University of Virginia Library

49. CHAPTER XLIX.
THE MEETING.

Mr. Gray had completed his preparations for a
journey to Buenos Ayres, when a distracting
item of intelligence came through the spiritual
telegraph.

Colonel Wade and Mliss had taken passage in
the Sea Nymph for New York.

The lawyer was undecided what course to pursue
His confidence in the reliability of the
spiritual telegraph as a medium of news was not
yet fully established. While it had been correct
in most of its statements, it had failed signally
to give such particulars as seemed within its
power to transmit, admitting that it had the
source it claimed.

It was now October. The Sea Nymph, leaving
Valparaiso in July, might weather Cape Horn
and reach Buenos Ayres in three months. Colonel
Wade and Mliss, leaving Valparaiso two
months later, might cross the continent in time
to take passage as represented.

The average direction of a voyage from San
Francisco to New York was about one hundred
and twenty days; but the Sea Nymph had been
detained at Valparaiso several weeks, and its

passage round the Cape in the winter season
might be almost indefinitely prolonged.

The spiritual telegraph had advised Mr. Gray
to send an agent to Valparaiso instead of going
himself; yet Mr. Gray felt confident that he
could have rescued Mliss had he been in Valparaiso
in his agent's place. The spiritual telegraph,
therefore, was not a safe adviser, however correct
might be its intelligence.

If he should proceed direct to Buenos Ayres, and
discover on his arrival that Colonel Wade and Mliss
had really sailed for New York, the time he would thus
lose might prove fatal to the purpose of his mission.

If, on the other hand, he should go to New York,
and Colonel Wade and Mliss should not arrive as expected,
he could then proceed to Buenos Ayres without
great loss of time.

The latter course was finally adopted.

The last evening before his departure was spent,
with Regina. Their association in the last three
months had been intimate, but on a friendly basis.
The prospect of a long separation opened their hearts
to a sentiment each had resisted. At parting he drew
her to his side, and bestowed, unchecked, almost the
first caress he had ever offered.

“You will take care of yourself?” she whispered,
as her cheek for a moment rested on his shoulder.

“Life has never seemed so sweet as at this moment,”
he replied. Looking into her beautiful eves,
he drew her closer to his side, bent and touched her
lips, and hurried away.

The voyage was prosperous. In twenty-two days
Mr. Gray was in New York. Upon inquiry be was informed
that the Sea Nymph was daily expected.

He made arrangements to procure the earliest intelligence
of her arrival, and waited with what
patience he could command.

The third day after, the Sea Nymph was signalled.
The solution of the mystery approached. He could
not resist a feeling of awe as he reflected that he was
acting under a direction that might be regarded as
supernatural, and that events seemed to verify the
correctness of the information he had so strangely
received.

He hired a boat and was rowed out into the bay to
meet the approaching vessel.

At last the boatmen pointed cut the Sea Nymph,
and, raising his glass, he discovered, among six or
eight figures on the quarter-deck, one clad in a woman's
garments.

The sea was smooth, and, as the bark was making
but little headway, the boat easily came alongside.

A rope ladder suspended from the vessel's side enabled
Mr. Gray to climb on deck, where he was met
by an officer.

“I expect to find friends among your passengers,”
said Mr. Gray, in explanation of his visit.

“We have but four passengers,” said the officer,
courteously, “and you will find them on the quarter-deck.”

The group was distant not more than twenty yards.
The female figure he had observed was evidently that
of a young girl. She was half-concealed by the form
of a man, by whose side she was standing.

As she turned her head to speak to her companion,
Mr. Gray caught a glimpse of her features.

It was Mliss!

For a moment, cool and self-possessed as he was,
he was overcome, and leaned against the railing for
support.

In that moment the roving eyes of the young girl
had caught sight of a stranger on board. Mr. Gray
heard an exclamation, and saw a dark figure flying
toward him. He turned and held out his arms, and
caught the flying figure to his heart.

“O, Mr. Gray! dear Mr. Gray!” she murmured, between
her kisses; “I knew you would come.”

The young man pressed her close to his heart.

“Yes, darling,” he answered; “I am here”

When Mr. Gray looked up he beheld a few feet distant
a tall, powerful man, who stood regarding the
scene with a menacing smile on his lips. The man advanced
as he met Mr. Gray's eye.

“Who is this gentleman?” he asked, addressing
Mliss.

The tone in which the question was asked recalled
the young girl to her senses. Releasing herself from
her guardian's arm, she answered, gravely:

“Mr. Gray.”

“And this gentleman?” said Mr. Gray, retaining
his hold on the arm of his ward.

“Colonel Wade.”

Mr. Gray inclined his head in salutation.

There was a brief silence.

“Shall I thank Colonel Wade for his care of you,
Mliss?” asked Mr. Gray, at last.

“Yes,” answered Mliss, raising her frank, clear eyes
to her guardian's face.

The young man's terrible fears vanished. He advanced
a step toward Colonel Wade.

“Sir,” he said, “this young lady is my ward. Allow
me to thank you for the protection you have offered
her in a strange land.”

Colonel Wade was a man of the world. He saw—as
he might have expressed it—that Mr. Gray held the
winning hand. His knowledge of men restrained him
from desperate measures when the chances were so
much against him. The calm revolute, yet courteous
bearing of his adversary rather imposed upon him.

“This meeting is unexpected,” he said, in a half-questioning
tone, as if inclined to doubt Mr. Gray's
being the person he was represented to be.

“But not undesired, I hope,” replied Mr. Gray, politely.

“If I had been consulted,” rejoined the colonel, “I
should have preferred to place your ward in your
charge to being waylaid in this manner.”

“You will admit, however, that it was impossible to
consult you.”

“How did you know we were aboard the Sea
Nymph?”

“I did not know you were aboard the Sea Nymph.”

“But you had some reason to suppose we were?”

“Yes; I was so informed.”

“By whom—by what means?”

“I might answer that the Sea Nymph left Valparaiso
for Buenos Ayres in June—that you and my
ward left Valparaiso by the overland route about two
months later, and the conclusion was rational that you

would arrive in Buenos Ayres about the same time the
Sea Nymph would arrive in that port. Admitting the
correctness of this supposition so far, it was not a
great stretch of the powers of divination to suppose
you might take passage on the Sea Nymph for New
York.”

“It is impossible to contend against a man who
makes such elaborate calculations as these, and draws
from them correct conclusions.”

Mr. Gray bowed. He now felt secure. He held his
ward by the hand, and in his pocket were proofs of his
legal right to assert his claim to guardianship.

The colonel turned upon Mliss a regard, in which
was expressed the love of his passionate heart. It was
a mute and eloquent appeal, but it failed in effect. He
bowed coldly, turned upon his heel, and walked away

The guardian and ward were alone. There was so
much to say that they said nothing. Holding his
hand between hers, she stood silently watching the
mighty city toward which they were slowly drifting.