by Anthology
Instead of replying directly, Markham looked at Sir Harry, who at once took the hint, and said, with a shake of his head-
"No, Wyndham, I'm afraid there's no chance of that, or anything of the kind. In fact," he said, "I may as well tell you, and you gentlemen also," he continued, with a glance at the sailing-master and his chief mate, "that I have accepted the invitation to put into Utopia on the sole condition on which it was given, and I have pledged my word of honour for myself and everyone on board the yacht that no attempt will be made to learn anything that is not freely told to us, and even that if we learn anything by accident, we will behave both here and at home as though we had never known it.
"You see, we have not the slightest right to pry into the secrets or discoveries of our hosts, and I'm sure you will agree with me that in giving such a pledge I was making the least return I could for the kindness and assistance that I'm sure we shall receive on shore."
"Oh, quite so, quite so!" said the lieutenant. "Of course I was only joking. A man would deserve to be shot who did a caddish thing like that. Still, just now, you know, a forty-knot ship properly armed would be simply invaluable, not only to an individual nation like ourselves, but to the civilised world at large. You know what I mean."
"Ah, yes!" replied Sir Harry, his face becoming grave in an instant. "You mean, to chase that brute with the red flag and hunt him down to wherever his lair is. Yes, a ship that could do that would be cheap at a couple of millions, and I believe Europe would subscribe the money to buy it in a week, even if the Governments couldn't find it. I'd give ten thousand myself with pleasure."
"Pardon me," said Markham, turning round from the rail where he had been standing, pointing out the different features of the island to Violet, while Sir Harry was speaking. "But that sounds almost like a modern edition of one of the old pirate stories. Surely you don't mean to say that there are any pirates nowadays, either with black or red flags?"
"I am sorry to say that there is at least one," said Sir Harry; "and he can do more damage an a month than all the old pirates put together could have done in a year."
"What a villainous shame!" said Markham, looking for the moment graver and sterner than they would have thought possible. "That will be news for them ashore if you care to tell them the story. In fact, I'm afraid we shall put a considerable tax on your generosity in that way, for we haven't had any news from the outer world for quite twelve months now.
"But here we are at the entrance to the lagoon. What do you think of it? Don't you think our Utopia is a lovely land?"
"Lovely, indeed!" said Violet, who, during the conversation, had been looking about her with all her eyes, as though she could never get enough of the beauty of the scene. "I've heard and read all sorts of stories about the Pacific Islands, but I couldn't have believed that anything earthly could have been so beautiful as this."
And truly the scene that was visible from the bridge of the Calypso on which they were now standing was worthy of the enthusiasm of her words. Every colour that nature uses in painting her incomparable landscapes was here, either blended or contrasted to produce the most exquisite effects.
On land were mingled a hundred tints of green and gold, from the sombre hues of the banyan leaves to the golden ears of the patches of corn that were ripening on the upper hill slopes; trees and shrubs of every shape and height succeeded each other, from the lowly bananas to the towering palms and the splendid pines that crowned the higher summits of the mountain ranges; and, high above all, the bare, blue-grey cone of the volcano rose to crown a picture which no words could adequately describe.
But when, to the medley of hill and vale, mountain rock and ravine, presented by the island itself, were added the snowy white of the billows breaking on the long reef - which, save for one narrow opening, stretched from point to point across the bay - the emerald-green of the lagoon inside it, and, outside, the deep blue of the open ocean reflecting the sapphire of the cloudless sky, the picture became almost unearthly in its strange and varied loveliness.
The roar of the tumbling billows upon the reef sounded louder and louder in the ears of the Calypso's company as the Mermaid and her charge ran in towards the opening.
"I think I had better take your wheel now," said Markham to Sir Harry when they were within about five hundred yards of the reef. "This is rather a ticklish piece of steering for anyone who doesn't know the currents."
"I should think so," said Wyndham, looking ahead, as Markham went and took the wheel from the sailor who was steering. "I know I wouldn't care about the job of bringing a torpedo-boat in here in the dark. Why, there doesn't seem to be much more than sixty feet of clear water to get through. If this place were properly defended, it could be held against all the navies of Europe as long as they chose to stop here."
"Yes," laughed Sir Harry; "especially with one or two forty-knot cruisers dodging about outside and making a judicious distribution of torpedoes. What do you think, Topline?"
"I think, Sir Harry," growled the old salt, "that I'll believe in forty-knot cruisers when I sees 'em. If a speed like that's possible, why can't all the Governments of Europe, with all their money, build a cruiser that'll catch that craft, whatever she is, that's been playing up old Scratch among the Atlantic liners, according to the news we got at Sydney?"
"Because they don't know how," said Markham, without turning his head, "and because there are some secrets that money won't buy."
As he spoke, he gave the yacht's wheel a turn and swung her about four points to port, in imitation of a similar manoeuvre of the Mermaid, which was apparently running dead on to the reef. Within fifty yards of the white water the Mermaid shot across into the seething foam, doubled sharply, and ran to starboard at right angles to the yacht. This brought a strain upon the hawser, and as it came up dripping out of the water and tightened, Wyndham could not repress an exclamation of surprise.
"That's queer towing; what on earth is she doing that for?"
"You'll see in a moment," said Markham, giving a spin to the wheel and swinging the yacht round after the launch. By the tenseness of the rope, it was evident that the Mermaid was pulling very hard upon it. The Calypso came round, and then her stern swung with a rush into the swirling white water that was boiling about the narrow entrance.
Then, while the party on the bridge watched with barely concealed anxiety the breakers which every moment brought nearer, until they were roaring only a stone's throw away, the line slackened slightly, and just as the sailing-master, unable to contain himself any longer, sang out, "She'll be on the reef in a minute! Tell the launch to tow harder, man; can't you see she's going?" the foaming, tossing mass of breakers suddenly seemed to slide away ahead, and a minute later the Calypso had drifted through the opening stern first, and was floating motionless on the smooth, glittering water of the lagoon, with the Mermaid lying a few yards ahead of her.
"There's a twelve-knot current coming round the corner of that reef," said Markham, leaving the wheel and turning to the sailing-master. "You could no more tow a disabled ship through there than you could tow her over the reef itself. The only way to get the yacht in was to let her drift in - with a proper check on her, of course."
"I beg your pardon, young gentlemen," said Topline, 1ooking just a bit crestfallen. "I was wrong, and you were right. You know the place, and I don't; and I'll be hanged if I could have got her in myself."
The Mermaid now got under way again, and began to tow the Calypso across the lagoon towards the high bluffs at the southern arm of the bay. The bright, smooth water of the bay was already dotted by dozens of pretty little craft, canoes with outriggers, some double-hulled catamarans with great white sails that swept them along at a famous pace, others, canoes of the shape seen on the Canadian lakes and rivers, and others again just such craft as you may see any summer's day on the Thames between Putney and Richmond, large, roomy row-boats, slim outriggers, and broad, flat centre-boards, with their wide spread of snowy canvas.
&nb
sp; All came racing away with the land breeze from the head of the bay, where half a dozen jetties ran out into the water, and where, behind the snowy coral beach, the verdant shore was dotted with white houses, peeping out from shady groves of lime and orange trees and spreading tree-ferns, above which the stately palms lifted their gently-waving crests a hundred feet into the air.
The Calypso was soon surrounded by the light-heeled craft, and many a greeting of welcome was waved to the newcomers by their gaily-dressed crews, and, thus escorted, the yacht was towed to the bluffs. It looked as though the Mermaid was going to run her nose up against the huge frowning wall of rock that rose hundreds of feet above her, but within a couple of hundred yards of their base Markham went to the wheel again.
The launch swerved to port, and as he sent the Calypso after her, those on her bridge saw the wall of rock open into a vast arch, the apex of which was over two hundred feet from the water. They glided through this for a distance of about fifty yards, and then the half light of the tunnel gave place to the bright sunlight again, and they found themselves floating in a perfectly land-locked oval basin about a mile long by about three-quarters of a mile broad, and closed in on all sides by perpendicular cliffs rising sheer from the water to heights varying from eighty to a hundred and fifty feet.
"Here we are at last!" said Markham. "This is the dockyard of Utopia, and in a couple of hours your yacht shall be on the slips in the dry dock. Meanwhile, if you will come on board the Mermaid with me, we will go ashore."
CHAPTER III.
OLD FRIENDS AND NEW.
AS the Mermaid came alongside in obedience to a hail from Markham, the gangway steps were lowered, and Violet, Sir Harry, Lieutenant Wyndham, and the young Utopian went on board the launch, leaving the sailing-master to see the Calypso into dock.
Under the forward awning the introductions were repeated in more formal fashion, and as Violet shook hands with the Utopian girls, which she did with mingled feelings of slightly strained propriety and irrepressible admiration, she said, with a laugh-
"I see that in Utopia, at any rate, the vexed question of rational dress has been satisfactorily settled."
She spoke almost in an undertone, but her brother caught her words, and exclaimed, with more enthusiasm than discretion--
"Settled? I should think so! It's a perfect triumph of art and convenience over Mrs. Grundy and conventionalism. I hope you will take some patterns home with you, Violet."
His sister stole a sidelong glance, not at him, it must be confessed, but at Lieutenant Wyndham, and said, with just the faintest possible flush on her pretty cheeks-
"Oh, of course, it would be delightful, but- I am afraid you are forgetting the difference in climate. Miss Dora, here, for instance, looks entirely irresistible in Utopia at Christmas, but for her own sake, I should be very sorry to see her shivering in the Park in the severity of the British June."
"I should think so," said Dora also, with the faintest suspicion of a blush and a smile, that made Sir Harry wonder why he had never seen as pretty a girl as this in England. "Why, quite apart from the shivers, which would be uncomfortable enough, the people would think that I was one of the girls out of 'Utopia Limited,' trying a new sort of advertisement, and then, I suppose, some one would call a policeman, and give me in charge for outraging public decency."
"Very probably," chimed in Wyndham drily; "and the first to do it would be one of the women who go to a dance or a theatre, well--"
"Thanks, Lieutenant Wyndham," almost snapped Violet, this time blushing in real earnest. "You seem to forget the last time that you and Harry took me to the theatre. Suppose we change the subject. 1 ought to have known better than raise such a purely feminine question in the presence of unregenerate males. No, don't apologise; I deserve what I got. If you say another word, I won't speak to you for the rest of the day."
Anywhere else a certain amount of awkwardness might have followed this little scene, but Dora promptly came to the rescue by saying very demurely--
"Well, it's only about three years since we left England, and I have not forgotten the weather yet. I don't think there can be any more comparison between your dress and ours than between the British climate and this one. At any rate, I can promise that when you have succeeded in reforming your climate, we girls of Utopia will form a mission and go and try and reform your dress."
By the time the laugh that followed this sally had died away, the Mermaid had run alongside a jetty which ran out from a platform of rock at the head of the basin, and was made fast.
"Why, bless my soul! surely that can't be Mr. Austen-- and yet I'll be hanged if it isn't either him or his double! How do you do, sir? Who on earth would have dreamed of finding you in Utopia?"
By the time he had uttered the last words of his somewhat disjointed exclamation, Sir Harry had cleared the gangway between the Mermaid and the jetty with a couple of strides, and was shaking hands with a man of spare figure and medium height, with a keen, intellectual, clean-shaven face and close-cropped grey hair, who was standing on the jetty, forming a somewhat commonplace contrast in his easy, fitting brown holland Norfolk jacket and trousers and grey solar topee to the picturesquely-clad little group about him.
"And equally who in Utopia would have dreamed of having the pleasure of wishing a merry Christmas in the Southern tropics to Sir Harry Milton and his charming sister?" said the old gentleman, returning the Baronet's grip with equal heartiness, and then letting go his hand to hold his own out to Violet, whom Lieutenant Wyndham had just handed ashore.
"For such pleasure as there is in that, Mr. Austen, you must thank a combination of good and bad fortune, which has brought us out of the matter-of-fact world that we sailed from into-- well, into some realm of romance which really doesn't seem as though it were on the surface of the same planet," said Violet in response to his greeting.
"This has really been a morning of wonders for us, and, finding you here after your mysterious disappearance from London, is certainly the greatest wonder of all. I can tell you I feel even more than the usual feminine curiosity to know how it has all come about. For my own part, I feel something like Alice in Wonderland, only the Wonderland is a very much nicer one."
"And all the wonders shall be explained in due course as far as I can explain them, I can assure you," said Mr. Austen; "but our first duty is to make you feel a little bit at home in Wonderland, so you must come and be introduced to some of its inhabitants. Me you know already, and you seem to have made friends with the Mermaids too. This is Edward Adams, who would be first President of Utopia if we had any Government or politics, which I thank Heaven we have not. He is the man who conceived the ideal of which Utopia is the realisation."
As he said this, he presented her, with a gesture which included her brother in the introduction, to a tall, well-built, grave-faced man of about thirty-five, with crisp, curling brown hair and a blond close-clipped beard and drooping moustache, which was not quite thick enough to conceal the gravely pleasant smile with which he bade them welcome to Utopia.
"And this is Max Renault, our chief engineer and electrician, to whose genius the existence of the Mermaid is due," continued Mr. Austen, presenting the man whose acquaintance the reader has already made under such different circumstances. Like Adams, he was dressed in the Utopian costume; but distinguished and even handsome as he looked in it, Violet somehow found herself unable to return his readily offered hand-clasp as heartily as she had returned those of Adams and Mr. Austen. The man seemed to her to have a reserved or rather a concealed power about him, which, to her woman's swift intuition, seemed to strike her with a vague sense of deceit. When Lieutenant Wyndham was presented to him, after being introduced to Mr. Austen, he looked at him keenly for a moment, and then said--
"I'm afraid I can't claim the pleasure of your previous acquaintance, Mr. Renault, but somehow your face seems familiar to me."
"It is quite possible that it is sufficiently commonplace for you to mistake me for s
ome one else," replied Renault, with a smiling politeness that contrasted but ill with the vision of recollection that flitted before his mind's eye as he shook Wyndham's hand.
"And now," said Mr. Austen, when the introductions had been completed, "if you like, we'll have a turn round the dockyard while they are getting your yacht on the slips, and then we can go on board the Mermaid again and run round to the settlement, and get some lunch and find you quarters."
During the inspection of the dockyard, which occupied the next hour or two, both Sir Harry and Lieutenant Wyndham were amazed to see how much had been done in the three years that they were told the Utopians had spent upon the island.
There were three basins, partly natural and partly artificial, which had been fitted with sluice-gates moved by hydraulic power, the largest of which, the one the Calypso was being put into, would have taken a vessel twice her size, while the other two would amply have accommodated a craft of three hundred tons.