CHAPTER III
The Shipwreck
For a moment Dick was strongly tempted to tell his companion about the wireless he had received. But something, he could not tell what, seemed to forbid him. In spite of the fact that he had spent a good deal of time with Count Romanoff he had given him no confidences. There was something in his presence, in spite of his fascination, that did not inspire confidence.
"By the way," ventured Dick, after an awkward silence, "I have often been on the point of asking you, but it felt like a liberty. Are you in any way connected with the great Russian family of your name?"
The Count hesitated before replying. "I do not often speak of it," he told him presently, "but I come of a Royal Family."
"The Romanoffs of Russia?"
The Count smiled.
"I do not imagine that they would admit me into their family circle," he replied. "I make no claims to it, but I have the right."
Dick was duly impressed.
"Then, of course, you are a Russian. You were born there?"
"A Russian!" sneered the other. "A vast conglomeration of savagery, superstition, and ignorance! I do not claim to be a Russian. I have estates there, but I am a citizen of the world. My sympathies are not national, insular, bounded by race, paltry landmarks, languages. I live in a bigger world, my friend. Yes, I am a Romanoff, if you like, and I claim kinship with the greatest families of the Russian Empire – but la la, what is it? Thistledown, my friend, thistledown."
"But you were educated in Russia?" persisted Dick.
"Educated! What is it to be educated? From childhood I have been a wanderer. I have taken my degrees in the University of the world. I have travelled in China, Japan, Egypt, America, the Antipodes. In a few days we shall call at Bombay. If you will accompany me I will take you to people in that city, old Indian families whose language I know, whose so-called mysteries I have penetrated, and who call me friend. Ecco! I owe my education to all countries, all peoples."
He did not speak boastfully; there was no suggestion of the boaster, the braggadocio, in his tones; rather he spoke quietly, thoughtfully, almost sadly.
"Tell me this," asked Dick: "you, who I judge to be a rich man, do you find that riches bring happiness?"
"Yes – and no. With wealth you can buy all that this world can give you."
Dick wondered at the strange intonation of his voice.
"It is the only thing that can bring happiness," added Romanoff.
"I fancy our friend Mr. Bennett would not agree with you," laughed Dick. "He would say that a clear conscience meant happiness. He would tell you that a good life, a clean mind, and a faith in God were the secrets of happiness."
Romanoff laughed.
"What makes a clear conscience? It is a feeling that you have done what is right. But what is right? What is right in China is wrong in England. What makes the Chinaman happy makes the Englishman miserable. But why should the Englishman be miserable because he does the thing that makes the Chinaman happy? No, no, it won't do. There is no right; there is no wrong. The Germans are wise there. What the world calls morality is a bogy to frighten foolish people. 'It is always right to do the thing you can do,' says Brother Fritz. Personally I believe it to be right to do what satisfies my desires. It is right because it brings happiness. After all, you haven't long to live. A few years and it is all over. A shot from a pistol and voilà! your brains are blown out – you are dead! Therefore, take all that life can give you – there is nothing else."
"I wonder?" said Dick.
"That is why money is all-powerful. First of all, get rid of conventional morality, rid your mind of all religious twaddle about another life, and then suck the orange of this life dry. You, now, you are keen, ardent, ambitious; you love beautiful things; you can enjoy to the full all that life can give you. Nature has endowed you with a healthy body, ardent desires, boundless ambitions – well, satisfy them all. You can buy them all."
"But I am not rich," interposed Dick.
"Aren't you?" queried the other. "Who knows? Anyhow, you are young – make money. 'Money talks,' as the Americans say."
Again Dick was on the point of telling him about the wireless message, but again he refrained.
"By the way, Count Romanoff," he said, "did you see that woman in the smoke-room last night?"
"Woman! what woman?"
"I don't know. I never saw her before. But while you were talking I saw a woman's face through the haze of tobacco smoke. She was standing near the door. It was a wonderful face – and her eyes were beyond description. Great, pure, yearning, loving eyes they were, and they lit up the face which might have been – the face of an angel."
"You were dreaming, my friend. I have seen every woman on board, and not one of them possesses a face worth looking at twice."
"I asked another man," admitted Dick, "and he told me I was dreaming. He had been sitting near the door, he assured me, and he had seen no woman, while the smoke-room steward was just as certain."
"Of course there was no woman."
"And yet I saw a woman, unless – " He stopped suddenly.
"Unless what, my friend?"
"Unless it was a kind of rebuke to my scepticism last night; unless it was the face of an angel."
"An angel in mid-ocean!" Romanoff laughed. "An angel in the smoke-room of a P. & O. steamer! Faversham, you are an example of your own arguments. Imagination can do anything."
"But it would be beautiful if it were so. Do you know, I'm only half a sceptic after all. I only half believe in what I said in the smoke-room last night."
"Perhaps I can say the same thing," said Romanoff, watching his face keenly.
"I say!" and Dick laughed.
"Yes, laugh if you will; but I told you just now that the world contained no mystery. I was wrong; it does. My residence in India has told me that. Do you know, Faversham, what has attracted me to you? – for I have been attracted, I can assure you."
"Flattered, I'm sure," murmured Dick.
"I was attracted, because the moment I saw your face I felt that your career would be out of the ordinary. I may be wrong, but I believe that great things are going to happen to you, that you are going to have a wonderful career. I felt it when I saw you come on deck a little while ago. If you are wise you are going to have a great future – a great future."
"Now you are laughing."
"No, I'm not. I'm in deadly earnest. I have something of the power of divination in me. I feel the future. Something's going to happen to you. I think great wealth's coming to you."
Dick was silent, and a far-away look came into his eyes. He was thinking of the wireless message, thinking whether he should tell Romanoff about it.
"I started out on this voyage – in the hope that – that I should make money," he stammered.
"Where?"
"In Australia."
"You'll not go to Australia."
"No? Why?"
"I don't know – something's going to happen to you. I feel it."
Dick was again on the point of taking him into his confidence when two acquaintances came up and the conversation ended. But Dick felt that Romanoff knew his secret all the time.
The day passed away without further incident, but towards afternoon there was a distinct change in the weather. The sky became overclouded, and the gentle breeze which had blown in the morning strengthened into a strong, boisterous wind. The smooth sea roughened, and the passengers no longer sat on deck. The smoke-room was filled with bridge players, while other public rooms became the scenes of other amusements.
But