Twixt Land & Sea_ Tales

for excitement. The "front," with its special population, was soon aware that something had happened. A steamer towing a sailing vessel had been observed far out to sea for some time, and

d their penetration, for who could associate a girl nine hundred miles away with the stranding of a ship on Tamissa reef, or look for the remote filiation of that event

rumour spread quickly. Chinese shopkeepers came to their doors, more than one white merchant, even, rose from his desk to go to the window. After all, a ship on Tamissa was not an everyday occu

masts. It's a brig. Didn't think that man would ever let himself be caught. Heemskirk's pretty smart, too. They say s

sman Brothers' office on the "front,"

rifles are not on board. What impudence! Only, he didn't know that there was one of our warships on the coast. But those Englishmen are so impudent that perhaps he thought that nothing would be done to him for it. Our courts do let off these fellows too often, on some miserable excuse or other. But, at any rate, there's

sper and the Bonito. He rose from his arm-chair suddenly. His face was visibly troubled. It had so happened that once, from a business talk of ways and means, island trade, money matters, and so on, Jasper had been

. And so she has grown into such a fine girl, so very determined, so very-" And he laughed almost boisterously. "Mind, when you have happily eloped w

ht trouble to his face at the first n

you going,

llen. I think he must be

And Mr. Mesman went out on t

shed in, startling Gomez, the hotel clerk, very much. But a Chinaman beginning to make an unseemly noise at the door claimed the immediate attention of Gomez. His grievance was that the white man whom he had brought on shore from the gunboat had not paid him his boat-fare. He had pursued him so far, asking for it all the way. But the white man had taken no notice whatever of his just

mez noted the somewhat soiled state of his white clothes, then took one look at

tips of his fingers on the little table. There were on that verandah two men whom he knew well personally, but his gaze roaming incessantly as though he were looking for a way of escape, passed and repassed over them without a sign of recognition.

Steady, steady." A China boy appeared before him with a glass on a tray. He poured the drink down his throat, and rushed out. His disappearance removed the spell of wonder from the beholders. One of the men jumped up and moved quickly to

ight enough! But

ds Freya would have to use. It was an annihilating question; it struck his consciousness like a thunderbolt and brought a sudden night upon

d that the doctor was right. In three days, Jasper Allen came out of the hospital and became visible to the town-very visible indeed-and remained so for quite a long time; long enough t

he famous Bonito case, and give a view of its two aspects-the practical and the psychological.

etter described to me the two aspects and some of the episodes of the case. Heemskirk's attitude was that of deep thankfulness for not having lost his own ship, and that was all. Haze over the land was his explanation of having got so close to Tamissa reef.

l he found in the fore-cabin was an empty rack for the proper number of eighteen rifles, but of the rifles themselves never a single one anywhere in the ship. The mate of the brig, who looked rather ill and behaved excitedly, as though he were perhaps a lunatic, wanted him to believe that Captain Allen knew nothing of this; that it was he, the mate, who had recen

eported at once to hi

isses and embraces to the earth. The question was: How could he do it without giving himself away? But the report of the gunner created a serious case enough. Yet Allen had friends-and who could tell whether he wouldn't somehow succeed in wriggli

nister roll of his eyes, such a queerly pursed mouth, that Jasper could not

en you hear of Lieutenant Heemskirk in the future that name won't br

poses of a dark passion. The most astute scheming could not have served Heemskirk better. It was given to him to taste a transcendental, an incredible p

g would ever give him back the brig, just as nothing can heal a pierced heart. His soul, kept quiet in the stress of love by the unflinching Freya's influence, was like a still but overwound string. The shock had started it vibrating, and the strin

art of the reef on which his brig lay stranded, look steadily across the water at her beloved form, once the home of an e

strated pending proceedings; but these same authorities did not take the trouble to set a guard on board. For, indeed, what could move her from there? Nothing, un

erate pertinacity that it was he alone who had sold the rifles. "I stole them," he protested. Of course, no one would believe him. My friend himself did not believe him, though he, of course, admire

was how a perfidious destiny took advantage of a generous impulse! And I felt as though I were an acco

some gin one evening, and then jeered at him for never having any money. Then he, protesting to us that he was an honest man and must be believed, described himself as being a thief whenever he took

he sacrifice of his life. He said nothing to Jasper, hoping that the brig would be released presently. When it turned out otherwise and his captain was detained on board the gunboat, he was ready to commit suicide from despair; only he thought it his duty to live in order to let the truth

where could one hope to find proofs of such a tale?-he made as if to tear his hair in handfuls, but, calming down, said: 'Good-bye, then, gentlemen,' and went out of the room so crushed that he seemed

hultz, with his idiosyncrasy of na?ve pilfering, so absurdly straightforward that, even in the people who had suffered from it, it aroused nothing more than a sort of amused exasperation? He was really impossible. His lot evidently should have been a half-starved, myst

bly lively eyes and a faint, fixed smile on his lips, to spend the day on a lonely spit of sand looking eagerly at her, as though he had expected some shape on board to rise up and make some sort of sign to him over the decaying bulwarks. The Mesmans were taking care of him as far as it was possible. The Bonito case had been referred to Batav

it seems. A rather mysterious visit, and extraordinarily short, after coming all that way. He stayed just four days at the Orange House, with apparently nothing in particular to do, and then caught the south-going steamer for the

old Nelso

, remembered me, since some time after his flying visit to Makass

from that naturally benighted intelligence, but my impatience had time to wear out before my eyes beheld old Nelson's trembling, painfully-formed handwriting, senile and childish at the same time, on an envelope bearing a penny stamp and the postal mark of the Notting Hill office. I delayed opening it in order to pay the tribute

d of the four devilish elements, cold, wet, mud, and grime, combined with a particular stickiness of atmosphere that clings like an unclean garment to one's very soul. Yet on approaching his abode I saw, like a flicker far behind the soiled veil of the four elements, the w

e took off his spectacles before shaking hands. For a moment neither of us said a word; then, noticing me looking round some

ke always noticeable in the general contour of his physiognomy had become much more marked. Like his handwriting, he looked childish and senile. He showed his age most in hi

a question to start him going whenever he lapsed into silence, which he would do suddenly, clasping his hands on his waistcoat in an attitude which would recall to me t

ith me and showed it to her. 'I will never forgive him!' she cries with her old spirit. 'My dear,' I said, 'you are a sensible girl. The best man may lose a ship. But what about your health?' I was beginning to be frightened at her looks. She would not let me talk even of going to Singapore before. But, really, such a sensible girl couldn't keep on objecting for ever. 'Do what you lik

e a long time, his eyes r

in his voice, "she felt stronger, and we

story of the Heemskirk episode in Freya's words; then went

nd he is breaking his heart over there.' Well, she was too sensible not to see she wasn't in a state to trav

pau

ee him?" I

rty white clothes. That's what he looked like. How Freya . . . But she never did-not really. He was sitting there, the only live thing for miles along that coast, on a drift-log washed up on the shore. They had clipped his hair in the ho

ently. And by and by he turns on me. 'Write to you! What about? Come to her! What with? If I had been a man I would have carried her off, but she made a child, a happy child, of me. Tell her that the day the only thing I had belonging to me in the world perished on this reef I discovered that

nsible girl like Freya? Why, even my little property I could not have left them. The Dutch authorities would never have allowed an Englishman to settle there. It was not sold then. My man Mahmat, you know, was looking after it for me. Later on I let it

-her eyes were nearly as hollow as his-'perhaps it is

ted, and feeling a little cold i

these doctors! My God! Winter time! There came ten days of cold mists and wind and rain. Pneumonia. But look here! We talked a lot together. Day

up vaguely, with a chil

ould tell me. You know, sick people they say things. And so she would say too: 'I've been conceited, headstrong, capricious. I sought my own gratification. I was selfish or afraid.' . . . But sick people, you know, they say anything. And

ed his finger at the carpet, while the thought of the poor girl, vanquished in her struggle with th

friend. Sensible man. So I wanted to tell you myself-let you know the truth. A fellow like that! How could it be? She was lonely

n him wrathfully, "don't y

ngry. "The doctors! Pneumonia. Low state. The

lung his arms out in a gesture of despair, giving u

t that she wa