The Lord of the Sea Part 27

Here and now he was descended deep into himself, aspiring to greatness, set on high designs; and, as the days pa.s.sed, his thoughts more and more took form, though sometimes, with a sudden heart-pang, he would flinch and shrink, pierced by a consciousness of the unwieldy thing which he was at; and he would mutter: "I _must_ be mad". Anon he would start and cower at a distinct sound of cannon in his ears.

Usually, during the day, he had with him an atlas, a pair of compa.s.ses.

One day he took train, to see the sea.

Another day, happening to look into the goat-hair trunk, he saw that account-book, containing the addresses of the signatories to his old "a.s.sociation", and was overjoyed. "Quite a little army", he tenderly said: "I won't forget them".

After two months he left Hadston for London, having in his head a new age hatched.

XXVIII

THE LETTER

It was night when Hogarth broke into the presence of Loveday at Cheyne Gardens with a glad face, crying: "Forgive me, my friend, for being a boor!"

"You are forgiven", Loveday answered with his smile, hastening to meet him: "the broken picture, you see, is in a better frame, and so are we.

What could have made us invent a quarrel about--land, of all things!"

"Come, let us talk", said Hogarth: "not long--all about land, and sea, too. I suppose you have nothing to tell about my sister? Never mind--we shall find her. Come, sit and give me _all_ your intelligence. You are not interested in land, then? You _will_ be in ten minutes--it is interesting. Listen: all the land of the earth is _mine_, and all the sea especially--a good thing, for, for a hundred years Europe, especially England, has wanted a master: the anarchy of our modern life is too terrible! it cannot arrange itself; and now the hour has struck, though none has heard the bell".

"Hogarth! but you gabble like a mad G.o.d", cried Loveday. "I am all in the dark--"

"I will tell you".

And he spoke, first going into his discovery at Colmoor, frowning upon Loveday, ploughing the truth into his brow; proving how modern misery, in its complexity, had its cause in one simple old fault, sure as the fact that smoke ascends, or apples fall. And when he saw conviction beam in Loveday's face, he next told what had happened at the elm-tree, and what would happen-soon; whereat Loveday, like a frightened child, clung to his arm, and once gasped: "Oh no--my G.o.d!" and once felt a gory ghost raise horror in his hairs.

An hour afterwards they were bending over a sheet of paper, Hogarth in his shirt-sleeves, writing, Loveday overlooking, suggesting, when two men were announced, and in stepped O'Hara with bows and polished hesitations, followed by his shadow, Harris; and, "Ah, O'Hara..." cried Hogarth, still writing, "who is that with you?"

"A friend of mine", said Loveday, for O'Hara had introduced Harris to him, and he had adopted Harris as a human study, horrid, but amusing.

The moment O'Hara saw the face of Hogarth, he started, muttering: "He has the diamonds back! G.o.d! is he a magician?"

And Harris drawled nasally: "Of course, you wouldn't know me now, Mr.

76! Were there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine, it _is_".

Hogarth was silent--had not yet decided what to do with Harris.

"This is my tenth call here, Hogarth", said O'Hara, "in the hope of seeing you, and the streets, you know, are no small risk. You see how I am m.u.f.fled up, and this gentleman, too. By the bye, I have selected a cargo of books for you--"

"No study for a month", said Hogarth, "but I shall want you all the same. Just come over here and watch me write this thing. You, Harris, sit right over there".

Harris cursed, but obeyed, while O'Hara came and bent under the golden glow of the silk shade a brow puckered with a care of puzzlement, as he read.

Then he fell into the work, and was soon the director of it--invaluable!

knew everything! remembered forgotten points; explained technicalities; the proper person in each little State to whom the doc.u.ment must be directed, the style of addressing him. Of one sentence he said: "That will never do--lacks formality"; and of another: "Tut, they will laugh at that--it is provincial and insolent", distracted between the work and his brandy gla.s.s. At last, about eleven, the three brains had produced a letter.

Hogarth laid claim to the sea as his private property, and warned the nations.

XXIX

PRIORITY OF CLAIM

A gentleman--a Permanent Under-secretary--stood one noon, his back to a fireplace in a bright-carpeted room at the Foreign Office, letting his eyes move over some opened letters submitted to him, and presently came upon the following doc.u.ment, its crest a flag, containing in blue the letters "R. F.":

"17 LEADENHALL STR., E.G.

"To the Most Hon.,

"The Marquis of Hallam, K.G.,

"Foreign Office,

"Westminster, S.W.

"MY LORD MARQUIS:

"I have the honour hereby to make formal announcement to Your Lordship that I am on the point of setting up in the midst of the world a new Power, whose relations with the King's Government will, I trust, be relations of friendliness.

"It is my desire that Your Lordship forthwith convey to the King's Most Excellent Majesty the announcement which is the subject of this Memorandum.

"My purposes and policy in the establishment of the new Power will hereafter appear; and my properly accredited Ministers will, in due course, present themselves at the Chancelleries of the world.

"Hitherto a British subject, it is my will to acquire diplomatic recognition--as soon as such shall comport with the dignity of the Great Powers--as an Independent Sovereign, under the t.i.tle of: 'Lord of the Sea'. (Address: 'Your Lordship's Majesty', or 'My Lord King'.)

"The domain of my Power will be the sea: and to the sea I hereby set up claim as far as such points of lat.i.tude as have been attained by Man, and over all degrees of longitude. Provided only: that nothing in this claim shall be held to infringe upon the prior claim of any nation to a 'three-mile limit' round its coasts, nor to any national fisheries whatsoever, nor to any claim of the Kingdom of Denmark with respect to the Sound.

"The validity of my t.i.tle to the sea must be considered to rest on the same basis as the t.i.tle of any private owner to any area of the earth's crust: namely, Priority of Claim. If one is valid, so, necessarily, is the other, this t.i.tle to land, based on _Priority of Claim_, being admitted in the Law of all civilized Nations.

"This my claim will come into operation on this day three years hence.

"I have the honour to subscribe myself

"Your Lordship's

"Obdt. Servant,

"RICHARD HOGARTH ".

The Under-secretary, a pale, distinguished man, read this letter with a little lift of one eyebrow, then let it drop from him into a waste-paper basket.

At the German, the Turkish, capitals it met much the same reception.