The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, 2 July 1914, Page 5

The Storyteller

(By John Boyle O’Reilly.)

MOONDYNE

Continued

BOOK SECOND.—THE SANDALWOOD TRADE.

COUNTERMINING THE MINER.

Will Sheridan’s life on the Canton was a restless and unhappy one from the night of his altercation with Draper. He was daily associated with a man who had exposed his own villany ; a caitiff so vile, that he had sought, and probably still intended, to blight the life of a girl he had known from childhood. The discipline of the ship required a certain courtesy and respect towards the first officer. This formal recognition Will paid, but nothing more. A few days after this meeting, Draper made an advance toward intimacy; but this was repelled with such cold severity as showed him that he had nothing to expect in future from Sheridan’s forbearance. ‘ Do you dare to address me as a friend again Will said, sternly; ‘I shall write to England from the first port, and expose you as the scoundrel you are.’ Draper’s dry lips his lips were always —moved as if he were speaking, but no words came. His shallow eyes became wells of hate. He passed by Sheridan without reply, and went to his room. There are a hundred ways in which the chief officer of a large ship can grind his inferiors ; and Sheridan every day felt the subtle malevolence of his enemy. But these persecutions he did not heed. He knew that underneath these symptoms lay a more dan circus rancor that, sooner or later, would try to do him a deadly injury. . What the form of the attack might be, he knew not. But he prepared himself for emergencies. Will Sheridan was not only a brave and straightforward young fellow, but he had a clever head on his shoulders.

} Why should I let this cunning scoundrel injure me? he asked himself. His villany is easily seen through,— and I’m going to watch him closely.’ He did watch him, and it served him well. Every secret and dangerous move he saw and disarranged. A trumped-up plan of mutiny among the men —which would have excused bloodshed, and the shooting of an officer, perhaps, by accident—he nipped in the bud, and almost exposed the machinations of him who hatched it. Draper soon understood that he was playing with his master, and changed his method. He began to wait for an opportunity instead of making one. his will be the case almost invariably; when honest men are fighting cowards. and slanderers, the surest way to defeat them is by constant watchfulness. Evil-minded people are generally shallow, and easily countermined. Only, when they are countermined, they should be blown up, and never spared. he Canton touched at Singapore for orders, and was detained a week. Will Sheridan resolved that on the night before she sailed he would leave the ship. Draper seemed to divine his purpose, and watched him like a tiger. But Will’s constant attention to duty, and his equable temper, deceived the watcher. The night before the Canton was to sail, Will dropped a bundle into a dinghy under the bow, swung himself after it, and went ashore. A close search was made for him next day by the police, headed by Draper, the law in those ports being rigid against deserters. But he could not be found, and the Canton sailed without her second officer.

The first thing Will Sheridan did when he knew he was out of danger was to write to Mrs. Walmsley, warning her of Draper’s marriage in India. This done, he set about getting some sort of employment. He was in a strange place, and he knew no business except that of the sea. In' a few days he shipped as mate on a barque bound for Western Australia, in the sandalwood trade.

A large and lucrative trade in sandalwood is carried on between China, India, and the Penal Colony. Vast districts in West Australia are covered with this precious wood, which is cut by ticket-of-leave men, and shipped to China and India, where it is used in the burning of incense in the Joss-houses or temples, and in the delicate cabinet and marquetry work which is so plentiful in oriental countries. This was a life that suited Sheridan’s vigorous temperament. He found his occupation pleasant, and would have quite forgotten the enmity of Draper ; but he still feared that his influence over Alice Walmsley had not been broken.

He spent a year in the sandalwood trade, and was thinking of taking a trip to England, when he received a package through the post office at Shanghai, containing all his letters, and a brief unfriendly message in Alice AValmsley’s handwriting, informing him that she was Captain Draper’s wife, and that she scorned the cowardly nature that sought to destroy an honorable man’s good name by malicious falsehood. Will Sheridan was . dumbfounded and grieved to the heart. In all he had previously borne, in his efforts to crush out of his heart a hopeless passion almost as strong as his life, he had, he thought, sounded the depths of his love for Alice Walmsley. But .now, when ho knew her utterly beyond his reach, and saw opening before her a desert life of misery and despair, the pity in his heart almost killed him. He would have given his life then that his enemy might be an honorable man. Her letter did not wound him, because he knew she had been deceived.

At first he knew not what to do. He feared he had been hasty—-he did not actually know that Draper was a villain his own accusing word was not enough, perhaps, or it might bear an explanation. Should he write to Alice and take back his cruel charges? Or should he remain silent, and let time unravel the trouble ?

To do the first would bo wrongto do the second might bo wofully unjust. The true course was to find out the truth to go to Calcutta and learn for himself and if he were wrong, to publicly make acknowledgment. if ho were right, ho could remain silent if it were for the best.

Two months afterward. Will Sheridan returned from Calcutta to Shanghai. lie had found out the truth. lie proceeded at once to Wcstci 11 Australia to join his ship, and from that time he wrote no more to England. One P a rt of his life, the sweet and tender part, without fault of his, had suffered wofully, and had died before his eyes. It was shrouded in his memory and buried in his hcait. Like a brave man, he would not sit and moan over the loss. lie set his face to his duty, hoping and praying that time would take the griawin° r pain, from his heart. a 1 111.

the SANDALWOOD agency

About a year after his trip to Calcutta, while his ship lay in Shanghai, Sheridan received an invitation to dinner from tho chief owner, a wealthy and acute old Scotchman, whose palatial residence and beautiful grounds overlooked the town. He was surprised at the courtesy, and showed the invitation to the captain, a. kind old sailor, who had formed an affection for Will from the first.

‘Go, go, my lad,’ said Captain Mathews. ‘lt’s a piece of luck, no doubt. I’ve hoard that the old man lias a daughter, or a niece, though 1 believe she’s rather tough ; but -what’s that, when she has. a shipload of money? You’re in luck, youngster; of course you'll go, and in your best rig. I’ll lend you my old clawhammer coat.’

‘Thank you. Captain,’ said Will, smiling inwardly, as his eye took in the short but portly dimensions of his old friend ; ‘ but I think I’ll go as a plain sailor, without any pretence of society dress.’ ‘Well, I don’t know but you’re right, Sheridan,’ responded the captain ; ‘ a sailor’s jacket is fit for any man or any place, when he who wears it loves his profession, and is worthy of it.’ That evening saw Will Sheridan enter Mr. MacKay’s drawing-room, as handsome and gentlemanly a fellow as ever gave an order through a trumpet. ‘ Mr. Sheridan,’ said the kind old merchant, coming forward to meet him, ‘ you are welcome for your own sake, and for’ that of a dear old friend. You are not aware, I think, that your father and I were midshipmen together forty years ago.’ Will was surprised, but gratified. He had half expected to be patronised, and indeed was more than half prepared to resent such treatment. Mr. Mac Kay presented Will to his family—Mrs. Mac Kay, an invalid, and his step-daughter. Miss Gifford, a handsome, buxom, good-natured maiden lady of a certain age. They were all very kind, and they treated Will as an old and privileged friend. He forgot all about the patronage, and enjoyed himself immensely. Such an evening of home life, after years of rugged seafaring, was delightfully restful. ° At dinner, Mr. Mac Kay recalled story after story of the time when he and Will’s father were careless youngsters on Lis Majesty’s ship Cumberland. Will was still more surprised to find that. Mr. Mac Kay had recently been in communication with his father.

‘I saw your papers, Mr. Sheridan,’ exclaimed Mr. Mac Kay; ‘and knowing that my old friend was in the Coastguard Service in England, I wrote to him. I found I was right in my conclusion ; but I thought I would sav nothing about the matter for some time. You will pardon mo when I tell you that I have been observing you closely since you entered the service of our Company.’ This was the first reference to their relative positions which had been made.' Will did not know what to answer.

Ton have soon a good deal of our sandalwood trade,’ said Mr. Mac Kay, changing the subject; ‘what do you think of its prospects, Mr. Sheridan V 1 his was too extensive a question for Will, and he faltered in his reply. ile had, ho said, only considered ins own duties in the trade, and they offered a limited scope for observation. The old merchant, however, returned to the point. Captain Mathews tells mo that you have expressed to him your dissatisfaction at the management of our airs in Western Australia.' 'Ao, sir,’ answered Will with a smile, ‘not with the management, but with the mismanagement.’ . • Ah, just so,’ said Mr, Mac Kay; ‘we will talk more about this by-and-by.’ When the ladies had retired, Mr. Mac Kay again took up the subject. ‘\ou think our affairs in .Australia axe mismanaged, then V Well, sir, it appears to me there is no system whatever on the other side, so far as the Company’s interests are concerned.’ How is that asked the keen business man, opening his eyes. ‘ Fees not our agent purchase and ship the sandalwood ‘ Yes, ho certainly does, and that’s all he does—and that’s nothing,’ said blunt -Will, ‘at least for the Company's benefit ’ ‘ Please 'explain,’ said Mr. Mac Kay, nervously. Well,’ said Will, in his earnest way when interested, as you know, the sandalwood is cut away in the bush, from sixty to a- hundred miles from Hie shippingstation at Bun bury, lb is cut by ticket-of-leave men. From them it is bought by speculators, who team it to Bunbury : and from these fellows, who manage to control the wood, your agent buys it at the wharf, paying whatever price is asked.’ ‘ You would have him do more?’ asked Mac Kay. ‘ I would change the whole plan, sir, if it were my concern. First, I would lease all, or as much as I could, of the sandalwood land direct from the Government, then I would set my hired cutters to work, and thou carry the wood in my own teams to tho wharf. he original cost can be decreased at least 50 per cent. And besides this, there are other valuable substances, such as gum, tan-bark, and skins, that could bo carried and shipped at the same time.’ The merchant listened attentively to the broad outline of Will’s plans, which he spoke about quite freely, as 0110 outside the matter, but familiar with it. Mr. Sheridan,’ said Mr. Mac Kay at length, ‘our Company has decided to change our agent in Western Australia, and it gives me great pleasure to offer you the position. I will see,’ he added, interrupting Will’s surprised exclamation, ‘ that you shall have sufficient power at your disposal to carry out your ideas with regard to tho extension of tho trade.’ Will hardly heard another word for the rest of the evening. Ills mind scarcely took in the change, from the poor and unknown sailor, at one step, to a man of large influence and position, for such would be the Australian agent of so wealthy a Company. When ho returned to the ship, his face flamed with excitement, as he related the wonderful story to his old friend Captain Mathews, who became even more excited than Will—and declared many times over his glass of ‘Old Tom ’ that ‘ they were beginning to see tilings right at last,’ and that no man could do land business so well as him who was trained at sea,’ and vers other sentences filled with wisdom drawn from personal pride and marine philosophy.

(To be continued.)