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THE
ISLAND MYSTERY
BY
G. A. BIRMINGHAM
_Author of "Gossamer," "General John Regan,"
"Spanish Gold," etc._
NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
_Copyright, 1918,
By George H. Doran Company_
_Copyright, 1918,
By The Frank A. Munsey Company_
_Printed in the United States of America_
BY G. A. BIRMINGHAM
THE ISLAND MYSTERY
GOSSAMER
MINNIE'S BISHOP AND OTHER STORIES
GENERAL JOHN REGAN
THE LOST TRIBES
SPANISH GOLD
LALAGE'S LOVERS
THE SEARCH PARTY
THE SIMPKINS PLOT
THE MAJOR'S NIECE
PRISCILLA'S SPIES
THE RED HAND OF ULSTER
THE ADVENTURES OF DR. WHITTY
THE SEETHING POT
THE BAD TIMES
HYACINTH
FROM DUBLIN TO CHICAGO
NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
TO
THEODOSIA
WHOSE DISLIKE OF SUBTLE BOOKS
AND "BRAINY" PEOPLE I SHARE
THE ISLAND MYSTERY
CHAPTER I
In 1914 there were not twenty men in England who had ever heard of the
island of Salissa. Even now--I am writing in the spring of 1917--the
public is very badly informed about the events which gave the island a
certain importance in the history of the war. A couple of months ago I
asked a well-known press-cutting agency to supply me with a complete
collection of all references to Salissa which had appeared in our
newspapers. I received a single short paragraph from a second-rate
society weekly. It ran thus:
"Is it true that our new Minister for Balkan Problems has a curious
story to tell about a certain island in the Mediterranean, and is
there a lady in the case?"
The Minister referred to is, of course, Sir Bartholomew
Bland-Potterton. The island must be Salissa. It is a clear proof, if
proof is required, of the efficiency of our press censorship that this
should be the only reference to the island in any newspaper in the
course of three years. We have blundered a good deal during the war;
but it cannot be said of us that we have allowed our press to supply
the enemy or any one else with information likely to be of value.
Such knowledge as the public now possesses has come to it, not through
newspapers, but by way of gossip. Sir Bartholomew sometimes talks, and
the words of a man in his position are repeated in the smoking-rooms
of clubs, round tea tables and elsewhere. Unfortunately gossip of this
kind is most unreliable. The tendency is to exaggerate the picturesque
parts of the story and to misinterpret motives. It is slanderous, for
instance, to suggest that Sir Bartholomew was in any way attracted by
the lady who bore the title of Queen of Salissa. He never spoke to her
or even saw her. His interest in the Salissa affair was that of a
patriotic statesman. He told me this himself, yesterday after dinner.
It was Sir Bartholomew who drew my attention to the exhaustive
monograph on the Island of Salissa written by Professor Homer Geldes,
of Pearmount University, Pa., U.S.A. The book was published ten years
ago, but has never been widely read. I am indebted to the professor
for the following information.
Salissa is derived by Professor Geldes from a Greek word Psalis, which
means an arched viaduct. It is a doubtful piece of etymology, but if
it were reliable the name seems appropriate enough. The island,
according to the maps published in the book, appears to be a kind of
roof supported by the walls of caverns. It is possible that the
professor has exaggerated this peculiarity. He was naturally anxious
to make good his derivation of the name. But there are certainly many
caves under the fields and vineyards of Salissa. There is one
excellent natural harbour, a bay, about a mile wide, in the south
coast of the island. It is protected from heavy seas by a reef of
rock, a natural breakwater, which stretches across and almost blocks
the entrance of the bay.
In the chapter on Ethnography I find that the people are of a mixed
race. A Salissan, I gather, might boast with equal truth of being a
Greek, a Turk, a Slav, or an Italian. His skull is dolichocephalic.
His facial angle--but it is better for any one interested in these
points to read Professor Geldes' book for himself. No regular census
has ever been made on the island; but in 1907 there were forty-three
inhabitants. The number has probably increased since then.
The principal industries are set down, rather grandiloquently, as
agriculture and fishing. A small quantity of poor wine is made by the
inhabitants for their own use. The religion of these islanders, like
their race, is mixed. It seems to consist of some vague pagan beliefs
and the observance of a few Christian ceremonies. The people are
not in any way bigoted. Their priesthood--if it can be called a
priesthood--is patriarchal. There are no taxes, no police, no courts
of justice, no regular laws, indeed no government, though the island
is, or was, part of the Kingdom of Megalia.
My friend Gorman, who spent some time there, says that Salissa was a
delightful place to live on until the Great Powers discovered its
existence. But I do not quote Gorman as a reliable authority on a
question of this kind. He is an Irishman, Member of Parliament for
Upper Offaly, and therefore naturally at home on an island with no
government. There are people who prefer to live under settled
conditions, who like paying taxes, who appreciate policemen. It is not
likely that they would have been happy on Salissa three years ago.
They would certainly not like to live there now.
It is scarcely necessary to add--any one who possesses an atlas can
find this out for himself--that Salissa lies 47 miles (nautical)
south-east of the nearest point of the Megalian coast, and thus
occupies a position of supreme strategic importance. Sir Bartholomew
kindly allows me to quote him on this subject. I took down the words
he used and read them over to him afterwards.
"The Power," he said, "which controls the Near East controls the
world. The Power which dominates the Cyrenian Sea holds the Near East
in its grasp. The Island of Salissa is the keystone of the Cyrenian
Sea. The German dream of world power depends, at the last analysis, on
the use of the Island of Salissa as a submarine base."
This reads like a quotation from a political speech. It is nothing of
the sort. Sir Bartholomew always talks in that way. He made this
statement to me yesterday evening after dinner, when I told him that I
had undertaken to write the story of recent events in the island. The
pronouncement, coming from a man like Sir Bartholomew, admittedly the
greatest living authority on all Near Eastern questions, justifies the
writing of this book.
Whether I am the man to attempt the work is another question. Gorman,
Michael Gorman, M.P., would no doubt do it better. Though he has no
financial interests in the island, he was mixed up in its affairs and
knows a great deal about them. But Gorman will not do it. He says,
perhaps truly, that there is no money in histories of recent events.
William Peter Donovan paid heavily for his knowledge of Salissa and is
certainly entitled to such credit as may be won by writing a history
of the recent troubles. But Donovan has devoted his later years to the
cult of indolence, and he suffers from disordered action of the heart.
Miss Daisy Donovan--I prefer to use her original name--might have
given us a picturesque account of the events in which she played the
leading part. But she is now very fully occupied with more personal
affairs. Lieutenant-Commander Phillips, R.N.R., is barred by
professional regulations from writing the story, and in any case he
had no direct knowledge of the beginning of it. King Konrad Karl II of
Megalia knows most of the facts, but it is doubtful whether the
British public would tolerate a book from the pen of a man who is
legally an alien enemy.
I have, at all events, leisure to devote to the work, and I have heard
the story from the lips of those chiefly concerned. They have allowed
me to question them on various points, and placed all, or almost all,
they knew at my disposal.