TABLE TOP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23284, 1 March 1939, Page 20

TABLE TOP

By EDEN PHILLPOTTS Author of "Yellow Sand»," "The Farmer* ■ Wife," etc., etc.

(COPYRIGHT)

A romance that commences in Peru and takes three young people, filled with the spirit of adventure, on a quest for lnca treasure.

CHAPTER VIII PANDO SAYS "DO IT" Felice destroyed the letter he was about to dispatch, and sent another instead. "My dear Tom," ho wrote, "when 1 read your letter I laughed, and was in a mind to tell you not to be an idiot, but keep your newly acquired wealth in your pocket; vet, on second thoughts, I think otherwise. There is plenty of buried treasure in the world, and no doubt we have enough information to be sure the waters of Lake Titicaca hide many priceless things that would make us all wonder if they were ever brought to the light again. Why, then, should this industrious old treasure-hunter called 'Benny Boss' have failed in his quest? With the amount of detail you seem to have gleaned and the wonderful revelation of the parrot, it does, I think, look good enough. If you really want me to take part in your expedition and do everything I can to lend a hand and help you, of course you have only got to say the word.

"In any case, given a decent little ship, the business should not occupy very much time, and you can take it in your stride on your way back. "At any rate, if you are game to seek it, I'm game to help you do so. Write at once, or telegraph if you're in a hurry, and I will go up to Guayaquil in Equador, cross to the Galapagos and meet you. By the time that you come I shall liavo gone into the matter of a ship, and if you give me a free hand, will have chartered a small stfeamer equal to our needs. I'll keep down expenses all I can, but the jaunt isn't going to be exactly cheap, and you must remember that, even if we find Tabletop, my ■ photographs of the mysterious place and the honour of putting it on the map, may be all the advantages you will win for yourself, ff "Things jog on here in a manner quite satisfactory ...

Always, dear Tom, your Felice." Jane approved this letter highly. "Mr. Pardo sounds a very sensible sort of man," she said, "and he is practical. Tell liiin to get a ship and have her ready for sea by the time we arrive at the Galapagos." "We've got to get there first," he said, "and we've also got to know where to make for. There is a swarm of islands to choose from, but the swagger one is Albemarle. That's where Pardo will go. Very few are inhabited at all." They set about their preparations and six weeks later were on their way. Aylmer had hoped to hear again concerning the mine and had written to Jacob Fernandez on the subject, telling him also about the parrot. He sailed before any answer to this letter reached him, and he guessed that the old man had left Panama and must be back in Lima.

Jane enjoyed her first taste of tropics and ocean, finding both a happy and impressive experience. She proved a good sailor and her only fear was that nautical life would make her too fat. West of Equador by nearly six hundred miles lay Galapagos, and the last lap of the journey took some days in a slow boat. But the volcanic nests of islets, though lacking in much charm for a, chance visitor, could furnish both Tom and Jane with very potent attractions, since for the naturalist who loves birds, or plants, it offers something unique. Not only the gigantic tortoises, 11,1 at give the islands their name, rejoiced the lovers; but for. Jane the land birds were such as she had never seen. Indeed, they cannot be seen elsewhere and are peculiar to the islands. As for Tom, new plants confronted him on every side, as they had confronted a genius in days long past and led him to mighty conclusions touching the origin and variation of species. "Here is one thing worth visiting this grim place for alone, 1 ' said Tom. -"This is where the famous lichen, orchilla, comes from. It is gathered and. sent to England and makes a wonderful purple dye." For Angus the craters that honeycombed the islands—from mere blowholes to deep cups of great size—impressed him most. "If we ever find Tabletop,'' he told them, "It will be much on this pattern —low-lying in tremendously deep water, shrouded in mists, and with an active, or extinct volcano rising in the middle of it. And just as the Hora and fauna are extraordinary and unique here, so they may be still more _ extraordinary and unique there. These isolated places are links with life from the far past that have persisted and escaped the devastation man brings along with him." * It was to Charles Island and not Albemarle that the travellers had come, and at the little settlement of La Floreana, Felice Pardo awaited them. He interested Jane very much, for she was immediately conscious of a mind cast in a different pattern from any she had yet met in her brief existence. She had never -known a foreigner very well before, and the mixed bloods that went to create Felice produced an intellect and outlook that gave her much to think about. She approached him cautiously, and when an instinct of doubt and sren aversion began to dawn in her, she blamed herself, not him, and told herself that only a child, or a savage, mistrusts the unknown. He was clever and courteous, poured into her new knowledge of the world in which he lived, and obviously strove to please her, but she felt him to be radically different in essence from her own kind. She would never understand him, as she understood the simple natures of Tom and Angus. Yet he did not hide his enthusiasm or conceal his strong Socialistic convictions. Ho was quite honest in that matter.

"What T want to see before I die is a juster world, Miss Bradshaw; and that would also be a better world," he said. She could not deny the force of that ambition and observed that Pardo's ideas were cast in a greater mould than those of her own, or of her friends. Birds and plants and ruined cities seemed small things contrasted with the Peruvian's enthusiasms for humanity; and it was the sharp contrasts, that, Jane concluded, must make her feel uncomfortable in Felice's company. As for Aylmer and Maine, they welcomed their friend gladly enough and for them a new sensation attended their reunion. They both felt it, yet neither could put it into words or explain it to one another. Something had happened to Pardo and they were conscious of the change, yet could point to no definite symptom. He was always somewhat unfathomable, and his moods beyond their calculation. Intervals of gloom were apt to engulf him like a cloud and obscure him from them; but out of these he would usually emerge in riotous spirits and take his unconscious place as the mental stimulus of the others. Now, while they found that he had made admirable preparations for their enterprise, chartered a useful little tramp steamer, kept expenses down and secured trustworthy and experienced men for the cruise, they also discovered Felice himself changed in somo subtle fashion. He was more saturnine and preoccupied than of old, given to longer silences, less quick in emerging from the secret chamber of his own thoughts. They could not know that it was his own thoughts that had created fche

barrier, any more than Pardo himself knew how' his hidden purpose had altered his outward demeanour. In secret he fought with himself still, in favour of his intentions, although now quite determined. Ho went round and round, like a squirrel in a cage, arguing each point of justice and honour in turn, and spinning a web to entangle and destroy his old loyalties. He told himself that his mental misery was unimportant and only the result of his own weakness; but it created an intense impatience and desire to get on with the matter and bo through with it. It was his impatience, indeed that his friends observed, and both Tom and Angus agreed as to so unusual a phase. "Never knew him in a hurry before," said Maine. "He was always oriental in his contempt for time." "The dear chap's only thinking of my pocket," declared Aylmer. A week still needed to elapse before the steamer could he ready for sea. She was a sturdy little boat of about a thousand tons and traded usually between the islands and the mainland. Iguana was her name, and Paolo Costa, her master .and owner, proved a genial fellow, anxious to forward the trip and amiably inclined to Europeans. He had visited Europe and sailed the Seven Seas in his time;, but the Pacific was his homo and on one vexed question ho could throw light. "There is, or was, such an island as Tablctop," Captain Costa told them, "and on large-scale maps you will see it as a nameless pin-point. I have not heard it called by any name, save by one old man. There is an ancient sailor living in La Floreana—a bedridden, aged chap, who has seen it. Old Pedro Floris actually knew the man who called this islet Tabletop. Fifty and more years ago ho took him to the place, and when I visited Floris, as I do sometimes, because he is a relation, I told him all that Senor Pardo has told me about Benny Boss. And Pedro —he remembered Benny Boss, so it is all true without a doubt. Therefore, if the island has not long since sink into the sea, it will still remain for us to find."

Jane was much excited by this piece of news.

"It means such a lot," she said, "because if this old man has actually been there, he must have some idea of how long it took him, and that ought to tell you how far it is, Captain Costa." "No, Missy. Old Pedro is very shaky in his mind these days. Sometimes his brain will give a flash and waken memory, but oftener he lives like a lizard—just lives with the shutters up to hide the past. A word sometimes will lift the shutters, but on many days nothing can lift them. I asked him, of course, how long he took on the voyage, but he could not tell me. Only this I learned. They did not steam in those days very much. He was master of a schooner and Benny, chartered it. Twice Benny sailed—with a long space of years before his second and last journey. But you must see Pedro Ploris, and if it should be a good day with him, you may charm some sense out of him. He has a little English, but not enough. No doubt your friends from Lima will understand, him." "Has Mr. Pardo seen him?" asked Jane, and the sailor told her that Felice had visited the ancient twice. "But the shutters were up,"'he said, "therefore Senor Pardo got nothing. For reasons I cannot tell, ancient Floris does not like your friend. One does not know what may move in the mind of the very old." Pedro, however, consented »to see Aylmer and Jane. He declared that two strangers were all that he could endure, and Tom guessed that he would be able to understand anything that the old veteran was likely to say. The first suggestion had been that only Pardo and Aylmer should pay the visit; but Felice was conscious of having failed and thought it better not to try again. "He'll like Jane," he said. "And bs sure to take him some gifts. He is very poor." They sounded Costa on this subject and were advised to make old Floris a present of money. They found the old man outside a tiny cottage with a woman in attendance upon him. There was no need to face the interior, for Pedro sat in an easy chair under the tattered foliage of banana trees in his little compound. He smiled upon them, took off his hat to Jane and extended a withered paw, shaking hands with greater vigour than might have been expected. He proved also more alert than usual, and though his voice had shrunk to a reedy whistle, the aged man controlled it well and did not begin to wander until he was tired. Tom had no difficulty in understanding him. "Sit you down," he said. "Spread a rug for them, Clara, and then go away, my dear." Clara obeyed and departed. Then Aylmer spoke and told Pedro how good it was of him to let them come. "This is Jane, Senor Floris, and she is going to marry me very soon," he said. "And Captain Costa told us that you had known Benny Boss long ago, so that interested ue very much irdeed. Shall I tell you all that we know about him, or would you like to talk first and tell ns what you remember?'' "You tell first," answered Pedro, "then I tell. And we will see if tlw* stories run together." Tom therefore told his tale while the other listened silently. "And if there is anything in it," concluded the young man, "I shall feel that we owe a bit to you, my friend, and see you are a gainer." But the other shook his head.

"I can only help in a small way," he said. "Now I will talk and show you how the stories run together. And my part of the story of Mr. Boss is perhaps not the end of it, even if it is of the end of him, because you are going to try and finish the story." Thus the old man's fading mind, flickered into subtlety for a moment and surprised his hearers. (To be continued daily.)