THE JOSS: A REVERSION,

Otago Witness, Issue 2467, 26 June 1901, Page 64

THE JOSS: A REVERSION,

OR THE STRANGE FORTUNE OF POLLIE BLYTH. THE STORY OF A CHINESE " GOD. ' ♦ By BICIIARD MARSH, Author of "The C4ocldes=," "In Full Ciy," • The Beetle A Mysteiy," "The Cnuie and the Cnmmal, ' &c , &c. BOOK III.— THE GOD OF FORTUNE. Captain Max Lander Set 1 - Foith the Curious Adventure which Maiked the Voyage of the Flying Scud [COI'YKIGIf 1' ] CH-VPTER XXXI — THK TERMINATION "OF THE VOYAGE OF 'LHE FLYING SCUD.

E had been completely dyne ,So completely that it was I some time beiore I was able to realise that I had been diddled quite to that extent. Not a detail had been overlooked. Mr Batters and Mr Luke had gone conscien-

tiously to ivoik. They had been 'thorough. They had left us the "-hip — I hat wa^ about all. They would probably have taken that if they

Lad had any use foi it. It seemed they hiidn't.

If I could only have laid hands on that latent thing in fieak-, there would have been one Jo^s less. I v ould w lllingly have made a Jo*.- of Luke if 1 had had only a clrince. To have boiled, burned, and skinned him w ould have been a pleasure He should not only have been legless, he should have been armless too. As for the ghl, who didn't want lo go to a place where there were any wives, she should have become acquainted with a climate where theie was something less agreeable.

That was how I felt Towards her at fii^t But after a w hile I came to the conclusion that she had been under the domination of her father ; hadn't dared to call her soul her own. So anger turned to pity. I would just simply take her to a place where there Avere wives. I'd let her know what it felt like to be one. That would be punishment enough for her. As for Luke and Batters, what wouldn't I have given for a quiet half hour w ith the pair — with boiling oil, branding irons, and everything just handy. Mr Luke must have stowed pretty well all our eatable stores inside that cutter. A:fir<.t mate under peculiar circumstances I lud let him do, in some respects, a good deal as he pleased. He had had the urn of the stores. He had not gone far fiom collaring the lot. It seemed that certain of ih<" hands had noticed him fiddling a jjood 'leal with the cutter of late. Especially wliei he had been in charge of either of the night watches. But, of collide, they had said nothing to me till it was too late. Which was a pity.

Mr Batters had taken with him all the treasures of the temple — those offerings of the faithful, half of which were to have been mine. (Xo wonder he had not baen of opinion that they would be safer in my cabin.) And he had pledged his word that he would make it his especial business to see that not one of them left the ship until he did. That elegant monster which he valued at £50,000 had gone. Even the palanquin. Oh, it was pietty! Mr Luke had made everything snug by generously treating the members of tl c morning watch to a little drink directly th-ev came on duty. That drink was no doubt one of Mr Batters's concoctions. They remembered no more so soon as they had swallowed it. So for four hours Mr Luke had the deck all to himself. No watch was kept. The wheel was la-shed. The cutter was filled with the treasures of the temple, then lowered — goodness and Mr Luke alone knows how. It must be remembered that Mr Batetrs was an ingenious man.

It was reported from the engine room that the order was received to go slow. Probably while the Flying Send went slow the cutter was cast loose ; with Mr Batters and the girl inside it. Shortly afterwards the order was changed to full steam ahead. The inference seemed to be that immediately after giving that order the ingenious Mr Luke went ovei board to join the cutter. And the Flying Scud went full steam ahead, -with no one on the look-out. Under the circumstances it was perhaps just as ■well that tlie engines did break down. It's an elegant story for the commander of a ship to have to write, especially one with a clean certificate and. of sober habits. There we were, without engines, without coal, without stores, without enough cargo to act as ballast, about half-way between Aden and Colombo. We were a mad ship's company. For my own part I felt like cutting any man's' throat ; including my own. All rhat day we hung- about, doins; nothing, except cm sing. Towards night, the engines proving hopeless, we rigged a sail. There was just about enough wind to laugh at us. So w-e let it laugh us along. There was no Canal for us. The man who was to have paid our shot had gone — the shot with him. So we headed for the Cape. The long way round wn? the only way for us. Engmeless, the prospect was inviting. There is no need to speak in detail of the remainder of that voyage, no need at all. In one sense it was over — quite. In another it was only just beginning. I won't say how long it took us to reach home, or what we .suffered before we got there, and will only hint that by the time we sighted English waters I felt as if I weie a twin brother of Methuselah. We hadn't walked the entire distance, but we might almost just -is we/I have done.

It ■« as eveninjj when I landed There was a mist in the river. A drizzling rain was falling. Appropriate weather with which to bid us welcome home. The lights of London gleamed dimly through the fog and wet. So soon as I had set foot on land I saw, coming at me through the unceitain light, the individual who. as he stood w itli his fiiends upon that moonlit shore, had cursed us for bearing the Great Jo*s to the ship acio«^ the motionless waters of the Gulf of Tong King. Since that night we had ourselves anathematised someone else for seiving us a.« we had served him.

I had only seen him once, and then from some little distance in the moonshine, but there was no possibility of mistaken identity. Ihis was the man. He was dressed in the % ime fantastic garb, and came at me like a ghost out of Shadowknd. He took me by die shouldeis, and lie cried, as he had done upon that moon-kissed shore : "The (4ieat Joss! The Great Joss! Give us back the Gieat Jo«s '"

Kxactly what took place I cannot s-ay. I w.i.s so taken aback by the unexpectedness of the encounter, having nevei dreamed that I should &et eveb upon the man again, that for some moments .sheer surprise robbed me ot my faculties. Before I was myself again the man had gone. Others had thriitel him from me. Although I lushed here and there among the knots of people who stood about I could not find him. He had vanished.

I had swallow ed a good many bitter pills, since last I left that wharf. The bitterest \\ as .still to come. I had to pay my visit to the owneis. On tlie night of tay arnva.l it was too late to see them. The pleasure was postponed itntil the morning. It was a pleasure! I came out from their presence a disgiaced man. Which was uo more than I had

expected, though it was no easier to bear on th;it account Tlie blame wa.s wholly mine, so they would have it. For M)iue of the language which they used to me I found it hard to keep ray hands horn oft them. My tale of the Great Jo^, and of all that £ had hoped to gain for them by that udionture, they received with something more than incredulity.

If the thing had resulted as I had hoped, that they would have pocketed their sluue ot the «poib. and betiayed no sciuples. I knew them too we'l to doubt. But beciu^e, as I held through no fault of mine, the affair had mi«.Ci'ined, there was no epithet too opprobrious for them to bestow on me By their show ing I had been guilty of all <-oit-> of crimes of which I had nevei he.'id I had betrayed their trust ; smirched the r good name — is if in the eyes of those vi'o knew them it could be smirched; been guilty of piiacy ; acted like a common chief: offended against the law of nations ; brought .-liame on KriL'liiid's mercantile marine.

Oh. it was giand to hear Ihem talkingThey might have been saints from wliosi brows. I had phuked the halos. They wevt good enough to explain that ie \i;h only because they disbelieved my whole «.tory, and placed no credence on .my pan of it whatever, that they retrained from handing me over the -properly constituted authori tie., to be by them passed on to the Chinese Government, to be dea't with as my offences merited. They took me foi a jay. And were so kind as to adel that they looked upon tlie rale <'S a clumsy, dishonest, and disingenious attempt to draw a red herring across their track — the phia-e was theirs. — and so pi event them froir taking proper and adequate notice of the scandalous neglect of duty and of their interests, of which, to my lasting shame, I had been gi.ilty. It was a rare wigging that I got. And. to the best of their ability, they included in it everyone who had been with me on board the Flying Scud. There vre four of us. at least, who swore that we'd be even for it with someone somehow. I&aac Rudci, Sam Holley, his chum Bill Cox, and 1.we were the four.

And all we had to go upon, to help us towards getting even, was a scrap of papei — half a sheet of common note. It was the only thing Mr Batters had left behind him. I had found it in a corner of his cabin, crumpled up into a sort of ball, as though ha had thrown it there and forgotten all about it. On it this was written :

'To my niece, Miss Mary Blyth, care o* Messrs Martin and Branxon, Drapers, Shore ditch." -

We would look the lady up. Where the niece was the uncle might not be far away. At least she might have some knowledge of his whereabouts. If she had we would have it too, or know the reason why. I still_ had the written undertaking which he had signed, by which he was to divide with me equally, as a consideration for services rendered," the treasures of the temple. I had handed this to the owners as proof of thetruth of my statements. They had thrown, it back to me with a sneer — and something worse than a sneer.

That act amounted to a renunciation of all interest in any property whicH the document conveyed. Or so it seemed to me. Good ! They might smart for their scepticism yet. Let us find the niece ; then the uncle. If Miss Blyth could only give us a hint as to where he might be found, though it was on the other side of the world, we'd, find him. He had valued, his belongings at a million. We might be snatched out of the gutter yet. The search began badly. They knew nothing of a Miss Blyth at Messrs Martiu and Branxon's— or so I was informed by an official individual in the counting-house. That was a facer. It looked as if Mr B=r. ters, at his tricks again, had purposely placed in our way what seemed like a clue to his lair for "the sake of having stiU another game with us. But a night or two afterwards I tackled a young fellow as he was coming out of the shop after closing hours, and put my question to h'm Ht turned it over in his mind before he answered :

"There's no Miss Blyth here now, but there was. I believe her name was, Mary. I could soon find out. She's been left some time — directly after I came. I can't think where she went. I've heard the name, but I can't remember. I might inquire if you like, and let you know to-morrow night." I agreed. He did inquire. The next night lie let me know. Miss Blyth had gone if a big shop, which he named, at Claphain Junction. The next day, being engaged, I let Rude 1 go over to Clapham to see what he could do.

He made a mess of things. The- lady wa< pointed out to him by one of her fellow assistants, but before he could get \»ythin hail of her she had slipped round a corner and was ought of sight. Came across her again in a restaurant— where she couldn't pay her bill. Taid it for her. Then, as he was about to follow her, with a view of pursuing his inquiries, he saw, standing on the pave ment in front of the place, the individual who had cursed us on that moonlit shore. The sight of him struck Rudd all of a he? p. By the time he recovered his presence of "mind the lady had vanished, and the gentleman too. The juxtaposition of Miss Blyth and that cursing gentleman seemed to suggest thct we were on the track of the retiring Mr Batters. What is more, that tht scent was getting hot. The evening aftei I called at that O'.aphaiv establishment, ju>t as the piemises wer. being closed, and a.«ked to see Miss Blyth. Some jackanapes informed me that the young woman had been dismissed that veiy day. He didn't know what her address was but had heard that she had gone oft' with a party who called himself Frank Paine, and who said he was a lawyer. At that it was my turn to be struck all of a heap. A short time previously I had called upon Mr Frank Paine, who was a. lawyer, intending to ask his opinion as to the validity of tht document which had Mr Batters's namt attached. But, somehow, the conversation got into other channels. 1 came away without it. Not by so much as a word had he hinted that lie knew any. thing about Mr Batters or his ruecs

As I walked along, pondering these things, Rudd, at my side, suddenly exclaimed : "Carctain, there she is! That's Miss Blyth— the young lady for whom I paid the bill !" He was pointing towards two young tromejCwho were advancing in our direction, on the opposite side of the road. jHaving got it clear to which of the pair he referred, I sailed across to meet them. £he was Miss Blyth. She admitted as )nuch. But that was all the satisfaction ( received. She staggered me with the information that her uncle, Mr Benjamin Batters, was dead. As I was trying to Understand how he had come to his death, and when and where, she took umbrage at my curiosity, or manner, or something. She and her friend jumped into a hansom cab, which dashed off at the rate of about BO miles an hour, leaving Rudd and me on the kerbstone, staring after it like moonstruck gabies.