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Page 83
"Is Mr. Jones one of the officers of the 'Albatross'?" asked Erik.
"He is the owner and captain of her!" answered O'Donoghan, in a tone
which seemed to express surprise at the question.
"Then Mr. Tudor Brown is not the captain of the 'Albatross'?"
"I don't know," said the wounded man, hesitatingly, seeming to ask
himself whether he had been too confidential in speaking as freely as he
had done.
Erik did not think it wise to insist on this point. He had too many
other questions to ask.
"You see," he said to the Irishman, as he seated himself on the snow
beside him, "you refused the other day to come on board of my ship and
talk with me, and your refusal has occasioned many disasters. But now
that we have met again, let us profit by this opportunity to talk
seriously and like rational men. You see you are here on a floating
ice-bank, without food, and seriously wounded, incapable by your own
efforts of escaping the most cruel death. My adopted father and myself
have all that you need, food, fire-arms, and brandy. We will share with
you, and take care of you until you are well again. In return for our
care, we only ask you to treat us with a little confidence!"
The Irishman gave Erik an irresolute look in which gratitude seemed to
mingle with fear--a look of fearful indecision.
"That depends on the kind of confidence that you ask for?" he said,
evasively.
"Oh, you know very well," answered Erik, making an effort to smile, and
taking in his hands those of the wounded man. "I told you the other day;
you know what I want to find out and what I have come so far to
discover. Now, Patrick O'Donoghan, make a little effort and disclose to
me this secret which is of so much importance to me, tell me what you
know about the infant tied to the buoy. Give me the faintest indication
of who I am, so that I may find my family. What do you fear? What danger
do you run in satisfying me?"
O'Donoghan did not answer, but seemed to be turning over in his obtuse
brain the arguments that Erik had used.
"But," he said at last, with an effort, "if we succeed in getting away
from here, and we reach some country where there are judges and courts,
you could do me some harm?"
"No, I swear that I would not. I swear it by all that is sacred," said
Erik, hotly. "Whatever may be the injuries you have inflicted upon me or
upon others, I guarantee that you shall not suffer for them in any way.
Besides, there is one fact of which you seem to be ignorant, it is that
there is a limit to such matters. When such events have taken place more
than twenty years ago, human justice has no longer the right to demand
an accounting for them."
"Is that true?" asked Patrick O'Donoghan, distrustfully. "Mr. Jones told
me that the 'Alaska' had been sent by the police, and you yourself spoke
of a tribunal."
"That was about recent events--an accident that happened to us at the
beginning of our journey. You may be sure that Mr. Jones was mocking
you, Patrick. Doubtless he has some interest of his own for wishing you
not to tell."
"You may be sure of that," said the Irishman, earnestly. "But how did
you discover that I was acquainted with this secret?"
"Through Mr. and Mrs. Bowles of the Red Anchor in Brooklyn, who had
often heard you speak of the infant tied to the buoy."
"That is true," said the Irishman. He reflected again. "Then you are
sure that you were not sent by the police?" he said, at length.
"No--what an absurd idea. I came of my own accord on account of my
ardent desire, my thirst, to discover the land of my birth and to find
out who my parents were, that is all."
O'Donoghan smiled, proudly:
"Ah, that is what you want to know," he said. "Well, it is true that I
can tell you. It is true that I know."
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