The Storyteller. A MAN IN A MILLION

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 294, 28 May 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Storyteller. A MAN IN A MILLION

CHAPTER VI. McGregor had felt very lonely all the time his people wero absent. Business was ' slack ' at the count-ing-house, although any day a ship might arrive, and when it did, he determinrd to sell off all his ivory and gums and spices, and thus clear off hia debt to his partner. But there was no occasion for uneasiness. One morning when McGegor went to the roof as usual to scan the horizon, his heart gave a joyful bound to notice, far away across the water, a long trail of smoke, and presently he could descry the steamer itself. He ran down below for his best telescope, and balancing it on the edge of the parapet, scanned her long and earnestly. It was not the " Mahe,', neither waa it the •' Wasp," or any other expected man-o'-war. It must be a merchant ship, and now was his chance. How delightful it would be if he could sell hia ivory and gums, and have them all shipped off before Clements returned! He looked at his watch. It was barely seven o'clock. Van Doomp would not be up yet for hours. Happy thought! He would steal a march on the thin-lipped old Dutchman. " Everything is fair in business," he said to himself, as he swallowed a cup of coffee. In another quarter of an hour he waa on the beach, and had hired an Arab boat to take him away to meet the stranger. In an hour more he was walking the decka of the screw-ship " Lock Awe," and bargaining with her captain for the disposal of his stores. The "Loch Awe " was in ballast and was willing to load up at once. " In fact, sir, the sooner the better," said the master mariner , " so if your stuff is in good trim, and you can give us coolies to help us, we shall get it on board tomorrow, stow it, and pay for it." " Therp, now V said McGregor rubbing his hands with delight, " that sounds like business," u Well, it is a business that is settled. So shake hands. I called at Comoro on my way from the Cape, and the English consul there gave me the address of Van Doomp, but I'm glad I've met a brother Scot. However," he added, " if he has anything we have room for, I can take that also." " My dear sir, you won't have room for me alone." " Well, well, well: bub come down below and breakfast, and see the English papers. They're only two months old. Are you hungry 1" " Aa a hunter. I was not hungry when I started, but I am now." They had a deal to talk about, those two Scotchmen, and before they had finished breakfast they heard the rattle of the cable as the anchor was being let go. On deck they went now, and the first man they saw spring over the gangway was Van Doomp himself. He was smiling and anxious, and looked full of intended business. His face fell considerably, however, when he noticed McGregor, and he bit his thin lipfa with vexation. McGregor could not resist the temptation to give him a quiet dig," as he called it. " Ah! Good morning, Van Doomp. I seo you don't go in for early rising. Ha, ha ! Well, Van, the early bird picks up the worm.' Van Doomp looked at McGrngor for a moraens over his glasses, then he answered slowly and pointly—- • You haf been oop rait de lark dis morning, my friendt, but maybe der vhas some slips between de cup and de lip. You remember dot V McGregor did remember it. He had bitter cause to do so. It wa3 his custom, when he wished to think, to walk out to 800-boo-boo to dine and sleep. This evening he went there early, and after dinner seated himself, as was his wont, in a rocker in the verandah, and lit his cigar, to smoke while he leisurely sipped his coffee. His thoughts to-night, however, were far from unpleasant. Indeed, he indulged himself in what might have been called castle-building had ho been a youger man. He was calm enough, nevertheless, to take a review of his whole position and his doings for the past dozen years. There was no doubt aboub it, his grave fault in business had been a ipecies of sanguincness which had amounted to rashness. Speculation is a fine thing if a man looks before he leaoa; when he does not do so it is onV par with the lowest species of gambling. McGregor had gambled and—lost. Well, ho had suffered for it; but the bitterest part of all his sufferings centred in Hilda. Again and again to-night the words of Irvine rose to hi 3 lips: " Why not take your daughter to the slave-market and sell her to the highest bidder, And he loved this daughter so, too. But what should he gain by marrying her to Clements, kindhearted fellow though he was 1 For himself, freedom from debt and care. For Hilda—misery. Ah, put it a 3 be would, he could not get over that awful thought. And now \t seemed to get closer hold of bis

heart, and he strove in vain to banish it. But what was he to do 1 Why the answer came as if an angel had whispered it to him. Pay his debts with the money he should possess to-morrow, then sell his share in the business and go to England. Boor he would bp, perhaps, to the end of his days, but he should be happy. Poor, because a large portion of his share in the firm of McGregor and Clements was already heavily mortgaged to his partner, but happy because Hilda would be happy. " I will do it,', he cried exnltingly at last. " I will purchase peace for myself and happiness for my child at any price. But—what is that glare above the treees 1 It is fire?" He ran to a little winding stair that led to the roof, and gazed away cityward. The night was dark, still, and cloudy. " Heaven help us all!" he exclaimed, "there cannot be a doubt about it. That is tire ! See how the glare mounts up and illuminates the clouds of rolling smoke !" A light breeze blew towards him frem the city, and the flames burst higher and higher, and now he could distinctly hear the hum of the shouting and frightened populace. It was the native town was on fire. Then he suddenly remembers that his stores stand almost in the centre of Zanzibar. Half-frantic, he decends, seizes his hat, and dashes away out and through the bush in the direction of the city. Except for the loss of life, which is ever a sad feature in a fire like this, the burning of the (native and slave buildings would be a small matter indeed, for the houses are mostly grass and mud, and therefore easily repaired. They bum quickly, too. There was a comfort in this thought for McGregor. The walls of his stores were three feet thick, and it was possible for the fire to sweep round and past it without doing it injury. Long before he reached the city he can hear the yelling and the shrieking of the multitude, with the weird-like beating of war tom-toms, and the occasional firing of shots, " Surely," he thinks, " there is not going to be bloodshed as well as fire !" And now he is out of the bush, and on a little eminence from which he can see far ahead. What a scene ! The fire has generated wind of its own, and the flames are bending before it in one long-yellow red, crackling line ; tongues of fire leaping high into the air, or darting ahead through the smoke and sparks to lick up fresh fuel for their vengeance. But it is on a peculiar portion of this fearful scene that the merchant's eye was rivetted —a huge, square building that the main line of tire had already left, but from each little narrow wmdow of which the flames are streaming in jets, while high over its roofs hovers a pall of the darkest smoke. It is the store where McGregor has housed his ivory and copal. He remembered then, if he had not before, the words of .Van Doomp—- " Der vhas some slips between de cup and de lip." (To he Continued.)