THE breakfast room of Lord Stranleigh’s town house was a most cheerful
apartment, and the young man who entered sat down to a repast which was
at once abundant and choice. The appointments could scarcely have been
bettered; the spotless linen, the polished silver, the prismatic cut
glass, and the dainty porcelain, formed a pleasant table picture,
enhanced by the pile of luscious fruit, the little rolls of cool, golden
butter, the crisp white crescents, the brown toast, while the aroma of
celestial coffee from the silver urn over a small electric furnace was
enough to spur the longing of a sybarite. It is perhaps to be regretted
that truth compels record of the fact that the languid person who found
himself confronted by delicacies in season and out was healthily hungry,
for some of us grumble that to him that hath shall be given, which seems
unfair, and there appears to be a human satisfaction in the fact that
John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in the world, is compelled to
breakfast on a diluted glass of milk. But regrettable or no, Lord
Stranleigh of Wychwood was preparing to do full justice to the
excellence of the meal when his man said to him, in a hushed,
deferential whisper:
“Mr. Peter Mackeller has called, my lord, and insists on seeing you
immediately. He says it is a matter of the utmost importance.”
“Oh, dim!” ejaculated his lordship, “how these conscientious, earnest
people tire me. As if anything could be a matter of importance at this
hour except breakfast! Well, I suppose there is no escape: show him in.”
He heaved a deep sigh, and murmured to himself:
“This is what comes of meddling with the city.” The stalwart young
Mackeller entered, and his very presence seemed to put the refined room
to shame, his grim force causing his surroundings to appear _dilettante_
and needlessly expensive. He was even more than usually unkempt, as if
he had been sitting up all night in the hold of the tramp steamer which
had kidnapped him. A deep frown marked his brow, and heightened the
expression of rude strength that radiated from his determined face.
“Ah, Mackeller, good morning,” drawled his lordship, looking at the
young man over his shoulder. “I’m delighted to see you, and just in the
nick of time, too. Won’t you sit down and breakfast with me!”
“Thank you,” said Mackeller, in tones as hard as the other’s were
affected. “I breakfasted two hours and a half ago.”
“Did you really? Well, call it lunch, and draw up your chair.”
“No, I’ve not come to a banquet, but to a business conference.”
“I’m sorry for that. My head is not very clear on business matters at
any hour of the day, but in the morning I am particularly stupid. Do try
a peach; you’ll find them exceedingly good.”
“No, thanks.”
“Then have a cigarette?”
His lordship raised the heavy lid of a richly chased box of silver,
displaying a quantity of the paper tubes, and pushed this toward his
visitor.
“They are a blend that is made for me in Cairo, but perhaps you prefer
Virginians?”
“I have no choice in the matter,” said Mackeller, selecting a cigarette.
The butler snapped aglow an electric lighter, and held it convenient for
the young engineer’s use, who drew in his breath, and exhaled a whiff of
aromatic smoke.
“Do sit down, Mackeller!”
“Thanks, no; I’m in a hurry. Time is of great value just now.”
“Although I am very stupid in the morning, as I told you, nevertheless
the moment you came in I surmised you were in a hurry. For whom are you
working, Mr. Mackeller?”
“Working? What do you mean?”
“Who is your employer, or are you on your own, as the vulgar say?”
“Why, my lord, I understood I was in your employ.”
“In that case why don’t you sit down when I tell you to?” asked his
lordship with a slight laugh.
Peter Mackeller dropped into a chair with such suddenness that the laugh
of his chief became more pronounced.
“You see, Peter, my boy, it is a rule of the world that the man who pays
for the music calls the tune. You say it is to be a quick-step: I insist
upon a minuet. How do you like those cigarettes?”
“They are excellent, my lord.”
“Not half bad, I think. You don’t mind my going on with breakfast, and
I am sure you will excuse me if I fail to regard this table as a quick
lunch counter. I think our sturdiness as a nation depends very largely
on our slowness at meals.”
“Perhaps. Still, that slowness should not extend to every function of
life,” replied Peter severely.
“You think not? Well, perhaps you are right, although I must confess
that I do dislike to be hustled, as the saying is. My mind works slowly
when it condescends to work at all, and my body rather accommodates
itself to my mental condition. You appear to be under the impression
that my affairs at the moment need the spur rather than the curb. Am I
right in that conjecture?”
“Why, my lord, if ever there was a transaction where speed is the
essence of the contract, as the lawyers say, it is the present condition
of your gold property.”
“Why, I fail to see that, Mackeller. I buy a property for, say,
thirty-five thousand pounds. I receive a check for sixty-five thousand
from the estimable Mr. Schwartzbrod and his colleagues. I have therefore
acquired what you state is a valuable property for nothing, and there
is bestowed upon me a bonus of thirty thousand pounds in addition for
taking it over. Whether or not any gold exists on the west coast of
Africa, there certainly reposes thirty thousand golden sovereigns at my
disposal in the bank; sovereigns which yesterday I did not possess, so
I think I have concluded the deal very creditably for a sluggish-brained
person like myself, and after such a profitable bit of mental exertion
it seems to me I am entitled to a rest, but here you come, bristling
with energy, and say ‘Let’s hurry.’ In Heaven’s name, why? I’ve finished
the transaction.”
“Finished?” cried Mackeller. “Finished? Bless my soul, we’ve only just
begun. Do you understand that the tramp steamer _Rajah_, with some
hundred and fifty hired thieves aboard, is making as fast as steam can
push her through the waters, for your property, with intent to loot the
same? Do you comprehend that that steamer has been loaded by myself
with the most modern surface-mining machinery, with dynamite, with
provisions, with every facility for the speedy robbing of those gold
fields, and that you have given that pirate Schwartzbrod a document
acquitting him of all liability in the premises?”
“Yes, Peter, I suppose things are very much as you state them, but your
tone implies that somehow I am to blame in the matter. I assure you that
it is not my fault, but the fault of circumstances. Then why worry about
a thing I am not in the least responsible for? You are not censuring me,
I hope?”
“No, my lord, I have no right to censure you whatever happens.”
“Oh, don’t let any question of right suppress a just indignation,
Mackeller. If you think I’m guilty of negligence, pray give expression
to your feelings by the use of any combination of words that brings
relief. Don’t mind me. I really very much admire the use of terse
language, although I have been denied the gift of emphatic denunciation
myself.”
“Don’t you intend to do anything, my lord?”
“Yes, I intend to enjoy my breakfast, and really, if you knew how tasty
this coffee is, you would yield to my pleadings and indulge in at least
one cup.”
“Don’t you propose to prosecute that scoundrel Schwartzbrod?”
“Prosecute? Bless my soul, what for?”
“For the trick he played on you and my father. He got that exculpating
document from you under false pretenses.”
“Not at all, not at all. I made certain stipulations; he complied with
them. I then gave him the exculpating document, as you call it, and
there it ends. If I had been gifted with second sight, this vision would
have revealed to me that the clever Schwartzbrod had caused the _Rajah_
to sail with you a prisoner in her hold. But Schwartzbrod is not to
blame because I possess no clairvoyant power, now is he?”
“You will do nothing, then?”
“My dear boy, there’s nothing to do.”
“Don’t you intend to stop these pirates from mining your gold, and
getting it aboard the _Rajah?_”
“Certainly not: why should I?”
“Nor give information to the authorities?”
“Of course not. The authorities have more information now than they can
use.”
“Then you will not even tell the police?”
“The police are a land force: they cannot take a rowboat and chase the
_Rajah_, and if they could they wouldn’t catch her, so what’s the good
of asking impossibilities from either Scotland Yard or the Foreign
Office?”
“You have no intention, then, of interfering with this band of gold
robbers?”
“Oh, no.”
“You’re going to take it lying down?”
“No, sitting up,” and with that his lordship pushed back his chair,
threw his right leg over his left, selected a cigarette, and lit it.
“I should be glad, my lord, to head an expedition, fit up another ship,
follow the _Rajah_, and force those claim-jumpers to abandon their raid
on another man’s goods.”
“I don’t like force, Mackeller. I don’t mind possessing a giant’s
strength, but we must remember we should not use it like a giant.”
Lord Stranleigh, a picture of contentment, leaned back in his chair,
and blew rings of filmy cigarette smoke toward the ceiling. Peter
Mae-keller, the gloom on whose face had grown darker and darker, watched
the nonchalant young man opposite him with a curl of contempt on his
lip, yet he realized that if his lordship could not be forced to move,
he himself was helpless. At last he rose slowly to his feet, the first
tardy movement he had made since he entered the breakfast room.
“Very good, my lord. Then you have no further need of me, and I beg you
to accept my resignation.”
“I’m sorry,” drawled his lordship, “but before you quit my service, I
should like to receive one well thought-out opinion from you.”
“What is your problem, my lord?”
“It is this, Mackeller. I consider the after-breakfast cigarette the most
enticing smoke of the day. A man who has slept well, and breakfasted
adequately seems just in tune to enjoy to the utmost these enchanting
vaporous exhalations. I wish to know if you agree with me.”
“Oh, damnation!” cried Mackeller, bringing his huge fist down on the
table, and setting the breakfast things a-jingling, and with this
regrettable word and action, he strode toward the door. The butler was
there as if to open it for him, but his lordship made a slight turning
motion of his wrist, whereupon Ponderby instantly locked the door and
put the key in his pocket, standing there as silent and imperturbable
as if he had not just imprisoned a free-born British subject, which
he certainly had no legal right to do. The enraged captive fruitlessly
shook the door, then turned round, his face ablaze with anger. Neither
his lordship nor the butler moved a muscle.
“Mr. Mackeller,” drawled his lordship, “you have been conversing most
interestingly, I admit, on subjects that did not in the least concern
you. Now, perhaps, you will resume your duty.”
“My duty? What is my duty?” demanded the engineer.
“Why, I hoped it would not be necessary to remind you of it. I sent you
down to Southampton to look after my property; the _Rajah_, which I
had hired, and the machinery, provisions, etcetera, which I had bought.
Through your negligence, carelessness, laches, default, supineness,
inattention, or whatever other quality it pleases you to attribute the
circumstance, you allowed yourself to be hoodwinked like a schoolboy,
trapped like a rat, tied like a helpless sack on a pack horse for an
unstated number of miles, flung like a bundle into a pilot boat, and
landed like a haddock on the beach. A man to whom all this happened
must be well endowed with cheek to enter my house and berate me for
indolence. So cease standing there like a graven image with your back to
the door, and do not perambulate the room as you did a minute ago,
like a tiger in his cage at the Zoo, but sit down here once more, light
another cigarette, fling one leg over the other, and give me, slowly, so
that I can understand it, a formal report of your Southampton mission,
and the disaster which attended it. I shall be glad to receive and
consider any excuse you may offer for your own utter incompetence, and
you may begin by apologizing for dealing a deadly blow at my table,
which is quite innocent, and for offending my ears by the expletive that
preceded such action.”
Mackeller strode over to the chair again, and plumped down like the fall
of a sledge-hammer.
“You’re right. I apologize, and ask you to pardon my tongue-play and
fist-play.”
His lordship airily waved his hand.
“Granted,” he said. “I sometimes say ‘dim’ myself, if I may quote Sir W.
S. Gilbert. Go on.”
“When I went aboard the _Rajah_, neither the captain nor any of the
officers offered opposition to my resuming command of the loading. The
stuff was on the wharf, and in less than three days it was all aboard,
well stowed away. During this time I had seen nothing to rouse my
suspicion that anything underhand was to be attempted. I had informed
the captain that you were now the charterer of the steamer, and he
received the intelligence with apparent indifference, saying something
to the effect that it mattered nothing to him who his owners were so
long as his money was safe. The last material taken aboard was a large
quantity of canvas for making tents, and lucky for me it was that I
placed this at the foot of the ladder up from the hold. The workers
had all gone on deck, and I was taking a final look around, wondering
whether anything had been forgotten. I then mounted the ladder, and was
amazed to see old Schwartzbrod standing there, talking to a tall, dark
man who was, I afterwards learned, the leader of the expedition. This
man, without a word, planted his foot against my breast, and heaved me
backward down into the hold. Immediately afterwards I was battened down,
and in darkness. By the running about on the deck above me, I realized
that the steamer was getting ready to cast off, and within an hour I
heard the engines and screw at work.
“It was night, and we were thrashing seaward through the Channel when
the covering of the hatchway was lifted, and the man who had imprisoned
me came down the ladder alone, with a lantern in his hand, which struck
me as rather brave in the circumstances, but then he was armed, and I
was not, so after all I had little chance against him. He placed the
lantern on the bales of canvas upon which I had fallen, and began, with
seeming courtesy, by begging pardon for what he had done. Throughout he
spoke very quietly, and impressed me as a determined and capable person.
He said that if I gave him my word that I should speak to no one aboard,
or attempt to hail any passing craft, should such come near us, he would
allow me on deck, and would send me ashore when the pilot left the ship.
“‘And if I refuse to give my word?’ I asked. “’ In that case,’ he
replied, ‘I shall supply you with food and water, and will carry you to
the end of our voyage.’
“‘And where is that?’ I asked.
“‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I have nothing to do with the navigation of
the ship. I believe we are making for some port in South America, but I
couldn’t say for certain.’
“I realized that I could do nothing while in the hold, and although I
knew perfectly well they were making for the West African coast, and
not for South America, I would be equally helpless once I reached there.
Besides, it was of vital importance that I should telegraph to you and
my father. In fact, I was amazed that, having taken the risk of placing
me in confinement as they had done, they should allow me to get on
shore so soon, but I suppose the crafty old Schwartzbrod knew that if I
remained missing long, there would be an outcry in the newspapers, so
he reckoned it was safer to risk my being put ashore, as he estimated we
could not possibly fit out another steamer and start in pursuit under a
week at the very least, and with that start they could have the channel
of the river blocked, a fort or two erected, and so bid us defiance when
we did arrive.”
“But if they blocked the river,” interrupted his lordship, “they would
shut themselves in, as well as shut us out.”
“Not necessarily,” continued the engineer. “I have reason to believe
that before I reached Southampton, a number of floating mines were
stowed away in the front part of the ship. These mines could be planted
in the mouth of the river, and a chart kept, which, in the possession of
the captain, would enable him to thread the channel in safety, while a
navigator without this protection and guide would run a thousand chances
of finding his ship blown up.”
“Why,” said his lordship with admiration, “our seven syndicaters are
brave as the buccaneers of ancient times. They are certainly running
considerable risk of penal servitude for life?”
“I am not sure that they are, my lord,” replied Mackeller. “You see,
this property is situated in a native state. The concession was granted
by the chief of the ruling tribe in that district. British law does not
run in that locality, and I very much doubt if the steamer _Rajah_ will
ever again put into a British port. My notion is that they will load
her up with ore, and make for some point, probably in the Portuguese
possessions, where they will smelt the ore, sell the ingots, and in the
shape of hard cash which cannot be earmarked, the product of your
mine will reach the syndicate in London. Now, my lord, you spoke of
negligence, culpability, and all that. There is the story, and if you
can show me where I was negligent of your interests, all I can say is
that my error was not intentional.”
“Well, you see, Mackeller, you were acquainted with old Schwartzbrod,
and I wasn’t. I had not met him up to that time, and I knew nothing
personally of the syndicate, whereas you did. I think you should have
put some shrewd man on to watch the trains, and learn if any of these
men had come to Southampton, or perhaps you should have given us the
tip in London, and we could have had the immaculate seven shadowed. I
expected to meet legal chicanery, but not bold swashbuckling of this
sort.”
“Yes, it would have been better to set a watch, but although I knew
the men, nothing in their conduct led me to suspect a trick like this.
However, as I am no longer in your employ, you shall not suffer further
from my incompetence.”
“I think, Maekeller, you ought to give me a week’s notice, you know.”
“Very well. This day week I quit.”
“I am not sure but I am entitled to a month. How much should I have to
pay you if I dismissed you?”
“Six months’ salary, I believe, is the legal amount.”
“Well, then, why not give me half a year’s notice?”
“I suppose you are entitled to it, my lord.”
“Then that’s all right. Half a year from now we shake hands and bid
each other a tearful farewell. Much may happen in twenty-six weeks, you
know.”
“Not if you’re going to do nothing, Lord Stranleigh.”
“Maekeller, you may not be a thing of beauty, but you are a joy forever.
Still, there is one characteristic which I do not like about you.
Perhaps it is oversensitiveness on my part, but it sometimes seems to me
that you think I am lacking in energy. I hope, however, I am mistaken.”
His lordship paused and gazed with quaint anxiety at his visitor,
who, however, made no response, whereupon his lordship sighed ever so
slightly, and put on the look of patient resignation which becomes a
misunderstood man.
“Silence gives consent, I think, and I may find it difficult to put your
mind right on this subject. Let me give you an illustration, chosen from
your own interesting profession of mining engineering. I am credibly
informed that if a hole is drilled in a piece of hard rock, and a
portion of dynamite inserted therein, the explosion which follows
generally rends the rock in twain.” Again he paused, and again there was
no reply. It was but too evident that the serious Mackeller considered
himself being trifled with. Unabashed, his lordship proceeded:
“That is energy, if you like. Shall we name it Mackellerite--this form
of energy? Now I shall tell you of a thing I have seen done on one of
my own estates. A number of holes were bored in a large bowlder, and
instead of dynamite, we drove in a number of wooden pins, and over those
pins we placidly poured clear, cold water. After a time the rock
gently parted. There was no dust, no smoke, no flame and fury and
nerve-shattering detonation, yet the swelling pins had done exactly the
same work that your stick of dynamite would have performed. Now, that
also was energy, of the Stranleighite variety. I suppose it would be
difficult to make the stick of dynamite understand the stick of wood,
and vice versa. By the way, have you seen your father since you returned
from Southampton!”
“Yes.”
“Did he tell you I possess a trim little oceangoing steam yacht at
present lying in a British harbor!”
“No, he did not.”
“But I thought I made him aware of what I intended to do!”
“Apparently he understood you no better than I do; at least he told me
he did not know what course you proposed to take.”
“I informed him that my yacht was fitted out with turbine engines, and
could reel off, at a pinch, twenty-five knots an hour. Now, how far away
is this bally gold property of yours!”
“About three thousand five hundred miles.”
“Very good. Toward this interesting spot the _Rajah_ is plodding along
at seven knots an hour, perhaps doing a little less, as her owners
guarantee that speed. How long will it take her to reach the
what-do-you-call-it river? There is no use of my attempting figures when
I have an uncivil engineer in my employ.”
“About twenty-one days,” replied Mackeller.
“Very well. If my yacht goes only twice that speed, which she can
accomplish in her sleep, we’d get there in half the time, wouldn’t we? I
think that mathematical calculation is correct?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Then we’d be Johnnie-on-the-spot in about eleven days, wouldn’t we?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“The _Rajah_ has now four days the start of us. Then don’t you see we
can spend six more days over our porridge in the morning, and still
reach our river before she does? Now don’t you begin to be ashamed of
yourself, Mackeller? Why rush me over my frugal meal when we have such
ample time to spare? I’d much rather spend the six days here in London
than up some malarious alligator-filled river on the west coast of
Africa.” Mackeller’s stern face brightened.
“Then you do intend to chase them, after all, my lord?”
“Chase them? Lord bless you, no. Why should I chase them? They are the
good Schwartzbrod’s hired men. He’s paying their wages. Chase them? Of
course not; but I’m going to pass them, and get up the river before they
do.”
Mackeller sprang to his feet, his face ablaze with enthusiasm, his right
fist nervously clenching and unclenching.
“Now, do sit down, Peter,” wailed his lordship. “Do not let us display
unnecessary energy. I’ve told you two or three times I don’t like it.”
Peter sat down.
“What I was trying to do when you went off prematurely was to show you
the folly of underestimating a fellow creature. You come storming in
here, practically accusing me of doing nothing, whereas I am doing
nothing because everything is done, and you, on the rampage, have
arrived from a total and grotesque failure.”
“I apologized for that already, my lord.”
“So you did, Peter. I had forgotten. A man shouldn’t be asked to pay
twice for the same horse and cart, should he? Ponderby,” he continued,
turning to his impassive butler, “would you be so good as to go into my
business office, and bring me my telegraph duplicate book.”
Then, turning to his visitor, he added:
“I am so methodical that I keep a copy of every telegram I send. I shall
ask you to look through this book with the critical eye of an engineer,
and you will learn that while you were raging up from Plymouth I
was ordering by telegraph to be sent to my yacht the more important
materials for the contest in which we may be involved. A man must make
some move to protect his own property, you know.”
“Why, my lord, that’s just what I’ve been saying all along, but you gave
me to understand you were going to do nothing.”
“I cannot account for such an idea arising in your mind. I think you
must have jumped at conclusions, Mackeller. Still, as long as I can
convince you that I am really a practical man, everything will be all
right between us.”
The butler placed before Lord Stranleigh the book containing copies of
the telegrams sent the day before, and his lordship handed it gracefully
to Mackeller.
“Nothing like documentary evidence,” he said, “to convince a stubborn
man. I think even you will admit that I have risen to the occasion.”
Mackeller turned the leaves of the book, reading as he went along. His
eyebrows came lower and lower over his gloomy eyes, and a faint smile
moved the lips of his lordship as he sat there watching him. Finally, he
snapped the book shut, and put it down with a slap on the table.
“Twenty-four dozens of champagne; fifty dozens of claret, burgundy,
bock, Scotch whisky----”
“Oh, and Irish whisky, too,” interrupted his lordship eagerly. “I
haven’t forgotten anything, you know. You see, I have some Irish
blood in my veins, and I occasionally touch it up with a little of the
national brew.”
“I don’t think your blood needs any stimulation,” said Mackeller
dejectedly. “Here you have ordered tobacco by the hundredweight, pipes
by the score, cigars and cigarettes by the thousand. I suppose you think
there’s something funny in handing me these messages. Are you never in
earnest, my lord?”
“Never more so than at the present moment, Mackeller. I am disappointed
that you failed to detect genius in the commissariat.”
“Are you going to fight this band of ruffians, my lord, by popping
champagne corks at them, or smothering them in tobacco smoke?”
“I have told you once or twice, Mackeller, that I don’t intend fighting
any one at all, but if the band of ruffians should come to dine with me
aboard the yacht, I’d like the hospitality shown them to do me credit.”
“Very well, your lordship,” said Peter with resignation. “You have
reminded me that my time is not my own, but yours, so if it gives you
any pleasure to befool me, don’t allow consideration for my feelings to
retard you.”
“Ah, you got in a good left-hander on me there, Peter. That’s where
you score. Now, the proper time having elapsed after a meal when a man
should talk business, even if, like me, he does not understand it,
he can at least pretend to be wise, no matter how foolish, he is in
reality. What is the name of that river of yours again?”
“The Paramakaboo.”
“Thanks. Well, as I understood you, it reaches the sea by several
channels. Is our property on the main stream?”
“The streams are all about the same size, so far as I was able to
learn.”
“How far back from the coast are the mountains?”
“You can hardly call them mountains. They are reasonably high hills,
and I estimate the distance to be from twenty-five to thirty miles. Our
property is twelve miles up the river.”
“A steamer drawing the depth of the Rajah could get up there you think?”
“Oh, yes, and could lay alongside the rocks in front of the gold field
without needing a wharf of any sort.”
“If I took the yacht up another channel, would she be out of sight of
any one stationed on our property?”
“The delta is rather flat for a few miles back from the coast, but if
you go upstream for fifteen miles or so, there are plenty of hills that
would conceal even a line of battle-ship, but any one on your property
could see her sailing up the stream while she was in low-lying country.”
“That doesn’t matter. I intend to get there before our friends do, so
there will be no trouble on that score.”
“Don’t you intend to arm your yacht?”
“Oh, yes; I shall have on board a few sporting rifles, some shotguns,
and plenty of ammunition. Is there any game back in the mountains?”
“I don’t know. How many riflemen do you propose to take with you?”
“I was thinking of inviting some of my younger gamekeepers; perhaps half
a dozen.”
“But they can’t hold out against a hundred and fifty well-armed men, not
to mention the sailors belonging to the _Rajah_.”
“My dear fellow, why is your mind always running on fighting? This is no
Treasure Island cruise, with stockades, and one-legged John Silver, and
that sort of thing. We are not qualifying for literary immortality, not
being filibusters, but merely staid, respectable city persons going
to look over a property we have purchased. If we are discovered
and attacked, we will valorously fly, and as, at a pinch, I can get
twenty-five knots an hour out of the boat, I think with the current
of the stream in my favor we can reach the sea in case these misguided
persons become obstreperous. You forget that as a city man I am an
investor, not a speculator.”
“I don’t see how that course of action will save your gold from being
stolen.”
“Don’t you? Well, you’ll have an inkling by and by. Now, I wish you to
go back to Southampton. You negotiated for the charter of the _Rajah_, I
believe.”
“Yes.”
“Who are her owners?”
“Messrs. Sparling & Bilge.”
“Very well. I’ll give you a blank check and ask you to return to
Southampton. Discover, if you can, what is the reasonable value of the
_Rajah_, then go to Sparling & Bilge and purchase the steamer. See that
everything is done legally, and arrange the transfer to me.”
“Is there to be any limit in the price I am to pay, Lord Stranleigh?”
“Oh, yes, of course we must place a limit; say ten times the value of
the ship. Make as good a bargain as you can. Part of the arrangement
must be that Sparling & Bilge write a letter to the captain, telling him
that they have sold the boat, that it belongs to me, and that they have
transferred to me whatever contract they made with him, the officers and
the crew; that I will be responsible hereafter for the pay of the same.
Then find out what can be done toward changing the name of the steamer.
I wish to paint out the word _Rajah_ and substitute, out of compliment to
you, the name _Blue Peter_. Blue Peter means the flag of that color with
a white square which is run up to the masthead when the ship is about to
sail, and I doubt not the Blue Peter was flying over Peter Mackeller as
he lay in the hold. Please learn if we can change the name legally, and
if we cannot, why, we’ll see what can be done when the ship is in our
possession. I am not going to indulge in any amateur piracy, so I expect
you to look sharply after the legal points of the transfer. Get the
assistance of the best marine lawyer there is in Southampton. Do you
understand what I mean?”
“Yes, my lord, and I will carry out your instructions to the letter. I
think I see what you intend to do.”
“I am the most transparent of men, Mackeller. There’s no subtlety about
me, so you can gain little credit by fathoming my plans. We will suppose
that two days are required to put me in possession of the _Rajah_.
Return then to London, pack your trunk, bid good-by to all your friends,
and say nothing to them of what you have done, or what you intend to do,
what you guess, or what you know, not even to your father, whom I have
made president of the company, because I dislike unnecessary publicity,
and desire to keep my name in the shade of that modest obscurity which
has always enveloped it. Buy anything you think you may require for the
voyage, and ship your dunnage to Plymouth, addressed, care of the yacht,
_The Woman in White_. Then engage a berth in the sleeping car on the
9.50 Penzance express, Great Western Railway, first-class fare, and five
shillings extra for your stateroom, and don’t forget to charge it to me.
At the unholy hour of 6.49 in the morning, you will arrive at Redruth in
Cornwall, where you can indulge in an early breakfast, which you seem
to delight in. In the environs of that village you will find a little
property which is owned by me, and on that bit of land is an abandoned
copper mine with a smelting furnace. I think the smelting apparatus is
in reasonably good order, but I doubt if any of the other appurtenances
of the mine are of much value. Now, having gone into the mining
business, I intend to work this property for all it’s worth, and I
propose that you spend a day or two getting a suitable manager, rigging
up windlasses, and that sort of thing, so that we will see whether
there is more money in copper to-day than was the case when the mine
was abandoned, years and years ago. I suppose that modern processes may
enable us to extract more copper out of the ore than our fathers found
possible. Anyhow, my idea is to get the blast furnace in working order
once more, and by the time we return to England, we shall probably know
whether there is any brass, in another sense of the word, in the mine.
Do you think you comprehend that task as well as the buying of the----
“But why trouble with copper, Lord Stranleigh, when you have on your
hands the most prolific gold mine, as I believe it to be, in the world?”
“You said it was in the other fellow’s hands, Mackeller.”
“Don’t you intend to stop that crew in some way from lifting the ore?”
“Oh, no, I shall not interfere with them in the least.”
“Then what are you going to West Africa for?”
“For the voyage. For the scenery. For the chance of big game in the back
country. To drink some of that champagne I have ordered, and to smoke a
few of those cigarettes which I sent aboard. I shall read all the latest
books that I haven’t had time to peruse here in London. By the way, is
the neighborhood of our mine a healthy locality?”
“I should say it was rather feverish along the coast, but up toward the
hills I think it as healthy as Hampstead.”
“I shall induce a doctor friend of mine to come with us. I’m glad I
thought of that. If you indulge in your predilection for coercion,
giving free rein to your passion for fighting, a surgeon will be
necessary for amputations, the dressing of wounds, and generally useful
in attending to those exciting incidents that follow in the train of
a conqueror like yourself, who believes in brute force rather than in
alert brains.”
“Then I am to set this copper mine of yours in operation down in
Cornwall?”
“Exactly. And leave a competent manager to engage the men, renew the
machinery, and all that.”
“Is there to be any limit in the expenditure?”
“Limit? Of course there is to be a limit. Aren’t we always limiting
expenditure? Isn’t my life spent in putting a check on the outgoings?
Yes, you will instruct the new manager that this is merely a tentative
experiment of mine, and that he is not to purchase machinery wholesale,
nor engage many miners, but merely to test the capabilities of the
copper vein, and smelt as much of the ore as he can until you return.”
“Of course it’s no business of mine, my lord, but it strikes me that
this is an unnecessary and losing venture. The copper industry of
Cornwall has been steadily decreasing in value, and I doubt if there are
half as many copper mines in operation as there were ten years ago.”
“Oh, Peter, Peter, how little of the foresight of your saintly namesake
do you possess! Does not your imagination see the little harbor of
Portreath, which means the sandy cove? Of course it doesn’t, for you are
probably ignorant that such a port exists. Our smelter is situated near
this marine haven of rest. Stir up your fancy, my boy, and see in your
mind’s eye the steamer _Rajah_, loaded with ore, but renamed the _Blue
Peter_, floating majestically into Portreath. What more natural than
that the grasping Stranleigh should own another copper mine where there
is no smelter, and that this ship brings copper ore to our Cornwall
furnace? The _Blue Peter_ shall probably first put into Plymouth, where
she is less likely to be recognized by seafaring folk than would be the
case at Southampton. We will there discharge the crew, giving every man
double pay. We will compensate the captain and his officers, sending
everybody away happy. Then we will engage another captain and another
crew, who know nothing of where the steamer has come from, and thus we
sail round Land’s End, and put in to little Portreath.”
“You propose, then, to capture the _Rajah_ on the high seas, following
it with your much more speedy yacht?”
“Oh, no, not capture. I’m going to take possession, that’s all. The
_Rajah_ is mine as incontestably as the yacht is. The ore with which she
will be loaded is also mine. Everything shall be done as legally as if
we were transacting our affairs in the Temple or Gray’s Inn. Doesn’t
that put to shame your wild Scottish Highland ideas of fighting and
slaughter? You ought to wear kilts and a dirk, Mackeller, but my
instrument is a quill pen and nice red stamps embossed at Somerset
House.”
“And who will pay the men who are blasting out the ore on the banks of
the river Paramakaboo?”
“Why, really, Mackeller, that is no affair of mine. These industrious
people are employed by the saintly Schwartzbrod. If that astute
financier elects to engage a large body of labor to get out my ore for
me, then I think you will admit, Mackeller, much as you are prejudiced
against him, that he is really the philanthropic benefactor of his race
I have always said he was.”
“But--but--but,” stammered Mackeller, “when they discover how they have
been befooled, there will be a riot.”
“I don’t see that. When I discharge the captain and crew at Plymouth,
I shall have cut the live wire, if I may use an expression from your
absorbing profession. The connecting cable between those deluded miners
in West Africa and the amiable syndicate in London, will be severed. The
captain knows nothing, I take it, of Schwartzbrod. He was employed by
Sparling & Bilge. Going ashore at Plymouth, out of a job, he would
probably look for a ship in that port, and failing to find one, might
journey to his old employers at Southampton. But, although I discharge
the captain, I don’t intend to turn him adrift. I have already set
influences at work which will secure for him a better boat than the
_Rajah_, and the contented man will sail away from Plymouth, from
London, or from some northern port, as the case may be. It is not likely
that captain, officers, or crew know the nature of the ore they will be
carrying, but I don’t intend to leave the wire partially cut. I shall
provide places on various ships for officers and crew, and scatter them
over the face of the earth, casting my breadwinners on the waters, as
one may say, hoping they will not return for many days.”
“But when Schwartzbrod hears nothing of the _Rajah_ at whatever foreign
port he ordered her to sail, he will make inquiries of Sparling &
Bilge.”
“I very much doubt that.”
“Why?”
“Because he has chartered their ship, and must either produce the
steamer or renew the charter. That reminds me, for how long a period was
the _Rajah_ engaged?”
“For three months with option of renewal.”
“Good. Toward the end of that time old Schwartzbrod will write to
Sparling & Bilge extending the charter for another three months. He dare
not go to see these shipping men because he has mislaid their steamship,
and does not wish to answer embarrassing questions regarding her
whereabouts.”
“Yes, but Sparling & Bilge will merely reply that they have sold the
_Rajah_ to Lord Stran-leigh, and beg to refer Schwartzbrod to the new
owner.”
“Bravo, Peter. You are actually beginning to get an inkling of Mr.
Schwartzbrod’s dilemma. I had almost despaired of making this clear to
you.”
“Still, I don’t understand the object of cutting the live wire, as you
call it, if you leave another communicating wire intact. You take great
pains to prevent captain or any of the crew meeting Schwartzbrod, yet
you make it inevitable that Schwartzbrod will learn you are the owner of
the _Rajah_. Perhaps you wish me to pledge Sparling & Bilge to secrecy?”
“Oh, dear no. I anticipate great pleasure in meeting Mr. Schwartzbrod.
I picture him cringing and bowing and rubbing one hand over the other
as he pleads for a renewal of the charter, and crawls away from all my
inquiries regarding the whereabouts of the steamer. I will be back in
London by the time the syndicate begins to get uneasy about the _Rajah_,
and I shall renew the charter with the utmost cheerfulness, without
insisting on learning where the _Rajah_ is. But imagine the somewhat
delicate position of a man compelled to negotiate with me for the hire
of a boat to steal my own gold. The venerable Schwartzbrod will need to
keep a close guard on his tongue or he will give himself away. It is a
delicious dilemma. I hope you comprehend all the possibilities of the
situation, but be that as it may, get you off to Southampton, and when
you are done with the copper mine, report on board my yacht at Plymouth,
where you will find me waiting for you. Then for the blue sea and red
carnage if it is so written. Sixteen men on a dead man’s chest, yo, ho,
ho, and a bottle of champagne, and all that sort of thing, Peter.”