22 FOR THE FLAG

the surrounding seas. Yet when his voyages landed him
on the shores of the old or the new world, he expressed
himself with remarkable ease in English, betraying his
foreign birth by a slight accent only.

What had been Count d’Artigas’ past, the divers inci-
dents in a most mysterious existence? What was his
present, from what source did he draw his fortune ?—
evidently considerable, since it permitted him to live like
a gentleman of fine tastes and fastidious habits. Where
was his home; at least, what was the schooncr’s port of
destination ? No one could say, and no one dared inter-
rogate him on this point, so reticent was he. He did not
look like a man who would give himself away in an
interview—even for the benefit of American reporters.

All that was known of him was simply what was said
in the newspapers when the presence of the Edda was
armounced in some port, specially in the ports on the east
coast of the United States. There, in fact, the schooner
came at almost fixed periods to take in all sorts of supplies
for a long voyage. Not only did she revictual in pro-
visions, flour, biscuits, preserves, salt meat and fresh, live
sheep and oxen, wines, beers, and alcoholic liquors, but
also in clothing, tools, luxuries, and necessaries, all paid
for at a high rate, either in dollars, or guineas, or other
coinage of various countries.

Hence, although little or nothing was known of the
Count’s private life, he himself was well known in the
various ports of the American coast from the peninsula of
Tlorida to New England.