Meldon

“ I doubt very much if there's any treasure there at all. And I'm sure we won't find it."
"Don't croke," said Meldon. "You get into your duds and light your pipe. I'll wash up and get out the punt. It's getting on for eight o'clock and we ought to be off."
An elderly man and five out of the nine children resident on the island stood on the end of the pier when Meldon and the Major landed. The man was clad in a very dirty white flannel jacket and a pair of yellowish flannel trousers, which hung in a tattered fringe round his naked feet and ankles. ”

“ This man—this disreputable, disinherited son of the last Sir Giles—had of necessity been heir to Ballymoy House and the papers it contained. The situation became clear to Meldon. Here was a rival treasure-seeker, a man evidently possessed of information superior to that of Major Kent's grandfather, for he came straight to the very spot which Meldon had taken much pains to discover.
"I'm delighted to meet you," said Meldon. "Your father was always a liberal subscriber to the funds of the church in our parish. ”

“ Mary Kate grinned.
"Is it the man that does be measuring out the land?"
"It is," said Meldon. "That exact man. Do you take your sixpence up to him and ask him to give you the worth of it in sugar candy. Don't be put off if he tells you he hasn't got any. He has sacks and sacks of it stored away there in the house, and he does be eating it himself whenever he thinks there's nobody looking at him."
"Do we go round the north or the south side of the island," said the Major, as he and Meldon left the pier, "to reach this treasure-cave of yours?" ”

“ Meldon began to paddle towards the pier. The Major sat limp in the stern of the punt. A sweat had broken out on his forehead.
"What else did you tell him? Let me have the whole of it."
"Oh, nothing else. I never say a word more than is necessary. There's no commoner mistake than overdoing one's disguise."
"That's all well enough, but why couldn't you have put the disguise, as you call it, on yourself instead of me? Why didn't you say that you were a mining expert?"
"He wouldn't have believed that. I simply couldn't have made him believe that I know anything about pliocene clay." ”

“ The Spindrift was in calmer water, and Meldon was able to give both hands to the task of feeding himself, steadying the tiller by hooking a leg over it. The boat raced into the shelter of the bay, and the Major, having stowed away the remainder of the food in the cabin, busied himself in getting ready the anchor.
"The inhabitants," said Meldon, "are turning out en masse to welcome us. They are all down on the end of the pier—
"'Old men and babes and loving friends,
And youths and maidens gay.'
And there is an engineer there. ”

“ Willoughby.
"He's too interested," said Meldon. "He keeps on asking questions, questions about details; and any one who has ever told a story knows that the details won't always bear working out. It's awfully good of you, Father Mulcrone, going like this just to oblige me. You're sure you don't mind?"
"Not a bit," said the priest. "I shall enjoy telling the story, as much as I know of it."
"You're doing a kind act," said Meldon. "The Major's a lonely man at the best of times, and he's been shut up on the Spindrift ever since the Granuaile came into the bay." ”

“ Joseph John Meldon in spite of the curate's free-and-easy manners, habitual unpunctuality, and incurable untidiness. It is said that men are attracted to those who differ from them, that like does not readily mate with like. If this is a law of nature, the friendship between Major Kent and the curate formed a fine example of its working.
Meldon entered the dining-room of Portsmouth Lodge and found the Major at the writing-table with a pile of papers and parchments beside him. Papers of any kind, except the Times, which the Major read regularly, were rare in Portsmouth Lodge. ”

“ He gazed long and steadily at the beach beyond the Spindrift's moorings.
"I think," he said at last, "that there is a man on the shore, and he looks to me very much as if he was waiting for us."
Major Kent made no answer. His feeling was that the man who waited might be left to wait without speculation about his purpose. Guessing at the possible business of an unknown and distant man is a form of mental exertion very distasteful to any one who has entered into the calm joy of drifting home after sunset. But Meldon was a man of incurably active mind. ”

“ There was no doubt that Meldon spoke the literal truth. Excitement and pleasure beamed from his very eyes. He sent the Major to get the dinner ready while he lay on deck, and with his eye just over the low gunwale of the yacht, watched Sir Giles and Langton row back to the Aureole in their punt. He ate his dinner hurriedly, breaking in upon the meal at short intervals to mount the companion-ladder and take a look at the Aureole.
"Patience and calm," he said after one of these excursions, "are the great things after all. ”

“ He noticed while he dressed that Sir Giles and Langton did not go below together. Either one or the other of them remained on deck to watch the Spindrift. Meldon roused the Major and then got breakfast ready. The meal, in spite of the Major's opposition, was eaten on deck.
"It's quite evident to me," said Meldon, "that those fellows mean to watch us. They're pretty certain that we're after the treasure, and they don't intend to let us get round to the hole in the cliff without them." ”

“ Michael Pat had reached the age at which happiness is found in perpetual motion, and it was necessary to keep on jumping him up and down.
"I'll tell you what it is," said Meldon at last. "I'd rather be saving hay or burning kelp, or doing any other mortal thing, than trying to mind a baby and make butter at the same time. Men have a much better time of it than women as things are arranged at present."
"They might," said Mrs. O'Flaherty, "but what would they be doing if it wasn't for the women?"
"That's true," said Meldon; "but it isn't saying that men don't have the best of it." ”

“ Stirred by the taunt, Meldon spoke with some appearance of recovering self-confidence.
"It's the Aureole right enough. I hired her to a man in a mangy fur coat, who said he didn't know anything about boats but had a friend who did. Now I'll tell you this, Major, to start with. Either that friend knows nothing about boats either, or else he has some pretty strong reason for wishing to get to this island. Nobody but a fool, or a man who was prepared to take big risks, would have ventured out here in her. Why, every rope in her rigging is as rotten as a bad banana. ”

“ Willoughby. "I dare say he knows little or nothing about pragmatism. I went very near getting angry myself when I thought—just for the moment—that you had been deceiving Mr. Higginbotham."
"You got over it all right," said Meldon. "Nobody minds a man flaring out now and then as you did. You don't keep on sulking like that beast Sir Giles. You are a more or less reasonable man." ”

“ The beef, the sardines, and the bottle were stowed in the bow of the punt. The Major seated himself in the stern. Meldon took the paddles.
"By the way," said Meldon, when about half the journey was accomplished, "what is pliocene clay?"
"I don't know. How could I know a thing like that? I never heard of the stuff before. Is there any of it on the island?"
"According to Higginbotham the whole island consists of nothing else."
"Let it. It makes no odds to us what it consists of." ”

“ He had established himself behind Miss King's chair, and was eyeing Simpkins with an expression of hostility and distrust.
"Never mind the Major," said the judge. "He's all right where he is."
He took Meldon's arm as he spoke and strolled off across the lawn. Meldon turned and winked angrily at the Major. The judge began an account of the capture of his last salmon, holding fast to Meldon's arm.
"Excuse me one moment," said Meldon. "I must give the Major a hint. He's one of those men who, though extremely kind and sympathetic, is often a little wanting in tact." ”

“ The Major was disinclined to move, and although he guessed at the meaning of Meldon's wink, he deliberately ignored it. Meldon winked again. Then he rose to his feet, shook himself, and looked round him.
"I think, Major," he said, "that if we mean to catch any lobsters to-day, we ought to be starting."
The Major grunted.
"Lobsters! Can we catch lobsters here?" said Miss King. "I should like to help. I have never caught a lobster."
"It's not exactly a sport for ladies," said Meldon. "The lobster is an ugly fish to tackle unless you are accustomed to him. ”

“ Higginbotham that I sent Major Kent to make a geological survey of this island. It's all very well to talk as you've been doing, but a man is bound to tell the truth and not to deceive innocent people."
"Look here, Mr. Willoughby," said Meldon, "I've sat and listened to you calling me a liar half a dozen times, and I haven't turned a hair. I'm a man of remarkable self-control and I appreciate your point of view. You are irritated because you think that you are not being treated with proper respect. You assert what you are pleased to call your dignity by trying to prove that I'm a liar. ”

“ Meldon made all the speed he could in the canvas punt, a craft singularly ill-suited to a man in a hurry. He reached the pier shortly after Sir Giles and Langton had landed. Mary Kate, who had hesitated for some time between the desire to follow the strangers and the hope of another sixpence from the approaching Meldon, was on the pier to meet him. ”

“ Sir Giles, dripping and dismal, followed him. Meldon made his last tack and beached the Aureole close alongside the pier. The islanders and the men from the Granuaile's boat ran to him with offers of help. Meldon gripped Langton by the collar of the coat and lifted him over the side of the yacht into the water.
"Take him," he said, "and stand him up on the pier beside the other blackguard."
He stepped over the side himself.
"I expect the boat has a hole in her," he said to three of the men who still waited. "You had better get the anchor on shore and make it fast. ”

“ No tea for me. I haven't time to stay; and besides, I've had luncheon with Mr. Doyle. You know what that means."
"No," said Miss King. "I don't."
"Well, I needn't go into details," said Meldon; "but as a matter of fact when you've lunched with Mr. Doyle you don't want anything more to drink for a long time. By the way, you're not looking out for a cook just at present, are you?"
"No, I'm not. What made you think I was?"
"People generally are," said Meldon. "In fact, I've hardly ever met any one who wasn't. ”

“ I'm going back there now for a holiday."
"But I'm quite a stranger," said Miss King. "I've never been in Ballymoy."
Meldon glanced at the bag which lay on the seat before her. There was no label on it, but it bore the initials M. K. in gold letters on its side.
"I suppose," he said, "that you're not by any chance a sister or a niece of Major Kent's?"
"No. I'm not. I don't even know Major Kent. My name is King. Millicent King."
A clergyman is, necessarily, more or less educated. Mr. Meldon had proclaimed himself a bachelor of arts. ”

“ Willoughby, "we needn't any of us lose our tempers. I think, Sir Giles, that you are bound either to substantiate or withdraw the very offensive statement that you made on the pier this morning. You called Mr. Meldon a liar."
"So far as I'm concerned," said Meldon, "I don't mind that in the least. I'm quite accustomed to it. There's hardly a man on this island who hasn't called me a liar. I quite recognise that Sir Giles's temper wasn't altogether under control when he spoke. He has a hot temper. ”

“ Don't say anything insulting about Miss King. Remember that she's his niece, and he won't like to hear her abused. Besides, he'll tell her what you say afterwards, and it would be very painful to her to hear the sort of accusations you've been bringing against her since she came to Ballymoy."
"Major," said Meldon, "we've been intimate friends for years, and you ought to know that, whatever else I may be, I'm always a gentleman. Is it likely I'd go out of my way to insult a helpless woman?" ”

“ It would be hard to account for the kind of man he is any other way."
"It might be that," said the doctor; "but I'd say myself it's more likely to be the want of beating when he was young that's the matter with him."
"Will you stay and have a bit of dinner now you're here, Mr. Meldon?" said Doyle. "I wouldn't like your temper would be destroyed for the want of what I'd be glad to give you."
Meldon looked at his watch.
"Thank you," he said, "I will. It's one o'clock, and Sabina ought to have the bacon ready by now if she started cooking it the time I told her." ”

“ If there'd come on the least bit of a blow that fellow in the fur coat and the other play boy, whoever he is, would have been at the bottom of the briny sea."
"Well, they're not," said the Major, "so their deaths are not on your conscience."
"They wouldn't have been in any case," said Meldon. "I never thought they'd go outside Moy Bay, or I wouldn't have hired the boat to them. Who'd expect a seedy individual in a fur coat, a fellow that looked sodden with drink, to take a boat out on to the broad Atlantic? At the same time the other fellow can't be altogether a fool. ”