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diff --git a/39731.txt b/39731.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f8691d --- /dev/null +++ b/39731.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7715 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARRIAGE OF ESTHER *** + +***** This file should be named 39731.txt or 39731.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/3/39731/ + +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) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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