Spanish Gold. George A. Birmingham
him."
"Besides," continued the Major, in whose mind the idea of learning Irish seemed to rankle, "the fool will very likely be learning Irish himself. Lots of those fellows do, I'm told. Then he'd want us to join him, and it might end in our having to learn Irish, whether we liked it or not. Here, take the tiller, and I'll go below and get some grub up on deck."
Still grumbling at the idea of learning Irish, the Major fetched some cold meat, bread, and a bottle of whisky from the cabin. The Spindrift was in calmer water, and Meldon was able to give both hands to the task of feeding himself, steadying the tiller by hooking a leg over it. The boat raced into the shelter of the bay, and the Major, having stowed away the remainder of the food in the cabin, busied himself in getting ready the anchor.
"The inhabitants," said Meldon, "are turning out en masse to welcome us. They are all down on the end of the pier—
"'Old men and babes and loving friends,
And youths and maidens gay.'
And there is an engineer there. At least, if he isn't an engineer, he's mighty like one. He's dressed in grey tweed knickers and brown boots, and I think he has spectacles. There isn't a doctor on the island by any chance?"
"There is not, nor ever was. Cock the likes of those fellows up with a doctor!"
"Well, then he's an engineer. He couldn't be anything else. Pass the glasses aft till I get a good look at him."
"He is wearing spectacles," said Meldon, staring through the glasses. "And I fancy I know him. He's a fellow called Higginbotham; he was in my class in college. We went in for our Little-Go together. I heard he had got a job under the Congested Districts Board. Now could the Congested Districts Board have a man out here?"
"They might; there's no saying where you'd run across one of their officials. The less likely the place is the more certain you are to meet one of them. Round her up into the wind, J. J.; we're near enough to the shore."
The boat edged up into the wind; the jib and the mainsail flapped furiously. The anchor splashed into the water and the chain rattled out. Meldon ran forward and slacked the jib halyards. The Major gathered in the sail.
"If that's Higginbotham," said Meldon a few minutes later, when he and the Major were making up the mainsail, "it's all right. There'll be no difficulty whatever in dealing with Higginbotham. In the first place he's a thoroughly decent sort, and I don't believe he'd want to meddle with the treasure; in the second place he's quite an easy man to deceive. He always took what's called an intelligent interest in his work when he was in college, and never paid the least attention to anything else. If they've sent him to cover the whole island over with galvanised iron sheds, he'll do it quietly. He'll talk and think of nothing else till it's done. Any lie will do for Higginbotham; he'll believe whatever I tell him."
"If you are going to stuff him up with any cock-and-bull story," said the Major, "you may go and do it by yourself. I'll stay here and tidy up. You take the punt and go ashore to your long-lost friend. But, mind now, if you say a word about learning Irish, I'll go back on you straight away."
A collapsible canvas punt lay folded amidships. Meldon stretched her out, fixed the seat, and lowered her carefully into the water. He seated himself in her with the utmost caution, complaining that he was quite unused to a boat of the kind, and paddled towards the pier. In a few minutes he was shaking hands with Higginbotham in the middle of a group of admiring islanders.
"Well, now," he said, "isn't the world small? Last time I saw you was at the winter commencements in old Trinity, when we took our degrees together? Fancy meeting you here of all places!"
"I'm very glad to see you," said Higginbotham, blinking benignantly through his large round-glassed spectacles. "I find it lonely here, with nobody to speak to. But I thought you were a parson, J. J.?"
He eyed Meldon's collarless neck, the blue jersey, the shabby trousers and sea-boots, dubiously. Higginbotham himself was a young man who took care to be faultlessly attired on all occasions. Even on Inishgowlan he wore a clean collar, a light blue tie, and a well-cut Norfolk jacket. He carried his affection for civilised usage so far as to change his shirt and wear a smoking jacket every evening in his iron hut.
"So I am," said Meldon;" but you can't expect me to wear a dog-collar and a black coat on a ten tonner. Tell me, now—what brings you to this island?"
"The Board has bought the island, and I'm here striping it. You know what I mean, don't you? I'm dividing it up into proper-sized, compact farms, building fences and walls, so that the people won't be holding it, as they do at present, in little bits and scraps, and not knowing properly what belongs to each of them."
"Will you soon be done?"
"I would be done very soon," said Higginbotham, "only for one old fellow who's blocking the whole business. He refuses to stir from a wretched little field, right in the middle of the island, and the most miserable, tumble-down shed of a house you ever saw—a place you'd be sorry to put a pig into."
"I wouldn't; I hate pigs. Pigs and cats—I'd put them anywhere."
"There's a hole in the middle of his field, too," said Higginbotham, in an aggrieved voice, "a hole that a heifer once fell into and got killed, and he won't so much as let me near it to put up a fence."
"Why don't you reason with him, and show him that you're acting for his own good? You a$e acting for his good, aren't you? You haven't any little game on of your own, I suppose?"
"I try to reason with him, but he doesn't understand English. He speaks nothing but Irish himself."
"Well, why don't you tackle him in Irish? Do you mean to tell me, Higginbotham, that you can't talk Irish? You ought to be ashamed of yourself."
"I'm trying to learn," said Higginbotham. "In fact, I'm determined to master the language. I've got a grammar and a dictionary up in my house now. I'll talk to that old man in a way that he'll understand before I've done with him."
"Quite right. I'd offer to help you myself, only that I'm afraid I shan't have time."
"Are you going off to-morrow? I'm sorry. I hoped you might have been here for a few days."
"We shall be here for a week at* least," said Meldon, "but I shan't have time to teach you Irish. We shall be frightfully busy."
"Busy! What are you going to do?"
"I'm here with my friend, Major Kent. He's been sent to make a geological survey of the island."
"Really! I never heard anything about that. The Board ought to have let me know."
"He isn't acting for the Board. It was the Lord-Lieutenant and the Chief Secretary who sent him here. The fact is, Higginbotham, that the Major's business is of rather a private nature. I don't mind telling you, but it mustn't go any further, that an important syndicate has made the Government an offer for the mining rights of this island?"
"Over the head of the Board?"
"Oh, I know nothing about that. In fact, neither the Major nor I knew anything about the Board having bought the island when we came here. You know the way these Government departments overlap each other, and none of them know what the others are doing. I shouldn't wonder a bit if the Estates Commissioners turned up before long and said the island was theirs. However, you can understand that the Chief Secretary wasn't going to sell the mining rights of the place without finding out what they were worth. He sent out Major Kent to make a report."
"But—but—there must be some mistake. Can you have come to the wrong island?"
"Certainly not," said Meldon. "You ought to know me better than that, Higginbotham. Am I the sort of man who comes to a wrong island?"
"Of course not. But there must be some mistake. There are no minerals on the island at all. The whole place is nothing but pliocene clay."
"You may be right or you may be wrong. My friend Major Kent will find that out for himself. I'm not a mining expert,