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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Marriage of Esther, by Guy Boothby
+
+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 Marriage of Esther
+
+Author: Guy Boothby
+
+Release Date: May 19, 2012 [EBook #39731]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARRIAGE OF ESTHER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Cathy Maxam and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  THE
+
+  MARRIAGE OF ESTHER
+
+  BY
+  GUY BOOTHBY
+  AUTHOR OF ON THE WALLABY, ETC.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  NEW YORK
+  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+  1895
+
+
+
+
+  Copyright, 1895,
+  By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER      PAGE
+
+     I. TWO MEN--A FIGHT--AND A SERIES OF CALAMITOUS  CIRCUMSTANCES,      1
+
+    II. A WOMAN--A RECOVERY--TRANSFORMATIONS AND TWO RESOLVES,      33
+
+   III. THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL,      59
+
+    IV. DESTINY--AN ACCIDENT--AND A BETROTHAL,      90
+
+     V. A WEDDING--A CONVERSATION--AND AN EPISODE,      108
+
+    VI. A TEMPTATION--A FALL--AND A SERIES OF EMOTIONS,      118
+
+   VII. SATISFACTION--DISSATISFACTION--AND A CONTEMPLATED ARRIVAL,      134
+
+  VIII. A VISION AND A REALITY,      148
+
+    IX. HAPPINESS--UNHAPPINESS--AND A MAN OF THE WORLD,      162
+
+     X. DELIRIUM--A RECOGNITION--A DEPARTURE AND A RETURN,      191
+
+    XI. BATTLE AND MURDER,      227
+
+   XII. CONCLUSION AND EPILOGUE,      246
+
+
+
+
+THE MARRIAGE OF ESTHER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+TWO MEN--A FIGHT--AND A SERIES OF CALAMITOUS CIRCUMSTANCES.
+
+
+     SCENE.--The bar of the Hotel of All Nations, Thursday Island. Time,
+     9.35, one hot evening towards the end of summer. The room contains
+     about twenty men, in various stages of undress; an atmosphere like
+     the furnace doors of Sheol; two tatterdemalions lolling, apart from
+     the rest, at the end of a long counter; a babel of voices, with the
+     thunder of the surf, on the beach outside, over all.
+
+There was surely complete evidence before the house that the two
+ragamuffins particularised above were unpopular. So far the silent but
+contemptuous superiority of the taller, and the drunken and consequently
+more outspoken insolence of his companion, had failed to prepossess one
+single soul in their favour. Even the barman, upon whose professional
+affability the most detested might, during moments of the world's
+disaffection, rely with some degree of certainty, had not been able to
+bring himself to treat them otherwise than with the most studied
+coldness. This fact was in itself significant, not only because it
+showed the state of his own feelings regarding them, but inasmuch as it
+served to give the customers of the Hotel of All Nations their cue, upon
+which they were not slow to model their own behaviour. Men are
+peculiarly imitative animals at times.
+
+But, however much his manners might fall short of the ideal, the taller
+of the twain was certainly not ill-looking. In stature he might have
+been described as distinctly tall; his inches would have totalled
+considerably over six feet. His frame was large, his limbs plainly
+muscular; his head was not only well set upon his shoulders, but
+admirably shaped; while his features, with the exception of a somewhat
+pronounced nose, were clearly cut, and, if one may be permitted the
+expression, exceedingly harmonious. His eyes were of an almost greeny
+shade of blue, and his hair, brown like his moustache, fell back off his
+forehead in graceful curls, as if the better to accentuate the fact that
+his ears were small and flat, and, what is uncommon in those organs,
+packed in close to his head. On the other hand, however, his costume,
+judged even by Thursday Island standards, was not so satisfactory. It
+consisted of a pair of much worn moleskin trousers, a patched shirt of
+doubtful texture and more than doubtful hue, open at the neck and
+revealing to the world's gaze a waste of sunburnt chest, and a
+cabbage-tree hat that had long since ceased to be either new or
+waterproof. His extremities were bare, and, at the moment of our
+introduction, for want of something better to do he was engaged in idly
+tracing Euclid's _Pons Asinorum_ in the sand of the floor with the big
+toe of his right foot. So much for Cuthbert Ellison, the principal
+figure in our story.
+
+Silas Murkard, his companion, was fashioned on totally different lines.
+_His_ height was as much below the average as his companion's was above
+it; his back was broad, but ill-shaped; while his legs, which were
+altogether too long for his body, had a peculiar habit of knocking
+themselves together at the knees as he walked. It was for this reason
+that he wore the two leather patches inside, and halfway up, his trouser
+legs, that had been the subject of so much ironical comment earlier in
+the day. But, since the patches had been put in, the garment had shrunk
+almost out of recognition, and consequently they were no longer of use
+in checking the friction. As a result, two ominous holes were assisting
+still further in the business of disintegration going on all over his
+raiment. It was peculiar also, that in spite of the workmanship once
+bestowed upon his threadbare coat, the hump between his abnormally broad
+shoulder-blades gave his head an appearance of being always craned
+forward in search of something, which notion of inquisitiveness was not
+lessened by the pinched sharpness of his face. Indeed, it might almost
+be said that his features backed up the impression thus given, and
+hinted that he was one of that peculiar class of persons who, having
+much to conceal in their own lives, are never really happy unless they
+are engaged in discovering something of an equally detrimental character
+in those of their neighbours. But in this respect Dame Nature had
+maligned him. He had many faults--few men more--but whatever else he
+might have been, he certainly was not inquisitive. Doubtless, had he
+been questioned on the subject, he would have replied with the
+Apocrypha, "The curiosity of knowing things has been given to man for a
+scourge." And even if he had not anything else to boast of, he had, at
+least, his own ideas of the use and properties of scourges!
+
+The two men had appeared in the settlement that morning for the first
+time. Up to the moment of their debarkation from the trading schooner
+_Merry Mermaid_, not one of the inhabitants had, to his knowledge, ever
+set eyes on them before. Who they were, and what the reason of their
+destitution, were problems presenting equal difficulties of solution.
+But Thursday Island has not the reputation of being a fastidious place,
+and it is probable that, had their behaviour not been such as to excite
+remark, their presence would have passed unnoticed. But, as I have
+already said, the smaller of the pair was unfortunately under the
+influence of liquor; and, as if to be in harmony with his own distorted
+outline, it was a curious form that his inebriation took. Had the
+observer chanced upon him casually, he would, in nine cases out of ten,
+have taken it for his normal condition. He stood leaning against the
+counter, his head craned forward, slowly and deliberately talking to
+himself, criticising the appearance and manners of those about him. And
+though every word he uttered could be plainly heard all over the bar,
+his companion did not seek to check him. Indeed, it was very possible,
+being buried in his own thoughts, that he did not hear him.
+
+"The depth of a man's fall," Murkard was saying, with drunken
+deliberation, "can be best gauged by an investigation of the company he
+keeps. To think that I should fall as low as this spawn!" Here he
+looked round the room, and having spat in disgust upon the floor, said
+in conclusion, "How long, my God, how long?"
+
+A big pearler, known in the settlement by reason of his fighting powers
+as Paddy the Lasher, rolled heavily along the counter and confronted
+him.
+
+"Look here, my duck," he said warningly, "I don't want to interfere with
+you, but if our company aint good enough for the likes of you and your
+mate there, I don't know as how it wouldn't be best for us to part."
+
+But the little man only sighed, and then remarked somewhat
+inconsequently to the moths fluttering round the lamp above his head:
+
+    "The honest heart that's free from a'
+       Intended fraud or guile,
+     However Fortune kick the ba',
+       Has aye some cause to smile."
+
+Paddy the Lasher's reply was a blow direct from the shoulder. It caught
+the other half an inch above the left eyebrow, and felled him to the
+ground like a log. In an instant the whole bar was alive; men rose from
+their seats inside, and more poured into the room from the benches
+outside. There was every prospect of a fight, and as the company had
+stood in need of some sort of excitement for a considerable time past,
+they did not attempt to stop it.
+
+Murkard lay just as he had fallen, but his companion was not so
+comatose. He picked the inanimate figure up and placed him in a corner.
+Then, without the slightest sign of emotion, rolling up his tattered
+shirt-sleeves as he went, he stepped across to where the hitter waited
+the course of events.
+
+"I believe I shall be obliged to have your blood for that blow," he
+said, as calmly as if it were a matter of personal indifference.
+
+"You mean to say you think you'll have a try. Well, all things
+considered, I don't know as how I'm not willing to oblige you! Come
+outside."
+
+Without another word they passed from the reeking, stifling barroom into
+the fragrant summer night. Overhead the Southern Cross and myriads of
+other stars shone lustrous and wonderful, their effulgence being
+reflected in the coal-black waters of the bay until it had all the
+appearance of an ebony floor powdered with finest gold-dust. Not a voice
+was to be heard, only the roll of the surf upon the beach, the faint
+music of a concertina from somewhere on the hillside, and the rustling
+of the night wind among the palms.
+
+Having made a ring, the combatants faced each other. They were both
+powerful men, and, though temporarily the worse for the liquor they had
+absorbed, in perfect condition. The fight promised to be a more than
+usually exciting one; and, realising this, two little Kanaka boys shoved
+their way in through the circle to obtain a better view.
+
+Half an hour later Ellison had sent his adversary home with a broken
+jaw. As for himself, he had for the time being lost the use of one eye
+and a thumb, and was mopping a cut on his left ear with a handkerchief
+borrowed from his old enemy the barman. Everybody admitted that never
+before, in the history of the island, had a more truly gorgeous and
+satisfactory fight been seen.
+
+And it was curious what a difference the contest made in the attitude of
+the public towards him. Before it had occurred openly despised, Ellison
+now found himself the most courted in the saloon; there could be no
+doubt that the fair and open manner in which he had taken upon himself
+the insult to his friend, the promptness with which he had set about
+avenging it, and the final satisfactory result had worked wonders with
+the on-lookers. He could have been drunk twice over without cost to
+himself, had he complied with the flattering requests made to him. Even
+the barman invited him to name his favourite beverage. But he would
+accept nothing. Hardly replying to the congratulations showered upon
+him, he reentered the bar and hastened towards his now recovering
+companion. Passing his arm round him, he raised him to his feet, and
+then drew him from the house. Together they picked their way through the
+circle of benches outside, and making towards the east, disappeared into
+the darkness of the night.
+
+Without talking, on and on they walked, slowing down now and again to
+enable Ellison to mop the blood that trickled down his neck. The path
+was difficult to find, and very hard to keep when found; but almost
+without attention, certainly without interest, they plodded on. Only
+when they had left the last house behind them and had entered the light
+scrub timber on the hillside did they call a halt. Then Murkard seized
+the opportunity, and threw himself upon the ground with a sigh of
+relief.
+
+At first Ellison did not seem to notice his action; he stood for some
+moments looking down upon the star-spangled sea in a brown study.
+Presently, however, he returned to consciousness, and then, also with a
+sigh, sat down a few yards away from his companion. Still neither spoke,
+and after a little while Murkard fell asleep. In the same posture, his
+elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, the other sat on and on,
+gazing with eyes that saw nothing of the Present into the tangled
+wilderness of his Past.
+
+The waves broke on the shingle among the mangroves with continuous
+rhythm--a night-bird hooted dolefully in the branches above his
+head--the wind moaned round the hillside; but still he sat oblivious of
+everything--thinking, thinking, thinking. He seemed unconscious of the
+passage of time, unconscious of what was going on around him, of
+everything but the acute and lasting pain and horror of his degradation.
+The effect of the liquor he had drunk was fast clearing off his brain,
+showing him his present position in colours of double-dyed distinctness.
+He had once been what the world calls "a gentleman," and it was part of
+his punishment that every further fall from grace should cut deeper and
+deeper into his over-sensitive soul.
+
+The question he was asking himself was one of paramount importance: Was
+he past pulling up? And if he did manage to stop himself before it was
+too late, would his stand against Fate be of any avail? Would he ever be
+able to rid his mind of the remembrance of these days of shame? He very
+much doubted it! If that were so, then where would be the advantage of
+pulling up? Like a good many men in a similar position, he had
+discovered that it was one thing to commit acts which he knew to be
+degrading, and quite another to be saddled with the continual
+remembrance of them. Jean Paul argues that "remembrance is the only
+Paradise from which we cannot be driven"; Ellison would have described
+it as "the only hell from which there is no escape." Moreover, he was
+the possessor of one besetting sin, of which he had good reason to be
+aware, and the existence of that peccability was the chief terror of his
+existence. It crowded his waking hours, spoilt his dreams, operated on
+all his thoughts and utterances, was a source of continual danger and
+self-humiliation, alienated his friends, reduced the value of his
+assertions to a minimum; and yet with it all he considered himself an
+honourable man.
+
+His had been a gradual fall. Coming to Australia with a considerable sum
+of money and valuable introductions, he had quickly set to work to
+dissipate the one and to forfeit any claim upon the other. His poverty
+forced uncongenial employment upon him when the first departed; and his
+pride prevented him from deriving any benefit from the second, when his
+hunger and destitution called upon him to make use of them. In sheer
+despair he drifted into the bush, and, by reason of his very
+incompetence, had been obliged to herd with the lowest there. At the end
+of six months, more of a beast than a human, he had drifted back into
+the towns, to become that most hopeless of all the hopeless--a
+Remittance man. At first he had earnestly desired employment, but try
+how he would he could discover none; when he did find it the desire to
+work had left him. His few friends, tried past endurance, having lost
+what little faith they had ever had in him, now turned their backs upon
+him in despair. So, from being an ordinary decayed gentleman, he had
+degenerated into a dead-beat beach-comber of the most despised
+description. And the difference is even greater than the lay mind would
+at first suppose. By the time he had come down to sleeping in tanks on
+wharves, and thinking himself lucky to get one to himself; to existing
+on cabmen's broken victuals, and prowling round dust-bins for a meal, he
+had brought himself to understand many and curious things. It was at
+this juncture that he met Silas Murkard, a man whose fall had been, if
+possible, even greater than his own. After a period of mutual distrust
+they had become friends, migrated together into Queensland, tried their
+hands at a variety of employments, and at last found their way as far
+north as Torres Straits, and its capital, Thursday Island. What their
+next move was going to be they could not have told. Most probably they
+had not given the matter a thought. Blind Fate had a good deal to do
+with their lives and actions. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil
+thereof," had become their motto, and for that reason they had no desire
+to be made aware of what further misery the morrow had in store for
+them.
+
+After a while Ellison rose and went across to where his companion lay
+asleep, his arms stretched out and his head several inches lower than
+his body. He looked down at him with a feeling that would be difficult
+to analyse. There was something gruesomely pathetic about the man's
+posture--it betokened a total loss of self-respect, an absence of care
+for the future, and a general moral abandonment that was not describable
+in words. Once while Ellison watched he rolled his head over and moaned
+softly. That was too much for the other; he thought for a moment, and
+then went across to where he could just discern some tall reeds growing
+against the sky. Pulling an armful he returned to the spot, and, having
+made them into a pillow, placed them beneath the sleeper's head. Then,
+leaving the little plateau, he descended to the shore and commenced a
+vigorous sentry-go that lasted until dawn. The effect of the liquor he
+had drunk that evening had now quite departed from him, leaving his
+brain, so it seemed to him, clearer than it had been for months past. As
+a result of that clearness, the argument upon which he had been engaging
+himself before wheeled back upon him. That same mysterious monitor was
+urging him to bestir himself before it was too late, to emerge from the
+life of shameful degradation that held him before its toils closed upon
+him forever. Surely he could do it! It only needed the rousing of that
+pride he had once boasted he possessed. Then friendless, powerless,
+backed only by the strength of his complete despair, he would show the
+world that he had still a little pluck left in him. Yes, with the rising
+sun he would begin a new life, and having made this last desperate
+stand, it should go hard with him if he did not succeed in it.
+
+As he made his resolution he espied the first signs of breaking day. The
+stars were paling in the east; a strange weird light was slowly creeping
+over the hill from the gateway of the dawn; the waves seemed to break
+upon the shingle with a sound that was almost a moan; the night-bird
+fled her tree with a mocking farewell; even the wind sighed through the
+long grass with a note of sadness he had not before discerned in it.
+Distant though he was from it, some eighty yards, he could make out
+Murkard's recumbent figure, huddled up exactly as he had left it. There
+was even a sort of reproach in that. Yes; he would uprouse himself, he
+would prove himself still a fighter. The world should not be able to say
+that he was beaten. There must surely be chances of employment if only
+he could find them. He could set about the search at once.
+
+Every moment the light was widening, and with it a thick mist was rising
+on the lower lands. To escape this he ascended the hill and approached
+his companion. He was still wrapped in the same heavy sleep, so he did
+not wake him, but sat down and looked about him. The sea below was
+pearly in its smoothness, the neighbouring islands seemed to have come
+closer in this awesome light; a pearling lugger, astir with the day, was
+drawing slowly through the Pass, and, while he watched, the sun, with a
+majesty untranslatable, rose in his strength, and day was born.
+
+About seven o'clock Murkard woke and stared about him. He regarded his
+companion steadily for half a minute, and then sat up. Their location
+seemed to puzzle him. He looked at Ellison for an explanation.
+
+"What the deuce are we doing up here?"
+
+"I don't know. We came, I'm sure I couldn't tell you why. You were most
+uncommonly drunk last night, if that could have had anything to do with
+it."
+
+"I suppose I must have been; at any rate I feel most uncommonly bad this
+morning. Anything happen?"
+
+"You insulted a man; he hit you, I hit him."
+
+"Result--you?"
+
+"This! And this!"
+
+"He?"
+
+"Broken jaw!"
+
+"I'm obliged to you. This is not the first debt of the kind I owe you.
+At the same time I suppose I ought to apologise?"
+
+"Pray spare yourself the trouble."
+
+"Thank you, I think I will. I hate being under obligations to any man,
+particularly a friend. And now, _mon ami_, what are we going to do next?
+I have a sort of hazy idea that we did not make ourselves as popular as
+we might have done yesterday."
+
+"I think you managed to openly insult nine-tenths of the population, if
+that's what you mean."
+
+"Very likely. It's the effect of a public school education, you know.
+But to return to my question, what are we going to do next?"
+
+"Directly civilization gets up I'm going into the township."
+
+"In search of breakfast?"
+
+"No; in search of employment."
+
+"The deuce! I must indeed have been drunk yesterday not to have noticed
+this change coming over you. And pray what do you want to work for?"
+
+"Because I have made up my mind to have done with this sort of life;
+because I want to save myself while there's time; because I want to be
+able to look the world in the face again. If you really are so anxious
+to know, that's why."
+
+"You remind me of our old friend the village blacksmith. Hadn't he some
+ambition that way, eh?
+
+    "'He looked the whole world in the face,
+      For he owed not any man!'
+
+Wasn't that it? I always did think him a bad business man. He didn't
+seem to realize that credit is the backbone of the commercial anatomy.
+Anyhow yours is a foolish reasoning--a very foolish reasoning. What
+possible desire can a man of your training have to look the world in the
+face? What will you see when you do look there? Only inquiries into your
+past, a distrust of your present, and a resolve to have no more to do
+with your future than is absolutely necessary. Personally, I find the
+world's back a good deal worthier of cultivation."
+
+"All the same I intend to try to find something to do."
+
+"Pray don't let me stop you. One more question, however: What does your
+Serene Mightiness intend for me? I doubt if I am a good worker, but I am
+at liberty to accept any remunerative post within your gift,
+Chancellorship of one of your Duchies, for instance; Mastership of your
+Imperial Majesty's Hounds; Keeper of the Privy Purse; Lord Cham----"
+
+"You can scoff as much as you please; you won't alter my determination.
+I am going now. Good-morning!"
+
+"Your majesty will find me still in waiting when you return
+unsuccessful."
+
+"Good-morning!"
+
+"If your Majesty has time to think about such mundane matters, your
+Majesty might endeavour to induce one of your confiding subjects to lend
+the Imperial kitchen a little flour. If I had it now I might be making a
+damper during your Majesty's absence."
+
+"Good-morning!"
+
+"Good-morning!"
+
+Ellison turned his face in the direction of the settlement and strode
+off round the hill. He had not the slightest expectation of finding any
+lucrative employment when he got there, but he was full of the desire to
+work. If he failed this time it should not be imputed against him as his
+own fault. He at least was eager, and if society did not give him the
+wherewithal upon which to spend his energy, then it must be set against
+his score with society. In the devotion of the present it seemed to him
+that all his past was atoned for and blotted out. And under the
+influence of this sudden glow of virtuous resolution he left the hill
+and entered the township.
+
+Already the sea-front was astir with the business of the new-born day.
+As he approached the principal store he descried the bulky figure of the
+proprietor upon the jetty, superintending the unloading of some cases
+from a boat lying alongside it. Pulling himself together he crossed the
+road and accosted him.
+
+"Mr. Tugwell, I believe?" he began, raising his tattered cabbage-tree
+with a touch of his old politeness.
+
+The merchant turned and looked him up and down.
+
+"Yes, that is certainly my name. What can I do for you?"
+
+"I am in search of employment. I thought perhaps you could help me."
+
+"I don't seem to remember your face, somehow. You are a stranger in the
+island?"
+
+"I only arrived yesterday. I am an Englishman. I don't want to whine,
+but I might add that I was once an English gentleman."
+
+"Dear me! You look as if you had been making rough weather of it
+lately."
+
+"Very. As a proof, I may tell you that I have not eaten a mouthful since
+I landed from my boat yesterday morning."
+
+"What can you do? I am in want of an experienced hand to pack shell. Can
+you qualify?"
+
+"I have never tried, but I dare say I could soon learn."
+
+"Ah, that's a horse of a different colour. I have no time to waste
+teaching you. It's a pity, but that's the only way I can help you. Stay,
+here's something that will enable you to get a breakfast."
+
+He balanced a shilling on the ends of his fingers. The morning sunlight
+sparkled on its milled edge. For a moment Ellison looked longingly at
+it, then he turned on his heel.
+
+"I asked you for work, not for charity. Good-morning!"
+
+"You are foolish. Good-morning!"
+
+Leaving the jetty Ellison went on up the beach. But before he had gone a
+hundred yards a thought struck him. He turned again and hurried back.
+The merchant was just entering the store.
+
+"I have come back to beg your pardon," he said hastily; "I acted like a
+cad. It will go hard with me if I lose my manners as well as my
+birthright. You will forgive me, I hope?"
+
+"Willingly, on one condition."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"That you will let me make the amount half a crown."
+
+"You are very generous, but I cannot accept alms, thank you."
+
+With an apology for having so long detained him, Ellison continued his
+walk down the beach. Hong Kong Joe was in his boat-building yard, laying
+the keel of a new lugger. Approaching him he came to the point straight
+away:
+
+"I am in search of work. Have you any to give me?"
+
+The boat-builder straightened himself up, looked his questioner in the
+face, ran his eye round the tattered shirt, and arrived at the moleskin
+trousers. When he got higher up the bruised eye seemed to decide him.
+
+"Not with that eye, thank you," he said. "When I want one, I can get my
+pick of fighting-men in the settlement without employing a stranger."
+
+"Then you don't want me?"
+
+"No, thank you."
+
+"You can't put me in the way of finding any employment, I suppose? God
+knows I want it pretty badly."
+
+"Try Mah Poo's store on the Front. I heard him say yesterday he wanted a
+steady, respectable chap, so you should just about qualify. No harm in
+trying, anyway."
+
+Thanking him for his advice, and ignoring the sarcasm contained in it,
+Ellison walked on to the Chinaman's shop. The Celestial was even less
+complimentary than the boat-builder, for without waiting to answer the
+applicant's inquiries, he went into his house and slammed the door. At
+any time it hurts to have a door banged in one's face, but when it is
+done by a Chinaman the insult is double-edged. Ellison, however, meekly
+pocketed the affront and continued his walk. He tried two or three other
+places, with the same result--nobody wanted him. Those who might have
+given him work were dissuaded by the bruises; while those who had no
+intention of doing so, advised him to desist from his endeavours until
+they had passed away. He groaned at the poverty of his luck, and walked
+down the hill to the end of the new jetty, to stare into the green water
+whose colour contrasted so well with the saffron sands and the white
+wings of the wheeling gulls.
+
+A British India mail-boat was steaming down the bay to her anchorage
+alongside the hulk, and innumerable small craft were passing to and fro
+between the islands. He looked at the water, the birds, the steamer, and
+the islands, without being really conscious that he saw them. Somehow he
+was filled with a great wonderment at his position, at the obstinate
+contrariness of his luck. Over and over again in days gone by he had
+been offered positions of trust, beside which packing pearl shell and
+assisting boat-builders would have been as nothing. He had refused them
+because he did not want to work. It was the revenge of Fate that now he
+had resolved to turn over a new leaf he could hear of nothing. As this
+thought entered his brain he looked down at the transparent green water
+rising and falling round the copper-sheathed piles of the pier, and a
+fit of desperation came over him. Was it any use living? Life had
+evidently nothing to offer him now in exchange for what his own folly
+had thrown away. Why should he not drop quietly over the side, disappear
+into that cool green water, and be done with it forever? The more he
+considered this way out of his troubles the more he liked it. But then
+the old doubt came back upon him,--the doubt that had been his undoing
+in so many previous struggles,--might not the future have something
+better in store for him? He resolved to test his luck for the last time.
+But how? After a moment's thought he decided on a plan.
+
+There was not a soul within a couple of hundred yards of the jetty. He
+would arrange it thus: if anyone set foot on it before the mail-boat let
+go her anchor he would give life another chance; if not, well, then he
+would try and remember some sort of prayer and go quietly over the side,
+give in without a struggle, and be washed up by the next tide. From
+every appearance luck favoured the latter chance. So much the better
+omen, then, if the other came uppermost. He looked at the mail-boat and
+then at the shore. Not a soul was to be seen. Another five minutes would
+decide it all for him. Minute after minute went by; the boat steamed
+closer to the hulk. He could see the hands forrard on the fo'c'sle-head
+ready to let go the anchor, he could even make out the thin column of
+steam issuing from the escape-pipe in the cable range. Another minute,
+or at most two, would settle everything. And yet there was no sign of
+excitement in his tired face, only a certain grim and terrible
+earnestness in the lines about the mouth. The steamer was close enough
+now for him to hear the order from the bridge and the answer from the
+officer in charge of the cable. Another two or three seconds and he
+might reckon the question settled and the game played out. He turned for
+the last time to look along the jetty, but there was no hope there, not
+a living being was anywhere near it.
+
+"Well, this settles it, once and forever," he said to himself, following
+his speech with a little sigh, for which he could not account. Then, as
+if to carry out his intention, he crossed to the steps leading down to
+the other side of the jetty. As he did so he almost shouted with
+surprise, for there, on the outer edge, hidden from his line of sight
+where he had stood before, lay a little Kanaka boy about ten years of
+age fast asleep. _He had been there all the time._ Ellison's luck had
+triumphed in a most unexpected manner! As he realised it he heard the
+cable on board the mail-boat go tearing through the hawsehole, and next
+moment the officer's cry, "Anchor gone, sir!" At the same instant the
+ship's bell struck eight (twelve o'clock).
+
+With the change in his prospects, for he was resolved to consider it a
+change, he remembered that Murkard was on the hillside waiting for him.
+Instantly he wheeled about and started back on his tracks for the side
+of the island he had first come from. The sun was very warm, the path a
+rough one, and by the time he reached it his bare feet had had about
+enough of it. He found Murkard sitting in the same spot and almost in
+the same attitude as when he had left him nearly five hours before. The
+expression of amusement on the latter's face changed a little as he
+noticed that his friend carried nothing in his hand.
+
+"And so, my dear fellow, you have come back. Well, do you know, I felt
+convinced you would. Nothing offered, I suppose?"
+
+"Nothing. But stay, I'm wrong. I was offered a shilling to get myself a
+breakfast."
+
+"Good for you? So you have eaten your fill."
+
+"No; I refused it. I wanted work, not charity!"
+
+"So it would appear. Well I _must_ say I admire your fortitude. Perhaps
+in better days I might have done the same. Under present circumstances,
+however, I am inclined to fancy I should have taken the money."
+
+"Possibly. I acted differently, you see."
+
+"You're not angry with me for laughing at you this morning, are you,
+Ellison?"
+
+"Angry? My dear old fellow, what on earth put that in your head? Why
+should I be angry? As it happens, you were quite right."
+
+"That's the very reason I thought you might have been angry. We're never
+so easily put out of temper as when we're proved to be in the wrong.
+That's what is called the Refining Influence of Civilization."
+
+"And what's to be done now? We can't live up here on this hillside
+forever. And, as far as I can see, we stand a very poor show of having
+anything given us down yonder."
+
+"We must cut our tracks again, that's all. But how we're to get away,
+and where we're to go to is more than I can say. We've tried Adelaide,
+Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane; Rockhampton turned us out, Townsville
+and Cooktown proved as bad. Now Thursday Island turns its back on us.
+There's something rotten in the state of Denmark, my friend. Don't get
+cast-down over it, however; we've succeeded before, we'll do so again.
+As the proverb has it, '_Le desespoir redouble les forces_.'"
+
+"What do you propose?"
+
+"Something practicable! I've been thinking. Don't laugh. It's a habit of
+mine. As I think best when I'm hungry, I become a perfect Socrates when
+I'm starving. Do you see that island over there?"
+
+"Yes--Prince of Wales. What about it?"
+
+"There's a pearling station round the bay. You can just catch a glimpse
+of it from here--a white roof looking out from among the trees. You see
+it? Very good! It belongs to an old man, McCartney by name, who is at
+present away with his boat, somewhere on the other side of New Guinea."
+
+"Well, then, that stops our business right off. If the boss is away, how
+can it help us?"
+
+"What a chicken it is, to be sure. My boy, that station is run, in the
+old man's absence, by his daughter Esther--young, winsome, impulsive,
+and impressionable. A rare combination. We visit it in this way. As near
+as I can calculate it is half a mile across the strait, so we swim it. I
+am nearly drowned, you save my life. You leave me on the beach, and go
+up to the house for assistance. Arriving there you ask to see her, tell
+your story, touch her heart. She takes us in, nurses me; I sing your
+praises; we remain until the father returns--after that permanently."
+
+"You don't mean to tell me you think all that humbug is likely to
+succeed?"
+
+"If it's well enough done, certainly!"
+
+"And hasn't it struck you that so much deception is playing it rather
+low down upon the girl?"
+
+"It will be playing it still lower down upon us if it doesn't succeed.
+It's our last chance, remember. We must do it or starve. You've grown
+very squeamish all of a sudden."
+
+"I don't like acting a lie."
+
+"Since when? Look here, my dear fellow, you're getting altogether too
+good for this world. You almost take _me_ in. Last night, before I grew
+too drunk to chronicle passing events, I heard you tell one of the most
+deliberate, cold-blooded lies any man ever gave utterance to--and, what
+was worse, for no rhyme or reason as far as I could see."
+
+"You have no right to talk to me like this!"
+
+"Very probably that's why I do it. Another of my habits. But forgive me;
+don't let us quarrel on the eve of an enterprise of such importance. Are
+you going into it with me or not?"
+
+"Since you are bent on it, of course! You know that."
+
+"Very good; then let us prepare for the swim. It will be a long one, and
+I am not in very great trim just now. I have also heard that sharks are
+numerous. I pity the shark that gets my legs; my upper half would not be
+so bad, but my lower would be calculated to give even a mummy
+dyspepsia."
+
+While speaking, he had rolled his trousers up to his knees. Then, having
+discarded his jacket, he announced himself ready for the swim. All the
+time he had been making his preparations Ellison had been standing with
+his back to him, looking across the strait. He was still brooding on the
+accusation his companion had a moment before given utterance to. He was
+aware that he _had_ told a lie on the previous night--wilfully and
+deliberately lied, without hope of gain to himself, or even without any
+desire of helping himself. He had represented himself to be something he
+was not, for no earthly reason that he could account for save a craving
+for exciting interest and sympathy. It was his one sin, his one blemish,
+this fatal trick of lying, and he could not break himself of it, try how
+he would. And yet, as I have already insisted, weak as he was in this,
+in all other matters he was the very soul of honour. It rankled in his
+mind, as the after-knowledge always did, to think that this man, whom he
+had learned to fear as well as to despise, should have found him out. He
+nodded to show that he was ready, and together they set out for the
+beach. On the way, Murkard placed his hand upon Ellison's arm, and
+looked into his face with a queer expression that was almost one of
+pity.
+
+"Ellison," he said, "you are thinking over what I said just now. I'm
+sorry I let it slip. But, believe me, I meant no harm by it. I suppose
+every man has his one little failing--God knows, I'm conscious enough of
+mine. Don't think any the worse of me for having been so candid, will
+you?"
+
+"The subject is distasteful to me; let's drop it."
+
+"By all means. Now we've got our swim before us. Talk of Hero and
+Leander! I don't suppose there can be much doubt as to which of us is
+destined to be Leander."
+
+Side by side they waded out till the water reached their shoulders; then
+they began their swim. Both were past masters in the art; but it was a
+long struggle, and they soon discovered that there was a stiff current
+setting against them. It began to look as if they would be washed past
+their goal before they could reach it.
+
+When they were three parts of the way across, Ellison was ahead, Murkard
+some half dozen yards behind him. Suddenly the former heard a cry; he
+turned his head in time to see Murkard throw up his arms and disappear.
+Without a moment's hesitation he swam back to the spot, reaching it just
+as the other was disappearing for the third and last time. With a
+strength born of despair he clutched him by the hair and raised his head
+above the surface. Then, holding him at a safe distance, he continued
+his swim for the shore. The piece of acting designed to carry out their
+plot looked as if it were likely to become downright earnest, after all.
+
+It was a long swim, and, being saddled with this additional burden, it
+taxed Ellison's strength and endurance to the uttermost. When he touched
+the beach on the opposite side, it was as much as he could do to carry
+the unfortunate body up out of the reach of the water. This done, his
+strength gave way entirely, and he threw himself down exhausted on the
+sand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A WOMAN--A RECOVERY--TRANSFORMATIONS AND TWO RESOLVES.
+
+
+When Ellison felt himself able to move again, he rose to his feet and
+looked about him. He discovered that they had landed on the shore of a
+little bay, bounded on one side by a miniature cliff and on the other by
+a dense tropical jungle; through this latter looked out the white roofs
+of the boat-sheds and houses of the pearling station of which they had
+come in search. Two columns of palest blue smoke rose above the palms,
+and after a glance at his still insensible companion he started towards
+them.
+
+Leaving the white sandy foreshore of the bay, he entered the thicket by
+what was certainly a well-worn path. This circled round the headland,
+and eventually brought him out on the hill above the beach. Stepping
+clear of the undergrowth, he found himself confronted by a number of
+buildings of all sizes and descriptions. The nearest he settled in his
+own mind was a store-shed; that adjoining it, to the left, was the
+Kanakas' hut; that to the left, again, their kitchen; that to the right,
+rather higher on the hill, with its long low roof, the station house
+itself. As he approached it, two or three mongrel curs ran out and
+barked vociferous defiance, but he did not heed them. He passed the
+store, and made towards the veranda. As he came closer, a strange enough
+figure in his dripping rags, he saw that he was observed. A young woman,
+possibly not more than three-and-twenty, was standing on the steps
+awaiting him. She was, if one may judge by what the world usually
+denominates beauty, rather handsome than beautiful, but there was also
+something about her that was calculated to impress the mind far more
+than mere pink and white prettiness. Her figure was tall and shapely;
+her features pronounced, but regular; her eyes were the deepest shade of
+brown; and her wealth of nut-brown hair, upon which a struggling ray of
+sunlight fell, was carelessly rolled behind her head in a fashion that
+added to, rather than detracted from, her general appearance.
+
+Ellison lifted his hat as he came towards her. She looked him up and
+down with the conscious air of a superior, and was the first to speak.
+
+"Well, my man," she said, without embarrassment, "what do you want
+here?"
+
+"In the first place, I want your help. I tried to swim the straits with
+a companion; he was nearly drowned, and is now lying unconscious on the
+shore down yonder."
+
+He pointed in the direction he had come.
+
+"Good gracious! and you're wasting time on words." She picked up a
+sun-bonnet lying on a chair beside her, and put it on, calling: "Mrs.
+Fenwick, Mrs. Fenwick!"
+
+In answer, an elderly person wearing a widow's cap appeared from the
+house.
+
+"Have blankets warmed and put in the hut over yonder. Don't lose a
+minute." Then turning to the astonished Ellison she said: "I'll be with
+you in one moment," and departed into the house.
+
+Before he had time to speculate as to her errand, she reappeared with a
+bottle of brandy in her hand.
+
+"Now, come along. If he's as bad as you say, there's not a moment to
+lose."
+
+They set off down the path, and as they passed the Kanakas' hut, she
+cried:
+
+"Jimmy Rhotoma!"
+
+A big Kanaka rolled out of the kitchen.
+
+"Man drowned along Alligator Bay. Look sharp!"
+
+Then signing to her companion to follow, she set off at a run across
+the space between the huts and along the scrub-path towards the sea.
+Ellison followed close behind her, dimly conscious of the graceful
+figure twisting and turning through the undergrowth ahead of him. When
+she reached the open land on the other side of the headland, she paused
+and looked about her; then, making out the figure stretched upon the
+sands, she ran towards it. With a swiftness that betokened considerable
+experience she placed her hand upon his heart. No, he was not dead; it
+was not too late to save him. As she came to this conclusion, Jimmy
+Rhotoma appeared, and the trio set to work to restore animation. It was
+some time before their efforts were rewarded. Then Murkard sighed
+wearily, half-opened his eyes, and rolled his head over to the other
+side.
+
+"He'll do now, poor fellow," said the woman, still chafing his left
+hand. "But it was a very close thing. What on earth induced you to try
+and swim the straits?"
+
+"Despair, I suppose. We're both of us as nearly done for as it is
+possible for men to be. We tried the settlement yesterday for work, but
+nothing offered. Then we heard of your station, and thought we'd swim
+across on chance."
+
+"I don't know that I altogether like the look of either of you.
+Beach-combers, I fancy, aren't you?"
+
+"We're Englishmen who have experienced the slings and arrows of
+outrageous fortune, with a vengeance. I suppose _you_ would call us
+beach-combers, now I come to think of it. However, if you can give us
+work, I can promise you we'll do it, and do it faithfully. If you
+can't--well, perhaps you'll give us a meal a piece, just to put strength
+into us for the swim back."
+
+"Well, I'll think about it. In the meantime we must get your mate up to
+the station. Jimmy, you take his head, you--by the way, what's your
+name?"
+
+"Ellison--Cuthbert Ellison."
+
+"Very well then, Ellison, you take his heels. That's right, now bring
+him along."
+
+Between them, and led by the woman, they carried Murkard up the path to
+the station. Arriving at a hut, near that from which the Kanaka had been
+summoned, she stopped, took a key from a bunch in her pocket, unlocked
+the door, and threw it open. It was small, but scrupulously clean. Two
+camp bedsteads were ranged beside the wall, furnished with coarse blue
+blankets; a tin wash-hand basin stood on a box at the far end, alongside
+it a small wooden table, with a six-inch looking-glass above that
+again.
+
+"You can occupy this hut for the present. Put him down on that bed, so!
+Before I take it away give him a drop more brandy. That's right. I think
+he'll do now. If you don't want a spell yourself you'd better come with
+me."
+
+Ellison arranged Murkard's head upon his pillow, glanced almost
+unconsciously at himself in the square of glass, and then followed her
+out of the hut, and across the yard to the veranda opposite. Arriving
+there she seated herself in a hammock, that swung across the corner, and
+once more looked him up and down.
+
+"I don't think you need have told me you were an Englishman!" she said
+at length.
+
+"Why not?" he asked, without any real curiosity. He was watching the
+shapely feet and ankles swinging beneath the hammock.
+
+"Because I could see it for myself. Your voice is the voice of an
+Englishman, your face is the face of an Englishman, and, if I wanted any
+further proof, I should convince myself by your walk. Have you ever
+noticed that your countrymen" (she spoke as if Australians were not
+Englishmen), "Britishers, I mean, walk in quite a different fashion from
+our men? You haven't noticed it, I see. Well, I'm afraid, then, you
+haven't cultivated the faculty of observation."
+
+"I have had things of more importance to think about lately."
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon! I had quite forgotten. Sit down for one moment."
+
+She pointed to a long cane-chair. He seated himself, and she disappeared
+inside the house. In less than five minutes she returned with a bundle
+in her arms.
+
+"Here you are--some clothes for you and your mate. You needn't thank me
+for them. They belonged to a man from your own country, who went to the
+bottom six months ago in one of our luggers, a degree east of the
+D'Entrecasteaux group. Take them over to the hut and change. When you've
+done that come back here, and I'll have some lunch ready for you."
+
+As soon as she had given him the bundle she turned on her heel and
+vanished into the house, without giving him an opportunity of uttering
+an expression of his thanks. He looked after her as if he would like to
+have said something, but changed his mind and crossed to his hut.
+Murkard was still asleep, so he did not disturb him. Throwing the bundle
+on his own bed, he started to examine it. To the man who has lived in
+rags there is something that is apt to be almost discomposing in the
+sudden possession of a decent wardrobe. Ellison turned the dead man's
+effects over with a strange thrill. Ashamed as he was of his sordid
+rags, there was something to him indescribably beautiful about these
+neat tweeds, linen shirts, collars, socks, and white canvas shoes.
+Selecting those which looked nearest his own size, he prepared to make
+his toilet. A razor lay upon the dressing-table, a shaving brush stood
+on a tiny bracket above the tin wash-hand basin. A shave was a luxury he
+had not indulged in for some time. He lathered his face, stropped the
+razor on his belt, and fell to work. In three minutes the ugly stubble
+on his cheeks and chin had disappeared. Five minutes later he was
+dressed and a new man. With the help of water, a well-worn hair-brush,
+and his fingers, his matted locks were reduced to something like order,
+his luxuriant brown mustache received an extra twirl, and he was
+prepared to face the world once more, in outward appearance at least, a
+gentleman. Esther McCartney watched him cross the path from a window
+opposite, and noticed that he carried himself with a new swing. She
+allowed a smile, that was one of half pity, to flicker across her face
+as she saw it, and then went into the veranda to receive him.
+
+"They fit you beautifully," said she, referring to the clothes. "You
+look like a new man."
+
+"How can I thank you? I feel almost like my old self once more. I
+tremble to think what a figure I must have cut half an hour ago."
+
+"Never mind that. Now come and have something to eat."
+
+He followed her into the sitting room. It was a pretty place, and showed
+on all sides evidences of a woman's controlling hand. The weatherboard
+walls were nicely stained, a painted canvas cloth took the place of a
+plaster ceiling; numerous pictures, mostly water-colours, and many of
+them of considerable merit, hung on either hand, interspersed with
+curiosities of the deep, native weapons, and other odds and ends
+accumulated from among the thousand and one islands of the Southern
+seas. In the furthest corner Ellison noticed an open piano, with a piece
+of music on the rest. But the thing which fascinated him beyond all
+others was the meal spread upon the centre-table. Its profusion nearly
+took his breath away--beef, tomato salad, pickles, cheese, and a bottle
+of home-brewed beer. At her command he seated himself and ravenously set
+to work. All the time he was eating she sat in a deep chair by the
+window and watched him with an amused smile upon her face. When he had
+taken off the first raw edge, she spoke:
+
+"Do you know, I don't think that black eye is exactly becoming to you."
+
+Ellison made as if he would like to cover it up.
+
+"Oh, you can't hide it now. I noticed it directly you showed yourself
+this morning. I wonder who gave it you? for of course you've been
+fighting. I don't like a quarrelsome man!"
+
+"I'm sorry I should appear before you in such a bad light, for naturally
+I want to stand well with you."
+
+"I understand. You mean about the billet. Well, will you tell me how you
+got it--the eye, I mean?"
+
+"Willingly, if you think it will make my case any better."
+
+"I'm not quite sure that it will, but you'd better go on."
+
+She laid herself back in the great chair and folded her hands behind her
+head. Her face struck him in a new light. There was an expression on it
+he had not expected to find there; its presence harmonised with the
+pictures and the piano and made him pause before he spoke. In that
+moment he changed his mind and let the words he was about to speak die
+unuttered.
+
+"The story is simple enough. I was drawn into a quarrel and obliged to
+fight a man. I broke his jaw, he gave me this and this."
+
+He pointed first to his eye and then to his ear. She nodded her head and
+smiled.
+
+"Do you know that you have come out of that test very well?"
+
+"I'm afraid I don't quite understand."
+
+"Well, then, let me tell you. I was trying you. I didn't really want to
+know how you got that bruise, because--well, because, you see, I knew
+beforehand. I've heard the whole story. You stood up for your deformed
+friend and thrashed the man who was coward enough to strike him. That is
+the correct version, I think, isn't it? Ah, I see it is. Well, Paddy the
+Lasher, the man you fought, is one of our hands. I had only just
+returned from making inquiries about him when you turned up this
+morning. I like your modesty, and if you'll let me, I think I'll shake
+hands with you on it!"
+
+Without knowing exactly why he did it, Ellison rose and gravely shook
+hands with her. In these good clothes his old manner, in a measure, came
+back to him, and he felt able to do things with a grace that had long
+been foreign to his actions. He sat down again, drank off his beer, and
+turned once more to her.
+
+"How can I thank you enough for your goodness to me? I have never
+enjoyed a meal so much in my life."
+
+"I am glad of that. I think you look better than you did an hour ago. It
+must be awful to be so hungry."
+
+"It is, and I am more than grateful to you for relieving it. I hope you
+will believe that."
+
+"I think I do. And now about your friend. Don't you think you had better
+go and look after him? I have told the cook to send some food across to
+the hut. Will you see that he eats it?"
+
+"Of course I will. I'll go at once."
+
+He rose and went towards the door. She had risen too, and now stood with
+one hand upon the mantelpiece, the other toying with the keys hanging
+from her belt. The fresh breeze played through the palm fronds beyond
+the veranda, and whisked the dry sand on to the clean white boards. He
+wanted to set one matter right before he left.
+
+"As I said just now, I'm afraid I don't appear to very great advantage
+in your eyes," he remarked.
+
+"I'm not exactly sure that you do," she answered candidly. "But I'll see
+if I can't let by-gones be by-gones. Remember, however, if I do take you
+on you must both show me that my trust is not misplaced."
+
+"For myself I will promise that."
+
+"It may surprise you to hear that I am not so much afraid of your mate
+as of yourself. I have seen his face, and I think I like it."
+
+"I'm certain you're right. I am a weak man; he is not. If either of us
+fails you, I don't think it will be Murkard."
+
+"I like you better for sticking up for your friend."
+
+"I am sorry for that, because you may think I do it for effect."
+
+"I'll be better able to tell you about that later on. Now go."
+
+He raised his hat and crossed from the veranda to the hut. Murkard was
+awake and was sitting up on the bed.
+
+"Thank Heaven you've come back, old man. Where the deuce am I, and how
+did I get here? My memory's gone all to pieces, and, from the parched
+condition of my tongue, my interior must be following it. Have I been
+ill, or what?"
+
+"You've been jolly near drowned, if that's any consolation to you. We
+were swimming the strait, don't you remember, when you suddenly
+collapsed. You gave me an awful fright."
+
+"Then you saved my life?"
+
+"I suppose folk would call it by that name."
+
+"All right. That's another nick in the score. I'm obliged to you. You
+have a big reckoning against me for benefits conferred. Be sure,
+however, I'll not forget it if ever the opportunity occurs. And now what
+does this pile of goodly raiment mean? By Jove! methinks I smell food,
+and it makes me ravenous."
+
+The door opened and Rhotoma Jimmy appeared with a tray.
+
+"Young missis send this longa you."
+
+"All right, old man, put it down over there. I believe I'm famished
+enough to eat both the victuals and the tray."
+
+"Go ahead, and while you're eating I'll talk. In the first place, your
+scheme has succeeded admirably. I have spoken to the girl, interested
+her in us, and I think she'll take us on."
+
+"Good! You're a diplomatist after my own heart."
+
+"But, old man, there must be no hanky-panky over this. If we get the
+billets we must play fair by her--we must justify her confidence."
+
+"As bad as all that, and in this short time, eh? Well, I suppose it's
+all right. Yes, we'll play fair."
+
+"Don't run away with any nonsense of that sort. The girl is a decent
+little thing, but nothing more. She has been very good to us, and I'd
+rather clear out at once than let any harm come to her from either of
+us--do you understand?"
+
+"Perfectly." He finished his meal in silence, and then threw himself
+down upon the bed. "Now let me get to sleep again. I'm utterly played
+out. Drunk last night and nearly drowned to-day is a pretty fair record,
+in all conscience."
+
+Ellison left the hut, and that he might not meet his benefactress again
+so soon, went for a stroll along the beach. The tide was out and the
+sand was firm walking. He had his own thoughts for company, and they
+were in the main pleasant ones. He had landed on his feet once more,
+just when he deemed he had reached the end of his tether. Whatever else
+it might be, this would probably be his last bid for respectability; it
+behooved him, therefore, to make the most of it. He seated himself on a
+rock just above high-water mark and proceeded to think it out.
+
+Murkard slept for another hour, and then set to work to dress himself.
+Like Ellison, he found the change of raiment very acceptable. When he
+was ready he looked at himself in the glass with a new interest, which
+passed off his face in a sneer as his eyes fell upon the reflection of
+his ungainly, inartistic back.
+
+"Certainly there's devilish little to recommend me in that," he said
+meditatively. "And yet there was a time when my society was sought
+after. I wonder what the end of it all will be?"
+
+He borrowed a pair of scissors from the Kanaka cook, and with them
+trimmed his beard to a point. Then, selecting a blue silk scarf from
+among the things sent him, he tied it in a neat bow under his white
+collar, donned his coat, which accentuated rather than, diminished the
+angularity of his hump, and went out into the world. Esther McCartney
+was sitting in the veranda sewing. She looked up on hearing his step and
+motioned him towards her. He glanced at her with considerable curiosity,
+and he noticed that under his gaze she drooped her eyes. Her hands were
+not as white as certain hands he had aforetime seen, but they were well
+shaped--and one of the nails upon the left hand had a tiny white spot
+upon it that attracted his attention.
+
+"You had a narrow escape this morning. Your friend only just got you
+ashore in time."
+
+"So I believe. I am also in _your_ debt for kindnesses received--this
+change of raiment, and possibly my life. It is a faculty of mine to be
+always in debt to somebody. I may probably repay you when I can; in the
+meantime it will be better for us both if I endeavour to forget all
+about it."
+
+"Isn't that rather a strange way of talking?"
+
+"Very possibly. But you see I am a strange man. Nature has ordained that
+I should not be like other men. I don't know altogether whether I'm the
+worse for it. I'm a little weak after my trouble this morning; have you
+any objection to my sitting down?"
+
+"Take that seat, you'll find it more comfortable."
+
+She pointed to a loose canvas-backed chair near the steps. He smiled as
+he had done in the hut when he had looked at his image in the glass. The
+other chairs were hard-backed, and it proved that she had been thinking
+of his deformity when she chose this one. He seated himself and placed
+his hat on the floor beside him. She took in at a glance his pale,
+sensitive face, curious eyes, and long white fingers, and as she looked
+she came to a conclusion.
+
+"Your friend, Mr. Ellison, wants me to give you employment. Until a
+minute ago I had not made up my mind. Now I think I shall do so."
+
+"I knew you would."
+
+"How did you know it?"
+
+"By the way you dropped your hand on the back of that chair just now.
+Well, I'm very glad. It is good of you. You know nothing about us,
+however, remember that. Don't trust us too far until you are more
+certain of our honesty. Sir Walter Raleigh, I would have you not
+forget, says, 'No man is wise or safe but he that is honest.' It is for
+you to find our honesty out."
+
+"You talk as if you were taking me into your employ, instead of its
+being the other way about."
+
+"So you noticed it? I was just thinking the same thing myself. It's a
+habit of mine. Forgive it."
+
+"Somehow I think I shall like you. You talk in a way I'm not quite used
+to, but I fancy we shall hit it off together."
+
+"I make no promises. I have some big faults, but I'll do my best to
+amend them. You have heard of one of them."
+
+"I have, but how did you know?"
+
+"By your eyes and the way your lips curled when I used the word
+'faults.' Yes, unhappily I am a drunkard. I need make no secret of it. I
+have fought against it, how hard you would never guess; but it beats me
+every time. It killed my first life, and I'm not quite sure it won't
+kill my second."
+
+"Your first life! What do you mean?"
+
+"Exactly what I say. I am a creature of two lives. You don't surely
+suppose I was always the beach-comber you see before you now?"
+
+"I did not think about it."
+
+"Forgive me! That is not quite true. It was one of the first thoughts in
+your mind when you saw me come out of the hut yonder."
+
+"How is it you can read my thoughts like this?"
+
+"Practice in the study of faces, that's all. Another bad habit."
+
+"But if I take you on you will give up the liquor, won't you? It seems
+such a pity that a man should throw himself away like that when there's
+so much in the world worth living for."
+
+"That's, of course, if there is. Suppose, for the sake of argument,
+there is nothing? Suppose that a man has forfeited all right to
+self-respect--suppose he has been kicked out of house and home, deprived
+of his honour, disowned even by those who once loved him best--would you
+think it foolish if he attempted to find a City of Refuge in the Land of
+Alcohol?"
+
+"Are you that man?"
+
+Her face grew very gentle and her voice soft, as she put the question.
+
+"I simply instance an example to confute your argument. May I change the
+subject? What is my work to be? Much must of course depend on that. Like
+the elephant, my strength is in my head rather than my hands, certainly
+not in my legs."
+
+"Our store-keeper and book-keeper left us a month ago. Since then I have
+been doing his work. Are you good at figures?"
+
+"Fairly; that sort of work would suit me admirably, and would, I
+believe, enable me to give you satisfaction. And, my friend----But here
+he comes to ask for himself."
+
+Ellison was sauntering slowly up the path. He looked a fine figure of a
+man in the evening sunlight. His borrowed plumes fitted and suited him
+admirably. He lifted his hat with the air of a court chamberlain when he
+came to the veranda steps.
+
+"I am glad to see you about again," he said to Murkard, who was
+examining him critically, "you certainly look better."
+
+"I am, as I have already said, a different man."
+
+"You look happier, certainly."
+
+"I have just received my appointment to a position of trust."
+
+Ellison glanced at the woman. She laughed and nodded.
+
+"Yes, I have put him on as book-keeper and store-man. It's a billet
+worth a pound a week and his keep."
+
+"It is very generous of you."
+
+"Oh, but that's not all. If you care to stay you can do so as general
+knockabout hand on the same terms. There will be a good deal that will
+want looking to now that you've disabled Paddy the Lasher. You can
+occupy the hut where you are now, and I'll tell Rhotoma Jimmy to serve
+your meals in the barracks across the way."
+
+"I hope we shall show ourselves worthy of your trust."
+
+"I hope you will; but no more black eyes, remember. The sooner you get
+rid of the one you're wearing the better I shall like you. You'll find
+my father, when he returns, will take to you sooner without it. And now
+you'd better go and get your teas."
+
+She rose to go inside. They stepped from the veranda. Ellison happened
+to look round. Her head was half turned, and she was watching him. Their
+eyes met, and the next moment she had vanished into the house.
+
+The two men walked across to their hut in silence. When they reached it,
+they sat themselves down on their respective beds and looked at each
+other. Murkard opened the conversation.
+
+"You were going to say that you cannot imagine why she has done this?
+Isn't that so?"
+
+"Yes. I _was_ just going to do so. How on earth did you guess it?"
+
+"Never mind that. But you've got hold of the wrong end of the stick, my
+boy. She's not doing it for the reason you suppose. Would it surprise
+you very much to be told that in all probability it is done for _my_
+sake. No, don't laugh; and yet I really do think it is, and I'll tell
+you why. There was uncertainty written in her face and, well, if I must
+say it, a little bit of distrust of you, until I appeared upon the
+scene. Then you know my way with women. I told her the plain,
+unvarnished truth, without any compliments or gilt edging of any sort.
+Painted myself as a gentleman gone a-mucker, hopeless cripple, etc.,
+etc. Then she dropped that infernal business air, and her womanly side
+came uppermost. That decided for us--I am appointed Paymaster-General;
+while you, if you play your cards well, may be anything from Grand
+Vizier downward. I think you have reason to congratulate yourself."
+
+"Murkard, you are playing fair, aren't you?"
+
+Murkard turned white as death.
+
+"Playing fair! you are playing fair, aren't you? What the devil makes
+you use those infernal words to me again? My God, man! do you want to
+send me into hell a raving lunatic?"
+
+He ran his fingers through his long hair and glared at his companion,
+who sat too astonished at this sudden outburst to speak. But after a
+few moments he cooled down and resumed his natural, half-cynical tone:
+
+"I beg your pardon. Hope I didn't startle you very much. Habit of mine.
+What beastly things words are. How they bring up like a flash the very
+things one's been trying for years to forget. Yes, yes! I intend to do
+my duty by this girl. I promise you that. By the way, that's the second
+time you've asked me that question this afternoon."
+
+"I wanted to make certain, that was all. What are you staring at? Are
+you mad?"
+
+"No, I think not. I was only wondering."
+
+Ellison rose and went to the door. Leaning against the post he had an
+uninterrupted view of the still waters of the bay. Hardly a ripple
+disturbed its surface. The sun was in the last act of sinking into his
+crimson bed, and as he went he threw a parting shaft of blood-red light
+across the deep. Everything stood out with an unusual distinctness.
+Across the straits, so full of importance to them that day, he could see
+the settlement of Thursday--count the houses and even distinguish people
+walking upon the sea-front. The peaceful beauty of the evening soothed
+his soul like sweetest music. He was happier than he had been for
+months, nay, years past. It seemed to him that he was in a new world--a
+world as far removed from that of the morning as is heaven from hell. He
+almost found it difficult to believe that he, the well-dressed, well-fed
+man, leaning against the doorpost, was the same being who only that
+morning had contemplated suicide on the pier-head over yonder, in that
+abject and black despair engendered of starvation. With this feeling of
+wonderment still upon him he turned his head in the direction of the
+station house--a lamp was just lighted in the sitting room, and by
+moving a step further to the left he could discern the loosely rolled
+brown hair of a woman's head. Almost unconsciously he sighed. It was a
+long time since any woman had manifested so much interest in him. Had he
+got past the desire to be worthy of it? No, he hoped not! He had told
+himself repeatedly since midday this was certainly his last chance, and
+come what might, having obtained it, he would make a struggle to win
+back the respect he had begun to believe he had lost forever.
+
+The evening drew on. The night wind rose and played through the palm
+fronds above the hut, rubbing against the thatch with soothing sweep.
+Murkard was lying on his bed inside, smoking. Esther had brought her
+work on to the veranda, but had discarded it when the light failed, and
+now sat looking out across the sea. Ellison made no attempt to speak to
+her, and she gave no sign to show that she saw him. Some time afterward
+he heard Murkard put down his pipe, and come out to stand beside him.
+
+"A beautiful night. Look at that last gleam of crimson low down upon the
+horizon. What are you thinking of, old man?"
+
+Ellison did not make any reply for a minute, and then he said quietly:
+
+"Of a night like this eight years ago! That's all."
+
+"You ought not to have let her tell you."
+
+"I couldn't help myself. It was done before I knew it. And then I had
+her guilty secret to keep as well as my own. Bah! what a fool I was. But
+what am I saying! How did you come to know anything of her?"
+
+"Another of my guesses, that's all."
+
+"Murkard, there's something devilish uncanny about you."
+
+"Because you don't understand me, eh? No, no; don't be afraid, old man,
+you will never have cause to fear me. I owe you too much ever to prove
+myself ungrateful. Bear with my crotchets--for as surely as I stand
+before you now, the day will come when you will regret any harsh word
+you have ever spoken to me. My destiny is before me written in letters
+of fire--I cannot escape it, and God knows I would not if I could."
+
+"What on earth do you mean?"
+
+"Don't ask me, or try to find out. When I saw your face for the first
+time that wet night on the wharf in Sydney, I knew you to be the man for
+whom I was sent into the world. There is a year of grace before us, let
+us enjoy it--then--well _then I shall do my duty_."
+
+Ellison put his hand on the small man's deformed shoulder.
+
+"Silas, I don't grasp what you're driving at!"
+
+"Then, as I say, don't seek to know. Believe that I'm a dreamer. Believe
+that I'm a little mad. I shall never speak of it to you again. But
+to-night I felt as if I must speak out--the hand of the Future was upon
+me. Good-night!"
+
+"Good-night!"
+
+As Murkard went in the woman rose from her chair, advanced to the
+veranda rails, and once more stood looking out across the bay. A clock
+in the Kanakas' hut struck ten. Then she too turned to go in. But before
+doing so she looked across at Ellison, and said kindly, "Good-night!"
+
+"Good-night!" he called in return.
+
+And all the silence of the world seemed to echo that "Good-night!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL.
+
+
+Long before the first month was ended both men had settled down
+comfortably to their work-a-day existence. They had arrived at a
+thorough understanding of their duties, had made friends with their
+fellow-workers, and found it difficult to believe that they could be the
+same two men who were the beach-combers of the previous month. As for
+Murkard he derived the keenest pleasure from the daily, almost
+monotonous, routine of his office. He discovered abundance of work to
+keep him busy, his keen instinct detected endless opportunities of
+creating additional business, and he hoped that, when the owner of the
+station should return from his pearling venture, he might not only be in
+a position to convince him that his daughter's appointment was fully
+justified, but to demonstrate to him that it was likely to prove the
+stepping-stone to a sound commercial future. To Esther the man himself
+was a complete and continual mystery. Try how she would, she could not
+understand him. On one occasion a combination of circumstances led her
+to attempt to set him right on a certain matter connected with his own
+department. Much to her surprise and discomfiture she found him not only
+firmly resolved to assert his own independence, and to resist to the
+utmost any attempt at interference, but even prepared to instruct if
+need be. Routed on every side she had fled the field ignominiously, but
+though mortified at her rebuff, still she could not find it in her heart
+to quarrel with the man. To tell the truth, she was more than a little
+afraid of him, as he intended she should be. His sharp tongue and
+peculiar faculty of quiet ridicule were particularly distasteful to her.
+She preferred venting her abuse upon his inoffensive companion--who, it
+would appear, absolutely failed to do anything to her complete
+satisfaction.
+
+To Ellison, in spite of his joy at having found employment at last, that
+first month was not altogether one of happiness. He was too keenly
+conscious of his limited powers to be thoroughly at his ease, and yet he
+did his work from morning till night with dog-like faithfulness,
+grudging himself no labour, sparing himself no pains to ensure the
+faithful discharge of the duties entrusted to him. Not only that, but he
+often went out of his way to find work. She watched him and invariably
+found fault. So surely as his hard day's work was ended, would she
+discover something left undone. This she would never fail to point out
+to him, and the result well-nigh drove him distracted. And yet there
+were times when she was more than kind, bright days in his calendar that
+shone with a greater lustre, perhaps, because they were so few and far
+between. As instance the following:
+
+His own work being over for the day, he had crossed to the wood pile
+behind the kitchen and set to work sawing logs for the cook's fire. The
+wood was tough and the labour hard, but he kept the saw going with
+endless perseverance. As he came near the end of the supply, Esther
+chanced upon him. It was the first time he had seen her since the early
+morning.
+
+"Good afternoon," he said, but did not desist from his labour.
+
+"Good afternoon," she returned, regarding him for a moment, and then
+seating herself upon an upturned box beside him. "I think you will
+remember that I asked you for some screws for a corner bracket this
+morning."
+
+"I beg your pardon; I think you asked if I could find any in the
+boat-house. I remembered having seen some, and offered to procure them.
+You then determined that you would wait until to-morrow for them."
+
+"Ah, yes! so I did. I had forgotten that."
+
+"As you are clearly in the wrong, you might beg my pardon, I think."
+
+"I don't see why. It is my duty to keep you up to your work."
+
+"Very well, then we'll say no more. The screws shall be on your table on
+the veranda at ten o'clock to-morrow morning."
+
+"Without fail?"
+
+"Without fail. I always keep my word."
+
+He went on with his sawing. She sat and watched him, and for the first
+time became aware of the elegance and symmetry of his figure.
+
+"Not always, I think. I asked you yesterday to tell me what brought you
+to Australia; you said you would, but you have evidently forgotten your
+promise."
+
+"Again you misinterpreted my speech. I think I said I could not bore you
+with it until I knew you better."
+
+"And by that I am to understand that you won't tell me?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+The saw cut through the log with a little whine, and the end dropped to
+the ground.
+
+"You don't know me well enough yet to trust me, I suppose?"
+
+"I know you as well as I suppose I ever shall know you. You are not a
+difficult person to understand."
+
+"Have you so much experience of my sex, then?"
+
+"More than most men, perhaps. God help me!"
+
+"You don't seem to realise that that is a dangerous admission to make to
+a woman."
+
+"Why? You let me see very plainly yesterday that our ways lie far apart.
+In fact, that whatever my rank may once have been, I am now only your
+father's servant."
+
+She rose from the box on which she had been sitting and stamped her
+foot. He looked up and saw that indignant tears stood in her eyes.
+
+"You are very unjust and very unkind. I'm sure I never said or implied
+anything of the sort."
+
+"Then I must crave your pardon once more for misunderstanding you. I
+certainly understood that to be your meaning."
+
+She sat down again and fell to scraping up the shavings and litter with
+her foot. He resumed his sawing. For the space of about three minutes
+neither spoke. Then she said timidly:
+
+"I notice that you are very patient and persevering."
+
+He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye suspiciously. This was
+too novel and satisfactory not to make him a little distrustful.
+
+"And pray what makes you think that?"
+
+"For many reasons. One because you don't saw wood like most men I have
+seen. You go right through till the cut is even and the end drops off of
+its own weight. Most men saw it three parts through, then drive in a
+wedge, and break off the rest. It saves time, but it means laziness. I
+think I like your way best."
+
+"It is very kind of you to say so."
+
+"Oh, not at all. I thought as I've scolded you so often I ought to tell
+you of something I approve, that's all."
+
+Decidedly he was a handsome man. She liked his colour, she liked his
+glow of health and strength, and she was not quite certain that she did
+not like his eyes; but she wasn't going to let him think she had the
+very smallest grain of admiration for him. He wondered what was coming
+next.
+
+"All the same, you're not a very quick worker. I don't know that it's
+quite a profitable occupation for you. One of the boys would have done
+twice as much in half the time--not so neatly perhaps, but it would
+have burned just as well."
+
+That was the way with her. He never made any advance but she drove him
+back further than he was originally. She saw how her last remark was
+affecting him, and a smile flickered over her face that was not
+altogether one of discouragement. He looked up just in time to catch it.
+The result was disastrous. He missed his thrust--the saw slipped and cut
+his hand. It was not a deep wound, but it bled profusely--into the white
+slit of wood, and, drop by drop, down upon the little heap of saw-dust
+at his feet. She saw it as soon as he did, and gave a little cry of
+alarm.
+
+"Oh, you have cut yourself, and all through my stupidity! Quick, give me
+your handkerchief and let me tie it up."
+
+Before he had properly realised what had happened, she had drawn her own
+handkerchief from her pocket, taken his hand, and was binding it up.
+
+"I'm so very, very sorry. It was all my fault. I should not have stayed
+here worrying you with my silly talk. Can you forgive me?"
+
+He looked into her face--with its great brown eyes so close to his--this
+time without the least embarrassment. And what beautiful eyes they were!
+
+"You are not to blame. It was the result of my own carelessness. I
+should have looked at the saw instead of your face."
+
+"Very possibly; but you must not cut any more wood. I forbid it! Do you
+think you will remember what I say?"
+
+"I'm very much afraid so."
+
+Not another word passed between them. She went into the house, and he,
+with a sea of happiness surging at his heart that he would have been
+puzzled to account for, back to the store.
+
+But that evening all the enjoyment he had got out of the afternoon was
+destined to be taken away from him. After dinner, Murkard had some work
+in the office he wished to finish in time for the China mail next day,
+so Ellison wandered down to the shore alone. The moon was just rising
+over the headland, and the evening was very still; there was hardly
+enough wind to stir the palm leaves on the hill-top. Further round the
+island alligators were numerous, and as he stepped on to the beach
+Ellison thought he could make out one lying on the sand ahead of him. He
+stepped across to obtain a closer view, only to find that it was the
+trunk of a sandal-wood tree washed up by the tide. As he turned to
+retrace his steps he heard someone coming through the long grass behind
+him. It was Esther.
+
+"Good-evening!" he said, raising his hat. "What a perfect night for a
+stroll it is. Just look at the effect of the moonlight on the water
+yonder."
+
+"How is your hand?"
+
+"Progressing very satisfactorily, thank you. It is very good of you to
+take so much interest in my tiny accident."
+
+"I don't see why! I should have been just as interested in anyone else.
+I pity the woman who could fail to be affected by an ugly cut like that.
+Good-night!"
+
+She resumed her walk, and as he had nothing to say in answer to her
+speech, he looked across the stretch of water at the twinkling lights of
+Thursday. He had received a well-merited snub, he told himself--one he
+would not be likely to forget for a few days to come. He had presumed
+too much on her kindness of the afternoon. Who was he that he might
+expect from her anything more than ordinary civility? He was her
+father's servant, paid by the week to do odd jobs about the place; a
+position only found for him out of charity by a kind-hearted girl. With
+a gesture of anger he went briskly across the sands, plunged into the
+thicket, and strode back towards the house. He was not of course to know
+that after leaving him she had stopped in her walk and watched him
+until he disappeared. When she, in her turn, wended her way homeward, it
+was, illogically enough, with an equally heavy heart. She did not,
+perhaps, regret her action, but her mind was torn with doubts.
+
+"If only I could be certain," she kept repeating to herself. "If only I
+could be certain!"
+
+But that didn't mend matters very much. That she had angered him, at
+least, was certain. Then came the question which was destined to keep
+her awake half the night. Had she played with him too much? She could
+see that he was thoroughly angered.
+
+On arriving at the hut Ellison discovered Murkard in the act of going to
+bed. He was seated on his couch, one boot on, the other in his hand. He
+looked up as his friend entered, and one glance at his face told him all
+he wanted to know. Placing the boot he held in his hand carefully on the
+floor, he removed the other and arranged it beside its fellow. Then,
+addressing himself to the ceiling cloth, he said:
+
+"I have often noticed that when a man imagines himself happiest he is in
+reality most miserable, and _vice versa_. Last night my friend was
+supremely happy,--don't ask me how I knew I saw it,--and yet he sighed
+in his sleep half the night. This evening he would have me believe that
+he is miserable, and yet there's a look in his eyes that tells me at the
+bottom he is really happy."
+
+"You're quite out of your reckoning, my friend, as far as to-night is
+concerned. I am miserable, miserable in heart and soul, and for two pins
+I'd leave the place to-morrow."
+
+"I should."
+
+"The devil! and why?"
+
+"Because you're going deliberately to work to make an ass of yourself,
+if you want it in plain, unvarnished English. You're falling head over
+ears in love with a woman you've only known a month, and what's the
+result to be?"
+
+"What do you think?"
+
+"Why, that you'll go a-mucker. Old man, I don't know your history. I
+don't even know your name. You're no more Ellison, however, than I am.
+I've known that ages. You're a public school and Oxford man, that's
+plain to those with the least discernment, and from those facts and
+certain others I surmise you belong to that detestable class; miscalled
+the English aristocracy. I don't care a jot what brought you to
+grief--something pretty bad I haven't a doubt--but believe me, and I'm
+not joking when I say it, if you marry this girl, without really loving
+her, you'll commit the cruellest action of your life, and what's worse
+ten thousand times, you'll never cease to regret it. She's a nice girl,
+a very nice girl, I don't deny that, but if ever you think there's a
+chance of your going home, if you ever want to go, or dream of going,
+you're in honour bound to give her up. Go away, clear out, forget you
+ever saw her; but for mercy's sake don't drag her down to your hell.
+Give her a chance, if you won't give yourself one."
+
+"You speak pretty plainly."
+
+"I speak exactly as I feel, knowing both you and the girl. Do you think
+I haven't seen all this coming on? Do you fancy I'm blind? Knowing what
+I know of your face, do you think I haven't read you like a book. At
+first you looked at it as an investment. You thought the old man, her
+father, might have money; you half determined to go in for the girl. But
+about 8.30 last Thursday week night you had a bout with your conscience.
+You came into the store and talked politics--Queensland politics, too,
+of all things in the world--to distract your thoughts. I let you meander
+on, but I knew of what you were thinking. After that you gave up the
+mercenary notion and talked vaguely of trying your luck on the mainland.
+Then she began to snub you, and you to find new beauties in her
+character. You may remember that we discussed her, sitting on the cliff
+yonder, for nearly three hours on Wednesday evening. You held some
+original notions about her intellect, if I remember aright. Now, because
+you're afraid of her, you're imagining yourself over head and ears in
+love with her. Go away, my boy, go away for a month, on any excuse. I'll
+get them to keep your billet open for you if you want to return. You'll
+know your own mind by that time. What do you think?"
+
+"I'll do it. I'll give her a week and then go."
+
+"That's the style. You'll repent and want to cry off your bargain in the
+morning, but for the present that's the style."
+
+So saying, this guide, philosopher, and friend drew on his boots again
+and went out into the still hot night. Having reached the store veranda
+he seated himself on a box and lit his pipe.
+
+"This torture is getting more and more acute every day," he began, as a
+sort of apology to himself for coming out, "and yet they must neither of
+them ever know. If they suspected I should be obliged to go. And why
+not? What good can it ever do me to stay on here looking at happiness
+through another man's eyes. For she loves him. If he were not so blindly
+wrapped up in his own conceit he would see it himself, and the worst of
+it is he has no more notion of her worth than I have of heaven. With me
+it is 'Mr. Murkard this, and Mr. Murkard that'--kindness and confidence
+itself--but oh, how widely different from what I would have her say. My
+God! if you are a God, why do you torture me so? Is my sin not expiated
+yet? How long am I to drag on in this earthly hell? How long, O Lord,
+how long?"
+
+The night breeze whispering among the leaves brought back the words in
+mockery: "How long, how long?"
+
+After an hour's communion with his own thoughts he returned to the hut.
+Ellison was in bed sleeping quietly, one strong arm thrown round his
+head and a faint smile upon his lips. Murkard, lamp in hand, stood and
+looked down on him, and as he looked, his lips formed a sentence.
+
+"Whatever is before us, old friend, have no fear. Come what may, I make
+my sacrifice for you. Remember that--for you!"
+
+Then, as if he had shouted his shameless secret to the mocking world,
+he, too, went hastily to bed.
+
+For a week after that eventful night Ellison saw little of Esther. She
+hardly ventured near him, and when necessity compelled that she should
+seek him, it was only to complete her business with all possible
+dispatch and hurry away again. No more did she enter into conversation
+with him about his work. No more did she chaff him about his scrupulous
+care and trouble. Their estrangement seemed complete. Murkard noticed
+it, and being wise in his generation, thought much but said little.
+
+One evening after dinner, towards the end of the week, Ellison had
+strolled down to the beach to smoke his after-dinner pipe when he heard
+his name called. He recognised the voice immediately and, turning, went
+across to where Esther was standing by the tiny jetty. Her face was very
+pale, and she spoke with hesitation.
+
+"Are you very busy for a few minutes, Mr. Ellison?"
+
+"Not at all. My day's work is over. Can I be of any service to you?"
+
+"Would it be too much to ask you to row me across the straits to the
+township?"
+
+"I will do so with pleasure. Are you ready now?"
+
+"Quite ready."
+
+Without another word he ran a boat into the water, and with a few
+strokes of the oar brought it alongside the steps for her to embark. She
+stepped daintily in and, seating herself in the stern-sheets, assumed
+possession of the tiller. The expression on his face was one of annoyed
+embarrassment. She saw it, and her colour came and went across her face
+like clouds across an April sky.
+
+"I'm afraid I am trespassing on your good-nature," she remarked at
+length, feeling she must say something. "I ought to have asked one of
+the boys to take me over."
+
+"And have had to visit all the saloons to find him when you wanted to
+return," he replied. "No, no! Miss McCartney, I am glad you asked me."
+
+She looked at him nervously; but his face told her nothing. He appeared
+to be fully occupied with the management of the boat. She put her hand
+overboard and played with the water alongside, casting furtive glances
+at him ever and anon. The silence became more and more embarrassing.
+
+"Mr. Ellison, I am afraid you think very badly of me?" she said, in
+sheer desperation.
+
+"My dear Miss McCartney, what on earth can have made you imagine such a
+thing?"
+
+"But I know you do. I'm afraid I was very rude to you the other day. I
+have never forgiven myself for it. It was very ungrateful of me after
+all the kind things you have done for me since I have known you."
+
+"But, I assure you, you are quite mistaken. Your treatment of me may
+have been a little unkind, but it was certainly not rude. Besides, what
+I have done for you has all been done out of pure selfishness, because,
+you see, it gives me pleasure to serve you."
+
+"Mr. Murkard hinted to me this morning that you are thinking of leaving
+us. Is that true?"
+
+"I _was_ thinking of doing so, but----"
+
+"But you will forgive me before you go, won't you? Let us be friends
+again for the little time that is left to us."
+
+She held out her dry hand towards him; he leaned forward gravely and
+took it, after which they were silent again for some time. The crisis
+was passed, but the situation was still sufficiently awkward to deprive
+them both of conversation. By the time they had recovered enough to
+resume it, they had passed the hulk and were approaching the township
+jetty. He brought the boat alongside in a masterly fashion, and held it
+close to the steps for his companion to disembark.
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Ellison," she said, as she stepped out. "I have enjoyed
+myself very much. I hope you will have a pleasant sail back!"
+
+"I am going to wait for you."
+
+"Indeed you are not. I could not think of such a thing. I shall be sure
+to find someone who will put me across."
+
+"I am going to wait for you. It will be very pleasant sitting here; and,
+remember, we have just made friends. You must not quarrel with me so
+soon again."
+
+"Very well, since you wish it. I will try not to be any longer than I
+can help."
+
+She tripped up the wooden steps and disappeared along the jetty. He made
+the boat fast, and seating himself in the place she had just vacated,
+lit his pipe.
+
+For nearly an hour he sat and smoked. The heavens were bright with stars
+above him; the sleeping waters rose and fell round the piers with gentle
+gurgling noises. A number of pearling luggers rode at anchor on either
+hand of him, and the township lights twinkled merrily ashore. His heart
+was happier than it had been for some time past, and yet again and again
+Murkard's words of warning rose upon his recollection. Did the girl love
+him? And more important still, if she did, did he love her as she
+deserved to be loved? He asked himself these two questions repeatedly,
+and each time he could not answer either of them to his satisfaction.
+
+Was his affection for her a sincere one, founded on a genuine
+admiration? He had been piqued by her behaviour; his vanity (poor
+remnant of a feeling) had been hurt by it. Since then he had brought
+himself to believe he loved her. Was he prepared to sacrifice everything
+for her? Again the torturing doubt. It would be passing sweet to love
+her; but could he do so with a clear conscience? He knew his
+failing--could he lie to himself? The night affected him; the moon, just
+rising blood-red above the hill-top, spoke to him of love. Not the love
+of a lifetime, not the love that will give and take, bear and forbear,
+thinking no ill, and enduring for all eternity; but of love-talk, of a
+woman's face against his, of gratified vanity perhaps, at all events of
+a love of possession. No, he knew in his inmost heart, his conscience
+told him, that he did not care for her as, in the event of his making
+her his wife, he felt she would have a right to expect.
+
+Besides, there was another, and even more important, point to be
+considered. Was he worthy of a good woman's love? he, until lately an
+adventurer--a----No, no! If he were a man of honour he would go away; he
+would go out into the world again, and, in forgetting her, enable her to
+forget him. And yet the temptation to stay--to hear from her own lips
+that she loved him--was upon him, calling him in tenderest accents to
+remain. He sat and thought it out as dispassionately as he was able, and
+his final resolve was to go. In this case, at least, he would not think
+of himself, he would think only of what was best for her. Yes, he would
+go! Suddenly away down the jetty he heard the patter of shoe heels. His
+heart throbbed painfully. She was coming back. They came closer and
+closer. She appeared on the sky-line, and, descending the steps, took
+his hand to jump into the boat.
+
+"I'm afraid you must have grown very tired of waiting for me."
+
+"I'm very glad to see you, certainly; but I don't think I can say I'm
+tired. It is a beautiful evening. Look at that glorious moon. We shall
+have a perfect sail home."
+
+He hoisted the canvas, and they pushed off. In spite of the resolve he
+had just made it was vastly pleasant to be seated beside her, to feel
+the pressure of her warm soft body against his on the little seat. There
+was a fair breeze, and the water bubbling under the boat's sharp bows
+was like tinkling music as they swept from the shadow of the pier into
+the broad moonlight. Again, for want of something to do, she put her
+hand into the water; and the drops from her fingers when she lifted
+them shone like silver. As if in contradiction of her affected
+unconcern, she was palpably nervous. Once he could almost have sworn he
+felt her tremble.
+
+"You are not cold, I hope?"
+
+"Oh, dear, no! What could make you think so?"
+
+"I thought I felt you shiver."
+
+"It was nothing. I am perfectly warm."
+
+"All the same I shall put this spare sail over your knees--so."
+
+He took a piece of canvas from behind him, and spread it round her. She
+made no attempt at resistance. In spite of her show of independence,
+there was something infinitely pleasant to her in being thus tended and
+cared for by this great strong man.
+
+In five minutes they were passing close under the nearest point of their
+own island. High cliffs rose above them, crowned with a wealth of
+vegetation. She looked up at them, and then turned to her companion.
+
+"Mr. Ellison, do you know the story of that bluff?"
+
+"No. I must plead guilty to not being aware that it possessed one. May I
+hear it?"
+
+"It has a strange fascination for me--that place. I never pass it
+without thinking of the romance connected with it. Do you see that tall
+palm to the right there?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, under that palm is a grave; the resting-place of a man whom I can
+remember seeing very often when I was only a little child."
+
+"What sort of a man?"
+
+"Ah, that's a question a good many would have liked to have answered.
+Though it's years ago, I can see him now as plainly as if it were but
+yesterday. He was very tall and very handsome. Possibly forty years old,
+though at first sight he looked more than that, for the reason that his
+hair and moustache were as white as snow. He lived in a hut on that
+bluff far away from everybody. In all the years he was there he was
+never known to cross the straits to the settlement, but once every three
+months he used to come down to our store for rations and two English
+letters. I believe we were the only souls he ever spoke to, and then he
+never said any more than was absolutely necessary. The pearlers used to
+call him the Hermit of the Bluff."
+
+"Do you think he was quite sane?"
+
+"I'm sure of it. I think now he must have been the victim of some great
+sorrow, or, perhaps, some man of family exiled from his country for no
+fault of his own."
+
+"What makes you imagine that?"
+
+"Why, because it was my father who found him lying lifeless on the floor
+of his hut. He had been dead some days and nobody any the wiser. Hoping
+to find something to tell him who he was, my father searched the hut,
+but without success. But when, however, he lifted the poor body, he
+caught a glimpse of something fastened round his neck. It was a large
+gold locket, with a crown or coronet upon the cover. Inside it was a
+photograph of some great lady--but though he recognised her, my father
+would never tell me her name--and a little slip of paper, on which was
+written these words: 'Semper fidelis: Thank God, I can forgive. It is
+our fate. Good-bye.' They buried him under the palm yonder and the
+locket with him."
+
+"Poor wretch! Another victim of fate! I wonder who he could have been."
+
+"That is more than anyone will ever know, until the last great Judgment
+Day. But, believe me, he is not the only one of that class out here. I
+could tell you of half a dozen others that I remember. There was Bombay
+Pete; it was said he was a fashionable preacher in London, and was
+nearly made a bishop. He died--bewitched, he said--in a Kanaka's hut
+over yonder behind the settlement. Then there was the Gray Apollo--but
+who _he_ was nobody ever knew; at any rate he was the handsomest and
+most reckless man on the island until he was knifed in the Phillipines;
+and the man from New Guinea; and Sacramento Dick; and the Scholar; and
+John Garfitt, who turned out to be a lord. Oh, I could tell you of
+dozens of others. Poor miserable, miserable men."
+
+"You have a sympathy for them, then?"
+
+"Who could help it? I pity them from the bottom of my heart. Fancy their
+degradation. Fancy having been brought up in the enjoyment of every
+luxury, started with every advantage in life, and then to come out here
+to consort with all the riff-raff of the world and to die, cut off from
+kith and kin, in some hovel over yonder. It is too awful."
+
+Ellison sighed. She looked at him, and then said very softly:
+
+"Mr. Ellison, I do not want to pry into your secret, but is there no
+hope for you?"
+
+He appeared not to have heard her. A great temptation was upon him. He
+was going away to-morrow: she would never see him again. She had
+evidently a romantic interest in these shattered lives--could he not
+allow himself the enjoyment of that sympathy just for a few brief hours?
+Why not? Ah, yes, why not?
+
+"Miss McCartney," he said, after a long pause, "do you know, while you
+were away to-night, and I was sitting waiting for you, I subjected
+myself to a severe cross-examination?"
+
+"On what subject?"
+
+"Partly yourself, partly myself."
+
+"What sort of cross-examination do you mean, Mr. Ellison?"
+
+"Well, that is rather a difficult question to answer, and for the
+following reason: In the first place, to tell you would necessitate my
+doing a thing I had made up my mind never to do again."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"To unlock the coffers of my memory and to take out the history of my
+past. Eight years ago I swore that I would forget certain things--the
+first was my real name, the second was the life I had once led, and the
+third was the reason that induced me to give up both."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I have tried to remember that you have only known me a month, that you
+really know nothing of myself, my disposition, or my history."
+
+"But I think I do know."
+
+"I fear that is impossible. But, Miss McCartney, since I see your
+sympathy for others, I have a good mind to tell you everything, and let
+you judge for yourself. You are a woman whose word I would take against
+all the world. You will swear that whatever I reveal to you shall never
+pass your lips."
+
+"I swear!"
+
+She was trembling in real earnest now. To prolong their interview he put
+the boat over on another tack, one that would bring her close under the
+headland by the station. Esther raised no objection, but sat looking
+before her with parted lips and rather startled eyes. She noticed that
+his voice, when he spoke, took another tone. She attributed it to
+nervousness, when in reality it was only unconscious acting.
+
+"Miss McCartney, living here in this out-of-the-way part of the world,
+you can have no idea what my life has been. Thrown into temptation as a
+child, is it to be wondered at that I fell? Brought up to consider
+myself heir to untold wealth, is it to be wondered that I became
+extravagant? Courted by everybody, can you be surprised that I thought
+my own attractions irresistible? My father was a proud and headstrong
+man, who allowed me to gang my own gait without let or hindrance. When
+I left Eton, I left it a prig; when I left Oxford, I left it a man of
+pleasure, useless to the world and hurtful to myself and everybody with
+whom I fell in contact. But not absolutely and wholly bad with it all,
+you must understand. Mind you, Miss McCartney, I do not attempt to spare
+myself in the telling; I want you to judge fairly of my character."
+
+"I promise you I will. Go on."
+
+"With a supreme disregard for consequences, I plunged into absurd
+speculations, incurred enormous liabilities, and when my creditors came
+down upon me for them I went to my father for relief. He laughed in my
+face and told me he was ruined; that I was a pauper and must help
+myself; sneered in my face, in fact, and told me to go to the devil my
+own way as fast as I was able. I went to my brothers, who jeered at me.
+I went to all my great friends, who politely but firmly showed me their
+doors. I went to men who at other times had lent me money, but they had
+heard of my father's embarrassments, and refused to throw good money
+after bad. Checkmated at every turn, I became desperate. Then to crown
+it all a woman came to me, a titled lady, in the dead of night; she told
+me a story, so base, so shameful, that I almost blush now to think of
+it. She said she had heard I was going to fly the country. My name was
+talked of with her--I alone could save her. In a moment of recklessness
+I agreed to take her shame upon myself. What was my good name to me? At
+least I could help her. It was the one and only good action of my life.
+The next day I left England a pauper, and what is worse, a defaulter,
+doomed never to return to it, and never to bear my own name again. That
+is how I came to be a loafer, the dead-beat, the beach-comber I was when
+you took compassion upon me."
+
+"And--and your name?"
+
+"I--I am the Marquis of St. Burden; my father is the Duke of Avonturn."
+
+"You--you--Mr. Ellison, a--marquis!"
+
+"Heaven help me--yes! But why do you look at me like that? You surely do
+not hate me now that you have heard my wretched story?"
+
+"Hate you! Oh, no, no! I only pity you from the bottom of my heart."
+
+Her voice was very low and infinitely, hopelessly sad. He was looking
+out to sea. Suddenly he bowed his head and seemed to gasp for breath.
+Then, turning to her again, he seized her hand with a gesture that was
+almost one of despair.
+
+"Esther, Esther! My God, what have I done? Forget what I have said.
+Blot it out from your memory forever. I was mad to have told you. Oh,
+Heavens, how can I make you forget the mischief my treacherous tongue
+has dragged me into!"
+
+"Your secret is safe with me, never fear. No mortal shall ever dream
+that I know your history. But, my lord, you will go back some day?"
+
+Instantly his voice came back to him clear and strong:
+
+"Never! never! Living or dead, I will never go back to England again.
+That is my irrevocable determination."
+
+"Then may God help you!"
+
+"Esther, can't you guess now why I must go away from here, why I must
+leave to-morrow?"
+
+He could hardly recognise the voice that answered.
+
+"Yes, yes, I see. It is impossible for you to be my father's servant any
+longer."
+
+"That was not what I meant. I meant because I am afraid to stay with
+you, lest my evil life should contaminate yours."
+
+"That is impossible! How can you hurt me?"
+
+He pressed the hand he held in his almost savagely.
+
+"I mean that I love you. You must have known it long since. I mean that
+you are dearer to me than all the world."
+
+"Oh, let me go! I cannot listen to you!"
+
+"But you must! you must!"
+
+"Oh, let me go!"
+
+"You do not love me, then?"
+
+"Oh, let me go, let me go!"
+
+But he held her fast, pressing her closer and closer to him.
+
+"I will not let you go until you tell me!"
+
+"Oh, I can't tell you! Can't you see that what you have told me makes
+all the difference in the world?"
+
+"I beg your pardon. I should have expected this. Forgive me and forget
+me; I will go away to-morrow."
+
+Her only reply was a choking sob. He put the boat back on her course,
+and in five minutes they had grounded on the beach; having helped her to
+disembark, he turned to pull the boat up out of reach of the tide. This
+done, he looked to find her waiting for him, but she was gone. He could
+see her white dress flitting up the path towards the house. Without
+attempting to follow her, he left the beach and strode away round the
+hill into the interior of the island. When he had gone about a mile he
+came to an abrupt halt and looked towards the sea.
+
+"Again, again!" he cried, with a great and exceeding bitter cry. "Oh,
+God! I was tempted and I fell; forgive me, for I can never forgive
+myself!"
+
+As if in answer to his cry a night-hawk hooted among the rocks. He
+wheeled about and strode off in a different direction. In that instant
+he seemed to have learned a secret he had never even guessed at before.
+
+The sun was in the act of making his appearance above the horizon when
+he reached the station again. He was utterly worn-out, both mentally and
+physically. Without undressing he threw himself upon his bed, and slept
+a dreamless sleep for an hour. Then he got up and looked out upon the
+world. It was the beginning of his last day at the station.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+DESTINY--AN ACCIDENT--AND A BETROTHAL.
+
+
+Early as it was, Ellison discovered that Murkard was out before him.
+Pulling himself together as well as he was able, he took his towel and
+went down to the beach to bathe. It was an exquisite morning, a fresh
+breeze played among the palms and shrubs; the blue sea danced and
+glistened in the sunshine; columns of palest blue smoke rose, curling
+and twisting, into the sweet morning air. Ellison alone was sad. Even a
+swim failed to raise his spirits. He dressed himself and went back to
+breakfast with a face that was like that of a doomed man. So far he had
+seen no sign of Esther, nor had he any expectation of doing so until he
+went in to say good-bye to her. As the clanging bell called to
+breakfast, Murkard made his appearance. _He_ also seemed out of sorts,
+and nodded to Ellison without a word as he seated himself at the table.
+The other was hardly prepared for this treatment of his trouble.
+
+"Why, what on earth's wrong with you this morning?" Ellison asked
+irritably. "Has the whole world gone dismal mad?"
+
+"I'm very worried about something. Don't ask me what, old man. I'm
+trying to fight it down, and if you leave me alone I shall be all right
+directly."
+
+"I'm afraid I shan't be here to see it, then. I'm leaving in an hour's
+time--for good and all."
+
+Murkard sprang to his feet with a new face.
+
+"Then that puts me right at once. God bless you, Ellison, you could not
+have given me better news! I knew you'd do what was right!"
+
+"Have you been fretting about me, then?"
+
+"A little. But more about that girl over yonder. Of course, whatever
+happened, I should stand by you--you know that, don't you? But--well,
+the long and the short of it is, I couldn't bear to see the poor child
+getting to care for you more and more every day, when I knew that your
+affection was not the kind to satisfy her craving. Poor little thing, it
+will be hard on her, devilish hard, but all the same I believe you're
+doing what is best and happiest for both of you."
+
+"Do you think so, honour bright?"
+
+"I don't think, I'm sure of it!"
+
+"Then I'll go. But you don't know, old man, what a bitter fight it has
+been. Since you laughed at me a week ago I've been arguing it over, and
+the result is, I'm beginning to think I _do_ care for her, after all."
+
+"If you only _think_, you're still on the wrong side of the stream. No,
+no; we must go. There is no question about that. I'll put our few traps
+together after breakfast, and then we'll say farewell and adieu to
+respectability once more."
+
+"But you are not coming too. I could never allow that!"
+
+"You'll have no option. Of course I must come! Didn't I tell you the
+other day that we're bound up together? My destiny is in your hands. I
+must never leave you. I had an idea the end would have come here, but it
+seems I'm mistaken."
+
+"I wish you'd be a little more explicit sometimes."
+
+"It would probably amuse you if I were, and though I'm not the sort of
+man who fears ridicule, as a general rule, I could not bear to have you
+laugh at this."
+
+"I should not laugh; it seems to me I shall never laugh again. Tell me,
+Murkard, what you mean."
+
+"I will tell you."
+
+He rose and walked up and down the little room for some minutes. Then
+he stopped, and leaning against the smoke-coloured mantelpiece, spoke.
+
+"In the first place, I suppose you will admit that there are some men in
+this extraordinary world of ours more delicately constructed than
+others. You agree to that. Very good. Well, that being so, I am perhaps
+more sensitive than you--possibly, though I don't say absolutely,
+accounted for by my deformity. I look at commonplace things in a
+different way; my brain receives different impressions from passing
+events. I don't say whether my impressions are right or wrong. At any
+rate, they are there. Directly I set eyes on you, that first night of
+our meeting, I knew you were my fate. Don't ask me how I knew it. It is
+sufficient that I _did_ know it. Something inside here seemed to tell me
+that our lives were bound up together; in fact, that you were the man
+for whose sake I was sent into the world. You remember we were starving
+at the time, and that we slept under a Moreton Bay fig in the Domain.
+Well, perhaps as the result of that hunger, I dreamed a dream. Something
+came to me and bade me to go with you, bade me be by your side
+continually because I was necessary to your life, and because my death
+would be by your hands."
+
+"Good gracious, Murkard, think what you're saying!"
+
+"I have thought, and I know. I don't mean that you will murder me, but I
+_do_ mean that it will be in connection with you that I shall meet my
+death. The same dream told me that a chance would be given us. That
+chance has come. Also the dream told me that my only hope of heaven lay
+in saving you by laying down my own life. That time has not come
+yet--but it will come as surely as we are now located in this hut. In
+the meantime there is another life between us. That life we have not met
+yet; what or whose it is I have no notion, but I dread it night and
+day."
+
+"You don't mean to tell me you believe all that you're telling me?"
+
+"As implicitly as I believe that I am standing before you now. And so
+will you when it is too late--not before."
+
+"But think, man, think! How can such a thing be contemplated for a
+moment? Your life by my hands! No, no!"
+
+"Let it drop. Forget that I ever told you. We shall see whether it turns
+out as I say. Moreover, something tells me that although we are
+preparing to leave this place, we shall not go!"
+
+Without further argument he opened the door and went out. Ellison in
+his turn began to pace the room.
+
+"He is mad, the man is undoubtedly mad. And yet God knows why he should
+be. If vileness has anything to do with it, I am despicable enough to do
+anything he might dream! Surely there never was so miserable a wretch as
+I! But we will go from here. Of that I am determined."
+
+He began feverishly to put together the few little odds and ends he had
+collected during the past month. It was not a lengthy business, but it
+cut him to the heart to have to do it. If he left this place, where for
+a month he had been so happy, what would his future be? Turned out to
+seek employment again, would he drift back into the old vagabond life or
+not? And if he did, he asked himself, what would it matter? Who was
+there in the world to care? He tied up his bundle, threw it on the bed,
+and then in his turn left the hut. Esther was on the veranda of her own
+house. He crossed the path to speak to her.
+
+"Miss McCartney," he said, "have you been able to find it in your heart
+to forgive me for my rudeness last night?"
+
+Her hand shook and her voice trembled as she answered, with downcast
+eyes, "There is nothing to forgive, my lord."
+
+"No, no; you must not call me that!"
+
+He raised his hand as if to ward off a blow. She noticed the look of
+pain that leaped into his eyes.
+
+"Forgive me in your turn. I am sorry I hurt you."
+
+"Do you think it matters? My life will be all one long pain now. I am
+going away; I have come to say good-bye to you."
+
+"You are--really--going--away?"
+
+"Yes; I cannot live here after what I told you last night. It is
+impossible for both of us. I must go out into the world again and try to
+win back the self-respect I have lost. But before I go I want to thank
+you for all you have done for me; for a month you have enabled me to
+shake hands with happiness. I can never be sufficiently grateful to
+you."
+
+"Where--where shall you go when you leave here?"
+
+"I haven't the remotest notion. On to the mainland most probably; out to
+some station in the far West, where I can forget and be forgotten. What
+does it matter where I go?"
+
+"Does--does it never strike you that in thus dooming yourself to
+hopeless misery you are being very cruel to me?"
+
+"It is only to be kind. God knows I have thought of you before myself,
+and the only conclusion I can come to is that it would be worse for you
+if I stayed."
+
+"Then good-bye, and may God bless you and protect you always!"
+
+He looked into her face; it was pale as death. She held out her hand,
+and he raised it to his lips. The knowledge that had come to him the
+previous night was confirmed now. In that second he learned how much he
+loved her.
+
+"Good-bye--good-bye!"
+
+He watched her pass into the house, and was in the act of leaving the
+spot himself when he heard a heavy fall within. In an instant he had
+divined its meaning, and was inside the room, to find Esther upon the
+floor in a dead faint. Raising her in his arms he carried her to a sofa
+and laid her on it; then, procuring water, he bathed her forehead and
+chafed her hands till she returned to consciousness. When her eyes
+opened she looked at him with a frightened stare.
+
+"Oh, what has happened?"
+
+"The sun was too much for you out there. You fainted; fortunately I
+heard you fall and carried you here. Are you better?"
+
+"Yes, thank you. I am almost all right again."
+
+"You are quite sure?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+He took up his hat and left the house. As he crossed the veranda he
+noticed a stir in the station. The Kanakas had turned out of their hut
+and were staring in the direction of the bay. From the place where he
+stood he could see two luggers approaching the jetty.
+
+"Her father has returned," he said to himself, almost without interest,
+and went down to the shore. His supposition proved correct. But from the
+way the last of the boats manoeuvred there was evidently something
+wrong. He waited until it got alongside, and then walked down the jetty
+to find out what this peculiarity might mean. A little crowd was
+collected on the second boat; those Kanakas who knew him made way for
+him to step on board. The crew of the boat itself regarded him with some
+surprise.
+
+"What is the matter?" he asked.
+
+"The boss has met with an accident," explained the oldest of the men,
+"and we don't know how to let his daughter know."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"In the cabin aft. Step below and see him for yourself."
+
+Ellison did as he was directed, and went down the companion into the box
+of a cabin. An elderly man, with gray hair and beard, bearing an
+unmistakable likeness to Esther, lay on a roughly constructed bed placed
+on the port side. He looked up as Ellison entered.
+
+"And who may you be?" he asked faintly.
+
+"My name is Ellison," the other replied. "I have been a month in your
+employ--your daughter took me on as a carpenter and general hand in
+place of Paddy the Lasher, discharged."
+
+"You talk like a gentleman."
+
+"I was considered one once."
+
+"Then you may be able to do me a good turn. I have met with a serious
+accident--slipped on those steps there and injured my back. From the
+numbness of my lower half, I'm almost afraid it's a hopeless case; but I
+don't want to frighten my daughter without need. Will you go up and
+break the news to her?"
+
+"If you wish it. But surely it's not as bad as you say. Perhaps it's
+only a severe sprain."
+
+"I fear not. As I tell you, I'm dead below the waist."
+
+"Will you stay here till I come back, or shall we carry you up now?"
+
+"I'll stay here. But don't be longer than you can help, and break the
+news as gently as you can to her."
+
+"You may trust me."
+
+Ellison went up the steps again, passed through the little crowd, and
+made his way back towards the house. He was only just in time, for
+Esther had seen the boats come in, and was on her way to meet her
+father. She was surprised to see the man to whom she had just said
+"Good-bye" coming along the path towards her. Something in his face must
+have warned her that he was the bearer of evil tidings, for she stopped,
+and he heard her catch her breath with a little convulsive sob.
+
+"My father has returned, and you have bad news for me?"
+
+"That of course depends upon how you take it. Yes, your father has
+returned, but--well, the long and short of it is, he is _not_ very
+well."
+
+"My father--not well! He was never ill in his life. It must be something
+serious, or he would not have sent you to tell me."
+
+"He has met with a bit of an accident--a fall. He asked me to come on in
+advance and let you know, lest you should be frightened when you saw
+them carrying him up."
+
+"That is not all; he is worse than you say. Oh, Mr. Ellison, for
+Heaven's sake, don't deceive me--tell me all! I can bear it, believe
+me."
+
+"I am not deceiving you. God knows I would be the last to do that. You
+shall see him for yourself in a minute or two. But had you not better
+first run back and have a bed prepared for him. I will go down and help
+them carry him up."
+
+"How good you are to me!"
+
+She went back to the house, while he returned to the boat. Before he
+arrived Murkard had put in an appearance, and with his usual foresight
+had set to work upon a rough litter in which to carry the sick man up to
+the house. This constructed, he was placed upon it, and between them
+they bore him up the hill. Ellison and Murkard carried him across the
+veranda into the room his daughter had prepared for him. She received
+him with greater bravery than Ellison had expected. The father's courage
+was wonderful.
+
+"This is a nice way to come home, my girl!" he said, with an attempt at
+cheerfulness. "You're not accustomed to seeing your father carried, are
+you?"
+
+With her eyes full of tears she stooped and kissed him. Perhaps the
+coldness of his forehead told her something of the truth, for she
+started and looked at Ellison in terrified surprise. The two men laid
+him on the bed, and while she was in another room removed his clothes.
+It was a difficult business, but once it was accomplished the patient
+felt infinitely relieved. As they were leaving the house Esther met
+them. She drew Ellison aside.
+
+"Someone must cross to the settlement for the doctor immediately. It is
+useless to attempt to blind me as to his condition. I can see it for
+myself."
+
+"I will go over, and bring him back with me."
+
+"God bless you! I feel so terribly lonely now; it is good to know that I
+have a friend in you."
+
+"A friend faithful to the death. Esther, will you answer me one
+question? Would it make you happier if I stayed with you a little
+longer--say, till your father is able to get about again?"
+
+She hung her head, but his eager ears caught the timid little "Yes" that
+escaped her lips.
+
+"Then so be it. Now I will go for the doctor."
+
+She held out her hand; he took it, and for the second time that morning
+raised it to his lips. Then he strode away in the direction of the
+store. Murkard was not surprised at the news. He accompanied him to the
+beach, and helped him to push his boat into the water. When Ellison was
+past the jetty he returned to his work, muttering:
+
+"I knew something would happen to prevent it. This is the hand of
+Destiny again."
+
+Ellison pulled swiftly across to the township, beached his boat opposite
+the Chinese quarter, and after inquiring the direction of the doctor's
+house, set off for it without a moment's delay. He discovered the medico
+smoking on his veranda, and in less than three minutes had given him a
+complete summary of the case. They returned to the boat together, and
+Ellison, after pulling him across, conducted him straightway to the sick
+man's bedroom. He did not go in himself, but waited on the veranda. In
+half an hour the doctor emerged and beckoned him out of hearing of the
+house. Ellison read the worst in his face.
+
+"Is there no hope?"
+
+"Not a scrap. I tell you this straightforwardly. Of course I presume,
+from your anxiety, you are an interested party, and as such have a right
+to know. The man's spine is fatally injured. Paralysis has already set
+in in the lower limbs. It is only a matter of time with him now."
+
+"How long do you think he may live?"
+
+"It is impossible to say--six hours, possibly eight, certainly not more.
+If you have any business to consult him upon, I advise you to do it at
+once; he may not be conscious very long."
+
+"You have not told his daughter?"
+
+"Only that the case is serious. I have told him, and I think he will
+tell her."
+
+"Thank you for being so candid. It is really no business of mine, but I
+must try and help that poor girl to bear her sorrow. Shall you see him
+again?"
+
+"I think so, though I am convinced it is hopeless. Still, I shall look
+over in the course of the afternoon. Who will put me across?"
+
+"I will."
+
+They got into the boat and pushed off. When he had landed the doctor,
+Ellison pulled slowly back. His brain was staggering under a multitude
+of thoughts. What was he to do? What must his duty be now? Should he go
+away and leave this girl to bear her sorrow alone? Or should he take the
+bull by the horns, ask her father to be allowed to make her his wife,
+and trust to Providence for the rest? He didn't know, he couldn't
+tell--both seemed equally impossible. He resolved to leave it, as he had
+done before, to the decision of blind Fate. In the meantime he pulled
+back to the jetty, secured the boat, and went up to the house. Esther
+saw him pass the window, and came quietly out on the veranda.
+
+"He is sleeping now," she almost whispered; "but it doesn't seem a
+natural sleep. I cannot tell you how terrified I am about him."
+
+"Poor girl! what can I say to you save that you have my sincerest, my
+most heartfelt sympathy? If you should want any assistance, remember
+that I am here to give it you, come what may."
+
+Her only answer was to press the hand that rested on the veranda rail
+with her soft fingers. Her touch thrilled him through and through, and
+he went into the hut for lunch with a look in his face that had never
+been there before. He was beginning to understand his position more
+clearly now.
+
+Towards the middle of the afternoon he was employing himself among the
+boats, when he saw her coming breathlessly towards him. He dropped the
+adze he held in his hand and went to meet her.
+
+"He wants you to come to him," she managed to gasp. "Oh, I don't know
+how to tell you the agony of fear I'm suffering. He seems so much
+weaker. Come at once."
+
+She accompanied him into the house, and to the door of her father's
+chamber. The change in the patient's face staggered him. It was ghastly
+white and drawn; approaching dissolution was staring from the restless
+eyes.
+
+"Mr. Ellison," he said faintly, "I have sent for you, and I must be
+quick with what I have to say, for the end is near. Though I only saw
+you for the first time this morning, I seem to know you thoroughly. My
+daughter has told me of the kindness you and your friend have shown to
+her. She has also informed me that you told her last night of your love
+for her. Is that true, on your oath to a dying man?"
+
+"Yes. It is true! I know now that I do love her."
+
+"With your whole heart and soul, so help you God!"
+
+"With my whole heart and soul, so help me God!"
+
+"Is there anything to prevent you making her your wife?"
+
+"In a legal sense, nothing. In a moral--well, perhaps I have not led the
+sort of life I might have done; but if you will trust her to me I swear
+before God, as I hope for heaven, that I will do my duty to her all the
+days of my life. I will endeavour to make her life happy at any cost to
+myself."
+
+"She will be poor, remember. There is nothing for me to leave her save a
+few hundred pounds, this station, and the boats. You will have to work
+hard to support her."
+
+"I will work my hands to the bone."
+
+"Then as you deal with my motherless and fatherless girl, so may God
+deal with you. He has sent you to take my place, in her hour of need. If
+you stand firm by her he will not desert you in yours. As a dying man I
+trust you; that is enough. Now send her to me."
+
+Ellison went to the door and called the girl. She came in, and the dying
+man gave them his blessing. After which he told them he would rather
+sleep.
+
+When the doctor reached the house half an hour later Ellison met him on
+the threshold.
+
+"How is he now?"
+
+"You have come too late, doctor. He is dead!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A WEDDING--A CONVERSATION--AND AN EPISODE.
+
+
+Towards sundown the following afternoon the remains of Alexander
+McCartney were conveyed across the straits and interred in the little
+cemetery above the township of Port Kennedy. A week later his daughter
+became Cuthbert Ellison's wife. It had been the dead man's wish that
+there should be no delay in the marriage. He was anxious to have his
+daughter's safety assured within as short a time of his demise as
+possible. Nor had either of them any objection to raise. The wedding
+took place in the little church on the hill-side, and Silas Murkard
+acted as his friend's best man. After the ceremony they sailed quietly
+home in one of their own boats to receive the congratulations of Mrs.
+Fenwick and the station, and to take up the old life once more.
+
+As Ellison lifted his wife out of the boat on to the little jetty he
+looked into her eyes. There was only pure happiness and unutterable
+trust written there. He lowered his own before her gaze and heaved a
+heavy sigh.
+
+When she had passed into the house, proudly escorted by Mrs. Fenwick,
+Murkard came up to him and took his hand.
+
+"Cuthbert, I have waited my chance to congratulate you. We are alone
+now, and from the bottom of my heart I wish you happiness."
+
+"Thank you. You have been a good friend to me, Silas."
+
+"There is no question of _friendship_ between us. It is more than that.
+But there is one thing I want to say to you."
+
+"Say on."
+
+"You will not be offended with me?"
+
+"Never. I don't think it is in your power to do that, old friend."
+
+"Very well, then I will say it. Cuthbert Ellison, you think you know the
+woman who has this day become your wife?"
+
+Ellison nodded. He wondered what was coming.
+
+"You would be surprised and perhaps angry if I told you that I know her
+a thousand times better than you do or ever will know her. I can read
+her nature as I can read yours. And for this reason I warn you. That
+woman has one of the purest and most beautiful minds ever given by God
+to any human being. Beware how you act towards her, beware of what you
+say! Remember, though you may mean nothing by what you say, she will
+never forget one single word. You have only to look into her eyes to see
+what she thinks of you _now_. She believes in you heart and soul, she
+worships the very ground you walk on; it remains with you to say whether
+she shall retain that trust or not. What you have said to her already
+cling to as a shipwrecked man clings to a spar; what you say in the
+future must be your own concern. I will help you if ever help be needed,
+but in the meantime watch yourself, and if there is a God watching over
+us may he bless and keep you both. I have spoken!"
+
+Having said this he turned on his heel and walked quickly away in the
+direction of his own solitary hut. He entered and closed the door.
+
+The evening meal finished, Ellison and Esther passed out to the veranda
+together. The day had been fine, but the night was dark and stormy;
+thick clouds obscured the heavens, big waves broke on the beach with
+ominous grumblings, and now and again swift streaks of lightning flashed
+across the sky. Husband and wife sat side by side. The man was reviewing
+in his mind the events of the day, and wondering at the strange
+conversation he had had with Murkard that evening. In spite of his
+supreme happiness a vague feeling of sadness was upon him that would
+not be dispelled. Esther was all content. Woman-like she derived an
+intense pleasure from mere personal contact with the being she adored.
+She could just see the outline of his face against the sky, and she
+wondered at its sadness. At last she spoke:
+
+"Of what are you thinking, husband mine?"
+
+He started as if she had stung him, and hastened to reply:
+
+"Can't you guess? I was thinking of you and of all you have done for
+me."
+
+"Perhaps a little of me, but not altogether, I fear. Cuthbert, do you
+believe you will ever regret?"
+
+"No, no! ten thousand times, no! Would a man ever regret having been
+given a chance of heaven?"
+
+"You are begging the question! I mean, my husband,"--her voice dwelt
+with infinite tenderness upon the name,--"do you think you will ever
+have cause to wish you had never seen me, when you see what other
+cleverer and prettier women you might have married?"
+
+"I should never have married any other. You are my destiny. I was born
+into the world to marry you, and no one else. How could it possibly have
+been otherwise?"
+
+"You are very silly. I want to talk seriously."
+
+"That _is_ talking seriously."
+
+"It is nonsense. But listen, dear. You must forgive me for bringing up
+the subject on this night, of all others, but I cannot let it rest. I
+will never speak of it again if you wish it. But you must answer me
+truthfully for the last time."
+
+He bit his lip to keep back the cry of fear that almost escaped him. He
+knew what was coming, and dreaded it like the cutting of a flashing
+knife.
+
+"Go on!"
+
+"Cuthbert, if you ever went back to your old world and saw women, as I
+say, cleverer and more beautiful than I am, you might wish you had never
+seen me. You would not tell me so, and you would not, if you could help
+it, let me guess it, but my woman's instinct would warn me--and then
+what should I do? I should be chained to you, and you would be chained
+to me. I should be a drag upon you--a curse--instead of the help I wish
+to be. I should love you just the same, because I could never love
+anyone else; but think what the depth of my despair would be!"
+
+A large tear fell on the back of his hand. He drew her to him with
+almost a fierceness.
+
+"I told you the other day I should never go back to my old world. I am
+dead to it, and it is dead to me. I am Cuthbert Ellison, the pearler,
+your husband, and I wish to be no other. Forget, for mercy's sake, that
+I ever had a past; let us live only for my present and the future. Let
+me be to you the husband I would wish to be; let me work, toil, knowing
+no weariness in what is done for you; let me build up a new life of
+honour for your sake, and let the dead past bury its dead. I love you,
+and I want no world that has not you in it. Let us never speak on this
+subject again."
+
+"You are not angry with me for saying what I did."
+
+"Angry, no! I am sorry, full of remorse that I ever told you that story.
+God must help me to atone for it. I shall never be able to rid myself of
+the fear that you will hate me for it."
+
+"You are unjust to yourself, and even, I think, a little unjust to me.
+Had you not told me, there would always have been a barrier between us.
+Now I know everything, and, believe me, I do not honour you the less for
+telling me."
+
+She raised his hand to her mouth and imprinted a kiss upon it. That kiss
+stung him to the quick. Like the look of trust upon her face when he had
+helped her from the boat, it was almost a reproach. It was the beginning
+of his punishment. He made shift to change the course of the
+conversation.
+
+"Darling," he said, "have you thought seriously yet of what our marriage
+means to us? Have you thought what you have made of the man who only a
+month ago stood before you in this very veranda, in rags and tatters,
+asking for employment to keep body and soul together? That man is now
+your husband. Linked to you not for to-day or to-morrow, next week or
+next month, but for all time, for all eternity. Your husband--part of
+your own self: surely that should be sufficient passport for me into
+heaven itself. My interests are to be your interests, your hopes my
+hopes--in fact, your life is mine, and my life yours. There is an awful
+solemnity about it. If I could only grasp the drift of it all!"
+
+"Grasp the drift? You are the drift. You must help me to make my life, I
+must help you to make yours; that is what it means. If we do our duty to
+each other, surely we ought, then, to pull through?"
+
+"I am afraid of myself, Esther. Not afraid of my love for you, but
+afraid of the slowness of Time, of the gradual development of things."
+
+"Are we not getting a little out of our depth, love? I want to know
+nothing but your love for me, that is all. Let us leave the subject. See
+how vivid the lightning is getting. I fear we are in for a storm."
+
+And in truth the flashes were growing almost alarming. Heavy thunder
+echoed among the islands, and the wind was every moment increasing in
+violence. Suddenly an awful flash seemed to tear the very heavens
+asunder. In that brief instant Ellison made out the figure of a man
+standing in the open before them, not more than forty yards from the
+veranda steps. His back was towards them, and his hands were uplifted
+above his head. Esther saw him too, and uttered a little cry.
+
+"Who can it be?" she exclaimed in alarm. "Cuthbert, call him in! He will
+be struck by the lightning!"
+
+She had hardly spoken before another flash rent the darkness. Still the
+figure stood before them exactly where they had first seen it. But this
+time his identity was unmistakable. _It was Murkard!_ When the next
+flash came he was gone.
+
+"What could he have been doing?" Esther asked, as the thunder rolled
+away. To her Murkard's ways were always a matter of much mystery.
+
+"I can't think. Thank goodness, he doesn't often act in that fashion."
+
+"I am afraid of him, Cuthbert. I have never been able to make myself
+take to him as I took to you."
+
+"He is a difficult man to know, that is why, little woman. But he is as
+good as gold! A queer fish, perhaps a little mad, but with it all a
+better man than I am."
+
+"That I will never believe."
+
+"God grant you may never have reason to think otherwise. But don't worry
+yourself about Murkard. He is and always has been my truest friend."
+
+"And what am I, my lord and master?"
+
+"You are my wife--part of myself!"
+
+She nestled lovingly against his side.
+
+"Part of yourself! How sweet that sounds! I wonder if any other woman
+was ever so happy as I?"
+
+Once more Ellison sighed. At that moment the lightning flashed out
+again, just in time to show them the same mysterious figure emerging
+from the group of palms and moving towards the hut, Esther saw it, and
+gave another little cry. Ellison rose.
+
+"I must go and find out what he means by it. Don't be afraid, I'll be
+back in a minute."
+
+As he left the veranda the storm broke, and the rain came pouring down.
+Presently he was running back. For a moment he could hardly speak. His
+face was as pale as death.
+
+"Well, what did he say?"
+
+"Nothing; he is fast asleep! I never knew he was a somnambulist before."
+
+"But you are trembling, and you are as white as a sheet. Something is
+troubling you, Cuthbert. Tell me what it is."
+
+"It is nothing, dearest, believe me. I was only a little frightened at
+the risk he had run. He might have been struck by lightning at any
+moment. Poor Murkard!"
+
+A few minutes later she went inside and turned up the lamp. The rain was
+still pouring on the roof. But, though he was looking straight before
+him into the night, he hardly noticed it. He was saying to himself over
+and over again a sentence he had heard Murkard mutter in his sleep. It
+was an old Bible warning, one with which he had been familiar from his
+youth up, but to-night it had the power to shake him to his very core.
+It ran as follows:
+
+     "_Be sure your sin will find you out!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A TEMPTATION--A FALL--AND A SERIES OF EMOTIONS.
+
+
+Six months had elapsed since the wedding--six months of _almost_ perfect
+happiness for Ellison. I am compelled to say almost, for the reason that
+an influx of business worries during that period had caused him a very
+considerable amount of anxiety, and had, in a measure, necessarily
+detracted from his domestic peace. The pearling season had not turned
+out as well as had been expected of it. Continual stormy weather had
+militated against the boats at sea, and a gradual but appreciable
+decline in the price of shell had had the same effect on shore. As he
+could only regard himself in the light of a trustee of his wife's
+estate, this run of bad luck struck him in a tender place. But through
+it all Esther proved herself a most perfect wife. He found it an
+inestimable boon after a long and hard day's work to be able to go to
+her for sympathy and advice, both of which she was quite competent to
+give. She was, by long experience, a past mistress of all the details
+of the business, and her shrewd common sense and womanly penetration
+enabled her to grasp things and advise on them long before her more
+matter-of-fact husband had mastered their first general elements. His
+respect for her talents became almost enthusiastic. She was now no
+longer the old Esther of the past, but a new and glorious womanhood,
+figuring in his eyes more as a leader than a wife.
+
+As the year advanced, instead of bettering themselves things grew
+steadily worse. Acting on the advice of his wife and Murkard, he had
+curtailed expenses in every direction, forced himself to do without many
+things that at other times would have been classed as absolute
+necessaries, and discharged as many hands as could possibly be spared.
+This lightened the load for a while; but it soon became painfully
+evident that, unless more capital was soon forthcoming, the pearling
+station must inevitably close its doors. But in what direction could
+they look for such assistance? The banks were already dropping hints as
+to long-standing overdrafts, and, seeing the losses they were daily
+sustaining, it would be impossible to expect any mercy from them. On all
+sides companies were abandoning stations, or transferring their business
+elsewhere. It was a time of serious financial danger, and night and day
+Ellison worried himself to know how it was all to end. It was not for
+himself he cared; it was for Esther--only for Esther. Indeed, the
+anxiety was telling seriously upon his health. He could not sleep for
+its weight upon his mind. If only he could raise a couple of thousand
+pounds, he continually argued, he might place the station in a position
+by which it might not only weather the storm, but enable it to do even a
+larger business than before when the reaction set in. Again and again he
+discussed the matter with his wife and Murkard, but without arriving at
+any satisfactory conclusion.
+
+One night after dinner, just as he was going out to the veranda for his
+customary smoke, Murkard called him outside.
+
+"Come over to the store with me for a little while," he said. "I want a
+serious conversation with you."
+
+Ellison followed him into the hut, and shut the door.
+
+"Look here," said the smaller man, perching himself on the high stool
+behind his desk, and taking a letter from a pigeon-hole above him,
+"things have come to a climax. But there, you know that perhaps even
+better than I do."
+
+"God help us! I think I do, and the anxiety is almost killing me. What
+we are to do I can't for the life of me see."
+
+"There is a lot of bills coming due next month, and we've got an even
+smaller return for that last shell than I expected. To cap it all,
+here's a letter from the bank over the way. It came before dinner, but
+you looked so precious miserable then that I thought I'd keep it till
+after you'd had your meal. It's a facer, and no mistake."
+
+"Read it."
+
+Murkard spread the paper out on the desk, and, clearing his throat in an
+effort to gain time, did as he was commanded.
+
+In plain English, it was to the effect that unless the overdraft could
+be reduced by one-half within an absurdly short space of time, the bank
+would be compelled to realise upon its security, which would mean that
+the station would be closed, and Ellison and his wife thrown upon the
+world.
+
+Ellison sank his head upon his hands, and groaned like a wounded bull.
+
+"If only I could raise two thousand pounds," he sighed for the
+thousandth time.
+
+"That's exactly what we must do at once. And why not? Is it so very
+impossible?"
+
+"Of course; you must know that it is. Haven't we discussed the question
+over and over again, in all its lights, for the last six weeks?"
+
+"I know that as well as you do. But I've been thinking on a different
+tack these last two days."
+
+"With what result? For mercy's sake don't play with me! I believe I'd
+kill you if you did. What have you been thinking?"
+
+"Why, look here, Ellison, the position's just this: You are a married
+man, and you are likely soon to be more than that. Must you think of
+yourself just now, or are you bound to think of your wife?"
+
+"To think of my wife, of course. Have I thought of myself at all since
+I've been married?"
+
+"No, I'll grant you've been wonderfully unselfish. Well, this is the
+crux of it all. Are you prepared to make a big sacrifice for her sake?
+Are you prepared to make a sacrifice that will humble your pride to the
+very ground, but will probably be the means of saving the life you love?
+Are you prepared to do this, I say?"
+
+"Of course I am. There is nothing in the world I would not do to save
+her. Surely you know me well enough by this time to know that!"
+
+"Very good. That being so, we will proceed to business." He took up a
+pen and fell to tracing circles on the blotting-pad in front of him. "In
+the first place, do you remember the night you rowed her to the
+township and brought her back by moonlight?"
+
+Ellison's face became suddenly pale. He shifted on his seat uneasily.
+
+"Yes, I remember. What about it?"
+
+"I was lonely that evening and went for a walk. I strolled down to
+Alligator Point and sat on the rocks above the water."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"The sea was as calm as a mill-pond, and the night was so still that I
+could almost hear people talking across the strait. I saw you leave the
+township, and I watched you sail towards where I sat. Your voices were
+plainly audible to me, and, forgive me, Ellison, but--I heard----"
+
+"Say no more--I know what you heard, you cursed, eavesdropping spy--I
+know what you heard!"
+
+"You are hardly just to me, but under the circumstances I will forgive
+your harshness. And what did I hear?"
+
+"You heard the wretched story I told the woman I loved!"
+
+"I did. And--ever since--that moment--I have known your secret."
+
+There was complete silence between them for some minutes--Murkard went
+on tracing circles on the blotting-paper as if his life depended on it,
+while Ellison rose from his seat and went over to the door. His hand
+trembled so that he could hardly control its movements. Murkard looked
+at him with a queer expression, half sympathy, half contempt upon his
+face. Suddenly Ellison wheeled round and confronted him.
+
+"Plainly, Murkard, what is your object in telling me that you heard it?"
+
+"Because I want to save you. That is why!"
+
+"How can that save me? You mean because you want to damn me, body and
+soul. But you shan't! by God, you shan't! I'm desperate, I tell you
+that, desperate!"
+
+"Hush, hush! She'll hear you if you shout like that. Come back and let
+us talk quietly. Good Heavens, Ellison, can't you see how great my love
+for you is? Haven't I shown it to you times out of number? Do you think,
+then, that I should turn on you in your hour of need? Surely you know me
+better than that?"
+
+Ellison regarded him in silence for a minute. Then he went across and
+held out his hand.
+
+"Forgive me, Silas. I am not myself to-night; I hardly know what I say.
+You don't know how much I have upon my mind. Don't you see how
+everything seems to be coming to a climax with me? But for her sake,
+and that of the child that is coming, I would willingly be dead. And yet
+I can't alarm her, and I can't let anything happen that would deprive
+her of a home--now. At any cost I must keep a roof over her head."
+
+He went back to his seat by the counter and sat staring before him with
+a face drawn and haggard almost out of recognition.
+
+"I am trying to save both for you," said Murkard quietly.
+
+Ellison seized at the hope as a drowning man would catch at a life-buoy.
+
+"I know you are, Murkard. I know it, and trust you to the bottom of my
+heart. What are you thinking of? What can I do? For mercy's sake, tell
+me; don't wait to weigh words."
+
+"Steady, steady, old man. Be quiet and I will tell you. You are the
+Marquis of St. Burden. I heard you say so--there is no getting away from
+that. Believe me, your secret will never pass my lips. Your father is
+the Duke of Avonturn!"
+
+Ellison said not a word, but it seemed to him that the beating of his
+heart must soon choke him. Murkard eyed him curiously.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, what I propose is, that you shall communicate with your father;
+tell him that you have settled down out here to a steady, honest,
+respectable life, tell him that difficulties beset you, and ask him for
+five thousand pounds."
+
+"Never!"
+
+Again there was a pause; try as he would, Ellison could not even bring
+his mind to think.
+
+"And pray why not?"
+
+"Because I refuse, once and for all; absolutely and implicitly I refuse,
+and you shall never make me budge from it."
+
+"I shall not let you. You cannot help yourself."
+
+"I can and will help myself. I refuse to do what you wish. I refuse--I
+refuse!"
+
+His voice rose almost to a shriek in his excitement. He got up and
+looked towards the door as if he would settle the question by leaving
+the hut. Murkard sprang from his seat and held him by the arm. Both were
+grimly in earnest.
+
+"Ellison, I believe in you. Your wife believes in you. You told her your
+history, you cannot draw back now if you would. It would kill her if she
+thought you had lied to her. She would never honour or trust you again.
+But you haven't. It is only your stiff-necked pride that brings you to
+this decision; but you must put it aside, I tell you; you must, man, to
+save her life."
+
+"But I cannot; it is impossible! Don't you hear me? I cannot!"
+
+"You both can and must. I intend to make you. Do you love your wife? I
+know you do. Then do you wish to be responsible for her death, and do
+you wish to kill the child as well? Is not one murder enough for you,
+for I tell you plainly if she has to leave this place, and you and she
+are thrown penniless upon the world, as you certainly will be within the
+next two months unless you find this money somewhere, so certainly will
+it kill her, and the unborn child too. And you will have only your
+stubborn, obstinate, guilty pride to thank for it."
+
+"But I cannot do it; you don't know all."
+
+"I know quite enough to be certain that it is your duty to save your
+wife's life at any cost to yourself."
+
+"At whatever cost to myself--do you mean that? On your word of
+honour--may God strike you dead if you lie?"
+
+"I do mean it. At whatever cost to yourself it is your duty to save your
+wife's life."
+
+"You will remember what you have just said, '_At any cost to myself!_'"
+
+"I will remember."
+
+"But there, what is the use of our talking like this. The duke will pay
+no attention to my appeal."
+
+"You are wrong, he will pay every attention."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"Because I have a scheme in my brain that will make him."
+
+"Will you tell me what it is?"
+
+"Later on, perhaps, not now; you must trust to my honour."
+
+"Very good. Then it shall be done. I will put aside all thought of
+myself. I will do what you wish. I will sin--for, remember, it is a
+sin--to save the woman I love. And remember also, that whatever happens
+in the future, whatever comes of it, misery to me, or to her, it is your
+doing."
+
+"I will remember, and if any thing _does_ come of it I will not only
+take the blame, but I will stand the punishment. Will you shake hands
+with me on it?"
+
+"No, I will not. You have tempted me and I have fallen. God help me!
+After to-night we shall be no longer friends."
+
+"Ellison!"
+
+"I mean what I say. I have sinned before, perhaps in a worse way than
+this. But when I married I swore that nothing should ever tempt me to do
+so again. I have kept my word until to-night. To-night I sin
+deliberately, and in cold blood, for my wife's sake, God bless her!"
+
+He raised his hat reverently as he spoke the last words. Then he sat
+down with the air of a man who had signed his own death-warrant, and
+asked:
+
+"What am I to do?"
+
+"Leave it all to me. To-morrow morning I will go across to the island,
+call upon the Government Resident, who knows me well enough by this
+time, tell him your story under pledge of secrecy, and get him to cable
+to your father for the money."
+
+"He will refuse."
+
+"I think not. He believes in my honour. Have you any objection to my
+doing so?"
+
+"I object to nothing. I am past that. Only make it as certain of success
+as you can. The end will come soon enough in any case."
+
+"You take it in a curious way. Ellison, is there anything you are hiding
+from me?"
+
+"Only--only the pain you are giving me. But I suppose that hardly enters
+into your calculations."
+
+"Ellison, I forgive you; but a day will come when you will never forgive
+yourself for what you are saying now. Remember, I am doing this only for
+your sake. As I promised you just now, so I promise again, whatever
+blame is to be taken for this I will take, whatever punishment is meted
+out--if any--I will bear. I only ask in return that you will believe in
+the honesty of my affection for you."
+
+"Do you wish me to write any letter?"
+
+"No. Leave everything to me."
+
+"You do not want me any more to-night?"
+
+"No. That is all. But, Ellison, you are not going to leave me like
+this?"
+
+"In what way would you have me leave you? If I dared I would tell you
+everything, but I am too great a coward even for that. Good-night!"
+
+Murkard only answered with a sigh. Ellison went out, closing the door
+after him. Once in the fresh air he looked up at the stars, then at the
+sea, then at the lamp-lit windows of his own house. Esther was seated at
+the table, sewing. He knew upon what work she was engaged, and a spasm
+of terror swept over him at the knowledge that even that little life,
+not yet born into the world, might some day be tempted to despise him.
+Instinctively he turned upon his heel, and for the second time since his
+arrival at the station strode away into the heart of the island, in an
+endeavour to dispel his own gloomy thoughts. On and on he walked,
+regardless of pace or destination. His whole being was consumed with
+horror at what he was doing. What did it mean? What would it mean? What
+had induced him to do it? Was it blind Fate, or what reason could be
+assigned to it? No! It was none of these things--it was to save his
+wife! Bitterly he upbraided himself for the first folly that had
+occasioned it, but it was too late now, too late, too late! If he went
+to his wife and confessed all, confessed that he had lied to her, that
+he was not the man he pretended to be, that he was only a common
+swindler and cheat, she would forgive him, because she was a good woman
+and loved him, but she would never trust him or believe in him again. In
+that case their ruin would be complete! If he persisted in the present
+course, and Murkard's plan proved successful, they would be saved for a
+little time, but the inevitable result would be worse than the first
+destruction. On neither side was there such a thing as safety. On one
+side was his wife's life, on the other her trust in him; there was no
+middle course. He was between the devil and the deep sea with a
+vengeance. God help him for a miserable man!
+
+By the time he arrived at this conclusion he was on the headland above
+the station. A thrill of superstitious terror swept over him as he
+realised that the spot on which he was standing was the site of the
+Hermit's hut. In the glorious moonlight he could plainly discern the
+ruins of the blackened hearth, the boundary walls, and under the tall
+palm, nearer the cliff edge, the grave of the mysterious Unknown
+himself. What had led him in that direction on the one night of all
+others he would most have desired to avoid it? It seemed to him that the
+dead man's ghost was moving about the place taunting him with his sin,
+and pointing to a similar abandoned end in the inglorious future. Down
+on the shore below him he could hear the roll of the surf, but up here
+all was ghostly still. At last, unable to control himself any longer, he
+took to his heels and fled down the hill towards the station, craving to
+be with his kind once more. To his surprise he could see the light still
+burning in the sitting room. Late though it was, his wife had not yet
+gone to bed. Could she be sitting up for him?
+
+As he entered the room she rose to meet him.
+
+"My poor boy," she said, "how tired you look!"
+
+"I have been worried nearly past endurance," he replied, "and went for a
+walk to try and think my difficulties out. I would not have gone had I
+thought you would sit up for me."
+
+"I went over to the store when you did not come in, to see if you were
+there. Mr. Murkard said you had said good-night to him nearly two hours
+before, so I knew you had gone for a walk. You are very tired, I can
+see."
+
+She leaned over his chair and ran her hand through his curly hair. Her
+touch, soft as it was, seemed to tear his very heart-strings. He could
+hardly bear to look her in the face. He left his seat and went across to
+the fireplace.
+
+"Esther," he said, "difficulties are surrounding us on every side. If
+things don't change soon, goodness only knows what will happen to us."
+
+"But they will change. God will help us, husband mine. Come what may,
+let us put our trust in him. He has not deserted us hitherto, and I am
+not afraid that he ever will."
+
+"If only I had your faith. Oh, Esther, my own dear wife, I wonder if you
+will ever come to think badly of me."
+
+"Never, Cuthbert, never! I shall believe in your honesty and goodness
+until my life's end."
+
+She pulled his head down and kissed him on the forehead. Before he could
+answer she had left the room. He went out to the veranda and leaned
+against the rails, saying slowly to himself, over and over again:
+
+"'I shall believe in your honesty and goodness until my life's end!'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SATISFACTION--DISSATISFACTION--AND A CONTEMPLATED ARRIVAL.
+
+
+First thing next morning Murkard went off to the township. He was gone
+about an hour, and during that time Ellison seemed to live a lifetime.
+Fearing that his face might frighten his wife, he found work for himself
+in the store and among the boats. Everything seemed to conspire to
+remind him of his position, and every few moments the inevitable result
+would rise before him in a new light and fairly take his breath away.
+Times out of number his patience got the better of him, and he went down
+to the shore to see if there were any sign of the boat's return. When at
+last he did make it out, his heart seemed first to stand still and then
+to throb until it felt as if it would burst his chest asunder. Nearer
+and nearer came the white sail, gleaming like a flake of ivory on the
+warm sunlit sea. When she drew alongside the jetty one glimpse of
+Murkard's face told him that the errand had been satisfactorily
+accomplished. He waited for him to beach the boat, and then they set
+off together for the store.
+
+"Well," asked Ellison anxiously, as soon as they were inside and had
+shut the door, "how have you succeeded?"
+
+"Admirably, so far. I have dispatched the cablegram, and by this time
+to-morrow we shall know our fate."
+
+"But what proof have you that they will believe your tale?"
+
+"The Government Resident's word. He has guaranteed the truth of my
+statement."
+
+Not another syllable did Ellison utter. His lips moved, but no sound
+came from them. Then suddenly, with a little cry, he stretched out his
+arms towards the counter as if to sustain himself, and missing that,
+fell prone in a dead faint upon the floor.
+
+In a minute or two Murkard had brought him back to consciousness.
+
+"What on earth's the matter with you, Ellison?" he cried. "You're surely
+not going to give way now that the business is accomplished?"
+
+"I don't know," the other replied shamefacedly, as soon as he was
+sufficiently recovered to talk. "I suppose the anxiety has been too much
+for me. My wife must know nothing of this, remember."
+
+"Trust me. And now I shall advise you to keep very quiet until the
+answer comes. There is nothing to be gained by knocking yourself up, and
+everything, whichever way you look at it, by being calm."
+
+"But, Murkard, for the life of me I don't understand how you managed it.
+No family in the world would advance such a sum without full and strict
+inquiry."
+
+"Can you trust me, Ellison?"
+
+"Implicitly--but----"
+
+"There must be no 'buts,' I have taken the matter in hand. The
+Government Resident, who believes in me, strangely enough, has
+guaranteed the authenticity of what I have said. I have put the matter
+clearly before your family, and I leave it to their sense of justice to
+do what we ask. Remember if, as I said last night, there is any blame to
+be incurred by anyone, I take it."
+
+"Murkard, I am not fit to look you in the face. I am a cur of the worst
+kind."
+
+"Hush! hush! you mustn't say such things of yourself."
+
+"But I mean it! I mean every word I say! I am not fit to----"
+
+"Whatever you are, Cuthbert, I don't want to know it. I have told you
+before, and I tell you again, our destinies, yours and mine, are one.
+Come what may, I _must_ help you."
+
+"You have been the truest friend that mortal man ever had."
+
+"And I shall continue to be until the day of my death. Whatever you may
+do, right or wrong, I shall stand by you. Never doubt that."
+
+"Silas, I have a good mind to make a clean breast of everything to you."
+
+"No, no! Don't tell me anything. I would rather not hear. All I want to
+know, I know. The rest lies outside the pale, and is no concern of
+mine."
+
+"But it _does_ concern you. It concerns you very vitally, more vitally
+than you think."
+
+"Then I refuse to hear it. If you attempt to make me, I shall be
+compelled to leave the place, to go away from the island."
+
+"You are very obstinate."
+
+"No, old friend. It is only kindness to you and your wife that makes me
+do it. Now I must get to my books. If this money is to arrive, we must
+be prepared for it. I see a golden future ahead of us."
+
+Ellison passed out of the door saying to himself, "And I only ruin and
+disgrace."
+
+He spent the rest of that day as one in a dream. He went about his work
+unconsciously, a great fear hanging over him like a suspended sword.
+Again and again he argued the case with himself. In a moment of sudden
+mental aberration--vanity, perhaps, at any rate, he could hardly say
+what--he had represented himself to be someone he was not. He had
+intended to leave the place next day; he had no intention or wish to
+deceive for any criminal or base purpose of his own. He had simply
+craved the girl's interest and sympathy, and then the deed was done.
+What could he do now? As he had told himself last night, if he went to
+his wife and confessed everything, she would loathe and despise him for
+the rest of his existence. He would be a detected liar and cheat without
+excuse of any kind. Now that Murkard had taken this course, the same
+inevitable result would ensue, only increased by the fact that his crime
+would be known to the whole world, and he would suffer the penalty,
+thereby bringing ruin and disgrace unspeakable upon those who loved him
+best. But, on the other hand, his wife had to be saved, and he had done
+it with his eyes open. It was too late to draw back now, and the blow
+might fall at any time. Yet, come what might, he could not tell Esther
+while she was in this critical condition. Small wonder, then, that he
+hung his head and looked as if all joy had passed out of his existence
+forever.
+
+Next morning Murkard again set off for the township. In an hour he
+returned jubilant. Ellison saw his boat approach, from the store
+veranda, and hastened down to meet him, his heart beating wildly.
+Murkard waved to him from the boat.
+
+"It is done!" he cried, as he stepped ashore, his usually pale face
+aglow with excitement. "The cable arrived last night! A thousand pounds
+is placed to your credit in the bank. The rest will follow in a month.
+Good Heaven, Cuthbert, what is the matter?"
+
+Ellison had thrown himself upon the sand, and was sobbing like a little
+child.
+
+"Poor old chap!" said Murkard, seating himself beside him. "You're
+overwrought. The waiting has been too much for you. Never mind, now we
+are safe. The money is here, our credit is restored. Shell has gone up
+in the London market, and now we'll begin to make up for lost time.
+Come, come, you mustn't behave like this. Supposing any of the hands
+should see you?"
+
+"It must all be repaid," Ellison answered almost fiercely, as soon as he
+recovered his composure, "every penny of it! I shall never rest until I
+have done that. Tell me everything, from first to last. Don't hide a
+word or detail from me. I must know everything!"
+
+"You will know nothing more than I have already told you. Cuthbert, you
+must trust me. You have known me a long time now. Is your trust in my
+fidelity strong enough to convince you that I would do nothing that
+could bring you to any harm?"
+
+"I am sure of that. But it is not enough to satisfy my fears for myself.
+I am making myself responsible for all this money. I must know exactly
+how you obtained it from--from my people, and on what terms. I _must_
+know it!"
+
+"I got it from them on the plea that you had settled down to a
+respectable, honest, reputable business out here. That you had married a
+quiet, ladylike girl. That times were bad, and unless you could raise
+the amount of money asked for, you would be thrown upon the world again,
+and all your good resolutions scattered to the winds. The Government
+Resident and Blake the banker corroborated my assertions, and I made
+myself a surety, a poor one perhaps, but still a surety for the amount.
+Your father, the duke, cabled through his bankers to Blake that you
+might draw on him to the extent of one thousand pounds, and that the
+rest of the money would be dispatched during the present week. I have
+the papers for the one thousand pounds in my pocket now. You must sign
+them. In the meantime I have taken the liberty of cabling your thanks
+home."
+
+"It was to save her--only to save her. Whatever happens, remember that!"
+
+"What do you mean? You look as glum as a man about to be hanged. Come,
+come, Cuthbert, put a happier face on it, if only out of compliment to
+me. You are saved now! You can improve your business; you can send out
+more boats and do what you have been hankering after for a long time
+now, establish a floating station for your fleet."
+
+"Yes, yes; we can certainly do more. But at what a cost?"
+
+"My dear fellow, the cost will be nothing to the gains. Besides, you can
+always repay."
+
+"I was not thinking of that cost. You don't know what an awful business
+this has been to me. The agony I have been through these past two days
+has made me an old man."
+
+"Eating humble-pie, you mean? I can understand your feelings. But still
+it's done now, and what is better, well done. Now come to the store with
+me and sign those papers."
+
+They went up the hill together, and with a trembling hand Ellison
+signed what was asked of him. This done, he tottered rather than walked
+out of the store towards his own abode. He went into the dining room and
+filled himself half a tumbler of whiskey, which he drank almost neat.
+The spirit pulled him together, and he departed in search of his wife.
+By the time he found her the liquor had begun to take effect. He became
+almost excited. She was sewing in the shade of the back veranda. He
+seated himself beside her, and with his left hand smoothed her soft
+brown hair.
+
+"Little woman," he said, "I have great news for you. The happiest of
+happy news. We are saved; the overdraft will be paid off, and we are in
+smooth water again. In other words, the money has arrived."
+
+"From your father, Cuthbert? Oh, you don't mean that?"
+
+"But I do. The good Murkard was worked it admirably. A cablegram arrived
+this morning authorising me to draw on him for a thousand pounds. A
+draft for four thousand more will leave London this week."
+
+"Thank God for his mercy! Oh, Cuthbert, what can I say to show you how
+pleased I am? And you deserve it too, you poor, hard-working boy. Your
+face has been so long and solemn lately that I have been more than
+anxious about you."
+
+"You need not be so any longer then, my sweet. The crisis is past. Now
+we will begin to put the money to practical use. I have all sorts of
+schemes in my mind. Dearie, you must say something nice to Murkard about
+it. For it is his cleverness that has brought it all about."
+
+"You are very generous to that man, my husband."
+
+"And I fear, forgive my saying so, that you are not generous enough to
+him. That man, as you call him would cut off his own right hand if he
+thought that by so doing he could help me."
+
+"I know it, and perhaps that is why I am a little jealous of him. I am
+selfish enough to think I should like to be the only person in the whole
+world who could do anything for you."
+
+"You are part of myself, little wife. It is for your sake I work. It was
+for your sake I----"
+
+"What? What else have you done for my sake that you suddenly look so
+glum about it?"
+
+He sank his voice almost to a whisper, when he replied:
+
+"For your sake I have done in this business what I have done. Whatever
+comes of it, never lose sight of that. It is the only bright spot in
+the whole miserable affair."
+
+"I shall never forget that; you need not be afraid of it."
+
+He stroked her hair for a moment, and then once more went down the
+garden path towards the store. Murkard was not there. On inquiring of
+the Kanakas, he discovered that he had gone across to the settlement in
+his boat.
+
+In order to have something to distract his thoughts Ellison went down to
+the carpenter's shed, and set to work upon some business he had long
+neglected. It was a relief to him to have something to do, and he
+derived a peculiar peace from the chirrup of the plane, and a
+restfulness from the trailing shavings that had been a stranger to him
+for longer than he cared to remember. As he worked his thoughts took in
+all that had happened to him since his arrival in the settlement. He
+remembered that first night in the Hotel of All Nations; the fight and
+his curious resolve upon the hill-side; his search for work the
+following morning--their swim across the strait, and his first
+introduction to the girl who was now his wife. The death of her father
+came next; then their marriage; the difficulties and disasters of their
+business, and----But here his recollections came to an abrupt halt. He
+did not dare think of what had followed after. Oh, how bitterly he
+cursed himself for that one false step, and to the cowardice to which it
+had given birth! If only he had had the moral courage to own himself a
+liar at once, what awful after misery he might have saved himself. But,
+no! it was not to be--not to be. The saddest of all sad words--not to
+be. Now even if he managed to repay every farthing, there would always
+be the remembrance of his sin to haunt him. He put down the tools he was
+using, and turned to look across the straits. The afternoon's sun was
+hardly a hand's breadth above the horizon. A little fleet of luggers was
+tacking down, under a light breeze, towards the anchorage, their white
+sails gleaming picturesquely in the warm sunlight. The ripple of the
+waves on the beach came up to him like softest music, and he was just
+thinking how fair it all was when he heard footsteps hurrying on the
+hard-beaten path outside. Next moment old Mrs. Fenwick stood before him,
+hardly able to speak with excitement. In a flash Ellison divined her
+errand. Seizing her by the arm, he shook her almost savagely.
+
+"What is it? What do you want? Is he wanted? Quick, quick!"
+
+She nodded emphatically, unable to find breath to speak.
+
+"Out of my way! I will go at once!"
+
+He picked up his hat, dashed through the door and down the path towards
+the jetty. A boat lay moored alongside a lugger. He sprang into it, had
+cast her loose, and was sculling madly in the direction of the township
+before Mrs. Fenwick had time to wonder what had become of him. In a
+quarter of an hour he was ringing the medico's bell, and in half an hour
+they were back together at the station. As they approached the house the
+doctor stopped and looked at his companion.
+
+"My friend," said he, "if I were you I should go for a long walk or a
+row. Don't come back for at least two hours. You can do nothing here,
+and you will only be in the way. If you stay I shall have you on my
+hands next."
+
+Ellison looked at him as if he would like to argue the point with him.
+
+"Man, man!" he said viciously, "you don't know the state I'm in. If
+anything happens to that woman it will kill me."
+
+"I know, I know! I've had the same feeling myself. It's very
+commendable--very. But----"
+
+"Oh, d---- your sentimental twaddle! No! no! Forgive my rudeness, you
+can see I'm not myself at all."
+
+"That's why I order you to go for a row. Now be off, and don't let me
+see your face again for hours. Your wife will be quite safe in my
+hands."
+
+"God grant she may be!"
+
+He picked his hat up from where it had fallen, and without another
+protest walked back to the shore. Again he embarked aboard his boat, and
+once more he set sail, this time down the Pass in the opposite
+direction, and out into the open sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+A VISION AND A REALITY.
+
+
+If Cuthbert Ellison ever forgets any portion of his eventful career, it
+will certainly not be the part connected with his sail that evening. The
+sun lay like a disc of fire upon the horizon's edge as he left the bay;
+his ruddy glare lit up the sea, the islands, and the cloudless heavens,
+and the effect grew even more weird and wonderful the further he sank
+into his crimson bed. Ellison put his boat about and steered directly
+for the sinking orb, the water churning into foam under the little
+vessel's bows as he progressed. He seemed hardly conscious of his
+actions. He sat in the stern-sheets staring straight ahead of him,
+seeing little or nothing of the sea around him, looking only through his
+mind's-eye at his home and the momentous event that was occurring there.
+His own sin and its consequences seemed as nothing to him now in the
+white light of his new and greater anxiety. If anything disastrous
+should befall his wife in his absence, if she should die before he
+could get back to her, what would happen to him then? In that case the
+sooner he himself died the better. The very idea of such a thing set him
+trembling like a leaf. He knew now exactly how much he cared for his
+wife, and in his present state that knowledge was not a soothing one. He
+realised what the world, his world, would be to him without her.
+
+The sun sank lower and lower until only a flake of gold remained to show
+where he was taking his departure. With his total disappearance the wind
+dropped entirely, and the boat stood pulseless upon the pearly levels of
+the deep. Then from the corners of the world great shadows stole out to
+meet him. The evening star trembled in its place, and one by one her
+sisters came to watch with her. Sometimes a big fish rose near the boat,
+and disappeared again with a sullen splash, awed perhaps by the silence
+and solemnity of the world upon the surface. Far away to starboard he
+could discern the dim outline of the land, but all around him was only
+water--water--water. He furled the sail, and, to defend himself against
+the terror of his own thoughts, took to the oars. It was a heavy boat to
+pull, but he found comfort in thus tiring himself.
+
+For nearly an hour he rowed on and on, the night closing in around him
+as he went. At last, thoroughly wearied, he drew in his oars, and again
+took his place in the stern. By this time it was quite dark. The stars
+shone now, not by ones or twos, but in their countless thousands. They
+were not, however, to shine for long, for in the east a curious
+trembling faintness foretold the rising of the moon. Little by little
+this indistinctness spread across the sky, and one by one the stars fell
+under its subtle influence and went back to their coffers in the
+treasure house of night. Then, with a beauty indescribable, a rim of
+gold looked up above the edge of the world, and grew every moment
+larger. It was the moon--the great round glorious tropic moon, and with
+her coming a broad track of silver was thrown by a giant hand across the
+ocean. On this the boat seemed but a tiny speck, a frail atom in that
+immensity of water. Not a sign of land was now to be seen anywhere, and
+to Ellison it seemed as if, in his anxiety, he had said good-bye to it
+forever. He stood up and looked around him. Still to right and left,
+before him and behind, was only water slowly heaving in the moonlight.
+
+It had a curious effect upon his overstrung nerves, this expanse of
+moonlit water. A peculiar giddiness seized him. He sat down again and
+buried his face in his hands. Then suddenly something inside his head
+seemed to give way, and he looked up again. Whether he was mad for the
+time being, and really thought he saw the things he describes so vividly
+now, or whether he was dreaming, is a matter only for conjecture. At any
+rate, it seemed to him that from the place where he was, far removed
+from all the influences of the world, he saw a vision, the vision of the
+world's dead rising up to meet him. Sitting in the stern of his tiny
+boat, grasping the thwarts with either hand and looking out across the
+water, he watched and trembled. He saw the greatness of the deep opened
+as by a mighty hand. And from the void thus made, he witnessed a
+procession of the world's dead troop forth upon the silent waters like
+men walking on a silver road. There was no sound with them, not a
+footfall, neither a voice nor a rustle of garments. They came out of the
+east a mighty army, such as no man could number. They passed him where
+he sat and marched on again, still without a sound, towards the west.
+Every age and every nationality--semi-humans from the prehistoric ages,
+Israelites, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Medes, Persians, Assyrians,
+Babylonians, Goths, Greeks, Romans, Huns, and Norsemen; every race and
+every colour from the world's first death to the tiniest child giving up
+its little life at the moment that he looked was represented there.
+There were old men bowed down with the weight of years, young men in all
+the pride of manly strength, aged women, gentle matrons and young girls,
+children, and even tiny babes. Men slain in battle with their wounds
+still gaping on their shattered bodies; men drowned at sea, with the
+weeds of ocean twined about them; kings and nobles in their robes of
+state, priests in their sacred vestments, and peasants in their
+homespun; holy men in flowing garments, martyrs and those who fought
+with beasts at Ephesus; English wives and dark skinned African
+mothers--all were there. They approached him, looked at him, and then
+passed upon their way. Some had hope written in their faces, some
+despair, some ineffable peace, some the imprint of everlasting remorse.
+Not one but bore some mark to witness to the life he or she had pursued
+on earth. On and on they passed; already the procession seemed to
+stretch from pole to pole, and every moment was adding to their number.
+But there was no sound at all with them.
+
+Suddenly an intense fear and dread came over Ellison, such as he had
+never experienced in his life before. Had this vision been sent to
+prepare him for some great sorrow? Was it possible that Esther could be
+among them? Surely if she were she would come to him. Hardly conscious
+of what he was doing, he clambered forrard in the boat, and resting his
+hands upon the gunwale, stared at the passing multitude. There were
+mothers in plenty with infants in their arms--but Esther was not among
+them. He searched and searched, and still the relentless march went
+on--still they stretched out across the seas. All the dead of the earth,
+century and century and bygone ages; all the dead of the sea and under
+the sea paraded before him, and still the march went on. From every
+quarter of the globe the army was recruited, and everyone paused to look
+at this distracted man. In sheer weariness of movement he called upon
+them to stop--to stop if only for a minute. His voice rang out across
+the deep, again and again. But there was no change; there could be no
+halting in that march of death. As fast as the last ranks appeared
+thousands more came from all quarters to carry it on again. At first he
+had been all dumb, senseless wonderment. Then suddenly his ears were
+opened, and a second awful terror seized and held him spell-bound. He
+tried to shut his eyes to them, but they would not be shut out; he tried
+to stop his ears, but now the tramp of that mighty army could not be
+prevented. On and on and on it went, clashing and clanging, rolling and
+thundering, coming out of the east and disappearing into the west. And
+over it all the moon shone down pitiless and cold as steel. He tried to
+cry for mercy, but this time his voice refused to answer to his call. He
+stretched out his hands in feeble, despairing supplication, but still
+the march went on. At last he could hold out no longer; he stood up,
+raised his arms to Heaven, and pleaded piteously. As if in answer his
+senses deserted him, and he fell back into the bottom of his boat in a
+dead faint.
+
+When he recovered himself the sky was overcast with clouds. He looked
+about him half expecting to see the procession still parading past his
+boat, but it was gone. He was alone once more upon the waters, and, to
+add to his feeling of desolation, a soft rain was wetting him to the
+skin. How long he had lain there unconscious he could not tell. He
+looked at his watch, but it had stopped at half-past eight--the moment
+of his fall. A smart breeze was blowing, and, in a frenzy of
+recollection, he turned the boat's head for home, resolved to know the
+worst. In a moment he was tearing through the water like a thing
+possessed. This sense of rapid movement was just what his spirits
+needed; he could not go fast enough. A brisk sea was running, but over
+it his craft dashed like a flying stag. He could not be more than a
+dozen miles from the station at the very most--an hour's smart sailing.
+He shook out the reef he had taken in the canvas and let the boat do her
+best.
+
+With a heart like this tiny cockle-shell borne upon the tossing,
+tumbling sea, one moment uplifted by hope, and the next falling deep
+down into the trough of despair, he sailed on and on. Every second was
+bringing him nearer and nearer to his home. Already through the haze he
+could make out the bold outline of the island. Ten minutes later he was
+abreast of it, skimming safely along out of reach of that white line of
+dashing breakers. Rounding the point, he caught a glimpse of the lights
+of the station. With a rush his fear gripped hold of him again, not to
+leave him till he knew the best or worst. Like a drunken man he drove
+his boat ashore, leaped out on the sands, and commenced to haul her up.
+It was only when he had done this that he became aware of something
+lying on the sand just above high-water mark. It was the body of a man
+stretched out at full length. Wondering whether he could be still under
+the influence of the nightmare that had held him so at sea, he
+approached it. To his intense surprise it was Murkard--_dead drunk_.
+Kneeling by his side, he shook him vigorously, but without result. He
+was insensible, and from all appearances likely to remain so for some
+hours to come. But even this did not strike Ellison as it would have
+done at any other time; it appeared to him to be part and parcel of the
+nightmare under the influence of which he had so long been labouring.
+Rising to his feet he bent over the man, took him in his arms, and bore
+him up the hill to the hut.
+
+No sound came from his own dwelling; indeed, had it not been for the
+light burning in the little sitting room window it might have been
+uninhabited. Having laid his burden on the bed, he retraced his steps
+and went across to know his fate. As he approached the house he became
+conscious of a figure sitting in the veranda. When it rose, and came
+softly out to meet him, he recognised his friend the doctor. Ellison's
+tongue refused its office, his throat was like a lime-kiln. The other
+saw his state, and in a whisper said:
+
+"I have waited here to congratulate you. You ought to be a happy man.
+Your wife _and son_ are doing excellently well."
+
+Ellison reeled as if he had received a blow.
+
+"Mother and son!" he managed to gasp. "Oh, my God, you're not deceiving
+me?"
+
+As if in answer a little thin wail stole out from the house into the
+darkness, a little cry that went straight and plump to the very centre
+of the father's heart. It was true, then? There could be no deception
+about that!
+
+"Oh, thank God! thank God!"
+
+Again that feeble little voice came out to them, and again Ellison's
+nature was stirred to its lowest depths. All the world seemed centred in
+that tiny wail.
+
+"And how is she? There is no danger? For mercy's sake tell me candidly.
+You don't know what I've suffered these last few hours."
+
+"Your wife is doing wonderfully well. You need have no fear now. The old
+woman who is with her is an excellent nurse, and I shall come across
+first thing in the morning. I only waited to have the pleasure of
+telling you this myself."
+
+"How can I thank you? And you have been sitting here so long in the dark
+without anyone to look after you. You must think me inhospitable to the
+last degree. Come inside now."
+
+They went into the room, and Ellison set refreshment before the doctor.
+He would, however, not touch a drop himself.
+
+"I dare not," he said, in reply to the other's look of astonishment. "In
+the state I'm in I should be dead drunk if I drank a thimbleful. I can
+tell you I wouldn't live this night again for something."
+
+"I wouldn't be answerable for your brain if you did," the doctor
+replied, glancing at the haggard face before him. "What on earth have
+you been doing with yourself! You look as if you'd been communing with
+the Legions of the Dead."
+
+"So I have--so I have. You've just hit it. That's what I _have_ been
+doing. I've seen the dead of all the world troop past me to-night."
+
+"Give me your wrist."
+
+He spoke in a tone of command, and almost unconsciously Ellison extended
+one arm. The doctor placed his finger on the pulse.
+
+"Nothing much the matter there. You only want a good night's sleep now
+the anxiety's over, and I prophesy you'll be as fit as a fiddle
+to-morrow. I shouldn't be at all surprised if you tell me you're the
+proudest father in the hemisphere. Bless you, I know your sort!"
+
+Ellison laughed softly, but for all that it was a mirthless laugh. He
+had not recovered yet from the shock of all he had undergone that
+evening.
+
+"When may I see her?"
+
+"She is asleep now. When she wakes, perhaps. The nurse, however, will
+settle that point. You must abide strictly by what she says for a week
+or two. Above all you must not frighten your wife with that face. Make
+that more cheerful before you go in, or I'll keep you away from her for
+a month."
+
+"I'd break your neck if you did. And I'm pretty muscular even now."
+
+"I'll take that assertion on trust. Now I must be going."
+
+"I'll see you down to your boat."
+
+They walked to the shore together. One of the Kanaka hands was in
+waiting to put the doctor across. When the little craft had disappeared
+from view, Ellison went back to the house. He was bathing in a sea of
+happiness. His fondest dream was realised. He went into the sitting room
+and threw himself upon the sofa. He had hardly been there a minute
+before the door opened, and Mrs. Fenwick appeared bearing in her arms a
+bundle. He sprang to his feet once more, trembling in every limb.
+
+"I'm sure I wish you joy, sir," she began, as she came towards him.
+"He's the noblest boy I've seen these many years; I ought to know, for
+I've nursed a-many."
+
+She parted the blankets that enshrined the treasure, and Ellison looked
+down on the little face.
+
+"Take him in your own arms, sir. It's a proud father you ought to be."
+
+For the first time in his life Ellison held his son in his arms. How
+sweet and desirable the world seemed to him then. In spite of everything
+that had gone before he would not have changed places with any man who
+breathed. But he was not to be permitted the honour of holding the
+infant long.
+
+"When may I see my wife?" he asked, as he laid the babe back in his
+nurse's arms.
+
+"I'll call you when she wakes, sir."
+
+For nearly an hour he was left alone. The little clock on the
+mantelpiece ticked off the score. Not a sound came from the outer world
+save the monotonous thunder of the surf upon the reef. He contrasted
+this night with that when, after the fight at the Hotel of All Nations,
+he had waited on the side of the hill, wondering what the morrow would
+bring forth, and whether it was too late for him to pull up and save
+himself. But he had pulled up, and now he----
+
+Again a knock came to the door, and once more Mrs. Fenwick entered the
+room.
+
+"She is awake now, sir. If you would like to see her for a moment, you
+can do so. But you must be careful not to excite her."
+
+Ellison gave his promise, and followed the woman into his wife's room.
+Esther looked very white and thin; but it was evident she was glad to
+see him. Her pretty hair straggled across the pillow, and her great eyes
+looked into his with a love that nothing could ever quench. One hand lay
+on the coverlet; he took it softly in his, and raised it to his lips. A
+little smile of intense happiness hovered round her mouth. Suddenly he
+seemed to remember. Turning to the nurse, he whispered:
+
+"Give me the child."
+
+Without a word she did as she was ordered, and again Cuthbert Ellison
+held his new-born son in his arms. Then stooping, with all the
+tenderness his nature was capable of, he laid the sleeping babe within
+the hollow of the mother's arm. And bending over her, he kissed her on
+the lips.
+
+"God bless and keep you both," he said, and softly hurried from the
+room, his heart overflowing with joy and thankfulness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+HAPPINESS--UNHAPPINESS--AND A MAN OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+The birth of his son opened up to Ellison a new world. For the first
+month of that baby life everything connected with his own past was
+forgotten in one intense joy of possession. He began to understand that
+hitherto he had only vegetated; now he lived the life of a man who was
+not only a husband but a parent. The thread of his existence was a
+continuous one, woven and drawn in by the pink tenderness of a baby
+fingers. And as he noticed the growth of intelligence in those little
+eyes--the first faint dawning of the human soul within--his pleasure and
+delight increased a thousand-fold. He could hardly believe that the
+child was his own, his very own, bound to him by all the ties of flesh
+and blood--a veritable human, with a soul to be lost or to be saved by
+his influence. On the strength of his happiness he began to build
+gigantic castles in the air, and, what was more, to handsomely furnish
+them.
+
+As for Esther, the motherhood that had come to her added a charm to her
+sweetness that her husband, much as he loved her, had neither known nor
+guessed that she possessed. The child was a perpetual mystery to her,
+and a never-ending charm. And yet with it all her husband was always the
+chiefest in her eyes. There was a difference in the love she felt for
+them--a difference that she could hardly account for or understand. One
+was _of_ the other, yet not _the_ other. One was a love she had in a
+measure created for herself; the other was nothing more nor less than
+herself. Indeed, their home life was now almost as perfect as it was
+possible for it to be. With a substantial banking account--how obtained
+Ellison never allowed himself to think; the new pearling season
+approaching with glowing prospects; a tender, loving wife to care for
+and protect; a son and heir to bind them closer to each other, he might
+indeed esteem himself a lucky man. Murkard found occasion, one morning,
+to tell him so in the store.
+
+"Everything seems to prosper with you now, Ellison. If I had such a wife
+and son to work for, there'd be nothing I couldn't do."
+
+"There shall be nothing _I_ can't do. If things _have_ changed, so much
+the better. I will make hay while the sun shines, and you must help
+me."
+
+"There is nothing I would do more willingly. You know you may always
+count on my hearty cooperation."
+
+Ellison shook him warmly by the hand.
+
+"I know," he said. "You have been a good friend to me, Murkard."
+
+"And you will forget it all in a moment."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Nothing. I'm only looking ahead. A habit of mine. Forget it." He turned
+to the desk at which he had been writing, and took up some papers. "Now
+let us talk business. The season is beginning, as you know. Are you
+ready for it?"
+
+"Quite. The boats are in first-class trim; the two new divers will be
+here to-morrow; we shall get to sea on Thursday morning, all being
+well."
+
+"And you still intend going with them?"
+
+"On this particular trip--yes! I want to see how things work out yonder,
+and what chances there are for a floating station."
+
+A floating station, in pearling parlance, is a larger vessel than the
+ordinary diving lugger, capable of anchoring in the vicinity of the
+fleet, of carrying stores sufficient to supply the boats during their
+operations, and of taking over their cargoes of shell when obtained. By
+this means the time which would otherwise be occupied in sailing the
+distance backward and forward to the land station, not unfrequently a
+distance of some hundreds of miles, would be saved, and the luggers
+enabled to go on working uninterruptedly. A floating station is also
+capable of meeting ships in the open sea, and of transhipping to them
+her cargo of shell, packed and addressed direct to the London markets,
+by this means again saving agents' fees, storage, wharfage, etc., etc.,
+in Thursday Island. The advantages to be gained by employing such a
+vessel must be obvious.
+
+"I wonder you like to tear yourself away just at present," said Murkard,
+after a little pause.
+
+"I don't like it. I am dreading it like the coward I am; but it's got to
+be done, Murkard. Try as I will I can't blink that fact. As I told you a
+month ago, I intend to put my shoulder to the wheel now with a
+vengeance. I think I've proved since we came here that I'm made of the
+right sort of stuff. Well, I'm going to do twice as much now in support
+of that assertion. I have made one firm resolve?"
+
+"And that is?"
+
+"That save for the purposes of my business, in the strictest sense of
+the word, I will not touch a penny of that five thousand pounds. And I
+will deny myself no toil and no thrift that can help me to repay every
+farthing of what I _do_ take, and with interest. Then it shall go back
+to England."
+
+"But, man, you must be mad! It's your own money. As much yours as the
+child in yonder."
+
+"Not the two in the same breath, as you love your life, Murkard. No!
+When I took the money I took it as a loan, and only as a loan. By God's
+help I will repay every farthing of it, and with interest. So only can I
+hope to satisfy my conscience."
+
+Murkard looked at him. There was determination in every line of
+Ellison's face. He lifted his hand from the desk, and put it on the
+other's shoulder.
+
+"Ellison, you're a brave man, and I respect you for it."
+
+"That's because you don't know everything."
+
+"I know quite enough to convince me of the justice of what I have just
+said. If there's any more at the back of it--I'll respect you the more
+for that too."
+
+"Well, at any rate, that's enough on the subject for the present. Of
+course, while I'm away you will be in charge here. You understand that,
+don't you? I leave everything in your hands, including the safety of my
+wife and child. I need not say I trust you."
+
+"You need have no fears on that score. I will guard them as if they
+were my own. How long do you expect to be away?"
+
+"At least a month. It is no use going so far for less. If we have much
+luck I may stay longer; but it is very doubtful."
+
+"Very doubtful, I should think."
+
+Ellison picked up his hat and left the store. On returning to the house
+he found Esther seated on the veranda, the baby sleeping in a cradle by
+her side. He took the hammock and stretched himself out. Without
+speaking she signed to him, by taking his hand, to look; then stooping
+she drew the mosquito netting back from the cradle head, and showed him
+the child lying fast asleep. Hand in hand they looked down upon the
+little pink face; and the one little arm outside the quilt, with its
+tiny fist tight clenched, seemed to draw the father's and mother's
+hearts if possible closer even than before. Then she dropped the net
+again, and turned towards her husband. She saw that his face was
+preternaturally solemn.
+
+"You have something to tell me," she said.
+
+"Something rather unpleasant, I'm afraid," he murmured in reply. "And
+yet, after all, looked straight in the face, it is not very much. I
+meant to have told you before, but I've been putting it off from day to
+day. The fact is, Esther, I'm going away with the luggers the day after
+to-morrow for a month."
+
+"You--going--away--and--for--a month! Oh, Cuthbert!"
+
+It was the first real parting since their marriage, and the news came as
+an unpleasant shock to her. But Esther knew she must be brave, and not
+try to hinder him from what was evidently his duty. Calling Mrs. Fenwick
+out to the veranda, she gave the child to her; then, taking her
+husband's arm, she went with him down the path towards the shore.
+
+"It is weak of me to think I can expect to keep you with me always," she
+said, when they had gone a little way. "But baby and I will miss you
+dreadfully."
+
+"It must be, darling. You see, I must work now even harder than before."
+
+"Why must you? We are doing well enough as it is, surely?"
+
+"Yes, things have improved, certainly; but while that loan hangs over me
+I shall know no peace. It haunts me night and day. You would not have me
+idle my time away here on the strength of that money, would you?"
+
+"Of course not. But I fear whatever you did, I should think right."
+
+"Forgive my doubting that assertion. I'm certain, darling, if you saw me
+idle, even your love would not be above telling me so."
+
+"But I should only tell you because I loved you."
+
+"That is precisely why I am going away. I want to work hard, that I may
+prevent your ever being called upon to tell me."
+
+"We are getting a little out of our depths, are we not?"
+
+They had reached a little clearing in the jungle. Here she stopped, and
+taking his great brown hand in hers, stroked it with her own white
+fingers. Then, looking up into his face with a faint little smile,
+through which the tears threatened at any moment to burst, she said:
+
+"Go, and may God prosper your labours!"
+
+That was the last of her opposition.
+
+Two days later Ellison gave the signal for departure, and the three
+luggers weighed anchor and stood out of the bay. His own boat was the
+last to leave, and until the headland shut her from his sight, Ellison
+waved a farewell to the white figure standing in the veranda. Then the
+sea took him into her arms, and for a month the station knew him no
+more.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was sundown on the twenty-third day at sea. Work was almost over. The
+sun was little more than a hand's breadth above the horizon, and another
+hour would find him gone. Hardly a ripple disturbed the pearly serenity
+of the ocean; the only spot of land to be seen was a tiny island just
+peeping up on the sky-line away to starboard. Ellison sat upon the
+combing of the main hatch, holding the diver's life-line in his hand,
+watching the movements of the other boats, and listening to the
+throbbing of the air-pump on the deck beside him. It was nearly time for
+the diver to ascend.
+
+Suddenly the line he held twitched violently in his hand. It was a
+signal to haul up the canvas bag containing the oysters gathered. He
+hauled in, and having emptied the contents on the deck, lowered the bag
+to be re-filled. Then with his knife he set to work to open the oysters.
+The first and second were valuable shells, but destitute of pearls; the
+third contained an almost insignificant gem; the fourth he opened
+carefully, with a sort of premonition that it would be found to contain
+something valuable. If the truth were known, he was thinking more of
+Esther than the work upon which he was engaged. When he did look inside,
+he almost dropped the shell in amazement. Tangled among the beard, and
+half hidden from his sight, was an enormous black pearl, perfect, so
+far as he could make out, in symmetry, and larger than a hazel-nut.
+Trembling with eagerness, yet without allowing a sign to escape him to
+show his crew that he had made a find out of the ordinary, he
+disentangled the gem from its bearded setting, and with exquisite care
+removed it altogether from the shell. He could hardly believe his good
+fortune. Perfect in shape, of enormous size, and, as far as he could
+tell, without a flaw, it was a jewel fit for a royal crown. He was
+afraid to think of its value, but from what he knew of pearls, five
+thousand pounds would hardly buy it.
+
+He had barely time to conceal it in his pocket and order one of the
+Kanakas to stow the shells in their proper places, when the diver
+signalled that he was coming up. As soon as he had seen him disrobed he
+descended to his cabin, and after another careful examination of the
+gem, put it away in a place of safety. If his calculation of its value
+proved anything like correct, he would now be able to pay off his debt,
+relieve his mind of its weight of anxiety, and start again with a fresh
+sheet. But even without this marvellous bit of good fortune their trip
+had been phenomenally successful; now, with this additional piece of
+good luck, he felt that he was justified in weighing anchor the
+following morning and setting sail for home.
+
+And what a home-coming it was, to be sure! What questions had to be
+asked and answered; how every change in the son and heir had to be
+described and noted. And indeed, as Ellison was only too glad to admit
+to himself, he was indeed a bonny boy. His heart throbbed with joy and
+pride as he held him in his arms.
+
+And who shall paint Esther's delight in having her husband with her
+again? She could hardly bear him out of her sight.
+
+When luncheon was over, and they had adjourned to the veranda, she came
+to business.
+
+"You have not yet told me what success you met with, Cuthbert? I have
+prayed that you might be fortunate--night and morning."
+
+"Then your prayers have been answered, darling, as any prayers of yours
+would be."
+
+He led her back into the sitting room, and having made certain that no
+one was near to spy upon them, took from his pocket the little box which
+contained the pearl. In her soft white hand the gem looked as black as
+night.
+
+"Oh, Cuthbert!" she cried, in supreme astonishment; "a black pearl! and
+such a large one. Oh, this is the greatest luck that could possibly
+befall us. Have you any idea what it is worth!"
+
+"I hardly know, but at least I should think enough to liquidate that
+debt, and lay the foundation of our future fortunes."
+
+"As much as that? Oh, husband mine, it is indeed an answer to my
+prayers. And now you will be quite free?"
+
+"Yes, free--quite free."
+
+His voice took a fuller tone as he said it. He threw his head back and
+laughed like his old happy self. Then, seating himself beside her, he
+began to question her on other subjects.
+
+"It's a funny thing that Murkard should have chanced to be away just
+when I arrived. What time did he cross to the township?"
+
+"About eleven o'clock, I think. Cuthbert, I want to talk to you about
+him."
+
+"Well," he said, looking at her laughingly, "what has the old fellow
+been up to while I've been away? Making love to you? I'll certainly
+break his head for him if he has."
+
+"Don't be silly! I want to talk to you seriously; I am alarmed about
+him. He frightens me terribly at times."
+
+"Come, come, you mustn't be silly. There's nothing but what's honest
+about Murkard, I'll stake my life on that. He wouldn't willing hurt a
+fly. But in what way does he frighten you?"
+
+"He looks so queer, and once or twice when I've sent for him he hasn't
+been able to come. I have serious suspicions that he has been drinking
+heavily lately."
+
+"Is that so? Well, I'll soon stop that. And yet we must not be too hard
+on him, poor fellow, he has much to put up with. Hark! that sounds like
+his voice."
+
+He rose and looked out across the veranda. Murkard was standing at his
+hut door, calling to a Kanaka on the beach. Ellison put on his hat and
+went across to him. Hearing steps behind him, Murkard turned round, and
+the other saw his face. It was of a whitey-gray colour, almost that of
+zinc; the pouches under his eyes were dark and swollen, while the eyes
+themselves had a shifty trick of roaming about as he talked. His hair
+was now almost entirely gray over the temples. His hands shook
+violently. He seemed to have aged years in that one month.
+
+"Why, Murkard, how's it with you?" Ellison began briskly, resolved not
+to show that he noticed the queerness of his greeting. "But you're not
+looking well, man."
+
+"I am quite well--quite well. I've had a touch of fever lately, but I'm
+better now. I'm glad to see you back. I hope you think I've taken proper
+care of your wife and child in your absence."
+
+"I'm sure you have, old man. And now take my arm and come in here for a
+chat. I've great news for you."
+
+They went into the store together, and Ellison seated himself on a bale
+of rope. Murkard picked idly at the edge of the counter with nervous,
+trembling hands. A figure passed the door, but neither of them saw it.
+
+"Murkard, this has been a wonderful month for me."
+
+"How--how? Why don't you speak out? Why do you keep me in suspense?"
+
+"Nerves," said Ellison to himself. "I must stop this as soon as
+possible." Then aloud he continued, taking out the gem and placing it on
+the counter: "Three hundred pounds' worth of shell in the luggers, and
+that beauty."
+
+Murkard picked up and turned the great black pearl over and over without
+answering. Finally he said:
+
+"I suppose you will be a rich man now?"
+
+"I shall be able, at least, to square that debt and start afresh, if
+that's what you mean. It's the greatest luck that ever came to a man.
+Congratulate me, old chap."
+
+"I do congratulate you, from the bottom of my heart. You'll be able to
+square that debt, you say? Well, well, perhaps so--perhaps so."
+
+"I feel as if a new life had been given me."
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense! We want no new lives. What should we do
+with new lives, when we don't know how to make use of those we've got?
+It's hell-fire for some of us, I tell you--hell-fire."
+
+"Steady, old man, steady!"
+
+"Listen to me, Cuthbert Ellison." He leaned over the counter, and
+dropped his voice to a whisper. "What's the worth of money when your
+immortal soul's in danger? Look at me and answer me that; look at me, I
+say. Stung with empoisonment and robed in fire, as somebody says:
+
+    "'What was their tale of someone on a summit?
+        Looking, I think, upon the endless sea;
+      One with a fate, and sworn to overcome it,
+        One who was fettered and who should be free.'"
+
+He sawed the air with his hands, while Ellison gazed at him in complete
+astonishment.
+
+"My dear fellow, what on earth's the matter with you?"
+
+Murkard laughed nervously, and tried to pull himself together.
+
+"Nothing--nothing; why should there be? I'm not very well to-day, that's
+all. Glad to see you home again--can't you understand?"
+
+"I understand that. But I know also that you must go steady, old man.
+You're trembling like a day-old kitten. This won't do at all, you know."
+
+"I shall be better to-morrow. It's only transi--trans--what the devil
+word do I want?--transitory."
+
+"And now about this beauty," Ellison tapped the pocket containing the
+pearl. "We must put it away somewhere where it will be safe. In the
+meantime, 'mum's' the word; do you understand?"
+
+Murkard nodded, and moved towards the safe standing in a corner of the
+office. Again the figure passed the door unnoticed.
+
+"You'd better put it in here," suggested Murkard, placing the key in the
+lock, and swinging the heavy door open. Suddenly he jumped back as if he
+had been shot, and stood trembling against the counter.
+
+"What's wrong with you now, man?" Ellison cried almost angrily.
+
+"Can't you see? can't you see? For Heaven's sake, come back!" He seized
+Ellison by the shoulder, and pulled him back towards the other side of
+the hut. "Can't you see that the floor's giving way, and if we're not
+careful we shall both fall into the pit? The sea washes under it, and
+it's over two thousand feet deep!"
+
+His face was the colour of note-paper, and great beads of perspiration
+stood upon his forehead.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Ellison. "The floor's as strong as I am, and there's no
+pit to fall into, even if it did give way. Murkard, my friend, I don't
+like the look of this at all. I shall have to put you to bed."
+
+"Stuff! I'm as well as you are. I see my mistake now; it was the shadow
+that frightened me. But for the moment I really did think the floor was
+giving way. My nerves are not quite the thing. It's overwork. I must
+have a tonic."
+
+Ellison put the pearl in the lower drawer of the safe, and then securely
+locked the door again. Both he and Murkard held keys, and for the moment
+he was in some doubt as to whether he should give the duplicate back to
+the other in his present state. Yet he hardly liked to refuse, for fear
+of offending him.
+
+"Are you afraid to trust me with my key again, _Mr._ Ellison?" snarled
+Murkard.
+
+"Afraid to trust _you_--what are you thinking about? Of course not;
+there's your key? Now you just come along with me, and I'll put you to
+bed."
+
+"Bosh! I'm not going to bed; I've got my work to do, and I'll thank you
+to mind your own business. When I want your sympathy I'll ask you for
+it. In the meantime, be so good as to spare me the indignity of offering
+it."
+
+"It is certainly time I looked after him," said Ellison to himself.
+"This is the liquor again, with a vengeance!"
+
+But in spite of his first refusal, Murkard allowed himself to be led to
+his hut. Once there, he threw himself on his bed, and announced his
+intention of going to sleep.
+
+"The best thing you can possibly do. I'll come back in a little while
+and have a look at you."
+
+He left him picking at the pattern on his counterpane, and went back to
+the house. When he got there, to his surprise he discovered his wife
+sitting in the veranda talking to a stranger--a tall man about thirty
+years of age, neatly dressed, and boasting a handsome, aristocratic
+face.
+
+As Ellison approached he heard his wife say:
+
+"This is my husband."
+
+The stranger rose, and came across the veranda to meet him. He lifted
+his hat politely, and smiled in a most bewitching manner.
+
+Ellison thought he had seldom seen a pleasanter face.
+
+"Good afternoon, Mr. Ellison. I have the pleasure of bearing a letter of
+introduction to you from the Government Resident over yonder."
+
+He took a letter from the breast-pocket of his coat, and gave it to
+Ellison. On the envelope was written, "Introducing the Hon. George
+Merton."
+
+"Won't you sit down, Mr. Merton? I am very pleased to have the
+opportunity of making your acquaintance. Have you been long in the
+settlement?"
+
+"I arrived in the China boat last week. I am globe-trotting, I may as
+well tell you--though it will probably prejudice you against me. I have
+been three months in Japan, and am now on my way to Melbourne."
+
+"Don't you find your stay in Thursday Island rather uninteresting?"
+
+"On the contrary, I am so far interested that I am thinking of spending
+another month here. I want to see all I can of the pearling industry in
+that time."
+
+"Then perhaps I can help you."
+
+"The Resident was kind enough to say he felt sure you would."
+
+"If you will give us the pleasure of your company, my wife and I will
+try to make your stay as pleasant as possible."
+
+"I am vastly obliged to you. You are really a most hospitable people. I
+hope, if ever you visit England, you'll let me return the compliment."
+
+"Thank you. We're rough and ready, but we're always glad to see folk
+from the outside world. Our intellectual circle, you see, is rather
+limited."
+
+Esther rose to go into the house. She turned to their guest:
+
+"You will hear a great deal about shell, copra, beche-de-mer, etc.,
+before you leave us. But I hope it won't bore you. Now I will go and
+prepare your room for you. Cuthbert, will you send one of the boys
+across to the settlement for Mr. Merton's bag?"
+
+"With pleasure."
+
+"It's really very good of you to take me in like this," said Mr. Merton,
+when they were alone.
+
+Ellison replied in suitable terms. Hospitality was one of his strong
+points, and the stranger was evidently a cultivated man. He looked
+forward to a week or so of very pleasant intercourse. It was years since
+he had enjoyed an intellectual conversation.
+
+"You have a pretty place here, Mr. Ellison," said the other, after a
+brief stroll. "The jungle on the hill, and the cluster of houses among
+the palms at the foot, present a charming effect."
+
+"I hope you will be able to say you like it when you have seen more of
+it. It is pretty, but one is apt to find it a little quiet."
+
+"How many men do you employ?"
+
+"About a dozen; mostly Kanakas."
+
+"But surely I saw you walking with a white man just now. Rather
+afflicted, I think."
+
+"Ah, yes; my storekeeper, Mr. Murkard. A very old friend. I'm sorry to
+say he's not well enough to assist in welcoming you. By the same token,
+I think if you'll excuse me for a few minutes, I'll go across and see
+how he is. I'm rather anxious about him."
+
+"Do, by all means. I'll walk back to the house." Ellison went down the
+path to the hut. He listened for a moment at the door, but only the
+sound of heavy breathing came from within. He went in, to find Murkard
+lying prone upon the floor insensible. The hut reeked of brandy, and
+Ellison was not surprised when he found an empty bottle underneath the
+bed.
+
+"This is getting to be too much of a good thing, my friend," he said,
+addressing the recumbent figure. "I shall have to keep a sharper eye on
+you for the future, I can see."
+
+He lifted him up, and placed him on the bed. Then he began his search
+for concealed spirit. At the end of five minutes he was almost convinced
+that the bottle he had discovered was the only one. And yet it seemed
+hardly likely that it could be so. Suddenly his eye lighted on a hole in
+the palm leaf thatch. Standing on a box he could thrust his hand into
+it. He did so, and felt the smooth cold side of a bottle. He drew it
+out--an unopened bottle of Hennessey's Cognac. Again he inserted his
+hand, and again he drew out a bottle--another--and still another. There
+was enough concealed there to kill a man in Murkard's present state. He
+wrapped them up in a towel, so that none of the hands should suspect,
+and conveyed them across to his own room. Once there, he sat down to
+think.
+
+"He'll not move for an hour or two, then he'll wake and look for these.
+When he can't find 'em he'll probably go off his head right away, and we
+shall have to watch him in grim earnest. Poor old Murkard! Poor old
+chap!"
+
+Fortunately for his spirits that evening, Merton proved a most
+sympathetic and agreeable companion. He ingratiated himself with Ellison
+by praising his wife, and he won Esther to his side by the interest and
+admiration he displayed for the baby. He was a fluent and clever
+conversationalist, and by the time dinner was over both husband and wife
+had agreed that he was a very pleasant addition to their party. But the
+triumph of the stranger was yet to come. They sat smoking in the
+veranda, watching the wonderful southern stars and listening to the
+murmur of the wavelets on the beach. Only their pipes showed their
+whereabouts, and when Esther joined them she could hardly distinguish
+between her husband and their guest.
+
+"Won't you play us something, Mrs. Ellison?" Merton said, after a few
+moments. "I feel sure you are a musician. Indeed, I saw a pile of music
+by the piano."
+
+"Do you play or sing, Mr. Merton?" she said, as she turned to comply
+with his request.
+
+"A little," he replied. "If you will perform first, I will do my best to
+follow you."
+
+"A bargain," said Ellison. And his wife sat down to the piano.
+
+When she had finished both men thanked her, and Merton rose from his
+chair and went in to fulfil his promise.
+
+Esther seated herself by her husband's side and her hand found his.
+Merton struck a few chords and then began to sing. The attention of the
+couple in the veranda was riveted immediately. Few men could sing as
+Merton sang; his voice was a tenor of the richest quality, his execution
+faultless. He sang as one inspired, and the song he chose suited him
+exactly; it was "Si j'etais Roi!" When he had finished not a sound came
+from the veranda; he smiled to himself. That silence was greater praise
+than any thanks. He knew his power, and he had discovered by intuition
+that the man and woman were in sympathy with him. He began to play
+again; this time the song was an English one. The music was his own, the
+words some of the most beautiful Tennyson ever wrote:
+
+    "Sweet is true Love tho' given in vain, in vain;
+     And sweet is Death who puts an end to pain:
+     I know not which is sweeter, no, not I.
+
+    "Love, art thou sweet? Then bitter Death must be:
+     Love, thou art bitter; sweet is Death to me.
+     Oh, Love, if Death be sweeter, let me die.
+
+    "Sweet Love, that seems not made to fade away,
+     Sweet Death, that seems to make us loveless clay,
+     I know not which is sweeter, no, not I.
+
+    "I fain would follow Love, if that could be;
+     I needs must follow Death, who calls for me;
+     Call and I follow, I follow! Let me die."
+
+His voice sank almost to a whisper as he uttered the last words. They
+seemed to hang and tremble upon the silent air for some seconds after
+he had finished; the effect was complete upon his audience. He left the
+piano and came out again to the veranda.
+
+"Thank you. You are a wonderful singer," said Esther, tears still wet
+upon her eyelashes. "I have never heard anything like your voice before,
+and yet we have had many well-known singers among the pearlers in the
+settlement."
+
+Ellison was silent. The influence of the music and the wail of the song
+were still upon him, and he could not shake them off. They seemed in
+some mysterious fashion to remind him of his dead but not forgotten
+past.
+
+Merton seated himself, and turned the conversation into another channel.
+He had created the effect he desired, and that was sufficient for the
+present. He did not want to appear conceited.
+
+"Hark!" said Esther suddenly, holding up her hand. "I thought I heard
+someone calling."
+
+They all listened, but no sound rewarded their attention.
+
+"The sea," said her husband, "or a night-bird in the scrub."
+
+"Where is Mr. Murkard to-night?" asked Esther. "I have not seen him
+since you returned."
+
+Merton suddenly leaned forward, and then as suddenly sat back. Ellison
+noticed his action, but attached no importance to it.
+
+"He's not at all well, dear. As I'm rather anxious about him, I induced
+him to go to bed."
+
+Merton sat suddenly upright.
+
+"You were quite right, Mrs. Ellison. _I_ heard someone call then. Who
+can it be?"
+
+Again they listened, this time with more success. It was the voice of a
+man in deadly terror, and it came from the hut opposite. Ellison sprang
+to his feet.
+
+"Murkard!" he cried. "I must go to him."
+
+He dashed across the veranda and down the path to the hut. On the
+threshold, and before opening the door, he paused to light a match. When
+he entered, the room was in total darkness. He knew a candle stood on
+the table near the door, and having found it, he lit it; then holding it
+aloft, he looked about him. The bed was disordered, half the clothes
+were lying on the floor. A moment later he sighted the man of whom he
+was in search. He was crouched in the furthest corner, staring wildly
+before him. His long legs were drawn up close to his chin--his broad
+shoulders seemed to overlap his body. But his eyes were his chief
+horror; they seemed to be starting from their sockets. Streams of
+perspiration--the perspiration of living fear--rolled down his cheeks,
+and every now and then he uttered a cry of abject terror.
+
+"Hold me back--hold me back!" he yelled. "I'm falling--falling--falling!
+Is there no help--my God--no help! Help! Help! Help!"
+
+Ellison put down the candle and ran towards him.
+
+"Murkard, what on earth does this mean? Pull yourself together! You're
+all right!"
+
+But the man took no notice. He only drew himself further into his corner
+and clutched at the woodwork of the wall.
+
+"Don't come near me," he cried; "for pity's sake, don't come near me!
+You're shaking me, you're loosening my hold, and I shall fall!" His
+voice went up to a shriek again. "I shall fall! I'm falling, falling,
+falling! Help! Help! Help!"
+
+Again and again he shrieked. Then he suddenly sprang to his feet,
+tottered to and fro, and next moment fell forward unconscious. At the
+same moment Ellison heard a footstep behind him. Looking round he saw
+Merton standing in the doorway.
+
+"What is the matter with him?" he asked. "Can I be of any assistance?"
+
+"D. T., I'm afraid. And a pretty bad case, I think. What can we do?"
+
+"Get him on to his bed, I should say, and send for the doctor."
+
+"Well, let's try."
+
+Between them they picked him up and carried him to his bed. Having laid
+him there, Ellison said:
+
+"Would you mind staying with him for a minute while I send a hand across
+to the settlement for the medico?"
+
+"Go ahead, I'll watch him."
+
+Ellison went out and left them alone together. As soon as the door had
+closed upon him Merton leaned over the bed and looked fixedly at the man
+stretched upon it.
+
+"Yes," he said, when he had finished his scrutiny, "I thought I couldn't
+be mistaken. It's the very man himself. This is getting interesting. My
+friend,--what do you call yourself? Oh, Murkard--when you recover your
+wits again you'll have a little surprise in store for you. In the
+meantime I've got to play my cards carefully, or that fool may suspect."
+
+Five minutes later Ellison returned. Merton turned to him.
+
+"What are you going to do now?"
+
+"Watch him till the doctor comes. Don't you stay. Go to bed and try to
+forget all about him."
+
+"Sure I can be of no use?"
+
+"Certain."
+
+"Then I think I will take your advice and say good-night!"
+
+"Good-night!"
+
+As he went across to the house Merton smiled to himself.
+
+"Forget him? When I forget him may my right hand forget its cunning. No,
+no, my friend, you and I have a score to settle before we can forget! In
+the meantime Diplomacy must be my watchword."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+DELIRIUM--A RECOGNITION--A DEPARTURE AND A RETURN.
+
+
+Many times during Murkard's illness Ellison found cause to bless
+Merton's coming. Not only was his cheerful nature calculated to
+counteract the horrors of the patient's delirium, but without being
+asked he took upon himself the invalid's work and made himself
+invaluable in the store. He was a clever fellow, able to turn his hand
+to anything; and before he had been a week in the house he had brought
+himself to be looked upon as quite a member of the family. His singing
+was a great source of delight to both his host and hostess. Esther, in
+particular, seemed never tired of listening to him, and it was
+noticeable that when she was in his audience he sang his best. But he
+was more than a talented musician, he was a clever talker, had read
+everything that was worth reading, and boasted a most capacious memory.
+He could recite, conjure, and ventriloquise better than most
+professionals, and however hard he might have been working during the
+day, when evening came he always exerted his talents to please. Once or
+twice he had volunteered to sit with Murkard, but Ellison could not be
+brought to permit it. He was afraid to leave them alone together, lest
+by any chance Murkard should let slip something which it would be
+inadvisable the other should know. He need not have worried himself,
+however, for even in his worst delirium Murkard was singularly reticent
+about the station affairs. Once or twice he spoke of his own past
+history, but only in the vaguest fashion. His main delusion seemed to be
+that he had done somebody a grievous wrong by not speaking out on a
+certain subject, and on this he harped continually.
+
+"You _must_ tell him!" he would reiterate times out of number. "He will
+never find it out otherwise. You _must_ tell him!" A pause. "Oh, coward!
+coward! coward! Have you fallen so low?"
+
+Ellison racked his brains to discover the meaning of this constant
+self-accusation, but in vain. At times he thought it referred to
+himself, but what had Murkard to tell him that could cause him so much
+pain. Then he would ascribe it to some detail of his past, but it was
+too real and recent for that. In the silence of the night, with only
+the moan of the waves on the beach, the monotonous voice would cry:
+
+"You _must_ tell him! He is suffering so. He will never find out
+otherwise. Oh, coward! coward! coward! Have you fallen so low?"
+
+Once or twice Ellison tried to question him. But it was of little or no
+use. Only on one occasion could he get anything approaching a clear
+response from him.
+
+"What is it, old man," he asked, directly the sick man had completed his
+customary speech, "that you must tell? Can I help you?"
+
+Murkard leaned out of his bed and took his friend by the wrist. His eyes
+were still strangely bright, and his face was hard set as flint.
+
+"Tell him," he almost hissed, "tell him at once and save his soul. D'you
+think I haven't watched--aye, watched day and night. The man must be
+saved, I tell you, and for her sake! For her sake, don't you hear, you
+fool, you dolt, you ninny? Can't you understand Queen's English when you
+hear it?" He dropped his voice to a whisper. "The man must be saved for
+the woman's sake, and the woman for the man's, and both for the child's.
+Three in one, and one in three. Isn't that plain enough? God help you if
+you can't see it as plainly as I can!"
+
+Ellison put the next question with almost a tremble in his voice:
+
+"Who is the man, old friend? Tell me, and let me help you with your
+trouble."
+
+Murkard picked at the counterpane with quivering fingers.
+
+"In the Hebrew he is called Abaddon, but the Greek hath it Apollyon,
+ribbed with chains of fire and hung about with chains of gold, silver,
+and ivory. I wish you could see it as I see it.
+
+    "'Her folded wings as of a mighty eagle,
+      But all too impotent to lift the regal
+      Robustness of her earth-born strength and pride.'
+
+It's a pity that you don't understand Queen's English. I don't know
+exactly that I do myself, because you see my head's a little queer. When
+I want to think I have to pull my brains round from the back of my head,
+so to speak. And that's very painful,"--a pause,--"painful for you, dear
+love, but total extinction for me. I must go away for your honour's
+sake, don't you see, out into the lonely world. But it really can make
+no possible difference. _Ich hab' Dich geliebt und liebe Dich noch._
+
+    "'I loved thee once, I love thee still,
+        And, fell this world asunder,
+      My love's eternal flame would rise
+        'Midst chaos, crash, and thunder.'
+
+'Chaos, crash, and thunder!' Cuthbert, you fool, why didn't you trust me
+from the very beginning?"
+
+"Trust you about what, old friend?"
+
+Murkard lay back on the pillows again with a sigh.
+
+"You'll excuse me, sir, but I don't think I have the pleasure of your
+acquaintance.... My lord, I grant you circumstances are against me, but
+I give you my word----Bah, what's my word worth? I tell you I am not a
+thief. Guilty, or not guilty? If I plead not guilty it must all come
+out, and her reputation will be gone forever." He sat up in bed and
+called with a loud voice: "Guilty, my lord!"
+
+From across the road, in the dead silence that followed, Ellison could
+hear Merton singing. The song he had chosen was, "Come, live with me and
+be my love." Evidently Murkard was listening too.
+
+"That voice!" he said slowly. "Now, where the devil have I heard that
+voice?"
+
+"Lie down, old chap, and try and get some sleep. That'll do you more
+good than any singing."
+
+Like a little child Murkard did as he was ordered, and in five minutes
+was fast asleep again. Ellison made everything safe in the hut, and
+then went quietly back to his own house. Merton had stopped singing, and
+was now holding a skein of wool for Esther to wind. There was a look on
+her face that Ellison could not quite understand. It troubled him, and
+yet he could not exactly tell why.
+
+"Thanks for your music, Merton," he said, as he seated himself in a
+chair; "I could hear it across the way."
+
+"How is your patient to-night?"
+
+"Asleep now, but he's been very restless."
+
+Merton removed one of his hands to disentangle the wool.
+
+"I suppose you will get rid of the man when he's well enough to go? In
+my opinion it's hardly safe for Mrs. Ellison to have such a fellow about
+the place."
+
+Ellison frowned. It was a curious speech for a stranger to make. But
+then, of course, the other was unaware of the position in which the two
+men stood to each other. He was about to reply in sharp terms, in spite
+of the look of fear in Esther's face, when Merton broke in again:
+
+"Forgive me. I know it's like my impertinence to intrude on your
+affairs. I was only thinking of Mrs. Ellison's safety."
+
+"You may be sure I will take good care of that. I can quite understand
+your feelings, but you see the trouble is that you don't know all about
+us. There is a tie between that man and myself that nothing can ever
+loose."
+
+"I beg your pardon, then, for speaking about it at all."
+
+Esther had risen, and now said "Good-night." She did not look at Merton,
+merely gave him her hand and then passed from the room. A few moments
+later Merton wished his host good-night and in his turn departed.
+Ellison lit his pipe at the lamp, and went into the veranda, preparatory
+to crossing to the hut, where he had been sleeping of late. Esther was
+waiting there to say good-night to him. She was leaning against the
+veranda rails gazing down on the star-lit sea. Ellison stationed himself
+beside her.
+
+"I thought you had gone to bed, dearie."
+
+"I intended to go, but the house is so hot. I thought I would come out
+and get cool first."
+
+"I'm afraid you're not very well to-night, little woman?"
+
+"What makes you think that? Yes, I am quite well, thank you. A little
+tired, perhaps, but quite well."
+
+He passed his arm round her waist. She started as if with surprise.
+
+"Why, what's the matter?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"I did not know what it was," she answered. "You frightened me."
+
+"That makes me certain you're not very well. I must have the doctor over
+to see you to-morrow morning, if you don't feel better."
+
+"I shall be all right in the morning. I think I am over-tired to-night."
+
+"Perhaps Merton's music has given you a headache. I think he thumps a
+little hard for my taste."
+
+This was scarcely the truth. He had never really thought so, but he
+wanted to find some reason for her downcast demeanour. She did not
+answer. Then suddenly, and without any apparent reason, she turned to
+him, and throwing her arms round his neck, sobbed upon his shoulder as
+if her heart were breaking.
+
+"Why, Esther, my darling," he cried, this time in real alarm, "what on
+earth does this all mean? You frighten me, dearest. Try and tell me what
+is the matter with you." He led her to a chair, placed her in it, and
+seated himself beside her. "Come, try and tell me what it is, and let me
+help you. You frighten me dreadfully."
+
+"It is nothing, nothing, nothing; Oh, Cuthbert, my husband, bear with me
+to-night. Don't be angry with me, I beseech you. You don't know how the
+memory of this night will always remain with me."
+
+"You are very mysterious to-night. I can't think what you mean."
+
+"Don't ask to be told. Indeed, I could not tell you. I don't know
+myself. I only know that I am more miserable to-night than I have ever
+been in my life before."
+
+"And you can't tell me why? Esther, that puts us such a long way apart.
+I thought we were to be everything to each other, in sorrow as well as
+happiness!"
+
+"It is ungenerous of you to taunt me with that now, just because I will
+not gratify your curiosity."
+
+She rose with an offended air, and made as if she would go to her room.
+He caught her by the wrist and held her. She turned on him almost
+fiercely!
+
+"You are hurting me! Let me go!"
+
+"Esther, you are very cruel to me to-night. Do you know that?"
+
+"Have you been so kind that you can bring that accusation against me?
+But there, I won't quarrel with you, even though you seem to want to
+make me."
+
+"I want to make you quarrel with me, Esther? You know that is not true.
+You wrong me, on my soul, you do!"
+
+She began to cry again, and fell back into the chair.
+
+"I know I do, I know I do! I cannot do anything right to-night. I can't
+even think, my brain seems asleep. Oh, forgive me, forgive me!"
+
+He smoothed back her hair and kissed her on the forehead.
+
+"There is nothing to forgive, darling. It was altogether my fault. I
+wanted to sympathise with you, and I did it in my usual clumsy fashion.
+It is you who must forgive me."
+
+She still hung her head. Suddenly she raised it and looked him in the
+face.
+
+"Some day you will hate and despise me, I know. You will curse my name.
+But before God to-night I swear that--that--that----No, I can't say it.
+It must go through eternity unsaid, one little word unspoken."
+
+"Dear girl, do you know what you are saying? Don't you think you had
+better go to bed?"
+
+Without another word she rose and went down the veranda to her room. He
+sat like a man dazed, turning and twisting her behaviour this way and
+that in an endeavour to pierce the cloud that seemed to be settling on
+him. What did she mean by her last speech? What was to be the upshot of
+all these vague allusions? What was it she had intended to say, and then
+thought better of? He racked his brains for a solution of the problem,
+but without success. He could hit on nothing feasible. In a state of
+perfect bewilderment he went across to the hut and spent a miserable
+night, only to find at breakfast next morning that she had quite
+recovered and was her old self once more.
+
+After that night Murkard might be considered convalescent. Like a shadow
+of the man he used to be, he managed to creep out into the sunshine of
+the beach, to sit there for hours every day. The bout had been a severe
+one, and it would be some time before he could be himself again. All
+this time Ellison allowed no word of reproach to fall from his lips, nor
+did Murkard offer any apology. But there was a wistfulness in his eyes
+when they lighted on the other that told a tale of gratitude and of
+devotion that was plainer than anything words could have uttered. On the
+third morning of his convalescence he was sitting in his usual spot just
+below the headland, looking across the blue straits dotted here and
+there with the sails of luggers, and at the white roofs of the township,
+when he heard steps approaching. The pedestrian, whoever he might be,
+was evidently in merry pin, for he was whistling a gay _chanson_, and
+seemed to be in the best conceit, not only with himself, but with all
+the world. Turning the corner, he came directly upon Murkard, who looked
+up full and fair into his face. It was Merton. If the latter seemed
+surprised, the effect upon Murkard was doubly so. His eyes almost
+started from his head, his mouth opened, and his jaw dropped, his colour
+became ashen in its pallor.
+
+"You--you here!" he cried. "Oh, my God! Is this a horrible dream? I
+thought you were dead long since."
+
+The other was also a little pale, but he managed to laugh with a
+pretence of merriment.
+
+"My dear boy, this is the most delightful surprise I have ever
+experienced. I hope you're not sorry to see me. May I sit down? Well,
+what a funny thing this is, to be sure. To think that we should meet
+like this, and here of all places in the world. You've been seriously
+ill, I'm sorry to hear."
+
+"How long have you been in this place?"
+
+"Nearly a fortnight now. I've seen you a good many times, but you never
+knew me!"
+
+"I wish I could say that I don't know you now. And what devil's business
+are you up to here?"
+
+"Amusing myself, as usual. Studying men and manners. Your friends here
+are very entertaining, the woman particularly so."
+
+"Do they know who you are?"
+
+"George Merton of Brankforth Manor, near Exeter, County Devon, at your
+service."
+
+He threw himself down on the sands with another merry laugh.
+
+"It's extraordinary, isn't it? our meeting like this. I've often laughed
+over it. And so your name's Murkard? Silas too, if I'm not mistaken.
+What a rum beggar you are, to be sure. Do you still take life as
+seriously as you used to in the old days?"
+
+"You're evidently as cold-blooded a devil as when I last found you out."
+
+"Found me out? My dear fellow, aren't you rather confusing things?
+Wasn't it the other way round? But seriously, Bur----"
+
+"Silence! My name is Murkard."
+
+"What did I say? Oh, I forgot; pray forgive me. It shan't occur again.
+Seriously, Murkard, I want you to believe that I have never ceased to
+regret that terrible business. You must remember you put me in such a
+position that, though it cut me to the heart to do it, I had no option
+but to expose you."
+
+"If you had told all you knew you might have saved me. As it was, I had
+to take the course I did. I could not help myself."
+
+"'Pon my honour, I knew nothing more. The stones were lost. I happened
+to stumble quite by accident on the baggage and found them there. The
+baggage was yours--what could I do?"
+
+"Very well. I have at least paid the penalty; we need not discuss the
+subject further. But one thing must be settled now and forever. What are
+you going to do?"
+
+"When? Now, do you mean? Well, I think I shall stay here for a month or
+so longer; and then--well, then I don't quite know what I shall do."
+
+"You will leave here at once--in an hour's time."
+
+"My dear fellow, impossible. Not to be thought of, I assure you."
+
+"Either you or I must go. We cannot both remain."
+
+"Still taking life seriously, I see. Well, I fear in that case it will
+have to be you. I'm sorry, but it can't be helped. I have reasons for
+staying on. A holiday will do you no harm."
+
+"Supposing I tell Ellison all I know of you."
+
+"He _might_ believe you, but I should think it extremely doubtful. On
+the other hand, what if I tell him all I know about you? Who you are,
+for instance, and what drove you out of England?"
+
+Murkard turned, if possible, even paler than before.
+
+"You could not, surely, blackguard as you are, be villain enough for
+that!"
+
+"My dear fellow, I would do it in an instant if it suited me--and I
+rather think it would. You see, I have a game to play here, and, by
+Jove! come what may, I intend to play it. Your presence is detrimental
+to my interests. I may have to rid myself of you."
+
+"I shall go to Ellison at once, and tell him all."
+
+"You will spike your own guns then, I promise you, and without doing
+yourself a hap'orth of good. Besides, you will in all probability be
+putting me to the unpleasant necessity of--but there, you won't--you
+can't do it."
+
+"Have you let him suspect who I am?"
+
+"Not by one single word or deed. As far as I am concerned, he knows
+nothing."
+
+"On your honour?--but there, I forget; you have no honour."
+
+"What an extraordinary little chap it is, to be sure! Of course I've no
+honour. In this commercial age nobody outside the covers of books has.
+But all the same, I am not in the humour just now to be trifled with. As
+I say, he knows nothing, and he _shall_ know nothing if you do as I
+wish. Why not go away for a holiday? you need a change. Come back in a
+month; I shall be gone then. There's a compact for you. Give me a clear
+field for a month, and I'll give you my promise not to reveal the fact
+that I know anything of your past. Will you agree?"
+
+"I must think it over. But what devilry are you up to here? I must know
+that before I decide. Do you think I'm going to leave him to your mercy?
+If you do, you're mistaken."
+
+"I am up to no devilry, as you term it. I've got a speculation on hand,
+and I must watch it. I see a chance of doing a big stroke of business in
+the pearl market, that was what brought me out here; if you don't
+interfere I shall make my fortune; if you do I shall take steps to rid
+myself of you, as I have said. Can't you see you haven't a card in your
+hand worth playing. If you're a sensible man you'll adopt my suggestion
+and go away for a day or two, regain your health, then come back, take
+up your old life again, and everything will go on as before. It's not a
+very difficult course to steer, surely?"
+
+"If I could only be certain that you are speaking the truth."
+
+"I can't give you my word, because as I am a man without honour you
+wouldn't accept it as evidence. But if you want proof as to my
+business--see here."
+
+He took from his pocket a number of letters. Selecting one that bore an
+English postage stamp, he tossed it across to Murkard. It was from a
+well-known firm of London pearl merchants, and notified the fact, to
+whom it might concern, that the bearer, Mr. Merton, was authorised to
+conduct certain negotiations on their behalf.
+
+"Well," said Murkard, when he had perused the document, "this looks
+genuine enough. But I don't see that it makes your position here any
+plainer."
+
+"You surely don't expect me to enter into particulars, do you? At any
+rate, that's my offer, and consider it well, for it's the last I'll
+make. If you don't decide to-night, I must tell your employer everything
+I know about you to-morrow morning. Make no mistake about that."
+
+"I will give you my decision by sundown."
+
+"Very good. In the meantime, let me offer you a cigarette. No? Don't you
+smoke? A pity! Well, I have the honour to wish you a very good-day."
+
+He raised his hat with ironical politeness, and resumed his walk along
+the beach, humming as before.
+
+Murkard lay where he was, trying to pull his thoughts together. This was
+the last straw. He saw all the plans he had formed, all the honourable
+future he had built up for himself, shattered at one blow. His past had
+risen and struck him in the face. What was to be done now? Could he
+trust this man whom he had always known to be unfaithful? He had no
+option--no option at all. He _must_ go away, or Ellison would discover
+everything, and then all would be irretrievably lost.
+
+And so the afternoon wore on. The sun sank lower and lower, until he
+disappeared entirely beneath the horizon. As he sank from view, Murkard
+made up his mind and rose to his feet. Merton was coming back along the
+beach. He signalled to him, and they passed together into the shelter of
+the trees that ran down to the shore. Once there, Murkard turned on him.
+
+"I have been thinking over what you said to me just now."
+
+The other bowed and smiled.
+
+"And with what result?"
+
+"I don't quite know. First and foremost I want you to tell me, in the
+event of my declining to leave the island, what you will tell my friend
+about me?"
+
+"Shall I really tell you? You mean it? Very well, then, I will. I'm not
+going to let you know how I became aware of things--you must guess that
+for yourself."
+
+"Not so many words. Answer my question."
+
+"In the first place, answer me this: Who is your friend? He calls
+himself Cuthbert Ellison, but who is he?"
+
+Murkard looked away. This was what he had dreaded.
+
+"How should I know?"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you at least who he is _not_. He is _not_ the Marquis
+of St. Burden. When he told his wife that he _was_ he lied to her, as he
+has lied before, and as he will probably lie again."
+
+"How do you know that he told his wife he was? At least, she has not
+told you."
+
+"Very probably not. But still I know. Perhaps I learned it from you in
+your delirium."
+
+Murkard groaned. The man's possession of this secret was the very thing
+he had feared.
+
+"Now, supposing in addition to telling Ellison who _you_ are, I tell her
+who he is not--what would you say?"
+
+"I should say you were the most inhuman wretch that ever trod God's
+earth, and it would be the truth. Don't you know--haven't you seen that
+that woman worships the very ground he treads on, that she believes
+every word that falls from his lips? Would you shatter her happiness and
+trust forever, at one blow, and only to gratify your own miserable
+ends?"
+
+"Yes, do you know, now I think of it, I even believe I should. But you
+seem to forget that it would be you who had driven me to it. If you go
+away it will be to my interest not to tell her. I wish to remain on good
+terms with both of them until my business here is accomplished. Will you
+go?"
+
+"Yes; I will go."
+
+"When?"
+
+"To-night. At once. You need have no fear."
+
+"I have none, I assure you. I thought just now you were going to make a
+fool of yourself. I'm glad you can see reason. And look here, my----Oh,
+very well, if you would rather not, I won't say it. I shall be at home
+in three months. If I chance upon any members of your family, shall I
+tell them where they can find you?"
+
+"You need not trouble yourself. They know."
+
+"Very good. Then our business is accomplished. Now let us part."
+
+"Go on. I will follow you. I decline to be seen in your company."
+
+"My dear boy, that is rude, for you will not have another opportunity."
+
+Without going back to his hut, Murkard walked down to the beach, and
+asked one of the Kanakas he found there to row him across to the
+settlement. The man did so, and on his return to the station reported
+the fact to Ellison, who marvelled, but said nothing. He was expecting
+that night an important visitor in the shape of a globe-trotting pearl
+dealer, to whom he had written regarding the black pearl, and he had,
+therefore, small concern for Murkard's doings. The mail boat had arrived
+that afternoon, and as she was to go on the same night, their
+appointment was for six o'clock. Even as the fact of Murkard's absence
+was reported to him by the native, the dealer's boat was to be seen
+making its way across the straits. He went down to the beach to receive
+him.
+
+The newcomer was a tall, gray-haired man, with quick, penetrating eyes,
+and a general air of shrewdness that his business capabilities did not
+belie. He greeted Ellison with considerable cordiality, and they walked
+up to the house together. Merton was lying in the hammock in the
+veranda, smoking and reading an ancient English newspaper. He got up as
+the men approached, and Ellison introduced him to the stranger. They
+then entered the house together. After a little refreshment and
+conversation Ellison proposed going down to the store. This they
+accordingly did, leaving Merton to resume his literary studies. He
+looked after them and smiled, then throwing the paper down he went into
+the house, where Esther joined him.
+
+When they were alone in the store, Ellison unlocked the safe, and took
+out the box containing the pearl.
+
+"Your ventures seem to have prospered, Mr. Ellison," said the stranger,
+as he watched him undo the box containing his treasure. "A black pearl
+of the size you describe yours to be is indeed a gem worth having."
+
+"Yes, and it could not have come at a better time," replied Ellison.
+"Things have been very bad here, I can assure you, within the last
+twelve or fourteen months."
+
+The first box undone, he came upon a second; this was full of cotton
+wool, but in the centre of it, carefully wrapped up, was the treasure he
+sought. With obvious care and pride he took it out, and placed it on a
+sheet of white note-paper upon the counter. It lay there full and black,
+staring them in the face, as large a pearl as had ever been found in
+those seas. The dealer was enchanted.
+
+"A wonder--a monster--a marvel!" was all he could say. He took it up,
+and looked at it from every light; put it down again, and stood off to
+test its beauty from another standpoint. Then taking it in his hands, he
+carried it to the door, the better to appraise its value. The light was
+failing inside the building, but Ellison watched him with an eager face.
+So much depended on the sale of this pearl. Suddenly the dealer coughed
+in a peculiar manner, took off, dusted, and put on his glasses again.
+His mouth went down at one corner, and he scratched his right cheek with
+the forefinger of his right hand. Still Ellison watched him. He was
+growing anxious. Was there a flaw in it that he had failed to notice?
+Finally the stranger walked back to the counter, and put the pearl in
+its box.
+
+"Well?" said Ellison at last, unable to contain himself any longer,
+"what do you think is its value?"
+
+The stranger paused before replying. Then he spoke; his tone made
+Ellison stare harder than before.
+
+"As a jewel or as a curiosity?"
+
+"As a jewel, of course."
+
+"Nothing; absolutely nothing! As a curiosity, possibly half a crown. Mr.
+Ellison, you will, I hope, forgive a little natural irritation on my
+part, but I cannot help feeling sorry that one of our most trusted
+customers should play us such a trick."
+
+"What do you mean? Good God, man! what are you insinuating?"
+
+"I am not insinuating anything. If you wish me to state my meaning in a
+clearer way, I can only say that I marvel at your impudence in trying to
+palm off an imitation on us--a good imitation, I'll grant you, for it
+deceived me for a moment, but nevertheless an imitation."
+
+Ellison fell back against the counter ashen to the lips. "An imitation!"
+he, cried. "You tell me that that pearl is an imitation? Why I opened
+the oyster with my own hands!"
+
+The dealer smiled incredulously.
+
+"I'm afraid I must be getting back to the settlement. My boat sails
+to-night, you know."
+
+"D---- your boat! Oh, my gracious! can it be possible that you are
+right?"
+
+His breath came from him in great jerks, the veins on his temples stood
+out like whipcord. The dealer glanced at him curiously. His did not look
+like the face of a guilty man.
+
+"Mr. Ellison, either you have attempted to deceive us or you have been
+the victim of a heartless swindle. I cannot say which, but by the look
+of your face I incline to the latter belief. That pearl--at least that
+imitation--is remarkably clever. If the gem you found was anything like
+it in size, shape, and colour, I would willingly have given you a very
+large sum for it. As it is, that is worthless. But I must really be
+going now."
+
+Ellison was too stunned to reply. The dealer walked back to his boat
+alone. He did not quite know what to make of it.
+
+"At any rate," he said to himself, "if he's the guilty party he won't
+try that game on us again."
+
+Meanwhile, Ellison sat in the store too dazed and sick to be conscious
+of anything but his loss. He had been grossly and cruelly swindled by
+somebody. He had yet to find out who that somebody was. As it was, he
+was now unable to pay off that loan, that guilt had come back upon his
+soul to roost. And every day the time was coming closer. He was----But
+there, he could not think of it now. He must try and pull himself
+together, or his reason would go as well. He had no thought of time, no
+thought of anything but his loss. He began to pace the hut with feverish
+impatience. What should he do first? To whom should he turn for advice
+and help? Why had Murkard not been there to assist him? As he thought
+this, he heard steps on the path outside. It was Merton. As usual, he
+was in the best of spirits.
+
+"My dear old fellow, are you in here in the dark? Mrs. Ellison and I
+have been wondering what on earth had become of you. Dinner has been on
+the table this half hour. Where's your mysterious friend? Wouldn't he
+like to come to my room to wash his hands?"
+
+"He's gone, Merton. And I'm in awful trouble."
+
+"I'm sorry to hear it. I began to fancy something was up when you didn't
+make your appearance. Here, let's have a light on the scene."
+
+He struck a match and lit the office lamp. Having done so, he looked at
+Ellison. His surprise found vent in a little cry.
+
+"My dear chap, you do looked hipped indeed. Hold on a second."
+
+He fled the scene, to return two minutes later with the whiskey bottle
+and a glass. Having given him a strong dose of the spirit, he said:
+
+"Sit yourself down and try and tell me all about it. Who knows but what
+I may be in a position to help you?"
+
+Thereupon Ellison told him everything.
+
+"By Jove!" was the rejoinder, "I don't like the look of things at all.
+It's a bad business--a very bad business. Somebody has evidently found
+out about the pearl, got a duplicate made, and palmed it off on you. Is
+it possible to have one made here, d'you think?"
+
+"Nothing easier. Any of the Cinghalese over the way could make one."
+
+"Then he must have got one there, taken the real one, and substituted
+this in place of it. Now whom have you told about it? Think well."
+
+"Nobody--bar Murkard, and of course he does not count. Why, I have never
+even told you."
+
+"I'm precious glad you haven't, or you might have fancied I had
+purloined it. Well, we must dismiss Murkard from our minds; he is like
+Caesar's wife, above suspicion. Now who had admittance to that safe? Any
+duplicate keys?"
+
+"Only one."
+
+"And who has that?"
+
+"Murkard. It is necessary that he should have one, as I am so often
+away."
+
+"Humph! This is certainly a tangled skein. Has anyone been away from the
+island within the last few days?"
+
+"Not a soul."
+
+"Well, we must roust out Murkard, and see if he can help us."
+
+"He's not here."
+
+"Not here--what d'ye mean? I saw him here this afternoon."
+
+"He went across to the township at sundown, just before the dealer
+came."
+
+Merton whistled.
+
+"Look here, Ellison, you believe, though I've only known you a short
+time, that I'm a firm friend of yours, don't you?"
+
+"Of course I do. You need not ask that."
+
+"Well, I'm going to hit you pretty hard on a soft spot. You'll hate me
+for it, but as things are now I can't help that. This is not a time for
+half measures."
+
+"What are you driving at?"
+
+"Hold on, and you'll see. How long have you known Murkard?"
+
+"No, no! it won't do, Merton. That dog won't fight. You needn't bring
+Murkard into the business at all. He knows nothing of it, I'll stake my
+life."
+
+"Don't be foolish. I only ask you how long you've known him?"
+
+"About three years."
+
+"What was he when you knew him first?"
+
+"Well, to tell the truth, he was in very much the same condition as
+myself."
+
+"A dead-beat--beach-comber?"
+
+"Well, if you put it like that--yes!"
+
+"You know nothing of his history?"
+
+"Nothing. He's not the sort of man to talk of his past."
+
+"I believe you. Well, look here, Ellison, I'm going to tell you his
+past."
+
+"How do you know it?"
+
+"Never mind, it is enough that I do know it."
+
+"Well, I don't want to hear it. You'll never make me think him guilty,
+so don't waste your breath trying."
+
+"Perhaps not, but you _must_ know his career. You owe it to yourself,
+and, pardon my saying so, you owe it to your wife to hear it."
+
+"We'll leave my wife out of the question, thank you."
+
+"Very good. That is of course your own affair. I will be as brief as I
+can. You must put two and two together yourself. In the first place,
+Murkard is not his name--what it is, does not matter. I'm an old friend
+of his family, so I dare not tell you. He started life with everything
+in his favour, consequently his fall was the greater."
+
+"How did he fall?"
+
+"He was deeply in debt. To get out of his difficulties he
+appropriated--I won't use a stronger term--some diamonds belonging to a
+lady in whose house he was staying. She was reluctantly compelled to
+prosecute, and he received a sentence of five years' penal servitude. He
+served his time, and then vanished from England and the ken of all those
+who knew him."
+
+"Is this true, or are you lying to me?"
+
+"Ellison, if you were not a little off your balance, I should resent
+that question. I am a man of honour, and I don't tell lies."
+
+"I beg your pardon. I am not myself by a great deal to-night. Forgive
+me. Poor Murkard!"
+
+"Poor devil! Yes, you may well say that. But don't you see, Ellison, if
+that happened once it might happen again. What is the evidence? You
+would not cheat yourself out of a valuable pearl, would you? What else
+could get at the safe? Only Murkard. He has been ill--delirious. Perhaps
+the value of the thing preyed upon his mind, and he may have taken it
+out of the safe while off his head. That is the charitable conclusion to
+come to. At any rate, his disappearance to-day is a point against him,
+you must admit that. If I were you I would certainly not believe him
+guilty till I had proved it, but just as certainly I should try to find
+him and see if he knows anything about it. D'you know, I rather think
+you owe as much, in common fairness, to him. If he denies any knowledge
+of the affair--well, in that case you must decide for yourself whether
+you know him well enough to believe him. Don't you think I'm right?"
+
+"I do. Honestly, I do."
+
+"Very well then. Pack your traps, pull yourself together, and go across
+and see if you can find him. You'll know the truth the sooner--or,
+perhaps, what would be better, let me go."
+
+"No, no! that's not to be thought of. I'll go at once. But may I be
+forgiven for entertaining a doubt of him."
+
+He picked up his hat, which had fallen from his head in his excitement,
+and went out of the store and down the hill towards the boats. Springing
+into one he shoved off and set to work to pull himself across to the
+settlement. It was quite dark, but the lights from the houses guided
+him, and before he had made up his mind where first to look for Murkard
+he was alongside the jetty. His thoughts flew back across the year to
+the night when he had waited there at those self-same steps for Esther.
+How his life had changed since then!
+
+Tying up the boat, he set off for the Hotel of All Nations, expecting to
+find Murkard there. But he had left the place, and it was said had gone
+along the beach in the direction of the Pearlers' Rest. He followed and
+inquired in the bar, but again without success. He had not been seen
+there. From that hostelry he passed on to another and yet another, but
+with no greater result. Murkard was not to be found. At last, on the
+sea-front again, he chanced upon a pearler who had met him heading round
+the hill-side. This was a clue, and throwing new energy into his walk he
+set off after him. It was the same road they had followed together the
+evening of the famous fight, and it looked as if he should find Murkard
+at the self-same spot where they had camped that night. Nor was he
+disappointed. As he turned the bend of the hill he caught sight of a
+figure outlined against the starlight. There was no mistaking that
+angular back. He pushed on the faster, calling "Murkard!" As he came
+towards it, the figure turned and said:
+
+"What do you want with me?"
+
+"My dear old fellow, what a chase you have given me. What is the matter
+with you? What on earth made you leave us as you did? I can tell you I
+have been quite anxious about you."
+
+Murkard came towards him and placed his hand upon his shoulder.
+
+"That is not the reason you are here, Ellison. You cannot deceive me.
+There is something behind it all. What is the matter? Nothing wrong with
+your wife?"
+
+He spoke with feverish eagerness.
+
+"No, there is nothing the matter with my wife. But, my gracious,
+something else is terribly wrong!"
+
+Murkard clutched him by the arm and looked into his face.
+
+"Well--well--why don't you go on? Why don't you tell me all?"
+
+"Because I can't, old friend, I can't. I despise myself enough as it is
+for having listened to such a thing."
+
+"I can see something pretty bad has happened, and Merton has suggested
+to you that I am the guilty party. Good! Now tell me with what I am
+charged? Don't be afraid. I shall not think the worse of you."
+
+"The Black Pearl!"
+
+"Gone? Yes, gone! I can read it in your face. The thief, oh, the
+infernal, lying, traitorous thief! I see it all now. Oh, Ellison! you
+have been trapped--cruelly, heartlessly trapped! But, please God, it is
+not too late to set it right, whatever the cost may be."
+
+"How? Speak out. What do you mean? What fresh villainy am I to discover
+now?"
+
+"Listen to me. Has that man told you my history?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who I really am?"
+
+"No. But he told me that you were convicted of a theft in England, and
+received five years' penal servitude. Forgive me, Murkard, for listening
+to him--but I could not help it."
+
+"You were right to listen, and he told the truth. I was convicted, and I
+served the sentence, but now you shall know everything. I ought to have
+warned you months ago, but I thought you would never find it out. For
+pity's sake, don't think too harshly of me--but--but--well, I am the man
+you pretended to be. I--am--the--Marquis of St. Burdan!"
+
+Ellison did not speak, but he made a noise as if he were choking.
+Murkard again put his hand on his shoulder.
+
+"You were a true friend to me. I heard you tell the lie, and I saw how
+the woman who is now your wife worshipped and trusted you. I knew it
+would kill her faith in you if she found you out, so I resolved not to
+betray myself or you. When you wanted money I forgot the pride that had
+made me swear never to take anything from my family's hands again, and
+cabled through the Government Resident for assistance. Why I made you
+take that step I cannot tell you--you must only guess, at any rate! That
+money I placed to your credit in the bank, and day by day, knowing your
+secret, I have watched and loved you for your repentance and for the
+brave way you slaved to repay it. Then this man came and somehow learned
+your secret. He ordered me to leave the station, or he would tell your
+wife that you had--had lied to her, and were not the man she believed
+you to be. To-night, for your sake, I came away, and walked here to
+think out what course I should pursue. Enlightenment has come. I see
+everything now. While I was ill that man, who must have found out about
+the pearl, stole my key, unlocked the safe, had a counterfeit made, and
+intends to bolt with the real one. Are you aware that he has been making
+love to your wife?"
+
+"I know that now. While you have been speaking I, too, have had my eyes
+opened. It is not necessary to say I believe what you have told me,
+Murkard; but from the bottom of my heart I thank you. I will go back now
+and deal with him."
+
+"You forgive me, Cuthbert?"
+
+"Forgive you? No, no! It must be the other way about, it is for you to
+forgive me!"
+
+"Freely, freely, if I have anything to forgive. Now what do you intend
+to do?"
+
+"Go home and turn him off the place. That's what I shall do."
+
+"No! You must do nothing of the kind. Somebody must watch him, and I
+will do it. Possibly we may find out what he has done with the pearl.
+Then we shall catch him in his own toils, and I shall be even with him
+for his treachery to me."
+
+"What did he once do to you?"
+
+"I cannot tell you the real shame, but it was on his evidence that I was
+condemned. He was staying in the house at the time."
+
+"Murkard, I could give my oath you were not guilty."
+
+"And you would be right. I was not. But I had to plead guilty all the
+same to save what a worthless woman miscalled her honour. That man knew
+my secret, and traded on it to my ruin."
+
+"Come, let us get back to the station. I cannot breathe freely until I
+have rid myself of him."
+
+"When we get there--you must not let my presence be known. I shall hide
+and watch him."
+
+"I agree. Let us be going."
+
+They went back round the hill and by a circuitous track to the jetty. In
+less than a quarter of an hour they were back at the station and walking
+up the path towards the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+BATTLE AND MURDER.
+
+
+A warm flood of lamplight streamed from the sitting room window out on
+the path as Ellison approached the house. He could make out Merton's
+voice inside raised in argument, and at intervals his wife's replying in
+tones that were as unnatural to her as they were terrible to him to
+hear. He drew into the shadow of the veranda and watched and listened.
+Esther was seated on the sofa near the fireplace, Merton was kneeling by
+her side holding her hand. She had turned her head away from him, but as
+it was in the direction of the place where her husband lay concealed, he
+could see that big tears were coursing down her cheeks. He ground his
+teeth with rage as he noticed the look upon Merton's face. For the first
+time he saw the man's real nature written in plain and unmistakable
+characters.
+
+"Esther, you cannot mean it. You cannot be so cruel to me as to persist
+in your refusal. Think what you are to me, and think what you may be in
+the days before us. True, I have only known you a little while, but in
+that little while I have learned to love you as no other man could ever
+do. Body and soul I am yours, and you are mine. You love me--I know
+it--I am certain of it. Then you will not draw back now?"
+
+She tried to rise but he held her down.
+
+"Mr. Merton, I have told you before, and I tell you again, that I
+cannot, and will not listen to you. If you love me as you say, and I
+pray with my whole miserable heart that it may not be true, you will not
+drive me to desperation. Think of what you would make of my life, think
+of the awful wrong you would do to your friend, my husband."
+
+"Your husband was only my friend before I learned to love you. Now he is
+my bitterest foe. No man can be a friend of mine who loves you. I must
+have your love, and I alone. Oh, Esther, remember what I said to you
+last night. You were not so cold and hard to me then!"
+
+"I was the wickedest and weakest woman on earth to let you say it. You
+have a stronger will than I have, and you made me do it. It may make you
+understand something of how I feel towards you when I tell you that I
+have not ceased for a single instant to hate and upbraid myself for
+listening to it. Do you know, Mr. Merton, what you have done? Do you
+know that by listening to you for that one moment, I can never look my
+husband or child truthfully in the face again? And my husband trusted me
+so! Oh, God, have mercy upon me!"
+
+"You say you cannot look your husband in the face again. No; but you
+shall look one in the face, Esther, who loves you ten thousand times
+more than your husband is even capable of loving you; one who worships
+the very ground you walk on, whose only wish is to be your humble
+servant to the death. Come, Esther, there is time yet, the mail-boat
+does not sail till midnight. You can pack a few things together, I know,
+in a minute or two. Do that, and let us escape to the township before
+your husband returns. By morning we shall be on board the steamer, and
+hundreds of miles away. We will leave her in Batavia. They will never
+trace us. You can surely have no fear of the future when you know that I
+will give you such love as man never gave to woman yet! Isn't it worth
+it, Esther?"
+
+He passed one arm round her waist, and tried to draw her towards him.
+Again she attempted to rise, and again he forced her to retain her seat.
+
+"Let me go, Mr. Merton, let me go! How dare you hold me like this? Let
+me go!"
+
+"Not until you have promised, Esther. Quickly make up your mind; there
+is not a moment to lose. Come, I can see it written in your face that
+you will not disappoint me."
+
+"I refuse!--I refuse!--I refuse! Let me go, sir, you have done me wrong
+enough already! Do you call yourself a man, that you can treat a
+wretched woman so? Take your arm from round my waist before I strike
+you. Oh, you cur! you dastard! you coward! Isn't it enough for you that
+you should cut me off from a man whose shoes you are not worthy to
+unlace? Isn't it enough that you should drive me from my happy home?
+Isn't it enough that you should make me an unworthy mother to my child?
+Must you kill my soul as well as my heart? Let me go, I say, let me go!
+or, as I live, I'll strike you!"
+
+"Hush, hush, Esther! for mercy's sake, be calm. Do you want to rouse the
+whole station?"
+
+"I don't care what I do; I am desperate--I am mad with shame and
+loathing of you!"
+
+"And you will go back to this lying traitor of a husband, I suppose,
+this great man, who won you by a lie, who has only deceived you as he
+has deceived others, a common fraud and trickster--you will go back to
+him, I suppose, and fawn on him, and tell him that you love him, when I
+have----"
+
+With her right hand she struck him a blow upon the mouth.
+
+"There, that is my answer to you; now go before I call for help and have
+you thrashed off the island!"
+
+He sprang to his feet, his face black with rage. Ellison rose too, and
+approached the French window which led into the room. Merton's voice
+quivered with passion.
+
+"You have struck me--good; you have fooled me--better! Now you shall
+understand me properly; I will have such vengeance for that blow, for
+that fooling, as never man had before. You little know my power, my
+lady; but I tell you this, that I will crush you to the earth, and that
+worm, your husband, with you, till you groan for mercy. In the
+meantime----"
+
+He stopped and looked up to discover Ellison standing in the doorway.
+
+"In the meantime," said Ellison, advancing into the room, "as there is a
+God above me, I intend to kill you."
+
+Esther stood paralysed with fear, unable to move hand or foot, unable
+even to speak. Once she tried to find her voice, but the words she
+strove to utter died away unspoken in her throat. Merton glared from one
+to the other like a wild beast.
+
+"It may interest you to know, Mr. Merton, that I have overheard all your
+conversation. Out in this part of the world, so far removed, as you were
+good enough to observe the other day, from the cramping influences of
+older civilisation, when we find centipedes in our houses we crush them
+under heel to prevent them doing mischief. You are more treacherous even
+than a centipede, and I intend to kill you without delay."
+
+As he spoke, he took off his coat and threw it from him. Merton watched,
+and his eyes betrayed his fear. Esther took a step forward, and then
+stood still. Her eyes were open, but they did not seem to see. Ellison
+moved towards his foe.
+
+"This would probably be the best place. My wife can see fair play."
+
+Suddenly Esther found her voice and her power of movement. With a scream
+she threw herself upon her husband, and clung to him with all the
+strength of despair.
+
+"Cuthbert--Cuthbert! for God's sake, forbear! Let him go, I implore you!
+He is not worthy to be touched by your little finger."
+
+"Let me go, woman, let me go! How dare you stop me!"
+
+"I dare anything now! I will not let you go until you have sworn not to
+raise your hand against that man." Then, facing round on the other, she
+cried: "As for you, fly while you are safe, and may the curse of an
+unhappy woman follow you to your grave!"
+
+Merton did not need telling twice. With one bound he reached the
+veranda, and in another second he was outside the house, and flying
+towards the beach at the top of his speed. Ellison looked on like one in
+a dream; he did not seem to know what to do. Then slowly he felt
+Esther's arms untwining; her head fell forward on his shoulder. She had
+fainted. Springing to the door, he called to Mrs. Fenwick, who came
+running out.
+
+"Your mistress is not well. Attend to her."
+
+Then placing her on the sofa, he too left the house, and ran swiftly
+towards the beach. As he approached the jetty he saw a man pushing a
+boat into the water. At first he thought it was the man he wanted, but
+on nearer approach he saw that it was Murkard, who pointed out to sea.
+
+"There he goes, the cowardly cur, rowing for his life."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"Hasten after him. You may be sure I shall not let him out of my sight
+until I know where he has hidden that pearl. Listen to me. He has not
+been off the island for a week; he has not had time to take anything
+with him now. Either he has it about him, or it is still here; in that
+case when all is quiet he'll come back for it. We must watch and wait;
+I'll follow him, you guard the station."
+
+"I cannot; I must go after him. You don't know what a wrong that villain
+has done me. I must have vengeance!"
+
+"No, no; you must not go after him with that look in your face. Stay
+here, I will do the rest. I feel convinced he will come back." As he
+spoke, he ran the boat into the water and leaped into it. "Give me your
+word you will not attempt to follow."
+
+"I promise; but I will have vengeance here."
+
+"So do, if you still wish it."
+
+Murkard pulled out, and Ellison went back to the store. Alone there, he
+took down a Winchester repeater from a shelf, cleaned, and loaded it;
+then he went out again, securely locking the door behind him. From the
+store he followed the little path that led through the scrub to the
+headland. It was the same path he had followed on the morning of his
+arrival at the station, the morning that he had first seen Esther.
+Following it along until it opened out on to the little knoll above the
+sands, he seated himself on a fallen tree and scanned the offing. By
+this time, his enemy must have landed on the other side. What would his
+next move be? At any rate, sleuth-hound Murkard was on his trail--that
+at least was one comfort. But why had he not gone himself? Why had he
+let Murkard go? To have followed him himself would have been altogether
+more satisfactory; he might have had his own vengeance then. But surely
+God would be good to him, and let him have it yet.
+
+He looked up at the heavens studded with stars, and then down at the
+smooth water of the straits. Only the ripple of the wavelets on the
+shore and the occasional call of a night-bird in the scrub behind him
+disturbed the stillness; it was a perfect night. For what seemed an
+eternity he sat on, thinking and thinking; but though he tried to think
+coherently, he was too excited to work out his actual situation. There
+was only the one real craving in his brain, and that was for vengeance.
+He wanted the actual grip of his antagonist, to make him suffer bodily
+pain in return for the mental agony he had inflicted. The desire for
+personal vengeance is a whole-souled one, and, like the love of opium,
+when once it takes possession all else has to go.
+
+And so he sat on and on, watching the star-powdered water, and listening
+for any sound that might proclaim the return of his foe. But nothing
+came, only the swish of the waves on the strand, and now and again faint
+music of the ships' bells across the water.
+
+Twelve o'clock struck, and just as the sound died away his eyes caught
+something moving in the water opposite where he sat. What it was he
+could not determine, but he would soon be able to, for it was every
+moment coming closer. At length it came near enough for him to see that
+it was a man swimming. Who could it be? Could it be Merton? To make
+sure, he crawled out on to the edge of the little cliff, and throwing
+himself down upon the ground, leaned over and watched.
+
+Closer and closer the figure came until the swimmer touched bottom. Yes,
+it was Merton! After pausing a moment to regain his breath, he pulled
+himself together and waded ashore. Just as he left the water, Ellison
+caught sight of another figure out at sea. This must be Murkard.
+Fortunately the first man did not see him. He seated himself for a
+while, and then made off and disappeared round the headland towards the
+station, just as the second figure found a footing on the beach. Ellison
+took it all in in a second; as Murkard expected, he had come to recover
+the pearl, believing everybody to be asleep.
+
+Eager to be doing, Ellison watched Murkard leave the water and follow
+the other round the promontory, and then he himself set off through the
+scrub to intercept him on the other side. It was a difficult matter to
+steer through the thick jungle in the dark; but eventually he managed
+it, reaching the huts just as Merton was approaching the store. What was
+he going to do? Could the pearl, after all, be concealed in there?
+Reflecting that if he waited and left him undisturbed he would probably
+find out everything for himself, he paused for a few moments and
+watched. He saw the man look carefully round, to be sure that he was
+unobserved, and then approach the door. A minute later he entered the
+building. At the same instant the other shadow crept up towards the
+door. Seeing this, Ellison picked up his heels and ran towards it too;
+but the night was dark, and in the middle of his career his foot came
+into collision with a discarded cable lying in the grass. He tripped and
+fell, one cartridge of the rifle he carried in his hand going off with a
+murderous report. For half a minute the breath was knocked out of his
+body, and he lay where he had fallen. Then picking himself up, he
+prepared to continue his advance.
+
+But the report had given the alarm, and when he looked again, a strange
+scene was being enacted before him. From where he stood he could see
+the bright light streaming from the store door, and hear a sound of
+voices coming from within. Next moment two men, locked together in
+deadliest embrace, came staggering out into the open. There was no noise
+now, only the two locked bodies twisting and twining, this way and that,
+round and round over the open space before the door. It needed little
+discernment to see that both men were fighting for their lives. Like
+wildcats they clung to each other, each exerting every muscle to bring
+the other down. But, as Ellison half-consciously reflected, what match
+could Murkard hope to be for such a man as Merton? One was a big,
+powerful _man_, the other only a parody of the name. With this thought
+in his mind, he dashed across to them; but he was too late. He saw an
+arm go up, and a knife descend; again it went up in the lamplight, and
+again it descended. Then Murkard's hold gave way, and he fell to the
+ground; next moment his antagonist was speeding towards the beach.
+Ellison took it all in at a glance, and then set off as fast as his legs
+could carry him by another path to intercept his flight. So far, the man
+had not seen him; he would take him by surprise, or perish in the
+attempt.
+
+The path he followed was one that gave him a decided start, and he was
+able to reach the shore and take advantage of the shelter of a bush
+before the other turned the corner of the headland. He heard him coming
+closer and closer, breathing heavily after the struggle he had just
+undergone. Then Ellison stepped out of the shadow and confronted him,
+rifle in hand.
+
+"It's no good, Merton, you haven't a chance. Put up your hands, or I
+fire!"
+
+The other came to a dead halt, and without a second thought did as he
+was ordered. But overcome with astonishment though he was, his habitual
+nonchalance returned to him in an instant.
+
+"You're a little smarter than usual, Mr. Ellison. I didn't bargain for
+this!"
+
+"You'd better not talk. Keep your hands up, or I'll drill you through
+and through. There are eight more cartridges under my finger, and I'll
+shoot without a second thought. Right about face, and walk up the middle
+of the path. Don't attempt any escape, or you're a dead man."
+
+Merton did as he was ordered, and in this fashion they returned to the
+store. As they approached it they could discern a small crowd collected
+round the door. The report of the rifle had brought the hands from their
+huts, and between them they had carried Murkard into the building.
+
+"Straight on, Merton. Keep your hands up, and don't turn to the right
+or left, or stop till I give you permission."
+
+They came up to the store door, and the crowd fell back on either side
+to let them pass.
+
+"My lads," said Ellison, "this is a very bad business, as you can see.
+Two of you catch hold of this man, and take care that he doesn't escape.
+Jimmy Rhotoma, go into the store and bring me a pair of handcuffs you'll
+see hanging on a nail above my desk. Long Pete, you take a boat and pull
+across to the township for the doctor and a policeman. Bring them back
+with you, and be as quick as you can."
+
+The handcuffs were soon forthcoming, and Ellison himself adjusted them
+on Merton's wrists.
+
+"Now, boys, take him into your own hut and watch him there till I call.
+If he wants to talk tell him to hold his jaw. If he tries to bolt, kill
+him with the first thing you find handy. Two of you remain with me."
+
+An angry growl from the men evidenced the reception Merton might expect
+to meet with if he attempted to escape, and he was wise enough to see
+that it would be impossible. When he had been led away Ellison entered
+the store. He found Murkard lying on the floor, his head pillowed on a
+couple of chair-cushions. The pool of blood by his side proclaimed the
+fact that he was seriously wounded. Moreover, he was unconscious.
+Ellison knelt beside him, and having found the wound on his breast,
+endeavoured to staunch the bleeding; but it was a hopeless task. Taking
+the whiskey bottle from the table, where it had remained since Merton
+had brought it down to him that evening, he tried to force some of the
+spirit into his mouth. A moment after he did so Murkard opened his eyes
+and looked about him.
+
+"What has happened?" he asked faintly. Then his memory came back to him.
+"Oh, I remember. He has not escaped, Ellison?"
+
+"Not he. We have him safe enough. But, oh, Murkard, to think that you
+should be wounded like this!"
+
+"I told you what it would be, old man. This is the fulfilment of my
+prophecy. I knew it would come."
+
+He moved his hand and let it fall to his side.
+
+"I'm all wet," he went on, after a long pause. "By Jove! it's blood.
+Then it's hopeless. Well, I don't know that I'm sorry. But there is
+something else we have to do. When I came in he was burrowing behind
+that box there. Look for yourself. Don't bother about me."
+
+He pointed to a box in the corner, and Ellison went towards it, and
+pulled it into the centre of the room.
+
+"What do you see?"
+
+"Nothing at all. Stay, there's a matchbox here."
+
+He stooped and picked it up.
+
+"Open it quickly--quickly!"
+
+Ellison did as he was ordered.
+
+"The pearl--the pearl! Here it is safe and sound!"
+
+"I thought as much. The scoundrel! Now I can die happy. Give me some
+more whiskey."
+
+Ellison thrust the pearl back into the safe, and then gave Murkard
+another drink of the spirit. It put fresh life into him for the moment.
+
+"Ellison," he said, taking his friend's hand, "you've been a true friend
+to me."
+
+"I have not been half as true a friend as you have been to me. My God,
+Murkard, is there nothing I can do for you until the doctor comes? I
+cannot let you die like this!"
+
+"It's hopeless, old man. I can feel it. Let us talk while we have the
+chance. I want to tell you about that money. You see my family sent it
+to me, myself. They don't know you in the matter at all. I deceived you
+there. If you would like to pay it back and start afresh send it to
+them from me. Tell them, too,"--he paused,--"tell them, too,--that I
+died--doing my duty. Do you understand? It will surprise them, but I
+should like them to know it."
+
+"They shall know that you died like a hero, giving your life for mine."
+
+"Don't pile on the agony, old fellow. They'd not believe it; we're by
+nature a sceptical race. I don't want the matter turned to ridicule."
+
+"Is there nothing I can do to make you easier?"
+
+"Nothing, old man, except to give me more liquor. Thank you. I'm getting
+weaker every minute. I wonder what they'll do to that fellow Merton?"
+
+"Hang him if I can do anything to forward it."
+
+"Poor devil! And yet he was only sent into the world for this. Look,
+Ellison, bring him here for a minute--I must speak to him."
+
+"I'll send for him."
+
+Ellison went to the door, and sent one of the hands for Merton. The
+night was almost spent; the stars were paling in the eastern heavens. A
+cold, cheerless wind blew up from the sea.
+
+In less time than it takes to tell Merton entered the hut, carefully
+guarded. He looked at the man lying on the floor, and a
+half-contemptuous smile passed across his face.
+
+"What do you bring me here for?" he asked.
+
+"Murkard wishes to speak to you," said Ellison, and went outside leaving
+the pair together.
+
+Three minutes later Merton emerged again, his face white as the death
+that was swiftly coming to the other. He was saying to himself over and
+over again, as the men led him away:
+
+"God help me! If I had only known in time!"
+
+Ellison went in again. One glance told him the end was very near at
+hand.
+
+"Ellison, it's a rum world, isn't it? Do you know, I touched that fellow
+on his only tender spot, and I know now why he has always been so bitter
+against me. Poor devil, he never knew that----" He let the sentence die
+unfinished. Then he said, as if addressing someone present: "You need
+not have had any fear. I should not have betrayed you, dear. But five
+years is a long time to wait." A pause, during which his wits seemed to
+come back to him. "Would you mind holding my hand, Ellison. I've got
+rather a rocky place to pull through, and, after all, I'm a bit of a
+coward. Somehow I think I'm going to have a little sleep now.
+Remember--we've got--to--get--those--accounts away--by--the
+mail--to-morrow----"
+
+He closed his eyes, and a moment later the other knew that Silas
+Murkard's soul's account had gone to be audited by the Auditor of
+Heaven.
+
+Ellison, having placed the hand he held gently down by the dead man's
+side, rose to his feet, and with a great mist between his eyes and a
+choking sensation in his throat went out of the hut. The doctor and two
+police-officers were climbing the hill. He waited and returned with them
+into the store. To the police officials he said:
+
+"This is the victim; the murderer is in custody in the hut yonder." To
+the doctor he only said: "I am sorry to have troubled you. You have come
+too late. He died five minutes ago."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CONCLUSION AND EPILOGUE.
+
+
+When the doctor, policemen, and prisoner had left the island, Ellison
+went up to his own house. Though it only wanted a few minutes of
+sunrise, the lamp was still burning in the sitting room. He pushed open
+the door and walked in. To his surprise Esther stood before him. She did
+not look into his face, but waited with downcast eyes for him to speak.
+He gazed at her for a moment, and then led her to a chair.
+
+"Esther," he said, kneeling beside her, "can you ever forgive me?"
+
+"Forgive you what?" she asked, almost in a whisper.
+
+"For the lie I told you. The lie that was the beginning of all this
+misery."
+
+"I forgive you. I had forgotten all about it. Now let me go. It is
+daylight, and I must get away before anyone sees me."
+
+"Go away? What do you mean? Where are you going to?"
+
+"I don't know--I don't care. But it must be somewhere where no one will
+know my name. You will find everything in order here, and Mrs. Fenwick
+knows all your wants. The boy is asleep in the room there. You will not
+let him even learn the story of my shame, will you?"
+
+He put his arm around her waist, but she put it off with a little
+shiver.
+
+"No! You must not do that now."
+
+"Why not? In God's name, why not?"
+
+"Because of what has happened to-night. I am the cause of it all. I know
+you cannot forgive me now; but oh, some day, for the child's sake, you
+may not think so hardly of me."
+
+He moved on to the sofa and tried to hold her, but she fell on her knees
+at his feet and burst into a storm of passionate weeping.
+
+"Esther, you are deceiving yourself. I have nothing to forgive. I love
+you as fondly now--nay, I am wrong, I love you more fondly now than
+ever. Fortunately I heard all that man said to you. I heard you refuse
+and repulse him. It was then that I interfered. You are as much my own
+true wife as you ever were. I love you still, and, as God hears me, I
+have never doubted you, not for one single moment."
+
+"You have never doubted me?"
+
+"Never, so help me God!"
+
+He took her in his arms and kissed her tears away. She did not repulse
+him this time, but clung to him like one returned from the dead.
+
+"Oh, my husband! my husband!" was all that she could say. "Now that I
+know you love me still, I can bear anything. Tell me, Cuthbert, all that
+has happened? Don't spare me."
+
+Without more ado he told her everything--who Murkard really was; how
+Merton had cherished such a deadly hatred of him; the loss of the pearl;
+Merton's return to the island, and all the events connected with that
+fatal night. With the exception of the murder he told her everything.
+When he had finished, she said;
+
+"And Murkard--where is he? My thanks are due to him."
+
+"He will never receive them, dearest. He is dead."
+
+"Dead!" she cried, in horrified amazement. "Oh, this is too horrible!
+How did he die?"
+
+"Merton killed him in the store."
+
+Her head dropped on to her hands, and again she sat white and trembling.
+
+"A thief and a murderer, and what did he want to make me?"
+
+"Hush, hush! you must never think of that again; it could not have
+been. You are the mother of my boy, and I am not afraid for you."
+
+"But, Cuthbert, you don't know all; you don't know how he fascinated me.
+I seemed to have no will at all when he was talking to me. When he
+looked into my eyes I had to do his bidding. I was very wicked and weak
+to listen to him; but try how I would to escape I could not get away."
+
+"He will fascinate no more women; he is safely under lock and key by
+this time. Now you must go to bed, and try to sleep, or you will be
+seriously ill after all this excitement. And think what that will mean
+for me."
+
+She stooped and kissed his forehead, and then, struggling with her
+tears, departed to her room. Ellison went out into the cool veranda. The
+sun was just rising above the horizon, and already the Kanaka cook was
+bustling in and out of his kitchen preparing breakfast for the hands as
+if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Ellison descended the steps
+and went across to the store. With a feeling of intense awe he opened
+the door and passed in. Removing the blanket that covered the figure
+lying so stiff and cold upon the floor, he stood and looked down at the
+face he had grown to love so well. Poor Murkard, and yet rather happy,
+happy Murkard in his last great act of self-sacrifice. As he looked
+down at him his own sin rose before him in all its shame. Then by the
+dead body of his friend, who had given his life for him, he registered a
+solemn vow that never again would he yield to temptation. He had
+suffered bitterly for this one mistake, and now the whole future should
+be spent in endeavouring to make amends for it. He re-drew the blanket
+and left the store.
+
+Shortly after breakfast a hand came to tell him that a police-officer
+desired to see him. He went out and asked the slim young official his
+business.
+
+"I have been sent across, Mr. Ellison, to see you regarding the prisoner
+we removed from here last night on a charge of murder."
+
+"Well, what about him?"
+
+"He is dead--drowned."
+
+"Drowned!" cried Ellison. "What do you mean? When was he drowned?"
+
+"Crossing the straits last night. We'd got him halfway across; my mate
+pulling, the prisoner sitting amidships, the doctor and myself astern.
+Suddenly he gave a yell, jumped up, and threw himself overboard before
+we could stop him. There and then he sank, for his hands were handcuffed
+behind him, you see; and--well, we've not set eyes on him since, and I
+don't suppose we're likely to until his body's washed up."
+
+"Good gracious!"
+
+For a few seconds Ellison was so stunned by this intelligence that he
+could hardly think, and yet when he did come to think it out he could
+not help seeing that even in this Fate had been very good to him. Except
+for the fact that he had killed Murkard, he had no desire for Merton's
+death, and as it was now, even that result had been achieved. Merton
+would trouble nobody again. He had gone to hear his verdict at a higher
+court than that presided over by any Queensland judge, and Ellison could
+not but own that it was as well. He thanked the police-officer for his
+intelligence, and went in to tell Esther. She received the news calmly
+enough. Indeed, it seemed as if she were almost beyond being surprised
+at anything.
+
+"We seem bereft of everything," she said at length; "friends, as well as
+enemies."
+
+"But we still have each other, and we have the little one asleep in
+there. Does that count for something, dear?"
+
+"It counts for everything," she said, and softly kissed his hands.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+
+Eighteen months or so ago I happened to be in Tahiti, the capital of the
+Society Group. I had business in Papeete, and, while walking on the
+beautiful Broom Road one day, who should I chance upon but Ellison and
+his wife, picknicking among the palms. We walked down to the town
+together and dined in company. Afterwards I was invited to a trading
+schooner lying in the harbour.
+
+"A beautiful boat," I remarked to her owner, when I had gained the deck.
+"Why, she's more like a Royal Cowes Yacht Squadron craft than a simple
+South Sea trader."
+
+"It is our home, you see," he answered. "The pearling station, after
+Murkard's death, grew distasteful to us, and as I was fortunate enough
+to be able to sell it to great advantage, I bought this boat. Since then
+we have made it our home, and our life is spent cruising about these
+lovely seas. It suits my wife and the boy admirably, and for that
+reason, of course, it suits me. Won't you come and see our son?"
+
+I followed him down the companion into the prettiest little cuddy it has
+ever been my good fortune to behold. Two large and beautifully fitted
+up cabins led off it, and in a corner of one of them hung a cradle. Mrs.
+Ellison conducted us to it, and drew aside the curtain, disclosing the
+tiny occupant asleep.
+
+"What a really beautiful child!" I cried, in an outburst of sincere
+admiration, "and pray what may be his name?"
+
+"Murkard," said the father quietly, and without another remark led me
+back on deck again.
+
+The name, and the tone in which it was uttered, puzzled me very
+considerably. But I was destined to be enlightened later on.
+
+That night, when we sat under the awning on deck, smoking, and watching
+the lights of Papeete glittering ashore, and only the gentle gurgle of
+the water rising and falling alongside disturbed our talk, Ellison told
+me the story I have here told you.
+
+When he had finished I felt constrained to say:
+
+"With a little alteration of names and places, what a good book it would
+make."
+
+"Wouldn't it," he answered seriously. "But my life's far too full of
+other interests now to write it."
+
+"Will you let me try my hand on it?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"If you like. But before you do it you must promise me two things."
+
+"What are they?"
+
+"That you will do my wife and Murkard justice."
+
+"Oh, yes! I'll promise that and more with pleasure. And the other?"
+
+"That you'll let me down as lightly as possible."
+
+"I'll promise that also."
+
+"Very good then; go ahead."
+
+I set to work, and in due time the book was written. The next time I met
+him was in Levuka, Fiji. The schooner was leaving for the Carolines the
+following morning, and I went on board to wish them God speed. Just as I
+was pushing off from the gangway on my return to the shore, Ellison, who
+with his wife alongside him was leaning on the taff-rail, called out:
+
+"Oh, I say! what about your book, my friend?"
+
+"It is finished."
+
+"Hearty congratulations. I wish you all good luck with it. And pray what
+do you intend its name to be?"
+
+"That's a difficult question to answer off-hand; but, all things
+considered, I think the most appropriate title would be _The Marriage of
+Esther_."
+
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+APPLETONS' TOWN AND COUNTRY LIBRARY.
+
+PUBLISHED SEMIMONTHLY.
+
+
+  1. _The Steel Hammer._ By LOUIS ULBACH.
+
+  2. _Eve._ A Novel. By S. BARING-GOULD.
+
+  3. _For Fifteen Years._ A Sequel to The Steel Hammer. By LOUIS ULBACH.
+
+  4. _A Counsel of Perfection._ A Novel. By LUCAS MALET.
+
+  5. _The Deemster._ A Romance. By HALL CAINE.
+
+  6. _A Virginia Inheritance._ By EDMUND PENDLETON.
+
+  7. _Ninette_: An Idyll of Provence. By the author of Vera.
+
+  8. _"The Right Honourable."_ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY and Mrs. CAMPBELL-PRAED.
+
+  9. _The Silence of Dean Maitland._ By MAXWELL GRAY.
+
+  10. _Mrs. Lorimer_: A Study in Black and White. By LUCAS MALET.
+
+  11. _The Elect Lady._ By GEORGE MACDONALD.
+
+  12. _The Mystery of the "Ocean Star."_ By W. CLARK RUSSELL.
+
+  13. _Aristocracy._ A Novel.
+
+  14. _A Recoiling Vengeance._ By FRANK BARRETT. With Illustrations.
+
+  15. _The Secret of Fontaine-la-Croix._ By MARGARET FIELD.
+
+  16. _The Master of Rathkelly._ By HAWLEY SMART.
+
+  17. _Donovan_: A Modern Englishman. By EDNA LYALL.
+
+  18. _This Mortal Coil._ By GRANT ALLEN.
+
+  19. _A Fair Emigrant._ By ROSA MULHOLLAND.
+
+  20. _The Apostate._ By ERNEST DAUDET.
+
+  21. _Raleigh Westgate_: or, Epimenides in Maine. By HELEN KENDRICK
+        JOHNSON.
+
+  22. _Arius the Libyan_: A Romance of the Primitive Church.
+
+  23. _Constance_, and _Calbot's Rival_. By JULIAN HAWTHORNE.
+
+  24. _We Two._ By EDNA LYALL.
+
+  25. _A Dreamer of Dreams._ By the author of Thoth.
+
+  26. _The Ladies' Gallery._ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY and Mrs. CAMPBELL-PRAED.
+
+  27. _The Reproach of Annesley._ By MAXWELL GRAY.
+
+  28. _Near to Happiness._
+
+  29. _In the Wire-Grass._ By LOUIS PENDLETON.
+
+  30. _Lace._ A Berlin Romance. By PAUL LINDAU.
+
+  31. _American Coin._ A Novel. By the author of Aristocracy.
+
+  32. _Won by Waiting._ By EDNA LYALL.
+
+  33. _The Story of Helen Davenant._ By VIOLET FANE.
+
+  34. _The Light of Her Countenance._ By H. H. BOYESEN.
+
+  35. _Mistress Beatrice Cope._ By M. E. LE CLERC.
+
+  36. _The Knight-Errant._ By EDNA LYALL.
+
+  37. _In the Golden Days._ By EDNA LYALL.
+
+  38. _Giraldi_: or, The Curse of Love. By ROSS GEORGE DERING.
+
+  39. _A Hardy Norseman._ By EDNA LYALL.
+
+  40. _The Romance of Jenny Harlowe_, and _Sketches of Maritime Life_.
+        By W. CLARK RUSSELL.
+
+  41. _Passion's Slave._ By RICHARD ASHE-KING.
+
+  42. _The Awakening of Mary Fenwick._ By BEATRICE WHITBY.
+
+  43. _Countess Loreley._ Translated from the German of RUDOLF MENGER.
+
+  44. _Blind Love._ By WILKIE COLLINS.
+
+  45. _The Dean's Daughter._ By SOPHIE F. F. VEITCH.
+
+  46. _Countess Irene._ A Romance of Austrian Life. By J. FOGERTY.
+
+  47. _Robert Browning's Principal Shorter Poems._
+
+  48. _Frozen Hearts._ By G. WEBB APPLETON.
+
+  49. _Djambek the Georgian._ By A. G. VON SUTTNER.
+
+  50. _The Craze of Christian Engelhart._ By HENRY FAULKNER DARNELL.
+
+  51. _Lal._ By WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M. D.
+
+  52. _Aline._ A Novel. By HENRY GREVILLE.
+
+  53. _Joost Avelingh._ A Dutch Story. By MAARTEN MAARTENS.
+
+  54. _Katy of Catoctin._ By GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND.
+
+  55. _Throckmorton._ A Novel. By MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL.
+
+  56. _Expatriation._ By the author of Aristocracy.
+
+  57. _Geoffrey Hampstead._ By T. S. JARVIS.
+
+  58. _Dmitri._ A Romance of Old Russia. By F. W. BAIN, M. A.
+
+  59. _Part of the Property._ By BEATRICE WHITBY.
+
+  60. _Bismarck in Private Life._ By a Fellow-Student.
+
+  61. _In Low Relief._ By MORLEY ROBERTS.
+
+  62. _The Canadians of Old._ A Historical Romance. By PHILIPPE GASPE.
+
+  63. _A Squire of Low Degree._ By LILY A. LONG.
+
+  64. _A Fluttered Dovecote._ By GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.
+
+  65. _The Nugents of Carriconna._ An Irish Story. By TIGHE HOPKINS.
+
+  66. _A Sensitive Plant._ By E. and D. GERARD.
+
+  67. _Dona Luz._ By JUAN VALERA. Translated by Mrs. MARY J. SERRANO.
+
+  68. _Pepita Ximenez._ By JUAN VALERA. Translated by Mrs. MARY J.
+         SERRANO.
+
+  69. _The Primes and their Neighbors._ By RICHARD MALCOLM JOHNSTON.
+
+  70. _The Iron Game._ By HENRY F. KEENAN.
+
+  71. _Stories of Old New Spain._ By THOMAS A. JANVIER.
+
+  72. _The Maid of Honor._ By Hon. LEWIS WINGFIELD.
+
+  73. _In the Heart of the Storm._ By MAXWELL GRAY.
+
+  74. _Consequences._ By EGERTON CASTLE.
+
+  75. _The Three Miss Kings._ By ADA CAMBRIDGE.
+
+  76. _A Matter of Skill._ By BEATRICE WHITBY.
+
+  77. _Maid Marian, and other Stories._ By MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL.
+
+  78. _One Woman's Way._ By EDMUND PENDLETON.
+
+  79. _A Merciful Divorce._ By F. W. MAUDE.
+
+  80. _Stephen Ellicott's Daughter._ By Mrs. J. H. NEEDELL.
+
+  81. _One Reason Why._ By BEATRICE WHITBY.
+
+  82. _The Tragedy of Ida Noble._ By W. CLARK RUSSELL.
+
+  83. _The Johnstown Stage, and other Stories._ By ROBERT H. FLETCHER.
+
+  84. _A Widower Indeed._ By RHODA BROUGHTON and ELIZABETH BISLAND.
+
+  85. _The Flight of the Shadow._ By GEORGE MACDONALD.
+
+  86. _Love or Money._ By KATHARINE LEE.
+
+  87. _Not All in Vain._ By ADA CAMBRIDGE.
+
+  88. _It Happened Yesterday._ By FREDERICK MARSHALL.
+
+  89. _My Guardian._ By ADA CAMBRIDGE.
+
+  90. _The Story of Philip Methuen._ By Mrs. J. H. NEEDELL.
+
+  91. _Amethyst_: The Story of a Beauty. By CHRISTABEL R. COLERIDGE.
+
+  92. _Don Braulio._ By JUAN VALERA. Translated by CLARA BELL.
+
+  93. _The Chronicles of Mr. Bill Williams._ By RICHARD MALCOLM JOHNSTON.
+
+  94. _A Queen of Curds and Cream._ By DOROTHEA GERARD.
+
+  95. _"La Bella" and Others._ By EGERTON CASTLE.
+
+  96. _"December Roses."_ By Mrs. CAMPBELL-PRAED.
+
+  97. _Jean de Kerdren._ By JEANNE SCHULTZ.
+
+  98. _Etelka's Vow._ By DOROTHEA GERARD.
+
+  99. _Cross Currents._ By MARY A. DICKENS.
+
+  100. _His Life's Magnet._ By THEODORA ELMSLIE.
+
+  101. _Passing the Love of Women._ By Mrs. J. H. NEEDELL.
+
+  102. _In Old St. Stephen's._ By JEANIE DRAKE.
+
+  103. _The Berkeleys and their Neighbors._ By MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL.
+
+  104. _Mona Maclean, Medical Student._ By GRAHAM TRAVERS.
+
+  105. _Mrs. Bligh._ By RHODA BROUGHTON.
+
+  106. _A Stumble on the Threshold._ By JAMES PAYN.
+
+  107. _Hanging Moss._ By PAUL LINDAU.
+
+  108. _A Comedy of Elopement._ By CHRISTIAN REID.
+
+  109. _In the Suntime of her Youth._ By BEATRICE WHITBY.
+
+  110. _Stories in Black and White._ By THOMAS HARDY and Others.
+
+  110-1/2. _An Englishman in Paris._ Notes and Recollections.
+
+  111. _Commander Mendoza._ By JUAN VALERA.
+
+  112. _Dr. Paull's Theory._ By Mrs. A. M. DIRHL.
+
+  113. _Children of Destiny._ By MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL.
+
+  114. _A Little Minx._ By ADA CAMBRIDGE.
+
+  115. _Capt'n Davy's Honeymoon._ By HALL CAINE.
+
+  116. _The Voice of a Flower._ By E. GERARD.
+
+  117. _Singularly Deluded._ By SARAH GRAND.
+
+  118. _Suspected._ By LOUISA STRATENUS.
+
+  119. _Lucia, Hugh, and Another._ By Mrs. J. H. NEEDELL.
+
+  120. _The Tutor's Secret._ By VICTOR CHEBBULIEZ.
+
+  121. _From the Five Rivers._ By Mrs. F. A. STEEL.
+
+  122. _An Innocent Impostor, and Other Stories._ By MAXWELL GRAY.
+
+  123. _Ideala._ By SARAH GRAND.
+
+  124. _A Comedy of Masks._ By ERNEST DOWSON and ARTHUR MOORE.
+
+  125. _Relics._ By FRANCES MACNAB.
+
+  126. _Dodo: A Detail of the Day._ By E. F. BENSON.
+
+  127. _A Woman of Forty._ By ESME STUART.
+
+  128. _Diana Tempest._ By MARY CHOLMONDELEY.
+
+  129. _The Recipe for Diamonds._ By C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE.
+
+  130. _Christina Chard._ By Mrs. CAMPBELL-PRAED.
+
+  131. _A Gray Eye or So._ By FRANK FRANKFORT MOORE.
+
+  132. _Earlscourt._ By ALEXANDER ALLARDYCE.
+
+  133. _A Marriage Ceremony._ By ADA CAMBRIDGE.
+
+  134. _A Ward in Chancery._ By Mrs. ALEXANDER.
+
+  135. _Lot 13._ By DOROTHEA GERARD.
+
+  136. _Our Manifold Nature._ By SARAH GRAND.
+
+  137. _A Costly Freak._ By MAXWELL GRAY.
+
+  138. _A Beginner._ By RHODA BROUGHTON.
+
+  139. _A Yellow Aster._ By Mrs. MANNINGTON CAFFYN ("IOTA").
+
+  140. _The Rubicon._ By E. F. BENSON.
+
+  141. _The Trespasser._ By GILBERT PARKER.
+
+  142. _The Rich Miss Riddell._ By DOROTHEA GERARD.
+
+  143. _Mary Fenwick's Daughter._ By BEATRICE WHITBY.
+
+  144. _Red Diamonds._ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY.
+
+  145. _A Daughter of Music._ By G. COLMORE.
+
+  146. _Outlaw and Lawmaker._ By Mrs. CAMPBELL-PRAED.
+
+  147. _Dr. Janet of Harley Street._ By ARABELLA KENEALY.
+
+  148. _George Mandeville's Husband._ By C. E. RAIMOND.
+
+  149. _Vashti and Esther._
+
+  150. _Timor's Two Worlds._ By M. JOKAI.
+
+  151. _A Victim of Good Luck._ By W. E. NORRIS.
+
+  152. _The Trail of the Sword._ By GILBERT PARKER.
+
+  153. _A Mild Barbarian._ By EDGAR FAWCETT.
+
+  154. _The God in the Car._ By ANTHONY HOPE.
+
+  155. _Children of Circumstance._ By Mrs. M. CAFFYN ("IOTA").
+
+  156. _At the Gate of Samaria._ By WILLIAM J. LOCKE.
+
+  157. _The Justification of Andrew Lebrun._ By FRANK BARRETT.
+
+  158. _Dust and Laurels._ By MARY L. PENDERED.
+
+  159. _The Good Ship Mohock._ By W. CLARK RUSSELL.
+
+  160. _Noemi._ By S. BARING-GOULD.
+
+  161. _The Honour of Savelli._ By S. LEVETT YEATS.
+
+  162. _Kitty's Engagement._ By FLORENCE WARDEN.
+
+  163. _The Mermaid._ By L. DOUGALL.
+
+  164. _An Arranged Marriage._ By DOROTHEA GERARD.
+
+  165. _Eve's Ransom._ By GEORGE GISSING.
+
+  166. _The Marriage of Esther._ By GUY BOOTHBY.
+
+
+"The red-brown covers of Appletons' Town and Country Library have come
+to be an almost infallible sign of a story worth reading. In the series
+a poor book has not yet been published."--_Toledo Bee._
+
+"The publishers of the Town and Country Library have been either
+particularly sagacious or very fortunate in the selection of the novels
+that have thus far appeared in this excellent series. Not one is lacking
+in positive merit, and the majority are much above the average fiction
+of the day. Any person who likes a good story well told can buy any
+issue in the Town and Country Library with the utmost confidence of
+finding something well worth while."--_Boston Beacon._
+
+
+Each, 12mo, paper cover, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.
+
+
+_For sale by all booksellers; or will be sent by mail on receipt of
+price by the publishers._
+
+New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.
+
+
+D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.
+
+
+  _ROUND THE RED LAMP._ By A. CONAN DOYLE, author of "The White
+     Company," "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," "The Refugees," etc.
+     12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+The "Red Lamp," the trade-mark, as it were, of the English country
+practitioner's office, is the central point of these dramatic stories of
+professional life. There are no secrets for the surgeon, and, a surgeon
+himself as well as a novelist, the author has made a most artistic use
+of the motives and springs of action revealed to him in a field of which
+he is the master.
+
+"A volume of bright, clever sketches, ... an array of facts and fancies
+of medical life, and contains some of the gifted author's best
+work."--_London Daily News._
+
+
+  _A FLASH OF SUMMER._ By Mrs. W. K. CLIFFORD, author of "Love
+     Letters of a Worldly Woman," "Aunt Anne," etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"The story is well written and interesting, the style is limpid and pure
+as fresh water, and is so artistically done that it is only a second
+thought that notices it."--_San Francisco Call._
+
+
+  _THE LILAC SUNBONNET. A Love Story._ By S. R. CROCKETT, author of
+     "The Stickit Minister," "The Raiders," etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"A love story pure and simple, one of the old-fashioned, wholesome,
+sunshiny kind, with a pure-minded, sound-hearted hero, and a heroine who
+is merely a good and beautiful woman; and if any other love story half
+so sweet has been written this year it has escaped us."--_New York
+Times._
+
+
+  _MAELCHO._ By the Hon. EMILY LAWLESS, author of "Grania,"
+     "Hurrish," etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"A paradox of literary genius. It is not a history, and yet has more of
+the stuff of history in it, more of the true national character and
+fate, than any historical monograph we know. It is not a novel, and yet
+fascinates us more than any novel."--_London Spectator._
+
+
+  _THE LAND OF THE SUN. Vistas Mexicanas._ By CHRISTIAN REID, author
+     of "The Land of the Sky," "A Comedy of Elopement," etc.
+     Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75.
+
+In this picturesque travel romance the author of "The Land of the Sky"
+takes her characters from New Orleans to fascinating Mexican cities like
+Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Aguas Calientes, Guadalajara, and of course the
+City of Mexico. What they see and what they do are described in a
+vivacious style which renders the book most valuable to those who wish
+an interesting Mexican travel-book unencumbered with details, while the
+story as a story sustains the high reputation of this talented author.
+
+
+New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue
+
+
+NOVELS BY HALL CAINE.
+
+
+  _THE MANXMAN._ By HALL CAINE. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"A story of marvelous dramatic intensity, and in its ethical meaning has
+a force comparable only to Hawthorne's 'Scarlet Letter.'"--_Boston
+Beacon._
+
+"A work of power which is another stone added to the foundation of
+enduring fame to which Mr. Caine is yearly adding."--_Public Opinion._
+
+"A wonderfully strong study of character; a powerful analysis of those
+elements which go to make up the strength and weakness of a man, which
+are at fierce warfare within the same breast: contending against each
+other, as it were, the one to raise him to fame and power, the other to
+drag him down to degradation and shame. Never in the whole range of
+literature have we seen the struggle between these forces for supremacy
+over the man more powerfully, more realistically delineated, than Mr.
+Caine pictures it."--_Boston Home Journal._
+
+"'The Manxman' is one of the most notable novels of the year, and is
+unquestionably destined to perpetuate the fame of Hall Caine for many a
+year to come."--_Philadelphia Telegraph._
+
+"The author exhibits a mastery of the elemental passions of life that
+places him high among the foremost of present writers of
+fiction."--_Philadelphia Inquirer._
+
+
+  _THE DEEMSTER. A Romance of the Isle of Man._ By HALL CAINE. 12mo.
+     Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"Hall Caine has already given us some very strong and fine work, and
+'The Deemster' is a story of unusual power.... Certain passages and
+chapters have an intensely dramatic grasp, and hold the fascinated
+reader with a force rarely excited nowadays in literature."--_The
+Critic._
+
+"One of the strongest novels which has appeared for many a day."--_San
+Francisco Chronicle._
+
+"Fascinates the mind like the gathering and bursting of a
+storm."--_Illustrated London News._
+
+"Deserves to be ranked among the remarkable novels of the
+day."--_Chicago Times._
+
+"Remarkably powerful, and is undoubtedly one of the strongest works of
+fiction of our time. Its conception and execution are both very
+fine."--_Philadelphia Inquirer._
+
+
+  _CAPT'N DAVY'S HONEYMOON. A Manx Yarn._ By HALL CAINE. 12mo. Paper,
+     50 cts.; cloth, $1.00.
+
+"A new departure by this author. Unlike his previous works, this little
+tale is almost wholly humorous, with, however, a current of pathos
+underneath. It is not always that an author can succeed equally well in
+tragedy and in comedy, but it looks as though Mr. Hall Caine would be
+one of the exceptions."--_London Literary World._
+
+"It is pleasant to meet the author of 'The Deemster' in a brightly
+humorous little story like this.... It shows the same observation of
+Manx character, and much of the same artistic skill."--_Philadelphia
+Times._
+
+
+NOVELS BY MAARTEN MAARTENS.
+
+
+  _THE GREATER GLORY. A Story of High Life._ By MAARTEN MAARTENS,
+     author of "God's Fool," "Joost Avelingh," etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"Until the Appletons discovered the merits of Maarten Maartens, the
+foremost of Dutch novelists, it is doubtful if many American readers
+knew that there were Dutch novelists. His 'God's Fool' and 'Joost
+Avelingh' made for him an American reputation. To our mind this just
+published work of his is his best.... He is a master of epigram, an
+artist in description, a prophet in insight."--_Boston Advertiser._
+
+"It would take several columns to give any adequate idea of the superb
+way in which the Dutch novelist has developed his theme and wrought out
+one of the most impressive stories of the period.... It belongs to the
+small class of novels which one can not afford to neglect."--_San
+Francisco Chronicle._
+
+"Maarten Maartens stands head and shoulders above the average novelist
+of the day in intellectual subtlety and imaginative power."--_Boston
+Beacon._
+
+
+  _GOD'S FOOL._ By MAARTEN MAARTENS. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"Throughout there is an epigrammatic force which would make palatable a
+less interesting story of human lives or one less deftly told."--_London
+Saturday Review._
+
+"Perfectly easy, graceful, humorous.... The author's skill in
+character-drawing is undeniable."--_London Chronicle._
+
+"A remarkable work."--_New York Times._
+
+"Maarten Maartens has secured a firm footing in the eddies of current
+literature.... Pathos deepens into tragedy in the thrilling story of
+'God's Fool.'"--_Philadelphia Ledger._
+
+"Its preface alone stamps the author as one of the leading English
+novelists of to-day."--_Boston Daily Advertiser._
+
+"The story is wonderfully brilliant.... The interest never lags; the
+style is realistic and intense; and there is a constantly underlying
+current of subtle humor.... It is, in short, a book which no student of
+modern literature should fail to read."--_Boston Times._
+
+"A story of remarkable interest and point."--_New York Observer._
+
+
+  _JOOST AVELINGH._ By MAARTEN MAARTENS. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"So unmistakably good as to induce the hope that an acquaintance with
+the Dutch literature of fiction may soon become more general among
+us."--_London Morning Post._
+
+"In scarcely any of the sensational novels of the day will the reader
+find more nature or more human nature."--_London Standard._
+
+"A novel of a very high type. At once strongly realistic and powerfully
+idealistic."--_London Literary World._
+
+"Full of local color and rich in quaint phraseology and
+suggestion."--_London Telegraph._
+
+"Maarten Maartens is a capital story-teller."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
+
+"Our English writers of fiction will have to look to their
+laurels."--_Birmingham Daily Post._
+
+
+  _MANY INVENTIONS._ By RUDYARD KIPLING. Containing fourteen stories,
+     several of which are now published for the first time, and two
+     poems. 12mo, 427 pages. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"The reader turns from its pages with the conviction that the author has
+no superior to-day in animated narrative and virility of style. He
+remains master of a power in which none of his contemporaries approach
+him--the ability to select out of countless details the few vital ones
+which create the finished picture. He knows how, with a phrase or a
+word, to make you see his characters as he sees them, to make you feel
+the full meaning of a dramatic situation."--_New York Tribune._
+
+"'Many Inventions' will confirm Mr. Kipling's reputation.... We would
+cite with pleasure sentences from almost every page, and extract
+incidents from almost every story. But to what end? Here is the
+completest book that Mr. Kipling has yet given us in workmanship, the
+weightiest and most humane in breadth of view."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
+
+"Mr. Kipling's powers as a story-teller are evidently not diminishing.
+We advise everybody to buy 'Many Inventions,' and to profit by some of
+the best entertainment that modern fiction has to offer."--_New York
+Sun._
+
+"'Many Inventions' will be welcomed wherever the English language is
+spoken.... Every one of the stories bears the imprint of a master who
+conjures up incident as if by magic, and who portrays character,
+scenery, and feeling with an ease which is only exceeded by the boldness
+of force."--_Boston Globe._
+
+"The book will get and hold the closest attention of the
+reader."--_American Bookseller._
+
+"Mr. Rudyard Kipling's place in the world of letters is unique. He sits
+quite aloof and alone, the incomparable and inimitable master of the
+exquisitely fine art of short-story writing. Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson
+has perhaps written several tales which match the run of Mr. Kipling's
+work, but the best of Mr. Kipling's tales are matchless, and his latest
+collection, 'Many Inventions,' contains several such."--_Philadelphia
+Press._
+
+"Of late essays in fiction the work of Kipling can be compared to only
+three--Blackmore's 'Lorna Doone,' Stevenson's marvelous sketch of Villon
+in the 'New Arabian Nights,' and Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the
+D'Urbervilles.'... It is probably owing to this extreme care that 'Many
+Inventions' is undoubtedly Mr. Kipling's best book."--_Chicago Post._
+
+"Mr. Kipling's style is too well known to American readers to require
+introduction, but it can scarcely be amiss to say there is not a story
+in this collection that does not more than repay a perusal of them
+all."--_Baltimore American._
+
+"As a writer of short stories Rudyard Kipling is a genius. He has had
+imitators, but they have not been successful in dimming the luster of
+his achievements by contrast.... 'Many Inventions' is the title. And
+they are inventions--entirely original in incident, ingenious in plot,
+and startling by their boldness and force."--_Rochester Herald._
+
+"How clever he is! This must always be the first thought on reading such
+a collection of Kipling's stories. Here is art--art of the most
+consummate sort. Compared with this, the stories of our brightest young
+writers become commonplace."--_New York Evangelist._
+
+"Taking the group as a whole, it may be said that the execution is up to
+his best in the past, while two or three sketches surpass in rounded
+strength and vividness of imagination anything else he has
+done."--_Hartford Courant._
+
+"Fifteen more extraordinary sketches, without a tinge of sensationalism,
+it would be hard to find.... Every one has an individuality of its own
+which fascinates the reader."--_Boston Times._
+
+
+  _A JOURNEY IN OTHER WORLDS. A Romance of the Future._ By JOHN JACOB
+     ASTOR. With 9 full-page Illustrations by Dan Beard. 12mo. Cloth,
+     $1.50.
+
+"An interesting and cleverly devised book.... No lack of imagination....
+Shows a skillful and wide acquaintance with scientific facts."--_New
+York Herald._
+
+"The author speculates cleverly and daringly on the scientific advance
+of the earth, and he revels in the physical luxuriance of Jupiter; but
+he also lets his imagination travel through spiritual realms, and
+evidently delights in mystic speculation quite as much as in scientific
+investigation. If he is a follower of Jules Verne, he has not forgotten
+also to study the philosophers."--_New York Tribune._
+
+"A beautiful example of typographical art and the bookmaker's skill....
+To appreciate the story one must read it."--_New York Commercial
+Advertiser._
+
+"The date of the events narrated in this book is supposed to be 2000
+A.D. The inhabitants of North America have increased mightily in numbers
+and power and knowledge. It is an age of marvelous scientific
+attainments. Flying machines have long been in common use, and finally a
+new power is discovered called 'apergy,' the reverse of gravitation, by
+which people are able to fly off into space in any direction, and at
+what speed they please."--_New York Sun._
+
+"The scientific romance by John Jacob Astor is more than likely to
+secure a distinct popular success, and achieve widespread vogue both as
+an amusing and interesting story, and a thoughtful endeavor to prophesy
+some of the triumphs which science is destined to win by the year 2000.
+The book has been written with a purpose, and that a higher one than the
+mere spinning of a highly imaginative yarn. Mr. Astor has been engaged
+upon the book for over two years, and has brought to bear upon it a
+great deal of hard work in the way of scientific research, of which he
+has been very fond ever since he entered Harvard. It is admirably
+illustrated by Dan Beard."--_Mail and Express._
+
+"Mr. Astor has himself almost all the qualities imaginable for making
+the science of astronomy popular. He knows the learned maps of the
+astrologers. He knows the work of Copernicus. He has made calculations
+and observations. He is enthusiastic, and the spectacular does not
+frighten him."--_New York Times._
+
+"The work will remind the reader very much of Jules Verne in its general
+plan of using scientific facts and speculation as a skeleton on which to
+hang the romantic adventures of the central figures, who have all the
+daring ingenuity and luck of Mr. Verne's heroes. Mr. Astor uses history
+to point out what in his opinion science may be expected to accomplish.
+It is a romance with a purpose."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._
+
+"The romance contains many new and striking developments of the
+possibilities of science hereafter to be explored, but the volume is
+intensely interesting, both as a product of imagination and an
+illustration of the ingenious and original application of
+science."--_Rochester Herald._
+
+
+  _BENEFITS FORGOT._ By WOLCOTT BALESTIER, author of "Reffey," "A
+     Common Story," etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"A credit to American literature and a monument to the memory of the
+author."--_Boston Beacon._
+
+"The author places his reader at the very pulse of the human machine
+when that machine is throbbing most tumultuously."--_London Chronicle._
+
+"The author manages a difficult scene in a masterly way, and his style
+is brilliant and finished."--_Buffalo Courier._
+
+"An ambitious work.... The author's style is clear and graceful."--_New
+York Times._
+
+"Mr. Balestier has done some excellent literary work, but we have no
+hesitation in pronouncing this, his latest work, by far his
+best."--_Boston Advertiser._
+
+
+  _DUFFELS._ By EDWARD EGGLESTON, author of "The Faith Doctor,"
+     "Roxy," "The Hoosier Schoolmaster," etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25.
+
+"A collection of stories each of which is thoroughly characteristic of
+Dr. Eggleston at his best."--_Baltimore American._
+
+"Destined to become very popular. The stories are of infinite variety.
+All are pleasing, even fascinating, studies of the character, lives, and
+manners of the periods with which they deal."--_Philadelphia Item._
+
+
+  _THE FAITH DOCTOR._ By EDWARD EGGLESTON, author of "The Hoosier
+     Schoolmaster," "The Circuit Rider," etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"One of _the_ novels of the decade."--_Rochester Union and Advertiser._
+
+"The author of 'The Hoosier Schoolmaster' has enhanced his reputation by
+this beautiful and touching study of the character of a girl to love
+whom proved a liberal education to both of her admirers."--_London
+Athenaeum._
+
+"'The Faith Doctor' is worth reading for its style, its wit, and its
+humor, and not less, we may add, for its pathos."--_London Spectator._
+
+"Much skill is shown by the author in making these 'fads' the basis of a
+novel of great interest.... One who tries to keep in the current of good
+novel-reading must certainly find time to read 'The Faith
+Doctor.'"--_Buffalo Commercial._
+
+
+  _"LA BELLA" AND OTHERS._ By EGERTON CASTLE, author of
+     "Consequences." Paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.
+
+"The stories will be welcomed with a sense of refreshing pungency by
+readers who have been cloyed by a too long succession of insipid
+sweetness and familiar incident."--_London Athenaeum._
+
+"The author is gifted with a lively fancy, and the clever plots he has
+devised gain greatly in interest, thanks to the unfamiliar surroundings
+in which the action for the most part takes place."--_London Literary
+World._
+
+"Eight stories, all exhibiting notable originality in conception and
+mastery of art, the first two illustrating them best. They add a
+dramatic power that makes them masterpieces. Both belong to the period
+when fencing was most skillful, and illustrate its practice."--_Boston
+Globe._
+
+
+  _THE THREE MUSKETEERS._ By ALEXANDRE DUMAS. An _edition de luxe_
+     (limited to 750 copies), with 250 Illustrations by Maurice Leloir.
+     In two volumes. Royal 8vo. Buckram, with specially designed cover.
+     $12.00.
+
+By arrangement with the French publishers. Messrs. D. Appleton & Company
+have secured the American rights for this, the finest edition of Dumas's
+immortal romance which has been published. The illustrations are
+carefully printed from the original blocks, and this edition therefore
+has an unapproachable distinction in point of pictorial quality.
+
+The translation has been scrupulously revised, and every effort has been
+made to present a perfect edition of Dumas's masterpiece.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Such a book lends itself to the draughtsman's art, and both requires
+and rewards decoration. But it must be decoration of the best; and it
+has waited long. At length, however--I have it before me now--an edition
+has been prepared which should satisfy both the lovers of black and
+white and the lovers of picturesque fiction.... It is scarcely too much
+to say that were Alexandre Dumas alive to-day, to see this latest form
+of his greatest work--first published exactly fifty years ago--he who
+loved the sumptuous with an almost tropical fervor, and built a grand
+theater for the production of his own dramas, would weep tears of joy
+over his offspring."--STANLEY J. WEYMAN, in _The Book Buyer_.
+
+
+  _PAUL AND VIRGINIA._ By BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE. With a
+     Biographical Sketch, and numerous Illustrations by Maurice Leloir.
+     8vo. Cloth, gilt top, uniform with "Picciola," "The Story of
+     Colette," and "An Attic Philosopher in Paris." $1.50.
+
+It is believed that this standard edition of "Paul and Virginia" with
+Leloir's charming illustrations will prove a most acceptable addition to
+the series of illustrated foreign classics in which D. Appleton & Co.
+have published "The Story of Colette," "An Attic Philosopher in Paris,"
+and "Picciola." No more sympathetic illustrator than Leloir could be
+found, and his treatment of this masterpiece of French literature
+invests it with a peculiar value.
+
+
+  _PICCIOLA._ By X. B. SAINTINE. With 130 Illustrations by J. F.
+     GUELDRY. 8vo. Cloth, gilt top, $1.50.
+
+"Saintine's 'Picciola,' the pathetic tale of the prisoner who raised a
+flower between the cracks of the flagging of his dungeon, has passed
+definitely into the list of classic books.... It has never been more
+beautifully housed than in this edition, with its fine typography,
+binding, and sympathetic illustrations."--_Philadelphia Telegraph._
+
+"The binding is both unique and tasteful, and the book commends itself
+strongly as one that should meet with general favor in the season of
+gift-making."--_Boston Saturday Evening Gazette._
+
+"Most beautiful in its clear type, cream-laid paper, many attractive
+illustrations, and holiday binding."--_New York Observer._
+
+
+  _AN ATTIC PHILOSOPHER IN PARIS; or, A Peep at the World from a
+     Garret._ Being the Journal of a Happy Man. By EMILE SOUVESTRE. With
+     numerous Illustrations. 8vo. Cloth, gilt top, $1.50.
+
+"A suitable holiday gift for a friend who appreciates refined
+literature."--_Boston Times._
+
+"The influence of the book is wholly good. The volume is a particularly
+handsome one."--_Philadelphia Telegraph._
+
+"It is a classic. It has found an appropriate reliquary. Faithfully
+translated, charmingly illustrated by Jean Claude with full-page
+pictures, vignettes in the text, and head and tail pieces, printed in
+graceful type on handsome paper, and bound with an art worthy of
+Matthews, in half-cloth, ornamented on the cover, it is an exemplary
+book, fit to be 'a treasure for aye.'"--_New York Times._
+
+
+  _THE STORY OF COLETTE._ A new large-paper edition. With 36
+     Illustrations. 8vo. Cloth, gilt top, $1.50.
+
+"One of the handsomest of the books of fiction for the holiday
+season."--_Philadelphia Bulletin._
+
+"One of the gems of the season.... It is the story of the life of young
+womanhood in France, dramatically told, with the light and shade and
+coloring of the genuine artist, and is utterly free from that which mars
+too many French novels. In its literary finish it is well-nigh perfect,
+indicating the hand of the master."--_Boston Traveller._
+
+
+  _THE PYGMIES._ By A. DE QUATREFAGES, late Professor of Anthropology
+     at the Museum of Natural History, Paris. With numerous
+     Illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75.
+
+In this interesting volume the author has gathered the results of
+careful studies of the small black races of Africa, and he shows what
+the pygmies of antiquity really were. The peculiar intellectual, moral,
+and religious characteristics of these races are also described.
+
+
+  _WOMAN'S SHARE IN PRIMITIVE CULTURE._ By OTIS TUFTON MASON, A. M.,
+     Curator of the Department of Ethnology in the United States
+     National Museum. With numerous Illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75.
+
+"A most interesting _resume_ of the revelations which science has made
+concerning the habits of human beings in primitive times, and especially
+as to the place, the duties, and the customs of women."--_Philadelphia
+Inquirer._
+
+"Mr. Mason's volume secures for woman her glory as a civilizer in the
+past, and by no means denies her a glorious future."--_New York
+Tribune._
+
+
+  _SCHOOLS AND MASTERS OF SCULPTURE._ By A. G. RADCLIFFE, author of
+     "Schools and Masters of Painting." With 35 full-page Illustrations.
+     12mo. Cloth, $3.00.
+
+"The art lover will find in Miss Radcliffe's work a book of fascinating
+interest, and a thoroughly painstaking and valuable addition to the
+stock of knowledge which he may possess on the history of the noble art
+of sculpture."--_Philadelphia Item._
+
+"It would be difficult to name another work that would be so valuable to
+the general reader on the same subject as this book."--_San Francisco
+Bulletin._
+
+"The work is free of all needless technicalities, and will be of intense
+interest to every intelligent reader, while of inestimable value to the
+student of art."--_Boston Home Journal._
+
+
+_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
+
+  _SCHOOLS AND MASTERS OF PAINTING._ With numerous Illustrations and
+     an Appendix on the Principal Galleries of Europe. New edition,
+     fully revised, and in part rewritten. 12mo. Cloth, $3.00; half
+     calf, $5.00.
+
+"The volume is one of great practical utility, and may be used to
+advantage as an artistic guide book by persons visiting the collections
+of Italy, France, and Germany for the first time."--_New York Tribune._
+
+
+New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Inconsistencies in the author's spelling, use of hyphens and other
+punctuation have been retained as in the original publication.
+
+Obvious typos and printer errors have been corrected without comment.
+
+In addition to obvious errors, the following changes have been made:
+
+   Page 18: "renumerative" changed to "remunerative" in the phrase,
+     "... accept any renumerative post...."
+
+   Page 24: "colomn" changed to "column" in the phrase, "... thin
+     column of steam...."
+
+   Page 39: " , " changed to " . " in the phrase, "I had quite
+     forgotten. Sit down...."
+
+   Page 98: " ? " changed to " . " in the phrase, "... we don't know
+     how to let his daughter know."
+
+   Page 153: "relentness" changed to "relentless" in the phrase, "...
+     still the relentless march...."
+
+   Page 231: "to" changed to "too" in the phrase, "Ellison rose too,
+     and...."
+
+   Page 247: "that" changed to "than" in the phrase, "I love you more
+     fondly now than ever."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Marriage of Esther, by Guy Boothby
+
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