Chapter 2

COUNT D'ARTIGAS.

Just who was this Count d'Artigas? A Spaniard? So his name would
appear to indicate. Yet on the stern of his schooner, in letters of
gold, was the name _Ebba_, which is of pure Norwegian origin. And had
you asked him the name of the captain of the _Ebba_, he would have
replied, Spade, and would doubtless have added that that of the
boatswain was Effrondat, and that of the ship's cook, Helim--all
singularly dissimilar and indicating very different nationalities.

Could any plausible hypothesis be deducted from the type presented by
Count d'Artigas? Not easily. If the color of his skin, his black hair,
and the easy grace of his attitude denoted a Spanish origin, the
_ensemble_ of his person showed none of the racial characteristics
peculiar to the natives of the Iberian peninsula.

He was a man of about forty-five years of age, about the average
height, and robustly constituted. With his calm and haughty demeanor
he resembled an Hindoo lord in whose blood might mingle that of some
superb type of Malay. If he was not naturally of a cold temperament,
he at least, with his imperious gestures and brevity of speech,
endeavored to make it appear that he was. As to the language usually
spoken by him and his crew, it was one of those idioms current in
the islands of the Indian Ocean and the adjacent seas. Yet when his
maritime excursions brought him to the coasts of the old or new world
he spoke English with remarkable facility, and with so slight an
accent as to scarcely betray his foreign origin.

None could have told anything about his past, nor even about his
present life, nor from what source he derived his fortune,--obviously
a large one, inasmuch as he was able to gratify his every whim and
lived in the greatest luxury whenever he visited America,--nor where
he resided when at home, nor where was the port from which his
schooner hailed, and none would have ventured to question him upon any
of these points so little disposed was he to be communicative. He was
not the kind of man to give anything away or compromise himself in the
slightest degree, even when interviewed by American reporters.

All that was known about him was what was published in the papers when
the arrival of the _Ebba_ was reported in some port, and particularly
in the ports of the east coast of the United States, where the
schooner was accustomed to put in at regular periods to lay in
provisions and stores for a lengthy voyage. She would take on board
not only flour, biscuits, preserves, fresh and dried meat, live stock,
wines, beers, and spirits, but also clothing, household utensils, and
objects of luxury--all of the finest quality and highest price, and
which were paid for either in dollars,