CHAPTER I_The House Under the Sea: A Romance

E-text prepared by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this

file which includes the original illustrations.

See 29462-h.htm or 29462-h.zip:

(https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/29462/pg29462-images.html)

(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29462/29462-h.zip)

THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA

A ROMANCE

MAX PEMBERTON

Author of Kronstadt, The Phantom Army, Etc.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1902

Published September, 1902

[Illustration: "Shall we go, or stay?"]

CONTENTS

I.--IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES KNOWN THE PURPOSE OF HIS VOYAGE TO THE

PACIFIC OCEAN, AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT HE COMMISSIONED THE

STEAM-SHIP SOUTHERN CROSS THROUGH PHILIPS, WESTBURY, AND CO.

II.--WE GO ASHORE AND LEARN STRANGE THINGS

III.--IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES UP HIS MIND WHAT TO DO

IV.--WE GO ABOARD, BUT RETURN AGAIN

V.--STRANGE SIGHTS ASHORE, AND WHAT WE SAW OF THEM

VI.--JASPER BEGG MEETS HIS OLD MISTRESS, AND IS WATCHED

VII.--IN WHICH HELP COMES FROM THE LAST QUARTER WE HAD EXPECTED IT

VIII.--THE BIRD'S NEST IN THE HILLS

IX.--WE LOOK OUT FOR THE SOUTHERN CROSS

X.--WE ARE SURELY CAGED ON KEN'S ISLAND

XI.--LIGHTS UNDER THE SEA

XII.--THE DANCING MADNESS

XIII.--THE STORM

XIV.--A WHITE POOL--AND AFTERWARDS

XV.--AN INTERLUDE, DURING WHICH WE READ IN RUTH BELLENDEN'S DIARY AGAIN

XVI.--ROSAMUNDA AND THE IRON DOORS

XVII.--IN WHICH JASPER BEGG ENTERS THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA

XVIII.--CHANCE OPENS A GATE FOR JASPER BEGG, AND HE PASSES THROUGH

XIX.--WHICH SHOWS THAT A MAN WHO THINKS OF BIG THINGS SOMETIMES FORGETS

THE LITTLE ONES

XX.--THE FIRST ATTACK IS MADE BY CZERNY'S MEN

XXI.--WHICH BRINGS IN THE DAY AND WHAT BEFELL THEREIN

XXII.--THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTY HOURS

XXIII.--THE END OF THE SIXTY HOURS

XXIV.--THE SECOND ATTACK ON CZERNY'S HOUSE

XXV.--IN WHICH THE SUN-TIME COMES AGAIN

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"Shall we go or stay?"

Like dancers at a stage play.

A picturesque old figure standing there.

She looked at me with her big, questioning eyes.

We were all sitting at the supper table.

The drawing-room is a cave whose walls are of jewels.

"If there is a sound at the door, fire that gun."

Another man fell with a loud cry.

THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA

CHAPTER I

IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES KNOWN THE PURPOSE OF HIS VOYAGE TO THE

PACIFIC OCEAN, AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT HE COMMISSIONED THE

STEAM-SHIP SOUTHERN CROSS THROUGH PHILIPS, WESTBURY, AND CO.

Many gentlemen have asked me to write the story of Ken's Island, and in

so far as my ability goes, that I will now do. A plain seaman by

profession, one who has had no more education than a Kentish grammar

school can give him, I, Jasper Begg, find it very hard to bring to

other people's eyes the wonderful things I have seen or to make all

this great matter clear as it should be clear for a right

understanding. But what I know of it, I will here set down; and I do

not doubt that the newspapers and the writers will do the rest.

Now, it was upon the third day of May in the year 1899, at four bells

in the first dog watch, that Harry Doe, our boatswain, first sighted

land upon our port-bow, and so made known to me that our voyage was

done. We were fifty-three days out from Southampton then; and for

fifty-three days not a man among the crew of the Southern Cross had

known our proper destination, or why his skipper, Jasper Begg, had

shipped him to sail for the Pacific Ocean. A pleasure voyage, the

papers said; and some remembered that I had been in and out of private

yachts ever since I ran away from school and booked with Skipper Higg,

who sailed Lord Kanton's schooner from the Solent; but others asked

themselves what pleasure took a yacht's skipper beyond the Suez, and

how it came about that a poor man like Jasper Begg found the money to

commission a 500-ton tramp through Philips, Westbury, and Co., and to

deal liberally with any shipmate who had a fancy for the trip. These

questions I meant to answer in my own time. A hint here and there of a

lady in whose interest the voyage was undertaken kept the crew quiet,

if it did not please its curiosity. Mister Jacob, my first officer, and

Peter Bligh (who came to me because he said I was the only man who kept

him away from the drink) guessed something if they knew little. They

had both served under me in Ruth Bellenden's yacht; neither had

forgotten that Ruth Bellenden's husband sailed eastward for the wedding

trip. If they put their heads together and said that Ruth Bellenden's

affairs and the steam-ship Southern Cross were not to be far apart at

the end of it, I don't blame them. It was my business to hold my tongue

until the land was sighted, and so much I did for Ruth Bellenden's

sake.

Well, it was the third day of May, at four bells in the first dog

watch, when Harry Doe, the boatswain, sighted land on the port-bow, and

came abaft with the other hands to hear what I had got to say to him.

Mr. Jacob was in his bunk then, he being about to take the first watch,

and Peter Bligh, who walked the bridge, had rung down for half-speed by

the time I came out with my glass for the first view of the distant

island. We were then, I must tell you at a rough reckoning, in

longitude 150 east of Greenwich, by about 30 north; and my first

thought was that we might have sighted the Ganges group, as many a ship

sailing from 'Frisco to Japan; but when I had looked at the land a

little while, and especially at a low spur of rocks to the northward, I

knew that this was truly the Ken Archipelago, and that our voyage was

done.

"Lads," I said, "yonder is your port. Good weather and good luck, and

we'll put about for home before three days have passed."

Now, they set up a great cheer at this; and Peter Bligh, whose years go

to fat, wiped his brow like a man who has got rid of a great load and

is very pleased to have done with it.

"Thank you for that," said he. "I hope I do my duty in all weathers,

Mr. Begg, but this sunshine do wear a man sadly. Will you stop her,

sir, or shall we go dead slow?"

"Dead slow, if you please, Mister Pugh," said I; "the chart gives two

thousand fathoms about the reef. We should have water enough, and water

is a good thing, as I believe you know."

"When there's nothing else, I can manage to make shift with it--and

feel a better man, sir," he added, as an after-thought. But I was

already busy with my glass and that was not the hour for light talk.

Yonder upon the port-bow a group of islands shaped on our horizon as

shadows upon a glassy sea. I could espy a considerable cliff-land

rising to the southward, and north of that the rocky spur of which I

have made mention. The sun was setting behind us in a sky of orange and

crimson, and it was wonderful to see the playful lights now giving

veins of gold to the dark mass of the higher rocks, or washing over the

shadows as a running water of flame. I have seen many beautiful sights

upon the sea, in storm or tempest, God's weather or the devil's; but I

shall never forget that sunset which brought me to Ken's Island on as

strange an errand as ever commissioned a ship. The deep blue of the

sky, the vastness of the horizon, the setting sun, the island's shaping

out of the deep: these, and the curiosity which kept the glass ever at

my eye, made an hour which a man might fear to tell of. True, I have

sighted many a strange land in my time and have put up my glass for

many an unknown shore; but yonder lay the home of Ruth Bellenden, and

to-morrow's sun would tell me how it fared with her. I had sailed from

England to learn as much.

Now, Mr. Jacob, the first officer, had come up to the bridge while I

was searching the shore for an anchorage, and he, who always was a

prudent man, spoke up at once for laying to and leaving our business,

whatever it was, until the morning.

"You'll lose the light in ten minutes, and yon's a port I do not like

the look of," said he. "Better go about, sir. Reefs don't get out of

the way, even for a lady."

"Mister Jacob," said I, for, little man that he was, he had a big wit

in his own way, "the lady would be very glad to get out of the way of

the reef, I'm thinking. However, that's for the morning. Here's Peter

Bligh as pleased as any school-boy at the sight of land. Tell him that

he isn't going ashore to-night, and he'll thank you nicely. Eh, Peter,

are you, too, of Jacob's mind? Is it sea or shore, a glass in my cabin

or what the natives will sell you in the log-cabins over yonder?" Peter

Bligh shut up his glass with a snap.

"I know the liquor, Mr. Begg," said he; "as the night is good to me,

I'm of Mister Jacob's way of thinking. A sound bed and a clear head,

and a fair wind for the morning--you'll see little of any woman, black

or white, on yonder rock to-night."

Jacob--his little eyes twinkling, as they always did at his own

jokes--muttered the old proverb about choosing a wife by candle-light;

but before any one could hear him a beacon shone out across the sea

from some reef behind the main island I had noticed, and all eyes were

turned anxiously to that. It was a queer place, truly, to set up a

light, and I don't wonder that the men remarked it.

"An odd kind of a lantern to help poor mariners," said Mister Jacob,

sagely. "Being kind to it, sir, I should say that it's not more than a

mile too much to the northward."

"Lay your course by that, and a miracle won't carry you by the reef,"

added Peter Bligh, sagaciously; "in my country, which is partly

Ireland, sir, we put up notice-boards for the boys that ride bicycles:

'This Hill is Dangerous.' Faith, in ould Oireland, they put 'em up at

the bottom of the hills, which is useful entirely."

Some of the crew, grouped about the ladder's foot, laughed at this;

others began to mutter among themselves as though the beacon troubled

them, and they did not like it. A seaman's the most superstitious

creature that walks the earth or sails on the sea, as all the world

knows. I could see the curiosity, which had followed my men from

Southampton, was coming to a head here about twelve thousand miles from

home.

"Lads," cried I, quick to take the point up, "Mister Bligh says that an

Irishman built yon light, and he knows, being a bit of a one himself.

We're not going in by it, anyway, so you can ask questions to-morrow.

There's a hundred pounds to be divided among you for your good

behaviour outward, and there'll be another hundred when we make Calshot

Light. To-night we'll find good sea-room, and leave their beacon to the

lumber-heads that put it up. I thank you, lads, for honest work in an

honest ship. Ask the purser for an extra tot of grog, and say the

skipper told you to."

They gave a hearty "Aye, aye, sir," to this, and without more ado we

put the ship about and went dead slow against a stiff tide setting east

by north-east. For my part, I reckoned this the time to tell my

officers what my intentions were, and when I had called them into the

cabin, leaving our "fourth"--a mere lad, but a good one--upon the

bridge, I ordered Joe, the steward, to set the decanters upon the

table. Mister Jacob, as usual, put on his glasses (which he always did

in room or cabin, just as though he would read a book), but Peter Bligh

sat with his cap between his knees and as foolish an expression upon

his face as I have ever seen.

"Now, gentlemen," I said, "no good talking in this world was ever done

upon a dusty table, so we'll have a glass round and then to business.

Mr. Bligh, I'm sure, will make no objection to that."

"Faith, and I know when to obey my superior officer, captain. A glass

round, and after that----"

"Peter, Peter," said I, "'tis the 'after that' which sends many a good

hulk to the bottom."

"Not meaning to apply the term to Peter Bligh, but by way of what the

landsmen call 'silime,'" said Mister Jacob.

"'Simile' you mean, Mister Jacob. Well, it's all the same, and neither

here nor there in the matter of a letter. The fact is, gentlemen, I

wish you to know why I have sailed this ship to Ken's Archipelago, and

under what circumstances I shall sail her home again."

They pricked up their ears at this, Peter turning his cap nervously in

his hands and Mister Jacob being busy with his glasses as he loves to

be.

"Yes," I went on, "you have behaved like true shipmates and spoken

never a word which a man might not fairly speak. And now it's my duty

to be open with you. Well, to cut it short, my lads, I've sailed to the

Pacific because my mistress, Ruth Bellenden, asked me."

They had known as much, I imagine, from the start; but while Mister

Jacob pretended to be very much surprised, honest Peter raised his

glass and drank to Mistress Ruth's good health.

"God bless her," he said, "and may the day come when I ship along

o' such a one again. Aye, you would have come out for her sake,

captain--no other, I'm sure!"

"She being Ruth Bellenden no longer, but the wife of a gentleman with a

name none but a foreigner can spell," added Mister Jacob; and then he

went on: "Well, you surprise me very much, captain--very much indeed.

Matrimony is a choppy sea and queer things swim in it. But this--this I

had not looked to hear."

I knew that this was only Mister Jacob's way, and continued my story.

"It was a promise to her upon her wedding day. Ten thousand pounds she

left with her lawyers for this very purpose. 'My husband has strange

ideas; I may not share them,' were her words to me. 'If his yacht

should not be at the islands when I wish to visit Europe again, I

should like you to find me a vessel in its place. I trust you, Jasper

Begg,' she said; 'you will sail for Ken's Archipelago twelve months

from today, and you will come to my house there, as you used to do in

the old time, for orders. Perhaps I shall send you home again, perhaps

I may like to have a yacht of my own once more. Who knows? I am quite

alone in the world,' she said, laughing, 'though my brother is alive.

And the Pacific Ocean is a long way from London--oh, such a long way,'

she said, or something of that sort."

"Aye, and right, too. A derned long way she meant, I don't doubt, if

what was in her mind came out," puts in Peter at this.

"Mr. Bligh," said I, "be pleased to hold your tongue until your opinion

is asked. What I am telling you is a confidence which you two, and no

others, share with me. To-morrow, as soon as daylight, I shall row

ashore and ask to see Mme. Czerny, as I suppose I must call little Ruth

now. If she says, 'Go home again,' very well, home we go with good

wages in our pockets. If she says 'Stay,' there's not a man on board

this ship that will not stay willingly--she being married to a

foreigner, which all the world knows is not the same as being married

to an Englishman----"

"To say nothing of an Irishman," said Peter Bligh, whose mother was

from Dublin and whose father was named sometimes for a man of

Rotherhithe and at other times put down to any country which it suited

Peter to boast about.

"Edmond Czerny was a Hungarian," said I, "and he played the fiddle

wonderful. What mad idea took him for a honeymoon to Ken's Island, the

Lord only knows. They say he was many years in America. I know nothing

about him, save that he had a civil tongue and manners to catch a young

girl's fancy. She was only twenty-two when she married him, Mister

Jacob."

"Old enough to know better--quite old enough to know better. Not that I

would say anything against Ruth Bellenden, not a word. It's the woman's

part to play the capers, sir, and we poor mortal men to be took by

them. Howsomever, since there was a fiddle in it, I've nothing more to

say."

We laughed at Mister Jacob's notion, and Peter Bligh said what it was

in my heart to say:

"Saving that if Ruth Bellenden needs a friend, she'll find twenty-six

aboard this ship, to say nothing of the cook's boy and the dog. You've

a nice mind, Mister Jacob, but you've a deal to larn when it comes to

women. My poor old father, who hailed from Shoreham----"

"It was Newport yesterday, Peter."

"Aye, so it were--so it were. But, Newport or Shoreham, he'd a precious

good notion of the sex, and what he said I'll stand by. 'Get 'em on

their feet to the music,' says he, 'and you can lead 'em anywheres.'

'Tis Gospel truth that, Mister Jacob."

"But a man had better mind his steps," said I. "For my part, I

shouldn't be surprised if Ruth Bellenden's husband gave us the cold

shoulder to-morrow and sent us about our business. However, the sea's

free to all men, lads, and the morn will show. By your leave we'll have

a bit of supper and after that turn in. We shall want all our wits

about us when daylight comes." They agreed to this, and without further

parley we went on deck and heard what the lad "Dolly" Venn had to tell

us. It was full dark now and the islands were hidden from our view. The

beacon shone with a steady white glare which, under the circumstances,

was almost uncanny. I asked the lad if he had sighted any ships in

towards the land or if signals had been made. He answered me that no

ship had passed in or out nor any rocket been fired. "And I do believe,

sir," he said, "that we shall find the harbour on the far sight of

yonder height."

"The morning will show us, lad," said I; "go down to your supper, for I

mean to take this watch myself." They left me on the bridge. The wind

had fallen until it was scarce above a moan in the shrouds. I stood

watching the beacon as a man who watches the window light of one who

has been dear to him.