Part 4 (2/2)
”He is in such haste that his lieutenant does not even talk of buying skins or oil from me”
”We require only fresh victuals and fresh water, Mr Glass”
”Very well,” replied the Governor, as rather annoyed, ”what the Halbrane will not take other vessels will”
Then he resu us?”
”For the Falklands, no doubt, where she can be repaired”
”You, sir, are only a passenger, I suppose?”
”As you say, Mr Glass, and I had even intended to remain at Tristan d'Acunha for some weeks But I have had to relinquish that project”
”I am sorry to hear it, sir We should have been happy to offer you hospitality while awaiting the arrival of another shi+p”
”Such hospitality would have been most valuable to me,” I replied, ”but unfortunately I cannot avail myself of it”
In fact, I had finally resolved not to quit the schooner, but to embark for America from tile Falkland Isles with out much delay I felt sure that Captain Len Guy would not refuse to take me to the islands I informed Mr Glass of my intention, and he remarked, still in a tone of annoyance,-- ”As for your captain, I have not even seen the colour of his hair”
”I don't think he has any intention of coe But it does not concern you, since he has sent his lieutenant to represent him”
”Oh, he's a cheerful person! One may extract tords froet coin out of his pocket than speech out of his lips”
”That's the iht, sir--Mr Jeorling, of Connecticut, I believe?”
I assented
”So! I know your name, while I have yet to learn that of the captain of the Halbrane”
”His nalishht have taken the trouble to pay a visit to a countrys formerly with a captain of that name Guy, Guy--”
”William Guy?” I asked, quickly
”Precisely William Guy”
”Who commanded the Jane?”
”The Jane? Yes The salish schooner which put in at Tristan d'Acunha eleven years ago?”
”Eleven years, Mr Jeorling I had been settled in the island where Captain Jeffrey, of the Berwick, of London, found me in the year 1824, for full seven years I perfectly recall this William Guy, as if he were before o of seal-skins He had the air of a gentleood-natured”
”And the Jane!”
”I can see her now at her s in the same place as the Halbrane She was a handsohty tons, very slender for'ards She belonged to the port of Liverpool”
”Yes; that is true, all that is true”
”And is the Jane still afloat, Mr Jeorling?”
”No, Mr Glass”
”Was she lost?”
”The fact is only too true, and the greater part of her creith her”
”Will you tellTristan d'Acunha the Jane headed for the bearings of the Aurora and other islands, which Willianize from information--”
”That came from me,” interrupted the ex-corporal ”And those other islands, may I learn whether the Jane discovered theh Willia from east to west, with a look-out always at the , for, if several whalers, ell deserving of credit, are to be believed, these islands do exist, and it was even proposed to give them my name”
”That would have been but just,” I replied politely ”It will be very vexatious if they are not discovered some day,” added the Governor, in a tone which indicated that he was not devoid of vanity
”It was then,” I resumed, ”that Captain Guy resolved to carry out a project he had long cherished, and in which he was encouraged by a certain passenger as on board the Jane--”
”Arthur Gordon Pym,” exclaimed Glass, ”and his companion, one Dirk Peters; the two had been picked up at sea by the schooner”
”You knew theerly
”Knew the? I should think I did, indeed! That Arthur Py to rush into adventures--a real rash Aone there at last?”
”No, not quite, Mr Glass, but, during her voyage, the schooner, it seeot farther than any shi+p had ever done before”
”What a wonderful feat!”
”Yes Unfortunately, the Jane did not return Arthur Pym and Willlam Guy escaped the dooot back to America, how I do not know Afterwards Arthur Pynorant As for the half-breed, after having retired to Illinois, he went off one day without a word to anyone and no trace of him has been found”
”And Willia of the body of Patterson, theled to the belief that the captain of the Jane and five of his coions, at less than slx degrees from the Pole