THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 DEAD MENS GOLD 
 
 By 
 
 Roy Bridges 
 
 HODDER8STOUGHTON LTD. LONDON
 
 Printed in Great Britain
 
 DEAD MEN'S GOLD 
 
 22182^9
 
 TO 
 
 PHILLIP SCHULER
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAFTIB r*GB 
 
 I. THE SEA BELL ..... 1 
 
 II. THE WRECK OF THE INDIAMAN . . 11 
 
 III. A GENTLEMAN IN SEA PICKLE . . 23 
 
 IV. MORE OF MY UNCLE, JAMES INGLEBY . 80 
 V. A TOAST IN RIPE MADEIRA ... 87 
 
 VI. RODERICK SCORNE, Slur's BOY . . 46 
 
 VII. NIGHT AND MY UNCLE ... 52 
 
 VIII. CROSS-EXAMINATION OF MARGARET . 58 
 
 IX. WE GO FISHING ..... C6 
 
 X. ADRIFT 78 
 
 xi. ON NO MAN'S ISLAND .... 86 
 
 XII. GALLEON OF SPAIN .... 93 
 
 XIII. THE MYSTERY OF THE SEA BELL . . 103 
 
 XIV. THE SAND DUNES .... 100 
 
 vii
 
 viii Contents 
 
 CHAPTZR 
 
 XV. THE VOICES AND THE FOOTSTEPS 
 
 XVI. NIGHT ON NO MAN'S ISLAND . 
 
 XVII. WE ESCAPE FBOM NO MAN'S ISLAND . 
 
 XVIII. STRINQ OF A FIDDLE 
 
 XIX. AN OLD DANCE TUNE , 
 
 XX. LOSS OF MY UNCLE 
 
 XXI. WE PREPARE A NEW VENTURE 
 
 XXII. RETURN OF MY UNCLE . 
 
 XXIII. THE COMPANY OF ROGUES 
 
 XXIV. NIGHT THOUGHTS OF MR. SPILLS . 
 XXV. THE CAVE OF THE BATS 
 
 XXVI. DEAD MEN'S GOLD . 
 
 XXVII. FORTITUDE OF MY UNCLE 
 
 XXVIII. CHAGRIN OF MY UNCLE. 
 
 XXIX. RODDY TELLS HIS TALE 
 
 XXX. FOR ENGLAND, HOME, AND BEAUTY 
 
 XXXI. LONDON TOWN
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE SEA BELL 
 
 " * THESE were thy merchants in all sorts of 
 things ; in blue clothes, and broidered work ; 
 and in chests of rich apparel, bound . . .'" 
 
 My father's voice was lost then in the roar 
 of the wind from the sea. It struck the shutters, 
 as if to wrench them from their hinges and 
 break the window-panes, and blow in on us. 
 The flame of the lamp flickered, and the wick 
 smoked. Fat rain drops tumbled down the 
 chimney, and hissed on the coals ; and drove 
 the ash from the hearth, like flakes of sea- 
 scud. My father did not lift his eyes from 
 the page, and his fingers traced the verses. 
 He read on, and before the wind was by, and 
 my ears took in the words again, I had lost 
 half a verse or more. 
 
 " ' . . . wast replenished, and made very 
 glorious in the midst of the seas ' ' (shaking 
 the lamp smuts from the page). * Thy rowers 
 have brought thee into great waters ; the Eu.- 1 
 
 l
 
 The Sea Bell 
 
 wind hath broken thee in the midst of the 
 seas 
 
 I did not always listen when my father read 
 a chapter. My eyes and thoughts would go 
 a-wandering. I would forget him sitting, grim 
 and grey, before the lamp. I would stare up 
 at the high book-shelves, and at the three 
 yellow prints above them ; they were Hogarth's, 
 and, boy as I was, I could not understand how 
 my father could endure Hogarth. I would be 
 wondering what was hid in the great chest of 
 scented Eastern wood by the door the black 
 chest clasped with copper, and mottled with 
 queer little figures of pink and blue pearl shell, 
 and black and gold % lacquer, walking under 
 trees of white silver bearing yellow fruit. Or 
 the curtains would wave in the draught, and I 
 would think to myself, that, if I went to them 
 on tip-toe, and pulled them aside smartly, I'd 
 
 find I used to shiver at the thought of 
 
 what I'd find. The curtains hung before the 
 window over the sea I had loved to lie in the 
 deep recess of the window, and stare out over 
 the sea, ever since I could remember. In the 
 evening the sea might be red as blood ; gold 
 and purple ; or grey as lead, taking pattern 
 from the west. Or it would shimmer all salt 
 white under the moon, that came down to it
 
 The Sea Bell 3 
 
 by a track of silver. It would be placid as the 
 sky ; or wild with the storm that blew the 
 spray to the very windows, till the salt crusted 
 the panes. 
 
 The sea what was beyond the sea ? I only 
 knew that there was the world across it, and 
 many strange countries and peoples. I had a 
 notion of these countries and these peoples 
 from the maps and the books of travel, from 
 which my father taught me. And, when I 
 pictured them, I wanted to be away from our 
 island Wild Dog Island ; and to mix in the 
 great world ; and see the strange peoples, and 
 find friends. For I was lonely, and had been 
 lonely nigh all my fourteen years of life ; and 
 I dreaded my father, dour and grey-headed, 
 and harsh of feature ; and I cared little for 
 Jeremy Otter, his man, nor yet for Margaret 
 Otter, Jeremy's wife. Other companionship I 
 had none, save when the little ketch came down 
 from Sydney six times a year and brought us 
 our supplies ; and then I spent many a precious 
 hour in chattering to the skipper, McArdle, 
 and his crew. Many things they told me 
 much that was false no doubt ; much that 
 was true. Of the convicts that laboured about 
 Sydney, or wore their lives out at Macquaric 
 Harbour and at Port Arthur in Van Diemen's
 
 4 The Sea Bell 
 
 Land the great isle to the south of us ; of 
 daring escapes ; of desperate deeds ; of cruel 
 punishments. Of the sealers, wild and lawless 
 men, who had escaped in the earliest days of 
 the Botany Bay settlement, and, peopling the 
 other islands of Bass Straits, had mated with 
 the Black People of Van Diemen's Land ; and 
 lived by wrecking, fishing, buccaneering, and 
 selling the brine-drenched flesh and downy 
 feathers of the mutton-birds the puffins such 
 as nested late October after October in the crags 
 of Wild Dog Island. 
 
 My father's house was set on the cliffs one 
 hundred feet above the landing place of the 
 island. It was built of grey blocks of stone, 
 cemented with a mortar of lime and sand, and 
 roofed with shingles, split from the gum trees 
 in the heart of Wild Dog. It was furnished 
 with a rough, bare comfort, having in it a few 
 curious chests from India ; boxes, tables and 
 chairs of Norfolk Island pine ; scraps of barbaric 
 textures of green and scarlet and cinnamon 
 and gold ; many books ; curious distorted 
 Eastern bowls of brass, and beaten platters. 
 
 The room in which we sat was lime-washed, 
 hung with the Hogarth prints ; with many 
 leather-bound books piled against the walls ; 
 the black chest, the faded cinnamon and scarlet
 
 The Sea Bell 
 
 curtains. The blaze of the great fire upon the 
 hearth and the clear light of the swinging ship's 
 lantern lit upon my father's palled and cada- 
 verous face, his tumbling iron-grey hair ; his 
 fine hands spreading out the pages of the Bible. 
 I mark my father now John Ingleby a lean, 
 lank figure of a man, clad rustily in black his 
 linen scrupulous, his neck-kerchief tied loosely. 
 Facing him, myself a brown, slim stick, in my 
 blue brass-buttoned coat, my flannel shirt, and 
 my thick trousers of white duck. Outside the 
 lamentation of great winds and waters, and the 
 endless patter of the October rains upon the 
 roof and windows. My mother ? I could 
 recollect her but as a vision dimly remembered. 
 A lovely face, that, when I would conjure up 
 its lineaments, would fade from my brain ! 
 
 My wandering thoughts had brought me much 
 trouble, while the nightly chapter was read 
 many a cuff, and many a cut, too, from my 
 father's long, lean Malacca cane. It lay always 
 by the Book on the table, lest I be so wayward 
 as to need a flogging. But on this night, when 
 my father read of the ruin of an old sea-city 
 and the wreck of richly freighted ships, my 
 fancy keeping pace held my thoughts on his 
 reading. I'd have escaped all chance of a 
 flogging but for the Bell. 
 1*
 
 6 The Sea Bell 
 
 ' Thou shalt be broken by the seas in the 
 depths of the waters,' " read my father. 
 
 And at that verse, while the wind dulled, I 
 heard the faint beat of the Bell. The Bell, 
 that I had fancied that I heard so many nights 
 of storm, when lying on my bed awake from 
 the roar of wind and sea, that I had forgotten, 
 long since, when first it had seemed to sound ; 
 the Bell that was to me an endless source of 
 wondering and imaginative flights ; the Bell 
 that, I vowed, was hung and swung in some lost 
 sea cave by the ghostly hands of old drowned 
 seamen from the ships, that, I had read, came 
 sailing from Spain and Portugal and Holland 
 centuries before the English touched the Southern 
 coasts ; the Bell that on every night of storm 
 sounded to me, in a drear monotone, slow 
 stroke upon slow stroke the hours through, till 
 the wind was laid, and the sea was down once 
 more. 
 
 Clang ! sounded the Bell. 
 
 " ' The inhabitants of the isles shall be aston- 
 ished,' " read my father. 
 
 Clang ! sounded the Bell. Thereat, forgetful 
 of whip and Book, I needs must jump from my 
 chair, and, plucking at my father's sleeve, bawl 
 in his ear, " Hark to the Bell ! " 
 
 My father's eyes gleamed chilly as he looked
 
 The Sea Bell 
 
 at me ; and he kept his finger to the page to 
 mark the place. 
 
 " I never heard the Bell so loud as on this 
 night," cried I, seeking to put a bold face on 
 it, though feeling the blood run to my cheek at 
 his dour aspect, and my back tingle, as if the 
 whip were already across it. 
 
 My father pointed to my chair. " To your 
 seat, sir," snapped he. " How dare you inter- 
 rupt me with these fooleries, when I am reading 
 the Book ? Have a care, sir ! " 
 
 ** But, father, the Bell," muttered I, sinking 
 discomfited into my chair. 
 
 He shifted his eyes from off me to the Book, 
 and read the chapter to its end. I heard no 
 word of it, having ears only for the tongue of 
 the Bell that sounded now in metallic mono- 
 tone ; and at brief intervals, as if its clapper 
 were stirred at each inward sweep of the sea. 
 And though the wind was mighty, and the 
 surf made a great sound, its voice was defined 
 above them, or else my ears with their straining 
 forgot the turmoil of the storm, and heard only 
 its clanging. My father droned the chapter 
 through in a mumble that had been lost to me 
 from the voices of the sea and the wind, had I 
 paid heed to him, and the matter that he read. 
 He shut the Book ; he clasped it carefully ; he
 
 8 The Sea Bell 
 
 turned and glowered upon me. Red of cheek, 
 and foolish, I sat waiting for his admonition, 
 and the whip warm about me to point its moral. 
 
 " Now, sir, what's this nonsensical notion of 
 a bell ? " demanded my father. 
 
 " Don't you hear it, father ? " I stammered. 
 " Listen there ! " 
 
 Clang ! sounded the Bell. 
 
 " I do not hear it, my lad," snapped he, his 
 fingers straying towards the whip. " I do not 
 hear it. Your shallow pate is stuffed so full of 
 all these godless fooleries that McArdle and his 
 pack poke into your ears, that you're become 
 three parts a fool. Come, sir here's what will 
 bring you to your wits again ! " 
 
 I slouched forward respondent to his lean 
 beckoning finger. His left hand had gripped 
 the collar of my jacket, and he had swung me 
 round, when 
 
 Clang ! sounded the Bell. 
 
 Staring up at him I saw his face change 
 curiously from cold anger to as near a similitude 
 of amaze as ever I had sighted upon it. Thus 
 we stood for full the space of a minute with 
 whip in air, and I waiting half bent towards the 
 chest, across which, save for the clang of the 
 Bell, I should have been sprawling ere that 
 instant for my flogging. The wind coming up
 
 The Sea Bell 9 
 
 then howled round the house, and shut out all 
 other sound ; but when it was gone by again, 
 through the night clanged loud the Bell. My 
 father loosed me ; flung down the whip ; and, 
 walking to the chimney-piece, leaned his back 
 against it, and so stood looking down upon me, 
 while I stared up at him, agape that aught 
 should have stayed his hand when he was set 
 on flogging me. 
 
 "What's this Bell?" demanded he at 
 length. " Have 'ee heard it before ? " 
 
 " On many nights, father." 
 
 " On many nights 1 On other nights than 
 this ? On other nights ? " 
 
 " Ay, whenever there is a great storm, and 
 the sea is up. But never have I known it so 
 loud." 
 
 " Why did you never speak to me of this 
 before ? " 
 
 " I thought you'd call me a fool for my pains ; 
 and flog me to drive such notions out of my 
 head. And I thought, if it was a bell, you'd 
 have ear for it yourself." 
 
 He shot me a sharp look at that. Truth to 
 tell, it was three parts a lie to tell him it had 
 ever been my thought, that he would have had 
 ears for the clanging of the Bell, no matter how 
 loud it had seemed to me.
 
 10 The Sea Bell 
 
 Clang ! sounded the Bell. 
 
 " Hark to it, father," I cried. " Hark to it ! 
 What, don't you hear it ? " 
 
 He answered not a word, but, striding across 
 the room, plucked back the curtains. The black- 
 ness was ebon ; but the rain and the scud 
 tinkled against the window panes. And sud- 
 denly the darkness of the pane was lit by a 
 white phosphorescent glare, that, flaring for an 
 instant, went out, and left the night in blackness. 
 Then I heard the Bell no more ; I heard no 
 more of the turmoil of the storm. I heard the 
 boom across the waters ; I heard my father's 
 voice 
 
 " A ship there's a ship on the Dog's Tooth ! 
 Rouse Otter ! "
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE WRECK OF THE INDIAMAN 
 
 JEREMY OTTER and Margaret his wife lodged 
 in a little stone cottage to the rear of my father's 
 house. I had snatched a lantern from the wall, 
 while my father sought his cloak ; and, lighting 
 the wick with a splinter from the fire, I rushed 
 from the room, and out by the great iron- 
 bound house door in search of Jeremy. Jeremy 
 was yet astir, for the red flame of the fire upon 
 his hearth leaped against the window of his 
 cottage as I tore helter-skelter through the 
 streaming rain across the courtyard to his 
 door. So fierce a blast came beating down, 
 that I was flung against the very door ; the 
 lamp smashed from my hands ; and the light 
 with a flare and splutter went out. I beat 
 upon the door then, until Jeremy, red-faced 
 and stout, pipe in his mouth, and tasselled 
 night-cap on his head, drew back the bolts, 
 and let me in. 
 
 11
 
 12 The Wreck of the Indiaman 
 
 "Oh," said Jeremy; "oh, 'tis you, Dick! 
 Is the master sick ? " 
 
 Margaret Otter, lean, pallid, and grim, clad 
 in her tight black gown, white-aproned and 
 white-capped, did not stir from her chair; 
 but her keen black eyes behind the spectacles 
 perched on her nose peered at me like two 
 sparks. 
 
 " No no, Jeremy," gasped I. " My father's 
 well enough ! It's a ship on the rocks the 
 Dog's Tooth ! Didn't you hear the gun ? " 
 
 " The gun ! " he repeated, blinking at me 
 batlike. " I heard no gun. You heard no 
 gun, Margaret ? " 
 
 She shook her head, her eyes seeming to 
 swing and flicker like the ketch's lanterns on a 
 night at sea. 
 
 " You're to come at once, Jerry," I cried. 
 " Father's going down to see if he can help. 
 And you, too, Margaret ! We're all going 
 come along. Don't stay a minute." 
 
 " The Dog's Tooth," growled Jeremy, dragging 
 down a thick pea-jacket and sou'-wester from 
 the wall. " How should a ship come on the 
 Dog's Tooth ? And what chance has a ship, 
 once bein' there ? Right, Dick, right I'm 
 comin*. Now, Margaret ! " 
 
 She rose stiffly from her chair, and lit the
 
 The Wreck of the Indiaman 13 
 
 wick of a lantern, and handed the light to 
 Jeremy. She took down a long, thick tartan 
 shawl, and wrapped it about her neck and 
 shoulders all the while saying nothing, but 
 moving silently, as was her wont. We went 
 out then, Jeremy bearing the lantern, I coming 
 after, Margaret at our heels. There was a 
 temporary break in the pelting rain; but the 
 wind had abated nothing of its strength. It 
 smote down between the house and the hut with 
 such a force, that it nigh tore the lantern from 
 Jeremy's hands ; it sought to rend Margaret's 
 shawl from off her shoulders, and for all the 
 heat of my excitement, drove like keen knives 
 into my body. The house door was flung back 
 with a crash; and, against the lamplight that 
 lit the doorway, my father's tall figure was 
 revealed ; his cloak wrapped loosely about his 
 lean body ; his face pallid and cadaverous 
 beneath his hat brim. We crossed towards him ; 
 and at once spying me, capless and uncloaked, 
 he called to me, " Get into the house, boy ; 
 this is no night for you to be abroad." 
 
 " Oh, mayn't I come too, father ? " cried I. 
 " I may be of some use." But for answer his 
 hand shot out, and, gripping me by the collar 
 of my jacket, propelled me forward into the 
 house.
 
 14 The Wreck of the Indiaman 
 
 " No fooling, sir," snarled he, " no fooling. 
 Keep up the fire ; and set the kettle to boil. 
 Don't you dare stir abroad, or ' 
 
 The tail of his threat was lost to me in the 
 sudden squall of wind that brought the door 
 to, and shut them out in the night, and left 
 me within the house. Raging, I made my way 
 to the living room ; and, after piling a couple of 
 logs upon the fire, ran hastily to the window 
 and peered out. 
 
 The moon had broken through the clouds ; 
 but rode palely for the terror of the night. The 
 wind came violently ; and with scarce an 
 interval cannonade following upon cannonade, 
 and from below the cliffs the endless roll of 
 mighty drums. For the paleness of the moon, 
 for the black clouds that sought to compel it 
 back into the profundity, I could make out 
 nothing for the time save the gleam of Jeremy's 
 lantern as they moved across the cliffs. A 
 blue flare started suddenly from the sea a 
 distress signal, I took it, from the wrecked 
 vessel ; it showed me momentarily the outline 
 of the Dog's Tooth ; the whirl of waters ; the 
 black hull from which the flame was kindled, 
 the very outlines of shattered masts, and the 
 tangled rigging like so much torn cobweb. It 
 was so near that I saw all as in a picture. The
 
 The Wreck of the Indiaman 15 
 
 gale was loose at that, as if combining with 
 the sea to overwhelm their victim. Blackness, 
 then, the flare and the pallid moon enveloped 
 in the murk ; nothing save the turmoil of 
 sound ; the wind and sea commingling. 
 Nothing ? Ay, on that instant came up from 
 the sea a cry so awful that wind and sea were 
 pierced ; and thought and brain could take 
 the impression of no other sound. I believed 
 then that the ship parted asunder, and the end 
 was come. 
 
 At that I could remain in the house no longer. 
 I snatched down my pea-jacket from its peg, 
 and pulled my cap about my ears. I piled up 
 the logs upon the fire ; and, swinging the great 
 kettle forward so that it might boil, I scurried 
 from the room. I heard my dog howl from his 
 kennel by the door that overlooked the sea 
 front ; and I ran through the house to loose 
 him. As the door dashed open before the 
 wind, he leaped at me from his kennel, as 
 though to snap his chain, his eyes agleam, his 
 jaws aslaver. 
 
 " Down, Pitch, down ! " I roared, striking 
 his muzzle as he caught joyously at my hand, 
 flinging me back with his weight. Thereat he 
 fell to whining at my knees, while I loosed the 
 collar from his neck ; and, as collar and chain
 
 16 The Wreck of the Indiaman 
 
 clattered to the wet cobbles, he plunged off in 
 the darkness. 
 
 "Pitch!" cried I. " Pitch to heel," but 
 he paid no heed, and, pulling the door to, I must 
 needs follow after. 
 
 The black squall had passed for the time, 
 and the moon hung like a flickering white lamp 
 in the break. It lit my way for me across 
 the rough strip of herbage, now sponge-like 
 with the rain ; and thence through a scrub of 
 stunted gums and broom. Wet to the thighs, I 
 came out presently upon the flat terraces of 
 rock that crowned the cliffs. The wind and 
 the sea came up at me. Their voices were as 
 thunder. The wind cut through my garments 
 like a knife ; and chilled my hands in my 
 jacket pockets. The salt spume from the 
 rollers, breaking high, fell on my cheeks, and 
 dulled my eyes like rain. Under the moon, I 
 made out the surge of the Straits coming pillar 
 upon pillar, and falling in ruins, and mounting 
 yet again, as if to crush the cliffs. The Dog's 
 Tooth stood out all glistening in the moonlight ; 
 between it and the shore of Wild Dog there was 
 nothing distinguishable all was confusion, whirl- 
 pool, sea wrack. I marked the great retriever 
 standing out momentarily, as cut in stone, 
 upon the edge of the terrace ; but the sea
 
 The Wreck of Hie Indiaman 17 
 
 surging up at him, to sweep him from the cliff, 
 he dashed back, barking furiously, and spying 
 me, came muttering and slavering to my side. 
 We went on then, smitten by wind and surf, 
 along the slippery, glistening rocks. 
 
 All this while I had not espied the lantern 
 borne by Jeremy. I took it that the three 
 would be down upon the pebbly beech, whither 
 the wash of the sea would bear the ruins of the 
 ship and, maybe on floating spar, or raft, or 
 boat, some of her crew. I knew that, if I 
 approached my people, my father would bid 
 me return instantly to the house therefore I 
 sneaked along the cliff above the beach, and 
 did not dare climb down. All the while I 
 called Pitch to heel, lest his resounding bark 
 betray me. At last I marked them gathered 
 upon the kelp-piled beach below hanging to- 
 gether about Jeremy's lamp. They must be 
 helpless to aid the hapless crew upon the wreck. 
 No boat could live in such a sea ; but must be 
 swamped and flung in on the beach, or sucked 
 into the whirlpool between the jagged fang 
 and the further island. Even in calm weather 
 we believed that the current swept treacherously 
 between the two ; and none of us dared approach 
 the dangerous waters. The further island was 
 of considerable extent ; but girt about with
 
 18 The Wreck of the Indiaman 
 
 cliffs, haunted only by gulls, and washed per- 
 petually by the tumultuous waters of the 
 Straits. No Man's Isle, we called it, for no 
 man, to our knowing, had ever set foot upon it. 
 Therefore my father and Jeremy and Margaret 
 Otter could do no more than hang about the 
 beaches, and wait lest the sea fling up at their 
 feet some living member of the ship's company. 
 Still clinging to the terraces, I stole, with 
 Pitch at my heels, above the three, making my 
 way towards a second strip of beach divided 
 from the first by a great pillar of rock that had 
 slid down the cliff's side into the sea. The 
 black rain clouds, sweeping again before the 
 wind, now hid the moon's pale face ; yet the 
 white rocks gave off a curious green phosphores- 
 cent shimmer. Slipping, sliding, at tunes nigh 
 shooting over the very edge of the cliff into the 
 cauldron below, I made my way perilously, 
 until at last I came out on the rocks above the 
 second beach. The beach was awash save for 
 the merest strip of strand ; and that was pro- 
 tected only by a high barricade of torn kelp 
 and weed. The rain and the sea lashed my face, 
 as I climbed down the slippery rocks in the 
 darkness, with no purpose save the gratification 
 of my curiosity, and with small hope that I 
 might be of any aid to the helpless beings,
 
 The Wreck of the Indiaman 19 
 
 drowning from the wreck. If they had launched 
 a boat, it seemed impossible that it should 
 have lived. But if it lived, and were borne 
 shoreward by the breakers, it should be beached 
 either upon the first strip, where my father 
 and his servants waved the lantern for guidance, 
 or on the kelp-strewn beach, where I had taken 
 up my stand. I set my back against a crevice 
 of the rock, and stared out over the black 
 turmoil of waters, seeking to pierce the murk ; 
 but the scud came so thick that my eyes were 
 stuck speedily with salt ; and I could only 
 peer dimly through the shelter of my fingers. 
 The dog, growling defiance of the menace of the 
 sea, crouched by my side ; and at times slavered 
 and gripped at my hand, as though to drag me 
 back from peril. I cared nothing for the sea 
 that smote on the rocks like huge hammers, 
 and, when the moon evaded the clouds, flung 
 off a glittering phosphorescence. But even 
 when the squalls had passed, and the clouds, 
 having poured down their rain, swept onwards, 
 I could make out nothing. It seemed as if I 
 stood nigh the foot of a fall of water from many 
 feet above me. Its sound was endless as its 
 eternal turmoil. 
 
 From the wreck all this time I could hear 
 nothing for the wind and the breakers. I
 
 20 The Wreck of the Indiaman 
 
 leant against the wet rocks, it seemed for the 
 better part of a half-hour, waiting in the hope 
 that out of the blackness a boat might yet be 
 borne ashore. All the while my hot excitement 
 protected me against the bitter chill of the wind, 
 that smote against me ; and the cold lash of the 
 surf upon my cheeks. Out of the blackness 
 out of the turmoil nothing something ! 
 
 New sound upon the sea commingling with 
 the wind, voices of the same note as its own 
 anguish voices off shore ! I fancied then 
 that a boat had left the wreck, and come in 
 with the breakers ; and, leaning forward, my 
 fingers sheltering my face against the blinding 
 spray, I stood with eyes and ears straining to 
 make out sound and shape. I called out 
 presently, not knowing what, yet crying with 
 the full power of my lungs, hoping that, though 
 the wind flung back the voice against the rocks 
 in mockery, I still might make them hear, and 
 bring them to the kelp-lined break between the 
 cliffs. And then there came a wail from out 
 the blackness nigh in shore a wail, that, being 
 nearer, seemed as loud and piteous as when the 
 ship was parted by the sea ; and instantly I 
 left my place, and ran down over the pebbles 
 all awash with the sea, and leant against the 
 very wall of kelp that broke the forces of the
 
 The Wreck of the Indiaman 21 
 
 rollers. The clouds had parted yet again ; 
 and the moon looked out upon the seas. I 
 believed then that I caught a glimpse of a boat 
 borne shorewards, and human shapes clinging 
 to it. Instantly the moon was swamped from 
 sight by the clouds ; and all once more was 
 blackness and turmoil. I screamed out again, 
 and yet again believing that the boat had 
 been capsized ; and that a few poor, drowning 
 wretches yet clung to it ; and that the sea, 
 plunging upon them, sought to beat them off 
 into the one destruction. 
 
 Again, shivering and sea-drenched, I was 
 leaning back against the rocks, waiting the 
 coming of the boat, scarce hoping that any 
 living thing should yet be left upon it. The dog, 
 crouching by my side, still moaned and slavered. 
 I was growing numb with the cold ; and my 
 senses were dulling, for all my hot excitement 
 and terror for the fate of the poor wretches 
 clinging to the upturned boat. 
 
 The dog had now left my side, and was barking 
 furiously upon the belt of kelp. I heard his 
 last yelp, as he plunged into the sea, and I 
 staggered down after him. The waves bore 
 him back presently to my feet struggling 
 bravely. And then I marked that he had 
 gripped within his jaws a shapeless mass, that
 
 22 The Wreck of the Indiaman 
 
 clung about him, as if locked in death. Ah 
 the sea had borne in the body of a boy, clinging 
 about the great dog, as if Pitch had reached 
 him ere he perished. I gripped the body then, 
 and putting forth my fullest strength, I dragged 
 it over the pebbles and up to the terrace under 
 the cliffs. I snatched my jacket off and wrapped 
 it speedily about it. And I climbed the cliff, 
 and darted off in search of my father and the 
 others, leaving the dog still barking furiously 
 by the body of the boy.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 A GENTLEMAN IN SEA PICKLE 
 
 A QUARTER of an hour thence my father and I 
 were staggering up the cliffs toward the house. 
 My father bore the boy in his arms, as easily 
 as if he had been a little child. And I walked 
 beside him, mad with excitement ; for, when 
 we had climbed down under the cliffs, the four 
 of us, and flashed the light upon the white 
 upturned face, we found the great dog curled 
 warmly against the body ; and indeed, as we 
 knelt beside the boy, he was drawing his breath 
 thickly. He was not dead, and Pitch had 
 saved him. My father dribbled a little brandy 
 between the shipwrecked lad's lips, whereat 
 he shuddered violently, and was sick from the 
 salt that he had swallowed ; then, opening his 
 dim eyes, he blinked up at us, and relapsed 
 instantly into unconsciousness. 
 
 Wrapping the coat about him, my father 
 lifted him in his arms, and bidding Jeremy and 
 
 23
 
 24 A Gentleman in Sea Pickle 
 
 Margaret remain in the event of any other 
 from the wreck being flung ashore, and me to 
 follow him, strode away toward the house. All 
 this while my father had said nothing of my 
 disobeying him. I had enough knowledge of 
 him to be assured that he would not forget. 
 Yet, though I believed that on the morrow the 
 very devil of a flogging awaited me, I had small 
 concern for it, but thought only of the rescued 
 lad, whom he bore in his arms. He lived at 
 least he lived ! A boy my own age that 
 meant companionship for me for a time ! It 
 would be a month ere McArdle and his ketch 
 sailed down to Wild Dog. So I was all aflame 
 with excitement at the thought of a new interest 
 in the island ; and, for the saving of the boy, 
 I forgot even the horror of the wreck, and all 
 the loss of life that it entailed. 
 
 We came to the house door, and dragged it 
 open. We passed into the living room then 
 stood, the two of us, staring into the room. 
 The fire blazed nobly on the hearth. Before it 
 sat a stranger. He was a man of, it might be, 
 forty years clean shaven, his yellow-red hair 
 crisply cut, and hanging in little salt-crusted 
 curls over his brows. His features were fine, 
 if hawk-like, and he had a pair of dazzling blue 
 eyes under his black-lined brows ; and his look
 
 A Gentleman in Sea Pickle 25 
 
 was turned impudently on us. He had on his 
 fine slim body a drenched cambric shirt, frilled 
 at the front ; his white trousers were turned up 
 to the knee, his stockinged feet were stretched 
 out to the blaze. He was soaked with brine, 
 and from the heat of the fire a steam arose 
 about him like a cloud of smoke. At hand he 
 had the cut-glass decanter of wine from the 
 cupboard, a green goblet in his fingers steaming 
 with wine and hot water. At the sight of him 
 my father stood transfixed ; and my ears heard 
 the bitter curse that he muttered. The boy 
 slid from his grasp, and tumbled in a drenched 
 heap on the floor. Instantly the gentleman 
 arose ; the goblet yet clasped in his fine fingers ; 
 his right hand extended as in greeting. 
 
 " Why, here's the maddest piece of fortune 1 " 
 cried he. " My dear John, the fortune of the 
 sea has brought me to you of all men in the 
 world I " 
 
 My father said no word, but stared at him, 
 his face livid and working, his hands clasped at 
 his sides. 
 
 " Assuredly," said the gentleman easily, 
 " you know me, John ? " 
 
 lk I know you, yes," muttered my father. 
 
 k Your hand, dear brother 1 " said the 
 gentleman, smiling delightedly.
 
 26 A Gentleman in Sea Pickle 
 
 " Are any saved but you ? " 
 
 " How should I know ? " purred the gentle- 
 man. 
 
 "That all should be drowned," my father 
 went on, " and you should live ! That you 
 should come here ! " 
 
 " I was accounting it," said the gentleman, 
 " the finest piece of fortune that, where so 
 many were drowned, I should be flung from the 
 sea ; and should land here pickled in sea 
 salt. We marked your light on the cliff, John 
 ere we struck. I had the curious fancy it's 
 been with me for days that you and I 
 should meet soon. Why, I've been sailing the 
 world over, seeking you. Your hand, dear 
 brother ! " 
 
 My father put his hands deliberately behind 
 him. " Seeking me ! " he said. " What do 
 you want of me ? " 
 
 " A commission, brother a commission to 
 find you." 
 
 " What is your profit on it ? " 
 
 The gentleman sat down in his chair, and 
 spread his feet out to the blaze. 
 
 " My profit," he repeated. " Why, here's the 
 same dour, old John ! My profit ? No profit, 
 save the finding of you." 
 
 " James Ingleby," my father said, " I have
 
 A Gentleman in Sea Pickle 27 
 
 prayed all these years that you and I might 
 never meet again." 
 
 " Uncharitable ! " 
 
 " I find you here here of all quarters of the 
 world ! You seek me say you why ? " 
 
 44 A commission a commission from Is 
 
 that fine lad there your son ? Your son 
 and hers ? " 
 
 " Oh, enough," my father said bitterly. 
 " Enough ! " 
 
 " Pray make me known, John ! " the gentle- 
 man went on unperturbed. " Pray let me 
 know whether the lad's my nephew ? Who's 
 that you have lying at your feet ? Oh, the 
 boy ! The ship's boy ! " 
 
 My father turned from him abruptly, and, 
 stooping down, lifted the boy from the floor 
 on to the couch. He dragged down a cloak 
 from the wall and wrapped it warmly about 
 him, and going to the cupboard took out a 
 glass, and poured spirits into it, and water from 
 the kettle. He trickled a little of this steaming 
 liquid Ixtwcrn the boy's blue lips. "What's 
 the lad's name ? " he said then, turning to my 
 uncle. 
 
 * The lad oh, a young dog of the name of 
 Scornc. None other saved, John ? " 
 
 " Not to my knowledge."
 
 28 A Gentleman in Sea Pickle 
 
 "A pretty piece of fortune! Here am 1 
 saved by providence from the fate that befell 
 all of our company save this lad ! " 
 
 " What was the ship ? " 
 ' The ship the ship, John the Indus one 
 of the East India Company's vessels chartered 
 by me ; in it I've been seeking you. We had 
 word at last in London that you had sailed to 
 New South Wales; therefore I, as the most 
 dutiful of brothers, came seeking you at her 
 behest." 
 
 " Her behest ! She lives then ? " 
 
 " She lives," the gentleman said deliberately. 
 " She will welcome you and her son." 
 
 All this while I had stood staring at them 
 like a fool, having no eyes save for my father 
 and my uncle, forgetful of the lad whom Pitch 
 had drawn from the sea. She ! my mother ! 
 She yet lived. At once I felt the blood run to 
 my head ; and my face bum for the joy of it. 
 My mother ! She lived ; and the fine sea-soaked 
 gentleman, my uncle, had come seeking us for 
 her ! What mystery was here ? What had 
 parted my mother and my father, and brought 
 us both into the desolate island of the sea ? 
 At once, as if some chord of memory was stirred, 
 the face seen in my dreams, or recollected 
 from the past, was shaped, feature by feature,
 
 A Gentleman in Sea Pickle 29 
 
 for me. A lovely face blue eyes, and golden 
 curls that tumbled over me ; curls that I once 
 put out my hands to play with warm lips on 
 mine ! As in a dream I marked my father's 
 livid and cadaverous look, and my uncle's hand- 
 some face, lit by those blue jewels of eyes. 
 Dear God, what mystery was here that yet 
 should be revealed ? I heard my uncle's voice. 
 " She lives ! She is the fairest lady in all 
 England ! She calls you back again, my 
 brother you and your son ! "
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 MORE OF MY UNCLE, JAMES INGLEBY 
 
 I MARKED my father, striving to control himself. 
 I marked him snatch the green decanter from 
 the table, and fill a glass and drain it at a 
 draught. I heard my uncle's merry, mocking 
 laughter. 
 
 " You're still the sorriest of bears, my brother 
 John," cried he ; " you haven't yet thanked 
 me for my pains. You haven't said you're 
 glad to see me. You haven't even said that 
 you rejoice that I have landed safe and sound 
 from the sea 
 
 My father, standing dour and tall, his teeth 
 gritting, his eyes aglow like two coals beneath 
 his beetling brows, stared down upon the laugh- 
 ing gentleman. 
 
 " I would," he said, " that you had drowned 
 in the sea, ere you came here." 
 
 " Unnatural brother," protested my uncle 
 30
 
 More of My Uncle, James Ingleby 31 
 
 James, still laughing lightly ; " before my 
 nephew, too ! Would you have me go back to 
 the sea, and drown myself for your pleasure ? 
 Looking at you, I do believe you would. Why 
 here's an unnatural brother, nephew mine ! 
 What's your name, lad ? Richard, isn't it ? 
 Your hand ! You're glad to see me, as I to 
 see you and my brother." 
 
 I would have gone to him with hand out- 
 stretched to meet his fine white fingers. In- 
 stantly my father intervened, and shoved me 
 back, so that I went sprawling towards the 
 door. 
 
 " Now, John, my dear John," protested my 
 uncle, still lying in his chair ; " you're a very 
 bear you've lost what polish London ever 
 gave you. We must have you back speedily 
 you and the lad. What's your name again, 
 boy?" 
 
 " Richard ! " I gasped, staring at both in 
 wonder. 
 
 " Richard ! Rick, you're a fine lad. Egad, 
 how the sight of you will gladden your mother's 
 ryes." 
 
 " No more," my father broke in heavily. 
 " \o more ! No mention of her in this house ! " 
 
 " The boy's mother," protested my uncle. 
 44 Your wife "
 
 32 More of My Uncle, James Ingleby 
 
 " My wife ay, my wife ! A sight to gladden 
 her eyes, say you, James. Turn back that 
 wicked mind of yours to what is past and ask 
 yourself a question ! Gladden her eyes ! I 
 tell you that never shall the boy set eyes on 
 her never ! " 
 
 "She calls for him and you," my uncle said 
 quietly, and at his inflection I was brought nigh 
 to tears. 
 
 "I do not know your motives yet," my 
 father said bitterly. " There is a mo- 
 tive ! " 
 
 " Always always seeking a motive," pro- 
 tested my uncle. 
 
 " Never forgetting you the wrong you did. 
 Knowing you false and vile ' 
 
 " I am your brother, John." 
 
 " I am not likely to forget that, while I 
 live!" 
 
 " You seem to have forgotten ! " 
 
 " Nothing ! Nothing ! " 
 
 " You wronged yourself you wronged your 
 wife," my uncle persisted steadily, " the mother 
 of your son and you did me a bitter wrong." 
 
 " No word more ! " with a sudden flame of 
 wrath. 
 
 " And yet a word ! I say you wronged the 
 fairest, finest lady in all England. You leave
 
 More of My Uncle, James Ingleby 88 
 
 your wife, you snatch her son from her you 
 do a cruel and bitter thing ! " 
 
 M I did my duty only ! " 
 ' You come to this forsaken quarter of the 
 earth and rob her not of yourself alone, but 
 of your son her son ! The blow might well 
 have killed her." 
 
 " At least," my father muttered, standing 
 erect still, though his face worked and the 
 dank drops of sweat trickled down his brows, 
 '" I don't rejoice in that." 
 
 " I did not wrong you so to think it. My 
 brother, believe that. I am come seeking you 
 for her. I say, for her ! " 
 ' You were ever her spaniel ! " 
 
 " I was ever her slave. I shall be all my 
 life ! " 
 
 " And do you dare," my father muttered 
 thickly, " lie there and tell me that ? " 
 
 My uncle smiled easily up at him. " I am 
 not afraid of you, dear brother," he said. " I 
 dare to do my duty. I dare to tell you that 
 you did cruel injustice to a fair and noble lady 
 I dare to bid you do your duty to your wife, 
 your son yourself. Come back with me to 
 London 1 " 
 
 44 Never," my father said. 44 Never in all the 
 world ! "
 
 34 
 
 "I'll have to reason it with you," my uncle 
 answered. " To-night I'm sick with the salt 
 I've swallowed. I want rest refreshment ! 
 but at least I'm here. By the will of fortune 
 I'm here. It should point the moral ! " 
 
 " Since you were a boy," my father said, 
 speaking in dull and lifeless tones, " you never 
 did a thing save that it had its motive. What's 
 your motive now ? what's here ? Is our uncle 
 dead ? Is that it ? Did you come because the 
 knowledge that I might be alive kept you and 
 her from setting your fingers on the money ? 
 Is that the motive ? " 
 
 " No motive," protested my uncle. " No 
 motive save my natural affection for my brother." 
 
 " Yet, is the old man dead ? " 
 
 " Ay, these two years." 
 
 " And his fortune ? What of it ? You were 
 on the Company's ship. You've not inherited 
 it, or you'd not be lying there. W T hat was his 
 will ? " 
 
 " Our Uncle Anthony," said my uncle, " was 
 generous to you." 
 
 " Ay, and not to you ? Didn't you win the 
 game you played ? Come, the truth if you 
 can speak the truth this once. Did you come 
 seeking me because of some provision in the 
 will ? "
 
 More of My Uncle, James Ingleby 35 
 
 " My brother John," my uncle answered, 
 spreading his legs out comfortably to the blaze, 
 " you decline to believe in my affection for 
 you ? " 
 
 " Knowing you." 
 
 41 Misjudging me ! Our Uncle Anthony's will 
 left one half of his property to you ; the other 
 half to me." 
 
 14 On a condition ? " 
 
 " Have it so, then. On the condition that I 
 sought you wherever in the world you might 
 be, and restored you to your position in society. 
 Failing your restoration or at least word of 
 your death and I am happy that I find you 
 well and strong the entire fortune India 
 stocks, bonds, and ships must go to charity." 
 
 " The motive ! " cried my father trium- 
 phantly. " The motive 1 " 
 
 " Have it so," flashed my uncle, the fire 
 darting suddenly from his blue eyes. " Have 
 it so, if you will. At least I've found you ! " 
 
 " And mark me," cried my father, towering 
 over him, " mark me, you'll never touch a 
 penny of Anthony's money. Never a penny ! 
 I'll not return ; I'll not stir from this place." 
 
 "The loveliest lady in all England," mut- 
 1 my uncle, leaning back easily in his chair. 
 " Your wife the boy's mother I "
 
 36 More of My Uncle, James Ingleby 
 
 The heat had gone out of my father. He 
 stood, his head sunken on his breast, his eyes 
 staring from his white face. And I shuddered 
 to mark in them, as he looked on my uncle, a 
 light sinister and terrible.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A TOAST IN RIPE MADEIRA 
 
 IT was midnight ere I lay on my bed the lad 
 Roderick Scorne slumbering by my side. I 
 was amazed yet as in a dream. Outside the 
 wind came from the sea without cease. At 
 times the rain pattered on the roof; and beat 
 upon the panes. I lay snug ; yet might not 
 sleep for the thought of all the change that 
 had come into my life. My mother lived the 
 loveliest lady in all England ; my uncle had so 
 named her. And by what chance was it that 
 she should be in England, and John Ingleby, 
 my father, should dwell with me on Wild Dog 
 Island ? They had quarrelled and parted years 
 since that I knew. Boy as I was, I could not 
 guess the nature of their quarrel only that my 
 uncle had shared in it. And lying in the dark 
 I sought to picture her to fashion her from 
 dreams and from the faint, faint shadow of 
 
 37
 
 38 A Toast in Ripe Madeira 
 
 that lovely face that had looked down upon me 
 in my infancy. She lived ; and I must see her 
 ay, though my father vowed that never 
 would he leave Wild Dog Island, and return to 
 London. 
 
 I marked my uncle's purpose readily in his 
 stressing of the words, " The loveliest lady in 
 all England ! " To tempt my father back to 
 London that the terms of my great-uncle's 
 will be fulfilled ; and James Ingleby be a rich 
 gentleman. The thought of her how should 
 my father hard and bitter man as I knew 
 him stay from the sight of her ? He had 
 never spoken of her to me. Once when I was 
 a little child I had dared ask, " Is my mother 
 dead ? " and he had turned upon me with 
 livid face and melancholy, brooding eyes ; so 
 that I had shrunk from him. But never a 
 word had he answered to tell me whether she 
 was dead or yet alive. I took it that she was 
 dead, and that it grieved my father to hear 
 me speak of her. ... I carried with me still the 
 terror of his face. I had asked Margaret Otter 
 on that same day ; and she had answered now 
 I marked the significance of her words " Dead ! 
 Aye, dead to you, Dick, and the master." If 
 she lived ah, God, for the sight of her ; the 
 sound of her voice ; the joy of her lips upon
 
 A Toast in Ripe Madeira 39 
 
 my cheek 1 The loveliest lady in all Eng- 
 land ! 
 
 My uncle must assuredly be a fine gentleman 
 in London. His foppish graces marked him 
 as different from my father, and from the 
 men whom I had known. 
 
 His handsome head, the manner of his sea- 
 drenched garments, his fine white hands, the 
 pleasant tones of his voice I knew not whether 
 I should love or hate my uncle yet. I had 
 gained no true knowledge of the man from the 
 interview between him and my father. My 
 father hated him, that was plain to me ; and 
 I had faith in my father for all his harsh- 
 ness. 
 
 But my uncle had spoken kindly to me I 
 could recall the soft purring of his voice now, 
 as he called me, " Nephew." And my father, 
 and Jeremy, and Margaret were harsh and 
 hard. 
 
 For a while after my uncle's mention of my 
 mother, my father had said no word, but remained 
 looking down black and sinister upon my 
 uncle lolling easily in his chair, with his garments 
 steaming and his fingers playing on the goblet. 
 And then the boy stirred ; and opened his 
 eyes ; and coughed violently for the salt that 
 he had swallowed. My father turned his
 
 40 A Toast in Ripe Madeira 
 
 attention then on him, whereas my uncle re- 
 mained still by the fire and stirred not a finger 
 to aid him. My father took a fresh bottle of 
 wine from the cupboard ; strengthened the 
 mixture in the glass, and held it kindly enough 
 to the lad's lips, until he drank a little ; and the 
 colour commenced to come back to his lips 
 and cheeks, pallid for all their sunburn ; and 
 the lad started to babble wildly to himself in 
 broken utterance of the wreck, and of the 
 captain, and of the men in the boat in which 
 he had left the ship. All the while, standing 
 at my father's elbow, I watched him. He was 
 a lad of rather more than my own age, sturdily 
 built, having black curling hair ; and he was 
 clad in a brass-buttoned jacket of coarse blue 
 stuff. Busying himself with him, my father 
 ordered me to bring blankets ; then, stripping 
 the lad's drenched garments from him, he 
 wrapped him in the blankets warmly before 
 the fire. 
 
 Presently the boy was coughing and gazing 
 up at us dimly, and soon asking of us in a 
 weak and husky voice, " Where am I ? " 
 
 " Safely ashore, my lad," my uncle an- 
 swered. 
 
 " But the skipper the rest ? " 
 
 " Gad," cried my uncle to my father, " that's
 
 A Toast in Ripe Madeira 41 
 
 a question we might well ask ourselves, 
 John ! While you and I are paltering here, 
 we might well be on the beach giving a 
 hand to any poor devil come ashore. Though 
 it's the very deuce of a night and I, per- 
 sonally " 
 
 My father glanced at him, and then at me. 
 " My man and his wife," he said drily, " are on 
 the beach. They may need help if any other 
 boat came ashore. So, as you're ready to give 
 them a hand, we'll go." 
 
 " I'm most confoundedly sorry for the poor 
 fellows," my uncle said, leaning back in his 
 chair, " but I'd have you recollect, John, that 
 to swim ashore in such a sea is a tax on any 
 man's powers. However, there's not the least 
 reason why you should not be down at the beach. 
 Pray don't let me keep you. The lad and I'll 
 do very well." 
 
 From my father's look I perceived that he 
 was anxious not to allow my uncle to remain 
 in my company. He answered harshly, " If 
 you've an atom of humanity you'll come down 
 with me. You're well enough " 
 
 " But all the clothes I have are the shirt 
 and breeches I have on me. I've lost my ward- 
 robe with the ship." 
 
 My father snatched down a candle from a
 
 42 A Toast in Ripe Madeira 
 
 shelf, and lit its wick at the fire. " Come to 
 my room," he muttered ; " I'll find you clothes 
 and a cloak. I've spent enough time here. 
 Keep an eye on the lad, Dick. Keep him wrapped 
 up ; and give him more wine. Now, are you 
 coming, James ? " 
 
 " I am doing well by the fire," protested my 
 uncle, standing up lightly ; " yet humanity 
 prompts me to follow you, John and to 
 accept your offer of a change for myself of 
 clothes, though you never had the taste to 
 choose a competent tailor ; and I'll assuredly 
 cut the sorriest figure in your clothes," laugh- 
 ing lightly as he stepped after my father from 
 the room. At his laughter, his indolence 
 while I thought of the poor fellows, who must 
 have been drowned in the sea I felt that I 
 hated my uncle, as much as my father hated 
 him. 
 
 While my uncle remained in the inner room 
 to change his garments, my father returned to 
 me, and, as I stared at him, with tear-dull 
 eyes, he stood looking down upon me and the 
 boy, who lay stupidly by the fire. For a while 
 he said no word ; and then he muttered slowly, 
 " You heard all that he said, boy you missed 
 not a word ? " 
 
 " Of course, father ! "
 
 A Toast in Ripe Madeira 43 
 
 44 He has a glib and ready tongue," he said, 
 still fixing me with his cold eyes. " He has 
 been a liar from his youth up I would that 
 you had never set eyes on him." 
 
 " But you'll return to England, father ? " 
 
 "Did you miss what I said ? " 
 
 " Never a word of it, father ; only, my mother 
 the thought of her ' 
 
 44 She's dead to you and me," he answered 
 harshly, though I marked the agony that 
 revealed itself in voice and look. 
 
 11 Why, she's alive." 
 
 44 She's dead to me and you these ten years 
 since, and more 1 " 
 
 44 And yet and yet to see her, father ! " 
 
 44 When you are old enough," my father 
 muttered thickly, 44 you'll understand. You'll 
 know that I've done wisely and well for 
 you." 
 
 41 But for her, father ? " 
 
 44 It was her choice ; she had the ordering of 
 it ! Nay, there, I'll say no more. Save this 
 save this alone ! that I'll not quit the island ; 
 that I'll not return, and that you'll remain 
 here with me 1 Later, I I may bring myself 
 to tell you more ! Then I think nay know 
 you'll not seek London. Give an eye to that 
 fellow there ! Give him more wine, and heat
 
 44 A Toast in Ripe Madeira 
 
 some broth. Then, if he can stir, get him to 
 bed there's room enough in it for both of you. 
 And mark this, my lad ! Don't be misguided 
 by your uncle's tongue. If you go listening to 
 him, mark me ! " 
 
 " Well, father ? " 
 
 " There's the devil's own flpgging in store 
 for you that's all," he answered savagely, 
 snatching up his staff and turning to meet 
 my uncle now wrapped in a cloak of his, and 
 wearing his hat. 
 
 " Ah, John," my uncle laughed, " warning 
 the lad against me ? That's like you. My 
 dear Rick, I'm not the villain that your father 
 paints for you ! Poor company, if you will, 
 but not dangerous. Truly not dangerous ! 
 Another glass of your Madeira, John, to keep 
 the cold out. It has a little of the sun's divinity 
 in it, this wine of yours ! " 
 
 My father, answering not a word, filled the 
 glass, and handed it to him. My uncle lifted it 
 high, so that the lamplight shone through the 
 amber wine like gold. 
 
 " A toast ! " he cried ; " here's a toast 
 for you, John, and Dicky, my nephew ! 
 For England, wealth, and beauty ! For 
 tendon, and old Anthony's gold guineas 
 and India stock ; for the loveliest lady in
 
 A Toast in Ripe Madeira 45 
 
 England ! Your mother, Dicky ! Your wife, 
 John ! " 
 
 My father said never a word ; but struck the 
 glass from my uncle's hand. The wine splashed 
 down in a yellow shower ; and the goblet cracked 
 upon the floor.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 RODERICK SCORNE, SHIP'S BOY 
 
 MY uncle's laughter was light and mocking ; 
 but I saw the red blood run up to his cheek, and 
 his eyes flash like two blue jewels. Yet he said 
 no word, and laughing still, turned to the door 
 and went forth, my father following after. I 
 stood mazed a while, till, noting that the boy 
 stirred uneasily upon the couch by the fire, I 
 remembered my father's bidding, and poured 
 a little wine between his lips. I took a bowl of 
 soup from the cupboard ; and, tipping it into a 
 little metal pot, I set it on the fire. The lad, 
 gaining a little strength from the warmth of 
 the wine, stirred yet again ; and coughing, sat 
 up and stared at me. 
 
 " Who are you ? " he asked. " Where am 
 I ? " 
 
 " You're in our house," I answered. " My 
 name's Ingleby Dick Ingleby. My dog pulled 
 
 46
 
 Roderick Scorne, Ship's Boy 47 
 
 you out of the sea ! Lie still ! I'll have some 
 soup for you presently. 
 
 " What's this place ? Is it Van Diemen's 
 Land ? " 
 
 " No, Wild Dog. One of the Straits Islands." 
 
 " And the others are any of them safe ? " 
 
 " I don't know. There's Mr. Ingleby, my 
 uncle, swum ashore ! He's with my father now, 
 looking for the others, in case any come ashore." 
 
 " They're all drowned you think, then : the 
 skipper and the rest ? " 
 
 " I don't know I think " 
 
 " The skipper wouldn't leave till the other 
 boats were away ! " 
 
 " What was his name ? " 
 
 " The skipper oh, Greaves was his name ! 
 We were ten days out from Sydney." 
 
 " One of the East India Company's ships, 
 wasn't she ? " 
 
 " Yes the Indus ! Five hundred tons. We 
 were making down to Van Diemen's Land. 
 Mr. Ingleby's one of the Company, I think. It 
 was his wish that we sailed for Hobart Town 
 or we'd have been on our way to the Cape, or 
 to London." 
 
 " And you got blown out of your course. 
 You struck a couple of hours ago. You're 
 quite safe, at any rate."
 
 48 Roderick Scorne, Ship's Boy 
 
 He answered nothing, but sat dully. I set 
 myself to stirring the soup, now steaming on 
 the fire. " Your name's Scorne, isn't it ? " I 
 asked presently. 
 
 " Roderick Scorne yes." 
 
 " You were ship's boy on the Indus, weren't 
 you ? " 
 
 " Yes Mr. Ingleby's been telling you." 
 
 " Of course. What do you think of my 
 uncle ? " 
 
 He answered dully. " A fine gentleman ! I 
 know little of him. Being only ship's boy." 
 
 " Were you brought up to the sea ? " 
 
 " No ! It's my first voyage." 
 
 " D'ye like the life ? I mean till to-night did 
 you like it ? " 
 
 " No ! I can't say I do. Too little to eat- 
 too much to get." 
 
 " What d'ye mean ? " 
 
 " Well, I mean salt junk and ship's biscuit 
 with weevils in it too little of that ; and a bit 
 too much rope's end and the boot, for my fancy." 
 
 " I see," I said, stirring at the soup. " But 
 I suppose you've got used to it ? " 
 
 " I haven't. I wasn't brought up to the sea. 
 I'd been reading a lot about it the life, and 
 the places a fellow would see. I was at school 
 a year back; and well, I was flogged a bit
 
 Roderick Scorne, Ship's Boy 49 
 
 too hard for my thinking. So I made off to 
 London ; and shipped aboard the Indus. The 
 skipper wanted a boy." 
 
 " Haven't you any people in England ? *' 
 
 " My mother yes." 
 
 " And you left her ? " 
 
 I marked the tears swim up to his eyes. He 
 blinked and choked, and muttered thickly, 
 " Yes I left her. I sent her a letter though, 
 the day we sailed." 
 
 I paused from stirring the soup, and stared 
 at him. This stout, strong fellow lying before 
 the fire had run away from school, and quitted 
 his mother with no more than a line of a letter. 
 His mother ! Mine ! For the thought of my 
 mother, for the dim memory of her face, for the 
 want of her, for my father's threat I fell sud- 
 denly to blubbering. My tears would have 
 spoiled the soup had they fallen into the little 
 bubbling pot. 
 
 For the shame that Scorne should see me 
 weep, I brushed my sleeve presently across my 
 eyes and muttered, " The smoke it got into 
 my i ; 
 
 He said no word a while, and turning my 
 back upon him, 1 set myself again to the 
 stirring of the soup. He said soon, " How long 
 have you lived on the island ? "
 
 50 Roderick Scorne, Ship's Boy 
 
 " Oh, for years about ten I think nearly. 
 Ever since I can remember." 
 
 " That was your father who was here a while 
 ago ? " 
 
 " Yes, that was he ! " 
 
 *' And where's your mother ? Does she live 
 on the island, too ? " 
 
 " No she doesn't." 
 
 " Is she alive ? " 
 
 Again my eyes smarted, and my tears ran 
 down. But I managed to blurt out, " She's 
 alive yes in London. The loveliest lady in 
 all England my uncle says." 
 
 " You haven't seen her then, for some time ? " 
 
 I turned upon him vengefully, the pot in one 
 hand, the spoon in the other. *' See here, my 
 lad," cried I ; " don't ask so many questions, 
 or I'll be pouring the soup over you ! D'ye 
 mark me ? " 
 
 *' I'm sorry," he said, giving me a cheerful 
 grin, which made my temper vanish. " I 
 oughtn't have asked ! I don't want to pry 
 into any fellow's affairs. I was asking because 
 I wanted to know about you and the island." 
 
 " My father owns Wild Dog," I answered. 
 " He and I live here with Jeremy Otter and 
 his wife, my father's servants." 
 
 " And how am I to get off it ? "
 
 Roderick Scorne, Ship's Boy 51 
 
 " You can't," I told him. " You'll have to 
 stay here for a month at least. Unless, of 
 course, any of the boats come ashore and 
 you care to try and make up for Sydney, or 
 down to George Town. In a week or so McArdle, 
 the skipper who brings us supplies, will be 
 down here with his ketch. Then you can get 
 away, if you want to." 
 
 ' Want to ! Of course, I'll want to. I want 
 to get home to England." 
 
 Looking at him lying there, strong and 
 brown, I liked him well ; and sickened for the 
 thought of speedy separation from the first 
 lad of my own age whom I had ever known. 
 " I'm sorry you can't stay here with me ! " I 
 said. 
 
 " Why ? " regarding me with amaze. 
 
 " Because I've never had a friend I want 
 one. I'd like you to be my friend that's 
 why." 
 
 He looked at me, grinning his eyes dancing 
 oddly. And then suddenly he let the blankets 
 slip, and stretched out his right hand, and I 
 gave him my hand. With that hand-shake 
 Roderick Scorne entered upon the friendship 
 that bids fair to last our lives through.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 NIGHT AND MY UNCLE 
 
 IT seemed hours ere I dropped asleep. The 
 wind upon the roof so nigh my head made such 
 great sound that I heard nothing of the return 
 of my father and the other three. I fell asleep 
 to dream of my mother, my uncle, and Roderick 
 Scorne, who was slumbering by my side, wrapped 
 in a woollen shirt of mine. But most I dreamed 
 of my uncle handsome, indolent gentleman, 
 with the devil's own eyes. They were dazzling 
 mine ! And suddenly I woke to find a flickering 
 candle shining on my face ; and my uncle 
 looking down upon me, his lips curled back in 
 a smile. I sat up with a start, and blinked at 
 him stupidly. 
 
 " Quiet, Rick, my lad," he whispered. " Quiet ! 
 Don't rouse that fellow ! And don't wake your 
 father ! " 
 
 " What d'ye want with me ? " I asked, still 
 stupid with sleep. 
 
 52
 
 Night and My Uncle 53 
 
 14 But a word. A word that I didn't have a 
 chance of speaking while your father was with 
 us. He's asleep now ! He'll not hear, if you'll 
 come downstairs ? " 
 
 " A word ! About what ? " 
 
 " A word a message from your mother. 
 Will you come down ? " 
 
 I was out of bed on the instant disturbing 
 Roderick Scorne, who muttered and tumbled, 
 and even opened his eyes and blinked at us ; 
 but fell asleep instantly once more. My uncle, 
 shading the candle with his fingers, went stepping 
 stealthily before me ; and slowly I followed him 
 down the stairs into the living room. He was 
 wrapped in my father's garments an old cloak 
 about his shoulders while his own wet raiment 
 hung over a chair before the fire. Ill as my 
 father's clothes fitted his body, I marked that 
 he wore them with a curious grace ; indeed, it 
 was a characteristic of bis, that I perceived in 
 all my subsequent acquaintance with him, that 
 however he might be clad, he graced the clothes 
 he wore. 
 
 The fire was burnt down into a deep bed of 
 coals ; the lamp shone brightly ; the room 
 was warm, and sweet with the fumes of fine 
 tobacco, that formed my father's sole luxury. 
 My uncle had been smoking a long white church-
 
 54 Night and My Uncle 
 
 warden ; and a bottle and a glass rested on the 
 table nigh to the chair on which he had been 
 sitting. A pillow and a pile of blankets lay 
 on the couch to form his bed, when he should 
 see fit to seek it. He took the pipe up, and, re- 
 lighting it with a scrap of bark, he sat down 
 in his chair. I crouched down in my shirt 
 upon the hearth before him, staring up at him 
 my mind filled with the thought of what he 
 had to tell me. Outside the rain had ceased ; 
 and the wind came fitfully in gusts that were 
 feeble as zephyrs compared with the turmoil 
 wherein the Indiaman had gone to ruin on the 
 Dog's Tooth. 
 
 " You're a fine lad, Rick," my uncle purred, 
 blowing out a cloud of smoke. " You're more 
 like your mother than your father." 
 
 " Tell me," I whispered, dreading to wake 
 my father, " what she said to you for me." 
 
 " Rick, I take it you've not seen many 
 pretty women in your day." 
 
 " Only Margaret Otter to my clear recollec- 
 tion. Though to-night, when you told me my 
 mother was alive, I fancied that I recollected 
 her." 
 
 " Here is a lad with an exquisite joy before 
 him," said my uncle, with his blue eyes dancing. 
 " Here's a lad who's known but one woman all
 
 Night and My Uncle 55 
 
 his days a none too choice example of her 
 divine sex ! Why, Rick, I envy you ! When you 
 come back to London and see beauty rose lips, 
 fine eyes, a tangle of gold hair, or nut brown, or 
 black as night when these lips utter magical 
 sounds and these eyes languish ; when you see 
 all the beauty that art begets in beauty the 
 art of Paris, not our artless London why, Rick, 
 you'll be a man entering on a paradise you've 
 never dreamed of. Rick, I envy you, who'll 
 know no dregs or heeltaps, and will find the 
 goblet of life very nectar. Nay, I grow prosy, 
 Rick. Your mother, say you ? you have a 
 recollection of your mother ! Paint her for me, 
 Rick, ere I give the message." 
 
 " I think," I answered, " that she is tall and 
 fair. She has hair of gold curling in ringlets 
 on her neck. She has very white arms, and 
 her hands are fine and cool. Her eyes are 
 blue sea-blue and her lips are always smiling." 
 
 He broke in gravely, his blue eyes piercing 
 mine like two cold darts of steel. ** A true 
 picture, Rick save for two things only. Her 
 eyes are blue ; and her lips smile 1 Ah, lad, 
 her eyes are very wells of grief ; and she smiles 
 no more." 
 
 His voice resembled a fine-toned musical 
 instrument, and his clear thoughts and purpose
 
 56 Night and My Uncle 
 
 ever played upon it magically. At his words, I 
 felt my heart stir within me ; a lump came into 
 my throat ; tears started from my eyes. The 
 thought of her a fair and gracious being, her 
 eyes two wells of grief, her lips piteous ! 
 
 *' She has not laughed ; she has not ceased 
 to mourn, since your father left her. And for 
 this, Rick, I who love London ; who head the 
 fashions of England ; who am the last, even as 
 I am the greatest of the arbiters of modes and 
 graces am come overseas all these leagues 
 overseas seeking brother and nephew. And 
 there was a message for you, Rick, if I should 
 find you if you yet lived. * Tell my dear boy 
 my heart is broken for the want of him. Tell 
 him that I, his mother, call over the world for 
 him. Tell him that wanting him, I die ! ' 
 
 My tears flowed freely now ; and my heart 
 was torn in my breast. 
 
 " My brother charged me," said my uncle 
 James, " with having come seeking him for a 
 base motive. That was not true. I come 
 because I am a gentleman ; and a lady whom 
 I revere bade me come. I come to save her 
 to restore husband and son to her. You have 
 her message, Rick. It teaches you your duty." 
 
 " My duty ay, my duty ! " 
 
 " To spare nothing that may soften your
 
 Night and My Uncle 57 
 
 father's heart ! To plead with him though" 
 with sudden musical laughter ** your tail tingle 
 with his cane that he fulfil his duty to your 
 mother and yourself, and come back instantly 
 to England." 
 
 The door of my father's room creaked sud- 
 denly it seemed with a strong draught stealing 
 in by some chink from the wind outside. I 
 scarcely marked it. 
 
 " Failing his return, if he be deaf to your 
 entreaties mine it is your duty, Rick, to 
 leave him ! " 
 
 " Leave him ! " 
 
 " And come away to London with me. To 
 your mother, Rick your duty is to your 
 mother. We can easily slip away without your 
 father's knowledge ! " 
 
 The door of my father's room was snatched 
 open suddenly ; and livid, cadaverous, and 
 blazing-eyed, he faced us. My uncle did not 
 stir from his seat ; or set down his pipe. 
 
 '' To bed ! " said my father, in dull, lifeless 
 tones, pointing his finger at me, " To bed 1 "
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 CROSS-EXAMINATION OF MARGARET 
 
 1 WAS so weary, that, when flying from my 
 father's wrath, I climbed to my room and 
 tumbled into bed at the side of Roderick Scorne, 
 I fell asleep speedily enough for all the turmoil 
 of my thoughts. There had been in my father's 
 look the prospect of the very devil's own flog- 
 ging. Twice that night had I disobeyed him. 
 I had scarce dared ever before, since I was the 
 merest shrimp. To-morrow morning, I took it, 
 I should be walking with ruffled tail feathers ; 
 and should avoid hard bench or stool. Yet I 
 cared not. My mind was filled only with the 
 thought of all the disclosures of the night. The 
 joy at learning that my mother was alive was 
 more potent with me than my horror at the 
 drowning of all those hapless beings on the 
 wreck. None other had come ashore I took 
 it, though my father and the rest had waited 
 far into the night, and mayhap Jeremy Otter 
 and Margaret yet waited. 
 68
 
 Cross- Examination of Margaret 59 
 
 My thoughts went with me in my dreams. 
 All night my mother, my father, and my uncle 
 were about me. Her tragical blue eyes were 
 looking into mine ; and I had for them more 
 heed than for my father's sombre gaze, and 
 my uncle's dancing orbs. All night, for all my 
 weariness, I dreamed and woke, and sleeping 
 dreamed again. 
 
 I was awake at dawn and leaping from my 
 bed to peer out of the window toward the 
 Dog's Tooth, while Roderick Scorne lay slum- 
 bering soundly. The storm had blown off in 
 the night. The ocean was gold and blood-colour 
 with the dawn. The isle lay veiled hi a faint 
 mist, which was evaporating speedily. The 
 seas rode high still, for I marked the spray wash 
 over the Thunder Cliffs nigh the house ; and 
 heard the bellowing of the rollers as they smote 
 the pillars of basalt. The sea birds, dyed 
 rosily with the dawn, wheeled and screamed 
 about the dwelling ; and sheltered like sun- 
 stained snow upon the cliffs. 
 
 For all the weariness of the night-watch 
 Margaret Otter was astir. The smoke curled 
 from the chimney of Otter's hut ; and I marked, 
 through the little curtained window below me, 
 the red gleam of the fire. I slipped into my 
 shirt and breeches, and, taking my shoes in my
 
 60 Cross-Examination of Margaret 
 
 hand, lest I should rouse my father or my 
 uncle, I stole down the stairs. I glanced into 
 the living room, and marked my uncle sleeping 
 quietly upon the couch. It has ever seemed to 
 me that the face of a sleeper save when it is 
 marked by the ravages of grief or disease, or 
 distorted by drunkenness or dissipation reveals 
 that for the time the soul is absent from the 
 body ; and gone wandering, in what heaven or 
 what hell ? My uncle's face, now that he slept, 
 was white and clean as the chiselled face of a 
 Greek statue, such as was depicted in a history 
 book of my father's. The lips were curled and 
 smiling ; the weariness of years of fashionable 
 dissipation so I took the habit of his life from 
 his own words, and from the manner of the 
 man had vanished. He looked the merest lad 
 fine, cleanly, handsome. I knew then that 
 the soul of the man looked forth only through 
 his eyes, when he was 'awake ; and that, if his 
 lips were false, and his face a mask for his true 
 purpose, his blue eyes blue jewels of eyes 
 would reveal his thoughts. Looking upon him 
 then, I liked him better far better, than when 
 he had faced me on the previous night ay, 
 even when he had stirred me with the message 
 from my mother. I withdrew silently and 
 went out into the sweet air of the dawn. Mar-
 
 Cross-Examination of Margaret 61 
 
 garet espied me instantly, and, coming to her 
 door, demanded shrilly, " Well well what 
 may you be doing astir at this hour of the 
 morning ? " 
 
 44 Did no other come ashore, Margaret ? " 
 
 44 Not a soul heaven rest 'em. Your father 
 and Jeremy are down at the beach now have 
 been there half the night. And take a word 
 
 from me, my gentleman " fixing me with a 
 
 cold, keen eye. 
 
 " What is it, Margaret ? " 
 
 44 Don't go chasing after the master this 
 morn ! Not yet 1 For if I know the signs he 
 is in a sour, sour temper. And if you've been 
 misconducting yourself as I take it you have 
 been, for never is the time when you haven't 
 you may smart a bit earlier in the morning thar 
 you're thinking." 
 
 44 Thank 'ee, Margaret," said I, 44 I'll be taking 
 your advice." 
 
 44 And now you're wanting coffee, hey ? 
 Well, come in by the fire a bit. Where's the 
 young fellow ? and what's his name ? " 
 
 '" His name's Scorne Roderick Scorne, Mar- 
 garet. He was ship's boy on the Indus. He's 
 asleep in my bed," following her into the 
 cheerful cottage. 
 
 Early as it was, the room was spick and span.
 
 62 Cross-Examination of Margaret 
 
 The fire blazed on the hearth ; the kettle 
 bubbled and steamed. The pewter and the 
 brass on the shelves shone like so many mirrors 
 in the dancing flame. I seated myself in 
 Jeremy's chair in the chimney corner, and re- 
 garded Margaret reflectively, while she poured 
 coffee from a bubbling pot into a mug for me, 
 and drew a lump of ship's biscuit from a crock. 
 I was all eagerness to question Margaret con- 
 cerning my father's past ; and yet, boy as I 
 was, my father's principle of reticence restrained 
 my babbling tongue. Old and tried servant of 
 our family, as I knew Margaret to be, I should 
 have had no purpose to question her regarding 
 my mother, save for a desire hi me to know 
 more of my mother desire that was yet keener 
 than my sense of the fitness of the interrogation. 
 While I gulped down my coffee, and crumbled 
 my biscuit, I watched her setting herself to the 
 kneading of dough for a batch of loaves. 
 
 '* Margaret," I said at length, " did ye know 
 much of my Uncle James in England ? " 
 
 She shot me a sharp and sudden look, and 
 paused from the kneading. " Well ? " she de- 
 manded. 
 
 " Well, he's a fine gentleman, isn't he ? " 
 
 " And who," snapped she, " ever said he 
 wasn't ? "
 
 Cross- Examination of Margaret 63 
 
 44 So you knew him in England, then, Mar- 
 garet ? " 
 
 44 I'm not denying it." 
 
 44 Tell me, Margaret, what did my father and 
 he quarrel about ? " 
 
 44 Never," said Margaret glibly, " have I 
 meddled with the business of my betters or 
 elders " with a wag of her head at me. 
 
 44 But you must have known, Margaret," I 
 feinted. 
 
 "If you're so anxious to know, ask the 
 master ! " cried she, with an air of finality. 
 
 44 Oh, he wouldn't tell me ! But, Margaret, 
 if you won't " 
 
 44 And I won't ! " said she, plunging her 
 hands into the dough. 
 
 L4 Well, Margaret, tell me why my father came 
 away here with me without my mother." 
 
 She withdrew her hands instantly ; and dust- 
 ing them with flour, came towards me. She 
 peered at me, with her head on one side, 44 And 
 who," she said, 44 has been telling you this ? " 
 
 44 Why, I heard my uncle talking to my father, 
 of course Margaret, dear, won't you tell me ? 
 Why is it ? Surely my father must love my 
 mother ? Why, she's the loveliest lady in all 
 England, my uncle says ! " 
 
 I saw then that old Margaret had grown
 
 64 Cross- Examination of Margaret 
 
 strangely white, and that her eyes burnt, as if 
 they reflected the leaping flame on the hearth. 
 She said no word, but stared at me. 
 
 " If my mother is so beautiful," I pursued 
 my question, " why did my father leave her ? 
 Was he unkind to her ? Wasn't she nice to 
 him ? Margaret, she's as good as she's beauti- 
 fulisn't she ? isn't she ? " 
 
 The pewter mug splashed on the hearth stone ; 
 she paid no heed. Ere I knew it she had her 
 apron to her eyes ; and for the first time in my 
 knowledge of her, she was weeping. 
 
 " Margaret, dear old Margaret," I said, lean- 
 ing towards her, " won't you tell me ! Father 
 won't ! He'll flog me, if I ask. But I want to 
 know ! I must know, Margaret ! Why are we 
 here, and she in London ? Why won't my 
 father go to her, as my uncle wants him to ? " 
 
 She said then, shakily withdrawing the corner 
 of her apron from her reddened eyes her nose 
 red in sympathy " You mustn't ask me, 
 Master Dick. Only I'll say this just this ! 
 That your father's hard ; but he's good and 
 brave. And your mother your dear mother 
 is as good as she's beautiful. And that I've 
 prayed all these years that your father would 
 take you back to England to her." 
 
 " But why doesn't my father love her ? "
 
 Cross-Examination of Margaret 65 
 
 " Oh, Master Dick, he does 
 He doesn't seem to 1 " 
 
 " Not to you ; no, not to you. Only a woman 
 could guess that. But he's never ceased to 
 love her ; no one could." 
 
 " But why did they quarrel, Margaret, for 
 they must have ? " 
 
 44 Master Dick, some one lied that was why." 
 
 " Some one ? who ? was it my Uncle James ? 
 Why don't you tell me ? " 
 
 She said no word, but snivelled still. And in 
 her very silence I was answered. 
 
 My uncle ! Assuredly I had known all the 
 while it was the fine, handsome gentleman, my 
 uncle ! And that was why, for all his graces 
 and his purring, I had not liked him, as he would 
 have me like him. And that was why, his false- 
 ness, even to me, looked out of his blue eyes.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 WE GO FISHING 
 
 MARGARET declared presently that she required 
 fish for breakfast. With all this company, 
 grumbled she, as she wiped her eyes and I sat 
 staring at her, she did not see how the stores 
 would last out. And when I ceased from wast- 
 ing good coffee, and pestering her with questions, 
 and spoiling her batch of loaves, maybe, I'd 
 rouse that lazy young dog upstairs, and try to 
 make myself and him of a little use. I fled 
 before the storm, knowing Margaret. I had 
 learnt enough. I was weary of the turmoil of 
 my thoughts. The prospect of a pull in a little 
 boat that we had in a cove to the leeward of 
 the island, and mayhap of a swim in one of the 
 deep pools in under the rocks, in company with 
 Roderick Scorne, was alluring enough. The 
 sun was high now, and the air was already sweet 
 and warm. And looking up, as I came out 
 from the hut, I saw that Scorne was astir, for 
 
 66
 
 We go Fishing 67 
 
 he was staring out of the open window. I 
 waved my hand up to him, and called, " I'm 
 going for a swim, and to try to get some fish. 
 Will you come ? " 
 
 " Of course," he answered. " But where's 
 my trousers ? " 
 
 " You'll find some duds of mine hanging on 
 a peg ; boots with them. They ought to fit 
 you. Your clothes won't be dry yet. But 
 throw down my coat, will you ? It's on the 
 chair." 
 
 He slung my jacket down ; and I put it on. 
 1 took the lines from where they hung ; and a 
 few boiled mussels from a pot of bait. I waited 
 then for Scorne. Margaret, her nose yet red, 
 and her looks frosty, stood with a mug of coffee 
 and a biscuit for his refreshment ; and when 
 he came, a whit tightly clad in my garments, 
 she snapped, " Well, my lad well ? So you're 
 alive, still, hey ? " and, pushing mug and bis- 
 cuit into his hands, she shut the door upon us. 
 
 " No one else ashore ? " he asked, gulping 
 down the coffee. 
 
 " No one yet. There may be some of them 
 left on the wreck, unless it's gone down 
 
 " It was slipping off the rock when we got 
 away in the boat," he answered dolefully. 
 " We're going down to look I take it."
 
 68 We go Fishing 
 
 " No," I answered decidedly, " we aren't." 
 
 " Why not ? " he demanded. 
 
 " Well, you've tasted a rope's end, haven't 
 you ? " 
 
 " I have," squirming uneasily. 
 
 " That's why. If we go I'll get something 
 warm. My father's down there with his man ; 
 and I've got orders to keep away ! At least I 
 think it wiser. We'd better get the fish that 
 Margaret wants." 
 
 " Oh, very well," he answered, swallowing 
 down the last of the coffee ; and poking a 
 lump of biscuit into his mouth like a quid of 
 tobacco. " I'm ready." 
 
 " Take an oar, then," I said. " One of the 
 boats is down to the leeward of the island. 
 Now come along ! " 
 
 Shouldering the oars then, we tramped off 
 together Margaret crying a warning to us to 
 keep within the cove talking amicably enough ; 
 I telling him of our life on the island ; ex- 
 plaining that my father remained there because 
 he desired it, and preferred it to London 
 whereat he stared at me, as well he might ; 
 speaking of my uncle's coming in search of us ; 
 and of our possible return. I gathered from 
 him that his father had been a mate on a mer- 
 chant vessel, and had been drowned in its wreck
 
 We go Fishing 69 
 
 off the Goodwin Sands on the English coast, 
 ten years before ; that his mother lived on a 
 small independence in Devon ; and that her 
 brother had persuaded her to send him up to 
 London to the school from which he had run 
 away. He had recovered from his exposure of 
 the night before, save for bruises taken when 
 he was rolled on the shingle. I took it that he 
 had led a dog's life on the Indiaman ; and that, 
 save for the shock of the drowning of the men, 
 he could feel little personal grief. I liked him 
 well. I liked the clean health of him, and his 
 easy carriage ; his handsome head with its 
 curly black hair ; his bright eyes, and the 
 laughter that rose so readily to his lips. He 
 was a year older than myself, I found ; and 
 the authority of his greater age and infinite 
 experience led him speedily to adopt an au- 
 thoritative tone with me. 1 resented it ; yet I 
 condoned. 
 
 From the dwelling we climbed over the ter- 
 race of flat rocks toward the hollow that lay 
 on the top of Wild Dog Island as a dead vol- 
 canic crater. Reaching the highest point we 
 looked out over the island. South-west the 
 Dog's Tooth was bare to the morning sun, 
 glistening with brine. About its base the rollers 
 
 of the Straits surged mightily, and at times the 
 
 B
 
 70 We go Fishing 
 
 spray obscured it in a glistening white cloud. 
 There was no sign of the wrecked vessel at its 
 base, but we could mark many black objects 
 floating on the sea wreckage, but no sign of 
 boat or raft, or of any survivor. Once we 
 espied the figures of my father and his man 
 Jeremy, moving over the rocks, with boat 
 hooks in then* hands, and Pitch, the dog, run- 
 ning beside them. 
 
 " What's that place ? " Scorne demanded 
 presently, pointing to a great mass of cliffs 
 beyond Dog's Tooth, that marked the edge of 
 No Man's. 
 
 " No Man's Island." 
 
 " Why do you call it that ? " he asked. " Be- 
 cause nobody lives on it ? " 
 
 " Yes. And because nobody's ever been 
 near it. If you got caught in the current that 
 runs between it and Dog's Tooth, you'd get 
 swept under the cliffs and drowned. That's 
 even in fine weather." 
 
 He nodded, and turned to look over Wild 
 Dog. The morn was clear and fine. The sun 
 rode white in a dazzling blue sky ; and the sea 
 was the same blue as turquoises, shining with 
 many gems of light. From the rain, the lank 
 grass and the fern under our feet were fresh 
 and green ; the whole pasture of the cup was
 
 We go Fishing 71 
 
 vivid green, till it passed down through the 
 break in the crater to the lower ground, where 
 a scrub of stunted gum and wattle stood out 
 as a blue-grey cloud. To the east of the island 
 lay a little cove, almost shut in by yellow 
 rocks, and save for the long waves that came 
 in slowly and broke in creamy spray at the 
 cliffs on its other side it was comparatively 
 placid. The cliffs went down abruptly there to 
 terraces of yellow rock, over which the swell 
 foamed lightly. The rocks held many pools of 
 a right depth for bathing. Save for the ap- 
 proach to the landing place the rocks were 
 hedged about with infinite tangles of kelp, that 
 rose and fell with every wave of the sea, 
 like some drowned thing. It was late October, 
 and, in a sheltered space below the edge of the 
 bowl, the grey puffins, having come in great 
 clouds before the storm, were assembled for 
 the nesting season. That promised sufficiency 
 of provender. The ground would speedily be 
 honeycombed with their nests ; there would 
 be fresh eggs and the fat young for eating. 
 These young birds were taken in dozens ; plucked, 
 squeezed for oil, split open and pickled in barrels 
 of brine. A fine and savoury dish they made 
 like fat mutton, soused in brine and oil. 
 
 At the very first sight of us, making our
 
 72 We go Fishing 
 
 way nigh their nesting places, these birds rose 
 up in clouds, screaming shrilly, and flapping 
 about us as if to drive us off. We passed by 
 them, and made our way speedily across the 
 springing, spongy turf towards the cliff above 
 the bay. My father and Jeremy had cut a 
 flight of steps down the side, where a great mass 
 of cliff had parted and crashed upon the terraces 
 of rock ; and, climbing down, we came out pre- 
 sently upon the smooth yellow pavement. It 
 was littered with the wrack of last night's 
 storm. It was strewn with fragments of drift- 
 wood ; bladder-sewn kelp like corked nets ; sea- 
 weeds purple, crimson, orange, white, and 
 blood-coloured ; dead crabs with branching 
 claws ; shells of opal hues. Flinging down 
 the oars by the boat drawn high out of reach 
 of the sea, and crying to Roderick to be^ heard 
 above the wash of the surf and the scream of 
 the sea-fowl, " Yonder's the pool if you want 
 a swim; leave your duds here;" I led the 
 way to my favourite bathing place. 
 
 We were stripped presently ; and, racing 
 naked, the pair of us across the terrace under the 
 full blaze of the sun. The pool was like a tank 
 cut out of the solid rock. It might be fifty feet 
 wide, and twice as long : at no part was it 
 more than four feet deep. It lay under the
 
 We go Fishing 73 
 
 sun as a pool of crystal. Through its clear 
 waves played little fry, red and azure and gold ; 
 crabs scuttled over its sand, and broken pearl 
 shells littered it ; anemones flowered in crimson 
 and blue ; and the seaweeds bloomed. With 
 the sun warm upon us we plunged into the 
 chill waters ; splashed noisily, and swam about 
 joyously, emerging presently, dripping and 
 gasping, to lie basking awhile in the sun, and 
 then to plunge again. Thus we spent a quarter 
 of an hour, it might be, till, recollecting that 
 Margaret waited for her fish, and that we had 
 no time to waste. I cried out to Roderick, " We'd 
 better get back and try the lines," then raced 
 him across the terrace. 
 
 Aglow then we tumbled into our shirts and 
 breeches ; and between us pushed the boat 
 over the rollers set for it down to the water's 
 edge. Shut in from the full force of the sea, 
 the cove was comparatively placid, and the 
 rollers came in slowly, so that we launched the 
 boat easily, and rowed out on the waters of the 
 cove. We put a little off shore, till we had 
 come out over a reef, where, I knew well, we 
 should find our fish. I dropped astern the 
 rock that we used for anchor ; baited the lines 
 with mussels ; and we set, the pair of us, to 
 fishing. Roddy had the advantage of me
 
 74 We go Fishing 
 
 speedily. He drew up his line with a red and 
 silver cod flapping upon it ; and he caught 
 three or more rock-cod of a fat girth, and a 
 spiny flat-head, ere I pulled up my first a 
 miserable shrimp of a leather-jacket, which I 
 flung overboard again. All this while we were 
 talking, the two of us, of our lives, he of his in 
 England and on the Indiaman, and I of the 
 years spent on the island and of the prospect 
 of our return to London. I liked the fellow 
 more and more. This was my first friend my 
 first companion of my own age. And never 
 again, I knew, would Wild Dog Island be the 
 same for me ; never again would I be content 
 to remain on it, after he had sailed away. That 
 my father would but return to London ! That 
 his old quarrel with my mother, which, I now 
 knew well, had been the work of my Uncle 
 James, might be at an end ! 
 
 We had a dozen more rock-cod and flat-head 
 flapping and gasping hi the bottom of the boat 
 ere I thought of return. I cried out then, 
 " We'll get back home, or Margaret will have 
 a word to say to us ! " 
 
 Accordingly we pulled up the anchor, and 
 lay to the oars, purposing to return at once. 
 But folly came our way folly that was to end 
 in a change of all our fortunes, and of my life
 
 We go Fishing 75 
 
 on Wild Dog Island. We marked an object 
 floating at the very entrance of the cove, flung 
 up and down by the heavier wash of the sea. 
 It was a great wooden chest, broken loose from 
 the shattered Indiaman, and bcrne in by the 
 sea containing we knew not what treasure of 
 garments or food for us. 
 
 "D'ye see that chest there, Roddy ? " cried 
 I, pointing to it, when first my eyes set on it. 
 " I wonder what's in it. It's off the India- 
 man. Shall we make a try for it ? " 
 
 " It's not safe," he growled. " We may get 
 caught in the sea and sucked out. " We'll get 
 ashore ! " 
 
 I have told that his age made him dictator 
 over me, and that I resented it, for all my 
 liking for him. That weighed with me now, 
 and I cried, " We'll have the chest first. I want 
 to see what's in it." 
 
 " It's not safe," he repeated, with a flash of 
 his eyes, and a tightening of his lips. 
 
 " You're afraid," sneered I, and, though he 
 blazed defiance for answer, he merely fell to his 
 oar, and rowed with me out towards the chest. 
 Laughing, though unoasy for the sucking in and 
 out of the sea at the heads of the cove, I set 
 myself to my oar and speedily had pulled nigh 
 to the chest. It seemed to evade us. Borne
 
 76 We go Fishing 
 
 thus far in by the sea, it was floating out once 
 more in the receding tide. The gulls screamed 
 warning to us ; the rollers on either side of 
 the heads cried peril. Tugging at our oars as 
 the boat rocked, we sent it speedily after the 
 chest. 
 
 It seemed then that we were caught in the 
 maw of the sea ! The waters roared hoarse 
 threats ; a great wave swept in to swallow us. 
 And, ere we knew, the boat was gripped and 
 borne out from the cove after the chest. We 
 had no time save to cry shrilly, the one to the 
 other, to hold to the oars. We were sucked 
 into a very whirlpool at the gates of the cove. 
 The sound of roaring waters was sudden, and 
 fit to strike terror to our hearts. 
 
 My oar, rotted with age and the sea waters, 
 snapped suddenly in the rowlock. We were 
 spun round in a sick and dizzy whirlpool. My 
 heart stood still with terror, for I believed that 
 in an instant we should be overturned, and 
 flung into the sea, and borne in on the rocks, 
 and sucked to drown by the undertow. I 
 marked then Roddy Scorne crying out some- 
 thing that was lost to me, and struggling from 
 his seat to the stern of the boat to affix his oar 
 as tiller to steady us. The oar was plucked 
 instantly from his hand. A great wave bore
 
 We go Fishing 77 
 
 us out on its crest. And ere we knew, we were 
 through the narrow, storm-washed entrance to 
 the cove ; and oarless, helpless, carried forth 
 into the open sea. We were gripped in a 
 current sucked out we knew not whither.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 ADRIFT 
 
 IT had all come so suddenly that I had scarce 
 time to pass a word to my companion. I cried 
 out to him now, clinging to the stern of the 
 boat, " We've done it ! " 
 
 He answered back, grinning bravely, " You 
 have ! We'll have to swim for it ! " 
 
 " What chance ? " I roared out. " We'd get 
 smashed under the cliffs. We've got to keep 
 her afloat. There's a plank at your feet. Try 
 to steer with it. I'll bail." 
 
 Snatching up a tin dipper then, I fell to 
 bailing madly, while he, grasping the plank, 
 affixed it, and brought her head round so that 
 she might ride clearly in the current. We were 
 being torn out of the waves that broke heavily 
 at the entrance to the cove. I marked the 
 rocks at either side stand up, yellow and mon- 
 strous, through the foam of the sea breaking at 
 their bases. I was sick from terror and the 
 
 78
 
 Adrift 79 
 
 whirling of the boat. But we were running 
 easily, now that he clung to the makeshift tiller ; 
 and the current was bearing us on, as if we 
 had been in a rushing river. We were off 
 shore soon, and carried at an ever widening 
 angle from its surge. The turmoil of breakers 
 and the screams of the sea fowl were dying 
 out, we raced so speedily. 
 
 Plying the dipper, I had the boat clear soon 
 from water that had washed into her, as we 
 were sucked between the heads. She rode 
 more lightly, and thus was borne on the more 
 swiftly. That gave me space to think ; and 
 my thoughts terrified me the more. This cur- 
 rent I had never known this current ; but it 
 seemed we were borne about the island toward 
 the Dog's Tooth, and No Man's. Assuredly 
 we were heading that way, and at a great speed. 
 Instantly I dropped the dipper, and crawled 
 towards Roderick, who was still clinging to 
 the plank at the stern of the boat. 
 
 " Roddy," gasped I, " we're in the current 
 going towards No Man's. If we can't get her 
 out, we'll be carried right in under the rocks." 
 
 " I thought so," he muttered. " They may 
 see us, though, from the island." 
 
 11 There'll be no time to get to us, if they do, 
 looking at the pace we're going at. Can't you
 
 80 Adrift 
 
 can't you bring her round. Out of it, I mean 
 not if I help you ? " hoping that we yet 
 might get her clear from the current despite 
 the loss of the oars ; and into the open sea that 
 would carry us back to Wild Dog Island, or 
 enable my father to reach us in the larger 
 boat that lay by the landing place below the 
 house. 
 
 " I've been trying. The current's too strong. 
 There's not a chance ! Give me a hand and 
 see!" 
 
 Instantly I gripped the plank with him, and 
 sought to direct the boat to the edge of the 
 current. The plank was almost forced from 
 my hands. The boat's head shifted a little, with 
 the one result that she rocked violently, as if 
 she would upset ; and the spray broke over us. 
 We knew upon the instant that it was hope- 
 less. We were caught in the deathly grip of 
 the racing current, and must be swept inwards 
 to our drowning in the broken water amid the 
 rocks off No Man's Island. I looked shoreward 
 then. I marked the house standing grey above 
 the red-brown cliffs ; the smoke blown inland 
 from Margaret's chimney. I could make out 
 the cleft in the rocks, where the first beach 
 lay. My father and Jeremy should be there. 
 I screamed out cry on cry ; I snatched my
 
 Adrift 81 
 
 shirt off my back, and waved it in the hope 
 that they might see. All this while Roddy 
 clung to the plank and kept the boat racing clear. 
 
 Shouting and waving still, I sought to attract 
 the attention of my father and the rest sick 
 for the terror of our plight ; and for the know- 
 ledge of what awaited us. The sea-gulls and 
 the puffins wheeled and screamed above us. 
 The sea was dazzling blue, and all aglitter with 
 sunlight, save for the green racing current, and 
 the white caps of water upon its surface. The 
 Dog's Tooth came up through a haze of flying 
 sea fowl. The din of the birds became deafen- 
 ing. I cried out to Roddy, " They don't see 
 us ! They'll never hear ! " but for the clamour 
 of the puffins and the gulls, and the hoarse roar 
 of waters, I could not tell whether he heard 
 me. He answered nothing back, but clung 
 bravely to the plank, still sending the boat 
 racing clearly. 
 
 Now we were in a line with the Tooth. Peer- 
 ing that way I could make out nothing of the 
 wreck at its base, save that the sea beyond the 
 current was spotted with floating fragments 
 from it. The sight of the wreckage struck me 
 with a keener realisation of our peril. As all 
 the ship's company save two had drowned, so 
 must we drown ; and our bodies be sucked
 
 82 Adrift 
 
 into the whirlpool. And I screamed out again, 
 and waved my garment toward Wild Dog. 
 Only the puffins and the gulls screamed in 
 answer, enveloping us now in a grey cloud ; 
 wheeling about us, dipping into the sea be- 
 yond the current for fragments of food from 
 the wreck. The rollers about the Dog's Tooth 
 roared in menace. The cloud of birds grew 
 thicker thicker still. It shut out the very 
 sun. The puffins were flying in thousands 
 about us, coming from the sea towards the 
 nesting places of Wild Dog, and the sur- 
 rounding islands. I had seen them come so, 
 year after year, in great clouds ; and I had 
 welcomed their coming, for they meant fresh 
 eggs, and the tender flesh of the young birds. 
 But now they robbed us of whatever chance we 
 had of being noticed from the shore, and 
 rescued from the current. I yelled at them 
 savagely ; they whirled about us still. Their 
 strident cry was louder in its volume than the 
 sound of the sea ; and the combined flapping 
 of their wings was as the beating of Death's 
 pinions. They spun ; they seemed to dance 
 a rigadoon upon the air ; they shrilled at us 
 with the very voice of the sea. 
 
 The speed at which the boat was being swept 
 forward was increasing. The water was broken
 
 Adrift 83 
 
 with reefs, which to my disordered thoughts 
 were as so many snapping teeth. The roar of the 
 sea was hoarse and unending ; and growing loud 
 as the clamour and flapping of the birds. At 
 times, through breaks in the cloud of their 
 whirling wings and bodies, I made out the red 
 lines of the great cliffs to the left of us, going 
 high ; and shut out then by the birds as in a 
 mist. The boat rocked and bobbed, like a 
 float upon a fishing line. I gave up hope then 
 of rescue from the current. I thought only of 
 the fate that awaited us in the whirlpool below 
 No Man's Island. I was glad that I was not 
 alone. The thought of Roddy with me was 
 strength to me. If he had not been with me 
 clinging still to the plank at the stern of 
 the boat I must have flung myself down and 
 shrieked in the very abandonment of terror. 
 I crawled towards him, believing that the end 
 was nigh. 
 
 " We're under the rocks of No Man's now," 
 I screamed in his ear, to be heard above the 
 roll of the sea, and the cries and flappings of 
 the puffins. " We haven't a chance ! " 
 
 He answered steadily, " I'm sorry for you, 
 Dick. But we may get through." 
 
 " No hope," I cried. " I'm sorry, Roddy ? it 
 was my fault. Good-bye ! '*
 
 84 Adrift 
 
 He smiled back at me. His face, I saw, was 
 white as death, but his eyes were brave. Hold- 
 ing still to the plank with his right hand, he 
 stretched out his left to me ; but while I yet 
 gripped it, as I knelt beside him, the plank was 
 twisted suddenly from his fingers, and the boat 
 spun round as in a very maelstrom. And we 
 were clinging together at the stern of the boat, 
 sick with the whirling ; blinded with spray ; 
 deafened by great waters. How the waters 
 boomed like the sea washing into the pot holes 
 beneath the cliffs, but magnified into an endless 
 roll of mighty sound ! I believed then that 
 the end was come ; and the chill hand of death 
 seemed to touch my very heart. 
 
 And yet for all the turmoil ; for all the 
 whirling, we were afloat. It seemed a very 
 eternity ere the boat was plucked forward. 
 Suddenly the light that I yet realised through 
 all the blinding spray and rush of waters was 
 blotted out ; suddenly we were merged in dark- 
 ness. I thought to feel the waters closing over 
 me. I prepared to make a struggle for my 
 life. The booming sounds, as the wash of great 
 seas under the honeycombed rocks, such as I 
 had heard many a time from the elm's of Wild 
 Dog Island, were now terrific ; deafening to 
 ears and brain. All at once we were flung
 
 Adrift 85 
 
 violently forward in the drenching break of 
 spray. The boat crashed under us, groaned, 
 remained fast. Eire I knew it I had leaped to 
 my feet ; and was racing forward, hand in hand 
 with Roddy, up a slippery terrace of rock 
 mounting steeply through the darkness towards 
 a twinkling star of light.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 ON NO MAN S ISLAND 
 
 THE seas roared after us. The spray washed 
 at our backs like chill showers of rain. The 
 walls of the cavern into which we had been 
 flung, gave forth thunderous sound. Still we 
 raced forward, going together higher yet toward 
 the guiding star of light. We were safe soon. 
 We were stumbling through a deep, dry bed 
 of sand. The light shining in lit up great 
 walls, snow white for the droppings of the 
 sea fowl. Suddenly turning a curve we came 
 out into the full blaze of light, that, striking on 
 our salt-dimmed, smarting eyes, blinded us for 
 the moment. We fell together weakly then 
 into a bed of fine white sand and skeleton-kelp. 
 
 " We're safe, thank God we're safe," cried 
 Roddy joyously. " We've got through, and 
 all." " 
 
 " Ay, but we're on No Man's Island, I take 
 it," I muttered, rubbing my eyes, " and how 
 we're going to get back 
 
 86
 
 On No Man's Island 87 
 
 But I broke off, for my heart swelled with 
 gratitude to Heaven that had preserved us 
 mercifully from drowning. I was sick and 
 weak still for the terror of our recent peril, 
 and for a while I lay gasping by Roddy on the 
 sand. Suddenly I felt him start up, and grip 
 my arm, as he cried, " Look ! " 
 
 I stood up then, leaning on his arm for very 
 weakness. I saw that we stood at the entrance 
 to a tunnel which pierced the cliffs encircling a 
 deep bowl like a crater. We were about thirty 
 feet from the bottom of the bowl ; and above 
 us rose on every side, it seemed, white cliffs 
 going up to a height of it might be two hundred 
 feet or more. The crater was filled with glis- 
 tening white sand and salt crystals ; but a 
 little below us rested high and dry the hull of 
 a great ship a ship of some red timber, mount- 
 ing at the stern into high turrets. Its port- 
 holes were like the sockets of so many eyes. 
 It seemed crumbling with the years. And from 
 its form I knew that I looked upon the skeleton 
 of some proud Spanish galleon, come seeking 
 new golden empires for the King, and wrecked 
 and stranded here in some terrible tempest 
 centuries before, to rot in the white bed of 
 sand. Yet how should it be shut in on all sides 
 by the cliffs, with the seas gone from it ? Later
 
 88 On No Man's Island 
 
 I was to understand how it came piled up there ; 
 as yet I was filled with wonder ; and my chief 
 thought was to get down and examine it. My 
 mind was coloured rosily with thoughts of 
 treasure ; such as the old voyagers told of in- 
 gots, doubloons, and gems and the notion 
 drove from my brain all thought of the peril 
 which we had evaded, and all my dread lest 
 we should not be able to escape from the grim 
 stronghold of No Man's Island. 
 
 " Come on," cried I. " Let's get down and 
 have a look at it ! It's a Spanish galleon ; I 
 know it by its build." 
 
 " A Spanish galleon ! " he cried derisively. 
 " Why, how should a Spanish galleon come 
 here ? There was never anybody in Australia 
 before the English: Captain Cook and Bligh 
 in the Bounty, and all those fellows, they tell 
 us of at school." 
 
 " Haven't you ever heard of De Quiros or 
 De Torres ? " I asked, vaunting my know- 
 ledge. " Why, the Spaniards were out here 
 years before ; so were the Dutch and the Portu- 
 guese. We English weren't the first by a long 
 way ! " 
 
 " How the deuce are we going to get down ? " 
 he asked, point ing doubtfully to the cliff, which 
 seemed to descend sheer for thirty feet.
 
 On No Man's Island 89 
 
 " We'll have a try," all eagerness I answered. 
 M Come on ! " and walking from the mouth of 
 the cave I went out on the terrace of rock in 
 the glaring sunlight. At once we roused a very 
 cloud of shrieking gulls from their nests. Their 
 eggs lay in little pot holes in the rocks ; and 
 the reek of dead fish greeted our nostrils foully. 
 The sea fowl squawked, and flapped about us, 
 and flew at us with beaks and wings, to drive 
 us back. We waved them off with our arms, 
 and emerged on the very edge of the terrace 
 above the sand. The bottom of the bowl 
 below us glistened white with sand and dead 
 pearl shell, crumbled to powder. And then I 
 marked that there were little ledges on the 
 face of the cliff for the space of twenty feet or 
 more down which we might find a foothold ; 
 so gripping the edge of the cliff I commenced 
 to descend. The rocks were slimed and gummed 
 with fish scales, dropped by the birds ; and 
 when I was about ten feet down, my feet slipped 
 suddenly, and, ere I knew, I had gone flying 
 down into the deep, soft bed of sand. I fell 
 upon my back, and the shock drove the breath 
 out of me for the moment, but the sand broke 
 my fall, and gasping, presently I stood up 
 unhurt. Roddy, climbing more carefully, 
 reached the lowest ledge and then dropped,
 
 90 On No Man's Island 
 
 landing on his feet, and sinking to his knees in 
 the sand. 
 
 " Are you hurt ? " he asked, and I shook my 
 head cheerfully. " I'm right enough," I said. 
 " Now for the galleon ! " 
 
 We commenced then to struggle over the deep 
 bed of sand. It was dry and piled loosely, and 
 we sank in it at every step we took. Little 
 puffs of sea-wind, sweeping in by the tunnel, 
 tinkled across it with the sound of tiny jingling 
 instruments. We went so slowly that it was 
 nigh half an hour or more ere we approached 
 the hull of the great ship. 
 
 It towered above us built of some red wood, 
 and preserved soundly in that dry place for all 
 the centuries that it must have rested there. 
 It was caught in the fangs of a brown jutting 
 reef, that had crushed in its planks and held it 
 there securely from sinking in the sand. Its 
 timbers gaped in places ; but for the most part 
 it was sound, save for the piercing of its bottom 
 by the reef. Its red sides were splashed by 
 the sea fowl ; and the sea fowl rested within it ; 
 for at our coming a cloud flew out shrilling, 
 and flapped about us. Its masts were gone ; 
 but its great figure-head it had been white and 
 gilded, for a little paint still showed upon it 
 was intact. It was the figure of a woman
 
 On No Man's Island 91 
 
 nude to the breasts, and clad thence in a won- 
 drously fretted garment, all little suns and 
 flowers still faintly carved, with bronze nails 
 set in them for jewels. The green marks of the 
 mouldering nails ran down in streaks like paint. 
 Above the head of the woman was a crown like 
 a sun a crown of bronze that no doubt had 
 been polished till it blazed on the sunlit days of 
 sailing on the Main ; but it was now blackened 
 and corroded, and sent down drippings of green 
 that imparted to the face the hues of a dead 
 woman. There had been vermilion on the lips ; 
 for, staring up at it, I marked a little smear yet 
 left in their parting. The name of the dead 
 galleon was blotted out ; all shreds of rope 
 were gone ; but over the side appeared a wreck 
 of spars, rotten and broken with long years of 
 decay. The turret at the stern was gaping with 
 the storms of centuries, and the port-holes and 
 cabin windows were empty, or shut with round 
 discs of greened brass. Marvelling and silent 
 we walked about the vessel stranded thus high 
 and dry in the mysterious crater seeking the 
 means of climbing up its steep sides and mak- 
 ing our way on board. We found the means 
 presently. A rusting ladder of iron hung over 
 the side a little above our heads ; a part cor- 
 roded and broken lay at our feet ; but, though
 
 92 
 
 we leaped to catch the lowest rung we could not 
 reach it. 
 
 " Climb on my back,'-' said Roddy then, and 
 at the word I climbed to his shoulders ; and 
 lifting myself gripped the lowest rung. It 
 was secure and held me, and presently I drew 
 myself up on to it. I leaned down then, 
 and, succeeding in catching his hand, I aided 
 him to struggle up after me. The next instant 
 we had climbed the ladder, and were passing 
 over the broken bulwarks on to the galleon's 
 deck.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 GALLEON OF SPAIN 
 
 THE deck was comparatively sound in parts 
 still, though it was splashed and stained by the 
 sea birds ; in places the planks had started from 
 the seams, and had rotted away into dangerous 
 holes. But, picking our way, we found the 
 main part of it firm enough under our feet, and 
 we stepped towards the companion way. The 
 metal rails were broken and fallen ; and, passing 
 down the steps, we found the way closed by 
 a metal-studded door. We dashed ourselves 
 against it ; and the rotting woodwork parted, 
 and opened ; but instantly so foul a reek came 
 up, as sickened us, and warned us that, until 
 the fresh air had flowed in, we might be over- 
 come by poisonous gases. We retraced our 
 way to the deck. It was clear save for broken 
 splintered spars, and masses of dust that seemed 
 to have been wicker baskets. A huge pistol, 
 brown and green with age, lay near the little 
 
 93
 
 94 Galleon of Spain 
 
 cabin that rose like a low tower nigh the stumps 
 of the mainmast. The doors of the cabin were 
 closed ; and the windows sealed with thick 
 discs of mica or horn, green with the moulder- 
 ing of the brass about it. Intent on discovery 
 we flung ourselves together against the door ; 
 and instantly it parted and crashed down. 
 Again came the escape of foul gases, and we 
 went sickly back. But not ere we had caught 
 a glimpse of what was within. Absorbed with 
 the strangeness and the terror of our discovery 
 we dared advance presently and peer in. 
 
 The cabin was lit with a faint green light from 
 the blurred windows, and the sun coming in 
 through the broken door. It had a central 
 table in it ; above it a swinging lamp wrought 
 curiously in yellow porcelain and bronze. At 
 the table a figure sat in a great carven chair 
 a figure that might seem the very presiding 
 spirit of the dead galleon and for the moment 
 it bore a curious semblance to life. Its shrivelled 
 face was turned towards us ; its beard was 
 yet upon its chin, its moustachios curled and 
 pointed ; its hair curling about its shoulders. 
 We marked the outlines of the proud Spanish 
 face, ere, at the full coming in of the air, it 
 seemed to change suddenly and die to dust. 
 The hair and beard floated away like ash before
 
 Galleon of Spain 95 
 
 the draught ; the face grinned horribly at us 
 shrivelled, mummified, decaying speedily in 
 the air. The body had worn a splendid cloak 
 of blue and gold colours that seemed to fade 
 before our very eyes, and cloth that shrivelled 
 on its form, and fell to powder about it. It had 
 a draggled ruff about its neck, a rust-spotted coat 
 of mail and leather upon its breast ; its legs 
 were hidden from us by the table. Before it 
 a decaying book was open a book it seemed 
 of some devotions, for the dead man's claws 
 lay between the parting of the leaves. There 
 were metal rings lying loosely on the outspread 
 fingers rings that seemed of old gold, and had 
 dull red and green jewels in them, and pearls 
 like the eyes of dead fish. Across the table 
 rested a naked sword the hilt having on it 
 curious figures of ivory, and little knobs of gold ; 
 and a huge pistol, inlaid with metal and chased 
 beautifully, lay beside it. Slipping forward we 
 nigh tiod upon a figure lying prone and staring 
 up at us, as if in grisly mockery the figure of 
 a l)ig man clad in coarse seaman's rig, now 
 falling to powder ; sea boots upon his legs ; 
 great earrings of gold in his shrivelled ears ; 
 and a bangle of corroded green metal about his 
 wrist. And in the bare bony fingers of his 
 right hand lay a great knife with an ivory handle,
 
 96 Galleon of Spain 
 
 telling, it seemed, that he had purposed all those 
 years before to kill him who sat at the table's 
 head with the book before him. A brazier con- 
 taining a grey ash and blackened fragments of 
 charcoal, and an infernal reek of sickly spices, 
 seemed to tell how the Spaniard in the blue coat 
 had come to his end, and why the bodies had 
 not rotted years before, and why the foul 
 gas had poured out at us from the sealed 
 cabin. 
 
 It had been a rich place ; k was a rich place 
 still. It had fragments of blue and gold tapestry 
 hanging by the windows, and blowing away like 
 ash flakes ; it had a deep blue cushioned couch 
 set in the wall. It was lined with panels of 
 rosewood painted yet in parts, some of them, 
 with little golden suns, and twisted fish of 
 azure and vermilion. Books and decaying 
 things lay on the cabin floor ; a broken goblet 
 of green glass ; a huge flagon of silver chased 
 with figures of men and monsters, all blue- 
 black with age. Opposite to the couch was a 
 large chest of a black wood, bound with grey 
 strips of metal and studded with brass, and 
 inset in places with little suns and figures of 
 silver much as the Eastern chest that was in 
 my father's house on Wild Dog Island. Look- 
 ing in, we for a tune said not a word I, awed,
 
 Galleon of Spain 97 
 
 for the sight of the dead figures, for I had 
 never looked on death before, and Roddy star- 
 ing wide eyed, and pale faced. 
 
 " Years ago," I muttered, looking down on 
 the mouldering skeleton by my feet ; " done to 
 death years ago ! And lying there all this 
 time 1 " 
 
 41 1 wonder who they were ? " said Roddy. 
 k- I suppose they left the ship's log or some 
 papers to tell what ship it was, and where they 
 came from." 
 
 "A Spanish galleon," I affirmed. "There's 
 a picture of a Spanish galleon in a history book 
 of my father's. She's built just like this ship 
 one of the galleons of the Armada. This ship 
 may have come from Peru. My father said the 
 Spaniards sailed this way sometimes hundreds 
 of years ago. She may have great treasure 
 aboard Inca's treasure." 
 
 44 And what became, I'm wondering," he said, 
 44 of the rest of the crew ? " 
 
 '" Got away by boat, belike 
 
 " And left those two here eh ? " 
 
 '' We'll have a look round the island pre- 
 sently. Maybe we'll find some traces of them. 
 But first of all I'm going to have a look at 
 what's in that chest." 
 
 We p;isscd round the table then ; and my
 
 98 Galleon of Spain 
 
 foot struck suddenly against an ancient ink 
 horn, set in silver props like claws. A feather- 
 less quill, I noticed too, was stuck among the 
 pages of the book. Beneath the table I marked 
 some scattered sheets of parchment. Stoop- 
 ing, I picked them up, and held them to the light. 
 They had been inscribed in curious characters 
 in ink, but they were mouldering, and the ink 
 had faded almost away. No letters were dis- 
 cernible, so that if they bore the story of the 
 galleon and the fate of its master and crew, 
 they must be silent for ever. 
 
 We set fingers then on the black chest. A 
 curious key remained still in the lock ; but it 
 was not turned, and we lifted the heavy lid 
 without difficulty, though it broke away in our 
 hands. And then we started back for the 
 sudden blaze of colours that came forth ; and 
 the sickly reek of spices that smote our nostrils 
 vilely. The chest was about three parts full of 
 little leather bags, one or two burst open, and re- 
 vealing stones that were blood red as the summer 
 sunset, and blue as the summer sea, and green 
 as the spring. There was a curious collar of 
 gold, stamped all with tiny suns ; and the rays 
 of each sun bore a little shining red gem, and 
 the disc of each sun was set with a milk- 
 white pearl. There was a rosary with a
 
 Galleon of Spain 99 
 
 crucifix of heavy yellow gold, and each bead of 
 yellow gold ; a dagger with the haft ablaze 
 with little blue jewels that I took to be sap- 
 phires, like the other uncut gems. Rubies and 
 emeralds and sapphires ; gold in the bags, in 
 tiny nuggets, in dust; gold in solid ingots be- 
 neath the upper layer of skin bags ; and little 
 packages of spices. 
 
 " Roddy," gasped I, " there's a king's ransom 
 here in the box. Rubies the blood-red stones 
 are rubies, and the blue stones sapphires ; and 
 the green are emeralds I think. Roddy, it's 
 all ours if we get away safely 1 " 
 
 For the space of a quarter -hour or more we 
 would not leave the jewels. We lifted some of 
 the bursting bags on to the cabin table, and 
 poured out the glittering stones, and the golden 
 knobs and dust. We ran our fingers through 
 our treasure. We held up the red and blue 
 jewels against the light, so that they shone like 
 little lamps. We dragged ourselves away with 
 difficulty, I only taking the dagger and Roddy 
 the rusty Toledan rapier from the table. Truly 
 for all our youth the lust of this wealth was on 
 us the very lust that had destroyed the lives 
 of the two figures in the cabin, and mayhap 
 many an Indian and soldier and sea dog of 
 Spain. Glancing at the seated Spaniard fear-
 
 100 Galleon of Spain 
 
 fully, as we passed out into the air, it seemed to 
 me that his jaws grinned at me, and that his 
 dead eyes gleamed from their cavernous sockets. 
 The air was sweet and fresh after the foul 
 gases, and the reek of spices in the cabin ; and 
 we drew it in hi great gulps. Oppressed for 
 awhile as by some sinister influence of the 
 spectres hi the cabin, we said scarce a word, but 
 peered back nervously, and paused faltering 
 awhile. 
 
 I said at last, " Shall we have a look what's 
 up in that tower in the stern of the ship ? Or 
 have you had enough of it ? I'm feeling a bit 
 sick " 
 
 He answered, " We may as well have a look 
 first, I suppose." 
 
 In silence then we climbed over the decaying 
 deck ; it crumbled at times perilously beneath 
 our feet ; and it was foul with dead fish, and 
 the litter of the sea birds, that flew up at our 
 coming. We picked our way by the wreckage 
 of the mainmast, and came to the foot of an 
 iron ladder leading up into the high turret. We 
 nigh trod upon the dust of a grim thing lying 
 at its very foot the outline of the skeleton of 
 a man, flesh and clothing long since vanished, 
 and yellow skull and bones grown into the rot- 
 ting decks, with two corroded rings of metal
 
 Galleon of Spain 101 
 
 marking where the ears had been. Stuck in the 
 deck still like a nail was the rusted blade of a 
 sword, hilt and haft broken away. Shuddering 
 at the sight we climbed up the ladder to the 
 narrow slip of upper deck; and looked in by 
 the open door of the round house. The door 
 had rotted from the hinges. The glass was gone 
 from the windows. All was littered and be- 
 spattered by the sea-fowl. The dust of three 
 skeletons rotted by the table, which had de- 
 cayed and fallen ; a rusted pistol was lying by 
 the door, and the head of an axe. There was 
 no shred of cloth left in the place ; the sea 
 chests and the bins were broken open and 
 seemed empty. The panels of the walls had 
 peeled away, and the woodwork was rotten, 
 and pierced, and it creaked at our footsteps. 
 
 Sick for the sight and the reek of fish that 
 rdcd with the spirit of death upon the dead 
 galleon, I had no thought then save to leave 
 the vessel. I gasped to Roddy, " Let's get out 
 of this vile place ! All the gold and jewels in it 
 won't make up for it, if we die on the island. 
 We've got to get off somehow 1 Let's get 
 away ! " 
 
 Instantly then we scrambled down the ladder 
 and across the deck. The sea fowl screamed 
 
 resentfully, as if they had been the wraiths of 
 4*
 
 102 Galleon of Spain 
 
 the dead Spaniards. We scurried from the ship, 
 and, climbing down the ladder, dropped to the 
 sand below. All the lust of wealth had gone 
 out of us. The sight of death weighed our 
 spirits down. My one thought I take it 
 Roddy's too was to escape from the dreadful 
 crater, and, climbing to the heights of No Man's 
 Island, discover what hope we had of rescue.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE MYSTERY OF TIIE SEA BELL 
 
 THE sand impeded our passage to the cliffs. It 
 shrilled and tinkled, as if enchanted, and the 
 little puffs of air sounded musically across it. 
 It was so soft and packed so lightly that we 
 sank to our knees in it at every step we took. 
 The sun blazed down upon our bare heads, 
 blistering our skin. The sea birds wheeled and 
 clamoured over us. Thus it must have been 
 nigh an hour, ere we dragged our weary limbs 
 from the galleon to the flat terraces of rock that 
 lay beneath the cliffs. Looking back as we 
 rested once, toward the space through which 
 the galleon had been swept by the waves, I saw 
 that the way had once been open, but with the 
 wash of rain the cliffs had fallen in, and great 
 loose masses of rock lay tumbled loosely to- 
 gether to form the roof of the tunnel through 
 which we had passed. 
 
 Coming at last to the terraces, we fell down 
 
 103
 
 104 The Mystery of the Sea Bell 
 
 and rested for very weariness, saying nothing, 
 but gasping, and sweating, and sick for the 
 blazing sun that smote down directly into the 
 crater. The rocks went up sheer to the height 
 of two hundred feet. No foothold showed, and, 
 looking about us, we could perceive no means 
 of escape from the prison, save by the tunnel 
 through which we had entered. We heard the 
 sea still thundering into it afar, and still the 
 puffs of air came tinkling across the sand and 
 dead sea shell. 
 
 At last, muttering to Roddy, " We must get 
 on and see if there's a way out ! " 1 staggered 
 to my feet, and moved slowly round under the 
 cliffs, seeking a means of scaling the cliff, he 
 limping after. So for the space of a quarter of 
 an hour or more we continued our search. The 
 beat of the sun made me dizzy ; I parched for 
 water ; my tongue seemed glued to the roof of 
 my mouth. My lips cracked ; and my eyes 
 were smarting with salt and dazzled with the 
 yellow glare of the sun on the sands. Afar the 
 galleon seemed to flicker through a thin grey 
 smoke. 
 
 And then we came to a point where the face 
 of the cliff was broken. By the long wash of the 
 rain the side of the rock had cracked and parted 
 in great masses ; and slid down, forming a
 
 The Mystery of the Sea Bell 105 
 
 steep ascent, that, though perilous, might yet 
 be scaled. Above us I marked a fringe of grey- 
 green grass, and long ropes of creepers swinging 
 from the cliff. In silence still, for we were 
 wearied out, we commenced blindly to scale 
 the face of the cliff. The sea fowl were nesting 
 in the crevices of the rocks, and rose up startled, 
 till the air was rent with their shrieks and the 
 beat of their wings. Hugging the face of the 
 rock we climbed slowly, I going first, Roderick 
 at my heels. At times a rock would part, and 
 go down with a sweep and rattle of rubble, 
 whereat the outcry of the sea fowl would be 
 redoubled. The time that we spent in the ascent 
 seemed infinite. The sweat fell from me in 
 trickles ; and thirst consumed me like a fever. 
 Yet we climbed without pause, not looking 
 down, for the sight must have made us dizzy. 
 At last a long green rope of creepers smote my 
 face ; I plucked at it, and found it firm enough 
 to bear my weight. Gripping the creepers then, 
 we scaled the last space of the cliff, until we 
 were upon its very edge ; and it seemed that 
 the green cap of the island swam up to meet us. 
 My senses reeled, and I fell forward on my face 
 on the very edge of the cliff, and Roddy tumbled 
 by my side. 
 
 I know not how long we lay there, the two
 
 106 The Mystery of the Sea Bell 
 
 of us sick and dazed and gasping. The sun 
 smote down upon our bodies pitilessly. But at 
 last I sat up, and found Roddy lying by my 
 side ; and at my touch he stirred, and together 
 we sat silently looking out dimly on the island. 
 We were on a wide green ledge, broken with 
 jutting pillars of rock, through which the blue 
 of the sea shone dazzling. At about a mile 
 away I made out Wild Dog Island stretching 
 below us ; and I could mark the very curl of 
 smoke blown from the chimney of Jeremy's hut; 
 ay, and I could mark, too, the great fang, the 
 Dog's Tooth, and the lines of broken water that 
 rolled between the reefs, lying between us and 
 the island. 
 
 We rested in a tangle of green grass and rushes 
 many feet above the sea. No Man's Island, I 
 made out, was many miles in extent. To my 
 left I could perceive a scrub of wattles and 
 stunted gums, where the heights descended to 
 the lower ground ; but all about the island 
 was broken water, and the thunder of the surf, 
 creaming upon the rocks, came to us without 
 cease. Dazzling blue sea, rocks of white and 
 orange colour they swam and flickered in the 
 heat that fevered my brows ; and I felt that 
 if I did not find water, I must go mad of the 
 thirst. But the rain that had fallen in the
 
 The Mystery of the Sea Bell 107 
 
 night was all dried up with the blaze of the 
 sun. I staggered to my feet, and, motioning to 
 Roddy to follow me, I crept forward through 
 the rocks that stood up in a circle about us 
 like a ruined temple. And suddenly I heard 
 the stroke of the bell that had sounded to me 
 across the water so many nights on Wild Dog 
 Island. It was nigh at hand. Its voice was 
 loud and clear. It guided our footsteps in- 
 stantly ; and emerging from the circle of rocks 
 I perceived it suddenly. It rested on a great 
 bar of iron that its weight had bent; set upon 
 two round stones. It swung slowly, as if its 
 clapper were plucked by ghostly fingers ; gather- 
 ing momentum until the clapper struck against 
 its side, and it gave out its sound. It was a 
 huge ship's bell of copper, green and corroded 
 with years. I perceived, as I stood beneath it, 
 that it was adjusted cunningly upon two rocking- 
 stones, that rolled very slowly. The wearing of 
 the iron had cut great grooves in the basalt, so 
 that the bar on which the bell rested had sunk 
 down gradually till the rim almost touched the 
 ground. I perceived that it was so adjusted 
 that it would catch fully the wind coming 
 singing up over the cliffs, and, on nights of 
 storm, when the gale rode tempestuous, it 
 would ring loudly. I took it that it had been
 
 108 The Mystery of the Sea Bell 
 
 hauled up with ropes from the galleon, by the 
 shipwrecked sailors, and that it hung there as 
 a signal, that might warn a passing ship if, 
 indeed, any should come into the uncharted seas 
 those centuries ago that men were on the 
 island. If there had been another signal a 
 flag, a sail, or a garment set on a staff it had 
 vanished long ago ; but still the bell hung 
 upon the rocks, when all the galleon's crew 
 were dead and gone ; and still it rang like a 
 ghost of a ship's bell on nights of storm. 
 
 The breeze blowing up freshly from the sea 
 revived us somewhat. But still we were parched 
 with thirst, and had no heart for speaking or 
 for aught, save to find water. We left the bell, 
 therefore, and commenced painfully to move 
 from the green cap of the island down towards 
 a tangle of scrub that should cloak the running 
 of a stream. A gully of green foliage lay 
 between the cliff on which the bell was set, and 
 a yet higher cliff, mounting to the east to a 
 thin, glistening pinnacle.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE SAND DUKES 
 
 THE way was easy now. We went down by a 
 grassy slope, burrowed by the puffins for their 
 nests. We saw no sign of water, nor any trace 
 of the vanished occupants of the island. We 
 passed speedily into a waste of sand, bound 
 lightly by grasses with vivid blades edged like 
 razors, and by bracken fern. We lost sight 
 of the sea, as we entered a narrow defile sand 
 piled against the base of the cliffs to our left, 
 great hills of sand to the right, as blown up 
 from the sea. We passed down to the bottom 
 of the defile, for it resembled the dry bed of a 
 stream, and I hoped that in it we might find 
 a pool of water. But, save for the grass, the 
 fern, and clumps of a reddish-brown bush, the 
 bed was dead and dry. Fragments of decaying 
 sea shells oysters and mussels glistened on 
 the sand ; and a few bleached pebbles lay at 
 intervals. Lizards, grey and blue, quivered in 
 
 100
 
 110 The Sand Dunes 
 
 the sun ; and, starting at our coming, vanished 
 like streaks of light ; and once a great snake 
 passed hissing in a very line of flame. The 
 sea birds called from the cliffs high over our 
 heads ; but there were none in the sand dunes. 
 Flies assailed us in swarms, one bush was like 
 a green jewel with tiny beetles ; and swallows 
 flittered twittering before us. The sun struck 
 down directly into the dead stream bed ; the 
 sand seemed molten, and all things flickered in 
 waves of heat. The way to the scrub became 
 more desolate ; the ferns and grass vanished ; 
 and there was nothing to bind the sand save 
 the red brush. We went on for about a quarter 
 of a mile, ere I turned to look back at Roddy. 
 He came plodding after weaker than I from 
 his bruises and the exposure of the night before. 
 His eyes seemed filmy and glassy to me ; his 
 face was burnt brick-red, and his breath came 
 in gasps from his parted lips. 
 
 " Roddy," cried I, " can you go any further ? " 
 *' Of course I can," he muttered bravely. 
 " I'm going to find water, not stay here and 
 parch." 
 
 " But you look deucedly sick, man." 
 " Not sicker than you ! " he answered, with a 
 sudden feverish burst of anger. " If you can 
 do it, I can."
 
 The Sand Dunes 111 
 
 But for all his brave words, I saw that his 
 strength was cruelly overtaxed. I went to his 
 side at once, and took his arm, and led him on. 
 We were moving down all this time toward 
 the scrub that should cloak a creek. The sand 
 was stained with iron in little pits, that once 
 had held water. The ground seemed damper, 
 for the ferns and rushes reappeared, and their 
 green was painted by patches of crimson heath 
 and clumps of monkey plants of gold, mottled 
 with brown. Little blue wrens flew from bush 
 to bush before us, and many musical voices 
 sounded ahead. The dead stream bed winding 
 suddenly brought us to the very fringe of the 
 scrub, which rose before us like a green wall. 
 I saw that it was a dense tangle of wattles, 
 thorns, and dwarfed lightwood ; but the stream 
 bed seemed to pierce its depths; and I had 
 hopes that we might not find it impenetrable, 
 and that within it we might speedily discover 
 water. The shade of the scrub was merciful 
 after the yellow glare of the sand dunes. It 
 revived us both ; and we had strength enough 
 to force our way down the stream bed into the 
 depths beneath the trees, despite the thorns 
 that caught our garments and tore our flesh. 
 The place was all alive with tiny birds. At 
 times the density was broken with little open
 
 112 The Sand Dunes 
 
 patches, that were painted with the blood and 
 gold colours of the heath and the orchids. The 
 air was rent with the shrilling of insects ; and, 
 despite the shade, was thick with heat, though 
 we were spared the blaze of the sun as on the 
 sand dunes ; and no breeze came. Panting 
 and sweating, we struggled on, buoyed up only 
 by the thought of water. 
 
 It seemed that long ago the Spanish sailors 
 from the galleon had come that way. Lying on 
 the dead white rocks of the creek bed, I found a 
 little cup of brass, corroded, but still whole. 
 I picked it up, and showed it to Roddy, saying, 
 " That shows there's been water here once, at 
 any rate, doesn't it ? " 
 
 He said not a word in answer, but he nodded. 
 His breath coming in gasps alarmed me, and I 
 pushed on. I judged that long ago the scrub 
 had been cut through by the sailors ; and that 
 it had grown back since ; still for the most 
 part the way was open, and we had little diffi- 
 culty in climbing down the cliff bed. Yet, so 
 broken and weary were we, that it seemed that 
 the way would never end ; and that we should 
 perish of thirst, after having escaped the perils 
 of the sea. But suddenly I fancied that nigh 
 at hand I heard a tinkle, resembling the wind 
 passing over the sands about the galleon. I
 
 The Sand Dunes 113 
 
 paused an instant, and, hearing it more clearly 
 defined, I screamed out to Roddy, " Water 
 there's water nigh," and then raced forward. 
 And so 1 found it. 
 
 It was in the very heart of a little ring of 
 green grass, shut in by the tangle of scrub. It 
 was at the intersection of the dead creek bed 
 with the stream that came tumbling down from 
 the higher ground above the scrub. The water 
 flowing over the pebbles collected in a great jar 
 of earthenware, now three parts filled with silver 
 sand, but still containing enough for me to 
 dip up the bronze cup full for Roddy. For 
 myself, I knelt down by the bowl that the 
 Spanish seamen had placed there all those long 
 years ago, and lapped the water like a dog.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE VOICES AND THE FOOTSTEPS 
 
 THE draughts of sweet cold water gave new life 
 to us ; but we were wearied out from the long 
 march and the terror through which we had 
 passed. Therefore we lay for a time resting in 
 silence on the strip of green turf by the stream, 
 and hearing it sing its way down to the sea; 
 and all about us rose the wall of green. Save 
 for the twitter of the birds there was no clear 
 sound ; the surf breaking upon the shore below 
 us was nigh shut out, and resembled only the 
 dull passing of the wind afar. The light leaked 
 in through the green roof above us in bars of 
 yellow gold. 
 
 It may be that the comparative silence and 
 the seclusion of the place oppressed me, or the 
 Indiaman's fate on the preceding night ; or 
 the melancholy thoughts that my uncle had 
 aroused in me ; or sheer physical weariness 
 
 114
 
 The Voices and the Footsteps 115 
 
 from the sufferings of the morning. This much 
 I know, that over me crept presently a sense 
 of chill and gloom, as if the place itself inspired 
 it. The surge of the sea below was burdened 
 with melancholy. The notes of the birds were 
 like so many voices speaking thinly in the 
 scrub. The golden bars of light paled, as 
 though the sun was passing behind a cloud. 
 The place became a dull green a green dark- 
 ness. I felt as if it were haunted by the spirits 
 of the dead mariners ; and, peering fearfully 
 forward, while Roddy lay at my side asleep for 
 sheer weariness, I believed that I could hear 
 footsteps coming down the way that we had 
 come. I thought to see them in ghostly file 
 bearing beakers for the water black, bearded 
 men in seamen's rig ; coloured and spotted 
 swathes about their heads ; rings of metal 
 jingling in their ears ; high sea boots on their 
 legs. Assuredly the scrub grew silent, save for 
 the shuffle of their footsteps, and the low mutter 
 of their voices. 
 
 I was overwrought. I could not lie silently 
 and rest. I gripped Roddy's shoulder, and 
 starting up, I cried, " Come on ! Let's get out 
 of this place ! It's haunted by the seamen 
 from the galleon ! " 
 
 He muttered drowsily that he would stay
 
 116 The Voices and the Footsteps 
 
 there and rest, till, more fully awake, he noticed 
 my scared face, and grinned at me. 
 
 " Ghosts, eh ? " he said. " So you're scared 
 of ghosts ! " 
 
 " Roddy," I muttered, " I know I'm a fool. 
 But there's something about this place. Some- 
 thing evil like there was aboard the galleon. 
 Roddy, there may have been murder done here. 
 Listen, you can hear the footsteps ! " 
 
 He had ceased to grin. I saw his face pale 
 suddenly, as he listened. I saw him lean 
 forward, his fingers on the hilt of the rapier 
 gripping it, even as I gripped the jewelled 
 dagger. The very birds had ceased to pipe ; 
 but the footsteps shuffled, and the voices mut- 
 tered. Instantly we leaped to our feet, and 
 taking to our heels we ran down the green tunnel 
 that seemed to lead to the sea. To my dis- 
 turbed brain it seemed that the voices cried 
 out after us lifeless voices without emotion ; 
 yet voices and that footsteps came pattering. 
 To this hour I cannot guess the explanation, 
 save that a current of air pierced the tunnel, 
 and stirred the sands, and gave whispering 
 voices to the leaves. I only remember that I 
 was shaking with terror, and that Roddy was 
 as scared as I, while we ran on. The thorns 
 tore our flesh, and ripped our garments. The
 
 The Voices and the Footsteps 117 
 
 path grew so narrow, and so much overgrown, 
 that we were compelled presently to drop upon 
 our knees, and wriggle through the dead under- 
 growth. We dreaded lest we move upon some 
 venomous reptile in the dead leaves ; yet the 
 murmur of the voices about the stream seemed 
 the greater peril. We were crawling now like 
 two serpents upon our bellies so dense was the 
 scrub about us. At times we were caught in 
 brambles, and held, as if beyond the power of 
 ever extricating ourselves. We must have 
 spent nigh an hour in wriggling up the dry 
 tunnel for the stream had long since dis- 
 appeared into the ground, and the hill slope 
 constantly ascended. The murmurs about the 
 watering place had died out there was no 
 sound save of our passage through the scrub, 
 and, if we paused awhile to breathe, the sullen 
 murmur of the sea. 
 
 The scrub was slowly opening out. We could 
 stand upon our feet once more. The light came 
 in dazzling, and nigh blinded us, so that we were 
 compelled to go on with downcast eyes. The 
 turf was green beneath our feet again, save where 
 the heaths stained it with blood coloui and 
 the orchids were blue or orange. The scrub 
 gave place to an avenue of tree ferns, standing 
 ups traight like palms, their trunks of ochre
 
 118 The Voices and the Footsteps 
 
 brown, the fans of their leaves and their croziers 
 yet to unfold, as if cut from emerald. The 
 ground was spongy under our feet ; and the 
 blazing sun made the place steam as with a 
 tropical heat. The sweat fell from us in thick 
 drops, and our thirst returned. The birds 
 darted from fern to fern before us like streaks 
 of flame colour, or of azure blue. My feet sank 
 at last into soft mud, and brown water filled 
 the hollow instantly. We knelt down, and 
 pressing back the rotting fern trunks, we lapped 
 up the water ; but it was tainted with decay, 
 and sickened us. We did not stay to rest, 
 thinking only to gain the seashore, and hoping 
 that there we might find the means of attracting 
 my father and the rest on Wild Dog, so that 
 our rescue from the island might be accom- 
 plished. Therefore we went on steadily among 
 the ferns at tunes sinking to our, knees in the 
 soft mud, and having great difficulty in pulling 
 ourselves out. Still we covered the treacherous 
 boggy place, and made our way gradually up 
 to the higher ground. The tree ferns gave 
 place to wattles and stunted gums, and the 
 spongy turf to stone that rang beneath our 
 feet. And presently we came beneath cliffs of 
 sandstone, going fifty feet above us. The 
 water splashed down from the rocks like rain,
 
 The Voices and the Footsteps 119 
 
 and the face of the cliff was bearded with green 
 moss and ferns. Still the ascent of the cliff 
 was easy, for it had broken away in places, and 
 the fallen stone was bound with a tangle of 
 roots that formed a ladder for us. Gasping, we 
 drew ourselves up, and surmounting the edge we 
 found that we were immediately below the 
 highest point of No Man's Island the white 
 cone that I had noticed from the cliffs on which 
 the bell hung. The wind had almost died under 
 the heat ; and a grey haze was drawn like a 
 veil over the sea. I could descry Wild Dog 
 Island dimly. I could make out the line of 
 pillars of rock, that had one time united it 
 to No Man's. The sea boiled through them now 
 with thundering noise, and clouds of spray ; 
 but thence the Straits lay open. On the other 
 hand we looked down from a sheer cliff to the 
 shores of No Man's Island that had been pre- 
 viously hidden from us. The cone, that formed 
 the highest point of all the cliffs, descended 
 sheer into the sea. In the opposite direction 
 it seemed the lower cliffs extended for the 
 space of half a mile ; but beyond that they 
 descended abruptly into a wide bay, the sands 
 glistening in a silver semicircle about it; and 
 the spray leaping over reefs which guarded the 
 entrance.
 
 120 The Voices and the Footsteps 
 
 \, 
 Then we looked down on the scrub through 
 
 which we had come. The haze lay over it 
 ghostly. It stirred at times drowsily with the 
 quivering ah-. The foliage was all a deep green, 
 unbroken a deep cloud of green, caught in the 
 haunted place.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 NIGHT ON NO MAN'S ISLAND 
 
 " RODDY," cried I, turning to him, as he lay 
 at my feet ; "it looks as if we'd never get 
 out of this place. No boat could come from 
 Wild Dog." 
 
 14 It serves no purpose waiting here," he 
 answered. " Let's get down to the shore, if 
 we can, at any rate. It's getting late about 
 three o'clock, I should fancy. It looks as if 
 the water was pretty clear down in that bay. 
 Has any one ever reached the island that 
 way ? " " 
 
 " Not m our time on Wild Dog. My father 
 and Jeremy dreaded the current too much." 
 
 " There may be a chance of their landing 
 there. But we ought to give them a signal to 
 let them know we're here. If we could only 
 make a fire. That scrub down there would be 
 in a blaze in a minute. That would show them 
 we're here." 
 
 121
 
 122 Night on No Man's Island 
 
 " Get some of that rotten wood, and break it 
 up," I answered. " I've got flint and steel and 
 tinder-box here in my pocket. I stuck them 
 there last night, when I lit the fire." 
 
 " That's lucky," he said, laughing a little. 
 " We'll have such a blaze as will scorch the 
 ghosts out of that hollow, anyway." 
 
 He set himself to collecting dry sticks, and 
 grinding them into powder. 1 struck the spark, 
 ignited the tinder ; and, puffing at the tiny 
 pile of matchwood, presently had it ablaze. 
 Roddy had climbed a little way down the cliff, 
 and returned presently with a bundle of fern 
 leaves. Igniting them in the fire, we dropped 
 the blazing masses over the cliff into the scrub 
 below, and the fern leaves, falling like torches 
 into the dead brush, kindled it instantly. The 
 place broke into flame that leaped up the side 
 of the cliffs, as if to scale them. It caught the 
 great masses of parasitic creepers ; it licked 
 away the fern leaves ; it sent the smoke up like 
 a cloud. Choking and gasping we drew aw r ay, 
 and, knowing that we had kindled such a signal 
 as must be seen from Wild Dog, we commenced 
 to pick our way down the cone of rock to the 
 terraces of the cliff below. The way was not 
 difficult. We were tramping presently over the 
 hot, sun-baked cliffs descending terrace by
 
 A T ? ght on No Man's Island 123 
 
 terrace towards the bay. Turning back at 
 times, we saw the pillar of smoke ascending 
 mightier and mightier still, and heard the roar 
 of the fire, that now resounded more loudly 
 than the drums of the sea beaten at the bases 
 of the cliffs. Ere an hour was passed we had 
 reached the last terrace. The sun was com- 
 mencing to descend into the west. The smoke 
 made the haze thicker, and the disc of the sun 
 was becoming red and angry ; but the bay 
 below was a dazzling, glittering blue, and the 
 sands formed a half -moon of silver. There was 
 a line of reefs across the mouth, and the sea 
 rolled upon it in foam ; still the line of waters 
 was not complete, and it seemed to me that a 
 passage ran between the reefs that, save in time 
 of storm, should afford the way for a boat. 
 And I marked with rejoicing that there was a 
 litter of wreckage on the beach, sucked in, I 
 took it, from the Indiaman barrels floating, 
 and stranded spars and ropes. There should be 
 the material for a raft, and we should be able 
 to float out from the island, if the passage 
 between the reefs were clear, when the sea 
 went down. 
 
 The way to the beach presented no further 
 difficulties to us ; and it was well, for we were 
 worn out with our tramp, and sick with hunger.
 
 124 Night on No Man's Island 
 
 Our thirst came back to us, and we had only 
 a little drop of water in the bronze cup which I 
 had caught from the face of the ferny rock, and 
 which we proposed to save lest we found no 
 water near the shore. The last terrace de- 
 scended easily to the beach. It was all agleam 
 with silver sand and many coloured shells, and 
 patches of purple and saffron and green sea- 
 weed ay, and it was littered hi places with a 
 tangle of wreckage, and broken food from the 
 wreck. No bodies of the drowned I rejoiced 
 that there were no bodies of the drowned. 
 Spars, and ropes, and planks, and barrels for 
 a raft ; brine-sodden biscuit for food in plenty ; 
 if we but found water, we should be secure for 
 the night ; and at dawn of the following day 
 we might set about building a raft to float off 
 No Man's Island. Famished, we snatched up 
 some of the sodden biscuit and swallowed it for 
 all its salt ; and we were compelled to drink 
 the last drop of water, to stay our thirst. That 
 gave us heart ; and seeing that the beach shelved 
 gently, and there was no danger of undertow, I 
 called to Roddy, strolling along the beach and 
 searching the broken wreckage, " Come in for 
 a swim. It'll set us up again," and I flung off 
 my garments, and made for the sea. It was 
 joyous to splash in the chill water after the
 
 Night on No Man's Island 125 
 
 heat of the day. He following me, we lay in 
 the warm shallows and let the surf break over 
 us until refreshed we made our way back to 
 the beach. We dressed, save for our shoes and 
 stockings ; and, Riling our pockets with biscuit, 
 we commenced to walk barefooted along the 
 shore. 
 
 It was now late afternoon. The sun was a 
 vast stain of blood in the clouding west, and the 
 responsive sea was blood -colour. The very 
 gulls wheeling out over the waters were tinged 
 with the red reflection. The silver sand extended 
 for about half a mile to high sandstone cliffs ; 
 the beach was fringed with rushes and a scrub 
 of ti-tree, loaded with its pink and white 
 scented blossoms. Beyond the ti-tree the thicker 
 scrub stood like an impenetrable wall painted 
 green, and shutting us in. The fire yet blazed 
 afar, and the smoke rose densely above the 
 cliffs. At first I took it that by now my father, 
 and my uncle, and Jeremy Otter had put off 
 in the sailing boat, seeking an approach to No 
 Man's Island ; but, remembering then its grim 
 repute with us, I knew well that the current 
 would deter them from approaching the island 
 so late, and that they would not put out far, 
 nor seek to come about it to the lower shore 
 Uiat night. We must be content therefore to
 
 126 Night on No Man's Island 
 
 remain on the island till the morning ; and, with 
 the thought of the voices and the footsteps about 
 the crystal spring, I dreaded indeed the coming 
 of darkness. We left the sand at last, and, 
 pulling our boots on our blistered feet, we 
 commenced to pick our way over the rocks below 
 the cliffs. Pools of salt water gathered in the 
 terraces as in tanks, and we found therein an 
 abundance of oysters and mussels. I pulled 
 my kerchief from my neck, and dragged a 
 sufficiency of shell fish from the rocks and filled 
 it, so that we might have them for the evening 
 meal. But now our one thought was water. 
 
 Fate played for us, for at one break in the 
 rocks, where the green grass and shrubs de- 
 scended over the edge, a little stream fell ; and 
 gathered in a pool. We drank our fill rejoiced, 
 resolving to pitch our camp nigh the stream 
 for the night, if we could find a crevice in the 
 rocks that would give us shelter. We climbed 
 over the ledge that broke the terrace, and were 
 faced suddenly with the wide arch of a great 
 cave. It pierced the sandstone walls nigh to 
 the very edge of the cliff, and ropes of creeper 
 hung over it. It was very deep, I could per- 
 ceive, and would give ample shelter. The 
 Spaniards had been there, for, at one point 
 where the terraces were broken and the wash
 
 Night on No Man's Island 127 
 
 of the sea came in, I marked a rusting iron 
 ring let into the stone, with lead poured about 
 it to secure it there, so as to hold a boat. We 
 went into the entrance of the cave then, and 
 suddenly Roddy gripped my arm, and crying, 
 " Look ! " pointed to the wall. 
 
 The white sandstone had been daubed with 
 pigments, that, though dull with the years, still 
 revealed their purpose. There was a crude 
 picture of men twenty figures or more 
 Spaniards in mail, bearing each his arquebus 
 and rapier, and Indians limned in charcoal and 
 having feathers on their heads, daubed with 
 crimson and blue. There was the picture of a 
 ship at sea a great galleon breaking upon a 
 reef; there were many curious letters nigh 
 blotted out with the decaying of the sandstone 
 wall ; there were figures of Spaniards contesting 
 together. And set amid them all was a big 
 crimson cross, standing out like a smear of 
 blood upon the wall ! 
 
 We moved yet deeper into the cave. But our 
 feet struck suddenly upon rattling bone and 
 jingling metal, and, marking the dread shape 
 lying there, I shuddered and turned sick, and 
 gripping Roddy's arm, I cried out, " Let's get 
 out ; I can't endure this place ! " I scurried 
 forth, with him at my heels. My mind was
 
 128 Night on No Man's Island 
 
 filled once more with a picture of the treasure 
 ship, manned by its Spanish crew of venturers, 
 come sailing from the Americas, and crossing 
 unknown seas, seeking ever new empire and 
 new lands of sun and gold for His Christian 
 Majesty of Spain. All these leagues from golden 
 Callao, or Vera Cruz ; all these leagues to 
 founder in this desert place ; to madden and 
 to slay for the lust of the glittering rubies and 
 sapphires and yellow gold and all to die. I 
 took it from the iron ring that they had had a 
 boat ; and that some part of them had laden 
 it with treasure, and then put to sea to perish. 
 So to this day the isle of death was haunted, 
 and no man might dwell in it. The wind 
 moaned about the cave like a ghost ; the 
 creepers waved funereally ; the sea fowl 
 screamed ; and ever the eternal sea sobbed 
 and moaned in the deep pot holes as it came 
 rolling in. The red glow of the west was 
 vanishing. A grey haze was over the sea. 
 Afar the fire that we had kindled flung out its 
 scarlet banners against the dusk. Speeding 
 back in terror from the cave, and depressed with 
 the fatigues and perils of the day, we leaped 
 across the stream pausing only to drink deeply 
 that we might not thirst again. We drew away 
 from the beach then into an open space sheltered
 
 Night on No Man's Island 129 
 
 with ti-tree. We gathered a great pile of dead 
 brush and a few spars, and built our fire. We 
 roasted mussels and dried the sodden biscuit, 
 and with them, and the oysters, we fared well. 
 Wearily then we lay together on a couch of 
 ti-tree boughs nigh the fire, talking in low voices 
 of all we had passed through that day ; and of 
 our purpose on the morrow to build a raft and 
 seek to escape from No Man's Island. 
 
 And now the darkness was come. The stars 
 were pale ; and the clouded vault of heaven 
 was haunted by the ghost of a wan moon. About 
 us the isle seemed all astir ; there were moaning 
 voices coming up from the sea ; voices hi the 
 scrub, footsteps and shufflings in the sands 
 about us. Fearfully we piled high the fire, 
 and gripped the weapons we had taken from 
 the galleon. And yet, ere I dropped from sheer 
 weariness to sleep, it seemed to me that the 
 ghosts of the Spaniards had gathered in a circle 
 about us, and muttered vengefully that we 
 had stolen treasure from the keeping of the 
 dead upon the galleon.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 WE ESCAPE FROM NO MAN'S ISLAND 
 
 THE weariness of my body meant merciful rest 
 to me. I slept without dreaming, until the 
 dawn was on the isle. When I woke the fire 
 had burnt down to a few coals ; and I was very 
 chill. Roddy yet slumbered by my side; and 
 without rousing him I rose stiffly to my feet, 
 and built the fire into a cheering blaze. The 
 dew that had fallen in the night was on my 
 garments, and I was steaming speedily, as if 
 I had been drenched with the sea. The dew 
 weighted down the branches of the ti-tree in 
 the scrub about us. The skies above us were 
 a great bowl of pearl grey, but the light of the 
 rising sun already illumined the east. I moved 
 away from the camp fire presently ; and walked 
 through the belt of scrub towards the shore. 
 The tide was high, and as yet the thin line of 
 sand made a bar of bone-white against the pale 
 
 130
 
 We Escape from No Man's Island 131 
 
 grey of the sea. The day should be fair and 
 the sea calm, for there was no breeze, and only 
 the surf broke dully on the bar across the bay. 
 Standing there in the chill of the dawn I pon- 
 dered deeply over the events of the previous 
 day, and of the night that had preceded it. 
 All the dullness wherein I had dwelt so many 
 years with my father on Wild Dog Island had 
 passed in a whirl of adventure. My mind was 
 filled with the lively personality of my Uncle 
 James, and fired with the picture that he had 
 painted for me of London ; with the thought 
 of my mother awaiting my father and me. 
 The loveliest lady in all England snow white, 
 blue-eyed, and golden-haired I had the memory 
 of her face before me now ! The memory or 
 was it but an image that my uncle's silver tongue 
 had conjured up ; and did the fair, engaging 
 vision take the place of memory ? To see her ; 
 to love her and to be loved ! To know that 
 the drear, stern life upon Wild Dog Island was 
 at an end, and that my father and she were 
 reconciled, and that we were rich ; and happi- 
 ness lay before us all. My uncle had tempted 
 me, failing my father's relenting, to get away 
 from Wild Dog and make my own way home 
 to England. But well I knew that, unless my 
 father would sail from the island with me, I
 
 132 We Escape from No Man's Island 
 
 would not leave him ; for hard and stern with 
 me, he yet, I knew it, loved me ! Ay, and I 
 loved him for the manhood of him for his very 
 contrast to my uncle, brilliant, engaging, false ! 
 And what of our treasure lying on No Man's 
 Island ? I had the dagger stuck in the leather 
 belt about my waist. I pulled it out, and 
 marked the blue fire that burnt in the jewels 
 in its hilt. Treasure there was a king's ransom 
 in the chest of gems and gold, that the dead 
 men guarded on the galleon. Ay, and what 
 secret store should be hidden on the vessel, 
 that we had not yet lighted on what shields 
 of Peruvian gold, what uncut Brazilian gems, 
 what wealth of ingots ? 
 
 I found myself wondering curiously as to 
 the effect of our tale upon my father and my 
 uncle. My father would care not a whit ; but 
 I could mark my uncle's eyes dancing like the 
 sapphires in the hilt of the dagger. Blue eyes, 
 that would leap like the summer seas ; that 
 like the sea were treacherous and false and 
 covetous. Eyes with the beauty of the sea 
 in them ; eyes with the sea's eternal menace ! 
 To recover the Spanish hoard, I scarce believed 
 that my father would care to land on No Man's ; 
 but for such a treasure I did believe that my 
 uncle would peril readily the lives of all of us
 
 ' 
 
 We Escape from No Man's Island 183 
 
 ay, and his own. But that lay in the fortune 
 of the day to come. It might be that we could 
 not escape from No Man's Island. So far as 
 I could observe from our tramp over the island 
 on the previous day, there was no approach 
 save only through the perilous tunnel, into 
 which our boat had been sucked ; and no way 
 out through the circle of cliffs except by the 
 little open bay ; and that was guarded by a 
 line of reefs. It might be that when we built 
 our raft, for which ample material lay at hand 
 in the wreckage of the Indiaman, we could 
 not float out through the passage. And failing 
 that, I did not believe that my father would 
 dare bring the boat to the shores of the dreaded 
 island. 
 
 Now the pearl grey was changed to a light 
 green ; and the sea grew green from the line 
 of the sky. Watching, I saw the green die out 
 in turn for an indigo blue, that gradually became 
 purple, and, from purple, rose colour for the 
 coming of the sun. The sun rolled up over Wild 
 Dog afar like a wheel of scarlet fire ; and all 
 the sea flamed responsive. As the crimson 
 gave place to a clear white light, and the sky 
 through the melting of the sea haze took on 
 a clear dazzling blue that was reflected in the 
 mirror of the ocean, all the sea birds woke ou 
 5*
 
 134 We Escape from No Man's Island 
 
 the rocks. The cliffs were clamorous with 
 their outcry. They flew out in clouds over 
 the waters, darting down for fish or broken 
 fragments of food yet floating in from the 
 wreck of the Indiaman. I moved down to 
 the strand, and picked up some pieces of broken 
 biscuit for our morning meal. I climbed over 
 the rocks and filled with water a little tin can 
 that had been washed up by the sea. Returning 
 then to our camp, I found that Roderick Scorne 
 still lay asleep ; and, ere I roused him, I set 
 myself to stirring the fire into a blaze, and filling 
 a little hole with mussels left over from our 
 last night's meal. I raked the charcoal over them, 
 that they might form our breakfast, and set 
 the biscuit to toast on a stone by the fire. 
 
 The sun was high now, and the glistening dew 
 was drying speedily on the ti-tree around us. 
 The isle was musical with the song of birds ; and 
 the blue wrens flitted like streaks of gossamer 
 through the scrub about us. The fire that 
 we had kindled had burnt out in the bush during 
 the night, and only a few thin spirals of smoke 
 arose afar from trees yet burning. I knew that 
 my father and the others on Wild Dog must 
 have perceived our signals, and I hoped that 
 they would endeavour that morning to sail 
 round to reach us. It was at least a consola-
 
 We Escape from No Man's Island 135 
 
 tion to know that they must have realised from 
 the fire on No Man's Island that we were yet 
 alive, and that we had achieved the impos- 
 sible, as it had always seemed to us on Wild 
 Dog, and landed on No Man's. The mussels 
 commenced to hiss and steam from under the 
 coals, and I roused Roddy. At the touch of 
 my hand upon his shoulder he started up, and 
 sat blinking at me. 
 
 " You're a lazy dog, Roddy," said I. " Here 
 have I been astir this hour or more and getting 
 breakfast, while you lay snoring there." 
 
 " Morning hey ? " said he, yawning. " How 
 did you sleep, Dick ? Did you hear anything 
 during the night ? " 
 
 " A horrible sound," said I, " when I woke." 
 
 " Oh what was it ? " 
 
 4 Your snoring," I answered, grinning. " Gad, 
 Roddy, how you snore ! " 
 
 " Don't be a fool," growled he, a whit ill- 
 tempered for having been roused. " I've been 
 dreaming half the night. Those Spaniard fel- 
 lows and what we saw on the wreck. That 
 poor devil in the cave. Dick, like you, I think 
 the isle's haunted. I woke once or twice, and 
 seemed to hear them stirring in the scrub there. 
 And their voices muttering that we'd been steal- 
 ing. I didn't dare go to sleep again for a long
 
 136 We Escape from No Man's Island 
 
 time. I'll be dam' glad to get away from the 
 place won't you ? " 
 
 " Yes and to come back and clear out all 
 that gold and stuff." 
 
 " Will you dare ? I've a queer sort of 
 notion, Dick, that there's a curse on the place 
 and the coin ; and that we'll never benefit a 
 penny piece from it. Not we, or any man." 
 
 " I'll warrant," I said laughing, though un- 
 easy for his confirmation of what I myself had 
 been feeling, " that my uncle won't feel the 
 same about it, and that he'll never rest till he's 
 cleared the treasures out of the galleon, and 
 any more that he can find. That is, if we get 
 off." 
 
 " Ay if we ever do." 
 
 " You're dull company this morning, Roddy. 
 Of course we'll get off. We'll build a raft after 
 breakfast, and float her out. It'll be some 
 time before the mussels that I've got baking 
 there are cooked. Will you come and have a 
 swim before breakfast ? It's a hot morning." 
 
 He stood up and stretched himself, yawning 
 lazily at the effort. He drank a little water out 
 of the tin, and followed me down to the beach. 
 We stripped, and bathed, and dried us in the 
 sun ; and all the weariness went out of our 
 limbs, for the chill of the sea and the golden
 
 We Escape from No Man's Island 137 
 
 heat of the morning. The sun rode glorious in 
 the heavens ; and the ocean was all a dazzling 
 blue. There was no sign yet of my father's 
 boat off the island ; so we returned to the fire, 
 and ate our fill of mussels and dried biscuit ; 
 and, rested awhile in the sun, we made our 
 way again to the beach in search of materials 
 for the raft. The sand was littered with wreck- 
 age, and we chose presently four light spars ; 
 and, cutting the cordage with our knives, we 
 bound them in the form of a square. In an 
 hour our raft lay at the water's edge, light, yet 
 sound enough, I thought, to carry us. We 
 set up a slim spar for a mast, and affixed to 
 it our jackets, that they might form a makeshift 
 sail. Shaping then a couple of planks for 
 paddles, we filled the can and the little bronze 
 cup with water ; flung into a small broken 
 tea-chest as much biscuit as we believed would 
 meet our needs, and pushed the raft off shore. 
 It floated lightly, and though, when we scrambled 
 on board it, it seemed that it would be over- 
 turned, it bore us easily enough, and, I did 
 believe, with reasonable fortune, we should find 
 the means of escaping through the reef and 
 getting out into the open waters of the Straits, 
 where, if we shouted loudly enough, my father 
 and the others on the isle would pick us up in
 
 138 We Escape from No Man's Island 
 
 the sailing boat. It would have been far safer 
 for us, I knew well, to have remained on the 
 island till they sought to reach us ; but we were 
 hot with the folly of youth, and were all anxious 
 to be away from the gloom and terror of No 
 Man's Island. The beach shelved slowly, but 
 soon our raft, forced onward with our paddles, 
 was moving outwards towards the centre of 
 the reef. The seas were now comparatively 
 calm ; yet the surf still broke sullenly upon 
 the reefs. A clear line of water lay between 
 the reefs, and thither we steered our frail raft. 
 We went slowly now, for we were caught by 
 the waste of waters breaking over the rocks, 
 and sweeping in towards the beach. It seemed 
 that we would never make the opening. 
 
 Pulling vigorously at our long paddles, we 
 still moved slowly out without disaster. If we 
 were overturned we still could swim back to 
 shore. The raft rocked and bobbed like a 
 cork. It strained beneath our feet. The noise 
 of the surf was thunderous. We averted our 
 eyes from the terror of it, and centred all our 
 energies and attention on the clear passage 
 through which the seas rolled slowly. The 
 spray splashed on us like rain, but we were 
 caught suddenly in a receding wave, and plucked 
 forward. We bent to the paddles, seeking to
 
 We Escape from No Man's Island 139 
 
 hold the raft to the centre of the passage, and 
 to escape disaster from the yellow kelp-hung 
 rocks protruding on either hand like jaws to 
 crush us. The sea racing out bore us with it. 
 The waves washed over us, and swept away 
 the chest with our store of biscuit. Ere we 
 knew, we had been pulled through the opening 
 and were out on the heaving waters of the 
 Straits. The breeze coming stiffly filled our 
 makeshift sail, and while I tended it, tugging at 
 the ropes as the sail bellied out, Roddy steered 
 with his paddle. We moved out slowly then 
 from the island. My heart swelled with 
 thankfulness to Heaven, and my lips mur- 
 mured a prayer, that, having been preserved 
 so long from destruction, we might yet be 
 saved. 
 
 Within an hour we were well off the island. 
 We could not direct our course toward Wild 
 Dog, for the breeze, though light, was too strong 
 for us. The waves washed over us, and drenched 
 us to the skin ; and the raft rode heavily under 
 us. I think that, had we not been perceived 
 then from Wild Dog Island, we must have been 
 blown out to sea and drowned, for the strained 
 raft would have slowly foundered under us. 
 But sudden over the water came the joyous 
 sound of my uncle's laughter, and from behind
 
 140 We Escape from No Man's Island 
 
 the rocks of Wild Dog, skimmed like a white 
 sea bird towards us my father's little boat. I 
 marked two figures in it my father and my 
 uncle ; and still I heard the sound of my uncle's 
 laughter. Our voices rang out then across the 
 water, " Ahoy ! Ahoy ! "
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 8TEINO OF A FIDDLE 
 
 MY uncle drew his bow over the strings of 
 Jeremy's fiddle. My father sat glowering at 
 Mm from the other side of the hearth, while I 
 lounged against the black Eastern chest. Roddy 
 already lay abed wearied out by his toils and 
 troubles of the last couple of days. I was 
 wearied, too, yet, my father not denying me, I 
 stayed up awhile to listen to my uncle, although 
 the hands of the clock crept on towards mid- 
 night. 
 
 Never had the personality of my uncle so 
 enthralled me as on that night. He had become 
 possessed of Jeremy's little fiddle, from which 
 the man was wont to produce shrill squeakings ; 
 he had charmed it to give out magical airs, albeit 
 Jeremy had never made more than dismal 
 music out of it. lie had told many a merry 
 tale and jest, with an infinite wit and point ; 
 at times, pausing from the recounting of some 
 joyous adventure, he would fall to playing an 
 
 141
 
 142 String of a Fiddle 
 
 air that fitted curiously the spirit of the tale. 
 He told of London ; and I conjured up London, 
 with fine buck and lady fair to grace it. He 
 told of India ; and the strings stirred like the 
 palms, or sighed like lovers in the scented 
 dusk ; he told us of, and he tempted from the 
 fiddle, the haunting Eastern music that he had 
 heard. Of the relations in which he stood 
 with us he had uttered not a word, while Roddy 
 remained with us indeed, I did observe from 
 his occasional questioning of Scorne that he 
 regarded him as a mere cabin boy, and fitter 
 company for Margaret and Jeremy Otter than 
 for ourselves. It needed, indeed, close per- 
 ception to understand the fineness of my uncle's 
 sneer, and the condescension of his patronage ; 
 but I perceived Roddy wince under it, and for 
 the time I hated my uncle, until, by a sudden 
 change to grace and elegance and wit, he had 
 again enthralled my fancy. But for all his 
 patronage of Roderick, my father would have 
 the lad with us. I had told him Roddy's story 
 during the day; and that weighed with him. 
 Roddy therefore took his place with us, and 
 not with Otter and his wife ; and I did believe 
 that the lift of my uncle's brows, when Roddy 
 sat down with us, occasioned my father a 
 certain grim satisfaction.
 
 String of a Fiddle 143 
 
 I had marked from the time I stepped into 
 the boat that morn a change in my father. 
 He had made no sign of welcome, while my 
 uncle stretched out both hands to greet me. 
 He had said only in his hard, cold voice, " So 
 you're safe, boy ; you took a foolish risk." 
 Still there was a look in his eyes that I had not 
 thought to see there ; and I marked presently 
 that his hand was trembling. Yet, throughout 
 the day, while I had poured forth the story of 
 our adventures, and what we had found upon 
 the island, he had listened silently, while my 
 uncle fired to the tale ; and his eyes lit up as 
 the reflection of the sapphires. And now the 
 rapier with the hilt of ivory and gold, and the 
 dagger shining with the blue fires of sapphires, 
 lay on the table. The blades were all agleam, 
 for my uncle had set himself at polishing them, 
 and had succeeded by long labour in clearing 
 them of the rust, so that their steel under the 
 light burnt almost as the jewels. 
 
 I mark the pair now my uncle dazzling in 
 white linen, blue jacket, strapped trousers, and 
 polished shoes for, by joyous fortune, a chest 
 of his garments had been washed ashore ; 
 indeed, I had a notion that he had directed his 
 man, drowned upon the Indianmn, to endeavour 
 to save it. No one had landed from the wreck,
 
 144 String of a Fiddle 
 
 save only my uncle and Roddy; and now my 
 uncle sat, finely dressed and shaven cleanly and 
 curled, facing my grim, dour father, and I 
 leaned against the chest and watched my uncle. 
 He had been all eagerness to induce my father 
 to make an endeavour that same afternoon to 
 reach the island by the bay whence we had 
 come, with the purpose of removing the treasure. 
 My father had refused ; and my uncle, smiling 
 slightly, had said no word more. But well I 
 guessed his thoughts had fled for the time 
 from the idea of inducing my father to return 
 to London; and that his mind was burning 
 with desire of this treasure that Roddy and I 
 had described to them. 
 
 " I take it to be the test of a musician or aa 
 artist," said my uncle sententiously as the bow 
 flitted across the strings, " whether he be able 
 or not to conjure up a picture by his art. 1 
 am no musician and no artist " 
 
 " Why, you play finely," said I ; " much 
 better than Jeremy ever did I " 
 
 He made me a little bow. " For criticism," 
 said he, " we must have a standard of com- 
 parison. You have your standard ; and you 
 measure me by it. But I am about to test my 
 skill, such as it is, in fiddling. Mark me now ! 
 Rick here has filled my mind with pictures of
 
 String of a Fiddle 145 
 
 his galleon the galleon that drew so deeply 
 that it sank for the very treasure in it. I'd 
 paint the picture for you, Rick ! I'd conjure 
 up by my music how she came, this red maho- 
 gany ship. I'd have her sailing from Peru on 
 an eve with a red sunset, the sky rose-red, the 
 seas like pomegranate flowers on the seas a red 
 ship. Shall our galleon have a great red sail, 
 Rick ? Shall she be all red as gold is red, or 
 as blood is red blood that runs for gold ? 
 Mark you the figure-head and the copper sun 
 aflame about its brows. And the robe beneath 
 its breasts all vermilion and gold. And this 
 red ship, how shall she be named ? After some 
 pale saint ? Nay, for from your story, Rick, 
 this crimson-lipped figure was fashioned from 
 no saintly image " 
 
 His speech and the golden music of the 
 violin jarred suddenly, as my father dragged 
 back his chair from the hearth. 
 
 " Nay, no saint, no nun withering in a cloister 
 like a ghost before her time ! But an Indian 
 maid, my Rick ! Maybe an Inca's daughter. 
 She should wear a circlet of gold, and jewels 
 should bloom like blossoms on her robe. And 
 her lips should be very red even as the figure- 
 head's lips were very red. Mark the decks of 
 the galleon, Rick d'ye see your princess there '.'
 
 146 String of a Fiddle 
 
 Do you descry her in her barbaric robes ; and 
 her barbaric gems, that beautify barbaric beauty? 
 Walks she by the side of your bearded Don, 
 that would play Spanish hidalgo upon his decks, 
 and has this golden rapier poking from under his 
 cloak ? And must leave seamanship to his 
 seamen ? That sound ? A red macaw screams 
 a rose-red macaw, a gift for the King of 
 Spain, stuck upon a wooden perch with a gilt 
 chain about his legs. That motive is the 
 scent of spices, for the hold reeks with spices 
 nutmegs and cinnamon ; and the scent comes 
 up through the decks, and mingles with the 
 salt tang of the sea. The seamen have no 
 thoughts of the sea. For there is a precious 
 treasure on board. There are rubies and 
 emeralds and sapphires locked in secret coffers ; 
 and the Don has the keys this forked-bearded, 
 moustachioed Don in the blue cloak. And yet 
 the thought of the red, and green, and blue fire 
 of the gems comes forth as madness. The mind 
 of the seamen is lit with the thought of jewels, 
 as an Eastern darkness with fireflies, or as the 
 blood-red lamp that burns on the ship by night, 
 and drips in blood-red light into the sea. The 
 Don has no thought save for the red-lipped 
 woman." 
 
 Again my father dragged back his chair, and,
 
 String of a Fiddle 147 
 
 starting, I peered at him, and saw that his 
 brows were bent, and his eyes aflame, as he 
 stared upon my uncle. 1 listened yet enthralled ; 
 and still the golden voice went on, and the 
 sea wind in the sails of blood sang from the 
 fiddle strings ; and the red galleon floated out 
 upon the sea of fancy. 
 
 " New Empires yet for His Majesty of Spain ! 
 Good Spanish troopers aboard a Spanish priest. 
 New Empires for the King of Spain new realms 
 celestial and terrestrial for Rome. Bearded 
 arquebusiers, tonsured monk, black gown with 
 a golden rosary burning on neck and breast, 
 and an evil yellow ring upon his saintly finger. 
 Over seas, over seas even as Cortes sailed over 
 seas. Day, and the sea blue and brushed with 
 silver ; evening, and the sea blue, but with a 
 thin leaf of gold floating upon it. Hark there ! 
 The sailors' song ; and the wind growing in 
 the sails. The sea grown green, and green 
 is the colour of evil. The creaking of the yards ; 
 thr hoarse commands ; sail shortened ; the 
 priest at prayer; the breeze dropping, as if it 
 seeks to hide for the terror of the tempest that 
 comes stalking over the waters, like a green 
 lion, ravenous, topaz-eyed the sun's green 
 light ; the screech of the macaw ! " 
 
 I know not what music he drew from Jeremy's
 
 148 String of a Fiddle 
 
 fiddle. I only know that, while the bow stirred, 
 I heard the sea roll up before the wind ; I only 
 know that for all the weakness of the few poor 
 strings though he spoke nothing he smote my 
 mind with a picture of terror, as of advancing 
 tempest, and of night falling like an ebon curtain 
 over the frothing waters. His voice rang out 
 suddenly. 
 
 " Over seas over seas. Still over seas ! Be- 
 fore the tempest, Rick, this galleon, blown miles 
 out of the track of all ships that ever sailed the 
 world. Colour gone from the lips of the figure- 
 head; colours washed from the sail ! A track- 
 less sea, an unknown sea, a blotted night, with 
 the heavens all black ; and the wind and the 
 sea ; the wind and the sea ! Our Don, sea- 
 washed and cursing ; our priest, at prayer. 
 Before the wind still on a sea where never a 
 ship yet sailed having neither pale moon nor 
 sick stars wherewith to guide her course. Borne 
 into a night that has no end. Wind and wave ! 
 Breakers ! Breakers ! The cry of the red-lipped 
 woman I The screech of the macaw ! "
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 AN OLD DANCE TUNE 
 
 I GUESSED well my uncle's purpose. It was to 
 fire my father to join him in the treasure hunt 
 that he had planned. At this hour I understand 
 how my uncle came to misinterpret the manner 
 of man that my father had grown to be. I 
 know now that my father had loved him, when 
 he was a lad ; and that my uncle, having good 
 looks and a gallant winning way with him, had 
 led him to his will. And even at this hour 
 upon the island despite the bitter quarrel, 
 that had driven my father out of England those 
 years since rny uncle James believed that by 
 the exercise of his supreme arts he yet could 
 sway him to his wishes ; yet draw him by 
 his magic out of the seclusion of the island 
 For the time he had forgotten their kinsman's 
 will, and the terms of it that had compelled 
 him to come seeking my father all these leagues 
 
 149
 
 150 An Old Dance Tune 
 
 over seas ; and he was all on fire with the golden 
 thoughts of the treasure whereof the delicate 
 rapier, with its lean blade and hilt ornate with 
 ivory and gold, and blue-jewelled dagger stood 
 testimony. But my father had refused to give 
 ear, I know not why, save to cross my Uncle 
 James ; wherefore my uncle desired to fire 
 him with the same spirit as inspired himself. 
 From his story of the galleon my uncle passed 
 to a finicking, mincing measure a minuet, he 
 called it ; describing to me the manner of the 
 dance, and depicting ladies in gowns of old 
 rose, or gold, or sky-blue, and gentlemen in 
 silvered satins and white velvet coats; and 
 thence to the swifter movements of a dance 
 that had joy in it. 
 
 " Roses and light and laughter," my uncle 
 said, pausing an instant from his fiddling. 
 " Do you recollect, John ? 'Twas fashionable 
 once on a time." 
 
 " Cease your fiddling, James," my father 
 muttered. " It's time to be abed." 
 
 " But this one air more. Mark it and 
 recall it, John ! Joyous ! Does the ballroom 
 float up like Aladdin's palace ? Can you 
 see the dancers bow ere they tread the 
 measure ? Roses, and light, and laughter. 
 Mark the roses, John red roses, white roses
 
 An Old Dance Tune 151 
 
 roses red and white and golden, like fair 
 women ! " 
 
 " I warn you, James, have done ! " 
 
 " Nay, but this air ! Black suit, white shirt, 
 and glistening pumps. Gold gown and blue 
 and daffodil white with a cluster of roses 
 red roses 1 Mark you the dancers, John ? 
 Have you forgotten ? The measure and the 
 dance, and her who danced with you ? The 
 silver white of her gown ; the roses on it ; the 
 rose and the white of her, the heaven of her 
 e yes her hair a priceless web of gold ? Mark 
 you the measure, John ? *' 
 
 It had changed from joy to sadness. The 
 fiddle strings sighed out the dance under his 
 magical fingers. And I knew who had danced 
 it my mother and my father long ago. My 
 father sat ghastly and cadaverous ; and the 
 flame in his eyes should have warned my 
 uncle. 
 
 " Roses the roses break and flutter down 
 what paper flutters with the roses ? Do you 
 remember, John ? " 
 
 On the instant my father had started to his 
 feet, and crying, " Stop ! By heaven, stop ! " 
 had plucked the fiddle from him and flung it 
 to the floor. And, ere I knew, my uncle had 
 leaped to the table, and had snatched up the
 
 152 An Old Dance Tune 
 
 rapier, and stood fronting my father with the 
 lean steel flaming from his hand. As horror- 
 stricken I started back to the wall and stood 
 staring at him, I marked the very devil of hate 
 within his eyes ; the hate that had inspired 
 him in the torture of my father the hate 
 that spelt for me the loss of that he coveted 
 most of my father's possessions. And I 
 hated my uncle, even as my father hated 
 him for the cruelty of him ; for the self 
 of him ; the self that was his universe. 
 He had dared within my father's hearing, 
 within mine, to bring up the scene well 
 I guessed of the last happy hour that my 
 mother and my father had ever known ; and 
 of some lying trick of his a letter fluttering 
 down among roses, a lying letter to break 
 up my father's life, and part him and my 
 mother. I knew all that, looking upon him 
 murderous blue light aflame in his eyes ; 
 blue steel burning, quivering in his hand. My 
 father stirred not a step back ; but faced him 
 fine and high and white, his eyes consuming 
 fire, that burned his brother, his rival, up. 
 Awhile they stood so, with me gasping between, 
 and then my uncle burst suddenly into a peal 
 of laughter laughter jangling as false coin ; 
 and lowered the point of the rapier. " Why
 
 An Old Dance Tune 153 
 
 here," cried he, " is a very pretty bit of 
 play acting, John. You did not like my 
 playing ? " 
 
 " You dared," my father muttered thickly. 
 " You dared to p ] ay that tune to me. I should 
 have killed you then ! " 
 
 " My own dear brother 1 " 
 
 " Ay, I should have killed you. My brother, 
 you a changeling at birth a liar all your 
 days 1 " 
 
 44 A liar all my days ! Dear brother." 
 
 44 Ay, you schemed to part us mine and 
 me ! You won your way and will. Was that 
 not in itself enough ? Didn't that content 
 you ? " 
 
 44 None deplored the parting more than I. 
 I'm here to bring you back to London to 
 your wife, to your position in society. We'll 
 have this treasure that the boy speaks of off 
 the island, and we'll sail home together. As 
 brothers " 
 
 44 Not a gold coin or gem from No Man's 
 Island," my father said, 44 do you set fingers 
 on !" 
 
 14 Indeed I Will you prevent me ? Now I've 
 a notion that I'll suit my own fancy in the 
 matter, my dear John.'' 
 
 44 The island's mine," my father answered.
 
 154 An Old Dance Tune 
 
 " A grant to me ! This group Wild Dog and 
 No Man's and the rocks. All the island's 
 mine. And not a coin or jewel, I tell you, 
 James, shall you set claws upon. I'll give 
 you no more rope. The treasure's mine the 
 boys' ! ?. 
 
 My uncle's look was malevolent ; but his lips 
 curved into his finest sneer. 
 
 " Now mark you, son of mine," my father 
 said, " this man, my brother, is a villain your 
 enemy and mine. I bid you so regard him. I 
 bid you form your estimate of him. You 
 should have the breeding of a gentleman, though 
 you were brought up here. There's that in 
 your birth and blood should make you gentle- 
 man. Judge of this, then that he, in that 
 tune he played, dared to recall the night on 
 which I parted from your mother. Dared to 
 recall all the shame he brought on her, on you, 
 on me ! He dared to flaunt this in my face ; 
 he dared, while you stood by ! Mark him, and 
 judge ! " 
 
 My uncle made me a superb bow, and bent 
 the steel of the rapier. His eyes had all the 
 evil of the sea in them. I turned from him and 
 looked upon my father. 
 
 " He lies, you say," I muttered, my heart 
 pounding in my breast. " He is a villain
 
 An Old Dance Tune 155 
 
 you tell me that. And, knowing him for liar 
 
 and villain " 
 
 '' Rick, Rick," protested my uncle politely. 
 
 -You still believed his word against my 
 mother's ! And for that you left her 1 "
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 LOSS OF MY UNCLE 
 
 AND in the morning he was gone. I had 
 climbed up to bed at my father's sign ; but 
 had paused on the stairs to listen fearfully, 
 lest the quarrel between my father and my 
 uncle should grow more violent, and end in 
 bloodshed. There was absolute silence save 
 that I heard the creaking of the door as my 
 father entered his room, without a word more 
 to his brother. And that it seemed a little 
 delicate melody stole up from Jeremy's fiddle, 
 and that my uncle hummed a tune. Wearied 
 out with the exertions and the perils of the 
 past two days, I tumbled out of my clothes 
 and slipped into bed beside Roddy, who lay on 
 his back sleeping soundly. I fell instantly into 
 a dreamless sleep ; and slept till I was aroused 
 at daybreak by my father's voice from the foot 
 of the stairs. 
 
 " Dick," cried my father. " Dick ! " 
 
 156
 
 Loss of My Uncle 157 
 
 Yawning, I stumbled out of bed, and slipped 
 into my shirt and breeches, envying Roddy 
 that he should still sleep soundly. I took my 
 shoes and jacket in my hand, and went down- 
 stairs to my father. He was fully clad ; his 
 face fresh and shining. My uncle was not in 
 the room ; indeed, he had never slept upon the 
 couch, for the pillow and blankets lay as I had 
 piled them ready for him. The fire was not yet 
 dead on the hearth; and his chair was drawn 
 up to it, as he had sat upon the previous night. 
 Jeremy's fiddle lay with a snapped string on 
 the table ; the door of the cupboard was open ; 
 the wine-bottles and bread and meat that had 
 been there were gone. There was no sign of 
 the gold and ivory rapier or the jewelled dagger ; 
 and, when my father pulled open the drawer of 
 the black chest where he was wont to keep a 
 pistol, with powder and ball,- that, too, had 
 been swept clear. 
 
 "So," said my father softly, "he has left 
 us. I take it that the boat's gone too, and 
 that he'll try for the treasure." 
 
 " He'd never land on No Man's Island alone 
 and get the treasure off," said I. " Shall I 
 come down with you to the beach, father ? " 
 
 " Ay, lad, come along," he answered, taking 
 his hat and heavy cane. " Get your cap."
 
 158 Loss of My Uncle 
 
 Together then we passed out into the morn- 
 ing. The sun was just risen, and the air was 
 sweet and cool with the breeze from the sea. 
 The sea birds from the nesting places filled the 
 morn with clamour. My father, loosing Pitch 
 from the chain, strode on ahead of me ; but I 
 raced after to come up by his side and walk 
 with him. I saw that his face was pale and 
 cadaverous, and that a fire burnt in his eyes. 
 He crossed the terraces of rock, and went down 
 by the steps to the landing place. The boat 
 was gone from its moorings, and the cave under 
 the cliffs where we were wont to store our oars 
 and mast and sails was empty. " So," mut- 
 tered my father, " thief as well as liar ! You 
 heard nothing of him in the night, Dick ? " 
 
 " Nothing, father ; I slept too soundly." 
 
 He strode away from the cave on to the rocks, 
 where a channel was cut for running in the 
 boat. He stood there looking out to sea, his 
 hands at his brow to shelter his sight against 
 the glitter of the morning. Afar a bank of 
 pink sea mist veiled the horizon ; but, staring 
 with him, I marked on its verge the flicker of a 
 white sail, like the wing of a sea bird. 
 
 "The boat," I cried. "There's the boat, 
 father ! He's putting out to sea." 
 
 He answered not a word ; but stood still,
 
 Loss of My Uncle 159 
 
 staring out ; and, looking up at him, I realised 
 by the working of his face, and the burning of 
 his eyes, the devil of rage that possessed him. 
 
 " He's not going to try for the treasure 
 yet," I said. 
 
 " He'll not forget it," muttered my father. 
 lt I would that you had never told him, lad. 
 That he should set fingers on the gold and use it 
 as a means for new sin and shame for us I Ay, 
 for us ! Have you learnt your lesson, Dick ? " 
 
 " My lesson ?*" 
 
 " Ay, to know him for the villain that he is 
 for all his smiles and laughter ? " 
 
 ' I've learnt my lesson yes," I muttered. 
 
 He looked down upon me suddenly, and 
 gripped me by the shoulder, staring moodily 
 down upon me. " He had his way with you 
 at first," he muttered. " Yes yes 1 Confess 
 that you believed him and not me." 
 
 " I'm sorry, father. I'm very sorry if I've 
 hurt you." 
 
 " It was ever his way," he said. " He worked 
 his will with man and woman. It was so all 
 our lives in England save with one." 
 
 " .My mother, father ? " 
 4 Your mother, ay, your mother. He lied 
 he wove a tissue of lies, and netted me in it. 
 'Twas all his work. And I, knowing him and
 
 160 Loss of My Uncle 
 
 knowing her, believed him ! And all these 
 years I've spent, consumed, burnt up for the 
 thought of her the want of her. And never 
 till last night did I realise. I had believed his 
 lies against her, knowing what J knew. And 
 forgetting that she had chosen me instead of 
 him, when it was hers to choose between us. 
 And still I believed all these years I believed. 
 When he came, two nights since, desiring my 
 return to England, I saw the one purpose in 
 it to possess himself of a share of our Uncle 
 Anthony's guineas. Clever old Anthony ! I did 
 believe that his advocacy of her counted so 
 much for his purpose no more than to secure 
 my return to England, and the payment of 
 the legacy to him. Therefore I vowed that I 
 would not return. Until last night, when he 
 dared bring before me and you the picture of 
 our parting. It happened so, a letter among 
 the roses that he had given her. I left her 
 that same night believing him ! Knowing him 
 liar I believed him. The wickedness of it all 
 my wickedness! But last night he burnt 
 the scales from my eyes. He had no thought 
 save to sear and torture me. No thought for 
 the insolence of him the villainy. And he 
 flung the dice too boldly; for upon his very 
 words I knew I knew ; and I would that I
 
 Loss of My Uncle 161 
 
 had killed him where he stood. Save that he 
 was my brother, I had killed him then." 
 
 He broke off for awhile, and stood staring out 
 to sea. " I had purposed this very morn,'* he 
 said at length, " that we should sail Otter and 
 his wife and the lad Scorne for George Town. 
 We could have reached it easily in the boat, 
 and sailed back thence in a larger boat to take 
 the treasure from the island. I should have 
 left him here upon the island while we were 
 away ; and, having won the treasure, would 
 have sought a ship from Hobart Town for 
 London." 
 
 I heard him with joy, despite all the angry 
 current of his speech, and all the white rage 
 that burnt in him. Return to London ; see 
 my mother ; make an end of the lonely life on 
 Wild Dog 1 My heart leaped in my breast, and 
 my eyes dimmed for tears. I caught at his 
 hand ; and breathless I cried, " What does it 
 matter, after all, father, if he does get the 
 treasure ? All I care for and isn't it all you 
 care for ? is to get back to London and see my 
 mother. Oh, you must know what I've been 
 feeling since he told me that she was still alive. 
 And that she loved you and me, and wanted 
 you and me. McArdle and the ketch will be 
 here in a week ; and then we can get away.
 
 162 Loss of My Uncle 
 
 Even if he's got the treasure off by then, what 
 does it matter ? You've money enough in 
 London ; you don't want more." 
 
 He muttered at last, " You're right, lad ! 
 What does it matter, save that it gives him the 
 new means of wickedness ? And, if he comes 
 to London by heaven, I'll force the last penny 
 from him. I will, by gad ! He shall have his 
 share of Anthony's guineas not a piece more ! " 
 
 He paused and looked towards the beach, 
 where my uncle and the lad Roddy Scorne had 
 come ashore. The sea was spotted still with 
 broken wreckage of the Indiaman, that had 
 not been sucked into the current and flung 
 back upon the shores of No Man's Island. He 
 turned from me suddenly, and at a swift and 
 swinging walk commenced to tramp over the 
 terrace of rock. I went following after, with 
 Pitch racing by my side. I guessed well my 
 father's purpose to seek on the wreckage the 
 materials for building a raft or makeshift boat, 
 that would enable us to essay a landing on No 
 Man's Island, and the removal of the treasure. 
 The colours of the jewels in the galleon's cabin 
 were commencing again to burn in my brain 
 a thousand miraculous points of flame, as the 
 very fireflies in an Eastern night that my uncle 
 had conjured up. Swiftly we crossed the ter-
 
 Loss of My Uncle 163 
 
 races and climbed the rocks, and dropped down 
 on the littered beach. And there among the 
 broken wreckage lay the carcase of a small 
 boat stove in ; but not so greatly damaged 
 that we might not repair it in a day or so, and 
 make an effort to reach No Man's Island. 
 
 " Not a jewel, or a bit of gold shall my brother 
 touch," vowed my father, looking down upon it 
 triumphantly ; "not the value of a holy dollar.'*
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 WE PREPARE A NEW VENTURE 
 
 WE returned to the house then, and found 
 Margaret and Jeremy astir. Margaret had built 
 up the fire in the living room, and spread the 
 table with a clean cloth, and set the dishes for 
 our breakfast. There was no sign of Roddy 
 yet, and at my father's bidding I climbed the 
 stair to rouse him. He lay still on his back ; 
 but he stirred as I came in, and muttering, 
 " Hullo, Dick ! " sat up, rubbing his eyes. 
 
 " You're a lazy dog, Roddy Scorne," growled 
 I. " Here have I been astir this hour, while you 
 lay there." 
 
 " What have you been doing, Dick ? " asked 
 he, grinning lazily at me. 
 
 " I've been on the beach with my father," I 
 answered, perching myself on the sill of the 
 open window. " Found a boat there. There's 
 a job for you and me this day, my lad, patching 
 it up." 
 
 164
 
 We Prepare a Nezv Venture 165 
 
 " What for ? In place of the boat we lost ? 
 Did your father flog you for losing it, Dick ? " 
 
 ** No ! " I answered. " I wish he'd try his 
 hand on you, my lad. I've no doubt he will, 
 if you lie there much longer. The fact is, Roddy, 
 my uncle's gone ! " 
 
 " Gone eh ? " 
 
 " Taken our boat and gone in the night." 
 
 " The deuce he has ! Is he after the stuff on 
 No Man's Island ? " 
 
 " Not yet, I take it. We saw the sail of the 
 boat, and he was putting out to sea." 
 
 " What's his notion d'ye think, Dick ? " 
 asked he, slipping out of bed, and dragging off' 
 his shirt. 
 
 " I don't know. Maybe he'll make down to 
 George Town. He'll be back though, to have 
 a try for the coin. No doubt of that, to my 
 mind. But if he's not back in a day or two 
 and if he aims for George Town, he can't be 
 back much within a week he'll not find much 
 left on No Man's." 
 
 " Isn't there any settlement between here and 
 Van Diemen's Land ? " 
 
 " Only the sealers." 
 
 " The sealers who are they ? " 
 
 " Thievish gentry. 'Scaped convicts for the 
 
 most, from Botany Bay and Macquarie Harbour. 
 0*
 
 166 We Prepare a New Venture 
 
 They've lived in the Straits Islands for years 
 back. The very devil's own." 
 
 " How do they live ? " 
 
 " Like pirates of old, my boy. There's ugly 
 talk of wrecking of some of the ships that have 
 been coming from India and the Cape. They've 
 had fat lickings from many of them. They play 
 the pirate, too, on occasion. And they've a 
 very fleet of boats of their own, stout craft that 
 they've built. They sneak up to the coast of 
 New South Wales at times for stores, or down 
 to Van Diemen's Land. They sell mutton-birds, 
 and feathers, and oil. They've women with them 
 Blacks from Van Diemen's Land. It's a 
 wonder to me they haven't had word of the Indus 
 being wrecked, and come over here like a flight of 
 carrion crows." 
 
 " Have they ever troubled you here ? " 
 
 " Not they ! We haven't enough to lose. And 
 if they did anything openly, they'd have 
 Governor Arthur and his police from Van Die- 
 men's Land after them to wipe them out. Though 
 it's a wonder to me that he's never done more 
 than to wring the necks of a few of them 
 absconders from Van Diemen's Land. Still it's 
 hard to get at 'em. The seas are not charted 
 save for the ordinary track of ships and not 
 much is known about the islands.'-'
 
 We Prepare a New Venture 167 
 
 il What if your uncle falls in with them ? " 
 
 " I think he'd run the risk of having his 
 throat cut for the boat." 
 
 He had slipped into his clothes, and was 
 pulling on his boots. He said no more ; but he 
 had said enough. He had put an uncomfort- 
 able notion into my head, that the likelihood 
 was that my uncle would come across a few of the 
 sealer gentry and buy them with a promise of 
 gold to share in the venture of lifting the treasure. 
 I knew that his mind was all on fire with our 
 talk ; and that he would not rest, until he had 
 made an essay for the treasure. Certainly I 
 had given him but a poor account of the where- 
 abouts of the galleon on the island, or yet of the 
 one landing place, despite his eager questioning. 
 He had been so ardent that, consciously or un- 
 consciously, I had set my wits to work at fencing 
 him. And I believed that he would need our 
 services to conduct him to the place where the 
 treasure lay. I guessed well that, ere long, I 
 should see more of my uncle. 
 
 When we descended the stairs to breakfast 
 fresh bread, flakes of flat-head fried golden, and 
 steaming coffee I told my fears to my father. 
 But he was gloomy and abstracted ; and he 
 said no word, and merely nodded. And gloomy 
 and abstracted he remained throughout the
 
 168 We Prepare a New Venture 
 
 meal. At last he pushed back his chair and 
 rose from the table. I started up after him, all 
 eagerness to be on my share in the repairing of 
 the boat, that we might cheat my uncle of his 
 purpose with the treasure. But my father, 
 waving me back, muttered, " We won't need 
 you, Dick. Otter and I can do all that's to be 
 done. You can help us carry the tool chest 
 down to the beach, if you like ; but you and 
 Scorne had better spend your day fishing or 
 gathering eggs. You'll be out of the way then, 
 at any rate ! " 
 
 His tone was good-humoured ; and I could 
 not demur. We tramped down to the beach 
 with them, lugging the chest, and axes ; and, 
 leaving them there, Roddy and I took ourselves 
 back to Margaret. We sallied forth a half -hour 
 later with a sound provision of bread and salt 
 pork for the day ; a bag to fill with eggs from 
 the rookeries, and lines and bait for cod from the 
 rocks. The isle was all a blaze of green and 
 gold ; and the sea washed about it like a great 
 pool of blue water. The morning mist had 
 vanished away, but there was no sign of my 
 uncle's sail on all the glittering sea. We spent 
 the day delightfully bathing first in the pool 
 below the rocks ; and lying stark for hours in 
 the sun. We fished from the rocks ; and caught
 
 We Prepare a New Venture 169 
 
 a dozen or so of fat cod. Climbing then to the 
 mutton-bird rookeries, we purloined a full bag 
 of fresh eggs from the screaming birds that 
 flapped in scores about us and sought to beat 
 us back with beak and wing. It was evening 
 ere we descended from the cliff toward the house. 
 The sun was falling into the west like a ball of 
 yellow sulphur. The sea was commencing to 
 stir from its placidity before the rising of a 
 northern wind. The sound of hammering arose 
 still from the beach, where my father and Jeremy 
 Otter yet laboured at the repairing of the boat.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 RETURN OF MY UNCLE 
 
 ON the second night thence we sat, Roddy and 
 I, with our feet stretched out towards the blaze 
 of the fire on the hearth. Save for the foul 
 weather that had succeeded three days of sun- 
 shine we should have sailed from the island for 
 the removal of the treasure from No Man's. 
 But during the night after my uncle's departure 
 the wind had grown mighty again, and the 
 morning had broken tempestuous, with squalls 
 of shrieking wind and the chill of icy rain. 
 Therefore my father had judged it impossible 
 to make the approach to the island with safety, 
 although the boat had been repaired into sea- 
 worthiness, and rigged with tiller and oars and 
 a little mast and sail. We had provisioned it 
 well for the trip ; and, taking advantage of a 
 drop in the wind towards the second evening, 
 my father and Jeremy had started out to pull 
 the boat round from the exposed beach into the 
 
 170
 
 Return of My Uncle 171 
 
 cove, whence Roddy and I had been plucked on 
 the morning when we were caught in the current. 
 My father had said no word to me of his purpose 
 in removing the boat ; but well I guessed that 
 he dreaded hourly my uncle's return maybe 
 in company with some rapscallions from the 
 sealers' islands and that he sought to get 
 the boat away from destruction at their hands 
 in the event of their landing suddenly upon 
 Wild Dog. I had spoken little with him 
 during the past two days. His old abstraction 
 and gloom sat upon him blackly. Only, when 
 he chanced to speak to me, I had noted joyously 
 the continuance of his kindness for me that had 
 replaced his old austerity and speedy choler at 
 any foolish speech or act of mine. He had 
 been working with a feverish haste at the boat. 
 I knew that he was set to the purpose of depriv- 
 ing my uncle of a hold upon the treasure. And 
 fully I realised how bitter was his feeling for 
 that gay and sinful gentleman, even as his love 
 for him I knew it well had been great from their 
 youth up, until the revelation of my uncle's 
 baseness had alienated my father from him for all 
 time. Myself, I was all ardour to leave the 
 island. Certainly, the thought of the precious 
 gems and gold burning in the coffers of the 
 galleon consumed me magically. And yet, their
 
 172 Return of My Uncle 
 
 witchery, and my desire to have them in safe 
 keeping, were far less potent with me than my 
 longing for England and the sight of my fair 
 mother. The recollection, never obliterated 
 from the tablets of my memory, seemed now 
 limned clearly. I pictured her constantly a 
 lovely lady in a silken gown, with jewels upon her 
 bosom and at her ears. I found myself picturing 
 her as she sat now in sorrow. I pictured the joy 
 of our coming, and the passing of all grief and 
 pain from her face. How the lily-white of her 
 should glow with rose colour ! Her arm about 
 me, her lips on mine my mother the loveliest, 
 the best beloved in England ! And I begrudged 
 the moments that went by inexorably without 
 her. I was all eagerness to be aboard a ship, 
 sailing from Hobart Town or Sydney for London. 
 The long months of voyage how should I 
 endure the weariness of them ? Maybe we should 
 be becalmed with the copper sun, and the bur- 
 nished sea mocking me. Perchance we should 
 be wrecked upon some desert isle ; and be there 
 for years ere we were rescued by a ship and taken 
 home. The happiness of seeing her again was 
 too great for me ; and the wind and sea would 
 be envious of it. 
 
 So, awaiting my father's return with Jeremy 
 from the boat on which we hoped to sail on
 
 Return of My Uncle 173 
 
 the morrow's dawn, if the day proved fair I 
 sat in my chair, silent and abstracted. Roddy 
 himself was wrapped in an equal silence. It was 
 not customary for him, for, indeed, he was the 
 merriest company. But he, too, rejoiced at the 
 prospect of return, and I fancied that, as I 
 glanced at him, he was thinking then of how he 
 should find his mother in England ; and he was 
 penitent for the sorrow that he had caused her by 
 his mad venture of running away to sea. Indeed, 
 he had told me so earlier that day staring 
 gloomily out to sea, and speaking huskily. And 
 he had been dull, for him since then. Outside, 
 Margaret still went about her duties. Through 
 the window I could mark the red glow of her 
 lamp, and now and again I could hear the 
 clatter of dishes. She had shed tears, when 
 I had told her of the prospect of our imme- 
 diate return ; and she had flung her arms 
 about me much to my discomposure, for I 
 hated sentiment ; and had not expected it in 
 her. Though, truth to tell, the sight of her 
 joyous face, with the tears tumbling down her 
 furrowed cheeks, had moved me profoundly ; 
 had I not pulled myself away and flung out 
 on the cliffs, I must have been blubbering in 
 her company. 
 
 And suddenly as we sat over the fire, wrapped
 
 174 Reiurn of My Uncle 
 
 each in his own thoughts, we were aroused by 
 the sound of footsteps without, and by Margaret's 
 shrill scream. Instantly we were on our feet 
 startled, as she came flying into the room 
 white, staring-eyed, dishevelled. She sought to 
 bang the door after her, but it was too late, for 
 it was dashed in ; and, ere we knew, my uncle 
 slipped into the room. At his back appeared a 
 couple of hairy, bronze-faced fellows, clad 
 raggedly and rakishly, carrying each a musket, 
 and having each of them a pair of metal rings 
 glittering at his ears. At their heels came a 
 young man a tall fellow, blue eyed and burnt 
 brick-red with sun and sea. His arms were 
 bare and hairy ; he had on him a blue jacket 
 with brass buttons ; a tattered pair of blue 
 breeches thrust into bulging sea boots ; a long 
 knife in his leather belt ; a bandana handker- 
 chief knotted about his curling hair. My uncle 
 stood with his head bare, bowing superbly to 
 Margaret. His beard grew scrubbily on his 
 chin for want of shaving ; his fine nose was 
 peeling with sun and salt ; his nankeen breeches 
 were stained with sea-weed, but the Toledan 
 rapier was perched at a rakish tilt at his side ; 
 the blue hilt of the dagger burnt in his belt ; 
 and his whole bearing was a superb mixture of 
 insolence and politeness. Meeting his searching
 
 Return of My Uncle 175 
 
 glance fixed on me, I glared at him, hating him, 
 as I had never hated him before. 
 
 " A very good evening," said my uncle. 
 " Pray don't be alarmed, my good woman 
 you're in no danger. Egad, no one of your 
 charming sex was ever in danger at my hands." 
 
 " What do you want here ? " snarled I, 
 standing forward and facing him, while Roddy 
 scowled at my back, and Margaret toppled 
 trembling into a chair. 
 
 " Nay, don't be so inhospitable, Rick," purred 
 my uncle. " Is my brother abroad ? " 
 
 " Ay, and it's well for you ! What d'ye mean 
 by breaking in on us ? Who are these fellows 
 here ? " 
 
 " Very good friends of mine," he answered 
 with a flourish of his hat. * 4 And good friends 
 of yours, therefore, Rick. Permit me to make 
 them known to you ! " 
 
 " Enough of this ! " roared I. " What's 
 your business here ? " 
 
 " Nay, be polite, Rick ! Display your breed- 
 ing ! My very excellent friends Mr. William 
 Bult, deserter from His Majesty's Navy 
 
 " Stow that ! " growled the hairier fellow, 
 drawing back from the door. " Get the young 
 swab and come away ! " 
 
 "Swab! Nay, William! William! Mr.
 
 176 Return of My Uncle 
 
 Joseph Cody once a guest of His Honour, 
 Lieutenant Governor Sorell of Macquarie Har- 
 bour ; his son, young Joe : all islanders, who 
 hope to enjoy a better acquaintance with you, 
 Rick ! Gentlemen, my nephew ! Mistress Otter, 
 refreshment for these gentlemen." 
 
 Margaret stiffened in her chair. " You're a 
 wicked man, James Ingleby," said she, " and 
 these men are fit companions for you, I've no 
 doubt. But I warn you, that if you set a finger 
 on Master Dick here 'twill go hard with you. 
 You've done the master harm enough without, 
 with your false, lying tongue. Have a 
 care ! " 
 
 " Still the same shrewish Margaret Otter," 
 he answered laughing, and not a whit per- 
 turbed. " Rick, we'll be glad of your company 
 this night." 
 
 " I'll not stir with you," cried I, scenting his 
 purpose. 
 
 " Rick ! Rick ! And I your uncle ! " 
 
 " That's nought but shame to me ! What's 
 your business here ? " 
 
 " Ay," gasped Margaret, " what's your busi- 
 ness ? Go your evil way, James Ingleby, and 
 let honest folk take theirs. Have a care for 
 the master ! " 
 
 " Where is my brother ? "
 
 Return of My Uncle 177 
 
 " That I'll not tell you," flashed she, facing 
 him bravely. 
 
 44 Take the lad, and let's get away," growled 
 Bull, plucking at my uncle's sleeve. 
 
 " Your voice is the voice of wisdom," pro- 
 nounced my uncle. ** Are you ready, Rick ? " 
 
 44 I'll not stir a step in your company ! " I 
 answered, drawing back, and seeking in vain to 
 spy a weapon in the room. 
 
 44 You owe me obedience, dear lad. Need I 
 recall you to it ? " 
 
 44 I know you for my father's enemy and mine." 
 
 44 You do me a grievous injustice, Rick. But 
 willy-nilly you're coming with us ! " 
 
 " Why barge and barney with the swab ? " 
 muttered Bult, scowling upon me. " Knock 'im 
 on the 'ead 1 " 
 
 44 Come, Rick/' said my uncle. " We make 
 essay to move the treasure chest from No 
 Man's Island I and my friends here. And 
 you'll show the way you and no other. I 
 want your company ; I've no taste for hob- 
 nobbing with ship's boys. Come on ; we can't 
 tarry here for you. We've a boat at the shore." 
 
 "I'll not show you " 
 
 14 By gad, sir," cried Roddy, starting forward, 
 44 if that's your purpose, take me, not Dick ! " 
 
 44 Bravely said," sneered my uncle. "Bravely
 
 178 Return of My Uncle 
 
 said, ship's boy ! But I have a natural prefer- 
 ence for my nephew's society; so await your 
 invitation ship's boy ! " 
 
 I saw how Roddy burnt scarlet, and how his 
 eyes blazed at the whip lash of my uncle's 
 tongue. He clenched his fists, as if to throw 
 himself upon him, but instantly Bult and his 
 fellows interposed, snarling and menacing. 
 
 " Take him ! " my uncle ordered. 
 
 Ere I knew, they were upon me. I struck the 
 fellow, Bult, with all my force in the face ; but 
 they had gripped my wrists upon the instant. 
 I heard Margaret's shrill scream. I saw her 
 fling herself upon the youngest sealer, striking 
 at his cheeks. I saw her knocked back by his 
 furious blow ; and Roddy go down, as a heavy 
 candlestick, snatched up by my uncle, crashed 
 upon his head. Struggling impotently with my 
 captors, I was dragged from the room and out 
 into the night. My voice rang out furiously, 
 until a cloak was flung over my head ; and 
 choked and blinded I was dragged away.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE COMPANY OF ROGUES 
 
 MY rage consumed me. I had no terror. I had 
 no thought save of burning hate for my uncle 
 and desperate purpose to outwit him and his 
 company of sealers. I found myself, as, clutched 
 by their rough hands I was borne swiftly on- 
 ward through the night, wondering whether my 
 father and Jeremy had yet heard the outcry at 
 the house, and would come after. But well I 
 knew that the two and Roddy if he had 
 recovered from the blow dealt him by my uncle 
 would have little chance of rescuing me. My 
 uncle and his sealers were armed to the teeth ; 
 my father had but one pistol left him by my 
 uncle when he fled from the isle, and Jeremy 
 his old musket. I pictured my father's burning 
 rage against my uncle for his new outrage ; and 
 well I knew his wits would speedily be at work 
 to outwit him and his precious company of cut- 
 throats. And I found myself wondering, too, 
 
 179
 
 180 The Company of Rogues 
 
 how I might delay my uncle and the sealers 
 when at last they set foot on No Man's Island 
 and compelled me to guide them to the treasure 
 ship. I named myself the veriest fool that ever 
 I had given him the story of our discovery of the 
 wrecked galleon and the plate chest that it bore. 
 
 We were on the beach at last. The night was 
 clear, when the cloak was plucked from my 
 head. The moon rode full and white in the 
 heavens ; and the night breeze blew coldly on my 
 face. I would have uttered a yell instantly to 
 let my father know my whereabouts ; but the 
 old sealer, Cody, had clapped a pistol to my head, 
 and my uncle was uttering evilly in my ear. 
 
 " So much as open your mouth, you fool 
 and kinsman of mine, or no kinsman of mine 
 I'll not lift my finger to save you ! " 
 
 The boat was lying pulled up into the shallows. 
 At the sight of us a little lean figure came 
 clambering over the side, and a shrill voice 
 squeaked, " Ah, you're soon back ! Is that the 
 kinchin there ? " 
 
 I marked him under the moon a shrimp 
 of a man, clad in an old gold-buttoned coat 
 from a naval officer's back. Its tails reached 
 absurdly nigh to his ankles ; and he wore knee 
 breeches that seemed white under the moon, 
 and white stockings ; his feet were thrust into
 
 The Company of Rogues 181 
 
 a pair of buckled shoes. His face was staring 
 into mine. I marked his evil little eyes in his 
 pock-marked, sallow face, and the wisp of hair 
 that tumbled over his rat's nose under his big 
 cocked hat. 
 
 ** Ah, my covey," piped the shrimp ; " a fine 
 young covey ! So you're to make us all rich, my 
 covey ! Fill our breeches pockets with shiners, 
 and send us back to London. A brave young 
 covey thank'ee, young covey ! " 
 
 I scowled upon him, but said no word. I was 
 straining my ears for the sounds of my father 
 and Jeremy's footsteps coming in pursuit. There 
 was no sound save the hooting of an owl away 
 on the island, the sweep of the wind on the sea, 
 and the lapping of the water against the grounded 
 boat. 
 
 " In with him," ordered my uncle. " Lively 
 there, my lads. Now, Rick ! " 
 
 They thrust me forward, and tumbled me 
 over the side into the boat. My uncle and the 
 Cockney followed after ; the sealers, thrusting 
 the boat off, came clambering over the sides, 
 and, with the Cockney, fell to the oars, until the 
 boat was in deep water. 
 
 My uncle, taking his seat to tend the tiller, 
 beckoned me to him, and mutely I obeyed. For 
 n while we went in silence. All the sea was
 
 182 The Company of Rogues 
 
 illumined by the moon, as by a great white lamp. 
 The sea moved in an oily surge ; and the wind 
 coming sluggishly still filled the sails, and sent 
 the boat on swiftly. 
 
 " Rick," said my uncle quietly in my ear. I 
 made no sign, and did not look at him. " Rick," 
 he proceeded, " forgive my want of ceremony. 
 Never have I been so impolite. But necessity, 
 Rick ; necessity, Rick ; necessity. Let it acquit 
 me." 
 
 " My Uncle James," growled I, " I know 
 you for a villain. What's your purpose with 
 me?" 
 
 " You know where the treasure lies, my lad. 
 I know the entrance through the reefs about No 
 Man's Island. You'll guide us the rest of the 
 way." 
 
 " You think so ? " 
 
 " I know it, my dear Rick. I have a very 
 deep and natural affection for you, my dear 
 boy " 
 
 " Oh, peace to lying ! " 
 
 " My lad," snarled he, with sudden livid 
 anger. " I am no disciplinarian. But mark 
 me, if you're so far wanting in respect, I'll be 
 compelled to teach you a lesson with a switch. 
 And mark me further, I'll have my fill of the 
 gold and gems on the island. And, if you seek
 
 The Company of Rogues 183 
 
 to play me false, I'll not stand between you and 
 this precious company. Mark the manner of the 
 men, my lad, and consider the wisdom of falling 
 in with our plans. Maybe I'll spare a gold 
 piece or two for you. I am a generous uncle." 
 
 "My Uncle James," I muttered. "D'ye 
 understand the risk you're running ? " 
 
 " My lad, all life is a risk." 
 
 " D'ye know the reputation of the sealers ? " 
 
 " I am a judge of men." 
 
 '' That should teach you that you're likely 
 to touch not a piece of the treasure. You're 
 more like to take a slit throat for your pains." 
 
 ' Thank you for nothing," he whispered, his 
 eyes blinking at me oddly. 
 
 " Murderers and cut -throats all," I went 
 on whispering. " 'Scaped convicts, wreckers, 
 pirates ! How did you fall in with such a com- 
 pany ? " 
 
 44 Men that I selected for my purpose from a 
 choice Rogues' Paradise, not thirty miles from 
 here. Men for a desperate hazard ! My brother 
 compelled me to this course. I should have pre- 
 ferred to retain every gold piece in the family. 
 But you recollect his threat, my Rick that 
 not a gold piece of it should I set fingers on. 
 And you know my brother." 
 
 44 My uncle," said I, " you do not know whae
 
 184 The Company of Rogues 
 
 you've undertaken. You don't understand your 
 men. At best you're likely to be marooned 
 with me on No Man's Island, while these precious 
 gentry sail off with the chest." 
 
 " I have a pistol here," my uncle said, tapping 
 his pocket. " Your father's pistol, that I bor- 
 rowed from him. Moreover I have powder and 
 ball. I am a pretty shot, Dick ; I could tell you 
 of many a meeting at dawn pistols for two : 
 gentlemanly affairs. And I have this Toledan 
 rapier, my Rick and you, my Rick, have this," 
 suddenly slipping the blue-hilted dagger into 
 my hand. " Hide it under your jacket, Rick. 
 I am assured at least of this, that, comes 
 mischief from these fellows, you stand with 
 me." 
 
 " Ay, for the time, I stand with you." 
 
 " I ask no more ! We're sailing swiftly, 
 Rick. We should be off the reefs ere the moon 
 sinks. A word with my men, Rick. Take the 
 tiller ! " 
 
 The sealers, huddled together under the mast, 
 had been muttering all the while among them- 
 selves. My uncle, crawling forward, stood lean- 
 ing against the mast. 
 
 " Well, my men," I heard him say, " we're 
 embarked seriously upon our venture." 
 
 " Ay ; an' what plot may ye be hatchin' with
 
 The Company of Rogues 185 
 
 the young swab there ? " growled Bult. " Don't 
 try to rook us now, my gentleman." 
 
 44 Egad, my William," cried my uncle, 4< you're 
 deucedly impolite. Hatch a plot to rook you ! 
 Why, who told you of this treasure ? Had I not 
 needed your assistance, and been prepared to 
 bring you to the island, and fill your pockets 
 for you, need I have ever told you of the galleon, 
 and the gold that's on it ? " 
 
 44 Mark me, master," muttered Bult, 44 don't 
 try to play us any tricks ! We're in this with 
 you, and we shares and shares alike." 
 
 44 Ay," old Cody broke in. 44 We shares to the 
 last gold shiner. Is that understood, Mister 
 Gentleman ? " 
 
 44 Nay," cried my uncle, 4t it is not understood. 
 You'll be well paid for your share. The trea- 
 sure's mine, and I am paymaster." 
 
 44 You're talkin' now," growled Cody ; 44 ay, 
 you're talkin'. What I've said, says we all. 
 Isn't that so, my lads ? " 
 
 44 Ay, it's so ! it's so ! " came in chorus. 
 
 44 You're a gentleman," piped the Cockney, 
 44 and a gentleman plays fair. And why, I asks 
 you, should you be thinkin' to diddle us out of 
 our share of the rlollars ? Share and share alike ! 
 That's what we'vi> f.xccl on, and that's what's 
 to be ! "
 
 186 The Company of Rogues 
 
 " You're a set of impudent dogs," cried my 
 uncle, laughing. " D'ye think to dictate to me ! 
 That pistol of yours, my Cockney friend 
 and those muskets ! Come now ! " 
 
 I saw then that he had his pistol cocked ; and 
 that the rapier burnt in his hand. 
 
 " Now, mister, now ! " protested the Cockney. 
 
 " The pistol," cried my uncle. " You think 
 to play with me ! " 
 
 " You're playin' with us," snarled Cody. 
 " You're like to go overboard for your pains 
 you and the young dawg there ! " 
 
 " I give you a minute only, Spills," my uncle 
 said ; and the spell of his voice was potent. 
 "The pistol!" 
 
 I saw Spills rise in the boat ; but instantly 
 the rapier flashed, and the pistol clanged from 
 the Cockney's hands to the bottom of the boat ; 
 and the Cockney went back, cursing foully. 
 Instantly my uncle kicked the pistol to me ; 
 and my fingers were on it ; and I was by his 
 side, with the barrel covering them, and the 
 dagger gripped in my left hand. 
 
 " Good lad, Rick," said my uncle. " Those 
 muskets, Cody and Bult overboard with 
 them ! And that knife of yours, my lad," to 
 the young sealer ; " that very dangerous knife. 
 Don't palter with me. Come ! "
 
 The Company of Rogues 187 
 
 They crouched snarling at him like so many 
 savage beasts ; but his will triumphed still. 
 He stood fine, alert, commanding covering 
 them ; and there was that in his voice that 
 would take no gainsaying. The muskets 
 splashed into the sea; the knife flamed like a 
 streak of light through the air. My uncle stood 
 laughing upon them triumphant. " Now," he 
 said quietly, " we're more likely to be a pleasant 
 party ! And mark me, my men, this boat is 
 mine ! You do my bidding, and it pays you. 
 Only don't seek to palter with me a gentle- 
 man ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 NIGHT THOUGHTS OF MR. SPILLS 
 
 THE moon, growing nigh the full, lit sea and sky ; 
 therefore we sailed securely and bore confidently 
 upon our course. I sat still hi the stern of the 
 boat, while my uncle held the tiller ; and the 
 sealers tended the sail in turn. From the time 
 when my uncle relieved them of their weapons 
 they gave us not a word ; albeit they talked in 
 undertones among themselves, and, I doubted 
 not a whit, plotted for our undoing, when I should 
 have led them to the treasure. My uncle sat 
 oddly silent for him, giving me scarce a word ; 
 and, glancing up at him from time to time, I 
 marked his face pallid in the moonlight, and set 
 as if carven by the chisel of some Greek sculptor. 
 His eyes, ashine under the clear white light of 
 the moon, seemed always bent intently on the 
 group of sealers. And all the while I was won- 
 dering to myself what was taking place on Wild 
 Dog ; and whether my father and Jeremy would 
 
 188
 
 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 189 
 
 dare follow after ; or what the manner of theii 
 plan would be to snatch me from the keeping 
 of my uncle and the sealers. And I was cud- 
 gelling my brains for the means to outwit my 
 uncle and his pack of rogues ; and I determined, 
 that, if I must for my own safety lead them to 
 the treasure, I would seek the opportunity to 
 slip away and try to make off in the boat, leaving 
 the precious crew marooned. It might go ill 
 with my uncle at the sealers' hands. I had 
 small care for that. I had given him aid that 
 night, only because I believed that I should at 
 least be safer with him commanding the venture 
 than if I were solely at the mercy of the sealers. 
 Yet, even at that hour, while I hated the man for 
 the injury that he had done my mother and my 
 father, and for the falseness of him, I could 
 not but admire the hardihood with which he had 
 tricked the sealers of their weapons, and the 
 compelling qualities that had been more com- 
 manding then even the direction of a sword 
 point and a pistol. I knew the power of the 
 man more even than I had realised it when 
 he had extended his fascination on me and 
 sought to turn my heart against my father. 
 
 All this while we had been speeding about Wild 
 Dog, running in as nigh to the shore as we dared, 
 and evading the perilous current that swept in
 
 190 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 
 
 a half -moon into the whirlpool below the rocks 
 of No Man's. Beneath the row of fangs that 
 projected from the sea, as if a causeway of rock 
 had once connected the two islands, a clear 
 passage was afforded nigh our own island ; 
 and this we now took, making through for the 
 open Straits, so that eventually we might put 
 back towards the reefs and the passage into the 
 bay. That way the ketch from Sydney that 
 bore us stores as it sailed down to George Town 
 was compelled to beat, in order that it might 
 reach a safe anchorage off Wild Dog Island. 
 In times of storm the approach to the island 
 was perilous ; and McArdle, the skipper, would 
 not dare approach ; but would beat on to Van 
 Diemen's Land, with the result that we were 
 compelled to rely on oifr own resources of fish 
 and mutton-birds, and the vegetables that we 
 raised in a sheltered patch of deep soil, nigh to 
 the dwelling house. 
 
 But on that moon-white night we sailed se- 
 curely. The wind was strong enough to send us 
 racing ; the foam flew at the bows ; and the 
 water astern was lit with phosphorus. Within 
 the space of it might have been an hour and a 
 half, we had cleared Wild Dog, and the dangerous 
 rocks ; and had taken in sail, so that the sealers 
 might row us in towards the channel in the reefs.
 
 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 191 
 
 My uncle's command was brief and incisive, and 
 the sealers obeyed as dogs before a whip. My 
 uncle's grin at me was humoursome as he sat 
 down again by me in the stern of the boat. 
 And now No Man's Island lay revealed before us 
 the pinnacle, the cliffs, the lower lying grounds 
 across the rocky bar of the bay. The surf made 
 monotonous sound ; but, sheltered from the 
 strength of the increasing wind, the waters were 
 comparatively placid ; and, as I judged it, we 
 should have far less difficulty in pulling in than 
 Roddy and I had experienced in poling out our 
 raft three days before. All this while my uncle 
 had sought no directions from me. When my 
 father and he had picked us up from the raft, I 
 had given him a very rough notion of our way 
 of escape. But for the very suspicions that his 
 eager questioning had aroused in the light of 
 my knowledge of him I had given him no 
 account of the path that we had taken from the 
 galleon ; therefore he had, I judged it, deemed 
 it expedient to secure my services, so that the 
 discovery and removal of the treasure might not 
 be delayed. His voice rang out now clear and 
 definite. The rowers responded ; and my uncle 
 steered confidently towards the opening between 
 the reefs. The light of the moon upon the 
 waters directed him, for, while it marked the
 
 192 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 
 
 breaking of the surf, like the tossing manes of 
 white horses, it revealed the narrow line of com- 
 paratively unbroken water leading into the bay. 
 The surf broke with the sound of drums. The 
 spray was blown like floating fog into our faces. 
 
 " Pull ! " cried my uncle suddenly. " Pull 
 with a will ! " 
 
 Responsive to the vigorous strokes of the 
 sealers, the boat shot forward like an arrow. 
 The spray fell as rain ; and the waters spouted 
 up before the bows. But, ere I realised it, we 
 were through, and sweeping upon the slow rollers 
 towards the beach. The line of sand made a 
 white crescent against the blue grey of the scrub. 
 The cliffs stood up all glittering, as if silver with 
 frost. The surf moaned behind us ; but from 
 the island came no sound, save the sighing of the 
 ti-tree, as the wind swept across the scrub. 
 
 " We're here ! " exulted my uncle, as we 
 swept in towards the beach. " My men, behold 
 the island of my fortunes ! " 
 
 They gave him not a word in answer ; but, 
 peering forward by my uncle's side, I caught the 
 eyes of the Cockney, Spills, and marked the 
 evil light that burnt within them And I found 
 myself reckoning of the passions that the en- 
 chantment of the ingots and the gems would 
 conjure up ; and dreading the peril, wherein
 
 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 193 
 
 my uncle had placed himself and me by his most 
 injudicious selection of his company. 
 
 We ran ashore ; and, prompted by my uncle's 
 fingers on my shoulder, I roused myself stiffly, 
 and stumbled out of the boat into the sand. I 
 held the pistol still concealed in the* deep pocket 
 of my jacket ; and the blue-hilted dagger I had 
 thrust into the leather belt that held my breeches. 
 My uncle was the last to step ashore ; and, 
 1 hough he appeared to come with a careless air, 
 I marked that his fingers still clutched his pistol, 
 although his sword poked at his side. He 
 beckoned me to him, while the sealers gathered 
 in a knot a little apart. I knew that the fellows 
 itched to have the pistols in their keeping, and 
 to command the situation ; and I knew that it 
 would need the most untiring watchfulness on 
 the part of my uncle and myself if the tables 
 were not to be turned upon us. 
 
 " Now, my lads," cried my uncle, cheerily. 
 " Now ? " 
 
 14 Now, sir," piped the Cockney. 
 
 " Afore we goes any further," Bult began 
 aggressively, " wot I wants to know is " 
 
 " Precisely, Bult," my uncle checked him. 
 " What we all want to know is what it is in 
 this young gentleman's power to tell us. Now, 
 Rick, whereabouts is the ship."
 
 194 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 
 
 " You're taking it as certain," said I, seeking 
 to put a brave face on a piece of bluster, " that 
 I'm going to tell you." 
 
 " That is precisely why I have troubled to 
 bring you, my dear nephew," sneered my uncle, 
 eyeing me malevolently. 
 
 " Blast my eyes," growled Cody, '* ain't we 
 got eyes hi our skulls all of us ? And can't we 
 see for ourselves ? Touch the young dawg 
 up with a boot or a rope's end ; that's wot I 
 says, if we wants 'im. But I cawn't see as we 
 wants 'im." 
 
 " The rope's end is a commendable sugges- 
 tion," pronounced my uncle. " Thank you, 
 Cody." 
 
 " And I'll do the leatherin' of 'im," volun- 
 teered the young sealer, with alacrity. 
 
 " Nay there nay, there," cried my uncle, 
 fingering his pistol so suggestively that young 
 Cody recoiled with a snarl, " there'll be no need. 
 You'll think better of it, Rick ! " 
 
 " You can't find the track unless I guide you," 
 said I. " And I'm not going to guide you this 
 night." 
 
 " Meanin' to say," asked the Cockney, " as 
 'tain't a track to be took by night. And you'll 
 take us in the mornin' ? " 
 
 " Yes I'll take you in the morning. There's
 
 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 195 
 
 not a possibility of crossing the cliffs in the 
 dark. I'll take you in the morning on a con- 
 dition." 
 
 " It's not for young swabs to play sea lawyers," 
 mouthed Bult, glowering at me. 
 
 " My condition is that I'm paid my price, 
 that's all." 
 
 ' That's understood, Rick," muttered my 
 uncle. 
 
 " Ay, you'll get your price ho, yus, you'll 
 get your price," chuckled Mr. Bult, as if there 
 were an undercurrent of humour in my condi- 
 tion or in his acceptance. 
 
 " And we'll bunk in the boat for the night ? " 
 asked Spills, " There's a drop of grog aboard, 
 an' a bit of bread an' fish. An' we've our pipes. 
 A fire, now, an' a drop of hot grog all round 
 
 '* Take the keg, Spills ! " my uncle conceded. 
 4 There's not enough in it for you all to get 
 drunk on. But you'll have to find another 
 camping place permit me to inform you." 
 
 " Cause vy ? " demanded Spills, observing 
 him wickedly from the corner of his eye. 
 
 " For a very excellent reason, my good Spills," 
 said my uncle. " I desire to remain in command 
 of this venture. And I propose to take every 
 precaution that's necessary to that end. My 
 nephew and I occupy the boat "
 
 196 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 
 
 " But vere' ve to sleep ? " 
 
 " There's where we camped just through 
 the scrub there," said I. " If you take the 
 sails and build a fire, you'll be well enough." 
 
 " The sails," said my uncle, " I propose to 
 reserve for myself." 
 
 They growled at that savagely, and stirred, as 
 if like savage animals they would leap upon us ; 
 and bear us down. On the instant my uncle's 
 pistol was out ; and his back was against the 
 boat. 
 
 " My meaning assuredly was clear enough," 
 he said. " I propose to retain command of this 
 expedition. And what I will, you do." 
 
 " Have a care, master," snarled Bult, mouth- 
 ing at him. 
 
 " My good fellow," my uncle retorted, " I 
 assure you that your advice is unnecessary; I 
 propose to be very careful. Take the keg ; 
 light your fire ; you'll fare well enough. Is 
 that understood ? " 
 
 " Vy, in course it's understood," cried Mr. 
 Spills cheerfully, stepping briskly aboard the 
 boat. " I'll get the keg. 'Ere 'tis ! Now, my 
 coveys ! " 
 
 Leaping out again lightly with the little keg 
 upon his shoulders, he favoured us with a grin, 
 and with a wink. " Nice dreams and good
 
 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 197 
 
 sleep, mister and young genTm'n 1 " and went 
 off, the tails of his coat nigh touching the 
 ground ; his hat cocked on one side of his 
 cropped head. The sealers, muttering and 
 grumbling, followed after. Bult, only pausing 
 to light his pipe, and to growl, " We'll 'ave a 
 word or two to say about this yer in the mornin', 
 my fine fellers," ere he stumped away into the 
 scrub. 
 
 My uncle leaned against the boat, and his 
 laughter rang out on the night air. " A very 
 pretty display of primitive human passions," 
 he said. " Eh, my Rick ? D'ye not admire 
 the tact the finesse with which I handle 
 them ? As pretty a crew of cut-throats as 
 ever sailed with Henry Morgan I Or yet Lol- 
 lonais ! On a small scale." 
 
 " Cut-throats, eh ! " growled I in answer. 
 " If you'd left the muskets and the pistol in 
 their hands, my uncle, you'd have been, ere 
 now, feeding the fishes." 
 
 " I'm not ungrateful, Rick. I've never mixed 
 yet with the scum of the earth ; therefore realise 
 them somewhat imperfectly. Still, they suited 
 my purpose well. I'd needed a backing to 
 treat with my brother." 
 
 " And your business is with rogues, not with 
 
 honest men." 
 
 7*
 
 198 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 
 
 " Have it so if you wish, Rick," easily. " Yet, 
 if you'll throw in your lot with mine, and aid 
 me to lift the treasure egad, why not to-night ? 
 You and I to-night ! We'll slip away and 
 have the pickings of the treasure while they 
 sleep ! 'Twould be safer ! And I should relish 
 the thought of my worthy friend Bult, when he 
 knew. How d'ye say, Rick ? " 
 
 I hesitated for an instant. I would have 
 followed him, welcoming the chance of evading 
 the sealers, but for the thought of my father 
 and the rest on the other island. And though 
 I was prepared to make alliance with my uncle 
 against the sealers, I could not make common 
 cause with him against my father, for I did 
 believe that he would yet outwit my uncle ; and 
 that the longer I might keep my gentleman's 
 fingers off the treasure, the more assured was 
 my father's success. Therefore I answered : 
 " We've no chance of reaching the galleon to- 
 night. You don't realise the difficulty of the 
 country between here and the place where she's 
 stranded. We'll have to make the best of it; 
 and if these gentry play any tricks, try the 
 persuasion of our pistols." 
 
 He leaned forward, and his wicked eyes 
 gleamed into mine. " My Rick," he said, 
 grinning, " I verily believe that you've more
 
 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 199 
 
 brains than I credited to you. How if I exert 
 my authority and insist ? " 
 
 " You can't compel me ! " 
 
 " Oh, for a slim Malacca cane ! " my uncle 
 sighed, laughing, as he drew back. " Rick, 
 never stood a lad so much in need of a flogging ! 
 Lacking the cane and, indeed, I never stood 
 preceptor to youth I must needs waive my 
 authority. So, then, we remain here for the 
 night ! " 
 
 14 Unless you're prepared," I ventured, " to 
 quit the island ; and put out now for Wild Dog." 
 
 " An Ingleby," said my uncle, " knows every 
 emotion save fear. Nay, my lad, we'll wait 
 here ; and to-morrow we'll dragoon these 
 fellows into doing our bidding. Are you tired, 
 Rick ? " 
 
 " No why ? " 
 
 " My dear lad, I've not had enough sleep for 
 a night or more. I can scarce keep my eyes 
 open. Yet I've no wish to close them for ever." 
 * You're right," said I. " The sealers may give 
 trouble. I'll keep watch, till the moon goes 
 down ; then I'll rouse you." 
 
 " Good lad ! Take my pistol, lad I'll trust 
 you. Don't spare to use it, if these gentry 
 show ! Egad, how tired I am ! Rouse me, 
 then, in an hour or so. We'll share the watches
 
 200 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 
 
 as we'll share the treasure. Good-night, 
 Rick ! " 
 
 "' Good-night," I said ; and while he climbed 
 into the stern of the boat, I perched myself in 
 the bows, my hands gripping the pistols. 
 I heard him drag the sails towards him to form 
 a couch ; and presently, glancing back, I marked 
 him wrapped in his cloak, with his hat drawn 
 over his brows. 
 
 Pulling my coat about me, I settled down 
 then to my watch. I marked, through the 
 blackness of the scrub, the red glow of the 
 sealers' camp fire, and heard at intervals the low 
 murmur of their voices. The moon was still 
 clear and white on the sea, and the thin line 
 of sand was clearly defined ; but, save for 
 the break of fire, the scrub made a blue-black 
 line; and the darkness and haze of the sea 
 enfolded the island. The wind murmured with 
 the sound of many whispering voices. The 
 surge of the surf on the bar was monotonous 
 and mournful. Again, as I sat in the boat, the 
 melancholy of the isle oppressed my spirits ; 
 again the place seemed peopled with phantoms, 
 and the centuries' dead tragedy of lust for 
 treasure shaped itself as a pageant before me. 
 I watched the silver sands with straining eyes. 
 I watched the scrub and heard the footsteps
 
 Night Thoughts of Mr. Spills 201 
 
 and the voices. But suddenly the spell was 
 rent by the piping voice of the Cockney, Spills, 
 coming from the group about the fire, in the 
 most villainous perversion of a song. 
 
 " All run after me, air, me ! 
 For ven purty fellows ve, 
 Purty maids are frank and free ! '* 
 
 I guessed what carousal they made ; and I 
 dreaded attack upon us, when their brains were 
 fired with grog. 
 
 " Gad a mercy ; diwle's in me ! 
 All the lidies vish to vin me ; 
 For their stays a takin' measure. 
 For the lidies, oh, the pleasure ! 
 Oh, such temptin* looks they gimmee ! 
 Vishin* o' my heart to nimmee ! 
 Pat, and cry, you diwle. Jimmy ! " 
 
 sang Mr. Spills ; and laughter echoed out of the 
 scrub. 
 
 And so for the better part of an hour they 
 drank and sang ; until I heard them cursing 
 and quarrelling among themselves. Silence fell 
 then, save for the murmur of the wind, and the 
 drear monotone of the sea. The moon was 
 dying ; and the bay was paling into a dull 
 grey from its resplendent silver and blue. 
 Bats flitted through the night ; the footsteps 
 trod in the scrub ; and the voices murmured.
 
 202 Night Thoughts of Mr, Spills 
 
 I must have dozed ! I seemed to be falling 
 forward ! And all at once I was looking startled 
 into the villainous face of the Cockney, and he 
 was grinning malevolently upon me. I had 
 him covered on the instant, and hurriedly he 
 bobbed back. 
 
 *' What d'ye want here ? " I snarled, leaning 
 towards him. 
 
 " Nothink nothink, young covey," said Mr. 
 Spills discomfited, as he withdrew into the dark- 
 ness. " I vos only thinkin', only thinkin' that's 
 all ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE CAVE OF THE BATS 
 
 THE moon was dead ; and the East paled for the 
 dawn, ere I roused my uncle. All this time I 
 had not slept again ; but, dreading some new 
 mischief from Spills and his fellows, had sat 
 through the chill, dark hours, watching for their 
 coming. They had made no further effort to 
 molest us before I woke my uncle to take his 
 turn at watching. At my touch he started up 
 instantly, and sat peering at me through the 
 dawn. 
 
 " Why, Rick why, Rick," cried he, " this 
 isn't kind I Here's the morn nigh, and you 
 haven't roused me till now." 
 
 " I did not want to sleep," I answered, " so 
 I let you take your fill." 
 
 " And you've watched the whole night ! 
 My lad, you're over generous. No sign of 
 our friends ? " 
 
 " Spills was down once, poking about the 
 
 203
 
 204 The Cave of the Bats 
 
 boat," I answered. " I ordered him off, and 
 he went. They've not been nigh since. Here's 
 the pistols. You may need them." 
 
 " Thank' ee, my lad," he said, peering toward 
 the reflection of the sealers' fire. " They're very 
 quiet. I take it they're lying snoring drunk 
 with the spirits. Get to sleep, Rick ; I'll keep 
 watch." 
 
 I climbed forward accordingly to the bed of 
 sails he had just quitted, and, pulling the canvas 
 about me, fell instantly to sleep. I slept 
 soundly, and did not wake till the sun was hot 
 on my face I was aroused then only by the 
 sound of voices. My uncle was perched with 
 his legs dangling over the side of the boat, and, 
 as I rubbed my eyes and sat up, I marked the 
 four sealers gathered in a sullen group upon the 
 sands. 
 
 " Ah, Rick," cried my uncle, " you've slept 
 well. I have been engaged in a brief personal 
 explanation with our friends here. I'm sorry 
 I've roused you before your time." 
 
 " Wot I ses is " began the sealer Bult 
 
 aggressively. 
 
 " My good fellow," said my uncle smoothly, 
 as he played suggestively with the pistols, 
 " you've already said too much. You're wont 
 to."
 
 The Cave of the Bats 205 
 
 "Stow it," growled the sealer. " Oh, stow 
 it ! My mates and me talkin' things over 
 like has made up our minds to this yer. We 
 shares, and we shares alike ! " 
 
 " Precisely," said my uncle, smoothly. " You 
 share and you share alike. I've promised you a 
 fair return not a penny more. The treasure's 
 mine and my nephew's. We'll take our fill, 
 and pay you for the trouble of lifting it." 
 
 " But, mister," piped the Cockney, " I've 
 been thinkin' " 
 
 4 You were thinking over a pretty bit of 
 treachery last night, my friend," my uncle 
 snarled. " Had I been keeping watch, and 
 not my nephew, you'd have ceased to think 
 once and for all. Mark me now, my men ! I 
 have these pistols and this pretty bit of steel. 
 You're unarmed. Might's right ; and the right 
 is mine. It's no purpose of mine to rook you ; 
 and I promise you a fair bargain. But I dic- 
 tate not you 1 We start in search of the 
 gold and gems a half-hour hence I command ; 
 you obey. Is that understood ? Of course 'tis 
 understood ; for I have the cards," and his 
 fingers played suggestively with the trigger. 
 
 They growled and muttered among them- 
 selves, and there was the very devil of hate 
 and greed in the little Cockney's glittering eyes.
 
 206 The Cave of the Bats 
 
 But they made no attempt to molest us, though, 
 gripping the jewelled dagger, I was expecting 
 them each instant to fling themselves upon us, 
 for all the deterrent pistols. 
 
 My uncle laughed in light and bitter mockery, 
 whereat old Bult quivered like a wild beast 
 beneath the lash of a showman's whip. 
 
 " There's biscuit and dried fish in the locker 
 there, Rick," said my uncle. " Get out enough 
 for their breakfast. I take it they're hungry." 
 
 I found the food, and, gathering it in hand- 
 fuls, I passed it over the side to Cody, who 
 received it much as a snarling animal a bone. 
 But, taking it, they withdrew from the boat, 
 muttering and cursing among themselves ; and 
 presently they passed up the beach to their 
 camp fire. 
 
 " Rick," said my uncle, " you were right ! 
 They're a savage crew. But I hold the whip, 
 and they perforce obey." 
 
 " Until you're off your guard," I answered. 
 " Then we're likely to take a crack on the head 
 or a slit throat for our pains." 
 
 " My good fellow, you'll not find me winking. 
 But I'm deucedly hungry, Rick, though the 
 fare's the poorest. Some of that biscuit, pray, 
 my lad ; and a little fish. There's water in 
 that barrel give me the cup ! "
 
 The Cave of the Bats 207 
 
 Silently I passed him the food and water 
 and took my own fill. The sun was high above 
 us ; the sea and the isle alight with the colours 
 of opal. Save for the shriek of sea fowl and 
 the rumble of surf on the reef there came no 
 sound from the island. And yet, I had a pre- 
 monition that my father and the rest were 
 astir, and that I might hope speedily for succour. 
 And I had a fanciful notion that my father 
 would yet outwit my uncle, and that the 
 precious gentleman and his company of sealers 
 would never set finger on the treasure. It was 
 my purpose accordingly to delay my uncle and 
 the sealers as long as possible from reaching 
 the galleon. As I sat, munching my biscuit 
 and looking out on the day, I recollected sud- 
 denly the cave of the painted rocks, whence 
 Roddy and I had fled at the sight of the skeleton. 
 It would serve at least the purpose of delay, I 
 thought, to conduct them thither ? 
 
 Within the space of half an hour the sealers 
 came slouching down to the beach each man 
 among them with his tobacco pipe stuck between 
 his lips. I marked them for an evil rapscallion 
 crew ; and I should have marvelled still at my 
 uncle's selection of his company, save that I 
 realised he was keen bent on the removal of 
 the treasure, and that the means to that end
 
 208 The Cave of the Bats 
 
 counted with him not a whit, if only he might 
 achieve his purpose. He sat with his legs 
 swinging over the side of the boat a fine and 
 slim and handsome gentleman, spick and span, 
 save for the scrubby yellow beard showing upon 
 his chin. 
 
 " Now, my men," cried my uncle. 
 
 " Now, mister," piped Jemmy Spills, respon- 
 sive. 
 
 " Are you ready, Rick ? " demanded my uncle 
 of me. 
 
 " I'm ready, yes." 
 
 " Well, then, we'll wait upon your pleasure ! " 
 
 " We'll take a look at the cave first, then 
 up there," I said, pointing toward the cliffs. 
 " That's where the painted cave lies. We ought 
 to find something there. Later I'll take you 
 to the galleon on an understanding." 
 
 " That you have your share ? " queried my 
 uncle. " Can you doubt it, Rick ? " 
 
 " If I did," I said, slipping over the side of 
 the boat, " I'd not stir a step. You'd better 
 tell these fellows to bring a lantern if you've 
 got one and those ropes and a sack." 
 
 He slipped one of the pistols into my hand ; 
 and I set it ready in my pocket. The dagger 
 was stuck in my belt. He waved his hand and 
 issued his orders to the sealers, who, though
 
 The Cave of the Bats 209 
 
 black and scowling, responded readily enough. 
 I led the party then along the sands to the 
 cliffs the sealers coming after me, my uncle 
 taking the precaution of bringing up the rear, 
 that he might have an eye to the company, and 
 use his pistol in the event of a sudden onslaught 
 on me. All the way Jemmy Spills carolled in 
 his thin cracked voice ; the rest went on in 
 silence. But, when we climbed over the rocks, 
 and stood at the mouth of the creeper-hung 
 cave, even Mr. Spills was awed to silence. The 
 creepers, falling like green water from the cliff, 
 murmured, as if with mournful voices ; the sea 
 sobbed under the rocks ; and the breeze made 
 moan. The entrance to the cave was black 
 like a great tomb ; and the very blaze of sunshine 
 on the yellow terrace before it accentuated the 
 gloom of the deep hollow. 
 
 " Light the lantern ! " said I to Spills, who 
 carried it. 
 
 Silently he kindled a light, and lit the oily 
 wick ; and, taking the lantern from him, I 
 entered the cave, the sealers and my uncle 
 coming at my heels. The lantern lit up the 
 entrance, as if the sand and stone were studded 
 with tiny flakes of gold. The red cross, and the 
 ked galleon, and the figures of Spaniards 
 and Indians stood out upon the walls. 'I he
 
 210 The Cave of the Bats 
 
 skeleton was revealed, grinning, yellow with 
 age every vestige of clothes gone, only the 
 bones lying at our feet. I heard Jemmy Spills's 
 teeth commence to chatter, as he drew back; 
 but nerving myself I strode forward into the 
 darkness of the cave. From the great entrance 
 a black tunnel ran back into the heart of the 
 cliff. The lamp, flickering, gave only a pale 
 light; and I could make out nothing save the 
 glittering mica flakes. I could hear something 
 flap over my head ; but the others seemed not 
 to notice it, and came stumping at my heels. 
 The sand tinkled under our feet, for the way 
 was dry ; save for that we went in silence. The 
 blackness enveloped us. The tunnel extended 
 into the cliff, I judged, for the space of nigh a 
 hundred yards. The roof was high above our 
 heads ; but the space allowed us only to go 
 in single file. And suddenly the lamp revealed 
 that we stood in a great chamber of rock and 
 the mica flakes in the stone, catching the lamp- 
 light, revealed its roof and walls. I say the 
 cavern was lit faintly as by the light from the 
 roof through a pane of mica, and in it were shown 
 all things dimly. I saw a great pillar of rock, 
 like the trunk of a lightning-stricken tree. I 
 saw revealed upon it the dim outline of a figure, 
 with a curious green bar of light coming from
 
 The Cave of the Bats 211 
 
 the roof upon it a figure that still wore many 
 
 jewels and had a circlet of gold like a sun about 
 
 the black hair coiled at its bony head. Red 
 
 jewels burnt among the finger bones ; red jewels ' 
 
 upon the breast jewels that woke into twinkling 
 
 lamps at the light of the lantern. And at its 
 
 head something quivered and stirred something 
 
 dim and indefinable something that flew up 
 
 suddenly flapping into the darkness above us. 
 
 At that Jemmy Spills let out a shriek, and 
 
 taking to his heels, dashed into the tunnel, and 
 
 after him went the sealers, stumbling and 
 
 cursing. And only my uncle and I were left 
 
 shuddering alone in the cavern alone in the 
 
 great stifling sepulchre, where lay the bones 
 
 of the Inca's daughter I knew it, I knew it 
 
 with the red gems glittering upon her ; and the 
 
 sacred sun burning about her skull. The shriek 
 
 of Spills and the flapping of the great bat had 
 
 stirred the denizens of the cave. They whirled 
 
 in a rigadoon like shades ; they piped shrilly 
 
 with the thin voices of ghosts ; they flapped as 
 
 phantoms, and all the cave whirred with their 
 
 flapping. Sick and shuddering I would have 
 
 raced after the sealers save for my uncle. His 
 
 laughter came echoing and defiant ; and he 
 
 leaped forward to the broken pillar of rock, 
 
 whereon the skeleton rested. The bats came
 
 212 The Cave of the Bats 
 
 whirling about him ; piping, flapping ; but I 
 saw him, through that cloud, snatch the golden 
 sun from the head and pluck the rings from the 
 dead fingers and the necklet from the neck. 
 The skull fell down and rolled towards me ; 
 and still he laughed, and still the whirl of bats 
 grew denser. I saw the great bat flap down 
 as if to strike his face ; and all at once the 
 lantern was plucked from my hands, as if with 
 ghostly fingers ; and all was blackness save 
 for the arrow of green light. I could endure 
 no more. A bat flew into my face ; and with a 
 yell of panic, I turned and raced from the cave, 
 and into the throng of sealers gathered about 
 its mouth. 
 
 "'Anted!" cried Spills. "The place is 
 'anted 1 'Ark to 'em ! 'Ark they're comin' ! 
 'Ear them ! " 
 
 But, as we recoiled from the cave, my uncle 
 slipped suddenly into the light. He was ghastly 
 pale ; and the sweat ran from his face, and 
 the red sand stuck in the sweat like smears of 
 blood. In his right hand burnt the circlet of 
 gold all sulphurous yellow and crimson and 
 green light it was, in the sudden blaze of the 
 sun ; and in the palm of his left hand the rubies 
 were red as blood, and his wrist was licked by 
 the necklet like a tongue of blood-red flame.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 DEAD MEN'S GOLD 
 
 MY uncle pocketed the jewels with perfect 
 composure. The golden sun he strung to his 
 belt ; and I marked how the sealers shrunk 
 from him with horror. 
 
 " Beg pardon, mister," growled Bult at last, 
 touching his greasy forelock. 
 
 44 Well, my man," purred my uncle. 
 
 41 You're not after takin' them gew-gaws with 
 ye, mister ? " asked Bult. 
 
 ' Why, to be sure ! " my uncle answered, 
 grinning. 
 
 44 Dead man's money is dead man's money 
 still ain't that so, mister ? " 
 
 44 Ay, ay," the sealers muttered, responsive. 
 
 " My good fellow," responded my uncle, 
 " you're illogical. The whole treasure of the 
 galleon is dead man's money according to 
 your interpretation. And this is very precious 
 gold ; and the gems are worth a small fortune 
 213
 
 214 Dead Men's Gold 
 
 in London or Amsterdam. I don't see the 
 force of your objection. When I tell you that 
 you, one and all, receive your share, maybe 
 you'll waive it." 
 
 " That party in there," persisted Bult, wagging 
 his finger at the cave, " was wear in' them gew- 
 gaws ? You took 'em from that party. And 
 mark my words, no good'll come of it. Bettei 
 put 'em back." 
 
 " You're a damned fool ! " swore my uncle. 
 ** The gold and the jewels are mine ; in part 
 yours." 
 
 " We'll not set fingers on 'em," growled the 
 sealers. " No good'll come of 'em ! " 
 
 " Then," cried my uncle, " I'll relieve you of 
 all responsibility. I took the gold and jewels ; 
 and they're mine ! You'll take your pay from 
 the stuff on the ship. Now it's getting late, and 
 we'd best be stepping. Come, Rick ! " 
 
 I shared the horror of the sealers, that he 
 had robbed the dead. I could not have set 
 fingers on the gems upon the Inca's daughter. 
 I drew from him sickly, and without a word 
 I left them and commenced to make my way 
 across the beach toward the cliffs, that I might 
 lead them to the galleon. Muttering, the 
 sealers followed at my heels ; and after them 
 my uncle stepped jauntily, his rapier swinging
 
 Dead Men's Gold 215 
 
 at his flank, his fingers clenched upon his 
 pistol. In comparative silence then we left 
 the beach, and climbed up to the baking, sun- 
 burnt cliffs. 
 
 An hour thence we stood looking down upon 
 the blackened remnant of the scrub, whence 
 the fire that Roddy and I had kindled had 
 swept. The wattles stuck up from the black 
 and grey ashes in blackened rods, and the tree- 
 ferns were scorched pillars ; but the fire, though 
 it had swept the gully, had burnt out in the 
 thick green scrub that encircled the tunnel to 
 the haunted spring. Green was the scrub that 
 day an evil green, tossed by the sea wind 
 like a writhing dragon of green, murmuring as 
 with many voices. I felt the prescience of its 
 evil, even as I stood with my uncle and the 
 sealers on the cliffs looking down into the gully. 
 
 " Your fire, Rick ? " my uncle said. " That 
 was your signal to us, eh ? " 
 
 " Yes ! The spring lies in the scrub there I 
 We have to make that way, and reach those 
 cliffs. The galleon lies in the hollow beyond." 
 
 " A dreary place," my uncle said reflectively. 
 
 " A iid peopled still," I answered. 
 
 " How peopled ? " sneered my uncle. " My 
 good lad, you're as superstitious as these fellows 
 here."
 
 216 Dead Men's Gold 
 
 I would have slid without word more down 
 the cliff side into the track by which Roddy 
 and I had come. But sudden, from the evil 
 green cloud of the scrub, came a cry so terrible 
 and shrill, that one and all of us recoiled and 
 stood, white-faced and staring. Evil and shrill, 
 and flung back by the rocks in evil and shrill 
 echoing ! The sealers broke into sudden harsh 
 blasphemings ; but my uncle's laughter rang 
 out on the wind. 
 
 "Don't larf," piped the Cockney. "For 
 Gawd's sake don't larf like that, mister ! It's 
 'er ! " 
 
 " Spills, you're the veriest of fools I Her 
 who ? " 
 
 " Why, 'er 'oose skellington was in the cave ! 
 'Er with the long 'air ! 'Er 'oose gew-gaws are 
 clinkin' in yer pockets that's 'oo, mister 
 that's 'oo ! " 
 
 " My men," cried my uncle, " whether you 
 like it or not, I'm going down ! " 
 
 " We're not ! " growled Bult. 
 
 " Stay here, then, and lose your share. 
 You hear a bird screech, and you're ready to 
 take to your heels and let the treasure go. If 
 you want to stay, stay ; but not a bit of gold 
 or a gem goes into your pockets. Now, Rick ! " 
 
 Gripping the creepers then, I climbed down
 
 Dead Men's Gold 217 
 
 the cliff; and, muttering still, the sealers came 
 after, with my uncle climbing down last. I 
 shuddered still for the terror of the cry. It 
 suggested to me nothing, save that the place 
 was haunted still ; and that the voice gave 
 utterance to the terror of the dead that lurked 
 there. And yet I went on by the track amid 
 the burnt tree-ferns, for all my dread ; and 
 after me the sealers and my uncle came, their 
 footsteps crunching among the cinders, and 
 the grey ash flying up in fine dust. Silently 
 we passed over the burnt ground ; silently we 
 came to the entrance of the green tunnel to 
 the spring. I saw that the fire had burnt the 
 dead leaves and the oaken needles on the path, 
 although it had left nigh unscathed the tangle 
 of green parasites, and the boughs that grew 
 over it. It occurred to me suddenly that the 
 cry which had come shrilling up had been 
 uttered by one of my friends, and that some- 
 where in the scrub they lay hid ; and that they 
 were bent upon my rescue and the frustration 
 of my uncle's designs upon the treasure. Reason 
 asserting itself then, my terrors vanished froni 
 my brain like smoke. In silence I beckoned 
 to the sealers to follow after, and crept into 
 the tunnel. Their grcttl conquered their terrors. 
 An instant they remained muttering among
 
 218 Dead Men's Gold 
 
 themselves, and then the little Cockney set 
 the example by slipping after me, and his com- 
 panions followed. So we went wriggling like 
 snakes down the tunnel, even as Roddy and I 
 had gone. It took us, it might have been 
 twenty minutes, to reach the spring ; and by 
 the time we drew out into the open space, and 
 stood upright, the sweat dropped from us for 
 the heat. The bubbling stream was sweet 
 music ; and every man of us dropped on his 
 knees and filled his hands, and drank great 
 draughts of the water. The sun had made 
 golden bars on the grass at our entrance into 
 the haunted place ; but it seemed, as if by 
 design, that it went out, and left us in the deep, 
 green gloom. 
 
 " Well, my men," my uncle laughed, " where's 
 your ghost ? I see no sign of her. Egad, what 
 a set of fools you are ! " 
 
 " Don't larf so, mister ! " the Cockney pro- 
 tested. 
 
 " Ay, stop your cacklin'," muttered Cody ; 
 " I heard somethin' then." 
 
 " My good fool " my uncle began, still 
 
 grinning; but instantly he fell to silence, and 
 stood alert and poised like a fine and startled 
 animal. The footsteps came ; I vow the 
 footsteps shuffled among the dead leaves and
 
 Dead Men's Gold 219 
 
 the grass ; and the voices muttered and mur- 
 mured about us the voices of dead men, the 
 voices of ghosts ! And the green light was evil 
 about us still. 
 
 Again I shuddered lest I had been mistaken 
 in my belief that the cry was the voice of one 
 of my friends ; again the horror of the haunted 
 place crept over me like sickness ! Shuffle of 
 footsteps, murmur of voices, the melancholy 
 soughing of the wind in the branches above us 
 The voice ! Ay, the voice, awful and agonised 
 yet menacing nigh us ! Instantly the Cockney 
 let out a yell, and, stumbling forward, ran up the 
 gully that led toward the sand dunes. After 
 him went the sealers ; after them went we. 
 But my uncle was muttering savagely in my 
 ear, " The fools ! The fools ! That was no 
 ghost ! That was my precious brother, or one 
 of your friends. My Rick, I'll have the treasure ; 
 by gad, I'll have the treasure, though it cost me 
 a brother and a nephew ! Mark me, I'll have 
 the treasure ! " 
 
 I plucked myself from his detaining fingers, 
 and raced after the sealers. The sun was gone 
 behind a black mass of clouds ; but the dead gully 
 through the sand dunes was stifling in its heat. 
 The sweat dropped from me as I stumbled on. 
 I did not overtake the sealers till I came out
 
 220 Dead Men's Gold 
 
 on the grassy space, where the great bell hung 
 between the rocking stones. 
 
 Jemmy Spills, yet shuddering with terror, 
 perched like a gnome upon the rock ; the three 
 sealers, malevolent and evil-eyed, leaned against 
 one of the boulders. 
 
 " My covey ! " piped Spills, at sight of me. 
 "My covey, this 'ere's the diwle's own dance 
 you're leadin' us." 
 
 " I'm leading you to the treasure," I answered. 
 " I can't help it if you're scared." 
 
 " The hisland's 'anted ! " protested Mr. 
 Spills. " I tell you, my covey, the hisland's 
 'anted ! " 
 
 " That's for you to judge ! " I answered, 
 withdrawing from them. 
 
 " Ay an' maybe's it's like yet to be 'anted 
 by the ghost of a young swab an' 'is fine gentle- 
 man uncle ! " growled Cody, taking his pipe 
 and commencing to fill it. 
 
 I marked then the glitter of a knife in Jemmy 
 Spills' s hands. I marked that the young sealer 
 gripped an ugly bludgeon, that he must have 
 found in the sand dunes. I marked that Bult 
 had been cutting his tobacco, and that Cody 
 fingered something beneath his jacket. Dread- 
 ing a sudden attack on me I gripped my pistol, 
 and would have covered them on the instant,
 
 Dead Men's Gold 221 
 
 feeling that the storm which had threatened us 
 since first we landed on the island was even then 
 about to burst. But my uncle came stepping 
 across the turf, composed and smiling, with his 
 rapier swinging at his flank, and his left hand 
 stuck in his pocket, where he had placed his 
 pistol. 
 
 '' Well, my men," said my uncle, smiling upon 
 them evenly. " Well, none of you have fallen 
 victim yet to your ghost ? " 
 
 '' We've stood nigh enough, mister," barked 
 young Cody. " Mark me ! " 
 
 '' I shall be compelled to do so," purred my 
 uncle, " if you continue mutinous, my friend. 
 Now, Rick which way ? " 
 
 I turned to point whither the galleon lay. 
 And suddenly I stood, as if transfixed. For I 
 saw a great pillar of smoke fly up from the 
 deep bowl below the cliffs ; and well I knew 
 that my uncle and his following were fore- 
 stalled ; and that my friends had been at work ; 
 and that the galleon went up in flame. My 
 companions saw it on that instant, one and all ; 
 and, with a roar, were racing forward, my uncle 
 and I coming after. I marked how his wrath 
 m flamed him, like a fine savage animal. We 
 were on the edge of the cliffs presently, and 
 
 looking down into the bowl. The smoke filled 
 
 8
 
 222 Dead Men's Gold 
 
 it as if it were the crater of a volcano. The 
 ship was shrouded in smoke; but the flames 
 leaped high into the heavens, and the roar of 
 the fire was mighty. As breathless we stood 
 an instant, the decks gave way, for a roar of 
 flame went up ; and the sparks whirled into the 
 air. My uncle's bitter cry of rage broke the 
 spell upon us. 
 
 "By hell," cried Bult, "what game's this 
 you'd play with us, my gentleman ? " 
 
 " Ay," gasped the Cockney, " what's the 
 gime ? " 
 
 My uncle, drawing back from the edge of 
 the bowl, whipped his rapier from his side, 
 and his pistol threatened. And then I saw 
 that the sealers were armed one and all. They 
 had each man a knife, for all our clearing of 
 the boat, and the young sealer gripped his 
 club. 
 
 " You've tricked us, cap'n," Cody roared. 
 " And now, by hell, you'll pay ! " 
 
 " Keep back," my uncle said, and his voice 
 cut through the air like steel. " I warn you ; 
 don't come nigh me ! What game what 
 trick, say you ? Ask him ! Ask the boy 
 there ! " 
 
 I had my pistol levelled against them. I 
 gripped my dagger. My heart beat madly in
 
 Dead Men's Gold 223 
 
 my breast for terror ; and yet for the rage of 
 them, and for the baffling of my uncle, I laughed 
 upon them. Shrilly enough and falsely, I don't 
 doubt ; but still I laughed. 
 
 " Is this your work ? " gasped Cody, mouth- 
 ing at me. " Is this your golden ship this 
 yer ? " 
 
 44 My work ! " barked I ; " my work ! How 
 should it be my work ? Haven't I been with 
 you since last night ? " 
 
 44 If not your work," my uncle cried, white 
 with rage, " at least your father's work ! " 
 
 44 Ay I don't doubt that ! Not a piece of 
 gold nor a jewel will any of you touch. You're 
 outdone ! Ay and so much as seek to lay a 
 finger on me, and I'll promise you, one and all, 
 you'll dance yet in the air with a rope about 
 your neck. Keep back, Cody or I'll put a 
 bullet through you." 
 
 They hung, poised and waiting, in an evil, 
 menacing half-ring. The knives they held 
 quivered in their hands for their rage, even as 
 the rapier in my uncle's grip quivered and 
 shimmered in the sun. 
 
 44 Take him ! " my uncle said. 
 
 They leaped upon me. My pistol cracked, 
 but, for all their closeness, missed, and the 
 young sealer's bludgeon smashed upon my
 
 224 Dead Men's Gold 
 
 shoulder, and sent the dagger ringing to the 
 groun<jl. Bult's hands were tearing at my 
 throat for all my frantic struggling, and I saw 
 the gleam of Cody's uplifted knife, and death 
 came down from it. But it fell suddenly into 
 my face, cutting my cheek in its passing, and 
 Bult was flung from me by a grip of steel. And 
 I had tumbled back, and lay sick and bruised 
 and bleeding, and staring up at the pretty play 
 between my uncle and the sealers. His pistol 
 cracked, and old Cody went back, cursing 
 foully, and gripping at his left arm; and his 
 companion rogues flung themselves instantly 
 upon my uncle. Astride me he evaded them. 
 His rapier burnt the air like flame. His breath 
 hissed through his lips. Knife quivering in his 
 hand, old Bult leaped upon him. The rapier 
 met him fully in the breast ; an instant he 
 stood with knife uplifted ; and then fell into 
 the grass at the very edge of the cliff, and lay 
 there writhing, moaning, gasping. My uncle's 
 laughter echoed through the air; and, bending 
 low, he caught old Cody's staggering rush upon 
 the point of the rapier. He struck fairly. The 
 rapier caught the sealer below the breast bone ; 
 and his recoil whirled the sword from my 
 uncle's hand. I saw the sealer's huge figure 
 stand out upon the cliff an instant, ere he
 
 Dead Men's Gold 225 
 
 collapsed and slid down with a crash and 
 whirl of rubble into the depths below. But 
 still were left the Cockney Spills and the lithe 
 young sealer, Cody ; and now my uncle was 
 weaponless, and with his bare hands must 
 meet their onslaught. The Cockney raced in, 
 his knife high to strike my uncle down ; but 
 my uncle's fist cracked upon his jaw, and like 
 a log the fellow tumbled over and lay still. 
 I snatched the knife from his hand ; and 
 staggered to my feet to mark my uncle and the 
 young sealer now locked in an embrace that 
 only death could sever. My uncle gripped the 
 right wrist of the sealer, and the knife stuck up 
 into the air. My uncle's left hand clenched 
 upon the sealer's throat ; but Cody twisted his 
 wrist as if to crack its bones. Sick and shaken, 
 I sought my opportunity to aid my uncle ; 
 but my sight was dim, and my head mazed 
 with my fall ; and, ere I might strike, the 
 struggling pair had whirled past me, and hung 
 upon the very edge of the cliff. I screamed 
 out then with terror, for it seemed that the 
 two must go down to death on the terraces below, 
 lloth knew their peril, for I heard the sealer's 
 choking cry of terror, and I marked my uncle's 
 white as very death ; his lips parted ; his 
 blue eyes strained and staring. His will
 
 226 Dead Men's Gold 
 
 triumphed on the instant. The sudden terror 
 of the sealer aided him. I saw my uncle dis- 
 engage himself suddenly, and leap back into 
 safety. The sealer's scream rent the air, as he 
 fell backwards over the cliff.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 FORTITUDE OF MY UNCLE 
 
 FOR the horror of the scene I lost consciousness 
 for the time. I lay there in the grass senseless ; 
 it might have been for half an hour. I woke 
 to lie awhile, staring up at the sun in a break 
 of the clouds ; to hear the moan of the sea, 
 the sweep of the wind, the endless lamentation 
 of the sea fowl. The blood upon my face was 
 drying, but the slash across my cheek throbbed 
 cruelly. This gave me recollection, and, sitting 
 up, I blinked at my uncle, who stood like a 
 lifeless statue looking down upon the bowl, 
 whence the smoke yet curled. The body of 
 the sealer Bult lay on the grass where he had 
 fallen ; and the turf was dabbled with scarlet ; 
 but there was no sign of the little Cockney 
 Spills. It occurred to me on the instant that 
 my uncle had tumbled him down the cliffs 
 with the bodies of Cody and his son. As I 
 
 227
 
 228 Fortitude of My Uncle 
 
 stirred, my uncle turned and looked upon me, 
 grinning. 
 
 " Ah, Rick," he said ; " better ? " 
 
 " Ay, I'm better," I answered, regarding him 
 sickly. " Where's Spills ? " 
 
 " The precious gentleman," my uncle said, 
 laughing, " has judged discretion to be the 
 better part of valour. He pulled himself 
 together, before I dealt with him as he deserved. 
 He's somewhere hiding." 
 
 " Your venture has not prospered," I said, 
 with bitterness. 
 
 " Nay it hasn't prospered. I gave my good 
 brother too little credit for his brain. He's 
 tricked me." 
 
 " You've seen no sign of my father and the 
 rest ? " I asked, standing up dizzily. 
 
 " Not a sign. I take it they're on the island. 
 They must have heard the shots. My nephew, 
 I'm afraid you have in you the makings of a 
 very pretty liar. But one approach to the 
 island, said you ? And yet they did not come 
 that way ; and yet they fired the galleon." 
 
 " I take it," said I, " that they've found it 
 possible to land through the cave down there," 
 I answered. " I don't know another way. 
 You've to remember that the sea was calm 
 last night ; and the approach should be easier
 
 Fortitude of My Uncle 229 
 
 than when Scorne and I were washed through 
 the other day." 
 
 " And I was labouring under the delusion 
 that they had no boat," my uncle said. " I 
 tell you this, Rick if / had, I should have 
 dealt with them ere I left Wild Dog last night." 
 
 '' They had a boat," I answered, relishing his 
 discomfiture. " They may be down in the 
 cave now. Shall we climb down and see ? " 
 
 " Not I ! " my uncle answered. " I've no 
 wish yet to meet my brother. Naturally 
 And he's not likely to have left a speck of 
 treasure in the galleon." 
 
 I looked down into the hollow. The smoke 
 came still, but thinly ; and I made out the 
 ruin of the galleon as a great mass of coals 
 and flame. My heart rejoiced then to know 
 that my father had triumphed over my uncle's 
 trickery, and that he, doubtless, held the 
 treasure. Yet all the while I wondered that 
 he and Jeremy and Roddy had not heard the 
 pistol shots, and, guessing my peril, had not 
 come racing to my assistance. 
 
 " At least," my uncle said easily, " I have 
 a thousand pounds' worth of jewels and gold 
 about me. And even if my brother demand 
 the knife there with the jewels, I have a pretty 
 payment for my night's venture. The rapier 
 8*
 
 230 Fortitude of My Uncle 
 
 I regret the rapier yet I am not minded to 
 climb down the cliffs to find it. Unless you, 
 Rick, be prompted by desire to have that pretty 
 piece of steel " 
 
 " Not I ! " I answered. " I've taken enough 
 risks in your company, my uncle." 
 
 He stood looking upon me with a curious 
 light in his eyes. " I like you, lad," he said, 
 and his voice quivered as the strings of the 
 fiddle whereon he had conjured up the vision of 
 the galleon. " My lad, I like you. I have 
 spared none ere this, who has stood between 
 me and my will. I tell you but half an hour 
 since I was more than minded to give you to 
 the sealers, and so to strike my brother 
 through you to strike my brother. I spared 
 you." 
 
 " I'm not denying that," I said. " I'm not 
 ungrateful. I know you saved my life." 
 
 " And after all, any hurt to you," my uncle 
 mused, " could have served no purpose of mine 
 save only to strike my brother." 
 
 " You hate my father ; you have always 
 hated him," I said bitterly. " Why ? " 
 
 " Why, Rick, who knows the reason of love 
 and hate ? Solve the riddle, and you are 
 wiser than any man in the world yet. I never 
 loved my brother ; I know not why, for once
 
 Fortitude of My Uncle 231 
 
 he loved me. I came to hate him, long ere he 
 robbed me of the thing I wanted most. I 
 hated him I know not why. And yet I love 
 you, Rick. I know not why save that you 
 be your mother's son." 
 
 I had distaste for his theme. I had no 
 feeling of love for him how could I have ? 
 and yet I had no hate. I only said, " While 
 we talk here, the fellow Spills will have stolen 
 the boat and got away. If you'll not come 
 down to the cave to find my father, at least 
 let us get back to the boat." 
 
 " Those poor fools there are dead, I take it," 
 said my uncle, peering over the cliff. " A fall 
 of two hundred feet would put an end to any 
 man. Rick, it might have been you and I 
 who lay there broken like eggs. It might have 
 been I and yet I live ! And yet I've a thousand 
 guineas as good as clinking about me. And yet, 
 if I survive my brother's displeasure, I've 
 thirty years of London before me ! I live ; 
 and the sun shines ; and this gold is yellow ; 
 and these gems burn like red and blue lamps. 
 Ay, Rick, we'll be stepping, if you're well enough." 
 
 " I'm well enough," I answered, mopping 
 my blood-stained cheek with my kerchief, 
 and snatching up the blue-jewelled dagger which 
 lay in the grass.
 
 232 Fortitude of My Uncle 
 
 He nodded easily, and, without glancing at 
 the body of Bult he strode away, I following 
 after. The noon was h : gh now, for the sun 
 burnt in the height of the heavens. The heat 
 was stifling, for the wind was almost dead. We 
 went by the bell, and down among the sand 
 dunes ; and we came to the spring, where we 
 drank our fill, and I washed away the blood 
 from my cheek. But, I knew not the reason, I 
 heard no more the footsteps or the voices ; and 
 1 had lost my terror of the place maybe, 
 because the h >rror of that grim struggle on the 
 cliffs had driven forth the craven terror of 
 imagination. A while we rested there in the 
 shade, ere we crawled through the green tunnel, 
 and crossed the burnt ground. For my sick 
 weariness and overstrained nerves I could go 
 but slowly over the broken ground, and must 
 needs have the support of my uncle's arm. I 
 had no horror for him, no aversion. I had no 
 feeling save of regret that he, who possessed 
 indeed the gift of leadership and the qualities 
 that make men great, was by the trick of 
 destiny the veriest villain. And all the while 
 we saw no sign of Jemmy Spills ; nor yet of my 
 father and the rest ; and my belief was that, 
 when we came down to the beach, we should 
 find no trace of the boat, and that Jemmy Spills
 
 Fortitude of My Uncle 233 
 
 was already sailing off with what speed he might 
 to the haunts of the sealers among the islands. 
 
 Ere we came out upon the cliffs the sky had 
 become overcast with clouds, as for a thunder- 
 storm. The breeze was changing to the south, 
 but it came faintly yet ; and the waters at 
 our feet were still, save for the thunder on the 
 reefs and at the bases of the cliffs. The storm 
 approached with such density, and with so 
 thick a sea haze, that, although it was only 
 nigh early afternoon it seemed that the darkness 
 of night approached. Therefore, though we 
 hurried down towards the beach, we could 
 make out nothing, and knew not whether the 
 boat lay there still, nor whether it had been put 
 to sea. Ere we reached the edge of the cliffs, 
 to climb down to the beach, the storm broke. 
 The wind surged up suddenly from the south. 
 The thunder rolled in the heavens like great 
 guns, and the lightning flamed through the 
 murk in bolts of silver fire. The clouds burst ; 
 and tlu> rain came down as a deluge. We were 
 compelled for a while to seek shelter under an 
 overhanging rock ; and there, wet and miser- 
 able, we waited until the violence of the storm 
 was spent. It passed speedily as it had come; 
 and the clouds swept on like the wings of a 
 great bird. The sun blazed again in a sky of
 
 234 Fortitude of My Uncle 
 
 vivid blue, and the sea borrowed its colour. 
 Drawn still on the beach we marked the boat ; 
 but in it sat a man. I knew him even at that 
 distance, and my joyous cry went echoing down 
 the cliffs. And I left my uncle's side, and was 
 racing over the sands to meet my father, who, 
 leaping from the boat, came at a swinging stride 
 towards me. Then, for the first time in my 
 remembrance, his arms were clasped about me, 
 and I was laughing and blubbering like a fool. 
 
 " Dick safe, my lad safe, thank God ! " 
 
 " Ay safe, father safe ! " 
 
 " That villain with you ? Where are his 
 fellows ? " 
 
 " Oh, it is the maddest of tales I have to tell 
 you the rogues are all dead save my uncle and 
 one other. Didn't you hear the shots ? Have 
 you got the treasure ? " 
 
 " I heard no shots. The treasure that's 
 still for the telling. Yourself, lad ! " 
 
 " I'll tell you presently." 
 
 " Now, I've to deal with my brother," mark- 
 ing my uncle come stepping slowly across the 
 sands. " Wait in the boat, lad." 
 
 " At least," I cried, plucking his sleeve, 
 " remember that he saved my life at his own 
 sore risk." 
 
 He pushed me from him with a rough tender-
 
 Fortitude of My Uncle 235 
 
 ness and strode away to meet my uncle, while 
 I, dreading the event of their meeting, crept 
 wearily away to the boat. I saw them meet, 
 and marked my uncle's offered hand, and my 
 father's refusal to accept it. I marked my 
 father's towering figure, and I knew that wrath 
 consumed him. His voice reached me across 
 the sands terrible, monotonous. But never a 
 blow he struck ; only he spoke on, and my uncle 
 sought in vain to interject. 
 
 The meeting between the pair lasted it seemed 
 to me the space of twenty minutes or more. 
 And at last my father came striding back to the 
 boat, and at his heels my uncle. My father's 
 face was calm enough now ; his greeting of me 
 good-humoured ; but my uncle's face was set 
 like a mask of ivory, and his eyes revealed 
 nothing of the spirit within him. And not a 
 word spoke my father to him, as my uncle 
 aided him to push off the boat into deep water ; 
 nor yet when we stepped in, and my uncle took 
 his seat and fell to his oar. Despite the storm 
 the sea was comparatively calm, and we made 
 the passage cleanly. My father sat wrapped 
 in deep thought ; and, to my eager questioning 
 for Roddy and Jeremy, he answered only that 
 they should be awaiting us on Wild Dog Island ; 
 or come sailing to meet us. So we went silently,
 
 236 Fortitude of My Uncle 
 
 I stupid with weariness, as I sat at the tiller. 
 And when we were at last clear of the reefs, 
 and my father and my uncle set the sails, I 
 looked back at No Man's Island for the last 
 time. I saw a little figure break suddenly 
 from the ti-tree scrub, and dash across the 
 beach the Cockney Spills. I saw him beckon 
 to us frantically ; and heard his shrill screaming 
 and bitter blasphemies come echoing across the 
 water. 
 
 " Spills ! " I cried then to my father. " That's 
 the little villain, Spills one of the sealers. Are 
 you going back for him ? " 
 
 He seemed to pay no heed ; but took his seat 
 to tend the sail. Only my uncle stood up, 
 looking back at the island. And his sudden 
 burst of laughter had all the old mockery in it.
 
 CHARIER XXVIII 
 
 CHAGRIN OF MY UNCLE 
 
 I WAS to have from Roddy the full story of 
 the manner in which he and my father and 
 Jeremy Otter found a means of landing on No 
 Man's Island, and of tricking my uncle and 
 the sealers of their purpose to remove the 
 treasure. For I found Roddy awaiting me 
 when we sailed in to the landing place on Wild 
 Dog, in the gold of the afternoon ; and with him 
 Jeremy and Margaret. But all the time of our 
 sailing from No Man's to Wild Dog, I had 
 scarce a word from my father, and none from 
 my uncle. I know not what had passed between 
 them at their meeting on the sands. I only 
 know that my unele's defiant spirit had been 
 quelled by the storm of wrath from my father ; 
 and that from that time neither gave the other 
 a word. 
 
 My father sat tending the sail ; I held the 
 tiller ; my uncle, lounging indolently in the boat, 
 237
 
 238 Chagrin of My Uncle 
 
 set himself to the examination of the jewels 
 and the golden sun, which he had plucked from 
 the skeleton within the cave. Watching him, 
 I noted that the possession of these gems gave 
 him an exquisite pleasure, for his face expressed 
 it. And it seemed to me that he had forgotten, 
 or blotted from his mind, the scene within the 
 cave ; and the dead thing, that once, I took 
 it, must have been red-lipped and beautiful, 
 even as he had told to the fiddle strings ; and 
 that he had put from his mind the thought of 
 the blood that had run for lust of the treasure. 
 Howbeit, I had for him only gratitude that, 
 despite his first consuming rage, he had not 
 borne to see me murdered by the sealers ; and 
 at the peril of his own life had saved me from 
 them. And, watching him lazily as I sat in 
 the sun, I saw that the circlet of gold was a 
 choice and precious piece of workmanship ; and 
 that at the point of each ray a little jewel was 
 set to form a point of rose-red flame. And the 
 red and the green and the blue jewels, and 
 the long necklet, were as so much fire in the 
 sun. My father must have noticed the blaze 
 of light in my uncle's hands ; but he made no 
 sign ; and his pale and melancholy face revealed 
 nothing to me. Even at that hour, though I 
 knew well that he loved me, and that my safety
 
 Chagrin of My Uncle 239 
 
 was a joy to him, I stood yet so much in awe 
 of him, that, though my tongue tingled to ask 
 questions of Roddy and the rest and the 
 whereabouts of the treasure, I dared not break 
 in upon his reflections ; but left him sitting 
 silent by the straining sail. 
 
 And now the thought of my great joy kindled 
 heart and mind for me. It was my father's 
 purpose to return to England. And now at 
 last, I took it, we were about to leave Wild Dog 
 Island and with us take many precious jewels 
 that should serve to enhance the beauty of my 
 mother. My heart ached for her ; my soul 
 cried for her. For she had come out of the 
 shadows of my dreams and from dim memories, 
 that were as dreams of long ago, into an actual 
 existence that yet should be linked with my 
 own life. How I pictured her constantly a 
 fair, pale, stately lady, who should win back 
 her happiness at our coming ; should drive the 
 gloom from my father's mind, and add new 
 joy and delight to mine I And, picturing her, 
 I could not marvel that my father should hate 
 my uncle, who had sought for his own chagrin, 
 for his disappointment in his suit to her to 
 part their lives for ever. And I found cause for 
 speculation, too, in the manner of my father's 
 future treatment of my uncle.
 
 240 Chagrin of My Uncle 
 
 I wondered whether he purposed to let him 
 return to England with us ; or whether he 
 would leave him on Wild Dog Island ; or would 
 part company with him at George Town. And 
 this much I knew, that to my father's hate of 
 him had been added a new cause of bitter resent- 
 ment my uncle's removal of me from Wild 
 Dog on the previous night and his attempt, 
 with the assistance of the sealers, to trick us 
 of the treasure. I found myself conjecturing, 
 too, of the fate that should befall Jemmy 
 Spills on the haunted island. Food there was 
 in plenty, with the ship's biscuit from the 
 Indus lying in soaked masses on the beach, the 
 mussels, and the oysters. But I knew well, 
 that, had I been marooned alone upon the 
 island, I must have gone mad with the very 
 terror of the gloomy woods ; the skeleton lying 
 within the cave ; the eternal moaning of the 
 surf upon the bar. How should the little evil 
 Cockney endure the solitude ? And yet for 
 the memory of the assault upon the cliff, and 
 for the recollection of Spills's face looking on me 
 from out the darkness, when I nodded on my 
 watch, I could not pity him. 
 
 With the comparative calm that had suc- 
 ceeded the thunderstorm we rounded Wild Dog 
 without difficulty ; and, avoiding the treacherous
 
 Chagrin of My Uncle 241 
 
 currents we came with ease to the landing place. 
 And there upon the rocks to meet us, were 
 Roddy Scorne, and Jeremy and Margaret ; and 
 ere I knew, Roddy and Jeremy were shaking 
 my hands like pump handles ; and Margaret 
 at intervals was seizing her opportunity to dab 
 kisses upon my face the while Pitch, my dog, 
 slavered about me. My uncle stood by, smiling 
 as if gratified ; but they had no word of greet- 
 ing for him, and paid him no heed. My father, 
 leaping ashore, muttered, " See to the boat, 
 Otter ; and make it secure ! " and so strode 
 up towards the house. 
 
 " Shall we follow, Rick ? " demanded my 
 uncle, noting, as I, the suggestive note in my 
 father's voice ; and realising from it that he 
 was concerned lest our gentleman should again 
 seek to slip away. 
 
 " Presently," I answered, " presently. I want 
 a word with Roddy and my friends." 
 
 " Lucky Rick," sneered my uncle, " to have 
 such friends ! " 
 
 At that Margaret Otter turned upon him 
 ablaze. " Mr. Ingleby," cried she, " I called it an 
 evil night when first you set foot upon the island." 
 
 " Why, my good woman, if my memory s 
 me aught," he answered, " it was the very 
 devil of a night."
 
 242 Chagrin of My Uncle 
 
 " And now," she went on, " I say it was a 
 blessed, blessed night ! " 
 
 " Faith, my good Margaret, you're incon- 
 sistent." 
 
 " A blessed night, because all the evil you 
 have wrought has come to nothing. Ay and 
 because all the evil you did my mistress is at 
 an end. And because my master knows you 
 for the wicked man you are. And because 
 he'll now go home to England ! " 
 
 " 'Twas why I came," my uncle said, still 
 grinning at her. " If I have succeeded in per- 
 suading my brother to return to England, I 
 have not come in vain." 
 
 She sought to beat down his jewel eyes with 
 hers ; and failing, she turned her back on him ; 
 and, muttering that she must get back to prepare 
 supper for us, she followed my father up toward 
 the house. At that I cried to Jeremy and 
 Roddy, " Can you see to the boat without 
 me ? " and at their nods took after her. My 
 uncle followed me ; but though he called to 
 me, " Stay a moment, Rick, I'm coming with 
 you," I paid him no heed, having no fancy for 
 speech with him; and I made off apace, with 
 Pitch racing and barking before me. 
 
 The sun was sinking in the west as I strode 
 into the house. It lit the room through the
 
 Chagrin of My Uncle 243 
 
 little window panes. It blazed upon the treasure 
 piled high upon a strip of canvas on the table 
 on the gems ; the shimmering crucifix and 
 rosary ; the rotting bags of skin that held gold 
 dust. Truly they had made a clearing of the 
 treasure from the galleon, ere they set a fire- 
 stick to it. My father sat at the table ; but at 
 the sight of me he started up and caught my 
 hands in his, and so stood silently a while looking 
 down on me. 
 
 " You have it all," cried I at last, peering 
 at the treasure. 
 
 *' Ay, we have it all. There's fifty thousand 
 pounds' worth, if I reckon it aright, my lad," 
 he answered. " May be much more. Enough 
 to make rich men of you and the other lad." 
 
 " And we'll go back to England, all of us ? " 
 said I ; " and find my mother. And be 
 happy ? " 
 
 " Ay, we'll go back to England ; and find 
 your mother ; and, if God wills, be happy ! 
 And with us we'll take every jewel and grain 
 of gold dust, plundered by the Spanish long 
 ago." 
 
 " Unless there be a curse upon it 
 
 "" God works mysteriously," he said. " The 
 treasure should have gone long since to Spain 
 this treasure snatched from tortured Indians,
 
 244 Chagrin of My Uncle 
 
 the toilers in the mines. It spells a solemn 
 obligation to you, Dick to all of us." 
 
 " It means wealth and happiness," I ventured, 
 looking covetously upon the glittering pile. 
 
 " It means the obligation that this wealth 
 wrought of misery shall go for the alleviation 
 of misery. For the relief of poverty to bring 
 comfort to the sick, to give food to the starving ! 
 So I read the purpose of it, Dick." 
 
 " But how did you succeed in getting it off 
 No Man's Island ? " asked I, " before the 
 sealers came ? " 
 
 " That's a long story, lad. Your friend 
 Scorne can tell you later. Now, while we're 
 alone, tell me what passed upon the island." 
 
 So I plunged instantly into my story. I 
 told him of our sailing by night ; of what 
 passed in the darkness ; of the jewels that my 
 uncle plucked from the dead woman in the cave ; 
 of the cries from the spring ; and the assault 
 upon the cliff. And all the while he sat in moody 
 silence, his pallid face revealing nothing of his 
 thoughts or of his sentiment towards my uncle. 
 
 " Do I intrude ? " demanded my uncle from 
 the doorway, as I ended the tale. He stood 
 there, a jaunty figure still, wearing his old 
 insufferable look of impudence, that I had 
 marked on him in his dealings with my father.
 
 Chagrin of My Uncle 245 
 
 My father answered never a word, but his 
 lips smiled upon him. My uncle had stepped 
 into the room and stood staring down upon the 
 glittering treasure. And then at last the mask 
 was off him utterly ; and I beheld him for the 
 manner of man he was. His blue eyes lit with 
 all the evil light of the gems that he had plucked 
 from the Inca's daughter ; and his red lips 
 curled back covetously ; and his face worked 
 malignantly ; and his fingers twitched, as if 
 at that hour he would essay to pluck the treasure 
 from us. 
 
 And all the while my father watched him, 
 his face expressing nothing, only his deep black 
 eyes glowing upon him. Then suddenly my 
 uncle flung back his head, and laughed as one 
 possessed. 
 
 " Why," cried he, choking and gasping, 
 " fortune has played her cards for you, my 
 brother ! Old Anthony's guineas are yours for 
 the most ; the treasure's yours for the most, 
 save for a few poor gew-gaws that I chance to 
 have about me. Shall I add them to your 
 spoils, oh, my brother ? " 
 
 Turning then upon us savagely, muttering 
 and laughing, and going on white-hot : " You, 
 my brother, to have all that's worth aught to 
 me in life ! You to have these magical heaps
 
 246 Chagrin of My Uncle 
 
 of jewels, and all this gold ! You, who never 
 had a taste for aught that makes gold precious. 
 You who've never cared for silks or fine stuffs, 
 or jewelled buckles who've found no music in 
 the swish of cards or the rattle of dice ; who've 
 never known a golden vintage of France from a 
 thick Madeira. You who've never known the 
 joy of a woman's love ! " 
 
 Thereat my father rose up from his seat, 
 and stood facing him, his face revealing nothing, 
 only his eyes burning into his brother's. 
 
 " You've had all things in life that I should 
 have had ; the means to enjoy, without enjoy- 
 ing. All things nay not all ! Not all, my 
 brother not all, not all " 
 
 I knew the malice and the evil that envenomed 
 his speech. I understood with what he taunted 
 my father. Ay, and I understood, when my 
 father struck him suddenly a terrible blow, 
 that dashed him, stunned and bleeding, to the 
 floor.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 RODDY TELLS HIS TALE 
 
 SAID I, as I tumbled into bed early that night 
 for I was weary to death, " Now for your story, 
 Roddy, my lad ! " 
 
 "What's your father told you about it?" 
 demanded he, pausing, ere he blew out the 
 light. 
 
 " Not a word ! I only know that you landed 
 on the island ; and got the treasure off ; and 
 fired the galleon. Ay, and I heard a yell or 
 two in the scrub that made me fancy for the 
 time the.t my father disciplined you ! " 
 
 " And yet I'll be bound you were as scared 
 as the sealers when you heard those yells ! " 
 
 " No, my lad, I only pictured you and the 
 way my father plied his switch; that was 
 all ! " 
 
 He blew the candle out, and laughing, perched 
 himself on the edge of the bed. Through the 
 
 247
 
 248 Roddy Tells His Tale 
 
 open window the moonlight streamed in on his 
 white figure, for it was a clear night. And, 
 while I lay easily on my pillow, he fell to his 
 story. 
 
 " Well, there's very little to tell you, Dick," 
 said he. " Your father and Jeremy Otter were 
 nigh the house when they carried you off. And 
 I tell you your father fell into the very devil's 
 own rage when we managed to give him a 
 notion of what had befallen I was a bit dizzy 
 from the tap on my head, I may say. He'd 
 have taken after your uncle and his crew at 
 once, but for Jeremy. It was Jeremy planned 
 that we should make for the island ahead of 
 them. They were well armed, d'ye see and 
 we could not have stood against them ! 'Twould 
 have meant but the cracking of our own heads, 
 or the slitting of our throats ; and no advan- 
 tage to you from either. Well, then, your 
 father saw reason ! The sea was calm enough, 
 as Jeremy pointed out ; and the current that 
 had borne you and me into the cave would 
 not be running so strong. So that, if we dared 
 essay it and we must needs essay it to get 
 ahead of your uncle, and we could swim one 
 and all the chances were that we'd be borne 
 into the cave easily enough ; and mayhap 
 get off again. The certainty was that, if we
 
 Roddy Tells His Tale 249 
 
 landed, we'd have first chance with the treasure. 
 Your father cared not a snap of the fingers 
 for the- treasure. His one concern was you, 
 though why, I'm at a loss to understand. 
 'Twas I suggested that, if we landed, one of us 
 should make for the beach, and seek to slip 
 off with the boat your uncle and the rest of 
 you were in. And then we should hold the 
 cards ; and the game should be with us. We 
 were putting out from the cove that you and 
 I were sucked from in the boat the other morn- 
 ing, within a half-hour the three of us. The 
 current was strong, but, to my amaze, not the 
 mill race that you and I found it. We had 
 but to steer, and we ran in safely though 
 even then at the devil's own pace under No 
 Man's Island. And the tide being high and 
 the sea smooth, we were sucked into the mouth 
 of the cave without upsetting ; and we beached 
 the boat without piling her up. I wonder, 
 Dick, that you never tried to land on No Man's 
 before." 
 
 * There was no need for us to try," I answered. 
 " It's a dangerous place except in the calmest 
 weather. And we knew of the place save only 
 by evil repute : :md we dreaded the current. 
 Get on, Roddy ! " 
 
 u What's there to tell you ? We landed in
 
 250 Roddy Tells His Tale 
 
 the cavern ; and, as we had a lantern with us, 
 we made our way easily enough out at the 
 other end. The boat you and I sailed in ap- 
 peared to have been washed away, for we saw 
 no sign of her. We fixed ropes down the 
 rocks, so as to let ourselves down your father 
 and I while Jeremy stayed to haul us up 
 again. And then we climbed to the galleon. 
 Those fellows in the cabin I tell you, Rick, 
 they'd gone all to dust since we let the air in 
 on them ; but the gold and the stones were 
 all there waiting for us. We tried to get below 
 to have a look for aught else ; but everything 
 was in a state of rottenness, and the air was 
 too foul. The timbers had rotted all away in 
 places, and the hold and the cabins were blocked 
 with sand. So we didn't stay ; but turned 
 back into the cabin with the treasure. And we 
 worked the rest of the night, Dick, hi shifting 
 the stuff ; and lifting it into the cave. All this 
 while we were expecting to catch sight of you 
 and your friends ; but never a sign did we see." 
 
 " And all the while," said I, " I was ex- 
 pecting to hear from you on the other side of 
 the island." 
 
 " You can take it that the stuff in the chest 
 was heavy. Why, it took us till the morning 
 to move it all your father and I shifting it
 
 Roddy Tells His Tale 251 
 
 from the ship, and Jeremy hauling it up into 
 the tunnel. And then, when we'd cleared it all, 
 Jeremy hauled us up too, and we had a snack 
 of biscuit. And then we arranged that your 
 father should make at once to the other side of 
 the island ; and that I, after showing him the 
 way you were likely to come, should slip back 
 and set a light to the ship ; and then give Jeremy 
 a hand at clearing off with the treasure. The 
 weather played for us, mark you ; and it would 
 be easy enough to pull out of the current, if we 
 set our backs to it." 
 
 " And all the years we've lived on Wild Dog," 
 said I, " we've had no notion of the treasure. 
 After a try or two I think my father and Jeremy 
 made long ago to land on No Man's, we'd given 
 it up as hopeless." 
 
 " Well, then," pursued Roddy, " we made 
 off, your father and I, as far as the spring. 
 And I rested there awhile, and nearly went to 
 sleep; fcr you can take it that I was fairly 
 tired out by that time. But I fancied I heard 
 your company's voices somewhere on the hill ; 
 and then I let out those yells you heard. It 
 did not give me much time, I promise you, to 
 get back to the galleon, and put a fire-stick in 
 her. Gad, how the rotten old tub blazed. 
 And then I hailed Jeremy to pull me up ; and
 
 252 Itoddy Tells His Tale 
 
 we had the rest of the treasure into the boat, 
 and were seeking to pull out of the cavern. I 
 tell you we had the very devil's own task to 
 pull out of the cavern. We were weighted 
 down, too, with the stuff, and drew deeply. I 
 tell you, Dick, it went against the grain to see 
 Jeremy drop some of the heaviest bars over- 
 board ; and I fancy that Jeremy himself shed 
 tears. At least, I heard him groan dismally. 
 Even so, had it not been for the tide running 
 out, we'd never have pulled out of the Devil's 
 Cavern. I name it so, Dick, for my hands are 
 blue blisters, and my back cracking still. Hours 
 it took us, to get into daylight ; and another 
 hour to pull from the current and make for 
 Wild Dog. We were not fit for much after 
 we got ashore, I promise you ; but yet we'd 
 have been making for the other side of the 
 island to look for you and your father, if Mrs. 
 Otter hadn't spied the sail ! It was taking a 
 risk leaving you with 'em ; but what else could 
 we do ? We hadn't the arms ; they had ; and 
 we calculated on your uncle's standing by you 
 in case of trouble." 
 
 " He did, as I've told you ! Gad, Roddy, I 
 wish you could have seen the game he played 
 on the cliffs after we saw the galleon going up 
 in smoke ' "
 
 Roddy Tells His Tale 253 
 
 " And now what's to come of it all ? " asked 
 he, slipping into bed. 
 
 " Why, we'll be off for George Town in a day 
 or so. And then for England ! Roddy, my 
 lad, you and I are not like to go begging if 
 ever we land with the stuff in England." 
 
 " But what of your uncle is he to go with 
 us ? I haven't a word to say against your 
 relations, Dick, but the chances are that if 
 he goes with us we'll not have much of the 
 treasure, when we land in England." 
 
 44 I don't know my father's purpose with him," 
 I answered sleepily. " At any rate, he's not 
 likely to have much chance of slipping away 
 to-night." 
 
 " Why, where is he ? " 
 
 " Well, he's under lock and key. In Otter's 
 hut and Jeremy and Pitch are keeping an eye 
 on him, I'll promise you. Roddy, my lad, I'm 
 tired ; I'm going to sleep." 
 
 44 So'm I," he muttered from his pillow, and 
 pulled the blankets about him. And that 
 indeed was the lot of my uncle for the night. 
 He had not joined us at supper; but had been 
 si rved in Jeremy Otter's living room. No word 
 had passed between him and me ; and he had 
 not approached me. But my father and he 
 had talked long and bitterly, while I dozed 
 
 9
 
 254 Roddy Tells His Tale 
 
 over the fire ; and, at the close of their con- 
 versation, I had heard my father's instructions 
 to Jeremy. Now, as I lay in my bed, I could 
 hear my uncle playing upon Jeremy's cracked 
 fiddle ; but 'twas the very ghost of a tune.
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 FOR ENGLAND, HOME, AND BEAUTY 
 
 ON the following evening we sailed from Wild 
 Dog Island for George Town in Van Diemen's 
 Land. We had packed the treasure in strong 
 boxes of Norfolk pine ; and we had distributed 
 the boxes between the two boats my father 
 and Roddy and I going in the larger sailing 
 boat ; Margaret and Jeremy in that from the 
 wrecked East Indiaman. From the house, 
 where we had dwelt all these years, we were able 
 to remove only the black Eastern chest, and a 
 book or two that my father cherished, and a 
 few rare bits of Indian tapestry that hung about 
 the house. The remainder we left for McArdle 
 to carry away on the ketch, if he chose, to 
 make what profit on it he might in George 
 Town or Sydney. A letter to him was left on 
 the table by my father, pending his arrival at 
 Wild Dog with the stores intended for us. My 
 father's one aim now that his exile was at an 
 
 255
 
 256 For England, Home, and Beauty 
 
 end was to return to England ; and the few 
 household goods that had served us well enough 
 those years upon the island, and the books that 
 had relieved his melancholy and his solitude, 
 mattered nothing to him. 
 
 We had worked all day, the five of us, in load- 
 ing and provisioning the boats. We kept a 
 careful eye upon my uncle, lest he should seek 
 to trick us still and slip away in one of the 
 boats. And all that day my uncle lounged 
 about the cliffs, and basked lazily in the sun, 
 and had never a word for any of us. Once 
 only I came nigh him ; and then his lips smiled 
 at me indulgently, while his blue eyes pierced 
 me. But there was no hate in his look for me ; 
 and, indeed, to this hour, I credit him with 
 having had a certain easy liking for me as 
 my mother's son ; ay, and to this hour it is a 
 matter of bitter regret to me, that he, with 
 all his charm and grace and lively wit and 
 love of darmg adventure, must needs have 
 been my father's enemy and mine. I had no 
 hate for him at that hour ; I have none now 
 only regret. I have wondered often since, 
 what was his true sentiment towards me then ; 
 and whether he regretted even as I. At least 
 he had saved me in my hour of supreme peril ; 
 at least he had risked his own life for that. And
 
 For England, Home, and Beauty 257 
 
 I deplore the trick of destiny that made him 
 fortune's fool, and wasted his talents to his 
 race and time. His eyes and they beat down 
 mine revealed nothing as he sauntered by, 
 swinging a wattle-switch and humming a tune. 
 
 I took it to be my father's purpose to leave 
 him on the island while we sailed away; and, 
 for the thought of his defence of me on No 
 Man's, I pitied him. Once I dared approach 
 my father to question him ; but I took only a 
 flea in my ear for my task. Indeed, I think 
 that my father was still undecided in his pur- 
 pose whether to follow the safe course and 
 leave him on the island to be removed thence 
 by McArdle, whose ketch was due at Wild Dog, 
 or to take him with us, and to risk fresh tricks 
 from him. I was distressed when I found time 
 to think of my uncle ; but all that day I had 
 little care for aught save for sailing ; and was 
 possessed by the wildest excitement for the 
 thought of leaving Wild Dog, and voyaging 
 home to England and my mother. And Roddy 
 and I were the maddest of young fools that day, 
 and took, the pair of us, many a cuff from my 
 father and Jeremy for our pains. 
 
 By evening all was in readiness. The last 
 box of treasure was aboard. The boats were 
 provisioned with fish, and mutton-birds, and
 
 258 For England, Home, and Beauty 
 
 biscuit, and a keg or two of water for our two 
 days' sailing down to George Town. And ere 
 we left the house finally, my father read us a 
 chapter the three of us being present while 
 Jeremy watched the boats, lest my uncle seek 
 to slip away. Then, bidding us go down to the 
 boats, and await him there, my father left the 
 house to seek my uncle, whom I perceived 
 sitting moodily enough then upon a rock nigh 
 the cottage. So we left them and the three 
 of us, with Pitch racing before us, went slowly 
 down the cliffs towards the boat, where Jeremy 
 waited, smoking placidly. 
 
 What passed between my father and my uncle 
 I do not know. I do believe that my father, 
 generous in his final triumph, offered that my 
 uncle should accompany us to George Town, 
 and there part company with us and make the 
 best of his way home to England alone. And 
 that, even at that hour, my uncle could not 
 bring himself, for all his desire to be away, to 
 accept his brother's generosity ; but chose to 
 remain upon the island alone, with the prospect 
 of being removed in a few days' time by McArdle, 
 and sailing thence upon the ketch. I say I do 
 not know ; it may have been, or may not have 
 been so. Only I know my father, generous 
 and honourable, for all the hardness that his
 
 For England, Home, and Beauty 259 
 
 sufferings seemed to have bred in him, came 
 alone to the boats where we awaited him, and 
 curtly bade us push off. So, leaping in, we 
 sailed from Wild Dog for the last time. The 
 sunset was nigh, and all the sea was a very 
 sheet of precious red gold. The Dog's Tooth 
 stuck up as a flaming pinnacle of jasper, and 
 No Man's Isle was veiled in purpling mist. But 
 all Wild Dog stood out its yellow bird-haunted 
 cliffs ; its green cap ; the smoke still curling from 
 the chimney of our house. Despite my joy at 
 the thought of departure for England, I felt 
 my eyes dim suddenly for tears for all the 
 remembrance of the dull long years that locust- 
 like had eaten up my boyhood, and for my 
 attachment for the island, such as one and all 
 of us must hold for the place where we have 
 spent our youth. 
 
 So we set sail into the golden sea ; and left 
 Wild Dog, and my uncle alone even as the 
 little scamp Spills was alone on No Man's 
 Lsland. Gazing back for the last time, I per- 
 ceived my uncle suddenly standing upon the 
 cliff above the landing place, still nigh us, and 
 looking down on us. I have seen a picture of 
 Napoleon Buonaparte, the Emperor of the 
 French, standing so at St. Helena, when all his 
 glory and his kingdom had passed from him.
 
 260 For England, Home, and Beauty 
 
 I tell you, that in the clear evening air, my 
 uncle looked just such a statuesque and gloomy 
 figure, gazing down upon the golden straits ; 
 and I conjectured for myself all the bitter malice 
 that possessed him; and all the sense of his 
 brother's triumph ; and all the realisation of his 
 own loss and loneliness. 
 
 The breeze filled our sails. The sun sank 
 into crimson seas. The twilight was upon the 
 waters. Still looking back, I perceived against 
 the far horizon the white flicker of a sail, as a 
 sea-bird's wing ; and I knew, as I slid down 
 beside Roddy at the stern of the boat, that 
 McArdle's ketch was already bearing down upon 
 Wild Dog Island, and that my uncle's marooning 
 was like to be a brief one. My father, I took 
 it, noted nothing ; and I said never a word to 
 him, for I feared lest, for the greater safety 
 that our sailing in the ketch would offer, my 
 father might direct us to put back to Wild 
 Dog, and that our departure thence would be 
 delayed for a day or two. I was burnt up by 
 my ardour to be away from Wild Dog Island, 
 and sailing home upon a ship for England.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 LONDON TOWN 
 
 UPON an Autumn night of the following year 
 my father and I were in London. We had 
 sailed home by the East Indiaman, the Ganges, 
 leaving Hobart Town in the previous December. 
 I tell you that I grudged every day that we 
 must needs spend in Van Diemen's Land, ere 
 we could find a ship ; and that the hospitality 
 of Sir George Arthur, Governor of the Colony, 
 who chanced to be an old friend of my father's, 
 accounted nothing. Ay, and I grudged the 
 long, long voyage for all its wonders, and for 
 all the companionship of my father, who had 
 grown young again, and had put off his old 
 austerity ; and of Roddy Scorne ; and of fat 
 Jeremy and lean Margaret, who sailed with us. 
 But ere we sailed from Hobart Town we had 
 it from His Excellency the Governor of Van 
 Diemen's Land that an expedition had been 
 261
 
 262 London Town 
 
 sent from George Town to pay a visit to those 
 sealers for the disciplining of them ; and to 
 take a look at Wild Dog and No Man's Islands, 
 lest my uncle and Jemmy Spills be still upon 
 them. Now, in a letter to my father, after 
 we were settled in London, Sir George Arthur 
 informed him that his men found Mr. Spills 
 still living a Crusoe-like existence upon No 
 Man's Island ; and, recognising him for an 
 absconder from the penal establishment at 
 Rocky Hills on the East Coast of Van Diemen's 
 Land, had carried him back thither to serve 
 the remainder of his original sentence for niching 
 in London. But of my uncle they found no 
 sign, and of him I have yet to tell. 
 
 From the time of our arrival in the Thames 
 my father had paused only to place the chests 
 that contained the treasure in the keeping of 
 the East India Company, to be locked securely 
 away till he might direct that it should be 
 transferred to the keeping of his bankers. And 
 that afternoon I parted with many hand- 
 shakes and wishes for our speedy meeting once 
 more from Roddy, at the White Hart Inn, 
 whence he took coach to make his way down 
 into Devon to find his mother. Ay, and let 
 me here say, that, though she mourned him as 
 dead, he found her yet living in his old home,
 
 London Town 263 
 
 and for yourself you may imagine the joy of 
 their meeting. For Roddy came home rich 
 with his share of the treasure, though he had 
 sailed but as a ship's boy for John Company. 
 
 But now my father's one thought was to find 
 my mother. I could realise now the station in 
 life that my father had quitted, when, in his 
 madness, he had left my mother years since. 
 For, while Jeremy and Margaret remained at the 
 inn, we went forth, and we paused a while 
 to visit a tailor, where we were measured and 
 fitted for wardrobes that would not shame us 
 in London. And I was clad then and there 
 in a smart suit white breeches, a frilled shirt, 
 brass-buttoned blue jacket, cap, and a blue 
 cloak to match with the promise that my 
 new garments, for which I had been measured, 
 should be sent to me without delay. And 
 thence we drove through the city to my father's 
 attorneys ; and, while I sat in the carriage, he 
 remained closeted with them for the better 
 space of a half-hour. My mind was in a whirl 
 with the glories of London the crowded streets ; 
 the gaily dressed and bustling company ; the 
 vast and roaring traffic of the streets. But my 
 mother how long before I should see my 
 mother ? 
 
 44 We're going now, Dick, to my own house,"
 
 264 London Town 
 
 announced my father, as he stepped into the 
 carriage beside me. " Maybe we'll find your 
 mother there." 
 
 I answered not a word, for the joy of it nigh 
 choked me. My father put his arm tenderly 
 about me ; and, looking up at him, I saw that 
 his own eyes were dim for tears, and that he 
 was as moved as I. Off again then into the 
 clattering streets, and impeded by the traffic, 
 going all too slow ; and thence, after the space 
 of an hour, it seemed a day, driving into a 
 wide and handsome street, and drawing up 
 before a great house. But as we leaped out 
 and climbed the steps, and passed into the 
 porch beneath the huge armorial bearings, I 
 perceived sadly that the blinds were drawn, 
 and that the house seemed shut up and deserted ; 
 and when my father rang the bell, the clamour 
 went echoing as through an empty house. 
 A while we waited, until footsteps came sounding 
 slowly through the hall ; and with a screech 
 of bolts the great door was opened to us. A 
 footman stood there, powdered, and clad in 
 sombre livery of blue, peering out on us. I 
 saw that my father was strange to him, for he 
 gave him no sign of recognition. 
 
 " Is your mistress within ? " demanded my 
 father.
 
 London Town 265 
 
 " She's within, sir ; but she sees no one," 
 the fellow answered. 
 
 " Yet she will see us," my father answered, 
 passing in with an air of authority. " Come, 
 Dick. Take my name to her, my man ! " 
 
 " Yessir, certainly, sir ! " the footman said, 
 staring at us. " What name, sir ? " 
 
 " Ingleby ! " my father answered ; and at 
 that the fellow gave a gasp, and started back, 
 staring at us. 
 
 " Come in, sir," he stammered at last. " Pray 
 come in, sir ! " and led the way across a splendid 
 hall with gloomy hangings, and great paintings 
 in gilded frames ; and through the faded curtains 
 into a room, where he left us hurriedly. I had 
 scarce an eye for the glory of the great, gloomy 
 room ; my heart beat in my breast and tears 
 dimmed my eyes. But I perceived that it was 
 resplendent with gilded mirrors; and tapestries 
 of green and gold hanging on the walls, and 
 painted portraits of ladies and gentlemen one 
 in a laced and ruffled suit suggesting my uncle 
 and that the thick carpet was of a faded 
 green ; and the furniture faded with it. My 
 father stood with his arm about me, facing the 
 door ; and I heard him draw his breath pain- 
 fully, and felt the nervous tremor of his 
 fingers.
 
 266 London Town 
 
 The curtain was drawn back; and a lady 
 stepped into the room a lady, in a sweeping 
 gown of sombre silk, with delicate laces at 
 wrist and bosom; a lady white-haired and 
 lily-pale. Ay, he had lied my uncle had lied. 
 The loveliest lady in all England ! true enough ; 
 the fairest and sweetest, and best for me 
 and yet white-haired and pale, with all the 
 splendour of her youth and beauty long since 
 mourned away. She stood, hands outstretched 
 awaiting us. She murmured only, "My 
 dears oh, my dears ! " ere she swayed, and 
 would have fallen, had not my father leaped 
 towards her, and caught her in his arms. . . . 
 
 Now of my uncle only, ere my tale ends. 
 For I have naught to tell of the joy of our 
 homecoming, and of what passed between us 
 three ; or of my great-uncle Anthony's will ; 
 or of the value of the splendid treasure. This 
 only ; that on the third night thence we drove 
 to see the play my mother, in a pale grey 
 gown, with pearls milk-white upon her neck 
 and arms, and shining like silver moons in 
 her white hair ; my father, a fine and handsome 
 gentleman in black suit and glistening linen; 
 and I, comfortless and cramped in my stiff 
 frilled shirt, my white breeches, and my black 
 silk-faced jacket.
 
 London Tonn 267 
 
 We descended before the lamp-lit front of 
 Covent Garden, and we were conducted in 
 state by the manager to a box. And there, 
 while my mother and father sat together in the 
 shadow of the curtains and smiled at me, I 
 leaned forward excitedly to take it all in 
 the splendid spectacle of fair ladies and fine 
 gentlemen ; fhe blaze of colour from the house ; 
 the candles and the lamps ; the rose, the sky- 
 blue, the saffron, and the green of silken gowns ; 
 the glitterbf jewels ; the flash of feathered fans ; 
 the endlee hues, set off by the sombre modes 
 of the nen. My eyes were caught suddenly 
 by the dght of a gentleman sitting alone in a 
 box oppsite to us. 
 
 He ms magnificent. His linen was dazzling ; 
 liamonds in his frilled shirt ; diamonds 
 fingers ; he had a shining quizzing 
 his right eye. He was profusely curled, 
 laven to perfection ; and I was so nigh 
 could mark the powder over his sun- 
 face. My uncle in the very pink of 
 m ; my uncle unabashed peering upon 
 meJ He took the quizzing glass from his eye ; 
 an* stand ing up in the box, he bowed to me 
 in he sight of all. Ay, he dared bow to me; 
 had to heart, false smile on his false lips. As 
 Ifecoiled, and sought the shadow where my
 
 268 London Town 
 
 mother and my father sat, not yet perceiving 
 him, I marked still the evil flicker of his blue 
 eyes, and the insolence upon his handsome 
 face, even as I had noted them first upon Wild 
 Dog Island. A fine gentleman, a leader of the 
 fashions so I perceived him ; so he was yet 
 to seem to London for years to come ! But it 
 seemed that he espied my mother and my 
 father then, for he went livid sudienly ; and 
 paused in his third bow, while the hmse stared 
 at him. He drew back ; and, the shadow of 
 the curtains enveloping him, I say him no 
 more. 
 
 So I have told my tale. 
 
 THE END 
 
 Made and Printed in Great Hrttain. 
 Hcuell, Watson & Viney, Id., London and Aylesbury.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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