The passenger looked on him with eyes of admiration, as he stood, grand in the possession of unmatched strength—flushed with the triumph of successful enterprise, and glorying in his daring—the daring which had, so many a time and oft, [200] ]carried him through perils and desperate encounters, to which this last one was but child’s play.
‘And now,’ said Hayston, taking the passenger’s arm, ‘let us walk the deck, while I tell you how I became possessed of your history, and was persuaded to mix myself up in your affairs. Can you call to memory the name of a friend who would be likely to be reckless of money and time spent in effecting your release?’
‘Of course—there is Lytton Carteret—my wife’s cousin—sincerely attached to her, and an early friend of mine—but I have not heard of him for years. He was said to have been travelling in the East.’
‘That is so. He informed me that he had nearly reached Lhassa, but had been turned back by a guard of Thibetan soldiers.’
‘Then he has returned? And where is he now?’
‘He is awaiting the return of the brig Leonora at Apia harbour, where he hopes to meet Don Alvarez—now on his travels in the South Pacific.’
‘Then he knows of my having left——?’
‘Nukuheva, let us say—rather a fashionable resort just now—Lord Pembroke and a friend were staying there for some months lately.’
‘A light breaks in on me. Of course I could hear nothing in that inferno, out of the world and the world’s life. Do I guess aright that it was he that——?’
‘Yes! Señor Alvarez; it was he that engineered this little coup of ours. He had made [201] ]a pasear to Easter Island, where he happened on William H. Hayston, master mariner—whom he met once at the Hokianga, New Zealand—and it came into his head that he might take a hand in this deal. Dollars, of course, were necessary, and he planked down handsomely. Made money in some place in West Australia, I think.’