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2020THE UNIVERSITY

OF ILLINOIS

LIBRARY

82 3

THE

ADVENTURES

OF LOUIS BLAKE

’TlaurjiNEW NOVELS

Betty Brent, Typist. By “Rita.”

Before Adam. By Jack London, author of “The

Call of the Wild.”

The Methods of Mr. Ames. By the Author
of “The Adventures of John Johns.”

The Lily and the Devil. By Eleanor Wyndham.

Shorty McCabe. By Sewell Ford. Illustrated
by F. V, Wilson.

The Crowned Skull. By Fergus Hume, author
of “Lady Jim of Curzon Street.”

The Chain Invisible. By Ranger Gull, author
of “When it was Dark.”

The Speculator. By Olive Christian Malvery,
author of “ The Soul Market.”

The Queen’s Friend. By Helene Vacaresco,
author of “The King’s Wife.”

Lethbridge of the Moor. By Maurice Drake,
author of “ The Salving of a Derelict.”

Lady Lee. By Florence Warden.

Tangled Destinies. By Dick Donovan.

The Weaning. By James Blyth, author of “Juicy
Joe.”

The White Wedding. By M. P. Shiel, author
of “The Last Miracle.”

The Tears of Desire. By Heath Hosken and

Coralie Stanton, authors of “ A Widow by Choice.”

Julian Winterson (Coward and Hero). By

Charles Gleig, author of “ The Nancy Manoeuvres.”

The House at the Corner. By Alice Maud
Meadows.

The Empress of the Andes. By Florence
Warden.

The Cottage on the Fells. By H. de Vere

Stacpoole, author of “ The Blue Lagoon.”

The Future Mrs. Dering. By Thomas Cobb,
author of “ Mrs. Erricker’s Reputation.”

The Isle of Lies. By M. P. Shiel.

Mr. Saffery’s Disciple. By L. Parry Truscott.

The Wild Widow. By Gertie de S. Wentworth-
James.

The Tavistocks. By E. Aceituna Griffin.

A Laughing Matter. By Shan F. Bullock.THE ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE		
	BY  LOUIS BECKE  AUTHOR OF  “ NOTES FROM MY SOUTH SEA LOG,” “SKETCHES IN NORMANDY,”  “ BY REEF AND PALM.”	
LONDON  T. WERNER LAURIE CLIFFORD’S INN		BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Notes from my South Sea Log

Second Edition—Illustration and Map, 6s. net.

The Times says :—“In the Pacific, among the islands,or at sea in
strange schooners, or loafing in the slums of the ports, one meets, as
one meets nowhere else, the waif and the outlaw. There is romance
in the Pacific, in every ship and island. A man cannot rest a moment
at a tavern table in any Pacific port, without meeting someone from
the seas, whose eyes are yet bright with strange adventure. The
spirit of the Pacific was in Robert Louis Stevenson, but perhaps no
man has brought that disreputable ocean more closely home to
English readers than Mr. Louis Becke. His 'Notes from my South
Sea Log consists of short stories, sketches, occasional memories,
gleaned from the log-books kept by Mr. Becke when he sailed those
waters many years ago. In writing down his memories he has kept
strictly to the telling of his tale. He has refrained from any of the
fine writing, or description, for which his tales provide so admirable
an opportunity. He does not paint, but suggests his backgrounds,
and this so cleverly that the reader has ever the illusion of being
near surf and sunny coral. We would not care to say which of these
stories is the best, for so many are very good ; but perhaps his art
is most delicate in the story ‘ Bay o’ Fundy Days ’ with which the
book begins. It describes the author’s boyhood on a part of the
Australian coast, where a lad might grope upon a reef for aliotis
shells when the tide was unusually low. As a description of jolly
boyhood it will rank with any of Mr. Kenneth Grahame’s sketches ;
but with this difference—Mr. Kenneth Grahame’s immortals only
dream of what Mr. Becke actually did. One great merit of these
stories is that they are, in the best sense, historical. The South Sea
Islands have changed very greatly in the last thirty or forty years.
The missionaries and steamships (and the leprosy and small-pox) have
made them very different from what they were. Mr. Becke paints
them for us as they were of old. He shows us the natives not quite
converted and the seas not quite policed, and the wastrels wandering
from isle to atoll. Even more clearly does he show us himself, the
supremely happy man, sitting in a little boat, in the bluest of blue
water, pulling up wonderful fishes from the green sea pools. His
book must be placed with Tyfee and Omoo, and the Is'and Nights*
Entertainments as one of the guide-books to the isles of bliss.”THE ADVENTURES OF
LOUIS BLAKE

CHAPTER I.

With gloomy faces Vern and I were sitting by our
bedroom window, gazing listlessly at the crowded
street below. For nearly a quarter of an hour we
had scarcely spoken a word, and the tea and hot
scones which our landlady had brought up to us
an hour ago were untouched and cold, for neither
of us felt inclined to eat.

“ Louis,” said my brother presently, as he leant
forward and looked out of the window and down
the long and busy Market Street, “ all these people
seem to be hurrying along towards California
Street. There must be another battle going on.
I hope the Prussians will not win so easily this
time; shall we go out and see what is up on the
bulletin boards at the Bulletin office? ”

I looked at the clock. “No,” I said, “it is
nearly six; let us wait until Alf comes home, then
we can all go out together. He wouldn’t like it to
come in and find we had gone out without waiting
to tell him what has happened.”

Vern nodded. “Yes, I had forgotten that; we
must wait. Hallo, here comes a lot of newsboys
with ‘ Extras.’ Go and get one, there’s a good
chap.”2 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Just as I had reached the door, I met Mrs. Lynch,
our landlady, with an ‘ Extra ’ in her hand. She
was a stout old lady, an Irish-American, and
usually had a smile playing about her fat, good-
humoured face; but at this moment it wore a most
lugubrious expression. Entering the room, she
seated herself with a weary thump on the horse-
hair sofa, and extended the narrow slip of paper
to my brother.

“ ’Tis bad, bad news agin, me boys. Thim
rascally Proosians are winnin’ hands down. Ah,
it is a terrible bloody an’ murtherous war; but
praise be to God, the Proosians have lost a power
of men.”

The day was the 18th of August, 1870, and the
“ extra” contained a brief account of the murder-
ous struggle at Gravelotte and St. Privat, in which
200,000 Germans, under King William, met
120,000 French, and gained a victory which cost
them 20,000 men, the French losing nearly 15,000.

Vern handed back the slip to Mrs. Lynch.

“ I suppose it is true, Mrs. Lynch, and I am
very sorry.”

“ Av coorse ye are, me lad—sure, every dacent
person is sorry. Now, my man, as ye know, was
at Gettysburg, an’ there was a lot of Germans in
his company who fought well enough, ’tis true;
but he do not be for havin’ any likin’ for thim,
down to this very day, anny more than mesilf.”
Then, as she heaved a sigh that sounded like the
yawn of an elephant, she caught sight of the un-
touched tea-tray, and looked at us in turn in a
kindly, inquisitive manner.

“What be the matther wid yez the day, lads?ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 3

Sure an’ it’s mighty quiet yez been since yez come
in—no laughin’, nor talkin’, nor scrappin’. Is it
not feelin’ well, yez are? ”

Vern looked at me, I looked at him, and Mrs.
Lynch waited for an answer. Then she repeated
her question.

“ What iver is the matther with yez, boys? Sure
yez both look as if yez had picked up a dime an’
lost a twinty-dollar piece. I hope it isn’t sickenin’
fur th’ ager, yez are. ’Tis a bad month, is
August.”

Vern, being two years older than I was—I was
fifteen—after another “shall-I?” sort of look at
me, answered for us both.

“ We have lost our billets, Mrs. Lynch.”

The landlady put both her hands on her knees,
and stared at us open-mouthed.

0 Is it the sack yez got? An’ the pair av yez?
An’ on the same day? Well, that’s bad, it is, to
be sure. An’ what might be the rayson—av yez
don’t moind me askin’ ? ”

“ Not at all, Mrs. Lynch,” said my brother,
“ we don’t mind telling you a bit; but we’ll find it
pretty stiff with our brother when he comes home.”

“ Ah now, don’t be fur goin’ an’ conjhurin’ up
throuble—wait till ut comes. Sure the brother
won’t be hard on yez, I’m thinkin’; it’s a kind
heart he has, though my man and meself do be
sayin’ sometimes that he has the face av a judge i’
th’ county coort. Now just tell me how it all come
about—but wait wan minute, while I tell the girl
to make yez some fresh tay. The brother will be
here prisintly, an’ yez all have it together.”

Her bustling cheerfulness helped to raise our4 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

depressed spirits, and as the good old woman, after
giving her orders to the hired girl, returned to the
room and sat down, Vern, putting on an exceed-
ingly virtuous air, and jingling some money in his
trousers pocket, said:

“ I did not get the run exactly, Mrs. Lynch, but
Captain Olmsted has sold his business to another
marine surveyor—sold it very suddenly and un-
expectedly, and is going east to settle in New
York. This afternoon he told me of it, and said
he had asked the new man if he would keep me on;
but he won’t—he has his own clerk. So Captain
Olmsted said he was very sorry, gave me a month’s
salary—and here I am.”

“ Did he give ye a characther? ”

“ Yes, and spoke very kindly to me, Mrs. Lynch.
Now Louis, here,” and Vern’s freckled face ex-
panded into a broad grin, “ has got the sack for
being a ‘ lazy, dead-and-alive young galoot.’ ”

“ Dry up, Spotty,” I said angrily, “ I can tell
Mrs. Lynch without you putting your oar in, as
usual.”

“ Didn’t you say so? ” began my brother, when
Mrs Lynch interrupted.

” Aisy, now, aisy. Don’t be fur quarrelin’
agin, boys. Lave him alone, Vern; he’s got the
flure.”

“ Well, I did get the sack, Mrs. Lynch. I was
stacking a pile of books at one end of the ware-
house when I picked up one about the war—I mean
the late Rebellion—and couldn’t help looking
through it, and I was just reading about the battle
of Cold Harbour, when-----”

“ A terrible, murtherin’ battle it was too.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 5

Wasn’t Peter’s cousin, Michael Foy, kilt in it?”
“ When one of the managers, who was poking
about, came along and saw me reading. He
sneaked up behind me so quietly and grabbed me
by the arm so suddenly that somehow I knocked
down a great pile of books on to the floor, which
made him mad. ‘ Say, haow long hev yew been
here ? ’ he shouted out at me, as if I had been a
mile away, and still gripping my arm. ‘ A
week,’ I said. ‘ A week, you splay-footed
galoot!’ he snarled, and looked at my English-
made boots with the perforated toe-caps. (I mean
how long hev you been loafin’ about, doin’ nothing,
in this hyar corner?’ ‘Let go my arm, and
I’ll tell you,’ I said. He let go, and then I told
him I wasn’t sure, but thought I had been reading
about a quarter of an hour. ‘ Guess yew will hev
ter quit, young feller,’ he snarled again; ‘this
concern don’t want no lazy, dead-and-alive young
galoots like yew. Jest yew come along with me
to the ca-shier and get your money. How much
are yew gettin’ fer doin’ nothing? ’ I told him he
could go and find out, for the beast spoke to me as if
I were a dog—just because I’m English. He came
along with me to the cashier’s desk, and said,
‘ Give this boy his money, Mr. Fisk. He ain’t
no good fer workin’—been spendin’ a hull week
in a corner readin’ and loafin’; ’sides thet, he’s too
sassy.’ The cashier gave me my week’s wages—
ten dollars—without a word, and I got my hat and
left; and here I am.”

Good old Mrs. Lynch gave a sympathetic “ Ah,
dear, dear me,” and then added, as she rose to go
downstairs again:6 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“ Nivir yez moind, me lads. There’s plinty av
work in ’Frisco, for every wan that wants it, an’
maybe yez’ll both get somethin’ more to yez likings.
Here’s the girl wid the tay.”

Just as she left the room, and the girl entered
with fresh tea, we heard our brother Alfred’s
knock. He came up the stairs in an unusually
quick manner for him, and as he entered the room,
and gave us a quick nod, we saw that he was pale
and looked angry. Walking over to the window,
he stood there for a few minutes with his back
turned to us, pulling his jetty black side-whiskers,
which were the fashion in those days.

Wondering what had upset him, we waited in
silence for him to speak. At last he turned, and
we then noticed that his right hand was bound
round with his handkerchief. He had kept it in
his coat pocket when he entered the room. For a
few moments he stared mechanically at the tea-
things, and said abruptly:

“ Let us have some tea, boys. You can pour it
out, Vern; I have given my hand a rather bad
knock.”

“ Have you seen the news, Alf ? ” I asked, point-
ing to the Bulletin extra, which was lying on the
tea-table.

He took it up slowly, and glanced through it;
then laid it down, and looked at us steadily.

“I have seen it, boys,” he said; “but did not
read it. I have some unpleasant news; one of
those ‘ extras ’ has cost me my billet—the firm of
Schwab and Kuhn and I have parted company.”

We stared at him in open-mouthed astonishment.

“ Why? ” we cried together.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 7

“ Because that fat little beast of a Kuhn insulted
me, and I knocked him clean down the store steps
into the gutter of Sansome Street. I only hit him
once, but it was enough for him, and for me too.”
He held up his hand. “ I’ve ripped all the skin
off my knuckles against the loathly animal’s teeth.
Schwab was there, and saw it all. He’s not a bad
fellow, for a German, but, of course, had to take
Kuhn’s part, and the result was that he gave me a
cheque, and we parted.”

I felt for the moment an almost irresistible desire
to laugh and say, “and here you are,” but prudence
restrained me.

“ What did he do? ” inquired Vern eagerly.

” Go on with the tea, and I’ll tell you. ... I
was standing at the door, talking to Schwab, when
someone passing by told us that a wire had just
come through saying that there had been a fearful
battle, and that the French had been badly beaten,
and suffered terrible losses. There were crowds of
wildly excited people waiting outside the news-
paper offices for the “ extras ” to come out, and
when they did come there was such a rush for them
that none of our boys could get one for us. At
last, however, Kuhn came tearing down from the
Merchants’ Exchange with one in his hand; then
he bounded up the steps. I turned away into the
store, for, as you know, I always avoid discussing
the war with him. But he called me back—in fact,
he ran after me, and as I wheeled round quickly, he
thrust the paper right into my face.

“ ‘ Here,’ he said, in his mongrel English, ‘ dake
dis to your vriendt Captain Dufayel, und led him
schmell id. Id vill do him mooch goot.’ I don’t8 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

suppose he meant to do so, but his dirty thumb
touched me on the nose; and, drawing back, I hit
him with all my force fair and square on his grin-
ning mouth. He went out of the door and down
the steps as if he had been fired out of a catapult,
and then rolled down the slanting asphalte side-
walk right into the gutter.”

I could no longer restrain myself, and jumped
up, tipping my chair over and all but upsetting the
table.

“And here you are!” I cried, “and here we
all are! Alf, we’re all in the same boat! We’ve
all got the sack—every blessed man-jack of us! ”

My brother stared at me as if he thought I was
off my head, and then turned to Vern, whose lips
began to quiver, and then in another second he
threw back his head and laughed till the tears
poured down his freckled face; and I, unable to
control myself, followed suit, and clutching the
rim of the table, laughed till I nearly had a fit. Alf
waited until we had ceased.

“This is all very funny,” he remarked with a
sarcastic ring in his voice; “ perhaps you will be
good enough to tell me what it all means, and
not go on making asses of yourselves.”

This partially sobered us, and Vern began to
explain, though every now and then he would
catch his breath, and I set my teeth hard to prevent
myself from breaking out again.

“ Alf,” began Vern, in a very shaky voice,
“ don’t be angry; we could not help it. But it is
quite true what Louis said. I am out of a billet;
Captain Olmsted has sold his business, and is
going east. He gave me a month’s pay and a goodADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 9

recommendation, and I came home. When I got
here I found Louis. He has got the sack—right
out, at a moment’s notice—from Bancroft’s. And
then, Alf, you—you come home, and ”

My brother Alf sprang to his feet, and again
walked to the window, and looked out of the
window. At first we thought that he was working
himself up into a rage, then we saw his back and
shoulders begin to shake, and he burst into a roar
of uncontrollable and infectious laughter.

We each sat on a chair and laughed and laughed
again in the most idiotic manner, till physical ex-
haustion compelled us to desist. Alf, the usually
grave and sometimes stern brother, was a wreck,
and for some minutes was unable to speak.

“Alf,” said Vern, in a curious, husky wheeze,
“let us tell Mrs. Lynch. She was up here just
now, telling us to keep up good hearts. We must
tell the ‘ ould woman.’ ”

Running to the landing on the stairs I called
down.

“Mrs. Lynch! Mrs. Lynch! Come upstairs
quickly. We—we—we want to tell---------” then I

began to yell again.

Pounding up the stairs she reached the door,
stood there a moment, and gazed at us with such
an expression of mingled wonder and fear that we
all nearly went into fits again.

“ Whatever is th’ matther wid yez at all, Mishter
Blake?” she asked of Alf. “Sure, me an’ the
girl heard the hullabaloo down in the kitchen. Is
it making merry yez are over yez mishfortunes ?
What is it at all, at all ? ”

“Sit down, Mrs. Lynch,” said Alf, steadyingIO ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

his voice, “ and I’ll try and tell you. We are not
lunatics, although I daresay we look like it.”

Then he told her his story, beginning about
the “extra,” and ending with his dismissal from
the firm of Schwab and Kuhn, and the big, fat old
woman’s eyes sparkled with pleasure as he de-
scribed the whole woeful appearance of Mr. Kuhn
when that gentleman was picked up out of the
gutter by his employes, and carried into the store.

“ And then, Mrs. Lynch, I come home and find
that those two young beggars here,” pointing to
Vern and myself, “ are in the same box as myself,
and----” He could go on no longer, and Mrs.

Lynch, crossing her hands across her ample
bosom, began to sway from side to side, and then
emitted such a roar of laughter that the hired girl
tore upstairs to see what was the matter.

“ Oh, dear, dear me,” she gasped at last, as she
regained her breath and wiped her streaming eyes.
“Yez ’ull be the death av me this day, yez will
indade, Misther Blake. An’ me filled up to th’
chin wid pity fur th’ two boys less than tin minutes
ago. Oh, dear, dear me; sure it ’ull kill me, av
yez don’t sthop at wanst.”CHAPTER IL

As soon as Mrs. Lynch, still declaring that we
would “ be the death of her,” had left us, we had
our tea, and then decided to take a walk down town
to see what was going on. Whilst we still con-
tinued to allude to and make merry over what had
just occurred, we agreed to discuss our future in
the evening, in the quiet of our bedroom. We
had but one, which, being very large, we shared in
common, and like our dining and sitting-room, it
overlooked Market Street. The House was within
a few minutes’ walk of our former respective places
of employment, Alfred’s being in Sansome Street,
on the city front, where, until this fateful day, he
had been manager to a German-Jewish firm of
cigar manufacturers and importers; Vern’s em-
ployer, Captain Olmsted, had his office in Cali-
fornia Street; and my brief week had been passed
in the huge wholesale and retail book store of A. L.
Bancroft and Co., in Market Street. Mrs. Lynch
supplied us with breakfast, and a cup of tea, etc.,
when we returned between five and six o’clock;
lunch and dinner we had in town at one of the many
excellent restaurants which were in Kearney, Mont-
gomery, and Clay Streets.

On this occasion, however, perhaps to celebrate
our misfortunes, we decided to spend a little more
money than usual, dine at a small but exceedingly
good and quiet establishment at the lower (and

(ii)12 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
respectable) end of Dupont Street. At this place
Alfred’s friend, Captain Dufayel, usually dined,
and my brother hoped to meet him there on this
evening. It was kept by a Frenchman, whom my
brother had known for some years (he had been
four years in San Francisco), and Vern and I,
since we had joined our elder brother, used to dine
with him at this place every Sunday, if we were in
the city on that day.

Leaving the house soon after seven o’clock, we
soon reached the Restaurant Cheval Blanc, and
found Monsieur and Madame Rolland seated
behind the caisse and poring over a fresh “ extra ”
which had just appeared. We could see that poor
Madame Rolland, a fat, tubby little woman, had
been crying, and her husband, usually so animated
and cheerful, was very depressed. They shook
hands with us, and Alf ventured upon a few sym-
pathetic remarks about the disaster to the French
arms at St. Privat, which caused Madame’s tears
to flow afresh.

The restaurant was fairly filled with Frenchmen,
whose gloomy faces and low voices told of the sad
feelings that overpowered them; and at first we
hesitated about remaining, feeling that at such a
time we should, in a measure, be out of place in a
company composed exclusively of Frenchmen.
My brother Alfred hinted this to the proprietor,
who, however, quickly reassured us and begged
us not to go away.

“Your friend, Monsieur Dufayel, will be here
to dine at half-past eight, and I shall at once
reserve a table for you all. Will you not wait? ”

6i Thank you, Monsieur Rolland,” said Alf; “ IADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 13

do wish to meet Captain Dufayel very much. I
have not seen him for quite a week. How is he ? ”

“ Not well, m’sieur; alas, not well. His health,
as you know, has not been good for the past year,
and now he frets—frets daily over these harrowing
misfortunes to our country. It is his intention to
return to France immediately he can arrange his
affairs here.”

“Yes, I know that, Mr. Rolland. It is but
natural that he should return to France to fight for
her in the day of tribulation. It is the duty of
every patriotic Frenchman. You, Mr. Rolland, I
know, would be one of the first to go were it not
for your age.”

The man’s eyes sparkled with pleasure at the
compliment, and he pressed my brother’s hand.
That he was a patriotic man, we knew, for he had
sent home several thousand francs in aid of the
French wounded. And he knew that my brother
was a strong and sincere sympathiser with France.
Why he was so, and why we shared his sentiments,
I shall relate further on.

Telling Rolland that we should return a little
before 8.30, we strolled out again to have a look at
the crowds gathered outside the offices of the Daily
Alta and other newspapers. Feeling ran high in
San Francisco over the war. The native-born
Americans and the Irish were all pro-French, and
there were frequent and sometimes fatal street en-
counters between the Irish and German residents.
The latter were very numerous in the city, and the
successive Prussian victories had made them so
excessively bumptious and overbearing that the
small French community were grossly and con-

B14 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
tinuously insulted upon every possible occasion by
the jubilant Teutons.

No fresh cablegrams about the battle having
come through, we left the excited, seething crowd,
and returned to the Cheval Blanc, where we found
Captain Dufayel awaiting us. He was a tall, thin
man, with a clean-shaven chin and long side-
whiskers. Although he looked ill and worn, he
was very cheerful, or at least seemed to be, and he
was undoubtedly pleased to see us. We all sat
down at the table reserved for us, and almost the
first thing he told was that he was leaving for
France in a few days. Then he began talking
about the war and the possibilities of France re-
trieving her terrible disasters. We listened to
him with great interest, so much so that Vern and
I were scarcely eating anything. He noticed this,
and laughingly reproached himself for talking so
much; but we begged him to continue.

“No, no,” he said, “let us talk about some-
thing else. How are you all getting on ? I have
not seen you, Blake, fora week.”

My brother told him that he had been unusually
busy, then went on to tell him about that which
had befallen us during the day. Alf was a great
mimic, and in describing the affair he imitated
Kuhn’s mongrel English so humorously that
Dufayel was much amused; but the climax was
reached when he related how, upon coming home,
he found Vern and me awaiting him—both out of
our billets.

“And now what do you propose to do?” he
asked.

“ We do not know as yet,” replied Alf, “ but weADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 15
are going to talk it over to-night. I am very much
inclined to go into the country—perhaps to
Nevada—and take these boys with me. I have
now been four years in San Francisco, and have
never yet had even a week’s holiday. I am sick of
clerking, and sick of San Francisco. I know some
of the mining men in Carson City, in Nevada—
Englishmen—and I daresay we could get into
something there and make better money than we
can here. As you know, Dufayel, there are
hundreds and hundreds of Englishmen looking for
employment in Francisco with no chance of getting
it. Britishers are not now in favour here.”

This was quite true. I do not want to weary my
readers by writing about politics, but I must
mention that the non-settlement of the Alabama
Claims by Great Britain had aroused the most bitter
feeling against England throughout the United
States, and the glowing anger was being indus-
triously fanned into flame by an unintelligent and
truculent press. The newspapers of San Francisco
—the capital of a State which, far from suffering,
had immensely benefited by the Civil War—were
especially virulent in their onslaughts on every-
thing that was British, and even Australians came
in for a share of their senseless vituperation. Every
ship that arrived in San Francisco Bay from
the •< Australian Colonies brought a number of
passengers, mostly gold-diggers and artisans, for
whom there was plenty of work in prosperous
California, while with them came a sprinkling of
professional men, and a good many clerks, etc.
Their arrival—after the question of the Alabama
Claims had reached its bitter phase—was alwaysib ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

alluded to by the ’Frisco papers in anything but
flattering terms, such as: “More Sydney Ducks
Come In ” (a Sydney Duck was the American term
for a convict from Sydney, the newspapers pro-
fessing the belief that the Colonies were still under
the regime of the convict system), “ Another Load
of Convict Spawn Dumped into the State,” or
“ More Quacking along the Wharves—Arrivals
from Sydney,” etc. There were, however, plenty
of Americans who did not share in this silly resent-
ment, and who deplored the possibility of a war
with England, not only on moral grounds, but
because they recognised the folly of the country
engaging in such a struggle so soon after it had
emerged from a long and bloody fraticidal war.

Dufayel had a sincere regard for my brother, and
took an interest in all three of us, in fact. He
agreed that the time was not a good one for us to
look for suitable employment in San Francisco,
and thought we would do well in going to Nevada.
Then he said something which pleased us greatly.

“ Before you go away,” he said, “ you ought to
take a few weeks’ holiday. Now, why not go to
my place at San Rafael. I have failed to sell it,
and so am leaving it in charge of old Maurice and
his wife until I return.” (Alas! he never re-
turned.) “Although they will have plenty to do
in the vineyard and orchard, they will gladly cook
for and look after you generally. There is, as you
know, any amount of fishing and shooting, and I
am leaving all my sporting gear. Make use of
everything as if it was your own. I shall be going
there to-morrow to give Maurice my final instruc-
tions about selling the fruit, etc. Let us all go
together.”ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 17

We were, of course, delighted, and eagerly ac-
cepted his offer. Neither Vern nor I had had a
day’s shooting or fishing since we had left Aus-
tralia, seventeen months before, whilst Alf, despite
his five-and-twenty years, was as elated as we were,
and we were all profuse in our thanks. We had
several times visited Captain Dufayel’s little fruit
ranche on Sundays, as his guests; it was a de-
lightful place, situated about three miles from the
thriving village of San Rafael, on the Contra Costa
side of San Francisco Bay. Dufayel had bought
the land for fruit-growing purposes, building him-
self a comfortable cottage thereon, and always spent
from Saturday to Monday there, away from his
business—which was that of a nautical instrument
seller.

We remained at the Cheval Blanc till a late hour;
then saying good-night to our friend and Monsieur
and Madame Rolland, we returned to our lodgings,
and at once began to make our preparations for
leaving, having to meet Dufayel at one of the
wharves at 5 a.m.

Each of us carrying a bag containing changes of
clothing, etc., we were at the wharf long before the
appointed time; and on Dufayel joining us, we
went on board a small fruit steamer, which at once
cast off and steamed away for San Rafael—twelve
miles across the noble Bay of San Francisco. Two
hours after landing we were at the ranche, revelling
amongst the fruit and drinking in the bright sun-
shine of a glorious morn.

In the afternoon Dufayel bade us farewell, as he
had to return to the city; and with warm hand-
grasps and mutual promises to correspond fre-18 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
quently, we parted on the little jetty. Standing
on the bridge of the steamer, he kept waving his
hat till he could see us no longer.

And we never saw him again, for he was fated
to fall, mortally wounded, on that red day of
December 4, when the Germans again re-took
Orleans, after a prolonged and savage combat.

I must now go back in my story for a space,
and tell how it came about that we three brothers
came to be in the City of the Golden Gate.CHAPTER III.

When he was nineteen or twenty years of age,
my brother Alfred was in the employ of a shipping
firm in the coaly port of Newcastle, New South
Wales. A severe illness, however, which nearly
proved fatal, and was caused by over-work, re-
sulted in his being sent on a long sea voyage to
recover his health. He was given his choice—
London or San Francisco—and he chose the latter.
He not only regained his health, but he liked Cali-
fornia so much that he decided to remain there,
for there was plenty of clerical work offering, and
salaries were high. Vern was then at sea, making
his first voyage as apprentice in one of the White
Star line of Aberdeen wool and passenger ships;
and I—envying him greatly when I saw him in the
glory of his brass bound suit—was attending the
Fort Street National School in Sydney, where I
was, somewhat unjustly, regarded as a lazy dunce.
The fact was, my parents were keenly anxious for
me to learn music and singing, while I loathed
both, and also the masters who endeavoured to
teach me. History and geography I liked, and
studied them eagerly, at home as well as at school,
but my stupidity at music brought me many a
severe caning. So, at the end of six months, the
music lessons were discontinued, much to the
benefit of my moral and physical welfare, for the
continual thrashings I received led me to practise
deceit to evade them, and were responsible for my

(19)20 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

contracting a terrible stutter, which threatened to
become a permanent affection. My teacher was a
particularly irascible person; he would bellow at
me like a bull, until at last I became absolutely
terrified of him. Then, in addition, he was not
only an ill-tempered, brutal fellow, but was of a
repellent appearance, dirty in his habits, and not
always sober. The canings he administered to me
were very severe, although inflicted only upon the
palm of the hand, and I think that what enraged
him so with me was that, although I was not then
a robust boy like my brother Vern, I would take
my punishment with my teeth set, and dry-eyed—
never so much as a whimper escaping my lips.
In those days, the masters of all the classes in the
public schools of New South Wales were allowed
to inflict corporal punishment upon pupils, even
for the most trivial offences; and the memories of
my brief school experiences I can only recall, even
now, with horror and disgust. I shall never forget
one instance, where a lad named Macgregor,
seventeen years of age, and who was half an idiot,
was so severely flogged by a hulking Irish master,
that he was carried out of the big class room quite
unconscious. My childish soul revolted, and the
tears streamed down my cheeks, for poor Mac-
gregor, although half-witted, was a quiet, inoffen-
sive youth. His features were dreadfully mis-
shapen from birth, and in his big hazel eyes there
was always a look of fear of some impending
danger that made me pity him. God alone knew what
he must have suffered from the idle, cruel jests
levelled at him for his looks. The only friend he
had in the school was a young English-born pupilADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 21

teacher, named Hare, who always spoke most
kindly to him, and assisted him in the preparation
of any set lessons.

When I returned home that day—we then lived
at Hunter’s Hill, on the Parramatta River, a few
miles from Sydney—I was in such a state of
nervous excitement that my mother became
alarmed. I told her of what I had witnessed, and
how, when Macgregor, in a dazed condition, had
fallen in a heap upon the floor, the master had
continued to cane him with vindictive fury.

Her grey eyes lit up with anger. Then she put
her hand gently upon my head, and said, “ There,
do not think about it any more. Go and lie down
until tea-time. I must consider whether I shall
send you to school again.”

The kind manner in which she spoke “ broke me
up ” entirely, and, giving way to tears, I confessed
my sins which, for two whole weeks, had lain
heavy upon my conscience.

“ Mother,” I cried, after telling her that I had
spent four days in wandering about the wharves to
avoid the dreaded music lesson, “ I have been very
miserable, and was afraid to tell you; but oh,
mother, don’t send me to school to learn music
from that man! I will try hard, very hard, to
learn it at home.”

My mother could be very stern when there was
occasion for it; but she was always just—and
merciful. She did not punish me, for she realised
my agitated condition of mind, and after giving me
a grave admonition as to the future, sent me to my
room, where I soon fell asleep.

I did not go to school again.22 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Nearly three years passed, during which time
Vern made several voyages between Sydney and
London. Alfred, in California, wrote home three
or four times a year; there were no mail steamers
running between Sydney and San Francisco in
those times, and his letters came by sailing vessels.
He was doing very well, as was shown by his
sending money home to help towards the upkeep
of the family, and then one day there came a letter
from him to our parents advising them to send
Vern and me to him at San Francisco, where he
could easily find us suitable employment. My
mother consulted her brother, who was a merchant
in Sydney, and he advised her to accept the offer;
and, furthermore, said he would provide us with
the necessary outfits.

Never shall I forget that evening of excitement,
when my father and mother returned home after
seeing my Uncle Beilby, and announced the
wonderful, thrilling news that Vern and I were to
go to California, and that we were to sail from
Newcastle in three weeks’ time in the barque Lily
of France, commanded by Captain O’Toole. It
seemed too good to be true, and I felt myself swell
with importance. Vern, who had returned home
a month previously, was equally pleased, for al-
though he liked a sailor’s life, he was much averse
from making another voyage with his present
captain, whom he and his fellow apprentices dis-
liked exceedingly. The former captain had died
in London, and his place had been taken by a man
who was noted for the merciless “ hazing ” of his
crew.

The uncle whom I have mentioned, ThomasADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 23

Beilby, was a general import and export merchant.
He was also interested in the Polynesian Islands’
trade, and had a partnership with a Mr. Brander,
of Tahiti, in the Society Islands. They had two
vessels trading between Sydney and Tahiti; one
was a barque, named the Iona, which was com-
manded by Captain Dufayel and was under the
French flag, and the other was a very handsome
brig, the Taw era, which flew the red ensign of old
England. Whenever one of these vessels arrived
in Sydney, I was allowed to go on board nearly
every day during its stay, and talk to the native
sailors, who were fine, manly fellows, and as simple
as children. They were all religious-minded men,
and on Sundays my mother would invite them to
our house to remain for the day, paying their fare
to and fro by the river steamer. They always
attended the morning service with us at the local
church at the little township of Hunter’s Hill,
where their appearance caused much curiosity
among the residents. After being given a very
good dinner, they spent the rest of the day wander-
ing about the large garden or the surrounding bush
in the vicinity of a branch of the Parramatta River,
called Lane Cove. I invariably accompanied them,
and these Sunday visits of our brown-skinned
friends were a source of great delight to me. Most
of them were fairly well educated, and all were
highly intelligent. They had been taught by
English missionaries at the schools of the London
Missionary Society in their native island; and
although some of them sailed under the tricolour of
France, they had a deep and lasting affection for
England and for everything English. They24 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

bitterly deplored the fact that France had taken
forcible and unjust possession of Tahiti and the
rest of the Society Islands, and their sentiments in
this respect were shared by everyone in our house-
hold.

Captain Dufayel, of the Iona, was also a
frequent guest of my parents, and would some-
times come on a Sunday and attend church with
us, being a Protestant. Every time the barque
returned from Tahiti, he brought with him, as
presents for us, all sorts of native curios—beautiful
shells, fine mats made from the bleached leaves of
the pandanus palm, weapons, etc.—until, in the
course of a few years, our dining-room and the
walls of the staircases became a veritable museum.
When my brother Alfred came home ill from New-
castle, Captain Dufayel was most anxious for him
to make a voyage in the Iona to Tahiti and back;
but, as I have mentioned before, Alfred went to
California, for much as he wished to see one of the
most beautiful islands that stud the bosom of the
blue Pacific, his first thought was to be able to get
to work again and earn money; and there was but
little prospect for him in a small town like Papeite,
the capital of Tahiti.

About a year after Alfred had gone to California,
Captain Dufayel’s health gave way, and he had to
give up his command. At first he thought of
going into business in Sydney, but the accounts of
the marvellously increasing prosperity of San
Francisco led him thither, where he established
himself as a nautical instrument seller, and suc-
ceeded so well that he bought land at San Rafael
and began fruit-growing. The old man Maurice,ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 25
who was his factotum, had formerly been boatswain
of the Iona, and had accompanied him from
Sydney. He (Maurice) was a Breton, but had
sailed so long in English ships that he was more
of an Englishman than a Frenchman, and in
Sydney he had married an Englishwoman. He
was devoted to his master, despite the difference
in their religions, for Maurice, being a Breton,
was a most rigid Roman Catholic, and was imbued
with many of the curious and weird superstitions
which distinguishes the peasantry of his native
land. But he was an honest, hard-working, and
cheerful old fellow—nothing ever put him out of
temper.

Alf, of course, was very glad to meet Dufayel
again in San Francisco; the two became great
friends, and when Dufayel had a sudden and severe
return of the malady from which he had suffered
when in Sydney, my brother slept in his chambers
every night for many weeks, so as to be near
him. He suffered from an acute form of neuralgia
in the head, the attacks giving him the most
excruciating pain, from which, while it lasted, he
could obtain no relief, and which no medical skill
could even alleviate.

The people of San Francisco were extremely fond
of military display, and there was quite a number
of volunteer corps, composed of foreigners, who
were all sworn in to defend the State if occasion
demanded it. Among others, there were the
Garibaldian Guards, the Danish Jagers, several
Fenian corps, and the Lafayette Guards. The
latter was formed soon after Dufayel’s arrival in
the city, and he was unanimously elected captain.26 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Their armoury was at the lower end of Montgomery
Street—the principal business street of the city—
and here, on Tuesday and Saturday nights, the
members of the corps would meet for drill and
social recreation. Dufayel was a very liberal man,
and in time the Armoury became a sort of a club,
at which my brothers and myself were always made
welcome. We were very glad to avail ourselves
of this welcome, as the club was supplied by
Dufayel and members of the corps with news-
papers and magazines, and when the war broke out
between France and Prussia, we went there fre-
quently to study the war maps. There was an
excellent Free Library in the city, and also at the
Young Men’s Christian Association buildings in
Bush Street; but we had discontinued visiting
these places (although we were members of the
Y.M.C.A.) on account of the veiled incivility
shown to Britishers. This discourtesy was not
so apparent in the men as in the young women
attendants, who thought it “real smart” to give
“sass” to anyone who, when making a request
for a book, showed by his dress or speech that he
was a Britisher. Southerners, or those who were
suspected of Southern sympathies, met with the
same rude treatment, although some years had
passed since the Rebellion came to an end and the
Confederate States ceased to exist. Quite natur-
ally, therefore, the British residents of San Fran-
cisco and the Southerners came together a good
deal; they frequented the same restaurants and
lodged in the same hotels, and many friendships
were formed. And so, although the Alabama
Claims were the cause of my brothers and myselfADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 27
being subjected sometimes to unmerited rudeness,
they brought us ample compensation in making
the acquaintance and gaining the friendship of
several Southern ladies and gentlemen whose
society was most agreeable.

But I must return to the subject of the departure
of Vern and myself from Sydney for California—
the land of gold, where, we imagined, we -should
make our fortunes “ as easy as falling off a log.”CHAPTER IV.

The Lily of France was to sail from Newcastle, a
port sixty miles north of Sydney, and thither we
proceeded to join her, leaving the latter port at
midnight in the paddle-wheel steamer Coonan-
barra, then the fastest vessel on the coast. It was
a wild night in March when we cast off and pro-
ceeded down the harbour towards the Heads,
where we were to run butt into a stiff south-
easterly gale. The steamer was crowded with
passengers—saloon and steerage—and before the
Heads were reached, Vern and I heard a quarter-
master ordering all of the passengers who were still
on deck to get below, as there was a heavy sea
running outside. None of them required any
urging, for they preferred the close and stifling
atmosphere of the cabins, with all the concomitant
horrors of sea-sickness, to remaining on deck and
being half drowned or washed overboard. But the
moment Vern heard the quartermaster calling out,
“All passengers below! Captain’s orders; go
below, please, and be smart about it”—he seized
me quickly by the arm and hurried me along the
dimly lighted alley-way on the starboard side,
opened the door of the lamp-room, and we tumbled
inside together, and the door, as the steamer gave
a roll, shut to with a bang.

“We’ll be all right here for a bit,” remarked
Vern, with a grin of satisfaction, “the smell of
clean lamp oil won’t hurt us, and I would as soon

(28)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 29
be in the Black Hole of Calcutta as in that awful
saloon, with over a hundred and fifty sea-sick
people packed together in a space intended for
about seventy. We’ll lie low and keep quiet till
this old hooker is well outside the Heads; then we
can slip out and get into a quiet corner somewhere
on deck.”

This sounded all very well, but at that moment
the steamer rolled heavily over to port, and the
door, which had a worn-out catch to the lock, flew
open with a terrific bang, and a passing sailor,
uttering some derogatory remarks about its age
and the paralysed meanness of the owners of the
steamer generally, closed it with another bang, and
then turned the key in the lock.

“ That fixes us for the night,” I remarked.

“ Well, what of it? We’re all right here. Now
I come to think of it, we are jolly lucky. Listen to
that! She is taking water aboard already. We’ll
be dry here, at any rate. Rouse yourself, and
help me to clear all this gear out of this top bunk,
and we can make room enough for us both to lie
down and take it easy until daylight.”

The lamp-room was situated near the after
sponson, on the starboard side, and we could barely
hear ourselves speak owing to the churn and rush
of the water as the great paddles tore their way
through the angry seas. It had formerly been a
deck cabin for some of the ship’s company, and
had two bunks in it, both of which were packed
with tins of oil, spare lanterns, bales of cotton
“waste,” and other lamp-trimmer’s gear. After
some difficulty, for the steamer was now in the
open sea-way, plunging and rolling tremendously,
c30 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

we cleared the top bunk, and then Vern asked me
what our passage money amounted to.

“Twelve and sixpence each,” I replied.

“ Robbery, downright thieving. Twelve-and-
six for a six hours’ trip, no food provided, and
expected to sleep in a filthy den called a saloon.
I happened to have a look at the sheets in our cabin
—they are the colour of a worn-out tarpaulin, but
not so clean. Now this is just the thing—sweet
as English new-mown hay, and as white as the
driven snow.”

Stooping down, he cut the lashings of one of the
great, square and tightly-packed bundles of clean
cotton-waste, and told me to spread it out evenly
in the bunk; then he followed with three or four
more, and we had a bed fit for a king. We lay
down head to foot, and talked, or rather shouted,
at each other; for the noise of the paddle-wheel,
and the continuous crash of the seas as they
tumbled on deck for’ard, and swept aft down the
alley-way, made such a disturbance that even by
bawling at our loudest we could scarcely hear each
other. Every now and then a thumping great sea
would smite the paddle-box casing with such force
as to nearly throw us out of the bunk, and the
banging of the many lanterns, oil cans, etc., etc.,
added to our enjoyment. A little before daylight
the steamer had to ease down and steam head to
wind to avoid having her decks clean swept, and
then the door was opened by a lamp-trimmer, who
stared in astonishment at finding his room turned
into a sleeping berth. At first he was disposed to
bundle us out, but the gift of five shillings soothed
his feelings, especially when we told him that weADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 31

would lend him a hand to tie up the cotton-waste
and make his room ship-shape again. He told us
that there was a terrible sea running on Newcastle
bar, and that the steamer could not attempt to
cross in until ten o’clock, with the flood tide. We
asked him to get us something to eat and some
coffee. Off he went, locking the door behind him
and taking the key, and returned with two tin mugs
of coffee, a loaf of new bread, and about half a
pound of butter, which he had obtained from the
fore-cabin steward. Then, as we ate and drank,
he sat down to give us the benefit of his company
and his observations on things generally. He was
a well set-up, muscular young fellow, about
twenty years of age, and had the bluest eyes and
the reddest hair I ever saw. He told us that the
saloon passengers were in an awful plight, nearly
all sea-sick and half suffocated, the captain refusing
to allow them on deck on account of the danger of
some of them being washed overboard, as a heavy
sea had carried away the after-deck bulwarks on
the port side. He soon found out that we were
bound for California, and asked us the name of
the ship. He told us that there were over eighty
vessels in Newcastle, laden, or bemg laden, with
coal for San Francisco, and that fresh ships were
arriving there every day from other colonial ports,
there being a great demand for coal, not only for
San Francisco, but for Panama, Valparaiso, and
Callao. Also, that seamen were very scarce and
wages high, owing to the rush for California, and
that quite a dozen ships had been unable to put to
sea on account of being so under-manned, though
there were plenty of “ dead-beat” landsmen offer-32 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

ing to work their passages to the land of gold.
But on account of so many vessels having been
lost through sailing with scratch crews picked up
out of the gutters, the authorities had interfered,
and the marine insurance companies “ bucked ” at
issuing policies. This, of course, only applied to
ships under the British flag—they could do nothing
with foreign-owned vessels.

“ I mean to ‘ skip ’ outer this old hooker this
very trip, if I gets a chance,” said Red-head, con-
fidentially. “ I’m a boat-builder by trade, and
can get big wages in California. I only heard that
t’other day—jest after I’d signed on here for six
months. But ‘ skip ’ I will, if I has the ghost of a
chance, this very day. The Newcastle Water
Police is mighty smart in catchin’ deserters, but I
think as I can do ’em. Wot d’ye say is the name
o’ your ship ? ”

We told him again, and he then left us to attend
to his lamps, affably remarking that he would be
off duty by the time we got alongside the wharf,
and would take our luggage on shore.

The Coonanbarra safely crossed the dreaded
Newcastle bar—so fatal to many a poor sailor man
—and berthed at the wharf, and the crowd of woe-
begone-looking passengers crawled on shore.
According to his promise, Red-head presented
himself and carried our luggage on shore, where
we found the captain of the Lily of France awaiting
us, for we were consigned to his care by my uncle.
The poor man little dreamt of what was before him
—had he known, he would have avoided us as he
would the plague. Shaking hands with us, he
told us that the ship’s boat was waiting at theADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 33
steps, and that we could come on board at once,
but that the barque might not sail for a week, as
he could not get a crew together, and the bad
weather seemed likely to continue. As we tipped
our red-headed friend, that individual put his hand
to the side of his mouth, winked, and informed us
in a hoarse whisper that he hoped to see us again
“afore long.” Then he asked the captain if he
wanted any hands for the barque.

“Yes,” was the reply, “if they can show dis-
charges.”

“ Wot’s the articles an’ wages, cap’n? ”

“Twelve months’ articles—wages Z*4 10s.”

Red-head put on a shocked expression. “ Oh, I
say, cap’n! Six poun’ a month it are now. But
wot’ll you give for the run to ’Frisco. My pore
ole mother is livin’ there, an’ I want to jine her.”

Captain O’Toole was a most irascible little man,
but as he badly wanted men, he ignored Red-head’s
nonsense about his mother.

“ If you can show a good discharge, I’ll give
you j£io for the run,” he said sharply, turning on
his heel and leading the way to the boat. We
stepped in and were pulled off to the barque, which
was lying in the stream, in company with a number
of other craft of all sizes, rigs, and nationalities.
All were coal-laden, and all waiting to put to sea
as soon as they had their complement of men and
the weather moderated. Further up the harbour
there was a perfect forest of masts of ships taking
in coal at the cranes, and on the opposite side of
the Hunter River, at Stockton, were at least fifty
more awaiting their turn to load.

On going below the captain introduced us to his34 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

wife, who received us very kindly, told us that the
barque had all the cabin and steerage passengers
that she could carry, and then showed us our
berths, which, she said, we would “ find very com-
fortable.” Drawing aside a curtain of cheap,
tawdry print, which was stretched across the
transoms, she revealed to us our sleeping places—
beds composed of old cushions and rugs spread out
on the transom ledges—one on each side of the
rudder-casing. A more uncomfortable place could
not have been found in the ship, for not only was
there not room enough for one to lie out at full
length, but it was athwartships. The only advan-
tage of the position was that there were two large
old-fashioned square ports, which in fine weather
could be opened and plenty of fresh air admitted.
But they were then closed, and not only closed,
but firmly secured and caulked from the inside.

Now, my brother Vern was a remarkably out-
spoken lad. He never hesitated to speak when he
thought that he should speak. For evasion or
subterfuge of any kind he had the scorn of a frank
nature and a steadfastly honest mind. What the
consequences might be to him for resenting what
he considered mean, dishonest, or improper, he
cared absolutely nothing, and any attempt to im-
pose upon him met with sharp and certain rebuff,
administered in most unmistakable language or
action.

He turned to Captain O’Toole, who had just sat
down at the cabin table to look over some accounts.

“ Are those berths intended for my brother and
myself, sir? ” he asked bluntly.

The captain looked up, and gave an uneasy sortADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 35
of smile; for Vern, when he asked a question, had
a curious way of jerking his head forward and
looking very intently at the person addressed.

“Yes,” was the captain’s answer, “those are
your berths. You’ll find them very nice and com-
fortable.”

“That we shall not, for we don’t intend to use
them. Quite apart from my own objections to such
a makeshift, I will not allow this young brother of
mine to put up with such wretched accommodation
for a voyage of sixty or seventy days.”

The captain jumped to his feet, his eyes blazing
angrily, “ How old are you, may I ask? ”

“ My age has nothing to do with the matter, but
as you have asked the question, I’ll answer it—I
am nearly eighteen, and have cut my eye teeth. I
refuse, for my brother and myself, to occupy those
berths. My uncle paid you ^f8o for our passages;
you told him we should have a two-berth cabin to
ourselves. If you cannot give us what you pro-
mised just say so, and I’ll telegraph to my uncle at
Sydney and tell him.”

The captain’s face turned white with rage, and
for some moments he was unable to speak, but
choking down his wrath he said that all the other
accommodation had been taken up, and that he
could make no change.

“ Very well, sir,” said Vern, “ we’ll go on shore
again. I won’t be a party to my uncle being de-
frauded. I shall go on shore and put up at an
hotel, and leave him to deal with you over that
^80; good morning; ” and he walked out of the
cabin, I following at his heels.

There were plenty of watermen about, so, hailing36 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
the nearest, who came alongside, we stepped into
the boat just as the captain came to the rail and
bade us return. He would see what he could do in
the way of making a change, he said.

But my brother politely declined to return and
discuss the matter, saying we could be found at
the North Australian Hotel. “ I shall wait there,
sir,” he added, “until four o’clock; if I do not
hear from you by then, I shall telegraph to Sydney
and ask my uncle to let me take our passages in the
James Hannell. She has plenty of room, and is
a fine ship. I will not trouble you to send our traps
on shore in your boat; I will send this waterman
back for them.” And then without further speech
he told the boatman to push off, and we left the
captain staring at us in mingled anger and dismay.
The waterman, who, of course, had heard what
passed, evidently knew the captain, for presently
he observed, with a sympathetic air, intended to
beguile us into confidence:

“ Had a disagreement with the little cove, young
fellows? Well, I don’t wonder at it.”

“ Do you know him? ” asked Vern guardedly.

“ Rather! We all knows ‘ Mickey O’T,’ as we
call him. He’s been in and out of this port a
matter of twenty times or more, and was never
known to hire a boat to take him on shore or off to
his ship ever since he came here; and what’s more,
he wouldn’t get one if he tried; we know him too
well. He’s the meanest skipper that ever sailed.
Why, I’ve seen him walking about the wharf for
two solid hours in the pouring rain, waiting for his
boat to come and take him off, and hailing and
hailing till he was as hoarse as a frog—he wasADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 37

too mean to pay a waterman a couple of shillings.”

Vern nodded but made no remark, and as soon
as we reached the wharf we paid the man and told
him to look out for us about five o’clock, as we might
want him. We had brought our hand-bags with
us, and making our way to the North Australian
Hotel, engaged a room, and changed our clothes,
for it was pouring with rain. Lunch was over, but
we got something cold to eat. Vernon was satisfied
with the action he had taken, and proceeded to
explain.

“ That threat of mine to telegraph to Sydney
will bring him to his bearings. We’ll see him
trotting along here before four o’clock.”

“But he may not,” I suggested; “then what
will you do ? ”

“ Exactly what I said—send a wire to Uncle
Beilby and put the facts before him. He won’t
stand any nonsense from the little man. It is a
downright attempt to swindle. I suppose he has
given the two-berth cabin intended for us to other
people, and thought that we, being youngsters,
would not have the gumption to say anything in
protest. But you’ll find that there will be no need
for us to send that telegram—it would put him in
a very awkward position.”

Vern’s conclusions were correct. Soon after
three o’clock the negro steward brought us a letter.
It was a very oily, plausible concoction, and began
with a dignified reproach that the nephew of an
old and valued business friend whom he had known
for so many years should address him with such
scant courtesy as he had done that morning; that
it had pained him greatly, etc. Then he went on38 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

to say that, at considerable inconvenience and
monetary loss to himself, he had effected an
arrangement with two other passengers which
would leave a two-berth cabin free for us. He was
good enough to add the information that he was
afraid the ship would be delayed another week, and
that although we were committed to his charge he
would not object to our remaining on shore at a
respectable hotel, as we should find it very dull on
board the barque. He knew, he said, that there
were many friends of the family residing in New-
castle who would doubtless be glad to make our
stay pleasant.

“The mean little swab,” said Vern; he’s
only thinking of the week’s food we would eat!
However, I’m quite satisfied to stay on shore. It
will cost us very little for our room, and we can
get our meals anywhere we like in town. Now, I
must answer his letter.”

The steward was waiting, and Vern wrote a
polite note, saying we were glad we were to have
the cabin arranged for, and that we should be able
to pass the week on shore very pleasantly, etc.
Then he carefully copied the letter, and sent the
steward off with the original.

“ Now, Louis, my hearty,” he cried, giving me
a thump on the back, “ we have a whole week to
enjoy ourselves. It is too wet to go anywhere in
the country to-day, so we’ll go and call on the
Armstrongs and other people, then come back and
write home; and if it’s fine in the morning we’ll
take the train and go up the Hunter River to
Maitland. Then we must go down one of the big
coal mines here—the deepest there is—and see whatADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 39
it is like. We’ll find no end of things to keep us
going if we only set about it in the right way.
There is rattling good fishing right here in the
harbour, Alf said—big fifty and sixty-pounder
jew-fish, and grand black bream. We’ll buy a
regular outfit of lines and hooks, and take them
away with us in the barque. And when we get
into the tropics I’ll show you how to catch bonito
from the flying jibboom end—like I used to do on
board the old Woolloomoolloo,”CHAPTER V.

The week passed very pleasantly for us. We made
a two-days’ trip to the vine-growing districts of
the Hunter River, and except for our railway fares,
it cost us nothing, for everywhere we met with the
most unbounded hospitality from people who were
utter strangers to us. This was largely due to
Vern’s bluff, good-humoured manner; he seemed
to make friends with everyone we met—from black-
faced delvers in the coal mines to the “swell and
swagger’’ proprietors of famous vineyards. Dur-
ing that week I learnt many a useful lesson from
him, and my boyish vanity and conceit met with
some very hard knocks. I, being the youngest boy
in a very large family, had been made too much of
at home by my mother and sisters, and, conse-
quently, I was a bit of a prig. My attire, for
instance, was a matter of serious importance to me,
and I often contrasted, with a mental smirk of
satisfaction, my dandified and “correct” appear-
ance with that of other boys of my own age. Vern
was my saviour. The methods he adopted towards
curing me of my vanity and conceit were rough
and ready, but very effective.

I have previously alluded to the distressing
stutter I had contracted through the brutality of
my music teacher. This annoyed my brother
greatly, and so often brought ridicule upon me
that at times I became positively ill; for a
paroxysm of rage at my inability to get out some
(4°)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 41
particular word would leave me in such a state of
physical and mental exhaustion that my condition
was truly pitiable. Personal courage I had never
lacked—I would show it by many senseless and
absurd actions that brought me a well-deserved
punishment from Vern. But as I have said, my
stammering annoyed him intensely.

“ Steady yourself and speak slowly,” was his
constant admonition; “if you don’t I’ll hammer
you.” And he certainly kept his word, and I
received some practical proofs of his decision from
him during that week at Newcastle. At that time
I thought he was brutal and domineering to me,
and only exercised his greater physical strength
for no other motive than that of bullying a boy
younger than himself. I did him a very great in-
justice.

One day, as we were going fishing along the
wharves, at the further end of the Newcastle
“ Dyke,” which is nearly two miles in length, we
met three young ladies, named Tebbutt. Their
father, who was a Government official, was a friend
of my father—also in the Government service—and
these Tebbutt girls and my sisters were much
attached to each other. As we were talking to
them I began to stammer, which infuriated my
brother and made the girls laugh; my grimaces,
no doubt, were enough, as Vern said, to make a
mummy laugh. At last, failing to get out some
particular word, and being nearly black in the face
with mingled rage and shame, I relieved my
feelings by dealing my brother a blow fair and
square on his nose; then, hardly knowing what I
was doing, I walked off along the Dyke till I was42 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

suddenly brought up standing by coming to a new
dock that was being made. To cross this there was
a ferry boat, but I was in such a state of agitation
and fury that I elected to cross in another way, by
means of a series of recently driven piles, the tops
of which were fully thirty feet above water level.
Along the tops was laid a line of narrow planking,
used by the workmen employed on the pile-driving
machine; and beneath was the ebb tide, rushing
through the piles at the rate of six to seven knots
an hour. The moment my brother saw me ascend-
ing the plank gangway that led from the shore to
the first pile, he roared out to me to come back.

“Come back! Come back! You young
donkey! Are you mad? ”

I heard, but took no heed, and, looking straight
ahead, I set off at a run, amid warning cries from
the men on the pile-driver. On I ran in most
gallant style, and was just half-way across when I
tripped over a spike on one of the pile heads, and
over I went into the swirling tide-way.

When I came to the surface I was almost un-
conscious, for having fallen upon my back, I had
swallowed some of the muddy Hunter River—
perhaps I had had my mouth open trying to get
out that wretched word—and I had only a dim sense
of hearing Vern’s voice. He had jumped into the
river the moment he saw me fall, and caught me
as soon as I reappeared. A boat belonging to the
pile-drivers rescued us, and after I had recovered
and was able to look about, I saw that the pile-
drivers were making much of Vern, despite his
protests that there was “ nothing worth talking
about.” But after we had returned to the hotel toADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 43
change our clothes, he spoke to me very seriously.
“ Louis, to-night we must thank God for His
mercy. When I jumped in after you, I never
expected to see you again, for I knew that the heavy
basket you had slung over your shoulder would
prevent you from swimming, unless you could free
yourself from it. And as I jumped I cried out to
God to let me save you, and He answered my
prayer.”

His earnest, simple manner moved me greatly,
and I felt my heart swelling up into my throat.

“ Vern,” I cried, “ forgive me for hitting you.
I know that you have saved my life,” and then,
pushing my way past him, with blinded eyes I went
up into a spare room on the upper floor, and,
kneeling down, thanked God for His mercy to me.

When I had composed myself I came downstairs
again to our bedroom, where the sight of Vern,
with his swollen nose, quietly reading a book made
me feel more than ever repentant, and deeply
ashamed of my outburst of temper.

“ Vern,” I said, “ I am so sorry that I gave you
such an awful bang—I really didn’t mean it.”

He laughed, and merely observed that I was
lucky to “cut away” when I did, otherwise he
would have given me something to remember for
many a long day. I accepted this statement as an
undoubted fact, and the subject was dropped.

On the following day we hired a boat for a day’s
fishing, and went up the river to a spot where we
had been told that “flathead” and jew-fish were
very plentiful. We took with us plenty of pro-
visions, and set off in high spirits. A cargo
steamer which was bound up the river was just44 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

casting off from the wharf, and we asked the skipper
if he would give us a tow for a few miles. He
asked us if we were going fishing. “Yes,” we
replied.

“All right, then,” said he, “heave us your
painter; but ‘fair is fair.’ If I give you a tow
up to the ‘ flathead ’ banks, you’ll have to give me
some fish when I’m coming down the river this
afternoon, eh?”

“Right you are, sir,” said the practical Vern,
“ but you must give us a tow back as well.”

The captain laughed. “All right—you won’t
lose anything for want of asking, I can see that.”

After a tow of five or six miles we cast off from
the steamer and anchored in shallow water near the
river bank. Then we had our breakfast of cold
beef and bread, and hot tea, the latter being in
bottles wrapped up tightly in paper. Then we set
to work with our lines; in less than ten minutes
we were hauling in fish as fast as we could bait
our hooks—the place seeming to be alive with
whiting, bream, and flathead. These latter are a
splendid fish, and greatly esteemed for their
delicacy of flavour; several that we caught were
over four feet in length, and very heavy. Some of
the bream also were very fine fish, and at the end
of two hours we had such a heavy catch that, lifting
our kellick, we went on shore and buried our fish
in wet sand to keep them fresh and protect them
from the sun’s rays. Then we fished, with equal
success, from the shore, and by noon stopped for
lunch, which we ate under a shady tree.

Presently Vern, who had been deep in thought,
came out with a brilliant idea.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 45

“ I’ll tell you what we can do, Louis; but, first
of all, how much have we spent on ourselves since
we have been living on shore? ”

I reckoned it up. “ Nearly three pounds fifteen
for train fares and fishing tackle, then we shall
have to pay for our room—seven nights at six
shillings a night; and our food has cost us nearly
thirty shillings; say ^7 10s. altogether.”

“ Well, those fish there under the sand would
bring ^5 at the Fish Market—most likely more;
there are eighteen big flathead, which are worth £3
a dozen, and over two hundredweight of bream
and whiting. But we can’t take them to the Fish
Market, as we have no licence to sell—either as
fishermen or hawkers.”

“ Then how shall we manage? ” I asked.

“ Go round with the boat to all the ships lying
in the stream, and sell them cheap; we’ll make a
few pounds easily enough.”

“You don’t mean that we—you and I—are going
to hawk fish about? ” I cried in dismay.

“Why not?” was his sharp rejoinder. “Is
there anything wrong about it? We have spent a
good deal of money, and now here is a chance to
earn a little.”

“ Father and mother wouldn’t approve of it,” I
protested.

“Bosh! You mincing-voiced little prig! I
say that there is no harm in it; we shall be earning
money honestly. I daresay that father and mother
would not like it; but at the same time neither
would they like the fact of our spending nearly £%
on gadding about pleasuring in Newcastle. What
is the difference between selling fish and selling

D46 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

anything else ? Uncle Beilby sells flour, and dirty,
greasy wool and hides, and whale oil, and coco-nut
oil—doesn’t he? ”

* ‘Yes, but he is a merchant, and-” I began.

“Stuff! Now, look here, my young friend
Louis. I’ve taught you a few things already, and
I’m going to teach you some more—fill you up to
the chin with some kind of sense. I have got you
over the ‘ papa ’ and ‘ mamma ’ difficulty, and you
can now stutter out ‘ father ’ and ‘ mother ’ well
enough, which is better than your namby-pamby
‘ papa ’ and ‘ mamma.’ Now, we are going to sell
those fish, and you’ll have to skip around. Put
your silly pride in your pocket, and keep it tied
up, or you’ll become suddenly ill—if I get at you.
Don’t gabble rubbish to me about Uncle Beilby
being ‘a merchant.’ Of course he is. But he
would sell flathead, or fish guts, or manure, or any-
thing else, if he had them in quantities big enough.
See what I mean?”

I murmured something to the effect that I had
not considered the subject in that way before.

“ Of course you haven’t. And perhaps you
don’t know that mother’s rich relatives are scale-
makers in Birmingham, and that she is very proud
of them—not because they are rich, but because
old Jimmy Savory, who built up the business, was
once a poor, ragged lad, looking for work in
London, without even the tail of a shirt hanging
out of the seat of his busted pants—the poor beggar
hadn’t a shirt. But he became a rich man; and
so, my joker, whenever you stand upon one of
those big platform scales you see in the warehouses,
gr are getting a pound of sugar or tea from theADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 47
grocer, just cock your eye at the name on the scales
—‘Savory, Birmingham,’ and say to yourself,
‘ those scales were invented by mother’s cousin,
Jimmy Savory, who had busted pants when he was
a boy, and no shirt to keep him from freezing in
his after compartment, but who lived to be a famous
and generous man, slinging out thousands of
pounds to help poor lads who had suffered like
himself.’ Just try and get rid of your silly pride.”
At the time I resented Vern’s lecture. It was too
much in the “ Sanford and Merton ” strain for me;
but in the long after years I recognised its meaning
and utility; for Vern, as the new “ Mr. Barlow ”
of that distressingly pedantic and repellant story,
went the right way about to cure me of a priggish-
ness that was the result of too much petting from
my mother and sisters. My father occasionally
gave me a whipping, which set the entire house-
hold in tears, but certainly did me much good.

“ Caroline,” he would say to my mother, “ Louis
wants this every day, as much as he does his break-
fast. He is being spoiled by you and the girls.”
And it was true.CHAPTER VI

After lunch, rain began to fall steadily and
quietly—just the sort of rain that the fisherman
likes—and with the incoming tide the fish seemed
hungrier than ever. We now moored the boat
broadside on to the bank and fished from her,
merely casting lines out a few yards from the side.
The bream were so plentiful that we would haul
them in three or four at a time—one on each hook.
After an hour or two of this exciting work, several
large stingrays made their appearance and wrought
havoc with our lines—for the brutes were very
powerful. We had with us in the boat a whale
lance fitted to a short haft, which we had brought
in case of being troubled by sharks; the blade was
as sharp as a razor, and in a few minutes we
destroyed two or three of our hideous-looking tor-
mentors. Then we decided to go further up the
river and meet the steamer coming down, for we
had now caught more than half a boat load of fish,
which, with those buried in the sand, nearly filled
us to the thwarts. Off we started, and rounding
a bend in the river, we saw the steamer lying at a
wharf, taking in bales of Lucerne hay and potatoes.
As we were pulling leisurely across we were hailed
by a boat containing four men. They were Greek
fishermen, and were a dirty, low-looking set of
fellows, their unwashed filthy faces matching their
grimy be-ringed ears and greasy curls. Coming
alongside, they asked us if we had some bait for
(48)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 49
them—or rather demanded it—and then looking
into the boat and seeing the quantity of fish we
had, one of the rapscallions bent over and seized
one of the largest of the flathead, the other, grin-
ning like monkeys, followed his example, each
grabbing a fish.

“ Here, stop that, you black-faced mongrels,”
cried Vern, “or I’ll run this lance through your
dirty carcasses,” and seizing the whale lance he
stood up in the boat and poised the weapon
threateningly.

Volleys of oaths and curses burst from the
Greeks, and each man of them drew his knife.
This simply maddened my brother, who plunged
his lance again and again through the sides of the
Greeks’ boat. It went through the rotten timbers
like a penknife would go through a sheet of paper,
and I ably seconded him by seizing a boat stretcher
and giving one of the dirty ruffians such a blow on
the side of his head that he went clean overboard,
stunned.

“ Sheer off, sheer off, or I’ll run you
through!” cried Vern, as, raising the lance, he
brought the long bar of steel down upon the head
of the fellow who had been the first to seize a fish.
Then, using it like a flail, he swept it about from
right to left, and two of the Greeks jumped over-
board to save themselves. One of them cried out
that the boat was sinking, which was quite true,
for the water was pouring into her from the great
holes made by the lance head.

So excited were we in defending ourselves, that
we did not hear loud cries of encouragement quite
near us—a Water Police launch had come to the
rescue.50 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“ Just the very gang we wanted,” cried the cox-
swain, as one of his crew dragged inboard the
Greek who had got the crack from my stretcher;
“ lay him there, Tom. Now collar the other
three.”

The stalwart representatives of the law handled
their captives very roughly, kicking and knocking
them about most mercilessly. In the sinking boat
was a new net, which was seized as being of
illegal mesh, while the faces of the Greeks were
absolutely fiendish in their expression of rage when
the Water Policemen proceeded to cut it to pieces
and throw it back into the swiftly-running river.
Then the coxswain asked us if we would charge
the men with assault, but we thought that they had
had enough, and declined.

“Oh, well, just as you please; but anyone of
these Dagoes would run a knife into a man for a
sixpence. The Port of Newcastle is full of the
vermin, and not only do they defraud the Revenue,
but they are a source of terror to the few English-
born men who are trying to earn their living here
by fishing. These cut-throat Dagoes destroy the
Englishmen’s nets at night-time, cut the poor
chaps’ boats adrift, and would not even stop at
murder. Bah!” and he glanced with savage
scorn at the four handcuffed men, “ now, there is
only one of these blackguards has a proper licence,
and yet although the others will all be fined ^5,
they don’t mind—they make that much in a day.”

We thanked the officer for coming to our assist-
ance, and gave him and his men some fish; then
bidding them good-bye we went on our way to
the steamer. Her name was the Lubra, and theADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 51
captain was a very obliging man. He was much
interested in our rencontre with the Dagoes, and
while giving us some hot tea in the cabin, offered
to buy our fish, saying he could make a bit of
money out of them in Sydney; we gave him the
lot for ^5, and were well pleased indeed. The
Lubra gave us a tow back to Newcastle, and we
returned to the hotel very tired out, but eager for
a good dinner.

This was our last evening at Newcastle, and we
went on board the barque early in the morning.
She had over forty passengers on board, saloon
and steerage, and was in a very dirty and dis-
ordered state. The crew were all in a semi-
maudlin condition of drunkenness, and could
scarcely obey the orders given them by the
pompous little skipper, to whose personal appear-
ance they frequently made reference. He certainly
cut a ridiculous figure as he strutted to and fro on
the poop. He was, as I have said, a very small
man, but he would persist in wearing clothes two
or three sizes too large for his miniature figure; and
in shore-going togs he excited the interest of all who
beheld him, being the source of unfailing amuse-
ment to and hilarious comment from cab drivers
and street urchins, who chivied him most vigor-
ously. His stove-pipe hat was of great antiquity,
and the colour, being more green than black,
afforded a startling contrast to his long “ mutton-
chop ” whiskers; an excessively lengthy frock-coat,
for which a second-hand clothes dealer would have,
perhaps, given three shillings under protest, was
buttoned across his narrow chest, leaving enough
room in the slack of it at the back to envelop a52 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

good-sized boy; the rest of his costume, from the
baggy pants to the gloves and umbrella, were all
on a par. A stranger, to look at this specimen of
the British Mercantile Marine master, would be
in considerable doubt whether he was a broken-
down employ^ of a second-rate undertaker seeking
for employment, or a street scavenger who had had
the luck to come across a complete rig-out in some
dust-bin. And yet he was not merely a rich, but
a very rich man, owned many ships besides that
which he himself sailed, and held much real estate
in Sydney, Melbourne, and Newcastle. Why my
Uncle Beilby chose such a curious character to be
our temporary guardian has always remained a
mystery to me.

Vern and I, after a hurried inspection of our little
den of a cabin—“state room,” Captain O’Toole
called it—returned on deck to watch the proceed-
ings. In some sort of fashion the anchors had
been lifted and secured by the half-drunken crew,
and a tug was towing us out to sea. All around us
were quite a small fleet of other ships, either
heaving up anchor or being towed out, eager to
avail themselves of a favourable slant of wind from
the north-west that had set in the previous evening.

The tug cast off from us almost as soon as we
were outside the bar, and more sail was made on
the barque. Two of the steerage passengers were
seamen, and both of them were decent, respectable
men. They helped to make sail and clear the decks
of the litter, and Vern went aloft with one of them
to loose the main top-gallant sail, as he did not like
to be idle when the ship was in such a muddle,
half of the crew having either refused duty or beingADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 53
incapable of performing it. When he came on
deck again, he told me that the man with whom
he had gone aloft was an old hand on the New
South Wales Coast, and had said that Captain
O’Toole would be sorry before twenty-four hours
had passed for sailing with the idea of the north-
wester continuing; that an easterly gale would set
in ere sunset, and that the Lily of France, being
deeply overladen, badly-found, and with a crew
who were likely to continue to be half or whole
drunk for some hours, would never be able to claw
off a lee shore. In this man’s opinion, the only
course open to Captain O’Toole would be to run for
a port named Broken Bay, or for Port Jackson
(Sydney), both places of refuge being under seven
hours’ run of us, to the southward.

This newly-made acquaintance of Vern’s and
his companion were named respectively Beecher
and Harris, and I shall always remember them as
two of the finest English-born and English-bred
sailor-men that ever trod a deck. They had been
shipmates on the coast for some years, had saved
a little money, after long years of hardship and
toil, and were now going to California with the
intention of joining an old friend of theirs who was
making “piles of money,” and had written to
them urging them to come and join him, promising
them high wages.

When Vern asked them why they had each paid
£20 as passage money when Captain O’Toole or
any other skipper would have paid them from /jo
to ^20 for “ the run ” to ’Frisco, they laughed,
and said that, for once in their lives, they were
going to live like gentlemen and do no work.54 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“The fact is, sir,” said Beecher to Vern, “we
are tired of being ‘ Dirty Jack Dog,’ to live on food
that is not fit to eat, and be hazed and driven
about, night and day, for the sake of getting a few
pounds at the end of a sixty or seventy days’
voyage. We have a few hundreds of our own, and
mean to get some benefit out of them, even on this
old rattletrap, the Lily of France—that is, if she
keeps afloat.”

This was said to us as we were talking to Beecher
and Harris, about four o’clock in the afternoon,
when the wind suddenly died away, and the heavily-
laden Lily of France began to wallow about in a
heavy cross sea, while the mate, second mate, and,
finally, the skipper, started bawling out orders to
shorten sail.CHAPTER VII.

At six o’clock that evening the barque was under
close-reefed canvas doing her best to beat to wind-
ward against a strong easterly gale, with a heavy
cross sea, and making very bad weather of it. It
was impossible for her to carry any more canvas,
for she was burying herself as it was. At this
time we were about fifty miles ESE. of New-
castle, and the land about thirty miles distant. It
would have been perfectly easy for O’Toole to have
kept away and run for shelter to Sydney, but he
was an obstinate creature, and determined to hang
on, telling the mate (who was new to the ship) that
the Lily of France would “ bite to windward in
face of the heaviest easterly that ever blew.” The
mate made no reply, but thought a lot. The true
reasons, however, for the little man determining
to hold on were very simple. He knew, or at least
should have known, that an easterly gale on the
eastern coast of Australia usually lasts either three
or five days, that the barque was in bad trim,
steered badly, and carried nearly a hundred tons of
coal more than she ought to have been allowed to
proceed to sea with. How he managed to achieve
getting this extra hundred tons on board was best
known to himself and the Newcastle port authori-
ties, but it meant an extra profit to him of over
^600; and he was prepared to run some risk for
;£6o, let alone ^600. Moreover, he knew that if
he had to put into Sydney, the Government Marine

(55)56 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Inspectors would not only compel him to discharge
the extra coal, but also that he would be liable to
a heavy fine. Then, too, he knew that those of his
crew who were sober enough to give expression
to their feelings were dissatisfied with the barque,
and considered her unfit for the voyage, and that
were he to run into Sydney the whole lot would
certainly bolt and leave him to get a fresh crew.
So Avarice struggled with Prudence, and the
former, having almost entire possession of the soul
of Michael Ignatius O’Toole, came in, hands down,
an easy winner.

All that night the barque thrashed her way
against the heavy cross sea and the raging gale,
and the saloon passengers were nearly all so over-
come with sea-sickness as to take no notice of what
was occurring on deck. Every now and then a
heavy sea would topple aboard over the waist,
sweep aft, and find its way into the cabin through
the old-fashioned companion glass doors on the
port and starboard side on the main deck, under the
high poop—there was no entrance to the cabin
except by the main deck. Early in the evening one
of the doors had given way, and about midnight,
as Vern and I were discussing the idiosyncracies
of Captain O’Toole and some of our fellow
passengers, a thumping sea burst in the second,
filled the cabin a foot deep, and swashed to and
fro most merrily. The steward, who was a Mar-
tinique nigger, named Francois, came to our cabin
to see how we were getting on, and grinned with
approval when he found us so comfortable and not
sea-sick. All the crew, he said, were now on duty,
but the barque was straining badly, and was al-ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 57
ready making a little water through her seams;
indeed, at that moment we heard the sound of the
old-fashioned brake-pumps going. Vern and I
had each a suit of oilskins—his were old, mine were
new, I having had them made in Newcastle. Put-
ting them on, we went on deck, and I felt myself
quite a sailor-man in my new toggery.

Dawn was just breaking, and Vern, touching my
arm, silently pointed to leeward, where I saw the
loom of the land—some high mountains in the
neighbourhood of Catherine Hill Bay. The
captain and the second mate were standing at the
break of the poop, half of the watch were at the
pumps, and the rest were securing the davits of one
of the quarter boats which threatened to part com-
pany with the ship. The boat itself was half full
of potatoes, pumpkins, and other vegetables, and
it was the weight of these that had caused the
davits to start. The little man was in a state of
great mental anguish when he ordered the men to
pass the bags down on to the poop, and in doing so
two bags fell overboard. He was inclined to burst
out into a torrent of reproaches, but the sullen faces
of the men restrained him, especially when one of
them bawled out that “ no one but a bloomin’ idjut
would stow a ton o’ spuds” in a boat hanging
from davits with the ship beating against a gale of
wind.

“We must give her some more canvas, Mr.
Russell,” presently said the skipper to the second
mate, a taciturn, lantern-jawed Down-Easter.”

0 Guess yew’ll hev ter shake the old hooker up,
ef yew want ter git outer this,” was his frank re-?
mark, as he jerked his thumb towards the looming
land.58 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

The term “old hooker” made the little man’s
eyes glare, but he relieved his feelings by scream-
ing out in his highly-pitched voice to the watch,
ordering them to shake out a reef in the fore and
main lower topsails. Then he turned sharply to
Vern and myself, and asked us what we were doing
on deck.

“Just to have a squint at the weather, sir,”
replied Vern, with an air of great politeness.

He snapped out something about boys being in
the way, though he was pleased to smile when
Vern began to help some of the men to shake a
reef out of the spanker, but he would not allow me
to lend a hand, at which my dignity was greatly
hurt. Pulling out a brand new wooden pipe, and
filling it with an atrocious mixture called “bird’s
eye,” I stuck it into my mouth and stalked off
below, under the impression that Captain O’Toole
would imagine that I was already a confirmed
smoker, and therefore deserving of more respect.

But, as a matter of fact, I was quite able to lend
a hand at either making or shortening sail. Before
our family went to reside in Sydney, we had lived
at a small port on the northern coast of New South
Wales, where my father was police magistrate, and
where all my brothers and myself were born. The
entrance to the port was by a dangerous bar, and
we all, from our earliest years, had witnessed many
distressing tragedies of the sea, when unfortunate
vessels had struck on the bar, all on board perish-
ing before our eyes—for our house stood on a high
bluff on the southern side of the bar. In such a
case, the pilot-boat, manned by old and hardy sea-
men, would do all they could to save life; and theADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 59
crew of the pilot-boat and we boys were sworn
comrades. We associated with their children,
went fishing and shooting with them, and had
much more in common with them than with the
children of the township and the surrounding
settlements, who were the descendants of convicts;
and thus, by a cruel social law, were supposed to—
and did, indeed—bear the sins of their fathers upon
their shoulders. This brought my brothers—I was
too young to participate much—to associate
principally with the pilot-boat’s crew and their
children; and, when a vessel appeared off the bar
and signalled for the pilot, we always tumbled
eagerly into the boat, and, after getting on
board the vessel, helped, or at least fancied
we helped, to work her across the bar, and
sail her up the river to the township wharf. The
sailors of these coasters all knew us, made much
of us in their rough way, and certainly fostered in
our boyish minds a liking for the sea. Before I
was eight years of age I knew how to steer, either
by wheel or tiller, though I was not strong enough
to grasp either, except when the vessel was in
smooth water, and I was duly initiated into the
many mysteries of knots and splicing, and learned
much else of sea-faring ways from the best school
in the world for lads with a sea-going turn—a
coasting vessel. Then, too, whenever the pilot-
boat was manned for a day’s schnapper fishing off
the bar, I always went, the bronzed and bearded
crew watching, with broad grins, my frantic efforts
to haul up a 10 lb. schnapper from a depth of
seventy or eighty fathoms. I well remember one
instance when, as I was struggling and pantingdo ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

with a schnapper—one of the gamest and strongest
of all deep-sea fishes—the second hook on the line
was seized by another and larger fish, and the line
cut my fingers to the bone. One of the crew tried
to take the line from me, but I set my teeth and
cried out that I could manage—that it was my line,
and that no one else should touch it. With my
hands streaming with blood, I leant back and
planted my feet against the side of the boat, and
then, in some way, I managed to get the line
tangled around my left arm. I was dragged out
of the boat and was disappearing from view, when
one of the boat’s crew, a man named Kingston,
dived after me and caught me just in time. But
he had a struggle to get me to the surface, for the
line was tightly knotted around my arm, and one
of the schnappers at the other end had been seized
by a huge grouper, over 200 lbs. in weight.
Kingston at last reached the boat and clung to the
gunwale, grasping me with one hand. We were
hauled inboard; and I, quite unconscious, but still
gripping the line, was laid down upon the bottom
boards to recover, whilst the crew, catching on to
the line, hauled in the two schnapper, with the
grouper still gripping one in his jaws. The
grouper was harpooned and lifted into the boat,
and I always took the credit of capturing it.

During the morning the wind hauled a little to
the north, and the barque began to draw away from
the land and to set more canvas, but she was strain-
ing very much, and making a good deal of water.
At dinner some of the passengers appeared, and
we had just begun to eat when a tremendous sea
came on board over the waist, smashing the long-ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 61
boat, which was lying on the main hatch, and
sweeping away the bulwarks on the starboard side
from abreast of the mainmast to the break of the
poop. Staggering under the blow, the barque
freed herself groaningly, with her decks in great
disorder and the main cabin half-filled with water.
As the little captain was trying to make his way on
deck, I heard the mate utter a warning cry; then a
black shadow encompassed the ship, and a mighty
mountain of water fell upon her with such a
deafening roar that my heart sank with an over-
whelming fear. What followed for the next five
minutes or so I cannot tell; the last thing I re-
member was being swirled to the after end of the
cabin by the rush of water, and when I recovered
my breath I found myself struggling with the other
passengers amongst the debris of the cabin furni-
ture. Vern had been dashed against the closed
door of the mate’s stateroom with such force that
the door was smashed, and he received some ugly
bruises on the back and shoulders. But he did not
feel them at the time, as he cried out to me to get
on deck as quickly as I could. Some of the other
passengers were hurt, and all were half-drowned.
Fortunately for herself, Mrs. O’Toole was in her
cabin when the sea burst into the saloon, and she
escaped injury. In a few minutes the water in the
main cabin washed its way out on deck, and Vern
and I managed to reach the poop, where we found
the captain and two mates conversing in low tones.
We soon learned that three poor seamen had been
swept overboard and had perished, for it would
have been impossible to lower a boat, even had they
been seen.

E62 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

With gloomy faces the crew went about their
duties—some attending to the pumps, and others
securing spare spars on deck. Vern and I went
for’ard, and had a talk with Beecher and Harris,
who told us that the barque was making ten inches
of water an hour, that the pumps were continually
choking with small coal, and that the crew were
sullen and discontented.

Soon after, the men came aft and asked the
captain to make for Sydney. He refused, declin-
ing, as he said, to see any necessity for such a
course; as for the ship making water, it was
nothing, it was merely caused by a little of the
caulking on the topsides working loose—he was
certain that an hour’s work in fine weather would
put that right. He added that the gale was taking
off, and that the ship was now making a course
which would take her well clear of the land in an-
other ten hours. Then he asked them what other
grievances had they? At once there was an out-
burst about the food—not fit for men to eat, they
asserted. This he promised to rectify at once if
they would return to their duty, and, to prove his
words, he told them he would personally issue their
supplies to the cook. This was very clever of him,
for all sailors can be reached through their
stomachs, and to clinch the matter, he certainly
spoke very feelingly of the death of their ship-
mates, while something like tears came into his
hard eyes. Finally, he sent the steward to them
with two bottles of rum, and they were all served
with a half-tumblerful of liquor.

“Now, men,” he added, “you do your duty,
and I shall do mine. I shall tell the cook to keepADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 63
one of his coppers full of boiling coffee, day and
night, as long as this weather lasts, and every man
can drink as much as he likes. That’ll do, men;
go for’ard.”

For the time the trouble was over; the men went
about their work with some show of cheerfulness,
and we got through the easterly gale without much
further damage. But adverse winds kept us box-
ing about the coast for another fortnight, and it
took us another two weeks before we sighted the
Three Kings Islands, off the north end of New
Zealand. By this time Vern and I had made the
acquaintance of all our fellow passengers, and the
crew as well, and the voyage began to become very
agreeable, to us at least. The captain left us
pretty much to ourselves, although once or twice
he raised objections to our spending so much of our
time with the steerage passengers, telling me, in
particular, that it was not correct for me, a saloon
passenger, to mix with “ people who were be-
neath ” me. Now, I considered that most of the
fore-cabin passengers were quite a respectable lot
of men, and they were certainly quite as intelligent
and decidedly far more interesting than those in the
saloon. Their language, at times, may have been
a little rough, like their dress and manners, but
whenever I went into the fore-cabin or associated
with them on deck, they tried to moderate the
former, and were always good-tempered and merry
among themselves. About two-thirds of them were
diggers, familiar with the gold fields of Australia
and New Zealand, and I was never tired of listen-
ing to the tales of their hardships and adventures.
Some had done very well, and had saved money,64 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

and hoped to do better still in California, while
others had only just managed to scrape together
their passage money; but between them all there
soon grew up a strong feeling of comradeship—
always so noticeable a feature of a community of
gold-diggers. The saloon passengers, on the other
hand, were a dull lot of people. Among them were
a party of three very dandified youths who shared
the same stateroom, and who were making a tour
through the United States on their way home to
England. They had with them a bear-leader, a
very pompous and conceited man, who had been
tutor in some college in Wales. This man was
my especial abhorrence. He was of an extremely
selfish and overbearing disposition, monopolised
the conversation at the cabin table, criticised the
food, was always finding fault with the negro
steward, Francois, for not attending to his wants,
and was invariably disgustingly sea-sick at least
twice a day through over-eating himself. He
seemed to have been bear-leading most of his life,
and was continually impressing upon the company
the fact of his being (as he implied) the personal
friend of members of the British aristocracy, from
dukes and duchesses down to common, every-day
baronets. Almost any remark made by someone
else was good enough for him whereon to hang a
reminiscence, and this vice was accentuated by
his slow and ponderous delivery, his unctuous
manner of putting his fat, white hands together,
with the tips of his fingers and thumbs joined,
while staring at nothing through his monocle.

“ When Lord D---and I were spending a few

weeks in Athens”—he would begin; or “it was,ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 65

one evening, observed to me, by the Countess of
A-----” and so forth. Some of the passengers were

impressed by this twaddle; others showed im-
patience or took no notice, but the captain would
listen to it all, and was altogether too servile to
the man. Then, too, he was rude enough to always
persist in speaking in French to our nigger steward,
who did not like it, and always replied in English.

The three young fellows were sons of rich
middle-class English people, and were naturally
good-hearted, pleasant youths; but a year’s
travelling with such a tutor had not proved of much
advantage to them in some respects; they had
acquired some of his snobbery and many of his
affected mannerisms, and, without really meaning
to do so, they frequently gave offence to other
people. The consequence was that they often
found themselves in an awkward position during
the earlier part of the voyage, particularly with the
crew and the fore-cabin passengers, but by the time
we reached San Francisco, they had rid themselves
of many unfortunate ideas put into their heads by
the Monocle Man, and Vern and I said good-bye
to them with regret when they left California for
the Eastern States.CHAPTER VIII.

After sighting the islands off the North Cape of
New Zealand, the Lily of France crept, or rather
crawled, along to the northward and eastward, till
we caught the S.E. trades and were fairly into the
tropics. By this time she was a very dirty lily, so
weather-stained and rusty that, as the mate said,
she more resembled a half-dead marigold, picked
up out of the gutter. The crew, too, were again
dissatisfied, for although some caulking had been
effected during a three days’ calm, the barque still
leaked, and as an hour’s pumping had to be done
in every four, it was very evident that the leak was
below the water-line. The pumps were continu-
ally choking, and the mate’s remarks about the ill-
found condition of the ship generally had led to a
violent altercation between himself and the captain
in the hearing of the crew, who naturally sided with
the mate, regarding him as the champion of their
rights. The mate was a Yorkshireman, a fine sea-
man, but had a very hot temper, and when the
insignificant-looking little skipper threatened to
suspend him from duty, he burst forth into a torrent
of contemptuous invective. This, of course, did
not improve matters, and later on in the day, when
he had calmed down and realised that he had com-
mitted a gross and serious fault, his manly spirit
led him to apologise to the captain on the poop, in
the presence of and hearing of the second and third
(66)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 67
mates, several of the crew, and many of the
passengers, amongst the latter being my brother
and myself. He was an old man, quite sixty years
of age, and of enormous physical strength, and I
had a deep feeling of sympathy and respect for
him when, touching his cap, he said, in a very loud
voice so that all could hear:

“ Captain O’Toole, I am very sorry for what
occurred this morning. I forgot myself, sir, and
I beg your pardon; ” and as he spoke his ruddy
face flushed scarlet.

Now this ought to have ended the matter, but
Captain O’Toole’s nature was of too mean and
revengeful a character to let him accept a sincere
and frank apology, offered under circumstances that
appealed to the best feelings of all who heard it.

Drawing up his diminutive figure, and putting
his hands under his coat tails, he made a five
minutes’ speech. He could, he said, have
“broken” the mate, and sent him for’ard to do
duty as a common seaman, or could have put him
fn irons for mutinous language and conduct; but
he (the speaker) had resolved to maintain his
authority by less forcible means; he would allow
the mate to continue his duties as first officer, but
he had “logged” his language, and when the
Lily of France reached San Francisco, he need not
be surprised if he found himself going on shore in
the police boat.

A more injudicious, silly, and insulting speech
could not have been uttered. The old mate’s
florid face purpled, and then turned white. For a
few moments he was unable to speak, then his
words came steadily and distinctly:68 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“ Very well, sir. I am prepared to stand the
consequences. Now, among other things, I said
that you were a mean, red-headed little Fenian—so
you are; I said that you, strutting up and down
on this poop, looked like a monkey on a stick—so
you do. And now I’ll tell you something else that
you can log me for—you are the two ends and
bight of a cantankerous old woman, aqd a cross be-
tween a rat and a weasel.” Then he ceased, and
waited to see what the captain would say and do.

He said and did nothing. Shaking with rage at
the loud and mocking laughter of the crew, he
turned on his heel and went below, and did not re-
appear on deck for some hours, when he found the
mate standing his watch as usual, and the ship
quiet. Had he been able to have done so, he
would have put the mate in irons, but he knew that
the crew would not have allowed it; and, further-
more, neither the second nor third mate would have
taken the place of their fellow officer, for they were
in thorough sympathy with him. So matters went
on; the crew were seething under discontent, and,
sick of the continual pumping, were on the verge
of mutiny.

Now, Vern and I and the mate were good friends,
and my brother and I frequently went into his
cabin when it was his watch below and “ yarned ”
with him. He had had a very adventurous career,
having served for five years in the Chilian Navy,
and occasionally he gave us a lesson in Spanish
and navigation. But a day or two after the quarrel,
Captain O’Toole called us to him, and told us that
we were no longer to visit the mate in his cabin.
We were, of course, obliged to obey him, but feltADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 69
the restriction very much; so, too, did the mate,
but he said that it would be unwise of us to kick
against the captain’s authority in this respect, and
so our pleasant evenings came to an end.

Now, we had one enemy on board, and that was
the Monocle Man. He disliked us intensely, and
showed it, and we returned his dislike with a great
and cheerful interest. Of Vern, however, he had
a downright fear, for the latter had one day told
him at the cabin table that if he made any further
uncalled-for and rude observations about the bar-
barous habits and manners of colonial people he,
Vern, would “ give him a dressing-down.”

Both the rebuke and threat were well-merited;
the Monocle Man was well aware that, besides my
brother and myself, there were at least two other
colonial-born persons at the table. But they never
seemed to have the courage to check the pompous
man; in fact, no one did until this especial occa-
sion. Somewhat of a scene occurred. The
Monocle Man jumped to his feet and asked the
captain if he was to be insulted at the cabin table
by “an uncouth cub of an ex-ship’s apprentice.”
This brought Vern to his feet, with an angry glitter
in his grey eyes; the captain weakly suggested that
Vern should apologise for “ intemperate words
used to a gentleman twice his age.”

“Gentleman! Do you say gentleman, Captain
O’Toole ? He is merely a snob, a Cockney snob !
Why, the fellow has not the manners and appear-
ance of a decent footman; although I have no
doubt but that was what he was when he was
‘ travelling with Lord A---, conversing with Lady

B-----, and studying the Louvre pictures with his70 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

dear young friend Lord Mayo.’ But, for an ex-
flunky, his manners are bad—very bad. And if
he is not an ex-flunky, he must be an ex-school
usher. But whatever he has been doesn’t matter.
It is what he is now—and that is a conceited prig
and a fraud, and when I get him on deck I’ll show
him that someone, less than half his age, can teach
him a lesson in manners. I know he dislikes my
brother and myself, Captain O’Toole, but he is not
going to show it at the cabin table.”

And with that, Vern sat down and began to eat,
while Oliver, the mate, who appeared as if he were
seized with a fit of apoplexy, left the table and
rolled up on deck, where, a few moments later, he
began to roar with laughter and stamp about like
a man treading with bare feet on hot bricks.

After this incident, the Monocle Man left us
severely alone at the cabin table. Later on, we
learned from Francois that the reason the man had
taken such a dislike to us from the outset of the
voyage was because the cabin we occupied had first
been allotted to him by Captain O’Toole, and he
bitterly resented having to turn out of it for “ two
colonial cubs of boys,” as he termed us.

This rankled in my mind for some days, but I
should have forgotten all about it, had he not
played me a very mean trick which led me to seek
revenge.

Ever since the barque had entered the warm
waters of the tropics Vern and I had, almost daily,
fished for bonito from the flying jibboom. We
were extremely lucky, and one day we caught over
forty fine fish. These were distributed to every-
one on board, and the crew especially highlyADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 71
appreciated Vern’s and my skill as fishermen, for
there is nothing more delicious than a fresh bonito
steak. Whenever we went out on the jibboom
some of the crew or some of the fore-cabin passengers
would stand by on the fore-topgallant foc’sle to
take the fish from us as we swung them up from
beneath, and even Mr. Oliver did not grumble at
the fore deck being covered with blood.

Now, I always took great care of my fishing
tackle, which had cost me over £3. It was con-
tained in a canvas bag, and every evening I hung
it up under the break of the poop near the ladder
on the port side, where it was never in the way,
and was easily accessible to me. Just near it, and
stowed on the deck, was a box of large sea shells
which belonged to the Monocle Man, and which
he was taking to England. One morning, when
the decks were being washed down, it was moved
by the crew, and during the night, when the barque
was heeling over to a stiff breeze, it began to slide
about and make a great clatter. The steward, who
hated our friend, called him and told him that his
box was adrift, and that he had better see to it,
as he, Francois, was too busy to leave his cuddy.
It was raining at the time, and the Monocle Man,
grumbling and complaining, got out of bed, went
on deck, and crawled under the poop ladder to
secure his box. My heavy fishing bag, which was
swinging to and fro, was in his way, and the idiot
gave it an angry push away from him; it swung
back and caught him fair on his chest, knocking
him over on to his back into some inches of water.
This so enraged him that the mean fellow un-
shipped my bag from the hook, and quietly dropped72 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

it overboard on the lee side. He thought he was
not seen, but he was mistaken.

Early in the morning I missed my bag, and
began making inquiries. In a few minutes, a sea- z
man named Andrew told me, in the hearing of the
two mates, that as he was standing near the after
deck-house he saw the Monocle Man commit my
treasured bag to the deep and then sneak back into
the cabin with all his guilt upon his soul. Andrew’s
tale was confirmed by Francois, who said that,
happening to look out of the cuddy window, he
had seen the Monocle Man certainly unshipping
my bag, although he did not see him drop it over-
board.

“But I did,” cried the ship’s boy, Christie,
“ that is, I seed the gent with the eyeglass drop
something white over the side. I was clearing one
of the scuppers in the waist on the lee side.”

This was enough for me. Hot with anger, I
went below and rapped at the door of the state-
room occupied by mine enemy , and his three
charges. It was opened by the culprit himself.

“Why did you throw my bag overboard, you
beast? ” I demanded. I was too excited to be very
polite.

He shut the door in my face with such violence
that I had to fall back to avoid serious injury to
my nose.

I consulted Vern.

“ Get even with him in any way you like. I’ll
back you up, if he hits you. He’s a mean hound.”

Mine enemy did not appear at breakfast. No
doubt he imagined that the hated and brutal Vern
was awaiting him, and would recount the tale ofADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 73

my jettisoned fishing-bag for the benefit of those
present. As for me, I was burning with just
anger; for, in addition to my valuable fishing lines
of silk twist and specially bought hooks, there was
also in the bag a pair of rubber-soled shoes and a
pair of rubber gloves, both of which were in-
valuable to me when fishing for bonito from the
end of the flying-jibboom. For in those days
such things were novelties and cost a considerable
sum—at least they did so in Australia.

That afternoon it turned out gloriously fine, and
many of the saloon passengers brought their trunks
up on the poop deck to air their clothes, which were
becoming damp and mouldy through the humidity
of the tropic seas in which we were now sailing.
The Monocle Man brought up, among his other
effects, a very handsome dressing case, unlocked it,
and spread it open upon the skylight.

I watched him hungrily.

The sight of those beautiful silver-topped cut-
glass bottles, the array of razors, the silk-lined
dress suit and gorgeous hair brushes, the bundles
of unused kid gloves, which he handled as
reverently as if they were holy relics, filled me
with venom.

I cast my eyes about. The barque was spinning
along over a smooth sea at about six or seven
knots. Vern was out on the jibboom fishing for
bonito. Mr. Oliver was waddling about on the
main deck, in his usual cheery manner, and Mrs.
O’Toole was seated in her deck chair on the shady
side of the spanker.

I went to the rail and meditated a little. Should
I seize the case with the entire contents and pitch74 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

it overboard, or be satisfied with the razors and the
dress suit. The Monocle Man decided the question
for me; he began taking everything out of the
case, and, laying the articles carefully down on
the skylight, he took a piece of chamois leather
and set to work to wipe out the interior linings,
etc. As I looked at the valuable collection my
heart misgave me, and my better nature asserted
itself; it would be too horrible a revenge to heave
all that beautiful paraphernalia overboard, much as
I valued my fishing bag. No, I would be satisfied
with sending the case alone for a cruise.

I stepped quietly over to mine enemy, and
watched him polishing an elaborate shaving glass;
he gave me an ugly look, but said nothing. Then
swiftly seizing the dressing case by one handle, I
sprang to the rail and thence into the quarter boat,
and swinging the case to and fro, I addressed the
Monocle Man, who stood staring at me in amaze-
ment :

“You threw my bag overboard, you mean
sneak,” I cried; “ now, here goes your dressing-
case to keep it company,” and I hurled it over the
side. It fell upon the water, wide open and bottom
up, filled, and sank. Then jumping out of the boat
again, I whipped a belaying pin out of the rail and
waited for the attack. But it never came. He
merely glared at me like a lunatic, uttered a gasp-
ing sort of a moan, and tore below to relate the
awful deed to the captain. From that hour he
never again so much as looked at me. The
captain, of course, gave me a great lecture, to
which I listened with much gravity, and there the
matter ended.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 75

Three days after this, at dawn, we sighted the
island of Rurutu, one of the Tubuai Group. It
lay about ten miles to leeward—a vision of dark
green, floating upon the smooth and sparkling
bosom of the sunlit Pacific—and a thrill of excite-
ment passed through the ship when Captain
O’Toole, coming on deck, ordered the helm to be
put up, and we bore down on it. Turning to the
few passengers who were on the poop, he graciously
informed them that he meant to call at the island
and obtain fresh provisions.

Wildly excited, I tore up aloft to the fore-royal
yard, and with beating heart looked at the first of
the wonderful islands of the South Sea I had ever
seen.CHAPTER IX.

Whilst the starboard quarter boat was being
cleared away for lowering, several canoes put off
from the island, and within a quarter of an hour
they were alongside, some fifteen or twenty natives
springing on deck, and shaking hands with every-
one they saw. They were all remarkably fine-look-
ing men, and their bright copper-coloured skins
glistened and shone as if they had been polished.
Only a few of them were clothed in European gar-
ments—the rest wore simply thick girdles of
beautifully dyed grasses and dracaena leaves. All
of them were bareheaded, but had over the forehead
a peak made of plaited green coco-nut leaves to
shield their eyes from the glare of the tropical sun,
and what both amused and yet pleased everyone
on board the Lily of France was that each of them
had a scarlet hibiscus flower placed between the
top of each ear, while their broad and noble chests
were decorated by strings of bright-hued and sweet-
smelling berries called masa'oi. They behaved in
the most courteous and gentlemanly manner, and
their first action was to present some baskets of
pineapples, mangoes, and splendid oranges to the
captain’s wife. One of them, who spoke English
quite fluently, informed the skipper that there was
an abundance of provisions to be obtained on shore
—sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, and an unlimited
supply of fruit; also that there was a good boat
passage through the reef.

(76)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 77

Presently, to our intense delight, my brother
and I made a discovery—we found that the Ruru-
tuan dialect was so like Tahitian that hardly any
difference existed, and in a few moments we were
surrounded by the entire number of our visitors,
who excitedly demanded to know where we had
learnt Tahitian—their old-time mother tongue.
We told them that we knew many Tahitian sailors,
ivho used to sail in the Taw era and the Iona, and
were frequent visitors to our parents’ house in
Sydney. We mentioned the names of some of our
former friends, and found that not only were the
Taw er a and Iona well known to the people of
Rurutu, but some of the sailors on both brig and
barque were actually relatives or connections. The
brig, especially, had visited the island very often—
it was only three hundred miles south of Tahiti—
and there was a small colony of Rurutuans settled
in the Tiarapu district in Tahiti. They pressed us
most eagerly to come on shore with them, and two
of them at once selected my brother and me as their
taios, or personal friends.

All this was very exciting and pleasing—and
then came a “damper.” Whilst our two taws
were holding my brother’s and my hand in theirs,
the little skipper—just before getting into the boat
—came up to us on the main deck, and told us that
we must remain on board, giving the absurd reason
that the natives “ might be treacherous, seize us,
and hold us to ransom.” Then he went over the
side into the boat, which at once pushed off, the
English-speaking native going with her as pilot.

“The fussy little animal!” snorted Vern con-
temptuously, and then he seized my arrn. “ Look

F78 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

at that staring us in the face! Does he think that
we are babies? ”

“ That ” was the native church, which stood on
a headland just at the side of the village, its white
walls of coral and neat picket fence gleaming
brightly in the glorious sunshine. And as if to
emphasise the peaceable character of our brown-
skinned friends, we saw some children driving four
or five cows into an enclosure, evidently for the
purpose of milking them. The barque was so
close in to the shore that we could every now and
then hear the voices of the clustering natives on the
shining beach.

The mate carefully looked the other way as Vern
and I, getting quietly over the side with our two
friends, took our places in separate canoes, each
of which was manned by three stalwart young
Polynesians. In a few seconds we were clear of
the rusty-sided, disreputable-looking old Lily of
France. The steerage passengers gave us a cheer,
and called out to us not to forget them in the way
of fruit. The Monocle Man, I must mention, had,
with his young gentlemen, ventured on shore in the
captain’s boat, every one of them, including the
brave little skipper, being armed with old-fashioned
Colt’s pistols and ship’s cutlasses. This filled our
native friends with undisguised wonder, and they
asked us why the captain and other men were so
foolish—of what were they frightened ? Vern sug-
gested that perhaps they were afraid of being
abducted by some of the pretty unmarried girls of
Rurutu, and would fight. This remark put our
friends into high good humour, nevertheless I
was certain that they resented Captain O’Toole’sADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 79
stupidity—born of his ignorance of the peaceable
nature of the natives, and his own nervousness.

We sped gaily over the blue, heaving swell, and
within ten minutes we were close in to the seethe
and roar of the thundering surf. For a brief space
our native friends ceased paddling, watching for
a lull in the breaking seas. At last it came, and
then with loud yells of triumph we seemed to be
flying through the air, each canoe with its sharp
bow cleaving the water like a knife blade. Then
the roar and clamour of the reef were left behind,
and, as we drew a gasping breath of excitement, we
glided into a clear, placid lake, or rather lagoon.
A few more strokes of the paddles, and the light
little crafts grounded on the snow-white beach in
front of a cluster of yellow thatched native houses,
encompassed by groves of orange, mango, and
banana trees. The moment our feet touched the
sand, we were surrounded by fifty or more natives
of both sexes, who gave us eager welcomes of
loarana! (the Tahitian greeting), and after rubbing
noses with some of the older men and women,
Vern and I were almost carried into the largest of
the houses.

We found that this was one of the smaller
villages—the principal being that at which the boat
had landed, and distant from us about one-third of
a mile. From where we were we could see the
captain, surrounded by people, bargaining for live
stock, etc., and we were glad that we were not in-
cluded in his party, for it was quite evident that
our hosts meant to treat us right royally. In an
amazingly short time baskets upon baskets of food
were brought in, and the contents spread out upon80 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

leaf platters. Fowls, wild pigeons, baked fish and
pork, baked and boiled yams, taro and other vege-
tables, and literally heaps of fruit—several varieties
of bananas and pineapples, custard apples, grena-
dillas, and delicious mangoes. The mere sight of
all these delicacies, after the meagre fare of the Lily
of France, whetted our appetites, and our kind
friends seemed overjoyed to find that we were such
good trenchermen. Our respective taios sat cross-
legged in front of us, and kept replenishing our
platters so persistently that at last we had to beg
them to desist. Vern’s taio was a stalwart fellow
of about thirty years of age, and was named Viri-
viri; my friend, who was only about twenty or
twenty-one, was called Tao—“ war spear.” They
told us that there were in all about five hundred
people on the island, which was included in the
French Protectorate of the Society Islands, but that
there was no resident French governor, for which
they were devoutly thankful, as they did not like
French people. The Governor of Tahiti, they
said, had once visited the island, and asked them
if they would not like to have a resident priest to
live among them and instruct them in his country’s
religion. They politely but firmly declined.

“ We are lotu Peretane (i.e. of the English
religion). We have always been lotu Peretane
since we abandoned heathenism, and we and our
wives and children want no other. We have our
own teacher, our own church, and our own school,
and are well content.”

The Governor, who was a good-natured man,
laughed, and did not seek to change their resolution
on the matter, and ever since they had been left inADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 81

peace, although one day the sudden appearance of
a French gunboat sent them all fleeing in terror to
the rugged mountains of the interior. The captain
of the gunboat, however, had merely called to ask
the head men of the island to take a census of the
population.

In this happy, fertile, and beautiful little spot,
the people saw but little of the outside world and
its worries, and their existence flowed on in serenity
and peace. Once a month a small trading schooner
came from Tahiti, to barter with them for their
coco-nut oil, turtle and turtle shell, preserved
bananas (for which Rurutu was famous), pearl-
shell, and other island produce. Occasionally—as
in the case of the Lily of France—a California-bound
vessel would touch there for fresh provisions, and
now and then an American sperm-whaler would
cruise in the vicinity and get into communication
with the people.

The hours flew by all too quickly for my brother
and me. Twice the captain’s boat had taken a load
of provisions to the barque, and now we saw her
leaving for the third and last time; then came the
report of a gun, and recall signals (for us) were
run up to the peak of the spanker gaff. (We after-
wards learned that the captain had returned on
board by the second trip, and was furious at finding
we had gone and were still on shore. So the boat
had been sent back in charge of the second mate.)

No less than eight canoes formed our escort out
to the ship, and each one was laden with provisions,
fruit, live fowls, several small turtle, some beauti-
fully made sleeping mats and Panama hats, and
other presents. All these were given to my brother82 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

and me by these generous people as a token of their
pleasure at meeting us, and “out of their great
love ” for us. Both Viriviri and Tao, men as they
were, could not restrain their tears when they bade
us farewell. And we, on our part, promised that
we would one day see them and their beautiful
island home again. We made the promise in all
youthful enthusiasm and sincerity, and cherished
it deep in our bosoms until it was fulfilled—not
alas! together, but separately, and with years
of strange adventures and many vicissitudes be-
tween.

« • • • •

As the sea-worn old barque filled away again,
and her canvas swelled to the gallant south-east
trade wind, Vern and I climbed to the fore-top, and
in silence, but with exultant hearts, watched the
purple clouds of sunset close in around the island
and hide it from our view.CHAPTER X.

We had been at Captain Dufayel’s ranche for two
weeks, enjoying ourselves most thoroughly,
fishing, shooting, and making sailing excursions
across the Bay of San Francisco, and up the Sacra-
mento River, when one day there came a letter for
my brother Alfred, from Carson City, in Nevada,
offering him an excellent position as accountant to
one of the big silver mining companies. He was
to go there at once.

“ Look here, you boys,” he said, after he had read
the letter to us, “I must start to-morrow. I cannot
refuse such an offer—200 dollars a month. Now
will you promise me to stay on here with old
Maurice for a few weeks until I write, and perhaps
you may be able to join me in Carson City. But,
at the same time, I don’t want you to feel that you
are tied to me because I am your ‘ big brother, ’
and if you don’t care about Nevada, and can get
into good employment anywhere in this State, I
shall be very pleased. But, remember, you must
write to me at least once a week, and I shall do the
same to you. I am giving you fifty dollars to go
on with. Don’t get into any scrapes. Let me go
away feeling that I can trust you, and that you
will play the square game.”

We promised.

As Alfred wanted to say farewell to some friends
of ours living at Oakland—a marine suburb of San
Francisco—we went there early on the following

(83)84 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

morning, lunched with our friends, and then started
in the big passenger steamer El Capitan for the
city, where Alf was to take the Union Pacific train
for Carson City.

The steamer was crowded with passengers,
amongst them being many hundreds of fashion-
ably dressed women, who were walking about on
the upper deck, or seated at the little refreshment
tables. One group especially attracted our atten-
tion, the central figure being a strikingly handsome
and dignified man of about sixty years of age. He
was accompanied by his wife and two sons and
two daughters; and by the attention paid to them
by the other passengers, it was evident that they
were a family of some note. I asked one of the
deck hands who the gentleman was.

“ That is Judge Crittenden, the ablest lawyer in
the State of California, and about one of the richest
men in San Francisco.”

Presently there came walking quickly along the
upper deck a tall, fair-haired, and rather pretty
woman of about forty. She was well-dressed in
black silk, and as she passed us we all noticed that
she was deathly pale, and her face was set and
stern.

Passing swiftly through the groups seated at- the
tables, she stopped suddenly in front of the judge,
and quick as lightning placed a pistol to within a
few inches of his heart, and fired four times. At
the first shot the victim half-rose in his seat, then
sank back dead.

In an instant the wildest confusion reigned, and
one of the judge’s sons seized the woman and
wrested the pistol from her.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 85

She took matters very quietly, and throwing up
her left hand in a theatrical manner, exclaimed in a
harsh, rasping voice:

“ I am Laura D. Fair, and I have shot that man
because he ruined my life. I have fulfilled a sacred
duty—shown my fellow women how to avenge a
life’s wrongs.”

Naturally the evening papers were full of the
tragedy, and it appeared that the woman had had a
very shady career. When quite a young man, the
judge had made her acquaintance in Paris—to his
disadvantage. He, however, freed himself from
her, and returned to America, concluding that the
incident was closed. But he was mistaken. She
followed him, and began a system of blackmail.
As greedy and merciless as a shark, she proved the
bane of his life, but when he married she took 5,000
dollars from him, and gave him a written pledge to
molest him no more. Long years passed, and then
the adventuress again appeared, and made a written
demand upon him for 50,000 dollars. He refused
to give her a single dollar. Mad with rage, she
then attacked him through the columns of a news-
paper—it is so easy to blackmail in the United
States if money be expended—annoying and in-
sulting the unfortunate man’s wife and children in
all sorts of ways, accosting them in public, writing
them malicious letters, and using all her devilish
ingenuity to wreck the family’s happiness. Then
one of the sons, unknown to his father, and
desiring to bring an end to such a deplorable
state of affairs, gave the woman a sum of 5,000
dollars. She promised never more to trouble
them, and to leave the State. But with cold-86 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

blooded vindictiveness, she deliberately applied the
money to a more elaborate scheme of blackmail,
by means of a corrupt and vile press. The Judge
was not only a man of great wealth, but was a
prominent figure in the politics of the State of Cali-
fornia, and was on the eve of being appointed its
Governor. Having done much to sweep away the
notoriously corrupt practices of the municipal
authorities of the city of San Francisco, he was,
in consequence, one of the best-hated men in the
State, and his enemies eagerly assisted the adven-
turess in her efforts to secure his downfall and pre-
vent him being appointed Governor. But, on the
other hand, there were many strong and honest men
in the city who were his firm adherents, and sup-
ported him strenuously.

Again the woman renewed her demands. This
time she wanted, not 50,000 dollars, but 150,000
dollars, and threatened that, if the money were not
paid to her lawyers by a certain date, she would
shoot him dead “ in some public place.”

She carried out her threat, and such was the
strange and vicious admiration expressed for her
crime by the Women’s Rights Association of San
Francisco, that she became a heroine. For two
years her alleged trial dragged on, and then she
was acquitted by a suborned jury on the grounds of
having been “ insane at the moment of her attack ”
on the judge.

Now, I must go back to the time of the murder.
As the El Capitan sheered alongside the jetty a
number of police officers came on board, and began
taking the names of all the passengers who had
witnessed the incident, and Alf—wise as ever—toldADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 87

Vern and me to say that we had seen nothing.

“ I don’t want you boys to be dragged into the
matter as witnesses. So mind, you two and I
know nothing.”

The police officers tried very hard to get us to
‘‘state something,” but we did not “state any,”
and got home to our lodgings without hindrance.
Dear, fat old Mother Lynch welcomed us as if we
were her own children.

Alf left in the evening, and after seeing him off
we went to Rollands’ restaurant, and had an ex-
cellent dinner, together with a bottle of Californian
Angelica—a delightful amber-hued wine, though a
little sweet. Just as we were leaving the restaurant,
we heard the great city fire-bell sound twice; then,
in a few seconds more, three times, denoting that a
fire had broken out in fire section 23 of the city. A
passing policeman told us that it was at the city
front—a long distance down—but off we went, and
presently the bell again sounded—this time an
“ urgent alarm.”

In a very few minutes there were thousands of
people running through the streets towards the
waterside, and we, of course, joined the crowd.
Several grandly horsed fire engines dashed by at a
breakneck speed, and when we reached the corner
of Sansome and California Streets, we caught sight
of an ominous glare down by the wharves. It was
a huge warehouse built entirely of wood, like all
the other buildings in that part of the city, and
flames were already bursting out through a score
of windows. Despite the admirable way in which
the firemen worked, the whole place was soon a
roaring furnace; other buildings took fire, and then88 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

several Puget Sound timber vessels lying at the
nearest wharf became enveloped in flame. The
scene was indescribable, for the fearful heat and
the enormous and excited crowd brought about
such confusion that one of the fire engines was cap-
sized, and before the poor horses could be freed, a
mass of flame swept over them, and men and horses
perished.

“ Oh, do let’s get out of this if we can,” cried
my brother, as a thundering explosion took place
in one of the buildings, and blazing beams were
sent high in the air.

Struggling and pushing with all our strength,
we at last succeeded in getting to the outskirts of
the crowd, and then came fresh trouble.

Under pretence of salving the contents of a wine
and spirit store, a number of roughs had burst in
the doors, and were carrying away whole cases of
liquor. None of the onlookers interfered, and
when five burly grey-coated policemen appeared,
and tried to arrest some of the robbers, a free fight
ensued, the officers using their revolvers without
hesitation. I saw three men shot dead in a few
seconds, and then the crowd of onlookers came to
the rescue, and they, too, began firing. In those
days every other man in San Francisco carried a
pistol—in fact, young as we were, my brother and
I had provided ourselves with a Smith and Wesson
revolver each within a week of our arrival in Cali-
fornia.

The fight lasted about ten minutes, six or seven
men being killed or wounded, and Vern and I
were almost exhausted by the time we managed to
escape from the struggling crowd and reach aADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 89

small liquor saloon in a side street. It was almost
deserted, but as it seemed a rather respectable place
for that part of the city, we went in and ordered a
bottle of white wine, for we were suffering greatly
from thirst.

While we were resting and talking over our
adventures, I caught sight of a newspaper on the
table, and by the merest chance my eye lit upon the
following advertisement:

MAGDALENA BAY CONCESSIONS
COMPANY.

Wanted, a competent Surveyor. Must speak Spanish.
Also a good draughtsman; also a youth, 16 to 18, to
assist purser. Must be smart. Good salaries to suitable
persons.—Apply, in writing, to Manager of the above,
405, Montgomery Street.

“ Vern,” I said, “ shall I try for this. It is just
the berth I should like.”

“ Pursers on Yankee ships are only glorified
stewards,” he replied, “and they’ll work the soul
out of you in one trip. However, you might as
well try. Wish I knew something about survey-
ing. Now let us get home. I’m dog tired. You
can write out your application to-morrow. I don’t
exactly know what this Magdalena Bay affair is,
except that I have seen a lot in the papers about
some people who have obtained a big grant of land
in Magdalena Bay from the Mexican Government.
It is somewhere in Lower California. We shall
find out in the morning.”CHAPTER XI.

Men lived quickly in those days in the merciless,
money-making City of the Golden Gate, and the
tragedy of the previous night might never have
occurred, so quickly was it forgotten; and when
at ten o’clock in the morning I made my way down
Montgomery Street to the offices of the “ Mag-
dalena Bay Concessions Company,” there was
nothing unusual to be noted. People were hurry-
ing about to and fro in the usual restless manner
so indicative of American commercial life, the
horse cars were running as usual, and although the
fire had destroyed a million dollars’ worth of pro-
perty and half a score of dead men were lying in
the City Police hospital, business was going on as
usual. Outside the morning newspaper offices,
however, there were groups of men scanning the
bulletin boards to learn if any fresh news of the
struggle between France and Germany had come.

I had written my response to the advertisement
early in the morning with the intention of posting
it, but Mrs. Lynch—we always told Mrs. Lynch
everything—gave me a bit of advice.

“ Take the letther yersilf; an’ take wid ye a five-
dollar gold piece, and walk int’ th’ office as if ye
was as rich as Jay Gould or Jim Fisk, an’ give it
t’ wan av the quill drivers, or anny wan an th’
understhrappers, an’ say that it’s an important
communicashun f’r th’ Gineral Manager, an’ musht

(90)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 91
be prisinted to him at wanst. An’ then ye come
away—after ye give the understhrapper the five-
dollar piece.”

I found the offices of the “ Magdalena Bay Con-
cessions ” at the end of Montgomery Street, and
already the staff of clerks seemed to be very busy,
attending to quite a number of people and answer-
ing inquiries made in many languages. The in-
quirers appeared to be mostly Russians and Polish
Jews, Hungarians, and people from the Danubian
Principalities. They were a dirty, filthy lot, but
seemed to have money; for as they made out certain
applications, they paid deposits—sometimes as
much as fifty to one hundred dollars. The place
smelt like a badly-tended dog kennel.

Casting my eye around the front office, I saw
that the walls were covered by most beautifully
coloured maps and plans and drawings, represent-
ing a new city that was to be—in fact, “ had already
begun its existence ”—founded on the particularly
rich and fertile lands of Magdalena Bay. The
counter was also piled up with illustrated literature
—books and pamphlets—in many languages, de-
tailing the extraordinary benefits that would accrue
to any family that was prepared, by paying a pre-
liminary fee of five hundred dollars to the Con-
cessions Company, to avail themselves of a free
passage to Magdalena Bay by the Company’s
“ fleet” and settle down in that lovely country to
cultivate the orange and the vine, exploit its rich
mineral treasures, and become wealthy in a few
years. As a proof of the integrity of the Conces-
sions Company, and their disinterestedness gener-
ally to “aid the benevolent President of the Re-.92 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
public of Mexico to develop the resources of that
most beautiful part of God’s earth—the peninsula
of Lower California—one of the highly-coloured
illustrated pamphlets contained a copy of an
(alleged) autograph letter to the Company, saying
that should any one family of emigrants be dis-
satisfied with their new surroundings, the Govern-
ment of the Republic would give such a misguided
family a free passage back to any port in the United
States on the Pacific Slope.

I also gathered from one of the pamphlets that
the Concessions Company had agreed with the
Mexican Government to have no less than “one
thousand families of respectable Europeans settled
in the Magdalena Bay Concession within ten
years.” (This was about the only true statement
made.)

To attend to me and my letter I called to a young
man who looked like a Macedonian bandit. His
hair was execrably greased, curled, and parted in
the middle. He spoke English—and, indeed, most
European languages—took my letter and the five-
dollar gold piece in the most gentlemanly manner,
and asked me to come inside to the Secretary’s
office, where “Colonel Mahony, the General
Manager, would see me.” I went in. The colonel
was a big, well-dressed man, and was smoking a
large cigar. Seated near him was a hawk-nosed,
keen-eyed man engaged upon a pile of documents
—this was Mr. Eckstein, the colonel’s secretary.

The Colonel received me affably, asked me some
questions about my previous experience, and
seemed satisfied with my answers. He did not
trouble to ask me if I had any references, so I didADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 93
not allude to the subject. Then he asked me when
I could start work.

“ To-day, if you wish it.”

“ Well, now, that’s right. I like to see a young
fellow with push and grit. Now, your duties will
be to assist Captain Conklin, who is the chief
purser and provedore. The fleet is lying along-
side the wharf near Fourth Street bridge. I’ll
start you with sixty dollars a month, beginning
from to-day. Mr. Eckstein, enter this young man’s
name in the employes book, maritime section, and
give him a few lines to Captain Conklin.”

This ended the interview, but as I was about to
leave the office, the Colonel gave me a small assort-
ment of the Company’s pamphlets, prospectuses,
etc., and asked me to distribute them amongst my
friends.

“ Jest you tell them that if they want to realise
one hundred per cent, on any loose capital they
may have, now is the time to do it—guess there
won’t be any shares to be had in two weeks from
now.”

It not being out of my way, I first went home and
told Vern of my good news. He was pleased, and
said that sixty dollars a month were good wages,
especially as I should have to keep myself in
nothing but clothes.

Leaving him at home, I made my way down to
the water front, and alongside one of the wharves
I discovered the Company’s “ fleet,” which con-
sisted of a steamer of about 600 or 700 tons, a
barque, and a brigantine. All three presented a
scene of activity, for caulkers, riggers, and painters
were hard at work. The steamer was well known

G94 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

to me by sight. She was an old, slow, side-wheel
craft, named the Montana, formerly trading on the
coast. In appearance she was not a beauty, being
short and clumsy looking, and she was in an ex-
tremely dirty condition. There was a large notice
board on the gangway—as also there were on those
of the two sailing vessels—setting forth that “ this
powerful steamer, the pioneer boat of the
Magdalena Concession Company,” etc., was to
sail in a short time. Passages by her could only
be reserved if applied for at once, as “ nearly all
the accommodation has been engaged.” But those
who were too late for the steamer had the privilege
of choosing either the barque or the brigantine, the
names of which were the Mohawk and the Dollie
Sage. Both were played out and disreputable-
looking crates, and the Mohawk, I was informed,
was “ hogged ”—broken-backed.

Boarding the steamer, I found Captain Conklin,
and gave him my letter.

“ That is all right. I’m glad I have someone to
help me. Come along with me to the Sage. She
is loading up with stores, and I am trying to get
her away this week in advance of the steamer.
Everything is in a durned old mess. I was think-
ing of going in her myself, but I can’t do it—there’s
too much to be done on the steamer and barque.”

I at once offered to go alone in the Sage—if he
thought me capable of doing the work.

He was pleased, and his face lit up.

“ I’ll make everything easy for you, and give
you written instructions what to do when you get
to Magdalena. It will be a load off my mind if I
can get the Dollie Sage off this week. I amADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 95
anxious for her cargo of stores to be landed before
I reach there in the steamer with my crowd of
passengers. Come along.”

We went on board the brigantine, which was
being loaded as quickly as possible by longshore-
men, under the direction of the mate; the second
mate and crew were busy setting up the rigging,
and doing other work. The language being used
all around was of the most lurid character, and
Conklin sharply inquired of the steward if the
captain was aboard.

“Who is the captain, sir? There were three
came aboard yesterday, sir, one after the other, and
they began quarrelling. One of them, a big man
with black whiskers, ran the other two out of the
ship. Then he gave the mate and me some orders,
left his topcoat in the cabin, and went off, saying
he would be back some time to-day.”

Conklin’s worried face made me feel quite sorry
for him.

“ Oh, it will be all right, steward. The man
with the black whiskers is the real captain—Captain
Barr. He’ll turn up presently. Now, Mr. Blake,
let us get through the bulk of these invoices. Then
we’ll go and see the mate, and I’ll leave you here,
and get back to the steamer.”

I entered into my new work with a zest, and only
stopped for dinner. The mate and second mate
were very rough fellows, but very civil, and as, of
course, I had not yet taken a cabin, the former told
me to go into his and get a wash.

During dinner Captain Barr appeared. He was
a very tall man, with an enormous black beard.
He nodded to us all, sat down, and began to eat96 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

vigorously. After dinner he told us that he meant
to get the brigantine to sea within forty-eight hours
if he “ busted ” over it, informed me that I could
take any cabin I liked, and that he believed we were
taking six passengers.

I took the hint, got the key of a two-berth cabin
from the steward, and then went home to pack up
my belongings and buy a few necessaries for the
long voyage.

When I reached our lodgings, Vern himself
opened the door. He was just going out to the
telegraph office.

“I’m off to join Alf to-morrow night,” he
hurriedly explained, as we walked down the street.
“ I got a letter from him after you had left this
morning, telling me that he had a good berth for
me if I cared to come up at once. While I was
waiting for you to come home before I replied, I
received a telegram from him asking me to reply
by wire. So now I think we can add to it by giving
him the news about you. He will be quite satisfied
if you write and give him all the details. Do you
know how long you will be away? ”

“Two months” (this was Captain Conklin’s
estimate), “and then after that I expect I may be
given a berth in the Company’s offices—either here
or at Magdalena—the latter, I hope, as I don’t want
to be stuck in ’Frisco.”

Vern nodded. “ All right. You must look
after yourself, though. I hear that Lower Cali-
fornia is not at all healthy in most parts.”

We sent the telegram, and then went to
Rollands and had a glorious supper at seven
o’clock, and on reaching home found that Mrs.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 97

Lynch had prepared and laid for us another supper
in the big sitting-room downstairs. The poor soul
hated the idea of our going away, but tried to joke
and laugh and keep a bright face.

On the following day, as I was busy with the
mate in re-checking the brigantine’s manifest, Vern
came to bid me good-bye, as he was taking an
afternoon train to Carson City.

“Good-bye, old chap,” he said in his blunt,
straightforward way, “ don’t get into any messes
with the Greasers (Mexicans) down at Magdalena,
and learn all the sailorising you can. If all goes
well, we shall be able to buy a little vessel of our
own and start trading in the South Seas. I’m
mighty keen on it, I can tell you.”

With a warm hand grasp, we parted. Long
years passed before we met again.CHAPTER XII.

Three days later the Dollie Sage cast off from the
wharf, and a squat little tug took hold of her and
towed us well out into the bay. Then, as there was
a stiff breeze, all sail was made, and we were soon
spinning along, passing between the grim forts
of Alcatraz Island and the old Spanish Presidio on
the mainland, gleaming white in the bright morn-
ing sunshine.

Long years afterwards, when I read Bret Harte’s
mournful verses, “Concepcion de Arguello,” I
thought of the place and of her sad story.

Concepcion was the only daughter of the Spanish
Governor of California, and became betrothed to
one of the captains of the first Russian Exploring
Expedition that visited San Francisco Bay. The
fleet sailed for Kamschatka, on its return to Russia,
and never again did Concepcion see, or even hear
from, her lover, though day by day she sat waiting,

In the quiet, deep embrasures where the brazen cannon are.

Twelve long years had passed, when there came
a second Russian fleet, and only then did she learn
that her fiance, the moment his ship arrived home,
had set out on horseback to the Imperial Palace to
obtain the Czar’s consent to his marriage, and his
immediate return to California. His horse threw
him, and he was picked up dead.

; After passing through the Golden Gates, we
made a good offing, and then stood away to the
siouthward, well distant from the dangerous Cali-

■	(98)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 99
fornian coast, and the ship’s company and
passengers began to “shake down.”

Captain Barr was a good seaman, and so were
the two mates, but neither of the latter could
navigate. This made the big skipper as cross as
a bear with a sore head, and the language he used,
at first, was enough to start the ship’s timbers.
However, he took matters quietly later on, and
everything went on smoothly, pointing to a fairly
pleasant voyage. The brigantine, though so old,
was a remarkably fine sailer, and being in good
trim, would often reel off her twelve knots, especi-
ally with the wind a little abaft the beam.

Of the six passengers on board, only two were
in the cabin. They seemed to be respectable men
—Americans—and were going to Magdalena Bay
to test the value of the mineral country that was
reported to exist there, which offered great induce-
ments to men with a moderate capital. The other
four were merely employes of the Company, and
were all of a very low type, carrying pistols in their
hip pockets and gambling half through the night.

To one of these men I took a strong dislike within
a few hours after he came on board. He was about
fifty years of age, horribly dirty in his person, foul
in his language, and had a disgusting habit of
expectorating tobacco juice all over the deck. This
habit not only brought me into collision with him,
but led to a serious fracas later on during the
voyage. The man was a most unmitigated
ruffian, and was addressed by his comrades, of
whom he was the leader, as “ Bucky.”

The crew of the Dollie Sage was a mixed and
very shady lot, but Barr and the two mates keptIOO ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
them in order. The steward, who was a French-
man named Henri Leroux, was a steady, trust-
worthy, and determined man, and, it was easy to
see, would stand by the captain and officers in the
event of trouble; so we, who lived aft, with the two
mining prospectors, felt that we were quite able to
keep order if anything went wrong.

We continued to make good progress down the
coast till we came in sight of Point San Eugenio—
a headland half-way down the peninsula of Lower
California. Here, for two days, we lay rolling
about in a dead calm, with the sun beating down
upon our decks by day, and nqt a breath of air at
night. On the third day a light air came from the
east, and we tried to work off the land, to which
the current had set us in rather too close. But at
noon it died away, and the current ^§ain carried
us in so close to the point that Barr, much to his
annoyance, had to anchor about a mile from the
shore, and within view of a small town of adobe
houses, the people of which hoisted the Mexican
flag on a pole near the landing place. (Lower
California, I must mention, is part of the Mexican
province of Sonora.) Shortly after we saw a boat
pushing off, manned by eight people. When they
came alongside, we saw that their craft was well-
laden with fresh provisions—of a kind—consisting
of some hundreds of pumpkins and huge water-
melons, some quarters of fresh beef and two live
calves, together with several ollas (earthenware
jars) of about two gallons each, which the spokes-
man of the party told Barr contained a kind of
fiery aguardiente, or, as some people call it,
mescal.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE ioi

The captain, who spoke Spanish well, invited
them on board, and agreed to buy all the pro-
visions for a moderate sum, but declined to have
the liquor at any price. Whilst, however, he and I
were paying the leader of the party in the cabin,
and giving him some refreshment, the steerage
passengers and some of our crew drove a bargain
with the men who remained in the boat for all the
jars of mescal, which were quickly passed on
deck and carried below into the foc’sle.

Our visitors, who seemed quiet, well-mannered
people, with more Indian than Spanish blood in
them, only remained with us a short time, after
vainly pressing Barr and me to come on shore ^nd
accept their hospitality. They told us that the
country around their little town was very fertile
within a c^tain radius, but that beyond it was
barren and desolate in the extreme, there being no
water, and the arid soil producing only cactus.

An hour or so after they had pushed off to return
to the shore, a nice breeze sprang up from the
north-west, and lifting anchor at once, we were
soon walking away from the land in great style.
Barr’s keen eyes presently noticed that many of
the crew were half drunk, and inclined to be either
jovial or quarrelsome. On making inquiries from
the mate he was greatly angered to learn about
the mescal, though, for the time, he took no
action. However, when eight bells struck, the
steward came and reported to him that the cook
was in a drunken sleep in the galley, and that
dinner would be late.

Barr, up to then, had never carried a pistol—at
least, as far as I had seen. Calling the mate102 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

below he had a brief conversation with him, and
laconically told him to get his “ shootin’ iron ”
and come with him. I followed them on deck to
see what was going to happen, and as we emerged
from the companion-way, we heard an angry
exclamation from the second mate. It was ad-
dressed to the man at the wheel, who, not being
sober, was steering “anyway.” The man gave
an insolent reply, and letting go the wheel, told
the officer to “come and steer the ship himself.”
The next moment the mate felled the sailor with a
blow from a belaying pin, and the second officer
sprang to the wheel. At this time most of the
crew were on deck, none of them sober, but in an
instant they all, with the exception of one man,
ran, or staggered for’ard and went below.

Asking me to take the wheel, Barr, who was
perfectly cool, then bade the mate and steward
arm themselves and stand by. The one A.B. who
had not gone off with the rest now came aft, and
offered to take the wheel from me. Barr nodded
assent, and then he, the two mates, the steward,
and I went along the main deck to the steerage
passengers’ deck-house. Both doors were closed,
but quickly sliding one back, the captain revealed
a pretty picture.

Seated at the table were the four passengers,
gambling as usual. On the floor was a jar of
liquor, and the filthy table was littered with
tin mugs, piles of dollars, and slopped over with
mescal, the smell of which, together with that of
bad cigars, was most sickening. Lying on the
deck of the house with an empty mug in his hand
was one of the men in the mate’s watch—quite in-
capable.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 103

“Hands up, you fellers/’ said Barr quietly,
levelling his pistol at “ Bucky’s ” head.

“Bucky” made a quick movement with his
hand to get at the pistol in his hip pocket, but the
French steward, who was a powerful man, dealt
him a smashing blow on the mouth with the butt
of his own heavy Colt’s pistol, and Mr. “ Bucky ”
went flying backwards with a crash. The other
three sullenly handed over their weapons, of which
I took charge. Then the half-emptied jar of
liquor was pitched overboard, and “Bucky” was
handcuffed by the second mate.

“ Now, look here, you fellers,” said Barr, “jest
you keep quiet inside this house until I tell you
that you can come out. If I see a head show out-
side that door before then, it will get a hole put
through it mighty quick.”

No answer being made, we turned and left them,
and went for’ard to find that the crew had secured
the fore-scuttle from the inside. They refused to
open it at the captain’s demand.

“ We must get ’em out of that pretty quick, Mr.
Curtis,” observed the captain. “They will be
setting the ship on fire with all that cussed liquor
lyin’ around. And there are five tons of blasting
powder stowed in the fore-hold.”

A handspike soon made short work of the scuttle,
and then Barr and the second mate descended into
the darkened foc’sle. A short but violent struggle
ensued, and Barr called out to us to pass down a
line. This was done, and in less than ten minutes
four of the seamen were hauled up on deck, feet
first, and dragged aside and laid on the waterways.
Two were merely drunk; but the other two had104 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

shown fight and had been badly knocked about, for
their faces were smothered in blood and they were
barely conscious. Then a light was brought, and
the rest of the men (five) were driven up on deck
at the pistol’s point. Those who were sober
enough promised to turn to and do their duty
again, and in an hour the matter was apparently
ended—as we of the after-guard imagined.

Search was made in the men’s bunks for the jars
of liquor, and four full and one nearly empty were
found. These were brought aft, and placed in the
lazzarette, instead of being thrown overboard, as
I imagined they would have been. But Barr was
a man—rough and almost cruel as he could be at
times—with a sense of justice.

“ These fellers bought thet pizen with their own
money, and when we get to Magdalena they can
have it to take on shore with them, and drink it,
Mr. Curtis. Dessay, though, if they behave them-
selves, I’ll let them have half a gallon a day later
on. They are a tough lot, but I’ll do the square
deal with them, if they do the square deal with me.”

” I do not believe, Captain Barr,” I ventured to
say, “ that we have secured all the ollas of liquor
that came on board. I am certain that I saw quite
ten in that boat, and so far we can only account for
six. And I particularly noticed that when the boat
pushed off for the shore that there was not a single
jar left.”

This led to a further search, but nothing was
found except some pistols and bowie knives, which
were promptly taken possession of and placed in
the cabin. Then the fore-hold bulkhead was ex-
amined to see if it had been tampered with, and theADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 105
jars hidden among the cargo in the forehold. But
everything was intact as far as the bulkhead was
concerned, and the men themselves swore that they
and the steerage passengers had bought only six
jars.CHAPTER XIII.

“ Bucky ” and his three scallywag comrades be-
haved very properly during the following three or
four days, and the crew also appeared to be quite
penitent, obeying the officers’ orders with alacrity.
So poor Captain Barr and the two mates were lulled
into a false sense of security, and only one man—
Henri, the steward—seemed to have any mis-
givings as to the future. He went about his work
with a gloomy face, scarcely speaking to anyone.

One night, or rather early one morning, as the
Dollie Sage was slipping through the water at five
or six knots over a gently heaving sea, I was tor-
mented with an acute ear-ache (the after-results of
a savage ear-boxing I had been given by my brutal
music master in my Sydney school days). The
second mate—whose watch it was on deck—told me
that Henri had a bottle of chloroform, and that I
should soak a bit of cotton wool in some, and put
it in my ear. I went below, and to my surprise
saw that a light was burning in the steward’s cabin,
the door of which was partly open and hooked back.
I heard a sob, and looking in I saw that the man
was on his knees earnestly praying before a small
crucifix, which he had placed on the edge of his
bunk. I was about to withdraw, when the sound
of my booted feet caused him to turn. He at once
rose and begged me to come in. I did so, apologis-
ing for troubling him, but explained the cause.
He cheerfully got me out a small bottle of chloro-
form, dropped some on a piece of cotton wool, and
(106)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 107
pressed it into my ear. The pain ceased instantly,
and as I gave a sigh of relief, I noticed that the
man—who was a strikingly handsome “blonde,”
with a carefully trimmed moustache and beard of
the real golden hue—looked worn and distressed,
while he had evidently been weeping for a long
time, as his eyes were red and swollen.

44 Are you ill, Henri ? ” I asked.

“No, m’sieur,” he replied in French, “not ill
in body, but ill in mind, and I have been praying
to the good God to protect my poor wife and little
son whom I shall never see again, for I know that
death is near me.”

I was startled, and knew not what to say.

He closed the door quietly, bade me sit down,
and placed his hand on my knee.

“ Monsieur, this ship is doomed. It has been
revealed to me that I and some others of the after-
guard will be cruelly murdered by that bad man
4 Bucky ’ and his comrades.”

“ Who revealed this to you, Henri? ”

44 God,” he replied with a strange impressive-
ness.

Then in quiet, whispered tones, he told me of a
strange vision he had had the previous night, in
which he saw Captain Barr, Mr. Curtis, and him-
self lying dead, with blood pouring from dreadful
wounds. He went on to say that on the following
morning he had told Captain Barr of his dream,
and begged him to put 44 Bucky ” and his three
comrades in irons, together with three of the crew,
whom he (Henri) named, for he was sure that
treachery and murder were afoot* But the skipper
only laughed at his fears.io8 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

I was greatly impressed by his earnestness, and
readily listened to his suggestions.

“ I beg of you, M. Blake, to speak to the captain
yourself. He may perhaps listen to you. He
thinks that my mind has become affected by a mere
silly dream, and that the fear of death by violence
has upset my nerves. But, monsieur, I am no
coward. I have no fear of death in any form. But
I have fear for the wife and child whom I shall
never see again. They live at Baton Rouge, in the
southern United States, and when I am dead they
will be friendless. They have money enough to
last them for at least one year, and I have with me
now ten twenty-dollar gold pieces, which I beg of
you to take care of and send them, or the value of
them, to the address written on the little packet I
shall now give you. It contains a few little
trinkets, some of my dear Marie’s letters to me, and
a letter from myself.”

“ But why give it to me, Henri? I, too, if your
visions should come true, may be killed.”

“No, monsieur. You will escape. I did not
see you lying dead. Rest assured. You will
escape. . . . And you will send the money to
Marie?”

“ I promise to do so, Henri.”

“ Good. I am content. I know that you will
not fail. And now, monsieur, take this good little
five-chambered Springfield revolver, and put it in
your pocket. I know that you have a beautiful
Smith and Wesson pistol, but a second may prove
useful. I have another, and that other I shall
perhaps be able to use when the time comes. Now,
I shall dress and go on deck.”ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 109

For half an hour or so I paced the short poop
deck of the brigantine with the second mate.
Henri, I saw, had gone to the galley, and without
calling the cook, had lit the stove, and was evidently
very busy. The steerage passengers’ deck-house
seemed very quiet, and the watch were sitting or
lying about for’ard, and on the main hatch.

Just as dawn was breaking, and I was waiting to
see and talk to Captain Barr, the two cabin
passengers came on deck in their pyjamas, smoking
their “green” cigars, enjoying the cool morning
air, and awaiting their coffee. These two men, I
must mention, had taken no part in assisting us of
the after-guard in quelling the fracas that had
occurred. They, reasonably enough, said that
they had left the settlement of the matter to Captain
Barr, the master of the ship, and that although
they had been quite prepared to use their “ shootin’
irons ” if he had called upon them to do so, they
had not thought it necessary to interfere in “ a bit
of a muss ” between the captain, his crew, and the
steerage passengers.

When Captain Barr came on deck, I drew him
aside and told him of my conversation with the
steward. He did not laugh this time, but standing
with his long legs wide apart, pulled his enormous
black beard in a meditative manner, and then said:

“ Well, I guess that although I don’t go much
on dreams or visions of any kind, that Henri is no
galoot. He’s got grit—heaps of grit—as he
showed us the other day. And after breakfast I’ll
do something to please him. I’ll put ‘ Bucky ’
and those other fellows he suspects in irons, and
keep them in irons until we get to Magdalena Bay.”

Hno ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Captain Barr always spoke in very quiet, but
distinct, tones, and the man at the wheel, a hawk-
nosed, ear-ringed Greek, named Giorgio Metaxa,
must certainly have overheard him; for presently,
when he was relieved of his trick, he hurried for’ard
at a run. The man who took his place was a quiet,
well-behaved Swede, named Nahnsen—he it was
who had come to our assistance in the time of
our first trouble with the crew and the steerage
passengers.

Barr, the two cabin passengers, Mr. Curtis, and
I then went below for breakfast, leaving the deck
in charge of the second mate and a leading seaman,
who acted as boatswain, and was regarded as an
officer, for he had his meals in the cabin, though
he slept in the deck-house in the sail-locker. He
was a foreigner—I think a Maltese—and had fallen
into disfavour with Barr for participating in the
mescal orgy in a quiet manner and solus; for
when the trouble occurred, he was lying asleep in
his bunk with a stomach full of the spirit. Latterly,
however, he had done his duty, and appeared very
depressed and penitent, being abjectly servile and
cringing to the captain and the two mates.

We had about half finished breakfast, which had
been eaten in an unusual silence, for no one seemed
inclined to talk, when we heard a rush of feet over-
head. Suddenly, the second mate’s face appeared
at the open skylight—the poor fellow was unable
to speak, and fell back dead, for he had been
stabbed to the heart. In a few seconds the crew
and the four steerage passengers began firing at
us from the open flaps of the skylight. Poor
Captain Barr was the first to fall, shot through theADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE in

head, then Curtis, and then one of the cabin
passengers.

The other passenger and myself, dazed and
horrified at the awful suddenness of the tragedy,
were for some moments incapable of doing any-
thing ; Henri, the steward, recalled us to our senses.

“ Get your pistols, messieurs. We must not let
them enter the cabin! ” and dashing to the foot of
the companion, he tried to stop the downward rush
of the mutineers. As the treacherous Maltese
boatswain rushed at him, dagger in hand, Leroux
shot him dead, but the next instant “ Bucky ” cut
the poor fellow down with the carpenter’s broad
axe, cleaving his head in twain. The cabin
passenger and I were overborne by numbers, and
as I lay half stunned and gasping, the Greek
Metaxa seized me by the hair, and drew my head
back. That he meant to cut my throat I have no
doubt, but “Bucky,” callous ruffian as he was,
stayed his hand, and with fearful curses threatened
to “do for him ” if he harmed me.

By this time the cabin was filled with the
mutineers, and I and the surviving cabin passenger
(whose name was Trant) were dragged aft to the
transom lockers, one of the mutineers standing
guard over us with a revolver in each hand.

Then “ Bucky ” and his fellows, all of whom were
well armed, went into poor Captain Barr’s cabin,
and bringing out his private supply of liquor—
intended for the Mexican Government officials at
Magdalena Bay—placed it on the saloon table, and
opened a number of large bottles of champagne.

“ For God’s sake, if you have any humanity in
you, take away the men you have murdered!”112 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

cried Trant, pointing to the bodies of Captain Barr,
Curtis, and the steward.

His appeal had an effect, for “ Bucky ” ordered
the bodies to be carried on deck and thrown over-
board, with that of the second mate. Then he
ordered Trant and me into Mr. Curtis’s cabin, and
locked us in, threatening us with instant death if
we made “ any trouble.”

“I don’t want to hurt either of you,” he re-
marked, “but I guess that if you give us any
trouble you’ll both go overboard mighty smart.”

For quite an hour Trant and I were confined in
the mate’s cabin, while we heard the mutineers
drag out the ship’s safe from Captain Barr’s cabin,
force it open, put the money it contained (about
7,000 dollars) on the table, and apportion it out
amongst themselves.

Presently the door was opened and “ Bucky ”
told us to come out. I was feeling faint and ex-
hausted, and the old ruffian had the kindness to
give both Trant and me a glass of champagne.

“Can you speak Spanish?” he inquired of
Trant.

“ Yes, a little.”

“Well, pick yourself up, mister, and listen to
me. I am going to be mighty kind to you and this
cub of a Britisher. We are now just about seven
miles off Puerto de San Juanico, and I am giving
you the smallest boat on the ship to pull yourselves
on shore. A few miles south of Puerto de San
Juanico you’ll come to a small town, San Gregorio.
You can say what you like—it won’t matter a
darned cuss to me. I’ll let you take all your
belongings with you. Hurry up.”ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 113

To my intense astonishment, one of “ Bucky’s ”
comrades, a fox-faced, measly-looking little crea-
ture, spread out Captain Barr’s chart, studied it for
a few minutes, and then called out to someone on
deck to alter the ship’s course to south-east.

“And get the small quarter boat ready,” he
added. “ Put some water in her, with two oars,
and the mast and sail. Tell Greek George to be
ready for me to pick the watches as soon as the
boat is away.”CHAPTER XIV.

Presently we heard the rattle of boat blocks, and
a few minutes later Trant and I were ordered on
deck. The mutineers had deprived us of our
pistols after the struggle, but at Trant’s earnest
request “ Bucky ” gave him back his heavy Colts,
and restored me my own Smith and Wesson,
though he pretended he knew nothing about the
weapon presented to me by the poor murdered
steward.

“ Then will you let me take my own shot gun ? ”
I asked. “ I would rather part with anything else
than that.”

“ All right,” he snarled; “ go and get it, and
look smart.”

My gun, game bag, and a box of two hundred
and fifty cartridges were stowed in my bunk. I
ran on deck with them, and passed them, and some
hastily gathered-up clothing, fishing tackle, etc.,
into the boat, which was now ready for us. Then
“ Bucky’s ” comrade—the foxy-faced little man—
who seemed to have been elected skipper, signed
to the helmsman to let the ship come to the wind.
Trant and I then went over the side into the boat,
the painter was cast off, and in a few seconds we
were clear of the vessel, which at once put her helm
down and stood away from us with squared yards,
steering about east—directly away from the land.

(114)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 115

For some minutes we stared at her in silence;
then Trant spoke.

“ Well, here we are. Now what is to be done?
I guess that you know better than I. I know as
much about a boat as I do about feeding a sick
baby.”

“We must try and get to the land as quickly as
we can. But the wind is dead against us, light as
it is. Can you pull an oar? ”

0 I can try.”

The boat, although so small, was built of heavy
oak, and I could soon see that we should have all
our work cut out to reach the land during daylight.
Trant was a powerful man, but never having used
an oar in his life, the course we made was a very
erratic one. Fortunately the wind did not increase.
Had it done so we could have made no headway,
and our only resource would have been to have set
the sail—a split lug—and try to beat.

After two hours’ toil we spelled a bit, and had
something to eat and drink, and then standing up
on the thwart, I tried to make out the houses of San
Gregorio, but failed to do so. However, I knew
that we were heading rightly for the narrow bay of
Puerto de San Juanico, and that San Gregorio was
only a few miles to the south. So for two more
hours we struggled on, under a very hot sun, and
at last, by standing up, we could see the houses.
This cheered us greatly, and we put forward our
best efforts to reach the shore. Whether there was
a good landing place or not I did not know, for
although I had constantly studied Captain Barr’s
big chart of the east coat of Lower California, I
could recall nothing about San Gregorio.116 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

At last we were so close, and in such smooth
water, that we took in the oars and let the boat
drift a bit, whilst we stood up, waving our hats to
attract the attention of the townsfolk. But we
could not see a single person about anywhere,,
though the place consisted of about fifty or sixty
adobe houses, many of them being surrounded by
fruit and other trees. The only signs of life visible
’were a couple of mules and some goats grazing
about, close to the beach, less than a quarter of a
mile distant from the boat.

“This is curious,” I remarked to Trant; “no
one seems to be about; some of the houses have the
doors wide open. Well, we must not waste time.
Now, which is the landing place, I wonder? ”

After a little further search, we discovered a small
jetty of rough stones, which had been constructed
to form a breakwater for boats and small craft, and
on it we could see a capstan and a wooden crane.
There was only a slight swell running, and we had
no trouble in getting alongside at the sea end of the
jetty. Then jumping out with the painter, we
pulled the boat along to the shore end till she
grounded on the sand. The first thing we noticed
was that a small stream of beautifully clear water
debouched into the sea quite near by, and lying
down under the shade of some wild fig trees were
a number of cattle—about a dozen. They took no
notice whatever of us, at first, but presently they
rose in alarm and went off at a gallop.

After a drink and a biscuit each, we started off
for the houses, which were still as silent as the
grave.

“Hallo,” cried Trant, “look there at thoseADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 117

Muscovy ducks, and fowls. There must be people
here, surely.”

The poultry were resting under the shady side
of a cattle and horse corral, and the instant they
saw us they ran, or rather crawled, towards us.
The poor creatures were evidently starving, and
came feebly quacking and cackling about our feet,
asking to be fed.

We stood in the hot and dusty main street,
staring about us and wondering at the strange,
depressing silence, and when, from some distance
away, we heard the deep bellow of a bullock, we
started like nervous children.

“ Let us look inside some of the houses, and see
if we cannot discover the cause of the place being
abandoned—for abandoned it is; else why should
we see these starving fowls? ”

Night was quickly approaching as we stepped to
the open doorway of what was the most pretentious-
looking house in the village. It was built in the
usual Mexican style, a low, one-storied place with
a patio or courtyard. Much of the furniture, in-
cluding some roughly made wooden chests bound
with iron, had been left standing, but there was an
entire absence of the small domestic articles, and of
ornaments there were none.

We lifted up the lid of one of the boxes—it con-
tained nothing but some iron cooking utensils, a
worn-out saddle, and a few coarse Chihuahua
blankets.

Striking a match, we went through the other
rooms. They were all alike—everything of value
had been taken away, and only the larger articles
of furniture and bullock-hide beds had been left,118 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
these latter being stripped of all their appointments.
In the courtyard were the old ashes of what had
evidently been a big fire, and this feature we also
noticed in the courtyards, or near to most of the
other houses.

Darkness and the scarcity of our supply of
matches obliged us to discontinue any further re-
searches, so we returned to the beach to light a
fire, have our supper of ship biscuits and water,
and discuss what should be done on the morrow.
The night was bright, but rather chilly, so after
supper we gathered a pile of drift wood from the
shore, replenished our fire, and making a bed of
dry grass, covered ourselves with the boat sail.

Until then, by implied mutual consent, we had
avoided talking to each other of the awful tragedy
of the morning, but now we both entered into it
freely, and my companion spoke most feelingly of
the death of his mining comrade, and of how he
would miss him.

“ I am glad to know,” he added, “ that the poor
fellow was a single man, and that his relatives,
who live in Vermont, are well-off people. He and
I had been mining mates for four years, and I
reckon he was about one of the straightest men that
ever lived.” Then he paused and turned from me,
half ashamed of his emotion, and asked me “ what
in thunder ” he was going to do for a smoke—he
had only five cigars left in the boat.

“ Well, I have quite two or three pounds of plug
tobacco among my gear,” I said. “Will you
have a plug now? I have pipes as well.”

I went off to the boat and brought him a plug
of tobacco and a pipe, and as he sat and smoked, IADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 119

related to him what the poor steward had told me
of his strange vision.

Trant nodded. “ Poor fellow! He did his duty
and died like a man. He was a fine, upstanding
chap too. ’Tis mighty hard he should have been
cut down to his collar bone by a crawling little
snake like ‘ Bucky.’ And speaking of ‘ Bucky ’—
I believe his real name is Jake Boster, the man
who, ten years ago, with two others, held up a
stage coach in Idaho. They shot the driver and
three passengers dead, and got away with nearly
10,000 dollars in gold coin. As for the little foxy-
faced chap who sent us adrift, he may be Captain
Vesper, who did five years in the penitentiary for
pirating a ship out of Norfolk Harbour in Vir-
ginia, and selling her and her cargo of arms and
stores to the rebels in Venezuela. He’s a poisonous-
looking little varmint. What do you think that
he and ‘ Bucky ’ will do with the Dollie Sage? ”

“ I have no idea. Possibly this man Vesper
may sell her to one of the South American re-
publics. Her cargo is a valuable one, for I have
gone over her manifest several times. Poor Captain
Barr said it was worth 60,000 dollars. Then, as
you know, we had some money on board—7,000
dollars.”

“ What is the Dollie worth? ”

“ Not much—about 8,000 to 9,000 dollars.”

u Well, ‘Bucky’ and his mates will have no
trouble in selling ship, cargo, and themselves to
any of the Central American mongrel republics.
The thing is common enough.”

“ Very likely that is what they intend, and
perhaps that is why the brigantine was steered east,120 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

away from the land, so as not to be observed on
the coast. They can easily haul in to land again
later on.”

In half an hour we were both sound asleep—
hungry, perhaps, but not unhappy.CHAPTER XV.

When I awakened it was two hours after daylight,
and Trant was gone. He had covered me up in
double foldings of the boat-sail, and made up the
fire. Thinking he would be down at the boat, I
went down to the ruined jetty. He was not there,
but I found that my gun and some cartridges were
missing. I was shivering with cold and ravenously
hungry, so at once proceeded to get at the biscuit
bag, and whilst I was engaged at a biscuit as hard
as a steel disc, my companion in misfortune ap-
peared, carrying my gun and eight or ten crested
quail.

He was a man who never smiled, but his eyes
twinkled as I met him with an inquiring look in
mine.

“ Guess I’ve got something for breakfast. These
birds will last us for a couple of days—and there
are any amount of them around here. But we
must clear out of this as quickly as we can. I have
discovered that nearly every soul in the place died
of small-pox a month or so back, and that the few
survivors fled across the peninsula.”

“ How did you learn this ? ”

“ From a notice in Spanish which is pasted on
the door of one of the houses, giving details, and
warning strangers not to enter the houses. And
then I found the cemetery—it is crowded with
graves.”

(121)122 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“ Then the sooner we get away the better ” (and
I could not help shuddering when I remembered
that on the previous night I had thought of taking
away and using one of the blankets we had seen).
" As far as I can remember, the next town on the
coast is Soledad, which will be about sixty miles
from here.”

As we began to pluck the birds we heard and saw
a great commotion in the water near the jetty—a
number of porpoises were playing havoc with a
vast school of very large silvery mullet, known on
the coast as " California salmon.” Scores of them
were driven on shore, others leapt out upon the
stones of the jetty, and three very large ones, each
weighing over io lbs., actually jumped into the
boat.

Dropping our birds, we rushed down pell-mell,
and had an exciting time in securing all the fish
we could, dropping them into the boat, or throwing
them well up on to the beach. In all, we got
twenty-three whole fish, and several halves, which
had sunk to the bottom after being bitten by the
predatory porpoises.

“ Well,” said Trant, as we surveyed our prizes,
“ I guess this is a stroke of real good luck. And
the strange part of it is that I know where we can
get all the salt we want.”

“Where?” I inquired.

u Not a hundred yards away. Ten minutes ago,
when we were plucking the birds, I had one coat
pocket full of it—was keeping it as a surprise for
you—but it is all melted now.”

We covered the fish over with the boat-sail until
we had had our breakfast, which we ate as quicklyADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 123
as possible. Then Trant told me that he had
entered a store-house in the deserted village, and
found in it a number of hides and casks of tallow,
and about half a ton of coarse salt in bags.

We at once began cleaning and salting the big
fish, after putting four aside for immediate cooking.
Whilst we were engaged in salting, the starving
poultry paid us a visit, and we chopped up several
of the halves of fish, and fed the poor creatures.
We were occupied some hours in salting so many
fish, and in carrying them to the bank of the little
stream, where we hung them to drain under the
trees.

Then we constructed an earth oven by scooping
out a hole in the ground, making a big fire in it,
and covering the wood with loose stones. As soon
as the fire had burned down and the stones were at
white heat, we levelled them nearly flat with a stick,
put on the four fish we had reserved, and quickly
covered over the impromptu oven with thick layers
of green branches and leaves, until the whole was
fairly air-tight. In two hours the fish were
properly cooked.

During this time we had not been idle. We re-
filled our water breaker from the stream, and then,
with some trepidation, went into one of the houses
and took away four large earthenware ollas; these
we also filled with water, for we did not know if we
should be able to obtain a fresh supply between San
Gregorio and Soledad. Then we thoroughly over-
hauled the boat and her gear, stowed the salted fish
on the bottom boards, and covered them over with
one of the cured hides from the store-house, putting
the baked fish in the stern lockers. Then, after a124 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
bathe in the bright little stream, we were ready to
start.

About two in the afternoon we pushed off—in
very good spirits. There was a fine steady breeze,
and our little craft went over the long ocean swell
most gaily. We intended to bring to before dark,
if we could find a safe shelter, and steered for a
bold and rugged headland about ten miles distant,
on the south of which we felt pretty sure we should
find a haven for the night. As we ripped along
before the breeze, we discussed our future plans.
It was, of course, our intention, in the first place,
to get to Magdalena Bay, and await the arrival of
the steamer. As far as we knew, there were already
a number of Concessions Company’s officials there,
and we should, at least, be spared from throwing
ourselves on the hospitality of the Mexican authori-
ties.

An hour before sunset we rounded the Cape, and
came into the placid waters of a small bay. On the
beach we saw a clumsy boat and two huts; and,
as we ran in, several men appeared and walked
down to meet us. We found them to be Indian
fishermen from Puerto de San Juanico. They were
very civil, lent us a hand to haul up our boat, and
invited us to come to their dwelling hut. As they
all spoke Spanish, Trant was able to converse with
them. They told us that out of two hundred people
in ill-fated San Gregorio less than twenty had
escaped death by small-pox; also that the dread
disease had spread to many other towns, but as far
as they knew “not many people” had died at
Soledad, as yet. This was not cheerful news for
us, and we resolved not to stop at Soledad, if we
could avoid it.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 125

The Indians’ hut was dirty and ill-smelling, but
we were glad to spend the night in it with them.
They told us that they were netting and curing sea
salmon, and that the other hut was nearly filled
with fish, which they were taking to the town of
San Domingo—one of the old-time Spanish
Missions. We found that they had a good supply
of jerked beef, and they gladly sold us some for a
dollar.

Long before dawn, our dusky friends were awake,
making coffee and cooking tasajo (jerked meat).
We shared their meal with them, and enjoyed it
most thoroughly, for we were very hungry. Then,
launching our boat, we parted with many Adios!
and our little craft was soon under way again.

The Indians had told us that six leagues south
we should find good shelter for the night, and they
advised us to hug the shore closely all the way to
Soledad. From that place the rest of our voyage,
they said, could be made in smooth water by
passing between the long, narrow, and tortuous
Magdalena Island and the mainland. They also
strongly advised us not to proceed by night, as it
was dangerous on account of the enormous number
of grey whales which were then on the coast,
making their annual migration northward, and that
if we ran amongst them, the boat would certainly
be capsized or stove in. Trant and I had noticed
a truly enormous number of whales since we had
been sent adrift from the Dollie Sage, and, indeed,
we had been obliged to be constantly on the watch
to avoid running into them.

Early in the afternoon we brought-to again at
the place the Indians had mentioned. It was a

1126 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
narrow inlet, rock-bound, with deep water through-
out. At the head were several ruined adobe
houses, long since abandoned, and near by were
some of the largest fig trees I have ever seen, the
beautiful blue-skinned fruit being just ripe.
Within five minutes after we got out of the boat,
Trant and I were up in the branches eating and
filling our pockets at the same time.

After making the boat secure, we lit a fire, ate
some of our fish and biscuit (and more figs), and
then went for a look around the place, I taking my
gun. The Indians had informed us that the little
town had been destroyed by an earthquake shock
in the time of the Spanish occupancy of the
country. Not far from the ruined houses we came
to an open spot on which some wild cattle were
feeding, and the moment they saw us a savage little
black bull charged us with head down and flying
tail. Fortunately there was some thick scrub close
to hand, into which we dived with astonishing
rapidity; and the beast, after a futile search for us,
went off after the rest of the herd, and we saw no
more of them.

Numbers of crested quail were about, and we
soon had half a dozen of these beautiful birds.
Then Trant discovered a rattlesnake lying asleep
on a bare patch of ground, and I had the pleasure
of blowing off the reptile’s head, and examining its
rattles—the first I had ever seen.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in plucking
and cooking the quails for our supper, which we
ate out in the open, and we turned in under the
boat-sail and slept the sleep of the just, not waking
till broad daylight. And then we immediately feltADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 127

hungry, and soon fell-to upon cold baked fish and
grilled quail, with biscuits soaked in water.

We got under way about nine o’clock, but found,
to our disappointment, that a calm prevailed out-
side. For miles and miles around the sea was
disturbed by innumerable grey whales, all heading
northward; some of them passed so close to us that
we deemed it advisable to turn round, and pull
back to the inlet. Barr had told me that it was
computed that from forty to fifty thousand grey
whales made the passage northward every year,
but on account of the thinness of their blubber, and
the trouble they gave to whalemen, they were not
much sought after.

We returned to the inlet, and remained there all
that day, owing to the continuance of the calm.
On the following morning, however, we started off
with a fair breeze, which carried us a good thirty
miles before we brought-to for the night.

Four days later we came in sight of the old, white-
housed town of Soledad, and to our great pleasure
saw that two American whale ships were lying at
anchor in the roads. We ran alongside the nearest
—the Pocahontas of Sag Harbour—and were re-
ceived most hospitably by her skipper and officers,
who told us some startling news.CHAPTER XVI.

“I guess,” said Captain Guest, of the Poca-
hontas, “ that you won’t be very keen on going
on to Magdalena when I tell you that the whole
thing has bust up—there is no one there but a
company of Mexican troops with two guns. They
have taken possession of all the Company’s stores,
and the officer in charge told me that the Govern-
ment had declared the Company’s claim to the land
to be illegal. I don’t exactly know what occurred,
except that a gunboat was sent there from Guay-
mas, the American flag hauled down, and all the
Company’s employes hustled off on board and
taken away to Guaymas. And I guess they were
mighty glad to go, for half of them had died of
fever, and the country is about the driest, hottest,
and most God-forsaken you can imagine. There
has been no rain there for two years, and all the
vegetation is nearly dead. I guess I saw more
rattlesnakes there than I did trees. The soldiers
have had to form a camp two miles from the Com-
pany’s paper ‘ city,’ where there is no drinking
water. The whole district around Magdalena
would not support fifty families, let alone the
thousand that the Company agreed to settle there.
Anyway, I am convinced that the whole thing is
a swindle. Now what are you going to do? If
you go on to Magdalena you may not be allowed
to land, or if you are, you will only be made
prisoners. The officer told me that the gunboat is

(128)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 129

hurrying back to meet three ships belonging to
the Company, and that she would seize the whole
lot if they came to an anchor.”

“ I guess the gunboat won’t seize the D ollie
Sage," remarked Trant.

Captain Guest treated us very well, and asked us
to stay on board his ship during the few days she
was remaining at Soledad. The other whaleship
—the Prudence of New Bedford—was cruising
northward, he told us, being due at San Francisco
in a month, and he thought her captain might be
willing to give us a passage to that port. She and
the Pocahontas had been cruising in company for
quite a long time, and the Prudence being almost
a “full” ship, was making for San Francisco to
discharge her cargo of oil and refit for another
cruise. Captain Guest, however, had not been so
lucky, and he was now about to sail for the sperm
whaling ground at the Galapagos Islands.

We accepted, with thanks, his offer to remain on
board for a time, and then Trant and I held a con-
sultation as to what we should do later on. He
suggested our returning to San Francisco in the
Prudence,

“It is evident that the great Magdalena Bay
Concessions Company is bust up, and I have no
intention of having anything more to do with it,”
he said. “ However, we will go and see the captain
of the Prudence, and hear what he has to say.”

The two whalers had put into Magdalena Bay for
wood and water; the latter they could not obtain,
and so had come on to Soledad, where there was a
good supply, and their boats were now towing off
the filled casks. After my talk with Trant, I joined130 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Captain Guest on the after-deck, and had a talk
with him. He seemed to be much interested in the
details of the Dollie Sage mutiny, and asked me if
I was u keen ” on getting back to San Francisco.

“ No, I am not. The fact is, sir, that I like the
sea. Captain Barr helped me in navigation lessons,
and now that this Magdalena Bay business is likely
to turn out so badly, I don’t see what benefit it
would be to me to go back to San Francisco and
find the Company’s offices shut up—as Trant says
they will be. And although I have two brothers
in Nevada to whom I could go, I don’t like doing
it.”

u Well? ” he asked interrogatively.

“ Will your ship be calling at Honolulu or
Tahiti? My father has business friends in both
places, and I should like to get to one or other of
those places.”

“ I guess that after I have finished cruising
around the Galapagos I’ll work round among the
Society Islands and maybe touch at Tahiti; if not,
then I shall put into Samoa or Tonga. Everything
depends upon whether the ship has greasy luck or
not.”*

“ What will you charge me for a passage to either
Tahiti or Samoa?. I have a little money. I would
ask you to take me as a ‘ green hand ’ and be con-
tent to live for’ard, but if you will help me to get
on with my navigation, I am prepared to pay you
for it.”

* “ Greasy luck.” If a whaleship makes a successful cruise
and many whales are killed, she is said to have greasy luck, i.e.,
her decks continually in a state of grease and oil from the
blubber.—L. B,ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 131

Guest eyed me critically, but not unkindly.
Then he said he would give me a passage either to
Tahiti or Samoa for sixty dollars, that I should
live aft, and that he would do his best to help me on
with lessons in navigation. “ And,” he added,
0 if I can’t do much for you in that way, I and
my mates will teach you a bit of sailorising.”

“ Very well, sir. I’ll pay you the sixty dollars
now, if you like.”

“ No hurry.”

" Now, Captain Guest, what am I to do with that
boat? She is not my property, I know, but Trant
and I feel justified in selling her. Will you buy
her? ”

Guest shook his head. ” No, she would be no
use to me. But, see here. We’ll go on shore and
try and sell her there. She looks to be a useful
boat, and I daresay we shall do a deal with some-
one or other.”

So we three, Guest, Trant and I, went off in one
of the boats belonging to the Pocahontas, which
towed our own, and Guest succeeded in selling our
little craft very easily for eighty Mexican dollars.
This sum I wanted to divide with Trant, but he
refused to take any part, saying that he had all the
money he wanted, and that I was entitled to the
whole sum. Trant was good enough to say some
very kind things about me to Captain Guest, and
though he was quite upset at my resolution to sail
in the Pocahontas, not for one moment did he
endeavour to change my decision.

After spending an hour or two in Soledad, and
being entertained by the alcalde and his wife—who
treated us most kindly and gave us some bad coffee132 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

and good fruit—we left, and boarded the Prudence >
so that Trant might talk to her captain about his
passage to San Francisco.

Yankee whaling captains are not, as a rule,
anxious to take passengers of any kind, but the
skipper of the Prudence proved to be an exception.
Having had a most prosperous cruise, he was in
high good humour, and he told Trant that he would
give him a passage to San Francisco “ free, gratis,
fur nuthin’.” He made us stay to dinner, gave me
a present of two new pairs of shoes and a suit of
clothes from the slop chest, and told me that twenty
years before, when he and his ship’s company
landed at Port Macquarie, in New South Wales,
the local people had treated him most kindly, and
that the Government had granted him twenty
pounds to pay their passages back to the United
States.

“ And fur thet I am not ungrateful, young feller.
Hev’ some more pork and beans. And then I’ll
show you around the Prudence. Prudence is my
daughter’s name—and this Prudence is jest like her
—sweet and clean, and a pleasure to look at.”

The Prudence was certainly a beautifully kept
ship. Her decks, standing and running gear,
boats, etc., were a pride to her officers and crew.

There were many such American sperm-whale
ships in those days.

I found it hard to say farewell to Trant when the
time came. I gave him Henri Leroux’s little
packet to be sent to his wife at Baton Rouge, and
handed him the poor steward’s money—ten twenty-
dollar gold pieces—asking him to send her the
amount by a bank draft, together with a long letterADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 133

I had written to her telling of the tragedy of the
Dollie Sage, and of her husband having been killed
in the fight, but sparing her the shocking details
of his death at the hands of “ Bucky.”

Trant took the packet and letter, but not the two
hundred dollars.

“ Just you leave the matter of that two hundred
dollars to me. I am not a bloated millionaire, but
I have a few thousand dollars in the Bank of Cali-
fornia, and to please me I want you to keep those
ten gold pieces—as a loan if you like. You may
need them. I’ll see that the poor woman at Baton
Rouge gets the packet and your letter, and a draft
for two hundred dollars as quickly as possible. I’ll
see to it on the very day I land in San Francisco.
Good-bye, Blake”—he wrung my hand—“and,
say, will you write to me? ”

“ Yes, indeed I will.”

Two years later I received a long letter from
Marie Leroux, thanking me for my letter and the
packet, and also for “the bank draft for five
hundred dollars.” The generous-hearted Trant
had sent her that sum out of his own pocket, pre-
tending that it was the amount I had given to him!

I never saw Trant again, but we maintained a
correspondence for many years, and he met my
eldest brother Alf at Carson City, when the two
became great friends. Together they went to San
Francisco for a holiday—Trant had become a very
wealthy man—and instead of going to a swagger
hotel, stayed with dear old Mother Lynch in
Market Street. “When we came to the door,”
wrote Alf, “ the old girl herself opened it, and the
next moment I was seized in her mighty arms and134 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

severely compressed into her ample bosom. She
began to weep and apologise at the same time to
your friend Trant ‘ fur bein’ such a silly ould
idyut.’ She had read the Dollie Sage story in the
newspapers, and was full of it. . . . She spoke of
you as ‘ the blessed choild—to go among mur-
therin’ cut-throats an’ bloody-moinded pirates!’
. . . We went to dine at Madame Rolland’s, and
had a right good time, etc.”

•	• •	• •

“ The blessed choild ” soon settled himself com-
fortably on the Pocahontas, and when the windlass
was manned to heave the anchor, the “ blessed
choild” himself started a “chanty”—the time-
honoured " We Are All Bound To Go.”

The Prudence got under way at the same time
as the Pocahontas, and the two ships made a pretty
picture, as under all sail—snow-white American
cotton canvas—they stood out together from Sole-
dad roadstead. Then the Prudence braced up her
yards and hauled off to the north, and we on the
Pocahontas squared ours and steered south for the
Galapagos Islands, abreast of the coast of Ecuador.

Within two watches I made the acquaintance of
the four mates and their respective boat-steerers.
The first mate was a full-blooded Walker Indian—
Henry Walker—and was considered to be one of
the smartest whalemen that ever struck a whale.
The second and third officers were Americans, the
fourth was a Portuguese black from the Western
Islands. There were six boat-steerers—four white
men, a Maori half-caste, and a South Sea Islander
—a native of Penrhyn Island. The latter was the
first mate’s man, and, next to Mr. Walker, wasADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 135

considered the smartest man in the ship. He and
I soon became great friends, and I was pleased
when he spoke to me in Tahitian, which language
much resembles that of his own island. As for the
crew, they were of many nationalities, and several
of them had made as many as four voyages with
Captain Guest, which spoke well for him as a com-
mander. The cooper—who ranked as an officer,
according to whale-ship custom, and took his meals
in the cabin—was a burly Nova Scotian, and not a
favourite with either officers or crew. He had a
vile temper, and was constantly in collision with
the boat-steerers, and I soon had a sample of his
manner.

A few days after leaving Soledad the fourth mate
and cooper were engaged in “ flagging” some
casks, when one of the crew, a South Sea Islander,
whose name was Marana, accidentally jostled
the cooper, who called him a “---------- nigger.”

Marana’s eyes flashed defiance, but he could make
no retort—the cooper, as I have said, ranking as
an officer. He had just turned away, when the
surly brute gave him a vindictive kick from behind.
Captain Guest was on the poop at the time, and
saw what occurred. Apparently he took no notice,
but a little while after he asked the cooper why he
had kicked the man.

“ He gave me a sassy look,” he growled, “ and
I don’t stand sass from niggers.”

“ Don’t be too fond of calling people niggers,
or you’ll lay up trouble for yourself. Besides, Mr.
Diaz, who was working beside you, is a black man,
and I reckon he had cause to feel insulted.”

And Diaz—who was as black as black could be136 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

—was insulted, and, though he had said nothing,
he remembered, as after events proved. The boat-
steerers, who always stand together, also resented
it, for two of their number were coloured men—
Sam Joy, the Maori half-caste, and Jack, the Pen-
rhyn Islander.

For two weeks the Pocahontas crawled along
southward, light airs and calms alternating, and
no whales were seen. On the morning of the
fifteenth day, however, when I was sound asleep—
it being just dawn—I was aroused by scurrying
feet overhead, and the steward told me that whales
were in sight. I rushed up on deck, and found
three boats were already away, and the others were
being lowered. It seems that about an hour before
daylight the watch on deck had heard whales
blowing quite near the ship. The captain was at
once called, and he gave orders for the boats to be
lowered and to tow alongside, ready to cast off the
moment there was sufficient light. Everything
was done in the utmost silence so as not to frighten
the whales, which were apparently very close at
hand, and the ship was brought-to as gently as
possible.

As daylight broke the whales were sighted about
a mile distant. They were not “making a
course,” but seemed to be wandering anywhere,
and were five in number.

In less than half an hour the first and third
mates’ boats were each “ fast,” both whales being
struck almost at the same moment, but unfortu-
nately the other boats did not get a chance, for the
remaining whales became “ gallied ” (frightened),
and made off. When they next rose to blow theyADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 137

were many miles distant, and the wind dying away,
the ship was unable to follow them. However, the
two mates killed their fish very quickly, and within
two hours of leaving the ship the boats were along-
side with their monstrous prizes. “ Cutting-in ”
operations were at once begun, all hands working
with great cheerfulness, for Captain Guest had
told his officers a week before that they would see
whales off Cocos Island, and the island being
actually sighted at daylight, the fulfilment of his
prophecy naturally made everyone on board elated.

All throughout that day and night work went on
unceasingly, and at breakfast next morning no one
but myself seemed to have time to eat, the others
bolting their food like sharks, and scalding their
throats with boiling coffee. However, they were
all in high good humour, for the two whales were
each “ hundred barrellers.”

At daylight we found that the current had set us
pretty close in to Cocos Island, and also that we
had company—a large fore and aft schooner. She
was at anchor, and we had not observed her the
previous day, owing to a headland of the island
hiding her from view.

We had just finished breakfast, and were going
on deck, when a boat-steerer ran into the cabin.

“ That schooner is on fire, sir! You can hardly
see her for smoke! ”

We hurried on deck to look.CHAPTER XVII.

The schooner was about four miles away, and
quite close in to the west side of Cocos Island. An
immense volume of smoke was rising from her,
and there being not a breath of air, it enveloped
her like a pall.

Busy as our ship’s company were, Captain Guest
at once gave orders for two boats to be lowered—
those of the second and fourth mates—and told
those officers to make all speed to the burning
vessel, cautioning them not to approach too close,
if the crew had taken to the boats.

I tumbled into the boat of black Mr. Diaz, and
the crew, bending to the oars with a will, sent the
light craft at a sweeping pace over the smooth
water. In a very short time both boats were quite
close to the vessel, which was now sheeted in flame
from bow to stern. We pulled completely round
her as closely as we dared approach, and sheered
off again, satisfied that no living person was on
board. Just then the second mate hailed us, and
pointed to the shore, where we saw three boats
and quite a number of people—fifty at least.
Swinging his boat’s head round, the second mate
at once headed for the island, followed by Mr. Diaz.
Well it was for us that we did not delay, for we
were scarcely over a cable-length away from the
burning vessel, when she blew up and almost im-
mediately all that was left of her sank.

“ Lucky for us that we were no closer,” remarked

(138ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 139

Mr. Diaz, “ why, she must have had some tons of
powder or explosives on board.”

As we drew near the shore we noticed that, a
little distance back, there were several houses,
roofed with corrugated iron, and that the scrub
and undergrowth had been cleared. Presently the
second mate’s boat sheered over to ours, and the
officer called out to Diaz.

“ I guess I know who these people are, Mr. Diaz.
They are another blamed lot of treasure seekers. I
heard there was another expedition being raised,
and that a big lump of a schooner had been bought
at Panama last year. Well, we must at least go
and see what we can do for them.”

Pulling in together, the boats made for the
landing place, and we were at once surrounded by
a crowd of the most ragged, piratical-looking
people I ever saw, clad in some sort of military
uniform. Most of them were half-blood Indians,
but one of them, who appeared to be the leader,
was evidently an Englishman. He shook hands
with the second mate, who inquired if he were the
captain of the schooner.

“No, the captain is lying ill. I am the shore
leader of these people. My name is Warrington.”

“ Are you in want of assistance? ”

“Not as far as food or clothing go, but,” he
hesitated a moment, “ is there a doctor on your
ship? We have a great many sick people.”

“ We don’t carry a doctor. Our ship is a
whaler. But we have a good medicine chest.
What is the matter—fever? ”

Again the man hesitated.

“Yes, some have fever, but there are many badly140 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
wounded, amongst them the captain of the
schooner. We have had trouble. Will you come
to the house, and I will tell you what has occurred.”

As I accompanied him and Mr. Prosper (the
second mate) to one of the houses, I noticed that
quite a dozen of his ragged followers had their
arms or heads bandaged with bloodstained rags or
coloured handkerchiefs. One man had a fearful
slash on the side of his face, extending from temple
to jawbone, and at that moment he was being at-
tended by one of his comrades. Every one of them
was armed—some with a brace of pistols, others
with Henry repeating carbines, and none was
without either a dagger or cutlass in his belt.

“ How did your ship take fire? ” asked Prosper
(the second mate) as we walked along.

“ A quarter cask of brandy was being broached
in the lazzarettes instead oT being brought into the
cabin, where there was good light. The men who
were broaching it took a naked light, and I imagine
one of them held it too close to the cask when the
bung was started. But as they were both killed by
the explosion, or burnt to death, I cannot say for
certain.”

We entered the house. It was a long iron-
roofed building, with pinewood sides and floor of
rough planking. It was nearly filled with cases,
casks and bundles, tools, etc., but one end had a
bunk, table, and benches. Outside was a sentry,
who was armed with a Henry carbine and a brace
of revolvers.

“ Will you have some English beer? ” asked our
host.

u You bet we will,” replied Mr. Prosper, withADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 141
alacrity. “We have water in the boats, but had
no time to take a drink.”

Warrington took three bottles of Tennant’s ale
from a case, and filled three large mugs with it; it
was deliciously cool and very refreshing.

“ First of all, sir,” said our host to Prosper,
“ will you come and look at the captain. He is in
great agony, and I have nothing to alleviate it.
Perhaps you can suggest something.”

“ What is the matter with him? ”

“He was shot in the stomach last night, and
cannot possibly live. He knows it too, poor chap.”

Warrington led us to a smaller house, which was
divided in the centre by a hanging screen of navy-
blue. This he drew aside, and we saw lying on a
bed of canework a fine-looking, clean-shaven young
man, about thirty years of age. His face was
deathly pale, and with every breath he drew he
moaned with pain. A Chileno lad sat by his bed-
side, ready to give the wounded man assistance
whenever he desired to be moved. His eyes were
closed, but he opened them slowly when Warring-
ton took his hand.

“ Warrington,” he said feebly, “ do you think I
am to last much longer? If so, for God’s sake
give me your pistol.”

“ Do not ask me that again, Wayne, my dear
fellow. God knows how your suffering affects me.”

He seemed to be quite oblivious of the presence
of Mr. Prosper and myself, and presently he closed
his eyes.

“ Can you get me some laudanum from that
whale-ship? ” he murmured.

Warrington looked inquiringly at Prosper, who
nodded assent.142 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“Yes, old chap. One of the ship’s officers is
here now, and I will go off on board with him and
get some,” and pressing the unfortunate man’s
hand, he, with Prosper and me, came away.

After remaining half an hour longer, during
which time Warrington gave us briefly the story of
the grim tragedy that had occurred, we bade him
farewell. One of his own boats was to follow ours
as quickly as possible, and get the laudanum and
some bandages, lint, and such other articles as
Captain Guest could spare from the ship’s medicine
chest.

Our two boats were soon pulling swiftly for the
ship, followed by one of the schooner’s, which,
being heavy and clumsy, was quickly left a long
way astern. As soon as we reached the ship,
Prosper told his story, and Guest at once went to
the medicine chest and got the desired articles, in-
cluding some surgical needles and thread, in readi-
ness for the coming boat. Immediately she came
alongside, the packet was handed to the man in
charge, and she at once returned to the shore.

Shortly after three o’clock a breeze sprang up,
and whilst the decks were being cleared, one of the
look-outs gave the cheerful cry :

“ Blo-o-w! B-l-o-o-w! and again she blows! ”
Captain Guest himself sprang aloft, and was soon
on the fore-topgallant yard, glasses in hand. An
anxious minute or two passed—then he hailed the
mate.

“ Brace up sharp, Mr. Walker, and steer for the
north point of the island.” In another minute he
was down on deck again, giving his orders with
astonishing rapidity.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 143

“There’s a ‘pod’ of about ten sperms, Mr.
Walker, with a thundering big bull amongst them.
The breeze is freshening fast, and we’ll be up to
them in an hour.” Then he hailed the look-out
again, and told them to let him know the instant
the whales made any change in their course. It
was his intention, as the breeze was now steady
and the ship travelling through the water at six or
seven knots, to get as close as possible to the
“ pod ” with the ship, and sail down upon them in
the boats.

There was a state of intense but subdued ex-
citement as the boats were made ready for lowering,
and a grin of approval appeared on the sun-tanned
faces of the crew when Guest said:

“ Now, men, I’m giving forty dollars to the boat
that gets the first iron into that big bull. And I
guess I’m going to try mighty hard to earn it for
my own boat.”

Then turning to the cooper—who would be in
charge of the ship when all the boats, with himself
and the four mates, had left her—he said:

“ Mr. Cassells, do you see that long point of land
there to the north, nearly right ahead ? Well, keep
that just as it is now until you open out a bay—but
I forgot, you know Cocos ? ”

“ Yes, sir. I know the bay well. We anchored
there when I was in the Cambridge of New
London.”

“ Well, if you see the boats get fast to more than
one fish, especially if one of them is the big bull,
you can go about and stand in and anchor. It’s
good holding ground most anywhere in the bay,
and if we get more than one fish we’ll cut-in and
try out there in smooth water.”144 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

The whales were now all in sight. They were
travelling very slowly, and the ship was rapidly
overtaking them. Then at a sign from Guest, the
helm was put down, and the ship hove-to whilst
the boats got away, and I went aloft to watch.CHAPTER XVIII.

I went aloft feeling a very disappointed and injured
person, and that one Larry, who was a member of
Captain Guest’s boat’s crew, was a very unworthy
and unreliable young man—at least in my opinion.
He was a tough wiry lad of eighteen years of age, and
was anxiously looking forward to the day when he
would be given a trial as a boat-steerer; and, as he
was rather a favourite with Captain Guest, there
was a good prospect of his achieving his desire.

Early on the previous day, when the two whales
were being cut-in, Larry had met with a painful
accident. He had slipped when standing on the
cutting-in stage, and by some means the sharp
blade of the whale spade he was using went clean
through the lower part of the bare left foot. For-
tunately it penetrated lengthways—had it been
crossways the result would have been serious. I
helped the captain to dress and bandage the foot,
and, half in jest, asked the skipper if he would let
me take Larry’s place in the boat until he was able
to get about again.

“ Well, I daresay I will—but you won’t get
scared ? ”

“ No, I won’t get scared—I promise you that.”

Judge of my indignation when, the moment the
captain’s boat was lowered, Larry hopped along
and slid down the for’ard boat fall as if nothing
had happened. Then he looked up at me and

(i45)146 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

grinned. But I quite forgave him when the boat
returned, and he was hoisted up on deck weak from
loss of blood, for the bandage had come off, and
the boat being “fast” to a whale, he had no
chance of rebinding it.

From my post in the fore-top I had a good view
of an exciting scene. The “ pod ” of whales were
so unsuspicious of danger that three of the boats
easily succeeded in getting ahead of them as they
lumbered along. The other two boats, at a signal
from Captain Guest, lowered their sails, and the
crews took up native canoe paddles instead of oars
(all American “ sperm ” and “ hump-back ” whale-
ships’ boats carry a set of these paddles, which
make scarcely any noise—as do oars). These two
boats stood by and, letting the whales pass them
a little, they closed in after the great creatures,
while the three boats ahead, still under sail, bore
down upon them. Suddenly the whole “pod,”
realising, by some mysterious instinct, that danger
was before them, stopped and then huddled together
almost in a lump.

Mr. Walker’s boat, which was nearest to the
great bull cachalot, sailed up to him, and I saw
Jack, the Penrhyn Island boat-steerer, as the sail
was dropped, stand up and plant two harpoons in
quick succession into his monstrous bulk. His
great square head went down, and upending his
mighty flukes, he sounded, and in a few seconds
the mate’s boat was away from the others. Then
the captain’s and the third mate’s boats were
quickly fast to two other whales, and in five
minutes the second and fourth mate dashed up
to the rest of the terrified creatures. I saw Mr.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 147

Prosper’s Maori boat-steerer bury his harpoon to
the end of the shank, and then bend on a bowline
and send home a second; whilst Mr. Diaz, whose
boat-steerer was a young American named Jim
Goss, planted his one iron in a big cow whale. In
less than ten minutes all five boats were speeding
away in different directions, and below, on deck,
the cooper was yelling out directions to the watch
on deck to put the ship about.

The cable—which had not previously been
“flaked out” in readiness for anchoring, for fear
the noise would alarm the “ pod ”—was now rushed
up to the extent of thirty fathoms, and the Poca-
hontas headed into the bay, where we let go anchor
in ten fathoms of water in a safe and sheltered spot.

Meanwhile, the five boats had had extraordinary
luck. Mr. Walker’s big bull—the most valuable
prize of all—made no show of fight, and was good
enough, after “sounding” twice, to head for the
ship. When within a quarter of a mile of her he
brought-to in a smother of foam, smashing the sea
with his great flukes, but then lay so quiet that,
when Walker hauled up his boat and gave him
two of three lance thrusts into his “ life,” he died
like a gentleman.

The other boats were all “fast” very quickly,
and in a few minutes presented an intensely inter-
esting and exciting scene, as they flew over the
water in different directions. After a very short
run, I saw Mr. Prosper’s boat haul up to his whale,
and the officer went for’ard and killed it with a few
rapid lance thrusts. The fourth’ mate was also
hauling up to his fish, and Jim Goss, his young
American boat-steerer, was just coming aft to take148 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

the steer-oar and let Mr. Diaz go for’ard to wield
his lance, when the harpoon drew, and the crew all
went tumbling over on their backs, while the whale,
of course, escaped.

This mishap brought forth an ill-natured laugh
from the cooper—a laugh that was to cost him dear.

As the rest of the “pod,” by this time, were
miles away, it was useless for poor Mr. Diaz to
pursue them, so his boat went to the assistance of
Mr. Walker to help tow the enormous bull to the
ship. The remaining boats had no trouble with
their whales, all of which were killed within a
radius of two miles from the Pocahontas. Captain
Guest afterwards said that he had never before met
with a similar experience—four whales killed in
such a short time, and without a mishap of any
kind to the boats.

The big bull was first brought into position under
the cutting-in stage, and the others secured in
readiness to be cut-in as soon as the principal prize
was disposed of—in itself an enormous labour. But
the ship’s company, from the captain down to the
cook, were in the highest spirits, and the face of
the first mate’s Maori Island boat-steerer did one
good to look at when Guest remarked:

“ Well, lad, I guess you’ve earned that forty
dollars mighty slick. And I am going to give the
rest of Mr. Walker’s crew five dollars each.”

Another thing that greatly pleased the captain
was that although four whales were floating along-
side, only a few sharks had appeared—they usually
arrive in droves and devour enormous quantities of
the valuable blubber. Then, again, the ship was
lying in a smooth and sheltered spot, and unlessADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 149
westerly weather set in, the work of cutting-in and
trying-out would be comparatively easy. It was
his intention, as soon as the big bull was finished
with, to lift anchor and move a few cable lengths
further in-shore, so as to get away from the amount
of floating matter coming from the bull, which in
a calm would accumulate around the ship and
impede the cutting-in of the other three whales.

About three in the afternoon I saw the captain
holding a consultation with the first and second
mates, and presently he called me to him.

“ Mr. Blake, will you do me a favour? ”

“ With the greatest pleasure, sir.”

“ Well, we have four whales to cut-in, and I am
afraid that we can’t manage the lot without loss, if
westerly weather sets in. And it looks like it. We
shall have to work like niggers for the next ten days
—unless I have to lift and put to sea, and lose
maybe two or three hundred barrels of oil. Now,
will you go on shore and see that Mr. Warrington
and tell him that if he is disposed to send, say,
about twenty of his men to me to help the ship’s
company, I’ll pay each man two and a half dollars
a day, and feed them for as long as I want them.
They have their own boats, and so I need not send
mine—in fact I can’t. I am not able to spare any
of my crew. Do you think if I sent you on shore
just abreast of here, that you could find your way
to the treasure-seekers’ camp by going along the
coast ? ’ ’

“ Quite sure, captain. It should not take me
more than two hours to get there if you land me
abreast of the ship.”

The third mate’s boat, with two hands, was sooni5o ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
ready for me, and when I came on deck with my
shot gun and bag, Guest nodded approval.

“ Don’t hurry back, if you have a mind to stay
on shore for a couple of days. Guess you will have
a good yarn to tell me when we meet again. Maybe
you’ll come across some of this Cocos Island
treasure that those fellows on shore are rooting
about for. If you do, and the cutting-in tackle is
not strong enough to hoist the blocks of gold
aboard, we’ll have to saw them'in chunks.”

I laughed as I bade the good-natured skipper good-
bye, and in a few minutes I was in the boat on the
way for the shore, and landed at a rocky point on
which was growing an enormous white cedar tree,
the wide branches of which stretched far over the
water. All along the margin of the rocks were an
immense number of fish packed, like herrings, so
closely together that the two men in the boat
scooped up several bucketsful in a few minutes.

Not being able to discover any signs of a track
through the bush, I made my way along the rocky,
tree-clad coast. There were great numbers of fine
pigeons flying about among the trees, but I wasted
no time upon them, being anxious to get to the
treasure-seekers’ camp before dark. When within
a mile of the place, I came across a herd of wild
goats—they abounded on Cocos—which vanished
like lightning the instant they saw me.

Just at sunset I reached the settlement, and saw
Warrington, with several other men, seated at
supper at a rude table under a tree. I at once
delivered Guest’s message, and Warrington told
one of his people to give a bugle call. This soon
brought most of his party together, and the leaderADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 151

told them of Guest’s offer. Fifteen of them ac-
cepted, and shortly after they started off in a boat
for the Pocahontas. Warrington then asked me to
join him at supper.

“ How is Captain Wayne? ” I asked, as I took
my seat.

“ He died a few hours ago, poor fellow, and is
to be buried at dawn to-morrow. I was glad when
his sufferings ended.”

Warrington seemed quite pleased when I told
him that I intended staying on shore for a day or
so if he had no objection.

“ Quite the contrary. And I shall be glad to
show you over the island—the scene of so many a
tragedy, of so many disappointments.”

That night he told me the full story of what had
occurred to his own expedition.CHAPTER XIX.

“This expedition,” said Warrington, “of which
poor Wayne and I were the organisers, is about
the sixth or seventh that has visited this blood-
stained island during the past fifty years. There
were others as far back as 1800, 1805, and 1817, all
bent on the same quest—to recover the buried
treasure of the pirate Benito. That an enormous
amount of treasure—over £“2,000,000 worth was
hidden here by Benito, there is no doubt, and
equally certain it is that one of the earlier expedi-
tions discovered one separate portion, valued at
something like ,£150,000. The other parties do not
appear to have found anything, and in nearly every
instance quarrels broke out and bloodshed fol-
lowed. The last expedition—previous to mine—
came here very quietly three years ago, in a
schooner that was fitted out at Honolulu. It was
badly equipped, and badly led by an American.
Yet I have reason to be sure that this man did
actually know the location of some part of the
treasure. For three months the party worked
under his directions, trenching and excavating at
a spot I shall show you to-morrow. Then, one
morning, the leader was found dead in his tent.
That he was treacherously poisoned there was no
doubt; for, in less than an hour after his death, two
men were seen to go into the tent, and leave it
within a few minutes. These men were the steward
of the schooner and one of the passengers. They

(152)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 153

had evidently possessed themselves of the plans
which the dead man always carried about him,
secured to the inside of his shirt, and doubtless
they meant to make use of them at some future
time. Calling the rest of the party together, they
announced that the captain had died suddenly of
heart failure, and asked for a general vote as to
what had best be done. Meanwhile, a message
was sent off to the mate of the schooner, and as
soon as he arrived the captain’s tent was visited, a
careful search being made for the plans. Every
article of clothing, his chest, his books and papers
were carefully examined, but, of course, no plan
was found. A violent quarrel followed, some of
the treasure-seekers openly charging the steward
and the passenger before-mentioned of having
murdered the captain and stolen the plans. They
swore that they were innocent, and insisted on
being subjected to a rigid search. After a long
discussion, it was agreed to continue the search for
the treasure for another two weeks. This was
done, the suspected passenger working most ener-
getically with the rest. As nothing was found, the
mate announced his determination to return to
Honolulu, the schooner being bound to charter time.
Those of them, he said, who wanted to stay could
do so, but he meant to sail on the following day.
Only two men elected to stay—not that they wished
to search for Benito’s treasure, but because they
were deserters from the American navy, and were
afraid of going back to Honolulu. The schooner
sailed (after the mate had supplied the two men
with provisions), and was never heard of again;
she was old and rotten, and doubtless went down154 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

with all her passengers and crew. The two men,
after being three months on the island, were taken
off by a whaleship—but for them nothing would
have ever been known of what had occurred.

“ Now, as to this expedition of mine and
Wayne’s. He and I were old friends and com-
rades, and had often discussed the subject of the
Cocos Island treasure. I was engaged in the
Guayaquil ivory-nut export business, and Wayne
was in command of a steamer running on the South
American coast. We had both saved money, and
having read in a Californian newspaper the story
narrated by the two men who had remained on the
island, I suggested, one day, that we should make
a visit to Cocos, if only to see what had been done
by the other expeditions, and to consider whether
we should form one of our own to make a thorough
and systematic search on a large scale. Poor
Wayne was quite enthusiastic; he resigned his
command of the steamer, and I left my business in
the hands of a manager. Within a week, Wayne
and I, accompanied by two men only, left
Guayaquil in a ten-ton cutter for Cocos—six
hundred miles to the north-west.

“We reached here safely, and at once began
our explorations, aided by a detailed chart of the
island. Everywhere we found signs of the work
of former seekers after the treasure—huge excava-
tions and deep transverse trenches, almost hidden
from view by the rapidly growing jungle and
forest of such a humid and tropical place. I had
read and had heard so much of what had been done
by the various expeditions that Wayne and I had
very little trouble in finding out all the old ‘ work-ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 155
ings ’; and, in time, we made a comprehensive
chart of the whole of the interior of the main island
as well as of the outlying rocky islets. Then fol-
lowed a week of idleness, owing to the tremendous
rains, and although the flies plagued us greatly,
we lived on shore, for it was impossible to get any
rest, day or night, on the cutter, on account of the
steaming heat of the little cabin.

“ The cutter we had anchored in a safe spot in
this bay—called Wafer Bay by Colnett, who was
here in 1793—and as soon as the rains ceased we
continued our explorations. One day we came
across the former camp of the last expedition, where
several ruined huts were still standing, and the
ground littered with rusty tools, ironwork, and
cooking pots. This house, in which we now are,
was actually built on the site of one of the ruined
huts, and I daresay that you have noticed that just
in front of the door”—he pointed to the spot—
“ where those big ficus trees are, there is a line of
broken cliffs.”

“Yes, I did notice that when I came here with
Mr. Prosper.”

“ Well, they are full of caves, dry and cool; and
when Wayne and I first came to sleep on shore we
picked on one that had been used as a sleeping
place by the crowd from the Honolulu schooner.
It is the roomiest of the lot, and he and I and our
two men, after throwing out some rotten clothing
wd other debris, slept in it the first night, but were
much annoyed by rats, which were running about all
over the place. The back of the cave is broken up
into all sorts of small rugged holes and protruding
shelves of rock, and the rats, whenever we chivvied156 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

them away, scurried off, and climbing the rugged
wall, were soon in safety, returning to the ground
as soon as they saw that we were quiet.

“ Next morning we had a regular rat hunt, and
the four of us killed some scores, but one especially
big brute escaped us by climbing up to a ledge,
where it stayed, looking at us. Wayne knocked
it over with a charge of shot, and then sent one of
our men to bring it down for us to look at, as it
was the biggest rat we had ever seen. The man
climbed to the ledge, and threw down the dead
creature, together with what looked like a thick
piece of pine planking, about a foot square.

“ Wayne and I picked up the board, and looking
at it, saw that it consisted of two strips of red-
wood pine, nailed tightly together on all four sides.
It was smothered in dust, but was quite dry. We
prized it open with a hatchet, and found between
the boards the missing plan which had been stolen
from the murdered skipper of the Honolulu
schooner—of this we were quite satisfied, even after
a very brief examination. No doubt the steward
and his accomplice had placed it there, intending
to return to Cocos at some future time and, by its
aid, get at the treasure. They, of course, knew
that they were suspected of having murdered the
skipper and stolen his secret, and that once they
were on board the schooner, they would again be
searched.

“ Within an hour we had found the spot where
the 4 workings ’ were, but an immense and recent
fall of some hundreds of tons of cliff and soil had
blocked up what evidently had been intended to be
a deep ‘ drive ’ or cutting into the face of a thicklyADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 157
timbered spur, and the whole mass was already
overgrown with vines and creepers. To clear it
away would have taken the labour of fifty men for
a month.

“ We had a long discussion as to what should
be done, and then formulated our scheme. We
made an exact copy of the plan, placed it in a
square of sheet lead, which we doubled over and
made air-tight, and buried it deep in the soft,
powdery dust of one of the caves. The original
we first falsified in many important particulars, so
that if it did fall into other persons’ hands, nothing
could be made of it, although it would serve us as
well as the copy.

“Twenty-four hours later we left the island,
bound for Guayaquil, full of hopefulness for the
future.”

LCHAPTER XX.

“ Cocos Island belongs to no one, though since
the systematic search for Benito’s treasure began,
both the Republic of Ecuador and that of
Colombia have claimed it. It is of no earthly use
to either of them, on account of its distance from
the mainland, and of its being uninhabited. But
the Government of Colombia—which is now at
loggerheads with Ecuador—once sent a wheezy old
paddle-wheel gunboat here to hoist the flag of the
Republic; and it has always mercilessly black-
mailed any treasure-hunting expedition of which
it got wind. Ecuador did the same thing some
years ago, though she has no more claim to the
island than I have to the mountains in the moon.
But the story of the success of one of the expedi-
tions (that which found ^150,000 worth of treasure)
had not been forgotten either in Quito or Panama,
and so Wayne and I determined to keep our plans
as secret as possible, as we well knew that if they
leaked out we should have to pay heavy bribes—
from the President of Ecuador down to the least
important member of his blackguard rag-and-bob-
tailed Ministry—otherwise we should have found
it impossible to fit out an expedition to sail from
Guayaquil, or any other port in Ecuador. All the
years I was in business in Guayaquil, I had paid
a substantial annual bribe to the Director of the
Customs, so as to avoid being harassed and my
business hampered almost to ruination by extor-

(158)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 159
tionate demands made upon the flimsiest and most
absurd excuses. But we (Wayne and I) had to
change our plans, and submit to be bled after all.

“ A few days after our arrival, and whilst we
were trying to buy a suitable vessel and engage
a party of native labourers, we heard from an
authentic source that a treasure-hunting expedition
for the Cocos was fitting out at Panama, and would
sail in a month, under the auspices of the Govern-
ment of the Republic of Colombia—then begin-
ning the present quarrel with Ecuador—the pro-
moters of the expedition having agreed to again
hoist the Colombian flag on the island, and to give
the Government a fourth share of any treasure that
might be discovered. This expedition, we were
told, was started by a ring of Yankee speculators
in New York, who were spending 50,000 dollars
on the venture, and who asserted that they, and
they alone, possessed the secret of the exact location
of the places where the rest of the pirate Benito’s
plunder was hidden.

“ This news alarmed us, for we knew that Cocos
could be reached in less than three days, in
ordinary weather, from Panama, whilst from
Guayaquil, a vessel would have a beat of seven
hundred miles against light winds, and have to
contend with calms as well. So, next day, I set
off for Quito to interview the rascally old President,
Don Ramon Montes, whose pockets had been filled
by me on many occasions. I took him partly into
my confidence, told him of the expedition that was
sailing from Panama, and said that I was prepared
to do the square thing with him, if he would do
the square thing with me, and see that I had everyi6o ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

facility to engage a hundred or so of Indians, and
let me depart in peace.

“ ‘ Senor Warrington ! An Englishman’s word
is as good as a draft on your famous Bank of
England. I am prepared to devote my whole life
and soul to any purpose that you have in view;
simply, Senor Warrington, because apart from the
extreme love and affection I have for you personallv
as a most honourable man, who has done so much
to advance the prospects of this, my beloved
Ecuador, you have been a good friend to me. My
house, myself, and all that belongs to me are at.
your absolute and honourable disposal.’ ”

I laughed, for poor Captain Barr had told me
how the Spanish-American officials—with all their
high-sounding phrases about honour—will seldom
refuse a bribe.

Suddenly a bugle call rang out sharply through
the silence of the island night, and I heard the
tramp of feet outside.

“It is nothing,” said Warrington, in answer to
my look of inquiry, “ my men are merely changing
guard. We have a cordon of sentries in the bush
around us, and the main guard are in a hut about
a quarter of a mile back. I will explain all this
later on.” Then he went on with his story.

“ Old Don Ramon then made me a proposition:
I was to give him a ‘ present ’ of 1,000 dollars for
himself and 2,000 dollars for his friends, and in
return for this he was to supply me with a hundred
men, who belonged to a regiment of infantry that
had mutinied a few weeks previously on account
of their having received no pay for six months.
Some companies of this regiment had been draftedADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 161
into a disciplinary battalion, and sent to the ivory-
nut forests to collect nuts, but these hundred men
were in confinement in the Guayaquil barracks and
the civil prison. I was to pay these fellows a dollar
and a half a week for a term of six months, and
also to pay four officers, one of whom—a Captain
Ramirez—was, so the old rascal said, the only
man able to cope with them. Furthermore, to
facilitate matters, I was to be given a commission
in the Ecuadorian Army as the leader of ‘ an ex-
pedition to assert the rights of the Republic to the
possession of Cocos Island,’ and lastly, I was to
give a bond to the Republic to pay them a royalty
of twenty per cent, on any treasure that might be
found.

“ The whole business was completed in a week.
Wayne chartered a big lump of a fore-and-aft
schooner—the vessel that you saw blow up—and
bought a twelve months’ supply of provisions, as
well as mining tools and some tons of blasting
powder—the latter we intended to use in our excava-
tion operations. Then off I went to Quito again, paid
the old bilk Don Ramon 3,000 dollars, received my
commission, was kissed on both cheeks by the Presi-
dent and Minister for War, and was given a letter
to Captain Diego Ramirez, who already knew what
was afoot. As I was bidding Don Ramon fare-
well, he took me aside and said :

44 ‘ Senor Colonel Warrington, if it is the will of
God ’—here he crossed himself most devoutly—4 that
none of these hundred men you are taking with you
on your noble and honourable expedition return, it
cannot be helped; they may all die of fever, or be
killed in combat if you come in contact with the162 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

brigands of Colombia. In such case you will not
be held responsible, and I shall devote your present
of 1,000 for masses for their souls.’ The infernal
old scamp did not want me to bring them back.

“ I found Captain Diego Ramirez to be a good
fellow. He was reckless and daring—ready for any
adventure that would give scope to his pent-up
energy as a captain of an ill-paid and restless regi-
ment. When I presented my formal letter to him,
his eyes beamed with pleasure as he read it, and
within a few hours he and I were inspecting the
mutinous troops confined in the barracks and the
civil prison. That he was an officer whom they
liked—and feared—was very evident to me, for
when he had got the company together, they
clustered around him as he made a short speech,
telling them that they would be paid a dollar and a
half a week regularly for six months, be well fed
and housed, and that he (which meant me) would
now release them from arrest and give each man
six dollars—a month’s pay in advance. Their
•vivas! made them hoarse, and when they had
ceased, Ramirez added a few more words to the
effect that if any one of them cut up rusty, he would
shoot him dead, out of hand, and without the
formality of a court-martial. This in no wise
damped their enthusiasm, and they swore to be his
* own good children ’ for ever and ever. Most of
them had sold their uniforms to buy food, and were
clothed in all sorts of odds and ends of rags; but
we remedied this, to some extent, later on, as the
Minister for War supplied me with sufficient cast-
off clothing for artillery, infantry, and cavalry
uniforms to clothe them fairly decently. For thisADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 163

I had to pay out 200 dollars, and when it came to
arms and ammunition, I had to disburse another
1,000 dollars, all of which went into the private
purse of the Minister.

“We got our crowd on board that afternoon, and
paid each man his six dollars; and then Ramirez
gave them a day’s leave in batches. They all, to
a man, turned up again two days before we sailed,
and helped the crew to stow our stores and get the
schooner ready for sea. Wayne, the first mate, and
I were the only . Europeans on board, the second
mate, boatswain, and crew being all either Chilenos,
Peruvians, or Ecuadorians. In view of possible
trouble occurring, should we meet with and fall
foul of the expedition from Panama, we bought four
twelve-pounder brass muzzle-loading,’smooth bore
guns, and a good supply of ammunition—round
and case shot. Poor Wayne, who had been a
lieutenant in the British Navy, mounted them on
the main deck, and as soon as we got to sea we had
gun drill and target practice.

“We made Cocos safely, and anchored, at first,
in Chatham Bay on the other side of the island,
where we landed a party of a dozen men. They
were to remain there as an outpost, to notify the
main party of us should the Panama expedition
arrive, as Wayne and I were pretty sure that it
would land there and not at Wafer Bay. Then
we sailed round here, moored the schooner, and
began landing stores and building quarters. This
took us a couple of weeks, when we went to work
digging and removing the soil and rocks that had
blocked up the former ‘ drive, ’ and on the twenty-
eighth day we actually did come upon a part of the164 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

pirate’s treasures. The men nearly went mad with
excitement.

“ This particular hoard was in a small excavation
made in the face of the cliff about twelve feet
square, and the money, which had once been tied
up in canvas and bullock hide bags, was lying on
the ground in heaps, for both canvas and hide had
long since rotted away owing to the water that had
percolated through the roof of the chamber. Most
of it was silver coinage of all nations, amounting
to about 80,000 dollars at present day value, and
there were 30,000 dollars’ worth of English and
French gold money. Then, lying apart, was a
pile of silver ingots—three hundred—and on the
top of them a pile of rotten clothing, a binnacle
compass, a small brass gun with the muzzle blown
away, and other articles of no value.

“ Ramirez, Wayne, and I, assisted by some of
our most trusted men, went through the money in
detail, and after counting it and putting it into new
canvas bags, it was taken on board and placed in
safety. Then, on the following day, we told our
men that they could have a week’s spell, and amuse
themselves by roaming about the island and seeing
if they could discover any more old workings be-
tween here and Chatham Bay. To show them that
we meant to deal fairly and squarely with them, I
told them that I would divide a thousand dollars
among them, and, if they wished it, would do so
in the morning. But they were quite satisfied to
leave it on board the ship in the care of Wayne.”

Then, pausing in his narrative, Warrington
asked me if I would like to see some of the re-
covered treasure, and unlocking a rough sea chest,ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 165

he took from it a sail-maker’s box. This he placed
on the table, and pushing back the sliding lid,
showed me the contents—a mixture of gold and
silver coins—all of which, he explained, he had
himself cleaned and polished, for the purpose of
deciphering the dates.

“From the bulk of the money,” he said, “we
took out two coins of each kind, and after cleaning
them, we were enabled to count and value the whole
much more easily. And here is one of the silver
bars,” and from the sea chest he produced the ingot.

“ It is Peruvian, and, you will see, has the royal
arms of Spain on it, thus confirming the story of
Benito having captured a treasure ship off Arica,
which, after cutting the throats of every one on
board and removing the silver, he burnt in sight of
the town. Each bar averages about 36 lbs. Now
I’ve talked myself dry, and before I go on again I
think a bottle of good, cool Mr. Tennent will do us
no harm.”CHAPTER XXL

The night was close and “ muggy, ” and there were
indications that one of those tremendously violent
rain squalls—so common to Cocos Island—would
soon come on. The wind had died away, and when
Warrington and I went to the door and looked out,
we could discern nothing, owing to the intense
darkness; while the stillness and silence were such
that when someone near the house struck four bells,
and a sentry sharply cried out Alerta! I fairly
jumped.

And then, from the surrounding jungle, the chain
of sentries repeated the Alerta! and Warrington
placed his hand on my shoulder.

“ I told you that I would explain all about this,
and I know you are wondering what it all means.
So I may as well at once tell you that the Panama
expedition arrived here a week ago, and that we
have had a bloody engagement with them. Their
vessel is, as far as we know, still at Chatham Bay,
and we have a chain of sentries posted to prevent
us from again being taken by surprise, as we were
the other day, when they got possession for a
time.”

He passed his hand wearily through his hair,
and muttered, “ From battle, murder, and sudden
death, good Lord deliver us!” and then added,
with a curious inflexion in his deep voice, “ that
part of the Litany, my young friend, wants amend-
ing—amending very drastically. It should be
(t66)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 167

1 from battle, murder, and treachery, good Lord
deliver us. But give us, the wanderers and out-
casts of the world, O God, the blessing of sudden
death, and inflict not upon us the agonies of bodily
suffering before the dissolution of our souls from
our clay.’ . . . Poor Wayne, poor Wayne—how
he suffered.”

Suddenly came the deep drone of the squall; the
black silence of the trees changed into a wild
clamour, and, as the wind smote them, their
branches swayed, slashing furiously to and fro.
Presently came the roar of a mighty rain that fell
in torrents and deadened all else.

“Come inside again,” said Warrington, “and
we will have supper, while I tell you the rest of my
yarn. The squall will be over in half an hour.”

“Where is Captain Ramirez?” I asked. “I
should much like to meet him.”

“ That you shall to-morrow. He is in charge of
the party of men who are quartered in the hut in
the bush. It commands the track through the
woods to Chatham Bay, and it was through our not
perceiving its value, and leaving it unguarded, that
disaster—sudden and terrible—came upon us. As
we are not sure whether we may not be attacked
again, we are taking every precaution, for the crowd
on the Panama schooner, although we wiped out a
lot of them, still outnumber us by two to one; and,
furthermore, they are better armed with American
repeating rifles and Lancaster breech-loading
pistols.

“ About eight or ten days after our discovery of
the first lot of treasure, three of our Ecuadoriani68 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

soldiers, who were ordered to fell a cedar tree and
saw it into planking, came across a second cache
by a very simple accident. To save time and labour
in felling the tree, which was of great girth, they
had dug all around its roots until they came to the
tap root, beside which they placed a charge of
20 lbs. of blasting powder. They lit the fuse, and
bolted for shelter to an overhanging ledge of rock—
or rather cave. Of such places there are many
hundreds on Cocos, and the entrances to them are
generally overhung with the long tendrils and
leaves of the vine which, you may have noticed,
grows in profusion everywhere about the cliffs and
rocks. When the charge exploded, the walls of
this particular cave were so much shaken that an
overhanging ledge of rock came down, bringing
with it a small, heavy chest, containing a number
of gold ornaments, which evidently had been rifled
by Benito, the pirate, from the South American
churches. No doubt this particular cache had been
made privately by one of his officers; for in the box
were some letters written to ‘ Evan Jones,’ and it is
known that a Welshman named Jones was one of
Benito’s pirate gang, and a trusted associate. The
value of this gold and silver plate is about ^2,000,
and its discovery naturally aroused immense en-
thusiasm amongst our company, inspiring them to
the greatest activity.

“ Some days after this, the Panama expedition
arrived off the island. The leaders of it must have
got wind of our being here, for the vessel sent her
boats on shore in the night; and under cover of the
darkness a large party landed at Chatham Bay,ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 169
where they soon discovered our post of twelve men.
These they crept upon when they were asleep, and
slaughtered nine of them in cold blood. Two
escaped, and one they made prisoner. The two
who escaped tried to make their way here, but lost
their way for some hours and did not arrive with
their news till long after daylight. Wayne,
Ramirez, and I then held a hurried council of war;
Ramirez and I were in favour of the whole body
of us going on board our vessel and there awaiting
the attack which was certain to come, but Wayne
was against that plan. His suggestion was that the
treasure on board should at once be brought on
shore again and buried, and that he and the crew,
and forty of our men, should remain on board to
defend the ship.

“ ‘ If,’ said he, ‘ we should lose the ship, we
shall not lose the treasure, which will be safe on
shore; and, besides, it is quite possible that if we
left the camp undefended, they would burn our
houses and seize all our valuable stores.’

“So we took his advice, brought the treasure on
shore, and Wayne, after warping the schooner
close in to the shore, put her into a good state of
defence. We made a tolerably good boarding
netting all round her as high as the sheer poles by
untwisting some wire rigging, and the two brass
guns on the port side were moved to the starboard,
all four being loaded with case shot, as the schooner
was moored broadside on to the entrance of the bay.
What we feared was that the Panama schooner
might lie off the bay, and sink our vessel with the
rifled 24-pounders that we had heard at Guayaquili7o ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

she carried; our own smooth-bore guns would have
stood no chance against rifled cannon.

“ Whilst all this was going on, the Panama
crowd had not been idle, for they had subjected
their one prisoner at Chatham Bay to torture, by
burning his feet over a slow fire, compelling him
to tell them all he knew. The poor devil—he was
only a lad of nineteen years of age—did tell them
of our find of treasure, and that it had been placed
on board our schooner.”

“What inhuman beasts!”

“ Men become inhuman beasts, Mr. Blake, when
they are seeking for gold or thirsting for blood, and
the Spanish South-American is a devil incarnate
when his lust for gold or blood is aroused. Well,
we were not prepared a bit too soon, for two hours
before dawn on the following day four boats made
a dash at the schooner during a heavy rain squall,
and at the same time we, on shore, were rushed by
a party of seventy men, led by a white man, A
savage hand-to-hand fight took place amongst and
inside the houses, and my fellows fought most
bravely; but we should have been overwhelmed
had not Ramirez badly wounded the leader. His
followers then bolted, leaving behind them ten
dead and four badly wounded men, but they
carried off their leader. We, on our side, lost four
killed, and had over a dozen wounded, two of
whom have since died.

“ Meanwhile there was a fearful struggle going
on on board the Engracia. The boats tackled her
on both sides, and the boarders swarmed up and
over the wire boarding netting in the most deter-ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 171
mined manner, though half a dozen or more of
them were shot dead or run through before any
number of them succeeded in getting on deck.
This they did by getting one of their boats under
the bows, and then over thirty of them swarmed up.
on to the topgallant foc’sle, under the leadership of
a European, and began firing with their Lancaster
pistols into Wayne’s crew, who were still thrusting
back the boarders on both the starboard and port
sides. Furness, the chief mate of the Engracia,
was one of the first to fall, shot through the head;
and almost at the same time poor Wayne received
his death wound, though he did not know it.

“The death of Furness, who was a great
favourite, not only with the schooner’s crew but
with our Ecuadorian soldiers as well, sent the de-
fenders of the schooner into a perfect frenzy, and,
with Wayne at their head, they dashed forward and
made short work of the Panama crowd on the fore-
topgallant foc’sle. Those that did not jump over-
board were cut down, and their leader—a big Portu-
guese—who, one his knees called for quarter, was
killed by the schooner’s carpenter with one blow
from his cutlass, which cut him down from head
to shoulder.”

Warrington ceased, and again wearily passed his
hand through his hair.

“ Do not continue, Mr. Warrington,” I said, “ I
can see that it harrows you too much.”

“ Oh, no, and besides I have but little more to
tell. The death of their leader took the heart out
of the boarding party, who had lost heavily, and
those of them who were able to do so took to their172 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

boats, and made off round the south side of the
island.

“ With his mate killed, and now realising that
he was seriously, if not mortally wounded, Wayne
placed the second mate in charge of the Engracia,
and came on shore. He had barely been gone half
an hour, when the second mate, wishing to give the
men some grog, foolishly permitted some of the
crew to go down into the lazzarette and draw off
some brandy from a quarter cask, instead of doing
it himself. His excuse was that he had many
wounded men to attend to. Then came the ex-
plosion, which set the cabin on fire. The crew
tried their best to extinguish it, but in vain, for it
spread very rapidly. Fortunate it was that the
rest of our blasting powder was in the fore-hold,
and did not ignite until everyone had left the ship
and was safe on shore.

“ And here we are. We intend to fight it out
with the Panama crowd, and beat them off the
island. Ramirez and some of his men suggest our
trying to cut out their ship, but she is too well
armed and manned for us to tackle her. We will
do our best, however, to prevent them from making
any search for treasure, and, as we mean to harass
them in every possible way, perhaps they will clear
out and let us resume our work. There is one spot
I am most anxious to begin operations at—a small
rocky islet in Chatham Bay. It is covered with a
dense mantle of vines and creepers, which conceal
numerous chasms and caves. And there we shall
go—once that cursed schooner is out of the way.”

Two hours after eight o’clock Captain RamirezADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 173
and his party arrived with great news—the Panama
schooner had left the island at daylight, and War-
rington’s men cheered loudly when this was an-
nounced to them. Ramirez brought with him two
prisoners—an Indian and a Mexican—whom he had
found wounded in the bush. The Mexican and
Warrington had a long talk, and the former gave
him the important information that the leader of
the expedition was dead, the wound he had received
from Ramirez proving mortal as he was being
carried through the bush to Chatham Bay. The
Mexican added that the Portuguese who had been
cut down by the carpenter of the Engracia was the
second leader, and he (the Mexican) was certain that
the schooner would now return to Panama, for her
captain and officers, who had taken no part in the
attacks, had not been on friendly terms with the
leaders of the expedition, and frequent quarrels had
taken place on board; furthermore, he believed that
they had no pecuniary interest in the venture, the
vessel having only been chartered for six months.

“That settles it then, Captain Ramirez,” said
Warrington; “did you see the schooner actually
leave ? ”

“ No, but two of my scouts, who were stationed
in the jungle at the head of Chatham Bay, saw
lights moving about her decks and heard the sound
of her windlass. At daylight they saw her stand-
ing out of the bay, and did not lose sight of her
until she was six miles off, under all sail, and steer-
ing east.”

As I thought that Warrington and Ramirez
would rather not be troubled with a visitor just

M174 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

then, when they were so busy, I decided to return
on board the Pocahontas, and so bade them good-
bye, telling them that I hoped to be able to again
come and see them if the ship should remain a few
days longer. And, indeed, I was keenly anxious
to go all over the island, and look at the places
where the treasure had been found. They pro-
tested that I was not in the way, and said that they
were glad of my company for as long as I cared to
stay, but thinking it best not to accept, I started,
bearing with me a letter of invitation to Captain
Guest.

On my way through the bush I shot as many
pigeons as I could carry, and felt pretty fagged
when I arrived abreast of the ship, where I found
the party of Ecuadorians whom Warrington had
lent to Guest engaged in cutting firewood for the
ship. One of them, who spoke a little English,
told me that Guest had sent them to get half a dozen
boat loads of wood, as he (Guest) was afraid that
bad weather was coming on, and the crew were
working most strenuously to cut-in the whales,
leaving the trying-out to be done later on. Also,
he informed me that there had been trouble on
board between “ the black officer ” and “ the man
who make the casks,” and that both were badly
injured.

Captain Guest was surprised to see me back so
soon. After telling him the whole detailed story of
the tragedy of the Engracia and the schooner from
Panama, in which he was deeply interested, I gave
him Warrington’s letter, which he read. Then I
asked him what had happened between Mr. Diaz
and the cooper.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 175

“ They have nearly killed each other. I don’t
know what led to it, but it appears that after some
hot words, the cooper struck Diaz with his mallet
on the left arm and broke it, and Diaz, seizing a
sheath knife from one of the hands, plunged it up
to the haft in the cooper’s shoulder. The cooper
won’t be fit for duty for another month. The fourth
mate, however, is still doing duty. You’ll find
him down on the ’tween decks. It has upset me
very much to have this muss at such a time. I fear
that bad weather is coming on, the glass is falling
slowly but steadily, and I want to get through our
cutting-in with all possible speed, in case we have
to put to sea in a hurry. I found that the Dagoes
your friend Warrington lent me were not much
use on board, so sent them on shore to cut firewood,
but although they work well enough, they don’t
know how to stow the wood in that big boat of
theirs, and I cannot spare anyone to go with them.”

“ Let me go then. I’ll see that they bring off a
proper load each time.”

“ I wish you would—it would help me greatly.”

Before returning to the shore I went down to the
’tween decks, where I found Diaz superintending
the temporary stowing of the huge “blanket”
pieces of blubber. I shook his hand, and expressed
a hope that he would soon have the use of his arm
again. He was, I am sure, pleased, but I could
see that he was very depressed.

“ I am going on shore to boss the wood-cutters,
Mr. Diaz. When we get to sea again, I have a
long yarn to tell you about that ship we saw blow
up, and the awful fighting and bloodshed that has
been going on.”176 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“Thank you, sir. You will be doing a great
honour to ‘ a dirty Portugee nigger '—as the cooper
calls me,” and he turned his face away from me.

Putting my hand on his shoulder, I said:

“ Don’t mind an insult from a brute like the
cooper, Mr. Diaz. Captain Guest and your brother
officers treat you as the gentleman you are. And
I know from what the captain has told me that he
has a great respect for you as an able officer.”

“ I am glad to know that, Mr. Blake. But if
you had said ‘ had ’ instead of ‘ has ’ it would be
only the bare truth. I have lost the respect of
every white man on board for using a knife. But
I was mad.”

M You acted under great provocation, and every-
one on board hates the cooper. Do not fret, Mr.
Diaz.”

He shook his head sadly, again gave me his
hand, which I warmly pressed, and then turned
his attention to the work going on.

Returning on shore with the wood-getters—who
were mostly half-breed Indians—I sent off three
boat loads of firewood before sundown; and as
there was a fair moonlight, we continued working
throughout the night, carrying the cut wood down
to the shore. Captain Guest sent me a hot supper
with coffee, and food and a jar of rum for my
working party. The latter put them in high spirits,
and they worked like tigers. We continued cutting
and shipping wood all the following day, and then
Guest came on shore in the evening, and said that
we could cease cutting, as he had enough wood.
He was in a very genial mood, as everything wasADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 177
going well on board, and although there were still
indications of a heavy blow coming on, he was
hopeful of having the last whale cut out on the
following day.

When we returned on board, I noticed that Mr.
Walker and Mr. Prosper, the first and second
mates, were smiling broadly at me.

“ What are you laughing at? ” I asked.

“You will have to go to the slop chest, I guess,”
replied Mr. Prosper, and then I realised that my
shirt and pants of thin dungaree were in fragments.
In handling the rough logs of wood my garments
had suffered so much that I looked like a scarecrow,
while my face and hands were stained a deep
purple, the bark of the wood exuding a strong dye
of that colour, and some weeks passed before I was
a white man again.

To the delight of everyone that night a terrific
thunderstorm came on, and when it ceased the glass
rose almost immediately. Guest said that he now
had no fear of a heavy blow coming on from the
north-west and compelling the Pocahontas to put
to sea. The try-work fires were relighted, and
the ’tween decks again bustled with activity, while
the “ blanket pieces ” of blubber were cut up into
“ horse ” pieces, “ minced,” and sent up on deck
into the try pots. During the next two days all
went as merry as marriage bells; for, as I have
said, the Pocahontas was a happy ship, the only
discordant element being the cooper, at whose
injury the crew openly rejoiced, expressing their
fervent wish that they might have the pleasure of
burying him on Cocos Island.178 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Captain Guest and I paid Warrington and “ el
Capitan ” Ramirez a visit at this time. They
treated us most hospitably, showed us the whole of
the treasure, including the golden church orna-
ments and plate, and presented each of us with
some French and English gold coins, to the value
of at least Zi°o, and a bar of silver, with two bars
for the officers of the Pocahontas. Then on the
following day (Guest and I slept at the treasure-
seekers’ camp), when we were leaving to return to
the ship, they presented us with five nanny-goats
and their kids, and a ferocious “ Billy,” which the
Ecuadorian soldiers had captured. These animals
were the life and soul of the ship for quite a long
time after we left Cocos. They were, alas! destined
to appear on the cabin table from time to time,
until only two were left—a nanny, whom we named
“ Senora Engracia,” and the truculent Billy, whom
we christened “ Don Ramirez.”

Then Warrington and “ el Capitan ” and two of
the latter’s fellow officers visited us on board the
whaleship, and we had what Mr. Prosper termed
“ a high old time.”

Warrington gave Guest a sum of money amount-
ing to ^1,500, and asked him, should the Poca-
hontas touch at Tahiti or Samoa, to charter for six
months a small vessel for him (Warrington) to
proceed to Cocos Island as quickly as possible.

“ I guess that I can charter for six months a
vessel that will suit you for less than 5,000 dollars,
Mr. Warrington,” said Guest, “so you can take
back the extra 2,500 dollars. They won’t be re-
quired.”ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 179

“ Then accept them as your commission, Captain
Guest.”

“ No, I won’t rob you. But I’ll take five hun-
dred, and be mighty well satisfied.”

And then with long and warm hand graspings,
and mutual good wishes, we of the Pocahontas said
good-bye to the treasure-seekers of Cocos Island.CHAPTER XXII.

Black Pedro Diaz and I were sitting under the
shade of a great maso’i tree that grew on the
summit of a lofty spur of the range of mountains
that traverses the beautiful island of Upolu in
Samoa (the Navigators’ Islands). Below us were
the placid, deep blue water of Fagaloa Bay, encom-
passed by a beach of snow-white sand, and fringed
with graceful coco-palms, whose long fronds
drooped motionless; for it was towards sunset, and
the trade wind had died away. Now and then we
could hear the murmur of voices ascending from
the native village, three hundred feet beneath us,
and could see a party of women and children
bathing in the crystal waters of a mountain stream
that debouched between the village and the southern
headland of the bay.* Anchored within a stone’s
throw of the beach was a small white-painted cutter
of twenty-five tons, with a boat lying alongside.

“Give a hail, Pedro, and let us get down,” I
said, “ we have had a grand day’s shooting, and I
am starving.”

Pedro gave a loud hail, and in an instant
three men appeared on the deck of the little vessel.
Two got into the boat and pulled to shore, towards
a house on the beach which stood apart from the
native village. Then my companion and I, taking
up our guns and heavy loads of pigeons, descended
the narrow path that wound from the summit of the
spur down to the bay.

(180)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 181

That little cutter was ours, and so also was the
house, which was our trading station. The name
of the village was Salimu, and of the many lovely
spots in fair Samoa there is none lovelier than the
deep, mountain-encompassed bay of Fagaloa.

Now let me tell how it was that the fourth mate
of the Pocahontas and I came to be in Samoa, for
two years had passed since I said good-bye to War-
rington and his band of treasure-hunters on Cocos
Island.

• • <• • •

For a month or so we had cruised to the south-
ward of Cocos, and having taken four more whales,
Captain Guest steered for the islands of the Phoenix
Group, situated about three degrees south of the
Equator, where, for the following ten weeks, we
did very well, killing fourteen more whales, among
which were two enormous bull cachalots.

During all this time I tried hard to learn all the
navigation and seamanship I could, and the days
passed so pleasantly that I began to look upon the
ship as my home, and was quite satisfied, when
one day, Captain Guest said to me with a smile:

“ Well, Mr. Blake, we are having real good luck,
and when we shall see Samoa or Tahiti, I really
can’t tell. So you’ll have to put up with it.”

“ I don’t mind, captain, if we don’t see either
place within the next six months.”

I had on several occasions—much to my delight
—taken the place of the lad Larry in the fourth
mate’s boat, the injury to his foot having quite
crippled him, owing to his carelessness, till at last
it became so bad that he could not get about with-182 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

out a crutch. The captain did all he could, but
no benefit resulted, and he was really glad when
one day we spoke a homeward-bound whaler, the
St. George of New London, the skipper of which
offered to give Larry a passage home. The St.
George was a “ full ” ship, and in addition to her
valuable cargo of oil, she had on board a lump of
ambergris weighing 30 lbs., which had been picked
up on the beach of one of the Marianne Islands.
I looked at it with great curiosity, having heard so
much of the substance. The captain told me it
was worth ten dollars per ounce in its crude state,
but that when cleaned of the cuttie fishes’ beaks
with which it was permeated, and properly refined,
it would bring twenty-five dollars per ounce.
Ambergris, so experienced whalemen say, is really
the result of constipation of the bowels of the sperm
whale, for it has been found in the anal canal of the
great creatures, but more often it is picked up at
sea, floating on the surface, or found on the beach,
where it has been washed on shore. The cachalot
(sperm whale) is the one member of the cetacean
family that is able to attack and devour the giant
octopus—that hideous and dreaded terror of the
deep—for his mighty lower jaw, with its monstrous
teeth, can crush a whaleboat into matchwood and
make short work even of an octopus. All of this
monster’s huge body and tentacles the cachalot can
digest, except the parrot-like beak, which is as hard
as glass, and although he crushes and splinters it,
the fragments remain in his stomach as would
pieces of broken marble in the stomach of an animal.

During the time we were cruising among theADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 183

Phoenix Islands we had the company of two colonial
whalers, the Fanny Fisher and the Onward, both of
Hobart Town, Tasmania; and one calm day the
boats’ crews of all three ships exchanged visits to
“ gam ” (gossip) with each other. I boarded both
the colonial ships, which struck me as being dirty
and ill-found, and presented a marked contrast to
the neatness and cleanliness of the Pocahontas.
The master of the Onward, who was an American,
paid us a visit, and told us that a few months
before, whilst cruising among the Solomon Islands,
he put into a bay for wood and water on an island
which appeared to be uninhabited. He was just
about to anchor when five very large canoes,
crowded with armed savages, suddenly appeared
and made a dash for the ship. Two of the canoes
succeeded in getting alongside, and a number of
the natives tried to board, but were beaten off by
the crew, who used whale spades, lances, and
hatchets. Fortunately there was a good breeze,
and the ship was able to wear and escape; but had
she anchored before the canoes attacked, she would
certainly have been cut off.

After trying-out the fourteenth whale killed in
the Phoenix Group, we did not see a sign of another
for nearly a month, when we sighted a small
“ pod ” off the island of Atafu, one of the Tokelau
or Union Group, but before the boats could get up
to them they became “gallied” (frightened) and
made off to windward at such a rate that Captain
Guest signalled to the boats to give up the chase.

The whales had gone round the east side of
Atafu Island, which is very low and densely covered184 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

with coco-palms, as are nearly all the Equatorial
Pacific atolls, and when the boats returned, Mr.
Walker reported that he had seen a small dismasted
vessel of about twenty to thirty tons drifting about,
some four miles from the eastern shore of the
islands. So far as he could see there was no one on
board, and finding that there was no chance of
overtaking the whales he was about to pull up to
and examine her, when he saw the ship’s recall
signal.

“Well, we’ll go and have a look at her, Mr.
Walker. If she is four miles off land, she won’t
have time to pile herself up on the reef before we
get round to the east side.”

There was a fair breeze, and within an hour, as
we rounded the northern end of the island, we
caught sight of the derelict, and at the same time
the look-out aloft hailed the deck.

“ What is it? ” shouted the mate.

“ I can see over the tops of the trees into the
lagoon, sir. There is a village on the west side,
and the natives have launched four canoes, which
are paddling across to the east side. I think they
are making for the dismasted vessel, sir.”

“ Then we must get to her first,” said Captain
Guest to Mr. Walker. “ ‘ Findings are keepings,’
and maybe she is worth keeping. These Atafu
natives are a quiet lot, and won’t interfere with us.”

Having sailed close up to the derelict, we backed
our main yard, and I went with the captain in his
boat. We were soon alongside, and jumping on
deck we made a quick examination of the craft.
The mast was gone about four feet from the deck,ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 185

but the hatches were on and securely battened
down. Going aft we found the companion open,
and looking down, saw that there was about a foot
of water in the cabin. We descended, and soon
satisfied ourselves that there was no one in the
cabin, living or dead. Then we looked down the
forescuttle, and saw nothing but a couple of sea-
men’s chests washing about.

Guest quickly made up his mind what to do.
Calling his boat-steerer, he ordered him to go back
to the ship and tell Mr. Walker to send two more
boats to help tow the derelict into the lagoon. Then
turning to me, he said:

“ There is a boat passage through the reef into
Atafu Lagoon. We’ll yank this hooker in, and see
what there is under the hatches. Hallo, here are
the canoes. Well, we’ll let the natives come aboard
if they want to. They are a harmless lot of beggars.
Meanwhile let us see if the pumps will work. They
look all right.”

In a few minutes the natives were alongside, and
a dozen of them ventured on board, somewhat
timidly, and one, an elderly man, said " Good-
morning.”

“ Good-morning, old Brown-skin,” replied
Guest, offering his hand, " now, look here, if you
and your fellows pump out this little ship for me,
I will give you a hundred sticks of tobacco between
you. Understand ? ’ ’

“ Oh, yes,” replied the old native, “ me savee.
Me been sailor man,” and he and three of his com-
panions at once tackled the brake pump.

The three boats soon had us in tow, and in two186 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

hours more the vessel was safely inside Atafu
Lagoon, anchored, and pumped dry. Then the
hatches were taken off, and we found the vessel had
a full cargo of coco-nut oil incasks, neatly dunnaged
with ivory nuts. A further examination of the
cabin revealed nothing of value, and no papers or
documents of any kind could be found, but there
was proof that its one occupant had been a white
man. In one of the lower bunks—there were four
in all—was a heap of soddened clothing, and some
novels reduced to a pulp by salt water; in another
a pile of native-made straw hats, a bolt of canvas,
and two or three hundredweight of very large
“ golden-edged ” pearl shells. The tiny lazzarette
contained only a few bags of rice, flour, and some
cases of ship biscuit, all of which were spoiled by
sea water. There was no name on the vessel’s
stern, and Guest was of the opinion that she had
not been built more than a few months.

“Most likely,” he observed to Mr. Diaz, “she
was built by some traders on one of the islands to
the north-west—the Solomons or New Hebrides—
who loaded her with coco-nut oil, and was on his
way to Samoa. I know half-a-dozen traders who
have built small craft like this, and who cruise
about the islands, buying coco-nut oil and pearl-
shell, and selling it in Fiji or Samba to the big
trading firms. The question is this—now we have
her, what are we going to do with her ? I have a
mind to send her to Samoa. However, we’ll talk'
it over when we get back to the ship.”

Leaving two of our men to take charge of the
vessel, we returned to the Pocahontas for dinner,ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 187

and when the meal was over Captain Guest went on
deck, where, being joined by Mr. Diaz, the two
had a long conversation.

I must mention that ever since the affray with
the cooper, the fourth mate had been very de-
pressed, and hardly spoke to anyone, except in the
course of duty. Mr. Prosper told me that he (Diaz)
had asked the captain to let him leave the ship at
Tahiti or Samoa, if Guest could find a competent
man to replace him, and that the captain had
acquiesced, much as he disliked losing so capable
an officer. But he feared further trouble between
him and the vindictive cooper, and was anxious to
avoid it. Poor Diaz himself had told me one night,
when I was keeping the middle watch with him—
for company’s sake—that he would be glad to get a
berth in another ship—not a whaleship.

“ Why ? ” I asked.

" Because I am a black man who has knifed a
white man. I have lost the respect of every white
man on board, and my own self-respect as well.
My life is a heH to me.”

I tried to console him by pointing out—what was
the absolute truth—that there was a strong feeling
against the cooper, from Captain Guest down to
the South Sea Island seamen.

“ I know That, Mr. Blake. But I have now a
mark against my name as black as my skin—I
knifed a white man. If I had stabbed to the heart
a man of my own colour, or a brown-skinned
Kanaka, it would not have degraded me in the
opinion of the white members of this ship’s com-
pany—because she is an American ship. I am an188 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

officer, but I only live with my fellow officers be-
cause I am an officer, and ‘ a good man to kill a
whale.’ Even Mr. Walker, who is a full-blooded
Indian, would not treat me as an equal on shore,
or be seen in my company in New Bedford or New
London—because of my black skin.”

This talk had taken place only a few days before
the Pocahontas sighted Atafu Island, and now,
when I observed Captain Guest and Pedro Diaz
engaged in such a deep conversation on the poop
deck, I felt sure that it concerned the dismasted
derelict, and that something was about to happen.
I was not mistaken, for as I was leaning over the
fife rail, Captain Guest called to me.

“ Mr. Blake, come here. I want to talk to you.”

I joined them where they were standing together,
leaning against the lee rail, and Guest went into
the business at once.

“ Mr. Diaz and I have been talking about that
cutter, Mr. Blake, and he has agreed to sail her
to Apia, in Samoa, if you will navigate her—you
can do that, can’t you ? ”

“ I think I could manage it, Captain Guest. And
even if I did not strike Apia, I could not—neither
could Mr. Diaz—miss high mountainous land like
Samoa.”

“ Just so. And you, Mr. Blake, want to get to
Samoa or Tahiti, and Mr. Diaz here, as you know,
has reasons for wanting to leave the ship. Now,
just take hold and listen.”

He thrust his hand into his coat pocket, and
pulled out some cigars.

“ Here, Pedro Diaz, have a smoke,” and then heADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 189
said something in Portuguese that I did not under-
stand, but which evidently pleased the fourth mate,
who took Guest’s hand between his and pressed it
warmly.

“ Now, Mr. Blake, that cutter is worth at least
1,500 dollars or more, and her cargo of coco-nut
oil will bring over 3,000 dollars in Apia. I will
give you and Mr. Diaz the vessel—she is mine to
give. Savee?”

“ Yes, sir.”

“ Well, you take her to Samoa—to Apia—report
to the American Consul, and hand him a letter I
will give you. You will have the cutter registered
in the Consular records under any name you and
Diaz like to give her, as a derelict picked up by
the Pocahontas, off Atafu Island. Savee?”

“ Quite.”

“ Well, the cutter then becomes yours and Diaz’s
property, and you can set fire to her or do any
durned thing you like with her. Is that clear to
you?”

“ Quite clear.”

“ Now, of course, I want to have some pickings
—I must, as I am to lose you, Pedro. I reckon the
oil will bring not less than 3,000 dollars—you two
keep 1,000 dollars ; the rest is mine and you will
hand it to the Consul to remit to me. Is that a
square thing?”	\

“ Couldn’t be squarer, sir,” said Diaz.

“ Well, you see, Diaz, this ship owes you
money, but that must be left till we get home to New
Bedford and the oil is sold. I’ll see that your
share is deposited with the owners. Now, that isI9o ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

fixed up. The next thing is to put a new stick in
the cutter and get her ready for sea. I’ll make you
a present of a spare main-topmast, and send it
ashore with the carpenter, right away. Don’t keep
him longer than to-morrow night, as although I
want to cruise around Atafu for a week or so, I
can’t spare the carpenter for long. And then bad
weather may come on.”

“Yes, sir,” said Diaz, “and he’s the man you
can least spare.”

“Then,” resumed Guest, “I’ll fix you up with
standing and running gear, and give you an old
main-topgallant sail and some staysails, which will
do you for mainsail, staysail, and jib, but you’ll
have to do your own sailmaking. For a crew I’ll
give you one of the South Sea Islanders—any one
you like, except Mr. Prosper’s boat-steerer.”

(This man was, next to Mr. Walker’s boat-
steerer, and Sam Joy, the Maori half-caste, one of
the best men on the ship, and Guest valued him.)

“ Then can we have Marana, the Rarotonga
man? ” I put in quickly.

“ Yes, you can—you are mighty slick, Mr. Blake
—you have picked on one of the best. Now, there
is no time to lose. Get your own gear ready, and
I’ll send the other boats after you with enough pro-
visions to last you to Samoa, and the spare sails;
and you can tow your new mast with your own boat,
Mr. Diaz.”

Then turning to Mr. Walker, the captain gave
his orders in his usual terse manner, and in a few
minutes the carpenter and some of the hands were
unlashing the spare main-topmast, the sails wereADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 191

being bundled out of the sail-locker, the provisions
were passing down into the boats, and Mr. Diaz
and I were hurriedly stowing our few belongings.

Before sunset that day the carpenter, Diaz,
Marana, and I had unstepped the broken mast, and
made everything ready for stepping the new one in
the morning. Captain Guest had told us that we
ought to have the cutter ready for sea in ten days,
and we meant to have her ready in a week.

And in a week we were ready, and, aided by the
natives of Atafu, worked our little vessel out
through the narrow boat passage to the open sea.
The Pocahontas was within sight of the island,
trying-out two whales, and most gallantly we beat
up to her, with an extemporised “Blue Peter”
flying from our masthead. As we had no boat,
Captain Guest had his own lowered, and boarded
us. He was very pleased at the cutter’s appear-
ance, and was good enough to say some very com-
plimentary things to Diaz, myself, and our crew of
one—Marana.

“ Have you fixed upon a name to register with
the Consul in Samoa? ” he asked, as he was bid-
ding us farewell.

“Yes,” I replied, “ you will see it on our stern
in letters big enough for a two thousand-ton ship—
The Little Pocahontas.”

“That’s a bully name. And I hope you won’t
run across ‘ Bully ’ Hayes, who has a trick of
collaring small vessels. He has his headquarters
at Samoa, as I told you. So if you do meet him,
don’t let him ‘ best ’ you. Good-bye.”

The crew of the Pocahontas, busy as they werei92 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

trying-out, were allowed by Mr. Walker to gather
on the cutting-in stage, and give the Little Poca-
hontas three rousing cheers as we let draw our fore-
sheets and stood away for Samoa.CHAPTER XXIII.

A mighty navigator did I consider myself when
at sunrise, ten days after we had parted from the
Pocahontas, we saw the purple loom of Upolu
Island, thirty miles away, on our lee bow. Marana,
who had several times been to Apia in whaleships,
at once became a very important person, and
advised that we should steer for the eastern end of
the island, and run down the coast close in shore,
otherwise we might get to leeward of Apia, and
have to beat up again against the south-east trade
and a strong westerly current.

Easing off the main boom, and setting our
square-sail, we ran free at a great rate for nearly
three hours, which brought us within a mile of the
east end of Upolu, and then we stood along west-
ward, close to the barrier reef. Never before had
I seen such a beautiful country—it positively filled
me with delight to look at it—the charming little
bays, with beaches of shining sand fringed with the
plumed coco-palms, and backed by a forest of the
most vivid and glorious green imaginable, while
beyond all were the noble mountains, clothed to
their very summits with verdure. Sometimes, as
the brave Little Pocahontas serged along close in
to the curving rollers that crashed and thundered
on the barrier reef, we would espy a village nestling
amidst a grove of coco-palms or orange trees, and
see the brown-skinned people walking about.
Many of them waved their hands to us, and but for

(193)i94 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

the roar of the surf, we might have heard their
shouts. Inside the barrier reef the water was
smooth and quiet, and ranged in colour from a dark
blue—where it was deep—to the palest of green as
it shallowed towards the beach. All about this
stretch of calm water, which in places was a mile in
width and in others less than a quarter, were
numbers of canoes engaged in fishing, and the
whole scene was most animated and refreshing to
the eye, while the delightfully cool breeze, the
bright sunshine, and the cloudless dome of blue
overhead added to our enjoyment.

We were within half a mile of a lofty, tree-clad
headland, named Faanou Point, at the entrance to
Fagaloa Bay, when a dire mishap befell us—the
cutter crashed into a floating tree, carrying away
the bob-stay and starting some of her for’ard
timbers. The tree was branchless, and was so low
in the water that, although Marana was standing
for’ard at the time, he did not perceive it until too
late. The vessel at once began to make water, and
so rapidly that Diaz feared we could not keep her
afloat more than an hour, so we at once headed for
Fagaloa Bay under all sail, Marana and I at the
pump, and Diaz at the tiller.

“ We must beach her,” cried Diaz, “ and I see a
bully little bay right ahead, with a steep rising
beach. That will do with the pump. Lower the
square-sail and jib, Marana, and you, Mr. Blake,
stand by to lower the peak of the mainsail. We
must take the ground as easily as we can. It is
flood tide, and we can get well up.”

Marana sprang for’ard, and let go the square-ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 195

sail and jib with a run. Then I lowered the main
peak and Diaz put his helm down, and with the
water pouring into her from her damaged bows
the Little Pocahontas came gently, but quickly, to
the wind, taking the ground nicely and quietly.

Whilst we were stowing our canvas and con-
gratulating ourselves on our luck in saving the
vessel, two canoes put off from a village quite near,
and a dozen splendidly built Samoans stepped on
deck, all greeting us with the salutation of
“ Talofa ” (“ My love to you ”). Marana, who
spoke Samoan very well, told them what had be-
fallen us, and they at once offered their assistance.

After a brief consultation, we decided to hoist
out half of the casks of oil, so as to lighten the
cutter, and then at the next flood haul her further in
shore. Presently, however, more canoes arrived,
and we had offers of further help, so Diaz resolved
to unload the entire cargo. Our native friends went
to work with a will, and as the casks were hoisted
out and lowered into the water, the canoes towed
them ashore; the ivory nuts were left till last, and
by dark the hold was empty, except for three feet of
water.

Leaving Marana in charge, Diaz and I went on
shore with the natives to their village, which was
named Samamea. The chief of the district, a stal-
wart young man, whose name was Pule-o-le-Vaitafe
(Lord of the Rivers), received us most hospitably,
and with that courtesy and dignity for which the
Samoans are famous. He presented us to his
mother, a stately old dame with white hair, and to
our surprise she addressed us in excellent English,196 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

telling us that she had been brought up and edu-
cated by an English medical missionary—the Rev.
Dr. Turner. Whilst she was speaking to us, a
number of young women came in, carrying baskets
of cooked fish, pork, and pigeons, with oranges
and bananas. These were spread out upon platters
on the matted floor, and we were invited to eat, the
old lady and her son joining us. We ate most
heartily, and after the meal was over the chief’s
aua luma (young women attendants) proceeded to
make us a bowl of kava.

Presently the chief said something to his mother,
who turned to me, and said:

“ My son wants to know if you have any rifles to
sell. He is most anxious to buy all he can get, as
in a few days there will be war between the people
of King Malietoa and the chiefs of Savaii.”
(Sav&ii is the largest island of the Samoan Group.)

“ No,” I replied, “we have none to sell, but a
friend of mine (I referred to Warrington) made me
a present of two Henry carbines, and as your son
has been so good to us, I shall have pleasure in
making him a present of one, with five hundred
cartridges. It fires twelve shots.”

The old lady’s eyes sparkled with pleasure, as
she translated what I had said to the chief, whose
delight was almost childish; and in order to still
further please him, Diaz, after we had had the cere-
monial drink of kava, went off to the Little Poca-
hontas and brought the carbine back with him.

The chief’s mother, whose name was Fetuao
(Morning Star) gave us most interesting informa-
tion on many subjects.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 197

“You will find many merchants at Apia who will
buy your oil,” she said, “ and many, too, who will
want to buy your little ship if you wish to sell her.”

“ We do not want to sell her. It is our intention
to begin trading along the coast of Samoa.”

“ Ah, that is good. You will make much money.
We have no trader here in Fagaloa, and we have
much copra (dried coco-nut) to sell, but we have to
send it overland to the trader at Lepa, many miles
from here, and he is a hard man and cheats us, for
he has false weights. If you and this gentleman ”
(indicating Diaz) “will settle here and open a
trading station, I and my son will give you a piece
of land, and my people will build you a house.”

The proposition struck our fancy, and when
Pule-o-le-Vaitafe took us to his storehouse and
showed us quite thirty tons of copra which he had
to sell, we decided to accept his offer.

Our decision was at once made public by the
town crier, who, standing in the village square,
sounded several blasts from a conch shell, and in a
few minutes the entire population assembled, while
the chief’s tulafale (orator), leaning on his staff of
office, spoke to them thus:

“ Know, all people of Pule-o-le-Vaitafe, that the
two alii (gentlemen) are his friends, and under his
strong protection. And he gives them land, and
a house shall be built for them, and they will open
a fale oloa (trading station), and no longer shall we
be cheated by the pig of a thief, Charlie Clarkson,
at Lepa (whose mother’s name be defiled). And to-
morrow the white gentleman and the black gentle-
man, who is the captain of the little ship, willi98 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

choose a place whereon their house shall be built.
And before the sun is in the top of the sky, the
centre posts shall be in the ground, and the women
shall now, at this moment, begin to make thatch for
the roof. This is the word of Pule-o-le-Vaitafe.”

There was a loud chorus of Malie! Malie!
(Good! Good!) from the assembled crowd, and
then, when the orator had added that there was to
be a dance in our honour that night, there was a
roar of applause.CHAPTER XXIV.

Within ten days the Little Pocahontas, having
been repaired and the cargo reshipped, we sailed to
Apia, sold our oil to the great German trading
firm of Goddefroy & Sons for 3,700 dollars, and
were back again in Fagaloa Bay, where our newly
built house was awaiting us.

Pule-o-le-Vaitafe—anxious to buy arms and
ammunition for the coming struggle—had ac-
companied us, and the presence of such a powerful
chief, who proclaimed himself as our friend, led to
our receiving the greatest hospitality,1 not only from
Se’u Manutafa, the chief of the district of Apia, but
from King Malietoa himself.

Apia was bustling with excitement over the
approaching war, and when we sailed in to the
reef-bound port, we were boarded by hundreds of
people—white men and Samoans—all anxious to
know if we had firearms to sell.

We anchored near a beautiful white painted brig,
lying close under Matautu Point, and were told that
she was Captain “Bully” Hayes’s famous Leonora,
and that “ Bully ” himself was living at Matautu—
a part of Apia—in a handsome bungalow, with his
wife and two little girls. The Leonora had just re-
turned from a very successful labour cruise among
the Gilbert Islands, obtaining two hundred war-
like natives to work on the German cotton planta-
tions at Mulifanua and Vailele (in Upolu), and we

(199)200 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
learnt that the brig would be leaving on another
cruise in about a month.

After disposing of our cargo of oil and ivory nuts,
we went to the American Consul—one Jonas Coe—
and registered our vessel as the Little Pocahontas,
handing him 2,700 dollars to be forwarded to
Captain Guest, and obtaining his receipt. Coe had
a numerous half-caste family, and his eldest
daughter, Emma, was one of the most beautiful
young women I had ever seen. Although she was then
only seventeen years of age, she had been two years
a widow. She had married a Captain Forsythe,
who, with all his ship’s company, was lost at sea a
few weeks after the marriage.

After lunching with the Consul and his family,
I went to Matafele, the German quarter of Apia, and
bought 700 dollars’ worth of trade goods, Pule-o-le-
Vaitafe pointing out to me the articles most in re-
quest amongst the people of his district. Our next
want was a boat of some sort for the cutter, and I
was fortunate enough to obtain a staunch oak-built
dinghy of twelve feet over all and with plenty of
beam for ^15. This last purchase pleased Diaz
greatly when we came alongside with our first load
of trade goods.

“ Captain Hayes has called on board to see you,”
he said. “ He wants to know if we are open to a
six months’ charter to act as tender to the Leonora "

I laughed. “ There is going to be a run on our
little craft, Pedro. The manager of the big German
firm offered me a three months’ charter at 500
dollars a month, and an American storekeeper,
named Parker, wants to hire us for a month to go toADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 201

Tonga and buy firearms for him. He offers /joo,
and says we ought to get there and be back in Apia
in three weeks. It is worth considering, so I told
him I would consult you.”

“It is certainly a good offer. But at the same
time Pule-o-le-Vaitafe says that now is the time for
us to buy copra at a low price from the natives, who
are even selling their lands to foreigners to be able
to buy firearms.”

“ Well, we’ll talk it over presently. What sort
of a man is i Bully ’ Hayes? ”

“ One of the finest looking men I have ever
seen. He must be over six feet in height, has
a chest like a bullock, and is full of jokes. • He looks
no more the pirate and kidnapper he is said to be
than I, with my black hide, look like the Angel
Gabriel.”

“ Did he stay long ? ”

“ About half an hour. And he says he will be
glad if you will dine at his house this evening at
seven. ‘ Tell your partner to come early and bring
a great thirst,’ he said, as he went over the side into
his boat.”

“ I’ll go, Pedro. I want to meet the famous
‘ Bully.’ ”

“ And he asked me if I would like to go on board
the Leonora and have a ‘ gam ’ with his second
mate, who is a white countryman of mine from the
Western Islands.”

“ Do, and then you can tell me all about the brig.
She looks to be a beautiful craft, aloft and below.”

Pedro nodded. “ Aye, and Hayes says she can
outsail anything in the whole Pacific. She was
built for the opium trade.”202 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“ I know. And I suppose you have heard the
yarn that ‘ Bully ’ ran off with her because, as he
alleged, the Chinese owners had not acted squarely
with him ? ”

“ Yes, and according to other talk she is about the
fifth or sixth vessel he has run away with. One was
a big, full-rigged ship, the Orestes.”

Whilst Pedro, Marana, and I were stowing our
trade goods in the hold, Pule (as I shall now call him
for the sake of brevity) came on board, accompanied
by several local chiefs—striking, stalwart, handsome
men. With Marana as our interpreter we told him
of what had been done, and also of the offer made by
Parker, and that we thought of entertaining it.

‘ ‘ Pule at once entered into an earnest conversation
with his fellow chiefs, and then addressed me
through Marana:

“ Lui ” (Louis) “ this is a good matter—this offer
of Paka (Parker) for you to go to Tonga to buy guns
for him. Now, it is in our minds that if you buy
guns for Paka, you can buy guns for us. There are
none to be bought here in Apia, except the German
needle guns, which are 100 dollars each, and the
German manager of the great trading store will not
sell a single one to us who belong to the party of
King Malietoa under 100 dollars, and then they do
something to the toga fiti (mechanism) of the rifle,
which renders it useless after the first two or three
shots. This is because the Germans and the rebel
chiefs of Savaii are working in unison to crush King
Malietoa, and make Samoaa German country.”

I said that I already knew that. What did he
(Pule) propose ?ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 203

“This,” he replied. “ If you go to Tonga to
buy arms and ammunition for Paka—who is a
friend to the party of King Malietoa and will sell
them to his people—why cannot you buy some for
us? The Germans are not only giving the rebel
chiefs needle guns and Snider rifles on aitalafu loa
(long credit), but one of their managers, who has
been a soldier officer and fought in the war between
Germany and France, is now at Sav&ii, showing the
rebels how to use and to clean the fana nila (needle
guns) when they become foul. And the sky is dark
and gloomy for us of King Malietoa, who are about
to fight for our lands and our homes.”

“ I cannot buy you any arms in Tonga, Pule-e-le-
Vaitafe, for I have no money to spare.”

“ But these chiefs and I have money—we have
sold much land for 1,000 dollars, and have 800
dollars left.”

Diaz and 1 held a brief consultation. It was none
of Parker’s business if we accepted other com-
missions—in fact we wished to buy some arms for
ourselves to sell. So addressing Pule, I said:

“ My partner and I agree, Pule. We will buy
you as many rifles as we can with whatever money
you entrust to us; but you must pay us five dollars
on each rifle. Is that fair? ”

“ It is fair and just.” And then Pule and his
friends opened their cartridge pouches and handed
us nearly 800 dollars.

Going on shore in the evening, I dined with the
redoubtable Captain “ Bully ” Hayes, and spent
a very pleasant evening with him. He was most
anxious to charter the Little Pocahontas for six204 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

months to act as tender to the Leonora in the
Marshall and Caroline Islands, and was greatly dis-
appointed when I told him that Diaz and I meant
to accept Mr. Parker’s offer, and then, after we re-
turned from Tonga, to start trading on our own
account in the Samoan Group.

“You ought to throw him over and come in with
me. Lovely islands, the Carolines and Marshalls—
nice people, prettiest girls in all the South Seas, and
plenty of chances of making money.”

‘( Perhaps when you return, Captain Hayes, we
may be open to a charter.”

He nodded. “ Just so. I’ll be back in Apia in
six months, when you can come and see me. Will
you breakfast with me on board to-morrow? ”

“With pleasure,” I replied, and after a little further
talk, I said good-night, returning on board our little
vessel to find her decks covered with tied-up squeal-
ing pigs and some scores of fowls, secured by cords
to all parts of the bulwarks, ringbolts, etc. These
had been sent off by Pule’s friends as an alofa
(present) to us, and Marana was in high glee.

At eight bells the following morning I went on
board the Leonora and breakfasted with Hayes and
his chief officer, Frank Hussey, and an excellent
breakfast it was, for Hayes’s Chinese steward, Ah
Sue, was an experienced chef. The main cabin
was very handsome, luxuriously fitted up and deco-
rated with a fine collection of ancient and modern
arms—the former for ornament, the latter for use.
Hayes was very fond of old weapons, and as he had
a very artistic eye, he knew how to show them off
effectively,ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 205

The Leonora was a flush-decked vessel with the
lines of a yacht, and was nearly 300 tons register.
She had been built for the opium trade, and soon
became noted as the fastest ship in the China Seas.
She had been armed with eight brass twenty-fours,
but now carried only four. Her crew was a large
one, and consisted of over forty Polynesian natives,
Manila men, Portuguese, and Chilenos. Of the
five officers three were Europeans, and these kept
the wild harum-scarum lot in a state of thorough
discipline—for it was needed on a vessel engaged
in the dangerous labour trade.

Bidding farewell to Hayes, I returned on board,
and shortly after we weighed anchor and stood out
of the harbour. Early in the afternoon we were back
again in Fagaloa Bay, where Pule-o-le-Vaitafe
landed, and after shipping two young Samoans as
extra hands, we left the same evening for Nuku-
alofa, the capital of Tonga (the Friendly Islands).

oCHAPTER XXV.

We made a quick run to the Friendly Islands, and
within twenty-four hours had done excellent busi-
ness. The merchant to whom Parker had given me
a letter had several thousands of rifles and muzzle-
loading Enfield carbines to sell, and I not only
bought all that Parker wanted and all that Pule-o-le-
Vaitafe and his fellow chiefs were able to pay for,
but was able to obtain for ourselves ten brand new
Snider carbines, with 5,000 rounds of ammunition,
and half a dozen Dean and Adams’s revolvers. So
anxious were we to get away with our valuable
cargo, that before dawn on the following day, there
being hardly a breath of wind, we towed the cutter
out to sea, and at nine in the morning, when the
south-east trade sprang up, we were bowling along
northward to Samoa.

Our arrival at Salimu caused the wildest excite-
ment and joy. Hostilities had broken out in our
absence (we were away just a week), and several
engagements had already taken place, the rebellious
chiefs having succeeded in landing three different
war parties in Upolu—one on the east and near
Fagaloa Bay, where they had many adherents, one
near Apia, and one—the most powerful of all—at
the west end, at a town named Mulifanua. Here
they constructed a line of fortifications and soon
began to plunder and burn the surrounding villages,
slaughtering and decapitating all the inhabitants

C206)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 207

who were unable to escape into the bush or into
King Malietoa’s lines, some ten miles distant.

After handing over the arms to Pule, Diaz and I
went on shore to inspect our new store and dwell-
ing-house, and were delighted at their appearance
and comfort. In the evening we were given a com-
plimentary supper, a war dance being performed in
the village square by two hundred of the Fagaloa
district natives, and after a ceremonial drink of kava
with the leading chiefs, we went on board at mid-
night, and at once got under way for Apia to
deliver Parker his arms.

At daylight we ran into the port, and were soon
boarded by Parker, who was highly pleased
at our success, and promptly paid us our charter
money.

“ I’m mighty glad to see you back so soon,” he
said, as he chewed at his cigar, “ for all the foreign
Consuls are meeting to-morrow to see if they can-
not prevent the importation of any more firearms
by Europeans, and they propose to inflict a fine of
100 dollars upon any British, American, German,
or French subject who sells as much as a single
cartridge to a native for warlike purposes. And I
hear that the United States cruiser Mohican, the
French gunboat Vaudrieul, the British corvette
Cameleon, and a German ship will all be here
in Apia Harbour within the next two weeks to
bring about an end to the war. Hope they will all
break down on the way, and give us poor and de-
serving traders a chance to sell our guns to these
misguided and bloodthirsty natives. Now what are
you two fellows going to do next ? Are you open to208 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

a three months’ charter to trade for me throughout
the Samoan ports? ”

“ No. We have our own trade goods, and mean
to see what we can do for ourselves.”

“ Well, that’s right. Now I advise you to cruise
around Sav&ii and trade for yams. There is going
to be a famine in Apia before a month is over, and
all kinds of food will go up enormously in price.
The yam, taro*, and banana plantations on Upolu
will be denuded in a week, and no planting will be
done whilst the war lasts. Now, in Savaii, you can
buy yams for one cent a pound, and sell them in
Apia at six cents. That will pay you better than
buying copra.”

We took his advice and left the same evening for
Asaua, a port of Savaii, which is the largest island
of the Samoan Group. Just before we sailed a
messenger from King Malietoa boarded us, bring-
ing a number of letters addressed to some of the
chiefs of Savaii who had not joined the rebels. In
these letters Malietoa besought these men to come to
his assistance. I took the letters willingly, little
thinking that they would bring us into serious
trouble or involve loss of life.

Early in the morning we were abreast of Matautu,
the principal town of Savaii and the centre of the
rebel chiefs’ power. There were five white traders
living there, and two of these came off in their whale-
boats to see if I could sell them a cask or two of salt
beef and a case of tinned salmon, for which they
would pay me either in cash or copra. I decided
upon the latter, and as we were in no great hurry to

e A highly nutritious tuber—arum esculenhim.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 209

get to Asaua that day we sailed into Matautu,
anchored, and shipped the copra. We remained in
port till the next morning, Diaz and I spending the
evening in visiting the several traders.

I must mention that, before leaving Apia, we had
discharged the two Samoans we had shipped at
Salimu and replaced them by two natives of
Rarotonga. This we did because they would have
been shot out of hand by the rebels had we taken
them to Savaii, where they would at once have been
recognised as adherents of King Malietoa. Marana,
being a Tahitian, was like the Rarotongans, a
neutral, and in no danger. At the same time, Parker
told us not to let the rebel chiefs see the arms we had
on board, as they would not hesitate to seize them.
So Diaz and I put them out of sight; but unfortu-
nately we left it until too late, for the two traders
who came on board noticed us doing it, and, without
intending us any harm, mentioned the fact to the
leading trader of the place. He was a German,
named Voss, and being, naturally, a supporter of
the rebel party, he secretly informed the resident
chief of Matautu. Then Marana most foolishly
told some women that we carried letters from King
Malietoa. This escaped him when he was on shore
and had been supplied with drink through the in-
strumentality of Voss; but Diaz and I knew nothing
of it until some days later.

We reached Asaua safely, bought a full cargo of
yams, and sailed for Apia; but two hours before
sunset, and when only a mile to the west of Matautu,
and less than a mile from the shore, we were be-
calmed.2io ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Suddenly one of our crew, who was aloft doing
something to the gaff topsail, called out that there
were two large taumual/iia* (native boats), crowded
with men, coming out of Matautu Harbour and
heading for the cutter.

This made us uneasy, for Taofi, the resident chief
of Matautu, was a desperate fellow, and had boasted
that he would shoot any papalagi (white man) he
came across if he suspected him of aiding King
Malietoa. Our native crew at once became alarmed,
and emphatically declared that we would all lose
our heads.

“ Then, if you want to save yours, will you
fight? ” asked Diaz quickly.

They replied yes—they would fight.

We had on board, in addition to the arms we had
bought in Tonga, a Henry repeating rifle (one of the
two that Warrington had given me), my double-
barrelled shot gun, and an old Tower musket be-
longing to one of the Rarotongans. This man pre-
sently asked Diaz to let him look through his
glasses at the taumualuas, which were approaching
us at a great speed, each being urged along by thirty
paddles—fifteen on each side.

The man soon satisfied us as to the intentions of
the boats. The occupants, he said, were all in war
costume, and between the paddles were crowded a
number of men holding their own and the paddlers’
rifles. In all there were quite eighty men in the two
boats.

* These boats are sharp at both ends, hence their name of
taumualua—double bows. They are built of breadfruit tree
planking, sewn together with coco-nut fibre cinnet.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 211

“We must let them see that we mean to make a
fight of it,” said Diaz, as he and I rapidly loaded
the ten Snider carbines, my Henry rifle, and the six
Dean and Adams’s revolvers. These latter we laid
upon the skylight, together with a box of Snider
cartridges.

“ Now, you men,” said Diaz to our crew, “ we
must fight. And although we are but five to a
hundred we can easily beat off these taumualuas,
for if you shoot straight they will never get within
a cable length of us.”

We sighted our crew’s and our own Sniders for
800 yards, and then waited for an anxious two
minutes.

“ Now, when I give the word, let us fire together
at the tamuahia on the port hand ” (the two were
abreast, but separated by about thirty yards). As
we raised our carbines to our shoulders, the occu-
pants burst into a loud pese taua (war song).

“ Fire! ” cried our black skipper.

The carbines rang out, and we were answered by
a roar of defiance as the heavy bullets hummed ovef
the taumualua, which with the other at once ceased
paddling. Then, slewing broadside on, they sent
us a crashing volley in return, but the bullets all
fell short of us by more than two hundred yards.

Then they swung round again and came on like
racehorses, the water flying from their sharp bows,
and the war song again pealing out across the quiet
water.

“ Now we are in for it,” cried Diaz. “ Ready
again now, and don’t miss this time.”

Again we fired, and our native crew gave a yell of2i2 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
delight; for all, or nearly all, of our shots told, and
the crowded boat rolled over and nearly capsized in
the confusion that ensued.

But in a few minutes she was steadied again,
and they both came on, the natives who were not
paddling standing up and firing at us one by one.
Presently a heavy round bullet smashed the glass
side of our little skylight. We were within range.

Then we all began firing independently, Diaz and
I at one, and the two Rarotongans and Marana at
the other untouched boat.

“ Try your Henry on that big fellow who is stand-
ing up steering,” said Pedro to me, “ he must be
a chief. I’ll let him have it at the same time.”

We fired together, and the big man pitched head-
foremost into the body of the taumualua.

“ Cease firing,” cried Diaz. “ I think that they
have had enough of it.”CHAPTER XXVI.

It certainly seemed to be so, for the taumualua on
which our crew had concentrated their fire was evi-
dently swamping, as we could see the natives who
manned her baling out water as hard as they could
to keep her afloat. In a few minutes they both
headed for shore, giving us a few parting shots as
they went off, and we imagined that we had seen the
last of them. But we were counting our chickens
too soon.

The calm still continued, and after a hurried
supper, the three natives and I put the boat over the
side and began to tow the cutter, so as to get as far
away from Matautu as possible. But we made so
little progress that, after an hour’s toil, Diaz told us
to come aboard again and hoist up the boat.

At eight o’clock, when the moon rose, the sea
was literally as smooth as glass, and there was not a
breath of air, but we drifted with a two-knot current
to the westward, off the land. As the moon rose
higher it revealed the houses of Matautu town and
the white-walled native church as clearly as if it were
broad daylight, and we could distinctly hear the
blowing of conch shells, and see a great gathering
of people in the open town square. They were
evidently holding a fono—public meeting—and we
clearly recognised the burly figure of Voss, the
German trader, who was dressed in a suit of white
pyjamas.

(213 )214 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

In about a quarter of an hour the gathering broke
up, or rather moved away in a body to what, at first,
we thought was a clumsily-built house. This they
proceeded, apparently, to pull down, beginning at
the roof by throwing off the thatching. In the course
of another ten minutes we saw displayed an
enormous double canoe with a connecting stage be-
tween the two hulls.

“ It is Taofi’s great war canoe, the Suesuega”
(the Searcher) cried Pauro, one of our Rarotongans.
“ He used it in the last war, and it carried a long
brass cannon on the papa ” (the connecting deck).
“ With it he destroyed the town of Tiavea six years
ago. He bought it from Captain Hayes.”

“ And look,” said Diaz, “ there comes the gun
itself,” and he pointed to a party of men who were
carrying the gun down to the beach. It was slung
to a pole, and we could see it plainly.

“ Poor Dios! ” said Diaz, “ the beggars mean to
tackle us again. See, they are laying down skids
to launch the canoe. Man the boat again, and let
us try to get as far away as we can. It will take
them no time to launch the canoe, but it will to
mount the gun.”

Once more we toiled at the oars, stripped to our
waists, and with the perspiration streaming down
our bodies. For an hour we stuck at it, pulling our
heavily-laden vessel along for nearly two miles.
Fortunately we had a two-knot current in our favour,
and good Pedro kept pitching yams overboard as
fast as he could to lighten the cutter.

“ Come alongside now, Mr. Blake,” he cried,
“ and have a bit of a spell and something to drink.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 215

Lucky it is that most of these yams are nearly over
fifty pounds. I’ve chucked more than a hun-
dred overboard, and we are two tons or more
lighter.”

We gave our plucky natives a stone bottle of
Schiedam “ to anoint them internally,” as Pedro
said, while he and I drank a bottle of beer each.
After this we all turned to at the yams, and threw
three tons more over the side. Then we had
another spell and a smoke before starting to tow
again.

“ Five tons of yams at six cents a pound means a
loss of a hundred and thirty-four dollars to us,”
grumbled Pedro. “ Well, it can’t be helped. Those
fellows on shore are bent on revenge now, not
plunder. They know quite well that one shot from
that gun, if it hit us below the water-line, would
send us to the bottom. We have to thank your
esteemed friend Bully Hayes for this—may he have
a thousand years in the hottest corner of purga-
tory.”

Lightened by five tons, we succeeded in putting
another couple of miles between us and the shore be-
fore again coming on board to refresh. The sea
was still as calm as a lake, and the sky unflecked by
a single cloud. We looked to our arms, and put
water and provisions into the boat in case we had to
abandon the cutter.

Daylight came at last, and when the great red-
doomed sun burst up from the sky rim we knew
from its appearance that we were in for another calm
day, and, to our disgust, we drifted into a cross-
current, which set us back towards Matautu.216 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Meanwhile the great war canoe was coming out
of the harbour, attended by several taumualuas and
small fishing canoes; the former were towing her,
and she was making such good progress that
another hour would bring us within easy range of
the long gun—a brass twenty-four. She was
crowded with natives, and her enormous three-
cornered mat sail was triced up ready for hoisting
should a breeze spring up.

Half an hour passed, and then came a surprise
for us. The taumualuas ceased towing their bulky
“ man-of-war,” and a small canoe, containing two
men only, shot out and stood toward us. When
half-way, the man who was seated in the bow put his
paddle inboard, and held up a white flag, whilst the
man aft continued paddling alone.

" Hallo,” cried Pedro, “ here’s a turn up—a flag
of truce I I wonder what their game is now.”

The canoe came to within five hundred yards of us,
then stopped, and both men stood up, held up their
hands, and shouted out something to us that we
were unable to understand.

Seeing that they were afraid of coming closer, I
got into the cutter’s boat with Marana and Pauro,
and pulled up to the canoe. Marana spoke to them
in Samoan.

“ What would you? ” he asked.

“We would talk with the white man.”

“ Then speak, but speak quickly.”

The messenger—a stalwart old man with a
haughty bearing—bent his head, but his eyes
flashed with anger as he spoke.

” These are the words of Taofi, chief of Matautu,ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 217
and of Le Alatele. The white man, and the black
captain and the crew, must leave the little ship
quickly in the boat, and may go to Upolu. But
they must take none of the guns nor money with
them.”

Marana translated this to me into English.
“ And what then? ” I asked.

• “ Then shall Taofi take the little ship and all that
is in her as totogi (payment) for the lives of the men
you killed yesterday.”

“ Anything more, Marana? ”

“ No, he has no more to say.”

“ Then ask him what will come to us if we do not
obey.”

Marana put the question to the old man very
suavely. He answered in quick, incisive tones.

“ This will befall you if you are so foolish as to
reject Taofi’s offer of mercy. With the long gun
he will destroy and sink your ship, and you shall
all perish.”

“ What answer shall I give him ? ” said Marana,
to me, thickly, gulping down his rage.

“ Tell him I will go back and speak with the
captain, and that when Taofi sees our colours hauled
down and a white flag run up to the peak, he can
come alongside and take possession. I want
this old beggar to think that we are giving in.
Savee? ”

Marana nodded, then interpreted my speech to
the messenger, who gave an evil smile, and then
spoke again.

“ What is it now, Marana? ”

“ He says that before we leave the cutter we must218 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

come alongside the war canoe, and let Taofi himself
see that we are taking away neither arms nor money.
The boat must be sui (searched). Then we may go
in peace.”

I could scarcely refrain from smiling.

“ All right. Tell him we agree—the old
scoundrel! ”

Without further talk, canoe and boat parted, and,
as we headed for the cutter, Marana remarked with
a grim smile:

“ Taofi must think we are fools to give up the
cutter, and then come alongside the war canoe to be
shot down like pigs.”

The language that Pedro Diaz used when 1
Jnade my report was enough to start the cutter’s
timbers.

“ Veer the boat astern and then make her fast,
short-to, Pauro,” he said, “ and you, Marana and
Harry, put out a sweep and get our head round.
We don’t want to lie broadside on.”

This was done, and then all five of us went for’ard
with our arms and awaited developments.

Presently Diaz, who had been scanning the war
canoe and the attendant flotilla with his glasses for
a minute, and had turned to speak to me, suddenly
stopped, and fixed his gaze intently at a lofty head-
land to the westward.

“ What is it, Pedro? ”

“ Look just over that high point there. Can you
see anything ? ”

“ Yes, a narrow streak of pale brown cloud.”

“ It’s not cloud. It is smoke—the smoke of a
steamer, I believe, coming along the land from the
westward.” •ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 219

“ Perhaps it is a bush fire.”

“No,” interjected Marana, excitedly, “it is a
steamer’s smoke, for it lies flat in the sky. If
it came from a bush fire it would not be like
that.”

“ We shall soon know,” said Diaz, “ and if it is
a steamer coming this way, she cannot be more than
six or eight miles away, round the point. Hallo,
Mister Taofi is getting impatient and wants to let
us know it. He is under way again. Let him come
on a bit closer.”

He waited for ten minutes, then from the gun plat-
form of the war canoe a single musket shot was
fired—as a hint for us to hurry up.

“ Let drive now,” cried Pedro. “ They are
just about within range of your Henry rifle, Mr.
Blake.”

Our volley was answered by a sonorous roar from
the natives, and the big canoe bustled with excite-
ment. Seizing Pedro’s glasses, I watched them
training the gun.

“ Look out! ” I cried.

“All right,” said Pedro calmly. “Shut that
big mouth of yours, Pauro, or the ball may drop
into it.”

A thick puff of white smoke, a flash, a bang, and
a twenty-four pound shot passed pretty close to us
on the port side, but so high that it struck the water
more than a quarter of a mile astern. Our friends
however, who considered it a remarkably fine shot,
uttered a tremendous \Aue! (hurrah) of triumph, and
whilst the gunners were preparing to reload again,
a tremendous, but ineffective, musketry fire was220 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

opened upon us. Now and again, however, we
could detect the peculiar ping of a needle-gun bullet
as it passed overhead, and some struck the vessel.
We afterwards heard that although Voss had
supplied Taofi with twenty of these weapons, the
natives had used them so badly that, when they
attacked us, only five were in good order. Most
of the war party were armed with old Tower
muskets.

To make our presence as unobtrusive as possible,
we had lowered and stowed all our canvas, and as
the cutter had fallen away a bit we again put her
head on to the enemy with the sweeps, ready for the
second shot. But they were such a long time in re-
loading and training that they suffered for it, for
our Sniders, as well as my Henry, were beginning
to take effect, and we saw several men drop on the
gun staging.

The second shot was a little better aimed than the
first, for it struck the water within a few feet of our
waist, and sent a shower of spray over our decks.
But the gun had been overcharged, and the recoil
was so great that we saw the big canoe make a stern
board, and roll about like a wallowing whale. As a
crowd of men gathered about the gun to sponge and
reload, we all took careful aim together, and a
savage joy filled our hearts when we saw two of them
fall, while a third, after clinging to one of the shift-
ing mast stays and swaying to and fro, dropped
overboard like a stone. Almost at the same moment,
poor Harry, who had just opened the breach of his
carbine to slip in a cartridge, fell dead at my feet
with a needle-gun bullet through the head.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 221

A torrent of curses in Portuguese burst from Pedro,
as he bade Marana cease firing and devote himself
to reloading the spare carbines for him, Pauro, and
myself.

“We must not let them fire another shot-” he

began, when Pauro uttered a loud shout,

“ Look, man-of-war steamer come! ”

Rounding the point, a mile distant, and tearing
along under a full head of steam was a black-
painted, brig-rigged steamer, whose heavy spars
and yellow funnel showed her to be a ship of war.
She was heading directly for us, and we, owing to
our position, saw her before she was noticed by our
assailants.

Leaving Pauro and me to keep up our fire on the
war canoe, Diaz ran aft, hauled down and unbent
our colours, and then ran them half-way up again
upside down.

Steaming at twelve knots, the stranger, which was
flying the tricolour of France, was soon alongside,
with her propeller going astern, and one of several
officers on the bridge hailed us in English, and
asked what was the matter.

“ This is a trading vessel, sir,” I shouted back,
“ and we are being attacked by a party of rebel
Samoans. We beat them off last night, but they
returned again this morning. I beg you to save us
from being captured or sunk.”

The officer waved his hand in reply, and the
steamer, going ahead a little, stopped—and then,
bang! bang! bang! in quick succession—three shots
from her light guns smashed into the big canoe.
The first struck the great canoe amidships, and we

p222 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

heard the crash of her timbers and saw the splinters
fly; the second hit the brass gun and sent it and its
carriage flying overboard together with half a dozen
natives, and the last—a shell—made a complete
wreck of her, for it burst inside the hull and literally
tore it to pieces.

In a few minutes the water was dotted with heads
of natives swimming for their lives to the shore,
and as the taumualuas and small canoes, loaded to
the water’s edge with our assailants, were making
good their escape, I thought the affair was over;
when a crashing volley from ninety Chassepot rifles
smote the largest and most overcrowded of the
laumualuas with such deadly effect that, out of the
forty or fifty people she carried, we counted eleven
only who were able to swim away from their riddled
craft.

A sudden silence fell upon the scene, and then
came the roar of escaping steam from the cruiser,
as she lowered a boat. It quickly came alongside,
and an officer stepped on deck. He was the second
lieutenant of the Vaudrieul.

“ Are you the captain of this vessel? ” he asked
me in English.

“ No, sir,” I replied, “ this is the captain,” and
I indicated Diaz, “ I am part owner.”

“ Then will you please come on board with me,”
he said to me, “ my captain would like to see you.
He wishes me to say that he is willing to take your
vessel in tow as far as Apia, if you wish it.”

We thanked him most warmly, and in a few
minutes a tow line was passed to us and made fast,
and leaving Diaz with Marana and Pauro in charge,ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 223

I went on board the gunboat, where I was most
hospitably received by Captain de Kerambosquier
—a tall, very dark-complexioned man with immense
jet black side whiskers and a clean-shaven chin.
Noticing that I was both exhausted and greatly ex-
cited, he told me to rest myself a little, and his
steward brought me a full tumbler of claret, which I
drank most eagerly, for I was parched with
thirst.

Then, in a few words as possible, I told him what
had occurred previous to his coming to our rescue,
and that one of our men had been killed by a needle-
gun bullet. At the word “ needle-gun,” his black
brows contracted, and he asked me sharply how
such weapons came to be in the hands of the natives.

I told him that over five hundred had been
distributed among the rebels by the German
agents.

“ I am told, sir,” I added, “ that these are of the
first pattern, but, owing to some defect, they were
condemned by the German military authorities, and
a number of them have been bought by the trading
firms of Goddeffroy & Son.”

He nodded, and then asked me if there were any
men-of-war in Apia when we left there.

“ No, sir; but I was told that in addition to your
ship, the American Mohican and the English
Cameleon were expected very shortly.” Then I
gave him all the information I could about the war,
told him that King Malietoa was holding his own,
but no more. He listened with great interest, and
asked me if there were any German merchant vessels
in Apia.224 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

11 There were five large vessels there when we left
—two ships, two barques, and a large inter-island
trading brig, the Adolph. She carries six guns.
The ships and barques were loading copra for Ham-
burg, and others are expected.”

After another tumbler or two of claret, he asked
me if I should like to wash, and to join him on deck.
One of the junior officers kindly lent me a clean
shirt, collar, tie, and jacket, and when I went on
deck I found the steamer making good progress over
the calm sea, with the Little Pocahontas in tow.

Captain de Kerambosquier seemed to take an un-
usual interest in our vessel and our future move-
ments, and asked me if she was fast.

“ Remarkably fast, sir, especially on a wind.”

“ When will you have your cargo discharged ? ”

“ Within twenty-four hours after we reach
Apia.”

“ And then ? ” he asked quickly.

“ Then we shall make another trip for yams—
but not to Savffii.”

He thought for a few minutes, pulling his long
whiskers the while, and then said:

“ After you have sold your cargo, and before you
decide upon your next movement, I should like to
see you on business at the house of M. St. Leon, the
French Consul. But I must beg of you to speak of
this to no one, not even to your negro captain—at
least for the present. That which I wish to say to
you must be private. It is on a matter of business
which I think you will agree to.”

“ I shall mention it to no one, sir. And, if you
wish, I can meet you this evening.”ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 225

“ Good, that is most satisfactory. We shall be
in Apia Harbour at sunset. Will you meet me at
M. St. Leon’s house at nine o’clock? ”

“ Gladly,” I said.CHAPTER XXVII.

A little after ten o’clock that evening I stepped
over the side of the Little Pocahontas, and awakened
my black comrade, who was sleeping on deck.

“ Rouse up, Pedro, and come below. Your coat
is wet through with dew. And I have news for
you.”

We turned up the wick of the cabin lamp and sat
down at the little table.

“ Pedro, when can we be ready for sea—if we rush
things?”

“ At nine in the morning. Half the yams are
already on shore, and Parker is sending his boats
for the rest at daylight. But we have to see poor
Harry buried at ten o’clock. He was taken on shore
by some of his countrymen, and is to be buried in-
side the grounds of the Rarotongan church at Mata-
fele by the native pastor. I said that you and I
would come.”

“ Of course. Now, can we be ready for a long
trip, with our water and stores aboard by noon to-
morrow ? ’ ’

“ Easy.”

“ Well, now for my news. The French captain
has offered to pay us 800 dollars to take two letters
to Tahiti—one to Admiral Clouet, and the other to
the Governor, and I have agreed. But it is a secret
matter.”

Pedro nodded. “ I can guess why. Parker told
me that the last vessel from Sydney brought news

(226)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 227

that there was a fresh trouble of some sort brewing
between France and Germany, and that England
was siding with France; also it was rumoured in
Sydney that the French Pacific Fleet would soon
be capturing all the German vessels in the South
Seas?’

“Yes, I know—it is the one topic of talk in Apia,
and the skippers of the German ships here are shak-
ing in their boots. But I was sure that Captain de
Kerambosquier knows no more than anyone else.
Still, he is most anxious to communicate with the
Admiral. He is under orders to remain at Samoa,
I imagine, to assist the Mohican and the Cameleon
when they arrive. Anyway I know he has his eye
on these four fat German ships here.’’

Early in the morning I went on shore, bought
provisions, and gave it out that we were leaving on
another trip to the Friendly Islands, and would be
away a month. At ten o’clock I attended the funeral
of our shipmate, then strolled leisurely along the
single street of Apia and sauntered into the house of
the French Consul. He asked me to come inside
the sitting-room, and then closed the door.

“ Here are the two letters, Mr. Blake, and here are
400 dollars—the remaining 400 dollars are to be
paid to you, as you know, at Tahiti. You sail
soon ? ”

“ About noon—there is a good breeze now which
promises to last. We are supposed to be bound to
the Friendly Islands.”

I understand. Good-bye; a quick passage and
a safe return.”

With a rattling southerly breeze, we slipped out228 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

of the reef-bound harbour, dipping our colours to
the Vaudrieul as we passed close under her stern,
and then once outside the passage, we hauled to the
wind. It was the season of the year when the south-
east trade wind which prevails for eight months out
of the twelve fails, being succeeded by calms, heavy
rains, and rough westerly weather generally, and
we were in great hopes of making a quick run to
Tahiti, which lies 1,300 east by south from Samoa.

We were not disappointed, for after twenty-four
hours the wind hauled gradually round to the west-
ward, and blew so strongly for three days that we
had to run before it under close reefed mainsail and
squaresail. At nights we had violent rain squalls,
and the little vessel went along at a tremendous
pace, but rolling a great deal more than we liked,
as we had a beam sea and were in ballast trim. How-
ever, we made light of our wet deck, the hot and
steamy cabin, and other discomforts, for the westerly
carried us on until we sighted the lofty peak of
Orohena in Tahiti, seven thousand feet above the
sea. Five hours later, with Marana as pilot, we ran
into Papeite Harbour, and anchored between the
guardship and Admiral Clouet’s flagship. As soon
as we anchored, a number of boats put off, carrying
French, English, and American residents, but none
of these could board us until the port doctor had
paid his visit. That important official having
arrived, I took him below, and told him that I had
brought despatches for Admiral Clouet, which I
wanted to be delivered immediately, but that I
thought it advisable that he (the doctor) should take
them instead of myself, as my doing so would arouseADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 229
the curiosity of the white residents and subject me
to much annoyance. He at once consented, took
the letters, and went on shore, for the Admiral was
staying at the Governor’s house.

The moment the doctor left, the white men came
on board and pestered us with questions, some
reasonable and businesslike, others impertinent, for
our visitors were of two classes—respectable traders
and loafing beach-combers. Where were we from ?
Samoa, in ballast. What did we come to Tahiti for,
to seek a cargo? Yes, partly, and maybe I might
take out a trading licence for the Paumotu Group
(this was true). Did I want to buy any trade goods ?
No, I thought not. However, in a few minutes, the
traders and loafers all went off and left us in peace,
finding that there was no business to be done, and
no drink to be had.

Diaz and I went on shore with the ship’s papers
to the American Consul, who was very polite, and
Diaz returning on board, I stayed to lunch, and
then had a stroll through the picturesque little town.
Coming to a large bungalow standing in a glorious
tropical garden, I saw a sentry in the uniform of the
Colonial Infantry standing inside the gate, and on
the verandah of the house were several men seated
at little tables, smoking and talking. Some were in
plain clothes, and others in naval and military uni-
forms. In reply to my queries the sentry told me
that it was the Governor’s House, and that
“ Monsieur le Gouverneur ” was then on the
verandah with the Admiral.

The sentry allowed me to pass in, and I made my-
self known to the Admiral, who was most polite, as230 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

were his friends. He thanked me for my convey-
ance of the letters (as did the Governor), and, as I
was leaving, asked me to call on board in the fore-
noon of the following day.

This I did, and was paid the second 400 dollars,
which I promptly invested in American twist
tobacco for trading purposes. In Samoa tobacco
was both scarce and dear, but at Papeite I bought
half a ton in tierces of 200 pounds for ^75, which
made Pedro jubilant, for tobacco is the most profit-
able of all trade goods.

We were intending a few days later to return to
Samoa, when the American Consul told us that he
knew of something by which we could make several
thousand dollars very easily—if we were willing to
give him a third share in the venture. Being
assured that he was a man of sterling reputation, I
at once gave the required promise.

“ Well, two days before you arrived, the whale-
ship Europa, of New Bedford, called off here to land
letters, and the captain told me that about three
weeks ago when running past Christmas Island—
fourteen hundred miles to the north of Tahiti—he
saw a big lump of a barque high and dry on the
reef on the west side. He stood in as close as he
could, but could not send a boat on shore, as the
surf was too heavy, and it was blowing very
strongly. He told me that as he could see no sign
of life on the island (which is usually uninhabited)
he surmised that the crew had taken to the boats.
Now I have reason to believe that that ship is a
Danish vessel which sailed from San Francisco with
a valuable general cargo for Honolulu, Tahiti, andADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 231

Samoa, and was due here a month ago. Now, as
you have a handy little vessel, you can sail her into
the lagoon over the reef, and I have no doubt you
will find that barque to be a little bonanza to us.”

Then he added that he had told no one else of the
matter, but had been quietly endeavouring to get
hold of a man with a suitable vessel, on whom he
could rely, to go to Christmas Island, to get all that
was of value out of the barque’s cargo and take it to
Honolulu and sell it.

“ There are plenty of suitable vessels here,” he
said, “ but I do not really know any single skipper
whom I could trust not to rob me. Now, if you fall
in, we can draw up an agreement right away.”

Before sunset we were on our way to Christmas
Island, one of the largest atolls on the North Pacific,
but the scene of many a shipwreck; for it is the
centre of numerous oceanic currents, lies very low,
and, except for a few clumps of coco and pandanus
palms, is almost treeless. Pedro was well acquainted
with the place, and said that there was a narrow
passage into the lagoon, which was known to only
a few people.

Fourteen days out from Papeite we sighted the
island, and the barque as well. She was high up on
the reef, and standing on an almost even keel.
Entering the passage, we anchored inside the lagoon
within a quarter of a mile of the stranded barque,
and then Pedro and I went on shore and crossed
the coral reef, accompanied by eight Tahitian
natives whom we had brought with us as labourers.
A few minutes’ walk brought us to the vessel, and
we saw that although she was almost upright she232 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

was hopelessly bilged, the coral rocks having
pierced her iron plates as if they were brown paper.
Clambering on board we entered the cabin, and
found that it had been very little disturbed.
Apparently, the ship had been abandoned in a very
leisurely manner, for the captain and officers had
taken nearly all their private effects. Going for’ard,
we found the deck-houses, galley, and foc’sle clean
and sweet-smelling, and although the decks were
littered up with the running gear, etc., it was hard
to imagine that one was standing on an abandoned
ship.

Opening the batches, we examined the hold,
which bore out the Consul’s statements about the
valuable general cargo. It consisted of hardware,
provisions, and framed houses of Californian
timber, and we at once rigged tackles and set the
Tahitians to work, lowering the cases down to the
coral reef, whence they were carried to the cutter’s
boat. In two days the Little Pocahontas had a full
cargo of tinned salmon, flour, and casks of beef and
pork, and I had decided to sail for Tahiti on the fol-
lowing morning, leaving Diaz and the Tahitians’
wrecking party behind, when we had another stroke
of luck.

At sunset we were astonished to see a boat, with a
number of people, coming into the atoll. When it
came alongside, we found it carried the captain, two
mates, and twelve men from a Puget Sound lumber
vessel, the Sioux Chief, which they had abandoned,
water-logged, two days previously, about fifty miles
from Christmas Island. We made them welcome
and gave them a hearty meal, and in the course ofADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 233
the evening I arranged to give the captain and
some of his men passages to Tahiti. The chief mate
I engaged to take my place to navigate the Little
Pocahontas to Tahiti and back again to Christmas
Island, while the second mate and four A. B.’s were
to remain on the atoll with me and the Tahitians at
a monthly wage, and go on unloading the barque in
readiness for the return of the cutter for a second
cargo.

The cutter sailed at daylight, and after giving her
a farewell cheer, we had an early breakfast, and then
turned to our work. Stofel, the second mate of the
timber ship, was a steady, energetic, and pleasant-
mannered young German, and during the five
months we remained on the island he proved an
excellent comrade.

The first thing we did was to convey all our be-
longings on board the barque, Stofel and I taking
the roomy cabin, while the white seamen and
Tahitians had the deck house for living and sleep-
ing quarters, and as there were plenty of provisions
and water on board, and an incredible number of
splendid fish in the lagoon, we lived like fighting
cocks.

In less than three days we had got two of the
frame houses out of the hold, carried the sections
and the corrugated iron roofs down to the landing-
place, and erected them for store houses for the
cargo. These houses we soon filled with all sorts of
goods, cases of prints, calicoes, cutlery, and tinned
provisions, and then we knocked off work for a couple
of days, to enjoy ourselves by fishing, catching
turtle, collecting birds’ eggs, and exploring the234 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

coast line. Much of the island is a sandy desert, but
the sand flats in the atoll were the resort of countless
thousands of golden plover, and in one day Stofel
and I shot over a hundred brace.

Twenty-two days passed almost ere we knew it,
so busy were we, and then the cutter returned, bring-
ing me a letter from the Consul (now our temporary
partner). He was delighted at our securing such a
rich prize, and informed me that he had sold the first
cargo for 3,000 dollars cash, and that Diaz had
paid in our 2,000 dollars to the local agent of the
Banque de France. The second load was soon under
the schooner’s hatches, and again she sailed, leaving
behind her, for our use' on arid Christmas Island,
an enormous quantity of fruit and vegetables—
oranges, pineapples, limes, melons, etc., and some
tons of yams, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes, to-
gether with a number of pigs, goats, and fowls.

One evening, one of the Tahitians and I set out
to cross to the eastern or weather side of the island.
We had bright moonlight, with a cool breeze to fan
our cheeks as we tramped along, but after proceeding
about seven miles, a sudden rain squall loomed up
before us, and we hastened our steps to get under the
shelter of a small, thick cluster of pandanus palms
(the screw pine of Oceania). When the rain had
ceased and we were about to start again, we noticed
that in one spot the long-fallen and spinnated leaves
were raised into a mound. We pulled them aside,
and then, to our horror, beheld the bodies of two
men, dressed in European clothing. They had
evidently been dead for many years, but the bodies,
instead of decaying, had simply dried up likeADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 235

mummies. The clothing was that of seamen in the
merchant service, and one of the men, a tall man
with a long white beard, had in his vest pocket a
silver watch attached to a heavy gold Albert chain,
and on the dried up fingers were two rings. The
other body was that of a seaman—quite a youth—
and I came to the conclusion that these poor unfortu-
nates had perished of thirst. We waited till day-
light, and then removing the watch and chain and
the rings, and also a few papers from the body of
the elder man, we dug a grave with our hands in
the deep sand and buried the remains. On ex-
amining the watch, I found a name inscribed inside
the case, “ Wm. Hollis. From his affectionate
daughter Mary, Oct. 9, 1857.”

Many years afterwards, by persistent inquiries, I
learnt that a Liverpool barque named the Onyx had
been wrecked on the east side of Christmas Island
in the year 1865, and that the captain and two of the
men set out to cross to the western side of the island,
where it was thought that water was obtainable.
They never returned, and the rest of the ship’s com-
pany, after enduring terrible sufferings, were
rescued by a passing whaleship. I sent the watch
and rings, together with a letter, to the ill-fated
captain’s daughter, whom I ascertained was living
in Birmingham.

Soon after we had begun work on the wreck,
Stofel and I made a curious discovery. One Sunday
we were examining the main lagoon to see if there
was any pearl-shell in it (and there was) when we
came to a minor lagoon, connected with the main
one by a very narrow channel through the reef, not236 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

more than a yard in width. The water was shallow
—about six feet—and very hot, and the bottom of
white sand was covered with dead and dying fish,
while the beach all round it was piled up with ridges
of dead fish, as dry as a bone, almost transparent,
and so brittle that they could be broken in pieces
like a thin biscuit. Yet they were perfectly sweet
and good to eat—as our Tahitians showed us—and
when put in soak in fresh water they recovered their
former dimensions.

When the Little Pocahontas next returned she
was accompanied by a handsome, rakish-looking
fore-and-aft schooner of 200 tons. Her name was
the Mamana. (Samoan for “ to desire,” and she
certainly was a craft one would desire to possess.)
She carried a white crew, and had been chartered
by our friend the Consul to assist the Little
Pocahontas, and was commanded and owned by an
Englishman, a Captain Waller. He had had her
built in New Zealand for the South Sea trade, and
her first voyage was to Tahiti, where the Consul was
lucky enough to engage her on a three months’
charter.

The two crews and our Tahitians now went to
work again most energetically, and Waller and his
men, in addition to a load of the barque’s cargo,
took all her valuable ground tackle, together with
two suits of sails—one quite new and unused. In
a fortnight both vessels were away again, leaving
Stofel and me, with the Tahitians, for another eight
weeks to complete our arduous, but agreeable work,
by ourselves.

These were happy days to us on that lonely atoll,ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 237

and our nights were nights of peaceful and well-
earned rest, lulled to slumber by the murmur of the
restless surf beating upon the reef, and the gentle
swish, swish of the leaves of the coco-palms over-
head, as they swayed in the sea breeze. (We had
tired of living on board the barque, and had put up
a big tent—the barque’s fore-course—in a grove of
coco-palms near the landing place.) Every morning
we were awakened by the;clamour of countless thou-
sands of sea birds—terns and boobies—as they left
their1 ‘rookeries” for their day’s fishing on the lagoon
dr open sea, and then after a delightful bathe in the
surf (the water in the lagoon was too warm) we had
a great breakfast and went off to work.

Two months passed; and when we had gutted the
barque of the last of her cargo, stripped her of her
standing gear, cabin fittings, etc., and had carried
everything down to the storehouse, the cutter
arrived. Two days later she was followed by the
Mamana, and I was delighted to see my good com-
rade Diaz again, and he, Waller, Stofel, and I spent
the evening together on board the schooner and had
a general jollification.

The next ten days completed our task, and to
celebrate the event we killed the fatted calf—i.e., an
enormous Tahitian hog—and had a feast on shore,
in which all hands participated. Then, shortly
after noon, we returned on board our respective
vessels, weighed anchor, and said farewell to Christ-
mas Island, its clamorous sea-birds, and encircling
band of ever-churning surf.

Light winds and calms followed, and three weeks
elapsed before we entered Papeite Harbour. Our

9238 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

friend Harris, the Consul, was the first to board us,
almost dragging us ashore to his bungalow.

“ I told you,” he said, as we sat down to his
hospitable table, “ that that barque would prove a
little bonanza to us. So she will. I reckon we shall
divide something like 45,000 dollars between us,
when we come to square up. There is no other
claim but ours. The Percy Edward, the old hooker
that brings the two-monthly mail here from San
Francisco, brought news, last trip, that the captain
and crew in three boats had been picked up at sea
by the brig Shelehoff and landed at Honolulu. The
captain reported the barque, when he left her, had
her bottom knocked out and was breaking up fast.
My boys, we’ve had a narrow escape. There are
heaps of people in Honolulu who would have sent
a wrecking party to Christmas Island if they had
thought that there were any pickings worth having.
Oh, by-the-way, Mr. Blake, I have a letter for you.
It came by the Percy Edward, but I have left it at
the Consulate. It is from your brother Vern, and
was sent under cover to the British Consul, who
passed it on to me to deliver to you.”

I cannot tell how delighted I was when I read that
letter from Vern. It gave me a long account of his
adventures since we had parted, and was in answer
to one I had written to him from Samoa soon after
Diaz and I had arrived there. What filled me more
than anything else with joy was this—that we
should soon meet.

” 1 am writing this in triplicate,” he wrote, “ one
to the care of our mother in Sydney, one to Samoa,
and this one to Tahiti. One of the three ought toADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 239

nail you somewhere. I have made a little money,
and am coming to join you wherever you are. I
leave here in the old side-wheeler Moses Taylor for
Honolulu on the 10th of next month, and from there
go on to Sydney in a steamer called the Nebraska,
the first of the new line of boats that are to carry
passengers ’between California and the Colonies.
From Sydney I’ll take the first vessel bound to
Samoa, and go straight to your Samoan friend with
the hyphenated name, Mr. Lord-of-the-River, and
establish my identity (if you are not there). And
if he will let me, I’ll hang it out there at Fagaloa
with him until you do turn up. . . . Alf is well,
and growing fat and respectable.”

Pedro Diaz and I, being now “ gentlemen of
means and leisure,” took up our quarters at an
hotel, and proceeded to enjoy ourselves by making
tours all over Tahiti—one of the loveliest places in
the South Seas, and not then, as it is now, over-run
by globe-trotters, tourists, and blatant commercial
travellers from Yankee-land. Captain Waller also
took a room at the same hotel, which was kept by a
young, good-looking, and well-to-do widow with
whom Waller had been previously acquainted in
New Zealand. Her husband, who was the master
of a vessel trading between Auckland and Tahiti,
had been washed overboard and drowned. He had
established a combined store and hotel at Papeite,
and, after his death, his widow came to Tahiti and
carried on the business as a livelihood. She was
most successful, and being a woman of refinement,
with a good reputation, her hotel received the
patronage of the leading French officials and the240 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

European planters and leading storekeepers—no
beach-combers dared go there to buy a drink. Then,
having a keen eye for business, she invested money
in plantation properties, bought cattle for breeding,
and built a charming country house on the verdured
slope of Mount Orohena, which she sometimes let
to visitors, and in a few years she became the
wealthiest woman in Tahiti.

It did not take Diaz and me long to discover, that
Waller stood well in the lady’s eyes, for they were
frequently together, and early one morning, a jovial
French captain of infantry, who was having coffee
with me on the verandah, pointed out the pair to me.
They were leaning over the calf-pen looking at the
calves.

“ Perfidious villain,” said Captain Lemoine with
a laugh, “ if he steals our little widow, I shall call
him out.”

Not long after this, we all, including the widow
and two other ladies—the wives of local merchants
—went to spend a few days at the country house,
and one night, when Pedro and I were lying in ham-
mocks, slung underneath the orange trees that sur-
rounded the house, we heard voices near us—those
of Waller and the widow. They were returning
from a walk.

“ No, Jim,” said the widow, “ it is no use your
talking. I like you very much, but I have lost one
husband by the sea, and I won’t marry a sailor
again—not unless he gives up the sea altogether.”

The sequel soon came, for when we returned to
Papeite, the Consul told us that Waller was en-
gaged to be married to the widow, was going to sellADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 241

the Mamana, and intended to settle down as a cotton
planter.

Now Diaz and I had latterly been discussing our
future. Of course we intended to return to Samoa—
if only for me to meet Vern—but now that we had
the money to buy a larger vessel, we had the idea of
selling our beloved Little Pocahontas, and going
into trade on a larger scale, by establishing stations
throughout Samoa, the Line Islands (Equatorial
Pacific), and the Solomon and New Hebrides
Group.

“ What will he sell the Mamana for ? ” I asked.

The Consul named the figure. It was a reason-
able one, and quite within our means. I looked at
Pedro inquiringly. He nodded.

“ Then we’ll buy her,” I said. “ Where is the
love-sick mariner to be found? ”

“ On board his ship. I’ll send for him to meet
you here, then we shall have to go to the British
Consulate to conclude the sale, as the Mamana is a
British ship.”

The business was concluded that day, and the
Mamana changed owners. Then we tried to sell
the Little Pocahontas, but no one would pay us the
price we asked. After all we were not disappointed,
for we recollected she would prove a useful tender
to the larger vessel.

Diaz took command of the Mamana, and with him
went Stofel, to navigate and act as chief mate. I
remained on the cutter with our former crew, and
after a round of farewells, and too much eating and
drinking, we bade farewell to beautiful Tahiti—
“ the Gem of the Pacific.”242 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“ Pedro,” I saidas we shook hands on the deck of
the Mamana, “ you know what to do—SSW. for
Rurutu. If you get there before I do, you must
wait for me. But we must try and keep company
all the way, and get there together.”

For I meant to redeem my promise to my taio
Tao, that I would one day return to Rurutu.CHAPTER XXVIII.

Together, at dawn, the brave Little Pocahontas
and the lofty-sparred and swift Mam an a raised the
green gem of Rurutu Island, four days out from
Tahiti, and lay-to off the shining beach on which
Vern and I had landed from the Lily of France.
Off came the canoes, breasting the roaring surf,
and amongst the first that boarded the Little Poca-
hontas were Viri Viri and Tao. When they saw
me standing on the little monkey-poop of the cutter,
and heard my voice calling to them, their astonish-
ment and delight knew no bounds. Since I had last
seen them I had learned to speak Tahitian very
well, and we had a quick fire of cross-questions.
Where was my brother? demanded the stalwart
Viri Viri, why was he not with me? I told him of
the letter I had received, and said that he (Viri)
would yet see Vern.

Then I went into business, and asked them if
the people had any yams to sell, for I wanted to
buy all I could get to take to Samoa for sale. Yes
—they had just dug the new crop. This decided
me. I went on board the Mamana, and told Diaz
to send the schooner’s boats on shore to load yams.
Then I went on shore, with Viri and Tao, and we
were soon engaged in weighing the yams and pay-
ing for them in trade goods, a boatload of which
was sent from the schooner. As there is no
anchorage at Rurutu the two vessels had to lie on
and off, but the weather being fine and the sea

(243 )244 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
smooth, by the following evening we had shipped
seventy tons of yams.

Tao and Viri Viri, I must mention, had asked me
if I would ship them as ordinary seamen on the
cutter, and I had said I would do so if their chief
made no objection. They now came to me with
him, saying he had given his consent, and I told
them to go on board. Viri was a married man with
one child, so I sent him to the Mamana, where there
was more room, and decided when we got to Samoa
to put him in charge of the station in Fagaloa Bay,
for he was an intelligent man and would make a
good trader.

I found it hard to get away from Rurutu—the
whole population used all sorts of kindly subter-
fuges to induce me to remain for another day—but
at last I managed to get on board, accompanied by
the boat and half a dozen canoes deeply loaded
with fruit. Diaz’s vessel also had her decks covered
with bunches of bananas and baskets of oranges,
and when I boarded her, I found there two young
steers, a bull, and a cow and calf that I had bought,
munching away at a pile of green fodder. I in-
tended these animals for our station at Salimu, and
one of the steers as a present for Pule-o-le-Vaitafe.

With the islanders’ song of farewell growing
fainter and fainter every moment in our ears, the
two vessels stood away in company, so close to-
gether that Diaz, Stofel, and I could converse. At
sunset the wind fell light, and an idea coming to
me, I hailed the schooner and asked Stofel and Diaz
to come on board.

“Pedro,” I said, “fast as is the Little Poca-ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 245
hontaSy we can outsail her. Now, I am most
anxious to get to Salimu as quickly as possible, to
see Pule-o-le-Vaitafe and to find out, before we go
to Apia, how things are going on in Samoa. That
port may be in the possession of the rebel party,
who would seize both vessels, if we ventured in.
So I will go on ahead in the Mamana to Fagaloa
Bay, and you, Stofel, can follow in the cutter.
Marana will be your pilot up the bay to Salimu,
where you will be sure to find the Mamana.”

The change was soon made, and at daylight the
cutter was far astern. As the trade wind sprang
up, the schooner sped over the blue waters of the
Pacific like a sea bird; and the steady breeze carried
us spankingly along right into Fagaloa Bay with-
out lifting sheet or tack in six days. Sailing up to
Salimu, we let go anchor early in the morning
abreast of the village, and I at once went on shore,
glad to find Pule-o-le-Vaitafe in his house. He
had been wounded in the leg a few days previously,
but was rapidly recovering. He told me that the
rebels were strongly entrenched at a place five miles
from Salimu, but were short of ammunition, and
that he, with four hundred men, intended to assault
their position in a few days. Apia, he said, was
safe. There had been a sanguinary engagement a
few miles from the town, but although he lost
heavily, Malietoa and his leading chief Mataafa
(afterwards so famous for his victories over the
German naval forces) had beaten them off.

Pule was delighted with my present of the steer,
and at once sent off his people to land the cattle.
Then I told him about my brother Vern, at which246 adventures of louis blare

he was greatly pleased, and said he would tausi ia
lelei lava (care well for him) if he came whilst I was
away. He also approved of my leaving Viri and
his wife in charge of the trading station, which I
found in good order, the enclosed garden around
it bearing a splendid crop of maize, grenadillas, and
water-melons.

The Little Pocahontas came in on the following
evening, bringing a passenger, whose arrival
caused the greatest excitement and joy—a hand-
some girl named Lusia, who, with her brother, a
boy of twelve years of age, had been missing for
two days. It seems that she and the boy had gone
fishing in a small canoe along the inner side of the
reef some miles from the village, when they were
captured by a party of rebels in a taumualua. The
boy they at once shot and decapitated, but
doomed the girl to a still more cruel fate. Binding
her hand and foot, they laid her in the bottom of
the canoe, towed it a mile or two off the land, and
then cast it adrift. All that afternoon and night,
and until noon of the following day, the unfor-
tunate creature lay helpless in the canoe, suffering
the agonies of thirst, and the pain of her bonds,
and then, most luckily, the drifting canoe was
sighted by the keen eye of Marana in the Little
Pocahontas. When lifted out she was quite un-
conscious, and nearly dead. (A few months after
her rescue she rewarded Marana by marrying him.)

Making only a stay of two days at Salimu, the
cutter and schooner sailed together for Apia. Here
Diaz and I were literally rushed at by the store-
keepers eager to buy our yams, but we sold the lotADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 247

to our old acquaintance Parker, together with some
tons of flour and biscuit which had been salved from
the Danish barque, and for which he paid us most
handsomely, all sorts of provisions being again
scarce in Apia.

Parker, after going over the Mamana, advised us
to fit her out for the labour trade.

“There is now,” he said, “a big demand for
native labour, both in Samoa and Fiji, and you can
make a pile of money with such a vessel as this.
She can carry at least a hundred and fifty
passengers, and the planters are paying a bonus
of eighty dollars a head for every healthy native
labourer.”

We decided to follow his advice, and make at
least two cruises to the islands of the Western
Pacific—the Solomon Group, the New Hebrides,
New Britain, and New Ireland. Finding a
respectable ship carpenter in Apia, who was out of
work, Diaz engaged him and two Samoan assistants
to fit out the Mamana for the labour trade, and to
hasten the work we sailed for Fagaloa Bay, where
we should not be disturbed by idle white visitors,
or have our decks thronged with equally idle
natives.

As we were beating up the coast against the lusty
south-east trade, with our decks deluged in flying
spray, a topsail schooner appeared right ahead,
running free. I at once recognised her as an old
Sydney friend, the Magellan Cloud, whose decks
Vern and I had often trod, her skipper, Mackenzie,
being an old friend of our family. As she came
leaping and rearing along, dashing showers of248 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

spray over her for’ard, the heaving seas thumping
against her bluff old bows, I sprang up on to our
weather rail to hail old Mac, as she would pass
within speaking distance.

“ Luff all you can,” said Diaz to the helmsman.

On came the Magellan Cloud, and then instead
of hailing her skipper, I gave vent to a wild yell,
for standing beside him was my brother Vern ! He
heard me, and gave an answering roar like the
bellow of a bull, and taking off his cap he hurled
it high in the air towards me, old Mackenzie making
frantic gestures and brawling out something about
Apia. In another minute the Magellan Cloud
showed us her stern, with Vern standing at the rail
waving his hand.

Diaz ran to the flag locker, and in a few minutes
the Little Pocahontas—half a mile to leeward—was
signalled to heave-to. We ran down to her, and
'as we rounded-to under her stern, hauling our head
sheets to windward, I hailed Stofel.

“ Mr. Stofel, put your helm up and follow that
schooner to Apia. My brother is on board. Get
him, and then come back to Salimu as quickly as
you can.”

“ Aye, aye, sir. I’ll be there by sunset.”

Up went the cutter’s helm, and away she raced
after the Magellan Cloud.

And that night dear old Vern and I gripped
hands once more.CHAPTER XXIX.

Never did a better equipped or a more swift vessel
than the Mamana engage in the Kanaka Labour
Traffic, and when, after leaving Fagaloa Bay, we
called in at Apia to pick up two whaleboats that we
had bought there, Diaz and I felt highly flattered
at the captains of the United States corvette
Mohican and the British cruiser Cameleon paying
us a visit and complimenting us on the schooner’s
appearance and the manner in which she had been
fitted up for the dangerous work that lay before her.

I must mention that at this time the supervision
by the British Government over the Kanaka Labour
Traffic had only just come in force. Previously,
any irresponsible person could fit out a vessel and
obtain as many labourers as he chose without inter-
ference, but a long series of atrocious cases of kid-
napping and murder led to the appointment of a
High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, and
the establishment of a squadron of five small gun-
boats (sailing vessels), who were empowered to
overhaul and search any vessel under British
colours that was engaged in the traffic. If a vessel
were found carrying natives who had been kid-
napped, a prize crew was put on board, and she
was taken to Levuka in Fiji, where the captain and
crew were arraigned for trial. Then, too, each
vessel had to carry a Government Agent as well
as an approved “Recruiter,” the Agent’s duty
being to satisfy himself that the recruited native
(249)250 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

was satisfied with the engagement he had entered
into, knew where he was going, how long his term
of service would be, and what payment he was to
receive for his labour. It was a huge and scan-
dalous farce, for not one Government Agent in
twenty could speak ten words of one of the score
of widely-differing native dialects of the islands of
the Western Pacific. American, German, and
French vessels which were engaged in the trade could
not be interfered with by the British gunboats,
and often their holds were packed to suffocation
with the living cargoes by brutal and avaricious
captains. Yet there were many notable and
honourable exceptions, where every care was taken
of the natives, and such vessels never failed to get
a full cargo. The German planters treated these
labourers most kindly.

When the two captains of the warships came on
board, Captain Mainwaring of the Cameleon re-
proached me for having put the Mamana under
American colours (which had caused Diaz and me
no end of trouble and expense at the American and
British Consulates), and asked me why I had done
so. He was, however, quite satisfied when I told
him that we should probably be engaged, later on,
in carrying labour to the Hawaiian Islands and
Tahiti, which we should be debarred from doing
if we sailed under the red ensign of Old England.

“Well, good-bye and good luck to you,” he
said, as he shook hands with us and returned to
his ship.

On this our first voyage we intended to recruit
among the northern islands of the Solomon GroupADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 251
and New Britain, and had engaged, as “ Re-
cruiter ” and as interpreter, one of the best, most
daring, and yet good-tempered men that ever took
part in the labour traffic. His name was Ted
Hassall, and having spent twenty years of his life
among the savage peoples of the islands of the
Western Pacific, he had a most intimate knowledge
of their language, customs, and characteristics.
His skin was bronzed to the hue of old leather, and
when stripped to the waist, with only a loin cloth
around him, he could easily pass for a native of
Polynesia.

Our complement was as follows: Master, Pedro
Diaz; Chief Mate, Stofel; the Second Mate, Davis;
the boatswain, and six white A.B.’s, were all
original members of the Mamana’s former crew;
and then, as well, we had a native crew of ten men
to work the boats. These were trustworthy, steady
fellows, who came from the islands of Rotumah,
Nui£ (Savage Island), and Penrhyn’s Island, and
in handling boats in a heavy surf their equals would
have been hard to find. Then came Vern and
myself. I had no defined position, except that I
was what Diaz called “ the boss of the show,” and
Vern was a supernumary, ready to do anything and
go anywhere. I stood no watch, but Vern insisted
in joining that of the second mate, a hot-tempered
little Welshman, who was to be the cause of sore
mishap to us before many months.

As for the schooner herself, let me describe her
as she appeared when she proudly sailed out of
Apia Harbour, with her many white wings swelling
to the breeze. She was a flush-decked vessel, with a252 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
large deck-house for’ard and a smaller one aft.
The latter had a narrow alley-way on the port and
starboard sides, and covered the companion-way to
a roomy cabin. Stretching across the deck at the
after end of the for’ard deck-house was an iron
grating eight feet high, in sliding sections which
could be opened and closed in a few seconds, while
aft there was a similar one, stretching from side to
side a few feet in front of the other deck-house, in
which were my quarters, together with those of the
captain, the officers, and Vern, the cabin below
being only used for meals and as my trade room.

The iron gratings were designed for the safety
of the ship’s company in case our cargo of “re-
cruits ” should attempt to obtain possession of the
ship by a sudden rush—which was not an unusual
thing to occur on some ships where careless discip-
line prevailed—and were generally closed (with the
exception of a narrow opening in each) day and
night, if any danger was apprehended. The main
hatch, however, was never closed, except in very
bad weather, and the natives in the hold could have
access to the main deck at any time, and, indeed,
they would often be permitted to go to all parts of
the ship, provided they did not interfere with the
working of the vessel.

When cruising among the islands, and whilst the
boats were on shore “ recruiting,” two sentries were
always posted on the top of each deck-house, to
keep watch on the recruits already on board.
Sometimes a party of newcomers from a strange
island would be attacked by those already on the
ship, despite the efforts of the officers and crew toADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 253
maintain order, when bloodshed and murder would
ensue, and it would then be necessary to separate
the natives from different islands by erecting tem-
porary bulk-heads on the ’tween decks.

The Mamana was well armed. There was a
Snider carbine and revolver for every member of
the ship’s company kept ready for instant use, and
a stand of spare small arms was provided in the
cabin. Each seaman, white and native, kept his
arms in his own bunk, as did we of the after guard
in our deck-house. On the main deck we carried
four six-pounder brass guns, which Diaz and I
had bought from the captain of an Italian barque
that had put into Apia. The vessel was leaking
badly, and the master, being in want of provisions
and having no money, was glad to sell us the guns.
We took good care of them, for about a year pre-
viously a large trading vessel had been rushed by
a fleet of canoes off the east coast of New Guinea,
and only succeeded in beating them off by smash-
ing them up with grape shot at close quarters.

I will now, as briefly as possible, describe how a
recruiting party sets about its work. On arriving
off a village where it is thought likely that labourers
can be obtained, the vessel anchors, or lies to on
and off, and either two or four boats are sent on
shore. These are termed “landing” boats and
“covering” boats. The landing boat carries the
“ recruiter,” an officer, and five men (all of whom
are armed), and is provided with a chest filled with
trade goods—such as axes, tomahawks, knives,
beads, tobacco, etc. This boat pulls in to the
beach, the officer slews her round, and she is backed

R254 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

in stern first until she just touches ground; then
the “ recruiter” gets out, with his chest of trade
goods, and begins to talk to the assembled natives,
explaining to them that he wants recruits, either for
Samoa, Fiji, or elsewhere, on a three years’ en-
gagement, at a certain wage. Meanwhile, the men
in the boat keep to their oars, with their eyes on
the “ recruiter,” in case he should be attacked
and have to jump for his life into the boat. Fifty
yards or so out the covering boat keeps a keen
watch on the landing boat; if that is attacked, the
men in the covering boat at once open fire to cover
her retreat.

Sometimes the poor “ recruiter ” is struck down
treacherously from behind, the landing boat rushed
and overpowered, and everyone slaughtered before
the covering boat can help; on other occasions the
natives, pretending to be most friendly, will
assemble on the beach at the head of some long
narrow bay, and after having posted ambushed
parties in the jungle on both sides, those on the
beach will suddenly vanish, while a heavy fire of
musketry and poisoned arrows will be opened on
the boats at close range.

During the many years that I was “recruiter”
in the labour trade, I found that the men with me,
although they never lost nerve under fire, had a
peculiar dread of being struck by a poisoned arrow,
and I fully shared their fear. For even a scratch
from a poisoned arrow means intense suffering and
great danger, while a deep wound results in certain
and agonising death.

One day, when a month out from Samoa, weADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 255
found ourselves anchored in a deep bay off the
northern end of the great island of Bougainville, in
the Solomon Islands, in company with two other
labour vessels—the German brig Iserbrook of
Samoa, and the French barque Aurelie of Noumea,
New Caledonia. These vessels were anchored
about two miles apart, each stationed in front of
one of the five villages which were in the bay, and
for some days we had no communication with them.

At this time we had already on board thirty-five
“recruits,” obtained by Ted Hassall at various
islands in the Solomon Group. They were a wild,
savage lot, but in the course of three weeks had
settled down and made themselves comfortable,
and we allowed them full liberty of the ship, except
the after deck. They had plenty to eat and drink,
tobacco to smoke, and betel nut to chew, and would
cheerfully lend a hand on deck when we were taking
in or making a sail. But we kept a strict watch on
them, all the same, and sent them below at night.
We had no fear of their going overboard and
escaping to the shore, for they knew full well that
the gentle anthropophagi of Bougainville Island
would make short work of them, and consign their
bodies to the oven.

On the evening of the third day, the recruiters
of the French and German vessels paid us a visit,
and when they stepped on deck, Diaz gripped me
by the arm and uttered a curse, for one of the two
was the German, Voss!

We went forward to meet them, and pretending
not to know Voss, shook hands with him and his
companion. He gave an affected start of surprise,
and then said:256 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“ Why, don’t you remember me?—Voss of
Matautu?”

“ Oh, so it is,” I said genially; “ how are you,
Mr. Voss? Glad to see you again. This is Mr.
Stofel, a countryman of yours, and this is my
brother. Come below, gentlemen, and see what
the steward can do for us.”CHAPTER XXX.

The recruiter of the French barque was a young
Englishman named Lotherington, who had been
out in the South Seas for some years, mostly in Fiji,
and his knowledge of the Fijian language, he told
us, was proving very useful to him in his present
vocation, as the Solomon Islands’ dialects are allied
to Fijian. He was quiet and gentlemanly in his
manner, and Vern and I quickly took a liking to
him.

The Aurelie was recruiting for a Captain McLeod
of New Caledonia, a wealthy merchant and planter,
and the Iserbrook for the big German firm in
Samoa. Voss, usually a loud talker and a
swaggerer, at first was distinctly uneasy with Diaz
and me, especially when Diaz asked him, point
blank, if be knew how many men Taofi had lost
in the two attacks he had made on the Little Poca-
hontas.

“ I believe about fifty,” he replied, puffing vigor-
ously at his cigar, “fifteen from the fire of your
cutter, and thirty-five from that of the French gun-
boat. I was away from Matautu at a bush village
at the time of the attacks, but that is what I was
told when I returned.”

“ Then,” said Diaz bluntly, “ it must have been
your ghost that we saw at the native meeting that
moonlight night, when they launched the big war
canoe.”

Voss’s face reddened at the detected lie.

(f257)258 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“ Oh, no, it was not I you saw. I was miles
away. Had I been there, I daresay my influence
with Taofi would have restrained him from making
such an unjustifiable attack upon you.” Then the
subject dropped.

Vern and I took Lotherington over the Mamana
and showed him our “blackbirds” in the ’tween
decks, which were lighted by a big lantern sus-
pended by a line across the hatch coamings.

“ They are jolly enough,” he remarked, “ and so
are the twenty odd gentlemen I have on board the
Aurelie. Although our ship is under the French
flag, our skipper, Todd, is an Englishman, and a
decent, humane chap. I can’t say as much for the
skipper of the Iserbrook and Voss. They use their
recruits pretty roughly, and I shall not be surprised
if they have trouble before long.”

“ Have you known Voss long ? ” I asked.

“ No, but I know a good deal about him and
don’t like the man—he has a bad name. Some
years ago he received a fearful hammering from
another Voss—a Sydney skipper, who was running
a Fiji labour vessel. It appears that this Voss (I
mean the fellow now on board) flogged a native boy
so brutally that he died, and the colonial news-
papers jumped to the conclusion that it was Captain
Voss, who is a man of good reputation. He was
awarded substantial damages for libel, and one day,
in Apia, when he came across our friend in the
cabin, he nearly killed him.”

During the four days that we remained at this
place we obtained twenty more recruits. Both Vern
and I used to go on shore with Ted Hassall in theADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 259
landing boat to study his method of recruiting, and
we were lost in admiration at the man’s serene
coolness, good humour, and extraordinary power
of inspiring confidence in these ferocious and war-
like savages.

After he had sent off the first boatload of recruits
—nine men and four women—he turned to us and
said:

“ If you want to have a day’s shooting about here,
you can do so with perfect safety now that our first
lot of recruits are on board. The bush is teeming
with pigeons, and on the big plateau at the back you
will find any amount of white cockatoos, while in
a swamp about two miles from here you can shoot
alligators in plenty. Here, I’ll find you a guide.”

Calling to him a huge fellow, whose mop of hair
was dyed red and twisted into some hundreds of
tiny, well-greased curls, and whose scarlet-lipped
gash of a mouth was filled with jet-black teeth—the
result of chewing betel nut—he confided us to his
care, and in a few minutes we started, Vern carry-
ing a Snider, and I my shot-gun. Half an hour’s
walk brought us to a great swamp, and motioning
us to approach silently, our guide dropped on his
hands and knees, and bade us cfawl after him. In
a few minutes he stopped and pointed to a little mud
islet in the centre of the swamp, on which three
alligators were lying, basking in the hot sun. One
hideous brute was curved into half-moon shape,
with its pendulous belly protruding towards us. It
was within thirty yards, and taking a careful aim,
Vern sent a bullet into the reptile just below the
forearm. Our savage guide gave a yell as it26o ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

opened its horrid jaws, swept the mud with its
serrated tail, and rolled over on its back, dead. A
number of natives who had followed us at once
dashed into the shallow water, put a twisted rope
of green cane around the creature’s neck, and
dragged it across. Then, slinging it to a pole,
they carried it to the village, where it was at once
cut open and the stomach fat eagerly torn out, and
devoured raw. The horrible spectacle so sickened
us that we went off to the ship in disgust.

The next day we sailed for an island called Buka
—separated from Bougainville by a narrow strait.
We anchored abreast of a very large village named
Numa-Numa, and a few hours after, much to our
annoyance, we were followed by the Aurelie and
Iserbrook, both vessels anchoring quite close to
the Mamana.

The natives of Buka were not at all like those of
Bougainville, being of a jet black colour, short
and squarely built, and devoid of any hair—even
their heads being shaven. They all knew Hassall,
and in a very short time our decks were crowded
with some hundreds of them, shaking hands with
him, patting him on the chest, and at the same
time making a peculiar clicking of the tongue to
denote their pleasure at seeing him again.

Not a single native boarded either the Aurelie or
the Iserbrook when they anchored, and Vern asked
Hassall the reason.

Our bronze-faced recruiter laughed.

“ I fixed that up. I told these Numa-Numa
people that if they had any dealings with either
Voss or the Aurelie we would lift anchor and clearADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 261

out. All is fair in love and war—and ‘ blackbird-
ing.’ ”

Hassall did not intend to begin recruiting until
the following day, and as we wanted to give the
natives we already had on board a feed of fresh
fish, two boats were lowered and went on shore with
the ship’s seine to the mouth of the creek on which
the village stood, where, the natives said, we should
find large “schools” of mullet in the brackish
water. Davis, our second mate, took one boat with
four A.B.’s, and Vern and I the other with four of
our Polynesian sailors.

We dropped the seine across the mouth of the
creek, and as we were hauling it in, heavily
weighted with an enormous number of beautiful
silvery fish, each about a foot in length, one of
the Iserbrook's boats pulled in, and Voss stepped
on shore. He had a Winchester rifle slung over
his shoulder and a brace of heavy revolvers with
open holsters (American plainsman’s fashion) at
each hip. He was evidently in a bad temper, for
he stood looking at us with a scowl on his face,
twirling his thick moustache, and when Vern
nodded to him, he turned his back to us.

Dragging the net upon the beach, all hands set
to and turned the fish out upon the sand. Voss
stood looking at us for some moments, then deliber-
ately walked across the fish with his heavy sea
boots, though by taking a few steps further back
he could have avoided treading on a single one.

In an instant the face of Davis, our fiery second
mate, flushed purple with anger, for it was evident
that the man meant to insult us.262 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“ Whateffer do you mean, you clumsy man, by
walking on our fishes? ” he cried, striding up to
him and blocking his way.

Voss eyed him up and down contemptuously.

“ Get out of my way, English pig,” he growled.

In a moment Davis leapt at him and struck him
a terrific blow upon the mouth; he staggered back,
and his right hand went to his hip, but before he
could draw his pistol, Tao, who was standing by,
seized him by the wrist. At the same time a white
seaman named Harkness deprived him of his other
pistol, and then cut the leather sling of his Win-
chester rifle, letting it fall upon the sand.

“What sort of thing do you call yourself, you
cowardly brute?” cried the seaman, shaking his
clenched fist in the German’s face. “ If you’d
drawed a pistol on me I’d have kicked the brains
outer yer fat head with one of yer own sea boots.
Hold that arm tight, Tao, my hearty, and I’ll hold
this one while Mr. Davis takes it out of him.”

“ No, no, let the fellow go, and I will just gif
him a chance to see if he can use his hants at all,”
said Davis.

Releasing their hold, Harkness and Tao stepped
aside, and Voss, with blood streaming from his cut
lip, glared at us with murder in his eyes.

“Putt your hants up,” cried Davis quickly, as
we all drew back and formed a ring. For a few
moments Voss hesitated, turning to give a quick
glance at his boat’s crew who were lying on their
oars and not showing the slightest sign of coming
to his assistance; then he slowly took off his white
duck coat and shirt and tightened his belt. HeADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 263

was a big man, almost six feet in height and pro-
portionately broad, but Vern, who was taking a
keen interest in the affair, snorted contemptuously
as he looked at him.

“ He’s as soft as pap. Davis will finish him up
in one round.”

Davis, who was about five feet ten, was noted
on the Mamana for his enormous strength, and
whipping off his shirt he revealed a magnificent
chest and shoulders.

“ Now stand further back, boys ”—began Hark-
ness, when with a lightninglike turn Voss swung
round on his heel, snatched the pistol from Tao’s
hand, and fired point blank at Davis, who staggered
and fell. Then he pointed the weapon at Harkness
and Vern, and fired at us in quick succession. I
saw one of our native crew fall, and then, dashing
through the ring of people around us, Voss rushed
for his boat, followed by a shower of spears from a
number of Numa-Numa people. None of the
spears struck him, but one plunged deeply into the
sand in front of him, and tripping over it he fell at
full length, face down. Before he could rise, half a
dozen lithe-limbed savages were on him, and he was
a prisoner.

” Look to the mate, Mr. Blake! ” shouted Hark-
ness, as pistol in hand, he ran down to the beach
to Voss’s boat, which had backed in. It was
manned by five native seamen—mostly Samoans.

“ Back off! ” cried Harkness, pointing his pistol
at the steersman, “ push off, or I’ll put a bullet
through your skull.”

“ Aye, aye, sir,” replied the man, with alacrity,264 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

as he swung the boat’s head round. “ I don’t want
to interfere. I hope you’ll kill that man Voss.”

The moment Davis fell, Vern was beside him.
The bullet from Voss’s pistol had struck him below
the collar-bone and passed right through his
shoulder.

“ I am all right,” he said; “which hole is the
lowest? Back, is it? Well, don’t plug that—let
it bleed. Anyone else hurt? ”

“Yes, sir,” replied one of the white seamen,
“ Tom Gasket, the Niu£ man, has a bullet in the
neck, and I fear he is done for.”

He was, indeed, “ done for,” for the poor fellow
—one of the best of our native crew—bled to death
before we reached the Mamana.

As Vern and I took Mr. Davis and Tom on board
in our boat we saw Harkness and the other white
seamen gather round Voss, whose hands had been
lashed together behind his back by the natives.
Then we heard Harkness hail the German’s boat:

“ Stand by to come in and take this man away
when we call.”

“ All right, sir.”

Followed by some hundreds of the now wildly
excited natives, who were eager to slaughter Voss
on the spot, the seamen hurried him to a coco-nut
tree, untied his hands, and then quickly relashed
them round the bole of the tree, and then I saw the
burly Harkness step forward with a short length of
rope in his hand.

“Vern,” I whispered, “they are going to flog
him.”

“ Pity they don’t hang the brute.”ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 265

A quarter of an hour later, as I stood on the deck
of our schooner, I saw Voss led down to his boat
by two of his own men, while Harkness and his
men hurried to their own boat, pushed off and came
aboard.

Harkness came to Captain Diaz and said some-
thing to him. Diaz nodded.

“ How many ? ” he asked.

“ A hundred, sir.”

“ Good. He deserved it. Had I been there,
though, I would have shot him. And if Mr. Davis
dies of his wound, I will take him out of that brig
and hang him from our squaresail yard.” Then
he turned to Stofel.

“ Mr. Stofel, call the hands and load the guns,
then go aboard that brig and tell the captain that
if he tries to get away before I give him leave to
do so, I’ll sink him.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” and quickly, but quietly, the
guns were loaded, the ports opened, and Stofel
went off on his mission. He returned in ten
minutes, and reported that the German captain
made no reply to Diaz’s order and threat; also that
the Iserbrook carried four guns.

Diaz nodded. “ All right, Mr. Stofel. Let the
hands get their dinner now, and we’ll have ours.”

We were about half-way through the meal, when
the boatswain, who was in charge of the deck,
called out to us:

“Sail ho! There is a big brig coming round
the point, sir, and heading in to the bay.”

Ted Hassall and I rushed on deck, and saw, less
than a mile away, a white-painted brig carrying266 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

single-rolling topsails, sweeping into the bay. We
knew her at once. She was the Leonora, captain
“ Bully ” Hayes.

In a quarter of an hour Diaz, Ted Hassall, Vern,
and I were standing on her deck, shaking hands
with the herculean “ Bully.”

“We have a queer yarn to tell you, Captain
Hayes,” said Diaz.

“ Then come below and tell it.”CHAPTER XXXI.

Hayes listened to the story of the fracas on the beach
without interrupting, and when Diaz had finished,
he put the tips of his brown shapely fingers together
—those fingers that had once strangled to death in a
few minutes a notorious Galveston negro burglar—
and fixed his bright blue eyes upon each of us in
turn.

“You did wrong—very wrong—in flogging that
man,” he said gravely.

“How so?” asked Hassall, his dark features
flushing deeply.

“ It will have a bad effect on the natives. ‘ A life
for a life * is their code. This man Voss killed one
man and wounded another, and is punished with a
simple flogging. In the eyes of the natives you do
not value the life of the brown man who was killed,
and considered that a beating was sufficient punish-
ment. You have set a bad example.”

“ What would you have done under the circum-
stances? ” asked Hassall.

“ Hanged him—hanged him there and then, over
the body of his victim,” was the prompt reply.

Hayes pressed us to stay to dinner, and with the
exception of Diaz, we accepted his invitation. He
told us that he had had no intention of calling at the
Solomon Islands when he left Samoa, but after
taking a hundred Gilbert Islands* labourers to
Tahiti, he had conveyed a trader from there to New

(267)268 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Britain, and had put into Numa-Numa on the
chance of picking up a score or two of labourers for
Samoa. After dinner we asked him if he would
come and look at Davis, as he (Hayes) was quite a
clever amateur surgeon, and had had a large experi-
ence of bullet and other wounds. He did so, and
after examining the second mate’s wound, said he
would be all right in a week or so.

I must now explain the position of the four vessels
that evening at sunset. Ours, the first to arrive,
had anchored right abreast of the river, which,
owing to recent rains, was in flood and running
strongly. The Iserbrook went closer in, and let go
right ahead of us, and was so near to us that her
native crew could converse with ours. The Aurelie
was abreast of us, about a quarter of a mile distant,
and the Leonora well out in the bay. As darkness
fell, some sharp rain squalls came down from the
land, so the Iserbrook paid out an additional thirty
fathoms of cable, and was paying out more when
Mr. Stofel went for’ard and hailed her sharply.

“ Brig ahoy I How much more cable are you giv-
ing your ship ? You’ll be under our bows in another
minute or two.”

The German captain called out that he had been
riding too short, and was afraid he might drag if
the squalls came on heavier. Then after an inter-
change of very uncomplimentary remarks in
German, the skipper of the Iserbrook went below to
his cabin, and our chief came aft to my deck-house
cabin, where he, Vern, Tom Hassall, and I
“swapped yarns” until ten o’clock, when we all
burned in.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 269

The night was pitch dark, without a single star
in the sky—so dark that although the Iserbrook was
not fifty yards ahead of us, she could not be seen—
and our riding lantern on the fore-stay showed but
little light, owing to the thick drizzling rain that was
falling. The two stern ports of the Iserbrook had
been closed about ten bells; but before that time she
was so close that anyone standing for’ard on the
Mamana could see into her well-lit cabin.

When four bells (2 a.m.) sounded, I went out on
deck for a few minutes, as I could not sleep owing
to the closeness of the night. Going on to the main
deck, I looked down into the ’tween decks and saw
by the light of the hanging lamp that our forty-five
anthropophagi were slumbering peacefully upon
their mats. The rope ladder having been hauled up
on deck, the two sentries had taken shelter in the
for’ard deck-house and were having a comfortable
smoke, there being no need for them to stand out
in the rain, now that as the ladder was removed, for
there was no possibility of any of the “ recruits ”
coming on deck, even had they tried. For’ard I
could see the figure of the man keeping watch on
the topgallant foc’sle, and the rest of the men on
duty were playing cards under its shelter by the dim
light of a slush lamp. Two of our boats were
tailing astern with the current, and Harkness, who
was in charge of the deck, was pacing to and fro aft,
wearing an oilskin coat over his thin cotton pyjamas.

“ Beastly muggy night, sir, ain’t it?” he re-
marked as he knocked the ashes of his pipe out upon
the rail. “ I won’t be sorry when-”

Suddenly from beneath our bows there leapt up a
s270 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

blinding flash of white light, then came a deafening
report, like that of a heavy siege gun, and the crash
of timber. The Mamana, lifting herself for’ard,
shook from truck to keelson, and an appalling
silence of a few seconds was succeeded by wild cries
of terror from the natives in the ’tween decks, with
shouts of alarm from those of the white crew who
were in the fore-part of the schooner.

“ We are all smashed in for’ard, sir,” roared
Harkness to Diaz, who had sprung from his bunk,
pistol in hand, “ and the water is pouring into the
fore-peak in torrents.”

There was no need to call the watch below—every
man was on deck fully armed, within a few seconds,
and believing that the natives in the hold had risen,
or that we had been fired into by the Iserbrook, they
rushed to their assigned posts. Then came loud,
rapid orders from Diaz, who had run for’ard,
lowered the riding light, and held it over the bows
for a moment or two.

“ Man the boats, Mr. Stofel, and come ahead for
a tow line; you, Harkness, get a spare sail and bring
it here to fother the hole in our bows. Hurry, man,
hurry, or we’ll founder in ten minutes. Hassall,
call up twenty of your recruits to the pumps.”

Harkness and the white seaman pulled a sail out
of the sail locker, dragged it for’ard, weighted the
foot of it with a windlass bar, and lowered it over
the bows to stop the heavy inrush of water; while the
two boats went ahead and got the tow line; Diaz,
with one blow of an axe, parted the cable, on which
the ship was straining heavily owing to the current,
and the schooner’s head canted over to port.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 271

“ Hard up your helm/’ shouted Diaz. “ Hoist
the jibs and staysail some of you, and up with the
foresail.” Then he hailed Stofel.

“ Bear to port, Mr. Stofel, and get out of the
current. I’m going to run her ashore.”

“ Aye, aye,” came the answer from the boats.

With the water still pouring into her, despite the
fathering sail, the schooner was headed for the
beach on the left-hand side of the stream, and then,
as if specially sent to aid us, we heard the hum of
another rain squall sweeping down from the moun-
tains. In five minutes it was upon us.

“That will do the boats, come alongside,”
shouted Diaz as the Mamana heeled over to the first
blast of the squall, and the sheeting rain stung our
faces like cuts from whipcord.

Meanwhile, as our recruits worked furiously at the
pumps, Vern and I were lighting all the deck
lanterns, and the steward, the cook, and two native
seamen were dragging our four guns right aft, so
as to get the schooner down by the stern as much as
possible.

As the boats came alongside, the rain and wind
ceased witfi a sudden “ snap,” and then, not fifty
yards away from us, we heard a loud, exulting
laugh, as a grey mass swept by us into the tenebrous
night. It was the Iserbrook, under her fore and main
courses and lower topsails. Only for a minute did we
see her, when again came a savage puff of wind, and
presently the Mamana took the ground on a bottom
of sand and dead coral. We had saved the ship.

“ Take a hawser ashore, Mr. Stofel, and make it
fast to a tree. As soon as you have it fast, show a2^2 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
light, and we’ll heave away on it, and get her as far
up as we can before the tide turns on the ebb.”

After heaving in all the line we could, and finding
the schooner was well aground, coffee and grog was
served out to all hands, and we waited till daylight.

So far none of us of the afterguard had had time to
discuss the cause of the explosion, but I am confi-
dent we all associated it with the Iserbrook. Now
as we sat below in the main cabin, wet through and
almost exhausted, drinking our coffee, we waited for
Diaz to speak.

Seated at the end of the table with his hands
crossed over one knee and his head bent, he was
deep in thought, when a loud hail made him start to
his feet.

“ Mamana ahoy ! ”

It was the voice of “ Bully ” Hayes. We all
ran on deck, but it was still dark, and we could see
nothing.

“ Boat ahoy there! Where are you? Is that
you, Captain Hayes? ” cried our skipper.

“ Yes. I’m aground on a sand bank. I can
see your lights, but can’t get to you.”

“ Push off, then pull south a little, and you can
come under our stern, where there is three feet of
water. We are aground.”

Just as Hayes’s boat reached us the dawn broke,
and Hassall gave a loud hurrah, and pointing his
finger at a dark object half a mile away on our port
quarter. It was the Iserbrook, hard and fast on an
isolated patch of reef. She must have struck with
violence, for her forefoot was out of water.

Hayes swung his burly figure over our stern rail.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 2.73

“ What has happened to you, Captain Diaz? ”

“ Treachery, Captain Hayes. I’ll tell you all
about it in a minute. Mr. Stofel, train two of the
guns on to that brig. If they try to heave her off
into deep water, we’ll make short work of her.”CHAPTER XXXII.

Before we told Hayes anything about what had
occurred during the night, we all got over the bows
to see the extent of the damage to our vessel.

The explosion had taken place on the starboard
bow, about five feet from the stem, and had partly
blown in and shattered about a square yard of
planking and timbers, leaving a ragged hole about
six inches in diameter, while the copper, from
the stem to nearly fifteen feet aft, was either torn
off or hanging loosely and buckled up.

“ Anyone would think that she had been hit by a
shell on the water line/’ said Hayes, “ but I think
I know what it was.”

“So do I,” said Diaz, “ but we’ll talk about that
presently, and see if my conclusions agree with
yours. Meanwhile we must have this hole patched
up for the present. In six hours it will be flood
tide, and by that time we shall have her light
enough to put her further up on the beach, where
she will be high and dry at low water. Now, come
aboard again, Captain Hayes.”

Ordering the steward to serve an early breakfast,
Diaz seated himself at one end of the table and
Hayes at the other, with Hassall, Vern, and me on
one side, and the seaman who had been keeping
anchor watch when the explosion occurred on the
other. In reply to Diaz this man said that he had
(274)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 275
seen no movement of any kind on board the Iser-
brook, and that the shock of the explosion had
thrown him off the topgallant foc’sle on to the
deck, where he was found unconscious.

“ All right, Sam,” said Diaz, “ you have told us
all you know. Go and lend Mr. Stofel a hand.”
Then he turned to Hayes.

“ What is your theory, Captain Hayes? ”

“ I am pretty sure that someone on the Iser-
brook tried to sink your vessel with a charge of
dynamite.”

“ So do I. It would be an easy matter for a man
to drop quietly over the side of the Iserbrook with
a charge of dynamite, get under our. bows, tie the
charge to the bobstay shackle at the stem, light
the fuse, and then get away in plenty of time.”

Hayes nodded. “Just so. After lighting the
fuse, which the look-out man would not, of course,
notice, unless he was actually looking over the bows
at the time, he could have easily passed himself
along the side of the Mamana and have gained the
beach, if he didn’t care to swim against the current
back to the Iserbrook.”

An interruption came—Marana appearing at the
foot of the companion. He was accompanied by a
white man—a stranger—and both men were in a
state of excitement.

“ What is it, Marana? ” inquired Diaz.

“ This man, sir, is the steward of the Iserbrook.
When she ran ashore last night he jumped over-
board and swam to the beach. He says that it was
Mr. Voss and Captain Sachs who tried to sink us.
He saw them do it.”276 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

“ Come here, my man, and sit down,” said Diaz
quickly, “ you look done up. Steward, bring some
brandy and give him half a tumblerful. He needs
it, I am sure.”

“Thank you, sir,” replied the man (who was
a German). “ I had a long swim, and cut my feet
badly when walking over the coral.”

Then after he had drunk his grog, and our
steward had hurriedly bandaged his bleeding feet,
he told his story.

“ When I turned in at six bells ” (eleven o’clock)
“ Mr. Voss and the captain were talking and drink-
ing in the cabin. They spoke in low tones, and I
could not hear what they were saying, but I knew
they were talking about this ship, and I listened
intently. Presently the captain lit a lantern, and
lifting up the hatch of the lazzarette under the
cabin table, he and Voss went down.

“ I opened my cuddy door (I sleep in the cuddy),
and closing it after me, I went on deck, as I thought
I could see what they were doing by looking through
the skylight windows. There was no one on the
after deck, and the captain had told me to draw the
canvas screen all round the skylight windows
before I turned in, so it was very dark on the after
deck.

“ I laid down at one end of the skylight, untied
the lashing, lifted the corner, and looked down into
the cabin. I saw Voss come up, carrying a small
empty box—about the size of a candle box. He
put it on the table, and going to the door of my
cuddy, turned the key very softly, and I saw that
he had no boots on. Then the captain passed upADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 277

a lot of big cartridges of dynamite—about twelve,
I think—and a coil of fuse. It was not the
yellow dynamite that we kill fish with, but black
stuff.”

“ I know what he means,” said Hayes, “ it was
lithofracteur. One cartridge would have sunk the
Mamana if it had been placed below the water line.
Go on, my man.”

“ They seized all the cartridges tightly together
with spun yarn, then cut off two long pieces of
fuse, put detonator caps on the ends, and pushed
them into the lithofracteur. Then they put the
stuff into the box, coiled the fuses over it, and
boring two holes through one side of the box, they
pushed out the loose ends of the fuses about half
an inch, and frayed them with a penknife, so that
they would light quickly. Then Mr. Voss got
a thick fishing line and measured off twenty-eight
fathoms, bored another hole in the box, passed one
end of the line through and tied it, and then fas-
tened on the lid with some screws.

“ By this time I was almost scared to death,
thinking they meant to blow up the ship, and I was
just about to call the mate when I remembered that
he had turned in drunk. So I waited a bit.

“ Voss took the box to the transoms, and placing
it near one of the closed ports, he made a sign to
the captain, who turned down the wick of the swing-
ing lamp over the table and lifted it out of its
cradle, putting it down on the floor. Then Voss un-
lashed the lanyard of the square stern port, and prop-
ping it up with the wooden stay, he looked out for
half a minute and listened. Then he drew back,278 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

took up the box, and held it on the ledge of the
port, while Captain Sachs struck one of those silent
Swedish matches and lit the two fuses. Then Voss
let the box down into the water, and paid out the
line. In half a minute it had nearly all run out,
and he held on for a bit; then he made the end
fast and let the port down again.

“ I knew now what they had done, for when I
stood up I could just see the dim glow of your
riding light, and I felt sure that the box had been
let to drift down under your bows. But I was a
sort of dazed and numbed, and could find no voice
to cry out an alarm.

“ How long I stood there I cannot tell—I sup-
pose about three minutes—when there came the
flash and fearful clap, and I ran for’ard and
knocked against the second mate, who was running
aft. I got a nasty fall, and before I could pick
myself up, Captain Sachs was there, talking to him
and giving him orders in a low voice. I could not
hear all he said, owing to the yells and shouting
on board the Mamana, but the head sails were run
up, and sheets hauled to windward, and the moment
the brig canted off, the cable was slipped, the fore
and main courses dropped, the topsails sheeted
home and hoisted, and away we went, passing quite
close to you—they had everything all readied up,
sir.”

“ Who was it that laughed ? ” asked Pedro Diaz.
He spoke so thickly that his voice sounded un-
natural, and his huge black hands were gripping
the edge of the table.

" All of them, sir—Captain Sachs, Mr. Voss,ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 279

and Rolf, the Yankee second mate. I am sure that
Mr. Clausen, the mate, knew nothing about it, for
the captain and Voss had been plying him with
liquor all the evening, and he had to be carried to
his bunk at ten bells.”

“ How did she run ashore? ” asked Hayes.

“ Captain Sachs didn’t know that that reef was
ahead of us. It is the first time he has been to
Numa-Numa, sir, and when we struck, we were
running free, and the hands were aloft loosing the
upper topsails and topgallant sails. But there is
pretty deep water under her stern, for Rolf
sounded, and I heard him call at ‘ three fathoms.’
That was just before I ran down into the cuddy,
where I took what little money I have out of my
chest, and slipped overboard through the stern
port.”

That ended the man’s story, and Diaz, who had
now regained his usual calm, told our steward to
give him a suit of clothes—he was stripped to
his waist—a pair of slippers, and a good break-
fast.

We ate our own breakfast in silence and in haste,
and then Diaz, Hayes, Hassall, and I, after a long
consultation, decided upon our plan of action,
wherein we were mainly guided by Hayes. At
nine o’clock Stofel reported that he had temporarily
repaired the damage, and that we should be able to
sail the Mamana to a place of which Hassall knew,
five miles across the bay, where we could put
her on a hard, shelving beach and repair her
properly.

For certain reasons, which I shall explain here-280 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
after, we had signalled to the Aurelie, soon after
daylight, that we wanted no assistance, and that
they need not send a boat.

A little after nine “ Bully ” Hayes left us, saying
he would see us later on in the day at the other
side of the bay, after we had “ settled matters with
the Dutchmen,” i.e. Sachs and Voss.

When ten bells struck, we saw one of the Iser-
brook's boats take a kedge out astern, to heave her
off the reef with the rising tide. Her four guns
(like ours) had been taken aft to lighten her as
much as possible. They were, I must mention,
much heavier pieces than ours, although she was
a much smaller vessel than the Mamana.

“ Call all the hands aft, Mr. Stofel,” said Diaz.

The crew, white and native, trooped along the
deck, stood in front of him and waited.

“ How many of you men are British subjects? "
he asked of the white seamen.

“ Four of us, sir,” replied Harkness with
astonishing glibness, “the other three—Larsen,
Jorgensen, and Johnson are Norwegians, and I am
an American born and bred.” (He was a Cockney,
as we all knew.)

“Then you and the three Norwegians stand
aside. You other four who are Britishers must go
to your quarters and stay there until I let you out.
I am going to lock you in.”

“What for, sir?” demanded one of them in
real surprise.

“ Because you are Britishers, and I don’t want
to get you into trouble. The supercargo of that
brig there,” pointing to the Iserbrook, “tried toADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 281

murder my second mate, and my partner and his
brother, and did murder Tom Gasket, your ship-
mate. This morning, aided by the captain and the
second mate, he tried to sink this ship and send us
all to the bottom, and I mean to punish them for it.
There is no law in the South Seas that can touch
them—at least not here in the Solomon Islands—
and I and those others on board who are not Eng-
lishmen mean to punish them. I am going to make
a wreck of that brig.

One of the four men stepped out.

“ Englishman or no Englishman, sir, I’m willing
to help.”

“And I,” “and I,” “and I,” said the other
three, joining him; for by this time the full
tale of treachery was known to all hands, and
the crew, white and brown, were burning for re-
venge.

Diaz shook his head.

“ No, no, men. It won’t do. We others who
are not Englishmen are pretty safe, but if any of
you men take a hand in this business, you are
bound to see the inside of a Fiji or Sydney gaol
for it. Don’t argue, but stand over there on the
port side. Now, how many of you native chaps
are British subjects?”

“ None of ’em, sir,” answered the glib Mr. Hark-
ness, “ not a blessed soul of ’em.”

“Then keep them on your side.” Turning to
the mate, he said:

“Mr. Stofel, you are a German; go to your
cabin and stay there. You, Mr. Blake, and your
brother, I can’t interfere with, as neither of you282 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

are on the ship’s articles, but I should feel obliged
if you would also keep to your cabins as long as I
wish.”

The four English seamen, protesting loudly, were
hustled into their deck-house by Harkness, who
locked the door and handed the key to Vern.

“Will you take care of it, sir? I might lose
it.”

“Certainly,” said Vern, who, sauntering round
to the other side of the deck-house, quietly dropped
the key inside through the port hole.

Presently, as Vern, Stofel, and I went to our
cabins, someone called out:

' “They are heaving away on their kedge, sir.”

“All right. Hoist the signals. Stand by the
gun, Harkness.”

Stofel, Vern, and I looked out. Harkness and
two native seamen were training one of the guns
on the brig, whose crew were heaving on the kedge
they had put out. Some signals fluttered up to
our gaff. Diaz, with his glasses, was looking at
the Iserbrook.

“What are the signals, Mr. Stofel?” I asked.

“ ‘ Stop, or I shall fire on you.’ ”

Two anxious minutes passed in dead silence, and
then we saw a commotion orFthe poop of the brig,
and Diaz called out:

“ They mean to fight, Harkness. They have
trained a gun on us. Lie down all of you.”

Scarcely had the order been obeyed, when there
was a flash from the stern of the brig, and a twelve-
pound shot passed close over our decks. It nar-
rowly missed our mainmast, and plunged into theADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 283
beach ahead of us, sending a cloud of white sand
all around.

Harkness and his men sprang to their feet and
looked at Diaz.

“ Send a shot close under her bows, Harkness.”

As the loud bang of our brass six-pounder rang
out, the four English seamen burst out of the deck-
house, and gave a cheer as the shot struck the water
close under the bows of the brig. Our shot was
answered by rifle fire—Voss, Rolf, and Sachs
firing at us with needle-guns. Every bullet struck
us somewhere on deck, one passing clean through
the end of the after deck-house. Then the fire
ceased, and Diaz, still looking through his glasses,
uttered a loud laugh.

u The native crew have mutinied,” he cried.
“ There is a rough and tumble fight going on on
the poop deck, and someone has cut the kedge line.
Look, there is a man standing on the rail holding
up both hands to us, and Voss and the skipper are
being tied up. Into the boats, men. Hallo, you
fellows,” and he turned with assumed fierceness to
the four seamen, “ what do you mean by breaking
out? Back to your house, or I’ll put the lot of you
in irons,” and then buckling on his pistols and
taking no further notice of the men, he followed his
boat’s crew of eight well-armed men over the side.
Hassall, with two white and four native sea-
men, took the other boat, and the two went off to-
gether.

All pretence of Stofel, Vern, myself, and the four
English A.B.’s being under restraint was now at
an end, and everyone crowded aft to watch the284 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

boats, but presently Davis, the second mate, despite
his wound, appeared and ordered silence. Our
“recruits,” down in the ’tween decks, had kept
perfectly quiet all this time and evidently considered
their quarters as the safest place on board.

The boats dashed alongside the brig, and Diaz
and Hassall, followed by their crews, jumped on
board. The two former were at once surrounded
by a number of men, and presently we saw rifles
being passed down into our boats to the boat-
keepers.

The crowd on the poop deck then dispersed, and
we saw Hassall, Diaz, and the man who had held
up his hands (who was the chief mate) standing
together, evidently conversing. Then followed
some interesting proceedings.

First came two men with axes, who cut away the
stern rail and bulwarks, and then the brig’s four
guns were run overboard. Then the standing
rigging of the fore and main masts was cut on both
sides, and the masts hackled half-way through.

“My gootness,” exclaimed Davis, “they are
chopping her into kintling woot! Hallo! what-
effer is happening now? ”

Voss, Sachs, and Rolf appeared on deck from
the cabin, one by one, with their hands tied behind
their backs, and when I saw our black skipper
slowly draw a pistol from his belt, my heart almost
stopped beating. He pointed it at Voss’s head,
then lowered it, and stood looking at or perhaps
speaking to him for some minutes. Then the
German mate stepped forward and cut the prisoners’
bonds, and they all three went below again.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 285

“Thank God!” said Davis, heaving a sigh of
relief, “ I wass afraid he wass going to shoot the
plackguardts.”

By this time the brig was almost afloat, owing to
the rising tide, and when one of our own boats took
out another kedge astern, the people on deck soon
hauled the vessel off the reef into deep water. Some:
of her head sails were run up, and going slowly*-
round before a light breeze, she stood out into the -
bay for a quarter of a mile; then her anchor was s
dropped, and she swung to.

“ Our boats are coming back,” said Davis, “ and^
we shall be afloat ourselves in a few minutes*.
Harkness, send my boat and a couple of hands-;
ashore to stand by and cast off the hawser from that
tree. Aloft some of you, and loose sails.”

The two boats came alongside, and everyone in
them quickly clambered on board; as they were
veered astern I looked over the side, and saw that
in one of them were a number of needle-guns, and
the bottom boards were covered with loose cart-
ridges.

Black Diaz strode aft.

“ Ha, Mr. Davis. You on deck ? We’re afloat,
I see. Here, Mr. Stofel, you are now on duty
again, so go for’ard, please. Let drop the topsails
and hoist the jibs and fore staysail. As soon as
she gets a strain on the hawser, let them cast off the
shore end. Mr. Hassall, let your crowd up to get
in the hawser the moment it is cast off, or we shall
have it trailing underfoot.”

He gave his orders quietly, but I could see that
he was intensely excited as he paced to and fro on286 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

the after deck, muttering to himself and every now
and then glancing at the Iserbrook.

The hawser was cast off, and our savage recruits,
with loud yells, hauled it quickly in; the shore
boat dashed alongside, and in five minutes more the
Mamana was slipping through the blue waters of
the bay.

We passed close to the Aurelio. Her captain
and all the officers, with Lotherington, were stand-
ing on her after deck, looking at us as we swept by
under easy sail.

“Shall we see you to-night, Lotherington?”
cried Hassall to his brother recruiter.

“ You bet. Wouldn’t miss coming if I had
to swim. The captain would like to come as
well.”

“Right. He will be most heartily welcome.”

The Leonora lay too far out for us to speak her,
but we knew that Hayes would soon follow us;
and as we ran on across the bay we saw the redoubt-
able “Bully” in his boat pulling towards the
Iserbrook, Pedro and Hassall laughed.

“ (Bully ’ is going to condole with Captain
Sachs,” observed Hassall. “ I know his way.
He will help Sachs all he can, and then charge him
a thumping price. If it is not promptly paid in
cash or by an order on the German firm in Samoa,
he will hammer him into acquiescence.”

“ And then fix him up with sticking plaster and
arnica,” observed Stofel.

Hassall piloted us into a deep little bay with a
shelving beach, where we anchored. A few wild-
looking natives, armed with spears and long jadeADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 287

stone-headed clubs, emerged from a village of half
a dozen houses, situated on the side of a hill. After
some hesitation they came down to the beach, where
they were hailed by Hassall, who told them that he
was coming on shore.

Vern and I went with him, and Hassall, sweeping
his hand from left to right, asked us if we had ever
seen a more beautiful spot. We had not. The
mountain spurs that sloped down towards the still,
deep waters of the bay were clad in a forest mantle
of many shades of green; and far up, in a dark and
narrow valley which lay before us, a mountain
stream dropped down a sheer two hundred feet.
From one side of the valley to the other, birds shot
across every now and then, and as we rounded a
sandy point, we entered a deep tidal pool, the banks
of which were covered with the most gorgeously-
coloured crotons I ever saw. Behind these rose the
long lines of stately coco-palms, with their crests
waving to the singing of the breeze. On a rock in
a shallow part of the pool were a woman and a
young girl, with fishing baskets suspended from
their shoulders, and standing so motionless as we
passed, each with one arm around the other’s waist,
that one could imagine them to have been ebony
statues.

As soon as we touched the shore the villagers
appeared. As had happened at Numa-Numa, the
people here seemed to be pleased to see Hassall,
inviting us to their houses, and giving us coco-nuts
to drink and baked fish to eat.

“ There is a big village of nearly eight hundred
people about a mile inland from here,” said Has-288 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

sail, “ but they are somewhat diffident about meet-
ing white men since they killed Captain Ferguson
of the little Sydney steamer Ripple and six of his
crew here, a few years ago. Poor Ferguson opened
a case of two dozen American axes on the deck,
which was crowded with natives, and the sight was
too much for them. As he was stooping down to
take out an axe, a native severed his head from his
body with one blow from a broad-bladed tomahawk,
and then the rest of them rushed the crew and
began slaughtering them with clubs. Some
of them escaped by running down the fore-scuttle
and bolting the doors from the inside. But they
would soon have met with the same fate as the
others, if it had not been for the engineer, a plucky
little fellow named Barney Watt, who locked him-
self in the deck-house, and shot dead no less than
fourteen of the niggers. The rest took to their
canoes, after robbing the cabin of all the trade
goods on which they could lay hands. Barney got
the steamer safe back to Sydney, and I heard that
the owners made him the noble present of ten
pounds.”

After spending an hour or two ashore, we re-
turned on board, and found the hands busy in
sending down the topmasts, unbending sails, etc.,
for we expected it would be quite a week or ten
days before the schooner could be put into thor-
ough repair.

About seven in the evening, Hayes and his chief
mate, Frank Hussey, came on board, and soon
after they were followed by Lotherington and the
skipper of the Aurelie. It was a dark, rainy, andADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 289
squally night, and we were all glad to sit down to
an excellent supper in the schooner’s fine, roomy
cabin. And then after we had finished, out came
pipes and cigars, and we settled ourselves com-
fortably to hear what Diaz had to tell Hayes, and
what Hayes had to tell us.CHAPTER XXXIII.

Diaz briefly related what had taken place after he
and Hassall had boarded the brig.

“We found the captain, second mate, and Voss
prisoners in the hands of the native crew, and the
mate in charge. Four Manila men, whom Sachs
and Voss had threatened to shoot if they did not
work the guns, had run below as soon as we boarded.
I called them up and told them that no harm should
be done them. Then we had all the needle-guns,
except four, passed down into the boats. Next we
tumbled the guns overboard------”

“ In nice shallow water, Captain Diaz,” inter-
rupted Hayes with his noisy laugh, “ for which I
am much obliged to you, as they are my property
now.”

“ Then we cut away the standing rigging and
chopped through the masts enough to let them go
over the side at any time.”

“ They did go over three hours ago,” said Hayes.
“ I told Clausen he could do nothing with them, and
the sooner they went over the side the better.”

Voss, Sachs, and Rolf were then brought on
deck,” resumed Diaz, “ and I gave them a bit of a
lecture. I told them that I felt mighty keen on
hanging the lot of them for shooting my mate, kill-
ing one of my men, and trying to sink my ship. But
I said I was satisfied with what I had done, and that
I had left them four needle-guns, a hundred cart-

(290)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 291

ridges, and four revolvers for self-defence in case
they should be attacked by natives. They made no
answer, and slunk below like whipped curs. How
did you find them, Captain Hayes? ”

“ Mighty sick and sorry, and afraid of having
their throats cut by their native crew. However,
I have done good business. I am going to help them
remast the brig, take the “ recruits ” they have on
board under my care, and land them in Samoa.
Six of their native crew who are mutinous, I am
taking on board the Leonora, and lending them six
of mine. And I am doing all these kindnesses for
a paltry sum of one thousand dollars and those four
guns,” and again his great laugh sounded as he
stroked his flowing beard.

So far, Lotherington of the Aurelie had taken no
part in the conversation. He knew now why we
had signalled to him not to come on board, and
appreciated it; for he was an Englishman, and we
did not want to involve him in any subsequent
trouble that might arise. But now he spoke.

“ Captain Diaz, I have something of great im-
portance to tell you, and when you hear what it is,
I think that you will hurry through your cruise as
quickly as possible, and get back to Samoa before
the Iserbrook. In a month from now there will be
three German ships of war in Samoa, and it will go
hard with you, even though you are under the Stars
and Stripes, if the Iserbrook gets there before you,
and reports what has occurred at Numa-Numa.”

“ Who told you this—about the German ships-
of-war? ” asked Hayes.

“It is here,” and Lotherington took a folded292 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

newspaper from his pocket. u When we left
Noumea, a file of Sydney papers was put on board
by our owner, Captain McLeod. I never troubled
to open them until yesterday, as Sydney news
doesn’t interest me. But this paragraph did.
Listen,” and he read it aloud.

It is stated on the best authority that three German
war vessels now on the South American coast, or else-
where in the Pacific, are under orders to proceed to
Samoa, where they will arrive in July, and it is an open
secret that the annexation of the islands by Germany
will follow. The disinclination of Great Britain and
the United States to interfere in the Samoan imbroglio
is Germany’s opportunity.

Hayes whistled, and then swore under his breath.

“ That is bad news for all of us,” he observed.
“ The Germans don’t like me a little bit, and would
be glad to see me hanged and my brig sunk. I shall
have to break up my establishment in Samoa and
make Ponape, in the Caroline Islands, my head-
quarters. Tahiti is too hot for me—I had trouble
with the French gunboats around there three years
ago. As for you, Captain Diaz, and your partner,
I would advise you to follow Mr. Lotherington’s
advice and get back to Samoa as quickly as you can,
and then do as I mean to do—establish yourselves
somewhere else in the Pacific—anywhere except
where the German flag flies. And if I were in your
place I would not lose any time. How many re-
cruits have you now ? ”

“ Fifty-five,” said Hassall.

“ Can you get any more at Numa-Numa? ”ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 293

“ Yes, another fifty—almost our full comple-
ment.”

“ That is splendid. Now whilst your schooner is
being repaired, you can go on recruiting with your
boats. When you are finished, skip for Samoa, get
your money from the German firm for your recruits,
break up your trading station at Fagaloa Bay, and
then get away quietly to the Society Islands, or
better still, to the Caroline Group, where there is a
grand opening to start a trading business. If you
want to sell the Little Pocahontas, I’ll buy her. I
can’t pay you for her outright, but if we make
a deal, I will give you a thousand dollars on account
—or rather, I will give you a letter to my wife in-
structing her to hand you the money.”

“ Let my partner and me talk it over,” said Diaz,
rising, “ we will let you know in ten minutes.”

Diaz and I went on deck and sat down in my
cabin. Vern followed.

“ This news of Lotherington’s is of serious im-
portance, Mr. Blake,” said Diaz, ” and I think we
shall be doing wisely in following Hayes’s advice,
and also in selling him the Little Pocahontas. He
is a tricky customer, but I feel somehow that he will
act squarely with us.”

“ So do I.”

“ Well, we will ask 2,000 dollars for the cutter.
Now as to our next move after that. I know the
Caroline Islands well, and can bear out what
‘ Bully ’ says about there being grand chances there
for making money. I have often heard Captain
Guest say that when he got too old to go whaling he
would like to settle down on one of the Caroline294 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Islands as a trader. I have been there six or eight
times; the group is the regular rendezvous for the
American whaling fleet in the Pacific.”

His suggestions pleased both Vern and me im-
mensely, and I at once fell in with them. Return-
ing to the main cabin, we resumed our seats.

“ Captain Hayes, will you give us 2,000 dollars
for the Little Pocahontas, 1,000 dollars in cash, and
your verbal promise of another 1,000 dollars in
twelve months? ”

I am sure that the words “ verbal promise ”
pleased him wonderfully—he saw that we were
simply trusting to his honour.

He rose and shook hands with us.

‘ ‘ My wife will hand you 1,000 dollars in cash when
you give her my letter. If you leave Samoa before
I get there in the Leonora, you can place the cutter
in the care of the American Consul. Do not leave
her at Fagaloa. If the rebel party wipe out King
Malietoa, and the Germans seize Samoa, I might
never get possession of her.”

“ We understand.”

“ Now, I shall not hurry things here with the
Iserbrook. I want you to have plenty of time to
get to Samoa. But as soon as I have remasted her
I will follow you. Sachs will cruise among the
Solomons until he has a full cargo of recruits for his
firm, so as to save his face with them, and he won’t
get back to Apia for another three months. At the
same time you must be careful to see that your crew
keep their mouths shut, and that they don’t talk
about the affair at Numa-Numa in Samoa—especi-
ally if you find those German war ships are there.ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 295

And I think that the runaway steward of the Iser-
brook had best stay with me. People in Apia would
wonder how he came to be on board the Mamana.
The German mate, Clausen, is a good, decent chap,
and had no hand in the affair.”

“ I am sure of that,” said Diaz.

“ Now, that is all. Come, Lotherington, we must
be going.”

As the “ Pirate of the Pacific ” and the recruiter
of the Attrelie went off in their respective boats, four
bells struck, and Diaz, Stofel, Davis, Hassall, my
brother, and I returned to the main cabin to discuss
the events of the day, and our plans for the future.CHAPTER XXXIV.

Once more we beheld the green slopes of Vailima
Mountain as the Mamana sailed into Apia Harbour,
sixteen days out from Bougainville Island, and with
one hundred and four “ recruits ” on board. We
soon had a visit from the manager of the German
trading and planting firm—a most gentlemanly man
—who was well pleased with the appearance of our
recruits. Of these he took immediate delivery, and
they were sent off to the plantations the same day,
very loth to leave the Mamana, while we were paid
for our “ cargo ” in the most prompt manner on the
following morning. Hassall was asked if we had
come across the Iserbrook during our cruise; he
replied most truthfully that we had, and that we
had been in her company at Numa-Numa.

One German war ship only had arrived, and was
at anchor in Apia Harbour, but the other two were
expected daily. The rebels were highly jubilant,
and the adherents of King Malietoa were corre-
spondingly depressed, as were also the American
and English residents, for everyone now believed
that ere many days passed, Samoa would be German
territory, and a puppet rebel set up in place of
Malietoa. (This actually did occur, but not until
long years after.)

As soon as our business with the German firm was
finished, I sent Captain Hayes’s letter to his wife,
together with a note, saying that I would call on her

(296)ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 297

in a few days, when I would bring the cutter to
Apia, and place her in the care of the American
Consul. The same evening we sailed for Fagaloa,
and dropped anchor off Salimu at daylight.

The Little Pocahontas was away on a trading
cruise along the coast, but was expected back in a
couple of days. Viri Viri was in charge of her,
and had left his wife to take care of our trading
station. She had done very well, having bought
thirty tons of copra for us, and when we took stock
of the remaining goods, Diaz and I found that she
had over one hundred dollars’ commission due to
her. This we at once paid her, and her black eyes
danced with delight—never before had she and her
husband dreamt of possessing such wealth.

We then visited our warm friend Pule-o-le-
Vaitafe, and partly took him into our confidence, by
explaining that we apprehended trouble with the
German men-of-war, and that we should be leaving
Samoa for a long time, but that if the country was
not annexed by Germany we would surely visit
Fagaloa again. Our going away distressed him
infinitely, and covering his face and head with a
fine mat, he silently extended both hands and wept
like a child. We waited until he had composed
himself, and then we told him that we had decided
to let Viri Viri and his wife remain at Fagaloa and
carry on the trading business, leaving them a fresh
stock of “trade” at which he was extremely pleased,
while his mother, who sat beside him, was over-
joyed.

“ The sky will be dark to us of Fagaloa when you
leave,” he said mournfully, “ and I may never see298 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

you again. Only six days ago our hearts were
light, for after many fights we had captured the
rebel olo (entrenchments) and pursued them through
the bush to Tiavea, taking twenty heads. And now
nears the black cloud of German oppression, and I
hear the clank of swords, and the roar of great
cannon from the fighting ships, and the clang of the
German rifle butts on my fata (his ancestral stone).
And ye, O my good friends, will not be here when
I die. For die we must. How can we, who are so
few, combat with so many? And now as the
faigata (last struggle) comes, we have but few cart-
ridges left, while our enemies have many needle-
guns and many cartridges,” and again he covered
his face with the mat.

“ What does he say? ” asked Vern.

I translated his speech in a whisper.

“ Can’t you and Captain Diaz sell or give the
brave fellow some of the needle-guns you took from
the German brig,” he said.

It was a happy idea, and I asked Diaz what he
thought of it.

“Yes, by all means. Let us make him a present
of ten. We have thirty, and can well spare them.
He has been a good friend to us.”

I turned to Pule’s mother, whose hand was placed
lovingly on the chief’s shoulder.

“ Tell your son to hide his face no longer. We
have needle-guns on the ship. We got them
fairly from a German ship. Ten of these and a
thousand cartridges are his. It is our gift to him.”

A torrent of thanks burst from Pule-o-le-Vaitafe,
who could hardly contain himself for joy as heADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 299

accompanied us on board with some of his leading
fighting men. When we handed them the promised
weapons, each man pressed the breech to his lips,
and that night the whole village rang with exultant
war songs.

As soon as the cutter arrived, we shipped the
copra, and Vern and I sailed her to Apia, handed her
over to the American Consul, received the 1,000
dollars from Mrs. Hayes, and then returned to
Fagaloa overland through the bush, a walk of five-
and-twenty miles. But we were so excited and
elated that we felt no fatigue when we reached
Safimu and after an eight hours’ tramp went on
board.

Hurriedly we made preparations for the long
voyage to the far-off Carolines. As usual, our
native friends filled our decks with fresh provisions,
fruit, and a number of squealing pigs and noisy
fowls. We also took on board the cattle we had left
in the care of Pule-o-le-Vaitafe, placing them in
stalls in the ’tween decks. Then came the time to
say farewell—and hard it was to say it—to Pule and
his people, and as the sun sank behind the fast
purpling mountains of Upolu, the Mam ana crept
softly out of the beautiful bay with the first breath
of the gentle land breeze, standing NNW. over a
smooth and starlit sea for the Carolines.

Our crew now consisted entirely of natives, for
with the exception of Harkness, who pressed us to
take him as bos’un, we had paid off all the white
men, giving them each a substantial bonus for the
way in which they had stood by us in the Solomons,
and for their good behaviour generally ever since3oo ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE
they first came to us, when we were salving the
cargo of the Danish barque on Christmas Island. I
am glad to say that these men, during the few weeks
they remained in Apia waiting for a ship to take
them back to New Zealand, were loyal to us, and did
not breathe a word to anyone in Samoa of what had
occurred at Numa-Numa.

Mr. Stofel, of course, remained with us, for even
had he not cared to follow our fortunes as mate of
the Montana, he had no desire to remain in Samoa
since it would have been risky for him when the
Iserbrook affair leaked out.

We made the passage to the Caroline Islands by
way of the Ellice and Gilbert Islands, doing a very
profitable business with the local traders, buying
their copra and coco-nut oil, and paying for it in the
usual trade goods. Then, steering more westerly,
we made Strong’s Island, the eastern outlier of the
widely-spread Caroline Group, anchoring in Lele
Harbour, where the King resided. Here we found
two American whaleships, the captains of which,
to the great delight of Diaz and myself, told us that
the Pocahontas had called off Lele a few days pre-
viously, and that Captain Guest had come on shore
for a few hours. He told them that he was putting
in at Ponap6 to wood and water, and would be
cruising off that island fora month. The Pocahontas
was then six months out from New Bedford, having
gone home a full ship, although Guest had previ-
ously sold a cargo of oil at Honolulu, soon after we
parted from him at Atafu Island.

Both of these captains asked us if we had met
“ Bully ” Hayes at Samoa, and were much in-ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 301

terested in the story of our dealings with him, and
in fact “ Bully ” Hayes and his doings—good and
bad—seemed to be a never-ending subject of discus-
sion, forming the framework for an extraordinary
amount of fiction with most sailors, traders, and mis-
sionaries in the South Seas. And, at this present
moment, in the year 1908, long after the redoubtable
Bully has gone to the bottom of the Pacific off one
of the Marshall Islands, I have on my bookshelves
a recently published volume, entitled Bully Hayes,
Blackbirder, in which he is portrayed as a monster
of crime, wading up to the top of his sea-boots in
gore. Should any of my readers come across this
precious volume, I beg them to place it beside the
Adventures of Baron Munchausen. For I knew the
man for many years—after I first met him in Samoa
—and once, when temporary evil fortune overtook
Vern and me, I sailed with him as supercargo,
learning all that was good and bad in his strangely
complex nature. His was an extraordinary story
indeed. Peace to his manes!

And now my tale draws to an end, and if I have
wearied my readers I beg their patience for but a
little longer ere I lay down my pen.

Westward for six hundred miles, through won-
drously beautiful Caroline Islands we sailed, our
hearts beating high with expectation and hope for
a bright and peaceful future, and then one clear
moonlight night we saw the misty loom of Ponap6
ahead, with a white cloud hiding the tops of its
rugged mountains. At dawn we glided through a
passage in the reef into the lakelike harbour of Roan302 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Kiti, which was to be our home and resting place for
many years.

As our cable rattled through the hawse-pipe, and
the echoes awoke in the green silent woods, a boat
put off from the shore, and a white man came on
board.

“ Has the Pocahontas been here? ” was our first
question.

“ She is here. Look over the point there, through
the coco-nut trees, and you can see the top of her
spars showing. Hallo, here is one of her boats
coming now with the skipper in it.”

“ Come below, Pedro, quick,” I cried, dragging
Black Diaz towards the companion, “ and you too,
Vern. Mr. Stofel, as soon as Captain Guest comes
on board tell him to come below. We are going to
give him a surprise. But don’t mention our
names.”

Hurriedly we gave certain orders to the steward,
and in a few minutes the cabin table was laid for
breakfast, and an extra place made for Guest.

Ten minutes passed, then we heard his step on the
after-deck and his well-known voice as he spoke to
Stofel, and asked the name of the schooner.

“ The Mamana, sir. Will you please go below.
The captain is expecting you.”

“ Certainly. Say, this is a fine schooner. Never
saw a better.” Then he descended the companion
way.

“Hallo, Captain Guest. How are you?” I
bawled, as Diaz and I rushed towards him with
outstretched hands.

For a moment or two he stared at us in blankADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 303
astonishment, and then slowly put out both his
hands.

“ Where-in-the-name-of-creation—Land alive! as
we say to home, I must be dreaming.”

“ No, you are not. You are on board the
Mamana—here is Captain Pedro Diaz, who is half-
owner—I am the other half! ”

“ Well, well, well,” and he wrung our hands
again and again, while I thought that his eyes grew
misty, “ Pedro . . . Mr. Blake . . . my old
friends. It jest does me good to see you again. Let
me sit down and hev a good look at you both.”

“ Now, Captain Guest,” I said, “let me intro-
duce to you our good friend and comrade Ted
Hassall, and my brother Vern, of whom you have
often heard me speak. You have to stay here for
breakfast, so you can send your boat away, and we’ll
take you back. But we have a mighty fine yarn to
spin you before that. How is Mr. Walker, and Mr.
Prosper, and all the boat-steerers ? ”

“ Bully—jest bully. And I reckon they will be
more pleased to see you and Pedro here than they
would to strike a bull sperm whale filled with amber-
gris from the blow-hole to the tips of his flukes.”

It was a right happy breakfast that morning, and
when an hour afterwards we went off to the Pocahon-
tas in one of our own boats, all the well-remembered
officers and crew appeared at the side, giving Pedro
Diaz three such rousing cheers that his black face
seemed to shine with pleasure, and when we stepped
on deck, everyone pressed around to shake hands
with him and me.

“ Mr. Walker,” called out Captain Guest, “ tell3O4 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Captain Diaz’s old boat’s crew that they have liberty
until dinner time to go aboard the Mamana for a
‘ gam.’ Now, come below, gentlemen all of you,
and we’ll have some Old Bourbon Soothing Syrup,
and Captain Diaz will tell you, Mr. Walker, and
you, Mr. Prosper, a yarn that will make your hair
curl with envy.”

It was like coming home again for Diaz and me to
find ourselves once more in the roomy, restful cabin
of the dear old Pocahontas, and we dropped into our
former seats at the cabin table as naturally as if
we had never left her. I was very pleased to find
that Mr. Prosper’s former boat-steerer sat down
with us; for he had been promoted to fourth mate,
and now had a “ handle to his name ” and lived aft.
Diaz shook hands with him warmly, and remarked
with a laugh as he took his seat beside him :

“ Guess I can sit next to your fourth mate,
Captain Guest, and find out if he has forgotten how
to put an iron into a whale—now that he is at the
other end of the boat? ”

We remained on board the whaleship to dinner,
and then returned to our own vessel, for we had much
to do. The chief of the Roan Kiti district came and
paid us a ceremonial visit, and was highly pleased
when we told him that if he would sell us a suitable
piece of land on which to build houses and a store,
we would make Roan Kiti Harbour our head trad-
ing station, for there was no resident trader there—
the white man who had boarded us being only a
broken-down beach-comber. The chief took us
ashore, marked out a piece of good land with deep
water frontage, and named a price, which was atADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 305
once paid. Before nightfall his native house-
builders were at work clearing the ground, and in a
week a substantial dwelling-house was ready for
occupation. Guest and his officers came to the
house warming, which was of a somewhat noisy and
protracted character, lasting until daylight.

Then we bade farewell to Guest and all on board
the Pocahontas, which sailed the same day, and we
did not see her again for two years.

After the Mamana had been put on the beach,
and given a good overhaul, she sailed for a three
months’ cruise among the Marshall and Caroline
Groups with Ted Hassall as supercargo, while Vern
and I with our faithful Marana remained behind to
look after our new trading station.

Diaz had left us one of the schooner’s boats, in
which we made cruises right round the noble island
of Ponapd from time to time, opening up communi-
cation with the natives and buying their coco-nut
oil, pearl-shell, and turtle-shell. It was delightful
work—and our existence on PonapS for many years
was a supremely happy one.

A month before the Mamana returned from her
cruise the Leonora appeared and anchored so close
to our house that when she swung round, her stern
was not fifty feet from the doorway. Hayes came
ashore, roaring out his greetings, and demanding
“a long cool drink and plenty of it.” We were
delighted to see him and to have him with us for a
couple of days, listening to his inimitably droll
stories or watching his truly wonderful marksman-
ship with rifle and pistol. He paid us the remain-
ing 1,000 dollars due on the purchase of the Little3o6 ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE

Pocahontas, and told us that we should see her
pretty frequently, as she was acting as tender to the
Leonora.
• • • • •

After a year had passed, I paid a visit to my
parents in Australia, taking passage in a Fiji vessel.
Then after a brief sojourn among the scenes of my
childhood’s days I returned to Ponape, finding all
well, and the Maniana ready to sail for San Fran-
cisco with a full cargo of oil. Vern and I went with
her, for we were anxious to meet Alf once more, and
bring him back with us.

We entered the Golden Gate after a long and
wearying passage, anchoring off Telegraph Hill at
dark, and although it was pouring with rain, we
went on shore for our letters. Alf had not arrived,
but we found a letter from him telling us that he
would be leaving Carson City in a few weeks, and
would be delighted to see our island home and re-
main with us some months before going home to
Sydney.

Suddenly Vern clapped me on the shoulder.

i( Let us go and see old Mother Lynch ! ”

We hired a carriage and tore along over the
cobble stones to Pine Street, and gave a thundering
rap at the door.

“ Does Mrs. Lynch live here now? ” I asked of
the woman who opened the door.

“ She does that,” said a well-remembered voice
from within, “an’ who the divil may you be that
yez come poundin’ agin me door as if ye was the
City foire brigade or a polaceman.”ADVENTURES OF LOUIS BLAKE 307

Pushing past the woman, Vern and I rushed into
the room, and we both threw our arms round the
astonished old lady’s ample figure. For a moment
she did not recognise us, but when she did, she
uttered an extraordinary sound—something between
a roar and a howl.

” Howly Saints in Hivin ! Me bhoys, me bhoys !
Misther Vern, Misther Vern! And the blessed
choild! Sure it’s a happy woman I am this
min-ute! Now, I’ll get yez somethin’ to ate,”
and then she broke down and wept out of sheer joy.

THE END.

WALTER WATTS AND CO., LTD,, PRINTERS, LEICESTER.1\TOTABLE

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T. WERNER LAURIE, Clifford’s Inn, LondonThis book is a preservation facsimile produced for
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
It is made in compliance with copyright law
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Preservation facsimile printing and binding
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