The House Under the Sea: A Romance Read online

  THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA

  A ROMANCE

  BY

  MAX PEMBERTON

  Author of Kronstadt, The Phantom Army, Etc.

  ILLUSTRATED

  NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1902

  Copyright, 1902 By MAX PEMBERTON

  All rights reserved

  Published September, 1902

  "Shall we go, or stay?"]

  CONTENTS

  I.--IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES KNOWN THE PURPOSE OF HIS VOYAGE TO THEPACIFIC OCEAN, AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT HE COMMISSIONED THESTEAM-SHIP SOUTHERN CROSS THROUGH PHILIPS, WESTBURY, AND CO.

  II.--WE GO ASHORE AND LEARN STRANGE THINGS

  III.--IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES UP HIS MIND WHAT TO DO

  IV.--WE GO ABOARD, BUT RETURN AGAIN

  V.--STRANGE SIGHTS ASHORE, AND WHAT WE SAW OF THEM

  VI.--JASPER BEGG MEETS HIS OLD MISTRESS, AND IS WATCHED

  VII.--IN WHICH HELP COMES FROM THE LAST QUARTER WE HAD EXPECTED IT

  VIII.--THE BIRD'S NEST IN THE HILLS

  IX.--WE LOOK OUT FOR THE SOUTHERN CROSS

  X.--WE ARE SURELY CAGED ON KEN'S ISLAND

  XI.--LIGHTS UNDER THE SEA

  XII.--THE DANCING MADNESS

  XIII.--THE STORM

  XIV.--A WHITE POOL--AND AFTERWARDS

  XV.--AN INTERLUDE, DURING WHICH WE READ IN RUTH BELLENDEN'S DIARY AGAIN

  XVI.--ROSAMUNDA AND THE IRON DOORS

  XVII.--IN WHICH JASPER BEGG ENTERS THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA

  XVIII.--CHANCE OPENS A GATE FOR JASPER BEGG, AND HE PASSES THROUGH

  XIX.--WHICH SHOWS THAT A MAN WHO THINKS OF BIG THINGS SOMETIMES FORGETSTHE LITTLE ONES

  XX.--THE FIRST ATTACK IS MADE BY CZERNY'S MEN

  XXI.--WHICH BRINGS IN THE DAY AND WHAT BEFELL THEREIN

  XXII.--THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTY HOURS

  XXIII.--THE END OF THE SIXTY HOURS

  XXIV.--THE SECOND ATTACK ON CZERNY'S HOUSE

  XXV.--IN WHICH THE SUN-TIME COMES AGAIN

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  "Shall we go or stay?"

  Like dancers at a stage play.

  A picturesque old figure standing there.

  She looked at me with her big, questioning eyes.

  We were all sitting at the supper table.

  The drawing-room is a cave whose walls are of jewels.

  "If there is a sound at the door, fire that gun."

  Another man fell with a loud cry.

  THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA

  CHAPTER I

  IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES KNOWN THE PURPOSE OF HIS VOYAGE TO THEPACIFIC OCEAN, AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT HE COMMISSIONED THESTEAM-SHIP SOUTHERN CROSS THROUGH PHILIPS, WESTBURY, AND CO.

  Many gentlemen have asked me to write the story of Ken's Island, and inso far as my ability goes, that I will now do. A plain seaman byprofession, one who has had no more education than a Kentish grammarschool can give him, I, Jasper Begg, find it very hard to bring toother people's eyes the wonderful things I have seen or to make allthis great matter clear as it should be clear for a rightunderstanding. But what I know of it, I will here set down; and I donot doubt that the newspapers and the writers will do the rest.

  Now, it was upon the third day of May in the year 1899, at four bellsin the first dog watch, that Harry Doe, our boatswain, first sightedland upon our port-bow, and so made known to me that our voyage wasdone. We were fifty-three days out from Southampton then; and forfifty-three days not a man among the crew of the Southern Cross hadknown our proper destination, or why his skipper, Jasper Begg, hadshipped him to sail for the Pacific Ocean. A pleasure voyage, thepapers said; and some remembered that I had been in and out of privateyachts ever since I ran away from school and booked with Skipper Higg,who sailed Lord Kanton's schooner from the Solent; but others askedthemselves what pleasure took a yacht's skipper beyond the Suez, andhow it came about that a poor man like Jasper Begg found the money tocommission a 500-ton tramp through Philips, Westbury, and Co., and todeal liberally with any shipmate who had a fancy for the trip. Thesequestions I meant to answer in my own time. A hint here and there of alady in whose interest the voyage was undertaken kept the crew quiet,if it did not please its curiosity. Mister Jacob, my first officer, andPeter Bligh (who came to me because he said I was the only man who kepthim away from the drink) guessed something if they knew little. Theyhad both served under me in Ruth Bellenden's yacht; neither hadforgotten that Ruth Bellenden's husband sailed eastward for the weddingtrip. If they put their heads together and said that Ruth Bellenden'saffairs and the steam-ship Southern Cross were not to be far apart atthe end of it, I don't blame them. It was my business to hold my tongueuntil the land was sighted, and so much I did for Ruth Bellenden'ssake.

  Well, it was the third day of May, at four bells in the first dogwatch, when Harry Doe, the boatswain, sighted land on the port-bow, andcame abaft with the other hands to hear what I had got to say to him.Mr. Jacob was in his bunk then, he being about to take the first watch,and Peter Bligh, who walked the bridge, had rung down for half-speed bythe time I came out with my glass for the first view of the distantisland. We were then, I must tell you at a rough reckoning, inlongitude 150 east of Greenwich, by about 30 north; and my firstthought was that we might have sighted the Ganges group, as many a shipsailing from 'Frisco to Japan; but when I had looked at the land alittle while, and especially at a low spur of rocks to the northward, Iknew that this was truly the Ken Archipelago, and that our voyage wasdone.

  "Lads," I said, "yonder is your port. Good weather and good luck, andwe'll put about for home before three days have passed."

  Now, they set up a great cheer at this; and Peter Bligh, whose years goto fat, wiped his brow like a man who has got rid of a great load andis very pleased to have done with it.

  "Thank you for that," said he. "I hope I do my duty in all weathers,Mr. Begg, but this sunshine do wear a man sadly. Will you stop her,sir, or shall we go dead slow?"

  "Dead slow, if you please, Mister Pugh," said I; "the chart gives twothousand fathoms about the reef. We should have water enough, and wateris a good thing, as I believe you know."

  "When there's nothing else, I can manage to make shift with it--andfeel a better man, sir," he added, as an after-thought. But I wasalready busy with my glass and that was not the hour for light talk.Yonder upon the port-bow a group of islands shaped on our horizon asshadows upon a glassy sea. I could espy a considerable cliff-landrising to the southward, and north of that the rocky spur of which Ihave made mention. The sun was setting behind us in a sky of orange andcrimson, and it was wonderful to see the playful lights now givingveins of gold to the dark mass of the higher rocks, or washing over theshadows as a running water of flame. I have seen many beautiful sightsupon the sea, in storm or tempest, God's weather or the devil's; but Ishall never forget that sunset which brought me to Ken's Island on asstrange an errand as ever commissioned a ship. The deep blue of thesky, the vastness of the horizon, the setting sun, the island's shapingout of the deep: these, and the curiosity which kept the glass ever atmy eye, made an hour which a man might fear to tell of. True, I havesighted many a strange land in my time and have put up my glass formany an unknown shore; but yonder lay the home of Ruth Bellenden, andto-morrow's sun would tell me how it fared with her. I had sailed fromEngland to learn as much.

  Now, Mr. Jacob, the first officer, had come up to the bridge while Iwas searching the shore for an anchorage, and he, who always was aprudent man, spoke up at once for laying to and leaving our business,whatever it was, until the morning.

  "You'll lose the light in ten minutes, and yon's a port I do not likethe look of," said he. "Better go about, sir. Reefs don't get out ofthe wa
y, even for a lady."

  "Mister Jacob," said I, for, little man that he was, he had a big witin his own way, "the lady would be very glad to get out of the way ofthe reef, I'm thinking. However, that's for the morning. Here's PeterBligh as pleased as any school-boy at the sight of land. Tell him thathe isn't going ashore to-night, and he'll thank you nicely. Eh, Peter,are you, too, of Jacob's mind? Is it sea or shore, a glass in my cabinor what the natives will sell you in the log-cabins over yonder?" PeterBligh shut up his glass with a snap.

  "I know the liquor, Mr. Begg," said he; "as the night is good to me,I'm of Mister Jacob's way of thinking. A sound bed and a clear head,and a fair wind for the morning--you'll see little of any woman, blackor white, on yonder rock to-night."

  Jacob--his little eyes twinkling, as they always did at his ownjokes--muttered the old proverb about choosing a wife by candle-light;but before any one could hear him a beacon shone out across the seafrom some reef behind