A struggle for life.
Page 140.
THE
BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
BY
JULES VERNE.
TRANSLATED BY W. H. G. KINGSTON.
[ WITH AN ACCOUNT OK
THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
PHILADELPHIA :
J. B. LIPPINCOTT AND CO.,
MARKET STREET.
LONDON :
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
ENTER MR. SHARP . i
CHAPTER II.
A PAIR OF CHUMS 16
CHAPTER III.
EFFECT OF AN ITEM OF NEWS 32
CHAPTER IV.
Two CLAIMANTS 47
CHAPTER V.
STAHLSTADT 63
CHAPTER VI.
THE ALBRECHT PIT 80
CHAPTER VII.
THE CENTRAL BLOCK 95
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
PAGE
THE DRAGON'S DEN . 108
CHAPTER IX.
P. P. C 128
CHAPTER X.
AN ARTICLE FROM ' UNSERE CENTURIE,' A GERMAN REVIEW 142
CHAPTER XL
AT DINNER WITH DOCTOR SARRASIN 157
CHAPTER XII.
THE COUNCIL 165
CHAPTER XIII.
NEWS FOR THE PROFESSOR 178
CHAPTER XIV.
CLEARING FOR ACTION 182
CHAPTER XV.
THE EXCHANGE OF SAN FRANCISCO 189
CHAPTER XVI.
A BRACE OF FRENCHMEN CAPTURE A TOWN . . .202
CHAPTER XVII.
PARLEY BEFORE THE CITADEL 214
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVIII.
PAGE
THE KERNEL OF THE NUT 224
CHAPTER XIX.
A FAMILY AFFAIR 233
CHAPTER XX.
CONCLUSION 238
THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
- CHAPTER I.
TURNED ADRIFT 241
CHAPTER II.
VOYAGE OF THE LONG BOAT 251
CHAPTER III.
THE MUTINEERS 262
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Doctor Sarrasin at breakfast i
The newly-found Rajah 9
Astounding news 22
He read his father's letter again 2 ^
Otto tells his news 28
" For my part, I always believe what Max says" . . . . 31
Chairing the Doctor 40
Professor Schultz and his man 43
The LangeVol business 47
" We've got the best of it this time !" 59
Stahlstadt 65
The new workman 68
Puddlers at work 72
A monster hammer 72
The casting-hall 74
The little miner's life 83
Max offers his help 86
Poor little Carl 93
An unexpected sight 105
The King of Steel in his palace 107
The masterpiece of Herr Schultz 116
Terrible projectiles 118
Formidable guards 125
Max's ruse 134
A destructive fire 137
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Vli
PAGE
A struggle for life 140
Frankville 142
The Frankville railway 147
The dinner at Doctor Sarrasin's 163
An important meeting to be held 169
No time to be lost 172
Plans for the defence . . . 182
Coolies at work 184
Great excitement among business men 192
Entering Stahlstadt 207
Forcing an entrance . . . . 210
Danger around 218
Max and Otto fighting the giants 219
The mysterious entrance 222
Herr Schultz discovered 225
THE MUTINEERS OF THE " BOUNTY."
Captain Bligh in the power of the mutineers 244
Christian watching the departing boat 250
The English and the natives 252
Bligh's perilous voyage 256
The Bounty approaching the shore 262
Doctor Sarrasin at breakfast.
Page i.
THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER I.
ENTER MR. SHARP.
" REALLY these English newspapers are very well written,"
said the worthy doctor to himself, as he leant back in a
great leathern easy-chair.
Dr. Sarrasin had all his life been given to soliloquising,
one of the many results of absence of mind.
He was a man of fifty, or thereabouts ; his features were
refined ; clear lively eyes shone through his steel spectacles,
and the expression of his countenance, although grave, was
genial. He was one of those people, looking at whom one
says at the first glance, " There is an honest man ! "
Notwithstanding the early hour, and the easy style of
his dress, the doctor had already shaved and put on a
white cravat.
Scattered near him on the carpet and on sundry chairs,
in the sitting-room of his hotel at Brighton, lay copies of
the Times, the Daily Telegraph, and the Daily News. It
B
n
THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
was not much more than ten o'clock, yet the doctor had
been out walking in the town, had visited an hospital,
returned to his hotel, and read in the principal London
journals the full report of a paper communicated by him
two evenings previously at a meeting of the great Inter
national Hygienic Conference on the " Compte globules du
sang," or " blood-corpuscle computator," an instrument he
had invented, and which even in England keeps its French
name. Before him stood a breakfast-tray covered with a
snowy napkin, on which were placed a well dressed cutlet,
a cup of hot and fragrant tea, and a plate of that buttered
toast which English cooks, thanks to English bakers, can
make to perfection.
"Yes," he repeated, "these journals are really admirably
well written, there is no denying the fact. Here is the
speech of the president, the reply by Doctor Cicogna of
Naples, my own paper in full, all as it were caught in the
air, seized and photographed at once !
" Dr. Sarrasin of Douai rose and addressed the meeting.
The honourable member spoke in French, and said, ' My
auditors will permit me to express myself in my own
language, which I am sure they understand far better than
I can speak theirs.'
" Five columns in small print !
" I cannot decide which reports it best, the Times or the
Telegraph, each seems so exact and so precise."
ENTER MR. SHARP.
Dr. Sarrasin had reached this point in his meditations,
when one of the waiters of the establishment, a gentleman
most correctly dressed in black, entered, and presenting a
card, inquired whether " Monsiou " was " at home " to
a visitor.
This appellation of " Monsiou " the English consider it
necessary to bestow indiscriminately on every Frenchman
in the same way they would think it a breach of all the
rules of civility did they fail to address an Italian as
"Signor," and a German as "Herr." Perhaps on the
whole the custom is a good one it certainly has the ad
vantage of at once indicating nationalities.
Considerably surprised to hear of a visitor in a country
where he was acquainted with no one, the doctor took the
card, and read with increased perplexity the following
.address :
Mr. Sharp,
Solicitor,
93, Southampton Row, London.
He knew that a " solicitor " meant what he should call
an "avoueY' and signified a lawyer of the compound
nature of attorney, procurator, and notary.
" What possible business can Mr. Sharp have with me ? "
thought the doctor. " Can I have got into some scrape or
other without knowing it ? Are you sure this card is
intended for me ? " he asked.
B 2
THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
" Oh yes, Monsiou."
" Well, let the gentleman come in."
A youngish man entered the room, whom the doctor at
once classed in the great family of " death's heads." Thin
dry lips, drawn back from long white teeth, hollow temple-
bones, displayed beneath skin like parchment, the com
plexion of a mummy, and small grey eyes as sharp as
needles, quite justified the title. The rest of the skeleton,
from the heels to the occiput, was hidden from view
beneath an ulster, of a large chequer pattern ; his hand
grasped a patent-leather bag.
This personage entered, bowing in a hasty manner,
placed bag and hat on the ground, took a chair without
waiting to have one offered, and opened his business by
saying
"William Henry Sharp, Junior, of the firm of Billows,
Green, Sharp and Co. Have I the honour of speaking to
Doctor Sarrasin ?"
" Yes, sir."
"Francois Sarrasin?'*
"That certainly is my name."
"OfDouai?"
" I reside at Douai."
"Your father's name was Isidore Sarrasin ?"
" It was so."
" Let us conclude him to have been Isidore Sarrasin."
ENTER MR. SHARP. 5
Mr. Sharp drew a note-book from his pocket, consulted
it, and resumed
" Isidore Sarrasin died at Paris in 1857, 6th Arrondisse-
ment, Rue Taranne, Number 54 the Hdtel des Ecoles,
now demolished."
''Perfectly correct, 5 * said the doctor, more and more
astonished. "But will you have the kindness to ex
plain ?"
"His mother's name," pursued the imperturbable Mr.
Sharp, "was Julie Langevol, originally of Bar-le-Duc,
daughter of Benedict Langevol, who lived in the alley
Loriol, and died in 1812, as is shown by the municipal
registers of the said town these registers are a valuable
institution, sir highly valuable hem hem and sister
of Jean Jacques Langevol, drum-major in the 36th
Light- -"
" I assure you," interrupted Doctor Sarrasin, confounded
by this intimate acquaintance with his genealogy, "that
you are better informed on these points than I am myself.
It is true that my grandmother's family name was
Langevol, and that is all I know about her."
"About the year 1807 she left the town of Bar-le-Duc
with your grandfather, Jean Sarrasin, whom she had
married in 1799. They settled at Melun, where he
worked as a tinsmith, and where, in 1811, Julie Langevol,
Sarrasin's wife, died, leaving only one child, Isidore
THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Sarrasin, your father. From that time, up to the date
of his death, discovered at Paris, the thread is lost."
"I can supply it," said the doctor, interested in spite
of himself by this wonderful precision. "My grand
father settled in Paris for the sake of the education of
his son, whom he destined to the medical profession.
He died in 1832, at Palaiseau, near Versailles, where
my father practised as a physician, and where I was born
in 1822."
" You are my man/' resumed Mr. Sharp. " No brothers
or sisters ?"
" None. I was the only son ; my mother died two
years after my birth. Now, sir, will you tell me ? "
Mr. Sharp stood up.
" Rajah Bryah Jowahir Mothooranath," said he, pro
nouncing the names with the respect shown by every
Englishman to a title, " I am happy to have discovered
you, and to be the first to congratulate you."
" The man is deranged," thought the doctor ; " it is not
at all uncommon among these death's heads."
The solicitor read this opinion in his eyes.
" I am not mad in the slightest degree," said he calmly.
" You are at the present moment the sole known heir to
the title of Rajah, which Jean Jacques Langevol who
became a naturalised British subject in 1819, succeeded to
the property of his wife the Begum Gokool, and died in
ENTER MR. SHARP.
1841, leaving only one son, an idiot, who died without
issue in 1869 was allowed to assume by the Governor-
General of the province of Bengal.
" The value of the estate has risen during the last thirty
years to about five millions of pounds sterling. It
remained sequestered and under guardianship, almost
the whole of the interest going to increase the capital
during the life of the imbecile son of Jean Jacques
Langevol.
"In 1870 the value of the inheritance was given in
round numbers to be twenty-one millions of pounds
sterling, or five hundred and twenty-five millions of francs.
In fulfilment of an order of the law court of Agra, counter
signed by that of Delhi, and confirmed by the Privy
Council, the whole of the landed and personal property
has been sold, and the sum realised has been placed in the
Bank of England.
"The actual sum is five hundred and twenty-seven
millions of francs, which you can withdraw by a cheque as
soon as you have proved your genealogical identity in the
Court of Chancery. And in the meantime I am authorised
by Messrs. Trollop, Smith and Co., Bankers, to offer you
advances to any amount."
Dr. Sarrasin sat petrified for some minutes he could not
utter a word ; then, impressed by a conviction that this fine
story was without any foundation in fact, he quietly said
8 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
u After all, sir, where are the proofs of this, and in
what way have you been led to find me out ? "
"The proofs are here, sir," replied Mr. Sharp, tapping
on his shiny leather bag. " As to how I discovered you, it
has been in a very simple way : I have been searching for
you for five years. It is the speciality of our firm to find
heirs for the numerous fortunes which year by year are
left in escheat in the British dominions. .
"For five years the question of the inheritance of the
Begum Gokool has exercised all our ingenuity and activity.
We have made investigations in every direction, passed in
review hundreds of families of your name without finding
that of Isidore Sarrasin. I was almost convinced that
there was not another of the name in all France, when
yesterday morning I read in the Daily News a report of
the meeting of the Hygienic Conference, and observed
that among the members was a Doctor Sarrasin, of
whom I had never before heard.
'* Referring instantly to my notes, and to hundreds of
papers on the subject of this estate, I ascertained with
surprise that the town of Douai had entirely escaped
our notice.
u With the conviction that I had got on the right scent,
I took the train for Brighton, saw you leave the meeting,
and all doubt vanished. You are the living image of
your great-uncle Langevol, of whom we possess a photo-
The newly -found Rajah.
Page 9.
ENTER MR.. SHARP.
graph taken from a portrait by the Indian painter
Saranoni."
Mr. Sharp took a photograph from his pocket-book and
handed it to Dr. Sarrasin.
It represented a tall man with a magnificent beard, a
crested turban, and a richly brocaded robe.
He was seated after the manner of conventional portraits
of generals in the army, appearing to be drawing up a plan
of attack, while attentively regarding the spectator.
In the background could be dimly discerned the smoke
of battle and a charge of cavalry.
"A glance at these papers will inform you on this
matter better than I can do," continued Mr. Sharp ; " I
will leave, them with you, and return in a couple of hours,
if you will then permit me to take your orders."
So saying, Mr. Sharp drew from the depths of his
glazed bag seven or eight bundles of documents, some
printed, some manuscript, placed them on the table, and
backed out of the room, murmuring
"I have the honour to wish the Rajah Bryah Jowahir
Mothooranath a very good morning."
Partly convinced, partly ridiculing the idea, the doctor
took the papers and began to peruse them.
A rapid examination sufficed to show him the truth
of Mr. Sharp's statements, and to remove his doubts.
Among the printed documents he read the following :
io THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Evidence placed before the Right Honourable Lords
of Her Majesty's Privy Council on the 5th of January
1870, touching the vacant succession of the Begum Gokool
of Ragginahra, in Bengal. Points of the case. The
question concerns the rights of possession to certain
landed estates, together with a fc variety of edifices, palaces,
mercantile establishments, villages, personal properties,
treasure, arms, &c., &c., forming the inheritance of the
Begum Gokool of Ragginahra.
From evidence submitted to the civil tribunal of Agra,
and to the Superior Court at Delhi, it appears that in
1819, the Begum Gokool, widow of Rajah Luckmissur,
and possessed in her own right of considerable wealth,
married a foreigner, of French origin, by name Jean
Jacques Langevol.
This foreigner, after serving until 1815 in the French
army as drum-major in the 36th Light Cavalry, embarked
at Nantes, upon the disbandment of the army of the
Loire, as supercargo of a merchant ship.
He reached Calcutta, passed into the interior, and
speedily obtained the appointment of military instructor in
the small native army which the Rajah Luckmissur was
authorised to maintain. In this army he rose to be com-
mander-in-chief, and shortly after the Rajah's death he
obtained the hand of his widow.
In consideration of various important services rendered
ENTER MR. SHARP. II
to the English residents at Agra by Jean Jacques Langevol,
he was constituted a British subject, and the Governor-
General of Bengal obtained for the husband of the Begum
the title of Rajah of Bryah Jowahir Mothooranath, which
was the name of one of the most considerable of her estates.
The Begum died in 1839, leaving the whole of her wealth
and property to Langevol, who survived her only two years.
Their only child was imbecile from his infancy, and was
placed at once under guardians. The inheritance was
carefully managed by trustees until his death, which
occurred in 1869.
To this immense heritage there is no known heir. The
courts of Agra and Delhi having ordered its sale by auction,
on the application of the local government acting for the
state, we have the honour to request from the Lords of the
Privy Council a confirmation of their decision, &c. Here
followed the signatures.
Copies of legal documents from Agra and Delhi, deeds
of sale, an account of the efforts made in France to discover
the next of kin to Langevol's family, and a whole mass of
imposing evidence of the like nature, left Dr. Sarrasin no
room for doubt or hesitation.
Between him and the five hundred and twenty-seven
millions of francs deposited in the strong rooms of the
Bank of England there was but a step, the production of
authentic certificates of certain births and deaths.
12 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Such a stroke of fortune being enough to dazzle the
imagination of the most sober-minded man, the good
doctor could not contemplate it without some emotion.
Yet it was of short duration, and exhibited simply by a
rapid walk for a few minutes up and down his apartment.
Quickly recovering his self-possession, he accused him
self of weakness for yielding to this feverish agitation,
threw himself into his chair, and remained for a time lost
in profound reflection.
Then suddenly rising, he resumed his walk backwards
and forwards, while his eyes shone with a pure light as
though a noble and generous project burned within his
breast. He seemed to welcome, to caress, to encourage,
and finally to adopt it.
A knock at the door. Mr. Sharp returned.
" I ask pardon a thousand times for my doubts as to
the correctness of your information," said the doctor in a
cordial tone. " You see me now perfectly convinced, and
extremely obliged to you for the trouble you have taken."
" Not at all mere matter of business in the way of my
profession nothing more," replied Mr. Sharp. "May I
venture to hope that the Rajah will remain our client ? "
" That is understood. I place the whole affair in your
hands. I only beg you to desist from giving me that
absurd title."
" Absurd ! a title worth twenty millions ! " were the
ENTER MR. SHARP. 13
words Mr. Sharp would have uttered had he known no
better ; but he said, " Certainly, sir, if you wish it. As
you please, sir. I am now going to return by train to-
London, where I shall await your orders."
" May I keep these documents ? " inquired the doctor.
" Most assuredly we retain copies."
Dr. Sarrasin was left alone. He seated himself at his
desk, took out a sheet of paper, and wrote as follows :
"Brighton, 28th October, 1871.
"MY DEAR CHILD,
" We have become possessed of an enormous fortune,
a fortune absurdly colossal. Do not fancy that I have
lost my senses, but read the printed papers enclosed in
my letter. You will there plainly see that I am proved
to be the heir to a native title in India, and a sum
equivalent to many millions of francs, actually deposited
in the Bank of England.
" I can feel sure of the sentiments with which you, my
dear Otto, will receive this news. You will perceive, as I
do myself, the new duties which such wealth will impose
upon us, and the danger we are in of being tempted to use
it unwisely.
" It is but an hour since I was made aware of the fact,
and already the overpowering sense of responsibility seems
to lessen the pleasure it first gave me as I thought of you.
This change may be fatal instead of fortunate to our
14 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
destiny. In the modest position of pioneers of science we
were content and happy in obscurity. Shall we continue
to be so ? I doubt it, unless perhaps (could I venture
to mention an idea which has flashed across my brain,)
unless this same fortune were to become in our hands a
new and powerful engine of science, a mighty tool in the
great work of civilisation and progress ! We will talk about
this. Write to me let me know very soon what impression
this wonderful news makes on your mind and let your
mother hear of it from you. Sensible woman as she is, I
am convinced she will receive it calmly. As to your sister,
she is too young to have her head turned by anything of
the sort. Besides, that little head of hers is a very sober
one, and even if she could comprehend all that this change
in our position implies, I believe she would take it more
quietly than any of us.
" Remember me cordially to Max ; I connect him with
all my schemes for the future.
" Your affectionate father,
" FRANCOIS SARRASIN."
This letter, with the more important papers, was
addressed to
Monsieur Octave Sarrasin,
Student at the Upper School of Arts and Manufactures,
32, Rue du Roi de Sicile,
Paris.
ENTER MR. SHARP.
Then the doctor put on his overcoat, took his hat, and
went to the Conference.
In a quarter of an hour, the worthy man had forgotten
all about his millions.
16 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER II.
A PAIR OF CHUMS.
DR. SARRASIN'S son Octavius was not exactly what one
would call a dunce. He was neither a blockhead nor a
genius, neither plain nor handsome, neither tall nor short,
neither dark nor fair. His complexion was nut-brown, and
he was altogether an average specimen of the middle
class.
At school he had never taken a very high place, although
occasionally gaining a prize. He had failed in his first
examination for passing into the College of Engineers,
but a second attempt admitted him, although with no great
credit.
There was a want of decision in his character his mind
was content with inaccuracies ; he was one of those people
who are satisfied to have a general idea of a subject, and
who walk through life by moonlight.
Such men float at the mercy of fate, as corks do on the
A PAIR OF CHUMS. I/
crests of waves. They are driven to the equator or to the
pole, according to whether the wind blows north or south.
Chance decides their career.
Had Dr. Sarrasin altogether understood his son's
character, he might have hesitated to write the letter he
did ; but the wisest man may be a blind father.
Fortunately for Octavius, he had during his school life
come under the influence of an energetic nature, which by
its vigorous strength ruled him for his good, albeit some
what tyrannically. He formed a close friendship with one
of his companions, Max Bruckmann, a native of Alsace, a
year younger than himself, but far his superior in physical,
intellectual and moral vigour.
Max Bruckmann, left an orphan at the age of twelve,
inherited a small income, just sufficient to defray the
expense of his education. His life at college would have
been monotonous had he not passed the holidays with
Octavius, or Otto, as he called his friend, at his home.
The young Alsacien very soon felt himself one of Dr.
Sarrasin's family. Beneath a cold exterior lay a warm
and sensitive nature, and he considered that he was bound
for life to those who acted like father and mother to him.
He positively adored Dr. Sarrasin, his wife, and their
pretty thoughtful little daughter; his heart expanded
under the influence of their kindness, and he greatly
wished to be useful to them by helping Jeannette, who
C
1 8 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
loved her studies, to advance in them, and thoroughly to
cultivate her excellent abilities and firm, sensible mind,
while he longed to lead Otto to become as good a man as
his father. This latter task he well knew to be by no
means so easy as the former, yet Max was resolved to
attain his double purpose.
Max Bruckmann was one of those trusty and gallant
champions whom year by year Alsace sends forth to do
battle on the great arena of life in Paris.
As a mere child he distinguished himself by the strength
and flexibility of his muscles, as much as by the vivacity
and intelligence of his mind. Inwardly full of life and
courage, his outward form exhibited strong muscular
development rather than graceful proportions. At college
he excelled in everything he attempted, whether sport or
study. Reaping an annual harvest of prizes, he thought
the year wasted if he failed to gain all within his reach.
At twenty his form was large, robust, and in splendid
condition ; his movements were animated, and his well-
shaped head betokened unusual intelligence. When he
entered college, the same year with Octavius, he stood
second, and was resolved to be first when the time came
for leaving it.
Without his persistent energy to urge him forward,
Octavius would never have got in at all. For the space of
a whole year Max had driven and goaded him to work,
A PAIR OF CHUMS. 19
had regularly compelled him to succeed. He entertained
for this friend of weak and vacillating nature a sentiment
of kindly compassion such as one might suppose a lion to
exhibit towards a little puppy. He liked to feel that he
could nourish this parasitical plant from the superabund
ance of his own sap, and cause it to flourish and blossom
beside him.
The war of 1870 broke out at the close of one of their
terms. Max, full of patriotic grief at the fate which
threatened Strasburg and Alsace, hastened to enlist in the
3 1st Regiment of Light Infantry. Otto, as Max called
him, and as we will for the future, at once followed his
example.
Side by side the two friends, stationed in the outposts
of Paris, went through the severe campaign of the siege.
At Champigny Max received a ball in his right arm, at
Buzenval an epaulet on his left shoulder. Otto received
neither wound nor decoration. It could not have been his
fault, for he followed his friend everywhere, scarcely half a
dozen yards in his rear. But those half-dozen yards made
all the difference.
After the peace, the two friends resumed their studies,
occupying modest apartments together near the college.
The recent misfortunes of France,- the loss to her of
Lorraine and Alsace, had matured the character of Max
he felt and spoke like a man.
C 2
so THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
" It is the vocation of the youth of France," said he ;
"to repair the errors of their fathers. By genuine hard
work alone can this be done."
Max rose every morning at five o'clock, and made Otto
do the same. He obliged him to be punctual at his
classes, and never lost sight of him during the hours of
recreation.
The evening was devoted to study, with occasional
pauses for a pipe or a cup of coffee. At ten they retired
to rest, their hearts content, their brains well filled.
A game at billiards now and then, a well-chosen play or
concert, a ride to the forest of Verrieres, a country walk,
and twice a week a lesson in fencing and boxing these
were their amusements.
From time to time Otto, casting curious eyes at the
very questionable enjoyments of other students, would
make feeble attempts at revolt, and talk of going to see
Caesar Leroux, who was " studying law," and passed most
of his time at the beer-shop of St. Michel ; but Max
treated these fancies with such utter contempt and derision
that they usually passed off quietly.
On the 29th of October, 1871, about seven o'clock in
the evening, the two friends were seated, as was their wont,
side by side at the same table, with a shaded lamp
between them.
Max was working a problem in applied mathematics,
A PAIR OF CHUMS. 21
relative to the stability of blocks, and had thrown himself
heart and soul into his subject.
Otto was devoting himself sedulously to something
which he thought of much greater consequence, the brewing
of a pint of coffee. It was one of the few things in which
he flattered himself he really excelled, perhaps because he
had daily practice in it, thereby escaping for a few minutes
the troublesome business of squaring equations, which he
considered that Max really did carry too far.
Drop by drop he let his boiling water pass through a
thick layer of powdered mocha, and he ought to have been
contented with such tranquil happiness ; but he was annoyed
at the devoted industry of Max, and felt an unconquerable
desire to interrupt him.
" It would be a good plan to buy a percolator," said he,
suddenly. " This ancient and solemn method of filtering
is a disgrace to our modern civilisation,"
"Do buy a percolator; it will perhaps prevent your
wasting an hour every evening with this cookery," replied
Max, and he returned to his problem.
" The intrados of a vault is an ellipsoid ; let A B
C D be that principal ellipse which contains the two
axes, O A equal to a O B equal to b, while the least
axis O O 1 C is vertical, and equal to c ; then that which
supports the elliptic vault "
At this moment came a rap at the door.
22 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
"A letter for Monsieur Octave Sarrasin." It may be
imagined that this interruption was heartily welcomed by
that young gentleman !
" Ah ! from my father it is his hand I see. Come,
this is something like a letter ! " he exclaimed, as he
weighed the packet of papers in his hand.
Max knew that the doctor was in England. He had
been in Paris a week before on his way there, and had
treated the two lads to a dinner fit for an emperor, at the
Palais Royal ; for although that once famous place was
quite out of fashion, Dr. Sarrasin continued to regard it
as the centre of Parisian taste and refinement.
" Let me know what your father says about his Hygienic
Conference," said Max. " It was a good idea of his to
attend that ; French ' savants ' are inclined to be too
exclusive."
And Max returned to his problem.
"The extrados will be formed by another similar
ellipsoid, having its centre at the point O on the vertical
OC."
" Let F F F be the foci of the three principal ellipses,
then we find the auxiliary ellipse and hyperbola, of which
the common axes are "
A shout from Otto made him look up.
" What is the matter ? " he asked with some alarm,
seeing his friend turn pale.
Astounding news.
A PAIR OF CHUMS. 23
" Read this ! " cried Otto, completely astonished by the
news he had received.
Max took the letter, read it all through, read it a second
time, glanced over the documents enclosed, and said
" This is curious ! "
Then he filled his pipe, and lighted it methodically.
Otto watched him all anxiety for his opinion.
"Do you think it can be true?" he exclaimed with a
choking voice.
" True ? to be sure it is. Your father has too much
common sense, his judgment is too good to let him
accept rashly so well-authenticated a statement as this.
Besides, the proofs are there it is in fact perfectly
plain."
The pipe was now thoroughly lighted.
Max resumed his work.
Otto sat with his arms hanging down, unable even to
finish his coffee, far less to bring two ideas together.
He could not help speaking, just to convince himself
that he was not asleep.
"But, I say, Max, if this is true it is downright over
whelming ! All these millions ! why it is an enormous
fortune, mind you ! "
Max looked up and nodded, "Yes, enormous is the
word for it. Most likely there is not one such in
France, a few in the United States, five or six in
24 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
England not above fifteen or twenty in the world
altogether."
"And a title into the bargain!" resumed Otto. "A
foreign title what is it? let's see 'Rajah!' Not that I
ever was ambitious of having a title, but if it comes in one's
way, why it certainly sounds more imposing than plain
Sarrasin."
Max shot forth a puff of smoke, and uttered not a word.
That puff of smoke distinctly said " Pooh 1 Pooh ! "
" Certainly," continued Otto, " I should never have stuck
a ' de ' before my name, or assumed anything high-sounding
as some people do ; but to inherit a real genuine title,
and to take rank among the great princes of India, without
any possible chance of doubt or confusion ! "
The pipe kept puffing " Pooh ! Pooh ! "
" My dear fellow," said Otto decidedly, " you may say
what you like, but I can tell you there is ' a good deal in
blood ' as the English express it."
He stopped short as he caught the mocking smile in
Max's eyes, and returned to the contemplation of his
millions.
"Do you recollect, Max, howBin6me, our old arithmetic
master, used to impress upon us every year in his opening
lesson, that five hundred millions was a number beyond the
grasp of one human mind unaided by the resources of
written figures ? One has to consider that a man spending
A PAIR OF CHUMS. 25
a franc every minute would take more than a thousand
years to pay away such a sum. Well, it really is strange
to think one has inherited five hundred millions of
francs ! "
" Five hundred million francs is it ? " cried Max with
more interest than he had yet shown. " Shall I tell you
the best thing you can do ? Give it to France for payment
of her ransom, she only requires ten times as much!"
" For mercy's sake, don't suggest such an idea to my
father ! " cried Otto, looking quite scared. " He really
might adopt it. I can tell you that he already has some
notion of the kind in his head. Some investment he
might certainly make, but at least let us have the interest."
" Come, we shall have you turn out a financier after
all!" said Max. "Something tells me, my poor Otto,
that it would have been better for your father, with his
upright, intelligent mind, if this great fortune had been of
a more reasonable size. I would rather see you with an
income of five-and-twenty thousand to share with your
good little sister than with this great mountain of gold ! "
And Max went back to his work.
As to Otto, he could not settle to anything, and fidgeted
about the room till his friend got rather impatient and
said
" You had better go out and take a walk, Otto ; it is
clear you are fit for nothing this evening ! "
26 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
" You are quite right ! I really am not," replied Otto,
who joyfully caught at this excuse for leaving off work,
and seizing his hat, he clattered downstairs, and was soon
in the street.
He presently stopped beneath a bright gaslight, and
read his father's letter again. He wanted to make sure he
was not dreaming.
" Five hundred millions of francs ! " he kept repeating.
" That would be at least five-and-twenty millions a year.
Why, if my father will only give me one million a year
say quarterly or half-yearly as my allowance, how happy
I should be ! Money can do so much. I am sure I should
make an excellent use of it. I'm not a fool not a bit of
it. Didn't I get into the upper school ? And then that
title ! I'm sure I could easily support the dignity of a title."
As he passed along he looked into all the shops.
" I shall have a fine house, horses, one for Max of course.
I becoming rich myself, he will become so likewise.
Only think ! Five hundred millions ! But somehow, now
a fortune comes, it seems to me as though I had expected
it. Something whispered that I should not be poring over
books and plans all my life."
As Otto revolved these thoughts, he was passing along
beneath the arcades of the Rue de Rivoli. Reaching the
Champs Elysees, he turned up the Rue Royal, and
reached the Boulevards.
He read his father's letter again.
Page 26.
A PAIR OF CHUMS. 2/
The splendid shop-fronts, which formerly he regarded
with indifference as exhibiting things utterly useless to
him, now attracted lively attention, as he considered, with
a thrill of delight, that he could at any moment possess
any or all of these treasures.
" For me," said he to himself, " for me, all this fine linen,
all these exquisite soft cloths are manufactured ; for me
watchmakers construct timepieces and chronometers ; for
my pleasure the brilliant lustres of theatre and opera shed
their dazzling light, violins scrape, prima-donnas sing their
enchanting strains. For me horse dealers train thorough
breds, and the Cafe Anglaise is lighted up. All Paris is
mine ! Everything is at my disposal ! Travel ! to be
sure I shall travel. I shall go and visit my Indian
possessions. As likely as not I shall buy a pagoda some
day, priests and all, and the ivory idols into the bargain.
I shall have elephants of my own ! I shall have splendid
guns and rifles go tiger-shooting. And I must have a
beautiful boat. A boat, what am I thinking about ? a fine
steam yacht, that's what I shall have go where I choose,
stop as often as I like. Talking of steam, I have to give
this news to my mother. Suppose I start for Douai ?
There is college to be considered. But then, what's the
use of college to me now ? "
" But Max, I must let him know. I should send him a
message ; of course he will understand that under present
28 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
circumstances I am in haste to see my mother and
sister."
Otto entered an office, and sent a telegram to inform his
friend that he was gone, and would return in a couple of
days. Then, hailing a cab, he was driven to the terminus
of the Northern Railway.
Settling himself in the corner of a carriage, he continued
to follow out his dreaming fancies, until, at two o'clock in
the morning, he arrived at Douai ; hurried to his father's
house, and rang the night bell so noisily, that not only the
family, but all the neighbours were aroused by the peal.
Night-capped heads popped out at various windows.
" Somebody is very ill ! who can it be ? " inquired one
and another.
"The doctor is not at home!" screamed the old
servant from her attic window.
" It is I ! it is Otto ! Come down and let me in,
Fanchon ! "
After a delay of ten minutes, Otto was admitted into
the house. His mother and sister hastily robed in dress
ing-gowns, came downstairs, all anxiety to learn the cause
of this visit.
The doctor's letter on being read aloud explained the
mystery.
Madame Sarrasin was at first completely dazzled. She
embraced her son and daughter, with tears of joy ; it
Otto tells his news.
Page ?8.
30 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
the side of the enthusiastic man of science, and conse
quently centred all her hopes and aspirations in her chil
dren. She pictured for them a brilliant and happy future.
Otto, she felt certain, was destined to do great things.
From the time he took a place in the upper school she
mentally regarded that modest and useful college for
young engineers as the nursery of illustrious men. Her
only trouble was that their limited means might possibly
prove an obstacle, or at least a difficulty in the w r ay of her
son's brilliant career, and might ultimately also affect her
daughter's establishment in life. But now, she so far
understood the news conveyed in her husband's letter, as
to perceive that these fears were needless, and her satisfac
tion was entire.
The mother and son spent most of the night in talking
and making plans, while Jeannette, happy in the present,
heedless of the future, was fast asleep in an arm-chair.
" You have not mentioned Max," said Madame Sarrasin
to her son. " Have you not shown him your father's
letter ? What does he say about it ?"
" Oh, you know what Max is ! " answered Otto. " He is
worse than a philosopher, he is a stoic. I believe he fears
the effect so enormous a fortune will have upon us ! I say
upon us, but he is not afraid for my father himself, whose
good sense and judgment, he says, he can rely upon. But
for you, mother, and Jeannette, and more especially for me,
For my part, I always believe what Max says.'
Page 31.
A PAIR OF CHUMS. 31
he plainly said he should have preferred an income of a
few thousands a year."
"Perhaps Max is not far wrong," replied Madame
Sarrasin, looking at her son. " The sudden possession of
great wealth is fraught with danger to some natures."
Jeannette awoke, and heard her mother's last words.
" Do not you remember, mother," said she, as, rubbing
her eyes, she rose and turned towards her little bedroom,
" Do not you remember you told me one day that Max
was always in the right. I for my part believe what our
friend Max says." And, kissing her mother, Jeannette
withdrew.
32 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER III.
EFFECT OF AN ITEM OF NEWS.
ON entering the hall, where the fourth meeting of the
Hygienic Conference was being held, Dr. Sarrasin was
conscious that he was received with unusual tokens of
respect. The Right Honourable Lord Glandover, the
president and chairman of the assembly, had not hitherto
condescended to appear conscious of the existence of the
French doctor.
This nobleman was an august personage, whose part it
was to declare the Conference' open or closed, and, from a
list placed before him, to call upon the various speakers
who were to address the meeting.
He habitually carried his right hand in the breast of his
buttoned coat, not that it had received an injury and
needed support, but only because it was usual among
English sculptors to represent statesmen in this inconve
nient attitude.
EFFECT OF AN ITEM OF NEWS. 33
His pale smooth face, marked with red blotches, and
surmounted by a wig of light hair, brushed high on a fore
head which clearly belonged to an empty pate, possessed
an aspect of ludicrous stiffness and foolish gravity. Lord
Glandover might have been made of wood or paste-board,
so stiff and unnatural were all his movements. His very
eyes appeared to turn beneath their brows by intermittent
jerks, like those of a doll or puppet.
The notice hitherto bestowed on Dr. Sarrasin by Lord
Glandover had amounted to no more than a slight and
patronising bow ; it seemed to say " Good morning, poor
man ; you are one of those who support your insignificant
existence by making insignificant experiments with insig
nificant machines. How condescending I am to notice a
being so far beneath me in the scale of creation ! You
may sit down, poor man, beneath the shadow of my
nobility."
But on the present occasion Lord Glandover smiled
most graciously upon Dr. Sarrasin as he entered, and even
carried his courtesy so far as to invite him by a sign to be
seated at his right hand. The other members of the
Conference all rose when he appeared on the platform.
Considerably astonished by a reception so flattering,
Dr. Sarrasin took the chair offered to him, concluding that,
on further consideration, his invention had been found of
much greater importance than his scientific brethren had
D
34 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
at first supposed. But this illusion vanished when Lord
Glandover, leaning towards him with a spinal contortion of
his body, whispered in his ear
" I understand that you are a man of very considerable
property. They tell me you are worth twenty-one million
pounds sterling."
This was said almost in a tone of reproach, as though his
lordship felt aggrieved at having lightly treated the equiva
lent in flesh and blood of a sum of money so vast.
His look and tone seemed to say
" Why was I not made aware of this ? It really is very
unfair to expose one to the awkwardness of making such
mistakes ! "
Dr. Sarrasin, who could not in conscience have said he
" was worth " a penny more than he had been at the last
meeting, was wondering how the news should have already
become known, when Dr. Ovidius of Berlin, who sat next
him, said with a false and faint smile
" Why, Sarrasin, you are as great a man as any of the
Rothschilds ! so the Daily Telegraph makes out. Let me
congratulate you."
He handed the doctor a copy of the paper of Thursday.
Among the items of news was to be seen the following
paragraph, the composition of which plainly revealed its
authorship.
"A MONSTER HERITAGE. The legitimate heir to the
EFFECT OF AN ITEM OF NEWS. 35
fortune of the late Begum Gokool has at length been dis
covered, thanks to the indefatigable researches of Messrs.
Billows, Green and Sharp, solicitors, 94, Southampton
Row, London.
" The fortunate possessor of twenty-one million pounds
sterling, now deposited in the Bank of England, is a
Frenchman, Dr. Sarrasin, whose able paper, communicated
at the Brighton Scientific Conference, was reported in this
journal three days ago.
"By dint of a course of strenuous efforts, and amid
difficulties and adventures forming in themselves a perfect
romance, Mr. Sharp has succeeded in proving indisputably
that Dr. Sarrasin is the sole living descendant of Jean
Jacques Langevol, the second husband of the Begum
Gokool.
" This soldier of fortune was, it appears, a native of the
town of Bar-le-Duc in France.
" A few matters of form only required to be gone through
in order to place Dr. Sarrasin in full possession of his for
tune. A petition to that effect has been filed in Chancery.
"Very remarkable is the chain of circumstance by which
the treasure accumulated by a long line of Indian Rajahs
is laid at the feet of a French physician. The fickle
goddess might have exhibited the indiscretion she so
frequently displays in the disposal of her gifts ; but on
this occasion she has, we are glad to say, bestowed this
D 2
36 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
prodigious fortune on one who will not fail to make a good
use of his wealth."
Oddly enough, as many might think, Dr. Sarrasin was
vexed to see his news made public. He not only
foresaw the many annoyances it would entail upon him, he
also felt humbled by the importance people seemed to
attach to the event. He, himself personally, appeared to
dwindle into insignificance before the imposing figures
which denoted his capital. He was inly conscious that his
own personal merits, and all he had ever accomplished,
were already, even in the eyes of those who knew him best,
sunk in this ocean of gold and silver.
His friends no longer saw in him the enthusiastic
experimentalist, the ingenious inventor, the acute philoso
pher ; they saw only the great millionaire.
Had he been a hump-backed dwarf, an ignorant
Hottentot, the lowest specimen of humanity, instead of
one of its most intelligent representatives, his value would
have been the same as Lord Glandover had expressed it,
he "was worth " henceforth just twenty-one million pounds,
no more and no less.
This idea sickened him, and the crowd of members, staring
with a searching if not a scientific curiosity to see how a
millionaire looked, remarked with surprise that a shade of
melancholy gathered on the countenance under examination.
This, however, was only a passing weakness.
EFFECT OF AN ITEM OF NEWS. 37
The magnitude of the object to which he had resolved
to dedicate his unexpected fortune rose suddenly before
him, and his serenity was restored.
He waited until Dr. Stevenson, of Glasgow, had finished
reading a paper on the education of young idiots, and
then requested leave to make a communication.
It was instantly granted by Lord Glandover, although
the name of Dr. Ovidius stood next on the list. By the
marked tone of his voice, he indicated that he would have
done so had the whole Conference objected, or had all the
learned men in Europe protested with one accord against
such a piece of favouritism.
" Gentlemen," said Dr. Sarrasin, " it was my intention to
wait for a few days before informing you of the singular
chance which has befallen me, and of the happy con
sequences which may result to science from this event.
But, the fact having become public, it would seem mere
affectation were I now to delay speaking of it, and placing
it in its proper light.
" Yes, gentlemen, it is true that a large sum of money, a
sum amounting to many millions, now deposited in the
Bank of England, appears to be legally my property.
" Need I tell you, that such being the case, I consider
myself simply as a steward, entrusted with this wealth for
the use and benefit of science ? (Immense sensation.)
This treasure belongs, not to me but to humanity to
38 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
progress! (Great commotion exclamations applause.
The whole assembly, electrified by this announcement,
rise en massed)
" Do not applaud me, gentlemen ; I know not one man of
science worthy of the name who, in my place, would not
do what it is my desire to do.
" It is possible that some may attribute to me motives of
vanity and self-love in this matter, rather than of genuine
devotedness. (No ! No !) It matters little. Let us look
to the results.
"I declare, then, definitively, and without reservation,
that the twenty-one million pounds placed in my hands
belongs not to me, but to science ! Will you, gentlemen,
undertake the management and distribution of it ?
"I have not sufficient confidence in my own knowledge to
undertake the sole disposal of such a sum. I appoint you
as trustees ; you yourselves shall decide on the best means
of employing all the treasure." (Tumultuous applause-
great excitement general enthusiasm.)
The whole assembly stood up, some members, in the
fever of excitement, mounted on the table. Professor
Turnbull, of Glasgow, appeared on the verge of apoplexy.
Dr. Cicogna, of Naples, was ready to choke.
Lord Glandover alone maintained the serene and dig
nified composure befitting his rank. He was perfectly
convinced that Dr. Sarrasin intended the whole thing as a
EFFECT OF AN ITEM OF NEWS. 39
pleasant jest, without the smallest intention of actually
carrying out so extravagant a scheme.
When quiet was in some measure restored, the speaker
continued
" If I may be permitted to suggest what it would be
easy to develop and bring to perfection, I would beg
to propose the following plan."
The assembly, recovering its composure, listened with
reverential attention.
"Gentlemen, among the many causes of the sickness,
misery and death which surround us, is one to which I
think it reasonable to attach great importance ; and that
is the deplorable sanitary conditions under which the
greater part of mankind exists.
" Multitudes are massed together in towns, and in dwell
ings where they are often deprived of light and air, the
two elements most necessary to life.
"These agglomerations of humanity become the hot
beds of fever and infection, and even those who escape
death are tainted with disease ; they are feeble and useless
members of society, which thereby suffers great and serious
loss, instead of deriving priceless advantage from their
healthful and vigorous labour.
"Why, gentlemen, should we not, in an effort to remedy
this sore evil, try the most powerful of all means of persua
sion that of example ?
40 TPIE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
" Why should we not, by uniting the powers of our
minds, produce the plan of a model city, based upon
strictly scientific principles ? (Cries of Hear, Hear.)
Why should we not afterwards devote our capital to
the erection of such a city, and then present it to
the world as a practical illustration of what all cities
ought to be ? " (Hear, Hear ! and thunders of ap
plause.)
The members, in transports of admiration, shook hands,
and congratulated each other ; then, surrounding Dr.
Sarrasin, they seized upon his chair, raised him up, and
bore him triumphantly round the hall.
" Gentlemen," continued the doctor, on being permitted
to resume his place ; " to this city, which every one of us
can already picture in imagination, and which may shortly
become a reality to this city of health and happiness
we will call universal attention by descriptions, translated
into all the languages of the earth ; we will invite visitors
from every nation ; we will offer it as a home and refuge
for honest families forced to emigrate from over-populated
countries.
"Those unfortunate people, also, who are driven into exile
by foreign conquest (can you wonder, gentlemen, that I
think of them ?) will find with us employment for their
activity, and scope for their intelligence, while they will
enrich our colony by their moral virtue and intellectual
Chairing the Doctor.
Page 40.
EFFECT OF AN ITEM OF NEWS. 41
strength possessions of far higher value than gold or
precious stones.
" We will found great colleges where youth will be trained
and educated in principles based on the truest wisdom, so
as to develop and justly balance their moral, physical,
and intellectual faculties, thus preparing future generations
of strong and virtuous men."
No language can describe the tumult of enthusiasm
which followed this communication. For at least a
quarter of an hour the hall resounded with a storm of
cheering and hurrahs.
Dr. Sarrasin sat down, and Lord Glandover, once more
leaning towards him, murmured in his ear with a knowing
wink
" Not a bad speculation that ! what a revenue you
would draw from the tolls eh ? The thing would be sure
to succeed, provided it were well started and backed up by
influential names. Why, all our convalescents and valetu
dinarians would be for settling there at once ! Be sure
you put down my name for a good building lot, doctor ! "
Poor Dr. Sarrasin was quite mortified by this determina
tion to attribute his actions to a covetous motive, and was
about to reply to his lordship, when he heard the vice-
president move a vote of thanks to the author of the
philanthropic proposal just submitted to the assembly.
" It would," he said, " be to the eternal honour of the
42 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Brighton Conference, that an idea so sublime had been
originated there. It was an idea which nothing short of
the most exalted benevolence and the rarest generosity
could have conceived. And yet, now that the idea had
been suggested, it seemed almost a wonder that it had
never before occurred to any one.
"Millions had been lavished on senseless wars, vast
capitals squandered in foolish speculations ; how infinitely
better spent they might have been in the furtherance of
such a scheme as this ! "
The speaker, in conclusion, proposed " That, in honour
of its founder, the new city should receive the name of
Sarrasina."
This motion would have been carried by acclamation,
but Dr. Sarrasin interposed
" No," said he, " my name has nothing whatever to do
with this scheme. Neither let us bestow on the future
city a fancy name derived from Greek or Latin, such as
is often invented, and gives an air of affectation and
peculiarity to whatever bears it. It will be the city of
welfare and comfort, let it be named after my country.
Let us call it Frankville ! "
Every one agreed to gratify Dr. Sarrasin in this by
acceding to his choice, and the first step was thus taken
towards the founding of the city.
The meeting then proceeded to the discussion of other
Professor Schultz and his man.
EFFECT OF AN ITEM OF NEWS. 43
points, and to this practical occupation, so unlike those to
which it was usually devoted, we will leave it, while we
follow the wandering fortunes of the paragraph published
in the Daily Telegraph.
Copied word for word by all the newspapers, the
information contained in this little paragraph was soon
blazed abroad, over every county in England. In the
Hull Gazette it figured at the top of the second page in
a copy of that modest journal which, on the first of
November, arrived at Rotterdam on board the three-
masted collier Queen Mary.
The active scissors of the editor of the Belgian Echo
pounced upon it at once, it was speedily translated into
Flemish (the language of Cuyp and Potter), and on the
wings of steam it reached the Bremen Chronicle on the
2nd of November. In that paper our bit of news next
appeared, the same in substance, but clothed in a garb of
German, the artful editor adding in parenthesis " from our
Brighton correspondent."
The anecdote, now thoroughly Germanised, reached the
office of the editor of the Northern Gazette, and that great
man gave it a place in the second column of his third page.
On the evening of the 3rd of November, after passing
through these various transformations, it made its entrance,
between the fat hands of a stout serving man, into the
study of Professor Schultz of the University of Jena.
44 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
High as this personage stood in the scale of humanity,
he presented nothing remarkable to the eye of a
stranger.
He was a man of five or six and forty, strongly built,
his square shoulders denoting a" robust constitution ; his
forehead was bald, the little hair remaining on his temples
and behind his head suggested the idea that they consisted
of threads of tow. His eyes were blue, that vague blue
which never betrays a thought. Professor Schultz had a
largo mouth, garnished with a double row of formidable
teeth which would never drop their prey ; thin lips closed
over them, whose principal employment was to keep note
of the words which passed between them.
The general appearance of the professor was decidedly
unpleasant to others, but he himself was evidently perfectly
satisfied with it. ,
On hearing his servant enter, he raised his eyes to a very
pretty clock over the mantel-piece which looked out of
place among a number of vulgar articles around it, and
said in a quick, rough voice
"6.55! The post comes in at 6.30. You bring my
letters too late by twenty-five minutes. The next time
they are not on my table at 6 . 30 you quit my service."
" Will you please to dine now, sir ? " asked the man as
he withdrew.
"It is now 6.55, and I dine at seven. You have been
EFFECT OF AN ITEM OF NEWS. 45,
here for three weeks, and you know that. Recollect that I
never change an hour, and never repeat an order."
The professor laid his newspaper on the table, and went
on writing a treatise which was to appear next day in
* Physiological Records,' a periodical to which he contributed.
We may be permitted to state that this treatise was en
titled " Why are all Frenchmen affected by different degrees
of hereditary degeneracy ? "
As the professor pursued his task, his dinner, consisting
of a large dish of sausages and cabbage, flanked by a huge
flagon of beer, was carefully placed on a round table near
the fire.
He laid aside his pen in order to partake of this repast,
which he did with greater appearance of enjoyment than
might have been expected from so grave an individual.
Then he rang for coffee, lighted his pipe, and resumed his
labours.
It was after midnight when he signed his name on the
last page, and retired at once to his bedroom to enjoy a
well-earned repose.
Not till he was in bed did he take his paper from its
cover, and begin to read before going to sleep. Just as
the professor was becoming drowsy, his eye was caught by
a foreign name, that of "Langevol," in the paragraph
relating to the " Monster Heritage." He tried to call to
mind clearly the vague recollections to which this name
46 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
gave rise. After a few minutes vainly devoted to efforts
of memory, he threw away the journal, blew out his candle,
and loud snores quickly gave notice that he slept.
By a physiological phenomenon, which he himself had
studied and explained at great length, this name of
Langevol followed Professor Schultz even in his dreams.
The consequence was that on awaking next morning, he
found himself mechanically repeating it.
All at once, just as he was going to look at his watch, a
sudden light broke upon him.
Snatching up the newspaper at the foot of his bed, he
read again and again, with his hand pressed on his forehead,
the paragraph which he had all but missed seeing the night
before. The light was evidently spreading to his brain,
for without waiting to put on his flowered dressing-gown,
he hurried to the fireplace, took a small miniature portrait
from the wall by the mirror, and turning it round, passed
his sleeve across the dusty pasteboard at the back.
The professor was right. Behind the picture he read
the following German words, traced in faded ink :
" Therese Schultz, eine geborene Langevol," which means,
" Theresa Schultz, whose maiden name was Langevol."
That evening the professor was in the express train on
his way to London,
The Langevol business.
Page 47-
TWO CLAIMANTS. 47
CHAPTER IV.
TWO CLAIMANTS.
ON the 6th November, at 7 A.M., Professor Schultz
arrived at the Charing Cross Station. At noon he presented
himself at No 94, Southampton Row, entering a large room
divided by a wooden barrier, one side being for the clerks,
the other for the public. In it there were six chairs, a table,
numberless green tin boxes, and a London Directory. Two
young men, seated at the table, were quietly eating the tradi
tional luncheon of bread and cheese usual with their class.
" Messrs. Billows, Green, and Sharp ?" said the professor,
in the tone of a man calling for his dinner.
"Mr. Sharp is in his private room what name? On
what business ?"
" Professor Schultz, of Jena. On the Langevol business."
This information was murmured into the speaking-tube
by the young clerk ; a reply being returned into his ear
which he did not choose to repeat
48 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
. " Hang the Langevol business ! Another fool come to
put in a claim !"
Clerk's answer
"This man seems respectable enough. Does not look
exactly agreeable though."
Another mysterious whisper conveyed the words
" And he comes from Germany."
" So he says."
With a sigh came the order
" Send him upstairs."
"Second story, door facing you," said the clerk aloud,
pointing to an inner entrance.
The professor plunged into the passage, mounted the stairs,
and found himself opposite a green baize door, on which the
name of Mr. Sharp stood out in black letters on a brass plate.
That personage was seated at a large mahogany writing-
table, in a common-looking room, with a felt carpet, leather
chairs, and many open boxes.
He half rose from his seat, and then, according to the
polite fashion of business men, began to rummage amongst
his papers for several minutes to show how busy he was.
At last, turning to Professor Schultz who remained standing
near him, he said
" Have the goodness, sir, to tell me your business here in
as few words as possible. My time is limited ; I can give
you but a very few minutes."
TWO CLAIMANTS. 49
The professor smiled slightly, evidently not at all put
out by the way he was received.
" Perhaps," he said, " when you know what brings me
here, you will think it advisable to grant me a few minutes
more."
" Proceed, sir."
"My business relates to the inheritance left by Jean
Jacques Langevol, of Bar-le-Duc. I am the grandson of
the elder sister, Theresa Langevol, who married in 1792
rny grandfather, Martin Schultz, a surgeon in the army of
Brunswick; he died in 1814. I have in my possession three
letters from my great-uncle, written to his sister, and many
.accounts of his return home after the battle of Jena, besides
the legal documents which prove my birth."
We need not follow Professor Schultz through the prolix
explanations which he gave to Mr. Sharp. On this point
he seemed, contrary to his nature, quite inexhaustible.
His aim was to demonstrate to this Englishman, this Mr.
.Sharp, that by rights the German race should, in all things,
predominate over all others. His object in putting forward
a claim to this inheritance was chiefly that it might be
snatched from French hands, which could not fail to make
a silly use of it. What he hated in his rival was his
nationality. Had he been a German he certainly should
not have interfered, &c., &c.
But that a Frenchman a would-be " savant ;) should
E
So THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
have this enormous wealth to spend upon French fancies,
was distracting to his feelings, and he considered it his
duty to contest his right to it at all costs.
At first sight, the connection between these political
opinions and the opulent inheritance in question was not
very clear. But the experienced eye of the man of business
plainly detected the relation which patriotic ambition for
the advantage of the German nation generally, bore to the
private interests of Professor Schultz individually. He
saw that this apparently double aim had in reality but one
motive.
There was no doubt about it. However humiliating it
might be for a professor of the University of Jena to be
connected with beings of an inferior race, it was evident
that a French ancestress had had a share in the responsi
bility of giving to the world this matchless human being.
But this relationship being in a secondary degree to that
of Doctor Sarrasin, would only give secondary rights to the
said inheritance. The solicitor perceived, however, the
possibility of lawfully sustaining them, and in this possibility
he foresaw another which would be much to the advantage
of Billows, Green, and Sharp, something which would
change the Langevol affair, already productive, into a very
good thing, indeed, a second case of the " Jarndyce versus
Jarndyce" of Dickens. An extensive horizon of stamped
paper, deeds, documents of all sorts, rose before the eyes of
TWO CLAIMANTS. 51
the man of law ; and, what was worth more, he saw a
compromise conducted by himself, Sharp, to the interest of
both his clients, which would bring to himself equal parts
of honour and profit.
In the meanwhile he made known to Professor Schultz
the claims of Doctor Sarrasin, gave him proofs in corrobo-
ration, and insinuated that if Billows, Green, and Sharp
undertook to make something advantageous for the professor
out of the claims, "shadowy though they are, my dear sir,
it would, I fear, not hold water in a lawsuit," which his
relationship to the doctor gave him he hoped that the
remarkable sense of justice, possessed by all Germans,
would admit that to Messrs. Billows, Green, and Sharp, he,
the professor, owed a large debt of gratitude.
The latter was practical enough to understand the drift
of this argument, and soon put the mind of the business
man at rest on this point, though without committing
himself in any way. Mr. Sharp politely begged permission
to examine into the affair at his leisure, showed him out
with marked respect, nothing more having been said as
to the very limited time of which before he had been
so sparing.
Professor Schultz retired convinced that he had no
sufficient claim to put forward for the Begum's inheritance,
but all the same persuaded that a struggle between the
Saxon and Latin races, besides being always meritorious,
E 2
52 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
would not fail, if set about properly, to turn to the advantage
of the former.
The next important step was to get Dr. Sarrasin's
opinion on the subject A telegram despatched immediately
to Brighton had the effect of bringing that gentleman to
Mr. Sharp's office by five o'clock.
Dr. Sarrasin heard all that had occurred with a calmness
which astonished the solicitor. He frankly declared that
he perfectly remembered a tradition in his family of a great-
aunt brought up by a rich and titled lady, who had emi
grated with her, and who had married in Germany. He
knew neither the name nor the exact degree of relationship
of this great-aunt.
Mr. Sharp was busily looking over his notes, carefully
numbered in portfolios, which he now exhibited with con
siderable complacency to the doctor.
There was Mr. Sharp did not seek to hide it matter
for a lawsuit, and lawsuits of this character may easily
be lengthened out. Indeed, it was not at all necessary to
acknowledge to the adverse party that family tradition
which Doctor Sarrasin had in his honesty just now con
fided to his solicitor. To be sure, there were those letters
from Jean Jacques Langevol to his sister, of which Pro
fessor Schultz had spoken, and which were a point in his
favour. A very small point indeed, destitute of any legal
character, but still a point no doubt other proofs would
TWO CLAIMANTS. 53
be exhumed from the dust of municipal archives. Perhaps
even the adverse party, in default of authentic documents,
would even dare to manufacture false ones. Everything
must be foreseen. Who knew but that fresh investigations
might assign to this Therese Langevol and her descendants,
who had suddenly started up, superior claims to Dr.
Sarrasin's ? In any case, there would be long disputes,
tedious examinations no end of them. There was good
hope of success for both sides, each could easily form a
limited liability company to advance the cost of the pro
ceedings and exhaust all the pleas of jurisdiction.
A celebrated suit of the same sort had been in the Court
of Chancery for eighty-three consecutive years, and was
only ended at last for want of funds interest and capital,
all had gone ! What with inquiries, commissions, transfers,
the proceedings would take an indefinite period ! In ten
years' time the question would probably be still undecided,
and the twenty-one millions still sleeping quietly in the
Bank.
Dr. Sarrasin listened to this long-winded oration, and
wondered when it would come to an end. Without taking
for gospel all that he heard, he felt a kind of chilly dis
couragement creeping over him, as a voyager gazes from
the ship's bows at the port to which he believes himself
approaching, but sees it growing less and less distinct, and
finally disappearing as his vessel drifts away from the
54 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
land. He told himself that it was not impossible that this
fortune just now so near, and for which he had already
found a use, would end by slipping from his grasp, and
fade away.
" Then what is to be done ? " he asked of the solicitor.
" What is to be done ? Hem ! That was difficult to
say, more difficult still to decide ; but no doubt everything
would be arranged in the end. He, Sharp, was certain of
that. English law was excellent, a leetle slow perhaps,
he could not help saying so yes, decidedly slow, pcde
claudo hem ! hem ! but all the more sure. Assuredly
Doctor Sarrasin could not fail in the course of a few years
to be in possession of this inheritance, always supposing
hem ! hem ! his claims sufficient ! "
The doctor issued from the office in Southampton Row
very much shaken in his confidence, and convinced that he
must either plunge into an interminable lawsuit or give
up his dream. The thoughts that his fine philanthropic
scheme must come to nothing gave him keen pain.
In the meantime, Mr. Sharp sent for Professor Schultz,
who had left his address. He told him that Dr. Sarrasin
had never heard of Therese Langevol, denied the existence
of a German branch of the family, and rejected any idea of
a compromise. There was nothing that the professor could
do, therefore, if he believed his right well established, but to
go to law. From this, Mr. Sharp, who was perfectly dis-
TWO CLAIMANTS. 55
interested of course, and was a mere spectator in the
matter, had no intention of dissuading him. What more
could a solicitor wish than a lawsuit of perhaps thirty
years, and not knowing to what it might lead them. He
personally would be delighted. If he had not feared that
Professor Schultz would think it suspicious on his part,
he would have pushed his disinterestedness so far as to
recommend to him one of his legal brethren, who would
look after his interests. And, indeed, the choice was
an important one ! The path of law had now become
a regular high road ! swarming with adventurers and
robbers ! he owned this shameful fact, though with a
blush !
" Supposing the French doctor was willing to arrange
the matter, how much would it cost ? " asked the professor.
Being a wise man, words could not confuse him being
a practical man, he went straight to the point without
wasting any precious time on the way. Mr. Sharp was
rather disconcerted by this mode of action. He represented
to Professor Schultz that business did not go on so quickly
as all that ; that no one could see the end, when as yet
they were just at the beginning ; that in order to bring Dr.
Sarrasin to terms they must protract the business, so as not
to allow him to see that he, Schultz, was at all eager to
compromise matters.
" I beg, sir," he concluded, " that you will leave it to me ;
56 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
put yourself in my hands, and I will be answerable for
everything."
" Very well," replied Schultz, " but I should much like
to know what I have to expect."
However, he could not ascertain from Mr. Sharp the
price at which the solicitor valued Saxon gratitude, and
was therefore obliged to give him carte blanche in the
matter.
When Dr. Sarrasin appeared next day in answer to Mr.
Sharp's summons, and quietly asked if he had any
particular news for him, the solicitor, alarmed at his
calmness, informed him that a serious examination had
convinced him that the better plan would be to nip the
threatened danger in the bud, and propose to compromise
with this new claimant. Dr. Sarrasin must agree with him
that this was essentially disinterested advice, and what few
solicitors in Mr. Sharp's place would have given. But he felt
quite a paternal interest in the affair, and his pride was
concerned in bringing it to a speedy conclusion.
The doctor listened and thought all this sensible enough.
During the last few days he had become so accustomed to
the idea of immediately realising his scientific dream that
everything gave way to it. To wait ten years, or even one
year before he had it in his power, would have been a cruel
trial to him. Without being taken in by Mr. Sharp's fine
speeches, although little familiar with legal and financial
TWO CLAIMANTS. 57
questions, he would have cheerfully given up his claims for
a sum paid down in ready money sufficient to enable him
to pass at once from theory to practice. He also, therefore,
at once, gave carte blanche to Mr. Sharp, and departed.
The solicitor had now got what he wanted. It was
quite true that perhaps another might in his place have
yielded to the temptation of beginning and prolonging a
lawsuit which would bring in a considerable annuity to his
business. But Mr. Sharp was not a man who cared for
this kind of speculation.
He saw close to his hand a way by which he could reap
an abundant harvest, and he resolved to seize it. The next
day he wrote to the doctor that he believed Herr Schultz
was not opposed to a compromise. In subsequent visits
made by him to the doctor and professor, he told them
alternately, that the adverse party would say nothing
decided, and that, in addition, a third candidate, attracted
by the scent, was talked of.
This little game went on for a week. In the morning all
was going well, but by the evening an unforeseen objection
had suddenly arisen to upset everything. The honest doctor
was incessantly troubled by doubts, fears, and changes of
mind. Mr. Sharp could not bring himself to hook his fish,
he so greatly feared that at the last he would struggle and
snap the line. But so many precautions were, in this case,
quite superfluous. From the very first day Dr. Sarrasin*
58 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
who would have done anything to spare himself the trouble
of a lawsuit, was ready for any arrangement. When at
last Mr. Sharp thought that the psychological moment, to
use the celebrated expression, had arrived, or in less exalted
language, that his client was done to a turn, he suddenly
unmasked his batteries, and proposed an immediate com
promise.
A benevolent man then appeared the banker, Stilbing
who proposed to split the difference, to give to each ten
millions, and merely have for commission the surplus
million.
Dr. Sarrasin could have embraced Mr. Sharp when he
made him this proposal ; it seemed splendid to him.
He was ready and eager to sign. He would have
liked to put up in the market place of the proposed
city golden statues to the banker Stilbing, to the solicitor
Sharp, to the bank and to all the lawyers in the United
Kingdom.
The documents were drawn up, and everything was
ready. Professor Schultz had surrendered Mr. Sharp
assuring him that, with a less easy-tempered adversary he
would certainly have had all costs to pay. So it was
settled. The two heirs each received a cheque for a
hundred thousand pounds, payable at sight, and a promise
of a definite settlement after all the legal formalities had
been gone through.
" We've got the best of it this time!"
59-
TWO CLAIMANTS. 59
Thus was this wonderful affair settled, to the great glory
of the Anglo-Saxon race !
We are assured that, that same evening, whilst dining at
the Cobden Club with his friend Stilbing, Mr. Sharp drank
a glass of champagne to the health of Dr. Sarrasin, another
to Professor Schultz, and then, as he finished the bottle,
gave way to this somewhat indiscreet exclamation
" Hurrah ! Rule Britannia ! We've got the best of it
this time!"
The truth is, that the banker Stilbing considered his
friend rather stupid for not having made a great deal more
out of the business, and in his heart the professor had
thought the same, from the moment in which he had felt
himself obliged to agree to any arrangement that was
offered. What could not have been done with a man like
Dr. Sarrasin, a Celt, careless, thoughtless, and very certainly
visionary !
The professor had heard of his rival's project of founding
a French town, under such moral and physical conditions
as would develop the qualities of the race, and form strong
and brave generations.
This enterprise appeared to him absurd, and, to his ideas,
sure to fail, as it opposed the law of progress, which decreed
the uprooting of the Latin race, its subjection to the Saxon,
and eventually its disappearance from the surface of the
globe. However, these results might be held in check if
60 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
the doctor's programme began to be realised, and so much
the more if there was any prospect of its success. It was,
therefore, the duty of every true Saxon, in the interest of
general order, to obey this appointed law, and bring to
nothing, if he could, this insane enterprise. Under the
circumstances it was quite clear that he, Schultz, M.D.,
privat decent of chemistry in Jena University, known by
his numerous works on the different human races, works
in which it was proved that the German race was to absorb
all others it was quite clear that he was particularly
designed by the great creative and destructive force of
nature to annihilate the pigmies who were struggling against
it. From the very beginning it had been ordained that
Therese Langevol would marry Martin Schultz, and that
one day, the two nationalities meeting in the persons of
the French doctor and the German professor, the latter
would crush the former. Already he had in his possession
half the doctor's fortune, this was the weapon he was to
wield.
This project was but a secondary one to Professor
Schultz at present ; he merely added it to others still
more vast which he had formed for the destruction of all
nations who refused to blend themselves with the German
people and be united with the Vaterland. However, wishing
to explore to the end if so be that they had an end of
Dr. Sarrasin's plans, he attended all the meetings of the
TWO CLAIMANTS. 6 1
Congress. As several members, with Doctor Sarrasin
himself among them, were leaving the meeting, the professor
was overheard to make this declaration : that he would
found at the same time as Frankville, a city strong enough
to put an end to that absurd and abnormal ant-hill.
" I hope," he added, " that the experiment we shall make
will serve as an example to all the world !"
Although good Doctor Sarrasin was so full of love to all
mankind, he had lived long enough to know that all his
fellow-creatures did not deserve the name of philanthropists.
He noted, however, this speech of his adversary, thinking
like a sensible man that no threat ought to be neglected.
Some time afterwards, writing to Max to invite him to aid
in his enterprise, he mentioned this incident and described
Herr Schultz so accurately that the young Alsacian was
certain the doctor had in him a formidable adversary. The
doctor added
"We shall need bold and energetic men, of practical
information, not only to build, but to defend us."
Max answered
" Although I cannot immediately give my co-operation
to the founding of your city, you may depend on finding
me when the right time comes. I shall not lose sight for
a single day of this Professor Schultz whom you have
described so well. My Alsacian birth gives me the right
to know about his affairs. Whether I am near you or far
62 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
away, I am devoted to you. If by any unforeseen chance
you should be some months, or even years, without hearing
from me, do not be uneasy. Whether I am near you or
far away, I shall have but one thought, to work for you,
and consequently to serve France."
STAHLSTADT. 63
CHAPTER V.
STAHLSTADT.
WE must take a leap through time and space. Five
years have elapsed since the two heirs took possession of
the Begum's inheritance. The scene lies in the United
States, to the south of Oregon, ten leagues from the shores
of the Pacific. The district is mountainous, its northern
limits as yet barely defined by the two neighbouring
powers.
A merely superficial spectator might call it the American
Switzerland, with its abrupt peaks rising above the clouds,,
its deep valleys dividing the heights, its aspect at once
grand and wild.
But, unlike the European Switzerland, it is not given up
to the peaceful industries of the shepherd, the guide, and
the hotel-keeper. It has Alpine decorations only, just a
crust of rocks, and earth and venerable pines spread over
a mass of iron and coal.
64 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Should the traveller through these solitudes stay on his
way to listen awhile to the voice of nature, he would not,
as on the slopes of the Oberland, hear the gentle murmurs
of insect life, or the herd-boy's call, enhancing the silence
of the mountain. )n his ear in this wild spot would fall
the heavy sound of the steam hammer, and under his feet
would echo the muffled explosions of powder.
He would feel as if the ground was as full of trap-doors
as the stage of a theatre, and that at any moment even the
huge rocks might sink and disappear into unknown depths.
Dreary roads, black with cinders and coke, wind round
the sides of the mountains.
Heaps of variegated scoria, which the scanty herbage
fails to cover, glance and glare like the eyes of a basilisk.
Here and there yawns the shaft of a deserted mine, a dark
gulf, the mouth grown over with briers. The air is heavy
with smoke, and hangs like a pall over the ground. Not
a bird nor an insect is to be found, and a butterfly has not
been seen within the memory of man.
At the northern point, where the mountain-spurs slope
into the plain, lies between two ranges of bleak hills what
up to 1871 was called the "red plain," because of the
colour of the soil, which is impregnated with oxide of
iron, but what is now called Stahlfeld, or the field of
steel.
Just imagine a plateau of seventeen or eighteen square
Stahlstadt.
65.
STAHLSTADT. 6$
miles, the soil sandy and strewn with pebbles, and altogether
as arid and desolate as the ancient bed of some inland sea.
Nature has done nothing towards giving life and movement
to the place, but man has brought a wonderful amount of
energy and vigour to bear on it.
In five years there sprang up on this bare and rocky
plain eighteen villages, composed of small wooden houses,
all alike, brought ready built from Chicago, and containing
a large population of rough workmen.
In the midst of these villages, at the very foot of the
Coal Butts, as the inexhaustible mountains of coal are
called, rises a dark mass, huge, and strange, an agglomera
tion of regular buildings, pierced with symmetrical windows,
covered with red roofs, and surmounted by a forest of
cylindrical chimneys, which continually vomit forth clouds
of dense smoke. Through the black curtain which veils
the sky, dart red lightning-like flames, while a distant
roaring is heard resembling that of thunder or the beating
of the surf on a rocky shore.
This erection is Stahlstadt Steel Town ! The German
city, and the personal property of Professor Schultz, the
ex-chemistry professor of Jena, who has become, by means
of the Begum's millions, the greatest iron-worker, and
especially the greatest cannon-founder, of the two hemi
spheres.
He casts guns of all shapes and of all calibres, smooth
F
66 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
and rifled bores, for Russia, Turkey, Roumania, Japan, foi
Italy and for China, but particularly for Germany.
With the aid of his enormous capital, this large establish
ment, which is at the same time a regular town, started up
as at the wave of a conjurer's wand. Thirty thousand
workmen, Germans for the most part, crowded to it, and
settled themselves in the suburbs. In a few months its
products, owing to their overwhelming superiority, acquired
universal celebrity.
Professor Schultz digs out iron and coal from his own
mines, which lie ready to his hand, changes them into
steel, and again into cannon, all on the spot.
What none of his competitors can do he manages. In
France ingots of steel are obtained, eighty thousand pounds
in weight. In England a hundred-ton gun has been cast.
At Essen M. Krupp has contrived to cast blocks of steel
of ten hundred thousand pounds ! Herr Schultz does not
stop at that he knows no limits. Order a cannon of him,
of whatever weight and power you like, he'll turn you out
that cannon, as bright as a new halfpenny, exactly at the
time agreed on.
But he makes his customers pay for it ! It is as if the
two hundred and fifty millions of 1871 had only given him
an appetite for more !
In gun-casting, as in everything else, the man who can
do what others cannot is sure to be well off. Indeed,
STAHLSTADT. 6/
Schultz's cannon not only attain to an unprecedented size,
but, although they may deteriorate slightly by use, they
never burst. Stahlstadt steel seems to have special proper
ties. There are many stories current of mysterious chemical
mixtures ; but one thing is certain, that no one has dis
covered the invaluable secret.
Another thing certain is that, in Stahlstadt, that secret is
guarded with the most jealous care.
In this remote corner of North America, surrounded by
deserts, isolated from the world by a rampart of mountains,
five hundred miles from the nearest town or habitation of
any sort, we may search in vain for the smallest vestige
of that liberty which is the foundation principle of the
United States.
On arriving under the walls of Stahlstadt it is useless to
try and enter one of the massive gateways which here and
there break the line of moats and fortifications. The
sternest of sentinels will repulse the traveller. He must
go back to the suburbs. He cannot enter the City of
Steel unless he possesses the magic formula, the password,
or, at any rate, an order, duly stamped, signed, and
countersigned.
One November morning a young workman arrived at
Stahlstadt, who doubtlessly possessed such an order, for
after leaving his well-worn portmanteau at an inn, he
directed his steps to the gateway nearest the village.
F 2
68 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
He was a fine, strongly built young fellow, dressed in a
loose coat, woollen shirt, with no collar, and trousers of
ribbed velveteen, tucked into big boots. He pulled his
wide felt hat over his eyes, as if to conceal the coal dust
with which his skin was begrimed, and walked forward
with elastic step, whistling through his brown moustache.
Arrived at the gateway, the young man, showing a printed
paper to the officer of the gate, was immediately admitted.
"Your order is addressed to the foreman, Seligmann,
section K, road ix, workshop 743," said the sentinel.
"You must follow the roundway to your right till you
come to the K boundary, and there show yourself to the
porter. Do you know the rule ? Expelled, if you enter
another section than your own," he added as the new
comer went away.
The young workman followed the direction indicated to
him along the roadway. On his right lay a moat, above
which marched numerous sentinels. On his. left, between
the wide circular road, and the mass of buildings, lay first
a double line of railway, and then a second wall, similar to
the outer one, which entirely surrounded the Steel City.
It was of so great an extent, that the sections, enclosed
by the fortified walls like the spokes of a wheel, were
perfectly independent of each other, although surrounded
by the same wall and moat.
The young workman soon reached the boundary K,.
The new workman.
Page 68.
STAHLSTADT. 60
placed at the side of the road, before a lofty gateway
surmounted by the same letter sculptured in the stone,
and presented himself to the porter.
This time, instead of having a soldier to deal with, he
found himself before a pensioner, with a wooden leg, and
medals on his breast.
The pensioner examined the paper, stamped it again
and said
"All right, ninth road on the left."
The young man entered this second intrenched line, and
at last found himself in section K. The road which
debouched from the gate was the axle, and at right angles
on either side extended rows of uniform buildings.
The noise of machinery was almost deafening. Those
grey buildings pierced with thousands of windows were
like living monsters. But the new-comer was apparently
accustomed to such scenes, for he bestowed not the
slightest attention on the curious sight.
In five minutes he had found road ix, workshop 743,
and having entered a little office full of portfolios and
registers, stood in the presence of the foreman Seligmann.
The man took the paper with all its stamps, examined
it, then looked the young workman up and down.
"Hired as puddler, are you?" he asked; "you seem
very young ? "
" Age has nothing to do with it," was the answer. " I
70 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
shall soon be six-and-twenty, and I've been puddling for
the last seven months. If you like I can show you
certificates on the strength of which I was engaged at
New York by the head overseer."
The young man spoke German quite easily, but with a
slight accent which seemed to arouse the suspicions of the
foreman.
" Are you an Alsacian ? " he demanded.
"No, I am Swiss from Schaffhausen. "Look, here
are all my papers, quite correct," he added, taking out a
leather pocket-book and showing a passport, testimonial,
and certificates.
"Very good. After all, you are hired, and it's my
business simply to show you your place," returned
Seligmann, assured by this display of official documents.
He then inscribed in a register the name of Johann
Schwartz, copying it from the order, and gave to the
workman a blue card bearing his name and the number
57,938, adding
" You must be at the K gate every morning at seven
o'clock ; show this card which will already have passed you
through the outer wall. Take from the rack in the lodge
a counter with your number on it and show it to me when
you come in. At seven in the evening, as you go out,
drop the counter into a box placed at the door of the
workshop, and only open at that time."
STAHLSTADT. 71
" I know the system. Can I live in the town ? " asked
Schwartz.
" No ; you must find a lodging outside, but you can get
your meals at the canteen in the shed at a very moderate
price. Your wages are a dollar a day to begin with, but
they will be raised quarterly. Expulsion is the only
punishment. It is pronounced by me at first, and by the
engineer on appeal, for any infraction of the rules. Will
you begin to-day ? "
"Why not?"
" It will be but half-a-day," observed the foreman, as he
guided Schwartz to an inner gallery.
The two men walked along a wide passage, crossed a
yard and entered a vast hall, like the platform of an
immense terminus. Schwartz, as he glanced round, could
not restrain a movement of professional admiration.
On each side of the long hall were two rows of enormous
columns, as big as those in St. Peter's, at Rome, their tops
rising through the glass roof. These were the chimneys
of the puddling furnaces, and there were fifty of them in
a row.
At one end engines were continually bringing up waggon
loads of iron to feed the furnaces ; at the other, empty
trucks appeared to receive and carry away the metal,
transformed into steel.
This metamorphosis is accomplished by means of the
72 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
operation of "puddling," at which gangs of half-naked
Cyclops, armed with long iron rakes, were working with
might and main.
The "pigs" of iron are thrown into a furnace brought
to an intense heat. As soon as melted, the metal is stirred
about for a considerable time. When it acquires a certain
consistency, the puddler, by means of his long hook, turns
and rolls about the molten mass, and makes it up into
four blooms, or balls, which he then hands over to others.
The operation is continued in the midst of the hall.
Opposite each furnace stands a shingling hammer, moved
by steam.
Protected by boots and armlets of iron, the head covered
with a metallic veil, and wearing a thick leathern apron,
the "shingler" with his long pincers takes up the red hot
ball, and places it under the hammer. Down on it comes
the weight of the ponderous machine, pressing out a
quantity of dross, amidst showers of sparks. When it cools
it is taken back to the furnace, to be brought out again and
hammered as before.
There was incessant movement in this monster forge.
To a spectator it was a terrifying scene, the cascades of
molten metal, dull blows heard above the roaring, showers
of brilliant sparks, the glare of the red hot furnaces. In
the fearful din and tumult, man appeared like a helpless
infant.
Puddlers at work.
Page 72
A monster hammer.
Page 72.
STAHLSTADT. 73
Powerful fellows must these puddlers be. To stir and
knead four hundredweight of metallic paste in that tem
perature, to see nothing for hours but the blinding glare of
the furnace and molten iron, is trying work, and wears a
man out in ten years.
Schwartz, as if to show the foreman what he could do,
at once stripped off his coat and woollen shirt, exhibiting a
well-knit frame, and arms on which the muscles stood out
like cords, seized a hook which one of the puddlers had
just put down, and set to work.
Seeing that he was likely to do well, the foreman soon
left, and returned to his office.
The new-comer worked on until the dinner-hour. But
he was either too energetic, or he had neglected to take
sufficient food that morning to support his strength in this
unusual toil, for he soon appeared tired and faint. Indeed so
worn out did he seem that the chief of his gang noticed it.
"You're not fit for a puddler, my lad," he said, "and
you had best ask at once to be changed into another
section, for they won't do it later."
Schwartz protested against this. It was but a passing
faintness. He could puddle as well as any one !
The gang's-man made his report however, and Schwartz
was immediately called up before the chief engineer.
This personage examined his papers, shook his head,
and asked in an inquisitorial tone
74 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
" Were you a puddler at Brooklyn ?"
The young man looked down in confusion.
" I must confess it, I see," he answered. "I was employed
in casting, and it was in the hope of increasing my salary
that I wished to try my hand at puddling."
" You are all alike," returned the engineer, shrugging his
shoulders. "At five-and-twenty you think you can do
what few men of five-and-thirty are fit for. Well, then,
are you good at casting ?"
" I was two months in the first class."
" You had better have stayed in it ! Here you will have
to begin in the third. All the same, you may think yourself
lucky in being allowed to change your section so easily !"
The engineer then wrote a few words on a pass, sent a
telegram, and said
"Give up your counter, leave this division, and go
straight to section O, chief engineer's office. He has been
told."
The same formalities were gone through again that
Schwartz had met with at the K gate. As in the morning,
he was questioned, accepted, and sent to the foreman of
the workshop, who introduced him into the casting-hall.
But here the work was more silent, and more methodical.
"This is only a small gallery, for casting forty-two
pounders," observed the foreman ; " first-class workmen
alone are allowed to cast the big guns."
The casting hall.
Page 74
STAHLSTADT. 7$
The " small " gallery was not less than four hundred and
fifty feet long and two hundred wide. Schwartz, as he
glanced round, calculated that there must be at least six
hundred crucibles being heated, by four, eight, or twelve
together in the side furnaces.
The moulds destined for the reception of the fused steel
were placed down the middle of the gallery, at the bottom
of a trench. On each side of the trench was a movable
crane, which, running on a line of rails, was constantly in
use for moving enormous weights. As in the puddling
hall, at one end was a railroad for the conveyance of the
bars of steel, at the other, one for taking away the cannon
as they came out of the mould.
Near each mould stood a man armed with an iron rod, to
test the state of fusion of the metal in the crucibles.
The processes, which Schwartz had seen put in practice
elsewhere, were here brought to a remarkable state of
perfection.
When a cast was to be made, a warning bell gave the
signal to all the watchers of the crucibles. Then, two by
two, workmen of equal height, bearing between them on
their shoulders a horizontal bar of iron, came with measured
step, and placed themselves before every furnace.
An officer, armed with a whistle, his chronometer in his
hand, stood near the mould, conveniently placed for all the
furnaces in action. On each side, channels of refractory
76 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
earth, covered with metal, converged in gentle slopes to a
funnel-shaped reservoir, placed just above the mould. The
officer whistled ; immediately a crucible, taken from the fire
with pincers, was slung on the iron bar supported by the
two workmen. The whistle commenced a series of modula
tions, and the two men, keeping time to it, approached and
emptied the contents of their crucible into the corres
ponding channel. Then they tossed their empty, still red-
hot receptacle into a vat.
Without interruption, at regular intervals, so as to keep
up a constant flow, gangs from the other furnaces went
through exactly the same operation.
It was all executed with such wonderful precision that
just at the appointed time the last crucible was emptied
and flung into the vat. The manoeuvre seemed rather the
result of a blind mechanism, than the co-operation of a
hundred human wills.
Inflexible discipline, the force of habit, and the power of
the measured musical strain, worked the miracle.
The Sight appeared familiar to Schwartz, who was soon
coupled with a man of his own height, tested in a small
cast, and found a capital workman. Indeed, the head of
his gang at the close of the day promised him a speedy
rise.
On leaving the section O, at seven that evening, he went
back to the inn to fetch his portmanteau. Then, following
STAHLSTADT. 77
one of the exterior roads, he soon came to a group of
houses, which he had remarked that morning as he passed,
and easily found a lodging in the cottage of a good woman
who " took in a lodger."
After supper, our young workman did not, like too
many of his class, stroll out to the nearest public-house.
He shut himself in his room, took from his pocket a frag
ment of steel evidently picked up in the puddling shed, a
little crucible earth from the O section, and examined
them carefully by the light of a smoky lamp. Then,
taking from his portmanteau a thick manuscript book,
half full of notes, receipts, and calculations, he wrote the
following in good French, though, for precaution, in a
cipher of which he alone knew the key :
" November loth. Stahlstadt. There is nothing par
ticular in the mode of puddling, unless, of course, it is the
choice of two different temperatures, relatively low for the
first heat and the re -heating, according to Chernoff 's rules.
As to the casting, it is done after Krupp's process, but
with a perfectly admirable uniformity of movement. This
precision in manoeuvres is the great German power. It
results from the innate musical talent in the German race.
The English could never attain to this perfection ; they
have no ear, and want discipline. The French may reach
it easily, as they are the most perfect dancers in the world.
So far, there appears to be nothing mysterious in the
78 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
remarkable success of this manufacture. The mineral
specimens which I picked up on the mountain are similar
to our best iron.
" The coal is certainly uncommonly fine, of an eminently
metallurgic quality, but still there is nothing unusual
in it.
"There is no doubt that in the Schwartz manufacture
special care is taken to purify the principal materials from
any foreign matter, that they may be employed only in a
perfectly pure state The result may easily be imagined.
To be in possession of the remainder of the problem, I
have only to determine the composition of the refractory
earth of which the crucibles and the channels are made.
This discovered, and our gangs of workmen properly
drilled, I do not see why we should not do what they do
here. All the same, as yet I have only seen two sections,
and there are at least four-and-twenty, without counting
the central building, the plans and models department,
the secret cabinet ! What dangerous schemes may not be
maturing in that den ? What may not our friends have to
fear, after the threat uttered by Herr Schultz when he
took possession of his fortune ? "
After these questions, * Schwartz, who was tired enough
with his day's work, undressed, laid himself down in a
little bed, which was about as uncomfortable as a German
bed could be and that is saying a good deal lighted
STAHLSTADT. 79
his pipe, and began to smoke, and read a well-worn book.
But his thoughts were apparently elsewhere. The odorous
clouds issued from his lips as if they were saying
"Pooh! Pooh! Pooh! Pooh!"
He soon put down his book, and remained lost in
thought for a long time, as if he were absorbed in the
solution of a difficult problem.
, " Ah," he exclaimed at last, " though the devil himself
should try to prevent me I will find out the secret of
Professor Schultz, and, above all, what he is meditating
against Frankville ! "
Schwartz went to sleep, murmuring the name of Doctor
Sarrasin ; but in his dreams it was the name of Jeannette,
sweet little Jeannette, that was on his lips. He had never
forgotten the little girl, although Jeannette, since he last
saw her, had grown into a young lady. This phenomenon
is easily explained by the ordinary laws of the association
of ideas. Thoughts of the doctor brought up that of
his daughter association by contiguity. Then, when
Schwartz or rather Max Bruckmann awoke, having still
Jeannette in his mind, he was not at all astonished, but
found in this fact a fresh proof of the excellence of the
psychological principles of John Stuart Mill.
So THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER VI.
THE ALBRECHT PIT.
FRAU BAUER, Max Bruckmann's good landlady, was a
Swiss by birth, and widow of a miner, who was killed four
years previously in one of those accidents which make a
miner's life so precarious. She was allowed a small
annual pension of thirty dollars, and, in addition, the wages
of her boy Carl, brought regularly to her every Sunday.
She was enabled slightly to increase her income by letting
a furnished room.
Although scarcely thirteen, Carl was employed in the
coal mine as a trapper ; it being his duty to open and
shut one of the ventilator doors, whenever it was necessary
for the coal trucks to pass. His mother had her house on
lease ; and as it was too far from the Albrecht pit for him
to come home eveiy evening, he had obtained some night
work at the bottom of the same mine. It was not heavy,
being merely to look after six horses, whilst the man
THE ALBRECHT PIT. 8 1
who had charge of them during the day spent the night
above ground.
Carl's young life was passed, therefore, almost entirely,
fifteen hundred feet below the surface of the earth. All
day he kept watch by his door, all night he slept on a bed
of straw, near his horses. On Sunday mornings only, did
he return to the light of day, to revel for a few short hours
in the universal blessing of the sun, the blue sky, and his
mother's smile.
As may be imagined, after such a week, on coming up
from the pit he was hardly what would be called
presentable. Indeed he was more like a young gnome,
a sweep, or a negro, than anything else. Frau Bauer
had always a large supply of hot water and soap ready,
and devoted a good hour, the first thing, to scrubbing
him. She next dressed him in a comfortable suit of dark
green cloth, made from an old one of his father's, and kept
all the week in the big deal cupboard, and then set to work
to admire her boy, an occupation of which she never tired,
for she thought him the handsomest in the world.
When the layer of coal-dust was washed off, Carl was
really as good-looking as most boys. His golden silky
locks, his pleasant blue eyes, well suited his fair complexion,
but he was altogether too small for his age. His sunless
life made him as white as a turnip and, had Dr. Sarrasin's
compte-globules been applied to the blood of the young
G
82 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
miner, it would probably have revealed that he possessed a
very insufficient quantity.
In character he was rather silent and quiet, with some of
that pride which the feeling of constant danger, the habit of
regular work, and the satisfaction of difficulties overcome,
gives to all miners.
His greatest happiness was to sit near his mother at the
square table in their little kitchen, and arrange in a box a
large number of frightful insects brought from the bowels
of the earth. The warm and equal atmosphere of the
mines has its special fauna, little known by naturalists, just
as the damp walls of the pits have their flora of curious
mosses, mushrooms, and lichens.
The engineer, Maulesmiilhe, who was fond of entomology,
had remarked this, and had promised a small reward for
each new specimen that Carl brought him. This, which
had at first led the boy to explore all the recesses of the
mine, had gradually taught him to be a collector. He now
sought for insects on his own account.
However, he did not limit his affections to spiders and
wood-lice. He was on intimate terms with two bats and a
big rat. If he was to be believed, these three animals were
the most intelligent and amiable creatures in the world ;
even more intellectual than the horses with long silky
manes and shining sides, of which Carl always spoke in
terms of warm admiration.
The little miner's life.
Page 83.
THE ALBRECHT PIT. 83
Blair- Athol was chief favourite, the eldest in the stable, a
philosophical old horse, who had been for six years fifteen
hundred feet below the level of the sea, and had all that
time never seen the light of day. He was now nearly blind.
But how well he knew his way along the subterranean
labyrinth, when to turn to the right or when to the left, as
he drew his trucks, without ever missing a step ! He
always stopped at the right time before the trap, leaving
just room enough to open it. In what a friendly way did
he neigh, morning and evening, at the exact minute when
it was time for his provender to be brought him. How
good, how obedient, how gentle, he was !
" I declare, mother, he really gives me a kiss, by rubbing
his cheek against mine, when I put my head near him,"
said Carl. " And he is wonderfully useful besides, mind you,
for he is just like a clock ; without him we should never
know whether it was night or day, morning or evening."
So chattered the boy, and dame Bauer listened to him
with delight. She, too, loved Blair- Athol as much as her
son did, and never failed to send him a lump of sugar. She
would have given anything to go and see the old servant
her husband had known, and at the same time visit the dismal
place where poor Bauer's body black as ink, carbonised
by the fire-damp had been found after the explosion. But
women are not admitted into the mines, and she had to be
satisfied with the vivid descriptions given by her son.
G 2
84 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Ah ! she knew that mine well that great dark pit to
which her husband went down, and never returned. How
many times she had waited near the yawning mouth,
eighteen feet in diameter, looking along the walling of free
stone, gazing at the oaken frame-work to which the corves
were drawn up by cables and pulleys of steel visited the
out-works, the engine-shed, the scorer's hut, and the rest !
How many times had she warmed herself at the glowing
brazier where the miners dry their garments on emerging
from the pit, and the impatient smokers light their pipes !
How familiar she was with all the noise and activity of the
place !
The receivers who unhooked the loaded corves the
sorters, washers, engine-men, stokers she had watched
them all at work over and over again.
What she could not see, and yet could always picture
with the eyes of affection, was what happened when the
basket sank down, carrying its cluster of workmen, with
formerly her husband, and now her only child among them.
She could hear their voices and laughter, growing fainter
and fainter in the depths, and finally ceasing altogether.
In her thoughts she followed that frail basket as it was
lowered down, down the narrow chimney, fifteen, eighteen
hundred feet, fourteen times the height of the great
pyramid, till it arrived at the bottom, and the men hastened
off to their work.
THE ALBRECHT PIT. 85
She imagined them all dispersing to different parts of
the subterranean town, some to the right, some to the left
pickers, armed with strong pickaxes to attack the blocks
of coal ; shorers, to bank up places whence the coal had
been hollowed ; carpenters, to put up wood-work ; labourers,
to repair the roads and lay down rails ; masons, to cement
the roofs.
A wide central gallery led from this shaft to another, a
ventilator about a mile distant. At right angles from this
spread secondary roads ; and in parallel lines, smaller ones
again. These roads were separated by walls and pillars
of coal or rock. All was regular, square, solid, black !
And this labyrinth of roads was alive with half-naked
miners, working, talking, laughing, by the light of their
safety-lamps.
All this dame Bauer could see, as she sat alone,
dreaming, beside her fire.
Among the numerous galleries, the one she oftenest
imagined to herself was where her boy Carl opened and
shut his door.
When evening came, the day workmen went up, to be
replaced by others ; but her boy did not go with the rest
to take his place in the basket. He went off to the stable,
patted his beloved Blair- Athol, and gave him his supper
of oats and fresh hay. Then he ate his own little cold
supper, which had been sent to him, played for a few
86 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
minutes with his big pet rat, caught and stroked the two
bats as they fluttered about him, and then was soon fast
asleep on his heap of straw.
Well did the fond mother know all this, and much she
loved to hear every incident of her boy's daily life.
"Mother, what do you think Mr. Maulesmulhe, the
engineer, said to me yesterday ? He said that if I gave
correct answers to some questions in arithmetic which he
would put to me one of these days, he would take me to
hold the land-chain when he surveys the mine with his
compass. It seems they are going to pierce a new gallery,
to join the Weber shaft, and he will find it uncommonly
difficult to bring it out in the right place ! "
"Really!" cried dame Bauer with delight; "did Mr.
Maulesmulhe say that ! " And already she imagined her
Carl holding the chain along the gallery, whilst the
engineer, note-book in hand, set down figures, and, his eyes
fixed on the compass, ordered the direction of the
opening.
" Unluckily," continued Carl, " I have nobody to explain
what I don't understand in my arithmetic, and I'm much
afraid I shall not answer correctly ! "
At this point, Max, who was silently smoking by the
fireside, which place, as a lodger in the house, he had the
privilege of occupying, joined in the conversation, and said
to the boy
Max offers his help.
Page 86.
THE ALBRECHT PIT. 87
" If you like to show me what you find difficult, perhaps
I can give you a helping hand."
" You ? " said dame Bauer with some incredulity.
" Certainly," replied Max. " Do you think I learn
nothing at the evening class to which I go regularly after
supper ? The master is very pleased with me, and says he
will make me a monitor."
This settled, Max brought from his room a clean paper
copy-book, and seating himself by the lad, explained the
difficult sum, with so much clearness that the astonished
Carl managed it easily.
From that day dame Bauer showed more consideration
for her lodger, and Max took a great liking to his little
companion.
In the factory, Max showed himself an exemplary work
man, and was not long in being promoted to the second,
and then to the first class. Every morning he was at the
O gate punctually at seven o'clock. Every evening, after
his supper, he repaired to the class taught by the engineer,
Trubner. Geometry, algebra, drawing of diagrams and
machines he attacked them all with equal ardour; and
his progress was so rapid that his master was much
struck by it. Two months from his entry into the Schultz
manufactory, the young workman was already noted
as one of the cleverest intellects, not only in the A
section, but in all Stahlstadt. A report of his engineer,
88
sent up at the end of the quarter, bore this formal
mention :
" Schwartz (Johann) twenty-six, working caster . of the
first class. I wish to bring this man before the notice of
the Directors, as quite above the average, in three respects,
theoretical knowledge, practical skill, and remarkable
genius for invention."
But something more than this was required to draw
the attention of the chiefs to Max. It was not long in
coming ; though unfortunately it was under the most
tragical circumstances.
One Sunday morning, Max, much astonished at hearing
ten o'clock strike without his young friend Carl having
appeared, went down to ask dame Bauer if she knew any
reason for this delay. He found her very uneasy ; Carl
ought to have been at home two hours and more. Seeing
her anxiety, Max offered to go and look after him, and set
off in the direction of the Albrecht shaft.
He met several miners on the way, and inquired from
them if they had seen the boy ; then, on receiving a nega
tive reply, exchanging the "Gliickauf!" (success to you!
safe return !), which is the usual salutation of German
pitmen, Max continued his walk.
About eleven o'clock, he reached the head of the
Albrecht shaft. It was not noisy, and animated, as on a
week day; there was only one young "milliner," as the
THE ALBRECHT PIT. 89
miners jokingly call the sorters of the coal chatting
with the watchman, whose duty kept him, even on this
day, at the pit's mouth.
" Have you seen little Carl Bauer, number 41,902, come
up this morning ? " asked Max of this functionary.
The man consulted his list, and shook his head.
" Is there any other outlet to the mine ? "
" No, this is the only one ; the new shaft to the north is
not yet finished."
" Then, is the boy below ? "
"He must be, though it's an odd thing too, for on
Sundays only the five watchmen should be left.'
" Can I go down to find out ? "
" Not without permission."
" There may have been an accident," put in the milliner.
" Not possible on Sunday."
" All the same," said Max, " I must find out what has
become of that boy."
"You must speak to the overseer of machinery, in his
office, if he is still there."
The overseer, dressed in his Sunday best, with a shirt
collar as stiff as if it had been made out of tin, was
fortunately still at his accounts. He was an intelligent
and humane man, and at once entered into Max's
anxiety.
" We will go immediately and see what he is doing."
THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
And ordering the man on duty to be ready to pay away
the cable, he prepared to descend into the mine with the
young workman.
" Have you not the Galibert apparatus ? " asked Max.
" It may be useful."
"You are right. One can never be sure what has
occurred at the bottom of the pit."
Saying this, the overseer took from a cupboard two zinc
reservoirs, similar to the urns which the street cocoa-sellers
in Paris carry on their backs. These were boxes of com
pressed air, placed in communication with the lips by
means of two india-rubber tubes, the horn mouthpiece
being held between the teeth. They are filled with the aid
of peculiar bellows, constructed to empty themselves com
pletely. The nose being held in wooden pincers, a man
may, thus supplied with a store of air, penetrate into the
most unbreathable atmosphere.
These preparations completed, the overseer and Max
took their places in the basket, the cable moved, and the
descent began.
Two small electric lamps shed some degree of light
around, and the men conversed together as they were
lowered into the depths of the earth.
" For a man not in the business you are a cool hand,"
remarked the overseer. "I've seen people who couldn't
summon up courage enough to go down; or if they
THE ALBRECHT PIT. 91
did, they crouched like rabbits at the bottom of the basket
all the time."
" Really/' answered Max, " it seems nothing to me ;
though it's true I have been down a coal mine two or three
times before."
They were soon landed at the foot of the shaft. The
watchman whom they found there had seen nothing of
young Carl.
They first visited the stable ; the horses were there alone,
and appeared quite tired of their own company. At least
such was the conclusion to be drawn from the neigh with
which Blair- Athol greeted the approach of the three human
figures. On a nail hung Carl's knapsack, and in a corner,
beside a curry-comb, lay his arithmetic book.
Max remarked directly that his lantern was not there, a
fresh proof that the boy must be still in the mine.
" He may have been hurt by a landslip," said the over
seer, " but it is scarcely probable. What can he have been
doing in the galleries on a Sunday ? "
" Oh ! perhaps he went to hunt for some insects before
going up," said the watchman. " It is quite a passion with
him."
The stable-boy, who arrived in the midst of this discus
sion, confirmed this supposition. He had seen Carl start
at seven o'clock with his lantern.
A regular search was immediately commenced. The
92 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
other watchmen were called, and each one, with his lantern,
told off in a different direction, pointed out to him on a
large plan of the mine, that every tunnel and gallery
might be thoroughly examined.
In two hours the whole mine had been gone through, and
the seven men met again at the foot of the shaft. There
had not been the least appearance of a landslip found any
where, nor the least trace of Carl. The overseer, perhaps
influenced by an increasing appetite, inclined to the opinion
that the boy had passed out unperceived, and would by
this time be at his home. But Max, convinced of the
contrary, insisted on renewed exertions.
" What is that ?" he asked, pointing to a dotted region on
the plan, resembling in the midst of the adjacent minute
ness those terrae incognitos marked on the confines of the
arctic continents.
" That is the zone provisionally deserted, because of the
thinning of the bed," replied the overseer.
"Is there a deserted zone? We must look there!"
exclaimed Max, with a decision to which the other men
submitted.
They were not long in reaching the entrance to some
galleries which, to judge by the slimy and mouldy walls,
might have been deserted for many years.
They had proceeded for some time without coming upon
anything suspicious, when Max stopped, and said
Poor little Carl.
Page 93.
THE ALBRECHT PIT. 93
" Do you not feel stupefied, and attacked with headache ?"
" Why, yes, indeed we do ! " answered his companions.
" So do I," resumed Max ; " for a moment I felt quite
giddy. There is certainly carbonic acid gas about ! Will
you allow me to light a match ?" he asked of the overseer.
" By all means, my lad, strike away."
Max took his little box from his pocket, struck a match,
and stooping, held it towards the ground, upon which it
instantly went out.
" I was sure of it," he remarked. " The gas, being more
heavy than the air, lies close to the ground. You must
not stay here I mean those who have not the Galibert
apparatus. If you like, sir, we can continue the search
alone."
This being agreed to, Max and the overseer each took
between his teeth the mouthpiece of his air box, placed
the nippers on his nostrils, and boldly penetrated into a
succession of old galleries.
In a quarter of an hour they came out to renew the air
in their reservoirs ; this done, they started again.
On the third trial their efforts were crowned with success.
The faint bluish light of an electric lamp was seen far off
in the darkness. They hastened to it.
At the foot of the damp wall, motionless and already
cold, lay poor little Carl. His blue lips and sunken eyes
told what had happened.
94 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
He had evidently wished to pick up something from the
ground, had stooped, and been literally drowned in the
carbonic acid gas.
Every effort to recall him to life was in vain. He must
have been already dead four or five hours. By the next
evening there was another little grave in the cemetery of
Stahlstadt, and poor dame Bauer was bereaved of her child
as well as of her husband.
THE CENTRAL BLOCK. 95
CHAPTER VII.
THE CENTRAL BLOCK.
A REPORT from Dr. Echternach, surgeon-in-chief to the
section of the Albrecht pit, stated that the death of Carl
Bauer, number 41,902, thirteen years of age, trapper in
gallery 228, was caused by asphyxia, resulting from the
absorption by the respiratory organs of a large proportion
of carbonic acid.
Another no less luminous report from the engineer
Maulesmulhe, explained the necessity of including in the
ventilating scheme zone B in the plan xiv., as a large
amount of deleterious gas filtered slowly from its galleries.
Lastly, a note from the same functionary brought before
the notice of the authorities the devotedness of the overseer
Rayer, and of the first-class workman, Johann Schwartz.
Ten hours later, on reaching the porter's lodge, Max, as
he took his presence-counter, found this printed order on
the nail, addressed to him :
96 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
" Schwartz will present himself at the Director-General's
office at ten o'clock to-day. Central block, Gate and
Road A."
"At last !" thought Max. "This is the first step ; the
rest will come ! "
While chatting with his comrades on his Sunday
walks round Stahlstadt, he had acquired sufficient know
ledge of the general organisation of the city to know
that authority to enter the central block was not to
be had every day. All sorts of stories were current about
this place. It was said that some indiscreet people, who
had tried to get into the guarded enclosure by stratagem,
had never been seen again. That before their admission,
all workmen employed there had to go through a series of
masonic ceremonies were obliged to take the most solemn
oaths not to reveal anything that went on there, and
were mercilessly sentenced to death by a secret tribunal
if they violated their oath. A subterranean railway put
this sanctuary in communication with the out-works.
Night trains brought unknown visitors. Supreme councils
were held there, and sometimes mysterious personages
came to participate in the deliberations.
Without putting unnecessary faith in these accounts,
Max knew that they were really the popular expression of
a well-known fact the extreme difficulty which attended
admission into the central division. Of all the workmen
THE CENTRAL BLOCK. 97
whom he knew and he had friends in the iron mines as
well as in the coal pits, among the refiners as well as the
men employed in the blast furnaces, among the carpenters
as well as the smiths not one had ever entered the
gate.
It was therefore with a feeling of intense curiosity as
well as secret pleasure that he presented himself there at
the hour named. It was soon plain that the precautions
were of the strictest.
Evidently Max was expected. Two men, dressed in a
grey uniform, swords at their sides, and revolvers in their
belts, were waiting in the porter's lodge.
This lodge, like that of a cloistered convent, had two
gates, an outer and an inner one, which were never open at
the same time.
The pass examined and signed, Max saw, though
without manifesting any surprise, a white handkerchief
brought out, with which the two attendants in uniform
carefully bandaged his eyes.
Then taking him by the arms, they marched him off
without saying a word.
After walking two or three thousand steps they mounted
a staircase, a door was opened and shut, and Max was
allowed to take off his bandage.
He found himself in a large plain room, furnished with
some chairs, a black board, and a long desk, supplied with
H
98 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
every implement necessary for linear drawing. It was
lighted by high windows, filled with ground glass.
Almost immediately, two personages, who looked as if
they belonged to a university, entered the room.
" You are brought before our notice as having somewhat
distinguished yourself," said one of them. " We are about
to examine you to find out if there is reason to admit you
into the model division. Are you prepared to answer our
questions ?"
Max modestly declared himself ready to be put to the
proof.
The two examiners then successively put questions to
him in chemistry, geometry, and algebra. The young
workman satisfied them in every case by the clearness and
precision of his answers. The figures which he traced in
chalk on the board were neat, decided, and elegant. His
equations in the most perfect way, in equal lines, like the
ranks of a crack regiment. One of these demonstrations
was so remarkable, and so new to the judges, that they
expressed their astonishment, and asked where he had
been taught.
"At Schaffhaiisen, my native town, in the elementary
school."
"You appear a good draughtsman ?"
" It was my strong point."
" The education given in Switzerland is decidedly very
THE CENTRAL BLOCK. 99
uncommon," remarked one examiner to the other. "We
will give you two hours to execute this," he resumed,
handing to the candidate a drawing of a very complicated-
looking steam-engine. " If you acquit yourself well you
shall be admitted with the mention, * Perfectly satisfactory
and very superior.' "
Left alone, Max set eagerly to work.
When his judges re-entered at the expiration of the given
time, they were so delighted with his diagram, that they
added to the promised mention, " We have not another
draughtsman of equal talent."
Our young workman was then again seized by the grey
attendants, and with the same ceremonial, that is to say,
the bandaged eyes, was led to the office of the Director-
General.
" You are offered admission to one of the studios in the
model division," said this personage. " Are you ready to
submit to the rules and regulations ?"
" I do not know what they are," said Max ; " but I
presume they are acceptable."
" They are these : First, you are compelled, as long as
your engagement lasts, to reside in the same division. You
cannot go out but by special and exceptional order. Second,
you are subjected to military discipline; and you owe
absolute obedience, under military penalties, to your supe
riors. To weigh against this, you are also like the non-
11 2
ioo THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
commissioned officers of an active army, for you may, by a
regular advance, be raised to the highest grades. Third,
you bind yourself by an oath never to reveal to any one what
you see in the division to which you have access. Fourth,,
your correspondence is opened by your chiefs, all you send
as well as all you receive ; and it must be limited to your
family."
" In short, I am in prison," thought Max.
Then he replied quietly
"These rules seem perfectly just, and I am ready to
submit to them."
" Good. Raise your hand. Take the oath. You are
nominated draughtsman to the fourth studio. A lodging
will be assigned to you, and for your meals, you will find
a first-rate canteen here. You have not your property
with you ?"
" No, sir. As I was ignorant of what I was wanted for,
I left everything in my room."
41 They will be brought to you, for you must not again go
out of the division."
" I did well," thought Max, "to write my notes in cipher!
They would only have had to look at them !"
Before the close of the day, Max was established in a
pretty little room, in the fourth story of a building over
looking a wide courtyard, and had some ideas about his
new life.
THE CENTRAL BLOCK. IOI
He did not fancy that it would be as dismal as at first
sight it appeared. His comrades, with whom he made
acquaintance at the restaurant, were in general quiet and
gentle, like all industrious people. To enliven themselves
a little for there was rather a want of gaiety in their
mechanical life they formed a band amongst themselves,
and performed selections of very tolerable music every
evening. A library, a reading-room, were valuable
resources for the mind, from a scientific point of view,
during the rare hours of leisure. Special courses held
by professors were obligatory to all the men employed,
who had besides to undergo frequent examinations and
competitions. But fresh air and liberty were lacking in
these narrow confines.
It was a regular college, only with extra strictness exer
cised on grown men. The surrounding atmosphere could
not but weigh on their spirits, subjected as they were to
an iron discipline.
The winter passed away in these employments, to which
Max gave himself up heart and soul. His application, the
perfection of his drawings, his extraordinary progress in
every subject he was taught, noticed by all his tutors and
examiners, had made for him, even in this short time, and
amongst all these diligent men, a corresponding celebrity.
By general consent he was the most clever draughtsman,
the most ingenious, the most fruitful in resources. Was
102 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
there a difficulty ? they applied to him. Even the chiefs
themselves resorted to his experience, with the respect
which merit extorts even from the most marked jealousy.
But if, on reaching the heart of the model division, the
young man calculated that he would be any nearer getting
at the innermost secrets, he was very much out in his
reckoning.
His life at present was enclosed within an iron railing
three hundred yards in diameter, surrounding the segment
of the central block to which he was attached. Intellec
tually, his activity could and should extend to the highest
branches of metallurgic industry. In practice, it was
limited to drawing steam-engines. He constructed them
of all dimensions and of all powers, for every kind of
industry and use, for war-ships and for printing-presses ;
but he never left this speciality. The division of labour
pushed to its utmost limit held him as in a vice.
After four months passed in section A, Max knew no
more of the entire plan of the works in the Steel City than
he did on entering. At the most he had merely collected
a little general information about the organisation of the
machinery of which he formed notwithstanding his
merits but a very small portion. He knew that the
centre of the spider's web, figurative of Stahlstadt, was the
Bull Tower, a kind of cyclopean structure, overlooking all
the neighbouring buildings.
THE CENTRAL BLOCK. IO3
He had learnt, too, through the legendary stories of the
canteen, that the dwelling of Herr Schultz himself was at
the base of this tower, and that the renowned secret room
occupied the centre. It was added that this vaulted hall,
protected against any danger of fire, and plated inside, as a
monitor is plated outside, was closed by a system of steel
doors with spring-gun locks, worthy of the most suspicious
bank. The general opinion was that Professor Schultz
was working at the completion of a terrible engine of war
of unprecedented power, and destined to assure universal
dominion to Germany.
Max had revolved in his brain many most audacious plans
of escalade and disguise, but had been compelled to acknow
ledge to himself that nothing of the sort was practicable.
Those lines of sombre and massive walls, flooded with
light during the night, and guarded by trusty sentinels,
would always oppose an insuperable obstacle to every
attempt. But even if he did overcome it to some extent
^what would he see ? Details, always details, never the
whole !
What matter ! He had sworn not to yield, and he
would not yield. If it took ten years, he would wait that
time. But the hour was coming when that secret would
be his own. It must ! The happy city Frankville was
prospering, its beneficent institutions favouring each and
all, and giving a new horizon of hope to a disheartened
104 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
people. Max had no doubt that in the face of such a
triumph to the Latin race, Schultz would be more than
ever determined to make good his threats. Stahlstadt and
its factories were a proof of that.
Thus many weeks passed away.
One day in March, Max had just for the hundredth time
repeated his secret vow, when one of the grey attendants
informed him that the Director-General wished to speak
to him.
" I have received from Herr Schultz," said this high
functionary, " an order to send him our best draughtsman.
You are the man. Make your arrangements to pass into
the inner circle. You are promoted to the rank of
lieutenant."
Thus, at the very moment when he was almost despair
ing of success, his heroic toil at last procured him the
much desired entrance !
Max was so filled with delight that his joy exhibited
itself on his countenance.
" I am happy to have such good news to announce to
you," continued the Director ; " and I cannot refrain from
urging you to continue in the path you have begun to
tread so gallantly. A brilliant future is before you. Go,
sir."
So Max, after his long probation, caught the first
glimpse of the end which he had sworn to reach !
An unexpected sight.
Page 105.
THE CENTRAL BLOCK. 105
To stuff all his clothes into his portmanteau, follow the
grey men, pass through the last enclosure, of which the
entrance in the A road might have been still forbidden to
him, was the work of a few minutes.
He now stood at the foot of the inaccessible Bull Tower ;
until this moment he had but seen its lofty head reared
among the clouds.
The scene which lay before him was indeed an unex
pected one. Imagine a man suddenly transported from a
noisy, commonplace European workshop into the midst of
a virgin forest in the torrid zone. Such was the surprise
which awaited Max in the centre of Stahlstadt.
As a virgin forest gains in beauty from the descriptions
of great writers, so was Professor Schultz's park more
beautiful than the most lovely of pleasure gardens. Slender
palms, tufted bananas, curious cacti formed the shrubberies,
Creepers wound gracefully round eucalyptus trees, hung in
green festoons, or fell in rich clusters. The most tender
plants bloomed in abundance. Pineapples and guavas
ripened beside oranges. Humming-birds and birds of
paradise displayed their brilliant plumage in the open air ;
for the temperature was as tropical as the vegetation.
Max instinctively looked around and above for glass and
hot-air pipes to account for this miracle ; seeing nothing but
the blue sky he stopped bewildered.
Then it flashed upon him that not far from the spot was
io6
a coal mine in permanent combustion, and he guessed that
Herr Schultz had ingeniously utilised this valuable sub
terranean heat, by means of metallic pipes, to maintain a
constant hot-house atmosphere.
But this explanation did not prevent the young Alsacian's
eyes from being dazzled and charmed with the green lawns,
while his nostrils inhaled with delight the delicious scents
which filled the air. To a man who had passed six months
without seeing even a blade of grass, it was truly refreshing.
A gravelled path led him, by a gentle slope, to the foot
of a handsome flight of marble steps, commanded by a
majestic colonnade. Behind rose the huge and massive
square building, which was as it were the pedestal of the
Bull Tower.
Beneath the peristyle Max could see seven or eight
servants in red livery, and a gorgeous porter in cocked hat,
and bearing a halberd. And he noticed between the columns
rich bronze candelabra. As he ascended the steps a
slight rumble betrayed that the underground railroad lay
beneath his feet.
Max gave his name, and was immediately admitted into
a hall, a regular museum of sculpture. Not having time to-
examine anything, he was conducted first through a saloon,
adorned with black and gold, then through one with red
and gold ornaments, and he was finally left alone for five
minutes in a yellow and gold saloon. At the end of that
The King of Steel in his palace.
THE CENTRAL BLOCK.
time a footman returned and showed him into a splendid
green and gold study.
Herr Schultz in person, smoking a long clay pipe, with a
tankard of beer at his side, had the effect, in the midst of
all this luxury, of a spot of mud on a patent-leather boot.
Without rising, without even turning his head, the King
of Steel merely said, in a cold tone
" Are you the draughtsman ? "
"Yes,. sir."
" I have seen your diagrams. They are veiy good. But
do you only understand steam-engines ? "
" I have never been examined in anything else."
"Do you know anything of the science of projectiles ?"
" I have studied it in my spare time, and for my own
pleasure."
This reply interested Herr Schultz.
He deigned to turn and look at his employe.
" Well, will you undertake to design a cannon with me ?
We shall see what you can make of it ! Ah ! you
will be scarcely able to take the place of that idiot of a
Sohne, who got killed this morning whilst handling some
dynamite ! The fool might have blown us all up ! "
It must be acknowledged that this revolting want of
feeling was only what might have been expected from the
mouth of Herr Schultz.
io8 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DRAGON'S DEN.
THE reader who has followed the progress of our young
Alsacian's fortune will probably not be much surprised to
find him, at the end of a few weeks, firmly established
in Herr Schultz's favour. The two had become in
separable. They \vorked together, they ate and walked
together, and together they sat smoking over their
foaming glasses of beer. The ex-professor of Jena had
never before met with a coadjutor so entirely after
his own heart, one who caught his meaning with half a
word, and who could so rapidly utilise his theoretical
ideas.
Max not merely possessed transcendent merit in all
branches of the profession, he was besides the most charming
companion, the most diligent worker, the most modestly
fertile inventor.
Herr Schultz was delighted with him. Ten times a day
THE DRAGON'S DEN. 109
he said to himself, " What a treasure ! what a pearl this
fellow is !"
The truth was that Max had, at the first glance, seer*
through the character of his formidable patron, and per
ceiving that blind and insatiable vanity was its leading
feature, he regulated his conduct by humouring the egotism
which he despised.
In a few days the young man had acquired such skill
in the fingering necessary for this human keyboard, that
he could play upon Schultz as easily as one plays on a
piano.
His tactics merely consisted in exhibiting his own merits
to advantage, but always in such a way as to leave an
opening for his master to show superiority over him. For
instance, when he finished a drawing he would leave it
perfect, with the exception of some slight fault, as easy to
see as to correct, and this the ex-professor immediately
and exultantly pounced upon.
Had he some theoretical idea, he caused it so to open out
in the course of conversation that Herr Schultz might fancy
that he himself had originated it. Sometimes he even
went further, boldly saying
" I have traced that plan of a vessel with the detached
ram, which you asked for."
" I ? " returned Herr Schultz, who had never dreamt of
such a thing.
no THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
"Why, yes ! you don't mean to say you have forgotten?
A detached ram, which will leave a spindle-shaped torpedo
in the enemy's side, to burst after an interval of three
minutes ! "
" I had not the least recollection of it. That comes of
having a head like mine ! it is so full of inventive genius
that I forget my own ideas." And Herr Schultz con
scientiously pocketed the credit of the new invention.
Perhaps, after all, he was only half duped by this artifice.
In his innermost heart he probably felt that Max was
stronger than he. But by one of those mysterious workings
which go on in the human brain, he was contented with the
appearance of superiority as long as he could delude his
subordinate.
" But the fellow must be an ass after all, in spite of his
cleverness!" he would sometimes say to himself, with a
silent laugh which showed all the thirty- two dominoes in
his jaw.
His vanity, if ever wounded, was soon consoled by the
reflection that he alone in all the world could carry out
these inventions and ideas. They would have been of no
value but for his gold. After all Max was only part of the
mechanism which he, Schultz, had set going, &c., &c.
Yet, although in high favour, Max was never taken into
the professor's confidence, and after five months' sojourn in
the Bull Tower, he knew little more than at first of its
THE DRAGON'S DEN. in
mysteries. His suspicions had become certainties, and
that was all. He was now convinced that Stahlstadt
contained a secret, and that Herr Schultz had some aim
far beyond that of gain. The nature of his occupations
rendered the supposition that he had invented some
perfectly new engine of warfare extremely probable.
But the enigma had still to be solved. Max at last came
to the conclusion that it would be impossible to obtain the
knowledge he sought without coming to some crisis, and
this he resolved to provoke.
It was after dinner on the evening of the 5th of September ;
exactly a year since he had found the body of his little
friend Carl in the Albrecht pit.
Outside, the long severe American winter already covered
the country with its white mantle ; but in the park of
Stahlstadt the temperature was as warm as during June,
and the snow, melting before it touched the ground, fell in
rain instead of flakes.
" Those sausages in sourkraut were delicious, were they
not?" remarked Herr Schultz, whose love of his favourite
dish was unaffected by the Begum's millions.
" Delicious ! " returned Max, who had heroically partaken
of this mess every evening, till at last he hated the very
sight of it.
His feelings on this subject decided him at once to carry
his meditated project into execution.
ii2 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
"I wonder," resumed Herr Schultz, with a sigh, "how
people who have neither sausages, nor sourkraut, nor beer,
can endure existence."
" Life must be one long misery to them," replied Max.
" It would really be a charity to unite all mankind with the
Vaterland."
"Well ! well! that will come, that will come !" exclaimed
the King of Steel. " Here we are already installed in the
heart of America. Just let us take an island or two in the
neighbourhood of Japan, and you will see in what a few
strides we shall get round the globe !"
The footman now brought in the pipes ; Herr Schultz
filled and lighted his. Max had purposely determined to
make use of this moment of supreme bliss, so began, after
a few minutes' silence
" I must say that I don't quite believe in this conquest ! "
" What conquest ?" asked Herr Schultz, who had forgotten
what was the topic of conversation.
" The conquest of the world by the Germans."
The ex-professor thought he had not heard correctly.
" You do not believe in the conquest of the world by the
Germans ?"
"No."
" Oh, indeed, that is something strange ! I am curious to
know the reasons for your doubt."
' Simply because the French artillerymen will end by
THE DRAGON'S DEN. 113
doing better, and will far surpass you. The Swiss, my
fellow-countrymen, who know them well, are firmly con
vinced that a forewarned Frenchman is worth two Germans.
The lesson of 1870 will be repeated against those who gave
it. No one doubts this in my little country, sir, and if I
may venture to say so, it is the opinion of the cleverest
men in England."
Max had uttered these words in a cool, dry, and decisive
tone, which, if it were possible, doubled the effect of the
point-blank blasphemy.
Herr Schultz glared wildly his astonishment almost
choked him. Then the blood rushed to his face with such
violence that the young man feared, for a moment, he had
gone too far. However, seeing that rage had not stifled
his victim, and that he would not die of the shock this
time, he resumed
"Yes, it is annoying to think of; but it's the fact.
Although our rivals make no noise about it, yet they are
working. Do you think they have learnt nothing since the
war ? Whilst we are stupidly trying to increase the weight
of our cannon, you may be certain that they are preparing
something new, and that we shall see what it is on the very
first opportunity !"
"Something new, something new!" stammered Herr
Schultz. " We are doing that too, sir !"
"Ah, yes, in a way. We are making in steel what our
I
ii4 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
predecessors made in bronze, that's all. We double the
proportions and the range of our pieces."
"Double!" exclaimed Herr Schultz, in a tone which
signified, "Indeed ! we do better than double !"
"In short," resumed Max, "we are mere plagiarists. See
here, the truth is we lack any genius for inventing. We
discover nothing, and the French do, and will, you may be
sure."
Herr Schultz had become, outwardly at least, rather
calmer, though his trembling lips, and the paleness which
had succeeded the apoplectic crimson, betrayed the agitated
state of his mind.
Must he endure such a pitch of humiliation ? To be the
far-famed Schultz, the absolute master of the greatest
manufactory and cannon foundry in the whole world, to
have kings and parliaments at his feet, and then to be told
by an insignificant Swiss draughtsman that he lacked
invention, that he was below a French gunner ! And all
this when he had close to him, on the other side of a plated
wall, something which would a thousand times confound
the impudent rascal, shut him up completely, and sweep
away all his idiotic arguments ? No, it was not to be
endured !
Herr Schultz rose so abruptly that he broke his pipe.
Then, casting at Max a glance full of irony, he hissed out
from between his set teeth
THE DRAGON'S DEN. 115
" Follow me, sir, I am about to show you whether I,
Herr Schultz, have any lack of invention !"
Max had played high, but had won thanks to the
surprise his bold and unexpected language had produced,
and the passion he had aroused.
Vanity being stronger than prudence with the ex-
professor, Schultz was now eager to lay open his secret.
He led the way with a hurried step into his study, closed
the door carefully, and walking straight up to the book
case, touched a panel. Immediately an opening, concealed
by the rows of books, appeared in the wall. This was the
entrance to a narrow passage, leading by a stone staircase
to the very foot of the Bull Tower.
There, an oaken door was opened by means of a little
key, which never left the possession of the master of the
place. A second door appeared, fastened with a padlock,
similar to those used for strong boxes.
Herr Schultz threw open the heavy iron barrier, protected
within by a complicated apparatus of explosive machinery,
which Max, actuated by professional curiosity, would have
much liked to examine ; but his guide left him no time to
do so.
The two men then found themselves before a third door,
without any apparent lock or bolt, which yielded to a slight
push, given, however, in a particular way.
This third barrier passed, Herr Schultz and his companion
I 2
n6 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
climbed an iron staircase of two hundred steps, and arrived
at the summit of the Bull Tower, overlooking all the city of
Stahlstadt.
In the centre of a sort of casemate, pierced with numerous
embrasures, stood a steel cannon.
" There ! " exclaimed the professor, who had not uttered
a word since they left the dining-room.
It was the most enormous piece of ordnance Max had
ever beheld. A breach-loader of at least three hundred tons.
Its mouth measured nearly five feet in diameter. Mounted
on a steel carriage, and running on rails of the same metal,
it might have been manoeuvred by a child, so easy were all
its movements made, by a system of cogged wheels. A
spring, fixed at the back of the carriage, had the effect of
annulling the recoil, or at least producing a perfectly equal
reaction*, so that after each shot the gun returned to its
first position.
" And what may be the perforating power of this piece ? "
asked Max, who could not restrain his admiration.
" At twenty thousand yards we can pierce a forty-inch
plate as easily as if it were a slice of bread and butter !"
"And its range?"
"Its range?" cried Schultz, enthusiastically. "Ah!
you said just now that our imitative genius had done
nothing more than double the range of former guns !
Well, with this fellow, I would undertake to send, with
The masterpiece of Herr Schultz.
Page 1 1 6.
THE DRAGON'S DEN. 117
tolerable precision, a projectile to the distance of thirty
miles!"
" Thirty miles ! " cried Max. " Thirty miles ! What new
powder can you use ?"
" Oh ! I can tell you everything, now," replied Herr
Schultz, in a peculiar tone. " There is no inconvenience in
revealing my secrets to you. Large grained powder has
served its time. Gun-cotton is what I use ; its expansive
power is four times that of ordinary powder, and I increase
it fivefold by mixing with it eight-tenths of its weight of
nitrate of potash."
"But," observed Max, "no piece, though made of the
best steel, could stand that long. After four or five shots
your cannon will be impaired, and soon become useless."
" If it were only to fire one shot that one would be
sufficient!"
" It would be an expensive one."
" It would cost a million, for that is the net cost of the
gun."
" One shot worth a million !"
"What matter, so that it destroyed a thousand millions !"
"A thousand millions !" cried Max.
" However, he restrained the mingled horror and admira
tion with which this fearful agent of destruction inspired
him, and added
" It is assuredly a wonderful and astonishing piece of
ii8 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
artillery, but, notwithstanding its merits, it bears out my
theory, there are improvements certainly, but it is all
imitation, no invention."
"No invention !" responded Herr Schultz, shrugging his
shoulders. " I repeat that I have now no secrets from you.
Come with me."
"The King of Steel and his companion then left the
casemate and descended to a lower story, by means of an
hydraulic lift. Here lay a large number of long objects,
cylindrical in shape, which might, from a distance, have
been taken for dismounted cannon.
"There are our shells," said Herr Schultz.
" This time Max was obliged to acknowledge that they
resembled nothing he had ever seen before. They were
enormous tubes, six feet in length and three in diameter,
sheathed in. lead in such a way as to fit into the rifling of
the gun, closed behind by a steel plate, and the point
finished off by a steel tip, supplied with a percussion
button.
Nothing in their appearance indicated the special
nature of these shells; though Max felt that in them
was contained some terrible element of destruction,
surpassing all that Jiad ever before been made or
thought of.
"Can you not guess?" asked Herr Schultz, seeing that
his companion remained silent.
Terrible projectiles.
Page 1 1 8.
THE DRAGON'S DEN. 119
" Indeed, no, sir ! Why should you want a shell so long
and so heavy in appearance at least ?"
" The appearance is deceitful," answered Herr Schultz ;
" and there is no great difference in their weight to that of
an ordinary shell of the same calibre. Come ! I must tell
you everything. A fusee shell of glass, encased in oak,
charged with liquid carbonic acid by seventy atmospheres
of interior pressure. The fall provokes the explosion of
the case and the return of the liquid to a gaseous
state. An -enormous volume of carbonic acid gas rushes
into the air, and a cold of a hundred degrees below zero
seizes upon the surrounding atmosphere. Every living
thing within a radius of thirty yards from the centre of the
explosion is at once frozen and suffocated. I say thirty
yards as the lowest calculation, but the action would really
extend much farther, say to a hundred or a couple of
hundred yards.
" Another capital thing about it is, that the carbonic acid
gas, remaining a very long time near the ground, by reason
of its weight, being greater than that of air, will preserve
the dangerous properties of the zone for many hours after
the first explosion, so that any creature which may attempt
to enter or pass through it, must infallibly perish. The
effect of that shot will be both instantaneous and lasting.
Besides, with my plan, there will be no wounded, only
dead!"
^20 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Herr Schultz displayed manifest pleasure in exhibiting
the merits of his invention. His good humour had returned,
he was flushed with pride, and his teeth gleamed.
" You are to imagine," he resumed, " a sufficient number
of my pieces of ordnance directed against a besieged
town. Supposing one sufficient for the destruction of a
place of two acres and a half in extent, then, for a town of
two thousand five hundred acres, we must have a hundred
batteries, each consisting of ten suitable guns. Now, let us
suppose all our guns in position, the weather calm and
favourable, the general signal given by an electric wire.
In a minute there would not be a single living being
remaining in an extent of two thousand five hundred
acres ! The town would be submerged in a regular ocean
of carbonic acid gas ! The idea occurred to me last year
on reading the medical report of the accidental death of a
little miner in the Albrecht pit. I had the first inspiration
at Naples, when I visited the Dog Grotto. 1 But that last
fact was needed to put the finishing stroke to my thought.
You comprehend the principle, do you not ? An artificial
1 The Grotto del Cano, in the neighbourhood of Naples, borrows
its name from the curious property its atmosphere possesses of
suffocating a dog, or any small four-legged animal, without doing any
harm to a man standing upright this is owing to a layer of about
two feet of carbonic acid gas, which is kept by its specific weight
close to the ground.
THE DRAGON'S DEN. 121
ocean of pure carbonic acid ! Now, the proportion of a
fifth of this gas would be sufficient to render the air
unbreathable."
Max did not utter a word. He was regularly struck
dumb. Herr Schultz felt his triumph so keenly, that he
did not wish to take advantage of it.
" There is only one detail which troubles me," said he.
"And what can that be ?" asked Max.
" That I have not succeeded in suppressing the sound of
the explosion. It makes my gun too much like a common
cannon. Just think of what it would be if I could manage
to have a silent shot. Sudden death comes noiselessly upon
a hundred thousand men at once, on some calm and serene
night!"
The enchanting prospect thus called up, threw Herr
Schultz into a brown study. From this reverie, which was
but a deep immersion in a bath of self-love, he was
aroused by Max observing
" Very good, sir, very good ! but a thousand guns of this
description mean time and money."
" Money ? we are overflowing with it ! Time ? Time
is ours !"
And indeed this German, the last of his school, believed
what he said.
"Well," replied Max, "your shell loaded with carbonic
acid is not perfectly new after all, for it is derived from
122 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
those suffocating projectiles which have been known for
many years ; but that it may be eminently destructive, I
do not deny. Only "
" Only ? "
" It is light for its size, and if it is ever projected thirty
miles "
" It is only made to go six," answered Herr Schultz,
smiling. " But," he added, pointing to another shell, " here
is one of steel. This fellow is full, and contains a hundred
little guns, symmetrically arranged, fitted one into the
other, like the parts of a telescope. Having been fired
as projectiles, they will become cannon to vomit forth
in their turn little shells loaded with incendiary matter.
It will be a whole battery hurled through space, to
carry flame and death into a town by covering it with
a shower of inextinguishable fire ! This has the requisite
weight to go the thirty miles of which I spoke. In a
short time a trial of it will be made in such a way
that unbelievers may go if they like and handle the
hundred thousand corpses which it will have stretched on
the ground ! "
Here the dominoes gleamed so intolerably in Herr
Schultz's mouth, that Max felt a strong desire to smash
in a dozen or so of them, but contained himself. He had
not yet heard all.
Herr Schultz resumed
THE DRAGON'S DEN. 123.
u I have said that a decisive experiment is shortly to be
made."
" How ? Where ?" cried Max.
" How ? With one of these shells, which thrown by my
gun from the platform, will cross the Cascade mountains.
Where ? There exists a city, separated from us by at most
thirty miles, upon whose inhabitants it will come like
a thunder-clap, for even if they expected it, they could
not ward it off, or escape the startling effects. This is
now the 5th of September. Well, on the I3th, at a
quarter before midnight, Frankville will disappear from off
American soil ! The burning of Sodom will be rivalled.
Professor Schultz, in his turn, will let loose the fires of
Heaven !"
At this unexpected declaration Max felt the blood curdle
in his veins. Fortunately Herr Schultz did not perceive
his agitation.
" Now you see," he continued in an easy tone, " we act
just contrary to the founders of Frankville. We search for
the secret of abridging the lives of men, whilst they seek to
lengthen them. However, everything has an object in
nature, and Dr. Sarrasin, by founding that isolated city, has,
without suspecting it, placed a most magnificent field of
experiments within my reach."
Max could scarcely believe his ears.
" But," said he, and the involuntary tremor in his voice
124 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
attracted for a moment the attention of the King of Steel,
" the inhabitants of Frankville have done nothing to you,
sir. You have not, so far as I know, any reason for picking
a quarrel with them.' 7
" My dear fellow," replied Herr Schultz, " in your brain,
though well organised in other respects, there is a fund of
Celtic ideas, which would do you much injury were you to
live long enough ! Right Good Evil are purely relative,
and quite conventional words. Nothing is positive but the
grand laws of nature. The law of competition has the same
claim as that of gravitation. It is folly to resist, while to
submit and follow in the way it points out, is only wise
and reasonable, and therefore I mean to destroy Doctor
Sarrasin's city. Thanks to my cannon, my fifty thousand
Germans will easily make an end of the hundred thousand
dreamers over there, who now constitute a group condemned
to perish."
Seeing that an attempt to argue with Herr Schultz
would be useless, Max did not try to soften him.
The two then left the shell chamber, closed the secret
doors, and returned to the dining-room.
In the coolest, most natural way, the professor again
lifted his tankard to his lips, touched a bell, called for a
pipe in the place of the one he had broken, and then
addressing the footman
"Are Arminius and Sigimer there?" he asked.
Formidable ruards.
Page 125.
THE DRAGON'S DEN. 125
" Yes, sir."
" Tell them to remain within call."
When the servant had left the room, the King of Steel
turned to Max and looked him full in the face.
The latter's eyes did not quail before that look of almost
metallic hardness.
"You mean really," said he, "to put your project, into
execution ?"
"Really. I know the situation and the latitude and
longitude of Frankville to the tenth of a second, and on the
1 3th of September, at a quarter before midnight, it will
cease to be."
" Perhaps you ought to have kept this plan an absolute
secret."
" My dear fellow," answered Herr Schultz, " decidedly
your mind never would become logical. This makes me
regret the less that you must die young."
At these words Max started up.
" Is it possible you do not understand," added Herr
Schultz, coldly, " that I never speak of my plans but before
those who cannot repeat them ?"
The bell rang. Arminius and Sigimer, two giants,
appeared at the door.
" You wished to know my secret," said Herr Schultz ,
"you do know it. Nothing remains for you now but to
die!"
126 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Max did not reply.
"You are too intelligent," resumed Herr Schultz, "to
suppose that I can let you live, now that you know all
about my plans. That would be an act of unpardonable
carelessness ; that would be illogical. The greatness of my
aim forbids me to compromise its success for the considera
tion of a relative value so trifling as the life of a man
even of such a man as you, my dear fellow, whose good
cerebral organisation I most particularly esteem. Now I
truly regret that a little movement of self-love should have
carried me away and placed me under the necessity of
suppressing you. But you must understand that in the
face of the interests to which I have devoted myself, there
can be no question of sentiment. I may as well tell you
now, that it was for having penetrated my secret that your
predecessor met his death, and not by an explosion of
dynamite ! The rule is strict, it must be inflexible ! I can
alter nothing."
Max looked at Herr Schultz. He understood by the
.-sound of his voice, by the unrelenting obstinacy of that
bald head that he was lost. He did not give himself the
trouble of uttering a word of protest.
"When, and by what death shall I die?" he merely
asked.
"Don't be uneasy about that," replied Herr Schultz,
composedly. " You will die ; but suffering will be spared
THE DRAGON'S DEN. 127
you. You will not wake up some morning. That
is all"
At a sign from the King of Steel, Max found himself led
away, and shut into his room, the door of which was
guarded by the two giants.
But when he found himself alone, he thought with a
shudder of agony and rage of the doctor, his relations,
compatriots, all those whom he loved.
"The death which awaits me is nothing," he said to
himself. " But how am I to avert the danger which
threatens them ?"
128 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER IX.
p. P. c.
THE situation was indeed serious. What could poor
Max do, he whose hours were already numbered, and
whose last night might have come with the setting
sun.
He did not sleep for an instant, not from the dread of
never awaking, as Herr Schultz had said, but because his
heart was too full of thoughts of Frankville and of the
impending catastrophe.
'< What shall I attempt ? " he thought to himself. " To
destroy that gun ? Blow up the tower it stands on ? How
could I manage it ? Escape ! Escape ? when my room is
guarded by a couple of giants ? And then suppose I could
get away from Stahlstadt before the I3th of September,
how could I help them ? To be sure, if not our beloved
city, I might at least save the inhabitants. I might fly to
them shouting " Escape ! escape without delay ! You are
p. P. c. 129
in danger of perishing by fire and steel ! Fly all of you
for your lives !"
Then Max's thoughts passed into another channel.
"That villain Schultz!" he thought. "Even admitting
that he has exaggerated the destructive effects of his shell,
and that he cannot really fire the whole town, it is very
certain that with a single shot he can burn a considerable
part ! It's a frightful machine he has invented, and not
withstanding the distance between the two towns, it will
easily send the projectile over it ! The speed, too, must be
twenty times superior to any hitherto obtained. Something
like ten thousand yards, or nine miles a second ! It's
actually a third of the speed of the earth in its orbit ! Is
it possible ? Oh, if only that horrible gun would blow up
at the first shot ! But there is no hope of that, for the
metal of which it is made will stand anything. How
exactly the wretch knows the position of Frankville !
Without going out of his den, he can point his cannon with
mathematical precision, and, as he said, the shell will un
doubtedly fall in the very heart of the city! How can
the unhappy inhabitants be warned ?"
Max had not closed an eyelid when day dawned. He
then rose from the bed, on which he had tossed in feverish
restlessness. " Come," he said to himself, " it will be for
another night. As this executioner means to spare me
suffering, he no doubt will wait till sleep, getting the better
K
130 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
of my anxiety, has overpowered me. And then ! What
sort of death can he have in store for me ? Does he think
of killing me with some decoction of prussic acid whilst I
sleep ? Will he introduce some of that carbonic acid gas,
which he has at his command, into my room ? Will he
not rather use it in a liquid form, such as he has in his glass
shells, when its sudden return to a gaseous state produces
a hundred degrees of frost ? And the next day, instead of
' me/ instead of this strong, well-constituted body, so full
of life, there will be nothing but a dried, frozen, shrivelled
mummy ! Oh, the savage ! Well, well, if it must be so,
let my heart be frozen and my life wither away in that
unbearable atmosphere, if only my friends, Doctor Sarrasin,
his family, Jeannette my little Jeannette may be saved !
But to effect that I must escape. Well, escape I
will!"
As he uttered these words, Max, though he believed
himself locked into his room, instinctively laid his hand on
the handle of the door.
To his great surprise it opened, and he went down as
usual, and out into the garden, where he was accustomed
to walk.
" Ah," he thought, " I am a prisoner in the Central Block,
though not in my room. That's something in my favour !"
However, no sooner was Max outside, than he saw that,
though apparently free, he in reality could not make a step
P. P. C. 131
without being escorted by the two personages who answered
to the historic, or rather pre-historic, names of Arminius
and Sigimer.
He had often wondered, when he met them about the
place, what could be the duty of those two huge men in
grey cloaks, with their bull necks, herculean muscles, dark
red faces, bristling with thick moustaches and bushy
whiskers.
He now knew what that duty was. They were the
executioners of Herr Schultz's darkest deeds, who for the
present were acting as his body-guard !
These two giants never let him out of their sight, lying
at the door of his room, and dogging his steps when he
walked in the park. The formidable array of revolvers
and daggers which each carried in his belt rendered
hopeless any attempt to escape from them.
With all this, they were as dumb as fish.
Max tried, in a diplomatic way, to get up a conversation
vvith them, but only received a ferocious glare in reply.
Even the offer of a glass of beer, which he. had some
reason to suppose irresistible, was made in vain. After
observing them for fifteen hours, he discovered that they
had one weakness, only one a pipe, which they took the
liberty of smoking close at his heels. This single weakness
Max determined to turn to account. How, he did not
know, he could not even imagine, but he had vowed to
K 2
132 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
escape, and nothing should be neglected that could in any
way assist him.
Time was pressing. What was to be done ?
At the least sign of rebellion or flight, Max was sure of
receiving a couple of bullets in his head. Even supposing
they missed, he was still in the centre of a triple fortified
line, guarded by a triple row of sentinels.
According to his custom, the former pupil of the Central
School correctly put the situation in the form of a mathe
matical problem.
" Given, a man guarded by two unscrupulous rufiians >
individually stronger than he, and armed to the teeth.
The man must first escape the vigilance of these warders.
This done, he must get out of a fortified place, all the
entrances to which are strictly watched."
Max pondered this double question a hundred times,
but always came to the conclusion " Which is impossible."
However, the gravity of his situation seemed to sharpen
all his faculties of invention. Whether chance alone gave
the finishing touch or not would be difficult to say.
It happened that the next day, as Max was walking in
the park, his eyes fell on a shrub, the appearance of which
instantly attracted him.
It was a dull-looking herbaceous plant, its leaves
alternately oval, pointed and double, with great red bell-
shaped monopetalous flowers hanging by auxiliary stalks.
P. P. C. 133
Max had merely studied botany as an amateur, but it
immediately occurred to him that this shrub had the
characteristics of one of the order Solanaceae.
Quite at a venture, he gathered a leaf and slightly
chewed it as he pursued his walk. He was not mistaken.
A feeling of heaviness in his limbs, accompanied by a
sensation of nausea, soon convinced him that he had close
at hand a natural laboratory of bella-donna, that is to say,
the most active of all narcotics.
He strolled on until he reached a small artificial lake,
which stretched away to the southern end of the park, and
supplied a cascade, which, by the bye, was evidently copied
from that in the Bois de Boulogne.
" Where does the water of that cascade go to ? " thought
Max.
It first flowed into the bed of a little river, which, after
describing various turns and bends, finally disappeared at
the limits of the park.
There was evidently an outlet, and, to all appearance,
the river escaped by filling one of the subterranean channels
which watered the plain beyond Stahlstadt.
In this Max saw a gate of egress. It was certainly not
a carriage way, but it was an opening.
' And suppose the channel is barred by an iron grating ! "
objected the voice of prudence.
" Nothing venture nothing have ! Files weren't made to
134 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
gnaw away corks, and there are capital files in the
laboratory ! " so answered another ironical voice, one that
prompted daring resolves.
In two minutes Max's determination was made, An
idea as it may be called had darted into his mind, one
that perhaps could not after all be carried out, but which
he would attempt, if death did not first overtake him.
He sauntered back towards the shrub with red flowers,
and gathered two or three leaves in such a way that his
guards could not fail to see him.
Then, returning to his room, he quite openly dried these
leaves before the fire, rubbed them in his hands to crush
them, and mixed them with his tobacco.
During the six following days, Max, to his extreme
surprise, woke up quite well every morning. Had Herr
Schultz, whom he had not again seen and never met in his
walks had he given up his plan of making away with him ?
No, it was not likely, any more than he would relinquish
that of destroying Doctor Sarrasin's city.
Max made use of this permission to live, and every day
renewed his manoeuvre. He took care, of course, never to
smoke the bella-donna himself, and therefore kept two
packets of tobacco, one for his personal use, the other for
daily show. His object was simply to arouse the curiosity
of Arminius and Sigimer. Confirmed smokers, such as
these two ruffians, were sure soon to notice the shrub from
Max's ruse.
Page 134.
p. P. c. 135
which he took the leaves, imitate the operation, and try
how they liked the mixture.
This supposition was correct, and the result proved
equal to his anticipations.
On the sixth day, the eve of the fatal 1 3th of September,
Max, as he glanced carelessly behind him, had the
satisfaction of seeing his guards collect a little store of the
green leaves.
An hour later, he observed that they were drying them
at the fire, rubbing them in their great horny hands, and
mixing them with their tobacco. They seemed already
licking their lips in anticipation.
Was it Max's intention merely to stupefy Arminius and
Sigimer ? No, that was not sufficient. Eluding their
vigilance he had still to pass down that stream, even if
it should prove to be miles in length. But he had
arranged his plan. It was true, there were nine chances
in ten that he would perish ; but as he was already con
demned to death, that did not much matter.
Evening came, with it the supper hour, afterwards a walk.
The inseparable trio took the way into the park.
Without hesitating, without losing a minute, Max pro
ceeded straight towards a building, standing alone, and
which was no other than the workshop where all the models
were made. He sat down on a bench outside, filled his
pipe, and began to smoke.
136 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Arminius and Sigimer, who had their pipes all ready, sat
down on a neighbouring seat and soon were puffing away.
The effects of the narcotic were not Ions; in becoming
O ' O
visible.
Before five minutes had passed, the two clumsy giants
were yawning and stretching like bears in a cage. Their
eyes grew dim, a dull sound was in their ears ; their com
plexions changed from red to purple, their arms fell useless
at their sides, their heads dropped on their breasts.
The pipes slipped to the ground.
Then followed loud snoring, mingled with the twittering
of the birds, who lived all the year round in the perpetual
summer of the Stahlstadt park.
Now was Max's time. His impatience may be imagined,
when it is remembered that in the next night, at a quarter
before midnight, Frankville, having been sentenced by Herr
Schultz, would cease to exist.
He darted into the workshop. It was a large building,
a perfect museum of models. Hydraulic machines, locomo
tives, steam engines, portable engines, suction pumps,
boring machines, ships, ship machinery, in fact, the master
pieces would be too numerous to mention. It was a
collection of models in wood of everything made in the
Schultz manufactory since its foundation, and you may be
sure that many cannon, torpedoes, and shells were amongst
them.
A destructive fire.
Page 137,
p. P. c. 137
The night was dark, and favourable to the young
Alsacian's daring project. Besides accomplishing his
escape he hoped to destroy the Stahlstadt Model Museum.
How he longed to annihilate that huge Bull Tower, with
its destructive cannon and all it contained ; but it was
useless to think of that.
Max's first, care was to seize a little steel saw, fit for
filing iron, which was hanging from a tool rack, and slip it
into his pocket. Then taking a match from his box, he
struck it, set fire to a heap of drawings and slight fir-wood
models, and rushed out.
The fire spreading among all these inflammable materials
increased with great rapidity, and flames speedily burst
forth from every part of the building. The alarm-bell
rang, the electric wire carried the news to every quarter of
Stahlstadt, peals sounded, and firemen and engines hastened
from all directions.
At the same moment Herr Schultz, whose presence
was well calculated to encourage the workers, made his
appearance.
In a very few minutes, the boilers were under pressure
and the powerful pumps at work. But in spite of the
deluges of water which fell on the walls and roofs, the fire
gained force, and it was soon evident that all hope of
mastering it must be given up. It was a grand and terrible
spectacle.
138 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Crouched in a corner, Max never lost sight of Herr
Schultz, who cheered on his men as if assaulting a town.
There was no necessity for giving a further helping hand
to the fire. The Museum, standing as it did, alone in the
park, would soon be entirely consumed.
Herr Schultz, seeing that the building itself could not
possibly be saved, suddenly shouted out
"Ten thousand dollars to whoever will save model,,
number 3175, from the glass case in the centre !"
This was the very mould of Schultz's famous cannon,
and he valued it above all other things in the Museum.
To reach it, however, a person would be compelled to
make his way through a deluge of sparks and falling wood,
and an unbreathable atmosphere of dense black smoke. It
was ten to one that he would escape with his life. Not
withstanding, therefore, the magnificence of Herr Schultz's
offer, no one answered to his appeal.
At last a man presented himself.
It was Max.
" I will go," said he.
'You !" exclaimed Herr Schultz.
'Yes, I!"
"It won't save you from the sentence of death pronounced
against you, so don't imagine it !"
" I do not propose to avoid that, but to snatch your
precious model from destruction."
P. P. C. 139
" Go then," answered Herr Schultz, " and I swear that if
you succeed, the ten thousand dollars shall be faithfully
made over to your heirs."
" I will depend on you for that," returned Max.
Several of the Galibert apparatus were brought to him ;
they were always at hand in case of fire, as they enabled
men to venture into the densest smoke. Max had already
made use. of one when he tried to save from death dame
Bauer's boy, poor little Carl.
One of these was soon filled with air and placed on his
back. He put the pincers on his nose, took the tube in
his mouth, and darted into the smoke.
"At last !" said he. " This air will last for a quarter of
an hour ! Heaven grant that may be time enough !"
As may be imagined, Max had not the slightest
intention of endeavouring to save Schultz's cannon model.
His life every moment in dire peril, he made his way across
the smoke-filled hall, amidst a shower of blazing brands
and charred beams. Mercifully none of them touched him,
and just as the roof fell in with a fearful crash, Max escaped
at the opposite side of the building.
To fly towards the stream, run along its banks till he
reached the unknown opening and plunge in, was the work
of only a few seconds.
The rapid current swept him along in a depth of seven
or eight feet. He had no need to guide himself, for the
140 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
water bore him as straight as if he had held Ariadne's
clue.
He soon found that he had entered a narrow channel, a
sort of pipe, quite filled by the overflow of the river.
"What can be the length of this tunnel ?" thought Max.
41 Everything depends on that ! If I do not pass through
it in a quarter of an hour, the air will fail and I am
lost!"
He maintained his coolness and presence of mind. Ten
minutes passed, when suddenly he was driven up against
some obstacle.
This was an iron grating on hinges, barring the way
down the tunnel.
" This is what I feared ! " thought Max simply.
Without losing a moment, he took the saw from his
pocket, and set to work on the bolt of the staple.
Five minutes labour did not loosen it, the grating
remained obstinately closed. Already Max breathed with
difficulty. There came a buzzing in his ears, the blood
mounted in his head, he felt he would soon lose con
sciousness.
He endeavoured, however, to make the most of the small
quantity of air remaining, by taking breath as seldom as
possible ! Though half sawn through, the bolt would not
yield !
At that moment the saw slipped from his hands.
p. P. c. 141
" Surely God himself cannot be against me ! " was his
thought.
And grasping the grating with both hands, he shook it
with the despairing energy given by the instinct of self-
preservation.
The grating opened. The bolt had given way, and
the current carried onwards the daring Alsacian, nearly
suffocated, yet still feebly struggling, as he inhaled the
last particles of air in the reservoir !
******
The next day, when Herr Schultz's men ventured into
the ruins left by the fire, they searched in vain among all
the debris, and still smouldering cinders for any trace of
human remains. It was evident that the brave workman
had perished.
His daring act astonished none of his friends who had
known him in the different workshops.
The precious model was not saved, but the man who was
acquainted with the secrets of the Steel King was dead.
"Heaven is witness that I wished to spare him all
suffering," said Herr Schultz to himself, in his usual serene
fashion. " At any rate, as I know not his heirs, I am saved
ten thousand dollars !"
Such was the only funeral oration pronounced by the
philosophical professor over the supposed grave of our
young Alsacian !
142 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER X.
AN ARTICLE FROM * UNSERE CENTURIE/ A GERMAN
REVIEW.
A MONTH before the period at which the events we have
just related occurred, a review, in a salmon-coloured
wrapper, entitled " Our Century," published the following
article on the subject of Frankville, an article which was
particularly relished by the fastidious people of the
German Empire, perhaps, because it only studied that city
from a purely material point of view :
" We have already given our readers an account of the
extraordinary phenomenon which has been produced on
the western coast of the United States. The great
American republic, owing to the large proportion of emi
grants included in its population, has for long accustomed
the world to a succession of surprises ; but the last, and
certainly the most singular, is that of a city named Frank
ville. Though the very idea of it did not exist five years
Frankville.
Page 142.
AN ARTICLE FROM ' UNSERE CENTURIE.' 143
ago, it is now flourishing, and in the highest degree of
prosperity.
" This marvellous city has risen as if by enchantment on
the balmy shores of the Pacific. We will not inquire
whether it is true (as we are assured) that the first plan
and idea of this enterprise is due to a Frenchman, Doctor
Sarrasin. The thing is possible, as this doctor may boast
a distant relationship with our illustrious King of Steel.
We may also say in passing, it is rumoured that a
considerable inheritance, which should properly have
come to Herr Schultz, has had something to do with
the founding of Frankville. Wherever any good springs
up in the world, we may be certain that it is from
German seed ; this is a truth we are proud of stating
whenever an opportunity offers. But, however that may
be, we now wish to give our readers some precise and
authentic details on the subject of the spontaneous vegeta
tion of a model city.
" It is useless to look for its name on the map. Even the
great atlas in three hunderd and seventy-eight folio volumes,
by our eminent Tuchtigmann, in which every thicket and
clump of trees in the old and new world are put in with
such exactitude, even this noble monument to geographical
science, designed for the use of sharpshooters, does not
bear the least trace of Frankville.
The place where the new city now stands was five years
144 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
ago a complete desert. The exact spot lies 43 n' 3"
north latitude, and 124 41' 17" west longitude.
" It will be seen that this is on the shores of the Pacific
Ocean, and at the foot of the secondary chain of the Rocky
Mountains, called the Cascade Mountains, sixty miles to
the north of White Cape, Oregon State, North America.
" This most advantageous site has been carefully sought
and chosen from among a number of others. The pro
minent reasons for its adoption are the temperate climate
of the northern hemisphere, which has always been at the
head of terrestrial civilisation ; its position, in the middle
of a federative republic, and in a still new State, which has
allowed it to secure its independence, and rights similar to
those possessed by the principality of Monaco in Europe,
on the condition that after a certain number of years it
would enter the Union. Its situation on the Ocean, which
is becoming more and more the great highway of the
globe ; the varied, fertile, and salubrious nature of the soil ;
the proximity of a chain of mountains, sheltering it from
the north, south, and east w r inds, leaving to the fresh
Pacific breeze the care of renovating the atmosphere of
the city ; the possession of a little river, whose fresh, sweet,
clear water, oxygenated by repeated falls, and by the
rapidity of its course, arrives perfectly pure at the sea ;
lastly, a natural port, formed by a long curved promontory,
which may easily be enlarged by moles.
AN ARTICLE FROM ' UNSERE CENTURIE.' 145
"A few secondary advantages may be mentioned, such as
the proximity of fine marble and stone quarries, bearings
of kaolin, and even traces of auriferous ore. In fact, this
last detail was almost the cause of the site being given up,
for the founders of the town feared that the gold fever
might come in the way of their plans. Fortunately,
however, the nuggets were found to be small and not
numerous.
"The choice of a territory, although determined upon
after serious and close study, took but a few days, and
was not made the subject of a special expedition. Science
is now so far advanced that, without leaving his study, a
man may gather exact and particular information about
the most distant regions.
" This point decided, two commissioners of the organisa
tion committee took the first boat from Liverpool, arrived
in eleven days at New York, in seven more at San
Francisco, where they chartered a steamer, which in ten
hours landed them on the proposed site.
"To come to terms with the legislature of Oregon, to
obtain a grant of twelve miles of land on the shores of the
sea on the crest of the Cascade Mountains, to indemnify
with a few millions of dollars the half-dozen planters who
had some real or supposed rights on the ground, all this
business did not take more than a month.
"By January 1872, the territory was already surveyed,
L
146 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
measured, laid out, and an army of twenty thousand
Chinese coolies, under the direction of five hundred over
seers and European engineers, were hard at work. Placards
posted up all over the State of California, an advertisement
van permanently attached to the rapid train, which starts
every morning from San Francisco to traverse the
American continent, and a daily article in the twenty-three
newspapers of that town, were sufficient to ensure the
recruiting of the labourers. It was not even found
necessary to resort to the expedient of publishing on a
grand scale, by means of gigantic letters sculptured on the
peaks of the Rocky Mountains, that men were wanted. It
must be said that the influx of Chinese coolies into western
America had just at this time caused much perturbation in
the labour market. Several States had, in the interest of
their own population, actually expelled these unfortunate
people en masse. The building of Frankville came just in
time to save them from perishing. Their wages, fixed at
a dollar a day, were not to be paid them until the works
were finished, and their rations were distributed by the
municipal administration. Thus all the disorder and shame
ful speculations, which so often attend any great displace
ment of population, were avoided. The wages were deposited
every week, in the presence of delegates, in the great Bank
at San Francisco, and every coolie was warned that when
he drew it out, he was not to return. This precaution was
The Frank ville railway.
Page 147.
AN ARTICLE FROM ' UNSERE CENTURIE.' 147
absolutely necessary to get rid of a yellow population,
which would otherwise have infallibly lowered the tone
and standard of the new city. The founders having,
besides, reserved the right of granting or refusing per
mission to live there, the application of this measure was
comparatively easy.
" The first great enterprise was the establishment of a
branch railway, connecting the territory of the new town
with the trunk of the Pacific Railroad, and running to
Sacramento. These works, and those of the harbour, were
pushed on with extraordinary activity. In April, the first
train, direct from New York, brought to the Frankville
terminus the members of the committee, who, until this
time, had remained in Europe.
" In this interval, the general plan of the town, the details
of habitations and public monuments had been stopped.
" This was not from want of materials ; from the very
first, American industry had hastened to load the quays
of Frankville with every imaginable requisite for building.
It was merely the difficulty of choice. The founders at last
decided that the freestone should be reserved for national
edifices and general ornamenation, and that all houses
should be built of brick. Not, it must be understood, of
common roughly-moulded, half-baked bricks, but light,
well-shaped ones, regular in size, weight, and density,
and pierced from end to end with a series of cylindrical
L 2
148 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
and parallel holes. These bricks, when placed together,
allowed the air to circulate freely throughout the walls of
the building. 1 This arrangement had at the same time
the valuable effect of deadening sounds, and giving
complete independence to each apartment.
" The committee did not wish to impose a model on the
builders. They were averse to a wearisome and insipid
uniformity, and merely gave a certain number of fixed
rules, to which the architects were bound to adhere.
" 1st. Each house to stand alone in a plot of ground
planted with trees, grass, and flowers, and to be inhabited
by a single family.
" 2nd. No house to be more than two stories high : air
and light must not be monopolised by some, to the detri
ment of others.
" 3rd. Every house must be set back ten yards from the
road, and divided from it by a breast-high railing. The
space between the building and the railing must be laid
out as a garden.
"4th. The walls to be built of the patent tubular
bricks, similar to the model. All ornamentation to be left
to the taste of the architect.
" c;th. The roofs to be in terraces, slightly inclined from
the four sides, covered with bitumen, surrounded by a
1 These plans, as well as the general idea, are borrowed from Doctor
Benjamin Ward Richardson, Member of the Royal Society of London.
AN ARTICLE FROM 'UNSERE CENTURIE.' 149
balustrade high enough to render accidents impossible,
and proper canals made for the passing off of rain-water.
6th. All the houses must be built on a vaulted foun
dation, open on each side, and thus forming under the
ground-floor a subsoil of aeration, as well as a hall. All
water-pipes must be exposed, running up the central pillar,
in such a way that it may be always easy to ascertain their
state, and in case of fire, to be able to obtain the necessary
water immediately. The floor of this hall, rising about
three inches above the level of the road, must be properly
gravelled. A door and a special staircase will place it in
direct communication with the kitchens and offices, so that
all household transactions may go on without offending
either the eyes or the nose.
" /th. The kitchens and offices will, contrary to the usual
custom, be placed in the upper story, and in communication
with the terrace. A lift, moved by mechanical force,
which, like artificial light and water, will be supplied at
reduced prices to the inhabitants, will easily convey all
loads to this level.
" 8th. The plan of the rooms is left to individual taste.
But two dangerous elements of illness, regular nests of
miasma and laboratories of poison, are to be strictly ex
cluded carpets and painted papers. The floors, beauti
fully inlaid with valuable woods by clever workmen, would
be quite wasted were they hidden under a woollen cloth of
150 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
doubtful cleanliness. The walls, lined with polished
bricks, present the brilliancy and variety of the inner apart
ments of Pompeii, with a luxury of colour, which painted
paper, charged with its thousand subtile poisons, could
never reach. They are washed as windows are washed,
and rubbed like ceilings and floors. Not even a gerrn of
anything harmful can be harboured there.
" 9th. Each bedroom is distinct from the dressing-room.
It cannot be too much recommended that the former
apartment, where a third of a man's life is passed, should
be the largest, the most airy, and at the same time the
most simple. It must only be used for sleep ; four chairs,
an iron bedstead, supplied with two frequently-beaten
mattresses, is the only necessary furniture. Eider-down
quilts and heavy coverlets, powerful allies of epidemics,
are excluded as a matter of course. Good woollen cover
ings, light and warm, and easily washed, replace them
well. Though curtains and draperies are not absolutely
forbidden, it is recommended that, if used, they should be
made of washing materials.
" loth. Each room may be warmed according to fancy
by wood or coal ; but to every chimney is a corresponding
opening to the outer air. The smoke, instead of issuing
through the roof, is led away by subterranean pipes to
special furnaces, established, outside the town, at the back
of the houses, at the rate of a furnace to every two
AN ARTICLE FROM ' UNSERE CENTURIE.' 151
hundred inhabitants. There it is deprived of the particles
of carbon which it bears, and is discharged in a colourless
state into the air, at a height of thirty-five yards. Such
are the ten rules imposed on the building of each parti
cular house.
" The general arrangements are no less carefully studied.
" The plan of the town is essentially simple and regular,
the roads crossing at right angles, at equal distances, of a
uniform width, planted with trees, and numbered.
" Some of the roads being wider, are then called boule
vards or avenues, and leave on one side rails for tramways
and metropolitan railways. Public gardens are numerous,
and ornamented with fine copies of the masterpieces of
sculpture, until the artists of Frankville shall have pro
duced original pieces worthy to replace them.
" Every industry and trade is free.
" Any one wishing to have the right of living in Frank
ville must give good references, be fit to follow a useful
or liberal profession in industry, science, or the arts, and
must engage to keep the laws of the town. An idle life
would not be tolerated there.
"There are already a large number of public edifices.
The most important are the Cathedral, chapels, mu
seums, libraries, schools, and gymnasiums, fitted up with
the luxury and hygienic skill worthy of a great city.
" It is needless to say that from the age of four years all
152 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
children are obliged to follow physical and intellectual
exercises, calculated to develope the brain and muscles.
They are also accustomed to such strict cleanliness, that
they consider a spot on their simple clothes quite a
disgrace.
" Individual and collective cleanliness is the great idea of
the founders of Frankville. To clean, clean unceasingly,
so as to destroy the miasmas constantly emanating from
a large community, such is the principal work of the
central government. For this purpose, all the contents of
the drains are led out of the town, condensed, and daily
transferred to the fields.
" Water flows everywhere in abundance.
" The streets are paved with bituminated wood ; and the
stone footpaths are as spotless as a courtyard in Holland.
The provision markets are subject to strict surveillance,
and any merchants who dare to speculate on the public
health incur the severest penalties. The man who sells a
bad egg, damaged meat, or a pint of adulterated milk, is
simply treated as the poisoner he really is. This necessary
and delicate office is confided to experienced men, who
receive a special education for it. Their jurisdiction
extends to the very laundries, which are on a large scale,
provided with steam engines, artificial dryers, and, above
all, with disinfecting-rooms. No body-linen is sent back
to its owners without being thoroughly bleached, and
AN ARTICLE FROM ' UNSERE CENTURIE.' 153
special care is taken never to mix the washing of two
families. This simple precaution is of great value.
Hospitals are few in number, for the system of house
nursing is general, and they are reserved for homeless
strangers and exceptional cases. The idea of making the
hospital larger than any other building, and of putting
seven or eight hundred patients under one roof, so as to
make a centre of infection, would not enter the head of the
founders of this model city. Far from this, it is in theirs,
as well as in the public interest, to isolate the sick as much
as possible. This is the plan pursued in the houses, the
hospitals being merely for the temporary accommodation
of the most pressing cases.
"Twenty or thirty patients at most, each having a
separate apartment, are put into these light barracks,
which are built of fir-wood, and burnt regularly every year.
They have, besides, the advantage of being easily carried
from one part of the town to another as they are wanted,
and, being all on one model, can be multiplied to any
extent.
"Another ingenious institution is that of a body of
experienced nurses, specially trained for the purpose, and
always at the disposal of the public. These women, being
carefully chosen, are most valuable and devoted aids to the
doctors. They bring into the bosom of families that
practical knowledge, so necessary and yet so often absent ;
154 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
in the time of danger it is their mission to prevent the
spread of the disease as well as to tend the sick.
" We should never finish were we to attempt to enumerate
all the hygienic perfections inaugurated by the founders
of this new town. On his arrival each citizen is presented
with a small pamphlet, in which the most important
principles of a life, regulated according to science, are set
forth in clear and simple language.
" He is there told that the perfect equilibrium of all the
functions is one of the necessities for health, that work and
rest are equally indispensable, that fatigue is as necessary
for the brain as for the muscles ; that nine-tenths of the
illnesses are owing to contagion transmitted by air and food.
He cannot surround his dwelling and his person with too
many sanitary precautions. To avoid the use of exciting
poisons, to practise bodily exercises, to conscientiously
perform every day some appointed duty, to drink pure
water, to eat fresh meat and vegetables simply prepared,
to sleep regularly seven or eight hours a night, such is the
A B C of health.
"Beginning from the first principles laid down by the
founders, we have been led on to speak of this singular
city as already finished. It is indeed so ; the first houses
built, the others rose as if by magic. A man should have
previously visited the far west in order to realise the
wonderful change. The site that was a desert in the
AN ARTICLE FROM ' UNSERE CENTURIE.' 155
month of January 1872, contained six thousand houses in
1873. In 1874 it possessed nine thousand, and all public
edifices complete.
" Speculation has certainly had its part in this unheard-of
success. The ground having cost nothing, the houses
could be sold or let at very moderate prices. There being
no taxes, the political independence of this isolated little
territory, its novelty, and the pleasant climate, all con
tributed to induce emigration. At the present time
Frankville contains nearly a hundred thousand inhabitants.
"But to us the most interesting part of it is that the
result of the sanitary experiment is conclusive.
" Whilst the annual mortality in the most favoured towns
of Europe or the New World has never been less than
three per cent, in Frankville for these five years the
average has been one and a half. Even this figure was
increased by a slight fever epidemic during the first
summer. That of the last year was only one and a
quarter. And a more important circumstance still, is that,
with but a few exceptions, all the deaths actually registered
were due to specific and hereditary affections. Accidental
illnesses have been at once infinitely rarer, and less
dangerous, than in any other great centre. As to epi
demics, properly so called, nothing has been seen or heard
of them.
" It will be interesting to follow the development of this
156 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
attempt, and certainly curious to discover if the influence
of this scientific regime may not in the course of a genera
tion, or more likely still, after several generations, weaken
hereditary and morbid predispositions.
" ' It is assuredly not too much to hope/ as one of the
founders has written, ' and if so what may not be the
grandeur of the result ! Everybody living for ninety or a
hundred years, and then only dying of old age, as do the
greater number of animals and plants.'
" There is something enchanting in such a dream !
Nevertheless, if we may be allowed to express our sincere
opinion, we have but an indifferent belief in the actual
success of this experiment. We see in it an original and
probably fatal flaw, which is its being in the hands of a
committee in which the Latin element prevails, and from
which the German element has been systematically
excluded. That is a bad symptom. Since the world began
nothing durable has been made but by Germany, and
without her nothing perfect can be effected. The founders
of Frankville may clear the ground, and elucidate some
special points ; not, however, on this spot in America, but
on the borders of Syria, shall we one day see the true
model city arise."
AT DINNER WITH DOCTOR SARRASIN. 157
CHAPTER XL
AT DINNER WITH DOCTOR SARRASIN.
ON the 1 3th of September, although it wanted but a
few hours to the time fixed on by Professor Schultz for
the destruction of Frankville, neither the governor nor
a single person among the inhabitants dreamed of the
danger which threatened them.
Seven o'clock in the evening arrived.
Half buried in thick masses of oleander and tamarinds,
the beautiful city lay at the foot of the Cascade Mountains,
its marble quays gently caressed by the waves of the
Pacific. The carefully watered roads, freshened by the
breeze, presented a cheerful and animated spectacle. The
trees which shaded them rustled softly. The velvet lawns
were fresh and green. Brilliant beds of flowers exhaled
their sweetness around the calm and smiling white houses.
The air was warm and balmy, and the sky as blue as the
sea, which glittered at the end of the long avenues.
158 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
A stranger arriving in the town would have been at once
struck with the healthful look of the inhabitants and the
activity in the streets. The academies of painting, music,
and sculpture, and the library, all in the same quarter, had
just been closed. Excellent public courses were given
there to small sections, so that each pupil might get the
full advantage of the lesson. Among the crowds issuing
from these places, and naturally causing some stoppage,
not an exclamation of impatience, nor an angry look, was
heard or seen. The general aspect was one of calmness
and satisfaction.
Not in the centre of the town, but on the shores of the
Pacific, had Doctor Sarrasin built his house. It had been
among the first put up, and he had come immediately and
established himself there with his wife and daughter
Jeannette.
Octavius, the extempore millionaire, had chosen to
remain in Paris ; but he had no longer Max for a mentor.
The two friends had almost lost sight of each other
since the time when they lived together in King of Sicily
Street.
When the doctor emigrated with his wife and daughter
to the coast of Oregon, Otto was his own master. He soon
neglected college, where his father had wished him to
continue his studies, and was in consequence plucked in
the final examination, when his friend Max came out first.
AT DINNER WITH DOCTOR SARRASIN. 159
Till then, poor Otto, who was incapable of managing for
himself, had had Max for a guide. When the young
Alsacian left, his companion directly began to see life in
Paris. He passed the greater part of his time on the box
of a four-in-hand coach, driving perpetually between the
avenue Marigny, where he had rooms, and the various
race-courses of the suburbs.
Otto Sarrasin, who, three months before, could scarcely
manage to stick on a horse hired by the hour, had suddenly
become deeply versed in the mysteries of hippology. His
erudition was borrowed from an English groom who had
entered his service, and who ruled him entirely, in con
sequence of the superiority of his special knowledge.
Interviews with tailors, saddlers, and bootmakers, occu
pied the mornings. His evenings were spent at the
theatres and in the rooms of a flaming new club, just
opened at the corner of Trouchet Street, and chosen by
Otto because the people he met there paid to his money a
homage which his personal merits had not hitherto received.
The company seemed to him highly distinguished. A
noticeable thing about it was that the handsomely framed
list, hanging in the waiting-room, bore few but foreign
names. Titles abounded, so that you might almost fancy
yourself in the antechamber of an heraldic college. But
on penetrating farther one might imagine oneself in a living
ethnological exhibition. All the big noses and bilious
160 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
complexions of the two hemispheres seemed to have met
together there.
Otto Sarrasin reigned paramount among these worthies.
His words were quoted, his cravats copied, his opinions
accepted as articles of faith. And intoxicated with this
incense of flattery, he never found out that he regularly lost
money at play and the races. Perhaps certain members of
the club, in their Oriental capacity, thought that they had
some rights on the Begum's heritage. At any rate, they
were able to gradually draw it into their pockets by a slow
though continued process.
In this new life the ties which bound Otto to Max
Bruckmann were soon loosened. At last, the two chums
only exchanged letters at long intervals. What could
there be in common between the eager hard-working man,
solely occupied with bringing his intellect to the highest
point of culture and strength, and the idle youth, puffed
up with his riches, his thoughts only filled with club and
stable gossip.
We know how Max left Paris, first to keep a watch on
Herr Schultz, who had just founded Stahlstadt, the rival
to Frankville, and then actually to enter the service of the
King of Steel.
For two years Otto led his useless and dissipated life.
Then a weariness of these hollow and worthless pleasures
seized him, and one fine day, after having wasted some
AT DINNER WITH DOCTOR SARRASIN. l6l
millions of francs, he rejoined his father, thus escaping
from moral and physical ruin. At the present time he
was living in the doctor's house in Frankville.
His sister Jeannette was now a lovely girl of nineteen,
to whose French grace her four years' stay in the new
country had added all the good American qualities. Her
mother said sometimes that before having her so com
pletely to herself, she had never felt the charm of
perfect intimacy.
As to Madame Sarrasin, since the return of her prodigal
son, the child of her hopes, she was as completely happy
as any one can be here below, for she associated herself
with all the good her husband could and did do with his
immense fortune.
On the evening of which we have spoken, Doctor
Sarrasin had invited to dinner two of his most intimate
friends. Colonel Hendon, an old hero of the War of
Secession, who had left an arm at Pittsburg, and an ear at
Sevenoaks, but who could hold his own with any one at a
game of chess ; and Monsieur Lentz, General Director of
Instruction in the new city.
The conversation turned on the plans for the administra
tion of the town, the results already obtained in the public
establishments of all sorts, institutions, hospitals, mutual
aid societies.
M. Lentz, according to the doctor's programme, in which
M
1 62 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
religious teaching was not forgotten, had founded several
elementary schools, where the cares of the master tended
to develope the mind of the child by submitting it to a
sort of intellectual gymnastic exercise, adjusted so as to
follow the natural bent of its faculties. It was taught to
love a science before being crammed with it, avoiding that
knowledge which, says Montaigne, "floats on the surface
of the brain," without penetrating the understanding, or
rendering its possessor either wiser or better. Later, a
well-prepared intellect can of itself choose its path and
follow it with profit.
The principles of health took a first place in this well-
ordered education.
Man should have equal command both of his mind and,
body. If one fails him he suffers for it, and the mind
especially, if unsupported by the body, would soon give
way.
Frankville had now reached the highest degree of in
tellectual as well as temporal prosperity. In its congress
were collected all the illustrious and learned men of
the two worlds. Artists, painters, sculptors, musicians,
attracted by the reputation of this city, crowded to it. All
the young people of Frankville, who promised some day
to illuminate this corner of America, studied under these
masters. This new Athens of French origin was on the
way to become the first of cities. A good military as well
The dinner at Doctor Sarrasin's.
Page 163.
AT DINNER WITH DOCTOR SARRASIN. 163
as civil education was given in the colleges. All the
young men were taught the use of firearms, as well as
the first principles of strategy and tactics.
When this became the subject of conversation, Colonel
Hendon declared himself delighted with all his recruits.
"They are," said he, "already accustomed to forced
marches, fatigue, and all kinds of manly exercises. Our
army is composed of citizens, and when the time comes to
prove them, they will be found disciplined and trustworthy
soldiers."
Frankville was on the best terms with all the neigh
bouring States, for she had seized every occasion to oblige
them ; but ingratitude speaks so loudly when people's own
interests are in question, that the doctor and his friends
resolved not to lose sight of the maxim : " Heaven helps
those who help themselves," and to rely on their own
exertions.
Dinner was over, the dessert was on the table, and,
according to the usual custom, the ladies had just left the
room.
Doctor Sarrasin, Otto, Colonel Hendon, and M. Lentz
continued the conversation, and were attacking the higher
questions of political economy, when a servant entered and
handed the doctor his paper.
It was the New York Herald. This respectable journal
had always shown itself extremely favourable, first to the
M 2
164 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
foundation, and then to the development of Frankville, and
the principals of the city were accustomed to look in its
columns for the possible variations of public opinion with
regard to them in the United States. This agglomeration
of happy, free, and independent people on their little
neutral territory was envied by not a few, and if Frankville
had many friends in America to defend her, she had also
enemies who delighted in attacking her. At any rate, the
New York Herald was on their side, and constantly
expressed itself in terms of admiration and esteem.
Without interrupting himself in what he was saying,
Doctor Sarrasin opened the paper, mechanically casting
his eyes on the first paragraph. Suddenly he stopped, con
founded, as he saw the following lines, which he read to
himself, and then aloud, to the great surprise and greater
indignation of his friends :
" New York, September 8th. A violent attempt against
the rights of men is shortly to take place. We learn from
a certain source that formidable preparations are being
made at Stahlstadt, with the object of attacking and
destroying Frankville, the city of French origin. We do
not know if the United States can or ought to interfere in
this struggle, which will set the Latin and Saxon races by
the ears ; but, in common with all honest men, we denounce
this odious abuse of strength. Frankville should not lose
an hour in putting herself in a state of defence, &c."
THE COUNCIL. 165
CHAPTER XII.
THE COUNCIL.
THE hatred which the King of Steel bore to Doctor
Sarrasin's work was no secret. Every one knew that his
was a rival city. But no one would have believed him
capable of attacking a peaceful town, and endeavouring to
destroy it at a blow. The article in the New York Herald
was, however, positive on the point. The correspondents
of that provincial journal had penetrated Herr Schultz's
designs, and, as they said, there was not an hour to
spare !
The worthy doctor was confounded. Like all honest-
hearted men, he refused as long as he could to believe
in the evil designs of others. It seemed to him impos
sible that a human being could be so wicked as to wish
to destroy without sufficient reason, and from simple
malice, a city, which was in a certain sense the common
property of mankind.
1 66 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
"Just think that our average mortality will this year be
only one and a quarter in every hundred ! " he exclaimed,
naively ; " that there is not a boy of ten years old who
does not know how to read ; that not a murder or theft has
been committed since the foundation of Frankville ! And
these barbarians want to destroy this successful experi
ment at its very beginning ! No ; I cannot believe that a
chemist, a savant, were he a hundred times a German,
could be capable of such atrocity ! "
They were compelled, however, to trust to the evidence
of a paper thoroughly devoted to their undertaking, and
act without delay. The first moment of dismay passed,
Doctor Sarrasin regaining the command of his feelings,
thus addressed his friends
" Gentlemen, you are members of the Civic Council, and
it is your duty as well as mine to take all necessary
measures for the safety of the town. What ought we to
do first?"
"Is there no possibility of arranging matters?" said
M. Lentz. " Can we not honourably avoid war ? "
"That is impossible," replied Otto. " Herr Schultz
evidently will have it at any price. His hate will not
allow him to come to terms ! "
" Very well ! " exclaimed the doctor ; " we shall be
ready to receive him. Do you think, colonel, that any
thing can resist the cannons of Stahlstadt ? "
THE COUNCIL. l6/
"Any human force can be efficaciously combatted by
another human force," answered Colonel Hendon ; " but
we need not think of defending ourselves by the same
means and the same arms which Herr Schultz will use to
attack us. The construction of engines of war, capable of
opposing his, would take a long time to make, and I do
not know, besides, if we should succeed in fabricating them,
since we have not special workshops. I can only see one
chance of safety, that of preventing the enemy from reach
ing us, and rendering an investment impossible."
" I will go immediately and convoke the Council," said
Doctor Sarrasin ; and he led his guests into his study.
It was a simply furnished room, three sides being
covered with shelves, loaded with books, whilst the fourth
presented, below several pictures and curiosities, a row of
numbered openings, similar to ear-trumpets.
"Thanks to the telephone," said he, "we can hold a
council in Frankville, whilst every one remains at home."
The doctor touched a warning-bell, which instantaneously
communicated with the houses of all the members. In
less than three minutes, the word "present" brought
successively by each wire, announced that the Council was
sitting.
The doctor placed himself before the mouthpiece, rung
the bell, and said
" The meeting is open. My honourable friend, Colonel
1 68 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Hendon, will speak, to make a communication of the
deepest importance."
The colonel, in his turn, placed himself before the
telephone, and, after reading the article from the New
York Herald, he proposed that immediate measures
should be taken to impede the advance of the enemy.
He had scarcely concluded when number Six put the
question
" Does the colonel believe a defence possible, in case
the means by which he hopes to prevent the enemy from
reaching us does not succeed ? "
Colonel Hendon replied in the affirmative. The ques
tion and answer instantaneously reached each invisible
member of the Council, as well as the explanations which
preceded them.
Number Seven asked how long in his estimation it
would take for the people of Frankville to prepare.
The colonel could not say, but it would be advisable to
act as if they were to be attacked in a fortnight.
Number Two : " Should we await the attack, or would
you think it preferable to prevent it ? "
" We must do all in our power to prevent it," answered
the colonel ; " and if we are threatened with a fleet, we
must blow up Herr Schultz's ships with torpedoes."
On this, Doctor Sarrasin offered to call into council the
most distinguished chemists, as well as the most experi-
An important meeting to be held.
Page 169.
THE COUNCIL. 169
enced artillery officers, and give to them the task of
examining the plans which Colonel Hendon had ready to
submit to them.
Question from Number One
"What is the sum necessary for the immediate com
mencement of the works of defence ? "
" We should have at our disposal from fifteen to twenty
millions of dollars."
" I propose that the Citizens' Assembly be instantly
convoked."
President Sarrasin : " I will put it to the vote."
The bells in each telephone rang twice, announcing that
the proposal was unanimously adopted.
It was half-past eight. The Council had only lasted
eighteen minutes, and had not disturbed any one.
The popular assembly was convoked by means as simple,
and almost as expeditious. Doctor Sarrasin communi
cated by telephone the vote of the Council to the Town
Hall. An electric peal was instantly set in motion at the
summit of each of the columns in every square of the city.
The columns were surmounted by luminous dial plates, on
which the hands, moved by electricity, pointed to half-past
eight, the hour for the assembly.
This clamorous call, continuing for a quarter of an hour,
brought all the inhabitants out of their houses, they
glanced up at the nearest dial, and ascertaining that some
1 70 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
national duty required their presence at the Town Hall,
they hastened thither as fast as possible.
In less than forty-five minutes the Assembly was complete.
Doctor Sarrasin was already in the place of honour, sur
rounded by the Council, whilst Colonel Hendon waited at the
foot of the tribune, until permission was given him to speak.
The greater number of the citizens already knew the
reason of the meeting being called. In fact, the discussion
of the Civic Council, automatically, stereographed by the
Town Hall telephone, had been immediately sent to the
papers, printed in a special edition, and placarded all over
the town.
The municipal hall was an immense building, roofed
with glass, and brilliantly lighted by gas.
The crowd which filled it was calm and orderly, every
one standing. All the faces were cheerful. Perfect health,
an active and regular life, and a quiet conscience, placed
them above any unruly passion of alarm or anger.
At exactly half-past eight, the president rang his bell,
and silence fell on the assembly.
The colonel ascended the tribune. There, in sober, but
forcible language, without useless ornament or oratorical
pretensions the language of a man, who, knowing what
he is talking about, clearly expresses himself Colonel
Hendon related the inveterate hate which Herr Schultz
bore against Frankville, Doctor Sarrasin, and his work,
THE COUNCIL. I/I
and the formidable preparations announced by the New
York Herald, destined to destroy their city and its
inhabitants.
" It is for you to decide what is best to be done," he
continued. " Some people, possessing neither courage nor
patriotism, might perhaps prefer to give up the land, and
leave the aggressors to do what they wish with their new
home. But I am certain beforehand that such a pusil
lanimous proposal would find no echo among my fellow-
citizens. Men who are able to understand the greatness of
the object aimed at by the founders of the model city,
men who have accepted its laws, are necessarily men of
heart and intelligence. Sincere representatives of pro
gress, you will do everything to save our incomparable
town, the glorious monument raised by science, to
ameliorate the fallen condition of man ! Your duty, there
fore, is to give your lives for the cause you represent."
Thunders of applause greeted this peroration. Several
speakers supported Colonel Hendon's motion.
Doctor Sarrasin, having impressed the necessity of con
stituting a Committee of Defence, which was to take imme
diate measures, with all the secrecy indispensable in
military operations, the proposal was adopted.
A member of the Civic Council then suggested that five
million dollars should be voted for the works. A show of
hands ratified this measure.
172 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
At five-and-twenty minutes past ten the meeting was
over, and the citizens of Frankville were about to leave the
hall, when an unexpected incident occurred. The empty
tribune was suddenly occupied by a stranger of most
curious appearance. He had sprung up as if by magic.
His face showed that he was labouring under frightful
excitement ; but his attitude was calm and resolute. His
torn and muddy clothes, his bleeding forehead, told of
something extraordinary.
At sight of him every one paused. With an imperative
-gesture, the stranger commanded silence.
Who was he ? Whence had he come ? No one, not
even Doctor Sarrasin, ventured to ask him.
" I have just escaped from Stahlstadt," he said.
" Herr Schultz had condemned me to death. God has
-allowed me to reach you in time to attempt to save
you. I am not unknown to you all. My venerated
master, Doctor Sarrasin, can tell you, I hope, that in
spite of my appearance, rendering me unrecognisable
even to him, some confidence may be placed in Max
Bruckmann ! "
" Max ! " exclaimed both the doctor and Otto at once,
starting towards him.
He stopped them by a sign.
Max had been, indeed, miraculously saved. After
forcing the grating, just as he was almost suffocated, the
No time to be lost.
Page 172.
THE COUNCIL. 173:
current swept him onwards, and two minutes later threw
him on the bank, outside Stahlstadt, indeed, but almost
lifeless.
For several hours the brave young fellow lay stretched
motionless in the darkness, far from all help, on the
lonely desert. When consciousness returned, it was day
light. He thanked God that he had escaped from that
horrible Stahlstadt ! He was no longer a prisoner.
The next moment his thoughts were concentrated on
Doctor Sarrasin, his friends, and fellow citizens.
" I must save them ! " he repeated.
By a supreme effort he got upon his feet. He was
thirty miles from Frankville, and he had thirty miles to
traverse on foot, for there was no railway in that direction,
not even a cart or a horse to be got, for the whole country
round the terrible Steel City was shunned. He pressed
on, however, without taking a moment's rest, and at a
quarter-past ten arrived at the city.
The placards which covered the walls told him all. He
found that the inhabitants had been warned of the
threatened danger ; but they were not aware of its frightful
nature, or that it was immediate.
The catastrophe premeditated by Herr Schultz, was to
take place on this very evening, at a quarter to twelve.
It was now a quarter-past ten.
Max had not a moment to lose, he sped through the
174 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
town, and at twenty-five minutes past ten, as the assembly
was about to break up, he scaled the tribune.
" Not in a month, my friends," he cried, " not even in a
week, must you expect the danger ! But in an hour, this
awful catastrophe, a rain of iron and fire, will burst upon
your town. An engine, worthy the invention of a fiend,
which will carry thirty miles, is at this very moment
pointed against us. I have seen it. Let the women and
children seek shelter in the deepest and strongest cellars,
or let them instantly leave the town, and take refuge in the
mountains. All the men must prepare to combat the fire
by every possible means. Fire will for the time be your
only enemy. Neither armies nor soldiers will march
against you. The adversary who menaces you disdains all
ordinary modes of attack. If the plans and calculations
of a man, whose power for evil is well known to you, are
realised unless Herr Schultz is mistaken for the first time
in his life fire will suddenly break out in at least a hundred
places all over Frankville. We shall presently have to
face the flames at a hundred different points ! Whatever
happens, the population must be saved first ; such of your
houses and monuments which cannot be preserved, or even
the whole town, time and money can restore ! "
In Europe, Max would have been thought mad. But
in America it is not wise to refuse to believe in any
miracle of science, however unexpected ; so, by Doctor
THE COUNCIL. 175
Sarrasin's advice, the young engineer was listened to and
believed in.
The crowd, awed as much by the accent and appearance
of the speaker as by his words, obeyed, without even
dreaming of disputing his commands. The doctor an
swered for Max Bruckmann, and that was enough.
Orders were immediately given, and messengers sent
out in every direction.
As to the inhabitants, some withdrew to the cellars of
their dwellings, resigned to suffer all the horrors of a
bombardment, others on foot, horseback, or in carriages,
hastened out into the country, and ascended the steeps
of the Cascade Mountains. In the meantime the able-
bodied men collected in the square, and in different
places pointed out by the doctor, everything that would
serve to subdue fire, that is to say, water, earth, and
sand.
In the Hall the deliberation continued.
Max was evidently beset by some idea which filled
his brain to the exclusion of every other thought. He
muttered to himself
" At a quarter to twelve ! Is it really possible that
that villainous Schultz will destroy us with his execrable
invention ? "
Suddenly Max drew out his pocket-book. He made a
gesture requiring silence, and then, pencil in hand, rapidly
176 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
put down several figures on one of the pages. As he did
so his brow cleared, his face became radiant.
" Ah ! my friends ! " he exclaimed, " my friends ! Either
these figures are liars, or else all that we fear will vanish
like a nightmare before the evidence of a problem in the
science of projectiles, the solution of which I have till this
moment sought in vain. Herr Schultz is mistaken ! The
threatened danger is but a dream. For once, his science is
at fault ! Nothing of what he foretold will come to pass.
It's impossible ! His formidable shell will fly over Frank-
ville without touching it, and if there is anything to fear,,
it will be only in the future ! "
What could Max mean ? His friends did not under
stand !
The young Alsacian then explained the result of his
calculations.
In his clear ringing voice he explained his demonstra
tion in such a way as to render it luminous, even to the
most ignorant. It was light succeeding darkness, calm
following agony. Not only would the projectile leave
untouched the doctor's city, but it would touch nothing
whatever. It was destined to lose itself in space !
Doctor Sarrasin acknowledged the correctness of Max's
calculations, and then, pointing to the luminous dial in the
hall
" In three minutes," he exclaimed, " we shall know
THE COUNCIL. 177
whether Schultz or Max Bruckmann is right ! Whatever
happens, my friends, we need not regret any of the pre
cautions we have taken, and we still must neglect nothing
which can baffle the inventions of our enemy. If his
design fails for the present, as Max has just given us
reason to hope, it won't be the last. Schultz's hate will
never be stifled or arrested."
Come ! " exclaimed Max.
All followed him into the square. Three minutes passed
in breathless suspense. The quarter before twelve was
tolled forth from the great clock !
Four seconds after, a dark mass was seen high above
their heads ; quick as thought it rushed onwards, and with
a sinister hiss soon disappeared far beyond the town.
"A pleasant journey to it ! " shouted Max, with a burst
of laughter. " If Herr Schultz's shell keeps up that speed,
it will never again fall upon terrestrial soil ! "
In two minutes a roar was heard like distant thunder.
This was the report of the cannon in the Bull Tower, the
sound reaching Frankville a hundred and thirteen seconds
after the projectile had passed at the rate of four hundred
and fifty miles an hour.
N
178 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER XIII.
NEWS FOR THE PROFESSOR.
" Max Bruckmann, to Professor Schultz, of Staklstadt.
" Frankville, September I4th.
"I CONSIDER it proper to inform the King of Steel,
that on the evening of the day before yesterday, I suc
ceeded in passing beyond the frontier of his dominion,
preferring my own safety to that of the model in the
blazing workshop.
" While taking leave, I should fail in my bounden duty
were I not in turn to reveal my secrets. Do not, however,
be uneasy on that account, I shall not require you to pay
for the knowledge with your life.
"My real name is not Schwartz, and I am not a
Swiss. Alsace is my country, and I am called Max
Bruckmann.
" I am a tolerable engineer, if one may take your word
for it ; but first and foremost, I am a Frenchman. You
NEWS FOR THE PROFESSOR.
have shown yourself the implacable enemy of my country,
my friends, and my family. You have entertained odious
designs against everything I hold most dear. I have
dared, and done all, in order to discover those designs ; I
will dare and do all to frustrate them.
" I hasten to let you know that your first shot has failed
to take effect.
" It has not hit the mark, for, thank heaven, it could not.
Your gun is not the less a wonderful one, though the
projectiles which it sends forth will never do any harm to
any one ! They will fall nowhere. I had a presentiment
of this, and, to your great glory, it is now an established
fact, that Herr Schultz has invented a wonderful cannon,
entirely inoffensive.
" You will hear with pleasure that we saw your perfect
shell, at forty-five minutes and four seconds past eleven,
pass above our town. It was flying towards the west,
circulating in space, which it will continue to do until the
end of time. A projectile, animated with an initial speed
twenty times superior to the actual speed, being ten
thousand yards to the second, can never fall ! This
movement, combined with terrestrial attraction, destines
it to revolve perpetually round our globe.
"You ought to have been aware of this
" I hope and expect that the cannon in the Bull Tower is
quite spoilt by this first trial ; but two hundred thousand
N 2
i8o THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
dollars is not too much to have paid for the pleasure of
having endowed the planetary world with a new star, and
the earth with a second satellite.
"MAX BRUCKMANN."
An express was immediately sent from Frankville to
Stahlstadt with this letter ; and Max must be forgiven for
not having been able to resist the satisfaction of writing
it to Herr Schultz.
Max was quite right when he said that the famous shell
would never again fall on the surface of the earth, and also
right when he predicted the cannon of the Bull Tower would
be rendered useless by the enormous charge of pyroxilc.
The receipt of this letter greatly discomfited Herr
Schultz, and was a terrible shock to his self-love. As he
read it, he turned perfectly livid, and his head fell on his
breast as if he had been struck with a club. He remained
in this state of prostration for a quarter of an hour. When
he revived his rage was frightful. Arminius and Sigimer
alone witnessed the outbursts !
However, Herr Schultz was not a man to acknowledge
himself beaten.
Henceforth the struggle between him and Max would
continue to the death. He still had other shells charged
with liquid carbonic acid, which less powerful, but more
practical guns, could "throw to a short distance.
NEWS FOR THE PROFESSOR. iSl
Calming himself by an effort, the King of Steel
re-entered his study, and continued his work.
It was clear that Frankville, now more than ever
menaced with danger, must neglect nothing by which it
could be put into a perfect state of defence.
1 82 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER XIV.
CLEARING FOR ACTION.
ALTHOUGH the danger was no longer imminent, it was
serious. Max communicated to Doctor Sar/asin and his
friends all that he knew of Herr Schultz's preparations,
and described his engines of destruction. On the next
day the Council of Defence, in which he took a principal
part, occupied itself with discussing a plan of resistance,
and preparing to put it into execution.
In all this Max was well seconded by Otto, whom he
found altered in character, and much improved.
No one knew the details of the resolutions passed. The
general principles alone were regularly communicated to
the press. It was not difficult to trace in them the prac
tical hand of Max.
"In preparing for defence," said the townsfolk, "the
great thing is to know the strength of the enemy, and
adapt the system of resistance to that strength. No
Plans for the defence.
Page 182.
CLEARING FOR ACTION. 183
doubt, Herr Schultz's cannon are formidable, but it is
better to have to face these guns, of which we know the
number, calibre, range, and effect, than to have to combat
unknown engines."
It was decided to prevent the investment of the town,
either by land or sea.
How this was best to be done was a question actively
discussed by the Council, and the day on which a placard
announced that this problem was solved, no one doubted
it. The citizens hastened en masse to execute the under
taking. No tasks were despised which could contribute
to the work of defence. Men of all ages, and of every
position in life, became simple labourers on this occasion,
and everything went on rapidly and cheerfully. Pro
visions sufficient for two years were stored in the town.
Coal and iron also were brought in considerable quanti
ties ; the iron, being requisite for manufacturing arms of
all sorts, and the coal absolutely necessary, both for
warmth, and for fuel to work the various warlike engines it
was intended to employ.
In addition to the heaps of iron and coal could be seen
gigantic piles, composed of sacks of flour, and quarters of
'smoked meat, stacks of cheeses, mountains of preserved and
dried vegetables, all stored in the market places. Numbers
of sheep and cattle were also enclosed in the beautiful
gardens of the town.
184 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
When the decree appeared for the mobilisation of all
men able to carry arms, the enthusiasm with which it was
received, testified to the excellent disposition of these
soldier-citizens. Plainly dressed in woollen shirts, cloth
trousers and half-boots, strong leather caps, and armed
with Werder rifles, they drilled every day in the avenues.
Gangs of coolies banked up earth, dug trenches, raised
intrenchments and redoubts at every favourable point.
The casting of guns had been commenced and pushed on
with activity, for the numerous smoke furnaces in the city
were easily transformed into casting furnaces.
Max was indefatigable in all this. He was here, there,
and everywhere in the thick of all the work. Did some
theoretical or practical difficulty arise, he could imme
diately solve it. If necessary, he turned up his sleeves
and gave a practical definition. His authority was always
accepted without a murmur, and his orders punctually
attended to.
Next to him, Otto did his best. Although at first he
had thought of ornamenting his uniform with gold lace,
he soon gave up the idea, seeing that to set a good
example to others he must be content to do the duty of a
simple soldier.
He, therefore, took his place in the battalion assigned to
him, and conducted himself like a model soldier. To
those who at first attempted to pity him, he replied
I
!jl I
Coolies at work.
Page
( l.KARING FOR ACTION. 185
" Every one according to his merits. lYrliaps I should
not have been able to command ! The least I can do is to
learn to obey ! "
A report which turned out to be false gave a still
more lively impulse to the works of defence. Ilcrr Schultz,
it was said, was negotiating with some maritime company
for the transport of his cannon. From that time these
sort of hoaxes were the order of the day. Now it was
that the Schultz fleet was off the coast of Frankvillc, and
now that the Sacramento Railway had been cut by Uhlans,
who had apparently dropped from the clouds.
But all these rumours, which were immediately con
tradicted, were invented by the correspondents of news
papers, hard up for matter to fill their despatches, their
object being to sustain the curiosity of their readers. The
truth was that Stahlstadt did not give the least sign of
life.
This perfect quietude, although it left Max ample time
to complete his preparations, caused him a good deal of
uneasiness in his rare moments of leisure.
" Is it possible that the ruffian has changed his tactics,
and is preparing some new mode of attack ? " he thought.
However, the plans for checking the advance of the
enemy's ships, and preventing the investment of the town,
promised to answer well, and Max redoubled his exertions.
1 1 is sole pleasure and only rest, after a hard day's work,
1 86 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
was the short hour which he passed every evening in
Madame Sarrasin's drawing-room.
From the first, the doctor had stipulated that he should
always come and dine at his house, unless he was pre
vented by another engagement ; but, by some singular
circumstance, no other invitation enticing enough to
make Max give up this privilege had as yet presented
itself.
The everlasting game of chess between the doctor and
Colonel Hendon could not have been sufficiently interest
ing to explain the punctuality with which he presented
himself every day at the door of the mansion. We are
therefore compelled to believe that there was another
attraction for Max, and we might, perhaps, have suspected
its nature, although, assuredly, he did not as yet suspect it
himself, had we observed the interest which he took in the
conversations between himself, Madame Sarrasin, and
Mademoiselle Jeannette, when they were all three seated
near the large table, at which the two ladies were working
at what might be necessary for future service in the
ambulances.
"Will these new steel bolts be better than those of
which you showed us a drawing ? " asked Jeannette, who
was interested in everything connected with the defence.
" No doubt about it, mademoiselle," replied Max.
" Ah, I am very glad of that ! But how much trouble
CLEARING FOR ACTION.
and research is represented by the smallest industrial
particular. You told me that five hundred fresh yards of
the trench were dug yesterday ? That is a great deal, is
it not ? "
" Indeed, no, it is not nearly enough. At that rate we
shall not have finished the enclosure at the end of a
month."
" I should much like to see it done, and these horrible
Schultz people arriving ! Men are very fortunate in being
able to work and make themselves useful. Waiting is
never so trying for them as for us, who are of no use."
" Of no use ! " exclaimed Max, usually so calm, " no use !
And for whom do you think do these brave men, who
have left everything to become soldiers, for whom do they
work, if not to secure the safety and happiness of their
mothers, their wives, and those whom they hope may
become their wives ? From whence comes their ardour, if
not from you, and to what would you trace this readiness
to sacrifice themselves, if not - "
Here Max got rather confused, and stopped. Mademoi
selle Jeannette did not urge him, and good Madame
Sarrasin herself was obliged to close the discussion by
saying to the young man that a love of duty was doubtless
sufficient to explain the zeal of the greater number.
And when Max, at the call of inexorable duty, tore
himself away from this pleasant talk, in order to finish a
1 88 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
plan, or an estimate, he carried with him the invincible
determination to save Frankville and its inhabitants.
Little could he conjecture what was about to happen,
and yet it was but the inevitable result of a state of
things so utterly unnatural as this concentration of all
power in a single person, which was the fundamental
principle in the City of Steel.
THE EXCHANGE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 189
CHAPTER XV.
THE EXCHANGE OF SAN FRANCISCO.
THE Exchange of San Francisco, by which term is ex
pressed, as it were algebraically, immense industrial and
commercial business, presents one of the strangest and most
animated scenes in the world.
The geographical position of the capital of California
imparts to its Exchange, as a natural consequence, the
cosmopolitan character, which is one of its most remarkable
features.
Beneath its handsome red granite porticoes, the tall, fair
Saxon jostles the slight, active dark-haired Celt. The negro
meets the Finlander and the Hindoo.
The Polynesian gazes with astonishment at the Green-
lander. The Chinaman, with oblique eyes and long plaited
pigtail, endeavours to outdo in trade his historic enemy,,
the Japanese.
THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Every tongue, every dialect, every jargon mingles there
as in a modern Babel.
On the 1 2th of October this place of business opened in
the usual way. At about eleven o'clock the principal
brokers and men of business began to arrive, accost one
another gravely or gaily, according to their several tempers,
shaking hands, and going together to the refreshment bar
to fortify themselves by " liquoring up " for the operations
of the day.
One after the other went to open the little metal door of
the numbered letter-boxes, which in the vestibule received
the correspondence of subscribers. Enormous packets of
letters were drawn forth, and eagerly examined.
In a short time the market prices for the day were
announced, when the crowd gradually increased. Groups
more or less numerous were formed, from among which
arose a murmur and hum of human voices.
Then commenced a shower of telegraphic messages from
all quarters of the globe.
Scarcely a minute passed that the officials of the Ex
change did not add a fresh strip of blue paper to the
collection of telegrams placarded on the north wall, which
was read forth in a stentorian voice, amid the now deafening
buzz.
The commotion and hubbub went on increasing.
Clerks rushed in and out; the telegraph office was
THE EXCHANGE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 19 1
besieged ; messages sent out, answers received every
instant.
All note-books were open, entries made, erased, or torn
up.
At about one o'clock a contagious excitement appeared
to take possession of the crowd. A mysterious sensation
passed like the trembling of an earthquake through these
agitated groups of human beings.
A piece of news, startling, unexpected, and incredible had
been brought by one of the partners in the Bank of the Far
West, and it circulated with the rapidity of an electric
flash.
Exclamations and comments were heard on all sides.
"Impossible! It's a trick a hoax," said some. "Who
is likely to believe anything so preposterous ?"
"Well," said others, "there may be something in it. No
smoke without fire, you know."
u But is a man in his position likely to fail ? "
" People in apparently the very best positions fail."
" But, sir," cried one, " the fixtures, tools and engines
alone represent more than eighty million dollars ! "
" Without reckoning the cast iron and steel, raw material,
and manufactured articles ! " added another.
" To be sure ! That's just what I say, too ! Schultz is
good for ninety millions of dollars, and I'll undertake to be
answerable for that on his demand ! "
192 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
" Well, but then how do you explain this suspension of
payment ? "
" Explain ! I don't explain it at all ! I don't believe
it!"
" Don't you ? As if such things did not happen every
day to houses of the most firm and established reputations !"
" Stahlstadt is not a house ; it is a city."
" Of course ! It is perfectly impossible it can have
broken up so completely. A company will certainly be
formed to carry on the business."
" But why on earth did not Schultz form such a company
instead of declaring himself bankrupt ? "
" Exactly, sir ; and there's the absurdity ! So absurd
that the statement won't bear examination. It is neither
more nor less than a pure fabrication, probably invented
by Nash, who is desperately anxious for a rise in steel."
" A fabrication ? False intelligence ? Nothing of the
sort ! Schultz has not only failed ; he has absconded ! "
"Come! Come!"
" Absconded, sir ! The telegram announcing it has this
moment been posted up !"
A formidable wave of humanity rolled towards the frame
in which the despatches were placarded.
The last strip of blue paper bore these words :
"New York, 12.40. Central Bank. Manufactory of
Stahlstadt. Stopped payment. Liabilities, as far as
Great excitement among business men.
Page 192.
THE EXCHANGE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 193
known : forty-seven million dollars. Schultz has dis
appeared."
There was now no doubt about the truth of the astounding
intelligence ; and conjectures and rumours were rife.
By two o'clock lists of failures consequent upon that of
Schultz began to pour in.
The Mining Bank of New York lost most.
The firm of Westerly and Son at Chicago was implicated
to the extent of seven million dollars.
The house of the Mitwaukees of Buffalo, five millions.
The Industrial Bank of San Francisco, a million and a
half.
The names of numbers of minor firms followed with
proportionate losses.
But, without waiting for this news, came the natural
rebound.
The money market, which was so dull in the morning,
was now not steady for two hours together. What
starts ! what rises ! what fluctuations, what unrestrained
speculation !
A rise in steel, and going up eveiy minute ; a rise in
coal ; a rise in the shares of all the foundries in the
American Union ; a rise in the products of every kind of
iron industry ; a rise in Frankville land.
Although on the declaration of war the latter had fallen
to zero, and disappeared from the list of quotations, it
O
194 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
had now suddenly risen to a hundred and eighty dollars
an acre.
In the evening the newspaper shops were perfectly
besieged. But though the Herald, the Tribune, \htAlta,
the Gtiardian, the Echo, and the Globe printed in gigantic
characters the meagre information they had been able to
collect, it after all amounted to very little.
All that was known was, that on the 2 5th of September,
a draft for eight millions of dollars, accepted by Herr
Schultz, drawn by Jackson, Elder, and Co., of Buffalo,
having been presented to Schring, Strauss, and Co., the
King of Steel's bankers, in New York, those gentlemen had
stated that the balance to their client's account was iiir
sufficient for such an enormous sum, and had telegraphed
this to him, without receiving any answer.
On referring to their books, they perceived with con
sternation that for thirteen days no letter and no bills had
come from Stahlstadt.
From that moment drafts and cheques, drawn by Herr
Schultz on their bank, came in daily, to undergo the fate
of being returned with the words, no funds.
For four days inquiries, telegrams, and furious questions
rained from one side on the bank and then again on
Stahlstadt.
At last a decisive reply was given.
" Herr Schultz disappeared on the i/th of September,"
THE EXCHANGE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 195
so said the telegram. " No one can throw the least light
on this mystery. He has left no orders, and the coffers in
every section are empty."
Since then it had been no longer possible to conceal the
truth. Many of the principal creditors had taken fright
and sent in their claims to the commercial court. Ruin
spread rapidly in all directions.
At twelve o'clock, on the I3th of October, the total
amount of failures was estimated at forty-seven millions of
dollars. When everything became known it was likely to
amount to sixty millions.
This was all that could be said, and all that the journals,
with a few exceptions, could report. Of course they
announced for the next day full and special particulars,
" as yet unpublished." And, indeed, to do them justice,
each, within an hour of the first announcement, had
despatched a correspondent on the road to Stahlstadt.
By the evening of the I4th of October, Steel City was
besieged by an army of reporters, all with open note-books,
and pencils in hand. Like a wave, however, they broke
against the outer wall, for the sentries were in their places,
and any attempt to bribe or soften them was utterly in
vain.
They, nevertheless, ascertained that the workmen as yet
knew nothing, and that the routine of the sections in nothing
had been changed. The overseers had merely announced
O 2
196 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
the day before by superior order, that no funds nor in
structions had been issued from the Central Block, and
that in consequence the works would be suspended the
following Saturday, unless contrary orders were received.
All this only complicated, instead of throwing any light
on the situation.
That Herr Schultz had disappeared for nearly a month r
of that there was no doubt. But what might be the cause
and import of this disappearance no one knew. A vague
impression that the mysterious personage might, at any
moment re-appear still prevailed, and seemed to lessen the
general uneasiness.
For some days all work had gone on as usual. Every
one had pursued his task within the limited horizon of his
section. The salaries were paid from the strong boxes
every Saturday, and the principal coffer had met all
local necessities. But centralisation had been brought to
too high a pitch of perfection in Stahlstadt ; the master
had reserved so absolutely to himself the superintendence
of everything, that his absence could not fail in a very
short time to cause a stoppage in the machinery. Thus,
from the i/th of September, the day on which the King
of Steel had signed his orders for the last time up to the
1 3th of October, when the news of the suspension of
payment had burst like a thunder-clap, millions of letters,
a large number containing considerable bills, passed through
THE EXCHANGE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 197
the Stahlstadt Post Office, had been deposited in the box
of the Central Block, and no doubt had reached Herr
Schultz's study. But he alone had the right to open them,
mark them with a red pencil, and transmit them to the
principal cashier.
Even the highest functionaries in the town never dreamt
of doing anything out of their regular department.
Invested with almost absolute power over their subordi
nates, they were each, in connection with Herr Schultz
as they were also with his memory like so many instru
ments, without authority, without power of initiating, or-
a voice in any matter. Each fortified himself within the
narrow limits of his commission, waited, temporised, and
watched the course of events.
The end came at last. This remarkable state of
affairs was prolonged until the principal houses interested,
suddenly seized with a panic, telegraphed, begged for an
answer, entreated, protested, and finally commenced legal
proceedings. This took some time. No one was willing
hastily to suspect that prosperity, so firmly believed in, had
been resting on an insecure basis. But the fact was now
patent : Herr Schultz had fled from his creditors.
This was all that the reporters could gather. The
celebrated Meiklejohn himself, famous for having extracted
a political avowal from President Grant, the most taciturn
man of his time; the indefatigable Blunderbuss, remarkable
198 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
for being the first, although but a simple correspondent of
The World, to announce to the Czar the news of the
capitulation of Plevna, even these great men in the re
porting line had not this time been more fortunate than
their brethren. They were forced to confess to themselves
that The Tribune and The World could not yet give the
latest news of the bankrupt Schultz.
That Stahlstadt was indeed in a strange situation will
be seen when it is remembered that it was an independent
and isolated town, permitting no regular and legal inquiry.
Herr Schultz's signature was, it is true, protested at New
York, and his creditors had every reason to believe that
the stock and manufactory would indemnify them in some
degree.
But to what court should they apply to obtain an
execution or a sequestration ? Stahlstadt lay in a territory
of its own, where everything belonged to Herr Schultz.
If only he had left a representative, an administrative
council, or a substitute. But there was nothing of the sort.
He himself was king, judge, general-in-chief, notary, lawyer,
and the only commercial court in the city. In his person
he had realised the ideal of centralisation.
Therefore, he being absent, there was absolutely no one
in power, and the whole fabric fell like a house of cards.
In any other situation, the creditors would have been
able to form a syndicate, substituting themselves for Herr
THE EXCHANGE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 199
Schultz, lay hands on the stock, and take the direction
of affairs. To all appearance only a little money and
regulating power was needed to set the machine to work.
But nothing of this was possible. The proper legal
instrument to effect this substitution was wanting. There
was a moral barrier round the City of Steel, which was if
possible more insurmountable than its walls. The un
fortunate creditors could see the securities for their debts,
though quite unable to touch them.
All they could do was to unite in a general assembly,
and agree to address a request to the Congress to ask it to
take their case in hand, espouse the interests of its natives,
pronounce the annexation of Stahlstadt to American
territory, and thus include this monstrous creation in the
common laws of civilisation. Several members of the Con
gress were personally interested in the business, the request
was tempting to the American character, and there was
reason to believe that it would be crowned with complete
success.
Unfortunately the Congress was not then in session, so
that a long delay was to be feared before the matter could
be submitted to it.
Until that time nothing could be done in Stahlstadt, and
one by one the furnaces were extinguished.
The consternation among the population of ten thousand
families who lived by the manufactory was profound. But
200 THE BEGUM'S FOETUNE.
what were they to do ? Continue to work in hopes of
wages, which might be six months in coming, or might
never come at all ? No one was inclined to adopt this
opinion. Besides, what work could they do ? The source
from which orders came was dried up as well as everything
else. All Herr Schultz's clients waited the legal solution.
The heads of the sections, engineers, and overseers, could
do nothing for want of orders.
Numberless assemblies, meetings, and debates took
place, though no plan could really be fixed on. The
enforced stoppage soon brought with it a train of misery,
despair, and vice. As the workshops emptied, the public-
houses filled. For each chimney which ceased to smoke
in the factory, a tavern sprung up in one of the neigh
bouring villages.
The wisest and most prudent among the workmen, those
who had foreseen hard times, and had laid by for a rainy
day, hastened to escape with bag and baggage ; and
happy rosy-cheeked children, wild with delight at the
new world revealed to them, peeped through the curtains
of the departing waggons, loaded with their father's tools
and furniture, and the precious bedding, dear to the heart
of the housewife. These all were scattered east, south,
and north, soon finding other factories, other anvils, other
hearthstones.
But for one who could thus depart, there were ten whose
THE EXCHANGE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 2OI
poverty nailed them to the soil ! There they remained,
hollow-eyed and broken-hearted ! Selling their poor
garments to the flock of birds-of-prey in human shape,
whose instinct attracts them to scenes of great disasters,
reduced to the last extremities in a few days, deprived of
credit as well as of wages, of hope as well as work, and
seeing before them a future of misery as black and dismal
as the fast approaching winter !
202 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER XVI.
A BRACE OF FRENCHMEN CAPTURE A TOWN.
WHEN tidings of the disappearance of Schultz reached
Frankville, Max's first words were
" Suppose it should be merely a trick !"
He reflected, however, that the results to Stahlstadt had
been so disastrous as to make such a$ hypothesis in
admissible.
Still, as hatred is an unreasoning passion, the exasperated
rage of such a man as Herr Schultz might really render
him capable -of sacrificing everything to it Whether or
not this was the case, it was undeniably necessary to be on
the " qui vive."
The Council of Defence immediately, therefore, issued a
proclamation exhorting the inhabitants to be on their
guard against false reports spread by the enemy, with the
object of lulling them into security.
Frankville judged it prudent to continue all the prepara-
A BRACE OF FRENCHMEN CAPTURE A TOWN. 203
tions for defence, taking no notice of what might after all
prove to be a stratagem of its arch-enemy.
But by-and-by the journals of San Francisco, Chicago,
and New York published further details, and news of the
financial and commercial consequences of the Stahlstadt
catastrophy, forming altogether a mass of evidence to prove
that Schultz was a genuine bankrupt, and had indeed
disappeared.
And so, one fine morning, the doctor's model city became
aroused to the fact that it was safe, just as a sleeper escapes
from the oppression of a horrible dream by the simple
operation of awaking.
Yes ! Frankville was clearly out of danger, without
having to strike a blow, and Max, now absolutely certain
of it, announced the news amid public rejoicing.
A strain seemed suddenly removed. The public drew,,
as it were, a long sigh of relief, and assumed a holiday
aspect.
Everybody shook hands, offered mutual congratulations,
and invited each other to dinner. All the women came
out in fresh toilettes, and the men took leave of drill,,
manoeuvres, and hard work.
Every one went about looking satisfied, and beaming.
Frankville was just like a town peopled with convalescents.
But among them all, the happiest was unquestionably
Doctor Sarrasin.
204 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
The worthy man had felt himself responsible for the
fate of those who had come with confidence to settle on his
territory, and to place themselves under his protection.
For the last month, the fear of having allured them to
destruction, when he had only sought their happiness, had
never left him a moment's rest. Now he was released from
terrible anxiety, and breathed freely.
This common danger had more closely united the
citizens. All classes had been brought nearer to each
other, and knew themselves brothers, animated with the
same feelings, and affected by the same interests. A
new sensation had sprung up in the hearts of all.
Henceforward the inhabitants had a strong feeling of
patriotism for Frankville. They had feared, they had
suffered for their town, and now they knew how much
they loved it.
The material results of having placed it in a state of
defence were also to the advantage of the city. Their
strength was known. They felt more sure of themselves,
and would now be ready for whatever the future might
bring.
The prospects of Doctor Sarrasin's work had never
appeared more brilliant ; and (a rare thing) no ingratitude
was shown towards Max. Although the safety of the
population had not been his work, public thanks were
voted to the young engineer, as to the organiser of the
A BRACE OF FRENCHMEN CAPTURE A TOWN. 205,
defence, the man to whose devotion the town would have
owed its safety, had the plans of Herr Schultz succeeded.
Max, however, did not regard his part as finished. The
mystery surrounding Stahlstadt might still, he thought,
conceal danger. He could, not rest satisfied until he had
thrown complete light into the very midst of the darkness
which still enveloped the City of Steel.
He resolved, therefore, to return to Stahlstadt, and to
stop at nothing until he had probed the last secret to its
depths.
Doctor Sarrasin represented to him that the enterprise
would be difficult, that it would bristle with dangers, that
he knew not what mines might spring beneath his feet, and
that, in fact, it would resemble a descent into the lower
regions. Herr Schultz, such as he had been described to
him, was not a man to disappear with impunity to others,
or to bury himself alone beneath the ruins of all his hopes.
They had every reason to fear the last desperate design
of such a man. It would be like the terrible dying agony
of a shark !
"My dear doctor, it is just because I think all you
imagine possible that I believe it my duty to go to
Stahlstadt," answered Max. " The place may be compared
to a shell from which I must snatch the match before it
bursts, and I will even ask your permission to take Otto
with me."
2o6 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
" Otto ! " exclaimed the doctor.
" Yes ! He is now a fine fellow, who may be relied on ;
and I assure you that this excursion will do him a great
deal of good!"
" May God protect you both ! " returned the old man,
fervently grasping his hand.
The next morning a carriage drove through the deserted
villages and deposited Max and Otto at the gate of
Stahlstadt.
Both were well equipped, well armed, and very determined
not to come back until they had cleared up the mystery.
They walked side by side along the outer road which
led round the fortifications, and the truth, which Max
till then had persisted in doubting, now lay before
them.
It was evident that the place was completely deserted.
From the lonely road, which he now trod with Otto, he
could formerly have seen within the town flaring gas, or
the flash of a sentinel's bayonet, and many other signs of
life. The windows of the different sections would have
been illuminated and dazzling. Now all was gloomy and
silent. Death seemed to hover over the city, its tall
chimneys standing up like skeletons. The footfalls of
Max and his companion alone aroused the echoes of the
place. The sensation of solitude and desolation was so
strong that Otto could not help remarking
Entering Stahlstadt.
Page 207.
A BRACE OF FRENCHMEN CAPTURE A TOWN. 2O/
" It is singular, but I have never felt silence similar to
this ! We might suppose ourselves in a cemetery ! "
It was seven o'clock when Max and Otto reached the
edge of the moat, opposite to the principal gate of Stahlstadt.
Not a living creature appeared on the crest of the wall, and
of the sentinels who formerly had stood at equal distances
all round, like so many human posts, not one remained.
The drawbridge was raised, leaving before the gate a gulf
from five to six yards in width.
It took them more than an hour before they could
succeed in fastening the end of a stout rope, by throw
ing it with all their might, so as to catch over one of
the beams. After much trouble, Max managed it, and
Otto going first, drew himself up hand over hand to
the top of the gate. Max passed up to him their
arms and ammunition, and then he himself took the
same way.
They now carried their rope to the other side of the wall,
let down all their impedimenta, and finally slid down
themselves.
The two young men were now on the roundway which
Max remembered having followed the first day he entered
Stahlstadt. Complete silence and solitude were all around.
Before them rose, black and dumb, the imposing mass of
buildings which glared with their thousand glass windows
at the intruders, as if to say
208 THF BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
" Be off! You have no business to attempt the penetra
tion of our secrets ! "
Max and Otto consulted.
" We will assail the O gate, as that is the one with which
I am best acquainted," said Max.
They bent their steps westward, and soon arrived before
the monumental arch, which bore on its front the letter O.
The two massive oaken doors, full of great iron nails, were
closed. Max approached, and struck them several times
with a large stone taken from the road.
The echo alone resounded.
" Come ! to work ! " he cried to Otto.
They had now to recommence the troublesome work of
throwing their rope over the door, until it met with some
obstacle on which it would firmly catch. This was difficult,
but they succeeded at last, and Max and Otto surmounted
the wall, and found themselves in section O.
" What a nuisance ! " exclaimed Otto, looking round ;
" where is the use of all our trouble ? We have made but
little progress ! No sooner have we got over one wall,
than we find another before us ! "
" Silence in the ranks ! " returned Max. " Here we are
in my old workshop. I am not sorry to see it again, that
we may possess ourselves of certain tools which we shall be
sure to need, not forgetting a few packets of dynamite."
As he spoke they entered the great casting-hall, to which
A BRACE OF FRENCHMEN CAPTURE A TOWN. 20Q
the young Alsacian had been admitted on his arrival at
the factory.
How dismal it now looked, with its furnaces extinguished,
its rails rusted, its dusty cranes extending their gaunt arms
in the air, like so many gallows. All this struck a chill to
the heart, and Max felt that some diversion to their ideas
would be pleasant.
" Here is a workshop which will interest you more," he
observed, leading the way to the canteen.
Otto followed obediently, and showed unmistakable
signs of satisfaction as he caught sight of a whole regiment
of red, yellow, and green bottles, drawn up in order of
battle on a wooden shelf. Several boxes of preserved
meats and other good things were also there ; more than
enough to furnish them with a substantial breakfast, the
want of which they began to feel, so, having spread
the food on the counter, the two young men fell to.
Whilst eating, Max considered what was next to be
done. There was no use in even thinking of scaling the
wall of the Central Block, as it was prodigiously high,
isolated from all the other buildings, and without a projec
tion on which to fasten a rope. To find the door of
which there was probably only one it would be necessary
to go through all the sections, anything but an easy task.
Dynamite could be used, though that was dangerous, for
it seemed impossible that Herr Schultz should have
P
210 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
disappeared without constructing traps in his deserted
territory, or establishing counter-mines to the mines which
those who wished to take possession of Stahlstadt would
not fail to form. But no fear of this could deter Max.
Seeing that Otto was now refreshed and rested, Max
went with him to the end of the road which formed the
axis of the section, up to the foot of the huge freestone
wall.
" What say you to attempting a blast here ? " he asked.
" Shall we pierce the wall and lay a train of dynamite ? "
" It will be hard work, but we are not afraid of that ! "
replied Otto, ready to attempt anything.
They first had to lay bare the foot of the wall, then
introduce a lever between two stones, loosen one, and
finally, with a drill, pierce several little parallel trenches.
By ten o'clock all was prepared, the dynamite in its place
and the match lighted.
Max knew that it would burn for five minutes, and as he
had noticed that the canteen was underground, and was a
regular stone-vaulted cellar, he took refuge there with
Otto.
Suddenly every building, and even the cellar, were
shaken as if by an earthquake. Then, almost immediately,
a tremendous roar, resembling the sound of three or four
batteries thundering at once, rent the air.
In two or three seconds a perfect avalanche of stones
Forcing an entrance.
Page 210.
A BRACE OF FRENCHMEN CAPTURE A TOWN. 211
and debris showered down far and wide. Then began an
uproar of breaking roofs, crashing beams, falling walls,
mingled with the sound of a cascade of broken glass.
When the frightful din had ceased, Max and Otto
ventured forth from their retreat.
Accustomed as he was to the terrific effects of an
explosion, Max was perfectly astonished at the results of
this one. Half of the section had been blown up, and the
dismantled walls of all the neighbouring workshops re
sembled those of a bombarded town. On all sides the
ground was strewed with heaps of rubbish, and pieces of
glass and plaster, whilst clouds of dust settling down, fell
like snow on the ruins.
Otto and Max hastened to the inner wall.
From fifteen to twenty feet of it had been thrown down,
and on the other side of the breach, the ex-draughtsman
of the Central Block could see the well-known hall, where
he had passed so many monotonous hours.
As the place was no longer guarded, it was soon entered.
Still the same silence everywhere.
Max passed in review the studios, where formerly his
comrades admired his diagrams. In one corner he dis
covered the very half-sketched drawing of a steam-engine
on which he had been engaged when Herr Schultz
summoned him to the park. In the reading-room lay the
papers and familiar books.
P 2
212 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
Everything bore the look of business suspended, of a
sudden interruption to work.
The two friends had now reached the inner limits of the
Central Block and stood before the wall, which Max
believed divided them from the park.
" Are we to make this fellow dance too ? " asked Otto.
"Perhaps; but first we can look for a door, which a
simple fusee could send flying."
They proceeded, therefore, to skirt the wall around the
park, from time to time making a detour to avoid a
building jutting out like a spur, or to climb a fence. But
they never lost sight of it, and were soon rewarded for
their trouble, by coming to a low, narrow door.
In two minutes Otto had bored a gimlet hole through
the oaken panels, and Max, applying his eye to the
opening, perceived with lively satisfaction that on the other
side lay the tropical park, with its eternal verdure and
summer temperature.
" One more door to blow up, and we shall be in the
place ! " he exclaimed to his companion.
"A fusee for a piece of wood like this would be too
great an honour," returned Otto.
And as he spoke he struck a heavy blow on the postern
with an axe he carried.
It had not begun to give way, however, when they heard
a key turned, and two bolts slipped back.
A BRACE OF FRENCHMEN CAPTURE A TOWN. 213
The door half opened, though held inside by a thick
chain.
" Wer da ? " (Who goes there ?) demanded a hoarse
voice.
2i4 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER XVII.
PARLEY BEFORE THE CITADEL.
THE two young men were little prepared for such a
question. It astonished them more than if they had been
met by a rifle shot.
Max had had a great many conjectures about this
mysterious town, and the very last thing he had expected
was that a living being would quietly demand the reason of
his visit. His enterprise, legitimate enough, under the
supposition that Stahlstadt was completely deserted,
assumed quite another aspect, when the city was found
still to be inhabited.
That which in the one case was but a kind of archaeolo
gical inquiry, in the other became an attack by force of
arms, and bore the character of a burglary.
These reflections rushed in upon the mind of Max with
such force that he stood as if struck dumb.
PARLEY BEFORE THE CITADEL. 21$
" Who goes there ?" repeated the voice, impatiently.
There was certainly some reason for impatience. For
intruders to have reached this door by overcoming so many
obstacles, scaling walls, and blowing up half the town, and
then to have nothing to say on being simply asked, " Who
goes there ?" was somewhat astonishing.
In half a minute Max became aware of the awkwardness
of his position, and he replied in German
" Friend or enemy, whichever you like ! I wish to speak
to Herr Schultz."
Directly he uttered these words an exclamation was
heard from the other side of the door
"Ach!"
And through the opening Max could discern a red
whisker, half a bristly moustache, and a dull eye, which he
immediately recognised as belonging to Sigimer, one of
the uncouth beings who had been ordered by Schultz to
guard him.
"Johann Schwartz!" exclaimed the giant, with a sort
of stupid joy, " Johann Schwartz !"
The unexpected return of his prisoner seemed to astonish
him as much as his mysterious disappearance must have
done.
" Can I speak to Herr Schultz ?" repeated Max, finding
that this exclamation was the only answer he received.
Sigimer shook his head.
2i6 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
"No order! "he said. "Can't come in here without an
order ! "
" At least you can tell Herr Schultz that I am here, and
want to see him."
" Herr Schultz not here ! Herr Schultz gone ! " replied
the giant, with a shade of sadness in his tone.
" But where is he ? When will he be back ? "
" Don't know ! Instructions remain as before ! No one
can enter without an order !"
These disjointed sentences were all that Max could get
from Sigimer, who to any other questions maintained a
dogged and obstinate silence.
Otto at last became impatient.
"Where's the use of asking permission to enter?" said
he. " It is much easier to take it !"
And he shoved against the door to try and force it open.
It was held by the chain, however, and a more powerful
arm than his soon shut it, and rapidly drew the bolts.
" There must be several men behind there ! " cried Otto,
rather humiliated at this result.
He applied his eye to the gimlet-hole, and uttered a cry
of surprise.
" There's a second giant ! "
" Arminius, no doubt," returned Max, in his turn putting
his eye to the hole.
"Yes! It is Arminius, Sigimer's companion."
PARLEY BEFORE THE CITADEL. 2 1/
As he spoke, another voice, apparently from the sky,
caused Max to raise his head.
"Wer da?" it said.
This time it was Arminius who spoke, looking over the
top of the wall, which he had reached by means of a
ladder.
"Come, you know well enough who it is, Arminius!"
returned Max. " Will you open, yes or no ? "
These words had scarcely left his lips when the muzzle
of a gun was pointed over the wall, and a bullet just grazed
the brim of Otto's hat.
" Very well, here's an answer for that ! " exclaimed Max,
who, placing some dynamite under the door, blew it into
fragments.
A breach being thus made, Otto and Max, their guns in
their hands, and their knives between their teeth, sprang
into the park.
The ladder still leant against the now tottering wall, and
at its foot were traces of blood, but neither Arminius
nor Sigimer were there to bar the progress of the
adventurers.
The gardens lay before them in all the richness of their
vegetation.
Otto was delighted.
" What a magnificent place ! " he said ; " but look out !
We had better proceed like sharpshooters ! These sour-
218 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
krout-eaters are most likely watching for us hiding
behind the bushes !"
Max and Otto separated, and each taking one side
of the walk which opened before them, they advanced
cautiously from tree to tree, from mound to mound, after
the most approved principles of strategy.
This was a wise precaution. They had not gone a
hundred yards when a second shot was heard, and the
bark of the tree Max had just quitted flew in splinters.
"This is serious! Down on the ground!" ejaculated
Otto.
And, adding example to precept, he crawled on hands
and knees up to a thorny thicket bordering the square, in
the centre of which rose the Bull Tower.
Max, not following this advice quickly enough, narrowly
escaped another bullet, and only avoided a fourth by
darting behind the trunk of a palm-tree.
"Fortunately these fellows shoot no better than raw
recruits !" called out Otto to his friend.
"Hush!" returned Max. "Don't you see the smoke
hanging about that window on the ground-floor ? The
villains are in ambush there ! But I mean to play them a
trick in my turn ! "
In a trice, Max had cut a good-sized stick from the
shrubbery, on which he hung his coat, placing his hat on
the top. Having thus improvised a very presentable
Danger around.
Page 218.
Max and Otto fighting the giants.
Page 219.
PARLEY BEFORE THE CITADEL. 219
dummy, he stuck it in the ground, so that the hat and
sleeves alone were visible, then, gliding up to Otto, he
whispered in his ear
"Just keep them amused by firing at the window, first
from your place and then from mine ! I'm off to take
them in the rear !"
And Max, leaving Otto to skirmish, crept cautiously
away through the bushes.
A quarter of an hour passed, whilst about twenty shots
were exchanged without result on either side, though
Max's coat and hat were completely riddled with bullets.
As to the window-blinds, Otto's gun had sent them into
shivers.
Suddenly the firing ceased, and Otto distinctly heard a
stifled cry of
" Help ! help ! I've got him ! "
To leave his shelter, fly through the shrubbery, and
spring in at the window, took Otto but a moment.
Struggling desperately on the floor, entwined like two
serpents, were Max and Sigimer. Surprised by the sudden
attack of his adversary, who had forced an inner door, the
giant had been unable to use his weapons. But his
herculean strength rendered him a formidable enemy, and
although thrown to the ground, he had not lost hope of
gaining the upper hand. Max, on his side, displayed
remarkable vigour and agility.
220 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
The fight would certainly have terminated in the death
of one of the combatants, had not Otto's intervention made
a less tragic end possible. The two together soon disarmed
Sigimer, and bound him so that he could move neither
hand nor foot.
" Where's the other fellow ?" asked Otto.
Max pointed to the further end of the room, where
Arminius lay bleeding on a bench.
" Has he been shot ?" he asked.
"Yes," replied Otto.
Together they examined the body.
'Quite dead !" said Max.
'If so the rascal might have died in a better cause!"
exclaimed Otto.
" Here we are, masters of the place! "said Max. "So
now to serious business. Let us first explore the study of
the great Herr Schultz !"
From the room, in which the last act of the siege had
been performed, the two young men proceeded through
the suite of apartments which led to the sanctum of the
King of Steel.
Otto was lost in admiration at the sight of such
splendour.
Max smiled as he looked round at him, and opened, one
after the other, the doors of the magnificent rooms, till
they reached the green-and-gold apartment.
PARLEY BEFORE THE CITADEL. 221
He had expected to find something new, but nothing so
strange as the spectacle which here lay before their eyes.
It looked just as if the General Post-Office of New York
or Paris had been robbed and its contents thrown pell-mell
on the floor. On every side were heaps of letters and
sealed packets, on the writing-table, on the chairs, on
the carpet. They waded knee-deep in a flood of papers.
All the financial, industrial, and personal correspondence
of Herr Schultz, brought to the letter-box in the park wall,
and faithfully carried in by Arminius and Sigimer, had
here accumulated in their master's study.
How many questions, what expectations, what anxious
suspense, what misery and tears were enclosed in those
voiceless envelopes addressed to Herr Schultz ! What
millions of money, too, no doubt, in paper, cheques, bills,
and orders of all sorts !
Everything rested here motionless through the absence
of the only hand which had a right to break these fragile,
but inviolable seals.
" We have now," said Max, " to discover the secret door
of the laboratory !"
He began by taking all the books out of the bookcase.
This was useless ; he could not find the masked passage he
had traversed in company with Herr Schultz.
In vain he shook the panels one by one, and, with an
iron rod, which he took from the mantelpiece, tapped
222 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
them in succession ! In vain he struck the wall in the
hope of hearing it give forth a hollow sound ! It was
very evident that Schultz, uneasy at no longer being the
sole possessor of his secret, had done away with that
door.
He must necessarily have opened another.
" But where ?" asked Max. " It must be here somewhere,
as Arminius and Sigimer have brought the letters to this
room, which Herr Schultz doubtless continued to use after
my departure. I know enough of his habits to be sure
that, after bricking up the old passage, he would wish to
have another close at hand, and concealed from inquisitive
eyes ! Can there be a trap-door under the carpet ? "
The carpet itself showed no signs of a cut ; but none the
less was it unnailed and raised. The floor, examined bit
by bit, showed nothing suspicious.
" How do you know the opening is in this room at all ?"
asked Otto.
" I am morally certain of it ! " answered Max.
" Then the ceiling only remains to be explored," returned
Otto, springing on to a chair.
His idea was to get up to the lustre and sound the
central rose with the butt end of his gun.
However, no sooner had he grasped the gilded chan
delier, than, to his extreme surprise, it sunk under his
hand. The ceiling opened and left to view a wide gap,
The mysterious entrance.
Page 222.
PARLEY BEFORE THE CITADEL. 223
from which a light, self-acting steel ladder slid down level
with the floor.
It was a distinct invitation to ascend.
"Here we are! Come along!" said Max, composedly,
and immediately began to mount the ladder, closely
followed by his friend.
224 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE KERNEL OF THE NUT.
THE top of the steel ladder was fixed close to the wall of a
vast circular chamber, there being no communication with
the exterior. It would have been in complete darkness
had it not been for a dazzling white light which streamed
through the thick glass of a bull's-eye, fixed in the centre of
the oak floor. For purity and brilliancy it might be
compared to the moon, when she is in her full beauty.
Perfect silence reigned within these mute and eyeless
walls. The two young men imagined themselves in the
antechamber of a tomb.
But before bending over the glass, Max hesitated for a
moment. He had attained his object ! The secret, to
penetrate which he had come to Stahlstadt, was about
to be revealed to him !
This feeling, however, soon passed off. Together he and
Herr Schultz discovered.
Piige 225.
THE KERNEL OF THE NUT. 225
Otto knelt beside the disc and looked down into the
chamber beneath.
A horrible and unexpected sight met their astonished
gaze.
The glass disc, being convex on both sides, formed a
lens, which immensely increased in size all objects seen
through it.
Here was the secret laboratory of Herr Schultz. The
intense glare which shone through the disc, as if from the
lantern of a lighthouse, came from a double electric lamp,
still burning in its airless bell, being incessantly fed by a
powerful voltaic pile.
In the middle of the room, motionless as marble, and
enormously magnified by the refraction of the lens, a human
form was seated.
Pieces and splinters of shells were strewn on the ground
around this spectre.
There was no doubt about it! It was Herr Schultz
himself, recognisable by his horrid grinning mouth, and his
gleaming teeth ; but a gigantic Herr Schultz, suffocated
and frozen by the action of a terrible cold, caused by the
explosion of one of his frightful engines of warfare.
The King of Steel was seated at his table, holding an
enormous pen like a lance in his hand, as if he were
writing. Had it not been for the stony glare of his dilated
eyeballs, and his set mouth, he would have appeared still
Q
226 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
living. Here this awful corpse had been for a month,
hidden from all eyes, and now discovered like a mammoth
which has been concealed for ages in the glaciers of
the Polar regions. Everything around him was frozen, the
re-agents in their jars, the water in its receivers, and
the mercury in its reservoirs !
In spite of the horror of this spectacle, Max's first
thought was one of satisfaction that they had been
fortunate enough to be able to observe the interior of the
laboratory from the outside, for if he and Otto had entered
they must infallibly have been struck dead.
Max soon guessed how the fearful accident had occurred,
when he marked that the fragments scattered on the ground
were small pieces of glass. He knew that the inner case of
Herr Schultz's suffocating projectiles contained liquid
carbonic acid, and that, to resist the enormous pressure, it
was formed of tempered glass, which has ten or twelve
times the ordinary strength ; the great fault of this newly-
invented production, however, is that, by some mysterious
action, it often suddenly bursts without any apparent reason.
This was evidently what had happened. Perhaps the
interior pressure had helped to provoke the explosion of
the shell deposited in the laboratory ; at any rate, the
discharged acid, on returning to a gaseous state, had
occasioned a fearful lowering of the surrounding atmosphere,
even to a hundred degrees below zero.
THE KERNEL OF THE NUT. 22/
The effects had indeed been something awful. Death
had surprised Herr Schultz in the attitude he was in at
the time of the explosion, and in a moment he was turned
into ice.
One circumstance which Max particularly noticed, was
that at the time of his death the King of Steel was engaged
in writing.
What was inscribed on the sheet of paper lying beneath
that lifeless hand ? It would be interesting to know the
last thought, and read the last words of such a man.
The difficulty was to procure the paper. The idea of
breaking the disc so as to descend into the laboratory could
not be entertained for an instant. The gas would have
immediately rushed out and suffocated every living being.
The risk of bringing a sudden death upon themselves could
not be run merely for the sake of satisfying their curiosity.
Max, therefore, seeing that the writing as well as everything
else was so wonderfully magnified and brilliantly illumin
ated, endeavoured to read it from a distance. Being well
acquainted with the handwriting of Herr Schultz, with a
little trouble he at last made out the following lines.
According to the usual custom of Herr Schultz, it was
rather an order than an instruction.
" Order to B. K. R. Z. to advance the projected expedi
tion against Frankville by a fortnight. As soon as this
order is received execute the measures I have devised ;
Q 2
228 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
they must this time be overwhelming and complete. Do
not alter an iota of what I have decided upon. I wish that
in a fortnight Frankville should become a city of the dead
without a surviving inhabitant. I hope for a modern
Pompeii, to be at once a terror and an astonishment to the
whole world. If my orders are properly executed, this
result will be inevitable.
" You will send the bodies of Doctor Sarrasin and Max
Bruckmann to me. I wish to have them.
Schult ."
The signature was unfinished, the final z and the usual
flourish being wanting.
Max and Otto gazed mute and motionless at this strange
spectacle, feeling as if they were witnessing the invocation
of some malignant genius.
But it was time to leave the dismal scene, and the two
friends, agitated by conflicting feelings, descended from the
room above the laboratory.
There, in that dark tomb, for, when the electric current
failed, the lamp would be extinguished, the corpse of the
King of Steel would remain alone, dried up like a mummy
Pharaoh, whom twenty centuries had not reduced to dust !
An hour later, having unbound Sigimer, who seemed
puzzled to know what to do with his liberty, Otto and Max
quitted Stahlstadt, and took their way back to Frankville,
which they entered the same evening.
THE KERNEL OF THE NUT. 229
Doctor Sarrasin was busy in his study when the return
of the two young men was announced to him.
"Tell them to come in!" he exclaimed. "Come in
quickly!"
" Well ?" said he, as soon as the friends presented them
selves before him.
" Doctor," replied Max, " the news we bring from Stahl-
stadt will put your mind at rest for a long time. Herr
Schultz is no more ! Herr Schultz is dead ! "
" Dead ! " exclaimed Doctor Sarrasin.
The good man remained thoughtful for a few moments,
without uttering another word.
" My dear fellow," he said at last, " can you understand
that this news, which ought to make me rejoice, since it
takes from us the dread of the thing I most execrate, war,
and the most unjust, unreasonable war ever heard of! can
you understand how, against all reason, it makes my heart
ache ? Oh, why should a man of such powerful intelligence
have constituted himself our enemy ? Why did he not use
his rare intellectual qualities for the benefit of his fellow
creatures ? How much wisdom has been lost, which would
have been so valuable, had it been associated with us, and
used for a common object ! All this at once struck me
when you said : * Herr Schultz is dead ;' but now tell
me all that you know of this unexpected event."
" Herr Schultz," replied Max, " has met his death in the
230 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
mysterious laboratory, which, with such diabolical ingenuity,
he had striven to render inaccessible to < all others. No one '
but himself ever knew of its existence, and no one con
sequently could penetrate into it to bring him help. He
has fallen a victim to that marvellous concentration of all
his plans in his own hands, on which he had so erroneously
relied. By the will of Providence, his desire of being
himself the key to all his projects, has been turned to his
own destruction ! "
" It could not have been otherwise ! " answered Doctor
Sarrasin. " Herr Schultz started with a totally wrong
notion. For, indeed, is not the best government the one of
which the chief, on his death, can be most easily replaced,
and which will continue to work smoothly, just because all
the machinery is open and visible ? "
"You will see, doctor," said Max, "how all that has
happened in Stahlstadt bears out what you have said. We
found Herr Schultz seated before his desk, that central
point whence came all those orders so implicitly obeyed by
the Steel City, and which no one ever dreamt of disputing.
Death had left him every appearance of life, so that for a
moment I thought the spectre would have spoken to us !
But the inventor has fallen by his own invention ! He was
killed by one of the shells, with which he hoped to destroy
our town, just as he was signing his name to the order
for our extermination ! Listen !"
THE KERNEL OF THE NUT. 231
And Max read aloud a copy he had taken of the horrible
words written by Herr Schultz.
Then he added
" The greatest proof of the death of Herr Schultz, even
if we had not seen him, is that everything around him has
ceased to live. There is nothing breathing in Stahlstadt.
As in the palace of the Sleeping Beauty, slumber has
suspended all life, and arrested every movement. The
effects of the master's death hatf^extended, not only to the
servants, but also to the machinery."
"Yes," returned Doctor Sarrasin ; "we see in this the
justice of God ! From indulging in his hatred against us,
and urging on his attack with such boundless rancour, Herr
Schultz has perished."
" That is true," answered Max ; " but now, doctor, let us
leave the past and think only of the present. Although
the death of Herr Schultz gives peace to us, it causes the
ruin of the wonderful business he created. Blinded by his
success, and his hatred of France and you, he had supplied
large numbers of cannon and weapons to any one who
might be our enemy, without getting sufficient guarantees.
In spite of this, and although the payment of all his debts
would take a long time, I believe that a strong hand could
set Stahlstadt on its legs again, and turn to a good purpose
all that has been hitherto used for an evil one. Herr
Schultz has only one likely heir, doctor, and that is you.
232 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
His work must not be allowed to fall to the ground entirely.
It is too much the belief of this world that the only profit
to be drawn from a rival force is in its total annihilation.
This is not really the case, and I hope you will agree with
me that, on the contrary, it is our duty to endeavour to save
from this immense wreck all that can be used for the benefit
of humanity. Now, I am ready to devote myself entirely
to this task."
" Max is right," said Otto, grasping his friend's hand,
"and here am I, ready also to work under his orders, if
my father will give his consent."
"I certainly approve, my dear lads," replied Doctor
Sarrasin. " Yes, Max, there will be no want of capital, and,
thanks to you, I shall hope to have in the resuscitated
Stahlstadt such an arsenal that no one in the world will
ever henceforth dream of attacking us ! And as we shall
then be the strongest, we must at the same time endeavour
to be also the most just, we must spread the benefits of
peace and justice all around. Ah, Max ! what enchanting
dreams ! And when I feel that, with you to help me, I can
at least accomplish a part, I ask myself why yes, why
have I not two sons ! Why are you not the brother of
Otto ! We three working together, it seems as if nothing
could be impossible !"
A FAMILY AFFAIR. 233
CHAPTER XIX.
A FAMILY AFFAIR.
PERHAPS in the course of this veracious narrative we have
not been sufficiently communicative about the personal
history of those who have played such prominent parts in
it. We may now, therefore, be allowed to stop in order to
give a few details regarding them.
It must be acknowledged that the good doctor was not
so entirely taken up with the idea of collective humanity,
as to merge in it the welfare of individuals. He had, there
fore, been struck by the sudden pallor which overspread
the countenance of Max as he uttered his last words. He
sought to read in the ' young man's eyes the cause of this
sudden emotion. The silence of the older man seemed
to question the engineer, as if he expected him to
speak, but Max, mastering himself with a strong effort,
immediately resumed his composure. His complexion
reassumed its natural tint, and his attitude was merely
234 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
that of a man who expects the continuance of an interesting
conversation.
Doctor Sarrasin, slightly provoked at this evidently
assumed calmness, approached his young friend, and with
a familiar gesture, laid his hand upon his wrist, just as he
would on that of a patient, whose pulse he wished quietly,
unobtrusively to feel.
Max allowed this naturally without apparently noticing
the doctor's intentions, and as he did not open his
lips
" My dear Max," observed the old man, " we will put off
our conversation about the future destiny of Stahlstadt to
some other time. For although we are vowed to the work
of labouring to ameliorate the condition of mankind, it is
not forbidden us also to occupy ourselves with the fate of
those we love, of those who are nearest to us. Well, I
think the time has come to tell you what a young lady,
whose name I will mention presently, replied not long ago
to her father and mother, when for the twentieth time that
year they had been asked for her in marriage.
" The proposals were, for the most part, such that even
the most fastidious could have had no reason for refusing
them, and yet this young woman always said * No ! '
At this point Max drew his hand away with a sudden
movement from the doctor's grasp, and the latter, as if he
was satisfied on the subject of his patient's health, and had
A FAMILY AFFAIR. 235
not noticed that both his arm and his confidence had been
withdrawn, quietly continued his story.
"'Well, now/ said the mother, to the young lady of
whom I speak, 'just tell me the reason of these continued
refusals. Education, fortune, position, good looks, all are
there. Why this decided no, so resolute and prompt, to
requests which you don't even take the trouble to consider
a little ? You are not usually so very peremptory ! '
" At this the girl determined to speak clearly and frankly,
and thereupon replied
" ' I say no with as much sincerity as I would say yes,
dear mother, if the yes came really from my heart. I agree
with you that several of the matches you have proposed to
me are perfectly unexceptionable ; but, besides my belief
that most of those addresses were paid more to what is
considered the best, that is the richest match in the town,
than to me myself, and that that idea does not incline me
to say yes, I will venture to tell you, since you wish it, that
none of these proposals is the one I hope for, the one
that I still expect, and which, unfortunately, I may have to
wait a long time for, if it ever comes at all !'
"'What, my dear,' said the mother, in surprise,
' you '
"She did not end that sentence, for want of knowing
how to finish it, and in perplexity turned to her husband,
with looks which plainly begged for help and advice.
236 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
" However, as he did not intend to interfere in the
discussion between the mother and daughter until a little
more light had been thrown on the subject, he put on an
obtuse air, and counterfeited so well that the poor girl,
blushing with embarrassment, and perhaps with a little
anger, suddenly determined to make a clean breast of it.
" ' I said, dear mother,' she continued, ' that the proposal
I hoped for might be a very long time in coming, and
might possibly never come at all. I add that this delay,
although so indefinite, will neither hurt nor astonish me.
I have the misfortune to be very rich ; he, whose proposal I
hope for, is very poor ; therefore, he will not make it, and
he is right. It is for him to wait '
"'Why not for us to speak/ said the mother, wishing,
perhaps, to prevent her daughter from uttering words she
feared to hear.
" Then the husband interposed.
" ' My dear,' he said, affectionately, taking his wife's hands
in his, ' it is not with impunity that a mother, reverenced
by her daughter as you are, can constantly in her presence
sing the praises of a fine, handsome fellow, who, ever since
she was born, has been almost one of the family, that she
remarks to every one on the solidity of his character, that
she glories in what her husband says, when he has occasion
in his turn to boast of his remarkable intelligence, or speaks
feelingly of the thousand proofs of devotion he has received
A FAMILY AFFAIR. 237
from him ! If the girl who saw this young man, distin
guished both by her father and her mother, had not
admired him herself, she would have failed in her duty ! '
" ' Oh, father ! ' cried the girl, throwing herself into her
mother's arms, to hide her confusion, * if you guessed, why
did you make me speak !'
" ( Why ?' returned the father, 'why, but to have the joy
of hearing you, my darling, that I might be still more
certain that I was not mistaken, to be able at last to tell
you that both your mother and I approve your choice, that
your heart has been given where we wished ; and to spare a
poor and proud man from making a proposal, at which he
feels a reluctant delicacy, I will do it myself yes, I will
do it, because I have read his heart as I have read yours !
Calm yourself then ! On the first favourable opportunity,
I will ask Max, if, by any possibility, he would care to
become my son-in-law !' "
Taken unawares by this sudden peroration, Max had
started to his feet as if moved by a spring. Otto silently
grasped his hand, while Doctor Sarrasin held out his arms.
The young Alsacian was pale as death. But does not
happiness sometimes take this appearance when it enters
without warning into a strong heart !
238 THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE.
CHAPTER XX.
CONCLUSION.
FRANKVILLE, released from all anxiety, in peace with its
neighbours, well governed, happy, thanks to the good
behaviour of its inhabitants, is highly prosperous. Its
success is so justly merited that it causes no envy, and its
strength enforces the respect even of the most warlike.
Under the iron rule of Herr Schultz, the City of Steel was
a terrible manufactory, an organised source of destruction ;
but, thanks to Max Bruckmann, the liquidation of its debts
was effected without loss to any one, and Stahlstadt became
a centre of production, unsurpassed by any other industry.
A year ago, Max became the happy husband of Jeannette,
and the birth of a child has recently added to their felicity.
As to Otto, he worked gallantly under his brother-in-
law's directions, and seconded all his efforts. His sister is
hoping soon to see him married to a friend of hers, whose
good sense will preserve her husband from any relapse.
CONCLUSION. 239
The wishes of the doctor and his wife are thus fulfilled,
and to put it in a few words, they are at the zenith of
happiness and even of glory if glory ever entered into the
programme of their honest ambitions.
We may now be assured that the future belongs to the
efforts of Doctor Sarrasin and Max Bruckmann, and that
the example of Frankville and Stahlstadt, as model city
and manufactory, will not be lost upon future generations.
THE
MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
CHAPTER I.
TURNED ADRIFT.
NOT a breath of wind, not a ripple on the surface of the
ocean, not a cloud in the sky. The splendid constella
tions of the Southern Hemisphere shone with exquisite
brilliancy. The Bounty lay motionless, with drooping
sails, as the night wore on ; and the moon, turning pale
at the approach of dawn, rilled the air with dim and
uncertain light.
The Bounty, a vessel of two hundred and fifteen tons
burden, manned by a crew of forty-six, had left Spithead
on the 2$rd of December, 1787, under the command of
Captain Bligh, a rough, but experienced seaman, who
had accompanied Captain Cook on his last voyage of
discovery.
The special object of this voyage of the Bounty was to
obtain plants of the bread-fruit tree, which grows in pro-
R
242 THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY. 5 '
fusion in the Tahitian Archipelago, and to carry them
to the Antilles.
After remaining for six months in the Bay of Matavai,
Captain Bligh, with a cargo of a thousand bread-fruit trees,
set sail for the West Indies, stopping at the Friendly
Islands for a short time.
The suspicious and passionate character of the captain
had repeatedly occasioned disagreeable scenes between
him and his officers ; but, when the sun rose on the
morning of the 28th of April, 1789, the perfect tran-
quility which prevailed on board the Bounty was dis
turbed by no token of the serious events about to
take place.
By-and-by the apparent tranquility was broken by
unwonted animation among the crew : the seamen met,
exchanged two or three words in whispers, and then
separated quietly. What could be going on ?
" Above all things, make no noise, friends," said Fletcher
Christian, the second officer of the Bounty. " Load your
pistol, Bob ; but do not fire till I give the word. Churchill,
take a hatchet to burst open the lock of the captain's cabin
door, and, mark me, I must have him alive."
Followed by a dozen seamen, armed with sabres,
cutlasses, and pistols, Christian glided between decks,
where he placed two sentinels before the cabins of Stewart
and Peter Heywood, the one the boatswain, the other
TURNED ADRIFT. 243
a midshipman of the Bounty, and then, passing on, he
stopped at the captain's door.
" Come, lads !" he cried, "one good shove all together !"
The door yielded to their vigorous blows, and the seamen
rushed into the cabin.
Confused by the darkness, and, perhaps, reflecting on
the serious nature of the step they had taken, they
hesitated for a moment.
"Hullo! What's the matter? Who dares - -?"
exclaimed the captain, jumping out of his cot.
"Silence, Captain Bligh !" answered Churchill. "Silence,
and do not attempt to resist, or I will gag you ! "
" You needn't trouble yourself to dress," added Bob ;
"you will cut quite a good enough figure as you are
when you are dangling at the yard-arm !"
"Lash his hands behind his back, Churchill," said
Christian, "and hoist him up on deck !"
" The most tyrannical captains need be feared no longer,
when one knows how to set about dealing with them,"
remarked John Smith, the philosopher of the crew.
Then, without caring -whether or not they awoke the
rest of the crew, they returned on deck.
It was a regular mutiny. Of the officers on board
besides Christian, Young alone, one of the midshipmen,
had made common cause with the mutineers.
As to the crew, those who hesitated at first had been
R 2
244 THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY/ 1
obliged to give in, whilst the other officers, without arms ?
and without a leader, remained spectators of the drama
which was being acted before their eyes.
All were drawn up in silence on the deck, and gazed at
their captain, who, half-naked, held his head high in the
midst of these men, who usually trembled before him.
" Captain Bligh," said Christian, roughly, "you are
deprived of your command."
" I do not recognise your right," replied the captain.
" Do not waste time in useless protestations," interrupted
Christian. " I now speak the sentiments of the Bounty's
crew. We had scarcely left England when we had already
reason to complain of your insulting suspicions, your brutal
proceedings. When I say we, I mean the officers as well
as the seamen. We not only could not obtain the satisfac
tion which was our due, but you set aside our complaints
with contempt ! Are we dogs, that we should be abused
on every occasion ? Scoundrels, ruffians, liars, thieves,
you had no expression strong enough, no abuse coarse
enough for us ! Indeed, had we patiently borne such
a life, we should have been unworthy to be called men !
And I, I your countryman, who know your family, and
have already made two voyages under you, have you
spared me ? Did you not accuse me, only yesterday, of
stealing some wretched fruit ? And the men, they are put
in irons when guiltless of a fault. For a trifle they are
Captain Bligh in the power of the mutineers.
Page 244.
TURNED ADRIFT. 245
condemned to receive two dozen lashes. Well, everything
is paid for in this world ! You have been too liberal with
us, Bligh ! It is our turn now ! You are about to expiate
the insults, the injustice, the mad accusations, the moral
and physical tortures with which you have overwhelmed
your crew during a year and a half, and you shall pay
dearly for them ! Captain, you have been judged by
those whom you have offended, and you are condemned.
Is that right, shipmates ? "
"Yes, yes, death, death to the tyrant!" shouted the
greater number of the seamen, threatening their captain.
" Captain Bligh," resumed Christian, " some have spoken
of hoisting you dangling to the yard-arm, between sky and
sea ; others propose to make your back taste the cat you
have so freely bestowed on theirs, until you die under the
infliction. They lack imagination. I have a better plan
than that Besides, you are not alone guilty in this
matter. Those who have always faithfully executed your
orders, however cruel they were, would be in despair at
having to submit to my command. They deserve to bear
you company wherever the wind may drive you. Lower
the longboat!"
Christian's last words were received with a murmur of
disapprobation, which, however, did not seem to trouble
him. Captain Bligh, who was not intimidated by these
menaces, profited by the moment's silence to speak.
246
"Officers and men," he said, in a firm voice, "in my
character of officer in the royal navy, commander of the
Bounty, I protest against the treatment with which I am
threatened. If you have had reason to complain of the
way I have exercised my power, you might have had me
tried by a court-martial. But, doubtless, you have not
reflected on the serious consequences of the act you are
about to commit. To lay hand on your captain is to put
yourself in revolt against existing laws ; it will render a
return to your native country impossible, and will cause
you to be treated like pirates ! Sooner or later you will
come to an ignominious death, the death of traitors and
rebels ! In the name of honour and the obedience you
swore to me, I summon you to return to your duty !"
" We know perfectly well to what we expose ourselves,"
replied Churchill.
" Enough ! Enough ! " cried the crew, ready for any
deed of violence.
" Well," said Bligh, " if you must have a victim, let it be
me, but me alone ! Those of my companions whom you
condemn with me have only obeyed my orders ! "
The voice of the captain was now drowned by a chorus
of vociferations, and he was obliged to renounce the hope
of moving those pitiless hearts.
While this was going on, arrangements for the execution
of Christian's orders had been made.
TURNED ADRIFT. 247
However, a lively dispute had arisen among the mutineers,
some of whom wished to abandon Captain Bligh and his
friends without giving them a weapon, or leaving them
an ounce of bread.
Some and it was also Churchill's advice thought that
the number of those who ought to leave the ship was not
large enough. They must get rid, he said, of all the men
who, not being directly implicated in the plot, were not
safe. They could not depend on those who contented
themselves with merely accepting accomplished facts. As
to himself, his back was still sore from the lashes he had
received for deserting at Tahiti. The best, and the most
rapid way of healing it would be to deliver the captain
over to him ! He would know well how to revenge
himself, with his own hand !
"Hay ward! Hallett !" exclaimed Christian, addressing
two of the officers, without taking any notice of Churchill's
observations, " get into the boat."
"What have I done to you, Christian, that you should
treat me thus ?" said Hay ward. "You are sending me to
my death !"
" Recriminations are useless ! Obey, or else !
Fryer, in with you too ! "
But these officers, instead of going towards the boat,
approached Captain Bligh, and Fryer, who- seemed the
most determined, bent forward, saying
248 THE MUTINEERS OF THE
" Captain, will you try to retake the ship ? We have
no arms, it is true, but the mutineers, if surprised, could
not resist. If a few of us are killed, what matter ! We
can but try ! What do you think ? "
The officers were already preparing to throw themselves
on the mutineers, who were now busily engaged in making
ready the long boat, when Churchill, whose notice these
words, brief as they were, had not escaped, summoning
several well-armed men, forced them into the boat.
"Millward, Muspratt, Birket, and you others," said
Christian, addressing some of the seamen who had not
taken part in the mutiny, " go below and choose whatever
you value most ! You are to accompany Captain Bligh.
You, Morrison, look after those fellows ! Purcell, take
your carpenter's 'chest, I will allow you to have that."
Two masts with their sails, nails, a saw, a piece of sail
cloth, four small kegs, each containing twenty-four quarts
of water, a hundred and fifty pounds of biscuit, thirty-two
pounds of salt pork, six bottles of wine, six bottles of rum,
the captain's wine case, were all the stores and provisions
they were to be allowed to take.
They were given, besides, two or three old swords, but
fire-arms of any description were refused them.
"Where are Peter Hey wood and Stewart?" asked
Bligh, when he was in the boat. " Have they also betrayed
me?"
TURNED ADRIFT. 249
They had not betrayed him, but Christian had resolved
to keep them on board.
The captain now had a moment of discouragement and
very pardonable weakness, which, however, did not last.
" Christian," he said, " I give you my word of honour
to forget all that has just occurred, if you will give up
your abominable plan ! I beseech you, think of my wife
and family ! Should I perish, what will become of them ? "
"If you possessed any honour," answered Christian,
" things would not have reached this pitch. If you
yourself had thought a little more often of your wife, of
your family, and of the wives and families of others, you
would not have been so harsh, so unjust, towards all
of us!"
The boatswain's mate, as he was embarking, endeavoured
in his turn to soften Christian. All in vain.
" I have been suffering too long," he replied, bitterly.
41 You do not know what my tortures have been ! No, it
cannot last a day longer ; and, besides, you are not ignorant
that, all this voyage, I, the second officer of the ship, have
been treated like a dog ! However, in separating myself
from Captain Bligh, whom, in all probability, I shall never
see again, I wish from pity, not to take from him all hope
of safety. Smith, go to the captain's cabin, and bring him
his clothes, his commission, his journal, and his portfolio.
Also, give him my nautical charts, and my own sextant.
250 THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
He will thus have some chance of being able to save his
companions, and get out of the scrape himself!"
Christian's orders were performed, though not without
many objections from the crew.
" And now, Morrison, cast off," exclaimed the master's
mate, now the commander of the Bounty, " and leave them
to the mercy of God !"
Whilst the mutineers saluted Captain Bligh and his
unfortunate companions with ironical cheers, the unhappy
Christian, leaning against the hammock nettings, could
not take his eyes from the departing boat. This brave
officer, whose conduct, loyal and open, had always, till
then, merited the praises of all the commanders under
whom he had served, was to-day no better than the chief
of a band of pirates. He could never see again either
his old mother, or his betrothed, or the Isle of Man, his
native place. He had sunk in his own self-esteem, and
was dishonoured in the eyes of everyone.
Chastisement was already following his crime !
Christian watching the departing boat.
Page 250.
VOYAGE OF THE LONG BOAT. 251
CHAPTER II.
VOYAGE OF THE LONG BOAT.
WITH her eighteen passengers, officers and men, and the
scanty provisions she contained, the boat which carried
Bligh was so loaded that her gunwale was only fifteen
inches above the level of the sea. Twenty-one feet long
and six wide, she was a useful ship's boat for so numerous
a crew, but for such a voyage as she was destined to
perform, she appeared utterly unsuitable.
The sailors, confident in the skill and energy of their
captain and officers, who were now all joined in the same
fate, rowed vigorously, and the boat rapidly sped through
the waves.
Bligh had no hesitation about what he was to do. He
wished first of all to regain as soon as possible the island
of Tofoa, the nearest of the Friendly Islands, which they
had only left a few days before ; they would there collect
252 THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
bread-fruit, and renew their store of water, and then run
for Tonga-Tabou. They would there obtain a sufficient
quantity of provisions to last them till they could reach
the Dutch settlements in Timor, if, through fear of savages,
they did not wish to touch at any of the numerous
archipelagos scattered here and there on their way.
The first day passed without incident, and night was
falling when they sighted the coast of Tofoa. Unfortu
nately, the shore was so rocky, and the cliffs so steep, that
it was impossible to disembark that night. They must
wait for day.
Unless it was absolutely necessary, Bligh did not mean
to touch their provisions. The island would have to
nourish his men and himself. That seemed difficult, for,
on first landing, not a trace of inhabitants was to be met
with. Some, however, soon made their appearance, and,
being well received, others came, who brought them water
and a few cocoa-nuts.
Bligh's perplexity was great. What was he to say to
these natives, who had already trafficked with the Bounty
on her last visit ? At any cost it was necessary to hide
the truth, so as not to destroy the prestige which the
strangers had before acquired. Could they say that
they were sent for provisions for their ship, which was
out at sea ?
That was impossible, for the Bounty was not visible,
The English and the natives.
Page 252.
VOYAGE OF THE LONG BOAT. 253
even from the tops of the hills ! Should they state that
their vessel was wrecked, and they were the only survivors ?
That was the story most likely* to be credited. Perhaps
that would touch the hearts of the natives and induce them
to complete the provisioning of the boat. Bligh deter
mined to say this, though it was dangerous, and he cautioned
his men to adhere to the statement, so that they might all
agree.
On hearing this the natives made no sign of either
joy or sorrow. Their faces only expressed profound
astonishment, and [ it was impossible to guess what they
thought.
On the 2nd of May, the number of natives from other
parts of the island increased to an alarming extent, and
Bligh soon guessed that they had hostile intentions.
Some even tried to haul the boat up on the shore, and
only drew back before the energetic demonstrations of the
captain, who menaced them with his cutlass. Whilst this
was going on, some of the men, whom Bligh had sent to
search, brought back three gallons of water.
The time had come for quitting this inhospitable island.
At sunset all was ready ; but it was not easy to gain the
boat. The beach was covered with natives, clashing stones
against each other, ready to throw. The boat kept off a
few fathoms from the shore, and only touched just as the
men were ready to embark.
254 THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
The English, really uneasy at the hostile look of the
savages, walked down the beach, in the midst of two
hundred natives, who were evidently only waiting a signal
to rush upon them. However, all got safely into the boat,
when one of the sailors, named Bancroft, imprudently
returned to fetch some article he had forgotten. In a
second, the foolish man was surrounded and felled with
stones, his companions, having no firearms, being unable
to help him. At the same time they themselves were
attacked, and stones rained upon them.
"Come, lads," shouted Bligh, "bend to your oars and
pull hard ! "
The natives followed them into the sea, and showers of
pebbles fell upon them. Many men were wounded ; but
Thomas Hayward (there were two midshipmen of that
name belonging to the Bounty), picking up a stone which
had fallen into the boat, took aim at one of their assailants
and hit him between the eyes. The savage fell back with
a cry, which was answered by a cheer from the English.
Their unfortunate comrade was avenged.
By this time several canoes had left the shore and were
giving chase. This pursuit could have only ended in a
combat, the issue of which could not have been favourable,
when the master had a bright idea. Without suspecting
that he was imitating Hippomenes in his race with
Atalanta, he stripped off his jacket, which he threw into
VOYAGE OF THE LONG BOAT. 255
the sea. The natives, leaving the prey for the shadow,
stopped to pick it up, and this expedient permitted the
boat to double the point of the bay.
In the meantime night came on, and the savages
discouraged, abandoned the chase.
This first attempt at landing was too unlucky to be
renewed ; such at least was the opinion of Captain Bligh.
"We must now come to a resolution," he said. "The
scene which has just passed at Tofoa will occur again, I
am certain, at Tonga Tabou, and wherever else we may
touch. So small a number as we are, without firearms,
would be absolutely at the mercy of the savages. Having
no articles for barter, we could not buy provisions, and it
is impossible for us to procure them by force. We are
reduced to our own resources ; and you, my friends, know
as well as I do, how miserable they are ! But would it
not be better to be contented with them, rather than at
each landing to risk the lives of some of our party ?
However, I do not wish to hide anything of the horror of
our situation from you. To reach Timor we have nearly
twelve hundred leagues to run, and you must be satisfied
with one ounce of biscuit and a quarter of a pint of water
a day ! Safety can be obtained at this price only, and
also on the condition that you yield me implicit obedience.
Answer me without reserve ! Do you consent to attempt
the enterprise ? Will you swear to obey my orders,
256 THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
whatever they may be ? Will you promise to submit
without murmuring to these privations ? "
" Yes, yes, we swear it ! " exclaimed Bligh's companions,
with one voice.
" My friends," resumed the captain, " we must also forget
our reciprocal wrongs, our antipathies, and our hates, in
one word, sacrifice our personal grudges to the interest of
all, which must alone guide us ! "
" We promise."
" If you keep your word," added Bligh, "and if need be,
I can force you to do so, I will answer for your safety."
A course was now steered to the W.N.W. The wind,
which was strong, blew a regular gale by the evening of
the 4th of May. The waves were so high that the boat
disappeared between them, and could hardly struggle up
again. Every moment the danger increased. Drenched
and chilled, the unfortunate men had] nothing to comfort
them on that day but a glass of rum and the quarter of a
half-rotten bread-fruit.
During the next and following days their condition did
not improve. The boat passed by a few islands, from
which several canoes put off.
Was it to give chase, or to try and barter ? In any
case it would be imprudent to stop. The boat, therefore,
her sails filled with a fair breeze, soon left them far
behind.
Bligh's perilous voyage.
Page 256.
VOYAGE OF THE LONG BOAT. 257
On the Qth of May again a terrible storm broke over
them. Thunder and lightning succeeded without interrup
tion. The rain fell with a force, of which even the most
violent storms of our climate fail to give an idea. It was
impossible to dry their clothes. Bligh then thought of
plunging them into the sea, and thus to impregnate them
with salt, so as to bring back to the skin a little of the
warmth carried away by the rain. These torrents of rain,
however, which caused so much suffering to the captain
and his companions, spared them other tortures still more
horrible, the tortures of thirst, which unbearable heat
would soon have produced.
On the morning of the i/th of May, after a frightful
gale, complaints became general.
" We shall never have strength to reach New Holland,"
cried the unfortunate crew. "Wet through by the rain,
exhausted by fatigue, we shall never have a moment's
rest ! We are half dead with hunger ; will you not increase
our rations, captain ? What matters it if our provisions
do fail ? We can easily replace them on arriving at New
Holland ! "
" I refuse," replied Bligh. " That would be to act like
fools. What ! We have only crossed half the distance
we had to run when cast adrift to reach Australia, and you
are already discouraged ! Do you think, besides, that
you will find it easy to obtain provisions on the coast of
S
258 THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
New Holland ? You know neither the country nor the
inhabitants ! "
And Bligh described in a graphic way the nature of the
soil, the manners and customs of the natives, the small
dependence they must place on a friendly reception,
everything, indeed, that his voyage with Captain Cook
had taught him. For this time his companions listened
and were silenced.
For the next fifteen days they were cheered by a
bright sun, which dried their clothes. On the 2/th they
crossed the reefs which border the eastern coast of New
Holland. The sea was calm behind this coral belt, and
several groups of islands, covered with exotic vegetation,
rejoiced their sight.
They landed, and advanced cautiously. No traces of
the natives did they find, except some signs of fires. It
was, therefore, possible to pass a good night on shore.
But they had to eat. By great good luck one of the
sailors discovered a bed of oysters, which furnished them
with a regular feast.
The next day Bligh found in the boat a magnifying
glass and a tinder-box. This enabled them to procure fire
to cook game or fish.
Bligh then proposed to divide his crew into three parties ;
one to stay and put everything in order in the boat, the
two others to go and search for food. But several men
VOYAGE OF THE LONG BOAT. 259
complained bitterly, declaring that they would rather go
without their dinner than venture into the country.
One of them, more violent or more bold than his
companions, went so far as to say to the captain
" One man is as good as another, and I don't see why
you should always take your ease ! If you are hungry go
and get something to eat ! For all the good you do I
could do as well ! "
Bligh, knowing that this mutinous spirit must be put a
stop to, immediately seized a cutlass, and throwing another
at the rebel's feet, he exclaimed
" Defend yourself, or I will kill you like a dog ! "
This energetic attitude soon brought the mutineer back
to reason, and the general discontent was calmed.
During this rest the boat's crew collected an abundance
of oysters and other shell-fish, as well as a supply of fresh
water.
A little further on, in the Endeavour Straits, of two
detachments, sent out to chase tortoises and noddies (a
species of sea-fowl), the first returned with empty hands,
the second with only six noddies ; but they would have
taken many more had it not been for the obstinacy of one
of the hunters, who, straying from his comrades, frightened
the birds. This man acknowledged afterwards that he
had managed to get hold of nine noddies, and had eaten
them raw on the spot.
S 2
260 THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
Without the food and fresh water they found on the
coast of New, Holland, it is very certain that Bligh and
his companions would have perished. As it was, they
were in a most pitiable condition, so exhausted and
emaciated as to resemble skeletons rather than living-
men.
The voyage to Timor, through a little-known sea, was
but a mournful repetition of the sufferings already endured
by these unfortunate men before they reached the coasts
of New Holland. The only difference was that the
strength of all, without exception, was much diminished.
In the course of a few days their legs became swollen, and
while in this prostrate condition they were overwhelmed
with an incessant longing for sleep. These symptoms, it
was conjectured, foreboded a termination to their sufferings,
which could not be long in coming. As soon as Captain
Bligh perceived these alarming symptoms he distributed
double rations to the weakest, and strove to inspire them
with some hope.
At last, on the morning of the 1 2th of June, the coast of
Timor appeared, after a voyage of three thousand six
hundred miles had been accomplished under the most
frightful and trying circumstances.
The English received an excessively sympathetic recep
tion at Coupang ; and remained there two months to
recruit. Captain Bligh, having here purchased a small
VOYAGE OF THE LONG BOAT. 26 1
schooner, sailed for Batavia, which place was reached in
safety, and thence he embarked for England.
On the I4th of March, 1790, the deserted men landed
at Portsmouth. The recital of the tortures they had
endured excited universal sympathy and indignation.
The Admiralty almost immediately fitted out the frigate
Pandora, of twenty-four guns, which, with a crew of a
hundred and sixty men, was sent out in pursuit of the
mutineers of the Bounty.
We will now see what had become of them.
262 THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY.'
CHAPTER III.
THE MUTINEERS.
AFTER Captain Bligh had been deserted in the open sea,
the Bounty set sail for Tahiti. The same day she reached
Toubouai. The smiling aspect of this little island, sur
rounded by a belt of coral rocks, invited Christian to touch
there ; but the demonstrations of the inhabitants appearing
too threatening, a landing was not effected.
On the 6th of June, 1789, the anchor was dropped in
the roads of MatavaT. Great was the surprise of the
Tahitians on recognising the Bounty. The mutineers soon
fell in with the natives, whose friendship they had gained
on a previous occasion, and to them they told a story, into
which they took care to bring the name of Captain Cook,
whom the Tahitians well remembered.
On the 29th of June the mutineers departed for Toubouai
and began a search for some island out of the ordinary
route of ships, where the soil was fertile enough to supply
The Bounty approaching the shore.
Page 262.
THE MUTINEERS. 263
them with food, and where they might live in security.
They roved thus from one group of islands to another,
committing excesses of all sorts, which Christian's authority
was rarely sufficient to prevent. Then, attracted once
more by the fertility of Tahiti, and by the gentle and
easy nature of the inhabitants, they returned to the Bay
of Matavai'. There two-thirds of the crew landed, but that
same evening the Bounty weighed anchor and disappeared,
before the men suspected Christian of any intention of
going without them.
Left to their own resources, the seamen established
themselves without much regret in different parts of the
island. George Stewart and Peter Hey wood, the two
midshipmen whom Christian had excepted from the
sentence pronounced against Bligh, and had brought in
spite of themselves, remained at Matavai' near the king
Tippao, whose sister Stewart soon afterwards married.
Morrison and Milward joined the chief Peno, who received
them well. As to the others they went inland, and before
long took Tahitian wives.
Churchill and a mad fellow named Thompson, after
having committed all sorts of crimes, came at last to blows.
Churchill was killed in the struggle, and Thompson was
stoned to death by the natives.
Thus perished two of the persons who had taken the
greatest share in the mutiny. The others, on the contrary,
264 THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
by their good conduct, endeared themselves to the
Tahitians.
However, Morrison and Milward, always seeing chastise
ment suspended over their heads, could not live quietly
in an island where they might be so easily discovered.
They, therefore, conceived the idea of building a schooner,
in which to reach Batavia, there to conceal themselves in
the midst of a civilised community. With eight of their
companions, having only a few ordinary carpenters' tools,
they contrived, not without difficulty, to construct a small
vessel, which they called the Resolution, mooring her in a
bay behind Venus Point ; but the impossibility of procuring
sails prevented them from putting to sea.
All this time, strong in their innocence, Stewart cultivated
a garden, and Peter Heywood collected materials for a
vocabulary, which, later, was of great assistance to the
English missionaries.
Eighteen months had thus passed away, when, on the
23rd of March, 1791, a vessel doubled Venus Point, and
anchored in Matavai Bay. This was the Pandora, sent in
pursuit of the mutineers by the English Admiralty.
Heywood and Stewart hastened on board, declared their
names and rank, and said that they had taken no part in
the mutiny; but they were not believed, and were imme
diately put in irons, as were the rest of the men found on
shore, without the least enquiry having been made as
THE MUTINEERS. 265
to the truth of their statements. Loaded with chains, and
threatened that they would be shot should they converse
in the Tahitian language among themselves, they were
shut up in a cage eleven feet long, placed at the end of the
quarter-deck, to which some one versed in mythology gave
the name of Pandora's box.
On the I Qth of May, the Resolution, which had been
provided with sails, and the Pandora, put to sea. For
three months they cruised among the Friendly Isles, where
it was supposed that Christian and the rest of the mutineers
had taken refuge. As the Resolution did not draw much
water, she was of great use in this cruise; but she dis
appeared near Chatham Island, and although the Pandora
remained in the neighbourhood for several days, nothing
was ever again heard of her or of the five seamen by whom
she was manned. BKCroft Lit***
The Pandora was on her way back to Europe with the
prisoners, when, in Torres Straits, she struck on a coral
reef, and went down with thirty-one of her own men, and
four of the mutineers.
The crew and the prisoners who escaped gained a sandy
island. There the officers and seamen sheltered themselves
under tents ; but the mutineers, exposed to the heat of a
vertical sun, were obliged, in order to obtain a little relief,
to bury themselves up to their necks in sand.
The castaways remained on this islet for some days, and
266 THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
then all reached Timor in the Pandora's boats, the strict
watch kept over the mutineers, notwithstanding the fearful
circumstances in which they were placed, never being for
a moment relaxed.
Reaching England in the month of June, 1792, the
mutineers were brought before a court-martial, presided
over by Admiral Hood. The trial lasted six days, and
was terminated by the acquittal of four of the accused,
and the condemnation to death of six others, for the crime
of desertion and carrying off of the vessel given to their
charge. Four of the condemned were hung on board
a ship of war ; the two others, Stewart and Peter Heywood,
whose innocence was at last acknowledged, were pardoned.
But what had become of the Bounty ? Had she been
wrecked with the last of the mutineers ? This no one
could tell.
In iSi4,[twenty-five years after the scene with which this
narrative commences, two English ships of war were
cruising in Oceania, under the command of Captain Staines.
They found themselves to the south of the dangerous
archipelago, in sight of a mountainous and volcanic island,
discovered by Carteret in his voyage round the world, and
by him given the name of Pitcairn Island. It was a mere
islet, almost without a shore, rising perpendicularly from
the sea, and clothed to its summit with forests of palms
and bread-fruit trees.
THE MUTINEERS. 267
This island had never before been visited ; it was twelve
hundred miles from Tahiti, 25 4' south latitude, and
1 80 8' west longitude; it measured four miles and a
half in circumference, and only a mile and a half across
in its widest part. No one knew what report Carteret
had given of it.
Captain Staines resolved to survey it, and ascertain if
a suitable place for landing existed.
On approaching the shore, he was surprised at seeing
huts, plantations, and on the beach, two natives, who, having
launched a boat and skilfully crossed the surf, came
towards his vessel. But his astonishment was boundless
when they addressed him in excellent English with the
words
" Hullo, you there ! Will you heave us a rope, that we
may get on board !"
Directly they reached the deck, the two sturdy rowers
were surrounded by the wondering sailors, who over
whelmed them with questions. Brought before the captain,
they were interrogated in form
"Who are you?"
" My name is Thursday October Christian, and my mate
here is Ned Young."
These names told nothing to Captain Staines, who was
far from thinking of the survivors of the Bounty.
" How long have you lived here ?"
263 THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
u We were born here."
" How old are you ?"
" I am five-and-twenty, and Young is eighteen."
" Were your parents wrecked on this island ? "
The son of Fletcher Christian, for such the young man
was, then gave Captain Staines the following narrative
On leaving Tahiti, where he abandoned twenty-one of
his comrades, Christian, who had on board an account
-of Cartaret's voyage, steered towards Pitcairn Island, the
position of which appeared to him suitable for the plan he
proposed. Twenty-eight men now composed the crew of
the Bounty. They were Fletcher Christian, the midshipman
Young, and seven seamen, six Tahitians, three with wives,
a child of ten months old, and three men and six women,
natives of Rouboua'f .
The first care of Christian and his companions on
reaching Pitcairn had been to destroy the Bounty, so as
not to be discovered. This, of course, prevented their leav
ing the island again, but it was necessary for their safety.
The establishment of the little colony was not made
without difficulty among persons whose only bond of union
was their common crime. Bloody quarrels soon broke out
between the Tahitians and the English. In 1794 only four
of the mutineers survived. Christian had fallen by the
knife of one of the natives he had brought to the island.
All the Tahitians had been massacred.
THE MUTINEERS. 269
One of the English, who had discovered a way of
manufacturing spirits from the root of a plant, became
brutalised by drunkenness, and, in a fit of delirium tremens,
threw himself from the top of a cliff into the sea.
Another, in a fit of madness, attacked Young, and one of
the sailors, named John Adams, was obliged to kill him.
In 1 800 Young died from a violent attack of asthma.
John Adams was then the sole survivor of the mutineers.
Remaining alone, with several women and twenty children,
the offspring of marriages between his shipmates and the
natives, the character of John Adams underwent a
complete change. He was then not more than thirty-six ;
but during those years he had been present at so many
scenes of violence and bloodshed, he had seen human
nature under so many sad aspects, that, on looking back
on his conduct, he became an altered man.
In the library of the Bounty, kept on the island, were
a Bible and several Prayer-books. John Adams, who read
them frequently, became converted, brought up the youth
ful population, who considered him as a father, in excellent
principles, and became, in the nature of things, the legis
lator, the high priest, and, so to speak, the king of Pitcairn.
However, up to 1814, his alarms had been constant. In
1795, a vessel had approached Pitcairn, and the four
survivors of the Bounty hid themselves in inaccessible woods,
not daring to descend to the bay until after the departure
2/O THE MUTINEERS OF THE "BOUNTY."
of the ship. John Adams acted in the same way, when, in
1808, an American captain landed on the island, from
which he carried off a chronometer and a compass, which
he sent to the British Admiralty ; but the Admiralty were
not affected at the sight of these relics of the Bounty, there
being something more important to think of in Europe just
at that time.
Such was the narrative given to Captain Staines by the
two natives, English on their father's side, one the son of
Christian, the other the son of Young ; but when Captain
Staines asked to see John Adams, the latter refused to
come on board, until he knew how he was likely to be
treated.
The captain, having assured the two young men that
John Adams was safe, as twenty-five years had passed
since the mutiny of the Bounty, went on shore, where he
was received by a population composed of forty-six adults,
and a large number of children. All were tall and strong,
of a clearly-marked English type, the girls especially being
remarkably pretty, the modesty of their manners making
them altogether charming.
The laws in force in the island were of the simplest
character. On a register was noted all that each one gained
by his work. Money was unknown, all transactions being
made by means of exchange ; but there was no manufactory,
as no materials were to be had. For clothing the inhabitants
THE MUTINEERS.
wore large hats and belts of grass. Fishing and agriculture
were their principal occupations. Marriages were only
made with the permission of Adams, and when the man
had cleared and planted ground sufficient for the support
of his future family.
Captain Staines, having collected much curious informa
tion relating to this island, thus long concealed from the
civilised world in the most unfrequented part of the
Pacific, put to sea, and returned to Europe.
Since that time the venerable John Adams has terminated
his checkered career. He died in 1829, and was replaced
by the Reverend John Nobbs, who then fulfilled in the
island the functions of pastor, doctor, and schoolmaster.
In 1853, the descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty
numbered a hundred and seventy individuals. Since then
the population had increased and become so numerous that,
three years later, it was decided to remove a number to
Norfolk Island, which until then had been used for convicts.
But the party of emigrants regretted Pitcairn so much,
although Norfolk was four times larger, its soil remarkable
for its richness, and living there was far easier, that after a
couple of years' stay, several families returned to Pitcairn,
where they continue to prosper.
Such was the issue of an adventure which had begun in
so tragic a way.
At first, mutineers, murderers, madmen, and now, under
2/2 THE MUTINEERS OF THE
the influence of Christian morals, and instruction given by
a poor converted sailor, Pitcairn Island has become the
fatherland of a gentle, hospitable, and happy population,
among whom are found the primitive manners of the
patriarchal ages.
LONDON : 1'RINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET
AND CHARING CROSS.
(XTS H\
