In Search of the Castaways | Page 7

up to the light, and trying to decipher the least scrap of
writing, while the others looked on with anxious eyes. At last he said: "There are three
distinct documents here, apparently copies of the same document in three different
languages. Here is one in English, one in French, and one in German."
"But can you make any sense out of them?" asked Lady Helena.
"That's hard to say, my dear Helena, the words are quite incomplete."
"Perhaps the one may supplement the other," suggested Major McNabbs.
"Very likely they will," said the captain. "It is impossible that the very same words
should have been effaced in each document, and by putting the scraps together we might
gather some intelligible meaning out of them."
"That's what we will do," rejoined Lord Glenarvan; "but let us proceed methodically.
Here is the English document first."
All that remained of it was the following:

62 _Bri gow sink stra aland skipp Gr that monit of long and ssistance lost_
"There's not much to be made out of that," said the Major, looking disappointed.
"No, but it is good English anyhow," returned the captain.
"There's no doubt of it," said Glenarvan. "The words SINK, ALAND, LOST are entire;
SKIPP is evidently part of the word SKIPPER, and that's what they call ship captains
often in England. There seems a Mr. Gr. mentioned, and that most likely is the captain of
the shipwrecked vessel."
"Well, come, we have made out a good deal already," said Lady Helena.
"Yes, but unfortunately there are whole lines wanting," said the Major, "and we have
neither the name of the ship nor the place where she was shipwrecked."
"We'll get that by and by," said Edward.
"Oh, yes; there is no doubt of it," replied the Major, who always echoed his neighbor's
opinion. "But how?"
"By comparing one document with the other."
"Let us try them," said his wife.
The second piece of paper was even more destroyed than the first; only a few scattered
words remained here and there.
It ran as follows:
7 Juni Glas zwei atrosen graus bringt ihnen
"This is written in German," said John Mangles the moment he looked at it.
"And you understand that language, don't you?" asked Lord Glenarvan.
"Perfectly."
"Come, then, tell us the meaning of these words."
The captain examined the document carefully, and said:
"Well, here's the date of the occurrence first: 7 Juni means June 7; and if we put that
before the figures 62 we have in the other document, it gives us the exact date, 7th of
June, 1862."
"Capital!" exclaimed Lady Helena. "Go on, John!"
"On the same line," resumed the young captain, "there is the syllable GLAS and if we add

that to the GOW we found in the English paper, we get the whole word GLASGOW at
once. The documents evidently refer to some ship that sailed out of the port of Glasgow."
"That is my opinion, too," said the Major.
"The second line is completely effaced," continued the Captain; "but here are two
important words on the third. There is ZWEI, which means TWO, and ATROSEN or
MATROSEN, the German for SAILORS."
"Then I suppose it is about a captain and two sailors," said Lady Helena.
"It seems so," replied Lord Glenarvan.
"I must confess, your Lordship, that the next word puzzles me. I can make nothing of it.
Perhaps the third document may throw some light on it. The last two words are plain
enough. BRINGT IHNEN means BRING THEM; and, if you recollect, in the English
paper we had SSISTANCE, so by putting the parts together, it reads thus, I think:
'BRING THEM ASSISTANCE.'"
"Yes, that must be it," replied Lord Glenarvan. "But where are the poor fellows? We have
not the slightest indication of the place, meantime, nor of where the catastrophe
happened."
"Perhaps the French copy will be more explicit," suggested Lady Helena.
"Here it is, then," said Lord Glenarvan, "and that is in a language we all know."
The words it contained were these:
troi ats tannia gonie austral abor contin pr cruel indi jete ongit et 37 degrees 11" LAT
"There are figures!" exclaimed Lady Helena. "Look!"
"Let us go steadily to work," said Lord Glenarvan, "and begin at the beginning. I think
we can make out from the incomplete words in the first line that a three-mast vessel is in
question, and there is little doubt about the name; we get that from the fragments of the
other papers; it is the BRITANNIA. As to the next two words, GONIE and AUSTRAL, it
is only AUSTRAL that has any meaning to us."
"But that is a valuable scrap of information," said John Mangles. "The shipwreck
occurred in the southern hemisphere."
"That's a wide world," said the Major.