Chapter XXXIV. The Key of one Sharp.

At the same hotel as Philiberta stayed a theatrical agent. He had engineered many companies in the colonies and elsewhere, but always with indifferent success. His latest undertaking had been a tragedian of the first water, who had, however, to use a vulgar but proverbial metaphor, fallen 'as flat as ditch-water' on the colonial public taste. The agent blamed the tragedian; the tragedian blamed the agent. Each vowed that the other had ruined him, and both were equally stranded, and would have starved, doubtless, but for the leniency of certain generous publicans and restaurateurs in and about Melbourne. With the tragedian we have nought to do; but the agent has a place as a clever rogue in this history. Mr. Smith (we will call him Smith, for no other reason than that it was not his name) was a man extremely fertile of resource, and a philosopher. When matters were at the lowest ebb with him his spirits were always at highest tide, because, like Bret Harte's splendid gambler, John Oakhurst, he knew that the only thing certain about luck was that it was bound to change; and that it stood, as a fact self-evident, that when things were at the worst the only possible change was for the better. When he could aid in bringing about such change, he did so by every available means, acting on the principle recommended by Jupiter to the man page 230whose waggon had got into miry difficulties; when he could not so aid, he waited.

He was a man of fluent speech as well as of quick wit; sin gularly frank and straightforward in his manner, and bearing no outward and visible sign of his inward and invisible knavery—except, perhaps, in his eyes, which were too near together and shifty. He was never reticent of his experiences, but would relate his ups and downs with easy freedom for anyone's entertainment and might have been accused of drawing the long bow occasionally, only one feels not only that such accusation is unpolite and unpolitic, but that in the life of such a man must be so many marvellous real adventures, that it would be somewhat difficult to cap the wonder with fictitious ones.

Mr. Smith conceived and displayed a very warm liking for Philip Tempest; and that young person became in turn considerably interested in Mr. Smith. The agent freely ventilated his recent disappointments and present difficulties, and Philip Tempest then lent him five pounds. The two went about together a great deal, and the agent revealed to his new acquaintance a scheme by which a small fortune could be made with very trifling outlay.

'If I only had the money to start it, my dear sir,' he said confidentially, 'I could clear a couple of thousand in a year. There is no field like New Zealand for the profession.'

'I should scarcely have thought it,' remarked Philiberta. 'When I was in Dunedin some time ago, I was struck with the poverty of the theatres and the little interest displayed by the public in matters theatrical.'

'How long is it since you were there, Mr. Tempest?

'About four years.'

'Ah, I thought so. You know nothing of the country as it is now. You have no conception of how it is going ahead. The Thames goldfields are doing wonders. If I could start this tour I have been speaking of, I should go straight for the North Island first, and get in amongst the goldfields. The money pours in at such places, my dear sir—literally pours in.

Yes; Philiberta knew of the liberality of goldfield audiences.

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'What description of entertainment would you think of taking there?' she asked reflectively.

'Operatic, Mr. Tempest, operatic. In the colonies nothing goes down like music. Look, how the people are all going in for pianos. They are going music mad, sir. Opera is the thing to pay.'

'But a good operatic company would be very expensive travelling.'

'First-class artistes would, I admit. First-class people run into a lot of money always. But you don't want that sort for New Zealand. They haven't had time to get so dirty particular over there. Third-raters would go down as well as the best, so long as there are no bests to compare them with. And of course third-raters only look for third-rate salaries, and don't expect so much in the way of first-class travelling and hotels. I know at this present moment a score or so of really talented men and women who would jump at a travelling engagement, at almost nominal salary until receipts were in hand.'

'And how much would it cost to start such a company?' inquired Philiberta.

'About—let me see,' deliberated Mr. Smith, fixing his eyes on Philiberta with much the same expression as that in the eyes of a cat which has just made sure of a chicken. 'Let me see—fares—ads.—and incidentals—about three hundred to start.'

'That settles it, then,' said Philiberta, looking half disappointed, half relieved. 'That puts it out of the question.'

'I beg your pardon!' said Mr. Smith, striving to hide his eager anxiety under a bland carelessness of demeanour. 'I beg your pardon, Mr. Tempest!'

'It is nothing,' returned Philiberta. 'For a moment I had a thought of entering this speculation of yours myself, but the outlay would be quite beyond me, I see'

'Never say that!' exclaimed the agent earnestly. 'Never say anything is beyond you while you have any cash in hand at all. Enterprise, my dear Mr. Tempest, enterprise is everything. Ten pounds in the hands of a man of enterprise may be a fortune—should be a fortune—if properly engineered. Look page 232at me, sir! At twelve years of age I started life with exactly sixpence in my pocket, and look at me now!' Then suddenly recollecting that the only sixpence in his pocket now was a borrowed one, and that he could not therefore be viewed as an unqualified success or wealthy miracle, he pulled up rather hastily, continuing after a pause: 'That is to say, look at what I might have been but for the nefarious swindles that have been put upon me. Mr. Tempest, how deeply would you be prepared to go into such a scheme as the one we have been discussing?'

'I could not invest more than a hundred pounds at the utmost.'

'It is enough,' said Mr. Smith, with a deep sigh of happiness. 'Give me your hundred pounds, sir, and it will be back in your hands in less than six months, increased tenfold. You will invest at once, Mr. Tempest?'

'Well,' hesitated Philiberta, 'I should like to have some definite idea of the proposed plan of action before doing anything. You said at first that three hundred pounds would be necessary; how then could you make one hundred do?'

'Well, it would be rather exceptional to cavil at a man's undertaking to make one hundred go as far as three,' said the agent reproachfully.

'But I am not cavilling,' said Philiberta. 'I am only inquiring how you propose to do it'

'Exactly. And as the holder of the spondouleaux, of course you have every right to make every inquiry,' returned Mr. Smith, with a half-impatient sigh. 'Well, to begin with: when I said three hundred, I had in my mind's eye a special and superior set of people; with the sum cut down to a third, we should have I to content ourselves with diminishment both of quality and quantity of talent. But I can get together a very fair and certainly profitable stock company for a hundred pounds, Mr. Tempest.'

'I am tempted to risk it,' said Philiberta.

'There is no risk attached, sir; the success of the thing is a dead certainty.'

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'I will think about it till to-morrow,' said Philiberta, and the agent suppressed an oath and smiled. I suppose none but himself ever guessed the anxiety of that night to him, but he need not have been uneasy, his prey was certain. The novelty of the adventure proved sufficient temptation for Philiberta, and she told Mr. Smith next day that she had decided to hazard her hundred pounds.

'You could draw up a cheque for the amount at once?' said the agent immediately.

'Well——,' said Philiberta, thinking this rather precipitate.

'There's always a necessity for ready money in an enterprise like this,' continued Mr. Smith with an air of deprecation. 'And you know my position, Mr. Tempest'—this with a swift assumption of manly straightforwardness. 'I would scorn to deceive anyone, sir; I have my faults and failings, and Fortune has given me a full share of buffetings. I am as low as I can be in the world just now, but I make no secret of it No one on earth can lay deceit or unfairness to my charge, Mr. Tempest, or say that I ever was less strictly careful of another man's money than of my own.'

This affirmation would scarcely have stood to his advantage if anyone had chosen to remind him of his own acknowledged carelessness in regard to money anyhow, his own more especially; but Philiberta, at the moment, only felt a little troubled by his simple, honest revelation of his nature and position; and without any further delay she wrote him a cheque for fifty pounds far the defrayal of preliminary expenses. Ultimately she gave over to him the remainder of the hundred, and very soon the agent announced all things ready for the voyage. He proposed that he should go first with the company; Philiberta to follow per next steamer.

'No,' said Philiberta; 'the principal attractions of this affair for me are the travel and adventure. I will go with you.'

'Just as you please,' said Mr. Smith. 'My only idea in proposing otherwise was to save you from the petty harassment always incidental to such undertakings. I merely wished to take the whole onerous duty of management upon my own shoulders.'

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'I think you will have all that as it is,' said Phliberta. 'I have no notion of interfering at all in the management.'

'Ah, thanks!' responded the agent, looking relieved. 'It is as well to have an understanding about that at first Too many principals in a project like this are apt to do it harm rather than good. Now it will be all plain sailing for me; and I heed not repeat, Mr. Tempest, that I will make the very best that can be made of this enterprise, nor prophesy again that the best will be a very good best. The result of your confidence in me, Mr. will surprise you.'

And so it did—a little—though not exactly in the manner that his words implied.

How the worthy gentleman succeeded in persuading some nine or ten men and women of average common-sense and shrewdness to enlist under him, and pay their own expenses to New Zealand, is one of the life-mysteries of which there is no human solution—unless in the great system of fair balancement in the matter of demand and supply; the happy dispensation which creates plenty of flies for the use of spiders, plenty of mice for cats, and plenty of fools for wise men.

Behold then a confiding company shipped, under leadership of one of the earth's wise men, in the steamship Hero, bound for Auckland, viá Sydney and other ports.