TIMAR'S TWO WOBLDS TIMAE'S TWO WORLDS BY MAUEUS JOKAI AUTHORISED TRANSLATION BY MRS HEGAN KENNARD NEW EDITION WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCXCIV All Rights reserved CONTENTS. BOOK FIRST. THE ST BARBARA. CHAP. PAQE I. THE IRON GATE, . 1 II. THE WHITE CAT, 12 III. A DANGEROUS LEAP WITH A MAMMOTH, . . .16 IV. A STRICT SEARCH, 23 V. THE OWNERLESS ISLAND, 29 VI. ALMIRA AND NARCISSA, 36 VII. THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT, 46 VIII. THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS, 53 IX. ALI TSCHORBADSCHI, 64 X. THE LIVING STATUE, 68 XI. A BURIAL AT SEA, 70 XII. AN EXCELLENT JOKE, 74 XIII. THE FATE OF THE ST BARBARA, 77 XIV. THE GUARDIAN, . .82 BOOK SECOND. TIMEA. I. GOOD ADVICE, 93 II. THE RED CRESCENT, 97 III. THE GOLD MINE, 102 IV. MICHAEL TIMAR, BARON VON LEVET1NCZY, . . .110 V. A GIRL'S HEART, 117 VI. ANOTHER JEST, 128 VII. THE WEDDING-DRESS, 133 VIII. TIMEX . . 145 267225 VI CONTENTS. BOOK THIRD. THE OWNERLESS ISLAND. I. THE MARRIAGE OF THE MARBLE STATUE, . . .158 II. THE GUARDIAN DEVIL, . , 163 III. SPRING MEADOWS, . . , . . . . ,173 IV. A SPIDER AMONGST THE ROSES, ..... 186 V. OUT OF THE WORLD, .,...., 197 VI. THE TROPIC OF CAPRICORN, 202 VII. SWEET HOME, ,,,,...., 215 BOOK FOURTH. NO MI. I. A NEW GUEST, 228 II. THE WOOD-CARVER. 239 III. MELANCHOLY, . 255 IV. THERESE, 268 BOOK FIFTH. ATHALIE. I. THE BROKEN SWORD, . .... 276 II. THE FIRST LOSS, 290 III. THE ICE, .......... 294 IV, THE PHANTOM, ........ 305 V. WHAT HAS THE MOON TO TELL? . . . . ,321 VI. WHO COMES? 325 VII, THE CORPSE, , 328 vni. Door's LETTER, . 330 IX. YOU STUPID CREATURE ! . 334 X. ATHALIE, 340 XI. THE LAST STAB, ..,.,,.. 350 XII. THE PENITENT IN " MARIA-NOSTRA," . . . 354 XIII. NOBODY, ,.....,, .355 TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS, BOOK FIRST. THE ST BARBARA. CHAPTER I. THE IRON GATE. A MOUNTAIN-CHAIN, pierced through from base to summit a gorge four miles in length walled in by lofty precipices ; between their dizzy heights the giant stream of the Old World the Danube. Did the pressure of this mass of water force a passage for itself, or was the rock riven by subterranean fire 1 ? Did Neptune or Yulcan, or both together, execute this super- natural work, which the iron-clad hand of man scarce can emulate in these days of competition with divine achieve- ments ? Of the rule of the one deity traces are visible on the heights of Fruska Gora in the fossil sea-shells strewn around, and in Veterani's cave with its petrified relics of saurian monsters of the deep ; of the other god, the basalt of Piatra Detonata bears witness. While the man of the iron hand is revealed by long galleries hewn in the rock, a vaulted road, the ruined piers of an immense bridge, the tablets sculptured in bas- relief on the face of the cliff, and by a channel two hundred feet wide, hollowed in the bed of the river, through which the largest ships may pass. The Iron Gate has a history of two thousand years. Four nations, Eomans, Turks, Roumanians, and Hungarians, have each in turn given it a different name. We seem to approach a temple built by giants, with rocky pillars, towering columns, and wonderful colossi on its lofty A Z Tffli ST BARBAKA. frieze, stretching out in a perspective of four miles, and, as it winds, discovering new domes with other groups of natural masonry, and other wondrous forms. One wall is smooth as polished granite, red and white veins zigzagging across it like mysterious characters in the handwriting of God ; in another place the whole face is rusty brown, as if of solid iron ; here and there the oblique strata suggest the daring architecture of the Titans. At the next turn we are met by the portal of a Gothic cathedral, with its pointed gables, its clustered basaltic columns ; out of the dingy wall shines now and again a golden speck like a glimpse of the Ark of the Covenant there sulphur blooms, the ore-flower. But living blossoms also deck the crags ; from the crevices of the cornice hang green festoons. These are great foliage-trees and pines, whose dark masses are interspersed with frost-flecked garlands of red and gold. Now and then the mouth of some valley makes a break in the endless, dizzy precipice, and allows a peep into a hidden paradise untrodden by man. Here between two cliffs lies a deep shadow, and into this twilight shines like a fairy world the picture of a sunny vale, with a forest of wild vines, whose small red clusters lend colour to the trees, and whose bright leaves weave a carpet below. No human dwelling is visible ; a clear stream winds along, from which deer drink fearlessly ; then the brook throws its silver ribbon over the edge of the cliff. Thousands pass by the valley, and each one asks himself who lives there. Then follows another temple more huge and awful than the first : the towering walls drawing closer by three hundred yards and soaring three thousand feet into the sky. That projecting needle at the top is the " Gropa lui Petro," the grave of St Peter ; the two gigantic forms on either side are his apostolic companions ; yonder monster opposite is the " Babile," and the one which closes the vista is the " Goluni- baczka Mali " or Dove-rock ; while the grey pinnacle which towers above is the high Bobber's Peak, " Basbojnik Beliki" Between these walls flows the Danube in its rocky bed. The mighty mother-stream, accustomed far above on the Hun- garian plains to flow with majestic quiet in a bed three miles wide, to caress the overhanging willows, to look on blooming meadows and play with chattering mills, is here confined in a pass only a hundred and fifty fathoms in width. With what rage it rushes through ! He who travelled with it before recognises it no longer; the grisly giant is rejuve- THE IRON GATE. 3 nated into heroic youth. Its waves leap along the stony bed, from which sometimes a great boulder projects like a witch's altar, the huge " Babagay," the crowned " Kassan." On this it bursts with majestic fury, roaring round it with swirls which hollow deep abysses in the bottom ; thence it rushes, hissing and seething, across the slabs of rock which stretch obliquely from side to side of the channel. In many places it has already mastered the obstacles which barred its way, and flows foaming through the open breach. There, it has burrowed beneath the wall of the ravine, and by its continuous current has washed out a channel below the overhanging rock. Here, it has carved islands out of the stubborn granite, new creations, to be found on no chart, overgrown with wild bushes. They belong to no State neither Hungary, Turkey, nor Servia ; they are ownerless, nameless, subject to no tribute, outside the world. And there again it has carried away an island, with all its shrubs, trees, huts, and wiped it from the map. The rocks and islets divide the stream, which between Ogra- dina and Plesvissovicza has a speed of ten miles an hour, into many arms ; and the sailor has need to study these intricate and narrow passages, for there is but one deep-water channel through the rocky bed in-shore none but the smallest boats can float. Among the small islands between the lesser branches of the Danube, singular constructions of human hands are mingled with the grand works of nature ; double rows of palisades made of strong trunks of trees, which, joined in the form of a V, present their open side down stream. These are the sturgeon-traps. The marine visitors swim up stream into the snare, and on and on into the ever-narrowing trap for it is not their custom to turn back until they find themselves in the death-chamber from which there is no release. The voices of this sublime region are superhuman. A perpetual universal tumult ; so monotonous, so nearly akin to silence and yet so distinct as if it uttered the name of God. How the great river dances over the granite shores, how it scourges the rocky walls, bounds against the island- altars, dives rattling into the whirlpool, pervades the cataract with harmony ! The echo from the mighty cliffs raises this eternal voice of the waters into an unearthly melody, like organ-notes and thunder dying away. Man is silent, as if afraid to hear his own language amidst this song of the Titans : sailors com. 4 THE ST BARBARA. municate by signs, and the fishermen's superstition forbids talking here under a penalty. The consciousness of danger impels all to silent prayer. At any time the passage between these dark precipices, towering on either hand, might give the sensation of being ferried along under the walls of one's own tomb; but what must it be when that supreme terror of the sailor, the Bora, sweeps down ! A continuous and ever-increasing gale, which at certain seasons makes the Iron Gate impassable. If there were only one cliff it would be a protection from the wind ; but the draught of air confined between the two is as capricious as the wind in the streets of a town ; at each corner it takes a new departure : now it stops suddenly, then bursts out of a corner as from an ambush, seizes the ship, carries away the steering-gear, throws the whole (owing-team into the water, then shifts again, and drives the wooden vessel before it as though it were going down-stream the water throwing up clouds of spray as blinding and fine as the sand of the desert in a simoom. At such times the sighing church-music of the gale swells to the thunder of the Last Judgment, in which is mingled the death-cry of departing spirits. At the time to which this history refers there were no steamers on the Danube. Between Galatz and the junction with the Main, over nine thousand horses were employed in towing ships up-stream; on the Turkish Danube sails were also used, but not on the Hungarian branch. Besides these a whole fleet of smugglers' boats traded between the two countries, propelled only by strong arms. Salt-smuggling was in full swing. On the Turkish side the same salt was sold for five gulden, which cost six and a half on the Hungarian shore. It was brought by contraband back from Turkey to Hungary, and sold here for five and a half gulden. So every one profited by this comfortable arrangement. The only one not satisfied was the Government, which for its own protection established custom-houses along the frontier, in which the male population of the neighbouring villages had to keep guard armed with guns. Each village supplied watchmen, and each village had its own smugglers. AVhile the young men of the place were on guard, the old ones carried the salt, and so both trades were kept in the family. But the Government had another important object in its strict watch on the frontier security from the plague. The terrible Eastern plague ! THE IRON GATE. 5 In these days we know nothing of it, for it is a hundred and fifty years since a vain widow in Semlin brought an infected shawl, and fell dead as she went to church in it. But we have to thank the regulations which shut the door against it for this immunity. For each contact with a new people has endowed us with a new disease. From China we received scarlet fever, from the Saracens small-pox, from Russia in- fluenza, from South America yellow fever, and from the Hindoos cholera. But the plague comes from Turkey. Therefore, along the whole bank, the opposite neighbours can only communicate with each other on condition of observ- ing strict preventive measures, which must add considerable interest to their daily life. If the plague breaks out in Brussa, everything living or dead is officially declared infected : whoever has been in contact with it comes under the same ban, and must be in quarantine for ten or twenty days. If the cable of a left-bank ship touches the cable of a right-bank vessel, the whole crew of the former is unclean, and she must lie for ten days in the middle of the stream; for the plague might pass along the ropes from one to the other, and be communicated to the whole crew. And all this is carefully watched. On each ship sits an official called a " purifier." A terrible person, whose duty it is to keep an eye on every one, what he handles, what touches him ; and if a passenger has been in contact with any person, or any material of hair, wool, or hemp on the Turkish side (for these substances carry infection), even with the hem of his garment, the health-officer must declare him under suspicion, and on arrival at Orsova must drag him from the arms of his family and deliver him over to quarantine. Woe to the purifier if he should conceal a case. For the slightest neglect, fifteen years' imprisonment is the penalty. It would appear, however, that smugglers are not liable to the plague, for they have no purifier on board, and if the disease should break out a hundred times over in Brussa, they would still ply day and night between the two banks. We must remember, however, that St Procopius is their patron. Only the Bora disturbs their retail trade; for the swift current through the Iron Gate drives the rowing-boats towards the southern shore. Of course smuggling is done by tow-boats too, but that belongs to wholesale traffic, costs more than friendly business, and so is not for poor people : in them not only salt, but also tobacco and coffee are smuggled across the frontier. 6 THE ST BARBARA. The Bora has swept the Danube clear of vessels, and has thereby so raised public morality and obedience to law, that for the last few days there has been no occasion for forgive- ness of sins. Every vessel has hastened into harbour, or cast anchor in raid-stream, and the watchmen can sleep in peace as long as this wind makes the joints of their wooden huts creak. No ship can travel now, and yet the corporal of the Ogradina watch-house has a fancy that ever since daybreak, amidst the blustering wind and roaring waters, he can detect the peculiar signal tones which the speaking-trumpet sends for many miles, and which are not drowned even by the voice of the thunder; the haunting, mournful blasts which issue from the long wooden tube. Is some vessel declaring its approach, so that no other ship may meet it in such weather in the narrow channel of the Iron Gate ? Or is it in danger and calling for help 1 This ship approaches. It is an oaken vessel of ten to twelve thousand measures burden : deeply laden it would appear, for the waves wash over the bulwarks on each side. The massive hull is painted black, with a white bow, which ends in a long upstanding spiral beak plated with shining tin. The upper deck is shaped like a roof, with narrow steps up to it, and a flat bridge leading from one side to the other. The forward part of the raised deck ends in a double cabin, con- taining two rooms, with doors to right and left. The third wall of the cabin shows two small windows with green painted shutters, and in the space between them the maidenly form of the martyred St Barbara is painted on a gold ground, with a pink dress, light-blue mantle, red head-dress, and a white lily in her hand. In the small space between the cabins and the thick coils of rope on the prow of the ship, stands a long green wooden trough filled with earth, in which lovely blooming carnations and stocks are planted. A three-foot iron railing shuts in the little garden, and on its spikes hang garlands of wild flowers. In the middle burns a lamp in a red glass globe, near to which is a bundle of dried rosemary and consecrated willow-catkins. On the forepart of the vessel stands the mast, to whose centre rings the tow-rope is attached ; a three-inch cable, by which thirty-two horses on the bank are trying to move the heavy ship up-stream. At other times sixteen horses would have sufficed here, and on the upper reaches twelve would be enough, but in this part and against such a wind even the THE IRON GATE. 7 thirty-two find it hard work. The horn signals are for the leader of the team-drivers ; the human voice would be power- less here : even if the call reached the shore, no one could understand it amidst the confused echoes. But the language of the horn is intelligible even to horses ; from its now drawling, now abrupt, warning, or encouraging tones, man and beast understand when to hasten or slacken their speed, or when to stop altogether. For in this narrow ravine the lot of the vessel is very un- certain ; it has to struggle with gusts of furious wind, variable currents, its own weight, and the rocks and whirlpool which must be avoided. Its fate lies in the hands of two men. One is the pilot who steers ; the other is the captain, who amidst the roar of the elements signals his orders to the towing-team by blasts on the horn. If the signal is misunderstood the ship either runs on to a rock, glides into the rapids, goes to pieces on the southern shore, or strands on some newly formed sand-bank, and sinks with every soul on board. The steersman is a six-foot weather-beaten sailor with a very red face, whose colour on both cheeks comes from a net- work of veins with which the white of the eye is also trans- fused. He is always hoarse, and his voice knows only two variations, either a loud bellow or a low growl. Probably this is what obliges him to take double care of his throat. Pre- vention by means of a red comforter tightly wound round his neck, and cure by means of a brandy-flask occupying a per- manent position in his coat pocket. The captain is a man of about thirty, with fair hair, dreamy blue eyes, and a long moustache, the rest of his face clean shaven. He is of middle height, and gives an idea of delicacy ; with this impression his voice accords, for when he speaks softly it is like a woman's. The steersman is called Johann Fabula ; the name of the captain is Michael Tirnar. The official " purifier " sits on the edge of the rudder bench ; he has drawn a hood over his head, so that only his nose and moustache appear : both are red. History has not recorded his name. At present he is chewing tobacco. One of the ship's boats, manned by six rowers, has taken out a line from the bow, and the united efforts of the oarsmen materially assist the towing of the vessel. At the door of the double cabin sits a man of fifty, smoking a Turkish chibouque. His features are oriental, with more of the Turkish than the Greek type ; his dress, with the striped THE ST BARBARA. kaftan and red fez, is like that of a Servian or Greek. It will not escape an attentive observer that the shaven part of his face is light in contrast to the rest, which is the case with a person who has lately removed a thick beard. This is Euthemio Trikaliss, under which name he appears in the way- book. He is the owner of the cargo, but the ship itself belongs to a merchant of Komorn called Athanasius Brazovics. Out of one of the cabin windows looks the face of a young girl, and so becomes a neighbour of St Barbara. One might fancy it was another sacred picture. The face is not pale but white the inherent whiteness of marble or natural crystal. As an Abyssinian is born black, and a Malay yellow, so is this girl born white. No other tint disturbs the delicate snow ; on this face neither the breath of the wind nor the eye of man calls up a blush. She is certainly only a child, hardly more than thirteen ; but her figure is tall and slender, her face calm as if hewn out of alabaster, with severely antique lines, as if her mother had looked always at the Venus of Milo. Her thick black hair has a metallic gleam like the plumage of the black swan ; but her eyes are dark-blue. The long delicate eyebrows almost meet over the brow, which gives her face a curious charm ; it is as if these arching brows formed a black aureole round the brow of a saint. The girl's name is Timea. These are the passengers of the St Barbara. When the captain lays his speaking-trumpet aside, and has tried with the lead what water the ship has under her, he has time to chat with the girl as he leans against the iron railing round the picture. Time'a understands only modern Greek, which the captain can speak fluently. He points out to her the beauties of the scenery, its grim, cruel beauties : the white face, the dark-blue eyes, re- main unchanged, and yet the girl listens with fixed attention. But it seems to the captain as if these eyes gave their thoughts not so much to him as to the stocks which grow at St Barbara's feet. He breaks off one and gives it to the child, that she may listen to what the flowers tell. The steersman sees this, away there by the tiller, and it displeases him. " You would do better," he growls in a voice like the rasping of a file, " instead of plucking the saint's flowers for that child, to burn a holy willow- wand at the lamp, for if the Lord drives us on to these stone monsters, even His own Son won't save us. Help, Jesu ! " This aspiration would have been uttered by Johann Tabula, THE IRON GATE. 9 even if he were alone ; but as the purifier sat close by, there followed this dialogue. "Why must the gentry pass the Iron Gate in such a storm 1 " " Why ? " answered Johann Fabula, who did not forget his laudable habit of aiding the collection of his thoughts by a gulp out of the wicker brandy-flask. " Why 1 For no other reason but being in a hurry. Ten thousand measures of wheat are in our hold. In the Banat the crops failed; in Wallachia there was a good harvest. This is Michaelmas; if we don't make haste, November will be upon us, and we shall be frozen in." "And why do you think the Danube will freeze in No- vember ? " "I don't think I know. The Komorn calendar says so. Look in my berth, it hangs by my bed." The purifier buried his nose in his hood, and spat his tobacco juice into the Danube. "Don't spit into the water in such weather as this the Danube won't bear it. But what the Komorn calendar says is as true as Gospel. Ten years ago it prophesied that frost would set in in November ; so I started at once to get home with my ship then too I was in the St Barbara the others laughed at me. But on the 23d of November cold set in, and half the vessels were frozen in, some at Apathin, and others at Foldvar. Then it was my turn to laugh. Help, Jesu ! Hard over, he e e ! ! " The wind was now dead ahead. Thick drops of sweat ran down the steersman's cheeks whilst he struggled to get the tiller over, but he asked for no help. Then he rewarded himself with a pull at his bottle, after which his eyes looked redder than ever. " Now if the Lord will only help us to pass that stone pier," groaned he in the midst of his exertions. " Pull away, you fellows there ! If only we can get by this point ! " " There's another beyond." "Yes, and then a third, and a thirteenth, and we must keep our mass-money ready in our mouths, for we are walking over our open coffins all the time." " Hark ye, my good friend," said the purifier, taking his plug out of his mouth, "I fancy your ship carries something besides wheat." Master Fabula looked askance at the purifier under his hood, and shrugged his shoulders. " What's that to me? If there's 10 THE ST BARBARA. contraband on the ship, at any rate we shan't stop in quaran- tine, and we shall get on pretty quick." "How so?" The steersman made a circle with his thumb behind his back, on which the health-officer burst out laughing. Could he possibly have understood this pantomime ? " Now, look you," said Johann Fabula, " since I was here last, the course of the river has altered ; if I don't let her go a bit free we shall get into the new eddy which has formed under the ' Lover's Rock. 7 Do you see that devilish monster which keeps swimming close to us ? That's an old sturgeon he must be at least five hundredweight. If this beast keeps up with us, he'll bring us ill-luck. Help, Lord ! If only he would come near enough for me to get the grappling-iron into him ! The skipper is always sneaking up to the Greek girl instead of blowing his horn to the riders. She brings us mis- fortune since she has been on board, we've had nothing but north wind ; there's something wrong about her she's as white as a ghost, and her eyebrows grow together like a witch's. Herr Timar, blow to the teamsmen, ho ho ho ! " But Timar did not touch the horn, and went on telling legends of the rocks and waterfalls to the white maiden. Beginning from the Iron Gate up to Clissera, each valley, each cave on both banks, every cliff, island, and every eddy in the stream has its history : a fairy tale, a legend, or an adven- ture with brigands, of which books, or sculptured inscriptions, or national songs, or fisherfolks' tradition tell the story. It is a library in stone : the names of the rocks are the lettered back of the volumes, and he who knows how to open them may read a romance therein. Michael Timar had long been at home in this library. With the vessel committed to his charge he had often made the pas- sage of the Iron Gate, and every stone and island was familiar to him. Possibly he had another object with his legends and anec- dotes besides the satisfaction of the girl's curiosity. When a highly-strung creature has to pass through a great danger, which makes even a strong man's heart quake, then those who know the danger try to turn the attention of the ignorant person into the kingdom of marvels. Was it perhaps thus ? Timea listened to the story of the hero Mirko with his beloved, the faithful Milieva ;* how they fled to the peaks of the Linbigaja Rock out in the Danube ; how there lie alone defended the precipitous approach to his refuge, against all THE IRON GATE. 11 the soldiers of his pursuer Hassan ; how they lived on the kids brought by the eagles to their nest on the cliff, cared not for the roar of the breakers round the base of their island, and felt no fear of the white surges thrown up by the com- pressed force of the narrowed current. Mariners call these woolly wave-crests the "Lover's Goats." "It would be better to look ahead than astern," growled the steersman, and then exerted his voice in a loud call, " Haha ! ho ! skipper, what's that coming down on us ? " The captain looked round, and saw the object pointed out by the pilot. The ship was now entering the Tatalia Pass, where the Danube is only two hundred fathoms wide, and has a rapid incline. It looks like a mountain torrent, only that this torrent is the Danube. And besides, the stream is here divided in two by a mass of rock whose top is covered with bushes : the water forks in two arms on the western side, of which one shoots under the steep precipice of the Servian bank, whilst the other discharges through an artificial channel a hundred yards wide, by which the large vessels pass up and down. In this part it is far from desirable that two ships should meet, for there is barely room for them to pass in safety. To the northward lie hidden rocks where a ship might strike, and to the southward is the great whirlpool formed by the junction of the two branches ; if this should seize a vessel, no human power could save her. So that the danger which the steersman had announced by his question was a very real one. Two ships meeting in the Tatalia Pass with the river so high and under such a pressure of wind ! Michael Timar asked for his telescope, which he had lent to Timea to look at the place where Mirko had defended the beautiful Milieva. At the western curve of the river a dark mass was visible in the stream. Michael looked through his glass, and then called to the steersman, "A mill ! " "Holy Father ! then we are lost." A water-mill was driving down on them ; probably the storm had loosened its chains from the bank. Obviously it was without pilot or oarsmen, who must have fled to the shore ; so it drifted blindly on, sweeping away the mills it met on its way, and sinking any cargo-boats which could not get out of its road. How could they escape between Scylla and Charybdia '. 12 THE ST BARBARA. Timar said not a word of this to Timea, but gave her back the glass, and told her where to look for the eagles' nest whose ancestors had fed the lovers. Then he threw off his coat hastily, sprang into the barge where the rowers were, and made five of them get into the small boat with him ; they were to bring the light anchor and thin cable with them, and cast off. Trikaliss and Timea did not understand his orders, as he spoke Hungarian, which neither of them knew. The captain shouted to the steersman, " Keep her steady ; go ahead ! " In a few moments Trikaliss also could see what was the danger. The drifting mill came floating swiftly down the brawling stream, and one could see with the naked eye the clattering paddle-wheel, whose width occupied the whole fairway of the channel. If it touched the laden ship both must go down. The boat with the six men still struggled up against the current. Four of them rowed, one steered, and Timar stood in the bow with folded arms. What was their insane design ? What could they do in a little boat against a great mill ? What are human mind arid muscles against stream and storm 1 If each were a Samson, the laws of hydrostatics would set at nought their strength. The shock with which they touch the mill will recoil on the skiff ; if they grapple it they will be dragged away by it. It is as if a spider would catch a cockchafer in its web. The boat, however, did not keep in the centre, but tried to reach the southern point of the island. So high were the waves that the five men disappeared again and again in the hollows between, then the next moment they danced on the foamy crest, tossed hither and thither by the wilful torrent, seething under them like boiling water. CHAPTER II. THE WHITE CAT. THE five oarsmen consulted in the boat what was to be done. One advised cutting through the side of the mill below the water-line with an axe, so as to sink it : but that would do no good ; the cm-rent would drive the wreck down on to the ship. THE WHITE CAT. 13 A second thought they ought to grapple the mill with hooks, and give it a list away, so as to direct it towards the whirlpool : but this counsel was also rejected, for the eddies would drag the boat down too. Timar ordered the man at the tiller to keep straight for the point of the island where the Lover's Rock lies. When they approached the rapids he lifted the heavy anchor and swung it into the water without shaking the boat, which showed what muscular strength the delicate frame contained. The anchor took out a long coil of rope with it, for the water is deep there. Then Timar made them row as quickly as possible towards the approaching mill. Now they guessed his design he meant to anchor the mill. Bad idea, said the sailors ; the great mass will lie across the fairway, and stop the ship; besides the cable is so long and slight that the heavy fabric will part it easily. When Euthemio Trikaliss saw from the vessel Timar's in- tention, he dropped his chibouque in a panic, ran along the deck and cried to the steersman to cut the tow-rope, and let the ship drift down-stream. The pilot did not understand Greek, but guessed from the old man's gestures what he wanted. With perfect calmness he answered as he leant against the rudder, " There's nothing to grumble at ; Timar knows what to do." With the courage of despair Trikaliss drew his dagger out of his girdle in order to cut the rope himself; but the steersman pointed towards the stern, and what Trikaliss saw there altered his mind. From the Lower Danube came a vessel towards them : an accustomed eye can distinguish it from afar. It has a mast whose sails are furled, a high poop, and twenty-four rowers. It is a Turkish brigantine. As soon as he caught sight of it, Trikaliss put his dagger back in his sash ; if he had turned purple at what he saw ahead, now he was livid. He hastened to Time" a, who was looking through the glass at the peaks of Perigrada. " Give me the telescope ! " he exclaimed in a hoarse voice. "Oh, how pretty that is ! " said Tim^a, as she gave up the glass. " What ? " " On the cliffs there are little marmots playing together like monkeys." Euthemio directed the telescope towards the approaching vessel, and his brows contracted ; his face was pale as death. 14 THE ST BARBARA. Timea took the glass from his hand and looked again for the marmots on the rocks. Euthemio kept his arm round her waist. " How they jump and dance and chase each other ; how amusing ! " and Timea little knew how near she was to being lifted by the arm that held her, and plunged over the bulwarks into the foaming flood. But what Euthemio saw on the other side brought back into his face the colour it had lost. When Tiinar arrived within a cast of the mill, he took a coil of the anchor-rope in his right hand ; a hook was fastened to its end. The rudderless mass came quickly nearer, like some drifting antediluvian monster blind chance guided it; its paddle-wheel turned swiftly with the motion of the water, and under the empty out-shoot the mill-stone revolved over the flour-bin as if it was working hard. In this fabric devoted to certain destruction, there was no living thing except a white cat, which sat on the red-painted shingle roof and mewed piteously. When he got close to the mill, Timar swung the rope and hook suddenly round his head, and aimed it at the paddle- wheel. As soon as the grappling-iron had caught one of the floats, the wheel, driven by water-power, began to wind up the rope gently, and so give the mill a gradual turn towards the Peri- grada Island; completing by its own machinery the suicidal work of casting itself on the rocks. " Didn't I say Timar knew what he was about ? " growled Johann Fabula ; whilst Euthemio in joyful excitement ex- claimed, " Bravo ! my son," and pressed Timea's hand so hard that she was frightened and even forgot the marmots. " There, look ! " And now Time"a also noticed the mill. She required no telescope, for it and the ship were so near together that in the narrow channel they were only separated by about sixty feet. Just enough to let the diabolical machine get safely past. Timea thought neither of the danger nor of the deliverance, only of the forsaken cat. When the poor animal saw the floating house and its inhabitants so near to it, it leapt up and began running up and down the roof-ridge, and to measure with its eye the distance between the mill and the ship, whether it dared jump. THE WHITE CAT. 15 " Oh, the poor little cat ! " cried Tim^a anxiously, " if we could only get near enough for it to come over to us." But from this misfortune the .ship was preserved by its patron saint, and by the anchor-rope, which, wound up by the paddle-wheel, got shorter and shorter, and drew the wreck nearer the island and farther from the vessel. "Oh, the poor pretty white cat ! " "Don't be afraid," Euthemio tried to console her; "when it passes the rock the cat will spring ashore, and be very happy living with the marmots." Only unluckily the cat, keeping on the hither side of the roof, could not see the island. When the St Barbara had got safely past the enchanted mill, Timea waved her handkerchief to the cat, and called out first in Greek, and then in the universal cat's language, "Quick, look, jump off, puss, puss-s-s-s;" but the animal, frantic with terror, paid no heed. At the very moment when the stern of the ship had passed the mill, the latter was suddenly caught by the current, swung round so that the grappled wheel broke, and the liberated mass shot like an arrow down the stream. The white cat sprang up to the ridge. " Ah ! " But the mill rushed on its fate. Below the island is the great whirlpool. It is one of the most remarkable eddies ever formed by the river giants on every map it is marked by two arrows meeting in a corner. Woe to the boat which is swept in the direction of either arrow ! Round the great funnel the water boils and rages as in a seething caldron, and in the middle of the circle yawns the bare abyss below. This whirlpool has worn a hole in the rock a hundred and twenty feet deep, and what it takes with it into this tomb, no one ever sees again : if it should be a man, he had better look out for the resurrection. And into this place the current carried the mill. Before it reached there it sprang a leak and got a list over ; the axle of the wheel stood straight on end ; the white cat ran along to the highest point and stood there humping its back ; the eddy caught the wooden fabric, carried it round in wide circles four or five times, turning on its own axis, creaking and groaning, and then it disappeared under the water. With it the white cat. Tim^a shuddered and hid her face in her shawl. But the St Barbara was saved. 16 THE ST BARBARA. Euthemio pressed the hands of the returning oarsmen Tirnar he embraced. Timar might have expected that Timea would say a friendly word ; but she only asked, pointing to the gulf with a disturbed face, "What is become of the mill ? ;J " Chips and splinters ! " 'And the poor cat?" The girl's lips trembled, and tears stood in her eyes. "It's all up with her." " But the mill and the cat belonged to some poor man ? " said Timea, " Yes ; but we had to save our ship and our lives, or else we should have been wrecked, and the whirlpool would have drawn us down into the abyss, and only thrown up our bones on the shore." Timea looked at the man who said this, through the prism of tear-filled eyes. It was a strange world into which she gazed through these tears. That it should be permissible to destroy a poor man's mill in order to save one's own ship, that you should drown a cat so as not to get into the water yourself ! she could not understand it. From this moment she listened no more to his fairy-stories, but avoided him as much as possible. CHAPTEE III. A DANGEROUS LEAP WITH A MAMMOTH. INDEED Timar had but little time for story-telling; for he had hardly got his breath after the exertions of his perilous achievement, before Euthemio gave him the glass and pointed where he was to look " Gunboat twenty-four oars brigantine from Salonica." Timar did not put down the telescope till the other vessel was hidden from him behind the point of the Perigracla Island. Then suddenly he let it fall, and, putting the horn to his lips, blew first three, then six, sharp blasts, at which the drivers whipped up their horses. The rocky islet of Perigrada is surrounded by two branches of the Danube. The one on the Servian side is that by which cargo-ships pass up ; it is safer and cheaper, for half the number A DANGEROUS LEAP WITH A MAMMOTH. 17 of horses suffice. By the Roumanian shore there is also a narrow channel, with just room for one vessel, but here you must use oxen, of which often a hundred and twenty are harnessed. The other arm of the river is again narrowed by the little Reskival Island, lying across the stream. (Now this island has been blown up in part, but at the time of our story the whole still existed.) Through the narrows between the two islands the river shoots like an arrow ; but above, it lies between its rocky walls like a great lake. Only this lake has no smooth surface, for it is always in motion, and never freezes in the very hardest winter. Its bottom is thickly sown with rocks ; some are under water, while other uncouth monsters project many feet above it. This is the most dangerous part of the whole voyage. To this day, experienced seamen, English, Turks, Italians, at home on all seas, adventure themselves with much anxiety in this rock-strewn channel. Here the majority of shipwrecks occur. Here in the Crimean War the splendid Turkish man- of-war " Silistria " was lost. She had been ordered to Bel- grade, and might have given a new turn to affairs if she had not received a thrust in the ribs from one of the Reskival rocks, so enthusiastic in their peace policy that they obliged her to stay where she was. Yet this lake, with its dangerous bottom, has a passage through it which but few ships know, and still fewer care to use. This short cut enables mariners to cross from the channel on the Servian side to the Roumanian shore. The latter channel is divided by a ledge of rock from the Upper Danube, and you can only enter it at Szvinicza, and come out at Szkela-Gladova. This is the dangerous leap with a floating mammoth. The captain blows first three, and then six blasts on his horn ; the drivers know at once what it means ; the leader of the team has dismounted with good reason too and they all begin with cries and blows to hurry on the horses. The vessel goes swiftly against the stream. The horn blows nine times. The drivers flog the horses furiously : the poor beasts under- stand the call and the blows, and tug till the rope is strained nearly to breaking. Five minutes of such effort are more exhausting than a whole day's labour. Now twelve blasts of the horn sound in rapid succession. Man and horse collect the last remnant of their strength. Every moment one fancies they must break down. The towing- B 18 THE ST BARBARA. rope, a three-inch cable, is as taut as a bow-string, nnd the iron bolt round which the rope is wound is burning hot with the friction. The captain stands by with a sharp axe in his hand. When the vessel gained its greatest impetus, with a single blow he severed the cable at the bow. The tense rope flew whistling like a giant fiddle-string into the air; the horses of the towing-team fell down in a heap, and the leader broke its neck his rider had wisely dismounted. The ship^ relieved of the strain, altered its course suddenly, and began, with its bow to the northern shore, to cut obliquely across the river. Sailors call this bold manoeuvre the " Cross-cut." The heavy bulk is now propelled neither by stream nor oars ; even the current is against it. Merely the after-effect of the shock it has received drives it over to the other bank. The calculation of this impulse, with the distance to be traversed and the resistance which lessens the speed, would be a credit to any practical engineer. Common sailors have learnt it by rule of thumb. From the moment when Timar cut the tow-rope, the lives of all on board were in the hands of the steersman. Johann Fabula showed now what he could do. " Help, Lord Christ ! " he muttered, but he did not keep his hands in his lap. Before him the ship rushed with winged speed into the lake formed by the Danube. Two men were now required at the tiller, and even these could hardly bridle the monster in its course. Timar stood on the prow and sounded with the lead, in one hand holding the line ; the other he stretched up, and showed the pilot with his fingers what water they had. The steersman knew the rocks they were passing over just as well as he could have told exactly how much the river had risen in the last few weeks. In his hands the helm was safe ; if he had made a single false movement, if only by an inch, the vessel would have received a shock which would stop her for a moment, and then she and all on board would have been driven head over heels into the Perigrada whirlpool, where the ship and the beautiful white girl would have joined the mill and the beautiful white cat. Safely past the shallows of the Reskival rapids ! Yet this is a bad place. The speed is less, the effect of the motive power already paralysed by the force of the stream, and the bottom sown with sharp rocks. Timea leant over the bulwarks and looked down into the A DANGEROUS LEAP WITH A MAMMOTH. 19 water. Through the transparent waves, the bright-coloured rocks, a huge mosaic of green and yellow and red, looked quite close. Between them shot silvery fishes with red fins. She was fascinated. Deep silence fell over the scene ; each knew that he passed over his grave, and would owe it to God's mercy if he did not find his monument down below. Only the girl felt no emotion of fear. The vessel had arrived in a bay of rocks. Sailors have given them the name of " gun-stones " ; perhaps because the sound of the breakers reminds one of the cracking of musketry fire. Here the principal branch of the Danube concentrates itself in a deep bed. The sunken rocks are too far under water to be dangerous. Below, in the dark-green depths, one may see the slow and indolent forms of the dwellers of the sea the great sturgeon and the hundred-pound pike, at whose approach the bright shoals of small fish scatter in haste. Timea gazed at the play of the aquatic population ; it was like a bird's-eye view of an amphitheatre. Suddenly she felt her arm seized by Timar, who dragged her from the bulwarks, pushed her into the cabin, and shut the door violently. " Look out ! Hallo ! " shouted the crew as with one voice. Tim&i could not imagine what was happening that she should be so roughly treated, and ran to look out of the cabin window. It was only that the ship had passed safely through the "gun-rocks/ 5 and was about to enter the Roumanian channel; but from the little bay the water rushes so furiously into the canal that a regular waterfall is formed, and this is the dan- gerous moment of the " Leap." When Timea looked out of the cabin window, she only saw that Timar stood at the bow with a grappler in his hand. Then suddenly a deafening noise arose, a huge foam-crowned mountain of water struck the fore part of the vessel, splashed its spray right against the window, and blinded Timea for a moment. When she looked out again, the captain was no longer to be seen. There were great cries outside. She rushed out of the door and met her father. " Are we sinking ? " she cried. :< No ! The ship is saved, but the skipper is overboard." Timea had seen that : the big wave had washed him away before her eyes. But her heart beat no faster when she heard it. 20 THE ST BARBARA. Curious ! When she saw the white cat drowned, she was in despair, and could not refrain from tears, and now when the water had swallowed up the captain, she did not even say " Poor fellow ! " Yes, but the cat had cried so pitifully, and this man defies the whole world ; the cat was a dear little animal, the captain only a great rough man. And then the cat could not help itself; but he is strong and clever, and can certainly save himself. That's the only good of a man. After the last leap the ship was safe, and swam in the smooth water of the canal. The sailors ran with grappling- irons to the boat to seek the captain. Euthemio held a purse up as a prize for the rescue of Timar. " A hundred ducats for him who rescues the captain." "Keep your hundred ducats, good sir ! " cried the voice of the man in question from the other end of the ship. "I'm coming." Then they saw him climbing up the stern by the rudder- chains. No fear of his being lost ! As if nothing had happened, he began giving orders. "Let go!" The three-hundredweight anchor was thrown over, and the ship brought up in the middle of the channel, so as to be hidden by the cliffs from the upper reaches of the river. "And now ashore with the boat," Timar ordered three oarsmen. " Change your clothes," advised Euthemio. " Waste of time," answered Timar. " I shall soon be wet again ; now I am thoroughly soaked. We have no time to spare." The last words he whispered into Euthemio's ear. The man's eyes glittered as he agreed. The captain sprang into the boat and rowed himself, so as to get quicker to the post-house on the bank, where towing- teams could be engaged. He collected hastily eighty oxen. Meanwhile a new towing- rope was attached to the vessel, the oxen harnessed, and before half an hour had passed, the St Barbara was on her way again through the Iron Gate, and on the opposite side of the stream. When Timar returned on board, his exertions had dried his clothes. The ship was saved, perhaps doubly saved, and with it the cargo, Euthemio, and Timea. But what are they to him that he should work so hard ? He is only the captain and supercargo, and receives a scanty A DANGEROUS LEAP WITH A MAMMOTH. 21 salary as such. It cannot matter to him whether the vessel's hold is full of wheat or contraband tobacco or real pearls ; his wages remain the same. So also thought the " purifier," who, when they reached the Roumanian canal, resumed his interrupted conversation with the steersman. "You'll allow, neighbour, that we were never nearer all going to destruction together than we were to-day." "There's some truth in that," answered Fabula, " But why should we try the experiment whether we could get drowned on St Michael's day 1 " " H'm," said Johann, and took a short pull at his brandy- flask. "What salary do you get, sir?" " Twenty kreuzers a day," answered the purifier. " Why the devil do you come here to venture your life for twenty kreuzers a day ? I didn't send for you. I get a gulden and my food ; so I have forty kreuzers more reason to venture my life than you. What does it matter to you ? " The health-officer shook his head, and threw back his hood, so as to be more easily heard. " Listen," he said ; "it strikes me the brigantine is chasing you, and the St Barbara is trying to escape." "H'm," coughed the steersman, clearing his throat, and becoming suddenly too hoarse to make a sound. " Well, it doesn't matter to me," said the purifier, with a shrug. " I'm Austrian born, and I don't like the Turks. But I know what 1 know." "Well, then, will the gentleman listen to what he doesn't know ? " said Fabula, who had suddenly recovered his voice. " Certainly the gunboat is chasing us, and that's why we are showing him our heels. For, look you, they wanted to take the white-faced maiden into the Sultan's harem, but her father would not consent ; he preferred to escape with her from Turkey, and now the object is to reach Hungarian territory as quickly as possible there the Sultan can't touch her. Now that's all about it, so ask no more questions, but go to St Barbara's picture, and light the lamp again if the water has extinguished it; and don't forget to burn three consecrated willow- twigs, if you're a good Christian." The purifier drew himself up slowly, and looked for his tinder-box, and then he growled in his beard " If I am an orthodox Catholic? But they say you are only a Papist on board, and a Calvinist directly you set foot on shore : that you pray in the ship, and can hardly wait for 22 THE ST BARBARA. dry land before you begin cursing and swearing. And they say too that your name is Fabula, and that Fabnla means just the same as a pocketful of lies. But of course I believe all you have told me, so you need not be angry." " You're quite right there ; but now you be off, and don't you come back till I call you." The twenty-four rowers in the gunboat required three hours to get from the point where first the St Barbara was seen to the Perigrada Island, where the Danube divides into two arms. The cliffs of the island masked the whole bend, and on board the brigantine nothing of what had passed behind them could be seen. Even below the island the gunboat had met with floating wreckage, which the eddy had thrown to the surface. This was part of the sunken mill, but could not be distinguished from the remains of a vessel. When the brigantine had passed the island a reach of a mile and a half lay open before her; neither in the stream nor by the bank was any large craft to be seen ; near the shore were only barges and rowing- boats. The man-of-war went a little higher, cruised about in the river, and then returned to the shore. There the Turkish lirst-lieutenant inquired of the watchmen about a cargo-vessel passing by. They had seen nothing, for the ship had not got so far. Presently the brigantine overtook the St Barbara's towing-team, and of them also questions were asked. They were all good Servians, and explained to the Turks where they could find the St Barbara. " She has gone down at the Perigrada Island with her cargo of fruit and all her crew ; you can see here how the tow-rope parted." The Turkish brigantine left the Servian drivers, who were all lamenting because no one was left to pay their wages. (In Orsova they know full well they will come up with their ship and tow her on.) But the commander, being a Turk, of course turned about and went down-stream. When the brigantine got back to the island, the sailors saw a board dancing on the water which did not float away. They fished it out : a rope was fastened to it by an iron hook, for the board was a float from the mill-wheel. Then they heaved up the rope, which had an anchor at its other end. This also was got in, and on its cross-piece, painted in great letters, there was the name St Barbara. Now the whole catastrophe was quite clear. Her towing- A STRICT SEARCH. 23 rope had broken, she cast her anchor but it could not hold her, she drifted into the whirlpool, and now her timbers float on the surface, but her crew rests below in the deep pool. Mashallah ! We cannot follow her there. CHAPTER IV. A STRICT SEARCH. THE St Barbara had escaped two dangers, the rocks of the Iron Gate and the Turkish brigantine ; two remained, the Bora and the quarantine in Orsova. Above the bay of the Iron Gate, the powerful stream is confined by its steep banks in a chasm only a hundred fathoms wide, through which the pent-up current forces its way, in parts with a fall of twenty-eight feet. Up above the mountain peaks, three thousand feet in air, the eagles circle in majestic flight across the narrow strip of sky visible, whose pure azure seen from the awful depths below looks like a glass vault, and further yet rise more and higher peaks. It is a sight, I trow, to call up spirits from hell. The impotent vessel, which has neither hands nor feet, nor yet fins, which, like an overladen nutshell, floats upwards in this narrow channel against wind and stream ; and in it a hand- ful of men, trusting in their intelligence and their strength. Here, too, even the Bora cannot harm them, for the double range of cliffs keeps off the wind. The steersman and the to wing-team have easier work now. But the Bora was not asleep. It was already afternoon. The chief steersman had given over the tiller to his deputy, and had gone to the galley, which was in the stern. There he was busy preparing a " thieves' roast," of which the recipe is to spit on a long skewer a piece of beef, a piece of ham, and a piece of pork alternately, and then turn the skewer above an open fire till the meat is cooked. All at once the narrow strip of sky visible between the almost touching cliffs grew dark. The Bora will not be defied. Suddenly it drives down before it a storm which overcasts the blue sky, so that it is pitch dark in the valley. Up above 24 THE ST BAKBAKA. masses of cloud ; dark rocks on either hand. Now and then a dazzling flash darts through the heights, followed by a short abrupt thunder-clap, as if the narrow gorge could only contain one chord of the awful concert; then again the lightning shoots into the Danube just in front of the ship, and by its fiery rays for an instant the whole rocky cathedral looks like the flaming gulf of hell, and the thunder rolls, with a crash as of a world destroyed, from one end of the resounding Titan's hall to the other. Rain falls in torrents, but the vessel must go on. It must get on, that it may have left Orsova before night. They can only see by the flicker of the lightning. Even with the horn they dare not signal, for it might be heard on the Roumanian side. But inventive man has found a way out of this difficulty. The captain goes into the bow, gets out his flint and steel, and begins to strike out sparks. This fire cannot be extin- guished by rain ; it can be seen by the drivers through the darkness, and as often as the steel strikes a spark they know at once what to do ; they also make signals from the bank by sparks. This is the secret telegraph of sailors and smugglers at the Iron Gate. And this silent language has been brought to perfection by the shore population on each side of the river. Time\i liked the tempest. She had drawn her Turkish hood over her head, and looked out of the cabin window. " Are we in a cavern 1 " she asked the captain. " No," answered Timar, " but at the door of a tomb. That high peak, which glows in the lightning-flashes like a mountain of fire, is the grave of St Peter, the 'Gropa lui Petro.' And the two other monsters near it are the ' Two Old Women.' " "What old women?" "According to the legend, a Hungarian and a Wallachian woman quarrelled as to which of their two countries could claim the tomb of St Peter. The apostle could not sleep in his grave for their squabbling, and in his anger he turned them into stone." Tima did not smile at the grotesque legend. She did not see anything ridiculous in it. " And how do they know that this is the grave of an apostle 1 " asked she. " Because here many healing herbs grow, which they collect to cure all sorts of diseases, and send them great distances." " So they call him an apostle, who even in his grave does good to others ? " Time"a questioned. A STRICT SEARCH. 25 " Tim&i ! " sounded from the cabin the imperious call of Euthemio. The girl drew back her head from the window, and closed the circular shutter. When Timar looked round again, he saw only the saint's picture. The vessel continued her course in spite of the storm. Suddenly the dark ravine was left behind, and as the two rock walls trended farther apart the gloomy vault overhead disappeared. Just as rapidly as the Bora had brought up the black thunder-clouds, so quickly had it swept away the storm ; and, all at once, the travellers saw stretched before them the lovely Cserna valley. The cliffs on both shores were covered to their summits with vineyards and fruit orchards ; the landscape glittered in the glow of the evening sun ; out of the green distance shone white houses, slender spires, and red roofs, and through the crystal rain-beads gleamed a gorgeous rainbow. The Danube had lost its uncanny aspect. In its wider bed it could spread itself out comfortably; and on the western reaches of its sea-green mirror the travellers saw the reflection of Orsova on its island for them the fourth, and greatest, bugbear. The day had already sunk into twilight when the St Barbara arrived at Orsova, " More wind to-morrow than even to-day," grumbled the steersman, looking at the red sky. There the evening clouds were piled like an avalanche, in all shades of fiery and blood red, and if the glowing mist-veil parted through the rent, the sky was not blue but emerald- green. Below, mountain and valley, forest and field, gleamed in the sunset reflex with radiance which hurt the eye, unable to find a shady point of rest. The Danube rushing on beneath, like a fiery Phlegethon, and in its midst an island with towers and massive buildings, all glowing as if part of a huge furnace, through which every creature, coming from the pestilential east to the frontier of the healthy west, must pass as through purgatory. But what most fixed the attention of the crew under this stormy sunset was a black-and-yellow striped boat, which was being rowed from the shore to the ship. The Szkela is the double gate through which the neighbour- ing inhabitants of both sides of the Danube speak, bargain, and do business together. The St Barbara had cast anchor before the island, and 26 THE ST BARBARA. awaited the approaching boat, in which were three armed men two with muskets and bayonets besides two rowers and the steersman. Euthemio paced anxiously up and down the small space in front of the cabin. Timar approached him and whispered, " The searcher is coming." Trikaliss drew from his leathern pouch a silk purse, and took out two rouleaux, which he pressed into Timar's hand. In each were a hundred ducats. Before long the boat was alongside, and the three armed men came on board. One is the overseer of taxes, the in- spector, whose office it is to search the cargo for anything contraband or a prohibited importation of arms ; the other two are custom-house officials, who render armed assistance, and serve as a check on the inspector to see if he carries out the search properly. The purifier is the official spy, who reports whether the two officers have properly controlled the inspector. Then the latter three form a tribunal, which takes the evidence of the purifier as to whether he has detected the passengers in any infectious communication. This is all very systematically arranged, so that one organ should control the other, and each be mutually under inspection. As a legal fee for these functions the chief has to receive a hundred kreuzers, each of the customs officials fifty, and the purifier also fifty, which certainly is a moderate fee enough. As soon as the inspector reaches the deck, the purifier comes towards him : the former scratches his ear and the latter his nose. No contact takes place. Then the inspector turns to the captain, and both the other officials ground their arms. Still three paces apart! One can't tell whether the man has not got the plague. The examination begins. "Where from?" "Galatz." " Name of ship's owner ? " "Athan Brazovics." "Owner of cargo?" " Euthemio Trikaliss." " Where are the ship's papers ? " The reception of these is carefully arranged. A pan of live coals is brought, and strewn with juniper- berries and wormwood : the aforesaid papers are held over it and well smoked, then taken by the inspector with a pair of tongs, A STRICT SEARCH. 27 read from as great a distance as possible, and afterwards re- turned. Nothing wrong, apparently, with the ship's papers. The pan is carried away, and in its place a jug of water is brought. It is a capacious earthenware pot, with a mouth through which the largest fist can pass. It serves to facilitate the transmission of the tax. As the oriental plague is more easily communicated by coins than by anything else, the sailors coming from the Levant must throw the money into a jug of water, in order that the western health-officer may take it out cleansed : just as at the Szkela, every one must fish the money he receives out of a basin. Timar thrust his clenched fist into the water, and brought it out open. Then the inspector puts his hand in, draws it out as a clenched fist, and transfers it to his pocket. He does not need to look at it by the sunset light to see what manner of money it is. He knows it by the size and weight. Even a blind man knows the feel of ducats. He does not change a muscle. After him come the custom-house officials. These also with serious faces fish up their fee from the bottom of the jug. Now for the turn of the purifier. His countenance is stern and forbidding. It hangs on a single word from his lips, whether the ship may have to lie ten or twenty days in quarantine with all her passengers. There are cold-blooded men like that who have only an eye to duty. The inspector demands, in a surly, dictatorial tone, that the entrance to the lower deck be opened. His desire is obeyed. They all three go down ; but none of the crew may follow them. When they are alone, the three strict servants of the law grin at each other. The purifier remains on deck, and only laughs in his sleeve. They unfasten one of the many sacks, in which certainly there is only wheat. "Well, I hope it's mouldy enough," remarks the inspector. " Probably there is only wheat in the other sacks, and very likely even more worm-eaten." A document is now drawn up describing the search : one of the armed officials has the writing materials, and the other the form to be filled in. All is accurately set down. Then the inspector writes something on a bit of paper, which he folds and seals with a wafer, on which he presses the official seal. He writes no address on the note. Then, after they have rummaged in every hole and corner where nothing suspicious is hidden, the three searchers rise to the light of day once more. At least to moonlight j for the 28 THE ST BARBARA. sun has set, and through the hurrying clouds the moon ever :ml anon peeps down, and then vanishing, plays hide-and-seek with the world. The inspector calls for the captain and gives him to under- stand still in a severe official manner that nothing suspicious has been found on board : then he requires the purifier, in the same manner, to declare the condition of the ship's health. With an appeal to his oath of fidelity, the purifier bears witness that every person on board as well as the cargo is free from infection. A certificate that the papers are in order is prepared, and the receipts for the fees are handed over. A hundred kreu,zers to the inspector, two fifties to the customs officers, and fifty to the health-officer. Not a kreuzer is wanting. These receipts are delivered to the owner of the cargo, who has never left his cabin the whole time he is at supper. He also must counter- sign the receipts. From these signatures and endorsements, the shipowner and the honourable officials in question mutually learn that the captain gave away as many kreuzers as he received, and that not one remained sticking to his fingers. Kreuzers ! Well, yes ; but about the gold 1 The thought may well have passed through Timar's head, how would it be if of the fifty ducats which this dirty lot were to fish out of the jug he were only to put in forty (a fabulous sum to such fellows) ? No creature would know that he had kept back ten. Indeed he might easily retain half of the whole sum, for who is there to control it ? Those for whom the money is intended are quite enough rewarded with half. Another thought possibly answered thus. " What you are doing is without doubt bribery. You don't corrupt them with your own money, but Trikaliss gives it because his interests imperatively require it. You hand over the gold, and are as innocent of the bribery as the w r ater-jug. Why he wants to bribe the inspector you do not know. Whether the ship carries contraband goods, whether he is a political refugee, or the persecuted hero of a romantic adventure, who in order to assist his escape strews gold in handfuls, what does it matter to you ? But if one single gold piece sticks to your fingers, you become an accomplice in all which burdens another's con- science. Keep none of it." The inspector gave permission for the vessel to proceed, in token of which a red-aud-white flag with a black eagle on it \vas hoisted to the masthead. Then, after thus officially certify- ing that the ship from the Levant was quite free of infection, THE OWNERLESS ISLAND. 29 the inspector, without any previous ordeal by water, pressed the captain's hand and said to him: "You come from Komorn? Then you know Heir Katschuka, chief of the Commissariat Department ? Be good enough to give him this note when you get home. There is no address on it not necessary, you won't forget his name ; it sounds like a Spanish dance. Take him the letter as soon as ever you get there. You won't be sorry." Then he clapped the captain most graciously on the shoulder, as if to make him his debtor for life, and the whole four left the ship and returned to Szkela in their black-and yellow boat The St Barbara could now continue her voyage, and if all her sacks from the keel to the deck had been filled with salt or Turkish tobacco, and all her passengers covered with small- pox or Jeprosy from top to toe, no one could stop her any more on the Danube. Now, however, there was on board neither contraband goods nor contagion, but something else. Timar put the un- addressed note into his pocket-book and wondered what it contained. This was what was written " BROTHEIMX-I AW. I recommend to you the bearer of this letter. He is a man of sterling worth." CHAPTEE V. THE OWNERLESS ISLAND. THE to wing-team left behind on the Servian bank crossed over the same night in ferry-boats to the Hungarian side with their severed hawser, spreading everywhere the news that the tow- rope had parted of itself at the dangerous Perigrada Island, and the ship had gone down with eveiv soul on board. In the morning there was no longer a >ign of the St Barbara in the harbour of Orsova. If by chance the commandant of the Turkish brigantine had had an idea of rowing up the channel from the Iron Gate to Orsova, he would not have found what he sought : and al>ove, as far as Belgrade, only half the Danube Moused to him: on the Hungarian side he had no jurisdiction, but the fort res > ; t New Orsova belonged to him. At two o'clock in the morning the St Barbara left Oi After midnight the north wind generally stops ; the favour- 30 THE ST BARBARA. able time must be utilised, and the crew had received a double ration of brandy to keep them in a good humour. The departure was quite silent : from the walls of the New Orsova fort sounded the long call of the Turkish sentries. The horn gave no signal till the Allion point had disappeared behind the new mountain-chain. At the first blast Timea came from her cabin, where she had slept for a few hours, and went, wrapped in her white burnous, to the bow to look for Euthemio, who had never lain down all night, nor entered his. cabin, nor even which was more remarkable smoked at all. He was not allowed to light any fire on board the ship, so as to avoid attracting attention to the vessel at the Orsova fortress. Perhaps Tim6a felt that she had to make up for a fault, for she addressed Timar, and asked him about the wonders of both shores. The instinct of her childish heart whispered to her that she owed this man a debt of gratitude. Dawn found the ship near Ogradina. The captain drew Timea's attention to a monument 1800 years old. This was " Trajan's Tablet," hewn in the precipitous cliff, held by two winged genii and surrounded by dolphins. On the tablet is the inscription which commemorates the achievements of the godlike Emperor. If the peaks of the great "Sterberg" have vanished from the Servian shore, there follows a fresh rock- corridor, which confines the Danube in a ravine five hundred fathoms wide. This mountain hall goes by the name of " Kassan." Cliffs of two to three thousand feet high rise right and left, their curves lost in opal- coloured mist. From one precipice a stream falls a thousand feet out of a cave, like a delicate silver streak, dissolved in spray before it reaches the river. The two rock faces run on unbroken, only in one part the mountain is split, and through the rift laughs the bloom- ing landscape of an alpine valley, with a white tower in the background. It is the tower of Dubova : there is Hungary. Time"a never turned her gaze from this spectacle until the ship had passed, and the mountains had closed over the exqui- site scene, hiding the deep chasm in their shadows. "I feel," she said, u as if we were going through a long, long prison, into a land from which there is no return." The precipices grow higher, the surface of the Danube darker, and, to complete the wild and romantic panorama, there is visible on the northern face a cave whose mouth is surrounded by an earthwork with embrasures for cannon. THE OWNERLESS ISLAND. 31 "That is Veterani's Cavern," said the captain. "There, more than a century ago, three hundred men and five cannon held out for forty days against a whole Turkish army." Tim&i shook her head. But the skipper knew more still about the cavern. " Forty years ago our people defended that cave in a bloody struggle against the Turks ; the Osmanli lost over two thousand men amongst the rocks." Timea drew together her delicate eyebrows and threw the narrator an icy cold glance, so that all his eloquence died in his throat. She hid her mouth with her burnous, turned from Tiinar, went into the cabin, and did not reappear till evening. She only looked through the little window at the toppling crags on the bank, the massive watch-towers now deserted, the wooded cliffs of the Klissura valley, and the rock-colossi projecting from the stream, as they swept by her. She did not even ask for the history of the octagonal castle -donjon, with three small ones beside it inside a bastion. And yet she would have heard the fate of the lovely Cecilia Rozgonyi, the danger of King Sigismund, and the defeat of the Hungarians. This ruin is the Galamboczer Tower. From first to last this double shore is a petrified history of two nations, mutually shadowed by a mad vagary of fate with the lust of conquest, which makes them fly at each other's throats directly a war begins. It is a long crypt containing the bones of many a hundred thousand heroes. Time"a did not come out that day or the next. She sketched little views in her book, which she could hold quite steady on the smoothly gliding vessel. Three days passed before the St Barbara arrived where the Morava falls into the Danube. At the junction lies Semendria. On the thirty-six towers of this fortress have waved the banners sometimes of the Blessed Virgin and anon of the Crescent, arid their circular- brown walls are sprinkled with the blood of many nations. On the other shore of the Morava stand only the bare walls of the forsaken " Veste Kulics," and beyond the Ostrovaer Island frown down from a peak the ruins of the castle of Rama, now only a monument. But this is not the moment to stand gazing at them no one is inclined to indulge in melancholy reflections on the vanished greatness of fallen nations, for there is more pressing work on hand. 32 THE ST BARBARA. As soon as the Hungarian plains open out, the north wind storms down on the ship with such force that the towing- horses cannot make head against it, and the wind drives the vessel towards the opposite shore. " We can get no farther," is the general opinion. Trikaliss exchanges a few private words with Timar, who goes to the pilot. Master Fabula makes the tiller fast and leaves it. Then he calls the rowers on board, and signs to the shore to stop the team. Here neither oars nor towing are of use. The ship is above the Orsova Island, which stretches a long pointed tongue into the stream : its northern side is steep and rugged, overgrown with old willows. The task now is to get over to the south of the island, where the St Barbara can lie in a harbour protected from the north wind, as well as from the curious eyes of men ; for the wider stream which circles round the island towards Servia is not used by sailors, being full of sandbanks and fords. It is a work of skill to approach : cutting the cable is no use, for the ship could not carry any way against such a wind. The only solution is hauling to the anchor. The vessel casts anchor in mid-stream : the towing-rope is brought on board ; to its end a second anchor is attached and placed in the boat. The rowers go towards the island till the whole length of the cable is out, then cast anchor and return to the ship. Now they weigh the first anchor, and four men haul on the cable made fast to the windlass. Heavy work ! When the vessel is close up to the anchor, they put the other in the boat, row forward, cast anchor again, and haul up as before. So by the sweat of their brow they made their way up-stream step by step. It took them half a day of hard labour to work the heavy cargo-ship from the middle of the Danube to the point of the great island. A fatiguing day for those who had to work, and wearier still to look on at. The M/1 had left the frequented branch, where, at any rate, one saw ruins from time to time, where one met other ships, or floated by long lines of clattering mills : it now passed through the unfrequented channel, where the view was hidden on tlie i-ijLrht by a long ugly island, on which only poplars and willows seemed to grow, nowhere a human habitation to be seen, and on the left the water was covered by a thick sea of reeds, amongst which the only sign of terra jirrna was a group of slender silver-leaved poplars. In this quiet uninhabited spot the St Barbara was brought up. And now appeared a new calamity the food was THE OWNERLESS ISLAND. 33 exhausted. When leaving Galatz, they had reckoned on the usual halt at Orsova for the purpose of shipping provisions ; but after starting so suddenly at night, they found there was nothing on board when they reached the island of Orsova but a little coffee and sugar, and in Tirana's possession a box of Turkish sweets and preserved fruits, which, however, she would not open, because it was intended as a present "Never mind," said Timar; "somebody must live on one shore or the other. There are lambs and kids everywhere, and one can get anything for money." Another misfortune set in. The anchored ship was so rolled about by the wind-driven waves of the river, that Time"a got sea-sick and frightened. Perhaps there was some house where she and her father could spend the night. Timar's sharp eyes discovered that above the tops of the poplars rising from the reeds, a faint smoke hovered in the air. " There must be a house there. I will go and see who lives in it." There was a small skiff on board, which the captain used on sporting expeditions, at times when the ship was delayed by foul winds, and he had leisure for wildfowl-shooting. He lowered it into the water, took his gun, his game-bag, and a landing-net one never knows what may come in one's way, a bird or a fish and went towards the bed of rushes, rowing and steering with one and the same oar. Being an experienced marsh-sportsman, he soon found the one opening in the reeds through which it was possible to penetrate, and recognised by the vegetation the depth of the channel. Where the great leaves and snowy cups of the water-lily float on the surface, there is deep water \vhich scours the weeds and mud away ; in other places duckweed forms a green carpet on the top, and on this floating velvet cowers the poisonous water-fungus in the form of a turnip-radish, blue and round, and swelled like a puff-ball deadly poison to every living thing. When Timar's oar struck one of these polyp-like fungi, the venomous dust shot out like a blue flame. The roots of this plant live in a fetid slime which would suffocate man or beast who should fall into it ; nature has given this vegetable mur- derer a habitat where it is least accessible. But where the cardinal-flower spreads its clubbed suckers, and where the beau- tiful bells of the water-violet sway amongst the rushes, there is gravel, which is not always under water. And where the manna tendrils begin to form a thicket, in pressing through C 4 THE ST BARBARA. which the sailor finds the brim of his hat full of little seeds the food of the poor, inanna of the wilderness there must be higher ground, so that only the root of the plant is submerged. The boatman who does not know these vegetable guides might lose himself in the reed-beds, and not get out all day. When Tiniar had worked his way through the brake, which formed a labyrinth of flesh-coloured flower-clusters, he saw before him what he sought an island. Xo doubt this was a new alluvial formation, of which no trace was to be found on the latest maps. In the bed of the right arm of the Danube lay long ago a great boulder, at whose base the sluggish current had deposited a sandbank. During some winter flood, the ice-floes tore from the Ostrova Island a spit of land bearing earth, stones, and a small wood. This mingled deluge of ice, gravel, and trees flung itself on the sandbank near the boulder. Repeated inundations spread over it year by year layers of mud, and enlarged its circumference by fresh deposits of pebbles : from the mouldering tree-trunks sprang a luxuriant vegetation as quickly as the natural crea- tions of the New World ; and so arose a nameless island, of which no one had taken possession, over which was no landlord, no king, no authority, and no Church which belonged to no country and no diocese. In Turco- Servian territory there are many such paradises, neither ploughed nor sown, not even used for pasture. They are the home of wild flowers and wild beasts, and God knows what besides. The northern shore plainly proclaims its genesis. The gravel moraine is heaped there like a barricade, often in pieces larger than a man's head; between are tufts of rushes and rotten branches ; the shallows are covered with green and brown river-shells ; on the marshy parts round holes are washed out, in which, at the sound of approaching footsteps, hundreds of crabs rush to hide. The shore is covered along its whole length with prickly willow, which the ice-floes shave off every winter close to the root. Here Timar drew his boat ashore and tied it to a tree. Pressing forward, he had to push his wa} r through a thicket of huge willows and poplars overthrown in many places by repeated storms and there the fruitful bramble forms a thorny undergrowth, and tall valerian, shooting upwards from the weather-beaten soil, mixes its aromatic scent with the whole- some smell of the poplar. On a level depression where are neither trees nor bushes, THE OWNERLESS ISLAND. 35 luxuriant umbelliferous plants rise amidst the grass over a swamp hemlock and "Sison Amonum," smelling of cinnamon. In an isolated tuft like a vegetable aristocrat glitter the fiery blossoms of the veratrum ; amongst the grass the forget-me-not spreads rankly, and the medicinal comfrey with red flowers full of honey. No wonder if in the hollows of the old trees there are so many wild bees' nests. And amongst the flowers rise curious green, brown, and red capsules, the ripe seed-vessels of bulbous plants which bloom in spring. On this flowery region follows more forest; but here the willows and poplar are mixed with wild apple-trees, and white- thorn forms the underwood. The island is higher here. Timar stopped and listened. No sound. There can be no wild beasts on this island. The floods have exterminated them, and the place is only inhabited by birds. Even amongst birds the lark and the wood-pigeon do not come here : it is no dwelling for them. They seek places where men live and sow and cultivate grain. But two creatures live here which betray the presence of man the wasp and the blackbird ; both of which come after the ripe fruit which they passionately love. Where the great wasps' nests hang from the trees, and where the blackbird's alluring whistle sounds in the hedges, there must be fruit. Timar followed the blackbird. After he had pushed through the prickly white-thorn and the privet-bushes which tore his clothes, he stood transfixed with admiration. What he saw before him was a Paradise. A cultivated garden of five or six acres, with fruit-trees, not planted in rows, but in picturesquely scattered groups, whose boughs were weighed down by their sweet burden. Apple and pear trees covered with glittering red and yellow fruit, plums of all colours looking as if the shining crop were turned to roses and lilies ; the fallen surplus lying unnoticed on the ground. Beneath, a regular plantation formed of raspberry, currant, and gooseberry bushes, with their red, yellow, and green berries ; and the spaces between the large trees filled by the hanging branches of the Sidonian apple or quince. There was no path through this labyrinth of fruit-trees the ground underneath was covered with grass. But where you can see through,- a flower-garden beckons you on. It is also a collection of wonderful field blossoms not to be found in an ordinary garden : the roots of blue cam- panula, swallow-wort, with its fleecy seed-vessels from which a sort of silk is collected, the spotted turban-lily, alkerines, 36 THE ST BARBARA. with its scarlet berries, the splendid butterfly orchis all of these raised to the rank of gar den- flowers, bear witness to the presence of man. And this is further betrayed by the dwelling from which the smoke comes. It also is a fantastic little refuge. Behind it stands a great rock, in which is an excavation, where the hearth must be, and another hole for the cellar. At the top is a chimney, from which a blue cloud arises. A building of stone and clay tiles is stuck on to the cliff ; it has two rooms, each with a window. One window is smaller, and one room lower than the other; both are roofed with rushes; each has a wooden porch, forming a veranda, with fanciful ornaments made of little bits of wood. But neither stone, clay, nor wood-work can be distinguished, so thickly is it covered on the south side with vines, out of whose frost-bitten leaves thousands of red and gold bunches peep out. On the northern side it is overgrown with hops, whose ripe clusters hide even the pinnacle of the great rock with their greenish gold ; and on its highest point tufts of house-leek are planted, so that no spot may remain which is not green. Here women live. CHAPTER VI. ALMIRA AND NARCISSA. TIMAR turned his steps towards the creeper-covered cottage. Through the flower-garden a path led to the house, but so covered with grass that his steps were not heard, and he could thus get as far as the little veranda quite noiselessly. Neither far nor near was a human being visible. Before the veranda lay a large black dog one of the noble race of Newfoundland, generally so sensible and dignified as to forbid undue familiarity on the part of strangers. The afore- said quadruped was one of the finest of the race a colossal beast ; and occupied the whole width of the doorway. The sable guardian appeared to be asleep, and took no notice of the approaching stranger, nor of another creature which left no foolhardy impertinence untried in order to tax the patience of the huge animal. This was a white cat, which was shameless ALMIRA AND NAfcCISSA. 37 enough to turn somersaults back and forward over the dog's recumbent form, to strike it on the nose with her paw, and at last to lay herself before it on her back, and take one of its webbed paws between her four soft feet and play with it like a kitten. When the great black porter found its foot tickled, it drew it back and gave the cat the other one to play with. Timar did not think to himself " Suppose this black colos- sus seizes me by the collar, it will go hard with me ; " but he thought, " Oh ! how delighted Timea will be when she sees this white cat." You could not pass the dog and get in it barred the whole entrance. Timar coughed, to announce that some one was there. Then the great dog raised its head and looked at the new-comer with its wise nut-brown eyes, which, like the human eye, can weep and laugh, scold and natter. Then it laid its head down again, as much as to say, " Only one man ; it's not worth while to get up." But Timar decided that where a chimney smokes, there's a fire in the kitchen ; so he began from outside to wish this invisible some one " Good morning," alternately in three lan- guages Hungarian, Servian, and Roumanian. Suddenly a female voice answered in Hungarian from within, " Good day. Come in then. Who is it ? " " I should like to come in, but the dog's in the way." " Step over it." " Won't it bite ? " " She never hurts good people." Timar took courage and stepped across the powerful animal, which did not move, but raised its tail as if to wag him a welcome. Going into the veranda, Timar saw two doors before him : the first one led to the stone building, the other to the grotto hollowed in the rock. The latter was the kitchen. There he observed a woman busy at the hearth. Timar saw at a glance that she was not preparing a magic potion of witches' cookery, but simply roasting Indian-corn. The woman thus occupied was a thin but strong and sinewy figure, with a dark skin ; in her compressed lips lay something severe, though her eye was soft and inspired confidence. Her sunburnt face betokened her age as riot much over thirty. She was not dressed like the peasants of the district; her clothes were not bright in colour, but yet not suited to towns. " Now, come nearer and sit down," said the woman, in a singularly hard voice, which, however, was perfectly quiet ; 38 THE ST BARBARA. and then she shook the floury snow-white Indian-corn into a plaited rush-basket, and offered it to him. Afterwards she fetched a jug which stood on the floor, and gave him elder- wine, this also just freshly made. Timar sat down on the stool offered him, which was skil- fully woven of various osiers, and of a curious shape. Then the Newfoundland rising, approached the guest and lay down in front of him. The woman threw the dog a handful of the white confec- tionery, which it at once began to crack in the proper way. The white cat attempted to do the same, but the first cracked kernel of the maize stuck in her teeth, and she did not try it again. She shook the paw with which she had touched it, and sprang up to the hearth, where she blinked with much interest at an unglazed pot which was simmering by the fire, and probably held something more to her taste. "A magnificent beast," said Timar, looking at the dog. " I wonder it is so gentle; it has not even growled at me." " She never hurts good people, sir. If a stranger comes who is honest, she knows it directly, and is as quiet as a lamb doesn't even bark ; but if a thief tries to get in, she rages at him as soon as he sets foot on the island, and woe to him if she gets her teeth in. She is a formidable creature ! Last winter a large wolf came over the ice after our goats look, there is his skin on the floor of the room. In a moment the dog had throttled him. An honest man can sit on her back, she won't touch him." Tirnar was quite satisfied to have such excellent evidence of his honesty. Who knows, perhaps, if some of those ducats had lost their road in his pocket, he might have been diffe- rently received by the great dog ? "Now. sir, where do you come from, and what do you want of me?" " First, I must beg you to excuse my having pushed through the thorns and bushes into your garden. The storm has driven my vessel over to this bank, so I was obliged to run for shelter under the Ostrova Island." " Indeed, yes ; I can hear by the rustle of the branches that a strong wind is blowing." This place was so completely sheltered by the virgin forest, that one could feel no wind, and only knew by the sound when it blew. " We must wait for a change of wind before the storm blows over. But our provisions have run out, so I was forced to seek ALMIRA AND NARClSSA. 39 the nearest house from which I saw smoke rising, to ask the housewife whether for money and fair words we could get food for the crew." " Yes, you can have what you want, and I don't mind being paid for it, for that's what I live on. We can serve you with kids, maize-flour, cheese, and fruit; choose what you want. This is the trade which keeps us ; the market-women round about fetch away our wares in boats : we are gardeners." Till now Timar had seen no human being except this woman ; but as she spoke in the plural, there must be others besides herself. " I thank you beforehand, and will take some of eve^thing. I will send the steersman from the ship to fetch the things ; but tell me, my good lady, what's to pay ? I want food for my seven men for three days." " You need not fetch out your purse ; I don't receive pay- ment in money. What should I do with it, here on this lonely island ? At best thieves would be sure to get in and kill me to get hold of it ; but now every one knows there is no money on the island, and therefore we can sleep in peace. I only barter. I give fruit, wax, honey, and simples, and people bring me in exchange grain, salt, clothes, and hardware." " As they do on the Australian islands ? " " Just the same." "All right, good lady; we have grain on board, and salt too. I will reckon up the value of your wares, and bring an equal value in exchange. Rely upon it, you shan't be the loser." " I don't doubt it, sir." " But I have another favour to ask. On board my vessel there is a grand gentleman and his young daughter. The young lady is not accustomed to the motion, and feels unwell. Could you not give my passengers shelter till the storm is over?" " Well, that I can do too, sir. Look, here are two small bedrooms. We will retire into one, and in the other any honest man who wants shelter can have it rest, if not com- fort. If you also would like to stay, you will have to be con- tented with the little garret, as both the rooms will have women in them. There is new hay there, and sailors are not particular." Timar puzzled his head as to the position of this woman, who chose her words so well and expressed herself so sensibly. He could not reconcile it with this hut, which was more like 40 THE ST BAEBARA. a cave, and with the residence on this lonely island in the midst of a wilderness. " Many thanks, good lady ; I'll hurry back and bring up my passengers." " All right ; only don't go back to your boat the same way you came. You can't bring a lady through those marshes and briars. There's a tolerable path all along the bank, rather overgrown with grass it is true, for it is very little trodden, and turf grows quickly here ; but you shall be conducted to where your boat lies ; then when you come back in a larger one, you can land rather nearer. I will give you a guide now. Almira!" Timar looked round, to see from what corner of the house or from what bush this Almira would appear who was to show him the way. But the great black Newfoundland rose and began to wag her tail, whose strokes made a noise on the door- post as if an old drum was touched. "Off, Almira; take the gentleman to the shore," said the woman; on which the creature growled something to Timar in dog's language, and taking the edge of his cloak in her teeth, pulled at it, as if to say, Come along. "So this is Almira, who is to conduct me. I am much indebted to you, Miss Almira," Timar said smiling, and took his gun and hat; then saluted his hostess and followed the dog. Almira led the guest steadily in all friendship by the hem of his cloak. The way lay through the orchard, where one had to tread carefully so as not to crush the plums which covered the ground. The white cat, too, had not remained behind; she wanted to know where Almira was conducting the stranger, and leaped here and there in the soft grass. When they arrived at the edge of the orchard, somewhere above was heard the call of a musical voice, " Narcissa ! " It was a girl's voice, in which some reproach, but much love and maidenly shyness, were blended a sympathetic voice. Timar looked round : he wanted to know, first, where it came from, and then to whom it belonged. He soon discovered who was called, for at the sound the white cat sprang quickly to one side, and, curling her tail, climbed zigzag up a gnarled pear-tree, through whose thick foliage Timar saw something like a white dress glimmering. He had no time for further research, for Almira gave a few deep sounds which, in quadruped's language, probably meant, " What business have you to spy about ? " and so he was obliged to follow his leader, if he did not desire to leave a piece of his cloak in her teeth. ALMIEA AND NARCISSA. 41 Almira led Timar by a soft turf path along the bank to the place where his boat was made fast. At this moment a couple of snipe rose with their shrill cry close to the island. Timar's first thought was of the savoury dish they would make for TimeVs supper. In an instant he had shouldered his gun, and with a well-aimed right and left brought down both snipe. But the next moment he was himself on the ground. As soon as he had fired, Almira seized him by the collar, and like lightning pulled him down. He tried to rise, but soon felt that he had to do with an overpowering adversary who was not to be trifled with. Not that Almira had hurt him, but she held him by the collar, and would not allow of his get- ting up. Timar tried every conceivable means to soften her, called her Miss Almira, his dear friend, and explained to her sport and its usages ; where the devil had she heard of a dog that retrieves a sportsman ? she should rather go after the snipe in the rushes : but he talked to deaf ears. He was at last relieved from this dangerous situation by the woman of the island, who had run up at the report of the gun, and called Almira by name from afar, on which the dog let go her hold. "Oh, my God ! " she lamented, hastening over the stones to the point of danger. " I forgot to tell you not to shoot, because Almira was sure to attack you. She gets in a fury when a shot is fired. Well, I was stupid not to tell you." " Never mind, good woman," said Timar, laughing. " Almira would really make a capital gamekeeper. But look, I have shot a couple of snipe ; I thought they would be a help towards the supper that you will set before your guests." " I will fetch them ; get into your boat, and when you come back, just leave your gun at home, for, believe me, if the dog sees you with a gun on your arm, she will take it away from you. You can't joke with her." " So I find. A powerful, grand animal that ! Before I had time to defend myself, I was on the ground : I can only thank Heaven that she did not bite my head off." " Oh, she never bites any one ; but if you defend yourself, she seizes your arm in her teeth, as if it were in irons, and then holds you fast till we come and call her off. Auf Wiedersehen ! " In less than an hour the larger boat had landed its pas- sengers safely at the island. All the way from the vessel to the shore, Timar talked to Tirne"a of Almira and Narcissa, to 42 THE ST BARBARA. make the poor child forget her sickness and her fear of the water. As soon as she set foot on shore, her sea-sickness vanished. Timar went on in front to show the way ; Timea followed, leaning on Euthemio's arm ; and two sailors and the steers- man carried behind them on a stretcher the equivalent of the barter in sacks. Almira's bark was heard a long way off. These were the sounds of welcome by which the dog acknow- ledged the approach of good friends. Almira came half way, barked at the whole party, then had a little talk to the sailors, the steersman, and Timar; then trotting to Timea, tried to kiss her hand. But when the dog came to Euthemio, it was quiet, and began to sniff at him from the soles of his feet upwards, never leaving his heels. It snuffed continually, and shook its head violently, rattling its ears till they cracked. It had its own opinion on this subject. The mistress of the island settlement awaited the strangers at the door, and as soon as they appeared between the trees, called in a loud voice, " Noemi ! " At this summons some one appeared from inside the garden. Between two tall thick raspberry hedges, which, like green walls, almost closed in an arch at the top, came a young girl. Face and form those of a child just beginning to develop, dressed in a white chemise and petticoat, and carrying in her upturned overskirt fruit freshly plucked. The figure coming out of the green grove is idyllic. The delicate tints of her face seem to have been borrowed from the complexion of the white rose when she is grave, and take that of the red rose when she blushes, and that up to the brow. The expression of the clear-arched brow is personified sweet temper, in complete accord with the innocent look of the expressive blue eyes; on the tender lips lies a mixture of devoted regard and modest shyness. The rich and luxuriant golden-brown hair seems to be curled by nature's hand ; a lock thrust back gives a view of an exquisite little ear. Over the whole face gentle softness is spread. It is possible that a sculptor might not take each feature as a model, and perhaps if the face were hewn in marble one might not think it beau- tiful ; but the head and the whole figure just as they are, shine with a loveliness which charms at the first glance, and enthrals more every moment. From one shoulder the chemise has dropped, but, that it may not remain uncovered, there sits a white cat, nibbing her head against the girl's cheek. The delicate feet of the maiden ALM1RA AND NAKCISSA. 43 are naked why should she not go barefoot ? She walks on a carpet of richest velvet. The spring turf is interspersed with blue veronica and red geranium. Euthemio, his daughter, and Timar, stopped at the entrance of the raspberry arcade to await the approaching figure. The child knew of no more friendly reception to give the guests than to offer them the fruit she had in her lap. They were beautiful red-streaked Bergamot pears. She turned first to Timar. He chose the best, and gave it to Timea. Both girls shrugged their shoulders impatiently. Timea because she envied the other one the white cat on her shoulder, but Noe"mi because Timar had given the fruit to Time"a. " Oh, you rude thing ! " cried the mistress to her from the cottage : " could you not put the fruit in a basket, instead of offering it in your apron ? Is that the proper way ? " The little thing grew red as fire, and ran to her mother ; the latter whispered a few words into her ear, so that the others might not overhear, then kissed the child on the fore- head, and said aloud, " Now go and take from the sailors what they have brought, carry it into the storeroom, and fill the sacks with corn-flour, the pots with honey, and the baskets with ripe fruit : of the kids, you can choose two for them." " I can't choose any," whispered the girl ; " they must do it themselves." " Foolish child ! " said the woman with a kind reproof ; "if it were left to you, you would keep all the kids and never let one be killed. Very well, let them choose for themselves, then no one can complain. I will look after the cooking." Noemi called the sailors, and opened the food and fruit stores, which were each in a different cave and shut off by a door. The rock which formed the summit of the island was one of those wandering blocks, called " erratic " by geologists, an isolated boulder, a monolith, which must once have been detached from a distant mountain, some limestone formation from the Dolomites, out of a moraine. It was full of large and small caves, which the first person who took possession of it had adapted to his own purposes : the largest with the natural chimney for the kitchen, the highest as a dove-cot, the others for summer and winter store-houses. He had settled on the heaven-sent rock, and, like the wild birds, built his nest there. The child managed the barter with the crew well and honestly. Then she gave each his glass of elder-wine to wet the bargain, begged for their custom when they passed again, and went back to the kitchen. 44 THE ST BARBARA. Here she did not wait to be told to lay the table. She spread a fine rush mat on the small table in the veranda, and placed on it four plates, with knives and forks and pewter spoons. And the fifth person ? She will sit at the cat's table. Near the steps to the veranda stands a small wooden bench ; in the centre is placed an earthenware plate with a miniature knife and fork and spoon, and at each end a wooden platter, one for Alrnira, the other for Xarcissa. They require no convert. When the three guests and the mistress of the house have sat down and helped themselves from the dish, it goes to the cat's table, where Noemi serves her friends. She conducts the division with great fairness the soft pieces to Narcissa, the bones to Almira and helps herself last. They must not touch their food till she has cooled it for them, however much Almira may cock her ears, and the cat snuggle up to her mistress's shoulder. They must obey the girl. The island woman wished, according to the good or bad Hungarian custom, to show off before her guests, and especi- ally to prove to Timar that her larder was independent of his game. She had cooked the two snipe with oatmeal, but whispered to Timar that that was only food for ladies ; for the gentlemen she had some good fried pork. Timar attacked it bravely, but Euthemio touched none of it, saying he had no appetite, and Timea rose suddenly from the table. But that was natural : she had already cast many inquisitive glances towards the party at the other table ; there was nothing remarkable in her rising suddenly and going over to sit by Noemi. Young girls soon make friends. Timea did not know Hungarian, nor Koemi Greek; but between them wae Narcissa, to whom both languages were the same. The white cat seemed to understand perfectly when Timea said " Horaion galion " to it, and stroked its back with a soft white hand : then it crept from Noemi's lap to Timea' s, raised its head to her face and gently rubbed its white head against her white cheeks, opened its red mouth, showed its sharp teeth, and blinked at her with cunning eyes : then sprang on her shoulder, crawled round her neck, and clambered to Xoeini and back again. mi was pleased that the strange young lady liked her favourite so much, but bitterness mingled with her pleasure when she saw how much the stranger had fallen in love with the cat, kept and kissed it; and still more painful was it to realise how easily Xaicissa became untrue to her, how willingly ALMIRA AND NAKCISSA. 45 it accepted and replied to the caresses of its new friend, and took no notice when Noemi called it by name to come back to her. " Horaion galion " (pretty pussy) pleased it better. Noemi grew angry with Narcissa, and seized her by the tail to draw her back. Narcissa took offence, turned her claws on her mistress, and scratched her hand. Timea wore on her wrist a blue enamelled bracelet in the form of a serpent. When Narcissa scratched her mistress, Timea drew off the elastic bracelet, and wanted to put it on Noe"mi's arm, obviously with the intention of comforting her in her pain ; but Noemi misunderstood, and thought the stranger wanted to buy Narcissa with it. But she was not for sale. " I don't want the bracelet ! I won't sell Narcissa ! Keep the bracelet ! Narcissa is mine. Come here, Narcissa ! " and as Narcissa would not come, No&ni gave her a little box on the ear, on which the frightened animal made a jump over the bench, puffing and spitting, climbed up a nut-tree, and looked angrily down from thence. As Timea and Noemi at this moment looked into each other's eyes, each read there a dreamy presentiment. They felt like a person who shuts his eyes for a moment, and in that short time dreams whole years away; yet, when he awakes, has forgotten it all, and only remembers that the dream was very long. The two girls felt in that meeting of looks that they would some day mutually encroach on each other's rights, that they would have something in common a grief or a joy and that, perhaps, like a forgotten dream, they would only know that each owed this grief or joy to the other. Timea sprang up from beside Noemi and gave the bracelet to the housewife : then she sat down by Euthemio and leant her head on his shoulder. Timar interpreted the gift. " The young lady gives it to the little girl as a remembrance it is gold." As soon as he said that it was of gold, the woman threw it frightened from her hand, as if it were a real snake. She looked anxiously at Noe"mi, and was not even able to articu- late " Thank you." Then Almira suddenly drew attention to herself. The dog had sprung quickly from its bed, had uttered a low howl with its head up, and now began to bark with deafening noise. In the sound lay something of the lion's roar ; it was a vehement defiant tone, as if calling to the attack, and the dog did not 46 THE ST BARBARA. run forward, but remained by the porch, planted its paws on the ground, and then threw up the earth with its hind feet. The woman turned pale. A figure appeared between the trees on the footpath. " The dog only barks in that way at one man," she murmured. " There he comes. It is he." CHAPTER VII. THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT. THE new arrival is a man of youthful appearance ; he wears a blouse and trousers, round his neck a red cotton handkerchief, and on his head a Turkish fez. He has a handsome face. If he sat quietly to an artist, every one would say of his portrait that it was the ideal of a hero ; but when he is in motion, the first thought must be that is a spy. His features are regular, the thick hair curly, the lips finely chiselled, the eyes deeply black ; but the wrinkles round them and their restless fire, the upturned corners of the mouth, and the ever-twitching brows, betray the soul of a slave to his own appetites. Almira barked furiously at the new-comer, who came swing- ing along with defiant nonchalance, like one who knows that it is other people's duty to protect him. Xoemi told the dog to lie down, but it gave no heed; she caught the creature's ears in both hands and drew it back : the dog whined and growled at the discomfort, but did not cease barking. At last Noemi put her foot on its head and pressed it to the ground. Then Almira gave in, lay down growling, and let the girl's foot lie on her great black head, as if that were a burden she could not shake off. The stranger came whistling and humming up to them. From afar he called out " Ah ! you have still got that con- founded big brute ; you haven't had her poisoned ? I shall have to get rid of her in the end. The stupid beast ! " When the young man got near Noemi, he stretched out his hand with a familiar smile towards the girl's face, as if he would have pinched her cheek ; but she drew her face quickly away. THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT. 47 " Well, my dear little fiancfo, are you still so shy 1 How you have grown since I saw you." Noeini looked at the speaker with her head thrown back. She wrinkled her forehead, curled her lips, and threw a defiantly penetrating glance at him; even her complexion changed, the rose tint on her cheeks turned livid. Evidently she could look odious if she chose. The new-comer, however, quite unabashed, continued, " How pretty you have grown ! " Instead of answering she said to the dog, " Down, Almira ! " The stranger behaved a's though he were quite at home under the veranda, where his first act was to kiss the hand of the woman of the house. He greeted Timar with friendly condescension, made a polite bow to Euthemio and Timea, and then opened the flood-gates of his eloquence. " Good evening, dear mother- in law ! Your obedient servant, captain ! Sir and mademoiselle, you are welcome. My name is Theodor Krisstyan ; I am chevalier and captain, the future son-in-law of this worthy lady. Our fathers were bosom friends, and betrothed No6mi to me in their lifetime, so I come every year to see my sweetheart in her summer abode, in order to judge how my bride is growing. Uncommonly delighted to find you here : you, sir if I am not mistaken, your name is Timar I have had the pleasure of meeting before? The other gentleman, I fancy " "'Understands nothing but Greek," interrupted Timar, thrusting his hands well into his pockets, as if he wanted to make it impossible for the stranger to shake hands over the joy of meeting. He, who from his calling was always travel- ling, might very likely have met him before. Theodor Krisstyan did not feel inclined to occupy himself any more with Timar, but looked at life from the practical side. "It is just as if you had expected me; a beautiful supper, an unused place, pork, just my weak point. Thanks, dear mamma, thanks, gentlemen and young lady ; I will pay my respects to the supper so many thanks ! " Not that a single person of those addressed had asked him to sit down and partake ; but as though accepting their in- vitation, he seated himself in Timea's empty place and began to enjoy the pork ; offering it repeatedly to Euthemio, and seeming much astonished that any Christian should neglect such a delicious dish. Timar rose from the table and said to the hostess, "The gentleman-passenger and the young lady are tired. They 48 THE ST BARBARA. want rest more than food. Would you be so good as to show them their beds ? " " That shall be done at once," said the woman. " Noemi, go and help the young lady to undress." Noemi rose and followed her mother and the two guests into the back-room Timar also left the table, at which the new-comer remained alone, and gobbled down with wolfish hunger every eatable left : meanwhile he talked over his shoulder to Timar, and threw to Almira the bare bones with his fork. " You must have had a devilish bad journey, sir, with this wind. I can't think how you got through Denin Kafoin and the Tatalia Pass. Catch, Almira ! and don't be cross with me any more, stupid brute ! Do you remember, sir, how we once met in Galatz ? there, that's for you too, you black beast ! " When he looked round, he found that neither Timar nor Almira was there. Timar had gone to the attic to sleep, where he soon made himself a couch of fragrant hay, while Almira had crept into some cranny in the great mass of rock. He turned his chair round, but not till he had drained the last drop from the wine-jug and the glasses of the other guests. Then he cut a splinter from the chair he was sitting on, and picked his teeth with it, like a person who has thoroughly deserved his supper. Night had set in ; travellers weary of knocking about want no rocking. Timar had stretched himself on the soft sweet hay very comfortably, and thought that to-night he would sleep like a king. But he deceived himself. It is not easy to fall asleep after hard work, which has been mingled with varied emotions. Successive shapes besieged his bed like a chaotic panorama : a confusion of pursuing forms, threatening rocks, waterfalls, ruined castles, strange women, black dogs, white cats ; and amidst it all a howling tempest, blasts of the horn, cracking of whips, showers of gold, laughing, whispering, and screaming human voices. And all at once people began to speak in the room below. He recognised the voices, the hostess and the last-comer talking together. The garret was separated from the other room only by a thin floor, and every word was audible, as if it had been whispered in the listener's ear. They spoke in suppressed tones, only now and then the man raised his voice. "Well, Mother Therese, have you much money?" began the man. THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT. 49 " You know very well that I have none. Don't you know that I only barter and never take money 1 " " That's very stupid. I don't like it. And what's more, I don't believe it." " It is as I say. Whoever comes to buy my fruit brings me something for my own use. What should I do here with money 1 " 11 1 know what you could do, you could give it to me. You never think of me. When I marry Noemi you can't give her dried plums for a dowry ; but you don't care about your daughter's happiness. You ought to help me, that I may get a good situation. I have just received my nomination as first dragoman at the embassy ; but I have no money to get there, for my purse has been stolen, and now I shall lose my situation." The woman answered in a calm tone, "That any one has given you any place that you could lose I don't believe ; but I do believe you have a place you can't lose. That you have no money, I believe that ; but that it was stolen from you I don't believe." " Well, don't then. And I don't believe you have no money ; you must have some. Smugglers land here sometimes, and they always pay well." " Speak loud, of course ! Yes, it is true, smugglers often land on the island ; but they don't come near my hut, or if they do, they buy fruit and give me salt in exchange. Will you have some salt ? " " You are laughing at me. Well, and such visitors as you have to-night ? " " I don't know whether they are rich or not." "Ask them for money ! Demand it ! Don't make a solemn face ! You must get money somehow ; don't try to take me in with this ridiculous Australian barter. Get ducats if you want to keep the peace with me ; you know if I say a single word at the right place it's all up with you." " Softly, you wretched man ! " " Ay ! now you want me to whisper. Well, shut my mouth then, be kind to me, Therese, let me have a little money." " But I tell you there is none in the house ! Don't worry me ! I have not a farthing, and don't want any ; there is a curse on anything which is gold. There, all my chests and boxes are here ; look through them, and if you find anything, take it." It appeared that the man was not slow to take advantage D 50 THE ST BARBARA. of this permission, for soon be was heard to exclaim, " Ah ! What is this ? A gold bracelet." " Yes ; the strange lady gave it to Noeini. If you can make use of it, take it." "It's worth some ten ducats well, that's better than nothing. Don't be angry, Noemi ; when you are my wife I will buy you two bracelets, each thirty ducats in weight, and with a sapphire in the middle no. an emerald. Which do you prefer, a sapphire or an emerald ? " He laughed at his sally, and as no one answered his question, he continued, " But now, Mother Therese, prepare a bed for your future son-in- law, your dear Theodor, so that he may dream sweetly of his beloved No^mi ! " " I cannot give you a bed. In the next room and in the garret are our guests ; you can't sleep here in our room, that would not be proper Xoerni is no longer a child, Go out and lie down on the bench." "Oh, you hard-hearted, cruel Therese. You send me to the hard bench me, your beloved future son-in-law ! " " Noemi, give your pillow there, take it ! And here's my coverlet. Good night." " Yes, if there were not that accursed great dog out there the fierce brute will devour me." " Don't be afraid, I will chain her up. Poor beast ! she is never tied up except when you are on the island." Frau Therese had some trouble to entice Almira out of her hole ; the poor dog knew well enough what awaited her in these circumstances, and that she would now be chained up, but she was* used to obedience, and allowed her mistress to fasten the chain. But this made her all the more furious against him who was the cause of her confinement. As soon as Therese had gone back to her room, and Theodor remained alone outside, the dog began to bark madly, and danced about on the small space left free to her by the chain, now and then making a spring, to see whether she could succeed in breaking the collar or the chain, or rooting up the tree-trunk to which the chain was fastened. But Theodor teased her again. He thought it amusing to enrage an animal which could not reach him, and foamed with fury at its impotence. He went closer, leaving only a step between himself and the point the chain permitted the dog to reach ; then he began to creep towards her on all fours and make faces at her. He brayed at her like a donkey, put THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT. 51 his tongue out, spat in her face, and imitated the dog's bark. " Bow-wow ! You would like to eat me, wouldn't you ? Bow- wow ! There's my nose ; bite it off if you can. You're a lovely dog you horrid beast ! Bow-wow ! Break your chain and come wrestle with me; snap at my finger, there it is before your nose ; only don't you wish you may get it 1 " At the moment of her greatest fury, Almira suddenly stopped. She barked no more; she understood. It is the wise one that gives in, thought she. She stretched her head up as if to look down on that other four-legged beast in front of her, then turned and scratched as dogs do, backwards, with her hind feet, whirling up dust and sand, so that the other brute got his eyes and mouth full of it, which made him beat a retreat, breaking out in the human bark curses, to wit. But Almira retired with her chain into the hole near the elder-tree and came out no more ; she ceased to bark, but a hot panting could be heard for a long time. Timar heard it too. He could not sleep ; he had left the trap- door open to get some light. The moon shone, and when the dog was silenced, deep stillness lay over the scene ; a wonderful calm, rendered more fantastic by the isolated voices of the night and the solitude. The rattle of carriages, the clatter of mills, human voices none of these struck the ear. This is the kingdom of swamps, islets, and shallows. From time to time a deep note sounds through the night the boom of the bittern, that hermit of the marsh. Flights of night- birds strike long-drawn chords in the air, and the breathing wind stirs in the poplars, as it sighs through their quivering leaves. The seal cries in the reeds like the voice of a weeping child, and the cockchafer buzzes on the white wall of the hut. All around lies the dark brake, in which fairies seem to hold a torchlit dance ; under the decayed trees Will-o'-the-wisps wander, pursuing each other. But the flower-garden is flooded by the full radiance of the moon, and night-moths hover on silvery peacock wings round the tall mallows. How exquisite, how divine is this solitude ! the whole soul is absorbed in its contemplation. If only no human tones were mingled with these voices of the night ! But there below in the two little divisions of the hut lie other sleepless people, whom some evil spirit has robbed of their slumber, and who add their deep sighs to the other voices. From one room Timar heard the sigh, " Oh, thou dear Christ ! " whilst from the other " Oh, Allah ! " resounded. 52 THE ST BARBARA. They cannot sleep ; what is there down below which keeps people awake ? Whilst Tirnar tried to collect his thoughts, an idea flashed through his mind which induced him to leave his couch, throw on the coat he had had over him, and descend the ladder to the ground. At the same moment, some one in one of the rooms below had had the same thought. And when Timar, standing at the corner of the house, uttered the name of " Almira ! " under his breath, another voice from the door opening into the veranda called Almira's name too, as if one were the ghostly echo of the other. The speakers approached each other with surprise. The other person was There.se. "You have come down from your bed ? " she asked. "Yes; I could not sleep." " And what did you want with Almira ? " " I will tell you the truth. The thought struck me, whether that . . . man had poisoned the dog, because she became so suddenly silent.' 5 "Just my idea. Almira!" At the call the dog came out of the hole and wagged her tail. " Xo ; it's all right," said Therese. " His bed on the veranda is undisturbed. Come, Almira, I will set you free." The great creature laid her head on her mistress's lap, and allowed her to take off the leather collar, sprang round her, licked her cheeks, and then turned to Timar, raised one of the shaggy paws, and placed it as a proof of doggish respect in his open hand. Then the dog shook herself, stretched herself out, and, after a roll on both sides, lay quiet on the soft grass. She barked no more ; they could be thoroughly satisfied that that man no longer remained on the island. Therese came nearer to Timar. " Do you know this man?" " I once met him in Galatz. He came on board and behaved so that I could not make up my mind whether he was a spy or a smuggler. At last I got rid of him, and that concluded our acquaintance." " And how came you by the notion that he might have poisoned Almira 1 " "To tell you the truth, every word spoken down below is audible in the garret, and as I had lain down I was forced to hear all the conversation between you." " Did vou hear how he threatened me ? If I could not THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS. 53 satisfy him, it would only cost him a single word, and we should be ruined ? " Yes ; I heard that." "And what do you think about us ? You believe that some great, nameless crime has banished us to this island outside the world ? that we drive some dubious trade, of which one cannot speak ? or that we are the homeless heirs of some dis- honoured name, who must hide from the sight of the authori- ties 1 Say, what do you think ? " "Nothing, my dear lady; I don't trouble my head about it. You have given me hospitable shelter for a night, and I am grateful. The storm is over ; to-morrow I shall go on my way, and think no more of what I saw and heard on this island ? " " I do not want you to leave us so. Without your desire you have heard things which must be explained to you. I do not know why, but from the first moment when I saw you, you inspired me with confidence, and the thought troubles me that you should leave us with suspicion and contempt : that suspicion would prevent both you and me from sleeping under this roof. The night is quiet, and suitable to the story of the secrets of a hard life. You shall form your own judgment about us ; I will conceal nothing, and tell you the whole truth, and when you have heard the history of this lonely island and this clay hut, you won't say, ' To-morrow I go away and think no more of it,' but you will come back year by year, when your business brings you near us, and rest for a night under this peaceful roof. Sit down by me on the doorstep, and listen to the story of our house." CHAPTEE VIII. THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS. " TWELVE years ago we lived in Pancsova, where my husband held a municipal office. His name was Bellovary; he was young, handsome, and honest, and we loved each other dearly. I was then two-and-twenty and he was thirty. " I bore him a daughter, whom we called Noemi. We were not rich, but well off ; he had his post, a pretty house, and a splendid orchard and meadow. I was an orphan when we 54 THE ST BARBARA. married, and brought him some money ; we were able to live respectably. " My husband had a friend, Maxim Krisstyan, of whom he was very fond. The man who has just been here is his son, who was then thirteen, a dear, handsome, clever bo} 7 . When my little daughter was still a baby, the fathers already began to say they would make a pair, and I was glad when the boy took the little thing's hand and asked her, ' Will you be my wife 1 ' at which the child laughed merrily. " Krisstyan was a grain dealer without having ever learnt regular business, but was like the speculators in a small way, who catch hold of a rope behind the great wholesale dealers, and go blindly in their wake. If the speculation succeeds, well and good ; if not, they are ruined. As he always won, he thought there was nothing easier than mercantile trans- actions. In the spring he went round to see the crops, and made contracts with the large dealers for the grain to be delivered to them after the harvest. He had a regular customer in the wholesale merchant of Koniorn, Athanasius Brazovics, who made large advances to him every spring for grain which he was to deliver in autumn at the price settled in advance, on board ship. This was a lucrative affair for Krisstyan } but I have often thought since that it was not so much trade as a game of chance, when one sells what does not yet exist. Brazovics advanced large sums to Krisstyan. and as the latter had no real property, security was required of him. My husband went surety for him gladly was he not a landowner and Krisstyan's friend ? Krisstyan led an easy life ; whilst my good man sat for hours bent over his desk, the other was at the cafe, smoking his pipe and chatting with tradespeople of his own sort. But at last God j s scourge alighted on him. The year 1819 was a terrible year; in the spring the crops looked splendid over the whole country, and every one expected cheap prices. In the Banat a merchant was lucky if he could make a contract for delivery of grain at four gulden a measure. Then came a wet summer, for sixteen weeks it rained every day ; the corn rotted on its stem. In places reputed as a second Canaan, famine set in, and in autumn the price of grain rose to twenty gulden a measure : and even so there was none to be had, for the landowners kept it for seed." " I remember it well," Timar interrupted. " I was then just beginning my career as a ship's captain." "Well, in that year, it happened that Maxim could not THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS. 55 fulfil the contract he had concluded with Athanas Brazovics ; the difference he had to cover made an enormous sum. What did he do then ? He collected his outstanding debts, got loans from several credulous people, and disappeared in the night from Pancsova, taking his money with him, and leaving his son behind. " He could easily do it ; his whole property consisted of money, and he left nothing for which he cared. But what is the good of all the money in the world if it can make a man so bad as to care for nothing else 1 His debts and liabilities rested on the shoulders of those who had been his good friends, and stood security for him, and among these was my husband. " Then came Athanas Brazovics, and required from the sureties the fulfilment of the contract. It was true that he had advanced money to the absconding debtor, and we offered to pay it back : we could have sold half our property, and so met the obligation. But he would not hear of it, and insisted on the fulfilment of the contract ; it was not how much money he had lost, but what sums we were bound to pay him. Thus he made five-fold profits; his contract gave him the right to do so. We begged and entreated him to be content with smaller gain for it was only a question of more or less gain, not of loss but he was inflexible ; he required from the sure- ties the satisfaction of his claims in full. What is the use, say I, of faith and religion, and all Christian and Jewish Churches, if it is permitted to make such a demand ? " The affair came before the court ; the judge gave sentence that our house, our fields, our last farthing, should be dis- trained, sealed, and put up to auction. " But what is the use of the law, a human institution, if it can be possible that people should be brought to beggary by a debt of which they have never had a groschen, and fall into misery for the benefit of a third, who rises laughing from the ground ? "We tried everything to save ourselves from utter ruin. My husband went to Of en and Vienna to beg an audience. We knew the artful deceiver who had escaped with his money was living in Turkey, and begged for his extradition, that he might be brought here to satisfy those who had presented claims against him ; but we were told that there was no power to do so. Then what is the use of the Emperor, the ministers, the authorities, if they are not in a position to extend protec- tion to their subjects in distress? After this fearful blow, which brought us all to beggary, my poor husband one night 56 THE ST BARBARA. sent a bullet through his head. He would not look on the misery of his family, the tears of his wife, the pale starved face of his child, and fled from us into the grave. " But what is a husband good for, if, when he falls into misfortune, he knows no other outlet than to quit the world himself, and leave wife and child alone behind ? " But the horrors were not yet at an end. I was a beggar and homeless ; now they tried to make me an infidel. The wife of the suicide begged her pastors in vain to bury the unhappy man. The Dean was a strict and holy man, for whom the laws of the Church were the first thought. He denied my husband a decent burial, and I had to look on while the dear form of my adored one was carried by the knacker's cart to be hastily buried in a corner of a church- yard. What are the clergy for, if they cannot relieve us of such misery as that ? What is the whole world about 1 "Only one thing was left; they drove me to kill myself and my child, both at once. I wrapped a shawl round the child at my breast, and went with it to the river-bank. " I was alone. Three times I went up and down to see where the water was deepest. Then something plucked my dress and drew me back. I looked round. Who was it ? The dog here of all living beings the only friend left to me. "It was on the shore of the Ogradina Island that this happened. On this island we had a beautiful fruit-garden and a little summer-house ; but there too the official seal had been affixed to every door, and I could only go through the kitchen and out under the trees. Then I sat down by the Danube and began to reflect. What am I ? I, a human being, a woman, to be worse than an animal ! Did one ever see a dog drown its young and then kill itself ? No, I will not kill either myself or my child ; I will live and bring it up. But how ? Like the wolves or the gipsy woman, who have no home and no food. I will beg beg of the ground, the waters, the wilderness of the forest ; only not of men never ! " My poor husband had told me of a little island which had been formed some fifty years ago in the reed-beds near Ogradina ; he often went shooting there in autumn, and spoke much of a hollow rock in which he had sought shelter from bad weather. He said, 'The island has no master; the Danube built it up for no one ; the soil, the trees, the grass which grow on it belong to no one.' If it is ownerless, this island, why should not I take possession of it ? I ask it of God, I ask it of the Danube. Why should they refuse it ? I THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS. 57 will raise fruit there. How ? and what fruit ? I do not know, but necessity will teach me. " A boat remained to me which the officer had not noticed, and which, therefore, had not been seized. Noemi, Almira, and I got into it, and I rowed myself over to the ownerless island. I had never used an oar before, but necessity taught me. " When I touched this piece of ground, a wonderful feeling took possession of me : it was as if I had forgotten what had happened to me out in the world. I was surrounded by a pleasant silence and rest, which softened my heart. " After I had explored pasture, grove, and meadow, I knew what I should do here. In the field bees were humming, in the woods hazel-nuts were hanging, and on the surface of the river floated water-chestnuts. Crabs basked on the shore, edible snails crept up the trees, and in the marshy thickets manna was ripening. Kind Providence ! Thou hast spread a table before me ! The grove was full of wild fruit seed- lings ; the blackbirds had brought seeds from the neighbouring island, and already the wild apples grew rosy on the trees, and the raspberries bore a few belated berries. "Yes, I knew what I would do on the island. I, alone, would make of it a garden of Eden. The work to be done here could be managed by a single person, one woman, and then we should live here like the first man in Paradise. " I had found the rock with its natural grottoes, in the largest of which a layer of hay was spread, which must have served as a bed to my poor husband. I had a widow's right to it ; it was my legacy. I hushed my child to sleep there, made it a couch in the hay, and covered it with my large shawl. Then I told Almira to stay there and watch over Noe"mi till I came back, and rowed across to the large island again. On the veranda of my old summer-house there was an awning spread out, which I took down; it would serve as a tent or roof, and perhaps later on be used for winter clothing. I packed in it what food and vegetables I could see, and made a bundle as large as I could carry on my back. I had come to the house in a four-horse waggon richly laden ; with a bundle on my back I left it ; and yet I had been neither wicked nor a spendthrift. But what if even that bundle were stolen goods 1 It is true that the contents were my own ; but that I should carry them off, was it not theft? I hardly knew : notions of right and wrong, the legal or the illegal, were confused in my head. I fled with the bundle like a thief 58 THE ST BARBARA. out of my own home. On my way through the garden I took a cutting of each of my beautiful fruit-trees, and shoots from the figs and bushes, picked up some seeds from the ground and put them in my apron ; then I kissed the drooping branches of the weeping willow under which I had so often dozed and dreamed. Those happy dreams were gone for ever. I never went back there. The boat took me safely along the .Danube. " Whilst I rowed back two things fretted me. One was that there were noxious inhabitants on the island snakes ; probably some in that grotto : the thought filled me with horror and alarm for Noemi. The other anxiety was this. I can live for years on wild-honey, water-nuts, and manna fruit ; my child lives on her mother's breast ; but how shall I feed Almira 1 ? The faithful creature cannot live on what nourishes me ; and yet I must keep her, for without Almira as a protector I should die of fright in this solitude. When I had dragged my bundle to the grotto, I saw before me the still-quivering tail of a large snake, and not far off lay its head bitten off : Almira had eaten what lay between the head and tail The clever beast lay before the child wagging her tail and licking her lips, as if to say, I have made a good meal. Thenceforward she made war on the snakes ; they were her daily food. In the winter she scratched them out of their holes. My friend for so I grew to call the dog had found her own livelihood, and freed me from the objects of my dread. "Oh, sir, it was an indescribable feeling, our first night alone here no one near but my God, my child, and my dog. I cannot call it painful it was almost bliss. I spread the linen awning over us all three, and we were only awoke by the twitter of the birds. Now began my work savage's work, for before sunrise I must collect manna, called by Hungarians ' Dew-millet.' Poor women go out into the swamp, where this bush with its sweet seeds luxuriates ; they hold up their dress in both hands, shake the bush, and the ripe seeds fall into their lap. That is the bread from heaven for those whom no one feeds. Sir, I lived two whole years on that bread, and thanked daily on my knees Him who cares for the birds of the air. Wild fruit, honey, nuts, crabs, wild fowls' eggs, water-chestnuts preserved for winter use, land snails, dried mushrooms, formed my food. Praised be the Lord, who so richly provides the table of His poor ! And during the whole time I laboured for the object I had set THE HISTOKY OF THE ISLANDERS. 59 before me. I grafted the wild stocks with the cuttings I had brought, and planted in the cultivated soil fruit-trees, vines, and walnut-seeds. On the south side I sowed cotton-plant and silky swallow-wort, whose products I wove on a loom made of willow-wood, and made clothes for us. From rushes and reeds I made hives, in which I housed swarms of wild bees, and even in the first year I could begin a trade in wax and honey. Millers and smugglers often came here; they helped me with the hard labour, and never did me any harm. They paid me for provisions by their work ; they knew already that I never took money.. When the fruit-trees began to bear, then I lived in luxury, for in this alluvial soil all trees flourish, so that it is a pleasure to see them. I have pears which ripen their fruit twice in a year ; all the young ones make fresh shoots at St John's day, and the others bear every year. I have learnt their secrets, and know that in the hands of a good gardener there should be 110 failure nor over-crop. Animals understand the language of man, and I believe that trees too have ears and eyes for those who tend them kindly and listen to their private wishes ; and they are proud to give them pleasure in return. Oh, trees are very sensible ! a soul dwells in them. I consider that man a murderer who cuts down a noble tree. "These are my friends. I love them, and live in and by them. What they yield me year by year is fetched away by the people of the villages and mills round, who give me in exchange what I need for my housekeeping. I have no use for money, and I have a horror of it the accursed money, which drove me out of the world and my husband out of life : I don't want ever to see it again. " But I am not so foolish as to be unprepared for some years of failure, which make vain the work of man. There might be late frosts or hail-storms, which would destroy the blessings of the season ; but I am prepared for such bad times. In the cellar of my rock and in its airy crevices I store away whatever durable wares I possess wine in casks, honey in pots, wool and cotton in bales, in sufficient quantity to keep us from want for two years. You see I have some savings, though not in money ; I may call myself rich, and yet for twelve years not a single coin has passed through my hands. For I have lived on this island twelve years, sir, with the other two, for I count Almira as a person. Noemi declares we are four ; she counts Narcissa, too silly child ! " Many people know of our existence, but treachery is uu- GO THE ST BARBARA. known here. The artificial barrier which exists between the frontiers of the two countries has made the people about here very reserved. No one meddles in a stranger's affairs, and every one instinctively keeps secret what he knows. No in- telligence from here ever reaches Vienna, Ofen, or Stamboul. And why should they inform against me 1 ? I am in nobody's way, and do no harm ; I grow fruit on my bit 6f desert land, which has no master. God the Lord and the royal Danube gave it to me, and I thank them for it daily. I thank Thee, my God ! I thank Thee, my King ! " I hardly know if I have any religion ; it is twelve years since I saw a priest or a church. Noemi knows nothing about it. I have taught her to read and write : I tell her of God, and Jesus, and Moses, as I know them. Of the good, all- merciful, omnipresent God of Jesus, sublime in His suffer- ings, and divine in His humanity and of Moses, that leader of a people to liberty, who preferred to wander hungry and thirsty in the wilderness rather than exchange freedom for the flesh-pots of slavery Moses who preached goodness and brotherly love of these as I picture them to myself. But of the relentless God of vengeance, the God of the chosen people a God calling for sacrifices, and dwelling in temples, of that privileged Christ asking for blind faith, laying heavy burdens on our shoulders, followed by a crowd of worshippers, and of the avaricious, revengeful, selfish Moses, of whom books and preachers tell ; of these she knows nothing. " Now you know who we are, and what we are doing here, you shall learn with what we are threatened by this man. "He is the son of the man for whom my husband stood surety, who drove him to suicide, on whose account we have fled from human society into the desert. He was a boy of thirteen when we lost our all, and the blow fell on him also, for his father had forsaken him. " Indeed, I do not wonder that the son has turned out such a wretch. Abandoned by his own father, thrust out like a beggar into the world, cast on the compassion of strangers, deceived and robbed by the one on whom his childish trust was placed, branded in his earliest youth as the son of a rogue, is it surprising if he was forced to become what he is ? "And yet I hardly know what to think of him; but what I do know is enough. The people who come to the island can tell a great deal about him. Not long after his father had escaped, he also started from Turkey, saying he was going to look for his father. Some maintained that he had found him, THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS. 61 others that he had never been able to trace him. According to one report he robbed his own father and squandered the money he stole, but no one knows for certain. From him nothing can be learnt, for he tells nothing but lies. As to where he has been, and what he has done, he relates romances, in whose invention he is so well versed, and which he pre- sents so skilfully, that he staggers even those who have actual knowledge of the facts, and makes them doubt the testimony of their own eyes. You see him here to-day and there to- morrow. In Turkey, Wallachia, Poland, and Hungary he has been met. In all these countries he is by way of know- ing every person of distinction. Whomsoever he meets he takes in, and whoever has once been deceived by him may bo sure it will happen again. He speaks ten languages, and whatever countryman he pretends to be, he is accepted as such. He appears now as a merchant, then a soldier, again as a seafaring man; to-day a Turk, to-morrow a Greek. He once came out as a Polish count, then as the betrothed of a Russian princess, and again as a quack doctor, who cured all maladies with his pills. What his real profession may be no one knows. But one thing is certain, he is a paid spy. Whether in the service of the Turks, Austrians, or Russians, who can tell ? Perhaps he is in the pay of all three and more besides he serves each, and betrays all. Every year he comes several times to this island. He comes in a boat from the Turkish shore, and goes in the same boat from here to the Hungarian bank. Of what he does there I have no idea; but I am inclined to believe that he inflicts the torture of his presence on me for his own amusement. I know, too, that he is an epicure and a sensualist : he finds good food here, and a blooming young girl whom he loves to tease by calling her his bride. Noe"mi hates him ; she has no idea how well founded is her abhorrence. " Yet I do not think that Theodor Krisstyan visits this island only for these reasons : it must have other secrets un- known to me. He is a paid spy, and has a bad heart besides ; he is rotten to the core, and ripe for any villainy. He knows that I and my daughter have only usurped the island, and that by law I have no claim to it, and by the possession of this secret he lays us under contribution, vexes and torments us both. " He threatens that if we do not give him what he wants, he will inform against us both in Austria and Turkey, and as soon as these Governments know that a new piece of land has 62 THE ST BARBARA. been formed in the midst of the Danube, which is not included in any treaty, a dispute about its jurisdiction will commence between the countries, and until its conclusion all the inhabi- tants will be warned off, as happened in the case of Allion castle and the Czerna river. " It would only cost this man a word to annihilate all that I have brought to perfection by my twelve years' labour ; to turn this Eden, where we are so happy, back into a wilder- ness, and thrust us out anew, homeless, into the world. Yes, and more still. We have not only to fear discovery by the imperial officials, but discovery by the priest. If the arch- bishops, the patriarchs, archimandrite, and deans, learnt that a girl is growing up here who has never seen a church since she was baptized, they would take her away by force and put her in a convent. Now, sir, do you understand those sighs which kept you awake ? " Timar gazed at the full disc of the moon, which was be- ginning to sink behind the poplars. " Why," thought he to himself, " am I not a man of influence ? " " So this wretch," continued Therese, " can throw us into poverty any day. He need only give information in Vienna or Stamboul that here on the Danube a new territory exists, and we should be ruined. No one here would betray us he alone is capable of it. But I am prepared for the worst. The whole foundation of this island is solely and entirely formed by the rock : it alone stems the force of the Danube current. In the year when Milos made war against the Serbs, some Servian smugglers hid three barrels of blasting-powder in the bushes near here, and no one has ever fetched them away. Perhaps those who hid them were taken prisoners by the Turks, or killed. I found them, and have concealed them in the deepest cavity of this great rock. Sir, if they try to drive me from this island, now ownerless, I shall thrust a burning match into the powder, and the rock and all upon it will be blown into the air. In the next spring, after the ice has melted, no one would find a trace of the island. And now you know why you could not sleep well here." Timar leant his head on his hand and looked away. " There is one more thing I ought to say," said Fran Therese, bending close to Timar, that he might hear her low whisper, " I fancy this man had another reason for coming here and vanishing again, besides his having gambled away his money in some low pot-house, and wanting to get more out of me. His visit was either on your account, or that of the other THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS. 63 gentleman. Be on your guard, if either of you dreads the discovery of a secret." The moon disappeared behind the poplars, and it began to dawn in the east. Blackbirds commenced their song ; it was morning. From the Morova Island long-drawn trumpet-calls sounded, to awake the seafaring folk. Steps were audible in the sand ; a sailor came from the landing-place with the news that the vessel was ready for departure, the wind had gone down, and they could proceed. The guests came out of the little dwelling : Euthemio Trikaliss and his daughter, the beautiful Timea, with her dazzling pale face. Noemi also was up and boiling fresh goat's milk for break- fast, with roasted maize instead of coffee, and honey for sugar. Time"a took none, but let Narcissa drink the milk instead, who did not despise the stranger's offer, to Noemi's great vexation. Trikaliss asked Timar where the stranger had gone who came last evening ? Timar told him he had left in the night. At this intelligence his face fell. Then they all took leave of their hostess. Time"a was out of sorts, and still complained of feeling unwell. Timar remained behind, and gave Therese a bright Turkish silk scarf as a pre- sent for Noemi ; she thanked him, and said the child should wear it. Then they took the path leading to the boat, and Therese and Almira accompanied them to the shore. But No6mi went up to the top of the rock : there, sitting on soft moss and stonecrop, she watched the boat away. Narcissa crept after her, cowered in her lap, and crept with bending neck into her bosom. "Be off, faithless one ! that is how you love me. You leave me in the lurch, and make up to the other girl, just because she is pretty and I am not. Go ! I don't love you any longer ! " and then she caught the coaxing cat with both hands to her breast, pressed her smooth chin on the white head of the little flatterer, and gazed after the boat. In her eye glittered a tear. 64 THE ST BARBARA. GHAPTEE IX. ALI TSCHORBADSCHI. THE following day the St Barbara continued her voyage with a fair wind up the Hungarian Danube. Until evening nothing remarkable occurred, and all went to bed early ; they agreed that the previous night no one had been able to sleep. But this night also was to be a wakeful one for Timar. All was quiet on board the ship, which lay at anchor only the mono- tonous splash of the wavelets against the vessel broke the stillness; but amidst the silence it seemed to him as if his neighbour was busy with important and mysterious affairs. From the neighbouring cabin, which was only divided from his by a wooden partition, came all sorts of sounds ; the clank of money, a noise as of drawing a cork and stirring with a spoon, as of one clasping his hands and performing his ablu- tions there in the darkness, and then again those sighs, as in the previous night, " Oh, Allah ! " At last there was a gentle knocking at the partition. Trikaliss called "Come to me here, sir." Timar dressed quickly and hastened into the cabin. There were two beds, and between them a table. The curtains were closed in front of one, and on the other lay Euthemio. On the table stood a casket and two small glasses. " What are your orders, sir ? " asked Tiinar. " I have no orders, I entreat." " You want something 1 " " I shall not want anything long. I am dying ; I want to die, I have taken poison. Don't give the alarm, sit down and listen to what I have to tell you. Timea will not wake. I have given her opium to send her into a deep sleep, for she must not wake up now. Don't interrupt ; what you would say is useless, but I have much to tell you, and only one short hour left, for the poison acts quickly. Make no vain attempts to save me. I hold the antidote in my hand if I repented of my deed it rests with me to undo it. But I will not and I am right so sit down and listen. " My true name is not Euthemio Trikaliss but AH Tschor- badschi I was once governor of Candia, and then treasurer in Stamboul. You know what is passing in Turkey now. The Ulemas and governors are rising against the Sultan, because ALI TSCHORBADSCHI. 65 he is making innovations. At such times men's lives are of little value. One party murders by thousands those who are not its allies, and the other party burns by thousands the houses of those in power. No one is high enough to be safe from his rulers or his slaves. The Kaimakan of Stamboul had at least six hundred respectable Turks strangled there, and then was stabbed by his own slave in the Mosque of St Sophia. Every change cost human blood. When the Sultan went to Edren, twenty-six important men were arrested, and twenty of them beheaded, while the other six were stretched on the rack. After they had made false accusations against the great men of the country in order to save themselves, they were strangled ; then those were arrested against whom they had borne witness, and these suspected nobles disappeared without being heard of again. The Sultan's secretary, Waffat Effendi, was sent to Syria, and murdered by the Druses. The Pasha Pertao was invited to dinner by the governor of Edren, Emin Pasha : when the meal was over, black coffee was brought, and he was told that the Sultan commanded him to take poison in it. Pertao only asked that he might be allowed to mix the poison he had with him in the coffee, as it was more certain ; then he blessed the Sultan, performed his ablutions, prayed and died. Even in these days every Turkish noble carries poison in his signet-ring, to have it at hand when his turn comes. " I knew in good time when my turn was coming. Not that I was a conspirator, but for two reasons I was ripe for the sickle ; these reasons were my money and my daughter. " The treasury wanted my treasures and the seraglio my daughter. Death is easy, and I am ready for it ; but I will not let my daughter go into the harem, nor myself be made a beggar. I determined to upset the calculations of my enemies and fly with my daughter and my property ; but I could not go by sea, for the new galleys would have overtaken me. I had kept a passport for Hungary in readiness for a long time ; I disguised myself as a Greek merchant, shaved off my long beard, and reached Galatz by by-roads. From there I could go no farther by land ; I therefore hired a vessel and loaded it with grain which I bought : in this way I could best save my wealth. When you told me the name of the ship's owner I was very glad, for Athanas Brazovics is a connection of mine ; Timea's mother was a Greek of his family. I have often shown kindness to this man, and he can return it now. Allah is great and wise no man can escape his fate. You guessed I was a fugitive, even if you were not clear whether you had a criminal E 66 THE ST BARBARA. or a political refugee on board still you thought it your duty as commander of the vessel to help the passenger intrusted to you in his speedy escape. By a miracle we traversed safely the rocks and whirlpools of the Iron Gate ; by foolhardy audacity we eluded the pursuit of the Turkish brigantine ; by lucky chance we escaped quarantine and the search at the custom- house, and after we had left every bugbear behind, I stumbled over a straw under my feet into my grave. " That man who followed us last evening to the unknown island was a spy of the Turkish Government. I know him, and he certainly recognised me ; no one could have traced me except himself. He has hurried on in front, and at Pancsova they are ready to receive me. Don't speak, I know what you mean ; you think it is Hungarian territory, and that Govern- ments grant no extradition of political refugees. " But they would not pursue me as a political criminal, but as a thief, unjustly for what I took was my own, and if the State has claims on me, there are my twenty-seven houses in Galatz, by which they can be satisfied , but in spite of that they will cry after me ' Catch thief ! ' " I pass for one who has robbed the treasury, and Austria gives up escaped thieves to Turkey if the Turkish spies succeed in tracing them. This man has recognised me and sealed my fate." Heavy drops of perspiration stood on the speaker's brow. His face had turned as yellow as wax. " Give me a drink of water that I may go on, for I have still much to tell you. I cannot save myself, but by dying I can save my daughter and her property. Allah wills it, and who can flee from His presence? So swear to me by your faith and your honour that you will carry out my instruc- tions. First, when I am dead, do not bury me on shore a Mussulman does not require Christian burial, so bury me like a sailor ; sew me up in a piece of sail-cloth, and fasten at my head and feet a heavy stone, then sink me where the Danube is deepest. Do this, my son; and when it is done, steer steadily for Kornorn, and take care of Timea ! " Here in this casket is money about a thousand ducats ; the rest of my property is in the sacks packed as grain. I leave on my table a note which you must keep. I declare therein that I have contracted dysentery by immoderate en- joyment of melons, and am dying of it; further, that my whole possessions were only these thousand ducats. This will serve you as a security that no one may accuse you of ALI TSCHORBADSCHI. 67 having caused my death or embezzled my money. I give you nothing; what you do is of your own kind heart, and God will reward you : He is the best creditor you can have. And then take Timea to Athanas Brazovics and beg him to adopt my daughter. He has a daughter himself who may be a sister to her. Give him the money, he must spend it on the education of the child ; and give over to him also the cargo, and beg him to be present himself when the sacks are emptied. There is good grain in them, and it might be changed. You understand ! " The dying man looked in Timar's face, and struggled for breath. "For Again speech failed him. "Did I say anything ? I had more to say but my thoughts grow con- fused. How red the night is ! How red the moon is in the sky ! Yes ; the Red Crescent A deep groan from Timea's bed attracted his attention and gave another turn to his thoughts. He raised himself anxiously in his bed, and sought with a trembling hand for something under his pillow, his eyes starting from their sockets. " Ah, I had almost for- gotten Timea ! I gave her a sleeping-draught if you do not wake her up in time she will sleep for ever. Here in this bottle is an antidote. As soon as I am dead, take it and rub her brow, temples, and chest, until she awakes. Ah ! how nearly I had taken her with me ! but no, she must live. Must she not ? You vow to me by all you hold sacred, that you will wake her and bring her back to life that you will not let her slumber on into eternity ? " The dying man pressed Timar's hand convulsively to his breast : on his distorted features was already imprinted the last death-struggle. "What was I talking of? What had I to tell you? What was my last word? Yes; right the Red Crescent ! " Through the open window the half-circle of the waning moon shone blood-red, rising from the nocturnal mists. Was the dying man in his delirium thinking of this ? Or did it remind him of something ? " Yes the Red Crescent," he stammered once more ; then the death-throes closed his lips one short struggle, and he was a corpse. 68 THE ST BARBARA. CHAPTEE X. THE LIVING STATUE. TIMAR remained alone with the dead body, with a person sunk in a deathlike stupor, and with a buried secret. The silent night covered them, and the shades whispered to him, " See ! if you do not do what has been committed to you if you throw the corpse into the Danube, and do not wake the slumberer but let her sleep on quietly into the other world what would happen then ? The spy will have already given evidence in Pancsova against the fugitive Tschorbadschi ; but if you anticipate him and land at Belgrade instead, and lay information there, then, according to Turkish law, a third of the refugee's property would fall to you; otherwise it would belong to no one. The father is dead, the girl, if you do not rouse her, will never wake again : thus you would become at one stroke a rich man. Only rich people are worth anything in this world poor devils are only n't for clerks." Timar answered the spirits of the night " Well, then, I will always remain a clerk ; >J and, in order to silence these murmuring shadows, he closed the shutters. A secret anxiety beset him when he saw the red moon outside ; it seemed as if all these bad suggestions came from it, as well as an explanation of the last words of the dying man about the Red Crescent. He drew back the curtain from Tiniea's berth. The girl lay like a living statue ; her bosom rose and fell with her slow breathing the lips were half open, the eyes shut ; her face wore an expression of unearthly solemnity. One hand was raised to her loosened hair, the other held the folds of her white dress together on her breast. Timar approached her as if she were an enchanted fairy, whose touch might cause deadly heart- sickness to a poor mortal. He began to rub the temples of the sleeper with the fluid from the bottle. In doing so, he looked continually in her face, and thought to himself, "What, should I let you die, you angelic creature ? If the whole ship were filled with real pearls, which would be mine after your death, I could not let you sleep away your life. There is no diamond in the world, however precious, that I should prefer to your eyes when you open them." THE LIVING STATUE. 69 The lovely face remained unchanged, in spite of the friction on brow and temples; the delicate meeting eyebrows did not contract when touched by a strange man's hand. The directions were that also over the heart the antidote must be applied. Timar was obliged to take the girl's hand, in order to draw it away from her breast : the hand made no smallest resistance ; it was stiff and cold, as cold as the whole form beautiful and icy as marble. The shadows whispered " Behold this exquisite form ! a lovelier has never been touched by mortal lips ; no one would know if you kissed her." But Timar answered himself in the darkness, "No you have never stolen anything of another's in your life. This kiss would be a theft." And then he spread the Persian quilt, which the girl had thrown off in her sleep, over her whole person up to her neck, and rubbed above the heart of the sleeper with wetted fingers, whilst, in order to resist temptation, he kept his eyes fixed on the maiden's face. It was to him like an altar-picture so cold, yet so serene. At last the lids unclosed, and he met the gaze of her dark but dull eyes. She breathed more easily, and Timar felt her heart beat stronger under his hand ; he drew it away. Then he held the bottle with the strong essence for her to smell. Timea awoke, for she turned her head away from it, and drew her brows together. Timar called her gently by name. The girl started up, and with the cry " Father ! " sat up on her bed, gazing out with staring eyes. The Persian quilt fell down from her lap, the night-dress slipped from her shoulders. She looked more like a Greek marble than a sentient being. "Timea ! " and as he spoke he drew the fine linen over her bare shoulders. She did not answer. " Timea ! " cried Timar ; "your father is dead." But neither face nor form moved, nor did she notice that her night-dress had left her bosom uncovered. She seemed totally unconscious. Timar rushed into the other cabin, returned with a coffee- pot, and began in feverish haste, and not without burning his fingers, to heat some coffee. "When it was ready, he went to Timea, took her head on his arm and pressed it to him, opened her mouth with his fingers, and poured some coffee in. Hitherto he had only had to contend with passive resistance ; but as soon as Timea had swallowed the hot and bitter decoc- tion of Mocha, she pushed Timar's hand with such strength 70 THE ST BARBARA. that the cup fell ; then she drew the quilt over her, and her teeth began to chatter. " Thank God ! she lives ; for she is in a high fever," sighed Timar. " And now for a sailor's funeral." CHAPTEE XL A BURIAL AT SEA. Ox the ocean this is managed very easily : the body is sewn up in a piece of sail-cloth, and a cannon-ball is suspended to the feet, which sinks the corpse in the sea. Corals soon grow over the grave. But on a Danube craft, to throw a dead person into the river is a great responsibility. There are shores, and on the shores villages and towns, with church bells and priests, to give the corpse his funeral-toll and his rest in consecrated ground. It won't do to pitch him into the water, without a " By your leave," just because the dead man vrished it. But Tiniar knew well enough that this must be done, and it caused him no anxiety. Before the vessel had weighed anchor, he said to his pilot that there was a corpse on board Trikaliss was dead. " I knew for certain," said Johann Fabula, " that there was bad luck on the way, when the sturgeon ran races with the ship that always betokens a death." " We must moor over there by the village," answered Timar, " and seek out the minister to bury him. We cannot carry the body on in the vessel we should be under suspicion as infected with plague." Herr Fabula cleared his throat violently, and said. ' We can but try." The village of Plesscovacz. which was nearest at hand, is a wealthy settlement ; it has a Dean, and a fine church with two towers. The Dean was a tall handsome man, with a long curling beard, eyebrows as broad as one's finger, and a fine sonorous voice. He happened to know Timar, who had often bought grain from him, as the Dean had much produce to sell. " Well, my son," cried the Dean, as soon as he saw him iii the courtyard, " you might have chosen your time better. A BURIAL AT SEA. 71 The harvest was bad, and I have sold my crops long ago. ; ' (And yet there was threshing going on in yard and barn.) u But this time it is I who bring a crop to market," Timar answered. " We have a dead man on board, and I have come to beg your reverence to go over there, and bury the corpse with the usual ceremonies." " Oh, but, my son, that's not so easy. Did this Christian confess 1 Has he received the last sacraments 1 Are you certain that he was not a heretic ? For if not, I cannot consent to bury him." " I know nothing about it. We don't carry a father- confessor on board, and the poor soul left the world without any priestly assistance that is the lot of sailors. But if your reverence cannot grant him a consecrated grave, give me at any rate a written certificate that I may have some excuse to his friends why I was not in a position to show him the last honours ; then we will bury him ourselves somewhere on the shore." The Dean gave him a certificate of the refusal of burial ; but then the peasant threshers began to make a fuss. " What ! bury a corpse within our boundaries which has not been blessed ? Why, then, as certain as the Amen to the Pater- noster, the hail would destroy our crops. And you need not try to bestow him on any other village. Wherever he came from, nobody wants him, for he's sure to bring a hailstorm this season before the vintage is over the farmer's last hope ; and then next year a vampire will rise from a corpse so buried, which will suck up all the rain and the dew." They threatened to kill Timar if he brought the body ashore. And in order that he might not bury it secretly on the bank, they chose four stout fellows, who were to go on board the ship and remain there till it had passed the village boundaries, and then he could do what he liked with the dead man. Timar pretended to be very angry, but allowed the four men to go on board. Meanwhile the crew had made a coffin and laid the body in it : there was nothing more to do but to nail the lid down. The first thing that the captain did was to go and see how Timea was. The fever had reached its highest point; her forehead was burning, but her face still dazzling white. She was unconscious, and knew nothing of the preparations for the burial. "Yes, that will do," said Timar, and fetched a paint-pot 72 THE ST BARBARA. and busied himself in marking Euthemio TrikalLss's name and date of death in beautiful Greek letters on the coffin-lid. The four Servian peasants stood behind and spelt out what he wrote. "Now, then, you paint a letter or two while I see to my work," said Tirnar to one of the gazers, and handed him the brush. The man took it and painted on the board an X, which the Servians use like S, to show his skill. " See what an artist you are ! " Timar said, admiringly, and got him to draw another letter. "You are a clever fellow. What is your name ? " " Joso Berkics." " And yours ? " "Mirko Jakerics." " Well, God bless you ! Let us drink a glass of Slivovitz." They had nothing against the proposition. " I am called Michael; my surname is Tirnar a good name, and sounds just the same in Hungarian, Turkish, or Greek, call me Michael." " Egbogom Michael." Michael ran constantly into the cabin to see after Timea. She was still very feverish, and knew no one. But that did not discourage Tiinar : his idea was that whoever travels on the Danube has a whole chemist's shop at hand, for cold water cures all maladies. His whole system consisted in putting cold compresses on head and feet, and renewing them as soon they got hot. Sailors had already learnt this secret before Priessnitz the hydropath. The St Barbara floated quietly all day up-stream along the Hungarian bank. The Servians soon made friends with the crew, helped them to row, and in return had a thieves' roast offered them from the galley. The dead man lay out on the upper deck ; they had spread a white sheet over him that was his shroud. Towards even- ing Michael told his men that he would go and lie down for a spell he had had no sleep for two nights ; but that the vessel might as well go on being towed till it was quite dark, and then they could anchor. He had no sleep that night either. Instead of going into his own cabin, he stole quietly into Timea's, placed the night-lamp in a box, that its light might not disturb her, and sat the whole time by the sick girl's bed listening to her delirious fancies and renewing her compresses. He never shut his eyes. He heard plainly when the anchor went down and the ship was brought up ; and then how the waves began to plash against the sides ! The sailors tramped A BURIAL AT SEA. 73 about the deck for some time, then one by one they turned in. But at midnight he heard a dull knocking. That sounds, thought he, like hammering in nails whose head has been covered with cloth to muffle the sound. Before long he heard a noise like the fall of some heavy object into the water, then all was still. Michael remained awake, and waited till it was light and the vessel had started again. When they had been an hour on their way, he came out of the cabin. The girl slept quietly, the fever had ceased. 11 Where is the coffin 1" was his first question. The Servians came up with a defiant air. " We loaded it with stones and threw it into the water, so that you might not bury it anywhere ashore and bring bad luck on us ! " " Rash men ! what have you done ? Do you know that I shall be arrested and have to render an account of my vanished passenger ? They will accuse me of having put him out of the way. You must give me a certificate in which you acknowledge what you did. Which of you can write ? " Naturally, not one of them knew how to write. " What ! You Berkics, and you Jakerics, did you not help me to paint the letters on the coffin 1 " Then they came out with a confession that each only knew how to write the one letter which he had painted on the lid, and that only with the brush and not with a pen. "Very well; then I shall take you on to Pancsova. There you can give evidence verbally to the Colonel in my favour ; he will find your tongues for you." At this threat suddenly every one of them had learnt to write ; not only those two, but the others as well. They said they would rather give a certificate at once than be taken on to Pancsova. Michael fetched ink, pen, and paper, made one of these skilful scribes lie on his stomach on the deck, and dictated to him the deposition in which they all declared that, out of fear of hailstorms, they had thrown the body of Euthemio Trikaliss into the Danube whilst the crew slept, and without their knowledge or aid. " Now, sign your names to it, and where each of you lives, so that you may be easily found if a commission of inquiry is sent to make a report." One of the witnesses signed himself " Ira Karakassalovics," living at " Gunerovacz," and the other " Nyegro Stiriapicz," living at " Medvelincz." And now they took leave of each other with the most serious 74 THE ST BARBARA. faces in the world, without either Michael or the four others allowing it to be seen what trouble it cost them not to laugh in each other's faces. Michael then put them all ashore. Ali Tschorbadschi lay at the bottom of the Danube, where he had wished to be. CHAPTEE XII. AN EXCELLENT JOKE. IN the morning when Tim6a awoke, she felt no more of her illness; the strength of youth had won the victory. She dressed and came out of the cabin. When she saw Timar forward she went to him and asked, " Where is my father ? " 'Fraulein, your father is dead." Time'a gazed at him with her great melancholy eyes; her face could hardly become paler than it was already. " And where have they put him ? " " Fraulein, your father rests at the bottom of the Danube." Tima sat down by the bulwarks and looked silently into the water. She did not speak, or weep ; she only looked fixedly into the river. Timar thought it would lighten her heart if he spoke words of consolation to her. " Fraulein, whilst you were ill and unconscious, God called your father suddenly to himself. I was beside him in his last hour. He spoke of you, and commissioned me to give you his last blessing. By his wish I am to take you to an old friend of his, with whom you are connected through your mother, who will adopt you and be a father to you. He has a pretty young daughter, a little older than you, who will be your sister. And all that is on board this vessel belongs to you by inheritance, left to you by your father. You will be rich ; and think gratefully of the loving father who has cared for you so kindly." Timar's throat swelled as he thought. ''And who died to secure your liberty, and killed himself in order to endow you with the joys of life." And then he looked with surprise into the girl's face. Tinie'a had not changed a feature while he spoke, and no tear had fallen. Michael thought she was ashamed to cry AN EXCELLENT JOKE. 75 before a stranger, and withdrew; but the maiden did not weep even when alone. Curious ! when she saw the white cat drowned, how her tears flowed ! and now, when told that her father lies below the water, not a drop falls. Perhaps those who break out in tears at some small emotion brood silently over a deep grief ? It may be so. Timar had other things to do than to puzzle his head over psychological problems. The towers of Pancsova began to rise in the north, and down the stream came an Imperial barge, straight for the St Barbara, with eight armed Tschaikists, their captain, and a provost. When they arrived they made fast to the side without waiting for permission, and sprang on deck. The captain approached Tiinar, who was waiting for him at the door of the cabin. " Are you in command of this vessel?" " At your service." " On board this ship, under the false name of Euthemio Trikaliss, there is a fugitive treasurer from Turkey a pasha with stolen treasures." "On board this vessel travels a Greek corn-merchant, of the name of Euthemio Trikaliss, not with stolen treasures but with purchased grain. The vessel was searched at Orsova, and here are the certificates. This is the first; be so good as to read it, and see if all is not as I say. I know nothing of any Turkish pasha." "Where is he?' 7 " If he was a Greek, with Abraham ; if a Turk, with Mahomet." " What ! is he dead, then ? " " Certainly he is. Here is the second paper, containing his will. He died of dysentery." The officer read the document, and threw side glances at Tim^a, who still sat in the place where she had heard of her father's death. She understood nothing; the language was strange to her. " My six sailors and the steersman are witnesses of his death." "Well, that is unlucky for him, but not for us; if he is dead he must be buried. You will tell us where, and we shall have the body exhumed ; we have a man who can recognise it, and prove the identity of Trikaliss with Ali Tschorbadschi, and then we can at any rate lay an embargo on the stolen property. Where is he buried 1 " " At the bottom of the Danube." 76 THE ST BAB.BAKA. " Oh ! this is too much. Why there ? " " Gently now. Here is the third paper, prepared by the Dean of Plesscovacz, in whose parish the decease of Trikaliss took place, and who not only refused hini a consecrated burial, but forbade me to bring the body ashore : the people insisted on our throwing it overboard." The captain clenched his hand angrily on the hilt of his sword. " The devil ! these confounded priests ! Always the most trouble with them. But at any rate you can tell me where he was thrown into the river ? " " Let me tell you everything in proper order, Herr Captain. The Plesscovaer sent four watchmen on board, who were to prevent our landing the corpse - } in the night, when we were all asleep, they threw the coffin, which they had loaded with stones, into the Danube without the knowledge of the crew. Here is the certificate delivered to me by the culprits; take it, search them out, take their evidence, and then let each have his well-merited punishment." The captain stamped with his foot, and burst into angry laughter. " Well, that is a fine story. The discovered fugitive dies, and cannot be made responsible ; the priest won't bury him ; the peasants shove him into the water, and hand in a certifi- cate signed with two names which no man ever possessed, and two places which never existed in this world. The re- fugee disappears under the water of the Danube, and I can neither drag the whole Danube from Pancsova to Szendre, nor get hold of the two rogues, by name Karakassalovics and Stiriapicz. If the identity of the fugitive is not proved, I cannot confiscate the cargo. You have done that very cleverly, skipper. Cleverly planned indeed ! And everything in writing. One, two, three, four documents. I bet if 1 wanted the baptismal certificate of that lady there, you would produce it." "At your orders." That Timar certainly could not pix> duce, but he could put on such an innocent sheepish face, that the captain shook with laughter and clapped him on the shoulder. " You are a splendid fellow, skipper. You have saved the young lady's property for her ; for without her father I can do nothing to either her or her money. You can proceed, you clever fellow ! " With that he turned on his heel, and the last Tschaikiss, who had not swung round quick enough, got such a box on THE FATE OF THE ST BARBARA. 77 the ear, that the poor devil all but fell into the water; and then he gave the word for departure. When he was down below in the boat, he cast one searching look back ; but the skipper was still looking after him with the same sheepish face. The cargo of the St Barbara was saved. CHAPTER XIII. THE FATE OF THE ST BARBARA. THE St Barbara could now pursue her way unmolested ; and Timar had no worse misfortunes than the daily disputes with the leader of the towing-team. On the great Hungarian plains the voyage up the Danube becomes extremely weari- some ; there are no rocks, no waterfalls or old ruins, nothing but willows and poplars, which border both sides of the river. Of these there is nothing interesting to relate. Timea frequently did not come out of her cabin during a whole day, and not a word did her lips utter. She sat alone, and often the food they set before her was brought out again untouched. The days grew shorter, and the bright autumn weather turned to rain ; Timea now shut herself entirely into her cabin, and Michael heard nothing of her except the deep sighs which at night penetrated to his ear through the thin partition. But she was never heard to weep ; the heavy blow which had fallen on her had perhaps covered her heart with an impenetrable layer of ice. How glowing must that love be which could melt it ! Ah, my poor friend, how came you by that thought ? Why do you dream waking and sleeping of this pale face 1 Even if she were not so beautiful, she is so rich, and you are only a poor devil of a fellow. What is the good of a pauper like you filling all his thoughts with the image of such a rich girl ? If only it were the other way, and you were the rich one and she poor ! And how rich is Timea 1 Timar began to reckon, in order to drive himself to despair, and turn these idle dreams out of his head. Her father left her a thousand ducats in gold and the cargo, which, according to the present market prices, must be worth, say, ten thousand ducats 78 THE ST BARBARA. perhaps she has ornaments and jewels besides and might be counted in Austrian paper-money of that date as worth a hundred thousand gulden ; that in a Hungarian provincial town is a very rich heiress. And then Timar asked himself a riddle whose solution he could not guess. If Ali Tschorbadschi had a fortune of eleven thousand ducats, that would not weigh more than sixteen pounds; of all metals, gold has the smallest volume in proportion to its weight. Sixteen pounds of ducats could be packed in a knap- sack, which a man could carry on his back a long way, even on foot. Why was the Turk obliged to change it into grain and load a large cargo-ship with it, which would take a month and a half for its voyage, and have to struggle with storms, eddies, rocks, and shallows, which might be delayed by quarantine and custom-houses, when he could have carried his treasure with him in his knapsack, and by making his way cautiously on foot over mountain and river, could have reached Hungary safely in a couple of weeks? The key to this problem was not to be found. And another riddle was connected with this one. If Ali's treasure (whether honestly come by or not) only consists of eleven or twelve thousand ducats altogether, why does the Turkish Government institute a pursuit on such a large scale, sending a brigantine with four-and-twenty rowers, and spies and couriers after him ? What would be a heap of money for a poor supercargo, is for his Highness the Padischa only a trifle ; and even if it had been possible to lay an embargo on the whole cargo, representing a value of ten or twelve thousand ducats, by the time it had passed through the fingers of all the informers, tax-collectors, and other official cut-purses, there would be hardly enough left for the Sultan to fill his pipe with. Was it not ridiculous to set such great machinery in motion in order to secure so small a prize ? Or was it not so much the money as Timea that was the object ? Timar had enough romance about him to find this a plausible assumption, however little it agreed with a super- cargo's one-times-one multiplication table. One evening the wind dispersed the clouds, and when Timar looked out of his cabin window he saw on the western horizon the crescent moon. The "red moon"! The glowing sickle seemed to touch the glassy surface of the Danube. It looked to Timar as if it really had a human THE FATE OF THE ST BARBARA. 79 face, as it is depicted in the almanacs, and as if it said some- thing to him with its crooked mouth. Only that he could not always understand it is a strange language. Moonstruck people perhaps comprehend it, for they follow it ; only they, as well as the sleep-walkers, remember nothing of what was said when they awake. It was as if the moon answered Timar's questions. Which ? All. And the beating of his heart 1 or his calculations ? All. Only that he could not put these answers into words. The red crescent dipped slowly towards the water, and sent its reflected rays along the waves as far as the ship's bows, as if to say, " Don't you understand now 1 " At last it drew its horns gently below the surface, saying plainly, " I shall return to-morrow, and then you will know." The pilot was in favour of making the most of the light of the after- glow to go on farther, until it grew dark. They were already above Almas, and not far from Komorn; in those parts he knew the channel so well that he could have steered the vessel safely with his eyes shut. As far up as the Raab Danube, there was no more danger to fear. And yet there was something ! Off Fuzito a soft dull thud was heard ; but at this thud the steersman cried " Halt ! " in a fright, to the to wing-team. Timar also grew pale, and stood petrified for a moment. For the first time during the whole voyage dismay was de- picted in his features. " We have struck a snag ! " he cried to the steersman. And that great strong man entirely lost his head, left the rudder, and ran crying like a little child across the deck to the cabin. We have touched a snag ! Yes, that was so. When the Danube is in flood it makes breaches in the bank, the uprooted trees fall into the current and are carried to the bottom by the weight of the soil clinging to their roots ; if a cargo-ship drawn by horses touches such a tree-trunk, it pierces the hull. From shallows and rocks the steersman can guard his vessel, but against a tree-trunk lying in ambush under water, neither knowledge, experience, nor skill is of any avail. Most of the shipwrecks on the Danube are from this cause. " It is all up with us ! " howled the pilot and the sailors ; every one left his post and ran for his bundle and his chest, to get them into the boat. The vessul swung across the stream, and the forepart began to sink. It was useless to think of saving it absolutely 80 THE ST BARBARA. impossible. The hold was filled with sacks of grain ; before they could shift these in order to get at the leak and stop it, the vessel would long ago have gone down. Timar broke in the door of TimeVs cabin. " Fraulein, put on your cloak quickly, and take the casket which stands on the table ; our ship is sinking, we must save ourselves." As he spoke he helped her into her warm kaftan, and gave her directions to get into the boat ; the pilot would help her. He himself ran back into his cabin to get the box which held the ship's papers and cash. But Johann Fabula was not thinking of helping Timea ; he flew into a rage when he saw the girl. "Didn't I say this milk- face, this witch with the meeting eyebrows, would bring us all to destruction ? We ought to have thrown her overboard." Timea did not understand what he said, but she shrank from his bloodshot eyes, and preferred to go back to her cabin, where she lay down, and saw the water rush through the door and mount gradually to the level of the edge of her bed. She thought to herself that if the water washed her away, it would carry her down-stream, to where her father was lying at the bottom of the Danube, and then they would again be united. Timar was wading up to his knees in water before he had collected all he wanted from his cabin and packed them in a box, which he took on his shoulder and then hurried to the boat. "And where is Timea?" he cried, not seeing her there. "The devil knows!" growled the pilot. "I wish she had never been born." Timar flew back into Timea's cabin, now up to his waist in water, and took her in his arms. " Have you the casket ? " " Yes," whispered the girl. He asked no more, but hurried with her on deck, and carried her in his arms into the boat, where he put her on the middle seat. The fate of the St Barbara was being decided with awful rapidity. The ship was going down stern first, and in a few minutes only the upper deck and the mast with the dangling tow-rope were visible above water. " Shove off ! " Timar said to the rowers, and the boat moved towards the shore. " Where is the casket ? " Timar asked the girl, when they had already gone some distance. " Here it is," answered Time"a, showing him what she had brought away. THE FATE OF THE ST BARBARA. 81 "Miserable girl ! that is the box of sweets, not the casket." In fact, Tim4a had brought the box of Turkish sweets, meant as a present to her new sister, and had totally for- gotten the casket which held her whole fortune. That was left behind in the submerged cabin. " Back to the ship ! " Timar cried to the pilot. " Surely nobody has got such a mad notion as to look for anything in a sunken ship," grumbled Fabula. " Back ! no words I insist ! " The boat returned to the vessel. Timar asked no one's help, but sprang himself to the deck and down the steps to the cabin. Time"a looked after him with her great dark eyes as he vanished under the surface, as if to say "And you too go before me into the watery grave." Timar reached the bulwarks, but had to be very careful, because the vessel had a list towards the side where Timea's cabin door was. He had to hold on by the timbers of the roof, so as not to slip altogether under water. He found the door, luckily, not shut by the waves; for it would have been a long job to get it open. It was quite dark inside, the water had filled it almost to the ceiling; he groped to the table, the casket was not there; perhaps she had left it on the bed. The water had floated the bed to the roof, and he had to draw it down ; but the casket was not there either. Perhaps it had been knocked over by the rush of water. He felt about vainly with his hands, stooping under water. His feet were more fortunate, for he stumbled over the object sought for ; the casket had fallen to the ground. He lifted it, and tried while holding it to climb up to the other side, where he need not hold on with both hands. The minute that Timar was under water seemed to Timea an eternity. He was a full minute under water. He had held his breath the whole time, as if to try an experiment how long a man could do without breathing. When Michael's head appeared above water she heaved a deep sigh, and her face beamed when Timar gave her the rescued casket, but not on its account. " Well, captain ! " exclaimed the steersman, as he helped Timar into the boat, " that's thrice you've got soaked for the love of these eyebrows. Thrice ! " Tima asked Michael in a whisper, " What is the Greek for the word thrice ? " Michael translated it. Then Timea F 82 THE ST BARBARA. looked at him long, and repeated to herself in a low voice "Thrice." The boat approached the shore in the direction of Almas. Against the steely mirror in the twilight a long line was visible, like a distressful note of exclamation or a pause in life. It was the top-mast of the St Barbara. CHAPTEE XIV. THE GUARDIAN. AT six in the evening the ship's crew had left the sunken craft, and by half -past seven Timar with Timea was in Ivoinorn. The post-cart driver knew Brazovics's house very well, and galloped his four bell-decked horses with unmerciful cracks of the whip through the little streets up to the square, as he had been promised a good trinkgeld if he brought his passengers quickly to their destination. Michael lifted Tim6a from the country waggon and told her she was now at home. Then he took the casket under his cloak and led the girl up the steps. The house of Athanas Brazovics was of two stories, a rarity in Komorn ; for in remembrance of the destructive earth- quakes by which the town had been visited in the last century, people usually only built on the ground-floor. The lower storey was occupied by a large cafe, which served the resident tradespeople as a casino ; the whole upper floor was inhabited by the family of the merchant. It had two entrances from the street, and a third through the kitchen. The owner was generally not at home at this hour, as Timar knew ; he therefore led Timea straight to the door through which the women's rooms were reached. In these reigned fashionable luxury, and in the ante-room lounged a man- servant. Timar asked him to fetch his master from the cafe, and meanwhile led Timea to the ladies. He was certainly hardly got up for company, as may be imagined when one remembers what he had gone through, and the number of times he had been soaked ; but he was one of those who belonged to the house, who could come in at any time and in any dress : they looked upon him as "one of our THE GUAKDIAK. 83 people." In such a case one gets over the strict rales of etiquette. The announcement revives the old habit of the mistress, as soon as the door of the ante-room is open, of putting her head through the parlour door to see who is coming. Frau Sophie has kept this habit ever since her maid-servant days. (Pardon, that slipped out by accident.) Well, yes, Herr Athanas raised her from a low station ; it was a love-match, so no one has a right to reproach her. It is therefore not as idle gossip, but only as a characteristic touch, that I mention that Frau Sophie even as "gracious lady" could not get rid of her early habits. Her clothes always fitted her as if they had been given to her by her mistress. From her coiffure an obstinate lock of hair would always stick out either in the front or at the back ; even her most gorgeous costumes always looked tumbled and creased ; and if nothing else went wrong, there would be invariably a pair of trodden-down shoes with which she could indulge in her old propensity. Curiosity and tattle were the ingredients of her conversation, in which she generally introduced such extraordinary expressions that when she began to scatter them in a mixed party, the guests (that is, those who were seated) almost fell off their chairs with laughter. Then, too, she had the agreeable custom of never speaking low; her voice was a continuous scream, as if she were being stabbed and wished to call for assistance. "Oh, good Lord, it's Michael !" she cried, as soon as she got her head through the doorway. "And where did you get the pretty Fraulein? What is the casket you have under your arm ? Come into the parlour ! Look, look, Athalie, what Timar has brought ! " Michael let Timea pass, then he entered and politely wished the company good evening. Timea looked round with the shyness of a first meeting. Besides the mistress of the house there were a girl and a man in the room. The girl was a fully developed and conscious beauty, who, in spite of her naturally small waist, did not disdain tight stays ; her high heels and piles of hair made her appear taller than she was ; she wore mittens, and her nails were long and pointed. Her expression was of artificial amiability ; she had somewhat arrogant and pouting lips, a rosy complexion, and two rows of dazzling white teeth, which she did not mind showing; when she laughed, dimples formed on chin and cheek, dark brows arched over the bright black eyes, whose brilliancy was 84 THE ST BARBARA. increased by their aggressive prominence. With her head up and bust thrown forward, the beautiful creature knew how to make an imposing appearance. This was Fraulein Athalie. The man was a young officer, verging on thirty, with a cheerful open face and fiery black eyes. According to the military regulations of the period, he had a clean-shaven face, with the exception of a small crescent-shaped whisker. This warrior wore a violet tunic, with collar and cuffs of pink velvet, the uniform of the Engineers. Timar knew him too. It was Herr Katschuka, first-lieutenant at the fort, and also a commissariat officer rather a hybrid position, but so it was. The lieutenant has the pleasure of taking a portrait of the young lady before him in chalks ; he has already finished one by daylight, and is trying one by lamplight. The en- trance of Timea disturbs him in this artistic occupation. The whole appearance of the slender delicate girl was something spiritual at this moment it was as if a ghost, a phantom, had stepped out of the dusk. When Herr Katschuka looked up from his easel, his dark- red chalk drew such a streak across the portrait's brow, that it would be hard for bread-crumbs to get it out, and he rose involuntarily from his seat before Timea. Every one rose at the sight of the girl, even Athalie. Who can she be ? Timar whispered to Timea in Greek, on which she hastened to Frau Sophie and kissed her hand, whilst the girl herself received a kiss on her cheek. Again Timar whispered to her. The girl went with shy obedience to Athalie, and looked steadily in her face. Shall she kiss her, or fall on the neck of her new sister ? Athalie seemed to raise her head higher still. Timea bent to her hand and kissed it or rather not her hand, but the kid mitten. Athalie allowed it; her eyes cast a flaming glance on Timea's face, and another on the officer, and she curled her lip yet more. Herr Katschuka was completely lost in admiration of Timea. But neither his nor Athalie's fiery looks called up any emotion on Timea's face, which remained as white as if she were a spirit. Timar himself was not a little confused. How was he to introduce the girl and relate how he had come by her, before this officer 1 THE GUARDIAN. 85 Herr Brazovics helped him out of his difficulty. With a great bustle he burst in at the door. He had just now in the cafe to the surprise of all the regular customers read aloud from the ' Augsburg Gazette ' that the escaped pasha and treasurer, Ali Tschorbadschi and his daughter, had fled on board the St Barbara, evaded the watchfulness of the Turkish authorities, and reached Hungary in safety. The St Barbara is his ship. Tschorbadschi is a good friend of his even a connection by the mother's side. An extra- ordinary event ! One can fancy how Herr Athanas threw his chair back when the servant brought him the news that Herr Timar had just arrived with a beautiful young lady, and under his arm a gilt casket. " So it is actually true ! " cried Herr Athanas, and rushed up to his own apartments, not without upsetting a few of the card-players on his way. Brazovics was a man of enormous corpulence. His stomach was always half a step in front of him. His face was copper- coloured at its palest, and violet when he ought to have been rosy : even when he shaved in the morning his chin was all bristles by the evening, his scrubby moustache per- fumed with smoke, snuff, and various spirits; "hiz eyebrows formed a bushy wall over his prominent and bloodshot eyes. (A fearful thought, that the eyes of the lovely Athalie, when she grows old, will resemble her father's !) When Herr Brazovics opens his mouth, one understands why Frau Sophie always screams ; her husband, too, can only speak in shouts, but with the difference that he has a deep bass voice like a hippopotamus. Naturally Frau Sophie, when she wants to overpower his voice with her own, raises it to a yell. It was as if they had a wager which could bring on the other a lung disease or a stroke of apoplexy. It is doubtful who will win ; but Brazovics always stops his ears with wool, and Frau Sophie invariably has a comforter round her throat. Athanas rushed, panting with haste, into the ladies' room, where his voice of thunder had already preceded him. " Is Michael there with the young lady ? Where is the Fraulein ? Where is Michael?" Timar hastened to catch him at the door. He might have succeeded in keeping back the man himself, but the weight of his approaching paunch, when once set in motion, bore down all obstacles. Michael made a sign to him that a visitor was present 86 THE ST BARBARA. " Ah, that doesn't matter ! You can speak openly before him. We are en famille ; the Herr Lieutenant belongs to the family. Ha ! ha ! don't get cross, Athalie ; every one knows it. You can speak freely, Michael ; it is all in the papers." "What is in the papers?" exclaimed Athalie angrily. " Well, well, not you ; but that my friend Ali Tschorbadschi, my own cousin, the treasurer, has fled to Hungary with his daughter and his property on board my ship the St Barbara ; and this is the daughter, isn't she ? The dear little thing ! " And with that Herr Brazovics suddenly fell upon her, took her in his arms, and pressed two kisses on her pale face two loud, wet, malodorous kisses, so that the girl was quite confused. "You are a good fellow, Michael, to have brought her here so quickly. Have you given him a glass of wine ? Go, Sophie quick ! A glass of wine ! " Frau Sophie pretended not to hear ; but Herr Brazovics threw himself into an arm-chair, drew Timea between his knees, and stroked her hair with his fat palms. " And where is my worthy friend, the Governor of the Treasury ? Where is he?" " He died on the journey," answered Timar in a low voice. " What a fatality ! " said Brazovics, trying to give an angular form to his round face, and taking his hand from the girl's head. " But no accident happened to him 1 " A curious question. But Timar understood it. "He intrusted his property to my care, to deliver it over to you with his daughter. You were to be her adopted father and the guardian of her property." At these words Herr Brazovics grew sentimental again : he took Timea's head between his two hands, and pressed it to his breast. " As if she were my own child. I will regard her as my daughter ; " and then again smack ! smack ! one kiss after another on brow and cheek of the poor victim. " And what is in this casket ? " " The gold I was to deliver to you." " Very good, Michael. How much is there ? " "A thousand ducats." " What ! " cried Brazovics, and pushed Time"a off his knee ; "only a thousand ducats? Michael, you have stolen the rest ! " Something stirred in Timar's face. " Here is the auto- graph will of the deceased. He declares therein that he has THE GUARDIAN. 87 given over to me a thousand ducats in gold, and his remain- ing property is contained in the cargo, which consists of ten thousand measures of wheat." "That's something more like. Ten thousand measures of wheat, at twelve gulden fifty a measure in paper money, that makes a hundred and twenty-five thousand gulden, or fifty thousand gulden silver. Come here, little treasure, and sit on my knee; you're tired, aren't you? And did my dear never-to-be-forgotten friend send me any other directions ? " " He told me to tell you that you must be present in person when the sacks are emptied, lest they should exchange the grain, for he had bought a very good quality." " Naturally I shall be there in person. How should I not be ? And where is the ship with the grain 1 " " Below Almas, at the bottom of the Danube." But now Athanas thrust Tim6a right away, and sprang up in a rage. " What ! my fine vessel gone down, as well as the ten thousand measures of wheat ! Oh, you gallows-bird ! you rascal ! You were all drunk, for certain. I'll put you all in jail ; the pilot shall be in irons ; and I shall not pay one of you. You forfeit your ten thousand gulden caution- money : you shall never see that again. Go and sue me if you like." " Your vessel was not worth more than six thousand gulden, and is insured for its full value at the Komorn Marine Insur- ance Office. You have come to no harm." " If that were true a hundred times over, I should still require compensation from you, on account of the lucrum cessans. Do you know what that means ? If you do, you can understand that your ten thousand gulden will go to the last kreuzer." "So be it," answered Timar quietly. "We will speak of that another time ; there's time enough. But what we have to do now is to decide what is to happen to the sunken cargo, for the longer it remains under water, the more it will be spoilt." "What does it matter to me what happens to it?" " So you will not take it over? You will not be personally present at the discharge of cargo?" "The devil I will! What should I do with ten thousand measures of soaked grain ? I am not going to make starch of ten thousand measures of corn ; or shall I make paste of it *? The devil may take it if he wants it 1 " " Hardly ; but the stuff must be sold. The millers, factors, 88 THE ST BARBARA. cattle-dealers, will offer something for it, and the peasants too, who want seed-corn ; and the vessel must be emptied. In that way some money may be got out of it." "Money!" (This word could always penetrate into the cotton-stuffed ears of the merchant.) "Good. I will give you a permit to-morrow to empty the vessel and get rid of the cargo in bulk." " I want the permit to-day. Before morning everything will be ruined." " To-day ! You know I never touch a pen at night ; it is against my habits." "I thought of that beforehand, and brought the permit with me. You have only to sign your name to it. Here are pen and ink." But now Frau Sophie interrupted with a scream. " Here in my parlour I do not allow writing to be done ! That's the only thing wanting that my new carpet should be all spotted with ink. Go to your room if you want to write. And I won't have this squabbling with your people here in my rooms." "I should like to know if it isn't my house," growled the great man. " And it's my sitting-room ! ' " I am master here ! " ' And I am mistress here ! " The screeching and growling had the good result for Timar that Herr Brazovics flew into a rage, and in order to show that he was master in his own house, seized the pen and signed the power of attorney. But when he had given it, both fell on Timar, and overwhelmed him with such a flood of reproaches and invective, that he would willingly have taken yet another bath in the Danube to wash them away. Frau Sophie only scolded Timar indirectly, as she abused her husband for giving such a ragged dirty fellow, such a tipsy beggarly scoundrel, a warrant like that. Why had he not given it to any other supercargo than Timar, who would run away with the money, and drink and gamble till it was gone. Timar stood the whole time with the same immovable calm in the midst of this tumult as that with which lie had defied storm and waves at the Iron Gate. At last he broke silence : "Will you take charge of the money which belongs to the orphan, or shall I give it over to the City Orphanage 1 " (At this last question Brazovics got a great fright.) " Now, then, THE GUARDIAN. 89 if you please, conie with me into the office and we will settle ' the affair at once, for I don't like servants' squabbles." With this hundred-pound insult he succeeded in suddenly silencing both master and mistress. Against such scolds and blusterers, a good round impertinence is the best remedy. Brazovics took the light and said, " All right ; bring the money along." Frau Sophie appeared all at once to be in the best of tempers, and asked Timar if he would not have a gla.ss of wine first. Timea was quite stunned ; of what passed in a foreign language she understood not a word, and the gestures and Jooks which accompanied it were not calculated to enlighten her. Why should her guardian now kiss and hug her, the orphan, and the next moment push her from him ? Why did he again take her on his lap, only to thrust her away once more 1 Why did both of them scream at this man, who remained as calm as she had seen him in the tempest, until he spoke a few words, quietly, without anger or excitement, and thereby instantly silenced and overpowered the two who had been like mad people the minute before, so that they could prevail as little against him as the rocks and whirl- pools and the armed men. Of all that went on around her, she had not understood one word ; and now the man who had been hitherto her faithful companion, who had gone " thrice " into the water for her sake, with whom alone she could speak in Greek, was going away for ever, no doubt and she would never hear his voice again. Yet no ; once again it sounds in her ear. Before he stepped over the threshold Timar turned to her and said in Greek, " Fraulein Timea, there is what you brought away with you." And with that he took the box of sweets from under his cloak. Timea ran to him, took the box, and hastened to Athalie, in order to present to her, with the sweetest smile, the gift she had brought from far away. Athalie opened the box. "Fi done!" she exclaimed, "it smells of rosewater, just like the pocket-handkerchiefs the maid- servants take to church." Timea did not understand the words, but from the pout- ing lips and turned-up nose, she could easily guess their meaning, and that made her very sad. She made another attempt, and offered the Turkish sweet- meats to Frau Sophie, who declined with the remark that her 90 THE ST BARBARA. teeth were bad, and she could not eat sweets. Quite cast down, she now offered them to the Lieutenant. He found them excellent, and swallowed three lumps in three mouth fuls, for which Timea smiled at him gratefully. Timar stood at the door and saw Timea smile. Suddenly it occurred to her that she must offer him some of the Turkish delight. But it was already too late, for Timar no longer stood there. Soon after, the Lieutenant, took leave and departed. Being a man of breeding, he bowed to Time"a also, which pleased her greatly. After a time Herr Brazovics returned to the room, and they were now just the four alone. Brazovics and Frau Sophie began to talk in a gibberish which was intended for Greek. Timea understood a word here and there, but the sense seemed to her more strange than those languages which were altogether unknown to her. They were consulting what to do with this girl whom they had been saddled with. Her whole property consists of twelve thousand paper gulden. Even if it were likely that the soaked grain should bring in a little more, that would not suffice to educate her like a lady, like Athalie. Frau Sophie thought she must be treated as a servant, and get used to cook and sweep, to wash and iron that would be some use. With so little money no one would marry her except some clerk or ship's captain, and then it would have been better for her to be brought up as a servant and not a lady. But Athanas would not hear of it ; what would people say ? At last they agree on a middle course; Time"a is not to be treated like a regular servant, but take the position of an adopted child. She will take her meals with the family, but help to wait. She shall not stand at the wash-tub, but must get up her own and Athalie's fine things. She must sew what is wanted for the house, not in the maids' room but in the gentlefolk's apartments ; of course she will help Athalie to dress, that will only be a pleasure to her, and she need not sleep with the maids but in the same room as Athalie ; the latter wants some one to keep her company and be at her service. In return, Athalie can give her the old clothes she no longer requires. A girl who has only twelve thousand gulden can thank Heaven that such a fate should fall to her share. And Time"a was satisfied with her lot. After the