"We are all intensely interested in knowing your history, and how you came here; but first tell us what you knew about the _Investigator_. You seemed to know about the sailing date."

"I was booked to sail in her as one of the instructors, but a serious illness, contracted in Africa, from the previous visit there, prevented me from accepting the berth, and she sailed without me."

"Isn't that a singular coincidence," exclaimed Ralph. "My uncle told me that one of his tutors at college, by the name of Varney, would be on the ship, and that is one of the reasons he so strongly urged me to sign for the trip."

"Your name--what was his name?"

"Stratton; James Stratton?"

"Jim Stratton, the big, healthy, jolly boy! Everybody liked him. And you are his nephew?"

Then turning to Chief the Professor asked: "Do you remember when and how we captured him?" John looked and tried to recall the incident. "No, I do not now think of anything which is familiar, nor do I remember seeing him until a moment ago."

"But if you are not too much exhausted, we would be interested in the history."

"I do not suppose that my history, previous to reaching the island, would be very interesting, but as you have asked it I will briefly relate it."

CHAPTER XIV

JOHN'S WONDERFUL STORY

"I was born on the Atlantic seacoast in a small New England town. My parents were the richest people in the community, and it was their ambition, as it was mine, to finish my education at one of the great universities there; but shortly after my entrance as a student the entire fortune of my parents was swept away, and I was compelled to seek employment.

"I was provided with a place in a commercial house in which my guardian was interested, and the only consideration shown me during the six months I remained there was the amount of work they could get out of me.

Like many other boys I ran away, and took a position on a sailing vessel. This was the turning point in my career.

"I was fortunate enough to fall into the hands of a captain who was, undoubtedly, an exception to his cla.s.s, but he had in early years been a pedagogue, and seeing the disposition on my part to make a constant use of his library, of which he had a most wonderful store, he took me from the drudgery, which was my early lot, and made me his a.s.sistant.

"I was a good penman, and before long I was entrusted with the position of recording and entry clerk for the ship, and I took charge of the log, and did things of that kind under his supervision during the long trip to Chinese waters.

"The trip among the western islands occupied two years, and I became an expert skipper as time went on, and many, many hours he and I sat up together and perused the wonderful books he had, and discussed a wide range of subjects which the readings suggested. It was a feast for me, and it was such a pleasure to him, which I know was real and unaffected.

"Three years after my sudden disappearance from New Bedford the ship sailed into the harbor, and the first one to greet us was a beautiful girl, the daughter of the captain, and the first most graceful act of his was to bring her over to me, and I was presented to her.

"I do not know how I ever pa.s.sed the days of the following two weeks.

Everything was a dream to me after I saw her, and I often imagined that the captain knew what my symptoms were. One day he called me to the cabin and said: 'John, how do you feel about signing for another term of three years?' My heart was so full that I answered: 'Why for three years? Make it for as long as I live.' The captain smiled and stroked his beard for a while, and then his countenance changed, and he said, 'John, you know I am blunt and open in all my dealings, and you haven't been treating me in that way.'

"That was the only time in the entire three years he had ever upbraided me, or found any fault, and I was so dumbfounded that I did not know how to answer, and when I recovered and inquired in what manner I had offended him, he replied, 'I did not say you had offended me. But you love Harriet, and I know you do, and you have been trying to hide it from me.'

"How had he learned that she and I loved each other from the moment we first met, and that we saw each other at every opportunity, and made mutual confessions of love? I started to apologize, but he began to smile again, and I knew it was not so serious. 'Yes,' he continued, 'I have charged Harriet with it, and she confessed, so it will not be necessary for you to defend yourself.'

"We were in port for three months, and Harriet told her father that she could not bear to have us both go away, and before the ship sailed we were married, a fine suite of rooms was set aside for our use, and I became the first mate of the ship, as well as the first mate of the most beautiful woman in the world.

"Thus I pa.s.sed a year of the happiest days that it was ever given man to enjoy. Together we gleaned the library for our recreation, and with music and song, it was one continual revel of bliss. But one day we steamed into a plague-infected port, where quarantine regulations in those days were not the best, and before we could take the proper precautions the captain and my wife were stricken.

"The terrible story that followed, the days of ravings, and finally the death of my wife, are too tragic to repeat in detail. The captain recovered, and, singularly, I escaped, and as soon as he had partially recovered I ordered the ship to sail away from that accursed place.

"When the captain recovered he was a changed man. His daughter was the only thing to him in the world, and her happiness had been the greatest delight and pleasure. But now he rarely appeared at meals, and the handling of the ship devolved on me. I could not rouse him sufficiently to learn what course to take or what disposition to make of much of the cargo.

"Two months after the sad event he called me to his cabin, and he was lying down, weak and emaciated. 'I have asked you to come because there are some things I want to place in your hands. I have no further use for them, as the effect of the plague has never left me, and I am glad of it.

"'You may break the seal of this when I am dead.' This was most heartrending, coming from a man I loved better than any one in the world excepting my wife. He died that night, in silence, and without a soul near him.

"We were then on the broad sea, west of Australia, and before the funeral services were to take place I opened the sealed package, and I learned that the ship and cargo, together with all securities and funds in the hands of his bankers, were willed to me, and I was enjoined to commit his body to the sea.

"I changed the course of the ship to the nearest port, and sought the United States Consul, in order to register the papers, and to establish, by the record there, the new ownership of the vessel.

"When I returned to the ship something seemed to prevent me from going aboard. It was such a weird and ghastly feeling that I did not rebel against the warning. Indeed, I was relieved that the indescribable something, which men sometimes in that condition feel, turned me away.

The only thing that remained close to my heart were the things that my loved one wore, and those things she treasured, and the store of books.

"All those I had removed, but I could never go aboard that ship again. I advertised the ship for sale, and it soon found a purchaser, and I was a wanderer on the face of the earth. My parents were both dead, and I had no brothers or sisters living.

"Where should I go, or what pursuit should I follow? I went through India, listlessly, and from a Mediterranean port sailed for England--anywhere. But we landed at Gibraltar. There I saw a troop of smart English on the way to Africa. I was imbued with the spirit of adventure, and I offered to join, but was refused, as I was not a subject of the Queen. But later I knew how to correct that, and I sailed with the next detachment to the south, and for two years I took part in the Matabela campaign, where the fighting was more bitter and relentless than in any colonial contest England had ever engaged in. I was severely wounded, and sent to England at the close of my term of service and received an honorable discharge. In the meantime I learned that all the funds from the proceeds of the ship had been swallowed up in a bank disaster, where they had been deposited, and I was left with nothing but the little I had saved.

"My discharge finally served the purpose of securing me a position as a tutor to a young lord, and through him I later on obtained a berth as instructor in a well-known inst.i.tution. But this was too tame for me. I went to Greece and entered the army, and fought through two campaigns against the Turks, and when the war ended I took the first ship and sailed for New York.

"Within a day after landing in that city I joined the army and was sent west, where, within six months, it landed me in a campaign under General Crook against the Apaches of the Southwest, and was present at the capture of Geronimo, the most bloodthirsty devil that was ever permitted to live. From there we went to the north, and we had a repet.i.tion of the experiences against the most skilled warriors on the American continent, the Siouxs and the Arapahoes.

"When my enlistment expired I had earned a lieutenancy, but I had tired of the turmoil of the past six years, and returned east and then accepted a position as Professor of Philosophy in the college where Jim Stratton was a student.

"I was always fond of tools, and the machine shop on board our vessel was a constant source of enjoyment, and before I sold it I had become so proficient in the use of tools that I could make anything in wood or iron.

"I enjoyed teaching, but the life was not free enough for me, and after five years of that drudging life I sailed for Europe, and again visited India, going to all the great ruins; then to the scenes of the vast exploring fields of the Archeological Societies, in Arabia, on the plains of Babylon, and in Syria. From there I turned to Egypt, the land of the greatest mysteries on earth. I went up the Nile far beyond Khartoum, and tried to interest myself in some of the interesting things that men are constantly bringing to light, and which go to show the great antiquity of men. I joined a caravan to traverse the White and the Blue Nile, and to go over the trails made by Baker and Livingstone and Stanley.

"Here, at last, seemed to be my work. It had enough of the charm in it on account of the hazard which accompanied us on every step, and this for the first time put me on my mettle to learn to dig out the hidden secrets, which caused it to be called the 'Dark Continent.'

"Am I tiring you? Well, then, in company with another adventurous spirit we traversed the most remote parts of that vast interior and met with adventures which may some time interest you. Thus four years were spent, without seeing civilization, and in a region where men hunted men for the pleasure of it.

"I was hunting them, too, but it was not living men, but those who had died thousands and thousands of years ago. But that terrible sickness, the jungle fever, took hold of us, and when we emerged from the forests, and found our way to the nearest settlement my companion died, and I was again thrown back on the world.

"As soon as I could travel I sailed for New York, and the first man I met was dear Jim Stratton, who insisted that I must take a position as archeologist in the college with which I was formerly connected, but this I declined, and seeing me in an emaciated condition suggested that the position of professor of philosophy in the ship training school would be the very place to give me the benefit of sea air and employment--the latter, particularly, because he knew how I had always been a fiend for work, and that I must be busy at something.

"I accepted, but a month before the ship sailed I was taken down with another serious attack, with complications of diseases, and recovered a week after the _Investigator_ sailed. I took the train for the west, expecting to take advantage of the mild climate of California during the winter, and when I reached San Francisco I was greeted at the hotel by an old acquaintance who invited me to his room for a talk on a very important matter.

"It turned out that he and a friend, who had considerable money, were about to purchase either a good, strong sailing vessel, or a small steamer, which was to go in quest of buried treasure which the chart had indicated, this treasure being the freights of many of the Castilian ships of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and in certain places the h.o.a.rds of the buccaneers that infested the western seas.

"Here was an opportunity to recuperate, and it had plenty of action in it to suit me, and I joined. We sailed from the port in the latter part of December, about the time you were pa.s.sing through the Straits of Magellan.

"We had a fast sailer and a staunch boat, but my friend was unwise in the choice of the sailing master, but this did not hamper us much during the ordinary course of sailing, but in a short time he with several others of the crew attacked us and attempted to capture the ship. In the battle which followed my friend was killed, and his friend dangerously wounded. This was the condition of affairs when the terrible monsoon struck the vessel.

"That terrible sea and the danger to the ship settled all difficulties.

The master was too full of drink to take charge of the ship, and the mate was not much better. I took command, and for four days we maneuvered the ship to keep it from foundering; at the end of that time the master recovered momentarily, and, securing possession of a revolver, cleared the deck and prevented us from handling it.

"He resisted every effort to capture him, and as a last resort I was compelled to shoot him. This was a signal, notwithstanding our perilous condition, for the intimate a.s.sociates of the master to range themselves against us, for we now had only four men against the seven who were in league.