"I see! And rational beings must always be men!" I said--"You are quite
certain of that?"
"In the fact that men ordain the world's government and progress, you
have your answer,"--he replied.
"Alas, poor world!" I murmured--"Sometimes it rebels against the
'rationalism' of its rulers!"
Just then Mr. Harland called me, and I hastened to join him and Captain
Derrick. The boat which was waiting for us was manned by four sailors
who wore white jerseys trimmed with scarlet, bearing the name of the
yacht to which they belonged--the 'Dream.' These men were dark-skinned
and dark-eyed,--we took them at first for Portuguese or Malays, but
they turned out to be from Egypt. They saluted us, but did not speak,
and as soon as we were seated, pulled swiftly away across the water.
Captain Derrick watched their movements with great interest and
curiosity.
"Plenty of grit in those chaps,"--he said, aside to Mr. Harland--"Look
at their muscular arms! I suppose they don't speak a word of English."
Mr. Harland thereupon tried one of them with a remark about the
weather. The man smiled--and the sudden gleam of his white teeth gave a
wonderful light and charm to his naturally grave cast of countenance.
"Beautiful day!"--he said,--"Very happy sky!"
This expression 'happy sky' attracted me. It recalled to my mind a
phrase I had once read in the translation of an inscription found in an
Egyptian sarcophagus--"The peace of the morning befriend thee, and the
light of the sunset and the happiness of the sky." The words rang in my
ears with an odd familiarity, like the verse of some poem loved and
learned by heart in childhood.
In a very few minutes we were alongside the 'Dream' and soon on board,
where Rafel Santoris received us with kindly courtesy and warmth of
welcome. He expressed polite regret at the absence of Miss
Harland--none for that of Dr. Brayle or Mr. Swinton--and then
introduced us to his captain, an Italian named Marino Fazio, of whom
Santoris said to us, smilingly:--
"He is a scientist as well as a skipper--and he needs to be both in the
management of such a vessel as this. He will take Captain Derrick in
his charge and explain to him the mystery of our brilliant appearance
at night, and also the secret of our sailing without wind."
Fazio saluted, and smiled a cheerful response.
"Are you ready to start now?" he asked, speaking very good English with
just the slightest trace of a foreign accent.
"Perfectly!"
Fazio lifted his hand with a sign to the man at the wheel. Another
moment and the yacht began to move. Without the slightest
noise,--without the grinding of ropes, or rattling of chains, or
creaking boards, she swung gracefully round, and began to glide through
the water with a swiftness that was almost incredible. The sails
filled, though the air was intensely warm and stirless--an air in which
any ordinary schooner would have been hopelessly becalmed,--and almost
before we knew it we were out of Loch Scavaig and flying as though
borne on the wings of some great white bird, all along the wild and
picturesque coast of Skye towards Loch Bracadale. One of the most
remarkable features about the yacht was the extraordinary lightness
with which she skimmed the waves--she seemed to ride on their surface
rather than part them with her keel. Everything on board expressed the
finest taste as well as the most perfect convenience, and I saw Mr.
Plarland gazing about him in utter amazement at the elegant
sumptuousness of his surroundings. Santoris showed us all over the
vessel, talking to us with the ease of quite an old friend.
"You know the familiar axiom,"--he said--"'Anything worth doing at all
is worth doing well.' The 'Dream' was first of all nothing but a dream
in my brain till I set to work with Fazio and made it a reality. Owing
to our discovery of the way in which to compel the waters to serve us
as our motive power, we have no blackening smoke or steam, so that our
furniture and fittings are preserved from dinginess and tarnish. It was
possible to have the saloon delicately painted, as you see,"--here he
opened the door of the apartment mentioned, and we stepped into it as
into a fairy palace. It was much loftier than the usual yacht saloon,
and on all sides the windows were oval shaped, set in between the most
exquisitely painted panels of sea pieces, evidently the work of some
great artist. Overhead the ceiling was draped with pale turquoise blue
silk forming a canopy, which was gathered in rich folds on all four
sides, having in its centre a crystal lamp in the shape of a star.
"You live like a king"--then said Mr. Harland, a trifle bitterly--"You
know how to use your father's fortune."
"My father's fortune was made to be used," answered Santoris, with
perfect good-humour--"And I think he is perfectly satisfied with my
mode of expending it. But very little of it has been touched. I have
made my own fortune."
"Indeed! How?" And Harland looked as he evidently felt, keenly
interested.
"Ah, that's asking too much of me!" laughed Santoris. "You may be
satisfied, however, that it's not through defrauding my neighbours.
It's comparatively easy to be rich if you have coaxed any of Mother
Nature's secrets out of her. She is very kind to her children, if they
are kind to her,--in fact, she spoils them, for the more they ask of
her the more she gives. Besides, every man should make his own money
even if he inherits wealth,--it is the only way to feel worthy of a
place in this beautiful, ever-working world."
He preceded us out of the saloon and showed us the State-rooms, of
which there were five, daintily furnished in white and blue and white
and rose.
"These are for my guests when I have any," he said, "Which is very
seldom. This for a princess--if ever one should honour me with her
presence!"
And he opened a door on his right, through which we peered into a long,
lovely room, gleaming with iridescent hues and sparkling with touches
of gold and crystal. The bed was draped with cloudy lace through which
a shimmer of pale rose-colour made itself visible, and the carpet of
dark moss-green formed a perfect setting for the quaintly shaped
furniture, which was all of sandal-wood inlaid with ivory. On a small
table of carved ivory in the centre of the room lay a bunch of Madonna
lilies tied with a finely twisted cord of gold. We murmured our
admiration, and Santoris addressed himself directly to me for the first
time since we had come on board.
"Will you go in and rest for a while till luncheon?" he said--"I placed
the lilies there for your acceptance."
The colour rushed to my cheeks,--I looked up at him in a little
wonderment.
"But I am not a princess!"
His eyes smiled down into mine.
"No? Then I must have dreamed you were!"
My heart gave a quick throb,--some memory touched my brain, but what it
was I could not tell. Mr. Harland glanced at me and laughed.
"What did I tell you the other day?" he said--"Did I not call you the
princess of a fairy tale? I was not far wrong!"
They left me to myself then, and as I stood alone in the beautiful room
which had thus been placed at my disposal, a curious feeling came over
me that these luxurious surroundings were, after all, not new to my
experience. I had been accustomed to them for a great part of my life.
Stay!--how foolish of me!--'a great part of my life'?--then what part
of it? I briefly reviewed my own career,--a difficult and solitary
childhood,--the hard and uphill work which became my lot as soon as I
was old enough to work at all,--incessant study, and certainly no
surplus of riches. Then where had I known luxury? I sank into a chair,
dreamily considering. The floating scent of sandal-wood and the perfume
of lilies commingled was like the breath of an odorous garden in the
East, familiar to me long ago, and as I sat musing I became conscious
of a sudden inrush of power and sense of dominance which lifted me as
it were above myself, as though I had, without any warning, been given
the full control of a great kingdom and its people. Catching sight of
my own reflection in an opposite mirror, I was startled and almost
afraid at the expression of my face, the proud light in my eyes, the
smile on my lips.
"What am I thinking of!" I said, half aloud--"I am not my true self
to-day,--some remnant of a cast-off pride has arisen in me and made me
less of a humble student. I must not yield to this overpowering demand
on my soul,--it is surely an evil suggestion which asserts itself like
the warning pain or fever of an impending disease. Can it be the
influence of Santoris? No!--I will never believe it!"
And yet a vague uneasiness beset me, and I rose and paced about
restlessly,--then pausing where the lovely Madonna lilies lay on the
ivory table, I remembered they had been put there for me. I raised them
gently, inhaling their delicious fragrance, and as I did so, saw, lying
immediately underneath them, a golden Cross of a mystic shape I knew
well,--its upper half set on the face of a seven-pointed Star, also of
gold. With joy I took it up and kissed it reverently, and as I compared
it with the one I always secretly wore on my own person, I knew that
all was well, and that I need have no distrust of Rafel Santoris. No
injurious effect on my mind could possibly be exerted by his
influence--and I was thrown back on myself for a clue to that singular
wave of feeling, so entirely contrary to my own disposition, which had
for a moment overwhelmed me. I could not trace its source, but I
speedily conquered it. Fastening one of the snowy lilies in my
waistband, as a contrast to the bright bit of bell-heather which I
cherished even more than if it were a jewel, I presently went up on
deck, where I found my host, Mr. Harland, Captain Derrick and Marino
Fazio all talking animatedly together.
"The mystery is cleared up,"--said Mr. Harland, addressing me as I
approached--"Captain Derrick is satisfied. He has learned how one of
the finest schooners he has ever seen can make full speed in any
weather without wind."
"Oh no, I haven't learned how to do it,--I'm a long way off
that!"--said Derrick, good-humouredly--"But I've seen how it's done.
And it's marvellous! If that invention could be applied to all ships--"
"Ah!--but first of all it would be necessary to instruct the
shipbuilders!"--put in Fazio--"They would have to learn their trade all
over again. Our yacht looks as though she were built on the same lines
as all yachts,--but you know--you have seen--she is entirely different!"
Captain Derrick gave a nod of grave emphasis. Santoris meantime had
come to my side. Our glances met,--he saw that I had received and
understood the message of the lilies, and a light and colour came into
his eyes that made them beautiful.
"Men have not yet fully enjoyed their heritage," he said, taking up the
conversation--"Our yacht's motive power seems complex, but in reality
it is very simple,--and the same force which propels this light vessel
would propel the biggest liner afloat. Nature has given us all the
materials for every kind of work and progress, physical and mental--but
because we do not at once comprehend them we deny their uses. Nothing
in the air, earth or water exists which we may not press into our
service,--and it is in the study of natural forces that we find our
conquest. What hundreds of years it took us to discover the wonders of
steam!--how the discoverer was mocked and laughed at!--yet it was not
really 'wonderful'--it was always there, waiting to be employed, and
wasted by mere lack of human effort. One can say the same of
electricity, sometimes called 'miraculous'--it is no miracle, but
perfectly common and natural, only we have, until now, failed to apply
it to our needs,--and even when wider disclosures of science are being
made to us every day, we still bar knowledge by obstinacy, and remain
in ignorance rather than learn. A few grains in weight of hydrogen have
power enough to raise a million tons to a height of more than three
hundred feet,--and if we could only find a way to liberate economically
and with discretion the various forces which Spirit and Matter contain,
we might change the whole occupation of man and make of him less a
labourer than thinker, less mortal than angel! The wildest fairy-tales
might come true, and earth be transformed into a paradise! And as for
motive power, in a thimbleful of concentrated fuel we might take the
largest ship across the widest ocean. I say if we could only find a
way! Some think they are finding it--"
"You, for example?"--suggested Mr. Harland.
He laughed.
"I--if you like!--for example! Will you come to luncheon?"
He led the way, and Mr. Harland and I followed. Captain Derrick, who I
saw was a little afraid of him, had arranged to take his luncheon with
Fazio and the other officers of the crew apart. We were waited upon by
dark-skinned men attired in the picturesque costume of the East, who
performed their duties with noiseless grace and swiftness. The yacht
had for some time slackened speed, and appeared to be merely floating
lazily on the surface of the calm water. We were told she could always
do this and make almost imperceptible headway, provided there was no
impending storm in the air. It seemed as if we were scarcely moving,
and the whole atmosphere surrounding us expressed the most delicious
tranquillity. The luncheon prepared for us was of the daintiest and
most elegant description, and Mr. Harland, who on account of his
ill-health seldom had any appetite, enjoyed it with a zest and
heartiness I had never seen him display before. He particularly
appreciated the wine, a rich, ruby-coloured beverage which was unlike
anything I had ever tasted.
"There is nothing remarkable about it,"--said Santoris, I when
questioned as to its origin--"It is simply REAL wine,--though you may
say that of itself is remarkable, there being none in the market. It is
the pure juice of the grape, prepared in such a manner as to nourish
the blood without inflaming it. It can do you no harm,--in fact, for
you, Harland, it is an excellent thing."
"Why for me in particular?" queried Harland, rather sharply.
"Because you need it,"--answered Santoris--"My dear fellow, you are not
in the best of health. And you will never get better under your present
treatment."