UNDER FALSE PRE TENCES

Thames Advertiser, Volume XVII, Issue 6050, 14 April 1888, Page 4

UNDER FALSE PRE TENCES

■A NOVEL. j BY ADELINE SERGEANT, j Author of "Jacobi's" "Mart ', Devekil's Diamond," &c. CHAPTER XXXVI.-Bv land, AND SEA. : ;

" Mine's Thomas Jackson, sir ;andj the bo'sun's name it is Fall—Andrew,! Pall And the passenger, sir 1 Steer-' age he was; he was called Mackay.": °" No he warn't," said the boatswain, in a gruff tone. "Saving your presence sir, his name was Smith." "Mackay," said the mate, with equal postiveuess. " And a fine fellow he was too, and one of the best for cheering us up with his stories and songs : and not ahove a bit of prayer, too, when the worst came to the worst. I heard him myself." "No sign of your friend here, Mr Heron I'm afraid," whispered the ship's officer. !

" I am afraid not. .Was there a pasr senger on board the Falcon called Strotton?" •

" No, sir. I'm sure o'that." « Or-Luttrell ?"

Percival Heron knew woll enough that no such name had been found amongst the list of passengers; but he had a vague notion that Brian might have resumed his former appellation for some reason or other after he came on board. Thomas Jackson considered the

subject for a few miuutes. | " I ain't rightly sure, sir. Seems tjo me there was a gent of that name, or something like it, on hoard! but if so he was amongst those in the other boat.' " 1 should like to & e this man Mackay —or Smith,', said Perciyal. : '

The berth in which the steerage passenger lay was pointed out to him : he looked at the face upon the p ;i low and shook his head. A rough, reddened, face it was, with dirt grained into the pores, and matting hair and beard : not in the least like the countenance of the man whom he hod come to seel'- ; ."We may fall iu with the other boat," suggested the office. ; But though the steamer went out of her course in search of it, and a careful watch was kept throughout the day arid- iiight, the other boat could not be seen. <'■

CHAPTER XXXVII.-Wrecked

Percival cultivated acquaintance with the'two sailors, and tried to obtain from them some description of the passengers on board the Falcon. But description was not their forte. He gained nothing but a clumsy mass of separate facts concerning passengers and crew, which assisted him little h forming an opinion as to whether Brian Liittrell had, or had not, been on board. He was inclined to believe not.

" But he seemed to have a slippery habit of turning' up in odd places, where you don't in the least expect ito find him," soliloquised Percival over a cigar. " Why couldn't he have stayed comfortably dead ri that glacier ? Or why did the brain fever not carry him off? He has as many lives as a cat. He, drowned or buiat, when the Falcon was on fire? Not a bit of it. I'll believe in Mr Brian Luttrell's death when I've' seen him screwed into his coffin, followed him to the grave ordered a headstone,aud written his epitaph. And even then, I should feel that there was no knowing whether he had not buried himself under false pretences, and was, in reality, enjoying life at the Antipodes. I don't know anybody ejse who can bo, 'like Cerebus, three gentlemen at once.' I shall nail him to one alias for the future, if I catch him. But there seems very little chance of my catching him at all. I've come on a wild-goose chase, and can't expecti to succeed."

This mood of comparitive depression j did not last long. Percival felt certain ] that the other boat would be overtaken, ] or that Brian would he found to have j sailed in another ship. He could not - reconcile himself to any idea of return- ] hg to Elizabeth with his task half done. , They were nearing the Equator, and . ike heat of the weather was great. It , was less fine, however, than was usually ( the ease, and when Percival turned into • his berth one night, he noticed the stars were hidden, and that rain was beginning to fall. He slept lightly, and woke now and then to hear the swish of the water outside, and the boat of the engines, the dragging of a rope, or the step of a sailor overhead. He was dreaming of Elizabeth, and that she was standing with him beside Brian Luttrell's grave, when suddenly he woke with a violent start, and a sense that the world was coming to an end In another moment he was out of his berth and on the floor. There had been a scraping sound, then a crash— and tkeu tke engines had stopped, There was a swaying sensation for a second or t«o, and then another hump, Percival knew instinctively what was the matter. The ship had struck. After that moment silence there was au outcry, a trampling of feet, a few minutes wild confusion. Tke voice of tke captain rose strong and clear above tke kubub as ke gave kis orders. Percival, already.half dressed, and madejhis appearance on deck and soon learned what was .the matter, The ship had struck heavily twice, and was now filling as rapidly as possible. The sailors were making preparations for launching the long-boat. " Women and children first," said the captain in his stentorian tones, The noise subsided as he made his calm presence felt. The children cried indeed, and a few of the women shrieked aloud ; but the men, passeugors and creiv alike, bestirred themselves to collect necessary articles, to reassure the timid and to make ready the boats. Percival was amongst the busiest aud the bravest. His strength made him

useful, and it was easier for him to use it practical work than to stand and watch the proceedings, are even to console women and children. For one moment he had a deep bitter sense of anger against the ordering of his fate. Was he to go down into the deep waters in the hey-day of his. youth and strength, before he had done his wo.ik or tasted the reward of the work well done ? Had Brian Luttrell experienced a like fate ? And what would become of Elizabeth, sitting lonely in the midst of splendours which she had felt were not justly hers, waiting for weeks and months and years perhaps, for the lovers who would never come back un? til the sea gave up its dead. Percival crushed back the thought. There was no time for anything but action. And his senses seemed gifted with prenatural acutenes=. He saw a child near him put her hand into that of a soldierly-looking man, and heard her whisper—"You won't leave me, papa ?" And the answer-" Never, my darling. Don't fear." Just behinh him a man whispered in a ear —" Poigive me Mary." Percival wondered vaguely what that woman had to forgive. Hene.er saw any ofthe speakers again. For a strange thing happened. Strange, at least, it seemed to him ; but he understood it afterwards. The ship was really resting upon a ledge of the rock on which she had struck ; there was littleto be seen in the darkness except a white line of breakers and a mass of something behind—was it land? The ship gai'ea sudden outward lurch. There went up a cry to heaven—a last cry from most of the souls on board the ill-fated Arizona— and then came the eud. The vessel fell over the edge of the rocky shelf in. to deep water and went down like a stone. ' Percival was a good swimmer and struck out vigoursly, without aiiy expectation, however, of being able to maintain himself in the' 1 water for more than a very short time. Escape from the tangled rigging and floating pieces of the wreck was a difficult matter; but the water was very calm inside the reef and not at all cold. He tried to save a women as she was swept past him ; for a time he, supported a child, but the effort to save it was useless. The little creature's head struck against some portion of the wreck and it was killed on the spot. Percival let the little dead face sink away from him and swam further away from the spot where it went down. ....'' „

" THere must be others saved as well' as myself," he thought, when he was able to think at all coherently. "At least let me keep myself up till daylight. One may see some way of escape then." It had been three o'clock when the ship struck. ,He had remembered to look at his watch when he was first aroused. Would his] strength last out till morning ? ■■-'■■■■•" ■■• If his safety had depended entirely on his swimming powers he would have been in evil case. But long before the faint streak of dawn appeared, it seemed to him that he was coming in contact with something solid—that there was something hard and firm beneath him which he could touch from time to time. The truth came to him at last. The tide was going down ; and, as it went down, it would leave a portion of the reef within his reach. There might be some unwashed point to which he could climb as soon as daylight came. At ■ ■ any fate, : as the waters ebbed, lie found that he could cling, to the rock, and then that he stand on it, although the waves broke over him at every moment arid "gbraetimea nearly washed him 1 from his hold.

Never was daylight more anxiously awaited. It came at last; a faint grey light in the east, a climbing Hush ( of rose-colour, a host of crimson wavelets on a golden sea. And, as soon as the darkness disappeared, Percival foupd that his conjecture was a correct one He was not alone. There were others

besides himself who had won their way to even safer positions than h's own.. Portions of the reef on which the skip had struck were to he plainly above the sea-level; it was plainly seen that tliey were rarely touched by the salt water,for there was an attempt at vegetation in one or two places. And beyond the reef Percival saw land, and land that would be easy enough to reach, He turned too look for the remains of the Arizona, but there was little to he seen. The tops of her masts were visible only in the deep water near the reef. Spars, barrels, articles of furniture, could here and there be distinguished; nothing ,of value or of interest. Percival determined to fry for the shore. But first he would see whether ho could kelp tke otker men whom he had discerned at a little distance from him on a higher portion of the reef. TO BE CONTJiJUEp