CHAPTER IL.
COUNT D’ARTIGAS.

Wuno was this Count d’Artigas? A Spaniard, as his
name seemed to indicate. Yet the stern of the schooner
bore in letters of gold the name £ééa, and that was pure
Norwegian. Had he been asked the name of the Eéda’s
captain, he would have answered, “Spade,” and Effondat
the boatswain, and Selim the cook—all singularly dis-
similar names, which suggested various nationalities.

It would be difficult to deduce any plausible theory from
the appearance of Count d’Artigas. While the colour of
his skin, his very black hair, and the grace of his movements,
might proclaim a Spanish origin, his general appearance
offered none of the racial characteristics of the natives of
the Iberian peninsula. —

He was of more than medium height, very strongly
built, and at most forty years of age. With his calm
and haughty bearing he resembled a Hindoo prince in
whom was blended the blood of the superb Malayan types.
If his were not a cold complexion, the same could not be
said of his imperious gesture and abrupt speech. The
language which he and his crew spoke was one of those
dialects common in-the islands of the Indian Ocean and