CAPTAIN ENGLAND

Southland Times, Issue 19048, 16 May 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

CAPTAIN ENGLAND

(By Qouveraeur Morris, to Ceatury 1 Magazine). — — — j (Continued). Infinite compassion of woman ; infinite £ forglvenest ; infinite desire to mould and * make new ; infinite .power to loavo her great, tender, true, beautiful, silly heart s in the most brambly places. j c Those eyes of Lady Pelham's, which I * Mr England himself had said were Hko | ( the snornmg, looked into the eyas of | Mr England, and saw nothing there of ' all thlt horriblanesa of which she had forgiven. Sho saw there only the purity and nobility of purpose with which he * had promised her to live until he died: and in the bottom of her silly, golden heart, she said : " He has repented. He •"loves me— he must bo saved." Behind them were three weeks of fair and foul weather, a thousand pages of the poets, a hundred game 9 at pi.quet ; conversations wherein were laid down the laws of life, the meetings and partings of true lovers. Sometimes they had spoken of death, but more often of the beginnings 'of fcappy lives ; sometimes of the delicate perfections of verse, sometimes t>f predestination, sometimes of the champ of war, but mostly oi iove. A bright sun was in the heaven, a following wind vras On the sea, and between the Horn and lr;r port was an ever-n'arrowing_ distance. But between Priscilla, Lady Pelbdm, and Mr Thomas England was no distance at all, for her elbow touched Iri9 arm, and a wisp of her hair brushed his cheek. "Beautiful princess," said Mr England, " I see now, when it is too late, that the gods have loved me all along. for,through circumstances too horrid for another to contemplate, your favour has caused me to be happier than the heir of a kingdom about to, mount the royal throne, t make it my hourly duty to thank God for the wealth of peace which he has given me. The end, which had presented itself to my view amid surroundings of such boundless dishonour, seems now like the gentle coming of night. I shall bid you ' good-night,' and- fall asleep to dream of you. But there will be no morning, my princess, after ;that last good night." ." There must be morning somewhere," said Lady Pelham. "Do you wish it?" said Mr England. ' • '• I wish it," said she. "Ah, lady," said Mr England, "there iB such bitterness in brief days ! Haw can you, looking back upon the glory of this time at sea— when I am gone— believe, labour, heart of hearts, that I was a. true penitent ? How easy it were to piay any part for so little a space t There is scarce a difference between my • case and that of your sinner who, feeling the tides of life run: agoniJdngly out, the sweat on his brow,, the rattle in his throat, turns with an ecstatic valedictory from his sins (which he cannot Commit no more), and writhes to be forgiven.; There is such doubt. Tell me, lady, that you believe—that you believe me other than- that." "I have given you. my trust," said Lady Pelham. . " Golden heart I", said S£r Engfnnd, "and a real ran. down his . -cheek. "Ofa,"lha CriefiY ''for a full fragment of life: wherein to step from the slough that was' into the broad thoroughfare of i true knight !; To march prospering, with her kerchief on .one's sleeve, with "her eyes looking upon One from thw high tower, with her trust in one's keep, with her iova\to return to ! I tell youi if I had a year to live I would prove before all men and such p. lady that chivalry is not yet. gone from earth, and that dragons are still to be found in the enchanted forest." - There was such a deep ring, aa of gold, in England's voice; and such an. Undercurrent of pain and- missed opportunity, like the tolling of a dirge, that Lady Pelham's heart was torn, and became bursting with a desire to help that same rebirth of chivalry and knightly deeds upon earth; She laid her hand on his arnif-'" _ ■:;:-,-.■:_ ; . ■■ "If I were Tom England," she said, "I would not yet give over. Rather a plank in the ocean, a gallant struggle, one last ijght for 'that same year of life, ifl were a leader of anen, I would not suffer myself -to-be led meekly like - an ox to the slaughter by men." "A plank ?" said Mr England, looking at the great wayesi " Ah; lady, not a piank !" v ; ■;•;:-:- : . " • ■. ■*-*'oPhß x plank -was. a figure," said Lady Pelham. " Can "you not think out some stratagem*— some desperate chance?" " "And leave you ?" exclaimed Mr England. "Ah, beautiful princess!'*

"At the end of . such a year as you spoke of," said Lady Pelham, " you could seek me out, and come before me, baling the dragon 'after you/ "And the reward ?" said Mr England. "The year were its own reward," said Lajdy Pelham. .'"True," said Mr England, dolefully. "Then you wish me to escape?" ? . ''Oh, I do !" said Lady Pelham, vehemently. "I bless you for that," said Mr England. Then he looked into her eyes for some moments. " Thank God !" he said at length. "My lot is happier than that of kings and emperors, for in my life I have found one 'person I can trust." Lady Pelham's eyes filled with tears. '•And: you' will try," she said. " for my sake?" "

"Listen, dearest lady," said Mr England. " -It has come to my mind that when . 1 am cut oft from the sight of your brifcht eyes I must have leisure wherein to turn back my heart and recollect them. Therefore, being a man of some resource— the result, of experience, not boasting*-— I did decide to essay one desperate chance. " ■';:-" Ah i" : ' said Lady Felham. " And that—" : " 1 baye some power over nature," aaid Mr England, mysteriously, "and I haye altered the course thereof." •" Altered the Course of nature 1" said Lady Pelham. "Mr England took from a pouch apiece of heavy stone, the colour of lead, and H|he size of a thumb-nail. "I had two of these," said ho. "You * have heard how the coffin of Mohammed was- raised fr-pm the floor of his tomb by the power ■ "Of tho roof, Hphich was lodestone. This is part of the roof of Mohammed's tomb, and so was the other piece. The other piece is now playing ' ducks and drakes with the mariner's compass by which our good captain confidently thinks he is the Hynd Horn for the port . where I am to be banged. As a matter of fact, she has been running In a somewhat south- . erly direction. Strange ports offer Btrange chances to those who ere willing to chance ifc." Mr England laughed softly out of pure satisfaction. "And now," said he, "observe our astute captain and his able officers. It is twelve o' the clock, and they are about to take the sun with the sextant, and locate our exact whereabouts upon the face of the -waters. But they win not do this, because our prying skipper shall find within a minute that his inetrumenfc—by the way, the only one now on board — has been - irreparably deranged." Mr England smiled blissfully at Lady Tfelbaxn, and immined from the ancient ballad of Sir Patrick Spens the lines : i O whare will I get a Bkeely skipper To sail this new ship of mine ? , . " And, thank God," said Mr England, "there is one person in the world to whom I caij, tell ttfiis thing." " You trust me like that ?" said Lady Felhani,- a tender light in her oyes. "I trust you," said Mr England, "more than I trtwt myself." The captain and his officers stood for a long time scratching their ieatfs. "At any rate," the captain had said to his officers, "we can trust to our compass, which is an excellent instrument of the latest pattern. At night we must watch out with redoubled vigilance, lest we fall a prey to some unchartered body of land. But it's God's own pity that so pretty a soxtant should Have met with «o untimely an *nd," Though, the oiighta trere clou-Jy the

veather held, to the satisfaction of all n >n board, especially to that of the. cap- ts ;ain and Mr England, lor each was a kolding himself responsible for the navi« C jation of the ship. Each spent several 4 lours a day in reassuring Lrtdy Pel- « mm. The captain told her thai the » siny Bhores of Massachusetts was dead t ihead. Mr Englamd spoke Jf p-'lnis and * jjuavas. * , "It is so warm," said the captain, * sententiously. to Lady Pelham, " be- * iause we are approaching the New World, ' .vhere it is warmer than witu us." "It is so warm," said Mr i':igland, • because we are approaching O;o cqua- 1 :or, where it is hotter than In the in- j f 'ornal regions," " O Lord," said Lady Telham, on her mees, "make it right for me not to betray his secret, for ho is mine own tiue penitent, anil I am thy daughter that idores thee." One morning tho fan of a palm was seen by Mr England to pass to leeward in the boil of waters. A little later he showed Lady Pelham a school of flying fishes, and about noon the look-out cried to those on deck that he teheld land under the port bow. Tho two faces which Mr England wore as tho IJynd Horn bore down on that island —for islaoid it now showed itself to I c— were of an exact opposltoness. To the captain he showed a drawn Hr— a beginning of-the-end face, as it were— to Lady Pelham the most dancing of eyes, the most radiant of smiles. But if Lie expression of his face was joyous vhui re tuimil i> on Lady Pelham, what iiiJ'Jt hive l>ee" the feeling in his breast v;l.en the dim blui&h cloud on the .horiaon l-ogaa to assu'u«i a familiar sha^a 7 " • ]\ y the spui-'i-:- r !" :rieo Mr Knc Itwl' heart, "I i?.«s It it. the null on the very head." The Hynd Horn ran neaiw si.nd nearer to the island, aud the captain, who was forward, glass at eye, suddenly lurched like a drunken man. Ha Made a new focus and looked again. '.' My God !" he cried— "• palms I" Mr England was at his elbow. " The tropics !" said he, sweetly. " This is the devil, Mr England, ' said the captain. " I begin to think it is," said Mr England. " Sir ; '.the loan of your glass." Mr England looked long and eagerly, and his heart leaped and bounded, but he kept countenance. - «■ " Sir," said he, " these waters are familiar to me, and we are in invaiinent danger of our lives ; wo are In the midst of shoals and reefs— ' " Condemn that sextant j ' cried th 0 captain. " Sir," said Mr England, " I beg you to let me take the wheel before all is lost." "We will turn bock," said the captain. He was dazed at finding his ship so far to the southward. " "It were foolhardy to turn back," said Mr Engjland,. " .We ha»ve no &extant, and. the compass has proved as fickle as woman, I beg you, sir, let me take the wheel. There is not a moment to lose. We can talk as— as we save our lives." The two gentlemen hurried aft, andilr England snatched the wheel from the helmsman's hand, _"Ah!" he sighed, as if reliovcd of a great burden. " And now, sir, what do you intend ?" asked tho captain. " That island," said Mr England, " is a great putting-in place for ships short of water and supplies. It is inhabited by a gentle race of— of islandors. who will treat us with courtesy, I propose to conduct the Hynd Horn to a safe anchorage, and there we must lie until some other ship touches and we can beg a sextanfr. Sir, I pray that you will send a safe man forward to take tho soundings." " I will do it myself," said the captain. " Sir, you are proving yourself a man of spirit and resource." " I think I am," said Sir England to himself when the captain had gone forward. He patted the wheel, and added : " Oh, the simplicity of steering through imaginary shoals and reefs 1" Presently the captajn cast the lead. -' <Mr England," he cried, " there is no bottom." "Thank God!" Mr England called back, " Then we are in the channel." The Hynd Horn was now skirting the shore of the island within three cable lengths. Mr England still steered, and the captain still cast the lead and found no bottom. Lady Pelham was standing close to Mr England. "' It is a sweet place," said she. " Sweeter than you know, lady," said he. "Do you notice anything particular about the scene 7" " Only that it is fresh and green and beautiful— a blessed island !" said Lady

beautiful— a blessed island

said Lady

Pel ham. "Mark," said Mr England, "how the frothy blue waves lap the white sands on the one side, and to the other come troops of trees and greenery that kneel and bow like worshippers." " air England," cried the lady, In excitement, "it is not — it cannot bo your island ?" "In th© midst of doubt," said Mr England, " we must turn to tho poets." JHe raised his shapely head proudly, and turned ids eyes on the lady, " Princess," he said, " I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute. From the center all round to the sea lam lord of the fowl and tho brute." *' You terrify me," Said Lady Pelham, " when you look like that." " Oh, my lady," cried Mr England, " ray good, jay blessed angel, how can I terrify you ?" " I have given you my trust," said Lady Pelbwn, " and I will not fear you any more." " My people shall be your lambs," said Mr England. The shores kept unfolding great beauties,- so that it was a sheer delight to look upon them— on the surpassing freshness of the green, the wonderful whiteness of the sands, the slender perfections of the palms, the bright»coloured flashes from the flowers. The extreme coquetry of nature ornamented those shores. Now and again the captain's voice arose from the main chains, where ho was using the lead :. " There is no bottom." Now and again Mr England epoke reassuringly to Lady Pelham. (To be Continned)