Twixt Land & Sea_ Tales

, I saw the brig lying at anchor in all her usual symmetry and splendour of aspect as thoug

al berth close in front of the town. Before we had finished breakfast a q

had called at the Seven Isles group on my way. I reached into my pocket for a nicely folded little note, which he grabbed out of my hand without ceremony and carried off on the bridge

head at me

he said, "I shall be

to give up Freya peaceably to this compromising Jasper. Heavens! What would the Dutch authorities say to such a match! It sounds too ridiculous for words. But there's nothing in the world more selfishly hard than

have the sanity of feminine outlook and the frankness of feminine reasoning. And for the rest, Miss Freya could read "poor dear papa" in the way a woman reads a man-like an open book. His daughter once gone, old Nelson would not worry himself. He would raise a great outcry, and make no end of lament

ed to walk on a ship's deck. She was a ship-child, a sea-girl if ever there was one. And of course she loved Jasper and trusted him; but there was a shade of anxiety in her pride. It is very f

he had me who, being a tried confidant, took the liberty to whisper frequently "The sooner the better." But there was a peculiar vein of obstinacy in Miss Freya, and her reas

d, and there was an end of it for him. I believe that he was subtle enough to be even flattered at bottom-at times. And then to console him he h

," he repeated. "Eleven months more. I'

t up the dark nights of uncharted seas, and the image of Freya serve for an unerring beacon amongst hidden shoals; as if the winds had to wait on his future, the stars fight for it in their courses; as if the magic of his passion had

hed laughing at my innocent enough rema

had not gone at daylight only b

ave practically no clothes to my back. I have had to sell all my wardrobe to get a little food from day to day.' What a voice that man has got. Talk about moving stones! But people seem to get used to it. I had never seen him before, and, upon my word, I felt suddenly tears rising to my eyes. Luckily it was dusk. He was sitting very quiet under a tree in a native compound as thin as a lath, and when I peered down at hi

that I took especial pleasure in exag

schooner. Robinson's story is too ingenious altogether. That other tale of the engineers of the Nan-Shan finding Schultz at midnight in the engine-room busy hammering at the brass bearings to carry them off for sale on shore seems to me more authentic. Apart from this little weakness, let me tell you that Schultz is a smarter sailor than many who never took a drop of drink in their lives, and perhaps no worse morally than

per's incredu

"What on earth for? Aren't you

drops his money all over the place, or else distributes the lot around; gives it to any one who will take it. Then it occurs to him that the night is young yet, and that he may require a good many more drinks for himself and his friends before morning. So he starts off cheerfully for his ship. His legs never get affected nor his

But a man with a voice like his is fit to tal

yet, but no one would employ him any longer. His end

't trading to any ports of civilisation. That

wning headlands, stole out, silent like a ghost, from behind points of land stretching out all black in the moonlight; or lay hove-to, like a sleeping sea-bird, under the shadow of some nameless mountain waiting for a signal. She would be glimpsed suddenly on misty, squally days dashing disdainfully aside the short aggressive waves of the Java Sea; or be seen far, far away, a tiny dazzling white spec

r, still in the matter of the hopeless Sc

. Quite worth having-onl

Jasper, with a laugh. "There will be no temptations e

at point. In fact, intimate as we were, I had a pre

gig he asked suddenly: "By the way

ut as a trader. I told him that I had heard in Palembang that the Neptun was on duty

y this year a Celebes trader becalmed in a prau was watching him at it. He steamed the gunboat full tilt at two of them, one after another, smashing them to pieces, and then lowered a

bserved casually, yet disliking that piec

of his ugly head. My dear fellow, when I think of Freya's twenty-first birthday, all the

to attend to. I would have been very much cut up had I known that this hurried grasp

At Nelson's Cove I missed him again by only a couple of days. Freya and I talked of "that lunatic" and "perfect idiot" with great delight and infinite appr

on as you can, Miss

a little heightened and with a sort of solemn a

ery ne

this hint of deep feeling. It was as if she had grown impatient at last of th

mind when I know you have taken charge of that lunatic. Don't you

ilent for a time, we let our eyes wander over the waters below, looking mysteriously still in the twilight, as if trustfully

d a vision of old Nelson under the brig's snowy awnings, nursing his unassuming vexation, and fanning himself with his hat. A comedy father. . . . As a new instance of Jasper's lunacy, I was told that he was distressed at his inability to have solid silver handles fitted to all the cabin doors. "As if I would have let him!" commented Miss Freya, with amuse

essed something like distress, while she bit her lip as if to contain an explosion of laughter. Oh! Yes. Heemskirk was at the

ust have been to you

d merriment, and suddenly she exploded int

? Ha, ha, ha!" And the ludicrousness of old Nelson's inanely fierce round eyes in association wi

, ha, ha!-amongst you three . . . like

own room, and slammed the door behind her, leaving

d old Nelson's voice, h

But I didn't want to laugh any more. And what on earth, I asked myself, have

girl's overwrought, I thought. An

er I wouldn't undertake to hint to Jasper that he was not wanted at the Seven Isles group. I declared that it was not necessary. From certai

le. The lieutenant had frightened old Nelson very much by expressing a sinister wonder at the Government permitting a white man to settle down in that part at all. "It is against our de

ght to have learned Dutch long before. I had been making my living in Dutch dependencies. It was di

lsen) was really hospitable. He didn't mind that; and I only regretted that this virtue should be lavished on the lieutenant-commander of the Neptun. I longed to tell him that in all probability he would be re

sense. The lieutenant was turning up persistently in old Nelson's conversation at dinner. At last I

erhaps it was that which made him so snappish, hey, Freya? He looked very

ntly. "And do leave off worrying about him, papa. Very l

er all, sincere, courageous, and self-reliant as she was, she must have felt both the passion and the compunction of her resolve. The very strength of love which had carried her up to that point must have put her under a great moral strain, in whi

xchanged only languid phrases on things without importance, as though we had been emotionally jaded by our long day's talk on the only momentous subject. And yet

th about the house. I had observed her at times from a distance, as she sat within call under the shade of some fruit trees, brushing and plaiting her long raven locks. It seemed to be the principal occupation of her leisure hours. We had often exchanged nods and smiles-and a few words, too. She was a pretty creature. And once I had watched her approvingly make funny and expressive grimaces behind Heemskirk's back.

shadowy and bashful. I advanced another

t?" I aske

I am here,"

n see us," I w

forty feet above our head, from the yet lighted verandah, unexpect

ton

by rustled; then silence. I waited wondering. The lights on the verandah went out. I w

t at a moment's notice and go home at once. I had a desperate scramble to catch the mailboat which was due to leave next day, but I found time to write two short notes, one to Freya, the other to Jasper. Later on I w

nd marriage, a transaction which had failed to

d, with secret annoyance. "May I ask wh

er hear from him or not," retorted the l

f friend, after all; enough of a friend to find for his silence the excuse of forgetfulness natural to a state of transcendental bliss? I waited in