A MATTER OF SALVAGE.

NZ Truth, Issue 81, 5 January 1907, Page 7

A MATTER OF SALVAGE.

(By HERBERT C. KENT.)

Author of "The Order of Release," "New Chum," Etc, Etc.

i*U write untroubled by cultured fools j Or the dense that fume and fret ; I For against the wisdom of all their schools, \ I would stake mine instinct yet. for the cynical strain m the writer's song, la the world, not he, to blavie ; And I'll write as I think m the knowledge j itrong, j Th*t thousands think the "same. \ KENBY LAWSON. j CHAPTER VI. (Continued.) i. After* carefully cloaing the door and J locking it against intruders. Bray aa.t down again and exploded m a fit of loud laughter, which so alarmed the senior partner that, thinking the other had gone 'suddenly mad, he approached the only means of exit from the room m a state of trepidation, but seeing that the junior was "steadying down" again he returned to the seat and . commenced to upbraid him for so summarily terminating an interview which might have led to good results, it it had been judiciously managed, concluding by remarking— "There seemed to be something iv it. I cannot believe that what the young

man said was false." "False be— jiggered," said Bray, with a. broad grin. "It was true, every ;word of it." . . , •"And, believing that, you turned ■ him out. Good gracious, man, why didn't you make some arrangement with him 1" "Well, well, . Crowther, I thought you knew me better. I really believe you would have gone m with him and given him half."' Certainly I should ; and now, owing to baste, we have lost our chance.'' Rubbisn ! I know what I'm doing. If we had accepted his oilers we should have got halt the treasure,, eh ?" "Exactly ; uhd now "■ "We've declined them,, and we'll get .the lot." "How do you make that out ?" We don't know where it is 1'- said the senior excitedly. "Of course we do ; or at any rate I

do." "But how, why *?" "Because he told us." "Told us ?" ""'Yes, of course, he told us pretty well all about it, and we'll work the job without him." •Explain, for goodness sake, man, explain. At present I'm iairly bothered. n\he man came here intending to tell us about some wreck., and before he .. had time to say anything you hunted him out of the place, calling him an impostor and all kinds of things. Now, you calmly sit there and tell me straight to jny face that he told us all about . it. 'If he did, I'm abnormally dense, that's all I have to pay about it." Mr. Crowther settled down more firmly m his seat, and for want of some- ' thing to occupy his hands took off - his glasses and carefully wiped them, and then m a fit of abstraction dropped them through the slit of the lett&r-hox, and immediately after commenced to look for them. "Just listen to me," said Mr. Bray. U'You've read the papers regularly, l'o you remember about a month ago an account of where the Queensland police were searching for two blackf ellows, and jTound them on Fraser Island ?" "1 cannot say I do. But what has jfcha,t tale to do with this one ?" "it's the same thing ; or to speak jnore correctly this is the continuation . of that one ; the end hasn't come yet. When the police arrested the blacks they found a shipwrecked sailor living with them." ."Well." . "lea, well. At auy rate, pretty well it will be better by and bye. You're no Sherlock Holmes, or you'd see what I'm driving at without my wasting valuable tune explaining. Tbe sailor found by the police was the second mate and only survivor of the ship Bonnie Dundee, which had been wrecked some time before on the east coasrt of Fraser Island." "And you think " .- "•'■ ".No, I don't. I'm not such a blither- • dng ass as to think when I can make cocksure." . ■ • "Well, you are sure——" "Yea, that the wrecked treasure ship Is near that spot. * If he saw it, I can see it. We'll just put the Susan Jane m .commission, and I'll take charge : of her. We 11 "get that stufi . before the young flat knows where he is." : r'By jove,: you're a wonderful man,: Bray; there is no doubt about it. But there-is one thing yet that I'm not certain about." , "And what'a that ?"• "What ship was it ? A vessel cannot go down with a quarter of a million on board — be said a quarter of -a /nillion, didn't he ?— and not make a stir* oh land as well as a hole m the water." "1 h tell you all about . , it m five minutes. We've got Lloyd's list here, 1 haven't \sir- .• • | "Yes, but it will take a long time to i go through it without any; dates to go j

011 % ' "ilieiS your life, man, I know within p. jeur when the ship was lost*""But, here, are you a magician, or a wizard, or a Hop-o'-my-Thumb ?" In his excitement Mr. Crowther was getting somewhat mixed. had known Bray over 120 years, and up to that j time had never seen . anything about him | '■which wmdu lead, one to suppose that j lie possessed such profound wisdom,? and powets of discernment. 'Didn't you' see. me break his hirnp of gold into two pieces ?..:They were coins, and on the inside which had not been bci'j I read t':ve.- date." "V. hat date ]"• asked Mr. Crowther. ' "Oi.ly listen to the man. Any one •would think you were as innocent as you look. The date on the coin was 1862, and as they were unused sovereigns it didn't require,- supernatural ; powers to see that the year they t were : , issued from the mint ~waa somewhere) ' about the year that the ship was lost." ■ "'That certainly reduces- our inquiry ,j to a practical radius. But the young fellow said that the crew of that vessel Jiad bien either drowned or eaten by aboriginals; Now, the aboriginals of Australia do not eat people. They are not cannibals." "'Don't they ! Allow me to tell you that m the early days one Captain Fraser was shipwrecked there, and his wife, who Si.eni9 to have been the only ■urvivor, lived with the natives some time before she was rescued* According to her tale, cannioaiism was frequent. That island ie over 100 miles long, and contains absolutely no wild animals. It Is on those kind of places that the natives eat their prisoners."

"But those jieople have been subject to missionary iniluenqe for over ten years." "Bah !" said Bray, m a disgusted tone. "We Europeans have been, subject to missionary influence for two thousand yeuis, and we're not a bit better for it. We go to war and kill and maim our enemies over paltry matters that even savages would settle by arbitration. We iee,j immense armies to fight, and thousands of police to keep order. Wo allow jrrott shops and poison dens, to sap the very vitals out of the people. We're priest-ridden and cursed by frock-coated pars:. us wlpo will sell us first- lass tickets to Heaven, and go to Hell themselves. A man or woman is safer from issault and insult among the, most savage, ignorant races m the -rorld than he or she would be m George-street, Sydney, after aark. We deify a man Who invents a new firearm or weapo-a .Of war, wjjile wo trample on ona wb* .U

! quiet and peaceable. Look at our imI mense gaols and lunaiic asylums. Man | alive, any, day you look you can see the ' carriage of an archbishop, or some other trumpery, rubbishy, rotten, thieving prince of the church, drive over the poor widow, who is almost starving for ! bread. The thundering of the church | organ drowns the cry for help of the I cripple and the homeless, and you talk j about Christian influence. D it all, if there were any truth m it you and I might be good mten instead of What iwe are. We might be following the exj ample of -earnest Christiana, if there were any to follow ; but, no : after seeing that everything's false that leans towards the good of . humanity, we join the ruol) and follow the good old rule of our forefathers, ably led by the ministers of the gospel — Tho good old rule, the simple plan, That he shall take who has tho power, And he shall keep who can." "Tut, tut!" said Crowther, m a conciliatory tone. "We'll just at*fend to business and let religion alone. Now let us examine 'Lloyd's List' of missing ships." And, opening a cupboard wliich was built m one side of the office, they lifted out several bundles ol papers and

proceeded to knock the dust off thorn. This job being completed, they commenced their search m earnest. Five minutes afterwards Bray uttered a loud exclamation of satisfaction. "Here it is. Look here Crowther !" and pointing with his finger to a notice half-way down a column they read : — "All hope of arrival at her destination of the missing ship Prince Albert has been abandoned, and she is now seven months overdue. This vessel left Uondon for Hong Kong on the 3rd of March, 1862, and ha 3 not since been heard of. Among this ship's cargo was gold, to the amount of over a quarter of a million. The loss will bo a heavy blow to tho insurers, as we believe the whole of her cargo and specie were underwritten.:" j "Yes," said Crowther, as fie sat down and wiped his face with a pocket handkerchief ; "that is' pretty conclusive. Now what do you propose doing?" "Simply this. We bought tho Susan Jane from Nicholson only last week. I'll lit her out and sail her along the east coast of Fraser Island. - You see this young fellow has reported the loss of the Bonnie Dundee, so I'll get 'a' copy of his statement to the agents of that ship* That'll givs me' as near 'as possible the position where that craft was vrreoked. Very well ; I'll sail along the coast till 1 find a reef. When I've found that reef, I've got the Prince Albert." "That sounds all right, Bray, but where will the young man be while you are dcing all this work. He will ero to someone else and sell his information. Then we might be left out of it altogether." '.'Don't you fear. I shnll pay my hands wages, d'ye understand, and put a clause m their agreement that anything we may handle belongs to our firm, so that if the worst comes and wo have to fall back on salvage they'll get nothing. 1 ' •'But the whole thing i 3 simply a question of salvage." ■"Is it? Not if I know myself," said' Bray, grimly. . "You'll have to be careful, Bray. Your crew might open their mouths. Then we should get nothing." "I'll keep .their mouths shut, take it from mej" "As I said before, suppose the young man goes elsewhere." ' "He'll have to be jolly quick about it, then, for it is now 5 o'clock. I'm ! going to the wharf. The Swan is lying at the' buoy. She'll start for Fraser before daylight,"' ■ "I strongly urge great caution. I be-; lieve dvfeh -now ' that the wisest course we could follow would be' to make terms with this man. I dan't like unnecessary risks, and it seems to me -" "Look here, Crowther, you're a- uV— good band at cheese paring and scrimping ; you could rob old Nick and put a face on you like Holy Joe at . a tea scramble; but when it comes to business like, this you're out of your element. .; You let me alone, I'll manage things, and that young fellow you're so precious frightened of will be at sea on board the Swan before morning, and he won't see land again till he gets to the Golden Gate." c "The Golden Gate ! Why, you won't murder him?" And Mr. Crowther stood aghast at <the thought of the risks he ■ might be expected to run. He had successfully ytried almost every crime m the calendar m his meek, crawling, underhand .way ; but murder — that was a different thing. Not. that he had the slightest pity for the intended victim-? not he ; it was just his own skin he wanted to save, nothing else. "Not if he behaves himself. If he doesn't, he'll have to run a fair business chance. You're thinkipg of the | gate of Heaven. I'm talking about the gate of H — , or San Francisco, which is ,much about the same thing." "Be cautious what you do." Bray did not reply, but placing his hat firmly on his head he walked to the door and went out, while the senior partner, after locking up overythiug . m his office, departed home earlier than usual.: Having agreed to take his -hare lof the spoil, afrar the insurers- of the I caroro of tho I'ri'ice Albert were robbed* i and tacitly agreeing to what he thought would be the murder of the young sailor, he was hastening home, so that he ahould be able to preside that night at a meeting of the "Holy Sneaks Society," where he intended to propose a new method of enlarging church collection boxes ; .he had also made ari'ahgeinent to have a private interview afterwards with the , Rev,- Dr. . HumbUfr Twaddle Bosh, an-d intending to point out to i that gentloman the necessity of exclud- ! ing a certain class of people who. attended church, and passed the plate ,oiv • without adding their mite to the collec- : tiqn, ive being under the impression that | expe'iisive churches were not built- for t "paupers." ' v (To be Continued.)