CHAPTER LII.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1639, 6 January 1883, Page 5

CHAPTER LII.

Among the appendages of the Mafflic Lander was a dingy about five feet long, in which cockle-shell Mucklebody and myself went ashore after breakfast on the following morning, and had not threaded our way two hundred yards through the* timber before we tame upon our visitor of the night before, engaged upon a fallen tree with his axe. A half-shrewd, half -sleepy-looking fellow of about thirty, the daylight showed him to be, with,a brick-red face and a thin sandy beard. " About half-a-mile to the south-east," he drawled, in answer to our enquiry as to the whereabouts of Yallagon. "Know anybody jfoere ? You can't say, eh? We}l, now, that's curious 1" What was the size of the place, we asked him. About a dozen houses in it, he thought, yes, there was a general store in the township, and bpiknew the young man who had charge of if. What was he like ? Oh, a talli»h kind of a chap, with a big nose, and curly hair. ' A fellow that fancied himself a bit, our , informant reckoned. • ' This was Mr. Ben.Davis's description to the, life, and I was debating with myself yhether I would put any questions to this ,man about Rarrjisqn, when he anticipated me , pn the po|nt. , ' < • ,> „ "'fcbokttV after .his F visitor, eh?l? he suddenly asked, witha shrewdwink of his, email tgreyeye. „...«., " > :■«,<■•..' "What .visitor?" I returned. , , U( , " Ah !'! he said— l see by .your-iace jqaato;X 'ain't far out. Well, now s it it curious,, but^l happens to know something: about tKesyoung t feller that's stoppin 1 with Davis on the quiet ; .and the question is—by the way, though, you :aifi'toeeta, anything of the/Emu .tt^^^ormng,, tjhaye'ybu,-??', ;,, fJf , %* , l<&-, * ' -vA^W '«} ''fcft,^ Biugklflbody^jmuliter^M^ a *ft e mj||;,ttifo^

the Emu, and I answered uloud in the negative. "Not seen anything of her yet, eh? Curious that is 1 But, as I was sayin' just now, the question is— what will you pay me for what I can tell ?" " How do you know that the information would have any interest for us?" " Oh, come now," answered the strange individual, placing a muscular finger on the side of his sun-peeled nose. " That don't go down, you know. It is curious," he went on, bringing his mouth close to my ear ; " but I knew you were a D. the minute I set eyes on you." 11 A D. ?" I repeated. " What do you mean by a D. ?" " Well, then, a detective, if you want it spoke plain out." Though far from flattered by the man's mistake, I thought it might be as well for my purpose not to undeceive him, and I therefore only smiled without replying. " Ah— l knew it I" he said, with another wink. " Well, look here, now ; I don't suppose you're likely to pay for information before you knows what it's worth — so I'll just chance it, and tell you all I knows. First place," he went on, cutting a quid of tobacco, and seating himself upon the log — "my name's Caleb Hoskins, I works on and off, at the timber hereabouts, and sometimes I does a job for Joe Hutchinson." Mucklebody growled something unintelligiable about the everlasting Joe. "Long Joe Hutchinson, ' of Port Albert," went on the unmoved Hoskins ; " and Joe he asked me, the last time he was here, to be on the look out for the Emu, about yesterday. Curious thing, too, that she aint arrived. Well, I went down to Norton's Cove two or three times in the course of the day, to look for her. Norton's Cove's about a mile from Yallagon, and the last time I went down was about dusk in the evenin' — just before I came to you, You see, your cutter's just about the size of the Emu — that's why I boarded you. Well, I was sittin' quiet beside a big rock at the Cove, when I hears two voices at the other side of it, I knew them both ; one was Davis's and the other was his friend's that's stoppin' with him, as I said before, on the quiet. He's been there some 'time, but he never goes abroad till dark ; and the long and the short of it is," said Mr. Hoskins, getting up on his long legs again, " that he has some reason for wishin' to cross over to Tasmania, without makin' much fuss over his departure, and Davis is goin' to put him across the straits tonight." "How ?" I asked. "He has a big half-decked boat lyin' a goodish bit up the Tarwin, and he's goin'_ to start in her as soon as its dark. Now, I think that's worth half-a-sov, eh ?" " There's asoverign for you," I said. " And if you should be in Yajlagon to-day, there will be no pressing necessity for you to mention our presence in the river— you understand?" Mr. Hoskins nodded, pocketed the sovereign, and observed, as he took up his axe again. " Mum's the word I Look out sharp at dusk, There'll be a moon— so you'll have a fair show." A council of war was held when we returned to the cutter, and it was decided that, as Mucldebody and Shuter were unknown to Harrison, they should play the part of detective officers, with the view of frightening him into giving up the momentous book, as well as the deeds, if he had them. Fysshe and myself were to keep as much out of sight as possible, while the others boarded the fugitive craft. " She'll hae tae be an unco speedy ane if she has the heels o' the Maggie," said Mucklebody, affectionately patting the cutter's mast, " an' the win', if it haulds like this, will joost serve us." The day passed over without incident ; the evening shadows descended on the lonely Tarwin, and the moon, red and full, appeared in the dusky east. A sharp look-out was kept, but it was not until nearly eight o'clock that a white speck made it's appearance far away up the river. Our anchor was then hove short, the sails cast loose, and, with everything in readiness for a start, we waited while the boat, with a small easterly breeze, came swiftly down to us upon the ebb. When within about two hundred yards of us, however, those on board seemed to take alarm at the fact that our canvas was loose and ready for hoisting, and, as they hove her up into the wind, we could see that she was a yawl-rigged craft, about half the size of ours. "Let them go outside," said Mucklebody, as we saw the yawl fall off again on her course. " Get them weel ootside, whaur they canna rin her ashore, an' it'slang odds, but we'll hae the breeze a gude bit stiffer in the open water — which won't gie them a thance wi the Maggie." On came the boat, keeping well away to starboard of us, and it was not until we saw her fairly in the mouth of the inlet that we ran the anchor up and made sail in pursuit. The yawl sailed well, however, and, catching the breeze strong on her beam as she rounded into the open water, laid her head to the south, and went away from us hand over hand. " She is well handled," I said, regretfully, as the white canvas of the chase lessened in the moonlight. " I didn't expect either of the men she carries would have been so much at home in a boat." " My powers of vision," said Fysshe, " have always been considered exceptionally acute, and I am satisfied that I perceived three individuals on board that boat." "Ay," said Mucklebody, "an 1 the thitd ane's the sailor, depend upon't. But it's oor turn the noo, lads," he added, as the Maggie Lauder in turn had a pull taken at her mainsheet, and flashed the spray high over her weather bow as she lay over to a spanking breeze abeam. " A thocht sac," he went on, when a few minutes showed that we were unmistakably drawing up on the chase again. " If this haulds, it's a' up wi her." A heavy cloud now obscured the moon, a few drops of rain fell, and the breeze began to slacken. " Deil's in the rain !" said Mucklebody, as, giving me the helm, he went to put the cutter's gaff-topsail on her. " They'll be walkin' awa frae us the noo." And so it proved. When the moon came out again the yawl had recovered her advantage ; but the Maggie's topsail now began to tell, and for some time we held our own, and no more. But the rain held off, and again the ,wind freshened — freshened until we, had first to take in the topsail again, and then to take a reef in the mainsail. The mopn had clouded over once more, but we knew .that we must be closing up fast oh the yawl, when we suddenly caught sight of the red port light' of a steamer, moving down from the westward, arid not very far ahead" of us.. In the excitement of the chase we had hot noticed it before.v. v , At last the moon shone out more brilliantly', than ever, and showed us the yawl— closer than^we expected — holding on to cross the' course of the rapidy approaching steamer., ' "Boom for-them to pass?" asked Shuter. , Y«*Np',Yjerra m'iickle," answere^Mucklebddy: " An' the, skipper ,o' the- steamer winna thank them i |pr,shavin' it,<sae close. Gnde gni^ ,ua I l^efr, mail's, gane. | be rin doon,> ■as B.we*p fate )'{ t ',, t .,<>^ „ «, - . *„,_ •*, And so it was.' At'the very moment yrhei% the,yawl^«sfcrosjsin#the gtetmdr'f bOws/sh# carfiedlavay ;her |6ksr^dinSiB^Bnd;lay hdp-% less.i^th^wO^of^r^mjpii jfloniid^ring under^ tl»eff^en^ail^%We4MW4t^&ird^wh^3Br»f ( at| '(thejh'elmftapritfg 4n^&^water^Wfr|KM^aj. Jthe#>a^cryie«ffi'^ W-iiVw 3 "J *-.. ■r'^'.f-y'^-i- '-'Ai- '",'%&' ■-*

the yiiwl cut down and capsized, " Here ye are ! Tnis way, man 1" cried Mucklebody to the man who had leaped from the ill-fated yawl, and who was already swimming towards us, while one of the steamer's boat 3 was rapidly lowered and pulled back towards the drifting wreck. We soon had the man on board ; he was a stranger to me, so I concluded that Harrison and Davis had been under the sail — but neither of them was ever seen again. It is needless to recount the questioning and answering which took place before "the steamer hoisted up her boat, and proceeded on her voyage. The supposition of the captain was that the two crafts had been racing, and, as no good was to be done by removing that impression, we did not attempt to do so. " I'm very sorry for the poor fellows," he shouted from the bridge, as we lay hove-to within thirty yards of him — "but it was altogether their own fault. Why couldn't you take daylight for your racing ? There'll be a pretty to-do over this affair when I get back to Melbourne. It's the first accident that's happened with the Ararooma" The Ararooma 1 Yes ; it was the very steamer we had met as we came down the bay ! There was the name distinct in the moonlight. She was on her return trip to New Zealand. The man we had saved was a fisherman, he told us, and had been hired by Davis for the run to Tasmania and back. He was a stolid and taciturn kind of fellow, and, as he asked no questions about our reasons for chasing the yawl, we did not volunteer any information on the point. Scarcely had we filled away again for the shore, when Fysshe pointed out a small object tossing on the waves near us, but when, afte" some little trouble, we secured it, we found it to be only a small memorandumbook, with pencil notes in it, which we could see by the moonlight, but could not read. It might have belonged to either of the drowned men, and, though it did not appear to be of any consequence, I put it — fortunately, as it turned out — in my pocket. Beaching our anchorage again in the course of a couple of hours, we gave the fisherman a douceur, to compensate for his ducking, and put him ashore in the dingy. " Sad affair ! " said Shuter to me, before we turned in. " Settles our chance of getting any information out of Harrison." "No doubt of it," I Baid. "His was a miserable end to a miserable career." Happening, however, next morning, to take from my pocket the little book we had picked up, I opened it again, and was surprised to find that its contents were in Hebrew. I was sufficiently familiar with the appearance of the character to be sure of that, but of their moaning I had not the least idea, nor were any of my companions any wiser. " Soon get it translated in Melbourne," said Shuter. "Might be something worth knowing, since it's not in English. Was Harrison a Jew ?" " No ; but I rather think Davis was." We did not, however, have to wait till our return to Melbourne for a translation of the Hebrew memoranda. An account of the accident having been furnished to the solitary constable who represented la\v and order in Yallagon, he communicated with Davis's employer, a well-know and respectable Jew who lived at Port Albert. Mr. Silberberg arrived at Yallagon next day, and, at my request, wrote down for me the English of the Hebrew jottings, one part of which, to my surprise, ran as follows: — " Harrison is a fool. Must get him out of the way, and then try to make a rise myself on the deeds, &c. Names— Stone, Eaymond. Memo. — Box in hollow tree, third eastward from lightning." (To be continued.)