In the Land of the Great Snow Bear Part 26

"The bird, the bird?" he cried, "he is--"

But Meta heard no more. Next minute she was standing by the cage.

Panting, ragged, and wretched-looking and dripping wet was the messenger that had flown so far; but oh, bless it! it bore the little quill that contained the missive of sadness and love.

There was no more weariness in Meta's looks now, but stern, firm resolve.

"I'll save him if I can," she said.

"A young lady in the study wants to see _me_?" said Professor Hodson to his neat-handed waiting-maid. "Bless my heart, what a strange thing!"

But stranger still, five minutes after this the good old professor was sitting opposite this young lady, and had given orders that no one should come near the door till he rang the bell.

"Dear me, my dear, _de-ar_ me!" he was saying; "and you really tell me that a sea-bird carried this message all the way from the icy north?

But there, there, I see, it is his own handwriting. And yours is a strange, not to say a sad story. But it will all come right in the end--perhaps, you know."

"Oh, sir!" cried Meta, "you will make some effort to save him? You will not let him die in those terrible regions of gloom and desolation?"

"Gloom and desolation, dear? Yes, yes, to be sure, you're quite right; they must be somewhat gloomy and desolate. No morning paper, no morning rolls or hot toast. Well, well, we will see in a day or two what can be done. The _Kittywake_, too, she has been posted long ago a lost s.h.i.+p and the insurance paid. But even she might turn up, you know. I only say she might. Stranger things have happened."

Meta took the professor's soft white hand as she bade him good-bye in the doorway, and touched it reverently with her lips.

"Good-bye, my dear, good night. You've got nice lodgings? Yes, I think you said you had. Good night, good night. G.o.d bless you."

The _savants_ are a.s.sembled in the largest room in the professor's house--a room where lectures are often given and wonderful experiments made, but a cosy room for all that, with two great fires burning in it, and a soft crimson light diffused throughout it from the great candelabra.

There is a stranger here to-night--a stranger to us, I mean--a man about fifty, a sailor evidently, from his build and bronze. He is very pleasant in manner and voice; his face is handsome, and his smile strikes you as coming directly from the heart.

They had been dining; the walnuts and wine were now on the table, and conversation was at its best.

"Well, gentlemen, I shall call the young lady, and you shall hear the marvellous tale from her own lips."

Somewhat abashed at first to find herself in such august company, and in a room more beautiful than anything she could ever have dreamed about, Meta was soon rea.s.sured by the professor's kindly voice. He sat beside her, and held one hand in his.

Then she told her story, as she had told it to Professor Hodson in his study. She hid nothing, kept nothing back, told _all_ the truth, even about her love and betrothal to Claude, talking low but earnestly, as innocently as a child repeating its prayer by its mother's knee.

There was no more eager listener than Captain Jahnsen, the sailor I have mentioned. As long as she spoke his eyes were riveted on her face, sometimes he even changed colour in his seeming excitement. When she had finished, he stood up.

"Gentlemen," he said, "I have been all my life a man of action, not of words; and now what I have to say must be said briefly indeed. For the last many years I have been a sailor and adventurer combined. I have dug gold, ploughed the sea, and searched for diamonds; not unsuccessfully, as you are all aware. For years and years previous to that I was a Greenland sailor, not hailing from any British port; not sailing in beautiful barques or full-rigged s.h.i.+ps, but in an open boat from Lapland. What made me so? Fate. I once commanded as splendid a little craft as ever sailed the sea. I had on board my wife and my child-daughter. I was wrecked--a sailor's luck, you say, but mine was a sadder one than falls to the lot of most sailors. My dear wife--ah!

gentlemen, the memory of that terrible night almost unmans me even yet-- was killed in my arms by a falling spar; my daughter was swept away.

Two sailors and I alone were saved by a Lapland walrus boat. We lay-to for hours. No sign of life was visible; again I dropped insensible; I was ill, mad, raving for weeks. Yet calmness and peace came at last.

But never more dared I go near that awful coast. To me the very memory of it and of that night has ever been like a nightmare."

"Where were you wrecked?" asks Professor Hodson.

"On the Icelandic coast, north of Reykjavik."

Meta has turned suddenly pale, and her eyes fill with tears.

She timidly advances. "Father," she murmurs.

There is no wild excitement; no melodrama. Captain Jahnsen stoops and kisses his daughter's brow.

"I'm sure, dear Meta," he said, "we'll love each other very much."

Yet, though lacking melodramatic effect, the scene was touching in the extreme.

Poor Professor Hodson! he was fain to wipe his eyes.

"Dear me, dear me, dear me!" he said, in his quick, sharp way of speaking, "I never thought that I would shed tears again in my life.

Dear me, dear me!"

"Now, my child," said the professor to Meta next morning, "I'm going to ran down to Dunallan Towers, and see her ladys.h.i.+p. No, as you wish me not to, I shall never breathe your name. Good-bye; keep up your heart.

I'll do the best I can."

Yes, Lady Alwyn was at home, and would see Professor Hodson.

And presently she enters.

Very handsome yet, very stately, very sad withal. She beckons the professor to a seat. "You may not guess what I have come about?"

"Yes, I can," she says. "You bring no news of my son, but you think of sending a search-party out?"

"That was mooted between my colleagues and me."

"Professor Hodson, I fear--indeed, I know--I shall never see my son alive or dead again. I live but to mourn for him. I live but to repent the harsh words that drove him from my door--from our door--my boy's and mine. To see his poor pet dog following him with downcast head; to see even the bird fly away; I--Oh, Professor Hodson!"

Here, woman-like, the poor lady burst into tears, and the tender-hearted professor feels very much inclined to follow suit.

"We may find him yet?"

"Oh! is there a hope, a chance?"

"There is, and we can but try. We have thought of fitting out a yacht."

"There is _his_ yacht--his own yacht. Take it, and welcome. If not strong enough, do everything for her. And, professor, all the expense _must_ be mine. And I, too, will sail in her in search of my boy."

"Your ladys.h.i.+p, I--"

"Deny me not. I will not be denied."

"Your ladys.h.i.+p little knows the danger--"