It is still there, and that is why no pilot will take the Glarus out, no captain will navigate
her, no stoker feed her fires, no sailor walk her decks. The Glarus is suspect. She will
never smell blue water again, nor taste the trades. She has seen a Ghost.
The Ghost In The Crosstrees
Cyrus Ryder, the President of the South Pacific Exploitation Company, had at last got
hold of a "proposition"--all Ryder's schemes were, in his vernacular, "propositions"--that
was not only profitable beyond precedent or belief, but that also was, wonderful to say,
more or less legitimate. He had got an "island." He had not discovered it. Ryder had not
felt a deck under his shoes for twenty years other than the promenade deck of the ferry-
boat San Rafael, that takes him home to Berkeley every evening after "business hours."
He had not discovered it, but "Old Rosemary," captain of the barkentine Scottish Chief,
of Blyth, had done that very thing, and, dying before he was able to perfect the title, had
made over his interest in it to his best friend and old comrade, Cyrus Ryder.
"Old Rosemary," I am told, first landed on the island--it is called Paa--in the later '60's.
He established its location and took its latitude and longitude, but as minutes and degrees
mean nothing to the lay reader, let it be said that the Island of Paa lies just below the
equator, some 200 miles west of the Gilberts and 1,600 miles due east from Brisbane, in
Australia. It is six miles long, three wide, and because of the prevailing winds and
precipitous character of the coast can only be approached from the west during December
and January.
"Old Rosemary" landed on the island, raised the American flag, had the crew witness the
document by virtue of which he made himself the possessor, and then, returning to San
Francisco, forwarded to the Secretary of State, at Washington, application for title. This
was withheld till it could be shown that no other nation had a prior claim. While "Old
Rosemary" was working out the proof, he died, and the whole matter was left in abeyance
till Cyrus Ryder took it up. By then there was a new Secretary in Washington and times
were changed, so that the Government of Ryder's native land was not so averse toward
acquiring Eastern possessions. The Secretary of State wrote to Ryder to say that the
application would be granted upon furnishing a bond for $50,000; and you may believe
that the bond was forthcoming.
For in the first report upon Paa, "Old Rosemary" had used the magic word "guano."
He averred, and his crew attested over their sworn statements, that Paa was covered to an
average depth of six feet with the stuff, so that this last and biggest of "Cy" Ryder's
propositions was a vast slab of an extremely marketable product six feet thick, three
miles wide and six miles long.
