "We do not fight on equal
+terms."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"You are skilled in the use of your weapon, while I----"
+
+"That is easily remedied." Vétérin suddenly extinguished the candle. He
+called out, "Take care! I shall fire at the first opportunity."
+
+A nebulous red glow came from the nearly-burned log in the grate and
+shone upon the farther side of the apartment. Both men had retreated
+into the shadow; both waited.
+
+There was a profound silence, broken occasionally by whispering sounds
+from the log that pulsated, red and grey, as the draught fanned it.
+Vétérin was scarcely breathing; his straining eyes peered into the dark,
+seeking to detect the form of Simon Mansart. He listened intently. Not
+the faintest sound was audible. Suddenly he believed that he perceived a
+black object but a few feet from him. Surely that was Mansart.
+
+The cuirassier lifted his pistol and aimed at the centre of that
+indistinct form; yet his finger did not press the trigger. Instead he
+gradually lowered the weapon.
+
+"What is the matter with my nerves?" he thought.
+
+He remained standing in a rigid posture, undecided. "Why not?" he asked
+himself again. "It is fair fighting. _Ma foi_, I have done worse
+things."
+
+Another minute passed. Vétérin sighed deeply. "I cannot do it," he
+muttered; "not even for you, Nicolas." Then he called out aloud:--
+
+"Light the candle; I shall do you no harm."
+
+No answer.
+
+"You need not fear me," repeated the trooper.
+
+Still no reply.
+
+"If I move he will shoot at me," thought Vétérin. Nevertheless, he
+advanced in the direction of the table and groped about for the
+candlestick. He found it, went to the fire, and held the coarse wick
+against the log. All the time he did not remove his eyes for an instant
+from that black something which he believed to be Mansart. The candle
+smoked, glowed, then broke into a flame. The trooper had made a mistake;
+he perceived that the shadowy object was a chair merely.
+
+Vétérin spun round, expecting a pistol-ball and extending his weapon. A
+low cry escaped him at the sight which met his eyes.
+
+    [Illustration: "A LOW CRY ESCAPED HIM AT THE SIGHT WHICH MET HIS
+                                EYES."]
+
+Simon Mansart, crouched in an angle of the room, held with dead fingers
+his undischarged pistol, looked with dead eyes at the flaring light. The
+excitement of the gamble and terror of this unfought duel had stopped
+his heart.
+
+Vétérin crossed himself. "God judge me! I did it for Nicolas's sake," he
+said. He crossed to the grate and pushed some papers into the embers.
+
+And all at once there came upon him a sudden fear which sent him running
+from the house. The sharp air and a strong effort of self-control gave
+him his wits again. For a moment he halted to look back at the château,
+with its unlighted windows and dead aspect; and he said aloud, as if
+concluding an unspoken thought:--
+
+"----and they will be married when the war is over."
+
+
+
+
+          [Illustration: A MEETING OF THE PORTSMOUTH NAVAL WAR
+     GAME SOCIETY IN THE NELSON ROOM AT THE "GEORGE", PORTSMOUTH.]
+
+               _The Naval War Game and How it is Played._
+
+                         BY ANGUS SHERLOCK.
+
+        Copyright in the United States by A. P. Watt and Son.
+
+    (NOTE.--This is the only popular article that has ever appeared
+    on the Naval War Game, though it is played in every navy in the
+    world. The subject is of some special interest just at present,
+    because both the Japanese and Russian navies trained on it for
+    the present war.  Proofs of the article have been submitted to
+    the inventor, who himself selected the illustrations.)
+
+
+From time to time one reads in the technical naval Press brief
+references to, or fixtures for, the Naval War Game. At rare intervals a
+"war-game battle" will be found described at length in some of the
+Service journals, but beyond this it is safe to say that the game is a
+mystery to the general public. The reason is, in part, that it touches
+technical questions that are caviare to the million, but as much, or
+more so, it is mysterious on account of the secrecy with which many of
+its details are guarded. It is open to the public to purchase the
+"game," it is true, but, though the material and plenty of directions
+can thus he secured, it is by now well enough known that many
+unpublished "confidential" rules exist.
+
+These, it may be noted, differ in every navy. The problems of naval
+warfare and the ideals of facing them are not the same for a Russian as
+for an American, and Sweden and the Argentine Republic again have
+nothing in common in their naval aspirations. However, were I in a
+position to divulge these matters they would not be of any great
+interest to readers of THE STRAND MAGAZINE, so I propose to confine
+myself as much as possible to things in which the human interest is the
+dominant factor.
+
+First, however, some description of the game and its invention may be of
+interest. The naval war game reached its fruition some five years ago,
+but Mr. Fred. T. Jane, its inventor, always asserts that he began to
+think it out when he was a small boy at school.
+
+"When I was a small boy," said Mr. Jane, "I had the boat sailing craze.
+A school-fellow had a better boat than I; I mounted a gun in mine and
+committed an act of piracy on a duck-pond. My chum was a sportsman, and,
+after punching my head, proceeded to arm his ship also. We took to
+armour-plates made from biscuit-tins, and to squadrons instead of single
+ships. In the battle that ensued our fleets annihilated each other, and
+depleted finances forbade their renewal. Then it was that the economy
+born of necessity caused me to think that make-believe battles would be
+cheaper. Thus was the naval war game evolved in embryo. At first we
+fought with imaginary leviathans, but after a time such impossible
+vessels were claimed that we decided to simulate nothing but existing
+ships.
+
+"A year or so later I read in some newspaper that a fortune awaited the
+man who could invent something that could be applied to ships as the
+land _Kriegspiel_ to armies. I thought I could do with that fortune, so
+packed the game in an empty Australian beef-tin and sent it to the
+Admiralty, together with a letter in which the following magnificent
+sentence occurred: 'I shall not be above accepting financial
+remuneration, and for convenience this can be paid in instalments.'
+
+"In due course 'My Lords' returned the game with thanks. They had
+'inspected it with much interest,' they said.
+
+"Somehow I doubt it. After the lapse of many years I still remember
+vividly the smell of that old meat-tin in which the game was sent to
+them.
+
+"My next step was one which is, I believe, chronic with disappointed
+inventors. I wrote letters to the newspapers attacking Admiralty policy
+in general, with a view to making the callous authorities tremble! I
+never witnessed the trembling, but as out of this campaign I grew into
+what is called a 'naval expert,' I suppose I owe the Admiralty a debt of
+gratitude! However, that is another story.
+
+"Meanwhile, war game languished, till some seven years ago it was found
+by accident in a lumber-room. Even then it was resuscitated only as a
+toy. I used to take it to the _Majestic_, and it was played there very
+much _à la_ ping-pong, till one day the captain, Prince Louis of
+Battenberg, asked about it, and wished to see the rules.
+
+"Feeling somewhat of a fraud," says Mr. Jane, "I hastily recast the
+thing into its original serious mould, plus a variety of improvements
+that occurred to me, or were suggested by various naval friends.
+
+"The game was then played in the _Majestic_ once more, and 'caught on.'
+To my astonishment I was deluged with letters asking about the game. The
+first came from the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia, the Czar's
+brother-in-law, who, with that absence of 'side' so characteristic of
+the Romanoffs, wrote himself as a naval officer. He had, he told me,
+himself invented a naval war game, the strategical part of which was
+successful, but the tactical not what he had hoped for it. If mine were
+satisfactory, he would do all he could for it.
+
+"That is how the game came to have its Imperial and Royal 'godfathers,'
+as announced on the title-page. Royal sailors are usually regarded as
+mere ornamental dummies, but both the Grand Duke Alexander and Prince
+Louis of Battenberg were responsible for many excellent improvements in
+the game, for which I, perhaps, have received the credit.
+
+"There were two other godfathers--Rear-Admiral H. J. May, of the British
+Navy, and Captain Kawashima, of the Japanese Navy. The former expended
+endless labour in revising the rules; the latter it was who played with
+me all the early experimental games to test the rules, and alter them
+when necessary to make practice as simple as possible. We used to fight
+little one-man 'wars,' beginning at about ten in the morning and
+carrying on till after midnight. Captain Kawashima is now in command of
+the _Matsushima_ (the famous cruiser that was flagship at Yalu in the
+Chino-Japanese War), and when I remember the painstaking enthusiasm he
+used to put into the 'wars' he and I had, I think that he will go far in
+the present war.
+
+"A lecture at the United Service Institution followed the _Majestic_
+battle, and thus the game 'took root.' It is in every navy in the world
+now."
+
+About this time a foreign Government approached the inventor with a view
+to purchasing the game and its secret. The offer was declined, but Mr.
+Jane gave a similar option to the British Admiralty, which, however,
+made no reply whatever beyond an official acknowledgment of the receipt
+of the letter. Perhaps, like Mr. Jane, the Permanent Secretary
+remembered the old meat-tin!
+
+After an interval the game was produced--the very first set to be sold
+being secured by, of all people, the Chinese! This particular set later
+on helped to make history; indeed, it has been seriously surmised that
+it caused the Chinese attack on the allied fleets at Taku. After that
+affair a British landing party found the ground inside one fort littered
+with war-game models, each model ship being stuck full of pins. The
+leader of the party being a war-game player followed up his find, to
+discover a shed laid out for naval war game and "scorers"[1] of all the
+allied fleets in various stages of destruction!
+
+    [1] For particulars of "scorers" see later.] The Chinese had
+        apparently worked out things by war game before opening
+        fire. They had, however, made one little mistake--they had
+        made no allowance for the allied fleet firing back!
+
+Following China, the United States, Germany, Russia, and Japan secured
+early sets, and a little while afterwards the British War Office. That
+much-abused department was, curiously enough, the very first to
+recognise the utility of the game for the chief purpose its inventor
+designed it for--the teaching of the guns and armour of possible
+enemies. It was procured for the use of artillery officers in sea forts,
+and in his last report Lord Roberts emphasized the vast difference
+between those officers who had played the game and those who had not.
+The former knew the weak points of every possible enemy; the latter, on
+hearing the name of any ship, could not tell whether she were a
+battleship or gunboat, dangerous or harmless. Every War Office has since
+followed suit in adopting the "Kindergarten war system."
+
+        [Illustration: A STANDARD NORWEGIAN NAVAL WAR-GAME SET.
+   _From a Photo.                                 by Symonds & Co._]
+
+And now for some account of how the game is played. A large table is the
+primary requisite. This is covered with blue cards divided into a
+multitude of little squares, each of which represents half a cable--that
+is to say, a hundred yards. Over these squares are moved the
+pieces--model ships on the same scale as the board.
+
+These models are a most important part of the game. They are made of
+cork, painted, and most accurate representations of actual ships; and
+this they need to be, for the players have to recognise them. Each model
+is fitted with tiny guns--little bits of wire set in at various angles
+which indicate the arcs of training of the corresponding guns in the
+real ships, while long pins mark the bearings of the torpedo tubes.
+Other pins, fitted with delicate little military tops, make the masts;
+and, to digress a moment, hereby hangs a tale.
+
+One of the earliest experimenters with the naval war game was the
+ubiquitous Kaiser. He took to it keenly, and himself played it often
+with his admirals. One day, so runs the story in the German Navy, the
+Kaiser was winning hand over fist, his fleet, led by his flagship,
+bearing down upon the enemy. Excitement was high, when at the critical
+moment the Kaiser's fleet suddenly disappeared!
+
+The Kaiser gazed at the deserted board and then at his admirals. An
+"awkward pause" is said to have ensued, and the writer for one can quite
+believe that. It is undoubtedly an awkward thing to seem to have played
+tricks with an Emperor so as to cheat him out of victory.
+
+"Where is my fleet?" asked the Kaiser.
+
+"I do not know, sire," exclaimed his chief opponent, a famous admiral.
+
+He saluted as he spoke, and thereupon there fell to the floor,
+apparently from down the admiral's sleeve, three of the missing
+warships! What the admiral felt is better imagined than described.
+
+Fortunately for his reputation one model still remained stuck in his
+sleeve. In moving his own ships he had rested his arm on the Kaiser's
+vessels, and so lifted the lot unawares. All's well that ends well, and
+the Kaiser laughed most heartily; but there is an admiral in the German
+fleet whom it is in no way wise to talk to about naval war game.
+
+However, this admiral is not the only one who has met misadventure from
+war-game models, no less a person than the Japanese Admiral Togo heading
+the list of those who have had "naval war-game hand"--the result of
+inadvertently leaning on the masts of a model ship!
+
+To resume the description. Every player has assigned to him a particular
+ship, and this he moves simultaneously with all the others at the
+direction of his "admiral." Each move nominally occupies a minute of
+time--actually it usually takes more, and it is in the ways and means
+adopted to balance this that most of the confidential rules exist. A
+most essential part of the game is to counterfeit with all possible
+realism the hurry-scurry of an actual battle.
+
+         [Illustration: A NAVAL WAR-GAME TARGET--ACTUAL SIZE.]
+
+The distance moved depends, of course, upon the speed of the ship
+represented. A flier like H.M.S. _Drake_, for instance, can cover as
+many as eight squares should full speed be ordered. This means eight
+hundred yards a minute--equivalent, approximately, to a speed of
+twenty-four knots per hour. In actual practice the ships do not move by
+squares, else a vessel proceeding along the diagonals would go much
+faster than one moving straight across; the squares merely exist to
+afford a rough means of guessing the range. Special measures are,
+therefore, employed.
+
+Innumerable rules cover such matters as increasing and decreasing speed,
+turning, and so forth. General conventions exist, but in actual practice
+the real turning circles of ships are alone made--and here, of course,
+confidential features are thick. The inventor of the game is probably
+the repository of more secrets in this respect than three of the best
+Naval Intelligence Departments of Europe put together.
+
+At the end of each "minute" more firing takes place. This is the
+characteristic feature of the game. Each player has a card with a plan
+of his ship showing guns, armour, etc., and divided into arbitrary
+vertical sections of twenty-five feet each. This card is known
+technically as a "scorer." Pictures of each ship, similarly divided, but
+showing no armour, and of different sizes for different ranges, are also
+provided. These are the "targets."
+
+They are struck at by "strikers," which at first sight are rather like
+ping-pong bats with a pin in them.[2] This pin is nearly, but never
+quite, in the centre of the striker. To ensure hitting any particular
+part of a ship is, therefore, practically impossible, except at close
+range, and not very often then. Nice calculation is required, and also
+great coolness--too great effort after accuracy being usually as fatal
+as too little. Thus, by automatic means, that great factor of modern
+warfare, "moral effect," is provided for, since experience shows that no
+player whose ship has been badly knocked about ever hurts the enemy very
+much. One strike per gun is allowed; with reduced gun-fire he feels his
+chances of hitting reduced, and tries harder to make the most of what he
+has got, and the slight excitement, coupled with the extra effort that
+he makes, invariably disconcerts his aim.
+
+    [2] "Strikers" will be seen on the table and in the hands of
+        players in the big picture of a war game.
+
+         [Illustration: "SCORER" FOR H.M.S. "KING EDWARD VII."]
+
+To some extent the excitement of a battle always does this. When the
+game was first exhibited at the Royal United Service Institution, a
+certain admiral urged as a weak point in the shooting system that he
+could hit the enemy every time. He took a target and did it. Yet in the
+battle that ensued he never scored a single hit--the slight extra
+tension upset his aim completely. And it is astonishing how many misses
+are made by many players from this cause.
+
+    [Illustration: THE SAME "SCORER" AFTER A BATTLE IN WHICH THE
+    SHIP WAS KNOCKED ABOUT. THE DAMAGES HAVE BEEN SCORED ACCORDING
+    TO HITS RECEIVED ON "TARGETS."]
+
+Hitting the enemy is, however, but half the battle. If the ship fired at
+is armoured the impact may be on a cuirass that the gun represented
+cannot get through, or an armour-piercing shot may hit a part where no
+armour exists, and so do next to no harm. When harm is done it is scored
+on the card of the ship hit on a scale corresponding to the actual
+damage that would be inflicted. In a very little while the player
+realizes that what will put one ship out of action will hardly hurt
+another. This in theory he has, of course, always known, but between
+knowing a thing and fully realizing it there is an enormous gap. He has
+been firing, perhaps, at the German _Kaiser Friedrich_ and blown her to
+pieces almost with big shell. He shifts his fire to the _Wittelsbach_,
+hits her as often, and she comes on unhurt. These two ships have the
+same armament and the same weight of armour--it is merely differently
+disposed. That difference of disposition tells in naval war game as
+heavily as it would in actual war.
+
+In this little piece of realism lies the fascination of the game. That
+it has extraordinary fascinations for some naval officers is beyond
+dispute. The Grand Duke Alexander of Russia, for instance, had all the
+furniture turned out of the big drawing-room at the Xenia Palace, St.
+Petersburg, in order to have set up a table large enough to allow huge
+fleets to be manoeuvred, and he invited the inventor over to stay with
+him at St. Petersburg for a month in order to play against him. In a
+Russian lunatic asylum there is at this day a captain who actually went
+mad on the game and spends his existence in perpetual imaginary battles.
+In the British Navy there are dozens of young officers who think nothing
+of playing a game from half-past eight on to four in the morning, taking
+their chances of being able to find a shore-boat to take them back to
+their ships at that hour in the depth of winter. I have seen battles
+often in which the opposing sides would not speak to each other; indeed,
+when a regular "war" is being worked out this is the usual situation. It
+is being "real war in miniature" that produces this. The writer can
+vouch for the maddening effect in a battle of some apparently splendid
+scheme being ruined by a single "lucky shell" from the enemy. Too late
+one realizes that the best dispositions are not those that promise most,
+but those in which a lucky shot or two will not bring about failure.
+
+Torpedoes, however, perhaps take first place as maddening irritants. In
+the game as now played in the British Navy, between each move screens
+are usually put up. The object of these is to prevent the enemy
+"answering" any change of formation more quickly than could be done in
+actual battle. Under cover of these screens torpedoes are fired--the
+firing method being to draw a pencil line following the bearing of the
+tube, firing not at the enemy, but at the spot on which he is _expected
+to be when the torpedo reaches him_. Torpedoes are slow things
+relatively. They can travel a thousand yards in a minute, but take three
+minutes to do two thousand yards, and six to go three thousand. Very
+nice calculation is, therefore, needed. At the expiration of the
+time--that is to say, anything from one to six moves after firing--if
+the torpedo line and any ship (friend or foe) coincide, the ship is
+torpedoed. Till then nothing has been said: the torpedo comes as a bolt
+from the blue.
+
+The panic caused by the first torpedoes fired under this system was
+immense. Both fleets put about and rushed away from each other, never
+getting within torpedo range again. In the centre, between the fleet,
+lay the victim, which the umpire had notified as torpedoed. Not till the
+battle was over was it made known that the torpedoed vessel had been hit
+by a torpedo fired by one of her consorts, across the path of which she
+had unwittingly wandered!
+
+The acme of horror in this direction is perhaps provided by submarines.
+Slow moving, they have more or less to take up their positions before
+the battle begins. It is not permitted me to describe exactly how they
+are worked. I may say, however, that they are manoeuvred on a separate
+board, and work blindly enough; for all that the player of a submarine
+sees of the battlefield is what he can find reflected in a tiny mirror.
+He has, in fine, to guess a great deal as to the course and distance of
+the enemy from the spot corresponding to that on which he is supposed to
+be, which reproduces the conditions under which a periscope is used
+fairly accurately. If a submarine can get within a square (one hundred
+yards) of a ship, that ship is allowed torpedoed. Nothing is allowed for
+the chance of the boat being seen by the ship, the assumption being that
+these chances are too small to be worth consideration; at any rate, till
+such time as it is too late for the ship to do anything.
+
+This looks like an easy time for the submarine, but it is not so
+comfortable in reality, because destroyers and picket-boats may be with
+the enemy. Should a destroyer at any time pass within a hundred yards of
+the submarine, it is exit submarine!
+
+In the British Navy the official home of the naval war game is at
+Greenwich Naval College, where captains play it during the "war course."
+In the United States the War College is its home. Its real British
+head-quarters are at Portsmouth, where a voluntary society plays it
+twice a week. Admiral Sir John Hopkins is the president of this
+association, and Mr. Fred. T. Jane, the inventor, its secretary. Both
+naval and military officers are eligible for membership, and, as far as
+possible, junior officers only. At the "war course" tactics are the
+principal study, but at Portsmouth tactics play a minor part. "Tactics
+cannot be taught by naval war game, save in a very general way," is the
+dictum of the inventor. "The Portsmouth Naval War-Game Society exists
+for quite different objects. It aims chiefly at teaching the guns and
+armour of possible enemies; and for the rest tries to train officers to
+think out war problems, to train them to think things quickly, and to
+exhibit resource, to learn the value of all the vital side issues of
+war, such as international law or the keeping up of communications, and
+so forth. There is no such thing as the abstract right or wrong move in
+war; to do a more or less wrong thing at once may often be better than
+doing a better thing a little later. 'Act' is the motto that the society
+strives to inculcate."
+
+It is, it will be seen, far removed from a "theory hot-bed." In
+pursuance of the plan the society's members are incessantly at war with
+each other. Advantage is taken of the rivalry that exists between ships
+in the Navy--and one ship's officers are usually pitted against those of
+another ship. At other times it is the Navy against the Army; and before
+now personal enemies have been pitted against each other.
+
+"In cards and games you play for sport, but in war game you must 'play
+to win,'" is the principle inculcated.
+
+To this end anything whatever may be claimed, subject, however, to the
+provision that, should the umpire consider any claim impossible or
+absurd, the maker of it gets a breakdown to his best ship as a reward.
+
+The record in claims is held by a young lieutenant who acted as Admiral
+Alexieff in a Russo-Japanese War. His claim ran as follows:--
+
+"Orders issued that no offal is to be thrown overboard from Russian
+ships.
+
+"A special field of small observation mines is to be laid at ---- (here
+a place geographically suitable near Port Arthur is mentioned). At this
+spot offal is to be freely thrown into the water to attract porpoises
+and sharks. When a good number have collected the mines are to be
+exploded and the stunned fish collected.
+
+"Each is then to have strapped to it a leather band, holding a short
+pole in position (as per small model accompanying), after which it is to
+be liberated.
+
+"I claim that these fish will, as usual, follow any vessels in the
+neighbourhood of Port Arthur dropping offal--that is to say, Japanese
+ships only--and that they will be taken for submarine boats when the
+pole like a periscope is sighted.
+
+"The Japanese will soon detect the imposition, and then grow so used to
+the sight that after a time a real submarine will be able to approach
+without attracting any suspicion."
+
+            [Illustration: Attacking destroyers (Japanese).
+
+    Russian merchantman.             Russian battleship _Peresviet_.
+
+    A TORPEDO-BOAT ATTACK IN A RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR GAME--PLAYED
+    OCTOBER-DECEMBER LAST. AS USUAL IN TORPEDO OPERATIONS, THIS WAS
+    PLAYED ON A BOARD WITHOUT SQUARES, IN ORDER TO RENDER IT MORE
+    DIFFICULT TO JUDGE DISTANCES.
+
+                        _From a Photo. by West._]
+
+Truly an astounding claim! It was not allowed by the umpire, but the
+fertile brain whence it originated is never likely to let its owner come
+to grief for want of an expedient.
+
+As a rule possible actual wars are not often played: more usually
+imaginary countries are established in some part of Europe and given the
+ships which it is most desired to study. Admiralty charts are used, and
+an immense amount of study of harbours is thus put in as pastime, while
+these little wars give prominence to such minor operations as attacks on
+coastguard stations and so forth, which could not well enter into a
+larger war. Usually, too, there is some special theme--international
+law, perhaps, one time, gleaning and sifting intelligence another time,
+and so forth.
+
+What was, perhaps, the funniest war ever carried out had "Intelligence
+Sifting" as its theme. The combatants were allowed to procure
+information of each other's plans by any means they chose--any trick
+being regarded as legitimate. The gamut of the possible was run in no
+time. Both sides enrolled their friends as spies, and a silver-haired
+old lady, who liked to hear officers talk of their professions, was most
+deadly to one player. Two others, wishing to ensure private discussion,
+hired a motor-car. They had only gone some little way into the country
+when a policeman sprang from the hedge and stopped them. After the usual
+protests the policeman admitted an element of doubt in the case; if they
+would drive him to the police-station he would have his stop-watch
+tested in their presence. They took him on board and, as motorists have
+done before and since, marooned him far away after an hour's drive. By
+then, plans being decided, they went home by devious routes, thinking no
+more of the marooned policeman. Not till some days afterwards did it
+dawn on them that the policeman was a bogus one--an enemy who had
+availed himself of this means of learning their secret plans!
+
+They were not, however, without resource. The day following the
+discovery they called on the ship which the chief "admiral" of the other
+side served in. Keeping out of sight, they waited till he went to his
+cabin; then, slipping in, gagged and bound him, after which they
+proceeded to rifle his cabin. Plans were soon found, but false
+information had been disseminated once or twice, and they were wary.
+They continued the search, being at last rewarded by finding the whole
+plan of campaign concealed inside a telescope.
+
+After this they departed happy, and made their dispositions accordingly,
+handing these in to the umpire long before the gagged one--for they left
+him gagged and bound--was able to release himself.
+
+Total failure was theirs: their wily enemy had in some way anticipated
+their raid, and the plan concealed in the telescope had been carefully
+prepared for their undoing!
+
+It must not be supposed, however, that a war game is often so frivolous
+as this one, for in the ordinary way any such "spying" is strictly
+forbidden. Yet few games, perhaps, have been more useful than this one,
+for certainly half the players must have had impressed upon them in the
+most direct and unexpectedly forcible of ways the urgent necessity of
+taking no information for granted and also of sifting it all most
+carefully, which was the object sought. And if in the hereafter any one
+of them is the repository of important Service secrets he will have to
+be a very wily spy who secures them from him. There cannot be much wrong
+while young officers can be found ready to sacrifice such little leisure
+as they get in studying war problems for amusement.
+
+It is only in the British Navy that--so far as I can ascertain--this is
+done. In other navies officially supervised games are plentiful enough,
+but with them, of course, there is not the same interest. Here and there
+isolated foreign ships have the game on board and use it for purposes
+akin to those for which the inventor designed it. Two such ships are the
+Russian _Bayan_ and _Novik_--the only two ships which have, so far,
+distinguished themselves in the present war.
+
+In connection with the former ship it is interesting to note that her
+captain was a regular attendant at the Grand Duke Alexander's games in
+St. Petersburg, and used there to be laughingly called the "War-Game
+Skobeleff." Skobeleff, it will be remembered, was that Russian general
+who, in the Turco-Russian War, led a hundred desperate forlorn hopes
+untouched, though all around him were killed or wounded. Any ship played
+by Captain Wiren of the _Bayan_ used to have similar extraordinary luck;
+as one Russian officer, who must have Irish blood in him, put it: "The
+enemy's hits on him were all misses." Strangely enough, the same luck
+has followed him in the present war--the _Bayan_ survived the torpedo
+attack of February 8th; in the battle of the 9th, though she charged the
+Japanese fleet, she was untouched; in the action of the 25th February,
+when Captain Wiren, with three Russian cruisers, tried to fight the
+entire Japanese squadron, two were badly mauled, but the _Bayan_ was not
+hurt.
+
+In concluding this brief sketch of naval war game from the popular
+standpoint a reference may be made to flying-machines, which some think
+will be the warships of the future. Rules of the aerial fights of the
+future are said to exist all ready cut and dried, together with an
+ingenious machine by which the aerial warship's moves can be made. There
+is, in fine, nothing in earth, sky, or sea, or under the sea, that has
+not been the subject of rules in this "War by Kindergarten."
+
+
+
+
+             [Illustration: _The Phoenix and the Carpet._
+
+                            _By E. NESBIT._]
+
+               Copyright 1904, by George Newnes, Limited.
+
+
+                     XI.--THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
+
+"Well, I _must_ say," mother said, looking at the Wishing Carpet as it
+lay, all darned and mended and backed with shiny American cloth, on the
+floor of the nursery--"I _must_ say I've never in my life bought such a
+bad bargain as that carpet."
+
+A soft "Oh!" of contradiction sprang to the lips of Cyril, Robert, Jane,
+and Anthea. Mother looked at them quickly, and said:--
+
+"Well, of course I see you've mended it very nicely, and that was sweet
+of you, dears."
+
+"The boys helped too," said the dears, honourably.
+
+"But, still--twenty-two and ninepence! It ought to have lasted for
+years. It's simply dreadful now. Well, never mind, darlings, you've done
+your best. I think we'll have cocoanut matting next time. A carpet
+doesn't have an easy life of it in this room, does it?"
+
+"It's not our fault, mother, is it, that our boots are the really
+reliable kind?" Robert asked the question more in sorrow than in anger.
+
+"No, dear, we can't help our boots," said mother, cheerfully, "but we
+might change them when we come in, perhaps. It's just an idea of mine. I
+wouldn't dream of scolding on the very first morning after I've come
+home. Oh, my Lamb, how could you?"
+
+This conversation was at breakfast, and the Lamb had been beautifully
+good until everyone was looking at the carpet, and then it was for him
+but the work of a moment to turn a glass dish of syrupy blackberry jam
+upside down on his young head. It was the work of a good many minutes
+and several persons to get the jam off him again, and this interesting
+work took people's minds off the carpet, and nothing more was said just
+then about its badness as a bargain and about what mother hoped for from
+cocoanut matting.
+
+When the Lamb was clean again he had to be taken care of while mother
+rumpled her hair and inked her fingers and made her head ache over the
+difficult and twisted housekeeping accounts which cook gave her on dirty
+bits of paper, and which were supposed to explain how it was that cook
+had only fivepence-halfpenny and a lot of unpaid bills left out of all
+the money mother had sent her for housekeeping. Mother was very clever,
+but even she could not quite understand the cook's accounts.
+
+The Lamb was very glad to have his brothers and sisters to play with
+him. He had not forgotten them a bit, and he made them play all the old
+exhausting games: "Whirling Worlds," where you swing the baby round and
+round by his hands; and "Leg and Wing," where you swing him from side to
+side by one ankle and one wrist. There was also climbing Vesuvius. In
+this game the baby walks up you, and when he is standing on your
+shoulders you shout as loud as you can, which is the rumbling of the
+burning mountain, and then tumble him gently on to the floor and roll
+him there, which is the destruction of Pompeii.
+
+"All the same, I wish we could decide what we'd better say next time
+mother says anything about the carpet," said Cyril, breathlessly ceasing
+to be a burning mountain.
+
+"Well, you talk and decide," said Anthea; "here, you lovey ducky Lamb.
+Come to Panther and play Noah's Ark."
+
+The Lamb came with his pretty hair all tumbled and his face all dusty
+from the destruction of Pompeii, and instantly became a baby snake,
+hissing and wriggling and creeping in Anthea's arms, as she said:--
+
+    I love my little baby snake,
+    He hisses when he is awake,
+    He creeps with such a wriggly creep,
+    He wriggles even in his sleep.
+
+"Well, you see," Cyril was saying, "it's just the old bother. Mother
+can't believe the real true truth about the carpet, and----"
+
+"You speak sooth, O Cyril!" remarked the Phoenix, coming out from the
+cupboard where the black-beetles lived, and the torn books, and the
+broken slates, and odd pieces of toys that had lost the rest of
+themselves. "Now hear the wisdom of the Phoenix, the son of the
+Phoenix."
+
+"There's a society called that," said Cyril.
+
+"Where is it? And what is a society?" asked the bird.
+
+"It's a sort of joined-together lot of people--a sort of brotherhood--a
+kind of--well, something very like your temple, you know, only quite
+different."
+
+"I take your meaning," said the Phoenix. "I would fain see these calling
+themselves Sons of the Phoenix."
+
+"But what about your words of wisdom?"
+
+"Wisdom is always welcome," said the Phoenix.
+
+          [Illustration: "'PRETTY POLLY!' REMARKED THE LAMB."]
+
+"Pretty Polly!" remarked the Lamb, reaching his hands towards the golden
+speaker.
+
+The Phoenix modestly retreated behind Robert, and Anthea hastened to
+distract the attention of the Lamb by murmuring:--
+
+    I love my little baby rabbit;
+    But oh, he has a dreadful habit
+    Of paddling out among the rocks
+    And soaking both his bunny-socks.
+
+"I don't think you'd care about the Sons of the Phoenix, really," said
+Robert. "I have heard that they don't do anything fiery. They only drink
+a great deal. Much more than other people, because they drink lemonade
+and fizzy things, and the more you drink of those the more good you
+get."
+
+"In your mind, perhaps," said Jane; "but it wouldn't be good in your
+body. You'd get too balloony." The Phoenix yawned.
+
+"Look here," said Anthea, "I really have an idea. This isn't like a
+common carpet. It's very magic indeed. Don't you think, if we put Tatcho
+on it and then gave it a rest, the magic part of it might grow, like
+hair is supposed to do?"
+
+"It might," said Robert, "but I should think paraffin would do as
+well--at any rate as far as the smell goes, and that seems to be the
+great thing about Tatcho."
+
+But with all its faults Anthea's idea was something to do, and they did
+it.
+
+It was Cyril who fetched the Tatcho bottle from father's washhand-stand.
+But the bottle had not much in it.
+
+"We mustn't take it all," Jane said, "in case father's hair began to
+come off suddenly; if he hadn't anything to put on it, it might all drop
+off before Eliza had time to get round to the chemist's for another
+bottle. It would be dreadful to have a bald father, and it would all be
+our fault."
+
+"And wigs are very expensive, I believe," said Anthea. "Look here, leave
+enough in the bottle to wet father's head all over with in case any
+emergency emerges--and let's make up with paraffin. I expect it's the
+smell that does the good really--and the smell's exactly the same."
+
+So a small teaspoonful of the Tatcho was put on the edges of the worst
+darn in the carpet and rubbed carefully into the roots of the hairs of
+it, and all the parts that there was not enough Tatcho for had paraffin
+rubbed into them with a piece of flannel. Then the flannel was burned.
+It made a gay flame, which delighted the Phoenix and the Lamb.
+
+"How often," said mother, opening the door--"how often am I to tell you
+that you are _not_ to play with paraffin? What have you been doing?"
+
+"We have burnt a paraffiny rag," Anthea answered. It was no use telling
+mother what they had done to the carpet. She did not know it was a magic
+carpet, and no one wants to be laughed at for trying to mend an ordinary
+carpet with lamp-oil.
+
+"Well, don't do it again," said mother. "And now away with melancholy!
+Father has sent a telegram. Look!" She held it out, and the children
+holding it by its yielding corners read:--
+
+"Box for kiddies at Garrick. Stalls for us, Haymarket. Meet Charing
+Cross, 6.30."
+
+"That means," said mother, "that you're going to see 'The Water Babies'
+all by your happy selves, and father and I will take you and fetch you.
+Give me the Lamb, dear, and you and Jane put clean lace in your red
+evening frocks, and I shouldn't wonder if you found they wanted ironing.
+This paraffin smell is ghastly. Run and get out your frocks."
+
+The frocks did want ironing--wanted it rather badly, as it happened;
+for, being of tomato-coloured Liberty silk, they had been found very
+useful for _tableaux vivants_ when a red dress was required for Cardinal
+Richelieu. They were very nice _tableaux_, these, and I wish I could
+tell you about them--but one cannot tell everything in a story. You
+would have been specially interested in hearing about the _tableaux_ of
+the Princes in the Tower, when one of the pillows burst and the youthful
+Princes were so covered with feathers that the picture might very well
+have been called "Michaelmas Eve; or, Plucking the Geese."
+
+Ironing the dresses and sewing the lace in occupied some time, and no
+one was dull because there was the theatre to look forward to, and also
+the possible growth of hairs on the carpet, for which everyone kept
+looking anxiously. By four o'clock Jane was almost sure that several
+hairs were beginning to grow.
+
+The Phoenix perched on the fender, and its conversation, as usual, was
+entertaining and instructive--like school prizes are said to be. But it
+seemed a little absent-minded and even a little sad.
+
+"Don't you feel well, Phoenix, dear?" asked Anthea, stooping to take an
+iron off the fire.
+
+ [Illustration: "'DON'T YOU FEEL WELL, PHOENIX, DEAR?' ASKED ANTHEA."]
+
+"I am not sick," replied the golden bird, with a gloomy shake of the
+head, "but I am getting old."
+
+"Why, you've only been hatched about two months."
+
+"Time," remarked the Phoenix, "is measured by heart-beats. I'm sure the
+palpitations I've had since I've known you are enough to blanch the
+feathers of any bird."
+
+"But I thought you lived five hundred years," said Robert, "and you've
+hardly begun this set of years. Think of all the time that's before
+you."
+
+"Time," said the Phoenix, "is, as you are probably aware, merely a
+convenient fiction. There is no such thing as time. I have lived in
+these two months at a pace which generously counterbalances five hundred
+years of life in the desert. I am old, I am weary. I feel as if I ought
+to lay my egg, and lay me down to my fiery sleep. But unless I'm careful
+I shall be hatched again instantly, and that is a misfortune which I
+really do not think I _could_ endure. But do not let me intrude these
+desperate personal reflections on your youthful happiness. What is the
+show at the theatre to-night? Wrestlers? Gladiators? A combat of
+camelopards and unicorns?"
+
+"I don't think so," said Cyril; "it's called 'The Water Babies,' and if
+it's like the book there isn't any gladiating in it. There are
+chimney-sweeps and professors, and a lobster and an otter and a salmon,
+and children living in the water."
+
+"It sounds chilly," the Phoenix shivered, and went to sit on the tongs.
+
+"I don't suppose there will be _real_ water," said Jane. "And theatres
+are very warm and pretty, with a lot of gold and lamps. Wouldn't you
+like to come with us?"
+
+"_I_ was just going to say that," said Robert, in injured tones, "only I
+know how rude it is to interrupt. Do come, Phoenix, old chap; it will
+cheer you up. It'll make you laugh like anything. Mr. Bourchier always
+makes ripping plays. You ought to have seen 'Shock-Headed Peter' last
+year."
+
+"Your words are strange," said the Phoenix, "but I will come with you.
+The revels of this Bourchier of whom you speak may help me to forget the
+weight of my years."
+
+So the Phoenix snuggled inside the waistcoat of Robert's Etons--a very
+tight fit it seemed both to Robert and to the Phoenix--and was taken to
+the play.
+
+          [Illustration: "ROBERT HAD TO PRETEND TO BE COLD."]
+
+Robert had to pretend to be cold at the glittering, many-mirrored
+restaurant where they all had dinner, with father in evening dress, with
+a very shiny white shirt-front, and mother looking lovely in her grey
+evening dress, that changes into pink and green when she moves. Robert
+pretended that he was too cold to take off his great-coat, and so sat
+sweltering through what would otherwise have been a most thrilling meal.
+He felt that he was a blot on the smart beauty of the family, and he
+hoped the Phoenix knew what he was suffering for its sake. Of course, we
+are all pleased to suffer for the sake of others, but we like them to
+know it--unless we are the very best and noblest kind of people, and
+Robert was just ordinary.
+
+Father was full of jokes and fun, and everyone laughed all the time,
+even with their mouths full, which is not manners. Robert thought father
+would not have been quite so funny about his keeping his overcoat on if
+father had known all the truth. And there Robert was probably right.
+
+When dinner was finished to the last grape and the last paddle in the
+finger-glasses--for it was a really truly grown-up dinner--the children
+were taken to the theatre, guided to a box close to the stage, and left.
+Father's parting words were:--
+
+"Now, don't you stir out of this box, whatever you do. I shall be back
+before the end of the play. Be good and you will be happy. Is this zone
+torrid enough for the abandonment of great-coats, Bobs? No? Well, then,
+I should say you were sickening for something--mumps or measles, or
+thrush or teething. Good-bye."
+
+He went, and Robert was at last able to remove his coat, mop his
+perspiring brow, and release the crushed and dishevelled Phoenix. Robert
+had to arrange his damp hair at the looking-glass at the back of the
+box, and the Phoenix had to preen its disordered feathers for some time
+before either of them was fit to be seen.
+
+They were very, very early. When the lights went up fully the Phoenix,
+balancing itself on the gilded back of a chair, swayed in ecstasy.
+
+"How fair a scene is this!" it murmured; "how far fairer than my temple!
+Or have I guessed aright? Have you brought me hither to lift up my head
+with emotions of joyous surprise? Tell me, my Robert, is it not that
+this, _this_ is my true temple, and the other was but a humble shrine
+frequented by outcasts?"
+
+"I don't know about outcasts," said Robert, "but you can call this your
+temple if you like. Hush! the music is beginning."
+
+I am not going to tell you about the play. As I said before, one can't
+tell everything, and no doubt you saw "The Water Babies" yourselves. If
+you did not it was a shame, or rather a pity.
+
+What I must tell you is that, though Cyril and Jane and Robert and
+Anthea enjoyed it as much as any children possibly could, the pleasure
+of the Phoenix was far, far greater than theirs.
+
+"This is indeed my temple," it said, again and again. "What radiant
+rites! And all to do honour to me!"
+
+The songs in the play it took to be hymns in its honour. The choruses
+were choric songs in its praise. The electric lights, it said, were
+magic torches lighted for its sake, and it was so charmed with the
+footlights that the children could hardly persuade it to sit still. But
+when the limelight was shown it could contain its approval no longer. It
+flapped its golden wings, and cried in a voice that could be heard all
+over the theatre:--
+
+"Well done, my servants! Ye have my favour and my countenance!"
+
+Little Tom on the stage stopped short in what he was saying. A deep
+breath was drawn by hundreds of lungs, every eye in the house turned to
+the box where the luckless children cringed, and most people hissed, or
+said "Shish!" or "Turn them out!"
+
+Then the play went on, and an attendant presently came to the box and
+spoke wrathfully.
+
+"It wasn't us, indeed it wasn't," said Anthea, earnestly; "it was the
+bird."
+
+The man said well, then, they must keep their bird quiet.
+
+"Disturbing everyone like this," he said.
+
+"It won't do it again," said Robert, glancing imploringly at the golden
+bird; "I'm sure it won't."
+
+"You have my leave to depart," said the Phoenix, gently.
+
+"Well, he is a beauty, and no mistake," said the attendant, "only I'd
+cover him up during the acts. It upsets the performance."
+
+And he went.
+
+"Don't speak again, there's a dear," said Anthea; "you wouldn't like to
+interfere with your own temple, would you?"
+
+So now the Phoenix was quiet, but it kept whispering to the children. It
+wanted to know why there was no altar, no fire, no incense, and became
+so excited and fretful and tiresome that four at least of the party of
+five wished deeply that it had been left at home.
+
+What happened next was entirely the fault of the Phoenix. It was not in
+the least the fault of the theatre people, and no one could ever
+understand afterwards how it did happen. No one, that is, except the
+guilty bird itself and the four children. The Phoenix was balancing
+itself on the gilt back of the chair, swaying backwards and forwards and
+up and down, as you may see your own domestic parrot do. I mean the grey
+one with the red tail. All eyes were on the stage, where the lobster was
+delighting the audience with that gem of a song, "If you can't walk
+straight, walk sideways!" when the Phoenix murmured warmly:--
+
+"No altar, no fire, no incense!" and then, before any of the children
+could even begin to think of stopping it, it spread its bright wings and
+swept round the theatre, brushing its gleaming feathers against delicate
+hangings and gilded wood-work.
+
+It seemed to have made but one circular wing-sweep, such as you may see
+a gull make over grey water on a stormy day. Next moment it was perched
+again on the chair-back--and all round the theatre, where it had passed,
+little sparks shone like tinsel seeds, then little smoke wreaths curled
+up like growing plants--little flames opened like flower-buds.
+
+People whispered--then people shrieked.
+
+"Fire! Fire!" The curtain went down--the lights went up.
+
+"Fire!" cried everyone, and made for the doors.
+
+"A magnificent idea!" said the Phoenix, complacently. "An enormous
+altar--fire supplied free of charge. Doesn't the incense smell
+delicious?" The only smell was the stifling smell of smoke, of burning
+silk, or scorching varnish.
+
+The little flames had opened now into great flame-flowers. The people in
+the theatre were shouting and pressing towards the doors.
+
+"Oh, how _could_ you!" cried Jane. "Let's get out."
+
+"Father said stay here," said Anthea, very pale, and trying to speak in
+her ordinary voice.
+
+"He didn't mean stay and be roasted," said Robert; "no boys on burning
+decks for me, thank you."
+
+"Not much," said Cyril, and he opened the door of the box.
+
+            [Illustration: "HE OPENED THE DOOR OF THE BOX."]
+
+But a fierce waft of smoke and hot air made him shut it again. It was
+not possible to get out that way.
+
+They looked over the front of the box. Could they climb down?
+
+It would be possible, certainly, but would they be much better off?
+
+"Look at the people," moaned Anthea; "we couldn't get through." And,
+indeed, the crowd round the doors looked thick as flies in the
+jam-making season.
+
+"I wish we'd never seen the Phoenix," cried Jane.
+
+Even at that awful moment Robert looked round to see if the bird had
+overheard a speech which, however natural, was hardly polite or
+grateful.
+
+The Phoenix was gone.
+
+"Look here," said Cyril, "I've read about fires in papers; I'm sure it's
+all right. Let's wait here, as father said."
+
+"We can't do anything else," said Anthea, bitterly.
+
+"Look here," said Robert, "I'm _not_ frightened--no, I'm not. The
+Phoenix has never been a skunk yet, and I'm certain it'll see us through
+somehow. I believe in the Phoenix!"
+
+"The Phoenix thanks you, O Robert," said a golden voice at his feet, and
+there was the Phoenix itself, on the Wishing Carpet.
+
+"Quick!" it said, "stand on those portions of the carpet which are truly
+antique and authentic--and----"
+
+A sudden jet of flame stopped its words. Alas! the Phoenix had
+unconsciously warmed to its subject, and in the unintentional heat of
+the moment had set fire to the paraffin with which that morning the
+children had anointed the carpet. It burned merrily. The children tried
+in vain to stamp it out. They had to stand back and let it burn itself
+out. When the paraffin had burned away it was found that it had taken
+with it all the darns of Scotch heather-mixture fingering. Only the
+fabric of the old carpet was left--and that was full of holes.
+
+"Come," said the Phoenix, "I'm cool now."
+
+The four children got on to what was left of the carpet. Very careful
+they were not to leave a leg or a hand hanging over one of the holes. It
+was very hot--the theatre was a pit of fire. Everyone else had got out.
+
+Jane had to sit on Anthea's lap.
+
+"Home!" said Cyril, and instantly the cool draught from under the
+nursery door played upon their legs as they sat. They were all on the
+carpet still, and the carpet was lying in its proper place on the
+nursery floor, as calm and unmoved as though it had never been to the
+theatre or taken part in a fire in its life.
+
+Four long breaths of deep relief were instantly breathed. The draught
+which they had never liked before was for the moment quite pleasant. And
+they were safe. And everyone else was safe. The theatre had been quite
+empty when they left. Everyone was sure of that.
+
+They presently found themselves all talking at once. Somehow none of
+their adventures had given them so much to talk about. None other had
+seemed so real.
+
+"Did you notice----?" they said, and "Do you remember----?"
+
+When suddenly Anthea's face turned pale under the dirt which it had
+collected on it during the fire.
+
+"Oh," she cried, "mother and father! Oh, how awful! They'll think we're
+burned to cinders. Oh, let's go this minute and tell them we aren't."
+
+"We should only miss them," said the sensible Cyril.
+
+"Well--_you_ go, then," said Anthea, "or I will. Only do wash your face
+first. Mother will be sure to think you are burnt to a cinder if she
+sees you as black as that. Mother, she'll faint or be ill or something.
+Oh, I wish we'd never got to know that Phoenix."
+
+"Hush!" said Robert; "it's no use being rude to the bird. I suppose it
+can't help its nature. Perhaps we'd better wash too. Now I come to think
+of it my hands are rather----"
+
+No one had noticed the Phoenix since it had bidden them to step on the
+carpet. And no one noticed that no one had noticed.
+
+All were partially clean, and Cyril was just plunging into his
+great-coat to go and look for his parents--he, and not unjustly, called
+it looking for a needle in a bundle of hay--when the sound of father's
+latchkey in the front door sent everyone bounding up the stairs.
+
+"Are you all safe?" cried mother's voice; "are you all safe?" and the
+next moment she was kneeling on the linoleum of the hall, trying to kiss
+four damp children at once, and laughing and crying by turns, while
+father stood looking on and saying he was blessed or something.
+
+"But how did you guess we'd come home?" said Cyril, later, when everyone
+was calm enough for talking.
+
+"Well, it was rather a rum thing. We heard the Garrick was on fire and,
+of course, we went straight there," said father, briskly. "We couldn't
+find you, of course--and we couldn't get in--but the firemen told us
+everyone was safely out. And then I heard a voice at my ear say, 'Cyril,
+Anthea, Robert, and Jane'--and something touched me on the shoulder. It
+was a great yellow pigeon, and it got in the way of my seeing who'd
+spoken. It fluttered off, and then someone said in the other ear,
+'They're safe at home'; and when I turned again, to see who it was
+speaking, hanged if there wasn't that confounded pigeon on my other
+shoulder. Dazed by the fire, I suppose. Your mother said it was the
+voice of----"
+
+            [Illustration: "IT WAS A GREAT YELLOW PIGEON."]
+
+"I said it was the bird that spoke," said mother, "and so it was. Or at
+least I thought so then. It wasn't a pigeon. It was an orange-coloured
+cockatoo. I don't care who it was that spoke. It was true--and you're
+safe."
+
+Mother began to cry again, and father said bed was a good place after
+the pleasures of the stage.
+
+So everyone went there.
+
+Robert had a talk to the Phoenix that night.
+
+"Oh, very well," said the bird, when Robert had said what he felt,
+"didn't you know that I had power over fire? Do not distress yourself.
+I, like my high priests in Lombard Street, can undo the work of flames.
+Kindly open the casement."
+
+It flew out.
+
+That was why the papers said, next day, that the fire at the theatre had
+done less damage than had been anticipated. As a matter of fact, it had
+done none, for the Phoenix spent the night in putting things straight.
+How the management accounted for this, and how many of the theatre
+officials still believe that they were mad on that night, will never be
+known.
+
+Next day mother saw the burnt holes in the carpet.
+
+"It caught where it was paraffiny," said Anthea.
+
+"I must get rid of that carpet at once," said mother.
+
+But what the children said in sad whispers to each other, as they
+pondered over last night's events, was:--
+
+"We must get rid of that Phoenix."
+
+
+
+
+    [Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS--THE POINT MARKED X SHOWS THE SPOT
+           REACHED BY GUIDE BARLOW AND SUPERINTENDENT PERRY.
+
+                            _From a Photo._]
+
+                   _Walking on the Brink of Niagara._
+
+                          BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP.
+
+
+There is no man who has so many adventures at Niagara to his credit as
+John R. Barlow. Mr. Barlow, in the summer-time, is the chief guide at
+the Cave of the Winds, that wonderful cavern under the waterfall as it
+plunges between Goat and Luna Islands. Years of familiarity with the
+waters of the world-famed Niagara have caused Guide Barlow to forget
+what fear is, and he moves about in dangerous places without thinking of
+possible disaster. He is the oldest and best-known guide at Niagara, and
+people from many countries have crossed his palm with silver in token of
+care bestowed upon them, or in return for the kindly information which
+he is ever ready to give.
+
+When the new stone arch bridges were built to connect Goat Island to the
+mainland, a temporary bridge was erected on piers for the convenience of
+pedestrians. When this temporary structure had ceased to be useful it
+was destroyed, and, unfortunately for the scenic beauty of the portion
+of the upper rapids lying between the brink of the American fall and the
+island bridges, several of the cribs lodged on the reefs and refused to
+be stirred by the rush of the downpouring waters. The hope of the State
+Reservation officials was that the cribs would pass over the fall in
+time of high water, but flood after flood poured down from Lake Erie and
+the cribs refused to move. They were unsightly to a remarkable degree,
+and quite an annoyance to the officials who had charge of the beauty of
+Niagara. This was the condition when winter set in last autumn.
+
+The winter proved of unusual severity. Ice came down from the lake in
+large sheets, and a considerable quantity of it lodged on the reefs
+between the mainland and Goat Island. By February the main part of the
+channel through which the water flows to the American fall was blocked
+with ice. Between Goat Island and the mainland there were three open
+channels, through which the water ran streak-like to the brink. One of
+these was close by the mainland, and made the plunge over the fall close
+to Prospect Point. The second was close to the outer edge of Luna
+Island, while the third was between Luna and Goat Islands. This left a
+wide expanse of the American fall, and the river-bed immediately above
+it, covered with ice. This ice-field remained unbroken for several days,
+but by going out on the ice-bridge that spanned the river in front of
+the fall it was possible to study the face of the cliff, and to see that
+at several points the water crept through under the ice and found its
+way to the fall.
+
+However, the fact that the portion of the fall below Green Island was
+covered with ice gave the impression to Superintendent Edward Perry, of
+the State Reservation, that the unsightly cribs on the river-bed could
+be removed. He called Guide Barlow to go with him, together with another
+man named William Mullane, and the trio made their way to Green Island.
+Going to the foot of this island, it was easy for them to step out over
+the ice to several of the cribs, which Superintendent Perry then and
+there ordered to be removed.
+
+It was while Superintendent Perry and Guide Barlow were on this mission
+that the latter recognised the unusual conditions of the ice. His
+practised eye scanned the white expanse as it extended westward and
+turned over the precipice.
+
+"I believe it would be possible for us to walk to the brink of the
+American fall," said Barlow, addressing Superintendent Perry.
+
+The superintendent looked at him in amazement. So far as is known no
+human being had ever stood where Guide Barlow contemplated going. Still,
+the superintendent is a man of nerve, and as he looked down the river at
+Robinson's Island, at Chapin's Island, at Crow and Blackbird Islands, he
+longed to set foot on the possessions of the Empire State over which he
+was the official guard.
+
+    [Illustration: GUIDE BARLOW AND SUPERINTENDENT PERRY STANDING ON
+      THE BRINK OF THE FALL AT A POINT NEVER BEFORE REACHED BY MAN.
+                            _From a Photo._]
+
+There was little said. Guide Barlow had already commenced to move down
+the river over the ice. It was firm, and stood his weight well. In a
+minute Superintendent Perry followed him. As they moved along the
+untrodden path the condition of the ice gave them new courage, and both
+felt that they were walking where man had never before been. Their route
+carried them between Robinson's and Blackbird Islands, and on down by a
+little isle as yet unnamed. Leaving the foot of Robinson's Island
+behind, they moved cautiously over the frozen expanse down, farther
+down, right to the brink of the American fall, midway between Luna
+Island's shore and Prospect Park. Along the very crest of the brink they
+walked, realizing that they were at the very centre of the great fall
+that is a world-wonder. Guide Barlow pointed out to Superintendent Perry
+the mighty ice-mountain that reared its head from below, and also
+related how human beings passing over the fall at that point were never
+found.
+
+Their dark forms outlined against the pure white, snow covered ice,
+standing only a few feet back from the awful brink of the fall, made a
+startling picture. As they stood there a dark shadow crept down over the
+ice, intimating that the river was rising and might overflow the ice on
+which they stood. Yet it was such a novel place to be in that they
+lingered and looked--looked and gained new and wonderful ideas of the
+sublimity and awfulness of Niagara. So close did they go to the brink
+that a slight advance would have carried them over the precipice to the
+frightful, unknown, unexplored regions behind the icy mounds below.
+
+Before they returned the author of this story hurried from Goat Island,
+from which point he had taken a picture of the remarkable trip, to the
+brink of the American fall, where he took another photograph of
+Superintendent Perry and Guide Barlow as they stood at the edge of the
+precipice over which the Niagara torrent flows in chaotic fury in
+summer-time.
+
+    [Illustration: GUIDE BARLOW AND SUPERINTENDENT PERRY STANDING ON
+                         THE BRINK OF NIAGARA.
+                            _From a Photo._]
+
+The trip up the channel carried the party outside of Robinson's Island,
+all stopping to pay tribute to Chapin's Island, the little spot where,
+in 1838, a man had lodged as he was being swept toward the fall by the
+awful current.
+
+"I am glad to be back," said Superintendent Perry, as the party reached
+the lower end of Green Island.
+
+"But you are also glad to have been where you have been," added Guide
+Barlow, the only man who had ever conducted a party to that dangerous
+point on the brink of the American fall.
+
+The date was Saturday, February 13, 1904.
+
+
+
+
+                             _Curiosities_
+
+              Copyright, 1904, by George Newnes, Limited.
+
+    [_We shall be glad to receive Contributions to this section, and
+    to pay for such as are accepted._]
+
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+                           A WHEEL--OR WHAT?
+
+"This is a cross-section of a white pine tree about twenty-eight inches
+in diameter. What appear to be carrots sticking through the sides are
+the knots caused by the branches, which, owing to their resinous nature,
+have not decayed, while the wood which formerly surrounded them has
+rotted away."--Mr. A. S. Angell, care of _Times_ Printing and Publishing
+Co., Victoria, B.C.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                          A HOMEMADE BICYCLE.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+This photograph, taken in Russia by a Blackburn contributor, is of an
+extraordinary bicycle and its ingenious maker, a Russian peasant, who at
+the time was employed as a mill watchman in St. Petersburg. The frame of
+the bicycle is mainly made out of broomsticks, the wheels consist of
+barrel hoops and wooden spokes, the cranks are of wood, and bobbins form
+the principal part of the pedals; the front forks are likewise of wood,
+working inside a ten-inch "slubbing bobbin"; the saddle (movable) is cut
+out of an ordinary piece of wood, the back of a disused arm-chair does
+duty as handle-bars, and the chain was taken off an old "flat-card"
+machine. It only remains to add that this curiosity is not a mere
+exhibit, for a friend of the gentleman who supplies the photo. rode it
+more than once, though he never accomplished anything in the way of
+record-breaking on the wooden "bike."
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                        SWALLOWED BY AN OSTRICH.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"I send you a photo. of the contents of a tame ostrich's stomach, which
+you will not be surprised to hear was the cause of its death. All these
+pieces of metal were picked up by it around the blacksmith's shop of a
+farm in South America. The circle of round pieces in the centre is made
+up of 3/8 in. punch pellets from a punching machine, and will give an
+idea of the size of the rest of the metal. All these pieces were more or
+less worn, according to the time they had been swallowed; some had
+almost disappeared. The total weight of iron was considerable."--Mr. E.
+Windus, Erin Manor, Burgess Hill, Sussex.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                      PECULIAR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
+
+                     [Illustration] [Illustration]
+
+"The accompanying photos. are of two musical instruments which, with
+their inventor, can be found at an obscure little hamlet called Keld,
+about twenty miles from Richmond in Yorkshire. No. 1 is an adaptation to
+a harmonium, and consists of the branch of a tree fastened to the end of
+the harmonium; upon the branch is a double row of bells which come from
+all parts of England. When playing, the musician has a long piece of
+wood ending in a steel spike, and at the lower end of the wood is a
+finger-hole. The striker is slipped upon one of the fingers of the left
+hand, and as the treble and bass are being played the finger with the
+striker upon it is bent in order to strike one of the bells. No. 2 is
+what the inventor calls 'a stone organ.' The old man said that one day
+when fishing in the river his foot caught a stone and he noticed that it
+gave forth a musical note, so he constructed a sounding-board, secured
+stones from the river, and placed them thereon. He found that clipping a
+piece off the end of the stone sharpened the note, whilst to clip off
+the side flattened it; in this way he made three octaves. The old man
+has never had any lessons in music."--Mr. G. Hardwick, The Promenade,
+Bridlington.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                         SAVED BY A CARTRIDGE.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"Here is the photograph of a cartridge which has been pierced by a
+bullet. My brother, of the 6th Dragoon Guards, was carrying this in his
+bandolier when he was wounded in the late South African War. The bullet
+after piercing the cartridge passed clean through his body, leaving in
+the centre of his back after penetrating one of his lungs. Fortunately
+it did not touch the spinal cord, owing probably to being deviated by
+the cartridge, and he recovered. The cartridge did not explode, and has
+still the explosive in it intact."--Mr. F. W. Robins, 14, Wellington
+Road, Barnsbury, N.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                      A DIVING TOWER ON DRY LAND.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"I send you a photo. of a curious structure which stands not very far
+from the Lake of Neuchâtel. It would be difficult for anyone
+unacquainted with its history to give a name to it, for its appearance
+and position furnish absolutely no clue as to its use. It is, as a
+matter of fact, a diving tower, built many years ago for the use of
+bathers in the Lake of Neuchâtel. The peculiar part about it is that
+anyone desirous of diving from it nowadays would have to fly
+horizontally over a railway, a road, and a good three hundred yards of
+dry land before reaching the water, for, the lake having gradually
+receded, the tower has been left high and dry, about a quarter of a mile
+from the edge of the water. As may be seen from the photo., it is now in
+a very tumble-down condition."--Mr. J. O. S. Ziegler, Place Bel Air,
+Yverdon, Switzerland.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                            A POSTAL MARROW.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"The vegetable marrow shown in the accompanying photograph was grown by
+my brother, Mr. David Ager, gardener to Mr. Milton Bode, of West Dean,
+near Reading, the well-known gold medallist for chrysanthemum culture.
+The name and address were marked on the marrow when it was quite small,
+and the writing has become more distinct with increasing age. When about
+nine inches in length the marrow was cut, a label with the necessary
+postage affixed tied to the small piece of stalk, and it was then handed
+in at the post-office. In due course it arrived at its destination, the
+marrow being none the worse for its journey."--Mr. J. Ager, c/o Messrs.
+Betts, Hartley, and Co., 9 and 10, Great Tower Street, E.C.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                     WHAT IS THERE BENEATH THE IVY?
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"This curious statue, which appears to be looking out of a tree, is to
+be found in the public park at Bath. The ivy has been allowed to cover
+the whole statue with the exception of the head; probably no one knows
+what the rest of it is like. This is a winter view; in summer the head
+has a background of foliage."--Mr. James A. Rooth, 112, Oakwood Court,
+Kensington.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                         "HOW THE CROW FLIES."
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"A remarkable instance of the unexpected happening, especially to
+devotees of the camera, occurred to me the other day. I took the
+photograph of Canterbury Cathedral which I send you, and whilst the
+plate was exposed I noticed a crow rising from the branches of the tree
+at the extreme left of the picture. The bird flew slowly upwards and in
+zigzag fashion until it reached a height nearly equal to the cathedral
+spire. On developing the negative I found that the bird's flight was
+most accurately recorded in the shape of a thin black line, which can be
+distinctly traced in the photograph. By means of a magnifying glass the
+extended wings of the crow could be distinctly seen. I may add that as I
+was using a small stop the exposure was rather a long one."--Mr. H. J.
+Divers, 13, Burgate Street, Canterbury.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                           THE MORRIS DANCE.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"I send you a photograph which may interest some of your readers. The
+village of Bidford-on-Avon keeps up the quaint old custom of the Morris
+Dance, and on high days and holidays the six dancers, accompanied by the
+clown and the hobby-horse, dance through the village to the music of a
+violin."--Miss Dryhurst, 11, Downshire Hill, Hampstead.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                              VERY SIMPLE.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"The curious effect produced in the photograph which I send was obtained
+by the simple means of placing a small piece of specially-cut paper over
+the negative."--Mr. R. J. Chenneour, Ishpeming, Mich.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                             THE FAN TREE.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"Travellers in South-Eastern Asia sometimes see at a distance what
+appears to be a gigantic fan. In fact, it closely resembles the dainty
+creations of feathers and ivory which are so popular with ladies. On
+approaching closer, however, the fan is seen to be a natural one, being
+a species of palm tree which is wonderfully like a fan, not only in the
+way in which its branches project from the trunk, but in the leaves in
+which the branches terminate. As shown in the picture, the tree spreads
+out like an extended fan and the leaves bear a strong resemblance to
+feathers. It is called the Traveller's Palm, partly for the reason that
+in the forenoon or afternoon, when the sun is not directly above, it
+frequently offers welcome shade. Some of the palms grow to a height of
+fifty or sixty feet, with 'feathers' ranging from ten to fifteen feet in
+length."--Mr. D. A. Willey, Baltimore.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                            PETRIFIED WIRE.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"Here is the photo. of a piece of wire rope taken from a coal-mine in
+Wales. The mine referred to had not been worked for some ten years, and
+when the water was pumped out the rope was discovered as shown, encased
+in a formation of hard stone. I may add that when the stone was broken
+the wire was found to be in a perfect state of preservation."--Mr. B. H.
+Wadsworth, Oriel College, Helensburgh, N.B.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                           NOT WHAT IT SEEMS.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"This is not a snap-shot of Satan, nor of Pluto, or any demon of the
+heathen mythology. Neither is it the picture of a water-logged member
+of the 'tramp' profession after a shower of rain. It is simply the
+photograph of the curious form which a splash of lead took when it
+dropped from a crucible on the floor."--Mr. Joseph W. Hammond, 12,
+Stafford Street, Dublin.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                           A WOODEN SOLDIER.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"I took this snap-shot in Spain, at La Zubia, a small town about two
+miles from Granada. The 'soldier' is a most surprising object to come
+upon suddenly. He is cut out of a single tree, and is therefore all in
+one piece. Branches have been neatly adapted to make his fingers, which,
+it will be observed, have a somewhat knotted and gouty appearance. A
+flower-pot forms the head, while a plant of aloes makes a very fine
+plumed head-dress. His uniform is painted in the most realistic way, so
+that altogether he has a most ferocious appearance and his expression
+does not invite confidence, as may be seen from the photograph. The
+garden in which he lives is rather an historic one, for it was here that
+the great Queen Isabella the Catholic was saved from falling into the
+hands of the Moors by hiding in a laurel bush. A monument marks the
+spot."--Miss A. Milne Home, Caldra, Duns, N.B.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                       IN THE MIDST OF THE ENEMY.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"A gamekeeper in this neighbourhood had shot a fine carrion crow, and
+hung up his prize, as usual, on a nail near his cottage. A wren finding
+it built her nest between the wings, and in the body of her greatest
+enemy actually reared her family. By the kindness of the owner of the
+nest I have been able to photograph it."--Miss Mary Sharp, Riding Mill,
+Northumberland.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                          A PECULIAR HARVEST.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"The Rev. W. H. Jenoure, rector of Barwick, Yeovil, describes a novel
+sight which may be seen in his parish. A farmer had been feeding his
+sheep on oats, and some of the grain fell on the back of one of the
+animals. It has taken root in the wool and sprouted, and the young
+shoots may be seen growing on the animal's back."--Mr. S. G. Witcomb,
+Middle Street, Yeovil, Somerset.
+
+
+
+
+                           Transcriber Notes:
+
+Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_.
+
+Passages in bold were indicated by =equal signs=.
+
+Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS.
+
+Throughout the document, the oe ligature was replaced with "oe".
+
+Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of the
+speakers. Those words were retained as-is.
+
+The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up
+paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.
+
+Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected
+unless otherwise noted.
+
+On page 525, "menu was formed the shape" was replaced with "menu was
+formed in the shape".
+
+On page 548, "slouches of" was replaced with "slouches off".
+
+On page 563, "A D 1901. make a grave" was replaced with "A D 1901 make a
+grave".
+
+On page 563, the single quotation mark after "FUST" was replaced with a
+double quotation mark.
+
+On page 563, a period was placed after "is a mournful corpse".
+
+On page 563, "ex amination" was replaced with "examination".
+
+On page 563, "honoable" was replaced with "honorable".
+
+On page 573, "onn" was replaced with "on".
+
+On page 584, "plain of campaign" was replaced with "plan of campaign".
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 161,
+May 1904, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRAND MAGAZINE, MAY, 1904 ***
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Strand - Vol. 27, No. 161.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 161, May
+1904, by Various
+
+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 Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 161, May 1904
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: February 10, 2012 [EBook #38820]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRAND MAGAZINE, MAY, 1904 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dianna Adair, Jonathan Ingram, Ernest Schaal,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 509px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p482.jpg" width="509" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;WITH THE BOUND OF A TIGER HOLMES WAS ON HIS BACK.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">(<i>See page 492.</i>)</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">The Strand Magazine.</span></h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">Vol. xxvii.       MAY, 1904.       No. 161.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2>THE RETURN OF<br />
+SHERLOCK HOLMES.</h2>
+
+<h3>By A. CONAN DOYLE.</h3>
+
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1904, by A. Conan Doyle, in the United States of America.</p>
+
+<h3><i>VIII.&mdash;The Adventure of the Six Napoleons.</i></h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 98px;"> <img src="images/ill_p483.jpg" width="98" height="100" alt="I" title="I" />
+</div>
+
+<p>T was no very unusual thing
+for Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland
+Yard, to look in upon us of an
+evening, and his visits were
+welcome to Sherlock Holmes,
+for they enabled him to keep
+in touch with all that was going on at the
+police head-quarters. In return for the news
+which Lestrade would bring, Holmes was
+always ready to listen with attention to the
+details of any case upon which the detective
+was engaged, and was able occasionally,
+without any active interference, to give some
+hint or suggestion drawn from his own vast
+knowledge and experience.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On this particular evening Lestrade had
+spoken of the weather and the newspapers.
+Then he had fallen silent, puffing thoughtfully
+at his cigar. Holmes looked keenly at
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Anything remarkable on hand?&quot; he
+asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, no, Mr. Holmes, nothing very particular.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then tell me about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lestrade laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, Mr. Holmes, there is no use denying
+that there <i>is</i> something on my mind.
+And yet it is such an absurd business that I
+hesitated to bother you about it. On the
+other hand, although it is trivial, it is undoubtedly
+queer, and I know that you have
+a taste for all that is out of the common.
+But in my opinion it comes more in Dr.
+Watson's line than ours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Disease?&quot; said I.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Madness, anyhow. And a queer madness
+too! You wouldn't think there was
+anyone living at this time of day who had
+such a hatred of Napoleon the First that he
+would break any image of him that he
+could see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Holmes sank back in his chair.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's no business of mine,&quot; said he.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Exactly. That's what I said. But then,
+when the man commits burglary in order to
+break images which are not his own, that
+brings it away from the doctor and on to the
+policeman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Holmes sat up again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Burglary! This is more interesting.
+Let me hear the details.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lestrade took out his official note-book
+and refreshed his memory from its pages.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 587px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p484.jpg" width="587" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;LESTRADE TOOK OUT HIS OFFICIAL NOTE-BOOK.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The first case reported was four days
+ago,&quot; said he. &quot;It was at the shop of Morse
+Hudson, who has a place for the sale of
+pictures and statues in the Kennington Road.
+The assistant had left the front shop for an
+instant when he heard a crash, and hurrying
+in he found a plaster bust of Napoleon,
+which stood with several other works of art
+upon the counter, lying shivered into fragments.
+He rushed out into the road, but,
+although several passers-by declared that
+they had noticed a man run out of the shop,
+he could neither see anyone nor could he
+find any means of identifying the rascal. It
+seemed to be one of those senseless acts of
+Hooliganism which occur from time to time,
+and it was reported to the constable on the
+beat as such. The plaster cast was not
+worth more than a few shillings, and the
+whole affair appeared to be too childish for
+any particular investigation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The second case, however, was more
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page484" id="page484"></a>[pg&nbsp;484]</span>
+serious and also more singular. It occurred
+only last night.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In Kennington Road, and within a few
+hundred yards of Morse Hudson's shop,
+there lives a well-known medical practitioner,
+named Dr. Barnicot, who has one of the
+largest practices upon the south side of the
+Thames. His residence and principal consulting-room
+is at Kennington Road, but he
+has a branch surgery and dispensary at
+Lower Brixton Road, two miles away. This
+Dr. Barnicot is an enthusiastic admirer of
+Napoleon, and his house is full of books,
+pictures, and relics of the French Emperor.
+Some little time ago he purchased from
+Morse Hudson two duplicate plaster casts of
+the famous head of Napoleon by the French
+sculptor, Devine. One of these he placed in
+his hall in the house at Kennington Road,
+and the other on the mantelpiece of the
+surgery at Lower Brixton. Well, when
+Dr. Barnicot came down this morning he was
+astonished to find that his house had been
+burgled during the night, but that nothing
+had been taken save the plaster head from
+the hall. It had been carried out and had
+been dashed savagely against the garden
+wall, under which its splintered fragments
+were discovered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Holmes rubbed his hands.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is certainly very novel,&quot; said
+he.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I thought it would please you. But I
+have not got to the end yet. Dr. Barnicot
+was due at his surgery at twelve o'clock, and
+you can imagine his amazement when, on
+arriving there, he found that the window had
+been opened in the night, and that the
+broken pieces of his second bust were strewn
+all over the room. It had been smashed to
+atoms where it stood. In neither case were
+there any signs which could give us a clue as
+to the criminal or lunatic who had done the
+mischief. Now, Mr. Holmes, you have got
+the facts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They are singular, not to say grotesque,&quot;
+said Holmes. &quot;May I ask whether the two
+busts smashed in Dr. Barnicot's rooms were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page485" id="page485"></a>[pg&nbsp;485]</span>
+the exact duplicates of the one which was
+destroyed in Morse Hudson's shop?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They were taken from the same mould.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Such a fact must tell against the theory
+that the man who breaks them is influenced
+by any general hatred of Napoleon. Considering
+how many hundreds of statues of
+the great Emperor must exist in London, it is
+too much to suppose such a coincidence as
+that a promiscuous iconoclast should chance
+to begin upon three specimens of the same
+bust.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, I thought as you do,&quot; said Lestrade.
+&quot;On the other hand, this Morse Hudson is
+the purveyor of busts in that part of London,
+and these three were the only ones which had
+been in his shop for years. So, although, as
+you say, there are many hundreds of statues
+in London, it is very probable that these
+three were the only ones in that district.
+Therefore, a local fanatic would begin with
+them. What do you think, Dr. Watson?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There are no limits to the possibilities of
+monomania,&quot; I answered. &quot;There is the
+condition which the modern French psychologists
+have called the 'idée fixe,' which may
+be trifling in character, and accompanied by
+complete sanity in every other way. A man
+who had read deeply about Napoleon, or who
+had possibly received some hereditary family
+injury through the great war, might conceivably
+form such an 'idée fixe' and under
+its influence be capable of any fantastic
+outrage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That won't do, my dear Watson,&quot; said
+Holmes, shaking his head; &quot;for no amount
+of 'idée fixe' would enable your interesting
+monomaniac to find out where these busts
+were situated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, how do <i>you</i> explain it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't attempt to do so. I would only
+observe that there is a certain method in the
+gentleman's eccentric proceedings. For example,
+in Dr. Barnicot's hall, where a sound
+might arouse the family, the bust was taken
+outside before being broken, whereas in the
+surgery, where there was less danger of an
+alarm, it was smashed where it stood. The
+affair seems absurdly trifling, and yet I dare
+call nothing trivial when I reflect that some
+of my most classic cases have had the least
+promising commencement. You will remember,
+Watson, how the dreadful business
+of the Abernetty family was first brought to
+my notice by the depth which the parsley
+had sunk into the butter upon a hot day. I
+can't afford, therefore, to smile at your three
+broken busts, Lestrade, and I shall be very
+much obliged to you if you will let me hear
+of any fresh developments of so singular a
+chain of events.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="indent">The development for which my friend had
+asked came in a quicker and an infinitely
+more tragic form than he could have imagined.
+I was still dressing in my bedroom next
+morning when there was a tap at the door
+and Holmes entered, a telegram in his hand.
+He read it aloud:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come instantly, 131, Pitt Street, Kensington.&mdash;Lestrade.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What is it, then?&quot; I asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't know&mdash;may be anything. But I
+suspect it is the sequel of the story of the
+statues. In that case our friend, the image-breaker,
+has begun operations in another
+quarter of London. There's coffee on the
+table, Watson, and I have a cab at the
+door.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In half an hour we had reached Pitt Street,
+a quiet little backwater just beside one of
+the briskest currents of London life. No. 131
+was one of a row, all flat-chested, respectable,
+and most unromantic dwellings. As we
+drove up we found the railings in front of
+the house lined by a curious crowd. Holmes
+whistled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;By George! it's attempted murder at
+the least. Nothing less will hold the London
+message-boy. There's a deed of violence
+indicated in that fellow's round shoulders
+and outstretched neck. What's this, Watson?
+The top steps swilled down and the other
+ones dry. Footsteps enough, anyhow! Well,
+well, there's Lestrade at the front window,
+and we shall soon know all about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The official received us with a very grave
+face and showed us into a sitting-room, where
+an exceedingly unkempt and agitated elderly
+man, clad in a flannel dressing-gown, was
+pacing up and down. He was introduced to
+us as the owner of the house&mdash;Mr. Horace
+Harker, of the Central Press Syndicate.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 525px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p486.jpg" width="525" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;HE WAS INTRODUCED TO US AS THE OWNER OF THE HOUSE&mdash;MR. HORACE HARKER.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's the Napoleon bust business again,&quot;
+said Lestrade. &quot;You seemed interested last
+night, Mr. Holmes, so I thought perhaps
+you would be glad to be present now that the
+affair has taken a very much graver turn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What has it turned to, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;To murder. Mr. Harker, will you tell
+these gentlemen exactly what has occurred?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The man in the dressing-gown turned upon
+us with a most melancholy face.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's an extraordinary thing,&quot; said he,
+&quot;that all my life I have been collecting other
+people's news, and now that a real piece of
+news has come my own way I am so confused
+and bothered that I can't put two
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page486" id="page486"></a>[pg&nbsp;486]</span>
+words together. If I had come in here as a
+journalist I should have interviewed myself
+and had two columns in every evening paper.
+As it is I am giving away valuable copy by
+telling my story over and over to a string of
+different people, and I can make no use of it
+myself. However, I've heard your name,
+Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and if you'll only
+explain this queer business I shall be paid for
+my trouble in telling you the story.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Holmes sat down and listened.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It all seems to centre round that bust of
+Napoleon which I bought for this very room
+about four months ago. I picked it up cheap
+from Harding Brothers, two doors from the
+High Street Station. A great deal of my
+journalistic work is done at night, and I often
+write until the early morning. So it was to-day.
+I was sitting in my den, which is at the
+back of the top of the house, about three
+o'clock, when I was convinced that I heard
+some sounds downstairs. I listened, but they
+were not repeated, and I concluded that they
+came from outside. Then suddenly, about
+five minutes later, there came a most horrible
+yell&mdash;the most dreadful sound, Mr. Holmes,
+that ever I heard. It will ring in my ears
+as long as I live. I sat frozen with horror for
+a minute or two. Then I seized the poker
+and went downstairs. When I entered this
+room I found the window wide open, and I
+at once observed that the bust was gone from
+the mantelpiece. Why any burglar should
+take such a thing passes my understanding,
+for it was only a plaster cast and of no real
+value whatever.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You can see for yourself that anyone
+going out through that open window could
+reach the front doorstep by taking a long
+stride. This was clearly what the burglar
+had done, so I went round and opened the
+door. Stepping out into the dark I nearly
+fell over a dead man who was lying there. I
+ran back for a light, and there was the poor
+fellow, a great gash in his throat and the
+whole place swimming in blood. He lay on
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page487" id="page487"></a>[pg&nbsp;487]</span>
+his back, his knees drawn up, and his mouth
+horribly open. I shall see him in my dreams.
+I had just time to blow on my police-whistle,
+and then I must have fainted, for I knew
+nothing more until I found the policeman
+standing over me in the hall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, who was the murdered man?&quot;
+asked Holmes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There's nothing to show who he was,&quot;
+said Lestrade. &quot;You shall see the body at
+the mortuary, but we have made nothing of
+it up to now. He is a tall man, sunburned,
+very powerful, not more than thirty. He is
+poorly dressed, and yet does not appear to
+be a labourer. A horn-handled clasp knife
+was lying in a pool of blood beside him.
+Whether it was the weapon which did the
+deed, or whether it belonged to the dead
+man, I do not know. There was no name
+on his clothing, and nothing in his pockets
+save an apple, some string, a shilling map of
+London, and a photograph. Here it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was evidently taken by a snap-shot from
+a small camera. It represented an alert,
+sharp-featured simian man with thick eyebrows,
+and a very peculiar projection of the
+lower part of the face like the muzzle of a
+baboon.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And what became of the bust?&quot; asked
+Holmes, after a careful study of this picture.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We had news of it just before you came.
+It has been found in the front garden of an
+empty house in Campden House Road. It
+was broken into fragments. I am going
+round now to see it. Will you come?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Certainly. I must just take one look
+round.&quot; He examined the carpet and the
+window. &quot;The fellow had either very long
+legs or was a most active man,&quot; said he.
+&quot;With an area beneath, it was no mean feat
+to reach that window-ledge and open that
+window. Getting back was comparatively
+simple. Are you coming with us to see the
+remains of your bust, Mr. Harker?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The disconsolate journalist had seated
+himself at a writing-table.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I must try and make something of it,&quot;
+said he, &quot;though I have no doubt that the
+first editions of the evening papers are out
+already with full details. It's like my luck!
+You remember when the stand fell at
+Doncaster? Well, I was the only journalist
+in the stand, and my journal the only one
+that had no account of it, for I was too
+shaken to write it. And now I'll be too late
+with a murder done on my own doorstep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As we left the room we heard his pen
+travelling shrilly over the foolscap.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The spot where the fragments of the bust
+had been found was only a few hundred
+yards away. For the first time our eyes
+rested upon this presentment of the great
+Emperor, which seemed to raise such frantic
+and destructive hatred in the mind of the
+unknown. It lay scattered in splintered
+shards upon the grass. Holmes picked up
+several of them and examined them carefully.
+I was convinced from his intent face
+and his purposeful manner that at last he
+was upon a clue.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well?&quot; asked Lestrade.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Holmes shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We have a long way to go yet,&quot; said he.
+&quot;And yet&mdash;and yet&mdash;well, we have some
+suggestive facts to act upon. The possession
+of this trifling bust was worth more in the
+eyes of this strange criminal than a human
+life. That is one point. Then there is the
+singular fact that he did not break it in the
+house, or immediately outside the house, if
+to break it was his sole object.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He was rattled and bustled by meeting
+this other fellow. He hardly knew what he
+was doing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, that's likely enough. But I wish
+to call your attention very particularly to the
+position of this house in the garden of which
+the bust was destroyed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lestrade looked about him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It was an empty house, and so he knew
+that he would not be disturbed in the
+garden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, but there is another empty house
+farther up the street which he must have
+passed before he came to this one. Why
+did he not break it there, since it is evident
+that every yard that he carried it increased
+the risk of someone meeting him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I give it up,&quot; said Lestrade.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Holmes pointed to the street lamp above
+our heads.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 439px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p488.jpg" width="439" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;HOLMES POINTED TO THE STREET LAMP ABOVE OUR HEADS.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He could see what he was doing here and
+he could not there. That was his reason.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;By Jove! that's true,&quot; said the detective.
+&quot;Now that I come to think of it, Dr.
+Barnicot's bust was broken not far from his
+red lamp. Well, Mr. Holmes, what are we
+to do with that fact?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;To remember it&mdash;to docket it. We may
+come on something later which will bear
+upon it. What steps do you propose to take
+now, Lestrade?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The most practical way of getting at it,
+in my opinion, is to identify the dead man.
+There should be no difficulty about that.
+When we have found who he is and who his
+associates are, we should have a good start
+in learning what he was doing in Pitt Street
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page488" id="page488"></a>[pg&nbsp;488]</span>
+last night, and who it was who met him and
+killed him on the doorstep of Mr. Horace
+Harker. Don't you think so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No doubt; and yet it is not quite the
+way in which I should approach the case.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What would you do, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, you must not let me influence you
+in any way! I suggest that you go on your
+line and I on mine. We can compare notes
+afterwards, and each will supplement the
+other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Very good,&quot; said Lestrade.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If you are going back to Pitt Street you
+might see Mr. Horace Harker. Tell him
+from me that I have quite made up my
+mind, and that it is certain that a dangerous
+homicidal lunatic with Napoleonic delusions
+was in his house last night. It will be useful
+for his article.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lestrade stared.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You don't seriously believe
+that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Holmes smiled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't I? Well, perhaps
+I don't. But I am sure that
+it will interest Mr. Horace
+Harker and the subscribers of
+the Central Press Syndicate.
+Now, Watson, I think that we
+shall find that we have a long
+and rather complex day's work
+before us. I should be glad,
+Lestrade, if you could make it
+convenient to meet us at Baker
+Street at six o'clock this evening.
+Until then I should like to keep
+this photograph found in the
+dead man's pocket. It is possible
+that I may have to ask
+your company and assistance
+upon a small expedition which
+will have to be undertaken to-night,
+if my chain of reasoning
+should prove to be correct.
+Until then, good-bye and good
+luck!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Sherlock Holmes and I
+walked together to the High
+Street, where he stopped at the
+shop of Harding Brothers,
+whence the bust had been
+purchased. A young assistant
+informed us that Mr. Harding
+would be absent until after noon,
+and that he was himself a newcomer
+who could give us no
+information. Holmes's face
+showed his disappointment and
+annoyance.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, well, we can't expect to have it all
+our own way, Watson,&quot; he said, at last.
+&quot;We must come back in the afternoon if
+Mr. Harding will not be here until then. I
+am, as you have no doubt surmised, endeavouring
+to trace these busts to their
+source, in order to find if there is not something
+peculiar which may account for their
+remarkable fate. Let us make for Mr. Morse
+Hudson, of the Kennington Road, and see
+if he can throw any light upon the problem.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A drive of an hour brought us to the
+picture-dealer's establishment. He was a
+small, stout man with a red face and a
+peppery manner.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, sir. On my very counter, sir,&quot; said
+he. &quot;What we pay rates and taxes for I
+don't know, when any ruffian can come in
+and break one's goods. Yes, sir, it was I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page489" id="page489"></a>[pg&nbsp;489]</span>
+who sold Dr. Barnicot his two statues. Disgraceful,
+sir! A Nihilist plot, that's what I
+make it. No one but an Anarchist would
+go about breaking statues. Red republicans,
+that's what I call 'em. Who did I get the
+statues from? I don't see what that has to
+do with it. Well, if you really want to know,
+I got them from Gelder and Co., in Church
+Street, Stepney. They are a well-known
+house in the trade, and have been this
+twenty years. How many had I? Three&mdash;two
+and one are three&mdash;two of Dr. Barnicot's
+and one smashed in broad daylight on my
+own counter. Do I know that photograph?
+No, I don't. Yes, I do, though. Why, it's
+Beppo. He was a kind of Italian piece-work
+man, who made himself useful in the shop.
+He could carve a bit and gild and frame,
+and do odd jobs. The fellow left me last
+week, and I've heard nothing of him since.
+No, I don't know where he came from nor
+where he went to. I have nothing against
+him while he was here. He was gone two
+days before the bust was smashed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, that's all we could reasonably
+expect to get from Morse Hudson,&quot; said
+Holmes, as we emerged from the shop. &quot;We
+have this Beppo as a common factor, both in
+Kennington and in Kensington, so that is
+worth a ten-mile drive. Now, Watson, let us
+make for Gelder and Co., of Stepney, the
+source and origin of busts. I shall be surprised
+if we don't get some help down there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In rapid succession we passed through the
+fringe of fashionable London, hotel London,
+theatrical London, literary London, commercial
+London, and, finally, maritime
+London, till we came to a riverside city of a
+hundred thousand souls, where the tenement
+houses swelter and reek with the outcasts of
+Europe. Here, in a broad thoroughfare,
+once the abode of wealthy City merchants, we
+found the sculpture works for which we
+searched. Outside was a considerable yard
+full of monumental masonry. Inside was a
+large room in which fifty workers were carving
+or moulding. The manager, a big blonde
+German, received us civilly, and gave a clear
+answer to all Holmes's questions. A reference
+to his books showed that hundreds of casts
+had been taken from a marble copy of
+Devine's head of Napoleon, but that the three
+which had been sent to Morse Hudson a
+year or so before had been half of a batch of
+six, the other three being sent to Harding
+Brothers, of Kensington. There was no
+reason why those six should be different to
+any of the other casts. He could suggest
+no possible cause why anyone should wish
+to destroy them&mdash;in fact, he laughed at the
+idea. Their wholesale price was six shillings,
+but the retailer would get twelve or more.
+The cast was taken in two moulds from each
+side of the face, and then these two profiles
+of plaster of Paris were joined together to
+make the complete bust. The work was
+usually done by Italians in the room we
+were in. When finished the busts were put
+on a table in the passage to dry, and afterwards
+stored. That was all he could tell us.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But the production of the photograph had
+a remarkable effect upon the manager. His
+face flushed with anger, and his brows knotted
+over his blue Teutonic eyes.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 578px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p490.jpg" width="578" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;AH, THE RASCAL! HE CRIED.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah, the rascal!&quot; he cried. &quot;Yes, indeed,
+I know him very well. This has always
+been a respectable establishment, and the
+only time that we have ever had the police
+in it was over this very fellow. It was more
+than a year ago now. He knifed another
+Italian in the street, and then he came to
+the works with the police on his heels, and
+he was taken here. Beppo was his name&mdash;his
+second name I never knew. Serve me
+right for engaging a man with such a face.
+But he was a good workman, one of the
+best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What did he get?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The man lived and he got off with a
+year. I have no doubt he is out now; but
+he has not dared to show his nose here.
+We have a cousin of his here, and I dare say
+he could tell you where he is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, no,&quot; cried Holmes, &quot;not a word to
+the cousin&mdash;not a word, I beg you. The
+matter is very important, and the farther I
+go with it the more important it seems to
+grow. When you referred in your ledger to
+the sale of those casts I observed that the
+date was June 3rd of last year. Could you
+give me the date when Beppo was arrested?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I could tell you roughly by the pay-list,&quot;
+the manager answered. &quot;Yes,&quot; he continued,
+after some turning over of pages, &quot;he
+was paid last on May 20th.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thank you,&quot; said Holmes. &quot;I don't
+think that I need intrude upon your time
+and patience any more.&quot; With a last word
+of caution that he should say nothing as to
+our researches we turned our faces westward
+once more.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The afternoon was far advanced before we
+were able to snatch a hasty luncheon at a
+restaurant. A news-bill at the entrance
+announced &quot;Kensington Outrage. Murder
+by a Madman,&quot; and the contents of the paper
+showed that Mr. Horace Harker had got his
+account into print after all. Two columns
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page490" id="page490"></a>[pg&nbsp;490]</span>
+were occupied with a highly sensational and
+flowery rendering of the whole incident.
+Holmes propped it against the cruet-stand
+and read it while he ate. Once or twice he
+chuckled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is all right, Watson,&quot; said he.
+&quot;Listen to this: 'It is satisfactory to know
+that there can be no difference of opinion
+upon this case, since Mr. Lestrade, one of
+the most experienced members of the official
+force, and Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the well-known
+consulting expert, have each come to
+the conclusion that the grotesque series of
+incidents, which have ended in so tragic a
+fashion, arise from lunacy rather than from
+deliberate crime. No explanation save mental
+aberration can cover the facts.' The Press,
+Watson, is a most valuable institution if you
+only know how to use it. And now, if you
+have quite finished, we will hark back to
+Kensington and see what the manager of
+Harding Brothers has to say to the matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The founder of that great emporium proved
+to be a brisk, crisp little person, very dapper
+and quick, with a clear head and a ready
+tongue.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, sir, I have already read the account
+in the evening papers. Mr. Horace Harker
+is a customer of ours. We supplied him with
+the bust some months ago. We ordered three
+busts of that sort from Gelder and Co., of
+Stepney. They are all sold now. To whom?
+Oh, I dare say by consulting our sales book
+we could very easily tell you. Yes, we have
+the entries here. One to Mr. Harker, you
+see, and one to Mr. Josiah Brown, of Laburnum
+Lodge, Laburnum Vale, Chiswick, and
+one to Mr. Sandeford, of Lower Grove Road,
+Reading. No, I have never seen this face
+which you show me in the photograph. You
+would hardly forget it, would you, sir, for I've
+seldom seen an uglier. Have we any Italians
+on the staff? Yes, sir, we have several
+among our workpeople and cleaners. I dare
+say they might get a peep at that sales book
+if they wanted to. There is no particular
+reason for keeping a watch upon that book.
+Well, well, it's a very strange business, and
+I hope that you'll let me know if anything
+comes of your inquiries.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Holmes had taken several notes during
+Mr. Harding's evidence, and I could see that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page491" id="page491"></a>[pg&nbsp;491]</span>
+he was thoroughly satisfied by the turn which
+affairs were taking. He made no remark,
+however, save that, unless we hurried, we
+should be late for our appointment with
+Lestrade. Sure enough, when we reached Baker
+Street the detective was already there, and we
+found him pacing up and down in a fever of
+impatience. His look of importance showed
+that his day's work had not been in vain.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well?&quot; he asked. &quot;What luck, Mr.
+Holmes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We have had a very busy day, and
+not entirely a wasted one,&quot; my friend
+explained. &quot;We have seen both the
+retailers and also the wholesale manufacturers.
+I can trace each of the busts now
+from the beginning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The busts!&quot; cried Lestrade. &quot;Well,
+well, you have your own methods, Mr.
+Sherlock Holmes, and it is not for me to say
+a word against them, but I think I have done
+a better day's work than you. I have
+identified the dead man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You don't say so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And found a cause for the crime.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Splendid!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We have an inspector who makes a
+speciality of Saffron Hill and the Italian
+quarter. Well, this dead man had some
+Catholic emblem round his neck, and that,
+along with his colour, made me think he was
+from the South. Inspector Hill knew him
+the moment he caught sight of him. His
+name is Pietro Venucci, from Naples, and
+he is one of the greatest cut-throats in
+London. He is connected with the Mafia,
+which, as you know, is a secret political society,
+enforcing its decrees by murder. Now you
+see how the affair begins to clear up. The
+other fellow is probably an Italian also, and
+a member of the Mafia. He has broken the
+rules in some fashion. Pietro is set upon
+his track. Probably the photograph we
+found in his pocket is the man himself, so
+that he may not knife the wrong person.
+He dogs the fellow, he sees him enter a
+house, he waits outside for him, and in the
+scuffle he receives his own death wound.
+How is that, Mr. Sherlock Holmes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Holmes clapped his hands approvingly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Excellent, Lestrade, excellent!&quot; he cried.
+&quot;But I didn't quite follow your explanation
+of the destruction of the busts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The busts! You never can get those
+busts out of your head. After all, that is
+nothing; petty larceny, six months at the
+most. It is the murder that we are really
+investigating, and I tell you that I am
+gathering all the threads into my hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And the next stage?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is a very simple one. I shall go down
+with Hill to the Italian quarter, find the man
+whose photograph we have got, and arrest
+him on the charge of murder. Will you
+come with us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think not. I fancy we can attain our
+end in a simpler way. I can't say for certain,
+because it all depends&mdash;well, it all depends
+upon a factor which is completely outside our
+control. But I have great hopes&mdash;in fact,
+the betting is exactly two to one&mdash;that if you
+will come with us to-night I shall be able to
+help you to lay him by the heels.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In the Italian quarter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No; I fancy Chiswick is an address which
+is more likely to find him. If you will come
+with me to Chiswick to-night, Lestrade, I'll
+promise to go to the Italian quarter with
+you to-morrow, and no harm will be done by
+the delay. And now I think that a few
+hours' sleep would do us all good, for I do
+not propose to leave before eleven o'clock,
+and it is unlikely that we shall be back
+before morning. You'll dine with us, Lestrade,
+and then you are welcome to the sofa until it
+is time for us to start. In the meantime,
+Watson, I should be glad if you would ring
+for an express messenger, for I have a letter
+to send, and it is important that it should go
+at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Holmes spent the evening in rummaging
+among the files of the old daily papers with
+which one of our lumber-rooms was packed.
+When at last he descended it was with
+triumph in his eyes, but he said nothing to
+either of us as to the result of his researches.
+For my own part, I had followed step by
+step the methods by which he had traced the
+various windings of this complex case, and,
+though I could not yet perceive the goal
+which we would reach, I understood clearly
+that Holmes expected this grotesque criminal
+to make an attempt upon the two remaining
+busts, one of which, I remembered, was at
+Chiswick. No doubt the object of our
+journey was to catch him in the very act, and
+I could not but admire the cunning with
+which my friend had inserted a wrong clue
+in the evening paper, so as to give the fellow
+the idea that he could continue his scheme
+with impunity. I was not surprised when
+Holmes suggested that I should take my
+revolver with me. He had himself picked
+up the loaded hunting-crop which was his
+favourite weapon.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A four-wheeler was at the door at eleven,
+and in it we drove to a spot at the other side
+of Hammersmith Bridge. Here the cabman
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page492" id="page492"></a>[pg&nbsp;492]</span>
+was directed to wait. A short walk brought
+us to a secluded road fringed with pleasant
+houses, each standing in its own grounds.
+In the light of a street lamp we read
+&quot;Laburnum Villa&quot; upon the gate-post of
+one of them. The occupants had evidently
+retired to rest, for all was dark save for a
+fanlight over the
+hall door, which
+shed a single blurred
+circle on to the
+garden path. The
+wooden fence
+which separated
+the grounds from
+the road threw a
+dense black shadow
+upon the inner side,
+and here it was
+that we crouched.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I fear that you'll
+have a long wait,&quot;
+Holmes whispered.
+&quot;We may thank
+our stars that it is
+not raining. I don't
+think we can even
+venture to smoke
+to pass the time.
+However, it's a two
+to one chance that
+we get something
+to pay us for our
+trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It proved, however,
+that our vigil
+was not to be so
+long as Holmes had
+led us to fear, and
+it ended in a very
+sudden and singular
+fashion. In an
+instant, without the
+least sound to warn
+us of his coming,
+the garden gate
+swung open, and a
+lithe, dark figure,
+as swift and active
+as an ape, rushed
+up the garden path.
+We saw it whisk
+past the light thrown from over the door and
+disappear against the black shadow of the
+house. There was a long pause, during which
+we held our breath, and then a very gentle
+creaking sound came to our ears. The
+window was being opened. The noise
+ceased, and again there was a long silence.
+The fellow was making his way into the
+house. We saw the sudden flash of a dark
+lantern inside the room. What he sought
+was evidently not there, for again we saw the
+flash through another blind, and then through
+another.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Let us get to the open window. We
+will nab him as he
+climbs out,&quot; Lestrade
+whispered.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But before we
+could move the
+man had emerged
+again. As he came
+out into the glimmering
+patch of
+light we saw that
+he carried something
+white under
+his arm. He looked
+stealthily all round
+him. The silence
+of the deserted
+street reassured
+him. Turning his
+back upon us he
+laid down his burden,
+and the next
+instant there was
+the sound of a sharp
+tap, followed by a
+clatter and rattle.
+The man was so intent
+upon what he
+was doing that he
+never heard our
+steps as we stole
+across the grass
+plot. With the
+bound of a tiger
+Holmes was on his
+back, and an instant
+later Lestrade and
+I had him by either
+wrist and the handcuffs
+had been fastened.
+As we turned
+him over I saw a
+hideous, sallow
+face, with writhing,
+furious features,
+glaring up at us,
+and I knew that it was indeed the man of the
+photograph whom we had secured.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But it was not our prisoner to whom
+Holmes was giving his attention. Squatted
+on the doorstep, he was engaged in most
+carefully examining that which the man had
+brought from the house. It was a bust of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page493" id="page493"></a>[pg&nbsp;493]</span>
+Napoleon like the one which we had seen
+that morning, and it had been broken into
+similar fragments. Carefully Holmes held
+each separate shard to the light, but in no
+way did it differ from any other shattered
+piece of plaster. He had just completed his
+examination when the hall lights flew up, the
+door opened, and the owner of the house, a
+jovial, rotund figure in shirt and trousers,
+presented himself.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 341px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p492.jpg" width="341" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;THE DOOR OPENED, AND THE OWNER OF THE HOUSE PRESENTED
+HIMSELF.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mr. Josiah Brown, I suppose?&quot; said
+Holmes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, sir; and you, no doubt, are Mr.
+Sherlock Holmes? I had the note which
+you sent by the express messenger, and I did
+exactly what you told me. We locked every
+door on the inside and awaited developments.
+Well, I'm very glad to see that you have got
+the rascal. I hope, gentlemen, that you will
+come in and have some refreshment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">However, Lestrade was anxious to get his
+man into safe quarters, so within a few
+minutes our cab had been summoned and we
+were all four upon our way to London. Not
+a word would our captive say; but he glared
+at us from the shadow of his matted hair, and
+once, when my hand seemed within his reach,
+he snapped at it like a hungry wolf. We
+stayed long enough at the police-station to
+learn that a search of his clothing revealed
+nothing save a few shillings and a long
+sheath knife, the handle of which bore
+copious traces of recent blood.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's all right,&quot; said Lestrade, as we
+parted. &quot;Hill knows all these gentry, and he
+will give a name to him. You'll find that my
+theory of the Mafia will work out all right.
+But I'm sure I am exceedingly obliged to you,
+Mr. Holmes, for the workmanlike way in
+which you laid hands upon him. I don't
+quite understand it all yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I fear it is rather too late an hour for
+explanations,&quot; said Holmes. &quot;Besides, there
+are one or two details which are not finished
+off, and it is one of those cases which are
+worth working out to the very end. If you
+will come round once more to my rooms at
+six o'clock to-morrow I think I shall be able
+to show you that even now you have not
+grasped the entire meaning of this business,
+which presents some features which make it
+absolutely original in the history of crime.
+If ever I permit you to chronicle any more of
+my little problems, Watson, I foresee that you
+will enliven your pages by an account of the
+singular adventure of the Napoleonic busts.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="indent">When we met again next evening Lestrade
+was furnished with much information concerning
+our prisoner. His name, it appeared,
+was Beppo, second name unknown. He was
+a well-known ne'er-do-well among the Italian
+colony. He had once been a skilful sculptor
+and had earned an honest living, but he
+had taken to evil courses and had twice
+already been in gaol&mdash;once for a petty theft
+and once, as we had already heard, for stabbing
+a fellow-countryman. He could talk
+English perfectly well. His reasons for
+destroying the busts were still unknown,
+and he refused to answer any questions
+upon the subject; but the police had discovered
+that these same busts might very
+well have been made by his own hands,
+since he was engaged in this class of
+work at the establishment of Gelder and
+Co. To all this information, much of which
+we already knew, Holmes listened with
+polite attention; but I, who knew him so
+well, could clearly see that his thoughts were
+elsewhere, and I detected a mixture of
+mingled uneasiness and expectation beneath
+that mask which he was wont to assume.
+At last he started in his chair and his eyes
+brightened. There had been a ring at the
+bell. A minute later we heard steps upon
+the stairs, and an elderly, red-faced man with
+grizzled side-whiskers was ushered in. In
+his right hand he carried an old-fashioned
+carpet-bag, which he placed upon the table.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is Mr. Sherlock Holmes here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">My friend bowed and smiled. &quot;Mr.
+Sandeford, of Reading, I suppose?&quot; said he.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, sir, I fear that I am a little late; but
+the trains were awkward. You wrote to me
+about a bust that is in my possession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Exactly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I have your letter here. You said, 'I
+desire to possess a copy of Devine's Napoleon,
+and am prepared to pay you ten
+pounds for the one which is in your possession.'
+Is that right?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Certainly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I was very much surprised at your letter,
+for I could not imagine how you knew that
+I owned such a thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course you must have been surprised,
+but the explanation is very simple. Mr.
+Harding, of Harding Brothers, said that they
+had sold you their last copy, and he gave me
+your address.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, that was it, was it? Did he tell you
+what I paid for it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, he did not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, I am an honest man, though not a
+very rich one. I only gave fifteen shillings
+for the bust, and I think you ought to know
+that before I take ten pounds from you.&quot;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page494" id="page494"></a>[pg&nbsp;494]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I am sure the scruple does you honour,
+Mr. Sandeford. But I have named that
+price, so I intend to stick to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 695px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p494.jpg" width="695" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;I BROUGHT THE BUST UP WITH ME, AS YOU ASKED ME TO DO.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, it is very handsome of you, Mr.
+Holmes. I brought the bust up with me, as
+you asked me to do. Here it is!&quot; He
+opened his bag, and at last we saw placed
+upon our table a complete specimen of that
+bust which we had already seen more than
+once in fragments.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Holmes took a paper from his pocket and
+laid a ten-pound note upon the table.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You will kindly sign that paper, Mr.
+Sandeford, in the presence of these witnesses.
+It is simply to say that you transfer every
+possible right that you ever had in the bust
+to me. I am a methodical man, you see,
+and you never know what turn events might
+take afterwards. Thank you, Mr. Sandeford;
+here is your money, and I wish you a very
+good evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When our visitor had disappeared Sherlock
+Holmes's movements were such as to rivet
+our attention. He began by taking a clean
+white cloth from a drawer and laying it
+over the table. Then he placed his newly
+acquired bust in the centre of the cloth.
+Finally, he picked up his hunting crop and
+struck Napoleon a sharp blow on the top
+of the head. The figure broke into fragments,
+and Holmes bent eagerly over the
+shattered remains. Next instant, with a loud
+shout of triumph, he held up one splinter, in
+which a round, dark
+object was fixed like
+a plum in a pudding.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Gentlemen,&quot; he
+cried, &quot;let me introduce
+you to the
+famous black pearl of
+the Borgias.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lestrade and I sat
+silent for a moment,
+and then, with a
+spontaneous impulse,
+we both broke out
+clapping as at the
+well-wrought crisis of
+a play. A flush of
+colour sprang to
+Holmes's pale cheeks,
+and he bowed to us
+like the master dramatist
+who receives the
+homage of his audience.
+It was at such
+moments that for an
+instant he ceased to
+be a reasoning
+machine, and betrayed
+his human love for
+admiration and applause.
+The same
+singularly proud and
+reserved nature which
+turned away with disdain from popular
+notoriety was capable of being moved to its
+depths by spontaneous wonder and praise
+from a friend.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, gentlemen,&quot; said he, &quot;it is the most
+famous pearl now existing in the world, and
+it has been my good fortune, by a connected
+chain of inductive reasoning, to trace
+it from the Prince of Colonna's bedroom at
+the Dacre Hotel, where it was lost, to the
+interior of this, the last of the six busts of
+Napoleon which were manufactured by
+Gelder and Co., of Stepney. You will
+remember, Lestrade, the sensation caused by
+the disappearance of this valuable jewel, and
+the vain efforts of the London police to
+recover it. I was myself consulted upon
+the case; but I was unable to throw any
+light upon it. Suspicion fell upon the maid
+of the Princess, who was an Italian, and it
+was proved that she had a brother in London,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page495" id="page495"></a>[pg&nbsp;495]</span>
+but we failed to trace any connection between
+them. The maid's name was Lucretia
+Venucci, and there is no doubt in my mind
+that this Pietro who was murdered two nights
+ago was the brother. I have been looking
+up the dates in the old files of the paper,
+and I find that the disappearance of the
+pearl was exactly two days before the arrest
+of Beppo for some crime of violence, an
+event which took place in the factory of
+Gelder and Co., at the very moment when
+these busts were being made. Now you
+clearly see the sequence of events, though
+you see them, of course, in the inverse order
+to the way in which they presented themselves
+to me. Beppo had the pearl in his
+possession. He may have stolen it from
+Pietro, he may have been Pietro's confederate,
+he may have been the go-between
+of Pietro and his sister. It is of no consequence
+to us which is the correct solution.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The main fact is that he <i>had</i> the
+pearl, and at that moment, when it was
+on his person, he was pursued by the
+police. He made for the factory in which
+he worked, and he knew that he had only a
+few minutes in which to conceal this enormously
+valuable prize, which would otherwise
+be found on him when he was searched.
+Six plaster casts of Napoleon were drying in
+the passage. One of them was still soft. In
+an instant Beppo, a skilful workman, made a
+small hole in the wet plaster, dropped in the
+pearl, and with a few touches covered over
+the aperture once more. It was an admirable
+hiding-place. No one could possibly find
+it. But Beppo was condemned to a year's
+imprisonment, and in the meanwhile his six
+busts were scattered over London. He
+could not tell which contained his treasure.
+Only by breaking them could he see. Even
+shaking would tell him nothing, for as the
+plaster was wet it was probable that the pearl
+would adhere to it&mdash;as, in fact, it has done.
+Beppo did not despair, and he conducted his
+search with considerable ingenuity and perseverance.
+Through a cousin who works
+with Gelder he found out the retail firms
+who had bought the busts. He managed to
+find employment with Morse Hudson, and in
+that way tracked down three of them. The
+pearl was not there. Then, with the help of
+some Italian <i>employé</i>, he succeeded in finding
+out where the other three busts had gone.
+The first was at Harker's. There he was
+dogged by his confederate, who held Beppo
+responsible for the loss of the pearl, and he
+stabbed him in the scuffle which followed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If he was his confederate why should he
+carry his photograph?&quot; I asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;As a means of tracing him if he wished
+to inquire about him from any third person.
+That was the obvious reason. Well, after
+the murder I calculated that Beppo would
+probably hurry rather than delay his movements.
+He would fear that the police would
+read his secret, and so he hastened on before
+they should get ahead of him. Of course, I
+could not say that he had not found the
+pearl in Harker's bust. I had not even concluded
+for certain that it was the pearl; but
+it was evident to me that he was looking for
+something, since he carried the bust past the
+other houses in order to break it in the
+garden which had a lamp overlooking it.
+Since Harker's bust was one in three the
+chances were exactly as I told you, two to
+one against the pearl being inside it. There
+remained two busts, and it was obvious that
+he would go for the London one first. I
+warned the inmates of the house, so as to
+avoid a second tragedy, and we went down
+with the happiest results. By that time,
+of course, I knew for certain that it was the
+Borgia pearl that we were after. The name
+of the murdered man linked the one event
+with the other. There only remained a single
+bust&mdash;the Reading one&mdash;and the pearl must
+be there. I bought it in your presence from
+the owner&mdash;and there it lies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">We sat in silence for a moment.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well,&quot; said Lestrade, &quot;I've seen you
+handle a good many cases, Mr, Holmes, but
+I don't know that I ever knew a more workmanlike
+one than that. We're not jealous
+of you at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are
+very proud of you, and if you come down
+to-morrow there's not a man, from the oldest
+inspector to the youngest constable, who
+wouldn't be glad to shake you by the hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thank you!&quot; said Holmes. &quot;Thank
+you!&quot; and as he turned away it seemed to
+me that he was more nearly moved by the
+softer human emotions than I had ever seen
+him. A moment later he was the cold and
+practical thinker once more. &quot;Put the pearl
+in the safe, Watson,&quot; said he, &quot;and get out
+the papers of the Conk-Singleton forgery
+case. Good-bye, Lestrade. If any little
+problem comes your way I shall be happy,
+if I can, to give you a hint or two as to its
+solution.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2><i>The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt.</i></h2>
+
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1904, by George Newnes, Limited.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">[These Memoirs, written by the greatest actress of our time, will give not only the story of her career
+in the theatrical world, but also in social life, in which she has, of course, met nearly all the celebrated
+people of the day, from Royalties downwards, and will be found throughout of the most striking
+interest to all classes of readers.]</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER II.&mdash;HOW I BECAME DESTINED FOR THE STAGE.</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 99px;"> <img src="images/ill_p496.jpg" width="99" height="100" alt="I" title="I" />
+</div>
+
+<p> arose one September morning,
+my heart leaping with
+some vague thought of coming
+joy. It was eight o'clock. I
+pressed my forehead against
+the window-panes and gazed
+out, looking at I know not what. I had been
+roused with a start in the midst of a beautiful
+dream, and I rushed towards the light, as if
+in the hope of finding in the infinite space
+of the grey sky some explanation of the feelings
+that possessed me&mdash;the anxiety, and
+yet the bliss, of expectation. Expectation
+of what? I could not have answered that
+question then, any more than after much
+reflection I can do so now. I was on the
+eve of my fourteenth birthday, and I was in
+a state of expectation as to the future of my
+life. That particular morning seemed to me
+to be the precursor of a new era. I was not
+mistaken, for on that September day my fate
+was settled for me.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 427px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p497.jpg" width="427" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;I HAD BEEN ROUSED WITH A START IN THE MIDST OF A BEAUTIFUL DREAM.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Drawing by G. Clairin.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">As if hypnotized by what was taking place
+in my mind, I remained with my forehead
+pressed against the window-pane, gazing in
+imagination through the halo of vapour
+formed by my breath at houses, palaces,
+carriages, jewels, pearls, which passed in
+fantasy before my eyes. Oh! what pearls
+there were! And there were princes and
+kings also; yes, I saw even kings! Oh!
+how fast imagination travels when left by its
+enemy, reason, free to roam alone! In my
+fancy I proudly rejected the princes, I rejected
+the kings, I refused the pearls and the
+palaces, and I declared that I was going to
+be a nun. For in the infinite grey sky I had
+caught a glimpse of the convent of Grand
+Champ, of my white bedroom, and of the small
+lamp that swung to and fro above the little
+Virgin which our hands had decorated with
+flowers. The king offered me a throne, but
+I preferred the throne of our Mother Superior,
+and I entertained a vague ambition to occupy
+it on some distant day. The king was heart-broken
+and dying of despair. Yes, <i>mon Dieu</i>!
+I preferred to the pearls that were offered me
+by princes the pearls of the rosary I was
+telling with my fingers; and no costume
+could compete in my mind with the black
+<i>barège</i> veil that fell like a soft shadow over
+the snowy white cambric that encircled the
+beloved faces of the nuns of Grand Champ.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I do not know how long I had been
+dreaming thus when I heard my mother's
+voice asking our old servant, Marguerite, if
+I were awake. With one bound I was back
+in bed, and I buried my face under the
+sheet. Mamma half-opened the door very
+gently and I pretended to wake up.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How lazy you are to-day!&quot; she said. I
+kissed her, and answered in a coaxing tone,
+&quot;It is Thursday, and I have no music
+lesson.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And are you glad?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, yes,&quot; I replied, promptly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">My mother frowned; she adored music,
+and I hated the piano. She was so fond of
+music that, although she was then nearly
+thirty, she took lessons herself in order to
+encourage me to practise. What horrible
+torture it was! I used very wickedly to do
+my utmost to set at variance my mother and
+my music mistress. They were both of them
+excessively short-sighted. When my mother
+had practised a new piece three or four
+days she knew it by heart, and played it
+fairly well, to the astonishment of Mlle.
+Clarisse, my insufferable old teacher, who
+held the music in her hand and read every
+note with her nose nearly touching the page.
+One day I heard, with joy, a quarrel beginning
+between mamma and this disagreeable
+person, Mlle. Clarisse.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There, that's a quaver!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, there's no quaver!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is a flat!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, you forget the sharp! How absurd
+you are!&quot; added my mother, perfectly furious.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A few minutes later my mother went to
+her room and Mlle. Clarisse departed,
+muttering as she left.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As for me, I was choking with laughter in
+my bedroom, for one of my cousins, who was
+very musical, had helped me to add sharps,
+flats, and quavers to the music-sheet, and we
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page497" id="page497"></a>[pg&nbsp;497]</span>
+had done it with such care that even a
+trained eye would have had difficulty in
+immediately discerning the fraud. As Mlle.
+Clarisse had been sent off, I had no lesson
+that day. Mamma gazed at me a long time
+with her mysterious eyes&mdash;the most beautiful
+eyes I have ever seen in my life&mdash;and then she
+said, speaking very slowly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;After luncheon there is to be a family
+council.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I felt myself turning pale.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All right,&quot; I answered; &quot;what frock am
+I to put on, mamma?&quot; I said this merely
+for the sake of saying something and to keep
+myself from crying.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Put on your blue silk; you look more
+staid in that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Just at this moment my sister Jeanne
+opened the door boisterously, and with a
+burst of laughter jumped on to my bed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page498" id="page498"></a>[pg&nbsp;498]</span>
+and, slipping under the sheets, called out:
+&quot;I'm there!&quot; Marguerite had followed her
+into the room, panting and scolding. The
+child had escaped from her just as she was
+about to bath her, and had announced:
+&quot;I'm going into my sister's bed.&quot; Jeanne's
+mirth at this moment, which I felt was a
+very serious one for me, made me burst out
+crying and sobbing. My mother, not understanding
+the reason of this grief, shrugged
+her shoulders, told Marguerite to fetch
+Jeanne's slippers, and, taking the little bare
+feet in her hands,
+kissed them tenderly.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 434px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p498.jpg" width="434" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">MME. BERNHARDT'S SISTER, JEANNE, AT THE AGE AT
+WHICH SHE IS DESCRIBED IN THIS CHAPTER.</p>
+
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by Delintraz.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">I sobbed more
+bitterly than ever.
+It was very evident
+that mamma loved
+my sister more than
+me, and this preference,
+which did not
+trouble me in an
+ordinary way, hurt
+me sorely now.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mamma went
+away quite out of
+patience with me.
+The nervous state in
+which I was, together
+with my anxiety and
+grief, had quite exhausted
+me. I fell
+asleep again and was
+roused by Marguerite,
+who helped me
+to dress, as otherwise
+I should have been
+late for luncheon.
+The guests that day
+were Aunt Rosine;
+Mlle. de Brabender,
+my governess, a
+charming creature
+whom I have always
+regretted; my godfather,
+and the Duc
+de Morny, a great
+friend of my godfather
+and of my mother. The luncheon
+was a melancholy meal for me, as I was
+thinking all the time about the family council.
+Mlle. de Brabender, in her gentle way and
+with her affectionate words, insisted on my
+eating. My sister burst out laughing when
+she looked at me.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your eyes are as little as that,&quot; she
+said, putting her small thumb on the tip
+of her forefinger, &quot;and it serves you right,
+because you've been crying, and mamma
+doesn't like anyone to cry. Do you,
+mamma?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What have you been crying about?&quot;
+asked the Duc de Morny. I did not
+answer, in spite of the friendly nudge Mlle.
+de Brabender gave me with her sharp elbow.
+The Duc de Morny always awed me a little.
+He was gentle and kind, but he was a great
+quiz. I knew, too, that he occupied a high
+place at Court, and that my family considered
+his friendship a great honour.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Because I told her that after luncheon
+there was to be a
+family council about
+her,&quot; said my mother,
+speaking slowly. &quot;At
+times it seems to me
+that she is really
+idiotic. She quite
+disheartens me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come, come!&quot;
+exclaimed my godfather,
+and Aunt
+Rosine said something
+in English to
+the Duc de Morny
+which made him
+smile shrewdly
+under his fine moustache.
+Mlle. de Brabender
+scolded me
+in a low voice, and
+her scoldings were
+like words from
+Heaven. When at
+last luncheon was
+over, mamma told
+me, as she passed, to
+pour out the coffee.
+Marguerite helped
+me to arrange the
+cups and I went into
+the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Maître G&mdash;&mdash;, the
+notary from Havre,
+whom I detested,
+was already there.
+He represented the
+family of my father, who had died a few
+years before at Pisa in a way which had
+never been explained, but which seemed
+mysterious. My childish hatred was instinctive,
+and I learnt later on that this
+man had been my father's bitter enemy. He
+was very, very ugly, this notary; his whole
+face seemed to have moved upwards. It was
+as though he had been hanging by his hair
+for a long time, and his eyes, his mouth, his
+cheeks, and his nose had got into the habit of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page499" id="page499"></a>[pg&nbsp;499]</span>
+trying to reach the back of his head. He
+ought to have had a joyful expression, as so
+many of his features turned up, but instead of
+this his face was smooth and sinister. He
+had red hair, planted in his head like couch
+grass, and on his nose he wore a pair of gold-rimmed
+spectacles. Oh, the horrible man!
+What a torturing nightmare the very memory
+of him is, for he was the evil genius of my
+father, and his hatred now pursued me!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p499a.jpg" width="700" height="326" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">THE HAVRE NOTARY IN HIS OFFICE. <i>From a Drawing.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">My poor grandmother, since the death of
+my father, never went out, but spent her time
+mourning the loss of her beloved son, who
+had died so young.
+She had absolute faith
+in this man, who, besides,
+was the executor
+of my father's will.
+He had the control of
+the money which my
+dear father had left
+me. I was not to
+touch it until the day
+of my marriage, but
+my mother was to use
+the interest for my
+education.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 539px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p499b.jpg" width="539" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">FÉLIX FAURE. <i>From a Drawing</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">My uncle, Félix
+Faure (no relation of
+the late President),
+was also there. He
+was a very delightful
+man, handsome, too,
+and he had a deep,
+sympathetic voice. I
+loved him dearly, and,
+indeed, I love him
+now, although I have not seen him for a long
+time, as he has buried himself alive at the
+Grande Chartreuse, to await there, far away
+from the rest of the world, the time when he
+will rejoin those whom he loved so dearly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Seated near the fireplace, buried in an
+arm-chair, M. Lesprin pulled out his watch
+in a querulous way. He was an old friend
+of the family, and he always called me &quot;<i>ma
+fil</i>,&quot; which annoyed me greatly, as did his
+familiarity. He considered me stupid, and
+when I handed him his coffee he said, in a
+jeering tone: &quot;And is it for you, <i>ma fil</i>, that
+so many honest
+people have been hindered
+in their work?
+We have plenty of
+other things to attend
+to, I can assure you,
+than to discuss the
+fate of a little brat like
+you. Ah, if it had
+been her sister, there
+would have been no
+difficulty,&quot; and with
+his benumbed fingers
+he patted Jeanne's
+head, as she sat on the
+floor plaiting the fringe
+of the sofa upon
+which he was seated.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When the coffee
+had been taken, the
+cups carried away,
+and my sister also,
+there was a short
+silence. The Duc
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page500" id="page500"></a>[pg&nbsp;500]</span>
+de Morny rose to take his leave, but my
+mother begged him to stay. &quot;You will be
+able to advise us,&quot; she urged, and the Duke
+took his seat again near my aunt, with whom,
+it seemed to me, he was carrying on a slight
+flirtation. Mamma had moved nearer to the
+window, her embroidery-frame in front of her,
+and her beautiful, clear-cut profile showing to
+advantage against the light. She looked as
+though she had nothing to do with what was
+about to be discussed. The hideous notary
+was standing up by the chimneypiece, and
+my uncle had
+drawn me near to
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">My godfather,
+Régis de L&mdash;&mdash;,
+seemed to be the
+exact counterpart
+of M. Lesprin;
+they both of them
+had the same
+bourgeois mind,
+and were equally
+stubborn and
+obstinate. They
+were both devoted
+to whist and good
+wine, and they
+both agreed that
+I was thin enough
+for a scarecrow.
+The door opened
+and a pale, dark-haired
+woman entered,
+a most
+poetical-looking
+and charming
+creature. It was
+Mme. Guérard,
+&quot;the lady of the
+upstairs flat,&quot; as
+Marguerite always
+called her. My
+mother had made
+friends with her,
+in rather a patronizing
+way certainly,
+but Mme. Guérard was devoted to me
+and endured the little slights to which she was
+treated very patiently for my sake. She was
+tall and slender as a lath, very compliant and
+demure. She had no hat on, and was wearing
+an indoor gown of <i>indienne</i> with a design
+of little brown leaves.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 464px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p500.jpg" width="464" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">MME. GUÉRARD, THE GREAT FRIEND OF SARAH BERNHARDT
+WHEN A CHILD. <i>From a Photo. by Delintraz.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">M. Lesprin muttered something, I did not
+catch what. The abominable man gave a
+very curt bow, as Mme. Guérard was so
+simply dressed. The Duc de Morny was
+very gracious, for the new-comer was so
+pretty. My godfather merely bent his head,
+as Mme. Guérard was nothing to him. Aunt
+Rosine glanced at her from head to foot&mdash;Mme.
+Guérard was by no means rich. Mlle.
+de Brabender shook hands cordially with
+her, for Mme. Guérard was fond of me.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">My uncle, Félix Faure, gave her a chair
+and asked her to sit down, and then inquired
+in a kindly way about her husband, a <i>savant</i>,
+with whom my uncle collaborated sometimes
+for his book, &quot;The Life of St. Louis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mamma had
+merely glanced
+across the room
+without raising her
+head, for Mme.
+Guérard did not
+prefer my sister to
+me.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, as we
+have come here
+on account of this
+child,&quot; said my
+godfather, looking
+at his watch, &quot;we
+must begin and
+discuss what is to
+be done with her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I began to
+tremble, and drew
+closer to &quot;<i>mon
+petit dame</i>,&quot; as I
+had always called
+Mme. Guérard
+from my infancy,
+and to Mlle. de
+Brabender. They
+each took my
+hand by way of
+encouraging me.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; continued
+M. Lesprin,
+with a laugh,
+&quot;it appears you
+want to be a nun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah, indeed?&quot;
+said the Duc
+de Morny to Aunt Rosine.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;'Sh! Be serious,&quot; she remarked.
+Mamma shrugged her shoulders and held
+her wools up close to her eyes to match
+them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You have to be rich, though, to enter a
+convent,&quot; grunted the Havre notary, &quot;and
+you have not a sou.&quot; I leaned towards
+Mlle. de Brabender and whispered, &quot;I have
+the money that papa left.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The horrid man overheard.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page501" id="page501"></a>[pg&nbsp;501]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your father left some money to get you
+married,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, then, I'll marry the <i>bon Dieu</i>,&quot; I
+answered, and my voice was quite resolute
+now. I turned very red, and for the second
+time in my life I felt a desire and a strong
+inclination to fight for myself. I had no
+more fear, as everyone had gone too far and
+provoked me too much. I slipped away
+from my two kind friends and advanced
+towards the other group.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I will be a nun, I will!&quot; I exclaimed.
+&quot;I know that papa left me some money so
+that I should be married, and I know that
+the nuns marry the Saviour. Mamma says
+she does not care, it is all the same to her;
+so that it won't be vexing her at all, and they
+love me better at the convent than you do
+here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My dear child,&quot; said my uncle, drawing
+me towards him, &quot;your religious vocation
+appears to me to be mainly a wish to have
+someone to care for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And to be cared for herself,&quot; murmured
+Mme. Guérard, in a very low voice.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Everyone glanced at mamma, who shrugged
+her shoulders slightly. It seemed to me as
+though the glance they all gave her was a
+reproachful one, and I felt a pang of remorse
+at once. I went across to her and, throwing
+my arms round her neck, said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You don't mind my being a nun, do
+you? It won't make you unhappy, will it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mamma stroked my hair, of which she
+was very proud.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, it would make me unhappy. You
+know very well that, after your sister, I love
+you better than anyone else in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She said this very slowly in a gentle voice.
+It was like the sound of a little waterfall as it
+flows down, babbling and clear, from the
+mountain, dragging with it the gravel, and
+gradually increasing in volume, with the
+thawed snow, until it sweeps away rocks and
+trees in its course. This was the effect my
+mother's clear, drawling voice had upon me
+at that moment. I rushed back impulsively
+to the others, who were all speechless at
+this unexpected and spontaneous burst of
+eloquence. I went from one to the other,
+explaining my decision, and giving reasons
+which were certainly no reasons at all. I
+did my utmost to get someone to support me
+in the matter. Finally the Duc de Morny
+was bored, and rose to go.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you know what you ought to do with
+this child?&quot; he said. &quot;You ought to send
+her to the Conservatoire.&quot; He then patted
+my cheek, kissed my aunt's hand, and bowed
+to all the others. As he bent over my
+mother's hand, I heard him say to her,
+&quot;You would have made a bad diplomatist,
+but take my advice and send her to the
+Conservatoire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He then took his departure, and I gazed
+at everyone in perfect anguish.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Conservatoire! What was it? What
+did it mean?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I went up to my governess, Mlle. de
+Brabender. Her lips were firmly pressed
+together, and she looked shocked, just as
+she did sometimes when my godfather told,
+at table, some story of which she did not
+approve. My uncle, Félix Faure, was looking
+at the floor in an absent-minded way;
+the notary had a spiteful look in his eyes;
+my aunt was holding forth in a very excited
+manner; and M. Lesprin kept shaking his
+head and muttering, &quot;Perhaps&mdash;yes&mdash;who
+knows? Hum! hum!&quot; Mme. Guérard was
+very pale and sad, and she looked at me with
+infinite tenderness.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">What could be this Conservatoire? The
+word uttered so carelessly seemed to have
+entirely disturbed the equanimity of all these
+people. Each of them seemed to me to have
+a different impression about it, but none
+looked pleased. Suddenly, in the midst of
+the general embarrassment, my godfather
+exclaimed, brutally:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She is too thin to make an actress.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I won't be an actress!&quot; I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You don't know what an actress is,&quot; said
+my aunt.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, yes, I do. Rachel is an actress!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You know Rachel?&quot; asked mamma,
+getting up.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, yes; she came to the convent once
+to see little Adèle Sarony. She went all over
+the convent and into the garden, and she
+had to sit down because she could not get
+her breath. They fetched her something to
+bring her round, and she was so pale&mdash;oh,
+so pale! I was very sorry for her, and Sister
+Appoline told me that what she did was
+killing her, for she was an actress, and so I
+won't be an actress, I won't!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I had said all this in a breath, with my
+cheeks on fire and my voice hard.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I remembered all that Sister Appoline had
+told me, and Mother Sainte-Sophie, too, the
+Superior of the convent. I remembered,
+too, that when Rachel had gone out of the
+garden, looking very pale and holding a
+lady's arm for support, a little girl had put
+her tongue out at her. I did not want people
+to put out their tongues at me when I was
+grown up. There were a hundred other
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page502" id="page502"></a>[pg&nbsp;502]</span>
+things, too, to which I objected, and about
+which I have only a vague memory now.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">My godfather laughed heartily, but my
+uncle was very grave. The others discussed
+the matter in a very excited way with my
+mother, who looked weary and bored.
+Mlle. de Brabender and Mme. Guérard were
+arguing in a low voice, and I thought of
+the aristocratic man who had just left us.
+I was very angry with him, for this idea of
+the Conservatoire was his. &quot;Conservatoire!&quot;
+This word frightened me. It was he who
+wanted me to be an actress, and now he had
+disappeared, and I could not talk the matter
+over with him. He had gone away smiling
+and tranquil, patting my head in the most
+ordinary yet friendly way. He had gone off
+without troubling a straw about the poor little,
+meagre child whose future was being discussed.
+&quot;Send her to the Conservatoire,&quot;
+and this phrase, that had come to his lips so
+easily, was like a veritable bomb hurled into
+my life. I, the little, dreamy child, who that
+morning had rejected princes and kings; I,
+whose trembling fingers had only that
+morning told over whole rosaries of dreams
+and fancies; I, who only a few hours before
+had felt my heart beat wildly with some
+inexplicable emotion, and who had got up
+expecting some great event to happen during
+the day! Everything had given way under
+that phrase, which seemed as heavy as lead
+and as murderous as a cannon-ball. <i>Send
+her to the Conservatoire!</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">I guessed somehow that that phrase was
+destined to be the finger-post of my life. All
+these people had stopped at the bend of the
+road where there were crossways.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><i>Send her to the Conservatoire!</i> I wanted
+to be a nun, and they all thought that absurd,
+idiotic, unreasonable. Those words, &quot;Send
+her to the Conservatoire,&quot; had opened up a
+new field of discussion, widened the horizon
+of the future. My uncle, Félix Faure, and
+Mlle. de Brabender were the only ones who
+disapproved of this idea, but they were in
+the minority&mdash;a passive minority which felt
+for me. I got very nervous and excited, and
+my mother sent me away. Mlle. de Brabender
+tried to console me. Mme. Guérard said
+that this career had its advantages. Mlle.
+de Brabender considered that the convent
+would have a great fascination for so dreamy
+a nature as mine. The one was very
+religious and a great church-goer, and the
+other was a pagan in the purest acceptation
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page503" id="page503"></a>[pg&nbsp;503]</span>
+of that word, and yet the two women got on
+very well together, thanks to their affectionate
+devotion to me.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mme. Guérard adored the proud rebelliousness
+of my nature, my pretty face, and the
+slenderness of my figure; Mlle. de Brabender
+was touched by my delicate health. She
+spent no end of time trying to smooth my
+refractory hair. She endeavoured to comfort
+me when I was jealous at not being loved as
+much as my sister; but what she liked best
+about me was my voice. She always declared
+that my voice was modulated for prayers,
+and my delight in the convent appeared to
+her quite natural. She loved me with a
+gentle, pious affection, and Mme. Guérard
+loved me with bursts of paganism. These
+two women, whose memory is still dear to
+me, shared me between them, and made the
+best of my good qualities and my faults.
+I certainly owe to both of them this
+study of myself and the vision I have of
+myself.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The day was destined to end in the
+strangest of fashions. Mme. Guérard had
+gone back to her apartment upstairs, and I was
+lying back on a little straw arm-chair, which
+was the most ornamental piece of furniture
+in my room. I felt very drowsy, and was
+holding Mlle. de
+Brabender's hand
+in mine when
+the door opened
+and my aunt
+entered, followed
+by my mother.
+I can see them
+now&mdash;my aunt in
+her dress of puce
+silk trimmed
+with fur, her
+brown velvet hat
+tied under her
+chin with long,
+wide strings,
+and mamma, who
+had taken off her
+dress and put on
+a white woollen
+dressing-gown.
+She always detested keeping on her dress in
+the house, and I understood by her change of
+costume that everyone had gone and that my
+aunt was ready to leave. I got up from my arm-chair,
+but mamma made me sit down again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Rest yourself thoroughly,&quot; she said, &quot;for
+we are going to take you to the theatre this
+evening&mdash;to the Français.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p502.jpg" width="700" height="517" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">THE THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS, TO WHICH SARAH BERNHARDT WAS TAKEN TO SEE HER FIRST PLAY WHEN HER DESTINY
+FOR THE STAGE HAD BEEN DECIDED. <i>From a Photo.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">I felt sure that this was just a bait, and I
+would not show any sign of pleasure, although
+in my heart I was delighted at the idea of
+going to the Français. The only theatre I
+knew anything of was the Robert Houdin, to
+which I was taken sometimes with my sister,
+and I fancy that it was for her benefit we
+went, as I was really too old to care for that
+kind of performance.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Will you come with us?&quot; mamma said,
+turning to Mlle. de Brabender.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Willingly, madame,&quot; she replied. &quot;I will
+go home and change my dress.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">My aunt laughed at my sullen looks.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Little fraud,&quot; she said, as she went
+away, &quot;you are hiding your delight. Ah,
+well, you will see some actresses to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is Rachel going to act?&quot; I asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, no; she is ill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">My aunt kissed me and went away, saying
+she should see me again later on, and
+my mother followed her out of the room.
+Mlle. de Brabender then prepared to leave
+me, as she had to go home to dress, and
+to say that she would not be in until quite
+late. She lived at a convent where old maids
+and widows were taken as boarders, and
+special permission had to be obtained when
+one wished to be out later than ten at night.
+When I was alone I swung myself backwards
+and forwards
+in my arm-chair,
+which, by
+the way, was anything
+but a rocking
+chair. I began
+to think, and
+for the first time
+in my life my
+critical comprehension
+came to
+my aid. And so
+all these serious
+people had
+been inconvenienced,
+the notary
+fetched from
+Havre, my uncle
+dragged away
+from working
+at his book, the
+old bachelor, M. Lesprin, disturbed in his
+habits and customs, my godfather kept away
+from the Stock Exchange, and that aristocratic
+and sceptical Duc de Morny cramped
+up for two hours in the midst of our
+bourgeois surroundings, and all to end in this
+decision: <i>she shall be taken to the theatre</i>!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I do not know what part my uncle
+had taken in this burlesque plan, but I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page504" id="page504"></a>[pg&nbsp;504]</span>
+doubt whether it was
+to his taste. All
+the same, I was glad
+to go to the theatre;
+it made me feel more
+important. That morning
+on waking up I
+was quite a child, and
+now events had taken
+place which had transformed
+me into a young
+woman. I had been
+discussed by everyone,
+and I had expressed my
+wishes&mdash;without any
+result, certainly; but all
+the same I had expressed
+them, and now it
+was deemed necessary
+to humour and indulge
+me in order to win me
+over. They could not
+force me into agreeing
+to what they wanted
+me to do; my consent
+was necessary; and
+I felt so joyful and so
+proud about it that I
+was quite touched and
+almost ready to yield.
+I said to myself that
+it would be better to hold my own and let
+them ask me again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">After dinner we all squeezed into a cab&mdash;mamma,
+my godfather, Mlle. de Brabender,
+and I. My godfather made me a present of
+some white gloves.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p503.jpg" width="700" height="518" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">THE HALL AND STAIRCASE OF THE THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">On mounting the steps at the Français I
+trod on a lady's dress. She turned round
+and called me a &quot;stupid child.&quot; I moved
+back hastily and came into collision with a
+very stout old gentleman, who gave me a
+rough push forward, so that I felt inclined to
+burst out crying.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 385px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p504.jpg" width="385" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">THE BOXES OF THE THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS, FROM ONE OF
+WHICH SARAH BERNHARDT SAW HER FIRST PLAY.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">When once we were all installed in a box
+facing the stage, mamma and I in the first
+row, with Mlle. de Brabender behind me, I
+felt more reassured. I was close against the
+partition of the box, and I could feel Mlle.
+de Brabender's sharp knees through the velvet
+of my chair. This gave me confidence, and
+I leaned against the back of the chair, purposely
+to feel the support of those two knees.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When the curtain slowly rose I thought I
+should have fainted. It was as though the
+curtain of my future life were being raised.
+Those columns (&quot;Britannicus&quot; was being
+played) were to be my palaces, the friezes
+above were to be my
+skies, and those boards
+were to bend under my
+frail weight. I heard
+nothing of &quot;Britannicus,&quot;
+for I was far, far
+away, at Grand Champ,
+in my dormitory
+there.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, what do you
+think of it?&quot; asked my
+godfather, when the
+curtain fell. I did not
+answer, and he laid his
+hand on my head and
+turned my face round
+towards him. I was
+crying, and big tears
+were rolling slowly
+down my cheeks, the
+kind of tears that come
+without any sobs and
+as if there were no
+hope that they would
+ever cease.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">My godfather shrugged
+his shoulders and,
+getting up, left the box,
+banging the door after
+him. Mamma, losing
+all patience with me,
+proceeded to review the house through
+her opera-glass. Mlle. de. Brabender passed
+me her handkerchief, for my own had fallen,
+and I had not the courage to pick it up.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When the curtain rose on the second
+piece, &quot;Amphitryon,&quot; I made an effort to
+listen, in order to please my governess, who
+was so kind and so conciliating. I remember
+only one thing about it, and that was I
+was so sorry for Alemène, who seemed to
+be so unhappy, that I burst into audible
+sobs, and that everyone, much amused,
+looked at our box. My mother was most
+annoyed, and promptly took me out, accompanied
+by Mlle. de Brabender, leaving my
+godfather furious. &quot;<i>Bon Dieu de bois!</i>&quot; I
+heard him mutter, &quot;what an idiot the child
+is! They'd better put her in the convent
+and let her stop there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">My teeth were chattering when Mlle. de Brabender,
+helped by Marguerite, put me to
+bed. Mme. Guérard was there too; she
+had been listening for my return, as though
+foreseeing what would happen.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I did not get up again for six weeks, and
+only narrowly escaped dying of brain fever.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Such was the <i>début</i> of my artistic career.</p>
+
+<p class="center">(<i>To be continued.</i>)</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img src="images/ill_p505a.jpg" width="700" height="280" alt="The Mutinous
+Conduct of Mrs
+Ryder.
+
+By Morley
+Roberts." title="The Mutinous
+Conduct of Mrs
+Ryder.
+
+By Morley
+Roberts." />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 101px;"> <img src="images/ill_p505.jpg" width="101" height="100" alt="A" title="A" />
+</div>
+
+<p>LTHOUGH Watchett of the
+<i>Battle-Axe</i> and Ryder of the
+<i>Star of the South</i> were cousins,
+there was no great love lost
+between them, and all unprejudiced
+observers declared
+that this lack of mutual admiration was in
+no way due to Captain Ryder. That they
+remained friends at all was owing largely to
+his infinite good nature, and to the further
+fact that Mrs. Ryder pitied Mrs. Watchett.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I wonder she goes to sea with him at
+all,&quot; she said. &quot;If you were one quarter as
+horrid as your cousin, Will, I should never
+go to sea till you came ashore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But she always went to sea with Will
+Ryder. It was their great delight to be
+together, and there were few men, married or
+single, who did not take a certain pleasure
+in seeing how fond they were of each other.
+He was a typical seaman of the best kind;
+he had a fine voice for singing and for hailing
+the foretopsail yard; his eyes were as blue
+as forget-me-nots, and his skin was as clear
+as the air on the Cordilleras which peeped
+at them over the tops of the barren hills
+which surround the Bay of Valparaiso. And
+Mrs. Ryder was just the kind of wife for a
+man who was somewhat inclined to take
+things easily. If she was as pretty as the
+peach, she had, like the peach, something
+inside which was not altogether soft. Her
+brown eyes could turn black&mdash;she had resolution
+and courage.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You shall not put up with it,&quot; was a
+favourite expression on her tongue. And
+there were times, to use his own expression,
+when she made sail when he would have
+shortened it. In that sense she was certainly
+capable of &quot;carrying on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Both vessels were barques of about eleven
+hundred tons register, and if the <i>Star of the
+South</i> had about twenty tons to the good in
+size she was rather harder to work. It is
+the nature of ships to develop in certain
+ways, and though both of these barques were
+sister ships it is always certain that sisters
+are never quite alike. But as they belonged
+to the same Port of London, and were owned
+by two branches of the same family, all of
+whose money was divided up in sixty-fourths,
+according to the common rule with ships,
+they were rivals and rival beauties. But,
+unlike the more respectable ladies who
+owned them, both the vessels were fast, and
+it was a sore point of honour with Ryder and
+Watchett to prove their own the fastest.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If she only worked a little easier, I could
+lick his head off,&quot; said Ryder, sadly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But there was the rub. The <i>Star of the
+South</i> needed more &quot;beef&quot; on her than the
+<i>Battle-Axe</i>. She wasn't so quick in stays.
+By the time Ryder yelled &quot;Let go and haul,&quot;
+the <i>Battle-Axe</i> was gathering headway on a
+fresh tack.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And instead of having two more hands
+than we are allowed, we are two short,&quot; said
+his wife, bitterly. &quot;If I were you, Will, I'd
+take those Greeks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not by an entire jugful,&quot; replied Captain
+Ryder. &quot;I remember the <i>Lennie</i> and the
+<i>Caswell</i>, my dear. I never knew Valparaiso
+so bare of men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And we're sailing to-morrow,&quot; said
+Connie Ryder, angrily; &quot;and you've betted
+him a hundred pounds we shall dock before
+him. It's too bad. I wonder whether he'd
+give us another day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But Ryder shook his head.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And you've known him for years! He's
+spending that money in his mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But not on his wife, Will,&quot; said Mrs.
+Ryder. &quot;If we win, I'm to have it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'd give him twenty to let me off,&quot; said
+Ryder.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But Connie Ryder went on board the
+<i>Battle-Axe</i> to see if she could induce her
+husband's cousin to forego the advantage he
+had already gained before sailing. She found
+him dark and grim and as hard as adamant.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A bet's a bet and business is business,&quot;
+said Watchett. &quot;We appointed to-morrow,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page506" id="page506"></a>[pg&nbsp;506]</span>
+and, bar lying out a gale from the north, with
+two anchors down and the cables out to the
+bitter end, I'll sail.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">His wife, who was as meek as milk,
+suggested humbly that it would be more
+interesting if he waited.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I ain't in this for interest; I'm in it for
+capital,&quot; said Watchett, grinning gloomily.
+&quot;The more like a dead certainty it looks the
+better I shall be pleased.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mrs. Ryder darkened.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't think you're a sportsman,&quot; she
+said, rather shortly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I ain't,&quot; retorted old Watchett; &quot;I'm a
+seaman, and him that'd go to sea for sport
+would go to Davy Jones for pastime. You
+can tell Bill that I'll give him ten per cent.
+discount for cash now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As Mrs. Ryder knew that he never called
+her husband &quot;Bill&quot; unless he desired to be
+more or less offensive, she showed unmistakable
+signs of temper.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If I ever get half a chance to make you
+sorry, I will,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Let it go at that,&quot; said Watchett, sulkily.
+&quot;I got on all right with Bill before you took
+to going to sea with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He was too soft with you,&quot; said Bill's
+wife.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And a deal softer with you than I'd be,&quot;
+said Watchett.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, please, please don't,&quot; cried Mary
+Watchett, in great distress.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I thought you were a gentleman,&quot; said
+Connie Ryder.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 674px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p506.jpg" width="674" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;'I THOUGHT YOU WERE A GENTLEMAN,' SAID CONNIE RYDER.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not you,&quot; replied Watchett; &quot;you never,
+and you know it. I'm not one and never
+hankered to be. I'm rough and tough
+and a seaman of the old school. I'm
+no sea dandy. I'm Jack Watchett, as
+plain as you like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're much plainer than
+I like,&quot; retorted his cousin's
+wife, &quot;very much plainer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And though she kissed Mary
+Watchett she wondered greatly
+how any woman could kiss
+Mary Watchett's husband.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If I ever get a chance,&quot;
+she said. &quot;But there, how
+can I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She wept a little out of pure
+anger as she returned to the
+<i>Star of the South</i>. When
+she got on board she found
+the mate and second mate
+standing by the gangway.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is there no chance of
+these men, Mr. Semple&quot;?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No more than if it was the year '49 and this
+was San Francisco,&quot; said the mate, who was
+a hoary-headed old sea-dog, a great deal more
+like the old school than &quot;plain Jack Watchett.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why doesna the captain take they
+Greeks, ma'am?&quot; asked McGill, the second
+mate, who had been almost long enough out
+of Scotland to forget his own language.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Because he doesn't like any but Englishmen,&quot;
+said Connie Ryder.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And Scotch, of course,&quot; she added, as
+she saw McGill's jaw fall a little. &quot;I've
+been trying to get Captain Watchett to give
+us another day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All our ship and cargo to a paper-bag of
+beans he didn't, ma'am,&quot; said Semple.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I&mdash;I hate him,&quot; cried Connie Ryder, as
+she entered the cabin.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She's as keen as mustard&mdash;as red pepper,&quot;
+said Semple; &quot;if she'd been a man she'd
+have made a seaman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've never sailed wi' a skeeper's wife
+before,&quot; said McGill, who had shipped in the
+<i>Star of the South</i> a week earlier, in place of
+the second mate, who had been given his
+discharge for drunkenness. &quot;Is she at all
+interferin', Mr. Semple? &quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Old Semple nodded.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She interferes some, and it would be an
+obstinate cook that disputed with her. She
+made a revolution in the galley, my word,
+when she first came on board. Some would
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page507" id="page507"></a>[pg&nbsp;507]</span>
+say she cockered the crew over-much, but I
+was long enough in the fo'c's'le not to forget
+that even a hog of a man don't do best on
+hogwash.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Which was a marvellous concession on the
+part of any of the after-guard of any ship,
+seeing how the notion persists among owners,
+and even among officers, that the worse men
+are treated the better they work.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She seems a comfortable ship,&quot; owned
+McGill.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And so everyone on board of her allowed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Though she is a bit of a heart-breaker to
+handle,&quot; said the men for'ard. &quot;But for that
+she be a daisy. And to think that the bally
+<i>Battle-Axe</i> goes about like a racing yacht!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It made them sore to think of it. But it
+also made the men on board their rival sore
+to think how comfortable the <i>Star of the
+South</i> was in all other respects.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Owing to the fact that the <i>Battle-Axe's</i>
+crowd was sulky, the <i>Star of the South</i> got her
+anchor out of the ground and stood to the
+north-west to round Point Angelos a good
+ten minutes before Watchett's vessel was
+under way.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's good,&quot; said Connie Ryder. &quot;I
+know they're a sulky lot by now in the <i>Battle-Axe</i>.
+And our men work like dears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was with difficulty she kept from tailing
+on to the braces as they jammed the <i>Star</i>
+close up to weather the Point. For the wind
+was drawing down the coast from the nor'ard,
+and Valparaiso harbour faces due north. She
+was glad when they rounded the Point and
+squared away, for if there was any real difference
+in the sailing qualities of the rival
+barques, the <i>Star</i> was best before the wind and
+the <i>Battle-Axe</i> when she was in a bow-line.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And with any real luck,&quot; said Mrs. Ryder,
+&quot;we may have a good fair wind all the way
+till we cross the line.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was so far ahead to consider the north-east
+trades, which meant such mighty long
+stretches in a wind, that she declined to think
+of them. And she entirely forgot the calms
+of Capricorn.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We're doing very well, Will,&quot; she said to
+her husband when the starboard watch went
+below and the routine of the passage home
+commenced.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's early days,&quot; replied Will Ryder. &quot;I
+fancy the <i>Battle-Axe</i> is in her best trim for a
+wind astern.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But Mrs. Ryder didn't believe it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And if she is, she mayn't be so good
+when it comes to beating.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She knew what she was talking about and
+spoke good sense.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's going to be luck,&quot; said Ryder. &quot;If
+either of us get a good slant that the other
+misses, the last will be out of it. But I
+wish I'd had those other two hands. The
+<i>Star</i> wants 'beef' on the braces. Mr.
+Semple, as soon as possible see all the parrals
+greased and the blocks running as free as
+you can make 'em.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And Semple did his best, as the crew did.
+But Mrs. Ryder had her doubts as to whether
+her husband was doing his. For once he
+seemed to think failure was a foregone
+conclusion.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think it must be his liver,&quot; said Mrs.
+Ryder. &quot;I'll see to that at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But instead of looking up the medicine
+chest she came across the Pacific Directory.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I never thought of that,&quot; she said. &quot;He's
+never done it, now he shall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She took the big book down and read one
+part of it eagerly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't see why not,&quot; she decided, and
+she went to her husband with the request that
+he should run through Magellan's Straits
+when he came to it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not for dollars,&quot; said Will Ryder.
+&quot;When I'm skipper of a Pacific Navigation
+boat I'll take you through, but not till
+then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But look at all you cut off,&quot; urged his
+wife, &quot;if you get through.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And how you are cut off if you don't,&quot;
+retorted Ryder. &quot;When I was an apprentice
+I went through in fine weather, and I'd
+rather drive a 'bus down Fleet Street in a
+fog than try it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She said he had very little enterprise and
+pouted.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Suppose the <i>Battle-Axe</i> does it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ryder declined to suppose it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;John wouldn't try it if you could
+guarantee the weather. I know him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You never take my advice,&quot; said his wife.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I love you too much,&quot; replied Will
+Ryder. He put his arm about her, but she
+was cross and pushed him away.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is mutiny,&quot; said the captain, smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, I feel mutinous,&quot; retorted Connie.
+&quot;I wanted you to steal two of your cousin's
+men and you wouldn't. I'm sure they would
+have come, for what the <i>Battle-Axe</i> owed
+them. And you wouldn't. And now I want
+to go through the Straits and you won't.
+The very, very next time that I want to do
+anything I shall do it without asking you.
+Why did you bet a hundred pounds if you
+weren't prepared to try to win it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'll win yet,&quot; said the skipper, cheerfully,
+&quot;We're only just started.&quot;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page508" id="page508"></a>[pg&nbsp;508]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">The two vessels kept company right down
+to the Horn, and there, between Ildefonso
+Island and the Diego Ramirez Islands, the
+<i>Star of the South</i> lost sight of her sister and
+her rival, in a dark sou'-westerly gale. With
+the wind astern as it was when they squared
+away with Cape Horn frowning to the
+nor'-west the <i>Star</i> was a shooting star, as they
+said for'ard.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If we could on'y carry a gale like this
+right to the line, we'd 'ave a pull over the
+<i>Battle-Axe</i>, ma'am,&quot; said Silas Bagge, an old
+fo'c's'le man, who was Mrs. Ryder's favourite
+among all the
+crew. He was
+a magnificent
+old chap with a
+long white
+beard, which he
+wore tucked inside
+a guernsey,
+except in fine
+weather.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But we
+can't; there'll
+be the trades,&quot;
+said the captain's
+wife,
+dolorously.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've picked
+up the sou'-east
+trade blowin' a
+gale, ma'am, before
+now,&quot; said
+Bagge; &quot;years
+ago, in '74 or
+thereabouts, I
+was in the <i>Secunderabad</i>,
+and
+we crossed the
+line, bound
+south, doing
+eleven close-'auled,
+and we
+carried 'em to
+twenty-seven
+south latitude.
+There's times when it's difficult to say where
+the trades begin south too. Mebbe we'll be
+chased by such a gale as this nigh up to
+thirty south.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's hoping too much,&quot; said Mrs. Ryder.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hope till you bust, ma'am,&quot; said Silas
+Bagge. &quot;Nothin's lost till it's won. If we
+can only get out of the doldrums without
+breaking our hearts working the ship, there's
+no knowing what'll 'appen. 'Twas a pity we
+didn't get them other two 'ands, though.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And there she agreed with him.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 525px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p508.jpg" width="525" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;'HOPE TILL YOU BUST, MA'AM,' SAID SILAS BAGGE.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Me and Bob Condy could 'ave got
+Gribbs and Tidewell out of the <i>Battle-Axe</i>
+easy as easy,&quot; said Silas, regretfully. &quot;'Twas
+a lost hopportunity, and there you are.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The honourable conduct of his skipper in
+vetoing this little game seemed no more than
+foolishness to Bagge.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;When we comes to the Hequator and it's
+'square away' and 'brace up' every five
+minutes till one's 'ands are raw, 'twill be a grief
+to every mother's son aboard,&quot; said Bagge, as
+he touched his cap and went for'ard.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But now the <i>Star of the South</i> went booming
+on the outside
+of the Falklands
+with a
+gale that drew
+into the sou'-sou'-west
+and
+howled after
+her. She scooped
+up the seas at
+times and
+dipped her nose
+into them, and
+threw them
+apart and wallowed.
+The men
+were happy, for
+the fo'c's'le
+didn't leak, and
+the galley-fire
+was kept going
+every night to
+dry their clothes.
+At midnight
+every man got
+a mug of cocoa,
+and those that
+rose up called
+Mrs. Ryder
+blessed, and
+those that lay
+down agreed
+with them. The
+<i>Star</i> was a happy
+ship. There was
+no rule against playing the concertina on a
+Sunday in her fo'c's'le, and the men were not
+reduced to playing &quot;blind swaps&quot; with their
+oldest rags for amusement, as they were in
+the <i>Battle-Axe</i>. And yet every man in the
+<i>Star</i> knew his time for growling was coming
+on, with every pitch and send of the sea.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They picked up the trades in nearly 30deg.
+south, with only a few days of a light and
+variable breeze, and the trades were good.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But where's the <i>Battle-Axe</i>?&quot; asked Mrs.
+Ryder.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page509" id="page509"></a>[pg&nbsp;509]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">She kept a bright look-out for her, and
+deeply regretted that her petticoats prevented
+her going aloft to search the horizon for John
+Watchett. She rubbed her hands in hope.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I do believe, Will, that we must be ahead
+of him,&quot; she declared, after the south-east
+trade had been steady on the <i>Star's</i> starboard
+beam for a week.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not much ahead,&quot; replied Will.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And just then Bob Condy, who was aloft
+on the foreto'gallant yard cutting off old
+seizings and putting on new ones, hailed the
+deck.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There's a sail on the port beam, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Take a glass aloft and have a look at
+her, Mr. McGill,&quot; said the skipper. &quot;No,
+never mind, I'll go myself, as you've never
+seen the <i>Battle-Axe</i> at sea. I know the cut
+of her jib, and no mistake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">So Will Ryder went up to the maintop-gallant-yard,
+and with his leg astride of the
+yard took a squint to loo'ard. He shut up
+the glass so quick that his wife knew at once
+that the distant sail was the <i>Battle-Axe</i>. As
+he came down slowly he nodded to her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Rather,&quot; said Ryder. &quot;I'm sorry we've
+no stun-sails. We're carrying all we've got
+and all we can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And to think he's as good as we were on
+our own point of sailing!&quot; said his wife, with
+the most visible vexation. &quot;Can't you do
+anything to make her go faster, Will?&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p509.jpg" width="700" height="637" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;MRS. RYDER SAT ON A HEN-COOP AND NEARLY CRIED.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">And when Will said he couldn't unless he
+got out and pushed, Mrs. Ryder sat on a
+hen-coop and very nearly cried. For if the
+<i>Battle-Axe</i> had done so well up to this she
+would do better in the dead regions of the
+line, and the <i>Star</i> would do much worse.
+There the want of a few more hands would
+tell. The <i>Star</i> was no good at catching
+cat's-paws, and short-handed she worked like
+an unoiled gate.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If I'd only done what Silas Bagge
+wanted,&quot; she said, &quot;we'd have been all right.
+To think that the want of a couple of hands
+should make all the difference.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was cruelly hard, but when vessels are
+undermanned at any time, less than their
+complement means &quot;pull devil, pull baker,&quot;
+with the former best at the tug of war.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For days there was nothing to choose
+between the vessels, save that the unusual
+strength of the trades gave the <i>Star</i> a trifling
+advantage. Every night Watchett took in
+his royals. This Ryder declined to do,
+though he often expected them to take themselves
+in.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What did I say, ma'am?&quot; said old
+Bagge.  &quot;I told you it <i>could</i> blow quite 'eavy
+in its way in the south-east trades.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And thus it happened that what the
+<i>Star</i> lost by day she pulled up by
+night. And presently the <i>Battle-Axe</i>
+edged up closer
+and at last was
+within hailing distance.
+Watchett
+stood on his poop
+with a speaking-trumpet,
+and
+roared in sombre
+triumph:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm as good
+as you this trip on
+your best p'int,
+Ryder!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Tell him to
+go to&mdash;to thunder,&quot;
+said Mrs.
+Ryder, angrily.
+Nevertheless, she
+waved her handkerchief
+to her
+enemy's wife, who
+was standing by
+&quot;plain Jack Watchett.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You've done
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page510" id="page510"></a>[pg&nbsp;510]</span>
+mighty well,&quot; said Ryder, in his turn, &quot;but it
+isn't over yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jack Watchett intimated that he thought
+it was. He offered to double the bet. He
+also undertook to sail round the <i>Star of the
+South</i> in a light wind. He offered to tow
+her, and made himself so disagreeable that
+Mrs. Ryder, who knew what became a lady,
+went below to prevent her snatching the
+speaking-trumpet from her husband and saying
+things for which she would be sorry
+afterwards. But Ryder, though he was by no
+means a saint, kept his temper and only
+replied with chaff, which was much more
+offensive to Watchett than bad language.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And don't be <i>too</i> sure,&quot; he added. &quot;I
+may do you yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not you,&quot; said Watchett. &quot;I'm cocksure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They sailed in company for a week, and
+gradually, as the trade lessened in driving
+power, the <i>Battle-Axe</i> drew ahead inch by
+inch. And as she did Mrs. Ryder's appetite
+failed&mdash;she looked thin and ill.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't feel it so much, chickabiddy,&quot; said
+her husband.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't help it,&quot; sobbed Connie. &quot;I hate
+your cousin. Oh, Will, if you'd only let me
+entice those two men from him. Bagge was
+sure that Gribbs and Tidewell would have
+come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It wouldn't have been fair,&quot; said Ryder.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I&mdash;I&mdash;wanted to win,&quot; replied Connie;
+&quot;and it'll be calm directly, and you know
+what that means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It <i>was</i> calm directly, and very soon everyone
+knew what it meant. For it was a real
+fat streak of a calm that both vessels ran into.
+And as luck would have it the <i>Battle-Axe</i>,
+which was by now almost hull down to the
+nor'ard, got into it first. The <i>Star of the
+South</i> carried the wind with her till she was
+within a mile of her rival. For a whole day
+they pointed their jibbooms alternately at
+Africa and South America, to the North Pole
+and the South. What little breeze there was
+after that day took them farther still into an
+absolute area of no wind at all.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is the flattest calm I ever saw,&quot; said
+Ryder. &quot;In such a calm as this he has no
+advantage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They boxed the compass for the best part
+of a week and lay and cooked in a sun that
+made the deck-seams bubble. At night the
+air was as hot as it had been by day. The
+men lay on deck, on the deck-house, on
+the fo'c's'le head.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is a bally scorcher,&quot; said the crews
+of both ships. &quot;Let's whistle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They whistled feebly, but the god of the
+winds had gone a journey, or was as fast
+asleep as Baal. And day by day the two
+vessels drifted together. At last they had
+to lower the boats and tow them apart.
+Watchett was very sick with the whole
+meteorology of the universe, and being a
+whole-souled man, incapable of more than
+one animosity at a time, he found no leisure
+to spare from reviling a heaven of brass to
+taunt Ryder. At the end of the week he
+even hailed the <i>Star</i> and offered to come on
+board and bring his wife.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't want him,&quot; said Connie Ryder:
+&quot;I won't have him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And as she said so she jumped as if a pin
+had been stuck into her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's the matter?&quot; asked her husband.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nothing,&quot; said Connie. &quot;But let him
+come!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She went for'ard to interview the cook, so
+she said. But she really went to interview
+Silas Bagge. When she came back she
+found Watchett and his wife on board. If
+she was a little stiff with Watchett he never
+noticed it. As a matter of fact, the whims
+and fads and tempers of a woman were of
+no more account than the growling of the
+men for'ard. He was too much engaged in
+cursing the weather to pay her any attention.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This licks me,&quot; he said; &quot;in a week we
+ain't moved&mdash;we're stuck. 'Ow long will it
+last, Bill?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It looks as if it might last for ever,&quot;
+replied Ryder. &quot;We've struck a bad streak.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The women had tea and the men drank
+whisky and water. Although Watchett didn't
+know it, two of his hands left the boat and
+were given something to eat in the galley by
+Mrs. Ryder's orders. It was Bagge who
+conveyed the invitation, with the connivance
+of the mate, for whom the word of the
+captain's wife was law.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;'Ave some marmalade and butter?&quot; said
+Bagge. &quot;Does they feed you good in the
+<i>Battle-Axe</i>, Gribbs?&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 589px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p511.jpg" width="589" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;'AVE SOME MARMALADE AND BUTTER?' SAID BAGGE.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hogwash,&quot; said Gribbs, with his mouth
+full. &quot;Ain't it, Tidewell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Tidewell, who was a youngster of a good
+middle-class family, who had gone to sea as
+an apprentice and run from his ship, agreed
+with many bitter words.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;As I told you, we lives like fightin'-cocks
+'ere,&quot; said Bagge. &quot;When you're full in the
+back teeth, we'll 'ave your mates up. We
+likes to feed the pore and 'ungry, don't we,
+doctor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The cook, to whom Bagge had confided
+something, said he did his best, his humble
+best.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page511" id="page511"></a>[pg&nbsp;511]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The <i>Star's</i> an 'appy ship,&quot; he added.
+&quot;We know what your ship is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The other two men came up in their turn
+and were filled with tea and biscuit and
+butter and marmalade till they smiled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is like
+home,&quot; said Wat
+Crampe, who was
+from Newcastle.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It wass petter&mdash;much
+petter,&quot;
+said Evan Evans,
+&quot;and ass for the
+captain's wife, she
+iss a lady, whatefer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">That evening
+Ryder and his
+wife returned the
+call and were
+rowed to the
+<i>Battle-Axe</i> by
+Bagge, Bob Condy,
+and two more
+of the men.
+Bagge and Condy
+went into the
+fo'c's'le. They lost
+no time in condemning
+the
+<i>Battle-Axe</i> and
+in lauding their
+own ship.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This 'ere's a
+stinkin' 'ooker,
+mates,&quot; said Silas Bagge; &quot;why, our fo'c's'le
+is a lady's droring-room compared with it. And
+as for the grub, ask them as come on board
+us this afternoon. What d'ye say, Gribbs?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Toppin',&quot; said Gribbs. &quot;It's spiled my
+happetite 'ere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It wass good,&quot; said the Welshman; &quot;it
+wass good, whatefer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Bagge took Billy Gribbs aside on the deck
+and had a talk with him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Lord!&quot; said Gribbs. &quot;Oh, what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Straight talk,&quot; replied Silas; &quot;<i>she</i> said so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you mean it? &quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do I mean it?&quot; replied Silas, with unutterable
+scorn. &quot;In course I mean it. It
+will sarve them right as it sarves right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gribbs held on to the rail and laughed till
+he ached. &quot;It's the rummiest notion I ever
+'eard tell on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not <i>so</i> rummy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Wot!&quot; cried Gribbs, &quot;not so rummy?
+Well, if it ain't so rummy, I'm jiggered. I'll
+think of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do, and tell your mate Tidewell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If I tell Ned, 'e'll do it for sure. 'E's
+the biggest joker 'ere!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then tell him,&quot; said Silas.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">That evening Ned Tidewell and Billy
+Gribbs acted in a very strange way on board
+the <i>Battle-Axe</i>.
+Without any obvious
+reason they
+kept on bursting
+into violent fits of
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The pore
+blokes is gone
+dotty from the
+'eat,&quot; said the
+pitying crowd.
+&quot;We've 'eard of
+such before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why shouldn't
+I laugh?&quot;
+asked Gribbs.
+&quot;I'm laughin' because
+I'm a pore
+silly sailor-man
+and my life ain't
+worth livin'. If
+I'd died early I'd
+ha' been saved a
+pile o' trouble. I
+was thinkin' of
+my father's green
+fields as I looked
+over the side this
+afternoon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Was you
+really?&quot; asked the oldest man on board.
+&quot;Then you take my advice quick and go and
+ask the skipper for a real good workin' pill
+of the largest size.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Wot for?&quot; asked Gribbs.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Because you've hobvious got a calentoor,&quot;
+said the old fo'c's'le man. &quot;And chaps as gets
+a calentoor jumps overboard. Oh, but that's
+well known at sea by those as knows anythin'.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But Gribbs laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The worst is as it's catchin',&quot; said his
+adviser, anxiously; &quot;it's fatally catchin'. I've
+'eard of crews doin' it one hafter the hother,
+till there wasn't no one left. In 'eat it was
+and in calm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Gammon,&quot; said Gribbs. But he was
+observed to sigh.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Are you 'ot in your 'ead?&quot; asked the
+anxious and ancient one.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I feels a little 'ot and rummy,&quot; said
+Gribbs; &quot;but what I chiefly feels is a desire
+to eat grass.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The old man groaned.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then it's got you. Mates, we ought to tie
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page512" id="page512"></a>[pg&nbsp;512]</span>
+Gribbs up, or lock 'im in the sail-locker, or
+'is clothes will be auctioned off before long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But Gribbs kicked at that, and just then
+eight bells struck.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm turnin' in,&quot; said Gribbs, &quot;and I'm
+all right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But at six bells in the first watch he was
+missing, as was discovered by old Brooks, the
+authority on calentures. He waked up Ned
+Tidewell, who was extraordinarily fast asleep.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Where's Gribbs?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not in my bunk,&quot; returned Ned, who
+with Gribbs was one of the few who still
+dossed in the fo'c's'le.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then 'e's gone overboard for sartain,&quot;
+said Brooks, in great alarm; &quot;there was the
+look of it in his eye, and in yours too,
+youngster. These long calms is fataller than
+scurvy. I shall go aft and report it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He reported it to Mr. Seleucus Thoms, the
+second mate, who came for'ard, and roused the
+watch below from the deck-house and t'gallant
+fo'c's'le. When all hands were mustered it
+was certain that Gribbs was missing.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is a terrible catastrophe,&quot; said
+Seleucus Thoms, who had a weakness for
+fine language, derived from his rare Christian
+name, of which he was extremely proud.
+&quot;My name is not Seleucus Thoms if he
+hasn't gone overboard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;'E was rampagious with laughter in the
+second dog-watch, sir,&quot; put in old Brooks.
+&quot;And 'e talked of green fields, the which I've
+'eard is a werry fatal symptom of calentoor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Humph!&quot; said Mr. Thoms, &quot;there's
+something in that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And when he went for'ard old Brooks was
+as proud as a dog with two tails! Though
+he usually spent the second dog-watch daily
+in proving that Thoms was no sailor, this
+endorsement of his theory flattered him
+greatly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've been mistook in the second,&quot; he
+said, as Thoms went aft. &quot;He's got 'orse
+sense, after all. I shouldn't be surprised if
+he'd make a sailor some day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And Thoms reported the catastrophe to
+Watchett.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Drowned himself?&quot; roared the captain;
+&quot;drowned himself? And who's responsible if
+you ain't?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He came on deck in a great rage and
+scanty pyjamas and mustered the crew aft,
+and roared at them for full ten minutes as if
+it was their fault. When he had relieved his
+mind he asked if there was anyone who could
+throw light on the matter, and old Brooks
+was shoved to the front. He explained his
+views on calentures.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Never 'eard of 'em,&quot; said Watchett.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And I think, sir, as Tidewell 'ere 'as the
+symptoms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I haven't,&quot; said Tidewell, indignantly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Wild laughin' is a known symptom, sir,
+and Tidewell was laughin' 'orrid in the
+second dog-watch,&quot; insisted Brooks; &quot;I'd
+put him in irons, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But Watchett was not prepared to go so
+far in prophylaxis.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If any of you 'as any more symptoms
+I'll flog 'im and take the consequences,&quot; he
+declared. He went below again unhappily,
+for he wasn't quite a brute after all.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is a mighty unpleasant thing,&quot; he
+said to poor Mrs. Watchett, who cried when
+she heard the news. &quot;It's a mighty unfortunate
+affair. Gribbs was the smartest man in
+the whole crowd and worth two of the others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But still the great and terrible calm lasted,
+and the morning was as hot as yesterday and
+the sea shone like polished brass and lapped
+faintly like heavy oil against the glowing iron
+of the sister barques. At dawn, which came
+up like a swiftly opening flower out of the
+fertile east, the vessels were just too far apart
+for hailing, and Watchett signalled the news
+to the <i>Star of the South</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Lost a man overboard!&quot; said Ryder.
+&quot;That's strange; I wish to Heaven we'd
+found him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When he told his wife she seemed extraordinarily
+callous.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Serves him right,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And it was wonderful how the crew of the
+<i>Star</i> took the news. They had never seemed
+so cheerful. They grinned when Watchett
+came aboard.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is an 'orrid circumstance,&quot; said
+Watchett. &quot;I never lost a man before, not
+even when I was wrecked in the <i>Violet</i>. And
+this a dead calm!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your men aren't happy,&quot; said Mrs. Ryder,
+&quot;and you don't try to make 'em. If I give
+you three seven-pound tins of marmalade and
+some butter, will you serve it out to them?&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p513.jpg" width="700" height="591" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;'YOUR MEN AREN'T HAPPY,' SAID MRS. RYDER.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">But Watchett shook his head angrily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll not cocker no men up,&quot; he declared;
+&quot;not if they all goes overboard and leaves
+me and the missis to take 'er 'ome. And
+what's marmalade against 'eat like this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He mopped a melancholy brow and sighed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It will help them to keep from gloomy
+thoughts,&quot; said Mrs. Ryder. &quot;The <i>Star of
+the South</i> is a home for our men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And two run in Valparaiso,&quot; retorted
+Watchett. &quot;And I on'y lost one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He took a drink with his cousin and went
+back on board the <i>Battle-Axe</i>, and spent the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page513" id="page513"></a>[pg&nbsp;513]</span>
+torrid day in getting a deal of unnecessary
+work done. And still no flaw of lightest air
+marred the awful mirror of the quiet seas.
+Early in the first watch the boats were
+lowered again to tow the vessels apart. At
+midnight, when the watch below came aft
+and answered to their names in the deep
+shadow of the moonless tropic night, Ned
+Tidewell did not answer to his name.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Tidewell!&quot; cried Thoms, angrily and
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And still there was no answer, but a groan
+from old Brooks.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Wot did I tell you?&quot; he demanded. &quot;I
+seed it in 'is eye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They searched the <i>Battle-Axe</i> from stem
+to stern; they overhauled the sails in the
+sail-lockers; they hunted with a lantern in
+the forepeak; they even went aloft to the
+fore and main tops, where once or twice
+someone who sought for coolness where no
+coolness could be found went up into what
+they jocosely called the &quot;attic.&quot; But Ned
+had lost the number of his mess.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;More clothes for sale,&quot; said the melancholy
+crew, as they looked at each other
+suspiciously. &quot;'Oo'll be the next?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Brooks declared to the other fo'c's'le men
+that the next would be Wat Crampe, or
+Taffy, as they called the Welshman.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There's an awful 'orrid look o' the deep,
+dark knowledge
+of death in their
+faces,&quot; declared
+old Brooks.
+&quot;They thinks of
+the peace of it
+and the quiet, and
+smiles secret!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Next morning
+Watchett hailed
+the <i>Star</i> and told
+the latest dreadful
+news. And at
+the end he added,
+in a truly pathetic
+roar, &quot;Send me
+them tins o' marmalade
+aboard,
+and the butter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And when Mrs.
+Ryder superintended
+the steward's
+work getting
+these stores out
+of the lazaret, she
+smiled very
+strangely. She
+said to her husband:
+&quot;If he loses another hand or two
+the <i>Battle-Axe</i> will be no easy ship to work,
+Will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I wouldn't have believed the matter of a
+hundred pounds would have made you so
+hard,&quot; said Ryder. And Connie Ryder
+pouted mutinously, and her pout ran off into
+a wicked and most charming smile.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm not thinking so much of the money
+as of our ship being beaten,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And poor Watchett was now beginning
+to think the same of his ship. Like most
+vessels, the <i>Battle-Axe</i> required a certain
+number of men to work her easily, and her
+luck lay in the number allowed being the
+number necessary. With two hands gone
+a-missing she would not be much superior to
+the <i>Star</i> in easiness of handling, and if more
+went a week of baffling winds now or later,
+when the north-east trade died out, might
+give the <i>Star</i> a pull which nothing but an
+easterly wind from the chops of the Channel
+to Dover could hope to make up. He began
+to dance attendance on his crew as if they
+were patients and he their doctor. And the
+curious thing was that they all began to feel
+ill at once, so ill that they could not work in
+the sun. A certain uneasy terror got hold of
+them; they dreaded to look over the side,
+lest in place of an oily sea they should look
+down on grass and daisies.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page514" id="page514"></a>[pg&nbsp;514]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Daisies draws a man, and buttercups
+draws a man,&quot; said old Brooks.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't,&quot; said Crampe, with a snigger.
+&quot;You make me feel that I must pick buttercups
+or die.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you now?&quot; asked Brooks. &quot;Do you
+now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And he sneaked aft to the skipper, who
+was turning all ways, as if wondering where
+windward was.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm very uneasy about Crampe, sir,&quot; he
+said, with a scrape, as he crawled up the port
+poop ladder. &quot;'Is
+mind is set on
+buttercups.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The deuce it
+is!&quot; cried Watchett,
+and going
+down to the main
+deck he called
+Crampe out.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's this I
+'ears about your
+'ankering after
+buttercups?&quot; he
+demanded, very
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I <i>did</i> feel as
+if I'd like to see
+one, sir,&quot; said
+Crampe.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't let me
+'ear of it again,&quot;
+began Watchett,
+angrily, but he
+pulled himself up
+with an ill grace.
+&quot;But there, go in
+and lie down, and
+you needn't come
+on deck in your
+watch. I can't
+afford to lose
+no more mad
+fools. And you
+shall have butter instead of buttercups.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 539px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p514.jpg" width="539" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;YOU SHALL HAVE BUTTER INSTEAD OF BUTTERCUPS.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And marmalade, sir?&quot; suggested Crampe.
+&quot;Marmalade's yellow too, as yellow as
+buttercups.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Say the word agin and I'll knock you
+flat,&quot; said the skipper. But, nevertheless, he
+sent the whole crowd marmalade and butter
+at four bells in the first dog-watch.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hoo, but it iss fine,&quot; said &quot;Efan Efans.&quot;
+&quot;Thiss iss goot grup whatefer and moreover,
+yess!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They scoffs the like in the <i>Star</i> day in
+and day out,&quot; said Crampe; &quot;if I can't roll
+on grass I'd like to be in her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And that night both Crampe and Evans
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I believe I 'eard a splash soon after six
+bells,&quot; said old Brooks. &quot;Mates, this is most
+'orrid. I feels as if I should be drawed overboard
+by a mermaid in spite of myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And Watchett went raving crazy.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ryder came on board the <i>Battle-Axe</i> as
+soon as the latest news was signalled to him.
+Mrs. Ryder declined to go, but she gave him
+a timely piece of advice.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't let him off the bet, Will, or I'll
+never forgive you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I won't do
+that,&quot; said her
+husband, hastily,
+as if he hadn't
+been thinking of
+doing it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And if he
+asks for a man or
+two, you know
+we're short-handed
+already.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Tell me something
+I don't
+know,&quot; said
+Ryder, a trifle
+crossly. Even his
+sweet temper suffered
+in 115deg.
+in the shade.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I dare say I
+could,&quot; said his
+wife, when he was
+in the boat; &quot;I
+dare say I could.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Watchett received
+his cousin
+with an air of
+gloom that would
+have struck a
+damp on anything
+anywhere
+but the Equator.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is a terrible business,&quot; he said. &quot;I
+never 'eard of anything like it. Every night
+a man, and last night two!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ryder was naturally very much cut up
+about it, and said so.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Will you have some more marmalade?&quot;
+he asked, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Marmalade don't work,&quot; said Watchett,
+sadly; &quot;it don't work worth a cent. Nor
+does butter. I'd give five pounds for some
+green cabbage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A brilliant idea struck Ryder.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why don't you paint her green, all the
+inside of the rail and the boats?&quot;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page515" id="page515"></a>[pg&nbsp;515]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She'd be a beauty show, like a blessed
+timber-droghing Swede,&quot; said Watchett, with
+great distaste. &quot;But d'ye think it'd work?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You might try,&quot; replied Ryder.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And now you've got the bulge on me,&quot;
+sighed Watchett; &quot;with two 'ands missing
+from both watches, she'll be as 'ard in the
+mouth as your <i>Star</i>. You might let me off
+that bet, Bill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&quot; said Ryder, &quot;a bet's a bet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But fairness is fairness,&quot; urged Watchett;
+&quot;there should be a clause in a bet renderin'
+it void by the act of God or the Queen's
+enemies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There isn't,&quot; said his cousin, &quot;and you
+forget you wouldn't help me about those
+two hands I wanted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, if you talk like that&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's the way I talk,&quot; said Ryder,
+remembering the wife he had left behind
+him. &quot;I'm sorry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hang your sorrow,&quot; said Watchett. &quot;But
+I'll lose no more, and 'tain't your money yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Will you and Mary come on board to
+tea?&quot; asked Ryder.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I won't tea with no unfair person with
+no sympathy,&quot; returned Watchett, savagely.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And when Ryder had gone he set the
+crowd painting his beautiful white paint a
+ripe grass-green.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Watch if it soothes 'em any,&quot; he said to
+Seleucus Thoms. &quot;If it seems to work I'll
+paint 'er as green as a child's Noah's Ark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And that night there was no decrease of
+the <i>Battle-Axe's</i> sad crowd, in spite of the
+fact that he did not act on his impulse to
+lock them up in the stuffy fo'c's'le. For
+soon after midnight Mr. Double felt one
+side of his face cooler than the other as he
+stood staring at the motionless lights of the
+<i>Star of the South</i>, then lying stern on to the
+<i>Battle-Axe's</i> starboard beam.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Eh? What? Jerusalem!&quot; said Double.
+Then he let a joyous bellow out of him.
+&quot;Square the yards!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For there was a breath of wind out of the
+south. Both vessels were alive in a moment,
+and while the <i>Battle-Axe</i> was squaring away
+the <i>Star's</i> foreyard was braced sharp up on
+the starboard tack till she fell off before the
+little breeze. Then she squared her yards
+too, and both vessels moved at least a mile
+towards home before they began fooling all
+round the compass again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Them hands missin' makes a difference,&quot;
+said Watchett, gloomily. &quot;Less than enough
+is starvation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As they fought through the night for the
+flaws of wind which came out of all quarters,
+the short watches of the <i>Battle-Axe</i> found
+that out and grumbled accordingly. But it was
+a very curious thing that the <i>Star of the South</i>
+was never so easy to handle.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That foreyard goes round now,&quot; said old
+Semple, &quot;as if it was hung like a balance.
+This is very surprisin'. So it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He mentioned the remarkable fact to
+McGill when he came on deck at four in the
+morning, and so long as it was dark, as it
+was till nearly six, McGill found it so too.
+And both watches were in a surprisingly good
+temper. For nothing tries men so much as
+&quot;brace up&quot; and &quot;square away&quot; every five
+minutes as they work their ship through a belt
+of calm. But as soon as the sun was up the
+<i>Star</i> worked just as badly as she did before.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's maist amazin',&quot; said McGill.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">During the day the calm renewed itself and
+gave everyone a rest. But once more the
+breeze came at night, and the amazing easiness
+of the <i>Star</i> showed itself when the darkness
+fell across the sea. Ryder and Semple
+and McGill were full of wonder and delight.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The character of a ship will change
+sometimes,&quot; said Semple. &quot;It's just like a
+collision that will alter her deviation. This
+calm has worked a revolution.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Because of this revolution the <i>Star</i> got
+ahead of the <i>Battle-Axe</i> every change
+and chance of the wind. She got ahead
+with such effect that on the third day
+the <i>Battle-Axe</i> was hull down to the south'ard,
+and when the fourth dawn broke she
+was out of sight. This meant much more
+than may appear, for the <i>Star</i> picked up the
+north-east trade nearly four days earlier than
+her rival, and a better trade at that. When
+the <i>Battle-Axe</i> crawled into its area it was
+half-sister to a calm, while the <i>Star</i> was doing
+eight knots an hour. And as there was now
+no need to touch tack or sheet, there was no
+solution of the mysterious ease with which
+she worked in the dark. How long the
+mystery might have remained such no one
+can say, but it was owing to Mrs. Ryder's
+curious behaviour that it came out. She
+laughed in the strangest manner till Ryder
+got quite nervous.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;These chaps that jumped over from the
+<i>Battle-Axe</i> laughed like that,&quot; he told her, in
+great anxiety.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And she giggled more and more.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Shall I try marmalade?&quot; she asked.
+Then she sat down by him and went off into
+something so like hysterics that a mere man
+might be excused for thinking she was crazy.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They're not dead!&quot; she cried; &quot;they're
+not dead!&quot;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page516" id="page516"></a>[pg&nbsp;516]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p516.jpg" width="700" height="647" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;'THEY'RE NOT DEAD!' SHE CRIED; 'THEY'RE NOT DEAD!'&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who aren't dead?&quot; asked her husband,
+desperately.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And, remembering something which had
+been told him years before, he took her
+hands and slapped with such severity that
+she screamed and then cried, and finally put
+her head upon his shoulder and confessed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Was it mutiny of me to do it?&quot; she
+asked, penitently.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Will Ryder tried to look severe, and then
+laughed until he cried. &quot;What ever made
+you think of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It wasn't a what; it was a who,&quot; said his
+wife; &quot;it was Silas Bagge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The dickens it was,&quot; said Will, and with
+that he left her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Call all hands and let them muster aft,&quot;
+he said to McGill, who, much wondering, did
+what he was told. The watch on deck
+dropped their jobs and the watch below
+turned out.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Call the names over,&quot; said Ryder, sternly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They're all here, sir,&quot; said McGill.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The skipper looked down at the upturned
+faces of the men and singled out Silas Bagge
+as if he meant to speak to him. But he
+checked himself, and, going down to the
+main deck, walked for'ard to the fo'c's'le.
+The men turned to look after him, and there
+was a grin on every face which would have
+been ample for two.
+Ryder walked quietly,
+and pushing aside the
+canvas door he came
+on a party playing
+poker. He heard
+strange voices.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I go one petter,
+moreover,&quot; said one of
+them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I see you and go
+two better,&quot; said a man
+with a Newcastle burr
+in his speech.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then Ryder took a
+hand.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And I see you,&quot;
+he remarked. They
+dropped their cards and
+jumped to their feet.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What are you doing
+here?&quot; he demanded.
+And there wasn't a word
+from one of them;
+they looked as sheepish
+as four stowaways
+interviewing the skipper
+before a crowd of
+passengers.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Get on deck,&quot; said Ryder. And much
+to McGill's astonishment the addition to the
+crew appeared with the captain behind them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Divide this lot among the watches,&quot; said
+Ryder.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Leaving McGill to &quot;tumble to the racket,&quot;
+he walked to the mate's berth and explained
+to him that henceforth the <i>Star of the South</i>
+would go about as easy by day as by night.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then they're not dead!&quot; cried Semple.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not by a jugful,&quot; said Ryder, nodding.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is very lucky, sir,&quot; said the mate,
+smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's confoundedly irregular, too,&quot; replied
+the skipper, as he rubbed his chin. &quot;Are you
+sure you knew nothing of it, Mr. Semple?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Me, sir! Why, I'd look on it as mutiny,&quot;
+said Semple; &quot;rank mutiny!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It was Mrs. Ryder's notion, Semple.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You don't say so, sir! She's a woman
+to be proud of!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So she is,&quot; replied Ryder. &quot;So she is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He went back to his wife.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You'll win the hundred pounds now,
+Will?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I believe I shall,&quot; said Ryder.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And I'll spend it,&quot; cried his wife, running
+to him and kissing him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I believe you will,&quot; said Ryder.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was a happy ship.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2><i>The Size of the World's Great Cities.</i></h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Arthur T. Dolling</span>.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 101px;"> <img src="images/ill_p517a.jpg" width="101" height="100" alt="T" title="T" />
+</div>
+
+<p>HOSE imposing agglomerations
+of houses and dwellers we call
+cities (in most cases political
+or commercial capitals) have
+shown a notable rate of
+progress during the last two
+or three decades. More and more do the
+centripetal forces at work in almost every
+nation make for the growth of the capital at
+the expense of the rural community. A
+century ago a million human beings dwelling
+side by side under a single municipal government
+was almost of itself one of the great
+wonders of the world. Men spoke of
+London with bated breath and wondered
+where it would all end. Reports of monster
+cities in China with a population double that
+of London were dismissed as travellers' tales.
+Travellers' tales, verily, they have proved
+to be, seeing that Peking even to-day has
+fewer than a million souls. But what would
+our forefathers have said of these twentieth-century
+&quot;wens,&quot; these &quot;gloomy or glowing,
+febrile and throbbing concentrations&quot; of
+human life, numbering
+not merely two,
+but three, four, and
+even five millions of
+souls?</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p517b.jpg" width="700" height="613" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">LONDON: THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNTY OF LONDON, WITH WHICH THE OTHER CITIES ARE
+COMPARED, IS SHOWN BY THE SHADED PORTION.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Let us take London
+as the basis of our
+diagrams. London is
+an indeterminate
+quantity. It may mean
+the City of London,
+which comprises only
+673 acres, or it may
+mean the Administrative
+County of London,
+which boasts
+nearly 117 square
+miles, or 74,839 acres,
+or Greater London,
+which embraces the
+Metropolitan Police
+district, and has an
+area of no less than
+692 square miles, or
+443,420 acres. If we
+take the second of
+these Londons we
+shall find it to consist
+of twenty-nine large and small cities, ranging in
+population from 334,991 to 51,247 inhabitants.
+These are called the Metropolitan boroughs;
+but as it is rather geographical size than population
+which here concerns us, we may state
+that the largest of these boroughs is Wandsworth,
+with an area of 9,130 acres, and the
+smallest is Holborn, with 409 acres. The
+average area of these boroughs, if we exclude
+the City, is about four square miles. Within
+these borders of London&mdash;which must not be
+confounded with Greater London&mdash;there were
+in 1901 4,536,541 souls, living in 616,461
+houses. Within this area, besides buildings,
+must be counted 12,054 acres of grass,
+including the public parks and gardens.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">If we take Greater London we embrace a
+far wider and yet still a homogeneous community,
+for it cannot be denied that the
+adjoining boroughs just outside the pale of
+the administrative county are policed from
+the same centre, are London to the Post
+Office, and commonly regard themselves, what
+they must soon be officially, as an integral
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page518" id="page518"></a>[pg&nbsp;518]</span>
+part of the Great Wen. Greater London&mdash;within
+the fifteen-mile radius&mdash;is far more
+homogeneous and compact than Greater
+Chicago, for example, or even than Greater
+New York or Greater Boston. We have
+here an aggregation of 6,580,000 inhabitants
+and, as we have already seen, 443,420 acres.
+But perhaps the fairest estimate of London
+is the natural one of a single mass
+of buildings, without any unoccupied or
+unimproved areas. This gives us a solid,
+compact city of 85,000 acres and 6,000,000
+inhabitants; extending from Edmonton on
+the north to Croydon on the south, and
+east and west from Woolwich to Ealing.
+Nor can one doubt, at the present rate of
+expansion, that even more distant areas than
+Croydon will eventually be included, although
+the Scotsman may have been a little
+&quot;previous&quot; who addressed a letter to a
+friend at &quot;Bournemouth, S.W.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p518.jpg" width="700" height="625" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">A MAP OF PARIS PRINTED UPON A MAP OF LONDON, SHOWING THE RELATIVE SHAPES AND SIZES.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">In the following article we propose to
+compare with London the sizes of the chief
+cities of the world and, by printing a black
+map of each city upon a map of London, to
+display their relative magnitude at a glance.
+Let us see, to begin with, how Paris compares
+with London as represented in the
+above diagram.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At a <i>coup d'&oelig;il</i> we perceive that the French
+capital is for its population remarkably small
+in area, a fact clearly owing to its fixed
+military barriers, which make growth upward
+rather than outward. Consequently, dwellers
+in Paris often have six or eight pairs of stairs
+to climb where the dweller in London has
+but two. There have been repeated agitations
+for municipal expansion, but so far
+nothing has been done to annex the surrounding
+communes. Paris has a population
+of 2,700,000, living in 75,000 houses,
+and an area of over thirty-one square miles.
+If, however, the agglomeration of houses be
+taken&mdash;including the suburbs&mdash;the area is
+forty-five square miles and the population
+3,600,000, although, as yet, this is not
+actually and geographically Paris.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p519a.jpg" width="700" height="614" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">BERLIN COMPARED WITH LONDON.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Berlin, a mere village a century ago, is the
+third city of Europe in point of population,
+and its growth since 1870 has been phenomenal,
+as we shall see. Yet the technical
+barriers which enclose the city remain precisely
+what they were more than forty years
+ago, and Berlin is still as it was in 1861,
+compressed within twenty-eight square miles,
+six miles long and five and a half wide. At
+the close of the Franco-Prussian War Berlin,
+now the capital of a new empire, became
+a paradise for builders. Streets of houses
+appeared almost as if by magic, and the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page519" id="page519"></a>[pg&nbsp;519]</span>
+whole aspect of the city became changed.
+From being the worst lighted, the worst
+drained, and ugliest capital in Europe it has
+become one of the
+finest, cleanest, and
+handsomest of
+cities, and its population
+has more
+than doubled. Berlin
+now boasts within
+its boundaries
+1,857,000 inhabitants.
+But without
+there is, in Ibsen's
+phrase, &quot;the
+younger generation
+knocking at the
+door,&quot; and Greater
+Berlin might have
+a population of
+2,430,000, with an
+area at least treble,
+extending, indeed,
+as far as Potsdam.
+Berlin's actual increase
+from 1800
+to 1900 was 818 per
+cent., multiplying
+its population by
+nine.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p519b.jpg" width="700" height="609" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">VIENNA COMPARED WITH LONDON.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The transformation
+of Vienna&quot; has
+for nearly half a century
+been a watchword
+amongst the
+progressive party in
+the Austrian capital.
+The example of
+Paris&mdash;with which
+the Viennese love
+to be compared&mdash;has,
+since 1858,
+brought to the fore
+innumerable Haussmannizing
+projects,
+all of which have
+tended to the city's
+amplifying and
+beautifying. The
+second or outer
+girdle of fortifications
+has been
+taken down; the
+barriers thus removed,
+fifty suburbs
+became, in 1891,
+part and parcel of
+the capital. Before
+this time Vienna was
+twenty-one English square miles, or one-third
+less than Paris; afterwards it covered sixty-nine
+square miles, besides having by the process
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page520" id="page520"></a>[pg&nbsp;520]</span>
+added half a million to its population,
+which now stands at 1,662,269. But Vienna
+does not intend to be stationary in the coming
+decade. The fever of the municipal race for
+territory is upon her also. She is now reaching
+out for the adjoining town of Floridsdorf across
+the Danube, together with four other communes,
+having a population of 50,000; and
+this step increases the area of Vienna to
+about eighty-two square miles, nearly thrice
+the size of Berlin. Naturally such a large
+territory for a population smaller than a third
+that of London would comprise much open
+ground, especially as there is great overcrowding
+in the industrial districts. And, as
+a matter of fact, over five-eighths of Vienna
+is woods, pastures and vineyards, and arable
+ground, while above a tenth of the total area
+is made up of parks, gardens, and squares.
+The cost of making Vienna so vast has been
+enormous; but it has not been borne by the
+ratepayers to any oppressive extent, because
+the appropriated military ground and sites of
+fortifications have yielded a handsome profit,
+and municipal improvements in the annexed
+districts have, of course, enhanced the value
+of property. Moreover, the most acute
+observers are convinced that, if Vienna had
+not roused herself to material self-improvement,
+her prestige, which is already
+threatened by Budapest, would ere this
+have completely vanished. After the Austro-Prussian
+struggle and the marvellous rise of
+Berlin and Budapest, the city on the
+Danube would have sunk to be the Bruges
+of the twentieth century.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p520.jpg" width="700" height="613" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">ST. PETERSBURG COMPARED WITH LONDON.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">There is, perhaps, hardly a capital in the
+world so badly situated as St. Petersburg.
+To its north and east is a desolate wilderness,
+and to its south is a mighty stretch of marshland,
+and it is 400 miles from any important
+commercial centre. Yet, built at the behest
+of an Imperial autocrat, it has risen steadily
+into magnitude and wealth, at the cost of
+hundreds of thousands of human lives.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">St. Petersburg is, as all the world knows,
+built on a swamp,
+or low-lying alluvial
+deposits, at
+the mouth of the
+Neva. These
+cover altogether
+an area of 21,185
+acres, of which
+12,820 are part of
+the delta proper
+of the river and
+1,330 acres are
+submerged. In
+consequence of its
+origin and present
+condition the city
+is naturally subject
+to inundations,
+but these,
+owing to the admirable
+public works
+and precautions
+taken, are
+not of frequent
+occurrence. Of
+the area of the
+city, 798 acres are
+given up to gardens
+and parks,
+while a third of the whole area is densely
+overcrowded, the average in some districts
+being one inhabitant for every ninety-three
+square feet and some dwellings containing
+from 400 to 2,000 inhabitants each. As for the
+population, it is now 1,248,739, to which if
+that of the suburbs be added (190,635), the
+Russian capital is the fifth city of Europe. Yet
+in area it is far too small; overcrowding is
+universal, in spite of the 1,000 dwellings
+that are erected annually, and the mortality
+is appalling.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p521a.jpg" width="700" height="618" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">LIVERPOOL COMPARED WITH LONDON.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Liverpool is about six miles long by about
+three broad, the area being 13,236 acres. It
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page521" id="page521"></a>[pg&nbsp;521]</span>
+has a population of 686,332 within boundaries
+less than half the size of Berlin or Paris. But
+it comprised only 5,210 acres in 1895. In
+that year, feeling
+cramped, Liverpool
+annexed an area of
+8,026 acres. Of the
+total area, there is
+comprised 772-1/2
+acres of parks and
+gardens.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p521b.jpg" width="700" height="628" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">PEKING COMPARED WITH LONDON.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Peking, as we may
+see, is a walled city of
+oblong shape, and
+contains a total area
+of about thirty
+square miles. The
+two chief divisions
+are known as the Tartar
+city and the outer
+or Chinese city. The
+population is now
+about 1,000,000.
+Writing twenty years
+ago Sir Robert Douglas
+thought that a
+population of a mere
+million was &quot;out of
+all proportion to the
+immense area enclosed
+within its walls.
+This disparity,&quot;
+he continued, &quot;is
+partly accounted
+for by the fact that
+large spaces, notably
+in the Chinese
+city, are not built
+over, and that the
+grounds surrounding
+the Imperial
+Palace private residences
+are very
+extensive.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">What would
+he have said of
+Chicago, New
+York, Budapest,
+or, indeed, of any
+modern capital
+&quot;expanded&quot;? To
+us, at the beginning
+of the twentieth
+century, a
+million inhabitants
+seems a very respectable
+population
+indeed for a
+city of only thirty
+square miles, and in this respect we can
+no longer sneer or be astonished at the
+&quot;peculiarities&quot; of Oriental cities.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page522" id="page522"></a>[pg&nbsp;522]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p522a.jpg" width="700" height="615" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">BOSTON COMPARED WITH LONDON.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Boston is one of the older and
+more conservative American cities
+which have lately
+been seized by the
+expansion fever, and
+now proudly refers
+to its &quot;Greater Boston.&quot;
+But this is as
+yet only a term, and
+the new Boston metropolitan
+district,
+embracing all the
+area within a circle
+of ten miles from the
+State House, is
+hardly yet a distinct
+municipality. It will
+doubtless soon come
+about, and in that
+case twenty-two
+towns and cities will
+be taken to the bosom
+of &quot;the Hub,&quot; and
+the total population
+will be close upon a
+million and a quarter.
+At present the
+area of the city is over
+thirty-seven square
+miles (24,000 acres),
+or just the size of
+Chicago a decade
+ago, of which 2,308
+acres are common
+open spaces and
+126 acres ponds and
+rivers, in addition
+to numerous
+squares, gardens,
+and playgrounds.
+The length of the
+city is eight miles
+and its greatest
+breadth about seven
+miles.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 634px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p522.jpg" width="634" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">CHICAGO COMPARED WITH LONDON.&mdash;THE
+SOLID BLACK AREA REPRESENTS THE
+ACTUAL BUILDINGS OF CHICAGO; THE GREY AREA COMPLETING THE ADMINISTERED CITY.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Exactly one hundred
+years ago the
+American Government
+built Fort
+Dearborn, on Lake
+Michigan. In 1831
+there was a village
+of one hundred
+people on the site;
+to-day the city of
+Chicago has spread
+out (rather too
+generously, its rival
+municipalities
+think) until it comprises 190-1/2
+square miles and a population
+of 1,698,575. But only some
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page523" id="page523"></a>[pg&nbsp;523]</span>
+seventy square miles of this area is improved,
+and less than fifty miles built upon. As there
+are also 2,232 acres of parks and open
+spaces, Chicago cannot be said to be overcrowded;
+especially when one remembers
+the great
+height of most
+of the buildings
+in the
+business quarter.
+Chicago's
+expansion, in
+truth, follows
+the lines laid
+down by the
+early Western
+boom &quot;cities,&quot;
+which were
+prairie wilderness
+one
+week, were surveyed
+the next,
+had a population
+of twelve,
+one man to the
+square mile,
+and applied
+for a charter
+the week
+following, and
+elected a Mayor
+and Corporation. The
+next week the boom was
+over and a mere shanty
+remained to mark the site of Boomopolis.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 566px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p523.jpg" width="566" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">NEW YORK COMPARED WITH LONDON, THE SOLID BLACK AREA
+REPRESENTING THE ACTUAL BUILDINGS, THE GREY AREA COMPLETING
+THE ADMINISTERED CITY.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Before 1898 the city of New York lay
+partly on Manhattan Island, a long and
+narrow strip of land at the head of New
+York Bay, thirteen miles long and twenty-two
+square miles in area, and partly, although
+to a very trifling extent so far as population
+was concerned, north of the Harlem River,
+and on several small islands in the bay and
+East River. The total area was forty-two
+square miles, within which was a population of
+1,515,301 souls. But in the aforementioned
+year the great arms of the city flung themselves
+out and gathered to its bosom so many
+of the outlying parts and people as to bring
+the total area of Greater New York up to
+307 square miles, and the population to
+3,437,202. It must be confessed that
+much of this huge municipal territory has
+been rather irrelevantly brought in&mdash;especially
+Staten Island (area 57·19 square miles),
+which is separated from New York proper
+by the width of the bay. But, on the other
+hand, other and nearer towns, such as Jersey
+City and Hoboken, were excluded, for the
+reason that they were in another State. Within
+Greater New York are included 6,766 acres
+of parks and open spaces, which is but little
+more than half that of London; yet the proportion
+of unoccupied land not under the
+control of the city is, of course, many times
+as great. The actual agglomeration of
+buildings in Greater New York&mdash;excluding
+Staten Island&mdash;covers barely 51,000 acres, or
+eighty square miles, as is shown in the
+diagram. Less than 5,000 acres is built
+upon in Staten Island.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2><i>Some Novel Banquets.</i></h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Theodore Adams.</span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 100px;"> <img src="images/ill_p524a.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="T" title="T" />
+</div>
+
+<p>HE art of him who prepares the
+banquet has reached, in these
+latter days, a distinction of
+novelty which might reasonably
+make the gastronomer of
+fifty years ago hold up his
+knife and fork in wonder. It is a novelty
+born of the desire for change. No longer
+does the dinner-giver merely prepare, with
+the aid of his costly <i>chef</i>, the menu for his
+guests and the viands on it. He&mdash;or, more
+properly, she, because of the present prominence
+of the fair hostess&mdash;tries not only to
+set a pretty table with flowers and cutlery of
+gold. The giver of dinners is ever thinking
+of that which will make the banquet memorable
+to the guest, and, in some cases, even
+wonders what the Press will say about it.
+This means to lie awake at night, and in
+such nightly vigils many wondrous things
+have been evolved.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Thus we have come to hear of banquets
+under conditions that make the imagination
+reel, and arouse speculation as to what the
+dinner of the twenty-first century will be
+like. When thirty-two people sat about
+on horseback a year ago, in a temporary
+stable, eating from dishes handed to them
+by waiters dressed as grooms, it seemed
+as if the top notch of <i>bizarrerie</i> had been
+reached. But, as the German says, <i>noch
+nicht</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p524b.jpg" width="700" height="418" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">A HORSEBACK DINNER IN A HOTEL BALLROOM, THE TABLES BEING CARRIED IN FRONT OF THE SADDLES.</p>
+
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by Byron.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">This remarkable horseback dinner was
+given in the great ballroom at Sherry's by Mr.
+C. K. G. Billings, of New York, and, as it
+was intended to celebrate the construction of
+a new stable, the rumour went round that the
+banquet would be held in the structure itself.
+The guests, however, met at Sherry's, and
+were escorted to a small banquet room,
+where a long table, in the form of an ellipse,
+was lavishly banked with flowers. The
+centre space was occupied by a stuffed horse,
+which cast his glass eyes curiously upon the
+assembly as the oysters and caviare were
+served. So convinced were the guests that
+this was the real and much-talked-about
+equestrian dinner that their surprise was
+great when they were asked to follow their
+host into an adjoining room.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Here,&quot; according to the report of one
+who was at this famous banquet, &quot;there had
+taken place an amazing transformation, for
+the decoration, the waxed floors, and everything
+of the world of indoors had been
+obliterated. A space sixty-five by eighty-five
+feet in the centre of the room had been
+enclosed by scenery. The guests were in a
+land of winding roadways, of brooks which
+coursed through green meadows, and of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page525" id="page525"></a>[pg&nbsp;525]</span>
+giant elms. There were cottages, vine-covered,
+and at the edge of a country estate
+was a porter's lodge. Far away stretched
+fields of grain. Over all was the blaze of a
+summer sun, for above in a vault of blue
+were strung electric lights. On all sides
+was the country, and in the middle of the
+room, rising in a pyramid, were geraniums,
+daisies, and roses, all blooming as if in
+the air of June. Above them a palm
+formed the apex of a pyramid thirty feet
+at the base. The floor was covered with
+long, velvety grass. Around the centrepiece
+were arranged thirty-one horses waiting for
+their riders. Mr. Billings's mount stood
+near the door, gazing into the geranium bed.
+How the steeds got up to the ballroom is no
+mystery in these days of large lifts, and they
+were well-trained horses, who cared not for
+lights and unusual conditions. Each guest
+found his mount by means of a horseshoe-shaped
+card attached to the saddle of the
+horse, just as he had been guided to his seat
+at the preliminary banquet by means of the
+bits of Bristol-board at each cover.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Between every two horses there was placed
+a carpet-covered block, from which the
+diners swung into their saddles, where, from
+little tables placed upon the pommels, they
+ate their splendid dinner. The horses
+showed little nervousness. Their trappings
+were yellow and gold, making pretty contrast
+with the costumes of the servants, who wore
+trousers of white buckskin, scarlet coats, and
+boots with yellow tops. Towards the end of
+the feast the horses were treated with a
+consideration due to their efforts, for a
+turkey-red fence surrounding the floral
+pyramid was discovered by the guests to
+contain feeding-troughs in which had been
+placed a plentiful quantity of superior oats.
+After dinner the horses were taken from the
+room by the grooms, small tables and chairs
+were brought in, and the guests sat down to
+an after-dinner chat as if in a beautiful
+garden.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 692px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p525.jpg" width="692" height="410" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">A DINNER OF THE NEW YORK EQUESTRIAN CLUB, THE TABLE REPRESENTING A HORSE'S HEAD.</p>
+
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by Byron.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">The horse has figured in a less ambitious,
+though perhaps quite as attractive, manner
+at the dinners of the Equestrian Club, which
+meets in New York during the winter once
+a month. For one of these banquets was
+arranged a rural scene with trees, shrubs,
+and beautiful beds of tulips and hyacinths,
+the whole floor being covered with stage
+grass. The table represented a horse's head,
+chairs being placed around the neck, while
+the head proper of the horse was a mass of
+flowers, with eyes, nose, and mouth displayed
+by means of ornamental and many-coloured
+flowers. The bridle, particularly,
+stood out strongly in brilliant red. The
+menu was formed in the shape of a horse's
+head, with a small bit and bridle made of
+leather and steel attached to it.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p526.jpg" width="700" height="519" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">A DINNER INSIDE AN EASTER EGG.</p>
+
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by Byron.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">The use of effective scenery at such
+functions is growing more common. Perhaps
+the most effective use to which it was ever
+put was at the Proal banquet of April, 1903,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page526" id="page526"></a>[pg&nbsp;526]</span>
+when thirty-five ladies dined within a monster
+Easter egg. The egg itself towered to the
+top of Sherry's ballroom and extended almost
+to the outer walls. Outside the egg was
+represented a farm on which chickens, ducks,
+geese, rabbits, pigs, lambs, and guinea-pigs
+disported to the life&mdash;for they were really
+live. The ballroom had been turned into a
+fine landscape, with scenes representing fields
+and pastures, with flowing brooks near by,
+and farmhouses, windmills, and hayricks in
+the distance. One or two mirrors reflected
+parts of this landscape, which had been
+arranged to express that longing for &quot;green
+fields and pastures new&quot; which comes to all
+who live a city life when spring appears.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In every respect the farm was true to life.
+A farmer with blue overalls and smock passed
+in front of the guests, followed by a flock of
+geese. Pigs ran between his legs, and the
+spring lamb frisked upon the green. Rabbits
+munched their carrots until, timid at the sight
+of strange people, they hid themselves in the
+straw which lay about. Around were scattered
+the implements of labour, as if the farmers
+had just left their work. There were scythes,
+mowing-machines, milk-pails, and milking-stools
+to be seen. Every detail, in fact, had
+been thought of necessary to make the illusion
+complete, and the guests&mdash;all of whom had
+been kept in ignorance until they came into
+the room&mdash;were justly astonished at the sight.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The egg itself, with its shell of white, was
+geometrically perfect, and brought to mind
+the famous tale of Sindbad and the gigantic
+roc. The shell was
+fashioned with light
+timber bands bent
+to the required
+shape, and the supports
+were covered
+with green, all making
+a delightful
+arbour-like effect.
+The table was oval
+in form, hollowed
+in the centre, within
+which were floral
+decorations representing
+the white
+and yellow of an
+egg. Daffodils and
+jonquils were used
+for the yolk, while
+lilies, candytuft,
+and other white
+flowers were freely
+used. The air was
+filled with fragrance
+from these blooms. Mrs. Proal sat at
+the head of the ornamental table, with her
+guests around the oval. Music was
+provided by a band of negro musicians,
+who, seating themselves on wooden benches
+outside the dining-room, sang plantation
+melodies. The waiters were dressed as farm-labourers
+in gaily coloured shirts and smocks,
+with wisps of straw upon their heads. Fortunate,
+indeed, were the thirty-five women who
+took part at this unique banquet, for the farm
+and its giant egg had come into existence
+only for a single day, to be destroyed when
+luncheon was ended and its use was over.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p527.jpg" width="700" height="472" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">THE GUESTS OF THE KETTLE CLUB DINNER WITH THE KETTLE IN WHICH THEY DINED.</p>
+
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by Byron.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">We already begin to see in these dinners
+the existence of a new form of humour.
+This is shown even better in the so-called
+&quot;babies' dinner&quot; given at Sherry's by a
+Philadelphia organization called the Kettle
+Club. This club, composed of gentlemen
+who summer in the Adirondack Mountains,
+and who eat their forest meals round a vast
+and fragrant kettle, recently decided to admit
+five new members, or &quot;babies.&quot; The only
+condition of candidacy was that the &quot;babies&quot;
+should show due appreciation of the honour
+conferred upon them. The result was a
+banquet such as had never been held before.
+To it were invited the older members of the
+club. The ballroom resembled a forest glade.
+Round the walls were painted forests with real
+trees in the foreground, to one of which was
+hitched a hunting-horse. The scenic effects
+included a dark blue cloth which represented
+a sky, with a moon in the distance and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page527" id="page527"></a>[pg&nbsp;527]</span>
+twinkling stars. In the centre of the room
+rested on a tall mound a huge kettle, twenty-five
+feet high and twenty-eight feet in
+diameter, with a door at one side reached by
+a rustic stairway. There was a circular table
+within the kettle, around which sat the guests,
+each with a wine &quot;cooler&quot; at his side.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the centre of the table, perfectly dark
+when dinner began, was a bed of tall flowers
+on the floor, nine feet below. Suddenly,
+when this hole was lighted, was revealed a
+magnificent display of orchids, with a vine of
+pale purple flowers. Below sat a negro with
+a banjo, who sang and played throughout the
+evening for the pleasure of the guests. The
+menu card showed a picture of the kettle,
+into which five babies were climbing, the
+faces of these being those of the five new
+members, each with a teething ring, a nursing
+bottle, and a rattle. Souvenirs of the occasion
+were given to the guests in the form of
+small kettles, each with the name of the
+guest and the club motto, &quot;Take the Kettle,&quot;
+painted on the side. This same inscription
+appeared on the structure in which the
+banquet took place, as shown in our illustration.
+Here we may note the part which
+the backcloth played at this noteworthy
+function.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p528a.jpg" width="700" height="422" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">THE OLD GUARDS' &quot;MOCK-MENU&quot; DINNER.</p>
+
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by Byron.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Another novel dinner was that given by a
+well-known New Yorker, Colonel O'Brien, to
+the Old Guard of Delmonico's, known to
+fame as the guard that &quot;dines but never
+surrenders.&quot; For this affair two menus had
+been provided, one as a joke, the other for
+consumption. The mock bill of fare contained
+a list of dishes which <i>might</i> have been
+provided. For example, under the heading
+of oysters were the words &quot;half shell,&quot; which
+the waiters solemnly set before the assembled
+gentlemen, minus the bivalves. These being
+removed made way for the next item, which,
+being &quot;cream of celery&quot; and presumably a
+soup, was found to be small tubes of celery
+with cold cream inside. Through all the
+regular courses the joke was carried, with
+amusing success, the joint being spring lamb
+with &quot;string,&quot; or French, beans. What was
+the astonishment of the guests to find served
+for this course a woolly toy lamb on a spring,
+which squeaked when pressed, and wore
+dried beans on a string around its neck!
+The humour of the dinner came with the
+continued surprise at the ingenuity shown
+by the preparer of the feast, and it can be
+truly said that each item tickled the guests
+immensely. With the woolly lambs this band
+of gastronomers were especially pleased, and
+it was at the moment when these ridiculous
+toys were handed round to the well-proportioned
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page528" id="page528"></a>[pg&nbsp;528]</span>
+diners that our photograph was
+secured.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p528b.jpg" width="700" height="394" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">THE &quot;LYRE DINNER,&quot; THE TABLE BEING IN THE FORM OF A LYRE.</p>
+
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by Byron.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">A few years ago Mr. Sherry himself was
+returning with the <i>impresario</i>, Maurice Grau,
+from Europe, and as the result of a wager
+upon the ship's &quot;run&quot; Mr. Grau was given a
+splendid dinner. It is now known in gastronomic
+history as the &quot;lyre dinner,&quot; for the
+table was arranged in the form of an enormous
+lyre. Long gilded ropes covered with pretty
+vines represented the strings, while, to carry
+out the idea of the instrument, there was a
+golden cloth on the inner side of the table.
+Into this were woven mauve orchids, with
+electric lights sparkling under the green
+leaves, thus bringing out sufficient brilliancy
+to please the guests and not to affect their
+eyesight. Between each two seats of the
+table was a wine &quot;cooler,&quot; sunk into the
+wood in such a way that the neck only of
+each champagne bottle showed above the
+edge. The banquet was attended by those
+best known to music in New York, and its
+brilliancy has probably never been surpassed.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2><i>A Doubtful Case.</i></h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Mrs. Egerton Eastwick (Pleydell North).</span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 100px;"> <img src="images/ill_p529a.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>HEN, in the year 189-, a
+weakness of the throat prevented
+me from preaching for
+a time, I had considerable
+difficulty in persuading Allan
+Fortescue to take my place in
+the pulpit.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He had been amongst us rather more than
+two years; and although an ordained priest
+in the Church of England, and a man of
+considerable ability, was without preferment,
+and, apparently, content to remain so.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">How came it, I often wondered, that he
+stayed on in our quiet village, with no
+apparent interest or occupation in life
+beyond his garden and his books?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Nor, when he at length consented to my
+proposal and preached his first sermon in
+Stony Lea, was my perplexity lessened. His
+diction was that of a classical scholar, but his
+words were also the outpouring of a sensitive,
+warm-hearted man;
+I could have fancied
+that in these
+impersonal utterances
+he sought
+compensation for
+years of enforced
+silence and isolation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He had attracted
+me from the first.
+Manly, genial, but
+strangely reserved,
+Sir Lewin Maxwell
+and myself
+were, I believe, the
+only visitors who
+had gained admittance
+to his cottage.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When I so far
+induced him to
+change his habits
+as to help me with
+my weekly sermons
+Sir Lewin Maxwell
+was abroad. He
+had left Stony Lea
+for the Riviera in
+November, and
+now, early in May,
+the fact of his
+marriage had just
+been announced.
+No particulars, however, concerning the bride
+had reached us, and the appearance of the
+newly-married couple at the Hall was looked
+for with much interest and curiosity. They
+did not come until June, and then, by the
+express desire of Sir Lewin, were met by no
+demonstration of any kind; indeed, no one,
+I believe, except the steward and myself
+knew the exact date or hour at which they
+were to be expected.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On the Sunday following their arrival,
+therefore, glances were turned with some
+eagerness towards the Hall pew, but it was
+occupied only by a stout, elderly lady, who
+could not assuredly be Sir Lewin's newly-married
+wife.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">No sooner, on that day, had Allan
+Fortescue in due course mounted the pulpit
+than I became aware of something amiss.
+From my position in the chancel I could not
+see his face, but the pause which preceded
+his announcement of a text
+was just long enough to
+cause uneasiness, and his
+voice, when at length he
+broke the silence, was
+harsh and unnatural, although,
+when once fairly
+started, he spoke with even
+more than his usual fervour.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When I reached
+the sacristy after the
+service Fortescue
+had already left,
+and as I was preparing
+to follow him
+I was accosted by
+the lady whom I
+had seen in the
+squire's pew.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 466px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p529b.jpg" width="466" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;SHE TURNED TO ME AND INQUIRED WHETHER I WAS AWARE OF
+THE TRUE CHARACTER OF THE MAN.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">My visitor's
+comely, good-tempered
+face was
+flushed with heat
+and nervous indignation.
+After
+abruptly closing the
+sacristy door upon
+the two of us she
+turned to me and
+inquired whether I
+was aware of the
+true character of
+the man I had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page530" id="page530"></a>[pg&nbsp;530]</span>
+admitted to my pulpit, adding that it was with
+the greatest difficulty she had refrained from
+walking out of the church.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Somewhat startled, I asked for further
+explanation, whereupon she gave me, at considerable
+length, the particulars I will here try
+to relate as concisely as possible.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It seemed that about five years previously
+Allan Fortescue had been engaged as resident
+tutor to Mrs. Llewellyn's only son, and in
+that capacity had accompanied
+the family
+to Llidisfarn, a solitary,
+old-fashioned place in
+Wales. The house was
+occupied for the greater
+part of the year by a
+gardener and his wife
+as caretakers; but
+during the residence
+of
+their mistress
+these people
+retired to their
+own cottage.
+Mrs. Llewellyn
+brought with
+her two old
+and faithful servants&mdash;both
+women. Her
+party further included
+her niece
+and ward, Edith
+Graham, now
+Sir Lewin Maxwell's
+wife. The
+evening of her
+arrival Mrs.
+Llewellyn retired
+early to her room
+and to bed. The latter
+was an antiquated four-poster;
+the canopy had
+been removed for the
+sake of air, but the curtains remained, and on
+the night in question, the weather being boisterous
+and the room draughty, had been drawn
+so as to have only a small opening at the foot.
+Before retiring Mrs. Llewellyn had taken
+from her travelling-bag an ebony and silver
+casket which contained some valuable
+diamonds. She had intended placing the
+casket in an iron safe near the head of the
+bed, but had found the lock rusty from
+disuse; consequently, being exceedingly tired,
+and believing there could be no fear of
+burglars in this quiet and remote place, she
+left the casket on the dressing-table.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The dressing-table faced the door of the
+room, and to cross from one to the other it
+was necessary to pass the foot of the bed.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 508px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p530.jpg" width="508" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;A FIGURE CARRYING A SMALL READING-LAMP PASSED
+THE APERTURE.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">In the dead of the night Mrs. Llewellyn
+awoke, feeling sure that someone was stirring
+in the room, and, as she became more fully
+conscious, saw on the ceiling above her a
+dim reflection of light. Almost at the same
+moment a figure carrying a small reading-lamp
+passed the aperture between the curtains
+at the foot of
+the bed, going
+towards the
+door, and she
+recognised, to
+her amazement,
+the tutor, Allan
+Fortescue. She
+described herself
+as being
+too surprised
+and terrified to
+call out; it
+seemed but a
+moment before
+the door was
+closed and she
+was in darkness
+and alone.
+Then she struck
+a light, sprang
+from the bed,
+and went to
+the dressing-table.
+The
+ebony casket
+was gone. Even
+then she gave
+no alarm. Except
+her son
+and Allan Fortescue,
+only
+women were in
+the house;
+and she reflected
+that it would be safer and wiser to
+wait until the morning. That the thief
+should dispose of the diamonds during
+the night was virtually impossible. Also the
+circumstances were otherwise peculiar. Allan
+Fortescue was at that time the avowed
+admirer of Miss Graham, and for her sake
+an open scandal was, if possible, to be
+avoided.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The following morning, however, after
+hours of sleepless anxiety, Mrs. Llewellyn
+summoned the tutor to the study, made her
+accusation, and demanded the return of her
+property.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page531" id="page531"></a>[pg&nbsp;531]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">He did not attempt either to explain or
+deny his presence in her room during the
+night, but appeared to treat the idea of theft
+as a ludicrous jest, and stoutly maintained
+that the jewels were not in his possession.
+During the altercation which followed Miss
+Graham entered, and Fortescue at once
+explained the situation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Apparently to his surprise, Miss Graham
+took the affair very seriously, and seemed to
+feel that the evidence against him was
+overwhelming. She pleaded, however, so
+piteously that for her sake he might be
+spared from public disgrace that Mrs.
+Llewellyn finally consented to allow him to
+leave the house, upon the understanding that
+he should seek no further intercourse with
+any member of the family, and that he should
+never again undertake the duties either of a
+clergyman or a tutor. Under these circumstances
+he at last seemed to realize the
+seriousness of his position; he went away
+that morning, maintaining towards the end
+an obstinate silence. The most rigorous
+search, made at his own request, among his
+possessions failed to reveal the diamonds,
+which, indeed, had never since been heard of.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I also gathered that, although made fully
+aware of the penalty to be incurred by any
+breach of the conditions named, he had
+steadily refused to bind himself as to his
+future.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">That afternoon, as soon as I was at leisure,
+I walked down to Allan Fortescue's cottage.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Shocked and distressed as I was at the
+story, I felt many points in it needed clearing
+up, and was inwardly assured that, if he
+would, he had the power to explain the
+whole matter satisfactorily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He opened the door himself.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know,&quot; he said, abruptly, before I could
+speak, &quot;why you have come. Mrs. Llewellyn
+was with you this morning; I saw her rustling
+up towards the sacristy. Don't let charity
+bring you any farther.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I signed to him to let me come in.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We can't talk on the doorstep,&quot; I said.
+&quot;Of course, it is all a mistake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He let me come to the study; then, as he
+closed the door behind me, he said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There is no mistake. I was there&mdash;in
+her room that night. She saw me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You were not there to take the
+diamonds,&quot; I persisted.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I was not there to steal the diamonds; I
+will own so much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In that case, who did steal them, if
+stolen they were? No pains should have
+been spared at the time to discover the
+actual thief. Even now it might not be too
+late, if you would only account for your
+presence in the room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The actual thief&mdash;&mdash;&quot; He began restlessly
+to pace the floor. &quot;What if I were to say that
+I took the diamonds&mdash;with my own hands?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I should answer that you must have been
+in some way unconscious of your actions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">My confidence seemed to touch him; he
+looked at me, and for a moment I hoped I
+was to gain some enlightenment; then he
+said, slowly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I was never in my life more completely
+master of myself. And now there must be
+an end of my confessions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I saw that to question him further would
+be useless, and shortly afterwards took my
+leave. As we parted he grasped my extended
+hand.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I owe you an apology,&quot; he said, &quot;for
+having brought this annoyance upon you,
+and I don't know how to thank you for your
+patience with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A few days later an invitation reached
+me to dine at the Hall. Any intercourse
+between Allan Fortescue and Sir Lewin
+Maxwell had inevitably ceased. Sir Lewin,
+not unnaturally, accepted Mrs. Llewellyn's
+view of the case, but he did not quarrel with
+me for taking my own line, and young Lady
+Maxwell seemed almost grateful for my belief
+in the possible innocence of her old lover.
+She was a most charming woman, with
+an habitually sweet and gracious manner,
+rendered only more attractive, I at first
+thought, by a variableness of mood which
+brought suggestion of possible storms.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">An accomplished musician, her talent
+made a link between us. Often, indeed,
+during the earlier part of our intercourse
+she became associated in my mind with the
+harmonies of Beethoven, whose creations
+she rendered with remarkable skill and
+feeling. Later, however, I noticed an
+increase of nervous restlessness, an expression
+in her eyes as of some haunting, eager
+desire, little in keeping with the works of the
+master, which, however full of variety, are to
+my mind always instinct with a great satisfaction
+and repose.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For some time I was inclined to attribute
+these signs of disturbance to the neighbourhood
+of Allan Fortescue, and to think that
+he would have done well to leave the village.
+But, so far as I could see, he studiously
+avoided all chance of encounter with any of
+the Hall party; and, without definite reason,
+I had not the heart to suggest that he should
+become once more a wanderer.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page532" id="page532"></a>[pg&nbsp;532]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">In this way some few months passed
+without noticeable event. Sir Lewin, I
+thought, at times looked careworn and more
+aged than the passage of months would
+justify, but he seemed, if possible, more
+entirely devoted to his wife than in the
+earlier days of their marriage. Then, one
+Monday afternoon early in April, as I was
+riding homewards from visiting an outlying
+district, a curious thing happened.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">My way led me through Oxley Dell, a
+piece of road bordered on each side by Sir
+Lewin's woods, through which to the right
+a bridle-path leads by a short cut to Stony
+Lea. The path and immediate neighbourhood
+are but little frequented, owing to an
+old story of a murder and a subsequent ghost.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 597px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p532.jpg" width="597" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;A WOMAN SUDDENLY APPEARED FROM AMONG THE TREES.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">As I neared the Dell I saw Allan Fortescue
+tramping along the road in front of me, but
+before I could overtake him he turned aside
+into the bridle-path. There I presently
+followed, and had him once more in view,
+when a woman suddenly appeared from
+among the trees and accosted him. Allan
+raised his hat, and the two walked on
+together; the meeting had the air of an
+appointment.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Having no wish to play the spy I turned
+my pony's head, but I was ill at ease. The
+tall, graceful figure of the woman, enveloped
+though it was in a long rain-coat, had been
+ominously familiar, and as I jogged slowly
+homewards I resolved that I would call that
+evening on Allan and have the matter out
+with him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I found him in better spirits than usual,
+but when I explained my errand he seemed
+somewhat disconcerted.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah! you saw us,&quot; he said, and bent to
+knock the ashes from his pipe; then added,
+&quot;You are sure, I suppose, of the identity of
+the lady? &quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;As sure as it is possible to be without
+having seen her face to face.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Still, you might be utterly mistaken.
+Would it not be better, for the sake of&mdash;the
+lady chiefly concerned in your mind&mdash;to give
+her the benefit of the doubt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">His eyes met mine fully, I answered
+question with question.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you think you are dealing fairly with
+me? Strictly speaking, perhaps this is no
+affair of mine, and yet&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And yet you have been extraordinarily
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page533" id="page533"></a>[pg&nbsp;533]</span>
+good to me, and deserve that I should be open
+with you. I can only ask you to trust me a
+little farther; to believe that the meeting you
+witnessed to-day cannot possibly injure the
+lady you are thinking of except through your
+interference, and that it was as far removed
+from being of a sentimental nature as though
+I had met my grandmother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Friday following this interview I
+received a visit from the squire; he looked
+ill and harassed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I am vexed,&quot; he said, &quot;about Edith.
+She went to town for a day's shopping on
+Wednesday and has not returned. She was
+to lunch with Mrs. Llewellyn and come back
+for dinner. She has frequently made these
+little excursions of late. In the evening,
+however, I got a telegram to say she was
+detained by the dressmaker, and yesterday
+morning a letter to the same effect. This
+morning I had no letter, but half an hour
+ago I met General Anson&mdash;he had just
+arrived by the three o'clock train. He told
+me that he had seen Edith having lunch at
+Franconi's with Fortescue. They did not
+see him&mdash;his table was behind theirs&mdash;but
+as he left the room he passed close to them
+and heard Fortescue say, 'To-night, then,
+without fail, by the seven-thirty.' 'So,' the
+old man went on, 'I suppose Lady Maxwell
+comes down to-night, and Mr. Fortescue is
+to escort her. I thought there was a coolness&mdash;that
+he was under a cloud.' I
+laughed, and told him it was a case of
+mistaken identity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And Fortescue?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He went to London yesterday; I happen
+to know that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I must here mention that Stony Lea,
+although but a small village in Kent, has a
+good train service, and is but an hour's run
+from town. I looked at my watch. It was
+barely four o'clock. &quot;Why not,&quot; I said, &quot;go
+up to town by the four-forty-five, and travel
+down yourself with Lady Maxwell when she
+is prepared to come? You could be in
+Belgrave Road before six o'clock.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Will you come with me?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I consented; and by 6.30 we were in
+Belgrave Road.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mrs. Llewellyn's house had an empty,
+uninhabited air, and the servant who came
+to the door said his mistress had been out
+of town for a few days. Lady Maxwell had
+been staying there during the week. She
+had driven out in the morning and not returned
+until four o'clock; then, after a cup
+of tea, she had gone out again, walking; she
+had said she was leaving town that evening,
+and would return about half-past six in
+a cab for various parcels that were awaiting
+her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Quite so,&quot; Sir Lewin said; &quot;she is travelling
+down with me. I will wait for her here,&quot;
+and he walked straight into the drawing-room,
+whither I followed him. The room opened
+into the hall. Presently a hansom drove up;
+Lady Maxwell got out and entered the house
+with a latch-key. Sir Lewin moved towards
+the door of the room as though intending
+to meet her, when the arrival of another cab
+made him pause and look round. Lady
+Maxwell ran lightly upstairs; the door was
+ajar and I heard the swish-swish of her
+skirts. The second cab was a four-wheeler;
+Fortescue descended from it, and the electric
+bell of the front door tingled persistently in
+the silence of the house. Then we heard
+him asking for Lady Maxwell, and almost
+before the servant could reply Sir Lewin was
+on the doorstep. Fearful of what might
+ensue I followed him from the room; I saw
+him touch Fortescue on the shoulder, and
+Allan's start of surprise and, apparently,
+dismay; then the two men entered the hall
+together.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now,&quot; said Sir Lewin, &quot;kindly explain
+your presence here and your business with
+my wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Allan's answer was unexpected.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think,&quot; he said, quietly, &quot;I will leave
+that to Lady Maxwell herself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They had spoken so far in low tones and
+with outward calm; now Sir Lewin muttered
+angrily some words which I could not hear,
+and raised his arm.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 453px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p534.jpg" width="453" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;SIR LEWIN MUTTERED ANGRILY SOME WORDS WHICH I COULD NOT
+HEAR, AND RAISED HIS ARM.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">I stepped forward.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come into the drawing-room,&quot; I said
+hurriedly in his ear. &quot;Don't make a public
+scene.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He shook me off, but at that moment
+another and more importunate voice
+intervened.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My dear Lewin, you here? How exceedingly
+fortunate! Now we need not rush for
+that seven-thirty train; you and dear Edith
+can stay to dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was a darkening of the doorway, a
+rustle of garments, and Mrs. Llewellyn
+advanced with outstretched hands.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Sir Lewin stared in blank amazement.
+Allan smiled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I was in the cab,&quot; went on the lady,
+&quot;waiting for Edith. Mr. Fortescue kindly
+drove with me from the station, and I had
+intended to travel down with her, trusting,
+my dear Lewin, to your hospitality to put me
+up for the night. I am so sorry I have been
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page534" id="page534"></a>[pg&nbsp;534]</span>
+unable to return before, to be with the dear
+child all the time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She had talked us all to the drawing-room
+door.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I still quite fail to see,&quot; began Sir Lewin,
+stiffly, &quot;how
+Mr. Fortescue&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I will explain,&quot;
+said
+Lady Maxwell.
+She had come
+down the stairs
+unheard, and
+now advanced
+towards us.
+Her face was
+as white as the
+gown she wore,
+her eyes looked
+wild and startled.
+&quot;Come
+with me,&quot; she
+added to Sir
+Lewin, and led
+the way to a
+small back
+room. He followed
+her without
+a word.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Pay the
+cab,&quot; said Mrs.
+Llewellyn,
+cheerfully, to
+the servant,
+&quot;and bring all
+those packages
+in. Sir Lewin
+and Lady Maxwell
+will remain
+to dinner. Mr.
+Greyling and
+Mr. Fortescue,
+please come in,
+and let me offer you some refreshment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She moved towards the dining-room and,
+the door being safely closed, fell gasping into
+a chair. There was wine upon the side-board;
+Allan poured some into a glass and
+brought it to her. She sighed heavily as she
+took it. &quot;How all this is to end, Heaven
+only knows!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think,&quot; said Allan, &quot;there is nothing
+further for me to do. If you will allow me I
+will bid you good-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She looked at him curiously, the wineglass
+half-way to her lips.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Can you,&quot; she said, &quot;trust your vindication
+to us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Entirely. It has come to be the last
+thing I think about,&quot; he answered, sadly;
+&quot;and, if she may in any degree be spared,
+I beg that it may be the very last thing
+in your mind also.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A few minutes later
+Allan and I left the
+house.  We dined in
+town and travelled back
+to Stony Lea together;
+but he offered me no
+explanation of
+the events of
+the afternoon,
+and I respected
+his silence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Nearly a
+week passed
+before I heard
+anything further
+about the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then, one
+morning, Sir
+Lewin called
+upon me; he
+and Lady Maxwell
+had returned
+only the
+previous night
+from town.
+He made no
+reference to
+the circumstances
+of our
+last meeting,
+but asked me
+to come to the
+Hall that afternoon,
+as his
+wife was far
+from well, and
+anxious to see
+me.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I went accordingly and found her alone,
+lying upon a couch in her morning-room and
+looking sadly, terribly changed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I have asked you to come,&quot; she said,
+when I had taken a seat beside her, &quot;because
+I want to tell you the truth about Allan
+Fortescue; he has suffered all these years
+through my fault, and I must make what
+reparation I can before&mdash;&mdash; It was I
+who really had the diamonds; I wanted
+them, and I employed him to bring me
+the casket; he did this quite innocently,
+as you will hear, not knowing what it
+contained. I had seen it on the dressing-table
+when I went to say good-night to my
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page535" id="page535"></a>[pg&nbsp;535]</span>
+aunt just after she had gone to bed&mdash;about
+nine o'clock; but I was equally afraid either
+to take it then or to return to the room in
+the dark later on. Yet the chance seemed
+too good to be lost; I had never seen the
+casket left exposed before; it was always
+kept under lock and key. On my way downstairs
+I met Allan Fortescue, and we went
+together to the drawing-room. As we sat
+chatting by the fire, the plan I afterwards
+carried out occurred to me. The talk turned
+upon ghosts, and he said he should much
+like to meet one. Then I told him, truly,
+that one room in the house was said to be
+haunted by the spirit of a lady who had died
+there mysteriously on her return from a ball
+at which she had promised her lover to elope
+with him. I explained that nothing had been
+disturbed since the morning she was found
+there, dead in her chair before the mirror;
+but instead of the room to which the story
+really attached I described the one I had just
+left, and dared him to visit it after midnight.
+He said he had no fear, but I added that I
+should not believe in his courage unless he
+brought me as a proof a small ebony casket
+which had always stood upon the dressing-table.
+He laughed and said he would do
+even that, and I promised to meet him in
+the conservatory the following morning before
+breakfast to receive it and hear his
+experiences. He was quite strange to the
+house and did not know how any of the
+bedrooms were occupied except his own
+and his pupil's, which were in another wing.
+In the morning he handed me the casket
+as arranged. You know the rest; you see he
+was helpless in my hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you mean to tell me,&quot; I asked, &quot;that
+you wrecked a man's life for a few jewels?&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p535.jpg" width="700" height="466" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;'DON'T JUDGE ME TOO HARDLY,' SHE SAID, PITEOUSLY.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't judge me too hardly,&quot; she said,
+piteously. &quot;I was in terrible straits. I had
+been staying with some of my father's relations
+in town, and had learned much of a
+side of life concerning which Aunt Mary
+knew practically nothing. I owed a great deal
+of money, and was afraid to tell her about it.
+When I had the diamonds I was able to put
+off the most threatening of my creditors with
+promises of payment, and, later, one of my
+cousins helped me to dispose of the stones.
+I told him they were some jewels of my
+mother's which had just been made over to
+me. Aunt Mary would hold no intercourse
+with my father's family, so I had no fear of
+awkward explanations. When I was twenty-one
+I came in for a little money, all
+that was left of my mother's fortune,
+and I gave Aunt Mary some fresh jewels.
+You see, I had inherited certain tendencies
+from my father&mdash;perhaps in the beginning
+there was some excuse for me; you will
+understand when I say that he died from a
+hurt received in a gambling quarrel when I
+was about twelve years old. The house and
+all he possessed were sold to pay his debts,
+and Aunt Mary took charge of me. It was
+a great change. To me at all events my
+father had been good always, and I loved
+him dearly.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page536" id="page536"></a>[pg&nbsp;536]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;As to Allan Fortescue, when he found
+how I had tricked him he was furious,
+but I managed to see him alone and persuaded
+him to accept the situation. You
+see, I had contrived things so that his
+speaking would have been of very little
+use unless I had chosen to confess&mdash;only
+his word against mine. Of course,
+I was dreadfully upset when I found that
+Aunt Mary had seen him. That was just
+what I had not counted upon; but I
+couldn't go back then and give up the
+jewels&mdash;I couldn't. I promised him that, if
+he would keep silence, I would never be reckless
+and extravagant or wicked again; and
+for a long time I kept my word. But life
+was dreadfully dull, and the thought of what
+I had done made me wretched; if Allan had
+been prosecuted I don't think I could have
+borne it&mdash;I must have spoken out. As it
+was, I became subject to dreadful fits of
+depression, and I think Aunt Mary was very
+glad to get me safely married, as she called
+it. For a time, then, I was very happy; for
+I loved Lewin dearly, and I tried to forget.
+Then, finding Allan here, seeing the wreck I
+had made of his life, brought back to me all
+my trouble. I began to crave again for
+excitement of any sort. Lewin thought I
+was ill, and at first used to give me champagne
+as a tonic.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;When we were in town last year I got
+back into the old set, from a different
+standpoint, and with more money at command&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Once more she stopped, but I would not
+again interrupt her; I felt that the whole sad
+story must be finished now.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't know,&quot; she continued, presently,
+&quot;how Allan Fortescue discovered what was
+going on, but he did. One day I received a
+communication from him&mdash;I can't call it a
+letter&mdash;telling me that he knew the sort of life
+I was leading, and that unless I kept my
+promise to him he would speak and tell Lewin
+the truth even now. He knew and could prove
+where I had sold the diamonds. In reply to
+that I induced him to meet me in the Oxley
+Woods, and persuaded him to give me a
+little more time. I promised to tell Lewin
+that very night about my debts. Instead, I
+went to London. I really meant to start
+afresh; but I thought I could raise some
+money and get fairly straight without saying
+anything to my husband. I&mdash;I stayed
+longer than I meant. Allan came to look
+for me. He followed me to the places
+where he thought I was likely to be&mdash;he
+must have kept a watch upon me for
+some time past&mdash;but our meeting at last was
+accidental. I was really at my wits' end,
+and I went into Franconi's with Allan to
+talk things over. We saw General Anson
+leave the place, and I think that made Allan
+decide there must be no more concealment;
+also, I suppose he felt it was useless to trust
+me any longer. He went straight from me
+to Aunt Mary and fetched her. She knew
+that he must be speaking the truth. I had
+promised to go home that night anyhow;
+but I don't know what I might have done if
+I had been left to myself. Then you and
+Lewin appeared&mdash;&mdash; It is better as it is&mdash;I
+should never have had the strength, the
+courage&mdash;I am so sorry&mdash;so sorry&mdash;for
+Lewin&mdash;for myself&mdash;for Allan&mdash;for my little
+child that is coming&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She turned her face to the wall, and I saw
+her slight frame shiver with voiceless, choking
+tears.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There is little more to tell. Lady Maxwell
+lived only a few months after she had made
+this confession. Her child survived&mdash;a son&mdash;and
+there are three men who watch over
+that boy with perhaps exaggerated solicitude
+and love&mdash;his father, Allan Fortescue, and
+myself.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Will he reward our care? I think so. He
+has his mother's face and charm, but in
+character he takes after Sir Lewin. Allan
+Fortescue has remained in the village as my
+curate. I trust he may never leave me, and
+that the bishop may see fit hereafter to appoint
+him vicar in my stead; I am growing old.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2><i>Illustrated Interviews.</i></h2>
+
+<p class="center">No. LXXXI.&mdash;DR. EDWARD ELGAR.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Rudolph de Cordova.</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p537a.jpg" width="600" height="595" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by</i>] DR. EDWARD ELGAR. [<i>George Newnes, Ltd.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 111px;"> <img src="images/ill_p537.jpg" width="111" height="100" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>F ever this votary of the
+muse of song looked from
+the hills of his present home
+at Malvern, from the cradle
+of English poetry, the scene
+of the vision of Piers Plowman,
+and from the British camp, with its
+legendary memories of his own 'Caractacus,'
+and in the light of the rising sun sees the
+towers of Tewkesbury and Gloucester and
+Worcester, he might recall in that view the
+earlier stages of his career, and confess with
+modest pride, like the bard in the
+'Odyssey':&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Self-taught I sing; 'tis Heaven, and Heaven alone,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Inspires my song with music all its own.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 598px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p542a.jpg" width="598" height="537" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by</i>] DR. ELGAR'S HOUSE AT MALVERN.  [<i>George Newnes, Ltd.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">It was in November, 1900, that these
+words were spoken by the Orator when the
+University of Cambridge honoured itself by
+conferring the honorary degree of Doctor of
+Music on Dr. Elgar, whom one of the most
+distinguished German writers on music
+declared to be &quot;the most brilliant champion
+of the National School of Composition which
+is beginning to bloom in England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The encomiums which Germany&mdash;the
+acknowledged leader of the world in music&mdash;has
+showered on Dr. Elgar have at
+length been reflected in England, which has
+awakened to the fact that to him at least
+that much misapplied word &quot;genius&quot; belongs
+by right divine. That awakening was marked
+by the three days' festival in the middle of
+March, when Covent Garden Opera House
+reverted to an old custom and for two
+glorious nights became the home of oratorio,
+with a concert on the third night. That
+festival is unique in the history of music, for
+it is the first time an English composer has
+been so honoured.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page538" id="page538"></a>[pg&nbsp;538]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">However gratifying the applause of the
+public may be to the worker in any art, his
+greatest pleasure must properly come from
+his fellow-workers, who know the difficulties
+which have to be surmounted before the
+desired effect can be produced.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Was not Herr Steinbach, the conductor
+of the Meiningen Orchestra, among the
+others who said that you have something
+different from anybody else in the tone of
+your orchestra?&quot; I asked Dr. Elgar, as we
+sat in his study at Malvern, with a great
+expanse of country visible
+through the wide windows.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p542b.jpg" width="700" height="415" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by</i>] DR. ELGAR'S STUDY. [<i>George Newnes, Ltd.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I believe so,&quot; he
+replied; &quot;and that remark
+has been one from
+which I have naturally
+derived great pleasure.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You know,&quot; said Dr.
+Elgar, as he settled down
+to talk for the purpose of
+this interview, in accordance
+with a long-standing
+promise made in what he
+came to regard as an unguarded
+moment&mdash;&quot;you
+know, since you compel
+me to begin at the beginning,
+that I 'began' in
+Broadheath, a little village
+three miles from Worcester,
+in which city my
+father was organist of
+St. George's Catholic
+Church, a post he held
+for thirty-seven years. I
+was a very little boy
+indeed when I began to
+show some aptitude for
+music and used to
+extemporize on the piano. When I was
+quite small I received a few lessons on the
+piano. The organ-loft then attracted me,
+and from the time I was about seven or
+eight I used to go and sit by my father and
+watch him play. After a time I began to
+try to play myself. At first the only thing
+I succeeded in producing was noise, but
+gradually, out of the chaos, harmony began to
+evolve itself. In those days, too, an English
+opera company used to visit the old Worcester
+Theatre, and I was taken into the
+orchestra, which consisted of only eight or
+ten performers, and so heard old operas like
+'Norma,' 'Traviata,' 'Trovatore,' and, above
+all, 'Don Giovanni.'</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 407px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p538.jpg" width="407" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">DR. EDWARD ELGAR.</p>
+
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by E. T. Holding.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My general education was not neglected.
+I went to Littleton House School until I was
+about fifteen. At the same time I saw and
+learnt a great deal about music from the
+stream of music that passed through my
+father's establishment.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My hope was that I should be able to get
+a musical education, and I worked hard at
+German on the chance that I should go to
+Leipsic, but my father discovered that he
+could not afford to send me away, and anything
+in that direction seemed to be at an
+end. Then a friend, a solicitor, suggested
+that I should go to him for a year and see
+how I liked the law. I
+went for a year, but
+came to the conclusion
+that the law was not for
+me, and I determined to
+return to music. There
+appeared to be an opening
+for a violinist in
+Worcester, and as it
+occurred to me that it
+would be a good thing
+to try to take advantage
+of the opening, I had
+been teaching myself to
+play the violin. Then I
+began to teach on my
+own account, and spent
+such leisure as I had in
+writing music. It was
+music of a sort&mdash;bad,
+very bad&mdash;but my juvenile
+efforts are, I hope,
+destroyed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Although I was teaching
+the violin I wanted to
+improve my playing, so
+I began to save up in
+order to go to London to
+get some lessons from
+Herr Pollitzer. On one occasion I was
+working the first violin part of the Haydn
+quartet. There was a rest, and I suddenly
+began to play the 'cello part. Pollitzer
+looked up. 'You know the whole thing?'
+he said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;'Of course,' I replied.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He looked up, curiously. 'Do you
+compose, yourself?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;'I try,' I replied again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;'Show me something of yours,' he said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I did so, with the result that he gave me
+an introduction to Mr., now Sir, August
+Manns, who, later on, played many of my
+things at the daily concerts at the Crystal
+Palace.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;When I resolved to become a musician
+and found that the exigencies of life would
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page539" id="page539"></a>[pg&nbsp;539]</span>
+prevent me from getting any tuition, the
+only thing to do was to teach myself. I read
+everything, played everything, and heard
+everything I possibly could. As I have
+told you, I used to play the organ and
+the violin. I attended as many of the
+cathedral services as I could to hear the
+anthems, and to get to know what they
+were, so as to become thoroughly acquainted
+with the English Church style. The putting
+of the fine new organ into the cathedral at
+Worcester was a great event, and brought
+many organists to play there at various times.
+I went to hear them all. The services at the
+cathedral were over later on Sunday than those
+at the Catholic church, and as soon as the
+voluntary was finished at the church I used
+to rush over to the cathedral to hear the concluding
+voluntary. Eventually I succeeded
+my father as organist at
+St. George's. We lived at
+that time in the parish of
+St. Helen's, in which is the
+mother church of Worcester,
+which had a peal
+of eight bells. The Curfew
+used always to be rung in
+those days at eight o'clock
+in the evening, and I
+believe it is still rung. I
+made friends with the
+sexton and used to ring
+the Curfew, and afterwards
+strike the day of the month.
+My enthusiasm was so great
+that I used to prolong the
+ringing from three minutes
+to ten minutes, until the
+people in the neighbourhood
+complained, when
+I had to reduce the time. On Sunday
+the bells were supposed to go for half an
+hour before service, from half-past ten to
+eleven. The performance was divided into
+certain parts. With a friend, I used to 'raise'
+and 'fall' the bell for ten minutes, chime a
+smaller bell for ten minutes or so, and at five
+minutes to eleven I would fly off to play the
+organ at the Catholic church.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 567px;"> <img src="images/ill_p539.jpg" width="567" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">AN EARLY PORTRAIT OF DR. ELGAR.</p>
+
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photograph.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You ask me to go into greater details
+about my musical education. I am constantly
+receiving letters on this point from all
+over the world, for it is well known that I am
+self-taught in the matter of harmony, counterpoint,
+form, and, in short, the whole of the
+'mystery' of music, and people want to know
+what books I used. To-day there are all sorts
+of books to make the study of harmony and
+orchestration pleasant. In my young days
+they were repellent. But I read them and I
+still exist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">If only cold type could suggest the humour
+with which those words were spoken!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The first was Catel, and that was
+followed by Cherubini. The first real sort
+of friendly leading I had, however, was
+from 'Mozart's Thorough-bass School.'
+There was something in that to go upon&mdash;something
+human. It is a small book&mdash;a
+collection of papers beautifully and clearly
+expressed&mdash;which he wrote on harmony for
+the niece of a friend of his. I still treasure
+the old volume. Ouseley and Macfarren
+followed, but the articles which have since
+helped me the most are those of Sir Hubert
+Parry in 'Grove's Dictionary.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How did these various authorities
+mix?&quot; I interrupted.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They didn't mix,&quot; was
+Dr. Elgar's reply, &quot;and it
+appears it is necessary for
+anyone who has to be self-taught
+to read everything
+and&mdash;pick out the best.
+That, I suppose, is the
+difficulty&mdash;to pick out the
+best. How to forget the
+rubbish and remember
+the good I can't tell you,
+but perhaps that is where
+his brains must come in.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It would be affectation
+were I to pretend that my
+work is not recognised as
+modern, and I hate affectation,
+yet it would probably
+surprise you to know
+the amount of work I did
+in studying musical form.
+Only those can safely disregard form who
+ignore it with a full knowledge and do not
+evade it through ignorance.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mozart is the musician from whom everyone
+should learn form. I once ruled a score
+for the same instruments and with the same
+number of bars as Mozart's G Minor Symphony,
+and in that framework I wrote a
+symphony, following as far as possible the
+same outline in the themes and the same
+modulation. I did this on my own initiative,
+as I was groping in the dark after light, but
+looking back after thirty years I don't know
+any discipline from which I learned so much.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So you insist on my telling you some more
+of my early struggles and my early work?
+I was interested in many other things besides
+music, and I had the good fortune to be
+thrown among an unsorted collection of old
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page540" id="page540"></a>[pg&nbsp;540]</span>
+books. There were books of all kinds, and
+all distinguished by the characteristic that
+they were for the most part incomplete.
+I busied myself for days and weeks arranging
+them. I picked out the theological
+books, of which there were a good many,
+and put them on one side. Then I made
+a place for the Elizabethan dramatists,
+the chronicles including Baker's and
+Hollinshed's, besides a tolerable collection
+of old poets and translations of Voltaire,
+and all sorts of things up to the eighteenth
+century. Then I began to read. I used to
+get up at four or five o'clock in the summer
+and read&mdash;every available opportunity found
+me reading. I read till dark.
+I finished by reading every
+one of these books&mdash;including
+the theology. The result
+of that reading has been that
+people tell me I know more
+of life up to the eighteenth
+century than I do of my own
+time, and it is probably true.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In studying scores the
+first which came into my
+hands were the Beethoven
+symphonies. Anyone can
+have them now, but they were
+difficult for a boy to get in
+Worcester thirty years ago.
+I, however, managed to get
+two or three, and I remember
+distinctly the day I was able
+to buy the Pastoral Symphony.
+I stuffed my pockets with
+bread and cheese and went
+out into the fields to study it. That was what
+I always did. Even when I began to teach,
+when a new score came into my hands I
+went off for a long day with it out of doors,
+and when my unfortunate&mdash;or fortunate?&mdash;pupils
+went for their lessons I was not at
+home to give them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;By the way, talking about scores, it will
+probably surprise you to know that I never
+possessed a score of Wagner until one was
+given to me in 1900.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 443px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p540.jpg" width="443" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">DR. ELGAR AS A MEMBER OF HIS
+QUINTET, FOR WHICH HE WROTE
+THE MUSIC.</p>
+
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by Bennett.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In the early days of which I have been
+speaking five of us established a wind
+quintet. We had two flutes, an oboe,
+a clarionet, and a bassoon, which last I
+played for some time, and afterwards relinquished
+it for the 'cello. There was no
+music at all to suit our peculiar requirements,
+as in the ideal wind quintet a horn
+should find a place and not a second flute,
+so I used to write the music. We met
+on Sunday afternoons, and it was an understood
+thing that we should have a new
+piece every week. The sermons in our
+church used to take at least half an
+hour, and I spent the time composing the
+thing for the afternoon. It was great experience
+for me, as you may imagine, and the
+books are all extant, so some of that music
+still exists. We played occasionally for
+friends, and I remember one moonlight
+night stopping in front of a house to put the
+bassoon together. I held it up to see if it
+was straight before tightening it. As I did
+so, someone rushed out of the house, grabbed
+me by the arms, and shouted, 'It will be
+five shillings if you do.' He thought I had
+a gun in my hand.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The old Worcester Glee
+Club had been established as
+long ago as 1809 for the performance
+of old glees, with an
+occasional instrumental night.
+At these last I first played
+second fiddle and afterwards
+became leader, as, after a
+time, I used to do the accompanying.
+It was an enjoyable
+and artistic gathering, and the
+programmes were principally
+drawn from the splendid
+English compositions for
+men's voices. The younger
+generation seemed to prefer
+ordinary part-songs, and
+ballads also were introduced,
+and the tone of the thing
+changed. I am not sure if
+the club is still in existence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It was in 1877 that I first went to take
+lessons of Pollitzer. He suggested that I
+should stay in London and devote myself to
+violin playing, but I had become enamoured
+of a country life, and would not give up the
+prospect of a certain living by playing and
+teaching in Worcester on the chance of only
+a possible success which I might make as a
+soloist in London.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The thing which brought me before a
+larger public as a composer was the production
+of several things of mine at Birmingham
+by Mr. W. C. Stockley, to whom my music
+was introduced by Dr. Wareing, himself a
+composer, and still resident in Birmingham.
+At that time I was a member of Mr.
+Stockley's orchestra&mdash;first violin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In this connection it is interesting to break
+Dr. Elgar's narrative to tell an anecdote
+which Mr. Stockley relates. When he
+decided to do something of Dr. Elgar's, he
+asked him if he would like to conduct it.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page541" id="page541"></a>[pg&nbsp;541]</span>
+&quot;Certainly not,&quot; Dr. Elgar replied; &quot;I am a
+member of the orchestra and I am going to
+stick in the orchestra. I am not recognised
+as a composer, and the fact that you are
+going to do something of mine gives me no
+title to a place anywhere else.&quot; The piece
+was a success and the audience called for Dr.
+Elgar, who came down from among the
+fiddles, made his bow, and then went back to
+his place.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 486px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p541.jpg" width="486" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A PAGE OF THE FULL SCORE OF &quot;THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">To resume. &quot;Don't suppose, however,&quot;
+Dr. Elgar said, &quot;that after that recognition
+as a composer
+things were easy
+for me. The
+directors of the
+old Promenade
+Concerts at
+Covent Garden
+Theatre were
+good enough to
+write that they
+thought sufficiently
+of my
+things to devote
+a morning to
+rehearsing them.
+I went on the
+appointed day to
+London to conduct
+the rehearsal.
+When I
+arrived it was
+explained to me
+that a few songs
+had to be taken
+before I could
+begin. Before
+the songs were
+finished Sir
+Arthur Sullivan
+unexpectedly
+arrived, bringing
+with him a selection
+from one of
+his operas. It
+was the only
+chance he had
+of going through
+it with the orchestra,
+so they determined
+to take
+advantage of the
+opportunity. He
+consumed all my
+time in rehearsing
+this, and
+when he had
+finished the
+director came out and said to me, 'There
+will be no chance of your going through your
+music to-day.' I went back to Worcester to
+my teaching, and that was the last of my
+chance of an appearance at the Promenade
+Concerts.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Years after I met Sullivan, one of the
+most amiable and genial souls that ever lived.
+When we were introduced he said, 'I don't
+think we have met before.' 'Not exactly,' I
+replied, 'but very near it,' and I told him the
+circumstance. 'But, my dear boy, I hadn't
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page542" id="page542"></a>[pg&nbsp;542]</span>
+the slightest idea of it,' he exclaimed, in his
+enthusiastic manner. 'Why on earth didn't
+you come and tell me? I'd have rehearsed
+it myself for you.' They were not idle words.
+He would have done it, just as he said. He
+never forgot the episode till the end of his life.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Two similar occurrences took place at
+the Crystal Palace: rehearsals were planned
+which never came off, so I was no nearer to
+getting a hearing for big orchestral works.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mr. Hugh Blair, then the organist of
+Worcester Cathedral, saw some of the
+cantata, 'The Black Knight,' and said: 'If
+you will finish it I will produce it at
+Worcester.' I finished it, and it was produced
+by the Worcester Festival Choir. This
+cantata then came under the notice of Dr.
+Swinnerton Heap,
+to whom I owe
+my introduction to
+the musical festivals
+as a writer of
+choral works. He
+had known me for
+a good many years
+as a violinist, but
+it had never occurred
+to him to
+talk to me about
+my composing, and
+he knew nothing
+of it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It was through
+Dr. Heap that I
+was asked to write
+a cantata for the
+Staffordshire Musical Festival, and,
+shortly after, the committee asked
+me to provide an oratorio for the
+Worcester Festival. They were
+'The Light of Life,' performed in
+Worcester Cathedral, and 'King
+Olaf,' at Hanley.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Since then it has been a record
+of the production of one composition
+after another until we come
+to 'The Apostles,' and my new
+overture 'In the South,' produced
+at Covent Garden; the one great
+event that particularly stands out
+is the production of the 'Variations'
+by Dr. Richter, to whom I
+was then a complete stranger.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;For a long time I had had the
+idea of writing 'The Apostles' in
+pretty much the form in which I
+hope it will eventually appear.
+As you know, there have been
+oratorios on many points of Jewish
+and Christian history, but none had shown
+how Christianity has risen. I take the men
+who were in touch with Christ, the Apostles
+in fact, and show them to be ordinary mortals
+rather than superhuman men, as they are
+generally represented in art. I was always
+particularly  impressed with  Archbishop
+Whately's conception of Judas, who, as he
+wrote, 'had no design to betray his Master
+to death, but to have been as confident of
+the will of Jesus to deliver Himself from His
+enemies by a miracle as He must have been
+certain of His power to do so, and accordingly
+to have designed to force Him to make
+such a display of His superhuman powers as
+would have induced all the Jews&mdash;and, indeed,
+the Romans too&mdash;to acknowledge Him King.'
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page543" id="page543"></a>[pg&nbsp;543]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In carrying out this plan I made the book
+myself, taking out lines from different parts of
+the Bible which exactly express my conception.
+How it was done the following chorus
+will show you, for you will notice that the references
+to the text are printed in the margin:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">The Lord hath chosen them to stand before Him,
+to serve Him.&mdash;<i>II. Chron.</i> 29, 11.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He hath chosen the weak to confound the mighty.&mdash;<i>I.
+Cor.</i> 1, 27.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He will direct their work in truth.&mdash;<i>Isa.</i> 61, 8.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Behold, God exalteth by His power: who teacheth
+like Him?&mdash;<i>Job</i> 36, 22.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The meek will He guide in judgment, and the
+meek will He teach His way.&mdash;<i>Ps.</i> 25, 9.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He will direct their work in truth.&mdash;<i>Isa.</i> 61, 8.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For out of Zion shall go forth the law.&mdash;<i>Isa.</i> 2, 3.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You will
+notice that
+occasionally, as
+in the third
+extract, I have
+used the words
+in their meaning
+that appears
+on the
+surface, and
+not in the real
+meaning of the
+sentence which
+may be found
+in any commentary.
+To
+keep the diction
+exactly the
+same I have
+not gone outside
+the Scripture
+except in
+one sentence
+from the Talmud in the case of the watchers
+on the Temple roof.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It was part of my original scheme to
+continue 'The Apostles' by a second work
+carrying on the establishment of the Church
+among the Gentiles. This, too, is to be
+followed by a third oratorio, in which the
+fruit of the whole&mdash;that is to say, the end of
+the world and the Judgment&mdash;is to be exemplified.
+I, however, faltered at that idea,
+and I suggested to the directors of the
+Birmingham Festival to add merely a short
+third part to the two into which the already
+published work, 'The Apostles,' is divided.
+But I found that to be unsatisfactory, and
+I have decided to revert to my original
+lines. There will, therefore, be two other
+oratorios.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">This definite pronouncement of Dr. Elgar's
+cannot fail to evoke the warmest anticipations
+on the part of the music loving world.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It is worth noting here that shortly after
+&quot;The Dream of Gerontius&quot; was produced
+at the Birmingham Festival, in 1900, Herr
+Julius Buths, the famous conductor of
+Düsseldorf, was so struck with it that he
+determined to produce it in Germany and
+himself translated the libretto. So great a
+success was this performance that &quot;The
+Dream,&quot; which one of the most celebrated
+German musical critics has declared to be
+&quot;the greatest composition of the last hundred
+years, with the exception of the 'Requiem' of
+Brahms,&quot; was repeated at the Lower Rhine
+Festival, a thing hitherto unheard of in the
+annals of English music, and at the Lower
+Rhine Festival
+on Whit-Sunday
+&quot;The
+Apostles&quot; is to
+be given.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Dr. Elgar
+has a delightful
+and most acute
+sense of humour,
+so that
+I was sure I
+should not be
+misunderstood
+if I ventured
+to ask a question
+about his
+&quot;musical
+crimes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He smiled.
+&quot;But which of
+my musical
+crimes do you
+mean? From
+the point of view of one person or another I
+understand all my music has been a crime,&quot;
+he replied, lightly. Then he added, &quot;Oh,
+you mean 'The Cockaigne,' 'The Coronation
+Ode,' and 'The Imperial March' especially.
+Yes, I believe there are a good many people
+who have objected to them. But I like to
+look on the composer's vocation as the old
+troubadours or bards did. In those days
+it was no disgrace to a man to be turned
+on to step in front of an army and inspire
+the people with a song. For my own part, I
+know that there are a lot of people who like
+to celebrate events with music. To these
+people I have given tunes. Is that wrong?
+Why should I write a fugue or something
+which won't appeal to anyone, when the people
+yearn for things which can stir them&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Such as 'Pomp and Circumstance,'&quot; I
+interpolated.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah, I don't know anything about that,&quot;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page544" id="page544"></a>[pg&nbsp;544]</span>
+replied Dr. Elgar, &quot;but I do know we are
+a nation with great military proclivities, and
+I did not see why the ordinary quick march
+should not be treated on a large scale in the
+way that the waltz, the old-fashioned slow
+march, and even the polka have been treated
+by the great composers; yet all marches on
+the symphonic scale are so slow that people
+can't march to them. I have some of the
+soldier instinct in me, and so I have written
+two marches of which, so far from being
+ashamed, I am proud. 'Pomp and Circumstance,'
+by the way, is merely the generic
+name for what is a set of six marches. Two,
+as you know, have already appeared, and the
+others will come later. One of them is to
+be a Soldier's Funeral March.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p544.jpg" width="700" height="516" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">REDUCED FACSIMILE OF MS. OF &quot;POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;As for 'The Imperial March,' which was
+written for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
+of 1897, it would, perhaps, interest you to
+know that only on January 22nd last it was
+given in St. George's Chapel, Berlin, at the
+unveiling of the memorials of Queen Victoria
+and the Empress Frederick, and Dr. G. R.
+Sinclair, of Hereford Cathedral, played it on
+the organ.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p543.jpg" width="650" height="558" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>From a Photo. by</i>] GOLF ON MALVERN COMMON. <i>Foulsham &amp; Banfield.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How and when do I do my music? I
+can tell you very easily. I come into my
+study at nine o'clock in the morning and I
+work till a quarter to one. I don't do any
+inventing then, for that comes anywhere and
+everywhere. It may be when I am walking,
+golfing, or cycling, or the ideas may come
+in the evening, and then I sit up until any
+hour in order to get them down. The
+morning is devoted
+to revising and
+orchestration, of
+which I have as
+much to do as I can
+manage. As soon
+as lunch is over I
+go out for exercise
+and return about
+four or later, after
+which I sometimes
+do two hours' work
+before dinner. A
+country life I find
+absolutely essential
+to me, and here the
+conditions are exactly
+what I require.
+As you see,&quot; and
+Dr. Elgar moved
+over to the large
+window which takes
+up the whole of one
+side of his study,
+&quot;I get a wonderful view of the surrounding
+country. I can see across Worcestershire, to
+Edgehill, the Cathedral of Worcester, the
+Abbeys of Pershore and Tewkesbury, and
+even the smoke from round Birmingham. It
+is delightfully quiet, and yet in contrast with
+it there is a constant stream of communication
+with the outside world in the shape
+of cables from America and Australia, and
+letters innumerable from all over the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the house itself there are not many
+evidences of Dr. Elgar's productions, but prominent
+in a corner of the drawing-room is the
+laurel wreath presented to him at Düsseldorf
+when &quot;The Dream&quot; was first produced. The
+leaves are brown to-day, but the scarlet ribbon
+is as bright as the memory of the music in
+the enraptured ears of those who have heard
+it. In his study are two prized possessions,
+the one a tankard made by some members
+of the Festival Choir at Hanley at the time
+of the production of &quot;King Olaf.&quot; The
+inscription, taken from one of the choruses,
+is, appropriately, a Bacchanalian one:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The ale was strong;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">King Olaf feasted late and long.</span><br />
+<span class="i4">&mdash;<i>Longfellow</i>.</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Next to this is a cup, also specially
+designed by Mr. Noke, of Hanley, to commemorate
+the performance of &quot;The Dream.&quot;
+On one side is a portrait of Cardinal Newman
+and on the other a portrait of Dr. Elgar, with
+the following inscription from the work
+itself:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Learn that the flame of the everlasting love</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Doth burn ere it transform.</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2><i>Off the Track in London.</i></h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">BY George R. Sims.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">II.&mdash;IN THE ROYAL BOROUGH OF KENSINGTON.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 100px;"> <img src="images/ill_p545.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="T" title="T" />
+</div>
+
+<p>HE sun shines brightly on the
+gay Kensington thoroughfare
+in which I meet my artist
+<i>confrère</i> and prepare to wander
+off the track in a district which
+is held to be the wealthiest
+in the Empire.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It is a winter morning, but the sky is blue,
+the air is balmy, and the flood of sunlight
+gives a Rivieran aspect to the stately mansions
+and pleasant villas that we pass on our
+way to the point at which we are to turn off
+and make our plunge into one of the
+strangest districts of London, a district of
+which its rich neighbours have no knowledge,
+although it lies at their doors.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A walk of a few minutes and we have left
+wealth and fashion behind us; the gay shops
+have vanished, the well-dressed people have
+disappeared as if by magic. The mansions
+and the villas have given place to the long
+streets of grey, weather-beaten, two and three
+story houses, in which the local industry
+writes itself large in white letters.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Here we are in Notting Dale and in the
+heart of Laundry-Land. In every house in
+street after street the blinds of the ground
+floor are down as though someone lay dead
+within. But if you look from the opposite
+side of the street you will see that in every
+room above the blinds lines are stretched
+from wall to wall, and from these lines wrung
+out details of the washing-tub are hanging.
+If you cross to the dilapidated railings of
+the sorry little patch that was once a front
+garden and peer into the basement you will
+see that laundry work is in full swing. The
+blinds of the ground-floor rooms are probably
+drawn because the hand laundresses
+do not like to be criticised too closely by
+the neighbours, who are also their business
+rivals.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The street is typical of a dozen others.
+You may see again and again that broken-down
+little front garden, with its stunted trees,
+strewn rubbish, and the little wooden, lop-sided
+railing that looks as though it no longer
+thought the patch it once guarded worth
+standing up for. On the window-sill of the
+top floor of a score of houses you may see a
+lonely, empty flower-pot that looks more like
+a handy missile in an emergency than an
+adjunct of window gardening. The rain-sodden,
+blackened stucco meets you at every
+turn, and when you have counted the
+twentieth cat sitting on a sill or a doorstep
+washing its shirt to snowy whiteness you
+begin to wonder why the local influence has
+not made itself more widely felt. Everybody
+inside the houses is washing for other people,
+everything is conducted with scrupulous
+cleanliness and under official inspection, but
+there are plenty of streets adjacent to
+Laundry-Land in which only the cats make
+themselves conspicuously clean.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A little farther away towards Latimer
+Road are the great steam laundries employing
+a small army of young women, who at
+the dinner hour will turn out and make every
+street in the Dale a forest of white aprons.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But all the streets of Laundry-Land are
+not given up to useful industry. A portion
+of the district is so notorious as a guilt
+garden that it has been called the London
+Avernus. It is packed with common lodging-houses,
+a large number of them for women,
+and it has streets of evil reputation in which
+almost every window is broken and stuffed
+with rags. The Borough Council has now
+in hand a splendid rehousing scheme which
+will vastly improve the district, but we must
+take it as we find it to-day.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">We turn out of the sunlight, and entering
+a narrow doorway descend into the basement
+of a typical lodging-house. The house is
+known locally as the &quot;Golden Gates,&quot; a
+name bestowed upon it in a spirit of badinage
+by a client with a sense of humour.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The kitchen is crowded with women,
+young and old. Some are sitting on the
+benches around the wall, one or two are
+making a late breakfast; an old woman is
+cooking something at the red coke fire.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As a rule there is little conversation in a
+lodging-house in the morning hours. I have
+been constantly struck by the note of moodiness,
+not to say sullenness, which hangs over
+the company during the hours of daylight.
+The men are, as a rule, more communicative
+than the women. Women of the class that
+drift to the doss-house are not inclined to
+exchange confidences with their neighbours.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But the kitchen of the Golden Gates as
+we enter it has one talkative occupant. As
+soon as our eyes get accustomed to the
+gloom, which is only relieved by a ray of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page546" id="page546"></a>[pg&nbsp;546]</span>
+light filtering through a small, dust-covered
+window, we notice that a tall woman in
+faded finery and an astrachan hat, and with
+some traces of refinement in features and
+bearing, is standing in the centre and chaffing
+the others. One or two smile at her jokes,
+but the majority are wholly indifferent,
+wearing that air of sullen aloofness which is
+peculiarly characteristic of a woman's lodging-house.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I have not intruded on the privacy of the
+ladies of the Golden Gates without a show of
+justification. To enable my companion to
+make a sketch of the scene, I have resorted
+to an expedient which permits me to make
+certain inquiries of a semi-official nature, and
+to attract the attention of the guests while
+my <i>confrère</i> is at work. If they were
+aware that they were being sketched it is quite
+likely that there would be trouble, and my
+comrade might find himself in as unpleasant
+a fix as did a photographer who once went
+with me to the Chinese quarter in Limehouse,
+for &quot;Living London,&quot; and attempted to take
+the proprietor of an opium den and some of
+his clients. The photographer emerged unscathed,
+but the camera required a considerable
+amount of repair.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fortunately I have an inquiry to make
+which puts my audience in sympathy with me,
+and my <i>confrère</i> is supposed to be making
+notes of the information supplied as to the
+last movements of a woman who had used the
+house for some time and had mysteriously
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">During the whole time the lady in the
+dingy astrachan keeps up a running fire of
+chaff, which materially assists us.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p546.jpg" width="700" height="536" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;THE LADY IN THE DINGY ASTRACHAN KEEPS UP A RUNNING FIRE OF CHAFF.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">She welcomes us to the &quot;Hotel de
+Fourpence,&quot; and says, though it isn't exactly
+the Carlton, it is quite comfortable when you
+get used to it. She interlards her bantering
+remarks with French words, and we come to
+the conclusion that she is a governess who
+has drifted down.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It is no uncommon thing to find men and
+women of education in the lowest lodging-houses
+of London. I have found a clergyman
+in one of the worst dens of Flower and
+Dean Street. In one of the Dale lodging-houses
+there is a woman whose father had
+his town house and his country house and
+his villa in the South of France.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">This woman in the astrachan hat is a
+striking contrast to her surroundings. Most
+of the other inmates are of the usual type&mdash;women
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page547" id="page547"></a>[pg&nbsp;547]</span>
+who have drifted down from honest
+industry to vagabondage, or have been born
+to it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Returning through the Golden Gates into
+the sunshine, we make our way to Jetsam
+Street. That is not its real name, but the
+one I have given it. This is a street of black
+and battered doors, of damaged railings, and
+of broken windows. On the doorsteps here
+and there stand groups of slatternly, unkempt
+women. From the windows above a tousled
+head occasionally appears. Many of the
+houses here are common lodging-houses;
+but some of them are in the hands of the
+house-farmers, who let them out in furnished
+rooms at a shilling a day. We enter a room
+which is unoccupied and take stock of the
+furniture. It consists of a bed, two chairs,
+and the wreckage of a dirty deal table.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In this room a man and his wife and
+children are accommodated at night, but the
+shilling paid only entitles the family to
+remain there until ten in the morning.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At that hour they are turned out and their
+tenancy ceases. If they wish to renew it
+they can do so in the evening, but not before.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">These people, who are paying six shillings
+a week, or seven shillings where Sunday is
+not a free day, for a single room, have to
+spend the day in the streets. Many of them
+make their way to the public parks and sleep
+on the seats or on the grass. Some of them
+beg, some of them hawk trumpery articles.
+They are probably paying eighteen pounds a
+year for a wretched room, and yet in the
+house-farmer's hands they are homeless every
+day in the week.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jetsam Street is flooded with golden sunshine
+as we pass through it, but the sunshine
+has not made the inhabitants light-hearted.
+Half-way down the street a man and a
+woman are fighting. The man is delivering
+a series of kicks in the style of La Savate at
+the woman, who is defiant and nimble and
+defends herself with her jacket, which she
+has taken off and uses both as a guard and
+as a weapon.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p547.jpg" width="700" height="588" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;ONE OR TWO WOMEN STANDING ON THE DOORSTEPS WATCH THE PROCEEDINGS.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">One or two women standing on the doorsteps
+watch the proceedings, but apparently
+without interest. An old woman proceeding
+to the public-house for beer turns her head
+for a moment and then passes on her way.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page548" id="page548"></a>[pg&nbsp;548]</span>
+A little boy in rags passes the fighting couple
+and takes no notice whatever. It is an
+ordinary incident, and has no special attraction
+for the neighbours.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Presently the man succeeds in planting a
+blow that sends the woman down. She is
+up again in a moment and faces him, prepared
+to continue the contest. But he thinks
+he has scored a point and is satisfied.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now I'll go to the workhouse,&quot; he says.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And the best place for you,&quot; answers the
+woman.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The man thrusts his hands in his pockets
+and slouches off. The woman puts on her
+jacket and strolls away. If we were to
+investigate the circumstances that have led up
+to the fight, we should find that we had been
+assisting at a Notting Dale version of the
+story of Carmen, Don José, and Escamillo,
+only Carmen in this case is a laundry girl,
+Don José is an idle
+ruffian, and Escamillo
+is another, only of a
+bolder type.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In Notting Dale the
+women are the principal
+wage-earners,
+and the district is
+infested with a contemptible
+set of
+men, who are loafers
+or worse. It is a
+common thing in
+the Dale for a man
+to boast that he is
+going to marry a
+laundry girl and do
+nothing for the rest
+of his life.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It seems difficult
+to realize that such
+a scene and such
+a street can exist
+within a stone's
+throw of a quarter
+crowded with the
+wealth and fashion
+of the capital. But wherever you
+step off the beaten track in London
+a hundred surprises await you.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I do not wonder at the fight in
+Jetsam Street which fails to rouse
+the lookers-on from their midday
+lethargy, for I am an old traveller in this
+strange land. But I must confess that it
+gives me a little shock when at the end of
+the street I come upon a man in the last
+stage of consumption sitting propped up with
+pillows in an arm-chair on the doorstep.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p548.jpg" width="471" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;BROUGHT OUT TO SIT A LITTLE WHILE
+IN THE SUNSHINE.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">He has been brought out to sit a little
+while in the sunshine. The poor fellow has,
+I ascertain, taken his discharge from the
+infirmary a few days previously. He wants
+to die at home&mdash;at home in Jetsam Street!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The picture I have had so far to draw is a
+painful one and a squalid one. But it is
+typical of the neighbourhood, and could not
+be omitted if in these travels off the track I
+am to give a faithful account of the London
+that is so little known even to Londoners.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Let us hasten through the sordid streets,
+looking up at the blue skies and ignoring the
+squalid houses, and make our way to a more
+romantic spot.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The Potteries!&quot; How odd this description
+of a portion of Kensington sounds, yet
+the district we are now in is known by this
+name, and yonder is what remains of the kiln.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Here in the Potteries the spell of the old
+romance still lingers,
+for this is the district
+of the gipsies.  In
+front of it is the
+pleasant recreation-ground,
+Avondale
+Park, which the
+County Council has
+made beautiful for
+the children of the
+Dale, and just
+round the corner is
+hidden a space
+where, year after
+year, the gipsies
+came with their
+vans and encamped
+for the winter. And
+close at hand are
+cottages and gardens,
+to which
+ducks and geese
+give quite a rural
+appearance.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p549.jpg" width="650" height="578" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;THERE ARE ONE OR TWO VANS LEFT TO MARK THE SPOT.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">The gipsies are
+not here this
+winter, but there
+are one or two
+vans left to mark
+the spot where,
+until quite recently,
+the sons and
+daughters of Egypt
+pitched their &quot;tans&quot; in the heart of fashionable
+Kensington. Some of them, yielding
+to the force of such modern ideas as the
+sanitary inspector and the School Board
+officer, have given up the fight for existence
+in a dwelling-van and have gone to live
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page549" id="page549"></a>[pg&nbsp;549]</span>
+under a roof like the gorgios, though a gipsy
+of the true Romany blood believes that
+nothing but ill-luck will attend the Romany
+chal or the Romany chi who lives in a house.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">To-day the children of the gipsies are,
+many of them, in the Notting Dale Board
+School and the fathers and mothers are in
+the lodging-houses. One of the wanderers,
+who in the old times used to pitch on the
+vacant ground of the Potteries, so far fell into
+Gentile ways as to take a lodging-house and
+run it himself. He and his wife became
+noted characters in the Dale, and when he
+died a little time ago the gipsies came from
+far and near and gave him a genuine Romany
+funeral, with all the ancient rites and ceremonies
+of the great Pali tribe who wandered
+out of India long centuries ago and gave the
+word &quot;pal&quot; to our language to signify brother.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Though the gipsy camp has departed and
+the ground will know it no more, the surroundings
+are still suggestive of the old days.
+Hard by a dwelling-van left, like the rose of
+the poet, blooming alone is the shed of a
+chair-caner, a handsome, prosperous-looking
+man, who is working in the open and singing
+at his congenial task. The battered carts,
+the old chains, the broken wheels, the pigeon
+lofts, and the wooden sheds standing on a
+patch of waste
+ground remind
+you of the pictures
+you were
+given to copy
+at school when
+you were in the
+drawing-class.
+If there had
+only been a mill
+handy the resemblance
+would have
+been complete,
+but the chimney
+of the old kiln
+dominates the
+scene and takes
+the mill's place.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Here the
+note of Jetsam
+Street has disappeared.
+All
+around are respectable
+working-class dwellings
+and stableyards.
+A little
+farther up is a
+double row of
+cottages with a paved way between them
+that seem to have been lifted bodily out
+of a Yorkshire mill town and dropped with
+their quaint out-houses on to the confines of
+Kensington. When you come upon Thresher's
+Place you rub your eyes and wonder if it is
+possible that five minutes' walk will bring
+you out on Campden Hill.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the mews round about the Potteries
+are the remnants of the Italian colony that
+drifted here some years ago, when Little Italy
+in Clerkenwell began to be encroached upon
+by the modern builder. The majority have
+now drifted farther afield, to Fulham and
+Hammersmith.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But there are still a fair number of the
+children of the Sunny South in the Dale.
+You may see the organs in the early morning
+being polished up outside the houses, and if
+you go into the yards you may discover the
+ice-barrows packed away in the coach-houses,
+waiting for the disappearance of the baked-chestnut
+season and the coming of summer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Here, in a large coach-house in a mews, is
+a proprietor of ice-cream barrows hard at
+work repainting his stock in gorgeous colours.
+Brilliant streaks of red and green light up the
+dreary place where the signor is working.
+When we look in upon his artistic proceedings
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page550" id="page550"></a>[pg&nbsp;550]</span>
+he is filling his studio with melody. He
+is singing an air from &quot;Il Trovatore&quot; in his
+native Italian, and at the same time painting
+an Italian girl in her national costume on the
+panel of an ice-barrow.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A little farther down the mews we climb
+the crazy staircase that leads to the loft, and
+find a middle-aged widow occupying it with
+five children.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">We have arrived at an awkward moment,
+for the widow is in tearful converse with the
+Industrial Schools officer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">One of the children has been caught the
+previous night begging. Children are not
+allowed to beg in the streets to-day, and if
+it is found that the parents send them out or
+have not sufficient control over them to keep
+them in the little offenders can be taken
+before a magistrate and sent to an industrial
+school, to be trained for more reputable
+occupations in life.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The widow declares that the boy was not
+sent out by her, and weeps copiously while
+she relates her story. She has five children
+and no money. I don't think the officer is
+very much impressed. I am afraid he knows
+more about the widow and the begging boy
+than he cares to reveal in the presence of
+strangers. He gives the woman a kindly
+warning, and leaves her with the intimation
+that if any more of her children are caught
+begging she will be invited to pay a visit to
+the magistrate.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Industrial Schools officer has a busy
+time in the Dale, for there are many young
+children living in vicious and criminal surroundings,
+and it is his task to remove them
+at the first opportunity, in order that they
+may have a chance in life. The work the
+industrial schools are accomplishing is invaluable.
+Under the Act a careful guardianship
+can be exercised by the State until the
+rescued boy or girl has reached the age of
+eighteen. There is no coming out of the
+industrial schools and returning to the evil
+surroundings now. But the task of the
+officer who has to see that the lads and
+lasses do not, after their school days are up,
+return to their evil associates is not a light
+one. He has occasionally to exercise the
+ingenuity of a Sherlock Holmes in order to
+get on the track of &quot;one of his young
+people&quot; who has mysteriously disappeared
+from the place that has been found for him
+or her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Not long ago a young girl who had been
+sent to Canada, and was supposed to be
+doing well there, was discovered dressed in
+boy's clothes back again in the Dale with her
+uncle and aunt, who were undesirable
+companions for her. The girl had in some
+way managed to get her passage-money and
+come home, and had hoped, disguised as a
+young man, to escape the vigilance of the
+Industrial Schools officer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Through a couple of streets and we are
+back in common lodging-house land. There
+is one long street in which the houses are
+registered from end to end. Some of them
+look like shops with the shutters up, others
+like private houses that have come down in
+the world. But every room is packed with
+as many beds as the law permits, and the
+common kitchen is reached by the area
+steps.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At one of the houses along this street a
+man and a woman are standing at the door.
+The woman has only one arm and one eye,
+the man has no arms. But they are a highly
+popular couple, and a good many of the lodging-houses
+in the street belong to them. The
+lady is said to be quite equal to quieting any
+disturbance among the lodgers with her one
+hand, and the man displays the most remarkable
+skill, suffering apparently little inconvenience
+from his loss. When you have
+seen him take his pipe out of his mouth with
+the empty sleeve of his jacket you will
+understand how he is able, with his wife's
+assistance, to keep his rough <i>clientèle</i> well in
+hand, and to compel their respect.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There is one feature of Notting Dale which
+strikes you forcibly if you go into a local
+crowd engaged in a heated argument, and
+that is the preponderance of the rural accent;
+for this is a district in which the evil of rural
+immigration has written itself large. Thousands
+of honest country folks crowd up year
+after year to the great city that they believe
+to be paved with gold. Of those who come
+in by the Great Western a large percentage
+drift to the Dale, failing to find room in the
+districts around the terminus; and in the
+Dale a process of moral deterioration goes on
+which is a tragedy.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The husband fails to find the work he
+expected would be ready to his hand in
+busy London. The little savings are soon
+gone; the man and his wife are driven to
+the common lodging-house, or, if there are
+children with them, to the furnished room.
+The wife perhaps goes to the laundry work.
+The husband's enforced idleness often ends
+in his becoming a confirmed loafer, contented
+to live on what his wife can earn.
+There is in Notting Dale a large working
+population living cleanly by honest industry,
+but the country folk who have been unfortunate
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page551" id="page551"></a>[pg&nbsp;551]</span>
+at the commencement of the
+struggle for life in London cannot avail
+themselves of the cleaner accommodation
+and the better environment. They are forced
+into the area which is given over to the
+vicious and the criminal, and they gradually
+sink to the level of their neighbours.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Many a tale of heroic struggle against evil
+surroundings do the women tell who come
+before the School Board officials to explain
+the non-attendance of their children. Sometimes
+it is the man who has had the moral
+strength to resist, and with tears in his eyes
+will tell of the healthy, country-bred wife who
+came with him
+one day from
+the far-away
+village full of
+hope, but who
+has yielded to
+the awful environment,
+deserted his
+home, and left
+his children to
+fall into evil
+companionship.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There is no
+sadder chapter
+in the story of
+London than
+that of the light-hearted
+country
+folk who come
+to it full of
+courage and
+hope, and gradually sink down under the evil
+influence of a slum to which their poverty
+has driven them, until they themselves
+are as criminal and as vicious as their
+neighbours.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For them little can be done, though now
+and again the brave men and women who
+are working in the good cause succeed in
+rescuing them, even though they have fallen
+to the lowest depths of the abyss.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But for the next generation the hope is
+greater. High above one of the most
+notorious streets in the Dale tower the great
+buildings in which the children are gathered
+together and educated and taught the
+principles of right doing.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">This is the thought that comes to me as,
+fresh from our pilgrimage of pain, we stand
+in the big playground and watch the little
+ones filing out in the sunshine to go to their
+homes. Some of them are well clad, the
+children of honest, hard-working folk who
+love them and care for them. But many
+are going back to miserable dens where there
+is neither love nor care, where there is no
+respect for the laws of God or man.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p551.jpg" width="700" height="438" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;MANY ARE GOING BACK TO MISERABLE DENS.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">They cannot all be saved from the evil
+environment that awaits them, but they come
+day after day to the schools, and there they
+fall under an influence which, if they are not
+inherently bad, will stand them in good stead
+through all their lives.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">We watch the little ones as with the light-heartedness
+of childhood they trip away,
+some to the meal which loving hands have
+prepared for them, others to crowd and
+clamour at the doors of the mission-house,
+where the free meal stands between them
+and the hunger pain, and then we turn into
+a street that bore formerly so ill a name that
+the authorities changed it, to remove the
+stigma of the address from the few decent
+people in it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In five minutes we are once more on the
+beaten track and in the heart of Royal and
+aristocratic Kensington.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> <img src="images/ill_p552.jpg" width="650" height="605" alt="DIALSTONE LANE
+BY W·W·JACOBS" title="DIALSTONE LANE
+BY W·W·JACOBS" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1904, by W. W. Jacobs, in the United States of America.</p>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER IX.</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 100px;"> <img src="images/ill_p552a.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="T" title="T" />
+</div>
+
+<p>HE church bells were ringing
+for morning service as Mr.
+Vickers, who had been for a
+stroll with Mr. William Russell
+and a couple of ferrets, returned
+home to breakfast.
+Contrary to custom, the small front room
+and the kitchen were both empty, and breakfast,
+with the exception of a cold herring and
+the bitter remains of a pot of tea, had been
+cleared away.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've known men afore now,&quot; murmured
+Mr. Vickers, eyeing the herring disdainfully,
+&quot;as would take it by the tail and smack 'em
+acrost the face with it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He cut himself a slice of bread, and,
+pouring out a cup of cold tea, began his
+meal, ever and anon stopping to listen, with
+a puzzled face, to a continuous squeaking
+overhead. It sounded like several pairs of
+new boots all squeaking at once, but Mr.
+Vickers, who was a reasonable man and past
+the age of self-deception, sought for a more
+probable cause.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A particularly aggressive squeak detached
+itself from the others and sounded on the
+stairs. The resemblance to the noise made
+by new boots was stronger than ever. It
+<i>was</i> new boots. The door opened, and Mr.
+Vickers, with a slice of bread arrested half-way
+to his mouth, sat gazing in astonishment
+at Charles Vickers, clad for the first time in
+his life in new raiment from top to toe. Ere
+he could voice inquiries, an avalanche of
+squeaks descended the stairs, and the rest of
+the children, all smartly clad, with Selina
+bringing up the rear, burst into the room.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What is it?&quot; demanded Mr. Vickers, in
+a voice husky with astonishment; &quot;a bean-feast?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Vickers, who was doing up a glove
+which possessed more buttons than his own
+waistcoat, looked up and eyed him calmly.
+&quot;New clothes&mdash;and not before they wanted
+'em,&quot; she replied, tartly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;New clothes?&quot; repeated her father, in a
+scandalized voice. &quot;Where'd they get 'em?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Shop,&quot; said his daughter, briefly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers rose and, approaching his
+offspring, inspected them with the same
+interest that he would have bestowed upon a
+wax-works. A certain stiffness of pose combined
+with the glassy stare which met his
+gaze helped to favour the illusion.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;For once in their lives they're respectable,&quot;
+said Selina, regarding them with moist
+eyes. &quot;Soap and water they've always had,
+bless 'em, but you've never seen 'em dressed
+like this before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Before Mr. Vickers could frame a reply a
+squeaking which put all the others in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page553" id="page553"></a>[pg&nbsp;553]</span>
+shade sounded from above. It crossed the
+floor on hurried excursions to different parts
+of the room, and then, hesitating for a
+moment at the head of the stairs, came
+slowly and ponderously down until Mrs.
+Vickers, looking somewhat nervous, stood
+revealed before her expectant husband. In
+scornful surprise he gazed at a blue cloth
+dress, a black velvet cape trimmed with
+bugles, and a bonnet so aggressively new
+that it had not yet accommodated itself to
+Mrs. Vickers's style of hair-dressing.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Go on!&quot; he breathed. &quot;Go on! Don't
+mind me. What, you&mdash;you&mdash;you're not
+going to <i>church</i>?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mrs. Vickers glanced at the books in her
+hand&mdash;also new&mdash;and trembled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And why not?&quot; demanded Selina.
+&quot;Why shouldn't we?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers took another amazed glance
+round and his brow darkened.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Where did you get the money?&quot; he
+inquired.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Saved it,&quot; said
+his daughter, reddening
+despite
+herself.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;<i>Saved</i> it?&quot; repeated
+the justly-astonished
+Mr. Vickers. &quot;<i>Saved</i>
+it? Ah! out of my
+money; out of the
+money I toil and
+moil for&mdash;out of
+the money that
+ought to be spent
+on food. No wonder
+you're always
+complaining that
+it ain't enough.
+I won't 'ave it,
+d'ye hear? I'll
+have my rights;
+I'll&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't make
+so much noise,&quot;
+said his daughter,
+who was
+stooping down to ease one of Mrs. Vickers's
+boots. &quot;You would have fours, mother,
+and I told you what it would be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He said that I ought to wear threes
+by rights,&quot; said Mrs. Vickers; &quot;I used
+to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And I s'pose,&quot; said Mr. Vickers, who
+had been listening to these remarks with
+considerable impatience&mdash;&quot;I s'pose there's a
+bran' new suit o' clothes, and a pair o' boots,
+and 'arf-a-dozen shirts, and a new hat hid
+upstairs for me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, they're <i>hid</i> all right,&quot; retorted the
+dutiful Miss Vickers. &quot;You go upstairs and
+amuse yourself looking for 'em. Go and
+have a game of 'hot boiled beans' all by
+yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p553.jpg" width="700" height="622" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;'WHY, YOU MUST HAVE BEEN STINTING ME FOR YEARS,' CONTINUED MR. VICKERS.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, you must have been stinting me for
+years,&quot; continued Mr. Vickers, examining the
+various costumes in detail. &quot;This is what
+comes o' keeping quiet and trusting you&mdash;not
+but what I've 'ad my suspicions. My
+own kids taking the bread out o' my mouth
+and buying boots with it; my own wife going
+about in a bonnet that's took me weeks and
+weeks to earn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">His words fell on deaf ears. No adjutant
+getting his regiment ready for a march-past
+could have taken more trouble than Miss
+Vickers was taking at this moment over her
+small company. Caps were set straight and
+sleeves pulled down. Her face shone with
+pride and her eyes glistened as the small fry,
+discoursing in excited whispers, filed stiffly
+out.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A sudden cessation of gossip in neighbouring
+doorways testified to the impression
+made by their appearance. Past little startled
+groups the procession picked its way in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page554" id="page554"></a>[pg&nbsp;554]</span>
+squeaking pride, with Mrs. Vickers and
+Selina bringing up the rear. The children
+went by with little set, important faces; but
+Miss Vickers's little bows and pleased smiles
+of recognition to acquaintances were so lady-like
+that several untidy matrons retired inside
+their houses to wrestle grimly with feelings
+too strong for outside display.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Pack o' prancing peacocks,&quot; said the
+unnatural Mr. Vickers, as the procession
+wound round the
+corner.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He stood looking
+vacantly up the street
+until the gathering excitement
+of his neighbours
+aroused new
+feelings. Vanity stirred
+within him, and leaning
+casually against the
+door-post he yawned
+and looked at the
+chimney-pots opposite.
+A neighbour in a pair
+of corduroy trousers,
+supported by one
+brace worn diagonally,
+shambled across the
+road.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's up?&quot; he
+inquired, with a jerk
+of the thumb in the
+direction of Mr.
+Vickers's vanished
+family.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Up?&quot; repeated
+Mr. Vickers, with
+an air of languid
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Somebody died
+and left you a fortin?&quot; inquired
+the other.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not as I knows of,&quot; replied Mr. Vickers,
+staring. &quot;Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;<i>Why?</i>&quot; exclaimed the other. &quot;Why,
+new clothes all over. I never see such a
+turn-out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers regarded him with an air of
+lofty disdain. &quot;Kids must 'ave new clothes
+sometimes, I s'pose?&quot; he said, slowly. &quot;You
+wouldn't 'ave 'em going about of a Sunday in
+a ragged shirt and a pair of trowsis, would
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The shaft passed harmlessly. &quot;Why not?&quot;
+said the other. &quot;They gin'rally do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers's denial died away on his lips.
+In twos and threes his neighbours had drawn
+gradually near and now stood by listening
+expectantly. The idea of a fortune was
+common to all of them, and they were anxious
+for particulars.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 637px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p554.jpg" width="637" height="650" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;THEY WERE ANXIOUS FOR
+PARTICULARS.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Some people have all the luck,&quot; said a
+stout matron. &quot;I've 'ad thirteen and buried
+seven, and never 'ad so much as a chiney
+tea-pot left me. One thing is, I never
+could make up to people for the sake of
+what I could get out of them. I couldn't
+not if I tried. I must speak my mind
+free and independent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah! that's how you
+get yourself disliked,&quot;
+said another lady,
+shaking her head sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Disliked?&quot; said the stout matron, turning
+on her fiercely. &quot;What d'ye mean?
+You don't know what you're talking about.
+Who's getting themselves disliked?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A lot o' good a chiney tea-pot would be
+to you,&quot; said the other, with a ready change
+of front, &quot;or any other kind o' tea-pot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Surprise and indignation deprived the stout
+matron of utterance.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Or a milk-jug either,&quot; pursued her
+opponent, following up her advantage. &quot;Or
+a coffee-pot, or&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The stout matron advanced upon her, and
+her mien was so terrible that the other,
+retreating to her house, slammed the door
+behind her and continued the discussion
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page555" id="page555"></a>[pg&nbsp;555]</span>
+from a first-floor window. Mint Street, with
+the conviction that Mr. Vickers's tidings could
+wait, swarmed across the road to listen.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers himself listened for a little
+while to such fragments as came his way,
+and then, going indoors, sat down amid the
+remains of his breakfast to endeavour to solve
+the mystery of the new clothes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He took a short clay pipe from his pocket,
+and, igniting a little piece of tobacco which
+remained in the bowl, endeavoured to form
+an estimate of the cost of each person's
+wardrobe. The sum soon becoming too
+large to work in his head, he had recourse to
+pencil and paper, and after five minutes' hard
+labour sat gazing at a total, which made his
+brain reel. The fact that immediately afterwards
+he was unable to find even a few
+grains of tobacco at the bottom of his box
+furnished a contrast which almost made him
+maudlin.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He sat sucking at his cold pipe and
+indulging in hopeless conjectures as to the
+source of so much wealth, and, with a sudden
+quickening of the pulse, wondered whether
+it had all been spent. His mind wandered
+from Selina to Mr. Joseph Tasker, and
+almost imperceptibly the absurdities of which
+young men in love could be capable occurred
+to him. He remembered the extravagances
+of his own youth, and bethinking himself of
+the sums he had squandered on the future
+Mrs. Vickers&mdash;sums which increased with
+the compound interest of repetition&mdash;came
+to the conclusion that Mr. Tasker had been
+more foolish still.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It seemed the only possible explanation.
+His eye brightened, and, knocking the ashes
+out of his pipe, he crossed to the tap and
+washed his face.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If he can't lend a trifle to the man what's
+going to be his father-in-law,&quot; he said, cheerfully,
+as he polished his face on a roller-towel,
+&quot;I shall tell 'im he can't have Selina,
+that's all. I'll go and see 'im afore she gets
+any more out of him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He walked blithely up the road, and, after
+shaking off one or two inquirers whose
+curiosity was almost proof against insult,
+made his way to Dialstone Lane. In an
+unobtrusive fashion he glided round to the
+back, and, opening the kitchen door, bestowed
+a beaming smile upon the startled Joseph.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Busy, my lad?&quot; he inquired.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What d'ye want?&quot; asked Mr. Tasker,
+whose face was flushed with cooking.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers opened the door a little wider,
+and, stepping inside, closed it softly behind
+him and dropped into a chair.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't be alarmed, my lad,&quot; he said,
+benevolently. &quot;Selina's all right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What d'ye want?&quot; repeated Mr. Tasker.
+&quot;Who told you to come round here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers looked at him in reproachful
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I suppose a father can come round to see
+his future son-in-law?&quot; he said, with some
+dignity. &quot;I don't want to do no interrupting
+of your work, Joseph, but I couldn't 'elp just
+stepping round to tell you how nice they all
+looked. Where you got the money from I
+can't think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Have you gone dotty, or what?&quot; demanded
+Mr. Tasker, who was busy wiping
+out a saucepan. &quot;Who looked nice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers shook his head at him and
+smiled waggishly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah! who?&quot; he said, with much enjoyment.
+&quot;I tell you it did my father's 'art
+good to see 'em all dressed up like that;
+and when I thought of its all being owing
+to you, sit down at home in comfort with a
+pipe instead of coming to thank you for it
+I could not. Not if you was to have paid
+me I couldn't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Look 'ere,&quot; said Mr. Tasker, putting the
+saucepan down with a bang, &quot;if you can't
+talk plain, common English you'd better get
+out. I don't want you 'ere at all as a matter
+o' fact, but to have you sitting there shaking
+your silly 'ead and talking a pack o' nonsense
+is more than I can stand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers gazed at him in perplexity.
+&quot;Do you mean to tell me you haven't been
+giving my Selina money to buy new clothes
+for the young 'uns?&quot; he demanded, sharply.
+&quot;Do you mean to tell me that Selina didn't
+get money out of you to buy herself and 'er
+mother and all of 'em&mdash;except me&mdash;a new
+rig-out from top to toe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;D'ye think I've gone mad, or what?&quot;
+inquired the amazed Mr. Tasker. &quot;What
+d'ye think I should want to buy clothes for
+your young 'uns for? That's your duty. And
+Selina, too; I haven't given 'er anything
+except a ring, and she lent me the money
+for that. D'ye think I'm made o' money?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All right, Joseph,&quot; said Mr. Vickers,
+secretly incensed at this unforeseen display
+of caution on Mr. Tasker's part. &quot;I s'pose
+the fairies come and put 'em on while they
+was asleep. But it's dry work walking; 'ave
+you got such a thing as a glass o' water you
+could give me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The other took a glass from the dresser
+and, ignoring the eye of his prospective
+father-in-law, which was glued to a comfortable-looking
+barrel in the corner, filled it to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page556" id="page556"></a>[pg&nbsp;556]</span>
+the brim with fair water and handed it to
+him. Mr. Vickers, giving him a surly nod,
+took a couple of dainty sips and placed it on
+the table.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's very nice water,&quot; he said, sarcastically.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is it?&quot; said Mr. Tasker. &quot;We don't
+drink it ourselves, except in tea or coffee;
+the cap'n says it ain't safe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers brought his eye from the
+barrel and glared at him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I s'pose, Joseph,&quot; he said, after a long
+pause, during which Mr. Tasker was busy
+making up the fire&mdash;&quot;I s'pose Selina didn't
+tell you you wasn't to tell me about the
+money?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't know what you're driving at,&quot;
+said the other, confronting him angrily. &quot;I
+haven't got no money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers coughed. &quot;Don't say that,
+Joseph,&quot; he urged, softly; &quot;don't say that, my
+lad. As a matter o' fact, I come round to
+you, interrupting of you in your work, and
+I'm sorry for it&mdash;knowing how fond of it you
+are&mdash;to see whether I&mdash;I couldn't borrow a
+trifle for a day or two.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ho, did you?&quot; commented Mr. Tasker,
+who had opened the oven door and was using
+his hand as a thermometer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">His visitor hesitated. It was no use asking
+for too much; on the other hand, to
+ask for less than he could get would be
+unpardonable folly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If I could lay my hand on a couple o'
+quid,&quot; he said, in a mysterious whisper, &quot;I
+could make it five in a week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, why don't you?&quot; inquired Mr.
+Tasker, who was tenderly sucking the bulb
+of the thermometer after contact with the
+side of the oven.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's the two quid that's the trouble,
+Joseph,&quot; replied Mr. Vickers, keeping his
+temper with difficulty. &quot;A little thing like
+that wouldn't be much trouble to you, I
+know, but to a pore man with a large family
+like me it's a'most impossible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Tasker went outside to the larder, and
+returning with a small joint knelt down and
+thrust it carefully into the oven.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A'most impossible,&quot; repeated Mr. Vickers,
+with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What is?&quot; inquired the other, who had
+not been listening.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The half-choking Mr. Vickers explained.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, o' course it is,&quot; assented Mr. Tasker.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;People what's got money,&quot; said the
+offended Mr. Vickers, regarding him fiercely,
+&quot;stick to it like leeches. Now, suppose I
+was a young man keeping company with a
+gal and her father wanted to borrow a couple
+o' quid&mdash;a paltry couple o' thick 'uns&mdash;what
+d'ye think I should do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If you was a young man&mdash;keeping company
+with a gal&mdash;and 'er father wanted&mdash;to
+borrow a couple of quid off o' you&mdash;what
+would you do?&quot; repeated Mr. Tasker,
+mechanically, as he bustled to and fro.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers nodded and smiled. &quot;What
+should I do?&quot; he inquired again, hopefully.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't know, I'm sure,&quot; said the other,
+opening the oven door and peering in.
+&quot;How should I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At the imminent risk of something inside
+giving way under the strain, Mr. Vickers
+restrained himself. He breathed hard, and
+glancing out of window sought to regain his
+equilibrium by becoming interested in a
+blackbird outside.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What I mean to say is,&quot; he said at length,
+in a trembling voice&mdash;&quot;what I mean to say
+is, without no roundaboutedness, will you
+lend a 'ard-working man, what's going to
+be your future father-in-law, a couple o'
+pounds?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Tasker laughed. It was not a loud
+laugh, nor yet a musical one. It was merely
+a laugh designed to convey to the incensed
+Mr. Vickers a strong sense of the absurdity
+of his request.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I asked you a question,&quot; said the latter
+gentleman, glaring at him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I haven't got a couple o' pounds,&quot; replied
+Mr. Tasker; &quot;and if I 'ad, there's nine
+hundred and ninety-nine things I would
+sooner do with it than lend it to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 630px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p557.jpg" width="630" height="650" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;MR. VICKERS ROSE AND STOOD REGARDING THE IGNOBLE CREATURE WITH
+PROFOUND CONTEMPT.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers rose and stood regarding the
+ignoble creature with profound contempt.
+His features worked and a host of adjectives
+crowded to his lips.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is that your last word, Joseph?&quot; he
+inquired, with solemn dignity.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll say it all over again if you like,&quot; said
+the obliging Mr. Tasker. &quot;If you want
+money, go and earn it, same as I have to;
+don't come round 'ere cadging on me,
+because it's no good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers laughed; a dry, contemptuous
+laugh, terrible to hear.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And that's the man that's going to marry
+my daughter,&quot; he said, slowly; &quot;that's the
+man that's going to marry into my family.
+Don't you expect <i>me</i> to take you up and
+point you out as my son-in-law, cos I won't
+do it. If there's anything I can't abide it's
+stinginess. And there's my gal&mdash;my pore
+gal don't know your real character. Wait
+till I've told 'er about this morning and
+opened 'er eyes! Wait till&mdash;&mdash;&quot;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page557" id="page557"></a>[pg&nbsp;557]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">He stopped abruptly as the door leading
+to the front room opened and revealed the
+inquiring face of Captain Bowers.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's all this noise about, Joseph?&quot;
+demanded the captain, harshly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Tasker attempted to explain, but his
+explanation involving a character for Mr.
+Vickers which that gentleman declined to
+accept on any terms, he broke in and began
+to give his own version of the affair. Much
+to Joseph's surprise the captain listened
+patiently.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Did you buy all those things, Joseph?&quot;
+he inquired, carelessly, as Mr. Vickers paused
+for breath.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Cert'nly not, sir,&quot; replied Mr. Tasker.
+&quot;Where should I get the money from?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The captain eyed him without replying,
+and a sudden suspicion occurred to him. The
+strange disappearance of the map, followed
+by the sudden cessation of Mr. Chalk's visits,
+began to link themselves to this tale of unexpected
+wealth. He bestowed another searching
+glance upon the agitated Mr. Tasker.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You haven't <i>sold</i> anything lately, have
+you?&quot; he inquired, with startling gruffness.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I haven't 'ad nothing to sell, sir,&quot; replied
+the other, in astonishment. &quot;And I dare say
+Mr. Vickers here saw a new pair o' boots on
+one o' the young 'uns and dreamt all the rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Vickers intervened
+with passion.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That'll do,&quot; said the
+captain, sharply. &quot;How dare
+you make that noise in my
+house? I think that the
+tale about the clothes is all
+right,&quot; he added, turning to
+Joseph. &quot;I saw them go
+into church looking
+very smart. And you
+know nothing about
+it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Tasker's astonishment
+was too
+genuine to be mistaken,
+and the captain,
+watching him
+closely, transferred
+his suspicions to a
+more deserving
+object. Mr. Vickers
+caught his eye and
+essayed a smile.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Dry work talking,
+sir,&quot; he said, gently.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Captain Bowers
+eyed him steadily.
+&quot;Have we got any
+beer, Joseph?&quot; he inquired.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Plenty in the cask, sir,&quot; said Mr. Tasker,
+reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, keep your eye on it,&quot; said the
+captain. &quot;Good morning, Mr. Vickers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But disappointment and indignation got
+the better of Mr. Vickers's politeness.</p>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER X.</h3>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A penny for your thoughts, uncle,&quot; said
+Miss Drewitt, as they sat at dinner an hour
+or two after the departure of Mr. Vickers.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;<i>H'm?</i>&quot; said the captain, with a guilty
+start.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You've been scowling and smiling by
+turns for the last five minutes,&quot; said his niece.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I was thinking about that man that was
+here this morning,&quot; said the captain, slowly;
+&quot;trying to figure it out. If I thought that
+that girl Selina&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He took a draught of ale and shook his
+head solemnly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You know my ideas about that,&quot; said
+Prudence.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page558" id="page558"></a>[pg&nbsp;558]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your poor <i>mother</i> was obstinate,&quot; commented
+the captain, regarding her tolerantly.
+&quot;Once she got an idea into her head it stuck
+there, and nothing made her more angry than
+proving to her that she was wrong. Trying
+to prove to her, I should have said.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Drewitt smiled amiably. &quot;Well,
+you've earned half the sum,&quot; she said.
+&quot;Now, what were you smiling about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Didn't know I was smiling,&quot; declared
+the captain.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With marvellous tact he turned the conversation
+to lighthouses, a subject upon which
+he discoursed with considerable fluency until
+the meal was finished. Miss Drewitt, who
+had a long memory and at least her fair share
+of curiosity, returned to the charge as he
+smoked half a pipe preparatory to accompanying
+her for a walk.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're looking very cheerful,&quot; she
+remarked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The captain's face fell several points.
+&quot;Am I?&quot; he said, ruefully. &quot;I didn't
+mean to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why not?&quot; inquired his niece.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I mean I didn't know I was,&quot; he replied,
+&quot;more than usual, I mean. I always do
+look fairly cheerful&mdash;at least, I hope I do.
+There's nothing
+to make me look
+the opposite.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Drewitt
+eyed him carefully
+and then
+passed upstairs
+to put on her
+hat. Relieved of
+her presence the
+captain walked to
+the small glass
+over the mantelpiece
+and, regarding
+his tell-tale
+features with
+gloomy dissatisfaction,
+acquired,
+after one or two
+attempts, an expression
+which he
+flattered himself
+defied analysis.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He tapped the
+barometer which
+hung by the door as they went out, and,
+checking a remark which rose to his lips, stole
+a satisfied glance at the face by his side.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Clark's farm by the footpaths would be a
+nice walk,&quot; said Miss Drewitt, as they reached
+the end of the lane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The captain started. &quot;I was thinking of
+Dutton Priors,&quot; he said, slowly. &quot;We could
+go there by Hanger's Lane and home by the
+road.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The footpaths would be nice to-day,&quot;
+urged his niece.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You try my way,&quot; said the captain,
+jovially.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Have you got any particular reason for
+wanting to go to Dutton Priors this afternoon?&quot;
+inquired the girl.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Reason?&quot; said the captain. &quot;Good
+gracious, no. What reason should I have?
+My leg is a trifle stiff to-day for stiles, but
+still&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Drewitt gave way at once, and,
+taking his arm, begged him to lean on her,
+questioning him anxiously as to his fitness for
+a walk in any direction.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Walking 'll do it good,&quot; was the reply, as
+they proceeded slowly down the High Street.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p558.jpg" width="700" height="511" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;HE BECAME INTENT ON A DERELICT PUNT.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">He took his watch from his pocket, and,
+after comparing it with the town clock, peered
+furtively right and left, gradually slackening
+his pace until Miss Drewitt's fears for his leg
+became almost contagious. At the old stone
+bridge, spanning the river at the bottom of the
+High Street, he paused, and, resting his arms
+on the parapet, became intent
+on a derelict punt. On the
+subject of sitting in a craft of
+that description in mid-stream
+catching fish he discoursed at
+such length that the girl eyed
+him in amazement.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Shall we go on?&quot; she said, at length.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The captain turned and, merely pausing
+to point out the difference between the lines
+of a punt and a dinghy, with a digression to
+sampans which included a criticism of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page559" id="page559"></a>[pg&nbsp;559]</span>
+Chinese as boat-builders, prepared to depart.
+He cast a swift glance up the road as he
+did so, and Miss Drewitt's cheek flamed with
+sudden wrath as she saw Mr. Edward Tredgold
+hastening towards them. In a somewhat
+pointed manner she called her uncle's
+attention to the fact.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Lor' bless my soul,&quot; said that startled
+mariner, &quot;so it is. Well! well!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">If Mr. Tredgold had been advancing on
+his head he could not have exhibited more
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm afraid I'm late,&quot; said Tredgold, as he
+came up and shook hands. &quot;I hope you
+haven't been waiting long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The hapless captain coughed loud and
+long. He emerged from a large red pocket-handkerchief
+to find the eye of Miss Drewitt
+seeking his.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's all right, my lad,&quot; he said, huskily.
+&quot;I'd forgotten about our arrangement. Did
+I say this Sunday or next?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This,&quot; said Mr. Tredgold, bluntly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The captain coughed again, and with some
+pathos referred to the tricks which old age
+plays with memory. As they walked on he
+regaled them with selected instances.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't forget your leg, uncle,&quot; said Miss
+Drewitt, softly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Captain Bowers gazed at her suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't forget that it's stiff and put too
+much strain on it,&quot; explained his niece.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The captain eyed her uneasily, but she
+was talking and laughing with Edward Tredgold
+in a most reassuring fashion. A choice
+portion of his programme, which, owing to
+the events of the afternoon, he had almost
+resolved to omit, clamoured for production.
+He stole another glance at his niece and
+resolved to risk it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hah!&quot; he said, suddenly, stopping short
+and feeling in his pockets. &quot;There's my
+memory again. Well, of all the&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's the matter, uncle?&quot; inquired
+Miss Drewitt.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've left my pipe at home,&quot; said the
+captain, in a desperate voice.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've got some cigars,&quot; suggested Tredgold.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The captain shook his head. &quot;No, I
+must have my pipe,&quot; he said, decidedly. &quot;If
+you two will walk on slowly, I'll soon catch
+you up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're not going all the way back for
+it?&quot; exclaimed Miss Drewitt.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Let me go,&quot; said Tredgold.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The captain favoured him with an inscrutable
+glance. &quot;I'll go,&quot; he said, firmly. &quot;I'm
+not quite sure where I left it. You go by
+Hanger's Lane; I'll soon catch you up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He set off at a pace which rendered
+protest unavailing. Mr. Tredgold turned,
+and, making a mental note of the fact that
+Miss Drewitt had suddenly added inches to
+her stature, walked on by her side.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Captain Bowers is very fond of his pipe,&quot;
+he said, after they had walked a little way in
+silence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Drewitt assented. &quot;Nasty things,&quot;
+she said, calmly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So they are,&quot; said Mr. Tredgold.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you smoke,&quot; said the girl.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Tredgold sighed. &quot;I have often
+thought of giving it up,&quot; he said, softly,
+&quot;and then I was afraid that it would look
+rather presumptuous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Presumptuous?&quot; repeated Miss Drewitt.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So many better and wiser men than
+myself smoke,&quot; explained Mr. Tredgold,
+&quot;including even bishops. If it is good
+enough for them, it ought to be good enough
+for me; that's the way I look at it. Who
+am I that I should be too proud to smoke?
+Who am I that I should try and set my poor
+ideas above those of my superiors? Do you
+see my point of view?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Drewitt made no reply.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course, it is a thing that grows on
+one,&quot; continued Mr. Tredgold, with the air
+of making a concession. &quot;It is the first
+smoke that does the mischief; it is a fatal
+precedent. Unless, perhaps&mdash;&mdash;How pretty
+that field is over there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Drewitt looked in the direction indicated.
+&quot;Very nice,&quot; she said, briefly.
+&quot;But what were you going to say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Tredgold made an elaborate attempt
+to appear confused. &quot;I was going to say,&quot;
+he murmured, gently, &quot;unless, perhaps, one
+begins on coarse-cut Cavendish rolled in a
+piece of the margin of the Sunday newspaper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Drewitt suppressed an exclamation.
+&quot;I wanted to see where the fascination was,&quot;
+she said, indignantly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And did you?&quot; inquired Mr. Tredgold,
+smoothly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The girl turned her head and looked at
+him. &quot;I have no doubt my uncle gave you
+full particulars,&quot; she said, bitterly. &quot;It
+seems to me that men can gossip as much
+as women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I tried to stop him,&quot; said the virtuous
+Mr. Tredgold.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You need not have troubled,&quot; said Miss
+Drewitt, loftily. &quot;It is not a matter of any
+consequence. I am surprised that my uncle
+should have thought it worth mentioning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She walked on slowly with head erect,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page560" id="page560"></a>[pg&nbsp;560]</span>
+pausing occasionally to look round for the
+captain. Edward Tredgold looked too, and
+a feeling of annoyance at the childish stratagems
+of his well-meaning friend began to
+possess him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We had better hurry a little, I think,&quot;
+he said, glancing at the sky. &quot;The sooner
+we get to Dutton Priors the better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why?&quot; inquired his companion.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Rain,&quot; said the other, briefly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It won't rain before evening,&quot; said Miss
+Drewitt, confidently; &quot;uncle said so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perhaps we had better walk faster,
+though,&quot; urged Mr. Tredgold.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Drewitt slackened her pace deliberately.
+&quot;There is no fear of its raining,&quot;
+she declared. &quot;And uncle will not catch us
+up if we walk fast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A sudden glimpse into the immediate
+future was vouchsafed to Mr. Tredgold; for
+a fraction of a second the veil was lifted.
+&quot;Don't blame me if you get wet, though,&quot; he
+said, with some anxiety.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They walked on at a pace which gave the
+captain every opportunity of overtaking them.
+The feat would not have been beyond the
+powers of an athletic tortoise, but the most
+careful scrutiny failed to reveal any signs of
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm afraid that he is not well,&quot; said Miss
+Drewitt, after a long, searching glance along
+the way they had come. &quot;Perhaps we had
+better go back. It does begin to look rather
+dark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Just as you
+please,&quot; said
+Edward Tredgold,
+with unwonted
+caution; &quot;but the
+nearest shelter is
+Dutton Priors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He pointed to
+a lurid, ragged
+cloud right ahead
+of them. As if
+in response, a low,
+growling rumble
+sounded overhead.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Was&mdash;was
+that thunder?&quot;
+said Miss Drewitt,
+drawing a little
+nearer to him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sounded
+something like it,&quot;
+was the reply.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A flash of lightning
+and a crashing
+peal that rent
+the skies put the matter beyond a doubt.
+Miss Drewitt, turning very pale, began to
+walk at a rapid pace in the direction of
+the village.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The other looked round in search of some
+nearer shelter. Already the pattering of
+heavy drops sounded in the lane, and before
+they had gone a dozen paces the rain came
+down in torrents. Two or three fields away
+a small shed offered the only shelter. Mr.
+Tredgold, taking his companion by the arm,
+started to run towards it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Before they had gone a hundred yards
+they were wet through, but Miss Drewitt,
+holding her skirts in one hand and shivering
+at every flash, ran until they brought up at a
+tall gate, ornamented with barbed wire,
+behind which stood the shed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The gate was locked, and the wire had
+been put on by a farmer who combined with
+great ingenuity a fervent hatred of his fellowmen.
+To Miss Drewitt it seemed insurmountable,
+but, aided by Mr. Tredgold and
+a peal of thunder which came to his assistance
+at a critical moment, she managed to
+clamber over and reach the shed. Mr.
+Tredgold followed at his leisure with a strip
+of braid torn from the bottom of her dress.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p560.jpg" width="700" height="558" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;AIDED BY MR. TREDGOLD AND A PEAL OF THUNDER, SHE MANAGED TO CLAMBER OVER.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">The roof leaked in twenty places and the
+floor was a puddle, but it had certain redeeming
+features in Mr. Tredgold's eyes of
+which the girl knew nothing. He stood at
+the doorway watching the rain.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page561" id="page561"></a>[pg&nbsp;561]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come inside,&quot; said Miss Drewitt, in a
+trembling voice. &quot;You might be struck.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Tredgold experienced a sudden sense
+of solemn pleasure in this unexpected concern
+for his safety. He turned and eyed her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm not afraid,&quot; he said, with great
+gentleness.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, but I am,&quot; said Miss Drewitt, petulantly,
+&quot;and I can never get over that gate
+alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Tredgold came inside, and for some
+time neither of them spoke. The rattle of
+rain on the roof became less deafening and
+began to drip through instead of forming
+little jets. A patch of blue sky showed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It isn't much,&quot; said Tredgold, going to
+the door again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Drewitt, checking a sharp retort,
+returned to the door and looked out. The
+patch of blue increased in size; the rain
+ceased and the sun came out; birds exchanged
+congratulations from every tree. The
+girl, gathering up her wet skirts, walked to
+the gate, leaving her companion to follow.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Approached calmly and under a fair sky
+the climb was much
+easier.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I believe that I could
+have got over by myself
+after all,&quot; said Miss
+Drewitt, as she stood on
+the other side. &quot;I suppose
+that you were in too
+much of a hurry the last
+time. My dress is ruined.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She spoke
+calmly, but her
+face was clouded.
+From her manner
+during the
+rapid walk home
+Mr. Tredgold
+was enabled to
+see clearly that
+she was holding
+him responsible
+for the captain's
+awkward behaviour;
+the
+rain; her spoiled
+clothes; and a
+severe cold in
+the immediate
+future. He glanced at her ruined hat and
+the wet, straight locks of hair hanging about
+her face, and held his peace.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Never before on a Sunday afternoon had
+Miss Drewitt known the streets of Binchester
+to be so full of people. She hurried on with
+bent head, looking straight before her, trying
+to imagine what she looked like. There was
+no sign of the captain, but as they turned
+into Dialstone Lane they both saw a huge,
+shaggy, grey head protruding from the small
+window of his bedroom. It disappeared
+with a suddenness almost startling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thank you,&quot; said Miss Drewitt, holding
+out her hand as she reached the door.
+&quot;Good-bye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Tredgold said &quot;Good-bye,&quot; and with a
+furtive glance at the window above departed.
+Miss Drewitt, opening the door, looked round
+an empty room. Then the kitchen door
+opened and the face of Mr. Tasker, full of
+concern, appeared.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Did you get wet, miss?&quot; he inquired.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Drewitt ignored the question. &quot;Where
+is Captain Bowers?&quot; she asked, in a clear,
+penetrating voice.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The face of Mr. Tasker fell. &quot;He's gone
+to bed with a headache, miss,&quot; he replied.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Headache?&quot; repeated the astonished
+Miss Drewitt. &quot;When did he go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;About 'arf an hour ago,&quot; said
+Mr. Tasker; &quot;just after the
+storm. I suppose that's what
+caused it, though it seems funny,
+considering what a lot he must
+ha' seen at sea. He said he'd go
+straight to bed and try and sleep
+it off.  And I was to ask you
+to please not to
+make a noise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Drewitt
+swept past him
+and mounted the
+stairs. At the
+captain's door
+she paused, but
+the loud snoring
+of a determined
+man made her
+resolve to postpone
+her demands
+for an
+explanation to a
+more fitting opportunity.
+Tired,
+wet, and angry
+she gained her
+own room, and
+threw herself thoughtlessly into that famous
+old Chippendale chair which, in accordance
+with Mr. Tredgold's instructions, had been
+placed against the wall.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 599px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p561.jpg" width="599" height="650" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;SHE THREW HERSELF THOUGHTLESSLY INTO THAT FAMOUS OLD
+CHIPPENDALE CHAIR.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">The captain stirred in his sleep.</p>
+
+<p class="center">(<i>To be continued.</i>)</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2><i>Wild Western Journalism.</i></h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By an ex-Editor.</span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 98px;"> <img src="images/ill_p562a.jpg" width="98" height="100" alt="O" title="O" />
+</div>
+
+<p>NE of the most thrilling occupations
+that a human being
+could follow in the old days&mdash;say
+a brief generation
+since&mdash;was that of editing a
+newspaper in a small American
+town. There was a fulness in the life, a
+feverish activity in the office and a perpetual
+spice of danger out of it, that made all other
+callings seem trivial. Things have changed
+a great deal in the past few years, but even
+yet Wild Western journalism can boast a
+flavour&mdash;a tang of its own. There is no
+other Press in the world quite like it; there
+is no similar body of men like those who
+engineer it. To our old friends, Mr. Pott,
+of the <i>Eatanswill Gazette</i>, and Mr. Slurk,
+of the <i>Eatanswill Independent</i>, their Occidental
+followers of the <i>Arizona Arrow</i> and
+the <i>Tombstone Epitaph</i> bear but faint resemblance.
+Perhaps in the birth-throes of
+English journalism&mdash;in the era of the <i>Mercurius
+Pragmaticus</i> and the <i>Scot's Dove</i>&mdash;the
+vicissitudes of editors were not dissimilar to
+those endured by the Colorado and Texas
+editor of yesterday, who was often his own
+publisher, his own printer, and his own
+editor rolled in one&mdash;and not only that, but
+was forced to perform these functions with a
+six-chambered revolver reposing gracefully,
+yet ominously, on his desk. As to his
+Protean character there has been little if
+any improvement. I cull the following from
+a recent issue of the <i>Yampa</i> (Oregon)
+<i>Leader</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">The great city papers think they are smart in
+having a large staff, and, although we have not
+published ours before, we shall do so to take some
+of the conceit out of the city brethren. The editorial
+staff of the <i>Leader</i> is composed of: Managing
+editor, V. S. Wilson; city editor, Vic Wilson;
+news editor, V. Wilson; editorial writer, Hon. Mr.
+Wilson; exchange editor, Wilson; pressman, the
+same Wilson; foreman, more of the same Wilson;
+devil, a picture of the same Wilson; fighting editor,
+Mrs. Wilson.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img src="images/ill_p562b.jpg" width="700" height="434" alt="Facsimile of newspaper, &quot;Tombstone Epitaph&quot;" title="Facsimile of newspaper, &quot;Tombstone Epitaph&quot;" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">By no means exaggerated is the description
+of a Western editor and his environment
+which was given some years ago by the
+authors of that amusing novel, &quot;The Golden
+Butterfly.&quot; Prototypes of Gilead P. Beck
+could be found in abundance throughout
+the region west of the Mississippi. One
+of the most extraordinary characters and one
+of the most delightful was the late Alvin S.
+Peek&mdash;&quot;Judge&quot; Peek of Dakota&mdash;whose
+boast it was that he had &quot;run&quot; papers in
+nine different States and territories, had shot
+eleven men who disagreed with his opinions&mdash;three
+of them fatally&mdash;-and had never
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page563" id="page563"></a>[pg&nbsp;563]</span>
+swallowed a word he had ever written, and
+who died universally respected in bed and at
+the ripe age&mdash;for Dakota&mdash;of fifty-one years.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But apart from any personal contact with
+the men who make the newspapers of the
+wild and woolly West it was once my experience
+to receive and peruse weekly many
+hundreds of their productions&mdash;&quot;exchanges&quot;
+they are called&mdash;and ranging from the <i>Mother
+Lode Magnet</i> of California and the <i>Tombstone
+Epitaph</i> of Tombstone, Arizona, to the
+<i>Arkansas Howler</i> and the <i>Mustang</i> (Colorado)
+<i>Mail</i>. Many a pleasant evening have I spent
+over them, and I still prize a scrap-book
+containing things to me as funny as I could
+find in any collection of wit and humour in
+the world. There is reason for this, because
+the backwoods and prairie Press of America
+is the nursery of American humour. It
+produced Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Petroleum
+V. Nasby, Joshua Billings, J. M. Bailey,
+Bob Burdette, Bill Nye, John Ph&oelig;nix, and
+F. L. Stanton, to mention only a few of the
+humorists of international
+renown. I was
+well acquainted with
+Stanton at the time he
+was editing, printing,
+and publishing the
+famous <i>Smithville News</i>.
+<i>Texas Siftings</i>, the <i>Arizona
+Kicker</i>, and the
+<i>Burlington Hawkeye</i>
+have made the peculiarities
+and amenities of
+Western journalism
+familiar to English
+readers. Albeit, scattered
+through a dozen
+States and territories are
+thousands of small newspapers,
+eking out a
+precarious existence&mdash;full
+of native humour
+and sentiment&mdash;of which
+not even the resident of
+Chicago and St. Louis
+has so much as heard.
+How precarious that
+existence is may be
+judged from the following
+editorial appeal in
+the <i>Gem</i>, of Flagstaff,
+Arizona:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Have you paid your subscription
+yet? Remember
+even an editor must live.
+If the <i>hard times</i> have
+struck your shebang, don't
+forget turnips, potatoes, and
+corn in the shock are most as welcome as hard
+cash at the <i>Gem</i> office. Also hard wood. Our
+latch-string is always out, or same (<i>i.e.</i>, the turnips,
+etc.) can be delivered to our wife, who will give
+receipt in our absence.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">One of the pleasing fictions preserved by
+the Western Press is, as we have seen, that of
+a plurality of editors. To these supposititious
+editors the most extraordinary titles and
+functions are bequeathed. On the front page
+of the <i>Rising Star</i> (Texas) <i>X-ray</i> no pretence
+of a numerous staff is made&mdash;Mr. Albert
+Tyson boldly announces himself as &quot;horse,
+snake, lying, and fighting editor,&quot; while his
+motto is, &quot;Do unto others as you would have
+them do to you, and do it <i>fust</i>!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In mining districts or in the new territories,
+where a &quot;tenderfoot&quot; is made welcome in
+the &quot;'eave 'arf-brick&quot; fashion, the career of
+an editor is one of constant risk and turmoil.
+If he is young and inexperienced there are
+always lawless spirits ready to take a rise out
+of him, just for the pleasure and excitement
+of the thing.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 544px;"> <img src="images/ill_p563.jpg" width="524" height="666" alt="The Rising Star X-Ray
+
+Albert Tyson, Horse, Snake, Lying, And Fighting Editor,
+
+Entered at the Rising Star Post-Office as Second-class Mail matter. Published every
+Friday.
+
+&quot;Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do To You, And Do It Fust&quot;
+
+Editorial
+
+-0-
+
+This is 1901, have you resolted any yet? If you have been
+making a dozzen New Year resolutions and breaking them all in
+about 30 days, try the plan this time of making only six and see if
+you can't keep your integrity with at least three of them.
+
+In this New Year, A D 1901 make a grave effort to &quot;Do
+unto others as you would have them do to you, and do it FUST&quot;
+
+0 0 0
+
+The Mav Enterprise has gone into hence,&mdash;is a mournful
+corpse. She died, according to a hasty post mortem examination,
+of a malignant attack of impecuniosity fever or financial
+strangulation.
+
+0 0 0
+
+The X-Ray makes a motion that the people of Eastland county
+instruct their next Representative to the Legislature to introduce
+a bill in that honorable body against the sale of toy pistols,
+firecrackers, and torpedos of every description." title="The Rising Star X-Ray
+
+Albert Tyson, Horse, Snake, Lying, And Fighting Editor,
+
+Entered at the Rising Star Post-Office as Second-class Mail matter. Published every
+Friday.
+
+&quot;Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do To You, And Do It Fust&quot;
+
+Editorial
+
+-0-
+
+This is 1901, have you resolted any yet? If you have been
+making a dozzen New Year resolutions and breaking them all in
+about 30 days, try the plan this time of making only six and see if
+you can't keep your integrity with at least three of them.
+
+In this New Year, A D 1901 make a grave effort to &quot;Do
+unto others as you would have them do to you, and do it FUST&quot;
+
+0 0 0
+
+The Mav Enterprise has gone into hence,&mdash;is a mournful
+corpse. She died, according to a hasty post mortem examination,
+of a malignant attack of impecuniosity fever or financial
+strangulation.
+
+0 0 0
+
+The X-Ray makes a motion that the people of Eastland county
+instruct their next Representative to the Legislature to introduce
+a bill in that honorable body against the sale of toy pistols,
+firecrackers, and torpedos of every description." />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page564" id="page564"></a>[pg&nbsp;564]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">Even in the civilized Southern States to
+the east of the Mississippi editing was not
+fifteen years ago a healthy pastime. On one
+occasion, when I was assisting a friend in
+Georgia, a citizen in a high state of excitement
+entered the &quot;editorial sanctum&quot;&mdash;they
+are very particular about the dignity of these
+epithets in America&mdash;and riddled the walls
+and my desk with bullets from a revolver.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Luckily, I
+happened not
+to be there, but
+in the composing-room,
+engaged in
+making-up the
+editorial page.
+My eye dwelt
+lovingly on a
+neat row of
+paragraphs, one
+beginning in
+this wise:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">If our esteemed
+(but chronically
+overheated) fellow-townsman,
+Sam
+Beale, will take our
+advice, etc.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 488px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p564.jpg" width="488" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;THE MALLET GRAZED MY EAR AND CRASHED INTO THE WALL.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">At that moment three
+shots rang out
+in deafening
+succession. My
+journeyman
+&quot;comp.&quot; dropped
+on his knees
+under the composing-case,
+and
+I was just deciding
+on my
+own line of
+conduct when
+the door was
+flung violently
+open, and Mr.
+Samuel Beale
+and I stood face to face. There were no
+words&mdash;none which I could bring my pen to
+write&mdash;but a heavy printer's mallet lay at
+one end of the make-up stone; this &quot;our
+esteemed (but chronically overheated) fellow-townsman&quot;
+seized and flung with all possible
+force straight at my head. Had his aim
+been true I should never have lived to tell
+this tale. As it was, the mallet grazed my
+ear and crashed into the wall, and the next
+object I saw was Beale wrestling with the
+door in a frantic effort to escape. The conclusion
+of this anecdote doesn't matter; but
+my printer was, I believe, finally obliged to
+haul me off the body of the prostrate Mr.
+Beale, upon whom I then and there felt it
+my editorial duty to take summary vengeance.
+Afterwards I wisely went armed,
+my victim having openly threatened to
+shoot me on sight. But the quarrel was
+eventually patched up, my chief inserting the
+following characteristic <i>amende</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">The <i>News-Democrat</i>
+having on
+divers occasions,
+through a misapprehension
+of
+the true circumstances,
+stated that
+our esteemed
+townsman Sam
+Beale was a liar, a
+thief, and the
+meanest skunk in
+the whole State of
+Georgia, we beg
+hereby to retract
+this, and declare
+that our knowledge
+is solely confined
+to Pawnee County.
+Shake, Sam, and
+be friends!</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">One of the
+arts which a
+Western editor
+must understand
+is that of
+&quot;padding,&quot;
+especially in his
+local &quot;society&quot;
+items.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Thus a Missouri
+paper, the
+<i>Hannibal Hornet</i>,
+is responsible
+for the following
+string of
+&quot;personals&quot;:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Dec. 7th. Miss
+Sadie James, of
+Tarrant Springs,
+is visiting her
+friend, Miss Annabel S. Colver, at the house of
+Miss Annabel S. Colver, on Decatur Street.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Dec. 8th. Miss Annabel S. Colver gave a party in
+honour of her guest, Miss Sadie James, who is
+visiting her at Miss Colver's beautiful home on
+Decatur Street, at which all the youth and
+beauty of Hannibal were present in full force.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Dec. 9th. Miss Sadie James, of Tarrant Springs,
+was observed out sleigh-riding with her charming
+hostess, Miss A. S. Colver, and their neat turn-out
+was shortly joined by several others.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Dec. 10th.  Miss Sadie James terminated a pleasant
+visit to Hannibal and returned to Tarrant
+Springs.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">But occasionally it happens that an exquisite
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page565" id="page565"></a>[pg&nbsp;565]</span>
+item of &quot;society&quot; falls in the editor's
+way, without his having to do any &quot;padding&quot;
+at all, as in this from the <i>Fairplay Flume</i>,
+published in the flourishing Colorado &quot;city&quot;
+of Fairplay:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Married.</span> <span class="smcap">Markham&mdash;Seely.</span>&mdash;At the residence
+of the groom's parents one of the most up-to-date
+weddings took place. (There had been an
+agreement between the bride and groom not to be
+married in the old-fashioned way, but to change the
+mode a little.) Therefore they were married at the
+residence of the father of the groom, Peter J. Seely,
+Esq. The groom wore a long pair of overalls and a cutaway
+coat. The bride wore a calico dress and apron.
+They both looked the picture of health, and were ably
+assisted&mdash;the groom by the bride's sister and the
+bride by Mr. Sam Meadows, a particular friend of
+the groom's. After spending a couple of weeks in
+the West they will return and settle down in their
+pleasant home, &quot;Swandown&quot;; Burlap, the furniture
+man at Five Forks, having already the contract to see
+that their home is properly furnished during their
+absence.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> <img src="images/ill_p565a.jpg" width="650" height="629" alt="FAIRPLAY FLUME, THE BLISS BREEZE, THE ARIZONA ARROW, THE CREEDE CANDLE, THE RIFLE REVEILLE, THE MUSTANG MAIL,D THE
+MOTHER LODE MAGNET" title="FAIRPLAY FLUME, THE BLISS BREEZE, THE ARIZONA ARROW, THE CREEDE CANDLE, THE RIFLE REVEILLE, THE MUSTANG MAIL, AND THE
+MOTHER LODE MAGNET" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">As to the titles of many of these Western
+productions, it might be supposed these spring
+from the fertile brain of some incorrigible
+humorist. But this is not so. Nothing
+could be more real&mdash;&quot;alive and kicking&quot;&mdash;in
+Anno Domini 1904, than the <i>Creede</i>
+(Colorado) <i>Candle</i>, the <i>Arizona Arrow</i> of
+Chloride, Arizona, the <i>Rifle Reveille</i>, the
+<i>Rising Star X-ray</i>, the <i>Bald-Knob Herald</i>,
+the Dallas <i>World Hustler</i>, the <i>Kosse Cyclone</i>,
+the Blooming <i>Grove Rustler</i>, the Carrizo
+<i>Javelin</i>, the Noyales <i>Oasis</i>, and the Devil's
+Lake <i>Free Press</i>. The names of some
+Western towns are fantastic to a degree, and
+the editorial love for alliteration is strong.
+Thus we have the <i>Bliss Breeze</i>, the <i>Mustang
+Mail</i>, and the Searchlight <i>Searchlight</i> in
+addition to those I have mentioned. What
+more natural in the &quot;city&quot; of Tombstone,
+Arizona, than that the newspaper should be
+entitled the <i>Epitaph</i>? Or that an <i>Epitaph</i>
+should take as naturally to obituaries as a
+duck to water or an Arizonian takes to his
+&quot;gun&quot;?</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 672px;"> <img src="images/ill_p565b.jpg" width="672" height="192" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Jake Moffatt Gone Skyward!</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">As we feared on hearing that two doctors had been
+called in, the life of our esteemed fellow-citizen Jake
+Moffatt ered out on Wednesday last, just after we
+had gone to press. Jake was every inch a scholar
+and a gentleman, upright in all his dealings, unimpeachable
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page566" id="page566"></a>[pg&nbsp;566]</span>
+in character, and ran the Front Street
+Saloon in the very toniest style consistent with order.
+Jake never fully recovered from the year he spent in
+the county jail at the time of the Ryan-Sternberg
+fracas. His health was shattered, and he leaves a
+sorrowing widow and nary an enemy.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img src="images/ill_p566a.jpg" width="700" height="492" alt="Newspapers: &quot;THE JAVELIN. The Flagstaff Gem. The Oasis. The Oklahoma Hornet.&quot;" title="Newspapers: &quot;THE JAVELIN. The Flagstaff Gem. The Oasis. The Oklahoma Hornet.&quot;" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">The Tombstone men are handy with their
+&quot;shooting-irons,&quot; as may be judged from
+the accompanying cheery advertisement last
+Christmas time.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 546px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p566b.jpg" width="546" height="700" alt="TURKEY
+SHOOTING
+Wednesday, December 23, 1903
+North End of Fifth Street
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+Use Any Kind of Rifle
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+AT 50 YARDS,
+    Turkey's Head Exposed, 25c Per Shot
+AT 200 YARDS,
+    Entire Turkey Exposed, 25c Per Shot
+To Draw Blood Entitles You to the Turkey
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+SPORT BEGINS AT 2 P. M.
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+Turkeys Now on Exhibition at Saylor's Store,
+   Allen. Bet. Fourth and Fifth Streets" title="TURKEY
+SHOOTING
+Wednesday, December 23, 1903
+North End of Fifth Street
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+Use Any Kind of Rifle
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+AT 50 YARDS,
+    Turkey's Head Exposed, 25c Per Shot
+AT 200 YARDS,
+    Entire Turkey Exposed, 25c Per Shot
+To Draw Blood Entitles You to the Turkey
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+SPORT BEGINS AT 2 P. M.
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+Turkeys Now on Exhibition at Saylor's Store,
+   Allen. Bet. Fourth and Fifth Streets" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">The chief advertisements
+in the
+<i>Epitaph</i>, as in the
+other papers in the
+ranching country,
+consist of cattle-brands&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>,
+rude
+outlines or silhouettes
+of equine or
+bovine quadrupeds,
+marked with the
+peculiar sign which
+distinguishes their
+ownership from
+others. By this
+means any strayed
+or stolen cattle are
+readily identified.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 310px;"> <img src="images/ill_p567a.jpg" width="310" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">CATTLE-BRAND ADVERTISEMENTS.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">As to the technical
+aspect of all the
+papers, which have
+so much in common,
+the reader may like
+to learn something.
+How are they
+produced so as to cover expenses in a
+&quot;city&quot; which boasts often fewer than one
+thousand inhabitants, rarely reaches two
+thousand, and not seldom has but five
+hundred souls? The answer is, in the first
+place, to be found in the invention of patent
+&quot;insides&quot; or &quot;outsides.&quot; These are sheets
+ready printed on two of the four outside
+or inside pages; or,
+if it should happen
+to be an eight-page
+paper, six pages
+would be set up and
+printed at some
+great centre of population
+like Chicago
+or St. Louis. The
+invention is of English
+origin, but owes
+its vogue in America
+to A. N. Kellogg,
+who in 1861 was
+editing a little paper
+at Baraboo, Wisconsin.
+When the Civil
+War broke out his
+printers left him for
+the front, and, unable
+to get out his
+journal, he wrote to
+the publisher of the
+Madison <i>Daily
+Journal</i> for sheets
+of that paper printed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page567" id="page567"></a>[pg&nbsp;567]</span>
+on one side
+only with the
+latest available
+war news. The
+blank side the
+enterprising
+Kellogg filled
+up himself with
+big &quot;block&quot;
+advertisements
+and local items
+and the inevitable
+political
+&quot;editorial,&quot;
+without which
+no American
+newspaper,
+however small,
+would be complete
+in its
+editor's eyes,
+although it is
+rarely read. In
+a short space
+of time other
+country editors
+followed Kellogg's
+example,
+and the Madison daily was printing newspapers
+for thirty different Wisconsin papers
+on one side of the sheet. The enterprise
+grew, Kellogg directed his entire attention to
+it, and ended by founding a business which
+to-day prints two thousand different sets or
+editions of patent insides.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At one time the same formes were used
+for hundreds of papers, only the titles,
+headings, etc., being changed to suit each
+customer. But now the editors of the
+<i>Oasis</i> and the <i>Hustler</i> have at least a
+hundred different styles of paper to select
+from. As to the cost, the editor pays
+hardly more than what the blank paper
+is worth, for the ready-print companies
+derive their profit from the advertisements,
+for which they reserve several
+columns of space. These country papers
+are usually sold in &quot;bundles&quot; of nine
+hundred and sixty copies, but the
+circulation may not be one-half of that
+figure.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">We have seen that editing is a precarious
+livelihood, yet the editor manages
+to get along somehow. I have seen it
+publicly stated that there are four classes
+of men who usually own these small
+papers: farmers' sons who are too good
+for farming and not quite good
+enough to do nothing; school-teachers;
+lawyers who have made a failure of the law;
+and professional printers who have &quot;worked
+their way&quot;&mdash;these last two by far the
+most numerous class. They derive their
+chief profits from advertisements, for it
+is a point of honour with the local bankers,
+storekeepers, implement dealers, lawyers,
+doctors, liverymen, and blacksmiths to advertise
+in the local paper. Then there is the
+annual, and occasionally the semi-annual,
+circus advertisement, which may bring in as
+much as a hundred dollars, &quot;if a picture of
+the elephant is thrown in.&quot; In the cattle-raising
+districts, as in Arizona, the different
+cattle-brands fill up a large part of the paper,
+as in the case of the <i>Tombstone Epitaph</i>.
+But besides the patent &quot;inside,&quot; the editor
+of the little paper has another convenient
+expedient for filling up his columns. He can
+buy stereotype plates&mdash;that is, columns of
+interesting matter in thin sheets. These
+are made to fit metal bases with which he
+is supplied, and which he keeps in stock.
+Plates and bases being &quot;type high,&quot; or level
+with the type of the newspaper, are cheap
+to send by rail, and being furnished to
+hundreds of other journals are of far higher
+literary character than the editor could turn
+out himself for treble cost.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I have said little of illustrated journalism
+in the Far West; but, as the accompanying
+reproduction humorously suggests, it is&mdash;inexpensive.
+And it may also betray the
+fount whence the authors of that amusing
+brochure, &quot;Wisdom While You Wait,&quot; drew
+some, at least, of their inspiration.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> <img src="images/ill_p567b.jpg" width="650" height="621" alt="PH&OElig;NIX'S PICTORIAL,
+And Second Story Front Room Companion.
+
+Vol. I] San Diego, October 1, 1853 [No. 1
+
+Mansion of John Ph&oelig;nix, Esq., San Diego, California
+
+House in which Shakespeare was born, in Stratford-on-Avon" title="PH&OElig;NIX'S PICTORIAL,
+And Second Story Front Room Companion.
+
+Vol. I] San Diego, October 1, 1853 [No. 1
+
+Mansion of John Ph&oelig;nix, Esq., San Diego, California
+
+House in which Shakespeare was born, in Stratford-on-Avon" />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2>The Red Counter.</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By</span> L. J. BEESTON.</p>
+
+<h3>I.</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 100px;"> <img src="images/ill_p568a.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="V" title="V" />
+</div>
+
+<p>étérin gathered up from
+the table the papers which his
+captain pushed toward him.
+He said, moodily:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I am surprised at <i>you</i>.
+We shall all be killed while
+you are making love here. You may be
+very emotional, but you will have to tell that
+to the German advanced guard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Nicolas La Hire rose and took his sabre
+from a chair in
+this, the best
+room of the
+<i>auberge</i>. He
+was commanding
+a scattered
+remnant of
+cuirassiers who
+were shadowed
+by a Prussian
+force. It was
+his intention to
+join the main
+body, but not
+only were there
+many obstacles
+in the way, but
+he had fallen
+very desperately
+in love
+with Rachel
+Nay, the sweetest
+and prettiest
+girl in
+Orgemont. He
+replied&mdash;by no
+means offended
+by the familiarity
+of his
+officer, for whom he had the greatest friendship:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You are needlessly alarmed. Besides,
+love speaks louder than a bugle-call.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 584px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p568b.jpg" width="584" height="650" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;LOVE SPEAKS LOUDER THAN A BUGLE-CALL.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But not so loud as a bomb, and that is
+what we shall get very soon. I am not
+afraid&mdash;I; but there is a time for making
+love and a time for making war. Then, consider
+your family. A farmer's pretty daughter
+is no match for a La Hire. And in any
+case you will not get her, for she is promised
+to that rascal Simon Mansart, who lives in
+the château on the hill yonder&quot;; and Vétérin
+pointed through the unshuttered window,
+across the village, where the cottages bore a
+covering of snow, and the frozen road, to where
+a clump of acacias crowned an eminence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That is what troubles me,&quot; answered
+La Hire, beginning
+to pace
+the room. &quot;If
+she is married
+to that man,
+whom she detests
+and fears&mdash;to
+that miser,
+that creature&mdash;&mdash;!&quot; he
+broke off suddenly,
+then
+continued: &quot;It
+is a burning
+shame that this
+pure girl, this
+sweet Rachel,
+this wild-flower&mdash;&mdash;!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, come,&quot;
+interrupted
+Vétérin,
+shrugging his
+shoulders contemptuously,
+&quot;if you are
+going to dilate
+in that strain&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Silence!&quot; shouted La Hire; &quot;you go too
+far.&quot; He muttered, in an undertone, &quot;I
+cannot leave her, loving her as I do, loving
+me as she does, for I greatly fear that this
+vulture Mansart will be too strong for me
+when I am gone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then visit him,&quot; said Vétérin. &quot;Have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page569" id="page569"></a>[pg&nbsp;569]</span>
+you not a sword to threaten with? Better
+still, have you not gold to offer? That will
+persuade him, if anything can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">La Hire thought for a moment; then he
+said, &quot;That is not at all a bad idea. I will
+go now.... We will leave to-night. You
+will give the word. Laporte is moving on
+Besançon, which is in a state of siege. We
+really ought to join him three leagues from
+here, if only these confounded Prussians will
+let us alone.&quot; He went out, murmuring, &quot;I
+must see Rachel before I go.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You hear what I say, Monsieur Mansart?&quot;
+thundered La Hire.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Simon did not reply, nor did his eyes fail
+before the stern gaze of the captain of
+cuirassiers. A crafty smile touched the
+corners of his thin lips, and he stroked with
+either hand the heads of two immense
+mastiffs that crouched on the floor by his
+side.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mademoiselle Rachel Nay does not
+need your attentions. You will not molest
+or annoy her in any way. Your gold, which,
+if report says true, you have spent your life
+in wringing from whom you can, cannot
+buy a woman's heart, and hers is pledged
+to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Simon smiled still more craftily. He knew
+that his parsimony had made him notorious;
+he knew that the widow and the fatherless
+had little cause to love him. His heart had
+shrunk in the grip of his miserly instincts.
+But he was not afraid as he answered:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I shall take my own course, monsieur.
+Who are you to dictate to me? I care not
+for your clanking spurs, your fierce looks. I
+have influence with Mademoiselle Rachel's
+parents, who are very poor, and I shall use it
+to the uttermost. I pit my gold against your
+handsome face and swaggering manner. We
+will see who will win.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Listen!&quot; said Nicolas, in a voice hoarse
+with anger. &quot;I will descend to make terms
+with you, though, <i>mon Dieu!</i> there is little
+reason why I should. Since money is as vital
+breath to you, I offer you five thousand francs
+if you will withdraw your suit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I refuse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ten thousand, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mansart laughed and snapped his dry
+fingers.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come, I offer you fifteen thousand francs,
+and not a sou further will I go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Simon was visibly moved, and his hands
+rested nervously upon the heads of his great
+curs; but he controlled the rising temptation
+and answered, bitterly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It is clear that you fear me or you would
+not make such overtures. I decline your
+offer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Think well! I will never yield this
+girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That is unfortunate, for I certainly intend
+to win her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Be careful!&quot; said La Hire, in such a
+terrible voice that the mastiffs growled and
+bared their teeth.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And instinctively, though he meant nothing,
+his hand groped at the hilt of his sabre.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mansart half rose from his chair. &quot;You
+forget my dogs,&quot; he snarled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And you forget the Prussians, who cannot
+be far off,&quot; replied the other; and when
+he perceived that the warning had a distinct
+effect he followed up his advantage. &quot;You
+will have to take care of yourself here,
+monsieur, and yet greater care of your gold.
+I warn you that a Prussian force is shadowing
+us, so that they will almost certainly take
+this direction, if that is comforting for you to
+know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mansart turned pale.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And as they have a couple of field-pieces,
+you may expect a display, by
+Jove!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He had scarcely spoken the words when
+a deep sound, a heavy thud, which appeared
+to come from a long distance, startled him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Malediction! A gun!&quot; exclaimed the
+captain.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He had scarcely spoken when a second
+and much sharper report sounded. The
+shell had burst. Faint shouting came from
+below in the village.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The 'Blues' have come after all,&quot; said
+La Hire, and he went out.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Looking northward he saw a tiny cloud
+drifting across the stars. It was the smoke
+from the cannon which had been discharged.
+In that direction a ridge broke the flatness of
+the fields, that were buried under a sheet of
+ice. He muttered to himself:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They are there, on the escarpment.
+They will put a few shells into the village and
+turn us out, and we must retreat&mdash;as usual.
+I do not care if I can withdraw them from
+Orgemont.&quot; His eyes grew tender; he was
+thinking of Rachel.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Are they here&mdash;these Germans?&quot; asked
+a fearful voice at his elbow.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mansart also had quitted the house. That
+note of war, which was the first he had ever
+heard, had terrified him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You may be sure of it,&quot; said the other,
+laughing. &quot;And it is to be hoped that you
+have some good things in your larder, for if
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page570" id="page570"></a>[pg&nbsp;570]</span>
+these Prussians visit you you will find that
+they have the stomachs of wolves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A bugle sounded.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They will be expecting me,&quot; murmured
+La Hire.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was frightfully cold. The air, like the
+earth, seemed frozen, biting the lungs and
+making it difficult to breathe. The swaying
+branches of the trees in the garden appeared
+to be trying to obtain a little warmth by the
+exercise. The final crescent of the moon
+had risen, and her pale gleam upon the fields
+seemed to have become petrified also with
+the cold, and permanent.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">La Hire had no sooner made up his mind
+to move than a red flame glowed on the summit
+of the escarpment, and passed. It was
+quickly followed by a second heavy thud&mdash;the
+report of a six-pounder field-gun. A
+bright light appeared upon the sky, moving
+swiftly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Something uttered a wail; something
+rushed amongst the acacia trees in the
+garden, flinging down branches and tearing
+up earth. There was a splitting report,
+sheeted flame, a terrible cry.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The night closed down as before, scarcely
+disturbed by that burst of passion.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">La Hire relaxed his grip of the garden soil.
+He lifted his face, which was covered with
+earth.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;<i>Ciel!</i> I thought I was done for,&quot; he
+muttered.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He rose from the prostrate position into
+which he had flung himself, and looked
+around with eyes that were still dazed by the
+explosion.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Simon&mdash;Simon Mansart! Are you still
+alive?&quot; he called.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A loud burst of derisive laughter came
+from one of the lower windows of the house.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Go! The Prussians are waiting for you!&quot;
+cried Mansart.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">La Hire shrugged his shoulders, then
+stepped briskly from the garden to where an
+orderly waited with his horse.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And as he rode away he felt his love swell
+and rise in his heart, and a mad longing to
+see Rachel once more gripped him; to feel
+on his lips the soft touch of her lips, and
+round his neck the clinging fingers once
+clasped there. And this wave of passion
+that ran through his veins seemed to unstring
+his nerves, weaken his purpose, and cast a
+mist of love over his courage.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He found Vétérin waiting impatiently for
+his appearance; and he led his men south*-ward,
+tempting the Prussians and drawing
+them from the village.</p>
+
+<h3>II.</h3>
+
+<p class="indent">Weeks passed. The battles with the Germans,
+that were scarring the land and so
+many hearts, only threatened Orgemont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Now Simon Mansart lay very ill, and it
+was said that he was dying. At a late hour
+that night Rachel received a letter. It was
+from Mansart, and ran as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;<span class="smcap">Rachel</span>,&mdash;I am very ill, and have but a
+few more hours to live. Will you wed me,
+dying? This is a strange request; but if for
+one brief hour I might call you wife it
+should not make you sad, and it would give
+me happiness.... I have a considerable
+sum of money with me in this house, which
+represents the greater part of my fortune. I
+am anxious that you should possess this
+when I am gone. I have papers drawn up
+making over to you the whole of this sum.
+Only your signature is needed and all
+becomes yours, even while I live. I would
+have it so, fearing that you might say, 'If he
+should not die after all!' In any case you
+will be rich. But have no fears; I am sinking,
+and can scarcely hold this pen. Rachel,
+you have scorned my offer of marriage; at
+any rate you cannot scorn me now. Let me
+call you wife; let me hold your hand for my
+final but sweetest hour.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Simon Mansart.</span>&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Old Joseph Nay, when this letter was read
+to him, slapped his shrunken thighs. &quot;And
+I wished, when you were born, that you had
+been a boy!&quot; cried he. &quot;What a piece of
+fortune this is! At last I hope you will show
+some sense. Quick, and get ready. I will
+take you round in the cart. It is a frightful
+night, but one does not get a fortune every
+day on such terms. Then one must respect
+the request of a man who is dying.&quot; And
+he went out, adding to himself, &quot;We are so
+poor that this is nothing less than a godsend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Rachel had turned very pale. She had
+greatly feared Mansart living; now, at his
+last moments, he still threatened her peace.
+Seeing marriage only in the holy light it has
+for lovers, she shrank from this thing.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="indent">A month passed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">One day the hamlet was thrown into a
+state of excitement.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A horseman came dashing bravely up the
+rough, snow covered road. He was a splendid
+figure. He wore a steel helmet with streaming
+plumes, a glittering cuirass, red breeches,
+and immense boots to his knees. A sabre
+leaped at his side, and foam flew from the
+red jaws of his magnificent horse. His
+bronzed face carried a formidable scar, that
+added to the fierceness of his appearance.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page571" id="page571"></a>[pg&nbsp;571]</span>
+He reined in his charger with a most telling
+effect.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Where is Mademoiselle Rachel Nay?&quot; he
+demanded.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They brought her to him. He sprang
+off his horse, removed his helmet, which he
+placed in the bend of his left arm, and bowed
+with gallantry, while his eyes showed his
+appreciation of the girl's beauty. He was
+Philippe Vétérin.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I have come for you, mademoiselle,&quot;
+said he, trying to soften his voice, that had
+been roughened in the war.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The blood crept from Rachel's cheeks.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And with a message from Nicolas La
+Hire, who is my friend. He is wounded&mdash;ah!
+pardon my stupidness, I am too abrupt;
+the hurt is
+not much,
+but enough
+to prevent his
+coming for
+you. <i>Mon
+Dieu!</i>&mdash;do
+not look so
+frightened,
+my pretty
+one; I have
+the best of
+news&mdash;news
+to bring the
+blood again
+to those
+smooth
+cheeks. Listen!
+We
+ambushed a
+whole host
+of Prussians,
+and we cut
+them to
+pieces. La
+Hire was
+equal to any
+two of us.
+The colonel
+vowed he
+would give
+him whatever
+he asked for.
+'Then send,'
+said Nicolas,
+'to Orgemont,
+which is three leagues from here, and
+fetch my sweetheart to me, that I may kiss
+her lips.'</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We cheered him, mademoiselle, for it
+appealed to our hearts and made us think of
+the women whose love is ours, and who are
+waiting for us. 'It shall be done,' said the
+colonel, 'and you shall wed her, La Hire, if
+that be your present wish. Then she can
+return to her parents to wait for you until we
+have finished the war.'</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is my errand, pretty one. I have
+come to fetch you. Ah! you are paler than
+before. Courage! You shall have such a
+wedding that every woman in France shall
+envy you. The church bells will peal while
+our sentries guard the roads, the guns will
+salute you, and each breast that a cuirass
+hides will swell with the cheers that we shall
+give you. My sword, why am I not Nicolas
+La Hire! &quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Rachel tried to speak, but there was such
+a weight upon her heart that the words she
+would have
+uttered stopped
+in her
+throat. At
+length she
+said, faintly:
+&quot;I&mdash;I cannot
+go: it is impossible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The trooper
+laughed outright.
+&quot;<i>Pardonnez
+moi</i>,&quot;
+he cried, &quot;I
+said that I
+have come
+for you, and
+without you
+I dare not
+return, or I
+should be
+compelled to
+fight my regiment,
+one by
+one. Mademoiselle,
+you
+will obtain a
+horse, and
+you will accompany
+me;
+that is as certain
+as my
+name is Philippe
+Vétérin.&quot; He
+twisted his
+moustache, and a flash almost of menace
+sparkled in his black eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They were without old Joseph's cottage as
+they spoke, and Rachel drew Vétérin in,
+closing the door against the little crowd of
+villagers, who turned their attention to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page572" id="page572"></a>[pg&nbsp;572]</span>
+trooper's charger. She said, in a heart-broken
+voice:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nevertheless, I cannot accompany you.
+I am married already; I am another man's
+wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 521px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p571.jpg" width="521" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;I AM MARRIED ALREADY.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">The trooper gave back a step; then he
+laughed harshly&mdash;a contemptuous laugh.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, oh!&quot; said he, shrugging his shoulders,
+&quot;that is a different matter. All the same, it
+is bad, bad news for La Hire,&quot; and he moved
+toward the door.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Stay!&quot; said the girl, flushing hotly at his
+derisive tone. &quot;I have a message in return
+for yours. Will you tell Nicolas that, though
+he must come no more to Orgemont, though
+he must not see me again, I am wife in
+name only. Maiden I am still, before God,
+and, for Nicolas's sake, shall always remain
+so. You will tell him, monsieur, that he had
+been gone but a few weeks when Simon
+Mansart&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah!&quot; interrupted Vétérin, &quot;I have heard
+about him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;&mdash;&mdash;when Simon Mansart fell ill.  At
+the point of death (so it seemed to all of us)
+he besought me to wed him, for he loves me
+almost as much as he loves his gold. And
+he offered me in return all his money that is
+hid in his house. I refused. It was pointed
+out to me that Monsieur Mansart had no
+one to whom to leave the wealth which he
+had accumulated, but he asked nothing
+better than to leave it to me if I would grant
+him one brief hour in which to call me wife,
+that, holding my hand, he might pass the
+last great barrier. I refused again. Then
+they made it clear to me that certain papers
+only wanted my signature, and even while
+Monsieur Mansart lived his wealth became
+mine&mdash;so certain was he that he could not
+recover. Again I declined this offer. I was
+told that I should hold sacred the prayer of
+one who loved me and was dying; that it
+would not be only right, but an act of nobleness
+to render his end peaceful and happy.
+Still I refused.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah! Yet you yielded!&quot; sighed Vétérin,
+moved to his heart by a tear that was trickling
+down one of the soft brown cheeks.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;For my parents' sake. They had their
+way at last. They are very poor; the war
+has tried us greatly. Against my heart,
+against my conscience, I said 'yes.' That
+night I signed the papers and was wedded
+to Monsieur Mansart; that night he held
+my hand as I sat by his couch, and he
+looked into my eyes with a terrible gaze of
+love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And he lived? My sword! I could
+swear he was not so ill as he said. The
+cunning rascal!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It was God's will. I have not seen him
+since then, and will not.... You will tell
+Nicolas all this, monsieur; and you will give
+him these papers and ask him to destroy them,
+lest he should say, 'Rachel married this man
+for the money.' I thought at first that I
+would send them back to Monsieur Mansart,
+for you may be sure I shall not touch this
+money that has come between Nicolas and
+me. And you will tell him that he must not
+grieve for me, because I am not worthy of
+his remembrance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And I shall tell him that you love him
+still. Is it not so, mademoiselle?&quot; said
+Vétérin, huskily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, yes!&quot; Rachel answered, struggling
+with her rising tears. She caught the trooper
+by the arm, clasping his great muscles with
+her two hands, and her breath fanned his
+face. &quot;Tell him that&mdash;that I love him as
+much as&mdash;as I despise myself; that my
+heart, which I gave to him, must always be
+his; that all my thoughts are of him, are with
+him wherever he goes. And you may tell
+him, monsieur, if you like, that my heart is
+breaking&mdash;no, no; you must not say that!
+He would come to see me, and he must not.
+Oh, <i>mon Dieu</i>!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The clinging fingers tightened round the
+soldier's arm; the voice broke off into a
+sob. Vétérin's eyes were wet. He blinked
+fiercely.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Take him my message. Tell him all
+this. But you cannot, wanting my voice and
+my eyes, in which he used to read every
+thought. Yet you will remember how I
+looked and what I said. And you will tell
+Nicolas that I love him as he taught me to,
+that without him all the world has grown
+dark, and that I shall love him until I die!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The trooper caught her to him, for he felt
+that she was falling. Rachel controlled herself
+by a strong effort, and she pushed him
+gently toward the door. Vétérin turned to
+give one last look at that supplicating figure,
+with the dishevelled hair in sweet confusion
+about the tear-stained face; then he went
+out. He muttered, in a voice that he might
+not have known as his own:</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><i>Peste!</i> It seems to me that this Simon
+Mansart is very much in the way!&quot;</p>
+
+<h3>III.</h3>
+
+<p class="indent">On the evening of that day Simon Mansart
+was sitting alone before a handful of fire
+when he heard his big dogs barking with
+anger. As the disturbance continued he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page573" id="page573"></a>[pg&nbsp;573]</span>
+went to the door, and he thought he perceived
+without, in the black night, a blacker
+shadow beyond the gate.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Will you call off your lambs?&quot; shouted a
+voice.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who are you? And what do you want?&quot;
+cried Mansart, always terribly suspicious of
+strangers, and especially those who arrived
+after dusk.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You do not know me, but I have come
+on your business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then you will come again when it is
+daylight, my
+friend,&quot; and he
+began to close
+the door.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Very well,&quot;
+was the immediate
+reply. &quot;I
+am determined
+to see you now,
+and if your
+dogs attempt to
+stop me they
+must take the
+consequences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Simon laughed
+incredulously;
+but when he
+heard the iron
+gate scream on
+its rusty hinges,
+and when he
+heard the growls
+of the dogs, he
+exclaimed,
+vehemently,
+&quot;Take care!
+You will be torn
+to pieces!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I shall at
+least kill one of
+your dogs first,&quot;
+was the determined
+reply.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Stop! I will
+call them off,&quot;
+said Mansart, who would never have yielded
+had he the smallest doubt of the other's
+resolution. He whistled his great curs off;
+but he was sorry that he had done so when
+he perceived his visitor, who was a French
+trooper, swaggering and fierce, and who could
+have crushed Mansart in his strong arms.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;May I come in?&quot; said he, and he
+advanced so persistently that the other was
+compelled to retreat before him. He closed
+the door and stood before it&mdash;tall, erect,
+commanding.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your errand, monsieur?&quot; demanded
+Simon, trembling with rage, yet afraid.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How dark it is in here! And what a
+little fire for so cold a night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We do not need light to talk by, and I
+am warm enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And poor enough. Is it not so? It is
+about that that I have come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mansart grew more polite. He had signed
+away a fortune to a girl who loathed him.
+When peace should come the courts would
+make good her claim. So that any overture,
+any compromise,
+was welcome.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 489px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p573.jpg" width="489" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;MY NAME IS PHILLIPE VÉTÉRIN,&quot; SAID THE CUIRASSIER.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My name is
+Philippe Vétérin,&quot;
+said the
+cuirassier, folding
+his arms
+with their gauntleted
+hands, and
+fixing a stern
+look upon Mansart.
+&quot;Captain
+Nicolas La Hire
+is my friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And my
+enemy,&quot; muttered
+Simon,
+his deep-set
+eyes flashing.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I have come
+to Orgemot on
+his behalf.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah! Is he
+wounded?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mansart rubbed
+his hands
+together.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But not
+badly. Unless
+you are going
+to listen to me,
+I think it likely
+that La Hire
+will pay you a visit one of these days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Simon sank uneasily into his chair. &quot;What
+has this to do with me?&quot; he demanded.
+&quot;And how is it that you are here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Vétérin went on steadily. &quot;I am here
+with a message for Mademoiselle Rachel
+Nay, that sweet girl&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That name is hers no longer. Also you
+will keep your compliments until I ask for
+them,&quot; interrupted the other, savagely.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You are her husband; that is true
+enough. To you I bear a message also.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page574" id="page574"></a>[pg&nbsp;574]</span>
+Yet I can scarcely call it that, since what I
+am about to propose to you is entirely an
+idea of my own, and which I should like to
+mention in the interests of my friend Monsieur
+Nicolas La Hire. It is of a most
+unusual nature. Here it is. Rachel married
+you believing that you were at Death's door.
+But the door wouldn't open. Good for you,
+bad for her, bad for Nicolas, whom she loves.
+Now, La Hire loves this girl; she is as indispensable
+to his happiness as your money is to
+yours. Mark that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was a pause. Then Mansart said,
+&quot;What do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That I have come to offer to restore to
+you these papers, which represent the fortune
+which you have bestowed upon your wife.
+Ah! not so quick. There is one condition
+attached. You must release this girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A terrible light of joy leaped into Simon's
+face, but it died away instantly. &quot;The
+thing is impossible,&quot; he said. &quot;She is my
+wife; we were lawfully wedded, remember.
+How, then, can I release her? How can
+she be wedded to another?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yet La Hire has sworn that only as her
+husband will he kiss the lips of his love again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But, monsieur, how can it be? See for
+yourself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Vétérin continued, imperturbably:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Certainly, if I restore to you these papers,
+which I am sure you would be glad to get
+back, that would scarcely break the bond
+between you and Rachel; yet I am about to
+yield them to you. It follows, then, that you
+will still call her your wife and enjoy your own
+as well? I am afraid that it does, but there
+is an 'if' in the case; for though I am
+perfectly willing to give you these papers, yet
+it is just possible that they may cost you your
+life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My life!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Precisely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mansart crouched back. &quot;You are
+threatening me?&quot; said he, hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;By no means. Look here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Vétérin advanced to the table, upon which
+he emptied a handful of small counters.
+&quot;There are thirteen of them,&quot; he said.
+&quot;You will perceive that twelve of them are
+white and that the other is red. Will you
+count them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I take your word for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yet you had better count for yourself.
+That is right. And now I will tell you my
+idea, which is so unusual and so dramatic
+that I rather pride myself upon it. I throw
+these ivory discs into my helmet and cover
+them with a handkerchief&mdash;so. And I ask
+you, if you are a man of courage, to raise one
+corner of the handkerchief and take out a
+single counter. If it be a white one&mdash;as is
+almost certain to be the case&mdash;I hand you
+the papers in my possession and I wish you
+good-night, enjoyment of your hoarded gold,
+and happiness with Rachel. But if it be the
+solitary red one&mdash;and that is extremely unlikely&mdash;then&mdash;then&mdash;if
+it be the red one,
+I say&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The cuirassier broke off and regarded the
+other steadily. Mansart had turned livid.
+&quot;Go on,&quot; he said, in a shaking voice; &quot;why
+do you stop? If I should draw the red one&mdash;what
+then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Vétérin shrugged his shoulders as he
+answered, &quot;In that case I should ask you to
+fight with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah! you would murder me!&quot; said Simon,
+recoiling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Pardon, I have <i>two</i> pistols here. It
+would be fair fighting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It is horrible, monstrous! I will not
+listen to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Almost as terrible as wedding a maid
+whose soul has been given to another;
+almost as monstrous as coming eternally
+between two hearts that beat for each other,&quot;
+was the stern response.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I tell you that I will not hear of it,&quot;
+repeated Mansart, frantically.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then you will be a great fool. I wish I
+stood in your shoes. The chances of life are
+twelve; of death, one. And even then it will
+be fair fighting&mdash;though, by my sword, I
+shall do my best to kill you. Consider. But
+a moment separates you from your wealth.
+Come, it might have been over and forgotten
+by now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Monsieur, if you are a gentleman, if you
+entertain toward me no sinister intent, you
+will leave my house at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Very well, I will go,&quot; said Vétérin, and
+he moved toward the door. He opened it
+and was about to pass out when the querulous
+voice of Simon called to him again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The chances in my favour are not
+sufficient.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What a coward it is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Add six more to the number and I will
+agree.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The trooper laughed and tossed half-a-dozen
+more of the white discs into his
+helmet. &quot;There you are,&quot; he said. &quot;Take
+one; you are perfectly safe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Shake them well together,&quot; whispered
+Mansart, who appeared to be almost fainting
+with the excitement of this terrible gamble.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page575" id="page575"></a>[pg&nbsp;575]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then he put his hand under the handkerchief
+and into the steel casque. He
+withdrew it slowly. The trooper snatched
+away his helmet to prevent any trick, and
+Simon looked at the disc which his fingers
+held.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was the red one!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 629px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p575.jpg" width="629" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;HE REMAINED GAZING FIXEDLY AT THAT SYMBOL OF DEATH.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">And he began to mutter; inarticulate
+words, such as one may use under the spell
+of some strangling dream. He remained
+gazing fixedly at that symbol of death. A
+rush of blood mounted to his forehead,
+swelling the veins, then as quickly died
+away, leaving him pallid.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah!&quot; said Vétérin, &quot;how unfortunate for
+you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mansart retreated a few steps, crouching
+back like a wild beast that has received a
+wound, which simulates an approaching end,
+and which holds its remaining strength
+together waiting for its destroyer to draw
+near.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You must acknowledge that it does not
+look like chance,&quot; went on Vétérin, who was
+cool as ice. &quot;Eighteen to one! <i>Ma foi</i>, it
+is astonishing.&quot; He placed two pistols upon
+the table.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come, monsieur,&quot; he exclaimed, suddenly,
+in a hard, rasping voice. &quot;You will play the
+man, will you not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mansart appeared unable to reply; perhaps
+he could not. His look was steadily directed
+upon the trooper, whose slightest movement
+he observed with the most intense anxiety.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Vétérin examined the pistols, while he
+threw more than one furtive glance at the
+other's passionless face. He pushed a pistol
+toward Simon. &quot;I think you had better
+defend yourself,&quot; he said. &quot;I am going to
+hold you to your word,&quot; and he stepped back,
+raising his own weapon.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Stop!&quot; exclaimed Mansart, in a choked
+voice. &quot;We do not fight on equal terms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You are skilled in the use of your
+weapon, while I&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That is easily remedied.&quot; Vétérin suddenly
+extinguished the candle. He called
+out, &quot;Take care! I shall fire at the first
+opportunity.&quot;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page576" id="page576"></a>[pg&nbsp;576]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">A nebulous red glow came from the nearly-burned
+log in the grate and shone upon the
+farther side of the apartment. Both men had
+retreated into the shadow; both waited.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was a profound silence, broken
+occasionally by whispering sounds from the
+log that pulsated, red and grey, as the
+draught fanned it. Vétérin was scarcely
+breathing; his straining eyes peered into the
+dark, seeking to detect the form of Simon
+Mansart. He listened intently. Not the
+faintest sound was audible. Suddenly he
+believed that he perceived a black object but
+a few feet from him. Surely that was
+Mansart.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The cuirassier lifted his pistol and aimed at
+the centre of that indistinct form; yet his
+finger did not press the trigger. Instead he
+gradually lowered the weapon.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What is the matter with my nerves?&quot; he
+thought.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He remained standing in a rigid posture,
+undecided. &quot;Why not?&quot; he asked himself
+again. &quot;It is fair fighting. <i>Ma foi</i>, I have
+done worse things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Another minute passed. Vétérin sighed
+deeply. &quot;I
+cannot do it,&quot;
+he muttered;
+&quot;not even for
+you, Nicolas.&quot;
+Then he called
+out aloud:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Light the
+candle; I shall
+do you no
+harm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">No answer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You need
+not fear me,&quot;
+repeated the
+trooper.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Still no
+reply.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If I move
+he will shoot at
+me,&quot; thought
+Vétérin.
+Nevertheless,
+he advanced in the direction of the table
+and groped about for the candlestick. He
+found it, went to the fire, and held the coarse
+wick against the log. All the time he did
+not remove his eyes for an instant from that
+black something which he believed to be
+Mansart. The candle smoked, glowed, then
+broke into a flame. The trooper had made
+a mistake; he perceived that the shadowy
+object was a chair merely.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Vétérin spun round, expecting a pistol-ball
+and extending his weapon. A low cry
+escaped him at the sight which met his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 542px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p576.jpg" width="542" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;A LOW CRY ESCAPED HIM AT THE SIGHT WHICH MET HIS EYES.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Simon Mansart, crouched in an angle of
+the room, held with dead fingers his undischarged
+pistol, looked with dead eyes at the
+flaring light. The excitement of the gamble
+and terror of this unfought duel had stopped
+his heart.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Vétérin crossed himself. &quot;God judge
+me! I did it for Nicolas's sake,&quot; he said.
+He crossed to the grate and pushed some
+papers into the embers.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And all at once there came upon him a
+sudden fear which sent him running from the
+house. The
+sharp air and
+a strong effort
+of self-control
+gave him his
+wits again. For
+a moment he
+halted to look
+back at the
+château, with
+its unlighted
+windows and
+dead aspect;
+and he said
+aloud, as if
+concluding an
+unspoken
+thought:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;&mdash;&mdash;and
+they will be
+married when
+the war is
+over.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p577a.jpg" width="700" height="460" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">A MEETING OF THE PORTSMOUTH NAVAL WAR GAME SOCIETY IN THE NELSON ROOM AT THE &quot;GEORGE&quot;, PORTSMOUTH.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><i>The Naval War Game and How it is Played.</i></h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Angus Sherlock.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">Copyright in the United States by A. P. Watt and Son.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">(<span class="smcap">Note.</span>&mdash;This is the only popular article that has ever appeared on the Naval War Game, though it is
+played in every navy in the world. The subject is of some special interest just at present, because both
+the Japanese and Russian navies trained on it for the present war.  Proofs of the article have been
+submitted to the inventor, who himself selected the illustrations.)</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 96px;"> <img src="images/ill_p577b.jpg" width="96" height="100" alt="F" title="F" />
+</div>
+
+<p>ROM time to time one reads
+in the technical naval Press
+brief references to, or fixtures
+for, the Naval War Game. At
+rare intervals a &quot;war-game
+battle&quot; will be found described
+at length in some of the Service journals, but
+beyond this it is safe to say that the game is
+a mystery to the general public. The reason
+is, in part, that it touches technical questions
+that are caviare to the million, but as much,
+or more so, it is mysterious on account of the
+secrecy with which many of its details are
+guarded. It is open to the public to purchase
+the &quot;game,&quot; it is true, but, though the
+material and plenty of directions can thus he
+secured, it is by now well enough known
+that many unpublished &quot;confidential&quot; rules
+exist.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">These, it may be noted, differ in every
+navy. The problems of naval warfare and
+the ideals of facing them are not the same
+for a Russian as for an American, and
+Sweden and the Argentine Republic again
+have nothing in common in their naval
+aspirations. However, were I in a position
+to divulge these matters they would not be
+of any great interest to readers of <span class="smcap">The
+Strand Magazine</span>, so I propose to confine
+myself as much as possible to things in
+which the human interest is the dominant
+factor.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">First, however, some description of the
+game and its invention may be of interest.
+The naval war game reached its fruition some
+five years ago, but Mr. Fred. T. Jane, its
+inventor, always asserts that he began to
+think it out when he was a small boy at
+school.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;When I was a small boy,&quot; said Mr. Jane,
+&quot;I had the boat sailing craze. A school-fellow
+had a better boat than I; I mounted
+a gun in mine and committed an act of
+piracy on a duck-pond. My chum was a
+sportsman, and, after punching my head, proceeded
+to arm his ship also. We took to
+armour-plates made from biscuit-tins, and
+to squadrons instead of single ships. In the
+battle that ensued our fleets annihilated each
+other, and depleted finances forbade their
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page578" id="page578"></a>[pg&nbsp;578]</span>
+renewal. Then it was that the economy
+born of necessity caused me to think that
+make-believe battles would be cheaper.
+Thus was the naval war game evolved in
+embryo. At first we fought with imaginary
+leviathans, but after a time such impossible
+vessels were claimed that we decided to
+simulate nothing but existing ships.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A year or so later I read in some newspaper
+that a fortune awaited the man who
+could invent something that could be applied
+to ships as the land <i>Kriegspiel</i> to armies.
+I thought I could do with that fortune, so
+packed the game in an empty Australian
+beef-tin and sent it to the Admiralty, together
+with a letter in which the following magnificent
+sentence occurred: 'I shall not be
+above accepting financial remuneration, and
+for convenience this can be paid in instalments.'</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In due course 'My Lords' returned
+the game with thanks. They had 'inspected
+it with much interest,' they said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Somehow I doubt it. After the lapse of
+many years I still remember vividly the smell
+of that old meat-tin in which the game was
+sent to them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My next step was one which is, I believe,
+chronic with disappointed inventors. I
+wrote letters to the newspapers attacking
+Admiralty policy in general, with a view to
+making the callous authorities tremble! I
+never witnessed the trembling, but as out of
+this campaign I grew into what is called a
+'naval expert,' I suppose I owe the Admiralty
+a debt of gratitude! However, that is
+another story.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Meanwhile, war game languished, till some
+seven years ago it was found by accident in a
+lumber-room. Even then it was resuscitated
+only as a toy. I used to take it to the
+<i>Majestic</i>, and it was played there very much
+<i>à la</i> ping-pong, till one day the captain,
+Prince Louis of Battenberg, asked about it,
+and wished to see the rules.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Feeling somewhat of a fraud,&quot; says Mr.
+Jane, &quot;I hastily recast the thing into its
+original serious mould, plus a variety of
+improvements that occurred to me, or were
+suggested by various naval friends.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The game was then played in the
+<i>Majestic</i> once more, and 'caught on.' To
+my astonishment I was deluged with letters
+asking about the game. The first came from
+the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia, the
+Czar's brother-in-law, who, with that absence
+of 'side' so characteristic of the Romanoffs,
+wrote himself as a naval officer. He had, he
+told me, himself invented a naval war game,
+the strategical part of which was successful,
+but the tactical not what he had hoped for it.
+If mine were satisfactory, he would do all he
+could for it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That is how the game came to have its
+Imperial and Royal 'godfathers,' as announced
+on the title-page. Royal sailors are usually
+regarded as mere ornamental dummies, but
+both the Grand Duke Alexander and Prince
+Louis of Battenberg were responsible for
+many excellent improvements in the game,
+for which I, perhaps, have received the
+credit.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There were two other godfathers&mdash;Rear-Admiral
+H. J. May, of the British Navy, and
+Captain Kawashima, of the Japanese Navy.
+The former expended endless labour in
+revising the rules; the latter it was who
+played with me all the early experimental
+games to test the rules, and alter them when
+necessary to make practice as simple as
+possible. We used to fight little one-man
+'wars,' beginning at about ten in the
+morning and carrying on till after midnight.
+Captain Kawashima is now in command of
+the <i>Matsushima</i> (the famous cruiser that was
+flagship at Yalu in the Chino-Japanese War),
+and when I remember the painstaking enthusiasm
+he used to put into the 'wars' he
+and I had, I think that he will go far in the
+present war.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A lecture at the United Service Institution
+followed the <i>Majestic</i> battle, and thus
+the game 'took root.' It is in every navy in
+the world now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">About this time a foreign Government
+approached the inventor with a view to purchasing
+the game and its secret. The offer
+was declined, but Mr. Jane gave a similar
+option to the British Admiralty, which, however,
+made no reply whatever beyond an
+official acknowledgment of the receipt of the
+letter. Perhaps, like Mr. Jane, the Permanent
+Secretary remembered the old meat-tin!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">After an interval the game was produced&mdash;the
+very first set to be sold being secured
+by, of all people, the Chinese! This particular
+set later on helped to make history;
+indeed, it has been seriously surmised that it
+caused the Chinese attack on the allied fleets
+at Taku. After that affair a British landing
+party found the ground inside one fort
+littered with war-game models, each model
+ship being stuck full of pins. The leader of
+the party being a war-game player followed
+up his find, to discover a shed laid out for
+naval war game and &quot;scorers&quot;<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> of all the
+allied fleets in various stages of destruction!</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote">
+<a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_1_1">
+<span class="label">[1]</span></a>
+For particulars of &quot;scorers&quot; see later.]
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page579" id="page579"></a>[pg&nbsp;579]</span>
+The Chinese had apparently worked out
+things by war game before opening fire.
+They had, however, made one little mistake&mdash;they
+had made no allowance for the allied
+fleet firing back!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Following China, the United States, Germany,
+Russia, and Japan secured early sets,
+and a little while afterwards the British War
+Office. That much-abused department was,
+curiously enough, the very first to recognise
+the utility of the game for the chief purpose
+its inventor designed it for&mdash;the teaching of
+the guns and armour of possible enemies.
+It was procured for the use of artillery officers
+in sea forts, and in his last report Lord
+Roberts emphasized the vast difference
+between those officers who had played the
+game and those who had not. The former
+knew the weak points of every possible
+enemy; the latter, on hearing the name of
+any ship, could not tell whether she were a
+battleship or gunboat, dangerous or harmless.
+Every War Office has since followed suit in
+adopting the &quot;Kindergarten war system.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p579.jpg" width="700" height="319" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">A STANDARD NORWEGIAN NAVAL WAR-GAME SET.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><i>From a Photo. by Symonds &amp; Co.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">And now for some account of how the
+game is played. A large table is the primary
+requisite. This is covered with blue cards
+divided into a multitude of little squares,
+each of which represents half a cable&mdash;that
+is to say, a hundred yards. Over these
+squares are moved the pieces&mdash;model ships
+on the same scale as the board.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">These models are a most important part
+of the game. They are made of cork, painted,
+and most accurate representations of actual
+ships; and this they need to be, for the
+players have to recognise them. Each model
+is fitted with tiny guns&mdash;little bits of wire set
+in at various angles which indicate the arcs
+of training of the corresponding guns in the
+real ships, while long pins mark the bearings
+of the torpedo tubes. Other pins, fitted with
+delicate little military tops, make the masts;
+and, to digress a moment, hereby hangs a
+tale.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">One of the earliest experimenters with the
+naval war game was the ubiquitous Kaiser.
+He took to it keenly, and himself played it
+often with his admirals. One day, so runs
+the story in the German Navy, the Kaiser
+was winning hand over fist, his fleet, led by
+his flagship, bearing down upon the enemy.
+Excitement was high, when at the critical
+moment the Kaiser's fleet suddenly disappeared!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Kaiser gazed at the deserted board
+and then at his admirals. An &quot;awkward
+pause&quot; is said to have ensued, and the writer
+for one can quite believe that. It is undoubtedly
+an awkward thing to seem to have
+played tricks with an Emperor so as to
+cheat him out of victory.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Where is my fleet?&quot; asked the Kaiser.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I do not know, sire,&quot; exclaimed his chief
+opponent, a famous admiral.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He saluted as he spoke, and thereupon
+there fell to the floor, apparently from down
+the admiral's sleeve, three of the missing
+warships! What the admiral felt is better
+imagined than described.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fortunately for his reputation one model
+still remained stuck in his sleeve. In moving
+his own ships he had rested his arm on the
+Kaiser's vessels, and so lifted the lot unawares.
+All's well that ends well, and the
+Kaiser laughed most heartily; but there is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page580" id="page580"></a>[pg&nbsp;580]</span>
+an admiral in the German fleet whom it is in
+no way wise to talk to about naval war game.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">However, this admiral is not the only one
+who has met misadventure from war-game
+models, no less a person than the Japanese
+Admiral Togo heading the list of those who
+have had &quot;naval war-game hand&quot;&mdash;the result
+of inadvertently leaning on the masts of a
+model ship!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">To resume the description. Every player
+has assigned to him a particular ship, and
+this he moves simultaneously with all the
+others at the direction of his &quot;admiral.&quot;
+Each move nominally occupies a minute of
+time&mdash;actually it usually takes more, and it
+is in the ways and means adopted to balance
+this that most of the confidential rules exist.
+A most essential part of the game is to
+counterfeit with all possible realism the
+hurry-scurry of an actual battle.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p580.jpg" width="700" height="314" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">A NAVAL WAR-GAME TARGET&mdash;ACTUAL SIZE.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">The distance moved depends, of course,
+upon the speed of the ship represented. A
+flier like H.M.S. <i>Drake</i>, for instance, can
+cover as many as eight squares should full
+speed be ordered. This means eight hundred
+yards a minute&mdash;equivalent, approximately,
+to a speed of twenty-four knots per hour. In
+actual practice the ships do not move by
+squares, else a vessel proceeding along the
+diagonals would go much faster than one
+moving straight across; the squares merely
+exist to afford a rough means of guessing
+the range. Special measures are, therefore,
+employed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Innumerable rules cover such matters as
+increasing and decreasing speed, turning, and
+so forth. General conventions exist, but in
+actual practice the real turning circles of ships
+are alone made&mdash;and here, of course, confidential
+features are thick. The inventor of
+the game is probably the repository of more
+secrets in this respect than three of the best
+Naval Intelligence Departments of Europe
+put together.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At the end of each &quot;minute&quot; more firing
+takes place. This is the characteristic feature
+of the game. Each player has a card with a
+plan of his ship showing guns, armour, etc.,
+and divided into arbitrary vertical sections of
+twenty-five feet each. This card is known
+technically as a &quot;scorer.&quot; Pictures of each
+ship, similarly divided, but showing no
+armour, and of different sizes for different
+ranges, are also provided. These are the
+&quot;targets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They are struck at by &quot;strikers,&quot; which at
+first sight are rather like ping-pong bats with
+a pin in them.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> This pin is nearly, but
+never quite, in the centre of the striker. To
+ensure hitting any particular part of a ship is,
+therefore, practically impossible, except at
+close range, and not very often then. Nice
+calculation is required, and also great coolness&mdash;too
+great effort after accuracy being
+usually as fatal as too little. Thus, by automatic
+means, that great factor of modern warfare,
+&quot;moral effect,&quot; is provided for, since
+experience shows that no player whose ship
+has been badly knocked about ever hurts the
+enemy very much. One strike per gun is
+allowed; with reduced gun-fire he feels his
+chances of hitting reduced, and tries harder
+to make the most of what he has got, and
+the slight excitement, coupled with the extra
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page581" id="page581"></a>[pg&nbsp;581]</span>
+effort that he makes, invariably disconcerts
+his aim.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote">
+<a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_2_2">
+<span class="label">[2]</span></a>
+&quot;Strikers&quot; will be seen on the table and in the hands of
+players in the big picture of a war game.
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p581a.jpg" width="700" height="507" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;SCORER&quot; FOR H.M.S. &quot;KING EDWARD VII.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">To some extent the excitement of a battle
+always does this. When the game was first
+exhibited at the Royal United Service Institution,
+a certain admiral urged as a weak
+point in the shooting system that he could
+hit the enemy every time. He took a target
+and did it. Yet
+in the battle that
+ensued he never
+scored a single hit&mdash;the
+slight extra
+tension upset his
+aim completely.
+And it is astonishing
+how many
+misses are made
+by many players
+from this cause.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 662px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p581b.jpg" width="662" height="516" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">THE SAME &quot;SCORER&quot; AFTER A BATTLE IN WHICH THE SHIP WAS KNOCKED ABOUT. THE
+DAMAGES HAVE BEEN SCORED ACCORDING TO HITS RECEIVED ON &quot;TARGETS.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Hitting the
+enemy is, however,
+but half the battle.
+If the ship fired at
+is armoured the
+impact may be on
+a cuirass that the
+gun represented
+cannot get through,
+or an armour-piercing
+shot may
+hit a part where no
+armour exists, and
+so do next to no
+harm. When harm
+is done it is scored
+on the card of the
+ship hit on a scale
+corresponding to
+the actual damage
+that would be inflicted.
+In a very
+little while the
+player realizes that
+what will put one
+ship out of action
+will hardly hurt
+another. This in
+theory he has, of
+course, always
+known, but between
+knowing a
+thing and fully
+realizing it there is
+an enormous gap.
+He has been firing,
+perhaps, at the
+German <i>Kaiser
+Friedrich</i> and
+blown her to pieces almost with big shell.
+He shifts his fire to the <i>Wittelsbach</i>, hits her
+as often, and she comes on unhurt. These
+two ships have the same armament and
+the same weight of armour&mdash;it is merely
+differently disposed. That difference of disposition
+tells in naval war game as
+heavily as it would in actual war.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page582" id="page582"></a>[pg&nbsp;582]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">In this little piece of realism lies the
+fascination of the game. That it has
+extraordinary fascinations for some naval
+officers is beyond dispute. The Grand Duke
+Alexander of Russia, for instance, had all
+the furniture turned out of the big drawing-room
+at the Xenia Palace, St. Petersburg,
+in order to have set up a table
+large enough to allow huge fleets to be
+man&oelig;uvred, and he invited the inventor
+over to stay with him at St. Petersburg
+for a month in order to play against him.
+In a Russian lunatic asylum there is at this
+day a captain who actually went mad on the
+game and spends his existence in perpetual
+imaginary battles. In the British Navy there
+are dozens of young officers who think
+nothing of playing a game from half-past
+eight on to four in the morning, taking their
+chances of being able to find a shore-boat to
+take them back to their ships at that hour in
+the depth of winter. I have seen battles
+often in which the opposing sides would not
+speak to each other; indeed, when a regular
+&quot;war&quot; is being worked out this is
+the usual situation. It is being &quot;real
+war in miniature&quot; that produces this.
+The writer can vouch for the maddening
+effect in a battle of some apparently
+splendid scheme being ruined by a single
+&quot;lucky shell&quot; from the enemy. Too late
+one realizes that the best dispositions are
+not those that promise most, but those in
+which a lucky shot or two will not bring
+about failure.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Torpedoes, however, perhaps take first place
+as maddening irritants. In the game as now
+played in the British Navy, between each
+move screens are usually put up. The
+object of these is to prevent the enemy
+&quot;answering&quot; any change of formation more
+quickly than could be done in actual battle.
+Under cover of these screens torpedoes are
+fired&mdash;the firing method being to draw a
+pencil line following the bearing of the tube,
+firing not at the enemy, but at the spot on
+which he is <i>expected to be when the torpedo
+reaches him</i>. Torpedoes are slow things relatively.
+They can travel a thousand yards in
+a minute, but take three minutes to do two
+thousand yards, and six to go three thousand.
+Very nice calculation is, therefore, needed.
+At the expiration of the time&mdash;that is to
+say, anything from one to six moves after
+firing&mdash;if the torpedo line and any ship
+(friend or foe) coincide, the ship is torpedoed.
+Till then nothing has been said:
+the torpedo comes as a bolt from the blue.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The panic caused by the first torpedoes
+fired under this system was immense. Both
+fleets put about and rushed away from each
+other, never getting within torpedo range
+again. In the centre, between the fleet, lay
+the victim, which the umpire had notified as
+torpedoed. Not till the battle was over was
+it made known that the torpedoed vessel had
+been hit by a torpedo fired by one of her
+consorts, across the path of which she had
+unwittingly wandered!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The acme of horror in this direction is
+perhaps provided by submarines. Slow
+moving, they have more or less to take up
+their positions before the battle begins. It
+is not permitted me to describe exactly how
+they are worked. I may say, however, that
+they are man&oelig;uvred on a separate board,
+and work blindly enough; for all that the
+player of a submarine sees of the battlefield
+is what he can find reflected in a tiny mirror.
+He has, in fine, to guess a great deal as to
+the course and distance of the enemy from
+the spot corresponding to that on which he
+is supposed to be, which reproduces the conditions
+under which a periscope is used fairly
+accurately. If a submarine can get within a
+square (one hundred yards) of a ship, that
+ship is allowed torpedoed. Nothing is allowed
+for the chance of the boat being seen by the
+ship, the assumption being that these chances
+are too small to be worth consideration; at
+any rate, till such time as it is too late for the
+ship to do anything.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">This looks like an easy time for the submarine,
+but it is not so comfortable in reality,
+because destroyers and picket-boats may be
+with the enemy. Should a destroyer at any
+time pass within a hundred yards of the
+submarine, it is exit submarine!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the British Navy the official home of
+the naval war game is at Greenwich Naval
+College, where captains play it during the
+&quot;war course.&quot; In the United States the
+War College is its home. Its real British
+head-quarters are at Portsmouth, where a
+voluntary society plays it twice a week.
+Admiral Sir John Hopkins is the president
+of this association, and Mr. Fred. T. Jane,
+the inventor, its secretary. Both naval and
+military officers are eligible for membership,
+and, as far as possible, junior officers only.
+At the &quot;war course&quot; tactics are the principal
+study, but at Portsmouth tactics play a minor
+part. &quot;Tactics cannot be taught by naval
+war game, save in a very general way,&quot; is
+the dictum of the inventor. &quot;The Portsmouth
+Naval War-Game Society exists for quite
+different objects. It aims chiefly at teaching
+the guns and armour of possible enemies;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page583" id="page583"></a>[pg&nbsp;583]</span>
+and for the rest tries to train officers
+to think out war problems, to train them to
+think things quickly, and to exhibit resource,
+to learn the value of all the vital side issues
+of war, such as international law or the
+keeping up of communications, and so forth.
+There is no such thing as the abstract right
+or wrong move in war; to do a more or less
+wrong thing at once may often be better than
+doing a better thing a little later. 'Act' is
+the motto that the society strives to
+inculcate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It is, it will be seen, far removed from a
+&quot;theory hot-bed.&quot; In pursuance of the plan
+the society's members
+are incessantly
+at war with each
+other. Advantage
+is taken of the
+rivalry that exists
+between ships in
+the Navy&mdash;and
+one ship's officers
+are usually pitted
+against those of
+another ship. At
+other times it is
+the Navy against
+the Army; and
+before now personal
+enemies
+have been pitted
+against each other.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In cards and
+games you play for
+sport, but in war
+game you must
+'play to win,'&quot; is
+the principle inculcated.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">To this end anything whatever may be
+claimed, subject, however, to the provision
+that, should the umpire consider any claim
+impossible or absurd, the maker of it gets a
+breakdown to his best ship as a reward.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The record in claims is held by a young
+lieutenant who acted as Admiral Alexieff in
+a Russo-Japanese War. His claim ran as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Orders issued that no offal is to be
+thrown overboard from Russian ships.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A special field of small observation mines
+is to be laid at &mdash;&mdash; (here a place geographically
+suitable near Port Arthur is mentioned).
+At this spot offal is to be freely thrown into
+the water to attract porpoises and sharks.
+When a good number have collected the
+mines are to be exploded and the stunned
+fish collected.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Each is then to have strapped to it a
+leather band, holding a short pole in position
+(as per small model accompanying), after
+which it is to be liberated.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I claim that these fish will, as usual,
+follow any vessels in the neighbourhood of
+Port Arthur dropping offal&mdash;that is to say,
+Japanese ships only&mdash;and that they will be
+taken for submarine boats when the pole
+like a periscope is sighted.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The Japanese will soon detect the imposition,
+and then grow so used to the sight
+that after a time a real submarine will be able
+to approach without attracting any suspicion.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p583.jpg" width="700" height="467" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">Attacking destroyers (Japanese).</p>
+
+<p class="center">Russian merchantman.      Russian battleship <i>Peresviet</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="center">A TORPEDO-BOAT ATTACK IN A RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR GAME&mdash;PLAYED OCTOBER-DECEMBER
+LAST. AS USUAL IN TORPEDO OPERATIONS, THIS WAS PLAYED ON A BOARD WITHOUT SQUARES,
+IN ORDER TO RENDER IT MORE DIFFICULT TO JUDGE DISTANCES.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>From a Photo. by West.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Truly an astounding claim! It was not
+allowed by the umpire, but the fertile brain
+whence it originated is never likely to let its
+owner come to grief for want of an expedient.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As a rule possible actual wars are not often
+played: more usually imaginary countries
+are established in some part of Europe and
+given the ships which it is most desired to
+study. Admiralty charts are used, and an
+immense amount of study of harbours is
+thus put in as pastime, while these little wars
+give prominence to such minor operations as
+attacks on coastguard stations and so forth,
+which could not well enter into a larger war.
+Usually, too, there is some special theme&mdash;international
+law, perhaps, one time, gleaning
+and sifting intelligence another time, and
+so forth.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">What was, perhaps, the funniest war ever
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page584" id="page584"></a>[pg&nbsp;584]</span>
+carried out had &quot;Intelligence Sifting&quot; as its
+theme. The combatants were allowed to
+procure information of each other's plans
+by any means they chose&mdash;any trick being
+regarded as legitimate. The gamut of
+the possible was run in no time. Both
+sides enrolled their friends as spies, and
+a silver-haired old lady, who liked to
+hear officers talk of their professions, was
+most deadly to one player. Two others,
+wishing to ensure private discussion, hired a
+motor-car. They had only gone some little
+way into the country when a policeman
+sprang from the hedge and stopped them.
+After the usual protests the policeman
+admitted an element of doubt in the case;
+if they would drive him to the police-station
+he would have his stop-watch tested in their
+presence. They took him on board and,
+as motorists have done before and since,
+marooned him far away after an hour's drive.
+By then, plans being decided, they went
+home by devious routes, thinking no more of
+the marooned policeman. Not till some
+days afterwards did it dawn on them that the
+policeman was a bogus one&mdash;an enemy who
+had availed himself of this means of learning
+their secret plans!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They were not, however, without resource.
+The day following the discovery they called
+on the ship which the chief &quot;admiral&quot; of the
+other side served in. Keeping out of sight,
+they waited till he went to his cabin; then,
+slipping in, gagged and bound him, after
+which they proceeded to rifle his cabin.
+Plans were soon found, but false information
+had been disseminated once or twice, and
+they were wary. They continued the search,
+being at last rewarded by finding the whole
+plan of campaign concealed inside a telescope.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">After this they departed happy, and made
+their dispositions accordingly, handing these
+in to the umpire long before the gagged one&mdash;for
+they left him gagged and bound&mdash;was
+able to release himself.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Total failure was theirs: their wily enemy
+had in some way anticipated their raid, and
+the plan concealed in the telescope had been
+carefully prepared for their undoing!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It must not be supposed, however, that a
+war game is often so frivolous as this one,
+for in the ordinary way any such &quot;spying&quot;
+is strictly forbidden. Yet few games, perhaps,
+have been more useful than this one,
+for certainly half the players must have had
+impressed upon them in the most direct and
+unexpectedly forcible of ways the urgent
+necessity of taking no information for granted
+and also of sifting it all most carefully, which
+was the object sought. And if in the hereafter
+any one of them is the repository of
+important Service secrets he will have to be
+a very wily spy who secures them from him.
+There cannot be much wrong while young
+officers can be found ready to sacrifice such
+little leisure as they get in studying war
+problems for amusement.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It is only in the British Navy that&mdash;so far
+as I can ascertain&mdash;this is done. In other
+navies officially supervised games are plentiful
+enough, but with them, of course, there is
+not the same interest. Here and there
+isolated foreign ships have the game on board
+and use it for purposes akin to those for
+which the inventor designed it. Two such
+ships are the Russian <i>Bayan</i> and <i>Novik</i>&mdash;the
+only two ships which have, so far, distinguished
+themselves in the present war.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In connection with the former ship it is
+interesting to note that her captain was a
+regular attendant at the Grand Duke
+Alexander's games in St. Petersburg, and
+used there to be laughingly called the &quot;War-Game
+Skobeleff.&quot; Skobeleff, it will be
+remembered, was that Russian general who,
+in the Turco-Russian War, led a hundred
+desperate forlorn hopes untouched, though
+all around him were killed or wounded. Any
+ship played by Captain Wiren of the <i>Bayan</i>
+used to have similar extraordinary luck; as
+one Russian officer, who must have Irish
+blood in him, put it: &quot;The enemy's hits on
+him were all misses.&quot; Strangely enough, the
+same luck has followed him in the present
+war&mdash;the <i>Bayan</i> survived the torpedo attack
+of February 8th; in the battle of the 9th,
+though she charged the Japanese fleet, she
+was untouched; in the action of the 25th
+February, when Captain Wiren, with three
+Russian cruisers, tried to fight the entire
+Japanese squadron, two were badly mauled,
+but the <i>Bayan</i> was not hurt.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In concluding this brief sketch of naval
+war game from the popular standpoint a
+reference may be made to flying-machines,
+which some think will be the warships of the
+future. Rules of the aerial fights of the future
+are said to exist all ready cut and dried,
+together with an ingenious machine by which
+the aerial warship's moves can be made.
+There is, in fine, nothing in earth, sky, or sea,
+or under the sea, that has not been the subject
+of rules in this &quot;War by Kindergarten.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img src="images/ill_p585a.jpg" width="700" height="520" alt="The Ph&oelig;nix
+and
+the
+Carpet.
+
+By
+E. NESBIT." title="The Ph&oelig;nix
+and
+the
+Carpet.
+
+By
+E. NESBIT." />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">Copyright 1904, by George Newnes, Limited.</p>
+
+<h3>XI.&mdash;THE BEGINNING OF THE END.</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 114px;"> <img src="images/ill_p585.jpg" width="114" height="100" alt="W" title="W" />
+</div>
+
+<p>ELL, I <i>must</i> say,&quot; mother
+said, looking at the Wishing
+Carpet as it lay, all darned
+and mended and backed
+with shiny American cloth,
+on the floor of the nursery&mdash;&quot;I
+<i>must</i> say I've never in my life bought
+such a bad bargain as that carpet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A soft &quot;Oh!&quot; of contradiction sprang to
+the lips of Cyril, Robert, Jane, and Anthea.
+Mother looked at them quickly, and said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, of course I see you've mended it
+very nicely, and that was sweet of you,
+dears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The boys helped too,&quot; said the dears,
+honourably.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But, still&mdash;twenty-two and ninepence!
+It ought to have lasted for years. It's simply
+dreadful now. Well, never mind, darlings,
+you've done your best. I think we'll have
+cocoanut matting next time. A carpet
+doesn't have an easy life of it in this room,
+does it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's not our fault, mother, is it, that our
+boots are the really reliable kind?&quot; Robert
+asked the question more in sorrow than in
+anger.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, dear, we can't help our boots,&quot; said
+mother, cheerfully, &quot;but we might change
+them when we come in, perhaps. It's just an
+idea of mine. I wouldn't dream of scolding
+on the very first morning after I've come
+home. Oh, my Lamb, how could you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">This conversation was at breakfast, and
+the Lamb had been beautifully good until
+everyone was looking at the carpet, and then
+it was for him but the work of a moment to
+turn a glass dish of syrupy blackberry jam
+upside down on his young head. It was the
+work of a good many minutes and several
+persons to get the jam off him again, and
+this interesting work took people's minds off
+the carpet, and nothing more was said just
+then about its badness as a bargain and
+about what mother hoped for from cocoanut
+matting.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When the Lamb was clean again he had to
+be taken care of while mother rumpled her
+hair and inked her fingers and made her
+head ache over the difficult and twisted
+housekeeping accounts which cook gave her
+on dirty bits of paper, and which were
+supposed to explain how it was that cook
+had only fivepence-halfpenny and a lot of
+unpaid bills left out of all the money mother
+had sent her for housekeeping. Mother was
+very clever, but even she could not quite
+understand the cook's accounts.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page586" id="page586"></a>[pg&nbsp;586]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Lamb was very glad to have his
+brothers and sisters to play with him. He
+had not forgotten them a bit, and he made
+them play all the old exhausting games:
+&quot;Whirling Worlds,&quot; where you swing the
+baby round and round by his hands; and
+&quot;Leg and Wing,&quot; where you swing him from
+side to side by one ankle and one wrist.
+There was also climbing Vesuvius. In this
+game the baby walks up you, and when he is
+standing on your shoulders you shout as loud
+as you can, which is the rumbling of the
+burning mountain, and then tumble him
+gently on to the floor and roll him there,
+which is the destruction of
+Pompeii.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All the same, I wish we
+could decide what we'd better
+say next time mother says
+anything about the carpet,&quot;
+said Cyril, breathlessly ceasing
+to be a burning mountain.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, you
+talk and decide,&quot;
+said
+Anthea; &quot;here,
+you lovey
+ducky Lamb.
+Come to Panther
+and play
+Noah's Ark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Lamb
+came with his
+pretty hair all
+tumbled and
+his face all
+dusty from the
+destruction of
+Pompeii, and
+instantly became
+a baby
+snake, hissing
+and wriggling and creeping in Anthea's arms,
+as she said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I love my little baby snake,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">He hisses when he is awake,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">He creeps with such a wriggly creep,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">He wriggles even in his sleep.</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, you see,&quot; Cyril was saying, &quot;it's
+just the old bother. Mother can't believe the
+real true truth about the carpet, and&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You speak sooth, O Cyril!&quot; remarked
+the Ph&oelig;nix, coming out from the cupboard
+where the black-beetles lived, and the torn
+books, and the broken slates, and odd pieces
+of toys that had lost the rest of themselves.
+&quot;Now hear the wisdom of the Ph&oelig;nix, the
+son of the Ph&oelig;nix.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There's a society called that,&quot; said Cyril.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Where is it? And what is a society?&quot;
+asked the bird.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's a sort of joined-together lot of people&mdash;a
+sort of brotherhood&mdash;a kind of&mdash;well,
+something very like your temple, you know,
+only quite different.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I take your meaning,&quot; said the Ph&oelig;nix.
+&quot;I would fain see these calling themselves
+Sons of the Ph&oelig;nix.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But what about your words of wisdom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Wisdom is always welcome,&quot; said the
+Ph&oelig;nix.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 615px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p586.jpg" width="615" height="650" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;'PRETTY POLLY!' REMARKED THE LAMB.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Pretty Polly!&quot; remarked the Lamb,
+reaching his
+hands towards
+the golden
+speaker.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Ph&oelig;nix
+modestly retreated
+behind
+Robert, and
+Anthea hastened
+to distract
+the attention
+of the
+Lamb by murmuring:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I love my little baby rabbit;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">But oh, he has a dreadful habit</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of paddling out among the rocks</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And soaking both his bunny-socks.</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't
+think you'd
+care about
+the Sons of
+the Ph&oelig;nix,
+really,&quot; said
+Robert. &quot;I have heard that they don't
+do anything fiery. They only drink a great
+deal. Much more than other people, because
+they drink lemonade and fizzy things,
+and the more you drink of those the more
+good you get.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In your mind, perhaps,&quot; said Jane; &quot;but
+it wouldn't be good in your body. You'd get
+too balloony.&quot; The Ph&oelig;nix yawned.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Look here,&quot; said Anthea, &quot;I really have
+an idea. This isn't like a common carpet.
+It's very magic indeed. Don't you think, if
+we put Tatcho on it and then gave it a rest,
+the magic part of it might grow, like hair is
+supposed to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It might,&quot; said Robert, &quot;but I should
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page587" id="page587"></a>[pg&nbsp;587]</span>
+think paraffin would do as well&mdash;at any rate
+as far as the smell goes, and that seems to
+be the great thing about Tatcho.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But with all its faults Anthea's idea was
+something to do, and they did it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was Cyril who fetched the Tatcho bottle
+from father's washhand-stand. But the bottle
+had not much in it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We mustn't take it all,&quot; Jane said, &quot;in
+case father's hair began to come off suddenly;
+if he hadn't anything to put on it, it might
+all drop off before Eliza had time to get
+round to the chemist's for another bottle. It
+would be dreadful to have a bald father, and
+it would all be our fault.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And wigs are very expensive, I believe,&quot;
+said Anthea. &quot;Look here, leave enough in
+the bottle to wet father's head all over with
+in case any emergency emerges&mdash;and let's
+make up with paraffin. I expect it's the
+smell that does the good really&mdash;and the
+smell's exactly the same.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">So a small teaspoonful of the Tatcho was
+put on the edges of the worst darn in the
+carpet and rubbed carefully into the roots of
+the hairs of it, and all the parts that there
+was not enough Tatcho for had paraffin
+rubbed into them with a piece of flannel.
+Then the flannel was burned. It made
+a gay flame, which delighted the Ph&oelig;nix
+and the Lamb.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How often,&quot; said mother, opening the
+door&mdash;&quot;how often am I to tell you that
+you are <i>not</i> to play with paraffin? What
+have you been doing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We have burnt a paraffiny rag,&quot; Anthea
+answered. It was no use telling mother
+what they had done to the carpet. She
+did not know it was a magic carpet, and
+no one wants to be laughed at for trying to
+mend an ordinary carpet with lamp-oil.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, don't do it again,&quot; said mother.
+&quot;And now away with melancholy! Father
+has sent a telegram. Look!&quot; She held
+it out, and the children holding it by its
+yielding corners read:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Box for kiddies at Garrick. Stalls for us,
+Haymarket. Meet Charing Cross, 6.30.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That means,&quot; said mother, &quot;that
+you're going to see 'The Water Babies'
+all by your happy selves, and father and I
+will take you and fetch you. Give me the
+Lamb, dear, and you and Jane put clean
+lace in your red evening frocks, and I
+shouldn't wonder if you found they wanted
+ironing. This paraffin smell is ghastly.
+Run and get out your frocks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The frocks did want ironing&mdash;wanted it
+rather badly, as it happened; for, being of
+tomato-coloured Liberty silk, they had been
+found very useful for <i>tableaux vivants</i> when a
+red dress was required for Cardinal Richelieu.
+They were very nice <i>tableaux</i>, these, and I
+wish I could tell you about them&mdash;but one
+cannot tell everything in a story. You would
+have been specially interested in hearing
+about the <i>tableaux</i> of the Princes in the
+Tower, when one of the pillows burst and
+the youthful Princes were so covered with
+feathers that the picture might very well
+have been called &quot;Michaelmas Eve; or,
+Plucking the Geese.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ironing the dresses and sewing the lace in
+occupied some time, and no one was dull
+because there was the theatre to look forward
+to, and also the possible growth of hairs on
+the carpet, for which everyone kept looking
+anxiously. By four o'clock Jane was almost sure
+that several hairs were beginning to grow.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Ph&oelig;nix perched on the fender, and
+its conversation, as usual, was entertaining
+and instructive&mdash;like school prizes are said
+to be. But it seemed a little absent-minded
+and even a little sad.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't you feel well, Ph&oelig;nix, dear?&quot;
+asked Anthea, stooping to take an iron off
+the fire.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 463px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p587.jpg" width="463" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;'DON'T YOU FEEL WELL, PH&OElig;NIX, DEAR?' ASKED ANTHEA.&quot;]
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page588" id="page588"></a>[pg&nbsp;588]</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I am not sick,&quot; replied the golden bird,
+with a gloomy shake of the head, &quot;but I am
+getting old.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, you've only been hatched about
+two months.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Time,&quot; remarked the Ph&oelig;nix, &quot;is
+measured by heart-beats. I'm sure the
+palpitations I've had since I've known you
+are enough to blanch the feathers of any
+bird.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But I thought you lived five hundred
+years,&quot; said Robert, &quot;and you've hardly
+begun this set of years. Think of all the
+time that's before you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Time,&quot; said the Ph&oelig;nix, &quot;is, as you are
+probably aware, merely a convenient fiction.
+There is no such thing as time. I have
+lived in these two months at a pace which
+generously counterbalances five hundred years
+of life in the desert. I am old, I am weary.
+I feel as if I ought to lay my egg, and lay
+me down to my fiery
+sleep. But unless I'm
+careful I shall be
+hatched again instantly,
+and that is a misfortune
+which I really do
+not think I <i>could</i> endure.
+But do not let
+me intrude these
+desperate personal
+reflections
+on your youthful
+happiness. What
+is the show at
+the theatre to-night?
+Wrestlers?
+Gladiators? A
+combat of camelopards
+and unicorns?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't think
+so,&quot; said Cyril;
+&quot;it's called 'The
+Water  Babies,'
+and if it's like
+the book there
+isn't any gladiating
+in it. There
+are chimney-sweeps
+and professors,
+and a lobster
+and an otter and a
+salmon, and children
+living in the water.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It sounds chilly,&quot;
+the Ph&oelig;nix shivered, and went to sit on the
+tongs.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't suppose there will be <i>real</i> water,&quot;
+said Jane. &quot;And theatres are very warm
+and pretty, with a lot of gold and lamps.
+Wouldn't you like to come with us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;<i>I</i> was just going to say that,&quot; said
+Robert, in injured tones, &quot;only I know
+how rude it is to interrupt. Do come,
+Ph&oelig;nix, old chap; it will cheer you
+up. It'll make you laugh like anything.
+Mr. Bourchier always makes ripping plays.
+You ought to have seen 'Shock-Headed
+Peter' last year.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your words are strange,&quot; said the Ph&oelig;nix,
+&quot;but I will come with you. The revels of
+this Bourchier of whom you speak may help
+me to forget the weight of my years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">So the Ph&oelig;nix snuggled inside the waistcoat
+of Robert's Etons&mdash;a very tight fit it
+seemed both to Robert and to the Ph&oelig;nix&mdash;and
+was taken to the play.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 629px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p588.jpg" width="629" height="650" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;ROBERT HAD TO PRETEND TO BE COLD.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Robert had to pretend to be cold at the
+glittering, many-mirrored restaurant where
+they all had dinner, with father in evening
+dress, with a very shiny white shirt-front, and
+mother looking lovely in her grey evening
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page589" id="page589"></a>[pg&nbsp;589]</span>
+dress, that changes into pink and green when
+she moves. Robert pretended that he was
+too cold to take off his great-coat, and so sat
+sweltering through what would otherwise have
+been a most thrilling meal. He felt that he
+was a blot on the smart beauty of the family,
+and he hoped the Ph&oelig;nix knew what he was
+suffering for its sake. Of course, we are all
+pleased to suffer for the sake of others, but
+we like them to know it&mdash;unless we are the
+very best and noblest kind of people, and
+Robert was just ordinary.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Father was full of jokes and fun, and
+everyone laughed all the time, even with
+their mouths full, which is not manners.
+Robert thought father would not have been
+quite so funny about his keeping his overcoat
+on if father had known all the truth. And
+there Robert was probably right.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When dinner was finished to the last grape
+and the last paddle in the finger-glasses&mdash;for
+it was a really truly grown-up dinner&mdash;the
+children were taken to the theatre, guided to
+a box close to the stage, and left. Father's
+parting words were:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now, don't you stir out of this box,
+whatever you do. I shall be back before
+the end of the play. Be good and you will
+be happy. Is this zone torrid enough for
+the abandonment of great-coats, Bobs?
+No? Well, then, I should say you were
+sickening for something&mdash;mumps or measles,
+or thrush or teething. Good-bye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He went, and Robert was at last able to
+remove his coat, mop his perspiring brow,
+and release the crushed and dishevelled
+Ph&oelig;nix. Robert had to arrange his damp
+hair at the looking-glass at the back of the
+box, and the Ph&oelig;nix had to preen its disordered
+feathers for some time before either
+of them was fit to be seen.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They were very, very early. When the
+lights went up fully the Ph&oelig;nix, balancing
+itself on the gilded back of a chair, swayed in
+ecstasy.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How fair a scene is this!&quot; it murmured;
+&quot;how far fairer than my temple! Or have I
+guessed aright? Have you brought me
+hither to lift up my head with emotions of
+joyous surprise? Tell me, my Robert, is it
+not that this, <i>this</i> is my true temple, and the
+other was but a humble shrine frequented by
+outcasts?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't know about outcasts,&quot; said
+Robert, &quot;but you can call this your temple
+if you like. Hush! the music is beginning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I am not going to tell you about the play.
+As I said before, one can't tell everything,
+and no doubt you saw &quot;The Water Babies&quot;
+yourselves. If you did not it was a shame,
+or rather a pity.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">What I must tell you is that, though Cyril
+and Jane and Robert and Anthea enjoyed it
+as much as any children possibly could, the
+pleasure of the Ph&oelig;nix was far, far greater
+than theirs.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is indeed my temple,&quot; it said, again
+and again. &quot;What radiant rites! And all
+to do honour to me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The songs in the play it took to be hymns
+in its honour. The choruses were choric
+songs in its praise. The electric lights, it
+said, were magic torches lighted for its sake,
+and it was so charmed with the footlights
+that the children could hardly persuade it to
+sit still. But when the limelight was shown
+it could contain its approval no longer. It
+flapped its golden wings, and cried in a voice
+that could be heard all over the theatre:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well done, my servants! Ye have my
+favour and my countenance!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Little Tom on the stage stopped short in
+what he was saying. A deep breath was
+drawn by hundreds of lungs, every eye in the
+house turned to the box where the luckless
+children cringed, and most people hissed, or
+said &quot;Shish!&quot; or &quot;Turn them out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then the play went on, and an attendant
+presently came to the box and spoke wrathfully.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It wasn't us, indeed it wasn't,&quot; said
+Anthea, earnestly; &quot;it was the bird.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The man said well, then, they must keep
+their bird quiet.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Disturbing everyone like this,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It won't do it again,&quot; said Robert,
+glancing imploringly at the golden bird;
+&quot;I'm sure it won't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You have my leave to depart,&quot; said the
+Ph&oelig;nix, gently.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, he is a beauty, and no mistake,&quot;
+said the attendant, &quot;only I'd cover him up
+during the acts. It upsets the performance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And he went.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't speak again, there's a dear,&quot; said
+Anthea; &quot;you wouldn't like to interfere with
+your own temple, would you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">So now the Ph&oelig;nix was quiet, but it kept
+whispering to the children. It wanted to
+know why there was no altar, no fire, no
+incense, and became so excited and fretful
+and tiresome that four at least of the party of
+five wished deeply that it had been left at
+home.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">What happened next was entirely the fault
+of the Ph&oelig;nix. It was not in the least the
+fault of the theatre people, and no one could
+ever understand afterwards how it did happen.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page590" id="page590"></a>[pg&nbsp;590]</span>
+No one, that is, except the guilty bird itself
+and the four children. The Ph&oelig;nix was
+balancing itself on the gilt back of the chair,
+swaying backwards and forwards and up and
+down, as you may see your own domestic
+parrot do. I mean the grey one with the red
+tail. All eyes were on the stage, where the
+lobster was delighting the audience with that
+gem of a song, &quot;If you can't walk straight,
+walk sideways!&quot; when the Ph&oelig;nix murmured
+warmly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No altar, no fire, no incense!&quot; and then,
+before any of the children
+could even begin to
+think of stopping it, it
+spread its bright wings
+and swept round the
+theatre, brushing its
+gleaming feathers against
+delicate hangings and
+gilded wood-work.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It seemed to have
+made but one circular
+wing-sweep, such as you
+may see a gull make over
+grey water on a stormy
+day. Next moment it
+was perched again on
+the chair-back&mdash;and all
+round the theatre, where
+it had passed, little sparks
+shone like tinsel seeds,
+then little smoke wreaths
+curled up like growing
+plants&mdash;little flames
+opened like flower-buds.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">People whispered&mdash;then
+people shrieked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Fire! Fire!&quot; The
+curtain went down&mdash;the
+lights went up.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Fire!&quot; cried everyone,
+and made for the
+doors.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A magnificent idea!&quot;
+said the Ph&oelig;nix, complacently.
+&quot;An enormous
+altar&mdash;fire supplied
+free of charge. Doesn't
+the incense smell delicious?&quot; The only
+smell was the stifling smell of smoke, of
+burning silk, or scorching varnish.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The little flames had opened now into great
+flame-flowers. The people in the theatre
+were shouting and pressing towards the
+doors.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, how <i>could</i> you!&quot; cried Jane. &quot;Let's
+get out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Father said stay here,&quot; said Anthea,
+very pale, and trying to speak in her ordinary
+voice.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He didn't mean stay and be roasted,&quot;
+said Robert; &quot;no boys on burning decks for
+me, thank you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not much,&quot; said Cyril, and he opened
+the door of the box.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 541px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p590.jpg" width="541" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;HE OPENED THE DOOR OF THE BOX.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">But a fierce waft of smoke and hot air
+made him shut it again. It was not possible
+to get out that way.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They looked over the front of the box.
+Could they climb down?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It would be possible, certainly, but would
+they be much better off?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Look at the people,&quot; moaned Anthea;
+&quot;we couldn't get through.&quot; And, indeed, the
+crowd round the doors looked thick as flies
+in the jam-making season.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I wish we'd never seen the Ph&oelig;nix,&quot;
+cried Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Even at that awful moment Robert looked
+round to see if the bird had overheard a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page591" id="page591"></a>[pg&nbsp;591]</span>
+speech which, however natural, was hardly
+polite or grateful.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Ph&oelig;nix was gone.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Look here,&quot; said Cyril, &quot;I've read about
+fires in papers; I'm sure it's all right. Let's
+wait here, as father said.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We can't do anything else,&quot; said Anthea,
+bitterly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Look here,&quot; said Robert, &quot;I'm <i>not</i>
+frightened&mdash;no, I'm not. The Ph&oelig;nix has
+never been a skunk yet, and I'm certain it'll
+see us through somehow. I believe in the
+Ph&oelig;nix!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The Ph&oelig;nix thanks you, O Robert,&quot; said
+a golden voice at his feet, and there was the
+Ph&oelig;nix itself, on the Wishing Carpet.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Quick!&quot; it said, &quot;stand on those portions
+of the carpet which are truly antique
+and authentic&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A sudden jet of flame stopped its words.
+Alas! the Ph&oelig;nix had unconsciously warmed
+to its subject, and in the unintentional heat
+of the moment had set fire to the paraffin
+with which that morning the children had
+anointed the carpet. It burned merrily.
+The children tried in vain to stamp it out.
+They had to stand back and let it burn itself
+out. When the paraffin had burned away it
+was found that it had taken with it all the
+darns of Scotch heather-mixture fingering.
+Only the fabric of the old carpet was left&mdash;and
+that was full of holes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come,&quot; said the Ph&oelig;nix, &quot;I'm cool
+now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The four children got on to what was left
+of the carpet. Very careful they were not
+to leave a leg or a hand hanging over one of
+the holes. It was very hot&mdash;the theatre was
+a pit of fire. Everyone else had got out.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane had to sit on Anthea's lap.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Home!&quot; said Cyril, and instantly the
+cool draught from under the nursery door
+played upon their legs as they sat. They
+were all on the carpet still, and the carpet
+was lying in its proper place on the nursery
+floor, as calm and unmoved as though it had
+never been to the theatre or taken part in a
+fire in its life.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Four long breaths of deep relief were
+instantly breathed. The draught which they
+had never liked before was for the moment
+quite pleasant. And they were safe. And
+everyone else was safe. The theatre had
+been quite empty when they left. Everyone
+was sure of that.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They presently found themselves all talking
+at once. Somehow none of their adventures
+had given them so much to talk about.
+None other had seemed so real.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Did you notice&mdash;&mdash;?&quot; they said, and
+&quot;Do you remember&mdash;&mdash;?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When suddenly Anthea's face turned pale
+under the dirt which it had collected on it
+during the fire.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh,&quot; she cried, &quot;mother and father!
+Oh, how awful! They'll think we're burned
+to cinders. Oh, let's go this minute and tell
+them we aren't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We should only miss them,&quot; said the
+sensible Cyril.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well&mdash;<i>you</i> go, then,&quot; said Anthea, &quot;or I
+will. Only do wash your face first. Mother
+will be sure to think you are burnt to a
+cinder if she sees you as black as that.
+Mother, she'll faint or be ill or something.
+Oh, I wish we'd never got to know that
+Ph&oelig;nix.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hush!&quot; said Robert; &quot;it's no use being
+rude to the bird. I suppose it can't help
+its nature. Perhaps we'd better wash too.
+Now I come to think of it my hands are
+rather&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">No one had noticed the Ph&oelig;nix since it
+had bidden them to step on the carpet.
+And no one noticed that no one had
+noticed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">All were partially clean, and Cyril was just
+plunging into his great-coat to go and look
+for his parents&mdash;he, and not unjustly, called
+it looking for a needle in a bundle of hay&mdash;when
+the sound of father's latchkey in the
+front door sent everyone bounding up the
+stairs.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Are you all safe?&quot; cried mother's voice;
+&quot;are you all safe?&quot; and the next moment
+she was kneeling on the linoleum of the hall,
+trying to kiss four damp children at once, and
+laughing and crying by turns, while father
+stood looking on and saying he was blessed
+or something.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But how did you guess we'd come
+home?&quot; said Cyril, later, when everyone was
+calm enough for talking.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, it was rather a rum thing. We
+heard the Garrick was on fire and, of course,
+we went straight there,&quot; said father, briskly.
+&quot;We couldn't find you, of course&mdash;and we
+couldn't get in&mdash;but the firemen told us
+everyone was safely out. And then I heard
+a voice at my ear say, 'Cyril, Anthea, Robert,
+and Jane'&mdash;and something touched me on
+the shoulder. It was a great yellow pigeon,
+and it got in the way of my seeing who'd
+spoken. It fluttered off, and then someone
+said in the other ear, 'They're safe at home';
+and when I turned again, to see who it was
+speaking, hanged if there wasn't that confounded
+pigeon on my other shoulder. Dazed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page592" id="page592"></a>[pg&nbsp;592]</span>
+by the fire, I suppose. Your mother said it
+was the voice of&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 616px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p592.jpg" width="616" height="650" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;IT WAS A GREAT YELLOW PIGEON.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I said it was the bird that spoke,&quot; said
+mother, &quot;and so it was. Or at least I
+thought so then. It wasn't a pigeon. It was
+an orange-coloured
+cockatoo. I don't
+care who it was that
+spoke. It was true&mdash;and
+you're safe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mother began to cry again, and father said
+bed was a good place after the pleasures of
+the stage.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">So everyone went there.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Robert had a talk to the Ph&oelig;nix that
+night.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, very well,&quot; said the bird, when
+Robert had said what he felt, &quot;didn't you
+know that I had power over fire? Do not
+distress yourself. I, like my high priests
+in Lombard Street, can undo the work of
+flames. Kindly open the casement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It flew out.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">That was why the papers said, next day,
+that the fire at the theatre had done less
+damage than had been anticipated. As a
+matter of fact, it had done none, for the
+Ph&oelig;nix spent the night in putting things
+straight. How the
+management accounted
+for this, and how
+many of the theatre
+officials still believe
+that they were mad on that night, will never
+be known.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Next day mother saw the burnt holes in
+the carpet.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It caught where it was paraffiny,&quot; said
+Anthea.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I must get rid of that carpet at once,&quot;
+said mother.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But what the children said in sad whispers
+to each other, as they pondered over last
+night's events, was:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We must get rid of that Ph&oelig;nix.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p593a.jpg" width="700" height="470" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">NIAGARA FALLS&mdash;THE POINT MARKED X SHOWS THE SPOT REACHED BY GUIDE BARLOW AND SUPERINTENDENT PERRY.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>From a Photo.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><i>Walking on the Brink of Niagara.</i></h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Orrin E. Dunlap.</span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 100px;"> <img src="images/ill_p593b.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="T" title="T" />
+</div>
+
+<p>HERE is no man who has so
+many adventures at Niagara
+to his credit as John R.
+Barlow. Mr. Barlow, in the
+summer-time, is the chief
+guide at the Cave of the
+Winds, that wonderful cavern under the
+waterfall as it plunges between Goat and
+Luna Islands. Years of familiarity with the
+waters of the world-famed Niagara have
+caused Guide Barlow to forget what fear is,
+and he moves about in dangerous places
+without thinking of possible disaster. He is
+the oldest and best-known guide at Niagara,
+and people from many countries have crossed
+his palm with silver in token of care
+bestowed upon them, or in return for the
+kindly information which he is ever ready
+to give.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When the new stone arch bridges were
+built to connect Goat Island to the mainland,
+a temporary bridge was erected on
+piers for the convenience of pedestrians.
+When this temporary structure had ceased to
+be useful it was destroyed, and, unfortunately
+for the scenic beauty of the portion of the
+upper rapids lying between the brink of the
+American fall and the island bridges, several
+of the cribs lodged on the reefs and refused
+to be stirred by the rush of the downpouring
+waters. The hope of the State Reservation
+officials was that the cribs would pass
+over the fall in time of high water, but flood
+after flood poured down from Lake Erie and
+the cribs refused to move. They were unsightly
+to a remarkable degree, and quite an
+annoyance to the officials who had charge of
+the beauty of Niagara. This was the condition
+when winter set in last autumn.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The winter proved of unusual severity.
+Ice came down from the lake in large sheets,
+and a considerable quantity of it lodged
+on the reefs between the mainland and Goat
+Island. By February the main part of the
+channel through which the water flows to
+the American fall was blocked with ice.
+Between Goat Island and the mainland there
+were three open channels, through which the
+water ran streak-like to the brink. One of
+these was close by the mainland, and made
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page594" id="page594"></a>[pg&nbsp;594]</span>
+the plunge over the fall close to Prospect
+Point. The second was close to the outer
+edge of Luna Island, while the third was
+between Luna and Goat Islands. This left
+a wide expanse of the American fall, and the
+river-bed immediately above it, covered with
+ice. This ice-field remained unbroken for
+several days, but by going out on the ice-bridge
+that spanned the river in front of the
+fall it was possible to study the face of the
+cliff, and to see that at several points the
+water crept through under the ice and found
+its way to the fall.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">However, the fact that the portion of the
+fall below Green Island was covered with
+ice gave the impression to Superintendent
+Edward Perry, of the State Reservation, that
+the unsightly cribs on the river-bed could be
+removed. He called Guide Barlow to go
+with him, together with another man named
+William Mullane, and the trio made their way
+to Green Island. Going to the foot of this
+island, it was easy for them to step out over
+the ice to several of the cribs, which Superintendent
+Perry then and there ordered to be
+removed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was while Superintendent Perry and
+Guide Barlow were on this mission that
+the latter recognised the unusual conditions
+of the ice. His practised eye scanned the
+white expanse as it extended westward and
+turned over the precipice.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I believe it would be possible for us to
+walk to the brink of the American fall,&quot; said
+Barlow, addressing Superintendent Perry.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The superintendent looked at him in
+amazement. So far as is known no human
+being had ever stood where Guide Barlow
+contemplated going. Still, the superintendent
+is a man of nerve, and as he looked down
+the river at Robinson's Island, at Chapin's
+Island, at Crow and Blackbird Islands, he
+longed to set foot on the possessions of the
+Empire State over which he was the official
+guard.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p594.jpg" width="700" height="544" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">GUIDE BARLOW AND SUPERINTENDENT PERRY STANDING ON THE BRINK OF THE FALL AT A POINT NEVER BEFORE REACHED BY MAN.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>From a Photo.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">There was little said. Guide Barlow had
+already commenced to move down the river
+over the ice. It was firm, and stood his
+weight well. In a minute Superintendent
+Perry followed him. As they moved along
+the untrodden path the condition of the
+ice gave them new courage, and both felt that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page595" id="page595"></a>[pg&nbsp;595]</span>
+they were walking where man had never
+before been. Their route carried them
+between Robinson's and Blackbird Islands,
+and on down by a little isle as yet unnamed.
+Leaving the foot of Robinson's Island behind,
+they moved cautiously over the frozen expanse
+down, farther down, right to the brink of the
+American fall, midway between Luna Island's
+shore and Prospect Park. Along the very
+crest of the brink they walked, realizing
+that they were at the very centre of the great
+fall that is a world-wonder. Guide Barlow
+pointed out to Superintendent Perry the
+mighty ice-mountain that reared its head from
+below, and also related how human beings
+passing over the fall at that point were never
+found.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Their dark forms outlined against the pure
+white, snow covered ice, standing only a few
+feet back from the awful brink of the fall,
+made a startling picture. As they stood there
+a dark shadow crept down over the ice, intimating
+that the river was rising and might
+overflow the ice on which they stood. Yet it
+was such a novel place to be in that they
+lingered and looked&mdash;looked and gained new
+and wonderful ideas of the sublimity and awfulness
+of Niagara. So close did they go to the
+brink that a slight advance would have carried
+them over the precipice to the frightful,
+unknown, unexplored regions behind the icy
+mounds below.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Before they returned the author of this
+story hurried from Goat Island, from which
+point he had taken a picture of the remarkable
+trip, to the brink of the American fall,
+where he took another photograph of Superintendent
+Perry and Guide Barlow as they
+stood at the edge of the precipice over which
+the Niagara torrent flows in chaotic fury in
+summer-time.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p595.jpg" width="700" height="555" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">GUIDE BARLOW AND SUPERINTENDENT PERRY STANDING ON THE BRINK OF NIAGARA.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>From a Photo.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">The trip up the channel carried the party
+outside of Robinson's Island, all stopping to
+pay tribute to Chapin's Island, the little spot
+where, in 1838, a man had lodged as he was
+being swept toward the fall by the awful
+current.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I am glad to be back,&quot; said Superintendent
+Perry, as the party reached the lower
+end of Green Island.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you are also glad to have been
+where you have been,&quot; added Guide Barlow,
+the only man who had ever conducted a
+party to that dangerous point on the brink of
+the American fall.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The date was Saturday, February 13, 1904.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2><i>Curiosities</i></h2>
+
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1904, by George Newnes, Limited.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">[<i>We shall be glad to receive Contributions to this section, and to pay for such as are accepted.</i>]</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 567px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p596a1.jpg" width="567" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">A WHEEL&mdash;OR WHAT?</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is a cross-section of a white pine tree about
+twenty-eight inches in diameter. What appear to be
+carrots sticking through the sides are the knots caused
+by the branches, which, owing to their resinous
+nature, have not decayed, while the wood which formerly
+surrounded them has rotted away.&quot;&mdash;Mr. A. S.
+Angell, care of <i>Times</i> Printing and Publishing Co.,
+Victoria, B.C.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>A HOMEMADE BICYCLE.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p596b.jpg" width="700" height="519" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">This photograph, taken in Russia by a Blackburn
+contributor, is of an extraordinary bicycle and
+its ingenious maker, a Russian peasant, who at the
+time was employed as a mill watchman in St. Petersburg.
+The frame of the bicycle is mainly made out
+of broomsticks, the
+wheels consist of
+barrel hoops and
+wooden spokes, the
+cranks are of wood,
+and bobbins form
+the principal part of
+the pedals; the front
+forks are likewise of
+wood, working inside
+a ten-inch
+&quot;slubbing bobbin&quot;;
+the saddle (movable)
+is cut out of an ordinary
+piece of wood,
+the back of a disused
+arm-chair does
+duty as handle-bars,
+and the chain was
+taken off an old
+&quot;flat-card&quot; machine.
+It only remains
+to add that
+this curiosity is not a mere exhibit, for a friend of the
+gentleman who supplies the photo. rode it more than
+once, though he never accomplished anything in the
+way of record-breaking on the wooden &quot;bike.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>SWALLOWED BY AN OSTRICH.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 505px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p596a2.jpg" width="505" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I send you a photo. of the contents of a tame
+ostrich's stomach, which you will not be surprised to
+hear was the cause of its death. All these pieces of
+metal were picked up by it around the blacksmith's
+shop of a farm
+in South America.
+The circle of
+round pieces in the
+centre is made up
+of 3/8 in. punch pellets
+from a punching
+machine, and
+will give an idea of
+the size of the rest
+of the metal. All
+these pieces were
+more or less worn,
+according to the
+time they had been
+swallowed; some
+had almost disappeared.
+The
+total weight of iron
+was considerable.&quot;&mdash;Mr.
+E. Windus,
+Erin Manor, Burgess
+Hill, Sussex.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page597" id="page597"></a>[pg&nbsp;597]</span></p>
+
+<h3>PECULIAR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p597a.jpg" width="600" height="610" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p597a1.jpg" width="632" height="650" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The accompanying photos. are of two musical
+instruments which, with their inventor, can be found
+at an obscure little hamlet called Keld, about twenty
+miles from Richmond in Yorkshire. No. 1 is an
+adaptation to a harmonium, and consists of the
+branch of a tree fastened to the end of the harmonium;
+upon the branch is a double row of bells
+which come from all parts of England. When playing,
+the musician has a long piece of wood ending in
+a steel spike, and at the lower end of the wood is a
+finger-hole. The striker is slipped upon one of the
+fingers of the left hand, and as the treble and bass are
+being played the finger with the striker upon it is bent
+in order to strike one of the bells. No. 2 is what the
+inventor calls 'a stone organ.' The old man said
+that one day when fishing in the river his foot caught
+a stone and he noticed that it gave forth a musical
+note, so he constructed a sounding-board, secured
+stones from the river, and placed them thereon. He
+found that clipping a piece off the end of the stone
+sharpened the note, whilst to clip off the side flattened
+it; in this way he made three octaves. The old man
+has never had any lessons in music.&quot;&mdash;Mr. G. Hardwick,
+The Promenade, Bridlington.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>SAVED BY A CARTRIDGE.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p597b.jpg" width="700" height="334" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Here is the photograph of a cartridge which has
+been pierced by a bullet. My brother, of the 6th
+Dragoon Guards, was carrying this in his bandolier
+when he was wounded in the late South African War.
+The bullet after piercing the cartridge passed clean
+through his body, leaving in the centre of his back
+after penetrating one of his lungs. Fortunately it did
+not touch the spinal cord, owing probably to being
+deviated by the cartridge, and he recovered. The
+cartridge did not explode, and has still the explosive
+in it intact.&quot;&mdash;Mr. F. W. Robins, 14, Wellington
+Road, Barnsbury, N.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>A DIVING TOWER ON DRY LAND.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p597c.jpg" width="600" height="645" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I send you a photo. of a curious structure which
+stands not very far from the Lake of Neuchâtel. It
+would be difficult for anyone unacquainted with its
+history to give a name to it, for its appearance and
+position furnish absolutely no clue as to its use. It
+is, as a matter of fact, a diving tower, built many
+years ago for the use of bathers in the Lake of
+Neuchâtel. The peculiar part about it is that anyone
+desirous of diving from it nowadays would have
+to fly horizontally over a railway, a road, and a good
+three hundred yards of dry land before reaching the
+water, for, the lake having gradually receded, the
+tower has been left high and dry, about a quarter
+of a mile from the edge of the water. As may be
+seen from the photo., it is now in a very tumble-down
+condition.&quot;&mdash;Mr. J. O. S. Ziegler, Place Bel Air,
+Yverdon, Switzerland.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page598" id="page598"></a>[pg&nbsp;598]</span></p>
+
+<h3>A POSTAL MARROW.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p598.jpg" width="700" height="311" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The vegetable marrow shown in the accompanying photograph
+was grown by my brother, Mr. David Ager, gardener
+to Mr. Milton Bode, of West Dean, near Reading, the well-known
+gold medallist for chrysanthemum culture. The name
+and address were marked on the marrow when it was quite
+small, and the writing has become more distinct with
+increasing age. When about nine inches in length the marrow
+was cut, a label with the necessary postage affixed tied to the
+small piece of stalk, and it was then handed in at the post-office.
+In due course it arrived at its destination, the marrow being
+none the worse for its journey.&quot;&mdash;Mr. J. Ager, c/o Messrs.
+Betts, Hartley, and Co., 9 and 10, Great Tower Street, E.C.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>WHAT IS THERE BENEATH THE IVY?</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p598b.jpg" width="650" height="588" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This curious statue, which appears to be looking out of a
+tree, is to be found in the public park at Bath.  The ivy has
+been allowed to cover the
+whole statue with the exception
+of the head; probably
+no one knows what the rest
+of it is like. This is a winter
+view; in summer the head
+has a background of foliage.&quot;&mdash;Mr.
+James A. Rooth, 112,
+Oakwood Court, Kensington.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>&quot;HOW THE CROW FLIES.&quot;</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 492px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p598a.jpg" width="492" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A remarkable instance of
+the unexpected happening,
+especially to devotees of the
+camera, occurred to me the
+other day. I took the photograph
+of Canterbury Cathedral
+which I send you, and whilst
+the plate was exposed I
+noticed a crow rising from the branches of
+the tree at the extreme left of the picture.
+The bird flew slowly upwards and in zigzag
+fashion until it reached a height nearly
+equal to the cathedral spire. On developing
+the negative I found that the bird's flight
+was most accurately recorded in the shape
+of a thin black line, which can be distinctly
+traced in the photograph. By means of a
+magnifying glass the extended wings of the
+crow could be distinctly seen. I may add
+that as I was using a small stop the exposure
+was rather a long one.&quot;&mdash;Mr. H. J.
+Divers, 13, Burgate Street, Canterbury.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE MORRIS DANCE.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p598c.jpg" width="700" height="383" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I send you a photograph which may
+interest some of your readers. The village
+of Bidford-on-Avon keeps up the quaint old
+custom of the Morris Dance, and on high
+days and holidays the six dancers, accompanied
+by the clown and the hobby-horse,
+dance through the village to the music of
+a violin.&quot;&mdash;Miss Dryhurst, 11, Downshire
+Hill, Hampstead.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page599" id="page599"></a>[pg&nbsp;599]</span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>VERY SIMPLE.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p599a.jpg" width="650" height="634" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The curious effect produced in the photograph
+which I send was obtained by the simple means of
+placing a small piece of specially-cut paper over the
+negative.&quot;&mdash;Mr. R. J. Chenneour, Ishpeming, Mich.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE FAN TREE.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p599b.jpg" width="600" height="616" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Travellers in South-Eastern Asia sometimes see
+at a distance what appears to be a gigantic fan. In
+fact, it closely resembles the dainty creations of feathers
+and ivory which are so popular with ladies. On
+approaching closer, however, the fan is seen to be a
+natural one, being a species of palm tree which is
+wonderfully like a fan, not only in the way in which
+its branches project from the trunk, but in the leaves
+in which the branches terminate. As shown in the
+picture, the tree spreads out like an extended fan and
+the leaves bear a strong resemblance to feathers. It
+is called the Traveller's Palm, partly for the reason
+that in the forenoon or afternoon, when the sun is
+not directly above, it frequently offers welcome shade.
+Some of the palms grow to a height of fifty or sixty
+feet, with 'feathers' ranging from ten to fifteen feet
+in length.&quot;&mdash;Mr. D. A. Willey, Baltimore.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>PETRIFIED WIRE.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p599a1.jpg" width="700" height="459" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Here is the photo. of a piece of wire rope taken
+from a coal-mine in Wales. The mine referred to had
+not been worked for some ten years, and when the
+water was pumped out the rope was discovered as
+shown, encased in a formation of hard stone. I may
+add that when the stone was broken the wire was
+found to be in a perfect state of preservation.&quot;&mdash;Mr.
+B. H. Wadsworth, Oriel College, Helensburgh, N.B.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOT WHAT IT SEEMS.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 398px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p599b1.jpg" width="398" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is not a snap-shot of Satan, nor of Pluto,
+or any demon of the heathen mythology.  Neither
+is it the
+picture of a
+water-logged
+member of
+the 'tramp'
+profession after a shower of rain.
+It is simply the photograph of the
+curious form which a splash of lead
+took when it dropped from a crucible
+on the floor.&quot;&mdash;Mr. Joseph
+W. Hammond, 12, Stafford Street,
+Dublin.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page600" id="page600"></a>[pg&nbsp;600]</span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>A WOODEN SOLDIER.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 447px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p600a.jpg" width="447" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I took this snap-shot in Spain, at La Zubia, a
+small town about two miles from Granada. The
+'soldier' is a most surprising object to come upon suddenly.
+He is cut out of a single tree, and is therefore
+all in one piece. Branches have been neatly adapted
+to make his fingers, which, it will be observed, have
+a somewhat knotted and gouty appearance. A flower-pot
+forms the head, while a plant of aloes makes
+a very fine plumed head-dress. His uniform is
+painted in the most realistic way, so that altogether
+he has a most ferocious appearance and
+his expression
+does not
+invite confidence,
+as may
+be seen from the
+photograph.
+The garden in
+which he lives
+is rather an
+historic one,
+for it was here
+that the great
+Queen Isabella
+the Catholic
+was saved
+from falling
+into the hands
+of the Moors
+by hiding in
+a laurel bush.
+A monument
+marks the
+spot.&quot;&mdash;Miss
+A. Milne
+Home, Caldra,
+Duns, N.B.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>IN THE MIDST OF THE ENEMY.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 448px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p600a1.jpg" width="448" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A gamekeeper in this neighbourhood had shot a
+fine carrion crow, and hung up his prize, as usual, on
+a nail near his cottage. A wren finding it built her
+nest between the wings, and in the body of her
+greatest enemy actually reared her family. By the
+kindness of the owner of the nest I have been able to
+photograph it.&quot;&mdash;Miss Mary Sharp, Riding Mill,
+Northumberland.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>A PECULIAR HARVEST.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> <img class="border" src="images/ill_p600b.jpg" width="700" height="516" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The Rev. W. H. Jenoure, rector of Barwick,
+Yeovil, describes
+a novel
+sight which
+may be seen
+in his parish.
+A farmer had
+been feeding
+his sheep on
+oats, and some
+of the grain
+fell on the
+back of one
+of the animals.
+It has
+taken root in
+the wool and
+sprouted, and
+the young
+shoots may be
+seen growing
+on the animal's
+back.&quot;&mdash;Mr.
+S. G. Witcomb,
+Middle
+Street, Yeovil,
+Somerset.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="tnote">
+
+<h2>Transcriber Notes:</h2>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="indent">Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of
+the speakers. Those words were retained as-is.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up
+paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Copyright notices at the bottom of the first pages of articles were moved to under the author.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected
+unless otherwise noted.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 525, &quot;menu was formed the shape&quot; was replaced with &quot;menu was formed in the shape&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 548, &quot;slouches of&quot; was replaced with &quot;slouches off&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 563, &quot;A D 1901. make a grave&quot; was replaced with &quot;A D 1901 make a grave&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 563, the single quotation mark after &quot;FUST&quot; was replaced with a double quotation mark.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 563, a period was placed after &quot;is a mournful corpse&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 563, &quot;ex amination&quot; was replaced with &quot;examination&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 563, &quot;honoable&quot; was replaced with &quot;honorable&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 573, &quot;onn&quot; was replaced with &quot;on&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 584, "plain of campaign" was replaced with "plan of campaign".</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 161,
+May 1904, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRAND MAGAZINE, MAY, 1904 ***
+
+***** This file should be named 38820-h.htm or 38820-h.zip *****
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+</body>
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+
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@@ -0,0 +1,8231 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 161, May
+1904, by Various
+
+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 Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 161, May 1904
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: February 10, 2012 [EBook #38820]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRAND MAGAZINE, MAY, 1904 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dianna Adair, Jonathan Ingram, Ernest Schaal,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: "WITH THE BOUND OF A TIGER HOLMES WAS ON HIS BACK."]
+                           (_See page 492._)
+
+
+
+
+                          THE STRAND MAGAZINE.
+
+    Vol. xxvii.                MAY, 1904.                   No. 161.
+
+
+
+
+                     THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.
+
+                           By A. CONAN DOYLE.
+
+        Copyright, 1904, by A. Conan Doyle, in the United States of
+        America.
+
+              _VIII.--The Adventure of the Six Napoleons._
+
+
+It was no very unusual thing for Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, to look
+in upon us of an evening, and his visits were welcome to Sherlock
+Holmes, for they enabled him to keep in touch with all that was going on
+at the police head-quarters. In return for the news which Lestrade would
+bring, Holmes was always ready to listen with attention to the details
+of any case upon which the detective was engaged, and was able
+occasionally, without any active interference, to give some hint or
+suggestion drawn from his own vast knowledge and experience.
+
+On this particular evening Lestrade had spoken of the weather and the
+newspapers. Then he had fallen silent, puffing thoughtfully at his
+cigar. Holmes looked keenly at him.
+
+"Anything remarkable on hand?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, no, Mr. Holmes, nothing very particular."
+
+"Then tell me about it."
+
+Lestrade laughed.
+
+"Well, Mr. Holmes, there is no use denying that there _is_ something on
+my mind. And yet it is such an absurd business that I hesitated to
+bother you about it. On the other hand, although it is trivial, it is
+undoubtedly queer, and I know that you have a taste for all that is out
+of the common. But in my opinion it comes more in Dr. Watson's line than
+ours."
+
+"Disease?" said I.
+
+"Madness, anyhow. And a queer madness too! You wouldn't think there was
+anyone living at this time of day who had such a hatred of Napoleon the
+First that he would break any image of him that he could see."
+
+Holmes sank back in his chair.
+
+"That's no business of mine," said he.
+
+"Exactly. That's what I said. But then, when the man commits burglary in
+order to break images which are not his own, that brings it away from
+the doctor and on to the policeman."
+
+Holmes sat up again.
+
+"Burglary! This is more interesting. Let me hear the details."
+
+Lestrade took out his official note-book and refreshed his memory from
+its pages.
+
+      [Illustration: "LESTRADE TOOK OUT HIS OFFICIAL NOTE-BOOK."]
+
+"The first case reported was four days ago," said he. "It was at the
+shop of Morse Hudson, who has a place for the sale of pictures and
+statues in the Kennington Road. The assistant had left the front shop
+for an instant when he heard a crash, and hurrying in he found a plaster
+bust of Napoleon, which stood with several other works of art upon the
+counter, lying shivered into fragments. He rushed out into the road,
+but, although several passers-by declared that they had noticed a man
+run out of the shop, he could neither see anyone nor could he find any
+means of identifying the rascal. It seemed to be one of those senseless
+acts of Hooliganism which occur from time to time, and it was reported
+to the constable on the beat as such. The plaster cast was not worth
+more than a few shillings, and the whole affair appeared to be too
+childish for any particular investigation.
+
+"The second case, however, was more serious and also more singular. It
+occurred only last night.
+
+"In Kennington Road, and within a few hundred yards of Morse Hudson's
+shop, there lives a well-known medical practitioner, named Dr. Barnicot,
+who has one of the largest practices upon the south side of the Thames.
+His residence and principal consulting-room is at Kennington Road, but
+he has a branch surgery and dispensary at Lower Brixton Road, two miles
+away. This Dr. Barnicot is an enthusiastic admirer of Napoleon, and his
+house is full of books, pictures, and relics of the French Emperor. Some
+little time ago he purchased from Morse Hudson two duplicate plaster
+casts of the famous head of Napoleon by the French sculptor, Devine. One
+of these he placed in his hall in the house at Kennington Road, and the
+other on the mantelpiece of the surgery at Lower Brixton. Well, when Dr.
+Barnicot came down this morning he was astonished to find that his house
+had been burgled during the night, but that nothing had been taken save
+the plaster head from the hall. It had been carried out and had been
+dashed savagely against the garden wall, under which its splintered
+fragments were discovered."
+
+Holmes rubbed his hands.
+
+"This is certainly very novel," said he.
+
+"I thought it would please you. But I have not got to the end yet. Dr.
+Barnicot was due at his surgery at twelve o'clock, and you can imagine
+his amazement when, on arriving there, he found that the window had been
+opened in the night, and that the broken pieces of his second bust were
+strewn all over the room. It had been smashed to atoms where it stood.
+In neither case were there any signs which could give us a clue as to
+the criminal or lunatic who had done the mischief. Now, Mr. Holmes, you
+have got the facts."
+
+"They are singular, not to say grotesque," said Holmes. "May I ask
+whether the two busts smashed in Dr. Barnicot's rooms were the exact
+duplicates of the one which was destroyed in Morse Hudson's shop?"
+
+"They were taken from the same mould."
+
+"Such a fact must tell against the theory that the man who breaks them
+is influenced by any general hatred of Napoleon. Considering how many
+hundreds of statues of the great Emperor must exist in London, it is too
+much to suppose such a coincidence as that a promiscuous iconoclast
+should chance to begin upon three specimens of the same bust."
+
+"Well, I thought as you do," said Lestrade. "On the other hand, this
+Morse Hudson is the purveyor of busts in that part of London, and these
+three were the only ones which had been in his shop for years. So,
+although, as you say, there are many hundreds of statues in London, it
+is very probable that these three were the only ones in that district.
+Therefore, a local fanatic would begin with them. What do you think, Dr.
+Watson?"
+
+"There are no limits to the possibilities of monomania," I answered.
+"There is the condition which the modern French psychologists have
+called the 'idee fixe,' which may be trifling in character, and
+accompanied by complete sanity in every other way. A man who had read
+deeply about Napoleon, or who had possibly received some hereditary
+family injury through the great war, might conceivably form such an
+'idee fixe' and under its influence be capable of any fantastic
+outrage."
+
+"That won't do, my dear Watson," said Holmes, shaking his head; "for no
+amount of 'idee fixe' would enable your interesting monomaniac to find
+out where these busts were situated."
+
+"Well, how do _you_ explain it?"
+
+"I don't attempt to do so. I would only observe that there is a certain
+method in the gentleman's eccentric proceedings. For example, in Dr.
+Barnicot's hall, where a sound might arouse the family, the bust was
+taken outside before being broken, whereas in the surgery, where there
+was less danger of an alarm, it was smashed where it stood. The affair
+seems absurdly trifling, and yet I dare call nothing trivial when I
+reflect that some of my most classic cases have had the least promising
+commencement. You will remember, Watson, how the dreadful business of
+the Abernetty family was first brought to my notice by the depth which
+the parsley had sunk into the butter upon a hot day. I can't afford,
+therefore, to smile at your three broken busts, Lestrade, and I shall be
+very much obliged to you if you will let me hear of any fresh
+developments of so singular a chain of events."
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+The development for which my friend had asked came in a quicker and an
+infinitely more tragic form than he could have imagined. I was still
+dressing in my bedroom next morning when there was a tap at the door and
+Holmes entered, a telegram in his hand. He read it aloud:--
+
+"Come instantly, 131, Pitt Street, Kensington.--Lestrade."
+
+"What is it, then?" I asked.
+
+"Don't know--may be anything. But I suspect it is the sequel of the
+story of the statues. In that case our friend, the image-breaker, has
+begun operations in another quarter of London. There's coffee on the
+table, Watson, and I have a cab at the door."
+
+In half an hour we had reached Pitt Street, a quiet little backwater
+just beside one of the briskest currents of London life. No. 131 was one
+of a row, all flat-chested, respectable, and most unromantic dwellings.
+As we drove up we found the railings in front of the house lined by a
+curious crowd. Holmes whistled.
+
+"By George! it's attempted murder at the least. Nothing less will hold
+the London message-boy. There's a deed of violence indicated in that
+fellow's round shoulders and outstretched neck. What's this, Watson? The
+top steps swilled down and the other ones dry. Footsteps enough, anyhow!
+Well, well, there's Lestrade at the front window, and we shall soon know
+all about it."
+
+The official received us with a very grave face and showed us into a
+sitting-room, where an exceedingly unkempt and agitated elderly man,
+clad in a flannel dressing-gown, was pacing up and down. He was
+introduced to us as the owner of the house--Mr. Horace Harker, of the
+Central Press Syndicate.
+
+        [Illustration: "HE WAS INTRODUCED TO US AS THE OWNER OF
+                    THE HOUSE--MR. HORACE HARKER."]
+
+"It's the Napoleon bust business again," said Lestrade. "You seemed
+interested last night, Mr. Holmes, so I thought perhaps you would be
+glad to be present now that the affair has taken a very much graver
+turn."
+
+"What has it turned to, then?"
+
+"To murder. Mr. Harker, will you tell these gentlemen exactly what has
+occurred?"
+
+The man in the dressing-gown turned upon us with a most melancholy face.
+
+"It's an extraordinary thing," said he, "that all my life I have been
+collecting other people's news, and now that a real piece of news has
+come my own way I am so confused and bothered that I can't put two words
+together. If I had come in here as a journalist I should have
+interviewed myself and had two columns in every evening paper. As it is
+I am giving away valuable copy by telling my story over and over to a
+string of different people, and I can make no use of it myself. However,
+I've heard your name, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and if you'll only explain
+this queer business I shall be paid for my trouble in telling you the
+story."
+
+Holmes sat down and listened.
+
+"It all seems to centre round that bust of Napoleon which I bought for
+this very room about four months ago. I picked it up cheap from Harding
+Brothers, two doors from the High Street Station. A great deal of my
+journalistic work is done at night, and I often write until the early
+morning. So it was to-day. I was sitting in my den, which is at the back
+of the top of the house, about three o'clock, when I was convinced that
+I heard some sounds downstairs. I listened, but they were not repeated,
+and I concluded that they came from outside. Then suddenly, about five
+minutes later, there came a most horrible yell--the most dreadful sound,
+Mr. Holmes, that ever I heard. It will ring in my ears as long as I
+live. I sat frozen with horror for a minute or two. Then I seized the
+poker and went downstairs. When I entered this room I found the window
+wide open, and I at once observed that the bust was gone from the
+mantelpiece. Why any burglar should take such a thing passes my
+understanding, for it was only a plaster cast and of no real value
+whatever.
+
+"You can see for yourself that anyone going out through that open window
+could reach the front doorstep by taking a long stride. This was clearly
+what the burglar had done, so I went round and opened the door. Stepping
+out into the dark I nearly fell over a dead man who was lying there. I
+ran back for a light, and there was the poor fellow, a great gash in his
+throat and the whole place swimming in blood. He lay on his back, his
+knees drawn up, and his mouth horribly open. I shall see him in my
+dreams. I had just time to blow on my police-whistle, and then I must
+have fainted, for I knew nothing more until I found the policeman
+standing over me in the hall."
+
+"Well, who was the murdered man?" asked Holmes.
+
+"There's nothing to show who he was," said Lestrade. "You shall see the
+body at the mortuary, but we have made nothing of it up to now. He is a
+tall man, sunburned, very powerful, not more than thirty. He is poorly
+dressed, and yet does not appear to be a labourer. A horn-handled clasp
+knife was lying in a pool of blood beside him. Whether it was the weapon
+which did the deed, or whether it belonged to the dead man, I do not
+know. There was no name on his clothing, and nothing in his pockets save
+an apple, some string, a shilling map of London, and a photograph. Here
+it is."
+
+It was evidently taken by a snap-shot from a small camera. It
+represented an alert, sharp-featured simian man with thick eyebrows, and
+a very peculiar projection of the lower part of the face like the muzzle
+of a baboon.
+
+"And what became of the bust?" asked Holmes, after a careful study of
+this picture.
+
+"We had news of it just before you came. It has been found in the front
+garden of an empty house in Campden House Road. It was broken into
+fragments. I am going round now to see it. Will you come?"
+
+"Certainly. I must just take one look round." He examined the carpet and
+the window. "The fellow had either very long legs or was a most active
+man," said he. "With an area beneath, it was no mean feat to reach that
+window-ledge and open that window. Getting back was comparatively
+simple. Are you coming with us to see the remains of your bust, Mr.
+Harker?"
+
+The disconsolate journalist had seated himself at a writing-table.
+
+"I must try and make something of it," said he, "though I have no doubt
+that the first editions of the evening papers are out already with full
+details. It's like my luck! You remember when the stand fell at
+Doncaster? Well, I was the only journalist in the stand, and my journal
+the only one that had no account of it, for I was too shaken to write
+it. And now I'll be too late with a murder done on my own doorstep."
+
+As we left the room we heard his pen travelling shrilly over the
+foolscap.
+
+The spot where the fragments of the bust had been found was only a few
+hundred yards away. For the first time our eyes rested upon this
+presentment of the great Emperor, which seemed to raise such frantic and
+destructive hatred in the mind of the unknown. It lay scattered in
+splintered shards upon the grass. Holmes picked up several of them and
+examined them carefully. I was convinced from his intent face and his
+purposeful manner that at last he was upon a clue.
+
+"Well?" asked Lestrade.
+
+Holmes shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"We have a long way to go yet," said he. "And yet--and yet--well, we
+have some suggestive facts to act upon. The possession of this trifling
+bust was worth more in the eyes of this strange criminal than a human
+life. That is one point. Then there is the singular fact that he did not
+break it in the house, or immediately outside the house, if to break it
+was his sole object."
+
+"He was rattled and bustled by meeting this other fellow. He hardly knew
+what he was doing."
+
+"Well, that's likely enough. But I wish to call your attention very
+particularly to the position of this house in the garden of which the
+bust was destroyed."
+
+Lestrade looked about him.
+
+"It was an empty house, and so he knew that he would not be disturbed in
+the garden."
+
+"Yes, but there is another empty house farther up the street which he
+must have passed before he came to this one. Why did he not break it
+there, since it is evident that every yard that he carried it increased
+the risk of someone meeting him?"
+
+"I give it up," said Lestrade.
+
+Holmes pointed to the street lamp above our heads.
+
+  [Illustration: "HOLMES POINTED TO THE STREET LAMP ABOVE OUR HEADS."]
+
+"He could see what he was doing here and he could not there. That was
+his reason."
+
+"By Jove! that's true," said the detective. "Now that I come to think of
+it, Dr. Barnicot's bust was broken not far from his red lamp. Well, Mr.
+Holmes, what are we to do with that fact?"
+
+"To remember it--to docket it. We may come on something later which will
+bear upon it. What steps do you propose to take now, Lestrade?"
+
+"The most practical way of getting at it, in my opinion, is to identify
+the dead man. There should be no difficulty about that. When we have
+found who he is and who his associates are, we should have a good start
+in learning what he was doing in Pitt Street last night, and who it was
+who met him and killed him on the doorstep of Mr. Horace Harker. Don't
+you think so?"
+
+"No doubt; and yet it is not quite the way in which I should approach
+the case."
+
+"What would you do, then?"
+
+"Oh, you must not let me influence you in any way! I suggest that you go
+on your line and I on mine. We can compare notes afterwards, and each
+will supplement the other."
+
+"Very good," said Lestrade.
+
+"If you are going back to Pitt Street you might see Mr. Horace Harker.
+Tell him from me that I have quite made up my mind, and that it is
+certain that a dangerous homicidal lunatic with Napoleonic delusions was
+in his house last night. It will be useful for his article."
+
+Lestrade stared.
+
+"You don't seriously believe that?"
+
+Holmes smiled.
+
+"Don't I? Well, perhaps I don't. But I am sure that it will interest Mr.
+Horace Harker and the subscribers of the Central Press Syndicate. Now,
+Watson, I think that we shall find that we have a long and rather
+complex day's work before us. I should be glad, Lestrade, if you could
+make it convenient to meet us at Baker Street at six o'clock this
+evening. Until then I should like to keep this photograph found in the
+dead man's pocket. It is possible that I may have to ask your company
+and assistance upon a small expedition which will have to be undertaken
+to-night, if my chain of reasoning should prove to be correct. Until
+then, good-bye and good luck!"
+
+Sherlock Holmes and I walked together to the High Street, where he
+stopped at the shop of Harding Brothers, whence the bust had been
+purchased. A young assistant informed us that Mr. Harding would be
+absent until after noon, and that he was himself a newcomer who could
+give us no information. Holmes's face showed his disappointment and
+annoyance.
+
+"Well, well, we can't expect to have it all our own way, Watson," he
+said, at last. "We must come back in the afternoon if Mr. Harding will
+not be here until then. I am, as you have no doubt surmised,
+endeavouring to trace these busts to their source, in order to find if
+there is not something peculiar which may account for their remarkable
+fate. Let us make for Mr. Morse Hudson, of the Kennington Road, and see
+if he can throw any light upon the problem."
+
+A drive of an hour brought us to the picture-dealer's establishment. He
+was a small, stout man with a red face and a peppery manner.
+
+"Yes, sir. On my very counter, sir," said he. "What we pay rates and
+taxes for I don't know, when any ruffian can come in and break one's
+goods. Yes, sir, it was I who sold Dr. Barnicot his two statues.
+Disgraceful, sir! A Nihilist plot, that's what I make it. No one but an
+Anarchist would go about breaking statues. Red republicans, that's what
+I call 'em. Who did I get the statues from? I don't see what that has to
+do with it. Well, if you really want to know, I got them from Gelder and
+Co., in Church Street, Stepney. They are a well-known house in the
+trade, and have been this twenty years. How many had I? Three--two and
+one are three--two of Dr. Barnicot's and one smashed in broad daylight
+on my own counter. Do I know that photograph? No, I don't. Yes, I do,
+though. Why, it's Beppo. He was a kind of Italian piece-work man, who
+made himself useful in the shop. He could carve a bit and gild and
+frame, and do odd jobs. The fellow left me last week, and I've heard
+nothing of him since. No, I don't know where he came from nor where he
+went to. I have nothing against him while he was here. He was gone two
+days before the bust was smashed."
+
+"Well, that's all we could reasonably expect to get from Morse Hudson,"
+said Holmes, as we emerged from the shop. "We have this Beppo as a
+common factor, both in Kennington and in Kensington, so that is worth a
+ten-mile drive. Now, Watson, let us make for Gelder and Co., of Stepney,
+the source and origin of busts. I shall be surprised if we don't get
+some help down there."
+
+In rapid succession we passed through the fringe of fashionable London,
+hotel London, theatrical London, literary London, commercial London,
+and, finally, maritime London, till we came to a riverside city of a
+hundred thousand souls, where the tenement houses swelter and reek with
+the outcasts of Europe. Here, in a broad thoroughfare, once the abode of
+wealthy City merchants, we found the sculpture works for which we
+searched. Outside was a considerable yard full of monumental masonry.
+Inside was a large room in which fifty workers were carving or moulding.
+The manager, a big blonde German, received us civilly, and gave a clear
+answer to all Holmes's questions. A reference to his books showed that
+hundreds of casts had been taken from a marble copy of Devine's head of
+Napoleon, but that the three which had been sent to Morse Hudson a year
+or so before had been half of a batch of six, the other three being sent
+to Harding Brothers, of Kensington. There was no reason why those six
+should be different to any of the other casts. He could suggest no
+possible cause why anyone should wish to destroy them--in fact, he
+laughed at the idea. Their wholesale price was six shillings, but the
+retailer would get twelve or more. The cast was taken in two moulds from
+each side of the face, and then these two profiles of plaster of Paris
+were joined together to make the complete bust. The work was usually
+done by Italians in the room we were in. When finished the busts were
+put on a table in the passage to dry, and afterwards stored. That was
+all he could tell us.
+
+But the production of the photograph had a remarkable effect upon the
+manager. His face flushed with anger, and his brows knotted over his
+blue Teutonic eyes.
+
+              [Illustration: "AH, THE RASCAL! HE CRIED."]
+
+"Ah, the rascal!" he cried. "Yes, indeed, I know him very well. This has
+always been a respectable establishment, and the only time that we have
+ever had the police in it was over this very fellow. It was more than a
+year ago now. He knifed another Italian in the street, and then he came
+to the works with the police on his heels, and he was taken here. Beppo
+was his name--his second name I never knew. Serve me right for engaging
+a man with such a face. But he was a good workman, one of the best."
+
+"What did he get?"
+
+"The man lived and he got off with a year. I have no doubt he is out
+now; but he has not dared to show his nose here. We have a cousin of his
+here, and I dare say he could tell you where he is."
+
+"No, no," cried Holmes, "not a word to the cousin--not a word, I beg
+you. The matter is very important, and the farther I go with it the more
+important it seems to grow. When you referred in your ledger to the sale
+of those casts I observed that the date was June 3rd of last year. Could
+you give me the date when Beppo was arrested?"
+
+"I could tell you roughly by the pay-list," the manager answered. "Yes,"
+he continued, after some turning over of pages, "he was paid last on May
+20th."
+
+"Thank you," said Holmes. "I don't think that I need intrude upon your
+time and patience any more." With a last word of caution that he should
+say nothing as to our researches we turned our faces westward once more.
+
+The afternoon was far advanced before we were able to snatch a hasty
+luncheon at a restaurant. A news-bill at the entrance announced
+"Kensington Outrage. Murder by a Madman," and the contents of the paper
+showed that Mr. Horace Harker had got his account into print after all.
+Two columns were occupied with a highly sensational and flowery
+rendering of the whole incident. Holmes propped it against the
+cruet-stand and read it while he ate. Once or twice he chuckled.
+
+"This is all right, Watson," said he. "Listen to this: 'It is
+satisfactory to know that there can be no difference of opinion upon
+this case, since Mr. Lestrade, one of the most experienced members of
+the official force, and Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the well-known consulting
+expert, have each come to the conclusion that the grotesque series of
+incidents, which have ended in so tragic a fashion, arise from lunacy
+rather than from deliberate crime. No explanation save mental aberration
+can cover the facts.' The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution
+if you only know how to use it. And now, if you have quite finished, we
+will hark back to Kensington and see what the manager of Harding
+Brothers has to say to the matter."
+
+The founder of that great emporium proved to be a brisk, crisp little
+person, very dapper and quick, with a clear head and a ready tongue.
+
+"Yes, sir, I have already read the account in the evening papers. Mr.
+Horace Harker is a customer of ours. We supplied him with the bust some
+months ago. We ordered three busts of that sort from Gelder and Co., of
+Stepney. They are all sold now. To whom? Oh, I dare say by consulting
+our sales book we could very easily tell you. Yes, we have the entries
+here. One to Mr. Harker, you see, and one to Mr. Josiah Brown, of
+Laburnum Lodge, Laburnum Vale, Chiswick, and one to Mr. Sandeford, of
+Lower Grove Road, Reading. No, I have never seen this face which you
+show me in the photograph. You would hardly forget it, would you, sir,
+for I've seldom seen an uglier. Have we any Italians on the staff? Yes,
+sir, we have several among our workpeople and cleaners. I dare say they
+might get a peep at that sales book if they wanted to. There is no
+particular reason for keeping a watch upon that book. Well, well, it's a
+very strange business, and I hope that you'll let me know if anything
+comes of your inquiries."
+
+Holmes had taken several notes during Mr. Harding's evidence, and I
+could see that he was thoroughly satisfied by the turn which affairs
+were taking. He made no remark, however, save that, unless we hurried,
+we should be late for our appointment with Lestrade. Sure enough, when
+we reached Baker Street the detective was already there, and we found
+him pacing up and down in a fever of impatience. His look of importance
+showed that his day's work had not been in vain.
+
+"Well?" he asked. "What luck, Mr. Holmes?"
+
+"We have had a very busy day, and not entirely a wasted one," my friend
+explained. "We have seen both the retailers and also the wholesale
+manufacturers. I can trace each of the busts now from the beginning."
+
+"The busts!" cried Lestrade. "Well, well, you have your own methods, Mr.
+Sherlock Holmes, and it is not for me to say a word against them, but I
+think I have done a better day's work than you. I have identified the
+dead man."
+
+"You don't say so?"
+
+"And found a cause for the crime."
+
+"Splendid!"
+
+"We have an inspector who makes a speciality of Saffron Hill and the
+Italian quarter. Well, this dead man had some Catholic emblem round his
+neck, and that, along with his colour, made me think he was from the
+South. Inspector Hill knew him the moment he caught sight of him. His
+name is Pietro Venucci, from Naples, and he is one of the greatest
+cut-throats in London. He is connected with the Mafia, which, as you
+know, is a secret political society, enforcing its decrees by murder.
+Now you see how the affair begins to clear up. The other fellow is
+probably an Italian also, and a member of the Mafia. He has broken the
+rules in some fashion. Pietro is set upon his track. Probably the
+photograph we found in his pocket is the man himself, so that he may not
+knife the wrong person. He dogs the fellow, he sees him enter a house,
+he waits outside for him, and in the scuffle he receives his own death
+wound. How is that, Mr. Sherlock Holmes?"
+
+Holmes clapped his hands approvingly.
+
+"Excellent, Lestrade, excellent!" he cried. "But I didn't quite follow
+your explanation of the destruction of the busts."
+
+"The busts! You never can get those busts out of your head. After all,
+that is nothing; petty larceny, six months at the most. It is the murder
+that we are really investigating, and I tell you that I am gathering all
+the threads into my hands."
+
+"And the next stage?"
+
+"Is a very simple one. I shall go down with Hill to the Italian quarter,
+find the man whose photograph we have got, and arrest him on the charge
+of murder. Will you come with us?"
+
+"I think not. I fancy we can attain our end in a simpler way. I can't
+say for certain, because it all depends--well, it all depends upon a
+factor which is completely outside our control. But I have great
+hopes--in fact, the betting is exactly two to one--that if you will come
+with us to-night I shall be able to help you to lay him by the heels."
+
+"In the Italian quarter?"
+
+"No; I fancy Chiswick is an address which is more likely to find him. If
+you will come with me to Chiswick to-night, Lestrade, I'll promise to go
+to the Italian quarter with you to-morrow, and no harm will be done by
+the delay. And now I think that a few hours' sleep would do us all good,
+for I do not propose to leave before eleven o'clock, and it is unlikely
+that we shall be back before morning. You'll dine with us, Lestrade, and
+then you are welcome to the sofa until it is time for us to start. In
+the meantime, Watson, I should be glad if you would ring for an express
+messenger, for I have a letter to send, and it is important that it
+should go at once."
+
+Holmes spent the evening in rummaging among the files of the old daily
+papers with which one of our lumber-rooms was packed. When at last he
+descended it was with triumph in his eyes, but he said nothing to either
+of us as to the result of his researches. For my own part, I had
+followed step by step the methods by which he had traced the various
+windings of this complex case, and, though I could not yet perceive the
+goal which we would reach, I understood clearly that Holmes expected
+this grotesque criminal to make an attempt upon the two remaining busts,
+one of which, I remembered, was at Chiswick. No doubt the object of our
+journey was to catch him in the very act, and I could not but admire the
+cunning with which my friend had inserted a wrong clue in the evening
+paper, so as to give the fellow the idea that he could continue his
+scheme with impunity. I was not surprised when Holmes suggested that I
+should take my revolver with me. He had himself picked up the loaded
+hunting-crop which was his favourite weapon.
+
+A four-wheeler was at the door at eleven, and in it we drove to a spot
+at the other side of Hammersmith Bridge. Here the cabman was directed to
+wait. A short walk brought us to a secluded road fringed with pleasant
+houses, each standing in its own grounds. In the light of a street lamp
+we read "Laburnum Villa" upon the gate-post of one of them. The
+occupants had evidently retired to rest, for all was dark save for a
+fanlight over the hall door, which shed a single blurred circle on to
+the garden path. The wooden fence which separated the grounds from the
+road threw a dense black shadow upon the inner side, and here it was
+that we crouched.
+
+"I fear that you'll have a long wait," Holmes whispered. "We may thank
+our stars that it is not raining. I don't think we can even venture to
+smoke to pass the time. However, it's a two to one chance that we get
+something to pay us for our trouble."
+
+It proved, however, that our vigil was not to be so long as Holmes had
+led us to fear, and it ended in a very sudden and singular fashion. In
+an instant, without the least sound to warn us of his coming, the garden
+gate swung open, and a lithe, dark figure, as swift and active as an
+ape, rushed up the garden path. We saw it whisk past the light thrown
+from over the door and disappear against the black shadow of the house.
+There was a long pause, during which we held our breath, and then a very
+gentle creaking sound came to our ears. The window was being opened. The
+noise ceased, and again there was a long silence. The fellow was making
+his way into the house. We saw the sudden flash of a dark lantern inside
+the room. What he sought was evidently not there, for again we saw the
+flash through another blind, and then through another.
+
+"Let us get to the open window. We will nab him as he climbs out,"
+Lestrade whispered.
+
+But before we could move the man had emerged again. As he came out into
+the glimmering patch of light we saw that he carried something white
+under his arm. He looked stealthily all round him. The silence of the
+deserted street reassured him. Turning his back upon us he laid down his
+burden, and the next instant there was the sound of a sharp tap,
+followed by a clatter and rattle. The man was so intent upon what he was
+doing that he never heard our steps as we stole across the grass plot.
+With the bound of a tiger Holmes was on his back, and an instant later
+Lestrade and I had him by either wrist and the handcuffs had been
+fastened. As we turned him over I saw a hideous, sallow face, with
+writhing, furious features, glaring up at us, and I knew that it was
+indeed the man of the photograph whom we had secured.
+
+But it was not our prisoner to whom Holmes was giving his attention.
+Squatted on the doorstep, he was engaged in most carefully examining
+that which the man had brought from the house. It was a bust of Napoleon
+like the one which we had seen that morning, and it had been broken into
+similar fragments. Carefully Holmes held each separate shard to the
+light, but in no way did it differ from any other shattered piece of
+plaster. He had just completed his examination when the hall lights flew
+up, the door opened, and the owner of the house, a jovial, rotund figure
+in shirt and trousers, presented himself.
+
+      [Illustration: "THE DOOR OPENED, AND THE OWNER OF THE HOUSE
+                      PRESENTED HIMSELF."]
+
+"Mr. Josiah Brown, I suppose?" said Holmes.
+
+"Yes, sir; and you, no doubt, are Mr. Sherlock Holmes? I had the note
+which you sent by the express messenger, and I did exactly what you told
+me. We locked every door on the inside and awaited developments. Well,
+I'm very glad to see that you have got the rascal. I hope, gentlemen,
+that you will come in and have some refreshment."
+
+However, Lestrade was anxious to get his man into safe quarters, so
+within a few minutes our cab had been summoned and we were all four upon
+our way to London. Not a word would our captive say; but he glared at us
+from the shadow of his matted hair, and once, when my hand seemed within
+his reach, he snapped at it like a hungry wolf. We stayed long enough at
+the police-station to learn that a search of his clothing revealed
+nothing save a few shillings and a long sheath knife, the handle of
+which bore copious traces of recent blood.
+
+"That's all right," said Lestrade, as we parted. "Hill knows all these
+gentry, and he will give a name to him. You'll find that my theory of
+the Mafia will work out all right. But I'm sure I am exceedingly obliged
+to you, Mr. Holmes, for the workmanlike way in which you laid hands upon
+him. I don't quite understand it all yet."
+
+"I fear it is rather too late an hour for explanations," said Holmes.
+"Besides, there are one or two details which are not finished off, and
+it is one of those cases which are worth working out to the very end. If
+you will come round once more to my rooms at six o'clock to-morrow I
+think I shall be able to show you that even now you have not grasped the
+entire meaning of this business, which presents some features which make
+it absolutely original in the history of crime. If ever I permit you to
+chronicle any more of my little problems, Watson, I foresee that you
+will enliven your pages by an account of the singular adventure of the
+Napoleonic busts."
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+When we met again next evening Lestrade was furnished with much
+information concerning our prisoner. His name, it appeared, was Beppo,
+second name unknown. He was a well-known ne'er-do-well among the Italian
+colony. He had once been a skilful sculptor and had earned an honest
+living, but he had taken to evil courses and had twice already been in
+gaol--once for a petty theft and once, as we had already heard, for
+stabbing a fellow-countryman. He could talk English perfectly well. His
+reasons for destroying the busts were still unknown, and he refused to
+answer any questions upon the subject; but the police had discovered
+that these same busts might very well have been made by his own hands,
+since he was engaged in this class of work at the establishment of
+Gelder and Co. To all this information, much of which we already knew,
+Holmes listened with polite attention; but I, who knew him so well,
+could clearly see that his thoughts were elsewhere, and I detected a
+mixture of mingled uneasiness and expectation beneath that mask which he
+was wont to assume. At last he started in his chair and his eyes
+brightened. There had been a ring at the bell. A minute later we heard
+steps upon the stairs, and an elderly, red-faced man with grizzled
+side-whiskers was ushered in. In his right hand he carried an
+old-fashioned carpet-bag, which he placed upon the table.
+
+"Is Mr. Sherlock Holmes here?"
+
+My friend bowed and smiled. "Mr. Sandeford, of Reading, I suppose?" said
+he.
+
+"Yes, sir, I fear that I am a little late; but the trains were awkward.
+You wrote to me about a bust that is in my possession."
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"I have your letter here. You said, 'I desire to possess a copy of
+Devine's Napoleon, and am prepared to pay you ten pounds for the one
+which is in your possession.' Is that right?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"I was very much surprised at your letter, for I could not imagine how
+you knew that I owned such a thing."
+
+"Of course you must have been surprised, but the explanation is very
+simple. Mr. Harding, of Harding Brothers, said that they had sold you
+their last copy, and he gave me your address."
+
+"Oh, that was it, was it? Did he tell you what I paid for it?"
+
+"No, he did not."
+
+"Well, I am an honest man, though not a very rich one. I only gave
+fifteen shillings for the bust, and I think you ought to know that
+before I take ten pounds from you."
+
+"I am sure the scruple does you honour, Mr. Sandeford. But I have named
+that price, so I intend to stick to it."
+
+[Illustration: "I BROUGHT THE BUST UP WITH ME, AS YOU ASKED ME TO DO."]
+
+"Well, it is very handsome of you, Mr. Holmes. I brought the bust up
+with me, as you asked me to do. Here it is!" He opened his bag, and at
+last we saw placed upon our table a complete specimen of that bust which
+we had already seen more than once in fragments.
+
+Holmes took a paper from his pocket and laid a ten-pound note upon the
+table.
+
+"You will kindly sign that paper, Mr. Sandeford, in the presence of
+these witnesses. It is simply to say that you transfer every possible
+right that you ever had in the bust to me. I am a methodical man, you
+see, and you never know what turn events might take afterwards. Thank
+you, Mr. Sandeford; here is your money, and I wish you a very good
+evening."
+
+When our visitor had disappeared Sherlock Holmes's movements were such
+as to rivet our attention. He began by taking a clean white cloth from a
+drawer and laying it over the table. Then he placed his newly acquired
+bust in the centre of the cloth. Finally, he picked up his hunting crop
+and struck Napoleon a sharp blow on the top of the head. The figure
+broke into fragments, and Holmes bent eagerly over the shattered
+remains. Next instant, with a loud shout of triumph, he held up one
+splinter, in which a round, dark object was fixed like a plum in a
+pudding.
+
+"Gentlemen," he cried, "let me introduce you to the famous black pearl
+of the Borgias."
+
+Lestrade and I sat silent for a moment, and then, with a spontaneous
+impulse, we both broke out clapping as at the well-wrought crisis of a
+play. A flush of colour sprang to Holmes's pale cheeks, and he bowed to
+us like the master dramatist who receives the homage of his audience. It
+was at such moments that for an instant he ceased to be a reasoning
+machine, and betrayed his human love for admiration and applause. The
+same singularly proud and reserved nature which turned away with disdain
+from popular notoriety was capable of being moved to its depths by
+spontaneous wonder and praise from a friend.
+
+"Yes, gentlemen," said he, "it is the most famous pearl now existing in
+the world, and it has been my good fortune, by a connected chain of
+inductive reasoning, to trace it from the Prince of Colonna's bedroom at
+the Dacre Hotel, where it was lost, to the interior of this, the last of
+the six busts of Napoleon which were manufactured by Gelder and Co., of
+Stepney. You will remember, Lestrade, the sensation caused by the
+disappearance of this valuable jewel, and the vain efforts of the London
+police to recover it. I was myself consulted upon the case; but I was
+unable to throw any light upon it. Suspicion fell upon the maid of the
+Princess, who was an Italian, and it was proved that she had a brother
+in London, but we failed to trace any connection between them. The
+maid's name was Lucretia Venucci, and there is no doubt in my mind that
+this Pietro who was murdered two nights ago was the brother. I have been
+looking up the dates in the old files of the paper, and I find that the
+disappearance of the pearl was exactly two days before the arrest of
+Beppo for some crime of violence, an event which took place in the
+factory of Gelder and Co., at the very moment when these busts were
+being made. Now you clearly see the sequence of events, though you see
+them, of course, in the inverse order to the way in which they presented
+themselves to me. Beppo had the pearl in his possession. He may have
+stolen it from Pietro, he may have been Pietro's confederate, he may
+have been the go-between of Pietro and his sister. It is of no
+consequence to us which is the correct solution.
+
+"The main fact is that he _had_ the pearl, and at that moment, when it
+was on his person, he was pursued by the police. He made for the factory
+in which he worked, and he knew that he had only a few minutes in which
+to conceal this enormously valuable prize, which would otherwise be
+found on him when he was searched. Six plaster casts of Napoleon were
+drying in the passage. One of them was still soft. In an instant Beppo,
+a skilful workman, made a small hole in the wet plaster, dropped in the
+pearl, and with a few touches covered over the aperture once more. It
+was an admirable hiding-place. No one could possibly find it. But Beppo
+was condemned to a year's imprisonment, and in the meanwhile his six
+busts were scattered over London. He could not tell which contained his
+treasure. Only by breaking them could he see. Even shaking would tell
+him nothing, for as the plaster was wet it was probable that the pearl
+would adhere to it--as, in fact, it has done. Beppo did not despair, and
+he conducted his search with considerable ingenuity and perseverance.
+Through a cousin who works with Gelder he found out the retail firms who
+had bought the busts. He managed to find employment with Morse Hudson,
+and in that way tracked down three of them. The pearl was not there.
+Then, with the help of some Italian _employe_, he succeeded in finding
+out where the other three busts had gone. The first was at Harker's.
+There he was dogged by his confederate, who held Beppo responsible for
+the loss of the pearl, and he stabbed him in the scuffle which
+followed."
+
+"If he was his confederate why should he carry his photograph?" I asked.
+
+"As a means of tracing him if he wished to inquire about him from any
+third person. That was the obvious reason. Well, after the murder I
+calculated that Beppo would probably hurry rather than delay his
+movements. He would fear that the police would read his secret, and so
+he hastened on before they should get ahead of him. Of course, I could
+not say that he had not found the pearl in Harker's bust. I had not even
+concluded for certain that it was the pearl; but it was evident to me
+that he was looking for something, since he carried the bust past the
+other houses in order to break it in the garden which had a lamp
+overlooking it. Since Harker's bust was one in three the chances were
+exactly as I told you, two to one against the pearl being inside it.
+There remained two busts, and it was obvious that he would go for the
+London one first. I warned the inmates of the house, so as to avoid a
+second tragedy, and we went down with the happiest results. By that
+time, of course, I knew for certain that it was the Borgia pearl that we
+were after. The name of the murdered man linked the one event with the
+other. There only remained a single bust--the Reading one--and the pearl
+must be there. I bought it in your presence from the owner--and there it
+lies."
+
+We sat in silence for a moment.
+
+"Well," said Lestrade, "I've seen you handle a good many cases, Mr.
+Holmes, but I don't know that I ever knew a more workmanlike one than
+that. We're not jealous of you at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are very
+proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow there's not a man, from the
+oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad to
+shake you by the hand."
+
+"Thank you!" said Holmes. "Thank you!" and as he turned away it seemed
+to me that he was more nearly moved by the softer human emotions than I
+had ever seen him. A moment later he was the cold and practical thinker
+once more. "Put the pearl in the safe, Watson," said he, "and get out
+the papers of the Conk-Singleton forgery case. Good-bye, Lestrade. If
+any little problem comes your way I shall be happy, if I can, to give
+you a hint or two as to its solution."
+
+
+
+
+                   _The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt._
+
+              Copyright, 1904, by George Newnes, Limited.
+
+    [These Memoirs, written by the greatest actress of our time,
+    will give not only the story of her career in the theatrical
+    world, but also in social life, in which she has, of course, met
+    nearly all the celebrated people of the day, from Royalties
+    downwards, and will be found throughout of the most striking
+    interest to all classes of readers.]
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--HOW I BECAME DESTINED FOR THE STAGE.
+
+I arose one September morning, my heart leaping with some vague thought
+of coming joy. It was eight o'clock. I pressed my forehead against the
+window-panes and gazed out, looking at I know not what. I had been
+roused with a start in the midst of a beautiful dream, and I rushed
+towards the light, as if in the hope of finding in the infinite space of
+the grey sky some explanation of the feelings that possessed me--the
+anxiety, and yet the bliss, of expectation. Expectation of what? I could
+not have answered that question then, any more than after much
+reflection I can do so now. I was on the eve of my fourteenth birthday,
+and I was in a state of expectation as to the future of my life. That
+particular morning seemed to me to be the precursor of a new era. I was
+not mistaken, for on that September day my fate was settled for me.
+
+                             [Illustration:
+  "I HAD BEEN ROUSED WITH A START IN THE MIDST OF A BEAUTIFUL DREAM."
+                    _From a Drawing by G. Clairin._]
+
+As if hypnotized by what was taking place in my mind, I remained with my
+forehead pressed against the window-pane, gazing in imagination through
+the halo of vapour formed by my breath at houses, palaces, carriages,
+jewels, pearls, which passed in fantasy before my eyes. Oh! what pearls
+there were! And there were princes and kings also; yes, I saw even
+kings! Oh! how fast imagination travels when left by its enemy, reason,
+free to roam alone! In my fancy I proudly rejected the princes, I
+rejected the kings, I refused the pearls and the palaces, and I declared
+that I was going to be a nun. For in the infinite grey sky I had caught
+a glimpse of the convent of Grand Champ, of my white bedroom, and of the
+small lamp that swung to and fro above the little Virgin which our hands
+had decorated with flowers. The king offered me a throne, but I
+preferred the throne of our Mother Superior, and I entertained a vague
+ambition to occupy it on some distant day. The king was heart-broken and
+dying of despair. Yes, _mon Dieu_! I preferred to the pearls that were
+offered me by princes the pearls of the rosary I was telling with my
+fingers; and no costume could compete in my mind with the black _barege_
+veil that fell like a soft shadow over the snowy white cambric that
+encircled the beloved faces of the nuns of Grand Champ.
+
+I do not know how long I had been dreaming thus when I heard my mother's
+voice asking our old servant, Marguerite, if I were awake. With one
+bound I was back in bed, and I buried my face under the sheet. Mamma
+half-opened the door very gently and I pretended to wake up.
+
+"How lazy you are to-day!" she said. I kissed her, and answered in a
+coaxing tone, "It is Thursday, and I have no music lesson."
+
+"And are you glad?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, yes," I replied, promptly.
+
+My mother frowned; she adored music, and I hated the piano. She was so
+fond of music that, although she was then nearly thirty, she took
+lessons herself in order to encourage me to practise. What horrible
+torture it was! I used very wickedly to do my utmost to set at variance
+my mother and my music mistress. They were both of them excessively
+short-sighted. When my mother had practised a new piece three or four
+days she knew it by heart, and played it fairly well, to the
+astonishment of Mlle. Clarisse, my insufferable old teacher, who held
+the music in her hand and read every note with her nose nearly touching
+the page. One day I heard, with joy, a quarrel beginning between mamma
+and this disagreeable person, Mlle. Clarisse.
+
+"There, that's a quaver!"
+
+"No, there's no quaver!"
+
+"This is a flat!"
+
+"No, you forget the sharp! How absurd you are!" added my mother,
+perfectly furious.
+
+A few minutes later my mother went to her room and Mlle. Clarisse
+departed, muttering as she left.
+
+As for me, I was choking with laughter in my bedroom, for one of my
+cousins, who was very musical, had helped me to add sharps, flats, and
+quavers to the music-sheet, and we had done it with such care that even
+a trained eye would have had difficulty in immediately discerning the
+fraud. As Mlle. Clarisse had been sent off, I had no lesson that day.
+Mamma gazed at me a long time with her mysterious eyes--the most
+beautiful eyes I have ever seen in my life--and then she said, speaking
+very slowly:--
+
+"After luncheon there is to be a family council."
+
+I felt myself turning pale.
+
+"All right," I answered; "what frock am I to put on, mamma?" I said this
+merely for the sake of saying something and to keep myself from crying.
+
+"Put on your blue silk; you look more staid in that."
+
+Just at this moment my sister Jeanne opened the door boisterously, and
+with a burst of laughter jumped on to my bed and, slipping under the
+sheets, called out: "I'm there!" Marguerite had followed her into the
+room, panting and scolding. The child had escaped from her just as she
+was about to bath her, and had announced: "I'm going into my sister's
+bed." Jeanne's mirth at this moment, which I felt was a very serious one
+for me, made me burst out crying and sobbing. My mother, not
+understanding the reason of this grief, shrugged her shoulders, told
+Marguerite to fetch Jeanne's slippers, and, taking the little bare feet
+in her hands, kissed them tenderly.
+
+     [Illustration: MME. BERNHARDT'S SISTER, JEANNE, AT THE AGE AT
+                WHICH SHE IS DESCRIBED IN THIS CHAPTER.
+                     _From a Photo. by Delintraz._]
+
+I sobbed more bitterly than ever. It was very evident that mamma loved
+my sister more than me, and this preference, which did not trouble me in
+an ordinary way, hurt me sorely now.
+
+Mamma went away quite out of patience with me. The nervous state in
+which I was, together with my anxiety and grief, had quite exhausted me.
+I fell asleep again and was roused by Marguerite, who helped me to
+dress, as otherwise I should have been late for luncheon. The guests
+that day were Aunt Rosine; Mlle. de Brabender, my governess, a charming
+creature whom I have always regretted; my godfather, and the Duc de
+Morny, a great friend of my godfather and of my mother. The luncheon was
+a melancholy meal for me, as I was thinking all the time about the
+family council. Mlle. de Brabender, in her gentle way and with her
+affectionate words, insisted on my eating. My sister burst out laughing
+when she looked at me.
+
+"Your eyes are as little as that," she said, putting her small thumb on
+the tip of her forefinger, "and it serves you right, because you've been
+crying, and mamma doesn't like anyone to cry. Do you, mamma?"
+
+"What have you been crying about?" asked the Duc de Morny. I did not
+answer, in spite of the friendly nudge Mlle. de Brabender gave me with
+her sharp elbow. The Duc de Morny always awed me a little. He was gentle
+and kind, but he was a great quiz. I knew, too, that he occupied a high
+place at Court, and that my family considered his friendship a great
+honour.
+
+"Because I told her that after luncheon there was to be a family council
+about her," said my mother, speaking slowly. "At times it seems to me
+that she is really idiotic. She quite disheartens me."
+
+"Come, come!" exclaimed my godfather, and Aunt Rosine said something in
+English to the Duc de Morny which made him smile shrewdly under his fine
+moustache. Mlle. de Brabender scolded me in a low voice, and her
+scoldings were like words from Heaven. When at last luncheon was over,
+mamma told me, as she passed, to pour out the coffee. Marguerite helped
+me to arrange the cups and I went into the drawing-room.
+
+Maitre G----, the notary from Havre, whom I detested, was already there.
+He represented the family of my father, who had died a few years before
+at Pisa in a way which had never been explained, but which seemed
+mysterious. My childish hatred was instinctive, and I learnt later on
+that this man had been my father's bitter enemy. He was very, very ugly,
+this notary; his whole face seemed to have moved upwards. It was as
+though he had been hanging by his hair for a long time, and his eyes,
+his mouth, his cheeks, and his nose had got into the habit of trying to
+reach the back of his head. He ought to have had a joyful expression, as
+so many of his features turned up, but instead of this his face was
+smooth and sinister. He had red hair, planted in his head like couch
+grass, and on his nose he wore a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles. Oh, the
+horrible man! What a torturing nightmare the very memory of him is, for
+he was the evil genius of my father, and his hatred now pursued me!
+
+ [Illustration: _From a_]  THE HAVRE NOTARY IN HIS OFFICE. [_Drawing._]
+
+My poor grandmother, since the death of my father, never went out, but
+spent her time mourning the loss of her beloved son, who had died so
+young. She had absolute faith in this man, who, besides, was the
+executor of my father's will. He had the control of the money which my
+dear father had left me. I was not to touch it until the day of my
+marriage, but my mother was to use the interest for my education.
+
+           [Illustration: _From a_]  FELIX FAURE. [_Drawing_]
+
+My uncle, Felix Faure (no relation of the late President), was also
+there. He was a very delightful man, handsome, too, and he had a deep,
+sympathetic voice. I loved him dearly, and, indeed, I love him now,
+although I have not seen him for a long time, as he has buried himself
+alive at the Grande Chartreuse, to await there, far away from the rest
+of the world, the time when he will rejoin those whom he loved so
+dearly.
+
+Seated near the fireplace, buried in an arm-chair, M. Lesprin pulled out
+his watch in a querulous way. He was an old friend of the family, and he
+always called me "_ma fil_," which annoyed me greatly, as did his
+familiarity. He considered me stupid, and when I handed him his coffee
+he said, in a jeering tone: "And is it for you, _ma fil_, that so many
+honest people have been hindered in their work? We have plenty of other
+things to attend to, I can assure you, than to discuss the fate of a
+little brat like you. Ah, if it had been her sister, there would have
+been no difficulty," and with his benumbed fingers he patted Jeanne's
+head, as she sat on the floor plaiting the fringe of the sofa upon which
+he was seated.
+
+When the coffee had been taken, the cups carried away, and my sister
+also, there was a short silence. The Duc de Morny rose to take his
+leave, but my mother begged him to stay. "You will be able to advise
+us," she urged, and the Duke took his seat again near my aunt, with
+whom, it seemed to me, he was carrying on a slight flirtation. Mamma had
+moved nearer to the window, her embroidery-frame in front of her, and
+her beautiful, clear-cut profile showing to advantage against the light.
+She looked as though she had nothing to do with what was about to be
+discussed. The hideous notary was standing up by the chimneypiece, and
+my uncle had drawn me near to him.
+
+My godfather, Regis de L----, seemed to be the exact counterpart of M.
+Lesprin; they both of them had the same bourgeois mind, and were equally
+stubborn and obstinate. They were both devoted to whist and good wine,
+and they both agreed that I was thin enough for a scarecrow. The door
+opened and a pale, dark-haired woman entered, a most poetical-looking
+and charming creature. It was Mme. Guerard, "the lady of the upstairs
+flat," as Marguerite always called her. My mother had made friends with
+her, in rather a patronizing way certainly, but Mme. Guerard was devoted
+to me and endured the little slights to which she was treated very
+patiently for my sake. She was tall and slender as a lath, very
+compliant and demure. She had no hat on, and was wearing an indoor gown
+of _indienne_ with a design of little brown leaves.
+
+    [Illustration: MME. GUERARD, THE GREAT FRIEND OF SARAH BERNHARDT
+    _From a Photo. by_]      WHEN A CHILD.            [_Delintraz._]
+
+M. Lesprin muttered something, I did not catch what. The abominable man
+gave a very curt bow, as Mme. Guerard was so simply dressed. The Duc de
+Morny was very gracious, for the new-comer was so pretty. My godfather
+merely bent his head, as Mme. Guerard was nothing to him. Aunt Rosine
+glanced at her from head to foot--Mme. Guerard was by no means rich.
+Mlle. de Brabender shook hands cordially with her, for Mme. Guerard was
+fond of me.
+
+My uncle, Felix Faure, gave her a chair and asked her to sit down, and
+then inquired in a kindly way about her husband, a _savant_, with whom
+my uncle collaborated sometimes for his book, "The Life of St. Louis."
+
+Mamma had merely glanced across the room without raising her head, for
+Mme. Guerard did not prefer my sister to me.
+
+"Well, as we have come here on account of this child," said my
+godfather, looking at his watch, "we must begin and discuss what is to
+be done with her."
+
+I began to tremble, and drew closer to "_mon petit dame_," as I had
+always called Mme. Guerard from my infancy, and to Mlle. de Brabender.
+They each took my hand by way of encouraging me.
+
+"Yes," continued M. Lesprin, with a laugh, "it appears you want to be a
+nun."
+
+"Ah, indeed?" said the Duc de Morny to Aunt Rosine.
+
+"'Sh! Be serious," she remarked. Mamma shrugged her shoulders and held
+her wools up close to her eyes to match them.
+
+"You have to be rich, though, to enter a convent," grunted the Havre
+notary, "and you have not a sou." I leaned towards Mlle. de Brabender
+and whispered, "I have the money that papa left."
+
+The horrid man overheard.
+
+"Your father left some money to get you married," he said.
+
+"Well, then, I'll marry the _bon Dieu_," I answered, and my voice was
+quite resolute now. I turned very red, and for the second time in my
+life I felt a desire and a strong inclination to fight for myself. I had
+no more fear, as everyone had gone too far and provoked me too much. I
+slipped away from my two kind friends and advanced towards the other
+group.
+
+"I will be a nun, I will!" I exclaimed. "I know that papa left me some
+money so that I should be married, and I know that the nuns marry the
+Saviour. Mamma says she does not care, it is all the same to her; so
+that it won't be vexing her at all, and they love me better at the
+convent than you do here!"
+
+"My dear child," said my uncle, drawing me towards him, "your religious
+vocation appears to me to be mainly a wish to have someone to care for."
+
+"And to be cared for herself," murmured Mme. Guerard, in a very low
+voice.
+
+Everyone glanced at mamma, who shrugged her shoulders slightly. It
+seemed to me as though the glance they all gave her was a reproachful
+one, and I felt a pang of remorse at once. I went across to her and,
+throwing my arms round her neck, said:--
+
+"You don't mind my being a nun, do you? It won't make you unhappy, will
+it?"
+
+Mamma stroked my hair, of which she was very proud.
+
+"Yes, it would make me unhappy. You know very well that, after your
+sister, I love you better than anyone else in the world."
+
+She said this very slowly in a gentle voice. It was like the sound of a
+little waterfall as it flows down, babbling and clear, from the
+mountain, dragging with it the gravel, and gradually increasing in
+volume, with the thawed snow, until it sweeps away rocks and trees in
+its course. This was the effect my mother's clear, drawling voice had
+upon me at that moment. I rushed back impulsively to the others, who
+were all speechless at this unexpected and spontaneous burst of
+eloquence. I went from one to the other, explaining my decision, and
+giving reasons which were certainly no reasons at all. I did my utmost
+to get someone to support me in the matter. Finally the Duc de Morny was
+bored, and rose to go.
+
+"Do you know what you ought to do with this child?" he said. "You ought
+to send her to the Conservatoire." He then patted my cheek, kissed my
+aunt's hand, and bowed to all the others. As he bent over my mother's
+hand, I heard him say to her, "You would have made a bad diplomatist,
+but take my advice and send her to the Conservatoire."
+
+He then took his departure, and I gazed at everyone in perfect anguish.
+
+The Conservatoire! What was it? What did it mean?
+
+I went up to my governess, Mlle. de Brabender. Her lips were firmly
+pressed together, and she looked shocked, just as she did sometimes when
+my godfather told, at table, some story of which she did not approve. My
+uncle, Felix Faure, was looking at the floor in an absent-minded way;
+the notary had a spiteful look in his eyes; my aunt was holding forth in
+a very excited manner; and M. Lesprin kept shaking his head and
+muttering, "Perhaps--yes--who knows? Hum! hum!" Mme. Guerard was very
+pale and sad, and she looked at me with infinite tenderness.
+
+What could be this Conservatoire? The word uttered so carelessly seemed
+to have entirely disturbed the equanimity of all these people. Each of
+them seemed to me to have a different impression about it, but none
+looked pleased. Suddenly, in the midst of the general embarrassment, my
+godfather exclaimed, brutally:--
+
+"She is too thin to make an actress."
+
+"I won't be an actress!" I exclaimed.
+
+"You don't know what an actress is," said my aunt.
+
+"Oh, yes, I do. Rachel is an actress!"
+
+"You know Rachel?" asked mamma, getting up.
+
+"Oh, yes; she came to the convent once to see little Adele Sarony. She
+went all over the convent and into the garden, and she had to sit down
+because she could not get her breath. They fetched her something to
+bring her round, and she was so pale--oh, so pale! I was very sorry for
+her, and Sister Appoline told me that what she did was killing her, for
+she was an actress, and so I won't be an actress, I won't!"
+
+I had said all this in a breath, with my cheeks on fire and my voice
+hard.
+
+I remembered all that Sister Appoline had told me, and Mother
+Sainte-Sophie, too, the Superior of the convent. I remembered, too, that
+when Rachel had gone out of the garden, looking very pale and holding a
+lady's arm for support, a little girl had put her tongue out at her. I
+did not want people to put out their tongues at me when I was grown up.
+There were a hundred other things, too, to which I objected, and about
+which I have only a vague memory now.
+
+My godfather laughed heartily, but my uncle was very grave. The others
+discussed the matter in a very excited way with my mother, who looked
+weary and bored. Mlle. de Brabender and Mme. Guerard were arguing in a
+low voice, and I thought of the aristocratic man who had just left us. I
+was very angry with him, for this idea of the Conservatoire was his.
+"Conservatoire!" This word frightened me. It was he who wanted me to be
+an actress, and now he had disappeared, and I could not talk the matter
+over with him. He had gone away smiling and tranquil, patting my head in
+the most ordinary yet friendly way. He had gone off without troubling a
+straw about the poor little, meagre child whose future was being
+discussed. "Send her to the Conservatoire," and this phrase, that had
+come to his lips so easily, was like a veritable bomb hurled into my
+life. I, the little, dreamy child, who that morning had rejected princes
+and kings; I, whose trembling fingers had only that morning told over
+whole rosaries of dreams and fancies; I, who only a few hours before had
+felt my heart beat wildly with some inexplicable emotion, and who had
+got up expecting some great event to happen during the day! Everything
+had given way under that phrase, which seemed as heavy as lead and as
+murderous as a cannon-ball. _Send her to the Conservatoire!_
+
+I guessed somehow that that phrase was destined to be the finger-post of
+my life. All these people had stopped at the bend of the road where
+there were crossways.
+
+_Send her to the Conservatoire!_ I wanted to be a nun, and they all
+thought that absurd, idiotic, unreasonable. Those words, "Send her to
+the Conservatoire," had opened up a new field of discussion, widened the
+horizon of the future. My uncle, Felix Faure, and Mlle. de Brabender
+were the only ones who disapproved of this idea, but they were in the
+minority--a passive minority which felt for me. I got very nervous and
+excited, and my mother sent me away. Mlle. de Brabender tried to console
+me. Mme. Guerard said that this career had its advantages. Mlle. de
+Brabender considered that the convent would have a great fascination for
+so dreamy a nature as mine. The one was very religious and a great
+church-goer, and the other was a pagan in the purest acceptation of that
+word, and yet the two women got on very well together, thanks to their
+affectionate devotion to me.
+
+Mme. Guerard adored the proud rebelliousness of my nature, my pretty
+face, and the slenderness of my figure; Mlle. de Brabender was touched
+by my delicate health. She spent no end of time trying to smooth my
+refractory hair. She endeavoured to comfort me when I was jealous at not
+being loved as much as my sister; but what she liked best about me was
+my voice. She always declared that my voice was modulated for prayers,
+and my delight in the convent appeared to her quite natural. She loved
+me with a gentle, pious affection, and Mme. Guerard loved me with bursts
+of paganism. These two women, whose memory is still dear to me, shared
+me between them, and made the best of my good qualities and my faults. I
+certainly owe to both of them this study of myself and the vision I have
+of myself.
+
+The day was destined to end in the strangest of fashions. Mme. Guerard
+had gone back to her apartment upstairs, and I was lying back on a
+little straw arm-chair, which was the most ornamental piece of furniture
+in my room. I felt very drowsy, and was holding Mlle. de Brabender's
+hand in mine when the door opened and my aunt entered, followed by my
+mother. I can see them now--my aunt in her dress of puce silk trimmed
+with fur, her brown velvet hat tied under her chin with long, wide
+strings, and mamma, who had taken off her dress and put on a white
+woollen dressing-gown. She always detested keeping on her dress in the
+house, and I understood by her change of costume that everyone had gone
+and that my aunt was ready to leave. I got up from my arm-chair, but
+mamma made me sit down again.
+
+"Rest yourself thoroughly," she said, "for we are going to take you to
+the theatre this evening--to the Francais."
+
+   [Illustration: THE THEATRE FRANCAIS, TO WHICH SARAH BERNHARDT WAS
+     TAKEN TO SEE HER FIRST PLAY WHEN HER DESTINY FOR THE STAGE HAD
+   _From a_]                BEEN DECIDED.                 [_Photo._]
+
+I felt sure that this was just a bait, and I would not show any sign of
+pleasure, although in my heart I was delighted at the idea of going to
+the Francais. The only theatre I knew anything of was the Robert Houdin,
+to which I was taken sometimes with my sister, and I fancy that it was
+for her benefit we went, as I was really too old to care for that kind
+of performance.
+
+"Will you come with us?" mamma said, turning to Mlle. de Brabender.
+
+"Willingly, madame," she replied. "I will go home and change my dress."
+
+My aunt laughed at my sullen looks.
+
+"Little fraud," she said, as she went away, "you are hiding your
+delight. Ah, well, you will see some actresses to-night."
+
+"Is Rachel going to act?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, no; she is ill."
+
+My aunt kissed me and went away, saying she should see me again later
+on, and my mother followed her out of the room. Mlle. de Brabender then
+prepared to leave me, as she had to go home to dress, and to say that
+she would not be in until quite late. She lived at a convent where old
+maids and widows were taken as boarders, and special permission had to
+be obtained when one wished to be out later than ten at night. When I
+was alone I swung myself backwards and forwards in my arm-chair, which,
+by the way, was anything but a rocking chair. I began to think, and for
+the first time in my life my critical comprehension came to my aid. And
+so all these serious people had been inconvenienced, the notary fetched
+from Havre, my uncle dragged away from working at his book, the old
+bachelor, M. Lesprin, disturbed in his habits and customs, my godfather
+kept away from the Stock Exchange, and that aristocratic and sceptical
+Duc de Morny cramped up for two hours in the midst of our bourgeois
+surroundings, and all to end in this decision: _she shall be taken to
+the theatre_!
+
+I do not know what part my uncle had taken in this burlesque plan, but I
+doubt whether it was to his taste. All the same, I was glad to go to the
+theatre; it made me feel more important. That morning on waking up I was
+quite a child, and now events had taken place which had transformed me
+into a young woman. I had been discussed by everyone, and I had
+expressed my wishes--without any result, certainly; but all the same I
+had expressed them, and now it was deemed necessary to humour and
+indulge me in order to win me over. They could not force me into
+agreeing to what they wanted me to do; my consent was necessary; and I
+felt so joyful and so proud about it that I was quite touched and almost
+ready to yield. I said to myself that it would be better to hold my own
+and let them ask me again.
+
+After dinner we all squeezed into a cab--mamma, my godfather, Mlle. de
+Brabender, and I. My godfather made me a present of some white gloves.
+
+    [Illustration: THE HALL AND STAIRCASE OF THE THEATRE FRANCAIS.]
+
+On mounting the steps at the Francais I trod on a lady's dress. She
+turned round and called me a "stupid child." I moved back hastily and
+came into collision with a very stout old gentleman, who gave me a rough
+push forward, so that I felt inclined to burst out crying.
+
+     [Illustration: THE BOXES OF THE THEATRE FRANCAIS, FROM ONE OF
+               WHICH SARAH BERNHARDT SAW HER FIRST PLAY.]
+
+When once we were all installed in a box facing the stage, mamma and I
+in the first row, with Mlle. de Brabender behind me, I felt more
+reassured. I was close against the partition of the box, and I could
+feel Mlle. de Brabender's sharp knees through the velvet of my chair.
+This gave me confidence, and I leaned against the back of the chair,
+purposely to feel the support of those two knees.
+
+When the curtain slowly rose I thought I should have fainted. It was as
+though the curtain of my future life were being raised. Those columns
+("Britannicus" was being played) were to be my palaces, the friezes
+above were to be my skies, and those boards were to bend under my frail
+weight. I heard nothing of "Britannicus," for I was far, far away, at
+Grand Champ, in my dormitory there.
+
+"Well, what do you think of it?" asked my godfather, when the curtain
+fell. I did not answer, and he laid his hand on my head and turned my
+face round towards him. I was crying, and big tears were rolling slowly
+down my cheeks, the kind of tears that come without any sobs and as if
+there were no hope that they would ever cease.
+
+My godfather shrugged his shoulders and, getting up, left the box,
+banging the door after him. Mamma, losing all patience with me,
+proceeded to review the house through her opera-glass. Mlle. de.
+Brabender passed me her handkerchief, for my own had fallen, and I had
+not the courage to pick it up.
+
+When the curtain rose on the second piece, "Amphitryon," I made an
+effort to listen, in order to please my governess, who was so kind and
+so conciliating. I remember only one thing about it, and that was I was
+so sorry for Alemene, who seemed to be so unhappy, that I burst into
+audible sobs, and that everyone, much amused, looked at our box. My
+mother was most annoyed, and promptly took me out, accompanied by Mlle.
+de Brabender, leaving my godfather furious. "_Bon Dieu de bois!_" I
+heard him mutter, "what an idiot the child is! They'd better put her in
+the convent and let her stop there."
+
+My teeth were chattering when Mlle. de Brabender, helped by Marguerite,
+put me to bed. Mme. Guerard was there too; she had been listening for my
+return, as though foreseeing what would happen.
+
+I did not get up again for six weeks, and only narrowly escaped dying of
+brain fever.
+
+Such was the _debut_ of my artistic career.
+
+                          (_To be continued._)
+
+
+
+
+                   THE MUTINOUS CONDUCT OF MRS RYDER.
+                           BY MORLEY ROBERTS.
+
+
+Although Watchett of the _Battle-Axe_ and Ryder of the _Star of the
+South_ were cousins, there was no great love lost between them, and all
+unprejudiced observers declared that this lack of mutual admiration was
+in no way due to Captain Ryder. That they remained friends at all was
+owing largely to his infinite good nature, and to the further fact that
+Mrs. Ryder pitied Mrs. Watchett.
+
+"I wonder she goes to sea with him at all," she said. "If you were one
+quarter as horrid as your cousin, Will, I should never go to sea till
+you came ashore."
+
+But she always went to sea with Will Ryder. It was their great delight
+to be together, and there were few men, married or single, who did not
+take a certain pleasure in seeing how fond they were of each other. He
+was a typical seaman of the best kind; he had a fine voice for singing
+and for hailing the foretopsail yard; his eyes were as blue as
+forget-me-nots, and his skin was as clear as the air on the Cordilleras
+which peeped at them over the tops of the barren hills which surround
+the Bay of Valparaiso. And Mrs. Ryder was just the kind of wife for a
+man who was somewhat inclined to take things easily. If she was as
+pretty as the peach, she had, like the peach, something inside which was
+not altogether soft. Her brown eyes could turn black--she had resolution
+and courage.
+
+"You shall not put up with it," was a favourite expression on her
+tongue. And there were times, to use his own expression, when she made
+sail when he would have shortened it. In that sense she was certainly
+capable of "carrying on."
+
+Both vessels were barques of about eleven hundred tons register, and if
+the _Star of the South_ had about twenty tons to the good in size she
+was rather harder to work. It is the nature of ships to develop in
+certain ways, and though both of these barques were sister ships it is
+always certain that sisters are never quite alike. But as they belonged
+to the same Port of London, and were owned by two branches of the same
+family, all of whose money was divided up in sixty-fourths, according to
+the common rule with ships, they were rivals and rival beauties. But,
+unlike the more respectable ladies who owned them, both the vessels were
+fast, and it was a sore point of honour with Ryder and Watchett to prove
+their own the fastest.
+
+"If she only worked a little easier, I could lick his head off," said
+Ryder, sadly.
+
+But there was the rub. The _Star of the South_ needed more "beef" on her
+than the _Battle-Axe_. She wasn't so quick in stays. By the time Ryder
+yelled "Let go and haul," the _Battle-Axe_ was gathering headway on a
+fresh tack.
+
+"And instead of having two more hands than we are allowed, we are two
+short," said his wife, bitterly. "If I were you, Will, I'd take those
+Greeks."
+
+"Not by an entire jugful," replied Captain Ryder. "I remember the
+_Lennie_ and the _Caswell_, my dear. I never knew Valparaiso so bare of
+men."
+
+"And we're sailing to-morrow," said Connie Ryder, angrily; "and you've
+betted him a hundred pounds we shall dock before him. It's too bad. I
+wonder whether he'd give us another day?"
+
+But Ryder shook his head.
+
+"And you've known him for years! He's spending that money in his mind."
+
+"But not on his wife, Will," said Mrs. Ryder. "If we win, I'm to have
+it."
+
+"I'd give him twenty to let me off," said Ryder.
+
+But Connie Ryder went on board the _Battle-Axe_ to see if she could
+induce her husband's cousin to forego the advantage he had already
+gained before sailing. She found him dark and grim and as hard as
+adamant.
+
+"A bet's a bet and business is business," said Watchett. "We appointed
+to-morrow, and, bar lying out a gale from the north, with two anchors
+down and the cables out to the bitter end, I'll sail."
+
+His wife, who was as meek as milk, suggested humbly that it would be
+more interesting if he waited.
+
+"I ain't in this for interest; I'm in it for capital," said Watchett,
+grinning gloomily. "The more like a dead certainty it looks the better I
+shall be pleased."
+
+Mrs. Ryder darkened.
+
+"I don't think you're a sportsman," she said, rather shortly.
+
+"I ain't," retorted old Watchett; "I'm a seaman, and him that'd go to
+sea for sport would go to Davy Jones for pastime. You can tell Bill that
+I'll give him ten per cent. discount for cash now."
+
+As Mrs. Ryder knew that he never called her husband "Bill" unless he
+desired to be more or less offensive, she showed unmistakable signs of
+temper.
+
+"If I ever get half a chance to make you sorry, I will," she said.
+
+"Let it go at that," said Watchett, sulkily. "I got on all right with
+Bill before you took to going to sea with him."
+
+"He was too soft with you," said Bill's wife.
+
+"And a deal softer with you than I'd be," said Watchett.
+
+"Oh, please, please don't," cried Mary Watchett, in great distress.
+
+"I thought you were a gentleman," said Connie Ryder.
+
+ [Illustration: "'I THOUGHT YOU WERE A GENTLEMAN,' SAID CONNIE RYDER."]
+
+"Not you," replied Watchett; "you never, and you know it. I'm not one
+and never hankered to be. I'm rough and tough and a seaman of the old
+school. I'm no sea dandy. I'm Jack Watchett, as plain as you like."
+
+"You're much plainer than I like," retorted his cousin's wife, "very
+much plainer."
+
+And though she kissed Mary Watchett she wondered greatly how any woman
+could kiss Mary Watchett's husband.
+
+"If I ever get a chance," she said. "But there, how can I?"
+
+She wept a little out of pure anger as she returned to the _Star of the
+South_. When she got on board she found the mate and second mate
+standing by the gangway.
+
+"Is there no chance of these men, Mr. Semple"?
+
+"No more than if it was the year '49 and this was San Francisco," said
+the mate, who was a hoary-headed old sea-dog, a great deal more like the
+old school than "plain Jack Watchett."
+
+"Why doesna the captain take they Greeks, ma'am?" asked McGill, the
+second mate, who had been almost long enough out of Scotland to forget
+his own language.
+
+"Because he doesn't like any but Englishmen," said Connie Ryder.
+
+"And Scotch, of course," she added, as she saw McGill's jaw fall a
+little. "I've been trying to get Captain Watchett to give us another
+day."
+
+"All our ship and cargo to a paper-bag of beans he didn't, ma'am," said
+Semple.
+
+"I--I hate him," cried Connie Ryder, as she entered the cabin.
+
+"She's as keen as mustard--as red pepper," said Semple; "if she'd been a
+man she'd have made a seaman."
+
+"I've never sailed wi' a skeeper's wife before," said McGill, who had
+shipped in the _Star of the South_ a week earlier, in place of the
+second mate, who had been given his discharge for drunkenness. "Is she
+at all interferin', Mr. Semple?"
+
+Old Semple nodded.
+
+"She interferes some, and it would be an obstinate cook that disputed
+with her. She made a revolution in the galley, my word, when she first
+came on board. Some would say she cockered the crew over-much, but I was
+long enough in the fo'c's'le not to forget that even a hog of a man
+don't do best on hogwash."
+
+Which was a marvellous concession on the part of any of the after-guard
+of any ship, seeing how the notion persists among owners, and even among
+officers, that the worse men are treated the better they work.
+
+"She seems a comfortable ship," owned McGill.
+
+And so everyone on board of her allowed.
+
+"Though she is a bit of a heart-breaker to handle," said the men
+for'ard. "But for that she be a daisy. And to think that the bally
+_Battle-Axe_ goes about like a racing yacht!"
+
+It made them sore to think of it. But it also made the men on board
+their rival sore to think how comfortable the _Star of the South_ was in
+all other respects.
+
+Owing to the fact that the _Battle-Axe's_ crowd was sulky, the _Star of
+the South_ got her anchor out of the ground and stood to the north-west
+to round Point Angelos a good ten minutes before Watchett's vessel was
+under way.
+
+"That's good," said Connie Ryder. "I know they're a sulky lot by now in
+the _Battle-Axe_. And our men work like dears."
+
+It was with difficulty she kept from tailing on to the braces as they
+jammed the _Star_ close up to weather the Point. For the wind was
+drawing down the coast from the nor'ard, and Valparaiso harbour faces
+due north. She was glad when they rounded the Point and squared away,
+for if there was any real difference in the sailing qualities of the
+rival barques, the _Star_ was best before the wind and the _Battle-Axe_
+when she was in a bow-line.
+
+"And with any real luck," said Mrs. Ryder, "we may have a good fair wind
+all the way till we cross the line."
+
+It was so far ahead to consider the north-east trades, which meant such
+mighty long stretches in a wind, that she declined to think of them. And
+she entirely forgot the calms of Capricorn.
+
+"We're doing very well, Will," she said to her husband when the
+starboard watch went below and the routine of the passage home
+commenced.
+
+"It's early days," replied Will Ryder. "I fancy the _Battle-Axe_ is in
+her best trim for a wind astern."
+
+But Mrs. Ryder didn't believe it.
+
+"And if she is, she mayn't be so good when it comes to beating."
+
+She knew what she was talking about and spoke good sense.
+
+"It's going to be luck," said Ryder. "If either of us get a good slant
+that the other misses, the last will be out of it. But I wish I'd had
+those other two hands. The _Star_ wants 'beef' on the braces. Mr.
+Semple, as soon as possible see all the parrals greased and the blocks
+running as free as you can make 'em."
+
+And Semple did his best, as the crew did. But Mrs. Ryder had her doubts
+as to whether her husband was doing his. For once he seemed to think
+failure was a foregone conclusion.
+
+"I think it must be his liver," said Mrs. Ryder. "I'll see to that at
+once."
+
+But instead of looking up the medicine chest she came across the Pacific
+Directory.
+
+"I never thought of that," she said. "He's never done it, now he shall."
+
+She took the big book down and read one part of it eagerly.
+
+"I don't see why not," she decided, and she went to her husband with the
+request that he should run through Magellan's Straits when he came to
+it.
+
+"Not for dollars," said Will Ryder. "When I'm skipper of a Pacific
+Navigation boat I'll take you through, but not till then."
+
+"But look at all you cut off," urged his wife, "if you get through."
+
+"And how you are cut off if you don't," retorted Ryder. "When I was an
+apprentice I went through in fine weather, and I'd rather drive a 'bus
+down Fleet Street in a fog than try it."
+
+She said he had very little enterprise and pouted.
+
+"Suppose the _Battle-Axe_ does it?"
+
+Ryder declined to suppose it.
+
+"John wouldn't try it if you could guarantee the weather. I know him."
+
+"You never take my advice," said his wife.
+
+"I love you too much," replied Will Ryder. He put his arm about her, but
+she was cross and pushed him away.
+
+"This is mutiny," said the captain, smiling.
+
+"Well, I feel mutinous," retorted Connie. "I wanted you to steal two of
+your cousin's men and you wouldn't. I'm sure they would have come, for
+what the _Battle-Axe_ owed them. And you wouldn't. And now I want to go
+through the Straits and you won't. The very, very next time that I want
+to do anything I shall do it without asking you. Why did you bet a
+hundred pounds if you weren't prepared to try to win it?"
+
+"We'll win yet," said the skipper, cheerfully, "We're only just
+started."
+
+The two vessels kept company right down to the Horn, and there, between
+Ildefonso Island and the Diego Ramirez Islands, the _Star of the South_
+lost sight of her sister and her rival, in a dark sou'-westerly gale.
+With the wind astern as it was when they squared away with Cape Horn
+frowning to the nor'-west the _Star_ was a shooting star, as they said
+for'ard.
+
+"If we could on'y carry a gale like this right to the line, we'd 'ave a
+pull over the _Battle-Axe_, ma'am," said Silas Bagge, an old fo'c's'le
+man, who was Mrs. Ryder's favourite among all the crew. He was a
+magnificent old chap with a long white beard, which he wore tucked
+inside a guernsey, except in fine weather.
+
+"But we can't; there'll be the trades," said the captain's wife,
+dolorously.
+
+"I've picked up the sou'-east trade blowin' a gale, ma'am, before now,"
+said Bagge; "years ago, in '74 or thereabouts, I was in the
+_Secunderabad_, and we crossed the line, bound south, doing eleven
+close-'auled, and we carried 'em to twenty-seven south latitude. There's
+times when it's difficult to say where the trades begin south too. Mebbe
+we'll be chased by such a gale as this nigh up to thirty south."
+
+"It's hoping too much," said Mrs. Ryder.
+
+"Hope till you bust, ma'am," said Silas Bagge. "Nothin's lost till it's
+won. If we can only get out of the doldrums without breaking our hearts
+working the ship, there's no knowing what'll 'appen. 'Twas a pity we
+didn't get them other two 'ands, though."
+
+And there she agreed with him.
+
+    [Illustration: "'HOPE TILL YOU BUST, MA'AM,' SAID SILAS BAGGE."]
+
+"Me and Bob Condy could 'ave got Gribbs and Tidewell out of the
+_Battle-Axe_ easy as easy," said Silas, regretfully. "'Twas a lost
+hopportunity, and there you are."
+
+The honourable conduct of his skipper in vetoing this little game seemed
+no more than foolishness to Bagge.
+
+"When we comes to the Hequator and it's 'square away' and 'brace up'
+every five minutes till one's 'ands are raw, 'twill be a grief to every
+mother's son aboard," said Bagge, as he touched his cap and went
+for'ard.
+
+But now the _Star of the South_ went booming on the outside of the
+Falklands with a gale that drew into the sou'-sou'-west and howled after
+her. She scooped up the seas at times and dipped her nose into them, and
+threw them apart and wallowed. The men were happy, for the fo'c's'le
+didn't leak, and the galley-fire was kept going every night to dry their
+clothes. At midnight every man got a mug of cocoa, and those that rose
+up called Mrs. Ryder blessed, and those that lay down agreed with them.
+The _Star_ was a happy ship. There was no rule against playing the
+concertina on a Sunday in her fo'c's'le, and the men were not reduced to
+playing "blind swaps" with their oldest rags for amusement, as they were
+in the _Battle-Axe_. And yet every man in the _Star_ knew his time for
+growling was coming on, with every pitch and send of the sea.
+
+They picked up the trades in nearly 30deg. south, with only a few days
+of a light and variable breeze, and the trades were good.
+
+"But where's the _Battle-Axe_?" asked Mrs. Ryder.
+
+She kept a bright look-out for her, and deeply regretted that her
+petticoats prevented her going aloft to search the horizon for John
+Watchett. She rubbed her hands in hope.
+
+"I do believe, Will, that we must be ahead of him," she declared, after
+the south-east trade had been steady on the _Star's_ starboard beam for
+a week.
+
+"Not much ahead," replied Will.
+
+And just then Bob Condy, who was aloft on the foreto'gallant yard
+cutting off old seizings and putting on new ones, hailed the deck.
+
+"There's a sail on the port beam, sir."
+
+"Take a glass aloft and have a look at her, Mr. McGill," said the
+skipper. "No, never mind, I'll go myself, as you've never seen the
+_Battle-Axe_ at sea. I know the cut of her jib, and no mistake."
+
+So Will Ryder went up to the maintop-gallant-yard, and with his leg
+astride of the yard took a squint to loo'ard. He shut up the glass so
+quick that his wife knew at once that the distant sail was the
+_Battle-Axe_. As he came down slowly he nodded to her.
+
+"It is?"
+
+"Rather," said Ryder. "I'm sorry we've no stun-sails. We're carrying all
+we've got and all we can."
+
+"And to think he's as good as we were on our own point of sailing!" said
+his wife, with the most visible vexation. "Can't you do anything to make
+her go faster, Will?"
+
+    [Illustration: "MRS. RYDER SAT ON A HEN-COOP AND NEARLY CRIED."]
+
+And when Will said he couldn't unless he got out and pushed, Mrs. Ryder
+sat on a hen-coop and very nearly cried. For if the _Battle-Axe_ had
+done so well up to this she would do better in the dead regions of the
+line, and the _Star_ would do much worse. There the want of a few more
+hands would tell. The _Star_ was no good at catching cat's-paws, and
+short-handed she worked like an unoiled gate.
+
+"If I'd only done what Silas Bagge wanted," she said, "we'd have been
+all right. To think that the want of a couple of hands should make all
+the difference."
+
+It was cruelly hard, but when vessels are undermanned at any time, less
+than their complement means "pull devil, pull baker," with the former
+best at the tug of war.
+
+For days there was nothing to choose between the vessels, save that the
+unusual strength of the trades gave the _Star_ a trifling advantage.
+Every night Watchett took in his royals. This Ryder declined to do,
+though he often expected them to take themselves in.
+
+"What did I say, ma'am?" said old Bagge. "I told you it _could_ blow
+quite 'eavy in its way in the south-east trades."
+
+And thus it happened that what the _Star_ lost by day she pulled up by
+night. And presently the _Battle-Axe_ edged up closer and at last was
+within hailing distance. Watchett stood on his poop with a
+speaking-trumpet, and roared in sombre triumph:--
+
+"I'm as good as you this trip on your best p'int, Ryder!"
+
+"Tell him to go to--to thunder," said Mrs. Ryder, angrily. Nevertheless,
+she waved her handkerchief to her enemy's wife, who was standing by
+"plain Jack Watchett."
+
+"You've done mighty well," said Ryder, in his turn, "but it isn't over
+yet."
+
+Jack Watchett intimated that he thought it was. He offered to double the
+bet. He also undertook to sail round the _Star of the South_ in a light
+wind. He offered to tow her, and made himself so disagreeable that Mrs.
+Ryder, who knew what became a lady, went below to prevent her snatching
+the speaking-trumpet from her husband and saying things for which she
+would be sorry afterwards. But Ryder, though he was by no means a saint,
+kept his temper and only replied with chaff, which was much more
+offensive to Watchett than bad language.
+
+"And don't be _too_ sure," he added. "I may do you yet."
+
+"Not you," said Watchett. "I'm cocksure."
+
+They sailed in company for a week, and gradually, as the trade lessened
+in driving power, the _Battle-Axe_ drew ahead inch by inch. And as she
+did Mrs. Ryder's appetite failed--she looked thin and ill.
+
+"Don't feel it so much, chickabiddy," said her husband.
+
+"I can't help it," sobbed Connie. "I hate your cousin. Oh, Will, if
+you'd only let me entice those two men from him. Bagge was sure that
+Gribbs and Tidewell would have come."
+
+"It wouldn't have been fair," said Ryder.
+
+"I--I--wanted to win," replied Connie; "and it'll be calm directly, and
+you know what that means."
+
+It _was_ calm directly, and very soon everyone knew what it meant. For
+it was a real fat streak of a calm that both vessels ran into. And as
+luck would have it the _Battle-Axe_, which was by now almost hull down
+to the nor'ard, got into it first. The _Star of the South_ carried the
+wind with her till she was within a mile of her rival. For a whole day
+they pointed their jibbooms alternately at Africa and South America, to
+the North Pole and the South. What little breeze there was after that
+day took them farther still into an absolute area of no wind at all.
+
+"This is the flattest calm I ever saw," said Ryder. "In such a calm as
+this he has no advantage."
+
+They boxed the compass for the best part of a week and lay and cooked in
+a sun that made the deck-seams bubble. At night the air was as hot as it
+had been by day. The men lay on deck, on the deck-house, on the
+fo'c's'le head.
+
+"This is a bally scorcher," said the crews of both ships. "Let's
+whistle."
+
+They whistled feebly, but the god of the winds had gone a journey, or
+was as fast asleep as Baal. And day by day the two vessels drifted
+together. At last they had to lower the boats and tow them apart.
+Watchett was very sick with the whole meteorology of the universe, and
+being a whole-souled man, incapable of more than one animosity at a
+time, he found no leisure to spare from reviling a heaven of brass to
+taunt Ryder. At the end of the week he even hailed the _Star_ and
+offered to come on board and bring his wife.
+
+"I don't want him," said Connie Ryder: "I won't have him."
+
+And as she said so she jumped as if a pin had been stuck into her.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked her husband.
+
+"Nothing," said Connie. "But let him come!"
+
+She went for'ard to interview the cook, so she said. But she really went
+to interview Silas Bagge. When she came back she found Watchett and his
+wife on board. If she was a little stiff with Watchett he never noticed
+it. As a matter of fact, the whims and fads and tempers of a woman were
+of no more account than the growling of the men for'ard. He was too much
+engaged in cursing the weather to pay her any attention.
+
+"This licks me," he said; "in a week we ain't moved--we're stuck. 'Ow
+long will it last, Bill?"
+
+"It looks as if it might last for ever," replied Ryder. "We've struck a
+bad streak."
+
+The women had tea and the men drank whisky and water. Although Watchett
+didn't know it, two of his hands left the boat and were given something
+to eat in the galley by Mrs. Ryder's orders. It was Bagge who conveyed
+the invitation, with the connivance of the mate, for whom the word of
+the captain's wife was law.
+
+"'Ave some marmalade and butter?" said Bagge. "Does they feed you good
+in the _Battle-Axe_, Gribbs?"
+
+     [Illustration: "'AVE SOME MARMALADE AND BUTTER?' SAID BAGGE."]
+
+"Hogwash," said Gribbs, with his mouth full. "Ain't it, Tidewell?"
+
+Tidewell, who was a youngster of a good middle-class family, who had
+gone to sea as an apprentice and run from his ship, agreed with many
+bitter words.
+
+"As I told you, we lives like fightin'-cocks 'ere," said Bagge. "When
+you're full in the back teeth, we'll 'ave your mates up. We likes to
+feed the pore and 'ungry, don't we, doctor?"
+
+The cook, to whom Bagge had confided something, said he did his best,
+his humble best.
+
+"The _Star's_ an 'appy ship," he added. "We know what your ship is."
+
+The other two men came up in their turn and were filled with tea and
+biscuit and butter and marmalade till they smiled.
+
+"This is like home," said Wat Crampe, who was from Newcastle.
+
+"It wass petter--much petter," said Evan Evans, "and ass for the
+captain's wife, she iss a lady, whatefer."
+
+That evening Ryder and his wife returned the call and were rowed to the
+_Battle-Axe_ by Bagge, Bob Condy, and two more of the men. Bagge and
+Condy went into the fo'c's'le. They lost no time in condemning the
+_Battle-Axe_ and in lauding their own ship.
+
+"This 'ere's a stinkin' 'ooker, mates," said Silas Bagge; "why, our
+fo'c's'le is a lady's droring-room compared with it. And as for the
+grub, ask them as come on board us this afternoon. What d'ye say,
+Gribbs?"
+
+"Toppin'," said Gribbs. "It's spiled my happetite 'ere."
+
+"It wass good," said the Welshman; "it wass good, whatefer."
+
+Bagge took Billy Gribbs aside on the deck and had a talk with him.
+
+"Oh, Lord!" said Gribbs. "Oh, what?"
+
+"Straight talk," replied Silas; "_she_ said so."
+
+"Do you mean it?"
+
+"Do I mean it?" replied Silas, with unutterable scorn. "In course I mean
+it. It will sarve them right as it sarves right."
+
+Gribbs held on to the rail and laughed till he ached. "It's the rummiest
+notion I ever 'eard tell on."
+
+"Not _so_ rummy!"
+
+"Wot!" cried Gribbs, "not so rummy? Well, if it ain't so rummy, I'm
+jiggered. I'll think of it."
+
+"Do, and tell your mate Tidewell."
+
+"If I tell Ned, 'e'll do it for sure. 'E's the biggest joker 'ere!"
+
+"Then tell him," said Silas.
+
+That evening Ned Tidewell and Billy Gribbs acted in a very strange way
+on board the _Battle-Axe_. Without any obvious reason they kept on
+bursting into violent fits of laughter.
+
+"The pore blokes is gone dotty from the 'eat," said the pitying crowd.
+"We've 'eard of such before."
+
+"Why shouldn't I laugh?" asked Gribbs. "I'm laughin' because I'm a pore
+silly sailor-man and my life ain't worth livin'. If I'd died early I'd
+ha' been saved a pile o' trouble. I was thinkin' of my father's green
+fields as I looked over the side this afternoon."
+
+"Was you really?" asked the oldest man on board. "Then you take my
+advice quick and go and ask the skipper for a real good workin' pill of
+the largest size."
+
+"Wot for?" asked Gribbs.
+
+"Because you've hobvious got a calentoor," said the old fo'c's'le man.
+"And chaps as gets a calentoor jumps overboard. Oh, but that's well
+known at sea by those as knows anythin'."
+
+But Gribbs laughed.
+
+"The worst is as it's catchin'," said his adviser, anxiously; "it's
+fatally catchin'. I've 'eard of crews doin' it one hafter the hother,
+till there wasn't no one left. In 'eat it was and in calm."
+
+"Gammon," said Gribbs. But he was observed to sigh.
+
+"Are you 'ot in your 'ead?" asked the anxious and ancient one.
+
+"I feels a little 'ot and rummy," said Gribbs; "but what I chiefly feels
+is a desire to eat grass."
+
+The old man groaned.
+
+"Then it's got you. Mates, we ought to tie Gribbs up, or lock 'im in the
+sail-locker, or 'is clothes will be auctioned off before long."
+
+But Gribbs kicked at that, and just then eight bells struck.
+
+"I'm turnin' in," said Gribbs, "and I'm all right."
+
+But at six bells in the first watch he was missing, as was discovered by
+old Brooks, the authority on calentures. He waked up Ned Tidewell, who
+was extraordinarily fast asleep.
+
+"Where's Gribbs?"
+
+"Not in my bunk," returned Ned, who with Gribbs was one of the few who
+still dossed in the fo'c's'le.
+
+"Then 'e's gone overboard for sartain," said Brooks, in great alarm;
+"there was the look of it in his eye, and in yours too, youngster. These
+long calms is fataller than scurvy. I shall go aft and report it."
+
+He reported it to Mr. Seleucus Thoms, the second mate, who came for'ard,
+and roused the watch below from the deck-house and t'gallant fo'c's'le.
+When all hands were mustered it was certain that Gribbs was missing.
+
+"This is a terrible catastrophe," said Seleucus Thoms, who had a
+weakness for fine language, derived from his rare Christian name, of
+which he was extremely proud. "My name is not Seleucus Thoms if he
+hasn't gone overboard."
+
+"'E was rampagious with laughter in the second dog-watch, sir," put in
+old Brooks. "And 'e talked of green fields, the which I've 'eard is a
+werry fatal symptom of calentoor."
+
+"Humph!" said Mr. Thoms, "there's something in that."
+
+And when he went for'ard old Brooks was as proud as a dog with two
+tails! Though he usually spent the second dog-watch daily in proving
+that Thoms was no sailor, this endorsement of his theory flattered him
+greatly.
+
+"I've been mistook in the second," he said, as Thoms went aft. "He's got
+'orse sense, after all. I shouldn't be surprised if he'd make a sailor
+some day."
+
+And Thoms reported the catastrophe to Watchett.
+
+"Drowned himself?" roared the captain; "drowned himself? And who's
+responsible if you ain't?"
+
+He came on deck in a great rage and scanty pyjamas and mustered the crew
+aft, and roared at them for full ten minutes as if it was their fault.
+When he had relieved his mind he asked if there was anyone who could
+throw light on the matter, and old Brooks was shoved to the front. He
+explained his views on calentures.
+
+"Never 'eard of 'em," said Watchett.
+
+"And I think, sir, as Tidewell 'ere 'as the symptoms."
+
+"I haven't," said Tidewell, indignantly.
+
+"Wild laughin' is a known symptom, sir, and Tidewell was laughin' 'orrid
+in the second dog-watch," insisted Brooks; "I'd put him in irons, sir."
+
+But Watchett was not prepared to go so far in prophylaxis.
+
+"If any of you 'as any more symptoms I'll flog 'im and take the
+consequences," he declared. He went below again unhappily, for he wasn't
+quite a brute after all.
+
+"This is a mighty unpleasant thing," he said to poor Mrs. Watchett, who
+cried when she heard the news. "It's a mighty unfortunate affair. Gribbs
+was the smartest man in the whole crowd and worth two of the others."
+
+But still the great and terrible calm lasted, and the morning was as hot
+as yesterday and the sea shone like polished brass and lapped faintly
+like heavy oil against the glowing iron of the sister barques. At dawn,
+which came up like a swiftly opening flower out of the fertile east, the
+vessels were just too far apart for hailing, and Watchett signalled the
+news to the _Star of the South_.
+
+"Lost a man overboard!" said Ryder. "That's strange; I wish to Heaven
+we'd found him!"
+
+When he told his wife she seemed extraordinarily callous.
+
+"Serves him right," she said.
+
+And it was wonderful how the crew of the _Star_ took the news. They had
+never seemed so cheerful. They grinned when Watchett came aboard.
+
+"This is an 'orrid circumstance," said Watchett. "I never lost a man
+before, not even when I was wrecked in the _Violet_. And this a dead
+calm!"
+
+"Your men aren't happy," said Mrs. Ryder, "and you don't try to make
+'em. If I give you three seven-pound tins of marmalade and some butter,
+will you serve it out to them?"
+
+      [Illustration: "'YOUR MEN AREN'T HAPPY,' SAID MRS. RYDER."]
+
+But Watchett shook his head angrily.
+
+"I'll not cocker no men up," he declared; "not if they all goes
+overboard and leaves me and the missis to take 'er 'ome. And what's
+marmalade against 'eat like this?"
+
+He mopped a melancholy brow and sighed.
+
+"It will help them to keep from gloomy thoughts," said Mrs. Ryder. "The
+_Star of the South_ is a home for our men."
+
+"And two run in Valparaiso," retorted Watchett. "And I on'y lost one."
+
+He took a drink with his cousin and went back on board the _Battle-Axe_,
+and spent the torrid day in getting a deal of unnecessary work done. And
+still no flaw of lightest air marred the awful mirror of the quiet seas.
+Early in the first watch the boats were lowered again to tow the vessels
+apart. At midnight, when the watch below came aft and answered to their
+names in the deep shadow of the moonless tropic night, Ned Tidewell did
+not answer to his name.
+
+"Tidewell!" cried Thoms, angrily and anxiously.
+
+And still there was no answer, but a groan from old Brooks.
+
+"Wot did I tell you?" he demanded. "I seed it in 'is eye."
+
+They searched the _Battle-Axe_ from stem to stern; they overhauled the
+sails in the sail-lockers; they hunted with a lantern in the forepeak;
+they even went aloft to the fore and main tops, where once or twice
+someone who sought for coolness where no coolness could be found went up
+into what they jocosely called the "attic." But Ned had lost the number
+of his mess.
+
+"More clothes for sale," said the melancholy crew, as they looked at
+each other suspiciously. "'Oo'll be the next?"
+
+Brooks declared to the other fo'c's'le men that the next would be Wat
+Crampe, or Taffy, as they called the Welshman.
+
+"There's an awful 'orrid look o' the deep, dark knowledge of death in
+their faces," declared old Brooks. "They thinks of the peace of it and
+the quiet, and smiles secret!"
+
+Next morning Watchett hailed the _Star_ and told the latest dreadful
+news. And at the end he added, in a truly pathetic roar, "Send me them
+tins o' marmalade aboard, and the butter."
+
+And when Mrs. Ryder superintended the steward's work getting these
+stores out of the lazaret, she smiled very strangely. She said to her
+husband: "If he loses another hand or two the _Battle-Axe_ will be no
+easy ship to work, Will."
+
+"I wouldn't have believed the matter of a hundred pounds would have made
+you so hard," said Ryder. And Connie Ryder pouted mutinously, and her
+pout ran off into a wicked and most charming smile.
+
+"I'm not thinking so much of the money as of our ship being beaten," she
+said.
+
+And poor Watchett was now beginning to think the same of his ship. Like
+most vessels, the _Battle-Axe_ required a certain number of men to work
+her easily, and her luck lay in the number allowed being the number
+necessary. With two hands gone a-missing she would not be much superior
+to the _Star_ in easiness of handling, and if more went a week of
+baffling winds now or later, when the north-east trade died out, might
+give the _Star_ a pull which nothing but an easterly wind from the chops
+of the Channel to Dover could hope to make up. He began to dance
+attendance on his crew as if they were patients and he their doctor. And
+the curious thing was that they all began to feel ill at once, so ill
+that they could not work in the sun. A certain uneasy terror got hold of
+them; they dreaded to look over the side, lest in place of an oily sea
+they should look down on grass and daisies.
+
+"Daisies draws a man, and buttercups draws a man," said old Brooks.
+
+"Don't," said Crampe, with a snigger. "You make me feel that I must pick
+buttercups or die."
+
+"Do you now?" asked Brooks. "Do you now?"
+
+And he sneaked aft to the skipper, who was turning all ways, as if
+wondering where windward was.
+
+"I'm very uneasy about Crampe, sir," he said, with a scrape, as he
+crawled up the port poop ladder. "'Is mind is set on buttercups."
+
+"The deuce it is!" cried Watchett, and going down to the main deck he
+called Crampe out.
+
+"What's this I 'ears about your 'ankering after buttercups?" he
+demanded, very anxiously.
+
+"I _did_ feel as if I'd like to see one, sir," said Crampe.
+
+"Don't let me 'ear of it again," began Watchett, angrily, but he pulled
+himself up with an ill grace. "But there, go in and lie down, and you
+needn't come on deck in your watch. I can't afford to lose no more mad
+fools. And you shall have butter instead of buttercups."
+
+     [Illustration: "YOU SHALL HAVE BUTTER INSTEAD OF BUTTERCUPS."]
+
+"And marmalade, sir?" suggested Crampe. "Marmalade's yellow too, as
+yellow as buttercups."
+
+"Say the word agin and I'll knock you flat," said the skipper. But,
+nevertheless, he sent the whole crowd marmalade and butter at four bells
+in the first dog-watch.
+
+"Hoo, but it iss fine," said "Efan Efans." "Thiss iss goot grup whatefer
+and moreover, yess!"
+
+"They scoffs the like in the _Star_ day in and day out," said Crampe;
+"if I can't roll on grass I'd like to be in her."
+
+And that night both Crampe and Evans disappeared.
+
+"I believe I 'eard a splash soon after six bells," said old Brooks.
+"Mates, this is most 'orrid. I feels as if I should be drawed overboard
+by a mermaid in spite of myself."
+
+And Watchett went raving crazy.
+
+Ryder came on board the _Battle-Axe_ as soon as the latest news was
+signalled to him. Mrs. Ryder declined to go, but she gave him a timely
+piece of advice.
+
+"Don't let him off the bet, Will, or I'll never forgive you."
+
+"I won't do that," said her husband, hastily, as if he hadn't been
+thinking of doing it.
+
+"And if he asks for a man or two, you know we're short-handed already."
+
+"Tell me something I don't know," said Ryder, a trifle crossly. Even his
+sweet temper suffered in 115deg. in the shade.
+
+"I dare say I could," said his wife, when he was in the boat; "I dare
+say I could."
+
+Watchett received his cousin with an air of gloom that would have struck
+a damp on anything anywhere but the Equator.
+
+"This is a terrible business," he said. "I never 'eard of anything like
+it. Every night a man, and last night two!"
+
+Ryder was naturally very much cut up about it, and said so.
+
+"Will you have some more marmalade?" he asked, anxiously.
+
+"Marmalade don't work," said Watchett, sadly; "it don't work worth a
+cent. Nor does butter. I'd give five pounds for some green cabbage."
+
+A brilliant idea struck Ryder.
+
+"Why don't you paint her green, all the inside of the rail and the
+boats?"
+
+"She'd be a beauty show, like a blessed timber-droghing Swede," said
+Watchett, with great distaste. "But d'ye think it'd work?"
+
+"You might try," replied Ryder.
+
+"And now you've got the bulge on me," sighed Watchett; "with two 'ands
+missing from both watches, she'll be as 'ard in the mouth as your
+_Star_. You might let me off that bet, Bill."
+
+"No," said Ryder, "a bet's a bet."
+
+"But fairness is fairness," urged Watchett; "there should be a clause in
+a bet renderin' it void by the act of God or the Queen's enemies."
+
+"There isn't," said his cousin, "and you forget you wouldn't help me
+about those two hands I wanted."
+
+"Oh, if you talk like that----"
+
+"That's the way I talk," said Ryder, remembering the wife he had left
+behind him. "I'm sorry."
+
+"Hang your sorrow," said Watchett. "But I'll lose no more, and 'tain't
+your money yet."
+
+"Will you and Mary come on board to tea?" asked Ryder.
+
+"I won't tea with no unfair person with no sympathy," returned Watchett,
+savagely.
+
+And when Ryder had gone he set the crowd painting his beautiful white
+paint a ripe grass-green.
+
+"Watch if it soothes 'em any," he said to Seleucus Thoms. "If it seems
+to work I'll paint 'er as green as a child's Noah's Ark."
+
+And that night there was no decrease of the _Battle-Axe's_ sad crowd, in
+spite of the fact that he did not act on his impulse to lock them up in
+the stuffy fo'c's'le. For soon after midnight Mr. Double felt one side
+of his face cooler than the other as he stood staring at the motionless
+lights of the _Star of the South_, then lying stern on to the
+_Battle-Axe's_ starboard beam.
+
+"Eh? What? Jerusalem!" said Double. Then he let a joyous bellow out of
+him. "Square the yards!"
+
+For there was a breath of wind out of the south. Both vessels were alive
+in a moment, and while the _Battle-Axe_ was squaring away the _Star's_
+foreyard was braced sharp up on the starboard tack till she fell off
+before the little breeze. Then she squared her yards too, and both
+vessels moved at least a mile towards home before they began fooling all
+round the compass again.
+
+"Them hands missin' makes a difference," said Watchett, gloomily. "Less
+than enough is starvation."
+
+As they fought through the night for the flaws of wind which came out of
+all quarters, the short watches of the _Battle-Axe_ found that out and
+grumbled accordingly. But it was a very curious thing that the _Star of
+the South_ was never so easy to handle.
+
+"That foreyard goes round now," said old Semple, "as if it was hung like
+a balance. This is very surprisin'. So it is."
+
+He mentioned the remarkable fact to McGill when he came on deck at four
+in the morning, and so long as it was dark, as it was till nearly six,
+McGill found it so too. And both watches were in a surprisingly good
+temper. For nothing tries men so much as "brace up" and "square away"
+every five minutes as they work their ship through a belt of calm. But
+as soon as the sun was up the _Star_ worked just as badly as she did
+before.
+
+"It's maist amazin'," said McGill.
+
+During the day the calm renewed itself and gave everyone a rest. But
+once more the breeze came at night, and the amazing easiness of the
+_Star_ showed itself when the darkness fell across the sea. Ryder and
+Semple and McGill were full of wonder and delight.
+
+"The character of a ship will change sometimes," said Semple. "It's just
+like a collision that will alter her deviation. This calm has worked a
+revolution."
+
+Because of this revolution the _Star_ got ahead of the _Battle-Axe_
+every change and chance of the wind. She got ahead with such effect that
+on the third day the _Battle-Axe_ was hull down to the south'ard, and
+when the fourth dawn broke she was out of sight. This meant much more
+than may appear, for the _Star_ picked up the north-east trade nearly
+four days earlier than her rival, and a better trade at that. When the
+_Battle-Axe_ crawled into its area it was half-sister to a calm, while
+the _Star_ was doing eight knots an hour. And as there was now no need
+to touch tack or sheet, there was no solution of the mysterious ease
+with which she worked in the dark. How long the mystery might have
+remained such no one can say, but it was owing to Mrs. Ryder's curious
+behaviour that it came out. She laughed in the strangest manner till
+Ryder got quite nervous.
+
+"These chaps that jumped over from the _Battle-Axe_ laughed like that,"
+he told her, in great anxiety.
+
+And she giggled more and more.
+
+"Shall I try marmalade?" she asked. Then she sat down by him and went
+off into something so like hysterics that a mere man might be excused
+for thinking she was crazy.
+
+"They're not dead!" she cried; "they're not dead!"
+
+  [Illustration: "'THEY'RE NOT DEAD!' SHE CRIED; 'THEY'RE NOT DEAD!'"]
+
+"Who aren't dead?" asked her husband, desperately.
+
+And, remembering something which had been told him years before, he took
+her hands and slapped with such severity that she screamed and then
+cried, and finally put her head upon his shoulder and confessed.
+
+"Was it mutiny of me to do it?" she asked, penitently.
+
+Will Ryder tried to look severe, and then laughed until he cried. "What
+ever made you think of it?"
+
+"It wasn't a what; it was a who," said his wife; "it was Silas Bagge."
+
+"The dickens it was," said Will, and with that he left her.
+
+"Call all hands and let them muster aft," he said to McGill, who, much
+wondering, did what he was told. The watch on deck dropped their jobs
+and the watch below turned out.
+
+"Call the names over," said Ryder, sternly.
+
+"They're all here, sir," said McGill.
+
+The skipper looked down at the upturned faces of the men and singled out
+Silas Bagge as if he meant to speak to him. But he checked himself, and,
+going down to the main deck, walked for'ard to the fo'c's'le. The men
+turned to look after him, and there was a grin on every face which would
+have been ample for two. Ryder walked quietly, and pushing aside the
+canvas door he came on a party playing poker. He heard strange voices.
+
+"I go one petter, moreover," said one of them.
+
+"I see you and go two better," said a man with a Newcastle burr in his
+speech.
+
+Then Ryder took a hand.
+
+"And I see you," he remarked. They dropped their cards and jumped to
+their feet.
+
+"What are you doing here?" he demanded. And there wasn't a word from one
+of them; they looked as sheepish as four stowaways interviewing the
+skipper before a crowd of passengers.
+
+"Get on deck," said Ryder. And much to McGill's astonishment the
+addition to the crew appeared with the captain behind them.
+
+"Divide this lot among the watches," said Ryder.
+
+Leaving McGill to "tumble to the racket," he walked to the mate's berth
+and explained to him that henceforth the _Star of the South_ would go
+about as easy by day as by night.
+
+"Then they're not dead!" cried Semple.
+
+"Not by a jugful," said Ryder, nodding.
+
+"This is very lucky, sir," said the mate, smiling.
+
+"It's confoundedly irregular, too," replied the skipper, as he rubbed
+his chin. "Are you sure you knew nothing of it, Mr. Semple?"
+
+"Me, sir! Why, I'd look on it as mutiny," said Semple; "rank mutiny!"
+
+"It was Mrs. Ryder's notion, Semple."
+
+"You don't say so, sir! She's a woman to be proud of!"
+
+"So she is," replied Ryder. "So she is."
+
+He went back to his wife.
+
+"You'll win the hundred pounds now, Will?"
+
+"I believe I shall," said Ryder.
+
+"And I'll spend it," cried his wife, running to him and kissing him.
+
+"I believe you will," said Ryder.
+
+It was a happy ship.
+
+
+
+
+                _The Size of the World's Great Cities._
+                         BY ARTHUR T. DOLLING.
+
+
+Those imposing agglomerations of houses and dwellers we call cities (in
+most cases political or commercial capitals) have shown a notable rate
+of progress during the last two or three decades. More and more do the
+centripetal forces at work in almost every nation make for the growth of
+the capital at the expense of the rural community. A century ago a
+million human beings dwelling side by side under a single municipal
+government was almost of itself one of the great wonders of the world.
+Men spoke of London with bated breath and wondered where it would all
+end. Reports of monster cities in China with a population double that of
+London were dismissed as travellers' tales. Travellers' tales, verily,
+they have proved to be, seeing that Peking even to-day has fewer than a
+million souls. But what would our forefathers have said of these
+twentieth-century "wens," these "gloomy or glowing, febrile and
+throbbing concentrations" of human life, numbering not merely two, but
+three, four, and even five millions of souls?
+
+ [Illustration: LONDON: THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNTY OF LONDON, WITH WHICH
+    THE OTHER CITIES ARE COMPARED, IS SHOWN BY THE SHADED PORTION.]
+
+Let us take London as the basis of our diagrams. London is an
+indeterminate quantity. It may mean the City of London, which comprises
+only 673 acres, or it may mean the Administrative County of London,
+which boasts nearly 117 square miles, or 74,839 acres, or Greater
+London, which embraces the Metropolitan Police district, and has an area
+of no less than 692 square miles, or 443,420 acres. If we take the
+second of these Londons we shall find it to consist of twenty-nine large
+and small cities, ranging in population from 334,991 to 51,247
+inhabitants. These are called the Metropolitan boroughs; but as it is
+rather geographical size than population which here concerns us, we may
+state that the largest of these boroughs is Wandsworth, with an area of
+9,130 acres, and the smallest is Holborn, with 409 acres. The average
+area of these boroughs, if we exclude the City, is about four square
+miles. Within these borders of London--which must not be confounded with
+Greater London--there were in 1901 4,536,541 souls, living in 616,461
+houses. Within this area, besides buildings, must be counted 12,054
+acres of grass, including the public parks and gardens.
+
+If we take Greater London we embrace a far wider and yet still a
+homogeneous community, for it cannot be denied that the adjoining
+boroughs just outside the pale of the administrative county are policed
+from the same centre, are London to the Post Office, and commonly regard
+themselves, what they must soon be officially, as an integral part of
+the Great Wen. Greater London--within the fifteen-mile radius--is far
+more homogeneous and compact than Greater Chicago, for example, or even
+than Greater New York or Greater Boston. We have here an aggregation of
+6,580,000 inhabitants and, as we have already seen, 443,420 acres. But
+perhaps the fairest estimate of London is the natural one of a single
+mass of buildings, without any unoccupied or unimproved areas. This
+gives us a solid, compact city of 85,000 acres and 6,000,000
+inhabitants; extending from Edmonton on the north to Croydon on the
+south, and east and west from Woolwich to Ealing. Nor can one doubt, at
+the present rate of expansion, that even more distant areas than Croydon
+will eventually be included, although the Scotsman may have been a
+little "previous" who addressed a letter to a friend at "Bournemouth,
+S.W."
+
+  [Illustration: A MAP OF PARIS PRINTED UPON A MAP OF LONDON, SHOWING
+                  THE RELATIVE SHAPES AND SIZES.]
+
+In the following article we propose to compare with London the sizes of
+the chief cities of the world and, by printing a black map of each city
+upon a map of London, to display their relative magnitude at a glance.
+Let us see, to begin with, how Paris compares with London as represented
+in the above diagram.
+
+At a _coup d'oeil_ we perceive that the French capital is for its
+population remarkably small in area, a fact clearly owing to its fixed
+military barriers, which make growth upward rather than outward.
+Consequently, dwellers in Paris often have six or eight pairs of
+stairs to climb where the dweller in London has but two. There have
+been repeated agitations for municipal expansion, but so far nothing
+has been done to annex the surrounding communes. Paris has a
+population of 2,700,000, living in 75,000 houses, and an area of over
+thirty-one square miles. If, however, the agglomeration of houses be
+taken--including the suburbs--the area is forty-five square miles and
+the population 3,600,000, although, as yet, this is not actually and
+geographically Paris.
+
+              [Illustration: BERLIN COMPARED WITH LONDON.]
+
+Berlin, a mere village a century ago, is the third city of Europe in
+point of population, and its growth since 1870 has been phenomenal, as
+we shall see. Yet the technical barriers which enclose the city remain
+precisely what they were more than forty years ago, and Berlin is still
+as it was in 1861, compressed within twenty-eight square miles, six
+miles long and five and a half wide. At the close of the Franco-Prussian
+War Berlin, now the capital of a new empire, became a paradise for
+builders. Streets of houses appeared almost as if by magic, and the
+whole aspect of the city became changed. From being the worst lighted,
+the worst drained, and ugliest capital in Europe it has become one of
+the finest, cleanest, and handsomest of cities, and its population has
+more than doubled. Berlin now boasts within its boundaries 1,857,000
+inhabitants. But without there is, in Ibsen's phrase, "the younger
+generation knocking at the door," and Greater Berlin might have a
+population of 2,430,000, with an area at least treble, extending,
+indeed, as far as Potsdam. Berlin's actual increase from 1800 to 1900
+was 818 per cent., multiplying its population by nine.
+
+              [Illustration: VIENNA COMPARED WITH LONDON.]
+
+"The transformation of Vienna" has for nearly half a century been a
+watchword amongst the progressive party in the Austrian capital. The
+example of Paris--with which the Viennese love to be compared--has,
+since 1858, brought to the fore innumerable Haussmannizing projects, all
+of which have tended to the city's amplifying and beautifying. The
+second or outer girdle of fortifications has been taken down; the
+barriers thus removed, fifty suburbs became, in 1891, part and parcel of
+the capital. Before this time Vienna was twenty-one English square
+miles, or one-third less than Paris; afterwards it covered sixty-nine
+square miles, besides having by the process added half a million to its
+population, which now stands at 1,662,269. But Vienna does not intend to
+be stationary in the coming decade. The fever of the municipal race for
+territory is upon her also. She is now reaching out for the adjoining
+town of Floridsdorf across the Danube, together with four other
+communes, having a population of 50,000; and this step increases the
+area of Vienna to about eighty-two square miles, nearly thrice the size
+of Berlin. Naturally such a large territory for a population smaller
+than a third that of London would comprise much open ground, especially
+as there is great overcrowding in the industrial districts. And, as a
+matter of fact, over five-eighths of Vienna is woods, pastures and
+vineyards, and arable ground, while above a tenth of the total area is
+made up of parks, gardens, and squares. The cost of making Vienna so
+vast has been enormous; but it has not been borne by the ratepayers to
+any oppressive extent, because the appropriated military ground and
+sites of fortifications have yielded a handsome profit, and municipal
+improvements in the annexed districts have, of course, enhanced the
+value of property. Moreover, the most acute observers are convinced
+that, if Vienna had not roused herself to material self-improvement, her
+prestige, which is already threatened by Budapest, would ere this have
+completely vanished. After the Austro-Prussian struggle and the
+marvellous rise of Berlin and Budapest, the city on the Danube would
+have sunk to be the Bruges of the twentieth century.
+
+          [Illustration: ST. PETERSBURG COMPARED WITH LONDON.]
+
+There is, perhaps, hardly a capital in the world so badly situated as
+St. Petersburg. To its north and east is a desolate wilderness, and to
+its south is a mighty stretch of marshland, and it is 400 miles from any
+important commercial centre. Yet, built at the behest of an Imperial
+autocrat, it has risen steadily into magnitude and wealth, at the cost
+of hundreds of thousands of human lives.
+
+St. Petersburg is, as all the world knows, built on a swamp, or
+low-lying alluvial deposits, at the mouth of the Neva. These cover
+altogether an area of 21,185 acres, of which 12,820 are part of the
+delta proper of the river and 1,330 acres are submerged. In consequence
+of its origin and present condition the city is naturally subject to
+inundations, but these, owing to the admirable public works and
+precautions taken, are not of frequent occurrence. Of the area of the
+city, 798 acres are given up to gardens and parks, while a third of the
+whole area is densely overcrowded, the average in some districts being
+one inhabitant for every ninety-three square feet and some dwellings
+containing from 400 to 2,000 inhabitants each. As for the population, it
+is now 1,248,739, to which if that of the suburbs be added (190,635),
+the Russian capital is the fifth city of Europe. Yet in area it is far
+too small; overcrowding is universal, in spite of the 1,000 dwellings
+that are erected annually, and the mortality is appalling.
+
+            [Illustration: LIVERPOOL COMPARED WITH LONDON.]
+
+Liverpool is about six miles long by about three broad, the area being
+13,236 acres. It has a population of 686,332 within boundaries less than
+half the size of Berlin or Paris. But it comprised only 5,210 acres in
+1895. In that year, feeling cramped, Liverpool annexed an area of 8,026
+acres. Of the total area, there is comprised 772-1/2 acres of parks and
+gardens.
+
+              [Illustration: PEKING COMPARED WITH LONDON.]
+
+Peking, as we may see, is a walled city of oblong shape, and contains a
+total area of about thirty square miles. The two chief divisions are
+known as the Tartar city and the outer or Chinese city. The population
+is now about 1,000,000. Writing twenty years ago Sir Robert Douglas
+thought that a population of a mere million was "out of all proportion
+to the immense area enclosed within its walls. This disparity," he
+continued, "is partly accounted for by the fact that large spaces,
+notably in the Chinese city, are not built over, and that the grounds
+surrounding the Imperial Palace private residences are very extensive."
+
+What would he have said of Chicago, New York, Budapest, or, indeed, of
+any modern capital "expanded"? To us, at the beginning of the twentieth
+century, a million inhabitants seems a very respectable population
+indeed for a city of only thirty square miles, and in this respect we
+can no longer sneer or be astonished at the "peculiarities" of Oriental
+cities.
+
+              [Illustration: BOSTON COMPARED WITH LONDON.]
+
+Boston is one of the older and more conservative American cities which
+have lately been seized by the expansion fever, and now proudly refers
+to its "Greater Boston." But this is as yet only a term, and the new
+Boston metropolitan district, embracing all the area within a circle of
+ten miles from the State House, is hardly yet a distinct municipality.
+It will doubtless soon come about, and in that case twenty-two towns and
+cities will be taken to the bosom of "the Hub," and the total population
+will be close upon a million and a quarter. At present the area of the
+city is over thirty-seven square miles (24,000 acres), or just the size
+of Chicago a decade ago, of which 2,308 acres are common open spaces and
+126 acres ponds and rivers, in addition to numerous squares, gardens,
+and playgrounds. The length of the city is eight miles and its greatest
+breadth about seven miles.
+
+ [Illustration: COMPARED WITH LONDON.--THE SOLID BLACK AREA REPRESENTS
+       THE ACTUAL BUILDINGS OF CHICAGO; THE GREY AREA COMPLETING
+                    THE ADMINISTERED CITY.]
+
+Exactly one hundred years ago the American Government built Fort
+Dearborn, on Lake Michigan. In 1831 there was a village of one hundred
+people on the site; to-day the city of Chicago has spread out (rather
+too generously, its rival municipalities think) until it comprises
+190-1/2 square miles and a population of 1,698,575. But only some
+seventy square miles of this area is improved, and less than fifty miles
+built upon. As there are also 2,232 acres of parks and open spaces,
+Chicago cannot be said to be overcrowded; especially when one remembers
+the great height of most of the buildings in the business quarter.
+Chicago's expansion, in truth, follows the lines laid down by the early
+Western boom "cities," which were prairie wilderness one week, were
+surveyed the next, had a population of twelve, one man to the square
+mile, and applied for a charter the week following, and elected a Mayor
+and Corporation. The next week the boom was over and a mere shanty
+remained to mark the site of Boomopolis.
+
+   [Illustration: NEW YORK COMPARED WITH LONDON, THE SOLID BLACK AREA
+            REPRESENTING THE ACTUAL BUILDINGS, THE GREY AREA
+                   COMPLETING THE ADMINISTERED CITY.]
+
+Before 1898 the city of New York lay partly on Manhattan Island, a long
+and narrow strip of land at the head of New York Bay, thirteen miles
+long and twenty-two square miles in area, and partly, although to a very
+trifling extent so far as population was concerned, north of the Harlem
+River, and on several small islands in the bay and East River. The total
+area was forty-two square miles, within which was a population of
+1,515,301 souls. But in the aforementioned year the great arms of the
+city flung themselves out and gathered to its bosom so many of the
+outlying parts and people as to bring the total area of Greater New York
+up to 307 square miles, and the population to 3,437,202. It must be
+confessed that much of this huge municipal territory has been rather
+irrelevantly brought in--especially Staten Island (area 57.19 square
+miles), which is separated from New York proper by the width of the bay.
+But, on the other hand, other and nearer towns, such as Jersey City and
+Hoboken, were excluded, for the reason that they were in another State.
+Within Greater New York are included 6,766 acres of parks and open
+spaces, which is but little more than half that of London; yet the
+proportion of unoccupied land not under the control of the city is, of
+course, many times as great. The actual agglomeration of buildings in
+Greater New York--excluding Staten Island--covers barely 51,000 acres,
+or eighty square miles, as is shown in the diagram. Less than 5,000
+acres is built upon in Staten Island.
+
+
+
+
+                         _Some Novel Banquets._
+
+                           BY THEODORE ADAMS.
+
+
+The art of him who prepares the banquet has reached, in these latter
+days, a distinction of novelty which might reasonably make the
+gastronomer of fifty years ago hold up his knife and fork in wonder. It
+is a novelty born of the desire for change. No longer does the
+dinner-giver merely prepare, with the aid of his costly _chef_, the menu
+for his guests and the viands on it. He--or, more properly, she, because
+of the present prominence of the fair hostess--tries not only to set a
+pretty table with flowers and cutlery of gold. The giver of dinners is
+ever thinking of that which will make the banquet memorable to the
+guest, and, in some cases, even wonders what the Press will say about
+it. This means to lie awake at night, and in such nightly vigils many
+wondrous things have been evolved.
+
+Thus we have come to hear of banquets under conditions that make the
+imagination reel, and arouse speculation as to what the dinner of the
+twenty-first century will be like. When thirty-two people sat about on
+horseback a year ago, in a temporary stable, eating from dishes handed
+to them by waiters dressed as grooms, it seemed as if the top notch of
+_bizarrerie_ had been reached. But, as the German says, _noch nicht_.
+
+   [Illustration: A HORSEBACK DINNER IN A HOTEL BALLROOM, THE TABLES
+                   BEING CARRIED IN FRONT OF THE SADDLES.
+                       _From a Photo. by Byron._]
+
+This remarkable horseback dinner was given in the great ballroom at
+Sherry's by Mr. C. K. G. Billings, of New York, and, as it was intended
+to celebrate the construction of a new stable, the rumour went round
+that the banquet would be held in the structure itself. The guests,
+however, met at Sherry's, and were escorted to a small banquet room,
+where a long table, in the form of an ellipse, was lavishly banked with
+flowers. The centre space was occupied by a stuffed horse, which cast
+his glass eyes curiously upon the assembly as the oysters and caviare
+were served. So convinced were the guests that this was the real and
+much-talked-about equestrian dinner that their surprise was great when
+they were asked to follow their host into an adjoining room.
+
+"Here," according to the report of one who was at this famous banquet,
+"there had taken place an amazing transformation, for the decoration,
+the waxed floors, and everything of the world of indoors had been
+obliterated. A space sixty-five by eighty-five feet in the centre of the
+room had been enclosed by scenery. The guests were in a land of winding
+roadways, of brooks which coursed through green meadows, and of giant
+elms. There were cottages, vine-covered, and at the edge of a country
+estate was a porter's lodge. Far away stretched fields of grain. Over
+all was the blaze of a summer sun, for above in a vault of blue were
+strung electric lights. On all sides was the country, and in the middle
+of the room, rising in a pyramid, were geraniums, daisies, and roses,
+all blooming as if in the air of June. Above them a palm formed the apex
+of a pyramid thirty feet at the base. The floor was covered with long,
+velvety grass. Around the centrepiece were arranged thirty-one horses
+waiting for their riders. Mr. Billings's mount stood near the door,
+gazing into the geranium bed. How the steeds got up to the ballroom is
+no mystery in these days of large lifts, and they were well-trained
+horses, who cared not for lights and unusual conditions. Each guest
+found his mount by means of a horseshoe-shaped card attached to the
+saddle of the horse, just as he had been guided to his seat at the
+preliminary banquet by means of the bits of Bristol-board at each
+cover."
+
+Between every two horses there was placed a carpet-covered block, from
+which the diners swung into their saddles, where, from little tables
+placed upon the pommels, they ate their splendid dinner. The horses
+showed little nervousness. Their trappings were yellow and gold, making
+pretty contrast with the costumes of the servants, who wore trousers of
+white buckskin, scarlet coats, and boots with yellow tops. Towards the
+end of the feast the horses were treated with a consideration due to
+their efforts, for a turkey-red fence surrounding the floral pyramid was
+discovered by the guests to contain feeding-troughs in which had been
+placed a plentiful quantity of superior oats. After dinner the horses
+were taken from the room by the grooms, small tables and chairs were
+brought in, and the guests sat down to an after-dinner chat as if in a
+beautiful garden.
+
+   [Illustration: A DINNER OF THE NEW YORK EQUESTRIAN CLUB, THE TABLE
+                      REPRESENTING A HORSE'S HEAD.
+                       _From a Photo. by Byron._]
+
+The horse has figured in a less ambitious, though perhaps quite as
+attractive, manner at the dinners of the Equestrian Club, which meets in
+New York during the winter once a month. For one of these banquets was
+arranged a rural scene with trees, shrubs, and beautiful beds of tulips
+and hyacinths, the whole floor being covered with stage grass. The table
+represented a horse's head, chairs being placed around the neck, while
+the head proper of the horse was a mass of flowers, with eyes, nose, and
+mouth displayed by means of ornamental and many-coloured flowers. The
+bridle, particularly, stood out strongly in brilliant red. The menu was
+formed in the shape of a horse's head, with a small bit and bridle made
+of leather and steel attached to it.
+
+             [Illustration: A DINNER INSIDE AN EASTER EGG.
+                       _From a Photo. by Byron._]
+
+The use of effective scenery at such functions is growing more common.
+Perhaps the most effective use to which it was ever put was at the Proal
+banquet of April, 1903, when thirty-five ladies dined within a monster
+Easter egg. The egg itself towered to the top of Sherry's ballroom and
+extended almost to the outer walls. Outside the egg was represented a
+farm on which chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, pigs, lambs, and
+guinea-pigs disported to the life--for they were really live. The
+ballroom had been turned into a fine landscape, with scenes representing
+fields and pastures, with flowing brooks near by, and farmhouses,
+windmills, and hayricks in the distance. One or two mirrors reflected
+parts of this landscape, which had been arranged to express that longing
+for "green fields and pastures new" which comes to all who live a city
+life when spring appears.
+
+In every respect the farm was true to life. A farmer with blue overalls
+and smock passed in front of the guests, followed by a flock of geese.
+Pigs ran between his legs, and the spring lamb frisked upon the green.
+Rabbits munched their carrots until, timid at the sight of strange
+people, they hid themselves in the straw which lay about. Around were
+scattered the implements of labour, as if the farmers had just left
+their work. There were scythes, mowing-machines, milk-pails, and
+milking-stools to be seen. Every detail, in fact, had been thought of
+necessary to make the illusion complete, and the guests--all of whom had
+been kept in ignorance until they came into the room--were justly
+astonished at the sight.
+
+The egg itself, with its shell of white, was geometrically perfect, and
+brought to mind the famous tale of Sindbad and the gigantic roc. The
+shell was fashioned with light timber bands bent to the required shape,
+and the supports were covered with green, all making a delightful
+arbour-like effect. The table was oval in form, hollowed in the centre,
+within which were floral decorations representing the white and yellow
+of an egg. Daffodils and jonquils were used for the yolk, while lilies,
+candytuft, and other white flowers were freely used. The air was filled
+with fragrance from these blooms. Mrs. Proal sat at the head of the
+ornamental table, with her guests around the oval. Music was provided by
+a band of negro musicians, who, seating themselves on wooden benches
+outside the dining-room, sang plantation melodies. The waiters were
+dressed as farm-labourers in gaily coloured shirts and smocks, with
+wisps of straw upon their heads. Fortunate, indeed, were the thirty-five
+women who took part at this unique banquet, for the farm and its giant
+egg had come into existence only for a single day, to be destroyed when
+luncheon was ended and its use was over.
+
+ [Illustration: THE GUESTS OF THE KETTLE CLUB DINNER WITH THE KETTLE IN
+                           WHICH THEY DINED.
+                       _From a Photo. by Byron._]
+
+We already begin to see in these dinners the existence of a new form of
+humour. This is shown even better in the so-called "babies' dinner"
+given at Sherry's by a Philadelphia organization called the Kettle Club.
+This club, composed of gentlemen who summer in the Adirondack Mountains,
+and who eat their forest meals round a vast and fragrant kettle,
+recently decided to admit five new members, or "babies." The only
+condition of candidacy was that the "babies" should show due
+appreciation of the honour conferred upon them. The result was a banquet
+such as had never been held before. To it were invited the older members
+of the club. The ballroom resembled a forest glade. Round the walls were
+painted forests with real trees in the foreground, to one of which was
+hitched a hunting-horse. The scenic effects included a dark blue cloth
+which represented a sky, with a moon in the distance and twinkling
+stars. In the centre of the room rested on a tall mound a huge kettle,
+twenty-five feet high and twenty-eight feet in diameter, with a door at
+one side reached by a rustic stairway. There was a circular table within
+the kettle, around which sat the guests, each with a wine "cooler" at
+his side.
+
+In the centre of the table, perfectly dark when dinner began, was a bed
+of tall flowers on the floor, nine feet below. Suddenly, when this hole
+was lighted, was revealed a magnificent display of orchids, with a vine
+of pale purple flowers. Below sat a negro with a banjo, who sang and
+played throughout the evening for the pleasure of the guests. The menu
+card showed a picture of the kettle, into which five babies were
+climbing, the faces of these being those of the five new members, each
+with a teething ring, a nursing bottle, and a rattle. Souvenirs of the
+occasion were given to the guests in the form of small kettles, each
+with the name of the guest and the club motto, "Take the Kettle,"
+painted on the side. This same inscription appeared on the structure in
+which the banquet took place, as shown in our illustration. Here we may
+note the part which the backcloth played at this noteworthy function.
+
+           [Illustration: THE OLD GUARDS' "MOCK-MENU" DINNER.
+                       _From a Photo. by Byron._]
+
+Another novel dinner was that given by a well-known New Yorker, Colonel
+O'Brien, to the Old Guard of Delmonico's, known to fame as the guard
+that "dines but never surrenders." For this affair two menus had been
+provided, one as a joke, the other for consumption. The mock bill of
+fare contained a list of dishes which _might_ have been provided. For
+example, under the heading of oysters were the words "half shell," which
+the waiters solemnly set before the assembled gentlemen, minus the
+bivalves. These being removed made way for the next item, which, being
+"cream of celery" and presumably a soup, was found to be small tubes of
+celery with cold cream inside. Through all the regular courses the joke
+was carried, with amusing success, the joint being spring lamb with
+"string," or French, beans. What was the astonishment of the guests to
+find served for this course a woolly toy lamb on a spring, which
+squeaked when pressed, and wore dried beans on a string around its neck!
+The humour of the dinner came with the continued surprise at the
+ingenuity shown by the preparer of the feast, and it can be truly said
+that each item tickled the guests immensely. With the woolly lambs this
+band of gastronomers were especially pleased, and it was at the moment
+when these ridiculous toys were handed round to the well-proportioned
+diners that our photograph was secured.
+
+           [Illustration: THE "LYRE DINNER," THE TABLE BEING
+                         IN THE FORM OF A LYRE.
+                       _From a Photo. by Byron._]
+
+A few years ago Mr. Sherry himself was returning with the _impresario_,
+Maurice Grau, from Europe, and as the result of a wager upon the ship's
+"run" Mr. Grau was given a splendid dinner. It is now known in
+gastronomic history as the "lyre dinner," for the table was arranged in
+the form of an enormous lyre. Long gilded ropes covered with pretty
+vines represented the strings, while, to carry out the idea of the
+instrument, there was a golden cloth on the inner side of the table.
+Into this were woven mauve orchids, with electric lights sparkling under
+the green leaves, thus bringing out sufficient brilliancy to please the
+guests and not to affect their eyesight. Between each two seats of the
+table was a wine "cooler," sunk into the wood in such a way that the
+neck only of each champagne bottle showed above the edge. The banquet
+was attended by those best known to music in New York, and its
+brilliancy has probably never been surpassed.
+
+
+
+
+                          _A Doubtful Case._
+               BY MRS. EGERTON EASTWICK (PLEYDELL NORTH).
+
+
+When, in the year 189-, a weakness of the throat prevented me from
+preaching for a time, I had considerable difficulty in persuading Allan
+Fortescue to take my place in the pulpit.
+
+He had been amongst us rather more than two years; and although an
+ordained priest in the Church of England, and a man of considerable
+ability, was without preferment, and, apparently, content to remain so.
+
+How came it, I often wondered, that he stayed on in our quiet village,
+with no apparent interest or occupation in life beyond his garden and
+his books?
+
+Nor, when he at length consented to my proposal and preached his first
+sermon in Stony Lea, was my perplexity lessened. His diction was that of
+a classical scholar, but his words were also the outpouring of a
+sensitive, warm-hearted man; I could have fancied that in these
+impersonal utterances he sought compensation for years of enforced
+silence and isolation.
+
+He had attracted me from the first. Manly, genial, but strangely
+reserved, Sir Lewin Maxwell and myself were, I believe, the only
+visitors who had gained admittance to his cottage.
+
+When I so far induced him to change his habits as to help me with my
+weekly sermons Sir Lewin Maxwell was abroad. He had left Stony Lea for
+the Riviera in November, and now, early in May, the fact of his marriage
+had just been announced. No particulars, however, concerning the bride
+had reached us, and the appearance of the newly-married couple at the
+Hall was looked for with much interest and curiosity. They did not come
+until June, and then, by the express desire of Sir Lewin, were met by no
+demonstration of any kind; indeed, no one, I believe, except the steward
+and myself knew the exact date or hour at which they were to be
+expected.
+
+On the Sunday following their arrival, therefore, glances were turned
+with some eagerness towards the Hall pew, but it was occupied only by a
+stout, elderly lady, who could not assuredly be Sir Lewin's
+newly-married wife.
+
+No sooner, on that day, had Allan Fortescue in due course mounted the
+pulpit than I became aware of something amiss. From my position in the
+chancel I could not see his face, but the pause which preceded his
+announcement of a text was just long enough to cause uneasiness, and his
+voice, when at length he broke the silence, was harsh and unnatural,
+although, when once fairly started, he spoke with even more than his
+usual fervour.
+
+When I reached the sacristy after the service Fortescue had already
+left, and as I was preparing to follow him I was accosted by the lady
+whom I had seen in the squire's pew.
+
+      [Illustration: "SHE TURNED TO ME AND INQUIRED WHETHER I WAS
+               AWARE OF THE TRUE CHARACTER OF THE MAN."]
+
+My visitor's comely, good-tempered face was flushed with heat and
+nervous indignation. After abruptly closing the sacristy door upon the
+two of us she turned to me and inquired whether I was aware of the true
+character of the man I had admitted to my pulpit, adding that it was
+with the greatest difficulty she had refrained from walking out of the
+church.
+
+Somewhat startled, I asked for further explanation, whereupon she gave
+me, at considerable length, the particulars I will here try to relate as
+concisely as possible.
+
+It seemed that about five years previously Allan Fortescue had been
+engaged as resident tutor to Mrs. Llewellyn's only son, and in that
+capacity had accompanied the family to Llidisfarn, a solitary,
+old-fashioned place in Wales. The house was occupied for the greater
+part of the year by a gardener and his wife as caretakers; but during
+the residence of their mistress these people retired to their own
+cottage. Mrs. Llewellyn brought with her two old and faithful
+servants--both women. Her party further included her niece and ward,
+Edith Graham, now Sir Lewin Maxwell's wife. The evening of her arrival
+Mrs. Llewellyn retired early to her room and to bed. The latter was an
+antiquated four-poster; the canopy had been removed for the sake of air,
+but the curtains remained, and on the night in question, the weather
+being boisterous and the room draughty, had been drawn so as to have
+only a small opening at the foot. Before retiring Mrs. Llewellyn had
+taken from her travelling-bag an ebony and silver casket which contained
+some valuable diamonds. She had intended placing the casket in an iron
+safe near the head of the bed, but had found the lock rusty from disuse;
+consequently, being exceedingly tired, and believing there could be no
+fear of burglars in this quiet and remote place, she left the casket on
+the dressing-table.
+
+The dressing-table faced the door of the room, and to cross from one to
+the other it was necessary to pass the foot of the bed.
+
+     [Illustration: "A FIGURE CARRYING A SMALL READING-LAMP PASSED
+                             THE APERTURE."]
+
+In the dead of the night Mrs. Llewellyn awoke, feeling sure that someone
+was stirring in the room, and, as she became more fully conscious, saw
+on the ceiling above her a dim reflection of light. Almost at the same
+moment a figure carrying a small reading-lamp passed the aperture
+between the curtains at the foot of the bed, going towards the door, and
+she recognised, to her amazement, the tutor, Allan Fortescue. She
+described herself as being too surprised and terrified to call out; it
+seemed but a moment before the door was closed and she was in darkness
+and alone. Then she struck a light, sprang from the bed, and went to the
+dressing-table. The ebony casket was gone. Even then she gave no alarm.
+Except her son and Allan Fortescue, only women were in the house; and
+she reflected that it would be safer and wiser to wait until the
+morning. That the thief should dispose of the diamonds during the night
+was virtually impossible. Also the circumstances were otherwise
+peculiar. Allan Fortescue was at that time the avowed admirer of Miss
+Graham, and for her sake an open scandal was, if possible, to be
+avoided.
+
+The following morning, however, after hours of sleepless anxiety, Mrs.
+Llewellyn summoned the tutor to the study, made her accusation, and
+demanded the return of her property.
+
+He did not attempt either to explain or deny his presence in her room
+during the night, but appeared to treat the idea of theft as a ludicrous
+jest, and stoutly maintained that the jewels were not in his possession.
+During the altercation which followed Miss Graham entered, and Fortescue
+at once explained the situation.
+
+Apparently to his surprise, Miss Graham took the affair very seriously,
+and seemed to feel that the evidence against him was overwhelming. She
+pleaded, however, so piteously that for her sake he might be spared from
+public disgrace that Mrs. Llewellyn finally consented to allow him to
+leave the house, upon the understanding that he should seek no further
+intercourse with any member of the family, and that he should never
+again undertake the duties either of a clergyman or a tutor. Under these
+circumstances he at last seemed to realize the seriousness of his
+position; he went away that morning, maintaining towards the end an
+obstinate silence. The most rigorous search, made at his own request,
+among his possessions failed to reveal the diamonds, which, indeed, had
+never since been heard of.
+
+I also gathered that, although made fully aware of the penalty to be
+incurred by any breach of the conditions named, he had steadily refused
+to bind himself as to his future.
+
+That afternoon, as soon as I was at leisure, I walked down to Allan
+Fortescue's cottage.
+
+Shocked and distressed as I was at the story, I felt many points in it
+needed clearing up, and was inwardly assured that, if he would, he had
+the power to explain the whole matter satisfactorily.
+
+He opened the door himself.
+
+"I know," he said, abruptly, before I could speak, "why you have come.
+Mrs. Llewellyn was with you this morning; I saw her rustling up towards
+the sacristy. Don't let charity bring you any farther."
+
+I signed to him to let me come in.
+
+"We can't talk on the doorstep," I said. "Of course, it is all a
+mistake."
+
+He let me come to the study; then, as he closed the door behind me, he
+said:--
+
+"There is no mistake. I was there--in her room that night. She saw me."
+
+"You were not there to take the diamonds," I persisted.
+
+"I was not there to steal the diamonds; I will own so much."
+
+"In that case, who did steal them, if stolen they were? No pains should
+have been spared at the time to discover the actual thief. Even now it
+might not be too late, if you would only account for your presence in
+the room."
+
+"The actual thief----" He began restlessly to pace the floor. "What if I
+were to say that I took the diamonds--with my own hands?"
+
+"I should answer that you must have been in some way unconscious of your
+actions."
+
+My confidence seemed to touch him; he looked at me, and for a moment I
+hoped I was to gain some enlightenment; then he said, slowly:--
+
+"I was never in my life more completely master of myself. And now there
+must be an end of my confessions."
+
+I saw that to question him further would be useless, and shortly
+afterwards took my leave. As we parted he grasped my extended hand.
+
+"I owe you an apology," he said, "for having brought this annoyance upon
+you, and I don't know how to thank you for your patience with me."
+
+A few days later an invitation reached me to dine at the Hall. Any
+intercourse between Allan Fortescue and Sir Lewin Maxwell had inevitably
+ceased. Sir Lewin, not unnaturally, accepted Mrs. Llewellyn's view of
+the case, but he did not quarrel with me for taking my own line, and
+young Lady Maxwell seemed almost grateful for my belief in the possible
+innocence of her old lover. She was a most charming woman, with an
+habitually sweet and gracious manner, rendered only more attractive, I
+at first thought, by a variableness of mood which brought suggestion of
+possible storms.
+
+An accomplished musician, her talent made a link between us. Often,
+indeed, during the earlier part of our intercourse she became associated
+in my mind with the harmonies of Beethoven, whose creations she rendered
+with remarkable skill and feeling. Later, however, I noticed an increase
+of nervous restlessness, an expression in her eyes as of some haunting,
+eager desire, little in keeping with the works of the master, which,
+however full of variety, are to my mind always instinct with a great
+satisfaction and repose.
+
+For some time I was inclined to attribute these signs of disturbance to
+the neighbourhood of Allan Fortescue, and to think that he would have
+done well to leave the village. But, so far as I could see, he
+studiously avoided all chance of encounter with any of the Hall party;
+and, without definite reason, I had not the heart to suggest that he
+should become once more a wanderer.
+
+In this way some few months passed without noticeable event. Sir Lewin,
+I thought, at times looked careworn and more aged than the passage of
+months would justify, but he seemed, if possible, more entirely devoted
+to his wife than in the earlier days of their marriage. Then, one Monday
+afternoon early in April, as I was riding homewards from visiting an
+outlying district, a curious thing happened.
+
+My way led me through Oxley Dell, a piece of road bordered on each side
+by Sir Lewin's woods, through which to the right a bridle-path leads by
+a short cut to Stony Lea. The path and immediate neighbourhood are but
+little frequented, owing to an old story of a murder and a subsequent
+ghost.
+
+   [Illustration: "A WOMAN SUDDENLY APPEARED FROM AMONG THE TREES."]
+
+As I neared the Dell I saw Allan Fortescue tramping along the road in
+front of me, but before I could overtake him he turned aside into the
+bridle-path. There I presently followed, and had him once more in view,
+when a woman suddenly appeared from among the trees and accosted him.
+Allan raised his hat, and the two walked on together; the meeting had
+the air of an appointment.
+
+Having no wish to play the spy I turned my pony's head, but I was ill at
+ease. The tall, graceful figure of the woman, enveloped though it was in
+a long rain-coat, had been ominously familiar, and as I jogged slowly
+homewards I resolved that I would call that evening on Allan and have
+the matter out with him.
+
+I found him in better spirits than usual, but when I explained my errand
+he seemed somewhat disconcerted.
+
+"Ah! you saw us," he said, and bent to knock the ashes from his pipe;
+then added, "You are sure, I suppose, of the identity of the lady?"
+
+"As sure as it is possible to be without having seen her face to face."
+
+"Still, you might be utterly mistaken. Would it not be better, for the
+sake of--the lady chiefly concerned in your mind--to give her the
+benefit of the doubt?"
+
+His eyes met mine fully, I answered question with question.
+
+"Do you think you are dealing fairly with me? Strictly speaking, perhaps
+this is no affair of mine, and yet----"
+
+"And yet you have been extraordinarily good to me, and deserve that I
+should be open with you. I can only ask you to trust me a little
+farther; to believe that the meeting you witnessed to-day cannot
+possibly injure the lady you are thinking of except through your
+interference, and that it was as far removed from being of a sentimental
+nature as though I had met my grandmother."
+
+The Friday following this interview I received a visit from the squire;
+he looked ill and harassed.
+
+"I am vexed," he said, "about Edith. She went to town for a day's
+shopping on Wednesday and has not returned. She was to lunch with Mrs.
+Llewellyn and come back for dinner. She has frequently made these little
+excursions of late. In the evening, however, I got a telegram to say she
+was detained by the dressmaker, and yesterday morning a letter to the
+same effect. This morning I had no letter, but half an hour ago I met
+General Anson--he had just arrived by the three o'clock train. He told
+me that he had seen Edith having lunch at Franconi's with Fortescue.
+They did not see him--his table was behind theirs--but as he left the
+room he passed close to them and heard Fortescue say, 'To-night, then,
+without fail, by the seven-thirty.' 'So,' the old man went on, 'I
+suppose Lady Maxwell comes down to-night, and Mr. Fortescue is to escort
+her. I thought there was a coolness--that he was under a cloud.' I
+laughed, and told him it was a case of mistaken identity."
+
+"And Fortescue?"
+
+"He went to London yesterday; I happen to know that."
+
+I must here mention that Stony Lea, although but a small village in
+Kent, has a good train service, and is but an hour's run from town. I
+looked at my watch. It was barely four o'clock. "Why not," I said, "go
+up to town by the four-forty-five, and travel down yourself with Lady
+Maxwell when she is prepared to come? You could be in Belgrave Road
+before six o'clock."
+
+"Will you come with me?" he asked.
+
+I consented; and by 6.30 we were in Belgrave Road.
+
+Mrs. Llewellyn's house had an empty, uninhabited air, and the servant
+who came to the door said his mistress had been out of town for a few
+days. Lady Maxwell had been staying there during the week. She had
+driven out in the morning and not returned until four o'clock; then,
+after a cup of tea, she had gone out again, walking; she had said she
+was leaving town that evening, and would return about half-past six in a
+cab for various parcels that were awaiting her.
+
+"Quite so," Sir Lewin said; "she is travelling down with me. I will wait
+for her here," and he walked straight into the drawing-room, whither I
+followed him. The room opened into the hall. Presently a hansom drove
+up; Lady Maxwell got out and entered the house with a latch-key. Sir
+Lewin moved towards the door of the room as though intending to meet
+her, when the arrival of another cab made him pause and look round. Lady
+Maxwell ran lightly upstairs; the door was ajar and I heard the
+swish-swish of her skirts. The second cab was a four-wheeler; Fortescue
+descended from it, and the electric bell of the front door tingled
+persistently in the silence of the house. Then we heard him asking for
+Lady Maxwell, and almost before the servant could reply Sir Lewin was on
+the doorstep. Fearful of what might ensue I followed him from the room;
+I saw him touch Fortescue on the shoulder, and Allan's start of surprise
+and, apparently, dismay; then the two men entered the hall together.
+
+"Now," said Sir Lewin, "kindly explain your presence here and your
+business with my wife."
+
+Allan's answer was unexpected.
+
+"I think," he said, quietly, "I will leave that to Lady Maxwell
+herself."
+
+They had spoken so far in low tones and with outward calm; now Sir Lewin
+muttered angrily some words which I could not hear, and raised his arm.
+
+     [Illustration: "SIR LEWIN MUTTERED ANGRILY SOME WORDS WHICH I
+                 COULD NOT HEAR, AND RAISED HIS ARM."]
+
+I stepped forward.
+
+"Come into the drawing-room," I said hurriedly in his ear. "Don't make a
+public scene."
+
+He shook me off, but at that moment another and more importunate voice
+intervened.
+
+"My dear Lewin, you here? How exceedingly fortunate! Now we need not
+rush for that seven-thirty train; you and dear Edith can stay to
+dinner."
+
+There was a darkening of the doorway, a rustle of garments, and Mrs.
+Llewellyn advanced with outstretched hands.
+
+Sir Lewin stared in blank amazement. Allan smiled.
+
+"I was in the cab," went on the lady, "waiting for Edith. Mr. Fortescue
+kindly drove with me from the station, and I had intended to travel down
+with her, trusting, my dear Lewin, to your hospitality to put me up for
+the night. I am so sorry I have been unable to return before, to be with
+the dear child all the time."
+
+She had talked us all to the drawing-room door.
+
+"I still quite fail to see," began Sir Lewin, stiffly, "how Mr.
+Fortescue----"
+
+"I will explain," said Lady Maxwell. She had come down the stairs
+unheard, and now advanced towards us. Her face was as white as the gown
+she wore, her eyes looked wild and startled. "Come with me," she added
+to Sir Lewin, and led the way to a small back room. He followed her
+without a word.
+
+"Pay the cab," said Mrs. Llewellyn, cheerfully, to the servant, "and
+bring all those packages in. Sir Lewin and Lady Maxwell will remain to
+dinner. Mr. Greyling and Mr. Fortescue, please come in, and let me offer
+you some refreshment."
+
+She moved towards the dining-room and, the door being safely closed,
+fell gasping into a chair. There was wine upon the side-board; Allan
+poured some into a glass and brought it to her. She sighed heavily as
+she took it. "How all this is to end, Heaven only knows!"
+
+"I think," said Allan, "there is nothing further for me to do. If you
+will allow me I will bid you good-night."
+
+She looked at him curiously, the wineglass half-way to her lips.
+
+"Can you," she said, "trust your vindication to us?"
+
+"Entirely. It has come to be the last thing I think about," he answered,
+sadly; "and, if she may in any degree be spared, I beg that it may be
+the very last thing in your mind also."
+
+A few minutes later Allan and I left the house. We dined in town and
+travelled back to Stony Lea together; but he offered me no explanation
+of the events of the afternoon, and I respected his silence.
+
+Nearly a week passed before I heard anything further about the matter.
+
+Then, one morning, Sir Lewin called upon me; he and Lady Maxwell had
+returned only the previous night from town. He made no reference to the
+circumstances of our last meeting, but asked me to come to the Hall that
+afternoon, as his wife was far from well, and anxious to see me.
+
+I went accordingly and found her alone, lying upon a couch in her
+morning-room and looking sadly, terribly changed.
+
+"I have asked you to come," she said, when I had taken a seat beside
+her, "because I want to tell you the truth about Allan Fortescue; he has
+suffered all these years through my fault, and I must make what
+reparation I can before----It was I who really had the diamonds; I
+wanted them, and I employed him to bring me the casket; he did this
+quite innocently, as you will hear, not knowing what it contained. I had
+seen it on the dressing-table when I went to say good-night to my aunt
+just after she had gone to bed--about nine o'clock; but I was equally
+afraid either to take it then or to return to the room in the dark later
+on. Yet the chance seemed too good to be lost; I had never seen the
+casket left exposed before; it was always kept under lock and key. On my
+way downstairs I met Allan Fortescue, and we went together to the
+drawing-room. As we sat chatting by the fire, the plan I afterwards
+carried out occurred to me. The talk turned upon ghosts, and he said he
+should much like to meet one. Then I told him, truly, that one room in
+the house was said to be haunted by the spirit of a lady who had died
+there mysteriously on her return from a ball at which she had promised
+her lover to elope with him. I explained that nothing had been disturbed
+since the morning she was found there, dead in her chair before the
+mirror; but instead of the room to which the story really attached I
+described the one I had just left, and dared him to visit it after
+midnight. He said he had no fear, but I added that I should not believe
+in his courage unless he brought me as a proof a small ebony casket
+which had always stood upon the dressing-table. He laughed and said he
+would do even that, and I promised to meet him in the conservatory the
+following morning before breakfast to receive it and hear his
+experiences. He was quite strange to the house and did not know how any
+of the bedrooms were occupied except his own and his pupil's, which were
+in another wing. In the morning he handed me the casket as arranged. You
+know the rest; you see he was helpless in my hands."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me," I asked, "that you wrecked a man's life for a
+few jewels?"
+
+  [Illustration: "'DON'T JUDGE ME TOO HARDLY,' SHE SAID, PITEOUSLY."]
+
+"Don't judge me too hardly," she said, piteously. "I was in terrible
+straits. I had been staying with some of my father's relations in town,
+and had learned much of a side of life concerning which Aunt Mary knew
+practically nothing. I owed a great deal of money, and was afraid to
+tell her about it. When I had the diamonds I was able to put off the
+most threatening of my creditors with promises of payment, and, later,
+one of my cousins helped me to dispose of the stones. I told him they
+were some jewels of my mother's which had just been made over to me.
+Aunt Mary would hold no intercourse with my father's family, so I had no
+fear of awkward explanations. When I was twenty-one I came in for a
+little money, all that was left of my mother's fortune, and I gave Aunt
+Mary some fresh jewels. You see, I had inherited certain tendencies from
+my father--perhaps in the beginning there was some excuse for me; you
+will understand when I say that he died from a hurt received in a
+gambling quarrel when I was about twelve years old. The house and all he
+possessed were sold to pay his debts, and Aunt Mary took charge of me.
+It was a great change. To me at all events my father had been good
+always, and I loved him dearly.
+
+"As to Allan Fortescue, when he found how I had tricked him he was
+furious, but I managed to see him alone and persuaded him to accept the
+situation. You see, I had contrived things so that his speaking would
+have been of very little use unless I had chosen to confess--only his
+word against mine. Of course, I was dreadfully upset when I found that
+Aunt Mary had seen him. That was just what I had not counted upon; but I
+couldn't go back then and give up the jewels--I couldn't. I promised him
+that, if he would keep silence, I would never be reckless and
+extravagant or wicked again; and for a long time I kept my word. But
+life was dreadfully dull, and the thought of what I had done made me
+wretched; if Allan had been prosecuted I don't think I could have borne
+it--I must have spoken out. As it was, I became subject to dreadful fits
+of depression, and I think Aunt Mary was very glad to get me safely
+married, as she called it. For a time, then, I was very happy; for I
+loved Lewin dearly, and I tried to forget. Then, finding Allan here,
+seeing the wreck I had made of his life, brought back to me all my
+trouble. I began to crave again for excitement of any sort. Lewin
+thought I was ill, and at first used to give me champagne as a tonic.
+
+"When we were in town last year I got back into the old set, from a
+different standpoint, and with more money at command----"
+
+Once more she stopped, but I would not again interrupt her; I felt that
+the whole sad story must be finished now.
+
+"I don't know," she continued, presently, "how Allan Fortescue
+discovered what was going on, but he did. One day I received a
+communication from him--I can't call it a letter--telling me that he
+knew the sort of life I was leading, and that unless I kept my promise
+to him he would speak and tell Lewin the truth even now. He knew and
+could prove where I had sold the diamonds. In reply to that I induced
+him to meet me in the Oxley Woods, and persuaded him to give me a little
+more time. I promised to tell Lewin that very night about my debts.
+Instead, I went to London. I really meant to start afresh; but I thought
+I could raise some money and get fairly straight without saying anything
+to my husband. I--I stayed longer than I meant. Allan came to look for
+me. He followed me to the places where he thought I was likely to be--he
+must have kept a watch upon me for some time past--but our meeting at
+last was accidental. I was really at my wits' end, and I went into
+Franconi's with Allan to talk things over. We saw General Anson leave
+the place, and I think that made Allan decide there must be no more
+concealment; also, I suppose he felt it was useless to trust me any
+longer. He went straight from me to Aunt Mary and fetched her. She knew
+that he must be speaking the truth. I had promised to go home that night
+anyhow; but I don't know what I might have done if I had been left to
+myself. Then you and Lewin appeared----It is better as it is--I should
+never have had the strength, the courage--I am so sorry--so sorry--for
+Lewin--for myself--for Allan--for my little child that is coming----"
+
+She turned her face to the wall, and I saw her slight frame shiver with
+voiceless, choking tears.
+
+There is little more to tell. Lady Maxwell lived only a few months after
+she had made this confession. Her child survived--a son--and there are
+three men who watch over that boy with perhaps exaggerated solicitude
+and love--his father, Allan Fortescue, and myself.
+
+Will he reward our care? I think so. He has his mother's face and charm,
+but in character he takes after Sir Lewin. Allan Fortescue has remained
+in the village as my curate. I trust he may never leave me, and that the
+bishop may see fit hereafter to appoint him vicar in my stead; I am
+growing old.
+
+
+
+
+                       _Illustrated Interviews._
+
+                     No. LXXXI.--DR. EDWARD ELGAR.
+
+                         BY RUDOLPH DE CORDOVA.
+
+
+                             [Illustration:
+     _From a Photo. by_] DR. EDWARD ELGAR. [_George Newnes, Ltd._]
+
+"If ever this votary of the muse of song looked from the hills of his
+present home at Malvern, from the cradle of English poetry, the scene of
+the vision of Piers Plowman, and from the British camp, with its
+legendary memories of his own 'Caractacus,' and in the light of the
+rising sun sees the towers of Tewkesbury and Gloucester and Worcester,
+he might recall in that view the earlier stages of his career, and
+confess with modest pride, like the bard in the 'Odyssey':--
+
+    Self-taught I sing; 'tis Heaven, and Heaven alone,
+    Inspires my song with music all its own."
+
+                             [Illustration:
+   _From a Photo. by_] DR. ELGAR'S HOUSE AT MALVERN. [_George Newnes
+   Ltd._]
+
+It was in November, 1900, that these words were spoken by the Orator
+when the University of Cambridge honoured itself by conferring the
+honorary degree of Doctor of Music on Dr. Elgar, whom one of the most
+distinguished German writers on music declared to be "the most brilliant
+champion of the National School of Composition which is beginning to
+bloom in England."
+
+The encomiums which Germany--the acknowledged leader of the world in
+music--has showered on Dr. Elgar have at length been reflected in
+England, which has awakened to the fact that to him at least that much
+misapplied word "genius" belongs by right divine. That awakening was
+marked by the three days' festival in the middle of March, when Covent
+Garden Opera House reverted to an old custom and for two glorious nights
+became the home of oratorio, with a concert on the third night. That
+festival is unique in the history of music, for it is the first time an
+English composer has been so honoured.
+
+However gratifying the applause of the public may be to the worker in
+any art, his greatest pleasure must properly come from his
+fellow-workers, who know the difficulties which have to be surmounted
+before the desired effect can be produced.
+
+"Was not Herr Steinbach, the conductor of the Meiningen Orchestra, among
+the others who said that you have something different from anybody else
+in the tone of your orchestra?" I asked Dr. Elgar, as we sat in his
+study at Malvern, with a great expanse of country visible through the
+wide windows.
+
+                             [Illustration:
+     _From a Photo. by_] DR. ELGAR'S STUDY. [_George Newnes, Ltd._]
+
+"I believe so," he replied; "and that remark has been one from which I
+have naturally derived great pleasure.
+
+"You know," said Dr. Elgar, as he settled down to talk for the purpose
+of this interview, in accordance with a long-standing promise made in
+what he came to regard as an unguarded moment--"you know, since you
+compel me to begin at the beginning, that I 'began' in Broadheath, a
+little village three miles from Worcester, in which city my father was
+organist of St. George's Catholic Church, a post he held for
+thirty-seven years. I was a very little boy indeed when I began to show
+some aptitude for music and used to extemporize on the piano. When I was
+quite small I received a few lessons on the piano. The organ-loft then
+attracted me, and from the time I was about seven or eight I used to go
+and sit by my father and watch him play. After a time I began to try to
+play myself. At first the only thing I succeeded in producing was noise,
+but gradually, out of the chaos, harmony began to evolve itself. In
+those days, too, an English opera company used to visit the old
+Worcester Theatre, and I was taken into the orchestra, which consisted
+of only eight or ten performers, and so heard old operas like 'Norma,'
+'Traviata,' 'Trovatore,' and, above all, 'Don Giovanni.'
+
+                    [Illustration: DR. EDWARD ELGAR.
+                   _From a Photo. by E. T. Holding._]
+
+"My general education was not neglected. I went to Littleton House
+School until I was about fifteen. At the same time I saw and learnt a
+great deal about music from the stream of music that passed through my
+father's establishment.
+
+"My hope was that I should be able to get a musical education, and I
+worked hard at German on the chance that I should go to Leipsic, but my
+father discovered that he could not afford to send me away, and anything
+in that direction seemed to be at an end. Then a friend, a solicitor,
+suggested that I should go to him for a year and see how I liked the
+law. I went for a year, but came to the conclusion that the law was not
+for me, and I determined to return to music. There appeared to be an
+opening for a violinist in Worcester, and as it occurred to me that it
+would be a good thing to try to take advantage of the opening, I had
+been teaching myself to play the violin. Then I began to teach on my own
+account, and spent such leisure as I had in writing music. It was music
+of a sort--bad, very bad--but my juvenile efforts are, I hope,
+destroyed.
+
+"Although I was teaching the violin I wanted to improve my playing, so I
+began to save up in order to go to London to get some lessons from Herr
+Pollitzer. On one occasion I was working the first violin part of the
+Haydn quartet. There was a rest, and I suddenly began to play the 'cello
+part. Pollitzer looked up. 'You know the whole thing?' he said.
+
+"'Of course,' I replied.
+
+"He looked up, curiously. 'Do you compose, yourself?' he asked.
+
+"'I try,' I replied again.
+
+"'Show me something of yours,' he said.
+
+"I did so, with the result that he gave me an introduction to Mr., now
+Sir, August Manns, who, later on, played many of my things at the daily
+concerts at the Crystal Palace.
+
+"When I resolved to become a musician and found that the exigencies of
+life would prevent me from getting any tuition, the only thing to do was
+to teach myself. I read everything, played everything, and heard
+everything I possibly could. As I have told you, I used to play the
+organ and the violin. I attended as many of the cathedral services as I
+could to hear the anthems, and to get to know what they were, so as to
+become thoroughly acquainted with the English Church style. The putting
+of the fine new organ into the cathedral at Worcester was a great event,
+and brought many organists to play there at various times. I went to
+hear them all. The services at the cathedral were over later on Sunday
+than those at the Catholic church, and as soon as the voluntary was
+finished at the church I used to rush over to the cathedral to hear the
+concluding voluntary. Eventually I succeeded my father as organist at
+St. George's. We lived at that time in the parish of St. Helen's, in
+which is the mother church of Worcester, which had a peal of eight
+bells. The Curfew used always to be rung in those days at eight o'clock
+in the evening, and I believe it is still rung. I made friends with the
+sexton and used to ring the Curfew, and afterwards strike the day of the
+month. My enthusiasm was so great that I used to prolong the ringing
+from three minutes to ten minutes, until the people in the neighbourhood
+complained, when I had to reduce the time. On Sunday the bells were
+supposed to go for half an hour before service, from half-past ten to
+eleven. The performance was divided into certain parts. With a friend, I
+used to 'raise' and 'fall' the bell for ten minutes, chime a smaller
+bell for ten minutes or so, and at five minutes to eleven I would fly
+off to play the organ at the Catholic church.
+
+             [Illustration: AN EARLY PORTRAIT OF DR. ELGAR.
+                          _From a Photograph._]
+
+"You ask me to go into greater details about my musical education. I am
+constantly receiving letters on this point from all over the world, for
+it is well known that I am self-taught in the matter of harmony,
+counterpoint, form, and, in short, the whole of the 'mystery' of music,
+and people want to know what books I used. To-day there are all sorts of
+books to make the study of harmony and orchestration pleasant. In my
+young days they were repellent. But I read them and I still exist."
+
+If only cold type could suggest the humour with which those words were
+spoken!
+
+"The first was Catel, and that was followed by Cherubini. The first real
+sort of friendly leading I had, however, was from 'Mozart's
+Thorough-bass School.' There was something in that to go upon--something
+human. It is a small book--a collection of papers beautifully and
+clearly expressed--which he wrote on harmony for the niece of a friend
+of his. I still treasure the old volume. Ouseley and Macfarren followed,
+but the articles which have since helped me the most are those of Sir
+Hubert Parry in 'Grove's Dictionary.'"
+
+"How did these various authorities mix?" I interrupted.
+
+"They didn't mix," was Dr. Elgar's reply, "and it appears it is
+necessary for anyone who has to be self-taught to read everything
+and--pick out the best. That, I suppose, is the difficulty--to pick out
+the best. How to forget the rubbish and remember the good I can't tell
+you, but perhaps that is where his brains must come in.
+
+"It would be affectation were I to pretend that my work is not
+recognised as modern, and I hate affectation, yet it would probably
+surprise you to know the amount of work I did in studying musical form.
+Only those can safely disregard form who ignore it with a full knowledge
+and do not evade it through ignorance.
+
+"Mozart is the musician from whom everyone should learn form. I once
+ruled a score for the same instruments and with the same number of bars
+as Mozart's G Minor Symphony, and in that framework I wrote a symphony,
+following as far as possible the same outline in the themes and the same
+modulation. I did this on my own initiative, as I was groping in the
+dark after light, but looking back after thirty years I don't know any
+discipline from which I learned so much.
+
+"So you insist on my telling you some more of my early struggles and my
+early work? I was interested in many other things besides music, and I
+had the good fortune to be thrown among an unsorted collection of old
+books. There were books of all kinds, and all distinguished by the
+characteristic that they were for the most part incomplete. I busied
+myself for days and weeks arranging them. I picked out the theological
+books, of which there were a good many, and put them on one side. Then I
+made a place for the Elizabethan dramatists, the chronicles including
+Baker's and Hollinshed's, besides a tolerable collection of old poets
+and translations of Voltaire, and all sorts of things up to the
+eighteenth century. Then I began to read. I used to get up at four or
+five o'clock in the summer and read--every available opportunity found
+me reading. I read till dark. I finished by reading every one of these
+books--including the theology. The result of that reading has been that
+people tell me I know more of life up to the eighteenth century than I
+do of my own time, and it is probably true.
+
+"In studying scores the first which came into my hands were the
+Beethoven symphonies. Anyone can have them now, but they were difficult
+for a boy to get in Worcester thirty years ago. I, however, managed to
+get two or three, and I remember distinctly the day I was able to buy
+the Pastoral Symphony. I stuffed my pockets with bread and cheese and
+went out into the fields to study it. That was what I always did. Even
+when I began to teach, when a new score came into my hands I went off
+for a long day with it out of doors, and when my unfortunate--or
+fortunate?--pupils went for their lessons I was not at home to give
+them.
+
+"By the way, talking about scores, it will probably surprise you to know
+that I never possessed a score of Wagner until one was given to me in
+1900.
+
+     [Illustration: DR. ELGAR AS A MEMBER OF HIS QUINTET, FOR WHICH
+                          HE WROTE THE MUSIC.
+                      _From a Photo. by Bennett._]
+
+"In the early days of which I have been speaking five of us established
+a wind quintet. We had two flutes, an oboe, a clarionet, and a bassoon,
+which last I played for some time, and afterwards relinquished it for
+the 'cello. There was no music at all to suit our peculiar requirements,
+as in the ideal wind quintet a horn should find a place and not a second
+flute, so I used to write the music. We met on Sunday afternoons, and it
+was an understood thing that we should have a new piece every week. The
+sermons in our church used to take at least half an hour, and I spent
+the time composing the thing for the afternoon. It was great experience
+for me, as you may imagine, and the books are all extant, so some of
+that music still exists. We played occasionally for friends, and I
+remember one moonlight night stopping in front of a house to put the
+bassoon together. I held it up to see if it was straight before
+tightening it. As I did so, someone rushed out of the house, grabbed me
+by the arms, and shouted, 'It will be five shillings if you do.' He
+thought I had a gun in my hand.
+
+"The old Worcester Glee Club had been established as long ago as 1809
+for the performance of old glees, with an occasional instrumental night.
+At these last I first played second fiddle and afterwards became leader,
+as, after a time, I used to do the accompanying. It was an enjoyable and
+artistic gathering, and the programmes were principally drawn from the
+splendid English compositions for men's voices. The younger generation
+seemed to prefer ordinary part-songs, and ballads also were introduced,
+and the tone of the thing changed. I am not sure if the club is still in
+existence.
+
+"It was in 1877 that I first went to take lessons of Pollitzer. He
+suggested that I should stay in London and devote myself to violin
+playing, but I had become enamoured of a country life, and would not
+give up the prospect of a certain living by playing and teaching in
+Worcester on the chance of only a possible success which I might make as
+a soloist in London.
+
+"The thing which brought me before a larger public as a composer was the
+production of several things of mine at Birmingham by Mr. W. C.
+Stockley, to whom my music was introduced by Dr. Wareing, himself a
+composer, and still resident in Birmingham. At that time I was a member
+of Mr. Stockley's orchestra--first violin."
+
+In this connection it is interesting to break Dr. Elgar's narrative to
+tell an anecdote which Mr. Stockley relates. When he decided to do
+something of Dr. Elgar's, he asked him if he would like to conduct it.
+"Certainly not," Dr. Elgar replied; "I am a member of the orchestra and
+I am going to stick in the orchestra. I am not recognised as a composer,
+and the fact that you are going to do something of mine gives me no
+title to a place anywhere else." The piece was a success and the
+audience called for Dr. Elgar, who came down from among the fiddles,
+made his bow, and then went back to his place.
+
+    [Illustration: REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A PAGE OF THE FULL SCORE OF
+                      "THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS."]
+
+To resume. "Don't suppose, however," Dr. Elgar said, "that after that
+recognition as a composer things were easy for me. The directors of the
+old Promenade Concerts at Covent Garden Theatre were good enough to
+write that they thought sufficiently of my things to devote a morning to
+rehearsing them. I went on the appointed day to London to conduct the
+rehearsal. When I arrived it was explained to me that a few songs had to
+be taken before I could begin. Before the songs were finished Sir Arthur
+Sullivan unexpectedly arrived, bringing with him a selection from one of
+his operas. It was the only chance he had of going through it with the
+orchestra, so they determined to take advantage of the opportunity. He
+consumed all my time in rehearsing this, and when he had finished the
+director came out and said to me, 'There will be no chance of your going
+through your music to-day.' I went back to Worcester to my teaching, and
+that was the last of my chance of an appearance at the Promenade
+Concerts.
+
+"Years after I met Sullivan, one of the most amiable and genial souls
+that ever lived. When we were introduced he said, 'I don't think we have
+met before.' 'Not exactly,' I replied, 'but very near it,' and I told
+him the circumstance. 'But, my dear boy, I hadn't the slightest idea of
+it,' he exclaimed, in his enthusiastic manner. 'Why on earth didn't you
+come and tell me? I'd have rehearsed it myself for you.' They were not
+idle words. He would have done it, just as he said. He never forgot the
+episode till the end of his life.
+
+"Two similar occurrences took place at the Crystal Palace: rehearsals
+were planned which never came off, so I was no nearer to getting a
+hearing for big orchestral works.
+
+"Mr. Hugh Blair, then the organist of Worcester Cathedral, saw some of
+the cantata, 'The Black Knight,' and said: 'If you will finish it I will
+produce it at Worcester.' I finished it, and it was produced by the
+Worcester Festival Choir. This cantata then came under the notice of Dr.
+Swinnerton Heap, to whom I owe my introduction to the musical festivals
+as a writer of choral works. He had known me for a good many years as a
+violinist, but it had never occurred to him to talk to me about my
+composing, and he knew nothing of it.
+
+"It was through Dr. Heap that I was asked to write a cantata for the
+Staffordshire Musical Festival, and, shortly after, the committee asked
+me to provide an oratorio for the Worcester Festival. They were 'The
+Light of Life,' performed in Worcester Cathedral, and 'King Olaf,' at
+Hanley.
+
+"Since then it has been a record of the production of one composition
+after another until we come to 'The Apostles,' and my new overture 'In
+the South,' produced at Covent Garden; the one great event that
+particularly stands out is the production of the 'Variations' by Dr.
+Richter, to whom I was then a complete stranger.
+
+"For a long time I had had the idea of writing 'The Apostles' in pretty
+much the form in which I hope it will eventually appear. As you know,
+there have been oratorios on many points of Jewish and Christian
+history, but none had shown how Christianity has risen. I take the men
+who were in touch with Christ, the Apostles in fact, and show them to be
+ordinary mortals rather than superhuman men, as they are generally
+represented in art. I was always particularly impressed with
+Archbishop Whately's conception of Judas, who, as he wrote, 'had no
+design to betray his Master to death, but to have been as confident of
+the will of Jesus to deliver Himself from His enemies by a miracle as He
+must have been certain of His power to do so, and accordingly to have
+designed to force Him to make such a display of His superhuman powers as
+would have induced all the Jews--and, indeed, the Romans too--to
+acknowledge Him King.'
+
+"In carrying out this plan I made the book myself, taking out lines from
+different parts of the Bible which exactly express my conception. How it
+was done the following chorus will show you, for you will notice that
+the references to the text are printed in the margin:--
+
+    The Lord hath chosen them to stand before Him, to serve
+    Him.--_II. Chron._ 29, 11.
+
+    He hath chosen the weak to confound the mighty.--_I. Cor._ 1,
+    27.
+
+    He will direct their work in truth.--_Isa._ 61, 8.
+
+    Behold, God exalteth by His power: who teacheth like Him?--_Job_
+    36, 22.
+
+    The meek will He guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach
+    His way.--_Ps._ 25, 9.
+
+    He will direct their work in truth.--_Isa._ 61, 8.
+
+    For out of Zion shall go forth the law.--_Isa._ 2, 3.
+
+"You will notice that occasionally, as in the third extract, I have used
+the words in their meaning that appears on the surface, and not in the
+real meaning of the sentence which may be found in any commentary. To
+keep the diction exactly the same I have not gone outside the Scripture
+except in one sentence from the Talmud in the case of the watchers on
+the Temple roof.
+
+"It was part of my original scheme to continue 'The Apostles' by a
+second work carrying on the establishment of the Church among the
+Gentiles. This, too, is to be followed by a third oratorio, in which the
+fruit of the whole--that is to say, the end of the world and the
+Judgment--is to be exemplified. I, however, faltered at that idea, and I
+suggested to the directors of the Birmingham Festival to add merely a
+short third part to the two into which the already published work, 'The
+Apostles,' is divided. But I found that to be unsatisfactory, and I have
+decided to revert to my original lines. There will, therefore, be two
+other oratorios."
+
+This definite pronouncement of Dr. Elgar's cannot fail to evoke the
+warmest anticipations on the part of the music loving world.
+
+It is worth noting here that shortly after "The Dream of Gerontius" was
+produced at the Birmingham Festival, in 1900, Herr Julius Buths, the
+famous conductor of Duesseldorf, was so struck with it that he determined
+to produce it in Germany and himself translated the libretto. So great a
+success was this performance that "The Dream," which one of the most
+celebrated German musical critics has declared to be "the greatest
+composition of the last hundred years, with the exception of the
+'Requiem' of Brahms," was repeated at the Lower Rhine Festival, a thing
+hitherto unheard of in the annals of English music, and at the Lower
+Rhine Festival on Whit-Sunday "The Apostles" is to be given.
+
+Dr. Elgar has a delightful and most acute sense of humour, so that I was
+sure I should not be misunderstood if I ventured to ask a question about
+his "musical crimes."
+
+He smiled. "But which of my musical crimes do you mean? From the point
+of view of one person or another I understand all my music has been a
+crime," he replied, lightly. Then he added, "Oh, you mean 'The
+Cockaigne,' 'The Coronation Ode,' and 'The Imperial March' especially.
+Yes, I believe there are a good many people who have objected to them.
+But I like to look on the composer's vocation as the old troubadours or
+bards did. In those days it was no disgrace to a man to be turned on to
+step in front of an army and inspire the people with a song. For my own
+part, I know that there are a lot of people who like to celebrate events
+with music. To these people I have given tunes. Is that wrong? Why
+should I write a fugue or something which won't appeal to anyone, when
+the people yearn for things which can stir them--"
+
+"Such as 'Pomp and Circumstance,'" I interpolated.
+
+"Ah, I don't know anything about that," replied Dr. Elgar, "but I do
+know we are a nation with great military proclivities, and I did not see
+why the ordinary quick march should not be treated on a large scale in
+the way that the waltz, the old-fashioned slow march, and even the polka
+have been treated by the great composers; yet all marches on the
+symphonic scale are so slow that people can't march to them. I have some
+of the soldier instinct in me, and so I have written two marches of
+which, so far from being ashamed, I am proud. 'Pomp and Circumstance,'
+by the way, is merely the generic name for what is a set of six marches.
+Two, as you know, have already appeared, and the others will come later.
+One of them is to be a Soldier's Funeral March.
+
+  [Illustration: REDUCED FACSIMILE OF MS. OF "POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE."]
+
+"As for 'The Imperial March,' which was written for Queen Victoria's
+Diamond Jubilee of 1897, it would, perhaps, interest you to know that
+only on January 22nd last it was given in St. George's Chapel, Berlin,
+at the unveiling of the memorials of Queen Victoria and the Empress
+Frederick, and Dr. G. R. Sinclair, of Hereford Cathedral, played it on
+the organ.
+
+                             [Illustration:
+  _From a Photo. by_] GOLF ON MALVERN COMMON. [_Foulsham & Banfield._]
+
+"How and when do I do my music? I can tell you very easily. I come into
+my study at nine o'clock in the morning and I work till a quarter to
+one. I don't do any inventing then, for that comes anywhere and
+everywhere. It may be when I am walking, golfing, or cycling, or the
+ideas may come in the evening, and then I sit up until any hour in order
+to get them down. The morning is devoted to revising and orchestration,
+of which I have as much to do as I can manage. As soon as lunch is over
+I go out for exercise and return about four or later, after which I
+sometimes do two hours' work before dinner. A country life I find
+absolutely essential to me, and here the conditions are exactly what I
+require. As you see," and Dr. Elgar moved over to the large window which
+takes up the whole of one side of his study, "I get a wonderful view of
+the surrounding country. I can see across Worcestershire, to Edgehill,
+the Cathedral of Worcester, the Abbeys of Pershore and Tewkesbury, and
+even the smoke from round Birmingham. It is delightfully quiet, and yet
+in contrast with it there is a constant stream of communication with the
+outside world in the shape of cables from America and Australia, and
+letters innumerable from all over the world."
+
+In the house itself there are not many evidences of Dr. Elgar's
+productions, but prominent in a corner of the drawing-room is the laurel
+wreath presented to him at Duesseldorf when "The Dream" was first
+produced. The leaves are brown to-day, but the scarlet ribbon is as
+bright as the memory of the music in the enraptured ears of those who
+have heard it. In his study are two prized possessions, the one a
+tankard made by some members of the Festival Choir at Hanley at the time
+of the production of "King Olaf." The inscription, taken from one of the
+choruses, is, appropriately, a Bacchanalian one:--
+
+        The ale was strong;
+        King Olaf feasted late and long.
+
+                                    --_Longfellow_.
+
+Next to this is a cup, also specially designed by Mr. Noke, of Hanley,
+to commemorate the performance of "The Dream." On one side is a portrait
+of Cardinal Newman and on the other a portrait of Dr. Elgar, with the
+following inscription from the work itself:--
+
+    Learn that the flame of the everlasting love
+    Doth burn ere it transform.
+
+
+
+
+                       _Off the Track in London._
+
+                           BY GEORGE R. SIMS.
+
+                II.--IN THE ROYAL BOROUGH OF KENSINGTON.
+
+
+The sun shines brightly on the gay Kensington thoroughfare in which I
+meet my artist _confrere_ and prepare to wander off the track in a
+district which is held to be the wealthiest in the Empire.
+
+It is a winter morning, but the sky is blue, the air is balmy, and the
+flood of sunlight gives a Rivieran aspect to the stately mansions and
+pleasant villas that we pass on our way to the point at which we are to
+turn off and make our plunge into one of the strangest districts of
+London, a district of which its rich neighbours have no knowledge,
+although it lies at their doors.
+
+A walk of a few minutes and we have left wealth and fashion behind us;
+the gay shops have vanished, the well-dressed people have disappeared as
+if by magic. The mansions and the villas have given place to the long
+streets of grey, weather-beaten, two and three story houses, in which
+the local industry writes itself large in white letters.
+
+Here we are in Notting Dale and in the heart of Laundry-Land. In every
+house in street after street the blinds of the ground floor are down as
+though someone lay dead within. But if you look from the opposite side
+of the street you will see that in every room above the blinds lines are
+stretched from wall to wall, and from these lines wrung out details of
+the washing-tub are hanging. If you cross to the dilapidated railings of
+the sorry little patch that was once a front garden and peer into the
+basement you will see that laundry work is in full swing. The blinds of
+the ground-floor rooms are probably drawn because the hand laundresses
+do not like to be criticised too closely by the neighbours, who are also
+their business rivals.
+
+The street is typical of a dozen others. You may see again and again
+that broken-down little front garden, with its stunted trees, strewn
+rubbish, and the little wooden, lop-sided railing that looks as though
+it no longer thought the patch it once guarded worth standing up for. On
+the window-sill of the top floor of a score of houses you may see a
+lonely, empty flower-pot that looks more like a handy missile in an
+emergency than an adjunct of window gardening. The rain-sodden,
+blackened stucco meets you at every turn, and when you have counted the
+twentieth cat sitting on a sill or a doorstep washing its shirt to snowy
+whiteness you begin to wonder why the local influence has not made
+itself more widely felt. Everybody inside the houses is washing for
+other people, everything is conducted with scrupulous cleanliness and
+under official inspection, but there are plenty of streets adjacent to
+Laundry-Land in which only the cats make themselves conspicuously clean.
+
+A little farther away towards Latimer Road are the great steam laundries
+employing a small army of young women, who at the dinner hour will turn
+out and make every street in the Dale a forest of white aprons.
+
+But all the streets of Laundry-Land are not given up to useful industry.
+A portion of the district is so notorious as a guilt garden that it has
+been called the London Avernus. It is packed with common lodging-houses,
+a large number of them for women, and it has streets of evil reputation
+in which almost every window is broken and stuffed with rags. The
+Borough Council has now in hand a splendid rehousing scheme which will
+vastly improve the district, but we must take it as we find it to-day.
+
+We turn out of the sunlight, and entering a narrow doorway descend into
+the basement of a typical lodging-house. The house is known locally as
+the "Golden Gates," a name bestowed upon it in a spirit of badinage by a
+client with a sense of humour.
+
+The kitchen is crowded with women, young and old. Some are sitting on
+the benches around the wall, one or two are making a late breakfast; an
+old woman is cooking something at the red coke fire.
+
+As a rule there is little conversation in a lodging-house in the morning
+hours. I have been constantly struck by the note of moodiness, not to
+say sullenness, which hangs over the company during the hours of
+daylight. The men are, as a rule, more communicative than the women.
+Women of the class that drift to the doss-house are not inclined to
+exchange confidences with their neighbours.
+
+But the kitchen of the Golden Gates as we enter it has one talkative
+occupant. As soon as our eyes get accustomed to the gloom, which is only
+relieved by a ray of light filtering through a small, dust-covered
+window, we notice that a tall woman in faded finery and an astrachan
+hat, and with some traces of refinement in features and bearing, is
+standing in the centre and chaffing the others. One or two smile at her
+jokes, but the majority are wholly indifferent, wearing that air of
+sullen aloofness which is peculiarly characteristic of a woman's
+lodging-house.
+
+I have not intruded on the privacy of the ladies of the Golden Gates
+without a show of justification. To enable my companion to make a sketch
+of the scene, I have resorted to an expedient which permits me to make
+certain inquiries of a semi-official nature, and to attract the
+attention of the guests while my _confrere_ is at work. If they were
+aware that they were being sketched it is quite likely that there would
+be trouble, and my comrade might find himself in as unpleasant a fix as
+did a photographer who once went with me to the Chinese quarter in
+Limehouse, for "Living London," and attempted to take the proprietor of
+an opium den and some of his clients. The photographer emerged
+unscathed, but the camera required a considerable amount of repair.
+
+Fortunately I have an inquiry to make which puts my audience in sympathy
+with me, and my _confrere_ is supposed to be making notes of the
+information supplied as to the last movements of a woman who had used
+the house for some time and had mysteriously disappeared.
+
+During the whole time the lady in the dingy astrachan keeps up a running
+fire of chaff, which materially assists us.
+
+       [Illustration: "THE LADY IN THE DINGY ASTRACHAN KEEPS UP A
+                          RUNNING FIRE OF CHAFF."]
+
+She welcomes us to the "Hotel de Fourpence," and says, though it isn't
+exactly the Carlton, it is quite comfortable when you get used to it.
+She interlards her bantering remarks with French words, and we come to
+the conclusion that she is a governess who has drifted down.
+
+It is no uncommon thing to find men and women of education in the lowest
+lodging-houses of London. I have found a clergyman in one of the worst
+dens of Flower and Dean Street. In one of the Dale lodging-houses there
+is a woman whose father had his town house and his country house and his
+villa in the South of France.
+
+This woman in the astrachan hat is a striking contrast to her
+surroundings. Most of the other inmates are of the usual type--women who
+have drifted down from honest industry to vagabondage, or have been born
+to it.
+
+Returning through the Golden Gates into the sunshine, we make our way to
+Jetsam Street. That is not its real name, but the one I have given it.
+This is a street of black and battered doors, of damaged railings, and
+of broken windows. On the doorsteps here and there stand groups of
+slatternly, unkempt women. From the windows above a tousled head
+occasionally appears. Many of the houses here are common lodging-houses;
+but some of them are in the hands of the house-farmers, who let them out
+in furnished rooms at a shilling a day. We enter a room which is
+unoccupied and take stock of the furniture. It consists of a bed, two
+chairs, and the wreckage of a dirty deal table.
+
+In this room a man and his wife and children are accommodated at night,
+but the shilling paid only entitles the family to remain there until ten
+in the morning.
+
+At that hour they are turned out and their tenancy ceases. If they wish
+to renew it they can do so in the evening, but not before.
+
+These people, who are paying six shillings a week, or seven shillings
+where Sunday is not a free day, for a single room, have to spend the day
+in the streets. Many of them make their way to the public parks and
+sleep on the seats or on the grass. Some of them beg, some of them hawk
+trumpery articles. They are probably paying eighteen pounds a year for a
+wretched room, and yet in the house-farmer's hands they are homeless
+every day in the week.
+
+Jetsam Street is flooded with golden sunshine as we pass through it, but
+the sunshine has not made the inhabitants light-hearted. Half-way down
+the street a man and a woman are fighting. The man is delivering a
+series of kicks in the style of La Savate at the woman, who is defiant
+and nimble and defends herself with her jacket, which she has taken off
+and uses both as a guard and as a weapon.
+
+      [Illustration: "ONE OR TWO WOMEN STANDING ON THE DOORSTEPS
+                    WATCH THE PROCEEDINGS."
+
+One or two women standing on the doorsteps watch the proceedings, but
+apparently without interest. An old woman proceeding to the public-house
+for beer turns her head for a moment and then passes on her way. A
+little boy in rags passes the fighting couple and takes no notice
+whatever. It is an ordinary incident, and has no special attraction for
+the neighbours.
+
+Presently the man succeeds in planting a blow that sends the woman down.
+She is up again in a moment and faces him, prepared to continue the
+contest. But he thinks he has scored a point and is satisfied.
+
+"Now I'll go to the workhouse," he says.
+
+"And the best place for you," answers the woman.
+
+The man thrusts his hands in his pockets and slouches off. The woman
+puts on her jacket and strolls away. If we were to investigate the
+circumstances that have led up to the fight, we should find that we had
+been assisting at a Notting Dale version of the story of Carmen, Don
+Jose, and Escamillo, only Carmen in this case is a laundry girl, Don
+Jose is an idle ruffian, and Escamillo is another, only of a bolder
+type.
+
+In Notting Dale the women are the principal wage-earners, and the
+district is infested with a contemptible set of men, who are loafers or
+worse. It is a common thing in the Dale for a man to boast that he is
+going to marry a laundry girl and do nothing for the rest of his life.
+
+It seems difficult to realize that such a scene and such a street can
+exist within a stone's throw of a quarter crowded with the wealth and
+fashion of the capital. But wherever you step off the beaten track in
+London a hundred surprises await you.
+
+I do not wonder at the fight in Jetsam Street which fails to rouse the
+lookers-on from their midday lethargy, for I am an old traveller in this
+strange land. But I must confess that it gives me a little shock when at
+the end of the street I come upon a man in the last stage of consumption
+sitting propped up with pillows in an arm-chair on the doorstep.
+
+  [Illustration: "BROUGHT OUT TO SIT A LITTLE WHILE IN THE SUNSHINE."]
+
+He has been brought out to sit a little while in the sunshine. The poor
+fellow has, I ascertain, taken his discharge from the infirmary a few
+days previously. He wants to die at home--at home in Jetsam Street!
+
+The picture I have had so far to draw is a painful one and a squalid
+one. But it is typical of the neighbourhood, and could not be omitted if
+in these travels off the track I am to give a faithful account of the
+London that is so little known even to Londoners.
+
+Let us hasten through the sordid streets, looking up at the blue skies
+and ignoring the squalid houses, and make our way to a more romantic
+spot.
+
+"The Potteries!" How odd this description of a portion of Kensington
+sounds, yet the district we are now in is known by this name, and yonder
+is what remains of the kiln.
+
+Here in the Potteries the spell of the old romance still lingers, for
+this is the district of the gipsies. In front of it is the pleasant
+recreation-ground, Avondale Park, which the County Council has made
+beautiful for the children of the Dale, and just round the corner is
+hidden a space where, year after year, the gipsies came with their vans
+and encamped for the winter. And close at hand are cottages and gardens,
+to which ducks and geese give quite a rural appearance.
+
+   [Illustration: "THERE ARE ONE OR TWO VANS LEFT TO MARK THE SPOT."]
+
+The gipsies are not here this winter, but there are one or two vans left
+to mark the spot where, until quite recently, the sons and daughters of
+Egypt pitched their "tans" in the heart of fashionable Kensington. Some
+of them, yielding to the force of such modern ideas as the sanitary
+inspector and the School Board officer, have given up the fight for
+existence in a dwelling-van and have gone to live under a roof like the
+gorgios, though a gipsy of the true Romany blood believes that nothing
+but ill-luck will attend the Romany chal or the Romany chi who lives in
+a house.
+
+To-day the children of the gipsies are, many of them, in the Notting
+Dale Board School and the fathers and mothers are in the lodging-houses.
+One of the wanderers, who in the old times used to pitch on the vacant
+ground of the Potteries, so far fell into Gentile ways as to take a
+lodging-house and run it himself. He and his wife became noted
+characters in the Dale, and when he died a little time ago the gipsies
+came from far and near and gave him a genuine Romany funeral, with all
+the ancient rites and ceremonies of the great Pali tribe who wandered
+out of India long centuries ago and gave the word "pal" to our language
+to signify brother.
+
+Though the gipsy camp has departed and the ground will know it no more,
+the surroundings are still suggestive of the old days. Hard by a
+dwelling-van left, like the rose of the poet, blooming alone is the shed
+of a chair-caner, a handsome, prosperous-looking man, who is working in
+the open and singing at his congenial task. The battered carts, the old
+chains, the broken wheels, the pigeon lofts, and the wooden sheds
+standing on a patch of waste ground remind you of the pictures you were
+given to copy at school when you were in the drawing-class. If there had
+only been a mill handy the resemblance would have been complete, but the
+chimney of the old kiln dominates the scene and takes the mill's place.
+
+Here the note of Jetsam Street has disappeared. All around are
+respectable working-class dwellings and stableyards. A little farther up
+is a double row of cottages with a paved way between them that seem to
+have been lifted bodily out of a Yorkshire mill town and dropped with
+their quaint out-houses on to the confines of Kensington. When you come
+upon Thresher's Place you rub your eyes and wonder if it is possible
+that five minutes' walk will bring you out on Campden Hill.
+
+In the mews round about the Potteries are the remnants of the Italian
+colony that drifted here some years ago, when Little Italy in
+Clerkenwell began to be encroached upon by the modern builder. The
+majority have now drifted farther afield, to Fulham and Hammersmith.
+
+But there are still a fair number of the children of the Sunny South in
+the Dale. You may see the organs in the early morning being polished up
+outside the houses, and if you go into the yards you may discover the
+ice-barrows packed away in the coach-houses, waiting for the
+disappearance of the baked-chestnut season and the coming of summer.
+
+Here, in a large coach-house in a mews, is a proprietor of ice-cream
+barrows hard at work repainting his stock in gorgeous colours. Brilliant
+streaks of red and green light up the dreary place where the signor is
+working. When we look in upon his artistic proceedings he is filling his
+studio with melody. He is singing an air from "Il Trovatore" in his
+native Italian, and at the same time painting an Italian girl in her
+national costume on the panel of an ice-barrow.
+
+A little farther down the mews we climb the crazy staircase that leads
+to the loft, and find a middle-aged widow occupying it with five
+children.
+
+We have arrived at an awkward moment, for the widow is in tearful
+converse with the Industrial Schools officer.
+
+One of the children has been caught the previous night begging. Children
+are not allowed to beg in the streets to-day, and if it is found that
+the parents send them out or have not sufficient control over them to
+keep them in the little offenders can be taken before a magistrate and
+sent to an industrial school, to be trained for more reputable
+occupations in life.
+
+The widow declares that the boy was not sent out by her, and weeps
+copiously while she relates her story. She has five children and no
+money. I don't think the officer is very much impressed. I am afraid he
+knows more about the widow and the begging boy than he cares to reveal
+in the presence of strangers. He gives the woman a kindly warning, and
+leaves her with the intimation that if any more of her children are
+caught begging she will be invited to pay a visit to the magistrate.
+
+The Industrial Schools officer has a busy time in the Dale, for there
+are many young children living in vicious and criminal surroundings, and
+it is his task to remove them at the first opportunity, in order that
+they may have a chance in life. The work the industrial schools are
+accomplishing is invaluable. Under the Act a careful guardianship can be
+exercised by the State until the rescued boy or girl has reached the age
+of eighteen. There is no coming out of the industrial schools and
+returning to the evil surroundings now. But the task of the officer who
+has to see that the lads and lasses do not, after their school days are
+up, return to their evil associates is not a light one. He has
+occasionally to exercise the ingenuity of a Sherlock Holmes in order to
+get on the track of "one of his young people" who has mysteriously
+disappeared from the place that has been found for him or her.
+
+Not long ago a young girl who had been sent to Canada, and was supposed
+to be doing well there, was discovered dressed in boy's clothes back
+again in the Dale with her uncle and aunt, who were undesirable
+companions for her. The girl had in some way managed to get her
+passage-money and come home, and had hoped, disguised as a young man, to
+escape the vigilance of the Industrial Schools officer.
+
+Through a couple of streets and we are back in common lodging-house
+land. There is one long street in which the houses are registered from
+end to end. Some of them look like shops with the shutters up, others
+like private houses that have come down in the world. But every room is
+packed with as many beds as the law permits, and the common kitchen is
+reached by the area steps.
+
+At one of the houses along this street a man and a woman are standing at
+the door. The woman has only one arm and one eye, the man has no arms.
+But they are a highly popular couple, and a good many of the
+lodging-houses in the street belong to them. The lady is said to be
+quite equal to quieting any disturbance among the lodgers with her one
+hand, and the man displays the most remarkable skill, suffering
+apparently little inconvenience from his loss. When you have seen him
+take his pipe out of his mouth with the empty sleeve of his jacket you
+will understand how he is able, with his wife's assistance, to keep his
+rough _clientele_ well in hand, and to compel their respect.
+
+There is one feature of Notting Dale which strikes you forcibly if you
+go into a local crowd engaged in a heated argument, and that is the
+preponderance of the rural accent; for this is a district in which the
+evil of rural immigration has written itself large. Thousands of honest
+country folks crowd up year after year to the great city that they
+believe to be paved with gold. Of those who come in by the Great Western
+a large percentage drift to the Dale, failing to find room in the
+districts around the terminus; and in the Dale a process of moral
+deterioration goes on which is a tragedy.
+
+The husband fails to find the work he expected would be ready to his
+hand in busy London. The little savings are soon gone; the man and his
+wife are driven to the common lodging-house, or, if there are children
+with them, to the furnished room. The wife perhaps goes to the laundry
+work. The husband's enforced idleness often ends in his becoming a
+confirmed loafer, contented to live on what his wife can earn. There is
+in Notting Dale a large working population living cleanly by honest
+industry, but the country folk who have been unfortunate at the
+commencement of the struggle for life in London cannot avail themselves
+of the cleaner accommodation and the better environment. They are forced
+into the area which is given over to the vicious and the criminal, and
+they gradually sink to the level of their neighbours.
+
+Many a tale of heroic struggle against evil surroundings do the women
+tell who come before the School Board officials to explain the
+non-attendance of their children. Sometimes it is the man who has had
+the moral strength to resist, and with tears in his eyes will tell of
+the healthy, country-bred wife who came with him one day from the
+far-away village full of hope, but who has yielded to the awful
+environment, deserted his home, and left his children to fall into evil
+companionship.
+
+There is no sadder chapter in the story of London than that of the
+light-hearted country folk who come to it full of courage and hope, and
+gradually sink down under the evil influence of a slum to which their
+poverty has driven them, until they themselves are as criminal and as
+vicious as their neighbours.
+
+For them little can be done, though now and again the brave men and
+women who are working in the good cause succeed in rescuing them, even
+though they have fallen to the lowest depths of the abyss.
+
+But for the next generation the hope is greater. High above one of the
+most notorious streets in the Dale tower the great buildings in which
+the children are gathered together and educated and taught the
+principles of right doing.
+
+This is the thought that comes to me as, fresh from our pilgrimage of
+pain, we stand in the big playground and watch the little ones filing
+out in the sunshine to go to their homes. Some of them are well clad,
+the children of honest, hard-working folk who love them and care for
+them. But many are going back to miserable dens where there is neither
+love nor care, where there is no respect for the laws of God or man.
+
+        [Illustration: "MANY ARE GOING BACK TO MISERABLE DENS."]
+
+They cannot all be saved from the evil environment that awaits them, but
+they come day after day to the schools, and there they fall under an
+influence which, if they are not inherently bad, will stand them in good
+stead through all their lives.
+
+We watch the little ones as with the light-heartedness of childhood they
+trip away, some to the meal which loving hands have prepared for them,
+others to crowd and clamour at the doors of the mission-house, where the
+free meal stands between them and the hunger pain, and then we turn into
+a street that bore formerly so ill a name that the authorities changed
+it, to remove the stigma of the address from the few decent people in
+it.
+
+In five minutes we are once more on the beaten track and in the heart of
+Royal and aristocratic Kensington.
+
+
+
+
+                     [Illustration: DIALSTONE LANE
+                             BY W.W.JACOBS]
+
+        Copyright, 1904, by W. W. Jacobs, in the United States of
+        America.
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+The church bells were ringing for morning service as Mr. Vickers, who
+had been for a stroll with Mr. William Russell and a couple of ferrets,
+returned home to breakfast. Contrary to custom, the small front room and
+the kitchen were both empty, and breakfast, with the exception of a cold
+herring and the bitter remains of a pot of tea, had been cleared away.
+
+"I've known men afore now," murmured Mr. Vickers, eyeing the herring
+disdainfully, "as would take it by the tail and smack 'em acrost the
+face with it."
+
+He cut himself a slice of bread, and, pouring out a cup of cold tea,
+began his meal, ever and anon stopping to listen, with a puzzled face,
+to a continuous squeaking overhead. It sounded like several pairs of new
+boots all squeaking at once, but Mr. Vickers, who was a reasonable man
+and past the age of self-deception, sought for a more probable cause.
+
+A particularly aggressive squeak detached itself from the others and
+sounded on the stairs. The resemblance to the noise made by new boots
+was stronger than ever. It _was_ new boots. The door opened, and Mr.
+Vickers, with a slice of bread arrested half-way to his mouth, sat
+gazing in astonishment at Charles Vickers, clad for the first time in
+his life in new raiment from top to toe. Ere he could voice inquiries,
+an avalanche of squeaks descended the stairs, and the rest of the
+children, all smartly clad, with Selina bringing up the rear, burst into
+the room.
+
+"What is it?" demanded Mr. Vickers, in a voice husky with astonishment;
+"a bean-feast?"
+
+Miss Vickers, who was doing up a glove which possessed more buttons than
+his own waistcoat, looked up and eyed him calmly. "New clothes--and not
+before they wanted 'em," she replied, tartly.
+
+"New clothes?" repeated her father, in a scandalized voice. "Where'd
+they get 'em?"
+
+"Shop," said his daughter, briefly.
+
+Mr. Vickers rose and, approaching his offspring, inspected them with the
+same interest that he would have bestowed upon a wax-works. A certain
+stiffness of pose combined with the glassy stare which met his gaze
+helped to favour the illusion.
+
+"For once in their lives they're respectable," said Selina, regarding
+them with moist eyes. "Soap and water they've always had, bless 'em, but
+you've never seen 'em dressed like this before."
+
+Before Mr. Vickers could frame a reply a squeaking which put all the
+others in the shade sounded from above. It crossed the floor on hurried
+excursions to different parts of the room, and then, hesitating for a
+moment at the head of the stairs, came slowly and ponderously down until
+Mrs. Vickers, looking somewhat nervous, stood revealed before her
+expectant husband. In scornful surprise he gazed at a blue cloth dress,
+a black velvet cape trimmed with bugles, and a bonnet so aggressively
+new that it had not yet accommodated itself to Mrs. Vickers's style of
+hair-dressing.
+
+"Go on!" he breathed. "Go on! Don't mind me. What, you--you--you're not
+going to _church_?"
+
+Mrs. Vickers glanced at the books in her hand--also new--and trembled.
+
+"And why not?" demanded Selina. "Why shouldn't we?"
+
+Mr. Vickers took another amazed glance round and his brow darkened.
+
+"Where did you get the money?" he inquired.
+
+"Saved it," said his daughter, reddening despite herself.
+
+"_Saved_ it?" repeated the justly-astonished Mr. Vickers. "_Saved_ it?
+Ah! out of my money; out of the money I toil and moil for--out of the
+money that ought to be spent on food. No wonder you're always
+complaining that it ain't enough. I won't 'ave it, d'ye hear? I'll have
+my rights; I'll----"
+
+"Don't make so much noise," said his daughter, who was stooping down to
+ease one of Mrs. Vickers's boots. "You would have fours, mother, and I
+told you what it would be."
+
+"He said that I ought to wear threes by rights," said Mrs. Vickers; "I
+used to."
+
+"And I s'pose," said Mr. Vickers, who had been listening to these
+remarks with considerable impatience--"I s'pose there's a bran' new suit
+o' clothes, and a pair o' boots, and 'arf-a-dozen shirts, and a new hat
+hid upstairs for me?"
+
+"Yes, they're _hid_ all right," retorted the dutiful Miss Vickers. "You
+go upstairs and amuse yourself looking for 'em. Go and have a game of
+'hot boiled beans' all by yourself."
+
+    [Illustration: "'WHY, YOU MUST HAVE BEEN STINTING ME FOR YEARS,'
+                        CONTINUED MR. VICKERS."]
+
+"Why, you must have been stinting me for years," continued Mr. Vickers,
+examining the various costumes in detail. "This is what comes o' keeping
+quiet and trusting you--not but what I've 'ad my suspicions. My own kids
+taking the bread out o' my mouth and buying boots with it; my own wife
+going about in a bonnet that's took me weeks and weeks to earn."
+
+His words fell on deaf ears. No adjutant getting his regiment ready for
+a march-past could have taken more trouble than Miss Vickers was taking
+at this moment over her small company. Caps were set straight and
+sleeves pulled down. Her face shone with pride and her eyes glistened as
+the small fry, discoursing in excited whispers, filed stiffly out.
+
+A sudden cessation of gossip in neighbouring doorways testified to the
+impression made by their appearance. Past little startled groups the
+procession picked its way in squeaking pride, with Mrs. Vickers and
+Selina bringing up the rear. The children went by with little set,
+important faces; but Miss Vickers's little bows and pleased smiles of
+recognition to acquaintances were so lady-like that several untidy
+matrons retired inside their houses to wrestle grimly with feelings too
+strong for outside display.
+
+"Pack o' prancing peacocks," said the unnatural Mr. Vickers, as the
+procession wound round the corner.
+
+He stood looking vacantly up the street until the gathering excitement
+of his neighbours aroused new feelings. Vanity stirred within him, and
+leaning casually against the door-post he yawned and looked at the
+chimney-pots opposite. A neighbour in a pair of corduroy trousers,
+supported by one brace worn diagonally, shambled across the road.
+
+"What's up?" he inquired, with a jerk of the thumb in the direction of
+Mr. Vickers's vanished family.
+
+"Up?" repeated Mr. Vickers, with an air of languid surprise.
+
+"Somebody died and left you a fortin?" inquired the other.
+
+"Not as I knows of," replied Mr. Vickers, staring. "Why?"
+
+"_Why?_" exclaimed the other. "Why, new clothes all over. I never see
+such a turn-out."
+
+Mr. Vickers regarded him with an air of lofty disdain. "Kids must 'ave
+new clothes sometimes, I s'pose?" he said, slowly. "You wouldn't 'ave
+'em going about of a Sunday in a ragged shirt and a pair of trowsis,
+would you?"
+
+The shaft passed harmlessly. "Why not?" said the other. "They gin'rally
+do."
+
+Mr. Vickers's denial died away on his lips. In twos and threes his
+neighbours had drawn gradually near and now stood by listening
+expectantly. The idea of a fortune was common to all of them, and they
+were anxious for particulars.
+
+          [Illustration: "THEY WERE ANXIOUS FOR PARTICULARS."]
+
+"Some people have all the luck," said a stout matron. "I've 'ad thirteen
+and buried seven, and never 'ad so much as a chiney tea-pot left me. One
+thing is, I never could make up to people for the sake of what I could
+get out of them. I couldn't not if I tried. I must speak my mind free
+and independent."
+
+"Ah! that's how you get yourself disliked," said another lady, shaking
+her head sympathetically.
+
+"Disliked?" said the stout matron, turning on her fiercely. "What d'ye
+mean? You don't know what you're talking about. Who's getting themselves
+disliked?"
+
+"A lot o' good a chiney tea-pot would be to you," said the other, with a
+ready change of front, "or any other kind o' tea-pot."
+
+Surprise and indignation deprived the stout matron of utterance.
+
+"Or a milk-jug either," pursued her opponent, following up her
+advantage. "Or a coffee-pot, or----"
+
+The stout matron advanced upon her, and her mien was so terrible that
+the other, retreating to her house, slammed the door behind her and
+continued the discussion from a first-floor window. Mint Street, with
+the conviction that Mr. Vickers's tidings could wait, swarmed across the
+road to listen.
+
+Mr. Vickers himself listened for a little while to such fragments as
+came his way, and then, going indoors, sat down amid the remains of his
+breakfast to endeavour to solve the mystery of the new clothes.
+
+He took a short clay pipe from his pocket, and, igniting a little piece
+of tobacco which remained in the bowl, endeavoured to form an estimate
+of the cost of each person's wardrobe. The sum soon becoming too large
+to work in his head, he had recourse to pencil and paper, and after five
+minutes' hard labour sat gazing at a total, which made his brain reel.
+The fact that immediately afterwards he was unable to find even a few
+grains of tobacco at the bottom of his box furnished a contrast which
+almost made him maudlin.
+
+He sat sucking at his cold pipe and indulging in hopeless conjectures as
+to the source of so much wealth, and, with a sudden quickening of the
+pulse, wondered whether it had all been spent. His mind wandered from
+Selina to Mr. Joseph Tasker, and almost imperceptibly the absurdities of
+which young men in love could be capable occurred to him. He remembered
+the extravagances of his own youth, and bethinking himself of the sums
+he had squandered on the future Mrs. Vickers--sums which increased with
+the compound interest of repetition--came to the conclusion that Mr.
+Tasker had been more foolish still.
+
+It seemed the only possible explanation. His eye brightened, and,
+knocking the ashes out of his pipe, he crossed to the tap and washed his
+face.
+
+"If he can't lend a trifle to the man what's going to be his
+father-in-law," he said, cheerfully, as he polished his face on a
+roller-towel, "I shall tell 'im he can't have Selina, that's all. I'll
+go and see 'im afore she gets any more out of him."
+
+He walked blithely up the road, and, after shaking off one or two
+inquirers whose curiosity was almost proof against insult, made his way
+to Dialstone Lane. In an unobtrusive fashion he glided round to the
+back, and, opening the kitchen door, bestowed a beaming smile upon the
+startled Joseph.
+
+"Busy, my lad?" he inquired.
+
+"What d'ye want?" asked Mr. Tasker, whose face was flushed with cooking.
+
+Mr. Vickers opened the door a little wider, and, stepping inside, closed
+it softly behind him and dropped into a chair.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my lad," he said, benevolently. "Selina's all right."
+
+"What d'ye want?" repeated Mr. Tasker. "Who told you to come round
+here?"
+
+Mr. Vickers looked at him in reproachful surprise.
+
+"I suppose a father can come round to see his future son-in-law?" he
+said, with some dignity. "I don't want to do no interrupting of your
+work, Joseph, but I couldn't 'elp just stepping round to tell you how
+nice they all looked. Where you got the money from I can't think."
+
+"Have you gone dotty, or what?" demanded Mr. Tasker, who was busy wiping
+out a saucepan. "Who looked nice?"
+
+Mr. Vickers shook his head at him and smiled waggishly.
+
+"Ah! who?" he said, with much enjoyment. "I tell you it did my father's
+'art good to see 'em all dressed up like that; and when I thought of its
+all being owing to you, sit down at home in comfort with a pipe instead
+of coming to thank you for it I could not. Not if you was to have paid
+me I couldn't."
+
+"Look 'ere," said Mr. Tasker, putting the saucepan down with a bang, "if
+you can't talk plain, common English you'd better get out. I don't want
+you 'ere at all as a matter o' fact, but to have you sitting there
+shaking your silly 'ead and talking a pack o' nonsense is more than I
+can stand."
+
+Mr. Vickers gazed at him in perplexity. "Do you mean to tell me you
+haven't been giving my Selina money to buy new clothes for the young
+'uns?" he demanded, sharply. "Do you mean to tell me that Selina didn't
+get money out of you to buy herself and 'er mother and all of
+'em--except me--a new rig-out from top to toe?"
+
+"D'ye think I've gone mad, or what?" inquired the amazed Mr. Tasker.
+"What d'ye think I should want to buy clothes for your young 'uns for?
+That's your duty. And Selina, too; I haven't given 'er anything except a
+ring, and she lent me the money for that. D'ye think I'm made o' money?"
+
+"All right, Joseph," said Mr. Vickers, secretly incensed at this
+unforeseen display of caution on Mr. Tasker's part. "I s'pose the
+fairies come and put 'em on while they was asleep. But it's dry work
+walking; 'ave you got such a thing as a glass o' water you could give
+me?"
+
+The other took a glass from the dresser and, ignoring the eye of his
+prospective father-in-law, which was glued to a comfortable-looking
+barrel in the corner, filled it to the brim with fair water and handed
+it to him. Mr. Vickers, giving him a surly nod, took a couple of dainty
+sips and placed it on the table.
+
+"It's very nice water," he said, sarcastically.
+
+"Is it?" said Mr. Tasker. "We don't drink it ourselves, except in tea or
+coffee; the cap'n says it ain't safe."
+
+Mr. Vickers brought his eye from the barrel and glared at him.
+
+"I s'pose, Joseph," he said, after a long pause, during which Mr. Tasker
+was busy making up the fire--"I s'pose Selina didn't tell you you wasn't
+to tell me about the money?"
+
+"I don't know what you're driving at," said the other, confronting him
+angrily. "I haven't got no money."
+
+Mr. Vickers coughed. "Don't say that, Joseph," he urged, softly; "don't
+say that, my lad. As a matter o' fact, I come round to you, interrupting
+of you in your work, and I'm sorry for it--knowing how fond of it you
+are--to see whether I--I couldn't borrow a trifle for a day or two."
+
+"Ho, did you?" commented Mr. Tasker, who had opened the oven door and
+was using his hand as a thermometer.
+
+His visitor hesitated. It was no use asking for too much; on the other
+hand, to ask for less than he could get would be unpardonable folly.
+
+"If I could lay my hand on a couple o' quid," he said, in a mysterious
+whisper, "I could make it five in a week."
+
+"Well, why don't you?" inquired Mr. Tasker, who was tenderly sucking the
+bulb of the thermometer after contact with the side of the oven.
+
+"It's the two quid that's the trouble, Joseph," replied Mr. Vickers,
+keeping his temper with difficulty. "A little thing like that wouldn't
+be much trouble to you, I know, but to a pore man with a large family
+like me it's a'most impossible."
+
+Mr. Tasker went outside to the larder, and returning with a small joint
+knelt down and thrust it carefully into the oven.
+
+"A'most impossible," repeated Mr. Vickers, with a sigh.
+
+"What is?" inquired the other, who had not been listening.
+
+The half-choking Mr. Vickers explained.
+
+"Yes, o' course it is," assented Mr. Tasker.
+
+"People what's got money," said the offended Mr. Vickers, regarding him
+fiercely, "stick to it like leeches. Now, suppose I was a young man
+keeping company with a gal and her father wanted to borrow a couple o'
+quid--a paltry couple o' thick 'uns--what d'ye think I should do?"
+
+"If you was a young man--keeping company with a gal--and 'er father
+wanted--to borrow a couple of quid off o' you--what would you do?"
+repeated Mr. Tasker, mechanically, as he bustled to and fro.
+
+Mr. Vickers nodded and smiled. "What should I do?" he inquired again,
+hopefully.
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure," said the other, opening the oven door and
+peering in. "How should I?"
+
+At the imminent risk of something inside giving way under the strain,
+Mr. Vickers restrained himself. He breathed hard, and glancing out of
+window sought to regain his equilibrium by becoming interested in a
+blackbird outside.
+
+"What I mean to say is," he said at length, in a trembling voice--"what
+I mean to say is, without no roundaboutedness, will you lend a
+'ard-working man, what's going to be your future father-in-law, a couple
+o' pounds?"
+
+Mr. Tasker laughed. It was not a loud laugh, nor yet a musical one. It
+was merely a laugh designed to convey to the incensed Mr. Vickers a
+strong sense of the absurdity of his request.
+
+"I asked you a question," said the latter gentleman, glaring at him.
+
+"I haven't got a couple o' pounds," replied Mr. Tasker; "and if I 'ad,
+there's nine hundred and ninety-nine things I would sooner do with it
+than lend it to you."
+
+    [Illustration: "MR. VICKERS ROSE AND STOOD REGARDING THE IGNOBLE
+                   CREATURE WITH PROFOUND CONTEMPT."]
+
+Mr. Vickers rose and stood regarding the ignoble creature with profound
+contempt. His features worked and a host of adjectives crowded to his
+lips.
+
+"Is that your last word, Joseph?" he inquired, with solemn dignity.
+
+"I'll say it all over again if you like," said the obliging Mr. Tasker.
+"If you want money, go and earn it, same as I have to; don't come round
+'ere cadging on me, because it's no good."
+
+Mr. Vickers laughed; a dry, contemptuous laugh, terrible to hear.
+
+"And that's the man that's going to marry my daughter," he said, slowly;
+"that's the man that's going to marry into my family. Don't you expect
+_me_ to take you up and point you out as my son-in-law, cos I won't do
+it. If there's anything I can't abide it's stinginess. And there's my
+gal--my pore gal don't know your real character. Wait till I've told 'er
+about this morning and opened 'er eyes! Wait till----"
+
+He stopped abruptly as the door leading to the front room opened and
+revealed the inquiring face of Captain Bowers.
+
+"What's all this noise about, Joseph?" demanded the captain, harshly.
+
+Mr. Tasker attempted to explain, but his explanation involving a
+character for Mr. Vickers which that gentleman declined to accept on any
+terms, he broke in and began to give his own version of the affair. Much
+to Joseph's surprise the captain listened patiently.
+
+"Did you buy all those things, Joseph?" he inquired, carelessly, as Mr.
+Vickers paused for breath.
+
+"Cert'nly not, sir," replied Mr. Tasker. "Where should I get the money
+from?"
+
+The captain eyed him without replying, and a sudden suspicion occurred
+to him. The strange disappearance of the map, followed by the sudden
+cessation of Mr. Chalk's visits, began to link themselves to this tale
+of unexpected wealth. He bestowed another searching glance upon the
+agitated Mr. Tasker.
+
+"You haven't _sold_ anything lately, have you?" he inquired, with
+startling gruffness.
+
+"I haven't 'ad nothing to sell, sir," replied the other, in
+astonishment. "And I dare say Mr. Vickers here saw a new pair o' boots
+on one o' the young 'uns and dreamt all the rest."
+
+Mr. Vickers intervened with passion.
+
+"That'll do," said the captain, sharply. "How dare you make that noise
+in my house? I think that the tale about the clothes is all right," he
+added, turning to Joseph. "I saw them go into church looking very smart.
+And you know nothing about it?"
+
+Mr. Tasker's astonishment was too genuine to be mistaken, and the
+captain, watching him closely, transferred his suspicions to a more
+deserving object. Mr. Vickers caught his eye and essayed a smile.
+
+"Dry work talking, sir," he said, gently.
+
+Captain Bowers eyed him steadily. "Have we got any beer, Joseph?" he
+inquired.
+
+"Plenty in the cask, sir," said Mr. Tasker, reluctantly.
+
+"Well, keep your eye on it," said the captain. "Good morning, Mr.
+Vickers."
+
+But disappointment and indignation got the better of Mr. Vickers's
+politeness.
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+"A penny for your thoughts, uncle," said Miss Drewitt, as they sat at
+dinner an hour or two after the departure of Mr. Vickers.
+
+"_H'm?_" said the captain, with a guilty start.
+
+"You've been scowling and smiling by turns for the last five minutes,"
+said his niece.
+
+"I was thinking about that man that was here this morning," said the
+captain, slowly; "trying to figure it out. If I thought that that girl
+Selina----"
+
+He took a draught of ale and shook his head solemnly.
+
+"You know my ideas about that," said Prudence.
+
+"Your poor _mother_ was obstinate," commented the captain, regarding her
+tolerantly. "Once she got an idea into her head it stuck there, and
+nothing made her more angry than proving to her that she was wrong.
+Trying to prove to her, I should have said."
+
+Miss Drewitt smiled amiably. "Well, you've earned half the sum," she
+said. "Now, what were you smiling about?"
+
+"Didn't know I was smiling," declared the captain.
+
+With marvellous tact he turned the conversation to lighthouses, a
+subject upon which he discoursed with considerable fluency until the
+meal was finished. Miss Drewitt, who had a long memory and at least her
+fair share of curiosity, returned to the charge as he smoked half a pipe
+preparatory to accompanying her for a walk.
+
+"You're looking very cheerful," she remarked.
+
+The captain's face fell several points. "Am I?" he said, ruefully. "I
+didn't mean to."
+
+"Why not?" inquired his niece.
+
+"I mean I didn't know I was," he replied, "more than usual, I mean. I
+always do look fairly cheerful--at least, I hope I do. There's nothing
+to make me look the opposite."
+
+Miss Drewitt eyed him carefully and then passed upstairs to put on her
+hat. Relieved of her presence the captain walked to the small glass over
+the mantelpiece and, regarding his tell-tale features with gloomy
+dissatisfaction, acquired, after one or two attempts, an expression
+which he flattered himself defied analysis.
+
+He tapped the barometer which hung by the door as they went out, and,
+checking a remark which rose to his lips, stole a satisfied glance at
+the face by his side.
+
+"Clark's farm by the footpaths would be a nice walk," said Miss Drewitt,
+as they reached the end of the lane.
+
+The captain started. "I was thinking of Dutton Priors," he said, slowly.
+"We could go there by Hanger's Lane and home by the road."
+
+"The footpaths would be nice to-day," urged his niece.
+
+"You try my way," said the captain, jovially.
+
+"Have you got any particular reason for wanting to go to Dutton Priors
+this afternoon?" inquired the girl.
+
+"Reason?" said the captain. "Good gracious, no. What reason should I
+have? My leg is a trifle stiff to-day for stiles, but still----"
+
+Miss Drewitt gave way at once, and, taking his arm, begged him to lean
+on her, questioning him anxiously as to his fitness for a walk in any
+direction.
+
+"Walking 'll do it good," was the reply, as they proceeded slowly down
+the High Street.
+
+         [Illustration: "HE BECAME INTENT ON A DERELICT PUNT."]
+
+He took his watch from his pocket, and, after comparing it with the town
+clock, peered furtively right and left, gradually slackening his pace
+until Miss Drewitt's fears for his leg became almost contagious. At the
+old stone bridge, spanning the river at the bottom of the High Street,
+he paused, and, resting his arms on the parapet, became intent on a
+derelict punt. On the subject of sitting in a craft of that description
+in mid-stream catching fish he discoursed at such length that the girl
+eyed him in amazement.
+
+"Shall we go on?" she said, at length.
+
+The captain turned and, merely pausing to point out the difference
+between the lines of a punt and a dinghy, with a digression to sampans
+which included a criticism of the Chinese as boat-builders, prepared to
+depart. He cast a swift glance up the road as he did so, and Miss
+Drewitt's cheek flamed with sudden wrath as she saw Mr. Edward Tredgold
+hastening towards them. In a somewhat pointed manner she called her
+uncle's attention to the fact.
+
+"Lor' bless my soul," said that startled mariner, "so it is. Well!
+well!"
+
+If Mr. Tredgold had been advancing on his head he could not have
+exhibited more surprise.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm late," said Tredgold, as he came up and shook hands. "I
+hope you haven't been waiting long."
+
+The hapless captain coughed loud and long. He emerged from a large red
+pocket-handkerchief to find the eye of Miss Drewitt seeking his.
+
+"That's all right, my lad," he said, huskily. "I'd forgotten about our
+arrangement. Did I say this Sunday or next?"
+
+"This," said Mr. Tredgold, bluntly.
+
+The captain coughed again, and with some pathos referred to the tricks
+which old age plays with memory. As they walked on he regaled them with
+selected instances.
+
+"Don't forget your leg, uncle," said Miss Drewitt, softly.
+
+Captain Bowers gazed at her suspiciously.
+
+"Don't forget that it's stiff and put too much strain on it," explained
+his niece.
+
+The captain eyed her uneasily, but she was talking and laughing with
+Edward Tredgold in a most reassuring fashion. A choice portion of his
+programme, which, owing to the events of the afternoon, he had almost
+resolved to omit, clamoured for production. He stole another glance at
+his niece and resolved to risk it.
+
+"Hah!" he said, suddenly, stopping short and feeling in his pockets.
+"There's my memory again. Well, of all the----"
+
+"What's the matter, uncle?" inquired Miss Drewitt.
+
+"I've left my pipe at home," said the captain, in a desperate voice.
+
+"I've got some cigars," suggested Tredgold.
+
+The captain shook his head. "No, I must have my pipe," he said,
+decidedly. "If you two will walk on slowly, I'll soon catch you up."
+
+"You're not going all the way back for it?" exclaimed Miss Drewitt.
+
+"Let me go," said Tredgold.
+
+The captain favoured him with an inscrutable glance. "I'll go," he said,
+firmly. "I'm not quite sure where I left it. You go by Hanger's Lane;
+I'll soon catch you up."
+
+He set off at a pace which rendered protest unavailing. Mr. Tredgold
+turned, and, making a mental note of the fact that Miss Drewitt had
+suddenly added inches to her stature, walked on by her side.
+
+"Captain Bowers is very fond of his pipe," he said, after they had
+walked a little way in silence.
+
+Miss Drewitt assented. "Nasty things," she said, calmly.
+
+"So they are," said Mr. Tredgold.
+
+"But you smoke," said the girl.
+
+Mr. Tredgold sighed. "I have often thought of giving it up," he said,
+softly, "and then I was afraid that it would look rather presumptuous."
+
+"Presumptuous?" repeated Miss Drewitt.
+
+"So many better and wiser men than myself smoke," explained Mr.
+Tredgold, "including even bishops. If it is good enough for them, it
+ought to be good enough for me; that's the way I look at it. Who am I
+that I should be too proud to smoke? Who am I that I should try and set
+my poor ideas above those of my superiors? Do you see my point of view?"
+
+Miss Drewitt made no reply.
+
+"Of course, it is a thing that grows on one," continued Mr. Tredgold,
+with the air of making a concession. "It is the first smoke that does
+the mischief; it is a fatal precedent. Unless, perhaps----How pretty
+that field is over there."
+
+Miss Drewitt looked in the direction indicated. "Very nice," she said,
+briefly. "But what were you going to say?"
+
+Mr. Tredgold made an elaborate attempt to appear confused. "I was going
+to say," he murmured, gently, "unless, perhaps, one begins on coarse-cut
+Cavendish rolled in a piece of the margin of the Sunday newspaper."
+
+Miss Drewitt suppressed an exclamation. "I wanted to see where the
+fascination was," she said, indignantly.
+
+"And did you?" inquired Mr. Tredgold, smoothly.
+
+The girl turned her head and looked at him. "I have no doubt my uncle
+gave you full particulars," she said, bitterly. "It seems to me that men
+can gossip as much as women."
+
+"I tried to stop him," said the virtuous Mr. Tredgold.
+
+"You need not have troubled," said Miss Drewitt, loftily. "It is not a
+matter of any consequence. I am surprised that my uncle should have
+thought it worth mentioning."
+
+She walked on slowly with head erect, pausing occasionally to look round
+for the captain. Edward Tredgold looked too, and a feeling of annoyance
+at the childish stratagems of his well-meaning friend began to possess
+him.
+
+"We had better hurry a little, I think," he said, glancing at the sky.
+"The sooner we get to Dutton Priors the better."
+
+"Why?" inquired his companion.
+
+"Rain," said the other, briefly.
+
+"It won't rain before evening," said Miss Drewitt, confidently; "uncle
+said so."
+
+"Perhaps we had better walk faster, though," urged Mr. Tredgold.
+
+Miss Drewitt slackened her pace deliberately. "There is no fear of its
+raining," she declared. "And uncle will not catch us up if we walk
+fast."
+
+A sudden glimpse into the immediate future was vouchsafed to Mr.
+Tredgold; for a fraction of a second the veil was lifted. "Don't blame
+me if you get wet, though," he said, with some anxiety.
+
+They walked on at a pace which gave the captain every opportunity of
+overtaking them. The feat would not have been beyond the powers of an
+athletic tortoise, but the most careful scrutiny failed to reveal any
+signs of him.
+
+"I'm afraid that he is not well," said Miss Drewitt, after a long,
+searching glance along the way they had come. "Perhaps we had better go
+back. It does begin to look rather dark."
+
+"Just as you please," said Edward Tredgold, with unwonted caution; "but
+the nearest shelter is Dutton Priors."
+
+He pointed to a lurid, ragged cloud right ahead of them. As if in
+response, a low, growling rumble sounded overhead.
+
+"Was--was that thunder?" said Miss Drewitt, drawing a little nearer to
+him.
+
+"Sounded something like it," was the reply.
+
+A flash of lightning and a crashing peal that rent the skies put the
+matter beyond a doubt. Miss Drewitt, turning very pale, began to walk at
+a rapid pace in the direction of the village.
+
+The other looked round in search of some nearer shelter. Already the
+pattering of heavy drops sounded in the lane, and before they had gone a
+dozen paces the rain came down in torrents. Two or three fields away a
+small shed offered the only shelter. Mr. Tredgold, taking his companion
+by the arm, started to run towards it.
+
+Before they had gone a hundred yards they were wet through, but Miss
+Drewitt, holding her skirts in one hand and shivering at every flash,
+ran until they brought up at a tall gate, ornamented with barbed wire,
+behind which stood the shed.
+
+The gate was locked, and the wire had been put on by a farmer who
+combined with great ingenuity a fervent hatred of his fellowmen. To Miss
+Drewitt it seemed insurmountable, but, aided by Mr. Tredgold and a peal
+of thunder which came to his assistance at a critical moment, she
+managed to clamber over and reach the shed. Mr. Tredgold followed at his
+leisure with a strip of braid torn from the bottom of her dress.
+
+    [Illustration: "AIDED BY MR. TREDGOLD AND A PEAL OF THUNDER, SHE
+                       MANAGED TO CLAMBER OVER."]
+
+The roof leaked in twenty places and the floor was a puddle, but it had
+certain redeeming features in Mr. Tredgold's eyes of which the girl knew
+nothing. He stood at the doorway watching the rain.
+
+"Come inside," said Miss Drewitt, in a trembling voice. "You might be
+struck."
+
+Mr. Tredgold experienced a sudden sense of solemn pleasure in this
+unexpected concern for his safety. He turned and eyed her.
+
+"I'm not afraid," he said, with great gentleness.
+
+"No, but I am," said Miss Drewitt, petulantly, "and I can never get over
+that gate alone."
+
+Mr. Tredgold came inside, and for some time neither of them spoke. The
+rattle of rain on the roof became less deafening and began to drip
+through instead of forming little jets. A patch of blue sky showed.
+
+"It isn't much," said Tredgold, going to the door again.
+
+Miss Drewitt, checking a sharp retort, returned to the door and looked
+out. The patch of blue increased in size; the rain ceased and the sun
+came out; birds exchanged congratulations from every tree. The girl,
+gathering up her wet skirts, walked to the gate, leaving her companion
+to follow.
+
+Approached calmly and under a fair sky the climb was much easier.
+
+"I believe that I could have got over by myself after all," said Miss
+Drewitt, as she stood on the other side. "I suppose that you were in too
+much of a hurry the last time. My dress is ruined."
+
+She spoke calmly, but her face was clouded. From her manner during the
+rapid walk home Mr. Tredgold was enabled to see clearly that she was
+holding him responsible for the captain's awkward behaviour; the rain;
+her spoiled clothes; and a severe cold in the immediate future. He
+glanced at her ruined hat and the wet, straight locks of hair hanging
+about her face, and held his peace.
+
+Never before on a Sunday afternoon had Miss Drewitt known the streets of
+Binchester to be so full of people. She hurried on with bent head,
+looking straight before her, trying to imagine what she looked like.
+There was no sign of the captain, but as they turned into Dialstone Lane
+they both saw a huge, shaggy, grey head protruding from the small window
+of his bedroom. It disappeared with a suddenness almost startling.
+
+"Thank you," said Miss Drewitt, holding out her hand as she reached the
+door. "Good-bye."
+
+Mr. Tredgold said "Good-bye," and with a furtive glance at the window
+above departed. Miss Drewitt, opening the door, looked round an empty
+room. Then the kitchen door opened and the face of Mr. Tasker, full of
+concern, appeared.
+
+"Did you get wet, miss?" he inquired.
+
+Miss Drewitt ignored the question. "Where is Captain Bowers?" she asked,
+in a clear, penetrating voice.
+
+The face of Mr. Tasker fell. "He's gone to bed with a headache, miss,"
+he replied.
+
+"Headache?" repeated the astonished Miss Drewitt. "When did he go?"
+
+"About 'arf an hour ago," said Mr. Tasker; "just after the storm. I
+suppose that's what caused it, though it seems funny, considering what a
+lot he must ha' seen at sea. He said he'd go straight to bed and try and
+sleep it off. And I was to ask you to please not to make a noise."
+
+Miss Drewitt swept past him and mounted the stairs. At the captain's
+door she paused, but the loud snoring of a determined man made her
+resolve to postpone her demands for an explanation to a more fitting
+opportunity. Tired, wet, and angry she gained her own room, and threw
+herself thoughtlessly into that famous old Chippendale chair which, in
+accordance with Mr. Tredgold's instructions, had been placed against the
+wall.
+
+    [Illustration: "SHE THREW HERSELF THOUGHTLESSLY INTO THAT FAMOUS
+                        OLD CHIPPENDALE CHAIR."]
+
+The captain stirred in his sleep.
+
+                          (_To be continued._)
+
+
+
+
+                       _Wild Western Journalism._
+
+                            BY AN EX-EDITOR.
+
+
+One of the most thrilling occupations that a human being could follow in
+the old days--say a brief generation since--was that of editing a
+newspaper in a small American town. There was a fulness in the life, a
+feverish activity in the office and a perpetual spice of danger out of
+it, that made all other callings seem trivial. Things have changed a
+great deal in the past few years, but even yet Wild Western journalism
+can boast a flavour--a tang of its own. There is no other Press in the
+world quite like it; there is no similar body of men like those who
+engineer it. To our old friends, Mr. Pott, of the _Eatanswill Gazette_,
+and Mr. Slurk, of the _Eatanswill Independent_, their Occidental
+followers of the _Arizona Arrow_ and the _Tombstone Epitaph_ bear but
+faint resemblance. Perhaps in the birth-throes of English journalism--in
+the era of the _Mercurius Pragmaticus_ and the _Scot's Dove_--the
+vicissitudes of editors were not dissimilar to those endured by the
+Colorado and Texas editor of yesterday, who was often his own publisher,
+his own printer, and his own editor rolled in one--and not only that,
+but was forced to perform these functions with a six-chambered revolver
+reposing gracefully, yet ominously, on his desk. As to his Protean
+character there has been little if any improvement. I cull the following
+from a recent issue of the _Yampa_ (Oregon) _Leader_:--
+
+    The great city papers think they are smart in having a large
+    staff, and, although we have not published ours before, we shall
+    do so to take some of the conceit out of the city brethren. The
+    editorial staff of the _Leader_ is composed of: Managing editor,
+    V. S. Wilson; city editor, Vic Wilson; news editor, V. Wilson;
+    editorial writer, Hon. Mr. Wilson; exchange editor, Wilson;
+    pressman, the same Wilson; foreman, more of the same Wilson;
+    devil, a picture of the same Wilson; fighting editor, Mrs.
+    Wilson.
+
+      [Illustration: Facsimile of newspaper, "Tombstone Epitaph"]
+
+By no means exaggerated is the description of a Western editor and his
+environment which was given some years ago by the authors of that
+amusing novel, "The Golden Butterfly." Prototypes of Gilead P. Beck
+could be found in abundance throughout the region west of the
+Mississippi. One of the most extraordinary characters and one of the
+most delightful was the late Alvin S. Peek--"Judge" Peek of
+Dakota--whose boast it was that he had "run" papers in nine different
+States and territories, had shot eleven men who disagreed with his
+opinions--three of them fatally--and had never swallowed a word he had
+ever written, and who died universally respected in bed and at the ripe
+age--for Dakota--of fifty-one years.
+
+But apart from any personal contact with the men who make the newspapers
+of the wild and woolly West it was once my experience to receive and
+peruse weekly many hundreds of their productions--"exchanges" they are
+called--and ranging from the _Mother Lode Magnet_ of California and the
+_Tombstone Epitaph_ of Tombstone, Arizona, to the _Arkansas Howler_ and
+the _Mustang_ (Colorado) _Mail_. Many a pleasant evening have I spent
+over them, and I still prize a scrap-book containing things to me as
+funny as I could find in any collection of wit and humour in the world.
+There is reason for this, because the backwoods and prairie Press of
+America is the nursery of American humour. It produced Mark Twain, Bret
+Harte, Petroleum V. Nasby, Joshua Billings, J. M. Bailey, Bob Burdette,
+Bill Nye, John Phoenix, and F. L. Stanton, to mention only a few of the
+humorists of international renown. I was well acquainted with Stanton at
+the time he was editing, printing, and publishing the famous _Smithville
+News_. _Texas Siftings_, the _Arizona Kicker_, and the _Burlington
+Hawkeye_ have made the peculiarities and amenities of Western journalism
+familiar to English readers. Albeit, scattered through a dozen States
+and territories are thousands of small newspapers, eking out a
+precarious existence--full of native humour and sentiment--of which not
+even the resident of Chicago and St. Louis has so much as heard. How
+precarious that existence is may be judged from the following editorial
+appeal in the _Gem_, of Flagstaff, Arizona:--
+
+    Have you paid your subscription yet? Remember even an editor
+    must live. If the _hard times_ have struck your shebang, don't
+    forget turnips, potatoes, and corn in the shock are most as
+    welcome as hard cash at the _Gem_ office. Also hard wood. Our
+    latch-string is always out, or same (_i.e._, the turnips, etc.)
+    can be delivered to our wife, who will give receipt in our
+    absence.
+
+One of the pleasing fictions preserved by the Western Press is, as we
+have seen, that of a plurality of editors. To these supposititious
+editors the most extraordinary titles and functions are bequeathed. On
+the front page of the _Rising Star_ (Texas) _X-ray_ no pretence of a
+numerous staff is made--Mr. Albert Tyson boldly announces himself as
+"horse, snake, lying, and fighting editor," while his motto is, "Do unto
+others as you would have them do to you, and do it _fust_!"
+
+In mining districts or in the new territories, where a "tenderfoot" is
+made welcome in the "'eave 'arf-brick" fashion, the career of an editor
+is one of constant risk and turmoil. If he is young and inexperienced
+there are always lawless spirits ready to take a rise out of him, just
+for the pleasure and excitement of the thing.
+
+                             [Illustration:
+                         The Rising Star X-Ray
+
+        ALBERT TYSON, HORSE, SNAKE, LYING, AND FIGHTING EDITOR,
+
+        Entered at the Rising Star Post-Office as Second-class
+        Mail matter. Published every Friday.
+
+        "DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO TO YOU, AND DO
+        IT FUST"
+
+                               Editorial
+
+                                  -0-
+
+        This is 1901, have you resolted any yet? If you have
+        been making a dozzen New Year resolutions and breaking
+        them all in about 30 days, try the plan this time of
+        making only six and see if you can't keep your integrity
+        with at least three of them.
+
+        In this New Year, A D 1901 make a grave effort to "Do
+        unto others as you would have them do to you, and do it
+        FUST"
+
+                                 0 0 0
+
+        The Mav Enterprise has gone into hence,--is a mournful
+        corpse. She died, according to a hasty post mortem
+        examination, of a malignant attack of impecuniosity
+        fever or financial strangulation.
+
+                                 0 0 0
+
+        The X-Ray makes a motion that the people of Eastland
+        county instruct their next Representative to the
+        Legislature to introduce a bill in that honorable body
+        against the sale of toy pistols, firecrackers, and
+        torpedos of every description.]
+
+Even in the civilized Southern States to the east of the Mississippi
+editing was not fifteen years ago a healthy pastime. On one occasion,
+when I was assisting a friend in Georgia, a citizen in a high state of
+excitement entered the "editorial sanctum"--they are very particular
+about the dignity of these epithets in America--and riddled the walls
+and my desk with bullets from a revolver.
+
+Luckily, I happened not to be there, but in the composing-room, engaged
+in making-up the editorial page. My eye dwelt lovingly on a neat row of
+paragraphs, one beginning in this wise:--
+
+    If our esteemed (but chronically overheated) fellow-townsman,
+    Sam Beale, will take our advice, etc.
+
+ [Illustration: "THE MALLET GRAZED MY EAR AND CRASHED INTO THE WALL."]
+
+At that moment three shots rang out in deafening succession. My
+journeyman "comp." dropped on his knees under the composing-case, and I
+was just deciding on my own line of conduct when the door was flung
+violently open, and Mr. Samuel Beale and I stood face to face. There
+were no words--none which I could bring my pen to write--but a heavy
+printer's mallet lay at one end of the make-up stone; this "our esteemed
+(but chronically overheated) fellow-townsman" seized and flung with all
+possible force straight at my head. Had his aim been true I should never
+have lived to tell this tale. As it was, the mallet grazed my ear and
+crashed into the wall, and the next object I saw was Beale wrestling
+with the door in a frantic effort to escape. The conclusion of this
+anecdote doesn't matter; but my printer was, I believe, finally obliged
+to haul me off the body of the prostrate Mr. Beale, upon whom I then and
+there felt it my editorial duty to take summary vengeance. Afterwards I
+wisely went armed, my victim having openly threatened to shoot me on
+sight. But the quarrel was eventually patched up, my chief inserting the
+following characteristic _amende_:--
+
+    The _News-Democrat_ having on divers occasions, through a
+    misapprehension of the true circumstances, stated that our
+    esteemed townsman Sam Beale was a liar, a thief, and the
+    meanest skunk in the whole State of Georgia, we beg hereby
+    to retract this, and declare that our knowledge is solely
+    confined to Pawnee County. Shake, Sam, and be friends!
+
+One of the arts which a Western editor must understand is that of
+"padding," especially in his local "society" items.
+
+Thus a Missouri paper, the _Hannibal Hornet_, is responsible for the
+following string of "personals":--
+
+    Dec. 7th. Miss Sadie James, of Tarrant Springs, is visiting her
+    friend, Miss Annabel S. Colver, at the house of Miss Annabel S.
+    Colver, on Decatur Street.
+
+    Dec. 8th. Miss Annabel S. Colver gave a party in honour of her
+    guest, Miss Sadie James, who is visiting her at Miss Colver's
+    beautiful home on Decatur Street, at which all the youth and
+    beauty of Hannibal were present in full force.
+
+    Dec. 9th. Miss Sadie James, of Tarrant Springs, was observed out
+    sleigh-riding with her charming hostess, Miss A. S. Colver, and
+    their neat turn-out was shortly joined by several others.
+
+    Dec. 10th.  Miss Sadie James terminated a pleasant visit to
+    Hannibal and returned to Tarrant Springs.
+
+But occasionally it happens that an exquisite item of "society" falls in
+the editor's way, without his having to do any "padding" at all, as in
+this from the _Fairplay Flume_, published in the flourishing Colorado
+"city" of Fairplay:--
+
+    MARRIED. MARKHAM--SEELY.--At the residence of the groom's
+    parents one of the most up-to-date weddings took place. (There
+    had been an agreement between the bride and groom not to be
+    married in the old-fashioned way, but to change the mode a
+    little.) Therefore they were married at the residence of the
+    father of the groom, Peter J. Seely, Esq. The groom wore a long
+    pair of overalls and a cutaway coat. The bride wore a calico
+    dress and apron. They both looked the picture of health, and
+    were ably assisted--the groom by the bride's sister and the
+    bride by Mr. Sam Meadows, a particular friend of the groom's.
+    After spending a couple of weeks in the West they will return
+    and settle down in their pleasant home, "Swandown"; Burlap, the
+    furniture man at Five Forks, having already the contract to see
+    that their home is properly furnished during their absence.
+
+      [Illustration: FAIRPLAY FLUME, THE BLISS BREEZE, THE ARIZONA
+    ARROW, THE CREEDE CANDLE, THE RIFLE REVEILLE, THE MUSTANG MAIL,
+                        THE MOTHER LODE MAGNET]
+
+As to the titles of many of these Western productions, it might be
+supposed these spring from the fertile brain of some incorrigible
+humorist. But this is not so. Nothing could be more real--"alive and
+kicking"--in Anno Domini 1904, than the _Creede_ (Colorado) _Candle_,
+the _Arizona Arrow_ of Chloride, Arizona, the _Rifle Reveille_, the
+_Rising Star X-ray_, the _Bald-Knob Herald_, the Dallas _World Hustler_,
+the _Kosse Cyclone_, the Blooming _Grove Rustler_, the Carrizo
+_Javelin_, the Noyales _Oasis_, and the Devil's Lake _Free Press_. The
+names of some Western towns are fantastic to a degree, and the editorial
+love for alliteration is strong. Thus we have the _Bliss Breeze_, the
+_Mustang Mail_, and the Searchlight _Searchlight_ in addition to those I
+have mentioned. What more natural in the "city" of Tombstone, Arizona,
+than that the newspaper should be entitled the _Epitaph_? Or that an
+_Epitaph_ should take as naturally to obituaries as a duck to water or
+an Arizonian takes to his "gun"?
+
+               [Illustration: JAKE MOFFATT GONE SKYWARD!]
+
+    As we feared on hearing that two doctors had been called in, the
+    life of our esteemed fellow-citizen Jake Moffatt ered out on
+    Wednesday last, just after we had gone to press. Jake was every
+    inch a scholar and a gentleman, upright in all his dealings,
+    unimpeachable in character, and ran the Front Street Saloon in
+    the very toniest style consistent with order. Jake never fully
+    recovered from the year he spent in the county jail at the time
+    of the Ryan-Sternberg fracas. His health was shattered, and he
+    leaves a sorrowing widow and nary an enemy.
+
+      [Illustration: Newspapers: "THE JAVELIN. The Flagstaff Gem.
+                   The Oasis. The Oklahoma Hornet."]
+
+The Tombstone men are handy with their "shooting-irons," as may be
+judged from the accompanying cheery advertisement last Christmas time.
+
+                     [Illustration: TURKEY SHOOTING
+                      Wednesday, December 23, 1903
+                       North End of Fifth Street
+                                -------
+                          Use Any Kind of Rifle
+                                -------
+            AT 50 YARDS,
+                Turkey's Head Exposed, 25c Per Shot
+            AT 200 YARDS,
+                Entire Turkey Exposed, 25c Per Shot
+            To Draw Blood Entitles You to the Turkey
+                                -------
+            SPORT BEGINS AT 2 P. M.
+                                -------
+              Turkeys Now on Exhibition at Saylor's Store,
+                  Allen. Bet. Fourth and Fifth Streets]
+
+The chief advertisements in the _Epitaph_, as in the other papers in the
+ranching country, consist of cattle-brands--_i.e._, rude outlines or
+silhouettes of equine or bovine quadrupeds, marked with the peculiar
+sign which distinguishes their ownership from others. By this means any
+strayed or stolen cattle are readily identified.
+
+            [Illustration: CATTLE-BRAND ADVERTISEMENTS.]
+
+As to the technical aspect of all the papers, which have so much in
+common, the reader may like to learn something. How are they produced so
+as to cover expenses in a "city" which boasts often fewer than one
+thousand inhabitants, rarely reaches two thousand, and not seldom has
+but five hundred souls? The answer is, in the first place, to be found
+in the invention of patent "insides" or "outsides." These are sheets
+ready printed on two of the four outside or inside pages; or, if it
+should happen to be an eight-page paper, six pages would be set up and
+printed at some great centre of population like Chicago or St. Louis.
+The invention is of English origin, but owes its vogue in America to A.
+N. Kellogg, who in 1861 was editing a little paper at Baraboo,
+Wisconsin. When the Civil War broke out his printers left him for the
+front, and, unable to get out his journal, he wrote to the publisher of
+the Madison _Daily Journal_ for sheets of that paper printed on one side
+only with the latest available war news. The blank side the enterprising
+Kellogg filled up himself with big "block" advertisements and local
+items and the inevitable political "editorial," without which no
+American newspaper, however small, would be complete in its editor's
+eyes, although it is rarely read. In a short space of time other country
+editors followed Kellogg's example, and the Madison daily was printing
+newspapers for thirty different Wisconsin papers on one side of the
+sheet. The enterprise grew, Kellogg directed his entire attention to it,
+and ended by founding a business which to-day prints two thousand
+different sets or editions of patent insides.
+
+At one time the same formes were used for hundreds of papers, only the
+titles, headings, etc., being changed to suit each customer. But now the
+editors of the _Oasis_ and the _Hustler_ have at least a hundred
+different styles of paper to select from. As to the cost, the editor
+pays hardly more than what the blank paper is worth, for the ready-print
+companies derive their profit from the advertisements, for which they
+reserve several columns of space. These country papers are usually sold
+in "bundles" of nine hundred and sixty copies, but the circulation may
+not be one-half of that figure.
+
+We have seen that editing is a precarious livelihood, yet the editor
+manages to get along somehow. I have seen it publicly stated that there
+are four classes of men who usually own these small papers: farmers'
+sons who are too good for farming and not quite good enough to do
+nothing; school-teachers; lawyers who have made a failure of the law;
+and professional printers who have "worked their way"--these last two by
+far the most numerous class. They derive their chief profits from
+advertisements, for it is a point of honour with the local bankers,
+storekeepers, implement dealers, lawyers, doctors, liverymen, and
+blacksmiths to advertise in the local paper. Then there is the annual,
+and occasionally the semi-annual, circus advertisement, which may bring
+in as much as a hundred dollars, "if a picture of the elephant is thrown
+in." In the cattle-raising districts, as in Arizona, the different
+cattle-brands fill up a large part of the paper, as in the case of the
+_Tombstone Epitaph_. But besides the patent "inside," the editor of the
+little paper has another convenient expedient for filling up his
+columns. He can buy stereotype plates--that is, columns of interesting
+matter in thin sheets. These are made to fit metal bases with which he
+is supplied, and which he keeps in stock. Plates and bases being "type
+high," or level with the type of the newspaper, are cheap to send by
+rail, and being furnished to hundreds of other journals are of far
+higher literary character than the editor could turn out himself for
+treble cost.
+
+I have said little of illustrated journalism in the Far West; but, as
+the accompanying reproduction humorously suggests, it is--inexpensive.
+And it may also betray the fount whence the authors of that amusing
+brochure, "Wisdom While You Wait," drew some, at least, of their
+inspiration.
+
+                             [Illustration:
+      PHOENIX'S PICTORIAL, And Second Story Front Room Companion.
+      Vol. I]          San Diego, October 1, 1853          [No. 1
+
+          Mansion of John Phoenix, Esq., San Diego, California
+
+       House in which Shakespeare was born, in Stratford-on-Avon]
+
+
+
+
+                            The Red Counter.
+
+                           BY L. J. BEESTON.
+
+
+                                   I.
+
+Veterin gathered up from the table the papers which his captain pushed
+toward him. He said, moodily:--
+
+"I am surprised at _you_. We shall all be killed while you are making
+love here. You may be very emotional, but you will have to tell that to
+the German advanced guard."
+
+Nicolas La Hire rose and took his sabre from a chair in this, the best
+room of the _auberge_. He was commanding a scattered remnant of
+cuirassiers who were shadowed by a Prussian force. It was his intention
+to join the main body, but not only were there many obstacles in the
+way, but he had fallen very desperately in love with Rachel Nay, the
+sweetest and prettiest girl in Orgemont. He replied--by no means
+offended by the familiarity of his officer, for whom he had the greatest
+friendship:--
+
+"You are needlessly alarmed. Besides, love speaks louder than a
+bugle-call."
+
+        [Illustration: "LOVE SPEAKS LOUDER THAN A BUGLE-CALL."]
+
+"But not so loud as a bomb, and that is what we shall get very soon. I
+am not afraid--I; but there is a time for making love and a time for
+making war. Then, consider your family. A farmer's pretty daughter is no
+match for a La Hire. And in any case you will not get her, for she is
+promised to that rascal Simon Mansart, who lives in the chateau on the
+hill yonder"; and Veterin pointed through the unshuttered window, across
+the village, where the cottages bore a covering of snow, and the frozen
+road, to where a clump of acacias crowned an eminence.
+
+"That is what troubles me," answered La Hire, beginning to pace the
+room. "If she is married to that man, whom she detests and fears--to
+that miser, that creature----!" he broke off suddenly, then continued:
+"It is a burning shame that this pure girl, this sweet Rachel, this
+wild-flower----!"
+
+"Oh, come," interrupted Veterin, shrugging his shoulders contemptuously,
+"if you are going to dilate in that strain----"
+
+"Silence!" shouted La Hire; "you go too far." He muttered, in an
+undertone, "I cannot leave her, loving her as I do, loving me as she
+does, for I greatly fear that this vulture Mansart will be too strong
+for me when I am gone."
+
+"Then visit him," said Veterin. "Have you not a sword to threaten with?
+Better still, have you not gold to offer? That will persuade him, if
+anything can."
+
+La Hire thought for a moment; then he said, "That is not at all a bad
+idea. I will go now.... We will leave to-night. You will give the word.
+Laporte is moving on Besancon, which is in a state of siege. We really
+ought to join him three leagues from here, if only these confounded
+Prussians will let us alone." He went out, murmuring, "I must see Rachel
+before I go."
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+"You hear what I say, Monsieur Mansart?" thundered La Hire.
+
+Simon did not reply, nor did his eyes fail before the stern gaze of the
+captain of cuirassiers. A crafty smile touched the corners of his thin
+lips, and he stroked with either hand the heads of two immense mastiffs
+that crouched on the floor by his side.
+
+"Mademoiselle Rachel Nay does not need your attentions. You will not
+molest or annoy her in any way. Your gold, which, if report says true,
+you have spent your life in wringing from whom you can, cannot buy a
+woman's heart, and hers is pledged to me."
+
+Simon smiled still more craftily. He knew that his parsimony had made
+him notorious; he knew that the widow and the fatherless had little
+cause to love him. His heart had shrunk in the grip of his miserly
+instincts. But he was not afraid as he answered:--
+
+"I shall take my own course, monsieur. Who are you to dictate to me? I
+care not for your clanking spurs, your fierce looks. I have influence
+with Mademoiselle Rachel's parents, who are very poor, and I shall use
+it to the uttermost. I pit my gold against your handsome face and
+swaggering manner. We will see who will win."
+
+"Listen!" said Nicolas, in a voice hoarse with anger. "I will descend to
+make terms with you, though, _mon Dieu!_ there is little reason why I
+should. Since money is as vital breath to you, I offer you five thousand
+francs if you will withdraw your suit."
+
+"I refuse."
+
+"Ten thousand, then?"
+
+Mansart laughed and snapped his dry fingers.
+
+"Come, I offer you fifteen thousand francs, and not a sou further will I
+go."
+
+Simon was visibly moved, and his hands rested nervously upon the heads
+of his great curs; but he controlled the rising temptation and answered,
+bitterly:--
+
+"It is clear that you fear me or you would not make such overtures. I
+decline your offer."
+
+"Think well! I will never yield this girl."
+
+"That is unfortunate, for I certainly intend to win her."
+
+"Be careful!" said La Hire, in such a terrible voice that the mastiffs
+growled and bared their teeth.
+
+And instinctively, though he meant nothing, his hand groped at the hilt
+of his sabre.
+
+Mansart half rose from his chair. "You forget my dogs," he snarled.
+
+"And you forget the Prussians, who cannot be far off," replied the
+other; and when he perceived that the warning had a distinct effect he
+followed up his advantage. "You will have to take care of yourself here,
+monsieur, and yet greater care of your gold. I warn you that a Prussian
+force is shadowing us, so that they will almost certainly take this
+direction, if that is comforting for you to know."
+
+Mansart turned pale.
+
+"And as they have a couple of field-pieces, you may expect a display, by
+Jove!"
+
+He had scarcely spoken the words when a deep sound, a heavy thud, which
+appeared to come from a long distance, startled him.
+
+"Malediction! A gun!" exclaimed the captain.
+
+He had scarcely spoken when a second and much sharper report sounded.
+The shell had burst. Faint shouting came from below in the village.
+
+"The 'Blues' have come after all," said La Hire, and he went out.
+
+Looking northward he saw a tiny cloud drifting across the stars. It was
+the smoke from the cannon which had been discharged. In that direction a
+ridge broke the flatness of the fields, that were buried under a sheet
+of ice. He muttered to himself:--
+
+"They are there, on the escarpment. They will put a few shells into the
+village and turn us out, and we must retreat--as usual. I do not care if
+I can withdraw them from Orgemont." His eyes grew tender; he was
+thinking of Rachel.
+
+"Are they here--these Germans?" asked a fearful voice at his elbow.
+
+Mansart also had quitted the house. That note of war, which was the
+first he had ever heard, had terrified him.
+
+"You may be sure of it," said the other, laughing. "And it is to be
+hoped that you have some good things in your larder, for if these
+Prussians visit you you will find that they have the stomachs of
+wolves."
+
+A bugle sounded.
+
+"They will be expecting me," murmured La Hire.
+
+It was frightfully cold. The air, like the earth, seemed frozen, biting
+the lungs and making it difficult to breathe. The swaying branches of
+the trees in the garden appeared to be trying to obtain a little warmth
+by the exercise. The final crescent of the moon had risen, and her pale
+gleam upon the fields seemed to have become petrified also with the
+cold, and permanent.
+
+La Hire had no sooner made up his mind to move than a red flame glowed
+on the summit of the escarpment, and passed. It was quickly followed by
+a second heavy thud--the report of a six-pounder field-gun. A bright
+light appeared upon the sky, moving swiftly.
+
+Something uttered a wail; something rushed amongst the acacia trees in
+the garden, flinging down branches and tearing up earth. There was a
+splitting report, sheeted flame, a terrible cry.
+
+The night closed down as before, scarcely disturbed by that burst of
+passion.
+
+La Hire relaxed his grip of the garden soil. He lifted his face, which
+was covered with earth.
+
+"_Ciel!_ I thought I was done for," he muttered.
+
+He rose from the prostrate position into which he had flung himself, and
+looked around with eyes that were still dazed by the explosion.
+
+"Simon--Simon Mansart! Are you still alive?" he called.
+
+A loud burst of derisive laughter came from one of the lower windows of
+the house.
+
+"Go! The Prussians are waiting for you!" cried Mansart.
+
+La Hire shrugged his shoulders, then stepped briskly from the garden to
+where an orderly waited with his horse.
+
+And as he rode away he felt his love swell and rise in his heart, and a
+mad longing to see Rachel once more gripped him; to feel on his lips the
+soft touch of her lips, and round his neck the clinging fingers once
+clasped there. And this wave of passion that ran through his veins
+seemed to unstring his nerves, weaken his purpose, and cast a mist of
+love over his courage.
+
+He found Veterin waiting impatiently for his appearance; and he led his
+men southward, tempting the Prussians and drawing them from the
+village.
+
+
+                                  II.
+
+Weeks passed. The battles with the Germans, that were scarring the land
+and so many hearts, only threatened Orgemont.
+
+Now Simon Mansart lay very ill, and it was said that he was dying. At a
+late hour that night Rachel received a letter. It was from Mansart, and
+ran as follows:--
+
+"RACHEL,--I am very ill, and have but a few more hours to live. Will you
+wed me, dying? This is a strange request; but if for one brief hour I
+might call you wife it should not make you sad, and it would give me
+happiness.... I have a considerable sum of money with me in this house,
+which represents the greater part of my fortune. I am anxious that you
+should possess this when I am gone. I have papers drawn up making over
+to you the whole of this sum. Only your signature is needed and all
+becomes yours, even while I live. I would have it so, fearing that you
+might say, 'If he should not die after all!' In any case you will be
+rich. But have no fears; I am sinking, and can scarcely hold this pen.
+Rachel, you have scorned my offer of marriage; at any rate you cannot
+scorn me now. Let me call you wife; let me hold your hand for my final
+but sweetest hour.--SIMON MANSART."
+
+Old Joseph Nay, when this letter was read to him, slapped his shrunken
+thighs. "And I wished, when you were born, that you had been a boy!"
+cried he. "What a piece of fortune this is! At last I hope you will show
+some sense. Quick, and get ready. I will take you round in the cart. It
+is a frightful night, but one does not get a fortune every day on such
+terms. Then one must respect the request of a man who is dying." And he
+went out, adding to himself, "We are so poor that this is nothing less
+than a godsend."
+
+Rachel had turned very pale. She had greatly feared Mansart living; now,
+at his last moments, he still threatened her peace. Seeing marriage only
+in the holy light it has for lovers, she shrank from this thing.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+A month passed.
+
+One day the hamlet was thrown into a state of excitement.
+
+A horseman came dashing bravely up the rough, snow covered road. He was
+a splendid figure. He wore a steel helmet with streaming plumes, a
+glittering cuirass, red breeches, and immense boots to his knees. A
+sabre leaped at his side, and foam flew from the red jaws of his
+magnificent horse. His bronzed face carried a formidable scar, that
+added to the fierceness of his appearance. He reined in his charger with
+a most telling effect.
+
+"Where is Mademoiselle Rachel Nay?" he demanded.
+
+They brought her to him. He sprang off his horse, removed his helmet,
+which he placed in the bend of his left arm, and bowed with gallantry,
+while his eyes showed his appreciation of the girl's beauty. He was
+Philippe Veterin.
+
+"I have come for you, mademoiselle," said he, trying to soften his
+voice, that had been roughened in the war.
+
+The blood crept from Rachel's cheeks.
+
+"And with a message from Nicolas La Hire, who is my friend. He is
+wounded--ah! pardon my stupidness, I am too abrupt; the hurt is not
+much, but enough to prevent his coming for you. _Mon Dieu!_--do not look
+so frightened, my pretty one; I have the best of news--news to bring the
+blood again to those smooth cheeks. Listen! We ambushed a whole host of
+Prussians, and we cut them to pieces. La Hire was equal to any two of
+us. The colonel vowed he would give him whatever he asked for. 'Then
+send,' said Nicolas, 'to Orgemont, which is three leagues from here, and
+fetch my sweetheart to me, that I may kiss her lips.'
+
+"We cheered him, mademoiselle, for it appealed to our hearts and made us
+think of the women whose love is ours, and who are waiting for us. 'It
+shall be done,' said the colonel, 'and you shall wed her, La Hire, if
+that be your present wish. Then she can return to her parents to wait
+for you until we have finished the war.'
+
+"This is my errand, pretty one. I have come to fetch you. Ah! you are
+paler than before. Courage! You shall have such a wedding that every
+woman in France shall envy you. The church bells will peal while our
+sentries guard the roads, the guns will salute you, and each breast that
+a cuirass hides will swell with the cheers that we shall give you. My
+sword, why am I not Nicolas La Hire!"
+
+Rachel tried to speak, but there was such a weight upon her heart that
+the words she would have uttered stopped in her throat. At length she
+said, faintly: "I--I cannot go: it is impossible."
+
+The trooper laughed outright. "_Pardonnez moi_," he cried, "I said that
+I have come for you, and without you I dare not return, or I should be
+compelled to fight my regiment, one by one. Mademoiselle, you will
+obtain a horse, and you will accompany me; that is as certain as my name
+is Philippe Veterin." He twisted his moustache, and a flash almost of
+menace sparkled in his black eyes.
+
+They were without old Joseph's cottage as they spoke, and Rachel drew
+Veterin in, closing the door against the little crowd of villagers, who
+turned their attention to the trooper's charger. She said, in a
+heart-broken voice:--
+
+"Nevertheless, I cannot accompany you. I am married already; I am
+another man's wife."
+
+                [Illustration: "I AM MARRIED ALREADY."]
+
+The trooper gave back a step; then he laughed harshly--a contemptuous
+laugh.
+
+"Oh, oh!" said he, shrugging his shoulders, "that is a different matter.
+All the same, it is bad, bad news for La Hire," and he moved toward the
+door.
+
+"Stay!" said the girl, flushing hotly at his derisive tone. "I have a
+message in return for yours. Will you tell Nicolas that, though he must
+come no more to Orgemont, though he must not see me again, I am wife in
+name only. Maiden I am still, before God, and, for Nicolas's sake, shall
+always remain so. You will tell him, monsieur, that he had been gone but
+a few weeks when Simon Mansart----"
+
+"Ah!" interrupted Veterin, "I have heard about him."
+
+"----when Simon Mansart fell ill. At the point of death (so it seemed
+to all of us) he besought me to wed him, for he loves me almost as much
+as he loves his gold. And he offered me in return all his money that is
+hid in his house. I refused. It was pointed out to me that Monsieur
+Mansart had no one to whom to leave the wealth which he had accumulated,
+but he asked nothing better than to leave it to me if I would grant him
+one brief hour in which to call me wife, that, holding my hand, he might
+pass the last great barrier. I refused again. Then they made it clear to
+me that certain papers only wanted my signature, and even while Monsieur
+Mansart lived his wealth became mine--so certain was he that he could
+not recover. Again I declined this offer. I was told that I should hold
+sacred the prayer of one who loved me and was dying; that it would not
+be only right, but an act of nobleness to render his end peaceful and
+happy. Still I refused."
+
+"Ah! Yet you yielded!" sighed Veterin, moved to his heart by a tear that
+was trickling down one of the soft brown cheeks.
+
+"For my parents' sake. They had their way at last. They are very poor;
+the war has tried us greatly. Against my heart, against my conscience, I
+said 'yes.' That night I signed the papers and was wedded to Monsieur
+Mansart; that night he held my hand as I sat by his couch, and he looked
+into my eyes with a terrible gaze of love."
+
+"And he lived? My sword! I could swear he was not so ill as he said. The
+cunning rascal!"
+
+"It was God's will. I have not seen him since then, and will not.... You
+will tell Nicolas all this, monsieur; and you will give him these papers
+and ask him to destroy them, lest he should say, 'Rachel married this
+man for the money.' I thought at first that I would send them back to
+Monsieur Mansart, for you may be sure I shall not touch this money that
+has come between Nicolas and me. And you will tell him that he must not
+grieve for me, because I am not worthy of his remembrance."
+
+"And I shall tell him that you love him still. Is it not so,
+mademoiselle?" said Veterin, huskily.
+
+"Yes, yes!" Rachel answered, struggling with her rising tears. She
+caught the trooper by the arm, clasping his great muscles with her two
+hands, and her breath fanned his face. "Tell him that--that I love him
+as much as--as I despise myself; that my heart, which I gave to him,
+must always be his; that all my thoughts are of him, are with him
+wherever he goes. And you may tell him, monsieur, if you like, that my
+heart is breaking--no, no; you must not say that! He would come to see
+me, and he must not. Oh, _mon Dieu_!"
+
+The clinging fingers tightened round the soldier's arm; the voice broke
+off into a sob. Veterin's eyes were wet. He blinked fiercely.
+
+"Take him my message. Tell him all this. But you cannot, wanting my
+voice and my eyes, in which he used to read every thought. Yet you will
+remember how I looked and what I said. And you will tell Nicolas that I
+love him as he taught me to, that without him all the world has grown
+dark, and that I shall love him until I die!"
+
+The trooper caught her to him, for he felt that she was falling. Rachel
+controlled herself by a strong effort, and she pushed him gently toward
+the door. Veterin turned to give one last look at that supplicating
+figure, with the dishevelled hair in sweet confusion about the
+tear-stained face; then he went out. He muttered, in a voice that he
+might not have known as his own:
+
+_Peste!_ It seems to me that this Simon Mansart is very much in the
+way!"
+
+
+                                  III.
+
+On the evening of that day Simon Mansart was sitting alone before a
+handful of fire when he heard his big dogs barking with anger. As the
+disturbance continued he went to the door, and he thought he perceived
+without, in the black night, a blacker shadow beyond the gate.
+
+"Will you call off your lambs?" shouted a voice.
+
+"Who are you? And what do you want?" cried Mansart, always terribly
+suspicious of strangers, and especially those who arrived after dusk.
+
+"You do not know me, but I have come on your business."
+
+"Then you will come again when it is daylight, my friend," and he began
+to close the door.
+
+"Very well," was the immediate reply. "I am determined to see you now,
+and if your dogs attempt to stop me they must take the consequences."
+
+Simon laughed incredulously; but when he heard the iron gate scream on
+its rusty hinges, and when he heard the growls of the dogs, he
+exclaimed, vehemently, "Take care! You will be torn to pieces!"
+
+"I shall at least kill one of your dogs first," was the determined
+reply.
+
+"Stop! I will call them off," said Mansart, who would never have yielded
+had he the smallest doubt of the other's resolution. He whistled his
+great curs off; but he was sorry that he had done so when he perceived
+his visitor, who was a French trooper, swaggering and fierce, and who
+could have crushed Mansart in his strong arms.
+
+"May I come in?" said he, and he advanced so persistently that the other
+was compelled to retreat before him. He closed the door and stood before
+it--tall, erect, commanding.
+
+"Your errand, monsieur?" demanded Simon, trembling with rage, yet
+afraid.
+
+"How dark it is in here! And what a little fire for so cold a night!"
+
+"We do not need light to talk by, and I am warm enough."
+
+"And poor enough. Is it not so? It is about that that I have come."
+
+Mansart grew more polite. He had signed away a fortune to a girl who
+loathed him. When peace should come the courts would make good her
+claim. So that any overture, any compromise, was welcome.
+
+  [Illustration: "MY NAME IS PHILLIPE VETERIN," SAID THE CUIRASSIER.]
+
+"My name is Philippe Veterin," said the cuirassier, folding his arms
+with their gauntleted hands, and fixing a stern look upon Mansart.
+"Captain Nicolas La Hire is my friend."
+
+"And my enemy," muttered Simon, his deep-set eyes flashing.
+
+"I have come to Orgemot on his behalf."
+
+"Ah! Is he wounded?"
+
+"He is."
+
+Mansart rubbed his hands together.
+
+"But not badly. Unless you are going to listen to me, I think it likely
+that La Hire will pay you a visit one of these days."
+
+Simon sank uneasily into his chair. "What has this to do with me?" he
+demanded. "And how is it that you are here?"
+
+Veterin went on steadily. "I am here with a message for Mademoiselle
+Rachel Nay, that sweet girl----"
+
+"That name is hers no longer. Also you will keep your compliments until
+I ask for them," interrupted the other, savagely.
+
+"You are her husband; that is true enough. To you I bear a message also.
+Yet I can scarcely call it that, since what I am about to propose to you
+is entirely an idea of my own, and which I should like to mention in the
+interests of my friend Monsieur Nicolas La Hire. It is of a most unusual
+nature. Here it is. Rachel married you believing that you were at
+Death's door. But the door wouldn't open. Good for you, bad for her, bad
+for Nicolas, whom she loves. Now, La Hire loves this girl; she is as
+indispensable to his happiness as your money is to yours. Mark that."
+
+There was a pause. Then Mansart said, "What do you mean?"
+
+"That I have come to offer to restore to you these papers, which
+represent the fortune which you have bestowed upon your wife. Ah! not so
+quick. There is one condition attached. You must release this girl."
+
+A terrible light of joy leaped into Simon's face, but it died away
+instantly. "The thing is impossible," he said. "She is my wife; we were
+lawfully wedded, remember. How, then, can I release her? How can she be
+wedded to another?"
+
+"Yet La Hire has sworn that only as her husband will he kiss the lips of
+his love again."
+
+"But, monsieur, how can it be? See for yourself!"
+
+Veterin continued, imperturbably:--
+
+"Certainly, if I restore to you these papers, which I am sure you would
+be glad to get back, that would scarcely break the bond between you and
+Rachel; yet I am about to yield them to you. It follows, then, that you
+will still call her your wife and enjoy your own as well? I am afraid
+that it does, but there is an 'if' in the case; for though I am
+perfectly willing to give you these papers, yet it is just possible that
+they may cost you your life."
+
+"My life!"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+Mansart crouched back. "You are threatening me?" said he, hoarsely.
+
+"By no means. Look here."
+
+Veterin advanced to the table, upon which he emptied a handful of small
+counters. "There are thirteen of them," he said. "You will perceive that
+twelve of them are white and that the other is red. Will you count
+them?"
+
+"Oh, I take your word for it."
+
+"Yet you had better count for yourself. That is right. And now I will
+tell you my idea, which is so unusual and so dramatic that I rather
+pride myself upon it. I throw these ivory discs into my helmet and cover
+them with a handkerchief--so. And I ask you, if you are a man of
+courage, to raise one corner of the handkerchief and take out a single
+counter. If it be a white one--as is almost certain to be the case--I
+hand you the papers in my possession and I wish you good-night,
+enjoyment of your hoarded gold, and happiness with Rachel. But if it be
+the solitary red one--and that is extremely unlikely--then--then--if it
+be the red one, I say----"
+
+The cuirassier broke off and regarded the other steadily. Mansart had
+turned livid. "Go on," he said, in a shaking voice; "why do you stop? If
+I should draw the red one--what then?"
+
+Veterin shrugged his shoulders as he answered, "In that case I should
+ask you to fight with me."
+
+"Ah! you would murder me!" said Simon, recoiling.
+
+"Pardon, I have _two_ pistols here. It would be fair fighting."
+
+"It is horrible, monstrous! I will not listen to you."
+
+"Almost as terrible as wedding a maid whose soul has been given to
+another; almost as monstrous as coming eternally between two hearts that
+beat for each other," was the stern response.
+
+"I tell you that I will not hear of it," repeated Mansart, frantically.
+
+"Then you will be a great fool. I wish I stood in your shoes. The
+chances of life are twelve; of death, one. And even then it will be fair
+fighting--though, by my sword, I shall do my best to kill you. Consider.
+But a moment separates you from your wealth. Come, it might have been
+over and forgotten by now."
+
+"Monsieur, if you are a gentleman, if you entertain toward me no
+sinister intent, you will leave my house at once."
+
+"Very well, I will go," said Veterin, and he moved toward the door. He
+opened it and was about to pass out when the querulous voice of Simon
+called to him again.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"The chances in my favour are not sufficient."
+
+"What a coward it is!"
+
+"Add six more to the number and I will agree."
+
+The trooper laughed and tossed half-a-dozen more of the white discs into
+his helmet. "There you are," he said. "Take one; you are perfectly
+safe."
+
+"Shake them well together," whispered Mansart, who appeared to be almost
+fainting with the excitement of this terrible gamble.
+
+Then he put his hand under the handkerchief and into the steel casque.
+He withdrew it slowly. The trooper snatched away his helmet to prevent
+any trick, and Simon looked at the disc which his fingers held.
+
+It was the red one!
+
+ [Illustration: "HE REMAINED GAZING FIXEDLY AT THAT SYMBOL OF DEATH."]
+
+And he began to mutter; inarticulate words, such as one may use under
+the spell of some strangling dream. He remained gazing fixedly at that
+symbol of death. A rush of blood mounted to his forehead, swelling the
+veins, then as quickly died away, leaving him pallid.
+
+"Ah!" said Veterin, "how unfortunate for you!"
+
+Mansart retreated a few steps, crouching back like a wild beast that has
+received a wound, which simulates an approaching end, and which holds
+its remaining strength together waiting for its destroyer to draw near.
+
+"You must acknowledge that it does not look like chance," went on
+Veterin, who was cool as ice. "Eighteen to one! _Ma foi_, it is
+astonishing." He placed two pistols upon the table.
+
+"Come, monsieur," he exclaimed, suddenly, in a hard, rasping voice. "You
+will play the man, will you not?"
+
+Mansart appeared unable to reply; perhaps he could not. His look was
+steadily directed upon the trooper, whose slightest movement he observed
+with the most intense anxiety.
+
+Veterin examined the pistols, while he threw more than one furtive
+glance at the other's passionless face. He pushed a pistol toward Simon.
+"I think you had better defend yourself," he said. "I am going to hold
+you to your word," and he stepped back, raising his own weapon.
+
+"Stop!" exclaimed Mansart, in a choked voice. "We do not fight on equal
+terms."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"You are skilled in the use of your weapon, while I----"
+
+"That is easily remedied." Veterin suddenly extinguished the candle. He
+called out, "Take care! I shall fire at the first opportunity."
+
+A nebulous red glow came from the nearly-burned log in the grate and
+shone upon the farther side of the apartment. Both men had retreated
+into the shadow; both waited.
+
+There was a profound silence, broken occasionally by whispering sounds
+from the log that pulsated, red and grey, as the draught fanned it.
+Veterin was scarcely breathing; his straining eyes peered into the dark,
+seeking to detect the form of Simon Mansart. He listened intently. Not
+the faintest sound was audible. Suddenly he believed that he perceived a
+black object but a few feet from him. Surely that was Mansart.
+
+The cuirassier lifted his pistol and aimed at the centre of that
+indistinct form; yet his finger did not press the trigger. Instead he
+gradually lowered the weapon.
+
+"What is the matter with my nerves?" he thought.
+
+He remained standing in a rigid posture, undecided. "Why not?" he asked
+himself again. "It is fair fighting. _Ma foi_, I have done worse
+things."
+
+Another minute passed. Veterin sighed deeply. "I cannot do it," he
+muttered; "not even for you, Nicolas." Then he called out aloud:--
+
+"Light the candle; I shall do you no harm."
+
+No answer.
+
+"You need not fear me," repeated the trooper.
+
+Still no reply.
+
+"If I move he will shoot at me," thought Veterin. Nevertheless, he
+advanced in the direction of the table and groped about for the
+candlestick. He found it, went to the fire, and held the coarse wick
+against the log. All the time he did not remove his eyes for an instant
+from that black something which he believed to be Mansart. The candle
+smoked, glowed, then broke into a flame. The trooper had made a mistake;
+he perceived that the shadowy object was a chair merely.
+
+Veterin spun round, expecting a pistol-ball and extending his weapon. A
+low cry escaped him at the sight which met his eyes.
+
+    [Illustration: "A LOW CRY ESCAPED HIM AT THE SIGHT WHICH MET HIS
+                                EYES."]
+
+Simon Mansart, crouched in an angle of the room, held with dead fingers
+his undischarged pistol, looked with dead eyes at the flaring light. The
+excitement of the gamble and terror of this unfought duel had stopped
+his heart.
+
+Veterin crossed himself. "God judge me! I did it for Nicolas's sake," he
+said. He crossed to the grate and pushed some papers into the embers.
+
+And all at once there came upon him a sudden fear which sent him running
+from the house. The sharp air and a strong effort of self-control gave
+him his wits again. For a moment he halted to look back at the chateau,
+with its unlighted windows and dead aspect; and he said aloud, as if
+concluding an unspoken thought:--
+
+"----and they will be married when the war is over."
+
+
+
+
+          [Illustration: A MEETING OF THE PORTSMOUTH NAVAL WAR
+     GAME SOCIETY IN THE NELSON ROOM AT THE "GEORGE", PORTSMOUTH.]
+
+               _The Naval War Game and How it is Played._
+
+                         BY ANGUS SHERLOCK.
+
+        Copyright in the United States by A. P. Watt and Son.
+
+    (NOTE.--This is the only popular article that has ever appeared
+    on the Naval War Game, though it is played in every navy in the
+    world. The subject is of some special interest just at present,
+    because both the Japanese and Russian navies trained on it for
+    the present war.  Proofs of the article have been submitted to
+    the inventor, who himself selected the illustrations.)
+
+
+From time to time one reads in the technical naval Press brief
+references to, or fixtures for, the Naval War Game. At rare intervals a
+"war-game battle" will be found described at length in some of the
+Service journals, but beyond this it is safe to say that the game is a
+mystery to the general public. The reason is, in part, that it touches
+technical questions that are caviare to the million, but as much, or
+more so, it is mysterious on account of the secrecy with which many of
+its details are guarded. It is open to the public to purchase the
+"game," it is true, but, though the material and plenty of directions
+can thus he secured, it is by now well enough known that many
+unpublished "confidential" rules exist.
+
+These, it may be noted, differ in every navy. The problems of naval
+warfare and the ideals of facing them are not the same for a Russian as
+for an American, and Sweden and the Argentine Republic again have
+nothing in common in their naval aspirations. However, were I in a
+position to divulge these matters they would not be of any great
+interest to readers of THE STRAND MAGAZINE, so I propose to confine
+myself as much as possible to things in which the human interest is the
+dominant factor.
+
+First, however, some description of the game and its invention may be of
+interest. The naval war game reached its fruition some five years ago,
+but Mr. Fred. T. Jane, its inventor, always asserts that he began to
+think it out when he was a small boy at school.
+
+"When I was a small boy," said Mr. Jane, "I had the boat sailing craze.
+A school-fellow had a better boat than I; I mounted a gun in mine and
+committed an act of piracy on a duck-pond. My chum was a sportsman, and,
+after punching my head, proceeded to arm his ship also. We took to
+armour-plates made from biscuit-tins, and to squadrons instead of single
+ships. In the battle that ensued our fleets annihilated each other, and
+depleted finances forbade their renewal. Then it was that the economy
+born of necessity caused me to think that make-believe battles would be
+cheaper. Thus was the naval war game evolved in embryo. At first we
+fought with imaginary leviathans, but after a time such impossible
+vessels were claimed that we decided to simulate nothing but existing
+ships.
+
+"A year or so later I read in some newspaper that a fortune awaited the
+man who could invent something that could be applied to ships as the
+land _Kriegspiel_ to armies. I thought I could do with that fortune, so
+packed the game in an empty Australian beef-tin and sent it to the
+Admiralty, together with a letter in which the following magnificent
+sentence occurred: 'I shall not be above accepting financial
+remuneration, and for convenience this can be paid in instalments.'
+
+"In due course 'My Lords' returned the game with thanks. They had
+'inspected it with much interest,' they said.
+
+"Somehow I doubt it. After the lapse of many years I still remember
+vividly the smell of that old meat-tin in which the game was sent to
+them.
+
+"My next step was one which is, I believe, chronic with disappointed
+inventors. I wrote letters to the newspapers attacking Admiralty policy
+in general, with a view to making the callous authorities tremble! I
+never witnessed the trembling, but as out of this campaign I grew into
+what is called a 'naval expert,' I suppose I owe the Admiralty a debt of
+gratitude! However, that is another story.
+
+"Meanwhile, war game languished, till some seven years ago it was found
+by accident in a lumber-room. Even then it was resuscitated only as a
+toy. I used to take it to the _Majestic_, and it was played there very
+much _a la_ ping-pong, till one day the captain, Prince Louis of
+Battenberg, asked about it, and wished to see the rules.
+
+"Feeling somewhat of a fraud," says Mr. Jane, "I hastily recast the
+thing into its original serious mould, plus a variety of improvements
+that occurred to me, or were suggested by various naval friends.
+
+"The game was then played in the _Majestic_ once more, and 'caught on.'
+To my astonishment I was deluged with letters asking about the game. The
+first came from the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia, the Czar's
+brother-in-law, who, with that absence of 'side' so characteristic of
+the Romanoffs, wrote himself as a naval officer. He had, he told me,
+himself invented a naval war game, the strategical part of which was
+successful, but the tactical not what he had hoped for it. If mine were
+satisfactory, he would do all he could for it.
+
+"That is how the game came to have its Imperial and Royal 'godfathers,'
+as announced on the title-page. Royal sailors are usually regarded as
+mere ornamental dummies, but both the Grand Duke Alexander and Prince
+Louis of Battenberg were responsible for many excellent improvements in
+the game, for which I, perhaps, have received the credit.
+
+"There were two other godfathers--Rear-Admiral H. J. May, of the British
+Navy, and Captain Kawashima, of the Japanese Navy. The former expended
+endless labour in revising the rules; the latter it was who played with
+me all the early experimental games to test the rules, and alter them
+when necessary to make practice as simple as possible. We used to fight
+little one-man 'wars,' beginning at about ten in the morning and
+carrying on till after midnight. Captain Kawashima is now in command of
+the _Matsushima_ (the famous cruiser that was flagship at Yalu in the
+Chino-Japanese War), and when I remember the painstaking enthusiasm he
+used to put into the 'wars' he and I had, I think that he will go far in
+the present war.
+
+"A lecture at the United Service Institution followed the _Majestic_
+battle, and thus the game 'took root.' It is in every navy in the world
+now."
+
+About this time a foreign Government approached the inventor with a view
+to purchasing the game and its secret. The offer was declined, but Mr.
+Jane gave a similar option to the British Admiralty, which, however,
+made no reply whatever beyond an official acknowledgment of the receipt
+of the letter. Perhaps, like Mr. Jane, the Permanent Secretary
+remembered the old meat-tin!
+
+After an interval the game was produced--the very first set to be sold
+being secured by, of all people, the Chinese! This particular set later
+on helped to make history; indeed, it has been seriously surmised that
+it caused the Chinese attack on the allied fleets at Taku. After that
+affair a British landing party found the ground inside one fort littered
+with war-game models, each model ship being stuck full of pins. The
+leader of the party being a war-game player followed up his find, to
+discover a shed laid out for naval war game and "scorers"[1] of all the
+allied fleets in various stages of destruction!
+
+    [1] For particulars of "scorers" see later.] The Chinese had
+        apparently worked out things by war game before opening
+        fire. They had, however, made one little mistake--they had
+        made no allowance for the allied fleet firing back!
+
+Following China, the United States, Germany, Russia, and Japan secured
+early sets, and a little while afterwards the British War Office. That
+much-abused department was, curiously enough, the very first to
+recognise the utility of the game for the chief purpose its inventor
+designed it for--the teaching of the guns and armour of possible
+enemies. It was procured for the use of artillery officers in sea forts,
+and in his last report Lord Roberts emphasized the vast difference
+between those officers who had played the game and those who had not.
+The former knew the weak points of every possible enemy; the latter, on
+hearing the name of any ship, could not tell whether she were a
+battleship or gunboat, dangerous or harmless. Every War Office has since
+followed suit in adopting the "Kindergarten war system."
+
+        [Illustration: A STANDARD NORWEGIAN NAVAL WAR-GAME SET.
+   _From a Photo.                                 by Symonds & Co._]
+
+And now for some account of how the game is played. A large table is the
+primary requisite. This is covered with blue cards divided into a
+multitude of little squares, each of which represents half a cable--that
+is to say, a hundred yards. Over these squares are moved the
+pieces--model ships on the same scale as the board.
+
+These models are a most important part of the game. They are made of
+cork, painted, and most accurate representations of actual ships; and
+this they need to be, for the players have to recognise them. Each model
+is fitted with tiny guns--little bits of wire set in at various angles
+which indicate the arcs of training of the corresponding guns in the
+real ships, while long pins mark the bearings of the torpedo tubes.
+Other pins, fitted with delicate little military tops, make the masts;
+and, to digress a moment, hereby hangs a tale.
+
+One of the earliest experimenters with the naval war game was the
+ubiquitous Kaiser. He took to it keenly, and himself played it often
+with his admirals. One day, so runs the story in the German Navy, the
+Kaiser was winning hand over fist, his fleet, led by his flagship,
+bearing down upon the enemy. Excitement was high, when at the critical
+moment the Kaiser's fleet suddenly disappeared!
+
+The Kaiser gazed at the deserted board and then at his admirals. An
+"awkward pause" is said to have ensued, and the writer for one can quite
+believe that. It is undoubtedly an awkward thing to seem to have played
+tricks with an Emperor so as to cheat him out of victory.
+
+"Where is my fleet?" asked the Kaiser.
+
+"I do not know, sire," exclaimed his chief opponent, a famous admiral.
+
+He saluted as he spoke, and thereupon there fell to the floor,
+apparently from down the admiral's sleeve, three of the missing
+warships! What the admiral felt is better imagined than described.
+
+Fortunately for his reputation one model still remained stuck in his
+sleeve. In moving his own ships he had rested his arm on the Kaiser's
+vessels, and so lifted the lot unawares. All's well that ends well, and
+the Kaiser laughed most heartily; but there is an admiral in the German
+fleet whom it is in no way wise to talk to about naval war game.
+
+However, this admiral is not the only one who has met misadventure from
+war-game models, no less a person than the Japanese Admiral Togo heading
+the list of those who have had "naval war-game hand"--the result of
+inadvertently leaning on the masts of a model ship!
+
+To resume the description. Every player has assigned to him a particular
+ship, and this he moves simultaneously with all the others at the
+direction of his "admiral." Each move nominally occupies a minute of
+time--actually it usually takes more, and it is in the ways and means
+adopted to balance this that most of the confidential rules exist. A
+most essential part of the game is to counterfeit with all possible
+realism the hurry-scurry of an actual battle.
+
+         [Illustration: A NAVAL WAR-GAME TARGET--ACTUAL SIZE.]
+
+The distance moved depends, of course, upon the speed of the ship
+represented. A flier like H.M.S. _Drake_, for instance, can cover as
+many as eight squares should full speed be ordered. This means eight
+hundred yards a minute--equivalent, approximately, to a speed of
+twenty-four knots per hour. In actual practice the ships do not move by
+squares, else a vessel proceeding along the diagonals would go much
+faster than one moving straight across; the squares merely exist to
+afford a rough means of guessing the range. Special measures are,
+therefore, employed.
+
+Innumerable rules cover such matters as increasing and decreasing speed,
+turning, and so forth. General conventions exist, but in actual practice
+the real turning circles of ships are alone made--and here, of course,
+confidential features are thick. The inventor of the game is probably
+the repository of more secrets in this respect than three of the best
+Naval Intelligence Departments of Europe put together.
+
+At the end of each "minute" more firing takes place. This is the
+characteristic feature of the game. Each player has a card with a plan
+of his ship showing guns, armour, etc., and divided into arbitrary
+vertical sections of twenty-five feet each. This card is known
+technically as a "scorer." Pictures of each ship, similarly divided, but
+showing no armour, and of different sizes for different ranges, are also
+provided. These are the "targets."
+
+They are struck at by "strikers," which at first sight are rather like
+ping-pong bats with a pin in them.[2] This pin is nearly, but never
+quite, in the centre of the striker. To ensure hitting any particular
+part of a ship is, therefore, practically impossible, except at close
+range, and not very often then. Nice calculation is required, and also
+great coolness--too great effort after accuracy being usually as fatal
+as too little. Thus, by automatic means, that great factor of modern
+warfare, "moral effect," is provided for, since experience shows that no
+player whose ship has been badly knocked about ever hurts the enemy very
+much. One strike per gun is allowed; with reduced gun-fire he feels his
+chances of hitting reduced, and tries harder to make the most of what he
+has got, and the slight excitement, coupled with the extra effort that
+he makes, invariably disconcerts his aim.
+
+    [2] "Strikers" will be seen on the table and in the hands of
+        players in the big picture of a war game.
+
+         [Illustration: "SCORER" FOR H.M.S. "KING EDWARD VII."]
+
+To some extent the excitement of a battle always does this. When the
+game was first exhibited at the Royal United Service Institution, a
+certain admiral urged as a weak point in the shooting system that he
+could hit the enemy every time. He took a target and did it. Yet in the
+battle that ensued he never scored a single hit--the slight extra
+tension upset his aim completely. And it is astonishing how many misses
+are made by many players from this cause.
+
+    [Illustration: THE SAME "SCORER" AFTER A BATTLE IN WHICH THE
+    SHIP WAS KNOCKED ABOUT. THE DAMAGES HAVE BEEN SCORED ACCORDING
+    TO HITS RECEIVED ON "TARGETS."]
+
+Hitting the enemy is, however, but half the battle. If the ship fired at
+is armoured the impact may be on a cuirass that the gun represented
+cannot get through, or an armour-piercing shot may hit a part where no
+armour exists, and so do next to no harm. When harm is done it is scored
+on the card of the ship hit on a scale corresponding to the actual
+damage that would be inflicted. In a very little while the player
+realizes that what will put one ship out of action will hardly hurt
+another. This in theory he has, of course, always known, but between
+knowing a thing and fully realizing it there is an enormous gap. He has
+been firing, perhaps, at the German _Kaiser Friedrich_ and blown her to
+pieces almost with big shell. He shifts his fire to the _Wittelsbach_,
+hits her as often, and she comes on unhurt. These two ships have the
+same armament and the same weight of armour--it is merely differently
+disposed. That difference of disposition tells in naval war game as
+heavily as it would in actual war.
+
+In this little piece of realism lies the fascination of the game. That
+it has extraordinary fascinations for some naval officers is beyond
+dispute. The Grand Duke Alexander of Russia, for instance, had all the
+furniture turned out of the big drawing-room at the Xenia Palace, St.
+Petersburg, in order to have set up a table large enough to allow huge
+fleets to be manoeuvred, and he invited the inventor over to stay with
+him at St. Petersburg for a month in order to play against him. In a
+Russian lunatic asylum there is at this day a captain who actually went
+mad on the game and spends his existence in perpetual imaginary battles.
+In the British Navy there are dozens of young officers who think nothing
+of playing a game from half-past eight on to four in the morning, taking
+their chances of being able to find a shore-boat to take them back to
+their ships at that hour in the depth of winter. I have seen battles
+often in which the opposing sides would not speak to each other; indeed,
+when a regular "war" is being worked out this is the usual situation. It
+is being "real war in miniature" that produces this. The writer can
+vouch for the maddening effect in a battle of some apparently splendid
+scheme being ruined by a single "lucky shell" from the enemy. Too late
+one realizes that the best dispositions are not those that promise most,
+but those in which a lucky shot or two will not bring about failure.
+
+Torpedoes, however, perhaps take first place as maddening irritants. In
+the game as now played in the British Navy, between each move screens
+are usually put up. The object of these is to prevent the enemy
+"answering" any change of formation more quickly than could be done in
+actual battle. Under cover of these screens torpedoes are fired--the
+firing method being to draw a pencil line following the bearing of the
+tube, firing not at the enemy, but at the spot on which he is _expected
+to be when the torpedo reaches him_. Torpedoes are slow things
+relatively. They can travel a thousand yards in a minute, but take three
+minutes to do two thousand yards, and six to go three thousand. Very
+nice calculation is, therefore, needed. At the expiration of the
+time--that is to say, anything from one to six moves after firing--if
+the torpedo line and any ship (friend or foe) coincide, the ship is
+torpedoed. Till then nothing has been said: the torpedo comes as a bolt
+from the blue.
+
+The panic caused by the first torpedoes fired under this system was
+immense. Both fleets put about and rushed away from each other, never
+getting within torpedo range again. In the centre, between the fleet,
+lay the victim, which the umpire had notified as torpedoed. Not till the
+battle was over was it made known that the torpedoed vessel had been hit
+by a torpedo fired by one of her consorts, across the path of which she
+had unwittingly wandered!
+
+The acme of horror in this direction is perhaps provided by submarines.
+Slow moving, they have more or less to take up their positions before
+the battle begins. It is not permitted me to describe exactly how they
+are worked. I may say, however, that they are manoeuvred on a separate
+board, and work blindly enough; for all that the player of a submarine
+sees of the battlefield is what he can find reflected in a tiny mirror.
+He has, in fine, to guess a great deal as to the course and distance of
+the enemy from the spot corresponding to that on which he is supposed to
+be, which reproduces the conditions under which a periscope is used
+fairly accurately. If a submarine can get within a square (one hundred
+yards) of a ship, that ship is allowed torpedoed. Nothing is allowed for
+the chance of the boat being seen by the ship, the assumption being that
+these chances are too small to be worth consideration; at any rate, till
+such time as it is too late for the ship to do anything.
+
+This looks like an easy time for the submarine, but it is not so
+comfortable in reality, because destroyers and picket-boats may be with
+the enemy. Should a destroyer at any time pass within a hundred yards of
+the submarine, it is exit submarine!
+
+In the British Navy the official home of the naval war game is at
+Greenwich Naval College, where captains play it during the "war course."
+In the United States the War College is its home. Its real British
+head-quarters are at Portsmouth, where a voluntary society plays it
+twice a week. Admiral Sir John Hopkins is the president of this
+association, and Mr. Fred. T. Jane, the inventor, its secretary. Both
+naval and military officers are eligible for membership, and, as far as
+possible, junior officers only. At the "war course" tactics are the
+principal study, but at Portsmouth tactics play a minor part. "Tactics
+cannot be taught by naval war game, save in a very general way," is the
+dictum of the inventor. "The Portsmouth Naval War-Game Society exists
+for quite different objects. It aims chiefly at teaching the guns and
+armour of possible enemies; and for the rest tries to train officers to
+think out war problems, to train them to think things quickly, and to
+exhibit resource, to learn the value of all the vital side issues of
+war, such as international law or the keeping up of communications, and
+so forth. There is no such thing as the abstract right or wrong move in
+war; to do a more or less wrong thing at once may often be better than
+doing a better thing a little later. 'Act' is the motto that the society
+strives to inculcate."
+
+It is, it will be seen, far removed from a "theory hot-bed." In
+pursuance of the plan the society's members are incessantly at war with
+each other. Advantage is taken of the rivalry that exists between ships
+in the Navy--and one ship's officers are usually pitted against those of
+another ship. At other times it is the Navy against the Army; and before
+now personal enemies have been pitted against each other.
+
+"In cards and games you play for sport, but in war game you must 'play
+to win,'" is the principle inculcated.
+
+To this end anything whatever may be claimed, subject, however, to the
+provision that, should the umpire consider any claim impossible or
+absurd, the maker of it gets a breakdown to his best ship as a reward.
+
+The record in claims is held by a young lieutenant who acted as Admiral
+Alexieff in a Russo-Japanese War. His claim ran as follows:--
+
+"Orders issued that no offal is to be thrown overboard from Russian
+ships.
+
+"A special field of small observation mines is to be laid at ---- (here
+a place geographically suitable near Port Arthur is mentioned). At this
+spot offal is to be freely thrown into the water to attract porpoises
+and sharks. When a good number have collected the mines are to be
+exploded and the stunned fish collected.
+
+"Each is then to have strapped to it a leather band, holding a short
+pole in position (as per small model accompanying), after which it is to
+be liberated.
+
+"I claim that these fish will, as usual, follow any vessels in the
+neighbourhood of Port Arthur dropping offal--that is to say, Japanese
+ships only--and that they will be taken for submarine boats when the
+pole like a periscope is sighted.
+
+"The Japanese will soon detect the imposition, and then grow so used to
+the sight that after a time a real submarine will be able to approach
+without attracting any suspicion."
+
+            [Illustration: Attacking destroyers (Japanese).
+
+    Russian merchantman.             Russian battleship _Peresviet_.
+
+    A TORPEDO-BOAT ATTACK IN A RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR GAME--PLAYED
+    OCTOBER-DECEMBER LAST. AS USUAL IN TORPEDO OPERATIONS, THIS WAS
+    PLAYED ON A BOARD WITHOUT SQUARES, IN ORDER TO RENDER IT MORE
+    DIFFICULT TO JUDGE DISTANCES.
+
+                        _From a Photo. by West._]
+
+Truly an astounding claim! It was not allowed by the umpire, but the
+fertile brain whence it originated is never likely to let its owner come
+to grief for want of an expedient.
+
+As a rule possible actual wars are not often played: more usually
+imaginary countries are established in some part of Europe and given the
+ships which it is most desired to study. Admiralty charts are used, and
+an immense amount of study of harbours is thus put in as pastime, while
+these little wars give prominence to such minor operations as attacks on
+coastguard stations and so forth, which could not well enter into a
+larger war. Usually, too, there is some special theme--international
+law, perhaps, one time, gleaning and sifting intelligence another time,
+and so forth.
+
+What was, perhaps, the funniest war ever carried out had "Intelligence
+Sifting" as its theme. The combatants were allowed to procure
+information of each other's plans by any means they chose--any trick
+being regarded as legitimate. The gamut of the possible was run in no
+time. Both sides enrolled their friends as spies, and a silver-haired
+old lady, who liked to hear officers talk of their professions, was most
+deadly to one player. Two others, wishing to ensure private discussion,
+hired a motor-car. They had only gone some little way into the country
+when a policeman sprang from the hedge and stopped them. After the usual
+protests the policeman admitted an element of doubt in the case; if they
+would drive him to the police-station he would have his stop-watch
+tested in their presence. They took him on board and, as motorists have
+done before and since, marooned him far away after an hour's drive. By
+then, plans being decided, they went home by devious routes, thinking no
+more of the marooned policeman. Not till some days afterwards did it
+dawn on them that the policeman was a bogus one--an enemy who had
+availed himself of this means of learning their secret plans!
+
+They were not, however, without resource. The day following the
+discovery they called on the ship which the chief "admiral" of the other
+side served in. Keeping out of sight, they waited till he went to his
+cabin; then, slipping in, gagged and bound him, after which they
+proceeded to rifle his cabin. Plans were soon found, but false
+information had been disseminated once or twice, and they were wary.
+They continued the search, being at last rewarded by finding the whole
+plan of campaign concealed inside a telescope.
+
+After this they departed happy, and made their dispositions accordingly,
+handing these in to the umpire long before the gagged one--for they left
+him gagged and bound--was able to release himself.
+
+Total failure was theirs: their wily enemy had in some way anticipated
+their raid, and the plan concealed in the telescope had been carefully
+prepared for their undoing!
+
+It must not be supposed, however, that a war game is often so frivolous
+as this one, for in the ordinary way any such "spying" is strictly
+forbidden. Yet few games, perhaps, have been more useful than this one,
+for certainly half the players must have had impressed upon them in the
+most direct and unexpectedly forcible of ways the urgent necessity of
+taking no information for granted and also of sifting it all most
+carefully, which was the object sought. And if in the hereafter any one
+of them is the repository of important Service secrets he will have to
+be a very wily spy who secures them from him. There cannot be much wrong
+while young officers can be found ready to sacrifice such little leisure
+as they get in studying war problems for amusement.
+
+It is only in the British Navy that--so far as I can ascertain--this is
+done. In other navies officially supervised games are plentiful enough,
+but with them, of course, there is not the same interest. Here and there
+isolated foreign ships have the game on board and use it for purposes
+akin to those for which the inventor designed it. Two such ships are the
+Russian _Bayan_ and _Novik_--the only two ships which have, so far,
+distinguished themselves in the present war.
+
+In connection with the former ship it is interesting to note that her
+captain was a regular attendant at the Grand Duke Alexander's games in
+St. Petersburg, and used there to be laughingly called the "War-Game
+Skobeleff." Skobeleff, it will be remembered, was that Russian general
+who, in the Turco-Russian War, led a hundred desperate forlorn hopes
+untouched, though all around him were killed or wounded. Any ship played
+by Captain Wiren of the _Bayan_ used to have similar extraordinary luck;
+as one Russian officer, who must have Irish blood in him, put it: "The
+enemy's hits on him were all misses." Strangely enough, the same luck
+has followed him in the present war--the _Bayan_ survived the torpedo
+attack of February 8th; in the battle of the 9th, though she charged the
+Japanese fleet, she was untouched; in the action of the 25th February,
+when Captain Wiren, with three Russian cruisers, tried to fight the
+entire Japanese squadron, two were badly mauled, but the _Bayan_ was not
+hurt.
+
+In concluding this brief sketch of naval war game from the popular
+standpoint a reference may be made to flying-machines, which some think
+will be the warships of the future. Rules of the aerial fights of the
+future are said to exist all ready cut and dried, together with an
+ingenious machine by which the aerial warship's moves can be made. There
+is, in fine, nothing in earth, sky, or sea, or under the sea, that has
+not been the subject of rules in this "War by Kindergarten."
+
+
+
+
+             [Illustration: _The Phoenix and the Carpet._
+
+                            _By E. NESBIT._]
+
+               Copyright 1904, by George Newnes, Limited.
+
+
+                     XI.--THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
+
+"Well, I _must_ say," mother said, looking at the Wishing Carpet as it
+lay, all darned and mended and backed with shiny American cloth, on the
+floor of the nursery--"I _must_ say I've never in my life bought such a
+bad bargain as that carpet."
+
+A soft "Oh!" of contradiction sprang to the lips of Cyril, Robert, Jane,
+and Anthea. Mother looked at them quickly, and said:--
+
+"Well, of course I see you've mended it very nicely, and that was sweet
+of you, dears."
+
+"The boys helped too," said the dears, honourably.
+
+"But, still--twenty-two and ninepence! It ought to have lasted for
+years. It's simply dreadful now. Well, never mind, darlings, you've done
+your best. I think we'll have cocoanut matting next time. A carpet
+doesn't have an easy life of it in this room, does it?"
+
+"It's not our fault, mother, is it, that our boots are the really
+reliable kind?" Robert asked the question more in sorrow than in anger.
+
+"No, dear, we can't help our boots," said mother, cheerfully, "but we
+might change them when we come in, perhaps. It's just an idea of mine. I
+wouldn't dream of scolding on the very first morning after I've come
+home. Oh, my Lamb, how could you?"
+
+This conversation was at breakfast, and the Lamb had been beautifully
+good until everyone was looking at the carpet, and then it was for him
+but the work of a moment to turn a glass dish of syrupy blackberry jam
+upside down on his young head. It was the work of a good many minutes
+and several persons to get the jam off him again, and this interesting
+work took people's minds off the carpet, and nothing more was said just
+then about its badness as a bargain and about what mother hoped for from
+cocoanut matting.
+
+When the Lamb was clean again he had to be taken care of while mother
+rumpled her hair and inked her fingers and made her head ache over the
+difficult and twisted housekeeping accounts which cook gave her on dirty
+bits of paper, and which were supposed to explain how it was that cook
+had only fivepence-halfpenny and a lot of unpaid bills left out of all
+the money mother had sent her for housekeeping. Mother was very clever,
+but even she could not quite understand the cook's accounts.
+
+The Lamb was very glad to have his brothers and sisters to play with
+him. He had not forgotten them a bit, and he made them play all the old
+exhausting games: "Whirling Worlds," where you swing the baby round and
+round by his hands; and "Leg and Wing," where you swing him from side to
+side by one ankle and one wrist. There was also climbing Vesuvius. In
+this game the baby walks up you, and when he is standing on your
+shoulders you shout as loud as you can, which is the rumbling of the
+burning mountain, and then tumble him gently on to the floor and roll
+him there, which is the destruction of Pompeii.
+
+"All the same, I wish we could decide what we'd better say next time
+mother says anything about the carpet," said Cyril, breathlessly ceasing
+to be a burning mountain.
+
+"Well, you talk and decide," said Anthea; "here, you lovey ducky Lamb.
+Come to Panther and play Noah's Ark."
+
+The Lamb came with his pretty hair all tumbled and his face all dusty
+from the destruction of Pompeii, and instantly became a baby snake,
+hissing and wriggling and creeping in Anthea's arms, as she said:--
+
+    I love my little baby snake,
+    He hisses when he is awake,
+    He creeps with such a wriggly creep,
+    He wriggles even in his sleep.
+
+"Well, you see," Cyril was saying, "it's just the old bother. Mother
+can't believe the real true truth about the carpet, and----"
+
+"You speak sooth, O Cyril!" remarked the Phoenix, coming out from the
+cupboard where the black-beetles lived, and the torn books, and the
+broken slates, and odd pieces of toys that had lost the rest of
+themselves. "Now hear the wisdom of the Phoenix, the son of the
+Phoenix."
+
+"There's a society called that," said Cyril.
+
+"Where is it? And what is a society?" asked the bird.
+
+"It's a sort of joined-together lot of people--a sort of brotherhood--a
+kind of--well, something very like your temple, you know, only quite
+different."
+
+"I take your meaning," said the Phoenix. "I would fain see these calling
+themselves Sons of the Phoenix."
+
+"But what about your words of wisdom?"
+
+"Wisdom is always welcome," said the Phoenix.
+
+          [Illustration: "'PRETTY POLLY!' REMARKED THE LAMB."]
+
+"Pretty Polly!" remarked the Lamb, reaching his hands towards the golden
+speaker.
+
+The Phoenix modestly retreated behind Robert, and Anthea hastened to
+distract the attention of the Lamb by murmuring:--
+
+    I love my little baby rabbit;
+    But oh, he has a dreadful habit
+    Of paddling out among the rocks
+    And soaking both his bunny-socks.
+
+"I don't think you'd care about the Sons of the Phoenix, really," said
+Robert. "I have heard that they don't do anything fiery. They only drink
+a great deal. Much more than other people, because they drink lemonade
+and fizzy things, and the more you drink of those the more good you
+get."
+
+"In your mind, perhaps," said Jane; "but it wouldn't be good in your
+body. You'd get too balloony." The Phoenix yawned.
+
+"Look here," said Anthea, "I really have an idea. This isn't like a
+common carpet. It's very magic indeed. Don't you think, if we put Tatcho
+on it and then gave it a rest, the magic part of it might grow, like
+hair is supposed to do?"
+
+"It might," said Robert, "but I should think paraffin would do as
+well--at any rate as far as the smell goes, and that seems to be the
+great thing about Tatcho."
+
+But with all its faults Anthea's idea was something to do, and they did
+it.
+
+It was Cyril who fetched the Tatcho bottle from father's washhand-stand.
+But the bottle had not much in it.
+
+"We mustn't take it all," Jane said, "in case father's hair began to
+come off suddenly; if he hadn't anything to put on it, it might all drop
+off before Eliza had time to get round to the chemist's for another
+bottle. It would be dreadful to have a bald father, and it would all be
+our fault."
+
+"And wigs are very expensive, I believe," said Anthea. "Look here, leave
+enough in the bottle to wet father's head all over with in case any
+emergency emerges--and let's make up with paraffin. I expect it's the
+smell that does the good really--and the smell's exactly the same."
+
+So a small teaspoonful of the Tatcho was put on the edges of the worst
+darn in the carpet and rubbed carefully into the roots of the hairs of
+it, and all the parts that there was not enough Tatcho for had paraffin
+rubbed into them with a piece of flannel. Then the flannel was burned.
+It made a gay flame, which delighted the Phoenix and the Lamb.
+
+"How often," said mother, opening the door--"how often am I to tell you
+that you are _not_ to play with paraffin? What have you been doing?"
+
+"We have burnt a paraffiny rag," Anthea answered. It was no use telling
+mother what they had done to the carpet. She did not know it was a magic
+carpet, and no one wants to be laughed at for trying to mend an ordinary
+carpet with lamp-oil.
+
+"Well, don't do it again," said mother. "And now away with melancholy!
+Father has sent a telegram. Look!" She held it out, and the children
+holding it by its yielding corners read:--
+
+"Box for kiddies at Garrick. Stalls for us, Haymarket. Meet Charing
+Cross, 6.30."
+
+"That means," said mother, "that you're going to see 'The Water Babies'
+all by your happy selves, and father and I will take you and fetch you.
+Give me the Lamb, dear, and you and Jane put clean lace in your red
+evening frocks, and I shouldn't wonder if you found they wanted ironing.
+This paraffin smell is ghastly. Run and get out your frocks."
+
+The frocks did want ironing--wanted it rather badly, as it happened;
+for, being of tomato-coloured Liberty silk, they had been found very
+useful for _tableaux vivants_ when a red dress was required for Cardinal
+Richelieu. They were very nice _tableaux_, these, and I wish I could
+tell you about them--but one cannot tell everything in a story. You
+would have been specially interested in hearing about the _tableaux_ of
+the Princes in the Tower, when one of the pillows burst and the youthful
+Princes were so covered with feathers that the picture might very well
+have been called "Michaelmas Eve; or, Plucking the Geese."
+
+Ironing the dresses and sewing the lace in occupied some time, and no
+one was dull because there was the theatre to look forward to, and also
+the possible growth of hairs on the carpet, for which everyone kept
+looking anxiously. By four o'clock Jane was almost sure that several
+hairs were beginning to grow.
+
+The Phoenix perched on the fender, and its conversation, as usual, was
+entertaining and instructive--like school prizes are said to be. But it
+seemed a little absent-minded and even a little sad.
+
+"Don't you feel well, Phoenix, dear?" asked Anthea, stooping to take an
+iron off the fire.
+
+ [Illustration: "'DON'T YOU FEEL WELL, PHOENIX, DEAR?' ASKED ANTHEA."]
+
+"I am not sick," replied the golden bird, with a gloomy shake of the
+head, "but I am getting old."
+
+"Why, you've only been hatched about two months."
+
+"Time," remarked the Phoenix, "is measured by heart-beats. I'm sure the
+palpitations I've had since I've known you are enough to blanch the
+feathers of any bird."
+
+"But I thought you lived five hundred years," said Robert, "and you've
+hardly begun this set of years. Think of all the time that's before
+you."
+
+"Time," said the Phoenix, "is, as you are probably aware, merely a
+convenient fiction. There is no such thing as time. I have lived in
+these two months at a pace which generously counterbalances five hundred
+years of life in the desert. I am old, I am weary. I feel as if I ought
+to lay my egg, and lay me down to my fiery sleep. But unless I'm careful
+I shall be hatched again instantly, and that is a misfortune which I
+really do not think I _could_ endure. But do not let me intrude these
+desperate personal reflections on your youthful happiness. What is the
+show at the theatre to-night? Wrestlers? Gladiators? A combat of
+camelopards and unicorns?"
+
+"I don't think so," said Cyril; "it's called 'The Water Babies,' and if
+it's like the book there isn't any gladiating in it. There are
+chimney-sweeps and professors, and a lobster and an otter and a salmon,
+and children living in the water."
+
+"It sounds chilly," the Phoenix shivered, and went to sit on the tongs.
+
+"I don't suppose there will be _real_ water," said Jane. "And theatres
+are very warm and pretty, with a lot of gold and lamps. Wouldn't you
+like to come with us?"
+
+"_I_ was just going to say that," said Robert, in injured tones, "only I
+know how rude it is to interrupt. Do come, Phoenix, old chap; it will
+cheer you up. It'll make you laugh like anything. Mr. Bourchier always
+makes ripping plays. You ought to have seen 'Shock-Headed Peter' last
+year."
+
+"Your words are strange," said the Phoenix, "but I will come with you.
+The revels of this Bourchier of whom you speak may help me to forget the
+weight of my years."
+
+So the Phoenix snuggled inside the waistcoat of Robert's Etons--a very
+tight fit it seemed both to Robert and to the Phoenix--and was taken to
+the play.
+
+          [Illustration: "ROBERT HAD TO PRETEND TO BE COLD."]
+
+Robert had to pretend to be cold at the glittering, many-mirrored
+restaurant where they all had dinner, with father in evening dress, with
+a very shiny white shirt-front, and mother looking lovely in her grey
+evening dress, that changes into pink and green when she moves. Robert
+pretended that he was too cold to take off his great-coat, and so sat
+sweltering through what would otherwise have been a most thrilling meal.
+He felt that he was a blot on the smart beauty of the family, and he
+hoped the Phoenix knew what he was suffering for its sake. Of course, we
+are all pleased to suffer for the sake of others, but we like them to
+know it--unless we are the very best and noblest kind of people, and
+Robert was just ordinary.
+
+Father was full of jokes and fun, and everyone laughed all the time,
+even with their mouths full, which is not manners. Robert thought father
+would not have been quite so funny about his keeping his overcoat on if
+father had known all the truth. And there Robert was probably right.
+
+When dinner was finished to the last grape and the last paddle in the
+finger-glasses--for it was a really truly grown-up dinner--the children
+were taken to the theatre, guided to a box close to the stage, and left.
+Father's parting words were:--
+
+"Now, don't you stir out of this box, whatever you do. I shall be back
+before the end of the play. Be good and you will be happy. Is this zone
+torrid enough for the abandonment of great-coats, Bobs? No? Well, then,
+I should say you were sickening for something--mumps or measles, or
+thrush or teething. Good-bye."
+
+He went, and Robert was at last able to remove his coat, mop his
+perspiring brow, and release the crushed and dishevelled Phoenix. Robert
+had to arrange his damp hair at the looking-glass at the back of the
+box, and the Phoenix had to preen its disordered feathers for some time
+before either of them was fit to be seen.
+
+They were very, very early. When the lights went up fully the Phoenix,
+balancing itself on the gilded back of a chair, swayed in ecstasy.
+
+"How fair a scene is this!" it murmured; "how far fairer than my temple!
+Or have I guessed aright? Have you brought me hither to lift up my head
+with emotions of joyous surprise? Tell me, my Robert, is it not that
+this, _this_ is my true temple, and the other was but a humble shrine
+frequented by outcasts?"
+
+"I don't know about outcasts," said Robert, "but you can call this your
+temple if you like. Hush! the music is beginning."
+
+I am not going to tell you about the play. As I said before, one can't
+tell everything, and no doubt you saw "The Water Babies" yourselves. If
+you did not it was a shame, or rather a pity.
+
+What I must tell you is that, though Cyril and Jane and Robert and
+Anthea enjoyed it as much as any children possibly could, the pleasure
+of the Phoenix was far, far greater than theirs.
+
+"This is indeed my temple," it said, again and again. "What radiant
+rites! And all to do honour to me!"
+
+The songs in the play it took to be hymns in its honour. The choruses
+were choric songs in its praise. The electric lights, it said, were
+magic torches lighted for its sake, and it was so charmed with the
+footlights that the children could hardly persuade it to sit still. But
+when the limelight was shown it could contain its approval no longer. It
+flapped its golden wings, and cried in a voice that could be heard all
+over the theatre:--
+
+"Well done, my servants! Ye have my favour and my countenance!"
+
+Little Tom on the stage stopped short in what he was saying. A deep
+breath was drawn by hundreds of lungs, every eye in the house turned to
+the box where the luckless children cringed, and most people hissed, or
+said "Shish!" or "Turn them out!"
+
+Then the play went on, and an attendant presently came to the box and
+spoke wrathfully.
+
+"It wasn't us, indeed it wasn't," said Anthea, earnestly; "it was the
+bird."
+
+The man said well, then, they must keep their bird quiet.
+
+"Disturbing everyone like this," he said.
+
+"It won't do it again," said Robert, glancing imploringly at the golden
+bird; "I'm sure it won't."
+
+"You have my leave to depart," said the Phoenix, gently.
+
+"Well, he is a beauty, and no mistake," said the attendant, "only I'd
+cover him up during the acts. It upsets the performance."
+
+And he went.
+
+"Don't speak again, there's a dear," said Anthea; "you wouldn't like to
+interfere with your own temple, would you?"
+
+So now the Phoenix was quiet, but it kept whispering to the children. It
+wanted to know why there was no altar, no fire, no incense, and became
+so excited and fretful and tiresome that four at least of the party of
+five wished deeply that it had been left at home.
+
+What happened next was entirely the fault of the Phoenix. It was not in
+the least the fault of the theatre people, and no one could ever
+understand afterwards how it did happen. No one, that is, except the
+guilty bird itself and the four children. The Phoenix was balancing
+itself on the gilt back of the chair, swaying backwards and forwards and
+up and down, as you may see your own domestic parrot do. I mean the grey
+one with the red tail. All eyes were on the stage, where the lobster was
+delighting the audience with that gem of a song, "If you can't walk
+straight, walk sideways!" when the Phoenix murmured warmly:--
+
+"No altar, no fire, no incense!" and then, before any of the children
+could even begin to think of stopping it, it spread its bright wings and
+swept round the theatre, brushing its gleaming feathers against delicate
+hangings and gilded wood-work.
+
+It seemed to have made but one circular wing-sweep, such as you may see
+a gull make over grey water on a stormy day. Next moment it was perched
+again on the chair-back--and all round the theatre, where it had passed,
+little sparks shone like tinsel seeds, then little smoke wreaths curled
+up like growing plants--little flames opened like flower-buds.
+
+People whispered--then people shrieked.
+
+"Fire! Fire!" The curtain went down--the lights went up.
+
+"Fire!" cried everyone, and made for the doors.
+
+"A magnificent idea!" said the Phoenix, complacently. "An enormous
+altar--fire supplied free of charge. Doesn't the incense smell
+delicious?" The only smell was the stifling smell of smoke, of burning
+silk, or scorching varnish.
+
+The little flames had opened now into great flame-flowers. The people in
+the theatre were shouting and pressing towards the doors.
+
+"Oh, how _could_ you!" cried Jane. "Let's get out."
+
+"Father said stay here," said Anthea, very pale, and trying to speak in
+her ordinary voice.
+
+"He didn't mean stay and be roasted," said Robert; "no boys on burning
+decks for me, thank you."
+
+"Not much," said Cyril, and he opened the door of the box.
+
+            [Illustration: "HE OPENED THE DOOR OF THE BOX."]
+
+But a fierce waft of smoke and hot air made him shut it again. It was
+not possible to get out that way.
+
+They looked over the front of the box. Could they climb down?
+
+It would be possible, certainly, but would they be much better off?
+
+"Look at the people," moaned Anthea; "we couldn't get through." And,
+indeed, the crowd round the doors looked thick as flies in the
+jam-making season.
+
+"I wish we'd never seen the Phoenix," cried Jane.
+
+Even at that awful moment Robert looked round to see if the bird had
+overheard a speech which, however natural, was hardly polite or
+grateful.
+
+The Phoenix was gone.
+
+"Look here," said Cyril, "I've read about fires in papers; I'm sure it's
+all right. Let's wait here, as father said."
+
+"We can't do anything else," said Anthea, bitterly.
+
+"Look here," said Robert, "I'm _not_ frightened--no, I'm not. The
+Phoenix has never been a skunk yet, and I'm certain it'll see us through
+somehow. I believe in the Phoenix!"
+
+"The Phoenix thanks you, O Robert," said a golden voice at his feet, and
+there was the Phoenix itself, on the Wishing Carpet.
+
+"Quick!" it said, "stand on those portions of the carpet which are truly
+antique and authentic--and----"
+
+A sudden jet of flame stopped its words. Alas! the Phoenix had
+unconsciously warmed to its subject, and in the unintentional heat of
+the moment had set fire to the paraffin with which that morning the
+children had anointed the carpet. It burned merrily. The children tried
+in vain to stamp it out. They had to stand back and let it burn itself
+out. When the paraffin had burned away it was found that it had taken
+with it all the darns of Scotch heather-mixture fingering. Only the
+fabric of the old carpet was left--and that was full of holes.
+
+"Come," said the Phoenix, "I'm cool now."
+
+The four children got on to what was left of the carpet. Very careful
+they were not to leave a leg or a hand hanging over one of the holes. It
+was very hot--the theatre was a pit of fire. Everyone else had got out.
+
+Jane had to sit on Anthea's lap.
+
+"Home!" said Cyril, and instantly the cool draught from under the
+nursery door played upon their legs as they sat. They were all on the
+carpet still, and the carpet was lying in its proper place on the
+nursery floor, as calm and unmoved as though it had never been to the
+theatre or taken part in a fire in its life.
+
+Four long breaths of deep relief were instantly breathed. The draught
+which they had never liked before was for the moment quite pleasant. And
+they were safe. And everyone else was safe. The theatre had been quite
+empty when they left. Everyone was sure of that.
+
+They presently found themselves all talking at once. Somehow none of
+their adventures had given them so much to talk about. None other had
+seemed so real.
+
+"Did you notice----?" they said, and "Do you remember----?"
+
+When suddenly Anthea's face turned pale under the dirt which it had
+collected on it during the fire.
+
+"Oh," she cried, "mother and father! Oh, how awful! They'll think we're
+burned to cinders. Oh, let's go this minute and tell them we aren't."
+
+"We should only miss them," said the sensible Cyril.
+
+"Well--_you_ go, then," said Anthea, "or I will. Only do wash your face
+first. Mother will be sure to think you are burnt to a cinder if she
+sees you as black as that. Mother, she'll faint or be ill or something.
+Oh, I wish we'd never got to know that Phoenix."
+
+"Hush!" said Robert; "it's no use being rude to the bird. I suppose it
+can't help its nature. Perhaps we'd better wash too. Now I come to think
+of it my hands are rather----"
+
+No one had noticed the Phoenix since it had bidden them to step on the
+carpet. And no one noticed that no one had noticed.
+
+All were partially clean, and Cyril was just plunging into his
+great-coat to go and look for his parents--he, and not unjustly, called
+it looking for a needle in a bundle of hay--when the sound of father's
+latchkey in the front door sent everyone bounding up the stairs.
+
+"Are you all safe?" cried mother's voice; "are you all safe?" and the
+next moment she was kneeling on the linoleum of the hall, trying to kiss
+four damp children at once, and laughing and crying by turns, while
+father stood looking on and saying he was blessed or something.
+
+"But how did you guess we'd come home?" said Cyril, later, when everyone
+was calm enough for talking.
+
+"Well, it was rather a rum thing. We heard the Garrick was on fire and,
+of course, we went straight there," said father, briskly. "We couldn't
+find you, of course--and we couldn't get in--but the firemen told us
+everyone was safely out. And then I heard a voice at my ear say, 'Cyril,
+Anthea, Robert, and Jane'--and something touched me on the shoulder. It
+was a great yellow pigeon, and it got in the way of my seeing who'd
+spoken. It fluttered off, and then someone said in the other ear,
+'They're safe at home'; and when I turned again, to see who it was
+speaking, hanged if there wasn't that confounded pigeon on my other
+shoulder. Dazed by the fire, I suppose. Your mother said it was the
+voice of----"
+
+            [Illustration: "IT WAS A GREAT YELLOW PIGEON."]
+
+"I said it was the bird that spoke," said mother, "and so it was. Or at
+least I thought so then. It wasn't a pigeon. It was an orange-coloured
+cockatoo. I don't care who it was that spoke. It was true--and you're
+safe."
+
+Mother began to cry again, and father said bed was a good place after
+the pleasures of the stage.
+
+So everyone went there.
+
+Robert had a talk to the Phoenix that night.
+
+"Oh, very well," said the bird, when Robert had said what he felt,
+"didn't you know that I had power over fire? Do not distress yourself.
+I, like my high priests in Lombard Street, can undo the work of flames.
+Kindly open the casement."
+
+It flew out.
+
+That was why the papers said, next day, that the fire at the theatre had
+done less damage than had been anticipated. As a matter of fact, it had
+done none, for the Phoenix spent the night in putting things straight.
+How the management accounted for this, and how many of the theatre
+officials still believe that they were mad on that night, will never be
+known.
+
+Next day mother saw the burnt holes in the carpet.
+
+"It caught where it was paraffiny," said Anthea.
+
+"I must get rid of that carpet at once," said mother.
+
+But what the children said in sad whispers to each other, as they
+pondered over last night's events, was:--
+
+"We must get rid of that Phoenix."
+
+
+
+
+    [Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS--THE POINT MARKED X SHOWS THE SPOT
+           REACHED BY GUIDE BARLOW AND SUPERINTENDENT PERRY.
+
+                            _From a Photo._]
+
+                   _Walking on the Brink of Niagara._
+
+                          BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP.
+
+
+There is no man who has so many adventures at Niagara to his credit as
+John R. Barlow. Mr. Barlow, in the summer-time, is the chief guide at
+the Cave of the Winds, that wonderful cavern under the waterfall as it
+plunges between Goat and Luna Islands. Years of familiarity with the
+waters of the world-famed Niagara have caused Guide Barlow to forget
+what fear is, and he moves about in dangerous places without thinking of
+possible disaster. He is the oldest and best-known guide at Niagara, and
+people from many countries have crossed his palm with silver in token of
+care bestowed upon them, or in return for the kindly information which
+he is ever ready to give.
+
+When the new stone arch bridges were built to connect Goat Island to the
+mainland, a temporary bridge was erected on piers for the convenience of
+pedestrians. When this temporary structure had ceased to be useful it
+was destroyed, and, unfortunately for the scenic beauty of the portion
+of the upper rapids lying between the brink of the American fall and the
+island bridges, several of the cribs lodged on the reefs and refused to
+be stirred by the rush of the downpouring waters. The hope of the State
+Reservation officials was that the cribs would pass over the fall in
+time of high water, but flood after flood poured down from Lake Erie and
+the cribs refused to move. They were unsightly to a remarkable degree,
+and quite an annoyance to the officials who had charge of the beauty of
+Niagara. This was the condition when winter set in last autumn.
+
+The winter proved of unusual severity. Ice came down from the lake in
+large sheets, and a considerable quantity of it lodged on the reefs
+between the mainland and Goat Island. By February the main part of the
+channel through which the water flows to the American fall was blocked
+with ice. Between Goat Island and the mainland there were three open
+channels, through which the water ran streak-like to the brink. One of
+these was close by the mainland, and made the plunge over the fall close
+to Prospect Point. The second was close to the outer edge of Luna
+Island, while the third was between Luna and Goat Islands. This left a
+wide expanse of the American fall, and the river-bed immediately above
+it, covered with ice. This ice-field remained unbroken for several days,
+but by going out on the ice-bridge that spanned the river in front of
+the fall it was possible to study the face of the cliff, and to see that
+at several points the water crept through under the ice and found its
+way to the fall.
+
+However, the fact that the portion of the fall below Green Island was
+covered with ice gave the impression to Superintendent Edward Perry, of
+the State Reservation, that the unsightly cribs on the river-bed could
+be removed. He called Guide Barlow to go with him, together with another
+man named William Mullane, and the trio made their way to Green Island.
+Going to the foot of this island, it was easy for them to step out over
+the ice to several of the cribs, which Superintendent Perry then and
+there ordered to be removed.
+
+It was while Superintendent Perry and Guide Barlow were on this mission
+that the latter recognised the unusual conditions of the ice. His
+practised eye scanned the white expanse as it extended westward and
+turned over the precipice.
+
+"I believe it would be possible for us to walk to the brink of the
+American fall," said Barlow, addressing Superintendent Perry.
+
+The superintendent looked at him in amazement. So far as is known no
+human being had ever stood where Guide Barlow contemplated going. Still,
+the superintendent is a man of nerve, and as he looked down the river at
+Robinson's Island, at Chapin's Island, at Crow and Blackbird Islands, he
+longed to set foot on the possessions of the Empire State over which he
+was the official guard.
+
+    [Illustration: GUIDE BARLOW AND SUPERINTENDENT PERRY STANDING ON
+      THE BRINK OF THE FALL AT A POINT NEVER BEFORE REACHED BY MAN.
+                            _From a Photo._]
+
+There was little said. Guide Barlow had already commenced to move down
+the river over the ice. It was firm, and stood his weight well. In a
+minute Superintendent Perry followed him. As they moved along the
+untrodden path the condition of the ice gave them new courage, and both
+felt that they were walking where man had never before been. Their route
+carried them between Robinson's and Blackbird Islands, and on down by a
+little isle as yet unnamed. Leaving the foot of Robinson's Island
+behind, they moved cautiously over the frozen expanse down, farther
+down, right to the brink of the American fall, midway between Luna
+Island's shore and Prospect Park. Along the very crest of the brink they
+walked, realizing that they were at the very centre of the great fall
+that is a world-wonder. Guide Barlow pointed out to Superintendent Perry
+the mighty ice-mountain that reared its head from below, and also
+related how human beings passing over the fall at that point were never
+found.
+
+Their dark forms outlined against the pure white, snow covered ice,
+standing only a few feet back from the awful brink of the fall, made a
+startling picture. As they stood there a dark shadow crept down over the
+ice, intimating that the river was rising and might overflow the ice on
+which they stood. Yet it was such a novel place to be in that they
+lingered and looked--looked and gained new and wonderful ideas of the
+sublimity and awfulness of Niagara. So close did they go to the brink
+that a slight advance would have carried them over the precipice to the
+frightful, unknown, unexplored regions behind the icy mounds below.
+
+Before they returned the author of this story hurried from Goat Island,
+from which point he had taken a picture of the remarkable trip, to the
+brink of the American fall, where he took another photograph of
+Superintendent Perry and Guide Barlow as they stood at the edge of the
+precipice over which the Niagara torrent flows in chaotic fury in
+summer-time.
+
+    [Illustration: GUIDE BARLOW AND SUPERINTENDENT PERRY STANDING ON
+                         THE BRINK OF NIAGARA.
+                            _From a Photo._]
+
+The trip up the channel carried the party outside of Robinson's Island,
+all stopping to pay tribute to Chapin's Island, the little spot where,
+in 1838, a man had lodged as he was being swept toward the fall by the
+awful current.
+
+"I am glad to be back," said Superintendent Perry, as the party reached
+the lower end of Green Island.
+
+"But you are also glad to have been where you have been," added Guide
+Barlow, the only man who had ever conducted a party to that dangerous
+point on the brink of the American fall.
+
+The date was Saturday, February 13, 1904.
+
+
+
+
+                             _Curiosities_
+
+              Copyright, 1904, by George Newnes, Limited.
+
+    [_We shall be glad to receive Contributions to this section, and
+    to pay for such as are accepted._]
+
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+                           A WHEEL--OR WHAT?
+
+"This is a cross-section of a white pine tree about twenty-eight inches
+in diameter. What appear to be carrots sticking through the sides are
+the knots caused by the branches, which, owing to their resinous nature,
+have not decayed, while the wood which formerly surrounded them has
+rotted away."--Mr. A. S. Angell, care of _Times_ Printing and Publishing
+Co., Victoria, B.C.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                          A HOMEMADE BICYCLE.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+This photograph, taken in Russia by a Blackburn contributor, is of an
+extraordinary bicycle and its ingenious maker, a Russian peasant, who at
+the time was employed as a mill watchman in St. Petersburg. The frame of
+the bicycle is mainly made out of broomsticks, the wheels consist of
+barrel hoops and wooden spokes, the cranks are of wood, and bobbins form
+the principal part of the pedals; the front forks are likewise of wood,
+working inside a ten-inch "slubbing bobbin"; the saddle (movable) is cut
+out of an ordinary piece of wood, the back of a disused arm-chair does
+duty as handle-bars, and the chain was taken off an old "flat-card"
+machine. It only remains to add that this curiosity is not a mere
+exhibit, for a friend of the gentleman who supplies the photo. rode it
+more than once, though he never accomplished anything in the way of
+record-breaking on the wooden "bike."
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                        SWALLOWED BY AN OSTRICH.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"I send you a photo. of the contents of a tame ostrich's stomach, which
+you will not be surprised to hear was the cause of its death. All these
+pieces of metal were picked up by it around the blacksmith's shop of a
+farm in South America. The circle of round pieces in the centre is made
+up of 3/8 in. punch pellets from a punching machine, and will give an
+idea of the size of the rest of the metal. All these pieces were more or
+less worn, according to the time they had been swallowed; some had
+almost disappeared. The total weight of iron was considerable."--Mr. E.
+Windus, Erin Manor, Burgess Hill, Sussex.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                      PECULIAR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
+
+                     [Illustration] [Illustration]
+
+"The accompanying photos. are of two musical instruments which, with
+their inventor, can be found at an obscure little hamlet called Keld,
+about twenty miles from Richmond in Yorkshire. No. 1 is an adaptation to
+a harmonium, and consists of the branch of a tree fastened to the end of
+the harmonium; upon the branch is a double row of bells which come from
+all parts of England. When playing, the musician has a long piece of
+wood ending in a steel spike, and at the lower end of the wood is a
+finger-hole. The striker is slipped upon one of the fingers of the left
+hand, and as the treble and bass are being played the finger with the
+striker upon it is bent in order to strike one of the bells. No. 2 is
+what the inventor calls 'a stone organ.' The old man said that one day
+when fishing in the river his foot caught a stone and he noticed that it
+gave forth a musical note, so he constructed a sounding-board, secured
+stones from the river, and placed them thereon. He found that clipping a
+piece off the end of the stone sharpened the note, whilst to clip off
+the side flattened it; in this way he made three octaves. The old man
+has never had any lessons in music."--Mr. G. Hardwick, The Promenade,
+Bridlington.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                         SAVED BY A CARTRIDGE.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"Here is the photograph of a cartridge which has been pierced by a
+bullet. My brother, of the 6th Dragoon Guards, was carrying this in his
+bandolier when he was wounded in the late South African War. The bullet
+after piercing the cartridge passed clean through his body, leaving in
+the centre of his back after penetrating one of his lungs. Fortunately
+it did not touch the spinal cord, owing probably to being deviated by
+the cartridge, and he recovered. The cartridge did not explode, and has
+still the explosive in it intact."--Mr. F. W. Robins, 14, Wellington
+Road, Barnsbury, N.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                      A DIVING TOWER ON DRY LAND.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"I send you a photo. of a curious structure which stands not very far
+from the Lake of Neuchatel. It would be difficult for anyone
+unacquainted with its history to give a name to it, for its appearance
+and position furnish absolutely no clue as to its use. It is, as a
+matter of fact, a diving tower, built many years ago for the use of
+bathers in the Lake of Neuchatel. The peculiar part about it is that
+anyone desirous of diving from it nowadays would have to fly
+horizontally over a railway, a road, and a good three hundred yards of
+dry land before reaching the water, for, the lake having gradually
+receded, the tower has been left high and dry, about a quarter of a mile
+from the edge of the water. As may be seen from the photo., it is now in
+a very tumble-down condition."--Mr. J. O. S. Ziegler, Place Bel Air,
+Yverdon, Switzerland.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                            A POSTAL MARROW.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"The vegetable marrow shown in the accompanying photograph was grown by
+my brother, Mr. David Ager, gardener to Mr. Milton Bode, of West Dean,
+near Reading, the well-known gold medallist for chrysanthemum culture.
+The name and address were marked on the marrow when it was quite small,
+and the writing has become more distinct with increasing age. When about
+nine inches in length the marrow was cut, a label with the necessary
+postage affixed tied to the small piece of stalk, and it was then handed
+in at the post-office. In due course it arrived at its destination, the
+marrow being none the worse for its journey."--Mr. J. Ager, c/o Messrs.
+Betts, Hartley, and Co., 9 and 10, Great Tower Street, E.C.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                     WHAT IS THERE BENEATH THE IVY?
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"This curious statue, which appears to be looking out of a tree, is to
+be found in the public park at Bath. The ivy has been allowed to cover
+the whole statue with the exception of the head; probably no one knows
+what the rest of it is like. This is a winter view; in summer the head
+has a background of foliage."--Mr. James A. Rooth, 112, Oakwood Court,
+Kensington.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                         "HOW THE CROW FLIES."
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"A remarkable instance of the unexpected happening, especially to
+devotees of the camera, occurred to me the other day. I took the
+photograph of Canterbury Cathedral which I send you, and whilst the
+plate was exposed I noticed a crow rising from the branches of the tree
+at the extreme left of the picture. The bird flew slowly upwards and in
+zigzag fashion until it reached a height nearly equal to the cathedral
+spire. On developing the negative I found that the bird's flight was
+most accurately recorded in the shape of a thin black line, which can be
+distinctly traced in the photograph. By means of a magnifying glass the
+extended wings of the crow could be distinctly seen. I may add that as I
+was using a small stop the exposure was rather a long one."--Mr. H. J.
+Divers, 13, Burgate Street, Canterbury.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                           THE MORRIS DANCE.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"I send you a photograph which may interest some of your readers. The
+village of Bidford-on-Avon keeps up the quaint old custom of the Morris
+Dance, and on high days and holidays the six dancers, accompanied by the
+clown and the hobby-horse, dance through the village to the music of a
+violin."--Miss Dryhurst, 11, Downshire Hill, Hampstead.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                              VERY SIMPLE.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"The curious effect produced in the photograph which I send was obtained
+by the simple means of placing a small piece of specially-cut paper over
+the negative."--Mr. R. J. Chenneour, Ishpeming, Mich.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                             THE FAN TREE.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"Travellers in South-Eastern Asia sometimes see at a distance what
+appears to be a gigantic fan. In fact, it closely resembles the dainty
+creations of feathers and ivory which are so popular with ladies. On
+approaching closer, however, the fan is seen to be a natural one, being
+a species of palm tree which is wonderfully like a fan, not only in the
+way in which its branches project from the trunk, but in the leaves in
+which the branches terminate. As shown in the picture, the tree spreads
+out like an extended fan and the leaves bear a strong resemblance to
+feathers. It is called the Traveller's Palm, partly for the reason that
+in the forenoon or afternoon, when the sun is not directly above, it
+frequently offers welcome shade. Some of the palms grow to a height of
+fifty or sixty feet, with 'feathers' ranging from ten to fifteen feet in
+length."--Mr. D. A. Willey, Baltimore.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                            PETRIFIED WIRE.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"Here is the photo. of a piece of wire rope taken from a coal-mine in
+Wales. The mine referred to had not been worked for some ten years, and
+when the water was pumped out the rope was discovered as shown, encased
+in a formation of hard stone. I may add that when the stone was broken
+the wire was found to be in a perfect state of preservation."--Mr. B. H.
+Wadsworth, Oriel College, Helensburgh, N.B.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                           NOT WHAT IT SEEMS.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"This is not a snap-shot of Satan, nor of Pluto, or any demon of the
+heathen mythology. Neither is it the picture of a water-logged member
+of the 'tramp' profession after a shower of rain. It is simply the
+photograph of the curious form which a splash of lead took when it
+dropped from a crucible on the floor."--Mr. Joseph W. Hammond, 12,
+Stafford Street, Dublin.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                           A WOODEN SOLDIER.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"I took this snap-shot in Spain, at La Zubia, a small town about two
+miles from Granada. The 'soldier' is a most surprising object to come
+upon suddenly. He is cut out of a single tree, and is therefore all in
+one piece. Branches have been neatly adapted to make his fingers, which,
+it will be observed, have a somewhat knotted and gouty appearance. A
+flower-pot forms the head, while a plant of aloes makes a very fine
+plumed head-dress. His uniform is painted in the most realistic way, so
+that altogether he has a most ferocious appearance and his expression
+does not invite confidence, as may be seen from the photograph. The
+garden in which he lives is rather an historic one, for it was here that
+the great Queen Isabella the Catholic was saved from falling into the
+hands of the Moors by hiding in a laurel bush. A monument marks the
+spot."--Miss A. Milne Home, Caldra, Duns, N.B.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                       IN THE MIDST OF THE ENEMY.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"A gamekeeper in this neighbourhood had shot a fine carrion crow, and
+hung up his prize, as usual, on a nail near his cottage. A wren finding
+it built her nest between the wings, and in the body of her greatest
+enemy actually reared her family. By the kindness of the owner of the
+nest I have been able to photograph it."--Miss Mary Sharp, Riding Mill,
+Northumberland.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                          A PECULIAR HARVEST.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+"The Rev. W. H. Jenoure, rector of Barwick, Yeovil, describes a novel
+sight which may be seen in his parish. A farmer had been feeding his
+sheep on oats, and some of the grain fell on the back of one of the
+animals. It has taken root in the wool and sprouted, and the young
+shoots may be seen growing on the animal's back."--Mr. S. G. Witcomb,
+Middle Street, Yeovil, Somerset.
+
+
+
+
+                           Transcriber Notes:
+
+Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_.
+
+Passages in bold were indicated by =equal signs=.
+
+Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS.
+
+Throughout the document, the oe ligature was replaced with "oe".
+
+Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of the
+speakers. Those words were retained as-is.
+
+The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up
+paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.
+
+Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected
+unless otherwise noted.
+
+On page 525, "menu was formed the shape" was replaced with "menu was
+formed in the shape".
+
+On page 548, "slouches of" was replaced with "slouches off".
+
+On page 563, "A D 1901. make a grave" was replaced with "A D 1901 make a
+grave".
+
+On page 563, the single quotation mark after "FUST" was replaced with a
+double quotation mark.
+
+On page 563, a period was placed after "is a mournful corpse".
+
+On page 563, "ex amination" was replaced with "examination".
+
+On page 563, "honoable" was replaced with "honorable".
+
+On page 573, "onn" was replaced with "on".
+
+On page 584, "plain of campaign" was replaced with "plan of campaign".
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 161,
+May 1904, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRAND MAGAZINE, MAY, 1904 ***
+
+***** This file should be named 38820.txt or 38820.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
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