So all was well with the Kansas.
* * * * * * Crawling quietly into the Straits of Magellan at daybreak, the ship put
forth her best efforts in the run through the narrows. Passing Cape
San Isidro, she signalled her name, and it was easy to see the
commotion created by her appearance. The real furore began when she
approached Sandy Point. A steam launch puffed off hastily from the
side of a Chilean warship, and the commander brought the news that he
had been sent specially from Coronel to search the western coast line
thoroughly for the Kansas. He was about to return that day, to
report his failure to discover any trace of the missing vessel, and he
listened in amaze while Christobal gave him a succinct history of the
ship's doings. At the end, Courtenay presented him with a photograph
of Elsie's chart, to which many additions had been made by her under
her lover's directions. The position of the shoal, and of Pillar Rock,
together with the set of the tidal current, were clearly shown, and it
is probable that Good Hope Inlet, notwithstanding its dangerous
approach, will be thoroughly surveyed one of these days. Then,
perhaps, more may be heard of those lumps of silver and copper ore
which the savages hurled at the Kansas.
The cruiser hurried away, under forced draft, to report from Coronel,
the nearest cable-station. Thence she would go to Valparaiso, so she
carried a sheaf of letters, and one passenger, Frascuelo. Finding that
he could not execute the needed repairs at Sandy Point, Courtenay
decided to make for Montevideo, where he would be in telegraphic
communication with Mr. Baring. He was fortunate in finding a
shipwrecked crew on shore, awaiting transport to England. He secured a
full complement of officers and engineers, and the Kansas reached the
chief port of Uruguay without any difficulty.
A sack-load of telegrams awaited the ship. The Chilean man-of-war put
into Valparaiso, after calling at Coronel, nearly three days before the
Kansas dropped anchor on the east coast. Hence, there was time for
things to happen, and they seized the opportunity. The copper market
had turned itself inside out; the firm of Baring, Thompson, Miguel &
Co. had rebounded from comparative ruin to a stronger financial state
than ever, and Señor Pedro Ventana, after shooting a man named José
Anacleto, had considerately shot himself. Evidently, Frascuelo lost no
time when he went ashore; Mr. Baring, too, reported that the dynamite
wrapper had been traced to Ventana's possession.
When Isobel Baring heard this final item she fainted so badly that Dr.
Christobal thought it advisable she should be taken to a hotel while
the ship remained in port. But she vetoed this proposal determinedly
when she recovered her senses, and straightway confessed to Elsie that
Ventana was her husband. She had foolishly agreed to marry him
privately, and Anacleto had witnessed the ceremony. Within a month,
she regretted her choice; there were quarrels, and threats; ultimately,
an agreement was made that they should separate. Her father knew and
approved of the arrangement. He could not afford to break openly with
Ventana, and it must have been a dreadful shock to him when he learned
that the scoundrel had plotted not only to destroy the ship but to
murder his wife at the same time.