JVIarcli g, 1916. 
LAND AND WATER 
CHAYA. 
A Romance of the South Seas. 
By H. de Vere Stacpoole. 
Synopsis : Macquart, an adventurer who has spent 
most of his life at sea, finds himself in Sydney on his beam ends. 
He has a wonderful story of gold hidden up a river in New 
Guinea and a chance acquaintance, Tillman, a sporting ma>< 
about town, fond of yachting and racing, offers to introduce him 
to a wealthy woolbroker , Curlewis, with a view to financing the 
scheme. Macquart also makes the acquaintance of Houghton, 
u well-educated Englishman out of a job, who has done a good 
■deal of yachting in his time. Curlewis turns down the scheme, 
■though Macquart tells his story in a most convincing manner. 
His silent partner Screed believes in it, and unbeknown to 
■Curleivis, follows the three men. asks them to his home, and 
■agrees to find the ship and the money, on seeing that Macquart' s 
hidden treasute map agrees wiih an Admiralty chart. The 
ship is the yawl " Barracuda." Screed, on the morrow, takes 
the three men over the " Barracuda," with which they are de- 
lighted. Coming aivay Macquart is overtaken by an old friend. 
■one Captain Hull, who hails him as B — y Joe, and accuses 
him of many mean crimes. Macquart gives Captain Hull 
the slip, but unbeknown to him Hull gets in touch with Screed, 
and enlightens him on the real character of Macquart. Just as 
the " Barracuda " is about to sail Screed takes Hull on board 
and unexpectedly introduces him to Macquart as a member of 
the crew. Before the ship is a day out Captain Hull makes it 
plain to Macquart he is on the look-out for his " monkey tricks." 
CHAPTER XI. 
They Sight the River. 
THE Java Sea, the Banda Sea, unci the Arafura Sea, 
all locked in by the Sunda Islands, North Australia, 
Borneo, the Celebes and New Guinea form a 
lake almost bluer than the Carribean, almost 
as romantic. 
Never despise Trade. The Romance of Adventure is 
written on the tablets prepared by the traders of the world, 
and in the go-downs of Macassar, the trading houses of Batavia, 
and on the wharves of Malacca you will find more of the 
spirit of the Real Thing Worth Living For than in the wildest 
book of Adventures ever written, and no spot in the world 
tnore starred with high doings in the cut and thrust line than 
just here. 
Torres Straits is the highway between the Arafura Sea 
and the Pacific. In the old sandal-wood days and in the early 
times when the Dutch were greater in the east than they are 
now and the prahus of piratical dyaks more active, Torres 
Straits was the scene of many a bloody fight, unrecorded, 
•between the merchant adventurers of Holland and the Islanders 
•who did not care a button about monej' so loi^g as they got 
licads. 
Through this wilderness of blue with the long, low line 
•of the New Guinea coast on the horizon to starboard the 
Barracuda was steering, Houghton at the wheel and Tillman 
beside him. 
It was nine o'clock in the morning, the wind was almost 
due south and they reckoned to strike the coast where the 
river disembogued before noon ; nothing shewed but the 
coast-line and an oil tank almost hull down to windward and 
a gull flickering dark against the sea blaze astern. 
" Well," said Tillman. " We've done it pretty near. 
To think of us three in the bar at Lamperts a few weeks ago 
talking of the thing without the seeming ghost of a chance 
of pulUng it through, and now to think of us here, nosing 
through Torres Straits without having lost a spar, riglit on the 
business like a hawk. I tell you, Houghton, if I wasn't a 
modest man I'd be proud of myself." 
" We've had good luck," said the man at the wheel, 
" and Luck's a jolly good thing to have with one if it wasn't 
so changeable. We're here, but we have all our work cut out 
before us." 
Tillman whistled. 
" We have begun well," went on Houghton, " but we 
have all the stuff on board for an explosion between Macquart 
and Hull, even if we have the best of Luck and this woman 
is dead or doesn't recognise Macquart there's likely to be 
trouble between those two. The}^ hate each other hke poison. 
Hull's a good chap, 1 think, though he might be better ; 
an\'how, he's a long, long chalk better than the other, but I 
can't understand him. He doesn't fight openly with Macquart 
but he's all the time jeering at him under the pretence of 
making fun and when he has a chance, doesn't he work him— 
ue can't afford that sort of thing on an expedition like this." 
" Well, there's no use in worrying," said Tillman. " AU 
we've got to do is to keep our eye on the moment and do our 
best. You're letting her off the course." 
Houghton flushed and put the helm over a few spokes. 
Tillman had a lot of common sense though up to this no one 
wovdd have suspected it, and his rebuke was all the more 
severe because deserved. Worrying about the future becomes 
a crime when it detracts from the business of the moment and 
lets the ship off the course. 
At three bells the whole crew being on deck and the coast 
close up to them, Hull, who had been looKing through the 
glass, lianded it to Macquart. 
" That's the rock you spoke of if I ain't mistaken," said 
Hull. 
Macquart looked through the glass. 
" That's the rock," said he. ' 
He kept the glass to his eye for a full half-minute, then 
he handed it to Tillman. 
Tillman took a peep at the object in question. 
It was a remarkable feature on that flat shore, where 
the mangrove trees crept down literally to the edge of the 
reef-protected water. 
The whole coast-line seemed reef-protected and in the 
sun blaze the foam breaking on the reefs showed like snow. 
" Well," said Hull, " it's not invitin', but there's the 
rock, anyway, as you said it would be, and it's up to you, Mac, 
to pilot us in." 
" Keep her as she goes," said Macquart. 
As pilot the command of the Barracuda was now in his 
hands and Hull was his servant, but he did not " s^well him- 
self," to use Hull's expression. He had the appearance of 
a man deeply absorbed in some fateful speculation, and he 
drew apart from the others, his eyes fixed on the coast and 
sometimes cast anxiously to windward. 
The wind held steady, almost due south, and now with 
the Pulpit Rock coming abreast of them, Macquart gave an 
order, the spokes of the wheel flew to starboard and the 
Barracuda with the main boom svioing out and sailing dead 
before the \vind, headed for the shore. 
Hull, shading his eyes with the sharp of his hand, saw the 
great black break in the reefs they were making for. It was 
the break where the river disembogued and he pointed it out 
to Tillman. 
" That's the river anyway," said he," and a fair wind to 
take us up. I reckon Mac's no fool. Up to this I've never 
been sure of him, but he's made good so far." 
" Yes, we haven't got on badly up to now," said Tillman. 
As they drew closer in, the reef opening spread wider 
before them, and the Barracuda, going before the vwnd, took 
the gentle swell with the light and buoyant motion of a 
balloon ; the foam bursts of the reefs shewed a long way to 
port and starboard as they passed the reef ends and now, 
the land close up on either hand, the river lay before them like 
a sheet of gold. 
Houghton stood speechless before the strangeness and 
beauty of this place so remote and so different from any place 
he had seen before. Save for the great rock standing like a 
sentinel and swarmed about by gulls, the land shewed nothing 
buc loliage, the dark green of mangroves dreaming upon their 
water-shadows, the emerald fronds of palm, the wind-stirred 
masses of the dammar, cutch and camphor, wildernesses on 
either side the river ; all these held a charm mysterious as 
the charm of the river itself flowing in stereoscopic stillness 
from the mysterious land beyond. 
It was here that the Terschclling came in all those years 
ago, either under sail if the wind was favourable, or towed or 
warped up that bright waterway to her last anchorage, with 
John Lant directing operations and Macquart no doubt assist- 
ing as deck hand. 
It was away up there in the mysterious country that 
she was sunk with all hands bottled in the fo'c'sle after the 
gold had been safely cached. It was up there that Macquart 
according to all probability, had done John Lant in, and, 
profiting nothing by his crime, had escaped with his bare life 
from the place to which he was now stealing back. 
For a moment, as these thoughts occurred to Houghton, 
the whole brilliant scene before Iiim became tinged with gloom 
and tragedy and Macquart a figure of horror ; for a moment, 
as they passed the river moutli and took the gentle current of 
the half mile broad stream, a hand seemed thrust against his 
breast and a voice seemed to cry " Begone — " And then, 
flashing by him came a thing like a lady's jewelled aigrette — 
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