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diff --git a/38820.txt b/38820.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..03b85de --- /dev/null +++ b/38820.txt @@ -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: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/8/2/38820/ + +Produced by Dianna Adair, Jonathan Ingram, Ernest Schaal, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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