Part 4 (1/2)

Therapidly; before the end of the day nothing would reh up as the forty-fifth parallel

Captain Len Guy gazed at it steadily, but he now needed no glass, and presently we all began to distinguish a second object which little by little detached itself fro process went on--a black shape, stretched on the white ice

What was our surprise, , then a trunk, then a head appear, for a huarht that the limbs moved, that the hands were stretched towards us

The crew uttered a si, but it was slowly slipping off the icy surface

I looked at Captain Len Guy His face was as livid as that of the corpse that had drifted down from the far latitudes of the austral zone What could be done was done to recover the body of the unfortunate man, and who can tell whether a faint breath of life did not aniht perhaps contain some document that would enable his identity to be established Then, accompanied by a last prayer, those human remains should be committed to the depths of the ocean, the cemetery of sailors who die at sea

A boat Was let down I followed it with uerly set foot upon a spot which still offered soot out after him, while Francis kept the boat fast by the chain The two crept along the ice until they reached the corpse, then drew it to theot it into the boat A few strokes of the oars and the boatswain had rejoined the schooner The corpse, co been laid at the foot of theand closely, as though he sought to recognize it

It was the corpse of a sailor, dressed in coarse stuff, woollen trousers and a patched jersey; a belt encircled his waist twice His death had evidently occurred some months previously, probably very soon after the unfortunate man had been carried away by the drift He was about forty, with slightly grizzled hair, a onies of hunger

Captain Len Guy lifted up the hair, which had been preserved by the cold, raised the head, gazed upon the scaled eyelids, and finally said with a sort of sob,-- ”Patterson! Patterson!”

”Patterson?” I exclaimed

The name, common as it was, touched some chord in my memory When had I heard it uttered? Had I read it anywhere?

At this moment, James West, on a hint from the boatswain, searched the pockets of the dead , an empty tobacco box, and lastly a leather pocket-book furnished with a metallic pencil

”Give me that,” said the captain So, almost entirely effaced by the dae which were still legible, and ined when I heard hi voice: ”The Jane Tsalal island by eighty-three There eleven years Captain five sailors surviving Hasten to bring thenature, the name of Patterson!

Then I remembered! Patterson was the second officer of the Jane, the mate of that schooner which had picked up Arthur Py reached Tsalal Island; the Jane which was attacked by natives and blown up in the ar Poe's as that of an historian, not a writer of romance? Arthur Gordon Pym's journal had actually been confided to him! Direct relations had been established between them! Arthur Py! And he had died, by a sudden and deplorable death under circumstances not revealed before he had coe And what parallel had he reached on leaving Tsalal Island with his companion, Dirk Peters, and how had both of thehtinsane! No! I had not heard aright! I had misunderstood ! This was a mere phantom of my fancy!

And yet, hoas I to reject the evidence found on the body of the mate of the Jane, that Patterson whose words were supported by ascertained dates? And above all, how could I retain a doubt, after Ja us, had succeeded in deciphering the following frag since the 3rd of June north of Tsalal Island Still there Captain William Guy and five of theacross the iceberg food will soon fail me Since the 13th of June my last resources exhausted to-day 16th of June I a to die”

So then for nearly three months Patterson's body had lain on the surface of this ice-hich we had uelens to Tristan d'Acunha! Ah! why had we not saved the mate of the Jane!

I had to yield to evidence Captain Len Guy, who knew Patterson, had recognized him in this frozen corpse! It was indeed he wbo accompanied the captain of the Jane when he had interred that bottle, containing the letter which I had refused to believe authentic, at the Kerguelens Yes! for eleven years, the survivors of the English schooner had been cast away there without any hope of succour

Len Guy turned to me and said, ”Do you believe-- now?”

”I believe,” said I, falteringly; ”but Captain William Guy of the Jane, and Captain Len Guy of the Halbrane--”

”Are brothers!” he cried in a loud voice, which was heard by all the crew

Then we turned our eyes once ; but the double influence of the solar rays and the waters in this latitude had produced its effect, no trace of the dead e remained on the surface of the sea

Chapter VII

Tristan d'Acunha

Four days later, the Halbrane neared that curious island of Tristan d'Acunha, whichboiler of the African seas By that time I had come to realize that the ”hallucination” of Captain Len Guy was a truth, and that he and the captain of the Jane (also a reality) were connected with each other by this ocean waif from the authentic expedition of Arthur Pym My last doubts were buried in the depths of the ocean with the body of Patterson

And noas Captain Len Guy going to do? There was not a shadow of doubt on that point He would take the Halbrane to Tsalal Island, as marked upon Patterson's note-book His lieutenant, Jao; his creould not hesitate to follow hi the lined to huth of their lieutenant would be in them

This, then, was the reason why Captain Len Guy refused to take passengers on board his shi+p, and why he had toldthat an opportunity for venturing into the sea of ice ht arise Who could tell indeed, whether he would not have sailed for the south at once without putting in at Tristan d'Acunba, if he had not wanted water? After witat I had said before I went on board the Halbrane, I should have had no right to insist on his proceeding to the island for the sole purpose of putting me ashore But a supply of water was indispensable, and besides, it ht be possible there to put the schooner in a condition to contend with the icebergs and gain the open sea--since open it was beyond the eighty-second parallel---in fact to attempt what Lieutenant Wilkes of the Aators knew at this period, that fro of March was the liht be looked for The temperature is s break loose from the ns in that distant region

Tristan d'Acunha lies to the south of the zone of the regular south-inds Its cli winds are west and north-west, and, during the winter--August and September--south The island was inhabited, frolish soldiers were installed there to watch the St Helena seas, and these remained until after the death of Napoleon, in 1821 Several years later the group of islands populated by Aed the suzerainty of Great Britain, but this was not so in 1839 My personal observation at that date convinced me that the possession of Tristan d'Acunha was not worth disputing In the sixteenth century the islands were called the Land of Life

On the 5th of Septe volcano of the chief island was signalled; a huge snowcovered mass, whose crater formed the basin of a suish a vast heaped-up lava field At this distance the surface of the water was striped with gigantic seaweeds, vegetable ropes, varying in length from six hundred to twelve hundred feet, and as thick as a wine barrel

Here I shouldof the fragment of ice, Captain Len Guy came on deck for strictly nautical purposes only, and I had no opportunities of seeing him except at meals, when he maintained silence, that not even James West could have enticed hi convinced that the hour would coain speak to me of his brother, and of the efforts which he intended to make to save hi considered, that hour had not come, when the schooner cast anchor on the 6th of Septe, in Falmouth Bay, precisely in the place indicated in Arthur Pys of the Jane

At the period of the arrival of the Jane, an ex-corporal ol the English artillery, naned over a little colony of twenty-six individuals, who traded with the Cape, and whose only vessel was a small schooner At our arrival this Glass had more than fifty subjects, and was, as Arthur Pym remarked, quite independent of the British Government Relations with the ex-corporal were established on the arrival of the Halbrane, and he proved very friendly and obliging West, to who the water tanks and taking in supplies of fresh etables, had every reason to be satisfied with Glass, who, no doubt, expected to be paid, and was paid, handsomely

The day after our arrival I orous, well-preserved ent vivacity Independently of his trade with the Cape and the Falklands, he did an important business in seal-skins and the oil of marine animals, and his affairs were prosperous As he appeared very willing to talk, I entered briskly into conversation with thls selfappointed Governor of a contented little colony, by asking him,-- ”Do many shi+ps put in to Tristan d'Acunha?”

”As ether behind his back, according to his invariable custom

”In the fine season?”

”Yes, in the fine season, if indeed we can be said to have any other in these latitudes”

”I congratulate you, Mr Glass But it is to be regretted that Tristan d'Acunha has not a single port If you possessed a landing-stage, now?”

”For what purpose, sir, when nature has provided us with such a bay as this, where there is shelter froainst the rocks? No, Tristan has no port, and Tristan can do without one”

Why should I have contradicted this good man? He was proud of his island, just as the Prince of Monaco is justly proud ot his tiny principality

I did not persist, and we talked of various things He offered to arrange for me an excursion to the depths of the 5] thick forests, which clothed the volcano up to the middle of the central cove

I thanked hi to eical studies Besides, the Halbrane was to set sail so soon as she had taken in her provisions

”Your captain is in a remarkable hurry!” said Governor Glass

”You think so?”