THE SEARCH
A year had elapsed since Waldo Emerson Smith-Jones had departed from
the Back Bay home of his aristocratic parents to seek in a long sea
voyage a cure for the hacking cough and hectic cheeks which had in
themselves proclaimed the almost incurable.
Two months later had come the first meager press notices of the narrow
escape of the steamer, upon which Waldo Emerson had been touring the
south seas, from utter destruction by a huge tidal wave. The dispatch
read:
The captain reports that the great wave swept entirely over the
steamer, momentarily submerging her. Two members of the crew, the
officer upon the bridge, and one passenger were washed away.
The latter was an American traveling for his health, Waldo E.
Smith-Jones, son of John Alden Smith-Jones of Boston.
The steamer came about, cruising back and forth for some time, but
as the wave had washed her perilously close to a dangerous shore,
it seemed unsafe to remain longer in the vicinity, for fear of
a recurrence of the tidal wave which would have meant the utter
annihilation of the vessel upon the nearby beach.
No sign of any of the poor unfortunates was seen.
Mrs. Smith-Jones is prostrated.
Immediately John Alden Smith-Jones had fitted out his yacht,
_Priscilla_, despatching her under Captain Burlinghame, a retired naval
officer, and an old friend of Mr. Smith-Jones, to the far distant coast
in search of the body of his son, which the captain of the steamer was
of the opinion might very possibly have been washed upon the beach.
And now Burlinghame was back to report the failure of his mission.
The two men were sitting in the John Alden Smith-Jones library. Mrs.
Smith-Jones was with them.
"We searched the beach diligently at the point opposite which the tidal
wave struck the steamer," Captain Burlinghame was saying. "For miles up
and down the coast we patrolled every inch of the sand.
"We found, at one spot upon the edge of the jungle and above the beach,
the body of one of the sailors. It was not and could not have been
Waldo's. The clothing was that of a seaman, the frame was much shorter
and stockier than your son's. There was no sign of any other body along
that entire coast.
"Thinking it possible one of the men might have been washed ashore
alive we sent parties into the interior. Here we found a wild and
savage country, and on two occasions met with fierce, white savages,
who hurled rocks at us and fled at the first report of our firearms.
"We continued our search all around the island, which is of
considerable extent. Upon the east coast I found this," and here the
captain handed Mr. Smith-Jones the bag of jewels which Nadara had
forgotten as she fled from Thandar.
Briefly he narrated what he knew of the history of the poor woman to
whom it had belonged.
"I recall the incident well," said Mrs. Smith-Jones, "I had the
pleasure of entertaining the count and countess when they stopped here
upon their honeymoon. They were lovely people, and to think that they
met so tragic an end!"
The three lapsed into silence. Burlinghame did not know whether he was
glad or sorry that he had not found the bones of Waldo Emerson--that
would have meant the end of hope for his parents. Perhaps much the same
thoughts were running through the minds of the others.
Somewhere in the nether regions of the great house an electric bell
sounded. Still the three sat on in silence. They heard the houseman
open the front door. They heard low voices, and presently there came a
deferential tap upon the door of the library.
Mr. Smith-Jones looked up and nodded. It was the houseman. He held a
letter in his hand.
"What is it Krutz?" asked the master in a tired voice. It seemed that
nothing ever again would interest him.
"A special delivery letter, sir," replied the servant. "The boy says
you must sign for it yourself, sir."
"Ah, yes," replied Mr. Smith-Jones, as he reached for the letter and
the receipt blank.
He glanced at the post mark--San Francisco.
Idly he cut the envelope.
"Pardon me?" He glanced first at his wife and then at Captain
Burlinghame.
The two nodded.
Mr. John Alden Smith-Jones opened the letter. There was a single
written sheet and an enclosure in another envelope. He had read but a
couple of lines when he came suddenly upright in his chair.
Captain Burlinghame and Mrs. Smith-Jones looked at him in polite and
surprised questioning.
"My God!" exclaimed Mr. Smith-Jones. "He is alive--Waldo is alive!"
Mrs. Smith-Jones and Captain Burlinghame sprang from their chairs and
ran toward the speaker.
With trembling hands that made it difficult to read the words that his
trembling voice could scarce utter John Alden Smith-Jones read aloud:
_On board the Sally Corwith,
San Francisco, California._
_Mr. John Alden Smith-Jones,
Boston, Mass._
_Dear Sir: Just reached port and hasten to forward letter your son
gave me for his mother. He wouldn't come with us. We found him on ----
----Island, Lat. 10° --" South, Long. 150° --" West. He seemed in
good health and able to look out for himself. Didn't want anything,
he said, except a razor, so we gave him that and one of the men gave
him a plug of chewing tobacco. Urged him to come, but he wouldn't. The
enclosed letter will doubtless tell you all about him._
_Yours truly,
Henry Dobbs, Master._
"Ten south, a hundred and fifty west," mused Captain Burlinghame.
"That's the same island we searched. Where could he have been!"
Mrs. Smith-Jones had opened the letter addressed to her, and was
reading it breathlessly.
_My dear Mother: I feel rather selfish in remaining and possibly
causing you further anxiety, but I have certain duties to perform to
several of the inhabitants which I feel obligated to fulfill before I
depart._
_My treatment here has been all that anyone might desire--even more, I
might say._
_The climate is delightful. My cough has left me, and I am entirely a
well man--more robust than I ever recall having been in the past._
_At present I am sojourning in the mountains, having but run down
to the sea shore today, where, happily, I chanced to find the Sally
Corwith in the harbor, and am taking advantage of Captain Dobbs'
kindness to forward this letter to you._
_Do not worry, dearest mother; my obligations will soon be fulfilled
and then I shall hasten to take the first steamer for Boston._
_I have met a number of interesting people here--the most interesting
people I have ever met. They quite overwhelm one with their
attentions._
_And now, as Captain Dobbs is anxious to be away, I will close, with
every assurance of my deepest love for you and father._
_Ever affectionately your son,
Waldo._
Mrs. Smith-Jones' eyes were dim with tears--tears of thanksgiving and
happiness.
"And to think," she exclaimed, "that after all he is alive and
well--quite well. His cough has left him--that is the best part of it,
and he is surrounded by interesting people--just what Waldo needed.
For some time I feared, before he sailed, that he was devoting himself
too closely to his studies and to the little coterie of our own set
which surrounded him. This experience will be broadening. Of course
these people may be slightly provincial, but it is evident that they
possess a certain culture and refinement--otherwise my Waldo would
never have described them as 'interesting.' The coarse, illiterate, or
vulgar could never prove 'interesting' to a Smith-Jones."
Captain Cecil Burlinghame nodded politely--he was thinking of the
naked, hairy man-brutes he had seen within the interior of the island.
"It is evident, Burlinghame," said Mr. Smith-Jones, "that you
overlooked a portion of this island. It would seem, from Waldo's
letter, that there must be a colony of civilized men and women
somewhere upon it. Of course it is possible that it may be further
inland than you penetrated."
Burlinghame shook his head.
"I am puzzled," he said. "We circled the entire coast, yet nowhere did
we see any evidence of a man-improved harbor, such as one might have
reason to expect were there really a colony of advanced humans in the
interior. There would have been at least a shack near the beach in one
of the several natural harbors which indent the coast line was there
even an occasional steamer touching for purposes of commerce with the
colonists.
"No, my friends," he continued, "as much as I should like to believe
it my judgment will not permit me to place any such translation upon
Waldo's letter.
"That he is safe and happy seems evident, and that is enough for us to
know. Now it should be a simple matter for us to find him--if it is
still your desire to send for him."
"He may already have left for Boston," said Mrs. Smith-Jones; "his
letter was written several months ago."
Again Burlinghame shook his head.
"Do not bank on that, my dear madam," he said kindly. "It may be fifty
years before another vessel touches that forgotten shore--unless it be
one which you yourselves send."
John Alden Smith-Jones sprang to his feet, and commenced pacing up and
down the library.
"How soon can the _Priscilla_ be put in shape to make the return voyage
to the island?" he asked.
"It _can_ be done in a week, if necessary," replied Burlinghame.
"And you will accompany her, in command?"
"Gladly."
"Good!" exclaimed Mr. Smith-Jones. "And now, my friend, let us lose no
time in starting our preparations. I intend accompanying you."
"And I shall go too," said Mrs. Smith-Jones.
The two men looked at her in surprise.
"But my dear!" cried her husband, "there is no telling what hardships
and dangers we may encounter--you could never stand such a trip."
"I am going," said Mrs. Smith-Jones, firmly. "I know my Waldo. I know
his refined and sensitive nature. I know that I am fully capable of
enduring whatever he may have endured. He tells me that he is among
interesting people. Evidently there is nothing to fear, then, from
the inhabitants of the island, and furthermore I wish personally to
meet the people he has been living with. I have always been careful
to surround Waldo with only the nicest people, and if any vulgarizing
influences have been brought to bear upon him since he has been beyond
my mature guidance I wish to know it, that I may determine how to
combat their results."
That was the end of it. If Mrs. Smith-Jones knew her son, Mr.
Smith-Jones certainly knew his wife.
A week later the _Priscilla_ sailed from Boston harbor on her long
journey around the Horn to the south seas.
Most of the old crew had been retained. The first and second officers
were new men. The former, William Stark, had come to Burlinghame well
recommended. From the first he seemed an intelligent and experienced
officer. That he was inclined to taciturnity but enhanced his value
in the eyes of Burlinghame. Stark was inclined to be something of a
martinet, so that the crew soon took to hating him cordially, but as
his display of this unpleasant trait was confined wholly to trivial
acts the men contented themselves with grumbling among themselves,
which is the prerogative and pleasure of every good sailorman. Their
loyalty to the splendid Burlinghame, however, was not to be shaken by
even a dozen Starks.
The monotonous and uneventful journey to the vicinity of ten south
and a hundred and fifty west was finally terminated. At last land
showed on the starboard bow. Excitement reigned supreme throughout the
trim, white _Priscilla_. Mrs. Smith-Jones peered anxiously and almost
constantly through her binoculars, momentarily expecting to see the
well-known thin and emaciated figure of her Waldo Emerson standing upon
the beach awaiting them.
For two weeks they sailed along the coast, stopping here and there for
a day while parties tramped inland in search of signs of civilized
habitation. They lay two days in the harbor where the _Sally Corwith_
had lain. There they pressed farther inland than at any other point,
but all without avail. It was Burlinghame's plan to first make a
cursory survey of the entire coast, with only short incursions toward
the center of the island. Should this fail to discover the missing
Waldo the party was then to go over the ground once more, remaining
weeks or months as might be required to thoroughly explore every foot
of the island.
It was during the pursuit of the initial portion of the program that
they dropped anchor in the self-same harbor upon whose waters Waldo
Emerson and Nadara had seen the _Priscilla_ lying, only to fly from her.
Burlinghame recalled it as the spot at which the bag of jewels had been
picked up. Next to the Sally Corwith harbor, as they had come to call
the other anchorage, this seemed most fraught with possibilities of
success. They christened it Eugenie Bay, after that poor, unfortunate
lady, Eugenie Marie Celeste de la Valois, Countess of Crecy, whose
jewels had been recovered upon its shore.
Burlinghame and Waldo's father with half a dozen officers and men of
the _Priscilla_ had spent the day searching the woods, the plain and
the hills for some slight sign of human habitation. Shortly after noon
First Officer Stark stumbled upon the whitened skeleton of a man. In
answer to his shouts the other members of the party hastened to his
side. They found the grim thing lying in a little barren spot among
the tall grasses. About it the liquids of decomposition had killed
vegetation leaving the thing alone in all its grisly repulsiveness as
though shocked, nature had withdrawn in terror.
Stark stood pointing toward it without a word as the others came up.
Burlinghame was the first to reach Stark's side. He bent low over
the bones examining the skull carefully. John Alden Smith-Jones came
panting up. Instantly he saw what Burlinghame was examining he turned
deathly white. Burlinghame looked up at him.
"It's not," he said. "Look at that skull--either a gorilla or some very
low type of man."
Mr. Smith-Jones breathed a sigh of relief.
"What an awful creature it must have been," he said, when he had fully
taken in the immense breadth of the squat skeleton. "It cannot be that
Waldo has survived in a wilderness peopled by such creatures as this.
Imagine him confronted by such a beast. Timid by nature and never
robust he would have perished of fright at the very sight of this thing
charging down upon him."
Captain Cecil Burlinghame acquiesced with a nod. He knew Waldo Emerson
well, and so he could not even imagine a meeting between the frail and
cowardly youth and such a beast as this bleaching frame must once have
supported. And at their feet the bones of Flatfoot lay mute witnesses
to the impossible.
Presently a shout from one of the sailors attracted their attention
toward the far side of the valley. The man was standing upon a rise of
ground waving his arms and gesticulating violently toward the lofty
cliffs which rose sheer from the rank jungle grasses. All eyes turned
in the direction indicated by the excited sailor. At first they saw
nothing, but presently a figure came in sight upon a little elevation.
It was the figure of a human being, and even at the distance they were
from it all were assured that it was the figure of a female. She was
running toward the cliffs with the speed of a deer. And now behind her,
came another figure. Thick set and squat was the thing that pursued the
woman. It might have been the reanimated skeleton that they had just
discovered.
Would the creature catch her before she reached the cliff? Would she
find sanctuary even there? Already Burlinghame and Stark had started
toward the cliff on a run. John Alden Smith-Jones followed more slowly.
The men raced after their officers.
The girl had reached the rocks and was scampering up their precipitous
face like a squirrel. Close behind her came the man. They saw the girl
reach a ledge just below the mouth of a cave in which she evidently
expected to find safety. They saw her clambering up the rickety sapling
that answered for a ladder. They breathed sighs of relief, for it
seemed that she was now quite safe--the man was still one ledge below
her.
But in another moment the watchers were filled with horror. The brute
pursuing her had reached forth a giant hand and seized the base of the
sapling. He was dragging it over the edge of the cliff. In another
moment the girl would be precipitated either into his arms or to a
horrible death upon the jagged rocks beneath her.
Burlinghame and Stark halted simultaneously. At once two rifles leaped
to their shoulders. There were two reports, so close together that they
seemed as one.