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HD WIDENER
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HW KZDI 6


To enable the reader to follow Mr. Underclif's Summary, the materials of his judgment are here reproduced. (See page 134.)
The Forged Note.
42.0000, 0 London, Srbruary 10*1864.
Ihre Menthy ofter Dale, promise
to pay Robert Penfold i Oider, the Jum
Tuo Thousand Poundy, Naluě leczuled.
The genuine handwriting of John Wandlaw..
ws
I promise to pay
One Thousand Founds:
John Wardlaws
Over
.


Arthur Wardlaw's Letter.
bearen Kelong hear from
Mi Adams that yvé desire
to how the name of the
Boansel who defended
Robert Roscoe
It was Mr Follemaches,
he has Chembers in Lincolinis
fun. Ces diilopedleyypruks,
1. Aither Wordlaws
Over.


FOUL PLAY
CHAPTER I.
| insinuated another, and seemed models of grave dis-
cretion : but were known to be all ears, and bound
THERE are places which appear at first sight in- by a secret oath to carry down each crumb of dia-
accessible to romance: and such a place was Mr. logue to the servants' hall, for curious dissection, and
Wardlaw's dining-room in Russell Square. It was boisterous ridicule.
very large, had sickly green walls, picked out with At last, however, those three smug hypocrites re-
aldermen, full length; heavy maroon curtains; ma- tired, and, by good luck, transferred their suffocat-
hogany chairs ; a turkey carpet an inch thick: and ing epergne to the sideboard ; so then father and
was lighted with wax candles only.
son looked at one another with that conscious air
In the centre, bristling and gleaming with silver which naturally precedes a topic of interest; and
and glass, was a round table, at which fourteen Wardlaw senior invited his son to try a certain de-
could have dined comfortably; and at opposite sides canter of rare old port, by way of preliminary.
of this table sat two gentlemen, who looked as neat, While the young man fills bis glass, hurl we in his
grave, precise, and unromantic, as the place; Mer- antecedents.
chant Wardlaw, and his son.
At school till fifteen, and then clerk in his father's
Wardlaw senior was an elderly man, tall, thin, office till twenty-two, and showed an aptitude so re-
iron-gray, with a round head, a short, thick neck, a markable, that John Wardlaw, who was getting tired,
good, brown eye, a square jowl that betokened reso- determined, sooner or later, to put the reins of govern-
lution, and a complexion so sallow as to be almost ment into bis hands. But he conceived a desire
cadaverous. Hard as iron : but a certain stiff dig- that the future head of his office should be an uni-
nity and respectability sat upon him, and became versity man. So he announced his resolution, and
him.
to Oxford went young Wardlaw, though he had not
Arthur Wardlaw resembled his father in figure, I looked at Greek or Latin for seven years. He was,
but his mother in face. He had, and has, hay-col- however, furnished with a private tutor, under whom
ored hair, a forehead singularly white and delicate, he recovered lost ground rapidly. The Reverend
pale blue eyes, largish ears, finely chiselled fea- Robert Penfold was a first-class man, and had the
tures, the under lip much shorter than the upper; gift of teaching. The house of Wardlaw had pecu-
his chin oval and pretty, but somewhat receding; liar claims on him, for he was the son of old Mi-
his complexion beautiful. In short, what nineteen chael Penfold, Wardlaw's cashier; he learned from
people out of twenty would call a handsome young young Wardlaw the stake he was playing for, and,
man, and think they had described himn.
instead of merely giving him one hour's lecture per
Both the Wardlaws were in full dress, according day, as he did to his other pupils, he used to come to
to the invariable custom of the house; and sat in a bis rooms at all hours, and force him to read, by
dead silence, that seemed natural to the great, sober reading with him. He also stood his friend in a se-
room.
rious emergency. Young Wardlaw, you must know,
This, however, was not for want of a topic ; on was blessed or cursed with Mimicry; his powers in
the contrary, they had a matter of great importance that way really seemed to have no limit, for he
to discuss, and in fact this was why they dined tête- could imitate any sound you liked with his voice,
à-têle: but their tongues were tied for the present; and any form with his pen or pencil. Now, we
in the first place, there stood in the middle of the promise you, he was one man under his father's eye,
table an epergne, the size of a Putney laurel-tree ; and another down at Oxford; so, one night, this
neither Wardlaw could well see the other, without gentleman, being warm with wine, opens his winr
craning out his neck like a rifleman from behind dow, and, seeing a group of undergraduates chatter-
his tree: and then there were three live suppressors ing and smoking in the quadrangle, imitates the
of confidential intercourse, two gorgeous footmen, peculiar grating tones of Mr. Champion, vice-presi-
and a sombre, sublime, and, in one word, episcopal, dent of the college, and gives them various reasons
butler; all three went about as softly as cats after a why they ought to disperse to their rooms and study,
robin, and conjured one plate away, and smoothly “But, perhaps," says he, in conclusion, “you are too


FOUL PLAY.
blind drunk to read Bosh in crooked letters by can-1 “We bear witness that Arthur Wardlaw, of St.
dle-light? In that case --" And he then gave | Luke's College, has answered our questions in humane
them some very naughty advice how to pass the letters.
evening; still in the exact tones of Mr. Champion,
“ GEORGE RICHARDSOX,
who was a very, very strict moralist; and this unex-
“ ARTITUR SMYTHE,
" EDWARD MEKIVALE,
pected sally of wit caused shrieks of laughter, and
Examiners.".
mightily tickled all the hearers, except Champion
ipse, who was listening and disapproving at another Wardlaw senior took it, laid it beside him on the
window. He complained to the pres dent. Then table, inspected it with his double eye-glass, and,
the ingenious Wardlaw, not having come down to not knowing a word of Latin, was mightily im-
us in a direct line from Bayard, committed a great pressed, and his respect for his son rose 40, or 45,
mistake, — he denied it."
per cent.
It was brought home to him, and the president, “ Very well, sir”; said he. “Now listen to me.
who had laughed in his sleeve at the practical Perhaps it was an old man's fancy; but I have often
joke, looked very grave at the falsehood; Rusti- seen in the world what a stamp these Universities
cation was talked of and even Expulsion. Then put upon a man. To send you back from commerce
Wardlaw came sorrowfully to Penfold, and said to Latin and Greek, at two and twenty, was trying
to him, “I must have been awfully cut, for I you rather hard; it was trying you doubly ; your
don't remember all that; I had been wining at obedience, and your ability into the bargain. Well,
Christchurch. I do remember slanging the fel- sir, you have stood the trial, and I am proud of you.
lowe, but how can I tell wbat I said? I say, And so now it is my turn : from this day and from
old fellow, it will be a bad job for, me if they expel this hour, look on yourself as my partner in the old
me, or even rusticate me; my father will never for established house of Wardlaw. My balance sheet
give me; I shall be his clerk, but never his partner; shall be prepared immediately, and the partnership
and then he will find out what a lot I owe down deed drawn. You will enter on a flourishing con-
here. I'm done for! I'm done for!”
cern, sir; and you will virtually conduct it, in writ-
Penfold uttered not a word, but grasped bis hand, ten communication with me; for I have had five and
and went off to the president, and said his pupil had forty years of it: and then my liver, you know !
wined at Christchurch, and could not be expected | Watson advises me strongly to leave my desk, and
to remember minutely. Mimicry was, unfortunate-try country air, and rest from business and its
ly, a habit with him. He then pleaded for the cares."
milder construction, with such zeal and eloquence, le paused a moment; and the 'young man drew
that the high-minded scholar he was addressing ad- a long breath, like one who was in the act of being
mitted that construction was possible, and therefore relieved of some terrible weight.
must be received. So the aflair ended in a written As for the old gentleman, he was not observing
apology to Mr. Champion, which had all the smooih- his son just then, but thinking of his own career; a
ness and neatness of a merchant's letter. Arthur certain expression of pain and regret came over his
Wardlaw was already a master in that style. | features; but he shook it off with manly dignity.
Six months after this, and one fortn ght before Come, come,” said he, “ this is the law of Nature,
the actual commencement of our tale, Arthur and must be submitted to with a good grace. Ward-
Wardlaw, well crammed by Penfold, went up for law junior, fill your glass.” At the same time he
his final examination, throbbing with anxiety. He stood up and said, stoutly, “ The setting sun drinks
passed ; and was so grateful to his tutor that, when to the rising sun"; but could not maintain that arti-
the advowson of a small living near Oxford came in- ficial style, and ended with, “ God bless you, my
to the market, he asked Wardlaw senior to lend boy, and may you stick to business ; avoid specula-
Robert Penfold a sum of money, much more than tion, as I have done; and so hand the concern down
was needed : and Wardlaw senior declined without healthy to your son, as my father there (pointing to
a moment's hesitation.
| a picture) handed it down to me, and I to you."
This slight sketch will serve as a key to the dia- ! His voice wavered slightly in uttering this bene-
logue it has postponed, and to subsequent inci- diction; but only for a nioment: he then sat quietly
dents.
down, and sipped his wine composedly.
Not so the other: his color came and went vio-
“Well, Arthur, and so you have really taken your lently all the time his father was speaking, and,
degree?
when he ceased, be sank into his chair with another
* No, sir; but I have passed my examination : the sigh deeper than the last, and two half-hysterical
degree follows as a matter of course, - that is a mere tears came to his pale eyes.
question of fees.”
But presently, feeling he was expected to say
“Oh! Then now I have something to say to you. something, he struggled against all this mysterious
Try one more glass of the '47 port. Stop; you 'il emotion, and faltered out that he should not fear
excuse me; I am a man of business; I don't doubt the responsibility, if he might have constant recourse
your word; Heaven forbid ! but, do you happen to to his father for advice.
have any document you can produce in further con- “ Why, of course," was the reply. “My country
firmation of what you state ; namely, that you have house is but a mile from the station : you can tele-
passed your final examination at the Universi- graph for me in any case of importance."
ty ?”
"When would you wish me to commence my
“ Certainly, sir"; replied young Wardlaw. “My new duties?"
Testamur.”
"Let me see, it will take six weeks to prepare a
• What is that ? ”
balance-sheet, such as I could be content to submit
The young gentleman put his hand in his pocket, to an incoming partner. Say two months.”
and produced his Testamur, or “ We bear witness”; 1 Young Wardlaw's countenance fell.
a short printed document in Latin, which may be “Meantime you shall travel on the continent
tbus translated :-
| and enjoy yourself.”


FOUL PLAY.
“ Thank you," said young Wardlaw, mechanically, Wardlaw junior. He took it up with a sort of
and fell into a brown study,
shiver, and bent his head very low over it; ther?
The room now returned to what seemed its nat-handed it back in silence.
ural state. And its silence continued until it was Adams took it to Wardlaw senior, and laid it be-
broken from without.
| fore him, by the side of Arthur's Testamur.
A sharp knocking was heard at the street-door, The merchant inspected it with his glasses.
and resounded across the marble hall.
“ The writing is mine, apparently."
The Warıllaws looked at one another in some “I am very glad of it,” said the bill-broker, ea-
little surprise.
gerly.
“I have invited nobodly,” said the elder.
" Stop a bit,” said Mr. Warulaw. “Why, what is
Some time elapsed, and then a footman made his this? For two thousand pounds! and, as yon say,
appearance, and brought in a card.
not my form. I have signed ro note for two thou-
* Mr. Christopher Adams.”
• sand pounds this week. Dated yesterday. You
Now that Mr. Christopher Adams should call on have not cashed it, I hope?".
John Wardlaw, in his private room, at nine o'clock ! “I am sorry to say my partner has."
in the evening, seemed to that merchant irregular, “Well, sir, not to keep you in suspense, the thing
presumptuous, and monstrous. “Tell him he will is not worth the stamp it is written on."
find me at my place of business to-morrow, as usual," | "Mr. Wardlaw !--- Sir!-- Good heavens! Then
said he, knitting his brows.
it is as I feareil. It is a forgery.”
The footman went off with this message ; and, “I should be puzzled to find any other name for
soon after, raised voices were heard in the hall, and it. You need not look so pale, Arthur. We can't
the episcopal butler entered the room with an in- help some clever scoundrel imitating our hands;
jured countenance.
and as for you, Adams, you ought to bave been inore
" He says he must see you ; he is in great anxiety." cautious."
“Yes, I am in great anxiety," said a quavering “But, sir, your cashier's name is Penfold," fal-
voice at his elbow, and Mr. Adams actually pushed tered the holder, clinging to a straw. "May he not
by the butler, and stood, hat in band, in those sa- have drawn – is the indorsement forged as well ? "
cred precincts. “ Pray excuse me, sir," said he, Mr. Wardlaw examined the back of the bill, and
“ but it is very serious ; I can't be easy in my mind looked puzzled. “ No," said be. “My cashier's
till I have put you a question.”
name is Michael Penfold, but this is indorsed · Rob-
“This is very extraordinary conduct, sir,” said ert Penfold. Do you hear, Arthur ? Why, what
Mr. Wardlaw. " Do you think I do business here, is the matter with you? You look like a glost. I
and at all hours ?”
say there is your tutor's name at the back of this
“O no, sir: it is my own business. I am come forged note. This is very strange. Just look, and
to ask you a very serious question. I could n't wait tell me who wrote these two words • Robert Pen-
till morning with such a doubt on my mind." fold ?'”
"Well, sir, I repeat this is irregular and extraor-| Young Wardlaw took the document, and tried to
dinary; but as you are here, pray what is the mat- examine it calmly, but it shook visibly in his hand,
ter?" He then dismissed the lingering butler with and a cold moisture gathered on his brow. His pale
a look. Mr. Adams cast uneasy glances on young eyes roved to and fro in a very remarkable way; and
Wardlaw.
he was so long before be said anything, that both
• 0," said the elder, “ you can speak before the other persons present began to eye him with
him. This is my partner; that is to say, he will be wonder.
as soon as the balance-sheet can be prepared, and At last he faltered out, “ This · Robert Penfold'
the deed drawn. Wardlaw junior, this is Mr. Ade seems to me very like his own handwriting. But
ams, a very respectable bill discounter."
then the rest of the writing is equally like yours, sir.
The two men bowed to each other, and Arthur I am sure Robert Penfold never did anything wrong.
Wardlaw sat down motionless.
Mr. Allams, please oblige me. Let this go no fur-
“ Sir, did you draw a note of hand to-day?”in-ther till I have seen him, and asked bim whether he
quired Adams of the elder merchant.
indorse it."
"I dare say 'I did. Did you discount one signed “Now don't you be in a hurry," said the elder
by me?”
Wardlaw. “ The first question is, who received the
" Yes, sir, we did.”
money!"
“ Well, sir, you have only to present it at mature | Mri Adams replied that it was a respectable look-
rity. Wardlaw and Son will provide for it, I dare ing man, a young clergyman.
say." This with the lofty nonchalance of a rich « Ah!” said Wardlaw, with a world of meaning,
min, who had never broken an engagement in his “Father !” said young Wardlaw, imploringly,
life.
" for my suke, say no more to-night. Robert Pen-
“Ah, that I know they will if it is all right; but fold is incapable of a dishonest act."
suppose it is not ?"
" It becomes your years to think so, young man.
" What d' ye mean ?” asked Wardlaw, with some But I have lived long enough to see what crimes
astonishment
respectable men are betrayed into in the hour of
“O, nothing, sir! It bears your signature, that temptation. And, now I think of it, this Robert
is good for twenty times the amount; and it is in- Penfold is in want of money. Did he not ask me
dorsed by your cashier. Only what makes me a lit- for a loan of two thousand pounds ? Was not that
tle uneasy, your bills used to be always on your own the very sum? Can't you answer me? Why, the
forins, and so I told my partner; he discounted it. application came through you."
Gentlemen, I wish you would just look at it."
Receiving no reply from his son, but a sort of ago-
"Of course we will look at it. Show it Arthur nized store, he took out his pencil and wrote don
first ; his eyes are younger than mine."
| Robert Penfold's address. This he handed the bill-
Mr. Adams took out a large bill-book, extracted broker, and gave him some advice in a whisper,
the note of hand, and passed it across the table to which Mr. Christopher Adams received with a pro-


FOUL PLAY.
sight.
riage, led naturally to a solemn engagement; and looking round, saw a young lady on the gravel path,
Arthur Wardlaw enjoyed the happiness of writing whose calm but bright face, coming so suddenly,
and receiving affectionate letters by every foreign literally dazzled him. She had a clear cheek
post. Love, worthily bestowed, shed its balm upon blooming with exercise, rich, brown hair, smooth,
his heart, and, under its soft but powerful charm, glossy, and abundant, and a very light hazel eye,
he grew tranquil and complacent, and his character of singular beauty and serenity. She glided along,
and temper seemed to improve. Such virtue is tranquil as a goddess, smote him with beauty and
there in a pure attachment.
perfume, and left bim staring after her receding fig-
Meanwhile the extent of his operations alarmed ure, which was, in its way, as captivating as her ,
old Penfold ; but he soon reasoned that worthy face.
down with overpowering conclusions and superior. She was walking up and down for exercise, brisk-
smiles.
| ly, but without effort. Once she passed within a few
He had been three years the ruling spirit of yards of him, and he touched his hat to her. She
Wardlaw and Son, when some curious events took inclined her bead gently, but her eyes did not rest
place in another hemisphere; and in these events, an instant on her gardener; and so she passed and
which we are now to relate, Arthur Wardlaw was repassed, unconsciously sawing this solitary heart
more nearly interested than may appear at first with soft but penetrating thrills.
At last she went indoors to luncheon, and the
lawn seemed to miss the light music of her rustling
Robert Penfold, in due course, applied to Lieu dress, and the sunshine of her presence, and there
tenant-General Rolleston for a ticket of leave. That was a painful void; but that passed, and a certain
functionary thought the application premature, the sense of happiness stole over James Seaton, - an
crime being so grave. He complained that the sys- unreasonable joy, that often runs before folly and
tein bad become too lax, and for his part he seldom trouble.
gave a ticket of leave until some suitable occupa | The young lady was Helen Rolleston, just re-
tion was provided for the applicant. “Will any-turned home from a visit. She walked in the gar-
body take you as a clerk ? If so, - I'll see about den every day, and Seaton watched her, and peeped
it.”
at her, unseen, behind trees and bushes. He fed his
Robert Penfold could find nobody to take him eyes and his heart upon her, and, by degrees, she
into a post of confidence all at once, and wrote the became the sun of his solitary existence. It was
General an eloquent letter, begging hard to be madness; but its first effect was not unwbolesome.
allowed to labor with bis hands.
The daily study of this creature, who, though by no
Fortunately, General Rolleston's gardener had means the angel he took her for, was at all events a
just turned him off; so he offered the post to his pure and virtuous woman, soothed his sore heart, and
eloquent correspondent, remarking that he did not counteracted the demoralizing influences of his late
much mind employing a ticket of leave man him- companions. Every day he drank deeper of an
sell, though he was resolved to protect his neigh-insane, but purifying and elevating passion.
bors from their relapses.
He avoided the kitchen still more; and that, by
The convict then came to General Rolleston, and the by, was unlucky; for there he could have learned
begged leave to enter on his duties under the name something about Miss Helen Rolleston, that would
of James Seaton. At that General Rolleston hem'd have warned him to keep at the other end of the
and haw'd, and took a note. But his final decision garden, whenever that charming face and form glided
was as follows : “ If you really mean to change to and fro amongst the minor flowers.
your character, why the name you bave disgraced A beautiful face fires our imagination, and we
might hang round your neck. Well, I'll give you sec higher virtue and intelligence in it, than we can
every chance. But,” said this old warrior, suddenly detect in its owner's head or heart when we descend
compressing his resolute lips just a little, “if you to calm inspection. James Seaton gazed on Miss
go a yard off the straight path now, look for no Rolleston day after day, at so respectful a distance,
mercy, Jemmy Seaton."
that she became his goddess. If a day passed with-
So the convict was re-christened at the tail of a out his seeing her, he was dejected. When she was
threat, and let loose among the warrior's tulips. behind her time, he was restless, anxious, and his
His appearance was changed as effectually as his work distasteful; and then, when she came out at
name. Even before he was Seatoned he had grown last, he thrilled all over, and the lawn, ay, the world
a silky mustache and beard of singular length and itself, seemed to fill with sunshine. His adoration,
beauty; and what with these, and his working timid by its own nature, was doubly so by reason of
man's clothes, and his cheeks and neck tanned by his fallen and hopeless condition. He cut nosegays
the sun, our readers would never have recognized | for her ; but gave them to her maid Wilson for her.
in this hale, bearded laborer the pale prisoner that He had not the courage to offer them to herself.
had trembled, raged, wept, and submitted in the | One evening, as he went home, a man addressed
dock of the Central Criminal Court.
him familiarly, but in a low voice. Seaton looked
Our Universities cure men of doing things by at him attentively, and recognized him at last. It
halves, be the things mental or muscular; so Seaton was a convict called Butt, who had come over in the
gardened much more zealously than his plebeian ship with him. The man offered him a glass of
predecessor : up at five, and did not leave till eight. ale; Seaton declined it. Butt, a very clever rogue,
But he was unpopular in the kitchen, because seemed hurt: so then Seaton assented reluctantly.
he was always out of it: taciturn and bitter, he | Butt took him to a public-house in a narrow street,
shunned his fellow-servants.
and into a private room. Seaton started as soon as
Yet working among the flowers did him good; he entered, for there sat two repulsive ruffians, and,
these his pretty companions and nurselings had no by a look that passed rapidly between them and Butt,
vices.
he saw plainly they were waiting for him. He felt
One day, as he was rolling the grass upon the nervous; the place was so uncouth and dark, the
lawn, he heard a soft rustle at some distance, and faces so villanous.


FOUL PLAY.
When she had done writing, she opened her win- seeing the General standing before him, stretched
dow and looked out upon the night. She lifted out his hands, and said, in a faint but earnest voice,
those wonderful hazel eyes towards the stars, and before eleven witnesses, “ Is she safe? O, is sbe
her watcher might well be pardoned if he saw in safe ? "
her a celestial being looking up from an earthly
resting place towards her native sky.
At two o'clock she was in bed, but not asleep.
CHAPTER IV.
She lay calmly gazing at the Southern Cross, and
other lovely stars shining with vivid, but chaste, fire SARAH WILson left off crying, and looked down
in the purple vault of heaven.
on the ground with a very red face. General Role
While thus employed she heard a slight sound leston was amazed. “Is she safe?” Is who safe ?"
outside that made her turn her eyes towards a said he. “He means my mistress," replied Wil-
young tree near her window. Its top branches son, rather brusquely; and flounced out of the
were waving a good deal, though there was not a ball.
breath stirring. This struck her as curious, very “She is safe, no thanks to you," said General Rol-
curious.
leston. “What were you doing under her window
Whilst she wondered, suddenly an arm and a at this time of night?” And the harsh tone in
hand came in sight, and after them the whole figure which this question was put showed Seaton he was
of a man, going up the tree.
suspected. This wounded him, and he replied, dog-
Helen sat up now, glaring with terror, and was gedly, “Lucky for you all I was there."
80 paralyzed she did not utter a sound. About a “That is no answer to my question," said the
foot below her window was a lead flat that roofed | General, sternly.
the bay window below. It covered an area of sev- “ It is all the answer I shall give you."
cral feet, and the man sprang on to it with perfect “ Then I shall band you over to the officer, with-
case from the tree. Helen shrieked with terror. out another word."
At that very instant there was a flash, a pistol-shot, “Do, sir, do," said Seaton, bitterly; but he added
and the man's arms went whirling, and he stag- more gently, “you will be sorry for it when you
gered and fell over the edge of the flat, and struck come to your senses."
the grass below with a heavy thud. Shots and At this moment Wilson entered with a message.
blows followed, and all the sounds of a bloody " If you please, sir, Miss Rolleston says the robber
struggle rung in Helen's ears as sbe Aung herself had no beard. Miss have never noticed Seaton's
screaming from the bed and darted to the door. face, but his beard she have; and O! if you please,
She ran and clung quivering to her sleepy maid, sir, she begged me to ask him, — Was it you that
Wilson. The house was alarmed, lights flashed, fired the pistol and shot the robber?”
footsteps pattered, there was universal commotion. The delivery of this ungrammatical message but
General Rolleston soon learned his daughter's rational query, was like a ray of light streaming
story from Wilson, and aroused his male servants, into a dark place : it changed the whole aspect of
one of whom was an old soldier. They searched things. As for Seaton, he received it as if Heaven
the house first; but no entrance had been effected; was speaking to him through Wilson. His sullen
so they went out on the lawn with blunderbuss and air relaxed, the water stood in his eyes, he smiled
pistol.
affectionately, and said in a low, tender voice, "Tell
They found a man lying on his back at the foot her I heard some bad characters talking about this
of the bay window.
house, - that was a month ago, --so, ever since then,
They pounced on him, and, to their amazement, I have slept in the tool-house to watch. Yes, I shot
it was the gardener, James Seaton. Insensible. the robber with my revolver, and I marked one or
General Rolleston was quite taken aback for a two more; but they were three to one; I think I,
moment. Then he was sorry. But after a little must have got a blow on the head; for I felt noth-
reflection, he said very sternly, “ Carry the black-ling —”
guard in-doors; and run for an officer."
Here he was interrupted by a violent scream
Seaton was taken into the hall, and laid flat on from Wilson. She pointed downwards, with her
the floor.
eyes glaring; and a little blood was seen to be
All the servants gathered about him, brimful of trickling slowly over Seaton's stocking and shoe.
curiosity, and the female ones began to speak alto- “Wounded,” said the General's servant, Tom, in
gether, but General Rolleston told then sharply the business-like accent of one who had seen a thou-
to hold their tongues, and to retire behind the man. sand wounds.
“ Somebody sprinkle him with cold water,” said “O! never mind that,” said Seaton. “It can't
he; “ and be quiet, all of you, and keep out of be very deep, for I don't feel it"; then, fixing bis
sight, while I examine him." He stood before the eyes on General Rolleston, he said, in a voice that
insensible figure with his arms folded, amidst a dead broke down suddenly, “there stands the only man
silence, broken only by the stifled sobs of Sarah who has wounded me to-night, to hurt me."
Wilson, and of a sociable housemaid who cried with The way General Rolleston received this point-
her for company.
blank reproach surprised some persons present, who
And now Seaton began to writhe and show signs had observed only the imperious and iron side of
of returning sense.
his character. He hung bis head in silence a mo-
Next he moaned piteously, and sighed. But ment; then, being discontented with himself, he
General Rolleston could not pity him; he waited went into a passion with his servants for standing
grimly for returning consciousness, to subject him idle. “Run away, you women," said he, roughly.
to a inerciless interrogatory.
| “Now, Tom, if you are good for anything, strip the
He waited just one second too long. He had to man and stanch his wound. Andrew, a bottle of
answer a question instead of putting one.
port, quick!”
The judgment is the last faculty a man recovers Then, leaving him for a wbile in friendly hands, he
when emerging from insensibility; and Seaton, I went to his daughter, and asked her if she saw any
15


10
FOUL PLAY.
objection to a bed being made up in the house for fully, “ We are all on the keyfeet' just now. Mise
the wounded convict.
| Rolleston's beau is come on a visit.”
* O papa," said she, “why of course not. I am
all gratitude. What is he like, Wilson ? for it is a The patient opened his eyes with astonishment.
most provoking thing, I never noticed his face, only * Miss Rolleston's beau ?"
his beautiful beard glittering in the sunshine ever so “Ay, her intended. What, did n't you know,
far off. Poor young man ! O yes, papa! send him she is engaged to be married ? ”
to bed directly, and we will all nurse him. I never “She engaged to be married ?" gasped Seaton.
did any good in the world yet, and so why not be Wilson watched him with a remorseless eye.
gin at once ?”
“ Why, James," said she, after a while, " did you
General Rolleston laughed at this squirt of enthu- think the likes of her would go through the world
siasm from his staid daughter, and went off to give without a mate?”
the requisite orders.
Seaton made no reply but a moan, and lay back
But Wilson followed him immediately and stopped like one dead, utterly crushed by this cruel blow.
him in the passage. “If you please, sir, I think you A buxom middle-aged nurse now came up, and
had better not. I have something to tell you." She said, with a touch of severity, “ Come, my good
then communicated to him by degrees her suspicion girl, no doubt you mean well, but you are doing ill.
that James Seaton was in love with his daughter. You bad better leave him to us for the present."
He treated this with due ridicule at first ; but she On this hint Wilson bounced out, and left the pa-
gave him one reason after another till she staggered tient to his misery.
him, and he went down stairs in a most mixed and At her next visit she laid a nosegay on his bed,
puzzled frame of mind, inclined to laugh, inclined to and gossipped away, talking of everything in the
be angry, inclined to be sorry.
world, except Miss Rolleston.
The officer had just arrived, and was looking At last she came to a pause, and Seaton laid his
over some photographs to see if James Seaton hand on her arm directly, and looking piteously in
was “one of his birds.” Such, alas! was his ex- her face spoke his first word.
pression.
" Does she love him ? ”
At sight of this Rolleston colored up; but extri- “What, still harping on her ?” said Wilson.
cated bimself from the double difficulty with some “ Well, she does n't hate him, I suppose, or she
skill. “Hexam,” said he, “this poor fellow has be- would not marry him.”
haved like a man, and got himself wounded in my “For pity's sake don't trifle with me! Does she
service. You are to take him to the infirmary; but love him?"
mind, they must treat him like my own son, and “La, James, how can I tell ? She may n't love
nothing he asks for be denied him."
him quite as much as I could love a man that took
Seaton walked with feeble steps, and leaning on my fancy” (here she cast a languishing glance on
two men, to the infirmary; and General Rolleston Seaton); “but I see no difference between her and
ordered a cup of coffee, lighted a cigar, and sat cog- other young ladies. Miss is very fond of her papa,
itating over this strange business, and asking himself for one thing; and he favors the match. Ay, and
how he could get rid of this young madman, and yet she likes her partner well enough : she is brighter
befriend him. As for Sarah Wilson, she went to like, now he is in the house, and she reads all her
bed discontented, and wondering at her own bad friends' letters to him ever so lovingly; and I do
judgment. She saw, too late, that, if she had held notice she leans on him, out walking, a trifle more
her tongue, Seaton would have been her patient and than there is any need for."
her prisoner; and as for Miss Rolleston, when it came At this picture James Seaton writhed in his bed
to the point, why she would never have nursed him like some agonized creature under vivisection; but
except by proxy, and the proxy would have been the woman, spurred by jealousy, and also by egotis-
Sarah Wilson.
tical passion, had no mercy left for him.
However, the blunder blind passion had led her “ And why not?” continued she; “ he is young,
into was partially repaired by Miss Rolleston herself. and handsome, and rich, and he dotes on her. If
When she heard, next day, where Seaton was gone, you are really her friend, you ought to be glad she
she lifted up her hands in amazement. “What is so well suited."
could papa be thinking of to send our benefactor . At this admonition the tears stood in Seaton's
to a hospital ?" And, after meditating a while, she eyes, and after a while, he got strength to say, “I
directed Wilson to cut a nosegay and carry it to know I ought, I know it. If he is only worthy of
Seaton. “ He is a gardener," said she, innocently. her, as worthy as any man could be.”
“ Of course he will miss his flowers sadly in that " That he is, James. Why, I'll be bound you
miserable place.”
have heard of him. It is young Mr. Wardlaw."
And she gave the same order every day with a Seaton started up in bed. «Who? Wardlaw ?
constancy, that, you must know, formed part of this what Wardlaw ?”
young lady's character. Soup, wine, and jellies were “ What Wardlaw ? why, the great London mer-
sent from the kitchen every other day with equal chant, his son. Leastways he manages the whole
pertinacity.
concern now, I hear; the old gentleman, he is re-
.Wilson concealed the true donor of all those things, tired, by all accounts."
and took the credit to herself. By this means she “ CURSE HIM! CURSE HIM! CURSE HIM !” yelled
obtained the patient's gratitude, and he showed it so James Seaton, with his eyes glaring fearfully, and
frankly, she hoped to steal his love as well.
both hands beating the air.
But no! his fancy and his heart remained true Sarah Wilson recoiled with alarm.
to the cold beauty he had served so well, and she “That angel marry him !” shrieked Seaton.
had forgotten him apparently.
“ Never, while I live : I'll throttle him with these
This irritated Wilson at last, and she set to work hands first."
to cure him with wholesome, but bitter medicine. What more his ungovernable fury would have
She sat down beside him one day, and said, cheer- uttered was interrupted by a rush of nurses and at-


FOUL PLAY.
11
tendants, and Wilson was bundled out of the place | This situation had tempted the burglars whom Sea-
with little ceremony.
| ton baffled ; and now it tempted Seaton.
He contrived however to hurl a word after her, Wardlaw must pass that way on leaving General
accompanied with a look of concentrated rage and Rolleston's house.
resolution.
At a bend of the lane two twin elms stood out a
“NEVER, I TELL YOU, - WHILE I LIVE." foot or two from the hedge. Seaton got behind
At her next visit to the hospital, Wilson was re- these at about ten o'clock, and watched for him with
fused admission by order of the Head Surgeon. She a patience and immobility that boded ill.
left her flowers daily all the same.
His preparations for this encounter were singu-
- After a few days she thought the matter might lar. He had a close-shutting inkstand and a pen,
have cooled, and, having a piece of news to com- and one sheet of paper, at the top of which he had
municate to Seaton, with respect to Arthur Ward-written “ Sydney," and the day of the month and
law, she asked to see that patient.
1 year, leaving the rest blank. And he had the re-
“ Left the hospital this morning," was the reply. volver with which he had shot the robber at Helen
" What, cured?"
Rolleston's window; and a barrel of that arm was
" Why not? We have cured worse cases than loaded with swan shot.
his."
“Where bas be gone to ? Pray tell me.”
“0, certainly." And inquiry was made. But
CHAPTER V.
the reply was, “Left no address."
Sarah Wilson, like many other women of high THE moon went down; the stars shone out clear-
and low degree, bad swift misgivings of mischief to er.
come. She was taken with a fit of trembling, and Eleven o'clock boomed from a church clock in the
had to sit down in the hall.
town.
And, to tell the truth, she had cause to tremble; Wardlaw did not come, and Seaton did not move
for that tongue of hers had launched two wild from his ambush.
beasts, - Jealousy and Revenge.
Twelve o'clock boomed, and Wardlaw never
When she got better she went home, and, cow- came, and Seaton never moved.
ard-like, said not a word to living soul.
Soon after midnight, General Rolleston's hall-
door opened, and a figure appeared in a flood of
That day, Arthur Wardlaw dined with General light. Seaton's eyes gleamed at the light, for. it was
Rolleston and Helen. They were to be alone for a young Wardlaw, with a footman at his back holding
certain reason; and he came half an hour before a lighted lamp.
dinner. Helen thought he would, and was ready Wardlaw, however, seemed in no burry to leave
for him on the lawn.
the house, and the reason soon appeared ; be was
They walked arm-in-arm, talking of the happiness joined by Helen Rolleston, and she was equipped
before them, and regretting a temporary separation for walking. The watcher saw her serene face
that was to intervene. He was her father's choice, shine in the light. The General himself came next;
and she loved her father devotedly; he was her and, as they left the door, out came Tom with a
male property; and young ladies like that sort of blunderbuss, and brought up the rear. Seaton
property, especially when they see nothing to dis- drew behind the trees, and postponed, but did not
like in it. He loved her passionately, and that was resign, his purpose.
her due, and pleased her and drew a gentle affec- Steps and murmurings came, and passed him, and
tion, if not a passion, from her in return. Yes, that receded.
lovely forehead did come very near young Ward- The only words he caught distinctly came from
law's shoulder more than once or twice, as they Wardlaw, as be passed. “It is nearly high tide. I
strolled slowly up and down on the soft mossy fear we must make haste."
turf.
Seaton followed the whole party at a short dis-
And, on the other side of the hedge that bounded tance, feeling sure they would eventually separate
the lawn, a man lay crouched in the ditch, and saw and give him his opportunity with Wardlaw.
it all with gleaming eyes.
They went down to the harbor and took a boat;
Just before the affianced ones went in, Helen Seaton came nearer, and learned they were going on
said, “I have a little favor to ask you, dear. The board the great steamer bound for England, that
poor man, Seaton, who fought the robbers, and was loomed so black, with monstrous eyes of fire.
wounded, — papa says he is a man of education, They put off, and Seaton stood baffled.
and wanted to be a clerk or something. Could you Presently the black monster, with enormous eyes
find him a place ?”
of fire, spouted her steam like a Leviathan, and
“I think I can,” said Wardlaw; “indeed, I am then was still; next the smoke puffed, the heavy
sure. A line to White and Co. will do it; they want paddles revolved, and she rushed out of the harbor ;
a shipping clerk."
and Seaton sat down upon the ground, and all
“O, how good you are !” said Helen; and lifted seemed ended. Helen gone to England ! Wardlaw
her face all beaming with thanks.
game with her! Love and revenge had alike
The opportunity was tempting; the lover food : lelūded him. He looked up at the sky, and played
two faces inet for a single moment, and one of thy / with the pebbles at his feet, stupidly, stupidly. He
two burned for five minutes after.
I wondered why he was born ; why he consented
The basilisk eyes saw the soft collision ; but the tn live a single minute after this. His angel and his
owner of those eyes did not hear the words that demon gone home together! And he left bere!
earned him that torture. He lay still and bided He wrote a few lines on the paper he had intend-
his time.
ed for Wardlaw, sprinkled them with sand, and put
them in his bosom, then stretched himself out with a
General Rolleston's house stood clear of the town weary moan, like a dying dog, to wait the flow of
at the end of a short, but narrow and tortuous lane. the tide, and, with it, Death. Whether or not his


12
FOUL PLAY.
resolution or his madness could have carried him so at Messrs. White and Co.'s was at his service, and
far cannot be known, for even as the water rippled she hoped he would take it without an hour's fur-
in and, trickling under his back, chilled him to the ther delay, for that she was assured that many
bone, a silvery sound struck his ear. He started to persons had risen to wealth and consideration in
his feet, and life and its joys rushed back upon him. the colony from such situations.
It was the voice of the woman he loved so madly. Then, as this wary but courteous young lady had
Helen Rolleston was on the water, coming ashore no wish to enter into a correspondence with her ex-
again in the little boat.
gardener, she added, -
He crawled, like a lizard, among the boats ashore |
“ Mr. Seaton need not trouble himself to reply to
to catch a sight of her : he did see her, was near her, thie?
this note. A simple yes' to Mr. Hexham will be
unseen himself. She landed with her father. So
enough, and will give sincere pleasure to Mr.
Wardlaw was gone to England without her. Sea-
Seaton's
ton trembled with joy. Presently his goddess began
“ Obedient servant and well-wisher,
to lament in the prettiest way. “ Papa! Papa!”
" HELEN ANNE ROLLESTON."
she sighed, “Why must friends part in this sad
world ? Poor Arthur is gone from me; and, by Seaton bowed his head over this letter in silent
and by, I shall go from you, my own papa." And but deep emotion.
at that prospect she wept gently.
Hexam respected that emotion, and watched him
" Why, you foolish child !” said the old General, with a sort of vague sympathy.
tenderly, “what matters a little parting, when we are | Seaton lifted his head, and the tears stood thick
all to meet again, in dear old England. Well then, in his eyes. Said he, in a voice of exquisite soft-
there, have a cry; it will do you good.” He pattedness, scarce above a whisper, “ Tell her, yes' and
her head tenderly, as she clung to his warlike God bless her.' Good by. I want to go on my
breast; and she took him at his word; the tears ran knees, and pray God to bless her, as she deserves.
swiftly and glistened in the very starlight.
Good by."
But, O! how Seaton's heart yearned at all this. Hexam took the bint, and retired softly.
What? must n't he say a word to comfort her; he
who, at that moment, would have thought no more
of dying to serve her, or to please her, than he
CHAPTER VI.
would of throwing one of those pebbles into that
slimy water.
WHITE AND Co. stumbled on a treasure in James
Well, her pure tears somehow cooled his hot Seaton. Your colonial clerk is not so narrow and
brain, and washed bis soul, and left him wondering apathetic as your London clerk, whose two objects
at himself and his misdeeds this night. His guar- seem to be, to learn one department only, and not
dian angel seemed to go by and wave her dewy to do too much in that; but Seaton, a gentleman
wings, and fan his hot passions as she passed. and a scholar, eclipsed even colonial clerks in this,
He kneeled down and thanked God he had not that he omitted no opportunity of learning the
met Arthur Wardlaw in that dark lane.
whole business of White and Co., and was also ani-
Then he went home to his humble lodgings, and mated by a feverish zeal, that now and then pro-
there buried bimself; and from that day seldom went voked laughter from clerks, but was agreeable, as
out, except to seek employment. He soon obtained well as surprising, to White and Co. Of that zeal,
it as a copyist.
his incurable passion was partly the cause. For-
Meantime the police were on bis track, employed tunes had been made with great rapidity in Syd-
by a person with a gentle disposition, but a tenacity ney; and Seaton now conceived a wild hope of
of purpose truly remarkable.
| acquiring one, by some lucky hit, before Wardlaw
Great was Seaton's uneasiness when one day he could return to Helen Rolleston. And yet his
saw Hexbam at the foot of his stair; greater still, common-sense said, if I was as rich as Cræsus, how
when the officer's quick eye caught sight of him, could she ever mate with me, a stained man. And
and his light foot ascended the stairs directly. He yet his burning heart said, don't listen to reason;
felt sure Hexham had heard of his lurking about listen only to me. Try
General Rolleston's premises. However, he pre | And so he worked double tides; and, in virtue
pared to defend himself to the uttermost.
of his University education, had no snobbish notions
Hexham came into his room without ceremony, about never putting his hand to manual labor : he
and looking mighty grim. “Well, my lad, so we would lay down his pen at any moment, and bear a
have got you, after all."
hand to lift a chest, or roll a cask. Old White saw
* What is my crime now?" asked Seaton, sullenly. him thus multiply himself, and was so pleased that
“ James," said the officer, very solemnly, “it is be raised his salary one third.
an unheard-of crime this time. You have been - He never saw Helen Rolleston, except on Sun-
running -- away – from a pretty girl. Now that is day. On that day he went to her church, and sat
a mistake at all times; but, when she is as beautiful half behind a pillar, and feasted his eyes and his
as a angel, and rich enough to slip a fiver into Dick heart upon her. He lived sparingly, saved money,
Hexham's hands, and lay him on your track, what bought a strip of land, by payment of £10 deposit,
is the use ? Letter for you, my man.”
and sold it in forty bours for £100 profit, and
Seaton took the letter, with a puzzled air. It watched keenly for similar opportunities on a lar-
was written in a clear but feminine hand, and ger scale; and all for her. Struggling with a
slightly scented.
mountain : hoping against reason, and the world.
The writer, in a few polished lines, excused her-
self for taking extraordinary means to find Mr. White and Co. were employed to ship a valuable
Seaton; but hoped he would consider that he had cargo on board two vessels chartered by Wardlaw
laid her under a deep obligation, and that gratitude and Son; the Shannon and Proserpine.
will sometimes be importunate. She had the pleas- Both these ships lay in Sydney harbor, and had
ure to inform him that the office of shipping clerk, I taken in the bulk of their cargoes: but the supple-


FOUL PLAY.
13
ment was the cream ; for Wardlaw, in person, had | ing himself the first thing; and indeed he could not
warehoused eighteen cases of gold dust and ingots, burn it down at all; for the roof was flat, and was
and fifty of lead and smelted copper. They were in fact one gigantic iron tank, like the roof of Mr.
all examined, and branded, by Mr. White, who had Goding's brewery in London: and, by a neat con-
duplicate keys of the gold cases. But the con- trivance of American origin, the wbole tank could
tents as a matter of habit and prudence were not be turned in one moment to a shower bath, and
described outside; but were marked Proserpine drown a conflagration in thirty seconds or therea-
and Shannon, respectively; the mate of the Proser- bouts. Nor could he rifle the place; the goods
pine, who was in Wardlaw's confidence, had writ- were greatly protected by their weight, and it was
ten instructions to look carefully to the stowage impossible to get out of the store without raising an
of all these cases, and was in and out of the store alarm, and being searched.
one afternoon just before closing, and measured! But, not to fall into the error of writers who
the cubic contents of the cases, with a view to underrate their readers' curiosity and intelligence,
stowage in the respective vessels. The last time and so deluge them with comments and explana-
he came he seemed rather the worse for liquor ; tions, we will now simply relate what Wylie did,
and Seaton, who accompanied him, having stepped | leaving you to glean his inotives as this tale ad-
out for a minute for something or other, was rather vances. His jacket had large pockets, and he took
surprised on his return to find the door closed, out of them a bunch of eighteen bright steel keys,
and it struck him Mr. Wylie (that was the mate's numbered, a set of new screw-drivers, a flask of
name) might be inside; the more so as the door / rum, and two ship biscuits.
closed very easily with a spring bolt, but it could! He unlocked the eighteen cases marked Proses-
only be opened by a key of peculiar construc- pine, &c., and, peering in with his lantern, saw the
tion. Seaton took out his key, opened the door, gold dust and small ingots packed in parcels, and
and called to the mate : but received no reply. surrounded by Australian wool of the highest pos-
However, he took the precaution to go round the sible quality. It was a luscious 'sight.
store, and see whether Wylie, rendered somnolent He then proceeded to a heavier task; he un-
by liquor, might not be lying oblivious among the screwed, one after another, eighteen of the cases
cases; Wylie, however, was not to be seen, and Sea- marked Shannon, and the eighteen so selected,
ton finding himself alone did an unwise thing; he perhaps by private marks, proved to be packed
came and contemplated Wardlaw's cases of metal close, and on a different system from the gold, viz.
and specie. (Men will go too near the thing that in pigs, or square blocks, three, or in some cases
causes their pain.) He eyed them with grief and four, to each chest. Now, these two ways of pack-
with desire, and could not restrain a sigh at these ing the specie and the baser metal respectively, bad
material proofs of his rival's wealth : the wealth that the effect of producing a certain uniformity of
probably had smoothed his way to General Rolles- weight in the thirty-six cases Wylie was inspecting :
ton's home, and to his daughter's heart; for wealth otherwise the gold cases would have been twice the
can pave the way to hearts, ay, even to hearts that weight of those that contained the baser metal; for
cannot be downright bought. This revery, no lead is proverbially heavy, but under scientific tests
doubt, lasted longer than he thought, for presently is to gold as five to twelve, or thereabouts.
he heard the loud rattle of shutters going up below: In his secret and mysterious labor Wylie was
it was closing time; he hastily closed and locked often interrupted. . Whenever be heard a step on
the iron shutters, and then went out and shut the door. the pavement outside, he drew the slide of his lan-
He had been gone about two hours, and that tern and hid the light. If he had examined the
part of the street, so noisy in business hours, was iron shutters, he would have seen that his light
hushed in silence, all but an occasional footstep on could never pierce through them into the street.
the flags outside, when something mysterious oc- But he was not aware of this. Notwithstanding
curred in the warehouse, now as dark as pitch. these occasional interruptions, he worked so hard
At an angle of the wall stood two large cases in and continuously, that the perspiration poured down
a vertical position, with smaller cases lying at their him ere he had unscrewed those eighteen chests
feet: these two cases were about eight feet high, containing the pigs of lead. However, it was done
more or less. Well, behind these cases suddenly at last, and then he refreshed himself with a draught
flashed a feeble light, and the next moment two from his Alask. The next thing was, he took the
brown and sinewy hands appeared on the edge of three pigs of lead out of one of the cases marked
one of the cases, - the edge next the wall; the Shannon, &c., and numbered fifteen, and laid them
case vibrated and rocked a little, and the next mo- very gently on the floor. Then he transferred to
ment there mounted on the top of it not a cat, nor that empty case the mixed contents of a case branded
a monkey, as might have been expected, but an Proserpine 1, &c., and this he did with the utmost
animal that in truth resembles both these quadru- care and nicety, lest gold dust spilled shoull tell
peds, viz. a sailor; and need we say that sailor tales. And so he went on and amused himself by
was the mate of the Proserpine. He descended shifting the contents of the whole eighteen cases
lightly from the top of the case behind which he marked Proserpine, &c., into eighteen cases marked
had been jammed for hours, and lighted a dark Shannon, &c., and refilling them with the Shannon's
lantern; and went softly groping about the store lead. Frolicsome Mr. Wylie! Then he sat down
with it.
on one of the cases Prosperined, and ate a biscuit
This was a mysterious act, and would perhaps and drank a little rum; not much: for at this part
have puzzled the proprietors of the store even of his career he was a very sober man, though
more than it would a stranger: for a stranger he could feign drunkenness, or indeed anything
would have said at once this is burglary, or else else.
arson : but those acquainted with the place would The gold was all at his mercy, yet he did not
have known that neither of those crimes was pocket an ounce of it; not even a pennyweight
very practicable. This enterprising sailor could to make a wedding-ring for Nancy Rouse. Mr.
not burn down this particular store without roast Wylie had a conscience. And à very original one


FOUL PLAY.
it was; and, above all, he was very true to those he “I think you are making a fuss about nothing,"
worked with. He carefully locked the gold cases said Hardcastle.
up again, and resumed the screw-driver, for there Mr. White was of the same opinion, but, being too
was another heavy stroke of work to be done; and wise to check zeal and caution, told Seaton he might
he went at it like a man. He carefully screwed go for his own satisfaction.
down again, one after another, all those eighteen Seaton, with some difficulty, got a little boat and
cases marked Shannon, which he had filled with pulled across the harbor. He found the Shannon
gold dust, and then, heating a sailor's needle red- had shipped all the chests marked with her name;
hot over his burning wick, he put his own secret and the captain and mate of the Proserpine were
marks on those eighteen cases, — marks that no eye beginning to ship theirs. He paddled under the
but his own could detect. By this time, though a Proserpine's stern.
very powerful man, he felt much exhausted, and Captain Hudson, a rough salt, sang out, and asked
would gladly have snatched an hour's repose. But, him roughly what he wanted there.
consulting his watch by the light of his lantern, he “0, it is all right," said the mate; "he is come
found the sun had just risen. He retired to his for your receipt and Hewitt's. Be smart now, men;
place of concealment in the same cat-like way he two on board, sixteen to come.”
had come out of it, – that is to say, he mounted on Seaton saw the chests marked Proserpine stowed
the high cases, and then slipped down behind them, in the Proserpine, and went ashore with Captain
into the angle of the wall.
Hewitt's receipt of forty cases on board the Shan-
As soon as the office opened, two sailors, whom non, and Captain Hudson's of eighteen on board the
he had carefully instructed overnight, came with a Proserpine.
boat for the cases; the warehouse was opened in As he landed he met Lloyd's agent, and told him
consequence, but they were informed that Wylie what a valuable freight he had just shipped. That
must be present at the delivery.
gentleman merely remarked that both ships were
"O, he won't be long," said they ; "told us he underwritten in Sydney by the owners ; but the
would meet us here."
freight was insured in London, no doubt.
There was a considerable delay, and a good deal There was still something about this business
of taiking, and presently Wylie was at their backs, Seaton did not quite like ; perhaps it was in the
and put in his woril.
haste of the shipments, or in the manner of the
Seaton was greatly surprised at finding him mate. At all events, it was too slight and subtle to
there, and asked him where he had sprung from. be communicated to others with any hope of con-
“Me!" said Wylie, jocosely, “why, I hailed vincing them; and, moreover, Seaton could not but
from Davy Jones's locker last.”
own to himself that he hated Wardlaw, and was,
“I never heard you come in,” said Seaton, perhaps, no fair judge of his acts, and even of the
thoughtfully.
acts of his servants.
"Well, sir,” replied Wylie, civilly, “a man does And soon a blow fell that drove the matter out of
learn to go like a cat on board ship, that is the his head and his heart. Miss Helen Rolleston called
truth. I came in at the door like my betters; but at the office, and, standing within a few feet of him,
I thought I heard you mention my name, so I made handed Hardcastle a letter from Arthur Wardlaw,
no noise. Well, here I am, any way, and, — Jack, directing that the ladies' cabin on board the Shan-
how many trips can we take these thundering non should be placed at her disposal.
chests in? Let us see, eighteen for the Proser- Hardcastle bowed low to Beauty and Station,
pine, and forty for the Shannon. Is that correct, and promised her the best possible accommodation
sir ?'"
on buard the Shannon, bound for England next week.
- Perfectly."
As she retired, she cast one quiet glance round
" Then, if you will deliver them, I'll check the the office in search of Seaton's beard. But he had
delivery aboard the lighter there ; and then we 'll reduced its admired luxuriance, and trimmed it to
tow her alongside the ships."
a narrow mercantile point. She did not know his
Seaton called up two more clerks, and sent one other features from Adam, and little thought that
to the boat, and one on board the barge. The young man, bent double over his paper, was her
barge was within hail; so the cases were checked | preserver and protégé ; still less that he was at this
as they passed out of the store, and checked again moment cold as ice, and quivering with misery from
at the small boat, and also on board the lighter. head to foot, because her own lips had just told him
When they were all cleared out, Wylie gave she was going to England in the Shannon.
Seaton his receipt for them, and, having a steam-
tung in attendance, towed the lighter alongside the Heart-broken, but still loving nobly, Seaton
Shannon first.
dragged himself down to the harbor, and went
Seaton carried the receipt to his employer. slowly on board the Shannon to secure Miss Rolles-
“ But, sir,” said he, “ is this regular for an officer | ton every comfort.
of the Proserpine to take the Shannon's cargo from Then, sick at heart as he was, he made inquiries
us?”
into the condition of the vessel which was to be
“ No, it is not regular," said the old gentleman ; trusted with so precious a freight; and the old boat-
and he looked through a window, and summoned man who was rowing him, hearing him make these
Mr. Hardcastle.
inquiries, told him he himself was always about, and.
Hardcastle explained that the Proserpine shipped had noticed the Shannon's pumps were going every.
the gold, which was the more valuable consigo- blessed night.
ment; and that he saw no harm in the officer, who Seaton carried this intelligence directly to Lloyd's
was so highly trusted by the merchant (on this and agent; he overhauled the ship, and ordered her into
on former occasions), taking out a few tons of lead the graving dock for repairs.
and copper to the Shannon.
Then Seaton, for wbite and Co., wrote to Miss
“Well, sir,” said Seaton, “suppose I was to go out Rollesion that the Shannon was not sea-worthy and
and see the chests stowed in those vessels ? " I could not sail for a month, at the least.


FOUL PLAY
At this moment a four-oared boat swept alongside; / begin. General Rolleston's eye followed her move-
and Mr. Hazel came on board again. He presented ments, and he observed the water in one of the
Hudson a written order to give the Rev. John Ha- basins was rather red. “What!” said he,“ has
zel a passage in the small berth abreast the main she had an accident; cut her finger?”
hatches. It was signed “For Wbite and Co., James “No, sir," said Wilson.
Seaton”; and was indorsed with a stamped acknowl-1 “Her nose been bleeding, then?”
edgment of the passage money, twenty-seven pounds. No, sir.”
Hudson, and Wylie the mate, put their heads “ Not from her finger, -- nor – ? let me look."
together over this. The missionary saw them con He examined the basin narrowly, and his coun-
sulting, and told them he had mentioned their mys-tenance fell. “Good heavens !” said he: “I wish
terious conduct to Messrs. White and Co., and that I had seen this before; she should not have gone to-
Mr. Seaton had promised to stop the ship if their day. Was it the agitation of parting ?”
authority was resisted. . “ And I have paid my pas- O no, sir," said Wilson; " don't go to fancy that.
sage money, and will not be turned out now except Why it is not the first time by a many."
by force," said the reverend gentleman, quietly. “Not the first!” faltered Rolleston. “In Heave
Wylie's head was turned away from Mr. Hazel's, en's name, why was I never told of this?”
and on its profile a most gloomy, vindictive look, so “Indeed, sir,” said Wilson, eagerly," you must livt
much so, tbat Mr. Hazel was startled when the man blame me, sir. It was as much as my place was
turned his front face to him with a jolly, genial air, worth to tell you. Miss is a young lady that will be
and said, “ Well, sir, the truth is, we seamen don't obeyed; and she give me strict orders not to let you
want passengors aboard ships of this class; they get know: but she is gone now: and I always thought
in our way whenever it blows a capful. However, it was a pity she kept it so dark; but, as I was say-
since you are here, make yourself as comfortable as ing, sir, she would be obeyed.”
you can.”
* Kept what so dark?
“ There, that is enough palaver," said the captain, “Why, sir, her spitting of blood at times: and
in his offensive way." Hoist the parson's traps turning so thin by what she used to be, poor dear
aboard ; and sheer off you. Anchor's apeak." young lady."
He then gave his orders in stentorian roars; the General Rolleston groaned aloud. “And this she
anchor was hove up, catted, and fished; one sail hid from me; from me!” He said no more, but
went up after another, the Proserpine's head came kept looking bewildered and helpless, first at the
round, and away she bore for England with a fair basin, discolored by his daughter's blood, and then
wind.
at the Proserpine, that was carrying her away,
perhaps forever: and at the double sight, his iron
General Rolleston went slowly and heavily home, features worked with cruel distress; anguish so mute
and often turned his head and looked wistfully at and male, that the woman Wilson, though not good
the ship putting out wing upon wing, and carrying for much, sat down and shed genuine tears of pity.
off his child like a tiny prey.
But he summoned all his fortitude, told Wilson he
To change the comparison, it was only a tender could not say she was to blame, she had but obeyed
vine detached from a great sturdy elm : yet the tree, her mistress's orders; and we must all obey orders.
thus relieved of its delicate encumbrance, felt bare ; " But now," said he, “it is me you ought to obey :
and a soft thing was gone, that, seeking protection, tell me, does any doctor attend her?”
had bestowed warmth ; had nestled and curled be- “None ever comes here, sir. But, one day, she
tween the world's cold wind and that stalwart stem. let fall that she went to Dr. Valentine, him that has
As soon as he got home he lighted a cigar, and the name for disorders of the chest."
set to work to console himself by reflecting that it In a very few minutes General Rolleston was at
was but a temporary parting, since he had virtually Doctor Valentine's house, and asked him bluntly
resigned his post, and was only waiting in Sydney what was the matter with bis daughter.
till he should have handed his papers in order over. “Disease of the lungs," said the doctor, sim-
to his successor, and settled one or two private mat- ply.
teon that could not take three months.
The unhappy father then begged the doctor to
When he had smoked his cigar, and reasoned away give him his real opinion as to the degree of danger;
his sense of desolation, Nature put out her hand, and and Dr. Valentine told him, with some feeling, that
tonk him by the breast, and drew him gently up the case was not desperate, but was certainly alarm-
stairs to take a look at his belover daughter's bed- ing.
room, by way of seeing the last of her.
Remonstrated with for letting the girl undertake a
The room bad one window looking south, and sea voyage, he replied rather evasively at first ; that
another west; the latter commanded a view of the the air of Sydney disagreed with his patient, and a
sea. General Rolleston looked down at the floor, sea voyage was more likely to do her good than
littered with odds and ends, -- the dead leaves of harm, provided the weather was not downright tem-
dress that fall about a lady in the great process of pestuous.
packing, — and then gazed through the window at . And who is to insure me against that?" asked
the flying Proserpine.
the afflicted father.
He sighed and lighted another cigar. Before he “Why, it is a good time of year,” said Dr. Valer-
had half finished it, he stooped down and took up a tine; "and delay might have been fatal.” Then,
little bow of ribbon that lay on the ground, and put after a slight hesitation, “ The fact is, sir," said he,
it quietly in his bosom. In this act he was surprised “I gathered from her servant that a husband awaits
by Sarah Wilson, wbo had come up to sweep all such | Miss Rolleston in England ; and I must tell you,
waifs and strays into her own box.
what of course I did not tell her, that the sooner she
"La, sir," said she, rather crossly," why did n't enters the married state the better. In fact it is her
you tell me, and I'd have tidied the room: it is all one chance, in my opinion."
huggermugger, with Miss a leaving."
General Rolleston pressed the doctor's hand, and
And with this she went tr the wash-hand-stand towent away without another word.


FOUL PLAY.
23
Sometimes I think I should like to have neither again, he was pale and trembling. The revelation
thought nor occupation unshared by you; and that was so sudden.
you would purify trade itself by your contact; at "Pray be calm, sir," said she. “ We need speak
other times I say to myself, O, never soil that of this no more. But, now, I think, you will not be
angel with your miserable business; but go home to surprised that I come to you for religious advice
her as if you were going from earth to heaven, for and consolation, short as our acquaintance is."
a few blissful hours. But you shall decide this “I am in'no condition to give them," said Hazel,
question, and every other.
in great agitation. “I can think of nothing but
"Must I close this letter? Must I say no more how to save you. May Heaven help me, and give
though I have scarcely begun ?
me wisdom for that."
“Yes, I will end, since, perhaps, you will never “This is idle,” said Helen Rolleston, gently, but
see it.
firmly. "I have had the best advice for months,
* When I have sealed it, I mean to hold it in my and I get worse ; and, Mr. Hazel, I shall never be
clasped hands, and so pray the Almighty to take it better. So, aid me to bow to the will of Heaven.
safe to you, and to bring you safe to him, who can Sir, I do not repine at leaving the world; but it
never know peace nor joy till he sees you once more. does grieve me to think how my departure will af-
“ Your devoted and anxious lover, fect those whose happiness is very, very dear to me."
- Arthur WARDLAW.” She then looked at the letter, blushed, and hesi-
tated a moment; but ended by giving it to him
Helen Rolleston read this letter more than once. whom she had applied to as her religious adviser.
She liked it none the less for being disconnected “Oblige me by reading that. And, when you
and unbusiness-like. She had seen her Arthur's have, I think you will grant me a favor I wish to
business letters ; models of courteous conciseness. ask you. ,Poor fellow! so full of hopes that I am
She did not value such compositions. This one she doomed to disappoint."
did. She smiled over it, all beaming and blushing; She rose to hide her emotion, and left Arthur
she kissed it, and read it again, and sat with it in | Wardlaw's letter in the hands of him who loved
her lap.
her, if possible, more devotedly than Arthur Ward-
But, by and by, her mood changed, and, when law did; and she walked the deck pensively, little
Mr. Hazel ventured upon deck again, he found her dreaming how strange a thing she had done.
with ber forehead sinking on her extended arm, and As for Hazel, he was in a situation poignant with
the lax hand of that same arm holding the letter. agony; only the heavy blow that had just fallen
She was crying.
bad stunned and benumbed him. He felt a natural
The whole drooping attitude was so lovely, so fem- repugnance to read this letter. But she had given
inine, yet so sad, that Hazel stood irresolute, looking him no choice. He read it. In reading it he felt
wistfully at her.
a mortal sickness come over him, but he perse-
She caught sight of him, and, by a natural im- vered; be read it carefully to the end, and he was
pulse, turned gently away, as if to hide her tears. examining the signature keenly, when Miss Rolles-
• But, the next moment, she altered her mind, and ton rejoined him, and, taking the letter from him,
said, with a quiet dignity that came naturally to placed it in her bosom before his eyes.
her at times, * Why should I hide my care from “ He loves ine; does he not?” said she, wist-
you, sir? Mr. Hazel, may I speak to you as a fully.
clergyman?”
Hazel looked half-stupidly in her face for a mo-
« Certainly," said Mr. Hazel, in a somewhat faint ment; then, with a candor which was part of his
voice.
character, replied, doggedly, “Yes, the man who
She pointed to a seat and he sat down near her. wrote that letter loves you."
She was silent for some time; her lip quivered a “ Then you can pity him, and I may venture to
little; she was struggling inwardly for that decent ask you the favor to — It will be a bitter grief
composure, which on certain occasions, distinguishes and disappointment to him. Will you break it
the lady from the mere woman; and it was with a to him as gently as you can; will you say that
pretty firin voice she said what follows:-
his Helen — Will you tell him what I have told
"I am going to tell you a little secret: one I have you ?"
kept from my own father. It is, – that I have not “I decline.”
very long to live."
This point-blank refusal surprised Helen Rolles-
Her hazel eye rested calınly on his face while she ton; all the more that it was uttered with a cer-
said these words quietly.
. tain sullenness, and even asperity, she had never
He received them with amazement, at first ; seen till then in this gentle clergyman.
amazement, that soon deepened into horror. It made her fear she had done wrong in asking
* What do you mean?” he gasped. “What words it; and she looked ashamed and distressed.
are these?”
However, the explanation soon followed.
* Thank you for minding so much," said she, “My business," said he," is to prolong your pre-
sweetly. " I will tell you. I have fits of coughing, I cious life; apd, making up your mind to die is not
not frequent, but violent; and then blood very the way. You shall have no encouragement in
often comes from my lungs. That is a bad sign, such weakness from me. Pray let me be your phy-
you know. I have been so for four months now, / sician."
and I am a good deal wasted ; my band used to be “Thank you," said Helen, coldly; "I have my
very plump, look at it now. – Poor Arthur!” own physician."
She turned away her head to drop a gentle, un- " No doubt: but he shows me his incapacity, by
selfish tear or two; and Hazel stared with increas- allowing you to live on pastry and sweets; things
ing alarm at the lovely but wasted hand she still that are utter poison to you. Disease of the lungs
held out to him, and glanced, too, at Arthur Ward- is curable, but not by drugs and unwholesome
law's letter, held slightly by the beloved fingers. food."
He said nothing, and, when she looked round | “Mr. Hazel,” said the lady, “we will drop the


24
FOUL PLAY.
subject, if you please. It has taken an uninterest- | She uttered a scream, and sailors came run-
ing turn."
ning.
“ To you, perhaps; but not to me.”
| They lifted him, with rough sympathy; and Hel-
“Excuse me, sir; if you took that real friendly en Rolleston retired to her cabin, panting with agi-
interest in me and my condition I was vain enough tation. But she had little or no pity for the slan-
to think you might, you would hardly have re- derer. She read Arthur Wardlaw's letter again,
fused me the first favor I ever asked you; and, kissed it, wept over it, reproached herself for not
drawing herself up proudly, “need I say the last?" having loved the writer enough; and vowed to re-
“ You are unjust,” said Hazel, sadly; '“ unjust be pair that fault. “ Poor slandered Arthur,” said she ;
yond endurance. I refuse you anything that is for * from this hour I will love you as devotedly as you
your good? I, who would lay down my life with love me.”
unmixed joy for you ? "
“ Mr. Hazel ! And she drew back from him
with a haughty stare.
CHAPTER IX.
“Learn the truth why I cannot, and will not, talk AFTER this, Helen Rolleston and Mr. Hazel never
to Arthur Wardlaw about you. For one thing, he spoke. She walked past him on the deck with cold
is my enemy, and I am his."
and haughty contempt.
“ His enemy? my Arthur's !”.
He quietly subunitted to it; and never presumed
“ His mortal enemy. And I am going to Eng- to say one word to her again. Only, as his determi-
land to clear an innocent man, and exposé Arthur nation was equal to his delicacy, Miss Rolleston
Wardlaw's guilt."
found, one day, a paper on her table, containing ad-
“ Indeed!” said Helen with lofty contempt. vice as to the treatment of disordered lungs, ex-
" And pray what has he done to you?”
pressed with annarunt, online, and backed by
“ He had a benefactor, a friend ; he entrapped a string of meascal authorities, quoted memoriter.
himn into cashing a note of hand, which he must. She sent this back directly, indorsed with a line,
have known, or suspected to be, forged; then base in pencil, that she would try hard to live, now she
ly deserted him at the trial, and blasted his friend's had a friend to protect from calumny; but should
life forever."
| use her own judgment as to the means.
6 Arthur Wardlaw did that?”
Yet women will be women. She had carefully
“ He did ; and that very James Seaton was his vic-taken a copy of his advice, before she cast it out
tim."
with scorn.
Her delicate nostrils were expanded with wrath He replied, “ Live, with whatever motive you
and her eyes flashed fire. “Mr. Hazel, you are a please ; only live."
liar and a slanderer."
To this she vouchsafed no answer; nor did this un-
The man gave a kind of shudder, as if cold happy man trouble her again, until an occasion of a
steel had passed through his heart. But his forti- very different kind arose.
tude was great; he said, doggedly, “ Time will One fine night, he sat on the deck, with bis back
show. Time, and a jury of our countrymen." against the mainmast, in deep melancholy and list-
"I will be his witness. I will say, this is the mal-lessness, and fell, at last, into a doze, from which he
ice of a rival. Yes, sir, you forget that you have was wakened by a peculiar sound below. It was a
let out the motive of this wicked slander. You love beautiful and stilly night; all sounds were magni-
me yourself; Heaven forgive me for profaning the fied; and the father of all rats seemed to be gnaw-
name of love!"
|ing the ship down below.
“ Heaven forgive you for blaspheming the pur- Hazel's curiosity was excited, and he went softly
est, fondest love, that ever one creature laid at the down the ladder to see what the sound really was.
feet of another. Yes, Helen Rolleston, I love you; But that was not so easy, for it proved to be below
and will save you from the grave and from the vil decks; but he saw a light glimmering through a
lain Wardlaw; both from one and the other.” small scuttle abaft the mate's cabin, and the sounds
“O, said Helen," clenching her teeth, “I bope were in the neighborhood of that light.
this is true; I hope you do love me, you wretch;! It now flashed upon Mr. Hazel that this was the
then I may find a way to punish you for belying very quarter where he had heard that mysterious
the absent, and stabbing me to the heart, through knocking when the ship was lying-to in the gale.
Upon this a certain degree of vague suspicion be-
Her throat swelled with a violent convulsion, and gan to mingle with his curiosity.
she could utter no more for a moment; and she put He stood still a moment, listening acutely ; then
her white handkerchief to her lips, and drew it took off his shoes very quietly, and moved with
away discolored slightly with blood.
noiseless foot towards the scuttle.
“Ah! you love me," she cried ; "then know, for The gnawing still continued. .
your comfort, that you have shortened my short life He put his head through the scuttle, and peered
a day or two, by slandering him to my face, you into a dark, dismal place, whose very existence was
monster. Look there at your love, and see what it new to him. It was, in fact, a vacant space between
has done for me."
the cargo and the ship's run. This wooden cavern
Sbe put the handkerchief under his eyes, with was very narrow, but not less than fifteen feet long
hate gleaming in her own.
The candle was at the farther end, and between it
Mr. Hazel turned ashy pale, and glared at it and Hazel, a man was working, with his flank turned
with horror; he could have seen his own shed, with towards the spectator. This partly intercepted the
stoical firmness; but a mortal sickness struck bis light; but still it revealed in a fitful way the huge
heart at the sight of her blood. His hands rose and ribs of the ship, and her inner skin, that formed the
quivered in a peculiar way, his sight left him, and right-hand partition, so to speak, of this black cay-
the strong man, but tender lover, staggered, and fell ern; and close outside those gaunt timbers, was
heavily on the deck, in a dead swoon, and lay at her heard the wash of the sea.
feet, pale and motionless.
There was something solemn in the close prox-
him."


FOUL PLAY.
25
imity of that tremendous element and the narrow-l “But drilling holes in her is not the way,” said
ness of the wooden barrier.
Hazel, sternly.
The bare place, and the gentle, monotonous wash | The mate laughed. “Why, sir,” said he, " what
of the liquid monster, on that calm night, conveyed other way is there? We cannot stop an irregular
to Mr. Hazel's mind a thought akin to David's. crack; we can frame nothing to fit it. The way is
“ As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there to get ready a plug measured a trifle larger than
is but a step between me and death."
the aperture you are going to make; then drill a
Judge whether that thought grew weaker or round hole, and force in the plug. I know no other
stronger, when, after straining his eyes for some way than that; and I was a ship's carpenter for
time, to understand wbat was going on at that mid- ten years before I was a mate.”
night hour, in that hidden place, he saw who was This explanation, and the manner in which it
the workman, and what was his occupation.
was given, removed Mr. Hazel's apprehensions for
It was Joseph Wylie, the mate. His profile was the time being. “It was very alarming," said he ;
illuminated by the candle, and looked ghastly. He “but I suppose you know your business."
had in his hands an anger of enormous size, and “Nobody better, sir," sai? Wylie. " Why, it is
with this he was drilling a great hole through the not one seaman in three that would trouble his
ship's side, just below the water-mark; an act, the head about a flaw in a ship's inner skin ; but I 'm
effect of which would be to let the sea bodily into a man that looks ahead. Will you have a glass of
the ship and sink her, with every soul on board, to grog, sir, now you are here? I keep that under
the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
my eye, too; berween ourselves, if the skipper han
“I was stupefied; and my hairs stood on end, as much in his cabin as I have here, that might ve
and my tongue clove to my jaws."
worse for us all than a crack or two in the ship's
Thus does one of Virgil's characters describe the inner skin.”
effect his mind produced upon his body, in a terrible Mr. Hazel declined to drink grog at that time in
situation.
the morning, but wished him good night, and left
Mr. Hazel had always ridiculed that trite line as him with a better opinion of him than he had ever
a pure exaggeration; but ke altered his opinion after had till then.
that eventful night.
Wylie, when he was gone, drew a tumbler of neat
When he first saw what Wylie was doing, obstu- spirits, drank half, and carried the rest back to his
puit, he was merely benumbed ; but, as his mind work.
realized the fiendish nature of the act, and its tre- Yet Wylie was a very sober man in a general
mendous consequences, his hair actually bristled, way. Rum was his tool ; not his master.
and for a few minutes at least, he could not utter a When Hazel came to think of it all next day, he
word.
did not feel quite so easy as he had done. The
In that interval of stupor, matters took another inner skin! But, when Wylie withdrew his auger,
turn. The auger went in up to the haft: then the water had squirted in furiously. He felt it hard
Wylie caught up with his left hand a wooden plug to believe that this keen jet of water could be caused
he had got ready, jerked the auger away, caught up by a small quantity that had found its way between
a hammer, and swiftly.inserted the plug.
the skin of the ship and her copper, or her top boot-
Rapid as he was, a single jet of water came ing; it seemed rather to be due to the direct pres-
squirting viciously in. But Wylie lost no time; he sure of the liquid monster outside.
tapped the plug smartly with bis hammer several He went to the captain that afternoon, and first
times, and then, lifting a mallet with both hands, told him what he had seen, offering no solution.
rained heavy blows on it that drove it in, and shook The captain, on that occasion, was in an amphibious
the ship's side.
state ; neither wet nor dry; and his reply was
Then Hazel found his voice, and he uttered an altogether exceptional. He received the com-
ejaculation that made the mate look round; he munication with pompous civility; then swore a
glared at the man, who was glaring at him, and, great oath, and said he would put the mate in
staggering backward, trod on the light, and all was irons : “ Confound the lubber! he will be through
darkness and dead silence.
the ship's bottom."
All but the wash of the sea outside, and that loud. " But, stop a moment,” said Mr. Hazel, “it is only
er than ever.
fair you should also hear how he accounts for his
proceeding."
But a short interval sufficed to restore one of the The captain listened attentively to the expla-
parties to his natural self-possession.
nation, and altered his tone. “Ó, that is a dif-
“ Lord, sir," said Wylie, “ how you startled me! ferent matter,” said he. “You need be under no
You should not come upon a man at his work like alarm, sir; the thundering lubber knows what he is
that. We might have had an accident."
about, at that work. Why he has been a ship's
“ What were you doing?” said Hazel, in a voice carpenter all his life. Him a seaman! If anything
that quavered in spite of him..
ever happens to me, and Joe Wylie is set to navi-
“ Repairing the ship. Found a crack or two in gate this ship, then you may say your prayers. He
her inner skin. There, let me get a light, and I 'llis n't fit to sail a wash-tub across a duck-pond. But
explain it to you, sir.”
I'll tell you what it is," added this worthy, with
He groped his way out, and invited Mr. Hazel more pomposity than neatness of articulation,
into his cabin. There he struck a light, and, with "here's respeckable passenger brought me a re-
great civility, tendered an explanation. The ship, port; do my duty to m'employers, and — take a
he said, had labored a good deal in the last gale, look at the well.”
and he had discovered one or two flaws in her, He accordingly chalked a plumb-line, and went
which were of no immediate importance; but ex- and sounded the well.
perience had taught him that in calm weather a There were eight inches of water. Hudson told
ship ought to be kept tight. “ As they say ashore, him that was no more than all ships contained from
a stitch in time saves nine."
various causes ; "in fact,” said he, "our pumps


28
FOUL PLAY
“I shan waste no more words on him. It is to “I can't help that,” said Hazel, firmly; and took
you I speak, and you know I speak the truth. Here a step towards the door.
is: a ship, in which, for certain reasons known to " Stop a bit,” said the mate. “Don't be in such
yourself, the captain is under the mate.”
a nation hurry: for, if you do, it will be bad for
* Well, sir," said Wylie, good-humoredly, “it is me, but worse for you." The above was said so
no use trying to deceive a gentleman like you. gravely, and with such evident sincerity, that Mr.
Our skipper is an excellent seaman, but he has got Hazel was struck, and showed it. Wylie followed
a fault." "Then Wylie imitated, with his hand, the up that trifling advantage. “ Sit down a minute,
action of a person filling his glass.
sir, if you please, and listen to me. You never saw
“ And you are here to keep him sober, eh?” a mutiny on board ship, I'll be bound. It is a
Wylie nodded.
worse thing than any gale that ever blew: begins
* Then why do you ply him with liquor ?” fair enough, sometimes; but how does it end? In
* I don't, sir."
breaking into the spirit-room, and drinking to mad-
“ You do. I have seen you do it a dozen times : ness, plundering the ship, ravishing the women, and
and last night you took rum into his room, and made cutting a throat or so for certain. You don't seem
him so drunk, he would have died where he lay if so fond of the picture, as you was of the idea. And
I had not loosed his handkerchief.”
then they might turn a deaf ear to you after all.
“I am sorry to hear that, sir; but he was sober Ship is well found in all stores ; provisions served
when I left him. The fool must have got to the out freely ; men in good humor; and I have got
bottle the moment I was gone."
their ear. And now I'll tell you why it won't suit
" But that bottle you put in his way; I saw you: your little game to blacken me to the crew, upon
and what was your object? to deaden his con the bare chance of a mutiny.” He paused for a
science with liquor, his and your own, while you moment, then resumed in a lower tone, and revealed
made him your fiendish proposal. Man, man, do himself the extraordinary man he was.
you believe in God, and in a judgment to come for “You see, sir,” said he, “ when a man is very
the deeds done in the body, that you can plan in ready to suspect me, I always suspect him. Now
cold blood to destroy a vessel with nineteen souls you was uncommon ready to suspect me. You
on board, besides the live stock, the innocent ani- did n't wait till you came on board; you began the
mals that God pitied and spared, when he raised game ashore. Oh! what, that makes you open one
his hand in wrath over Nineveh of old ? "
eye, does it? You thought I did n't know you
Wbile the clergyman was speaking, with flashing again. Knew you, my man, the moment you came
eyes and commanding voice, the seaman turned aboard. I never forget a face; and disguises don't
ashy pale; and drew his shoulders together like a
together like a | pass on me.”.
cat preparing to defend her life.
It was now Hazel's turn to look anxious and dis-
"I plan to destroy a vessel, sir! You never composed.
heard me say such a word; and don't you bint such "So, then, the moment I saw you suspected
a thing in the ship, or you will get yourself into me I was down upon you. Well, you come aboard
trouble."
under false colors. We did n't want a chap like
“ That depends on you."
you in the ship; but you would come. What is
" How so, sir?”
the bloke after?' says I, and watches. You was
"I have long suspected you.”
so intent suspecting me of this, that, and t'other,
“ You need not tell me that, sir."
that you unguarded yourself, and that is common
“But I have not communicated my suspicions. too. I'm blowed if it is n't the lady you are after.
And now that they are certainties, I come first to With all my heart: only she might do better, and
you. In one word, will you forego your intention, I don't see how she could do worse, unless she went
since it is found out?”
to old Nick for a mate. Now, I'll tell you what it
“ How can I forego what never was in my head ?" is, my man. I've been in trouble myself, and don't
said Wylie. “ Cast away the ship! Why there's want to be hard on a poor devil, just because he
no land within two thousand miles. Founder a sails under an alias, and lies as near the wind as he
vessel in the Pacific! Do you think my life is not can, to weather on the beaks and the bobbies. But
as sweet to me as yours is to you?”
one good turn deserves another: keep your dirty
Wylie eyed him keenly to see the effect of these suspicions to yourself; for if you dare to open your
words, and by a puzzled expression that came over hips to the men, in five minutes, or less than that,
his face, saw at once he had assumed a more exact you shall be in irons, and confined to your cabin;
knowledge than he really possessed.
and we 'll put you ashore at the first port that flies
Hazel replied that he had said nothing about a British flag, and hand you over to the authori-
foundering the ship; but there were many ways of ties, till one of her Majesty's cruisers sends in a
destroying one. "For instance," said he, I know boat for you."
how the Neptune was destroyed, -and so do At this threat Mr. Hazel hung his head in confu-
you; how the Rose and the Antelope were cast sion and dismay.
away, and so do you."
" Come, get out of my cabin, Parson Alias,"
At this enumeration, Wylie lost his color and shouted the mate ; "and belay your foul tongue in
self-possession for a moment; he saw Hazel bad this ship, and don't make an enemy of Joe Wylie,
been listening. Hazel followed up his blow. “ Prom- 'a man that will eat you up else, and spit you out
ise me now, by all you hold sacred, to forego this vil. again, and never brag. Sheer off, I say, and be
lany, and I hold my tongue. Attempt to defy me, d-d to you."
or to throw dust in my eyes, and I go instantly Mr. Hazel, with a pale face and sick heart,
among the crew, and denounce both you and Hud- looked aghast at this dangerous man, who could be
son to them."
fox, or tiger, as the occasion demanded.
“Good Heavens !” cried Wylie in unfeigned Surprised, alarmed, outwitted, and out-menaced,
terror. “Why the men would mutiny on the | he retired with disordered countenance, and uneven
steps, and bid himself in his own cabin.
spot.”


FOUL PLAY.
29
The more he weighed the whole situation, the ral to him, it stirred up all the bile in bis body, and
more clearly did he see that he was utterly power- brought on a severe attack of yellow jaundice,
less in the hands of Wylie.
accompanied by the settled dejection that marks that
A skipper is an emperor ; and Hudson had the disorder.
power to iron him, and set him on shore at the Meantime the Proserpine glided on, with a
vearest port. The right to do it was another mat- fair wind, and a contented crew. She was well
ter; but even on that head, Wylie could furnish a found in stores; and they were served out ungrudg-
plausible excuse for the act. Retribution, if it ingly.
came at all, would not be severe, and would be - Every face on board beamed with jollity, except
three or four years coming : and who fears it much, poor Hazel's. He crept about, yellow as a guinea;
when it is so dilatory, and so weak, and so doubtful a very scarecrow.
into the bargain ?
The surgeon, a humane man, urged him to drink
He succumbed in silence for two days; and then, sherry, and take strong exercise.
in spite of Wylie's threat, he made one timid at- But persons afflicted with that distressing malady,
tempt to approach the subject with Welch and are obstinately set against those things which tend
Cooper, but a sailor came up instantly, and sent to cure it; this is a feature of the disease. Mr.
them forward to reef topsails. And whenever he Hazel was no exception. And then his heart had
tried to enter into conversation with the pair, some received so many blows, it had no power left to
sailor or other was sure to come up and listen. resist the depressing effect of his disorder. He took
Then he saw that he was spotted ; or, as we say no exercise ; he ate little food. He lay, listless and
nowadays, picketed.
dejected, about the deck, and let disease do what it
· He was at his wits' end.
pleased with him.
He tried his last throw. He wrote a few lines to The surgeon shook his head, and told Hudson the
Miss Rolleston, requesting an interview. Aware parson was booked.
of the difficulties he had to encounter here, be " And good riddance of bad rubbish !” was that
stilled his heart by main force, and wrote in terms worthy's gracious comment.
carefully measured. He begged her to believe he The ship now encountered an adverse gale, and,
had no design to intrude upon ber, without abso- for three whole days, was under close-reefed top-
lute necessity, and for her own good. Respect for sails; she was always a wet ship under stress of
her own wishes forbade this, and also his self-respect. weather; and she took in a good deal of water on
“But,” said he, “I have made a terrible discov- this occasion. On the fourth day it fell calm, and
ery. The mate and the captain certainly intend to Captain Hudson, having examined the well, and
cast away this ship. No doubt they will try and found three feet of water, ordered the men to the
not sacrifice their own lives and ours; but risk pumps.
them they must, in the very nature of things. Be- | After working through one watch, the well was
fore troubling you, I have tried all I could, in the sounded again, and the water was so much reduced
way of persuasion and menace; but am defeated that the gangs were taken off'; and the ship being
So now it rests with you. You, alone, can save us now becalmed, and the weather lovely, the men
all. I will tell you how, if you will restrain your were allowed to dance upon deck to the boat-
repugnance, and accord me a short interview. swain's fiddle.
Need I say that no other subject shall be introduced While this pastime went on, the sun, large and
by me. In England, should we ever reach it, I red, reached the horizon, and diffused a roseate
may perhaps try to take measures to regain your light over the entire ocean.
good opinion; but here, I am aware, that is impos- Not one of the current descriptions of heaven
sible; and I shall make no attempt in that direction approached the actual grandeur and beauty of the
upon my honor."
blue sky flecked with ruby and gold, and its liquid
To this, came a prompt and feminine reply: mirror that lay below, calm, dimpled, and glorified
“ The ship is his. The captain and the mate are
| by that translucent, rosy tint.
able men, appointed by him. Your suspicions of
While the eye was yet charmed with this en-
thery poor men are calumnies, and of a piece with
chanting bridal of the sea and sky, and the ear
your other monstrous slanders.
amused with the merry fiddle and the nimble feet,
- I really must insist on your holding no further
that tapped the sounding deck so deftly at every
communication of any sort with one, to whom your
note, Cooper, who had been sounding the well, ran
character is revealed and odious.
H. R.”
"forward all of a sudden, and flung a thunderbolt in
the midst.
This letter benumbed his heart at first. A letter? “A LEAK!"
It was a blow; a blow from her he loved, and she
hated him!
His long-suffering love gave way at last. What
CHAPTER X.
folly and cruelty combined! He could no longer
make allowances for the spite of a woman whose The fiddle ended in mid-tune, and the men
lover had been traduced. Rage and despair seized crowded aft with anxious faces.
him; he bit his nails, and tore his hair with fury; The captain sounded the well, and found three
and prayed Heaven to help him hate her as she feet and a half water in it. He ordered all hands
deserved, “ the blind, insolent idiot!" Yes, these to the pumps.
bitter words actually came out of his mouth, in a They turned to with a good heart, and pumped,
torrent of fury.
| watch and watch, till daybreak. 1
But, to note down all he said, in his rage, would Their exertions counteracted the leak, but did
be useless; and might mislead, for this was a gust no more; the water in the well was neither more
of fury; and, while it lasted, the long-suffering man nor less perceptibly.
was no longer himself.
This was a relief to their minds, so far; but the
As a proof how little this state of mind was natu- situation was a very serious one. Suppose foul


FOUL PLAY:
31
Then, seeing her dumbfoundered, he caught up Rolleston, and telling her she should have her maid
her carpet-bag, and threw her work-box into it for with her eventually, when Hazel came; he handed
a beginning. He then laid hands upon some of her down his own bag, and threw the blankets into the
preserved meats, and marmalade, and carried them stern-sheets. Then went down himself, and sat on
off to his own cabin.
| the midship-thwart.
His mind then flew back to his reading, and “Shove off," said the captain ; and they fell
passed in rapid review, all the wants that men had astern.
endured in open boats.
But Cooper, with a boat-book, hooked on to the
He got hold of Welch, and told him to be sure long-boat; and the dying ship towed them both.
and see there was plenty of spare canvas on board, Five minutes more elapsed, and the captain did
and sailing needles, scissors, etc. : also three bags of not come down, so Wylie bailed him.
biscuit, and, above all, a cask of water.
There was no answer. Iludson had gone into
He himself ran all about the ship, including the the mate's cabin. Wylie waited a minute, then
mate's cabin, in search of certain tools he thought hailed again. “Hy! on deck there!"
would be wanted.
* Hullo!” cried the captain, at last.
Then to his own cabin, to fill his carpet-bag.
" Why did n't you come in the cutter?”
There was little time to spare; the ship was low The captain crossed his arms, and leaned over
in the water, and the men abandoning her. He the stern.
flung the things into his bag, fastened and locked it, “Don't you know that Hiram Hudson is always
strapped up his blankets for her use, flung on his the last to leave a sinking ship ?”
pea-jacket, and turned the handle of his door to run "Well, you are the last," said Wylie. “ So now
out.
come on board the long-boat at once. I dare not
The door did not open!
tow in her wake much longer, to be sucked in when
He pushed it. It did not yield !
she goes down.”
He rushed at it. It was fast !
“Come on board your craft and desert my own?”
He uttered a cry of rage, and flung himself at it. said Hudson, disdainfully. “Know my duty to
Horror! It was immovable.
m'employers better."
These words alarmed the mate. “ Curse it all!"
he cried; "the fool has been and got some more
CHAPTER XI.
rum. Fifty guineas to the man that will shin up
the tow-rope, and throw that madman into the sea,
The fearful, the sickening truth burst on him in then we can pick him up. He swims like a cork."
all its awful significance.
A sailor instantly darted forward to the rope.
Some miscreant or madman had locked the door, But, unfortunately, Hudson heard this proposal,
and so fastened him to the sinking ship, at a time and it enraged him. He got to his cutlass. The
when, in the bustle, the alarm, the selfishness, all sailor drew the boat under the ship's stern, but the
would be apt to forget him, and leave him to his drunken skipper flourished his cutlass furiously
death.
over his head. “Board me! ye pirates! the first
He tried the door in every way, he hammered at that lays a finger on my bulwarks, off goes his
it; he shouted, he raged, he screamed. In vain. hand at the wrist." Suiting the action to the word,
Unfortunately the door of this cabin was of very un- he hacked at the tow-rope so vigorously that it gave
usual strength and thickness.
way, and the boats fell astern.
Then he took up one of those great augers he had Helen Rolleston uttered a shriek of dismay and
found in the mate's cabin, and bored a hole in the pity. “0, save him!” she cried.
door; through this hole be fired his pistol, and then.Make sail !" cried Cooper; and, in a few sec-
screamed for help. “I am shut up in the cabin. I onds, they got all her canvas set upon the cutter.
sball be drowned. O, for Christ's sake, save me! It seemed a hopeless chase for these shells to sail
save me ! ” and a cold sweat of terror poured down after that dying monster with her cloud of canvas
his whole body.
| all drawing, alow and aloft.
What is that?
“But it did not prove so. The gentle breeze
The soft rustle of a woman's dress.
was an advantage to light craft, and the dying
O, how he thanked God for that music, and the Proserpine was full of water, and could only
hope it gave him !
crawl.
It comes towards him; it stops, the key is turned, After a few moments of great anxiety, the boats
the dress rustles away, swift as a winged bird ; crept up, the cutter on her port, and the long-boat
he dashes at the door; it flies open.
on her starboard-quarter.
Nobody was near. He recovered his courage in Wylie ran forward, and, hailing Hudson, im-
part, fetched out his bag and his tools, and ran plored him, in the friendliest tones, to give himself
across to the starboard side. There he found the a chance. Then tried him by his vanity, “ Come,
captain lowering Miss Rolleston, with due care, and command the boats, old fellow. How can we
into the cutter, and the young lady crying; not at navigate them on the Pacific, without you ? "
being shipwrecked, if you please, but at being Hudson was now leaning over the taffrail utterly
deserted by her maid. Jane Holt, at this trying drunk. He made no reply to the mate, but merely
moment, bad deserted her mistress for her husband. waived his cutlass feebly in one hand, and his bot-
This was natural; but, as is the rule with persons tle in the other, and gurgled out “ Duty to m'em-
of that class, she had done this in the silliest and ployers.”
cruelest way. Had she given balf an hour's notice. Then Cooper, without a word, double-reefed the
of her intention, Donovan might have been on cutter's mainsail, and told Welch to keep as close
board the cutter with her and her mistress. But to the ship's quarter as he dare. Wylie instinctive-
no; being a liar and a fool, she must hide her hus-ly did the same, and the three craft crawled on,
band to the last moment, and then desert her mis- in solemn and deadly silence, for nearly twenty
tress. The captain, then, was comforting Miss minutes.



VIHUSTI
NI AULIN
500
MAULANA
CAME
SWAIN
ON SHIPBOARD.— See page 23.





FOUL PLAY.
35
vessel. Twice the Shannon had thus met him, as threw a portmanteau on its roof, and his military
if to satisfy him that his object had been attained, acquaintance took possession of it.
and each time she seemed to him not an inanimate « All right,” said the porter. “ What address,
thing, but a silent accomplice. A chill of fear sir ?”
struck through the man's frame as he looked at her. Wylie did not hear what the gentleman said, but
Yes, there she lay, and in her hold were safely the porter shouted it to the cabman, and then he
stowed £160,000 in gold, marked lead and cop- | did hear it.
per.
“ No. —, Russell Square:”
Wylie had no luggage nor effects to detain hinn It was the house of Arthur Wardlaw !
on board; he landed, and having bestowed his three Wylie took off his hat, rubbed bis frowsy hair,
companions in a sailors' boarding-house, he was and gaped after the cab.
hastening to the shipping agents of Wardlaw and He entered another cab, and told the driver to
Son to announce his arrival and the fate of the go to “ No. —, Fenchurch Street.”
Proserpine. He had reached their offices in Water | It was the office of Wardlaw and Son.
Street before he recollected that it was barely half
past five o'clock, and, though broad daylight on that
July morning, merchants' offices are not open at
CHAPTER XV.
that hour. The sight of the Shannon had so be-
wildered him that he had not noticed that the sbons OUR scene now changes from the wild ocean and
were all shut, the streets deserted. Then a thought its perils, to a suug room in Fenchurch Street; the
occurred to him, — why not be a bearer of his own inner office of Wardlaw and Son: a large apartment,
news? He did not require to turn the idea twice panelled with fine old mellow Spanish oak; and all
over, but resolved, for many reasons, to adopt it. the furniture in keeping; the carpet, a thick Ar-
As he hurried to the railway-station, he tried to minster of sober colors; the chairs, of oak and mo-
recollect the hour at which the early train started; rocco, very substantial ; a large office-table, with
but his confused and excited mind refused to per- oaken legs like very columns, substantial; two Mil-
form the function of memory. The Shannon dazed ner safes; a globe of unusual size, with a handsome
him.
tent over it, made of roan leather, figured ; the walls
At the railway-station be found that a train had hung with long oak boxes, about eight inches broad,
started at 4 A. M., and there was nothing until 7.30. containing rolled maps of high quality, and great
This check sobered him a little, and he went back dimensions; to consult which, oaken sceptres tipped
to the docks; he walked out to the farther end of with brass hooks stood ready: with these, the great
that noble line of berths, and sat down on the verge maps could be drawn down and inspected; and, on
with his legs dangling over the water. He waited being released, flew up into their wooden boxes
an hour; it was six o'clock by the great dial at St. again. Besides these were hung up a few drawings.
George's Dock. His eyes were fixed on the Shan representing outlines, and inner sections, of vessels :
non, which was moving slowly up the river; she and, on a smaller table, lay models, almanacs, etc.
came abreast to where he sat. The few sails requi-The great office-table was covered with writing ma-
site to give her steerage fell. Her anchor-chain terials and papers, all but a square space enclosed
rattled, and she swung round with the tide. The with a little silver rail, and inside that space lay a
clock struck the half lour; a boat left the side of purple morocco case about ten inches square ; it was
the vessel and made straight for the steps near locked, and contained an exquisite portrait of Helen
where he was seated. A tall, noble-looking man Rolleston.
sat in the stern-sheets beside the coxswain ; he was This apartment was so situated, and the frames of
put ashore, and, after exchanging a few words with the plate glass windows so well made and substan-
the boat's crew, he mounted the steps which led tial, that, let a storm blow a thousand ships ashore,
hiin to Wylie's side, followed by one of the sailors, it could not be felt, nor heard, in Wardlaw's inner
who carried a portmanteau.
office.
He stood for a single moment on the quay, and But appearances are deceitful; and who can
stamped his foot on the broad stones; then heaving wall out a sea of troubles, and the tempests of the
a deep sigh of satisfaction, he murmured, “ Thank mind ?
God!".
The inmate of that office was battling for his com-
He turned towards Wylie.
mercial existence, under accumulated difficulties and
“ Can you tell me, my man, at what hour the first dangers. Like those who sailed the Proserpine's
train starts for London?”
long-boat, upon that dirty night, which so nearly
" There is a slow train at 7.30 and an express swamped her, bis eye had now to be on every wave,
at 9."
and the sheet forever in his hand.
" The express will serve me, and give me time. His measures had been ably taken; but, as will
for breakfast at the Adelphi. Thank you; good happen when clever men are driven into a corner,
morning": and the gentleman passed on, followed he had backed events rather too freely against time;
by the sailor.
had allowed too slight a margin for unforeseen de-
Wylie looked after him; he noted that erect lays. For instance, he had averaged the Shannon's
military carriage and crisp, gray hair and thick previous performances, and had calculated on her
white mustache; he had a vague idea that he arrival too nicely. She was a fortnight overdue,
had seen that face before, and the memory troubled and that delay brought peril.
He had also counted upon getting news of the
At 7.30 Wylie started for London ; the military | Proserpine. But not a word had reached Lloyd's
man followed him in the express at 9, and caught as yet.
him up at Rugby ; together they arrived at the sta- | At this very crisis came the panic of '66. Over-
tion at Euston Square ; it was a quarter to three. end and Gurney broke ; and Wardlaw's experience
Wylie hailed a cab, but before he could struggle led him to fear that, sooner or later, there would be
through the crowd to reach it a railway porter a run on every bank in London. Now he had bor
him.


38
FOUL PLAY.
“ What is that?” cried Wardlaw senior; "the | No doubt; no doubt. I'll give you my signa-
Proserpine ; show him in at once."
ture; and you can fill in the amount."
Now this caused Arthur Wardlaw considerable He drew a check in favor of Arthur Wardlaw,
anxiety; for obvious reasons he did not want his signed it, and left him to fill in the figures.
father and this sailor to exchange a word togeth- He then looked at his watch, and remarked they
er. However, that was inevitable now: the door would barely have time to get to the station.
opened, and the bronzed face and sturdy figure of “Good Heavens !” cried Arthur; "and I can't
Wylie, clad in a rough pea-jacket, came slouching go. I must learn the particulars of the loss of the
in.
| Proserpine, and prepare the statement at once for
Arthur went bastily to meet him, and gave him the underwriters."
an expressive look of warning, even while he wel-! « Well, never mind. I can go.”
comed him in cordial accents.
“ But what will sae think of me? I ought to be
“ Glad to see you safe home," said Wardlaw se- the first to welcome her."
nior.
| “I'll make your excuses."
“ Thank ye, guv'nor,” said Wylie. “Had a “No, no; say nothing: after all, it was you who
squeak for it, this time."
received the telegram: so you naturally meet her
" Where is your ship?"
but you will bring her here, father : you won't
Wylie shook his head sorrowfully. “ Bottom of whisk my darling down to Elm-trees, till you bave
the Pacific."
blest me with the sight of her.”
“ Good heavens! What; is she lost ? ”
" I will not be so cruel, fond lover," said old Ward-
“ That she is, sir : foundered at sea, 1,200 miles | law, laughing, and took up his hat and gloves to go.
from the Horn, and inore."
Arthur went to the door with him, in great anxie-
“ And the freight? the gold ?" put in Arthur, ty, lest he should question Burtenshaw : but, peer-
with well-foigned anxiety. .
ing into the outer office, he observed Burtenshaw
“ Not an ounce saved,” said Wylie, disconso was not there. Michael had caught his employer's
lately. "A hundred and sixty thousand pounds anxious look, and conveyed the Banker into the
gone to the bottom."
small room, where the shorthand writer was at
" Good heavens."
work. But Burtenshaw was one of a struggling
“ Ye see, sir,” said Wylie, “the ship encountered | firm; to him every minute was an hour: he had sat,
one gale after another, and labored a good deal, first fuming with impatience, so long as he heard talking
and last; and we all say her seams must have in the inner office; and, the moment it ceased, he
opened; for we never could find the leak that sunk took the liberty of coming in: so that he opened
her," and he cast a meaning glance at Arthur the side door, just as Wardlaw senior was passing
Wardlaw.
through the centre door.
“No matter how it happened,” said the old mer-1 Instantly Wardla w junior whipped before him,
chant: “ are we insured to the full; that is the first to hide his figure from his retreating father.
question ? "
Wylie — who all this time had been sitting silent,
“ To the last shilling,"
looking from one to the other, and quietly puzzling
“ Well done, Arthur.”
out the game, as well as he could — observed this
“But still it is most unlucky. Some weeks must movement, and grinneri.
elapse before the insurances can be realized, and a As for Arthur Wardlaw, he saw his father safe
portion of the gold was paid for in bills at short out, then gave a sigh of relief, and walked to his
date."
office table, and sat down, and began to fill in the
“ The rest in cash ?"
check.
“Cash and merchandise.”
Burtenshaw drew near, and said, “I am in-,
Then there is the proper margin. Draw on my structed to say that fifty thousand pounds on ac-
private account, at the Bank of England.” . count will be accepted.”
These few simple words showed the struggling Perhaps if this proposal had been made a few
young merchant a way out of all his difficul seconds sooner, the ingenious Arthur would have
ties.
| availed himself of it: but, as it was, he preferred to
His heart leaped so, he dared not reply, lest he take the high and mighty tone. "I decline any
should excite the old gentleman's suspicions. concession," said he. "Mr. Penfold, take this check
But, ere he could well draw his breath, for joy, to the Bank of England. £81,647 10s. that is the
came a freezer.
amount, capital and interest, up to noon this day :
“Mr. Burtenshaw, sir.”
hand the sum to Mr. Burtenshaw, taking his receipt,
“ Bid him wait,” said Arthur aloud, and cast a or, if he prefers it, pay it across his counter, to my
look of great anxiety on Penfold, which the poor old credit. That will perhaps arrest the run.”
man, with all his simplicity, comprehended well! Burtenshaw stammered out his thanks.
enough.
Wardlaw cut him short. “Good morning, sir,”
* Burtenshaw, from Morland's. What does he said he. “I have business of importance. Good
want of us?” said Wardlaw senior, knitting his day," and bowed him out.
brows.
* This is a Highflyer," thought Bartenshaw.
Arthur turned cold all over. Perhaps to ask Wardlaw then opened the side door, and called
me not to draw out my balance. It is less than usu- his shorthand writer.
al: but they are run upon; and, as you are good “Mr. Atkins, please step into the outer office,
enough to let me draw on you, - by the by, per- and don't let a soul come in to me. Mind, I am out
haps you will sign a check before you go to the for the day. Except to Miss Rolleston and her
father."
“How much do you want?”
He then closed all the doors, and sunk exhausted
“I really don't know, till I have consulted Pen-into a chair, muttering, “Thank Heaven! I have
fold : the gold was a large and advantageous pur- got rid of them all for an hour or two. Nou,
chase, sir."
| Wylie."
station."


FOUL PLAY
self.”
Wylie seemed in no hurry to enter upon the re- l“ How do you make that out?"
quired subject.
" Why, White's clerk and the parson, they was
Said be, evasively, “ Why, guv'nor, it seems one man."
to me you are among the breakers here, your Wardlaw stared in utter amazement.
"Don't ye believe me?” said Wylie. "I tell ve
- Notking of the sort, if you have managed your that there clerk boarder us under an alias. He
work cleverly. Come, tell me all, before we are had shaved off his beard; but, bless your heart, I
interrupted again.”
knew him directly."
“Tell ye all about it! Why there's part on't, “ He came to verify his suspicions," surgested
I am afraid to think on; let alone talk about Wardlaw, in a faint voice.
* Not he. He came for love of the sick girl, and
“Spare me your scruples, and give me your nothing else ; and you 'll never see either him or
facts," said. Wardlaw, coldly. “ First of all, did her, if that is any comfort to you."
you succeed in shifting the bullion as agreed ?" "Be good enough to conceal nothing. Facts
The sailor appeared relieved by this question.. must be faced.”
“ 0, that is all right," said he. "I got the bullion “ That is too true, sir. Well, we abandoned her,
safe aboard the Shannon, marked for lead."
and took to the boats. I commanded one.”
“ And the lead on board the Proserpine?”
“ And Hudson the other?”
“ Ay, shipped as bullion.”
“ Hudson! No."
“ Without suspicion ? ”
“Why, how was that ? and what has become of
Not quite."
him?"
“ Great Heaven! Who?"
" What has become of Hudson ?" said Wylie,
“ One clerk at the shipping agent's scented some with a start. “ There's a question! And not a
thing queer, I think. James Seaton. That was the drop to wet my lips, and warm my heart. Is this a
name he went by."
tale to tell, dry? Can't ye spare a drop of brandy
“ Could he prove anything?"
to a poor devil that bas earned ye £150,000, and
“ Nothing. He knew nothing for certain; and risked his life, and wrecked his soul, to do it?”
what he guessed won't never be known in England Wardlaw cast a glance of contempt on him, but
now.” And Wylie fidgeted in his chair.
got up, and speedily put a bottle of old brandy, a
Notwithstanding this assurance Wardlaw looked tumbler, and a caraffe of water, on the table before
grave, and took a note of that clerk's name. Then | him.
he begged Wylie to go on. “Give me all the Wylie drank a wine-glassful neat, and gave a
details," said he. “Leave me to judge their relative sort of sigh of satisfaction. And then ensued a
value. You scuttled the ship ? "
dialogue, in which, curiously enough, the brave man
"Don't say that! don't say that!” cried Wylie, was agitated, and the timid man was cool and .col-
in a low but eager voice. “Stone walls have ears.” | lected. But one reason was, the latter had not
Then rather more loudly than was necessary," Ship imagination enough to realize things unseen, though
sprung a leak, that neither the capfain, nor I, nor he had caused them.
anybody could find, to stop. Me and my men, we Wylie told him how Hudson got to the bottle,
all think her seams opened, with stress, of weather.". and would not leave the sbip. “I think I see him
Then, lowering his voice again, “ Try and see it as now, with his cutlass in one hand, and bis rum
we do; and don't you ever use such a word as that bottle in the other, and the waves running over his
what come out of your lips just now. We pumped poor, silly face, as she went down. Poor Hiram!
her hard; but 't warn't no use. She filled, and we he and I had made many a trip together, before we
had to take to the boats,"
took to this."
"Stop a moment. Was there any suspicion ex And Wylie shuddered, and took another gulp at
cited ? "
the brandy.
“Not among the crew: and, suppose there was, While he was drinking to drown the picture,
I could talk 'em all over, or buy 'em all over, what Wardlaw was calmly reflecting on the bare fact.
few of 'em is left. I've got 'em all with me in one - Fun," said he, " we must use that circumstance.
house : and they are all square, don't you fear.” I'll get it into the journals. Herpic captain. Went
* Well, but you said . among the crew." Whom down with the ship. Who can suspect Hudson in
else can we have to fear?”
the teeth of such a fact ? Now, pray go on, ny
“Why, nobody. To be sure, one of the pas- good Wylie. The boats!”
sengers was down on me; but what does that mat "Well, sir, I had the surgeon, and ten men, and
ter now?”
the lady's maid, on board the long-boat; and there
" It matters greatly,– it matters terribly. Who was the parson, the sick lady, and five sailors aboard
was this passenger?”
the cutter. We sailed together, till night, steering
* He called himself the Reverend John Hazel. for Juan Fernandez, then a fog came on and we
He suspected something or other; and what with I lost sight of the cutter, and I altereil my mind and
listening here, and watching there, he judged the judged it best to beat to win’ard, and get into the
ship was never to see England, and I always fancied track of ships. Which we did, and were nearly
he told the lady."
swamped in a sou'wester; but, by good luck, a
"What, was there a lady there?”
Yankee whaler picked us up, and took us to Buenos
“Ay, worse luck, sir; and a pretty girl she was : | Ayres, where we shipped for England, what was
coming home to England to die of consumption; so left of us, only four, besides mysell; but I got the
our surgeon told me.”
signatures of the others to my tale of the wreck. It
“Well, never mind her. The clergyman! This is all as square as a die, I tell you."
fills me with anxiety. A clerk suspecting us at - Well done. Well done. But, stop! the other
Sydney, and a passenger suspecting us in the vessel. boat, with that sham parson on board, who knows
There are two witnesses against us already."
all. She will be picked up, too, perhaps."
“No; only one."
“There is no chance of that. She was out of the


FOUL PLAY.
.
43
mended Cuoper for that post. But they had not fath-! At 4 P. M. several flying-fish, driven into the air
omed the sterling virtues of that taciturn seaman; by the dolphins and cat-fish, fell into the sea again
so they offered the command to Welch, instead. near the boat, and one struck the sail sharply, and
" Me put myself over Sam Cooper !” said he; fell into the boat. It was divided, and devoured
* not likely."
raw, in a moment.
Then their choice fell upon Michael Morgan. The next morning the wind fell, and, by noon,
The other sailors' names were Prince, Fenner, and the ocean became like glass.
Mackintosh.
The horrors of a storm have been often painted ;
Mr. Hazel urged Morgan to put the crew and pas- but who has described, or can describe, the horrors
sengers on short allowance at once, viz. two bis- of a calm, to a boat-load of hungry, thirsty crea-
cuits a day, and four table-spoonsful of water : but tures, whose only chances of salvation or relief are
Morgan was a common sailor; he could not see wind and rain ?
clearly very far ahead; and, moreover, his own ap The beautiful, remorseless sky was one vault of
petite counteracted this advice ; he dealt out a purple, with a great llaming jewel in the centre,
pound of biscuit and an ounce of ham to each per- whose vertical rays struck, and parched, and
. son, night and morning, and a pint of water in scorched the living sufferers ; and blistered and
course of the day.
baked the boat itself, so that it hurt their hot hands
Mr. Hazel declined his share of the ham, and to touch it: the beautiful, remorseless ocean was
begged Miss Rolleston so earnestly, not to touch it, one sheet of glass, that glared in their blood-shot
that she yielded a silent compliance.
eyes, and reflected the intolerable heat of heaven
On the fourth day the sailors were all in good upon these poor wretches, who were gnawed to
spirits, though the provisions were now very low. death with hunger; and their raginy thirst was
They even sang, and spun yarns. This was partly fiercer still.
owing to the beauty of the weather.
Towards afternoon of the eighth day, Mackin-
On the fifth day Morgan announced that he tosh dipped a vessel in the sea, with the manifest
could only serve out one biscuit per day: and this intention of drinking the salt water.
sudden decline caused some dissatisfaction and “Stop him!” cried Hazel, in great agitation;
alarm.
and the others seized hiin, and overpowered him:
Next day, the water ran so low, that only a tea- he cursed them with such horrible curses, that Miss
spoonful was served out night and morning.
Rolleston put her fingers in her ears, and shuddered
There were murmurs and forebodings.
from head to foot. Even this was new to her, to
In all heavy trials and extremities some man or bear foul language.
other reveals great qualities, that were latent in A calm voice rose in the midst, and said: “ Let
him, ay, hidden from himself. And this general ob-us pray."
servation was verified on the present occasion, as it There was a dead silence, and Mr. Hazel kneeled
had been in the Indian mutiny, and many other down and prayed loud and fervently; and, while
crises. Hazel came out.
| be prayed, the furious cries subsided for a while,
He encouraged the men, out of his multifarious and deep groans only were heard. He prayed for
stores of learning. He related at length stories of food, for rain, for wind, for Patience.
wrecks and sufferings at sea; which, though they The men were not so far gone but they could
had long been in print, were most of them new to just manage to say " Amen."
these poor fellows. He told them, among the rest, He rose from his knees, and gathered the pale
what the men of the Bona Dea, waterlogged at sea, faces of the men together in one glance; and saw
had suffered, — twelve days without any food but a that intense expression of agony which physical
rat and a kitten, - yet had all survived. He gave pain can mould with men's features : and then he
them some details of the Wager, the Grosvenor, strained his eyes over the brassy horizon; but no
the Corbin, the Medusa ; but, above all, a most cloud, no veil of vapor was visible.
minute account of the Bounty, and Bligh's wonder “Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.”
ful voyage in an open boat, short of provisions. We must be mad,” he cried, " to die of thirst,
He moralized on this, and showed his fellow-suf- with all this water round us."
ferers it was discipline and self-denial from the first, His invention being stimulated by this idea, and
that had enabled those hungry spectres to survive, bis own dire need, he eagerly scanned everything
and to traverse two thousand eight hundred miles in the boat, and his eyes soon lighted on two objects
of water, in those very seas; and that in spite of disconnected in themselves, but it struck him he
hunger, thirst, disease, and rough weather.
could use them in combination. These were a com-
By these means he diverted their minds in some mon glass bottle, and Miss Rolleston's life-preserv-
degree from their own calamity, and taught them ing jacket, that served her for a couch. He drew
the lesson they most needed.
this garment over his knees, and considered it at-
The poor fellows listened with more interest than tentively; then untwisted the brass nozzle through
you could have thought possible under the pressure which the jacket was inflated, and so left a tube,
of bodily distress. And Helen Rolleston's hazel some nine inches in length, hanging down from the
eye dwelled on the narrator with unceasing wonder. neck of the garment.
Yes, learning and fortitude, strengthened by those He now applied his breath to the tube, and the
great examples learning furnishes, maintained a jacket swelling rapidly proved that the whole re-
superiority, even in the middle of the Pacific; and ceptacle was air-tight.
not the rough sailors only, but the lady, who had He then allowed the air to escape. Next, he
rejected and scorned his love, hung upon the brave took the bottle and filled it with water from the
student's words : she was compelled to look up, with sea ; then he inserted, with some difficulty, and
wonder, to the man she had hated and despised in great care, the neck of the bottle into the orifice of
her hours of ease.
the tube : this done, be detached the wire of the
On the sixth day the provisions failed entirely. brass nozzle, and whipped the tube firmly round the
Not a crust of bread: not a drop of water. | neck of the bottle.


44
FOUL PLAY.
costs."
“Now, light a fire,” he cried ; “no matter what it This relieved the hell of thirst in some degree: but
the sailors could not be persuaded to practise it.
The fore thwart was chopped up, and a fire soon In the afternoon Hazel took Miss Rolleston's
spluttered and sparkled, for ten eager hands were Bible from her wasted hands, and read aloud the
feeding it: the bottle was then suspended over it, forty-second Psalm.
and, in due course, the salt-water boiled and threw When he had done, one of the sailors asked him
off vapor, and the belly of the jacket began to to pass the Bible forward. He did so; and in
heave and stir. Hazel then threw cold water upon half an hour the leaves were returned him; the
the outside, to keep it cool, and, while the men ea- vellum binding had been cut off, divided and eaten.
gerly watched the bubbling bottle and swelling bag, He looked piteously at the leaves, and after a
his spirits rose, and he took occasion to explain that while, fell upon his knees, and prayed silently.
what was now going on under their eyes was, after He rose, and, with Miss Rolleston's consent,
all, only one of the great processes of Nature, done offered the men the leaves as well. " It is the
upon a small scale. “ The clouds," said he, “are Bread of Life for men's souls, not their bodies,"
but vapors drawn from the sea, by the heat of the said he. “But God is merciful; I think he will
sun : these clouds are composed of fresh water, and forgive you; for your need is bitter."
so the steam we are now raising from salt-water will Cooper replied that the binding was man's, but
be fresh. We can't make whiskey, or brew beer, the pages were God's; and, either for this or an-
lads; but, thank Heaven, we can brew water; and other more obvious reason, the leaves were declined
it is worth all other liquors ten times told."
for food.
A wild “Hurrah ! ” greeted these words.
All that afternoon Hazel was, making a sort of
But every novel experiment seems doomed to rough spoon out of a fragment of wood.
fail, or meet with some disaster. The water in the The night that followed was darker than usual,
bottle had been reduced too low, by vaporism, and and, about midnight, a hand was laid on Helen
the bottle burst suddenly, with a loud, report. That Rolleston's shoulder, and a voice whispered, “ Hush!
report was followed by a piteous wail.
say nothing. I have got something for you."
Hazel turned pale at this fatal blow: but, recov- At the same time, something sweet and delicious-
ering himself, he said, “ That is unfortunate ; but it ly fragrant, was put to her lips; she opened her
was a good servant while it lasted : give me the mouth, and received a spoonful of marmalade.
baler; and, Miss Rolleston, can you lend me a Never did marmalade taste like that before. It dis-
thimble ? "
solved itself like Ambrosia over her palate, and even
The tube of the life preserver was held over the relieved her parthed throat in some slight degree
baler, and out trickled a small quantity of pure by the saliva it excited.
water, two thimblesful apiece. Even that, as it Nature could not be resisted ; her body took
passed over their swelling tongues and parched whatever he gave. But her high mind rebelled.
swallows, was a heavenly relief : but, alas, the sup- “0, how base I am," said she, and wept.
ply was then exhausted.
“ Why, it is your own,” said he, soothingly; “I
Next day hunger seemed uppermost, and the men took it out of your cabin expressly for you."
gnawed and chewed their tobacco-pouches : and “At least, oblige me by eating some yourself, sir," -
two caps, that had been dressed with the hair on, said Helen, " or (with a sudden burst) I will die ere
were divided for food.
I touch another morsel.” .
None was given to Mr. Hazel or Miss Rolleston ;l “I feel the threat, Miss Rolleston ; but I do not
and this, to do the poor creatures justice, was the need it, for I am very, very hungry. But no; if I
first instar. am of injustice or partiality the sailors take any, I must divide it all with them. But if you
bad show ..
will help me unrip the jacket, I will suck the inside
The lady, though tormented with hunger, was – after you.”
inore magnanimous; she offered to divide the con- Helen gazed at him, and wondered at the man,
tents of her little medicine chest; and the globules and at the strange love which had so bitterly offend-
were all devoured in a moment.
ed her, when she was surrounded by comforts; but
And now their tortures were aggravated by the now it extorted her respect.
sight of abundance. They drifted over coral rocks, They unripped the jacket, and found some mois-
at a considerable depth, but the water was so ex- ture left. They sucked it, and it was a wonderful,
quisitely clear that they saw five fathoms down. an incredible relief to their parched gullets.
They discerned small fish drifting over the bottom; The next day was a fearful one. Not a cloud in
they looked like a driving cloud, so vast was their the sky to give hope of rain; the air so light, it only
number; and every now and then there was a just moved them along; and the sea glared, and
scurry among them, and porpoises and dog-fish the sun beat on the poor wretches, now tortured
broke in and feasted on them. All this they saw, into madness with hunger and thirst.
yet could not catch one of those billions for their The body of man, in this dire extremity, can suf-
lives. Thus they were tantalized as well as starved. fer internal agony as acute as any that can be in-
The next day was like the last, with this differ- ficted on its surface by the knife; and the cries, the
ence, that the sufferers could no longer endure their screams, the groans, the prayers, the curses, inter-
torments in silence.
mingled, that issued from the boat, were not to be
The lady moaned constantly : the sailors groaned, distinguished from the cries of men horribly wounded
lamented, and cursed.
in battle, or writhing under some terrible operation
The sun baked and blistered, and the water | in bospitals.
glared.
1 0, it was terrible and piteous to see and hear
• The sails being useless, the sailors rigged them as the boat-load of ghastly victims, with hollow cheeks,
an awning, and salt-water was constantly thrown and wild-beast eyes, go groaning, cursing, and
over them. .
shrieking loud, upon that fair glassy sea, below that
Mr. Hazel took a baler and drenched his own purple vault and glorious sun.
clothes and Miss Rolleston's upon their bodies. Towards afternoon, the sailors got together, for-


FOUL PLAY.
.
the long calm these shell-fish had fastened on the others. Those, who are now gone, were guilty of a
hoat. More than a hundred of them were taken terrible crime; but then they were tempted more
off her weather-side, and evenly divided.
than their flesh could bear; and they received their
Miss Rolleston, at Hazel's earnest request, ate punishment here on earth : we may therefore hope
only six, and these very slowly, and laid the rest by. they will escape punishment hereafter. And it is for
But the sailors could not restrain themselves; and us to profit by their fate, and bow to Heaven's will:
Prince, in particular, gorged himself so fiercely that even when they drew their knives, food in plenty
he turned purple in the face, and began to breathe was within their reach, and the signs of wind were
very hard.
on the sea, and of rain in the sky. Let us be more
That black speck on the horizon, had grown by patient than they were, and place our trust — What
noon to a beetle, and by three o'clock to something is that upon the water to leeward ? A piece of wood
more like an elephant, and it now diffused itself into Avating ?”.
a huge black cloud, that gradually overspread the Welch stood up and looked. “ Can't make it
heavens; and at last, about half an hour before sun-out. Steer alongside it, miss, if you please." And
set, came a peculiar chill, and then, in due course, he crept forward.
a drop or two fell upon the parched wretches. Presently he became excited, and directed those
They sat, less like animals than like plants, all in the stern how to steer the boat close to the ob-
stretching towards their preserver.
ject without going over it. He begged them all to
Their eyes were turned up to the clouds, so were be silent. He leaned over the boat side as they
their open mouths, and their arms and hands held neared it. He clutched it suddenly with both hands
up towards it.
and flung it into the boat with a shout of triumph;
The drops increased in number, and praise went but sank exhausted by the effort. .
up to heaven in return.
It was a young turtle ; and being asleep on the
*Patter, patter, patter ; down came a shower, a water, or inexperienced, had allowed them to cap-
rain, - a heavy, steady rain.
ture it.
With cries of joy, they put out every vessel to This was indeed a godsend : twelve pounds of
catch it; they lowered the sail, and, putting ballast succulent meat. It was instantly divided, and Mr.
in the centre, bellied it into a great vessel to catch Hazel contrived, with some difficulty, to boil a por-
it. They used all their spare canvas to catch it. tion of it. He enjoyed it greatly; but Miss Rolles-
They filled the water-cask with it; they filled the ton showed a curious and violent antipathy to it,
keg that had held the fatal spirit; and all the time scarcely credible under the circumstances. Not so
they were sucking the wet canvas, and their own the sailors. They devoured it raw, what they could
clothes, and their very hands and garments on get at all. Cooper could only get down a mouthful
which the life-giving drops kept falling.
or two: he had received his death-wound, and was
Then they set their little sail again, and prayed manifestly sinking.
for land to Him who had sent them wind and rain. He revived, however, from time to time, and
spoke cheerfully, whenever he spoke at all. Welch
informed him of every incident that took place,
CHAPTER XXIII.
however minute. Then he would nod, or utter a
syllable or two.
The breeze declined at sunset; but it rained at On being told that they were passing through
intervals during the night; and by the morning seaweed, he expressed a wish to see some of it, and
they were somewhat chilled.
when he had examined it, he said to Hazel, “ Keep
Death had visited them again during the night. up your heart, sir ; you are not a hundred miles
Prince was discovered dead and cold ; his wounds from land.” He added gently, after a pause, “ but
were mere scratches, and there seems to be no I am bound for another port."
doubt that he died by gorging himself with more About five in the afternoon, Welch came aft,
food than his enfeebled system could possibly digest. with the tears in his eyes, to say that Sam was just
Thus dismally began a day of comparative bodily going to slip his cable, and had something to say to
comfort, but mental distress, especially to Miss Rol- them.
leston and Mr. Hazel.
They went to him directly, and Hazel took his
Now that this lady and gentleman were no longer hand, and exhorted him to forgive all his enemies.
goaded to madness by physical suffering, their " Ha'n't a got none,” was the reply.
higher sensibilities resumed their natural force, and Hazel then, after a few words of religious exhorta-
the miserable contents of the blood-stained boat tion and comfort, asked him if he could do anything
shocked them terribly. Two corpses and two for him..
wounded men.
“ Ay,” said Cooper, solemnly. “Got pen and ink
Mr. Hazel, however, soon came to one resolu- aboard, any of ye?”
tion, and that was to read the funeral service over “I have a pencil," said Helen, earnestly; then
the dead, and then commit them to the deep. He tearfully, “ dear! it is to make his will." She
declared this intention, and Cooper, who, though opened her prayer-book which had two blank leaves
wounded, and apparently sinking, was still skipper under each cover.
of the boat, acquiesced readily.
The dying man saw them, and rose into that re-
Mr. Hazel then took the dead men's knives and markable energy, which sometimes precedes the de-
their money out of their pockets, and read the burial- parture of the soul.
service over them; they were then committed to “ Write !” said he, in his deep, full tones.
the deep. This sad ceremony performed, he ad-
dressed a few words to the survivors.
“I, Samuel Cooper, able seaman, am going to
“ My friends, and brothers in affliction, we ought slip my cable, and sail into the presence of my
not to hope too much from Divine mercy for our- | Maker.”
selves; or we should come soon to forget Divine He waited till this was written..
justice. But we are not forbidden to hope for “ And so I speak the truth.”


50
FOUL PLAY. I
.
they must tack directly, and make a circuit of the But Hazel with the boat-hook propelled the boat
island; he had to show them how to tack; and, the gently over the pellucid water, that now seemed too
sea rising, they got thoroughly wetted, and Miss shallow to float à canoe; and at last looked like the
Rolleston rather frightened ; for here was a peril mere varnish of that picture, the prismatic sands be-
they had wonderfully escảped hitherto.
low; yet still the little craft glided over it, till it gen-
However, before eleven o'clock, they had stood tly grazed the soft sand, and was stationary. So
out to sea, and coasted the whole south side of the placidly ended that terrible voyage.
island: they then put the boat before the wind, and Mr. Hazel and Miss Rolleston were on shore in a
soon ran past the east coast, which was very narrow, moment, and it was all they could do not to fall up.
- in fact, a sort of bluff-head, — and got on the on the land and kiss it.
north side of the island. Here the water was com- Never had the sea disgorged upon that fairy isle
paratively smooth, and the air warm and balmy. such ghastly spectres. They looked, not like people
They ranged along the coast at about a mile's dis- about to die, but that had died, and been buried,
tance, looking out for a good landing.
and just come out of their graves to land on that
Here was no longer an unbroken line of cliffs, blissful shore. We should have started back with
but an undulating coast, with bulging rocks, and horror; but the birds of that virgin isle merely
lines of reef. After a mile or two of that the coast stepped out of their way, and did not fly.
ran out seaward, and they passed close to a most! They had landed in paradise.
extraordinary phenomenon of vegetation. Great Even Welch yielded to that universal longing men
tangled woods crowned the shore and the landward have to embrace the land after perils at sea, and was
slopes, and their grand foliage seemed to flow over putting his leg slowly over the gunwale, when Hazel
into the sea : for here was a broad rocky flat, inter- came back to his assistance. He got ashore, but was
sected with a thousand little channels of the sea; contented to sit down with his eyes on the dimpled
and the thousand little islets so formed, were crowd-sea and the boat, waiting quietly till the tide should
ed, covered, and hidden with luxuriant vegetation. | float his friend to his feet again.
Huge succulent leaves of the richest bue hung over The sea-birds walked quietly about him, and
the water, and some of the most adventurous showed, minded him not.
by the crystals that sparkled on their green surface, Miss Rolleston ascended a green slope very slow-
that the waves had actually been kissing them at ly, for her limbs were cramped, and was lost to
high tide. This ceased, and they passed under a view.
cliff, wooded nearly to the point.
Hazel now went up the beach, and took a more
This cliff was broad and irregular, and in one of minute survey of the neighborhood.
its cavities a cascade of pure fresh water came The west side of the bay was varied. Half of it
sparkling, leaping and tumbling down to the foot of presented the soft character that marked the bay in
the rock. There it had formed a great basin of wa- general; but a portion of it was rocky, though
ter, cool, deep, transparent, which trickled over on streaked with vegetation, and this part was intersect-
to a tongue of pink sand, and went in two crystal ed by narrow clefts, into which, in some rare tempests
gutters to the sea.
and high tides combined, tongues of the sea had ent-
Great and keen was the rapture this sight caused tered, licking the sides of the gullies smooth ; and
our poor parched voyagers; and eager their desire these occasional visits were marked by the sand,
to land at once, if possible, and plunge their burning and broken shells, and other debris the tempestuous
lips, and swelling throats, and fevered hands into and encroaching sea had left behind.
that beavenly liquid ; but the next moment they ! The true high-water mark was several feet lower
were diverted from that purpose by the scene that than these débris, and was clearly marked. On the
burst on them.
land above the cliffs he found a tangled jungle of
This wooded cliff, with its wonderful cascade, was tropical shrubs, into which he did not penetrate, but
the very gate of paradise. They passed it, and in skirted it, and walking eastward, came out upon a
one moment were in a bay, - a sudden bay, won-delicious down or grassy slope, that faced the centre
derfully deep for its extent, and sheltered on three of the bay. It was a gentleman's lawn of a thousand
sides. 'Broad sands with rainbow tints, all spark-acres, with an extremely gentle slope from the cen-
ling, and dotted with birds, some white as snow, tre of the island down to the sea.
some gorgeous. A peaceful sea of exquisite blue A river flowing from some distant source ran east-
kissing these lovely sands with myriad dimples; ward through this down, but at its verge, and al-
and, from the land side, soft emerald slopes, em- most encircled it. Hazel traversed she lawn until
broidered with silver threads of water, caine to the this river, taking a sudden turn towards the sea, in-
very edge of the sands ; so that, from all those glo- tercepted him at a spot which he immediately fixed
rious hues, that flecked the prismatic and sparkling on as Helen Rolleston's future residence.
sands, the eye of the voyagers passed at once to the Four short, thick, umbrageous trees stood close to
vivid, yet sweet and soothing, green of Nature; the stream on this side, and on the eastern side was
and over this paradise, the breeze they could no a grove of gigantic palm-trees, at whose very ankles
longer feel, wafied spicy but delicate odors from un- the river ran. Indeed, it had undermined one of
seen trees.
these palm-trees, and that giant at this moment lay
Even Weich raised himself in the boat, and sniffed all across the stream, leaving a gap through which
the heavenly air, and smiled at the heavenly spot. Hazel's eye could pierce to a great depth among
“ Here's a blessed haven !” said he. “Down sail, those grand columns; for they stood wide apart,
and row her ashore.”
and there was not a vestige of brushwood, jungle, or
even grass, below their enormous crowns. He cbris-
tened the place St. Helen's on the spot.
He now dipped bis baler into the stream and
CHAPTER XXV.
found it pure and tolerably cool.
THEY rowed more than a mile, so deep was the He followed the bend of the stream; it evaded the
glorious bay; and then their oars struck the ground. slope and took him by its own milder descent to the


FOUL PLAY.
sands : over these it flowed smooth as glass into the undertone, and begged leave to pay her tribute first;
sea.
and with this, she detached her apron, and held it
Hazel ran to Welch to tell him all he had discov- out to them. Hazel easily climbed up to her, and
ered, and to give him his first water from the island. found her apron was full of sweet-smelling bark and
He found a roan-colored pigeon, with a purplish aromatic leaves, whose fragrance filled the air.
neck, perched on the sick man's foot. The bird “I want you to strew these over his poor re
shone like a rainbow, and cocked a saucy eye at mains," she said. “O, not common earth! He
Hazel, and flew up into the air a few yards, but it saved our lives. And his last words were, I love
soon appeared that fear bad little to do with this you, Tom. O dear, o dear, O dear!” And
movement; for, after an airy circle or two, he fanned with that she gave him the apron, and turned her
Hazel's cheek with his fast-flapping wings, and head away to hide her tears.
lighted on the very edge of the baler, and was for Hazel blessed her for the thought, which, indeed,
sipping
none but a lady would have had ; and Welch and
*0, look bere, Welch !” cried Hazel, in an ecsta he, with the tears in their eyes, strewed the spicy
sy of delight.
leaves first; and soon a ridge of shingle neatly
“Ay, sir," said he. “Poor things, they han't a bound with sea-weed marked the sailor's grave.
found us out yet."
The talking puzzled the bird, if it did not alarm Hazel's next anxiety, and that a pressing one, was
him, and he flew up to the nearest tree, and, perch- to provide shelter for the delicate girl and the sick
ing there, inspected these new and noisy bipeds at man, whom circumstances had placed under his
bis leisure.
care. He told Miss Rolleston Welch and he were
Hazel now laid his hand on Welch's shoulder and going to cross the bay again, and would she be good
reminded him gently they had a sad duty to per- enough to meet them at the bend of the river where
form, which could not be postponed.
she would find four trees? She nodded her head
* Right you are, sir,” said Welch," and very kind and took that road accordingly. Hazel rowed
of you to let me have my way with him. Poor eastward across the bay, and it being now high
Sam !”
water, he got the boat into the river itself near the
* I have found a place," said Hazel, in a low edge of the shore, and, as this river had worn a
voice. “We can take the boat close to it. But channel, be contrived with the boat-hook to propel
where is Miss Rolleston?”
the boat up the stream, to an angle in the bank
“(), she is not far off; she was here just now, and within forty yards of the four trees. He could get
brought me this here little cocoa-nut, and patted me no farther, the stream being now, not only shallow,
on the back, she did, then off again on a cruise. but blocked here and there with great and rough
Bless her little heart!”
fragments of stone. Hazel pushed the boat into the
Hazel and Welch then got into the boat, and angle out of the current, and moored her fast. He
pushed off without much difficulty, and punted and Welch then got ashore, and Miss Rolleston was
across the bay to one of those clefts we have indi- standing at the four trees. He went to her and
cated. It was now nearly high water, and they said enthusiastically, “ This is to be your house. Is
moored the boat close under the cleft Hazel had se- it not a beautiful site?”
lected.
“Yes, it is a beautiful site, but — forgive me - I
Then they both got out and went up to the ex- really don't see the house,” was her reply.
tremity of the cleft, and there, with the axe and with “But you see the framework."
pieces of wood, they scraped out a resting-place for Helen looked all about, and then said, ruefully,
Cooper. This was light work; for it was all stones, “I suppose I am blind, sir, or else you are dream-
shells, fragments of coral, and dried sea-weed, lying ing, for I see nothing at all.”
loosely together. But now came a hard task in « Why here's a roof ready made, and the frame
which Welch could not assist. Hazel unshipped a of a wall. We have only to wattle a screen be-
thwart, and laid the body on it: then by a great ef tween these four uprights.”
fort staggered with the burden up to the grave and “Only to wattle a screen ! But I don't know
deposited it. He was exhausted by the exertion, and what wattling a screen is. Who does ? "
had to sit down panting for some time. As soon as “ Why you get some of the canes that grow a
he was recovered, he told Welch to stand at the head little farther up the river, and a certain long wiry
of the grave, and he stood at the foot, bareheaded, grass I have marked down, and then you fix and
and then, from memory, he repeated the service of weave till you make a screen from tree to tree; this
our church, hardly missing or displacing a word. could be patched with wet clay; I know where
This was no taine recital; the scene, the circum- there is plenty of that. Meantime see what is done
stances, the very absence of the book, made it ten- to our hands. The crown of this great palm-trec
der and solemn. And then Welch repeated those lies at the southern aperture of your house, and
beautiful words after Hazel, and Hazel let him. blocks it entirely up: that will keep off the only
And how did he repeat them? In such a hearty cold wind, the south wind, from you to-night.
loving tone, as became one who was about to follow, Then look at these long, spiky leaves interlaced
and all this but a short leave-taking. So uttered, over your head. (These trees are screw-pines.)
for the living as well as the dead, those immortal | There is a roof ready made. You must have an-
words had a strange significance and beauty. other roof underneath that, but it will do for a day
And presently a tender, silvery voice came down or two."
to mingle with the deep and solemn tones of the “But you will wattle the screen directly,” said
male mourners. It was Helen Rolleston. She had | Helen. “Begin at once, please. I am anxious to
watched most of their niovements unseen herself, and see a screen wattled.”
now, standing at the edge of the ravine, and looking "Well," said Welch, who had joined them,
down or, them, uttered a soft but thrilling amen to “ landsmen are queer folk, the best of 'em. Why,
every prayer. When it was over, and the men pre- miss, it would take him a week to screen you with
pared to fill in the grave, she spoke to Welch in an rushes and reeds, and them sort of weeds; and I'd


54
FOUL PLAY.
Next morning, at daybreak, Hazel met her just | “What am I to do ?” said Hazel. “For every
issuing from her hut, and pointing to his net told her such cabbage, a king must die." ;
he was going to forage; and would she be good | “ Goodness me!"
enough to make the fire and have boiling water | “A monarch of the grove."
ready: he was sorry to trouble her; but poor Welch “0, a King Log. Why, then down with them
was worse this morning. Miss Rolleston cut short all, of course; sooner than dear Mr. Welch shall go
his excuses. “Pray do not take me for a child, of without his cabbage.”
course I will light the fire, and boil the water. Only He cast a look of admiration on her, which she
I have no lucifer matches."
avoided, and very soon his axe was heard ringing
“ Here are two,” said he. "I carry the box, in the wood hard by. Then came a loud crash.
wrapped in oil-skin : for if anything happen to them, Then another. Hazel came running with the cab-
Heaven help us."
bage, and a cocoa-pod. “ There," said he, “and
He crossed the prostrate palm-tree, and dived into there are a hundred more about. Whilst you cook
the wood. It was a large beautiful wood, and ex- that for Welch, I will store them.” Accordingly be
cept at the western edge, the trees were all of the returned to the wood with his net, and soon came
palm-tree genus, but contained several species, in- back with five pods in it, each as big as a large
cluding the cocoa-nut tree. The turf ran under pumpkin.
these trees for about forty yards and then died. He chucked these one at a time across the river,
gradually away under the same thick shade which and then went for more. It took him all the after-
destroyed all other vegetation in this wood, and noon to get all the pods across the river. He was
made it so easy to see and travel. .
obliged to sit down and rest.
He gathered a few cocoa-nuts that had burst out But a suggestion of Helen's soon set him to work
of their ripe pods and fallen to the ground; and ran again.
on till he reached a belt of trees and shrubs, that " You were kind enough to say you would store
bounded the palm forest. Here his progress was no these for me. Could you not store them so as to
longer easy: but he found trees covered with a small wall out those terrible beasts with them.”
fruit resembling quinces in every particular, of look, “ What terrible beasts?".
taste, and smell, and that made him persevere, since “ That roar so all night, and don't eat us, only be-
it was most important to learn the useful products cause they have not found out we are here yet. But
of the island. Presently he burst through some they will.".
brushwood into a swampy bottom surrounded by "I deny their existence," said Hazel. “But I'll
low trees, and instantly a dozen large birds of the wall them out all the same," said he.
Osprey kind rose flapping into the air like windmills “Pray do," said Helen. “Wall them out first,
rising. He was quite startled by the whirring and and disprove them afterwards ; I shall be better able
flapping, and not it little amazed at the appearance to believe they don't exist, when they are well
of the place. Here was a very charnel-house ; so walled out — much."
thick lay the shells, skeletons, and loose bones of Hazel went to work, and with her assistance laid
fish. Here too he found three terrapin killed but cocoa-pods two wide and three deep, outside the
not eaten: and also some fish, more or less pecked. northern and western side of her leafy bower, and
“Aha! my worthy executioners, much obliged," he promised to complete the walls by the same
said he: “ you have saved me that job": and means in two days more.
into the bag went the terrapin, and two plump They all then supped together, and, to oblige him,
fish, but slightly mutilated. Before he had gone she ate a little of the terrapin, and wben they parted
many yards, back came the sailing wings, and the for the night, she thanked him, and said, with a deep
birds settled again before his eyes. The rest of the blush, “You have been a good friend to me - of
low wood was but thin, and he soon emerged upon late.”
the open country: but it was most unpromising; and He colored high, and his eyes sparkled with de
fitter for geese than men : a vast sedgy swamp with light; and she noticed, and almost wished she had
water in the middle, thin fringes of great fern-trees, kept her gratitude to herself,
and here and there a disconsolate tree like a weep | 'That night, what with her bell-rope and her little
ing-willow, and at the end of this lake and swamp, bit of a wall, she was somewhat less timorous, and
which altogether formed a triangle, was a barren went to sleep early.
hill without a blade of vegetation on it, and a sort But even in sleep she was watchful, and she was
of jagged summit, volcanic ! Hazel did not at all awakened by a slight sound in the neighborhood of
like the look of.
the boat.
Somewhat dismayed at finding so large a slice of She lay watching, but did not stir.
the island worthless, he returned through the wood, Presently she heard a footstep.
guiding himself due west by his pocket-compass, and With a stifled cry she bounded up, and her first
80 got down to the shore, where he found scallops impulse was to rush out of the tent. But she con-
and cray-fish in incredible abundance. Literally, quered this, and gliding to the south side of her
he had only to go into the water and gather them. bower, sbe peered through the palm-leaves, and the
But “ enough” is as good as “ a feast." He ran to first thing she saw, was the figure of a man standing
the pots with his miscellaneous bag, and was not between her and the boat.
received according to his deserts. Miss Rolleston She drew her breath hard. The outline of the
told him, a little severely, the water had been boil-. man was somewhat indistinct. But it was not a
ing a long time. Then he produced his provender, savage: the man was clothed; and his stature be;
by way of excuse.
trayed him.
“ Tortoises again!” said she, and shuddered vis- He stood still for some time. “He is listening to
see if I am awake,” said Helen, to herself.
But she quinces and cocoa-nuts were graciously! The figure moved towards her bower.
received. Welch, however, cried out for cab Then all in a moment she became another wo-
bage.
| man. She did not rely on her bell-rope; she felt it
ibly.


FOUL PLAY.
Hazel went back slowly, and crying. Of all men sore perplexity, and did not sleep till morning; and
living, he could best appreciate Fidelity, and mourn so she overslept her usual time. However, when
its fate.
she was up, she determined to find her own break-
But, as he drew near Helen, he dried his eyes ; | fast; she felt it would not do to be too dependent,
for it was his duty to comfort her.
and on a person of uncertain bumor ; such for the
She had at first endeavored to follow him; but moment she chose to pretend to herself was Hazel.
after a few steps her knees smote together, and she Accordingly she went down to the sea to look for
was fain to sit down on the grassy slope that over-crayfish. She found abundance. There they lay
looked the sea.
in the water; you had but to stoop and pick them
The sun was setting huge and red over that vastup.
and peaceful sea.
But alas! they were black, lively, viperish ; she
She put her hands to her head, and, sick at heart, went with no great relish for the task to take one
looked heavily at that glorious and peaceful sight. up; it wriggled maliciously: she dropped it, and at
Hazel came up to her. She looked at his face, and that very moment, by a curious coincidence, re-
that look was enough for her. She rocked herself membered she was sick and tired of crayfish; she
gently to and fro.
would breakfast on fruits. She crossed the sand,
« Yes,” said he in a broken voice: “ He was there, took off her shoes, and paddled through the river,
.- quite dead."
and, having put on her shoes again, was about to
He sat gently down by her side, and looked at walk up through some rank grass to the big wood,
that setting sun and illimitable ocean and his heart when she heard a voice behind her, and it was Mr.
felt deadly sad. “He is gone, — and we are alone, Hazel. She bit her lip (it was broad daylight now),
- on this island.”
and prepared quietly to discourage this excessive
The man said this in one sense only: but the wo-assiduity. He came up to her panting a little, and
man heard it in more than one.
taking off his hat, said, with marked respect, “I
ALONE!
beg your pardon, Miss Rolleston, but I know you
She glanced timidly round at him, and, without hate reptiles; now there are a few snakes in that
rising, edged a little away from him, and wept in long grass; not poisonous ones.”
silence. ,
" Snakes ! ” cried Helen ; " let me get home:
there, - I'll go without my breakfast."
CHAPTER XXVI.
“Oh, I hope not,” said Hazel, ruefully ; " why, I
have been rather fortunate this morning, and it is
AFTER a long silence, Hazel asked her in a low all ready.”
voice if she could be there in half an hour. She “That is a different thing," said Helen, gracious-
said yes, in the same tone, but without turning her ly; “ you must not have your trouble for nothing, I
head. On reacbing the graves, she found that suppose."
Hazel had spared her a sad sight; nothing remained Directly after breakfast, Hazel took his axe and
but to perform the service. When it was over she some rope from the boat, and went off in a great
went slowly away in deep distress on more accounts hurry to the jungle. In half an hour or so he re-
than one. In due course Hazel came to her bower, turned, dragging a large conical shrub, armed with
but she was not there. Then he lighted the fire, spikes for leaves, incredibly dense and prickly.
and prepared everything for supper; and he was so " There,” said he, " there's a vegetable porcupine
busy, and her foot so light, he did not hear her for you. This is your best defence against that
come. But, by and by, lifting his head, he saw her roaring Bugbear.”
looking wistfully at him, as if she would read his " That little tree !” said Helen; "the tiger would
soul in his minutest actions. He started and bright- soon jump over that."
ened all over with pleasure at the sudden sight of " Ay, but not over this and sixty more ; a wall of
her, and said eagerly, “Your supper is quite stilettos. Don't touch it, please.”
ready."
| He worked very hard all day, and brought twelve
“ Thank you, sir," said she, sadly and coldly (she of these prickly trees to the bower by sunset. He
bad noted that expression of joy), “ I have no appe- was very dissatisfied with his day's work ; seemed
tite ; do not wait for me.” And soon after strolled quite mortified.
away again.
- This comes of beginning at the wrong end," he
Hazel was dumbfoundered. There was no mis said; “I went to work like a fool. I should have
taking her manner; it was chilly and reserved all begun by making a cart.”
of a sudden. It wounded him ; but he behaved « But you can't do that," said Helen, soothingly;
like a man; wbat! I keep her out of her own " no gentleman can make a cart."
house, do I ? said he to himself. He started up, “O, surely anybody can make a cart, by a little
took a fish out of the pot, wrapped it in a leat, and thinking," said be.
stalked off to his boat. Then he ate a little of the "I wish,” said Helen, listlessly, “ you would think
fish, threw the rest away, and went down upon the of something for me to do; I begin to be ashamed
sands, and paced them in a sad and bitter mood. of not helping."
But the night calmned him, and some hours of “Hum! you can plait ?"
tranquil thought brought him fortitude, patience, “ Yes, as far as seven strands."
and a clearer understanding. He went to his boat, “Then you need never be unemployed. We
elevated by generous and delicate resolutions. want ropes, and shall want large mats for the rainy
Now worthy resolves are tranquillizing, and he weather.”
slept profoundly. .
He went to the place where he had warned her
Not so she, whose sudden but very natural change of the snakes, and cut a great bundle of long silky
of demeanor had hurt him. When she returned grass, surprisingly tough, yet neither harsh nor juicy;
and found he was gone for the night, she began to he brought it her, and said he should be very glad
be alarmed at having offended him.
of a hundred yards of light cord, three ply and live
For this and other reasons she passed the night in Iply.


FOUL PLAY
She was charmed with the grass, and the very | rope to the big rope, and so making the big rope a
next morning she came to breakfast with it nicely receptacle, partly by artful tying, they dragged
prepared, and a good deal of cord made and hang- home an incredible load. To be sure some of it
ing round her neck. She found some preparations draggled half along the ground : and came after,
for carpenters' work lying about.
like a peacock's tail.
“Is ibat great log for the cart?” said she.
He made six trips, and then the sun was low; so
“Yes ! it is a section of a sago-tree.”
| he began to build. He raised a rampart of these
“ What, our sago?"
prickly trees, a rampart three feet wide and eight
“ The basis. See, in the centre it is all soft pith.” feet high; but it only went round two sides and a
He got from the boat one of the augers that had half of the bower. So, then, he said he had failed .
scuttled the Proserpine, and soon turned the pith again; and lay down worn out by fatigue.
out." They pound that pith in water, and run it Helen Rolleston, though dejected berself, could
through linen ; then set the water in the sun to not help pitying him for his exhaustion in her ser-
evaporate. The sediment is the sago of commerce, vice, and for his bleeding hands : she undertook the
and sad insipid stuff it is.”
| cooking, and urged him kindly to eat of every dish;
* 0, please don't call anything names one has and, when he rose to go, she thanked him with as
eaten in England," said Helen, sorrowfully.
much feeling as modesty for the great. pains he had
After a hasty meal, she and Mr. Hazel worked taken to lessen those fears of hers, which she saw he
for a wager. Her taper fingers went like the wind, did not share.
and though she watched bim, and asked questions, These kind words more than repaid him. He
she never stopped plaiting. Mr. Hazel was no car- went to his little den in a glow of spirits; and the
penter, he was merely Brains spurred by Necessity. next morning went off in a violent hurry, and,
He went to work and sawed off four short discs of for once, seemed glad to get away from her.
the sago-log.
“ Poor Mr. Hazel,” said she, softly, and watched
" Now what are those, pray ? ” asked Helen. him out of sight. Then she got her plait, and went
""The wheels: primeval wheels. And here are to the high point where he had barked a tree; and
the linchpins, made of hard wood; I wattled them looked far and wide for a sail. The air was won-
at odd times."
| derfully clear; the whole ocean seemed in sight:
He then produced two young lime-trees he had but all was blank.
rooted up that morning, and sawed them into poles A great awe fell upon her, and sickness of heart;
in a minute. Then he bore two holes in each pole, and then first she began to fear she was out of the
about four inches from either extremity, and fitted known world, and might die on that island; or
his linchpins; then he drew out his linchpins, never be found by the present generation : and this
passed each pole first through one disc, and then sickening fear lurked in her from that hour and led
through another, and fastened his linchpins. Then to consequences that will be related shortly.
he ran to the boat, and came back with the stern She did not return for a long while, and, when
and midship thwarts. He drilled with his centre-bit she did, she found Hazel had completed her fortifi-
three rows of holes in these, two inches from the cations. He invited her, to explore the western
edge: and now Helen's work came in ; her grass part of the island, but she declined.
rope bound the thwarts tight to the horizontal poles " Thank you,” said she ; " not to-day; there is
leaving the discs room to play easily between the something to be done at home. I have been com-
thwarts and the linchpins; but there was an open paring my abode with yours, and the contrast
space thirteen inches broad between the thwarts ; makes me uncomfortable, if it does n't you. Oblige
this space Hazel herring-boned over with some of me by building yourself a house."
Helen's rope drawn as tight as possible. The cart “What, in an afternoon?"
was now made. Time occupied in its production, | “Why not? you made a cart in a forenoon.
three hours and forty minutes.
How can I tell your limits? you are quite out of
The coachmaker was very hot: and Helen asked my poor little depth. Well, at all events, you must
him timidly whether he had not better rest and eat. roof the boat, or something. Come, be good for
“ No time for that,” said he. • The day is not hall once, and think a little of yourself. There, I 'll sit
long enough for what I have to do." He drank by and — what shall I do whilst you are working
copiously from the stream ; put the carpenter's bas- to oblige me?"
ket into the cart: got the tow-rope from the boat “ Make a fishing net of cocoa-nut fibre, four feet
and fastened it to the cart in this shape A, putting deep. Here's plenty of material all prepared.”
himself in the centre. So now the coachmaker was “Why, Mr. Hazel, you must work in your sleep."
the horse, and off they went, rattling and creaking, “No; but of course I am not idle when I am
to the jungle.
| alone ; and luckily I have made a spade out of
Helen turned her stool and watched this pageant hard wood at odd hours, or all the afternoon would
enter the jungle. She plaited on, but not so merrily. go in making that."
Hazel's companionship and bustling way somehow “A spade! You are going to dig a hole in the
kept her spirits up.
ground and call it a house. That will not do for me."
But, whenever she was left alone, she gazed on “ You will see," said Hazel.
the blank ocean, and her heart died within her. The boat lay in a little triangular creek ; the sur-
At last sbe strolled pensively towards the jungle, rounding earth was alluvial clay; a sort of black
plaiting busily as she went, and hanging the rope cheesy mould, stiff, but kindly to work with the
round her neck as fast as she inade it.
spade. Hazel cut and chiselled it out at a grand
At the edge of the jungle she found Hazel in a rate, and throwing it to the sides, raised, by degrees,
difficulty. He had cut down a wilgon-load of two mud banks, one on each side the boat; and at
prickly trees and wanted to get all this mass of noli "last he dug so deep that he was enabled to draw the
me langere on to that wretched little cart, but bad boat another yard inland.
not rope enough to keep it together : she gave him As Helen sat by netting and forcing a smile now
plenty of new line, and partly by fastening a small and then, though, sad at heart, he was on his mettle,


FOUL PLAY.
59
"Hair or wool?”
| from the jungle radiant, carrying vegetable treas
“ I don't care which. And it is a shame to ask ures in her apron. First she produced some golden
you for either."
apples with reddish leaves.
* Go on."
“There,” said she; "and they smell delicious."
“I want a looking-glass."
Hazel eyed them keenly.
“ Great Heaven! What for ?"
“ You have not eaten any of them ? "
“ O, never mind : I want one; and some more " What! by myself ? ” said Helen.
towels, and some soap, and a few hair-pins; and “ Thank Heaven!” said Hazel, turning pale.
some elastic bands; and some pen, ink, and paper, " These are the manchanilla, the poison apple of the
to write my feelings down in this island for nobody Pacific."
ever to see."
“ Poison !” said Helen, alarmed in her turn.
When she began Hazel looked bright, but the “ Well, I don't know that they are poison ; but
list was like a wasp, its sting lay in its tail. How-travellers give them a very bad name. The birds
ever, he put a good' face on it. “I'll try and get never peck them; and I have read that even the
you all those things: only give me time. Do you leaves falling into still water have killed the fish.
know I am writing a dictionary on a novel method.” | You will not eat anything here till you bave shown
" That means on the sand.”
it ine, will you ? " said he, imploringly.
“No; the work is suspended for the present. “ No, no," said Helen; and sat down with her
Bat two of the definitions in it are, — DIFFICUL- hand to her heart a minute." And I was so pleased
TIES, — things to be subdued ; IMPOSSIBILITIES, - when I found them," she said ; "they reminded me
things to be trampled on."
of home. I wonder whether these are poison,
* Well, subdue mine. Trample on — a sponge too ?." and she opened her apron wide, and showed
for me."
bim some long yellow pods, with red specks, some-
" That is just what I was going to do," said he ; | thing like a very large banana.
opened a claspknife and jumped coolly into the “Ah, that is a very different affair," said Hazel,
river.
delighted ; "these are plantains, and the greatest
Helen screamed faintly, but after all the water find we have made yet. The fruit is meat, the
was only up to his knees.
wood is thread, and the leaf is shelter and clothes.
He soon cut a large sponge off a piece of slimy The fruit is good raw, and better baked, as you shall
rock, and held it up to her. “There," said he, see, and, I believe this is the first time the dinner and
“why, there are a score of them at your very door, the dish were both baked together."
and you never saw them ? ”
He cleared the now heated hearth, put the meat
"O, excuse me, I did see them, and shuddered ; and fruit on it, then placed his great platter over it,
I thought they were reptiles; dormant, and biding and heaped fire round the platter, and light com-
their time."
bustibles over it. Whilst this was going on, Helen
When he was out of the river again, she thought took him to her bower, and showed him three rusty
a little, and asked him whether old iron would be iron boops, and a piece of rotten wood with a rusty
of any use to him.
nail, and the marks where others had been.
"o, certainly," said he ; " what do you know “There,” said she ; " that is all I could find.”
of any ?"
" Why, it is a treasure,” cried he; “ you will see.
“ I think I saw some one day, I'll go and look | I have found something, too."
for it.”
He then showed her the vegetable wool and veg-
She took the way of the shore ; and he got his etable hair he had collected, and told her where
cart and spade, and went post-haste to his clay-pit. they grew. She owned they were wonderful imita-
He made a quantity of bricks, and brought them tions, and would do as well as the real things; and
home, and put them to dry in the sun. He also ere they had done comparing notes, the platter and
cut great pieces of the turtle, and wrapped them in the dinner under it were both baked. Hazel re-
fresh banana-leaves, and enclosed them in clay. moved the platter or milk-pan, and served the din-
He then tried to make a large narrow-necked ves ner in it.
sel, and failed utterly; so he made the clay into a If Hazel was inventive, Helen was skilful and
great rude platter like a shallow milk-pan. Then quick at any kind of woman's work; and the fol-
he peeled the sago-log, off which he had cut his lowing is the result of three weeks' work under his
wheels, and rubbed it with turtle-fat, and using it direction. She had made as follows :-
as a form, produced two clay cylinders. These he 1. Thick mattress, stuffed with the vegetable bair
set in the sun, with bricks round them to keep them and wool described above. The mattress was only
from falling. Leaving all these to dry and set before two feet six inches wide ; for Helen found that she
he baked them, he went off to the marsh for fern- never turned in bed now. She slept as she had
leaves. The soil being so damp the trees were cov- never slept before. This mattress was made with
ered with a brownish-red substance, scarce distin- plantain-leaves, sewed together with the thread fur-
guishable from wool. This he had counted on. But nished by the tree itself, and doubled at the edges.
he also found in the same neighborhood a long cy- 2. A long shallow net four feet deep, — cocoa-
press-haired moss that seemed to him very promising. fibre.
He made several trips, and raised quite a stack of 3. A great quantity of stout grass-rope, and light
fern-leaves. By this time the sun had operated on but close matting for the roof, and some cocoa-liut
his thinner pottery; so he laid down six of his large matting for the ground, and to go under the mat-
thick tiles, and lighted a fire on them with dry ba- tress. But Hazel instructed by her had learned to
nana-leaves, and cocoa-nut, etc., and such light com- plait, — rather clumsily, and he had a hand in the
bustibles, until he had heated and hardened the clay; matting.
then he put the ashes on one side, and swept the Hazel in the mean time heightened his own mud
clay clean ; then he put the fire on again, and made banks in the centre, and set ur brick fireplanog
it botter and hotter till the clay began to redden. with hearth and chimney, one on each side; and
While he was thus occupied, Miss Rolleston came now did all the cooking; for he found the smoke



SWAIN
EXPLORING THE ISLAND.— See page 64.


FOUL PLAY.
part.
roughly on the side of his tin baler, with the pointing to the tree, and dragged it high up on shore.
of a pin borrowed from Helen, the form of the Scarcely had be disposed it conveniently, intending
coast line.
to return in a day or two, with the means of affix-
An hour and a half brought them to the north- ing it in a prominent and remarkable manner, in
western extremity of the island. As they cleared the form of a spar across the trunk of the palm,
the shelter of the land, the southerly breeze coming when a cry from Helen recalled him. A large num-
with some force across the open sea caught the cut-ber of the sea-lions were coasting quietly down the
ter, and she lay over in a way to inspire Helen with surf towards the boat ; indeed, a dozen of them had
alarm; she was about to let go the tiller, when Ha- made their appearance around it.
zel seized it, accidentally enclosing her hand under Hazel shouted to her not to fear, and desiring
the grasp of his own, as he pressed the tiller hard to that her alarm should not spread to the swarm, he
passed back quietly but rapidly. When he reached
* Steady, please ; don't relinquish your hold; it the water, three or four of the animals were already
is all right, - no fear," he cried, as he kept his eye foundering between him and the boat. He waded
on their sail.
slowly towards one of them, and stood besiile it.
He held this course for a mile or more, and then The man and the creature looked quietly at each
judging with a long tack he could weather the other, and then the seal rolled over, with a snuffling,
southerly side of the island, he put the boat about. self-satisfied air, winking its soft eyes with immense
He took occasion to explain to Helen how this oper-complacency.
ation was necessary, and she learned the alphabet Helen, in her alarm, could not resist a smile at
of navigation. The western end of their little land this conclusion of so terrible a demonstration ; for,
now lay before them ; it was about three miles in with all their gentle expression, the tusks of the
breadth. For two miles the bluff coast line contin- brute looked formidable. But, when she saw Hazel
ued unbroken ; then a deep bay, a mile in width pushing them aside, and patting a very small cub
and two miles in depth, was made by a long tongue on the back, she recovered her courage completely.
of sand projecting westerly ; on its extremity grew Then he took to his oars again ; and, aided by
the gigantic palm, well recognized as Helen's land- the tide, which was now on the ebb, he rowed
mark. Hazel stood up in the boat to reconnoitre round the southwestern extremity of the island.
the coast. He perceived the sandy shore was dot- | He found the water here, as be anticipated, very
ted with multitudes of dark objects. Erelong, these shallow.
objects were seen to be in motion, and, pointing It was midday when they were fairly on the
them out to Helen, with a smile, he said, - southern coast; and now, sailing with the wind aft,
“Beware, Miss Rolleston, yonder are your bug the cutter ran through the water at racing speed.
bears, and in some force, too. Those dark masses, Fearing that some reefs or rocky formations might
moving upon the hillocks of sand, or rolling on the exist in their course, he reduced sail, and kept away
surf, are sea-lions, — the phoca leonina, or lion-seal.” from the shore, about a mile. At this distance he
Helen strained her eyes to distinguish the forms, was better able to see inland, and mark down the
but only descried the dingy objects. While thus accidence of its formation.
engaged, she allowed the cutter to fall off a little, The southern coast was uniform, and Helen said
and, ere Hazel bad resumed his hold upon the tiller, it resembled the cliffs of the Kentish or Sussex
they were fairly in the bay; the great palm-tree on coast of England, only the English white was here
their starboard-bow.
replaced by the pale volcanic gray. By one o'clock
" You seem determined to make the acquaintance they came abreast the very spot where they had
of your nightmares,” he remarked; “ you perceive first made land ; and, as they judged, due south of
that we are embayed."
their residence. Had they landed here, a walk of
Her consternation amused him ; she saw that if three miles across the centre of the island would
they held their present course, the cutter would have brought them home.
take the beach about a mile ahead, where these For about a similar distance the coast exhibited
animals were densely crowded.
monotonous cliffs unbroken even by a rill. It was
At this moment, something dark bulged up close plain that the water-shed of the island was all north-
beside her in the sea, and the rounded back of a ward. They now approached the eastern end,
monster rolled over and disappeared. Hazel let where rose the circular mountain of which mention
drop the sail, for they were now fairly in the smooth has been already made. This eminence had evi-
water of the bay, and close to the sandy spit, the dently at one time been detached from the rest of
gigantic stem of the palm-tree was on their quarter, the land to which it was now joined by a neck of
about half a mile off.
swamp about a mile and a half in breadth, and two
He took to the oars, and rowed slowly towards miles in length.
the shore. A small seal rose bebind the boat and Hazel proposed to reconnoitre this part of the
followed them, playing with the blade, its gambols shorc nearly, and ran the boat close in to land.
resembling that of a kitten. He pointed out to | The reeds or canes with which this bog was densely
Helen the mild expression of the creature's face, clothed, grew in a dark spongy soil. Here and
and assured her that all this tribe were harmless there this waste was dotted with ragged trees which
animals, and susceptible of domestication. The he recognized as the cypress : from its gaunt
cub swam up to the boat quite fearlessly, and he branches hung a black, funeral kind of weeper, a
touched its head gently; be encouraged her to do kind of moss, resembling iron gray horsehair both
the like, but she shrank from its contact. They in texture and uses, though not so long in the
were now close ashore, and Hazel, throwing out his staple.
anchor in two feet of water, prepared to land the This parasite, Hazel explained to Helen, was very
beam of wood he had brought to decorate the palm- common in such marshy ground, and was the death-
tree as a signal.
| flag hung out by Nature to warn man that malaria
The huge stick was soon heaved overboard, and and fever were the invisible and inalienable inhabi-
he leaped after it. He towed it to the nearest land- tants of that fatal neighborhood.


FOUL PLAY.
Looking narrowly along the low shore for some various stages ; some were just opening like tulips
good landing, where under shelter of a tree they others, more advanced, had expanded like umbrel-
might repose for an hour, and spread their midday las, and quite overlapped the fruit, keeping it from
repast, they discovered an opening in the reeds, a sun and dew; others had served their turn in that
kind of lagoon or bayou, extending into the morass way, and been withered by the sun's rays. But,
between the highlands of the island and the circular wherever this was the case, the fruit had also burst
mountain, but close under the base of the latter. open and displayed or discharged its contents, and
This inlet he proposed to explore, and accordingly those contents looked like seeds; but on narrow-
the sail was taken down and the cutter was poled er inspection proved to be little insects with pink
into the narrow creek. The water liere was so shal-transparent wings, and bodies of incredibly vivid
low that the keel slid over the quicksand into which crimson.
the oar sank freely. The creek soon becaine nar- Hazel examined the fruit and flowers very care-
lowy, the water deeper, and of a blacker color, and fully, and stood rapt, transfixed.
the banks more derisely covered with canes. These “It must be! — and it is !” said he, at last.
grew to the height of ten and twelve feet, and as “ Well, I'm glad I've not died without seeing it.”
close as wheat in a thick crop. The air felt dank - What is it?” said she.
and heavy, and hummed with myriads of insects. “ One of the most valuable productions of the
The black water became so deep and the bottom so earth. It is cochineal. This is the Tunal-tree."
sticky that Hazel took to the oars again. The “O! indeed," said Helen, indifferently : “ cochi-
creek narrowed as they proceeded, until it proved neal is used for a dye; but as it is not probable we
scarcely wide enough to admit of his working the shall require to dye anything, the discovery seems to
boat. The height of the reeds hindered the view on me more curious than useful."
either side. Suddenly, however, and after proceed-“ You wanted some ink. This pigment, mixed
ing very slowly through the bends of the canal, they with lime-juice, will form a beautiful red ink. Will
decreased in height and density, and they emerged you lend me your handkerchief and permit me to
into an open space of about five acres in extent, a try if I have forgotten the method by which these
kind of oasis in this reedy desert, created by a mossy | little insects are obtained.” He asked her to hold
mound which arose amidst the morass, and afforded her handkerchief under a bough of the Tunal-tree,
firm footing, of which a grove of trees and innumer- where the fruit was ripe. He then shook the bough.
able shrubs availed themselves. Helen uttered an Some insects fell at once into the cloth. A great
exclamation of delight as this island of foliage in a number rose and buzzed a little in the sun not a
sea of reeds met her eyes, that had been famished yard from where they were born; but the sun dried
with the arid monotony of the brake.
their blood so promptly that they soon fell dead in
They soon landed.
the handkerchief. Those that the sun so killed went
Helen insisted on the preparations for their meal through three phases of color before their eyes.
being left to her, and having selected a sheltered | They fell down black or nearly. They whitened on
spot she was soon busy with their frugal food. Ha- the cloth: and after that came gradually to their
zel surveyed the spot, and selecting a red cedar, was final color, a flaming crimson. The insect thus
soon seated forty feet above her head ; making a treated, appeared the most vivid of all.
topographical survey of the neighborhood. He found! They soon secured about half a tea-cup full; they
that the bayou by which they had entered continued were rolled up and put away, then they sat down
its course to the northern shore, thus cutting off the and made a very hearty meal, for it was now past
mountain or easterly end, and forming of it a sepa- two o'clock. They re-entered the boat, and passing
rate island. He saw that a quarter of a mile farther once more into the morass they found the channel
on the bayou or canal parted, forming two streams, of the bayou as it approached the northern shore
of which that to the left seemed the main channel. less difficult of navigation. The bottom became
This be determined to follow. Turning to the west, sandy and hard, and the presence of trees in the
that is towards their home, he saw at a distance of swamp proved that spots of terra firma were more
two miles a crest of hills broken into cliffs, which frequent. But the water shallowed, and as they
defined the limit of the mainland. The sea bad opened the shore, he saw with great vexation that
at one time occupied the site where the morass the tide in receding had left the bar at the mouth
now stood. These cliffs formed a range, extending of the canal visible in some parts. He pushed on,
from north to south : their precipitous sides clothed however, until the boat grounded. This was a sad
here and there with trees, marked where the de- affair. There lay the sea not fifty yards ahead.
scent was broken by platforms. Between him and Hazel leaped out, and examined and forded the
this range the morass extended. Hazel took note channel, which at this place was about two hundred
of three places where the descent from these hills feet wide. He found a narrow passage near the
into the marsh could, he believed, most readily be eastern side, and to this he towed the boat. Then
made.
he begged Miss Rolleston to land, and relieved the
On the eastern side, and close above him arose the boat of the mast, sail, and oars. Thus lightened, he
peculiar mountain. Its form was that of a trun- dragged her into the passage : but the time occupied
cated cone, and its sides densely covered with trees in these preparations had been also occupied by
of some size.
Nature, — the tide had receded, and the cutter stuck
The voice of Helen called him from his perch, and immovably in the water-way, about six fathoms
he descended quickly, leaping into a mass of brush- short of deeper water.
wood growing at the foot of his tree. Helen stood “ What is to be done now?” inquired Helen,
a few yards from bim, in admiration, before a large when Hazel returned to her side, panting, but
shrub.
cheerful.
“ Look, Mr. Hazel, what a singular production," | “We must await the rising of the tide. I fear we
said the girl, as she stooped to examine the plant. are imprisoned here for three hours at least."
It bore a number of red flowers, each growing out There was no help for it. Helen made light of
of a fruit like a prickly pear. These flowers were in the misfortune. The spot where they had landed


FOUL PLAY.
65
was enclosed between the two issues of the lagoon. he caught a glisten of the sea. The sun was in
They walked along the shore to the more easterly, the north behind him, and by this alone be guided
and the narrower canal, and, on arriving, Hazel his road due southerly and upward. Once only he
found to his great annoyance that there was ample found a small cleared space about an acre in extent,
water to have floated the cutter had he selected and here it was he uttered the cry Helen heard.
that, the least promising road. He suggested a re- He waited a few moments in the hope to bear her
turn by the road they came, and, passing into the voice in reply, but it did not reach him. Again he
other canal, by that to reach the sea. They hur-plunged upward, and now the ascent became at
ried back, but found by this time the tide had left times so arduous that more than once he alınost re-
the cutter high and dry on the sand. So they had solved to relinquish, or, at least, to defer his task ;
no choice but to wait.
but a moment's rest recalled him to himself, and he
Having three hours to spare, Hazel asked Miss was one not easily baſed by difficulty or labor, so
Rolleston's permission to ascend the mountain. She he toiled on until he judged the summit ought to
assented to remain near the boat while be was en- have been reached. After pausing to take breath
gaged in this expedition. The ascent was too rug- and counsel, he fancied that he had borne too much
ged and steep for her powers, and the seashore and to the left, the ground to his right appeared to rise
adjacent groves would find her ample amusement more than the path that he was pursuing, which had
during his absence. She accompanied him to the become level, and he concluded, that, instead of as-
bank of the smaller lagoon, which he forded, and cending, he was circling the mountain-top. He
waving an adieu to her he plunged into the dense turned aside, therefore, and after ten minutes' bard
wood with which the sides of the mountain were climbing be was pushing through a thick and bigh
clothed.
scrub, when the earth seemed to give way beneath
She waited some time, and then she heard his him, and he fell - into an abyss. .
voice shouting to her from the heights above. The He was engulfed. He fell from bush to bush -
mountain-top was about three quarters of a mile down — down - scratch — rip - plump! until he
from where she stood, but seemed much nearer. I lodged in a prickly bush more winded than hurt.
She turned back towards the boat, walking slowly, Out of this he crawled, only to discover himself thus
but paused as a faint and distant cry again reached landed in a great and perfectly circular plain of
her ear. It was not repeated, and then she entered about thirty acres in extent, or about 350 yards in
the grove.
diameter. In the Centre was a lake, also circular,
The ground beneath her feet was soft with vel- the broad belt of shore around this lake was cor-
vety moss, and the dark foliage of the trees ren-ered with rich grass, level as a bowling-green, and
dered the air cool and deliciously fragrant. After all this again was surrounded by a nearly perpen-
wandering for some time, she regained the edge of dicular cliff, down which indeed he had fallen : this
the grove near the boat, and selecting a spot at the cliff was thickly clothed with shrubs and trees.
foot of an aged cypress, she sat down with her back Hazel recognized the crater of an extinct vol-
against its trunk. Then she took out Arthur's let- cano.
ter, and began to read those impassioned sentences: On examining the lake be found the waters im-
as she read she sighed deeply, as earnestly she found pregnated with volcanic products. Its bottom was
herself pitying, Arthur's condition more than she formed of asphaltum. Having made a circuit of the
regretted her own. She fell into reverie, and from shores, he perceived on the westerly side - that
reverie into a drowsy languor. How long she re- next the island - a break in the cliff; and on a
mained in this state she could not remember, but a narrow examination he discovered an outlet. It ap-
slight rustle overhead recalled her senses. Believ- peared to him that the lake at one time had emp-
ing it to be a bird moving in the branches she was tied its waters through this ancient water-course.
resigning herself again to rest when she became The descent here was not only gradual, but the old
sensible of a strange emotion, a conviction that river-bed was tolerably free from obstructions, es-
Bometbing was watching her with a fixed gaze. She pecially of the vegetable kind.
cast her eyes around, but saw nothing. She looked He made his way rapidly downwards, and in half
upwards. From the tree immediately above her lap an hour reached marshy ground. The cane-brake
depended a snake, its tail coiled around a deait now lay before him. On his left he saw the sea on
branch. The reptile hung straight, its eyes fixed the south, about a third of a mile. He knew that
like two rubies upon Helen's, as very slowly it let to the right must be the sea on the north, about
itself down by its uncoiling tail. Now its head was half a mile or so. He bent his way thither. The
on a level with hers; in another moment it must edge of the swamp was very clear, and though
drop into her lap.
somewhat spongy, afforded good walking unimpeded
She was paralyzed.
As he approached the spot where he judged the
boat to be, the underwood thickened, the trees again
interlaced their arms, and he had to struggle through
the foliage. At length he struck the smaller lagoon,
CHAPTER XXVIII.
and, as he was not certain whether it was fordable,
he followed its course to the shore, where he had
After toiling up a rugged and steep ascent, en previously crossed. In a few moments he reached
cumbered with blocks of gray stone, of which the the boat, and was pleased to find her afloat. The
island seemed to be formed, forcing his way over rising tide had even moved her a few feet back into
faller trees and through the tangled undergrowth the canal.
of a species of wild vine, which abounded on the Hazel shouted to apprise Miss Rolleston of his
mountain-side, Hazel stopped to breathe and peer return, and then proceeded to restore the mast to
around, as well as the dense foliage permitted. He its place, and replace the rigging and the oars.
was up to his waist in scrub, and the stiff leaves of This occupied some little time. He felt surprised
the bayonet plant rendered caution necessary in that she had not appeared. He shouted again. No
walking. At moments, through the dense foliage, / reply.


70
FOUL PLAY.
wrapped her in all her rugs, and, thinking of noth- and Helen Rolleston stood near him a moment or
ing but her safety, lifted her in his strong arms to two, and watched the play of his countenance with
take her to his own place, which was safe from wind a very inquisitive and kindly light in her own eyes.
at least.
Never mind," said she, soothingly.
But this was no light work. To go there erect Hazel started at the music.
was impossible.
“Never mind your house being blown to atoms,
Holding tight by the tree, he got her to the lee and mine has stood ?” said he, half reproachfully.
of the tent and waited for a lull. He went rapidly “ You took too much pains with mine."
down the bill, but ere he reached the river, a gust “I will take a great deal more with the next.”
came careering over the sea. A sturdy young tree "I hope not. But I want you to come and look
was near him. He placed her against it, and at the havoc. It is terrible ; and yet so grand."
wound his arms round ber and its trunk. The blast And thus she drew him away from the sight that
came: the tree bent down almost to the ground, caused his pain.
then whirled round, recovered, shivered; but he! They entered the wood by a path Hazel had cut
held firmly. It passed. Again be lifted her, and from the seashore, and viewed the devastation in
bore her to the boat-house. As he went, the wind | Terrapin Wood. Prostrate trees lay across one
almost choked her, and her long hair lashed his another in astonishing numbers, and in the strangest
face like a whip. But he got her in, and then sat positions; and their glorious plumes swept the earth.
panting and crouching, but safe. They were none « Come," said she, “it is a bad thing for the poor
too soon; the tempest increased in violence, and trees, but not for us. See, the place is strewed with
became more continuous. No clouds, but a ghastly treasures. Here is a tree full of fans all ready
glare all over the sky. No rebellious waves, but a made. And what is that? A horse's tail growing
sea hissing and foaming under its master's lash. on a cocoa-tree! and a long one too! that will make
The river ran roaring and foaming by, and made ropes for you, and thread for me. Ah, and here is
the boat heave even in its little creek. The wind, a cabbage. Poor Mr. Welch! Well, for one thing,
though it could no longer shake them, went scream- you need never saw nor climb any more. See the
ing terribly close over their heads, — no longer like advantages of a hurricane."
air in motion, but, solid and keen, it seemed the From the wood she took him to the shore, and
Almighty's scythe mowing down Nature; and soon there they found many birds lying dead; and Hazel
it became, like turbid water, blackened with the picked up several that he had read of as good to
leaves, branches, and fragments of all kinds it eat. For certain signs bad convinced him his fair
whirled along with it. The trees fell crashing on and delicate coinpanion was carnivora, and must be
all sides, and the remains passed over their heads nourished accordingly. Seeing him so employed,
into the sea.
she asked him archly whether he was beginning to
Helen behaved admirably. Speech was impossi- see the comforts of a hurricane. “Not yet," said
ble, but she thanked him without it, - eloquently ; he; “the account is far from even."
she nestled her little hand into Hazel's, and, to Ha- " Then come to wbere the rock was blown down.”
zel that night, with all its awful sights and sounds, She led the way gayly across the sands to a point
was a blissful one. She had been in danger, but where an overhanging crag had fallen, with two
now was safe by his side. She had pressed his band trees, and a quantity of earth and plants that grew
to thank him, and now she was cowering a little above it. But, when they got nearer, she became
towards him in a way that claimed him as her pro- suddenly grave, and stood still. The mass had fal-
tector. Her glorious hair blew over him and seemedlen upon a sheltered place, where seals were hiding
to net him: and now and then, as they heard some from the wind, and had buried several; for two or
crash nearer and more awful than another, she three limbs were sticking out, of victims overwhelmed
clutched him quickly though lightly; for, in danger, in the ruin; and a magnificent sea-lion lay clear of
her sex love to feel a friend ; it is not enough to see the smaller rubbish, but quite dead. The cause
hiin near: and once, when a great dusky form of a was not far to seek: a ton of hard rock had struck
sea-lion came crawling over the mound, and whim- him, and then ploughed up the sand in a deep
pering, peeped into the boat-house, she even fled to furrow, and now rested within a yard or two of the
his shoulder with both bands for a moment, and was animal, whose back it had broken. Hazel went up
there, light as a feather, till the creature had passed to the creature and looked at it: then he came to
on. And his soul was full of peace, and a great Helen; she was standing aloof. “ Poor bugbear,”
tranquillity overcame it. He heard nothing of the said he. “Come away: it is an ugly sight for
wrack, knew nothing of the danger.
you."
O mighty Love! The tempest might blow, and “ () yes,” said Helen. Then, as they returned,
fill the air and earth with ruin, so that it spared her. “ Does not that reconcile you to the loss of a hut?
The wind was kind, and gentle the night, which We are not blown away nor crushed."
brought that hair round his face, and that head so “ That is true,” said Hazel ; “but suppose your
near his shoulder, and gave him the holy joy of health should suffer from the exposure to such fear-
protecting under his wing the soft creature he | ful weather. So unlucky! so cruel! just as you
adored.
were beginning to get stronger.”
"I am all the better for it. Shall I tell you ?
CHAPTER XXXIV.
excitement is a good thing; not too often, of course;
but now and then; and when we are in the humor
On the morning that followed this memorable for it, it is meat and drink, and medicine to us.”
night, our personages seemed to change characters. “What! to a delicate young lady?”
Hazel sat down before the relics of the but -- three “Ay, 'to a delicate young lady.' Last night has
or four strings dangling, and a piece of network done me a world of good. It has shaken me out of
waving — and eyed them with shame, regret, and myself. I am in better health and spirits. Of
humiliation. He was so absorbed in his self-course I am very sorry the hut is blown down,
reproaches that he did not bea: a light footstep, because you took so much trouble to build it: but,


FOUL PLAY.
71
on my own account, I really don't care a straw. be allowed to monopolize the labor attendant upon
Find me some corner to nestle in at night, and all their condition.
day I mean to be about, and busy as a bee, helping “ No," said she, you are always working for me,
you, and - Breakfast ! breakfast! O, how hungry and I shall work for you. Cooking and washing
I am." And this spirited girl led the way to the are a woman's work, not a man's; and so are plait-
boat with a briskness and a vigor that charmed and ing and netting.”
astonished bim.
This healthy resolution once formed was adhered
Souvent femme varie.
to with a constancy that belonged to the girl's char-
· This gracious behavior did not blind Hazel to the acter. The roof of the ruined hut came ashore in
serious character of the situation, and all breakfast- the bay that evening, and was fastened over the
time he was thinking and thinking, and often kept boat. · Hazel lighted a bonfire in the cavern, and
a morsel in bis mouth, and forgot to eat it for several had the satisfaction of seeing some of the smoke
seconds, be was so anxious and puzzled. At last, issue above. But he would not let Miss Rolleston
he said, " I know a large hollow tree with apertures. occupy it yet. He shifted her things to the boat,
If I were to close them all but one, and keep that and slept in the cave himself. However, he lost no
for the door? No: trees have betrayed me; I'll time in laying down a great hearth, and built a fire-
never trust another tree with you. Stay; I know- place and chimney in the cave. The chimney went
I know — a cavern. He uttered the verb rather up to the hole in the arch of the cave; then came
loudly, but the substantive with a sudden feebleness the stone funnel, stolen from Nature; and above,
of intonation that was amusing. His timidity was on the upper surface of the cliff, came the chimney-
superfluous; if he had said he knew “a bank where- pot. Thus, the chimney acted like a German
on the wild thyme grows," the suggestion would stove : it stood in the centre, and soon made the
have been well received that morning.
cavern very dry and warın, and a fine retreat dur-
* A cavern!” cried Helen. “ It has always been ing the rains. When it was ready for occupation,
the dream of my life to live in a cavern."
Helen said she would sail to it: she would not go
Hazel brightened up. But the next moment he by land ; that was too tame for her. Hazel had
clouded again. “But I forgot. It will not do: only to comply with her humor, and at high water
there is a spring running right through it; it comes they got into the boat, and went down the river
down nearly perpendicular, through a channel it into the sea with a rush that made Helen wince.
has bored, or enlarged; and splashes on the floor." He soon rowed her across the bay to a point distant
“How convenient!” said Helen; “now I shall not more than fifty yards from the cavern, and in-
have a bath in my room, instead of having to go stalled her. But he never returned to the river;
miles for it. By the by, now you have invented it was an inconvenient place to make excursions
the shower-bath, please discover Soap. Not that from ; and, besides, all his work was now either in
one really wants any in this island ; for there is or about the cavern; and that convenient hurri-
no dust, and the very air seems purifying. But cane, as Helen called it, not only made bim a
who can shake off the prejudices of early educa- builder again ; it also made him a currier, a soap-
tion ? "
boiler, and a salter. So they drew the boat just
Hazel said, “ Now I'll laugh as much as you like, above high-water mark in a sheltered nook, and he
when once this care is off my mind."
set up his arsenal ashore.
He ran off to the cavern, and found it spacious In this situation, day glided by after day, and
and safe ; but the spring was falling in great force, week after week, in vigorous occupations, bright-
anıl the roof of the cave glistening with moisture. ened by social intercourse, and in some degree by
It looked a hopeless case. But if Necessity is the the beauty and the friendship of the animals. Of
mother of Invention, surely Love is the father. He all this industry we can only afford a brief sum-
mounted to the rock above, and found the spot mary Hazel fixed two uprights at each side of
where the spring suddenly descended into the earth the cavern's mouth, and connected each pair by a
with the loudest gurgle he had ever heard; a gurgle beam; a netting laid on these, and covered with
of defiance. Nothing was to be done there. But gigantic leaves from the prostrate palms, made a
he traced it upwards a little way, and found a place sufficient roof in this sheltered spot. On this ter-
where it ran beside a deep decline. “Aha, my race they could sit even in the rain, and view the
friend!” said he. He got his spade, and with some sea. Helen cooked in the cave, but served dinner
hours' hard work dug it a fresh channel, and carried up on this beautiful terrace. So now she had a But
it away entirely from its course. He returned to and a Ben, as the Scotch say. He got a hogshead
the cavern. Water was dripping very fast; but, of oil from the sea-lion ; and so the cave was al.
on looking up, he could see the light of day twink-ways lighted now, and that was a great comfort,
ling at the top of the spiral watercourse he had and gave them more hours of in-door employment
robbed of its supply. Then he conceived a truly and conversation. The poor bugbear really bright-
original idea : why not turn his empty watercourse ened their existence. Of the same oil, boiled down
into a chimney, and so give to one element what he and mixed with wood - ashes, he made soap, to
had taken from another? He had no time to exe-Helen's great delight. The hide of this animal
cute this just then, for the tide was coming in, and was so thick he could do nothing with it but cut oft
he could not afford to lose any one of those dead pieces to make the soles of shoes if required. But
animals. So he left the funnel to drip, that being a the seals were miscellaneous treasures; he contrived
process he had no means of expediting, and moored with guano and aromatics to curry their skins; of
the sea-lion to the very rock that had killed him, their bladders he made vile parchment, and of their
and was proceeding to dig out the seals, when a entrails gut, catgut, and twine, beyond compare.
voice he never could hear without a thrill, summoned He salted two cubs, and laid up the rest in store,
him to dinner
by enclosing large pieces in clay. When these
It was a plentiful repast, and included roast were to be used, the clay was just put into hot em-
pintado and cabbage-palm. Helen Rolleston in-bers for some hours, then broken, and the meat
formed him during dinner that he would no longer eaten with all its juices preserved.


72
FOUL PLAY.
Helen cooked and washed, and manufactured himself it was little more than a very long, large reef,
salt; and collected quite a store of wild cotton, the neighborhood of which ought to be avoided by
though it grew very sparingly, and it cost her hours ships of burden, and resolving to set some beacon
to find a few pods.' But in hunting for it she found or other on it erelong, he christened it White Wa-
other things, — health for one. After sunset she ter Island, on account of the surf: he came about
was generally employed a couple of hours on mat- and headed for the East Bluff.
ters wbich occupy the fair in every situation of life. Then Tommy gave him up in disgust; perhaps
She made herself a sealskin jacket and pork-pie thought his conduct vacillating. Animals all de-
hat. She made Mr. Hazel a man's cap of seal-skin spise that.
with a point. But ber great work was with the "He soon landed almost under the volcano, ani!
cotton, which will be described hereafter.
moored his boat not far from a cliff peaked with
However, for two hours after sunset, no more guano. Exercising due caution this time, he got
(they rose at peep of day), her physician allowed up to the lagoons, and found a great many ducks
her to sit and work; which she did, and often swimming about. He approached little parties to
smiled, while he sat by and discoursed to her of all examine their varieties. They all swain out of his
the things he had read, and surprised himself by way; some of them even flew a few yards, and then
the strength and activity of his memory. He attrib- settled. Not one would let him come within forty
uted it partly to the air of the island. Nor were yards. This convinced Hazel the ducks were not
his fingers idle even at night. He had tools to natives of the island, but strangers, who were not
sbarpen for the morrow, glass to make and polish much afraid, because they had never been molested
out of a laminated crystal he had found. And then on this particular islandl; but still distrusted man.
the burricane bad blown away, amongst many prop- While he pondered thus, there was a great noise
erties, his map; 80 he had to make another with of wings, and about a dozen ducks flew over his
similar materials. He completed the map in due head on the rise, and passed westward still rising
course, and gave it to Helen. It was open to the till they got into the high currents, and away upon
same strictures she had passed on the other. Hazel the wings of the wind for distant lands.
was no chartographer. Yet this time she had noth- The grand rush of their wings and the off-hand
ing but praise for it. How was that?
way in which they spurned, abandoned, and disap-
peared from, an island that held him tight, made
To the reader it is now presented, not as a speci-
Hazel feel very small. His thoughts took the form
men of cbartograpbic art, but as a little curiosity in
of Satire. “Lords of the creation, are we? We
its way, being a fac-simile of the map John Hazel
drew for Helen Rolleston, with such out-of-the-way
sink in water; in air we tumble; on earth we
stumble.”
materials as that out-of-the-way island affordedi.
Above all, it will enable the reader to follow our
These pleasing reflections did not prevent his
personages in their little excursions past and future,
taking their exact line of flight, and barking a tree
to mark it. He was about to leave the place, when
and also to trace the course of a mysterious event
he, heard a splashing not far from him, and there
we have to record.
was a duck jumping about on the water in a strange
Relieved of other immediate cares, Hazel's mind way. Hazel thought a snake had got hold of her
bad time to dwell upon the problem Helen had set and ran to her assistance. He took her out of the
him; and one fine day a conviction struck him that water and soon found what was the matter; her
he had taken a narrow and puerile view of it, and bill was open and a fish's tail was sticking out.
that, after all, there must be in the nature of things Hazel inserted his finger and drarrell out a sma!!
some way to attract ships from a distance. Pos-fish which had erected the spines on its bark so op-
sessed with this thought, he went up to Telegraph portunely as nearly to kill its destrover. The duck
Point, abstracted bis mind from all external objects, recovered enougli to quack in a feeble and dubious
and fixed it on this idea, — but came down as he manner. Hazel kept her for Helen, because she
went. He descended by some steps he had cut zig- was a plain brown duck. With some little reluc-
zag for Helen's use, and as he put his foot on the tance he slightly shortened one wing, and stowed
fifth step, — whoo — whirr -- whizz - came nine away his captive in the hold of the boat.
ducks, cooling his head, they whizzed so close; and He happened to have a great stock of pitch in the
made right for the lagoons.
boat, so he employed a few hours in writing upon
"Hum !” thought Hazel; “I never see you the guano rocks. On one he wrote in huge letters: --
ducks tly in any other direction but that.”
This speculation rankled in bim all night, and he AN EXGLISH LADY WRECKED HERE.
told Helen he should reconnoitre at daybreak, but
HASTE TO HER RESCUE.
should not take her, as there might be snakes. He
made the boat ready at daybreak, and certain gan-
On another he wrote in smaller letters :-
nets, pintadoes, boobies, and noddies, and divers
BEWARE THE REEFS ON THE NORTH SIDE.
with eyes in their heads like fiery jewels — birds
LIE OFF FOR SIGNALS.
whose grcedy maws he had often gratified — chose
to fancy he must be going a fishing, and were on Then he came home and beached the boat, and
the alert, and rather troublesome. However, he brought Helen his captive.
got adrift, and ran out through North Gate, with a “ Why, it is an English duck!” she cried, and was
light westerly breeze, followed by a whole fleet of enraptured.
birds. These were joined in due course by another By this visit to the lagoons, Hazel gathered that
of his satellites, a young seal he called Tommy, also this island was a half-way house for migrating birds,
fond of fishing.
especially ducks; and he inferred that the line
The feathered convoy soon tailed off; but Tom- those vagrants had taken was the shortest way from
my stuck to him for about eight miles. He ran that this island to the nearest land. This was worth
distance to have a nearer look at a small island | knowing, and set his brain working. He begged
which lay due north of Telegraph Point. He satisfied | Helen to watch for the return of the turtle doves


FOUL PLAY.
H
at whose broad end shone an arch of foliage studded The vapor descended and spreul, au cornpoor? sea
with flowers, and the sparkling blue water peeped and land. Then the sun set, and it was darknees
behind. This was tempting, but the descent was visible. Coming from the south, the sea-fret caught
rather hazardous at first; great square blocks of Hazel sooner and in a less favorable situation).
rock, one below another, and these rude steps were Returning from the palm-tree, he had taken the
coated with mosses of rich hue, but wet and slip- shortest cut through a small jungle, and been so
pery; Hazel began to be alarmed for his compan- impeded by the scrub, that, when he got clear, the
ion. However, after one or two difficulties, the fog was upon him. Between that and the river, he
fissure opened wider to the sun, and they descended lost his way several times, and did not hit the river
from the slimy rocks into a sloping hotbed of till near midnight. He followed the river to the
exotic flowers, and those huge succulent leaves that lake, and coasted the lake, and then groped his way
are the glory of the tropics. The ground was car- towards the creek. But, after a while, every step
peted a yard deep with their luxuriance, and others he took was fraught with danger; and the night
more aspiring, climbed the warm sides of the di- was far advanced when he at last hit off the creek,
verging cliffs, just as creepers go up a wall, lining as he thought. He halloed; but there was no
every crevice as they rose. In this blessed spot, reply ; halloed again, and to his joy, her voice
warmed, yet not scorched, by the tropical sun, and replied; but at a distance. He had come to the
fed with trickling waters, was seen what marvels wrong creek. She was farther westward. He
"boon Nature" can do. Here our vegetable dwarfs groped his way westward, and came to another
were giants, and our flowers were trees. One love creek. He halloed to her, and she answered him.
ly giantess of the jasmine tribe, but with flowers But to attempt the descent would have been mere
shaped like a marigold, and scented like a tube- suicide. She felt that herself, and almost ordered
rose, had a stem as thick as a poplar, and carried him to stay where he was.
its thousand buds and amber-colored flowers up “Why, we can talk all the same," said she; "and
eighty feet of broken rock, and planted on every it is not for long."
ledge suckers, that flowered again, and filled the It was a curious position, and one typical of the
air with perfume. Another tree about balf as high relation between them. So near together, yet the
was covered with a cascade of snow-white tulips, barrier so strong.
each as big as a small flower-pot, and scented like “I am afraid you must be very cold," said he.
honeysuckle. An aloe, ten feet high, blossomed in “O no; I have my seal-skin jacket on; and it
a corner, unheeded among loftier beauties. And is so sheltered here. I wish you were as well off.”
at the very mouth of the fissure a huge banana - You are not afraid to be alone down there?”
leaned acrose, and flung out its vast leaves, that “I am not alone when your voice is near me.
seemed translucent gold against the sun ; under it Now don't you fidget yourself, dear friend. I like
shone a monstrous cactus in all her pink and crim- these little excitements. I have told you so before.
son glory, and through the maze of color streamed Listen : how calm and silent it all is; the place ;
the deep blue of the peaceful ocean, laughing, and tbe night! The mind seems to fill with great ideas,
catching sunbeams.
and to feel its immortality.”
Helen leaned against the cliff and quivered with | She spoke with solemnity, and be heard in silence.
delight, and that deep sense of flowers that belongs Indeed it was a reverend time and place: the
to your true woman.
sea, whose loud and penetrating tongue had, in some
Hazel feared she was ill.
former age, created the gully where they both sat
“ Ill ? " said she. “Who could be ill here? It apart, bad of late years receded, and kissed the
is heaven upon earth. O, you dears! O, you sands gently that calm night: so gently, that its long,
loves! And they all seemed growing on the sea, low murmur seemed but the echo of tranquillity.
and floating in the sun.".
The voices of that pair sounded supernatural, one
“And it is only one of a dozen such," said Hazel. speaking up, and the other down, the speakers
“ If you would like to inspect them at your leisure, quite invisible.
I'll just run to Palm-tree Point; for my signal is all « Mr. Hazel,” said Helen, in a low, earnest voice;
askew. I saw that as we came along."
“they say that Night gives wisdom even to the wise ;
Helen assented readily, and he ran off; but left think now, and tell me your true thoughts. Has
her the provisions. She was not to wait dinner for the foot of man ever trod upon this island before ?"
There was a silence due to a question so grave,
Helen examined two or three of the flowery and put with solemnity, at a solemn time, in a sol-
fissures, and found fresh beauties in each, and also emn place.
some English leaves, that gave her pleasure of At last Hazel's thoughtful voice came down.
another kind; and, after she had revelled in the “ The world is very, very, very old. So old, that
flowers, she examined the shore, and soon discovered the words, · Ancient History' are a falsehood, and
that the rocks, which abounded here, (though there Moses wrote but as yesterday. And man is a very
were also large patches of clear sand,) were nearly old animal upon this old, old planet; and has been
all pure coral, in great variety. Red coral was everywhere. I cannot doubt he has been here.”
abundant; and cven the pink coral, to which fashion Her voice went up. “But have you seen any
was just then giving a fictitious value, was there by signs?".
the ton. This interested her, and so did some His voice came down. "I have not looked for
beautiful shells that lay sparkling. The time passed them. The bones and the weapons of primeval
swiftly; and she was still busy in her researches, man are all below earth's surface at this time of
when suddenly it darkened a little, and, looking day."
back, she saw a white vapor stealing over the clitt, There was a dead silence. Then Helen's voice
and curling down.
went up again. “But in modern times? Has no
Upon this, she thought it prudent to return to the man landed here from far-off places, since ships
place where Hazel had left her; the more so as it were built ?"
was near sunset.
| The voice came sadly down. “I do not know.”
bim.


FOUL PLAY.
75
The voice went up. “But think !”
| in a sort of oval. These stones, streaked with sea
The voice came down. “What calamity can be grass, and encrusted with small shells, were not at
new in a world so old as this ? Everything we can equal distances, but yet, allowing for gaps, they
do, and suffer, others of our race have done, and formed a decided figure. Their outline resembled
suffered.”
a great fish, wanting the tail.
The voice went up. “Hush ! there's something
moving on the sand.”
CHAPTER XXXV.
HAZEL waited and listened. So did Helen, and
her breath came fast; for in the stilly night she
heard light but mysterious sounds. Something was
moving on the sand very slowly and softly, but
nearer and nearer. Her heart began to leap. She “ Can this be chance ? ” asked Helen; “U, if
put out her hand instinctively to clutch Mr. Hazel ; it should be what I fear, and that is — Savages !"
but he was too far off. She had the presence of Hazel considered it attentively a long time.
mind and the self-denial to disguise her fears; for she “ Too far at sea for living savages," said he." And
knew he would come headlong to her assistance. yet it cannot be chance. What on earth is it? It
She said in a quivering whisper, “I'm not looks Druidical. But how can that be? The isl-
frightened ; only v- very c-curious.”
and was smaller when these were placed here than
And now she became conscious that not only one it is now.” He went nearer and examined one of
but several things were creeping about.
the stones ; then he scraped away the sand from its
Presently the creeping ceased, and was followed base, and found it was not shaped like a stone, but
by a louder and more mysterious noise. In that more like a whale's rib. He became excited; went
silent night it sounded like raking and digging. on his knees, and tore the sand up with his hands.
Three or four mysterious visitants seemed to be Then he rose up agitated, and traced the outline
making graves.
again. “Great Heaven !” said he, “why it is a
This was too much ; especially coming as it did ship."
after talk about the primeval dead. Her desire to
scream was so strong, and she was so afraid Hazel “A ship!” .
would break his neck, if she relieved her mind in “Ay,” said he, standing in the middle of it;
that way, that she actually took her handkerchief "here, beneath our feet, lies man; with his work,
and bit it hard.
and his treasures. This carcass has been here for
But this situation was cut short by a beneficent many a long year; not so very long neither ; sbe is
luminary. The sun rose with a magnificent bound, too big for the 16th century, and yet she must have
- it was his way in that latitude, – and everything been sunk when the island was smaller. I take it.
unpleasant winced that moment; the fog shivered to be a Spanish or Portuguese ship: probably one
in its turn, and appeared to open in furrows as great of those treasure-ships our commodores, and char-
javelins of golden light shot through it from the tered pirates, and the American buccaneers, used to
swiftly rising orb. Soon, those golden darts in-chase about these seas. Here lie her bones, and the
creased to streams of potable fire, that burst the fog bones of her crew. Your question was soon an-
and illumined the wet sands : and Helen burst out swered. All that we can say has been said ; can
laughing like chanticleer, for this first break of day do has been done; can suffer has been suffered."
revealed the sextons that had scared her, — three They were silent, and the sunk ship's bones
ponderous turtles, crawling, slow and clumsy, back moved them strangely. In their deep isolation from
to sea. Hazel joined her, and they soon found what the human race, even the presence of the dead
these evil spirits of the island had been at, poor brought humanity somehow nearer to them.
wretches. They had each buried a dozen eggs in They walked thoughtfully away, and made across
the sand: one dozen of which were very soon set the sands for Telegraph Point.
boiling. At first, indeed, Helen objected that they Before they got home, Helen suggested that per-
had no shells, but Hazel told her she might as well haps, if he were to dig in the ship, he might find
complain of a rose without a thorn. He assured her something useful.
turtles' eggs were a known delicacy, and very supe He shook his head. “Impossible! The iron has
rior to birds' eggs; and so she found them; they all melted away like sugar long before this. Noth-
were eaten with the keenest relish.
ing can have survived but gold and silver, and they
* And now," said Helen, “ for my discoveries. are not worth picking up, much less digging for;
First, here are my English leaves, only bigger. I my time is too precious. No, you have found two
found them on a large tree.”
buried treasures to-day,– turtles' eggs, and a ship,
“ English leaves !” cried Hazel, with rapture. freigbted, as I think, with what men call the pre-
“ Why it is the caoutchouc !”
cious metals. Well, the eggs are gold, and the gold
“ dear," said Helen, disappointed; “I took is a drug, - there it will lie for me.”
it for the India-rubber tree."
“ It is the India-rubber tree; and I have been Both discoveries bore fruits. The ship: Hazel
bunting for it all over the island in vain, and using made a vow that never again should any poor ship
wretchedly inferior gums for want of it."
lay her ribs on this island for want of warning. He
"I'm so glad," said Helen. “And now I have buoyed the reefs. He ran out to White Water Isl-
something else to show you : something that curand, and wrote an earnest warning on the black
dled my blood ; but I dare say I was very foolish." reef, and, this time, he wrote with white on black.
She then took him half across the sand and pointed He wrote a similar warning, with black on white,
out to him a number of stones dotted over the sand at the western extremity of Godsend Island.





80
FOUL PLAY.
of loose oysters on board, each as large as a plate. | Helen's cave was not removed as usual. She was
She looked at him with amazement.
on her bed with a violent headache.
" What,” said she, when he had quite loaded the Hazel fed Ponto, and corrected him. He was at
boat, “ only just out of the jaws of death, and yet present a civilized dog ; so he made a weak rush
you can trouble your head about oysters and at the boobies and noddies directly.
things."
He also smelt Tommy inquisitively, to learn was
“Wait till you see what I shall do with them,” he an eatable. Tommy somehow divined the end
said he. “ These are pearl oysters. I gathered of this sinister curiosity, and showed his teeth.
them for you, when I had little hope I should ever Then Hazel got a rope, and tied one end round
see you again to give them you."
his own waist, and one round Ponto's neck, and at
This was an unlucky speech. The act, that every outbreak of civilization, jerked him sharply
seemed so small and natural a thing to him, the on to his back. The effect of this discipline was
woman's heart measured more correctly. Something rapid; Ponto soon found that he must not make
rose in her throat; she tried to laugh instead of cry- war on the inbabitants of the island. He was a
ing, and so she did both, and went into a violent fit docile animal, and, in a very short time, consented
of hysterics that showed how thoroughly her nature to make one of “the happy family," as Hazel called
had been stirred to its depths. She quite frightened the miscellaneous crew that beset him.
Hazel; and, indeed, the strength of an excited Helen and Hazel did not meet till past noon;
woman's weakness is sometimes alarming to manly and, when they did meet, it was plain she had been
natures. .
thinking a great deal, for her greeting was so shy
He did all he could to soothe her; without much and restrained as to appear cold and distant to
success. As soon as she was better he set sail, Hazel. He thought to himself, I was too bappy.
thinking home was the best place for her. She yesterday, and she too kind. Of course it could
leant back exhausted, and, after a while, seemed to not last.
be asleep. We don't believe she was, but Hazel This change in her seemed to grow rather than
did; and sat, cold and aching in body, but warın at diminish. . She carried it so far as to go and almost
heart, worshipping her with all his eyes.
hide during the working hours. She made off to
At last they got ashore; and he sat by her fire the jungle, and spent an unreasonable time there.
and told her all, while she cooked his supper and She professed to be collecting cotton, and it must
warmed clothes at the fire for him.
be admitted she brought a good deal home with her.
“ The ship," said he, “ was a Dutch vessel, bound | But Hazel could not accept cotton as the only mo-
from Batavia to Callao, that had probably gone on tive for this sudden separation.
her beam ends, for she was full of water. Her crew! He lost the light of her face till the evening.
had abandoned her; I think they underrated the Then matters took another turn : she was too polite.
huoyancy of the ship and cargo. They left the Ceremony and courtesy appeared to be gradually
poor dog on board. Her helın was lashed a-weather encroaching upon tender friendship and familiarity :
a couple of turns, but wby that was done, I cannot yet, now and then, her soft bazel eyes seemed to
tell for the life of me. I boarded her; unshipped turn on him in silence, and say, forgive me all this.
my mast, and moored the boat to the ship ; fed the Then at those sweet looks, love and forgiveness
poor dog ; rummaged in the hold, and contrived to poured out of his eyes. And then hers sought the
hoist up a small cask of salted beef, and a keg of ground. And this was generally followed by a cer-
rum, and some cases of grain and seedls. I managed tain mixture of stiffness, timidity, and formality, too
to slide these on to the reef by means of the mast subtle to describe.
and oar lashed together. But a roller ground the The much-enduring man began to lose patience.
wreck farther on to the reef, and the sudden snap “ This is caprice," said he. “Cruel caprice."
broke the rope, as I suppose, and the boat went to Our female readers will probably take a deeper
sea. I never knew the misfortune till I saw her view of it than that. Whatever it was, another
adrift. I could have got over that by making a change was at hand. Since he was so exposed to
raft; but the gale from the north brought such a the weather on the reef, Hazel had never been free
sea on us. I saw she must break up, so I got from pain; but he had done his best to work it off.
ashore how I could. Ah, I little thought to see | He had collected all the valuables from the wreck,
your face again, still less that I should owe my life made a new mast, set up a rude capstan, to draw
to you."
the boat ashore, and cut a little dock for her at low
"Spare me,” said Helen, faintly.
water, and clayed it in the full heat of the sun ; and,
“ What, must not I thank you even for my life?” having accomplished this drudgery, he got at last to
“ No. The account is far from even yet."
his labor of love; he opened a quantity of pearl
“You are no arithmetician to say so. What oysters, fed Tommy and the duck with them, and
astonishes me most is, that you have never once began the great work of lining the cavern with them
scolded me for all the trouble and anxiety — " The said cavern was somewhat shell-shaped, and
“I am too happy to see you sitting there, to scold his idea was to make it out of a gloomy cavern into
you. But, still I do ask you, to leave the sea alone, a vast shell, lined entirely, roof and sides, with glo-
after this. The treacherous monster! O, think rious, sweet, prismatic, mother-of-pearl, fresh from
what you and I have suffered on it."
ocean. Well, one morning, while Helen was in the
She seemed quite worn out. He saw that, and jungle, he made a cement of guano, sand, clay, and
retired for the night, casting one more wistful glance water, nipped some shells to a shape with the pin-
on her. But at that moment she was afraid to look cers, and cemented them neatly, like Mosaic
at bim. Her heart was welling over with tender- almost; but in the middle of his work he was cut
ness for the dear friend whose life she had sared. down by the disorder he had combated so stoutly.
He fairly gave in, and sat down groaning with pain.
Next morning Hazel rose at daybreak as usual, And in this state Helen found him.
but found himself stiff in the joints, and with a pain “0, what is the matter?" said she.
in his back. The mat that hung at the opening of He told her the truth and said he had violent pains


FOUL PLAY.
in the back and head. She did not say much, but He turned round and slept for several hours as
she turned pale. She bustled and lighted a great he supposed ; but in reality he was silent for just
fire, and made him lie down by it. She propped three seconds. “Well,” said he, “and is a garden-
his head up; she set water on to boil for him, and er a man to be looked down upon by upstarts ?
would not let him move for anything; and all the When Adam delved and Eve span, wbere was then
time her features were brimful of the liveliest con- the gentleman ? Why, where the spade was. Yet
cern. He could not help thinking how much better I went through the Herald's College and not one of
it was to be ill and in pain, and have her so kind, our mushroom aristocracy (" bloated' I object to;
than to be well, and see her cold and distant. they don't eat half as much as their footmen) had
Towards evening he got better, or rather be mis- a spade for a crest. There's nothing ancient west
took an intermission for cure, and retired to his of the Caspian. Well, all the better. For there is
boat ; but she made him take her rug with him; no fool like an old fool. A spade's a spade for a
and, when he was gone, she could not sleep for that, an a that, an a that, an a that, — an a that, -
anxiety; and it cut her to the heart to think how an a that. Hallo! Stop that man; he's gone off
poorly he was lodged compared with her.
on his cork leg, of a that, on a that, — and it is my
Of all the changes fate could bring, this she had wish to be quiet. Allow me respectfully to ob-
never dreamed of, that she should be so robust, and serve," said he striking off suddenly into an air of
he should be sick and in pain.
vast politeness, “ that man requires change. I've
She passed an uneasy, restless night, and long done a jolly good day's work with the spade for this
before morning she awoke for the sixth or seventh old Buffer, and now the intellect claims its turn.
time, and she awoke with a misgiving in her mind, The mind retires above the noisy world to its Acrop-
and some sound ringing in her ears. She listened olis, and there discusses the great problem of the day;
and heard nothing, but in a few moments it began the Insular Enigma. To be or not to be, that is the
again.
question, I believe. No it is not. That is fully dis-
It was Hazel talking, - talking in a manner so cussed elsewhere. Hum! To diffuse – intelligence
fast, so strange, so loud, that it made her blood run — from a fixed island -- over one hundred leagues
cold. It was the voice of Hazel, but not his mind of water.
•She drew near, and, to her dismay, found him “ It's a stinger. But I can't complain. I had
fever-stricken, and pouring out words with little read Lem priere, and Smith and Bryant, and mythol-
sequence. She came close to him and tried to ogy in general : yet I must go and fall in love with
soothe him, but he answered her quite at random, the Sphinx. Men are so vain. Vanity whispered
and went on Ainging out the strangest things in she will set you a light one; why is a cobbler like a
stranger order. She trembled and waited for a lull, king, for instance. She is in love with you, ye fool,
hoping then to soothe him with soft words and tones if you are with her. The harder the riddle the
of tender pity.
higher the compliment the Sphinx pays you. That
- Dens and caves !” he roared, answering an im- is the way all sensible men look at it. She is not
aginary detractor. “Well, never mind, love shall the Sphinx: she is an angel, and I call ber my
make that hole in the rock a palace for a queen ; for Lady Caprice. Hate her for being Caprice? You
a queen ? For the queen." Here he suddenly incorrigible muddle head. Why, I love Caprice for
changed characters and fancied he was interpreting being her shadow. Poor, impotent love that can't
the discourse of another. “He means the Queen solve a problem. The only one she ever set me.
of the Fairies," said he, patronizingly: then, resum- I've gone about it like a fool. What is the use
ing his own character with loud defiance, " I say putting up little bits of telegraphs on the island?
her chamber shall outshine the glories of the Alham- I'll make a kite a hundred feet high, get five miles
bra, as far as the lilies outshone the artificial glories of rope ready against the next hurricane; and
of King Solomon. O mighty Nature, let others re- then I'll rub it with phosphorus and fly it. But
ly on the painter, the gold-beater, the carver of what can I fasten it to ? No tree would hold it.
marble, come you and help me adorn the temple of Dunce! To the island itself, of course. And
my beloved. Amen."
now go to Stantle, Magg, Melton, and Cope-
(The poor soul thought, by the sound of his own stake for one thousand yards of silk,- Money!
words, it must be a prayer he had uttered.)
Money! Money! Well, give them a mortgage
And now Helen, with streaming eyes, tried to put on the island, and a draft on the galleon. Now
in a word, but he stopped her with a wild hush! | stop the pitch-fountain, and bore a hole near it;
and went off into a series of mysterious whisperings. fill fifty balloons with gas, inscribe them with the
“ Make no noise, please, or we shall frighten her. latitude and longitude, fly them, and bring all
There -- that is her window — no noise, please! the world about our ears. The problem is solved.
I've watched and waited four hours, just to see her It is solved, and I am destroyed. She leaves me ;
sweet, darling shadow on the blinds, and shall I she thinks no more of me. 'Her heart is in Eng-
lose it for your small talk ? all paradoxes and plati- land."
tudes ! excuse my plain speaking -- hush! here it Then he muttered for a long time unintelligibly;
comes, — her shadow – hush — how my heart beats. and Helen ventured near, and actually laid her hand
It is gone. So now” (speaking out), “ Good on his brow to sootbe him. But suddenly his mutter-
night, base world! Do you hear? you company of ing ceased, and he seemed to be puzzling hard over
liars, thieves, and traitors, called the world, go and something.
sleep if you can. I shall sleep: because my con- The result came out in a clear articulate sentence,
science is clear. False accusations! Who can that made Helen recoil, and holding by the mast,
help them? They are the act of others. Read of cast an indescribable look of wonder and dismay on
Job, and Paul, and Joan of Arc. No, no, no, no; I the speaker.
did n't say read 'em out with those stentorian lungs. The words that so staggered her were these, to the
I must be allowed a little sleep, a man that wastes | letter.
the midnight oil, yet brushes the early dew. Good “She says she hates reptiles. Yet she marries
night.”
Arthur Wardlaw."


82
FOUL PLAY.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
| with what success may be imagined. She would
have bought those pains, or a portion of them; ay,
TIE very name of Arthur Wardlaw startled Hel- and paid a heavy price for them.
en, and made her realize how completely her But pain, like everything, intermits, and in those
thoughts had been occupied with another.
blessed intervals his mind was more active than ever,
But add to that the strange and bitter epigram! and ran a great deal upon what he called the
Or was it a mere fortuitous concourse of words? | Problem.
She was startled, amazed, confounded, puzzled. But she, who had set it him, gave him little en-
And, ere she could recover her composure, Hazel couragement now to puzzle over it.
was back to his problem again : but no longer with The following may serve as a specimen of their
the same energy.
conversation on that head.
He said in a faint and sleepy voice: “ He mak-' " The air of this island,” said be, "gives one a
eth the winds His messengers, and flames of fire His sort of vague sense of mental power. It leads to no
ministers.' Ah! if I could do that! Well, why not? result in my case: still, it is an agreeable sensation
I can do anything she bids me, –
to have it floating across my mind that some day I
shall solve the Great Problem. Ah! if I was only
Græculus esuriens cælum jusseris ibit.”
an inventor!”
And soon after this doughty declaration he dozed off, “And so you are."
and foryot all his trouble for a while.
“No, no," said Hazel, disclaiming as earnestly
The sun rose, and still he slept, and Helen as some people claim; “I do things that look like
watched him with undisguised tenderness in her acts of invention, but they are acts of memory. I
face; undisguised now that he could not see it. could show you plates and engravings of all the
Erelong she had companions in her care. Ponto things I have seemed to invent. A man who stud-
came out of his den, and sniffed about the boat; and ies books instead of skimming them, can cut a dash
then began to scratch it, and whimper for his friend. in a desert island, until the fata) word goes forth, -
Tominy swam out of the sea, came to the boat, dis- invent; and then you find him out."
covered, Heaven knows how, that his friend was “I am sure I wish I had never said the fatal
there, and, in the way of noises, did everything but word. You will never get well if you puzzle your
speak. The sea-birds followed and fluttered here brain over impossibilities." .
and there in an erratic way, with now and then a “Impossibilities ! But is not that begging the
peck at each other. All animated nature seemed question? The measure of impossibilities is lost in
to be uneasy at this eclipse of their Hazel.
the present age. I propose a test., Let us go back
At last Tommy raised himself quite perpendicu- a century, and suppose that three problems were
lar, in a vain endeavor to look into the boat, and in- laid before the men of that day, and they were
vented a whine in the minor key, which tells on asked to decide which is the most impossible : 1st,
dogs: it set Ponto off in a moment; he sat upon to diffuse intelligence from a fixed island over a
his tail, and delivered a long and most deplorable hundred leagues of water: 2d, to make the sun
howl.
take in thirty seconds likenesses more exact than
“ Everything loves him,” thought Helen.
any portrait-painter ever took, – likenesses that can
With Ponto's music Hazel awoke, and found her be sold for a shilling at fifty per cent profit: 31,
watching him, with tears in her eyes; he said soft- for New York and London to exchange words by
ly: " Miss Rolleston! There is nothing the matter, wire so much faster than the earth can turn, that
I hope. Why am I not up getting things for your London shall tell New York at ten on Monday morn-
breakfast ?"
ing what was the price of consols at two o'clock Mon-
* Dear friend,” said she, " why you are not doing day afternoon."
things for me and forgetting yourself, is because you « That is a story,” said Helen, with a look of an-
have been very ill. And I am your nurse. Now gelic reproach.
tell me what I shall get you. Is there nothing you “I accept that reply," said Hazel. “As for me,
could fancy?”
I have got a smattering of so many subjects, all full
No; he had no appetite; she was not to trouble of incredible truths, that my faith in the impossibil-
about him. And then he tried to get up; but that ity of anything is gone. Ah! if James Watt was
gave him such a pain in his loins, he was fain to lie only here instead of John Hazel, — James Watt
down again. So then he felt that he had got rheu- from the Abbey with a head as big as a pumpkin,-
matic fever. He told her so; but seeing her sweet he would not have gone groping about the island,
anxious face, begged her not to be alarmed, - he writing on rocks, and erecting signals. No; he
knew what to take for it. Would she be kind would have had some grand and bold idea worthy of
enough to go to his arsenal and fetch some speci- the proposition.”
mens of bark she would find there, and also the keg “Well, so I think,” said Helen, archly; " that
of rum.
great man with a great head would have begun by
She few at the word, and soon made him an in- making a kite a hundred yards high.”
fusion of the barks in boiling water; to which the “Would he? Well, he was quite capable of it."
rum was added.
“ Yes; and rubbed it with phosphorus, and flown
His sweet nurse administered this from time to it the first tempest, and made the string fast to —
· time. The barks used were of the cassia-tree, and the island itselt."
a wild citron-tree. Cinchona did not exist in this “Well, that is an idea,” said Hazel, staring;
island, unfortunately. Perhaps there was no soil “ rather hyperbolical, I fear. But after all, it is an
for it at a sufficient elevation above the sea.
idea."
Nevertheless with these inferior barks they held “Or else," continued Helen, “ he would weave
the fever in check. But the pain was obstinate, and a thousand yards of some light fabric, and make
cost Helen many a sigh; for if she came softly, she balloons; then he would stop the pitch-fountain,
could often hear him moan; and the moment he bore a hole in the rock near it, and so get the gas,
heard her foot, he set-to and whistled, for a blind ; fill the balloons, inscribe them with our sad story


FOUL PLAY
83
and our latitude and longitude, and send them fly- “ And forty-nine minutes past eight at Sydney,"
ing all over the ocean, -- there !”
| said Helen, holding out her chronometer; for she
Hazel was amazed.
had been sharp enough to get it ready of her own
" I resign my functions to you," said he. “What accord.
imagination! What invention !”
Hazel looked at her and at the watch with
"O dear no," said Helen, slyly; “ acts of mem- amazement and incredulity.
ory sometimes pass for invention, you know. Shail “What?” said he. "Impossible. You can't
I tell you ? when first you fell ill, you were rather have kept Sydney time all this while.”
light-headed, and uttered the strangest things. “ And pray why not?” said Helen. “ Have
They would have made me laugh heartily, only I you forgotten that once somebody praised me for
could n't, — for crying. And you said that about keeping Sydney time; it helped you, somehow or
kites and balloons, every word.”
other, to know where we were.”
“ Did I? then I have most brains when I have “And so it will now," cried Hazel, exultingls.
least reason, that's all.”
“But no! it is impossible. We have gone through
** Ay,” said Helen, “and other strange things, – scenes that -- you can't have wound that watch up
very strange and bitter things. One I should like without missing a day."
to ask you about, what on earth you could mean "Indeed but I have,” said Helen. “ Not wind
by it; but perhaps you meant nothing after all.” . my watch up! Why, if I was dying I should wind
.." I'll soon tell you,” said Hazel; but he took the my watch up. See, it requires no key; a touch or
precaution to add, " Provided I know what it means two of the fingers and it is done. 0, I am re-
myself."
markably constant in all my habits; and this is an
She looked at him steadily, and was on the point old friend I never neglect. Do you remember that
of seeking the explanation so boldly offered; but terrible night in the boat, when neither of us ex-
her own courage failed her. She colored and hesi-pected to see the inorning, -- 0, how good and
Lite.
brave you were ! - well, I remember winding it up
" I shall wait,” said she, “ till you are quite, quite that night. I kissed it, and bade it good by ; but
well. That will be soon, I hope ; only you must be I never dreamed of not winding it up, because I
good, and obey my prescriptions. Cultivate pa- was going to be killed. What am I not to be
tience; it is a wholesome plant; bow the pride of praised again. as I was on board ship? Stingy!
that intellect which you see a fever can lay low in can't afford to praise one twice for the same thing."
an hour: aspire no more beyond the powers of man. “Praised !” cried Hazel, excitedly ;“ worshipped,
Here we shall stay unless Providence sends us a you niean. Why, we have got the longitude by
ship. I have ceased to repine : and don't you be means of your chronometer. It is wonderful! It
gin. Dismiss that problem altogether; see how hot is providential! It is the finger of Heaven! Pen
it bas made your poor brow. Be good now, and and ink, and let me work it out."
dismiss it; or else do as I do, - fold it up, put it In his excitement he got up without assistance,
quietly away in a corner of your mind, and, when and was soon busy calculating the longitude of God-
you least expect, it will pop out solved."
send Isle.
[0, comfortable doctrine ! But how about
Jimie Watt's headaches? And why are the signs
of hard thoughts so much stronger in his brow and
CHAPTER XL.
face than in Shakespeare's ? Mercy on us, there is
another problem.]
“ There," said he. “Now the latitude I must
Hazel smiled, well-pleased, and leaned back, guess at by certain combinations. In the first
soothed, silenced, subdued, by her soft voice, and place the slight variation in the length of the days.
the exquisite touch of her velvet hand on his hot Then I must try and make a rough calculation of
brow; for, woman-like, she laid her liand like down the sun's parallax. And then my botany will belp
on that burning brow to aid her words in soothing me a little ; spices furnish a clew; there are one or
it. Nor did it occur to bim just then that this ad- two that will not grow outside the tropic. It was
monition delivered with a kind maternal hand, the longitude that.beat me, and now we have con-
maternal voice, came from the same young lady quered it. Hurrah! Now I know what to diffuse,
who had flown at hiin like a wild cat with this very and in what direction ; east, southeast; the ducks
problem in her mouth. She mesmerized him, pro- lave shown me that much. So there's the first
blem and all; he subsided into a complacent lan- step towards the impossible problem."
guor, and at last went to sleep, thinking only of "Very well,” saich Helen; “ and I am sure one
her. But the topic had entered his mind too step is enough for one day. I forbid you the topic
deeply to be finally distuissed. It returned next for twelve hours at least. I detest it because it
dity, though in a different forin. You must know always makes your poor head so hot."
that Hazel, as he lay on his back in the boat, had! What on earth does that matter?” said Hazel,
often, in a half-drowsy way, watched the effect of impetuously, and almost crossly.
the sun upon the boat's mast: it now stood, a bare - Come, come, come, sir,” said Heler., authorita-
pole, and at certain hours acted like the needle of tively; "it matters to me."
a dial, by casting a shadow on the sands. Above But when she saw that he could think of nothing
all, he could see pretty well by means of this pule else, and that opposition irritated him, she had the
and its shadow when the sun attained its greatest tact and good sense not to strain her authority, nor
elevation. He now asked Miss Rulleston to assist to irritate her subject.
him in making this observation exaitis.
She obeyed his instructions, and the moment the Hazel spliced a long, fine-pointed stick to the
shallow reached its highest angle, and showed the mast-head, and set a plank painted white with
minutest symptom of decleusion, slie said, "Now," guano at right angles to the base of the mast; and
and Hazel called out in a loud voive: -
so whenever the sun attained bis meridian altitude,
“ Noon!"
went into a difficult and subtle calculation to arrive


FOUL PLAY.
85
needle's point at one thing in this explanation. I
* Our antagonists ? " said Helen, looking sadly puz-
CHAPTER XLI. ..
zled. * Why, what antagonists have we?"
WARDLAW senior was not what you would call a
“ The messengers," said Hazel, with a groan. tender-hearted man: but he was thoroughly moved
The aërial messengers."
by General Rolleston's distress, and by his fortitude.
That did the business. Helen dropped the sub- The gallant old man! Landing in England one
ject with almost ludicrous haste; and, after a few week, and going back to the Pacific the next! Like
commonplace observations, made a nice comfortable goes with like; and Wardlaw senior, energetic and
dose of grog and bark for him. This she adminis- resolute himself, though he felt for his son, stricken
tered as an independent transaction, and not at all down by grief, gave his heart to the more valiant
by way of comment on his antagonists, the aërial distress of his contemporary. . He manned and
messengers.
victualled the Springbok for a long voyage, ordered
It operated unkindly for her purpose: it did him her to Plymouth, and took his friend down to her
so much good, that he lifted up his dejected head, by train.
and his eyes sparkled again, and he set to work, and, They went out to her in a boat. She was a screw
by sunset, prepared two more bags of bladder with steamer, that could sail nine knots an hour without
inscriptions inside, and long tails of fine gut hang- burning a coal. As she came down the Channel,
ing. He then set to work, and, with fingers far less the General's trouble got to be well known on board
adroit than hers, fastened another set of rushes her, and, when he came out of the harbor, the sail-
round the hoop. He set them less evenly, and some ors by an honest, .hearty impulse, that did them
of them not quite perpendicular; and, while he was credit, waited for no orders, but manned the yards
fumbling over this, and examining the effect with to receive him with the respect due to his services,
paternal glances, Helen's hazel eye dwelt on him and his sacred calamity.
with furtive pity; for, to her, this girdle of rushes On getting on board, he saluted the captain and
was now an instrument, that bore an ugly likeness the ship's coinpany with sad dignity, and retired to
to the sceptre of straw, with which vanity run to his cabin with Mr. Wardlaw. There the old mer-
seed sways imaginary kingdoms in Bedlam or Bice-chant forced on him by way of loan seven hundred
tre.
pounds, chiefly in gold and silver, telling him there
And yet he was better. He walked about the was nothing like money, go where you will. He
cavern and conversed charmingly; he was diction- then gave him a number of notices he had printed,
ary, essayist, raconteur, anything she liked ; and, as and a paper of advice and instructions: it was
she prudently avoided and ignored the one fatal top-written in his own large, clear, forınal hand.
ic, it was a delightful evening: her fingers were as General Rolleston tried to falter out his thanks.
busy as his tongue : and, when he retired, she pre- | John Wardlaw interrupted him.
sented him with the fruits of a fortnight's work, a “Next to you I am her father; am I not ? "
glorious wrapper made of fleecy cotton enclosed “ You have proved it."
in a plaited web of flexible and silky grasses. He “Well, then. However, if you do find her, as I
thanked her, and blessed her, and retired for the pray to God you may, I claim the second kiss, mind
night.
that: not for myself, though ; for my poor Arthur,
About midnight she awoke and felt uneasy : so that lies on a sick-bed for her.”
she did what since his illness she had done a score General Rolleston assented to that in a broken
of times without his knowledge, she stole from her voice. He could hardly speak.
lair to watch him.
1 And so they parted: and that sad parent went
She found him wrapped in her present, which out to the Pacific
gave her great pleasure, and sleeping like an in- To him it was indeed a sad and gloomy voyage;
fant, which give her joy. She eyed him eloquently and the hope with which he went on board oozed
for a long time; and then very timidly put out her gradually away as the ship traversed the vast tracks
hand, and, in her quality of nurse, laid it lighter of ocean. One immensity of water to be passed
than down upon his brow.
before that other immensity could be reached, on
The brow was cool, and a very slight moisture on whose vast, uniform, surface the search was to be made.
It showed the fever was going or gone.
To abridge this gloomy and monotonous part of
She folded her arms and stood looking at him; our tale, suffice it to say that he endured two months
and she thought of all they two had done and suf- of water and infinity ere the vessel, fast as she was,
fered together. Her eyes absorbed him, devoured reached Valparaiso. Their progress, however, had
him. The time flew by unheeded. It was so sweet been more than once interrupted to carry out Ward-
to be able to set her face free from its restraint, and law's instructions. The poor General himself had
let all its sunshine beam on him : and even when but one idea; to go and search the Pacific with his
she retired at last, those light hazel eyes, that could own eyes; but Wardlaw, more experienced, directed
flash fire at times, but were all dove-like now, bung bim to overhaul every whaler and coasting vessel
and lingered on him as if they could never look at he could, and deliver printed notices; telling the
him enough.
sad story, and offering a reward for any positive in-
formation, good or bad, that should be brought in to
Half an hour before daybreak she was awakened his agent at Valparaiso. Acting on these instruc-
by the dog howling piteously. She felt a little un- tions they had overhauled two or three coasting ves-
easy at that: not much. However she got up, and sels as they steamed up from the Horn. They now
issued from her cavern, just as the sun showed his placarded the port of Valparaiso, and put the notices.
red eye above the horizon. She went towards the on board all vessels bound westward; and the cap-
boat as a matter of course. She found Ponto tied tain of the Springbok spoke to the skippers in the
to the helnı: the boat was empty, and Hazel no- port. But they all shook their heads, and could
where to be seen.
hardly be got to give their minds seriously to the
She uttered a scream of dismay
inquiry when they heard in what water the cutter
The dog howled and whined louder than ever. I was last seen, and on what course.


86
FOUL PLAY.
lose."
One old skipper said, “Look on Juan Fer- struggled. Hazel soused him under directly, and
nandez, and then at the bottom of the Pacific; but so quenched the sound; then he glided slowly to
the sooner you look there the less time you will the bank, so slowly that the rushes merely seemed
to drift ashore. This he did not to create suspicion,
From Valparaiso they ran to Juan Fernandez, and so spoil the next attempt. As he glided, he
which indeed seemed the likeliest place; if she was gave his duck air every now and then, and soon
alive.
got on terra firma. By this time he had taught the
When the larger island of that group, the island duck not to quack, or he would get soused and
dear alike to you who read, and to us who write, held under. He now took the long gut-end and
this tale, came in sight, the father's heart began to tied it tight round the bird's leg, and so fastened
beat higher.
the bag to him. Even while he was effecting this,
The ship anchored and took in coal, which was a posse of ducks rose at the west end of the marshi,
furnished at a wickedly high price by Mr. Joshua Ful-| and took their flight from the island. As ther
lalove, who had virtually purchased the island from passed, Hazel threw his captive up in the air; ani
Chili, having got it on lease for longer than the such was the force of example, aided, perhaps, by
earth itself is to last, we hear.
the fright the captive had received, that Hazel's
And now Rolleston found the value of Wardlaw's bird instantly joined these travellers, rose with them
loan; it enabled him to prosecute his search through into the high currents, and away, bearing the news
the whole group of islands; and he did hear at last eastward upon the wings of the wind. Then Hazel
of three persons, who had been wrecked on Masa returned to the pool, and twice more he was so
Fuero; one of them a female. He followed this fortunate as to secure a bird, and launch him into
up and at last discovered the parties. He found space.
them to be Spaniards, and the woman smoking a
pipe.
So hard is it to measure the wit of man, and to
After this bitter disappointment he went back to define his resources. The problem was solved; the
the ship, and she was to weigh her anchor next aërial messengers were on the wing, diffusing over
morning.
hundreds of leagues of water the intelligence that
But while General Rolleston was at Masa Fuero, an English lady had been wrecked on an unknown
a small coasting vessel had come in, and brought a island, in longitude 103 deg. 30 min., and between
strange report at second-hand, that in some degree the 32d and 25th parallels of south latitude; and
unsettled "Captain Moreland's mind; and, being calling good men and ships to her rescue for the
hotly discussed on the forecastle, set the ship's com- I love of God.
pany in a ferment.
CHAPTER XLIII.
CHAPTER XLII.
And now for the strange report that landed at
Juan Fernandez while General Rolleston was
Hazel had risen an hour before dawn for searching Masa Fuero.
reasons well known to himself. He put on his The coaster who brought it ashore had been in
worst clothes, and a leathern belt, his little bags company at Valparaiso, with a whaler from Van-
round his neck, and took his bundle of rushes in his tucket, who told him he had fallen in with a Dutch
hand. He also provided himself with some pieces whaler out at sea, and distressed for water: he had
of raw fish and fresh oyster; and, thus equipped, supplied the said Dutchman, who had thanked him,
went up through Terrapin Wood, and got to the and given him a rublet of Hollands, and had told
neighborhood of the lagoons before daybreak. him in conversation that he had seen land and a
There was a heavy steam on the water, and river reflected on the sky, in waters where no land
nothing else to be seen. He put the hoop over his was marked in the chart; namely, somewhere be-
head, and walked into the water, not without antween Juan Fernandez and Norfolk Island ; and
internal shudder, it looked so cold.
that, believing this to be the reflection of a part of
But instead of that, it was very warm, unac-some island near at hand, and his water being low,
countably warm. He walked in up to his middle, though not at that time run out, he had gone con
and tied his iron hoop :0 his belt, so as to prevent siderably out of his course in hopes of finding this
it sinking too deep. This done, he waited motion-watered island, but could see nothing of it. Never-
less, and seemed a little bed of rushes. The sun theless, as his grandfather, wbo had been sixty years
rose, and the steam gradually cleared away, and at sea, and logged many wonderful things, had told
Hazel, peering through a hole or two he had made him the sky bad been known to reflect both ships
expressly in his bed of rushes, saw several ducks and land at a great distance, he fully believed there
floating about, and one in particular, all purple, was an island somewhere in that longitude, not
without a speck but his amber eye. He contrived | down on any chart: an island wooded and wa-
to detach a piece of fish, that soon floated to the tered.
surface near him. But no duck moved towards This tale soon boarded the Springbok, and was
it. He tried another, and another; then a mal- hotly discussed on the forecastle. It came to Cap-
lard he had not observed swam up from behind tain Moreland's ears, and he examined the skipper
him, and was soon busy pecking at it within a of the coasting-smack. But this examination elicit-
yard of him. His heart beat ; le glided slowly ed nothing new, inasmuch as the skipper had the
and cautiously forward till the bird was close to the tale only at third hand. Captain Moreland, how-
rushes.
ever, communicated it to General Rolleston on his
Hazel stretched out his hand with •the utmost arrival, and asked him whether he thought it worth
care, caught hold of the bird's feet, and dragged while to deviate from their instructions upon infor-
him sharply under the water, and brought him up mation of such a character. Rolleston shook his
within the circle of the rushes. He quacked and head. “An island reflected in the sky!”


FOUL PLAY.
87
sel!
*Sir!”
“No, sir: a portion of an island containing a point or two on our weather-quarter like, full two
river.”
hours, and then she just melted away like a lump o'
* It is clearly a fable,” said Rolleston, with a sugar. We kept on our course a day and a half,
sigb.
and, at last, we sighted the real Peak, and anchored
• What is a fable, General ? ”
off the port; whereby, when we saw Teneriffe
* That the sky can reflect terrestrial objects." Peak in the sky to winnard, she lay a hundred
“ O, there I can't go with you. The phenomenon | leagues to looard, s' help me God!."
is rare, but it is well established. I never saw it! " That is wonderful,” said General Rolles-
myself, but I have come across those that have. ton.
Suppose we catechise the forecastle. Hy! Fok’ | “That will do, Isaac," said the captain. “Mr.
Butt, double his grog for a week, for having seen
more than I have.”
"Send a man aft: the oldest seaman aboard.” The captain and General Rolleston had a long
- Ay, av, sir."
discussion; but the result was, they determined to
There was some little delay: and then a sailor go to Easter Island first, for General Rolleston was
of about sixty slouched aft, made a sea scrape, and, a soldier, and had learned to obey as well as com-
removing his cap entirely, awaited the captain's mand. He saw no sufficient ground for deviating
comnangis.
from Wardlaw's positive instructions.
- My man," said the captain, “ I want you to an- This decision soon became known throughout the
siver à qaestion. Do you believe land and ships ship; and she was to weigh anchor at 11 A.M. next
have ever been seen in the sky, reflected ? ” day, by high water.
- A many good seainen holds to that, sir,” said
the sailor, cautiously.
At eight next morning, Captain Moreland and
* Is it the general opinion of seamen before the General Rolleston being on deck, one of the ship's
mast? Come, tell us. " Jack 's as good as his mas- | boys, a regular pet, with rosy cheeks and black eyes,
ter in these matters."
comes up to the gentlemen, takes off his cap, and,
••• Could n't say for boys and lubbers, sir. But I panting audibly at his own audacity, shoves a paper
never met a full-grown sea man as denied that there. into General Rolleston's hand, and scuds away for
Sartainly few has seen it: but all of 'em has seen his life.
ihem as has seen it; ships, and land, too; but most “ This won't do," said the captain, sternly. .
ly ships. Hows'ever, I had a messmate once as was The high-bred soldier handed the paper to him
sailing past a rock they call Ailsa Craig, and saw a unopened.
regiinent of soldiers marching in the sky. Logged The captain opened it, looked a little vexed,
it, did the inate; and them soldiers was a march- but more amused, and handed it back to the Gen-
ing between two towns in Ireland at that very eral.
It was a Round Robin.
• There, you see, General,” said Captain More- Round Robins are not ingratiating as a rule.
land.
· But this one came from some rough but honest fel-
* But this is all second-hand," said General lows, who had already shown that kindliness and
Rolleston, with a sigh ; " and I have learned how tact may reside in a coarse envelope. The sailors
everything gets distorted in passing from one to an- of the Springbok, when they first boarded her in
other.”
the Thames, looked on themselves as men bound on
• Ah," said the captain, “ we can't help that; the an empty cruise; and nothing but the pay, which
thing is rare. I never saw it for one; and I sup- was five shillings per month above the average, rec-
pose you never saw a phenomenon of the kind, onciled them to it; for a sailor does not like going
Isaac ?"
to sea for nothing, any more than a true sportsman
.“ Ha'n't I!” said Isaac, grimly. Then, with sud- likes to ride to hounds that are hunting a red her-
den, and not very reasonable, heat, “D- my eyes ring trailed.
and limbs if I ha’n't seen the Peak o' Teneriffe in But the sight of the General had touched them
tue sky topsy-turvy, and as plain as I see that there afar off. His gray hair and pale face, seen as he
cloud there” (pointing upwards).
rowed out of Plymouth Harbor, had sent them to
Come," said Moreland ; "now we are getting the yards by a gallant impulse; and all through the
to it. Tell us all about that.”
| voyage the game had been to put on an air of alac-
Well, sir,” said the seaman, “I don't care to rity and hope, whenever they passed the General or
larn them as laughs at everything they ha'n't seen in came under his eye.
maybe a dozen voyages at most; but you know me, If hypocrisy is always a crime, this was a very
and I knows you ; though you command the ship, criminal ship; for the men, and even the boys, were
and I work before the mast. Now I axes you, sir, hypocrites, wbo, feeling quite sure that the daughter
should you say Isaac Aiken was the man to take a was dead at sea months ago, did, nevertheless, make
sugar-loaf, or a cocked hat, for the Peak o' Tene- up their faces to encourage the father into thinking
she was alive, and he was going to find her. But
" As likely as I am myself, Isaac."
people who pursue this game too long, and keep up
“No commander can say fairer nor that," said the hopes of another, get infected at last themselves;
Isaac, with dignity. “Well, then, your honor, I 'll and the crew of the Springbok arrived at Valpa-
tell ye the truth, and no lie: We was bound for raiso infected with a little hope. Then came the
Teneriffe with a fair wind, though not so much of it | Dutchman's tale, and the discussion, which ended
as we wanted, by reason she was a good sea-boat, adversely to their views; and this elicited the cir- .
but broad in the bows. The Peak hove in sight in cular we have now the honor to lay before our
the sky, and all the glasses was at her. She lay a readers.
time."
riffe ? "


90
FOUL PLAY.
have nothing to fear,” said he; "keep this side of that morning, and kept about the premises. But be
the island, and I'll live on the other, rather than got worse, and he had hardly any use in his right
hear the name of Arthur Wardlaw."
side, from the waist downwards, and was in great
Helen's courage failed her at that spirited propo-pain.
sal, and she made no reply at all, but turned her As the day wore on, the pain and loss of power
back baughtily, and went away from him, only increased, and resisted all his remedies; there was
when she had got a little way her proud head no fever to speak of; but Nature was grimly reveng-
drooped, and she went crying.
ing herself for many a gentler warning neglected.
A coolness sprang up between them, and neither When he realized his condition, he was terribly cut
of them knew how to end it. Hazel saw no way to up, and sat on the sand with his head in his hands
serve her now, except by flying weighted ducks ; for nearly two hours. But, after that period of de-
and he gave his mind so to this that one day he told spondency, he got up, took his boat-hook, and using
her he had twenty-seven ducks in the air, all it as a staff, hobbled to his arsenal, and set to work
charged, and two thirds of them weighted. He Amongst his materials was a young tree he hail
thought that must please her now. To his surprise pulled up; the roots ran at right angles to the stem
and annoyance, she received the intelligence coldly, He just sawed off the ends of the roots, and then
and asked him whether it was not cruel to the proceeded to shorten the stem.
birds.
But meantime, Helen, who had always a secret
Hazel colored with mortification at his great act eye on hiin and his movements, had seen there was
of self-denial being so received.
something wrong, and came timidly and asked what
He said, “I don't think my worst enemy can say | was the matter.
I am wantonly cruel to God's creatures."
“ Nothing," said he, doggedly.
Helen threw in, deftly; “ And I am not your “ Then why did you sit so long on the sand ? I.
worst enemy."
| never saw you like that.”
“But what other way is there to liberate you from “I was ruminating.”
this island, where you have nobody to speak to but “What upon ? Not that I have any right to ask.”
me? Well, selfishness is the best course. Think “On the arrogance and folly of men; they at-
only of others, and you are sure not to please tempt more than they can do, and despise the petty
them."
prudence and common sense of women, and smart för
“If you want to please people, you must begin it; as I am smarting now for being wiser than you."
by understanding them,” said the lady, not ill- “()!” said Helen ; "why, what is the matter and
naturedly.
what is that you have made ? It looks like - 0
“ But if they don't understand themselves ?” dear!”
" Then pity them; you can, for you are a man.” “It is a crutch," said Hazel, with forced calmness ;
"What hurts me," said Hazel, “is that you really " and I am a cripple.”
seem to think I fly these ducks for my pleasure. Helen clasped her hands, and stood trembling.
Wliy, if I had my wish, you and I should never Hazel lost his self-control for a moment, and cried
leave this island, nor any other person set a foot on out in a voice of agony, “ A useless cripple. I wish
it. I am frank, you see."
| I was dead and out of the way."
“Rather too frank."
Then, ashamed of having given' way before her,
" What does it matter, since I do my duty all the he seized his crutch, placed the crook under his arm,
same, and fly the ducks? But sometimes I do and turned sullenly away from her.
yearn for a word of praise for it; and that word Four steps he took wiih his crutch.
never comes."
She caught him with two movements of ber.sup-
" It is a praiseworthy act," said Helen, but so icily ple and vigorous frame.
that it is a wonder he ever flew another duck after She just laid her left hand gently on his shoulder,
and with her right she stole the crutch softly away,
“No matter," said he, anıl his hand involuntarily and let it fall upon the sand. She took his right
sought his heart; “ you read me a sharp but whole- band, and put it to her lips like a subject paying
some lesson, that we should do our duty for our homage to her sovereign; and then she put her
duty's sake. And as I am quite sure it is my duty strong arm under his shoulder, still holding his right
. to liberate you and restore you to those you — I'll hand in hers, and looked in his face. “ No wooden
fly three ducks to-morrow morning instead of two." crutches when I am by," said she, in a low voice,
" It is not done by my advice," said Helen. full of devotion.
“ You will certainly make yourself ill.”
He stood surprised, and his eyes began to fill.
“0, that is all nonsense!” said Hazel.
“Come," said she, in a voice of music. And, thus
“ You are rude to me," said Helen, “ and I am aided, he went with her to her cavern. As they
not aware that I deserve it."
went, she asked him tenderly where the pain was.
“Rude, am I? Then I'll say no more," said " It was in my hip and knee,” he said : " but now
Hazel, half humbly, half doggedly.
it is nowhere; for joy has come back to my heart.”
“ And to mine too,” said Helen; “except for this.”
His parchment was exhausted, and he was driven
to another expedient. He obtained alcohol by dis- The quarrel dispersed like a cloud, under this ca-
tillation from rum, and having found dragon's blood lamity. There was no formal reconciliation ; no dis-
in its pure state, little ruby drops, made a deep red cussion; and this was the wisest course : for the up-
varnish that defied water; he got slips of bark, happy situation remained unchanged ; and the
white inside, cut his inscription deep on the inner friendliest discussion could only fan the embers of
side, and filled the incised letters with this red discord and misery gently, instead of fiercely. .
varnish. He had forty-eight ducks in the air, and The pair so strangely thrown together commenced
was rising before daybreak to catch another couple, a new chapter of their existence. It was not patient
when he was seized with a pain in the right hip and and nurse over again; Hazel, though very lame, bad
knee, and found be could hardly walk, so he gave in too much spirit left to accept that position. But still
that.


FOUL PLAY.
93
6 I dunno.”.
I Having allowed this a moment to sink into the
* Keep your eye on her.”
mind, he reversed the board, and showed these
" Ay, ay, sir."
words, also printed large, THE SPRINGBOK ?
Captain Moreland told General Rolleston that There was a thrilling murmur on board ; and,
very few ships went to Easter Island, which lies in after a pause of surprise, the question was answered
a lovely climate, but is a miserable place; and he | by a loud cheer and waving of hats.
was telling the General that it is inhabited by sav- The reply was perfectly understood; almost im-
ages of a low prder, who half worship the relics of mediately a boat was lowered by some novel ma-
masonry left by their more civilized predecessors, chinery, and pulled towards the steamer. There
when Jack hailed the deck again.
were two men in it: the skipper and the negro.
"Well," said the captain.
The skipper came up the side of the Springbok.
“I think she is bound for the Springbok.”
He was loosely dressed in some light drab-colored
The soldier received this conjecture with aston- stuff and a huge straw hat; a man with a long
ishment and incredulity, not to be wondered at. Puritanical head, a nose inclined to be aquiline,
The steamboat headed N.W., right in the wind's a face bronzed by weather and heat, thin, resolute
eye. Sixteen miles off, at least, a ship was sailing lips, and a square chin. But for a certain breadth
N.E. So that the two courses might be repre between his keen gray eyes, which revealed more
sented thus :
intellect than Cromwell's Ironsides were encum-
bered with, he might have passed for one of that
hard-praying, barder-hitting fraternity. :.
He came on deck, just touched his hat, as if to
brush away a fly, and, removing an enormous cigar
from his mouth, said, “Wal, and so this is the
Springbok. Spry little boat she is : how many
knots can ye get out of her now ? Not that I am
And there hung in the air, like a black mark against curious."
the blue sky, a fellow, whose oracular voice came “About twelve knots.”
down and said B was endeavoring to intercept A. “ And when the steam's off the bile, how many
Nevertheless, time confirmed the conjecture; the can you sail ? Not that it is my business.”
schooner, having made a short board to the N.E., “ Eight or nine. What is your business ? "
came about, and made a long board due west, which « Hum! You have been over some water looking
was as near as she could lie to the wind. On this for that gal. Where do ye hail from last?”
Captain Moreland laid the steamboat's head due “ The Society Islands. Did you board me to hear
north. This brought the vessels rapidly together. me my catechism?”
When they were about two miles distant, the “No, I am not one of your prying sort. Where
stranger slackened sail and bove to, hoisting stars are ye bound for now?”
and stripes at her mizzen. The union jack went up "I am bound for Easter Island.”
the shrouds of the Springbok directly, and she pur “ Have you heard anything of the gal ? "
sued her course, but gradually slackened her steam. ** No."
General Rolleston walked the deck in great agi “And when do ye expec' to go back to England
tation, and now indulged in wild hopes, which Cap- as wise as ye came?"
tain Moreland thought it best to discourage at “Never while the ship can swim,” cried Moreland,
once.
angrily, to hide his despondency from this stranger.
" Ah, sir," he said; “don't you run into the “And now it is my turn, I think. What schoon-
other extreme, and imagine he has come on our er is this ? by whom commanded, and whither
business. It is at sea as it is ashore: if a man goes bound?”
out of his course to speak to you, it is for his own “The Julia Dodd ; Joshua Fullalove; bound for
sake, not yours. This Yankee has got men sick Juan Fernandez with the raw material of civiliza.
with scurvy, and is come for lime-juice. Or his tion - look at the varmint skippin' - and a print-
water is out. Or-hallo, savages aboard.”
ing-press; an' that's the instrument of civilization,
It was too true. The schooner had a cargo of I rattber think."
savages; male and female; the males were nearly “Well, sir; and why in Heaven's name did you
naked, but the females, strange to say, were dressed change your course ?"
to the throat in ample robes, with broad and flowing “Wal, I reckon I changed it — to tell you a lie."
skirts, and had little coronets on their heads. As 1 " To tell us a lie?”
soon as the schooner hove to, the fiddle had struck " Ay; the darnedest etarnal lie that ever came out
up, and the savages were now dancing in parties of a man's mouth. Fust, there's an unknown island
of four; the men doing a sort of monkey hornpipe somewheres about. That's a kinder flourish before-
in quick pace, with their hands nearly touching the hand. On that island there's an English gal
ground; the women, on the contrary, erect and wrecked.”
queenly, swept about in slow rhythm, with most Exclamations burst forth on every side at this.
graceful and coquettish movements of the arms “And she is so tarnation 'cute, she is flying ducks
and hands, and bewitching smiles.
all over creation with a writing tied to their legs,
The steamboat came alongside, but at a certain telling the tale, and setting down the longitude.
distance, to avoid all chance of collision; and the There, if that is n't a buster, I hope I may never live
crew clustered at the side and cheered the savages to tell another.”
dancing. The poor General was forgotten at the “God bless you, sir," cried the General. “Where
merry sight.
is the island ? "
Presently a negro in white cotton, with a face “ What island ? "
blacker than the savages, stepped forward and “The island where my child is wrecked.”
hoisted a board, on which was printed very large “What, are you the gal's father?” said Joshua,
ARE YOU
with a sudden touch of feeling.


98
FOUL PLAY.
see the consequences of deceit: it wipes out the you. You remember how he suspected burglars,
deepest obligations." He resumed, in a different and watched night after night under your window.
tone, “But not with me. This is a woman: but I That was out of love for you. His insanity took
am a man, and know how a bad man could have the form of fidelity and humble devotion. He got
abused the situation in which I found you two." a wound for his pains, poor fellow! and you made
“ Not worse than he has done,” cried Helen. Arthur Wardlaw get him a clerk's place.”
“What do you tell me, girl!” said General Rol- “ Arthur Wardlaw !” cried Seaton. “ Was it to
leston, beginning to tremble in his turn.
him I owed it?" and he groaned aloud.
" What could he do worse than steal my esteem Said Helen, “ He hates poor Arthur, his bene-
and veneration, and drag my heart's best feelings in factor.” Then to Penfold : " If you are that James
the dirt ? O, where — where can I ever look for a Seaton, you received a letter from me.”
guide, instructor, and faithful friend, after this? He “I did," said Penfold ; and putting his hand in
seemed all truth; and he is all a lie : the world is his bosom he drew out a letter and showed it her.
all a lie: would I could leave it this moment!” | “Let me see it,” said Helen.
“This is all romantic nonsense,” said General “ ()'no! don't take this from me too,” said he,
Rolleston, beginning to be angry. “You are a little piteously.
fool, and in your ignorance and innocence have no General Rolleston continued. "The day you
idea how well this young fellow has behaved on the sailed he disappeared; and I am afraid not without
whole. I tell you what;- in spite of this one fault, some wild idea of being in the same ship with you.
I should like to shake him by the hand. I will too; This was very reprehensible. Do you hear, young
and then admonish him afterwards."
man? But what is the consequence? You get ship-
“You shall not. You shall not," cried Helen, wrecked together, and the young madman takes
seizing him almost violently by the arm. “You such care of you that I find you well and hearty,
take him by the hand! A monster! How dare and calling him your guardian angel. And — an-
you steal into my esteem? How dare you be a other thing to his credit — he has set his wits to
miracle of goodness, self-denial, learning, and every work to restore you to the world. These ducks, one
virtue that a lady might worship and thank God of which brings me here? Of course it was he who
for, when all the time you are a vile, convicted —" contrived that, not you. Young man, you must learn
“I'll thank you not to say that word," said Hazel, to look things in the face; this young lady is not of
firmly.
your sphere, to begin; and, in the next place, she is
"I'll call you what you are, if I choose,” said engaged to Mr. Arthur Wardlaw; and I am come out
Helen, defiantly. But for all that she did not do it. in his steamboat to take her to him. And as for you,
She said piteously, “ What offence bad I ever given Helen, take my advice; think what most convicts are
you? What crime had I ever committed, that you compared to this one. Shut your eyes entirely to his ·
must make me the victim of this diabolical deceit? folly, as I shall; and let you and I think only of his
0, sir, what powers of mind you have wasted to good deeds, and so make him all the return we can.
achieve this victory over a poor unoffending girl ! You and I will go on board the steamboat directly ;
What was your motive? What good could come and, when we are there, we can tell Moreland there
of it to you? He won't speak to me. He is not is somebody else on the island. He then turned to
even penitent. Sullen and obstinate! He shall be Penfold, and said: “My daughter and I will keep in
taken to England, and well punished for it. Papa, the after-part of the vessel, and anybody that likes
it is your duty.”
can leave the ship at Valparaiso. Helen, I know it
“ Helen," said the General, “ you ladies are rather is wrong; but what can I do? – I am so happy.
too fond of hitting a man when he is down. And You are alive and well : how can I punish or afflict
you speak daggers, as the saying is; and then wish a human creature to-day? and, above all, how can
you had bitten your tongue off sooner. You are I crush this unhappy young man, without whom I
my child, but you are also a British subject; and, if should never have seen you again in this world ?
you charge me on my duty to take this man to Eng. My daughter! my dear lost child !” and he held her
land and have him imprisoned, I must. But, before at arm's length and gazed at her, and then drew her
you go that length, you had better hear the whole to his bosom, and for him Robert Penfold ceased to
story."
exist, except as a man that had saved his daughter.
" Sir,” said Robert Penfold, quietly, “I will go “ Papa," said Helen, after a long pause, just
back to prison this minute, if she wishes it.” make him tell why he could not trust to me. Why
How dare you interrupt papa," said Helen, he passed himself off to me for a clergyman."
haughtily, but with a great sob.
"I am a clergyman," said Robert Penfold.
“Come, come,” said the General, “ be quiet, both “O!” said Helen, shocked to find him so har-
of you, and let me say my say. (To Robert.) You dened, as she thought. She lifted her hands to hea-
had better turn your head away, for I am a straight-ven, and the tears streamed from her eyes. “ Well,
forward man, and I'm going to show her you are sir," said she, faintly, “I see I cannot reach your con-
not a villain, but a madman. This Robert Penfold science. One question more, and then I have done
wrote me a letter, imploring me to find him some with you forever. Why in all these months that
honest employment, however menial. That looked we have been alone, and that you have shown me
well, and I made him my gardener. He was a cap- the nature, I don't say of an honest man, but of an
ital gardener; but one fine day he caught sight of angel, — yes, papa, of an angel, - why could you not
you. You are a very lovely girl, though you don't show me one humble virtue, sincerity? It belongs
seem to know it; and he is a madman; and he fell to a man. Why could you not say, I have commit-
in love with you.” Helen uttered an ejaculation of ted one crime in my life, but repented forever ;
great surprise. The General resumed: “He can judge by this confession, and by what you have seen
only have seen you at a distance, or you would rec, of me, whether I shall ever commit another. Take
ognize him; but (really it is laughable) he saw you me as I am, and esteem me as a penitent and more
somehow, though you did not see him, and --worthy man; but I will not deceive you and pass for
Well, bis insanity hurt himself, and did not hurt a paragon.' Why could you not say as much as


FOUL PLAY.
99
this to me? If you loved me, why deceive me so I" What do I care for steamboats and captains ? If I
cruelly ?”
stay here to all eternity, I'll know from your own
These words, uttered no longer harshly, but in a | lips and your own face whether you are a felon or
mournful, faint, despairing voice, produced an ef- a martyr. It is no phrase, papa. He is a felon or a
fect the speaker little expected. Robert Penfold martyr; and I am a most unfortunate girl, or else a
made two attempts to speak, but though he opened base, disloyal one.”
his mouth, and his lips quivered, he could get no “Fiddle-dee," said General Rolleston, angrily.
word out. He began to choke with emotion ; and Then, looking at his watch: "I give you five min-
though he shed no tears, the convulsion that goes utes to humbug us in — if you can."
with weeping in weaker natures overpowered him in Robert Penfold sighed patiently. But from that
a way that was almost terrible.
| moment he ignored General Rolleston, and looked
“Confound it !” said General Rolleston, “this is to Helen only. And she fixed her eyes upon his
monstrous of you, Helen ; it is barbarous. You are face with a tenacity and an intensity of observation
not like your poor mother.”
that surpassed anything he had ever seen in his life.
She was pale and trembling, and the tears flow- It dazzled him; but it did not dismay him.
ing; but she showed her native obstinacy. She said, “ Miss Rolleston," said he,“ my history can be told
hoarsely, “ Papa, you are blind. He must answer in the time my prejudiced judge allows me. I am a
me. He knows he must!”
clergyman, and a private tutor at Oxford. One of
“I must,” said Robert Penfold, gasping still. my pupils was — Arthur Wardlaw. I took an inter-
Then he manned himself by a mighty effort, and ſ'est in him because my father, Michael Penfold, was
repeated with dignity, “I will." There was a in Wardlaw's employ. This Arthur Wardlaw had
pause while the young man still struggled for com- a talent for mimicry; he mimicked one of the col-
posure and self-command.
lege officers publicly and offensively, and was about
to be expelled, and that would have ruined his im- .
“Was I not often on the point of telling you my mediate prospects; for his father is just, but stern.
sad story ? Then is it fair to say that I should I fought hard for him, and, being myself popular
never have told it you? But, o Miss Rolleston, with the authorities, I got him off. He was grateful,
you don't know what agony it may be to an unfor- or seemed to be, and we became greater friends than
tunate man to tell the truth. There are accusations ever. We confided in each other. He told me he
so terrible, so defiling, that, when a man has proved was in debt in Oxford, and much alarmed lest it
them false, they still stick to him and soil him. Such should reach his father's ears, and lose him the
an accusation I labor under, and a judge and a jury promised partnership. I told him I was desirous to
have branded me. If they had called me a murder-buy a small living near Oxford, which was then
er, I would have told you; but that is such a dirty vacant; but I had only saved £400, and the price
crime. I feared the prejudices of the world. I was £1,000; I had no means of raising the balance.
dreaded to see your face alter to me. Yes, I trem- | Then he said, “ Borrow £2,000 of my father; give me
bled, and hesitated, and asked myself whether a fourteen hundred of it, and take your own time to
man is bound to repeat a foul slander against him- repay the £600. I shall be my father's partner in a
self, even when thirteen shallow men have said it, month or two,' said he ; you can pay us back by
and made the lie law.”
instalments. I thought this very kind of him. I
"There,” said General Rolleston, “ I thought how did not want the living for myself, but to give my
it would be, Helen; you have tormented him into dear father certain comforts and country air every
defending himself, tooth and nail; so now we shall week; he needed it: he was born in the country.
have the old story; he is innocent; I never knew Well, I came to London about this business; and a
a convict that was n't, if he found a fool to listen to stranger called on me, and said he came from Mr.
him. I decline to hear another word. You need n't Arthur Wardlaw, who was not well enough to come
excuse yourself for changing your name; I excuse himself. He produced a note of hand for £ 2,000,
it, and that is enough. But the boat is waiting, and signed John Wardlaw, and made me indorse it, and
we can't stay to hear you justify a felony."
told me where to get it cashed; he would come
“I AM NOT A FELON. I AM A MARTYR." next day for Arthur Wardlaw's share of the money.
Well, I suspected no ill; would you ? I went and
got the note discounted, and locked the money up.
It was not my money : the greater part was Arthur
CHAPTER LII.
Wardlaw's. That same evening a policeman called,
and asked several qucstions, which of course I an- .
ROBERT PENFOLD drew himself up to his full swered. He then got me out of the house on some
height, and uttered these strange words with a sad pretence, and arrested me as a forger."
majesty that was very imposing. But General Rol “Oh!” cried Helen.
leston, steeled by experience of convicts, their plausi- “I forgot the clergyman; I was a gentleman, and
bility, and their histrionic powers, was staggered a man, insulted, and I knocked the officer down di-
only for a moment. He deigned no reply ; but rectly. But his myrmidons overpowered me. I
told Helen Captain Moreland was waiting for her, was tried at the Central Criminal Court on two
and she had better go on board at once.
charges. First, the Crown (as they call the attor-
She stood like a statue.
ney that draws the indictment) charged me with
“ No, papa, I'll not turn my back on him till I forging the note of hand; and then with not
know whether he is a felon or a martyr."
forging it, but passing it, well knowing that some-
"My poor child, has he caught you at once with a body else had forged it. Well, Undercliff, the Ex-
clever phrase? A judge and a jury have settled pert, swore positively that the forged note was not
that."
written by me; and the Crown, as they call it, was
“ They settled it as you would settle it, by refus- defeated on that charge; but being proved a liar in
ing to hear me."
a court of justice did not abash my accuser; the
* Have I refused to hear you ? ” said Helen. second charge was pressed with equal confidence.


FOUL PLAY.
101
She flung herself on her knees, and strained him you are a man of honor; you love my child truly,
tight, and implored him, with head thrown back, and not selfishly; - you have behaved nobly until to
and little clutching hands, and eloquent eyes. day ; go one step farther on the right road; call
Ah! it is hard to resist the voice and look and worldly honor and the God whose vows you have
clinging of a man's own flesh and blood. Children taken, sir, to your aid, and do your duty." .
are so strong - upon their knees : their dear faces, “O man, man!” cried Robert Penfold, "you ask
bright copies of our own, are just the beight of our more of me tban flesh and blood can bear. What
hearts then.
shall I say? What shall I do?"
The old man was staggered, was almost melted. Helen replied, calmly: “Take my hand, and let
" Give me a moment to think," said he, in a broken us die together, since we cannot live together with
voice. “This blow takes my breath away."
honor." :
Helen rose, and laid her head upon her father's General Rolleston groaned. « For this, then, I
shoulder, and still pleaded for her love by her soft have traversed one ocean, and searched another,
touch and her tears that now flowed freely. . and found my child. I am nothing to her — noth-
ing. O, who would be a father!” He sat down
He turned to Penford with all the dignity of age oppressed with shame and grief, and bowed his
and station. “Mr. Penford,” said he, with grave stately head in manly but pathetic silence.
politeness, “after what my daughter has said, I must “ papa, Papa ! " cried Helen, “ forgive your
treat you as a man of honor, or I must insult her. ungrateful child !” And she kneeled and sobbed,
Well, then, I expect you to show me you are what with her forehead on his knees.
she thinks you, and are not what à court of justice. Then Robert Penfold, in the midst of his own
has proclaimed you. Sir, this young lady is engaged agony, found room in that great suffering heart of
with her own free will to a gentleman who is uni- bis for pity. He knelt down himself, and prayed
versally esteemed, and has never been accused to for help in this bitter trial. He rose baggard with
his face of any unworthy act. Relying on her the struggle, but languid and resigned, like one
plighted word, the Wardlaws have fitted out a whose death-warrant has been read.
steamer and searched the Pacific, and found ber. “Sir," said he," there is but one way. You must
Can you, as a man of honor, advise her to stay here take her home; and I shall stay here."
and compromise her own honor in every way? “ Leave you all alone on this island !" said Helen.
Ought she to break faith with her betrothed on “Never! If you stay here, I shall stay to comfort
account of vague accusations made behind his you."
back?”
“I decline that offer. I am beyond the reach of
" It was only in self-defence I accused Mr. Arthur comfort."
Wardlaw," said Robert Penfold.
“ Think what you do, Robert,” said Helen, with
General Rolleston resumed:-
unnatural calmness. “ If you have no pity on your-
“ You said just now there are accusations which self, have' pity on us. Would you rob me of the
soil a man. If you were in my place, would you very life you have taken such pains to save? My
let your daughter marry a man of honor, who had poor father will carry nothing to England but my
unfortunately been found guilty of a felony ?” dead body. Long before we reach that country I
Robert groaned and hesitated, but he said "No." loved so well, and now hate it for its stupidity and
“ Then what is to be done? She must either cruelty to you, my soul will have flown back to this
keep her plighted word, or else break it. For island to watch over you, Robert. You bid me to
whom? For a gentleman she esteems and loves, abandon you to solitude and despair. Neither of
but cannot marry. A leper may be a saint; but I you two love me half as much as I love you both.”
would rather bury my child than marry her to a General Rolleston sighed deeply. “If I thought
leper. A convict may be a saint; but I'll kill her that,” said he, — then, in a faint voice, “my own
with my own hand sooner than she shall marry a courage fails me now. I look into my heart, and I
convict: and in your heart and conscience you can see that my child's life is dearer to me than all the
not blame me. Were you a father, you would do world. She was dying, they say. Suppose I send
the same. What then remains for her and me but Moreland to the Continent for a clergyman, and
to keep faith ? and what can you do better than marry you. Then you can live on this island for-
leave her, and carry away her everlasting esteem ever. Only you must let me live here too; for I
and her father's gratitude? It is no use being good could never show my face again in England after
by halves, or bad by halves. You must either be a acting so dishonorably. It will be a miserable end
selfish villain, and urge her to abandon all shame, of a life passed in honor; but I suppose it will not
and live here on this island with you forever, or you be for long. Shame can kill as quickly as disap-
must be a brave and honest man, and bow to a part- pointed love."
ing that is inevitable. Consider, sir; your eloquence “ Robert, Robert !” cried Helen in agony.
and her pity have betrayed this young lady into a The martyr saw that he was master of the situa-
confession that separates you. Her enforced resi- tion, and must be either base or very noble, – there
dence here with you has been innocent. It would was no middle way. He leaned his head on his
be innocent no longer, now she has been so mad as hands, and thought with all his might.
to own she loves you. And I tell you frankly, if, “Hush !” said Helen : "he is wiser than we are.
after that confession, you insist on going on board Let him speak.”
the steamer with her, I must take you; humanity
requires it; but, if I do, I shall hand you over to the “If I thought you would pine and die upon the
law as a convict escaped before his time. Perhaps voyage, no power should part us. But you are not
I ought to do so as it is; but that is not certain; I such a coward. If my life depended on yours, would
don't know to what country this island belongs. Iyou not live?”.
may have no right to capture you in strange domin ” “You know I would.”
ions; but an English ship is England, - and if you “When I was wrecked on White-water Island,
set foot on the Springbok you are lost. Now, then, I you played the man. Not one woman in a thousand


102
FOUL PLAY.
could have launched a boat, and sailed it with a The General came back, and he and Robert took
boat-hook for a mast, and —
Helen, shivering and fainting, to the boat. As the
Helen interrupted him." It was nothing ; I loved boat put off, she awoke from her stupor, and put out
you. I love you better now.”
her hands to Robert with one piercing cry.
“I believe it, and therefore I ask you to rise They were parted.
above your sex once more, and play the man for
me. This time it is not my life you are to rescue,
but that which is more precious still: my good
CHAPTER LIII.
name."
“Ah! that would be worth living for!” cried In that curious compound the human heart, a
Helen.
respectable motive is sometimes connected with a
“ You will find it very hard to do; but not harder criminal act. And it was so with Joseph Wylie:
for a woman than to launch a boat, and sail her he bad formed an attachment to Nancy Rouse, and
without a mast. See my father, Michael Penfold. her price was two thousand pounds.
See Undercliff, the expert. See the solicitor — the This Nancy Rouse was à character. She was
counsel. Sift the whole story; and, above all, find General Rolleston's servant for many years; her
out why Arthur Wardlaw dared not enter the wit-place was the kitchen: but she was a woman of
ness-box. Be obstinate as a man; be supple as a such restless activity, and so wanting in the proper
woman; and don't talk of dying when there is a pride of a servant, that she would belp a housemaid,
friend to be rescued from dishonor by living and or a lady's maid, or do anything almost, except be
working."
idle! to use her own words, she was one as could n't
“ Die! while I can rescue you from death or dis- abide to sit mumchance. That fatal foe to domes-
honor! I will not be so base. Ah, Robert, Robert, tic industry, the London Journal, fluttered in vain
how well you know me!"
| down her area, for she could not read. She sup-
“Yes, I do know you, Helen. I believe that ported a sick mother out of her wages, aided by a
great soul of yours will keep your body strong to few presents of money and clothes from Helen
do this brave work for him you love, and who loves Rolleston, who had a great regard for Nancy, and
you. And as for me, I am man enough to live for knew what a hard fight she had to keep a sick wo-
years upon this island, if you will only promise me man out of her twenty pounds a year.
two things."
In love, Nancy was unfortunate; her buxom
“I promise, then.”
looks and sterling virtues were balanced by a pro-
“Never to die, and never to marry Arthur Ward- voking sagacity, and an irritating habit of speaking
law, until you have reversed that lying sentence her mind. She humbled her lovers' vanity, one after
which has blasted me. Lay your hand on your another, and they fled. Her heart smarted more
father's head, and promise me that."
than once.
Helen laid her hand upon her father's bead, and Nancy was ambitious; and her first rise in life
said, "I pledge my honor not to die, if life is possi- took place as follows: When the Rollestons went
ble, and never to marry any man, until I have re- to Australia, she had a good cry at parting with
versed that lying sentence which has blasted the Helen; but there was no help for it: she could not
angel I love."
leave her mother. However, she told Helen she
* And I pledge myself to help her,” said General could not stomach any other service, and, since she
Rolleston, warmly, " for now I know you are a man must be parted, was resolved to better herself. This
of honor. I bave too often been deceived by elo- phrase is sometimes drolly applied by servants, be-
quence to listen much to that. But now you have cause they throw Independence into the scale. In
proved by your actions what you are. You pass a Nancy's case it meant setting up as a washerwoman.
forged check, knowing it to be forged! I'd stake Helen opened her hazel eyes with astonishment at
my salvation it's a lie. Tbere's my hand. God this, the first round in the ladder of Nancy's ambi-
comfort you! God reward you, my noble fel- tion; however, she gave her ten pounds, and thirty
low !”
introductions, twenty-five of which missed fire, and
“I hope he will, sir," sobbed Robert Penfold. with the odd five Nancy set up her tub in the sub-
“ You are her father; and you take my hand; per- urbs, and by her industry, geniality, and frugality,
haps that will be sweet to think of by and by; but got on tolerably well. In due course she rented a
no joy can enter my heart now; it is broken. Take small house backed by a small green, and adver-
her away at once, sir. Flesh is weak. My powers tised for a gentleman lodger. She soon got one;
of endurance are exhausted."
and soon got rid of him. However, she was never
General Rolleston acted promptly on this advice. long without one.
He rolled up her rugs, and the things she had made, Nancy met Joseph Wylie in company : and, as
and Robert had the courage to take them down to sailors are brisk wooers, he soon became her ac.
the boat. Then he came back, and the General knowledged suitor, and made some inroad into her
took her bag to the boat.
heart, though she kept on the defensive, warned by
All this time the girl herself sat wringing her past experience.
hands in anguish, and not a tear. It was beyond Wylie's love-making had a droll feature about it;
that now.
it was most of it carried on in the presence of three
As he passed Robert, the General said, " Take washerwomen, because Nancy had no time to spare
leave of her alone. I will come for her in five from her work, and Wylie bad no time to lose in
minutes. You see how sure I feel you are a man his wooing, being on shore for a limited period.
of honor."
And this absence of superfluous delicacy on his part
When Robert went in, she rose and tottered to gave him an unfair advantage over the tallow-
him, and fell on his neck. She saw it was the chandler's foreman, his only rival at present. Many
death-bed of their love, and she kissed his eyes, and a sly thrust, and many a hearty laugh, from his fe-
clung to him. They moaned over each other, and male auditors, greeted his amorous eloquence: but,
clung to each other, in mute despair.
for all that, they sided with him, and Nancy felt her


FOUL PLAY.
103
importance, and brightened along with her mates! Now, when Wylie returned to England safe after
at the sailor's approach, which was generally an- his crime and his perils, he comforted himself with
nounced by a cheerful hail. He was good company, the reflection that Nancy would have her house and
to use Nancy's own phrase, and she acoepted him garden, and he should have Nancy.
as a sweetheart on probation. But, when Mr. But young Wardlaw lay on his sick-bed ; his fa-
Wylie urged her to marry him, she demurred, and ther was about to return to the office, and the gold
gave a string of reasons, all of which the sailor and disguised as copper was ordered up to the cellars in
his allies, the subordinate washerwomen, combated Fenchurch Street. There, in all probability, the
in full conclave.
contents would be examined erelong, the fraud .
Then she spoke out, “ My lad, the wash-tub is a exposed, and other unpleasant consequences might
saddle as won't carry double. I've seen poverty follow over and above the loss of the promised
enough in my mother's house, it sha'n't come in at £2,000.
my door to drive love out o'window. Two comes Wylie felt very disconsolate, and went down to
together with just enough for two; next year instead Nancy Rouse depressed in spirits. To his surprise
of two they are three, and one of the three can't she received him with more affection than ever,
work and wants a servant extra, and by and by and, reading his face in a moment, told him not to
there is half a dozen, and the money coming in at fret.
the spigot and going out at the bung-hole.”
"It will be so in your way of life," said this home-
One day, in the middle of his wooing, she laid ly comforter ; " your sort comes home empty-banded
down her iron, and said, "You come along with me. one day, and money in both pockets the next. I'm
And I wonder how much work will be done whilst glad to see you home at all, for I've been in care
my back is turned, for you three gabbling and won about you. You 're very welcome, Joe. If you are
dering whatever I'm agoing to do with this here come home honest and sober, why, that is the next
sailor."
best thing to coming home rich."
She took. Wylie a few yards down the street, and Wylie hung his head and pondered these words;
showed him a large house with most of the windows and well he inight, for he had not come home either
broken. “ There,” said she, “there's a sight for a so sober or so honest as he went out, but quite as
seafaring man. That's in Chancery.”
poor.
“ Well, it's better to be there than in H- "| However, his elastic spirits soon revived in Nan-
said Wylie, meaning to be sharper.
cy's sunshine, and he became more in love with her
“ Wait till you 've tried 'em both,” said Nancy. than ever.
Then she took him to the back of the house, and But when, presuming upon her affection, he urged
showed him a large garden attached to it.
her to marry him and trust to Providence, she
“Now, Joseph," said she, “I've showed you a laughed in his face.
lodging-house and a drying-ground; and I'm a cook “Trust to himprovidence, you mean," said she;
and & clear-starcber, and I'm wild to keep lodgers“ no, no, Joseph. If you are unlucky, I must be
and do foi 'em, washing and all. Then, if their foul lucky, before you and me can come together."
linen goes out, they follows it: the same if they has Then Wylie resolved to have his £2,000 at all
their meat from the cook-shop. Four hundred risks. He had one great advantage over a lands-
pounds a year lies there a waiting for me. I've man who has committed a crime. He could always
been at them often to let me them premises : but go to sea and find employment, first in one ship,
they says no, we have got no horder from the court and then in another. Terra firma was not one of
to let. Which the court would rather see 'em go to the necessaries of life to him.
rack an' ruin for nothing, than let 'em to an honest He came to Wardlaw's office to feel his way, and
woman as would pay the rent punctual, and make talked guardedly to Michael Penfold about the loss
her penny out of 'em, and nobody none the worse. of the Proserpine. His apparent object was to give
And to sell them, the price is two thousand pounds, information; his real object was to gather it. He
and if I had it I'd give it this minit: but where are learned that old Wardlaw was very much occupied
the likes of you and me to get two thousand pounds? with fitting out a steamer; that the forty chests of
But the lawyer he says, “Miss Rouse, from you one copper had actually come up from the Shannon and
thousand down, and the rest on mortgige at £45 were under their feet at that moment, and that
the year,' which it is dirt cheap, I say. So now, my young Wardlaw was desperately ill and never came
man, when that house is mine, I'm yours. I'm put- to the office. Michael,bad not at that time learned
ting by for it o' my side. If you means all you say, the true cause of young Wardlaw's illness. Yet
why not save a bit o' yours. Once I get that house Wylie detected that young Wardlaw's continued
and garden, you need n't go to sea no more: nor absence from the office gave Michael singular uneasi-
you sha'n't. If I am to be bothered with a man, let ness. The old man fidgeted, and washed the air
me know where to put my finger on him at all with his hands, and with simple cunning urged Wy-
hours, and not lie shivering and shaking at every lie to go and see him about the Proserpine, and get
window as creaks, and him out at sea. And if you him to the office, if it was only for an hour or two.
are too proud to drive the linen in a light cart, why" Tell bim we are all at sixes and sevens, Mr. Wylie;
I could pay a man.” In short she told him plainly all at sixes and sevens."
she would not marry till she was above the world; “ Well,” said Wylie, affecting a desire to oblige,
and the road to above the world was through that “ give me a line to him; for I've been twice, and
great battered house and seedy garden, in Chancery. I could never get in.”
Now it may appear a strange coincidence that Michael wrote an earnest line to say that Ward-
Nancy's price to Wylie was two thousand pounds, law senior had been hitherto much occupied in fit-
and Wylie's to Wardlaw was two thousand pounds : ting out the Springbok, but that he was going into
but the fact is it was a forced coincidence. Wylie, the books next week. What was to be done?
bargaining with Wardlaw, stood out for two thou-! The note was received ; but Arthur declined to
sand pounds, because that was the price of the house see the bearer. Then Wylie told the servant it was
and garden and Nancy,
| Joseph Wylie, on a matter of life and death. “ Tell


106
FOUL PLAY.
----
Heaven, and had met his punishment in Helen's She had a mission to ful6l, and her whole nature
death. Wardlaw senior retired to Elm Trees, and was stringing itself up to do the work.
seldom saw his son. When they did meet, the old She walked so many miles a day, partly from
man sometimes whispered hope, but the whisper was excitement, partly with a deliberate resolve to cher-
faint, and unheeded..
ish her health and strength ; "I may want them
both," said she, "to clear Robert Penfold." Thought
One day Wardlaw senior came up express, to and high purpose shone through her so, that after
communicate to Arthur a letter from General Rol- a while nobody dared trouble her much with com-
leston, written at Valparaiso. In this letter, Gen- monplaces. To her father, she was always sweet
eral Rolleston deplored his unsuccessful search : but and filial, but sadly cold compared with what she
said he was going westward, upon the report of a had always been hitherto. He was taking her body
Dutch whaler, who had seen an island reflected into England, but her heart stayed behind upon that
the sky, while sailing between Juan Fernandez and island: he saw this, and said it.
Norfolk Isle.
“Forgive me,” said she, coldly; and that was all
Arthur only shook his head with a ghastly smile. her reply.
“ She is in heaven," said be, “and I shall never see Sometimes she had violent passions of weeping;
her again, not here or hereafter."
and then he would endeavor to console her; but in
Wardlaw senior was shocked at this speech; but vain. They ran their course, and were succeeded
he made no reply. He pitied his son too much to by the bodily activity and concentration of purpose
criticise the expressions into which his bitter grief they had interrupted for a little while.
betrayed him. He was old, and had seen the tri- At last, after a rapid voyage, they drew near the
umphs of time over all things human, sorrow in- English coast; and then General Rolleston, who
cluded. These, however, as yet, had done nothing had hitherto spared her feelings, and been most in-
for Arthur Wardlaw. At the end of six months, his dulgent and considerate, felt it was high time to
grief was as sombre and as deadly as the first come to an understanding with her as to the course
week.
they should both pursue.
But one day, as this pale figure in deep mourning “Now, Helen," said he, “ about the War
sat at his table, going listlessly and mechanically! Helen gave a slight shudder. But she said, after
through the business of scraping money together for a slight hesitation, “Let me know your wishes."
others to enjoy, whose bearts, unlike his, might not “O, mine are, not to be too ungrateful to the
be in the grave, his father burst in upon him, with father, and not to deceive the son."
a telegram in his hand, and waved it over his head "I will not be ungrateful to the father, nor de-
in triumph. “ She is found ! she is found !” heceive the son," said Helen, firmly.
roared : “read that !” and thrust the telegram into The General kissed her on the brow, and called
his hands.
her his brave girl. “But," said he, “ on the other
Those hands trembled, and the languid voice hand, it must not be published that you have been
rose into shrieks of astonishment and delight, as for eight months on an island alone with a convict.
Arthur read the words, “We have got her, alive Anything sooner than that. You know the malice
and well : shall be at Charing Cross Hotel, 8 P.M." of your own sex; if one woman gets hold of that,
you will be an outcast from society."
Helen blushed and trembled. “ Nobody need be
told that but Arthur; and I am sure he loves me
CHAPTER LIV.
well enough not to injure me with the world.”
“But he would be justified in declining your
Whilst the boat was going to the Springbok, hand, after such a revelation."
General Rolleston whispered to Captain Moreland ; “ Quite. And I hope he will decline it when be
and what he said may be almost guessed from what knows I love another, however hopelessly."
occurred on board the steamer soon afterwards. “You are going to tell Arthur Wardlaw all that?"
Helen was carried trembling to the cabin, and the “I am.”
order was given to beave the anchor and get under “Then all I can say is, you are not like other
way. A groan of disappointment ran through the women.”
ship; Captain Moreland expressed the General's “I have been brought up by a man.”
regret to the men, and divided £200 upon the cap- “If I was Arthur Wardlaw, it would be the last
stan; and the groan ended in a cheer."
word you should ever speak to me."
As for Helen's condition, that was at first mis- "If you were Arthur Wardlaw, I should be on
taken for ill health. She buried herself for two that dear island now."
whole days in her cabin ; and from that place faint “ Well, suppose his love should be greater than
moans were heard now and then. The sailors called his spirit, and—”
her the sick lady.
"If he does not go back when he hears of my
Heaven knows what she went tbrough in that hopeless love, I don't see how I can. I shall marry
forty-eight hours.
him : and try with all my soul to love him. I'll
She came upon deck at last in a strange state of open every door in London to Robert Penfold ; ex-
mind and body: restless, strung up, absorbed. The cept one; my husband's. And that door, while I
rare vigor she had acquired on the island came out live, he shall never enter. () my heart; my heart!”
now with a vengeance. She walked the deck with She burst out sobbing desperately: and her father
briskness, and a pertinacity that awakened admira- laid her head upon his bosom, and sighed deeply,
tion in the crew at first, but by and by superstitious and asked himself how all this would end.
awe. For, while the untiring feet went briskly to Before they landed, her fortitude seemed to re-
and fro over leagues and leagues of plank every turn; and of her own accord she begged her father
day, the great hazel eyes were turned inwards, and to telegraph to the Wardlaws.
the mind, absorbed with one idea, skimmed the “Would you not like a day to compose yourself.
men and things about her listlessly.
| and prepare for this trying interview ?” said he.


108
FOUL PLAY.
well as mine. Give me your esteem until your love' Helen, whose eyes had never left his face, and
comes back, and let our engagement continue." I had followed his retiring figure, was frightened at
" It was for you to decide," said Helen, coldly, the weight of the blow she had struck; and strange
" and you have decided. There is one condition I thoughts and conjeetures filled her mind. Hitherto,
must ask you to submit to."
she had felt sure Robert Penfold was under a delu-
“I submit to it.”
sion as to Arthur Wardlaw, and that his suspicions
“ What, before you hear it?”
were as unjust as they certainly were vague. Yet,
“ Helen, you don't know what a year of misery I now, at the name of Robert Penfold, Arthur turned
have endured, ever since the report came of your pale, and fled like a guilty thing. This was a coinci.
death. My happiness is cruelly dashed now, but dence that confirmed, her good opinion of Robert
still it is great happiness by comparison. Make Penfold, and gave her ugly thoughts of Artbur.
your conditions. You are my queen, as well as my Still, she was one very slow to condemn a friend,
love and my life.”
and too generous and candid to condemn on suspi-
Helen hesitated. It shocked her delicacy to lower cion ; so she resolved as far as possible to suspend
the man she had consented to marry.
| her unfavorable judgment of Arthur, until she should
“ () Helen,” said Arthur, “ anything but secrets have asked him why this great emotion, and heard
between you and me, Go on as you have begun, his reply.
and let me know the worst at once."
Moreover, she was no female detective, but a pure
“ Can you be very generous, Arthur ? — generous creature bent on clearing innocence. The object
to bim who has caused you so much pain ?”
of her life was, not to.discover the faults of Arthur
“I'll try,” said Arthur, with a groan.
Wardlaw, or any other person, but to clear Robert
“I would not marry him, unless you gave me up: Penfold of a crime. Yet Arthur's strange behavior
för I am your betrothed, and you are true to me. was a great shock to her; for bere, at the very out-
I could not marry him, even if I were not pledged set, he had somehow made her feel she must hope .
to you ; but it so happens, I can do him one great for no assistance from him. She sighed at this check,
service without injustice to you; and this service I and asked herself to whom she should apply first for
have vowed to do before I marry. I shall keep that aid. Robert had told her to see his counsel, his
vow, as I keep faith with you. He has been driven solicitor, his father, and Mr. Undercliff, an expert,
from society by a foul slander; that slander I am to and to sift the whole matter.
sift and confute. It will be long and difficult ; but Not knowing exactly where to begin, she thought
I shall do it; and you could help me if you chose. she would, after all, wait a day or two to give Ar-
But that I will not be so cruel as to ask.”
thur time to recover bimself, and decide calmly
Arthur bit his lip with jealous rage ; but he was whether he would co-operate with her or not.
naturally cunning, and his cunning showed him there In this trying interval, she set up a diary, - for
was at present but one road to Helen's beart. He the first time in her life ; for she was no egotist : and
quelled his torture as well as he could, and resolved she noted down what we have just related, only in
to take that road. He reflected a moment, and then a very condensed form, and wrote at the margin:
he said, -
| Mysterious.
“ If you succeed in that, will you marry me next Arthur never came near her for two whole days.
This looked grave. On the third day she said to
I will, upon my honor."
General Rolleston :
“ Then I will help you.”
“ Papa, you will help me in the good cause, — will
“ Arthur, think what you say. Women have you not ?"
loved as unselfishly as this, but no man, that ever I He replied that he would do what he could, but
heard of.”
feared that would be little.
"No man ever did love a woman as I love you. “Will you take me down to Elm-trees, this morn-
Yes, I would rather help you, though with a sore ing?"
heart, than hold aloof from you. What have we to * With all my heart."
do together?"
He took her down to Elm-trees. On the way
“ Did I not tell you ? — to clear his character of a she said : “Papa, you must let me get a word with
foul stigma, and restore him to England, and to the Mr. Wardlaw alone."
world which he is so fitted to adorn."
| “O, certainly. But, of course, you will not say a
“ Yes, yes,” said Arthur; " but who is it? Why word to hurt his feelings.”
do I ask, though? He must be a stranger to me.” “O papa!”
“ No stranger at all,” said Helen; “ bụt one who “Excuse me: but, when a person of your age is
is almost as unjust to you as the world has been to absorbed with one idea, she sometimes forgets that
him"; then, fixing her eyes full on him, she said, other people have any feelings at all."
“ Arthur, it is your old friend and tutor, Robert Helen kissed him meekly, and said that was too
Penfold.”
true; and she would be upon her guard.
To General Rolleston's surprise, his daughter no
CHAPTER LV. .
sooner saw old Wardlaw than she went- or seemed
to go — into high spirits, and was infinitely agree-
ARTHUR WARDLAW was thunderstruck; and, able.
for some time, sat stupidly staring at her. And to But at last, she got him all to herself, and then
this blank gaze succeeded a look of abject terror, she turned suddenly grave, and said :-
which seemed to her strange, and beyond the occa- “Mr. Wardlaw, I want to ask you a question. It
sion. But this was not all; for, after glaring at her is something about Robert Penfold."
with scared eyes and ashy cheeks a moment or two, Wardlaw shook his head. “That is a painful
he got up and literally staggered out of the room subject, my dear. But what do you wish to know
without a word.
| about that unhappy young man ? "
He had been taken by surprise, and, for once, all “Can you tell me the name of the counsel who
his arts had failed him.
defended him at the trial ?”
day ? "



VALS
HELEN ROLLESTON AND ARTHUR WARD LAW.- See page 108.





FOUL PLAY.
109
« No, indeed, I cannot."
| When she got home, she cried bitterly at her fem-
“But perhaps you can tell me where I couldinine weakness and her incapacity; and she entered
learn that." .
this pitiable failure in her journal with a severity
His father is in our office still; no doubt he our male readers will hardly, we think, be disposed
could tell you."
to imitate ; and she added, by way of comment;
Now, for obvious reasons, Helen did not like to “Is this how I carry out my poor Robert's precept:
go to the office; so she asked faintly if there was Be obstinate as a man; be supple as a woman?”
nobody else who could tell her.
That night she consulted her father on this diffi-
" I suppose the solicitor could."
culty, so slight to any but an inexperienced girl.
“But I don't know who was the solicitor," said He told her there must be a report of the trial in the
Helen, with a sigh.
newspapers, and the report would probably mention
" Hum !” said the merchant. “ Try the bill- the counsel; she had better consult a file..
broker. I'll give you his address"; and he wrote Then the thing was where to find a file. After
it down for her.
one or two failures, the British Museum was sug-
Helen did not like to be too importunate, and she gested. She went thither, and could not get in to
could not bear to let Wardlaw senior know she read without certain formalities. While these were
loved anybody better than his son; and yet some being complied with, she was at a stand-still.
explanation was necessary : so she told him, as calmly That same evening came a line from Artbur
as she could, that her father and herself were both Wardlaw:-
well acquainted with Robert Penfold, and knew
* DEAREST HELEN, - I hear from Mr. Adams
many things to his credit.
that you desire to know the name of the counsel who
"I am glad to hear that,” said Wardlaw ; " and I
defended Robert Penfold. It was Mr. Tollemache.
can believe it. He bore an excellent character
He has chambers in Lincoln's Inn..
here, till, in an evil hour, a strong temptation came,
“ Ever devotedly yours,
and he fell."
What! You think he was guilty ? "
“ ARTHUR WARDLAW."
“I do. Arthur, I believe, has his doubts still. Helen was touched with this letter, and put it
But he is naturally prejudiced in bis friend's favor : away indorsed with a few words of gratitude and eg-
and, besides, he was not at the trial; I was." teem; and copied it into her diary, and remarked,
" Thank you, Mr. Wardlaw," said Helen, coldly; " This is one more warning not to julge hastily.
and, within five minutes, she was on her way home. Arthur's agitation was probably only great emotion
" Arthur prejudiced in Robert Penfold's favor!”
at the sudden mention of one whose innocence he
That puzzled her extremely.
believes, apd whose sad fate distresses him." She
She put down the whole conversation while her wrote back and thanked him sweetly, and in terms
memory was fresh. She added this comment : chat encouraged a visit. Next day she went to Mr.
- What darkness I am groping in!”
Tollemache. A seedy man followed her at a dis-
Next day she went to the bill-broker, and told tance. Mr. Tollemache was not at his chambers, nor
him Mr. Wardlaw senior had referred her to him expected till four o'clock. He was in court. She
for certain information. Wardlaw's name was evi left her card, and wrote on it in pencil that she
dently a passport. Mr. Adams said obsequiously, would call at four.
“Anything in the world I can do, madam."
She went at ten minutes after four. Mr. Tolle-
" It is about Mr. Robert Penfold. I wish to know mache declined through his clerk to see her if she
the name of the counsel he had at his trial.”
was a client; he could only be approached by her
“ Robert Penfold! What, the forger?”.
solicitor. She felt inclined to go away and cry; but
“He was accused of that crime," said Helen, turn- this time she remembered she was to be obstinate
ing red
as a man and supple as a woman. She wrote on a
" Accused, madam! He was convicted. I ought card : “I am not a client of Mr. Tollemache, but a
to know; for it was my partner he tried the game lady deeply interested in obtaining some informa-
on. But I was too sharp for him. I had him ar- tion, which Mr. Tollemache can with perfect pro-
rested before he had time to melt the notes; indicted priety give me. I trust to his courtesy as a gentle-
him, and sent him across the herring pond, in spite man not to refuse me a short interview."
of his parson's coat, the rascal!”
“ Admit the lady," said a sharp little voice.
Helen drew back, as if a serpent had stung her. She was ushered in, and found Mr. Tollemache
“It was you who had him transported !” cried standing before the fire.
she, turning her eyes on him with horror.
“Now, madam, what can I do for you?"
“Of course it was me," said Mr. Adams, firing “Some years ago you defended Mr. Robert Pen-
up; " and I did the country good service. I look fold ; he was accused of forgery."
upon a forger as worse than a murderer. What is “0, was he? I think I remember something
the matter? You are ill."
| about it. A banker's clerk, -- was n't he ?"
The poor girl was half fainting at the sight of the “O no, sir. A clergyman.”
man who had destroyed her Robert, and owned it. “A clergyman? I remember it perfectly. He
“ No, no," she cried, hastily; “let me get away was convicted.”
let me get away from here, you cruel, cruel man!" “Do you think he was guilty, sir ?"
She tottered to the door, and got to her carriage, “ There was a strong case against him."
she scarcely knew how, without the information she “I wish to sift that case."
went for.
“ Indeed. And you want to go through the pa-
The bill-broker was no fool; he saw now how the pers." ,
land lay; he followed her down the stairs, and tried “What papers, sir?"
to stammer excuses.
| “The brief for the defence."
“ Charing Cross Hotel,” said she faintly, and hid “Yes," said Helen, boldly, " would you trust me
her face against the cushion to avoid the sight of with that, sir. O, if you knew how deeply I am in-
terested !" The tears were in her lovely eyes.
him.


110
FOUL PLAY.
“ The brief has gone back to the solicitor, of She sent the cabman in to inquire for Mr. Pen-
course. I dare sav he will let you read it upon a fold; a sharp girl of about thirteen came out to her,
proper representation.”
and told her Mr. Penfold was not at home.
“ Thank you, sir. Will you tell me who is the so- “Can you tell me when he will be at home ?”
licitor, and where he lives ? ”
“ No, miss. He have gone to Scotland. A tele-
“O, I can't remember who was the solicitor. graphum came from Wardlaws' last night, as he was to
That is the very first thing you ought to have ascer- go to Scotland first thing this morning; and he
tained. It was no use coming to me."
went at six o'clock.”
* Forgive me for troubling you, sir," said Helen, " O, dear! How unfortunate!”
with a deep sigh.
| “Who shall I say called, miss ? ".
“ Not at all, madam; I am only sorry I cannot be “ Thank you, I will write. What time did the
of more service. But do let me advise you to em- telegram come ?”.
ploy your solicitor to make these preliminary | “Between five and six last evening, miss."
inquiries. Happy to consult with him, and re-open She returned to the hotel. Fate seemed to be
the matter, should he discover any fresh evidence.” against her. Baffled at the very threshold! At the
He bowed her out, and sat down to a brief while she hotel she found Arthur Wardlaw's card, and a beau.
was yet in sight.
tiful bouquet.
She turned away heart-sick. The advice she had She sat down directly, and wrote to him affection.
received was good ; but she shrank from baring her ately, and asked him in the postscript if he could
heart to her father's solicitor.
send her a report of the trial. She received a
She sat disconsolate a while, then ordered another reply directly, that he had inquired in the office, for
cab, and drove to Wardlaw's office. It was late, and one of the clerks had reports of it; but this clerk
Arthur was gone home; so, indeed, was everybody, was unfortunately out, and had locked up his desk.
except one young subordinate, who was putting up Helen sighed. Her feet seemed to be clogged at
the shutters. “Sir," said she, “ can you tell me every step in this inquiry.
where oli Mr. Penfold lives? "'.
Next morning however, a large envelope came
• Soinewhere in the subhubs, miss.”
for her, and a Mr. Hand wrote to her thus:-
“ Yes, sir ; but where ?"
" MADAM,
“I think it is out Pimlico way."
“Having been requested by Mr. Arthur Wardlaw
"Could you not give me the street ? I would beg.
to send you my extracts of a trial, the Queen v.
you to accept a present if you could."
| Penfold, I herewith forward the same, and would
This sharpened the young gentleman's wits; he
went in, and groped here and there till he found the
feel obliged by your returning them at your conven-
ience.
address, and gave it her: No. 3, Fairfield Cot-
“Your obedient servant,
tages, Primrose Lane, Pimlico. She gave him a
" JAMES Hand.”
sovereign, to his infinite surprise and delight, and
told the cabman to drive to the hotel.
Helen took the enclosed extracts to her bedroom,
The next moment the man, who had followed her, and there read them both over many times.
was chatting familiarly with the subordinate, and in both these reports the case for the Crown was
helping him put up the shutters.
neat, clear, cogent, straightforward, and supported
"I say, Dick," said the youngster, “ Penfolds is up by evidence. The defence was chiefly argument of
in the market; a duchess was here just now, iind counsel to prove the improbability of a clergyman
gave me a sov. to tell her where he lived. · Wait a and a man of good character passing a forged note.
moment till I spit on it for luck."
One of the reports stated that Mr. Arthur Ward-
The agent, however, did not wait to witness that law, a son of the principal witness, had taken the
interesting ceremony. He went back to his han- accusation so much to heart that he was now dan-
som round the corner, and drove at once to Arthur gerously ill at Oxford. The other report did not
Wardlaw's house with the information.
contain this, but, on the other hand, it stated that the
Helen noted down Michael Penfold's address in prisoner, after conviction, had endeavored to lay the
her diary, and would have gone to him that evening, blame on Mr. Arthur Wardlaw, but that the judge
but she was to dine tête-à-tête with her father. had stopped him, and said he could only aggravate
Next day she went down to 3 Fairfield Cottages at his offence by endeavoring to cast a slur upon the
half past four. On the way her heart palpitated, for Wardlaws, who had both shown a manifest desire to
this was a very important interview. Here at least shield him, but were powerless for want of evi-
she might hope to find some clew, by following outdence.
which she would sooner or later establish Robert's In both reports the summing up of the judge was
innocence. But then came a fearful thought: mo lerate in expression, but leaned against the pris-
" Why had not his father done this already, if it was oner on every point, and corrected the sophistical
possible to do it? His father must love him. His reasoning of his counsel very sensibly. Both
father must have heard his own story, and tested it reports said an expert was called for the prisoner,
in every way. Yet his father remained the servant whose ingenuity made the court smile, but did not
of a firm, the senior partner of which had told her counterbalance the evidence. Helen sat cold as ice
to her face Robert was guilty.”
with the extracts in her hand.
It was a strange and terrible enigma. Yet she Vot that her sublime faith was shaken, but that
clung to the belief that some new light would come poor Robert appeared to have been so calmly and
to her from Michael Penfold. Then came bashful fairly dealt with by everybody. Even Mr. Hennes-
fears. “How should she account to Mr. Penfold for sy, the counsel for the Crown, hail opened the case
the interest she took in his son, she who was aſli- with humane regret, and confined himself to facts,
anced to Mr. Penfold's employer.” She arrived at and said nobody would be more pleased than be
3 Fairfield Cottages with her cheeks burning, and would, if this evidence could be contradicted, or ex-
repeating to herself: “Now is the time to be sup-plained in a manner consistent with the prisoner's
ple as a woman but obstinate as a inan.”
innocence.


FOUL PLAY.
111
What a stone she had undertaken to roll — uptesy to send her by messenger the name and address
what a bill!
of the solicitor who had defended Robert Penfold
What was to be her next step? Go to the Mu- | Lovejoy and James, Lincoln's Inn Fields. She
seum, which was now open to her, and read more called on them, and sent in her card. She was
reports ? She shrank from that.
kept waiting a long time in the outer office, and felt
* The newspapers are all against him," said she; ashamed, and sick at heart, seated among young
" and I don't want to be told he is guilty, when I clerks. At last she was admitted, and told Mr.
know he is innocent."
| Lovejoy she and her father, General Rolleston, were
She now re-examined the extracts with a view to much interested in a late client of his, Mr. Robert
names, and found the only names mentioned were Penfold; and would he be kind enough to let her see
those of the counsel. The expert's name was not the brief for the defence ?
given in either. However, she knew that from " Are you a relation of the Penfolds, madam ? "
Robert. She resolved to speak to Mr. Hennessy “ No, sir,” said Helen, blushing.
first, and try and get at the defendant's solicitor “ Humph!” said Lovejoy.
through him.
He touched a hand-bell.' A clerk appeared. ,
She found him out by the Law Directory, and " Ask Mr. Upton to come to me."
called at a few minutes past four.
Mr. Upton, the managing clerk, came in due
Hennessy was almost the opposite to Tollemache. course, and Mr. Lovejoy asked him:-
He was about the size of a gentleman's wardrobe; “ Who instructed us in the Queen v. Penfold ?”
and, like most enormous men, good-natured. He “ It was Mr. Michael Penfold, sir.”
received her, saw with his practised eye that she Mr. Lovejoy then told Helen that she must just
was no common person, and, after a slight hesitation get a line from Mr. Michael Penfold, and then the
on professional grounds, heard her request. He papers should be submitted to her.
sent for his note-book, found the case in one mo- “ Yes; but, sir,” said Helen, “ Mr. Penfold is in
ment, remastered it in another, and told her the Scotland."
solicitor for the Crown in that case was Freshfield. “ Well, but you can write to him."
“Now," said he, o you want to know who was the “No; I don't know in what part of Scotland he
defendant's solicitor ? Jenkins, a stamped envelope. is."
Write your name and address on that."
“ Then you are not very intimate with him ?”
While she was doing it, he scratched a line to Mr. “ No, sir; my acquaintance is with Mr. Robert
Freshfield, asking him to send the required inforına- | Penfold."
tion to the enclosed address.
* Have you a line from him ?”
She thanked Mr. Hennessy with the tears in her “I have no written authority from him ; but will
eyes.
you not take my word that I act by his desire?”.
" I dare not ask you whether you think him guil- “My dear madam," said the lawyer, “ we go by
ty,” she said.
rule. There are certain forms to be observed in these
Hennessy shook his head with an air of good things. I am sure your own good sense will tell you
natured rebuke.
it would be cruel and improper of me to submit
"You must not cross-examine counsel,” said he: those papers without an order from Robert or Mi-
“ but, if it will be any comfort to you, I'll say this chael Penfold. Pray consider this as a delay, not a
much, there was just a shadow of doubt, and Tolle- refusal."
mache certainly let a chance slip. If I had defend- “ Yes, sir," said Helen; “but I meet with noth-
ed your friend, I would have insisted on a postpone- ing but delays, and my heart is breaking under
ment of the trial until this Arthur Wardlaw” | them."
(looking at his note-book) *could be exiumined, The solicitor looked sorry, but would not act irreg-
either in court or otherwise, if he was really dying. ularly. She went home sighing, and condemned to
Is he dead, do you know?"
wait the return of Michael Penfold.
"No."
The cab-door was opened for her by a seedy man
" I thought not. Sick witnesses are often at she fancied she had seen before.
death's door; but I never knew one pass the thresh- Baffled thus, and crippled in every movement she
old. Ha! ha! The trial ought to have been post-made, however slight, in favor of Robert Penfold,
poned till he got well. If a judge refused me a she was seduced on the other hand into all the inno-
postponement in such a case, I would make him so cent pleasures of the town. Her adventure had
odious to the jury, that the prisoner would get a transpired somehow or other, and all General Rol-
verdict in spite of his teeth.”
leston's acquaintances hunted him up; and both
" Then, you think he was badly defended ? ” father and daughter were courted by people of ton
“ No; that is saying a great deal more than I as lions. A shipwrecked beauty is not offered to
could justify. But there are counsel who trust too society every day. Even her own sex raved about
much to their powers of reasoning, and underrate a her, and about the chain of beautiful pearls she had
chink in the evidence pro or con. Practice, and a picked up somehow on her desolate island. She al-
few back-falls, cure them of that."
ways wore them; they linked her to that sacred
Mr. Hennessy uttered this general observation purpose she seemed to be forgetting. Her father
with a certain change of tone, which showed he drew her with himn into the vortex, hiding from her
thought he had said as much or more than his that he embarked in it principally for her sake, and
visitor had any right to expect from him; and she she went down the current with him out of filial
therefore left him, repeating her thanks. She went duty. Thus unfathomable difficulties thrust her back
home, pondering on every word he had said, and from her up-hill task : and the world, with soft but
entered it all in ker journal, with the remark, powerful hand, drew her away to it. Arthur brought
How strange! the first doubt of Robert's guilt her a choice bouquet, or sent her a choice bouquet,
comes to me from the lawyer who caused him to be every evening, but otherwise did not intrude much
found guilty. He calls it the shadow of a doubt.” upon her; and though she was sure he would assist
That very evening, Mr. Freshfield had the cour-her, if she asked him, gratitude and delicacy forbade


112
FOUL PLAY.
her to call him again to her assistance. She pre-l “ Ah!” said she, and flushed to the brow.
ferred to await the return of Michael Penfold. She She lifted up her head and became conscious of a
had written to him at the office to tell him she had formidable old woman, who was standing behind the
news of his son, and begged him to give her instant counter at a side door, eying her with the severest
notice of his return from Scotland.
scrutiny. This old woman was tall and thin, and
Day after day passed, and he did not write to her. bad a fine face, the lower part of which was femi-
She began to chafe, and then to pine. Her father nine enough ; but the forehead and brows were
saw, and came to a' conclusion that her marriage alarming. Though her hair was silvery, the brows
with Arthur ought to be hastened. He resolved to were black and shaggy, and the forehead was divid-
act quietly but firmly towards that end.
ed by a vertical furrow into two temples. Under
those shaggy eyebrows shone dark-gray eyes, that
passed for black with most people; and those eyes
were fixed on Helen, reading her. Helen's light-
CHAPTER LVI.
hazel eyes returned their gaze. She blushed, and,
still looking, said, “ Pray, madam, can I see Mr.
Up to this time Helen's sex, and its attributes, bad | Undercliff?"
been a great disadvantage to her. She had been “My son is out for the day, miss,” said the old
stopped on the very threshold of her inquiry by lady, civilly.
petty difficulties, which a man would have soon sur «0, dear! how unfortunate I am!” said Helen
mounted. But one fine day the scale gave a little with a sigh.
turn, and she made a little discovery, thanks to her “ He comes back to-night. You can see him to-
sex. Women, whether it is that they are born to morrow at ten o'clock. A question of handwrit-
be followed, or are accustomed to be followed, seem ling?"
to have eyes in the backs of their heads, and instinct * Not exactly,” said Helen ; “but he was witness
to divine when somebody is after them. This inex- in favor of a person, I know was innocent."
perienced girl, who had missed seeing many things “But he was found guilty,” said the other with
our readers have seen, observed in merely passing cool keenness.
her window a seedy man in the courtyard of the ho- “ Yes, madam : and he has no friend to clear him
tel. Would you believe it, she instantly recognized but me: a poor weak girl, baffled and defeated which-
the man who had opened her cab-door for her in ever way I turn." She began to cry
Lincoln's Ion Fields. Quick as lightning it passed. The old woman looked at her crying with that
through her mind, “ Why do I see the same figure steady composure which marks her sex on these oc-
in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and at Charing Cross." "At casions; and, when she was better, said quietly,
various intervals she passed the window; and twice “ You are not so weak as you think.” She added,
she saw the man again. She pondered, and deter- after a while, “ If you wish to retain my son, you
mined to try a little experiment. Robert Penfold, had better leave a fee.”
it may be remembered, had mentioned an expert as! “ With pleasure, madam. What is the fee?"
one of the persons she was to see. She had looked' “ One guinea. Of course, there is a separate
for his name in the Directory; but experts were not charge for any work he may do for you."
down in the book. Another fatality! But at last " That is but reasonable, madam." And with this
she had found Undercliff, a lithographer, and she she paid the fee, and rose to go.
fancied that must be the same person. She did not "Shall I send any one home with you?”
hope to learn much from him ; the newspapers said “No, thank you," said Helen. “ Why?”
his evidence bad caused a smile. She had a dis- | “Because you are followed, and because you are
tinct object in visiting him, the nature of which will not used to be followed.”
appear. She ordered a cab, and dressed herself. “Why, how did you find that out?"
She came down, and entered the cab; but, instead of “By your face, when a man passed the window, —
telling the man where to drive, she gave him a slipa shabby-genteel fellow; he was employed by some
of paper, containing the address of the lithographer. gentleman, no doubt. Such faces as yours will be
“ Drive there,” said she, a little mysteriously. The followed in London. If you feel uneasy, miss, I will
cabman winked, suspecting an intrigue, and went put on my bonnet, and see you home."
off to the place. There she learned Mr. Undercliff Helen was surprised at this act of substantial
had moved to Frith Street, Soho, number not known. civility from the Gorgon. “0, thank you, Mrs.
She told the cabman to drive slowly up and down Undercliff,” said she. “No, I am not the least
the street, but could not find the name. At last she afraid. Let them follow me, I am doing nothing
observed some lithographs in a window. She let that I am ashamed of. Indeed, I am glad I am
the cabman go all down the street, then stopped thought worth the trouble of following. It shows
him, and paid him off. She had no sooner done this me I am not so thoroughly contemptible. Good-
than she walked very briskly back, and entered the by, and many thanks. Ten o'clock to-morrow."
little shop, and inquired for Mr. Undercliff. He was "And she walked home without looking once be-
out, and not expected back for an hour. “I will hind her till the Hotel was in sight; then she stopped
wait," said Helen; and sbe sat down with her head at a shop-window, and in a moment her swift eye
upon her white hand. A seedy man passed the win- embraced the whole landscape. But the shabby-
dow rapidly with a busy air ; and, if his eye shot a genteel man was nowhere in sight
glance into the shop, it was so slight and careless
nobody could suspect he was a spy, and had done
his work effectually as he flashed by. In that mo-
ment the young lady, through the chink of her fin-
CHAPTER LVII.
gers, which she had opened for that purpose, not
only recognized the man, but noticed his face, his WIEN Joseph Wylie disappeared from the scene,
hat, his waistcoat, his dirty linen, and the pin in his Nancy Rouse made a discovery, which very often
neck-tie.
follows the dismissal of a suitor, - that she was con-


FOUL PLAY.
115
certainties. Very early in my career I found that rival art of reading faces, but that he doubted the
to master that art I must be single-minded, and not existence of the art.
allow my car to influence my eye. By purposely Mrs. Underclift took the profile, and, coloring
avoiding all reasoning from external circumstan- slightly, said to Miss Rolleston, “ It is living faces I
ces, I have distanced my competitors in expertise; profess to read : there I can see the movement of
but I sometimes think I have rather weakened my the eyes and other things that my son here has
powers of conjecture through disuse. Now, if my not studied." Then she scrutinized the profile. " It
inother had been at the trial, she would give you an is a very handsome face,” said she.
opinion of some value on the outside facts. But The Expert chuckled. “There's a woman's
that is not my line. If you feel sure he was inno-judgment,” said he. “ Handsome! the fellow I got
cent, and want me to aid you, you must get hold of transported for life down at Exeter was an Adomis,
the hand writing of every person who was likely to and forged wills, bonds, and powers of attorney by
know old Wardlaw's handwriting, and so might the dozen.”
bave imitated it; all the clerks in his oflice, to begin "There's something noble about this face," said
wich. Nail the forger; that is your only chance." Mrs. Undercliff, ignoring the interruption, - " and
- What, sir !” said Helen, with surprise, “if you yet something simple. I think him more likely to
saw the true handwriting of the person who wrote be a cat's-paw than a felon.” Having delivered this
that forged note, should you recognize it?" : with a certain modest dignity, she laid the profile
" Why not? It is difficult; but I have done it on the counter before Helen.
hundreds of times."
The Expert ball a wonderful eye and hand; it
- Oh! Is forgery so common ?”
was a good thing for society he had elected to be
* No: but I am in all the cases; and, besides, I gamekeeper instead of poacher, detector of forgery
do a great deal in a business that requires the same instead of forger. No photograph was ever truer
kind of expertise, – anonymous letters. I detect than this outline. Helen started, and bowed her
assassins of that kind by the score. A gentleman head over the sketch to conceal the strong and va-
or lady, down in the country, gets a poisoned arrow rious emotions that swelled at sight of the portrait
by the post, or perhaps a shower of them. They of her martyr. In vain ; if the eyes were hidden
are always in disguised handwriting; ihose who the tender bosom heaved, the graceful body quiv-
receive them send them up to me, with writings of ered, and the tears fell fast upon the counter.
all the people they suspect. The disguise is gen- Mrs. Underclitl" was womanly enough, though
erally more or less superficial; five or six unconscious she looked like the late Lord Thurlow in petticoats;
habits remain below it, and often these undisruised and she instantly aided the girl to hide her beating
habits are the true characteristics of the writer. | heart from the inan, though that man was her son.
And I'll tell you something curious, madam ; it is She distracted his attention. « Give me all your
quite common for all the suspected people to be notes, Nel," said she', " and let me see whether I
innocent; and then I write back, 'Send me the can make something of them; but first perhaps
handwriting of the people you suspect the least'; Miss Rolleston will empty her bag on the counter.
and amongst them I often find the assassin.". Go back to your work à moinent, for I know you *
** () Mr. Undercliff," said Helen, " you make my have enough to do.”
heart sick.”
The Expert was secretly glad to be released from
“0, it is a vile world, for that matter," said the a case in which there were no materials; and so
Expert; and the country no better than the town, Helen escaped unobserved except by one of her
for all it looks so sweet with its green fields and own sex. She saw directly what Mrs. Undercliff
purling rills.' There they sow anonymous letters bad done for her, and litted her sweet eyes, thick
like barley: the very giris wrote anonymous letters with tears, to thank her. Mrs. Undercliff smiled
that make my hair stand on end. Yes, it is a vile maternally, and next these two la lies did a stroke
world."
of business in the twinkling of an eye, and without
* Don't you believe him, miss," said Mrs. Under- a word spoken ; whereof anon. Helen being once
cliff, appearing suddenly. Then, turning to her son, more composed, Mrs. Undercliff took up the prayer-
** How can you measure the world? You live in a book, and asked her with some curiosity what could
little one of your own, - a world of forcers and anony- be in that.
mous writers; you see so many of these, you fancy 1 - 0,” said Helen, "only some writing of Mr.
they are common as dirt; but they are only common Penfold. Mr. Undercliff does not want to see
to you because they all come your way."
that ; he is already sure Robert Penfold never
* O, that is it, is it?" said the Expert, doubtfully. wrote that wicked thing."
"Yes, that is it, Ned,” said the old lady, quietly ; “ Yes, but I should like to see some more of his
then after a pause she said. “ I want you to do your band writing, for all that," said the Expert, looking
very best for this young lady.".
suddenly ap.
"I always do," said the Artist. “ Båt how can I “But it is only in pencil.”
judge without materials? And she brings me none.” “Never mind; you need not fear I shall alter my
Virs. Undercliff turned to lelen, and said: “ Have opinion."
you brought him nothing at all, no handwritings - Helen colored high. “ You are right; and I
in your bag?”
should disgrace my good cause by withholding any-
Then Helen sighed again. "I have no hand-thing from your inspection. There, sir." And she
writing except Mr. Penfold's; but I have two printed opened the prayer-book, and laid Cooper's dying
reports of the trial.”
words before the Expert; he glanced over them
** Printed reports,” said the Expert, " they are no with an eye like a bird, and compared them with
use to me. Ah! here is an outline I took of the his notes.
prisoner during the trial. You can read faces : “ Yes,” said he, " that is Robert Penfold's writ-
tell the lady whether he was guilty or not," and he ing; and I say again that band never wrote the
handed the profile to his mother with an ironical | forged note."
look ; not that he doubted her proficiency in the “Let me see that,” said Mrs. Underclill.


FOUL 'PLAY.
119
said: "I hope this slander will never reach my of a servant, who had been scolded by Nancy for
father's ears; it would grieve him deeply. I only not extracting that information on Helen's last
laugh at it.'"
visit.
" Laugh at it! and yet talk of killing ?"
“Of course, I must receive her," said Michael,
* (, people say they laugh at a thing when they half consulting the mite ; it belonged to a sex which
are very angry all the time. However, as you are promptly assumes the control of such gentle crea-
a good girl, and mind what you are told, I'll read tures as he was.
vou an advertisement that will make you stare. “Is Miss Rouse in the way?” said he.'
Here is Joseph Wylie, who, you say, wrecked the The mite laughed, and said:
Proserpine, actually invited by Michael Penfold to “She is only gone down the street. I'll send her
call on him, and hear of something to his advan- in to take care on you."
tage."
With this she went off, and in due course led
* Dear me !" said Helen, “how strange! Surely Helen up the stairs. She ran in, and whispered in
Mr. Penfold cannot know the character of that Michael's ear, -
man. Stop a minute! Advertise for him? Then " It is Miss Helen Rolleston.”
nobody knows where he lives? There, papa: you Thus they announced a lady at No. 3.
see he is afraid to go near Arthur Wardlaw; he Michael stared with wonder at so great a person-
knows he destroyed the ship. What a mystery it age visiting him; and the next moment Helen
all is! And so Mr. Pentold is at home, after all; glided into the room, blushing a little, and even .
and not to send me a single line. I never met panting inaudibly, but all on her guard. She saw
with so much unkindness and discourtesy in all my before her a rather stately figure, and a face truly
life.”
venerable, benignant, and beautiful, though defi-
" Ah, my dear,” said the General, "you never cient in strength. She cast a devouring glance on
defied the world before, as you are doing now.” him as she courtesied to him; and it instantly flashed
Helen sighed; but, presently recovering her across her, “ But for you there would be no Robert
spirit, said she had done without the world on her Penfold.” There was an unconscious tenderness in
dear island, and she would not be its slave now. her voice as she spoke to him, for she had to open
As she was always as good as her word, she the interview.
declined an invitation to play the lion, and, dressing “ Mr. Penfold, I fear my visit may surprise you,
herself in plain merino, went down that very even as you did not write to me. But, when you hear
ing to Michael Penfold's cottage.
what I am come about, I think you will not be dis-
We run thither a little before her, to relate briefly pleased with me for coming."
what had taken place there.
“ Displeased, madam! I am highly honored by
Nancy Rouse, as may well be imagined, was not your visit, - a lady who, I understand, is to be mar-
the woman to burn two thousand pounds. She ried to my worthy employer, Mr. Arthur. Pray be
locked the notes up; and after that night became seated, madam."
very reserved on that head, so much so that, at last, “ Thank you, sir."
Mr. Penfold saw it was an interdicted topic, and
dropped it in much wonder.
Helen began in a low, thrilling voice, to which,
When Nancy came to think of it in daylight, she however, she gave firmness by a resolute effort of
could not help suspecting Wylie had some hand in her will.
it; and it occurred to her that the old gentleman, “I am come to speak to you of one who is very
who lodged next door, might be an agent of Wylie's, dear to you, and to all who really know him."
and a spy on her. Wylie must have told him to Dear to me? It is my son. The rest are gon',
push the £2,000 into her room; but what a strange It is Robert."
thing to do! To be sure, he was a sailor, and sailors And he began to tremble.
had been known to make sandwiches of bank-notes “ Yes, it is Robert,” said she, very softly; then
and eat them. Still, her good sense revolted against turning her eyes away from him, lest his emotion
this theory, and she was sore puzzled; for, after all, should overcome her, she said, -
there was the money, and she had seen it come! “ He has laid me and my father under deep obli-
through the wall. One thing appearer certain, Joe gations."
had not forgotten her; he was thinking of her as She dragged ber father in ; for it was essential
much as ever, or more than ever; so her spirits not to show Mr. Penfold she was in love with Rob-
rose, she began singing and whistling again, andert.
waited cunningly till Joe should reappear and ." Obligations to my Robert ? Ah, madam, it is
explain his conduct. Hostage for his reappearance very kind of you to say that, and cheer a desolate
she held the £2,000. She felt so strong and saucy father's heart with praise of his lost son! But how
she was half sorry she had allowed Mr. Penfold to could a poor unfortunate man in his position serve a
advertise; but, after all, it did not much matter; she lady like you?”
could always declare to Joe she bad never missed “He defended me against robbers, single-handed."
him, for her part, and the advertising was a folly of " Ah," said the old man, glowing with pride, and
poor Mr. Penfold's.
looking more beautiful than ever, “ he was always
Matters were in this condition when the little as brave as a lion.”
servant came up one evening to Mr. Penfold and " That is nothing; he saved my life again, and
said there was a young lady to see him.
again, and again.”
" A young lady for me?" said he.
* God bless him for it! and God bless you for
“ Which she won't eat you, while I am by," said coming and telling me of it! O madam, he was al-
the sharp little girl. “ It is a lady, and the same ways brave, and gentle, and just, and good ; so
what come before."
noble, so unfortunate."
"Perhaps she will oblige me with her name,” said And the old man began to cry.
Michael, timidly.
Helen's bosom heaved, and it cost her a bitter
“ I won't show her up till she do,” said this mite struggle not to throw her arins around the dear old


FOUL PLAY
121
CHAPTER LXI.
| my heart if he committed a crime ; ay, though I tore
my soul out of my body to do it.”
"O Miss HELEN, how can you så hat?” cried! « No, you would n't," said Nancy, recovering some
Nancy, in utter dismay. “I'll lay my poor Joe of her natural pugnacity ; " for we are all tarred
never did no such wickedness."
with the same stick, gentle or simple.”
But Helen waveri her off without look, og at her, “But I assure you I would,” cried Helen; " and
and pointed at Wylie.
so ought you."
* Are you blind? Why does he cringe an: cow- “ Well, miss, you begin,” criei! Nancy, suddenly
er at sight of me? I tell you he scuttled the iros-firing up through her tears. “If the Proserpine was
erpine, and the great augur he did it with I have scuttled, which I've your word for it, Miss Helen,
seen and handled. Yes, sir, you destroyed a ship. and I never knew you tell a lie, why, your sweet-
and the lives of many innocent persons, whose blood heart is more to blame for it than mine."
now cries to Heaven against you; and if I am alive Ilelen rose with dignity.
to tell the cruel tale, it is no thanks to you; for “ You are in grief,” said she. “I leave you to
you did your best to kill me, and, what is worse, to consider whether you have done well to affront me
kill Robert Penfold, this gentleman's son ; for be in your own house.” And she was moving to the
was on board the ship. You are no better than an door with great dignity, when Nancy ran and
assassin."
stopped her.
“I am a man that's down," said Wylie, in a low (), don't leave me so, Miss Helen," she cried ;
and broken voice, hanging his head. “Don't hitdon't you go to quarrel with me for speaking the
me any more. I did n't mean to take anybody's truth too plain and rude, as is a plain-spoken body at
life: I took my chance with the rest, lady, as I'm the best ; and in such grief myself, I scarce know
a man. I have lain in my bed many 's the night, cry- what I do say. But indeed, and in truth, you
ing like a child, with thinking you were dead. And must n't go and put it abroad that the ship was scut-
now I am glad you are alive to be revenged on me. tled ; if you do, you won't hurt Joe Wylie; he'll get
Well, you see, it is your turn now; you have lost a ship, and fly the country. Who you 'll hurt will be
me my sweetheart, there ; she 'll never speak to me your own husband as is to be, -Wardlaws."
again, after this. Ah, the poor man gets all the “Shall I, Mr. Penfold?” asked Helen, disdain-
blame! You don't ask who tempted me; and, if I fully.
was to tell you, you 'd hate me worse than ever; so "Well, madam, certainly it might create some
I'll belay. If I'm a sinner, I 'm a sufferer. Eng. unworthy suspicion."
land's too hot to hold me. I've only to go to sea, and “Suspicion ? ” cried Nancy. “Don't you think
get drowned the quickest way." And with this to throw dust in my eyes. What had poor Joe to
he vented a deep sigh, and slouched out of the gain by destroying that there ship? you know very
room.
well he was bribed to do it; and risk his own
Nancy sank into a seat, and threw her apron over life. And who bribed him? Who should bribe
her head, and rocked and sobbed as if her heart him, but the man as owned the ship ? "
would break.
" Miss Rouse,” said Mr. Penfold, “I sympathize
As for Helen Rolleston, she still stood in the mid- with your grief, and make great allowance; but I
dle of the room, burning with excitement.
| will not sit bere and hear my worthy employers
Then poor old Michael came to her, and said, al- blackened with such terrible insinuations. The great
most in a whisper, —
house of Wardlaw bribe a sailor to scuttle their own -
* It is a bad business ; he is her sweetheart, and ship, with Miss Rolleston and one hundred and six-
she had the highest opinion of him.”
ty thousand pounds' worth of gold on board ! Mon-
This softened Helen in a great measure. She strous! monstrous!”
turned and looked at Naney, and said, -
" Then what did Joe Wylie mean?" replied
* () dear, what a miserable thing! But I could n’t Nancy. “Says he, · The poor man gets all the
know that."
| blame. If I was to tell you who tempted me,' says
After a while, she drew a chair, and sat down by he, “you'd hate me worse.' Then I say, why should
Nancy, and said, -
she hate him worse? Because it's her sweetheart
“I won't punish him, Nancy."
tempted mine. I stands to that."
Nancy burst out sobbing afresh.
This inference, thus worded, struck Helen as so
“ You have punished him," said she, bruskly, droll that she turned her head aside to giggle a lit-
" and me too, as never did you no harm. You have tle. But old Penfold replied loftily, -
driven him out of the country, you bave.”
“Who cares what a Wylie says against a great
At this piece of feminine justice Ilelen's anger re- old mercantile house of London City ?”.
vived. “So, then," said she, "ships are to be de- ! * Very well, Mr. Penfolds,” said Nancy, with one
stroyed, and ladies and gentlemen murdered, and great final sob, and dried her eyes with her apron ;
nobody is to complain, or say an angry word, if the and she did it with such an air, they both saw she
wretch happens to be paying bis addresses to you. was not going to shed another tear about the matter.
That makes up for all the crimes in the world. Very well; you are both against me; then I 'll say
What! Can an honest woman like you lose all no more. But I know what I know.”
sense of right and wrong for a man? And such a “ And what do you know?" inquired Helen.
man !”
“ Time will show," said Nancy, turning suddenly
" Why, he is as well-made a fellow as ever I saw,” | very dogged, — " time will show."
sobbed Nancy.
* 0, is he?" said Helen, ironically, - her views Nothing more was to be got out of her after that;
of manly beauty were different, and black eyes a and Helen, soon after, made her a civil, though stiff,
sine qua non with her, -- " then it is a pity his soul | little speech; regretted the pain she had inadver-
is not made to correspond. I hope by my next visit tently caused her, and went away, after leaving Mr.
you will have learned to despise him as you ought. Penfold her address.
Why, if I loved a man ever so, I'd tear him out of On her return home, she entered the whole ad-


FOUL PLAY.
125
self.”
it.”
“Not find it!” said Helen. “But it must be . “ Thank you, sir."
found."
She put the check into her purse, and brought
“Of course it must be found," said Arthur. “A the prayer-book to Helen.
pretty scandal to go into the hands of Heaven “Lock it up at once," said she, in a voice so low
knows who. I shall offer twenty guineas reward for that Arthur heard her murinur, but not the words ;
it at once. I'll go down to the Times this moment, and she retired, leaving Helen staring with amaze-
Was ever anything so unlucky ?".
ment, and Arthur in a cold perspiration.
“Yes, go at once," said Helen ; " and I'll send
the servants into the Square. I don't want to say
anything unkind, Artbur, but you ought not to
have thrown my prayer-book into the public street."
CHAPTER LXV.
“I know I ought not. I am ashamed of it my-
When the Springbok weighed anchor and left
- Well, let me see the advertisement."
the island, a solitary form was seen on Telegraph
“You shall. I have no doubt we shall recover Hill.
When she passed eastward, out of sight of that
Next morning the Times contained an advertise- point, a solitary figure was seen on the cliffs.
ment offering twenty guineas for a prayer-book lost When her course brought the island dead astern
in Hanover Square, and valuable not in itself, but of her, a solitary figure stood on the east bluff of the
as a relic of a deceased parent.
island, and was tbe last object seen from the boat
In the afternoon, Arthur called to know if any- as she left those waters forever.
body had brought the prayer-book back.
Helen shook her head sadly, and said, “ No." What words can tell the sickening sorrow and
He seemed very sorry, and so penitent, that utter desolation that possessed that yearning
Helen said, -
bosom!
"Do not despair. And if it is gone, why, I must When the boat that had carried Helen away was out
remember you have forgiven me something, and I of sight, he came back with uneven steps to the cave,
must forgive you."
and looked at all the familiar objects with stony eyes,
The footman came in.
and scarce recognized them, for the sunshine of her
; “ If you please, miss, here is a woman wishes to presence was there no more. He wandered to and
speak to you; says she has brought a prayer fro in a heavy stupor, broken every now and then
book.”
by sharp panys of agony that almost made him
“ (), show her up at once,” cried Helen.
scream. And so the poor bereaved creature wan-
Arthur turned away his head to hide a cynical dered about all day. He could not eat, he could
• smile. He had good reasons for thinking it was not not sleep, his misery was more than he could bear.
the one he had flung out of the window yester. One day of desolation succeeded another. And what ;
men say so hastily was true for once, “ His life
A tall woman came in, wearing a thick veil, that was a burden." He dragged it about with him he
concealed her features.
scarce knew how.
She entered on her business at once.
He began to hate all the things he had loved
“ You lost a prayer-book in this Square yesterday, whilst she was there. The beautiful cave, all glori-
madam."
ous with pearl, that he had made for her, he could
6 Yes."
not enter it, the sight killed him, and she not
“ You offer twenty guineas reward for it.”
there.
“ Yes.”
He left Paradise Bay altogether at last, and an-
“ Please to look at this one.”
chored his boat in a nook of Seal Bay. And there he
Ilelen examined it, and said with joy it was slept in general. But sometimes he would lie down,
hers.
| wherever be happened to be, and sleep as long as
Arthur was thunderstruck. He could not believe he could.
his senses.
To him to wake was a calamity. And, when he
“Let me look at it," said he.
died wake, it was always with a dire sense of reviv-
His eyes went at once to the writing. He turned ing misery, and a deep sigh at the dark day he
as pale as death, and stood petrified.
knew awaited him.
The woman took the prayer-book out of his unre-/ lis flesh wasted on his bones, and his clothes hung
sisting hand, and said, -
loosely about him. The sorrow of the mind reduced
" You'll excuse me, sir; but it is a large reward, him almost to that miserable condition in which he
and gentlefolks sometimes go from their word when had landed on the island.
the article is found.”
The dog and the real were faithful to him ; used
Helen, who was delighted at getting back her to lie beside him, and often whimpered ; their minds,
book, and rather tickled at 'Arthur having to pay accustomed to communicate without the aid of
twenty guineas for losing it, burst out laughing, and speech, found out, Ileaven knows how ! that he was
said, -
in grief or in sickness.
“Give her the reward, Arthur; I am not going These two creatures, perhaps, saved his life or his
to pay for your misdeeds."
reason. They came between his bereaved heart and
6. With all my beart," said Arthur, struggling for utter solitude.
composure.
He sat down to draw a check.
Thus passed a month of wretchedness unspeak-
" What name sbal I put ?”
able.
“ Hum! Edith Hesket.”
Then his grief took a less sullen form.
“ Two t's?”
He came back to Paradise Bay, and at sight of it
“ No, only one."
burst into a passion of weeping.
" There
These were his first twars, and inaugurated a grief
day.


130
FOUL PLAY.
his hand was caught in the brick-work, somehows, , lodger.” She tapped the chimney three times with
and there he is hard and fast.”
the poker, and, telling Mr. Wylie she had a few words
“Do you know anything about this ? ” said Nan- to say to him in private, retired for the present.
cy to the mite, severely.
Mrs. James sat down and mourned the wickedness
“ No," said the mite, with a countenance of pol- of mankind, the loss of her lodger (who would now
ished granite.
go bodily next door instead of sending his hand),
“ La, bless me!” said Nancy, with a sudden start, and the better days she bad by iteration brought
“Why, is she talking about the thief as you and I herself to believe she had seen.
catched putting his hand through the wall into Wylie soon entered Nancy's house, and her first
my room, and made him fast again the policeman question was, “ The $2,000, how did you get them ? "
comes round?”
"No matter how I got them," said Wylie, sulkily.
“ Thief !” cried Mrs. James : “no more a thief | What have you done with them ?"
than I am. Why, sure you would n't ever be so “Put them away.”
cruel! O dear! O Jear! Spite goes a far length. ' “ That is all right. I'm blest if I did n't think
There, take an' kill me, do, and then you 'll they were gone forever.”
be easy in your mind. Ah, little my poor father "I wish they had never come. Ill-gotten money
thought as ever I should come down to letting is a curse.” Then she taxed him with scuttling the
lodgings, and being maltreated this way! I am – ” Proserpine, and asked him whether that money had
"Who is a maltreating of ye? Why, you 're not been the bribe. But Joe was obdurate. - I
dreaming. Have a drop o'gin ?".
never split on a friend,” said he. “And you have
“ With them as takes the police to my lodger ? nobody to blame but yourself, you would n't splice
It would cboke me!”
without £2,000. I loved you, and I got it how I
"Well, have a drop, and we 'll see about it.” could. D'ye think a poor fellow like me can make
“ You 're very kind, ma'am, I'm sure. Heaven £2,000 in a voyage by hauling in ropes, and tying
knows I need it! Here's wishing you a good hus-true-lovers' knots in the foretop."
band; and towards burying all unkindness.”
Nancy had her answer ready; but this remem-
"Which you means drounding of it."
brance pricked her own conscience and paved the
“Ah, you 're never at a loss for a word, ma'am, way to a reconciliation. Nancy had no high-flown
and always in good spirits. But your troubles is to notions. She loved money, but it must be got with-
come. I'm a widdy. You will let ine see what is out palpable dishonesty ; per contra, she was not
the matter with my lodger, ma'am ?”
going to denounce her sweetheart, but then again she
“ Why not? We'll go and have a look at him." would not marry him so long as he differed with her
Accordingly, the three women and the mite pro- about the meaning of the eighth commandment.
ceeded to the little room; Nancy turned the gas This led to many arguments, some of them warm,
on, and then they inspected the imprisoned hand. some affectionate; and so we leave Mr. Wylie under
Mrs. James screamed with dismay, and Nancy asked the slow but salutary influence of love and unpre-
her drily whether she was to blame for seizing a tending probity. He continued to lodge next door.
hand which had committed a manifest trespass. Nancy would only receive him as a visitor.
“You have got the rest of his body," said she,
-
6 but this here hand belongs to me.”
“Lord, ma'am, what could he take out of your
CHAPTER LXVII.
chimbley, without 't was a handful of soot ? 'Do, HELEN had complained to Arthur, of all people,
pray, let me loose him.”
that she was watched and followed; she even asked
"Not till I have said two words to him.”
him whether that was not the act of some enemy.
“ But how can you ? He is n't here to speak to, - Arthur smiled, and said, “ Take my word for it, it
only a morsel of him.”
is only some foolish adınirer of your beauty; he
"I can go into your house and speak to him." wants to know your habits, in hopes of falling in
Mrs. James demurred to that; but Nancy stood with you; you had better let me go out with you
firm ; Mrs. James yielded. Nancy whispered her for the next month or so; that sort of thing will
myrmidons, and, in a few minutes, was standing soon die away."
by the prisoner, a reverend person in dark specta- As a necessary consequence of this injudicious
cles, and a gray beard, that created commiseration, revelation, Helen was watched with greater skill
or would have done so, but that this stroke of illo and subtlety, and upon a plan well calculated to
fortune had apparently fallen upon a great philoso- disarm suspicion ; a spy watched the door, and by a
pher. He had contrived to get a seat under him, signal unintelligible to any but his confederate,
and was smoking a pipe with admirable sang-froid. whom Helen could not possibly see, set the latter on
At sight of Nancy, however, he made a slight her track. They kept this game up unobserved for
motion, as if he would not object to follow his im- several days, but learned nothing, for Helen was at a
prisoned hand through the party wall. It was only standstill. At last they got caught, and by a truly fem-
for a moment; the next, he smoked imperturbably. inine stroke of observation. A showily dressed man
"Well, sir,” said Nancy, “ I hopes you are com- peeped into a shop where Helen was buying gloves.
fortable ?”
With one glance of her woman's eye she recog-
" Thank ye, miss ; yes. I'm at a double sheet- nized a large breastpin in the worst possible taste;
anchor.”
thence her eye went up and recognized the features
" Why do you call me miss?”.
of her seedy follower, though he was now dressed up
“I don't know. Because you are so young and to the nine. She withdrew her eye directly, com-
pretty."
pleted her purchase, and went home, brooding de-
“ That will do. I only wanted to hear the sound fence and vengeance
of your voice, Joe Wylie.” And with the word sbe That evening she dined with a lady who had a
snatched his wig off with one hand, and his beard large acquaintance with lawyers, and it so happened
with the other, and revealed his true features to his that Mr. Tollemnache and Mr. Hennessy were both
astonished landlady.
of the party. Now, when these gentlemen saw Helen
" There, mum," said she, “ I wish you joy of your ' in full costume, a queen in form as well as face, coro-
.


FOUL PLAY.
131
neted with her island pearls, environed with a halo, innocent man; sent me two guineas too, and said he
of romance, and courted by women as well as men, would make it twenty but he was poor as well as
they looked up to her with astonishment, and made unfortunate; that letter has stuck in my gizzard
up to her in a very different style from that in ever since; can't see the color of felony in it. Your
which they had received her visit. Tollemache she felon is never in a fault; and, if he wears a good
received coldly; he had defended Robert Penfold coat, he is n't given to show fight.”
feebly, and she hated him for it. Hennessy she re- " It was very improper of him to strike you,"
ceived graciously, and, remembering Robert's pre- said Helen, “and very noble of you to forgive it.
cept to be supple as a woman, bewitched him. He Make him still more ashamed of it: lay him under
was good-natured, able, and vain. By eleven a deep obligation."
o'clock she had enlisted him in her service. When “If he is innocent, I'll try and prove it,” said the
she had conquered him, she said, slyly, “ But I ought Detective. He then asked her if she had taken notes.
not to speak of these things to you except through a She said she had a diary. He begged to see it.
solicitor.”
She felt inclined to withhold it, because of the
“ That is the general rule," said the learned coun- comments; but, remembering that this was woman.
sel; " but in this case no dark body must come be- ish, and that Robert's orders to her were to be
tween me and the sun."
manly on such occasions, she produced her diary.
In short he entered into Penfold's case with such Mr. Burt read it very carefully, and told her it was a
well-feigned warmth, to please the beauteous girl, that very promising case. “ You have done a great deal
at last she took bim by the horns and consulted. more than you thought," he said. “You have netted
“I am followed,” said she.
the fish."
“I have no doubt you are ; and on a large scale ;
if there is room for another, I should be glad to join
CHAPTER LXVIII.
the train."
“I! NETTED the fish! what fish ?”
“Ha! ha! I'll save you the trouble. I'll meet “ The man who forged the promissory note."
you half-way. But, to be serious, I am watched, " ( Mr. Burt!”
spied, and followed by some enemy to that good | “ The same man that forged the newspaper
friend whose sacred cause we have undertaken. extracts to deceive you forged the promissory note
Forgive me for saying 'we.'”
years ago, and the man who is setting spies on you
"I am too proud of the companionship to let you is the man who forged those extracts; so we are
off. “We'is the word.”
sure to nail him. He is in the net; and very much
" Then advise me what to do. I want to retal to your credit. Leave the rest to me. I'll tell you
iate. I want to discover who is watching me, and more about it to-morrow. You must order your
why. Can you advise me? Will you ?”
carriage at one o'clock to-morrow and drive down
The counsel reflected a moment, and Helen, who to Scotland Yard ; go into the yard, and you will see
watched him, remarked the power that suddenly me ; follow me without a word. When you go
came into his countenance and brow.
| back, the other spies will be so frightened, they will
“You must watch the spies. I have influence in go off to their employer, and so we shall nail him."
Scotland Yard, and will get it done for you. If Helen complied with their instructions strictly,
you went there yourself, they would cross-examine and then returned home, leaving Mr. Burt to work.
you and decline to interfere. I'll go myself for you, She had been home about half an hour, when the
and put it in a certain light. An able detective servant brought her up a message saying that a man
will call on you: give him ten guineas, and let him wanted to speak to her. “Admit him," said Helen.
into your views in confidence; then he will work “ Ile is dressed very poor, miss." "Never mind;
the public machinery for you."
send him to me.” She was afraid to reject anybody
“O Mr. Hennessy, how can I thank you ? ” now, lest she might turn her back on information.
“ By succeeding. I hate to fail : and now your A man presented himself in well-worn clothes,
cause is mine."
with a wash-leather face and close-shaven chin ; a
Next day a man with a hooked nose, a keen black little of bis forehead was also shaven. “Madam,
eye, and a solitary foible (Mosaic), called on Helen my name is Hand.” Helen started. “I have al-
Rolleston, and told her he was to take her instruc- ready had the honor of writing to you."
tions. She told him she was watched, and thought “ Yes, sir," said Helen, eyeing him with fear and
it was done to baffle a mission she had undertaken : aversion.
but, having got so far, she blushed and hesitated. “Madam, I am come” – (he hesitated) –“I am
“ The more you tell me, miss, the more use I can an unfortunate man. Weighed down by remorse for
be," said Mr. Burt.
a thoughtless act that has ruined an innocent man,
Thus encouraged, and also remembering Mr. and nearly cost my worthy employer his life, I come
Hennessy's advice, she gave Mr. Burt, as coldly as to expiate as far as in me lies. But let me be brief,
she could, an outline of Robert Penfold's case, and and hurry over the tale of shame. I was a clerk at
of the exertions she had made, and the small result. Wardlaw's office. A bill-broker called Adams was
Burt listened keenly, and took a note or two; and, talking to me and my fellow-clerks, and boasting that
when she had done, he told her something in return. nobody could take him in with a feigned signature.
“ Miss Rolleston," said he, “ I am the officer that | Bets were laid ; our vanity was irritated by his pre-
arrested Robert Penfold. It cost me a grinder that tension. It was iny fortune to overhear my young
he knocked out.”
master and his friend Robert Penfold speak about a
“0, dear!" said Helen, “how unfortunate! Then loan of two thousand pounds. In an evil hour I lis-
I fear I cannot reckon on your services.”
| tened to the tempter, and wrote a forged note for
" Why not, miss? What, do you think I hold that amount. I took it to Mr. Penfold; he pre-
spite against a poor fellow for defending himself? sented it to Adams, and it was cashed. I intended,
Besides, Mr. Penfold wrote me a very proper note. of course, to call next day, and tell Mr. Penfold, and
Certainly for a parson the gent is a very quick hit- take him to Adams, and restore the money, and get
ter; but he wrote very square; said he hoped Iback the note. It was not due for three months.
would allow for the surprise and the agitation of an 'Alas! that very day it fell under suspicion. Mr.


132
FOUL PLAY
Penfold was arrested. My young master was struck, “This day fortnight. Let me speak to your
down with illness at his friend's guilt, though he father: let him name the day."
never could be quite got to believe it; and I – mis- As she made no reply, he kissed her hand devot-
erable coward !- dared not tell the truth. Ever since edly, and did speak to her father. Sir Edward,
that day I have been a miserable man. The other meaning all for the best, said, “ This day fortnight."
day I came into money, and left Wardlaw's service.
But I carry my remorse with me. Madam, I am
come to tell the truth. I dare not tell it to Mr.
CHAPTER LXIX.
Wardlaw; I think he would kill me. But I will The next morning came the first wedding pres-
tell it to you, and you can tell it to him; ay, tell it ents from the jubilant bridegroom, who was deter-
to all the world. Let my shame be as public as his mined to advance step by step, and give no breath-
whom I have injured so deeply, but, Heaven knows, ing time. When Helen saw them laid out by her
unintentionally. I- 1- 1-"
maidl, she trembled at the consequences of not giv-
Mr. Hand sank all in a heap where he sat, and ing a plump negative to so brisk a wooer.
could say no more.
The second post brought two letters ; one of them
Heien's flesh crawled at this confession, and at the from Mrs. Undercliff. The other contained no
sight of this reptile who owned that he bad de- words, but only a pearl of uncommon size, and pear-
stroyed Robert Penfold in fear and cowardice. For shaped. Helen received this at first as another wed-
a long time her wrath so overpowered all sense of ding present, and an attempt on Arthur's part to give
pity, that she sat trembling; and, if eyes could kill, ber a pearl as large as those she had gathered on
Mr. Hand would not have outlived his confession. her dear island. But, looking narrowly at the ad-
At last she contrived to speak. She turned her head dress, she saw it was not written by Arthur; and,
away not to see the wretch, and said, sternly, - presently, she was struck by the likeness of this
" Are you prepared to make this statement on pearl in shape to soine of her own. She got out her
paper, if called on?”
pearls, laid' them side by side, and began to be
Mr. Hand hesitated, but said “ Yes.”
moved exceedingly. She had one of her instincts,
" Then write down that Robert Penfold was in- and it set every fibre quivering with excitement.
nocent, and you are ready to prove it whenever It was some time before she could take her eyes oft
you may be called upon.”
the pearls, and it was with a trembling hand she
“ Write that down?” said Hand.
opened Mrs. Undercliff's letter. That missive was
“ Unless your penitence is feigned, you will." not calculated to calm her. It ran thus:-
“ Sooner than that should be added to my crime 1“ MY DEAR YOUNG LADY, - A person called
I will avow all.” He wrote the few lines she re- here last night and supplied the clew. If you have
quired.
the courage to know the truth, you have only to come
“ Now your address, that I may know where to here, and to bring your diary, and all the letters you
find you at a moment's notice.” He wrote J. have received from any person or persons since you
Hand, 11 Warwick Street, Pimlico."
landed in England. I am yours obediently,
Helen then dismissed him, and wept bitterly. In
“JANE UNDERCLIFF."
that condition she was found by Arthur Wardlaw, The courage to know the truth!
who comforted her, and, on hearing her report of This mysterious sentence affected Helen consid-
.Hand's confession, burst out into triumph, and re-erably. But her faith in Robert was too great to
minded her he had always said Robert Penfold was | be shaken. She would not wait for the canonical
innocent. “My father,” said he, "must yield hour at which young ladies go out, but put on her
to this evidence, and we will lay it before the Sec- | bonnet directly after breakfast. Early as she was, a
retary of State, and get his pardon.”
visitor came before she could start, - Mr. Burt, the
" His pardon! when he is innocent!”
Detective. She received him in the library.
“ O, that is the form, — the only form. The rest. Mr. Burt looked at her dress and ber little bag, and
must be done by the warm reception of his friends. said, “I'm very glad I made bold to call so early.”
I, for one, who all these years have maintained his “You have got information of importance to com-
innocence, will be the first to welcome him to my municate to me?"
house, an honored guest. What am I saying?! “I think so, miss"; and he took out his note-
Can I ? dare I ?'ought I ? when my wife - Ah! book. “The person you are watched by is Mr.
I am more to be pitied than my poor friend is : my Arthur Wardlaw.” The girl stared at him.“ Both
friend, my rival. Well, I leave it to you whether spies report to him twice a day at his house in Rus-
he can come into your husband's bouse."
sell Square.”
“ Never."
“Be careful, Mr. Burt; this is a serious thing to
“But, at least, I can send the Springbok out, and say, and may have serious consequences.”
bring him home; and that I will do without one “Well, miss, you told me you wanted to know
day's delay."
the truth.”
* () Arthur!” cried Helen, " you set me an ex- “Of course I want to know the truth."
ample of unselfishness."
| “ Then the truth is tbat you are watched by or-
"I do what I can,” said Arthur. “I am no saint. der of Mr. Wardlaw."
I hope for a reward."
Burt continued his report.
Helen sighed. “ What shall I do?"
“ A shabby-like man called on you yesterday."
“ Have pity on me! your faithful lover, and to “Yes; it was Mr. Hand, Mr. Wardlaw's clerk.
whom your faith was plighted before ever you saw | And ( Mr. Burt, that wretched creature came and
or knew my unhappy friend. What can I do or confessed the truth. It was he who forged the note,
suffer more than I have done and suffered for you ? out of sport, and for a bet, and then was too coward-
My sweet Helen, have pity on me, and be my wife.” ly to own it.” She then detailed Hand's confession.
« I will; some day.”
" His penitence comes too late," said she, with a
“ Bless you : bless you. One effort more : what deep sigh.
“It has n't come vet," said Burt, dryly. “Of
** I can't. I can't. My heart is dead.” 'course my lambs followed the man. lle went first
day ? "


134
FOUL PLAY.
hand and compare notes. And Helen showed him, “You were not the cause?”
their weapons of defence, the prayer-book, the Ex-l “Never! ---so help ide Heaven!”.
pert's report, etc.
“ Monster !” said Helen, turning away in con-'
A discreet tap was heard at the door. It was tempt and horror.
Nancy Rouse. On being invited to enter, she came “0, that is it, --- is it?" said Arthur, wildly. “You
in, and said, “ O Miss Helen, I've got a penitent break faith with me for him? You insult me for
outside, which he done it for love of me, and now him? I must bear anything from you, for I love
he'll make a clean breast, and the fault was partly you; but, at least, I will sweep him out of the path."
mine. Come in, Joe, and speak for yourself."
He ran to the door, opened it, and there was Burt,
On this, Joe Wylie came in, hanging his head listening. “Are you an officer ? "
piteously.
“ Yes."
“She is right, sir,” said be; “ I'm come to ask " Then arrest that man this moment: he is Robert
your pardon and the lady's. Not as I ever meant Penfold, a convict returned before his time.”
you any harm; but to destroy the ship, it was a bad Burt came into the room, locked the door, and put
act, and I've never throve since. Nance, she have the key in his pocket. "Well, sir," said he to Rob-
got the money. I'll give it back to the underwritert Penfold, “I know you are a quick hitter. Don't
ers; and, if you and the lady will forgive a poor let us have a row over 'it this time. If you have got
fellow that was tempted with love and money, why anything to say, say it quiet and comfortable."
I'll stand to the truth for you, though it's a bitter ' " I will go with you on one condition," said Robert.
pill.”
* You must take the felon as well as the martyr.
"I forgive you,” said Robert; "and I accept your This is the felon," and he laid his hand on Arthur's
offer to serve me.”
shoulder, who cowered under the touch at first, but
“ And so do I,” said Helen. “Indeed, it is not soon began to act violent indignation.
us you have wronged. But O, I am glad, for - Take the ruffian away at once," he cried.
Nancy's sake, that you repent.”
“ What, before I hear what he has got to say."
“ Miss, I'll go through fire and water for you,” I “ Would you listen to him against a merchant of the
said Wylie, lifting up his head.
city of London, a man of unblemished reputation."
Here old Michael came in to say that Arthur « Well, sir, you see we have got a hint that you
Wardlaw was at the door, with a policeman. were concerned in scuttling a ship, and that is a
“ Show him in," said Robert.
felony. So I think I'll just hear what he bas got
“ Ono, Robert!” said Helen. “He fills me to say. You need not fear any man's tongue if you
with horror.”
are innocent."
“ Show him in,” said Robert, gently. “Sit down, “Sit down, if you please, and examine these doc-
all of you."
uments," said Robert Penfold. “As to the scuttling
Now Burt had not told Arthur who was in the of the ship, here is the deposition of two seamen,
house, so he came, rather uneasy in his mind, but taken on their death-bed, and witnessed by Miss
still expecting only to see Helen.
Rolleston and myself."
Robert Penfold told Helen to face the door, and “ And that book he tried to steal," said Helen.
the rest to sit back; and this arrangement had not ! Robert continued : “ And here is Undercliff''s fac-
been effected one second, when Arthur came in, simile of the forged note. Here are specimens of
with a lover's look, and, taking two steps into the Arthur Wardlaw's handwriting, and here is Under-
room, saw the three men waiting to receive him. cliff's report."
At sight of Penfold, he started, and turned pale as The Detective ran his eye hastily over the report,
asbes; but, recovering himself, said : “My dearest which we slightly condense.
Helen, this is indeed an unexpected pleasure. You On comparing the forged note with genuine
will reconcile me to one whose worth and innocence specimens of John Wardlaw's handwriting, no less
I never doubted, and tell him I have had some little than twelve deviations from his babits of writing
hand in clearing him.” His effrontery was received strike the eye; and every one of these twelve
in dead silence. This struck cold to his bones, and deviations is a deviation into a habit of Arthur
being naturally weak, he got violent. He said, Wardlaw, which is an amount of demonstration
"Allow me to send a message to my servant.” rarely attained in cases of forgery.
He then tore a leaf ont of his memorandum-book, 1. THE CAPITAL L. - Compare in London
wrote on it, “ Robert Penfold is here ; arrest him (forged note) with the same letter in London in
directly, and take him away," and, enclosing this Wardlaw's letter.
in an envelope, sent it out to Burt by Nancy.
2. THE CAPITAL D. - Compare this letter in
Helen seated herself quietly, and said, “Mr. “Date," with the same letter in * Dearest."
Wardlaw, when did Mr. Hand go to America ?” 3. THE CAPITAL T. - Compare it in “ Two"
Arthurstammered out, “I don't know the exact date." I and “ Tollemache.”
“ Two or three months ago ?”
4. The word “ To;" see “ To pay,” in forged
" Yes."
note and third line of letter.
" Then the person you sent to me to tell me that 5. Small “0” formed with a loop in the up-
falsehood was not Mr. Hand ?."
stroke.
“I sent nobody."
6. The manner of finishing the letter liv."
6 O, for shame!- for shame! Why have you 7. Ditto the letter “ w."
set spies? Why did you make away with my prayer-! 8. The imperfect formation of the small “a."
book; — or what you thought was my prayer-book? This and the looped “0” run through the forged
Here is my prayer-book, that proves you had the note and Arthur Wardlaw's letter, and are habits
Proserpine destroyed; and I should have lost my life entirely foreign to the style of John Wardlaw.
but for another, whom you had done your best to de 9. See the “ th” in connection.
stroy. Look Robert Penfold in the face, if you can.” 10. Ditto the “of” in connection.
Arthur's eyes began to waver. “I can,” said he. 11. The incautious use of the Greek p. John
“I never wronged him. I always lamented his mis- Wardlaw never uses this e. Arthur Wardlaw
fortune.”
never uses any other, apparently. The writer of