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The Mystery of the Island, p. 248.
THE
MYSTERY OF THE ISLAND
H cLale of treasure a rove
IiV
HENRY KINGSLEY
AUTHOR OF "GEOFFRY HAMLYN," " RAVENSHOE,"
ETC., ETC.
IX.X.XrsTK.A.TZEB
yk (rnboit
GALL AND INGLIS, 25 PATERNOSTER SQUARE;
AXP EDINBURGH.
CONTENTS
CHAP.
I.—Introductory.
II.—The Admiralty at Sea.
III.—Captain Killick on Shore.
IV.—Captain Killick gets his Commission.
V.—Captain Killick goes out through the
Needles.
VI.—James Pritchard.
VII.— Lord Marcus D'Este goes on his Travels.
VIII.—The Secret of Pelsart's Island.
IX.—Lord Marcus finds Reasons for not
Pursuing Pritchard.
X.—Pritchard's Escape.
XI.—Pritchard Disappears.
XII.—The Result of Burning the Doll.
XIII.—Lady Southerey's Party.
XIV.—The Lost Ones.
XV.—Disaster.
XVI.—The Battle of Gilwini Kash Creek.
XVII.—Discussion.
XVIII.—Resolution.
11
Contents
XIX.—The Weary Watch at Home.
XX.—Troubles Accumulate.
XXI.—Help from an Unexpected Quarter.
XXII.—The Rio Negro.
XXIII.—An Unexpected Arrival at Buenos
Ayres.
XXIV.—General Separation.
XXV.—The Adventures of Clare.
XXVI.—Across the Andes-.
XXVII.—Captain Killick meets Pashlickyank.
XXVIII.—A Friend in Difficulties.
XXIX.—The Mystery of the Chart.
XXX.—Valdivia.
XXXI.—Towards the Quest.
XXXII.-—Captain Smythe's Return.
XXXIII.—Court Martial.
XXXIV.—The Mystery of Pelsart's Island is
Solved at Last.
XXXV.—Conclusion.
THE
MYSTERY OF THE ISLRND
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY
MORE charming, happy, or united
family than that of the Smythes did
not exist in England. We shall have
more to say hereafter in detail concerning the
various members of it, and their various wonder¬
ful adventures (including those of Miss Matilda
Smythe, the youngest, which were not the least
remarkable), but all we desire to do now is to
give an account of them as a whole, with fuller
details of only two of the group, the father and
the only son, Clare.
The affection which each of the others bore for
B
2 The Mystery of the Island
one another was intensified on these two, though
they were only seen at rare, glad intervals, and
seldom together ; by this you will guess that they
followed the same profession in different places;
they did so, and their profession was the sea.
Captain Smythe was one of the best officers
in her Majesty's service, one whose splendid
character had made interest, and who was there¬
fore never without a ship. Like Captain Strong,
when asked where he had served, he might reply,
" Where have I not served ? " His absences,
therefore, were of a very lengthened character, but
he looked forward to the time when he would
settle on shore with a comfortable competency,
and leave to his son Clare the legacy of an un¬
blemished name, and the duty of seeing the Union
Jack respected on every sea
Mrs. Smythe in her inmost heart had at one
time hoped that Clare might have taken to some
pursuit on shore, but that hope very early died
out, and she relinquished it without a murmur.
The child made ships out of chairs, and took
his sisters long voyages to distant climes before
he could pronounce their names; the boy rigged
ships and repudiated Latin, sticking merely to
Introductory
3
mathematics, which he devoured eagerly at a very
early age. One day, when he was nine years old,
his father came back from the First Lord's levee
in full uniform, with the gallantly-earned star of a
Commander of the Bath on his breast. That was
the last thing which determined his fate for ever.
The next time Captain Smythe went to sea poor
Mrs. Smythe had to take a double farewell. She
saw her husband wave farewell from the frigate's
side at Spithead, and she saw the gates of the
Royal Naval College at Portsmouth close upon
her only son. She went silently weeping home
to her daughters and bided her time.
When only half of her weary watch was done,
there came rumours of war, and then war itself
deadly and fierce with plague and famine for
its concomitants, came on. This had happened
to her before, and she knew that it must happen
again, so she waited in dumb patience, expecting
the death stroke every hour.
It never came ; the ship came back when the
too tardy victory was gained, and when Captain
Smythe, looking a little older, and a little greyer,
sailed into the Solent, the first person who came
up the ship's side by a rope which was thrown to
4
The Mystery of the Island
the leaping boat was a smart young naval cadet,
with a distinction of a pretty sword—the cut of
which Captain Smythe knew well, for he had once
won it himself; it was the sword presented to the
most promising cadet of the year, and it was worn
by his own son Clare.
Captain Smythe was too experienced to take
his own son with himself on his first voyage ; he
got him on board a friend's ship. He had him¬
self formed so many successful officers, that he
had no difficulty in finding the man he wanted ;
of all his pupils, Commander Killick was the
favourite. This officer was very rich, yet he
stuck to his profession with an enthusiasm which
gained him the high respect of Captain Smythe,
and all the officers of his thoughtful and im¬
proving school. Clare was therefore sent to sea
with him.
Although very carefully watched, he was kept
quite at a distance by Captain Killick for a long
time; once, however, there was a rather pro¬
tracted stay at Southampton, and after this
Killick's manner towards Clare changed in a
most remarkable way. He had done his duty
by Clare before, but now he seemed to take a
Introductory
fresh intefest in him. He revived all Clare's
previous enthusiasm for the service, which may
possibly have somewhat waned under the influence
of reality, and the absence of earnestnesss in many
of the shipmates of his own age, among some of
whom had crept in the miserable affectation of
considering duty as a bore. But Killick did more
than this, he made a friend of Clare to the utmost
extent which their different stations would allow,
and seemed determined, as he expressed it once,
to " make a man of Clare, as Clare's father had
made a man of him."
The reason of this slightly-deferred determina¬
tion will soon appear. He, however, persevered
in it, and at sixteen Clare was as advanced an
officer as any in the navy of his age, with a
splendid character for gallantry, having accom¬
plished one rescue from drowning entirely alone,
and having assisted at two others.
Returning home Clare found his father on shore,
and the whole family had a delightful summer.
Captain Killick did not join them, his time was
entirely taken up with his mother, his sisters, and
the affairs of his large estate. The midshipman
was incessant in his praises of that officer, and his
6
The Mystery of the Island
father was greatly pleased with his enthusiasm,
encouraging him to dwell on that theme very
often, more often, perhaps, than he would have
done had he known everything.
It was the last summer which they spent to¬
gether before the dark times which were coming
upon them, and they remembered it long: the
leaves had scarcely left the trees, when Captain
Smythe announced, at breakfast-time, that he was
appointed to the new frigate War-hawk, and that
his time was again getting short. There was to
be another separation, but they were prepared for
it. Clare seemed to feel it more than anyone.
The next morning came the Times, as usual,
and after a mere glance at it, Captain Smythe
handed it to Clare, with a singular expression;
Clare glanced at a part of it he knew well—the
naval and military intelligence—and, giving a
wild shout, ran round the table, threw his arms
round his father's neck. He had read his own
name at the head of the list of midshipmen ap¬
pointed to the War-hawk. The great hope of his
life was realized—at last he was to sail with his
father.
" Yes," said Captain Smythe, " we are together
Introductory
7
now, my boy. You have come out of your
apprenticeship well—bravely—nobly, and you
have all the reward which I can give you at
present."
Who can describe the delight of the family at
this arrangement ! Clare would be with his
father, and no ill could possibly come to him
then. Mrs. Smythe said that now she had but
one anxiety instead of two—her husband and
son would be together, and that her care was
reduced by one half.
Mrs. Smythe possibly never heard that quaint old
proverb about putting all your eggs in one basket.
The War-hawk had been away ten months,
when the thunderbolt came. Mrs. Smythe one
morning quietly folded up the Times, and left the
room. When she came back again, she was quite
quiet, and dressed for walking. She said, " I
shall not be long," and went out.
She had read in the Times, in large letters:—
" Loss of H.M.S. War-hawk.—A boat containing
the purser and ten seamen of H.M.S. War-hawk,
has arrived at Buenos Ayres, reporting the total
loss of this fine ship, with, it is too much feared,
the whole of the ship's complement, excepting the
8
The Mystery of the Island
following, who had reached the above-named port
shortly before the mail sailed."
Then followed the name of the purser and
fourteen seamen.
Such was the published telegram from Lisbon.
They might know more at the Admiralty : it was
not very far, and, with a swift, steady step, she
sped there through the roaring streets.
CHAPTER II.
THE ADMIRALTY AT SEA
HE Admiralty ! Who does not know the
dull, handsome fa9ade, with the screen
separating the quiet courtyard from
the noisy Parliament Street ? It is a solemn
place in the brightest sunshine, but it gets
absolutely awful when you reflect about the in¬
telligence which passes through those doors, and
so out into the world: such as that of .Trafalgar,
the maddened town reads, " It has pleased
Almighty God to bless her Majesty's arms with
an unprecedented victory;" at another, " The
Captain has capsized and sunk, with all hands
in the Bay of Biscay." More glorious naval
bulletins have been issued from that dingy build¬
ing than all the nations of the earth put together
can show; yet even when the city is wildest in
its joy, bent forms may be seen coming forth,
with faces trying to hide their grief, amidst the
boisterous rejoicing around them. Not for them
io The Mystery of the Island.
is the triumph of the hour: their portion of the
victory is the darkened house, the straitened
means possibly, and the memory of the most
dearly loved and most often absent member of
the family lost to them for ever in the cruel sea.
Behind the Admiralty, facing St. James's Park,
but separated from it by a wall, is a litile secret
garden, to which officers of a certain rank have
access from the place des amies in front of the
Horse Guards. In this little garden, which in
spring is full of flowers, naval officers meet and
discuss the service generally—not always in a
complimentary manner, for it is notorious that
our maratirrte service is always going to the
deuce, but has not as yet succeeded in getting
there.
On a certain spring morning there were more
officers in that little garden than usual. They
were talking eagerly together in the centre of the
grass plat, and they were not disagreeing or
quarrelling very much, as is sometimes the case.
They were nearly perfectly unanimous. Admiral
Romans gave the key-note to the opinion of the
others, when he said—
" It comes to this, and to nothing else: the bar
The Admiralty at Sea
ii
at St. Juan is fourteen feet—-not fourteen fathoms;
that I will swear to."
A young commander said—
" It is neither the one or the other; for the fact
of the case is, that there is no bar at St. Juan."
" Then, sir," said Admiral Romans, " how on
earth did Smythe manage to lose his ship ? "
"I don't know," said the young commander.
" I wish that some one would give me a chance of
losing one."
"Very good, sir," said Admiral Romans; "then
don't talk to me."
" I was not talking to you at all," said the young
commander: " I was talking to an imaginary
Admiralty."
Admiral Romans was appeased : he had his
grievances, and aired them too, although he was
a sea lord. The conversation continued.
"Well," said a rear-admiral, "the ship is
gone, and all the men with her. It is a most
lamentable pity : we could have got other men,
even other officers, but can we get another
Smythe ? "
" I don't agree with you there," said Admiral
Romans. " He was a queer fellow, and half-sick
12
The Mystery of the Island
of the service; and I hate a man who hates the
service."
" How did he show his hatred to it ? " said the
Rear-Admiral.
" In many ways," said Admiral Romans. "He
wanted to be eternally at sea, and he wanted to
get Her Majesty's permission to join the Turkish
service."
"Well," said the young commander, "he got
one of his wishes, for he was always afloat. I wish
I was. Don't you think that you are rather
illogical, Admiral Romans ? "
" By no means, sir," said Admiral Romans—
one of the best officers and men we have, but
with no powers of debate—" a man who hates the
service always wishes to be afloat."
" Well, I cannot for the life of me see that,"
said the young commander.
" When you are as old as I am, sir," said
Admiral Romans, "you will pos—"
He never went any furcher. His opinions on
the subject may be modified now, but they were
never delivered then. Admiral Romans was, to
use a vulgarism, cock of the walk there; at the
moment when he was putting down the young
The Admiralty at Sea
13
commander he was as proud as if he had been
sailing into Plymouth after a successful cruise.
Immediately afterwards he wished himself in a
westerly gale in the Straits of Magellan, or even
in a typhoon in the Chinx seas, with less than
twenty miles sea-room.
His comrades fell away from him and retired
to various parts of the garden. Men who would
have risked their lives, their ships, and their
professional honour for him, deserted him now.
Had the First Lord himself come into that garden
and asked for volunteers for an arctic or antarctic
expedition, involving three years' seclusion from
the world, on a diet of pemmican, he would have
been mobbed by every officer there. All they
asked was for service, danger, and honour. Yet
Rear-Admiral Romans found himself deserted by
them and left alone in the middle of the grass
plat. He said with emphasis that they were a
parcel of skulking cowards, and that the service
was going to mischief.
He, however, said that he was a sailor of the
old school, though the sailors of the new school
are every whit as brave. It was his duty to face
the enemy alone, with a certainty of defeat, and
14
The Mystery of the Island
so he did it. He double-shotted his guns and
nailed his colours to the mast. He was horribly
frightened, like the comrades who had fled, but it
was impossible for him to showit. So with his knees
shaking he prepared for the onslaught of the enemy.
What enemy was that who had made a dozen
or more of the bravest men in the world hide in
the shrubberies, and get back into the building
by secret doors ? Only a very beautiful woman,
who had passed through the Admiralty, had come
out on the top of the steps, and who was looking
around her.
She saw Admiral Romans, and descended
towards him. He met her with the calmness of
despair.
" Dear admiral," she said, "what is this about
the War-hawk ? "
He thought that he would prepare her for the
truth by degrees. He thought that he would have
said that sailors' wives must be prepared for all
contingencies; that we were all in the hands of
Providence, and so on. But he, unfortunately,
looked at her before he began his speech, and so
he never made it.
She looked so beautiful and so patient, that he
The Admiralty at Sea
15
could not speak. His great chest heaved and his
face was flushed, yet never a word did he utter.
" Am I a widow ? " she said quietly.
Still no answer from him. He would have faced
grim death with his worst terrors, but the silent
woman made a coward of him. He would have
given his own coxswain two dozen and have eaten
his dinner afterwards, but this woman was too
much for him. She only read his answer in his eyes.
" Is my son drowned also ? " she asked.
He was forced to speak now. " Madam," he
said, " I fear that such is the case."
" There is no dishonour attached to either of
them ? " she asked.
" Oh, no," he said, " it is far otherwise. The
War-hawk is lost; the purser and sixteen men have
reached Buenos Ayres. Poor Smythe remained
to the very last, with "your son. I cannot tell you
how terribly it grieves me to say this to you Mrs.
Smythe; but there is actually no hope whatever."
So she turned and walked quietly away, while
Admiral Romans said, " Thank heaven, that is
over! " and the various officers came out from the
shrubberies, all agreeing that Mrs. Smythe had
received her doom like a brave woman.
CHAPTER III.
CAPTAIN KILLICK ON SHORE
RS. SMYTHE passed out into Parlia¬
ment-street quite quietly, and took her
way homewards towards Half Moon-
street, Piccadilly. She found that she had a
great tendency to loiter and look into shops,
and she crossed the street and looked into a
map shop, but none of the maps there gave any
comfort at all; there was none of the Gulf of St.
Juan. She went in to get one.
She may be considered to be taking things very
coolly—in fact, she was. She no more would
believe that her husband and her son were
drowned than she would believe that they were
elected members of Parliament. The telegram
from Lisbon, supplemented as it was by others
at the Admiralty, seemed to her totally un¬
satisfactory. She felt absolutely sure that her
husband and son were alive; consequently she
was perfectly calm.
Captain Killick on Shore 17
She advanced towards the counter. A gentle¬
man was being served who had his back towards
her. He was not very tall, but judging from his
thin flanks and broad shoulders, was an athletic
man. He was a very determined man, for he
had his hands on his hips, and the brown thumbs
of them, turned towards Mrs. Smythe, were
pressed home in a very resolute way. He was
also an irate man, for he said :
" Fiddle-de-dee, don't talk to me ; Norsby puts
down the variation at 57° 26', you have made it
58°. Do you know that with your abominable
carelessness you might sacrifice the lives of five
hundred sailors a year? it is simply manslaughter.
But I am not accustomed to talk to clerks. Let
me see the head of the house."
Mrs. Smythe knew the voice, and sat down in
a corner. She recognized the voice of one of the
bravest but not the least peppery captains in the
service, Captain Killick. " I will wait here and
speak to him," she thought. " Anything is better
than going home to the girls without a ray of
hope,"
Captain Killick walked about the shop, fuming
and not noticing Mrs. Smythe until the head of
18 The Mystery of the Island
the house was fetched ; they had a few minutes
interview together over the counter. At first,
Captain Killick rode the high horse, but the head
of the firm having proved to him that he was
right, Captain Killick apologised very frankly
and generously, and they were friends again.
" What do you think about the loss of the
War-hawk ? " said the head of the firm.
" Well, she is gone, and Smythe is probably
over the mountains with the main part of his
ship's company towards Valparaiso."
" You do not think that he is drowned then ?"
" Drowned ! I should think not," said Captain
Killick, with contempt. "The very last man to
make such a fool of himself."
" Was there not something very queer about
his family ?" said the hydrographer.
"No," said Captain Killick.
" Well, you are more likely to be right than I
am, but I thought there had been suspected mur¬
der, or something of that kind in the family."
" Then I can tell you, as a gentleman and an
officer, that you are utterly wrong; there is not a
shadow of a shade of suspicion about any mem¬
ber of Captain Smythe's family."
Captain Killick an Shore
19
How easy it is to speak the truth and almost
lie at one and the same time ! Captain Killick
was doing that, though he would not have liked
to be told so. He turned round and was sud¬
denly confronted with Mrs. Smythe. He was not
in the least degree abashed, though he knew that
she must have heard every word he had spoken.
Killick was a very handsome fellow to look at;
as brown as a berry in complexion, with a clear,
sharp, brilliant eye, aged about thirty-three, look¬
ing five-and-twenty; beautifully dressed in the
height of fashion, but with a habit of keeping
his legs apart and balancing himself from the
hips, which betrayed the sailor, in spite of all the
West-end tailor's art. On his brown, ungloved
hands were three or four very splendid rings, and
on his watch-chain he wore a diamond ornament
of great value. With these exceptions, his dress
was in perfect taste.
" Mrs. Smythe, my very dear madam, I suppose
that you have been to the Admiralty ? Did you
ever see such a set of noodles ? "
" That is always your way with the executive,
Captain Killick," said Mrs. Smythe, with a
mournful smile. " But we are old friends. "
20
The Mystery of the Island,
" I should think we were. Your husband made
a man of me ; without him I should have been a
mere extravagant dandy. What am I, according to
Lord , in the House of Lords? one of the most
promising of our scientific officers, and they said
' Hear, hear'; they had better hear or I will make
them. Now come, and let me take you home."
Mrs. Smythe put her arm in his, and they went.
" My poor husband and my poor boy used to
say that you always kept the ship's company in
good humour, though you were rather hot. Your
manner gives me immense comfort now; you
would not talk like this if you thought that your
old friend and commander was drowned."
"Drowned!" said Captain Killick; "no more
than you are. Talking about keeping the ship's
company in good humour, I did not do that at the
Admiralty this morning."
" Then you have been there ? "
"I should rather think I had; I saw old
Romans; he and I like one another as well as a
mouse does a cat, and he said to me, 'We are
going to send the Danais.' 'Why, Lord bless
and save the man !' I said ' what is the use of
that? She will be six months getting there,
Captain Killick on Shore 21
if she gets there at all.' 'Why,' I said, 'it's
notorious that when the purser goes into the
hold he has to keep on the dunnage and timbers
to avoid putting his foot through the bottom.'
He said that it was not true, and we had a
quarrel, and I came away after expressing a
certain intention of my own."
•'But Captain Killick, you should not bave said
such a thing as that: it is not entirely correct,
you know; the Danais is an oldish ship, but she
is perfectly seaworthy."
" There was dry rot in her when Smythe had
her, for he told me so," said Captain Killick,
somewhat crestfallen after her rebuke. " Well,
here we are at the door. You will have to break
this ridiculous rumour to your daughters. Would
it not be reassuring to them if I was present ? "
" It would indeed ! What a kind and thoughtful
man you are; my own son could not do more for me."
" I am, professionally speaking, your son," said
Captain Killick, " for it was your husband who
made a man of me."
'' And you tried to make one of Clare," she
replied. " But oh "
She was firm again in a moment and they went in.
CHAPTER IV.
CAPTAIN KILLICK GETS HIS CpMMISSION
RS. SMYTHE and Captain Killick en¬
tered together, and passed up into the
drawing-room. It was occupied by a
single young lady, who merits a slight description.
She was not very tall, or very short, or very fair,
or very dark, or very handsome, or very ugly, but
she was most startlingly remarkable for all that.
She had rather a sun-burnt complexion, and her
hair was pulled off her forehead and looped in a
knot behind. But what attracted the attention of
all beholders was the expression on her face—that
of immense tenderness and benevolence, combined
with great strength of will. Some people who did
not appreciate her declared that she was extremely
ugly, and could be excessively rude. Certain men
and women, however, not to mention all children
and dogs, simply adored her.
She was sitting at a table writing, clothed in a
tight-fitting blue dress, with a small white collar
Captain Killick gets his Commission 23
round the throat. She rose as her mother came
in, not noticing Captain Killick except with one
glance of her splendid violet eyes.
" Mabel, my love, allow me to introduce Captain
Killick, an old brother officer of your father's."
" There is no need for an introduction, mamma,"
she said, " we know one another."
" That is most extraordinary," said Mrs. Smythe,
" you never mentioned it, my dear."
" I did not think it worth while," said Mabel,
steadily. " I met him at Lady Sutherly's at
Southampton, and saw him often."
" I have brought your mother home from the
Admiralty, Miss Smythe ; she thought that you
would be reassured by my presence. I had better
tell you at once that the War-hawk is lost."
" And my father ? " she asked.
"There is no intelligence from him. A boat's
crew has reached Buenos Ayres with a report of
the wreck, and they only report that they left him
there. There have been some ridiculous rumours
at the Admiralty, which, when sifted, came to
nothing. The Admiralty are going to send the
Danais, far too slow a ship. I could get little
satisfaction at the Admiralty this morning, so I am
24 The Mystery of the Island,
going to take my own course without bothering
them or any one."
"And what course do you allude to, Captain
Killick? " said Mrs. Smythe, puzzled.
" Why, this, madam- My large steam yacht,
the Zenith, has iust completed her fittings for sea ;
her crew are shipped, and everything can be on
board in two days I was going for a scientific
dredging expedition to Labrador, but I will unship
all the gear, and in three days I will go out through
the Needles to fetch my old captain back to Half
Moon Street Those are my intentions, madam,
and I can tell you that I will put my ship through
the water two knots for the Danais' one, and she
won't be ready for sea under a week."
'' What have I done to deserve such generosity
from you ?" said Mrs. Smythe, bursting into tears.
"Madam, I have before told you that everything
in life worth having, save my being and my wealth,
I owe to your husband ; surely that is a sufficient
reason. But now, madam, my time is short; I
have one favour to ask, give me some token from
yourself to your husband."
" Yes, surely, of what kind ? '
" Why if you could go upstairs and write him a
Captain Killick gets his Commission 25
few lines, the sight of them would gladden his
heart far more than the sight of my brown
face."
" I will do so gladly," she said, and she rose
and left the room.
Captain Killick and Mabel were face to face
alone. Mabel, with singular decision and em¬
phasis, spoke first.
" Was it fair of you to resort to that subterfuge
to get mamma out of the room, and to cause us
to be left alone together ? "
" Yes, I think so."
" H—m, I will say nothing. And so you are
actually going to undertake this long, expensive,
and dangerous voyage for my father's sake ? "
"No, for the sake of your love."
" But I have given you one answer. Suppose
I had not got my love to give you ? "
"That makes not the least difference," said
Captain Killick. " If you have given your love
to another man, I will be his friend for your sake.
Some things are beyond your power: you cannot
hglp my loving you, and you cannot prevent my
doing this for your love. I daresay that the other
man is much nicer than I am, for, except pro-
26
The Mystery of the Island
fessionally, I do not rank myself high. I am a
very disagreeable person, though you might lead
me with a thread."
" But, look here," said Mabel, " there is no
other man; you are under an utter misconception.
I do not care about anyone except my family—
well, and you, if you will have it."
" Yet you refused me in a very emphatic
manner."
"Yes, I was very angry. The insult which was
put on me was too great to be borne. I could not
bear it. Every day Lady Sutherly spoke of you
and your admiration for me. She talked always
of your immense wealth, of your high personal
character and talents, and at last she said to me
in private, that a poor and ugly girl like myself
had made a most splendid catch. The bitter
humiliation of that moment will never be forgotten.
I asked her very quietly whether you had ever
spoken to her on the subject. She replied that
you were only waiting your own time. You came,
and you got your answer."
" Look here, Mabel, let us set this thing right.
I did speak to that false old woman about it. I
asked her if she thought I had any chance, for I
Captain Killick gets his Commission 27
believed I had none. She said that I was safe,
and that you had told her so."
" What a horrible and wicked woman ! " said
Mabel.
" Well, see. I am a gentleman, and cannot
at this present moment, under the circumstances,
ask you to reverse your decision; I will not even
ask you, if I return home successful or unsuccess¬
ful, whether you will say ' yes ' on the question
instead of ' no.' I merely go to do you service
for love, and if anyone else comes in my absence
I will try to bear it, but I frankly tell you that I
shall never love any other woman in the world."
She put up her two hands behind her back,
and said, " I always liked you, now I love you."
What goes on in these cases is not accurately
known. The fact is that few men do it more
than once or twice in their lives, always in a
different manner, and never say anything about
it afterwards. It is perfectly certain that Mabel
and Captain Killick were sitting on the sofa side
by side soon, and that she said to him :
" George, you must keep nothing from me now.
Do you believe that my father is drowned ? "
" My darling Mabel," he replied, " I do not.
28 The Mystery of the Island
Am I a man likely to go on a fool's errand ?
Should I not be going on a fool's errand if I
went after a drowned man ? I tell you fairly,
my dear, that I think that he is in difficulty, and
possibly in great danger ; I shall not return unless
I have either secured him or learnt his fate. I
may be a very long time away. He is on the
worst part of the coast, and he will possibly try to
fight his way across the continent to Valparaiso.
If I discover that he has done so, I shall follow
him on land, and send the yacht round to Valpa¬
raiso."
" And Clare," she said,—" from what little I
have heard about the matter, I am as anxious
about Clare as I am about my father."
" Clare," said Captain Killick, " is not a boy
to ' go under ' very easily. I am more anxious
about your father."
" But you are not anxious about him, are you?"
said Mabel.
" Of course I am to some extent," said Killick.
" Our time is very short, tell me what men
you will get to follow you ? "
" In two days from to-morrow morning I shall
get twenty additional men from the Naval Reserve
Captain Killick gets his Commission 29
who are about Portsmouth and Southampton. I
shall give them ten pounds a month, and twenty
pounds apiece if we succeed. I shall do it by
money. Money will do everything except win the
love of an honest woman, as I have won yours."
When Mrs. Smythe returned with her letter
she found Captain Killick sitting on the sofa
with his hand in her daughter's. They were
neither of them in the least degree disconcerted
by her arrival, but smiled. She remarked, " Oh !
indeed ! "
Matters were explained to her fully, but she
would say nothing save, " Exactly," or " Quite
so," which was not quite satisfactory. She was
making up a little speech, for she was utterly
astonished, when the most frightful yells, stamp¬
ings, and screams were heard overhead. She had
only time to say, "God bless you both," when
she had to hurry out ot the room, and see what
new disaster had befallen her.
CHAPTER V.
CAPTAIN KILLICK GOES OUT THROUGH THE
NEEDLES
\f/
HE most thoughtless person must have
remarked the extraordinary gaps which
occur between the ages of the children
of naval officers continually afloat, like Captain
Smythe for example. Mabel was nineteen, her
brother Clare, supposed by the Admiralty to be
drowned, was sixteen, her sister Ethel was twelve,
and her sister Matilda, who had just set the house
on fire, was only eight.
Ethel was an exceedingly sensible girl, though
with a few faults ot character which will develop
themselves ; she was perfectly able to take care of
her sister under ordinary circumstances, but she
was so young that she liked play, and when nurse
was out of the way would help her sister at many
iniquities, which she as a cautious young lady
repudiated afterwards: a line of conduct which
her younger sister would have considered mean in
Captain Killick goes out through the Needles 31
anyone else, but which she thought to be natural
genuis on the part of her beloved Ethel.
Nurse had gone to her dinner, leaving Miss Tilly
in charge of her sister Ethel. She might have
heard the door locked behind her, if she had not
been a little deaf. Locked it was, however.
"Now," said Ethel, "we are safe. What are
you going to do ?"
It soon appeared that Matilda had been reading
Foxe's ' Book of Martyrs,' and she wanted a new
doll. It occured to her that it would be good fun
to burn the old one alive ; Ethel thought that it
would be a fine thing also, and entirely agreed.
" How," she said, " are we to do it ? it must have
a sail benito, and were can we get one ? "
" We must make it of paper," said Matilda.
"But we have not got any," said Ethel. " Stay,
there is nurse's note-paper,"
" She would be so cross," said Matilda.
" Well, you go down and get some," said
Matilda; " all is quiet."
Ethel turned the key and stole downstairs to
her mother's dressing-room, to the very place
where her mother had been writing her letter,
which she was to give Captain Killick. She wag
32
The Mystery of the Island
almost too soon, for she saw her mother pass
down the stairs with a letter in her hand. "She
has been writing," said Ethel; " ten to one her
escritoire is open."
It was, and covered with tumbled papers.
Those she dared not touch, but the waste-paper
basket stood upon the open escritoire; and that
Ethel considered fair game. She took the top
paper on it, a large blue one, and sped upstairs.
The large blue paper made a most excellent
san benito, and there were plenty of matches.
They put the doll in the fender, after a trial for
heresy, and set fire to her, but she would not
burn.
" More matches, more matches ! " cried Ethel,
now furiously enjoying the sport. "This wretch,
this enemy to religion and to the peace of Europe,
shall die. Mind Matilda, I am Mary Tudor and
you are the Pope's legate; you ought to say,
'Strike, and spare not, madam,' and then I ought
to say—I forget what I ought to say then; I'll
remember it when this dog of a heretic is burning
More matches ! "
She lit three at once, and the san benito caught
fire in the most lovely manner, but the doll looked
Captain Killick goes out through the Needles 33
so exasperating, calm, and careless, that Matilda
lit another match and put it to its nose; in doing
this she burnt her fingers badly and lost her
temper.
" Bother the brute ! " she said, in violent anger;
and taking up the whole flaming arrangement she
sent it flying into the corner of the room, on to
one of the white-curtained beds. A sheet of flame
rose at once to the ceiling, and both girls stood
aghast.
"Be quiet, Tilly," said Ethel, "I will put it out.
Don't tell."
" I never do," said Tilly, " but don't you say it
was me."
"No, I won't," she said, trying to throw water
on it from the jug. "We must call for help."
And that they did with a will, bringing their
mother into the room pale and breathless ; she
gave only one glance, and then cried out " Killick !
Killick ! fire ! fire ! "
He was at her side in an instant, and Mabel
was behind him.
" Stand back! " he cried, as he seized the
burning muslin in his hands, " and take the
children away. He then threw the burning
c
34 The Mystery of the Island
curtain on the bed, and turning the mattress
over on them, held them down. " Mabel," he
said quietly, " saturate these things with water."
She seized the bath-can and poured. " Mind
my left hand, darling," he said ; " don't wet
that." She looked at it. It was all scorched
and blistered; but the fire was put out before the
servants had arrived, and the two dear naughty
ones were brought down to the drawing-room.
The first thing was Captain Killick's hand,
which was badly burnt, so badly that Mrs.
Smythe, a most experienced lady, sent next door
but one for a surgeon. He did the hand up and
said—
" I must see you once a day for the next fort¬
night, my good sir."
" That is impossible," said Captain Killick.
" I go to sea in two days."
" You can't possibly do that," said the surgeon.
" You must stay on shore for a fortnight."
" You think that it would be better that he
should delay," said Mrs. Smythe.
" Certainly he should do so," said the surgeon.
Mabel knew the struggle which was going on
in his mind, for the counterpart of it was" going
Captain Killick goes out through the Needles 35
on in hers. She would have given anything to
have had him for another fortnight; but then—
her father. He would have given a year from his
life to stay by her a little longer; but then he
had bound himself to fly, as it were, on the wings
of the wind after the missing man. He made his
decision without vexing her by an appeal even
with his eyes, and so cemented their love for ever.
"It is absolutely necessary that I must be out
through the Needles the day after to-morrow, and
so the less we talk about it the less argument
there will be."
" A wilful man must have his way," said the
doctor. " Have you a surgeon on board ? "
"Yes, an admirable one."
" Well, then, I wash my hands of it," said the
doctor. " It will be a considerable time before
you will be able to wash yours ! "
This made them laugh. The doctor departed,
and the two culprits were brought up for judgment
before a mother who never scolded, only rebuked.
" My dears, what were you doing."
" Well, see here," said Ethel, " I have let
Tilly bear the blame too often, and I am not
going to have her blamed now. The fact is, that
36
The Mystery of the Island
we were burning Tilly's doll for a heretic. We
have hung her four times and she would not
repent, and so at last we handed her over to the
secular arm. Even then she would not burn
without setting the house on fire. She was a
regular beast, and I am glad she is burnt."
"What were her faults? " said Captain Killick.
"Well, she would never go to sleep at nights
since we t)roke the thing in her back which made
her eyes shut (I say we, but I am afraid that I did
that) to find out how it was done."
" You nurse dolls still, then ?" said Captain Killick.
" I sometimes have a turn with Tilly's," said
Ethel, blushing; " but she is dead, and there is
an end of the matter."
" And high time too," said Mrs. Smythe, "with
the house on fire in the middle of the day. Mind,
I'll have no more antos-da-fes, though I am insured
over my value, I believe."
Alas, it would have been better for Mrs. Smythe
if the children had burnt the house down, and
she had got the money for the insurance, than
that they should have burnt that doll with that
particular san benito.
Three days afterwards, the lighthouse-keeper at
Captain Killick goes out through the Needles 37
the Needles was preparing to light up, and he
remarked that the sun was setting wild in the
west. All the mail ships had passed out, and no
yacht was likely to go to westward with such a
sunset and a dropping barometer. Yet here came
a largish steamer—black, with a gold beading,
barque-rigged—going full speed, with top-gallant
masts sent down. The man who was in charge
of her evidently knew her way, though, from
his dress, he was not a pilot. He stood on the
bridge, and brought his ship through Fiddler's
Races and round the Shingles in gallant style;
then she sped through the growing darkness
westward, as steady on her course as a star.
The man noticed by the lighthouse-keeper, who
was standing on the bridge of the steamer, was
Captain Killick. He was reading a letter which
he had received at Southampton. It ran thus:—
" I have the book you sent me, and guessing
where you are, I will study to find out from it at
what time the sun rises there. When it is morn¬
ing with you it may be midnight with me; but
always at your sunrise remember you will know
that I am praying for you, and mingle your
prayers with mine."
CHAPTER VI.
JAMES PRITCHARD
ID the reader notice that the hydrographer
in whose shop Mrs. Smythe met Captain
Killick said that there was some sus¬
picion about Captain Smythe's family ? The
Captain in repudiating it told the exact truth,
and yet a most perfect falsehood. That is a
thing that has been done more than once in the
world. While Captain Killick is at sea we must
take you into our entire confidence about this
matter, and we think that you will not find that
matter entirely uninteresting. Captain Killick
said that there was no suspicion about any of
Captain Smythe's family: that was true. There
was, however, a very serious suspicion about a
member of his wife's family.
A sailor's orphan used at one time to sit upon
the shore in Devonshire, and watch the ships go
by. He took great interest in the ships, because
his kind uncle with the brown face told him that
he was to be a sailor himself some day.
James Pritchard
39
To be a sailor, to command one of those
ships which passed by was the dream of the boy's
youth. At length he went to sea, but only in the
merchant service, for his uncle was not rich. In
fact, Captain Smythe was poor, but just married.
He did his duty by the boy in placing him as
well as he could ; but he never concealed from
himself the fact that his wife's brother's son
would never make a sailor as her father had
been. He would not trust him in the navy: both
Captain Smythe's name and the boy's late father's
name were too well known in naval circles to risk
a fiasco. And the boy was a lazy, dreamy fellow,
who would go to sea on romantic grounds, but
had really better on the whole have stayed on
shore.
He was hopelessly careless with his money. He
turned out not a very bad sailor, but even the
relaxed discipline of an easy-going private mer¬
chantman was too much for him. That might
have been got over, but his irregularities about
money were found at last impossible to arrange.
He lent money to messmates which was not
properly his. Captain Smythe, to whom such a
proceeding was terrible, repaid it in fear and
40 The Mystery of the Island
trembling. At last something happened to this
youth. James Pritchard got into a difficulty
which put him utterly out of Captain Smythe's
hands.
James Pritchard, then first mate of the Gauntlet,
was brought up at Bow-street for passing eighteen
false sovereigns.
The real story about this disaster of his is one
which it is extremely easy to tell, but extremely
difficult to moralize over; perhaps we had better
not express any opinion one way or another.
He had contracted a great intimacy at a certain
house in Sydney with a young man a little older
than himself, an intimacy which lasted several
voyages, and at length the young man came home
with him; it having been settled that Pritchard
was to marry his sister after the next trip.
Pritchard required a cheque changed for eighteen
pounds; her brother did it for him in London
with eighteen bad sovereigns; poor Pritchard
was arraigned and pleaded not guilty. Had he
told the truth, the detectives would have informed
him that his friend's father was one of the most
notorious coiners in the world. He would not
tell upon the brother of the only woman he had
James Pritchard
ever loved in his life; he held his tongue and was
transported for seven years. He thought to him¬
self, Would she wait all that time for him if she
knew that he had saved her brother ? He could
not let her know because every letter was read by
the authorities of the prison. Her brother, how¬
ever, managed the matter for him; he wrote home
to say how cleverly he had "done" James
Pritchard. She laughed, and immediately after¬
wards married a very prosperous young farmer.
She then gave information against her father and
her brother, and so quarrelled with her family,
who never afterwards spoke to her, probably
because they were all relegated to penal servitude
for life, and had no opportunity of doing so.
James Pritchard, however, was transported for
seven years to West Australia, and his name was
never mentioned by his family, who believed him
guilty, in consequence of his previous carelessness
in money matters. Jqmes Pritchard was Mrs.
Smythe's nephew, and Captain Killick knew the
fact.
Although one of the most careless fellows in the
world he was not by any means a bad one. The
position which he took with jailor, chaplain, cap-
42
The Mystery oj the Island
tain, warder, governor, and everyone else was that
he was an absolutely innocent person, He never
let out his secret, but he calmly asserted his inno¬
cence, and, curiously enough, everybody believed
him.
One thing had got into his mind which never
got out again. He allowed that he had had a
fair trial, and was condemned by his own default,
but he argued that he had a perfect right to escape
if he could, without shedding blood. That he
could not do, as he always said afterwards. He
would have surrendered at any moment to anyone
in authority; he escaped without any temptation
for blood-shedding.
He spent two years, not very unhappily, in
West Australia. A very good gentleman, pretty
well known now, was governor there at that time,
and he took a great fancy to the young sailor,
whom he believed to be innocent. James Pritchard
would have served his time had not Lord Marcus
D'Este gone on his travels and visited West
Australia.
CHAPTER VII.
LORD MARCUS D'ESTE GOES ON HIS TRAVELS.
\f/
HAT ingenious young nobleman was re¬
ceived there as a godsend. He was
good-looking enough, well grown, and
intelligent if not intellectual. He did not know
very much, having been educated at a certain
public school, consequently his appetite for com¬
mon facts was enormous. He was a perpetual note
of interrogation, and bid fair, had he lived until
seventy, to know more than the late Lord Brougham.
Among other things, he had taken to botany,
and as West Australia is the flower land of that
island he was completely in clover. He rambled
about with a great tin case and gathered every¬
thing, from the bottle bush which groweth on a
tree, to the kennedyas which groweth on the
ground. In plucking a wreath of the latter he
was bitten by a snake, species to him unknown;
he slashed his hand with his penknife, after killing
the snake, and, putting the dead reptile into his
44
The Mystery of the Island
box, continued his journey. Arriving at a station
he tumbled out the snake among his flowers in
the verandah. The bystanders were horrified.
" If that snake had bitten you," said one of
them, "you would have been dead in ten minutes."
" He bit me two hours ago," said Lord Marcus,
"and I am none the worse. When I had cut my
hand and sucked the blood, I at once anatomised
his head ; there are no poison fangs."
Since the adventure of St. Paul at Melita, they
thought this the greatest miracle ever seen; they
looked that he should have dropped down dead.
But then they argued " He is only an Irishman
after all, lord as he is, so perhaps it won't hurt
him; " and they continue to kill that kind of
snake to this day.
Although he was " only an Irishman" they
loved him, as the English and Scotch will when
the Irish will let them, and he was free to go any¬
where. One day he was above the town of Perth,
pushing through a Grevillia scrub, which grew
close down to the green sea-water, when he heard
voices, and pausing, listened to the conversation.
Before him lay a sailor, apparently a man-of-
war's man, with his bare feet almost in the water.
Lord Marcus D'Este goes on his Travels 45
Beside the sailor lay three children, two boys and
a girl, who had been gathering flowers, and were
tying them up in nosegays. It seemed that the
sailor had been telling them a story, for the girl,
who had her feet in the quiet almost motionless
sea, which now at full tide flooded the roots of the
lea scrub, said,
"You can't leave off there, you know. It is
not satisfactory."
"Well," said the sailor, putting his hands at
the back of his head, amidst the grass; " she did
not do anything of the sort."
" I should have done it," said the girl.
"Ah, but she didn't, don't you see?" said the
sailor. "The first thing in the morning she gets
up, dresses herself, goes into Maidenhead, and
buys the chest of drawers. But she never knew
anything about the five-p'ound note until years
after, when she sold the chest of drawers to a
Jew, and then she would not have known it only
that it was a bad one, and he was prosecuted
for passing forged paper."
" That, evidently," said Lord Marcus, discover¬
ing himself, "is the conclusion of a very interesting
story. I should like to hear the beginning."
46 The Mystery of the Island
The sailor stood up quickly. The children
exclaimed " It is the mad Irish lord that the
snakes can't harm ! " But the sailor said—
" I was only telling a foolish story to these
children, my lord. I have forgotten the be¬
ginning."
"I am sorry for that; the end was very good.
What ship do you belong to ? "
At this point the children had departed with
their flowers, and they were alone.
" I am the harbour-master's coxswain," said
the sailor.
" I am collecting information of all kinds,"
said Lord Marcus. "Now what inay they say to
you, for instance ? Don't think that I wish to be
impertinent, but I consider it necessary to colleCt
information of all kinds."
" By good conduct I may get a year off my
sentence."
" A convict ? "
" Yes."
"Well, you don't look like it. Sit down here
by me, and if you don't mind, you know, tell me
what you did."
" Nothing."
Lord Marcus D'Este goes on his Travels 47
"Ah, well," said the gentle Irishman, "juries
are queer sometimes. There was my own agent,
Paul Rafferty, and Dennis O'Callagan fired into
the back of him with a nail full of blunderbusses
—I should say a blunderbuss full of nails—and
the doctor was twelve hours on horseback getting
them out of him; and one of them was identified
as a nail out of the coffin which O'Callagan drew
on the letter he sent to Paul. But we couldn't
get a verdict for all that; the jury found that
O'Callagan was just keeping the birds off the
potatoes with his blunderbuss. You are the man
I want if your name is James Pritchard."
" That is my name," said James, looking at him.
Lord Marcus had the faculty, not unknown
among his countrymen, of talking great nonsense
until he had eased his mind, and then speaking
as shrewd common sense as any Scotchman.
" I have heard of you ; you have earned a very
good character. You were on the West Coast
Expedition last year, under Captain Townsend."
" I was, my lord."
" I understand that you were selected, not only
for your good character, but because you had
known the coast before ? "
48
The Mystery of the Island
" I had been twice off it in previous voyages,
and I was able in one part of the voyage to act as
pilot."
" Do you know Pelsart's Islands ? " asked Lord
Marcus.
Had he been looking in the face of the man he
was talking to instead of arranging his flowers,
he would have seen a very strange expression
there as James Pritchard answered " Yes."
" Can you take my yacht there ? "
" Yes, if I can get leave."
" That is easily managed, I dare say. Have
you ever read the story of Pelsart's shipwreck ? "
" Yes, I read it years ago at sea, and I have
seen another account of it since. I know it
well."
" I want, now I am here," said Lord Marcus,
" to go and see the spot from curiosity. It
always struck me as being the most wonderful
and romantic of shipwrecks ; I should like to see
the place where it happened."
"There is not much to see there, my lord,"
said James Pritchard.
" Still, I have a great curiosity to see the
place," said Lord Marcus. " In the history of
Lord Marcus D'Este goes on his Travels 49
the world no such mad horrors were committed
as were done there. I am determined to go to
the spot. I will pay you well as pilot."
" Might you not get a better man than myself,"
said James Pritchard, " and take me in a subordi¬
nate capacity ? "
" I might," said Lord Marcus, "but I like the
look of you."
" Well then, my Lord, the thing, for good or
evil, is done. I hope that you will try to think the
best of me in future. You are coming back ? "
" Here to Perth," said Lord Marcus, looking
up from his flowers. " Of course I am ; I could
not go any other way with you on board, you
see. I should be put in jail, or something of
that kind, for assisting at the escape of a convict."
" Exactly. You understand that ? "
" Most perfectly," said Lord Marcus, laughing.
" If you attempt to escape I will put you in irons
and feed you on" (here he mentioned two modern
forms of preserved victuals—food which we decline
to name) " lest the outraged laws of our country
should be vindicated in my person. But you
would not do that, you know, for you would
compromise me after having trusted you. Well,
50
The Mystery of the Island
to pleasanter matters. I will trust you, and you
shall take me to Pelsart's Islands. There is a
great deal which is very curious to be found out
there. I am going to write about the matter,
and I wish to have been on the spot."
" There are some very strange things about
Pelsart's Islands, my lord," said James Pritchard.
" Stranger than any romance which I ever read.
But before I go as your pilot I must extort a
promise from you, convict as I am."
" And what is that ? "
"That you will not in any case take me
northward, but land me on the coast of West
Australia."
" But I am coming back here."
My lord, you might be driven north, and find
no land before Java. I desire that you will land
me in the colony."
"That is a strange request," said Lord Marcus,
laughing. " I might land you at Java and you
would be free."
" Yes, but totally unable to rehabilitate myself,
or clear my character. If you land me anywhere
but in the colony, I shall, under certain circum¬
stances, return."
Lord Marcus D'Este goes on his Travels 51
" Well, I would be hanged if I would," said
Lord Marcus.
" I wish to avoid any misconception. You
would be liable to prosecution for assisting a
convict to escape."
Lord Marcus did not seem to think this such
a very terrible affair after all; in fact he treated
the matter with the most reprehensible levity.
" Well, if you are fool enough to come back I
can't help you ; but I tell you once more that I
am coming back here. I leave the doctor behind
me arranging my collections. He is your hostage."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SECRET OF PEESART'S ISLANDS
ILENTLY the yacht slid out of the harbour
between the flowery heath-clad headlands,
and merrily she began to play with the
ocean waves outside. Lord Marcus was enjoying
himself thoroughly, walking up and down the deck
of his beautiful craft, a 250-ton schooner, built by
White, of Cowes, and talking to his sailing-master.
Having agreed with him that they should have a
pleasant autumn cruise, he went to the binnacle
and began talking to his pilot.
A beautiful cold southerly wind had set in, and
the yacht was spinning before it rapidly over the
great Pacific rollers. The sky was blue, the sea
was purple; innumerable white-winged sea-birds
were all around them, shooting through the air or
swimming idly on the water; the whale-birds,
most beautiful of terns, were about them every¬
where, while away to the west was a school of those
monarchs of the sea, the sperm-whales themselves,
The Secret of Pelsart's Islands 53
taking their pleasure in the great waters; following
them steadily was one great shark, with his atten¬
dant pilot fish. It was a day when the whole sea
was rejoicing, and the schooner and its owner
rejoiced with them.
"Well, pilot," said Lord Marcus, "you do not
seem cheerful; forget the past for to-day at least.
Come, serve me well on this voyage, and confusion
is in it if I can't better your position. Make a new
start in life, and I will be your friend in the old
country."
" You are very kind," said James Pritchard,
"you will try to believe the best of me when I am
dead."
" You are not going to die yet, man."
" I don't know, my lord," he said, with some
confusion in his manner.
Lord Marcus looked a little puzzled, but said—
" We shall have a fine voyage I fancy."
" There will be no great wind to speak of," said
Pritchard, "but this is the 18th of March, and the
rains generally come on at that time."
Still the weather continued fine and the wind
fair, till on the sixth day the schooner was be¬
calmed to the south of the four islands which make
54
The Mystery of the Island
up the group on which Pelsart was shipwrecked in
1610, and on which islands such terrible events
took place, events unparalleled in the history of
shipwrecks.
" Now which do you make out to be the island
which the mutineers held ? " said Lord Marcus to
his pilot.
"This one nearest to us, most undoubtedly," said
Pritchard, with rather singular emphasis.
"And the loyal people on that island to the
westward I suppose?"
"ExaCtly, my lord."
"What a wonderfully quiet and beautiful place
for the transaction of such horrors! Well, the
devil is everywhere, but God is his master, that is
a comfort."
After a little time he said, " I suppose that I
shall anchor, and we will go on shore and put up
the tent; there is water I think."
"No; do not you remember the story? "
"Of course. I say, don't those clothes of mine
fit you ? "
James was dressed in a sailor's shirt and trousers
belonging to the stores of the yacht. It had been
his own request, and so he now appeared with the
The Secret of Pelsart's Islands 55
words, "Diomede, R. Y. S.,'' in yellow letters across
his breast, and on the blue ribbon of his Panama
hat. For some reason he seemed uneasy in them,
and fidgetted with his body rather.
"A little tight round the waist, my lord, that is
all," said James.
"You must have been making flesh since you
came on board, I suppose, for they were a good fit
then; you chose them yourself."
They anchored snugly, and the cutter went on
shore with the tent. Before it was properly
pitched Lord Marcus had discovered three shells,
which were, he averred, new to science. I regret
to say, because I hate recording the disappoint¬
ment of a good fellow, that they were all as old as
the hills; but Lord Marcus got a surprise before
he left the island which made him forget all about
those shells and all others.
There were some pleasant days there. The
little ship's company were nearly all on shore, and
as he could never keep anything to himself, it was
perfectly well known that he was writing a poem
on the subject of Pelsart's shipwreck, and was
studying the localities. Still, he kept to the beach
very much, and collected strange creatures, which,
56
The Mystery of the Island
in their native element expanded, were as beautiful
as most flowers, but which in his spirit bottles were
ugly bladders.
On the second day he took a boat out to the sup¬
posed situation'of the old wreck. It is doubtful if
that mass of seaweed and coral which they saw
below them in the shallow sea, was the wreck or
not. He determined to go another day. He gave
orders for every man on shore to turn in at nine,
and he walked about himself.
Some of the men lay in the tent and some lay
outside on the sand. The man who lay outside
of the rest was James Pritchard. "It seems a
shame," said Lord Marcus, "those fellows will put
him away from them because he is a convict. He
is as good as half of them."
It did not occur to Lord Marcus that James
Pritchard lay on the sand outside the others for
his own purpose. Lord Marcus after a time
rolled himself in a blanket, and slept such a sleep
as can only be slept under the winking southern
cross.
They had been cutting some brushwood that
day near the shore, and Lord Marcus had taken
their axe from them, on the plea that he should
The Secret of Pelsart's Islands 57
want it in the morning; he would have been
puzzled to say for what, but he had a theory for
everything. When he went to sleep the axe was
beside him, when he awoke the axe was beside
him in exactly the same position. He noticed a
difference in the axe, and the armourer did the
same.
A very dangerous thing had to be done, and
James Pritchard did it. He wanted that axe,
and Lord Marcus had nearly spoilt everything by
getting possession of it. When, however, every¬
one was fast asleep, no watch being kept, James
Pritchard rose, and stepping to the side of Lord
Marcus, removed the axe.
James Pritchard was very difficult to awake
the next morning. He was very sleepy. Lord
Marcus was singularly wakeful, having had a
good night in the sand. The axe was beside
him. He sat up, looked at it, stared, and
believed that he must be going out of his mind.
He sent for the armourer.
" I can't understand this," he said ; " the axe
was perfectly right last night; look at the blade
now."
It was smashed and jagged till it was worthless.
58
The Mystery of the Island
The armourer could give no clue to the matter,
except that his lordship had had the nightmare.
This was by no means satisfactory.
"All I can say is," said the armourer, "that
this axe has been against stone or iron. I can't
say no further than that."
It was a great puzzle to Lord Marcus, but he
got a greater one soon.
The weather broke up; they had a thunder-
storm from the east, which showed them more
fireworks than they had ever seen at the Crystal
Palace, and which made nearly as much noise as
the battle of Sedan. Lord Marcus, in disgust,
went on board his yacht, and took the whole
ship's company with him; the ship was more
pleasant than the shore: the south wind was
now so persistent that he doubted if he could
get back to Perth in three weeks. He moored
his ship in the lee of one of the smaller islands,
and made every one comfortable.
Lord Marcus was not a good sailor. His idea
was that when the men had nothing to do they
should lie in bed. At this time, it so fell about
that his sailing-master was ill of Mediterranean
fever, and was forced to keep his birth. Lord
The Secret of Pelsart's Island 59
Marcus at once assumed full command of the
ship, and allowed every one to do exactly as they
chose. Every sailor came out in his true colours,
now that discipline was relaxed, and Lord Marcus
made the wonderful discovery that the immortal
British sailor is really very little better than any
one else when the tarnish of discipline is rubbed
off him.
His ideas received a rude shock when he took
command of his own ship. He resorted to
physical violence, and, being the strongest man
in the ship, succeeded to a certain extent. James
Pritchard, who although a good sailor, was a
convict, could not assist him, save by advice.
James Pritchard told him to hold his own, and, as
soon as he got a north wind, get back to Perth.
Lord Marcus was in his berth when he said this,
and James departed, recommending Lord Marcus
to lock his cabin door. Lord Marcus did so,
after going out on deck in his shirt and trousei s
to see that everything was right. He discovered
that everything was wrong—there was no watch
set ; and, when he went to his sailing-master's
cabin, he found that no one had been attending
to him. He took care of him with that gentle
6o
The Mystery of the Island
patience which so highly ennobles the Irish, and
then he turned in, locking his cabin door behind
him with a heavy heart. The men whom he had
trusted so well had got at the liquor, and were
now a mere set of brutes.
He awoke early in the morning, and on his
table lay a letter and a round match-box, such as
were used in the colonies in those days. What
could this mean ? He stood half-dressed and
read the letter; it could only come from one
person, because the last man in his cabin had
been James Pritchard. It ran thus :—•
" My Lord,—I have robbed you, but I have
paid for the robbery. This may or may not be
moral.
" Had I considered that your crew were
dangerously mutinous I should not have deserted
you. They are perfectly manageable. They have
got hold of some drink; it is nearly exhausted,
and then they will be good boys again.
" Try to forget me. I am drowned in trying to
escape. There are mysteries in this wondrous
land of Australia which the scientific world knows
nothing of. I am about to solve one.
The Secret of Pelsart's Islands 61
" I pray of you to make no hue and cry after
me. If the rains continue I am saved ; if they
fail I am lost. But in future, in Europe, if you
meet me, never recognize me. I trust to your
good-nature for that.
" I have hoodwinked you from the first moment
when you asked me to pilot you here. I have
succeeded in my object now, but only partially.
Open the match-box which lies by this letter, and
you will discover the secret of Pelsart's Island.
" I would not, if I were in your place, attempt
to discover it for myself. It was by mere accident
that I discovered it. Let the mystery remain as
such. James Pritchard."
Lord Marcus was extremely astonished, but it
occurred to him to open the match-box. There
was not much in it, only apparently a little piece
of paper rolled up very small. He shut the
match-box up again, put it uuder his pillow, took
off his clothes, and getting-into his bunk slept the
sleep of the just.
CHAPTER IX.
LORD MARCUS FINDS REASONS FOR NOT PURSUING
PRITCHARD.
\V
HE crew, having exhausted their liquor,
returned to their allegiance and their
work, looking as foolish as penitent
and crapulous sailors can. It was discovered,
however, that the convict pilot, James Pritchard,
had, during the relaxation of discipline, gone off
in a boat by himself. Lord Marcus was of course
very angry at losing his boat, but otherwise he
seemed to take the matter rather coolly. His idea
was probably that it was no use crying over spilt
milk ; he was rather loud about his boat certainly,
but he kept certain other facts entirely in his own
bosom. His single-barrelled fowling-piece was
gone, with a canister of powder, a shot belt, a
box of wads and another of percussion caps ; like¬
wise there were five-and-twenty sovereigns missing,
and his lordship's best pilot-coat. But he never
Marcus finds Reasons for not pursuing Pritchard 63
said anything except to himself, and then only,
" That was an honest lad and a good fellow. It
is very few who would have been so honest, God
speed him ! "
And you will see some day that Lord Marcus
was right in what he said. When he got back to
Perth he possibly distorted matters, but there had
been a small crumpled paper in the match-box,
with very little writing on it, which told him more
about James Pritchard's designs than the letter,
that he most carefully burnt.
Still he took to walking about Pelsart's Island in
every direction by himself. Shells had no attrac¬
tion for him now; he had made out that there
were three species of land-crabs on the rocks in
the centre of the island. There were nothing of
the kind, but he declared that, from claws which
he found lying about in the sand, there were
two other species than the common one; he did
no more towards discovering them than he did
towards discovering the lost tribes of Israel, or
indeed anything else. The mystery of Pelsart's
Island was not for him. He, however, read a
learned paper about these crabs before the
Naturalists' Society at Perth, and received a vote
64
The Mystery of the Island
of thanks. The crabs did not exist, but he had
got to believe in them.
When the wind got fair and the crew in good
order he sailed back to Perth. His sailing-master
was for looking after the boat which the fugitive
had taken, and made sure that he could be tracked;
that being an isolated colony, he urged, the man
could only make for the settlements. But Lord
Marcus, with the secret of the match-box in his
own bosom, knew otherwise, and most peremptorily
ordered that the subjedt should not be renewed.
"I am no thief-taker,'' he said, angrily; "a
hunted beast is safe from me." And he walked up
and down the deck in a mood not to be disturbed.-
What was he thinking of? Of the story which
his grandmother had often told him, a story of
1798.
She, Lady Dunorrin, had been married a little
more than a year when the troubles of that terrible
time came on. She happened to be at home
alone one night, while her young husband was
scouring the country after a dispersed band of
rebels. She was walking up and down with
her baby in her arms, when the window which
looked upon the lake was opened and a young
Marcus finds Reasons for not pursuing Pritchard 65
man, roughly dressed, torn and bleeding, limped
into the room.
She knew him before he sppke. " Lady
Dunorrin," he said, " I and mine have been on
the estate for a century. I am hotly hunted. In
God's name save me, for the sake of my wife and
child ! "
She never hesitated for a moment. Holding
her baby, our Lord Marcus's father, on her arm,
she opened a door and said hurriedly:
" The castle is half empty ; you can find plenty
of hiding-places up there, but I would not leave
the place until the coast is clear."
" The heavens be your bed ! " he said hurriedly.
" But my lord and the soldiers are only a mile
behind me."
" I will take care of you, Mike," she said, " for
old times' sake."
He tried to thank her, but could not. He passed
into the darkness and was gone.
In twenty minutes she heard her husband ride
up hurriedly, and then he came into the room.
" Mary," he said, "we are disappointed again. We
have tracked that scoundrel Mike Whelan nearly
to the edge of the park, and we have missed him."
r>
66 The Mystery of the Island
" George," she said, " I am terrified. Let me
sit on this chair with baby, and we will talk
so."
"Terrified, my darling!" said Lord Dunorrin.
" There is no need for that. We have cleared
them out of the county of Westmeath, and
Mike Whelan is the last of them. Don't be
frightened."
" I am not frightened about the Whiteboys,
poor deluded fellows! I am afraid of your
anger."
" Was I ever angry with you ? "
"Never, and it is that which makes me
dread your anger. George, don't be angry
with me. Mike Whelan came into that
window twenty minutes ago, and I have hid
him."
Lord Dunorrin came of a very hot-tempered
family, and she was "afraid that he would quarrel
with her. She, as an Englishwoman, did not
know the Irish. She was afraid that he would be
very angry with her ; but the Irish were very
much hunted at one time, and so were the Scotch,
so were the English.
Lord Dunorrin's ancestors had been hunted
Marcus finds Reasons for not pursuing Pritchard 67
exactly like this poor Mike Whelan, so instead of
scolding his wife,
" He laughed a laugh of merry scorn.
" He came and kissed her where she stood."
And he said, " Where is the boy ? "
And she replied, " I don't know."
" We will get him out, darling," he replied.
That night the castle was filled with dragoons.
The captain was uneasy in his mind unless he had
leave to search the house. Lord Dunorrin would
not have that done. Furious loyalist as he was
he would not have the sanctity of his house
violated by English soldiers.
In the middle of the night Mike Whelan had
lain down in a garret. He had sucked his
wounds and bound them in his stockings. He
had fallen to sleep, and was beginning to dream
of a world in which there were no politics,
when he was awakened by a light in his
eyes.
The terrible Lord Dunorrin, his pursuer and
his deadly enemy, stood before him", the man
who had taken the English side, and had sworn
that no rebel should live in Ireland-—an Irish¬
man himself.
68
The Mystery 0/ the Island
Mike Whelan rose as well as he could and said,
" My lord, I surrender."
" Hold your tongue," said Lord Dunorrin,
" Remember, for the soul of you, that I don't
know your name. The house is full of soldiers.
I can only prevent them coming here. You must
be perfectly quiet. You are George Moriarty,
are you not ? "
" Yes."
" Well, you must get out of this, and we will
get ye out of it. Don't do it again."
" I will not, my lord, but we have been very
hard pressed," said Mike Whelan.
"You have been very hard pressed," said Lord
Dunorrin, "but you have gone the wrong way to
work."
" May be so, my lord, but save me."
" Swear to me that you will not go on in this
Whiteboy conspiracy."
" I will swear it, my lord."
Lord Dunorrin's claret and whiskey were alike
good, and Captain Gordon, a most temperate man,
and a good officer, only remembered the next morn¬
ing that he ought to search Lord Dunorrin's house.
He mentioned the fact to him.
Marcus finds Reasons for not pursuing Pritchard 69
" I suppose that you will let me go over the
house, Lord Dunorrin? "
" If you offer to do it, I will blow your brains
out" was Lord Dunorrin's rather rash reply.
Captain Gordon's grandpapa happened to have
been hung, drawn, and quartered at Carlisle in
1746, after Culloden. Reflecting that there had
not happened to be a Lord Dunorrin in those
parts at that time, Captain Gordon grew pensive,
and then said—
" I suppose that you ought to give me your
word of honour that there is not a Whiteboy in
the house."
" I give it most freely," said Lord Dunorrin.
"Well," said Captain Gordon, "You Irish can,
—at times ; but I take your lordship's word."
And they all went away, and Mike Whelan
bettered himself generally, and Lord Dunorrin
had not told anything which was false. Mike
Whelan had forsworn the Whiteboys before he
spoke.
That was old Lady Dunorrin's story; and the
effect of it on Lord Marcus was, that he would
never push a hunted man. Consequently, he
never allowed any pursuit of James Pritchard.
CHAPTER X.
pritchard's escape
AMES PRITCHARD'S attempt was one
of the most remarkable ever made. It
was one of the most remarkable, we most
advisedly say, because it was not so splendid as
Governor Eyre's solitary march of 700 miles
round the Great Bight.
The furthest point of civilization to the north,
at that time, was at the mouth of the Murchison
river; there was only a hut there inhabited by a
stockman and a hutkeeper, the latter of whom
had rather a weary life of it, and was glad to see
any new face—a gratification which he seldom
enjoyed.
One day, when looking out at the driving rain,
a young man, a sailor, with a gun in his hand,
stood before him, and he said, " Where the
dickens have you dropped from? Come in, mate;
these rains are enough to float Noah's ark." And
James Pritchard came in, and, opening his pea-
Pritchard's Escape
71
coat, showed his sailor's shirt, with his ship's
name upon it.
" I have been out at sea for two days," he said.
" Are you wet, man ? " said the hut-keeper.
"Ask a fellow that, with these rains?" said
James Pritchard.
" Well," said the hutkeeper, bestirring himself,
to make the fire burn, " I needn't have asked
that. Is there a ship cast away, or have you
run? "
" Run."
A sacred person now was James Pritchard.
The poor ex-convict hutkeeper had the same
instindt about hunted people which was shared by
my Lord Marcus D'Este and his grandmother,
Lady Dunorrin. One touch of nature makes the
whole world kin. I do not say that this instinct
of shielding hunted things is peculiarly moral;
but people do it. The late Dr. Johnson was a
moral man, and enthusiastically admired the
conduct of Mrs. Flora Macdonald in shielding
the Pretender. I will say no more.
"Now, where are you going, mate? " said the
hut-keeper; "we can keep you Sere, or if the
troopers come round we can put you in the bush,
72 The Mystery of the Island
Besides, none of them would bother you if they
did come. We are thorough good friends with
the troopers."
" I will rest and dry myself before I answer
you," said James Pritchard. "Who is your
stockman ?"
" Well," said the hut-keeper, " as we are all in
the same boat, I may tell you that I am seven-
pence and he is one shilling and twopence." *
" Fourteenpence," said James Pritchard, "that
is a long chalk up."
" It is," said the hut-keeper.
James Pritchard looked at him for the first time
very closely. He was a good-looking young man,
but appeared to want vitality; James Pritchard
seemed to feel that he could trust him in spite of
the " sevenpence," but he thought it far wiser not
to say that he had got sevenpenny-worth himself.
" I want to confide in you," said James Pritchard.
" I am not a blameless person myself. I want to
ask you this—is your stockman likely to round ? "
" The last man to do it. See here he comes ;
as perfect a gentleman as you ever saw."
* A convict's way of expressing seven and fourteen years' trans¬
portation.
Pritchard's Escape 73
They saw him take the rails down, turn his
horse loose in the paddock, then they saw him
coming towards the hut after putting the rails
up. James Pritchard went to meet him, and
held out his hand.
" I am afraid that I ought not to take the hand
of a sailor," said the stockman, because I am only
a convict."
James Pritchard said, after one glance at him,
" I am a convict also, and I want your advice."
" You a convict ! " said the stockman ; " you
have not the look of it."
" Neither have you," said James Pritchard.
Certainly not; he was a large, tall, melancholy
man, with a carefully-tended moustache, but no
beard or whiskers. A very brown man in com¬
plexion, and extremely comely in figure. The
sort of man who could be backed to get the
Victoria Cross every time he got the chance. He
was a very gentle man. He put his hand on James—
" I think that we understand one another."
was all that he said, before he passed into the
hut with his saddle and bridle on his arm.
" I do not quite understand you," said James
Pritchard.
74 The Mystery of the Island
" I only mean that we are both innocent," said
the stockman.
" I am not perfectly innocent," said James
Pritchard; " I have been fearfully careless, and I
am suffering for it."
" I," said the stockman, " have not been care¬
less. I intended doing a certain thing for certain
purposes, and another man did what I intended at
one time to do. The other man was my brother,
but I pleaded guilty to save him."
" But why did not your brother come forward ? "
said James Pritchard; "He must have been a
mean creature."
" He had got my mother and five sisters to
keep, so what could he do ? " said the stockman ;
"you don't understand Ireland at all. Well, come
in, I will help you as far as I can."
They went in together, but as they went in the
stockman whispered to him :—" Don't make the
hut-keeper jealous."
So they sat together and talked. The hut-
keeper listened all the time, and they therefore
spoke on general subjects, such as horses, sheep,
and other things which would only be partially
understood by the English reader.
Pritchard's Escape
75
After a time the hut-keeper put the supper on
the table, and, when they had eaten and drank,
and were smoking, he said—■
" This man has run his ship. I doubt that he
will get three months if he goes back to Perth.
We had better get the boss (master) to take him
on for six months. He and you are much of a
size ; you can give him a suit of clothes."
"Well said, James Norton," said the stock¬
man. " We will put him in some of my clothes,
and ride over and see the governor to-morrow.
You can ride, mate, I suppose—all sailors can
ride a little."
" I have ridden very much in South America,
when I was in the Royal Mail service."
" Then you can ride anywhere," said the stock¬
man. " Now we can go to bed."
CHAPTER XI.
PRITCHARD DISAPPEARS
HE next morning beheld a strange trans¬
formation in James Pritchard ; he was
dressed exactly like the stockman. The
hut-keeper asked him how he had slept, and he
answered remarkably well. He then asked the
hut-keeper how he had slept, and the hut-keeper
replied that he had never waked once in the night,
a fact of which James and the stockman were
perfectly aware, as they had been walking up and
down in front of the hut talking, from the time
when he first went to sleep until a very late hour.
" You will give me no other name but George,"
said James Pritchard.
"No," said the stockman; my father's name
is disgraced through me, though not by my means,
and I will not reveal it."
"Are you going to make any effort to get out
of this place ? "
" I am hemmed in on all sides," said the man
whom we shall for the present call " George."
Pritchard Disappears
77
" What do you know about the Murchison
river ? " said James Pritchard.
" More than you do," said George; " know it
for two hundred miles."
" Is there any chance that way? " asked James
Pritchard.
" I should say every chance in the world," said
George; " but what do you know about the
Murchison ? "
" I guessed that there was a chance there, that
is all," said James Pritchard. " I only know about
it from Gregory's map."
" But if we do sight the telegraph wires," said
George, " we have no money. I'll be hanged if
I don't think that we had better stay where we
are, all said and done."
They sat down together under a banksia tree,
and James Pritchard told George a certain secret.
" It is obvious," said George, " that we could
never escape through the colony. I suppose we
had better try the Murchison. Is it not an awful
pity that you took that nobleman's gold ? "
" He made a good bargain," said James, laugh¬
ing, and thinking of the match-box.
James and George, the stockman, rode away
78
The Mystery of the Island
the next morning for the purpose of getting
James employment at the station. They were
never heard of any more. The hut-keeper thought
that they were going to Mr. Stanford's, and said
so. Mr. Stanford said that they had never come
near him. They got lost in the bush, and died.
Of that there was no doubt whatever.
Whenever you read about a matter being per¬
fectly certain, you may, nine times out of ten,
decide that it is totally untrue. If you notice,
certain great papers seldom use that formula.
Some of the Australian papers said that it was
perfectly certain that the men were lost; a few
others said that there was no proof whatever of
the fact. It is certain that they never re¬
appeared ; but it is equally certain that they
were never, except for a short time, lost.
A very sad thing occurred up the Murchison
that year. At the very furthest station on that
river, a very poor old cockney was hut-keeper to a
Scotch shepherd. The Londoner, not a physically
good specimen of his class, probably the most
plucky in the world, has got the Scotch shepherd's
tea ready, and his Bible on the table, when the
shepherd came in. The shepherd did not eat
Pritchard Disappears
79
his tea or read his Bible. He talked to the
Londoner about many things, but he was most
certainly ill; he had caught a cold in the drenching
rains, and he took to his bed with ague.
The Londoner nursed him tenderly. When
two men are alone together, far from help or
hope, it is a fearful thing for one to fall sick. No
one knows what it is save those who have ex¬
perienced it. The Londoner read his Bible to
him as long as he could hear it; and when the
cold stark look of death came into his face, he
went for help. But he was frightened, and lost
his way: he wandered through glens and gullies,
through scrub and forest, until he found himself
surrounded by a tribe of black fellows.
They treated him in the kindest manner, and
communicated with other tribes, who were in com¬
munication with the authorities. A sergeant, a
cadet, and three troopers were sent; they brought
the man back, and the magistrate at Perth said
that he had lost his senses in the bush. He was
found 126 miles beyond the country previously
known by Europeans, and yet he declared that
when he was lying in the bush at that point, he
saw two gentlemen ride past him on roan horses,
8o
The Mystery of the Island
and tried to make them hear. He was examined,
not of course officially, by a judge, and the judge,
0
in an able paper, quotes this delusion as the best
instance of bush-madness he had ever observed.
Judge Merton, however, being on circuit, met
the tribe who had found the hut-keeper, and asked
them collectivety if they had ever seen the two
gentlemen on horseback. " Oh, dear, no," the
chief answered. " Hut-keeper fellow plenty
frighten. Rain tumble down; thunder tumble
down; hut-keeper fellow tumble down. Baaly
mine make a light of two gentlemen in the bush."
It was no business of Judge Merton's, but he
reserved his opinion.
We now bid farewell to James Pritchard and
George the stockman, at least for the present.
CHAPTER XII.
THE RESULT OF BURNING THE DOLL
ABEL SMYTHE was sitting with her
sisters, and hearing them dispute about
some trifle, when Mrs. Smythe came
into the room and begged her to come at once
and speak with her.
They went into another room and Mrs. Smythe
sat down and looked at her daughter; Mabel
saw that something very serious was the matter.
"Mother," she said, "have you any further news
from father ? "
" How can we have, child ? I am more and
more certain that we shall see him again. Killick
has only been gone three weeks, and they are
beginning to believe the truth at the Admiralty.
Admiral Dickinson now says that there is a
probability of your father and brother being alive;
but, my dear, we are ruined."
" But, mother, how can we be ruined ? "
82
The Mystery of the Island
" Your father left me a power-of-attorney to sell
out, and I have lost it." ~
" How can it be lost ? " said Mabel.
" I have looked for it for a month and I cannot
find it."
" But how does that ruin you ? "
" I am in debt, not very much, and I can get
no money. We shall be turned out of house and
home; I do not in the least degree know what
to do."
" Mother, let us have another hunt."
" It is entirely useless, my dear, the thing is
gone."
" Mamma," said a quiet voice, " I have followed
and heard what you have been saying, and I am
afraid that I am to blame. I do not know that I
am, but I think so.
It was Ethel who spoke ; her mother looked at
her in wonder.
" My dear, you could have had nothing to do
with it."
"Mamma, there was a blue paper on the top of
your paper basket, and we burnt the doll in it.
Was that the paper ? "
" It must have been," said Mrs. Smythe.
The Result of Burning the Doll 83
" I will undergo any punishment, mamma, but
it was I who told Matilda to use it. I am entirely
to blame."
Mrs. Smythe rose and went suddenly towards
her—only, however, to clasp her in her arms.
" My gallant, truth-speaking daughter," she said,
"what do I care for poverty with such noble
children around me ? My dear, you have, for the
time, ruined me, but you have told me the truth.
Where did you say you found the paper ? "
" At the top of the waste-paper basket,
mamma."
" Then it is I who am to blame, after ah," said
Mrs. Smythe. " God bless you, dear Ethel and
dear Mabel. You have been good girls to me,
and you will be rewarded."
" But surely you have earned our gratitude,
mother," said Mabel.
" Hardly," said Mrs. Smythe. " Let us talk
about ways and means. We must leave the
house, and I do not see how to leave it; and,
what is more, I do not know where to go."
" If Killick was here! " said Mabel.
" Yes, my dear, but he is not, he has gone after
your father and will not catch him before Valpa-
84 The Mystery of the Island
raiso. What can we do? I am utterly at my wits'
end. I have not claimed my pension at the
Admiralty, and I doubt whether they would allow
it; they begin to believe what I have all along
said, that your father is not dead. If I believed
that your father was dead' I might mortgage my
pension. As it is I cannot touch either his money
or my own."
" We might have to sell everything," said
Mabel.
" I am afraid so," said Mrs. Smythe.
" Ethel, go out of the room, like a dear
child," said Mabel; and Ethel, though not always
obedient, went, having the auto-da-fe of the power-
of-attorney on her mind.
" Mother," said Mabel, " I can get you any
money you want."
" My child, what do you mean ? Has Killick
left any power-of-attorney behind him with you ?
That would be an insult which I would never for
an instant forgive."
" Oh, no, mother; he is not the man to insult
one like that. I only hand you over a letter
which I received two days ago, and which I
hesitated to show you."
The Result of Burning the Doll 85
Mrs. Smythe took it, and read it. It ran
thus:—
" Miss Mabel,—I apprehend that there may
possibly be some difficulty in your mother's affairs
during the absence of Captain Smythe.
" Will you inform her that £1,000 will stand
at her name at King's; but under the sole con¬
dition that she never asks the name of the person
who paid it in.
" I may remark that I should not know you if
I were to see you. It is an act of simple decent
gratitude on my part. The money is as much
your mother's as if she had earned it as a daily
governess."
There was no signature at all. Mrs. Smythe
said to her daughter, " Let me be quiet a
little," and remained thinking deeply for nearly
a quarter-of-an-hour; then she rose, and con¬
fronted her daughter very quietly, but very
firmly.
" Mabel," she said, " have you ever seen this
handwriting before, on your honour ? "
"No, mother, on my honour,"
86
The Mystery of the Island
" I have a good mind to take the money," said
Mrs. Smythe.
" Mother, you must decide about that. It is
not offered to me, but to you."
" I would not hesitate," said Mrs. Smythe, " if
I knew how he came by it. He owes us—I mean
to say that I don't like people who scatter their
money broadcast like this."
" He can't be a bad man, mother, if he offer's
you this money unsolicited."
" I don't know, Mabel. I don't say he was a
bad fellow, but he was always a fool. I fancy
that there was nothing ever very wrong with him.
I will neither use the money nor refuse it. Let
us keep our expenses down, dear, until your father
and Killick come back."
" We shall have to use a little of this money to
do that, mamma, shall we not ? " said Mabel.
" Well, I suppose we shall. But we had better
keep up appearances for the present ; the money
is practically ours, ten times more if it is ours in
reality. It is very good of him, after all. But
how could he have found out that I wanted it ?
That is the mystery. I have only known it
myself a fortnight, and only resolved to tell you
The Result of Burning the Doll 87
to-day. He must have some close watch upon us."
" I do not understand you, mamma."
'"No, my dear, I do not intend that you should;
but I think that I have a right, under the circum¬
stances, to keep my children out of lodgings.
Now I have thought through it "—(she had, in
reality, talked through it, in a way which some
women, and men also, will)—" and I will do as
I think proper, in the absence of your father.
I will step round to King's to-morrow, and see
that everything is right, and take my measures
accordingly. Keep your sisters quiet, for I am
going to write to your father."
" Whither, mother ?"
"To Valparaiso. Did you not hear what
Kdlick said ? "
The letter to Valparaiso was partly written
when it occurred to Mrs. Smythe to write a note
to Lady Southerey, the wife of Rear-Admiral Sir
John Southerey—a man who had fought his way
from a midshipman, without interest, to a knight¬
hood—accepting an invitation to her small and
early party.
" They shall not make a widow of me yet," she
said. " It was good of Lady Southerey to ask
88 The Mystery of the Island
us. I don't want to go about with this fearful
uncertainty hanging over us ; but I won't give
up yet, and the people at Lady Southerey's shall
see it ; and Mabel shall not mope either. I will
go."
Perhaps she had better have stayed at home.
She thought so afterwards.
CHAPTER XIII.
LADY SOUTHEREY'S PARTY
THEL and Matilda having heard their
TT^r mother's determination that she would
go to Lady Southerey's party and take
Mabel, in a new dress, at once went there them¬
selves five days before the event came off, and
stayed there (not counting lessons and bed) for
three.
They had not got any money, and so they had
to do without. Children do not want money
to play, to act : Ethel and Matty enjoyed them¬
selves at Lady Southerey's for three days, in the
spirit; Mabel went there in the fiesh, and hated it.
Many things happened at Ethel's and Matilda's
party which did not happen at the real one; they
went through the process of having the house
cleaned from top to bottom, which ended in the
upsetting of the water-jug, and damage to Mrs.
Smythe's bed-room ceiling. Then they proceeded
to take the carpets up in the absence of nurse,
90 The Mystery of the Island
and wax the floors with soap, in preparation for
dancing, during which process nurse came in
hurriedly, stepped upon the soapy part, and came
down by the run. This led to what was known
in that house as a "skrim," which I believe is
short for skrimmage—that is to say, to a very
wordy argument with raised voices, in which
Ethel allowed her sister to do all the practical
fighting, but encouraged her by uproarious and
somewhat offensive laughter. Mrs. Smythe heard
the riot, and came up to interfere.
In many houses the children would have been
supposed to be " naughty," and punished. Mrs.
Smythe did not see it in that light at all. She
saw that the children had been playing, and
inquired as to what they had been playing at;
on being informed, she very wisely suggested to
them that the house should be considered to be
ready for the party, and that they should prepare
their dresses ; after which nurse had peace for
one day.
At all events a sort of peace, for now Ethel
and Matty rummaged every drawer and cupboard
for things to wear, and began to lay them together.
On the evening of the real party they were dressed.
Lady Southerey s, Party 9I
Ethel in an airy costume of long disused muslin
window-curtains cut, her mother thought, rather
low, bouillonne with trimmings of crimson hemp
door-mat surreptitiously obtained from the hall.
Over this she wore a last year's ornament from
the fire-stove (such as are carried about the street)
for a cloak. She looked splendid.
Matilda was late in appearing. The prospective
splendour of Ethel's appearance had determined
her to cut out a new line, and adopt the role
d'ingenue. After having hopelessly broken the
sewing-machine (which was on the hire system
and had to be paid for) by trying to stitch two
hearth-rugs together in the manner of a chasuble,
she abandoned all attempts at extraneous display,
and came into the drawing-room with her night¬
gown over her clothes, and her hair down, and no
other ornament but a piece of red window-cord
round her neck. Mrs. Smythe pronounced the
effect to be charming, and acted Lady Southerey
while she was waiting for Mabel; Ethel presented
Matilda when Mabel came down. The pretty
silly play was over, and the mother with a sigh
saw that the weary realities of life must begin
again—not on the morrow, after refreshing sleep,
92
The Mystery of the Island
but now, with the wearied heart half broken by
the day's anxiety.
At last Mabel came into the room dressed.
Mrs. Smythe used, among her friends, to con¬
gratulate herself that her favourite daughter was
ugly, and would therefore marry into the service,
and be a companion to her when her husband
and son were at sea. She began to feel alarmed
now. Mabel's features were not at all regular,
but her hair, her sweet eyes, her brilliant teeth
(when she showed them, which was seldom),
and her complexion would have set up a dozen
beauties. And then, her expression, now with
the dread of her father's death upon her—so
quiet, so mournful, and so gentle.
" If she sings," said Mrs. Smythe to herself,
"we shall have some heads broken about her. I
wish I had not taken her out until Killick was
home."
But out they went, to the intense delight of
the two younger sisters. Let us precede them.
Lady Southerey was a very kind old lady, who
never said any harm of any one ; but there were
two or three other ladies there who rather liked
to discuss their neighbours' affairs. They had
Lady Sotitherey's Party 93
come early to get the best seats, and they began
talking about many people. At last one said
something which concerns us.
"Lady Southerey, do you know Mrs. Smythe?"
" She is my very good friend. She is coming
here to-night."
" Well, as she is your friend, I will say nothing
about her. Only I think that it is odd that she
goes about flaunting with her daughter, and not
wearing mourning."
" Perhaps she can't afford to pay for it," said
another lady. " She affects to believe that her
husband is not dead, and wants to get that gawky
girl of hers married at once, so that the victim
may pay her debts."
" I assure you that you do not in the least
know Mrs. Smythe," said Lady Southerey. "She
is the best and noblest of woman. Pray do not
talk so of her."
They did not, but talked about other people as
they came in. At last the door was thrown open
once more, and " Mrs. Smythe and Miss Smythe "
were announced.
For perfection of dress and carriage there
were no two women in the room like that
§4
The Mystery of the Island
mother and daughter. Most people knew their
story, and most people took an entirely different
view of Mrs. Smythe's conduct from that of the
old ladies before mentioned. It was considered
heroic instead of mean; and as the principal part
of the company were connected with the sea,
Lord Southerey having been a sailor, Mrs.
Smythe found herself in the midst of an intensely
sympathizing group at once, though only one of
them all alluded to her trouble. She was a
strenuous lady, whose husbaad had risen from
the forecastle to an honourable position, like the
late Admiral Boxer; and she mentioned inci¬
dentally that, her husband had been away nearly
five years with Ross in the Arctic Seas, and that
all but she had given them all up for dead;
but that she never would put mourning on for
him, and that one day she saw him coming up
to the door—" And I went out and got him his
favourite old dinner, and cooked it myself, for my
girl was out."
This lady was not a handsome woman to look
at, she had a very brown complexion and coarse
hands, on which her husband had put, for some
inscrutable reason, diamond rings, which had
Lady Southerey's Party 95
the effect which he did not intend—that of calling
attention to them. She, however, had said the
right thing in the right place, as everyone felt, and
Mabel's face still had a gratified flush upon it
when the butler was observed to have the door
open and his chest expanded for a grand announce¬
ment. At the same time voices, apparently in hot
argument, were heard upon the stairs.
" I tell ye that the number ye put in me hat was
27, and the number in me hand is 28. I'll be
getting a hat when I go away that will go down
at the back of me head and make me look like a
fool, or one that won't go on at all at all, and
make me look like a betting man."
" I will attend to it, sir," the butler was heard
to say.
Lady Southerey had time to say to Mrs. Smythe
and Mabe', " Who can this be ?" when a splendid
man, perfectly dressed, stood in the door, and
the footman relieved his inflated lungs by shout¬
ing out:
" Lord Marcus D'Este."
Our old friend came in totally unconscious that
the Irish, and possibly not the worst side of him,
had been audibly exhibited on the stairs. He
g6
The Mystery of the Island
came into the room with the perfeft manner of
the best gentleman in England. He approached
Lady Southerey and said very quietly—
" I feel that I have almost a right here, Lady
Southerey, because you are so exclusively nautical,
and I am half a sailor. I have come to you the
third day of my arrival in England on the strength
of a card sent me when I happened to be at
Pelsart's Island."
" I really thought you were at home," said Lady
Southerey. " And what did you see at Pelsart's
Island ? "
"Nothing," said Lord Marcus. "It was my
second visit after an interval of seven years. But
may I be introduced to some of these ladies ? "
Mrs. Smythe saw that he only meant one, and
that one was Mabel. She had been excited by
the talk of the lady who had told the story of her
husband's return after so many years, and she had
been laughing over Lord Marcus D'Este's be¬
haviour on the stairs, and she looked her very
best. His eyes were fixed upon Mabel and upon
her alone.
There was a general introduction to the great
traveller, for such he was, There were more
Lady Southerey's Party 97
arrivals. Mrs. Smythe got separated from her
daughter, whom she shortly afterwards saw sitting
near the door with Lord Marcus D'Este.
"You have travelled very much," said Mabel,
after a few commonplace remarks.
" Yes," he said, " I shall never cease from
travelling until I find a good wife to keep me at
home." And added to himself: "You would do that
pretty easily, young lady." Indeed, it used after¬
wards jocularly to be said that Mabel might have been
Lady Marcus, and, as afterwards turned out, Lady
Dunorrin. She is perfectly happy as Mrs. Killick.
"With your propensity for roaming you would
be bored at home. Where did I hear you say
you had been last ? "
" To Pelsart's Islands."
" What did you find there ? "
" Sand."
" What did you expedt to find ? "
" A ghost."
" Did you see one ? "
" Dozens."
" Were you much frightened ? "
"Not more than I am now. Miss Smythe,
who is that man close to your mother ? "
6
g8
The Mystery of the Island
" I chnnot say ; I never saw him before. Is he
a ghost ? "
" Well, he perished miserably seven or eight
years ago ; that is all I know about him, except
that I have seen him in the streets several times
in the last two days, and I only at this moment
recognize him. I must go and speak to him ;
pray wait here, for I have much to say to you
about your father. "
He seemed very much disturbed as he ap¬
proached Mrs. Smythe- and Lady Southerey;
two very handsome, singular-looking men, with
long curled Spanish moustaches were talking
to them. They were at once presented to
him.
" Mr. Wilson and Mr. Stevenson, Lord Marcus,
the great South American travellers. They were
the geographical lions until you came home, but
you have eclipsed them."
" I can assure Mr. Wilson," said Lord Marcus,
looking steadfastly at him, " that I have no in¬
tention of being a lion in his path."
" Thanks, my lord," said Mr. Wilson, looking
at him with the most perfect coolness.
" Mrs. Smythe," said Lady Southerey, " allow
Lady Southerey's Party gg
me to present Mr. Wilson to you. South America
is dear to you just now, and he has been there."
Lord Marcus watched her deeply interested.
She only put out her hand with a pleasant
smile, and began talking to him and to his friend
Stevenson. She had not recognized James
Pritchard.
That was a comfort, for more reasons than one.
He wanted Pritchard, who had the mystery of
Pelsart's Island, and he had been wishing that
he was not dead. Here he was by some miracle
alive.
Lord Marcus, with his restless Celtic imagina¬
tion, had brooded over the mystery of Pelsart's
Island for seven years. He had married a wife,
but she had died in less than a year, and the
glamour of the place had come on him again,
and he had gone back, to learn nothing more.
He had returned to England to hear, among
other things, of the loss of Captain Smythe,
and also to find at Lady Southerey's party the
James Pritchard, supposed to be dead long ago,
a lion of the London season.
"Are you going away, Mr. Wilson ? " he said
late in the evening, after having given every
ioo the Mystery of the Island
kind of encouragement to Mrs. Smythe and
Mabel.
" I was waiting for you, my lord," was the
only answer.
" Don't bring your friend," said Lord Marcus,
and so Stephenson was left behind.
When they were in the street Lord Marcus
lit a cigar, and, tapping his old acquaintance
Pritchard on the shoulder, said—
" My dear fellow, you know where you are
going ? "
"Wherever you desire, my lord."
"You are going to Pelsart's Island with me. I
have been there once since you escaped from there."
" I know it, my lord."
" How?"
" Because I have been there myself, and found
some of your letters lying about."
" Is it, on your honour, worth going again ?"
"I should rather think it was," said James
Pritchard.
Lord Marcus went home with Pritchard to
Morley's Hotel, and was so late that he slept
there. What passed in the interview, time will
show.
Lady Southerey's Party 101
A resolution was arrived at between them,
which made a vast difference in the ultimate
position of Captain Smythe and of Clare. Lord
Marcus called on Mrs. Smythe early the next
day, and found only Mabel, by accident. She
was afraid that he admired her, and was ready
to speak in general conversation of her engage¬
ment to Captain Killick. He gave her no
opportunity.
" I have come, Miss Smythe, to say good-bye."
" Are you going to Paris ? "
"No, I am going into the South Seas again.
I wished to say, before I went, that I will do
everything I can to search after and assist your
father. Even I might do some good, you
know."
" Even you ! " said Mabel; " why, who could
do more ? "
" Killick," said Lord Marcus. " Well, we need
say no more than this; I did not know of your
engagement, or perhaps I should have had the
pleasure of a more intimate acquaintance with
you. I fly from danger heart-whole—well, I
cannot go as far as to say that—but I fly."
" From me! " said Mabel, laughing.
102
The Mystery of the Island
" Partly, my dear young lady. I heard quite
enough of you last night, of your steady bravery
under misfortune, of your truth, of your piety to
your mother, of your faith to the man you have
chosen, of your love for your brother, and of
your general worth, to make you a very dangerous
neighbour to my peace of mind."'
Mabel looked up to see if he could be in earnest.
He really seemed for a moment as if he meant
what he said. In all probability he did mean
three-quarters of it, but he smiled as if there was
some joke at the bottom of it all. He relieved her
from all difficulty; he said—
" Come, let us part friends. I am going on an
old quest to the South Seas again, and I will
do everything I can to help your father and
Captain Killick."
" I feel sure you will," said Mabel; " but it is
a great question whether you can do anything if
you go straight there."
" Where ? " said Lord Marcus.
"To Pelsart's Island," said Mabel. "You will
go mad over that place, if you do not mind."
"And, faith, I think I shall," said Lord Marcus.
And so he went away.
Lady Southerey's Party 103
A few weeks afterwards the people at Lloyd's
were rather surprised to hear that the Sylph
schooner, Lord Marcus D'Este, had " cleared"
for the Caspian Sea. The more nautical part of
that community had been under the impression
that the Caspian was an inland sea: however,
the Sylph not being under-written, it did not
matter.
One thing was certain, wherever Lord Marcus
went, he certainly never came near the Smythe's
any more before his departure.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LOST ONES
ORTH, south, and east, an unbroken sea
coloured peaks of the lower Andes, streaked with
snow. An icy blast from the southern pole rushed
through the grass, and the few sweet-smelling
bushes which broke it, making but a poor shelter
for the crouching puma in their lee. Standing as
we are supposed to do, in imagination, upon the
spot, a more hideous scene of hopeless desolation
can scarcely be conceived.
A black storm of sleet came whistling by, and
when it was passed a large puma sat erect on his
haunches and sniffed to windward. Something
had disturbed him, for he trotted slowly away,
growling, and at the same time an ostrich speed¬
ing swiftly by proved also that " there was some¬
thing there except foul weather."
As the weather cleared, a line of ten men might
of waving, nearly level long grass. West¬
ward, fifty miles distant, the dull lead-
The Lost Ones
have been seen laboriously passing across the
pampas. They were dressed like English men-of-
wars'-men and mariners; they carried bundles,
and though travel-stained, appeared stout and
well armed; the foremost, the tallest of all, wore
a captain's uniform, but carried a bundle on his
shoulders like the others. It was Captain Smythe.
He was in deadly peril; of that there could be
no doubt. How the ship got lost we shall know
hereafter, and whose fault it was; but that was
over. He had sent away, as soon as the case was
utterly hopeless, the main part of his men, with
fully provisioned boats. One had been swamped
in his sight, but he hoped the rest might be safe;
but none of his best men, with himself and his son
Clare, were left on board the War-hawk when
she began to break up ; their boat, the last one,
was not quite ready when they had to make a rush
for her, Clare and his father bringing up the rear.
When they had drifted some time they made an
examination of their resources and found them¬
selves better off than they had at first supposed,
but totally unfit for a long voyage. The south¬
westerly gale, which caused their original mis¬
fortune, continued its fury, and threatened to drive
106 The Mystery of the Island
them off the land; under these circumstances,
Captain Smythe, after three days without an
observation, was able to beach his boat in the
lee of a reef of rocks, and land his men, stores,
and ammunition.
The sun came forth and he found where he
was, two hundred miles from the wreck, on the
coast of Patagonia—so far north, that it was
hopeless returning to the wreck, the survivors
of which, under his first lieutenant, would in
all probability make for Santa Cruz; he, after
some thought, determined to desert the boat
and make for the Chupat river.
He informed his men of his determination,
and they, being utterly dependent on him, of
course acquiesced without a word. Had he
made them a set harangue they would have
wondered very much, and have fancied that his
head was turned. He was the only man who
knew where he was, and so when he told them
that he was going to march northward they at
once prepared to do so.
Such preparations as were necessary he super¬
intended. That they were well armed was a
great thing, and he pointed out to them that
The Lost Ones
107
they were advancing through a country abound¬
ing in game. About Indians, he frankly told
them all he knew. He considered himself to
be between two tribes, the Southern and the
Northern Tehuelches, in a kind of debateable
land.
These men, he proceeded to say, were ex¬
ceedingly few in number, but of great stature;
not treacherous or unkindly, but savages to be
treated with confidence, and bold men. His
object, he said, was to gain the confidence of
the northern division of the tribe, and make for
if the worst came to the worst, the Argentine
stations on the Rio Negro, where our flag would
be respected.
He said little more, for there was little more
to be said ; armed with the short navy rifle,
with fifty rounds of ammunition a man, there
was no chance of carrying much provision or
much bedding ; still the Patagonian summer was
approaching, and they had not more than five
hundred miles to go in the very worst case.
So they started due west the first day until
they got to the higher lands; on the second day
they turned northward, with the icy blast behind
io8 The Mystery of the Island
them—a great relief. They saw no game, but
an incident occurred which gave them greater
confidence in their captain than ever.
They were at mid-day halt, when one of the
ordinary seamen, who had wandered away across
the plain, came back evidently frightened, and
said that he had been close to a large lion, eating
a camel, which had growled at him. " Come on
to dinner, my men," said Captain Smythe, rising
and taking his rifle. " Stay, we must not all go;
come you, Clare, and Dickson, who has seen
it." And they departed through the long grass
across the plain, Captain Smythe leading, and
the sailor carefully showing the way from the
rear.
Sure enough there was the dead camel, only
a guanaco after all, but where was the lion ?
Captain Smythe kicked about among the incense
bushes, and at last got it to show itself.
A mighty beast, as big as most lionesses, and
not unlike one; it sat up on its beam ends and
regarded Captain Smythe fixedly, as though it
thought that it had seen him before, but could
not recolledt where.
To the horror of Clare and of the sailor,
The Lost Ones
log
Captain Smythe walked steadily up to it; it put
out its right paw, and made feeble dabs in the
air, then it began fizzing and spitting at him
like a great tom-cat, and then when he was
within ten yards of it, he raised his rifle and shot
it dead through the heart.
" It was an enormous puma," he said quietly.
''This is almost the largest, and utterly the most
cowardly of the felidae. There is not the remotest
danger with them if you keep your head."
All hands having heard the shot, came up and
looked with astonishment on the mighty beast
as it lay dead on the grass. When its death was
described by the younger sailor, they felt more
than ever that a man who could walk alone up
to a lion and kill it was the man to follow, and
whilst broiling and eating such parts of the
puma as Captain Smythe recommended (and
which were very like pork chops) they agreed
that if the captain could not get them out of
this mess no man could.
" Clare, my son," said his father, after they had
resumed their march, " it is not pumas we have to
fear, but Indians."
" There seems to be no sign of them, father."
110
The Mystery of the Island
" I have seen three or four horse-tracks," said
Csptain Smythe, " and those fresh ones. They
may be wild horses, but they are very deep in wet
places
" What do you gain from that ? " said Clare.
"That they carry burdens."
Still there was no sign of Indians, and but little
of game. The further they went on, the more
frequent were the horse-hoofs : and on the fourth
night they lay down to sleep in a gully, near the
place where we first saw them.
A watch had been set, and they had slept
peaceably. When the morning got too chilly for
sleep, they all awoke, and one lit a fire. Captain
Smythe sat apart, and, with his note-book, was
making up his log. Breakfast was got ready, and
he was summoned to it: he saw at once that
something was wrong.
Something was extremely wrong. Clare, who
had been sleeping beside his father on the grass,
was missing, rifle and all, and no trace could be
found of him.
The morning was spent in useless search. The
ground round the little creek where they had slept
was dry, and covered with incense-bushes, so they
The Lost Ones
ill
could get no trace. After a meal in the middle of
the day, they started on their route, in hopes, that
he might have gone before ; but still no signs of
Clare, and in these weary, scrubby plains, a man
might circle round and round for ever, without
seeing any trace of the objedt he sought.
When they arrived at the bald plain, and the
storm of sleet had passed, Captain Smythe called
a halt, and addressed his men. It was at this
moment when we introduced them to you at the
beginning of the chapter.
CHAPTER XV.
DISASTER
E spoke very quietly: he said—" My men,
I must go back; your sole chance of
safety lies in your going forward on this
route. My boy has not come this way, in my
opinion."
" Then we will go back with you, as a matter of
course," said the oldest of the sailors.
" That would be death for you," said Captain
Smythe. " We are not more than 500 miles from
the Argentine Republic. I must go back after my
boy Clare."
But one after another said that they would go
back with him.
" I do not consider it my duty to take you back,
after we have gone so far," said the captain.
" He cannot be far away," said the youngest
sailor. He is somewhere handy. Let us light a
fire, and he will come to it. I can't understand it.
Disaster
He was sleeping between me and your honour,
and when I woke up he was gone."
"And I," said the man on guard, "cannot
understand it either. I never kept watch better
in my life, and I never saw him go."
" I think that I will do this," said Captain
Smythe: "We will all go back to the creek where
we slept last night. He may see our fire and
come."
" Where you go we go, sir." was the reply from
the oldest sailor. " But, speaking respectfully, we
are not going to leave Mr. Clare or you behind.
So they went back to the creek again. It lay in
an abrupt dip in the plateau, nearly three hundred
feet deep, with high and broken rocks on all sides
of it. They clambered down the sides as it was
getting dusk, on to a broad rock which projected
into a deep pool, where they found the remains of
their fire. A little dwarf beechwood grew about
the place, with the broken boughs of which they
made another fire. When all of them, dog tired,
began to get sleepy, they had a ration of biscuit
and turned in, as closely packed as possible. The
rifles were stacked, and a guard was set. So they
slept.
ii4
The Mystery of the Island
Captain Smythe had given orders that he was
to be awakened at the second dog-watch. When
he did wake the east was getting bright, and the
cold, pale, westering moon was looking down from
the head of the glen. He started to his feet. The
sentry must have slept.
♦
It was too true. The marine in charge of the
arms was dead asleep, with his head on his arm.
And—heaven help us !—the arms were gone.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BATTLE OF GILWINI KASH CREEK
HEIR case seemed now utterly desperate.
Captain Smythe uttered to himself a
very short, but most earnest prayer,
and then turned to his men. It was no time for
recriminations. The unfortunate marine who
was the cause of the disaster looked more dead
than alive, fearfully pale, and seemed to have a
difficulty in standing upright. Captain Smythe
saw that the man was suffering from the effects
of extreme physical terror. It was necessary
to reassure him before all things. A broken-down
man just now would never do.
" Don't look in that manner, Jones. I am not
going to kill you. The thing cannot be helped ;
you were overdone, and slept on your watch. I
ought to have watched myself. There, now,
don't begin to cry, that will do no good. That
is better."
" Now, we must face the enemy, if he is an
n6 The Mystery of the Island
enemy, unarmed. They must have been after us
from the first; they will soon show themselves,
now they have obtained their objedt. Follow me."
He led them up on to the plateau above. They
had not long to wait in suspence. There before
them, between them and the rising sun—that was
between them and the sea—were the lurking foes
who had been on their track from the first, and
had at last entrapped and disarmed them. If
Captain Smythe had not made the countermarch
after his missing son Clare, they would not have
been so tired, and the watch would have been
kept.
There they stood, ninety gigantic Indians,
perfectly silent, with very long spears in their
hands. Captain Smythe hurriedly told his men
to stay where they were, and they saw from
his face that he had some new and singular
grounds of hope.
He advanced alone with his hands behind him.
At once twenty spears were pointed at him, and
the fradture of the temper of any one Indian, or
an ill-understood word from the chief, would have
sent them all into his body.
He took one hand from behind him, and held it
The Battle of Gilwini Kash Creek 117
up; he said aloud in Spanish : " I see a guacho
of La Plata there. I am an officer of Queen
Victoria, an ally of the President of the Argentine
Confederation, and I request him to interpret
for me with these gentlemen."
The guacho came forward, looking rather shame¬
faced at being found in such doubtful company.
" Would you, sir," said Captain Smythe, speak¬
ing in Spanish still, " inform these Indians that
there are some of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's
rifles missing, and that we fear they have been
stolen? They have the Tower mark on them,
and will inevitably be identified."
" I would not put it in that way, sir," said the
guacho, " your life is not worth ten minutes
purchase if you do. They have got the rifles
as you know, but they do not know about the
Queen of England."
"Are you a Christian ? "
" God knows I am, sir, and will help you in
every way I can."
"Thanks; then I wish to ask of you this: is
the chief a man of great power ? "
" A man of consummate power, sir, just at
present. He is Blackdog."
n8 The Mystery of the Island
" Good. Can you get him to come and talk
to me by signs, and bring his spear."
" Would it not be a thousand times better if
he came without it, sir, you being unarmed ?"
" I think nat. We have lost one of the Queen's
ships here lately, and some of our people are
about. Tell hi;n that, and that we shall be
hunted for far and wide, and that there is no
hope of mercy for him from Queen Victoria if
he ill-treats us, and all that sort of thing."
" I do not know that they would listen to it,
sir."
" Possibly, but there is no harm in your saying
so. You seem an honest fellow enough, and
I should wish to do you no harm. Will the
chief keep his word ? "
" Yes, he will certainly do that if he gives it."
" Then, here," said Captain Smythe, " tell him,
after you have said all I told you, to meet me in
the open, half way, but advise him to bring his
spear."
" I do not understand the English, but they
are a kind nation, and I will do it."
He went away to the chief. The unarmed
English, at their Captain's direction, sat down
The Battle of Gilwini Kash Creek HQ
upon the grass, Captain Smythe standing eredt
before them, facing the enemy.
The guacho spoke a few words with the chief;
all the spears were lowered, and the Indians sat
down, only the chief, the guacho," and Captain
Smythe remaining standing.
It was evident that the honest guacho said some¬
thing particularly strong about Queen Victoria,
because the chief seemed rather afraid of ad¬
vancing. He, however, at last came slowly
towards Captain Smythe.
They met alone. The one a splendid English
sailor, the other a gigantic though not bad looking
savage. Captain Smythe would have been glad
had he been taller, but he was five feet eleven
only, and Blackdog was six feet eight.
Captain Smythe laid his head on his hand to
express sleep. Blackdog nodded. The Captain
then made the action of aiming with a gun, at
which Blackdog nodded again. Then Captain
Smythe gave signs of the most furious indignation,
and Blackdog seemed loth to speak.
All this time the guacho was wondering whether
Captain Smythe was mad ; he was nothing of the
kind ; he had his own plan.
120
The Mystery of the Island
He lay down on the grass, made the motion of
shooting with a gun, and then dying. Blackdog
hardly understood him ; after several mistakes he
meant that they should die without their guns.
Then he rose and held out his hand, but Black-
dog shook his head ; he evidently did not mean
to give up the guns. But Smythe continued
making friendly signs to him, tapping him on the
breast, and pointing to the spear which he held in
his hand, giving him to understand that he wished
to see him throw it. The Savage understood that
the Englishman wished to see the use of it, and
made little difficulty in gratifying him.
But he did not throw it, he handled it like a
bayonet, in the usual Patagonian fashion. This
was a deadly disappointment for Captain Smythe,
who had fondly imagined that they habitually
threw the spear ; that he could have got the chief
to exhibit his prowess, and for one precious
moment have stood before him unarmed. " Had
I had a bow and arrow " he thought, but he did
not know that bows and arrows are not used
between the Rio Negro and Terra del Fuego.
In this fearful moment a new scheme must be
devised to gain the power he determined to have
' STANDING WITH HIS FOOT ON BLACKDOG'S CHEST.'
The Battle of Gilwini Kash Creek 121
at all risks. He took to admiring the spear, and
the foolish savage, with knives enough about him
(as he thought) for safety, gave it into his hands,
not knowing with whom he had to deal.
With every nerve in his body tense with excite¬
ment, Captain Smythe cast the spear away with
his left hand, and rapidly passed that hand across
his body under his jacket.
Then giving a spring like a rattlesnake, he with
his free right hand struck Blackdog with fearful
force on the chest, at the same time tripping his
right heel with his left foot, throwing him heavily
on his back on the grass. In another moment
he was standing with his foot on Blackdog's
chest, holding him down, and the gleaming
barrel of his hitherto concealed revolver pointing
at his heart.
For an instant both sides were paralysed ; then
the savages leapt to their feet with a yell, and
Captain Smythe could see out of the corners of
his eyes the terrible " bolas " whirling round the
heads of some of them. His own men he could
not see ; but the savages were afraid to move.
That terrible American invention, the revolver,
was perfectly well known to them, and they knew
122 The Mystery of the Island
what it was likely to prove in the hands of the
desperate Englishman with the golden stirrups
upon his shoulders, who had struck down their
chief alone before them all.
He shouted to the guacho, "Tell these men
that I have ten shots about me, which means
ten lives ; and yours will be one if you hesitate.
Say that my arm feels tired, and that unless my
rifles are here in less than three minutes their
chief and nine others are dead, and their tribe
exterminated by the vengeance of those who come
after us."
The guacho translated with singular rapidity,
having the fear of Captain Smythe before his
eyes. A loud wail arose from the women, who
were concealed behind the men ; and one of them,
over six feet high, dashed three or four chiefs
right and left, and knelt before Captain Smythe.
"Thank Heaven!" said Smythe to himself. "We
have got the women in it; now we are saved.
This must be the Blackdog's wife."
" Tell her," he shouted again to the guacho,
"that her husband and nine others die unless the
rifles are brought."
It appeared that the ladies had taken the matter
The Battle of Gilwini Kash Creek 123
into their own hands, as they do sometimes in
other places than Patagonia, and that Mr. Black-
dog's wife had only come forward to gain delay.
They pushed through the still astonished men
and laid the rifles down.
" Seize these rifles, men, and fire one in the
air; any one."
That was quickly done. Blackdog was told he
might get up, which he did with a thoughtful
expression of countenance, and the victory was
complete.
It was a moment of triumph, but in the midst
of it there came a feeling of bitter desperation.
Even if he should win his way to Europe, how
could he face his family without Clare, and where
was he ?
CHAPTER XVII
DISCUSSION
HERE was friendship between the two
camps, but Captain Smythe allowed no
familiarity. The watch was duly set;
and with such things as they had, which were
very few, they traded with the Indians for guanaco
and ostrich meat, and as night came down the
tired men lay down together in the grass and
slept: the Indians moved off a little way, but at
Captain Smythe's request the guacho—whom we
shall hereafter call Pedro—stayed with him until
a late hour, with the distinct proviso, made for
his own safety, that he was to sleep among the
Indians. So they two walked up and down under
the Southern Cross consulting.
Pedro was an honest wild fellow who had come
out on to the steppes, he said, more from love
of adventure than anything else. After a little
more conversation, however, he grew more confi¬
dential, and confessed that he was in considerable
Discussion
125
political complication at home, having, as he
explained, taken a rather prominent part in the
losing side of the last revolution in the Republic
of which he was an ornament, and being in some
danger of being shot until after the next revolu¬
tion, which he said could not be far off now.
Captain Smythe made great friends with him,
and gave him a great deal of excellent advice,
which he was perfectly well aware would not
be taken.
" I am in terrible trouble," he said, at last. " I
Lave lost my son."
" I know it, senor, and I know what has
happened to him."
" In heaven's name, what ? "
" Captivity among the Southern Tehuelches.
It would seem that the outposts of both tribes
were close together; and, as ill-luck would have
it, your son fell into the hands of the wrong
party, which is in the highest degree unfortunate."
" What will they do with him ? "
" I cannot tell you. They are cut off from
trade at Santa Cruz, or they would hold him to
ransom. This northern tribe would have given
anything for him ; they would very likely have
126 The Mystery of the Island
left you to take care of yourself, until half your
men were dead of scurvy, while they pushed
towards Rio Negro with your son, and communi¬
cated with the British con ml at Buenos Ayres.
When they had got a good bargain tor him the)'
would have come back, gentle, kindly children of
the desert, and played good Samaritan to the
remnant of your party at the rate probably of
2,000 dollars a head."
" If I were to make an alliance with this tribe,
and attack the others—"
" You might find your son's clothes if you were
very lucky. You would never see him."
" Then I must give him up and go home and
face my family without him."
Pedro was silent for a time; then he said,
" If he is not ransomed soon, they might kill
him. If you attempt to use this tribe in rescuing
him, they will kill him."
" Do you see no hope? " said Captain Smythe,
looking into Pedro's face as one does into the
doctor's when some loved one is ill.
" There is one chance," said Pedro. " You
might march south after these men independently
and bargain for your son. You would get him for
Discussion
127
a couple of rifles just now; but without horses
you would lose many men by scurvy."
" I thank you for your advice," said Captain
Smythe, "and I will think over it to-night. Now
you had better go back to the Indians, or they
will become suspicious of you."
And so they parted, and much happened before
they met again.
CHAPTER XVIII.
RESOLUTION
APTAIN SMYTHE slept not at all that
night, everything was so miserably bleak:
the doubtful journey home; the reception
he would meet with from his superiors; and
lastly, the terror about Clare's fate, were enough
to keep a less sensitive man awake. There seemed
only one chance of getting at his son—marching
boldly and independently southward, and trying
to bargain; but the guacho had said something
which Captain Smyth e wished he had not said—
to wit, that he, without horses, would lose half his
men with scurvy.
Even now, so soon on the journey, two men
were complaining to him of toothache and irritable
mouths ; if he had told them what he and his
boatswain David alone suspended, that these were
the symptoms of incipient scurvy, they would
probably have fallen victims in a very short time.
He and David kept their own counsel,
Resolution
129
It would be painful to follow poor Captain
Smythe through the struggle of that night—the
struggle between duty and inclination, between
the love for his boy and the responsibility for his
men. We shall see what way he decided.
At the first gleam of primrose-coloured dawn
in the sky, he awoke his men, and made them
get some food; when the camp was ready to
move, he bade them fall in, and thus addressed
them :—
" My men," he said, " there are times in the
career of a sailor when discipline must be relaxed:
for example, in the present case, I could order
you to do what I wish, and you would obey. I,
however, prefer to consult you. Carry arms ! "
One, two, three—up went the beautifully clean
rifles, and the men, standing like statues, began
to wonder what the captain was driving at.
"I have lost my son, as you know; he is
among a hostile tribe. I need not tell you how
much I desire to recover him; it is possible that
I may do so by going south, but the expedition
will be both difficult and dangerous—I should
probably lose one-third of my force. On the
Other hand, by going north I can, in all human
130
The Mystery of the Island
probability, fetch you through to the Rio Negro,
without losing a man. I will be bound by your
decision."
(He, as a last hope, tried to shift the respon¬
sibility from himself to his men. It was the only
doubtful thing he ever did; but consider his
temptations ! )
" If any man refuses to go south with me, I
will lead north; but I must have you unanimous.
One man's vote will send me north to civilization.
Any man who objects to go south into the new
danger, ground arms."
Not a rifle moved; the men stood as quietly
as the sailors before Trafalgar, or the soldiers at
the wreck of the Birkenhead. They knew their
man, and the manhood which was in them re¬
sponded to his. They would go.
Captain Smythe's face flushed as he looked at
them. They were standing with their faces to
the south when they gave their tacit consent to go
after their young officer. Smythe answered their
self-sacrifice by a greater one. He deliberated no
longer, but he gave the, to them, astounding order—
" Shoulder arms ! right about face ! Quick
march! "
Resolution
They brushed away swiftly through the grass
towards home and safety, every step carrying
them further from their gallant young officer left
hopeless there far to the south ; his father, with
frowning brow and bent head, bringing up the
rear. The thing was done, and their instindt
told them why. The man had put his duty to
the service above his love for his only son.
David fell out, there was something the matter
with his boot, he pretended, and came beside
the captain. He whispered to him :—•
" Are you going to leave Master Clare ? The
men would go with you."
" I am going to leave him," said the captain.
" I have been with God about it all night, and
He has said, at last, yes. When a man enters
the service his men are his first duty. Could
you fellows reach the Rio Negro without me ? "
" No, captain."
" Then why argue ? If my heart is broken
what does it matter; there are, at least, fifty
women and children dependent on these men; it
is better that Clare should go than they should be
ruined. Say no more about the matter, I have
made my determination, David. But I wish you
132
The Mystery of the Island
to tell me this, and I wish you to think well
before you speak."
" I will do so, sir."
" You were on the bridge with me. What was
the last order I gave before she struck ? "
" I'd swear to any thing for a man like you,
captain," replied David, " but there's more in
it than me. I wasn't the only man on the bridge
by several; and it was the talk of the ship before
the boat got away."
" What did I say? " said Captain Smythe.
" You said ' east-half-east,' " replied David.
"Then I am a ruined man," said Captain
Smythe.
"It will go 'ard," said David, "very 'ard. But
seein' as kissing goes by favour, and a friend at
court—Why, I can tell you," (here he told a story
which was not edifying in a seamanlike point of
view) " and he is driving his carriage now, twenty
years afterwards."
" Things are different now," said Captain
Smythe ; and he was rich, while I am poor. I
fear that I am utterly ruined. But I would not
care for that so very much if I could take my
boy home to my wife."
CHAPTER XIX.
THE WEARY WATCH AT HOME
HINGS at home had become bitterly un¬
comfortable, for Mrs. Smythe and the
pleasant old home had lost all its gaiety.
Captain Smythe's expenses in outfit had been very
large; he left England owing £500, which he left Mrs.
Smythe to pay, and giving her power-of-attorney
to sell what she liked out of the funds; what
became of that luckless document we have seen.
As time went on her heart began to sink within
her ; nothing was heard of her husband, and his
creditors began to press her; the £1,000 which
had come from the mysterious source was ex¬
hausted, and she had nothing left. Going to
the Admiralty was only once more to be con¬
fronted with long faces. She was driven to her
brother for advice and assistance, a thing she
hated, for her husband and he had had a few
words about some trust-money of hers which
her husband had wished to invest in a Derrick
134
The Mystery of the Island
Company; he had refused his consent, and the
thing had afterwards failed, which gave him
rather a crow over Captain Smythe, and indeed
he had not been slow to tell him, that but for
his foresight, all his sister's money would have
been lost; she, therefore, was naturally fearful
that he would cast this matter up again.
He received her very kindly, and put his wits
to work for her.
" First and foremost, my dear Eliza," he said,
" you must make me your banker to some extent,
and you must make up your mind to let your
house for the season. I can, it so happens, get
you a tenant."
" But Mabel and the children."
" They must adapt themselves to altered cir¬
cumstances. If I was in your place, I should
look out for lodgings at once."
" But might not our creditors seize on our
furniture, while our tenant was in possession ? "
"That, of course, for the honour of the family
and my own honour, I will provide against; your
tenant will be a friend of mine ; he shall be safe."
And so she acquiesced, for she did not see
what else to do; she went home and told Mabel
The Weary Watch at Home 135
and the children plumply what she was about to
do. Mabel, of course, came into her mother's
views, and assisted her in every way ; in a week
they had removed their nick-nacks into a lodging
at Greenwich. Matilda and Ethel were peculiarly
good, for Mabel had impressed upon them how
very doubtful it was that they would ever see
their father or Clare again, and that they must
not give trouble.
But when they saw the comparatively mean
house at Greenwich to which they were con¬
demned, when they found that it was not theirs,
and that they could not go all over it if they
liked, they grew petulant and troublesome. Mrs.
Smythe had taken it for two months certain; on
the fifth morning, the landlady, a most virtuous
but hideous old maid, gave her warning to leave
at the end of that time, on the ground that her
feelings had been outraged beyond the possibility
of Christian forgiveness. She said that although
she was slightly blind in one eye, she could see
as far through a brick-wall as anyone else.
It appeared on enquiry that an old doll, recog¬
nized as being one of the Smythe family, had
been found drowned head downwards in a water-
136 The Mystery of the Island
jug; on one of the protruding legs was found a
label with this legend :—
" Whoever finds this body will understand that
it is the body of one-eyed Miss Rossiter, who
drowned herself in despair because Mrs. Smythe
locked up her tea-caddy."
The fact of the matter was that the children,
prowling about, had heard Miss Rossiter say to
the maid that Mrs. Smythe was not a real lady
because she locked up everything ; hearing this
said about their own mother, who in their eyes
was the most perfect of ladies, these guerrilla
bands had at once declared war, without waiting
for orders from headquarters.
Mabel was in the room when the case was
stated, and at once fired up.
" Those children never told a lie in their lives,
Miss Rossiter," she said, " and you know they
heard you say that our mother was not a lady."
" Mabel, my dear, be quiet," said Mrs. Smythe.
" I shall not, mother."
" I never had lodgers before who locked up their
things as if one was a thief," said Miss Rossiter,
on her dignity.
"Why do you object to their being locked up
The Weary Watch at Home I37
unless you want to get at them yourself?" said
Mabel, who, when her mother was in question,
was a dragon. " If I was an honest woman
keeping lodgings I should insist on their being
locked up."
" An honest woman ! " cried Miss Rossiter, " do
you mean to say I am not ? "
" Now don't raise your voice, Miss Rossiter, in
my mother's presence; that is a thing I never
allow. As long as you behave yourself you will
find us good tenants, but if you annoy my poor
afflidted mother in any way, I beg to point out
to you that it is not her you will have to face,
but me—quite a different matter.
Miss Rossiter left the room with considerably
the worst of it, but the mischief was done. Mrs.
Smythe never alluded to the doll business, but
Mabel did, and rebuked the children for doing
it. She was met by flat rebellion.
" She began it," was all the answer Mabel got.
" She had no right to say that mother was not
a lady. She is an impudent vulgar old puss."
So, in addition to her other troubles, poor Mrs.
Smythe lived in her poor little lodging in a state
of mild siege. Her children did what fighting
138 The Mystery 0/the Island
was necessary, that indeed was very little, and
saved her all the annoyance they could. When
they saw how Worn their mother was by the
strangeness of the house, by her ever increasing
anxiety, and the worry of pecuniary matters, they
would even have made friends with Miss Rossiter;
but, as is often the case, the first advance on their
part was taken to be a sign of weakness, and a
battle had to be given until the enemy was driven
back into his own lines. The children never were
cross in their mother's presence, it was Mabel
who had to bear that, and nobly she did it.
When they were asleep sacred confidences
would take place between mother and daughter
too solemn for repetition here. They would sit
very late, when the tide was late far into the
night, watching the ships coming gladly up from
the sea, and, hand in hand, would wonder if any
ship would some day bring the men they loved
best back to them together.
But time wore on, and Mrs. Smythe, getting
weaker, leant more and more on Mabel, who saw
that the arrival of each mail with its accom¬
panying disappointment was a fresh blow to her
mother.
CHAPTER XX.
TROUBLES ACCUMULATE
HE march of Captain Smythe across the
Pampas seemed at first likely to be a
successful one ; but it was soon evident
that it would be longer and more difficult than he
had anticipated, from a cause principally which
he had not anticipated, old sailor as he was;
the shoes which the men had were not adapted
to a land journey, and gave out in the stony plains
and tripping grass; the men began to get footsore
and lag behind one by one in places where to lose
one's party was death. The boys gave in first,
but that was remediable, for there were only two
of them, and they could be carried sometimes ;
but then the men began to fall out and sit down,
delaying the others, for Captain Smythe insisted
on bringing up the rear, and he would leave no
man behind ; so all had to wait until the weaker
were rested, for they could not stir a step without
him—he alone could help them in a worldly point
140 The Mystery of the Island
of view. If he died they thought that they must
all go.
They did not want greatly for water, and the
weather was overcast and cool, with frequent
showers of rain, which, while wetting them, filled
the water holes and smaller creeks ; they found
brushwood also in the hollows for fire, and for
the first five days did not fare badly; it was only
on the sixth day that the walking began to tell
upon the men, as I have mentioned before.
For some (to Captain Smythe) unaccountable
reason, the Indians under Blackdog had left
them the very first day of their march. Their
conduft in this case was perfectly well explained
afterwards, though at the time Captain Smythe
accounted for it by mere sulky caprice ; he began
very soon to wish that they had not left him, they
might have traded for food, and have got the
Indians to shew them the best camping places,
with promises of reward at the Rio Negro; they
could have kept them in check too with the most
wonderful ease. However, it was no use regretting
the matter now, there was enough to think of
without that.
They did not actually suffer for food ; game was
Troubles Accumulate
141
just so abundant as to enable him to get one shot
at large game in the day, which was enough for
them, as he never missed, being perfeft master
of his weapon. Nevertheless things got from
bad to worse in a monotonous manner which it
would be weary to record and weary to read. The
dread disease, scurvy, had set in most severely,
and that most miserable thing had to be done,
the holding of a council of war, for the weakest
were praying to be left behind to die, and it was
evident that some very strong measure must be
taken.
"My men" (he never said "boys," he considered
it derogatory), " I have called you together to take
you into my confidence; that I can do in a few
words. Look around you, see our condition, and
see whether we can do anything to mend it."
Out stepped David without hesitation. " Cap¬
tain," he said, " how far have we to go ? come,
on your honour as a British officer, tell us the
truth, and do no buoy us up with false hopes."
" On my honour, men, 397 miles."
The merry faces fell. David was ready to speak
again, the men had evidently been in consultation.
" Suppose, sir, the strongest were to push on
142
The Mystery of the Island
and send help back to the others; it have been
done more than once in these cases."
" I agree. I think it is the only thing to be
done. I was thinking of that myself," said
Captain Smythe. " Will those who think them¬
selves thoroughly able to do the distance hold
up their hands ? "
Only eight did so. The others who would
not face the march looked at him with despair¬
ing and piteous eyes; but thought it was better
to stay here, in peace and alone, than face the
hideous sufferings which they had endured lately.
"Good," he said. "Now, four men are certain
to escape if you follow my directions."
" We will follow you anywhere, sir," said the
spokesman of them, David.
" Follow me ? " he said. " Do you suppose that I am
going to leave these men here ? You must be mad."
He spoke with such extreme emphasis that no
one dared reply. There was a brightened look
—almost a look of triumph—among the scurvy-
stricken wretches on the grass, who raised a
feeble hurrah, while there was a corresponding
look of dismay on the countenances of the
stronger men who were to go.
Troubles Accumulate
143
" We cannot do it without you, sir," said
David in a low voice.
" Then you cannot do the thing at all," said
Captain Smythe, " because I am not going to
leave these men behind, you know. I have
sacrificed my own son to this expedition, and I
am not going to desert the men now who were
ready to go with me after him. I will give you
the route so that you cannot miss it. You,
David, take the command; and, men, obey your
officer. Pooh! if eight strong sailors, well-armed,
cannot get over 350 miles of country, with a
tolerable amount of game, plenty of water, and
no Indians, the service must be going to the
devil. All I pray of you is to remember that
our lives depend on your speed and good con¬
duct. You must march in an hour."
That hour was spent by him in giving direc¬
tions to David, and in writing some hasty letters
home, for he had his camp writing roll with him.
The men spent it in encouraging and taking
leave of their sick shipmates. Then the word
was given, and they marched away northward
over a roll in the ground which hid them for a
time, but once more they saw them rise over
144
The Mystery of the Island
a ridge in the prairie about two miles off,
and turn round, waving their caps. Then they
hurried over the ridge, and they saw them no
more.
Captain Smythe remained but a very short
time gazing over the prairie. It was not a time
to brood. He knew his case was desperate, and
he did not dare to think now. He knew that
thought would come to him quickly enough in
the watches of the night. Now was the time
to act.
He went among his men, cheerfully encouraged
those who could move, and comforted those who
could not. Before night came down they were
in a more comfortable camp than they had been
at for a long time, and he, taking his rifle, was
walking away a little distance across the prairie,
when he was called back. They had gone to
awaken one of the two boys who was asleep in
the grass, to his supper, and had found him dead.
He carefully attended to the removal of the
body into the long grass, and then turned away
again, thinking how they would bury him with
their bayonets on the morrow ; and then he said
to himself, " But who will bury the last ?"
Troubles Accumulate
145
For he had determined to hope no more; he
knew the effect which the first death would have
on the others, and the despair which would
settle down on that lonely camp when darkness
came on. He knew that despair assists scurvy,
as terror assists zymotic diseases. For himself
he did not care; always loving life, he had never
feared death, but now he loved life less. Clare
was hopelessly lost, and if he escaped he would
have to undergo a court-martial which must go
against him. Still, in spite of his own troubles,
his heart was full of pity for his poor patient
uncomplaining people, and he faced the faft
manfully that there was no chance for them;
had there been a wild chance of escape before,
there was none since this boy's death.
Then came the fearful self-tormenting question,
would he not have performed his duty better by
going on with the strange men ?—the bravest
men, in extreme situations, without a solitary
friend to give counsel or comfort, are apt to
self-torment themselves with such questions.
Solitary responsibility, like that of Captain
Smythe's, is a terrible thing at all times; only
cowards, however, yield—the brave man abts.
146 The Mystery of the Island
Smythe knew that if he began vacillating now
he should lose his head altogether. After a few
minutes he determined that he was perfectly
right, and he thought he would turn to go back,
for he had wandered very far; it was getting
dusk, and he wished to lie down and sleep.
He trembled, as brave men do sometimes, and
uttered some inarticulate exclamation; for within
ten yards of him, between him and the twilight,
stood a horrible and gigantic figure in the form
of a man ; the features on what seemed to be
the head were utterly undistinguishable in the
fading light. The thing stood perfectly motionless
between him and his camp, and uttered no word,
but from the grass all round came the low
laughter as from a hidden chorus of hissing
devils. The end had come quicker than he
thought; he was entrapped by a hostile tribe,
but even then he would not fire in self-defence,
for he thought of his poor shipmates lying in
the grass.
CHAPTER XXI.
HELP FROM AN UNEXPECTED QUARTER
HE horrible being before him—more like
the creature in " Frankenstein " than a
human being—burst into a shout of
diabolical laughter, and came towards him with
its hands stretched out. It was Blackdog!
The revulsion from despair to high hope was
so sudden that Captain Smythe utterly lost his
presence of mind, and did not regain it until he
saw that Blackdog was within three feet of him,
totally unarmed. He did not offer to come
nearer, but stood grinning and talking rapidly.
One by one the other Indians arose from the
grass, and laughed, too, in high glee ; then they
closed round him, and among them he saw the
honest Pedro smiling also.
He came forward. " What is the meaning of
this ? " said Captain Smythe.
"It means merely that we have never lost
sight of you from the first, and that we are
come to assist you."
148
The Mystery of the Island
" I wish in heaven's name you had come
before. Why did you not ? "
" Simply because Blackdog is an extremely
cunning savage, sir, and wanted to make the
best bargain out of you that he could. You see
how completely I am confiding in you. He
wanted to prove to you how hopeless it was to
escape without his assistance. Now you only
have to bargain with him."
" Make any bargain you like," said Captain
Smythe. " I will fulfil it. If he can save our
lives I will keep his tribe rich for a couple of
years."
" He will do it, but he will want a hostage
when he gets to the frontier," said Pedro.
" Whom ?—myself? "
"No; me. Mind, I put my life in your hand,
captain, in doing this. See that you don't fail
me."
" You are a brave fellow," said Captain
Smythe; "but what can I do for you?"
" Make peace with my Government, and let
me get back to my wife and my ranche, and I
will give my word to trouble politics no more."
" We must do more than that, my man. But
Help from an Unexpected Quarter 149
I fear Blackdog has come too late. One of the
boys died this evening, and the others are too
ill too move."
" But they can ride ? "
" Ride, I suppose they could; but where are
the horses ? "
Pedro looked at him in silent amazement.
" Where are the horses ? Well, they have been
picketed within five miles of you ever since you
have landed. Do you suppose they were going
to allow you to get hold of them and ride away
armed ? "
" Why, of course," said Smythe, suddenly
bethinking him of the fadt long forgotten, "the
Eastern Patagonians live on horseback."
" How did Senor Captain ever forget that ? "
said Pedro. " But come, let us go to the poor
men and comfort them. Go first alone, or they
will fire."
Captain Smythe sprang through the grass like
a deer. When he was within earshot he shouted
out, " Cheerily, men, cheerily ! We are saved.
Blackdog and Pedro are here."
He had time to say no more, for eight or ten
Indian women bore down upon them with lighted
150 The Mystery of the Island
torches. They kindled up a great fire, until the
prairie was light all round them, and then they
began to tend the men, with now and then an
exclamation of pity. The men never approached
them that night, nor did the women go near the
rifles, which were now in full blaze of the fire, to
Captain Smythe's great anxiety, for he had placed
them in the dark, away from their tiny blaze, even
at a time when he did not believe that an Indian
was within 100 miles of him. The women made
the sailors as comfortable as they could with grass
pillows and skins, and then went away, Pedro com¬
ing into their camp, and sitting before the fire :
Captain Smythe put the two soundest men to
watch the rifles, and came and sat beside him.
"We shall do now, captain," said he. "You
see I sit here because, in case of treachery, I
should be the first to fall."
" That is brave of you. I can understand you,
a christian, and by extraction a Spaniard, being
chivalrous and kind, but what animates these
savages ? Blackdog seems, on the whole, a noble
fellow."
"You don't know these savages as well as I do,
sir- You ask what animates him ? Well, fear
Help from an Unexpected Quarter 151
and avarice. The Argentine Republic gave these
people a lesson a year or so ago, and they don't
want another ; they want to stand well with them
and trade. And Blackdog had to go to Buenos
Ayres to make terms, and that impressed him
considerably. To tell you the truth, I made his
acquaintance there, because you never know what
may happen in our country; and he believes in
me, because I was in a very tolerable state at that
time—one of the greatest dandies in the place, for
I had sold my year's stock and was spending the
money. I have told him that Buenos Ayres only
exists by the will of the Queen of England, who
could put it in her pocket to-morrow if it was
worth her while, and that her rewards are as
splendid as her punishments are terrible. Then
he wanted to know, if Queen Victoria was so
powerful, why she could not keep her canoes
afloat (he was alluding to your wreck), and I
told him that the devil had done that while
she was asleep, but that she had waked up,
and had had the devil fetched in chains to
London, and that therefore he must take great
care what he was doing. You see I followed
up your first cue, sir."
152
The Mystery of the Island
"You should not have humbugged the man
so," said Captain Smythe, and was going to give
him a lesson on the nature of truth, but nature
was too strong for him, his eyes closed, opened,
closed again—the deadly weariness of those last
few days was too much for him, and he rolled
over dead asleep against Pedro, who laid his
head gently down, and put a pillow of skins
beneath it.
It was broad day when he awoke and staggered
to his feet, with a feeling of horror—he had slept
upon his watch; where were the rifles ? There
they were safe enough with two men guarding
them, but not the two men he had set the night
before. The men, alive to their danger but not
wishing to waken him, had set their own watches;
he thanked them with deep earnestness, and then
looked around him.
The sun was just showing, and the men were
rising from their sleep and sitting up around the
embers of the fire with their faces turned towards
him, watching what he would do. To the east,
at a short distance, were the gigantic Indians,
forty in number, with their long shadows thrown
towards him across the plain, motionless. The
Help from an Unexpected Quarter 153
cool dry air came briskly from the distant Andes
and whispered in the grass; the sky was clear,
and the whole scene most beautiful and hopeful;
Captain Smythe did not hesitate for an instant,
he looked at his men, knelt down, and bowed his
head in prayer. There was not one who did not
follow his example.
Pedro, who was standing beside Blackdog,
crossed himself and bent his head, the first time
for many a long day. When he raised his head
again the Englishmen were upon their feet talking
to their captain.
" What were they doing, these English ? "
asked Blackdog.
"They were invoking the God of the Christians,
who never deserts them," said Pedro, quite for¬
getting that they were heretics, and therefore
One thing only remained to be done, to bury
the boy who had died the night before; Pedro
had been busy over this, and Captain Smythe
found a grave ready; he thanked Pedro with a
look ; the body was brought up, the face covered
with a cloth and laid by the grave; Captain
Smythe raised the cloth from his face and looked
into it; it was very quiet and calm, and he rq-
I54
The Mystery of the Island
placed the white cloth tenderly, thinking, " Will
any one ever do for my boy what I am going to
do for him ? " The sailors stood by bare-headed,
with their rifles grounded, while the wondering
Indians with their towering forms stood in a circle
round them. Captain Smythe took his prayer-
book from his breast-pocket and began the Burial
Service, reading, as the majority of naval captains
do, most impressively and well. His voice only
faltered once, at the passage " in the full and
certain hope of a joyful resurrection,"—perhaps
he was thinking of Clare.
Then the men advanced and fired a volley over
the boy's grave, to the great admiration of the
Indians; then all was over, and they made prepar¬
ation for departure.
" That was the boy Dickson, was it not ? " said
Captain Smythe to one of his men.
" Yes, sir."
" Gallant little fellow; I forgetwhere we got him."
" Chichester training ship, sir."
" Ah, I remember. Well, his troubles are over.
God rest his soul! "
And in an hour they were far away across the
plains, leaving the little grave solitary for ever.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE RIO NEGRO
HE mysterious horses were found to be
and spirit. The men, who had loaded after the
funeral salute, slung their rifles and painfully
mounted. There was a little difficulty about this
at first, for the horses were slightly too lively for
the weakened men; but as each man had an
Indian who seemed nearly as fit to carry the
horse as the horse to carry him, beside him, they
soon got on very well indeed.
Captain Smythe, Blackdog, and Pedro rode
first, Blackdog completely unarmed as a sign of
hospitality and good faith. Nothing noticeable
occurred until the second day, when, following
the trail of their advance party, they picked up the
first man who had dropped, and whose unutter¬
able joy and astonishment was painful to see.
" Ah ! captain," he said, " if you had come on
they never would have left me behind."
none of them over seventeen hands high,
and many not fifteen, but of good form
156 The Mystery of the Island
" I thought you were as strong as any,
Richards," said the captain, as soon as the man
was put on a spare horse.
"Ah! I kept back the truth, because I thought
I could get through."
" Did Darrel leave you behind ? "
" Oh no. There was a fight about it, and they
forced Darrel on. All discipline was broke when
you left us."
They came up with the whole party next day,
camping ten miles short of where they should
have been, and sadly disorganized. His presence
restored order, and in ten not unprosperous days
they were on the Rio Negro, at the point for
which Pedro had headed, for his own purposes.
The last few days' travelling showed Captain
Smythe how utterly hopeless his original scheme
had been. He was unaware that Patagonia is
separated from the Rio Negro by a desert which
ends in the Gulf of St. Matias, an almost
waterless plateau, three hundred feet above the
Atlantic, and which is called the Traversee. It
not only separates Patagonia from civilization,
but it divides the fauna and flora of that country
from that of the rest of America. (For example,
The Rio Negro
157
the ostriches which they had been hunting were
the Rhea Darwinii, not the Rhea Americana, a
larger bird). To have travelled this on foot
would have been a hopeless impossibility.
It was rather tempting for Pedro to look at his
native country, where was his farm and his house¬
hold gods, without being able to go there. He bore
it like a man, and explained to Captain Smythe
that he had come to this spot, nearly fifty miles
up the river from Patagonia, " for safety."
They were just opposite a little military station
which the Argentine Confederation had placed
there for the purpose of overawing our friend
Blackdog in this particular part of the river.
It had entirely that effedt, although the means
seemed inadequate to the end. As Captain
Smythe shortly discovered, the armament of
this fortress (which, if you had not been in the
secret, you would have supposed to be an
Australian shepherd's hut) consisted of the
Argentine Hag—which, as the signal halliards
had long been broken, was actually nailed to the
mast—an officer (in disgrace), two invalids, five
muskets, and an old nigger to do the cooking.
However, it did its work, and bid defiance to
158 The Mystery of the Island
Patagonia, Blackdog, and his four hundred giants
most efficiently. It was like the solitary English
sentry which Wellington put on the bridge of
Jena in Paris, when Blucher desired to blow
the bridge up. " You can blow the bridge up
if you like," said that great commander, "but
take particular care that you do not blow up
my sentry, whom I decline to remove." And,
lo! there stands the bridge of Jena to this day,
and will stand unless the Communists should
untimely blow it up some day. Blackdog no
more dared touch a shingle on that bungalow
than he dared attack Buenos Ayres.
The party kept in the background, out of
sight behind some trees, while Captain Smythe
advanced towards the river, here about 150 yards
broad, and running between wooded banks. On
the other shore there was an aged negro (the
commissariat of that division of the army),
washing clothes out of a canoe. He hailed him.
The old negro instantly got into the canoe,
and paddled across. Allowing for the current,
he went up stream, and came straight to the
captain's feet, who thanked him in Spanish.
The old negro said nothing, but made a noise
The Rio Negro
159
in his inside, like a soda-water cork ; half-way
over he made another noise, in the same region,
like a frog croaking; and when Captain Smythe
got out on the further shore, he went higger,
rigger, rigger, rigger, rigger, washed his hands
of the captain, got into the canoe again, and
began sorting the linen.
This was extremely disconcerting, and the
captain concluded that the man was mad ; how¬
ever, he climbed the bank, and found the sentry
at his post certainly, but fast asleep on a bench,
with a silk handkerchief over his face, to keep
the flies off. On being shaken he appeared to
use bad language in his sleep, but he never
awoke.
He passed into the interior of the place, and
saw the commandant, a very nice and gentle¬
manly-looking young officer, sitting on a rocking-
chair, smoking, and reading a French novel.
Captain Smythe addressed him.
" Senor, I am an officer of her Britannic
Majesty's service, and I have unfortunately lost
my ship. I have marched my men from the
Gulf of St. George "
He was not allowed to go any further—1
160 The Mystery of the Island
" It is surely not Captain Smythe, of the
Warliawk," said the commandant.
"Assuredly so," said he wondering.
" I am so glad," said the young officer. One
of your boats reached Patagones a month ago,
and the Government have sent a vessel down to
see after you."
" I am deeply indebted to them," said Captain
Smythe.
" It was only their duty," said the officer;
"but how have you got through the Indians?
You have done a wonderful thing. Have you
lost many men ? "
" I have got them all but one. I fell in with
Indians at one time, and they stole our rifles.
I managed to get the chief down, and held him
at my mercy until the women brought them back."
" Noble ! And the cacique's name ? "
" Blackdog."
" That abominable old scoundrel ! You were
lucky to save your life. And he made a bargain
to bring you on, I suppose. If you can decoy
him to this side of the river, I will get you off
that.'"
" My dear sir, I must keep terms with him,"
The Rio Negro
161
" Well, if you knew what an old rascal he was,"—
murmured the commandant, discontentedly. " But
however," he said briskly, "this is neither business
or hospitality. We must turn out the garrison,
and get your men across. Does he require a
hostage? If so, one of my fellows shall go; they
wouldn't mind it much, and it would not matter
if they did."
" I have already a hostage—offered most gener¬
ously—one Pedro."
" What Don Pedro Rexilla ! Dear madcap !
just like him. Then I suppose he has failed."
" In what ? "
" In finding payable gold in the eastern slope
of the Cordillera. I told him that the drift was
too confused for the gold to collect in payable
quantities."
" He spoke to me about some political trouble."
" Yes; he had some words with a political
enemy, whose party was then in power, and he
left his man for dead ; but the man is alive, and
is going to marry his sister, and Pedro's own
party are in. So he had better come back soon,
or all the good things will be gone."
" Could he not have a quarrel with one of the
162 The Mystery of the Island
present office-bearers, leave him for dead, and
take his place ? " said Captain Smythe, sardoni¬
cally.
" A very good parliamentary move," said the
commandant. " I will tell him that you sug¬
gested it. Here Pedro, Antonia, Sanchez, rouse
yourselves." And when what had to be done
was explained, they were nimble enough; they
had the men across in an hour and comfortably
housed.
Before night, Captain Smythe crossed alone,
and conferred with Blackdog and Don Pedro.
He left Blackdog grinning with pleasure, and
shook hands warmly with Don Pedro, having told
him the latest news. He was utterly astonished
at the difference in Don Pedro; the mean clothes
which he had worn during the march were re¬
placed by a costume splendid enough for the.
bull-ring at Rio, and yet he did not wear them
like a picador, but like a gentleman : a jacket
of green, covered with silver, open over his shirt;
velvet breeches and close-fitting leggings, silver
spurs, and a broad flapped hat with ribands were
his costume; he sat his magnificent mustang as
only a South American can sit a horse, but with
The Rio Negfo
163
the courtesy of a Spaniard or an Englishman,
the two great horse-riding nations, he dismounted
before Smythe spoke one word.
"Were I not assured of your perfect safety,
my dear sir," said Captain Smythe, " I should
not permit you to remain; but Don Alphonso
tells me that Blackdog dare not hurt a hair of
your head. You shall know soon that you have
served one who never forgets—the Queen of
England. For such services as you have rendered
to me, you will find the only acknowledgment
which I can give in the hands of the comman¬
dant. I will hurry on, and settle with these
savages, through our consul, as rapidly as pos¬
sible."
So they waved their hands and parted. Smythe
arranged for his men to advance under escort
of the kindly Argentines, while he pushed on to
Buenos Ayres on horseback. Before he went, he
gave his gold watch and chain to Don Alphonso,
to give to Don Pedro with his remembrances,
and would have forced a valuable diamond ring
on Don Alphonso, but he would not have it, but
insisted on one of less value.
" God speed you, brave Captain ! " said Don
164
The Mystery of the Island
Alphonso, as he went away, " and send you safe
to England, home, and happiness."
" I go to England, home, court-martial, and
degradation," said our captain, sadly.
" Then come back here, and be our Dun-
donald," said the other. "We can always show
you plenty of fighting; and we have warm hearts
though we have quick tempers."
CHAPTER XXIII.
AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL AT BUENOS AYRES
N six days Captain Smythe was safe in the
consulate at Buenos Ayres, settling matters
with the consul. There was no difficulty
about the subsidy—not a very grand one in the
eyes of civilization—which was to be paid to
Blackdog. Everything that could be done in
other ways, said the kind-hearted consul, should
be done. He only hoped that Blackdog would
not make a beast of himself with the subsidy.
The men should be fetched up and attended to.
Meanwhile, Captain Smythe must stay at the
consulate in absolute quiet until the next steamer
sailed. As for his statement, he must make it
to-morrow, when he was more himself.
Captain Smythe started at the expression, but
allowed that the advice was good, and thanked
the consul, who himself showed him to a bed¬
room, not without curiosity. As Captain Smythe
approached the looking-glass he started back
i66
The Mystery of the Island
against the consul, thereby repeating the per¬
formance of Blackdog's ancestor, as related by
Pigaffetta in 1520, who did exactly the same
thing, though with greater violence, when he
first saw the looking-glass. Captain Smythe saw
a man there whom he did not know. The
morning before his disaster he had, in spite of
foul weather, been as smooth-shaven and well-
brushed an officer as any in Her Majesty's service.
If that face in the glass were his, he was a wild
man, with the complexion of a dark mulatto, and
a tangled and dirty fall of hair over his collar.
He recognized nothing of himself but his eyes,
and they were wild and strange.
" I'll pray, and then I'll sleep," he said to the
consul quietly ; and for the first time for some
months he found himself in a dreamless rest.
He was a different man on the morrow, and
went about his business and his duties in his old
form, and in his own manner. There was much
to be done and seen to, but that was gone
through within two days. Then he rested and
watched the ships from the verandah of the con¬
sulate with a glass.
Ships of all nations going out and in, and in
An Unexpected Arrival at Buenos Ayres 167
three days not a single British arrival, which
seemed strange, as the Argentines trade more
with us than they do even with the United
States. At last, on the fourth day, a screw
steamer, schooner-rigged, came gliding up the
river, with the dear old red rag flying, and a
burgee at her mainmast head.
Captain Smythe stepped quickly down to the
custom-house, where their boat was getttng
ready, and said to the officer, " I am anxious
for news from England. Will you take me on
board ?"
There was no difficulty, he was well-known
and away they went.
They were soon alongside of the beautiful craft,
and the custom-house officer politely insisted on
Captain Smythe's going on board first. He
yielded, and swung himself up into the gangway,
and stepped two paces over the deck, to be con¬
fronted with Captain Killick.
CHAPTER XXIV.
GENERAL SEPARATION
Y dear Killick, what on earth brings you
here," said Captain Smythe.
" I have come in my yacht to find
you, and bring you home; my voyage is ended,
happily. Come into my cabin, and tell me all
about it. Where's Clare ?
Such a look came into Captain Smythe's face
as made Killick see that all was over there ; he
led him into the cabin, and they sat down to talk.
" When did he die ? " asked Captain Killick.
Captain Smythe, at considerable length, told
him the whole circumstances of the case ; every
one of which is in our reader's possession.
"It was very unfortunate," said Captain Killick,
musingly, " very much so; but in one respect,
don't you see ? lucky for you."
" Why ? "
" Because, don't you see ? your duty was so
entirely plain that you could not possibly do
General Separation
169
anything else but what you did; you must see
that."
" But I did deliberate."
" I should not have thought you would," said
Captain Killick; "but of course, it being Clare,
your own son, you would be excused. You have
done the finest thing you ever did in your life."
" That will not save me from ruin."
" I think it will; somewhat, at all events.
There are some men at home now who are not
your friends.—Well, to go into family matters, it
seems of no use to go to your friend Blackdog
after Clare."
" None whatever."
"Then I will get down to Santa Cruz, and
open up communications with the Southern
Tehuelches. I will take down a whole pile of
trade from here and buy them over. We will
get him, make sure of that.—What are you
thanking me for, my dear old master ? you can
easily repay me."
" Never."
"I tell you you can. Do not throw any impedi¬
ments in the way of my marrying Mabel."
" It would be the dearest wish of my heart,
I70 The Mystery of the Island
George, but I cannot force her inclinations, and
she does not like you."
"She has discovered that she does, though,
and never liked any one else. She has accepted
me fully and entirely; it was that abominable
Lady Southerey who made the mischief between
us. I assure you that she has given me her love."
" God be thanked !—but was it conditional on
your finding me ? "
" Why no, that is the best of it; however, we
must work first and play afterwards. Can you
give me your own chart of the Gulf of St. Juan ?
for I shall put in there and see where the thing
happened."
'• I cannot give you that, my boy," said Captain
Smythe, " but I can give you this one, which old
Godfrey, poor fellow, gave me ; he was in there
in 1854, with the Diophantes, and died coming
home ; he left it to me among his other papers,
as his executor. I found it and brought it out;
you may have it."
"Thanks," said Captain Killick, folding it up,
and putting it in his pocket. " Now I shall coal
and sail."
" Heaven be with you," said Captain Smythe.
General Separation
171
" I want to tell you something now, while we are
alone. I fear this court-martial terribly for one
thing. I gave a wrong order. I said sou'-sou'-
east, instead of sou'-sou'-west."
" Are you sure ? "
" Yes; all my ship's company will swear it.
And, George, I had a reason for it, an overwhelming
reason, but my head is gone with these troubles, and
I can't think what it was. Look at the chart on
the table before us. I must have put the ship
straight on the Dolphin rock."
They looked at the chart together, but not
one ounce of comfort did they get from it.
" Where was Barrel ? " said George Killick.
" On the bridge. He says that he would swear
anything to save me, but that it would be of no
use. Besides, when we talked over the matter,
I am sure myself that I did so, and I must admit
it at once."
" Well," said George Killick, " good times and
bad times and all times get over. Give Mabel a
kiss from me, and tell her that she shall have
Clare home if I can bring him."
Captain Smythe was as energetic as his younger
officer and future son-in-law: the La Plata, royal
172 The Mystery of the Island
mail, was ready to sail just at the same time as
Captain Killick's yacht. They steamed down the
river together and separated, one to the north, the
other to the south. In a few days where were
our characters ? Smythe somewhere in the South
Atlantic, Captain Killick running down the coast
of Patagonia, Mrs. Smythe wearying in her
miserable lodgings, and Clare, where was he ?
Last, and not least, where, oh where were Lord
Marcus D'Este and James Pritchard ? Our
people are scattered to the four winds of heaven
at present; is it possible that they will ever meet
save in that heaven from which all winds, whether
foul or fair, are said to blow ?
CHAPTER XXV.
THE ADVENTURES OF CLARE
SSy N the morning when Clare was missing
EZh®#" from the camp he had awakened very
early, and he did not know at first what
had awakened him, but turning over in his blanket
he listened.
There was a puma close to the camp, that
was evident—nay, there were more than one.
That low, dull muttering came from both sides
of the camp. He raised himself in a sitting
posture, and looked round.
All were asleep except the sentry, and he,
although upright on his legs, was comatose and
had his back turned towards him. It struck
Clare that to slip out of camp, to kill one of
these cowardly cats, and to come back and tell
his father, would be amusing. He rose from
his father's side, and stepped among the sleeping
men. Near the outside of them lay the boy
Dickson—a favourite of his. He thought of
174 The Mystery of the Island
awakening him to join the fun, but he did not.
There would have been one grave less in the
desert if he had.
Clare passed away unobserved. Either the
puma was farther off than he at first supposed,
or it was retreating before him. He had walked
a long distance, and still had not come up to it.
The grass was very high, up to his shoulders,
with narrow bare lanes between the hillocks. It
was a cloudy morning, and the puma had
changed its direction very often. He was com¬
pletely abroad as to his locality; so he turned,
as he thought, to go back to camp.
At this moment the puma gave a snarl so
near to him that it was evident that the beast
was within range. He turned round, and there
was the brown moving back within fifty yards.
He had his bayonet fixed, he fired, and then
followed up his shot to the encounter.
But there was no puma, only a guanaco skin
on a stick, waved to and fro before him in
derision in front of his empty rifle. He essayed
to load again, but he was instantly pinioned
from behind, before he had the chance of making
any resistance. He looked round and saw that
The Adventures of Clare
175
he was surrounded by ten or fifteen lank, dark,
prominent-cheeked Indians, standing from six to
nearly eight feet high. He knew that he was
in the hands of the Patagonian savages, of whom
he had read, and that he must die like an
officer and a gentleman.
He discovered afterwards the ruse they had
played. They had not dared to approach the
sailors for fear of the rifles, but they wanted to
catch one of them for the purpose of ransom.
They saw them shooting singly, and they tried,
by imitating the mutter of a puma, to lead one
of them away. They succeeded beyond their
hopes. Clare, one of the youngest of the party,
was probably the only armed one who would
have left his couch for the fun of shooting a
worthless puma. The result of his escapade we
have seen.
He was hurried swiftly along for nearly a mile
until they came to a group of horses tied to¬
gether and guarded by one giant. He was
mounted and hurried off between two other
Indians at a speed which, though not very high,
was simply amazing to him when he compared
the smallness of the horses (few over sixteen
176
The Mystery of the Island
hands) and the gigantic size of their riders. No
one spoke a word, and Clare kept steady on his
horse, seeing that escape was impossible, for he
and his two captors rode in front and the others
brought up the rear. They kept looking back
at first, but after a few miles eased their horses.
They were afraid that the shot might have been
heard at the camp, and that some pursuit would
be attempted with those horrible guns which
would kill, as they thought, at two miles.
The shot never was heard, and Captain
Smythe only awoke to find his son gone from
his side, whither he could not guess. It was
only when he got among the Northern Tehuel-
ches that he knew that Clare was among the
Southern.
Whenever Clare caught the eye of either of
his guides he smiled and nodded. The tallest
seemed a sulky savage, but the short one (he
was about six feet three inches) seemed, as
Clare said afterwards, to be a good-humoured
little fellow, and repeatedly grinned in response.
They travelled some hours, in what direction
Clare could not guess, for, as I have said before,
the day was extremely cloudy. At noon, as his
The Adventures of Clare 177
watch told him, they halted, turned their horses
loose, and sat down to eat and drink by a
melancholy water hole in the plain. Clare was
fed first with some ostrich meat, which he found
good, and they brought him water in a sailor's
tin pannikin. Could they have been near the
wreck ?
They talked very little among themselves, but
stared pertinaciously at him while they gobbled
their food in the most disgusting manner. It
seemed to him that the sulkiest and tallest of his
guardians had most authority among them, and
he determined to propitiate him.
He went and sat down beside him, examining
his dress and accoutrements familiarly. Then
he took out his gold watch and looked at it. It
was just noon, -and Clare, taking out his pocket
compass, pointed steadily to where the sun was.
An exclamation of wonder and astonishment
broke from the chief. That a boy should know
where the sun was under that leaden, melancholy
sky was amazing, and he said something which
brought the others to their feet crowding round
the young officer—and what a mite he looked
among them all !
178
The Mystery of the Island
He pointed to the west, and with his hands
high up described mountains ; then pointing to
the east, he put his hands down and described
the sea. The astonishment of all was unbounded;
he then made a sign for the chief to sit down, and
sitting down beside him, took out his watch and
put it to his ear.
The chief (Pashlickyank, Anglice "Hungry
Father") assumed a look of wonder, and then of
fear. At last, after half a minute, he could stand
it no longer ; he burst into a wild howl, leapt to
his feet, and addressed his tribe incoherently.
Clare afterwards, from the continual repetition of
one word (Winkioom) thought that he was ex¬
plaining that the boy had a golden egg which
was about to hatch. Clare got him to come to
him again, and offered him the watch as a
present; but the chief was far too wise to have
anything so dangerous about him. He had seen
a good deal of sorcery in his life; his own mother
could raise the devil (and frequently did in more
ways than one), and he did not like that sort of
thing at all. In fact, Clare saw that he had done
himself no good by the offer of his watch, as the
chief evidently suspected him of designs on his
The Adventures of Clare 179
person.* He bethought himself of his pocket-
knife, and offered the chief that; it was accepted.
The chief gave him a friendly pat upon the
chest, which made his sternum ache, though he
never showed it. Pashlickyank had evidently a
grand opinion of him now. Clare exhibited to
him and to the others the wonders of his many-
bladed clasp-knife, for which his poor mother
had given two guineas at Weiss's. The cutting
blades they understood; the saw he explained
to them by sawing through a piece of wood, to
their intense delight; the tweezers were also
within their comprehension, after Clare had
extracted a hair out of the chief's head; but
the corkscrew was totally incomprehensible. In
vain did Clare draw innumerable imaginary bottles
for them, imitating the process admirably with
his mouth. They only thought that the thing
was of the devil, devilish, and that Clare was
doing a dangerous trick in sorcery, the results of
which could not be foreseen; so they stopped him.
Poor wretches! they were not far wrong.
* So far has civilization progressed since the times of which I am
writing, that such of the Patagonians who have not drunk themselves
to death, are perfectly aware of the use of a watch, and will relieve
any traveller of one without the least fear of evil consequences,
180 The Mystery of the Island
Civilization has taught them now the use of a
corkscrew, and they are a doomed race.
But the chief liked his knife, and thought
much of Clare, putting him on his horse kindly,
and riding beside him alone. They were two
hours more before they came up with a large
party of the tribe, who had been on a hunting
excursion, and were in a temporary encampment
in a rather beautiful valley, with a bright creek
running through it. There were five of those
large double tents made of skins, supported on a
double row of bent poles, which Clare afterwards
learnt to call toldos. There were many women
and children, the women at their various employ¬
ments, such as scraping guanaco skins, working
ornaments for bridles and trappings, or cooking.
They were all talking loudly, and Clare remarked
that the younger women were, although tall and
gaunt, handsome, while the old women were
hideous; they, like the men, were painted with
different coloured earths in various patterns.
The children were playing in imitation of the
pursuits of their seniors, and the whole group
seemed busy and happy.
fie saw at once something which he kept to
The Adventures of Clare 181
himself. The signal-box of the Warhawk had
come into the possession of these people, for the
women had bedizened themselves in the flags in
every possible manner. Clare used to say after¬
wards that he "read off" Mrs. Pashlickyank as
having sprung her fore-topmast; but this of
course was his nonsense. There was another
proof of their having been near the wreck, which
affedted Clare more acutely.
Swarming about the camp there were an infinity
of dogs of all kinds and descriptions, who bayed
round him as he dismounted, and were driven
away by the surrounding Indians. One attracted
his attention by sitting apart disconsolate, and as
he looked at that dog he got wildly excited, and
pushing the Indians apart, he gave a shrill whistle.
The dog, a large mastiff-looking animal, leapt
to its feet, and looked round in every direction.
Clare whistled again, and called " Lion ! Lion ! "
With five mighty bounds the dog was on his
bosom, yelping in the madness of his joy ; and
Clare and he, covering one another with caresses,
talked to one another in that hurried language
known only to dogs and the lovers of dogs.
It was their own Lion ; he had played with if
182
The Mystery of the Island
when it was a puppy; it had slept beside his
bed in his dear old home; it had been loved and
caressed by his mother and his sisters ; and here
in this horrible, far-off place, among the staring
savages, it was on his bosom once more, barking
inarticulate phrases of undying affebtion, of hope,
and of home.
He broke down utterly, little shame to him,
and covered the dog's face with tearful kisses.
The Indians wondered, and one said to the
other—
" See, these English Christians can talk the
language of their dogs, and their dogs theirs.
Without doubt they are most wonderful sorcerers,
and might drive all the guanacos and ostriches
into the sea, from which they come by their
spells."
" And they said at Santa Cruz," said another,
" that they are governed by a witch, who sends
thunder and lightning on a calm day, and has
fiery iron horses."
" The White Americanos to the north can do
that,"-said another, "but they cannot talk to
their dogs."
While this discussion on foreign politics was
The Adventures of Clare
183
going on, orders had been given to strike the
toldos and march. The order was executed with
a rapidity which astonished Clare, sailor as he
was. He calculated that at the rate they worked,
they could have loaded a schooner of eighty tons
in five hours: everything was in its place, as it
ought to be 011 board a man-of-war, and so no
time was lost. He had eaten and rested not a
very long time, when the head of the cavalcade
was ready to start. He rode nearly first between
Pashlickyank and the shorter and more good-
humoured chief, whose name he afterwards found
to be Narenkysee (Anglice, "Confound you," or
worse), a name which must have been given on
the principle of lucus a non lucendo, for he was
the mildest of men, as far as Clare observed;
still he was evidently put upon sometimes by his
enemies ; and if you could judge from the number
of knife-wounds about such parts of his body as
were exposed (nine-tenths), he was a desperate
and sanguinary fighter when driven to it by a
wicked world.
Riding on between these two somewhat dubious
worthies, with Lion in close company, he at the
first gentle rise saw the whole cavalcade winding
184 The Mystery of the Island
along behind him. Horses ridden by men with
no other burden ; horses laden with all the house¬
hold goods, with women and children on the top
of them ; loose horses driven in front, and a few
following in the rear; and dogs innumerable, both
small and great.
They headed westward, up the creek, keeping
to the bed of the valley, where there was toler¬
able travelling through open timber. The creek
began to split off into others, and get smaller and
smaller; It was obvious that they were bound
for another water-shed.
That evening there was a grand palaver of the
principal warriors, of which he evidently was the
theme. They could not help turning to look at
him now and then as he stood apart. No com¬
munication was made to him, however. He was
suffered to do as he liked, but he was perpetually
watched, both from policy and also from curiosity.
He never had less than twenty pair of beady eyes
watching every movement.
Next morning a most important party, ap¬
parently a war party, started away north in their
best finery. They were all fresh painted, and
one of them had on the gaudy green-and-silver
The Adventures of Clare 185
jacket of a guacho. Clare wondered what had
become of the owner.
When they were gone, the big chief, Pashlick-
yank, who seemed to be Clare's principal owner
or protestor, ordered the rest to pack up and
march, he and Clare riding away together, with
an escort of four or five. The creek was almost
gone now, and leaving its bank they passed
through some almost dry gullies for three or four
days, still going westward, and by noon of the
fourth day ascended to the summit of the steppe,
which stretched away like the sea. Clare looked
to the west, expediting to see one of those vast
terraces which, running from north to south, cut
through Patagonia from end to end—the old levels
of the now receded ocean. There was none to be
seen in that direction ; they must be on the sum¬
mit level of the steppe, and now he remarked
that they seemed close to the Andes, here scarcely
five thousand feet above the sea level. Far to the
north he could see in the extreme distance two
white peaks of much greater elevation. " Those
will be Melimoya and Yanteles," he thought.
" Melimoya and Yanteles," he repeated aloud.
" Ah ! if I were fifty miles the other side of you I
186 The Mystery of the Island
would give up every pleasure until I had saved
enough money to buy a lifeboat and present it to
the Association."
The thought was fearfully tantalizing, and his
heart utterly sank within him. He wished that he
had known less of geography or that he had not
seen the peaks.
They camped on the plateau at a place where
there was water, and hunting parties were
organized every day, in which Clare took part as
a spectator under surveillance. He was at once
amazed and interested.
These people had hrearms and ammunition, but
they were of a miserable pattern, and they were
rarely used. Things are somewhat different now:
the Patagonians have rifles of a better sort and
revolvers; but they stick to the bolas and the
lasso still for hunting purposes. The bolas of all
three sorts require an immensity of practice before
they can be used. The three-balled one is the
most in use for guanaco, the two-balled for ostrich.
Three heavy balls, of bright metal preferred, are
slung on three plaited hide ropes about eight feet
long, joined at the ends furthest from the balls.
The whole arrangement is swung round the head
The Adventures of Clare
187
while the rider is at full gallop, and hurled at the
quarry, sometimes at a distance of seventy yards.
If it misses, the rider has another set ready, and
makes another cast, returning at his leisure to
pick up the first. If it hits, the three cords, by the
violent centrifugal motion of the heavy balls, are
curled with deadly force round the neck of the
animal, bringing it down as certainly as a rifle
bullet. The lasso, so familiar to every schoolboy,
is used for catching horses, and also for pumas,
though the general way of killing the latter is by
the bola, with which a dexterous Indian can beat
in the skull.
The reason for giving these details will be
apparent immediately. None of the arms of the
Patagonians, with the exception of the sword
(which was seldom thought of) or the spear (which
was never used, save on foot), could be depended
on at close quarters.
Clare was astonished once more during these
hunting parties, as his father had been, at the
way in which the proportionally small horses
scrambled over the ground with their gigantic
burdens. He was allowed the pick of horses,
and he selected a very beautiful mare, whose
i88
The Mystery of the Island
shoulder went backward until her saddle had to
be placed nearly on her rump like a donkey's,
whose ribs went back as round as a cow's until
they nearly met her pelvis, and whose tail stuck
off her body for a foot so stiff that you might
have hung your hat on it. Everything on that
mare sloped backwards, except her ears and head.
Her quarters were enormous, and her hind legs,
when she was standing still, came so far forward
that they were nearly under her girth. She was
in colour chestnut, and in temper angelic.
The latter quality was most fortunate, for Clare
turned out to be a remarkably maladroit horseman,
always coming to grief when it was possible, and
sometimes when it seemed impossible. This was
singular, because at home he was considered to
be a consummate horseman. Possibly it was the
strangeness of the saddle, or the loss of nerve in
consequence of his troubles. The fact, however,
remained the same: this wonderful young English¬
man could not ride a bit.
Now an incident occurred which altered Clare's
position in a remarkable manner.
Four or five of them were out hunting together,
Clare with them, on his mare, accompanied by
The Adventures of Clare 189
Lion, who never left him now. An Indian, a
young man of whom Clare had got very fond,
had thrown a guanaco with the three-balled bola,
and having dismounted, was running in to secure
it, leaving his horse standing, in the way in which
Indian horses only will stand. Only Clare and
one other of the party were at hand, when the
young Indian was stopped half-way between his
horse and his quarry, by a gigantic puma, which
with grinning fangs looked round on the group, as
though to say, " Let me see the man who will
touch my guanaco."
It was a most unusual occurrence, for the puma
generally flees from the face of man. There,
however, was the puma, showing fight, within
one bound of the young Indian.
Heaven save us from our friends ! Pashlick-
yank, who was beside Clare, sent a bola perdita
(a single bola with a pointed end) flying past
the young Indian's head, but only succeeded in
hitting the puma a violent dig in the ribs, instead
of smashing its skull. The effeCt of this was
alike unexpected and instantaneous: the long,
lithe, shambling brute gathered itself together
like a mass of ribbed steel, and hurled itself on
Igo The Mystery of the Island
Clare's friend, with its teeth in his shoulder, and
its four sets of claws deep in his sides and legs.
Any European would have been borne down by
the shock, but the weight and size of the Pata-
gonian stood him in good stead. Without a cry,
without a groan in his deadly agony, he twisted
the thong of a bola perdita which he had in his
hand round the pum i's neck, and forcing his hand
in like a tourniquet, drew it tight.
Pashlickyank dared not throw his bolas, for
the man and beast were locked together in the
embrace of death. Suddenly his cutlass was
snatched from his side, and he saw Clare running
to the rescue with it in his hands.
That was a well-placed thrust, just below the
beast's third rib into the heart. The brute turned
its yellow eye on Clare in deadly anger, but the
eye grew wild, lost its sight, and then closed : it
was dead, and its hold on the Indian was partly
relaxed as the head hung heavily down.
The death had been so sudden, that the animal,
nearly as large as a lioness, was with difficulty
separated from the living man. Lacerated as he
was, he held out his hand to Clare, and Clare saw
that he had made a friend.
The Adventures of Clare 191
He had made many, but now they were kinder
to him than ever. Pashlickyank had a long
conversation with him by signs, in which he
frequently made the motion of shooting with a
gun. As is usual when people communicate with
one another by signs (save on the stage), neither
of them had the remotest notion what the other
meant. At last Pashlickyank, with pity at Clare's
stupidity, had his rifle and cartridge-pouch brought
and plainly asked him if he would like them. How
Clare answered "RATHER" in capital letters
by signs, I have no idea, but he did so ; and to
his intense delight found himself in possession of
his arms once more.
A few days afterwards they went hunting, and
having fired off his rifle he loaded it again, and
was ready for anything. The first game they came
on was a rhea, which allowed them to approach
within 200 yards. Clare stopped them at that
distance. He was extremely nervous in one way,
but cool in another. He fired ; the bird made a
short run, and fell on its breast on the grass dead.
As no gun which they had was of any use over
thirty yards, and not much then, this was looked
upon as nearly miraculous,
192
The Mystery of the Island
Time did not go unpleasantly for a fortnight;
he hunted every day with them, but made them
understand that ammunition was scarce, and
could only be used in case of danger. With the
vivacity of his age, his nation, and profession, he
really enjoyed himself in seeing them hunt, but
at the end of the fortnight something happened
which extremely disturbed the equanimity of his
host, or rather captors. The supposed war-party
returned, evidently quite unsuccessful; they had
not been beaten in battle, for none of them were
wounded or missing; they had not been unsuc¬
cessful in the chase, for they brought plenty of
game with them ; but their looks were exceed¬
ingly sour, and so close an observer as Clare was
could not fail to perceive that he was the cause of
their discontent, for they looked at him, not with
anger, but with a feeling of disappointment. He
could not make it out.
We, however, can tell our readers what was the
matter. They had gone off to treat with Captain
Smythe about his release. They had been splen¬
didly paid some years before for taking care of
some missionaries, and they would have been
glad to make such another bargain. Conceive
The Adventures of Clare 193
their utter disappointment at finding that Captain
Smythe had passed north into the country of their
(just now) implacable enemy, Blackdog.
Clare thinks that they took this resolution to
make peace with Blackdog and share the ransom
money. Certain it is that they all moved north¬
westward next day, and the day after, until the
peaks of Melimoya and Yanteles seemed pro-
vokingly close.
Of course he could not know the reason, but
he saw that he was watched more closely than
before. Although he was allowed to go hunting
and carry his rifle there were always six or seven
of them close to him. Of course he said to
himself that it did not matter, but he began to
get feverish and ill, and desired to be alone. He
did not know what to do, and he could not make
up his own mind. Such another time of suspense
he has said, would put ten years on his life.
He spared the pretty mare which they had
given him as much as possible, and took less
and less interest in the hunting. His lips were
always dry, and his eyes got that strange haggard
look of those who always watch.
The morning came for which he had prayed
B
194
The Mystery of the Island
for so many days. He and four others were out
on the steppe, nearer the mountains than they
had ever been before ; they were beating about
for anything they could find, but were in bad
ground, the grass being sh L, giving no cover
for anything. He was sitting listlessly in his
saddle with his rifle slung round him, Lion being
in close attendance, and he observed that, of the
four, only one man was between him and the
mountains, the gentle chief Narenkysee, and he,
Clare, two hundred yards north of a certain line.
Now was the time, or never; he breathed a
short prayer, got his horse by the head, let the
spurs into her, and sped away due westward like
an arrow from a bow.
A shout from the two men behind him aroused
Narenkysee, who was only two hundred yards off
his course ; he tried to intercept him diagonally,
but Clare passed him like the wind a hundred
yards off. The bolas flew from the Indian's hand,
but fell short.
" Three more bounds, little mustang ! " he cried
in his agony, " and we are safe. O God of my
fathers, do not desert me now ! "
One, two, three, four, five seconds. Then he
The Adventures of Clare 195
dared to turn his head. They were toiling after
him, but of course hopelessly. He had selected
the best horse they had, and was riding nine stone
five; the lightest of them on an inferior or over¬
worked horse, was riding nineteen stone. He
distanced them as though they were standing
still. In half-an-hour, looking back, he saw that
all three had stopped, dead beaten, and that one
of them had dismounted.
" Fifty miles to-day, my darling, and we are
free. God speed us ! "
The pretty creature went like a swallow, and
Lion careered with glad bark before him. He
eased his mare three or four times, and in two
hours pulled her up at the edge of a great forest.
Then before entering he turned round and took
his last view for ever of the melancholy steppes
of Patagonia.
CHAPTER XXVI.
ACROSS THE ANDES
E must still follow Clare, and allow
Captain Killick, nay, Lord Marcus
$ D'Este, as important a person as any,
to await their time, which will be by no means
long. When we come to them we shall have a
great moral—to wit, that no man ought to sail
a ship unless he knows how, which is a very
innocent one.
Clare passed into the forest, and found it open,
so he pushed on another ten miles, calculating
that he had made a splendid distance since his
escape. He found a little dell in the pine woods,
with a trickling stream, and plenty of good feed
for his horse. He rode his horse in the water
nearly two miles to the right, or north, and then
he camped, hobbled the mare, and turned her
out. When she had had a good feed he mounted
again, and went on ten miles further in a north¬
west direction. He met another little stream
Across the Andes
197
coming from the west, in small cascades over
rocks, and here he determined to rest for some
hours, in fact during the greater part of the
night.
He had no intention of going to sleep, but he
wanted to rest his horse, for he knew that there
was rough work before him. He argued thus.
" I have a start of nine hours practically, and it
will take these noodles at least four more to
recover my trail up the creek. A Canadian
Indian would do it in twenty minutes. Some
good may come to me from having read Fenimore
Cooper's novels. I am glad my friends are more
ignorant than myself.
" Now let me be logical. Where there is the
highest elevation, there is frequently the greatest
depression, not always, I grant you, but I have
not watched these mountains for nothing; there
is a dip south of the two high peaks, and I have
to get through it. Let us see what to-morrow
will bring forth."
He walked up and down while his horse fed :
evening darkened into night, but the night was
not so dark but that he could see his compass
or his watch. He had remembered something
ig8 The Mystery of the Island
which gave him great confidence against pursuit,
and that was that he had somewhere read that
the Patagonians will not move by night, in con¬
sequence of the almost innumerable number of
free devils which haunt that country and lead
them a terrible life. It was probably some old
child's edition of Pigafetta which he called to
mind. Clare was not in the least degree afraid
of the devils, and so was comfortable for a time.
But there are worse things than imaginary
devils—here is a horse in the darkness, worse
than Setebos and his whole family.
A rustling in some brushwood a hundred yards
off, and a sniff, sniff, as of some one smelling,
Lion growling uneasily, with now and then a
whine. His horse was in the middle of an open
space in the wood, and he was between the horse
and the noise which he heard. He knew what
made that noise well enough ; it was a puma. In
one instant the beast's fangs might be in his
horse's shoulder, and he ruined.
He took his resolution quickly. He had his
loaded rifle in his hand, and they had left him
the bayonet (without which he had explained to
his captors the rifle would not go off). The next
Across the Andes
199
time that the puma moved he flourished his rifle
in the air, and, howling like ten lunatics, he rushed
towards it, making night hideous with his noise,
and Lion, with his tail between his legs, helping
as well as he could. There was a horrible growl
and a snarl, but Clare held right on screeching ;
the brute could not stand it, and Clare heard it
bounding away through the forest, crashing the
fallen timber right and left in its headlong course
of terror.
Still, it was not a good place to remain in.
Instead of going to sleep, he spent some hours
in cutting up a bullet into very small pieces with
a little knife which he had reserved for his nails.
He would have given something for his old clasp-
knife now; but what between pounding the bullet
between two stones and cutting it, he produced
a tidy charge of shot; then he took something
to eat out of the little store he had brought with
him hunting, and went on.
He was still travelling when the morning
dawned, and he came out on a bald ridge,
leaving the stream behind him going eastward.
The ground kept rising all day, and the peak of
Melimoya seemed strangely near him on the right.
200 The Mystery of the Island
He found some water and plenty of grass, and,
calculating that he had done forty miles, he lay
down to sleep in an open space among brushwood,
the name of which he did not know.
Another day still rising; it began to grow deadly
cold; and he felt that he was at a considerable
height, still there was no sign of any failure in
vegetation ; his food had failed, but he had seen
many animals which he mistook for hares. Coming
over a little ridge he saw before him a covey of
birds in the grass. He fired his cut-up bullet
among them and killed three. When he picked
them up he found that they were a sort of grouse.
He had met no snow as yet, or any signs of
it, though the south shoulder of Melimoya seemed
close to him on the right, like a collection of
brilliant white crystals. A lofty down was before
him, smooth and flat at the top, which blocked
out the westering sun. He pushed his brave
mare up it, and in two hours stood upon the
summit, looking around him.
His first feeling was that of incredulity, his
second of awe. He was sailor enough to know
where he was. He was on the watershed of the
Andes, where no human foot had stood before,
Across the Andes
201
To the right towered Melimoya, blocking out
Yanteles, to the left were the fast subsiding peaks
of the Corderilla dipping towards Terra del Fuego;
before him were innumerable pine-clad glens from
the furthest point of which, where they all met,
issued a great river, and beyond all, in the west,
lay'the mighty Pacific.
Let us be just to him—the first thing he did
was to offer up a short and earnest thanksgiving ;
that was well. Then he put his horse down the
hill at a rather dangerous pace, and halted where
the first willows began to show by a little spring.
" Do you know where we are, my lass ? " he
said to his mare as he took her bridle off. "We
are in Christian land. God save the Republic of
Chili ! God save Dundonald ! Lion, my lad, do
you hear ? we are in a Christian country ! "
And as he cooked his grouse, and sat beside
his fire, he kept saying to himself, " I will make
along the coast to Valdivia. I wonder where I
shall find the first ranche."
CHAPTER XXVII.
CAPTAIN KILLICK MEETS PASHLICKYANK
APTAIN KILLICK, with everything to
make success possible—coals, interpreters,
provisions, looking-glasses, and beads for
trade, made at first a complete failure, which we
will shortly describe.
He had the best of weather, though it was a
little adverse; he got to the Gulf of St. Juan in
eight days. He very carefully surveyed this gulf
from one end to the other in a way which ex¬
tremely puzzled his crew. Nothing seemed to
satisfy the men. They were taken from one end
to the other of it for several days. The lead was
eternally going, the boats were always out, and
Captain Killick was making observations night
and day as if he was the captain of the Beagle
or the Rattlesnake.
A boat came upon the wreck of the Warhawk,
and the sailor steering that boat reported to him
that he had found it. Captain Killick was petu-
Captain Killick meets Pashlickyank 203
lant. " Do you suppose I did not know where
that was ? " he said, and went to his cabin, where
they saw him shortly afterwards deep again in
his chart.
At length he seemed perfectly satisfied, and
his old self again ; he went to the wreck, and
saw it. The brave old ship had little to show
except a few of her ribs, yet she had been a dear
home to him once when he was a boy, and his
men saw that he felt the sight of her keenly.
Then he steamed away southward, and in
rather a high latitude, but much short of Santa
Cruz, he discovered a river. He went up that
river in a boat for a little distance. Seeing signs
of life in a cove, they carefully landed out of sight,
and with loaded rifles successfully surrounded an
old woman who was eating cockles. As she took
not the slightest notice of them in any way, but
went on eating her cockles, they did not exadtly
know what to do, and Captain Killick called a
council of war.
His boatswain suggested a piece of striped
calico. This was offered to her. She im¬
mediately snatched it away, sat down upon it,
and went on with her repast.
204
The Mystery of the Island
" What is to be done now ? " asked Killick.
" However, she can't go on eating for ever, the
abominable old hag."
He would have been more interested in her,
possibly, had he known that she was our friend
Pashlickyank's mamma, and the most famous
sorceress in all Patagonia with the exception of
Blackdog's mamma, who knew a trick or two
more than she did.
When the old lady had done her dinner, she
rose (she was about six foot live) and howled in a
foreign language to a neighbouring hill; her
bellow was answered from the heights and she
sat down again. The interpreter, a sharp, though
peculiarly disreputable, young Argentine sailor,
did not catch what she said. He found it neces¬
sary to approach her with fire-water. Captain
Killick had the strongest objection to doing this,
and was resolute that she should not have too
much. The interpreter offered the old lady a
glass of spirits; she smelt it, threw it in the
interpreter's face, and the glass after it.
But it opened a conversation. She said to
him, " You dogs of whites bring nothing but
poison here."
Captain Killick meets Pashlickyank 205
"True, mother," said the interpreter; "Why
do your men drink our poison ? "
" Because they are not all as I am ; because
we are dying out and have not the courage of
our forefathers. What are you come here for
now ? "
" The English people have lost a boy."
" I have lost many."
" Would you not have them back ? "
" Yes. Well, your boy is up the country with
my son Pashlickyank. I have told them to let
him know that you are here. I am here, as the
wisest woman in the tribe to watch and see if
any white people came for him. Pashlickyank
will be here in five days; the chasquis are
galloping after him now. Pashlickyank will save
him if he can ; my son is kind. But the devil
Narenkysee will kill him and eat his liver. Let
me alone."
They were obliged to do so and take her word.
One by one the Indians dropped in, and there
was soon a considerable number of them, whom
Captain Killick propitiated in every way through
the interpreter, while he attended the arrival of
Pashlickyank,
206
The Mystery of the Island
He was as good as his word, riding straight up
to Captain Killick's camp, and dismounting very
hurriedly. He put a paper into the captain's
hands without a word. Clare had had the
thoughtfulness to leave it with the young warrior
whose life he had saved, making him believe that
it would stand the tribe in good stead in case of
his death. Now both Pashlickyank and this
young warrior had trusted and liked Clare, and
had persistently refused, as it afterwards turned
out, to have him murdered and got rid of—the
persistently urged scheme of the gentle Narenkysee,
who had given him his parting benediction with
a pair of bolas. Clare being gone, and news
having afterwards come that the English were
after him, the young warrior put this paper in
Pashlickyank's hands, and he wisely used it,
trusting Clare's word as to its contents.
It was written in pencil, on a carefully folded
leaf of his note-book, and ran thus :—
"I am Clare Smythe, late midshipman of
H.M.S. IVarhawk, wrecked in the Gulf of St.
Juan. I have been captured by these people,
from whom I have received nothing but extreme
kindness, they having treated me more like a
Captain Killick meets Pashlickyank 207
brother than a captive. If this paper should fall
into the hands of any white. man I pray them to
reward these people according to their means, or
communicate with my father.
" But I have become such a favourite with
these savages that I fear they will detain me.
From where I am I can see two high peaks,
which I take to be Melimoya and Yanteles,
though I dare not ask these people for fear of
exciting their suspicions. My plan is, then, to
watch night and day for an opportunity, and then
ride hard westward to the south of them, and
try to get into Chilian territory; my ultimate
destination of course will be Valdivia or Chiloe.
I am splendidly mounted, and if I can get a
start, can outpace them by my lighter weight
two lengths to one."
Captain Killick looked at Pashlickyank with a
blank stare of inquiry. "Ask him where he is
now," he said to the interpreter.
Pashlickyank told a story to the interpreter
with great excitement and gesticulation ; it was
the story of Clare's escape. When Captain
Killick heard it from the interpreter he gave a
cheer, threw his cap in the air, and with a
The Mystery of the Island
flushed face cried out, "Well done, my gallant
little brother."
Pashlickyank explained that he had made him¬
self a general favourite; he told the story of the
puma, and gave a long account of Clare's pro¬
ceedings. He said how sorry they were to lose
him, and how they merely meant to hold him
to ransom. He said that one of the warriors
had thrown the bolas at him when he escaped,
for which he had been beaten and degraded.
About this last assertion Captain Killick be¬
lieved as much as he chose. The tribe were
rewarded beyond their utmost hopes, and the
yacht sailed away south, and in nine days was at
the mouth of the Straits of Magellan.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A FRIEND IN DIFFICULTIES
HERE was a few ships at the mouth of
the strait, but the wind was rather
heavy from the west, and they were at
anchor in Pine Harbour. Killick, however, deter¬
mined to push through and use up hR coals. So
steam being got up, he was soon sliding on between
the great mountain walls not uncomfortably.
A great American paddle-wheeled steamer came
thundering towards him from the Pacific side,
when he was half-way through the straits; to his
great astonishment she stopped and hailed him ;
and the two ships drew up alongside, the Snake,
Captain Killick's yacht, looking very small along¬
side of the St. Francisco steamer.
" I see you carry a burgee, sir," said the
American from his paddle-box; there is another
English yacht in Cascade Harbour; which has
come to grief, and as you are not pressed for time
I thought you might like to hail her. I sent a
2lo
The Mystery of the Island
spare spar on board, but could not wait, as she is
in no danger except that of staying there for a few
months."
Captain Killick expressed his deep obligation,
and steamed away for the spot, a deep bay, with
the snowy mountains looking down upon it from
behind the pine-trees, which clambered 1,500 feet
up the rugged sides of the glens. The landscape
strongly reminded him of Mount Ida, as described
in Tennyson's " CEnone." In the bright summer
sunshine of that time of year, December, the scene
was one of amazing beauty.
" Behind the valley topmost Gargarus
Stands up and takes the morning."
Here too was
" The long brook falling through the clov'n ravine,
In cataradf after cataradl to the sea.
Terra del Fuego, however, is not a paradise,
particularly in the winter.
They soon made out the yacht, a handsome
steamer of about 380 tons, with the union-jack
flying upside down on the flagstaff at the stern.
She was dismasted, and her bowsprit was gone;
the crew seemed busy in getting up a jury-mast.
" You have not much chance of getting out of it
with that stick and a crew of fair-weather hands,"
A Friend in Difficulties 211
said Killick to himself. " I must see after you,
though I am in a hurry. However, I never failed
another sailor yet; and as for Clare, he is either
safe at Valdivia or dead; a few hours will not
matter in any way." He was soon alongside the
yacht, out of his boat, and on her deck; he was
met by two wild-looking weather-beaten men with
long tangled beards and hair, one of whom was
much taller than the other ; Captain Killick was
the first to speak.
"I am Captain Killick, of Her Majesty's service;
that is my private yacht; I am only too happy to
assist the flag in any way in my private capacity.
What can I do for you ? "
" I really am afraid nothing," said the taller of
the two men; "In addition to the ruin you see
about you I have broken my screw shaft, and am
leaking worse every hour. If you would go over
the ship with my sailing-master here, and give us
the benefit of your experience, you would be con¬
ferring a very great favour; the fadt of the matter
is that he sprained his ankle and was laid up,
during which time, instead of putting back to
Buenos Ayres, I insisted on sailing her myself;
you see the result," he added, pointing round.
212 The Mystery of the Island
" Well, well, sir," said Killick good-humouredly,
"we must all live and learn. Let us look round."
The tall man went into his cabin. Captain
Killick and the sailing-master went over the vessel
from stem to stern. There were fourteen men on
board, most of whom were splendid-looking sailors,
like Englishmen, but who spoke to one another
in a language which he did not understand, and
four out of these were relieving one another
continually at the pumps. Captain Killick re¬
turned to the cabin with a very long face.
" My dear sir," he said, " I am very sorry to
say that all I can do is to advise you to abandon
your ship. The case is perfectly hopeless ; even
if we got a sail under her she could not possibly
float in the Atlantic ; I am afraid I can give no
other advice."
" I have been prepared for this," said the owner.
" I almost regret that I had not taken passage in
that Yankee steamer, but she was going the wrong
way; I wanted to go to Chiloe. I had better land
my stores and wait to be picked up."
" Are your stores very valuable ? "
"No; there will be enough for a week or two ;
we have been so long at sea that we are pretty low."
A Friend in Difficulties
213
"Then of course your duty is easy. Put such
stores as you wish to keep on board me, and ship
your men with me : I am going to the very place
you mention ; or I can take you on to Valdivia or
>
V alparaiso."
" You are more than generous," said the owner;
" I can never thank you enough. I wish I could
make you some amends."
" Why, what in the name of confusion else
could I have done ? A Queen's sailor is bound
to help any ship in distress of any nation, leave
alone a countryman. You confess yourself a
landsman by such a speech."
"And by my handiwork," said the owner, look¬
ing round dolefully and laughing.
In four hours everything possible was trans¬
ferred from one vessel to the other; the last man
was on board the Snake, and the other yacht was
deserted. The two owners stood side by side on
the deck.
" Shall I cut her cables, and let her go on
shore," said Captain Killick, " or shall she sink
where she is ? "
" What you will, Captain Killick," said the
tall man, with something like a hurst of emotion,
214 The Mystery of the Island
" only do not let me see it. Poor little thing!
I was so fond of her, and she carried me so well.
I will go into your cabin until all is over."
" She is going to settle her own account with
the sea, sir, said a quiet voice behind Killick,
when the owner had retreated.
It was true; they had negleCted the pumps
for four hours, while they were clearing out, but
had not noticed how deep she was getting : the
end was evidently approaching now, for she was
setting down by the head fast. The sailors of
both crews clustered on the Snake's bulwarks in
silence, for the destruction of what has been your
home, whether by fire, water, or metropolitan
improvements, is a saddening sight. The end of
the ship was very quiet ; she was in smooth water,
and went silently underneath it, bow foremost,
without any disturbance except the bursting up of
the deck: all that remained of her in two minutes
after was a creamy line of foam, with a few float¬
ing spars spinning round and round ; and this,
too, soon passed away from the face of the waters,
and all was still.
Attention to the shipwrecked is the first instinCt
of a sailor: the men were royally cared for, and
A Friend in Difficulties
215
Killick hastened to see after his guest. He was
cheerful enough now that it was all over, and
when he had been trimmed by the ship's barber,
had washed himself, and changed his clothes in
the cabin which Killick had given him, you would
hardly have known him—the wild man had turned
into as fine-looking a gentleman as any in Europe.
There was an excellent dinner, which they had
alone, the sailing-master messing alone in the
steward's cabin. The evening was so rarely
beautiful that they had their wine on the quarter¬
deck, while the ship throbbed patiently on through
the strait, with an almost unexampled landscape
shifting at every turn. The pine woods came
down to the blue water (blue water means forty
fathoms), and climbed the ridges of the mountains,
until they dwindled away into the interminable
sheets of chocolate-coloured peat; above were the
snow-crystals, starting out fantastically against
the blue sky; through every glen tumbled a
cataradt, and the whole scene, as Killick remarked,
was a combination of Scotland and Italy.
"And yet," said the stranger, we are in one
of the most terrible parts of the world. In winter
Magellan's Straits have a bad name."
2l6
The Mystery of the Island
" And they deserve it," said Killick." " Let us
smoke our cigars and talk. Are you comfortable?"
" I don't think I ever was quite so comfortable
in my life," said the other. Now I will begin the
conversation. Whither are you bound ? "
Captain Killick, with intervals during which
he superintended the man at the helm for a few
w
moments, told him of everything of which the
reader is in "possession ; for there was a frank
bonhpmmie about his guest which invited con¬
fidence, and Mabel was a theme on which he
gladly enlarged with a gentleman.
His guest was immensely interested. " I have
met Miss Smythe in society," he said thought¬
fully. " That must be a fine boy, that brother-
in-law of yours—leastways, he is not your
brother-in-law yet. But he will get through. If
we don't find him at Chiloe or Valdivia, we must
make a search for him. As for money, I have
plenty of that; as for men, my men will go
anywhere for me. We will have him, as sure as
you are born."
" My dear sir," said Killick, " you speak about
your men. What language is that which they
speak ? "
A Friend in Difficulties 217
" No worse than their native Irish," said his
guest, apparently puzzled.
"There is another detail," said Killick; "I
have never, curiously enough, asked your name,
but I have heard (or fancied so) your sailing-
master call you ' my lord ' once or twice."
" Surely," said his guest; " I am Lord Marcus
D'Este."
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE MYSTERY OF THE CHART
T was indeed our eccentric old friend ; and
his sailing-master, who now having finished
his dinner in the steward's cabin, was
smoking the worst, was James Pritchard and no
other person in the world. We will follow the
conversation between Lord Marcus D'Este and
Captain KillLk.
"So you are Lord Marcus D'Este," said Captain
Killick. " I have heard a great deal about you and
your way of going to the uttermost ends of the
earth. You ought to be half a sailor by now."
"Just what I am," said Lord Marcus, " half a
sailor with the best half wanting."
" May I ask, Lord Marcus, what you were
doing in the Straits of Magellan ? "
" Laith, then, I was going to Melbourne. You
answer that it was not the right way. That is
what Lather Whelan said to Tim Corrigan's sow
The Mystery of the Chart
2I<3
when he found her in church on Easter morning,
and she said that she was going home. ' But
it's not the right way,' said his reverence. ' May
be not,' said the pig, 'but I was making an experi¬
ment for the advancement of human knowledge.'
That was the case with me."
" But, Lord Marcus," said Killick, very much
inclined to laugh, " no one ever beats to the
westward to get to Australia if they can help it."
" There was Magellan, and Anson, and Byron,
and the California traders," said Lord Marcus.
" It's a pity that Captain Byron couldn't write as
well as his nephew. I thought I'd make the ex¬
periment against the westerly wind, and I have
failed. I have added to human knowledge."
Captain Killick had it on the tip of his tongue
to tell him that he had done nothing of the kind,
but paused because the Irishman was so good-
humoured and gentle under his disappointment.
He felt that he would have been morose and
sulky under such a misfortune, and he put the
lesson to heart.
" Why did you not go by the Cape, Lord
Marcus ? " he asked.
" Everybody goes by the Cape," said Lord
220 The Mystery of the Island,
Marcus, "and I have been to the Cape before,
and Cape Town is enough to make a man hang
himself. I wanted to see some new country,
that is all."
*' You were in no hurry to reach Melbourne,
then ? "
" No."
That was all he said, and there was a long
pause. Killick would not speak because he
wanted Lord Marcus to do so. The sudden
"No" showed him that Lord Marcus had a pur¬
pose which he did not choose to explain, and he
was too much of a gentleman to " fish " for it.
The night grew chill, and Lord Marcus asked
leave to retire. Captain Killick would not leave
his deck until they were out of the Straits into the
Pacific. They felt the first long roller heave
about half-past four, and the ship began to creak.
Captain Killick, going into his cabin, saw a light
in that of Lord Marcus, and he looked in. The
creaking of the ship made his entrance inaudible.
Lord Marcus was bending over a chart—a
curious looking chart—which he saw at once had
been enlarged by photography. It was a chart
of some islands which he did not at first recog-
The Mystery of the Chart
221
nize. There were a few very large letters on the
chart which he could not help reading as he stood
in the door. They were on the north of the map—
" T M A N "
Here the chart ended, and below—•
" L H O "
Here the chart ended again.
He stood in the door and called out, " Lord
Marcus, my dear friend, don't set the ship on
fire." Lord Marcus, who was in his shirt, looked
calmly round, blew out the light, and got into bed,
apparently taking his chart to bed with him, for
Killick never saw any more of it. Lord Marcus
said in the darkness, "After hours, I know; nothing
like discipline. Good-night, and God bless you."
Killick went to his bed puzzled. He had seen
enough to stimulate his curiosity. The big letters,
printed above, combined with the glimpse of the
islands, were quite enough to tell him, whose eye
had been accustomed to every chart since he had
been thirteen, the locality which Lord Marcus had
been studying. He turned in, saying to himself,
' What on earth can that mad Irishman want
here ? " Can you puzzle the place out for your¬
self from the capitals given above? Try.
CHAPTER XXX.
VALDIVIA
HEY had an extremely pleasant voyage;
the Pacific was worthy of its name, and
on deck evening after evening Lord
Marcus and Captain Killick talked very much
together. Killick had a prejudice against noble¬
men and against Irishmen, but he quite overcame
the two prejudices when he found them united in
the person of honest Lord Marcus d'Este.
One person sometimes came on the quarter-deck
by invitation ; it was James Pritchard. He from
the first had recognized Captain Killick, and was
afraid of being recognized himself. He might as
well have put such an idea away at once, for his
own mother would not have known him. He
grew more and more at his ease, and Killick
found him to be a good sailor and a very nice
companion. But he only asked him to dine in
the cabin twice in the week, which they spent in
coasting up Chili to Chiloe, under sail.
No roving Englishman had been heard of there,
Valdivia
223
except a young man who had been accidentally
left on shore, that is to say had run his ship and
found himself bound. This young man asked for
a passage, which accommodation Captain Killick
politely declined, saying that if he had to pick up
every deserting scoundrel on that coast he should
require a fleet.
Captain Killick, who from his habit of watching
ships' crews, and trying to find out what they
wanted, and moreover of trying to supply their
wants, had got to watch everything ; so he could
not help seeing that Lord Marcus and his sailing-
master were very much together in secret; and
that on more than one occasion the sailing-master
and Lord Marcus were in the latter's cabin
together with the door bolted for an hour or more
together. It puzzled him extremely.
But from Lord Marcus's manner he felt sure
that sooner or later he would know the truth.
Twenty times Lord Marcus had been on the verge
of saying something to him, and had stopped.
They had been frank to one another, like English
gentlemen, had discussed their past history and
their future prospects, and yet—yet there was
something which Lord Marcus kept back—some-
224 The Mystery of the Island
thing of which he was afraid to speak ; and the
sailing-master knew it.
The Captain was determined to give him a
chance the night before they arrived at Valdivia.
When they were alone on deck together Captain
Killick said —
" Lord Marcus, I have made a friend of you,
and we have one another's confidence in all
points but one. There is something which you
would like to tell me, but dare not."
" That is exaftly the state of the case," said
Lord Marcus quite coolly.
" Your sailing-master knows it ? "
" Yes."
" And you will not tell me ? "
" Why, there you h^ve me," said Lord Marcus.
" You are the very man I should like to tell.
Now look here, my dear fellow," he continued,
putting his hands on Killick's shoulders, " we are
here to find this boy; that is the first thing ; after
we have succeeded or failed in that, why then
talk to me again."
" Then there is a mystery ? "
" Yes."
" Honfman's Abrothos ? " said Captain Killick,
Valdivia
225
"You are warm," said Lord Marcus! "but
you might for practical purposes have as well
said Greenwich Park."
Nothing more passed between them. They
made Valdivia in the evening, showing their flag ;
it was too late to go on, and they cast anchor in
the roads, intending to pass into the harbour at
daybreak. The night was very clear, and Captain
Killick and Lord Marcus walked up and down
the deck smoking until every light in the pretty
town had died out, save that which shone from
the windows of the great cathedral, and warned
them that the midnight mass of a great festival
was being celebrated. It was time to turn
in.
" We are in Christian waters again, at all
events," said Captain Killick, as he and Lord
Marcus separated at their cabin doors.
Lord Marcus, as an Orangeman, doubted that;
and so they parted.
Captain Killick had not been to sleep an hour
when his shoulder was shaken by his boatswain.
He was a man who never swore ; had he been, he
would have sworn now ; he merely sat up and
asked what was the matter,
1
226
The Mystery of the Island
" Boat alongside, sir. Men want to come o
board."
" These are your Chilian customs," he sai
ironically. "Tell the custom-house officers t
come on board and take any liberty they like.
He then roughly dressed himself and went o
deck; two or three sailors came round wit
lanthorns : one person from the shore was alread
on board, but Captain Killick could not see hii
clearly.
The person spoke. " Sir, I saw your flag, an
I came off in a whale-boat with some Indian
and my dog. I am an officer in her Majesty
navy—and "
" Hold up those lanthorns," said Killick quieth
They held them up as he directed, and the
shone on the merry face of Clare Smythe.
CHAPTER XXXI
TOWARDS THE QUEST
^ APTAIN KILLICK had got Clare, which
was the main objedt of hi's voyage ; he
had also got Clare's dog Lion, who had
been put on board by some process only known
to dogs and sailors, and who was hunting a loose
chicken, with the cook in hot pursuit. The thing
ended like a circus race ; they all won. The dog
caught the chicken and the cook caught the dog.
Then Captain Killick retired into his cabin and
wrote a letter to London saying that Clare was
safe; then he went over the side, his boatswain
carrying a lanthorn, and paid the crew hand¬
somely, giving the coxswain the letter to post at
Valdivia. Then he went on board again; and
the crew of the whale-boat, by a process only
known to themselves, upset the whale-boat, and
fought in the water with knives for Captain
Killick's money. But of this Captain Killick
never knew anything.
228 The Mystery of the Island
When he came into his saloon again Clare was
talking eagerly to Lord Marcus. He at once
stopped the conversation and ordered supper,
saying, " Our boy must tell us all about it to¬
morrow morning." But Clare was not to be put
off in this way. He put them in possession of all
his adventures after he had passed the Chilian
frontier, which were few. He had gone from
ranche to ranche without any difficulty, and so
had come to Valdivia, dog and all.
He had not half finished his adventures when
they felt the screw throbbing, and Lord Marcus
said,
" Are you going into harbour to-night ? "
"No," said Captain Killick coolly; "I am on
my route for Valparaiso. Clare, boy, go to bed,
and we will hear the rest to-morrow morning."
Clare obeyed, not unwillingly. Lord Marcus
and Captain Killick remained alone in the cabin.
"I have written," said Captain Killick, "home
from Valdivia, to say that I have got the boy
Clare. Now I shall go to Valparaiso, and
then "
" What will you do, then ? " said Lord Marcus.
" I do not know."
Towards the Quest
229
" I have made up my mind to speak to you,"
said Lord Marcus. " Draw nearer to me. Can
anyone hear us ? "
Not a soul," said Captain Killick.
There ensued a long and eager conversation,
carried on almost entirely by Lord Marcus, dur¬
ing which Killick's face assumed a variety of
expressions. At one time he seemed doubtful,
at another confident; but at last he said, "This
sailing-master of yours is in your confidence.
Let us have him down.
Lord Marcus stepped to the door of the cabin
and called for Mr. Pritchard. That gentleman
was assisting Captain Killick's sailing-master in
navigating the ship; he came down from the
quarter-deck at once. The curtains were drawn
before the cabin windows, and the confabulation
went on. It ended in this manner :—
Captain Killick turned to James Pritchard and
said, " If you know all this, why have you never
turned it to your own advantage ? "
" Because I wish to turn it to the advantage of
others—to the advantage of those who have been
kind to me; Lord Marcus here for instance,
Captain and Mrs. Smythe."
230 The Mystery of the Island
" What do you know of the Smythes ? " asked
Killick.
" They were kind to me, that is all; and I
could not do it alone. I wanted Lord Marcus.
I could never have kept a foreign crew in order
without him, and an English crew would have
understood every word we said. Now, we have
failed, and have come across you. You are the
man to do it."
" In the end, however," said Captain Killick,
" your objedts are merely mercenary. Lord
Marcus here, as I understand you, was to have
been merely your tool. Now you want me. I
am a tool with a cutting edge, and so, play no
fool's tricks with me. I want ultimate proofs of
this matter. I do not want to be made a fool of.
I am rich, but I do not see why some others
should not be richer."
They retired into Captain Killick's cabin.
When they came out again James Pritchard was
adjusting his braces, and Captain Killick had
something in his hand which puzzled the on-
looking steward—something which shone like a
star.
They were very little time at Valparaiso, only
Towards the Quest
231
sufficient to coal there, which was done in twenty-
four hours. Captain Killick wrote home to Mrs.
Smythe a singularly short letter, to Mabel a
longer one, containing such things as a lover
writes to his fiancee. The gist of the letter to
Mrs. Smythe was simply a resume of the one he
had written from Valdivia—that he had got Clare,
who was quite well, and that he was going to
make for Melbourne and come home that way.
He gave no reasons for his most singular deter¬
mination.
They cleared for Melbourne, but they never
were heard of there. Ships came and went three
or four times between Callao and Melbourne, but
they brought no news of the Snake. It was
perfectly obvious, both at Melbourne and Callao,
that the Snake had struck on a reef, and was lost.
CHAPTER XXXII.
CAPTAIN SMYTHE'S RETURN
f^APTAIN SMYTHE had arrived home and
had reported himself at once to the Port-
Admiral ; he met with an extremely cool
reception, and was informed that he must stand
his court-martial in a week's time.
For that he was prepared of course, and he
knew that it would go hard with him. He had
heard no news which he cared to hear for a long
time, and he felt that he was getting seriously ill.
It was with a sickening heart that he knocked at
his own door in London; he had telegraphed to
his wife from Southampton, but had received no
answer.
The door was opened by a footman. This
rather surprised him. " Is your mistress at
home ? " he asked, and the answer was " Yes."
He was shown into his own drawing-room; he
hardly knew it; the furniture was his certainly,
but the nick-nacks and china belonged to some
Captain Smythe's Return 233
one else ; he had hardly time to notice these faCts
when a strange lady, beautifully dressed, glided
into the room, and stood with astonishment de¬
picted plainly on her handsome good-humoured
countenance.
"I beg your pardon," she said, "the man
said it was Sir George Hetherington, whom I
expedted."
" No, madam, I am Captain Smythe."
" My landlord ! " she exclaimed. " Why, my
dear sir, we thought that you were dead. Wel¬
come to your own house, a thousand times
welcome."
" But madam, where are my wife and children?"
" They are at Greenwich," she said with sur¬
prise, not realizing that he knew nothing; " and
I saw her last week when I paid her my rent.
She is very ill, and must be moved. Why what
a foolish person I am; she has heard nothing
from you, so you, of course, have heard nothing
from her. She begins to believe you to be dead."
" Good heavens! but why is she at Green¬
wich ?"
" Why, you see," said Mrs. Aubrey, " you did
not leave her any money; at least, so my friend
234 The Mystery of the Island
her brother told me, and she had to let this
house to me and go into lodgings."
" I left her five thousand pounds!" said Smythe
aghast. " Robert must have known that."
"Well, I cannot understand it; you had better
go to her at once; or stay, that would be rather
sudden ; let me go with you and break the good
news to her, would not that be better ? "
" It would indeed—but—"
" But you mean you dislike troubling me. We
will talk of that another time." She rang the bell,
and when the man came, ordered her carriage
instantly, and bade him bring some wine.
" For you are ill and overdone," she said;
" your face is pinched, and you are shivering.
You have strangely,enough brought the first news
of your own safety, unloss the Globe has come."
It was on the hall table, and she brought it.
Sure enough there was the news, only four or
five lines stating the truth, and three more con¬
taining the highest praise of himself.
They drove towards Greenwich, and Mrs.
Aubrey told him everything which she knew
about his wife and daughter; how nobly Mrs.
Smythe had borne up against everything, and
Captain Smythe's Return
235
how heroically Mabel was behaving; at the end
of the street she left him and went on foot to
Mrs. Smythe's lodgings.
Things had gone on from bad to worse with
that good lady; she had disliked troubling her
brother for money, and the housekeeping had
suffered in consequence. She had denied herself
many things which were necessary for her, to
keep the children well. Mabel and she had many
long conferences together about ways and means,
not always successful. Mabel had grown shabby,
not untidy, and their landlady, Miss Rossiter, was
very hard on them. Mrs. Smythe never moved
out of the house, her health would not permit it.
She dreaded the rapidly approaching day when
she would have to go into mourning, but she
stoutly refused to do anything of the kind as yet.
Mrs. Aubrey paid her rent royally, but it was
all gone as soon as it was received. Mabel and
the children were subdued and quiet, and yet she
was so nervous that she was glad when they were
in bed. Things had been at the worst with her
for so long that she was calmly resigned to them ;
she was incapable of abtion, and so did nothing.
A doctor would have been of great service to her,
236 The Mystery of the Island
but she could not afford to pay one. She let
things drive and never held up her hand.
She was in this state one afternoon, lying on
the sofa, looking at the river when Mabel came
to her, and said that some one wished to speak
to her, turning round she saw Mrs. Aubrey, and
wished her elsewhere.
" I am sorry to disturb you, Mrs. Smythe," she
said, " but the fadt is that I must ask you to
get up and come with me on very important
business.
" Have they put an execution in your house? "
said Mrs. Smythe. " My brother will pay that,
Let us go to him at once. I have been dreading
this." She rose, and bade Mabel fetch her
walking things.
"No! nothing of the kind has happened. I
want you to come down into the parlour alone."
Mrs. Smythe rose, and walked steadily down
stairs. When they were alone together. Mrs.
Smythe said : " I suppose the end has come ? "
" Zixadtly," said Mrs. Aubrey ; " now do take it
like a brave woman, for it seems to me that he is
very ill."
"Who?"
Captain Smythe's Return 237
"Why, your husband. You want every energy
of which you are possessed. Do brace yourself
up to it, for your children's sake as well as your
own. Shall I fetch him ? "
She nodded, and stood against the chimney-
piece. Mrs. Aubrey ran to the end of the street,
brought Captain Smythe, pushed him into the
parlour, shut the door, and with one word of
caution to Mabel, left the house and drove away.
Mabel did not know what had happened, but
doing as she was told, went upstairs and kept
Ethel and Matilda quiet.
In half-an-hour she heard her mother's voice,
clear and quiet as of old, calling at the bottom
of the stairs, " Mabel, bring down your sisters.
Your father is come home, and he wants to see
you."
She came down with them. Her mother gave
her and her children the caution that they were
to be very quiet, and they were so. When they
came into the room, they did not know him;
he kissed them, and sent them away again.
An attorney was fetched, who did what was
necessary, and he was followed by a doctor.
There was money enough now, and the best
238
The Mystery of the Island
physicians were had from London, but it seemed
that all the money and all the doctors in the
world could not help Captain Smythe just now.
That night he was delirious, but in his delirium
he only harped on one theme—his court-martial.
He kept on asking for Captain Killick, and said
that if he had not given him some chart that
he would have been safe. He harped so per¬
sistently on this one theme, that a doftor, wise in
his generation, said that his delusion would out¬
last the fever, and that he would remain mad over
it. Another dodtor, however, took quite a different
view of the case; he examined the delirious man
on the subjedt of this chart, and came to the
conclusion that Captain Smythe, although highly
excited, knew perfectly well what he was talking
about, and that, if he could only remember it all
when he got well, it would be for the benefit of
navigation.
Meanwhile Mrs. Smythe had got perfectly well
with most singular rapidity, and forgot all about
her late troubles in her present ones.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
COURT-MARTIAL
APTAIN SMYTHE'S life hung in the
balance for a long time, and of course
the court-martial was indefinitely de¬
ferred ; but his constitution triumphed over
everything, and the day of recovery and the day
of trial could neither be deferred.
He was assisted in preparing his defence by a
brilliant young officer of his own training, who,
as Mabel suspedted, would gladly have changed
places with Captain Killick in his relations to her.
He did his best, but it was useless; there were
one or two men in the court who disliked Captain
Smythe and his whole school as go-ahead, push¬
ing, enterprising officers, who would not let
matters alone, and gave endless trouble. One
of the most offensively adtive of them had come
to grief, and they were not sorry for it.
Captain Smythe was asked for his sword. He
replied simply that he had none ; that he had lost
it with his ship.
240
The Mystery of the Island
The charge against him was that he had
deliberately put his ship's head the wrong way
when entering the harbour of St. Juan in a gale
of wind ; that he had steered his ship straight
on to a bar of rocks laid down on the Admiralty
chart which was before him, and did then and
there lose the ship with certain of her people.
The evidence was conclusive against him ; not
a man could speak for him. Even the intrepid
Darrel, who had calmly told his own captain
that he would swear to anything for him if it
were any use, was forced to go against him.
There seemed no hope, and enemies wondered
what defence he would set up, and his friends
felt disconsolate.
His defence was very simple, and took every
one utterly by surprise. He respectfully sub¬
mitted to the court that the rocks laid down
on the Admiralty chart did not exist, whereas the
rocks on which he was wrecked were laid down in
the Admiralty chart as clear water; of that he was
ready to take his oath from the most carefully
made observations taken since the wreck, the
memoranda of which he had brought home with
him. In the confusion arising from the wreck
Court-Martial
24I
and his subsequent travelling and illness, he said
that his mind had been in a partial state of
oblivion about the circumstances, but his mind
was clear now: and such was the state of the
case. He was absolutely certain about the non¬
existence of those rocks, and his judgment had
been borne out by the result. The other reef
which had ruined him was not laid down ; there¬
fore, he added, the whole and entire blame rested
with the incompetent officer who had made the
survey and not with himself.
How did he know of the non-existence of those
rocks, which were laid so clearly down in the
Admiralty chart ?
From a corrected chart left him by a late
officer of the Royal Mail service.
"Then," said one of the enemies, "you pre¬
ferred the chart of an unknown commander in
the merchant service to the authorised chart of
the Admiralty, by which you were instructed to
sail? "
" Indubitably," said Captain Smythe with the
greatest coolness. " I had studied both charts,
and I knew both the men who had made them.
I knew the one to be an incompetent person,
242 The Mystery of the Island
who had only been in the place once for three
days; and I knew the other, the Royal Mail man,
to be a highly trained, scientific sailor, who had
put into the gulf very many times in rough
weather. In a moment of extreme danger I did
the best I could think of for my ship's company,
and gave the order now sworn to by the witnesses.
I passed over the rocks marked in the Admiralty
chart, and was wrecked five miles to leeward of
them on a spot which that same chart gives as
open water with ten fathoms. The man who made
that chart should be tried, not I."
His friends were surprised at the ability of his
defence; but it was all of no use ; there was only
his ipse dixit for it all.
He was recalled after an hour and had his
sentence read to him; he was to lose three years'
seniority and be severely reprimanded, which was
accordingly done with extreme pleasure by the
president, who was one of his greatest enemies.
He returned quite quietly to his saddened
house, and having announced the fadt to his
family took no more notice of it one way or
another, but commenced a severe course of
scientific study.
Court-Martial 243
Two days after the finding of the court-martial,
theirs was the happiest house in London. He
had moved his family back to a pleasanter house
in Pimlico, and he used every morning to walk
up to his own house to fetch such letters as might
have come there for him ; one morning he got
the letter which Captain Killick had written from
Valparaiso. (The Valdivia letter turned up about
six months afterwards, nearly illegible from salt¬
water). Clare was safe and well.
Opposite the Admiralty, as he was striding
along, he met three officers arm-in-arm, one of
whom was the president of his court-martial.
He looked so radiantly happy that his enemy
was greatly disappointed. " What new slice of
luck has that fellow got hold of now?" he growled
to the other two.
So the peaceful time glided away, and yet they
heard nothing more of Captain Killick or Clare.
" Why did he not write from Melbourne ? " said
Captain Smythe to himself frequently. The reason
was quite plain to those who were in the secret;
they never went near Melbourne at all, though
they had at first intended to do so; they were
expedited at Melbourne, and when they were not
244 The Mystery of the Island
heard of at that port or at any other, the colonists
and the Chilians gave them up for lost. This
rumour reached Captain Smythe's ears, but he
carefully kept it to himself; it was extremely
unlikely that such a sailor as Killick should make
4 fiasco in running across the Pacific with only
two islands, Easter and Norfolk, in his probable
route; still, when it was announced in the ship¬
ping intelligence that all hope had been given up
at Melbourne, gloom fell upon the household
again, and it was poor Mabel's turn to pine and
wear away; her attention to her mother in their
previous troubles was repaid tenfold.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE MYSTERY OF PELSART'S ISLAND IS SOLVED
AT LAST
EFORE leaving Valparaiso a careful selec¬
tion was made among the men, Lord
Marcus naming one, and Captain Killick
another, until the crew was reduced one half;
the others were paid off, and allowed handsome
passage money to England.
The present crew, composed of one-half of
Lord Marcus's South of Ireland sailors, and one-
half of Killick's picked men-of-warsmen, were
not apparently selected for their good looks or
their superior seamanship (they were all good),
but for a quality which was a sine qua non with
the two owners, trustworthiness and good humour;
with these men on board, well coaled and pro¬
visioned they sailed away, and when off Easter
Island had a consultation—it was determined not to
make Melbourne or any other large port at all, but
make at once for Pelsart's Islands; it was a very
long voyage, but they were perfectly fit for it.
246
The Mystery of the Island
This had happened : Lord Marcus had confided
the secret of Pelsart's Island to Captain Killick
on condition of being taken there, and a certain
agreement was come to between them and James
Pritchard.
Their voyage was extremely favourable; they
put into Norfolk Island, and got water, vegetables,
and fresh meat from the islanders, the descendants
of the mutineers of the Bounty ; it was rather out
of their course, but they wished to be by themselves.
They sailed down the East Coast of Australia, the
land with it pleasant farms and towns provokingly
in sight ; turning westward, they passed Wilson's
Promontory, and left the land again, only sighting
it once more at Cape Leeuwin after a fast run of
1,200 miles; two days more saw them snugly
anchored at the old ground at Pelsart's Islands.
They determined to lose no time, and act coolly
as if there was nothing the matter. Lord Marcus
would go bail for his Irishmen with his life ; and
Captain Killick had been overheard to say to
Pritchard that he was so anxious to get home to
marry Mr. Clare Smythe's sister, that if they made
a decent passage he intended to make the men a
present of twenty pounds apiece ; of course they
The Mystery of Pels art's Island solved at last 247
were not such idiots as not to see that there was
something in the wind which was no business of
theirs ; but it was unanimously and tacitly agreed
that it was bad manners to talk about it.
Captain Killick, Lord Marcus, Clare, and
Pritchard took the gig by themselves, next
morning, and rowed on shore. They took with
them a large leather bag and two spades, and with
nothing else they disappeared behind the sand-hills.
"Now," said Lord Marcus, "I am dying to
know the great secret. I hunted over every
inch of the ground, and I could find nothing."
" I took uncommonly good care that neither
you or any one else should," said Pritchard.
" When I first found the boxes the sand had
been blown from them, and each one was stand¬
ing on a pyramid of sand, as you have seen
common stones in the desert. Any human being,
the most careless, would have seen them a long
way off. Mine happened to be the first footstep
which had passed that way, after they were
uncovered by the wind. Since they were buried
it is evident that the scrub has grown up and
directed the wind in one way. I at once, seeing
the way in which the sand was drifting, moved
248
The Mystery of the Island
them all except the smallest into the lee of that
belt of scrub, while I put in this stake to mark
the spot. I buried them about a foot deep, and
you see that the sand has not deceived me, it
has drifted over them, falling in the rear of the
scrub. We shall find the six boxes under that
heap of sand. The smallest of all, the seventh,
I broke open some years ago with your axe,
Lord Marcus ; you know the result."
Clare and James Pritchard began digging
stoutly.
" Bear a hand, cousin," said James Pritchard.
" Cousin!" said Clare, pausing.
" It is only a way we have of talking among one
another at sea," said James Pritchard.
Clare thought no more about it, though he
had never heard that term of endearment used
among sailors before. Pritchard never made
such a mistake again, and Clare never knew
until years afterwards that Pritchard was his
own first cousin.
One hour's easy digging and they came on
the first box. It was a strong oak box, about a
foot long, eight inches wide, and the same deep,
hooped with iron. Captain Killick quickly forced
The Mystery of Pels art's Island solved at last 249
it open with a wedge and hammer which he had
brought with him. It was three-quarters full of
gold moidores, on the top of which lay a small
leather bag, which he untied, and emptied the con¬
tents on his handkerchief. What were the contents ?
Ten rubies as large as your fore-finger nail,
and an emerald as large as a stout man's thumb.
They looked at one another and said nothing.
As Captain Killick pointed out, there was nearly
£1,800 lying on his pocket-handkerchief.
The mystery of Pelsart's Island was solved.
James Pritchard had discovered these boxes when
a convidt, and had guessed the value of them by
the smallest of them which he had broken open
with Lord Marcus's axe. The money which he had
got from the sale of what he found there he had not
spent badly, for he helped Mrs. Smythe when she
sorely needed it. The original lazy want of energy,
the great fault of his character, prevented his
abting energetically about the matter, and so Lord
Marcus D'Este heard a little, and at last, after
many years, James Pritchard simply drifted by a
series of accidents into the revelation of the whole
fadts of his singular discovery, for the value of
which even he was totally unprepared.
CHAPTER XXXV.
CONCLUSION
HE Danais, the ship which was sent out
to search for the survivors of the War-
hawk was, if slow, sure. She met with
a chapter of accidents so long that we cannot
write it down here. She, however, contrived to
keep on the surface of the water, not by her own
merits, but from the fadt that she was commanded
by a first-class captain of the Smythe type, with
officers and crew to match.
He made all haste to the Gulf of St. Juan,
and so was there not many months after the
wreck. He examined the whole scene carefully,
and before proceeding into the Pacific wrote a
despatch which he sent home by the Fantome,
then relieved from her three years' service at
Melbourne.
The conclusion of the despatch was this :—
"A more disgraceful piece of hydrography than
the present chart of the Gulf of St. Juan does
Conclusion
251
not exist. Captain Smythe's ship lies upon rocks
which are marked in the chart as carrying ten
fathoms. The Dolphin Rocks do not exist at all."
Captain Smythe's character as a sailor was
half-cleared by this, but what did it matter ?
Clare and Killick were lost, and there seemed
no hope of ever seeing them again: Mabel was
losing her health, and Mrs. Smythe was once
more beginning to despair. Was it possible
that Killick had been unable to take his yacht
across the Pacific ? Was Clare never to be with
him again ?
He used to go up to his own house, now in
the occupation of Mrs. Aubrey, very often, to
see what letters had been left there. One
morning she met him in the hall, with a letter
in her hand. He saw that it bore the Cape post¬
mark, and he was going to tear it open.
" Do not open it yet," she said in great agita¬
tion. " I want you to go into the other room
first; I hardly know what I say. Go in there."
He obeyed mechanically. He had scarcely
opened the door when Captain Killick and Clare
laid hold of him, both talking at once.
******
252
The Mystery of the Island
It was all over. His ship had come home,
and every being he cared about in the world was
safe. I pass over the scene which followed.
Under such circumstances one man behaves
much like another.
Two men were in that room whom he did not
recognize — Lord Marcus D'Este and James
Pritchard. Lord Marcus introduced himself
before Captain Killick had a chance, as an
Irishman more mad than the rest of his fellow-
countrymen. Killick solemnly confirmed this
statement, and they all Lughed at the joke, poor
as it was. Then came the trial.
James Pritchard was presented to his uncle.
Captain Smythe did not in the least degree
recognize him, and Killick and Lord Marcus
breathed more freely.
What remains to be told ? Little or nothing.
The Smythes were profoundly happy for a time,
though as a united family with three aftive
sailors in it, they have even now quite enough to
give them anxiety.
Captain Killick claimed the hand of Mabel,
and having wealth greater than he had before,
with considerable Parliamentary influence, he
Conclusion
253
devoted the period of his courtship to leading
the Admiralty such a life that they reversed the
sentence of the court-martial on Captain Smythe,
and offered Captain Killick the last new ship,
which he declined commanding, on the ground
that she was no better than a tea-kettle. The
difference between Captain Killick and the British
Admiralty continues to this day, and it is sup¬
posed by well-informed persons will only end by
the death of that gallant officer or a revolution.
Mabel has always shown high fighting powers,
and backs up her husband most loyally. It must
not be supposed, however, that Captain Killick
refuses to serve his country. He is always afloat,
and in fadt my lords are never easy when he is
on shore.
The settlements which he made on Mabel
astonished even her father, and when he pre¬
sented her before their marriage with fourteen
thousand pounds' worth of jewels, Captain
Smythe could only say that he hoped that
Captain Killick could afford them, but that he
was not the man to stand in his child's light.
The mystery of Pelsart's Island was studiously
kept from him. He was one of those preux
254
The Mystery of the Island
chevalier men who might, in his extreme loyalty,
have raised a question about "treasure trove,"
and handed the whole " find" over to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, for the sole use
of her Majesty. Captain Smythe is in utter
ignorance of the whole matter.
Lord Marcus D'Este was very quickly intro¬
duced to the family. He immediately, publicly,
and on the spot, proposed marriage to Ethel,
before he had been in the room five minutes.
Great laughter followed, and Ethel told him to
say the same thing two years after. Oddly
enough he did so; and Ethel is Lady Marcus
d'Este, and will almost certainly be Lady
Dunorrin. Whether she becomes a countess or
not, she has got the kindest, gentlest, and best
of husbands. He does not travel much now;
he generally makes a run to the Rocky Mountains
or the Saskatchewan in the summer, leaving her
at Denver, Sioux City, or Ottawa, while he goes
hunting. Last summer he went up to the
Mackenzie River salmon fishing, and so missed
joining the Ardtic expedition ; but he is a man
who never goes very far from his home.
Captain Smythe and Clare are pretty much
Conclusion
255
at sea, gaining golden opinions. When Clare
is at home he is in immense request among his
nephews and nieces. He can tell them many
stories, but the stories they like best of all are
about Patagonia—about the two chiefs, one of
whom was his friend though he was unkind to
him, and the other who would have murdered
him though he pretended to be kind. Pashlick-
yank is the subjedt of many prayers among
Mabel's younger children. Let us hope that he
will profit bv them, for heaven knows he needs to.
In a quiet corner of the garden of the house
at Southsea, where Mrs. Smythe and Mrs. Killick
live together, waiting for their husbands to come
home, there is a slab, and on it is written—
"LION,
The first English dog which ever crossed
The Patagonian Corderilla.
As he was faithful in life,
So he is remembered in death."
A quiet young man is often seen about the
Smythes' house, when not travelling. He is a
general favourite there, and whenever Captain
Smythe and he happens to be at home together,
Captain Smythe has great talks with him, as one
of the great theoretical sailors of the age. Lord
256 The Mystery of the Island
Marcus and Captain Killick know who he is,
but no one else does. Clare likes to listen to
his dreamy theories, though he thinks that his
father ranks his practical abilities too high. Mrs.
Smythe always remembers her nephew, who helped
her when she was so hard pushed, in her prayers;
but she never dreams, any more than her husband,
that the handsome man who sometimes takes her
in to dinner is no other than the innocent convi(5t
who disgraced them so.
So the discoverer of the mystery of Pelsart's
Island has a mystery of his own more wonderful
than the other. And if you look into your own
heart, you may possibly find a secret there, to
which the discovery of a few boxes of jewels is
nothing.
W, J. Southwood & Co., "Dynamo" Works, Exeter
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