Part 26 (1/2)

Wylie was taken off his guard, and stammered out something about the _Shannon._

”The _Shannon!_ What have you to do with her? You belong to the _Proserpine.”_

”Ay, sir; but I had his orders to s.h.i.+p forty chests of lead and smelted copper on board the _Shannon.”_

”Well?”

”Ye see, sir,” said Wylie, ”Mr. Wardlaw was particular about them, and I feel responsible like, having s.h.i.+pped them aboard another vessel.”

”Have you not the captain's receipt?”

”That I have, sir, at home. But you could hardly read it for salt water.”

”Well,” said Wardlaw senior, ”I will direct our agent at Liverpool to look after them, and send them up at once to my cellars in Fenchurch Street. Forty chests of lead and copper, I think you said.” And he took a note of this directly. Wylie was not a little discomfited at this unexpected turn things had taken; but he held his tongue now, for fear of making bad worse. Wardlaw senior went on to say that he should have to conduct the business of the firm for a time, in spite of his old age and failing health.

This announcement made Wylie perspire with anxiety, and his three thousand pounds seemed to melt away from him.

”But never mind,” said old Wardlaw; ”I am very glad you came. In fact, you are the very man I wanted to see. My poor afflicted friend has asked after you several times. Be good enough to follow me.”

He led the way into the dining-room, and there sat the sad father in all the quiet dignity of calm, unfathomable sorrow.

Another gentleman stood upon the rug with his back to the fire, waiting for Mr. Wardlaw; this was the family physician, who had just come down from Arthur's bedroom, and had entered by another door through the drawing-room.

”Well, doctor,” said Wardlaw, anxiously, ”what is your report?”

”Not so good as I could wish; but nothing to excite immediate alarm.

Overtaxed brain, sir, weakened and unable to support this calamity.

However, we have reduced the fever; the symptoms of delirium have been checked, and I think we shall escape brain fever if he is kept quiet. I could not have said as much this morning.”

The doctor then took his leave, with a promise to call next morning; and, as soon as he was gone, Wardlaw turned to General Rolleston, and said, ”Here _is_ Wylie, sir. Come forward, my man, and speak to the general. He wants to know if you can point out to him on the chart the very spot where the _Proserpine_ was lost?”

”Well, sir,” said Wylie, ”I think I could.”

The great chart of the Pacific was then spread out upon the table, and rarely has a chart been examined as this was, with the bleeding heart as well as the straining eye.

The rough sailor became an oracle; the others hung upon his words, and followed his brown finger on the chart with fearful interest.

”Ye see, sir,” said he, addressing the old merchant--for there was something on his mind that made him avoid speaking directly to General Rolleston--”when we came out of Sydney, the wind being south and by west, Hudson took the northerly course instead of running through Cook's Straits. The weather freshened from the same quarter, so that, with one thing and another, by when we were a month out, she was five hundred miles or so nor'ard of her true course. But that wasn't all; when the leak gained on us, Hudson ran the s.h.i.+p three hundred miles by my reckoning to the nor'east; and, I remember, the day before she foundered, he told me she was in lat.i.tude forty, and Easter Island bearing due north.”

”Here is the spot, then,” said General Rolleston, and placed his finger on the spot.

”Ay, sir,” said Wylie, addressing the merchant; ”but she ran about eighty-five miles after that, on a northerly course--no--wind on her starboard quarter--and, being deep in the water, she'd make lee way--say eighty-two miles, nor'east by east.” The general took eighty-two miles off the scale, with a pair of dividers, and set out that distance on the chart. He held the instrument fixed on the point thus obtained.

Wylie eyed the point, and, after a moment's consideration, nodded his head.

”There, or thereabouts,” he said, in a low voice, and looking at the merchant.

A pause ensued, and the two old men examined the speck p.r.i.c.ked on the map, as if it were the waters covering the _Proserpine._