"If you should come our way, Prue and I will be very glad to see you,"
said I, "and I can promise you a warm welcome from the children."
"Many thanks," said the officer,--and handed me his card, upon which I read, _Le Baron Munchausen_.
"I beg your pardon," said a low voice at my side; and, turning, I saw one of the most constant smokers--a very old man--"I beg your pardon, but can you tell me where I came from?"
"I am sorry to say I cannot," answered I, as I surveyed a man with a very bewildered and wrinkled face, who seemed to be intently looking for something.
"Nor where I am going?"
I replied that it was equally impossible. He mused a few moments, and then said slowly, "Do you know, it is a very strange thing that I have not found anybody who can answer me either of those questions. And yet I must have come from somewhere," said he, speculatively--"yes, and I must be going somewhere, and I should really like to know something about it."
"I observe," said I, "that you smoke a good deal, and perhaps you find tobacco clouds your brain a little."
"Smoke! Smoke!" repeated he, sadly, dwelling upon the words; "why, it all seems smoke to me;" and he looked wistfully around the deck, and I felt quite ready to agree with him.
"May I ask what you are here for," inquired I; "perhaps your health, or business of some kind; although I was told it was a pleasure party?"
"That"s just it," said he; "if I only knew where we were going, I might be able to say something about it. But where are you going?"
"I am going home as fast as I can," replied I warmly, for I began to be very uncomfortable. The old man"s eyes half closed, and his mind seemed to have struck a scent.
"Isn"t that where I was going? I believe it is; I wish I knew; I think that"s what it is called, Where is home?"
And the old man puffed a prodigious cloud of smoke, in which he was quite lost.
"It is certainly very smoky," said he, "I came on board this ship to go to--in fact, I meant, as I was saying, I took pa.s.sage for--." He smoked silently. "I beg your pardon, but where did you say I was going?"
Out of the mist where he had been leaning over the side, and gazing earnestly into the surrounding obscurity, now came a pale young man, and put his arm in mine.
"I see," said he, "that you have rather a general acquaintance, and, as you know many persons, perhaps you know many things. I am young, you see, but I am a great traveller. I have been all over the world, and in all kinds of conveyances; but," he continued, nervously, starting continually, and looking around, "I haven"t yet got abroad."
"Not got abroad, and yet you have been everywhere?"
"Oh! yes; I know," he replied, hurriedly; "but I mean that I haven"t yet got away. I travel constantly, but it does no good--and perhaps you can tell me the secret I want to know. I will pay any sum for it. I am very rich and very young, and, if money cannot buy it, I will give as many years of my life as you require."
He moved his hands convulsively, and his hair was wet upon his forehead. He was very handsome in that mystic light, but his eye burned with eagerness, and his slight, graceful frame thrilled with the earnestness of his emotion. The Emperor Hadrian, who loved the boy Antinous, would have loved the youth.
"But what is it that you wish to leave behind?" said I, at length, holding his arm paternally; "what do you wish to escape?"
He threw his arms straight down by his side, clenched his, hands, and looked fixedly in my eyes. The beautiful head was thrown a little back upon one shoulder, and the wan faced glowed with yearning desire and utter abandonment to confidence, so that, without his saying it, I knew that he had never whispered the secret which he was about to impart to me. Then, with a long sigh, as if his life were exhaling, he whispered,
"Myself."
"Ah! my boy, you are bound upon a long journey."
"I know it," he replied mournfully; "and I cannot even get started. If I don"t get off in this ship, I fear I shall never escape." His last words were lost in the mist which gradually removed him from my view.
"The youth has been amusing you with some of his wild fancies, I suppose," said a venerable man, who might have been twin brother of that snowy-bearded pilot. "It is a great pity so promising a young man should be the victim of such vagaries."
He stood looking over the side for some time, and at length added,
"Don"t you think we ought to arrive soon?"
"Where?" asked I.
"Why, in Eldorado, of course," answered he.
"The truth is, I became very tired of that long process to find the Philosopher"s Stone, and, although I was just upon the point of the last combination which must infallibly have produced the medium, I abandoned it when I heard Orellana"s account, and found that Nature had already done in Eldorado precisely what I was trying to do. You see," continued the old man abstractedly, "I had put youth, and love, and hope, besides a great many scarce minerals, into the crucible, and they all dissolved slowly, and vanished--in vapor. It was curious, but they left no residuum except a little ashes, which were not strong enough to make a lye to cure a lame finger. But, as I was saying, Orellana told us about Eldorado just in time, and I thought, if any ship would carry me there it must be this. But I am very sorry to find that any one who is in pursuit of such a hopeless goal as that pale young man yonder, should have taken pa.s.sage. It is only age," he said, slowly stroking his white beard, "that teaches us wisdom, and persuades us to renounce the hope of escaping ourselves; and just as we are discovering the Philosopher"s Stone, relieves our anxiety by pointing the way to Eldorado."
"Are we really going there?" asked I, in some trepidation.
"Can there be any doubt of it?" replied the old man. "Where should we be going, if not there? However, let us summon the pa.s.sengers and ascertain."
So saying, the venerable man beckoned to the various groups that were cl.u.s.tered, ghost-like, in the mist that enveloped the ship. They seemed to draw nearer with listless curiosity, and stood or sat near us, smoking as before, or, still leaning on the side, idly gazing. But the restless figure who had first accosted me, still paced the deck, flitting in and out of the obscurity; and as he pa.s.sed there was the same mien of humbled pride, and the air of a fate of tragic grandeur, and still the same faint odor of old clothes, and the low querulous cry, "Old clo!" old clo"!"
The ship dashed on. Unknown odors and strange sounds still filled the air, and all the world went by us as we flew, with no other noise than the low gurgling of the sea around the side.
"Gentlemen," said the reverend pa.s.senger for Eldorado, "I hope there is no misapprehension as to our destination?"
As he said this, there was a general movement of anxiety and curiosity. Presently the smoker, who had asked me where he was going, said, doubtfully:
"I don"t know--it seems to me--I mean I wish somebody would distinctly say where we are going."
"I think I can throw a light upon this subject," said a person whom I had not before remarked. He was dressed like a sailor, and had a dreamy eye. "It is very clear to me where we are going. I have been taking observations for some time, and I am glad to announce that we are on the eve of achieving great fame; and I may add," said he, modestly, "that my own good name for scientific ac.u.men will be amply vindicated. Gentlemen, we are undoubtedly going into the Hole."
"What hole is that?" asked M. le Baron Munchausen, a little contemptuously.
"Sir, it will make you more famous than you ever were before," replied the first speaker, evidently much enraged.
"I am persuaded we are going into no such absurd place," said the Baron, exasperated.
The sailor with the dreamy eye was fearfully angry. He drew himself up stiffiy and said:
"Sir, you lie!"
M. le Baron Munchausen took it in very good part. He smiled and held out his hand:
"My friend," said he, blandly, "that is precisely what I have always heard. I am glad you do me no more than justice. I fully a.s.sent to your theory: and your words const.i.tute me the proper historiographer of the expedition. But tell me one thing, how soon, after getting into the Hole, do you think we shall get out?"
"The result will prove," said the marine gentleman, handing the officer his card, upon which was written, _Captain Symmes_. The two gentlemen then walked aside; and the groups began to sway to and fro in the haze as if not quite contented.
"Good G.o.d," said the pale youth, running up to me and clutching my arm, "I cannot go into any Hole alone with myself. I should die--I should kill myself. I thought somebody was on board, and I hoped you were he, who would steer us to the fountain of oblivion."
"Very well, that is in the Hole," said M. le Baron, who came out of the mist at that moment, leaning upon the Captain"s arm.
"But can I leave myself outside?" asked the youth, nervously.