Where The Sun Sets - Memories From Other Years and Lands

^
UCSB LIBRARY
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WHERE THE SUN SETS
WHERE THE SUN SETS
MEMORIES
FROM OTHER YEARS AND LANDS
BY
FRANCIS SINCLAIR
AUTHOR OF "BALLADS AND POEMS FROM THE PACIFIC,'
"SKETCHES BY AOPOURI," ETC.
V 3 $"/
They ope no door, no quick or heavy tread

Crosses mythreshold with a rude foot-fall ;
But with the grace and reverence of the dead,

They enter softly all.
Enter and take their places by my chair ;

Enter and touch me with their shadowy hands ;
Bringing the light and darkness, joy and care,
From other years and lands.
LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON AND COMPANY LTD.
1
5 A, PATERNOSTER Row, E.G.
1905
CHISWICK PRESS CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND
: CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
I
PREFACE
BELONG to a Coterie of Wan-
derers who make it a point to
foregather in London during the

month of May that is, as many
as happen to be in England at that festive
season. All our Associates have travelled far

and wide, one of our rules being that before a
candidate is eligible for election he must have
spent at least a fifth part of his life abroad, the
farther afield the better.
At our reunions members are expected to
recount any striking adventures in which they
have taken part, the only conditions being that a

contribution is edifying as well as entertaining,
and that in its main points it must be true. Of
course, it is always allowable to intensify a
vi PREFACE
subject a little as a painter lightens or darkens
his colours without in the least changing the

truth of the scene he portrays.
A short while ago one of our most experi-
enced Associates related the adventure which I

have placed at the beginning of my collection.
The stories which follow were contributed at

various meetings, and are now for the first time
transcribed from my notebooks where I jotted

down the incidents shortly after they occurred,
or came to my knowledge, and while they were

still fresh in my mind.
F. S.
London, 1905.
CONTENTS
PAGE
WHERE THE SUN SETS I
A REMINISCENCE OF THE OLD SOUTH . .

69
MIST 99
MARK WYNYARD'S STORY 137
AN IDYLL OF THE SOUTH SEAS .... 281
JACOB BUSBY, THE LINEMAN 299

SHIRLEY WOLD 375
MARY DRIVER, THE BEAUTY OF BRANS-
COMBE 411
TANEKAI AND MAHINA 427
vn
WHERE THE SUN SETS
A MEMORY OF THE PACIFIC
i
WHERE THE SUN SETS
A MEMORY OF THE PACIFIC
HE beautiful Pacific, its blue wa-

ters decked with innumerable fairy
islands, is the most romantic, as
well as the greatest, ocean in the
world. Ever since gallant Balboa, nearly four
hundred years ago, first discovered this vast
sea, and, rushing into its waters with sword and
buckler, took possession of it in the name of his
master, Ferdinand of Spain; ever since, a few
years later, brave old Magellan first launched

the ships of Europe on the unknown sea, and
boldly crossed uncharted, unexplored bosom,

its
and appropriately named it the " Pacific," it

has been an El Dorado to all the adventurous
spirits of the world. Even in its names it has

been more fortunate than most parts of the
3
4 WHERE THE SUN SETS
globe; Pacific has a pleasing air about it, both
in sound and meaning ; Polynesia, signifying
many islands, is not only appropriate, but is a
nice word in one's mouth. As for native names
of places and things, there is not a jaw-breaking
word whole vocabulary.
in their
Then, the charms of its halcyon climate its

coral atolls, with raging, snow-white surf on
one side, and pellucid, glittering lagoons on the
other! hundreds of splendid volcanic islands
of unsurpassed fertility, clothed with the most
gorgeous vegetation in the world, and, withal,

a people, genial, merry, and handsome having ;
just enough fierceness in their composition (like

their own ocean's rare but deadly hurricanes)
to make companionship exhilarating and
their
interesting! All this, and much more, which is

too subtile for commonplace words to express,
make the Pacific a dream of romance to those
who have only read of it, and a memory which
never fades to those who have drifted from

island to island on its azure bosom by day, and
its moonlit waters by night.
know the Pacific

I as well as most men.
From Tahiti westward to Fiji, and fromTonga
WHERE THE SUN SETS 5
northward to Hawaii, I don't suppose there are

many who have seen more of the native races,
or who sympathize with and understand them
better than I do. Of course when I say "under-
stand them," speak as a white man, and by
I
that I mean that a white man never quite

understands what we rather superciliously call
"coloured people." White people express them-
selves quite freely, too freely I fear, on all
manner of subjects, sacred and profane. Not so
the brown races. They only seem to us to do so.
There are certain subjects and thoughts which
they never discuss. The brown man knows, by

some fine, subtile sense, exactly what his friend
or foe is thinking and feeling, so there is no
need for expression in words. All primitive
races have this intuitive instinct in common
with the higher animal kingdom, which we
seem to have lost, that is to say if we ever
it.
possessed
"
There are, or rather were, for the old order
changeth, yielding place to new," three dis-

" "
tinct classes of whites in the many scattered
islands of the Pacific, and I have been brought
into contact and studied them all pretty closely.
Firstly, there are the missionaries secondly, ;
" "
lost gentlemen, who cannot quite hide their
origin, even with bare feet, flannel shirt, and
moleskin trousers and, thirdly, the true beach-
;
comber, a class, as a rule, lazy, dirty, and alto-

gether worthless. These are or were the
three types, but of course there are many ex-
ceptions in each class. Still the old saying
holds good here as elsewhere, that " exceptions
only prove the rule."

The old missionaries as a class are (or were
when knew them) a self-sacrificing and noble
I
body of men and women; although sometimes I

have noticed enough of bigotry and lack of true
charity among them to show clearly that they
are lineal descendants of the old Adam, as in-
deed we all are, for that matter.
" "
The lost gentlemen are a happy-go-lucky
lot, who generally have missed their way through
drink, or otherwise kicking over the traces of

civilized society; or else through lack of moral
fibrehave drifted out of their sphere and be-
come so overwhelmed with the glamour of the
coral seas, palm groves, and the witchery of
siren voices, that they have sat them down
upon the yellow sands and sang, We will re-

"
turn no more! no more!" The beach-combers

are, as a rule, an utterly worthless set of men,
vicious and lazy, who subsist upon the good
nature and kindly feelings of the natives,

whom they vilify as well as plunder. As I
previously remarked, none of these

three
classes (or any other class for that matter)
clearly understands the natives. The "lost"

gentleman class come nearest, no doubt, to
reading the secret of the islander's character.

The beach-comber is too dense and gross to
understand the subtle shades of feeling in the
sensitive hearts of these children of nature. As
for the missionary, good man, it is the constant
aim and object of the Pacific islanders with-
out exception to hide their real feelings from
him. Not only because the poor, simple brown
man knows that if he revealed himself unre-
servedly the missionary would stand shocked
and aghast (and he hates to give needless
pain); but also the coloured human being has
a deep-rooted idea away down in
poor, his
warped soul, that with regard to all religious

matters, a certain amount of what I must
call hypocrisy for want of a more suitable
word, is not only allowable, but laudable.

As virtuous deportment for the time
if their
being atoned for a multitude of sins at odd

times.
Mind you, I do not for one moment mean to
infer that there are no truly religious natives in
the Pacific. On the

contrary, proud I am to say
that have had the pleasure of being intimately

I
acquainted with many, both men and women,

some of whom have passed, and others who
will yet pass, into the kingdom of heaven.
But what I do mean to say is, that if these
people had unreservedly shown their inward

souls and daily lives to any conscientious mis-
sionary he would have given up the Pacific in
despair. And that would have been a pity, for
the missionary has done more good than he is
credited with, after all is said and done, even if
he has been occasionally rather narrow and
self-opinionated. But we must remember that
we all have more or less of these disagreeable
qualities; and so we should not be too hard on
the poor missionary, even if he is a trifle ex-
asperating now and then.

One point more, and then I shall take leave
of my friend the missionary; and I must say
that do so with profound and sincere sym-
I
pathy for his lonely, monotonous life in the

Pacific Islands. All the sounds and sights of
his youth thousands of leagues away, over
dreary wastes of ocean no changes of season
;
to let him know when the hawthorn is white

in the spring when the blackberries

hedges, or
are ripe in the autumn; no more rustling of the
leaves as in the times when he and his com-
panions went nutting in the long, glorious

afternoons; no crystal streams with dark pools
under the ferny bank where the sly, lovely trout
hide away, and now and then make a ripple on
top of the water to everybody's intense excite-
ment; no music of thrush or blackbird in the
early morning; no cheerful sound of plough-
men speaking to their horses, and boys and
girls laughing and calling as they bring the
cows up to the milking. No! no! never again
such sounds. Only the ceaseless monotone of
the vast Pacific rollers booming on the coral
reef,and the moaning of the trade winds in the

cocoa-nut groves only these from year's end
to year's end!
Ah my!
thoughtless tourist friend who flut-
ters through the Pacific by the easy route of
luxurious steamers and then writes a book, in-
cidentally mentioning among other misstate-

ments the easy, arcadian life of the mission-
"
ary, all apple pie and cream," on the sandy
beach under the cocoa-nut palms ah! my
you never hear that "fools rush in

friend, did
"
where Angels fear to tread ? If you had seen
io WHERE THE SUN SETS
as much of the lonely tragedy of missionary life
as I have, you would not smile, but weep at
that true story of the poor missionary lady,
who, after thirty or forty years of the monotony

of her life, even with regard to food (long re-
stricted to tasteless fish and too tasteful pork),
at lastwept bitter tears when she found that
she had lost the taste for roast beef! Put that
in your pipe and ponder, my luxurious globe
trotter, retailing in your club your broad, silly

stories of missionary life, and other things in
the Pacific of which you reallyknow much

less you had stayed at
than if home and read
" "
Captain Cook's Voyages," The Life of
Chalmers," and such like books.
The point I referred to a little while ago is
this. The missionary, as ageneral thing forgot,

or rather never learned, " That it takes forty
generations to make the wild duck tame." He

was too hasty with his so-called " civilization."
(Mark do not say Christianity that can
that I
never be inculcated too early). But he was too

" " "
hasty with his so-called civilization for the
wild brown man." And the end of it all is that
the poor fellows have come out of the process
(the few that are left) neither fish, nor flesh,
nor good red herring. All their old customs
I
WHERE THE SUN SETS n
(unless such as were grossly inconsistent with
Christianity, which many of them were not)
should have been left untouched, and, in short,
the old natural retained as far as possible.
life
Their customs were suited to their race, to

their climate, and to their islands.
There are many things which cannot be
eradicated from the native mind, except, per-
haps, by generations of education, as they

have been slowly, and shall I say partially,
One of these is the belief
eradicated from ours.
in the power men of their race to
of certain
cause death by magic arts. The native may
joke with you on the subject, he may avow

utter unbelief in any such power, he may even
scoff openly before a Kahuna (priest) of the
magic art ;
but I venture to affirm that there is
not a native or even half-caste in the Pacific,

with any amount of the veneer of civilization,
education, and religion to fortify him, but would
calmly and hopelessly lay himself down and die
if he knew, and, strange to say, often when he
does not know, that a real, good, old-fashioned
Kahuna had taken in hand to pray him to death.
Of course, there are a clumsy lot who use what
we may call foul means, poison, for instance, but
that is not the method of the true, old, respect-
able Kahuna Anaana, whose method 1
is magic,
pure and simple.
A very curious part of the magic is that he
who apparently has the power of death in his
inscrutable heart, has also to some extent the
power of life. I remember witnessing a striking
instance of this in Hawaii. I visited that very
interestingisland a good many years ago,

when the Hawaiian Archipelago were still under
the benign government of their native kings;
ere a congregation of lawyers and other mal-
contents subverted one of the most unique,
contented, and happy little governments in the
world, and then induced "
Uncle Sam " to
gobble up the islands, stock, lock, and barrel,

without even the common decency of saying to
" "
the poor, meek islanders, By your leave!
I was located for the time being with a
1
Kahuna Anaana, pronounced Ka-hu-na Ah-nah-nah.
Kahuna means priest; Anaana means witchcraft, sorcery,
enchantment, etc., but to the native mind Anaana conveys
a much more subtile, or perhaps I should say a more sub-
stantial meaning than these words do to us. It is as tangible
to the Pacific islander as life or death. It is to him one of
the inscrutable facts which exist whether one likes it or
not. The wise man is he who endeavours to keep clear
of its dangers, and to reap its benefits without raising
foolish and profitless questions which simply cannot be
solved.
University man, an ex-Army officer, who had

somehow or other kicked over the traces, and
gone drifting. After many adventures (among

others the Maori war in New Zealand, and gum
digging afterwards) he had drifted north into
the vast Pacific and got lost, as many have done
before and since. Fortunately for him he had
been born with a good deal of energy (no train-
ing can impart this priceless quality, it must be
" bone which saved him from
bred in the "),
becoming the hopeless loafer one meets so

often in those sunny seas.
My friend had acquired a good deal of pro-

perty, kept a store with the usual native trade,
had regular meals (instead of falling into the
shiftless, slovenly way of the lost white of eat-
ing, smoking, and drinking whenever there is a

chance), and altogether lived a sort of civilized
life. He had married a half-caste girl, who had
been brought up by an English lady, and was
really well-mannered and intelligent. She was
musical; could play the usual popular society
pieces with much verve on an old piano which
my had traded from a Yankee whaling
friend
skipper who was bound home with a full ship,

and whose wife, in the glory of wealth, had
made up her mind to have a bran new Steinway.
14
She could paint, too, quite prettily (from copy)

and was, in short, what a man would call a lady,
if he met her in
any drawing-room. What a
woman would have called her, I do not exactly
know. Women are much more observant than
men, and they often take dislikes where a man
sees no reason.
I had better mention the
up-bringing this girl
had had, to show you that her mind was con-
siderably removed from the ordinary way of
thinking of her class in the Pacific. Mrs.
Willoby, or rather Julia, as everybody, native
fashion, called her, was the daughter of a well-
to-do sea captain who commanded a sailing
ship, which in years gone by had traded between

San Francisco, Oregon, Hawaii, and Sydney.
During one of his calls at Kealakeakua Bay,
the captain saw, loved, and in haste married, a
pretty native girl. History does not say whether

he performed the usual repenting " at leisure."
Anyhow, he seems to have behaved extremely
well. His wife lived contentedly and happily in
a nice house he built for her. When she died
after some ten years of married the captain
life,
took his little daughter to San Francisco and

left her in charge of an old maiden sister, the
only relative, he thought, who would tolerate

the wild ways, yet warm heart, of the little

brown waif. The
captain was quite right in his
choice of a guardian for Julia. The shrivelled
heart of the old maid went out at once to the
loving little creature who had come

waken to
memories she had long thought dead and
buried in the land of youth and dreams. So
everything seemed as it should be. But, alas,

after a few years the tropical flower began to
fade. What the Californians called "Trade
"
winds were not her trade winds, and little
Julia was withering under their chill blast.
Then the captain, in dire alarm, having a

charter for Sydney, packed his sister and
"
daughter into the snug cabin of the Flying
Spray," determined to try the regions under
the Southern Cross, for his "wee tropic bird,"
as he lovingly called his little girl.
Julia prospered and had many advantages

of education in Sydney. But when she got to
be she began
fifteen or sixteen years of age,
to wilt under the cold sweep of the "sou'-

"
westers and the doctors advised her father to
"
take his " wee tropic bird back to her native
clime. So back they came to the little house in
Kealakeakua, where some years later the sweet
old aunt fell asleep under the cocoa-nut trees,
and met her happy
Julia fate in the tall, hand-
some ex-Guardsman.
* * * * *
spent a very pleasant month or two with my

I
friend Willoby, which, by the way, was not

his real name. He lived on the south-west side
of Hawaii, about a thousand feet above the sea.
His location was in the midst of fine woods
where one could wander at will, shooting, or
plant collecting, or simply loafing with a book ;
this all before the splendid forest was ruined by
lantana (a gift of the white man, with many

other wretched gifts, as my friend used to
remark). Strange to say, this is the only spot

in the Pacific where I have ever met our old
friend the crow, and, stranger still, the birds
only inhabit a district of a few miles in extent.

It is marvellous, if they are indigenous, that
they have not spread all over the islands and ;
if they have been introduced, it is still more
marvellous that the observant native has no

record of the event. I have met many intelli-
gent white men, born in the country, who

thought Iwas drawing the long bow when I
told them that I had shot crows in Kona,
Hawaii.
I had just completed a long tour round the

island; visited the great volcano of Kilauea,
made the ascent of Mauna-loa, finally again
reaching Willoby's ranch from the northward,

which I had riding due south, six weeks
left,
before. As I rode into the yard I was struck

by the absence of the usual hilarious not to
say noisy demonstrations of welcome with

which had always been received hitherto.
I
Not even a dog gave tongue, which is always a

cheering sound in lonely places, as Byron, with
his subtile knowledge of human nature, so
beautifully says:
" 'Tis sweet to hear

the watch-dog's honest bark
Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw near home."
I threw my horse's bridle to one of thenumerous

" "
yard boys who are always in great abund-
ance about all substantial establishments in
the islands, stepped unceremoniously on to the

veranda, and proceeded at once to unbuckle
my spurs and leggings. The solemn expression
on the boy's face as he took my horse, and the
unusual quiet about the place, coupled with the
absence of my friend, were beginning to make
me a little uneasy, when, to my relief, Willoby
himself appeared, and greeted me in his accus-
c
i8 WHERE THE SUN SETS
tomed kind way, but with a very sad and
anxious expression on his usually cheerful face.
After ascertaining that I had replenished the
inner man at a native house only two hours
previously, he had me into a little room at the

end of the veranda, a snug little retreat which
he called his den, and which was understood
to.be absolutely sacred from all intrusion. From
the windows one had a wonderful view of the
cool, splendid forest. A couple of miles or so
down, began the lava desolation which stretched
away to the line of cocoanut trees fringing the
long line of the great Pacific rollers, whose
sad, slumberous monotone rose and fell on the
soft sea breeze. Beyond the breakers lay the
calm Pacific, glittering like a sea of glass, with-
out a ripple, for days together. Here, some-
times, a schooner will lie becalmed, utterly
helpless, her white sails hanging limp and use-
less from the gently swaying gaffs. In the
Pacific an island as high as Hawaii makes a
complete barrier to the trade winds. Schooners

may be plunging bows under, and with sails
close-reefed, on the windward side of a large
island, while others are lying becalmed on the
lee side, the sailors vainly whistling for a breeze
to carry them past the calm streak.
A curious part of it all is that the tremendous
thundering on the reef, have nothing to

rollers,
do with storms in the Pacific. They are mess-
engers from wild typhoons that are exhausting
their wrath in the far-off China Sea. I have
seen a most accurate computation of the time it
takes these great rollers to cross the Pacific (I
forget, at the moment, how many hours from

Hawaii to the coast of California), but their
speed is almost incredible when one watches

their apparently slow, measured beating on the
reef.
When Willoby had motioned me to a seat

and produced the regrettable hospitality of
Englishmen all over the world, a bottle of

"
Mountain Dew," he lit his pipe (another un-
fortunate English habit), sat down facing me,

and began to smoke vigorously, a way he had
when in any unusual perplexity. This man and
I had only foregathered three months before,
but, somehow, it seemed as if we had been in-
timate friends all our lives. That sort of thing
happens sometimes, not often, when two British-

ers meet in lonely out-of-the-way corners of the
globe.
My had told me the story of his way-
friend
ward career, from his father's quiet manor
house in far-off Cornwall, with its calm and re-
fined surroundings, to the native establishment

in South Kona, Hawaii, with its surroundings,
and I had come deeply to sympathize with the
" "
lostgentleman, after, of course, being vio-
lently angry with him for the many golden
opportunities he had lightly cast away, and the
many hearts he had broken.
After an interval of smoke and silence,
"
Willoby said, No
doubt you have noticed
the difference between your departure and your
return ? Native and good wishes
fun, noise,
then; fear, gloom, and sadness now! It is this

my dying she
wife is is only a half-caste
girl, as you know, but she is about as good as
they make 'em, as the saying goes; and above
all, she is the only one I have left in the world
to care for me
now, and the only one I care for.
When she dies, the whisky and the revolver
"
route is all that is left for me ! The poor
fellow's face and voice showed that he was per-
fectly sober and in deadly earnest.
With the natural impulse we all have of try-
ing to comfort one in distress, I said that I
hoped was only some temporary illness that

it
his wife was suffering from. I felt sure that one

who was in such brilliant health as she was when
I left could not be so very low now. Willoby

"
shook his head. Come and see her," he said,
impulsively, leading me to the back of the
house, where the family quarters were. He
entered the room first, and in a few moments
beckoned me to come, saying in as cheery a
voice as he could assume, poor fellow, " Our
friend has come back from Hilo, Julia! and he
is going to cheer you up and make you well of
that miserable weakness you have, my girl!"
Mrs. Willoby and I had always got on well, and
I think she was now
really glad to see me. But
I was
utterly dumbfounded and shocked to see
the sad change in the poor young thing. Sunken
cheeks, fallen chest, laboured breathing, and
above that pleading expression in the eyes
all,
which tells plainer than words that they see the

grim enemy approaching. All told without a
shadow of doubt that little Julia's days, or
rather hours, were numbered. It was extremely
touching, and I felt profound sympathy for

Willoby in his desolation. As for the girl, I felt
deeply too for her, but I knew that she was not
suffering mentally, as her husband was, and as
for the physical suffering, that could and was
being relieved by medical skill.
There was an old French doctor in the dis-
trict, appointed by the government. He was
now in the house, and was attending Mrs.
Willoby assiduously night and day. But, as the

old savant admitted, this was a case which baffled
allthe knowledge gained in half a dozen of the
most famous colleges in the world. Doctor de
Voe was a very clever and learned old chap. He
had drifted into the eddies of life (but that is
another story which I could tell you something

of too; this is Willoby's story I am at now so
I must and at last deserted
try to stick to it)
from a French whale ship in Kealakeakua Bay,

bewitched, as he told me himself, by the bright
eyes of a daughter of a greatly celebrated
Kahuna Anaana (Priest of Magic).
was
It a high offence to practise magic, but
who was going to be public-spirited enough
to prosecute the old magician at the imminent
risk of his own So Holokahiki, in a little
life?
devil's den of his own, with one old weird wife
(he had owned ten in his younger days) lived on

the fat of the land, the surreptitious reward of
his magic arts. Madlyjealous husbands came
to him to find out the cause of a wife's alienated
affections.Love-sick swains sought his aid not
only to cure their own broken hearts, but also

to bring some obdurate fair one under the spell
of the mischievous god, which last was an

little
easy enough task for old Holokahiki. It meant

simply the proper placing of a love-philtre above
some doorway, or on some tree, under which the
coy maiden would pass, and the deed was done.
More serious still was the case of those who for
any cause allowing their hate to blind their
reason engaged the old magician to pray the
object of their hatred to death. Such was
the father of the handsome girl with the un-
fathomable eyes, who had lured the learned
member of a dozen medical societies, to cut the
painter with civilization. There were, of course,
several temptations hard for the poor Doctor to
resist the love of a really handsome woman,
a fair income (eight hundred dollars from the
government, and about as much more from

outside practice), a really comfortable grass-
house, the magazines and books he wished
all
to order from Honolulu, and last, but by no

means least, an excellent Chinese cook. Of
course I could put down a good deal per con-
tra, but I refrain, and proceed with my dis-
jointed yarn.
After a few words of kindly greeting with
poor Julia, Willoby and I returned to his den,
and sat down with never a word. There was
no use attempting to disguise the fact that the
poor girl was nearing her end. Willoby knew
exactly all I could say to console him under
the heavy affliction which was so surely over-
taking him. And

was out of the question
it
to say that I had any hope of his wife's re-
covery; he would have known that was the

thinnest kind of a lie. While we sat thus,
Willoby smoking in moody silence, Doctor de
Voe joined There was a queer look on his
us.
expressive, brown, bilious face. Without a word

he helped himself to a stiff nip of whisky, drank
it do excepting English-
off neat (as all people
men), and swallowed half a glass of water imme-

diately afterwards.
Then he sat down and looked across the
table at Willoby, with a strange gleam in his
eyes a gleam both tragic and comic which
produced a most weird expression in those

"
deep sunken, fiery orbs. Mr. Willoby," he
said (the Doctor could speak English per-
fectly), "Mr. Willoby! your wife will not live
at the most four days, unless unless!" Here
the Doctor paused, and poor Willoby stared at
him with a hard, drawn face, and said in a voice
"
quite unlike his own, Unless what? What do
you mean ? Is it money you want, you French
"
devil ? The Doctor had the reputation of
making extortionate charges, and letting his

patients slip if money was not promptly forth-
coming. I felt awfully startled at Willoby's
fierce expression, fearing that he had only
hastened his wife's death by making it im-
possible for the Doctor to remain in the house.
But to my dazed astonishment the fiery little
Frenchmen looked quite compassionately at
Willoby, and nodded most emphatically, say-
ing,"Yes! that is exactly what I do want
money and a good deal of it too! for it will be
a most expensive, and, what is more, a danger-
ous operation." I fully expected that Willoby
would strike the Doctor, such a wild look of
passion came over his face. all rose, and, We
with the table between, stood looking at each
other without a word or a sound, save Willoby's
heavy breathing, for the space of time in which

one might slowly count five. Then the Doctor,
still compassionately regarding Willoby, coolly
poured out a quarter of a tumbler of whisky,
filled it to the brim with water, handed it to
"
him, saying, Drink this, keep quite calm, and
listen to me, and I think I can reveal a way to
save your wife. Lose your self-control, pitch
me over the veranda, kill somebody else, and
your wife dies as sure as the sun rises to-
morrow morning."
The Doctor spoke and acted in such a
strange, manner that Willoby
authoritative
obediently drank the whisky and sat down. I

learned afterwards that the poor fellow had not
touched food or drink for two days, and the
Doctor knew it. Stepping into the next room
he had known the run of the house for years
he returned in a moment with a tin of biscuits
and some cheese, and put them on the table, say-

"
ing, Eat, my friend, it is for your wife's sake
I am now working, not for yours at all." Poor
Willoby began upon the food like a corrected
child, staring at the Doctor, with never a word.
There ensued a few minutes of silence, while
the Doctor watched Willoby eating; then, ap-
"
parently satisfied on that point, he said, You
know that my wife is the daughter of Holo-
kahiki, a colleague of mine, and, I am sorry to
admit, a much more learned medico than my-
self. I, and all of my school, can only make
mild experiments with a patient, sometimes re-
tarding Nature when that wise power is curing
in its own wonderful way, and sometimes hasten-
ing death in our vain attempts to block Nature's

immutable laws. My respected father-in-law
commits no such simply because he tries

errors,
no experiments, having discovered (what we
have not) the unchangeable laws of Nature. I
am a little dear Willoby, because I
prolix, my
wish to impress upon you that nothing must be
done and
in haste, least of all in passion. My
medical acumen is utterly at fault. Your wife
is as far as medical skill can diagnose the
case absolutely in good health. All the organs
from the crown of the head to the sole of the
foot are in perfect condition, yet she will die
within a week if Holokahiki does not take the
case in handyfrr a cure''
"
What do you mean? you cold-blooded devil
"
of a French charlatan! cried poor Willoby, his
eyes blazing, and the great drops of anguish

standing on his forehead.
I felt sure the Doctor would strike him, or
coolly leave the house. But I did not fully

appreciate the good stuff the little French-
man was made He
never turned a hair; on
of.
the contrary he quietly laid his hand on Wil-

"
loby's arm, saying, I
thought I could depend
upon you, but I fear I am mistaken. If you say
go, I shall go, and do all in my power with the
aid of soothe your wife's last
narcotics to
moments; but save her I cannot. Nor can any

one on earth save her, excepting my learned
colleague, Holokahiki! And to get him to cure
the case will require the most delicate diplo-
macy and finesse. The slightest roughness or

tactless handling will ruin everything."
Here the Doctor paused, rolled a little cigar-
ette, took half a dozen draws, inhaling the last,
then slowly letting the smoke escape from the
nose as he threw away the bit of the unconsumed
tobacco. "Bad habit," said the Doctor; "picked
it
up, with other bad things, in South America.
Inhaling takes, on an average, about ten years
off a man's life." Turning to Willoby, he con-
tinued: "You have been in the islands longer
than I ;
but I think that I
may say without
offence to your erudition, my dear Willoby, that
you do not understand, or rather that you have

not begun even dimly to perceive the strangely
complex mind of the native. I have only dimly, !
I admit. But I have got the length of knowing

how not to Rush in where angels fear to
'
tread.' And I have also learned, in the course

of a not uneventful life, that it is not wise to
pretend to know what we do not under-

really
stand. We, with our centuries of training, and
different origin (for no doubt the Pacific islander
is a pre-Adamite), are totally apart from him
in mind and thought (feelings are another

subject altogether, all mankind share affection,
hate, fear, joy, etc., etc., with the whole animal
kingdom). When I say mind, I mean that
fine, subtile something which separates the

genus homo from all other living creatures.
Very well, you must bear with me for being ap-
parently unfeeling at this critical moment, but
I
really am not so. It is only that the white
man is always verbose, where the near-to-
Nature brown man would convey his meaning
quite clearly without articulate words at all.
Oh, that I had my brown brother's gift of that
something which can convey meaning without
the use of our cumbersome words. But I have
nearly done. What I wish to say is this, that

if you allow me carte blanche over, say, two
thousand dollars in gold coin (gold has worked
wonders, good and bad, before now), and leave
me to manage without a single inquiry or com-
ment of any kind, and with only your friend
here as a witness for my good faith, I feel fairly
certain that I can find means to save your

wife."
When the Doctor ceased speaking Wil-
loby did not utter a word. Slowly and calmly
he finished his glass, then rose and went into
the other room. heard him open and shut a
I
trunk, and, coming back, he laid a fat canvas

cash bag on the table and nodded at the Doctor,
who at once proceeded to count the money.
He handsome twenty-dollar pieces
piled the
(the money was all in twenties) in fives, a glit-
tering array of twenty piles of five each.

" "
Bon ! said the Doctor. " Now to business.
You will not see me for three days unless
your wife becomes much worse in which case

send for me. In the meantime give her the
soothing mixture. And as for yourself, you
must give me your solemn promise not to leave
your house until I return."
This poor Willoby meekly did, the Doctor's
cheerful, manner seeming to give the
brisk
sorrow-stricken man some sort of if not hope
at least comfort. The Doctor shook Wil-
loby by the hand, I did the same, and with-

out another word we departed, taking the bag
of gold with us. We went straight to the
Doctor's house, and while we partook of a
slight noon repast, the Doctor sketched out

his plan of action, at the same time giving
me a short synopsis of the character of old
Holokahiki. The Doctor had lived for many
years on familiar, friendly terms with the old
wizard, and knew about his practices; that

is, as far as a white man could know such
things. In whatever the power was ac-
way
quired, whether learned by patient study of
Nature, a gift by diabolical agency, or inherited,
there was no doubt, in the Doctor's opinion,
that there did exist some strange, potent, occult
power in the hands of old Holokahiki, and all
his cult. Moreover, after much study of the

subject, he had come to the conclusion that the
power, whatever it might be, was unattainable
by our race. We had got too far away from the
heart of nature to be able to perceive the subtile
influences which touch our spiritual and bodily
life.
The Doctor and his "respected" father-in-law

(as he called the old wizard) lived on perfectly
good terms, each content to let the other
practise his own

profession, so long as there was
no friction or interference. The Doctor told
me that for the sake of his own peace of mind
he had some years ceased to study the old
for
magician's art; and it was only through sym-

pathy with Willoby, and the mysterious ill-
ness of his wife, that, after much cogitation

he had become suspicious that it was a case
of Anaana. This suspicion was confirmed after
much cautious and loving converse with his
own wife. She also told him a circumstance
which the Doctor had never heard viz., that
there had been a sort of flirtation between
Willoby and a certain village belle before
the pretty half-caste came upon the scene and
carried him off in great triumph. All this
the Doctor learned from his wife under the
most profound pledges of secrecy; and further,
that the dutiful daughter suspected that her be-
loved father had been professionally retained
by the slighted fair one, to remove her success-
ful rival, and so leave the course clear for
another attempt upon the heart of the wealthy,
handsome white man.
Doctor's plan was simplicity itself. He
The
would boldly interview Holokahiki, and try the
power of gold to effect a cure on poor Mrs.
Willoby; a sort of out-bidding of the rival's case.
The Doctor concealed five hundred dollars of
the gold about his person, and, putting the
balance in the safe, we started for the lonely,
"
isolated abode of my learned colleague," as
the Doctor liked to call him. The old wizard's
hut was on the outskirts of the village, on a spot
commanding a splendid view, and at the same
time so situated that visitors could not approach
unperceived. We
found the old man reclining
on a mat, under the shade of a kukui tree, which
partly overshadowed his house, and afforded a
most grateful shade from the fierce midday sun.
The Doctor cordially greeted his father-in-law,
and then introduced me as "He Haole maikai!
Aole wahahee, aole hoopunipuni" (a good
foreigner, who did not nor deceive).
tell lies,
This favourable description was, of course, to

put the old man at his ease in the negotiation
which was to follow.
I was much impressed with the Kahuna's
general appearance and bearing. He was evid-
ently very old (between ninety and a hundred,
the Doctor told me), yet as straight and lithe
as a man only half his age. He had the peculiar
grace and ease of bearing which was a natural

possession of all Pacific islanders ere they were
spoiled and made awkward by foreign manners
and clothing. Over his shoulders he wore a
gaily-coloured piece of kapa (native cloth), which
only partially concealed his striking figure.
He was fully six feet in height, and without a
particle of surplus flesh on his splendidly pre-
served body. He had very few wrinkles on his
face he was too clean cut for wrinkles and
his eyes were clear and deep, like water in a
D
shadowy mountain pool. An abundant crop of
stiff, gray hair covered his high, narrow,
still
clever looking head; while on his face there

was not the vestige of a beard. It had either
been plucked out in a custom quite
youth
common in the Pacific in the olden days or
else nature had been kind and never troubled
her future devotee with that useless append-
age.
The Doctor spoke Hawaiian perfectly, and I
understood it sufficiently well to follow the con-

versation which ensued. There was the usual
ceremony of a light smoke, inquiries regarding
each other's health, and that of their families,
etc., etc. Then the Doctor moved nearer, and
opened his battery in earnest. From various
pockets he produced slowly, and with impressive
manner, twenty-five of the handsome gold
pieces which he had brought for the work. The
eagle eyes of old Holokahiki actually glittered
when he beheld this wonderful wealth. The
effect was keenly but very quietly noted by the
Doctor, who proceeded to explain that all this
vast sum, and even more, would be his if he
would do what the Doctor desired, viz., take the

spell offJulia. It was a most delicate affair to
carry on without unduly alarming the old

wizard. But the Doctor proceeded with con-

summate skill and good judgement; so much
so, that in a short time Holokahiki asked for
one hour to consult his oracles if, perchance, it
were possibleto devise a plan whereby Willoby's

wife could be restored to health. He expressed
himself as exceedingly sorry and surprised to hear
of the girl's illness, which expressions the Doc-
tor seemed to receive in perfect good faith and
simplicity. Oh, how I envied the complete

command of voice, feature, and manner of these
two born diplomats!
With a graceful gesture, and an expression
of regret at leaving us, the old man retired to
the inner recesses of his domicile, while the
Doctor and betook ourselves to an orange
I
tree, which was in heavy bearing, and regaled

our inner man with the delicious fruit, after-
wards falling back on the solace of a pipe, while
we conjectured,
silently with much inward
anxiety, the probability of the success of our
mission.
The wizard's old wife was trotting about, en-
gaged in various household duties, muttering to
herself, the while, something which I whis-
pered to the Doctor was no doubt Hawaiian

"
for double, double, toil and trouble." As she
passed to and fro, with her quick, active motions,
she paid no more attention to us than if we
had been two logs of wood which she had to
avoid.
Holokahiki was absent just one hour by the
watch. What he was doing, or how he was em-
ployed during that time, no one will ever know

unless it be the father of all the black arts. The
old man always did look repulsive, but when
he returned he looked doubly so, owing to an
expression of cunning and greed, which I sup-
pose the sight of the gold produced on his
skinny, fierce, old face. He sat down beside
the Doctor, laid his long, lean hand lovingly
"
on his shoulder, and began, Kuu hoa aloha
[my loving companion], I find that it is
just
possible to save the big foreigner's wife, but it
willbe a hard and dangerous work, and for it

you must give double the amount of gold that
is lying before us." saw a great wave of
I
satisfaction pass over the Doctor's face, and no

doubt the old man saw it also for he proceeded
;
at once (laying his hand tenderly on the gold) :
"
This sum must be paid at once, and upon the
complete success of the cure, twenty-five more
of the beautiful pieces must be given to Kuu
wahine [my wife], who is the only creature who
can assist me in this most difficult and danger-

ous operation." Pausing a little, he proceeded:
"
Most difficult of all, you must find a substitute
who is perfectly willing to accept the fate which
is now
impending over your friend's wife." The
Doctor shook his head, looking angry and dis-
appointed. "I did not come to you to be made
a fool of!" he said. "Who would willingly
accept such a fate ? what is gold to one who has
to die? Does Holokahiki take me for a mad
man that he dares to make such a proposi-
tion?"
The Doctor angrily shook the old man's hand
and rose as if to depart. Then
off his shoulder,
he continued: "This is a trick to extort money

from the Haole [foreigner], but see here, my
brother physician, if my friend's wife dies, you
make me your deadly enemy, and you know
what that means." The old man sprang to his
feet with all the agility of youth, and with a
peculiarly soft, not to say fawning manner, laid
his hand on the Doctor's arm, saying, in soft,
"
impressive tones: My dear friend! you are
very learned, very wise, and therefore very
powerful. But Holokahiki has a certain kind of
knowledge, inherited from his forefathers, which
it is
impossible for white men to understand
and with all acumen impossiblefor
their boasted
them to learn. You came to me with a certain
proposition a very dangerous proposition for
me. I should, perhaps, have ordered you and
your friend from my poor, humble dwelling the
only spot that the greedy, grasping, white man

has left me of all my lands and power. But you
are my son-in-law, and, hitherto, my friend.
For these reasons I listened to you, and in spite
of many dangers to my own

began to soul, I
work out a plan agreeable to

your wishes; when,
alas! according to the inbred wickedness and
foolishness of the white man, you fly into a
passion and accuse me of a trick to extort

'
money' simply because I was telling you before-

hand what the fee would be, so that you could
judge whether the case was worth the expense.
The white doctor's method, on the contrary, is
to conclude the case, and, whether it ends well
or charge just as much as he thinks he can
ill,
extort from his victims. I leave it to you and
your friend to say which course is the most

honourable, not to say honest."
A
queer gleam of humour came over the
Doctor's usually melancholy face ;
then looking
at me
he laughed outright, saying: "By the
bones of St. Peter! you have the best of it, my
learned and most logical father-in-law. But,"

and here he dropped into the vernacular, " how
in the name of Satan am I to find one ready to
assume, not only the risk, but the certainty of
death, for the sake of a few paltry dollars?"
Holokahiki was now restored to his usual
calm, self-possessed manner, and after a little
pause, in which it was impossible to read either

satisfaction or annoyance in his inscrutable face,
said: "Send for Ah Sing, he is a very wise
man, and what you require. But it
will find
will cost much money, and if you are not pre-
pared for the expense let us drop the matter

now and never refer to it again. Remember
that I am an old man, and my only wish is to
be left alone to end
my days peace and goin
to an honourable grave, which even the lust

and hate of the treacherous white man cannot
deprive me of."
He made a weird, graceful motion of the

hand, and turning as if all interest in the affair
had passed from his mind, walked slowly to-
wards his hut. The impulsive Doctor sprang
at him ere he had taken two steps, catching
"
the old wizard by the shoulder. Look here,
my Makua" [father], he said, "this cannot
end here. You must either save the girl, or I
shall become your enemy and you know what
"
that means!
Holokahiki drew himself up with a won-
"
derfully dignified gesture. Kauka [doctor],
be no misunderstanding between you
let there
and me! Make no threats, even in thought-

less anger.Threats are only made by weak
men, and only alarm weak men, and no man
ever made Holokahiki afraid. If you wish to
proceed, send for Ah Sing."
Whereupon the Doctor meekly pocketed all
appearance of superiority, and begged me at once
to go in quest of his cook, the said Ah Sing. The
Doctor's premises were hardlya quarter of a mile
distant, and as the diligent Ah Sing was always
closely attending to business I had no difficulty

in finding him and acquainting him with his
master's wish for his presence at the wizard's
abode. The Chinaman, as a rule, is a man of
few words. Without a question, and merely
arranging some things in his cookhouse and
locking the door, he announced his readiness
to accompany me. Ah Sing and I were on
excellent terms. Ihad enjoyed many a dainty
repast, the result of his skilful brains and deft
fingers; while he, on his part, had reaped at
sundry times the reward (for soothing to happy
repose the irritability of my inward man) in the

sweetest of all forms to a Celestial dollars.
On my return I found the Doctor and Holo-
kahiki in close confab, and I heard the former
say, with something between a sigh and a
groan, "Very well! I consent, but I fear

no
good will come of it."
# * # # #
A word or two en passant regarding Ah Sing.
He had lived and worked hard in the islands
for more than thirty years. He was a man a

good deal above the average intelligence of his
countrymen, both in regard to natural ability
and education.
That saying a good deal for one of a
is
nation which is noted for men of more than
ordinary shrewdness. At one time he had

amassed a handsome fortune, for a Chinaman,
and was about realize the dream of all
to
some day he would return
Celestials, viz., that
to his native land, take a young wife to con-
sole him in his old age, and secure everlasting
peace at last by laying his bones safely under

his native sod, leaving enough money to secure
a certain number of Joss-sticks, stuck about his
grave every New Year. All these high hopes
had been sadly dispelled by the failure of the
firm to which he had intrusted his money for
exchange
O on Canton a rare misfortune to
happen to a Chinaman; they are too shrewd

to make many mistakes of that sort. So at the
age of fifty-five poor Ah Sing found himself

once more compelled to commence again the
weary battle of life at the very foot of fortune's

ladder. knew the old chap's history off by
I
heart, for he had often repeated the sad story

while regaling me with sundry cups of delicious
tea on many a quiet afternoon when I returned
from a fern collecting or hunting expedition.
Iwas as much at home in the Doctor's establish-
ment as in my friend Willoby's house, and in
that free and easy life it became quite natural

to direct one's friend's servants as if they were
one's own.
Holokahiki called to his wife to place a new
lauhala mat under the kukui tree for us to sit
on while discussing our business, which he at

once requested the Doctor to explain fully and
clearly to Ah Sing. I had never known an
Anaana Priest to speak openly before. This
was evidently Holokahiki's plan, so as to in-
volve all concerned so deeply in the affair that
not one could expose the others without in-
criminating himself; and I must say that it

gave
me a very disagreeable sensation to find myself

concerned in the infernal business. But being
so deeply in, I felt it would be a traitorous sort
of proceeding to desert when there seemed
some prospect of helping my friend in his dire
distress. Then there was also the weird fascina-
tion which always belongs to the unsolved

mysteries of life and death.
The Doctor coolly and clearly explained to
Ah Sing the state of which was simply
affairs,
this: Mr. Willoby's wife was dying through
the spells of witchcraft, a fact of which both

man and wife were totally unaware. Willoby
was, of course, exceedingly anxious to save his
wife, and was willing to pay any reasonable
sum, in gold coin, for her restoration to health.

Holokahiki had kindly and diligently studied
the case from every point of view, and had found
that there was only one way of saving the girl's
and that was by procuring a substitute
life,
who would willingly accept the situation for a ;
consideration, of course. I observed that while

the Doctor stated the circumstances, Holo-
kahiki never admitted by word or sign that he
had heard of the case before that day. It
might be the Doctor, or anybody else for all he
knew, who had done the mischief. What he
was now concerned about like the Doctor and
myself was to find a mode of cure! For this
purpose a substitute must be forthcoming; the
modus operandi would develop later. This
was the case in so many words, and we all
relapsed into silence, while the old wizard
carefully filled his huge orange-wood pipe,

lighted it with flint and steel (no nasty-smelling
matches for a gentleman of the old school) and
after a draw or two himself, politely passed it
round. All this to gain time and let the pro et
contra sink slowly into Ah Sing's soul.

None knew better than old Holokahiki that
it was
hopeless to seek a substitute among any
other race save only the strangely constituted
sons of the Celestial Empire those extraord-
inary people, whose civilization has outlived the

ravages of merciless Time, which has buried
the majority of other ancient nations in obscur-
ity; whose enlightenment is exactly the same
to-day as in the days of Job, and whose stoical

indifference to life and death is one of the un-
solved enigmas of their race.
While the Doctor stated the case, Sing Ah
never moveda muscle, and, indeed, hardly seemed
to take any interest in the matter. In the pause
of silence which ensued, he produced his opium
pipe from some mysterious pocket in his blouse,

slipped a little black pellet into the bowl, lit the
stuff with a match, or rather with two opium
does not ignite so readily as tobacco and took
five or six long whiffs, swallowing the smoke
(which would have sent any one but a hardened
smoker on his beam-ends at once). Then he
calmly replaced his machinery in its hidden re-
"
ceptacle, and said, Doctor, I
welly sorry leave
you! You my welly good fiend, and boss! But,
Ah Sing muchee poor man, and welly muchee
old man!" (It had never occurred to me that
Ah Sing was an old man.) " Ah Sing's heart
muchee broke when bad Melican merchant man
what white man call failee, but Chinaman call
stolee&\\ Ah Sing's money. Now, what can do?
Brother poor too. No can take bones to China

no can be dead ^00^! Give two thousand gold
dollar, then Ah
Sing like welly muchee die."
The Doctor gave a little gulp, whether of
shock at the amount of money Ah Sing named,
or of sorrow at the prospect of losing his ex-
cellent cook, cannot say; but with this excep-
I
tion he gave no other outward sign of pain or
surprise. He instantly signified to Ah Sing

that his terms were accepted, and telling him to
send for his brother to confirm the business,
dispatched me post-haste to Willoby for the
balance of gold coin to make up the amount
demanded by Ah Sing. At the same time he
whispered that it would be the height of im-
prudence make the Chinaman re-
to attempt to
duce his demand; and, indeed, as the Doctor
remarked, was a reasonable sum for the ser-
it
vice required. While I was absent on my errand,

the Doctor went over to his own house for the
balance of the money we had left there. I had no
troublesome questions from poor Willoby. He
seemed to be acting under some sort of spell,
and when I told him that five hundred dollars
more were required, he simply asked, "gold or
silver?" and when I said "gold," he dashed his
safe open and produced a clean little bag of
gold. This he quickly counted, and handed to

me.
When I
got back to Holokahiki's abode I
found that Ah Sing's brother, Kim Su, had

joined the party. I learned afterwards that
Holokahiki, at Ah
Sing's request, had sent his
o for the brother to come
old wife with a message
over at once on urgent business, as indeed it
truly was!
When had deposited the bag of gold beside
I
the Doctor's chair Holokahiki had fished out

an old-fashioned, high-backed concern, which

he had placed for de Voe, he being the prin-
cipal figure in the party he at once arose,
and ina clear, solemn tone of voice explained
the business, from beginning to end, to Kim Su.
During the recital neither of the Chinamen be-

trayed the slightest emotion, or moved a hand,
or said one word, good or bad. When the Doctor
had stated the case clearly and precisely, Ah
Sing, as in right of being the party most deeply
proceeded to conclude and confirm
interested,
the solemn business. He spoke quietly and
earnestly to his brother, in Chinese, holding his

hand the while, but in no way showing more
feeling or excitement than ordinary Chinese do
in making any business agreement. Then turn-
"
ing to the Doctor he said, Kauka! Please
makee count dala\ Then business all finished.
Ah Sing welly muchee glad he die good, bones
go China, father, mother, brother, burn plenty
Joss-sticks. No fear devil come any more."
The Doctor emptied both sacks of coin on the
clean mat, and proceeded to place the handsome
pieces rows, side by side, thus making a
in
glittering array of a hundred double-eagles,

which changed the brown lauhala mat into a
veritable "cloth of gold."
When the Doctor had finished, he leaned back
in his chair. The two Chinamen calmly looked
at the display of wealth for fully five
fine
minutes, without moving, or speaking a word,

and with a reverent sort of expression as if
they were praying and may-be they were, poor
souls, who knows?
Then Ah Sing methodically counted the
pieces, moving them as he did so in front of
his brother, as if they were playing some be-
wildering game of chess, and the rest of us
were interested on-lookers. This part of the
strange transaction being concluded appar-
ently to the perfect satisfaction of the brothers
there was still the awful fulfilling of the
weird agreement, by Ah Sing handing over,
or rather allowing Holokahiki to take, some
part of the actual living Ah Sing, such as hair,

or nails, or a tooth, or such like. The China-
man showed that he fully understood the re-
quirements of the case, for he at once held out

his left hand, and the old wizard as promptly
cut the nail of each finger and the thumb, care-
fully depositing the pieces in a neat little cala-

bash with a which he securely fastened. Of
lid,
course, in any case of Anaana, articles from the
person of the victim are a sine qua non for the

successful result of the case: these articles are
just as effective, whether obtained with or with-

out his or her knowledge or consent.
The Doctor rose from his chair, like a man
who awakens from a nightmare thankfully realiz-
ing that the weird hag who was sitting on his
heart was only a fleeting phantom of the night;
the Chinamen picked up the two bags of gold
(the reward of life and death) and walked off
lovingly together; while Holokahiki and his
old helpmeet disappeared into their hut, doubt-
less to gloatover their share of " the root of
all evil." So the Doctor and I were left alone,
with the unsatisfactory feeling that men have

when they by step they have
realize that step
been led into a deed which at first they had no
more intention of committing than had the babe
at its mother's breast.
Next day I started for the mountains on a
hunting and exploring expedition, amply pro-
vided with men and equipments by my friend
Willoby. For some weeks I travelled far, and
hunted hard, to get the taste out of my mouth
of the disagreeable transaction in which, on my
part, had been most innocently entangled. I
I
had a splendid trip, and bagged any amount of

game, from wild cattle and goats to still wilder
E
horses, and returned to the coast in a little
over a month, much restored in mind and

body.
When I rode into my friend's yard with my

trophies of the chase, and my boys cantering
behind me, what a changed scene greeted me
to that which I met on my former return, just
six weeks before !
Then, silence and gloom
the very dogs sharing the general depression
with never a bark of welcome. Now, the usual
racket of a Hawaiian home-coming, laughter
and kindly greeting, dogs giving tongue, child-
ren tumbling about among the horses' legs,

men and women in gay attire and with smiling
faces preparing food, and to my intense re-
lief Willoby and his wife, pictures of health
and happiness, coming forward first to give me
welcome!
I soon had a wash and rub down, and was
seated in Willoby 's sanctum, regaled with a mild

lemon squash and a Manilla cigar. (Manillas
were the fashionable smoke in the Pacific in
those days.) Willoby, who had been engaged
in directing the disposal of my trophies of the
chase, came in, and, closing the door again,

warmly clasped my hand, and sat down. What
a changed man he was now in comparison with

the man he was when I started for the mountains
five weeks previously !
Then, thin, silent, dis-
traught! Now, rosy of complexion, smiling, and

debonair\ He sat a little while looking at me, as
if the contemplation gave him much satisfaction ;
and on my jokingly asking him if the scrutiny of

my sun-burned nose gave him pleasure, he re-
plied, "Yes! my dear friend! it gives me in-
tense pleasure!" Then he continued with that
peculiar tone of emotion which deep sincerity

"
I am more than glad
gives to a man's voice,
to see you. I could not rest contented until I
thanked you from the bottom of my heart for
being partly the means of rescuing my little

wife from death I have no language with which
!
to express what this has been to me."
Willoby paused a little, went to the window,

and pretended to look at something, I knowing
all the while that it was only to hide his emo-
and he knowing perfectly well also that I

tion,
knew. Women never practise such little tricks,
although they do practise enough tricks, God
knows, and may He inHis mercy bless and for-
give them. Women simply show their emotion
unreservedly, whether you like it or not; and
really, upon the whole, I suppose it is the better

plan. But then, you know, men are poor hands
at emotion, unless, of course, it is the
grand and
overwhelming emotion of battle, wherein the
noblest natures rise above all the brutal instincts
of low passions to the sublime height of self-
sacrifice.
In a littlewhile Willoby returned to his seat,

and fell back on the never-failing resource of a
"
cigar. After smoking a bit, he said, I cannot
tell you what this has been to me. You see,"
he continued, "for good or for evil, the Pacific
is my destiny. No more high life for me. No
more the refinement and glamour and splen-
dour of the fascinating West-end houses where
I was once a welcome
guest! Never again shall
the beautiful stateliness and sweetness of high-
bred English women hold me under theirgracious
spell ! No more calm purity of the
shall the
country home great or lowly soothe my soul

with the indescribable peace which I think be-
longs exclusively to the old-fashioned English

home of peer or peasant. No! no! All that is
past for me like some dimly remembered child-
hood's dream of lying on our mother's bosom,
and being soothed by words we shall never hear
again. So you see the only hope for me now is
to keep the girl who loves me with her whole,
/
wild little though our usual thoughts are

heart,
as far apart as the Poles. Yes! That is my one
hope and sheet-anchor to save me from tumb-

ling down to the lowest depths of beach-comb-
ing degradation." Willoby laid his hand on
mine with a gentle, loving pat, which showed
how deeply he was moved as he said in a
"
trembling, low voice Yes I thank you from
: !
the bottom of my heart, and let me say, without

irreverence God
knows, that you have saved
a soul from death, and (I hope) covered a
multitude of sins." It sounded strange to hear
Willoby reverently repeating Scripture, but I
remembered he was a great reader of his Greek
Testament a curiously bound little volume
one of the few relics of his scholarly days.
Just then Julia struck up a rattling half Ger-
man, half Yankee march which somehow made
us both smile, with the glitter of tears in our
eyes, and both thinking I verily believe on
the life which was, and that which might have
been, in the old homeland.
"And now!" she cried in rather a high-
pitched voice, "Helemai Paaina! Olua haole
kamaileo nui loa." (Come to dinner you two
talking foreigners.) As soon as we were com-
fortably seated at the really well-appointed table,
Mrs. Willoby continued: "Now Mr. Howard,
surely you can give me some rational informa-
tion about hats and skirts, and other sweet
things you saw in Sydney, or, better still, in
London, if you were there lately, for of course
I must have the latest to make the judge's wife
green with envy. There was a whaler in the
bay while you were in the mountains by the

way, I wonder whatever you and Willoby can
see in these dreary woods and mountains to
make you both love them so and the captain's
wife told me were getting bigger and
that hats
biggerand skirts tighter above you know and

longer, and more and more wobbly. But she had
been away from New Bedford more than a year,
so I do not take much stock in what she said."
Thus the little half-caste rattled on, from one
subject to another, with sprightly, shallow, yet
really amusing talk. Willoby sat contentedly
and quietly eating his dinner, evidently quite
happy to see his pretty wife in beaming, high

spirits, and exuberant health.
After a pause of silence and hearty eating,
"
Julia started again. Oh! but laying aside for
the moment the important subject of dress I
must tell you how we got on after you started

for the mountains. You remember how very ill
I was? So ill that my dear husband became

more and more anxious, and had Doctor de Voe
with me every other hour of the day and night.
The poor Doctor had a bad time of it; but I
must say he was very good and never grumbled,
although he is a pretty peppery man at times.
But at last even he began to look blue, and
then thought, make loa wan, and took to
I
my bed in earnest, feeling so weak and done

didn't care whether school kept or
'
for, that I
not,' and I
really felt more go than
inclined to
to stay so you can imagine how near I was to
poule" (darkness).
"
Then a wonderful thing happened. On the
very day that you started the steamer Kelauea
came and among other things for
into the bay,
the Doctor there was a wonderful box of medi-
cine (pills) all the way from Paris. Those pills
"
saved my life! Willoby was now at his dessert,
and his face wore a very sober- a sort of absent-
minded expression, while he steadily looked at
"
his plate. I know," continued
Julia, "that my
husband does not take much interest in those
because he always puts on that far-away
pills,
look whenever I mention the subject. But if he
had felt the mysterious sensation which I felt
as if I were being carried by unseen hands from
the dark portals of death back to life and light
this strange change beginning on the very
day I commenced to take the medicine of
course he would feel, as I do, that it was the
"
Doctor's wonderful laau which saved my life !
"
My dear," said Willoby, looking fondly at his
"
wife, do most firmly believe that it was the
I
Doctor under God's mercy who saved your

life. As to the means that I know nothing
about for the result, I am, and always will be,
;
"
most profoundly thankful." "There now cried !
his wife, as she dashed Willoby and kissed

at
him fervently. "There now! it makes me so
happy to hear you speak so like a good mission-
ary, for really sometimes you make me fear you
are an unbelieving Jew, and never had the ad-
vantage of a Christian upbringing like Mr. How-

ard and your wee wife! As to the means," con-
tinued Mrs. Willoby, "there can be no question
about that. You know what a fearful sum you
had to pay the Doctor, and he did not charge
a single dollar for his own services, all the
money was for the medicine. Two thousand
Jive hundred dollars for twenty-Jive little bits of
pills / Exactly one hundred dollars each ! There
were just twenty-five, I remember that very
well, for the Doctor gave me the first one on
" "
the very day you (looking at me) started for
the mountains, which was the ist of June, and
he gave me the last on my birthday, the 25th.
On the day you was very low, as you
started I
will no doubt remember. I was feeling very
miserable not so much for myself that was all
past, and I only wished to get to my long sleep,

for I was very weary. But I was feeling exceed-
ingly miserable for my poor husband's lonely
life after was gone, and I kept hoping that
I
when you returned you would take him away

back to his old life in England, where he would
soon get to think of all out here as only a pleas-
ant, hazy sort of dream. But though I wished
he would, yet itmade me more miserable again
to think that he would forget! Thus I lay be-
tween lifeand death, always with the feeling of
being carried by invisible hands, and soothed
by soft music which was not produced by voice
or instrument; only music floating and drifting,
and giving a great sense of restfulness in the
dim twilight which surrounded me." Then the
with a strange look in her great
little half-caste,
luminous eyes, as if she again saw the shadowy

outline of the borderland she was describing, and
heard the music made by no " voice or instru-
"
ment said, as though she were thinking aloud,
not speaking to us "I have often wondered
:
why we islanders are so timid at little dangers

and so calm when death is inevitable. Now I
know, for I have been there and found that
when we get very near to death all fear vanishes
and a great desire comes over the soul to go
forward, and a shuddering fear if we are com-
manded to return to the body." The spiritual
light faded out of the eyes, she looked sleepy
and tired, as she said, " And so I fell asleep,
and slept for five days! didn't I, Willoby?"
"Yes, my dear!" said her husband; "and I
thought you would never awake again in this
world."
With the characteristic sudden change of the
native mind from grave to gay, Julia went to the
lady-whaler's old cottage piano and rattled off

"
with much vim, Marching through Georgia,"
with wonderful variations.
After sunset Doctor de Voe came over, and
we spent a pleasant evening, with talk, music,
cigars, and lemon squash. The Doctor had a
good and sang songs in every language
voice,
in which I knew even as much as a word of ob-
jurgation or salutation, and many others which

I could not even guess Mrs. Willoby played
at.
his accompaniments, if not with perfect accuracy,

at least with a kind of adaptability which helped

the singer at uncertain bits of a song. Of course
in many of the outlandish songs the Doctor
had the but in these he got
field all to himself;
along wonderfully well, for he had learned them

in his gay student days without any accompani-
ment save the rattle of glasses and knuckles on

the table.
De Voe took his departure a little after
eleven. He wished me to come over to his
place and spend a few days with him. But, he
said, it was no use coming that night, as he had
to sit up with a poor young fellow who was
lying a native house dying of consumption.
in
He was what one so often meets in the Pacific,

a derelict of good family, come at last to the
end of his tether. The kind-hearted Doctor had
found him helpless in a native hut, and was now
doing his best to smooth the poor waif's last
journey.
Next morning I went over to de Voe's place
and found him in a rather lugubrious frame of
mind. He had not slept a wink since we parted
the night before, but that was not the cause of
his depressed spirits. The Doctor
could go for
many sleepless nights without showing a sign of

fatigue. He told me he had acquired the habit
6o WHERE THE SUN SETS
during the Commune in Paris, when the sights
and sounds which a medical man was called
upon to see and hear were so awful that sleep

became only a weird nightmare, more exhaust-
ing than sleeplessness, and for weeks he did not
sleep at all !
The present cause of the Doctor's low spirits

was the passing that morning after a weary
restless night of the poor derelict. He had
talked much of his mother away back in a New
England village in Massachusetts who had
struggled and pinched to give him a classical
education, with the only result, seemingly, of a

misspent life, death in a native hut, and a name-
less grave in South Kona, Hawaii. You observe
" "
that I said seemingly just now for want of a
better word. But I have great hopes that no
well-intentioned efforts will prove useless, that
no self-sacrifice will be fruitless, and that some-
how, and somewhere, derelicts will make up for
leeway, and find the port at last which they

missed so sadly on life's stormy voyage. I
dinna ken ! but that 's my hope and if it is
not realized, something better and more appro-
priate will be, which is a great comfort to reflect

upon, when the night is dark, and the ghosts of
the past are crowding about us.
As a rule I have found Frenchmen very sensi-

tive creatures with regard to their mothers.
Doctor de Voe was no exception to this laud-
able characteristic. The sad, regretful, weak
words of the dying man had deeply stirred
him, and his thoughts that morning were cling-
ing fondly around a little cottage and vineyard,
on the banks of the Garonne, in far away
France. Across his memory, sweeping away all
obstacles which lay between, there appeared
a bronzed old woman in wooden clogs, white
cap, little red shawl, and homespun petticoats,
calling her old man and boys to their midday
meal of soup, brown bread, and a bit of lean
meat.
"
Poor fare enough," said the Doctor, with a
"
little tremble in his voice; but, ah mon Dieu!
more delicious than the banquet of a king. And
itis such homes," he continued, "that save
France from annihilation." All the while he
was speaking the Doctor was deeply interested
in getting a curious and rare specimen of liz-
ard into a bottle of spirit. He

had long been
anxious to obtain a specimen, but hitherto had
been unable to induce a native to catch one.
Hawaiians, like the rest of mankind (excepting

the <?$ doctor], have a wholesome dread and
hatred of the form which the father of all ill
assumed on his first appearance on our poor

earth.
The
Doctor, as his usual custom was, produced
various creature comforts of the most tempting
French invention, inviting me to solace and
refresh myself, after my walk in the hot sun,
while he carefully finished the execution and
preservation of the ugly yet attractive lizard.

This I proceeded to do without further cere-
mony, in the meantime watchingwith much inter-
est the Doctor's scientific operations. My mind

naturally being taken up with Willoby's case,
I remarked how glad I was to find his wife quite
restored to her usual health. The old French-
man looked me
with half-closed eyes, and
at
nodded, without saying a word. After a bit-

when he had made the lizard comfortable in the
"
bottle he You and Ah Sing used to be
said,
good friends; would you like to see him?" Of

course I said it would afford me pleasure to see
again my old friend who had often ministered

to comfort in days gone by.
my
had been rather surprised that Ah Sing
I
had not yet turned up, as his usual custom was,

to greet me with a delicious cup of tea, freshly
brewed, sugarless and milkless. Ah Sing like

all true Chinamen held these additions in de-

testationbarbarous and perverted tastes, in-
;
vented by Westerners. Upon asking if his

admirable cook and factotum (Ah Sing knew
more, and did more of the Doctor's business,
than de Voe himself) had taken a holiday, as
I did not see him about, the Doctor told me, in
a dry, constrained sort of way, that Ah Sing
had fallen into a peculiar lassitude which quite
incapacitated him for performing his usual
duties. Since his weakness (it
was not sickness
within the knowledge of pharmacology), Ah
Sing had gone over to his brother's place, for

the sake of having his nursing.
The Doctor kindly proposed to accompany
me to Kim Su's abode; he had not seen Ah
Sing for some days, and wished to note the
progress, or subsidence, of the strange malady.

As doing anything for him medically, that,
for
the Doctor admitted, was beyond his power,
even if Ah Sing had been willing to resort to
medical advice, which he was not.
Then, the subject not being a pleasant one to
either of us, we relapsed into silence, and started
for the Chinamen's domicile, along a narrow,
rocky path, shaded by splendid lehua trees,
gorgeous with masses of crimson blossom.
In half an hour or so we reached Kim Su's
estate one acre of rocks and trees, inclosed
by a stiff within whose boundary

stone wall
no Hawaiian, man, woman, or child was per-
mitted to enter, excepting strictly upon busi-
ness. This reserve on his part had not militated
in the least against the Chinaman's business (a
queer little miscellaneous store) ; indeed, it
rather aided his trading influence, giving him a
peculiarly high character as a grave, wise man

who attended to his own affairs strictly and
well, eschewing the common frivolities of life
He Pake lealea ole (a non-pleasure loving

Chinaman), as they tersely expressed it.
We
found Kim Su sitting on the rickety door-
step of his dwelling, calmly enjoying a contem-
plative smoke. He saluted us pleasantly, and
on our inquiry for his brother he graciously
motioned us to enter. The place had rather an
overpowering odour of opium, sharks' fins, and
other unaccountable blends of Chinese house-
keeping. A chair, a rough settee, a camphor-

wood trunk, and a miscellaneous collection of
cooking and other utensils, littered the room

rather inconveniently. On a bed in one corner
lay Ah Sing, with the gray shadows gathering

on his thin, yellow face, and evidently on the
point of embarking on that voyage from which

no voyager returns.
With man's usual shirking of disagreeable
things I had shaken off the oppression of the
scene with old Holokahiki (of which I had been
an involuntary spectator), and on my return
from the mountains I had found matters so
pleasant, that I had easily persuaded myself

that everything had come right somehow, and
asked no questions. Thus soothing my con-
science with the weak human salve of " the
end means," I had nearly managed
justifies the
to forget the whole ghastly affair.
But Nemesis never fails to find us sooner or
later, and here she had me face to face. Ah
Sing turned on us the great luminous eyes of
the dying, which already saw the cold river
flowing at his feet the river that he was just

about to cross. He recognized us in a moment,
and smiled faintly as I laid my hand on his
long, thin, beautifully-shaped fingers. For Ah

Sing had come of good family, as he had often
impressed upon me, while complacently admir-

ing his shapely hands, tapering fingers, and nails
projecting a quarter of an inch or so; nothing
like the length, he would sadly inform me, they
were in the days of his prosperity.
F
was prepared, by what the Doctor had told
I
me, to find the poor fellow much run down, but

I did not
by any means expect to see the mere
shadow of the strong man I had parted with
only a few weeks previously. If we are with
any one daily during the progress of disease we
mercifully become so accustomed to the gradual
change that we never experience the shock we

feel when we part from one in robust health,
and meet again on the brink of the grave. The
Doctor felt the dying man's pulse and whispered
as he took the chair which Kim Su politely
handed, while I sat down on an empty kero-
"
sene box I had no idea he was so low Bon
Dieu! no idea."
A moment after the slight exertion and ex-
citement of meeting us, Ah Sing fell into a
quiet sleep, which continued for half an hour or
so, while the Doctor, Kim Su, and myself re-
mained quite silent ;
each one, no doubt, en-
gaged with his own peculiar line of thought.
Then Ah Sing sighed softly, and awoke. A
great rush of tenderness came over my heart
for the poor fellow who was so calmly entering
the unsolved mystery. Laying my hand on his,
"
Can we do anything for you, Ah
I said:
Sing? The Doctor and I are deeply grieved to

find you so ill, my friend!"

brightened upHe
at my words, a look of the old shrewdness
mingled in his eyes with the pathos of death,
while he whispered, "Ah Sing die welly good
go China father mother brother sister
plenty joss sticks Devil he no can come

Ah Sing welly muchee happy ! muchee
"
happy A slight shiver, as if his feet had
touched the cold river, and Ah Sing passed, like
a tired child falling asleep.

The Doctor rose, crossed himself, and rever-
ently muttered a Paternoster-, something, per-
haps, he had not done since he left the little
cottage on the banks of the Garonne, forty ad-
venturous years before.
A REMINISCENCE OF THE OLD
SOUTH
I
A REMINISCENCE OF THE OLD
SOUTH
AS WE HEARD IT FROM JAMES WILLARD, IN THE
MAMMOTH CAVE, KENTUCKY
I
>T is a good years ago how

many
many I hardly care to recall ex-
actly since a dear companion

found ourselves, after some
and I
months of wandering in Mexico and the United

States, delivered from the coach unceremoni-
ously, like two packages of merchandise, at the
Mammoth Cave Hotel, Kentucky. Then we
were and solemnly presented
instantly, silently,
with a pen to sign our names in a great book;
a universal ordeal in all American hotels, as if
each new arrival were a criminal derelict who
had just been captured, and must be kept safe
and sound.
71
72 A REMINISCENCE OF
was a lovely morning in early June. This
It
part of old Kentucky was looking at its very

best the trees were in full leaf, the flowers, grasses,
;
and vines in gorgeous bloom. On the low lands

stretched field after field of that splendid plant,
Indian corn, with its tender green leaves, and
its graceful, purple tassel. Birds were singing,
beautiful butterflies fluttering joyously through
their short, gay life, amid the bloom of the
buckeyes, apple orchards, and hedges of wild

rose and honeysuckle.
Of course I need hardly say that*\we had
made our pilgrimage to Kentucky for the pur-
pose of exploring the great caves which take

part of their name from the State. But before
starting upon the serious business of investigat-
ing the caves, we spent some happy days of
idleness in the vicinity of the hotel; among
other things, studying the curious entrance of
the cave, where the colonies of the weird, funny
little bats hang by their tiny claws in countless,
silent hoards, all day long, and skim and flutter
in seemingly objectless flight, through all the
hours of darkness.
After some days idling thus, we began to
make arrangements for our excursion in the
cave. One curious thing about this excursion
THE OLD SOUTH 73
is thatcan be made just as well by night as
it
by day. This is a feature which one is very apt
to overlook in making arrangements, but which

is realized in a moment when one reflects that
the faintest glimmer of daylight never pene-

trates those regions of everlasting darkness and
silence.
mortally detest to be trotted around any-

I
where with a party of tourists, while a guide

gives a glib description which he has learned
by heart of things in which he takes no more
interest and understands no whit better, and
perhaps less, than a parrot saying " Pretty

Polly." We chose a time when there were few
visitors at the hotel, and none going to the cave
save our two selves. We provided plenty of
luncheon, and a couple of shawls, as the air is
apt to be chilly in those underground regions if
one takes a longer rest than usual after walking
for hours without thinking of distance, a thing
one is liable to do in a cave of such vast extent
as the Mammoth. I
forget at the moment how
many miles the cave extends, but I know it is
anywhere you like between ten and twenty.
James Willard, our guide, was a distinguished-
looking man of maybe fifty or a little over. He
had been a Confederate soldier in the gigantic
struggle between North and South. Like most
Southerners he had been ruined by the war
and embittered by the collapse of the Southern
dream viz., the dissolution of a disagreeable
partnership with a people whom the proud
South both hated and despised. At the close
of the war, Willard, like many Southerners,
tried California, and after many ups and downs,
had drifted back as Kentucky, taken a
far as
fancy to the weird cave and beautiful country,

and as often happens to the flotsam and jetsam
in the voyage of this strange life, had been now
stranded for twenty years at a spot where he, at

first, only intended to stay for a week or two.
Willard was a man of few words, so few, the

landlord of the hotel told us, that he was not
much appreciated as a guide. No man in the
district knew the cave better, or as well. But

although he told all that was necessary for any
reasonable traveller, yet to the ordinary tourist
who loves to be kept lively by a running fire of
light talk, James Willard's taciturn habits were
by no means acceptable. In consequence the
poor fellow's business had seriously fallen off,
and he was much pleased when we engaged
him by the day as our guide in prowling about
the country, as well as investigating the cave.
THE OLD SOUTH 75
Like most men of thoughtful habits and
wandering life, Willard's mind was stored with

much knowledge, strange legends of the country,
and still
stranger reminiscences of his eventful
life.
One day we were taking our lunch in the

cave at the strange, sad, silent ruins of what
was once a sort of Sanatorium for persons
afflicted with the fell disease, consumption.
Many years ago a doctor of an investigating
turn of mind had taken the idea into his head
that the rarefied air or ozone of the cave would
cure his consumptive patients and, accordingly,
;
he had a building erected wherein to effect

cures, as he told them, but no doubt simply to
experiment upon the poor creatures, as doctors
are so fond of doing. It was certainly a strange
experiment to incarcerate, in this womb of the

earth, people already depressed by disease.
The darkness, the silence of utter lifelessness,
and a chill as of the grave, made me think that
the doctor must have been not only an enthu-
siast, but a very cold-blooded customer as well.
Be that as it
may, the experiment proved a
failure, asthe desolate, crumbling ruins in the
silent cave testify.
As we finished our lunch and were preparing

to take our way to the ghostly river Styx, I
noticed that Willard knelt for a minute beside
two low mounds of sand and rocky debris, as
if he were
arranging or smoothing the stony
heaps. A
furtive salute of the old soldier, as he
rose from his knees, roused my curiosity, and,
without thinking, I laughingly said, " Why,
Willard! are you laying a ghost, or the spirit
of the cave, which the Indians say still holds
dominion in defiance of the power and unbelief
of the white man ? " Willard made no reply, and
during the rest of that day was, even for him,
unusually silent and self-absorbed.
Some days after this, as we were returning
from a very happy and successful fishing expedi-
tion, and were passing near Willard's queer old
patched domicile, he proposed that we should

rest on his veranda, while he brewed that
most refreshing of all drinks, especially after a
long tramp tea! To this we gladly assented,
and in a remarkably short time all old cam-
paigners know how to prepare eatables and
drinkables quickly we were solacing our wearied
"
faculties with the cups that cheer but not in-
ebriate."
was one of those perfect days which are
It
sometimes photographed in the memory so in-

THE OLD SOUTH 77
tensely they remain beautiful pictures,

that
clear and distinct for the rest of our lives. I
think it must be some subtile spiritual artist
who paints those wonderful pictures which never
fade; certainly it is nothing which we can lay
our hands upon, and say it was this, or that,
which engraved it upon the tablets of memory
never to be effaced! It may be simply a restful,
happy, beautiful day in a foreign land, or it
may be a misty day in the land of our birth,
with the gray sea leaping on the dulse covered
rocks, and the white gulls sweeping on unerring
wing to their nests on the cliffs. Or again, it
may be a day when the interests of this life
were swept from our broken hearts, and joy and
sorrow became only words to us for evermore.
It may be trifles, as we say in our blindness,
for there areno trifles in this life, or it may be

lifeand death or perchance, greater tragedies
than these but certainly most men and women
have a private picture gallery into which no one
else can look, which no misfortune of poverty
shall ever drag with desecrating hands into an
auction room. And when we at last lock the
door, even Death himself, powerful as he is,
cannot open it without our consent.

It was a lovely day; the sun was far past
the meridian, and the splendid buckeyes were
throwing long, delicious shadows over the fair

landscape. Wild roses, honeysuckle, and vines
climbed and rambled over Willard's shanty,
making it a most artistic bower, if one did not
pry too deeply into his domestic arrangements;
and of course no well-disposed persons do pry
deeply into a single man's abode. If they do
they are sure to meet with disappointments.
"
This had been Willard's home," as he ex-
pressed it, for more than twenty years, and he
told us that as was freehold, and the only place
it
on earth for which he felt any affection, he in-

tended to live out the rest of his days on this
spot, and die here, when his last muster-call
sounded.
My companion and I had become deeply inter-
ested in might almost say attached to this
I
reticent, lonely man. We felt convinced that

there was some sorrowful tragedy beyond the
usual portion allotted to mankind hidden away
in that silent, undemonstrative heart, and I
think that he had met few, if any, who had
shown him the same sympathy, the subtile influ-

ence of which soon after drew from Willard the
sorrowful story of his life.
Shortly after this, showery weather came on

THE OLD SOUTH 79
and put an end to our fishing excursions. But
as rain or sunshine make no difference to the
abodes of Cimmerian darkness, we arranged with
Willard for another long expedition in the cave.
Promptly on time soldier like he was at the
hotel next morning. Provided with an ample
lunch and a couple of shawls, which Willard
strapped on his back soldier-fashion, we sallied

forth, and soon exchanged the light of day for
the regions of endless night.
We
spent some hours at the weird river Styx,
watching the strange antics of the eyeless fish.
The blaze of our torches had no effect upon
these visionless creatures, but the least blow of
our hands on the water sent them scurrying in
all directions, so sensitive have become their
organs of hearing and touch. Then we wandered
on past the "
fat man's misery," once again
gazed with awe and reverence on the vast

"
Cathedral," with its beautiful starry vault,
finally settling down at the ruined Sanatorium
for our lunch and midday rest.
We ate our meal as usual, that is to say, rather
silently, and as we finished, and before we rose,

I said quietly to Willard that he must have
heard or seen some incident connected with the
ruins which he might gratify us by relating
8o A REMINISCENCE OF
before we turned homewards. His always sad
face grew sadder as I
spoke, and I felt sorry
that perhaps had, unthinkingly, touched some
I
painful chord in the silent man's heart. I hastily

made some excuse for referring to what was
not pleasant to him, and at once began pre-
"
paring for a start. No! No!" said Willard,
"
I would do me good to tell the story
think it
to you who have shown such kind sympathy for
my solitary life, such sympathy as not one soul

has shown to me for more than twenty lonely
years."
^ * * * *
Without more ado he began to talk in a low
unimpassioned voice, more as if he were think-
"
I was born on
ing aloud than speaking to us.
the '
Winnimaca Plantation/ in Virginia. I
was an only son, and was brought up as South-

ern boys were brought up before the war (that
is, sons of the great planters) with all the ad-
vantages and luxury which wealth could com-

mand. My father owned more than ten thousand
acres of first-rate sugar and cotton land, and a
thousand slaves, more or less. Those who think
that Southern slave owners were cruel, hard
masters do not know the facts of the case. The
Southerners were no more cruel to their slaves
THE OLD SOUTH 81
than Northern, or English gentlemen are cruel

to their servants; and in most cases were kinder
and more thoughtful of the welfare of their
people than the general run of great employers
of labour. On the plantations the aged and
the sick were well cared for, and, excepting in
the rare cases when estates became bankrupt,
were never separated. I have seen
families
much more misery among negroes since free-
dom was proclaimed than ever was known in
the old days.
"
But there isno use talking of that now.
We fought for what we considered a righteous
cause, as our forefathers had fought a hundred
years before, the right to manage our own affairs,

and any Southerner tells you that he is glad
if
we were defeated, he either lies or is a fool.

"
When I was ten years old my mother died,
and in the wretchedness and loneliness of our
great silent house my father induced a sister of

his (who had married, gone to England, and
become a widow with one child) to come back
and make her home at Winnimaca.
"
When my aunt came to take charge of my
father's house, her pale little English child,
Mildred, was six or seven years of age. Not a

beautiful, or even a pretty child, but with the
G
most wonderful eyes I ever saw, or ever shall
see, until I see the face of one angel in heaven,
ifever the Lord permits me to get there. It
was not their colour, which was a sort of purple
like the colour of far-off hills when the sun sets
on still summer nights, it was their expression ;
a look as they saw things not of this earth, as

if
if they had seen the mystery of life clearly re-
vealed, an expression which held me spell-bound

from the first moment I looked into them, and
will hold me
spell-bound while I retain con-
sciousness in this world or the next."
Willard sat quite silent for five minutes or so,
looking at the faint traces of the two low
mounds which lay within a few feet of where we
sat. Then he continued, in the same even, low
voice :
"
Of course my little cousin and I became daily
companions. We studied together under the
same governesses and played, rode
tutors. We
our ponies, boated on the beautiful river, and,
in short, had the usual upbringing which loving
care, wealth, and refinement afford.

"
When
I was and Mildred
twenty seventeen,
the South declared her independence, and the
clouds of war enveloped the country, never for
one moment lifting until a fair and prosperous
THE OLD SOUTH 83
land was utterly ruined, families scattered or

dead, beautiful homes tenantless, fertile lands
gone back into pine-barrens, delicately reared
women and children begging food and shelter
from strangers, wretched, dangerous bands of
negroes prowling about in search of a living by
plunder, instead of by honest work while the ;
greedy, Northern carpet-bagger ruled or rather

battened on whatever was left in the land.
"
But I must go back a little. When the South-
ern flag went up, my father, like all the in-
fluentialgentlemen in the
South, gave every-
thing he had to the cause. He had been
educated at West Point, and held a commission
in the United States Army. Of course he at
once resigned and raised a regiment of cavalry
in his district, supplying most of the horses
from his own splendid stud. Every man in the

district volunteered, and it was with the greatest
difficulty that a few were persuaded to remain

at home, to keep the plantations in something
like order.
"
Winnimaca became the head-quarters of the
regiment. Of course I was enrolled, but simply
as a private, having had no previous military
training.
"
Our Major, the officer next in rank to my
father who was Colonel of the regiment, was
Gordon Maxwell, a young planter from west-
ern Virginia, who, like my father, had had the
advantage of a West Point education. Maxwell

was a gay, dashing fellow, full of fun and frolic,
yet with the somewhat ceremonious manners of
the old South, which is always attractive to
womankind. He stayed at Winnimaca for six
weeks, and with the freedom of intercourse and
mutual interests, became almost like a member
of the family. Then came the order from
General Lee for our regiment to move west at
once. Mildred and her mother were left in
charge of the plantation with a trustworthy

overseer, the household servants, and the field
hands.
"
Mildred andhad always liked each other,
I
and were engaged to be married when this

short campaign was over, which we felt sure
would soon give the Yankees all the fighting
they desired.
"
Iwas very much occupied with various
matters, besides my daily drill, during the month
or six weeks that Gordon Maxwell was with us
at the old home, or might have known then
I
what I learned afterwards. But even if I had

known, I cannot see how it would have changed
THE OLD SOUTH 85
the course of events which the future held in

store for us all.
"
was absent from Winnimaca for a little
I
over two years. During that time our regiment

had been in many engagements, and had lost
heavily in men and officers. My father was
severely wounded in a skirmish near the Poto-
mac, and, owing to want of proper care and

treatment, died three days afterwards. Before
my he instructed Major Maxwell
father's death
(who would succeed to the command of the

regiment) to grant me leave to go home and
see what I could do for my aunt and Mildred.
The very day after my father's death we had a
severe fight with the enemy, in which Major
now Colonel Maxwell was killed while lead-
ing us in a desperate charge against fixed
bayonets. was riding by his side at the moment,
I
and saw what was going to happen, which he

did not, as he was looking back and cheering
on his men. In the midst of the hellish uproar,
I tried to save him by cutting down the soldier

who had his bayonet at Maxwell's breast, but
I was one moment too late. By the impact of
the dying man's thrust, and Maxwell's headlong
speed, the weapon went clean through his

body, and he fell without a cry or a groan.
"
We
were driven back by overwhelming
numbers, and forced to leave our killed and
wounded hands of the enemy. I had a
in the
sabre cut on my sword arm, and was invalided

home for a month, not a day longer; for by this
time the South could not spare a man so long
as he was able to fire a gun, or hit even with
one hand. Our armies were hard pressed every-
where, and, at the best, were only able to hold
their own, a hard task, in face of diminishing
numbers, and dreadful hardships for want of

even the common necessaries of life. Of course,
in the unsettled state of the country, agriculture
was sadly neglected. Having no navy, our

coasts were closely blockaded by the enemy, so
that we
could receive nothing from abroad, the
occasional escape of a blockade-runner not being
worthy of notice, and merely affording us amuse-

ment and admiration for the brave fellows en-
gaged in the hazardous, if often profitable,
game.
"On the other hand, the Northern armies were
constantly replenished by hoards of adventurers

from Europe, while our armies, to a man, were
made up of fathers and sons of the South. A
thousand European waifs might fall on the
Northern side, and not a tear be shed but ;
THE OLD SOUTH 87
never a Southern soldier but some lonely
fell
woman's heart broke for father, husband, sweet-

Besides these things, the
heart, son, or brother.
actual disturbing presence and horror of war
were far removed from the North. Her trade,
manufactures, foreign commerce, went on un-
impaired, in fact, in many cases improved, by
the war. These mighty advantages had not
been taken into serious account by the hot-
headed South. They knew their cause was just,
and, like their Cavalier forefathers, gaily drew
sword, never counting the cost.
"
When our regiment answered the roll-call
after the fight in which Major Maxwell was

killed, it was found so badly cut up that it was
thought expedient to draft the few remaining
men fit for service into other regiments. But I
am glad to say that the Winnimaca Troopers,
as we were called, left a record of splendidly
gallant deeds in an army where brave men and

gallant deeds were the rule, not the exception.
"
Mine was a sad home-coming. I found
things badly changed. During the first year of
the war matters had gone on well enough. The
negroes remained perfectly loyal, rejoicing over

every victory our side gained ober dem mis'-
'
able white trash,' as they expressed it, for whom

the common field hand had no love, and less
respect. This feeling of dislike continues among

the old negroes to the present day. The North
conquered the South and made an end of all

Southern institutions but there was one thing
;
they did not do, they never won the negro's

heart and loyalty. This is a very curious enigma
to the Yankee mind, in face of their loudly re-
iterated statement that the war was fought for

the freedom of the slaves; a statement which
the long-delayed proclamation of emancipation
utterly disproves; and the ordinary negro is

astute enough to know that the proclamation
was simply a last, desperate, political venture.
"
As the war dragged along the clouds grew
darker and darker. No one knew what would
happen on the morrow. Men and women, white
and black, on lonely plantations and in isolated
hamlets, grew restless with protracted anxiety ;
the good with fear of the horrors which might
happen, the bad with eager anticipation of

plunder and rapine.
"
I found my aunt and cousin
deeply depressed
and sharing the common gloom and fear.
"
When I told them of the death of my father
and Gordon Maxwell, their last hopes seemed
to fail; and in a day or two they told me that
THE OLD SOUTH 89
they had decided to enter the Convent at Rich-

mond and devote the rest of their lives to
nursing the sick and comforting the desolate.
"
I could not understand Mildred at all. I
reminded her of our engagement, but she only

shook her head, and said, that was all past and
'
gone' Of course, under the sadly changed

condition of our circumstances, I could do
all
nothing to prevent Mildred and her mother from

carrying out their intentions. I had to report
myself at head-quarters in a couple of weeks,
and in any case I had no right to interfere with
their resolve. Besides, I
began to think, when
I
upon all our miserable circumstances,
reflected
that their plan was perhaps the best after all.
"
My last week at the beautiful old homestead
was a strangely sad week to me. The silence
of cold desolation had fallen upon the house
which all my life had represented to me warmth
and cheerfulness. The overseer and the hands
carried on the work in a half-hearted manner,
knowing that the old order of things was vanish-

ing for ever, and a new regime, by some hoped
for, by most dreaded, was coming, heralded by
ominous sounds of dire suffering and death on

the wings of the wind.
"
Six months afterwards the splendid old man-
sion which was built when Charles 1 1 was tj
was first looted of portable valuables, and

all
then, with its priceless collection of pictures,

furniture, and art treasures dating back for
hundreds of years, was ruthlessly burned to
the ground by those who professed to be the
pioneers of a higher civilization than had ever

been in the land before.
" aunt and cousin at this
I saw little of my
time ; they were much engaged with their pre-
parations for leaving the old home.

"
Mildred, who had been my playmate for
ten years, and of late my promised wife, had

completely changed from the happy girl into
the cold sedate woman, who showed no interest
in anything save the career which she had
chosen for her future life. I
accompanied them
to Richmond, saw them safely installed as nurs-
ing sisters, and after a hasty and formal good-
bye, I went regiment in which I
off to join the
had received a captain's commission.

"
I must pass over the next ten years of
sorrow, misfortune and wandering. father's My
fine estate was sold for a mere song, on account
of what the newly arrived carpet-baggers were
pleased to call debt, instead of a more objec-
tionable word. A pushing Yankee, who had
THE OLD SOUTH 91
become the owner, was murdered soon after-

'
wards a dirty impudent nigger,' as
for slapping
the unfortunate man called his murderer. Be-
fore the war a negro would have been soundly
flogged for the offence of impudence, without
ever dreaming of retaliating by word or deed;
and the only consolation he would receive from
his fellows would have been to be told,
'
Dat
it sarved you right, you good fo' nothin' sassy
'
nigga, you ! I leave of phil-

it to the wisdom
anthropists and philosophers to explain the
reason and the advantage of the change I :
only state the fact.

"
After ten years of fighting, wandering, and
working hard for a living, I struck this place,

and with a little money I had saved I
bought
the bit of a ranch you saw yesterday and here ;
I have stuck ever since, and here,

please God,
I shall die.
"I have worked at one thing and another,

but a man is not much use in this country un-
less he has a trade, a profession, or better still,
some swindling trick at his finger ends. How-

ever, I liked the place, made myself thoroughly
acquainted with the country especially with
the caves and, as a guide, always made a sort
of living.
"
When I came it was just about the end of
the cruel swindle of keeping poor creatures in
the cave for the pretended cure of consumption.
Of many who had been here only one re-
the
mained. The doctor could get no one to stay
with his unfortunate patient, who was not only
in the last stages of the disease, but was also
said to be a little off.' As I was in the cave
'
one day the doctor entreated me to stay with
the sick man until a nurse could be got from

the convent at Cincinnati, a sister of mercy
being the only sort that the doctor could in-

duce to undertake the miserable task.
"
When I took my patient in hand I found
him practically a dying man. He had got past
the stage of coughing, and was so very weak that
he could only speak in broken whispers. He
told me that he was forty-five years of age, but
he looked twenty years older. I made the poor
fellow as comfortable as the wretched circum-
stances would permit. During the first twenty-
four hours I was with him he took not the least
notice of anything. He simply lay with his eyes
closed, sighing with a sort of feeble satisfaction
when I
gave him some little liquid nourishment
and wiped his fevered face and hands with a
cool, damp cloth.
THE OLD SOUTH 93
"
From my old soldier habits of order
I
sup-
pose, I fell into the custom of arranging the
few household articles as ship-shape as I could,
and then I sat down by the sick man's couch
to attend to what I could do for him in his sad
condition. Once, after a feeble spasm of at-
tempted coughing, and while I was bathing his

face, he lay so absolutely quiet that I held the
lamp near his bed, really thinking, from his
he had passed away. But I found

stillness, that
him much more alive than at any time since I
had taken him in charge, staring at me with
wide open eyes, and whispering my name. This
puzzled me, as the doctor had not mentioned
my name, only introducing me to the sick man
as his nurse until the sister arrived from the
convent. There was a wild look of recognition
in his eyes which startled me, in spite of my
knowledge of the frequently strange fancies and

behaviour of the dying, which I had had abund-
ant opportunities of observing on battlefields and
in hospitals.
"
The sick man
closed his eyes and slowly
passed his withered hands over his face; then

he looked at me again with the same intelligence
as before and said, almost in his old, strong,
natural voice, 'Jim Willard! I am Gordon
'
Maxwell ! I laid the lamp on the table, with

the sort of care we use when handling some-
thing very fragile, lest we let it fall. I felt cer-
tain that I was going to faint, a thing I had
never done in my life. He put out his great
bony hand towards me;
'
Willard,' he panted,
'
did not die as reported. I was picked up
I
next day with the broken bayonet through my

body, and, to my woe and suffering all these
years, I was nursed back into such miserable
life as a man can have, with only a fragment of
lung left!' Here he paused for some minutes
to recover a bit, then continued :
'
was not
I
completely ruined financially, as most others
were; I realized enough from the wreck of the

plantation to annuity. I have
buy a small life
wandered from place to place in search of life,

until here I am run to earth at last, dying like
'
a rat in a hole !
"He lay with closed eyes, and so absolutely

still after the exertion of speaking, that I felt
sure he was dead. But in a little while he
whispered, without opening his eyes: 'All are

dead! The Colonel my mother and father!
Mildred!
'
All! you not
All! Why are
dead ? As he said this the door opened and
the doctor and a sister of mercy came in with-
THE OLD SOUTH 95
out speaking a word, and stood with me by the

dying man's bed. The nun's face was completely
concealed by her hood, but by the unerring
telepathy of the heart I knew she was my
cousin Mildred!
"
Gordon lay with closed eyes, and slowly
moving his head from side to side, as a man
will do sometimes when thinking far-off, sad
thoughts, he said: Why don't you answer me,
'
'
Willard ? opening his eyes and feebly turn-

ing his face to the light. For a little while he
did not seem to recognize any one, and mur-
mured again :
'
Why don't you answer me ? '
Then his eyes dilated with clear, unclouded con-

sciousness. He threw out his hands, and with
his old, strong voice cried 'Mildred! Mildred! :
At last! Oh, thank God! Thank

At last!
God you have come to take me back with you

!
to Paradise.' In a moment she had dashed her

nun's hood aside and was kneeling by the couch,
kissing his hands, and wildly whispering words
of endearment, such as I thought it was well
worth dying to hear! 'Darling! darling! I never
knew! Jim lied to me! Telling me you were
dead and so I hid myself in the convent.
Oh how ! cruel cruel !
'
'
"'No! No! said Gordon. 'Jim told you the
truth ! / was dead! but the doctors dragged me
back to half life, for which I have cursed them
ever since. But now I thank them from the

depths of my soul!' He struggled a moment
with the rattle in his throat, then clear and high,
'Dear God! Take me where mother and
father Mildred the Colonel and Jim are
all to be for Christ's sake! Amen!'
"
The
doctor stepped forward to compose the
dead man's features, not noticing that Mildred
had sank to the ground, in a swoon, as I
thought. I lifted her on to a rude wooden sofa,

and in doing so I saw a stain of blood on her
lips, and a deathly paleness on her face. The
doctor's accustomed touch on her wrist and
heart revealed in a moment that two souls had
taken from the darkness of the cave, and
flight
"
the greater darkness of this world !
"
I am afraid that I have detained you too
long in this cold place," said Willard, gathering

"
up our shawls. Let us get into the sunlight
as quickly as we can." So we reverently and
silently left the little stone ruin, with its two

low, almost invisible, mounds ;
thinking, as we
had often thought before, how utterly incom-
prehensible are the mysteries of this life! mys-
teries which must ever remain mysteries to us,
THE OLD SOUTH 97
until we read the whole marvellous story by

"
the light that never was on sea or land."
In the meantime there is only the one, calm,
safe anchorage for our bewildered, weary souls,
and limited human understanding if we would
"
retain our reason Shall not the Judge of all
"
the earth do right ?
H
MIST
MIST
HILE my companion is writing
about Lake St. John, I may as
well relate a sad romantic little
affair which happened to me, or
rather happened in my presence, near the
northern shore of the lake.
Lake John is a beautiful sheet of water
St.
lying about one hundred and thirty miles almost

due north of Quebec, with which it is connected
by a fairly good railroad, built a few years ago.
The village of Roberville, situated on the
southern shore of the lake, is quite a pleasant
place to pass a few weeks at. There is splendid
fishing on the lake. The Owinenishi a species
of salmon trout is a very fine game fish, and
affords great sport to any disciple of Izaak
Walton who may chance to wander hither.
The lake is about a hundred miles (I write

IOI
102 MIST
more from memory than guide books) in cir-
cumference. Several streams of considerable

size flow into and one noble river the
it,
Saguenay carries a vast volume of water

from the eastern shore of the lake down to the
St. Lawrence.
When I last saw Roberville was a pic-
it
turesquely situated village of a few hundred

inhabitants, who were mostly of the slow old-
fashioned French Canadian stock. There was
the usual busy saw-mill, which is found in all
frontier towns in the north or north-west, a few
stores, a comfortable hotel, and last, but by no

means least, a pretty little Roman Catholic
Church, which was pleased to find on Sunday
I
well filled, not only by women, who are church-
goers in all communities as a rule, but by the

men also. A few miles westerly of Roberville,
on the shore of the lake, lay the Indian village.
It, too, had its little church, into which a
solemn, yet pleasant-mannered old Indian used

to usher us, and then quietly and reverently
show us the simple little holy relics and vessels,
lovingly and carefully kept under lock and key.
The Hudson Bay Company's store stood here,
very much decayed now in wealth and power
from what such places were in the good old days
MIST 103
when Company's name was a talisman to

the
conjure by from Labrador to Vancouver.

While I was loitering the time away about
Roberville, in the lovely Indian summer of
189-, I chanced to run across a man I had not
seen for ten long years. Jack Ogilvie and I
were born in the same village, had been school-
mates for a weary year, and had com-
many
forted each other after many a severe flogging,
our Dominie being one of the stern sort who
"
thoroughly believed in the old proverb, The
rod and reproof give wisdom." I was four
years older than Jack, and had fought many

a tough battle on his account; and on the
principle, "dear is the helpless creature we

defend," our friendship had grown into more
than mere boyish liking, and we had never
ceased to have a sincere affection for each other.
But the strange jumble that we call life,
in
Jack and I had lost sight of each other. He

got a commission in a regiment of foot; I had
gone to the Australian colonies and wandered
about the world, seeing a great deal of life,
both savage and civilized. As often happens
with men rarely with women we had never
corresponded; had completely lost
and, in fact,
trace of each other; when, strange to say, as
104 MIST
the little local train ran into the Roberville
station, who
should jump out of the single pas-
senger car, and almost knock me over, but my
old friend Jack!
Ten years is a wide swath out of a man's
life, and if we
are parted from our nearest and
dearest for that length of time, we are apt to
be considerably startled at the changes which
have taken place. Jack was a thin slip of a lad
when we said our sad farewell that autumn
morning on the deck of H.B.M. troopship
Ranger, bound for Bombay. Now he was a
bronzed, soldierly-looking man
of thirty, utterly
changed, and yet what strange beings we are !
not changed a bit ! I knew him at a glance,

and after a moment of dumbfounded amazement
he found me in the wonderful archives of
memory. In an instant we were boys again,

and rushed at each other as in the old, happy
days.
His presence at Roberville was soon ex-
plained. He had been wounded in one of our
little affairs up-country at the Cape; had also
had a long spell of fever on the Durban frontier,
and, much was active
to his regret (for there
service going on, and therefore good chances
of promotion), was obliged to ask for leave
MIST 105
of absence. Being a favourite with General

W ,
he got a whole year on full pay. Some
and before going to
years after leaving India,
the Cape, Jack had been stationed at Quebec,
and had taken a liking to the wild, romantic
life of the north-west. Besides this, in his
run-down condition he longed for the cool

shimmer of the Lakes and the wild rush of the
glorious rivers of Canada after two years of
the brown veldts of South Africa.
That was Jack's whole story. As for myself,
I haddrifted to Lake St. John with no definite
purpose, and when Jack proposed a trip into

the real forest, with hunting and fishing in true
voyageur style, I
jumped at the proposal at
once; and inthe excitement of preparing for
our life in the wilderness we were as happy and
light-hearted as ever we had been on Lochaber

in the old days which we both remembered so
well. I have a fixed idea that Scotchmen re-
member boyhood days with more tender

their
feeling and far more vividly than men of any

other nationality. It may be a wrong impres-
sion, but I have it nevertheless.
After muchcogitation we decided to engage
two Indians and two canoes. Jack and I could
handle any kind of oar or paddle that ever was
io6 MIST
invented, and we had had enough experience
man Jack in the East,
of the so-called savage
I in the Pacific to know that two are much
more easily managed, and are much more con-
tented, than a greater number. We
hired two
birch-bark canoes with their respective owners ;
canoe and man to be paid forty dollars a month.

Nominally the men were to feed themselves;
practically we knew that we would have to feed
them, but diplomatically this is a good stroke

of policy, as it is always better to do more than
is actually called for by the letter of the
contract.
Our canoes were rather over the usual size,
and carried safely about 800 Ib. of freight, be-
sides two men. Jack took charge of one, I of
the other, each with an Indian.
They were men of the usual frontier type,

but less contaminated by contact with civiliza-
tion save the mark! than most of the red-
skins one finds near the settlements.
Jack
called his chap the "Artful Dodger," from a
fancied resemblance between him and the
"
classical original. My fellow I dubbed Chin-
gagook." I am more poetical than Jack, and I

was determined to get all the poetry out of this
trip that I could in names, or anything else.
MIST 107
The foregoing sentiment was scribbled in my

notebook before we started; I had not the
heart to write so after my return, for I got a
great deal more poetry out of that adventure

than I
bargained for.
We started from Roberville on the loth of
June about 5 a.m. We had made our arrange-

ments so quietly that hardly any one knew of
our departure. During our week of preparation
we had been fortunate enough to meet one of
the Trappist monks, whose monastery is on the
Mistassinie river. He had come to Roberville
on some business connected with his Order, had
heard of our intended expedition, and asked to
be allowed to accompany us as far as his
station. We
acceded to his request at once,
not only on account of much good advice he
had given us regarding the wilderness, but
also because we felt deeply interested in the
men who held the very outpost of civilization
in that part of the world.
It was an ideal morning, clear and still, with

that sweet stillness of the far north as if all
Nature were at rest and enjoying the glorious

Indian summer. The lake lay like burnished
silver, with cat's paws slightly rippling the
water here and there as if to enhance the won-

io8 MIST
derful beauty of the shimmering expanse. We
spun along at a good rate, past the headland at
the Indian village and the Hudson Bay Com-
pany Post. I led the way with Chingagook in

the stern, I in the bow. Jack followed with the
Artful Dodger steering, the priest amidships,
and Jack in the bow handling his paddle as if
to the manner born. We had taken some short
expeditions with our men before we made our

final start, and had got upon the most friendly
terms with them, and had become quite familiar

with the management of the canoes.
Jack took the priest with him as he could

talk French. Both our Indians spoke a little
broken English, and could jabber a bit in the
usual French patois. But your so-called savage
man can understand you ten times better than
white men do when you run up against the
barrier of unknown tongues.
It is a long while since that fair June morning,
and many things of good and bad import have

happened since then, but I remember every
detail and circumstance as if it had been yester-
day the glassy lake, the wooded shores, our
paddles flashing in the sun, and the water rip-

pling away from our canoes. Here and there
the eye was caught by a silvery glitter and
MIST 109
splash as a game strong Owinenishi leapt into

the sunlight and fell back into the water; while
on shore the blue srnoke rose straight up above
the Indian wigwams, and floating over the still
lake came the subdued tones of the bell from
the little Catholic chapel in the village, calling
the people to prayer.
Westretched away along the western shore,
and made such good progress that we camped
that night near the Chomouchouan river; after
that we took it more leisurely, and landed our
Trappist friend at his lonely post on the third

day after leaving Roberville. To our worldly
eyes indeed a lonely sad life which these
it is
monks lead, far from friends and country, yet

they seem perfectly happy and contented. The
Trappist Order is celebrated among the religious
orders of the Roman Catholic Church for its
extraordinary austerities and simplicity of life.
It was founded in the twelfth century, and

members are to be found all over the world. I
have met the monks of this Order in the most
savage and remote, as well as in the most
civilized, lands.
The rules and discipline of the Trappists are
of the most severe kind. The monks are for-
bidden the use of meat, and practise the utmost
I
no MIST
simplicity of life. Bread and vegetables, a little
and water, make up their frugal bill of fare.

fruit
They are great workers, and devote most of

each day to manual labour. One of their rules
which they observe very strictly is silence. They
never speak unless it is absolutely necessary,
and they say that conduces greatly to
this rule
contentment, to kindly feeling towards each

other, and to general happiness.
I remember a priest of this Order, with
whom foregathered in Rome many years ago,
I
and with whom I became very friendly, tell-

ing me
that although he had been a zealous
and successful Cure in a beautiful province of
Normandy his native country yet he had
never known peace of mind, or any approach
to happiness until he became a strict member
of the Trappist Order. They evidently agree
with St. James: "The tongue can no man
tame, it is an unruly of deadly poison ";
evil, full
and I am rather inclined to think they are
right in their diagnosis of that most trouble-

some member.
After a couple of days spent with the good
Fathers, and some explorations of the river, we
concluded to return to a pretty little clearing
near the lake, which Pere Lucien had advised
MIST in
us to look at as he thought it would suit our
purpose. We
found the place exactly adapted
for a hunting camp high dry ground for the
tents, a good beach for the canoes, and a splendid
situation for lake or river fishing. The forest
was open, affording shelter from the noonday

sun without having the dense character of most
of the north-west.
We built a snug camp, and arranged every-
thing in first-rate style. Both Jack and I knew
the art of camp building to perfection, and we

soon had everything ship-shape and to our en-
tire satisfaction. The Dodger and
Artful
Chingagook were dumbfounded at our know-

ledge, and from that day forth paid us much
more grave respect and consideration. To
command the respect of savages two things are
absolutely necessary. First and always, gentle-

manly conduct, secondly, a knowledge of what
(for want of a better word) we may term wood-
craft. With regard to the first quality, they are
quicker, as a rule, in detecting an underbred

man than any committee of a West- end club. I
suppose it is instinct or intuition, but whatever
it may be, there it is, and you will find the
same unerring gift all over the world among

the children of Nature. As for the wood-craft, it
ii2 MIST
is more easily accounted for, as it is the first
essential of the savage man's education.

In summer, throughout the great north-west,
upon the shores of the lakes, near rivers and

other convenient spots, Indians are found in tem-
porary camps quite different from their permanent

winter quarters. They are engaged in hunting,
fishing, canoe-building, and all such business

and recreation as go to make up Indian life.
They are generally in small parties, or even

single families. After we had been settled in
camp a few days, we had a visit from a family
which we found were located a few miles up the
river. The party consisted of the father and
mother, a daughter and son.

Welearned that there was another member
of the family in the shape of the grandmother,
but as she was too old to care much about
society, she did not honour us with a visit. The
family were above the average redskins in re-
gard to good looks: and two (the father and
daughter) were strikingly handsome. The man
was fully six feet in height, with a splendid
physique, not too slim as Indians are apt to be

when and yet without a pound of surplus
tall,
flesh. His features were fine, and he possessed
the keen eagle eyes of his race. His every

MIST 113
movement had the free yet self-restrained grace

of the sons of the wilderness wherever found all
the world over, until they are made awkward
and commonplace by imitating our manners
and adopting our clothing.
The daughter was worthy of such a sire.
She possessed all the grace of her father, and
also had the peculiar wistful beauty which is
often seen in Indian girls from twelve to eigh-
teen years of age, rarely later; for the severe
lifeof the poor squaw soon changes the girl
into the hard-featured middle-aged woman.
The family had some trifles for sale bead-
work moccasins, deer-skin jackets, leggings, etc.,
and a basket of delicious wild strawberries. I
bought the fruit, and Jack negotiated with the

girl for a pair of moccasins. During our inter-
course we learned that the Indian's name was

Eagle Eye; and if ever a mother hit upon an
appropriate cognomen for her son, that Indian's
mother had " filled the bill." His wife bore the
euphonious name of Bending-ash. These two
names we translated and picked up readily
enough, but the girl's patronymic we could not
put into English, French, or any other lingo
we even had a smattering of. The first
part
"
was simply Mistassinie," then followed two
i
ii4 MIST
or three very hard syllables which we gave
up in despair, greatly to the whole party's

amusement. Jack, however, finally hit upon a
happy compromise by proposing to address our
"
fairyoung friend by the first syllable Mist";
and after a little pouting on the part of the
young lady herself, and a flash or two from her
father, the whole thing was settled to every
one's entire satisfaction. Those who know how
sensitive Indians are, will understand how im-
portant it commence a friendship with
is to
the greatest delicacy as to names and titles

of rank. The son was a smart lad of about
twelve. His name was simple and easy to
learn as he carried it on his head, as one might
"
say, being simply a Crow's-feather," stuck
jauntily in his hair. With regard to our own
names, the Indians settled the matter in no
time. From some little supposed generous ac-
"
tion on my part, they dubbed me Open-hand."
Jack, whose tall handsome figure they admired
with intense appreciation, they named " Moun-
tain-cedar," and so during four happy months
we flourished as new men altogether.
The Indian camp was situated about three
miles above us, and the river being deep and
free from obstructions it only took about forty
MIST 115
minutes to paddle from their camp to ours. This

was a matter of some consequence to us in many
ways. Wild strawberries, for instance, were an
endless article of trade between Mist and our-
selves. Our Indians were always too busy to
attend to such trifles, the real truth being that
gathering berries is a thing the noble red man

hates and despises as something quite beneath
his dignity; and therefore leaves it
entirely to
the squaws and children. Mist took to the busi-
ness of supplying us with the delicious little
fruit with great goodwill. She, with Crow's-
feather as assistant, brought us a pretty basket-
fulevery second morning, for which we settled
up accounts at the end of the week; and as the
children came and gave good measure,
faithfully
Jack and I agreed that we would make each a

little present on pay day, over and above the
stipulated price which we knew went into a

general fund to replenish the family exchequer,
whereas a present according to Indian ethics is
held to belong sacredly to the recipient.
For Mist the present usually consisted of a
bit of gay ribbon, a reel of coloured thread, a
bright handkerchief, or some similar trifle. Of

these we had plenty, having laid in a supply of
such articles knowing they would be useful, as
n6 MIST
they are always dear to the Indian woman's
heart. A few fish-hooks, a knife, a leather belt
or the like, would make the boy supremely
happy, both in the secure possession of the
treasure and in anticipation of splendid things
yet to come.
I like to linger over this part of my little
story, for there was then no sign of any trouble

or sorrow befalling us in our happy careless life.
But, alas! Job's sad soliloquy is as true now as
"
it was in his day. Man is born unto trouble as
the sparks fly upward," and there is no spot on
earth, or station of life where we can escape our
"
fatal inheritance, for the trail of the serpent
is over them all."
For nearly three months our life was simply

perfect. We fished and hunted, made long ex-
peditions up the river, and on the lake; or in
lazy fits spent whole days in camp, reading,
yarning, or in the luxury of utter laziness.
Then we made botanical collections of such
plants as interested us, and in this work we had
an enthusiastic assistant in Mist. She knew
where to find the various plants we were in
search of,and spent hours in camp giving us

their Indian names. It was on one of these ex-
peditions that the first chapter of the tragedy

MIST 117
opened, or rather the first chapter that was

visible to my eyes.
On a still September morning that loveliest
time of the Indian year when the forest is
aglow with all the gorgeous autumn colours,

and Nature is sleeping in a voluptuous dream-
Jack and I started up the river on a plant-
hunting trip. We picked up Mist and Crow's-
feather at their camp, and so, a merry party, we
paddled away up to a suitable spot in search of

some specimens of a rare fern which our Trap-
pist friend thought we might find in those parts.
We had brought our rifles along, as men always
do in the wilderness;but not thinking so much
of sport as of the plant we were anxious to find,
we left them in the canoe, and only carried
hunting-knife and tomahawk in our belts. We
scattered about here and there hidden by the
dense but calling to each other every few
forest,
minutes to find our bearings. Presently in a
cliff beyond my reach I discovered a fine speci-
men of the coveted fern. Calling to the others

to apprise them of my success, I sat down on a
fallen tree to contrive some means of securing
my prize.
At that moment
a wild cry rang and echoed
through the forest. I knew at once that the

n8 MIST
cry came from Mist. The clear, shrill note
could only be made by an Indian woman's
voice, and I knew there must be some dire
cause for such a wailing shriek of rage and
horror. I did not wait an instant as we are
apt to do in such circumstances but dashed at

once with all the speed possible in the direction
of the cry. In a direct line I had to go about a
quarter of a mile, and in an ordinary forest path

I would have covered the
ground in five min-
utes, but my way was so impeded by rocks and
fallen trees that I must have been fully a quarter
of an hour before reaching my companions.
Then on the edge of a little clearing I sud-
denly came upon a scene which at first glance I

could not understand, but in a minute I knew
the whole story. Mist knelt by Jack, and in a
most workmanlike manner was binding up his

arm with part of her own dress and a gay
handkerchief which that morning she had worn
round her neck. Jack lay perfectly still, and so
deadly pale that I thought at first he was dead.
A few yards beyond, a great black bear was
stretched at full length, with his ugly wicked
eyes glazed in death, and his heart's blood slowly

oozing from his cruel mouth. One glance at the
monster showed that there was no more danger
MIST 119
to be apprehended from him. A well-directed

thrust from Jack's hunting-knife the knife was
still in the wound had gone straight to the
savage heart, and must have killed him on the
instant.
It is phenomenon of our nature how quickly

a
in moments of excitement we comprehend a
whole situation which ordinary circumstances
in
we would require a long explanation to under-

stand. I knew at once that the bear must have
taken Jack completely unawares, and that it
must have been Mist who struck the well-
directed blow at the brute's heart, for it was
Jack's right arm which was hurt, and a bear
never lets go until he or his antagonist is killed.
I found afterwards, in talking the matter over,

that my first conjecture was right; and Jack
said that he never saw anything like the quick
flash of his knife as Mist drew it from his belt
and plunged it with such certain aim into Bruin's

heart.
As IMist was binding up Jack's arm,
said,
and even when I came on the scene she paid
no attention whatever, but continued the opera-
tion as if there were only two people left in all
the world. When had
myself that
I satisfied
Jack had only fainted from the sudden shock

120 MIST
and severe pain of the great teeth meeting in
his flesh it was a wonder his arm was not
broken I set to work to assist in restoring him

to consciousness. Crow's-feather had filled
Jack's hunting-cap with cool, clear water from

a stream near by, and was laving his temples
in the most workmanlike manner, watching all
the while with his grave young face and serious
eyes for signs of returning life.

In a few minutes Jack drew a deep breath,
opened his eyes, and in an instant to the utter

astonishment of us all sprang to his feet and
made a grab, in spite of his wounded arm, at
where, in ordinary circumstances, his sword hilt
would have been. It was evident that in the

firstrush of returning consciousness the poor
fellow thought himself on the battlefield. It
took but a few moments to comprehend and

remember the whole affair, and then he quietly
sat down and let Mist complete bandaging his
arm. When the operation was finished to her
entire satisfaction, she got all our handkerchiefs
and odd bits of clothing, and with some large,
stiff made a most scientific sling to sup-
leaves
port the wounded arm. Then she examined her

work carefully, made Jack drink a mouthful or
two of water, and with a serious but a happy
MIST 121
"
look, said, Good!" folded her hands quietly,
smiled, nodded to us all, and repeated the one
word, which means so much when said by an
Indian, "good."
Jack's colour began to return, and presently

he looked a little like his old self. Soldiers, and
even civilians who have knocked about the
world much, and been in many scrapes and
tight places, soon recover their equilibrium after
the most narrow escapes. I
congratulated Jack
on his escape without broken bones, and praised
Mist for her brave, prompt action, and skilful
medical management of the case afterward.
While I was speaking, Jack took the brave,
brown hands in
little his uninjured hand, and
held them gently but firmly, and ah how un-
!
resistingly the poor little hands lay there. Then,

to my amazement and sorrow for I had re-
garded her merely as a happy, careless child I
saw that look come into Mist's face, the look, I
suppose, every man has seen once in his life to

his joy or his sorrow in some woman's face. It
is no matter, high-born dame or lowly peasant,

or savage woman of the wilderness, that look is
the same all the world over, and has been from
the beginning; the look which tells that hence-
forth all her life is yielded up to the beloved,
122 MIST
the look of utter self-renunciation which has been
the glory and the curse of woman since God
spake her doom in the garden of Eden. Ah!
my strong-minded ladies, who are babbling
about so-called " woman's rights," go to, and
"
argue it out with Him who said, Thy desire
shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over
thee." That has been your glory and your

shame since the woeful day we lost Paradise.
Every happy home in the land proves it.
Every criminal court confirms it when the poor
loving creature, with a black eye and disfigured

face, pleads for the cowardly rascal who abuses
her; and I have not the least doubt that you will
be judged a thousand times more leniently than

man, on account of this awful inheritance.
Jack was one of the most unselfish and kindly
fellows in the world, and never gave pain in-
tentionally to any human being in his life. I
saw atonce that he comprehended the whole

little tragedy which was taking place in poor
Mist's wild heart, and in a moment he made up
his mind to change it to comedy. He shook
Mist's hands in a jovial sort of way, and with a
laugh that was not so jovial, poor fellow, he

"
said: Mist! you are a brave, good girl, and if
it had not been for your clever use of my knife I
MIST 123
should have been in the happy hunting-grounds

instead of Bruin yonder. The Open-hand and I
willnever forget you, Mist, and when we get
back to Roberville we will send you such treas-
ures of lovely ribbons and prints, and so many
beautiful things thatall the great chiefs between
the Lakes and Hudson's Bay, hearing of your

wealth and beauty, will come with canoe-loads
of peltry and wampum to try and win the
daughter of Eagle Eye for a bride." Mist

whipped her hands away from him and sprang
"
to her feet with a wild flash in her eyes. Mist
no want ribbons and things from Roberville!
"
Mist hate great chief Then, with a sweep of
!
her arm that was like a command, she con-

"
tinued : Sun low, camp far, must go," and,
springing into the forest, she led the way to the
canoes, we following as fast as Jack's wounded
arm would permit.
It was nearly sunset when we reached the
canoes. We started briskly down stream, Mist

and her brother paddling their canoe, with Jack
sitting amidships in as easy a position as pos-
sible, I
following close behind in ours.
The river glittered under a full, clear moon,
and we saw our way as plainly as if it had been
broad day. We reached camp in a little over an
i2 4 MIST
hour. When we were safely landed, Mist and
Crow's-feather sprang into their canoe again,
and without a word or a sound, except the
swish of their paddles, went out of sight like a
flash up the river.
Our men had supper ready and were as lively

as chipmunks. The evening, as a rule, is the
time to see the unsophisticated children of
Nature at their liveliest. It seems the natural
time, especially in summer, to have fun, feasting,
and talk. But that night we had very little in-
clination for anything but our blankets. Jack's

arm was remarkably easy, owing, we found out
manner in which Mist
afterwards, to the skilful
had dressed the wounds. She had used certain
leaves and moss which the medicine-men apply
to allay or prevent feverand promote healing.
It was most wonderful how soon Jack recovered.
His arm had been lacerated to the bone, and I

rather think that under most medicos' scientific
treatment he would have been laid up for
months, and maybe it would have ended in the
loss of his arm.
Mist came every morning to examine the pro-

gress of the cure. She
and Chingagook took the
case under their special care. For a week or so
they did not permit the leaves and moss to be

MIST 125
removed, but every morning unwound the band-

ages, and, making them slightly damp with pure
cold water from the river, replaced them care-
fully and rather loosely.

Day after day slipped past, and camp life fell
into the old pleasant routine.

I was so thankful to see Jack getting over
his hurt so well (I had feared that poison from
the bear's fangs might develop into something
serious), that it made me less quick-witted than

I
ought to have been to see another danger
developing before my very eyes. I spent my
time hunting, fishing, and exploring the country
generally, with one of our Indians. Jack, of
course, stayed in camp. In a couple of weeks he
was so far recovered that he could amuse him-
self sketching; luckily he had the knack of
holding a pen or a brush almost as well with
his left hand as his right. When he tired of
sketching he betook himself to bossing the

culinary business, or doing a little fishing on
the lake, with Mist and Crow's-feather to paddle
him about.
I know now was dreadfully to blame
that I
in not taking warning by the vivid picture I had
got of poor Mist's feelings on the day of the

accident. But I was so thankful, as I said, to
126 MIST
see Jack recovering steadily day by day, and I
was so afraid of the fatigue of travelling bring-
ing on fever; moreover, things seemed to be
going on in such a prosaic way, that I willingly
forgot what I had seen, or rather, tried to think of
it as
only a flash in the pan which had expended
itself in a moment, or had died a natural death
from Jack's cool manner of taking it.
Six weeks of this sort of life passed away
"
like a tale that is told," as David remarked in
one of his many sorrowful moods. The glorious
autumn days were visibly shortening, reminding
us only too plainly that summer was gone, and
the Ice-king preparing to take his annual pil-
grimage southward.
Jack was now like his old self again. The
wound was quite healed up, and save for a little
weakness, which time only could cure, his arm

was out of all danger. So the pleasant days
went slipping past, as pleasant days have a
knack of doing; and with the usual way that
human beings have of avoiding disagreeable
subjects, wehardly ever spoke of breaking up
"
camp, and of the ending of our pleasant dolce
"
far niente life. But at last the subject could
be delayed no longer. Jack had no more than
time to make his long voyage to the Cape be-
MIST 127
fore his furlough would expire, and our bush

life had far exceeded the time I had originally
intended. So, as disagreeable things are usually
done in haste at last, we held a hurried con-
sultation one morning after breakfast, and de-
cided to break camp early next day and make a
start for Roberville.
The settlement of the question was a relief
to us both, but somehow it cast a gloom over
that bright autumn day far greater than the
simple circumstance of breaking up a summer
camp however pleasant that camp had been
seemed to warrant. Even our Indians were de-
pressed, and instead of appearing glad at the pro-
spect of returning to their lodge with a nice little
pile of bright silver dollars (which would repre-
sent luxuries galore from the Hudson Bay Com-
pany's Store during all the winter), they looked

more like men who were undertaking some
melancholy expedition. We
busied ourselves
with the hundred and odd things which are al-
ways to be done when people are leaving a place
where they have sojourned for any length of
time, be hut or palace.
it
Jack had an unfinished sketch of our camp

on hand, and in the afternoon he sat down to
give it a few last touches. I was oiling our
128 MIST
riflesand putting them in their cases. The
Indians were packing the small articles here
and have everything ready for an
there, to
early morning start. Just then Mist and her

brother came dashing down the river, keeping
time with their paddles to a voyageurs boat-
song, which echoed wild and sweet in the forest.

It was a pretty sight, and cheered us up to see
them in such high spirits. Jack caught the situa-
tion in a moment, and, calling to them to remain
still for a little while, with a few masterly strokes
of his brush he transferred the living picture to
the canvas, which gave it a human lifelike inter-
est that it lacked before. The canoe was within
where Jack was sitting,
thirty or forty feet of
and he caught the features of the boy and girl
in a wonderfully clever and artistic manner,
while the warm glow of the afternooon sun was
on their faces and bare arms. I have not seen
that sketch for many a year, and the subject is
too painful for me ever to wish to see it
again ;
but remember every detail of it to-day as

I
well as I remember my mother's face. Mist
leaped on shore and came up to us with the

glory of youth and health and happiness ex-
pressed on every feature and in every motion
of her lithe young form. "Well, Mist!" cried
MIST 129
Jack, "you just came in time; my picture is
finished; I will never touch Look at

it
again.
it
yourself, Mist; is it not your shadow?" She
looked at it long and intently. Then she looked
at thecamp, and at the preparations going on.
Of course, in a moment she knew we were pre-
paring to depart. A dark shadow came over
her face, its expression utterly changed, and
she looked old and haggard!
I never saw
anything like it, and it struck me
with a strange thrill of horror. As for Jack he
seemed dazed by the weird look of the girl, and
stood with the picture in his hand, never saying
a word. Mist was the first to break the silence
in a strained, low tone, quite different from her
own sweet musical voice. She spoke in the
French patois which she always used when
"
with us. Mountain-cedar and Open-hand
are going away never to return!" she said.
"
They have had a happy summer, and they
are returning to their lodges before winter
comes from the north and drives the sun far
away to the south. It is well
pale-faces ! The
are great and rich and wise! They have many
things to do, and many friends to love! The

Indian is poor and mean and foolish, and has
"
very little to love But
! here the poor wild
K
130 MIST
thing drew herself up to her full height, and
looked Jack straight in the face with a look of
pathos, such as I have seen on children's faces
under some great trial, and in the eyes of
animals when they knew their fate had come
"
but the Indian has one gift; a heart that never
forgets! Farewell! Mist will follow
you; fare-
well!" She turned and leaped into the canoe
from which her brother had not stirred, and
with a few quick powerful strokes of their paddles
they were gone !
Our Indians, who had heard every word but

remained perfectly silent and motionless, with
inscrutable faces, now rose with a muttered word
or two, and proceeded, with much greater celer-
ity than is usual with their race to whom time

never seems to be of the least importance to
get everything ready for a start. When their

preparations were complete, to my great sur-
prise they were anxious to start at once, although
it was within two hours of sunset, and a voyage
across the lake on a moonless night was by no
means a pleasant prospect for an Indian. Jack
seemed to agree with them, but I was strongly
opposed to risk a night voyage on the lake in our
frail crafts. If we struck straight across the lake
for Roberville and encountered a stiff breeze, we
MIST 131
ran a great chance of foundering with our deeply

laden canoes, and if we coasted along the shore
we might run on a half-submerged rock and get
capsized, an experience I have had with canoes
in various parts of the world when cruising about
rivers and lakes by night. With much reluct-

ance I
got them at last to postpone the start
till
daybreak. With this understanding, after
a hasty supper and a very cheerless pipe of
tobacco, we rolled ourselves in our blankets
and pretended to sleep.
say pretended, because I know that neither

I
Jack nor I slept one wink all that dreary night;

and I rather think, from a few whispered words
which I heard now and then, that our Indians
did not fare much better. Our was the
tent
only one left standing; the others had been

struck and stowed away on the canoes. The
Indians lay just outside our door, for the reason,
as I think now, that
they knew by instinct that
some catastrophe was in the air.
was between two and three o'clock in the
It
morning the most dreary time of darkness, a

time, the Indians say, the spirit world is nearest
to us, and the hour, as statistics show, in which
the largest percentage of people die that there
suddenly burst upon our ears a strange unearthly

i
32 MIST
chant which struck a chill to my heart such as I
never felt before!

I have faced death in many forms by land
and sea. Ihave seen and heard some ghastly
"
things in my time. But never before did an
"
horror of great darkness take such a hold of
me as at that moment. I grasped Jack's arm,
he was trembling violently and was beginning
to rise. Without knowing very well my reason
for doing so, I
quietly pressed him back and
whispered to him to lie still but he paid no heed
;
to me. Then suddenly the Indians perceived

and with arms like bars of steel
his intention,
forced him back on his blankets. "Hush!"
"
they hissed through their shut teeth. No
Indian woman! Indian spirit! Hush!" And so
we lay quite still
listening to the awful dirge,
which continued for perhaps ten minutes and
then ceased as suddenly as it had begun.

The longest three hours I ever spent were
from then to daybreak. There was never an-
other sound, not a leaf fluttered to the ground,
not a ripple broke upon the river bank. It
seemed as had ceased, and that some

if all life
dreadful calamity was impending. It was some-
thing like the stillness I have experienced in

the tropics just before a hurricane on the sea,
MIST 133
or an earthquake upon the land, when Nature

seems to be hushed in a sort of stupor. At last
daylight broke, and we and wearily
rose slowly
like men who had gone through some horrible
torture. Our canoes having been loaded the
previous evening, all we had to do was to roll
up our blankets and tent and embark.
Our birch-bark canoes were thanks to our
Indians' good care of them perfectly water-
tight, and when they were loaded overnight
we had anchored them bank to
just clear of the
be ready for an early start. Jack's canoe was
outside of mine, so he and the Artful Dodger
had to pass over my canoe to reach theirs.
Both canoes lay parallel with the bank, and as
they were pretty deeply laden, Jack and his
man had to creep very carefully into their places
before they unmoored. A birch-bark canoe is
a ticklish thing to handle, and I was carefully
getting into my place in the bow and preparing

to cast off when Iheard a low cry from Jack's
man. In my nervous state from the effects of
the past sleepless night, the cry set me tremb-
ling in a miserable manner, and I leapt ashore

in an actual state of terror. I saw that the
Indian was slowly turning the canoe to the
bank, while Jack held something which was float-
134 MIST
ing alongside. Great God another moment and
!
I knew the terrible truth. It was Mist who was
floating there, firmly grasping in her cold, dead

hand, the mooring-line of Jack's canoe. They
lifted her tenderly on to the bank, and then
tried to unclasp her hand; but it was firm as a
vice,and the only thing they could do was to

cut the rope and leave the piece in her poor
loving grasp! She had evidently attired herself

in her gayest apparel ;
a beautiful skirt of em-
broidered buckskin, with leggings and little
beaded moccasins. Her hair was loose and fell
round her to the waist; her face was perfectly
calm and placid, with a faint smile upon the
silent lips.
Jack sat down beside the dead girl, and I

never saw such a sudden change in a man. He
looked ten years older since the day before. I
whispered to him, but he paid no attention
whatever. After a little reflection I decided to
send the Indians off to Eagle Eye's camp to
apprise him of his child's fate. They started at
once, and I sat down beside Jack to watch over

our dead, as could not help calling poor Mist.
I
For the hour and a half that the Indians were

gone we did not speak a word. Sooner than I
expected the canoes came gliding silently back.
MIST 135
Not a word was spoken. The father, silent,
calm, and Mist into his canoe, and

stern, lifted
apparently without seeing us, he glided slowly

away with his sad freight, never uttering a
word or a sound or making a gesture of recog-
nition of any kind whatever.
We started on our voyage to Roberville at
once. We struck straight across the lake, and
reached the village without incident. paid We
offour men, and gave each a handsome dou-
ceur. But instead of a merry closing to our long
good comradeship, we parted sadly, silently,
hurriedly, like men who feared to look in each
other's faces. Jack and I took the train next
morning for Quebec, where he caught a steamer
for England, and I took the overland train for
Vancouver.
During the last few days we were together
we never mentioned Mist's name; and, in nu-
merous letters I have had from Jack since we
parted, he has not once referred to our four
months' camping in the wilds of the north-west.
MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
CHAPTER I
|T was a day of such awful heat and

dust as I verily believe can only
be found in Melbourne and I
have been in some rather dusty

spots of the world. The Sahara in a simoom,
"
Sydney in a brickfielder," the Rakaia in a
nor'-wester, Ismalia in an equinox, Santa Anna
"
valley, California in a norther," etc., etc. But
I must say that Melbourne easily takes the
cake when she sets to work to give the true
"norther" from the sun-scorched interior, say,
any time in month of November. The
the
time I was a week after Cup-day, the
refer to
loth of November, 189-. Business, which had
been interrupted by the holidays, was again in
140 MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
full swing, that is, in such full swing as the
dreadful heat would permit.
I was, as usual, on a
wandering tour of un-
certain length and destination, and had foolishly
(as I
thought Gehenna of heat and
in all that
dust) tarried in Melbourne for a week to see

the event which sets all these Colonials wild
with excitement. I
say advisedly all, for from
the Governor down to the smallest
newspaper
ragamuffin, from the most sedate mater to the
trim little shop girl, not only do they lose their
heads, but what is more, lose their money also.
Who wins is a mystery. I have never met
any
one who admitted to winning a cent. I had
gone to Flemington, of course, and seen the
great race. Three thousand guineas is a heap
of money, and there is a lot of spending power
in such a sum, as Thackeray said. But the stakes
(large as they were) did not, I feel sure, repre-
sent one-twentieth of the actual amount which
changed hands on that fiercely hot day. There
were more than a hundred thousand people on
the course, and I should judge by what I saw
and heard (and I watched them pretty closely)
that at least two-thirds of them staked their
shekels freely. Of course, like all who go for
" "
a dead sure thing with bookmakers, ninety-
nine out of a hundred lost their money; so like

the rest of race meetings which I have attended
world (more to study the
in various parts of the
people than the horses) it was a much sadder

lot I returned with in the afternoon than I
journeyed with in the morning.

As I was wandering about Melbourne
said, I
one intensely hot day a week or so after Cup-

day. It was blowing a real "norther," the dust
so thick that I could not see a block ahead of
me. At found myself in the neighbour-
last I
hood of the Law Courts in Lonsdale Street.

In looking into the wide hall- way of the spacious
building everything seemed so cool and quiet

in comparison with the racket and heat outside ;
the spick-and-span policeman, so impervious to

heat and weariness, so far above the wretched
feeling,Is life worth living? that I at once

entered, and smiled upon the guardian of the
law as if we were old friends, as indeed was the
case, in amanner, for I look upon all British
policemen from Hyde Park Corner to the
furthest sand-spit where the old flag flies as
my friends.
I never, when in sore need, asked one of

the noble, brave fraternity a question, or kept
close to his side in abject terror in the awful
confusion of a city crossing, but I was treated
with perfect respect and kindness, not to say
fatherly tenderness and protection.
But to return to the Law Courts, and the
105 Fahrenheit of Lonsdale Street. I did not
know when entered the spacious, cool build-
I
ing and saluted my friend, the guardian of the

law, that there was an important case being
tried that particular loth
November, or of
rather being concluded that day a great murder ;
case, as the constable informed me, which had
occupied the court for over a week, and which

had excited much interest in the city.
My friend whispered " That the Judge was
preparing to sum up and deliver his charge to
the jury." In the few minutes' pause of proceed-
ings, he carefully opened the door of the room

where the court was and showed me a
sitting,
seat where I would have a good view of judge
and jury. I
slipped into the silent room as
quietly as I knew how, but the judge had me
fixed with his eagle eye before I could get
down, and I made sure that would be igno-
I
miniously ejected. Everybody who was com-

fortably seated looked at me with that sort of
self-righteous, indignant stare it is the custom
of human creatures to assume when they get a
chance at one of their own kind in such a

predicament.
The charge to the jury was short and very
"
simple. Gentlemen of the jury," said his
lordship, slowly and solemnly, "the case is so
simple and clear; the crime so atrocious, with
no mitigating circumstances, that I really feel I
need say nothing at all. The prisoner pleaded
guilty to begin with, and, if it had not been for
the truly able manner in which the prisoner's
counsel has conducted the defence, I should
have felt myself justified in submitting the case
to you four days ago." Here the prisoner's
counsel made a little jerky bow to the judge,
just as he were a cleverly constructed auto-

if
maton, which I really believe lawyers become

"
after a certain age. Gentlemen," proceeded
"
the judge, I think there is only one verdict
which you can render. You may now retire!"
The twelve good men and true promptly
availed themself of the
judge's permission,
while his lordship trotted off to his retiring room
for, I presume, that refreshment which the un-
fortunate jurymen were denied. Thus, atten-

tion having been completely diverted from me,
I
gradually recovered my self-possession, which
had been sorely disturbed by the supercilious
looks of my fellow creatures, and their openly
displayed disappointment that I was not bundled

out neck-and-crop. So I plucked up courage by
degrees, and slowly took in the scene. I was sur-

rounded by an English crowd of the usual look
the world over. I mean that the people had that
vacant sort of expression which is common to
those who
are waiting to have their opinions
ready-made for them. The more volatile crowds

of other nationalities will form their own
opinion
and freely express it, while the ponderous mind
of the Englishman is stolidly waiting to be
directed. No doubt it is a good quality in the
main, and I suppose ingrained in the character by
centuries of unquestioning obedience to law and
order. A splendid characteristic in a people!
Sorrow will befall us when we listen to the ill-
conditioned demagogues who teach that break-
ing the law, instead of reforming the law, is the

road to liberty.
In my first cursory glance round the court-
room I had not taken much notice of the
prisoner. He had sat down beside the constable
when the judge and jury retired. Upon a silent
admonition from his keeper, he again rose as
his lordship entered and took his seat. The
jury filed into their places, while there was a

sort of subdued whisper floating round the

room, instantly repressed by the clerk's stern
" "
silence! And then there was a dead, painful
stillness as all waited for the next move in the
"
awful drama. Gentlemen of the jury! are you
agreed upon your verdict?" The white-haired
old foreman arose and said, "Yes, your lord-
ship." Then he had to clear his throat, as if the

words he had prepared were sticking somewhere.
"Yes, your lordship, we find the prisoner guilty
of murder in the first degree." The foreman
sat down, and there was a long, or what seemed
to me a long pause, while the judge calmly
arranged his glasses, glanced at his notes, and

then stood up. Everybody in court did the
same just as if we had been in church and,
indeed, so strong was the impression, that I
"
actually had the words in my mouth, I believe
in one God," when the solemn command,

"
Prisoner at the bar, stand up!" recalled me to
my senses. I remember thinking at the time

(such are apt to enter the mind at the
trifles
most tragic moments) that the command was

superfluous, as the prisoner was and had been
"
standing for some time. Prisoner at the bar,"
"
continued the judge, you have been found
guilty by a jury of your countrymen of the
L
greatest crime that is known to human law,
murder in the first degree. You have had a
fair and most patient trial have been defended
by a clever, learned, and conscientious counsel ;
and I am sorry to say that the task must have

been a very painful one to him, as there were no
extenuating circumstances in your case, such as
there are sometimes in such cases, happily for
the honour of our poor fallen human nature.
The jury have wisely refrained from making
any remarks whatever. It, therefore,
only
remains for me to
pronounce the final, awful,
and perfectly just sentence of the law. But
before I do so I will follow the usual custom
in such cases, and ask if you have anything
to say."
Theprisoner seemed to awake, as from a
half-dreaming state. He looked straight at the
judge with clear,steady eyes, head thrown
back, and shoulders braced, like a man re-
lieved that a long, disagreeable business is
"
over and done with. Then he said :
My lord,
the sentence you are about to pronounce is
absolutely just. It was impossible for an hon-

est jury to find any other verdict. And I thank
them for finding a just and manly verdict, with-
out any maudlin recommendation to mercy, such
as might have consigned me to a life imprison-

ment. To go slowly mad behind iron bars,
waking each morning from troubled dreams,
perchance for many, many years (for I am still
only in early middle life, though my hair is
gray) would be much worse than death. I
have no more to say, my lord, only," here he

"
looked at his lawyer, and smiled only to
thank my clever, learned, and conscientious
'
Counsel,' for his strenuous efforts on my behalf,

and to assure him that in this instance his failure
is my success."
The judge and barrister exchanged glances,
as much as to say, " this is a queer fish we
have caught this time." For a little while the
old judge seemed doubtful whether he ought
not to call this rara avis to order, but con-
sidering, suppose, that men in the prisoner's

I
position have extra privileges, he contented

himself by sternly regarding him for fully two
minutes, seemed two hours to me.
which
Then he slowly and deliberately assumed the
black cap, and proceeded to pronounce sen-
"
tence. "Prisoner at the bar A wild cry
" "
of Mark!a woman's voice, rang through
in
the court room; then darkness and silence
swept over my soul. Judge and jury, prisoner,

the crowd of staring faces, were gone! and I
was somewhere on the borderland of another
world! Whencame back the policeman who
I
had befriended me before, was shaking me into

consciousness, while whispering in my ear,
"
Keep still! man alive! or the judge will order
you out, and give me a black mark, worse luck !
Don't you know this is the best bit of all the
trial? There are a score of gentlemen at the

door who would give me
a sovereign for your
I was still
seat." enough now, staring, like a
man demented, at the prisoner, while the judge,
after a moment's pause, and a scowl in my
"
direction, proceeded with the sentence. Mark
Wynyard! the sentence of the court that you
is,
shallbe taken hence to prison, and at the day
and hour hereafter to be named, you shall be

taken to the place of execution, and there hanged
by the neck until you are dead, and may God
"
have mercy on your soul !
Again I felt a horror of great darkness blot-

life and light, and I remember the
ting out all
" If this
thought which flashed through my mind,
is death, how bitter it is to die!" Then I found
myself hall-way with the policeman, while
in the
a kindly-looking old man was holding a flask of
whisky to my lips, at which I

sputtered and
gasped. "That'll do 'e good, my friend!" were

the first words I heard. " Poor gentleman! 'e
'asn'tbeen used to 'ave the pleasure of attendin'
court much, and when 'e saw the hold man
aclappin' on the black cap it gave 'im a queer

turn! It always does that. I mind the first
time I see'd it
myself. I almost lost my blessed
dinner overboard, and I kind o' waggled in my
seat. A
sweet hold lady as saw my fix, she out
with a nice flask o' gin, an' she smuggled it
into my 'and, and says she,
'
take a good swig,
my dearie,' an' you bet I did, an' Lord love you !
I was as right as a trivet in half a jiffy, an' en-
joyed the last act o'

'
The Lord 'ave mercy on
much
'
your soul as as I 'ave done in all my life.

Which sayin' a good lot, for I've seen more
is
than a 'undred coves get their through tickets

in my time." I thanked my two friends, and was
turning to go, when he of the whisky-cure be-
"
lief said, holding out the flask, Better take a
thimble-full more, just to steady your pins;
they 're a bit wobbly yet." With a wave of my
hand, meant to express my thanks, and trusting
"
to air and exercise to steady my wobbly pins,"
I went slowly out with the crowd not only a
different sort of being from what I was when I
entered, but as if the world was another world

altogether, and the landmarks of life had all
disappeared.
"
Had Iheard aright? Did I hear that
really
old man a black cap condemn my friend,
in
Mark Wynyard my dearest boyhood's chum

to hang by the neck until he was dead why !
the thing was preposterous. He Mark Wyn-

yard Squire Wynyard's only son, the best boy
in our school, the clever senior wrangler at
Cambridge, the happy lad who never was in a

scrape, or even a bad temper in his life, the
friend of all, the enemy of none. No! No! the
thing was out of the question! I had been ill
with the wretched heat, and had dreamt a bad
"
dream!
I
got back to my hotel as quickly as my
shaky limbs would carry me, and endeavoured
to partake of some luncheon, but my throat
seemed to have lost the power of swallowing
food, so I contented myself with a long drink
of iced water, and then threw myself on my
bed, and tried to think. To think! I found it
a hopeless task. Was it all a wild delusion of
a brooding mind, and a brain fevered by the
infernal heat?
My passage ticket was available for the P.

and O. mail boat sailing the following morning
for England. I resolved to pack my things at

once, and get away from this wretched, un-
healthy place! I remember, distinctly, how

methodically I arranged my things for packing
a proceeding quite unusual with me; I gener-
ally ram my things into my trunks higgledy-

piggledy, trusting to luck to find what I may
require at a future time. While I was
doing
this, I knew
perfectly well that it was for the
purpose of concentrating my thoughts on the

work of the moment, and keeping a door shut
on that part of my mind which held the horror
of the day.
It was a cowardly and cruel thing to think of
running away, but there are moments in life

when we are hardly responsible for our actions,
let alone thoughts. However that may be, I
am thankful to say that I was not permitted to
carry out my weak intention of flight.

In the afternoon I went out, and in spite of
the heat and dust, walked fast and far. When

I returned I was thoroughly tired out, and
ordering tea, prepared for bed. I drank my tea,
and I
distinctly remember smoking a cigar, and
staring at the ceiling of the room, all the while
sternly holding the door shut, in my mind, be-

hind which I knew full well, my horror lay
ready to rush out and drive me mad, if I re-
laxed my vigilance for a moment.
After a while the waiter came to light the
gas, and said that a Sister from the Convent of

"
St. Silas wished to see me. All right," I said,
"
show the lady up." If he had said that the
Sultan wished to consult me upon
the rearrang-
ing of his harem, I would not have been a bit

more astonished. But I had got beyond all out-
ward manifestation of surprise, so I calmly
awaited my guest. The waiter ushered in a
nun of the order of St. Francis. I set a chair
for my visitor, closed the door, and taking a
seat by the window, awaited the next act in
this day of adventure. The nun's face was
wholly concealed, but by her movements, in
spite of the unbecoming dress, I inferred that

she had not yet arrived at middle life, and I
saw she was talland handsome, with some-
thing in her slightest movements which were
strangely familiar.
"
Sir," said my visitor, in a voice that thrilled
my heart like a note of once well-known music,

but which we have not heard a year;
for many
yet could not recall the speaker, for it was a
I
voice which had passed out of my life ten busy

and changeful years before "
;
of course, you
do not remember me, but I

recognized you in
the court room to-day when you fainted. I am,
"
or rather I was, Mary Hawkins." I know you
"
now," I
by your voice, but I would not
said,
have recalled you otherwise. Even the subtle
Jacob could not change his voice, though he so
cleverly disguised all else." I fear I said this
rather unfeelingly, as I had a dim sort of intui-
tion that she was in some way responsible for
Mark Wynyard's "
awful position. You need
not say anything about me," said the nun, in
that strangely level, unimpassioned tone which
women acquire when they have passed through
some great catastrophe, and left all joy and
"
hope in this world far in the dead past, I did
not come you about myself, but
to speak to
"
about your friend, and my husband! She
paused crossed herself, and with a sound as if
she were merely clearing her throat, but which
was in reality a suppressed moan, she proceeded:
"
And to ask nothing can be done to save
you if
him in this dreadful extremity? I knew of his

trial from Father Confessor, who, of course,
my
was aware of Mr. Wynyard's relation to myself,
and that the dead man was the wrecker of our
lives. My good Father Confessor advised me to
banish all thought of the matter from my mind,
and avoid meeting any one who would recall the
past; firstly, because it could not be of the
slightest use, and, secondly, because I would
only endanger my own soul. But although I
knew that the good Father meant it all for my
peace and comfort, yet, even at the risk of my
peace and danger of my soul, I felt that a
power which I could not resist impelled me to
save Mark Wynyard from a dreadful fate, for
which I miserable, sinful woman that I am
was the cause! Hence my presence in court to-
day, and my intrusion upon you now."

The lady, whom I had known in far-away
Devon as Mary Hawkins, whom I had seen
married to Mark Wynyard, and who was now
SisterMary, spoke in a strangely mechanical
manner, as if she were reading a lesson in a
language which she did not understand, and
wished to finish as quickly as possible. After
she ceased speaking we sat perfectly still. She
seemed to be in a sort of swoon, while I was
dazed and utterly dumbfounded by the position
into which I had been so strangely plunged.
I said would see Mr. Wynyard on the
I
morrow, and try if there was any hope of a stay

of justice until more facts could be brought to
light. I intimated that I was surprised she had

not boldly faced all the misery of it, and, as a

witness, told the cause of the murder, or rather
of the killing, for if she had done so I did not
think reasonable men could call it murder. The
poor broken-hearted woman replied that she
would have faced all the shame and horror, and
fearlessly told the sad story in court, but she
had not known anything of the matter until the
previous night, and when she reached the court
it was too late.
"I
tried to speak," she said,
"
butcould only cry his name, then I fainted
I
and was taken out." She rose and thanked me,

saying that she would come again on the follow-
ing evening. I knew by her voice that she was
quietly weeping, and as I
thought that was the
best thing she could do, I did not feel capable
or inclined to offer any consolation; and when
she gave me her hand I fear I took it very
coldly. were busy with the past,
My thoughts
with the sorrow and ruin for which she, by her
own admission, was the miserable cause, al-
though how far willingly and responsibly only

the merciful God knows!
Next morning, as early as officialdom deigns
to move, I
presented myself at the prison, and
with the aid of some golden salve (which, by the
way, I have never known to fail in any quarter

of the globe when properly applied), I obtained
admission into Wynyard's cell.
I found him fast asleep on a narrow iron
bedstead; all-standing, as the sailors say, that
is, fully dressed. He had eaten his breakfast,
the keeper told me, and had then gone off to
sleep, although he had slept soundly all night.

I had never actually seen such a case before,
but the turnkey told me it was usual for con-
demned men to sleep and eat well up to the
last. This fact the doctors as a rule a parcel
of humbugs, who know about as much of the
psychical mystery of man's life as I do about
the grave of Moses attribute to a physical
nervous theory of their own, but which is, no
doubt, in reality a merciful gift of God to poor
human nature, when brought into some supreme
crisis of life or death.
As, of course, my was limited to a cer-

visit
tain time, I asked the turnkey to waken my
friend, which he did, and then very delicately, as

I
thought at the time, retired as far as the cell
would allow, and seemed to become absorbed

in a little book he produced from his pocket.
On awakening, Wynyard yawned and rubbed
"
his eyes, saying quite coolly, Is it time, con-
stable? How quickly it has passed! I am in-
deed glad! The waiting was the only thing I

dreaded." Then he saw and recognized me in
a moment, although we had not looked in each
other's faces for more than ten years!
I was best man at his marriage one morn-
ing just ten years before, and at four in the
afternoon I sailed on the steamship Nile, bound
for the West Indies. From that day Mark
Wynyard and had passed entirely
his affairs
from my knowledge, but the regard and friend-
ship always remained perfectly steadfast. Men-
like, we never thought of letters. Our destinies
moved in opposite directions, and,
strange to
say, our paths had never crossed before that
miserable day, although each moment of those
long years had been leading our unconscious

footsteps nearer and nearer to this dire meeting.
Like most men who have been parted for
many years, we did not waste much time in
sentimental reminiscences. Women can indulge
in this painful sort of pleasure, but men, with
their less volatile and harder natures, become
impatient under the process, and simply pass
over such meetings with a few casual remarks
about beards or no beards, sunburn or frost-
bite, and such like; carefully bottling up senti-
ment altogether.
In a little we were back on the old
while
familiar terms, I freely asking him how he had
got into that terrible scrape, and how he was to

be extricated. For, sitting there with Mark
Wynyard talking as in the old days, I could no
more realize that he was a justly-condemned
murderer than I could believe that I was dead,
and life a vanished dream!
" Look here," he said, " I may just as well
make a clean breast of it, and tell you the whole
miserable story from first to last. Then you
will see that it is impossible to change matters
now, and that it would not be worth while to
do so, even if itwere possible! It will occupy
some time to take even a cursory glance at
events since you and I parted at the church
door. But I know my friend here" (Wynyard
"
addressed himself to the turnkey) will kindly
grant us all the time he can to have our last
confab."
"Certainly, sir," said the officer, in a voice

which showed that even he was deeply touched,
" "
and," he continued, if you wish to be together
for an hour each day this week, I think I can
arrange it." This we gladly accepted, and dur-
ing many meetings Wynyard (lying on his nar-
row, prison bed, I

reclining on a dilapidated
steamer which our friend the jailer had

chair,
fished out of some lumber room) related his
adventures since our parting, word for word as
follows. Of course, we talked on many other
subjects, some sacredly private, others relative

to his family, with which you, my reader, have
nothing to do.
CHAPTER II
DURING all our intercourse Wynyard sternly

silenced me
(not so much in anger as in an irre-
vocable resolve to let the law take its course)

whenever I attempted to suggest an appeal to
the governor the only possible appeal now
available. I was in the helpless condition of
knowing only too well, from his passionately
expressed wishes, that if by any means I did get
his sentence commuted to imprisonment, he
would curse me bitterly until death came to his
relief.
In his quiet old musical voice, as if he were
telling me something disconnected with himself

altogether, and in which he was only deeply
"
interested, Wynyard began : You remember
"
that morning, of course ? and upon intimating
that I did remember it very well, he continued :
"
Yes, I
thought you would. Well, let me see.
Oh, yes! we excepting yourself, returned

all,
to her father's house for the wedding breakfast.

You said good-bye at the church door, laugh-
ingly remarking that you had had enough of

such sad events! In reality, of course, you had
your steamer the good old Nile,
to hurry, as
I remember very well sailed at six p.m. from
Southampton. So you had little enough time,
and you made us all laugh most heartily by say-
ing that you would get a sandwich at Victoria
Station and eat it in the train, and that would
be your nice cosy wedding breakfast."
little
I was completely astounded that a man in the

midst of such an awful tragedy could so easily
recall and so coolly repeat mere trifles which had
been spoken some ten strangely sorrow-
lightly
ful and adventurous years before. He con-
tinued just the same in all our intercourse;
never in the least restless, nervous, or gloomy.
On the contrary, he would intersperse his
reminiscences with quaint bits of philosophy
and trifling events, as mind and body
if his
were taking a long needed and much enjoyed
rest, with a bright future before him instead of
the dark shadow of death. I am not psycho-
logist enough to give any explanation of this

state of mind in my poor friend. I can only

say it was there, and remained very evident to
the day of his life.
last
"We all went to breakfast," he resumed,

"
and after the usual laughter, tears, and jokes
of such occasions, my wife went off to change
her wedding gown for a travelling costume.
When she lightly touched me as she rose
from table, that was the last I saw of her until
yesterday in the court room! How why or

wherefore she vanished, I know not! All I
know is that she sailed from
Gravesend next
day with Lawrence Percival on the steamer
Afric, bound for Melbourne.
"
Of course it was that invaluable institution
Scotland Yard which discovered this. H er father
put the matter into the hands of the police after
the first storm of grief and passion had sub-
sided into a dazed sorrow and wonderment,
which has continued ever since.
"
Her Colonel Hawkins, went out to
father,
Melbourne, and found his daughter and Law-
rence Percival living apparently happy, and
certainly in good style, in a handsome villa at
St. Kilda. The

Colonel was a stern disciplin-
arian, and, what is rather unusual with dis-
ciplinarians, he could discipline himself as well

M
i6 2 MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
as others. He pulled himself together with a
great effort, and without making himself known,
returned at once to England, erased Mary's
name from the family Bible, and forbade his
wife and daughters ever to mention her name
again.
"Then my nature changed! I hated the old
life which I had loved so well, with its genera-
tions of family ties and traditions, and all the

subtile associationswhich make England home
for the wandering Briton, and his children after
him, even though born beyond the seas. My

father advised me to travel, and when I had
recovered from the shock, through the effica-
cious treatment of the great physician, Time,

to return and take up the position and duties to
which I was born. So we parted, my father
saying little, but hoping that the wonderful
elasticity of youth and health would work my
cure. But, as Inature changed, and
said, my
I
grew like the wild creatures which leave the
herd, seeking for shelter, hiding, and darkness
when they are wounded to death.
"
Having no objective point, I followed you
to the West Indies, thinking that we might join
forces and go South America, which is the
into
best country I know wherein to lose one's self.
I traced you through Barbados, Jamaica, and

into Hayti. But I lost all trace of you in the
Black Republic. I found that one carried one's
life in one's hand in that fair island, which the
nigger has made a veritable hell upon earth.
I
lingered awhile in Port au Prince although
I hated the place had a strong hope
but I
that you were somewhere on the island. You

remember saying when you left England that
you would explore Hayti and find out if it was
really asbad as Sir Spenser St. John in his book
on the Island makes out. Of course my search
was a failure. I learned afterwards that you
had gone into civilized lands in the north, and
as that was exactly what I did not wish to do,
I
gave you up, and decided to dree my weird
alone.
"
Our Consul introduced me to the President,
the Bishop, and others in good positions. In
this way I saw a great deal of black high life,
or rather low life, for the Hayti negro is about

the worst species of the genus homo that I know
and I have seen quite a number of bad sorts.
I went into the interior a goodish bit, much
against the advice of the Consul, who bade me
a pathetic sort of good-bye as if he were very
doubtful of seeing me again. I found the coun-
try teeming with wealth. The land is
splendidly
fertile, and every other mountain is an El
Dorado of minerals.
"
I have a knack of getting along comfortably
'
with all sorts and conditions of men
'
except-
ing the negro. I am sorry to say it, but it seems
to me that there are some devilish character-
isticsinherent in the race, that you can never
eradicate any more than you can wash him
white with all the Sapolio soap and water in
the world. Of course, I must believe that there
are, or were, individuals like Toussaint, Uncle
Tom, and the women who sang to the sick ex-
'
plorer, Oh, pity the poor white man,' etc. ;
but I am sorry to say that I never had the
pleasure of meeting them!

"
In Hayti the negroes have been their own
masters for a hundred years, with all the ad-
vantages of a splendid country, and in close
touch with modern civilization. The governing
classes are, as a rule, educated, as the saying
goes, yet any one who is familiar with the island

is aware that Hayti is in a more degraded and
savage condition than the darkest spot in
Africa.
"
Here was an
exceptionally good opportunity
to prove the capabilities of the negro race a
splendidly rich and healthy country the nations

;
of the world giving their aid and sympathy to

the young State to make it a success; and free-
dom from all outside trouble, if the Govern-
ment only behaved reasonably well. What has
been the result? A constant succession of
bloodshed, cruelty, and crimes too dreadful to
mention. The Haytian seems to have assimi-
lated every vice of the white man, and has never
ceased to practise every evil habit of his own
ancestors. Voodoo
worship, with its accompani-
ment of cannibalism, and other things of the
most brutal character, are more in evidence to-
day than in the old
slavery times.
"
Inmany of the inland villages I saw human
flesh sold (under cover of another name) to be
eaten whenthe people go through their dreadful
orgies, in the horrible Voodoo worship. Of

course, in the old slavery days such things
were done, but they were practised in a very
mild form, and in the strictest secrecy. For, in
those days, the negro was held in check by
stern masters, who, for their own comfort and
safety, saw to it that their slaves conducted
themselves, at least outwardly, like human be-
ings. Another inherent characteristic of the
race, rather amusing than otherwise, but very
i66 MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
irritating all the same, I found rampant in
Hayti, viz., peculiar superciliousness of

that
manner or rather, want of manner which ne-
groes always display towards white people

wherever negroes are in large enough numbers
to assert themselves. To be seen in all their
most offensive characteristics, they must be

studied in large majorities. A
single specimen
in the midst of other nationalities is a very mild
creature, but place him in power, especially if
he has the veneer of on him, and

civilization
you invariably find

will the negro the most
disagreeable species of the genus homo extant.

"
Altogether I spent three months in Hayti,
and I saw a good deal of the island and the
blacks. When
got back to Port au Prince
I
the Consul treated me as a great explorer, and

assured me that I was the only white man he
had known to go through such outlandish dis-
tricts and come out with a whole skin.

"
did not visit any other of the West Indian
I
islands, as I had explored most of them when I

came up from the Pacific some years previously.
So I bade my friend the Consul farewell, and
took passage on a French barque, bound for La
Guayra. After a year in Venezuela, spent in
sampling all sorts of life as gold-digger, va-

quero, gentleman about town when my pockets

were full and acquiring a fairly good know-
ledge of the Spanish language, and of Spanish
habits, whichI must admit were
very congenial
to my Bohemian disposition, I finally decided
to strike due south until I reached the Orinoco.
I did not make hard and fast plans, leaving my
route to time and circumstance. But I had a
general sort of hazy intention of following the
southern branch of the Orinoco to its head
waters, then crossing the Parima Mountains,
striking across the Plains to the Rio Negro,

and so keeping a general south-westerly course,
with the vague intention some time before I
grew old of reaching the Pacific.

"
I struck the Orinoco at its confluence with
the Apure. Here I rested a month, gathering
information about the river and modes of travel,
etc. I
bought a canoe, and engaged two Indians
for my paid them well, always
river journey. I
a good plan with our dark brothers, and, I think I

may say, a good plan also with our white brothers,
and promised them a present of the canoe
I
at the end of the trip. Before leaving civiliza-

tion I
provided myself with plenty of ammuni-
tion for gun. I had a very handy and useful
my
rifle and shot gun combined, one barrel carrying
ball and the other shot cartridge. For such a
piece it
only six pounds when
was very light,
loaded with six cartridges in each barrel and
with its waterproof cover on.
"
Fortunately for myself I could always suc-
ceed with all sorts of primitive mankind, so I
had little difficulty in getting along. I never
had a serious trouble with the Indians. I found
that they nearly all understood Spanish more
or less, that is, until I reached the valley of
'
'
Araucaca but of that, more hereafter.
"
I adopted the Indian mode of life and
learned bush-craft so well that I could hunt, fish,
and provide for myself in a general way, about

as well as they themselves. I was six months
canoeing and hunting on the Orinoco, and a

very interesting time it was. Animals, birds,
and fish of many kinds and strange forms, were
abundant. That which gave us the most ex-
citing, if least profitable sport, were the ugly,

and at times, fierce Caymans, also known as
the 'round-mouthed alligators.' Their skin is
of some value, but we had no room in our frail
canoe for such disagreeable cargo. At times
these hideous monsters would boldly attack us,

and then I had to waste my precious cartridges
on them. But at last, after some practice, I be-
came so expert that one bullet in the eye would

put one fiendish brute hors de combat.
"In many parts the Caymans are so numer-
ous and fierce that the Indians live in mortal
dread of them. Once we were camping near
an Indian village repairing our canoe, which
had been seriously damaged by a Cayman
who nearly succeeded in having us for his sup-
per. It was a part of the river where they are
very dangerous. Early one morning I heard a

great uproar, and upon throwing off my poncho
and rushing out of our temporary hut of banana
leaves, I witnessed a scene that I don't like to
think of even now, although happened nearly
it
eight years ago. The Cayman,

like most ugly
things, is an arrant coward. But there are times,

as with all cowards, when the excitement of
hunger, or pure devilishness, will banish fear

from his cruel heart, and then, look out! In
this case a largecanoe was coming across the
river there were six men paddling
; three on a
side and a seventh man steering and paddling
in the usual fashion. Besides the men there were
four women and some children. The men were
paddling furiously, without uttering a sound, save

that they clicked their paddles on the side of the
canoe at each stroke, which is a way they have
i;o MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
of scaring the Caymans, and which is usually
successful under ordinary circumstances. But
this was not an ordinary circumstance, and the
Caymans were going to win!The people of

the village were a
making great noise, rushing
about, gesticulating, and howling at the top of
their voices. A
minute's observation revealed
the cause of the excitement. Close astern of the
canoe, for yards in extent perhaps, the
fifty
otherwise water was rippling in long sharp
still
lines from a phalanx of pursuing Caymans. I

could see their ugly snouts and wicked eyes
just level with the water. By the time that I

comprehended the situation, the canoe was
within a quarter of a mile of the village land-
ing-place, and would be in safety in a few

minutes, as the brutes did not seem to have
I did not share the
courage to attack, so general
frenzy of excitement. But I saw not what the
Indians saw, and knew, was the danger to their
friends.
"
About a couple of hundred yards from the
landing-place there floated what seemed several
dirty, slimy logs of drift-wood, such as one often
meets navigating the Orinoco. I had not
in
taken notice of these logs, they are so common,

and my attention had been too intently fixed on
the awful race for life of the canoe-men. Then

one of the Indians drew my attention to the
seeming logs, and I quickly recognized the sign

which even the Cayman cannot hide, unless
his feet touch bottom; a slight rise and fall of
his body as he breathes, but which only dis- is
cernible in perfectly still water, for the slight

movement cannot be detected if there is the
least ripple. If the people in the canoe had not
been watching their foes behind, they would
have seen the danger ahead in time to avoid, or
at least try to avoid, the certain destruction of
running on to the slippery and so cap-

reptiles,
sizing in their midst. was, the As it

trap (which
the Indians affirm the Caymans plan in ad-
vance) was completely successful. Before the

poor people perceived that there was any ob-
struction, they shot on top of the seemingly
slippery logs and capsized. Then with a hor-

rible rush the river was lashed into a swirl of
crimson foam, and wildly flung human forms.

In less than five minutes from the first alarm all
was over. But it was long enough, and bad
enough, to last me a lifetime. At the earnest
solicitation of the
poor Indians, I stayed in that
village for a week, and by careful shooting I
killed fifty Caymans with fifty cartridges. At
172 MARK WYN YARD'S STORY
last the fiends seemed to think it was a losing
game, and betook themselves to other parts of
the river.
"
After two years of travel, or rather wander-
ing, from the time I first launched on the

Orinoco, I reached the eastern slopes of the
Andes part of that mighty range of mountains
which extend from Panama to the Straits of
Magellan, about one-third of the length of the

earth, and the most uniformly high range, of
such great extent, in the world.
"
had grown weary of the seemingly endless,
I
dead level land, and eagerly made the best of

my way towards the stupendous heights, whose
snowy peaks glittered in the morning light

like burnished silver, and slumbered in mys-
terious, ghostly shadow as the sun sank beyond
where I knew the far Pacific lay. The more I
thought of the sea, the more passionate became
my desire to hear its voice, and cast my weaned
body and soul upon its heaving bosom, which
had always been like a mother's to me in days
long since gone by.
"
Indians became fewer as I left the lowlands,
until I lost all trace of mankind. However, I
had no difficulty in supporting myself. The

mountain streams teemed with fish, and I
found birds plentiful. With the plains I left
behind many kinds of game which I had be-

come accustomed to, among others, the funny
little piggy, \he peccary, who used to waken me
up morning with their querulous grunt-

in the
ing, as a mob went trotting past my camp.

Peccary is by no means bad tack if you know
how to prepare and cook him. One good way
is to steam him in the common earth-oven, which
is the most primitive of all ovens, and the best.
It must once have been a universal method of
cooking with all races, at least with all pre-
Adamites, for they have all used it at some
period of their history, and with many it is their
only mode of preparing a proper meal to this
day. The very simplicity of the earth-oven is
one of its great charms. You simply have to
dig a hole in the earth, large or small, according
to the quantity of what you have to cook, put a
good and over it, clap a dozen or two

fire in
nice handy stones on top, letting them fall to

the bottom of the hole as the fire burns down. By
this time, if you have had a proper fire, the
stones will be red hot. Then fill the oven half
full of green leaves or grass, on this lay your
vegetables, and whatever you

flesh, fish, fowl,
have to cook, cover with more leaves and grass,
pour over all a bucket of water to make steam,
finally closing the whole with earth as tightly as
possible so as to keep in the heat. In one to

three hours, according to the quantity you have
to cook, and according to the heat of your oven,
you will turn out a banquet fit for a king. I
often served up my piggy and other game in

this way, using as vegetables various roots and
leaves, which I had learned from my Indian

friends were palatable and wholesome. The
long slender roots of a variety of the common
water-flag make a delicious dish when nicely
cooked, and are passable enough even raw.
"
My dear fellow," continued Wynyard, laugh-
"
ing quietly,
'
more things in heaven
there are
and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your
'
philosophy! I have come to the conclusion that

the physical code of what we call civilized life
is all wrong, and that is why so many doctors
are in the world. spent nearly ten years out

I
of sight of what we call civilization, and during

all that long period I never knew that I had a
stomach excepting at the rare intervals when I
had not enough to eat. I think this is rather a
unique record for a man who used to suffer the

usual knowledge of that troublesome organ;
and, moreover, it
goes far to prove, as all dis-
MARK WYN YARD'S STORY 175
coverers have always told us, that unsophis-

ticated man is never a dyspeptic, whatever other
disagreeable vices he may have at odd times, if
you happen him the wrong way.

to rub
"
After leaving the plains, and travelling for a
couple of weeks over very rough country, some-

times scaling precipices and then traversing
wild ravines, I
judged by the temperature at
night,and the nearness of the snow-line over-

head, that I was some three or four thousand
feet above sea level. At this elevation I was
completely barred further progress by a per-
pendicular wall of rock, absolutely impassable.
It presented a perfectly smooth surface, without
crack, as if it were the work of an intelligent

hand in the beginning of time, which, of course,
it was. For miles and miles the wall was as
even as an apple deftly split in twain, but there
was no vestige of the other half remaining. That
had been pulverized by some irresistible force
in the unthinkable time when God was building

the world. Some such thoughts were in my
mind as I instinctively looked for the other half
of the strangely smooth cliff- wall. I remember
seeing in North America one of the vast masses
of rock which, in the ice-age, the glaciers played
with, as children play with marbles. The stone

I was half
refer to (as big as a small mountain)
of another stone lying many miles distant. That
this vast block of rock had been brought from
some far-off land was evident by the fact that
no stone of the same formation was found in the
district. It had been flung there by the Ice
Giants, who, in their play, had split it in twain,

and cast the pieces many miles apart. The cer-
tainty of the halves having been one rock was
fully proved by the most exact measurements.
"
My cliff had evidently been formed in some
such way, but there was no vestige of the other
part excepting in the debris which had been

ground to dust, and now, in the wonderful eco-
nomy of Nature, was supporting splendid forests.
"I explored for three days north, along the
wall, seeking some break or possible scaling
point, but without success. Not even the mar-
vellously sure-footed huanaco could find a spot

to rest his foot on that polished surface. I re-
traced my weary steps to my starting-point. I
tried south with no better result, and then I
determined to rest and recruit for a week or

two. The climate was about as near perfection
as we ever find it in this world; neither too
hot nor too cold, and at that time of year free
from that great trouble of bush life, rain. I
made my camp in a bend of the cliff, where the

ground was dry and sheltered from the wind,
which was a little too chilly for comfort towards
morning. A tiny stream issued from under the
wall and supplied me not only with the sweetest
water, but also with the most delicious little fish,
like diminutive trout. Here I made for myself
a very snug hut of the leaves of the vijao plant,
a species of banana, but not a fruit-bearing
variety. The leaves, which are from two to

three feet in length, and about half that in
width, are covered with a peculiar sort of var-
nish which resists rain for several weeks. Al-
together, the vijao leaves are admirably adapted

for covering a temporary hut, and are much
used for that purpose by all the wandering
tribes on the eastern slopes of the Peruvian
Andes.
"
For some weeks I
employed myself in a
general fossicking about the country, hunting
and fishing, andmost important of all curing
meat, that is, making yarqui of birds and huanaco
flesh. The process consists in cutting the meat
into narrow, thin strips, dipping these into salt

and water, then drying in thesun as quickly as
possible. In my case I had no salt, but I had
learned from the Indians to use the ashes of
N
the coca leaves, which for this purpose are quite
a passable substitute. The Indians even affirm
that the coca imparts some of its wonderful
stimulating qualities to the meat so cured. I

never proved this to my entire satisfaction, but
there no question of the efficacy of the leaves
is
to assuage fatigue. I have known Indians to

travel for a week at a time without a scrap of
food, onlykeeping a coca leaf in the mouth-

not swallowing it and with an occasional, but
very moderate, drink of water. I have myself
kept on the march for three days on the same
regimen without much inconvenience. But I
felt the after effects much more

acutely than
the Indians did; in fact, they did not show any
signs of extraordinary abstinence from food.

"
I was anxious to provide as muchyarqui as
I could carry comfortably, for I knew that if I
found a way westward I should meet with little
ifany game in the mountains. Besides, I would

have to hurry forward as fast as possible on ac-
count of the intense cold when I reached the
snow line.
"
One day
shot a gorgeous macaw, which, in
I
falling, being only wounded, swept towards the

cliff and fell a little way south of my camp.
There being no cover about the spot, I knew I

179
would find my bird easily enough, so I did not
hurry until had shot a couple more of the

I
splendid fellows; then I went to pick up my first

bird. He was not dead, and as I approached
he disappeared, as if by magic, into the cliff.
After hunting about for a while, I found a little
crevice into which I

thought he had gone. I
set to work to clear away the loose stones and

earth from the spot so as to fish him out. But
to my surprise the further I penetrated the
deeper and larger became the opening, and,

strangest of all, I met a gentle breath of balmy,
faintly scented air! I became deeply interested
in my discovery, forgot all about my bird, and
set to work with all my might to solve the mys-
tery. After working hard until long past mid-
day, as I knew by the infallible timepiece,
hunger, I concluded to desist from further ex-
ploration, but fully determined to renew the
attack on the morrow. slept sound and long
I
that night, and dreamed a very beautiful dream,

which, strange to say, I dreamed again last
night, exactly word for word."
i8o MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
CHAPTER III
"
I DREAMT I was dead. And a sense of great
reliefswept over my soul as I fully realized I
was at last free from the depressing companion-
ship of the body which had held me in bondage
so many weary years. Yet, as I looked upon
that which I had been, and from which I knew
I was parting for ever, I felt a dim, lingering
regret, such as one apt to feel when handing

is
to abeggar some old, worn suit of clothes which

has served one gaily and well, in many happy,
and sad, bygone days. But when a low voice in
the air whispered You may return ere it is
:
'
too late,' I shuddered, and hasted away in a
strange horror at the mere suggestion of return-

ing to that companionship!
" The
region of my dream was a restful,
soothing land, such as a still autumn evening on
our earth, when the sun sinks beyond the purple
and the moon lights the world with shadowy
hills,
glory. I passed on,

and on, with no fear and with
no eager curiosity, such as we usually feel in to-
tally new surroundings. My soul was at rest. I
seemed to have known it all before, and felt like
MARK WYNYARD'S STORY iSi
one returning home after long wandering. No

obstruction barred my way. Even motion was
an exquisite delight, and I laughed like a little
child as I touched a splendid flower, or laid my
hand upon a bird's gorgeous wings, while it
sang such songs as were never heard on earth !
"Then methought a pang of terror seized me,

as a flash of thought like a voice seemed to
say :
'
The night is far spent, you will soon

'
awake and weeping, I prayed the little prayers

;
my mother taught me to pray in babyhood. In

my distress and tears I had not noticed that
the dimness was giving place to a silvery light,
brighter than the brightest sunlight that ever

shone, and a voice I seemed to know whispered :
'
There shall be no night there; and they need
no candle, neither light of the sun; for the
Lord God giveth them light.' And I was com-
forted in thinking I had left earth's record for
ever, and that Time would trouble me no more!

The whisper was the voice of an Angel, who
laid her cool hands on my tearful face as we
soothe a child in grief; and, in the action, I
seemed to recognize her, and cried a name

which I never thought to speak again. The
Angel turned upon me a face of celestial
beauty and tenderness, but it was not the face
I had lost!
'
Not yet,' said the heavenly mess-
enger, 'she isnot yet made perfect through
suffering. I am one of those guardians to whom

"
our Lord referred when he said: Their angels
do always behold the face of my Father which
is in Heaven." And when we are given the
sacred task of guarding, we become, through
some subtile sympathy, twin soul with the
guarded one, and that is why you thought I
was the other\ No! Not yet,' continued my
heavenly visitant.
'
Your allotted tasks are
not yet fulfilled, and for reasons which neither
mortal nor immortal can ever know, and in this
land never even wish know, you must both
to
fulfil those tasks, and all you or we can know

'
is that at last all is well!

"When I awoke the sun was glittering through
the trees, and happy birds were making the
woods vocal with their matins of thanksgiving
to their Maker for another day of their beautiful
life. I arose much refreshed, and with such a
feeling of trust and comfort as I had not known

for many a day. The dream did not pass, as
dreams usually do, into a hazy memory, but
remained as clear and distinct as any other
event of my life. And last night when it was
repeated I knew from the first word exactly
how it would end, and I smiled, even when

weeping, knowing how soon comfort would
come.
"I
was eager to begin exploring my strange
cavern, and after a hasty breakfast I
began my
preparations. I knew by
the continual gentle
draught of faintly scented air that the cave

must debouch somehow and somewhere on
fields of flowers. After thinking over the matter
seriously I concluded that it would be wise to
be provided for a forward movement in case
the cave should prove a pass through the
mountains. I therefore decided to make my
food and other belongings into as small a com-
pass as possible, and also to provide some sort
of light, an absolute necessity for such a journey.
"
In the rocky debris along the foot of the cliff
there was abundance of the castor oil plant

growing, and I had learned from the Indians
the method of making very good candles, or
rather torches, from its beans. The Indian
women are very deft at the business, which
simply consists in removing the outer hard

shell of the bean. This is neatly done by a
single crack between the teeth, and then the
softwhite fleshy part is strung upon a bit of
the hard, tough midrib of a palm frond; bean
1 84 MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
after strung on until the torch is a foot
bean is
or two in length. The affair is a little more

troublesome to light than an ordinary candle,
but when it gets fairly going it affords quite a
good light, and three or four tied together

make a fine blaze. Of course only fully ripe
beans must be used, as they only have acquired
their maximum quantity of oil. I manufactured
quite a large supply of these candles, for I knew

that if I were left in total darkness in such an
extensive cave as I had reason to think this
was, I should never find spent my way out. I
a week on work, and on the eighth morn-

this
ing after my discovery, with all my belongings

securely fixed about me I left the light of the
sun, which I knew it was quite possible I
should never see again. I loaded both barrels

of my gun, for the puma American lion
hides her young in caves, and is a fierce fighter
at such times (like all mother things) although
an arrant coward as a rule.
"
I little thought as I looked at the sunlight
that glorious morning, under what strange
conditions I would behold it next. I crept into
the cave and slowly and laboriously made my
way into the darkness. I wished to save my
torches as much as possible, so I felt my way
along as best I could, for, I should judge, four

or five hours, only lighting a torch occasionally
when the cave became very rough. Whether
with my torch or in darkness
always steered I
my course by the soft perfumed zephyr which

never ceased to blow on my face.
"
I rested for an hour or so and refreshed my-
self my midday meal and a drink of deli-
with
cious water which I found in little pools that were
filledby drops here and there from the roof. I
again started and travelled until what I deemed
was night. After supper and a little conversa-
tion with myself (a trick I had acquired in my
lonely life),
I said the simple prayers I learnt in
childhood, rolled myself snugly in my poncho

and went off into a sound sleep. In the cave I
had of course no method of measuring time

excepting by my regular habits of eating and
sleeping. had apportioned
Before starting I
my food into daily rations, tying up each meal

in coca leaves, the leaves which as I told
you have the property of enabling one to

sustain life under great privation and fatigue.
I ate three portions of my food per day, or
rather I should say, what I supposed to be a
day. In my long lonely travelling in South

America I had made it a rule to camp and
have a meal about every five hours. I had
become so accustomed to this habit that I
could the time of day pretty accurately. It

tell
was the same with sleeping. I found that after

about sixteen hours of active wakefulness I
slept soundly for eight hours and awoke

regularly at sunrise. Under the new conditions
of utter darkness I started with the intention of
keeping in some sort a record of time, and I
think I succeeded fairly well, as I will presently
show you.
" found the cave,
Greatly to my advantage I
although, as a rule, of a vast height, yet com-
paratively narrow, and without those misleading

cul-de-sac branches which are dangerously fre-
quent in most great caves, leading nowhere, and

only hopelessly exhausting the explorer. In
many parts the middle seemed to be water-worn
and as smooth and solid as a well kept road, on
which I made excellent progress. Then I would
come to parts covered with great broken masses
of granite, over which I had to clamber slowly
and Every hour or so I lit a torch
carefully.
with my and steel, and carefully surveyed
flint
my surroundings. Sometimes the cave was so

low that could just pass without stooping, then
I
it would expand to a vast dome, so high that

the roof was beyond the reach of my torchlight,
only a vague space of ghostly shadows. In such

parts there were great numbers of wonderful
stalagmites and stalactites in many strange
shapes and beautiful colours; many so massive
and absolutely symmetrical, that they seemed
like pillars of some fabled Titanic cathedral,
beyond all human architectural conception!
The lime, iron, and other minerals, of which
these stalagmites are formed, produce the most
strangely beautiful effects, when, instead of fall-

ing drop by drop on one spot, as in building
pillars, the water percolates through long crevices
in the roof, and forms thin, wavy sheets, like
delicate drapery woven
the most gorgeous
in
colours; and withal, so fragile and light, that a

careless touch of mine often broke off great
pieces which seemed to float rather than to fall,

and shiver with a tinkling of music, into a mass
of sparkling, jewelled fragments. It gave me a
strangely sad feeling of desecration when, by an

accidental movement, I would shatter in ruins a
glittering expanse of splendour, whose wonderful
construction had probably occupied hundreds of
thousands of years. How tremendously impress-
ive it was to set my torch behind one of these
*
gorgeously coloured curtains,' and, taking a

position where
could study its delicate loveli-
I
ness, to think that of its fifty feet or so in width

and height, only a foot at most had been added
since the creation of Adam! Scientists have
proved by careful study, and the most accurate

measurements possible, the incredibly slow
growth of these wonderful creations. As I
gazed upon these marvellous and lovely forma-
tions which had required countless ages to attain
their present condition, St. Peters most appro-
priate exclamation was forcibly brought to my
memory: One day is with the Lord as a thous-
'
and years, and a thousand years as one day.'

And then would follow the reflection, how utterly
unworthy of our weeping and rejoicing are the
sorrows and joys of the fleeting moments of our
earthly journey, if we only manage to accom-
plish that rough little journey creditably!
"
I was three weeks in the strangely silent
surroundings of that cavern, but it was by no

means wasted time. In that utterly cimmerian
darkness, my mind was not
'
distracted by the
'
lust of the eye and when ;

I threw the torch-
light on my cathedral, there was absolutely not
a sound to disturb my soul in its wonder and
worship. I learnt the full meaning of the much

neglected command,
'
Be still, and know that I
am God/ much more correctly than I had

hitherto done from all the sermons I ever heard
preached, and I have heard a good many.
"
The slight current of delicately scented and
refreshing air, which met me when I first dis-
covered the cave, never ceased, and, to my great
comfort, it always came from the direction to-
wards which I was travelling. On what I
deemed to be my sixteenth day in the cave I
ate the last portion of food, and only had a few

coca leaves left. I had strictly confined myself
to the smallest quantity of food that would sus-
tain life, and I had, during the last few days,
feltmy strength gradually failing. However,
with the sustaining help of the coca leaves, I
managed to struggle on for four days more ;

and
then, completely exhausted, like a willing horse
done up on some sandy desert, my body refused
to obey the spur of the spirit any longer. Even
at thatsupreme moment I distinctly noticed that
the flower-scented air came stronger and fresher
as I advanced; by which I judged that I must
be near my Promised Land.' But I gradually
'
realized that the battle was lost, and

I
calmly
prepared to lay me down comfortably beside a
pool of water, and quietly slip my cables.
little
"As I turned my weary face towards the sweet

breath of air which seemed to come
and fresher
stronger at that moment, I thought I saw a

star far, far off. I remember thinking it was
only an optical delusion, but I took it as a good

omen, and so prepared to solve the great mystery.
But the star was in reality a ray of light, and
this I slowly realized. Scarcely knowing what I
did, crept weakly forward, feeling the odorous

I
air blow fresher and sweeter on my face as I
advanced. At last, oh how blessed it was! I
crawled, with bleeding feet and scarred hands,

into God's glorious sunlight, on what I reckoned
to be the twentieth day of my cave travel, and
I
experienced a little glow of satisfaction that
it was morning, as I had felt sure it was, accord-
ing to the record of food and sleep I had kept.
"
A
melody of bird music, like silver bells, was
the first sound that fell on my weary senses
after the awful stillness of the cave life. Then
I was soothed by the loving warmth of the
kindly sun, as a sick child is soothed by the
magical warmth of its mother's bosom. A little
while of these blessed things, and I sank on the
flower-strewn sod, and wandered far away into
happy swoonland. How long I lay thus I know

not. When I awoke I found myself lying lux-
uriously on a bed, in a curiously furnished room,

with a kindly, noble-looking old man watching

me. As soon as he perceived that I was awake
he smiled, said some soft words in a language I
had never heard before, and then set about
mixing liquids and powders from various con-
tainers of beautiful shapes, and strange mate-
rial.
"
When
he had got the mixture to his liking,
he came forward with a friendly and dignified
salutation, and motioned me to drink from the
cup he held in his hand. I thought that was

the most delicious draught I ever tasted, as I
slowly drained the contents of the cup, and

faintly expressed my thanks. The old man
made a sign for me to sleep, which I
promptly
obeyed, sliding into oblivion with a blessedly
happy feeling, as if I were floating on scented
beds of asphodel in Paradise.
"
When I
again awoke my nurse brought me
some light food, talking in musical, kindly tones
the while I ate. did not in the least recognize
I
what I ate; I
only know that it tasted like
angels' food, which, in the kindly manner of
the providing, it
really was. How often in the
days, months, and years that followed my in-
troduction to life in the valley of Araucaca did

I realize that my old life had vanished like a
troubled dream, and that I had found the true
life which our Maker designed for us to live.
But am anticipating.
I
"
When I had finished that delightful repast,
I thanked my kind host, my own language, in
which, of course, he did not understand any

more than I understood
but he quickly his,
understood my loving pressure of his hand.

Oh how cool and soft his hands were as I held
!
them in my feverish, skeleton fingers. I have

often had cause to notice how
universally that
language is understood from the lowest to the
highest of God's creatures. All the flights of
eloquence are weak and ineffective in com-
parison with the language of the hands. Words
may be false, the hands never tell lies.
"
Under such kind and judicious treatment I
soon regained strength, and began to move

about, and once more take an interest in life.
My host provided me with some clothing of
the country, which is made of the most delight-
fully soft material woven from the wool of the
llama. The usual dress for men consists of
undershirt and vest more or less ornamented
coatreaching to the knee, loose trousers,
stockings, and moccasins. In cold weather the
universal poncho of South America is worn,
but of lighter and finer quality than I have

it is
seen elsewhere. The women have practically

the same clothing as the men, only instead of
trousers they wear a skirt of ornamented cloth,
with stockings and moccasins beautifully stitched
with various coloured thread. Both sexes wear
light straw hats such as I have never seen else-
where. These hats are so splendidly soft and

pliable that one can easily be drawn through a
common finger ring, and yet it will keep in
good shape for years. I used to think that it
was owing to this light and comfortable head-
gear that these people retained their fine, abund-
ant hair even in extreme old age. I never
noticed a man showing signs of baldness, and
yet many were a good bit over a hundred, as
their registers incontestably proved. Indeed,

they told me if one died short of a hundred
that
years of age he was mourned for as passing be-

fore his allotted time. No doubt their splendid
health and longevity is partly owing to a custom
of which I learned afterwards; a sort of weed-
ing-out system, if I may use the phrase, of the

weakly children shortly after birth. As I was
at that time deeply concerned regarding the
laws of health, on account of my own deplorable
condition when I first reached the valley of
o
i
94 MARK WYN YARD'S STORY
Araucaca, I
may as well state a few facts re-
garding hygiene as practised by these wise

people.
"In every village there is a board of health.
It consists of five members, a majority vote
of whom is decisive on all hygienic subjects
which may come to their notice. One im-
portant part of their duty is to examine all

children shortly after birth, and if a child is in
the least weakly, or abnormal, its parents and
itself are saved any further sorrow and suffer-
ing by a quiet system of elimination. This

board consists of very learned men, who have
thoroughly studied the laws of health, not of
disease, as our Medicos have insanely done, and,
with this result, that the people of Araucaca are
practically free from disease, a result that I am

not aware has been achieved in any portion of
the globe by so-called medical scientists, who
have practised their system of cutting and
drugging upon suffering humanity, century after
century. Even in the surgical lines, upon which
our medical schools pride themselves so com-
placently, I have seen such things as would make
common-sense people and wonder. For
stare
instance, the following case came under my im-

mediate notice. My host's youngest son, a lad
of eighteen or nineteen, was brought home one
day in a deplorable condition. He had been

hunting wild huanacos, and by some mischance
had lost his footing on a slippery cliff, and suf-
fered such a fall that his companions brought

him home in great grief, supposing him dead,
which, indeed, the poor boy seemed to be.
"
He was certainly in a most pitiful condition.
Both legs were badly broken, that is, the bones
were splintered. His right shoulder and con-
necting bones were simply smashed to pieces,
the broken bones projecting here and there
through the lacerated skin. A member of the

health committee was called, and he proceeded
in a calm, business-like way to place the boy in
as natural a position as possible, deftly and ten-
derly got the broken bones as nearly as possible

into their proper positions, and bound all the
wounds in plasters of finely pulverized roots of
a vine (a variety of the common morning glory).

Not one limb was amputated, not one drug
was administered. Water and the thinnest kind
of gruel were the only sustenance given; the
bandages and pulverized roots were moistened

two or three times a day, and fresh ones applied
every third day.

" I watched the case with the greatest in-
terest, and I know that this was the whole pro-
cess. What struck me as a curious feature was
that his parents and the rest of the family
showed no more anxiety from first to last than
we would over any common accident of a
rather bad cut or a finger out of joint. I
evinced much more solicitude than any of the

family; but this was not from any want of
affection, for I had many proofs of their great
love for each other; it was
simply the fact that
they knew surgeon, with his wonderful
the
skill, aided by the lad's superb health as tough
as a wild goat would pull the boy through.
And he did, most triumphantly. In less than
three months friend could get about
my young
with the aid of a stick, and in six months he
was as active and bright as ever he had been
in his life! Now, I may remark en passant, that
if there is one of our doctors who, working on
lines which the Faculty would approve, could
effect such a cure, all I can say is that I have

not had the pleasure of meeting him. I re-
member two comrades of mine in Africa, who
were brought into camp after a little skirmish.
One had a leg broken by his horse being shot
and on him, the other had a dislocated
falling
arm. They were by no means bad cases. The
doctors put both men under chloroform, cut off

the leg, and put the dislocated arm in plaster of
Paris. The man who lost his leg died of shock
and low spirits at the loss, and the other died
moaning in his delirium, in a way that
of fever,
was most distressing to hear: 'Take my arm
out of the rock, it is
crushing me to death.'
But the doctors kept him hard and fast; they
said it was the only way to save his life, but it
didn't! Curious, wasn't it?
"When became strong enough to move about
I
and inspect my surroundings, I

began to realize
fully that had certainly gotten into a mysteri-

I
ous country, amongst a people, the hand-

somest, the gentlest, and the most virtuous I
had ever met. In appearance they were some-
what like what we imagine the Incas and nobles
of Peru to have been when first discovered by
the Spaniards, and ere they were degraded
and practically exterminated by oppression and
cruelty. Fortunately for these people, the
Spanish, or any other explorers, never found

the valley of Araucaca, and so they have
escaped the fate of aboriginal nations when

all
brought into contact with the arrogant, selfish

white race.
"
Both men and women are above the average
height of mankind, and their complexions of a
lighter shade than that of any of the other
brown races I have met. As my host's house
was a typical home of the better sort, I may as
well describe what it was like, and of what his
family consisted. I said just now 'a home of

the better sort,' but that is hardly correct, as
allhouses are practically the same in that truly
democratic community; they only vary in size
according to the number of the household.
And I remarked that households are never
large, as is generally the case with us, the
children in a family never exceeding four, and
usually only two or three.

"
First of course comes my friend and bene-
factor, Haseca, tall, fully six feet, of a graceful
carriage, and with the striking features and splen-
did eyes of the highborn, old Peruvian nobility.
His two daughters and two sons, com-
wife,
pleted the household. The sons and daughters,

like their parents, were extremely handsome,
but this was nothing uncommon among a people

universally good looking. My friend's house
(a good sample of the valley architecture) is a
one-story building, rather narrow, and with a
veranda extending around the whole building.
The rooms are exactly the width of the house,
so that in passing from room to room one has
to pass along the veranda, which thus becomes
the general meeting-place of the family, and
visitors are also received there, ample accom-
modation being provided in the shape of large

and small settees, covered comfortably with
snowy white llama skins. The houses as a
rule are built of a peculiar stone found in many
parts of the valley, of a delicate pink colour,
and so soft when first quarried that it can be
cut into any desired shape as easily as chalk.
By exposure to the atmosphere it soon becomes

as hard as marble, and capable of a fine polish.
The roofs are covered with a thick, neat thatch

of grass a species of pampas which, like all
thatch, affords warmth in winter and coolness

in summer.
"
As I said, the stone when fresh quarried
can be easily cut into any shape desired. The
outside walls are usually left rough, the inside
is cut perfectly smooth, and after hardening,
beautifully polished. Some
people, however,
like my host, prefer to leave both the outside
and inside walls rough, in which case the
rooms are lined in a most artistic manner with
the reeds of the pampas which are closely
grass,
laced together with twine made from the beauti-
fully silky, snow-white fibre of the agave plant.
The twine is dyed various colours, and the work-
men in lacing the reeds, invent unique designs
of birds, fish, flowers, trees, llamas, and such like,
according to the tastes of the designers, and the

general effect is most pleasing and effective.
"
You will of course notice," continued my
friend, have given you a very frag-
"that I
mentary account of Araucaca, and indeed of all

my wanderings. What is more, I fear you will
find the disjointed history of the nine or ten
years since we parted in England not only dis-

jointed, but wearisome, in which case you
must just say so and I will leave the story of
my adventure untold, which would be no great

loss to you or any one else." Of course I
hastened to assure him that I was not only
deeply interested in the description of his
mysterious valley, but that I also wished to

have an account of his voyaging since he
"
foolishly left such an ideal abode. Foolishly,
"
indeed," said Wynyard. But when the spirit
of unrest takes hold of man, or of angel, neither
heaven nor earthly paradise, with all their
blessedness, can allay the craving. Each must
go forth to his doom, as we have been so sadly
told by the History which never misstates.
"
I lived with these
happy people for nearly
six years, so I learned their customs and modes
of life pretty thoroughly, and explored their
territory from end to end. The

valley of Arau-
caca is situated in the heart of the most in-
accessible peaks of the Andes, well within the
tropics. Of course I had no means of locating

its exact position, and if I had I should be
loath to give it, and so run the risk of demoral-
izing that virtuous and happy community by

'
'
introducing carpet-baggers with every ism

that is falsely called civilization, and only a
very faint knowledge of the simple laws of
meum et tuum. The whole length of the valley
is about one hundred miles from north to
south, and somewhere about thirty miles wide.
I call it a valley, but this hardly correct, for
is
Araucaca is simply a hollow in the Andes,

without inlet or outlet. The many mountain
streams which descend from the snowy ranges
flow into the beautiful lake of Sacna, which
occupies the centre of the valley. To this lake

there is no visible outlet, and as its waters
only rise and fall about a foot in winter or

summer, there must be some subterranean
escape for its surplus waters. The people say
that in the middle of the lake there are no
soundings. I have myself tried with a two
hundred fathom line without success. The lake
is about six miles with pretty pebbly
in length,
shores, and many fairy islets scattered over its
glittering expanse. It abounds with fish, which

very much resemble the beautiful game, Owi-
nenishi, of lake St. John in the Province of
Quebec.
"
Of course on such a fine sheet of water an
ingenious people have many varieties of craft.

They are to be found of all sorts and sizes ;
from the most ancient and primitive of all,
the common
serviceable dug-out, to the large
elegant boat of five or six tons burden, built of

narrow boards of a tough species of fir (Lahual
the Indians call it) which grows immediately
below the snow line; the nearer the snow line
the tree is found the tougher and finer is the
wood. It is very remarkable the facility with

which this tree can be split into boards twenty,
and even thirty feet long, as smooth and fair as
if cut with a saw. The boats made of this fir
display clever workmanship, and many sail re-
markably fast. I have sailed one over a meas-

ured course of twelve miles in a little less than
an hour, an hour recorded by that most accurate
of all time keepers, a sun-dial. In every village
there a sun-dial of the most beautifully polished

is
stone, the style being made of gold, hardened

with copper and tin, the only other metals
besides gold found in Araucaca.
" It
the custom of these people to build their
is
boats in a curious but most secure fashion by
lacing the boards together with very fine, strong

twine made of the agave fibre. This method of
building has the peculiar advantage of allowing

the boat to work, that is, to bend and give a
little in a stiff breeze, which I have heard old
sailors say is a great advantage in a racing craft.

"
The
boats are painted, or rather varnished,
with the wax-like substance obtained from the
wax-palm, which is more or less common all over

tropical America. This substance, when boiled
and mixed with certain kinds of earth, makes a
good woodwork, and lasts a
application for all
considerable time. Beautiful and brilliant tapers
for domestic use are also made of this most use-
ful substance.
"
These boats have an outrigger which, unlike
the South Sea canoe, is not a permanent fixture,
but can be easily shipped or unshipped at pleas-
ure. In navigating narrow passages or winding
creeks the outrigger is always removed, but in
clear, open water, especially when beating to
windward, it is a sine qua non of fast sailing. N ot
only does it enable a boat to sail much nearer
the wind, but with a couple of men on the out-
rigger to keep it, by their extra weight, from

jumping out of the water, your boat will remain
on perfectly even keel in the stiffest breeze,
without the slightest danger of a capsize al-
though you crack on until mast and sail go
over the side. The outrigger being always
carried on the weather side when under sail,
the object of putting a man or two on it in a

breeze is obvious.
"
The territory consists of rolling downs ex-
tremely fertile, while the slopes of the Andes
to a height of three thousand feet or so are
clothed with magnificent forests, including many
fruit trees of temperate and tropical climes. It
was strangely beautiful to observe how exactly
each species found its own suitable zone, and
whether we call it natural instinct, or the direct-
ing hand of God, it all comes to the same

stupendous miracle at last.
"No care whatever is bestowed on the forests,

excepting, of course, the care such a wise people
naturally take in the avoidance of damage by
fire or needless waste of any kind. Nature, or
rather Nature's God, does all the rest, from the
zone of bananas and mangoes, through the

first
succeeding zones of figs, oranges, cherries, pears,

apples, etc. these intermingled with many
(all
others), until the last zone, consisting of the

hardy coniferous family, is reached, the higher
portions of which grow smaller and smaller,
tougher, and more gnarled as the line of per-
petual snow is
approached.
"
The lower zones of abound in birds of
forest
gorgeous plumage and the most exquisite powers

of song; songs which never palled on my de-
lighted ear, although their music filled my room,

morning after morning, for six years wonder-
fully spiritual songs, which
can only compare
I
with a variety of silver bells tuned by no earthly

hand. Sometimes, in my dreams, God in His
mercy enables me to hear them yet!
"
The whole valley with the exception of the
lake, rivers, and forest lands is composed of
splendidly fertile rolling downs. I have seen
twenty tons of the fine yellow Peruvian potato
taken from one acre of land, and the ordinary
yield of maize is a hundred bushels per acre.
"
I think that under
present wise manage-
its
ment Araucaca could support at least a hundred

times present population. Land is appor-
its
tioned to each village according to the number

of its inhabitants, and the utmost care is be-
stowed upon it ;
so there is little danger of the
land becoming run out, as often happens in
other countries.
"
After cropping three years the land is allowed
to lie fallow as many more. When the third
crop is harvested, the fields are well manured
with decaying leaves from the mountains, and
by the time the land is again brought under
cultivation as fertile as virgin soil.
it is
"The climate of Araucaca is perfectly delight-

ful. The heat of summer is tempered by the
clouds which gather on the great peaks of the
Andes; the winter is genial, and never severe,
owing to the entire absence of high winds.
During the balmy summer months it was a
never-failing source of interest and wonderment
to me to watch and study the cloud-wrack and
storms on the far peaks of the Andes storms
which never descended to the plains of Arau-
caca, save in the form of gentle, refreshing
showers, which generally fell at night. We, in
the valley, bathed in sunlight or moonlight, the
air gently stirred by the soft, scented breeze
from the forests, could watch, on the far-off

peaks more than fifteen thousand feet above
us, dark storm-clouds, driven by fierce winds of
hurricane force and torn by great sheets of

lurid lightning, leaping in their mad revels from
cloud- wrack to cloud -wrack. What seemed
unaccountable to me until I realized the great
distance, not a sound of wild storm or thunder
reached our ears, only an occasional faint roll,
like a wave of far-off music.

"
I was deeply impressed by the strange phe-
nomenon that a nation could exist without those
things which we deem essential to the existence

of a State, viz., prisons, a complicated code of
civil and criminal laws, with a parasitical army
of greedy lawyers to interpret, and a set of

automaton judges to execute, these same laws.
This people have their State established on the
simple bases of justice to all, and it is super-
fluous to say that an easy matter to decide
it is
what {sjust, when judges wish to do so, without

any rigmarole of legal verbosity, which is only
invented for the benefit of the few at the ex-
pense of the many.

"
Thepeople of Araucaca have existed from
very remote ages, as their records prove. Their
history is kept in sign language, or rather pic-
ture writing, which is comparatively simple in
construction as regards grammar, but very diffi-
cult to acquire; and only those possessed of
first-rate memories and clever hands ever be-
come While I am on the
proficient scholars.
subject of education I may remark that these
people have reduced this intricate and much
abused question to a very simple and satis-
factory basis. The whole system of govern-
ment being a true democracy, it naturally follows
that there are no differences of rank or class,
as we understand these terms rich and poor,
;
high and low, educated and ignorant, do not

exist. Each citizen performs his or her allotted
share of labour, and reaps his or her allotted
share of reward, viz., health and happiness, and
so are content. I do not mean shares allotted
by human laws, but by the inexorable law of

God, without the fulfilment of which mankind
have proved, over and over again, from beggar
to millionaire, that happiness cannot be attained.
These simple folk have solved the secret which
the so-called wise men of the world have been
seeking in all ages, but always seeking in vain,

because always on the wrong track forgetting,;
or not having learned, that Nemesis never
sleeps, and never forgets,

'
whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap.'
"In Araucaca imperative upon all parents
it is
to teach their children to read and write in-

telligently a simple form of picture writing.

Afterwards, those who wish to devote them-
selves to study can do so without let or hind-
rance, but must be done by the pupil's own
it
industry and perseverance. There is no com-

pulsion and no cramming. Here learned men
are truly learned men, not merely stuffed ma-
chines out of which you can grind words of
worthless dead languages and dates of very
questionable events which would be much better

forgotten. Parents must also teach their sons
the arts of agriculture, mining, and all handi-
crafts, and make their daughters experts in all
household duties. Each father is not only the
head, but also the magistrate in his own house-
hold, and in the event of an appeal from his de-
cision (an event so rare that I never heard of one
during all the years that I lived in the valley)

the case brought before the council of seven
is
learned men, and their judgement is final.

"
This council (with the exception of the
parents and the boards of health and agriculture
in each village) is the only visible power or
authority in the land. It consists of seven
learned men, who must be over fifty years of
age,and have shown by their lives and deport-

ment that they are eminently qualified for the
position. When
a vacancy occurs by the death
of a member, his successor is chosen by unanim-
ous vote of the remaining members, which selec-
tion must be made on the day following the
death. The duties of the council consist of keep-
ing a record of the most important events of the

nation, recording births, marriages,and deaths,
and hearing appeals. Their absolute justice and
authority is never questioned; not from fear, for
these seven men have no physical power or other
privileges more than any other members of the

community. Their power is derived from the
simple fact that perfect justice is
always ren-
dered. There seems to be no inducement to
render anything except justice !
" The Araucaca Records extend back

nearly
two thousand years. But the record of the first
thousand years is almost merely a list of names
of heads of families, the designation of villages
and lands apportioned to them, the discoveries
of gold and copper mines, methods of smelting
the ore, etc. But there is one strange excep-
tion, viz.,a wonderfully beautiful, though very
concise, notice of a great teacher, who mysteri-
ously appeared, taught, and disappeared many

hundreds of years ago. When I said to my
friends that I was astonished the scribes of that
date had not recorded more fully the life and
teaching of their great instructor, they showed

me a brief note to the effect that the teacher
had said he wished his teaching to be inscribed
on the heart, not on sheets of papyrus. And I
think that the peaceful state of the valley and
its freedom from crime prove that his wish has
been fulfilled.
"
There is no record of the origin of the tribe,
or of its entrance into the valley. These far
back events can only be traced in folklore,
songs, and oral tradition, which of course are
all more or vague and misty. But their
less
picture writing seems to indicate a far northern

origin. The accomplishment could not have
been acquired in Peru, as the Peruvians never
possessed this elegant art. I think the Arau-
caca people must be a remnant of that very
ancient nation who occupied Mexico and the
adjacent countries before the invasion of the

Toltecs and Aztecs.
"
Ah
the superstitious Spaniards had not
! if
been so very zealous, as historians tell us, in

' '
burning mountain-heaps the invaluable

in
picture writings which they found in such

abundance when they conquered Mexico, the
world might yet possess records of a wonderful
vanished past that isnow buried in impenetrable
darkness records of the unknown architects
of and splendid ruins scattered
those vast
throughout the jungles of central America;

ruins which have been the awe-inspiring
amazement of explorers who have wandered
all
in those trackless wilds from time to time for
the last four hundred years. But neither white

man nor Indian has cast the least glimmer of
lighton those marvellous builders, whence they
came, and whither they disappeared.
"
The Araucaca picture writing which I
learned to read slowly, but never to write is
done upon a snow-white material, somewhat
like the Egyptian papyrus, but smoother and
finer in texture. It is made of the inside bark
of a species of mulberry, instead of the water-
reed which the scribes of the Nile used for
their writing.
" The papyrus used by the Araucaca Council
iscut into sheets two feet long by fifteen inches
wide. In their writing each single mark repre-
sents a word, so that in the same space the
Araucaca scribe can put nearly as many words
as we can put letters, and when the page is
completed, the coloured picture writing is cer-

tainly much more attractive-looking than ours.
"
the duty (I had almost said the pleasure,
It is
they seem so interested in their beautiful work)

of the Council to keep the records of the nation
in perfect order, entering only the most im-
portant events as concisely as possible. Each

set of sheets containing the records of ten
years is entered in an index volume with the
number of the shelf where it is to be found, so
that sets are never disturbed unless when
required. Each sheet when it is filled with
writing, and after allowing time for the various
coloured inks to become thoroughly dry, is
dipped in a solution made from certain animal

and vegetable substances, as clear as water,
which when dry leaves a fine thin coating upon
the papyrus, almost like pliable glass, and
renders absolutely impervious to the ravages
it
of time and free from the dangerous brittleness

of the Egyptian variety. I handled sheets which
had been written nearly two thousand years
before, and they were in as good preservation
as those written while was in the valley.
I
The records are written and stored in a hand-

some stone building, which is invulnerable to
fire,the roof being composed of moderately
thin blocks of stone instead of the usual thatch.
"
I must now give you in my erratic way a
2i 4 MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
synopsis of how those people conduct the general
work of the community, without one portion hav-
ing too much to do and the other portion having
too little. Of course, in such a state of society
as theirs, where commerce, as we understand
the term, does not exist, the people depend
wholly upon the products of the soil. There-

fore to utilize the land in the most economical
way is to the advantage of all. The land is
held in common, and the only private owner-

ship which exists is simply the ground upon
which a man's house stands and a small portion
around Whatever farming lands are required
it.
for the support of the community are cultivated
by the people en masse, not individually, as is

mostly the custom in the world. By this means
much loss, many failures, and mistakes are
avoided, the elder and more expert men showing
the younger and less experienced how to do all
manner of work, so as to produce the most
effective results with the least outlay of labour.
"
Each community, consisting of four
village
or five hundred individuals, assemble on a
certain given day for planting or harvesting,
as the case may be. Each family is under the

absolute control of the father, as head of the
house, or in the event of his decease, the eldest
son succeeds to the management of the house-

hold in all field work. Of course while the
mother lives she is supreme in the domestic
affairs ofher family. If both parents die when
the children are still too young to manage for
themselves, the nearest relatives take them
into their households and care for them exactly
as their own children. In fact it often seemed
to me had a greater tenderness for
that they
the adopted children than for their own, if that
were possible.
"
When
the crops are harvested the produce
is apportioned according to the number of
persons in a family. All the men in a village
who are over sixty years of age are members
of a committee who attend to this important
business, and so far from any dispute ever
arising, never seems to enter any one's mind
it
that unfair distribution can possibly take place,

"
Men over fifty years of age are not expected
to labour in the fields, but the work is so light,
and the assembling of friends and neighbours
so pleasant and cheerful, that it is customary
for old and young to turn out alike. Members
of the Learned Council and the Board of

Health are the only men who are frequently
absent on account of their important, not to
say onerous, duties. But from whatever cause
members of the community may be absent from
field,or other labour (whether from age, sick-
ness, professional duties, or any other necessity)
all receive an equal share of the product, what-
ever that may happen According to the

to be.
number in the household, all share and share
alike, and the system works admirably with
those simple and wise folk, for there is no
worthless wealth and not a vestige of poverty.
"
And this," soliloquized my friend, I think is
a greater achievement than the invention of a

submarine to sink a ship with a thousand men
on board, who never did you any harm, and
whom you never even saw, or the invention
of an insane-looking machine to run at the rate
of a hundred miles an hour, along peaceful
country lanes, causing terror to inoffensive men
and women, and the beautiful country-
filling
side with a horrible, deadly effluvium, instead of
the natural life-giving odour of hawthorn and
apple blossom. In fact it is simply the old story

which the wise man told us long, long ago Lo, :
'
this only have I found, that God hath made

man upright, but they have sought out many
inventions.'
"
If, for example, a house has to be built for a
young couple, the done cheerfully and

work is
willingly by the men of the village,

each know-
ing that some time or other it will come

round
to his turn, or to some member of his family, to
receive the same benefit. And it is truly aston-
ishing how easily and expeditiously a fine house

can be built,work being done, not only will-
the
ingly, but with the greatest good humour, as if

all hands were playing some highly entertaining
and exhilarating game, good for the soul as well

as for the body, which most certainly it is.
"In such ways all people work equally, and
none are over-worked. Of course the domestic
work of the house is done by the members of
the family, but all the rest is
accomplished by
community labour, and Iknow, by actual ob-
servation, that all the people have ample time
for recreation, and poverty or destitution do not
exist. No wealthy class oppress their poorer
fellow creatures by adding millions to millions
of unproductive hoards, every dollar of which
only adds another anxiety to the rich, and re-

presents another comfort filched from a poorer
and less expert, but in all probability a purer-
minded brother!
"
I am
quite aware that such a happy and
contented state of society is beyond our reach.
Everlasting arguments, revolutions and blood-
shed, kings and presidents, schools and philo-
sophy, only lead wearily round, again and again,
to the old deplorable condition of the wealthy
few and the poverty-stricken many, with aching,
unsatisfied longings in every human soul. The
people of Araucaca are of another sort alto-
gether. They are thoroughly conservative, and
are averse to the least change. From the oldest
to the youngest (from mere force of habit I had
almost used the vile expression 'from the highest
to the lowest ') not one would vote for a change
of their system. It is part of themselves, part of
their life, of their love! In short, they have not
been smitten with that incurable disease, which,
alas, fell upon Adam and all his descendants,
the curse of '
the knowledge of good and evil,'
with all its intolerable burden of unsatisfied
craving and vain quest for happiness in utterly
mistaken directions. These mistakes are proved
to be mistakes, century after century; but still
the mad rush goes on, mankind wildly chasing

some will-o'-the-wisp, which when grasped is
found to be as worthlessly unstable as some ex-

ploded panacea which was lauded as perfection a
thousand years before !
"
From Solomon, with his God-given wisdom
MARK WYN YARD'S STORY 219
vanity and vexa-

'
and his despairing cry all is
'
tion of spirit while his subjects were plotting

rebellion under their grievous burdens all the
way down through the ages of experiments

under despotism, constitutional monarchy, re-
public, or what not, our race have never yet
found the one prize that isworth striving for
contentment. Why have we missed this jewel,
which is above all price? Because our race
have pursued false quests, chimeras, first of
one sort, and then of another, like phantom
oases that the weary traveller sees in the desert,
the which when he reaches he finds are only
heaps of waterless sands sands that only vanish

!
the faster through his fingers the harder he

tries, in his despair, to grasp them.
"
Not so with this pre-Adamite tribe, shut off
from the danger of being smitten with the in-
curable passion for change. Here I found true
democracy combined with true conservatism,

or shall I
say a true theocracy ? The lust of
change has never dawned upon their contented

minds. You call this ignorance! Oh, ye miser-
able creatures, tumbling over each other in your
mad, mistaken quests ! this is true wisdom !
beyond all the philosophy that was ever taught

by ancient or modern school. We started the
false search for happiness and safety, on the
plains of Shinar, by trying to build a tower of
bricks and slime, whose top would reach unto
4
heaven.' Bricks and slime to reach unto heaven!

We look back upon that episode with a spasm of
shame! but the race have been trying equally
foolish schemes, one after another, ever since,
and with the same disastrous result division"
Here Wynyard paused a bit, saying in his
sweet, old-fashioned way that he was afraid he
was giving me too much of a sermon. But upon
my assurance that I wished him to go ahead
exactly as the thoughts occurred to him, he
"
laughed and said, You are just the same good,
patient old boy you always were when you
listened to all my yarns of pirates and other
interesting gentlemen, which our schoolmates

would pronounce 'bosh,' as they dispersed in
various directions in the dear old Devon woods,
bent upon better entertainment than I could
afford. Well I have no doubt when you could
!
hang so eagerly upon those old make-up yarns,

you will kindly listen with some degree of
interest to the true tragedy of my strangely
broken life. But I have not yet quite done
with my preaching. St. Paul told his young
'
friend Timothy that Godliness with content-
ment is great gain.' You observe that the

aphorism clearly states that even godliness
must have contentment before it is 'great
gain,' and that is what nations have never
and individuals have seldom possessed under
the system mistermed civilization, but which
has only been from age to age,
'
The simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can.'
"In what way the people of Araucaca achieved

their present happy systema mystery, but
is
one thing is certain, they did not achieve it by

stimulating unrest and a vain craving for things
and acquirements which are utterly worthless in
themselves, and in whose pursuit the mind and
body of youth deteriorate, and, what is even
worse, imbibe altogether false ideals!
"The first years of my sojourn in the valley I
spent contentedly enough. The beautiful coun-

try, the gentle, attractive character of the
people, freedom from anxiety, and the

the
pleasant daily intercourse with my host and his

family (I had learned the language fairly well),
all contributed to make my life, if not exactly
happy, at least in a measure contented.

"
My fourth year I devoted to an extended
exploration of the valley. My kind host de-
puted as my guide his nephew, a fine young
man of a little over twenty, intelligent and I
need hardly say good-natured, for all these
people possess that invaluable characteristic.

"
Ashad already navigated the lake in
I all
directions, I determined on this expedition to
keep near the mountains, making ascents here

and there at the most inviting points.
"
I and my
young friend were over a year
in circumnavigating (if that word is allowable)
the valley, besides examining every extensive
ravine to its utmost limit. In this way I
fully
proved to my own satisfaction that the valley of

Araucaca so walled in by impassable barriers
is
that ingress or egress by the mountains is im-
possible. In fact, the valley lies in such a

wilderness of inaccessible snow-clad peaks, that
explorers have never dreamt that such a para-

dise could possibly exist in those vast, inhos-
pitable regions. When I returned to Haseca's

house, after my long, but most pleasant wander-
ings, I told him in the course of our interesting
talks that I had quite satisfied myself that the
valley was perfectly safe from invasion by way
of the mountains. This, my host said, was well
known to their engineers. But there had always
existed a belief that their remote ancestors en-

tered the valley from the earth. This tradition
had gradually become merged into a mystical
form, that the parents of the race were, in
viz.,
the beginning of time, created of the red clay

on the margin of the lake by the Great Spirit
whom they worshipped.
"
Perhaps I have not mentioned that many of
the household articles in common use are made
of gold. The
people are also very expert in
the manufacture of beautifully fine pottery, of
such unique shapes and lovely colours as would
ravish the heart of an old china virtuoso to
behold. That gold was abundant was evident
from the profuse way in which it was used, not
only in various domestic articles, but on doors,
and about boats, as we use brass or tin. An-
other strange and mystical purpose to which an
immense quantity had been applied,was the
erection of a solid golden cross in every one of
the twenty-four villages in the valley.
"
The cross stands in what the Spaniards call
the Plaza, and what these people call the

Alaukii. This is an open space planted in the
centre with shrubs and flowers, always kept in
perfect order by members of the community in
rotation. The cross is set in a great block of

granite which is laid on a solid foundation of
stones and cement, the top being four feet above
the surface of the ground. On this block the
cross is erected. It is eight feet in height, ten
inches in thickness in all parts, and, in its fine
proportions and beautiful simplicity, it is the fair-
est memorial I ever beheld. On the four sides
of the great block of granite there are affixed
splendid plates of gold and bronze. On these

plates engraved in beautiful hieroglyphics
are the following incontrovertible legends :
"'Whatsoever ye would that men should

do to you, do ye even so to them.'
" '
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
also reap.'
"
Study to be quiet, and to do your own
'
business, and to work with your own hands.'

" '
Blessed are the merciful ;
for they shall
obtain mercy.'
" These crosses
(which have stood there for
many, many hundreds of years) are without
scratch or blemish, as fair and beautiful as on
the mysterious day they were erected. No hand
of man, woman, or child is ever laid irreverently
upon those sacred symbols, and, in passing, a
respectful salute is made, and at least one if
not all of the aphorisms repeated.

"Of course, I was naturally much interested in

the history of these emblems of our faith, and I
asked one of thecouncil of learned mento explain
when, and in what wonderful way, the cross
reached Araucaca. My friend said that some-
what over eighteen hundred years ago, accord-
ing to the records, a man of a noble and stately
carriagecame to their land, and taught them
many wise and beautiful lessons.
"
Whence he came, or how he came, no one
ever knew. The first day in the valley he
spoke their language with an accent and form
so enchanting that people listened enraptured
to the mere music of his voice, while their
souls were inspired by the wisdom of his
teaching. He journeyed from village to vil-
lage, instructing the people in various things

health of body and soul, science and art.
But the gem of all his teaching was the won-
derful philosophy, the outward, ocular demon-
stration of whichhe engraved upon the many
crosses he caused to be erected. This was
no great labour for a people with abundance
of gold at their command. Each cross is
of pure gold, hewn from the solid mass in the
rough, then worked into perfect form and beau-

tifully polished. Abundance of the material,
Q
plenty of willing hands, and skill to direct the
work, explained to me what was at first a great
mystery.
"
Their spiritual teacher had told them that
without this visible, tangible evidence con-
stantly before their bodily vision, their spiritual
sight would, in after generations, grow dim
and gradually decay. In which case internal
disorder would ensue, the strong would oppress
the weak; evil, in all its hideous forms, would
overtake them ; hate, distrust of each other,
misery of mind and body, would take possession

of them, then decay, and final annihilation.
"
After long and loving labour their teacher
bade them farewell, and they saw him no more.
Ere he left he warned them again and again
that they strictly practised the admonitions
if
on the cross their nation would endure, but if

they failed to do so, then their race would
perish. Who this teacher was, whence he came,
and whither he went, are mysteries. But the
golden crosses, with their aphorisms as inflex-
ible as the north star, remain to this day,
testifying to the truth of the teacher who pro-

claimed them by the lasting effects of his teach-
ing.
"In connection with these mystical crosses I
may say that they indirectly saved my life when

I first entered the valley. When I was found
by my afterwardskind friend and host, Haseca,
swift runners were sent to the Learned Council
to decide whether should simply be left to
I
die, or saved alive for future examination. The

vote was on the side of mercy, and for a very
strange reason, viz., the sign of the Cross

tattooed on my right arm in blue ink. How it
came there was as follows."
CHAPTER IV
"
WHEN I was at Harrow there was a strange,
dreamy, mystical lad there, Mylor Carcleu by

name. I think he came from Helstone I know
he came from somewhere in Cornwall. He was
an exceedingly clever lad, always on good
terms with the master. The seemed
fact was it
to be no trouble him to do lessons he only

for ;
had to look at a book and he knew all about it.

But the strangest thing about him was his
spirituality. It was nothing sentimental or ac-
quired; he must have been born with a mysti-

cally religious mind. He became the leader of
a small, select set of us boys. We used to meet
in his room to discuss, or rather to listen to him
discussing, spiritual subjects. He had the knack
of putting almost any matter in an interesting
light. One subject he had much at heart

was
the history of the strange, lonely, Cornish
crosses scattered all over his native county.
He had a theory regarding these silent re-
minders of the whether founded on any
past,
authority, or only evolved out of his own fertile

brain, I am not antiquarian enough to say.
However that may be, Mylor Carcleu's story
was to the following effect.
" '
It was a fact well known to the ancient
church, although latterly lost sight of, that St.

Paul came to Britain shortly after his mission-
ary tour in Greece. After many adventures and
hairbreadth escapes by land and sea he landed
at Holy Isle, Northumberland. It was not
"
called Holy Isle" then, nor was by any it
means a holy place. The worked

fierce Picts
their cruel will in those old days, and they would
have slain Paul when he landed but for a strange
incident. The
governor of the isle
Pictish
ordered a soldier to slay Paul, and the man
essaying so to do, instantly fell down dead at the
Saint's feet, with his sword half-drawn from the
scabbard. The
miracle was witnessed by the
whole village, and deeply impressed the minds
of those wild people. But instead of profiting
by what they saw, and not knowing what was

for their great good, they besought him as the
brutish Gadarenes had besought the Lord Him-
selfto depart from their coasts. This Paul
promptly shaking the dust from his feet
did,
as a testimony against them. He then travelled
southward, preaching the Gospel as he had op-
portunity. After founding a church at Glaston-
bury, he continued his mission into Cornwall.
Joseph of Arimathea followed St. Paul some ten
years later, and coming to the Isle of Avalon,
"
where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,"
planted his thorn staff, commanding it to bloom

every Christmas-tide a pretty but useless
miracle, and Mylor Carcleu was careful to in-
form us that this story of the thorn staff can
only be a fable, because true disciples of our
Lord never performed useless miracles.
"
into Cornwall, Paul found the land
'
Coming
inhabited by a fine race of men, but they were
sorely oppressed, and held in the most degrading

bondage by a fraternity of powerful and fero-
cious giants. St. Paul, with his astute mind and
zealous heart, soon perceived that if he could,
2 3o MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
by the grace of God, convert these monsters of
cruelty, he would be able to induce the whole
land to accept Christianity.
"
Thinking thus deeply over the matter he
'
came to the great castle of the king of the giants.

Contrary to the modern belief, the giants did
not live independently of each other; in such
a case they would not have been nearly so
powerfully dangerous. Instead of each giant

being a law unto himself, and doing that which
was pleasant in his own eyes, every one of them
bore the most unquestioning allegiance to Maan-
hann, king of the whole tribe.
"
St. Paul learned all these facts as he ap-
'
proached Cornwall ;
so when he reached the
town where the king of the giants abode, he
made straight for his palace, a thing which com-
mon-sense people never did voluntarily; for of
those who entered few ever came forth again.
But Paul was one of the sort with un-common
sense, and that made all the difference. As he
"
crossed the threshold he said, Peace be to this
house," as he had been taught by his holy Mas-

ter to say when he entered any dwelling, high
or low. Paul said this in the language of the
giants, for he, like all the Apostles, had re-

ceived the gift of tongues. The King was so
utterly astonished hear a stranger speak

to
fluently the language which was peculiarly sacred

to the giants, that he treated Paul with much
respect, instead of ordering the royal cooks to

serve him up as a side dish at the family break-
fast next morning the usual fate of all strangers
who were unfortunate enough to find their way

to the palace.
"
'The Saint abode quietly with the King for
many days, entertained at the royal table, which

was an honour that had never been conceded to
any stranger before. Of course the table was
sumptuously supplied with sheep and oxen,

swine, and other things, which it is better not
to enumerate too precisely; together with tons
of bread, vegetables, and splendid brown pasties
a foot or so square of which the King was
very fond, nibbling half a dozen or so, just to
pass the time between the courses. But amid
all these tempting delicacies Paul confined him-
self to bread and water, making no remarks.
For he remembered what his Lord had said,
"Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth
a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth."
So he kept quiet and bided his time, as all wise
men do, and it came to pass in this wise.
"
King Maanhann had
'
several daughters,
fine looking ladies, not one less than ten feet in
height. But he had only one son, and he had
been born with a deformed body, but, strange
to say, a wonderfully astute mind. He was now
over twenty years of age, and had never been
able to walk. One day St. Paul saw this youth
lying on a sumptuous palanquin in the King's

garden, under the shade of a great apple tree,
attended by a bodyguard of four giants, who
stood at a little distance, silent and respectful.
" '
The King had often spoken to Paul about
this poor lad, his only son, saying that he
himself was advancing in years, and in the
nature of things must soon pass away, and leave
his kingdom poor creature, who was not
to this
only a sorrow but a disgrace, unable to walk,

and no bigger than a common hind of the
country.
" '
After this friendly confidence of the old
King, Paul took every opportunity to converse

with the young man upon the sacred subjects
that were dearest to his, Paul's, own heart. In
thisway he soon made a deep impression on the
poor young prince's mind.
" '
Saint Paul sympathized very sincerely both
with father and son in their great affliction.
Perhaps he felt most deeply for the poor old

King in his distress. He tried to comfort him

with the usual platitudes which have been in
common use since the world began, viz., that
things might have been much worse; that the
lad might have been an idiot as well as a
cripple; that he might, if he had been well
and strong, have rebelled against his father, as
Absalom did against his father, and was the
occasion of the most bitter and despairing cry
that was ever uttered by human lips.
"
This talk so interested the King that he
'
had Paul relate the whole story of David's life,

and from that to other things the poor old giant
became so deeply affected that he was ready to
say, as another King had said to Paul far away
in beautiful Jerusalem, "Almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian," Then Paul fired his
effective shot. If he had tried to do so before
he prepared the King and his son, they, and
"
all the giants would only have said, Wonderful
magic!" For you must know that all the land
of Cornwall was saturated with magic in those
days, and their wise men really did some won-

derful things, as Pharaoh's magicians did in the
days of Moses and Aaron. But one thing was

beyond their power, and has been beyond the
power of all magicians in all
ages and countries
This has been sternly with-
the gift of life\
held from Satan and his emissaries.
"
After some days of prayer and meditation,
'
Paul asked the King to assemble his chiefs and

nobles that they might learn who was the true
God, and that His power was omnipotent. The
King at once sent his heralds north, south, east,
and west, commanding all chiefs and nobles
who bore fealty to the King of Cornwall to
assemble at his palace at Truro, on the banks
all due haste and seemly
of the river Fal, with
dispatch. This mandate was promptly obeyed,

and in the course of a week or so chief after
chief, noble after noble, arrived with their guards
and attendants. When all were assembled, it
was a gay sight. Some of the very highest
nobles were provided for in the palace, but the
about under the splendid
great majority camped
oaks which those days covered that part of
in
the country. As the Chronicle says, it was a gay

and goodly sight when all these splendid men
were marshalled around the great old King;
each one of them easily capable of pulling a
hundred of the ordinary hinds of the country
over the line in a tug-of-war, a game all classes
were very fond of in those primitive days.
"
'When all were gathered together, Paul
stood forth in the midst and commanded the

attendants to bring the King's son, which they
did. The poor lad was pale with excitement,
but his eyes were glittering with hope; for
Paul had been instructing the young man in the
Gospel of our Lord, especially in the mysterious
"
promise, All things are possible to him that
believeth."
" '
There was a profound stillness as Paul took
the prince by the hand, and said in the giant's
own language, " In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, who
died upon the Cross for thee,
"
and for me, arise and walk And the lad leapt
!
to his feet with a strange, wild, glad cry, and

fell upon Paul's neck, weeping with such a great
joy as can only be expressed in tears.
"
Then the vast assembly fell upon their
'
knees, and would have done Paul reverence

and worship had he not sternly commanded
them to desist, and to worship Him who died
upon the Cross for all mankind. These poor
simple giants were so deeply impressed that,
instead of attributing the miracle to hypnotism
or will power (as an educated modern audience
would became converted at once, and
do), they
entreated Paul to baptize them then and there,
which he did with great joy.
" '
The old King became a very zealous Chris-
and completely changed his mode of life.
tian,
And, whereas he had been the most cruel and

bloodthirsty of all the kings in the world (and
that is saying a good deal), he became the most
gentle and kind. He took a great interest in,
and had a great reverence for, the Cross. He
prayed three times a day before a cross which
he and Paul erected in the courtyard of his
palace, and commanded all his household to do

likewise. Then
as a reminder to his subjects
all over the land of Cornwall, he caused to be
erected stone crosses in towns, villages, and
hamlets, and also at all cross-roads, many of
which, silent witnesses to King Maanhann's
pious zeal, remain to this day.'
"
Such was Mylor Carcleu's version of the
origin of the mysterious, silent, Cornish crosses,
and I don't know but that it is as good as any
other. Be may, his story so worked
that as it
upon our boyish feelings there were about a

dozen of us in his set that he induced most
of us to have a cross tattooed on the right arm
as an emblem of our faith.
" The was
process very simple. good stout A
needle, a steady hand, and a little blue ink,
were all that was necessary. The only incon-
venience was a week or two of a rather stiff
arm, which our good old master attributed to

a little too much indulgence in cricket.
"
Mylor Carcleu's pretty little story had just
sufficient romance about it to fascinate a lot of
imaginative lads, and we all became his devoted

followers. I think upon the whole that he did
us good. This I know, that at least half a dozen
of our set are now doing England's hard work
in various outlandish parts of the world, for the
good and glory of the Empire and to their

own high honour, if not to their bodily comfort.
"
This mark of the cross saved my life when
I was found by the Indians in the valley of
Araucaca, they holding the symbol sacred.
But, alas! how much better for me had I passed
in swoon, with the breath of
that delicious
flowers, like the odours of Paradise, soothing
my weary brain. I know now why I was spared.

The cup of Lawrence Percival's wickedness
was not yet full the day of his grace was not
yet past !
"
After six quiet years, during which my past
life had become like a faded dream, the terrible
longing of unrest came upon me, and I told my
good friend and host that I must submit to my
relentless fate. He, good man, argued with me,
pleaded with me, almost coerced me, but all to
no purpose. My destiny lay forward, and for-

ward I had to go. When Haseca fully realized
my state of mind he calmly acquiesced, and
began to prepare such things as I would re-
quire on my journey.
"
Of course I had been more or less curious,
during stay in the valley, to see the source

my
from whence all the vast amount of gold was
obtained. had sometimes approached my
I
friend Haseca on the subject, but he either
changed the conversation to some new topic,

or dropped into total silence. One day, how-
ever, when was
I more persistent than usual in
my inquiries, he sat down and solemnly told
me that their Teacher of the Cross had warned
them never to discover to any save members of
their own nation, or one who had proved him-
self absolutely loyal for many years, this won-
derful source of wealth. After this I refrained
from mentioning the subject, as I felt quite
sure that my friend would show me the mine,
if itwere possible, in due time. And this he
did after I had proved my loyalty to him and
his people for six long peaceful years." Mark
paused a little, thinking. Then he proceeded :
"
I would not tell even
you of this vast source
of wealth if I did not feel convinced that
though all the greedy gold-seekers in the world

hunted till doomsday they would never find
the passage to Araucaca.
"One morning, shortly before I left the valley,
Haseca, with two members of the Council and
six engineers, invited me to visit the mine
'
The Shadow of the Sun/ as it is poetically
called.
"
At
the foot of a lofty spur of the Andes on
the eastern side of the valley, we came to a
sheer wall of rock, which I
judged to be at
least a thousand feet in height, and with no
vestige of an entrance of any kind. friends My
requested me to examine the wall closely for
any sign of a door, but my search was fruitless
on that perfectly smooth surface. Taking me
back some twenty or thirty paces they blind-
folded me for
should say eight or ten minutes,
I
and then led me forward on what I knew by

the feeling was a smooth, level road. The band-
age being removed, and my eyes becoming
accustomed to the brilliant light of scores of
torches set in various parts of the vast cave, I
beheld the most gorgeous sight in the way of
gold that ever dazzled mortal eyes. For some
two hundred yards long and fifty wide there
extended a level floor of solid gold. The cave
was at twenty feet in height, and all
least
around, about ten feet above our heads, the

torches were arranged to light up the glitter-
ing expanse. The receptacles for torches were

placed so as to afford the most convenient light
to the people when they came to take gold from
the mine; which, I was once a year.
learned,
All who desired gold for any purpose came at
the appointed time with their tools and took
whatever quantity each might require. Gold,
being only an article of domestic use and
ornament, is never hoarded. In fact those
people have certain kinds of porcelain, much
more highly prized than cups of gold, such fine
pottery being more difficult to manufacture,
and so much more fragile, and therefore more
liable to loss, than articles made of gold.
"
As I said, torches were arranged in double
linesfrom end to end of the cave, and when
these were lighted the wide expanse shone
with a brilliance beyond all description. It was
not in the least like the usual gold mines
which were common enough in the palmy days
of California and Australia, where one could
see bits of the precious metal sticking in the
rock here and there. This was absolutely a
cave of pure gold, and nothing but gold! All

that the miner had to do was to cut out lumps
large or small, according as he intended to

melt it, or to manufacture some article from
the virgin ore.
"
As
walked through the wonderful cavern,
I
with the flaming torches high on either hand,

and the splendid metal glowing more gorgeously
than ever mad alchemist saw in his wildest
dreams, I was utterly dumbfounded with simple
childish wonder and delight. No passion of
avarice crossed my mind. I never cared much
for money at any time of my life. But the
splendour of all this vast undeveloped wealth
was so far beyond all I had ever seen or heard
of, that it made my nerves tingle, and dazzled
my very soul with the glory of it.
"I asked my friends if they had never touched
the rock in their excavating. They smiled,
knowing that I referred to the possibility of

exhausting the gold. They then showed me
several door-like slabs of solid gold in various
parts of the cave, which, when removed, dis-

closed narrow tunnels many hundreds of feet
deep. Some of these were cut on a perfect

level, some at an angle of forty-five degrees
upwards, others on the same incline down-

wards. These tunnels had been made for the
purpose of testing the depth of gold, but the

limit of the metal had not yet been reached!
The mine had been worked, according to
written records, for more than two thousand

years. And if it were worked at the same rate
as hitherto, it would take ten thousand years,

excavating evenly all round the cave, to reach
the end of these tunnels. Of course how far
the gold extends beyond the limit of the tunnels
is a matter for future investigation. I was told
that it is in contemplation to line the building
which is devoted to the safe keeping of the re-
cords of the nation with plates of pure gold, for

the sake of light and cheerfulness. If this were
done, my friends said itwould only take two
feet from the mine all round, which of course
would be a mere bagatelle.
"
Upon remarking how perfectly pure the air
of the cave was told that perfect ventila-
felt, I
tion was obtained by means of a narrow shaft, cut

in the form of a staircase from the roof of the
cave open face of the cliff, which rises
to the
sheer and solid for more than a thousand feet

over the door of the cavern. The shaft is about
five hundred feet in length; more than half of
this distance is through solid gold, then the
gold abruptly ceases, and the remainder of the

staircase is cut
through peculiarly beautiful
formation, which, the engineers told me, must
have been flowing lava in the far past when
South America from end to end was an awful
mass of raging volcanoes.
"As I while ago, when my friend
said a little
Haseca became fully convinced that I must

leave the valley, he thoughtfully provided such
things as he knew I would require on my jour-

ney. He offered me as much gold as I liked to
take, but gold being too heavy to carry in addi-

tion to the food, gun, and clothing which were
actually indispensable, Haseca suggested that

I should take some diamonds, as he had heard
me say that these stones were highly prized by
the strange, and as he thought, foolish peoples,
of whom I had often spoken to him. This
struck me as a clever idea ;
not in the least from
a mercenary feeling, for I never had a bit of
that, but I realized the fact that when I came
among civilized people God save the mark ! I
should probably starve if I had not the where-

withal to pay for my crust of bread. When
Haseca found that I
approved of his kind offer
he was highly delighted, like a child when you

earnestly enter into some pretty romance of the
vast wealth of a pile of bits of broken delf. He
would fain have loaded me with stones enough
to buy out the Bank of England; but half a
dozen, about the size of hazel-nuts, I knew would
provide for all my requirements. I
subsequently
sold these stones to a Jew Valparaiso for
in
forty thousand pounds, and I have no doubt he

doubled his money when he sold them in Europe.
Of a good deal of risk in cutting
course there is
large diamonds, they may splinter, as I think

lapidaries call it.
"
When I had made all my arrangements I
took a sad farewell of my friends. They are not

a demonstrative people, but even they were
deeply affected, and I must say that it was one

of the hardest partings I ever experienced.
"
My host and three of the chroniclers accom-
panied me to the entrance of the underground
passage, by which I had entered the valley.
Here they pitched tents, and we rested a couple
of days. My friends calmly assured me that they
would expect me to return within a year, and
finally cast in my lot with them. Then they

told me the astonishing fact that shortly after
my arrival in the valley, their most skilful en-
gineers had made a careful examination of the
passage by which I had come, and found that

the entrance to the tunnel was five hundred feet

lower than the outlet in the valley, so that water
would flow freely from the valley outward.
Upon this the engineers advised, as a precau-
tionary measure for the future, to turn the

water of the river Karimak, which flows near
by, into the tunnel. The
perpetual rush of
such a volume of water would render invasion
impossible. To my utter amazement the en-
gineers showed me that all the rock cutting for
work was already completed; there
this great
only remained some twenty feet of compara-

tively soft rock cutting to allow the mighty
force of water to rush into the cave. The river
had been tapped at a point some five hundred
feet above the entrance to the tunnel, for the
purpose of obtaining a great force of water, and

also to follow a line of solid rock-bed through
which to cut the water-lead, a most important
consideration in a permanent water-way. The
work was and it was simply
beautifully finished,
marvellous to see such splendid work done with
the primitive tools and crude engineering in-
struments, water-levels, etc., which this people
possessed. The engineers estimated that one-
third of the river would be sufficient to keep
the tunnel full, after the whole of the lateral
caves had been thoroughly flooded. This they
calculated to do with the full force of the Kari-
mak in two or three months from the time of
turning in the water. When the intricacies of
the tunnel were all filled, and only the narrow-
est passages were receiving and discharging
water (which state would be indicated by the
water at the mouth of the tunnel banking up)
the supply would be regulated by a cleverly
arranged system of gates, which were already

builtand in position.
"
had been nearly seven years in Araucaca
I
and yet in all that time I had not known that

this giga/itic work was in progress. The im-
mense labour and skill required to bring such a
vast volume of water upwards of ten miles
through solid rock, and in many parts along the

face of precipices, which made one giddy to look
at, was astounding. And yet, to my certain
knowledge, the ordinary everyday work and

recreation of the nation had not been disturbed
in the slightest degree. So wisely was every
detail ofgovernment arranged if one may use
such a phrase where no governor, king, or pre-
sident exists that not one soul felt the pressure
of extra labour or the slightest curtailment ot
his leisure.
"
My showing me the whole
friends, after
work, explained that it had been completed two
years previously, but they delayed turning on
the water until such time as I
proved that I had
identified myself with them by taking a wife
and having a house built; in short, assuming
the responsibilities and privileges of citizen-
ship. None of these things I had done. And,

although the advantages of becoming a citizen
had been explained to me with the most patient
care, yet with infinite delicacy and tact, these
wise people refrained from urging me in the
my will. It was certainly not for

least against
want of mutual liking that I did not cast in my

lot with them and forget the outside world
and all the weary past. That they trusted

and liked me I had many proofs, and that
I was deeply attached to them my heart knew
full well. But the fever of unrest, clouding
common sense, urged me irresistibly to my
destiny, and here I am! But," continued
"
my poor friend, I must finish
my story, and
can make what like of it after I am
you you
gone. One thing I am not afraid of, which is,
that by no possibility could all the engineers in
the world discover Araucaca. The sentinel peaks
of the fierce Cordilleras will guard that happy
land from the invasion of a false civilization
with curse of the lust of gold. As for ap-
its
proach by the tunnel even if men could dis-

cover what they cannot which among many
rivers is the one from Araucaca, all their puny
strength and skill could never penetrate against
that strong, fierce flood. And, if by some
miracle they did, thousands of brave, strong
men would crush them like half-drowned rats in
a trap, ere their blinded eyes could perceive the
loveliness of that glorious land.
"
parted from my good friends with many
I
sorrowful farewells. They, kind souls, would

fain have loaded me with
wealth beyond a king's
ransom, but I contented myself with Haseca's
six diamonds, which I knew would provide me
with all the money I would ever require. I
carried sufficient concentrated food to serve me

in the tunnel. I reckoned that with my know-
ledge of the passage, and the much finer tapers
made from the wax-palm with which I was
now provided, that should get through in con-
I
siderably less time than before.

" As a last mark of affection and trust
they
pledged their sacred word not to turn in the
river for year and a day, in case I
one full
should weary of the other life, and decide to re-

turn and cast in my lot with them. Loving

souls and true! I
pray that the good God will
preserve them from all evil contact, and con-

tinue them in their wise simplicity, until He, in
His own good time, shall end men's confusion
*****
and madness, and bring order and peace out of
all earth's chaos and misery.
"
I will pass over my hard, wearisome journey
towards the coast. It took me three months to
reach the northern shores of lake Titicaca,
situated near the southern boundary of Peru.
It is said to occupy the most elevated position
of any lake of like extent in the world nearly

thirteen thousand feet above sea level. I came
upon it in the full blaze of the noonday sun,
and as I looked on its strangely opaque waters,
with its peculiar coast-line and islands, I thought
Titicaca one of the most picturesque sheets of
water I had ever beheld. However, I did not
lingerby the way I was eagerly longing to
;
behold once more the great Pacific, and refresh

my lungs with its
life-giving ozone.
"
pushed on to the coast and boarded an
I
English coasting steamer at Arica, bound south

for Valparaiso. had not a dollar in coin, but
I
I had my diamonds safely sewed up in my

25o MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
poncho, which by the way was about the only
article of clothing I had left. It was made of
the very best Vacuna wool, spun and woven by
my friends in Araucaca, and was a very hand-

some article indeed.
"The steamer people looked at me rather
dubiously, and I was not surprised they did, for

I was by means an attractive object. But I put
a bold face on, and as politely as I knew how
(I found it hard to get the right words after my
long disuse of our tough language) told the

captain that I was a British subject, that I had
been exploring South America, that I could
in
raise funds in Valparaiso, and that I would pay

my passage when I got there. The old skipper
looked me all over, no doubt thinking me a
rara avis, even on that coast of many derelicts.
But forlorn condition touching the tender
my
spot that is in all British sailors' hearts, if you
can only find it, he shook his head, and said:
'
Maybe I'm an old fool, but let him pass, pur-

ser ;
the beggar may be telling the truth, though
I very much doubt it.' It was only a deck
passage I craved, so it was not much that the
kind-hearted old captain risked, but his trust
raised a little warm glow my cold, lonely heart
in
which was most refreshing. And when I paid

him passage in Valparaiso, and begged him

my
to accept a box of the best cigars I could find
in town, I think we both felt a renewed hope
for the final elevation of human nature in some
dim and distant future.
"
As I said, it was only a deck passage I asked,
so when the captain and purser let me pass, I
selected my narrow bit of deck room, and lay
down with a stout old garrulous lady on one
side, and a bandit-looking chap on the
fierce,
other. I
passed strange night with that laugh-
a
ing, merry, careless crowd; their singing and

ceaseless talk making my nerves tingle with a
strange excitement after my many months of

utter loneliness and
silence. have always
I
found the poor kind in their rude way to the

poor, and on board the steamer 'Arequipa' I
found them true to their usual character. They
freely shared their by no means abundant
supplies of food and drink with me, from whom,
to judge by my appearance, they could hope for
no return save thanks.
" I was a queer-looking customer as I walked
into the British Consul's office on a fine sunny
January morning in the year 189-. I had nego-

tiated with a sailor on the steamer for a passable
cap and a pair of duck trousers, paying him, as

I had paid the captain, with a promise. I knew
the kind-hearted chap never expected to see a
penny of my money, and it was a great satis-

faction to think that I would soon have a bank
account, and be able to draw real cheques. But
that was yet in the future. At the moment I
looked and even felta most disreputable char-

acter, and it was a curious and by no means a
pleasant sensation.
"
The person I encountered as I entered
first
the office was a smart looking, properly groomed
young fellow, with that peculiarly slow yet per-

fectly manner which all the British
polite
government breed possess. Whether they are
born so and selected on that account, or whether
they are caught in a wild state, and licked into
shape afterwards, I have never found out it is
one of the things which the Service keeps a
profound secret. But whether bred in the bone
or acquired, there wherever the old Flag
it is
flies. This characteristic, moreover, combined

with absolute honesty, is the reason why our
diplomacy is, as a rule, successful both with civi-
lized and savage peoples ;
markedly so with the
latter, for your simple, unsophisticated savage
is swift to know and appreciate when he is
treated fairly and politely.
"
I rather astonished this budding
fancy that I
ambassador to his august Majesty the Emperor

of Germany, or the Czar of Russia, as the case
may happen to be hereafter, by coolly asking

to see the chief himself; but the youngster was
game, never turned a hair, and calmly invited me

to take a seat while he inquired if the chief was
disengaged. In a little while I was conducted

into the presence of the Consul himself, who
greeted me even sympathetically, no

kindly,
doubt thinking that I was a specimen of the
flotsam and jetsam of the 'lost' gentlemen tribe
who are frequently cast up by the Pacific on to
the South American coast. I soon disabused
his mind of the idea that I was one of the
worthless, distressed British subject sort, seek-
ing help, by showing him my splendid collection
of diamonds, and asking his advice as to the
best way of turning them into dollars. His
opinion of me evidently changed, but I fear
rather less favourably. However, like his hand-
some, young subordinate, he held himself to-
gether bravely.
"
He
examined the diamonds carefully, and
naturally asked where I had found such a splen-
did lot of stones. To this I
simply replied that
I was under a promise not to reveal the locality.
I feel sure that it required all his admirable
command of voice, eye, and muscle to maintain

his calm politeness. Nevertheless he did, and
recommended me to two dealers in diamonds
one, a handsome old Polish Jew; the other, a
little Frenchman, of no particular religion, un-
less a belief in the sacredness of money could be
called such.
"At first I was well aware that both these
gentlemen thought I had stolen the stones, and

shrewdly concluded that I did not know their
value in which latter supposition, of course,
they were quite right; but they erred in sup-

posing that I was so anxious to sell that I would
do so for a mere In this their wily, clever
trifle.
souls were quite at fault, and made a grievous
mistake, as clever souls so often do, just by

being a little If they had offered me
too clever.
at first half of what they gave me at last I
would, in my ignorance, have jumped at the
offer. And I have no doubt that the knowledge
of this fact, which I carefully explained to them

at the conclusion of the final sale, must have
torn their shrewd souls with wild sorrow and
regret.
"
I was able, by depositing the diamonds at the
Bank of Chili, to show my diamond buyers that
I was in no hurry to sell, and also to raise what

money I
required for present needs. The first
thing I did was to get myself a good outfit of
all necessaries, and many luxuries, besides taking
comfortable rooms at the Hotel Valparaiso.
"
It was a very curious experience, and if I
were a philosopher, I could give you an instruc-

tive lecture on the versatile nature of man ;
how quite extraneous circumstances elevate

or debase him, make him beautiful or ugly,
lovable or hateful to his fellow creatures, alto-
gether independently of any inward qualifica-

tion of mind, soul, or body. In my lecture I
would strongly insist upon the fact thatwhat
we call civilization, with all its buying and
selling, gettingand spending, etc., etc., does
not tend to the growth of the soul, but rather
to the dwarfing of that important part of man's
complex nature.
"After awhileaccepted the Jew's offer ot
I
forty thousand pounds for the stones. Of course

he and the Frenchman were in league, as the
latter would not bid at all, and I have no doubt

the pair doubled their money on the transac-
tion. But it is still a mild satisfaction to me
whenever think of those two weeping and
I
gnashing their teeth, while reflecting on the

bargain they missed for themselves by trying a
little too persistently to swindle me.
"
With my money in hand I cast about for a
long time what I should do next. I thought of
England, but the idea of home, with all its
memories, had become hateful to me. I knew

that my heart was broken, as they say, and it
mattered little where I went yet I could not ;
go home, I felt that course was out of the ques-

I was
tion. strongly tempted for many days to
send my money to those I loved in dear old
Devon, return to my friends in Araucaca, cast
in my final lot with them, and obliterate, as far
as possible, my past life from memory. Look-
ing back at from a common-sense point of
it
view, I think this would have been the most

sensible thing to do; but was not to it be, and
it was prevented by a mere trifle. No! that 's a
mistake, there are no trifles in this life."
CHAPTER V
"
ONE day I was strolling by the water-side, and
I
happened to notice a smart-looking schooner
yacht lying in dock, with a ticket in her main-
rigging announcing that she was for sale. I
have always had a weakness for smart-looking
topsail schooners, so I at once crossed the gang-
plank, and saluting the old sailor in charge,
began inspecting the pretty little craft. As I
say, I have always had a weakness for topsail
schooners, although they are not so easily

handled as fore-and-afters, do not claw nearly
so fast to windward, and have the serious dis-
advantage of requiring men to go aloft to stow

'
the flying-kites,' while your fore-and-after can
be comfortably worked from deck. But in spite
of all love a topsail schooner, and so I
that I
began with much interest to inspect the White

'
I found her
Cloud.' registered measurement
was one hundred and thirty tons. She had been
built for a yacht, and everything about her,
from the keelson to the trucks of her raking
spars, had been put in regardless of expense,
and of the very finest materials. The saloon
was amidships, with four state-rooms, all well-
lighted and sumptuously furnished. The boom
of her small foresail was so arranged that it
swung clear of the awning, thus leaving the
midship deck free from any disturbance in tack-
ing or jibbing, and making it a most comfort-

able lounge or sleeping-place in hot weather.
"
I found that the White Cloud,' like many
'
s
other things in this world, had a sad history.
Her owner, Lord Compton, had been cruising
in the far North for a year or two, and at
Victoria he had decided to send the yacht south
by the usual route, viz., a bit to windward of

the Sandwich Islands, then hauling up to the
eastward after crossing the line, but taking care
to avoid the calm seas near the coast, to strike
the westerly winds anywhere south of thirty
degrees, and so run into Valparaiso.

"
Lord Compton and his wife they had just
been married started south by steamer, land-
ing here and there as the fancy took them,
intending finally to rejoin the yacht in Valpa-
raiso.This was a good programme, as steam is
an imperative necessity on the windless coasts
of Ecuador and Peru. But, alas, the programme
was never to be fulfilled. At Panama Lord
Compton left his wife, and ran across to Colon
to have a look at that '
wild-cat scheme/ the
Panama Canal, in which he had some shares.
That trip cost him his life, as it had cost many
a poor fellow before him. Fever was particu-
larly bad just then at that miserable hole of a

place, Colon. Lord Compton was smitten with
the fell disease, and died in three days. His
poor wife took her sorrowful way home, send-
ing word to the Consul at Valparaiso to sell the

yacht at once and settle any accounts which
might have accrued. That was the sad little
story, but I don't suppose that one man among

the dozens who
inspected the pretty little craft
that day, I among the rest, gave a passing
thought to the dead man and broken-hearted

woman, who had so lately laughed and sang
their love songs, 'as we sailed, as we sailed.'
I said a little while ago apparent

change trifles
our lives. On Monday

was planning to return
I
to Araucaca; on Tuesday, at one p.m., I was

owner of the White Cloud/ arranging for a
'
cruise which was to complete the tragedy of two
lives, as far as this world is concerned, little as

I dreamed it then.
"
paid three thousand four hundred and
I
forty pounds for the yacht, and I think she was

cheap, considering what a really fine craft she
was, and also that she was fitted out with
every requisite for a long cruise, having been
thoroughly overhauled before leaving Victoria
rope, gear of every kind, two extra suits of
extra anchors, spare spars, etc., etc. All I
sails,
had to do was to have her docked, repainted,

and provisioned for a long trip and last of all;
to decide where that trip was to be. After

some cogitation I decided to make the best of
my way to Tahiti, then to the Marquesas

Islands (one of the most beautiful archipelagos
in the world), and afterwards slowly work
my way north-west to Japan. That was my

little programme, but you see," said my poor
"
friend, where I am now and
! I know very
well that my course was marked out for me
before ever I laid compasses on the schooner's
handsome charts.
"
I found the Captain and crew a quiet lot of
men. When bought the yacht they came to
I
me in a body, asking to be taken over with the

schooner. I
engaged them at once, thinking
this a proof of steady character in the men, and
a strong recommendation of the good qualities
of the White Cloud,' for deep-sea sailors are,
'
as a rule, rather shy of small craft.

"
Everything being ready, I said good-bye to
my many 'fair-weather friends' of the beautiful
city of Valparaiso, and squared away with the

land breeze on the early morning of May 2ist,
189-.
"
The breeze carried us clear of the coast,
and then we caught a nice southerly wind
which carried us to Juan Fernandez in forty- '
eight hours; that dot of land where Alexander

Selkirk spent his five lonely, but by no means

unprofitable years.
"
say by no means unprofitable years, for we
I
must conclude from the record of his quiet after

life, in contrast to his rather stormy career before
these five dreamy years, that the time of lonely
communing with his God was decidedly bene-

ficial to the soul of the silent Scotch sailor who
sleeps at last amid his kindred at Largs, after
all wanderings and strange adventures. As
his
long as the charm of romance remains in this

work-a-day world, Alexander Selkirk will have
the undying fame of being the hero of the most
fascinating story of adventure ever penned. But

I
may remark, en passant, that it was strange,
and certainly a literary error of Defoe, to ship-
wreck Robinson Crusoe on a mythical island
near the coast of Brazil, when he had this
beautiful isle ready made to his hand, with the
immense advantage of being the real abode of
his hero. Of course Defoe was too good a
geographer not to know what he was about.
The only solution is that his versatile mind was
so imbued with stones of Turkish, Moorish,
and Algerine rovers, who were the terror of
the Mediterranean and African coasts in Defoe's
days, that he started Crusoe on those seas.

2 62 MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
Having commenced his story on the Atlantic
Ocean, he did not see clearly how to transfer
the scene to the Pacific. But it was certainly a
pity, for it
goes a long way towards
giving the
charm and fascination to such a chronicle as
'
'
Robinson Crusoe to lay one's hand figura-
tively, or rather in reality, upon the precise

island and say, Here is the exact spot where
'
these events took place! Here is the beach

where poor Crusoe was cast by the cruel sea,
all his companions gone! Here is the very cave
where he built his fort and abode for more than

twenty years, without once looking upon a
human face, or hearing a human voice!' Such
at least were my feelings as I dreamed away
the calm, sunny autumn days on the shores of
Juan Fernandez.
" We came to an anchor near to the spot
where Selkirk had his abode. Here we spent a
splendid week of fishing, shooting, and general

exploration. At least, my captain and crew did.
As for myself,
I
passed most of my time read-
ing; Ihad been so long deprived of books that
I fell ravenously upon the well-selected library
which I bought with the schooner. But I fear

that I also spent too much time in moody re-
miniscences, which habit of mind had, much to
my discomfort, grown upon me since I had

come among my own countrymen again.
" After a week of this do Ice
far niente life, I
ordered all hands on board, weighed anchor,

and shaped a course for Tahiti.
"We had a favourable slant of southerly wind
which carried us north, and after some days of
rather wearisome calms and baffling, light airs,
we struck fine strong trades in latitude 18
south. After that we had nothing to do but
take the sun, cast up our reckoning, eat our
grub, and trim sails the least bit in the world,

as the trades veered a degree or two north or
south.
" That run of three thousand
miles, more or
less, which occupied a little under three weeks,
was the nearest approach to peace of mind (the
meaning of the word happiness had faded from
my brain) since since since you and I
parted,"
"
said poor Wynyard, in a low voice. You see,"
"
he continued, after a pause, nothing really bad
can happen at sea, no letters, no telegrams, no
'
friends coming to say they are so sorry,' etc.,
etc. Nothing in sight save the grand old ever-
changing, yet changeless sea, which carries you
whithersoever you would, with gentle, loving
arms, murmuring soft and low, like a lover, or,
with a sweep of resistless power, putting you to
sleep for ever, without the agony of pain, or the
lingering wearisomeness of slow disease. Would
to God I had gone down as I nearly did in
those beautiful coral seas! Many and many a time

I
thought how blessed it would be to slide down
down through its glittering depths, and be at
rest for ever in its sapphire caves. But I did

not know though I dimly guessed that my
destiny was yet unfulfilled, and, until that was
accomplished, there could be no permanent rest
for me.
"
As I said, we were running down our west-
ing on the 1 8 of south latitude, and had nothing

to fear until we approached 140 of west longi-
tude, which would bring us within range of the

Paumotu, or Low Archipelago, a very danger-
ous group, on account of being so low that they
are undiscernible until the long line of surf ap-
pears on the reef, backed by the sombre cocoa- nut

palms fringing the white, sandy beaches which
encircle the lagoons. These lagoons, with their
narrow entrances, are ticklish places to get into,
but very safe and commodious anchorages when
you manage to get in. The Paumotu group
of islands extend some four hundred miles in
a general direction north-west and south-east.
They are under the French, and are utterly

worthless, excepting two products, viz.,
for
copra (dried cocoa-nut), and the pearl oyster.

Perhaps I may add to these beche de mer and
sharks' but pearl-fishing is the great lure
fins,
which has enticed 'all sorts and conditions of

men,' to these lonely sand-dunes.
"
It is very curious and instructive to study
how coral islands are formed. First of all the

industrious little coral polype sets to work on
some good foundation (wise little architect,
'which built his house upon a rock') and he
builds steadily, though slowly, to the surface of
the ocean. It is no matter to this builder how
long takes him to complete his work, a few

it
hundreds of years more or less never disturb

his well-balanced mind. He knows he will get
there in due season, with the satisfaction of
having completed a work that will last to the
crack of doom. The fierce sea, '

which no man
can tame,' slowly wash away the muddy
may
foundations of a continent, but all the wild force
of ten thousand miles of ocean, leaping and
tearing at a little coral atoll a few hundreds
of yards in extent, cannot budge its foundations
an inch. Once at the surface of the sea, the
polypes task is finished; another arrangement
in the great economy of Nature comes into
action. The flotsam and jetsam of the tropic
seas drift on the coral reefs among other
things, the nuts of the cocoa-nut palms, the most
useful tree, in its own way, in the world, for it
yields food, drink, clothing, and many more

necessitiesand luxuries to the happy denizens of
the sunny South Sea Isles. The tenacious and
rapid-growing cocoa-nut palms soon transform

into habitable islands what would otherwise
remain desolate invisible death-traps, sending
gallant ships to sudden doom when sailing un-
suspectingly over those summer seas.
"
Before reaching Tahiti, I determined to call
at one of the Paumotus, Taupara, lying 17.25

south. I took a fancy to see it for no other
reason than that my captain, William Pasco,
had been pearl-fishing there, many years before,
in a Sydney schooner. His descriptions of the
wonderful diving feats of the islanders, and the

vast wealth of pearls sometimes obtained, rather
whetted my curiosity.
"On our nineteenth day from J uan Fernandez,
we changed our course half a point north to
west-north-west-half-west. We calculated that
we would sight Taupara in less than
a little
four days if the trades held on, but the winds

are always more or less uncertain as you ap-
proach the islands.

" we changed our course, th
On the very day
glass began to fall, and the weather to look

'
the sailors say.
dirty,' as However, we
did not
think much about it, as the season of Equinoctial
gales was past, and hurricanes are practically

unknown in the Pacific so far to the eastward.
Next day it was blowing half a gale of wind,
and we were bowling along under close-reefed
fore-topsail and everything else
fore-staysail,
made fast and snug. We
got the sun all right
that day, and little we thought that it was the
last time some of us would ever see it. Our
reckoning made us six hundred and forty miles

from Taupara. If the stiff breeze held, and all
went well, we calculated to make the island in
about seventy hours.
"The glass kept falling steadily until it stood
obstinately at 27.40 a disagreeably low mark
in those latitudes. The weather held on about
the same for the next twenty-four hours; then
the atmosphere assumed a strange, dull crimson,
yellowish hue, as if, just beyond the limited

range of our vision, all the world was on fire
There were no lights or shadows of flying mist,
or rushing cloud-wrack, as in ordinary storms.
Only the sea showed any motion, the great
waves thundering and hissing, as the fierce
wind swept off their curling crests, sending the
spray flying over our mast heads. Not for a
moment did a star appear, or a streak of moon-
light, although itwas full moon. It was hard
to realize that, only two nights previously, we
had all lounged about the deck half the night,
loath to turn in and miss the splendour of the
moonlit ocean, an ocean which shone like the
vision of some enraptured seer of eld, dreaming,
'
in the weary desert, of the sea of pure glass.'
" On
the second day of this queer weather
it was
blowing a living gale of wind, and the
glass had again dropped two-tenths. I remem-
ber the date distinctly, June 25th, for it is
my
birthday, and in spite of all difficulties my poor
steward had made a huge plum-duff in honour
of the event; and it makes me smile yet when
I remember not only the difficulty the steward
had in making it but the difficulty we had in
eating it, as we held on to any secure thing we
could find,while the steward dexterously handed
round flaming morsels of the viand.
"We had taken in every stitch of canvas ex-
cepting the double-reefed fore-topsail, and we
would fain have taken in that also, but we had
made the mistake which is sometimes made

by the best sailors of carrying it too long, and
the smartest man in the ship could not venture
on If we let go the
to the yard to furl the sail.
halyards and simply brailed up the sail, it was

certain to shake the yard to bits, and very likely
take the topmast with it. While the skipper
and the mate (a fine old sea-dog of a fellow,
who never conversed, in the ordinary sense of
the term, only made himself understood by a
few short growls) were considering the advis-
ability of sending four men aloft, to run their
knives along the bolt-ropes, and trust to the
sail tearing itself free without further damage,
just then, what we had feared happened; the

sail split, with a report like a small cannon, and
in a moment the yard hung in a tangle of gear,
the sail, fortunately, whipping itself into ribbons.
Before even an order could be given, two brave

fellows sprang into the rigging, and at the
imminent risk of their lives secured the two
pieces of the broken yard to the mast, so that
they would do no further damage.
"We would now have liked to do what we
ought to have done sooner, heave to. But we
dared not try it with the top hamper on the
foremast, for, although the sail was gone, yet
2 yo MARK WYNYARD'S STORY
the wrecked yard, with its tangle of bolt-ropes,
which of course had not gone with the sail,
besides the lines the men had used to make the
yard secure, caught too much wind to permit us
attempting rounding to, in such a mountainous

sea-way, with any prospect of success. If we
had brought the little craft broadside on to
the hurricane force of wind and sea, she would
have turned over like a child's toy.
"
There was nothing for it but to scud under
bare poles, and trust to out-running the gale, or,
by a lucky chance, passing the island, and get-
ting on the lee side, in which case we would
run into smooth water in a moment. But in the
other case! Well! only one man in a thousand
can pitch on to a coral reef in a gale like a
hurricane and live!
"
That night we changed our course half a
point south in hopes of passing the south-east
end of Taupara without hitting some nasty little
dots of islands which lay thirty or forty miles
south. After midnight the glass began to rise a
bit, and, as all old seamen know, you are then
very apt to get the worst of it. It is as if the
storm-fiend knew that his revels were nearly
over, and was determined to make the most of
his time.
"
26th the sea was simply
By daylight on the
a dull mass of flying spume. If one looked to
windward for a moment, one's face smarted as
ifpelted with salt and water from a powerful
hose-pipe; we found, after a bit, that it was
coral-sand that was flying in the salt spray.
This was now the third day since we found our
exact position by the sun, but by the ordinary
log-line (our patent log had gone out of order,

as patent things have a way of doing), we were
in the vicinity of Taupara. As I say, we had
no chance of taking sights during the last three

days, but having kept strict dead reckoning, we
knew that we were close to the island, but
whether north, south, or square on, it was im-
possible to tell, owing to the arbitrary nature
of the currents among all the island groups in
the Pacific.
"
By the sand in the flying foam we knew that
we were getting into shallow water, and that
safety or death was near at hand. The captain,
mate, and I held a consultation, and decided
that in case we found ourselves running on the
weather side of the island, our only chance
would be to beach the schooner, as it would be
madness to attempt to claw off the land in the
teeth of such a gale.
"In the smother of spray
it was
impossible
was hardly worth
to see fifty yards ahead, so it
while to keep a look-out but discipline was;
never relaxed, and there was always a man

forward to report whatever he saw. At eight
bells noon, afew minutes after the watch was
changed, the end came. I remember it most
vividly,and by no means unpleasantly! It was
something like putting one's horse at a stiff
fence in the hunting-field, not knowing what is
on the other side, or the mad joy of rushing into
battle. At such moments, action leaves no time
for reflection, let alone fear.
"
The and I were
skipper standing by the
companion-way, holding on to a rope which
had been run across from rail to rail, as some-
thing secure to hold on to, if one fetched way
while the poor little craft was leaping and
shivering like a mad thing in the cruel storm.

"
Of course the final catastrophe happened
(as all such things happen) in less time than one
takes to saw the look-out man turn
tell it. I
his face for a moment

aft, holding on to the
fore-stay with one hand, and pointing with

the other, and I knew that he was shouting
'
1
Breakers ahead but no sound reached our
!
ears, save the howling of the tempest. The

captain sprang to the wheel, although there

were two men there already, but I knew that
he feared they might, in this supreme moment,
bring the schooner to the wind, while our only
hope was to let her go landward as far as pos-
sible, so long as she held together.
"
There was a sort of pause of everything for
the space of time one might count five. The
'
'
White Cloud seemed to crouch low and lie
still, she springs. An

like a tiger just before
awful mountain of water, towering over our
taffrail like a wall, and just curling to break on
the reef, actually sheltered us for a few seconds

from the tearing wind. In those brief moments
I saw the brave fellows wheel grasping
at the
the spokes with hands as firm, and watching
the schooner with eyes as steady, as though
they were running into Plymouth Sound, in-

stead of plunging on to a coral reef which would
crush our fragile craft like an egg-shell!
"
That was the last I saw of my ship-mates.
Then the mountain of water was upon us! The
littleschooner leapt forward, shuddering like a
living creature in mortal agony, and I remember
no more of the passing of my beautiful White '
'
Cloud and sixteen brave men!"

CHAPTER VI
"
I AWOKE
lying on a native mat, with the sound
of cocoa-nut fronds swaying and whispering in
their peculiar way, and the far-off moaning of
the surf, rising and falling with the ceaseless,
sad monotone that surf always has in the
tropics.
"
I was bruised and battered, and for some
days so confused in mind, that I could do no-
thing but vaguely conjecture what had hap-

pened. The natives treated me kindly, giving
me a little food, and delicious cocoa-nut milk, as
I could take it, and gently massaging my body
'
'
Lomi-lomi the universal mode of allevi-
ating pain in the Pacific.

"
The soft trade wind crept through the
cocoa-nut groves, laden with the breath of flowers
and the ozone of warm southern seas, soothing
with its tender touch my
half-conscious body,
and bringing that blessed sense of rest and
peace which only those know who have passed
through some great crisis of life and death.
"In the course of a week I was so far restored
that I could move my body a little, -and my
mind was quite clear. I learned from the owner
of the hut the man who had picked me up on
the beach that at he thought I was dead
first
like all my ship-mates but some faint signs

of had induced him to examine me closely,
life
and finding that I was yet alive, he carried me

to his hut, and slowly restored me to conscious-
ness. The others were all dead, and it was a
miracle how Ireached land with a spark of life.
'
Of the '
White Cloud only shreds and frag-
ments remained, scattered for miles along the
beach. The natives told me that if we had
only been two miles further south, we would
have cleared the reef, and run into smooth
water !
"One morning after I was beginning to regain

my strength a bit, I saw a white man approach-
ing my friend's hut. He walked with a strangely
my weak bodily
familiar gait, and, in spite of
condition, my soul grew fierce and strong, as

I saw before me, in his careless grace and
strength, Lawrence Percival! He was a little
older looking, but debonair and handsome as
of old.
"
The moment I
recognized him I knew why
I was there, and my wits went quickly to work !
He little dreamt who lay before him, as he sat

down and saluted, in the careless manner white
men acquire in the unconventional island life.
'
Shipwrecked, comrade ? said he.

' '
I
only re-
turned to my place here yesterday. I have
been absent for more than a month, fifty miles
to the north, collecting pearl-shell. If I had
heard of your misfortune sooner, I should have
had you removed to my place, where I could
have offered you a few more comforts than you
have had here. However, I am glad to see that
old Kapuna has pulled you through wonder-
fully well. But, after all, white men require the
society of white men, no matter how kind the

brown creatures may be. As our poet shrewdly
says
is East, and West is West,
'
For East
And never the twain shall meet
'Till earth and sky stand presently,
At God's great Judgement Seat.'
So go now and send some of

'
I will my fellows
over with an odd, but really comfortable palan-
quin, which I sometimes use when I get extra
lazy in this delightful, but enervating climate.
Yes! that's the best plan, and my little island
wife,Kalani, will be delighted to have another
white man under her charge, for she has a
perfect mania for nursing sick people, good little
soul that she is.' Thus he rattled on in his old
easy, pleasant way, while a mad wave of passion

took possession of my soul. But I remained
perfectly calm and self-possessed, knowing well
that Lawrence Percival's hour had come, and
that I was the instrument, in God's hands, to
fulfil His most righteous and just behest! I
knew then, as I know now, that I had been

brought to that particular, out-of-the-way spot
of earth, for the purpose of fulfilling the task
which had been given me to do. There was
no question of wreaking revenge, that had
never entered my mind. In fact, I had fer-
vently desired to be kept away from this man,

and to dree my weird to the end in peace, but
that was not to be allowed.
"
suppose something in my face disturbed
I
him, for he looked startled for a moment, and

grew pale as he said, Are you a ghost ? or are
'
you really Mark Wynyard come to recall an un-

happy episode, which you had far better forget ?
That affaire d amour turned out badly for us all.
The little "Wild Cat" is in a nunnery in Mel-
bourne, enjoying religious solace, I
hope, after
nearly killing me!' He mechanically laid his
hand over a long narrow scar which made a
livid line from his cheek to his neck.
"
The man must have seen danger in my eyes,
but, no doubt,seemed so weak and helpless
I
in comparison with his great health and strength,
that he put the idea from him as absurd. He

turned his face for a moment to look at some
man-of-war sailors who were sauntering along
the beach, and with the instant perception of
my opportunity, and with that resistless strength

which men receive some supreme crisis of
in
life and death,

plucked the heavy sheath knife
I
from his belt, and plunged it safe and sure into

his heart It was not five seconds after he
!
ceased speaking until his heart ceased beating,

and I fell back on my mat bed with an intense
sense of relief. Why it should have been so I
know not. I am only telling you a series of

facts which have befallen me since you and I
parted ;
their
meaning beyond my knowledge,
is
therefore I
attempt no justification or explana-
tion. That will, and can only be, interpreted
by a Tribunal from which nothing is concealed,
and before which there can be no miscarriage
of justice.
"
Her Majesty's ship
'
Swallow,' Captain
N s, happened to be in the lagoon, and
some of the sailors who were ashore on liberty,
saw what I did, and of course reported. In
the course of an hour I was formally appre-
hended and taken on board the ship. Captain
N had instructions to take a run through
s
the Ellice, Solomon, and New Hebrides Islands,

to inquire into and punish, if necessary, some
outrages which had been committed there ;
outrages, by the way, which had been perpe-

trated by the unfortunate islanders in revenge
for diabolical cruelties practised upon them by
'
rascally
'
black-birders (Pacific name for
labour-recruiting vessels), and their no less ras-

cally employers.
"
We sailed next day, and after a cruise of
nearly three months during which I was treated
kindly and considerately we reached Port
Philip, and I was handed over to the authorities,
with the result which you know. And whoso-
ever tries to change the sequence of that result,
I shall hold him my foe, not friend!"
Overa grave, in an obscure corner of a sub-

urban cemetery there is a plain, gray headstone,
which I assisted a nun to select and put in
place. On this there is only a name, with the
dates of birth and death. On the foundation-
stone, partly covered by wild flowers and ivy, are
the following most blessed and consoling words :
"God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
and there shall be no more death, neither
sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any

more pain: for the former things are passed
away."
AN IDYLL OF THE SOUTH SEAS
AN IDYLL O THE SOUTH SEAS
KNEW them both very well. I
had known them since they were
shy, wild little things who bolted
out of sight whenever I came upon
them suddenly. They were always pretty, as
prettiness goes among native children, and
laughingly sweet-tempered.
The boy, Kona, was about ten, and the girl,
Roke, a few years younger, when I took their
mothers into my domestic manage, one as house-
maid the other as washerwoman. Kona and
Roke used to come trotting after their mothers
every morning and go dodging about the place
while their parents were busy with their house-
hold duties. Native children are quite different
from white children in every way, and in some
senses more attractive. They are perfectly
283
284 AN IDYLL OF
natural,never vulgar. You might as well call a
kid vulgar, and one can never quite realize
little
that they are the same kind of human beings

as ourselves. But all the same they are very
lovable and immensely amusing.
As Kona and Roke became less alarmed at
my presence, and could linger with less abject
terror, at a respectful distance, while I spoke to
their parents, they gradually more fell into
sedate habits, and their features assumed more
and more the calm expression of their race; and
a very beautiful expression it is when they live
their own natural life.
But the misfortune is that their old happy,
simple existence a dream of the past! With

is
some things that are good, and that lead up to

a higher life, the white race have the dire re-
sponsibility of having brought to that fair land

and kindly people a great deal of evil and
disaster.
Before the white man came to these unsophisti-
cated people, and took upon himself, with the
usual arrogance and self-sufficiency of the white
man, the task of rearranging their domestic,
spiritual, and governmental affairs, and generally
fixing themup,willy-nilly,poor things! according

to the ideas of the aforesaid white man, they
THE SOUTH SEAS 285
lived under a simple feudal system well suited

to their clime and race. Now their lands have
passed to strangers. Their sturdy pride of race

has degenerated into a servile aping of what
is least attractive in European modes and
manners.
In addition the poor natives owe every
disease from which they suffer (and alas! they
are many and dreadful) to the foreigner. Before
they were discovered and civilized, they only

died of old age, or accident. So we can easily
imagine that the people of those lands have

small reason to thank the white race for what
in these modern days is termed " benevolent
assimilation."
But to proceed. It was a rather lonely life I
led in a far outlying district. In my public

and private capacity I had complete control of
everything and everybody. I
purposely leave
the locality indefinite; suffice it to say that it
was in the Pacific. There were from five to
six hundred people in the district. As in other
communities, some were good and some the

reverse, but I am happy to say that their bad-
ness never amounted to wickedness as we
understand the term. Serious crime was quite
unknown, their principal weakness being an
286 AN IDYLL OF
occasional infringement of the seventh com-
mandment, and a propensity to tell white lies.
Upon the whole it was a very happy commun-
ity. The men cultivated the soil and fished, the
women were good housewives and kind mothers
according to their lights. was
Practically there
no poverty and no luxury in the district. For
several years after I took command there was
hardly any sickness, so that upon the whole,

it was a very contented lot of people I had to
manage, and as time went on and I came to

know them, and they learned to trust me and
come to me with their little difficulties and
troubles, I may say that mutual liking and a
peculiar childlike affection grew up on both
sides.
So the years slipped past, as years are in the

habit of doing. Kona was eighteen or there-
about, and Roke a shy, pretty girl of fifteen.
They and their parents had lived near me all
these years as part and parcel of my establish-

ment. They were good, industrious young
people, and enjoyed the esteem and affection
of all their friends, and their friends were the
whole community. Indeed, no one could help
liking the bright, smart lad who was always
ready to oblige any one, diligent in his work
THE SOUTH SEAS 287
and yet full of fun and frolic. As for Roke, she

was held up by all the mothers in the district
as a pattern for their daughters to follow.
Obedient to her parents, clever in school, and
an adept feminine craft, such as sewing or
at all
mat-making, she had also an accomplishment

which was very highly prized in our society; she
could turn you out a straw hat that would have
made any young clerk madly envious on a bank
holiday at Margate, or when punting on the
Thames with " 'Arriet."
had a sincere affection for those two young
I
people, and I watched the sunny opening of

their lives with much interest. I knew very
well that in the natural order of things there
would be a match sooner or later made up be-
tween them. So when announced
their parents
to me that it was arranged, and that Kona and
Roke were to be married in six months, I was
quite prepared for the important intelligence.
I was rather
surprised at the length of the en-
gagement, and much more so when I was told
that it was Kona who had stipulated for a
longer period of freedom than usual according

is
to native etiquette. Engagements with these

"
people are as a rule short and sweet," as the
sailors say, and if there is
any lengthened
288 AN IDYLL OF
period of probation, the proposal always comes
from the parents, who, with their longer ex-
perience of life, know
some family feud or
of
other which may develop; and in case it may
cause trouble, they in their wisdom wish it to
appear before the irrevocable step of marriage
is taken. But in this case it was the young man
who hesitated and proposed the long engage-
ment, much to my astonishment and that of all
his friends. I
puzzled over the matter a while,
chaffed Kona for his want of gallantry, and then
dismissed the subject from my mind.

Two months or so after this, the visiting
came on one of his half-
doctor of the district
yearly rounds, and as it was my duty to see

that the people turned out for inspection, I
all
issued an order for men, women, and children

to muster next morning. The real cause of the
doctor's visit which was a month earlier than
usual was the fear that that most dreadful
scourge of the human race, leprosy, was in the
district, and the government order was impera-
tive that every case must be removed at once
to the leper settlement.
The doctor was a humane man,
as humanity
goes in this world, but as inflexible as a stone

wall in what he considered his duty.
THE SOUTH SEAS 289
An inspection was always a trying ordeal to
the people, for they knew well that once the
smallest sign of the dread disease was dis-
covered, the irrevocable doom was " removal to
the leper settlement" Then came the parting
for everfrom parent, wife, or child; never more
to hear the old familiar voices, never again to
look in the beloved eyes on this side of the
grave! In each broken heart as it reached that

dreadful settlement was whispered Dante's
awful words:
" All who
hope abandon ye enter here."
I remember that inspection well, I only re-

member one better, but that came afterwards.
The doctor went patiently down the long line
of silent people, carefully examining face, hands,
and feet, as these are the parts where the dis-
ease usually first appears.
Presently heard a low cry from where
I
Kona and Roke were standing, and then the

doctor told Kona to come into his room. The
rest were all dismissed. Poor Kona was deadly
pale, but quite calm, and stood the trying ordeal
with that stolid manner which some thoughtless
people think is want of feeling. Want of feeling,

forsooth! I have seen such things done, and
2 9o AN IDYLL OF
heard such words spoken in the land I am writ-
ing about, that I have come to the conclusion
that it is the white race who have the biggest
share of real, downright callousness.
The doctor hesitated long over a certain
little, most harmless looking mark on the left
foot. He finally decided to leave the case until
next inspection on condition that I would guar-
antee to keep the boy apart from all other
people. This I readily promised as my heart

was sore for the poor young couple whose lives
seemed so bright yesterday, and to-day were
plunged to the lowest depth of hell; for, to the
native mind, banishment to the leper settlement
is simply banishment to the infernal regions.
The white race out there can take the matter

much more philosophically, and in a calm,
sweet, religious manner, simply because the
aforesaid white race are not liable to the horrible
malady, or rather so very slightly liable, that

practically they look upon leprosy from the
serene heights of immunity. Of course, this was
all right to a certain extent, but if they had acted
fairly, the white race would have remembered

that the country belonged to the brown race,
not to the white and as they gradually gained
;
power, not always by the fairest of means, they

THE SOUTH SEAS 291
would not have forgotten that they were really

interlopers and were morally in the country
upon sufferance, and not by any right. If the
whites had only thought of these matters a little
more, and had acted with less harshness and
more consideration for the feelings and idiosyn-
crasies of what were really a very fine people
in the beginning, there would be no hatred, and
less sorrow, in the hearts of a kindly race who
have been bitterlywronged.
So our inspection ended for that time, and
the cool, level-headed doctor departed with, I
think and hope for our common humanity's
sake, a pang tough professional heart for
in his
the dire sorrow he had brought to light that
day. Kona took up his solitary abode in a little

grass-built hut under strict promise to me that
he would not go beyond a certain boundary, or
hold communion with any one except his mother
who cooked and brought his food to a certain
designated spot. I knew the lad would not break
his parole, but I also knew that there was one
who would hold communion with him in the
friendly shadow of the star-lit nights in spite of

all the precautions I could take. I knew this
quite well when I made my promise to the
doctor, and I have no doubt he knew it also.

292 AN IDYLL OF
But as leprosy is never contagious in its early
stages (and it is even very doubtful if the dis-
ease is ever contagious in the ordinary sense of
the term) I winked at the infraction of my rule
and weakly hoped for the best, as we usually do
when we get into a disagreeable position and
don't know how to get out of it.
I knew now why Kona had delayed the
marriage. He had evidently suspected the
presence of the disease in his system, and, good
lad that he was, he did not wish to add crime to
his misfortuneby marrying Roke. But even he
did not know the metal she was made of, as we
shall see a little further on.
So the daily round of dropped into the

life
old way, but in the apparent calm, two hearts

were wild with despair, for added to the horror
of the living death of the dreaded disease was
the knowledge that each hour brought the day
nearer which would part them for ever, and send
Kona to his lonely vigil at the leper settle-
ment, waiting and praying for death to end his
misery; surrounded by ghastly objects in all
stages of decay, only human in the sad melan-
choly eyes, the one feature which the awful
disease leaves unchanged.
During the months of probation until the

THE SOUTH SEAS 293
doctor rendered his final judgement, Roke was,

to myastonishment, apparently the least de-
pressed of all Kona's friends. This surprised
me more and more as the dreaded inspection
approached. We
all knew only too well what
the final doom of the poor boy would be. He

did not become (thank God !) so utterly unhuman
as many lepers I have seen. That terrible
change from the human to the ghoul, was per-

haps to come later. But I hoped it is the only
hope the leper that poor Kona would
left for
go to his final rest ere that miserable stage

arrived.
One day about this time, was out plover-
I
shooting, and as I was cautiously creeping up

to a pile of rocks to get a shot at the birds, I
suddenly came upon Roke sitting on the grass

engaged in doing what I have seen natives
doing scores of times, namely, extracting prickly
pear needles from her foot and ankle. When
she saw me she blushed all over, jumped up
with a little cry and ran away; but not so
quickly as to prevent me seeing a nasty looking

cut on her ankle. I called, asking what had hurt
her, but she paid no attention, and swift as a
frightened deer made a bee-line for the house.
I
thought the incident strange at the moment,
294 AN IDYLL OF
as the natives had perfect confidence in me, and
knew that I always did whatever I could to
relieve their bodily or mental suffering. How-
ever, after a little reflection, I concluded that
Roke had been startled in a foolishly childish
way, and on the impulse of the moment had

bolted.
The doctor was delayed over the official time
of visiting our district, and it was fully eight
months before we had the dubious pleasure of
seeing him again. The usual inspection was
ordered, and a general muster of the people took
place. The natives are the most law-abiding
people in the world, and a command of authority
is obeyed implicitly. They might easily have
refused to come for inspection, and as I had no
adequate force to compel them, they might have
refused to comply with an order which was re-
pugnant to their most tender feelings. Certainly

a white community would have defied both the
doctor's authority and mine under the same
circumstances.
As Kona's case was the only important one,
he poor fellow was examined first. As I
expected, it only took a few minutes to decide
"
his fate removal at once to the leper settle-
"
ment and he was placed under charge of a
THE SOUTH SEAS 295
constable, who was commanded to see the sen-

tence carried out. Although I had known for
many months what the end would be, yet I was

horribly shocked when at last I saw the once
bright, handsome lad in charge of the officer,
never again to feel the blessedness of freedom
until merciful death should hold out the kindly
hand that is too strong (thank God !) for all the
petty powers of this world to gainsay or resist.

Those who have not seen the native leper ac-
cept his doom, and prepare in his simple fashion
for his last journey save one, can have no con-
ception of the pathos of the thing the getting ;
of his little worldly effects together, disposing
among his friends of such possessions as he can

not, or may not wish, to take with him ;
doing
all with no great outward signs of grief,
this
but, as I know full well, with the inward grief

that kills. Ah, my dainty friends! ye who
think your race who have a monopoly of
it is
feeling, I could tell you such tales of breaking

hearts among the poor natives, as would harrow
your hearts to their inmost core, if you have

hearts, and make you lie awake o' nights with
the grief and the horror of it all.
looked at poor Roke expecting to see her
I
completely broken down with the hopeless end-

296 AN IDYLL OF
ing of the examination, but I was astonished
and shocked to see the hitherto gentle and lov-
ing girl, with a contented smile on her face,
when all Kona's friends were torn with grief at
the poor lad's fate.
The doctor passed down
the long line of
people. Roke was the last on the list, and as

she had always been such a healthy girl, the
doctor after looking at her face and hands, had
almost passed her, when she, with an impatient
gesture, thrust out her foot and called his atten-
tion to what any one else would have carefully
concealed if possible. The doctor examined
the ankle for several minutes, then rose, and
stared her in the face. The
timid girl never
blanched a bit, but looked him dead in the
eye with that peculiar look of courage and de-
speration which means death or life either in the
human or the brute.
"Good God!" said the doctor under his
"
breath, I never knew that a human being
could do such a thing! Constable, "he called in
his firm official voice (his voice had trembled a
bit as he made his soliloquy), " constable, here
is another leper; take her also": and Roke,
with a smile of supreme love and triumph, passed
over to Kona's side and took her place with
THE SOUTH SEAS 297
him. They belonged to each other now! No

more separation "till death them do part."
" "
what did you mean just
Doctor," said I,
now when you said that you never knew a

human being could do such a thing?" " Don't
you know?" said he in his cool way. "The
girl made a wound in her ankle and infected
herself with the lepra virus which isthe only
certain way of taking leprosy. You know the
reason why she did the awful thing? I will
give
"
up my billet," he continued. I don't care to
wake up middle of the night and see the
in the
ghosts of lepers round my bed." And he did!

What is more, he left the country. Years
afterwards I had a letter from him, when he
had become a popular practitioner in an up-
country town in Australia. He wrote that he
never could quite banish from his mind the pain
and the horror of the leper affair; and I am
glad to know that he could not, for the sake of
our common human nature. I have never been
able to forget the sad affair myself, and when-
ever I hear the horrible word leprosy I think
of the bright boy and girl, in what should have
been the springtime of their lives, going to their
irrevocable doom of a living death at the lonely
leper settlement.
JACOB BUSBY, THE LINEMAN
JACOB BUSBY, THE LINEMAN
and dreary month of
the hot
July in the year 189-, it was my

untoward fate to be on my way
from San Francisco to New York.
When I started from the city by the Golden
Gate, did not realize exactly how wretchedly
I
hot and dusty the Sante Fe route would be at

that season, or I would have taken the Canadian
Pacific. But fate, or my own thoughtlessness,
willed it otherwise and this otherwise led
up
which perhaps is worth re-
to a little incident
lating as showing how what we may deem a

trifling action sometimes leads to important
results.
The train had left Barstow at 2 p.m. on the
second day of our journey, and was toiling
across the weary Mojave Desert. The stifling
301
302 JACOB BUSBY, THE LINEMAN
air was perfectly motionless except as it was
stirred by the rushing train; and then it was
only a heavy conglomeration of alkali dust and
lifeless atmosphere which struck one like a blast
from the lower regions, parching the skin and

stinging the eyes. The dead dreary level was
unbroken save by the sturdy grease-wood
bushes, and the dauntless yucca with its fierce
thorn-tipped leaves guarding its delicate cream-
tinted blossoms. There were absolutely no
other signs of life, vegetable or animal. The
bravest coyote and the most misanthropic jack-
rabbit never dared to invade those miserable
wastes. The only sign of animal saw that
life I
weary day excepting, of course, our own com-

pany and one or two gaunt-faced linemen
was an eagle which hung an infinitesimal dot far,
far up in the sky, where I knew he was
enjoy-
ing ozone and coolness and a heavenly view,
and probably smiling at us wretched creatures
being dragged over the burning sand by an in-
fernal engine, which added its quota of smoke
and horrible soot to our other miseries. Many
a long league away, yet seemingly near in that
strangely clear dry atmosphere, the barren hills

stood grim and uninviting. One instinctively
searched in valley and cliff for any glimmer of
shade to rest the weary eyes upon. But in those

desolate regions, the sun, that elsewhere is a
blessing, a curse and a blight from which it

is
is impossible to escape. Many a weary gold-

seeker had bones bleaching in those in-
left his
hospitable mountains after vainly searching for

what he would gladly have given his hard
earned gold to find, a muddy pool of lukewarm
water to slake for a little while his dying thirst.
So we sped along, wearily longing for sunset
and the Colorado River, where we might at
least cool our languid eyes with the gleam of
water. About 4 p.m. (the hottest time of the
day those regions) we passed a lineman's
in
shanty, built of railway sleepers. The thing

stood on a little heap of sand, which had been
formed purposely to give him a view of the
coming and departing train. In that feature-
less desert the hut attracted our attention
at once, and I watched it closely as we ap-
proached. By the hut stood what I at first
thought was a post, so immovable he was a

man.
I am not much of a believer in spiritual in-
tuitions and occult communications, and all the
rest of but something in the silent lonely

it ;
figure touched a responsive cord in my being,

and a rush of sympathy go out to my
I felt
fellow man doomed to exist amid such dismal
surroundings. I had some knowledge of the

lineman's dreary life in these parts from a
weird tale once heard told at a camp fire by
I
one of the men who witnessed the tragedy.

The lineman can rarely stand the strain of
the loneliness more than a year. If they con-
tinue longer in the desert they show the effects
of the trial ever after, and many become down-
The Australian shepherd suffers
right insane.
in a somewhat similar way, but much less
acutely. He has the great advantage of the
company of his flock, and his surroundings are
infinitely more interesting. True the shepherd

sees less of anything human than the lineman,
for the lattermay catch a glimpse of faces twice
a day as the rushing trains flash past. But as
my friend of the camp fire explained, these
glimpses of human faces, after a while, only
heighten the horrible solitude, as the lineman
in these very lonely parts invariably gets it
into his mind that people could speak to him if

they wished, but that he is utterly forgotten and
even unseen, and can never again associate with
his fellow men.
As the train swept past the lonely motion-
less figure that hot July afternoon, all the weird
yarns I had ever heard of the lineman's
life,
and death for that matter, came flashing across

my mind. I felt a sharp pang of pain and sym-
pathy go out of my heart to my fellow creature;
for I have gone through some rather hard times
of loneliness myself, and I know a little of how
it feels. And for lack of anything else I could
do at the moment to relieve my feelings, I seized
a lot of papers and magazines, which I had
been languidly looking over, and threw them
out of the window with a wave of my hand to
the man whose lines had certainly not fallen in
pleasant places. Our eyes met for a moment,

and I think the poor fellow read in my face the
sympathy I felt for him.
The train was past and presently
in a flash,
in the interest of approaching the Colorado, and

afterwards in the exciting dash for supper, I
quite forgot my friend of the desert; but that

night I thought of him again and again, and in
the uneasy sleep of the train I had a miserable
dream which I saw him lying stark and dead,
in
with
*****
staring unclosed, unblinking eyes straight
up at the fierce, unmerciful sun.
Six years after that hot journey I was visit-
x
ing the cheerful and pretty little town of Santa
Barbara, in California. I had been moving
about enjoying the beautiful views, the fine
sweeping coast line, and the curious sulphur

baths on the mountain side.
One lovely morning I had taken a long walk
south of the town, everywhere passing pretty
cottages, and thrifty-looking farms. At last,
somewhat tired and thirsty, I entered at a smart

little gateway which led through a sweet old-
fashioned garden, fragrant with the well-re-
membered flowers that people loved when I was
young, but which one hardly ever sees nowa-

days, more 's the pity. Presently I came upon
a charming scene. A young, rosy-cheeked
woman was gathering peaches, while a beautiful
child of five summers or so there are no
winters to reckon by in that charmed land
was proudly helping to fill a basket with the
lovely fruit. was naturally a little disconcerted
I
when I
suddenly came upon the idyllic picture,
and, my shyness getting the better of my
manners, was on the point of beating a hasty
I
retreat, when the young woman put everything

to rights by advancing, and in the kindest and
simplest way asking if there was anything she

could do for me. There are many things and
customs in the United States which I must say I
do not like, but there is one characteristic of the

people which is really charming, and that is the
easy, simple way they have of putting a stranger

at his ease. was relieved of all embarrassment
I
in a moment, and it seemed as if I had met this
friendly, handsome young woman a score of

times, so perfectly at home did she make me
Was I tired? Was I
hungry? Was I thirsty?
Of course she had deliciously cool spring water !
but I must wait a moment until she squeezed a

lemon into the glass as it made the water so
much more refreshing and wholesome in this
warm weather. And a slice of bread and butter
isthe very best thing for one after a long morn-
ing walk!
So this delightful young woman kept rattling
on in the most easy, natural way, while with
deft, quick hands she placed the refreshments
on a table under a great grape vine which
covered and shaded the front of the cottage,
extending on trellis work twenty or thirty feet
into the garden. Then when it was ready (and
it did not take five minutes tocomplete the
kindly and pretty arrangement), she sat down
to entertain me with any information I
might
wish to hear on local news, history or politics
3 o8 JACOB BUSBY, THE LINEMAN
of the United States. Even her own family his-
tory was rehearsed from the landing on Ply-
mouth Rock, that bleak December morning in
the year of our Lord 1620, down to the last
handsome bargain her husband had made in
swapping a horse, which was beginning to show
signs of age, for a Jersey cow and calf, and two
dozen chickens, and a pet lamb for Violet her
little girl. Her brow clouded a little as she
enumerated the last article. " You see," she con-
" I would rather
tinued, have had another dozen
chickens than the lamb, for a lamb is always
mussing around and eating things, and giving

nothing for its keep, whereas chickens in this cli-
mate lay nine months of the and eggs sell

year,
like hot cakes all through the winter in Santa
Barbara, when the town is full of one-lungers

(classical name of consumptives in Southern
California)." So my hostess rattled on, while the
child (just as free from self-consciousness as the
mother) heaped fruit upon the table, and other-

wise busied herself for my general comfort, occa-
sionally sharing my lemonade and bread and
butter, only, I feel certain, to put me more at
my ease.
was a charming scene, and one calculated
It
to make a lonely wanderer like myself envious.

At last could linger no longer and rose to take
I
leave of Mrs. Busby. (She had told me her name

minutes of our acquaintance and
in the first five
had asked mine simply as a matter of course.)

Just then a man entered the barnyard with a
team of horses, and Mrs. Busby, protesting that I
could not go without seeing her husband, darted
towards the yard, calling "Jacob! Jacob, come
here at once! I want you to a
to introduce
gentleman who has seen Cape Cod and dear

old Buzzard! and has been all over the world,
and has told me everything, and oh, it is all so
beautiful! and really, Jacob, you and I must
go and see it all whenever you make that for-
tune out of the pigs, you know. But in the

meantime come here at once, Jacob, and be
introduced to a gentleman who has made me
quite happy hearing it all." Then, after a mo-
ment's pause, " Hurry up, Jacob! do hurry up!"
"You see," she said, turning to me with a
comical little and a half worried look on
smile,
"
her pleasant face, you see poor Jacob had two
dreadful years out in that awful desert, and has
never been quite the same since. Not but what
he is quite happy, for he has told me so scores
of times, and whatever Jacob says you may bet
your life is true every time."

3 io JACOB BUSBY, THE LINEMAN
In a minute or two Jacob came along. A
grave, thoughtful man of forty or so, with that
peculiar expression in the eyes and mournful
lines about the mouth, which tell as plainly as a
printed page of some past tragedy that has

left its upon the heart. He
indelible traces
greeted me as pleasantly and kindly as his wife

had done, if a little more reservedly, and asked
me (with that sincere manner which, alas, is
very rare on this planet) to drop in and rest
any time might be passing his place in my
I
rambles about the neighbourhood. So, with

kindly adieus, and with a pleasant, refreshed
feeling in my soul and body, I took my leave of
the new friends I had found in this strange land
where, until that morning, I had not known a

soul I could confide in except the coloured boy
who polished my boots at a stand near the hotel.
On the following Sunday morning, after
attending service at the old Mission Chapel,

and sadly thinking of the dead past when the
stout, fearless Fathers were a power in the
land from Alaska to the Isthmus; managing the
wild tribes of Indians with a judicious combina-
tion of firmness and gentleness well suited to
the savage man's nature I started off on a walk
;
to my new friends, Jacob Busby and his wife.

I found them preparing to sit down to their

Sunday dinner, a rather important event in
rural society, as it is the one repast of the week
which quite free from all haste or anxiety of
is
other things which are pressing to be done. The

animals on the farm have all been attended to
before the Sunday coat was donned, and the
only thing further to be done is milking the
cow late in the evening, and giving such horses
as are in the barn a bucket of water and a feed
of hay. These light tasks can be done (except
on the large dairy ranches) by simply taking off
one's coat, and carefully folding back the cuffs
of the Sunday shirt. In fact, after the unaccus-
tomed repose of the day of rest, and the re-
straint of an hour and a half in church, it is a
real pleasure and relief to have these little
duties to perform.
I received a frank, simple welcome, and a
cordial invitation to dinner, which I
accepted
with much goodwill, as morning walk had
my
given me a most robust appetite. We were five
at table, Jacob and his wife, their little daughter
Violet, and the sonsie hired girl who, in such

households as that of my friends, practically
forms one of the family circle.
The meal passed off rather silently, in spite
3 i2 JACOB BUSBY, THE LINEMAN
of my hostess's kindly attempt to make con-
versation general. Jacob was evidently a firm
believer in the golden rule of silence; the hired
girlwas awed by the presence of one from an

outside world she feared was a little uncanny,
and which she had been told was enormously
wicked; while Violet, although prattling away
in the most charming manner, yet in her anxiety
to give me the widest information possible upon

all local subjects of interest, naturally fell into
complicated entanglements from which it re-
quired the assistance of the hired girl to extri-

cate her. This tended to dampen Violet's con-
versational powers, and a painful, embarrassed
silence usually followed these whispered cor-
rections.
When our ample pleasant meal was com-
pleted, and Mrs. Busby was in that placid con-
dition of mind in which a woman always is after
an entertainment for which she is responsible
has passed off in a satisfactory manner, Jacob
and I betook ourselves to the barn to look at
the horses, and smoke the pipe of peace and
good comradeship.
We sat down on the sweet-smelling bales of
hay and carried on a desultory conversation, to
the accompaniment of the horses munching
theirmidday snack. After a while our remarks

became more and more disjointed, and we were
falling into that happy state which is just on the
borderland of sleep, when a casual remark of
mine about the beauty and salubrity of the
coast in comparison to the hot dry country in
the interior, brought Jacob in a moment out
of his half slumberous condition into a state
of the most acute wakefulness. He looked at
me with those strangely pathetic eyes of his
the kind of eyes which have so nearly looked
into the unknown land of death, that they never
again quite lose the expression of having seen

things unexpressible in human speech. Jacob
rose from his half reclining position, and sat
bolt upright with a kind of shudder, as if he had
"
seen something no canny." Then he knocked
the dottle out of his pipe into a half-bucket of
water no fear of Jacob setting fire to a barn,
careful fellow that he was and looking me
straight in the face quite differently from his
usual downcast way of carrying himself, as if
he wished to avoid "
catching your eye," as the
"
saying goes, ejaculated, Stranger, were you
ever in the all-fired damnable desert?"
Jacob's half scared, altogether intense look
and fierce exclamation aroused me from my
drowsy mood in a moment. My friend was by
no means given to emphatic, not to say profane
language, and I knew I must have unwittingly
touched some very sore and tender spot in his
usually quiet undemonstrative heart by my
simple remark. He said no more, but con-
tinued to regard me with the same steadfast, in-
quiring gaze, so I said in a careless way, more

to relieve the rather embarrassing situation
"
than anything else, Oh yes ! I have been in
many deserts in different parts of the world,

and, as you say, I have found them as a rule
rather especially about three o'clock
'all-fired,'
in the afternoon. I have been in deserts in
India, Africa, Australia, and in this country.
The hottest bit I remember at present, and I
really think the dreariest, taking it all round,

was inyour own Mojave."
" The "
Mojave said Jacob,
!
quite slowly and
in a reflective tone, as if he were recalling
something he had dreamed or had been told in
some long past time, and yet with strangely
"
suppressed eagerness the Mojave Friend, !
can you remember the year, and the month,

and the day you were in that hellish desert?
and, above all, can you recall at what hour
you left Barstow?" Jacob asked these ques-
tions in such an agitated way, so different from
his ordinary stolid manner, that I at once
thought of what his wife had said at our first
meeting regarding his two years' sojourn in the

desert, and of the effect it had upon the poor
fellow's mind. Some unpleasant things flashed
through my head, and for want of anything else
to do I fell back upon the smoker's great re-
source of filling another pipe of tobacco, while I

endeavoured to collect my scattered senses as
to what was best to be done in case my friend
became really violent, for I
began seriously to
think that he was not quite safe.
"Let me see," said I, reflectively, "it must
have been in the year 189-, for I have an entry
in my notebook of having arrived in London
late in themonth of July of that year, so it
must have been early in that month when I was
in Mojave. Oh, now I have it!" I cried, as a
long forgotten incident flashed across my mind,
"
it must have been the afternoon of the 6th of
July, for spent the 4th in San Francisco, amid

I
the howling of men and boys, the banging and

smoke of fire-crackers, the screeching of bands
erroneously called music, and a general horror

of pandemonium which impressed the famous
day indelibly on my mind. On the evening of
3i6 JACOB BUSBY, THE LINEMAN
thatday I boarded the Oakland
train at the
Mole bound east, feeling really quite happy and
thankful to find myself whole in life and limb
after the experiences of the past twelve hours.
All that night we toiled along through the hot
San Joaquin, and next morning breakfasted at
a side station, where we had a long delay for
some occult reason or other which the train
men, with their usual lofty taciturnity, refused
to divulge. Then we were shipped like bales
of goods on to the Santa Fe railway, and com-
menced our long weary ride across the con-
tinent. That was the 5th I know, and here I
have an entry of having crossed the Colorado
River on the evening of the 6th."
paused to light my pipe, feeling a certain
I
creepy nervous sensation all the time, as Jacob's

gaze had never been diverted from my face for
one moment while I was slowly recalling these
long past events. I had just managed to light
" "
my dudeen with a not very steady hand,
when he thoroughly scared me by slowly rising
and grasping my hands with such a vice-like
grip that I was utterly in his power, while with
eyes like living coals of fire and trembling lips
he hissed, rather than said, " By the Lord, I
"
have found you at last !
was now quite convinced that the poor man

I
was insane, and after one desperate ineffectual

effort to extricate my hands from his powerful
grasp, as a last resource I called loudly for Mrs.
Busby. In a moment that competent young

woman dashed into the yard, closely followed
by Violet, and the hired girl in all the glory of
Sunday gown and feather-plumed hat. Tableau !
Jacob and I facing each other in deadly earnest,

Mrs. Busby grasping her husband's shoulders
and trying to shake him (which was about as
effectual as if she had tried to shake one of the
redwood trees in the Mariposa grove), while
Violet and the girl looked on in abject terror.
"Jacob! Jacob! What do you mean?" with
"
another vain shake. Is thisa proper way to
treat a gentleman who has given me so much
pleasure? I'm ashamed of you, Jacob!" Then

another shake, and with flashing, tearful eyes,
and a sort of undefined fear in her voice, " Jacob,
"
you fool ! what do you mean ?
Then Jacob delivered himself in a calm, low
concentrated voice of supreme satisfaction, which
left no doubt at all in my mind that he was dan-
"
I have found him at last,
gerously mad. Mary!
the of God, I have found him at
By mercy
last! I have found the man who saved me from
a miserable death, just six years, three months,
and seventeen days agone! Oh Mary, my girl!
kiss him! Give him the ranch! God bless him!
You said when he talked to you the very first
day he came to the ranch, that he made you

happy! And no wonder, for all unbeknown to
you came the knowledge somehow! somehow!
that he was the man who saved me for you, and
gave you this happy life instead of a broken

heart and a lonely fate, way back yonder, and
the nightmare of a disgraced lover's death which
you could never recall without a shudder! Kiss

him, Mary! kiss him hard, my darling, for my
sake!"
Then a strange state of things ensued that
made me think all hands were demented, and
that somehow I was not quite right myself.
Mrs. Busby rushed at me
with a cry that was
half weeping and half laughing, and not only
" "
kissed me hard as Jacob had advised, but
hugged me into the bargain until I was quite

and utterly dumbfounded.
breathless,
Here was tableau number two: I helpless in
Mrs. Busby's wild embrace, Jacob executing a

wonderful fandango around us, and again Violet
and the grinning hired girl as audience. When
we had all become thoroughly exhausted, by a
sort of general consent we seated ourselves on

the hay to recover our scattered senses, and I,
for one, to endeavour to discover the meaning
and cause of the strange, not to say startling
scene in which I had taken a prominent, but
most involuntary part.
We all sat silent for awhile to recover our-
selves. After a full five minutes or more, Jacob
was the first to break the silence. Staring me
in the face, he said solemnly, as if he were
beginning an awful confession, "Stranger! this

has unfixed me up to the hub." Then holding
"
out his hand forgive me! I am not a luny,
although I did behave like one, but the sudden-
ness of the certainty that I had really found
you after all those years knocked all the little
common sense I have out of my stupid old

head. suspected you all along; I never forget
I
the looks of a human critter I have once clapped
eyes on, and I remembered your face all through

those years but I am a shy man and I could not
;
bring myself to speak out until I was dead sure.

And then my feelings knocked me out like a
two-year old when you first throw a lasso over
his head, and so I made a fool of myself, and
what worse,
is your sense
I fear I hurt of
decency by my outrageous conduct."

This was a long impromptu speech for Jacob,
and he delivered it so calmly, and with such
simple candour and earnestness, that I began
"
to think there might be method in his mad-
ness" after all. Then he got
gave a little
up,
chuckle of supreme happiness and satisfaction,
took up a bucket and proceeded to give the
horses a drink. Mrs. Busby looked on with
a smiling face, evidently following in her own
heart every turn and thought in her husband's
mind. When
he had completed his task and
the horses were smacking their lips in the
peculiarway horses have of doing after a drink,

Jacob flung down the bucket, and with another
self-satisfied chuckle, and a kind of Indian war-
whoop proceeded to give us another edition of
the Spanish fandango. I saw Mrs.
Busby's eyes
sparkle as if she longed to jump up and show
us how the dance should be done, but woman-
like shewas ready for the occasion, and instantly
brought Jacob to his senses by sternly remind-
ing him that it was Sunday, and that she was
ashamed to see him, a strict Baptist, doing a
heathenish dance before his own innocent child
on the sacred day! Then she bade us all come
to the house for tea, for, as she forcibly put it,
"
We had had enough of rampageous goings on
for one while, and we had better take some-

thing to settle our nerves, and not go on like
howling Piute Indians before girls and babies
any more."
With which sage and discreet advice we all
adjourned to Mrs. Busby's neat little parlour,

where we solemnly partook of the cup " which
cheers but does not inebriate," and which the
great lexicographer recommended as a consoler

under all circumstances.
" "
When we had settled our nerves and I for
one felt considerably calmer, I saw that Jacob

was going to make an explanation of his rather
unusual conduct. He looked a little sheepishly
at his wife, then with a deprecatory glance at
me, as much as to say, "wait a bit until I ex-

plain myself and you won't think me either a cut-
throat or a madman," he settled himself in his
armchair (telling me to lie down on the sofa as
he felt sure I needed rest after the " darned
silly way he had fooled around in the barn "),
and plunged into his explanation without further
preface as follows:
" I must
go a good way back and begin my
story at the time Mary and I started keeping
company, way back at old Cape Cod. You see,
friend, I am a man of a very plain sort, and even
Y
the little I know does not lie inthe talking line.
Now Mary could tell the yarn as smart as a lay
preacher at a tea meeting, for I have told it to

her many and many a winter night, sitting by
the kitchen fire, both of us wondering over and
over again if we would ever meet the man that
"
saved me from hell (This he said calmly and
!
as a mere matter of fact, just as if he had been

speaking of some one who had pulled him out of
a river where he was drowning). " But," he con-
tinued, "this is my sermon, and I must take the
stump myself and spit it all out, or, by Jehosha-

phat! I fear I shall have a fit and bust!"
I knew
by one or two uneasy movements on
Mrs. Busby's part, that she, wife-like, good soul,
was on the point of putting in a word here and
there during this preliminary canter of Jacob's
Pegasus. But she wisely restrained herself, see-

ing how deeply her husband was moved, and
allowed him to proceed entirely in his own
fashion. He paused a few minutes, seemingly
arranging things in his mind, and then pro-
ceeded.
"
Mary and I were born in Provincetown.
You know that is the very outermost town on
old Cape Cod, where the raging storms of
winter and the drifting sand of summer pre-
vent any kind of thing growing excepting

children. If children do not get nipped in the
bud, as you might say, in the first winter, then
nothing will kill them after that, unless they
happen to get drowned, or go up to Boston for

a polishing at the high-falutin' schools, and
take some of them darned new-fangled diseases
that are never heard of in a decent small village
until some doggoned doctor comes along to tell
people about them.

"
Mary's folks and mine were neighbours, and
she and I played and quarrelled and cavorted
over the sand-hills bare-headed and bare-footed,
attended the village school, and did such chores
as we were fitted for, until I was big enough to
go to the Banks with father for the cod-fishing,

and Mary went to Boston to live with an aunt
who was in the dressmaking line, and who had
taken a fancy to her, and said that she must not
be allowed to run wild any longer on Cape Cod.
"
Well, sir, I kept hard at work with the
old man for ten years. In summer we went to
the cod-fishing (unless we found something
better to do with a cargo of fish down the coast
or even as far as Cuba), and in winter we
mended sails, or made new ones, and put the
schooner and boats in good order. It was a
3 24 JACOB BUSBY, THE LINEMAN
pretty hard life, as I look back upon it now.
But was brought up to it, and my father was

I
brought up to it, and his father and grandfather

before him, way back to the old Colonial days,
so we never thought much about the life being
hard or soft; we were too busy to think much
one way or the other. I have noticed that the
harder a man works the less he is given to
thinking or talking, that is to say, if he has
plenty to fill his stomach, and a warm bed to
sleep in. It is your rich people and your idle
loafers who do the gabbling and
rich or poor
blaspheming, and make all the rampageous

trouble in the world. Of course, if an honest
man is out of work, and has neither a meal to
eat nor a bunk to sleep in, a devil gets into him
and he will make trouble sooner or later, and
don't you forget it! When a good man goes
bad he makes things hum! whereas your loafer
is all froth and wouldn't break a window if a
policeman is within a mile.

"
By the time I was twenty-five the old man
had stowed away enough of the needful in
the savings bank to keep him and mother
comfortable for the rest of their lives. He
offered me the whole outfit of schooner, boats,
and nets to set up for myself, and so enable me
to marry an event Mary and I had been look-

ing forward to for many a long day. But the
Lord fixed my life on a different plan al-
together.
"It came about in this way, and you must
not mind if I am rather long-winded in spin-
ning my yarn, for I must tell it in my own

fashion or you will never understand why I
left the old home (which I loved as I shall
never love a spot again in this world) and

dusted for California. You see, sir," proceeded
"
it is a fixed
Jacob, in a soliloquizing mood,
notion of mine that we never love but one spot
on this earth ! We may love several people
father mother sisters brothers and even a
"
friend once in a great while (looking me hard
"
in the face) but the roof under which men and
women have passed their childhood, be it hut
or castle, the one place which deserves the
is
name of home. We
may build as many pretty
houses as we have a mind to we may furnish ;
them with all the pretty things women love to
buy; we may dig and delve, plant and sow,

until we make what people call an earthly para-
dise, but we can quit and forget it all in a week !
But where we grew from infancy to manhood

or womanhood is not a house, it is Home!
Every mantel and every door and
fireplace,
window, every old picture on the wall, worth
ten thousand dollars or only worth ten cents,
every table and old four-post bedstead, are so

impressed on our memories that we can never
forget them until we go to our last long sleep."
Jacob paused after this philosophical not to

say poetical outbreak carefully tore the mar-
;
gin from a newspaper, so as not to damage the

printed matter; twisted the bit of paper into a
wisp; lit it at the pretty little fire Mrs. Busby
had lighted on the hearth, and proceeded to set
his pipe a-going. Then he heaved a little half-
sad, half-contented sigh, and gazed into the fire

with that look which sees something that no one
else can see, and proceeded to deliver himself
"
still on the same subject. Yes, siree, a man
or a woman never has more than one home.
My home was way back on Cape Cod and
Mary's was there too. Here we have a beauti-
ful and very comfortable place, for which we
are very thankful to the Lord, but we can quit

it to-morrow without a bit of
pain if we can
make a better bargain anywhere else.
"
But far down in our hearts is the picture of
an old queer place that is not a house to us
it is home! And often when we lie awake o'
nights and hear the boom of the long Pacific

rollers thundering on the beach below us here,
I know that deep in our hearts is the memory
of a wind-swept, bleak, and stormy coast where
stands for each an old ramshackle concern that
a poor man would
hardly thank you for letting
him live in rent free, but to us is more beautiful
than all the palaces that ever were built. This
cottage and ranch will be to Violet what these old
places on the Cape are to her mother and me.

She have to leave her home, that is in the
will
destiny of us all, but this is the one spot she

will call home away down in her heart, if she
lives to be a hundred and roams all over the

world, and owns the most beautiful house that
"
ever was built !
It was very impressive to hear this plain
(and as a rule silent) man deliver himself thus. I

saw Mrs. Busby surreptitiously apply the corner
of her apron to her eyes, while Violet climbed
on to her father's knee, and putting her arms
round his neck, said solemnly, " Father! please
don't say any foolish things about us leaving
our home, for you know we will never do that."
"No, no," said her father, kissing the child and
"
patting her head, we will never do that
never do that! In the meantime, let me get on
with my yarn," gently putting her down, "or I
will never get through in time to give the poor
horses their supper."
* # * * #
"
We had made a splendid season on the
Banks, and filled our little hooker as full of fine
salted cod as she could hold. It was on the last
day of September that we battened down the

hatches and made all snug for the run home.
The season had been very calm as a rule, but
during the last few days we were on the Banks
the weather had been getting more and more
of a wintry snap in it, and the glass had been
slowly very slowly, which is a bad sign
going down. We squared away in the evening
before a middling stiff nor'easter that gave our
schooner enough to do to carry all sail. We
started from the southerly end of the Banks,
and hoped to make port in fifty hours or so, and
as the hooker was a rare sea-boat we had no
idea of heaving-to if the fair wind held on. We
carried all sail that night, but by eight bells
next morning the stiff breeze had grown to a

fair-sized gale,and the schooner was burying
herself in a splutter of foam, and sometimes
shipping pretty heavy green seas which made it

hard work to get about the decks. So we began
taking in sail, and a very ugly job it was.
However, after a while we got the mainsail,

staysail, and jib made all snug, and then we
went a good deal easier. All that day we were
scudding before the wind, which was now blow-
ing great guns, with the glass still falling. Of
course, fishing schooners don't depend much
upon taking the sun, they mostly go by a slap-
dash kind of dead reckoning; but even the best
equipped ship in Uncle Sam's navy could have
done nothing about taking sights in such a
smother of sea and sky. So we depended alto-
gether upon the compass and the log-line, with
a pretty sound knowledge of the tides on the
coast, to make a safe landfall.
"
Father knew the road from the Banks to the
Cape about most fishermen. He had
as well as
been in the trade, boy and man, for fifty years,
and had never been shipwrecked, or even lost
a man was a rare record
overboard, which
among fishermen on the Banks. But his turn
was bound to come sooner or later, as all sea-
faring people know and I even think that the
;
old man had some sort of warning signal from

the other world before we left home on our last
cruise. thought something like this at the

I
time, for I noticed that he kissed mother just

before we cast off instead ofwaving his hand,
'
with a '
So long, mother as
! was his usual
custom. In fact, I never remember seeing him
kiss mother before; and it struck me very
forcibly at the time, and I have often thought of
it since. You
see a thing of that sort is more
apt to catch the eye in the old-fashioned places,

way back east, than anywhere else; for the
folks there are not much given to kissing, and
look upon it with much the same sort of con-
tempt as we
look upon a silly Johnny French-
man taking off his hat and at the same time
doubling himself up as if some one had hit him
below the belt.
"
The wind by compass was about east-nor'-
east,and the schooner was racing along almost

dead before it. Since we had taken everything
in but a small bit of the foresail she was making
much better weather, and would have got along

well enough if the storm had broken and given
us some chance to see ahead. But it never let
up for an instant, and we could not see the

bowsprit-end for the smother of storm wrack
and flying scud. Then we had scudded too
long, in hopes of making port, to think of

heaving- to. If we had dared to bring the little
craft broadside on to such a sea, even for a
moment, she would have been and

rolled over
over before a man could wink. So there was
nothing for it but to keep her before the wind,
giving the Cape, as we thought, a wide berth.

"
As we got nearer to the coast the weather
grew worse; and towards midnight it came on
to snow so heavy that father and I had to
stand by the binnacle to keep it clear of snow
so that the men at the helm could see the com-
pass. The two men steering were lashed to the

wheel, of course, otherwise they might have
been washed away any moment, when the
schooner would have broached-to in a flash and
foundered. It was about two bells (one o'clock,
you know) on that awful night or morning
that the end came; and strange to say it came
in a fashion that I had never thought of,
although had
I heard of such things often
enough, and even had had one or two pretty

close calls on the Banks in foggy weather. My
father had just put his mouth to my ear and
shouted,
'
Hold on, lad!' when the schooner
struck what I knewan instant was a great
in
steamer fighting her way dead in the teeth of

the gale. With the plunge that sent our craft
to the bottom like an egg-shell, and buried
the ship's nose in the sea up to the hawse-
holes, was flung
I like a cork almost on to her
foc'sle-head. But I had all my wits about me,
and I froze pretty quick to the first thing I
struck, which happened to be the fluke of the
port anchor; and there the mate of the steamer

found me when
he hauled himself along the
headrail with a lantern to see if he could make
out, as he told me afterwards,
'
what in the
darned tarnation they had struck.'
"
Fortunately our poor little hooker had only
made a pretty big dent in one of the bow plates,
showing that we must have struck the steamer
a sort of slanting blow. If we had struck her
stem on, at the rate both crafts were going,
fair
we should have knocked a hole in the heavily

laden old tramp big enough to take her to the
bottom along with the schooner. I only remem-
ber the flash of a light in my eyes, strong hands
passing a rope's end under my arms, and then

I did not move hand or foot for two days, they
told me afterwards.
"
was the only one saved from the schooner,
I
and a most wonderful escape it was, such as

seldom happens to one seafaring man out of a
hundred thousand. The steamer was the 'North
Star' of Boston, bound to Jamaica, and by the
time I was able to tell my story in an under-
standable way, we were almost half way to the

West was very kindly treated by all
Indies. I
hands; and the skipper advised me to go on

regular duty, as he was short handed, saying
that he knew by experience that work was the
best medicine for sorrow; besides if I
joined
the ship I would have a nice little pile coming
to me at the end of the trip, which, as he
sagely observed,
'
was always soothing to any
man's feelings.'
"
Well, to a long story short, we reached
make
Kingston in due course. We
filled the steamer
with coffee, rum, and fruit, and made the run

back to Boston without mishap. The captain
behaved like a gentleman (as he was), gave me
a go-ashore rig-out from his own chest (we were
both of a size), and every dollar of my wages,
reckoning from the dismal night that I boarded
his ship without his invitation. The good old
man also told me that if I came back within a
week he would give me a second mate's billet ;
with a promise that if I liked the trade and

stuck with him, he would give me command of
the ship in a year, as he was now comfortably
off and tired of the sea.
"
This, to a poor shipwrecked sailor, was a
darned tempting offer; and if it had been made
to me two months before I would have jumped
at it, you bet! But my love for the sea was
gone; hated the very smell of salt water, and

I
I wanted to
get away from it altogether and
everything connected with it. I have got over
that feeling now and I can enjoy the sight and
sound of the ocean without thinking it a savage
monster always seeking to swallow up poor
men and ships.
"
When got back to the Cape I was like a
I
man returned from the dead. Some time after

the storm (which was the heaviest known on the
New England coast for many years) a piece of
the stern-board of the schooner was picked up
'
with her name, Patience of Provincetown.'
Then, of course, our fate was known, for every
man, woman, and child on the Cape knew the
often told story of the sea on our wild open
coast. Mother took to her bed, and within
three weeks had gone after father. Mary had
gone to Boston to stay with her aunt, and there

I went to see her, as she was about the only
one left to me, and of course I wasn't quite
sure if she was left to me or not. You see I
was quite jiggered with all the trouble, and I
thought that perhaps Mary had got over her
grief in the gay society of the city, and may-be
had froze on to some darned scalawag of a

counter-jumper who had cottoned to her."
Here Mrs. Busby (who had never moved
while Jacob plodded through his story except
occasionally to put a fresh bit of wood on the

fire) by his ample locks, and while
seized him
she gave him some vigorous shakes, exclaimed,
"Jacob! how dare you talk in that outrageous
manner when you are telling our sad history,
and when I never heard you talk so long, and, I
must say, so well in all my life! Now don't say
any more foolish and stupid things, but just get
"
on w\\h facts." "Well, well said Jacob, taking
!
no more notice of the shaking than if it had been

some other body's head which was being mani-
"
pulated, I'll
get on fast enough if you will just
have a little patience, dear; but you know

my
as well as I, that no mortal man can tell exactly
what a girl will do, and the day I started from
Cape Cod for Boston to find you, was the mean-
est day I had ever worried through up to that
date. I
suppose my late griefs and misfortunes
had knocked all the sand out of me, for I felt
in such a low-down sort of state that there

wasn't grit left in me worth a cent."
Here Jacob smoothed his rumpled hair, and
looked pensively in the fire for a minute or so.
" and
Well, sir, I found Mary right enough, I
must say that helped me a heap. But my future

way of life was all dark before me, and I had
no more notion what to do than a five-year-old
kid. One day Mary and I were strolling down
by the docks (you see the ships attracted me,

although I hated the salt water for the ill it had
done me) when a printed notice caught my eye,
Strong active young men wanted by the Santa
'
Fe Railroad Company. Good wages and per-

manent employment to suitable men. None but
those with first-rate references need apply.' That
notice set my mind working again, and I was
in such a hurry to get to the office that I went
to the extravagance of spending two nickels for
Mary and myself, although I was as near dead

broke as ever I was before or since. I saw the
agent, and he seemed to think I would suit if I
got the references. The terms were three dollars
a day and grub, with free fare to the place of
employment, which was indicated in a general
way as at the Needles, California.

"
soon had the references, and within three
I
days I was tearing along westward after a hard

parting with Mary, and a promise that she
should come as soon as I had a shanty fit to
hold her.
"
I remember that it seemed a long weary
ride on the cars. took us five days to reach
It
our journey's end, and I was mortal tired and

sick of it all before it was done; but on the fifth
night out, after running through some country

that would be called Pine-Barransin the South,
we crossed a straggling sort of river which
the train men told me was the Colorado, and
in a few minutes pulled up in the town of
Needles. I remember thinking that it was a
funny name, and that night I discovered that it
was a funny town. It was Christmas Eve when
we and the town's-people were cele-
arrived,
brating the festival in the peculiar way known

in the West as painting the town red. This con-
sists inevery man, white, black, and coloured,

getting more or less under the influence of
whisky, and having what they
'
call a high
old time.'
"
I found my way to the office of the Santa Fe" r
and reported myself ready for work. 'Work!'
said a fair-haired, handsome man, whom I found
tobe the representative of the company, and who
was sitting by a stove in the office with a party
of friends smoking and drinking work nary '
!
a stroke of work will be done in this free and
enlightened town for three days, except it

may
z
be to give friends proper Christian burial if
they meet with accidents, you know, at this
joyous and sacred season. But pray don't let
the thought of that disturb your simple eastern
mind, for the work is by no means severe, as
we always utilize the sand-bars down by the
river at this happy and "good-will-to-man"
period. You see the sand is so soft that an able
bodied man can scoop out a grave in ten minutes
if he is only sober enough to stand up. Until
two years ago,' he continued quite seriously,
while his friends remained as solemn as judges,
until two years ago, our capable, but penurious
'
Town Council, always provided at least twelve

graves ready dug in the cemetery for our
Christmas festivities. But after Mr. Wakeup
became a member he used do
his influence to
away with the good old custom, saying we were

behind the times, and a lot of nonsense of that
sort, and that we must be active and capable
enough to deal with emergencies as they arise.

The fact is, I understand, that Mr. Wakeup
was the Unitarian Ministry line of business
in
before he took the Coyote Saloon; and of course

he cannot be expected to have the same tender
feelings about this happy season which the rest
of us naturally have.'
" '
There was a chorus of That 's so and

'
'
Darned well put, Professor!' from the assem-
' '
bled citizens, while the Professor as they
called him, arose and solemnly introduced him-
self to me as Theodore Cecil Lexington, Pro-
'
fessor of Biology, University of New England,

Massachusetts, United States of America.'
Then he requested all hands to fill their glasses
to the brim, and drink to the health and better
' '
acquaintanceship of my friend (here the Pro-

fessor referred to the letter of credentials which
I had handed to him)
'
of my friend, Mr. Jacob
Busby, a name, gentlemen, which reminds us

pleasantly, but not too obtrusively, of being
busy ! You simply leave out one b and you have
the word. Or you take my dear friend's name
from another standpoint, and in full. Busby !
a large shaggy cap worn by the Royal Artillery
which, as you all know, gentlemen, is a brave
and gallant regiment belonging to that great
and glorious nation from which we are all de-
scended.' Here the Professor had evidently in-
tended to wind up his speech, but hearing
several murmurs of disapproval, he very neatly
added, and which we had the pleasure and
'
honour of most thoroughly licking at Bunker

Hill and on many other notable battlefields.'
This brought down the house, and he resumed
his seat amid a storm of applause and good
fellowship.
"
It was the first time in my life that a real
scholarly gentleman had ever spoken to me

familiarly and on even keel as it were. And
although I knewwas kind of making
that he
fun of me, yet it sounded mighty pleasant, and
somehow his soft voice, and properly balanced
lingo, put me in mind of the dear old schooner
as she would slide along over the long lazy
swells on a fine moonlit night, with just enough
of wind to fill her sails, and with a kind of mur-
muring sound as if the little craft and the sea

were making love to each other."
As Jacob wound up this pretty, and rather
poetical sentence, Mrs. Busby stared at him
with a dazed look as if she feared he was going
mad, or was going to die. "Jacob! whatever
has come over you ? where did you learn poetry ?
You never said such things to me, and I am
sure I tried hard enough to make you, for a girl
always wants poetry when she is in love ! What

"
on earth is the meaning of it all, Jacob ?
"
Never you mind, Mary, the thing is there
all the same even if I can't always say it. I re-
member how I used to cry and shiver in old

Deacon Slowcome's Sunday school class, over

that awful hymn :
"There is a dreadful hell,

With everlasting flames,
Where sinners must for ever dwell
In darkness, fire, and chains."
Jacob said with a queer half smile, and

this
after pausing a little as if to gather up the threads

of his narrative, he quietly proceeded. " The
Professor very kindly told me where I could get
supper, and as every hotel and lodging-house in

the town was chokefull of people who had come
tohave high jinks on Christmas, he told me to
come back after supper, and he would give me
a corner of his bedroom to make a shake-down
with my blankets for the night.
"
The Professor told me afterwards how he
'
had come to be '

side-tracked as he called it, in
this far-off western wilderness. There was a

woman in the story (I never heard a story yet
without a woman and there was a dead
in it),
man, and a lot of trouble. Then there was the

help of friends who loved him for the memory
of the days before he went wild, and a mother
who spent all her fortune on lawyers and courts,
and all that sort of skullduggery, and died of a
broken heart at last. Anyhow, my friend got
clear after awhile, and made tracks for the
West. Of course it was an end of the Professor
business, and all that highfalutin', but being a
smart man he soon picked up a job out this way,
where, what a man can do, is of very much more
importance than what he has done in the past.
"
went to have supper as my friend ad-
I
vised, and was very glad to get through and

start back to his room, as all over the town
groups of men were

playing high jinks. I knew
that if they got a hold of me I would have a
rough time of it, for nothing pleases those sort

of fellows so much
as getting a tender-foot (as
they call a new-comer) to make fun of. The

fun consists of such tricks as two of the crowd
taking you by the arms, and then counting thus

'
One two -three jump!
'
jerking you a foot

or so from the ground, while the leader of the
band puts a bullet from his revolver exactly on
the spot where you jump from. The faster this
is done, and the more accurately, the
greater
the intense enjoyment of the spectators. These
sort of amusements went on for a week and
then things quieted down. Small parties of men,
more or less used-up and seedy-looking, could
be seen leaving town at all hours of the day and
night and in a week from the night I arrived
;
the Needles was once more the quiet place it
usually is, withits one bit of excitement, the
incoming and outgoing trains.
"Mr. Lexington (or rather the Professor as

everybody called him) settled down to business
the day after New Year, and told me that he
wished me to take charge of a portion of the
railroad in the desert. My duty would be to
keep a certain length of the line in order, doing
anything that one man could do alone, and get-
ting extra help when necessary. The occupa-'
tion is not one of brilliant hilarity,' said the
Professor, 'but there great opportunity for

is
inward reflection, and studying the poetical and

the aesthetic properties of the human mind.
You will also have the consolation of drawing
excellent wages, viz., five dollars per diem.'
"Next day the train took me to my station and
dumped me down with my little belongings and
a fortnight's grub.The foreman of the working
gang came along and showed me my boundary,
and instructed me in my duties, which were, to
see that the line was clear, and to report any
damage that might occur by washouts or other-

wise.
"
My shanty was made of half-rotten railroad
ties covered with a canvas roof. I had no com-
panionship whatever, excepting that of a poor
old miserable-looking black cat, which the fore-
man belonged to the last lineman, who
told me
was found dead on the rail the day before Christ-
mas, and was buried a little way back of the
shanty.
"
asked him how the accident happened, to
I
which he replied, as he busied himself filling his

'
pipe, I
guess it wasn't any accident at all.
Hello! here's the train,' he cried, as he waved

the signal-flag. 'Good-bye, Mr. Busby, good-
bye! Don't mope, keep your mind lively with
Sankey's hymns, or coon songs, or even swear-
ing at the cat, or the Mojave lizards which
always fill up the shanty on the hot afternoons
but don't mope!' With that parting advice
he leaped on the train, and with a final
'
So
'
long was gone.

!
" had nothing further to do but to cook my

I
supper and arrange my things in the shanty.

The season had been what they call a dry one,
and that means in the desert very cold in winter
and very hot in summer. I remember that first
night in my new quarters very well, and I think
it was about the coldest spell I ever felt. The
thermometer falls very much lower in the east and

nobody talks of zero or that sort of thing as being
out of the way. But this I know that the cold

about Cape Cod doesn't eat into a man's vitals
in the way it does in the desert. I suppose the
air is so clear that there is nothing to break the
cold like the bits of fog and cloud and spray

that happen near the sea. And then the stars!
Why, in the desert they seem so near that a

strong man might throw a stone on to them !
' '
On the nights when I couldn't sleep (and they
were pretty frequent when I first began to live
out there), I used to roll myself in my blankets
and sit propped up against my shanty and watch
the stars. would try to count them, but that
I
was hard work and usually sent me to sleep,

when I would waken up at daylight with a stiff
neck and as cold as ice. But what interested
me most was just to look at the big stars (and
they are all big out there) and to think of them
as places where men and women and children
live. you there was a sort of comfort in
I tell
the idea that there were people looking at me

from those stars, when I knew only too well
that there wasn't a soul near me in that cursed
desert.
"
So the days and weeks and months went
past one day so like another that unless I
had kept a little record in a notebook, I would

have thought I had been there ten years when
I had
only been there ten weeks. Of course I
wrote letters to Mary and she wrote letters to
me. But, oh ! how I longed to hear her speak,
the great God only knows!
"
When I had been on the line one year I
concluded to go into the Needles and have a
settlement with the Company, and put my
money into some sort of investment, where it

would make a little by interest. I had a tidy
sum to draw nearly fifteen hundred dollars
as I had a little money with me when I arrived
from the East, and had saved every cent I
I
could, so that I
might be able in two years
or so to have enough money to buy a bit
of land on the coast somewhere and send for
Mary. This was the one hope which kept me

alive during the first year; what kept me alive
during the second I will tell you presently. All

through that first year it would have made a
Quaker laugh Meeting, to see the way I
in
totted up my account every night of my life
just to find how my balance stood. I knew it

all off by heart to the last cent, but it was the
one pleasure of my life to see in figures just
how my account stood, and to reckon the exact

day when it would touch the three thousand
dollar notch ;
for that was the sum I had fixed
upon as theamount necessary to buy the bit
of land, when I could send for Mary, and be
done with the cursed desert for ever. Oh, how
I hated it all! I have never been what the
books call a society man,' and even as a boy

'
I never cared much to talk myself or to hear

others talk. But in the desert I would have
given some of my hard-earned gold to hear
the darnest old scalawag jaw upon any subject
he didn't understand worth a cent (and these
are always the subjects that scalawags jaw
about), just for the sake of hearing a human
voice.
"When the boss of the line used to come
out once in a great while, and go fussing
around, and swearing like a pirate as such
men are apt to do I would follow him about
like a dog, and drink every one of his words
in
as if they were the sweetest music ever made

by the blessed angels.
" I
got leave from the boss, who sent a man
out to take my place for a week, and went into
the Needles the day before Christmas, just one
year to a day after I first struck that town. I

found the Professor exactly the same as the year
before. The office and surroundings were un-
changed, only perhaps a little more ramshackle
and out of order, if that were possible. My
friend greeted me with the same kind manner
as at our first meeting, and with the same
beautiful of running off his words that was
way
delicious to my unaccustomed ears it some- ;
how brought back the memory of all sweet

sounds I had ever heard, such as the singing
of birds in spring-time, the lapping of the sea
on a calm summer day, the ringing of church
bells on a still Sabbath morning when the
sound seems to come floating towards you,
rising and falling on the air as if it were some
wonderful thing you could touch with your
hands.
" '
Well,' said the Professor, in his soft, sweet,

*
clear tones, well, Jacob, my dear friend ! wel-
come once more to the splendid metropolis of
the West, and to my humble yet honourable
mansion, part and parcel of the aforesaid great
city. perceive some thoughtful lines upon
I
your massive brow, indicative of much sweet

self-communion at the fountain head of all
poetry, which is Nature undisturbed by the
frivolous and distracting presence of our too
often vulgar fellow human-kind. Now, Mr.
Busby,' continued the Professor with a graceful
sweep of his hand, 'make yourself at home,

and freely use (as if in your own beautiful and
healthful country residence) all the conveni-
ences, not to mention elegancies, of my town
house. I regret the absence of feminine person-
ality, which I
daresay you perceive in the
slightly incongruous arrangement of furniture

and knick-knacks. dear Jacob, there
But, my
is a certain recompense even in the absence of
that sweet presence, in the fact that you can
lay anything out of your hand (such as combs,

brushes, razors, soap, towels, boots, etc., etc.)
with the certainty of finding them again; whereas,
to put it
mildly and with all due respect, under
feminine government it is very different, as
most of us are aware.'
" '
The incongruous arrangement of furniture
and knick-knacks,' as the Professor put it, was
a lot of empty whisky and wine cases scattered
about the room as seats, and a strong rough
settee in one corner which served as a bed on
occasion,and on which I slept the first night of

my arrival at the Needles just a year before.
"
The Professor had a little bedroom at the
back of the office, and this, with the sitting
room, constituted the whole of what he called
his town house. I explained my business, and
my hopes and wishes for the future to Mr.
Lexington. He most kindly
listened with the
interest, said a few pleasant words regarding
my prospects, and proceeded to put my ac-

count into shape. Of course I knew exactly
what I had; but in less time than I could
have put the figures on a slate, he had the
whole thing fixed on fine red-lined paper, and
my balance shown in beautiful large figures as
clear as print, and correct to a nickel. Then he
handed me a receipt to sign, and began writing
an order for the money. But before he had
done more than write pay to the order of
'
Jacob,'he paused and said, Busby, my friend,

'
you wish to make all the money you can this

incoming year, with a view of forsaking the
calm, not to say secluded life you have been
enjoying during the last year, and embarking
upon the very hazardous ocean of matrimony.
"
Jacob, I have been in this
'
Now, my dear
"
mundane sphere at least ten years of time's
ceaseless course" longer than you have. And
consequently I assume that my experience with

the fair and charming, but, alas! volatile sex,
has been considerably more extensive than
yours. This urges me, on account of the deep
interest I have taken in your welfare ever since
the happy night when our friendship so aus-

piciously began, towarn you of the extremely
risky course you are pursuing. But with this
most laudable desire to warn you, also comes
the sad knowledge (learned, of course, by my
aforesaid longer experience of life than yours)
that the warning will be utterly wasted upon a
young man in your state of infatuation. There-

fore, upon the often foolish principle of making
the best of a bad job, I congratulate you with
all my heart, and may all your foolish dreams
be fulfilled.'
"
All the while the Professor was saying this,
his lips were smiling and his
eyes twinkling
with a merry, simple expression, like what we
sometimes see on a child's face when the young-
ster is trying to make
us laugh at some funny
little story he has invented on the spur of the
moment. Then he swung his office chair round

to his desk, took a blank book with printed
forms of receipts, and filled out a form for me
to sign ;
having completed this he took another
book me
a cheque for my money pay-
to give
able in Los Angeles. The Professor had advised
me to draw my money at that town instead of
at the Needles, ascould there place it in the
I
savings bank and get a nice bit of interest

every six months. Presently he turned to me
with a laugh, saying, 'Jacob! enough of busi-
ness for one day let us shake off dull care, as
;
the song says so wisely, and proceed to the
banqueting-hall, and regale the inner man with

the feast of reason and the flow of soul.'
"
He wrote out a cheque for the money, at the
same time advising me to leave it in his safe
until I went to Los Angeles the day after
Christmas. Having settled our business, the

Professor slipped his arm through mine and
we started off to have our supper. There are a
good many eating and drinking places in all
frontier towns, and the Needles has its full
share. My friend seemed to know all about
them and made running comments upon each
as we passed along. At last we came to the
same restaurant where I had eaten my first meal
in the Needles just one year before. The Pro-
fessor entered, and taking possession of a small
table in a corner of the room, invited me,
'
To
take a seat and yourself at home regard-
make
less of the splendour of the surroundings.' The
splendour consisted of a bare room with a bar

on one side, and a cooking-place on the other,
and a lot of rather rickety tables with very
much soiled table-cloths. There were two negro
waiters, one of whom proceeded to give the

dirty cloth a sort of sweep with a still dirtier
towel, and then slapped down
a large glass of
water to each of us with that air of superi-
oritywhich only a negro can assume.
"
After studying the bill of fare a long time,
without paying the slightest attention to the
waiter's evident impatience, the Professor
handed the bill to me, remarking,
'
Mr. Busby,
would you please study this wonderful and
artistic menu. Allow me also to suggest that
by no means you decide hastily. In the mean-
time I shall hold a little pleasant converse
with Mr. Samuel George Washington. Mr.
Washington, permit me to address you by your
illustriouscognomen only your mellifluous
baptismal names being for the moment under-
stood but silent Mr. Washington! allow me
to introduce to your distinguished notice my
valued friend, Mr. Busby, whilom of Cape Cod,
and now of the Santa Fe Railroad Company.
We have come, Mr. Washington, to your vener-
able hospice, for the refreshment of the inner
man, and at the same time for the quickening
and elevating of the aesthetic part of our nature,
by the simple process of gentle friction with
your stupendous intellect.'
A A
"
While the Professor was saying this with his
soft voice and beautiful manner, the big impud-
ent nigger underwent a complete change. I
cannot tell whether he thought it was flattery,

or a proper respect paid to his great mind;
whether he thought it was sarcasm which he
dreaded some one else would hear and smile at,
or whether, with the tremendous vanity of his

race, he took the Professor's words as the
simple truth anyway, he became a changed

nigger, and took our order with the most pro-
found care and respect. Everything went off
finely. I ate the best meal I had tasted since I
had seen California, and under the most happy
circumstances. With the cheering wit of the
Professor (which I know now he assumed to
take thoughts off the dismal desert life
my
that lay on me like a nightmare) I almost for-
got the silence and killing monotony to which

I would return in a few days, and felt a little of
the old interest in which the past year had
life
almost taken out of me. The fact was my future

was really bright if I had been able to look at
it as another would have seen it. But even the
Professor's brilliant talk failed to dispel for a
moment the gloom that weighed upon my soul
like the shadow of death.
"'Come now! Jacob!' he cried; why so sad

'
when all the rosy future lies before? If it were

I who wore the clouded brow there might be
some reason for doleful sighs and sad expres-
sion. My life, tragedy and comedy, is in the
archives of the irrevocable past, yours in the
plastic and beautiful coming years. Therefore,

my friend, take time and destiny by the fore-
lock, and mould the future into beauty and use-
fulness. Give no encouragement to the malig-
nant demons who are always watching for a
weak moment to pounce upon us and tear our
life to pieces, as buzzards watch a tired or
wounded Courage, comrade, while there
deer.
is yet time! while there is yet time!' he
repeated slowly in a sad low voice, quite different
from his usual clear, sweet tones.
"Just then, angry voices, the crash of a fall-
ing table with glasses, bottles, pipes, and packs
of cards, the springing of men to their feet with
hands at their hip pockets, warned us that there
was about be the not unfrequent ending to a
to
western gambling bout. In a moment the Pro-
fessor sprang the wild, half- drunken
among
men, gently sweeping his long delicate white
hands over the pistols and knives that were
ready for their deadly work.
'
Gentlemen !
gen-
implore you not to mar
'
tlemen!' he cried; I
the peace and good-fellowship of this festive

occasion, by any exuberance of high spirits
partly due to the present happy season, and

partly attributable to the influence of the flow-
ing bowl. Gentlemen put up your pretty play-
!
things in the name of the mothers that once

nursed you at their white breasts, and who are
now lying in silent graves, or are toiling along
the weary road of life thinking of you at this
'
very moment. Gentlemen! I

implore Then
a shot rang out, and my friend threw
up his
hands as he staggered back into my arms with
his heart's blood staining his handsome mouth
and trickling down on his shirt-front. A dozen
willing hands carried the dying man to the
settee, and I put my coat under his head for a
pillow. He did not speak or seem to feel pain,

and lying quite and holding my hand, he
still
died with a peaceful smile on his face, as if he

had found at last what he had always been
looking for.
"
When I
my friend was dead
realized that
the only man who had treated me kindly in that
dreary miserable land I felt as if I were going
mad, and with a curse on them all, I demanded
who was the murderer of my friend! An old
man laid his hand on my shoulder with a
kindly touch.
'
My young friend/ said he,

'
don't
speak hastily, and above all, don't use the word

murderer among gentlemen. It is not good
form, and what is more, it is not judicious. Our
late lamented friend would never have used
such a coarse word. So, my dear young man,
" "
allow me to advise dry up as we say
you to
in the West. You know that more than a dozen
guns were drawn at once, but not one was
drawn with any unpleasant feeling to the learned
Professor. unfortunately, through the
Still,
kindness of his heart, and doubtless with the

most benevolent motives, he thoughtlessly in-
terfered with gentlemen settling a trifling dis-
pute according to the simple, and I may add

satisfactory method of the country ;
and so he
met with an accident which I feel certain we
all deeply deplore, but which was most probable
to happen with a dozen nervous hands on as
many hair- triggers. We will each and all attend
to the obsequies of our late friend, as men of
honour ought to do for the sake of the memory
of an honourable man, which is all that is neces-
sary, and that even the most exacting man

all
of honour could expect under the sad circum-

stances. With this, my dear young friend, you
will no doubt see the propriety of cheerfully
acquiescing.'
"
There was a general chorus of approval
from the crowd of fierce-looking, half and even
wholly drunken men. 'Bravo Judge! you're
the boy with the elegant tongue, bedad! you
ought to be in Congress, me boy! and not

wasting your sweetness on the desert air, as the
saying goes.'
" '
Shut up, Paddy ! and don't be making an
coyote-ass of yourself, at a darned un-
all -fired
lucky time like this, when we're all kind o' un-
fixed in our in'ards by this blasted mistake
thatsome double jackass-rabbit-fool among us
has made to-night. If our end of the bar-room
hadn't been so pesky full o' tobacco smoke, and
we hadn't been so all-fired drunk, we might
have spotted the galoot that went swinging his
gun around in such a darned careless fashion;
and if we had I for one would have voted for
a lariatand the nearest telegraph post. But,
mates, the thing is done, and the verdict of the
"
"
jury is accidental ?
'
A
response of Thet 's
'
so,' came from the crowd. '

Well then, we have
only to thank the judge handsomely for his
beautiful oration to this young man who is
really to be excused for getting mad at the fool

(whoever he was) who onhitched his trigger

like a Piute in a war dance.
" '
Now then, boys, all that is past, and what
we have to do
hurry up about giving the Pro-
is
fessor here a good send off. Mr. Burrows will do

the job properly with his shiny new hearse, if he
sees the needful put up beforehand. So all you
have to do is to put your hands
your pockets in
and dig up the yellow metal, for I guess, mateys,

that I will take no silver for this racket.' In a
few minutes the man's hat was so heavy that he
had to use both hands, and presently a committee
of three of the soberest of the crowd counted
the money, and announced that the collection
amounted to five hundred and seventy dollars,
which seemed to be satisfactory to everybody.
"
I need not
weary you any more with this
part of my long-winded yarn. poor friend My
was buried next day. Every digger and idle
person in the town and that seemed to in-
clude the whole population turned out to pay
their respects to the dead, for he had been a
general favourite with men, women, and children.

It seemed strange to me, coming as I did from
an old-fashioned place, that there was not the

slightest effort made to fix the guilt of the brutal
crime upon any one.
"
The day after the funeral things dropped
into the old way with such commonplace regu-
larity that it was hard for me to realize that I

had witnessed what I called an unprovoked
cruel murder, but which the inhabitants called
'
a durned onlucky accident.'
"The cheque for my pay being locked up in
the Professor's safe, nothing could be done
about it until his successor came from the East.
It is a feature of Western civilization that the
law looks after any matter connected with money
with the most scrupulous care; 'accidents' to
the person are usually considered quite venial
affairs.
"
With a very sad and heavy heart I went
back to my dreary job in the desert. The
months passed along as they always do whether
we are happy or miserable. The yucca burst
into its delicate bloom and slowly faded, leaving
the ghostly plant more ghostly and ugly still
with the bleached-out flower stalks hanging from
the ends of the grotesquely crooked branches
which always gave me the idea of something
in pain.
"
So the time passed for six months. I had
not got my money for the past year, and when
I asked the boss, who visited me once in a
great while, about the cheque, he shook his head,

'
and guessed he would rather say nothing on

'
the subject. All these six months I had not

had the scrape of a pen from Mary. Of course I
concluded that she had given me the slip, and
the feeling grew strong upon me that I was for-
'
gotten all round. The which

'
o desert sickness
attacks all men sooner or later under such cir-
cumstances, took firmer hold of me month after

month. Like all the rest who had gone before
me, I lost the
power of thinking aright. I quite
forgot to consider that I had not written to
Mary for nearly a year. She had kept on hoping
month after month for an answer to her letters,
and when none came she concluded that I had
gone crooked, as half the men who go West do,
"
and had given me up, poor little woman !
Here Mrs. Busby arose and gave her hus-

band a resounding slap. " And you deserved
to be given up, you dear old stupid Jacob that
"
you are! She laughed, and turned to arrange
something in the room, but not before I had

detected tears in her eyes, and a look on her
face which showed how near she was to a burst
of weeping, as the memory of that time came
vividly back. Jacob took no notice of his wife's

interruption and proceeded slowly, as if he were
thinking aloud rather than speaking to others :
"
That 's how the mind of a man goes when he
lives in the desert alone. It isn't half as bad if
he is cast away on an island, for there, ten to

one, will be some animals or birds for com-
panionship, and anyway there is the sea which
is never exactly the same for two days at a time.
But the changeless desert is quite different, and
the man who can stand it for years without
going mad or silly I think has yet to be built.

"
So
things kept going on from month to
month. I got so at last that I had not energy
to tell the boss when he came on his monthly
round, that I wouldn't stay any longer. I think
he knew how I felt, for he
gave me a bottle of
whisky, and told me to take a swig at any time
when I felt extra queer. One day, about this
time, when I went a little farther out than usual
gathering grease-wood for my fire, I found the

skeleton of a man under a big yucca. There is
one peculiarity among many the cursed yucca
has, which is, that it yields less shade for its
size than any other vegetable that I have run
across in my
wanderings ;
and
at once I saw
that some poor fellow had crawled here hope-
lessly seeking a little shade from the murderous

sun of the desert, and had laid himself down in
despair to die. The skeleton lay quite straight

on its back, with the hands by its side, and the
grinning skull, with the empty eye-holes, staring
up at the fierce sun as if in defiance.
"
In any other less God-forsaken country the
bones would have been scattered about by the
coyotes, but Mr. Coyote is too civilized to try
to make a living in such a barren waste as the
Mojave desert.
"
I have seen dead men by the score on our
bleak New England coast. Never a winter

storm blows there but some poor schooner, or
even square-rigged craft, comes to grief on that
wild stretch of coast-line between Cape Sable
and Cape Cod. We
fishermen see death so
often by drowning that we take it as a matter
of course, and have no horror of it at all.
We know there is not much pain in that way
of going, indeed there is no pain at all, as
Ihave proved, having been what you may call
drowned twice, and never felt a twinge of any-
thing disagreeable until my mates were getting
me back to life. Then in a wreck you have the
comfort of companionship, which is a mighty
thing to help a man in a tight place, on sea or
land. But this poor solitary soul had gone in
loneliness, and in the long agony of thirst, as

was shown by no bottle or tin flask being near.
The sun will burn away clothes into dust before
long, but it can't tin. These

burn away glass or
white bones made me had never felt
feel as I
before in the presence of the dead. In a wreck

on the coast they come ashore in twos and
threes, and I have seen more than a dozen men,
women, and children, all lying near each other;
some naked, some with bits of rags on, and
some half covered by the tangle, as if the sea
was ashamed of what it had done, and was
trying to hide its cruel work.
" Such scenes are too
pitiful to express in
words; but, as I say, there is not much horror
in them to men who are accustomed to the sea,
like myself.
" But man had died forgotten, or not
this if
forgotten, at least his fate was utterly unknown

to all those who had loved him at some time or
other. In a wreck the ship is reported, as a rule,
and happens on any sort of a civilized coast,
if it
the dead have decent burial, which always

counts for something. But those who loved, or
knew these bones when they were a man, never
heard where or how he passed in his checks at
last.
"
So every day I
got to thinking more and
more of the lonely figure out on the desert,

until I had a fixed idea that my end would be
the same, and the sooner the better. In the
moonlight nights it became a regular habit with

me to go over and sit by the white bones, and
lay my hand on the smooth skull, and talk aloud
as if the ears that had grown deaf in a long-
past agony could hear a human voice they had

longed in vain to hear when dying. I used to
sit hour after hour in this way, until the moon
sank westward, and the shadows of the ghostly

stems of the yucca would make narrow streaks
of black across the white ribs and backbone, in
such strange shapes that I could fancy the bones
were moving. Then the blood-red dawn would
begin to show in the East, which was the signal

for me to wish my friend good morning, and
start off to my duties on the line.
"*v" "Tv" *rt~ "7v" T? *w"
"In this way another year or so went past.
My only companion was my friend out on the
desert, for the overseer or any of the hands

who came along found no pleasure in talking to
a man like me, whom they looked upon as sullen
and ill-natured; which was indeed a pretty true
estimate of my character at that time. I did
not once go into the Needles during all that
miserable year. Somehow, I had got it into
my mind that no more letters would come from
Mary, and as for the wages due to me it did

not seem of much account whether I ever got
them or not. Sometimes it came into my mind
to stop a train with a danger signal, tell the
conductor that I was mad, and that he had
better let me ride quietly to Los Angeles or I
would somebody. But a great feeling of

kill
loneliness would creep over me whenever I
thought of leaving my friend on the desert.

Moreover, a fixed idea took firm hold of my
mind at this time that it was my fate to die at
my post, and that my bones would be left to
bleach beside the only friend I had now in the
world."
Here Jacob paused, leaned his head on his
hand and looked away over the green landscape
and the beautiful blue sea, with a sort of gasp,
as he were slaking a dreadful thirst with a cool
if
draught of nectar. Then he calmly resumed:

" Of course I was then insane. The life of lone-
liness had produced its usual result, and I was
mad. The
strange thing about such a state is
that no one suspects madness until the madman
does something dreadful. The overseer gave
me my instructions, and asked me questions
about the line, got my list for such things as I
required to be sent out, and never seemed to

notice any sign of the disease that was eating
my heart and brain; or if he did notice it he

very criminally left me to my fate. I know now
that if saw any poor chap in the same way
I
as I then was I would take him away from

whatever fix he was in, if I had to tie him hand
and foot and carry him on my back.
"
At last the climax came as it does in all such
I made
cases. up my mind very clearly and
quickly at last. I decided to lay the burden
of life down beside my only friend under the
yucca tree.was several days making my
I
arrangements, although any one would have

thought that I had not much to arrange. First
I wrote a letter to
Mary, telling her that I was
tired of this place, and that I was moving off
to what I was told was a better climate for
disease of the heart with which I had been
troubled of late. I then said that as I had
plenty of money in hand for all the expenses I

expected to incur in the new country, especially
asI intended to
stay with a dear oldfriend, I had
left all my salary in the hands of the manager
of the railroad company, with instructions to pay
the money to her when she presented my order
at the office in Boston. added a small
I also
joke, as I thought it would put her mind more at

ease about me That I hoped she was getting
'
along finely, and that she had two or three big

boys by this time, and that her husband would
"
soon be a member of Congress.'
I felt sure that Mary would punch Jacob at
this part of his history, but glancing her way I
saw that she had turned away, and by a slow
motion of the shoulders, I knew she was
"
silently weeping. After I had done that job,"
"
continued Jacob, I wrote a clear letter to the
agent at the Needles, asking him to send all my

money to the office in Boston,
making payable it
to the order of Mrs.Mary who was before,
marriage Miss Mary Price. You see I had firmly

made up my mind that Mary was married.
That was part and parcel of the disease induced
by the horrible monotony of the desert, and
known in some parts as prairie jiggers.' I then
'
turned my attention to my shanty. I had always

been a careful man, and took pleasure in arrang-
ing and keeping all my little belongings in good
order. I cleaned and arranged the company's
tools, so that successor would find every-

my
thing ship-shape. I cleared out my trunk, and
burned many little scraps which were too pri-
vate, or too sacred, as some folks would say, to

leave for careless hands to chuck about. The
hardest bit I had to do was
burn a packet of
to
letters which I had kissed and put under my
pillow every night for more than two years. I
thought at one time of putting the packet under
my head when I lay down for the last time, but
the cursed that paper has of lying about,
way
never decaying, and telling things to every-
body which were only intended for one, made
me determine to make white ashes of the poor
little, frayed, soiled bundle. But it was the
stiffest contract ever had to carry out, and
I it
took me fully three days to wind up the job.

"At last I finished my arrangements to my
complete satisfaction, and I
finally determined
to see the eastbound train pass safely, then to
take my revolver and join my friend under the
yucca. It was a blazing hot day, I remember,
and instead of seeking the shade of my shanty

as any reasonable man would have done, and
as usually did for a few hours in the middle
I
of the hot July days, I stood on the embank-

ment waiting for the train to pass. I think I
must have stood there for
doing many hours
nothing, thinking nothing, only intently watch-
ing for the train. What I can remember of my
B B
thoughts is that I had only a fixed, steady pur-
pose to see the train pass, then good-bye to it all!
I had no fear, I had no hope. I knew that my

revolver would lay me to rest in a second of
time. As for the hereafter, I had neither fear
nor hope, only a sort of dull curiosity, such as
I have sometimes coming to a town
felt in in
which I had no interest, and only wished to

arrive at for the sake of a good sleep after long
weary travel.
"How well I remember standing there! the
hot haze brooding, like the breath of a furnace,
over the desert. I can again make out the dim
lines of what would elsewhere have been moun-
tains,but here were only mounds of desert,

more barren and ghastly than the dead level it-
self. How vividly comes back the utter, motion-
less silence, the hateful, overwhelming loneli-
ness of it all. Oh, would the train never come !
At last in the far, dim distance, a faint moving

shadow; then a slightly darker cloud, and a few
minutes later the dense black rolling smoke of
the double engines, like the fires of hell drag-
ging men doom. Nearer and nearer,

to their
until the fire-demons were at my feet; then
with one infernal shriek, the carriages were

sweeping past with no sign of life, the window
blinds close drawn

keep out the heat, and
to
horror, and hatefulness of the desert. I had

seen it all many a score of times, and took very
little notice of it. But somehow, call it what
you a presentiment, a spirit message, a
will
prayer from her who was so far away, and who

I
thought had forgotten me (God forgive me
for the sinful somehow, I say, a
thought !)
fixed idea took possession of my mind that a
message was coming to me by that train, and,

my God, sir! so it did!
"In the last carriage but one, a window was
open and a man was sitting beside the sweetest
faced woman I ever saw. Yes, sir, just that,
and often have said the same thing to Mary
I
here, and strange as it may seem to you, she

has never contradicted me. They seemed to
be watching for me, and as the train rushed
past, the man threw a bundle of newspapers
and magazines which, as I was within ten yards
of the cars, landed almost at my feet. Then they
waved their hands to me in a gracious, kindly
way, that seemed to go straight into my heart,

and made something crack; and as sure as my
name is Jacob Busby, I picked up the papers,
and sat down and cried like a baby, the very
first time I had done such a thing since my
mother died. I don't know what it was. Papers
had been chucked to me many a time, and I
thought nothing of it. But there was something
in this action that I had never seen before, or
never felt before! I took the papers into the
shanty and sat down, and presently I fell
asleep, and never moved tack nor sheet until
the whistle of the morning train woke me up,

and I heard the boss calling me to take my
things, and be ready to meet him as he
to
returned by the afternoon train from Barstow.
After the things were hurriedly thrown out of
the baggage car, and when the train was in
motion, the boss swung himself on to the steps,
and holding out two letters to me, said:
'
Here
are important letters for you which the agent
told me to deliver carefully into your own hand;
look out, grab!' and he shoved the two letters
into my hand, and the next moment was gone.
He never knew; not one soul on that crowded
train ever knew that one of those letters made
;
a reasonable and happy man out of a fierce
maniac. And did those kindly hearts, who

greeted me the day before, know that their
action saved a madman from a miserable lonely
death,and gave him time to receive those letters
which made two people happy in this life, with
a reasonable prospect of being happy in the
life hereafter?
Mary's was like herself, true blue and

letter
to the point. She wrote that as I had not come
to look for her, she was coming to look for me!
and that she would arrive two days after her
letter. The agent, good man that he was (he
is dead now, killed in a
stupid little poker
game misunderstanding), wrote me a kind, sharp
letter, telling me had not sent on my
that he
letter and money to the lady, as I had asked
him to do. He said that a man would re-

lieve me next day, and that as soon as I had
handed over the station to the new-comer, I
was to report myself to the office at once.
When he read my letter he had diagnosed
my trouble in a jiffy; he had had many years
experience of men in the desert. So when
I
got to the Needles on the following day,
he just looked hard at me for a minute or
so, then shook hands, telling me that I must
get ready in a day or two to start for my new
station at Santa Barbara, where the Company
wanted a man like me. I half guessed then, I
know certainly now, that the kind-hearted
agent made the transfer simply and solely to

save a fellow creature from the pistol route, as
we say in the West. I told the agent that the
young lady to whom I had directed him to

send my money (which he had not done) would
arrive at the Needles next day, to look for
me, as I had been too stupid to look for her.
At agent slapped me on the back, say-
this the
ing: 'That's all right! Just what you require,

my man, some one to look after you good!
Whenever the young lady arrives you must be
married and start for your new station at once,
and may good luck attend you!'
"
And good luck did attend us, sure enough.
After two years more with the Company we
had saved a tidy bit of money, so we bought
this ranch-they call it out here and I
farm
have no more to wish for, only to pray that the
good God may keep me and mine in health and
contentment."
SHIRLEY WOLD
SHIRLEY WOLD
THE HOUSEKEEPER'S STORY
HEARD the little romance from

the old housekeeper at the Hall,
whose sister let rooms in Dart-
mouth. Mrs. East (the house-
keeper) was then a wonderfully well-preserved,
bright old woman of over seventy, I think,
but she never acknowledged more than sixty-
five. That was her age the first day I met
her, as she carefully told me, and that was
all she admitted the last day I saw the dear,
bonnie old lady.
was staying at Dartmouth for the late
I
summer and autumn of 1897. Very much run

down in body and mind, I wanted complete
rest and change. I had come home after a good
many years spent in the tropics, and had taken

377
378 SHIRLEY WOLD
up my abode in the quaint old town, in a
rambling old house, which I had to approach

by a long flight of almost perpendicular stone
steps, as indeed one has to do in approaching
almost all the houses in that lovable old town,
which looks calmly down on the placid river,
where many strange, stirring sights were en-
acted in the brave days of Drake, Hawkins,
and many other heroes of beautiful Devon.
Mrs. East used to come on most Saturdays
and stay with her sister till Monday. She and
I became quite well-acquainted, especially after
I fell into the custom of taking her home in my
boat, and so saving her a shilling in passage
money, besides being a sympathetic listener to

the old lady's quaint remarks on things in
general, both past and present. I had hired a

boat for the season, as I always do whenever I
get to a place with a good harbour or river. I
quite enjoyed taking the old body home, not
only for the sake of the row, and as giving me
a definite purpose (which is always a good thing
in all exercises), but also for the great fund
of information which she possessed regarding
places and people for a radius of twenty miles

around the Dart.
To reach Shirley Wold took me on an aver-
SHIRLEY WOLD 379
age over an hour, and two people can do a lot

of talk in that time, especially if one is doing
allthe talking and the other all the listening,
which was nearly always the case, as I liked
the dear old lady's graphic little stones well,
and she was not at all diffident about holding
forth on all manner of subjects.
One morning
she touched on the old days at
the Hall, a thing she very seldom did. She
was recalling the gay old times when she was
a slip of a girl of fifteen or so, and the stately
old dames at the Hall were only a few years
"
her seniors. Yes," she rambled on in her
"
sweet, old Devon accent, Ah, yes !
every-
thing was very different then. Lots of fine
people came to the Hall in those days. The

place was kept up in grand style. The old
Earl liked to have everything in apple-pie
order, and besides quite a large household of
our own, there were always a many visitors
coming and going. My lady had died when

her two daughters were mere children. The
Earl never married again. He got a sister to
take the management of things and to look after
the young ladies. Lady Park was her name,
and when I
grew old enough to understand
things a bit, I am sorry to say that I hated her
380 SHIRLEY WOLD
as no creature should hate another, and I found
that my young ladies (her nieces) had no love
for her either.
"
Lady Park was an old maid, and I have
always noticed that there are two sorts of old
maids, as indeed there are two sorts of every-
thing. There one sort who, after they get
is
past the ramshackle stage of early life, seem

to get an extra share of sugar into their nature;
just like a finemellow russet apple that has

escaped those dratted boys, and hung an extra
month on the tree, sheltered by a warm
sunny wall. Then there is another sort that
is as sour as a crab, and that was the sort of
my Lady She was always bullyragging

Park.
somebody, morning, noon, and night. Not in a

loud, angry way, like poor common folk do, not
a bit like that, but in the quiet, polite, keen

way that gentlefolks have, which is ten
many
times harder to bear than a real good blast of
downright, honest, cursing and swearing. Of
course, the Earl did not mind it a bit, as she
could not annoy him. Besides, she was tall and
very handsome, so looked well at the head of
his table, and could talk like a printed book.
" The
young ladies did not love her, as I
have said, and took every chance to escape her
SHIRLEY WOLD 381
notice. In those old days it was more the

fashion than it is now to have tutors for young
ladies at home. So my ladieshad a French
tutor, an English tutor, a drawing-master, and
a governess to teach the poor young things
how to sit down and how to get up, as if the
Lord didn't teach everybody that, unless they
are born without legs. And so with it all
they
had enough to do, dear loves, and whenever
they could escape they were off on some prank,
either on their ponies, or in the boat on the
river. There was nothing they couldn't do with
a boat or a pony, and as Jack Evans poor lad !
was their constant attendant as groom and

boatman, it was supposed that they were quite
safe. how old heads are usually
Safe! that's
old fools, forgetting how it was with them-
selves when they were young and full of spirit
and my dear young ladies then were.
go, as
"Jack was at that time a little over twenty,
tall and dark, with that kind of Spanish look
which some in Devon have a streak, they

say, that has come from the sailors who escaped
from the great Spanish fleet that good Drake
and Hawkins sent to the bottom, and so
saved us allfrom being Papists or burned at
the stake. Jack lived at the lodge with his
382 SHIRLEY WOLD
mother,who was a widow and a very good
woman, as women go, but, of course, mother-
like,she thought Jack was one of the best lads
that ever lived, and good enough he was, no
doubt. But my experience is, that there never
was a lad, or lass, for that matter, who could
resist thatlook in another's eyes, when once
their fate has overtaken them! And this is
what happened to the poor young things. Of

course, it did not all
happen in a day or a
month, or a year even, for that matter. No
awful thing happens suddenly, excepting death,
and that came after, as it always does.
"You have seen the ladies at the Hall, and
can guess what a lovely creature Lady Mary
was fifty years agone, and her sister was very
like her. But I am telling Lady Mary's story
to-day; maybe I will tell you Lady Ann's
another day, if you don't get tired of an old
woman's gabble.
"
Well, the young ladies, with Jack and
me, used to go tearing about the country like
mad things, as soon as we got out of sight of
other people, especially the young ladies' aunt.
Ah, those beautiful days! The trouble in this
world is that we never know when we are per-
fectly happy until the time is past and gone for

SHIRLEY WOLD 383
ever. I know now that there were not four

happier young things than we were, between
Devon's two seas.
"
About this time a gentleman came to the
Hall on a long visit. He was a sort of cousin
to the young ladies, being the son of the Earl's
half-sister, I think. Just how
the relationship
was I never exactly understood, but this I did
understand most thoroughly, that I hated him
from the first moment I saw his handsome face.

He was a captain in the army, and had come
home from India on sick leave. I wished then,
in my mad days, and I am sorry
wild, young,
to say that I have wished something like it
since, that handsome Captain Murray had been
killed in battle or had died of his wounds before
ever he saw Shirley Wold! But I
suppose it
was all to happen somehow, and if the Captain

had not come some one else would, for sorrow
and mishap are bound to overtake us sooner
or later.
"
The Earl had not seen the Captain for
many years, not, in fact, since he had got his
commission, a lad of eighteen or so, and gone
off to India. Of course, he had changed very
much in fifteen or sixteen years, and from an

ill-set-up boy he had become a wonderfully
384 SHIRLEY WOLD
handsome man. He had the softest voice I
ever heard, a voice of that sort which never

goes beyond the person it is intended for, yet
somehow, be it ever so low, is always dis-
tinctly heard by that person.
"
The Captain soon fell into the habit of
meeting my young ladies when their studies

were over. At this time Lady Ann was nine-
teen and Lady Mary seventeen. It was hard
to say which was Perhaps Lady Ann
best.
would have been called the handsomer, but
that is not saying much, for they were just two
of the prettiest, merriest, sweetest young things
in Devon, or anywhere else, for that matter.
"It soon got to be a plan to try to avoid
Captain Murray whenever we intended to start
on a trek'
'
as old folks say in Devon and Scot-
land, and as those dratted Boers say, too.
Lady
Ann mind him so much, but
did not seem to
Lady Mary could not abide him and, strange ;
to say, it was always at Lady Mary's side that

he fixed himself. I found it all out afterwards,
but at that time I did not know why men will
come where they are not wanted. But I was

just fifteen, so only a big baby with regard to
the ways of men. I have often thought that it
would have been a mercy for us women if the

SHIRLEY WOLD 385
Lord had arranged things so that we began
life at the other end with wise heads on our
shoulders; so that when we grew young and the

men came bothering about us, we would know
a heap of things that girls never find out until
too late.
it is
"In this way the summer months slipped past,

and the sweet autumn days came the best time
of all the year in ourbonnie Devon lanes; when
the hedges are loaded with blackberries and the
hazels are ripe, and the woods are dry and
warm, and the birds are singing with joy; for
all the worry and care of nest-building and
rearing their young is over, with nothing left to

do but eat and sleep and make merry.
"
That, I was the happiest autumn we
think,
four ever had, and God save us all it was the !
last. Certainly the very last for the young ladies

and Jack, and I may say for me, too. For, al-
though I had many happy years with my man
in after life, yet I never had the same careless,
merry, frolicking days again. At the time I am

telling you of, Jack Evans was a very hand-
some and well-mannered lad, and well-born, too,
for that matter. His father had been paymaster
on a man-o'-war, and had retired on a nice snug
pension. He married below his station, as the
c c
3 86 SHIRLEY WOLD
saying goes, that is, he married a ladies' maid
a pretty young thing, who was a deal too good
for him, and just spoiled him with petting and
letting him have too much of his own way.

For you see, sir," here the dear old lady
looked at me with an arch, quizzical expression
which was altogether charming " men require
to be kept in check like children, or nine out of
ten go wrong.
"
So what with the idle easy shore life, and
no one to keep him in order, Evans fell into
bad company, took to playing cards and drink-

ing whisky, and so led his young delicate wife
a miserable life. At last he died when the
boy was about ten, and left the mother and
child without a white shilling, or a roof over
their heads.
"
Bessie Evans had been lady's maid to the
Earl's wife, and so when he found out how
hard up the poor woman was (the old Earl
was always tender-hearted to women) he gave
her the lodge gate, with ten shillings a week,
and sent the boy to school. This went on till
Jack was fifteen, then he was put on board one
of the training brigs, and soon became a very
clever seaman, or rather sea boy. After four or
five years of this sort of life, the Earl arranged
SHIRLEY WOLD 387
with the naval people to have Jack live at the
lodge with his mother, as she was getting too

feeble to live quite alone, and only take his
turn to go out with the brig for a few days
once a month. The Sea-gull
'
that was the

'
name of Jack's craft lay in Dartmouth as

a tender to the Government training ship Vic- '
toria,' and her duty was to take the young

cadets out for a day now and then, to teach
them how to handle sails and ropes, and all the
rest of on a ship really at sea.
it,
"
Jack's duties on shore were very light and
pleasant. Not being
exactly attached to the
household in any fixed capacity, he was not
obliged to wear the Earl's livery; and he
mostly used to swagger around in his man-o'-
war rig, and very neat and handsome he did
look, more 's the pity.

"
It gradually became a custom for my Lady
Mary and her sister to finish as many lessons
as possible on the days when Jack was at sea,
so as to have him with them on all the many
fine expeditions they had planned in the mean-
time, on the river and land.
"
You see we were all mere children, in a
manner. My young ladies and Jack were of
course grown up, as the saying goes. But, sir,
3 88 SHIRLEY WOLD
as you know, young people only turned twenty
are just as foolish as they were at half that age,
and I
may say a lot foolisher for a danger is
;
lurking in their hearts which was not there

when they were only ten years old. But barring
this danger they were as much children in their
ways and feelings as I was, and I know now

that was then simply, as I said before, a big
I
baby. However, the day of awakening was

fast coming, and God help us! a sad day of the
'
knowledge of good and evil it was to us.

'
"
I remember it all as if it had happened
yesterday, instead of being fifty and more long
years agone. was just such a lovely day as
It
this, and in this same month. The hedges were

black with blaeberries, and the hazels were
loaded with nuts. As you went along the hedge
on the field side, whirr would go a pheasant,
and a minute after his mate with a strong brood
would sweep away after him with a merry clatter
of wings and cries. I sometimes wonder why the
merciful God does not give some sort of warn-
ing when dreadful things are going to happen.

We learn, as we get along in life, to expect
things to happen, but that is not what I mean.

What I mean is this. Why does not the merciful
Lord give us some warning of the storms of life
SHIRLEY WOLD 389
as He does of storms of wind and rain, so that
we might flee to some sort of shelter, and not
be taken unawares and hopelessly unprepared ?
I know' what you will say, and what parson
Always trust in the Lord, and He will
'
says.
shelter you from the storms of life.' I know all
about that, and so do my ladies, thank God!
and it helps afterwards. But I would like a
warning ahead, like the lightning and thunder.
I have heard lots of
things said by the parson
and others, but they don't help much. I heard
Captain Murray say to the Earl that afternoon
Coming events cast their shadows before.'
'
But that is a black lie, as most things were lies

which his cruel tongue said.
"
On this particular Saturday my young
ladies had planned to take our lunch with us,
cross to the Shoreham side of the river, and
each bring home a basket of blackberries. We
landed just yonder, by the salmon weir, an-
chored our boat off shore a bit, with a line on
shore to pull her in when we returned, and set
off laughing and full of fun along the lovely
lane that goes up the hill, pretty steep at first,
then slopes towards the sea, and gives sweet
views of the river and bonnie Shirley Wold.
"Ah! how well I remember that day, the
390 SHIRLEY WOLD
lastday of perfectly careless happiness for any
one of us, and how little any one of us dreamed
it was the last! But that is usually the way in
this sad world. The thunderbolt falls from a

clear sky; death lays his resistless hand on our
beloved, and in a moment they are gone! Or a
few softly-whispered words are spoken, and our
inexorable fate has taken hold of us ; childhood,
with all its joys is past for ever! we are launched
upon unknown seas, where all the old well-

known landmarks are obliterated ;
and there
are only new, strange, dazzling lights to guide
us, and we have to prove whether they be
true beacons that will lead us into a safe haven,
or only false will-o'-the-wisps that will lead us
to disaster and shipwreck."
Theold lady paused a bit after delivering
herself of this piece of pessimistic philosophy,
then furtively wiping away the tears which I had
seen gathering in her sweet, soft eyes, she pro-
ceeded with her reminiscences, in a half apolo-
"
getic sort of way: There I go yammering
away like an old fool with my notions, when all
that you wanted was just to hear something
about the folks in these parts. Well, now I
shallgo straight along and tell you what hap-

pened, and after all there is not much to tell.
SHIRLEY WOLD 391
"
We four started
up the lane, full of fun and
frolic, you may be sure. Jack, of course, was
always perfectly respectful but he had a quiet
;
way of smiling and doing things, that somehow

always provoked fun and laughter; this made
him welcome company anywhere and any time.
Then he was exceedingly handsome and sweet
tempered. The training on board of the brig-
o'-war had improved naturally good manners,
and given him a sort of dignified self-restraint
which altogether made Jack a very wonderful
young man to be in the position he then was.
"
As I said, I was only a child between four-
teen and fifteen, and having been held back I
was even younger in my feelings than in years.
Still, in spite of my childishness I must say that
Ihad noticed some things about my Lady Mary
and Jack, which although I no more thought
improper than I thought it improper for the little
boy and girl angels to take each other's hands
and fly around our Lord as they do in a beau-
tifulpicture that is in our church, yet I knew

very well that the little things I noticed were
better not seen, and certainly never to be spoken
about. I often wonder, as we all do after a
great catastrophe, would have done any
if it
good had I gone to the Earl and confided to

392 SHIRLEY WOLD
him what I saw. Of course I never dreamed of
doing anything of the sort then. I only some-
times wonder now when I see Lady Mary, old
and sad, with the wistful look in her beautiful
eyes, if it would have been better to speak ;
but
that 's the way we
all go on in this weary world,
always harking back to the past, and bemoan-
ing something we have done, or left undone,

instead of doing what is yet to be done in the
best way we can.
"
But must get on and tell you of what
I
happened on that lovely September day. You

can see the lane from here as it winds away up
by old Bill Saltcomb's cottage. Alack-a-day!
Bill hath been dead this thirty year and more.
His sons and daughters have been scattered to

the four corners of the globe. Strangers who
never heard of the Saltcombs now plough his
fields, and sit at the old hearth-stone where we
four young happy creatures used to gather, while
dear old goody Saltcomb would regale us with
new made pasties and clotted cream, fit for the
blessed queen herself.
"
We
went far up the lane, almost to the road
that takes you to Brixham. We gathered nuts
and blackberries as we went along, intending
to eat them with our lunch at the head of the
SHIRLEY WOLD 393
lane, under a certain oak that we knew well,

and where there is a lovely peep of the river
and Dartmouth. We did not get along very
fast, as you may suppose; first on one side of the
lane, we happened to see
then on the other, as
big nuts or berries. Of course we were often
scattered, for as we came to openings in the
hedges closed by hurdles we would scramble

through and so get along on the field side, call-
ing and laughing to each other. Once I

crept
ahead and hid at a sharp turn of the road,
thinking to bounce out and give the others a

fright when they came along, as merry children
love to do. But, God be merciful to me a
sinner ! it was I who got the awful fright, as
well as they a fright that has lasted us all our
days, and blasted three young lives.
"
had just snuggled myself under cover of
I
the hedge when a hand grasped my arm like

an iron vice. I gave one faint cry of terror and
then sat perfectly still and half stupefied, for
beside me stood the Earl and Captain Murray.
They had been standing at this corner waiting

for us to come up. I, in my hurry to hide, had
never looked ahead, only backward towards the
others, while the Earl and Captain Murray
being close to the hedge, and keeping quite still,

394 SHIRLEY WOLD
I had not noticed them. How they got there I
don't know. Of course

was all a scheme of
it
Captain Murray, because he was in love with

my Lady Mary; and with a lover's sharp eyes
he saw more than any one else, and so wished to
ruin Jack and have the coast clear for himself.
But it didn't do him much good for all his
cleverness and wickedness, and hateful hand-
some face.
"
Neither of them spoke after the Earl had
said to me,
'
Keep perfectly still, Bessie.' And

perfectly still I did keep, you may be sure,
kneeling on the grass and shaking like a leaf,

forI knew in some awful way that a dreadful
thing was going to happen.

"
I soon heard the others coming. Lady Ann
was on the other side of the hedge,
in the field
and as she came slowly along she was singing

an old song that we all knew. Oh, how well I
remember the refrain of that song, although I
have not heard it for over fifty years! None of

us ever sang again, until forgotten thewe had
way. But I never forgot the words. The refrain
was:
'
Oh, the ship it sailed away,
An' as she watch'd it gae,
Her sair heart brak in twa,
For her sailor!'
SHIRLEY WOLD 395
Iheard them coming nearer and nearer. Lady

Ann was close to us, but on the other side of
the hedge, as I said.Then she stopped sing-
ing,and calling 'Where have you all got to?'
she blew a call on a whistle that she carried on
her watch chain, and Lady Mary answered,
'Coming! coming!' At that moment she and
Jack came in sight hand-in-hand; and at some-
thing she said, laughing and swinging her bas-
ket, he suddenly drew her towards him, and
(God help me! the pang comes again to my

heart) he gave her a quick kiss on her beautiful
mouth. I do not know if that was the first, but
dear God I know it was the last.
"
Of
course, the spying had been planned
beforehand by the Captain. He had reported
some things which he had noticed, and the Earl
had demanded proof before he would believe
any such things of his daughter. Oh, the blind-
ness of human beings ! as if you could play
with and gunpowder as children play at
fire
the chucks. So Captain Murray had planned

it all. May his soul pay for it in purgatory if
he does not repent !
"
The Earl would never have thought out
such a plan himself; he was too lazy, and too
absorbed in his books ever to have noticed any-
396 SHIRLEY WOLD
thing out of the way. But the Captain was in
love with Lady Mary or pretended to be I
don't think such men ever are in love What 's !
the sense of talking of love if the other is not

in love with you! Bosh!" Here the old lady
stamped her foot determined way that
in such a
it made the boat quiver again. Then she said :
"
Here we are at Shirley Wold, and many
kindly thanks, sir, for the beautiful row you
have given me. If you care to hear more of an
old body's rigmarole of what happened when she
was a slip of a lass more than fifty years agone,
I will tell you the rest of it the next time you
have a spare hour. Good day, sir, and thank
you kindly. I see that the tide has turned by
theway the boats are swinging to their anchors
down stream, and as the wind has changed you
will be able to sail back to Dartmouth."
I rowed into the Shirley Wold landing, while
the old lady gathered up her numerous pack-
ages, stepped lightly out of the boat, and with

" "
a final Good day, sir ! went like a girl up
the steep pathway which led to the Hall. But
that is the way with the old folk in Devon ;
they start well in that lovely healthy land, and

they keep it up, if they live to be a hundred.
SHIRLEY WOLD 397
A week or
so after this I had the pleasure of
again taking Mrs. East up the river in my boat;

and I asked the old lady kindly to finish the
story of the ladies of bonnie Shirley Wold.
Without any preliminary she at once took up
the threads of her little romance with great
good will.
"The
Earl dropped my arm with a terrible
oath, then turned to Captain Murray, his face
as white as apron, and said,
'
my Well, sir,
you have won, and you shall have her, if you

'
care to run the risk. Evans! he called to Jack,

in a hard strange voice not a bit like his own,
'
I wish you to take this important letter to
Captain of the brig " Sea-gull," which
le Roy
sails this afternoon for a cruise. I wished to
send you with it this morning, but I could not

find you about the Hall, and as Captain Murray
told me that my ladies had taken you and
Bessie over the river on a blackberrying expe-
dition, I thought I would find you all up the
lane somewhere.' Then he continued looking
into poor Lady Mary's basket 'Well !
you have
made a very poor day of it, Mary! why your
basket is not half full.' Jack had come forward,
cap in hand, to take the letter. My Lady Mary
never moved, but stood with her proud beautiful
398 SHIRLEY WOLD
head thrown back, looking straight into her
father's eyes, and never taking the least notice
of Captain Murray.
"
The Earl handed the letter to Jack, say-
ing, Now then, be as quick as you can. Go up
'
the lane to the main road, run all the way down
to Greenway ferry, then hire a boat with two
men and tell them that I
give them ten
will
shillings each if they reach the brig before she

gets out of the river. Remember that it is most
important that this letter is given to Captain le
Roy before he sails.' Jack took the letter,
standing at attention, and only saying, '

I'll do
my best, my lord,' he saluted, as sailors do; then
putting down the basket which he had held
while the Earl was speaking, he made a dash
for thehedge at an opening where some rails
had been put up to prevent sheep from scramb-
ling over. He made a pretence of climbing
over the fence, which I knew was done on
purpose, forhad often

I seen him clear that
very place at one bound; and the purpose was
to give him a chance to wave his hand slightly
to Lady Mary as he dropped on the other side.
I am
sure that neither the Earl nor Captain
Murray saw the action, and the quick, slight

response from my dear young lady.
SHIRLEY WOLD 399
"
It was all over in a few minutes, and
although I knew that a great trouble had hap-
pened, I little thought that it was only the be-

ginning of sorrow which was to last all our lives,
and that we had seen the gallant, gay young
lad for the last time.
" had remained on my knees
All this while I
just as the Earl had forced me down when

he grasped my arm and ordered me to be still.
I was in mortal terror poor young fool that I
was! but I had not then turned fifteen, so it
was no wonder that I was frightened. The
Earl had stood beside me all the while he was
speaking, and that made it worse. For I had

always been a bit scary of his Lordship ever
since I was a wee child, when he gave me a
shake and a clip because he found me pull-
ing some rare flowers in a bed near the hall

door. I know now that I deserved it, and no
doubt a good deal more. Children are worse
than hens in a flower garden, and this I say
after having had ten of them myself, so I ought
to know. Added to my usual half dread of
the Earl, there was the horror of the present
situation he looked so white and changed,
;
with a glitter in his eyes which I had never

seen in any eyes before, but which I have seen
400 SHIRLEY WOLD
since inmen's eyes when they were almost or
quite mad. So I feared that he might turn on
me, and with his great powerful hand knock
the little
remaining life out of my dizzy head.
But he only gave me a shake, saying, Walk '
behind your mistresses/ as much as to infer

that I had been in the habit of walking at their
side, which indeed was quite true.

" '
Come along, Mary,' he called, in a voice
that he tried to make like his usual way of
speaking, but which sounded strange and harsh,

'
Come along, let us give up wandering for to-
day. I am afraid that you have been doing too
much What
with studies, and outdoor
lately.
exercises, you look rather pale and tired. I think
we must have a trip somewhere. London or
Paris, which shall it be, ma ckere?' My lady
smiled rather wanly, but did not utter a word.
She was the first to reach the gap in the hedge,
and was over before Captain Murray could
offer his hand. Lady Ann was still in the lane,
and I think she must have had a word with
Jack, for I saw her glance at her sister with a
stern sort of look, before she spoke to her father

and the Captain.
"
Then we started down the lane, a very
silent and uncomfortable party. Captain Mur-
SHIRLEY WOLD 401
ray tried to make some talk with Lady Mary,

but she hardly answered him. The Earl
asked Lady Ann a few questions about her
studies a subject neither of them was thinking
about. Then they all seemed to conclude that
talking was a failure, and we trudged on in
perfect silence. When we

got near the river I
ran ahead and hauled in our boat but as it was;
too small to carry all the party the Earl ordered

one of the fisherman's large boats to take them
over, while I
jumped into ours to row it across.
When the others got into their boat my Lady
Mary came with me, saying that the other boat

was too full. But I knew
was not that; I
it
knew that she did not wish to be touching the

Captain, as of course people do touch when
three or four are sitting in the stern of a boat.
" Wehad not been home many hours when
a policeman from Dartmouth came over the
ferry to the Hall. He went in to speak to the
Earl, and then it soon got whispered about
in a mysterious way that some dreadful thing
had happened. But it did not leak out until
next morning what that dreadful thing was.
Then it came out: first in whispers (as such
things do), then openly and in plain talk. Jack
had been found on the Greenway road, dead!
D D
402 SHIRLEY WOLD
shot through the heart with a rifle bullet. He
was taken to his mother's cottage, an inquest
was held, and a verdict of murder was returned
some person or persons unknown. And
against
unknown they have remained for more than
fiftyyears and, I suppose will remain, until the
;
Day of Judgement!
" It was indeed a terrible
mystery. Was it
accident? or was it planned by one black cursed
heart? Nobody was ever the wiser. But, you
know, sir, that men who live for years in them
heathen foreign parts do get accustomed to
ways and things which we call crimes, but which
they learn to look upon very lightly, more 's the
pity and disgrace to men, say saving your

I,
presence, sir." I here mildly intimated that I
myself had, unfortunately, lived for many years

"
in them heathen foreign parts," and yet I
trusted that I had not utterly lost all sense of
moral rectitude. To which she promptly re-
"
plied :
Ah, sir, it 's not your sort that I mean."
"The was found in poor Jack's
Earl's letter
pocket, and, of course, was read at the inquest.

My father, who was on the jury, told me that
the letter was to Captain le Roy, asking him to
keep Jack at sea on active service, as the lad

was falling into bad ways on shore. Bad ways,
SHIRLEY WOLD 403
forsooth ! a better lad never stepped in leather
shoes. But such was the plan that the Earl and
the Captain had made to get Jack out of the
way, if the Earl was convinced of his guilt,

as he called it.
"
Many people said that it was no murder,
only accident. Gentlemen were out shooting
that day in the Greenway Woods, and at times
it is rather dangerous for any one to get in the
line of firing, as I have found myself. Once
when Tom
East was courting me, a stupid
gentleman from London sent a charge of heavy
shot into a tree just over our heads, which
would have our story if it had only
settled
been a few feet lower down. But what made
it
doubly strange was that poor Jack had been
killed by a bullet, and men do not use bullets
for pheasants.
"
Jack's mother died from the shock in a
couple of days, and she and her son were buried
on the same day. Lady Mary and her sister
stayed in their rooms for a week or more, and
when next saw them they both looked ten
I
years older! and older indeed they were, for

never again did they have any of the old-time
frolics or treks.
"
Captain Murray only stayed until the in-
404 SHIRLEY WOLD
quest was over, and then took his hated self off.
He was killed not long after by the Russians at
the battle of the Alma, and I never yet said,
'
God rest his soul !
'
and I never will." The
old lady looked as fierce as such a sweet kind
creature could look, when she said these words,
while quietly wiping her eyes with her apron
and composing her quivering lips.
" man
The Earl never seemed the same
again. Instead of being a kind, generous land-
lord, ashe had always been, he became a
harsh and stingy master never stopping to;
chat with a farmer about the crops, or the

weather, or the game, or things of that sort,
which all landlords and farmers talk about. In
fact,he would hardly notice or pass the time of
day with his oldest tenants. My father had been
on the estate, man and boy, all his life, and his
father and grandfather before him, and he
told me that he never saw a man change as his
Lordship did. My father said that the grief

and disgrace had broken his heart. It was a
wonder it did not kill him. But sometimes the
sorest wounds don't kill, and people live with
broken hearts, just as they live with broken
legs. In some strange way God makes them
used to it, and if they are good people, they
SHIRLEY WOLD 405
grow better, but they are bad, they grow

if
worse. The Earl lived for more than thirty
years after that time, and died calmly and peace-

fully in his bed, upwards of ninety years of
age. I don't know to this day whether to think

of him as bad or good, but I am thankful that
I feel that sort of way about him, that I can
say from my heart,

'
God rest his soul !
'
"
As for the disgrace as the Earl called it
to me, then, and to me, now, therewas no

disgrace in it at all !
only there was more than
enough of sorrow. If a bonnie sweet lass loves
a handsome lad, what 's the harm, I want to
know? Difference of you
station, will say. All
stuff and nonsense ! There was Tom Marsh,
son of the Earl of Leascomb, who fell in love
with a fisherman's daughter at Branscombe, as
pretty a lass, and as good, as ever a man could
find. Well! what happened? you ask. This
happened because he was a brave lad, and be-
cause nobody killed him Tom married the lass,
;
bought a boat, and became a fisherman, and as

the story-books say, though not always truly
(but this is true, for I saw and heard it with my

own eyes and ears, when I went with my man
to visit his mother who lived in Branscombe),
they lived happy ever after, and all in spite of
406 SHIRLEY WOLD
the raging of Tom's father, the Earl, and the
silent scorn of his aristocratic mother. Mind
you, sir, I do not advise

all highborn young ladies
to fall with sailor lads, nor all sons of

in love
noblemen to marry poor working maids, be

they ever so pretty and good. Not at all. I
think that people should marry in their own
rank of life, as a rule, for that is the safest way,
if
everything else is right."
The old lady paused long after these
so
rather radical reflections, that I thought she in-
tended to say no more; and, as she was evid-
ently much affected by the vivid recalling of
long-past sad recollections, I busied myself in
setting the jib and trimming the sails to the
beam after we passed
wind, which came on the
Greenway Ferry. Having made things ship-
shape, again sat down, and took the tiller
I
from Mrs. East, who had been steering while

I was
arranging the sails. She at once went on
with her little story quite clearly, but in a sub-
dued manner, as if the shadows of the long-
past sorrow had again darkened her heart and
saddened her voice.
"
Those terrible days passed, and things at
theHall seemed to go on in the old way.
Company came and went. Lady Park kept
SHIRLEY WOLD 407
everybody in order. My young ladies applied

themselves to their studies very closely, and so
the weeks and months went by. But a shadow
had fallen upon the Hall which never lifted
from that day to this. My young ladies changed
from laughing, merry girls into staid, sedate,
highbred ladies. No more pranks over the

country, no more of the old, familiar, girlish
ways which they used to have with me. All

these things were over and gone, buried for
ever in a dead past; but their ghosts came back
sometimes, as I found out afterwards.
"
My position at the Hall was a sort of
knock-about-girl for the ladies, my duties being

to go messages, feed the birds, or any odd job
But although the young ladies had
of that kind.
a French maid (whom, I must say, I disliked
most thoroughly), yet I was practically Lady
Mary's maid. I always did up her room of a
morning, and was out and in with her fifty
times a day; for what with dogs, and birds, and
kittens, and a dozen other things that girls take
an interest in be they rich or poor there was
always plenty to keep me busy from morning
to night. So in this way Lady Mary and I were
more like companions than mistress and servant.
Lady Ann was, or rather tried to be, a little
4 o8 SHIRLEY WOLD
more dignified than her sister, but they were
both kind and sweet to me in those old days;
indeed, they have been true friends to me since
ever I can remember. God bless them!
"
As I said, a shadowfell
upon the Hall which
seemed to touch and change everything and
everybody. Lady Mary always treated me with
perfect kindness, but the dear old familiarways
were gone. Only once in all these many, many
years has she thrown off her reserve, and shown
me the dead secret that lies in her heart.
"
It happened in this way. was married to
I
Tom East, the gardener at the Hall, when I was
twenty-two, just seven years after these sad

events happened. When my first baby was
born, Lady Mary came to see me. She talked
a while in her old kind way, and then tell-
little
ing the woman who took care of me to leave us

alone, she took the child in her arms, and with
a strange cry, she fell to weeping and sobbing
as I never saw or heard the like of, before or
since. After a while she calmed down a bit,
and kissing my poor little dot of a babe she laid
it back in my bosom, and kissing me with a hot
wet face, went out without saying one word

good or bad. But I knew well that the sight of
the baby had brought into her heart, somehow,
SHIRLEY WOLD 409
the beautiful dead past, with all its sweet, sad
memories. Such memories are hardly ever for-
gotten by women, until death, in God's mercy,
comes; and perhaps they are not forgotten even
then.
MARY DRIVER, THE BEAUTY OF
BRANSCOMBE
MARY DRIVER, THE BEAUTY OF
BRANSCOMBE
iT was a perfect autumn day in
the month of September that in
our wanderings we discovered the
quaint, and most lovable little
village of Branscombe. To tell the truth, we

were quite ignorant of the existence of the dear
old world place until we visited Sidmouth. Then
in one of our many rambles about the country-
side in a pony chaise, we found ourselves on
this lovely autumn day entering the village by
the narrow high-hedged lane that leads into it
from the Sidmouth side.

I think that the month of September is
the most charming time of all the year in that

loveliest of England's counties Devon. To
use a little Irishism, if the weather is fine, it is
413
414 MARY DRIVER, THE
fine in that sweet month in dear old Devon!
And then think the landscape looks its best
I
with the leaves turning yellow, and red, and
purple, yet not falling in any such quantity as

to make you sad with the sight of bare limbs,
those ghosts of the dreary winter which is fast
approaching. On that calm autumn day the

lanes were yet fragrant with many a lingering
wild rose and honeysuckle. The uplands were
ablaze with heather-bells. The hedges were
black with delicious brambles, and every now
and then we came upon groups of happy child-
ren filling their baskets, pails, and hats with the
tempting berries; and, oh! those children in the

rural districts of the dear old land! No wonder
Devon has been famed from of old for its
strong brave men, and its fair true women, for

they start well from their mothers' breasts.
And so we came into Branscombe, discover-
ing new beauties every turn of the road.
at
Our way lay past the old parish church with its
crumbling tower that was built while William
the Conqueror was still ruling the land. Ah
me! what gallant mail-clad knights, and fair,
high-bred dames have worshipped here whose

very existence has been forgotten, and whose
bones have long since crumbled into dust!
BEAUTY OF BRANSCOMBE 415
So we came down the steep quaint street to

the beach, whence the sea stretches away to the
glowing West, a burnished expanse of living

gold, dotted here and there with the brown
sailsof fishing boats. There are quite a num-
ber of fishing boats belonging to Branscombe,
but, I am glad to say, not too many. I am
always thankful when there are only enough

boats in a pretty place to give life and pictur-
esqueness without the noise and vulgarity,

which, I am sorry to say, are too often found in
large fishing villages. For miles north and
south of Branscombe the cliffs are bold and
almost unbroken by comb or stream. These
cliffs are beautifully coloured in white, red, and
yellow of many shades made by the dashing of

the winter rains and streams beating on the
chalk, and various clays and earths of which the
cliffs are composed. Here and there along the
top of the the ground has subsided several

cliffs
feet below the adjoining fields. These hollows

and slopes are only a few yards in extent, but
every foot has been utilized by these thrifty
Devonians for raising early crops of potatoes
and vegetables. These spots, although appar-
ently more exposed than places further inland,
are really several degrees warmer and produce
new potatoes a month earlier than the adjoining
farms. But it always gave me a creepy feeling
to see the men and women digging and planting
their crops on the very edge of the sheer precipice
as coolly as if it were an impossibility for a false
step to dash them to instant destruction on the

cruel rocks far below, an accident that has hap-
pened not infrequently at many places along the

coast.
After spending an hour or two wandering
about the beach and admiring the bold, wild
coast line, I
began to retrace my steps through
the village. There was a little shop with one
window in which were displayed some fine
bits of Honiton lace. The little place looked
clean and inviting, and so I thought here is a
pleasant chance of having a chat with an ancient

inhabitant. The door stood invitingly open
as all doors do in Devon and I stepped in at
once. A woman of about the allotted span of
life was diligently sewing behind the counter,
and rose with the nimbleness and agility of
many fewer years. I had learned to know that
Devon wear well, and carry their mental and
folk
physical vigour into extreme old age. It may be

the climate, or their mode of life, but whatever
the cause, the fact is visible all over the county.
There was an old ruin a little below the village
which had interested me by its queer shape,
and I thought that here was an opportunity to
"
learn its story. Oh, yes," said the old dame
when I asked her, "that was Torland's mill!
It was unroofed and the wheel broken to pieces
storm when the ship Queen of
in the great
'
'
Devon came ashore just fifty years agone come

Christmas Eve. You see, sir, the mill was
quite old, having come down from father to son
for generations; and although it would have
gone on well enough for many a day, barring
accidents, yet when it was unroofed and the
wheel broken, like other old things, sir," she
continued, with a quiet little smile, "it had not
any life left in it to recover, and so it went to
ruin.
"When I was a child Torland's mill was one

of the most beautiful places in all the country
side. It had been a sort of Keep in the old
fighting days,and the tower and drawbridge,

all ivy, and the old moss-grown
covered with
wheel, going slowly round and making a kind
of sweet sleepy music, and the old-fashioned
flowers about the door, made Torland's mill one
of the beautifullest spots in Branscombe.
" I often
used to run over the place as a
E E
girl. Rachel Torland was just my age, and we
were great companions. So I was often at the
mill, and knew every cranny and corner of the
queer old place. I sometimes think that the

mill is like myself. With goneall its attractions
you would hardly think that the old heap of

ruins had ever been beautiful, would you, sir?
but it was a lovely old place fifty years
really
ago. And you would be less likely to think
that in those old days the foolish lads called
"
me the beauty of Branscombe.'
'
She said
this without a trace of vanity or self-conscious-
ness, and with an absent sort of air as if she

were telling me something of interest about a
distant relative.
"
The poor Torlands moved away and I never
heard of them no more; mayhap they went to
some of those foreign parts that have such an
attraction for some folk. But, thank the Lord!
I never was took with such foolish notions. In
this cottage I was born ;
I never slept out of it
one night in all my life, and, please the loving

God, in it I shall die when my time comes.
"
I thought once that I was going to leave it
fiftyodd years agone, when my lad returned

'
from his Indian voyage in his ship the Queen
of Devon.' We had been keeping company for
a goodish while, and I was always urging him
to give up the sea and take over the apple
orchard and bit of meadow-land that his father
held from the duke. A smart sweet place it was
in those days, on the left-hand side of the road
as you come into the village near the top of the
hill, and it had been in the family from father

to son for more than two hundred years.
"
Jim that was my lad's name, sir Jim
Cheere was a brave gay lad, and had always
loved the sea more than the land; but at last
he promised, for my sake, to knock off roving
after one more voyage in which he expected to
visit a part of the world he had never seen be-
fore, and to make a nice little sum of money to

set us up in life for a start. It was arranged
that his mother should look after the place (his

father being dead and gone) until Jim returned
and we were married, and then took all care off
the old lady's shoulders. He was to be away
two years, and so he was to a day!
"
You see, sir, in those days people did not
hurry as they do now. All thegreat foreign-going
ships carried sails, and beautiful they looked,
like white clouds on the ocean, instead of
dirty smoky iron-factories, as the great black
steamers look now. So they did not make such
quick voyages in those days. Six months out,
a year getting a cargo together, and six months
home was the rule in the days when the Queen
began to reign, God bless her! And speaking
of the Queen, puts me in mind that I was
sir,
one of twenty young women who made the lace

for her marriage gown, and sinful proud we
were of the same, and were the envy and the
talk of all the girls and women in Devon. But
I
beg your pardon, sir, I started to tell you
about Jim and the good ship Queen of Devon,'
'
and here I am chattering away about the Queen

of England and my own silly self! Well,
sir, Jim started on Christmas day, which I
thought was hard; but he had to join his ship

at Plymouth two days after, and in those days
there were no railways as there are now, so
poor people had to foot it, with the chance of a

lift in a cart now and then. We had one letter
from Jim a year after he written at a place
left,
in the Indies called Calcutta. He found a ship
sailing as he arrived, and he wrote me a sailor's

letter, full of fun and frolic and high spirits, and
saying he would be home on Christmas just

two years after he and he kept his word.
left us,
Ah, yes ! he kept his word as he always did to

me!
"You sir, it happened in this way.
see, The
good ship and brave men made a fine voyage,
and had worked hard to make port and have a

happy meeting with sweethearts and wives on
that Christmas eve. The Lord knows best, of
course, but it did seem cruel and strange that
allour beloved ones should be cast up by the
savage sea, cold and dead, on the very day we
expected them back strong and well. They had
rounded the Land's End in the hardest o gale
that had blown on the coast for many a year.
They tried to make Plymouth, but was so
it
thick and black with the awful fog and rain, and
the raging wind and sea that it was impossible
to make out any landmarks, and so they kept to
sea as well as they could. But the wind blew
right on the coast, until, with most of her sails

blown away, and her spars and rigging a mass
'
of tangle and ruin, the Queen of Devon was
'
caught between Beer Head and the Otter, and

no ship ever got clear of our coast in such a
gale.
"In the afternoon word reached the village
that a ship was fighting for life off Branscombe
Mouth, near the ten fathoms line. The life-
guardsmen had seen her as the fog lifted a bit,
but they could do nothing in face of such wind
and sea. Every strong man and woman in the
village (forgetting their own troubles that day)
fought their way to the shore against the wild
wind, that struck you fiercely as if it were a mad

living thing, to see if they could give any help to
those who had come so far to meet their doom.
"
You see, sir, Devon and Cornwall folk are
always ready to do all they can for sailor men.
There not a house, great or small, in the two

is
counties but has, or has had, a lad on the sea.

And whenever the wind moans at night half the
women are thinking of some one steering a ship
through a lather of foam, or clinging aloft to a
slippery yard with a wet sail lashing his face."
Here the old woman's lips quivered, and after
a vain effort to control her feelings, she fairly
broke down and putting her apron to her eyes,
;
and laying her head on the counter, she eased

her poor old heart with the blessed relief of
tears and low gentle sobbing. I busied myself
turning over the pretty bits of lace, but I did

not see their delicate patterns. Instead of the
lace I saw a gray December morning, the
cruel sea roaring on the beach although the
still
wild wind had ceased. I saw the wreck of a

noble ship, battered and broken out of all
semblance of her former symmetry and beauty.

And I saw, ah, Lord why should such things
!
be ?
groups of men and women here and there
tenderly laying, beyond the reach of the savage
waves, the still, white, helpless forms that were
gallant strong men yester-eve. And I also saw a
young and an old woman, not weeping and
girl
wailing (that comes later, thank God), the girl

holding the comely head of a drowned sailor in
her lap, and smoothing back the wet hair from
the cold white face. She said never a word;
for when the heart is breaking the lips are
silent. The old woman was kneeling, and with
low words of endearment, such as she would

use to a child, she was arranging her red
peasant cloak decently around the silent form.
Mother and sweetheart of fifty years ago! So I
saw them in my mind's eye, when the then
young sweetheart, and the now old woman, re-
covered herself, and with a tearful smile said " I
must beg your pardon, sir, but I do be so foolish
when get talking over those old times."
I
Perhaps it was a cruel thing to keep harping

away on the tragic story, but the romance and
sorrow of her life had taken such a hold of my
imagination that I could not for the life of me
get away from the subject. "Were there any
saved from the wreck?" I asked. "Not one!
nothing with could reach the shore through
life
the wild sea that night. We

never had such a
storm inBranscombe before or since. Half the
cottages were unroofed, and most of our apple-
trees were torn up by the roots. All the or-
chards had to be replanted, and it was a weary
ten years before we had a cask of cider to sell.
Then the roofs had to be re-thatched, walls to
be built, and it was many a day before Brans-
combe folk were comfortable again, or even
above bare poverty. If it had not been for the
lace and the fishing I don't know how we could
have kept soul and body together. The lord of
the manor gave the men several new boats, and
the ladies of Devon, and even the ladies in far-
off London gave us heaps of orders for lace;
and one way and another with God's help
we managed to pull through that hard time.
"
As soon as the owners of the Queen of '
'
Devon heard of the wreck, they came up from

Plymouth to see if anything could be done.
But, ah, sir! the sea had done its work so cruel
well that there was nothing left for man to do,
except to lay the poor lads in the old churchyard

yonder, with a bit stone at the head of such as
had friends well enough off to do it. His mother
and I worked and scraped for three years and
got together enough to put a stone over our lad.

But it was one of the cheap kind that crumbles
away with the years like the rest of us. You
can hardly read his name now, but bless you, sir,
I can go and lay my hand upon it in the darkest
night, without once making a mistake, and,"

she added, while a sweet smile overspread the
"
beautiful old face, I shall be laid there before
long, and, thank the dear Lord! I shall sleep

with my lad at last, at last! after all the long,
weary Oh, yes, I used to repine a bit

years.
long ago, but not now! not now! as I see
clearly all His mercies. When I think that my
lad might never have come back to me at all,
that we might have been far apart all these fifty
years, instead of being so near that I can skip

up to his grave in the gloaming and talk to him
a bit. And to think that at last might haveI
had to sleep in a lonesome grave! Ah, yes, sir,

the Lord is
very kind to the poor as well as to
the rich, if we will only believe it."
I never saw a calmer or sweeter face than
hers as she said these words, and I could well
understand how this withered old woman was
"
called the beauty of Branscombe," fifty years
ago.
She had now completely recovered her com-
426 MARY DRIVER
posure, and with the greatest cheerfulness and
activity showed me her little store of the far-
famed Honiton lingered long over the
lace. I
selection of the pretty things as souvenirs of my
visit, pretending to be very much concerned in
the choice of patterns, and in getting her to
explain the various designs and the value of

each. fact was I lingered for the reason
But the
that I was good for me to be near this
felt it
patient, beautiful soul and whenever I think of

;
her to this day, and of her great love and faith,

I am for the moment a better and a humbler
man. However "time and tide wait for no man,"

and at last I had to think of the miles that lay
between me and Sidmouth. I made the old lady
quite happy by spending a ten pound note, then
with something very like tears in rny voice, I
took a loving farewell of " the beauty of Brans-
combe."
TANEKAI AND MARINA
TANEKAI AND MARINA
A FOLK-LORE STORY OF THE PACIFIC
|Y dear boy Philip, you are ten

years of age to-day, and ever since
you were seven I have told you a
little story on your birthday eve.
I know that you remember the storytold youI
last, because you said this morning that you

always remembered the sad stories better than
the funny ones. In sayingyou showed a
this,
kind heart, which pleased me very much, for I

would rather that you had a kind, loving heart,
than that you should become the greatest sol-
dier, or the most famous statesman, or the richest
man in the whole world.
" You how
know, my dear boy, I
always im-
press upon your mind what a great and high
privilege it is that your birthday falls on the
429
430 TANEKAI AND MAHINA
same day as that of our blessed Lord. And
while you and I sit here by our bright fire on
this winter night, and I tell you a little legend
of a far-away beautiful land, just to celebrate
your birthday, we can also think that nineteen

hundred years ago a little babe lay in a manger
in Bethlehem, Who came to save the whole
world from sin, and sorrow, and all pain. This
dear Lord is especially fond of children, and
knows exactly how they feel, all about their joys
and sorrows, because he was once a little child
Himself.
"
I told you a year ago about poor little Ben.
You remember how he was run over by a cab in
the Strand while he was sweeping his portion of
the street, diligent lad that he was; and how I
took him to the hospital, and how he lay in his
bed for two long years, and then died and went
into the heavenly land, where he will never suffer
or weep any more. You remember how he
stretched out his poor little withered hands
when he was dying and cried Oh I see
:
'
!
Jesus and the angels! they are coming! they

1
are coming!
"
Now put another log on the fire, and put out
the candles, for I can see the lights and shadows
of what I am going to tell you about better
TANEKAI AND MARINA 431
when there is no other light in the room except

the fire. There ! that will do nicely, come and
sit down beside me and do not interrupt, or
I
may lose the thin thread of my little story.
After have finished, you can ask any questions
I
you wish, and I will answer to the best of my

ability.
"
There is an island far, far away, under a
lovely sky, where it is always summer, and
where, long ago, the simple people of that land
were always happy. In that clime, flowers and
fruitgrow very differently from
in the rich soil
what they do in our cold climate. Those happy

people had only to plant the seed, and like
magic a crop was assured. Then the beautiful
forests were full of the most lovely and delicious
wild flowers and fruits. The warm sea teemed
with fish of many kinds, which were not only
excellent for food, but were lovely creatures
with colours like the most brilliant butterflies
you ever saw.

"
This land was ruled over by a wise and good
monarch, who settled all disputes among his
subjects, apportioned their lands, saw to it that

each man, woman, and child did their fair share
of labour for their own and the general good,
and that high and low had equal opportunities
of happiness, and equal shares of what you boys
'
call fair play.'
"This monarch was descended from a long

line of kings, who, though they did not possess
what we call learning (a term which I am sorry
to say often means the knowledge of how to get
the better of our neighbours) yet they had a very
good understanding of all that was necessary to

make their subjects contented and happy.
"As I told you, in that once
happy island
there is no winter like ours. But there are
seasons of certain winds, with rains, and dews,
and times of perfect calms when different kinds
of work and recreations are suitable. For in-
stance, in the still hot days of what we may
call late summer and autumn, the King, and
such of his people as were young or middle-

aged, would go into the forests in the beautiful
mountains, for various purposes of work and
amusement, although I need hardly use these
two words, for to the King and his people, work
and amusement really meant the same thing.
The people would cut down tall straight trees
and make beautiful canoes which they took
down to the shore for going on their fishing ex-
peditions far out to sea, and for sailing on the
rivers. Wonderfully beautiful rivers these were,
with the banks overhung with the most grace-
all
ful palms, and vines bearing blossoms of various
colours, which swayed and swung in the soft

wind, and dipped their gorgeous petals in the
cool water.
"
Then there were the bird hunters. They
were very clever men, who could snare hundreds
of a certain kind of beautiful bird in a day
small lovely creatures about the size of a lark,
with beautiful, glossy black plumage. The only
'
colour about these little angels of the earth (as

'
one of the ancient poets called the birds) was a

yellow feathers beneath each wing.
tuft of bright
These feathers were used in a most ingenious

way for making mantles, which shone and glit-
tered in the sun like polished gold. You must
not think that the hunters killed the birds to
obtain the few bright feathers which each bird
possessed. Oh, no not at all that would have

!
;
been cruel, and wasteful, and these two things

the King's people never were.
"
The hunters proceeded in this way. After
they had selected a suitable place in the forest
for their purpose, they made a sort of bower
with branches for themselves to hide in; then
allaround on the trees they put the milky juice
of the bread-fruit tree, and also of other plants
F F
which are quite sticky, so much so, that when
the little they were held fast, and could
birds lit,
not fly away until the hunter came and released

them, which he did at once, at the same time
securing the few yellow feathers. The whole
operation caused the little bird no more pain or
inconvenience than if I suddenly pulled a single
hair from your head, and you know how often
boys do that in mere sport. Then the bird was

released, and flew away, no doubt feeling very
thankful that the hunter only took a few feathers,
which would grow again in a year, and did not
take its sweet, joyful life, as most so-called
civilized peopledo when they get a chance.
"In this way, and in many similar occupations
the King and his people passed their happy
days and weeks in the cool, lovely forests. For

instance, they made all their agricultural imple-
ments of wood, for there was no iron found in
that happy land to induce men to dig great un-
sightly mines in the earth, and then to blacken

and disfigure the beautiful landscape with great
smoky furnaces, kept day and
night in a horrible
state of conflagration and noise by weary,
wretched-looking men and women, who, with

blackened faces and sad hardly seem
fierce eyes,
to be human beings. All this miserable toil

simply to obtain metal from the earth, mostly

for the purpose of making great ships and guns,
and other implements of war, so that men when
they become mad with the lust of power (the
most cursed lust which has afflicted mankind in
all ages) may have the cruel means of
sweeping
their fellow creatures from the earth in a whole-
saleand expeditious manner.
"
Sometimes in the evening, when the work
and the amusements of the day were over, the
King would call for the historians and learned
men to rehearse some wonderful legend of the
long past times, when his ancestors first came
to this
happy island. The
people would gather
about the great camp-fire, which they always
made at night in the mountains, more for cheer-
fulness than warmth in that delicious climate,
and which litup the great trees and made

changing lights and shadows in the deep re-
cesses of the forest. Here is a story I heard on
one of these occasions, for I lived among those
happy people for several years, knowing and
loving them well, and being loved in return.
"Said the historian: 'Listen, King! and O
ye people! while I tell you a story of the be-
ginning of the old, old time, when the moon and
the stars were nearer to our land, when the
flowers were larger and brighter, and their per-
fume sweeter, and the whole world fairer than
it is now. There were few people in the world
in those days. On our island there was only one
"
man; his name was Tanekai, Man of the sea."
He was young, strong, and beautiful as when
the morning sun flashes his glory over the east,
and all the colours of the great high God are
cast over the land, and sky, and sea.
"
Tanekai lived on our land quite alone as
'
regarded human companionship. But he was

by no means lonely, for the birds were his
friends, and in those happy days he understood
their language, and they understood his. And
so the years went swiftly by.
"
A hundred years two hundred years but
'
! !
they brought no age or weakness, or sorrow to

Tanekai. For his mother was the white sea
foam, and his father the rainbow in heaven, and
you know, O King! that the son always in-
herits the qualities of his parents good or bad,

and of course we all know that the sea and the
rainbow never change. Thus the happy years
slid past, and Tanekai did not know that joy
and sorrow, meeting and parting, were on the

way to find him, even in this happy land, where
they had never been before.
" '
In those olden days, the moon, as I said,
was much nearer the earth than it is now, and
when was at the full, the beautiful creatures
it
there (who had very clear vision because they

had never done evil) could see this world quite
clearly but, of course, they were too far off to
converse with people here. And so it came
to pass that the daughter of the King and Queen
of the moon, as she gathered flowers by the
great waterfall (which any one can see on very

clear nights), chanced to look at our island and
saw Tanekai as he played with his mother on
the sea-shore. Alas! for the beautiful daughter
of the moon ;
the fate which overtakes all mor-
tals and immortals alike came to her. Her
heart was touched by the passion of love, and
all rest was gone, and all interest, and all
thoughts centred on the beloved one.

"
She was the most exquisite creature that
'
had ever been created. When her maidens

combed out her hair it swept all around her to
the ground like a garment. Her eyes shone like
stars on a clear night. Her voice was like the
song of birds at the day-dawn, or like the music

of the falling waters of Hataua when exquisitely
modulated by the soft sweeping of the summer
wind. But, alas! all the brightness and joy
438 TANEKAI AND MARINA
went out of Mahina's life when the overwhelm-
ing passion came to her, as she knew for cer-

tain that she could never reach her beloved
one on this earth save upon the one terrible
condition of becoming mortal. For this is
an inexorable law which is never changed, that
if beings choose to descend from a higher to a
lower sphere, they must become subject to

the terrible penalty of death, and pass through
the valley of the dark shadow, ere they can
again get back to their high estate; and alas!

many never do find their former glorious life,
but wander for ever in the dismal abodes of
night.
" '
All this Mahina, as an immortal of the
highest estate, knew, for she had been instructed

by the greatest and wisest teachers, as was be-
fitting that the daughter of an immortal King
should be. And so the weary days passed for
Mahina. Her maidens noticed the change, and
spoke of it to her father and mother. But they

said was only a maiden's wayward thoughts,
it
and foolishly, as we mortals also do, hoped her

mood would change as time went past. But her
mood did not change! it only became more
fixed and determined, until at last she told her
father and mother that she had made up her
TANEKAI AND MARINA 439
mind to assume mortality for the love she bore
Tanekai. Of
course her parents were very
deeply grieved, and did all in their power to

change her foolish resolve, for they could not
but think a foolish fancy, when they lived in
it
such a beautiful world as the moon, and had all

things that even an immortal could desire. But
this I have heard, O
King! and I think it must
be true, that Love
greater than all other
is
things, greater even than Death !
"
And so Mahina prepared to leave her
'
native land and come to our island. She bade

her father and mother a loving farewell. They
were not so very sorrowful as we might suppose,
because great sorrow cannot exist in the abodes
of the blessed, and also because the King and
Queen, being immortals, knew that the parting
would only be temporary, for after her mortal
life they knew she must return to her birth-land.
Another thing to assuage their sorrow was the

o fact that the immortals have no sense
strange
of time as we have. The very longest life that
a mortal can live on this earth is to them merely
as a summer day or night is to us. Of course
they knew, also, that their daughter must pass

through the valley of death ere she came to
them again. But the immortals, who have never
seen death, and who have no terror of that
great mystery such as mortals have, think of it

only as we might think of passing for a moment
through a darkened room.
" Mahina had her maidens
drape her in a
'
pink cloud, such as we see in the early dawn

when the sun begins to rise from the sea. Her
hair was bound with a wreath of immortal
flowers, and on her forehead she wore one star,
which was the star of her destiny, a star that

all immortals have, so long as they remain im-
mortals.
" ' And thus in the
glorious beauty of an im-
mortal, without regret, without misgiving, for
love, O
King! hath the mystic power to make
immortals and mortals alike forget all else!
Mahina descended to earth on the glittering
moonbeams, softly, slowly, as we sometimes see
a feather floating to the ground in the forest
when there is never a breath of wind to disturb
its course.
"'
There is a cave on our south coast, where
you, O King! used to bathe when you were a

boy. Your mother first showedit to
you when
she was a beautiful, happy young mother.
You remember that to enter that wonderful
cave, the swimmer has to dive and pass a long
archway under water, and so enters the cave

and lands on its snow-white coral sand.
" '
the most beautiful grotto in all this
It is still
beautiful land but in the old, old days when your

;
ancestress, O King! the beautiful Mahina came,

that cavern was like the abode of the gods for all
loveliness and delight. Sparkling on the roof
were magic stones, which filled the cave with
wonderful and various coloured lights. What
became of these stones our wise men cannot tell ;
perhaps they are there still, and it is we who

have lost the pure sight without which mortal
eyes cannot see them.
" '
When Mahina came to this cave, clothed in
a rose-cloud, and with the heavenly star on her
forehead, she was the most beautiful creature
that had ever appeared on this earth. And so
lightly resting on the soft coral sand, as a sea-
gull's white feather rests, and with the magic
stones illuminating the cave with their wondrous
colours, she sang this song to Tanekai, which
he heard quite distinctly, for immortals hear
just the same whether they are near or far :
i.
Fair are the flowers on the crest of the meon,

Touched with theglory that cannot decay :
Sweet are the dreams that we dream in a swoon

As we sleep on the flowers at the close of the day
But fairer, a thousand times fairer to me,
Is the Son of the white-foam, the Son of the Sea!
2.
I have left all I loved in the fair land of Light

The hearts that are mine and too
steadfast to change :
I have passed through the regions of death in my flight,

The regions where evil and sorrow still range:
But light is the pain and the terror to me,
For the love that I bear for the Son of the Sea !
3-
Your beautiful mother is fairer than snow,

Your father has cast o'er the heavens a spell,
That even the gods in their blessedness know
Has a charm that their wonderful lips cannot tell
But love casts a spell so high and so deep,

That it holds us for ever, awake or asleep !
4-
Then come, my beloved oh, come to my heart,

Oh, whisper the words that shall banish the fear
Which I heard in the valley, " Ye meet but to part "
Oh, whisper, beloved, I only shall hear !
OSon of the Sea-foam for ever be mine

! !
For in spite of dark death I am thine! I am thine!
" '
These two, O
King were our ancestors in
!
the old, old days. They lived for many, many
happy years on our island, and had many

children. But at last Mahina grew old and
weak, the sad fate of all who assume mortal
bodies, even though the soul remains immortal.
She parted sadly and lingeringly from Tanekai,

in the same magic cave where they first met,
and went back to her father and mother in the

beautiful moon. They met her with a kiss and
a smiling welcome, as if she had only been wan-
dering in the golden forests of their wonderful

land for a summer afternoon, making wreaths
of immortal flowers with her maidens. Of course
when Mahina left our earth her mortal nature
was at once changed, and she again became the
same lovely immortal maiden she was ere her
sojourn on our island.
"
Tanekai mourned long and deeply for his
'
lost love. He knew where she had gone, as

Mahina had told him all about her home and
father and mother; also explaining that some
sad day they must be parted by death, a penalty
all creatures who live on our earth must sooner
or later endure. At length he gathered his

people together a vast assembly, yet all his
own descendants, some of them looking old and
feeble, while Tanekai was still in the prime of
his manhood and he told them sadly but firmly
that he must leave them for many, many long
years, but that in the far future he would return

and bring them good tidings.
" '
The people wept very much and begged
him not to leave them, but he only smiled and
kissed them, and went on preparing his magic
canoe that was to carry him beyond the portals
of our world, and into the regions of the blessed,
where he would meet her he had lost, his one
true love!
" '
O
King! was the origin of our race.
This,
It was many, many ages ago. Tanekai has not
returned yet, but some day he will return and

bring good tidings as he promised. There are
some who say we must fall into dire mis-
that
fortune before he will come to help us. But
what evil can befall a people so happily situated
as we are in our beautiful island, and with our
wise, good ruler, O King!'
" Thus ended the old historian's legend. And
in this sort of way those people passed their
*****
lives, and very happy and peaceful lives they
were in the old time, ere the evil days came.
" And now must

I tell you another chapter of
the history of my friends in that once fair
island. I say once advisedly, because although
the shape of the land is approximately the

same, yet the softness and beauty of the land-
scape is gone for ever. The glorious forests,
with masses of wild flowers, are no more to be
found. The songs of the birds at daydawn,

like bells and lutes, are silenced for ever ;
and
in place of the old, free, happy life, men are
toiling with weary hopeless souls,and smoke-

begrimed faces, longing for the end to come
and free them from their hard taskmasters.
"
But I must go back a little in this sad part
of my story, and make it as brief as possible, or
my dear boy will not sleep to-night for thinking

sad thoughts.
"
It is a long time ago not, of course, in the
old, old days but a long time ago as we reckon

our lives, that many great canoes came to the
land of Tanekai. Thepeople had never seen
such canoes. Indeed, they were so large that
they cried out, These are not canoes! they
'
are "moku,"' that is, islands in their language

and so a large vessel is still called moku ' '
till this day.

"In those great canoes came a strange and
fierce people. They were not so very fierce
when they first came, as they were compara-

tively few in number; and the King and his
people could have slain them with the greatest
ease,which they doubtless would have done had
they known all the misery which this invasion
was to entail on them and their children.
"Yet these strange invaders came with the
avowedpurpose of doing the King and his people
good! What more good they required it is rather
hard to imagine. They enjoyed health, and an
abundance of the material things which mankind
usually desire, and labour all their lives to
attain. True, these happy islanders had never
heard of Mr. Darwin, or Oliver Cromwell, or
John Knox, or the Archbishop of Canterbury,
or even the Pilgrim Fathers and George Wash-
ington with his little axe! etc., etc. Still in spite

of these great deprivations, they lived their lives
happily, contentedly, and just as usefully in

their own humble sphere as these wonderfully
wise newcomers, who
professed to shape their
lives so faithfully after the pattern of the ex-
cellent men, a few of whose names I have men-

tioned.
"
But it was written book of destiny, I
in the
suppose, that the strangers were to come and

change utterly the old simple life and introduce,
with a few things that were undoubtedly good,
a great many things that were still more un-
doubtedly bad', the root and branch and fruit of
which things may be summed up in the one
word selfishness. And the saddest part of it
was that all was done in the name of love and
improvement. But that is one of the strange

ways of this contradictory world men often call
;
good, evil, and

good\evil, A
great philosopher
says most
'
truly, In many parts of the earth

appropriated by us, the native races are being
improved out of existence.'
"
The King and his people received the
strange newcomers kindly and hospitably. Not
only so, but as they seemed to be a weak and
very sad people, the King took great compassion
on them, and ordered nice comfortable houses to
be built for their use, and supplied them with
all such things as reasonable men and women
require to make them happy.
"
But alas! for the ingratitude which distin-
guishes humanity. When the newcomers be-

came strong and powerful (which they soon
did in that fair country, and under the King's
generous care), they persuaded him to grant

them certain privileges, with the object of some
day getting the government into their own
hands. Finally they told the simple-minded
King that if he would intrust the law-making

power to them, he would save himself a vast
amount of trouble and worry, and place his
country in line with the Greatest Nation on
'
Earth,' and, at the same time, make his people

supremely happy as well asfreel (The freedom
afterwards proved to be the right of mortgaging
their lands, and spending the proceeds on very
bad rum!)
"
The poor King, who was much touched by
the prospect of getting his country in line with
the Greatest Nation on Earth,' and making his
'
supremely happy,' at once adopted the

'
people
newcomers' advice, and thus inaugurated (al-
though most unintentionally) a system that was
the beginning of the end of himself and his
nation.
" The result of was that the poor islander
it all
grew restless and unhappy under the unaccus-

tomed regime. He neglected his old healthful
pursuits, and altogether became a changed and
very miserable creature. His fine, old-fashioned,
industrious habits and sturdy honesty were
wrecked on the quicksands of a system which
was utterly unsuited to his physical as well as
mental capacity.
"
At last the final catastrophe took place.
The invaders rose upon the King and dethroned
him, and took possession of the whole land,
and fashioned it after their own ideas; with
the result that the miserable, poverty-stricken
islanders have to toil all day long in the hot
tropical sun, instead of wandering with their

in the cool, beautiful forests,
happy companions
as in the vanished days of peace and plenty.
Thus, with tear-dimmed eyes and heavy hearts,
they whisper to each other (they dare not say
it aloud, or they would be thrust into dungeons)
1
Oh Tanekai ! is it not time to return with the
" Good tidings" to your miserable children!'
"
Now, my dear boy, good night! As a last
word, I wish to say, that when you think over
my story (which I hope you will do) you must
never forget that the simple, pure Gospel of our
Lord always brings good comfort with perfect
peace. And I bow reverently at the graves of
those few men and women who spent their lives
humbly, unselfishly, and nobly serving their
Master in that far-away island. They were not
the ones who brought sorrow to the fair land
of Tanekai.
G G
CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
A 000 607 355 5

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^

They ope no door, no quick or heavy tread

But with the grace and reverence of the dead,

Enter and take their places by my chair ;

foregather in London during the

season. All our Associates have travelled far

spent at least a fifth part of his life abroad, the

farther afield the better.

At our reunions members are expected to

recount any striking adventures in which they

have taken part, the only conditions being that a

his colours without in the least changing the

A short while ago one of our most experi-

enced Associates related the adventure which I

The stories which follow were contributed at

transcribed from my notebooks where I jotted

or came to my knowledge, and while they were

A REMINISCENCE OF THE OLD SOUTH . .

JACOB BUSBY, THE LINEMAN 299

HE beautiful Pacific, its blue wa-

years later, brave old Magellan first launched

boldly crossed uncharted, unexplored bosom,

and appropriately named it the " Pacific," it

spirits of the world. Even in its names it has

Then, the charms of its halcyon climate its

gorgeous vegetation in the world, and, withal,

just enough fierceness in their composition (like

interesting! All this, and much more, which is

never fades to those who have drifted from

know the Pacific

northward to Hawaii, I don't suppose there are

that I mean that a white man never quite

they never discuss. The brown man knows, by

changeth, yielding place to new," three dis-

Firstly, there are the missionaries secondly, ;

comber, a class, as a rule, lazy, dirty, and alto-

ceptions in each class. Still the old saying

holds good here as elsewhere, that " exceptions

only prove the rule."

body of men and women; although sometimes I

drink, or otherwise kicking over the traces of

upon the yellow sands and sang, We will re-

turn no more! no more!" The beach-combers

nature and kindly feelings of the natives,

previously remarked, none of these

clearly understands the natives. The "lost"

reading the secret of the islander's character.

warped soul, that with regard to all religious

word, is not only allowable, but laudable.

being atoned for a multitude of sins at odd

the Pacific. On the

that have had the pleasure of being intimately

acquainted with many, both men and women,

people had unreservedly shown their inward

asperating now and then.

pathy for his lonely, monotonous life in the

to let him know when the hawthorn is white

in the spring when the blackberries

panions went nutting in the long, glorious