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THE ARGOSY.
XXIV.
Vol.
JUNE,
No
1897.
A SECRET OF THE SOUTH
-
PACIFIC.
¡ªHow
he
long journey undertaken by a son to right a wrong done to his father
from favor with some of the ship's company and what a wreck brought about¡ª
The
The
coral island
and the mystery shrouded by
3-
fell
its cliffs.
(Complete in This Issue.)
Chapter I.¡ª Startling News.
[T
was four o'clock
*
of a
warm September
afternoon.
A
heavily built,
and twenty came rapidly along the narand halted at the door of the shipping
His height and
firm above which was the sign of Undercliff & Monckton.
breadth of shoulders were noticeable even among the brawny truckmen and
roustabouts who loitered on the curb, and his carriage and alert movements
striking looking fellow of three
row
streets
toward the water
front,
all round athlete.
As he entered the outer office a group of clerks was gathered about
an individual who leaned negligently against one of the desks. This central
figure was a fellow of about the newcomer's age, of slight build, a dark
complexion, and dressed in the hegh\ of fashion.
How
exclaimed one of the clerks.
Hullo here' s another Harvardite
betrayed the
'
'
'
1
!
!
'
'
Thorne?"
The newcomer returned the greeting
are you, Mr.
cordially,
man of the dark complexion.
"Howdy, deah boy," drawled the latter,
but did not appear to
notice the
languidly extending his gloved
hand.
and passed on to a rear
Private."
door marked " Chas. Undercliff.
" He's a regular bore, don't ye know," he heard the languid individual
But Thorne bowed
coolly, failing to see the hand,
say, as he opened the door.
There was but one occupant of the room, a man of fifty years perhaps,
He was pacing the floor
with iron gray mustache, and an upright carriage.
when Thorne entered, but turned to him with outstretched hand and a welcome smile as he heard the latch click.
"Ah, Howard! I'm delighted to see you," he said, returning the
"I've been looking for you for an hour."
younger man's warm pressure.
" I was on the river when your note reached me, and had to go to my
(A)
'
'
'
A SECRET OF THE SOUTH
3S6
PACIFIC.
change my boating flannels for something which I could appear
down town in," and Thorne, with a laugh, dropped into a convenient chair
before the baize covered table.
" But what's in the wind, Guardy ? "
rooms
to
The expression of the elder man's face changed instantly. His eyes
shifted their gaze from the frank countenance of his questioner and a deep line
appeared between his brows. He set to pacing the floor again with nervous
strides.
¡ª
"Oh ah¡ª well, Howard, I hardly know how to tell you. I received
some news today that has quite upset me."
" On which you want the benefit of my experience," laughed the other.
A little smile played under Mr. Undercliff's mustache for an instant.
" Not exactly, my boy.
But it is something you must know."
" Drive ahead then, sir."
¡ª
"I I wish I could drive ahead," returned the oldec man, hesitatingly.
tell you the truth, I scarcely know how to begin."
The other's face betrayed his surprise and curiosity.
" You wonder what has shaken me so," pursued Mr. Undercliff.
" Ah,
" But, to
Howard, old memories have been stirred today that have
Little wonder that I am shaken.
Has it to do with me P
"Yes."
"About me?"
" No, my boy.
It is about your father."
The young man started.
slept for years.
'
'
'
" My father ? " he repeated.
" I should like to hear about him, it is true.
I believe you have never told me very much concerning him.
He died
twenty years ago before I could remember him did he not? "
Undercliff halted in his walk and faced the younger man.
He placed
both hands upon the table and leaned forward, with his shrewd eyes fixed
¡ª
¡ª
upon Thome's face.
" It is a fact, Howard
Otherwise
I
think
I
/
I have never told you much about your parents.
have done my duty by you," he said, with some emo;
tion.
" My dear friend," cried the other, " you could not have treated me more
kindly or liberally had I been your own son."
" Thank you, my boy. I have looked upon you as my son. But perhaps
I should have told you something more about your own father ere this.
But
I
"
had always believed him dead
"Believed
Mm
"Today
I
dead?"
interrupted
Thorne, springing to
his*
feet.
"
"Then¡ª then
have had news which leads
me
to believe the opposite," said
Charles Undercliff, quietly.
" For heaven's sake, sir, explain !" gasped the young man.
"
Do you
that my father is alive ?
" Something that has occurred on the opposide side of the globe, news of
which only reached us today, leads me to believe that he is. But sit down,
mean
Howard.
'
Calm
yourself.
Let
me
tell
you the whole story¡ªand
a sad,
I
'
'
A SECRET OF THE SOUTH
bitterly sad
the past.
one
PACIFIC.
387
you can, forgive me the mistake which
If
it is.
I
made
in
'
His voice broke a little and he turned his eyes away from the younger
" I can forgive you anyman's face. " My dear guardian" exclaimed Thorne,
thing.
'
"Thank
and
I
my
you,
were friends
Now listen to me. You father, Edgar Thorne,
through our boyhood, and room mates at college,
boy.
all
father died and left me his shipping business I at once took your
Monckton had filled the same
father into the office as confidential clerk.
that I gave
position with my father, and it was at the old man's request
When my
father married soon after
Your
him a partnership
in the business.
with us, and your
mother¡ªwho was one
of the finest
have always
women
let
I
coming
ever
saw-
you suppose that
weeks after you were born.
your father died soon after your mother.
"But he did not. He was completely broken down by your mother's
He had seemed almost to live for her, and cared for nothing when
death.
But you mustn't feel harsh
she was gone, not even for you, my poor boy.
toward him for that. He would have loved you as you grew older.
" Edgar was an entirely different man from me," continued Mr. Under" When he was younger he had been a little wild at
cliff, retrospectively.
But I think that my influence¡ª
t i mes _e S pecially during our college days.
I
died a few
was always a regular sober sides you know¡ª I think my influence did much
Then, when he was married, he was so much in love
to keep him straight.
with your dear mother that he hadn't a thought for anything else outside of
business.
I think he began to drink a little at first to drown the thoughts
Then he got to gambling. He craved excitement¡ª anything
deaden the remembrance of his happiness.
I remonstrated with him¡ª
Finally his mode of life came to my ears.
Afterward, as I saw it did no good, I spoke to him as an
first as a friend.
'
'
of his loss.
to
'
'
at
employer.
God
forgive
promised to brace up.
tion of the firm's safe.
me
if
I
spoke harshly.
Only a few days
We
meant it for the best. He
he changed the combinawas away that day and he
He wrote it upon a slip of
I
after that
did that quarterly.
I
tell Monckton the new combination.
He was the only person who knew it.
paper and placed it in his own desk.
"When the safe was opened the next day a package containing five thouthe bank the day before for a special
from
drawn
sand dollars, which had been
We searched everywhere. The clerks swore they
purpose, was missing.
did not
Your father himself said he saw it there
was gone.
Edgar had taken it. But I learned he
that
I would not believe
had got very deeply into debt through his gambling, and the very night before
Monckton accused him of the robbery,
honor.'
had paid several 'debts of
and I could not but believe the evidence.
" But I would not allow my partner to call in the police.
I talked with
He indignantly
Edgar, plead with him to confess and make a new start.
of the
knowledge
all
denied
He
kind.
of
the
refused to confess anything
saw the money placed
when he
"
locked up.
in the vault.
But
it
at first
'
'
A SECRET OF THE SOUTH
3?8
money, blamed me
lost
further.
He
left
me
PACIFIC.
suspecting him, and refused to listen to me
in a rage, and from that day to this I have
never seen
him."
Mr. Undercliff was
for
silent a
moment, while he sought
to control his voice.
"Howard, I couldn't believe him guilty. Monckton's declaration
overmy mind for the moment but when poor Edgar was gone I could
rest.
I set detectives to work.
One man followed your father in his
powered
not
;
flight.
He had crossed the continent by slow stages and finally sailed in the
ship Juan Fernandez for Australia.
The Juan Fernandez did not reach her
port, nor was she ever heard from.
supposed him dead.
" Meanwhile the other detectives worked upon
the mystery here in Boston.
For two years I kept them in my pay. Then,
one day, while the
offices were being repaired and the
vault enlarged, a workman found a
We
package wedged in between the metal sheetings. It
was a package of bank
notes, the very package your father had been
accused of stealing "
!
Howard said nothing, but turned away
"Oh, my boy, you cannot know the
his head, for his eyes
were wet.
had suspected my
dearest friend uuj ustly.
He had gone to his grave misj udged I determined
to do all in my power for his son, as I could not
bring Edgar back.
I had
already taken you under my care.
You had been in the charge of an old
aunt of your father's since your mother's death.
She was the only living
relative you had, and she passed away soon after
you came to me. I have
tried to do by you as I know Fdgar would have
wished."
"And you have done much for me, Guardy," interrupted young Thorne
pain
I felt.
I
.
brokenly.
" Can you forgive
"Indeed, there
is
me
for so harshly judging your father
nothing to forgive," cried Howard.
ward and
seized the other's hand.
than a father to me.
"God
bless you, sir
!
?
"
He
leaned for-
You've been more
'
" But this is not all I have to
had wonderful news today.
" What was it, sir?"
tell
you," said the older man.
"
I
have
'
"
News which
leads me to believe your father is, or was quite
recently,
Captain Eatimer, of the brig Naida, got in today.
He made his rethen gave me a draft on an English banker at Aukland,
New
Zealand, for a thousand and thirty odd pounds, and this
note."
As he spoke Mr. Undercliff drew from his wallet a folded paper and
passed
it to Thorne.
The latter opened it and read
alive.
port to
me and
:
Aukxand. N. Z., November 20, '94.
The inclosed draft is to reimburse Messrs. Undercliff & Monckton,
Boston,
moneys which were missing from their safe on the morning of
July 13 1875'
This money is not devoted to this purpose because the
man accused
USA
for certain
was guilty for he
declares his innocence but it is sent that the firm
might not lose the sum through
his carelessness or negligence.
This is his last duty to a harsh world that will hear
of
still
;
him no more.
" What does it mean ?" cried Thorne.
" Can't you read ?"
" But
who wrote
it?"
''
'
.
'
'
"
'
A SECRET OF THE SOUTH
PACIFIC.
3?9
" That was written by your father, Edgar Thorne," declared Mr. Under" Although written in the third person, the handwriting is not discliff.
guised.
"
" But
1
is
alive
where ?"
That
'
two years
He may
ago.
life
upon
it
be alive now.
!
'
But what the banker told Captain Latimer points
the mystery.
is
my
murmured Howard.
alive !"
He was
"
to
your father's¡ª I would stake
It is
Then he
'
an explanation.
" According- to the banker's story,
who met Edgar
other people
in
and what Latimer could learn from
Aukland, he had come from some island in
the Marquesas or the American Archipelagoes
¡ª
and had returned
Aukland."
An
'
'
unknown
to the
island in the Pacific
?
¡ª or near those islands, at least
islet after
completing his business in
'
Many of them are occupied, Captain Eatimer
the South Pacific.
me, by small parties of whites, or natives. The vessel your father sailed
America may have been wrecked there and he only saved. And he
has*lived there since, believing that the smirch of an uncommited crime still
"In
tells
in frotn
upon
rests
"
his
name.
By heave u
!
'
terrible
is
it
What can I do ? "
"What can we do, rather,"
one thing we can do.
floor.
" cried Thorne, leaping up and pacing the
!
"
said Mr. Undercliff quickly.
"There
is
only
'
"What
'
'
is it,
sir?"
Search for that island.
'
"
" But, sir, it will cost
" If it costs the last cent I possess, I'll not begrudge it."
" God bless you, sir
And I'll go to the South Pacific and find him."
" You shall, my boy.
I'll send you out on the Naida.
She goes back to
!
Aukland in a month or six weeks."
At that moment there was a rap upon^the door of the private
exclaimed Undercliff.
Wait
"It is Captain Eatimer.
'
!
'
'
'
hear the story from his
Chapter
The
senior
own
II.
member
office.
You
shall
'
lips.
¡ªA
Telltale Discovery
in Dates.
of the shipping firm hastened to open the door.
There were three men without.
" Here is Eatimer again, Undercliff," said the sharp voice of the foremost
He was a tall, spare man, with dark hatchet features
and a shifting gray eye. It was Mr. Monckton, and following him closely
came the very much dressed young fellow whom Thorne had so coolly greeted
in the outer office.
This was Carter Monckton, son of the junior partner.
Behind them was a grizzled, mahogany faced man of fifty odd, who looked
-
of the newcomers.
every inch the sea captain.
"Good
Thorne.
afternoon,
young man,"
said
Monckton
senior,
bowing coldly
to
................
................
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