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The Marriage of Esther

by Guy Boothby · English · Gutenberg #39731 · 346,278 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The Marriage of Esther

Author: Guy Boothby


        
Release date: May 19, 2012 [eBook #39731]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39731

Credits: Produced by Cathy Maxam and the Online Distributed
        Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARRIAGE OF ESTHER ***




Produced by Cathy Maxam and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)









  THE

  MARRIAGE OF ESTHER

  BY
  GUY BOOTHBY
  AUTHOR OF ON THE WALLABY, ETC.

  [Illustration]

  NEW YORK
  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
  1895




  Copyright, 1895,
  By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.




CONTENTS.


  CHAPTER      PAGE

     I. TWO MEN--A FIGHT--AND A SERIES OF CALAMITOUS  CIRCUMSTANCES,      1

    II. A WOMAN--A RECOVERY--TRANSFORMATIONS AND TWO RESOLVES,      33

   III. THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL,      59

    IV. DESTINY--AN ACCIDENT--AND A BETROTHAL,      90

     V. A WEDDING--A CONVERSATION--AND AN EPISODE,      108

    VI. A TEMPTATION--A FALL--AND A SERIES OF EMOTIONS,      118

   VII. SATISFACTION--DISSATISFACTION--AND A CONTEMPLATED ARRIVAL,      134

  VIII. A VISION AND A REALITY,      148

    IX. HAPPINESS--UNHAPPINESS--AND A MAN OF THE WORLD,      162

     X. DELIRIUM--A RECOGNITION--A DEPARTURE AND A RETURN,      191

    XI. BATTLE AND MURDER,      227

   XII. CONCLUSION AND EPILOGUE,      246




THE MARRIAGE OF ESTHER




CHAPTER I.

TWO MEN--A FIGHT--AND A SERIES OF CALAMITOUS CIRCUMSTANCES.


     SCENE.--The bar of the Hotel of All Nations, Thursday Island. Time,
     9.35, one hot evening towards the end of summer. The room contains
     about twenty men, in various stages of undress; an atmosphere like
     the furnace doors of Sheol; two tatterdemalions lolling, apart from
     the rest, at the end of a long counter; a babel of voices, with the
     thunder of the surf, on the beach outside, over all.

There was surely complete evidence before the house that the two
ragamuffins particularised above were unpopular. So far the silent but
contemptuous superiority of the taller, and the drunken and consequently
more outspoken insolence of his companion, had failed to prepossess one
single soul in their favour. Even the barman, upon whose professional
affability the most detested might, during moments of the world's
disaffection, rely with some degree of certainty, had not been able to
bring himself to treat them otherwise than with the most studied
coldness. This fact was in itself significant, not only because it
showed the state of his own feelings regarding them, but inasmuch as it
served to give the customers of the Hotel of All Nations their cue, upon
which they were not slow to model their own behaviour. Men are
peculiarly imitative animals at times.

But, however much his manners might fall short of the ideal, the taller
of the twain was certainly not ill-looking. In stature he might have
been described as distinctly tall; his inches would have totalled
considerably over six feet. His frame was large, his limbs plainly
muscular; his head was not only well set upon his shoulders, but
admirably shaped; while his features, with the exception of a somewhat
pronounced nose, were clearly cut, and, if one may be permitted the
expression, exceedingly harmonious. His eyes were of an almost greeny
shade of blue, and his hair, brown like his moustache, fell back off his
forehead in graceful curls, as if the better to accentuate the fact that
his ears were small and flat, and, what is uncommon in those organs,
packed in close to his head. On the other hand, however, his costume,
judged even by Thursday Island standards, was not so satisfactory. It
consisted of a pair of much worn moleskin trousers, a patched shirt of
doubtful texture and more than doubtful hue, open at the neck and
revealing to the world's gaze a waste of sunburnt chest, and a
cabbage-tree hat that had long since ceased to be either new or
waterproof. His extremities were bare, and, at the moment of our
introduction, for want of something better to do he was engaged in idly
tracing Euclid's _Pons Asinorum_ in the sand of the floor with the big
toe of his right foot. So much for Cuthbert Ellison, the principal
figure in our story.

Silas Murkard, his companion, was fashioned on totally different lines.
_His_ height was as much below the average as his companion's was above
it; his back was broad, but ill-shaped; while his legs, which were
altogether too long for his body, had a peculiar habit of knocking
themselves together at the knees as he walked. It was for this reason
that he wore the two leather patches inside, and halfway up, his trouser
legs, that had been the subject of so much ironical comment earlier in
the day. But, since the patches had been put in, the garment had shrunk
almost out of recognition, and consequently they were no longer of use
in checking the friction. As a result, two ominous holes were assisting
still further in the business of disintegration going on all over his
raiment. It was peculiar also, that in spite of the workmanship once
bestowed upon his threadbare coat, the hump between his abnormally broad
shoulder-blades gave his head an appearance of being always craned
forward in search of something, which notion of inquisitiveness was not
lessened by the pinched sharpness of his face. Indeed, it might almost
be said that his features backed up the impression thus given, and
hinted that he was one of that peculiar class of persons who, having
much to conceal in their own lives, are never really happy unless they
are engaged in discovering something of an equally detrimental character
in those of their neighbours. But in this respect Dame Nature had
maligned him. He had many faults--few men more--but whatever else he
might have been, he certainly was not inquisitive. Doubtless, had he
been questioned on the subject, he would have replied with the
Apocrypha, "The curiosity of knowing things has been given to man for a
scourge." And even if he had not anything else to boast of, he had, at
least, his own ideas of the use and properties of scourges!

The two men had appeared in the settlement that morning for the first
time. Up to the moment of their debarkation from the trading schooner
_Merry Mermaid_, not one of the inhabitants had, to his knowledge, ever
set eyes on them before. Who they were, and what the reason of their
destitution, were problems presenting equal difficulties of solution.
But Thursday Island has not the reputation of being a fastidious place,
and it is probable that, had their behaviour not been such as to excite
remark, their presence would have passed unnoticed. But, as I have
already said, the smaller of the pair was unfortunately under the
influence of liquor; and, as if to be in harmony with his own distorted
outline, it was a curious form that his inebriation took. Had the
observer chanced upon him casually, he would, in nine cases out of ten,
have taken it for his normal condition. He stood leaning against the
counter, his head craned forward, slowly and deliberately talking to
himself, criticising the appearance and manners of those about him. And
though every word he uttered could be plainly heard all over the bar,
his companion did not seek to check him. Indeed, it was very possible,
being buried in his own thoughts, that he did not hear him.

"The depth of a man's fall," Murkard was saying, with drunken
deliberation, "can be best gauged by an investigation of the company he
keeps. To think that I should fall as low as this spawn!" Here he
looked round the room, and having spat in disgust upon the floor, said
in conclusion, "How long, my God, how long?"

A big pearler, known in the settlement by reason of his fighting powers
as Paddy the Lasher, rolled heavily along the counter and confronted
him.

"Look here, my duck," he said warningly, "I don't want to interfere with
you, but if our company aint good enough for the likes of you and your
mate there, I don't know as how it wouldn't be best for us to part."

But the little man only sighed, and then remarked somewhat
inconsequently to the moths fluttering round the lamp above his head:

    "The honest heart that's free from a'
       Intended fraud or guile,
     However Fortune kick the ba',
       Has aye some cause to smile."

Paddy the Lasher's reply was a blow direct from the shoulder. It caught
the other half an inch above the left eyebrow, and felled him to the
ground like a log. In an instant the whole bar was alive; men rose from
their seats inside, and more poured into the room from the benches
outside. There was every prospect of a fight, and as the company had
stood in need of some sort of excitement for a considerable time past,
they did not attempt to stop it.

Murkard lay just as he had fallen, but his companion was not so
comatose. He picked the inanimate figure up and placed him in a corner.
Then, without the slightest sign of emotion, rolling up his tattered
shirt-sleeves as he went, he stepped across to where the hitter waited
the course of events.

"I believe I shall be obliged to have your blood for that blow," he
said, as calmly as if it were a matter of personal indifference.

"You mean to say you think you'll have a try. Well, all things
considered, I don't know as how I'm not willing to oblige you! Come
outside."

Without another word they passed from the reeking, stifling barroom into
the fragrant summer night. Overhead the Southern Cross and myriads of
other stars shone lustrous and wonderful, their effulgence being
reflected in the coal-black waters of the bay until it had all the
appearance of an ebony floor powdered with finest gold-dust. Not a voice
was to be heard, only the roll of the surf upon the beach, the faint
music of a concertina from somewhere on the hillside, and the rustling
of the night wind among the palms.

Having made a ring, the combatants faced each other. They were both
powerful men, and, though temporarily the worse for the liquor they had
absorbed, in perfect condition. The fight promised to be a more than
usually exciting one; and, realising this, two little Kanaka boys shoved
their way in through the circle to obtain a better view.

Half an hour later Ellison had sent his adversary home with a broken
jaw. As for himself, he had for the time being lost the use of one eye
and a thumb, and was mopping a cut on his left ear with a handkerchief
borrowed from his old enemy the barman. Everybody admitted that never
before, in the history of the island, had a more truly gorgeous and
satisfactory fight been seen.

And it was curious what a difference the contest made in the attitude of
the public towards him. Before it had occurred openly despised, Ellison
now found himself the most courted in the saloon; there could be no
doubt that the fair and open manner in which he had taken upon himself
the insult to his friend, the promptness with which he had set about
avenging it, and the final satisfactory result had worked wonders with
the on-lookers. He could have been drunk twice over without cost to
himself, had he complied with the flattering requests made to him. Even
the barman invited him to name his favourite beverage. But he would
accept nothing. Hardly replying to the congratulations showered upon
him, he reentered the bar and hastened towards his now recovering
companion. Passing his arm round him, he raised him to his feet, and
then drew him from the house. Together they picked their way through the
circle of benches outside, and making towards the east, disappeared into
the darkness of the night.

Without talking, on and on they walked, slowing down now and again to
enable Ellison to mop the blood that trickled down his neck. The path
was difficult to find, and very hard to keep when found; but almost
without attention, certainly without interest, they plodded on. Only
when they had left the last house behind them and had entered the light
scrub timber on the hillside did they call a halt. Then Murkard seized
the opportunity, and threw himself upon the ground with a sigh of
relief.

At first Ellison did not seem to notice his action; he stood for some
moments looking down upon the star-spangled sea in a brown study.
Presently, however, he returned to consciousness, and then, also with a
sigh, sat down a few yards away from his companion. Still neither spoke,
and after a little while Murkard fell asleep. In the same posture, his
elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, the other sat on and on,
gazing with eyes that saw nothing of the Present into the tangled
wilderness of his Past.

The waves broke on the shingle among the mangroves with continuous
rhythm--a night-bird hooted dolefully in the branches above his
head--the wind moaned round the hillside; but still he sat oblivious of
everything--thinking, thinking, thinking. He seemed unconscious of the
passage of time, unconscious of what was going on around him, of
everything but the acute and lasting pain and horror of his degradation.
The effect of the liquor he had drunk was fast clearing off his brain,
showing him his present position in colours of double-dyed distinctness.
He had once been what the world calls "a gentleman," and it was part of
his punishment that every further fall from grace should cut deeper and
deeper into his over-sensitive soul.

The question he was asking himself was one of paramount importance: Was
he past pulling up? And if he did manage to stop himself before it was
too late, would his stand against Fate be of any avail? Would he ever be
able to rid his mind of the remembrance of these days of shame? He very
much doubted it! If that were so, then where would be the advantage of
pulling up? Like a good many men in a similar position, he had
discovered that it was one thing to commit acts which he knew to be
degrading, and quite another to be saddled with the continual
remembrance of them. Jean Paul argues that "remembrance is the only
Paradise from which we cannot be driven"; Ellison would have described
it as "the only hell from which there is no escape." Moreover, he was
the possessor of one besetting sin, of which he had good reason to be
aware, and the existence of that peccability was the chief terror of his
existence. It crowded his waking hours, spoilt his dreams, operated on
all his thoughts and utterances, was a source of continual danger and
self-humiliation, alienated his friends, reduced the value of his
assertions to a minimum; and yet with it all he considered himself an
honourable man.

His had been a gradual fall. Coming to Australia with a considerable sum
of money and valuable introductions, he had quickly set to work to
dissipate the one and to forfeit any claim upon the other. His poverty
forced uncongenial employment upon him when the first departed; and his
pride prevented him from deriving any benefit from the second, when his
hunger and destitution called upon him to make use of them. In sheer
despair he drifted into the bush, and, by reason of his very
incompetence, had been obliged to herd with the lowest there. At the end
of six months, more of a beast than a human, he had drifted back into
the towns, to become that most hopeless of all the hopeless--a
Remittance man. At first he had earnestly desired employment, but try
how he would he could discover none; when he did find it the desire to
work had left him. His few friends, tried past endurance, having lost
what little faith they had ever had in him, now turned their backs upon
him in despair. So, from being an ordinary decayed gentleman, he had
degenerated into a dead-beat beach-comber of the most despised
description. And the difference is even greater than the lay mind would
at first suppose. By the time he had come down to sleeping in tanks on
wharves, and thinking himself lucky to get one to himself; to existing
on cabmen's broken victuals, and prowling round dust-bins for a meal, he
had brought himself to understand many and curious things. It was at
this juncture that he met Silas Murkard, a man whose fall had been, if
possible, even greater than his own. After a period of mutual distrust
they had become friends, migrated together into Queensland, tried their
hands at a variety of employments, and at last found their way as far
north as Torres Straits, and its capital, Thursday Island. What their
next move was going to be they could not have told. Most probably they
had not given the matter a thought. Blind Fate had a good deal to do
with their lives and actions. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof," had become their motto, and for that reason they had no desire
to be made aware of what further misery the morrow had in store for
them.

After a while Ellison rose and went across to where his companion lay
asleep, his arms stretched out and his head several inches lower than
his body. He looked down at him with a feeling that would be difficult
to analyse. There was something gruesomely pathetic about the man's
posture--it betokened a total loss of self-respect, an absence of care
for the future, and a general moral abandonment that was not describable
in words. Once while Ellison watched he rolled his head over and moaned
softly. That was too much for the other; he thought for a moment, and
then went across to where he could just discern some tall reeds growing
against the sky. Pulling an armful he returned to the spot, and, having
made them into a pillow, placed them beneath the sleeper's head. Then,
leaving the little plateau, he descended to the shore and commenced a
vigorous sentry-go that lasted until dawn. The effect of the liquor he
had drunk that evening had now quite departed from him, leaving his
brain, so it seemed to him, clearer than it had been for months past. As
a result of that clearness, the argument upon which he had been engaging
himself before wheeled back upon him. That same mysterious monitor was
urging him to bestir himself before it was too late, to emerge from the
life of shameful degradation that held him before its toils closed upon
him forever. Surely he could do it! It only needed the rousing of that
pride he had once boasted he possessed. Then friendless, powerless,
backed only by the strength of his complete despair, he would show the
world that he had still a little pluck left in him. Yes, with the rising
sun he would begin a new life, and having made this last desperate
stand, it should go hard with him if he did not succeed in it.

As he made his resolution he espied the first signs of breaking day. The
stars were paling in the east; a strange weird light was slowly creeping
over the hill from the gateway of the dawn; the waves seemed to break
upon the shingle with a sound that was almost a moan; the night-bird
fled her tree with a mocking farewell; even the wind sighed through the
long grass with a note of sadness he had not before discerned in it.
Distant though he was from it, some eighty yards, he could make out
Murkard's recumbent figure, huddled up exactly as he had left it. There
was even a sort of reproach in that. Yes; he would uprouse himself, he
would prove himself still a fighter. The world should not be able to say
that he was beaten. There must surely be chances of employment if only
he could find them. He could set about the search at once.

Every moment the light was widening, and with it a thick mist was rising
on the lower lands. To escape this he ascended the hill and approached
his companion. He was still wrapped in the same heavy sleep, so he did
not wake him, but sat down and looked about him. The sea below was
pearly in its smoothness, the neighbouring islands seemed to have come
closer in this awesome light; a pearling lugger, astir with the day, was
drawing slowly through the Pass, and, while he watched, the sun, with a
majesty untranslatable, rose in his strength, and day was born.

About seven o'clock Murkard woke and stared about him. He regarded his
companion steadily for half a minute, and then sat up. Their location
seemed to puzzle him. He looked at Ellison for an explanation.

"What the deuce are we doing up here?"

"I don't know. We came, I'm sure I couldn't tell you why. You were most
uncommonly drunk last night, if that could have had anything to do with
it."

"I suppose I must have been; at any rate I feel most uncommonly bad this
morning. Anything happen?"

"You insulted a man; he hit you, I hit him."

"Result--you?"

"This! And this!"

"He?"

"Broken jaw!"

"I'm obliged to you. This is not the first debt of the kind I owe you.
At the same time I suppose I ought to apologise?"

"Pray spare yourself the trouble."

"Thank you, I think I will. I hate being under obligations to any man,
particularly a friend. And now, _mon ami_, what are we going to do next?
I have a sort of hazy idea that we did not make ourselves as popular as
we might have done yesterday."

"I think you managed to openly insult nine-tenths of the population, if
that's what you mean."

"Very likely. It's the effect of a public school education, you know.
But to return to my question, what are we going to do next?"

"Directly civilization gets up I'm going into the township."

"In search of breakfast?"

"No; in search of employment."

"The deuce! I must indeed have been drunk yesterday not to have noticed
this change coming over you. And pray what do you want to work for?"

"Because I have made up my mind to have done with this sort of life;
because I want to save myself while there's time; because I want to be
able to look the world in the face again. If you really are so anxious
to know, that's why."

"You remind me of our old friend the village blacksmith. Hadn't he some
ambition that way, eh?

    "'He looked the whole world in the face,
      For he owed not any man!'

Wasn't that it? I always did think him a bad business man. He didn't
seem to realize that credit is the backbone of the commercial anatomy.
Anyhow yours is a foolish reasoning--a very foolish reasoning. What
possible desire can a man of your training have to look the world in the
face? What will you see when you do look there? Only inquiries into your
past, a distrust of your present, and a resolve to have no more to do
with your future than is absolutely necessary. Personally, I find the
world's back a good deal worthier of cultivation."

"All the same I intend to try to find something to do."

"Pray don't let me stop you. One more question, however: What does your
Serene Mightiness intend for me? I doubt if I am a good worker, but I am
at liberty to accept any remunerative post within your gift,
Chancellorship of one of your Duchies, for instance; Mastership of your
Imperial Majesty's Hounds; Keeper of the Privy Purse; Lord Cham----"

"You can scoff as much as you please; you won't alter my determination.
I am going now. Good-morning!"

"Your majesty will find me still in waiting when you return
unsuccessful."

"Good-morning!"

"If your Majesty has time to think about such mundane matters, your
Majesty might endeavour to induce one of your confiding subjects to lend
the Imperial kitchen a little flour. If I had it now I might be making a
damper during your Majesty's absence."

"Good-morning!"

"Good-morning!"

Ellison turned his face in the direction of the settlement and strode
off round the hill. He had not the slightest expectation of finding any
lucrative employment when he got there, but he was full of the desire to
work. If he failed this time it should not be imputed against him as his
own fault. He at least was eager, and if society did not give him the
wherewithal upon which to spend his energy, then it must be set against
his score with society. In the devotion of the present it seemed to him
that all his past was atoned for and blotted out. And under the
influence of this sudden glow of virtuous resolution he left the hill
and entered the township.

Already the sea-front was astir with the business of the new-born day.
As he approached the principal store he descried the bulky figure of the
proprietor upon the jetty, superintending the unloading of some cases
from a boat lying alongside it. Pulling himself together he crossed the
road and accosted him.

"Mr. Tugwell, I believe?" he began, raising his tattered cabbage-tree
with a touch of his old politeness.

The merchant turned and looked him up and down.

"Yes, that is certainly my name. What can I do for you?"

"I am in search of employment. I thought perhaps you could help me."

"I don't seem to remember your face, somehow. You are a stranger in the
island?"

"I only arrived yesterday. I am an Englishman. I don't want to whine,
but I might add that I was once an English gentleman."

"Dear me! You look as if you had been making rough weather of it
lately."

"Very. As a proof, I may tell you that I have not eaten a mouthful since
I landed from my boat yesterday morning."

"What can you do? I am in want of an experienced hand to pack shell. Can
you qualify?"

"I have never tried, but I dare say I could soon learn."

"Ah, that's a horse of a different colour. I have no time to waste
teaching you. It's a pity, but that's the only way I can help you. Stay,
here's something that will enable you to get a breakfast."

He balanced a shilling on the ends of his fingers. The morning sunlight
sparkled on its milled edge. For a moment Ellison looked longingly at
it, then he turned on his heel.

"I asked you for work, not for charity. Good-morning!"

"You are foolish. Good-morning!"

Leaving the jetty Ellison went on up the beach. But before he had gone a
hundred yards a thought struck him. He turned again and hurried back.
The merchant was just entering the store.

"I have come back to beg your pardon," he said hastily; "I acted like a
cad. It will go hard with me if I lose my manners as well as my
birthright. You will forgive me, I hope?"

"Willingly, on one condition."

"What is that?"

"That you will let me make the amount half a crown."

"You are very generous, but I cannot accept alms, thank you."

With an apology for having so long detained him, Ellison continued his
walk down the beach. Hong Kong Joe was in his boat-building yard, laying
the keel of a new lugger. Approaching him he came to the point straight
away:

"I am in search of work. Have you any to give me?"

The boat-builder straightened himself up, looked his questioner in the
face, ran his eye round the tattered shirt, and arrived at the moleskin
trousers. When he got higher up the bruised eye seemed to decide him.

"Not with that eye, thank you," he said. "When I want one, I can get my
pick of fighting-men in the settlement without employing a stranger."

"Then you don't want me?"

"No, thank you."

"You can't put me in the way of finding any employment, I suppose? God
knows I want it pretty badly."

"Try Mah Poo's store on the Front. I heard him say yesterday he wanted a
steady, respectable chap, so you should just about qualify. No harm in
trying, anyway."

Thanking him for his advice, and ignoring the sarcasm contained in it,
Ellison walked on to the Chinaman's shop. The Celestial was even less
complimentary than the boat-builder, for without waiting to answer the
applicant's inquiries, he went into his house and slammed the door. At
any time it hurts to have a door banged in one's face, but when it is
done by a Chinaman the insult is double-edged. Ellison, however, meekly
pocketed the affront and continued his walk. He tried two or three other
places, with the same result--nobody wanted him. Those who might have
given him work were dissuaded by the bruises; while those who had no
intention of doing so, advised him to desist from his endeavours until
they had passed away. He groaned at the poverty of his luck, and walked
down the hill to the end of the new jetty, to stare into the green water
whose colour contrasted so well with the saffron sands and the white
wings of the wheeling gulls.

A British India mail-boat was steaming down the bay to her anchorage
alongside the hulk, and innumerable small craft were passing to and fro
between the islands. He looked at the water, the birds, the steamer, and
the islands, without being really conscious that he saw them. Somehow he
was filled with a great wonderment at his position, at the obstinate
contrariness of his luck. Over and over again in days gone by he had
been offered positions of trust, beside which packing pearl shell and
assisting boat-builders would have been as nothing. He had refused them
because he did not want to work. It was the revenge of Fate that now he
had resolved to turn over a new leaf he could hear of nothing. As this
thought entered his brain he looked down at the transparent green water
rising and falling round the copper-sheathed piles of the pier, and a
fit of desperation came over him. Was it any use living? Life had
evidently nothing to offer him now in exchange for what his own folly
had thrown away. Why should he not drop quietly over the side, disappear
into that cool green water, and be done with it forever? The more he
considered this way out of his troubles the more he liked it. But then
the old doubt came back upon him,--the doubt that had been his undoing
in so many previous struggles,--might not the future have something
better in store for him? He resolved to test his luck for the last time.
But how? After a moment's thought he decided on a plan.

There was not a soul within a couple of hundred yards of the jetty. He
would arrange it thus: if anyone set foot on it before the mail-boat let
go her anchor he would give life another chance; if not, well, then he
would try and remember some sort of prayer and go quietly over the side,
give in without a struggle, and be washed up by the next tide. From
every appearance luck favoured the latter chance. So much the better
omen, then, if the other came uppermost. He looked at the mail-boat and
then at the shore. Not a soul was to be seen. Another five minutes would
decide it all for him. Minute after minute went by; the boat steamed
closer to the hulk. He could see the hands forrard on the fo'c'sle-head
ready to let go the anchor, he could even make out the thin column of
steam issuing from the escape-pipe in the cable range. Another minute,
or at most two, would settle everything. And yet there was no sign of
excitement in his tired face, only a certain grim and terrible
earnestness in the lines about the mouth. The steamer was close enough
now for him to hear the order from the bridge and the answer from the
officer in charge of the cable. Another two or three seconds and he
might reckon the question settled and the game played out. He turned for
the last time to look along the jetty, but there was no hope there, not
a living being was anywhere near it.

"Well, this settles it, once and forever," he said to himself, following
his speech with a little sigh, for which he could not account. Then, as
if to carry out his intention, he crossed to the steps leading down to
the other side of the jetty. As he did so he almost shouted with
surprise, for there, on the outer edge, hidden from his line of sight
where he had stood before, lay a little Kanaka boy about ten years of
age fast asleep. _He had been there all the time._ Ellison's luck had
triumphed in a most unexpected manner! As he realised it he heard the
cable on board the mail-boat go tearing through the hawsehole, and next
moment the officer's cry, "Anchor gone, sir!" At the same instant the
ship's bell struck eight (twelve o'clock).

With the change in his prospects, for he was resolved to consider it a
change, he remembered that Murkard was on the hillside waiting for him.
Instantly he wheeled about and started back on his tracks for the side
of the island he had first come from. The sun was very warm, the path a
rough one, and by the time he reached it his bare feet had had about
enough of it. He found Murkard sitting in the same spot and almost in
the same attitude as when he had left him nearly five hours before. The
expression of amusement on the latter's face changed a little as he
noticed that his friend carried nothing in his hand.

"And so, my dear fellow, you have come back. Well, do you know, I felt
convinced you would. Nothing offered, I suppose?"

"Nothing. But stay, I'm wrong. I was offered a shilling to get myself a
breakfast."

"Good for you? So you have eaten your fill."

"No; I refused it. I wanted work, not charity!"

"So it would appear. Well I _must_ say I admire your fortitude. Perhaps
in better days I might have done the same. Under present circumstances,
however, I am inclined to fancy I should have taken the money."

"Possibly. I acted differently, you see."

"You're not angry with me for laughing at you this morning, are you,
Ellison?"

"Angry? My dear old fellow, what on earth put that in your head? Why
should I be angry? As it happens, you were quite right."

"That's the very reason I thought you might have been angry. We're never
so easily put out of temper as when we're proved to be in the wrong.
That's what is called the Refining Influence of Civilization."

"And what's to be done now? We can't live up here on this hillside
forever. And, as far as I can see, we stand a very poor show of having
anything given us down yonder."

"We must cut our tracks again, that's all. But how we're to get away,
and where we're to go to is more than I can say. We've tried Adelaide,
Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane; Rockhampton turned us out, Townsville
and Cooktown proved as bad. Now Thursday Island turns its back on us.
There's something rotten in the state of Denmark, my friend. Don't get
cast-down over it, however; we've succeeded before, we'll do so again.
As the proverb has it, '_Le desespoir redouble les forces_.'"

"What do you propose?"

"Something practicable! I've been thinking. Don't laugh. It's a habit of
mine. As I think best when I'm hungry, I become a perfect Socrates when
I'm starving. Do you see that island over there?"

"Yes--Prince of Wales. What about it?"

"There's a pearling station round the bay. You can just catch a glimpse
of it from here--a white roof looking out from among the trees. You see
it? Very good! It belongs to an old man, McCartney by name, who is at
present away with his boat, somewhere on the other side of New Guinea."

"Well, then, that stops our business right off. If the boss is away, how
can it help us?"

"What a chicken it is, to be sure. My boy, that station is run, in the
old man's absence, by his daughter Esther--young, winsome, impulsive,
and impressionable. A rare combination. We visit it in this way. As near
as I can calculate it is half a mile across the strait, so we swim it. I
am nearly drowned, you save my life. You leave me on the beach, and go
up to the house for assistance. Arriving there you ask to see her, tell
your story, touch her heart. She takes us in, nurses me; I sing your
praises; we remain until the father returns--after that permanently."

"You don't mean to tell me you think all that humbug is likely to
succeed?"

"If it's well enough done, certainly!"

"And hasn't it struck you that so much deception is playing it rather
low down upon the girl?"

"It will be playing it still lower down upon us if it doesn't succeed.
It's our last chance, remember. We must do it or starve. You've grown
very squeamish all of a sudden."

"I don't like acting a lie."

"Since when? Look here, my dear fellow, you're getting altogether too
good for this world. You almost take _me_ in. Last night, before I grew
too drunk to chronicle passing events, I heard you tell one of the most
deliberate, cold-blooded lies any man ever gave utterance to--and, what
was worse, for no rhyme or reason as far as I could see."

"You have no right to talk to me like this!"

"Very probably that's why I do it. Another of my habits. But forgive me;
don't let us quarrel on the eve of an enterprise of such importance. Are
you going into it with me or not?"

"Since you are bent on it, of course! You know that."

"Very good; then let us prepare for the swim. It will be a long one, and
I am not in very great trim just now. I have also heard that sharks are
numerous. I pity the shark that gets my legs; my upper half would not be
so bad, but my lower would be calculated to give even a mummy
dyspepsia."

While speaking, he had rolled his trousers up to his knees. Then, having
discarded his jacket, he announced himself ready for the swim. All the
time he had been making his preparations Ellison had been standing with
his back to him, looking across the strait. He was still brooding on the
accusation his companion had a moment before given utterance to. He was
aware that he _had_ told a lie on the previous night--wilfully and
deliberately lied, without hope of gain to himself, or even without any
desire of helping himself. He had represented himself to be something he
was not, for no earthly reason that he could account for save a craving
for exciting interest and sympathy. It was his one sin, his one blemish,
this fatal trick of lying, and he could not break himself of it, try how
he would. And yet, as I have already insisted, weak as he was in this,
in all other matters he was the very soul of honour. It rankled in his
mind, as the after-knowledge always did, to think that this man, whom he
had learned to fear as well as to despise, should have found him out. He
nodded to show that he was ready, and together they set out for the
beach. On the way, Murkard placed his hand upon Ellison's arm, and
looked into his face with a queer expression that was almost one of
pity.

"Ellison," he said, "you are thinking over what I said just now. I'm
sorry I let it slip. But, believe me, I meant no harm by it. I suppose
every man has his one little failing--God knows, I'm conscious enough of
mine. Don't think any the worse of me for having been so candid, will
you?"

"The subject is distasteful to me; let's drop it."

"By all means. Now we've got our swim before us. Talk of Hero and
Leander! I don't suppose there can be much doubt as to which of us is
destined to be Leander."

Side by side they waded out till the water reached their shoulders; then
they began their swim. Both were past masters in the art; but it was a
long struggle, and they soon discovered that there was a stiff current
setting against them. It began to look as if they would be washed past
their goal before they could reach it.

When they were three parts of the way across, Ellison was ahead, Murkard
some half dozen yards behind him. Suddenly the former heard a cry; he
turned his head in time to see Murkard throw up his arms and disappear.
Without a moment's hesitation he swam back to the spot, reaching it just
as the other was disappearing for the third and last time. With a
strength born of despair he clutched him by the hair and raised his head
above the surface. Then, holding him at a safe distance, he continued
his swim for the shore. The piece of acting designed to carry out their
plot looked as if it were likely to become downright earnest, after all.

It was a long swim, and, being saddled with this additional burden, it
taxed Ellison's strength and endurance to the uttermost. When he touched
the beach on the opposite side, it was as much as he could do to carry
the unfortunate body up out of the reach of the water. This done, his
strength gave way entirely, and he threw himself down exhausted on the
sand.




CHAPTER II.

A WOMAN--A RECOVERY--TRANSFORMATIONS AND TWO RESOLVES.


When Ellison felt himself able to move again, he rose to his feet and
looked about him. He discovered that they had landed on the shore of a
little bay, bounded on one side by a miniature cliff and on the other by
a dense tropical jungle; through this latter looked out the white roofs
of the boat-sheds and houses of the pearling station of which they had
come in search. Two columns of palest blue smoke rose above the palms,
and after a glance at his still insensible companion he started towards
them.

Leaving the white sandy foreshore of the bay, he entered the thicket by
what was certainly a well-worn path. This circled round the headland,
and eventually brought him out on the hill above the beach. Stepping
clear of the undergrowth, he found himself confronted by a number of
buildings of all sizes and descriptions. The nearest he settled in his
own mind was a store-shed; that adjoining it, to the left, was the
Kanakas' hut; that to the left, again, their kitchen; that to the right,
rather higher on the hill, with its long low roof, the station house
itself. As he approached it, two or three mongrel curs ran out and
barked vociferous defiance, but he did not heed them. He passed the
store, and made towards the veranda. As he came closer, a strange enough
figure in his dripping rags, he saw that he was observed. A young woman,
possibly not more than three-and-twenty, was standing on the steps
awaiting him. She was, if one may judge by what the world usually
denominates beauty, rather handsome than beautiful, but there was also
something about her that was calculated to impress the mind far more
than mere pink and white prettiness. Her figure was tall and shapely;
her features pronounced, but regular; her eyes were the deepest shade of
brown; and her wealth of nut-brown hair, upon which a struggling ray of
sunlight fell, was carelessly rolled behind her head in a fashion that
added to, rather than detracted from, her general appearance.

Ellison lifted his hat as he came towards her. She looked him up and
down with the conscious air of a superior, and was the first to speak.

"Well, my man," she said, without embarrassment, "what do you want
here?"

"In the first place, I want your help. I tried to swim the straits with
a companion; he was nearly drowned, and is now lying unconscious on the
shore down yonder."

He pointed in the direction he had come.

"Good gracious! and you're wasting time on words." She picked up a
sun-bonnet lying on a chair beside her, and put it on, calling: "Mrs.
Fenwick, Mrs. Fenwick!"

In answer, an elderly person wearing a widow's cap appeared from the
house.

"Have blankets warmed and put in the hut over yonder. Don't lose a
minute." Then turning to the astonished Ellison she said: "I'll be with
you in one moment," and departed into the house.

Before he had time to speculate as to her errand, she reappeared with a
bottle of brandy in her hand.

"Now, come along. If he's as bad as you say, there's not a moment to
lose."

They set off down the path, and as they passed the Kanakas' hut, she
cried:

"Jimmy Rhotoma!"

A big Kanaka rolled out of the kitchen.

"Man drowned along Alligator Bay. Look sharp!"

Then signing to her companion to follow, she set off at a run across
the space between the huts and along the scrub-path towards the sea.
Ellison followed close behind her, dimly conscious of the graceful
figure twisting and turning through the undergrowth ahead of him. When
she reached the open land on the other side of the headland, she paused
and looked about her; then, making out the figure stretched upon the
sands, she ran towards it. With a swiftness that betokened considerable
experience she placed her hand upon his heart. No, he was not dead; it
was not too late to save him. As she came to this conclusion, Jimmy
Rhotoma appeared, and the trio set to work to restore animation. It was
some time before their efforts were rewarded. Then Murkard sighed
wearily, half-opened his eyes, and rolled his head over to the other
side.

"He'll do now, poor fellow," said the woman, still chafing his left
hand. "But it was a very close thing. What on earth induced you to try
and swim the straits?"

"Despair, I suppose. We're both of us as nearly done for as it is
possible for men to be. We tried the settlement yesterday for work, but
nothing offered. Then we heard of your station, and thought we'd swim
across on chance."

"I don't know that I altogether like the look of either of you.
Beach-combers, I fancy, aren't you?"

"We're Englishmen who have experienced the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune, with a vengeance. I suppose _you_ would call us
beach-combers, now I come to think of it. However, if you can give us
work, I can promise you we'll do it, and do it faithfully. If you
can't--well, perhaps you'll give us a meal a piece, just to put strength
into us for the swim back."

"Well, I'll think about it. In the meantime we must get your mate up to
the station. Jimmy, you take his head, you--by the way, what's your
name?"

"Ellison--Cuthbert Ellison."

"Very well then, Ellison, you take his heels. That's right, now bring
him along."

Between them, and led by the woman, they carried Murkard up the path to
the station. Arriving at a hut, near that from which the Kanaka had been
summoned, she stopped, took a key from a bunch in her pocket, unlocked
the door, and threw it open. It was small, but scrupulously clean. Two
camp bedsteads were ranged beside the wall, furnished with coarse blue
blankets; a tin wash-hand basin stood on a box at the far end, alongside
it a small wooden table, with a six-inch looking-glass above that
again.

"You can occupy this hut for the present. Put him down on that bed, so!
Before I take it away give him a drop more brandy. That's right. I think
he'll do now. If you don't want a spell yourself you'd better come with
me."

Ellison arranged Murkard's head upon his pillow, glanced almost
unconsciously at himself in the square of glass, and then followed her
out of the hut, and across the yard to the veranda opposite. Arriving
there she seated herself in a hammock, that swung across the corner, and
once more looked him up and down.

"I don't think you need have told me you were an Englishman!" she said
at length.

"Why not?" he asked, without any real curiosity. He was watching the
shapely feet and ankles swinging beneath the hammock.

"Because I could see it for myself. Your voice is the voice of an
Englishman, your face is the face of an Englishman, and, if I wanted any
further proof, I should convince myself by your walk. Have you ever
noticed that your countrymen" (she spoke as if Australians were not
Englishmen), "Britishers, I mean, walk in quite a different fashion from
our men? You haven't noticed it, I see. Well, I'm afraid, then, you
haven't cultivated the faculty of observation."

"I have had things of more importance to think about lately."

"Oh, I beg your pardon! I had quite forgotten. Sit down for one moment."

She pointed to a long cane-chair. He seated himself, and she disappeared
inside the house. In less than five minutes she returned with a bundle
in her arms.

"Here you are--some clothes for you and your mate. You needn't thank me
for them. They belonged to a man from your own country, who went to the
bottom six months ago in one of our luggers, a degree east of the
D'Entrecasteaux group. Take them over to the hut and change. When you've
done that come back here, and I'll have some lunch ready for you."

As soon as she had given him the bundle she turned on her heel and
vanished into the house, without giving him an opportunity of uttering
an expression of his thanks. He looked after her as if he would like to
have said something, but changed his mind and crossed to his hut.
Murkard was still asleep, so he did not disturb him. Throwing the bundle
on his own bed, he started to examine it. To the man who has lived in
rags there is something that is apt to be almost discomposing in the
sudden possession of a decent wardrobe. Ellison turned the dead man's
effects over with a strange thrill. Ashamed as he was of his sordid
rags, there was something to him indescribably beautiful about these
neat tweeds, linen shirts, collars, socks, and white canvas shoes.
Selecting those which looked nearest his own size, he prepared to make
his toilet. A razor lay upon the dressing-table, a shaving brush stood
on a tiny bracket above the tin wash-hand basin. A shave was a luxury he
had not indulged in for some time. He lathered his face, stropped the
razor on his belt, and fell to work. In three minutes the ugly stubble
on his cheeks and chin had disappeared. Five minutes later he was
dressed and a new man. With the help of water, a well-worn hair-brush,
and his fingers, his matted locks were reduced to something like order,
his luxuriant brown mustache received an extra twirl, and he was
prepared to face the world once more, in outward appearance at least, a
gentleman. Esther McCartney watched him cross the path from a window
opposite, and noticed that he carried himself with a new swing. She
allowed a smile, that was one of half pity, to flicker across her face
as she saw it, and then went into the veranda to receive him.

"They fit you beautifully," said she, referring to the clothes. "You
look like a new man."

"How can I thank you? I feel almost like my old self once more. I
tremble to think what a figure I must have cut half an hour ago."

"Never mind that. Now come and have something to eat."

He followed her into the sitting room. It was a pretty place, and showed
on all sides evidences of a woman's controlling hand. The weatherboard
walls were nicely stained, a painted canvas cloth took the place of a
plaster ceiling; numerous pictures, mostly water-colours, and many of
them of considerable merit, hung on either hand, interspersed with
curiosities of the deep, native weapons, and other odds and ends
accumulated from among the thousand and one islands of the Southern
seas. In the furthest corner Ellison noticed an open piano, with a piece
of music on the rest. But the thing which fascinated him beyond all
others was the meal spread upon the centre-table. Its profusion nearly
took his breath away--beef, tomato salad, pickles, cheese, and a bottle
of home-brewed beer. At her command he seated himself and ravenously set
to work. All the time he was eating she sat in a deep chair by the
window and watched him with an amused smile upon her face. When he had
taken off the first raw edge, she spoke:

"Do you know, I don't think that black eye is exactly becoming to you."

Ellison made as if he would like to cover it up.

"Oh, you can't hide it now. I noticed it directly you showed yourself
this morning. I wonder who gave it you? for of course you've been
fighting. I don't like a quarrelsome man!"

"I'm sorry I should appear before you in such a bad light, for naturally
I want to stand well with you."

"I understand. You mean about the billet. Well, will you tell me how you
got it--the eye, I mean?"

"Willingly, if you think it will make my case any better."

"I'm not quite sure that it will, but you'd better go on."

She laid herself back in the great chair and folded her hands behind her
head. Her face struck him in a new light. There was an expression on it
he had not expected to find there; its presence harmonised with the
pictures and the piano and made him pause before he spoke. In that
moment he changed his mind and let the words he was about to speak die
unuttered.

"The story is simple enough. I was drawn into a quarrel and obliged to
fight a man. I broke his jaw, he gave me this and this."

He pointed first to his eye and then to his ear. She nodded her head and
smiled.

"Do you know that you have come out of that test very well?"

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand."

"Well, then, let me tell you. I was trying you. I didn't really want to
know how you got that bruise, because--well, because, you see, I knew
beforehand. I've heard the whole story. You stood up for your deformed
friend and thrashed the man who was coward enough to strike him. That is
the correct version, I think, isn't it? Ah, I see it is. Well, Paddy the
Lasher, the man you fought, is one of our hands. I had only just
returned from making inquiries about him when you turned up this
morning. I like your modesty, and if you'll let me, I think I'll shake
hands with you on it!"

Without knowing exactly why he did it, Ellison rose and gravely shook
hands with her. In these good clothes his old manner, in a measure, came
back to him, and he felt able to do things with a grace that had long
been foreign to his actions. He sat down again, drank off his beer, and
turned once more to her.

"How can I thank you enough for your goodness to me? I have never
enjoyed a meal so much in my life."

"I am glad of that. I think you look better than you did an hour ago. It
must be awful to be so hungry."

"It is, and I am more than grateful to you for relieving it. I hope you
will believe that."

"I think I do. And now about your friend. Don't you think you had better
go and look after him? I have told the cook to send some food across to
the hut. Will you see that he eats it?"

"Of course I will. I'll go at once."

He rose and went towards the door. She had risen too, and now stood with
one hand upon the mantelpiece, the other toying with the keys hanging
from her belt. The fresh breeze played through the palm fronds beyond
the veranda, and whisked the dry sand on to the clean white boards. He
wanted to set one matter right before he left.

"As I said just now, I'm afraid I don't appear to very great advantage
in your eyes," he remarked.

"I'm not exactly sure that you do," she answered candidly. "But I'll see
if I can't let by-gones be by-gones. Remember, however, if I do take you
on you must both show me that my trust is not misplaced."

"For myself I will promise that."

"It may surprise you to hear that I am not so much afraid of your mate
as of yourself. I have seen his face, and I think I like it."

"I'm certain you're right. I am a weak man; he is not. If either of us
fails you, I don't think it will be Murkard."

"I like you better for sticking up for your friend."

"I am sorry for that, because you may think I do it for effect."

"I'll be better able to tell you about that later on. Now go."

He raised his hat and crossed from the veranda to the hut. Murkard was
awake and was sitting up on the bed.

"Thank Heaven you've come back, old man. Where the deuce am I, and how
did I get here? My memory's gone all to pieces, and, from the parched
condition of my tongue, my interior must be following it. Have I been
ill, or what?"

"You've been jolly near drowned, if that's any consolation to you. We
were swimming the strait, don't you remember, when you suddenly
collapsed. You gave me an awful fright."

"Then you saved my life?"

"I suppose folk would call it by that name."

"All right. That's another nick in the score. I'm obliged to you. You
have a big reckoning against me for benefits conferred. Be sure,
however, I'll not forget it if ever the opportunity occurs. And now what
does this pile of goodly raiment mean? By Jove! methinks I smell food,
and it makes me ravenous."

The door opened and Rhotoma Jimmy appeared with a tray.

"Young missis send this longa you."

"All right, old man, put it down over there. I believe I'm famished
enough to eat both the victuals and the tray."

"Go ahead, and while you're eating I'll talk. In the first place, your
scheme has succeeded admirably. I have spoken to the girl, interested
her in us, and I think she'll take us on."

"Good! You're a diplomatist after my own heart."

"But, old man, there must be no hanky-panky over this. If we get the
billets we must play fair by her--we must justify her confidence."

"As bad as all that, and in this short time, eh? Well, I suppose it's
all right. Yes, we'll play fair."

"Don't run away with any nonsense of that sort. The girl is a decent
little thing, but nothing more. She has been very good to us, and I'd
rather clear out at once than let any harm come to her from either of
us--do you understand?"

"Perfectly." He finished his meal in silence, and then threw himself
down upon the bed. "Now let me get to sleep again. I'm utterly played
out. Drunk last night and nearly drowned to-day is a pretty fair record,
in all conscience."

Ellison left the hut, and that he might not meet his benefactress again
so soon, went for a stroll along the beach. The tide was out and the
sand was firm walking. He had his own thoughts for company, and they
were in the main pleasant ones. He had landed on his feet once more,
just when he deemed he had reached the end of his tether. Whatever else
it might be, this would probably be his last bid for respectability; it
behooved him, therefore, to make the most of it. He seated himself on a
rock just above high-water mark and proceeded to think it out.

Murkard slept for another hour, and then set to work to dress himself.
Like Ellison, he found the change of raiment very acceptable. When he
was ready he looked at himself in the glass with a new interest, which
passed off his face in a sneer as his eyes fell upon the reflection of
his ungainly, inartistic back.

"Certainly there's devilish little to recommend me in that," he said
meditatively. "And yet there was a time when my society was sought
after. I wonder what the end of it all will be?"

He borrowed a pair of scissors from the Kanaka cook, and with them
trimmed his beard to a point. Then, selecting a blue silk scarf from
among the things sent him, he tied it in a neat bow under his white
collar, donned his coat, which accentuated rather than, diminished the
angularity of his hump, and went out into the world. Esther McCartney
was sitting in the veranda sewing. She looked up on hearing his step and
motioned him towards her. He glanced at her with considerable curiosity,
and he noticed that under his gaze she drooped her eyes. Her hands were
not as white as certain hands he had aforetime seen, but they were well
shaped--and one of the nails upon the left hand had a tiny white spot
upon it that attracted his attention.

"You had a narrow escape this morning. Your friend only just got you
ashore in time."

"So I believe. I am also in _your_ debt for kindnesses received--this
change of raiment, and possibly my life. It is a faculty of mine to be
always in debt to somebody. I may probably repay you when I can; in the
meantime it will be better for us both if I endeavour to forget all
about it."

"Isn't that rather a strange way of talking?"

"Very possibly. But you see I am a strange man. Nature has ordained that
I should not be like other men. I don't know altogether whether I'm the
worse for it. I'm a little weak after my trouble this morning; have you
any objection to my sitting down?"

"Take that seat, you'll find it more comfortable."

She pointed to a loose canvas-backed chair near the steps. He smiled as
he had done in the hut when he had looked at his image in the glass. The
other chairs were hard-backed, and it proved that she had been thinking
of his deformity when she chose this one. He seated himself and placed
his hat on the floor beside him. She took in at a glance his pale,
sensitive face, curious eyes, and long white fingers, and as she looked
she came to a conclusion.

"Your friend, Mr. Ellison, wants me to give you employment. Until a
minute ago I had not made up my mind. Now I think I shall do so."

"I knew you would."

"How did you know it?"

"By the way you dropped your hand on the back of that chair just now.
Well, I'm very glad. It is good of you. You know nothing about us,
however, remember that. Don't trust us too far until you are more
certain of our honesty. Sir Walter Raleigh, I would have you not
forget, says, 'No man is wise or safe but he that is honest.' It is for
you to find our honesty out."

"You talk as if you were taking me into your employ, instead of its
being the other way about."

"So you noticed it? I was just thinking the same thing myself. It's a
habit of mine. Forgive it."

"Somehow I think I shall like you. You talk in a way I'm not quite used
to, but I fancy we shall hit it off together."

"I make no promises. I have some big faults, but I'll do my best to
amend them. You have heard of one of them."

"I have, but how did you know?"

"By your eyes and the way your lips curled when I used the word
'faults.' Yes, unhappily I am a drunkard. I need make no secret of it. I
have fought against it, how hard you would never guess; but it beats me
every time. It killed my first life, and I'm not quite sure it won't
kill my second."

"Your first life! What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I say. I am a creature of two lives. You don't surely
suppose I was always the beach-comber you see before you now?"

"I did not think about it."

"Forgive me! That is not quite true. It was one of the first thoughts in
your mind when you saw me come out of the hut yonder."

"How is it you can read my thoughts like this?"

"Practice in the study of faces, that's all. Another bad habit."

"But if I take you on you will give up the liquor, won't you? It seems
such a pity that a man should throw himself away like that when there's
so much in the world worth living for."

"That's, of course, if there is. Suppose, for the sake of argument,
there is nothing? Suppose that a man has forfeited all right to
self-respect--suppose he has been kicked out of house and home, deprived
of his honour, disowned even by those who once loved him best--would you
think it foolish if he attempted to find a City of Refuge in the Land of
Alcohol?"

"Are you that man?"

Her face grew very gentle and her voice soft, as she put the question.

"I simply instance an example to confute your argument. May I change the
subject? What is my work to be? Much must of course depend on that. Like
the elephant, my strength is in my head rather than my hands, certainly
not in my legs."

"Our store-keeper and book-keeper left us a month ago. Since then I have
been doing his work. Are you good at figures?"

"Fairly; that sort of work would suit me admirably, and would, I
believe, enable me to give you satisfaction. And, my friend----But here
he comes to ask for himself."

Ellison was sauntering slowly up the path. He looked a fine figure of a
man in the evening sunlight. His borrowed plumes fitted and suited him
admirably. He lifted his hat with the air of a court chamberlain when he
came to the veranda steps.

"I am glad to see you about again," he said to Murkard, who was
examining him critically, "you certainly look better."

"I am, as I have already said, a different man."

"You look happier, certainly."

"I have just received my appointment to a position of trust."

Ellison glanced at the woman. She laughed and nodded.

"Yes, I have put him on as book-keeper and store-man. It's a billet
worth a pound a week and his keep."

"It is very generous of you."

"Oh, but that's not all. If you care to stay you can do so as general
knockabout hand on the same terms. There will be a good deal that will
want looking to now that you've disabled Paddy the Lasher. You can
occupy the hut where you are now, and I'll tell Rhotoma Jimmy to serve
your meals in the barracks across the way."

"I hope we shall show ourselves worthy of your trust."

"I hope you will; but no more black eyes, remember. The sooner you get
rid of the one you're wearing the better I shall like you. You'll find
my father, when he returns, will take to you sooner without it. And now
you'd better go and get your teas."

She rose to go inside. They stepped from the veranda. Ellison happened
to look round. Her head was half turned, and she was watching him. Their
eyes met, and the next moment she had vanished into the house.

The two men walked across to their hut in silence. When they reached it,
they sat themselves down on their respective beds and looked at each
other. Murkard opened the conversation.

"You were going to say that you cannot imagine why she has done this?
Isn't that so?"

"Yes. I _was_ just going to do so. How on earth did you guess it?"

"Never mind that. But you've got hold of the wrong end of the stick, my
boy. She's not doing it for the reason you suppose. Would it surprise
you very much to be told that in all probability it is done for _my_
sake. No, don't laugh; and yet I really do think it is, and I'll tell
you why. There was uncertainty written in her face and, well, if I must
say it, a little bit of distrust of you, until I appeared upon the
scene. Then you know my way with women. I told her the plain,
unvarnished truth, without any compliments or gilt edging of any sort.
Painted myself as a gentleman gone a-mucker, hopeless cripple, etc.,
etc. Then she dropped that infernal business air, and her womanly side
came uppermost. That decided for us--I am appointed Paymaster-General;
while you, if you play your cards well, may be anything from Grand
Vizier downward. I think you have reason to congratulate yourself."

"Murkard, you are playing fair, aren't you?"

Murkard turned white as death.

"Playing fair! you are playing fair, aren't you? What the devil makes
you use those infernal words to me again? My God, man! do you want to
send me into hell a raving lunatic?"

He ran his fingers through his long hair and glared at his companion,
who sat too astonished at this sudden outburst to speak. But after a
few moments he cooled down and resumed his natural, half-cynical tone:

"I beg your pardon. Hope I didn't startle you very much. Habit of mine.
What beastly things words are. How they bring up like a flash the very
things one's been trying for years to forget. Yes, yes! I intend to do
my duty by this girl. I promise you that. By the way, that's the second
time you've asked me that question this afternoon."

"I wanted to make certain, that was all. What are you staring at? Are
you mad?"

"No, I think not. I was only wondering."

Ellison rose and went to the door. Leaning against the post he had an
uninterrupted view of the still waters of the bay. Hardly a ripple
disturbed its surface. The sun was in the last act of sinking into his
crimson bed, and as he went he threw a parting shaft of blood-red light
across the deep. Everything stood out with an unusual distinctness.
Across the straits, so full of importance to them that day, he could see
the settlement of Thursday--count the houses and even distinguish people
walking upon the sea-front. The peaceful beauty of the evening soothed
his soul like sweetest music. He was happier than he had been for
months, nay, years past. It seemed to him that he was in a new world--a
world as far removed from that of the morning as is heaven from hell. He
almost found it difficult to believe that he, the well-dressed, well-fed
man, leaning against the doorpost, was the same being who only that
morning had contemplated suicide on the pier-head over yonder, in that
abject and black despair engendered of starvation. With this feeling of
wonderment still upon him he turned his head in the direction of the
station house--a lamp was just lighted in the sitting room, and by
moving a step further to the left he could discern the loosely rolled
brown hair of a woman's head. Almost unconsciously he sighed. It was a
long time since any woman had manifested so much interest in him. Had he
got past the desire to be worthy of it? No, he hoped not! He had told
himself repeatedly since midday this was certainly his last chance, and
come what might, having obtained it, he would make a struggle to win
back the respect he had begun to believe he had lost forever.

The evening drew on. The night wind rose and played through the palm
fronds above the hut, rubbing against the thatch with soothing sweep.
Murkard was lying on his bed inside, smoking. Esther had brought her
work on to the veranda, but had discarded it when the light failed, and
now sat looking out across the sea. Ellison made no attempt to speak to
her, and she gave no sign to show that she saw him. Some time afterward
he heard Murkard put down his pipe, and come out to stand beside him.

"A beautiful night. Look at that last gleam of crimson low down upon the
horizon. What are you thinking of, old man?"

Ellison did not make any reply for a minute, and then he said quietly:

"Of a night like this eight years ago! That's all."

"You ought not to have let her tell you."

"I couldn't help myself. It was done before I knew it. And then I had
her guilty secret to keep as well as my own. Bah! what a fool I was. But
what am I saying! How did you come to know anything of her?"

"Another of my guesses, that's all."

"Murkard, there's something devilish uncanny about you."

"Because you don't understand me, eh? No, no; don't be afraid, old man,
you will never have cause to fear me. I owe you too much ever to prove
myself ungrateful. Bear with my crotchets--for as surely as I stand
before you now, the day will come when you will regret any harsh word
you have ever spoken to me. My destiny is before me written in letters
of fire--I cannot escape it, and God knows I would not if I could."

"What on earth do you mean?"

"Don't ask me, or try to find out. When I saw your face for the first
time that wet night on the wharf in Sydney, I knew you to be the man for
whom I was sent into the world. There is a year of grace before us, let
us enjoy it--then--well _then I shall do my duty_."

Ellison put his hand on the small man's deformed shoulder.

"Silas, I don't grasp what you're driving at!"

"Then, as I say, don't seek to know. Believe that I'm a dreamer. Believe
that I'm a little mad. I shall never speak of it to you again. But
to-night I felt as if I must speak out--the hand of the Future was upon
me. Good-night!"

"Good-night!"

As Murkard went in the woman rose from her chair, advanced to the
veranda rails, and once more stood looking out across the bay. A clock
in the Kanakas' hut struck ten. Then she too turned to go in. But before
doing so she looked across at Ellison, and said kindly, "Good-night!"

"Good-night!" he called in return.

And all the silence of the world seemed to echo that "Good-night!"




CHAPTER III.

THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL.


Long before the first month was ended both men had settled down
comfortably to their work-a-day existence. They had arrived at a
thorough understanding of their duties, had made friends with their
fellow-workers, and found it difficult to believe that they could be the
same two men who were the beach-combers of the previous month. As for
Murkard he derived the keenest pleasure from the daily, almost
monotonous, routine of his office. He discovered abundance of work to
keep him busy, his keen instinct detected endless opportunities of
creating additional business, and he hoped that, when the owner of the
station should return from his pearling venture, he might not only be in
a position to convince him that his daughter's appointment was fully
justified, but to demonstrate to him that it was likely to prove the
stepping-stone to a sound commercial future. To Esther the man himself
was a complete and continual mystery. Try how she would, she could not
understand him. On one occasion a combination of circumstances led her
to attempt to set him right on a certain matter connected with his own
department. Much to her surprise and discomfiture she found him not only
firmly resolved to assert his own independence, and to resist to the
utmost any attempt at interference, but even prepared to instruct if
need be. Routed on every side she had fled the field ignominiously, but
though mortified at her rebuff, still she could not find it in her heart
to quarrel with the man. To tell the truth, she was more than a little
afraid of him, as he intended she should be. His sharp tongue and
peculiar faculty of quiet ridicule were particularly distasteful to her.
She preferred venting her abuse upon his inoffensive companion--who, it
would appear, absolutely failed to do anything to her complete
satisfaction.

To Ellison, in spite of his joy at having found employment at last, that
first month was not altogether one of happiness. He was too keenly
conscious of his limited powers to be thoroughly at his ease, and yet he
did his work from morning till night with dog-like faithfulness,
grudging himself no labour, sparing himself no pains to ensure the
faithful discharge of the duties entrusted to him. Not only that, but he
often went out of his way to find work. She watched him and invariably
found fault. So surely as his hard day's work was ended, would she
discover something left undone. This she would never fail to point out
to him, and the result well-nigh drove him distracted. And yet there
were times when she was more than kind, bright days in his calendar that
shone with a greater lustre, perhaps, because they were so few and far
between. As instance the following:

His own work being over for the day, he had crossed to the wood pile
behind the kitchen and set to work sawing logs for the cook's fire. The
wood was tough and the labour hard, but he kept the saw going with
endless perseverance. As he came near the end of the supply, Esther
chanced upon him. It was the first time he had seen her since the early
morning.

"Good afternoon," he said, but did not desist from his labour.

"Good afternoon," she returned, regarding him for a moment, and then
seating herself upon an upturned box beside him. "I think you will
remember that I asked you for some screws for a corner bracket this
morning."

"I beg your pardon; I think you asked if I could find any in the
boat-house. I remembered having seen some, and offered to procure them.
You then determined that you would wait until to-morrow for them."

"Ah, yes! so I did. I had forgotten that."

"As you are clearly in the wrong, you might beg my pardon, I think."

"I don't see why. It is my duty to keep you up to your work."

"Very well, then we'll say no more. The screws shall be on your table on
the veranda at ten o'clock to-morrow morning."

"Without fail?"

"Without fail. I always keep my word."

He went on with his sawing. She sat and watched him, and for the first
time became aware of the elegance and symmetry of his figure.

"Not always, I think. I asked you yesterday to tell me what brought you
to Australia; you said you would, but you have evidently forgotten your
promise."

"Again you misinterpreted my speech. I think I said I could not bore you
with it until I knew you better."

"And by that I am to understand that you won't tell me?"

"Not yet."

The saw cut through the log with a little whine, and the end dropped to
the ground.

"You don't know me well enough yet to trust me, I suppose?"

"I know you as well as I suppose I ever shall know you. You are not a
difficult person to understand."

"Have you so much experience of my sex, then?"

"More than most men, perhaps. God help me!"

"You don't seem to realise that that is a dangerous admission to make to
a woman."

"Why? You let me see very plainly yesterday that our ways lie far apart.
In fact, that whatever my rank may once have been, I am now only your
father's servant."

She rose from the box on which she had been sitting and stamped her
foot. He looked up and saw that indignant tears stood in her eyes.

"You are very unjust and very unkind. I'm sure I never said or implied
anything of the sort."

"Then I must crave your pardon once more for misunderstanding you. I
certainly understood that to be your meaning."

She sat down again and fell to scraping up the shavings and litter with
her foot. He resumed his sawing. For the space of about three minutes
neither spoke. Then she said timidly:

"I notice that you are very patient and persevering."

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye suspiciously. This was
too novel and satisfactory not to make him a little distrustful.

"And pray what makes you think that?"

"For many reasons. One because you don't saw wood like most men I have
seen. You go right through till the cut is even and the end drops off of
its own weight. Most men saw it three parts through, then drive in a
wedge, and break off the rest. It saves time, but it means laziness. I
think I like your way best."

"It is very kind of you to say so."

"Oh, not at all. I thought as I've scolded you so often I ought to tell
you of something I approve, that's all."

Decidedly he was a handsome man. She liked his colour, she liked his
glow of health and strength, and she was not quite certain that she did
not like his eyes; but she wasn't going to let him think she had the
very smallest grain of admiration for him. He wondered what was coming
next.

"All the same, you're not a very quick worker. I don't know that it's
quite a profitable occupation for you. One of the boys would have done
twice as much in half the time--not so neatly perhaps, but it would
have burned just as well."

That was the way with her. He never made any advance but she drove him
back further than he was originally. She saw how her last remark was
affecting him, and a smile flickered over her face that was not
altogether one of discouragement. He looked up just in time to catch it.
The result was disastrous. He missed his thrust--the saw slipped and cut
his hand. It was not a deep wound, but it bled profusely--into the white
slit of wood, and, drop by drop, down upon the little heap of saw-dust
at his feet. She saw it as soon as he did, and gave a little cry of
alarm.

"Oh, you have cut yourself, and all through my stupidity! Quick, give me
your handkerchief and let me tie it up."

Before he had properly realised what had happened, she had drawn her own
handkerchief from her pocket, taken his hand, and was binding it up.

"I'm so very, very sorry. It was all my fault. I should not have stayed
here worrying you with my silly talk. Can you forgive me?"

He looked into her face--with its great brown eyes so close to his--this
time without the least embarrassment. And what beautiful eyes they were!

"You are not to blame. It was the result of my own carelessness. I
should have looked at the saw instead of your face."

"Very possibly; but you must not cut any more wood. I forbid it! Do you
think you will remember what I say?"

"I'm very much afraid so."

Not another word passed between them. She went into the house, and he,
with a sea of happiness surging at his heart that he would have been
puzzled to account for, back to the store.

But that evening all the enjoyment he had got out of the afternoon was
destined to be taken away from him. After dinner, Murkard had some work
in the office he wished to finish in time for the China mail next day,
so Ellison wandered down to the shore alone. The moon was just rising
over the headland, and the evening was very still; there was hardly
enough wind to stir the palm leaves on the hill-top. Further round the
island alligators were numerous, and as he stepped on to the beach
Ellison thought he could make out one lying on the sand ahead of him. He
stepped across to obtain a closer view, only to find that it was the
trunk of a sandal-wood tree washed up by the tide. As he turned to
retrace his steps he heard someone coming through the long grass behind
him. It was Esther.

"Good-evening!" he said, raising his hat. "What a perfect night for a
stroll it is. Just look at the effect of the moonlight on the water
yonder."

"How is your hand?"

"Progressing very satisfactorily, thank you. It is very good of you to
take so much interest in my tiny accident."

"I don't see why! I should have been just as interested in anyone else.
I pity the woman who could fail to be affected by an ugly cut like that.
Good-night!"

She resumed her walk, and as he had nothing to say in answer to her
speech, he looked across the stretch of water at the twinkling lights of
Thursday. He had received a well-merited snub, he told himself--one he
would not be likely to forget for a few days to come. He had presumed
too much on her kindness of the afternoon. Who was he that he might
expect from her anything more than ordinary civility? He was her
father's servant, paid by the week to do odd jobs about the place; a
position only found for him out of charity by a kind-hearted girl. With
a gesture of anger he went briskly across the sands, plunged into the
thicket, and strode back towards the house. He was not of course to know
that after leaving him she had stopped in her walk and watched him
until he disappeared. When she, in her turn, wended her way homeward, it
was, illogically enough, with an equally heavy heart. She did not,
perhaps, regret her action, but her mind was torn with doubts.

"If only I could be certain," she kept repeating to herself. "If only I
could be certain!"

But that didn't mend matters very much. That she had angered him, at
least, was certain. Then came the question which was destined to keep
her awake half the night. Had she played with him too much? She could
see that he was thoroughly angered.

On arriving at the hut Ellison discovered Murkard in the act of going to
bed. He was seated on his couch, one boot on, the other in his hand. He
looked up as his friend entered, and one glance at his face told him all
he wanted to know. Placing the boot he held in his hand carefully on the
floor, he removed the other and arranged it beside its fellow. Then,
addressing himself to the ceiling cloth, he said:

"I have often noticed that when a man imagines himself happiest he is in
reality most miserable, and _vice versa_. Last night my friend was
supremely happy,--don't ask me how I knew I saw it,--and yet he sighed
in his sleep half the night. This evening he would have me believe that
he is miserable, and yet there's a look in his eyes that tells me at the
bottom he is really happy."

"You're quite out of your reckoning, my friend, as far as to-night is
concerned. I am miserable, miserable in heart and soul, and for two pins
I'd leave the place to-morrow."

"I should."

"The devil! and why?"

"Because you're going deliberately to work to make an ass of yourself,
if you want it in plain, unvarnished English. You're falling head over
ears in love with a woman you've only known a month, and what's the
result to be?"

"What do you think?"

"Why, that you'll go a-mucker. Old man, I don't know your history. I
don't even know your name. You're no more Ellison, however, than I am.
I've known that ages. You're a public school and Oxford man, that's
plain to those with the least discernment, and from those facts and
certain others I surmise you belong to that detestable class; miscalled
the English aristocracy. I don't care a jot what brought you to
grief--something pretty bad I haven't a doubt--but believe me, and I'm
not joking when I say it, if you marry this girl, without really loving
her, you'll commit the cruellest action of your life, and what's worse
ten thousand times, you'll never cease to regret it. She's a nice girl,
a very nice girl, I don't deny that, but if ever you think there's a
chance of your going home, if you ever want to go, or dream of going,
you're in honour bound to give her up. Go away, clear out, forget you
ever saw her; but for mercy's sake don't drag her down to your hell.
Give her a chance, if you won't give yourself one."

"You speak pretty plainly."

"I speak exactly as I feel, knowing both you and the girl. Do you think
I haven't seen all this coming on? Do you fancy I'm blind? Knowing what
I know of your face, do you think I haven't read you like a book. At
first you looked at it as an investment. You thought the old man, her
father, might have money; you half determined to go in for the girl. But
about 8.30 last Thursday week night you had a bout with your conscience.
You came into the store and talked politics--Queensland politics, too,
of all things in the world--to distract your thoughts. I let you meander
on, but I knew of what you were thinking. After that you gave up the
mercenary notion and talked vaguely of trying your luck on the mainland.
Then she began to snub you, and you to find new beauties in her
character. You may remember that we discussed her, sitting on the cliff
yonder, for nearly three hours on Wednesday evening. You held some
original notions about her intellect, if I remember aright. Now, because
you're afraid of her, you're imagining yourself over head and ears in
love with her. Go away, my boy, go away for a month, on any excuse. I'll
get them to keep your billet open for you if you want to return. You'll
know your own mind by that time. What do you think?"

"I'll do it. I'll give her a week and then go."

"That's the style. You'll repent and want to cry off your bargain in the
morning, but for the present that's the style."

So saying, this guide, philosopher, and friend drew on his boots again
and went out into the still hot night. Having reached the store veranda
he seated himself on a box and lit his pipe.

"This torture is getting more and more acute every day," he began, as a
sort of apology to himself for coming out, "and yet they must neither of
them ever know. If they suspected I should be obliged to go. And why
not? What good can it ever do me to stay on here looking at happiness
through another man's eyes. For she loves him. If he were not so blindly
wrapped up in his own conceit he would see it himself, and the worst of
it is he has no more notion of her worth than I have of heaven. With me
it is 'Mr. Murkard this, and Mr. Murkard that'--kindness and confidence
itself--but oh, how widely different from what I would have her say. My
God! if you are a God, why do you torture me so? Is my sin not expiated
yet? How long am I to drag on in this earthly hell? How long, O Lord,
how long?"

The night breeze whispering among the leaves brought back the words in
mockery: "How long, how long?"

After an hour's communion with his own thoughts he returned to the hut.
Ellison was in bed sleeping quietly, one strong arm thrown round his
head and a faint smile upon his lips. Murkard, lamp in hand, stood and
looked down on him, and as he looked, his lips formed a sentence.

"Whatever is before us, old friend, have no fear. Come what may, I make
my sacrifice for you. Remember that--for you!"

Then, as if he had shouted his shameless secret to the mocking world,
he, too, went hastily to bed.

For a week after that eventful night Ellison saw little of Esther. She
hardly ventured near him, and when necessity compelled that she should
seek him, it was only to complete her business with all possible
dispatch and hurry away again. No more did she enter into conversation
with him about his work. No more did she chaff him about his scrupulous
care and trouble. Their estrangement seemed complete. Murkard noticed
it, and being wise in his generation, thought much but said little.

One evening after dinner, towards the end of the week, Ellison had
strolled down to the beach to smoke his after-dinner pipe when he heard
his name called. He recognised the voice immediately and, turning, went
across to where Esther was standing by the tiny jetty. Her face was very
pale, and she spoke with hesitation.

"Are you very busy for a few minutes, Mr. Ellison?"

"Not at all. My day's work is over. Can I be of any service to you?"

"Would it be too much to ask you to row me across the straits to the
township?"

"I will do so with pleasure. Are you ready now?"

"Quite ready."

Without another word he ran a boat into the water, and with a few
strokes of the oar brought it alongside the steps for her to embark. She
stepped daintily in and, seating herself in the stern-sheets, assumed
possession of the tiller. The expression on his face was one of annoyed
embarrassment. She saw it, and her colour came and went across her face
like clouds across an April sky.

"I'm afraid I am trespassing on your good-nature," she remarked at
length, feeling she must say something. "I ought to have asked one of
the boys to take me over."

"And have had to visit all the saloons to find him when you wanted to
return," he replied. "No, no! Miss McCartney, I am glad you asked me."

She looked at him nervously; but his face told her nothing. He appeared
to be fully occupied with the management of the boat. She put her hand
overboard and played with the water alongside, casting furtive glances
at him ever and anon. The silence became more and more embarrassing.

"Mr. Ellison, I am afraid you think very badly of me?" she said, in
sheer desperation.

"My dear Miss McCartney, what on earth can have made you imagine such a
thing?"

"But I know you do. I'm afraid I was very rude to you the other day. I
have never forgiven myself for it. It was very ungrateful of me after
all the kind things you have done for me since I have known you."

"But, I assure you, you are quite mistaken. Your treatment of me may
have been a little unkind, but it was certainly not rude. Besides, what
I have done for you has all been done out of pure selfishness, because,
you see, it gives me pleasure to serve you."

"Mr. Murkard hinted to me this morning that you are thinking of leaving
us. Is that true?"

"I _was_ thinking of doing so, but----"

"But you will forgive me before you go, won't you? Let us be friends
again for the little time that is left to us."

She held out her dry hand towards him; he leaned forward gravely and
took it, after which they were silent again for some time. The crisis
was passed, but the situation was still sufficiently awkward to deprive
them both of conversation. By the time they had recovered enough to
resume it, they had passed the hulk and were approaching the township
jetty. He brought the boat alongside in a masterly fashion, and held it
close to the steps for his companion to disembark.

"Thank you, Mr. Ellison," she said, as she stepped out. "I have enjoyed
myself very much. I hope you will have a pleasant sail back!"

"I am going to wait for you."

"Indeed you are not. I could not think of such a thing. I shall be sure
to find someone who will put me across."

"I am going to wait for you. It will be very pleasant sitting here; and,
remember, we have just made friends. You must not quarrel with me so
soon again."

"Very well, since you wish it. I will try not to be any longer than I
can help."

She tripped up the wooden steps and disappeared along the jetty. He made
the boat fast, and seating himself in the place she had just vacated,
lit his pipe.

For nearly an hour he sat and smoked. The heavens were bright with stars
above him; the sleeping waters rose and fell round the piers with gentle
gurgling noises. A number of pearling luggers rode at anchor on either
hand of him, and the township lights twinkled merrily ashore. His heart
was happier than it had been for some time past, and yet again and again
Murkard's words of warning rose upon his recollection. Did the girl love
him? And more important still, if she did, did he love her as she
deserved to be loved? He asked himself these two questions repeatedly,
and each time he could not answer either of them to his satisfaction.

Was his affection for her a sincere one, founded on a genuine
admiration? He had been piqued by her behaviour; his vanity (poor
remnant of a feeling) had been hurt by it. Since then he had brought
himself to believe he loved her. Was he prepared to sacrifice everything
for her? Again the torturing doubt. It would be passing sweet to love
her; but could he do so with a clear conscience? He knew his
failing--could he lie to himself? The night affected him; the moon, just
rising blood-red above the hill-top, spoke to him of love. Not the love
of a lifetime, not the love that will give and take, bear and forbear,
thinking no ill, and enduring for all eternity; but of love-talk, of a
woman's face against his, of gratified vanity perhaps, at all events of
a love of possession. No, he knew in his inmost heart, his conscience
told him, that he did not care for her as, in the event of his making
her his wife, he felt she would have a right to expect.

Besides, there was another, and even more important, point to be
considered. Was he worthy of a good woman's love? he, until lately an
adventurer--a----No, no! If he were a man of honour he would go away; he
would go out into the world again, and, in forgetting her, enable her to
forget him. And yet the temptation to stay--to hear from her own lips
that she loved him--was upon him, calling him in tenderest accents to
remain. He sat and thought it out as dispassionately as he was able, and
his final resolve was to go. In this case, at least, he would not think
of himself, he would think only of what was best for her. Yes, he would
go! Suddenly away down the jetty he heard the patter of shoe heels. His
heart throbbed painfully. She was coming back. They came closer and
closer. She appeared on the sky-line, and, descending the steps, took
his hand to jump into the boat.

"I'm afraid you must have grown very tired of waiting for me."

"I'm very glad to see you, certainly; but I don't think I can say I'm
tired. It is a beautiful evening. Look at that glorious moon. We shall
have a perfect sail home."

He hoisted the canvas, and they pushed off. In spite of the resolve he
had just made it was vastly pleasant to be seated beside her, to feel
the pressure of her warm soft body against his on the little seat. There
was a fair breeze, and the water bubbling under the boat's sharp bows
was like tinkling music as they swept from the shadow of the pier into
the broad moonlight. Again, for want of something to do, she put her
hand into the water; and the drops from her fingers when she lifted
them shone like silver. As if in contradiction of her affected
unconcern, she was palpably nervous. Once he could almost have sworn he
felt her tremble.

"You are not cold, I hope?"

"Oh, dear, no! What could make you think so?"

"I thought I felt you shiver."

"It was nothing. I am perfectly warm."

"All the same I shall put this spare sail over your knees--so."

He took a piece of canvas from behind him, and spread it round her. She
made no attempt at resistance. In spite of her show of independence,
there was something infinitely pleasant to her in being thus tended and
cared for by this great strong man.

In five minutes they were passing close under the nearest point of their
own island. High cliffs rose above them, crowned with a wealth of
vegetation. She looked up at them, and then turned to her companion.

"Mr. Ellison, do you know the story of that bluff?"

"No. I must plead guilty to not being aware that it possessed one. May I
hear it?"

"It has a strange fascination for me--that place. I never pass it
without thinking of the romance connected with it. Do you see that tall
palm to the right there?"

"Yes."

"Well, under that palm is a grave; the resting-place of a man whom I can
remember seeing very often when I was only a little child."

"What sort of a man?"

"Ah, that's a question a good many would have liked to have answered.
Though it's years ago, I can see him now as plainly as if it were but
yesterday. He was very tall and very handsome. Possibly forty years old,
though at first sight he looked more than that, for the reason that his
hair and moustache were as white as snow. He lived in a hut on that
bluff far away from everybody. In all the years he was there he was
never known to cross the straits to the settlement, but once every three
months he used to come down to our store for rations and two English
letters. I believe we were the only souls he ever spoke to, and then he
never said any more than was absolutely necessary. The pearlers used to
call him the Hermit of the Bluff."

"Do you think he was quite sane?"

"I'm sure of it. I think now he must have been the victim of some great
sorrow, or, perhaps, some man of family exiled from his country for no
fault of his own."

"What makes you imagine that?"

"Why, because it was my father who found him lying lifeless on the floor
of his hut. He had been dead some days and nobody any the wiser. Hoping
to find something to tell him who he was, my father searched the hut,
but without success. But when, however, he lifted the poor body, he
caught a glimpse of something fastened round his neck. It was a large
gold locket, with a crown or coronet upon the cover. Inside it was a
photograph of some great lady--but though he recognised her, my father
would never tell me her name--and a little slip of paper, on which was
written these words: 'Semper fidelis: Thank God, I can forgive. It is
our fate. Good-bye.' They buried him under the palm yonder and the
locket with him."

"Poor wretch! Another victim of fate! I wonder who he could have been."

"That is more than anyone will ever know, until the last great Judgment
Day. But, believe me, he is not the only one of that class out here. I
could tell you of half a dozen others that I remember. There was Bombay
Pete; it was said he was a fashionable preacher in London, and was
nearly made a bishop. He died--bewitched, he said--in a Kanaka's hut
over yonder behind the settlement. Then there was the Gray Apollo--but
who _he_ was nobody ever knew; at any rate he was the handsomest and
most reckless man on the island until he was knifed in the Phillipines;
and the man from New Guinea; and Sacramento Dick; and the Scholar; and
John Garfitt, who turned out to be a lord. Oh, I could tell you of
dozens of others. Poor miserable, miserable men."

"You have a sympathy for them, then?"

"Who could help it? I pity them from the bottom of my heart. Fancy their
degradation. Fancy having been brought up in the enjoyment of every
luxury, started with every advantage in life, and then to come out here
to consort with all the riff-raff of the world and to die, cut off from
kith and kin, in some hovel over yonder. It is too awful."

Ellison sighed. She looked at him, and then said very softly:

"Mr. Ellison, I do not want to pry into your secret, but is there no
hope for you?"

He appeared not to have heard her. A great temptation was upon him. He
was going away to-morrow: she would never see him again. She had
evidently a romantic interest in these shattered lives--could he not
allow himself the enjoyment of that sympathy just for a few brief hours?
Why not? Ah, yes, why not?

"Miss McCartney," he said, after a long pause, "do you know, while you
were away to-night, and I was sitting waiting for you, I subjected
myself to a severe cross-examination?"

"On what subject?"

"Partly yourself, partly myself."

"What sort of cross-examination do you mean, Mr. Ellison?"

"Well, that is rather a difficult question to answer, and for the
following reason: In the first place, to tell you would necessitate my
doing a thing I had made up my mind never to do again."

"What is that?"

"To unlock the coffers of my memory and to take out the history of my
past. Eight years ago I swore that I would forget certain things--the
first was my real name, the second was the life I had once led, and the
third was the reason that induced me to give up both."

"Well?"

"I have tried to remember that you have only known me a month, that you
really know nothing of myself, my disposition, or my history."

"But I think I do know."

"I fear that is impossible. But, Miss McCartney, since I see your
sympathy for others, I have a good mind to tell you everything, and let
you judge for yourself. You are a woman whose word I would take against
all the world. You will swear that whatever I reveal to you shall never
pass your lips."

"I swear!"

She was trembling in real earnest now. To prolong their interview he put
the boat over on another tack, one that would bring her close under the
headland by the station. Esther raised no objection, but sat looking
before her with parted lips and rather startled eyes. She noticed that
his voice, when he spoke, took another tone. She attributed it to
nervousness, when in reality it was only unconscious acting.

"Miss McCartney, living here in this out-of-the-way part of the world,
you can have no idea what my life has been. Thrown into temptation as a
child, is it to be wondered at that I fell? Brought up to consider
myself heir to untold wealth, is it to be wondered that I became
extravagant? Courted by everybody, can you be surprised that I thought
my own attractions irresistible? My father was a proud and headstrong
man, who allowed me to gang my own gait without let or hindrance. When
I left Eton, I left it a prig; when I left Oxford, I left it a man of
pleasure, useless to the world and hurtful to myself and everybody with
whom I fell in contact. But not absolutely and wholly bad with it all,
you must understand. Mind you, Miss McCartney, I do not attempt to spare
myself in the telling; I want you to judge fairly of my character."

"I promise you I will. Go on."

"With a supreme disregard for consequences, I plunged into absurd
speculations, incurred enormous liabilities, and when my creditors came
down upon me for them I went to my father for relief. He laughed in my
face and told me he was ruined; that I was a pauper and must help
myself; sneered in my face, in fact, and told me to go to the devil my
own way as fast as I was able. I went to my brothers, who jeered at me.
I went to all my great friends, who politely but firmly showed me their
doors. I went to men who at other times had lent me money, but they had
heard of my father's embarrassments, and refused to throw good money
after bad. Checkmated at every turn, I became desperate. Then to crown
it all a woman came to me, a titled lady, in the dead of night; she told
me a story, so base, so shameful, that I almost blush now to think of
it. She said she had heard I was going to fly the country. My name was
talked of with her--I alone could save her. In a moment of recklessness
I agreed to take her shame upon myself. What was my good name to me? At
least I could help her. It was the one and only good action of my life.
The next day I left England a pauper, and what is worse, a defaulter,
doomed never to return to it, and never to bear my own name again. That
is how I came to be a loafer, the dead-beat, the beach-comber I was when
you took compassion upon me."

"And--and your name?"

"I--I am the Marquis of St. Burden; my father is the Duke of Avonturn."

"You--you--Mr. Ellison, a--marquis!"

"Heaven help me--yes! But why do you look at me like that? You surely do
not hate me now that you have heard my wretched story?"

"Hate you! Oh, no, no! I only pity you from the bottom of my heart."

Her voice was very low and infinitely, hopelessly sad. He was looking
out to sea. Suddenly he bowed his head and seemed to gasp for breath.
Then, turning to her again, he seized her hand with a gesture that was
almost one of despair.

"Esther, Esther! My God, what have I done? Forget what I have said.
Blot it out from your memory forever. I was mad to have told you. Oh,
Heavens, how can I make you forget the mischief my treacherous tongue
has dragged me into!"

"Your secret is safe with me, never fear. No mortal shall ever dream
that I know your history. But, my lord, you will go back some day?"

Instantly his voice came back to him clear and strong:

"Never! never! Living or dead, I will never go back to England again.
That is my irrevocable determination."

"Then may God help you!"

"Esther, can't you guess now why I must go away from here, why I must
leave to-morrow?"

He could hardly recognise the voice that answered.

"Yes, yes, I see. It is impossible for you to be my father's servant any
longer."

"That was not what I meant. I meant because I am afraid to stay with
you, lest my evil life should contaminate yours."

"That is impossible! How can you hurt me?"

He pressed the hand he held in his almost savagely.

"I mean that I love you. You must have known it long since. I mean that
you are dearer to me than all the world."

"Oh, let me go! I cannot listen to you!"

"But you must! you must!"

"Oh, let me go!"

"You do not love me, then?"

"Oh, let me go, let me go!"

But he held her fast, pressing her closer and closer to him.

"I will not let you go until you tell me!"

"Oh, I can't tell you! Can't you see that what you have told me makes
all the difference in the world?"

"I beg your pardon. I should have expected this. Forgive me and forget
me; I will go away to-morrow."

Her only reply was a choking sob. He put the boat back on her course,
and in five minutes they had grounded on the beach; having helped her to
disembark, he turned to pull the boat up out of reach of the tide. This
done, he looked to find her waiting for him, but she was gone. He could
see her white dress flitting up the path towards the house. Without
attempting to follow her, he left the beach and strode away round the
hill into the interior of the island. When he had gone about a mile he
came to an abrupt halt and looked towards the sea.

"Again, again!" he cried, with a great and exceeding bitter cry. "Oh,
God! I was tempted and I fell; forgive me, for I can never forgive
myself!"

As if in answer to his cry a night-hawk hooted among the rocks. He
wheeled about and strode off in a different direction. In that instant
he seemed to have learned a secret he had never even guessed at before.

The sun was in the act of making his appearance above the horizon when
he reached the station again. He was utterly worn-out, both mentally and
physically. Without undressing he threw himself upon his bed, and slept
a dreamless sleep for an hour. Then he got up and looked out upon the
world. It was the beginning of his last day at the station.




CHAPTER IV.

DESTINY--AN ACCIDENT--AND A BETROTHAL.


Early as it was, Ellison discovered that Murkard was out before him.
Pulling himself together as well as he was able, he took his towel and
went down to the beach to bathe. It was an exquisite morning, a fresh
breeze played among the palms and shrubs; the blue sea danced and
glistened in the sunshine; columns of palest blue smoke rose, curling
and twisting, into the sweet morning air. Ellison alone was sad. Even a
swim failed to raise his spirits. He dressed himself and went back to
breakfast with a face that was like that of a doomed man. So far he had
seen no sign of Esther, nor had he any expectation of doing so until he
went in to say good-bye to her. As the clanging bell called to
breakfast, Murkard made his appearance. _He_ also seemed out of sorts,
and nodded to Ellison without a word as he seated himself at the table.
The other was hardly prepared for this treatment of his trouble.

"Why, what on earth's wrong with you this morning?" Ellison asked
irritably. "Has the whole world gone dismal mad?"

"I'm very worried about something. Don't ask me what, old man. I'm
trying to fight it down, and if you leave me alone I shall be all right
directly."

"I'm afraid I shan't be here to see it, then. I'm leaving in an hour's
time--for good and all."

Murkard sprang to his feet with a new face.

"Then that puts me right at once. God bless you, Ellison, you could not
have given me better news! I knew you'd do what was right!"

"Have you been fretting about me, then?"

"A little. But more about that girl over yonder. Of course, whatever
happened, I should stand by you--you know that, don't you? But--well,
the long and the short of it is, I couldn't bear to see the poor child
getting to care for you more and more every day, when I knew that your
affection was not the kind to satisfy her craving. Poor little thing, it
will be hard on her, devilish hard, but all the same I believe you're
doing what is best and happiest for both of you."

"Do you think so, honour bright?"

"I don't think, I'm sure of it!"

"Then I'll go. But you don't know, old man, what a bitter fight it has
been. Since you laughed at me a week ago I've been arguing it over, and
the result is, I'm beginning to think I _do_ care for her, after all."

"If you only _think_, you're still on the wrong side of the stream. No,
no; we must go. There is no question about that. I'll put our few traps
together after breakfast, and then we'll say farewell and adieu to
respectability once more."

"But you are not coming too. I could never allow that!"

"You'll have no option. Of course I must come! Didn't I tell you the
other day that we're bound up together? My destiny is in your hands. I
must never leave you. I had an idea the end would have come here, but it
seems I'm mistaken."

"I wish you'd be a little more explicit sometimes."

"It would probably amuse you if I were, and though I'm not the sort of
man who fears ridicule, as a general rule, I could not bear to have you
laugh at this."

"I should not laugh; it seems to me I shall never laugh again. Tell me,
Murkard, what you mean."

"I will tell you."

He rose and walked up and down the little room for some minutes. Then
he stopped, and leaning against the smoke-coloured mantelpiece, spoke.

"In the first place, I suppose you will admit that there are some men in
this extraordinary world of ours more delicately constructed than
others. You agree to that. Very good. Well, that being so, I am perhaps
more sensitive than you--possibly, though I don't say absolutely,
accounted for by my deformity. I look at commonplace things in a
different way; my brain receives different impressions from passing
events. I don't say whether my impressions are right or wrong. At any
rate, they are there. Directly I set eyes on you, that first night of
our meeting, I knew you were my fate. Don't ask me how I knew it. It is
sufficient that I _did_ know it. Something inside here seemed to tell me
that our lives were bound up together; in fact, that you were the man
for whose sake I was sent into the world. You remember we were starving
at the time, and that we slept under a Moreton Bay fig in the Domain.
Well, perhaps as the result of that hunger, I dreamed a dream. Something
came to me and bade me to go with you, bade me be by your side
continually because I was necessary to your life, and because my death
would be by your hands."

"Good gracious, Murkard, think what you're saying!"

"I have thought, and I know. I don't mean that you will murder me, but I
_do_ mean that it will be in connection with you that I shall meet my
death. The same dream told me that a chance would be given us. That
chance has come. Also the dream told me that my only hope of heaven lay
in saving you by laying down my own life. That time has not come
yet--but it will come as surely as we are now located in this hut. In
the meantime there is another life between us. That life we have not met
yet; what or whose it is I have no notion, but I dread it night and
day."

"You don't mean to tell me you believe all that you're telling me?"

"As implicitly as I believe that I am standing before you now. And so
will you when it is too late--not before."

"But think, man, think! How can such a thing be contemplated for a
moment? Your life by my hands! No, no!"

"Let it drop. Forget that I ever told you. We shall see whether it turns
out as I say. Moreover, something tells me that although we are
preparing to leave this place, we shall not go!"

Without further argument he opened the door and went out. Ellison in
his turn began to pace the room.

"He is mad, the man is undoubtedly mad. And yet God knows why he should
be. If vileness has anything to do with it, I am despicable enough to do
anything he might dream! Surely there never was so miserable a wretch as
I! But we will go from here. Of that I am determined."

He began feverishly to put together the few little odds and ends he had
collected during the past month. It was not a lengthy business, but it
cut him to the heart to have to do it. If he left this place, where for
a month he had been so happy, what would his future be? Turned out to
seek employment again, would he drift back into the old vagabond life or
not? And if he did, he asked himself, what would it matter? Who was
there in the world to care? He tied up his bundle, threw it on the bed,
and then in his turn left the hut. Esther was on the veranda of her own
house. He crossed the path to speak to her.

"Miss McCartney," he said, "have you been able to find it in your heart
to forgive me for my rudeness last night?"

Her hand shook and her voice trembled as she answered, with downcast
eyes, "There is nothing to forgive, my lord."

"No, no; you must not call me that!"

He raised his hand as if to ward off a blow. She noticed the look of
pain that leaped into his eyes.

"Forgive me in your turn. I am sorry I hurt you."

"Do you think it matters? My life will be all one long pain now. I am
going away; I have come to say good-bye to you."

"You are--really--going--away?"

"Yes; I cannot live here after what I told you last night. It is
impossible for both of us. I must go out into the world again and try to
win back the self-respect I have lost. But before I go I want to thank
you for all you have done for me; for a month you have enabled me to
shake hands with happiness. I can never be sufficiently grateful to
you."

"Where--where shall you go when you leave here?"

"I haven't the remotest notion. On to the mainland most probably; out to
some station in the far West, where I can forget and be forgotten. What
does it matter where I go?"

"Does--does it never strike you that in thus dooming yourself to
hopeless misery you are being very cruel to me?"

"It is only to be kind. God knows I have thought of you before myself,
and the only conclusion I can come to is that it would be worse for you
if I stayed."

"Then good-bye, and may God bless you and protect you always!"

He looked into her face; it was pale as death. She held out her hand,
and he raised it to his lips. The knowledge that had come to him the
previous night was confirmed now. In that second he learned how much he
loved her.

"Good-bye--good-bye!"

He watched her pass into the house, and was in the act of leaving the
spot himself when he heard a heavy fall within. In an instant he had
divined its meaning, and was inside the room, to find Esther upon the
floor in a dead faint. Raising her in his arms he carried her to a sofa
and laid her on it; then, procuring water, he bathed her forehead and
chafed her hands till she returned to consciousness. When her eyes
opened she looked at him with a frightened stare.

"Oh, what has happened?"

"The sun was too much for you out there. You fainted; fortunately I
heard you fall and carried you here. Are you better?"

"Yes, thank you. I am almost all right again."

"You are quite sure?"

"Quite."

He took up his hat and left the house. As he crossed the veranda he
noticed a stir in the station. The Kanakas had turned out of their hut
and were staring in the direction of the bay. From the place where he
stood he could see two luggers approaching the jetty.

"Her father has returned," he said to himself, almost without interest,
and went down to the shore. His supposition proved correct. But from the
way the last of the boats manoeuvred there was evidently something
wrong. He waited until it got alongside, and then walked down the jetty
to find out what this peculiarity might mean. A little crowd was
collected on the second boat; those Kanakas who knew him made way for
him to step on board. The crew of the boat itself regarded him with some
surprise.

"What is the matter?" he asked.

"The boss has met with an accident," explained the oldest of the men,
"and we don't know how to let his daughter know."

"Where is he?"

"In the cabin aft. Step below and see him for yourself."

Ellison did as he was directed, and went down the companion into the box
of a cabin. An elderly man, with gray hair and beard, bearing an
unmistakable likeness to Esther, lay on a roughly constructed bed placed
on the port side. He looked up as Ellison entered.

"And who may you be?" he asked faintly.

"My name is Ellison," the other replied. "I have been a month in your
employ--your daughter took me on as a carpenter and general hand in
place of Paddy the Lasher, discharged."

"You talk like a gentleman."

"I was considered one once."

"Then you may be able to do me a good turn. I have met with a serious
accident--slipped on those steps there and injured my back. From the
numbness of my lower half, I'm almost afraid it's a hopeless case; but I
don't want to frighten my daughter without need. Will you go up and
break the news to her?"

"If you wish it. But surely it's not as bad as you say. Perhaps it's
only a severe sprain."

"I fear not. As I tell you, I'm dead below the waist."

"Will you stay here till I come back, or shall we carry you up now?"

"I'll stay here. But don't be longer than you can help, and break the
news as gently as you can to her."

"You may trust me."

Ellison went up the steps again, passed through the little crowd, and
made his way back towards the house. He was only just in time, for
Esther had seen the boats come in, and was on her way to meet her
father. She was surprised to see the man to whom she had just said
"Good-bye" coming along the path towards her. Something in his face must
have warned her that he was the bearer of evil tidings, for she stopped,
and he heard her catch her breath with a little convulsive sob.

"My father has returned, and you have bad news for me?"

"That of course depends upon how you take it. Yes, your father has
returned, but--well, the long and short of it is, he is _not_ very
well."

"My father--not well! He was never ill in his life. It must be something
serious, or he would not have sent you to tell me."

"He has met with a bit of an accident--a fall. He asked me to come on in
advance and let you know, lest you should be frightened when you saw
them carrying him up."

"That is not all; he is worse than you say. Oh, Mr. Ellison, for
Heaven's sake, don't deceive me--tell me all! I can bear it, believe
me."

"I am not deceiving you. God knows I would be the last to do that. You
shall see him for yourself in a minute or two. But had you not better
first run back and have a bed prepared for him. I will go down and help
them carry him up."

"How good you are to me!"

She went back to the house, while he returned to the boat. Before he
arrived Murkard had put in an appearance, and with his usual foresight
had set to work upon a rough litter in which to carry the sick man up to
the house. This constructed, he was placed upon it, and between them
they bore him up the hill. Ellison and Murkard carried him across the
veranda into the room his daughter had prepared for him. She received
him with greater bravery than Ellison had expected. The father's courage
was wonderful.

"This is a nice way to come home, my girl!" he said, with an attempt at
cheerfulness. "You're not accustomed to seeing your father carried, are
you?"

With her eyes full of tears she stooped and kissed him. Perhaps the
coldness of his forehead told her something of the truth, for she
started and looked at Ellison in terrified surprise. The two men laid
him on the bed, and while she was in another room removed his clothes.
It was a difficult business, but once it was accomplished the patient
felt infinitely relieved. As they were leaving the house Esther met
them. She drew Ellison aside.

"Someone must cross to the settlement for the doctor immediately. It is
useless to attempt to blind me as to his condition. I can see it for
myself."

"I will go over, and bring him back with me."

"God bless you! I feel so terribly lonely now; it is good to know that I
have a friend in you."

"A friend faithful to the death. Esther, will you answer me one
question? Would it make you happier if I stayed with you a little
longer--say, till your father is able to get about again?"

She hung her head, but his eager ears caught the timid little "Yes" that
escaped her lips.

"Then so be it. Now I will go for the doctor."

She held out her hand; he took it, and for the second time that morning
raised it to his lips. Then he strode away in the direction of the
store. Murkard was not surprised at the news. He accompanied him to the
beach, and helped him to push his boat into the water. When Ellison was
past the jetty he returned to his work, muttering:

"I knew something would happen to prevent it. This is the hand of
Destiny again."

Ellison pulled swiftly across to the township, beached his boat opposite
the Chinese quarter, and after inquiring the direction of the doctor's
house, set off for it without a moment's delay. He discovered the medico
smoking on his veranda, and in less than three minutes had given him a
complete summary of the case. They returned to the boat together, and
Ellison, after pulling him across, conducted him straightway to the sick
man's bedroom. He did not go in himself, but waited on the veranda. In
half an hour the doctor emerged and beckoned him out of hearing of the
house. Ellison read the worst in his face.

"Is there no hope?"

"Not a scrap. I tell you this straightforwardly. Of course I presume,
from your anxiety, you are an interested party, and as such have a right
to know. The man's spine is fatally injured. Paralysis has already set
in in the lower limbs. It is only a matter of time with him now."

"How long do you think he may live?"

"It is impossible to say--six hours, possibly eight, certainly not more.
If you have any business to consult him upon, I advise you to do it at
once; he may not be conscious very long."

"You have not told his daughter?"

"Only that the case is serious. I have told him, and I think he will
tell her."

"Thank you for being so candid. It is really no business of mine, but I
must try and help that poor girl to bear her sorrow. Shall you see him
again?"

"I think so, though I am convinced it is hopeless. Still, I shall look
over in the course of the afternoon. Who will put me across?"

"I will."

They got into the boat and pushed off. When he had landed the doctor,
Ellison pulled slowly back. His brain was staggering under a multitude
of thoughts. What was he to do? What must his duty be now? Should he go
away and leave this girl to bear her sorrow alone? Or should he take the
bull by the horns, ask her father to be allowed to make her his wife,
and trust to Providence for the rest? He didn't know, he couldn't
tell--both seemed equally impossible. He resolved to leave it, as he had
done before, to the decision of blind Fate. In the meantime he pulled
back to the jetty, secured the boat, and went up to the house. Esther
saw him pass the window, and came quietly out on the veranda.

"He is sleeping now," she almost whispered; "but it doesn't seem a
natural sleep. I cannot tell you how terrified I am about him."

"Poor girl! what can I say to you save that you have my sincerest, my
most heartfelt sympathy? If you should want any assistance, remember
that I am here to give it you, come what may."

Her only answer was to press the hand that rested on the veranda rail
with her soft fingers. Her touch thrilled him through and through, and
he went into the hut for lunch with a look in his face that had never
been there before. He was beginning to understand his position more
clearly now.

Towards the middle of the afternoon he was employing himself among the
boats, when he saw her coming breathlessly towards him. He dropped the
adze he held in his hand and went to meet her.

"He wants you to come to him," she managed to gasp. "Oh, I don't know
how to tell you the agony of fear I'm suffering. He seems so much
weaker. Come at once."

She accompanied him into the house, and to the door of her father's
chamber. The change in the patient's face staggered him. It was ghastly
white and drawn; approaching dissolution was staring from the restless
eyes.

"Mr. Ellison," he said faintly, "I have sent for you, and I must be
quick with what I have to say, for the end is near. Though I only saw
you for the first time this morning, I seem to know you thoroughly. My
daughter has told me of the kindness you and your friend have shown to
her. She has also informed me that you told her last night of your love
for her. Is that true, on your oath to a dying man?"

"Yes. It is true! I know now that I do love her."

"With your whole heart and soul, so help you God!"

"With my whole heart and soul, so help me God!"

"Is there anything to prevent you making her your wife?"

"In a legal sense, nothing. In a moral--well, perhaps I have not led the
sort of life I might have done; but if you will trust her to me I swear
before God, as I hope for heaven, that I will do my duty to her all the
days of my life. I will endeavour to make her life happy at any cost to
myself."

"She will be poor, remember. There is nothing for me to leave her save a
few hundred pounds, this station, and the boats. You will have to work
hard to support her."

"I will work my hands to the bone."

"Then as you deal with my motherless and fatherless girl, so may God
deal with you. He has sent you to take my place, in her hour of need. If
you stand firm by her he will not desert you in yours. As a dying man I
trust you; that is enough. Now send her to me."

Ellison went to the door and called the girl. She came in, and the dying
man gave them his blessing. After which he told them he would rather
sleep.

When the doctor reached the house half an hour later Ellison met him on
the threshold.

"How is he now?"

"You have come too late, doctor. He is dead!"




CHAPTER V.

A WEDDING--A CONVERSATION--AND AN EPISODE.


Towards sundown the following afternoon the remains of Alexander
McCartney were conveyed across the straits and interred in the little
cemetery above the township of Port Kennedy. A week later his daughter
became Cuthbert Ellison's wife. It had been the dead man's wish that
there should be no delay in the marriage. He was anxious to have his
daughter's safety assured within as short a time of his demise as
possible. Nor had either of them any objection to raise. The wedding
took place in the little church on the hill-side, and Silas Murkard
acted as his friend's best man. After the ceremony they sailed quietly
home in one of their own boats to receive the congratulations of Mrs.
Fenwick and the station, and to take up the old life once more.

As Ellison lifted his wife out of the boat on to the little jetty he
looked into her eyes. There was only pure happiness and unutterable
trust written there. He lowered his own before her gaze and heaved a
heavy sigh.

When she had passed into the house, proudly escorted by Mrs. Fenwick,
Murkard came up to him and took his hand.

"Cuthbert, I have waited my chance to congratulate you. We are alone
now, and from the bottom of my heart I wish you happiness."

"Thank you. You have been a good friend to me, Silas."

"There is no question of _friendship_ between us. It is more than that.
But there is one thing I want to say to you."

"Say on."

"You will not be offended with me?"

"Never. I don't think it is in your power to do that, old friend."

"Very well, then I will say it. Cuthbert Ellison, you think you know the
woman who has this day become your wife?"

Ellison nodded. He wondered what was coming.

"You would be surprised and perhaps angry if I told you that I know her
a thousand times better than you do or ever will know her. I can read
her nature as I can read yours. And for this reason I warn you. That
woman has one of the purest and most beautiful minds ever given by God
to any human being. Beware how you act towards her, beware of what you
say! Remember, though you may mean nothing by what you say, she will
never forget one single word. You have only to look into her eyes to see
what she thinks of you _now_. She believes in you heart and soul, she
worships the very ground you walk on; it remains with you to say whether
she shall retain that trust or not. What you have said to her already
cling to as a shipwrecked man clings to a spar; what you say in the
future must be your own concern. I will help you if ever help be needed,
but in the meantime watch yourself, and if there is a God watching over
us may he bless and keep you both. I have spoken!"

Having said this he turned on his heel and walked quickly away in the
direction of his own solitary hut. He entered and closed the door.

The evening meal finished, Ellison and Esther passed out to the veranda
together. The day had been fine, but the night was dark and stormy;
thick clouds obscured the heavens, big waves broke on the beach with
ominous grumblings, and now and again swift streaks of lightning flashed
across the sky. Husband and wife sat side by side. The man was reviewing
in his mind the events of the day, and wondering at the strange
conversation he had had with Murkard that evening. In spite of his
supreme happiness a vague feeling of sadness was upon him that would
not be dispelled. Esther was all content. Woman-like she derived an
intense pleasure from mere personal contact with the being she adored.
She could just see the outline of his face against the sky, and she
wondered at its sadness. At last she spoke:

"Of what are you thinking, husband mine?"

He started as if she had stung him, and hastened to reply:

"Can't you guess? I was thinking of you and of all you have done for
me."

"Perhaps a little of me, but not altogether, I fear. Cuthbert, do you
believe you will ever regret?"

"No, no! ten thousand times, no! Would a man ever regret having been
given a chance of heaven?"

"You are begging the question! I mean, my husband,"--her voice dwelt
with infinite tenderness upon the name,--"do you think you will ever
have cause to wish you had never seen me, when you see what other
cleverer and prettier women you might have married?"

"I should never have married any other. You are my destiny. I was born
into the world to marry you, and no one else. How could it possibly have
been otherwise?"

"You are very silly. I want to talk seriously."

"That _is_ talking seriously."

"It is nonsense. But listen, dear. You must forgive me for bringing up
the subject on this night, of all others, but I cannot let it rest. I
will never speak of it again if you wish it. But you must answer me
truthfully for the last time."

He bit his lip to keep back the cry of fear that almost escaped him. He
knew what was coming, and dreaded it like the cutting of a flashing
knife.

"Go on!"

"Cuthbert, if you ever went back to your old world and saw women, as I
say, cleverer and more beautiful than I am, you might wish you had never
seen me. You would not tell me so, and you would not, if you could help
it, let me guess it, but my woman's instinct would warn me--and then
what should I do? I should be chained to you, and you would be chained
to me. I should be a drag upon you--a curse--instead of the help I wish
to be. I should love you just the same, because I could never love
anyone else; but think what the depth of my despair would be!"

A large tear fell on the back of his hand. He drew her to him with
almost a fierceness.

"I told you the other day I should never go back to my old world. I am
dead to it, and it is dead to me. I am Cuthbert Ellison, the pearler,
your husband, and I wish to be no other. Forget, for mercy's sake, that
I ever had a past; let us live only for my present and the future. Let
me be to you the husband I would wish to be; let me work, toil, knowing
no weariness in what is done for you; let me build up a new life of
honour for your sake, and let the dead past bury its dead. I love you,
and I want no world that has not you in it. Let us never speak on this
subject again."

"You are not angry with me for saying what I did."

"Angry, no! I am sorry, full of remorse that I ever told you that story.
God must help me to atone for it. I shall never be able to rid myself of
the fear that you will hate me for it."

"You are unjust to yourself, and even, I think, a little unjust to me.
Had you not told me, there would always have been a barrier between us.
Now I know everything, and, believe me, I do not honour you the less for
telling me."

She raised his hand to her mouth and imprinted a kiss upon it. That kiss
stung him to the quick. Like the look of trust upon her face when he had
helped her from the boat, it was almost a reproach. It was the beginning
of his punishment. He made shift to change the course of the
conversation.

"Darling," he said, "have you thought seriously yet of what our marriage
means to us? Have you thought what you have made of the man who only a
month ago stood before you in this very veranda, in rags and tatters,
asking for employment to keep body and soul together? That man is now
your husband. Linked to you not for to-day or to-morrow, next week or
next month, but for all time, for all eternity. Your husband--part of
your own self: surely that should be sufficient passport for me into
heaven itself. My interests are to be your interests, your hopes my
hopes--in fact, your life is mine, and my life yours. There is an awful
solemnity about it. If I could only grasp the drift of it all!"

"Grasp the drift? You are the drift. You must help me to make my life, I
must help you to make yours; that is what it means. If we do our duty to
each other, surely we ought, then, to pull through?"

"I am afraid of myself, Esther. Not afraid of my love for you, but
afraid of the slowness of Time, of the gradual development of things."

"Are we not getting a little out of our depth, love? I want to know
nothing but your love for me, that is all. Let us leave the subject. See
how vivid the lightning is getting. I fear we are in for a storm."

And in truth the flashes were growing almost alarming. Heavy thunder
echoed among the islands, and the wind was every moment increasing in
violence. Suddenly an awful flash seemed to tear the very heavens
asunder. In that brief instant Ellison made out the figure of a man
standing in the open before them, not more than forty yards from the
veranda steps. His back was towards them, and his hands were uplifted
above his head. Esther saw him too, and uttered a little cry.

"Who can it be?" she exclaimed in alarm. "Cuthbert, call him in! He will
be struck by the lightning!"

She had hardly spoken before another flash rent the darkness. Still the
figure stood before them exactly where they had first seen it. But this
time his identity was unmistakable. _It was Murkard!_ When the next
flash came he was gone.

"What could he have been doing?" Esther asked, as the thunder rolled
away. To her Murkard's ways were always a matter of much mystery.

"I can't think. Thank goodness, he doesn't often act in that fashion."

"I am afraid of him, Cuthbert. I have never been able to make myself
take to him as I took to you."

"He is a difficult man to know, that is why, little woman. But he is as
good as gold! A queer fish, perhaps a little mad, but with it all a
better man than I am."

"That I will never believe."

"God grant you may never have reason to think otherwise. But don't worry
yourself about Murkard. He is and always has been my truest friend."

"And what am I, my lord and master?"

"You are my wife--part of myself!"

She nestled lovingly against his side.

"Part of yourself! How sweet that sounds! I wonder if any other woman
was ever so happy as I?"

Once more Ellison sighed. At that moment the lightning flashed out
again, just in time to show them the same mysterious figure emerging
from the group of palms and moving towards the hut, Esther saw it, and
gave another little cry. Ellison rose.

"I must go and find out what he means by it. Don't be afraid, I'll be
back in a minute."

As he left the veranda the storm broke, and the rain came pouring down.
Presently he was running back. For a moment he could hardly speak. His
face was as pale as death.

"Well, what did he say?"

"Nothing; he is fast asleep! I never knew he was a somnambulist before."

"But you are trembling, and you are as white as a sheet. Something is
troubling you, Cuthbert. Tell me what it is."

"It is nothing, dearest, believe me. I was only a little frightened at
the risk he had run. He might have been struck by lightning at any
moment. Poor Murkard!"

A few minutes later she went inside and turned up the lamp. The rain was
still pouring on the roof. But, though he was looking straight before
him into the night, he hardly noticed it. He was saying to himself over
and over again a sentence he had heard Murkard mutter in his sleep. It
was an old Bible warning, one with which he had been familiar from his
youth up, but to-night it had the power to shake him to his very core.
It ran as follows:

     "_Be sure your sin will find you out!_"




CHAPTER VI.

A TEMPTATION--A FALL--AND A SERIES OF EMOTIONS.


Six months had elapsed since the wedding--six months of _almost_ perfect
happiness for Ellison. I am compelled to say almost, for the reason that
an influx of business worries during that period had caused him a very
considerable amount of anxiety, and had, in a measure, necessarily
detracted from his domestic peace. The pearling season had not turned
out as well as had been expected of it. Continual stormy weather had
militated against the boats at sea, and a gradual but appreciable
decline in the price of shell had had the same effect on shore. As he
could only regard himself in the light of a trustee of his wife's
estate, this run of bad luck struck him in a tender place. But through
it all Esther proved herself a most perfect wife. He found it an
inestimable boon after a long and hard day's work to be able to go to
her for sympathy and advice, both of which she was quite competent to
give. She was, by long experience, a past mistress of all the details
of the business, and her shrewd common sense and womanly penetration
enabled her to grasp things and advise on them long before her more
matter-of-fact husband had mastered their first general elements. His
respect for her talents became almost enthusiastic. She was now no
longer the old Esther of the past, but a new and glorious womanhood,
figuring in his eyes more as a leader than a wife.

As the year advanced, instead of bettering themselves things grew
steadily worse. Acting on the advice of his wife and Murkard, he had
curtailed expenses in every direction, forced himself to do without many
things that at other times would have been classed as absolute
necessaries, and discharged as many hands as could possibly be spared.
This lightened the load for a while; but it soon became painfully
evident that, unless more capital was soon forthcoming, the pearling
station must inevitably close its doors. But in what direction could
they look for such assistance? The banks were already dropping hints as
to long-standing overdrafts, and, seeing the losses they were daily
sustaining, it would be impossible to expect any mercy from them. On all
sides companies were abandoning stations, or transferring their business
elsewhere. It was a time of serious financial danger, and night and day
Ellison worried himself to know how it was all to end. It was not for
himself he cared; it was for Esther--only for Esther. Indeed, the
anxiety was telling seriously upon his health. He could not sleep for
its weight upon his mind. If only he could raise a couple of thousand
pounds, he continually argued, he might place the station in a position
by which it might not only weather the storm, but enable it to do even a
larger business than before when the reaction set in. Again and again he
discussed the matter with his wife and Murkard, but without arriving at
any satisfactory conclusion.

One night after dinner, just as he was going out to the veranda for his
customary smoke, Murkard called him outside.

"Come over to the store with me for a little while," he said. "I want a
serious conversation with you."

Ellison followed him into the hut, and shut the door.

"Look here," said the smaller man, perching himself on the high stool
behind his desk, and taking a letter from a pigeon-hole above him,
"things have come to a climax. But there, you know that perhaps even
better than I do."

"God help us! I think I do, and the anxiety is almost killing me. What
we are to do I can't for the life of me see."

"There is a lot of bills coming due next month, and we've got an even
smaller return for that last shell than I expected. To cap it all,
here's a letter from the bank over the way. It came before dinner, but
you looked so precious miserable then that I thought I'd keep it till
after you'd had your meal. It's a facer, and no mistake."

"Read it."

Murkard spread the paper out on the desk, and, clearing his throat in an
effort to gain time, did as he was commanded.

In plain English, it was to the effect that unless the overdraft could
be reduced by one-half within an absurdly short space of time, the bank
would be compelled to realise upon its security, which would mean that
the station would be closed, and Ellison and his wife thrown upon the
world.

Ellison sank his head upon his hands, and groaned like a wounded bull.

"If only I could raise two thousand pounds," he sighed for the
thousandth time.

"That's exactly what we must do at once. And why not? Is it so very
impossible?"

"Of course; you must know that it is. Haven't we discussed the question
over and over again, in all its lights, for the last six weeks?"

"I know that as well as you do. But I've been thinking on a different
tack these last two days."

"With what result? For mercy's sake don't play with me! I believe I'd
kill you if you did. What have you been thinking?"

"Why, look here, Ellison, the position's just this: You are a married
man, and you are likely soon to be more than that. Must you think of
yourself just now, or are you bound to think of your wife?"

"To think of my wife, of course. Have I thought of myself at all since
I've been married?"

"No, I'll grant you've been wonderfully unselfish. Well, this is the
crux of it all. Are you prepared to make a big sacrifice for her sake?
Are you prepared to make a sacrifice that will humble your pride to the
very ground, but will probably be the means of saving the life you love?
Are you prepared to do this, I say?"

"Of course I am. There is nothing in the world I would not do to save
her. Surely you know me well enough by this time to know that!"

"Very good. That being so, we will proceed to business." He took up a
pen and fell to tracing circles on the blotting-pad in front of him. "In
the first place, do you remember the night you rowed her to the
township and brought her back by moonlight?"

Ellison's face became suddenly pale. He shifted on his seat uneasily.

"Yes, I remember. What about it?"

"I was lonely that evening and went for a walk. I strolled down to
Alligator Point and sat on the rocks above the water."

"Well?"

"The sea was as calm as a mill-pond, and the night was so still that I
could almost hear people talking across the strait. I saw you leave the
township, and I watched you sail towards where I sat. Your voices were
plainly audible to me, and, forgive me, Ellison, but--I heard----"

"Say no more--I know what you heard, you cursed, eavesdropping spy--I
know what you heard!"

"You are hardly just to me, but under the circumstances I will forgive
your harshness. And what did I hear?"

"You heard the wretched story I told the woman I loved!"

"I did. And--ever since--that moment--I have known your secret."

There was complete silence between them for some minutes--Murkard went
on tracing circles on the blotting-paper as if his life depended on it,
while Ellison rose from his seat and went over to the door. His hand
trembled so that he could hardly control its movements. Murkard looked
at him with a queer expression, half sympathy, half contempt upon his
face. Suddenly Ellison wheeled round and confronted him.

"Plainly, Murkard, what is your object in telling me that you heard it?"

"Because I want to save you. That is why!"

"How can that save me? You mean because you want to damn me, body and
soul. But you shan't! by God, you shan't! I'm desperate, I tell you
that, desperate!"

"Hush, hush! She'll hear you if you shout like that. Come back and let
us talk quietly. Good Heavens, Ellison, can't you see how great my love
for you is? Haven't I shown it to you times out of number? Do you think,
then, that I should turn on you in your hour of need? Surely you know me
better than that?"

Ellison regarded him in silence for a minute. Then he went across and
held out his hand.

"Forgive me, Silas. I am not myself to-night; I hardly know what I say.
You don't know how much I have upon my mind. Don't you see how
everything seems to be coming to a climax with me? But for her sake,
and that of the child that is coming, I would willingly be dead. And yet
I can't alarm her, and I can't let anything happen that would deprive
her of a home--now. At any cost I must keep a roof over her head."

He went back to his seat by the counter and sat staring before him with
a face drawn and haggard almost out of recognition.

"I am trying to save both for you," said Murkard quietly.

Ellison seized at the hope as a drowning man would catch at a life-buoy.

"I know you are, Murkard. I know it, and trust you to the bottom of my
heart. What are you thinking of? What can I do? For mercy's sake, tell
me; don't wait to weigh words."

"Steady, steady, old man. Be quiet and I will tell you. You are the
Marquis of St. Burden. I heard you say so--there is no getting away from
that. Believe me, your secret will never pass my lips. Your father is
the Duke of Avonturn!"

Ellison said not a word, but it seemed to him that the beating of his
heart must soon choke him. Murkard eyed him curiously.

"Well?"

"Well, what I propose is, that you shall communicate with your father;
tell him that you have settled down out here to a steady, honest,
respectable life, tell him that difficulties beset you, and ask him for
five thousand pounds."

"Never!"

Again there was a pause; try as he would, Ellison could not even bring
his mind to think.

"And pray why not?"

"Because I refuse, once and for all; absolutely and implicitly I refuse,
and you shall never make me budge from it."

"I shall not let you. You cannot help yourself."

"I can and will help myself. I refuse to do what you wish. I refuse--I
refuse!"

His voice rose almost to a shriek in his excitement. He got up and
looked towards the door as if he would settle the question by leaving
the hut. Murkard sprang from his seat and held him by the arm. Both were
grimly in earnest.

"Ellison, I believe in you. Your wife believes in you. You told her your
history, you cannot draw back now if you would. It would kill her if she
thought you had lied to her. She would never honour or trust you again.
But you haven't. It is only your stiff-necked pride that brings you to
this decision; but you must put it aside, I tell you; you must, man, to
save her life."

"But I cannot; it is impossible! Don't you hear me? I cannot!"

"You both can and must. I intend to make you. Do you love your wife? I
know you do. Then do you wish to be responsible for her death, and do
you wish to kill the child as well? Is not one murder enough for you,
for I tell you plainly if she has to leave this place, and you and she
are thrown penniless upon the world, as you certainly will be within the
next two months unless you find this money somewhere, so certainly will
it kill her, and the unborn child too. And you will have only your
stubborn, obstinate, guilty pride to thank for it."

"But I cannot do it; you don't know all."

"I know quite enough to be certain that it is your duty to save your
wife's life at any cost to yourself."

"At whatever cost to myself--do you mean that? On your word of
honour--may God strike you dead if you lie?"

"I do mean it. At whatever cost to yourself it is your duty to save your
wife's life."

"You will remember what you have just said, '_At any cost to myself!_'"

"I will remember."

"But there, what is the use of our talking like this. The duke will pay
no attention to my appeal."

"You are wrong, he will pay every attention."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I have a scheme in my brain that will make him."

"Will you tell me what it is?"

"Later on, perhaps, not now; you must trust to my honour."

"Very good. Then it shall be done. I will put aside all thought of
myself. I will do what you wish. I will sin--for, remember, it is a
sin--to save the woman I love. And remember also, that whatever happens
in the future, whatever comes of it, misery to me, or to her, it is your
doing."

"I will remember, and if any thing _does_ come of it I will not only
take the blame, but I will stand the punishment. Will you shake hands
with me on it?"

"No, I will not. You have tempted me and I have fallen. God help me!
After to-night we shall be no longer friends."

"Ellison!"

"I mean what I say. I have sinned before, perhaps in a worse way than
this. But when I married I swore that nothing should ever tempt me to do
so again. I have kept my word until to-night. To-night I sin
deliberately, and in cold blood, for my wife's sake, God bless her!"

He raised his hat reverently as he spoke the last words. Then he sat
down with the air of a man who had signed his own death-warrant, and
asked:

"What am I to do?"

"Leave it all to me. To-morrow morning I will go across to the island,
call upon the Government Resident, who knows me well enough by this
time, tell him your story under pledge of secrecy, and get him to cable
to your father for the money."

"He will refuse."

"I think not. He believes in my honour. Have you any objection to my
doing so?"

"I object to nothing. I am past that. Only make it as certain of success
as you can. The end will come soon enough in any case."

"You take it in a curious way. Ellison, is there anything you are hiding
from me?"

"Only--only the pain you are giving me. But I suppose that hardly enters
into your calculations."

"Ellison, I forgive you; but a day will come when you will never forgive
yourself for what you are saying now. Remember, I am doing this only for
your sake. As I promised you just now, so I promise again, whatever
blame is to be taken for this I will take, whatever punishment is meted
out--if any--I will bear. I only ask in return that you will believe in
the honesty of my affection for you."

"Do you wish me to write any letter?"

"No. Leave everything to me."

"You do not want me any more to-night?"

"No. That is all. But, Ellison, you are not going to leave me like
this?"

"In what way would you have me leave you? If I dared I would tell you
everything, but I am too great a coward even for that. Good-night!"

Murkard only answered with a sigh. Ellison went out, closing the door
after him. Once in the fresh air he looked up at the stars, then at the
sea, then at the lamp-lit windows of his own house. Esther was seated at
the table, sewing. He knew upon what work she was engaged, and a spasm
of terror swept over him at the knowledge that even that little life,
not yet born into the world, might some day be tempted to despise him.
Instinctively he turned upon his heel, and for the second time since his
arrival at the station strode away into the heart of the island, in an
endeavour to dispel his own gloomy thoughts. On and on he walked,
regardless of pace or destination. His whole being was consumed with
horror at what he was doing. What did it mean? What would it mean? What
had induced him to do it? Was it blind Fate, or what reason could be
assigned to it? No! It was none of these things--it was to save his
wife! Bitterly he upbraided himself for the first folly that had
occasioned it, but it was too late now, too late, too late! If he went
to his wife and confessed all, confessed that he had lied to her, that
he was not the man he pretended to be, that he was only a common
swindler and cheat, she would forgive him, because she was a good woman
and loved him, but she would never trust him or believe in him again. In
that case their ruin would be complete! If he persisted in the present
course, and Murkard's plan proved successful, they would be saved for a
little time, but the inevitable result would be worse than the first
destruction. On neither side was there such a thing as safety. On one
side was his wife's life, on the other her trust in him; there was no
middle course. He was between the devil and the deep sea with a
vengeance. God help him for a miserable man!

By the time he arrived at this conclusion he was on the headland above
the station. A thrill of superstitious terror swept over him as he
realised that the spot on which he was standing was the site of the
Hermit's hut. In the glorious moonlight he could plainly discern the
ruins of the blackened hearth, the boundary walls, and under the tall
palm, nearer the cliff edge, the grave of the mysterious Unknown
himself. What had led him in that direction on the one night of all
others he would most have desired to avoid it? It seemed to him that the
dead man's ghost was moving about the place taunting him with his sin,
and pointing to a similar abandoned end in the inglorious future. Down
on the shore below him he could hear the roll of the surf, but up here
all was ghostly still. At last, unable to control himself any longer, he
took to his heels and fled down the hill towards the station, craving to
be with his kind once more. To his surprise he could see the light still
burning in the sitting room. Late though it was, his wife had not yet
gone to bed. Could she be sitting up for him?

As he entered the room she rose to meet him.

"My poor boy," she said, "how tired you look!"

"I have been worried nearly past endurance," he replied, "and went for a
walk to try and think my difficulties out. I would not have gone had I
thought you would sit up for me."

"I went over to the store when you did not come in, to see if you were
there. Mr. Murkard said you had said good-night to him nearly two hours
before, so I knew you had gone for a walk. You are very tired, I can
see."

She leaned over his chair and ran her hand through his curly hair. Her
touch, soft as it was, seemed to tear his very heart-strings. He could
hardly bear to look her in the face. He left his seat and went across to
the fireplace.

"Esther," he said, "difficulties are surrounding us on every side. If
things don't change soon, goodness only knows what will happen to us."

"But they will change. God will help us, husband mine. Come what may,
let us put our trust in him. He has not deserted us hitherto, and I am
not afraid that he ever will."

"If only I had your faith. Oh, Esther, my own dear wife, I wonder if you
will ever come to think badly of me."

"Never, Cuthbert, never! I shall believe in your honesty and goodness
until my life's end."

She pulled his head down and kissed him on the forehead. Before he could
answer she had left the room. He went out to the veranda and leaned
against the rails, saying slowly to himself, over and over again:

"'I shall believe in your honesty and goodness until my life's end!'"




CHAPTER VII.

SATISFACTION--DISSATISFACTION--AND A CONTEMPLATED ARRIVAL.


First thing next morning Murkard went off to the township. He was gone
about an hour, and during that time Ellison seemed to live a lifetime.
Fearing that his face might frighten his wife, he found work for himself
in the store and among the boats. Everything seemed to conspire to
remind him of his position, and every few moments the inevitable result
would rise before him in a new light and fairly take his breath away.
Times out of number his patience got the better of him, and he went down
to the shore to see if there were any sign of the boat's return. When at
last he did make it out, his heart seemed first to stand still and then
to throb until it felt as if it would burst his chest asunder. Nearer
and nearer came the white sail, gleaming like a flake of ivory on the
warm sunlit sea. When she drew alongside the jetty one glimpse of
Murkard's face told him that the errand had been satisfactorily
accomplished. He waited for him to beach the boat, and then they set
off together for the store.

"Well," asked Ellison anxiously, as soon as they were inside and had
shut the door, "how have you succeeded?"

"Admirably, so far. I have dispatched the cablegram, and by this time
to-morrow we shall know our fate."

"But what proof have you that they will believe your tale?"

"The Government Resident's word. He has guaranteed the truth of my
statement."

Not another syllable did Ellison utter. His lips moved, but no sound
came from them. Then suddenly, with a little cry, he stretched out his
arms towards the counter as if to sustain himself, and missing that,
fell prone in a dead faint upon the floor.

In a minute or two Murkard had brought him back to consciousness.

"What on earth's the matter with you, Ellison?" he cried. "You're surely
not going to give way now that the business is accomplished?"

"I don't know," the other replied shamefacedly, as soon as he was
sufficiently recovered to talk. "I suppose the anxiety has been too much
for me. My wife must know nothing of this, remember."

"Trust me. And now I shall advise you to keep very quiet until the
answer comes. There is nothing to be gained by knocking yourself up, and
everything, whichever way you look at it, by being calm."

"But, Murkard, for the life of me I don't understand how you managed it.
No family in the world would advance such a sum without full and strict
inquiry."

"Can you trust me, Ellison?"

"Implicitly--but----"

"There must be no 'buts,' I have taken the matter in hand. The
Government Resident, who believes in me, strangely enough, has
guaranteed the authenticity of what I have said. I have put the matter
clearly before your family, and I leave it to their sense of justice to
do what we ask. Remember if, as I said last night, there is any blame to
be incurred by anyone, I take it."

"Murkard, I am not fit to look you in the face. I am a cur of the worst
kind."

"Hush! hush! you mustn't say such things of yourself."

"But I mean it! I mean every word I say! I am not fit to----"

"Whatever you are, Cuthbert, I don't want to know it. I have told you
before, and I tell you again, our destinies, yours and mine, are one.
Come what may, I _must_ help you."

"You have been the truest friend that mortal man ever had."

"And I shall continue to be until the day of my death. Whatever you may
do, right or wrong, I shall stand by you. Never doubt that."

"Silas, I have a good mind to make a clean breast of everything to you."

"No, no! Don't tell me anything. I would rather not hear. All I want to
know, I know. The rest lies outside the pale, and is no concern of
mine."

"But it _does_ concern you. It concerns you very vitally, more vitally
than you think."

"Then I refuse to hear it. If you attempt to make me, I shall be
compelled to leave the place, to go away from the island."

"You are very obstinate."

"No, old friend. It is only kindness to you and your wife that makes me
do it. Now I must get to my books. If this money is to arrive, we must
be prepared for it. I see a golden future ahead of us."

Ellison passed out of the door saying to himself, "And I only ruin and
disgrace."

He spent the rest of that day as one in a dream. He went about his work
unconsciously, a great fear hanging over him like a suspended sword.
Again and again he argued the case with himself. In a moment of sudden
mental aberration--vanity, perhaps, at any rate, he could hardly say
what--he had represented himself to be someone he was not. He had
intended to leave the place next day; he had no intention or wish to
deceive for any criminal or base purpose of his own. He had simply
craved the girl's interest and sympathy, and then the deed was done.
What could he do now? As he had told himself last night, if he went to
his wife and confessed everything, she would loathe and despise him for
the rest of his existence. He would be a detected liar and cheat without
excuse of any kind. Now that Murkard had taken this course, the same
inevitable result would ensue, only increased by the fact that his crime
would be known to the whole world, and he would suffer the penalty,
thereby bringing ruin and disgrace unspeakable upon those who loved him
best. But, on the other hand, his wife had to be saved, and he had done
it with his eyes open. It was too late to draw back now, and the blow
might fall at any time. Yet, come what might, he could not tell Esther
while she was in this critical condition. Small wonder, then, that he
hung his head and looked as if all joy had passed out of his existence
forever.

Next morning Murkard again set off for the township. In an hour he
returned jubilant. Ellison saw his boat approach, from the store
veranda, and hastened down to meet him, his heart beating wildly.
Murkard waved to him from the boat.

"It is done!" he cried, as he stepped ashore, his usually pale face
aglow with excitement. "The cable arrived last night! A thousand pounds
is placed to your credit in the bank. The rest will follow in a month.
Good Heaven, Cuthbert, what is the matter?"

Ellison had thrown himself upon the sand, and was sobbing like a little
child.

"Poor old chap!" said Murkard, seating himself beside him. "You're
overwrought. The waiting has been too much for you. Never mind, now we
are safe. The money is here, our credit is restored. Shell has gone up
in the London market, and now we'll begin to make up for lost time.
Come, come, you mustn't behave like this. Supposing any of the hands
should see you?"

"It must all be repaid," Ellison answered almost fiercely, as soon as he
recovered his composure, "every penny of it! I shall never rest until I
have done that. Tell me everything, from first to last. Don't hide a
word or detail from me. I must know everything!"

"You will know nothing more than I have already told you. Cuthbert, you
must trust me. You have known me a long time now. Is your trust in my
fidelity strong enough to convince you that I would do nothing that
could bring you to any harm?"

"I am sure of that. But it is not enough to satisfy my fears for myself.
I am making myself responsible for all this money. I must know exactly
how you obtained it from--from my people, and on what terms. I _must_
know it!"

"I got it from them on the plea that you had settled down to a
respectable, honest, reputable business out here. That you had married a
quiet, ladylike girl. That times were bad, and unless you could raise
the amount of money asked for, you would be thrown upon the world again,
and all your good resolutions scattered to the winds. The Government
Resident and Blake the banker corroborated my assertions, and I made
myself a surety, a poor one perhaps, but still a surety for the amount.
Your father, the duke, cabled through his bankers to Blake that you
might draw on him to the extent of one thousand pounds, and that the
rest of the money would be dispatched during the present week. I have
the papers for the one thousand pounds in my pocket now. You must sign
them. In the meantime I have taken the liberty of cabling your thanks
home."

"It was to save her--only to save her. Whatever happens, remember that!"

"What do you mean? You look as glum as a man about to be hanged. Come,
come, Cuthbert, put a happier face on it, if only out of compliment to
me. You are saved now! You can improve your business; you can send out
more boats and do what you have been hankering after for a long time
now, establish a floating station for your fleet."

"Yes, yes; we can certainly do more. But at what a cost?"

"My dear fellow, the cost will be nothing to the gains. Besides, you can
always repay."

"I was not thinking of that cost. You don't know what an awful business
this has been to me. The agony I have been through these past two days
has made me an old man."

"Eating humble-pie, you mean? I can understand your feelings. But still
it's done now, and what is better, well done. Now come to the store with
me and sign those papers."

They went up the hill together, and with a trembling hand Ellison
signed what was asked of him. This done, he tottered rather than walked
out of the store towards his own abode. He went into the dining room and
filled himself half a tumbler of whiskey, which he drank almost neat.
The spirit pulled him together, and he departed in search of his wife.
By the time he found her the liquor had begun to take effect. He became
almost excited. She was sewing in the shade of the back veranda. He
seated himself beside her, and with his left hand smoothed her soft
brown hair.

"Little woman," he said, "I have great news for you. The happiest of
happy news. We are saved; the overdraft will be paid off, and we are in
smooth water again. In other words, the money has arrived."

"From your father, Cuthbert? Oh, you don't mean that?"

"But I do. The good Murkard was worked it admirably. A cablegram arrived
this morning authorising me to draw on him for a thousand pounds. A
draft for four thousand more will leave London this week."

"Thank God for his mercy! Oh, Cuthbert, what can I say to show you how
pleased I am? And you deserve it too, you poor, hard-working boy. Your
face has been so long and solemn lately that I have been more than
anxious about you."

"You need not be so any longer then, my sweet. The crisis is past. Now
we will begin to put the money to practical use. I have all sorts of
schemes in my mind. Dearie, you must say something nice to Murkard about
it. For it is his cleverness that has brought it all about."

"You are very generous to that man, my husband."

"And I fear, forgive my saying so, that you are not generous enough to
him. That man, as you call him would cut off his own right hand if he
thought that by so doing he could help me."

"I know it, and perhaps that is why I am a little jealous of him. I am
selfish enough to think I should like to be the only person in the whole
world who could do anything for you."

"You are part of myself, little wife. It is for your sake I work. It was
for your sake I----"

"What? What else have you done for my sake that you suddenly look so
glum about it?"

He sank his voice almost to a whisper, when he replied:

"For your sake I have done in this business what I have done. Whatever
comes of it, never lose sight of that. It is the only bright spot in
the whole miserable affair."

"I shall never forget that; you need not be afraid of it."

He stroked her hair for a moment, and then once more went down the
garden path towards the store. Murkard was not there. On inquiring of
the Kanakas, he discovered that he had gone across to the settlement in
his boat.

In order to have something to distract his thoughts Ellison went down to
the carpenter's shed, and set to work upon some business he had long
neglected. It was a relief to him to have something to do, and he
derived a peculiar peace from the chirrup of the plane, and a
restfulness from the trailing shavings that had been a stranger to him
for longer than he cared to remember. As he worked his thoughts took in
all that had happened to him since his arrival in the settlement. He
remembered that first night in the Hotel of All Nations; the fight and
his curious resolve upon the hill-side; his search for work the
following morning--their swim across the strait, and his first
introduction to the girl who was now his wife. The death of her father
came next; then their marriage; the difficulties and disasters of their
business, and----But here his recollections came to an abrupt halt. He
did not dare think of what had followed after. Oh, how bitterly he
cursed himself for that one false step, and to the cowardice to which it
had given birth! If only he had had the moral courage to own himself a
liar at once, what awful after misery he might have saved himself. But,
no! it was not to be--not to be. The saddest of all sad words--not to
be. Now even if he managed to repay every farthing, there would always
be the remembrance of his sin to haunt him. He put down the tools he was
using, and turned to look across the straits. The afternoon's sun was
hardly a hand's breadth above the horizon. A little fleet of luggers was
tacking down, under a light breeze, towards the anchorage, their white
sails gleaming picturesquely in the warm sunlight. The ripple of the
waves on the beach came up to him like softest music, and he was just
thinking how fair it all was when he heard footsteps hurrying on the
hard-beaten path outside. Next moment old Mrs. Fenwick stood before him,
hardly able to speak with excitement. In a flash Ellison divined her
errand. Seizing her by the arm, he shook her almost savagely.

"What is it? What do you want? Is he wanted? Quick, quick!"

She nodded emphatically, unable to find breath to speak.

"Out of my way! I will go at once!"

He picked up his hat, dashed through the door and down the path towards
the jetty. A boat lay moored alongside a lugger. He sprang into it, had
cast her loose, and was sculling madly in the direction of the township
before Mrs. Fenwick had time to wonder what had become of him. In a
quarter of an hour he was ringing the medico's bell, and in half an hour
they were back together at the station. As they approached the house the
doctor stopped and looked at his companion.

"My friend," said he, "if I were you I should go for a long walk or a
row. Don't come back for at least two hours. You can do nothing here,
and you will only be in the way. If you stay I shall have you on my
hands next."

Ellison looked at him as if he would like to argue the point with him.

"Man, man!" he said viciously, "you don't know the state I'm in. If
anything happens to that woman it will kill me."

"I know, I know! I've had the same feeling myself. It's very
commendable--very. But----"

"Oh, d---- your sentimental twaddle! No! no! Forgive my rudeness, you
can see I'm not myself at all."

"That's why I order you to go for a row. Now be off, and don't let me
see your face again for hours. Your wife will be quite safe in my
hands."

"God grant she may be!"

He picked his hat up from where it had fallen, and without another
protest walked back to the shore. Again he embarked aboard his boat, and
once more he set sail, this time down the Pass in the opposite
direction, and out into the open sea.




CHAPTER VIII.

A VISION AND A REALITY.


If Cuthbert Ellison ever forgets any portion of his eventful career, it
will certainly not be the part connected with his sail that evening. The
sun lay like a disc of fire upon the horizon's edge as he left the bay;
his ruddy glare lit up the sea, the islands, and the cloudless heavens,
and the effect grew even more weird and wonderful the further he sank
into his crimson bed. Ellison put his boat about and steered directly
for the sinking orb, the water churning into foam under the little
vessel's bows as he progressed. He seemed hardly conscious of his
actions. He sat in the stern-sheets staring straight ahead of him,
seeing little or nothing of the sea around him, looking only through his
mind's-eye at his home and the momentous event that was occurring there.
His own sin and its consequences seemed as nothing to him now in the
white light of his new and greater anxiety. If anything disastrous
should befall his wife in his absence, if she should die before he
could get back to her, what would happen to him then? In that case the
sooner he himself died the better. The very idea of such a thing set him
trembling like a leaf. He knew now exactly how much he cared for his
wife, and in his present state that knowledge was not a soothing one. He
realised what the world, his world, would be to him without her.

The sun sank lower and lower until only a flake of gold remained to show
where he was taking his departure. With his total disappearance the wind
dropped entirely, and the boat stood pulseless upon the pearly levels of
the deep. Then from the corners of the world great shadows stole out to
meet him. The evening star trembled in its place, and one by one her
sisters came to watch with her. Sometimes a big fish rose near the boat,
and disappeared again with a sullen splash, awed perhaps by the silence
and solemnity of the world upon the surface. Far away to starboard he
could discern the dim outline of the land, but all around him was only
water--water--water. He furled the sail, and, to defend himself against
the terror of his own thoughts, took to the oars. It was a heavy boat to
pull, but he found comfort in thus tiring himself.

For nearly an hour he rowed on and on, the night closing in around him
as he went. At last, thoroughly wearied, he drew in his oars, and again
took his place in the stern. By this time it was quite dark. The stars
shone now, not by ones or twos, but in their countless thousands. They
were not, however, to shine for long, for in the east a curious
trembling faintness foretold the rising of the moon. Little by little
this indistinctness spread across the sky, and one by one the stars fell
under its subtle influence and went back to their coffers in the
treasure house of night. Then, with a beauty indescribable, a rim of
gold looked up above the edge of the world, and grew every moment
larger. It was the moon--the great round glorious tropic moon, and with
her coming a broad track of silver was thrown by a giant hand across the
ocean. On this the boat seemed but a tiny speck, a frail atom in that
immensity of water. Not a sign of land was now to be seen anywhere, and
to Ellison it seemed as if, in his anxiety, he had said good-bye to it
forever. He stood up and looked around him. Still to right and left,
before him and behind, was only water slowly heaving in the moonlight.

It had a curious effect upon his overstrung nerves, this expanse of
moonlit water. A peculiar giddiness seized him. He sat down again and
buried his face in his hands. Then suddenly something inside his head
seemed to give way, and he looked up again. Whether he was mad for the
time being, and really thought he saw the things he describes so vividly
now, or whether he was dreaming, is a matter only for conjecture. At any
rate, it seemed to him that from the place where he was, far removed
from all the influences of the world, he saw a vision, the vision of the
world's dead rising up to meet him. Sitting in the stern of his tiny
boat, grasping the thwarts with either hand and looking out across the
water, he watched and trembled. He saw the greatness of the deep opened
as by a mighty hand. And from the void thus made, he witnessed a
procession of the world's dead troop forth upon the silent waters like
men walking on a silver road. There was no sound with them, not a
footfall, neither a voice nor a rustle of garments. They came out of the
east a mighty army, such as no man could number. They passed him where
he sat and marched on again, still without a sound, towards the west.
Every age and every nationality--semi-humans from the prehistoric ages,
Israelites, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Medes, Persians, Assyrians,
Babylonians, Goths, Greeks, Romans, Huns, and Norsemen; every race and
every colour from the world's first death to the tiniest child giving up
its little life at the moment that he looked was represented there.
There were old men bowed down with the weight of years, young men in all
the pride of manly strength, aged women, gentle matrons and young girls,
children, and even tiny babes. Men slain in battle with their wounds
still gaping on their shattered bodies; men drowned at sea, with the
weeds of ocean twined about them; kings and nobles in their robes of
state, priests in their sacred vestments, and peasants in their
homespun; holy men in flowing garments, martyrs and those who fought
with beasts at Ephesus; English wives and dark skinned African
mothers--all were there. They approached him, looked at him, and then
passed upon their way. Some had hope written in their faces, some
despair, some ineffable peace, some the imprint of everlasting remorse.
Not one but bore some mark to witness to the life he or she had pursued
on earth. On and on they passed; already the procession seemed to
stretch from pole to pole, and every moment was adding to their number.
But there was no sound at all with them.

Suddenly an intense fear and dread came over Ellison, such as he had
never experienced in his life before. Had this vision been sent to
prepare him for some great sorrow? Was it possible that Esther could be
among them? Surely if she were she would come to him. Hardly conscious
of what he was doing, he clambered forrard in the boat, and resting his
hands upon the gunwale, stared at the passing multitude. There were
mothers in plenty with infants in their arms--but Esther was not among
them. He searched and searched, and still the relentless march went
on--still they stretched out across the seas. All the dead of the earth,
century and century and bygone ages; all the dead of the sea and under
the sea paraded before him, and still the march went on. From every
quarter of the globe the army was recruited, and everyone paused to look
at this distracted man. In sheer weariness of movement he called upon
them to stop--to stop if only for a minute. His voice rang out across
the deep, again and again. But there was no change; there could be no
halting in that march of death. As fast as the last ranks appeared
thousands more came from all quarters to carry it on again. At first he
had been all dumb, senseless wonderment. Then suddenly his ears were
opened, and a second awful terror seized and held him spell-bound. He
tried to shut his eyes to them, but they would not be shut out; he tried
to stop his ears, but now the tramp of that mighty army could not be
prevented. On and on and on it went, clashing and clanging, rolling and
thundering, coming out of the east and disappearing into the west. And
over it all the moon shone down pitiless and cold as steel. He tried to
cry for mercy, but this time his voice refused to answer to his call. He
stretched out his hands in feeble, despairing supplication, but still
the march went on. At last he could hold out no longer; he stood up,
raised his arms to Heaven, and pleaded piteously. As if in answer his
senses deserted him, and he fell back into the bottom of his boat in a
dead faint.

When he recovered himself the sky was overcast with clouds. He looked
about him half expecting to see the procession still parading past his
boat, but it was gone. He was alone once more upon the waters, and, to
add to his feeling of desolation, a soft rain was wetting him to the
skin. How long he had lain there unconscious he could not tell. He
looked at his watch, but it had stopped at half-past eight--the moment
of his fall. A smart breeze was blowing, and, in a frenzy of
recollection, he turned the boat's head for home, resolved to know the
worst. In a moment he was tearing through the water like a thing
possessed. This sense of rapid movement was just what his spirits
needed; he could not go fast enough. A brisk sea was running, but over
it his craft dashed like a flying stag. He could not be more than a
dozen miles from the station at the very most--an hour's smart sailing.
He shook out the reef he had taken in the canvas and let the boat do her
best.

With a heart like this tiny cockle-shell borne upon the tossing,
tumbling sea, one moment uplifted by hope, and the next falling deep
down into the trough of despair, he sailed on and on. Every second was
bringing him nearer and nearer to his home. Already through the haze he
could make out the bold outline of the island. Ten minutes later he was
abreast of it, skimming safely along out of reach of that white line of
dashing breakers. Rounding the point, he caught a glimpse of the lights
of the station. With a rush his fear gripped hold of him again, not to
leave him till he knew the best or worst. Like a drunken man he drove
his boat ashore, leaped out on the sands, and commenced to haul her up.
It was only when he had done this that he became aware of something
lying on the sand just above high-water mark. It was the body of a man
stretched out at full length. Wondering whether he could be still under
the influence of the nightmare that had held him so at sea, he
approached it. To his intense surprise it was Murkard--_dead drunk_.
Kneeling by his side, he shook him vigorously, but without result. He
was insensible, and from all appearances likely to remain so for some
hours to come. But even this did not strike Ellison as it would have
done at any other time; it appeared to him to be part and parcel of the
nightmare under the influence of which he had so long been labouring.
Rising to his feet he bent over the man, took him in his arms, and bore
him up the hill to the hut.

No sound came from his own dwelling; indeed, had it not been for the
light burning in the little sitting room window it might have been
uninhabited. Having laid his burden on the bed, he retraced his steps
and went across to know his fate. As he approached the house he became
conscious of a figure sitting in the veranda. When it rose, and came
softly out to meet him, he recognised his friend the doctor. Ellison's
tongue refused its office, his throat was like a lime-kiln. The other
saw his state, and in a whisper said:

"I have waited here to congratulate you. You ought to be a happy man.
Your wife _and son_ are doing excellently well."

Ellison reeled as if he had received a blow.

"Mother and son!" he managed to gasp. "Oh, my God, you're not deceiving
me?"

As if in answer a little thin wail stole out from the house into the
darkness, a little cry that went straight and plump to the very centre
of the father's heart. It was true, then? There could be no deception
about that!

"Oh, thank God! thank God!"

Again that feeble little voice came out to them, and again Ellison's
nature was stirred to its lowest depths. All the world seemed centred in
that tiny wail.

"And how is she? There is no danger? For mercy's sake tell me candidly.
You don't know what I've suffered these last few hours."

"Your wife is doing wonderfully well. You need have no fear now. The old
woman who is with her is an excellent nurse, and I shall come across
first thing in the morning. I only waited to have the pleasure of
telling you this myself."

"How can I thank you? And you have been sitting here so long in the dark
without anyone to look after you. You must think me inhospitable to the
last degree. Come inside now."

They went into the room, and Ellison set refreshment before the doctor.
He would, however, not touch a drop himself.

"I dare not," he said, in reply to the other's look of astonishment. "In
the state I'm in I should be dead drunk if I drank a thimbleful. I can
tell you I wouldn't live this night again for something."

"I wouldn't be answerable for your brain if you did," the doctor
replied, glancing at the haggard face before him. "What on earth have
you been doing with yourself! You look as if you'd been communing with
the Legions of the Dead."

"So I have--so I have. You've just hit it. That's what I _have_ been
doing. I've seen the dead of all the world troop past me to-night."

"Give me your wrist."

He spoke in a tone of command, and almost unconsciously Ellison extended
one arm. The doctor placed his finger on the pulse.

"Nothing much the matter there. You only want a good night's sleep now
the anxiety's over, and I prophesy you'll be as fit as a fiddle
to-morrow. I shouldn't be at all surprised if you tell me you're the
proudest father in the hemisphere. Bless you, I know your sort!"

Ellison laughed softly, but for all that it was a mirthless laugh. He
had not recovered yet from the shock of all he had undergone that
evening.

"When may I see her?"

"She is asleep now. When she wakes, perhaps. The nurse, however, will
settle that point. You must abide strictly by what she says for a week
or two. Above all you must not frighten your wife with that face. Make
that more cheerful before you go in, or I'll keep you away from her for
a month."

"I'd break your neck if you did. And I'm pretty muscular even now."

"I'll take that assertion on trust. Now I must be going."

"I'll see you down to your boat."

They walked to the shore together. One of the Kanaka hands was in
waiting to put the doctor across. When the little craft had disappeared
from view, Ellison went back to the house. He was bathing in a sea of
happiness. His fondest dream was realised. He went into the sitting room
and threw himself upon the sofa. He had hardly been there a minute
before the door opened, and Mrs. Fenwick appeared bearing in her arms a
bundle. He sprang to his feet once more, trembling in every limb.

"I'm sure I wish you joy, sir," she began, as she came towards him.
"He's the noblest boy I've seen these many years; I ought to know, for
I've nursed a-many."

She parted the blankets that enshrined the treasure, and Ellison looked
down on the little face.

"Take him in your own arms, sir. It's a proud father you ought to be."

For the first time in his life Ellison held his son in his arms. How
sweet and desirable the world seemed to him then. In spite of everything
that had gone before he would not have changed places with any man who
breathed. But he was not to be permitted the honour of holding the
infant long.

"When may I see my wife?" he asked, as he laid the babe back in his
nurse's arms.

"I'll call you when she wakes, sir."

For nearly an hour he was left alone. The little clock on the
mantelpiece ticked off the score. Not a sound came from the outer world
save the monotonous thunder of the surf upon the reef. He contrasted
this night with that when, after the fight at the Hotel of All Nations,
he had waited on the side of the hill, wondering what the morrow would
bring forth, and whether it was too late for him to pull up and save
himself. But he had pulled up, and now he----

Again a knock came to the door, and once more Mrs. Fenwick entered the
room.

"She is awake now, sir. If you would like to see her for a moment, you
can do so. But you must be careful not to excite her."

Ellison gave his promise, and followed the woman into his wife's room.
Esther looked very white and thin; but it was evident she was glad to
see him. Her pretty hair straggled across the pillow, and her great eyes
looked into his with a love that nothing could ever quench. One hand lay
on the coverlet; he took it softly in his, and raised it to his lips. A
little smile of intense happiness hovered round her mouth. Suddenly he
seemed to remember. Turning to the nurse, he whispered:

"Give me the child."

Without a word she did as she was ordered, and again Cuthbert Ellison
held his new-born son in his arms. Then stooping, with all the
tenderness his nature was capable of, he laid the sleeping babe within
the hollow of the mother's arm. And bending over her, he kissed her on
the lips.

"God bless and keep you both," he said, and softly hurried from the
room, his heart overflowing with joy and thankfulness.




CHAPTER IX.

HAPPINESS--UNHAPPINESS--AND A MAN OF THE WORLD.


The birth of his son opened up to Ellison a new world. For the first
month of that baby life everything connected with his own past was
forgotten in one intense joy of possession. He began to understand that
hitherto he had only vegetated; now he lived the life of a man who was
not only a husband but a parent. The thread of his existence was a
continuous one, woven and drawn in by the pink tenderness of a baby
fingers. And as he noticed the growth of intelligence in those little
eyes--the first faint dawning of the human soul within--his pleasure and
delight increased a thousand-fold. He could hardly believe that the
child was his own, his very own, bound to him by all the ties of flesh
and blood--a veritable human, with a soul to be lost or to be saved by
his influence. On the strength of his happiness he began to build
gigantic castles in the air, and, what was more, to handsomely furnish
them.

As for Esther, the motherhood that had come to her added a charm to her
sweetness that her husband, much as he loved her, had neither known nor
guessed that she possessed. The child was a perpetual mystery to her,
and a never-ending charm. And yet with it all her husband was always the
chiefest in her eyes. There was a difference in the love she felt for
them--a difference that she could hardly account for or understand. One
was _of_ the other, yet not _the_ other. One was a love she had in a
measure created for herself; the other was nothing more nor less than
herself. Indeed, their home life was now almost as perfect as it was
possible for it to be. With a substantial banking account--how obtained
Ellison never allowed himself to think; the new pearling season
approaching with glowing prospects; a tender, loving wife to care for
and protect; a son and heir to bind them closer to each other, he might
indeed esteem himself a lucky man. Murkard found occasion, one morning,
to tell him so in the store.

"Everything seems to prosper with you now, Ellison. If I had such a wife
and son to work for, there'd be nothing I couldn't do."

"There shall be nothing _I_ can't do. If things _have_ changed, so much
the better. I will make hay while the sun shines, and you must help
me."

"There is nothing I would do more willingly. You know you may always
count on my hearty cooperation."

Ellison shook him warmly by the hand.

"I know," he said. "You have been a good friend to me, Murkard."

"And you will forget it all in a moment."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. I'm only looking ahead. A habit of mine. Forget it." He turned
to the desk at which he had been writing, and took up some papers. "Now
let us talk business. The season is beginning, as you know. Are you
ready for it?"

"Quite. The boats are in first-class trim; the two new divers will be
here to-morrow; we shall get to sea on Thursday morning, all being
well."

"And you still intend going with them?"

"On this particular trip--yes! I want to see how things work out yonder,
and what chances there are for a floating station."

A floating station, in pearling parlance, is a larger vessel than the
ordinary diving lugger, capable of anchoring in the vicinity of the
fleet, of carrying stores sufficient to supply the boats during their
operations, and of taking over their cargoes of shell when obtained. By
this means the time which would otherwise be occupied in sailing the
distance backward and forward to the land station, not unfrequently a
distance of some hundreds of miles, would be saved, and the luggers
enabled to go on working uninterruptedly. A floating station is also
capable of meeting ships in the open sea, and of transhipping to them
her cargo of shell, packed and addressed direct to the London markets,
by this means again saving agents' fees, storage, wharfage, etc., etc.,
in Thursday Island. The advantages to be gained by employing such a
vessel must be obvious.

"I wonder you like to tear yourself away just at present," said Murkard,
after a little pause.

"I don't like it. I am dreading it like the coward I am; but it's got to
be done, Murkard. Try as I will I can't blink that fact. As I told you a
month ago, I intend to put my shoulder to the wheel now with a
vengeance. I think I've proved since we came here that I'm made of the
right sort of stuff. Well, I'm going to do twice as much now in support
of that assertion. I have made one firm resolve?"

"And that is?"

"That save for the purposes of my business, in the strictest sense of
the word, I will not touch a penny of that five thousand pounds. And I
will deny myself no toil and no thrift that can help me to repay every
farthing of what I _do_ take, and with interest. Then it shall go back
to England."

"But, man, you must be mad! It's your own money. As much yours as the
child in yonder."

"Not the two in the same breath, as you love your life, Murkard. No!
When I took the money I took it as a loan, and only as a loan. By God's
help I will repay every farthing of it, and with interest. So only can I
hope to satisfy my conscience."

Murkard looked at him. There was determination in every line of
Ellison's face. He lifted his hand from the desk, and put it on the
other's shoulder.

"Ellison, you're a brave man, and I respect you for it."

"That's because you don't know everything."

"I know quite enough to convince me of the justice of what I have just
said. If there's any more at the back of it--I'll respect you the more
for that too."

"Well, at any rate, that's enough on the subject for the present. Of
course, while I'm away you will be in charge here. You understand that,
don't you? I leave everything in your hands, including the safety of my
wife and child. I need not say I trust you."

"You need have no fears on that score. I will guard them as if they
were my own. How long do you expect to be away?"

"At least a month. It is no use going so far for less. If we have much
luck I may stay longer; but it is very doubtful."

"Very doubtful, I should think."

Ellison picked up his hat and left the store. On returning to the house
he found Esther seated on the veranda, the baby sleeping in a cradle by
her side. He took the hammock and stretched himself out. Without
speaking she signed to him, by taking his hand, to look; then stooping
she drew the mosquito netting back from the cradle head, and showed him
the child lying fast asleep. Hand in hand they looked down upon the
little pink face; and the one little arm outside the quilt, with its
tiny fist tight clenched, seemed to draw the father's and mother's
hearts if possible closer even than before. Then she dropped the net
again, and turned towards her husband. She saw that his face was
preternaturally solemn.

"You have something to tell me," she said.

"Something rather unpleasant, I'm afraid," he murmured in reply. "And
yet, after all, looked straight in the face, it is not very much. I
meant to have told you before, but I've been putting it off from day to
day. The fact is, Esther, I'm going away with the luggers the day after
to-morrow for a month."

"You--going--away--and--for--a month! Oh, Cuthbert!"

It was the first real parting since their marriage, and the news came as
an unpleasant shock to her. But Esther knew she must be brave, and not
try to hinder him from what was evidently his duty. Calling Mrs. Fenwick
out to the veranda, she gave the child to her; then, taking her
husband's arm, she went with him down the path towards the shore.

"It is weak of me to think I can expect to keep you with me always," she
said, when they had gone a little way. "But baby and I will miss you
dreadfully."

"It must be, darling. You see, I must work now even harder than before."

"Why must you? We are doing well enough as it is, surely?"

"Yes, things have improved, certainly; but while that loan hangs over me
I shall know no peace. It haunts me night and day. You would not have me
idle my time away here on the strength of that money, would you?"

"Of course not. But I fear whatever you did, I should think right."

"Forgive my doubting that assertion. I'm certain, darling, if you saw me
idle, even your love would not be above telling me so."

"But I should only tell you because I loved you."

"That is precisely why I am going away. I want to work hard, that I may
prevent your ever being called upon to tell me."

"We are getting a little out of our depths, are we not?"

They had reached a little clearing in the jungle. Here she stopped, and
taking his great brown hand in hers, stroked it with her own white
fingers. Then, looking up into his face with a faint little smile,
through which the tears threatened at any moment to burst, she said:

"Go, and may God prosper your labours!"

That was the last of her opposition.

Two days later Ellison gave the signal for departure, and the three
luggers weighed anchor and stood out of the bay. His own boat was the
last to leave, and until the headland shut her from his sight, Ellison
waved a farewell to the white figure standing in the veranda. Then the
sea took him into her arms, and for a month the station knew him no
more.

       *       *       *       *       *

It was sundown on the twenty-third day at sea. Work was almost over. The
sun was little more than a hand's breadth above the horizon, and another
hour would find him gone. Hardly a ripple disturbed the pearly serenity
of the ocean; the only spot of land to be seen was a tiny island just
peeping up on the sky-line away to starboard. Ellison sat upon the
combing of the main hatch, holding the diver's life-line in his hand,
watching the movements of the other boats, and listening to the
throbbing of the air-pump on the deck beside him. It was nearly time for
the diver to ascend.

Suddenly the line he held twitched violently in his hand. It was a
signal to haul up the canvas bag containing the oysters gathered. He
hauled in, and having emptied the contents on the deck, lowered the bag
to be re-filled. Then with his knife he set to work to open the oysters.
The first and second were valuable shells, but destitute of pearls; the
third contained an almost insignificant gem; the fourth he opened
carefully, with a sort of premonition that it would be found to contain
something valuable. If the truth were known, he was thinking more of
Esther than the work upon which he was engaged. When he did look inside,
he almost dropped the shell in amazement. Tangled among the beard, and
half hidden from his sight, was an enormous black pearl, perfect, so
far as he could make out, in symmetry, and larger than a hazel-nut.
Trembling with eagerness, yet without allowing a sign to escape him to
show his crew that he had made a find out of the ordinary, he
disentangled the gem from its bearded setting, and with exquisite care
removed it altogether from the shell. He could hardly believe his good
fortune. Perfect in shape, of enormous size, and, as far as he could
tell, without a flaw, it was a jewel fit for a royal crown. He was
afraid to think of its value, but from what he knew of pearls, five
thousand pounds would hardly buy it.

He had barely time to conceal it in his pocket and order one of the
Kanakas to stow the shells in their proper places, when the diver
signalled that he was coming up. As soon as he had seen him disrobed he
descended to his cabin, and after another careful examination of the
gem, put it away in a place of safety. If his calculation of its value
proved anything like correct, he would now be able to pay off his debt,
relieve his mind of its weight of anxiety, and start again with a fresh
sheet. But even without this marvellous bit of good fortune their trip
had been phenomenally successful; now, with this additional piece of
good luck, he felt that he was justified in weighing anchor the
following morning and setting sail for home.

And what a home-coming it was, to be sure! What questions had to be
asked and answered; how every change in the son and heir had to be
described and noted. And indeed, as Ellison was only too glad to admit
to himself, he was indeed a bonny boy. His heart throbbed with joy and
pride as he held him in his arms.

And who shall paint Esther's delight in having her husband with her
again? She could hardly bear him out of her sight.

When luncheon was over, and they had adjourned to the veranda, she came
to business.

"You have not yet told me what success you met with, Cuthbert? I have
pray

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