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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29462-8.txt b/29462-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..afe15dd --- /dev/null +++ b/29462-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8119 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The House Under the Sea, by Sir Max Pemberton + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The House Under the Sea + A Romance + + +Author: Sir Max Pemberton + + + +Release Date: July 20, 2009 [eBook #29462] +Most recently updated: November 9, 2014 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA*** + + +E-text prepared by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 29462-h.htm or 29462-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29462/29462-h/29462-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29462/29462-h.zip) + + + + + +THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA + +A ROMANCE + +BY + +MAX PEMBERTON + +Author of Kronstadt, The Phantom Army, Etc. + + + +ILLUSTRATED + +NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1902 + + +Copyright, 1902 By MAX PEMBERTON + +All rights reserved + +Published September, 1902 + + + +[Illustration: "Shall we go, or stay?"] + + + +CONTENTS + +I.--IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES KNOWN THE PURPOSE OF HIS VOYAGE TO THE +PACIFIC OCEAN, AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT HE COMMISSIONED THE +STEAM-SHIP SOUTHERN CROSS THROUGH PHILIPS, WESTBURY, AND CO. + +II.--WE GO ASHORE AND LEARN STRANGE THINGS + +III.--IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES UP HIS MIND WHAT TO DO + +IV.--WE GO ABOARD, BUT RETURN AGAIN + +V.--STRANGE SIGHTS ASHORE, AND WHAT WE SAW OF THEM + +VI.--JASPER BEGG MEETS HIS OLD MISTRESS, AND IS WATCHED + +VII.--IN WHICH HELP COMES FROM THE LAST QUARTER WE HAD EXPECTED IT + +VIII.--THE BIRD'S NEST IN THE HILLS + +IX.--WE LOOK OUT FOR THE SOUTHERN CROSS + +X.--WE ARE SURELY CAGED ON KEN'S ISLAND + +XI.--LIGHTS UNDER THE SEA + +XII.--THE DANCING MADNESS + +XIII.--THE STORM + +XIV.--A WHITE POOL--AND AFTERWARDS + +XV.--AN INTERLUDE, DURING WHICH WE READ IN RUTH BELLENDEN'S DIARY AGAIN + +XVI.--ROSAMUNDA AND THE IRON DOORS + +XVII.--IN WHICH JASPER BEGG ENTERS THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA + +XVIII.--CHANCE OPENS A GATE FOR JASPER BEGG, AND HE PASSES THROUGH + +XIX.--WHICH SHOWS THAT A MAN WHO THINKS OF BIG THINGS SOMETIMES FORGETS +THE LITTLE ONES + +XX.--THE FIRST ATTACK IS MADE BY CZERNY'S MEN + +XXI.--WHICH BRINGS IN THE DAY AND WHAT BEFELL THEREIN + +XXII.--THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTY HOURS + +XXIII.--THE END OF THE SIXTY HOURS + +XXIV.--THE SECOND ATTACK ON CZERNY'S HOUSE + +XXV.--IN WHICH THE SUN-TIME COMES AGAIN + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +"Shall we go or stay?" + +Like dancers at a stage play. + +A picturesque old figure standing there. + +She looked at me with her big, questioning eyes. + +We were all sitting at the supper table. + +The drawing-room is a cave whose walls are of jewels. + +"If there is a sound at the door, fire that gun." + +Another man fell with a loud cry. + + + +THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA + + +CHAPTER I + +IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES KNOWN THE PURPOSE OF HIS VOYAGE TO THE +PACIFIC OCEAN, AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT HE COMMISSIONED THE +STEAM-SHIP SOUTHERN CROSS THROUGH PHILIPS, WESTBURY, AND CO. + +Many gentlemen have asked me to write the story of Ken's Island, and in +so far as my ability goes, that I will now do. A plain seaman by +profession, one who has had no more education than a Kentish grammar +school can give him, I, Jasper Begg, find it very hard to bring to +other people's eyes the wonderful things I have seen or to make all +this great matter clear as it should be clear for a right +understanding. But what I know of it, I will here set down; and I do +not doubt that the newspapers and the writers will do the rest. + +Now, it was upon the third day of May in the year 1899, at four bells +in the first dog watch, that Harry Doe, our boatswain, first sighted +land upon our port-bow, and so made known to me that our voyage was +done. We were fifty-three days out from Southampton then; and for +fifty-three days not a man among the crew of the Southern Cross had +known our proper destination, or why his skipper, Jasper Begg, had +shipped him to sail for the Pacific Ocean. A pleasure voyage, the +papers said; and some remembered that I had been in and out of private +yachts ever since I ran away from school and booked with Skipper Higg, +who sailed Lord Kanton's schooner from the Solent; but others asked +themselves what pleasure took a yacht's skipper beyond the Suez, and +how it came about that a poor man like Jasper Begg found the money to +commission a 500-ton tramp through Philips, Westbury, and Co., and to +deal liberally with any shipmate who had a fancy for the trip. These +questions I meant to answer in my own time. A hint here and there of a +lady in whose interest the voyage was undertaken kept the crew quiet, +if it did not please its curiosity. Mister Jacob, my first officer, and +Peter Bligh (who came to me because he said I was the only man who kept +him away from the drink) guessed something if they knew little. They +had both served under me in Ruth Bellenden's yacht; neither had +forgotten that Ruth Bellenden's husband sailed eastward for the wedding +trip. If they put their heads together and said that Ruth Bellenden's +affairs and the steam-ship Southern Cross were not to be far apart at +the end of it, I don't blame them. It was my business to hold my tongue +until the land was sighted, and so much I did for Ruth Bellenden's +sake. + +Well, it was the third day of May, at four bells in the first dog +watch, when Harry Doe, the boatswain, sighted land on the port-bow, and +came abaft with the other hands to hear what I had got to say to him. +Mr. Jacob was in his bunk then, he being about to take the first watch, +and Peter Bligh, who walked the bridge, had rung down for half-speed by +the time I came out with my glass for the first view of the distant +island. We were then, I must tell you at a rough reckoning, in +longitude 150 east of Greenwich, by about 30 north; and my first +thought was that we might have sighted the Ganges group, as many a ship +sailing from 'Frisco to Japan; but when I had looked at the land a +little while, and especially at a low spur of rocks to the northward, I +knew that this was truly the Ken Archipelago, and that our voyage was +done. + +"Lads," I said, "yonder is your port. Good weather and good luck, and +we'll put about for home before three days have passed." + +Now, they set up a great cheer at this; and Peter Bligh, whose years go +to fat, wiped his brow like a man who has got rid of a great load and +is very pleased to have done with it. + +"Thank you for that," said he. "I hope I do my duty in all weathers, +Mr. Begg, but this sunshine do wear a man sadly. Will you stop her, +sir, or shall we go dead slow?" + +"Dead slow, if you please, Mister Pugh," said I; "the chart gives two +thousand fathoms about the reef. We should have water enough, and water +is a good thing, as I believe you know." + +"When there's nothing else, I can manage to make shift with it--and +feel a better man, sir," he added, as an after-thought. But I was +already busy with my glass and that was not the hour for light talk. +Yonder upon the port-bow a group of islands shaped on our horizon as +shadows upon a glassy sea. I could espy a considerable cliff-land +rising to the southward, and north of that the rocky spur of which I +have made mention. The sun was setting behind us in a sky of orange and +crimson, and it was wonderful to see the playful lights now giving +veins of gold to the dark mass of the higher rocks, or washing over the +shadows as a running water of flame. I have seen many beautiful sights +upon the sea, in storm or tempest, God's weather or the devil's; but I +shall never forget that sunset which brought me to Ken's Island on as +strange an errand as ever commissioned a ship. The deep blue of the +sky, the vastness of the horizon, the setting sun, the island's shaping +out of the deep: these, and the curiosity which kept the glass ever at +my eye, made an hour which a man might fear to tell of. True, I have +sighted many a strange land in my time and have put up my glass for +many an unknown shore; but yonder lay the home of Ruth Bellenden, and +to-morrow's sun would tell me how it fared with her. I had sailed from +England to learn as much. + +Now, Mr. Jacob, the first officer, had come up to the bridge while I +was searching the shore for an anchorage, and he, who always was a +prudent man, spoke up at once for laying to and leaving our business, +whatever it was, until the morning. + +"You'll lose the light in ten minutes, and yon's a port I do not like +the look of," said he. "Better go about, sir. Reefs don't get out of +the way, even for a lady." + +"Mister Jacob," said I, for, little man that he was, he had a big wit +in his own way, "the lady would be very glad to get out of the way of +the reef, I'm thinking. However, that's for the morning. Here's Peter +Bligh as pleased as any school-boy at the sight of land. Tell him that +he isn't going ashore to-night, and he'll thank you nicely. Eh, Peter, +are you, too, of Jacob's mind? Is it sea or shore, a glass in my cabin +or what the natives will sell you in the log-cabins over yonder?" Peter +Bligh shut up his glass with a snap. + +"I know the liquor, Mr. Begg," said he; "as the night is good to me, +I'm of Mister Jacob's way of thinking. A sound bed and a clear head, +and a fair wind for the morning--you'll see little of any woman, black +or white, on yonder rock to-night." + +Jacob--his little eyes twinkling, as they always did at his own +jokes--muttered the old proverb about choosing a wife by candle-light; +but before any one could hear him a beacon shone out across the sea +from some reef behind the main island I had noticed, and all eyes were +turned anxiously to that. It was a queer place, truly, to set up a +light, and I don't wonder that the men remarked it. + +"An odd kind of a lantern to help poor mariners," said Mister Jacob, +sagely. "Being kind to it, sir, I should say that it's not more than a +mile too much to the northward." + +"Lay your course by that, and a miracle won't carry you by the reef," +added Peter Bligh, sagaciously; "in my country, which is partly +Ireland, sir, we put up notice-boards for the boys that ride bicycles: +'This Hill is Dangerous.' Faith, in ould Oireland, they put 'em up at +the bottom of the hills, which is useful entirely." + +Some of the crew, grouped about the ladder's foot, laughed at this; +others began to mutter among themselves as though the beacon troubled +them, and they did not like it. A seaman's the most superstitious +creature that walks the earth or sails on the sea, as all the world +knows. I could see the curiosity, which had followed my men from +Southampton, was coming to a head here about twelve thousand miles from +home. + +"Lads," cried I, quick to take the point up, "Mister Bligh says that an +Irishman built yon light, and he knows, being a bit of a one himself. +We're not going in by it, anyway, so you can ask questions to-morrow. +There's a hundred pounds to be divided among you for your good +behaviour outward, and there'll be another hundred when we make Calshot +Light. To-night we'll find good sea-room, and leave their beacon to the +lumber-heads that put it up. I thank you, lads, for honest work in an +honest ship. Ask the purser for an extra tot of grog, and say the +skipper told you to." + +They gave a hearty "Aye, aye, sir," to this, and without more ado we +put the ship about and went dead slow against a stiff tide setting east +by north-east. For my part, I reckoned this the time to tell my +officers what my intentions were, and when I had called them into the +cabin, leaving our "fourth"--a mere lad, but a good one--upon the +bridge, I ordered Joe, the steward, to set the decanters upon the +table. Mister Jacob, as usual, put on his glasses (which he always did +in room or cabin, just as though he would read a book), but Peter Bligh +sat with his cap between his knees and as foolish an expression upon +his face as I have ever seen. + +"Now, gentlemen," I said, "no good talking in this world was ever done +upon a dusty table, so we'll have a glass round and then to business. +Mr. Bligh, I'm sure, will make no objection to that." + +"Faith, and I know when to obey my superior officer, captain. A glass +round, and after that----" + +"Peter, Peter," said I, "'tis the 'after that' which sends many a good +hulk to the bottom." + +"Not meaning to apply the term to Peter Bligh, but by way of what the +landsmen call 'silime,'" said Mister Jacob. + +"'Simile' you mean, Mister Jacob. Well, it's all the same, and neither +here nor there in the matter of a letter. The fact is, gentlemen, I +wish you to know why I have sailed this ship to Ken's Archipelago, and +under what circumstances I shall sail her home again." + +They pricked up their ears at this, Peter turning his cap nervously in +his hands and Mister Jacob being busy with his glasses as he loves to +be. + +"Yes," I went on, "you have behaved like true shipmates and spoken +never a word which a man might not fairly speak. And now it's my duty +to be open with you. Well, to cut it short, my lads, I've sailed to the +Pacific because my mistress, Ruth Bellenden, asked me." + +They had known as much, I imagine, from the start; but while Mister +Jacob pretended to be very much surprised, honest Peter raised his +glass and drank to Mistress Ruth's good health. + +"God bless her," he said, "and may the day come when I ship along +o' such a one again. Aye, you would have come out for her sake, +captain--no other, I'm sure!" + +"She being Ruth Bellenden no longer, but the wife of a gentleman with a +name none but a foreigner can spell," added Mister Jacob; and then he +went on: "Well, you surprise me very much, captain--very much indeed. +Matrimony is a choppy sea and queer things swim in it. But this--this I +had not looked to hear." + +I knew that this was only Mister Jacob's way, and continued my story. + +"It was a promise to her upon her wedding day. Ten thousand pounds she +left with her lawyers for this very purpose. 'My husband has strange +ideas; I may not share them,' were her words to me. 'If his yacht +should not be at the islands when I wish to visit Europe again, I +should like you to find me a vessel in its place. I trust you, Jasper +Begg,' she said; 'you will sail for Ken's Archipelago twelve months +from today, and you will come to my house there, as you used to do in +the old time, for orders. Perhaps I shall send you home again, perhaps +I may like to have a yacht of my own once more. Who knows? I am quite +alone in the world,' she said, laughing, 'though my brother is alive. +And the Pacific Ocean is a long way from London--oh, such a long way,' +she said, or something of that sort." + +"Aye, and right, too. A derned long way she meant, I don't doubt, if +what was in her mind came out," puts in Peter at this. + +"Mr. Bligh," said I, "be pleased to hold your tongue until your opinion +is asked. What I am telling you is a confidence which you two, and no +others, share with me. To-morrow, as soon as daylight, I shall row +ashore and ask to see Mme. Czerny, as I suppose I must call little Ruth +now. If she says, 'Go home again,' very well, home we go with good +wages in our pockets. If she says 'Stay,' there's not a man on board +this ship that will not stay willingly--she being married to a +foreigner, which all the world knows is not the same as being married +to an Englishman----" + +"To say nothing of an Irishman," said Peter Bligh, whose mother was +from Dublin and whose father was named sometimes for a man of +Rotherhithe and at other times put down to any country which it suited +Peter to boast about. + +"Edmond Czerny was a Hungarian," said I, "and he played the fiddle +wonderful. What mad idea took him for a honeymoon to Ken's Island, the +Lord only knows. They say he was many years in America. I know nothing +about him, save that he had a civil tongue and manners to catch a young +girl's fancy. She was only twenty-two when she married him, Mister +Jacob." + +"Old enough to know better--quite old enough to know better. Not that I +would say anything against Ruth Bellenden, not a word. It's the woman's +part to play the capers, sir, and we poor mortal men to be took by +them. Howsomever, since there was a fiddle in it, I've nothing more to +say." + +We laughed at Mister Jacob's notion, and Peter Bligh said what it was +in my heart to say: + +"Saving that if Ruth Bellenden needs a friend, she'll find twenty-six +aboard this ship, to say nothing of the cook's boy and the dog. You've +a nice mind, Mister Jacob, but you've a deal to larn when it comes to +women. My poor old father, who hailed from Shoreham----" + +"It was Newport yesterday, Peter." + +"Aye, so it were--so it were. But, Newport or Shoreham, he'd a precious +good notion of the sex, and what he said I'll stand by. 'Get 'em on +their feet to the music,' says he, 'and you can lead 'em anywheres.' +'Tis Gospel truth that, Mister Jacob." + +"But a man had better mind his steps," said I. "For my part, I +shouldn't be surprised if Ruth Bellenden's husband gave us the cold +shoulder to-morrow and sent us about our business. However, the sea's +free to all men, lads, and the morn will show. By your leave we'll have +a bit of supper and after that turn in. We shall want all our wits +about us when daylight comes." They agreed to this, and without further +parley we went on deck and heard what the lad "Dolly" Venn had to tell +us. It was full dark now and the islands were hidden from our view. The +beacon shone with a steady white glare which, under the circumstances, +was almost uncanny. I asked the lad if he had sighted any ships in +towards the land or if signals had been made. He answered me that no +ship had passed in or out nor any rocket been fired. "And I do believe, +sir," he said, "that we shall find the harbour on the far sight of +yonder height." + +"The morning will show us, lad," said I; "go down to your supper, for I +mean to take this watch myself." They left me on the bridge. The wind +had fallen until it was scarce above a moan in the shrouds. I stood +watching the beacon as a man who watches the window light of one who +has been dear to him. + + +CHAPTER II + +WE GO ASHORE AND LEARN STRANGE THINGS + +I have told how it came about that I sailed for Ken's Island, and now I +shall tell what happened when I went ashore to find Ruth Bellenden. + +We put off from the ship at six bells in the morning watch. Dolly Venn, +who was rated as fourth officer, was with me in the launch, and Harry +Doe, the boatswain, at the tiller. I left Mister Jacob on the bridge, +and gave him my orders to stand in-shore as near as might be, and to +look for my coming at sunset--no later. "Whatever passes," said I, "the +night will find me on board again. I trust to bring you good news, +Mister Jacob--the best news." + +"Which would be that we were to 'bout ship and home again," says he; +and that I did not contradict. + +Now, we were to the westward of the island when we put off, and neither +my glass nor the others showed any good landing there. As the launch +drew in towards the cliffs I began to get the lie of the place more +clearly; and especially of what I call the mainland, which was +wonderfully fresh and green in the sunlight and seemed to have some of +the tropic luxuriance of more southern islands. About four miles long, +I judged it to be, from the high black rock to which it rose at the +southward point, to the low dog's-nosed reef which defended it to the +north. Trees I could see, palms and that kind, and ripe green grasses +on a stretch of real down-like land; but the cliffs themselves were +steep and unpromising, and the closer we drew the less I liked the look +of it. + +"Dolly, my lad," I said at last, "you were the wise one, after all. +Yon's no shore for an honest man; he being made like a man and not like +an eagle. Let's try the starboard tack and see what luck will send us." + +We headed the launch almost due south, and began to round the headland. +The men were elated, they didn't know at what; Dolly Venn had a boy's +delight in the difficulty. + +"An ugly shore, sir," he said, pleased at my compliment. "A very ugly +shore. It would be a bad night which found a ship in these parts and no +better light than the fool's beacon we saw yesterday." + +"As true as the parson's word," said I, "but, ugly or beautiful, I'll +be up on those heights before twelve o'clock if I have to swim ashore. +And speaking of that," said I, "there are men up yonder, or I'm a +Dutchman!" Well, he clapped his glass to his eye and searched the green +grass land as I had done; but the light was overstrong and the cliff +quickly shut the view from us, so that we found ourselves presently in +the loom of vast black rocks, with the tide running like a whirlpool, +and a great sword-fish reef a mile from the shore, perhaps, to catch +any fool that didn't want sea room. I took the tiller myself from this +point, and standing well out I brought the launch round gingerly +enough, but the water was deep and good once we were on the lee side; +and no sooner did we head north again than I espied the cove and knew +where Ruth Bellenden had gone ashore. + +"It's there, lad," said I, "yonder, where the sand sparkles. There'll +be a way up the cliff and good anchorage. No one but an Irishman would +buy an island without a harbour; you tell Mr. Bligh that when we go +aboard again." + +"Mr. Bligh says he's only Irish on the mother's side, sir; that's what +makes him bighearted towards the women. He'll be dying to come ashore +if there are any petticoats hereabouts." + +"They haven't much use for that same garment on the Pacific Islands," +said I. "Peter can marry cheap here, if it's the milliners' bills he's +minding--but I doubt, lad, from the look of it, whether we'll find a +jewel in this port. It's a wild-looking place, to be sure it is." + +Indeed, and it was. Viewed from the eastward sea, I call Ken's Island +the most fearsome place I have come across in all my fifteen years +afloat. Vast cliffs, black and green and crystal, rose up sheer from +the water in precipices for all the world like mighty steps. By here +and there, as the ground sloped away to the northward, there were +forests of teak (at least, I judged them to be that), pretty woods with +every kind of palm, green valleys and grassy pastures. The sands of the +cove were white as snow, and shone like so many precious stones pounded +up to make a sea beach. On the north side only was there barrenness-- +for that seemed but a tongue of low land and black rock thrust straight +out into the sea. But elsewhere it was a spectacle to impress a man; +and I began, perhaps, to admit that Edmond Czerny had more than a +crank's whim in his mind when he took little Ruth Bellenden to such a +shore for her honeymoon. He had a fancy for wild places, said I, and +this was the very spot for him. But Miss Ruth, who had always been one +for the towns and cities and the bright things of life--what did she +think of it? I should learn that, if she were ashore yonder. Now, we +put straight in to the cove where the silver sand was, and no sooner +was I ashore than I espied a rickety wooden ladder rising almost +straight up to the cliff's head, which hereabouts was no more than +sixty feet high. Neither man nor beast was on the beach, nor did I make +out any sign of human habitation whatever. It was just a little sandy +bay, lone and desolate; but directly I slipped out of the launch I +discovered footprints leading to the ladder's foot, and I knew that men +had gone up before me, that very morning it must be, seeing that the +tide had ebbed and the sand was still wet. At another time I might have +asked myself why nobody came out to meet us, and why there was no +lookout for the island to hail a strange ship in the offing; but I was +too eager to go ashore, and, for that matter, had my feet on the sand +almost before the launch grounded. + +"Do you, Dolly, come up with me," said I; "the others will stand by to +anchor until we come down again. If it's not in an hour, lads, go back +and get your dinners; but look for me at sunset anyway, for I've no +mind to sleep ashore, and that you may be sure of." + +They took the orders and pushed the launch off. Dolly and I ran up the +crazy ladder and found ourselves at the cliff's head, but no better off +in the matter of seeing than we had been before. True, the launch +looked far down, like a toy ship in a big basin of blue water; we could +distinguish the sword-fish reef, as the lad called it, and other reefs +to the east and north, but the place we stood on was shut in by a black +wood of teak and blue ebony, and, save for the rustling of the great +leaves, we couldn't hear a sound. As for the path through the +plantation, that was covered with long, rank grass, and some pit or +other--I don't know what it was--gave a pungent, heavy odour which +didn't suit a seaman's lungs. I was set against the place from the +first--didn't like it, and told the lad as much. + +"Dolly," said I, "the sooner we have a ship's planking under our feet +again the better for our constitutions. If there's a house in this +locality, the ladder is the road to it, unless one of Peter Bligh's +countrymen built it. Put your best foot foremost, my lad. We'll dine +early if we don't lunch late." + +With this I struck the path through the wood and went straight on, not +listening to the lad's chatter nor making any myself. The shade was +welcome enough; there were pretty places for those that had eyes to see +them--waterfalls splashing down from the moss-grown rocks above; little +pools, dark and wonderfully blue; here and there a bit of green, which +might have been the lawn of a country house. But of dwelling or of +people I saw nothing, and to what the boy fancied that he saw I paid no +heed. + +"You're dreaming it, young gentleman," said I, "for look now, who +should be afraid of two unarmed seamen, and why should any honest man +be ashamed to show his face? If there are men peeping behind the trees, +well, let them peep, and good luck go with them. It doesn't trouble me, +and I don't suppose it will take your appetite away. You aren't afraid +of them, surely?" + +It was an unkind thing to have said, and the lad rightly turned upon +me. + +"Why, sir," cried he, "I would never be afraid while I was with you." + +"Proudly put, my boy, and a compliment I won't forget. What sort of men +did you say that they were?" + +"One was old, with a goat's beard. He wore ragged breeches and a +seaman's blouse. I saw him directly we entered the wood. The others +were up in the hills above the waterfall. They carried rifles." + +"Come, come, Dolly," exclaimed I. "Put them in Prussian blue at once, +and fly the German ensign. Rifles in a place like this--and two unarmed +strangers against them! Why should the rogues hide their beautiful +faces? If they would know all about us, what's to prevent them? Do we +look like highwaymen or honest fellows? Be sure, my lad, that the young +lady I am going to see wouldn't have any blacklegs about her house. +Ruth Bellenden's too clever for that. She'd send them about their +business quick enough, as she's sent many a one when I was the skipper +of her yacht. Did they tell you that, Dolly--that your skipper used to +sail the smartest schooner-yacht that ever flew the ensign----" + +The boy looked up at me and admitted frankly that he knew something. + +"They said the young lady owned the Manhattan, sir. I never asked much +about it. The men were fond of her, I believe." + +"Adored her, lad. She was the daughter of Rupert Bellenden, who made a +mint of money by building the Western American Railroad, and afterwards +in the steel way. He was drowned at sea when the Elbe went down. His +son got the business, but the daughter took the house and fortune--at +least, the best part of it. She was always a rare one for the sea, and +owned a biggish boat in her father's time. When he died she bought the +Manhattan, more's the pity, for it carried her to Mediterranean ports, +and there she took up with the fiddler. He was a Chevalier or +something, and could look a woman through and through. What money he +had was made, the Lord knows where, not out of fiddling, I'll be bound, +for his was no music to set the tongue lilting. He'd been in the +Pacific a while, they say, and was a Jack-of-all-trades in America. +That's how he came across these islands, you may imagine--slap in the +sea-way to Yokohama as they are. There's been many a good ship ashore +on Ken's Island, lad, believe me, and there'll be many another. 'Tis no +likely place to bring a young wife to, and none but a madman would have +done it." + +I told him all this just in a natural way, as one man speaking to +another of something which troubled his mind. Not that he made much of +it--how should he?--for there were a hundred things to look at, and his +eyes were here and there and everywhere; now up at the great black +rocks above us; now peering into a deep gorge, over which a little +wooden bridge carried us, just for all the world like a scaffold thrown +from tree to tree of the wood. It was a rare picture, I admit, and when +we came out of the thicket at last and saw the lower island spread +before us like a chart, with its fields of crimson flowers, its +waterfalls, its bits of pasture, and its blue seas beyond, a man might +well have stood to tell himself that Nature never made a fairer place. +For my part, I began to believe again that Edmond Czerny knew what he +was about when he built a house for Miss Ruth on such a spot; and I was +just about to tell the lad as much when a man came running up the path +and, hailing us in a loud voice, asked us where the devil we were going +to--or something not more civil. And, at this, I brought to and looked +him up and down and answered him as a seaman should. + +"To the devil yourself," said I; "what's that to do with you, and what +may your name happen to be?" + +He was a big man, dressed in blue serge, with a peak cap and a seaman's +blouse. He had a long brown beard and a pock-marked face, and he +carried a spy-glass under his arm. He had come up from the grassy +valley below--and there I first saw the roof of a low bungalow, and the +gardens about it. That was Ruth's home, I said, and this fellow was one +of Czerny's yacht hands. + +"Not so fast, not so fast," cried he; "do you know that this is private +land, and you've no business ashore here?" + +"Why," says I, "haven't we come ashore to see you, my beauty, and +doesn't the spectacle reward us? 'Bout ship," says I, "and have done +with it. My business is with your mistress, whom I knew before your +brother was hanged at 'Frisco." + +He swore a big oath at this, and, I do believe, was half of the mind to +try which was the better man; but when he had looked down at the +gardens of the bungalow, and a white figure was plainly to be seen +there, he seemed to think better of it, and changed his tone entirely. + +"Avast," cries he, with a bit of a laugh, "you're one of the right +sort, and no mistaking that! And where would you be from, and what +would you be wanting here?" he asks, grown civil as a bagman with a bit +of ribbon to sell. + +"Shipmate," says I, "if I'm one of the right sort, my port's +Southampton and my flag's the ensign. Take me down to Mme. Czerny, whom +I see among the flower-beds yonder, and you shall know enough about me +in five minutes to bring the tears to your beautiful eyes. And come," +says I, chaffing him, "are there any girls in this bit of a paradise? +If so," says I, "I should call 'em lucky when I look at you." + +Well, he took it sourly enough, but I could see he was mighty curious +to hear more about me, and as we went down a winding path to the +bungalow in the valley he put many questions to me, and I tried to +answer them civilly. Like all seamen he had no silent wits of his own, +and every word he thought, that he must speak. + +"The guv'nor's not here," he said; "gone to 'Frisco. Lucky for you, for +he don't like strangers. Aye," he goes on, "he's a wonderful man for +his own way; to be sure he is. You'll be aboard and away before sunset, +or you might see him. Take my advice and put about. The shore's +unwholesome," says he. + +"By the looks of you," says I, "you've nothing more than jaundice, and +that I can put up with. As for your guv'nor, I remember him well when +he and I did the light fandango together in European ports. He was +always a wonder with the fiddle. My mistress could lead him like a +pug-dog. I don't doubt she's a bit of a hand at it still." + +Now, this set him thinking, and he put two and two together, I suppose, +and knew pretty well who I was. + +"You'll be Jasper Begg that sailed the lady's yacht Manhattan?" says +he. "Well, I've heard of you often, and from her own lips. She'll be +pleased to see you, right enough--though what the guv'nor might say is +another matter. You see," he went on, "this same island is a paradise, +sure as thunder; but it's lonely for women-kind, and your mistress, she +don't take to it kindly. Not that she's complaining, or anything of +that sort. A lady who has rings for her fingers and bells for her toes, +and all real precious, same as any duchess might wear, she don't +complain long. Why, my guv'nor could make his very teeth out of diamonds +and not miss 'em, come to that! But his missus is always plaguing him +to take her to Europe, and that game. As if he don't want a wife in his +own home, and not in another man's, which is sense, Mister Begg, though +it is spoke by a plain seaman." + +I said, "Aye, aye," and held my tongue, knowing that he would go on +with it. We were almost down at the house now, and the cliffs stood +like a great cloud of solid rock, above which a loom of smoke was +floating. Dolly walked at my heels like a patient dog. My own feelings +are not for me to tell. I was going to see Ruth Bellenden again. Why, +she was there in yonder garden, and nothing between us but this great +hulking yellow boy, who took to buttonholing me as a parson buttonholes +his churchwarden when he wants a new grate in his drawing-room. + +"Now," says he, standing before me as one who had half a mind to block +the road, "you be advised by me, Mister Begg, and cut this job short. +Don't you be listening to a woman's parley, for it's all nonsense. I've +done wrong to let you ashore, perhaps--perhaps I haven't; but, ashore +or afloat, it's my business to see that the guv'nor's orders is carried +out, and carried out they will be, one man or twenty agen 'em. Do you +take a plain word or do you not, Mister Begg?" + +"I take whatever's going, and don't trouble about the sugar," says I; +and then, putting him aside, I lifted the latch of the garden gate, and +went in and saw Miss Ruth. + + +CHAPTER III + +IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES UP HIS MIND WHAT TO DO + +Now, she was sitting in the garden, in a kind of arbour built of +leaves, and near by her was her relative, the rats'-tailed old lady we +used to call Aunt Rachel. The pair didn't see me as I passed in, but a +Chinese servant gave "Good-day" to the yellow man we'd picked up coming +down; and, at that, Miss Ruth--for so I call her, not being able to get +Mme. Czerny into my head--Miss Ruth, I say, stood up, and, the colour +tumbling into her cheeks like the tide into an empty pool, she stood +for all the world as though she were struck dumb and unable to say a +word to any man. I, meanwhile, fingered my hat and looked foolish; for +it was an odd kind of job to have come twelve thousand miles upon, and +what to say to her with the hulking seaman at my elbow, the Lord +forgive me if I knew. + +"Miss Ruth," says I at last, "I'm here according to orders, and the +ship's here, and we're waiting for you to go aboard----" + +Well, she seemed to hear me like one who did not catch the meaning of +it. I saw her put her hand to her throat as though something were +choking her, and the old lady, the one we called Aunt Rachel, cried, +"God bless me," two or three times together. But the yellow man was the +next to speak, and he crossed right over to our Miss Ruth's side, and +talked in her ear in a voice you could have heard up at the hills. + +"You'll not be going aboard to-day, lady. Why, what would the master +have to say, he coming home from foreign parts and you not ashore to +meet him? You didn't say nothing about any ship, not as I can remember, +and mighty pleased the guv'nor will be when he knows about it. Shall I +tell this party he'd better be getting aboard again, eh, ma'am? Don't +you think as he'd better be getting aboard again?" + +He shouted this out for all the world like a man hailing from one ship +to another. I don't know what put it into my head, but I knew from that +moment that my mistress was afraid, aye, deadly afraid, as it is given +few to fear in this life. Not that she spoke of it, or showed it by any +sign a stranger might have understood; but there was a look in her eyes +which was clear to me; "and by my last word," said I to myself, "I'll +know the truth this day, though there be one or a hundred yellow boys!" +None the less, I held my tongue as a wise man should, and what I said +was spoken to the party with the beard. + +"You've a nice soft voice for a nightingale, that you have," says I; +"if you'd let yourself out for a fog-horn to the Scilly Isles, you'd go +near to make your fortune! Is the young lady deaf that you want to bawl +like a harbour-master? Easy, my man," says I, "you'll hurt your +beautiful throat." + +Well, he turned round savage enough, but my mistress, who had stood all +the while like a statue, spoke now for the first time, and holding out +both her hands to me, she cried: + +"Oh, Captain Begg, Captain Begg, is it you at last, to walk right here +like this? I can't believe it," she said; "I really can't believe it!" + +"Why, that's so," said I, catching her American accent, which was the +prettiest thing you ever heard; "I'm on the way to 'Frisco, and I put +in here according to my promise. My ship's out yonder, Miss Ruth, and +there's some aboard that knows you--Peter Bligh and Mister Jacob; and +this one, this is little Dolly Venn," said I, presenting him, "though +he'll grow bigger by-and-bye." + +With this I pushed the boy forward, and he, all silly and blushing as +sailors will be when they see a pretty woman above their station--he +took her hand and heaved it like a pump-handle; while old Aunt Rachel, +the funny old woman in the glasses, she began to talk a lot of nonsense +about seamen, as she always did, and for a minute or two we might have +been a party of friends met at a street corner. + +"I'm glad to find you well, Captain Begg," said she. "Such a dangerous +life, too, the mariner's. I always pity you poor fellows when you climb +the rattlesnakes on winter's nights." + +"Ratlins, you mean, ma'am," said I, "though for that matter, a syllable +or two don't count either way. And I hope you're not poorly, ma'am, on +this queer shore." + +"I like the island," says she, solemn and stiff-like; "my dear nephew +is an eccentric, but we must take our bread as we find it on this +earth, Mister Begg, and thankful for it too. Poor Ruth, now, she is +dreadfully distressed and unhappy; but I tell her it will all come +right in the end. Let her be patient a little while and she will have +her own way. She wants for nothing here--she has every comfort. If her +husband chooses such a home for her, she must submit. It is our duty to +submit to our husbands, captain, as the catechism teaches us." + +"Aye, when you've got 'em," thought I, but I nodded my head to the old +lady, and turned to my mistress, who was now speaking to me. + +"You'll lunch here; why, yes, captain--you mustn't find us +inhospitable, even if you leave us at once. Mr. Denton, will you please +to tell them that Captain Begg lunches with me--as soon as possible?" + +She turned to the yellow man to give him the order; but there was no +mistaking the look which passed between them, saying on her side: +"Allow me to do this," on his, "You will suffer for it afterwards." But +he went up to the veranda of the house right enough, and while he was +bawling to the cook, I spoke the first plain word to Mme. Czerny. + +"Mistress," I said, "the ship's there--shall we go or stay?" + +I had meant it to be the plain truth between us; on her part the +confession whether she needed me or did not; on mine the will to serve +her whatever might happen to me. To my dying day, I shall never forget +her answer. + +"Go," she said, so low that it was little more than a whisper, "but, +oh, for God's sake, Jasper Begg, come back to me again." + +I nodded my head and turned the talk. The man Denton, the one with the +yellow beard (rated as Kess Denton on the island), was back at my side +almost before she had finished. The old lady began to talk about +"curling-spikes" and "blue Saint Peters," and how much the anchor +weighed, and all that sort of blarney which she thought ship-shape and +suited to a poor sailor-man's understanding. I told her a story of a +shark that swallowed a missionary and his hymn-book, and always swam +round our ship at service times afterwards--and that kept her thinking +a bit. As for little Dolly Venn, he couldn't keep his eyes off Miss +Ruth--and I didn't wonder, for mine went that way pretty often. Aye, +she had changed, too, in those twelve months that had passed since last +I saw her, the prettiest bride that ever held out a finger for a ring +in the big church at Nice. Her cheeks were all fallen away and flushed +with a colour which was cruelly unhealthy to see. The big blue eyes, +which I used to see full of laughter and a young girl's life, were +ringed round with black, and pitiful when they looked at you. The hair +parted above the forehead, as it always was, and brought down in curls +above her little ears, didn't seem to me so full of golden threads as +it used to be. But it was good to hear her plucky talk, there at the +dinner-table, when she chattered away like some sweet-singing bird, and +Dolly couldn't turn away his eyes, and the yellow boy stood, sour and +savage, behind her chair, and threw out hints for me to sheer off which +might have moved the Bass Rock. Not that he need have troubled himself, +for I had made up my mind already what to do; and no sooner was the +food stowed away than I up and spoke about the need of getting on +again, and such like. And with that I said "Good-bye" to Mistress Ruth +and "Good-bye" to the old woman, and had a shot left in my locker for +the yellow boy, which I don't doubt pleased him mightily. + +"Good luck to you," says I; "if you'd a wisp of your hair, I'd put it +in my locket and think of you sometimes. When you want anything from +London you just shout across the sea and we'll be hearing you. +Deadman's Horn is nothing to you," said I; "you'd scare a ship out of +the sea, if you wasn't gentle to her." + +Mind you, I said all this as much to put him off as anything else, for +I'd been careful enough to blab no word about the Southern Cross being +Miss Ruth's very own ship, nor about her orders that we should call at +Ken's Island; and I knew that when a man's angry at what you say to him +he doesn't think much of two and two making four, but as often as not +makes them eight or ten. May-be, said I, he'll make it out that I'm on +a tramp bound for 'Frisco and have touched here on the way--and +certainly he won't look for my coming back again once he sees our smoke +on the sky-line. Nor was I wrong. My mistress was to tell me that much +before twelve hours had passed. + +And so it was that I said "Good-bye" to her, she standing at the +garden-gate with a brave smile upon her pretty face, and the yellow man +behind her like a savage dog that is afraid to bite, but has all the +mind to. At the valley's head I turned about, and she was still there, +looking up wistfully to the hills we trod. Thrice I waved my hand to +her, and thrice she answered, and then together, the lad and I, we +entered the dark wood and saw her no more. + +"Your best leg forward, lad," said I to him, "and mum's the word. +There's work to do on the ship, and work ashore for a woman's sake. Are +you game for that, Dolly--are you game, my boy?" + +Well, he didn't answer me. Some one up in the black gorge above fired a +rifle just as I spoke; and the bullet came singing down like a bird on +the wing. Not a soul could I see, not a sound could I hear when the +rolling echoes had passed away. It was just the silence of the thicket +and of the great precipices which headed it--a silence which might +freeze a man's heart because the danger which threatened him was +hidden. + +"Crouch low to the rocks, lad, and go easy," cried I, when my wits came +back again; "that's a tongue it doesn't do to quarrel with. The dirty +skunks--to fire on unarmed men! But we'll return it, Dolly; as I live +I'll fire a dozen for every one they send us." + +"Return it, sir," says he; "but aren't you going aboard?" + +"Aye," says I, "and coming back again like drift on an open sea. Now +let me see you skip across that bridge, and no mistake about it." + +He darted across the chasm's bridge like a chamois. I followed him +quick and clumsy. If my heart was in my mouth--well, let that pass. Not +for my own sake did I fear mortal man that day, but for the sake of a +woman whose very life I believed to be in danger. + + +CHAPTER IV + +WE GO ABOARD, BUT RETURN AGAIN + +We made the ship safely when twenty minutes were passed, and ten +minutes later, Mister Jacob and Peter Bligh were in my cabin with me. + +"Lads," I said, for it was not a day when a man picked his talk; +"lads," said I, "this ship goes full steam ahead for 'Frisco, and +you'll be wanting to know the reason why. Well, that's right and +proper. Let me tell you that she's steaming to 'Frisco because it's the +shortest way to Ken's Island." + +They looked queer at this, but my manner kept them silent. Every man +aboard the Southern Cross had heard the gun fired up in the hills, and +every one knew that Dolly Venn and the skipper had raced for their +lives to the water's edge. "What next?" they asked; and I meant to tell +them. + +"Yes," said I, "the shortest way to Ken's Island, and no mistake about +it. For what does a man do when he sees some one in a house and the +front door's slammed in his face? Why, he goes to the back door +certainly, and for choice when the night's dark and the blinds are +down. That's what I'm going to do this night, lads, for the sake of a +bit of a girl you and I would sail far to serve." + +They said, "Aye, aye," and drew their chairs closer. The men had been +piped down to dinner, but Peter Bligh forgot his, and that was +extraordinary peculiar in him. Mister Jacob took snuff as though it +were chocolate powder, and the whole of a man spoke from his little +eyes. + +"Listen," said I, beginning to tell them what you know already, "here +have we sailed twelve thousand miles at Ruth Bellenden's order, and how +does she receive us? Why, with a nod she might give a neighbour going +by in the street----" + +"They not being on speaking terms except in church," put in Peter +Bligh. + +"Or she wishing him to get on with his business," said Mister Jacob, +"and not to gossip when there was work to do." + +"Be that as it may," I ran on, "the facts are as plain to me as eight +bells for noon. Ruth Bellenden's married to a foreigner who's next door +to a madman. Why, look at it--what was the only word she had the time +or the chance to say? 'For God's sake, come back, Jasper Begg,' says +she. And what am I going to do upon that, gentlemen? Why, I'm going +back, so help me heaven, this very night to learn her trouble." + +"And to bring her aboard where she could tell it on a fair course, so +to speak. You'll do that, sir?" + +"The night will show what I shall do, Mister Jacob. Was there ever such +a story? A man to marry the best creature that ever put on a pretty +bonnet, and to carry her to a god-forsaken shore like this! And to +ill-treat her there! Aye, that's it. If ever a woman's eyes spoke to +me of hard treatment, it was Ruth Bellenden's this morning. She's some +trouble, lads, some dreadful trouble. She doesn't even speak of it to +me. The yellow boy I've made mention of stood by her all the time. We +talked like two that pass by on the ocean. Who'll gainsay that it was +an unnatural thing? No mortal man can, with reason!" + +"Aye, there's precious little reason in it, by what I make out, +captain. You'll know more when the young lady's aboard here----" + +"And the yellow boy's head has a bump on the top of it, like the knob +what used to hang down from my mother's chandelay--but that's idle +talking. What time do you put her about to go ashore, sir?" + +I was glad to see them coming to it like this, and I fell to the plan +without further parley. + +"A fair question and a fair answer," said I; "this ship goes about at +eight bells, Peter. To Mister Jacob here I trust the safety of the good +fellows who go ashore with me. If we can bring the mistress aboard +to-night, well and good, we've done the best day's work we ever set our +hands to. If not, that work must rest until tomorrow night, or the +night after or the night after that. Eight days from now if it happens +that nothing is heard from the land and no news of us, well, the course +is plain. In that case it will be full steam ahead to 'Frisco, and from +there a cable to Kenrick Bellenden, and the plain intimation that his +sister has pretty bad need of him on Ken's Island." + +"And of an American warship, if one is forthcoming." + +"It may be, Mister Jacob; it may be that, though the devils ashore +there are the only ones that could tell you that. But you're a man of +understanding, and your part will be done. I rely upon you as between +shipmates." + +He took a pinch of snuff, and flapping his coat-tails (for he was +always rigged out in the naval officer way) he answered what I wished. + +"As between shipmates, I will do my duty," said he. + +"I knew it; I've known it from the beginning," said I. "What's left +when you've done is the shore part, and that's not so easy. Peter +Bligh's coming, and I couldn't well leave Dolly on board. Give me our +hulking carpenter, Seth Barker, and I'll lighten the ship no more. +We're short-handed as it is. And, besides, if four won't serve, then +forty would be no better. What we can do yonder, wits, and not +revolvers, must bring about. But I'll not go with sugar-sticks, you +take my word for it, and any man that points a gun at me will wish he'd +gone shooting sheep." + +"Aye, aye, to that," cried Peter, who was ever a man for a fight; "the +shooting first and the civil words after. That's sense and no blarney. +When my poor father was tried at Swansea, his native place, for hitting +an Excise man with a ham----" + +"Mr. Bligh," cried I, "'tis not with hams you'll be hitting folks +yonder, take my word for it. This job may find us on a child's errand +or it may find us doing men's work. Eight bells on the first watch will +tell the whole of the story. Until that time I shall hold my tongue +about it, but I don't go ashore as I go to a picnic, and I don't make a +boast about what I may presently cry out about." + +Well, they were both of my way of thinking, and when we'd talked a +little more about it, and I'd opened the arm-chest and looked over the +few guns and pistols we'd got there, and we'd called the lad Dolly down +and promised him that he should come with us, and the men had been +given to understand that the skipper was to go ashore by-and-bye on an +important business, Peter and the others went to their dinner and I +took my turn on the bridge. The swell was running strongly then, and +the wind blew fresh from the north-east. We'd lost all sight of the +island, and spoke but one ship, a small mail steamer from Santa Cruz +bound for the Yellow Sea, which signalled us "All well" at six bells in +the afternoon watch. From that time I went dead slow and began to bring +the Southern Cross about. The work was begun that very hour, I always +say. + +Now, I've told all this, short and brief, and with no talk of my own +about it. The thing had come so sudden, I knew so little of Ruth +Bellenden's trouble or of what had befallen her on the island, that I +was like a man in the dark groping blindly, yet set on hearing the +truth. As for the crew, well, you may be sure that Dolly Venn had put +his side of the story about, and when they knew that my mistress was +ashore there and in some danger, I believe they'd have put me in irons +if I'd so much as spoken of going back. + +Risky it was, so much I won't deny; but who wouldn't risk more than his +own paltry skin to save a woman in trouble, and she, so to speak, a +shipmate? There was not a man aboard, stake my life, who wouldn't have +gone to the land willingly for Ruth Bellenden's sake though he'd been +told, sure and certain, that Ken's Island must be his grave. And we'd +always the ship, mind you, and the knowledge that she would go to +'Frisco to get us help. A fool's hope, I say now. For how could we know +that the Southern Cross would be at the bottom of the sea, a thousand +fathoms down, before the week was run? We couldn't know it; yet that +was what happened, and that is why no help came to us. + +We had put the ship about at six bells in the afternoon watch, but it +was eight bells in the second dog (the night being too clear for my +liking and a full moon showing bright in the sky) that we sighted Ken's +Island for the second time, and for the second time prepared to go +ashore. The longboat was ready by this time, her barrels full of water +and her lockers full of biscuit. Such arms as we were to carry were +partly stowed in water-proof sheeting--the rifles, and the cartridges +for them; but the revolvers we carried, and a good Sheffield knife a +man, which we weren't going to cut potatoes with. For the rest, I made +them put in a few stout blankets, and more rations than might have +served for such a trip. "Good beginnings make good endings," said I; +"what we haven't need of, lads, we can carry aboard again. The +longboat's back won't ache, be sure of it." + +All this, I say, was done when the moon showed us the island like a +great barren rock rising up sheer from the sea. And when it was done, +Mister Jacob called my attention to something which in the hurry of +shore-going I might never have seen at all or thought about. It was +nothing less than this--that their fool's beacon was out to-night, and +all the sea about it as black as ink. Whoever set up the light, then, +did not use it for a seaman's benefit, but for his own whim. I reckoned +up the situation at a glance, and even at that early stage I began to +know the terrible meaning of it. + +"Mister Jacob," said I, "those that keep that beacon are either fools +or knaves." + +"Or both, sir," said he. + +"Which one is the own brother to the other. Aye, captain, 'tis lucky +ye've the parish lantern, as my poor father used to say when----" + +But Peter Bligh never finished it that night. The words were still in +his mouth when a rocket shot up over the sea and bursting in a cloud of +gold-blue sparks, cast a weird, cold light upon rock and reef and all +that troubled sea. And as the rocket fell our big carpenter, Seth +Barker, standing aft by the hatch, cries out, + +"Ship ashore! Ship ashore, by----!" + + +CHAPTER V + +STRANGE SIGHTS ASHORE, AND WHAT WE SAW OF THEM + +Now, when Seth Barker cried out that a ship was ashore on the dangerous +reefs to the northward of the main island, it is not necessary to tell +you what we, a crew of British seamen, were called upon to do. The +words were scarcely spoken before I had given the order, "Stand by the +boats," and sent every man to his station. Excited the hands were, that +I will not deny; excited and willing enough to tell you about it if +you'd asked them; but no man among them opened his lips, and while they +stood there, anxious and ready, I had my glass to my eye and tried to +make out the steamer and what had befallen her. Nor was Mister Jacob +behind me, but he and Peter Bligh at my side, we soon knew the truth +and made up our minds about it. + +"There's a ship on the reef, sure enough, and by the cut of her she's +the Santa Cruz we spoke this afternoon," said Mr. Jacob, and added, "a +dangerous shore, sir, a dangerous shore." + +"But full of kind-hearted people that fire their guns at poor +shipwrecked mariners," put in Peter Bligh. I wouldn't believe him at +first, but there was no denying it, awful truth that it was, when a few +minutes had passed. + +"Good God," cried I, "it can't be so, Peter, and yet that's a rifle's +tongue, or I've lost my hearing." + +Well, we all stood together and listened as men listen for some poor +creature's death-cry, or the sounds which come in the stillness of the +night to affright and unnerve us. Sure enough, you couldn't have +counted ten before the report of guns was heard distinctly above the +distant roar of breakers; while flashes of crimson light, playing about +the reef, seemed to tell the whole story without another word from me. + +"Those devils ashore are shooting the crew," cried I; "did man ever +hear such bloody work? I'll have a reckoning for this, if it takes me +twenty years. Lower away the boats, lads; I'm going to dance to that +music." + +They swung the two longboats out on the davits, and the port crew were +in their seats, when Mister Jacob touched my arm and questioned my +order--a thing I haven't known him to do twice in ten years. + +"Beg pardon, sir," said he, "but there's no boat that will help the +Santa Cruz to-night." + +"And why, Mister Jacob--why do you say that?" + +"Because she's gone where neither you nor I wish to go yet awhile, +Mister Begg." + +I stood as though he had shot me, and clapping my glass to my eye I +took another look towards the northern reef and the ship that was +stranded there. But no ship was to be seen. She had disappeared in a +twinkling; the sea had swallowed her up. And over the water, as an +eerie wail, lasting and doleful, came the death-cries of those who +perished with her. + +"God rest their poor souls and punish them that sent them there," said +Peter Bligh fervently; but Mister Jacob was still full of his prudent +talk. + +"We're four miles out, and the moon will be gone in ten minutes, sir. +You couldn't make the reef if you tried, and if you could, you'd find +none living. This sea would best the biggest boat that ever a ship +carried--it will blow harder in an hour, and what then? We've friends +of our own to serve, and the door that Providence opens we've no right +to shut. I say nothing against humanity, Captain Begg, but I wouldn't +hunt the dead in the water when I could help the living ashore." + +I saw his point in a moment, and had nothing to say against it. No +small boat could have lived in the reefs about the northern end of the +island with the sea that was running that night. If the devils who +fired down upon the poor fellows of the Santa Cruz were still watching +like vultures for human meat, fair argument said, the main island would +be free of them for us to go ashore as we pleased. A better opportunity +might not be found for a score of months. I never blame myself, least +of all now, when I know Ruth Bellenden's story, that I listened that +night to the clearheaded wisdom of Anthony Jacob. + +"You're right, as always, Mister Jacob. I've no call to take these good +fellows on a fool's errand. And it's going to blow hard, as you say. +We'll take in one of the boats, and those that are for the shore will +make haste to get aboard the other." + +This I said to him, but to the men I put it in a few seaman's words. + +"Lads," I said, "no boat that Southampton ever built could swim in +yonder tide where it makes between the reefs. We'd like to help +shipmates, but the chance is not ours. There's another little shipmate +ashore there that needs our help pretty badly. I'm going in for her +sake, and there's not a man of you that will not do his duty by the +ship when I'm gone. Aye, you'll stand by Mister Jacob, lads, I may tell +him that?" + +They gave me a rousing cheer, which was a pretty foolish thing to have +done, and it took all my voice to silence them. Lucky for us, there was +a cloud over the moon now, and darkness like a black vapour upon the +sea. Not a lamp burned on the Southern Cross; not a cabin window but +had its curtain. What glow came from her funnel was not more than a +hazy red light over the waters; and when five of us (for we took Harry +Doe to stand by ashore) stepped into the longboat, and set her head due +west for the land, we lost the steamer in five minutes--and, God knows, +we were never to see her again on the high seas or off. + +Now, I have said that the wind had begun to blow fresh since sunset, +and at two bells in the first watch, the time we left the ship, the sea +ran high, and it was not oversafe even in the longboat to be cruising +for a shore we knew so little about. I have always accounted it more +good luck than good seamanship which brought us to the cove at last, +and set us all, wet but cheerful, on the dry, white sand about the +ladder's foot. There was shelter in the bay both for man and ship, and +when we'd dragged the longboat up on the beach we gave Harry Doe his +orders and left him to his duty. + +"If there's danger fire your gun," said I--"once, if you wish to call +us; twice, if you think we should stand off. But you won't do that +unless things are at the worst, and I'm hoping for the best, when you +won't do it at all." + +He answered, "Aye, aye," in a whisper which was like a bear's growl; +and we four, Peter Bligh, Seth Barker, and the lad Dolly, besides +myself, climbed the ladder like cats and stood at the cliff's head. To +say that our hearts were in our mouths would not be strict truth, for I +never feared any man, beast, or devil yet; and I wasn't going to begin +that night--nor were the others more ready, that I will answer for +them. But remembering the things we had seen on the reef, the words +which Ruth Bellenden had spoken to me, and that which happened to the +lad and myself last time we came ashore; remembering this, it's not to +be wondered at that our hearts beat a bit quicker, and that our hands +went now and again to the pistols we carried. For, just think of +it--there we were at nine o'clock of a dark night, in a thick wood, +with the trees making ghosts about us, and the path as narrow as a +ship's plank, and no knowledge who walked the woods with us, nor any +true reckoning of our circumstance. What man wouldn't have held his +tongue at such a time, or argued with himself that it might end badly, +and he never see the sun again? Not Jasper Begg, as I bear witness. + +Now, I put myself at the head of our fellows and, the better to find +the track, I went down on my hands and my knees like a four-footed +thing, and signalling to those behind with a bosun's whistle, I led +them well enough through the wood to the wicker-basket bridge; and +would have gone on from there straight down to the house but for +something which happened at the clearing of the thicket, just as I +stood up to bid the men go over. Startling it was, to be sure, and +enough to give any man a turn; nor did I wonder that Peter Bligh should +have cried out as he did when first he clapped eyes upon it. + +"Holy Mother of Music," says he, "'tis the angels singing, or I'm a +dirty nigger!" + +"Hold your tongue," says I, in a whisper; "are you afraid of two young +women, then?" + +"Of three," says he, "which being odd is lucky. When my poor +father----" + +"To hell with your father," says I; "hold your tongue and wait." + +He lay low at this, and the rest of us gaped, open-mouthed, as though +we were staring at a fairy-book. There, before us, coming down from the +black rocks above, leaping from step to step of the stone, were three +young girls; but, aye, the queerest sort that ever tantalized a man +with their prettiness. You may well ask, the night being inky dark, how +we managed to see them at all; but let me tell you that they carried +good rosin torches in their hands, and the wild light, all gold and +crimson against the rocks, shone as bright as a ship's flare and as +far. Never have I seen such a thing, I say, and never shall. There were +the three of them, like young deer on a bleak hillside, singing and +laughing and leaping down, and, what's more, speaking to each other in +an odd lingo, with here a word of French and there a word of German, +and after that something that was beyond me and foreign to my +understanding. + +"God be good to me--saw man ever such a sight? And the dress of 'em, +the dress of 'em," whispers Peter Bligh. But I clapped my hand upon his +mouth and stopped him that time. + +"The dress is all right," said I; "what I'm wondering is how three of +that sort came in such a place as this. And well born too, well born, +or I don't know the meaning of the term!" + +They were pretty creatures and their dress was like the rest of them. +Short skirts all looped and filled with flowers, toggery above cut out +of some white skin, with caps to match and their hair falling in big +ramping curls about it--they were for all the world like the dancers +you see at a stage play and just as active. And to hear their voices, +sweet and musical, floating from ravine to ravine like a choir singing +in a place of echoes, aye that was something you might not soon forget. +But what they were doing in such a place, or how they came there, the +Lord above alone knew, and not a plain seaman like Jasper Begg. + + +[Illustration: Like dancers at a stage play.] + + +"What are they saying, Peter--what do you make of it?" I asked him, +under my breath. + +"'Tis the French lingo," says he, foolish-like, "and if it's not that, +'tis the German--leastwise no Christian man that I know of could +distinguish between 'em." + +"Peter," says I, "that's what you learn in the asylum. 'Tis no more the +French lingo than your own. Why, hearken to it." + +Well, he listened, and soon we heard a pretty echo from the valley, for +they'd gone down towards the gardens now; and one word repeated often +had as nice a touch of music as I remember hearing. It was just this: +"Rosamunda--munda--munda," and you can't think how fresh the young +voice sounded in that lonely place, or what a chill it gave a man when +he remembered the devils over at the reef and what they'd done to the +crew of the Santa Cruz. I do believe to this day that our fellows +imagined they'd seen nothing more nor less than an apparition out of +the black rocks above them; and it wasn't until I'd spoken to them in +good honest English that I got them to go on again. + +"Flesh or spirit, that's not a lot to whiten a man's gills," cried I; +"why, thunder, Peter Bligh, you're big enough to put 'em all in your +pocket, and soft enough they'd lie when they got there. Do you mean to +tell me," I asked him, "that four hale and strong men are to be +frightened out of their wits by three pretty girls?--and you a +religious man, too, Peter! Why, I'm ashamed of you, that I am, lads, +right down ashamed of you!" + +They plucked up at this, and Peter he made haste to excuse himself. + +"If they was Christian men with knives in their hands," says he, "I'd +put up a bit of a prayer, and trust to the Lord to shoot 'em; but them +three's agen all reason, at this time of night in such a lone place." + +"Go on with you, Peter," chimes in Dolly Venn; "three ripping little +girls, and don't I wish they'd ask me in to tea! Why, look, they're +down by the house now, and somebody with them, though whether it's a +man or a woman I really don't pretend to say." + +"I'm derned if I don't think it's a lion," says Seth Barker, asking my +pardon for the liberty. + +We all stood still at this, for we were on the hillside just above the +house now; and down on the fair grass-way below us we espied the three +little girls with their torches still burning, and they as deep in talk +with a stranger as a man might have been with his own mother. A more +remarkable human being than the one these little ladies had happened +upon I don't look to see again the world around. Man or lion--God +forgive me if I know what to call him. He'd hair enough, shaggy hair +curling about his shoulders, to have stuffed a feather bed. His dress +was half man's, half woman's. He'd a tattered petticoat about his legs, +a seaman's blouse for his body, and a lady's shawl above that upon his +shoulders--his legs were bare as a barked tree, and what boots he had +should have been in the rag-shop. More wonderful still was it to +see the manner of the young ladies towards him--for I shall always +call them that--they petted him and fondled him, and one put a mock +crown of roses on his head. Then, with that pretty song of theirs, +"Rosamunda--munda--munda," they all ran off together towards the +northern shore and left us in the darkness, as surprised a party of +men as you'll readily meet with. + +"Well," says Peter Bligh, and he was the first among us to speak, +"yon's a nice shipmate to speak on a quiet road. So help me thunder, +but I wouldn't pass round the tin for him in a beauty show, no, not +much! Did ye see the hair of him, captain--did ye see the hair?" + +"And the girls kissing him as though he were Apollo," cries Dolly Venn, +who, I don't doubt, would have done the kissing willingly himself. But +I hushed their talk, and without more ado I went straight down to Ruth +Bellenden's house. All the strange things we'd seen and heard, the +uncanny sights, the firing on the reef, the wild man ashore, the little +girls from the hills--all these, I say, began to tell me my mistress's +story as a written book might never have done. "She's need of me," I +said, "sore need; and by God's help I'll bring her out of this place +before to-morrow's sun." + +For how should I know what long days must pass before I was to leave +Ken's Island again? + + +CHAPTER VI + +JASPER BEGG MEETS HIS OLD MISTRESS, AND IS WATCHED + +I had made up my mind to take every proper precaution before going up +to the house where my mistress lived; and with caution in my head I +left Seth Barker, the carpenter, up on the hill path, while I set Peter +Bligh at the gate of the garden, and posted Dolly Venn round at the +northern side, where the men who had looted the Santa Cruz might be +looked for with any others that I had no knowledge of. When this was +done, and they understood that they were to fire a gun if the need +arose, I opened the wicket-gate and crept up the grass path for all the +world like an ill-visaged fellow who had no true business there. Not a +sound could I hear in all that place; not a dog barked, nor a human +voice spoke. Even the wind came fitful and gusty about the sheltered +house; and so quiet was it between the squalls that my own footfall +almost could scare me. For, you see, a whisper spoken at the wrong time +might have undone all--a clumsy step have cost us more than a man cared +to count. We were but four, and, for all I know, there might have been +four hundred on Ken's Island. You don't wonder therefore, if I asked +myself at times whether to-morrow's sun would find us living or what +our misfortune might spell for one I had come so far to serve. + +It was very dark in the garden, as I have told you, but two of the +windows in the house were lighted up and two golden rings of light +thrown out upon the soft grass I trod. I stood a long time debating +which window to knock open--for it was a fearful lottery, I must +say--and when I'd turned it over and over in my head, and now made out +that it was this window and now plumped for the other, I took up a +pebble at last and cast it upon the pane nearest to the door--for that +seemed to me the more likely room, and I'd nothing else but common +sense to guide me. You may judge of my feelings when no notice was +taken of my signal except by a dog, which began to yap like a pup and +to make such a scare that I thought every window and every door must +be opened that very instant and as many men out on top of me. I said, +surely, that it was all up with Jasper Begg that journey; but odd to +tell it, the dog gave over at last, and no one showed himself, neither +was there any whistle from my company; and I was just making ready to +throw another stone when the second light was turned out all of a +sudden and, the long window being opened, Ruth Bellenden--or, to be +more correct, Mme. Czerny--herself came out into the garden, and stood +looking round about as though she knew that I was there and had been +waiting for me. When at last she saw me she didn't speak or make any +sign, but going about to the house again she held the window open for +me, and I passed into the dark room with her, and there held her hand +in mine, I do believe as though I would never let it go again. + +"Jasper," says she, in a whisper that was pretty as the south wind in +springtime; "Jasper Begg, how could it be any one else! Oh, we must +light a candle, Jasper Begg," says she, "or we shall lose ourselves in +the dark." + +"Miss Ruth," said I, "light or dark, I'm here according to my orders, +and the ship's here, and as I said to you before the yellow boy to-day, +we're waiting for our mistress to go aboard." + +She had her back to me when I said this, and was busy enough drawing +the curtains and lighting the lamp again. The light showed me that she +wore a rich black gown with fluffy stuff over it, and a bit of a +sparkle in the way of diamonds like a band across her parted hair. The +face was deceiving, now lighted up by one of the old smiles, now hard +set as one who had suffered much for her years. But there was nothing +over-womanish in her talk, and we two thrashed it out there, just the +same as if Ken's Island wasn't full of devils, and the lives of me and +my men worth what a spin of the coin might buy them at. + +"You mustn't call me Miss Ruth," says she, when she turned from the +lamp and tidied up her writing on the table; "of course you know that, +Jasper Begg. And you at my wedding, too--is it really not more than +twelve long months ago?" + +A sigh passed her lips, such a sigh as tells a woman's story better +than all the books; and in that moment the new look came upon her face, +the look I had seen when the yellow man changed words with her in the +morning. + +"It's thirteen months three weeks since you went up with Mr. Czerny to +the cathedral at Nice," was my next word; "the days go slow on this +out-of-the-way shore, I'll be bound--until our friends come, Miss Ruth, +until we're sure they haven't forgotten us." + + +I had a meaning in this, and be sure she took it. Not that she answered +me out and away as I wished; for she put on the pretty air of wife and +mistress who wouldn't tell any of her husband's secrets. + +"Why, yes," she said, very slowly, "the days are long and the nights +longer, and, of course, my husband is much away from here." + +I nodded my head and drew the chair she'd offered me close to the +table. On her part she was looking at the clock as though she wished +that the hands of it might stand still. I read it that we hadn't much +time to lose, and what we had was no time for fair words. + +"Miss Ruth," says I, without more parley, "from what I've seen to-night +I don't doubt that any honest man would be glad to get as far as he +could from Ken's Island and its people at the first opportunity. You'll +pardon what a plain seaman is going to say, and count him none the less +a friend for saying it. When you left money in the banker's hands to +commission a ship and bring her to this port, your words to me were, 'I +may have need of you.' Miss Ruth, you have need of me--I should be no +more than a fool if I couldn't see that. You have sore need of me, and +if you won't say so for yourself, I take leave to say it for you." + +She raised a hand as though she would not hear me--but I was on a clear +course now, and I held to it in spite of her. + +"Yes," I said, "you've need of your friends to-night, and it's a lucky +wind that brought them to this shore. What has passed, Miss Ruth, in +these months you speak of, it's not for me to ask or inquire. I have +eyes in my head, and they show me what I would give my fortune not to +see. You're unhappy here, Miss Ruth--you're not treated well." + +I waited for her to speak; but not a word would she say. White she was, +as a flower from her own garden, and once or twice she shivered as +though the cold had struck her. I was just going on to speak again, +when what should happen but that her little head went down on the table +and she began to sob as though her heart would break. + +"Oh, Jasper Begg, how I have suffered, how I have suffered!" said she, +between her sobs; and what could I do, what could any man do who would +kiss the ground a woman walks upon but has no right or title to? Why, +hold his tongue, of course, though it hurt him cruelly to do any such +thing. + +"Miss Ruth," said I, very foolish, "please don't think of that now. I'm +here to help you, the ship's here, we're waiting for you to go aboard." + +She dried her tears and tried to look up at me with a smile. + +"Oh, I'm just a child, just a child again, Jasper," cries she; "a year +ago I thought myself a woman, but that's all passed. And I shall never +go away on your ship, Jasper Begg--never, never. I shall die on Ken's +Island as so many have died." + +I stood up at this and pointed to the clock. + +"Little friend," I said, "if you'll put a cloak about your shoulders +and leave this house with me I'll have you safe aboard the Southern +Cross in twenty minutes by that clock, as God is my witness." + +It was no boast--for that I could have done as any seaman knows; and +you may well imagine that I stood as a man struck dumb when I had her +answer. + +"Why, yes," she said, "you could put me on board your boat, Captain +Jasper, if every step I took was not watched; if every crag had not its +sentinel; if there were not a hundred to say 'Go back--go back to your +home.' Oh, how can you know, how can you guess the things I fear and +dread in this awful place? You, perhaps, because the ship is waiting +will be allowed to return to it again. But I, never, never again to my +life's end." + +A terrible look crossed her face as she said this, and with one swift +movement she opened a drawer in the locker where she did her writing, +and took from it a little book which she thrust, like a packet, into my +hands. + +"Read," she said, with startling earnestness, "read that when you are +at sea again. I never thought that any other eyes but mine would see +it; but you, Jasper, you shall read it. It will tell you what I myself +could never tell. Read it as you sail away from here, and then say how +you will come back to help the woman who needs your help so sorely." + +I thrust the book into my pocket, but was not to be put off like that. + +"Read it I will, every line," said I; "but you don't suppose that +Jasper Begg is about to sail away and leave you in this plight, Miss +Ruth! He'd be a pretty sort of Englishman to do that, and it's not in +his constitution, I do assure you!" + +She laughed at my earnestness, but recollecting how we stood and what +had befallen since sunset, she would hear no more of it. + +"You don't understand; oh, you don't understand!" she cried, very +earnestly; "there's danger here, danger even now while you and I are +talking. Those who have gone out to the wreck will be coming home +again; they must not find you in this house, Jasper Begg, must not, +must not! For my sake, go as you came. Tell all that thought of me how +I thank them. Some day, perhaps, you will learn how to help me. I am +grateful to you, Jasper--you know that I am grateful." + +She held out both her hands to me, and they lay in mine, and I was +trying to speak a real word from my heart to her when there came a low, +shrill whistle from the garden-gate, and I knew that Peter Bligh had +seen something and was calling me. + +"Miss Ruth," says I, "that's old Peter Bligh and his danger signal. +There'll be some one about, little friend, or he wouldn't do it." + +Well, she never said a word. I saw a shadow cross her face, and +believed she was about to faint. Nor will any one be surprised at that +when I say that the door behind us had been opened while we talked, and +there stood Kess Denton, the yellow man, watching us like a hound that +would bite presently. + + +CHAPTER VII + +IN WHICH HELP COMES FROM THE LAST QUARTER WE HAD EXPECTED IT + +Now, no sooner did I see the yellow man than my mind was fully made up, +and I determined what harbour to make for. "If you're there, my lad," +said I to myself, "the others are not far behind you. You've seen me +come in, and it's your intention to prevent me going out again. To be +caught like a rat in a trap won't serve Ruth Bellenden, and it won't +serve me. I'm for the open, Kess Denton," said I, "and no long while +about it, either." + +This I said, but I didn't mean to play the startled kitten, and without +any token of surprise or such-like I turned round to Miss Ruth and gave +her "good-evening." + +"I'm sorry you're not coming aboard, Mme. Czerny," says I; "we weigh in +an hour, and it will be a month or more before I call in again. But you +sha'n't wait long for the news if I can help it; and as for your +brother, Mr. Kenrick, I'll trust to hear from him at 'Frisco and to +tell you what he thinks on my return. Good-night, madame," said I, "and +the best of health and prosperity." + +I held out my hand, and she shook it like one who didn't know what she +was doing. The yellow man came a step nearer and said, "Halloa, my +hearty." I nodded my head to him and he put his hand on my shoulder. +Poor fool, he thought I was a child, perhaps, and to be treated as one; +but I have learnt a thing or two about taking care of myself in Japan, +and you couldn't have counted two before I had his arm twisted under +mine, and he gave a yell that must have been heard up in the hills. + +"If you cry out like that, you'll ruin your beautiful voice," said I; +"hasn't any one ever asked you to sing hymns in a choir? Well, I'm +surprised. Good-night, my boy; I shall be coming back for your picture +before many days have passed." + +Upon this, I stepped towards the door, and thought that I had done with +him; but no sooner was I out in the garden than something went singing +by my ear, and upon that a second dose with two reports which echoed in +the hills like rolling thunder. No written music vas necessary to tell +me the kind of tune it was, and I swung round on my heel and gripped +the man by the throat almost before the echoes of the shot had died +away. + +"Kess Denton," said I, "if you will have it, you shall!" and with that +I wrenched the pistol from his grasp and struck him a blow over the +head that sent him down without a word. + +"One," said I, to myself, "one that helped to make little Ruth +Bellenden suffer;" and with that I set off running and never looked to +the right of me nor to the left until I saw Peter Bligh at the gate and +heard his honest voice. + +"Is it you--is it you yourself, Mr. Begg? Thank God for that!" cries +he, and it was no longer in a whisper; "there's men in the hills, and +Seth Barker whistling fit to crack his lips. Is the young lady coming +aboard, sir? No?--well, I'm not surprised, neither, though this shore +do seem a queerish sort of place----" + +I cut him short, and Dolly Venn running round from his place in the +garden I asked him for his news. The thing now was to find a road to +the sea. What could be done for Ruth Bellenden that night was over and +passed. Our chance lay on the deck of the Southern Cross, and after +that at 'Frisco. + +"What have you seen, Dolly Venn--be quick, lad, for we can't linger?" +was my question to him so soon as he was within hail. He answered me by +pointing to the trees which border the garden on the eastward side. + +"The wood is full of armed men, sir. Two of them nearly trod upon me +while I was lying there. They carry rifles, and seem to be Germans--I +couldn't be sure of that, sir." + +"Germans or chimpanzees, we're going by them this night. Where's Seth +Barker--why doesn't he come down? Does he think we can pass by the +hill-road?--the wooden block! Call him, one of you." + +They were about to do this when Seth Barker himself came panting down +the hillpath, and, what was more remarkable, he carried an uncouth sort +of bludgeon in his hand. I could see that there had been a bit of a +rough and tumble on the way, but it wasn't the time for particulars. + +"Come aboard, sir," says he, breathing heavy; "the gangway's blocked, +but I give one of 'em a bit of a knock with his own shillelagh, and +that's all right." + +"Is there any more up there?" I asked quickly. + +"May be a dozen, may be more. They're up on the heights looking for you +to go up, captain." + +"Aye," said I, "pleasant company, no doubt. Well, we must strike +eastward somehow, lads, and the sooner the better. We'll hold to the +valley a bit and see where that leads us. Do you, Seth Barker, keep +that bit of a shillelagh ready, and, if any one asks you a question, +don't you wait to answer it." + +Now, I had resolved to try and get down to the sea by the valley road +and, once upon the shore, to signal Harry Doe, if possible, and, if not +him, then the ship herself as a last resource. Any road seemed to me +better than this trap of a house with armed men all about it and a +pistol bullet ready for any stranger that lingered. "Aboard the ship," +said I, "we'll show them a clean pair of heels to 'Frisco and, after +that, ask the American Government what it can do for Ruth Bellenden and +for her husband." We were four against a hundred, perhaps, and +desperate men against us. If we got out of the scrape with our skins, +we should be as lucky a lot as ever sailed the Northern Pacific Ocean. +But should we--could we? Why, it was a thousand to one against it! + +I said this when we plunged into the wood; and yet I will bear witness +that I got more excitement than anything else out of that venture, and +I don't believe the others got less. There we were, the four of us, +trampling through the brushwood, crushing down the bushes, now lying +low, now up a-running--and not a man that wouldn't have gone through it +twice for Ruth Bellenden's sake. If so be that the night was to cost us +our lives, well, crying wouldn't help it--and those that were against +us were flesh and blood, all said and done, and no spirits to scare a +man. To that I set it down that we went on headlong and desperate. As +for the thicket itself, it was full of men--I could see their figures +between the trees. We must have passed twenty of them in the darkness +before one came out, plump on our path and cried out to us to halt. + +"Hold, hold," shouts he; "is it you, Bob Williams?" + +"It's Bob Williams, right enough," says I, and with that I gave him one +between the eyes, and down he went like a felled ox. The man who was +with him, stumbling up against Seth Barker, had a touch of the +shillelagh which was like a rock falling upon a fly. He just gave one +shuddering groan and fell backwards, clutching the branches. Little +Dolly Venn laughed aloud in his excitement, elbowed Peter Bligh who +gave a real Irish "hurrugh"; but the darkness had swallowed it all up +in a minute, and we were on again, heading for the shore like those +that run a race for their very lives. + +"Do you see any road, Peter Bligh?" asked I, for my breath was coming +short now; "do you see any road, man?" + +"The devil a one, sir, and me weighing fourteen stone!" + +"You'll weigh less when we get down, Peter." + +"And drink more, the saints be praised!" + +"Was that a rifle-shot or a stone from the hills?" I asked them a +moment later. Dolly Venn answered me this time. + +"A rifle-shot, captain. They'll be shooting one another, then--it's +ripping, ripping!" + +"Look out, lad, or it'll be dripping!" cried I; "don't you see there's +water ahead?" + +I cried the warning to him and stood stock-still upon the borders of as +black a pool as I remember to have seen in any country. The road had +carried us to the foot of the hills, almost to the chasm which the +wicker-bridge spanned; and we could make out that same bridge far above +us like a black rope in the twilight. The water itself was covered with +some clinging plants, and full of winding, ugly snakes which caused the +whole pool to shine with a kind of uncanny light; while an overpowering +odour, deadly and stifling, steamed up from it, and threatened to choke +a man. What was worse than this was a close thicket bordering the pond +on three sides, so that we must either swim for it or turn back the way +we came. The latter course was not to be thought of. Already I could +hear footsteps, and boughs snapping and breaking not many yards from +where we stood. To cross the pond might have struck the bravest man +alive with terror. I'd have sooner forfeited my life time over than +have touched one of those slimy snakes I could see wriggling over the +leaves to the bottom of the still water. What else to do I had no more +notion than the dead. "It's the end, Jasper Begg," said I to myself, +"the end of you and your venture." But of Ruth Bellenden I wouldn't +think. How could I, when I knew the folks that were abroad on Ken's +Island? + +I will just ask any traveller to stand with me where I stood that night +and to say if these words are overmuch for the plight, or if I have +spoken of it with moderation. A night as black as ink, mind you; my +company in the heart of a wood with big teak trees all round us, and +cliffs on our right hand towering up to the sky like mountains. Before +us a pool of inky water, all worming with odd lights and lines of blue +fire, like flakes of phosphorus on a bath, and alive with the hissing +of hundreds of snakes. Upon our left hand a scrubby thicket and a marsh +beneath it, I make sure; Czerny's devils, who had shot the poor folks +on the Santa Cruz, at our heels, and we but four against the lot of +them. Would any man, I ask, have believed that he could walk into such +a trap and get out of it unharmed? If so, it wasn't Jasper Begg, nor +Peter Bligh, nor little Dolly Venn, nor Seth Barker with the bludgeon +in his hand. They'd as good as given it up when we came to the pool and +stood there like hunting men that have lost all hope. + +"Done, by all that's holy!" says Peter Bligh, drawing back from the +pond as from some horrid pit. "Snakes I have seen, nateral and +unnateral, but them yonder give me the creeps----" + +"Creeps or no creeps, the others will be up here in five minutes, and +what are you going to do then, Peter Bligh, what then?" asks I, for as +I'm a living man I didn't know which way to turn from it. + +Seth Barker was the one that answered me. + +"I'm going to knock some nails in, by your leave," says he, and with +that he stood very still and bade us listen. The whole wood was full of +the sound of "halloaing" now. Far and wide I heard question and answer, +and a lingering yodle such as the Swiss boys make on the mountains. It +couldn't be many minutes, I said, before the first man was out on our +trail; and there I was right, for one of them came leaping out of the +wood straight into Peter Bligh's arms before I'd spoken another word. +Poor devil--it was the last good-night for him in this world--for Peter +passes him on, so to speak, and he went headlong into the pond without +any one knowing how he got there. A more awful end I hope I may never +hear of, and yet, God knows, he brought it on himself. As for Peter +Bligh, the shock set him sobbing like a woman. It was all my work to +get him on again. + +"No fault of ours," said I; "we're here for a woman's sake, and if +there's man's work to do, we'll do it, lads. Take my advice and you'll +turn straight back and run for it. Better a tap on the head than a cry +in yonder pool." + +They replied fearsomely--the strain was telling upon them badly. That +much I learnt from their husky voices and the way they kept close to +me, as though I could protect them. Seth Barker, especially, big man +that he was, began to mutter to himself in the wildest manner possible; +while little Dolly burst into whistling from time to time in a way that +made me crazy. + +"That's right, lad," cried I, "tell them you're here, and ask after the +health of their womenfolk. You've done with this world, I see, and made +it straight for the next. If you've a match in your pocket, strike it +to keep up their spirits." + +Well, he stopped short, and I was ashamed of myself a minute after for +speaking so to a mere lad whose life was before him and who'd every +right to be afraid. + +"Come," said I, more kindly, "keep close to me, Dolly, and if you don't +know where I am, why, put out your hand and touch me. I've been in +worse scrapes than this, my boy, and I'll lead you out of it somehow. +After all, we've ship over yonder and Mister Jacob isn't done with yet. +Keep up your heart, then, and put your best leg forward." + +Now, this was spoken to put courage into him--not that I believed what +I said, but because he and the others counted upon me, and my own +feelings had to go under somehow. For the matter of that, it looked all +Lombard Street to a China orange against us when we took the woodland +path again; and so I believe it would have been but for something which +came upon us like a thunder-flash, and changed all our despair to a +desperate hope. And to this something Peter Bligh was the first to call +our attention. + +"Is it fireflies or lanterns?" cries he all at once, bringing out +the words like a pump might have done; "yonder on the hillside, +shipmates--is it fireflies or lanterns?" + +I stood to look, and while I stood Seth Barker named the thing. + +"It's lanterns," cries he; "lanterns, sure and certain, captain." + +"And the three ripping little girls carrying them," puts in Dolly Venn. + +"'Tis no woman ever born that would hunt down four poor sailor-men," +cries Peter Bligh. + +"To say nothing of the he-lion they was a-fondling of"--from Seth +Barker. + +"Lads," said I, in my turn, "this is the unlooked for, and I, for one, +don't mean to pass it by. I'm going to ask those young ladies for a +short road to the hills--and not lose any time about it either." + +They all said "Aye, aye," and we ran forward together. The halloaing in +the wood was closing in about us now; you could hear voices wherever +you turned an ear. As for the lanterns, they darted from bush to bush +like glow-worms on a summer's night, so that I made certain they would +dodge us after all. My heart was low down enough, be sure of it, when I +lost view of those guiding stars altogether, and found myself face to +face with the last figure I might have asked for if you'd given me the +choice of a hundred. + +For what should happen but that the weird being, whom Seth Barker had +called the "he-lion," the old fellow in petticoats, whom the little +girls made such a fuss of, he, I say, appeared of a sudden right in the +path before us, and, holding up a lantern warningly, he hailed us with +a word which told us that he was our friend--the very last I would have +named for that in all the island. + +"Jasper Begg," cried he, in a voice that I'd have known for a +Frenchman's anywhere, "follow Clair-de-Lune--follow--follow!" + +He turned to the bushes behind him, and, seeming to dive between them, +we found him, when we followed, flat on his stomach, the lantern out, +and he running like a dog up a winding path before him. He was leading +us to the heights, I said; and when I remembered the great bare peaks +and steeple-like rocks, upstanding black and gloomy under the starry +sky, I began to believe that this wild man was right and that in the +hills our safety lay. + +But of that we had yet to learn, and for all we knew to the contrary it +might have been a trap. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE BIRD'S NEST IN THE HILLS + +There had been a great sound of "halloaing" and firing in the woods +when we raced through them for our lives; but it was all still and cold +on the mountain-side, and you could hear even a stone falling or the +drip of water as it oozed from the black rocks to the silent pools +below. What light there was came down through the craggy gorge; and it +was not until we had climbed up and up for a good half-hour or more +that we began to hear the sea-breeze whistling among the higher peaks +like wild music which the spirits might have made. As for the path +itself, it was oftentimes but a ledge against the wall of some sheer +height; and none, I think, but seamen could have followed it, surely. +Even I remembered where I was, and feared to look down sometimes; but +danger bridges many a perilous road, and what with the silence and the +fresh breezes and the thought that we might live through the night, +after all, I believe I could have hugged the wild old man who led us +upward so unflinchingly. + +I say that he went on unflinchingly, and surely no goat could have +climbed quicker than he did. Now standing over an abyss which made you +silly to look down into; now pulling himself up by bush or branch; at +other times scrambling over loose shale as though he had neither hands +nor knees to cut, he might well have scared the coolest who had met him +without warning on such a road. As for the four men he had saved from +the devils in the thickets below, I don't believe there was one of them +who didn't trust him from the first. The sea is a sure school for +knowing men and their humours. If this old Frenchman chose to put a +petticoat about his legs, and to wear a lion's mane down his back, we +liked him all the better for that. What we had seen of the young girls' +behaviour towards him made up for that which we did not know about him. +He must have had a tender place somewhere in his heart, or three young +women wouldn't fondle him like a dog. Like a ship out of the night had +he crossed our path; and his port must be our port, since we knew no +other. That's why, I say, we followed him over the dangerous road like +children follow a master. He was leading us to some good haven--I had +no doubt of it. The thing that remained to tell was, had we the +strength and the breath to reach it? + +You may imagine that it was no light thing to run such a race as we had +run, and to be asked to climb a mountain on the top of it. For my part, +I was so dead tired that every step up the hillside was like a knife in +my side; and as for Peter Bligh, I wonder he didn't go rolling down to +the rocks, so hard did he breathe and so heavy he was. But men will do +wonders to save their necks, and that is how it is that we went up and +still up, through the black ravine, to the blue peaks above. Aye, a +fearsome place we had come to now, with terrible gorges, and wild +shapes of rocks, like dead men's faces leering out of the darkness. The +wind howled with a human voice, the desolation of all the earth seemed +here. And yet the old man must push on--up, up, as though he would +touch the very sky. + +"The Lord be good to me," cried Peter Bligh, at last; "I can go no +farther if it's a million a mile! Oh, Mister Begg, for the love of God, +clap a rope about the wild man's legs." + +I pushed him on over a sloping peak of shale, and told him to hold his +tongue. + +"Will you lie in the pool, then? Where's your courage, man? Another +hundred yards and you shall stop to breathe. There's the old lion +himself waiting for us, and a big bill of thanks he has against us, to +be sure." + +I said no more, but climbed the steep to the Frenchman's side, and +found him waiting on the bank of that which seemed to be a great +cup-like hole, black and bottomless and the last place you'd have +picked for a camp on all the hillside. Dolly Venn was already there, +and Seth Barker, lying on the stones and panting like a great dog. +Old Clair-de-Lune alone was fresh and ready, and able in his broken +English to tell us what he wished. + +"Messieurs," he said, "speak not long but go down. I myself am shipmate +too. Ah, messieurs, you do wise to follow me. Down there no dog bark. I +show you the ladder, and all be well. To-morrow you speak your ship--go +home. For me, never again--I die here with the children, messieurs; +none shall come for old Clair-de-Lune, none, never at no time--but you, +you I save for the shipmates' sake----" + +It was odd talk, but no time to argue about it. I saw a ladder thrust +up out of the pit, and when the old man went down I followed without +hesitation. A lantern lighted in the darkness showed me a hollow nest +20 feet deep, perhaps, and carpeted over with big brown leaves and rugs +spread out; and in one corner that which was not unlike a bed. +Moreover, there was a little stove in the place and upon one side an +awning stretched against the rain; while cooking pots and pans and +other little things made it plain at a glance that this was the man's +own refuge in the mountains, and that here, at least, some part of his +life was spent. No further witness to his honesty could be asked for. +He had brought us to his own home. It was time to speak of thanks. + +"What you've done for us neither me nor mine will ever forget," said I, +warmly. "Here's a seaman's hand and a seaman's thanks. Should the day +come when we can do a like turn to you, be sure I'll be glad to hear of +it; and if it came that you had the mind to go aboard with us--aye, and +the young ladies, too--why, you'll find no one more willing than Jasper +Begg." + +We shook hands, and he set the lantern down upon the floor. Peter Bligh +was lying on his back now, crying to a calendar of saints to help him; +Seth Barker breathed like a winded horse; little Dolly Venn stood +against the wall of the pit with his head upon his arm, like a runner +after a race; the old Frenchman drew the ladder down and made all snug +as a ship is made for the night. + +"No one come here," he said, "no one find the way. You sleep, and +to-morrow you signal ship to go down where I show. For me and mine, +not so. This is my home; I am stranger in my own country. No one +remember Clair-de-Lune. Twelve years I live here--five times I sleep +the dreadful sleep which the island make--five times I live where +others die. Why go home, messieurs, if you not have any? I not go; +but you, you hasten because of the sleep." + +We all pricked up our ears at this curious saying, and Dolly Venn, he +whipped out a question before I could--indeed, he spoke the French +tongue very prettily; and for about five minutes the two of them went +at it hammer and tongs like two old women at charring. + +"What does he mean by sleep-time, lad?" I asked in between their +argument. "Why shouldn't a man sleep on Ken's Island? What nonsense +will he talk next?" + +I'd forgotten that the old man spoke English too, but he turned upon me +quickly to remind me of the fact. + +"No nonsense, monsieur, as many a one has found--no nonsense at all, +but very dreadful thing. Three, four time by the year it come; three, +four time it go. All men sleep if they not go away--you sleep if you +not go away. Ah, the good God send you to the ship before that day." + +He did his best to put it clearly, but he might as well have talked +Chinese. Dolly, who understood his lingo, made a brave attempt, but did +not get much farther. + +"He says that this island is called by the Japanese the Island of +Sleep. Two or three times every year there comes up from the marshes a +poisonous fog which sends you into a trance from which you don't +recover, sometimes for months. It can't be true, sir, and yet that's +what he says." + +"True or untrue, Dolly," said I, in a low voice, "we'll not give it the +chance. It's a fairy tale, of course, though it doesn't sound very +pretty when you hear it." + +"Nor is that music any more to my liking," exclaimed Peter Bligh, at +this point, meaning that we should listen to a couple of gunshots +fired, not in the woods far down below us, but somewhere, as it seemed, +on the sea-beach we had failed to make. + +"That would be Harry Doe warning us," cried I. + +"And meaning that it was dangerous for us to go down." + +"He'll have put off and saved the longboat, anyway. We'll hail him at +dawn, and see where the ship is." + +They heard me in silence. The tempest roaring in the peaks above that +weird, wild place; our knowledge of the men on the island below; the +old Frenchman's strange talk--no wonder that our eyes were wide open +and sleep far from them. + +Dawn, indeed, we waited for as those who are passing through the +terrible night. I think sometimes that, if we had known what was in +store for us, we should have prayed to God that we might not see the +day. + + +CHAPTER IX + +WE LOOK OUT FOR THE SOUTHERN CROSS + +The wind blew a hurricane all that night, and was still a full gale +when dawn broke. To say that no man among us slept is to put down a +very obvious thing. The roaring of the breakers on the reefs below us, +the showers of stones which the heights rained down, the dreadful +noises like wild human voices in the hills, drove sleep far from any +man's eyes. And more than that, there was the ship to think of. What +had become of the ship? Where did she lie? When should we see her +again? Aye, how often we asked each other that question when the blast +thundered and the lightning seemed to open the very heavens, and the +spindrift was blown clean over the heights to fall like a salt spray +upon our faces. Was it well with the ship or ill? Mister Jacob we knew +to be a good seaman, none better. With him the decision lay to run for +the open water or to risk everything for our sakes. If he made up his +mind that the safety of the Southern Cross demanded sea-room he would +take it, and let to-morrow look after itself. But I was anxious, none +the less; for, if the ship were gone, "God help us on Ken's Island," I +said. + +Now, the old Frenchman was the first to be moving when the day came, +and no sooner did all the higher peaks show us a glimmer of the +dawn-light--very beautiful and awesome to look upon--than he set up +the ladder and began to show us the way to the mountain-top. + +"You make signal; you fetch ship. Sailormen go down where landman +afraid. Little boat come in; shipmate go out. Old Clair-de-Lune he +know. Ah, messieurs, the wind is very dreadful to-day--what you call +harriken. Other day, all quite easy plan--but this day not so, great +water, all white--no go, no man." + +It was queer talk, and we might have laughed at him if we'd have +forgotten that he saved our lives last night and was waiting to save +them again this morning. But you don't laugh at a friend, talk as he +may, and for that matter we were all too excited to think of any such +thing, and we made haste to scramble up out of the pit and to follow +him to the heights where the truth should be known--the best of it or +the worst. For the path or its dangerous places we cared nothing now. +The rocks, upstanding all about us, shut in the view as some great +basin cut in the mountain's heart. You could see the black sky above +and the bottomless chasms below--but of the water nothing. Imagine, +then, how we raced for the summit: now up on our feet, now on all-fours +like dogs; now calling, man to man, to hasten; now saying that haste +wouldn't help us. And no wonder--no wonder our hearts beat high and our +hands were unsteady, for beyond the basin we should find the sea, and +the view might show us life or death. + +Old Clair-de-Lune was the first to be up, but I was close upon his +heels, and Dolly Venn not far behind me. Who spoke the first word I +don't rightly recollect; but I hadn't been on the heights more than ten +seconds when I knew why it was spoken, and what the true meaning of it +might be. + +The ship was gone! + +All the eyes in the wide world could not have found her on that angry +sea below us, or anywhere on the black and looming horizon beyond. The +night had taken her. The ship was gone. Hope as we might, speak up as +we might, tell each other this story or tell each other that--the one +sure fact remained that the Southern Cross had steamed away from Ken's +Island and left us to our fates. + +"He'll be running for sea-room, and come in when the gale falls," said +Peter Bligh, when we had stood all together a little while, as +crestfallen a lot as the Pacific Ocean could show that day; "trust +Mister Jacob to be cautious--he's a Scotchman, and would think first of +the ship. A precious lot of good his wages would do him if the ship +were down in sixty fathoms and he inside her!" + +"That's true," cried Dolly Venn, "though your poor old father didn't +say it, Mister Bligh. The ship's gone, but she'll come back again." And +then to me he said, very earnestly, "Oh, she must come back, captain." + +"Aye, lad," said I, "let her ride out the gale, and she'll put back +right enough. Mister Jacob isn't the one to desert friends. He'll have +learned from Harry Doe how it stands with us, and he'll just say, +''Bout ship'; that's what Mr. Jacob will say. I've no fear of it at +all. I'm only wondering what sort of shore-play is to keep us amused +until we sight the ship again." + +Well, they looked doleful enough; but not a man among them complained. +'Tis that way with seamen all the world over. Put them face to face +with death and some will laugh, and some will curse, and some talk +nonsense; but never a man wears his heart upon his sleeve or tells you +that he's afraid. And so it was that morning. They understood, I do +believe, as well as I did, what the consequences of the gale might be. +They were no fools, to imagine that a man could get from Ken's Island +to San Francisco in any cockleshell the beach might show him. But none +of them talked about it; none charged me with it; they just put their +hands in their pockets like brave fellows who had made up their minds +already to a very bad job; and be sure I was not the one to give a +different turn to it. The ship had gone; the Lord only knew when she +would come back again. It was not for me to be crying like a child for +that which neither I nor any man could make good. + +"Well," said I, "the ship's gone, sure enough, and hard words won't +bring her back again. What Mister Jacob can do for his friends, that, I +know, will be done. We must leave it to him and look after ourselves +far as this place is concerned. You won't forget that the crew +downstairs will be ready enough to ask after our health and spirits if +we give them a look in, and my word is for lying-to here until night +comes or the ship is sighted. It must be a matter of hours, anyway. The +gale's abating; a landsman would know as much as that." + +They said, "Aye, aye," to it, and Peter Bligh put in a word of his +humour. + +"The ship's gone, sure enough," said he; "but that's more than you can +say for my appetite! Bear or dog, I'm not particular, captain; but a +good steak of something would come handy, and the sooner the better. +'Twere enough to bring tears to a man's eyes to think of all the good +grub that's gone aboard with Harry Doe. Aye, 'tis a wonderful thing is +hunger, and the gift of the Lord along with good roast beef and pork +sausages. May-be you find yourself a bit peckish, captain?" + +I answered "Yes," though that was far from the truth, for what with +watching through the night and thinking about the ship and little Ruth +Bellenden's loneliness in this place of mystery, and far worse than +mystery, I'd forgotten all about meal-times, and never once had asked +myself where breakfast was to come from. But now the long faces of my +shipmates brought me to a remembrance of it, and when little Dolly Venn +cried, "Oh, captain, I am so hungry!" I began to realize what a parlous +plight we were in and what a roundabout road we must tread to get out +of it. Lucky for us, the old Frenchman, who had stood all this time +like a statue gazing out over the desolate sea, now bobbed up again, +good Samaritan that he was, and catching Master Dolly's complaint, he +spoke of breakfast on his own account. + +"Ah! you hungry, you thirst, messieurs; sailor-man always like +that. Your ship gone? Never mind, he shall come back again, to-day, +to-morrow, one, two, three day--pray God it be not longer, shipmate, +pray God!" + + +[Illustration: A picturesque old figure standing there.] + + +I thought him a fine, picturesque old figure, standing there on the +headland with his long hair streaming in the wind like a woman's, and +his brawny arms outstretched as though he would call the ship back to +us from the lonely ocean. Truth to tell, the place was one to fill any +man with awe. Far as the eye could see, the great waste was white with +the foam of its breaking seas; the headland itself stood up a thousand +feet like some mighty fortress commanding all the deep. Far below us +were the green valleys of the island, the woods we had raced through +last night; pastures with little white houses dotted about on them; the +bungalow itself wherein Ruth Bellenden lived. No picture from the +gallery of a high tower could have been more beautiful than that +strange land with the wild reefs lying about it and the rollers +cascading over them, and the black glens above which we stood, and the +great circle of the water like some measureless basin which the whole +earth bounded. I did not wonder that old Clair-de-Lune was silent when +he looked down upon a scene so grand. It seemed a crime to speak of +food and drink in such a place; and yet it was of these that Peter +Bligh must go on talking. + +"We'll do the prayin', shipmate, if you'll do the cookin'," cried he, +hopefully; "as for that--you speak like a wise man. 'Tis wonderful easy +to pray on a full stomach! There isn't a hunger or a thirst this side +of 'Frisco which I would not pray out of this same island if you'll be +pleased to bring 'em along. Weigh anchor, my man," says he, "and we'll +pipe down to dinner." + +Well, the old man laughed at his manner of putting it, and, without +further ado, we all went down to the bird's nest in the hollow, +and there we lighted a fire in the shelter of the pit, and old +Clair-de-Lune going away in search of rations, he returned presently +with victuals enough to feed a missionary, and more than that, as +pretty a trio to serve them as any seaman could hope for. For what +should happen but that the three young girls we'd seen yesterday in +the woods came romping up the hill together; and one bringing a great +can for the coffee, and another a basket of luscious fruit, and a +third some new-made bread and biscuit--they ran down the ladder to us +and began to talk in their pretty language, and now and then in +English which did not need much understanding. + +"I am Rosamunda," says one. + +And the second, she says: + +"I am Sylvia--Sylvia--Sylvia." + +And the third, she chimes in with: + +"I am Celestine, and I have brought you bread." + +And they all stood together, shy and natural, looking now at one, now +at another of us; but most often, I thought, at little Dolly Venn, who +had a way of making them understand which an older man might have +envied. + +"And wonderful pretty names, too, young ladies, though a seaman doesn't +often hear the likes of 'em," cries Peter Bligh, gallant enough, as all +Irishmen are. "They're all Pollies in our parts, and it do come easier +to the tongue and more convenient if you know many of 'em. Whereby did +you hitch up names like those?" asks he; "which, askin' your pardon, +seem to me to be took out of a picture-book." + +They giggled at this; but old Clair-de-Lune, who was mighty proud of +them, and justly, answered Peter Bligh as though the question were +serious. + +"Monsieur, in my own country I am artiste; I play the drama, the +comedy, the tragedy. Clair-de-Lune they call me at the theatre. To the +daughters of my master I give the artiste's name--why not? Better the +good name than the bad name! It was long year ago, shipmate; the Belle +Ile was wrecked on these reef; the maitre is drowned, but I and the +young ladies are save. We come, we go, none interfere. The Governor is +angry, we hide in the hill; the Governor laugh, we go down to the +valley. When the sleep-time comes, we go to the house under the sea: +you shall find him a dangerous time, but we hide far down. None +frighten Clair-de-Lune; they frighten of him. He become the father +according to his best." + +It was touching, I must say, to hear this old man's broken story; and +prettier still to see the affectionate eyes with which these little +girls watched every movement of one to whom, I am sure, they were +beholden for all that they got out of Ken's Island. For the rest, the +tale was plain enough. The father had been wrecked and drowned on the +sword-fish reef; the servant had saved the children and himself from +the ship, and his own natural cleverness had done the rest. No one +interfered with him, he said; and this was true. I verily believe that +the devils in the valley below believed that he and the children with +him were nothing more or less than spirits. + +I say his story was plain, and yet there was something in it which was +Greek to me. He had named a house under the sea, and what that meant, +or how any man could build such a house, lay beyond my understanding. I +should have asked a question about it there and then, and have sought +light on the matter if it hadn't been that the food was already cooked, +and, the others being mighty anxious, we sat down to steaming coffee +and broiled kid's flesh and good bread and sweet fruit, and I was very +willing to keep my curiosity. Once, it is true, the young girl who +called herself "Rosamunda" came and sat by my side and wished to talk +to me; but, prettily as she spoke our tongue, her measure of it was +limited, and we did not get very far, in spite of good intentions. + +"Do you like the island, do you like living here?" I asked her. + +She answered me with a doubting shake of her pretty head. + +"In the sun-months, yes, I like it; but not in the sleep-time. You will +go away before the sleep-time, monsieur?" + +"Really, young lady," said I, "it seems to me that it depends upon +Mister Jacob and the ship. But, supposing I cannot go away--what then? +How does the sleep-time concern me?" + +"You must not stay," she said, quickly; "for us it is different; we--we +live in the house under the sea, but no stranger may live there--the +Governor would not permit it. On the island all things sleep. If you do +not go to the house under the sea--ah, monsieur, but you will sail +away, you will sail in your ship." + +She put it very childishly, the same cock-and-bull story that the old +Frenchman had been at last night. What to make of it, I knew no more +than the dead. Here we seemed to be on as fair an island as the whole +Pacific might show you; and yet these odd folk could talk of sun-months +and sleep-time, and other stuff which might have been written in a +fairy-book. Do you wonder that I laughed at them and treated it as any +sane man, not given to fables, would have done? + +"Sleep-time or sun-time, I'll be away before then, please God, +mademoiselle," said I; "do not fear for Jasper Begg, who was always +fond of his bed and won't grumble overmuch, be it sleep or waking. For +the rest, we'll take our chance, as others must do here, I fancy. Mme. +Czerny, for instance--do you know Mme. Czerny, young lady?" + +She nodded her head and said that she did. + +"Yes, yes, we know Mme. Czerny; she is the Governor's wife. I think she +is unhappy, Monsieur Captain. In the sun-months I see her, but in the +sleep-time she lives in the house under the sea, and no one knows. You +are her friend, perhaps; you would know that she is unhappy?" + +I knew it well enough; but I wished to lead this little talker on, and +so I said I did not. + +"Unhappy, young lady! Why should she be unhappy?" + +I asked it naturally, as though I was very surprised; but you could not +deceive Mlle. Rosamunda. A more artful little witch never played at +fairies in a wood. + +"If she is not unhappy, why have you come here, Monsieur Captain? You +come to help her--oh, I know! And you say that you do not." + +"Perhaps so, young lady; perhaps I do--that I will tell you by-and-bye. +But I am curious about the Governor. What sort of a man is he, and +where does he happen to be at this particular moment? I'm sure you +could say something nice about him if you tried." + + + +[Illustration: She looked at me with her big, questioning eyes.] + + +She looked at me with her big, questioning eyes, as though the question +were but half understood. Presently she said: + +"You laugh at me. M. Czerny has gone away to the world. Of course he +would go. He has gone in the ship. What shall I tell you about him? +That he is kind, cruel; that we love him, hate him? Every one knows +that; every one has told you. He is the Governor and we are his people +who must obey: When he comes back he will ask you to obey him too, and +you must say 'yes.' That will be at the sleep-time: eight, nine, ten +days. But why do you ask, Monsieur Captain? Has not Mme. Czerny said it +because you are her friend? I know that you tease me. Sailors love to +tease little girls, and you are no better than the other ones." + +She cast down her eyes at this, and looked for all the world the taking +little coquette that she was. Her odd speech told me something, enough +at least to put a hundred questions into my head and as many useless +answers. The Governor was away. The island alternately hated and feared +him. The sleep-time, whatever it was, might be looked for in ten days' +time. We must be away and on board the ship by then or something +dreadful would happen to us. Ruth Bellenden's unhappiness was known +even to these little girls, and they surmised, as the others had +surmised, that we were on shore to help her. For the rest, the men on +Ken's Island, I imagined, would hunt us night and day until we were +taken. Nor was I mistaken in that. We'd scarcely finished our meal when +there was the sound of a gunshot far down in the valley, and, old +Clair-de-Lune jumping up at the report, we were all on our feet in an +instant to speak of the danger. + +"Halloa, popguns," cries Peter Bligh, in his Irish way; "what for now +would any man be firing popguns at this time of the morning?" + +"It's to ask after your health, Peter," said I, when we'd listened +awhile, "what else should a man be firing after, unless he takes you +for a rabbit? Will you run down and thank him kindly?" + +He hitched up his breeches and pulled out his briar-pipe. + +"If this is track-running, take down my number. I'm through with it, +gentlemen, being not so young as I was." + +A gunshot, fired out at sea, cut short his talk. Old Clair-de-Lune, +nipping up the ladder, bade us follow him, while to the girls he cried, +"_Allez-vous en!_" All our quiet talk and content were gone in an +instant. I never answered little Dolly Venn when he asked me, "Do you +think there's danger, sir?" but, running up the hill after the +Frenchman, I helped him to carry the ladder we'd dragged out of the +pit, for I knew he'd need of it. + +"What is it, Clair-de-Lune? Why are they firing?" I asked him, as he +ran. + +"Governor home," was his answer--"Governor home. Great danger, +_capitaine_." + + +CHAPTER X + +WE ARE SURELY CAGED ON KEN'S ISLAND + +We ran up the hill, I say, as men who raced for their lives. The little +girls, snatching up their bags and baskets, exchanged a quick word with +Clair-de-Lune and then hurried off towards the bungalow. Our own path +lay over difficult rocks and steep slopes and chasms fearful to see. Of +these our leader made nothing, and we went on, up and up, until at last +the road carried us right round the highest peak, on whose very walls +we walked like chamois on a mountain crag. It was here, on a narrow +ledge high above the sea, that the Frenchman stopped for the first +time. + +"Shipmates," said he, when he had got his breath, "journey done, all +finish, you safe here, you rest. I go down to see Governor; but come +back again, come back again, messieurs, with bread and meat." + +Well, I don't think one of us had the voice to answer him. The place +itself--the ledge above the sea and the little low, cramped cave behind +it--occupied all our thoughts. Here, in truth, a man might lie safely +enough--yet in what a situation. The very door of the house opened upon +an abyss a thousand feet above the rocks below. We had the sea before +our eyes, the sea beneath us, the sea for our distant horizon. Day and +night the breakers thundered on the sword-fish reef; the wind moaned in +the mighty eaves of those tremendous crags. We were like men placed +suddenly on a steeple's side and left there to live or fall, as fortune +went. + +I tell you this, plain and straightforwardly, because five days passed +on that awful ledge, and, except for one day, there is nothing but a +seaman's talk of question and answer and idle hope to set down on these +pages. If every hour of the day found one of us with eyes which yearned +for our lost ship, with hearts grown heavy in waiting and +disappointment--that was his affair, and of no concern to others. Be +sure we didn't confess, one to the other, the thought in our heads or +the future we must live through. We had come to Ken's Island to help +little Ruth Bellenden, and this fearful plight was the result of +it--ship gone, the island full of devils that would have cut our +throats for nothing and thought themselves well paid--no knowledge, +not the smallest, of any way of escape--food short and likely to be +shorter. Friends we had, true friends. Night and morning Clair-de-Lune +and the little girls found their way up to us with bread and meat and +the news that was passing. It was on the fifth day that they came no +more, and I, at least, knew that they would never come again. + +"Lads," I said, "one of two things has happened. Either they've been +watched and followed, or the time of which they made mention has come. +I trust the old Frenchman as I would trust my own brother. He knows how +it will fare with five men left on a lonely rock without food or drink. +If he doesn't come up here today, it's because he daren't come or +because he's ordered elsewhere." + +They turned it over in their minds, and Dolly Venn spoke next. + +"Last night in my watch I heard a bell ringing, sir. At first I thought +it was fancy--the sea beating on the rocks or the wind moaning in the +hills; but I got the ladder and went down the hill, and then I heard it +distinctly, and saw lights burning brightly on the reef far out to the +north. There were boats passing, I'm sure, and what was so wonderful +that I didn't like to speak about it, the whole of the sea about the +reef shone yellow as though a great lantern were burning far down below +its heart. I could make out the figures of men walking on the rocks, +and when the moon shone the figures disappeared as though they went +straight down into the solid rock. You may not believe it, captain, +but I'm quite sure of what I say, and if Clair-de-Lune does not come +to-night, I ask you to go down the hillside with me and to see for +yourself." + +Now, the lad spoke in a kind of wonder-dream, and knowing how far from +his true nature such a thing was, it did not surprise me that the +others listened to him with that ready ear which seamen are quick to +lend to any fairy tale. Superstitious they were, or sailors they never +would have been; and here was the very stuff to set them all ears, like +children about a bogey. Nor will I deny that Dolly Venn's tale was +marvellous enough to make a fable. Had it been told to me under any +other circumstances, my reply would have been: "Dolly, my lad, since +when have you taken to sleep-walking?" But I said nothing of the kind, +for I had that in my pocket which told me it was true; and what I knew +I deemed it right that the others should know also. + +"When a man sees something which strikes him as extraordinary," said I, +"he must first ask himself if it is Nature or otherwise. There are lots +of things in this world beyond our experience, but true for all that. +Ken's Island may be rated as one of them. The old Frenchman speaks of a +sleep-time and a sun-time. Lads, I do believe he tells the truth. If +you ask me why--well, the why is here, in these papers Ruth Bellenden +gave me five days ago." + +I took the packet from my pocket, and turned the pages of them again as +I had turned them--aye, fifty times--in the days which had passed. +Thumbed and dirty as they were (for a seaman's pocket isn't lined with +silk); thumbed and dirty, I say, and crumpled out of shape, they were +the first bit of Ruth Bellenden's writing that ever I called my own, +and precious to me beyond any book. + +"Yes," I went on, "this is the story of Ken's Island, and Ruth +Bellenden wrote it. Ten months almost from this day she landed here. +What has passed between Edmond Czerny and her in that time God alone +knows! She isn't one to make complaint, be sure of it. She has suffered +much, as a good woman always must suffer when she is linked to a bad +man. If these papers do not say so plainly, they say it by implication. +And, concerning that, I'll ask you a question. What is Edmond Czerny +here for? The answer's in a word. He is here for the money he gets out +of the wreckage of ships!" + +It was no great surprise to them, I venture, though surprise I meant it +to be. They had guessed something the night we came ashore, and seamen +aren't as stupid as some take them for. Nevertheless, they picked up +their ears at my words, and Peter Bligh, filling his pipe, slowly, +said, after a bit: + +"Yes, it wouldn't be for parlour games, captain!" + +The others were too curious to put in their word, and so I went on: + +"He's here for wreckage and the money it brings him. I'll leave it to +you to say what's done to those that sailed the ships. There are words +in this paper which make a man's blood run cold. If they are to be +repeated, they shall be spoken where Edmond Czerny can hear them, +and those that judge him. What we are concerned about at this moment +is Ken's Island and its story. You've heard the old Frenchman, +Clair-de-Lune, speak of sleep-time and sun-time. As God is in heaven, +he spoke the truth!" + +They none of them answered me. Down below us the sea shimmered in the +morning light. We sat on a ledge a thousand feet above it, and, save +for the lapping waves on the reef, not a sound of life, not even a bird +on the wing, came nigh us. You could have heard a pin drop when I went +on. + +"Sleep-time and sun-time, is it fable or truth? Ruth Bellenden says its +truth. I'll read you her words----" + +Peter Bligh said, "Ah," and struck a match. Seth Barker, the carpenter, +sat for all the world like a child, with his great mouth wide open and +his eyes full of wonder. Dolly Venn was curled up at my feet like a +dog. I opened the papers and began to read to them: + +"On the 14th of August, three weeks after the ship brought us to Ken's +Island, I was awakened at four o'clock in the morning by an alarm-bell +ringing somewhere in the island. The old servant, she whom they called +'Mother Meg,' came into my room in great haste to tell me to get up. +When I was dressed my husband entered and laughingly said that we must +go on board the yacht at once. I was perplexed and a little cross about +it; but when we were rowed out to the ship, I found that all the white +people were leaving the island in boats and being rowed to those rocks +which lie upon the northward side. Edmond tells me that there are +dangerous seasons in this beautiful place, when the whole island is +unfit for human habitation and all must leave it, sometimes for a week, +sometimes for a month." + +I put the paper down and turned another page of it. + +"That, you see," said I, "is written on the 14th of August, before she +knew the true story or what the dangerous time might mean. Passing on, +I find another entry on September 21st, and that makes it clearer: + +"There is here a wonderful place they call 'The House Under the Sea.' +It is built for those who cannot escape the sleep-time otherwise. I am +to go there when my husband sails for Europe. I have asked to accompany +him and am refused. There are less delicate ways of reminding a woman +that she has lost her liberty. + +"November 13th.--I have again asked Edmond to permit me to accompany +him to London. He answers that he has his reasons. There is a way of +speaking to a woman she can never forget. My husband spoke in that way +this morning. + +"December 12th.--I know Edmond's secret, and he knows that I know it! +Shall I tell it to the winds and the waves? Who else will listen? Let +me ask of myself courage. I can neither think nor act to-night. + +"December 25th.--Christmas Day! I am alone. A year ago--but what shall +it profit to remember a year ago? I am in a prison-house beneath the +sea, and the waves beat against my windows with their moaning cry, +'Never, never again--never again!' At night, when the tide has fallen, +I open my window and send a message to the sea. Will any hear it? I +dare not hope. + +"January 1st.--My husband has returned from his cruise. He is to go to +Europe to see after my affairs. Will he tell them, I wonder, that Ruth +Bellenden is dead? + +"January 8th.--The sleep-time has now lasted for nine weeks. They tell +me that vapours rise up from the land and lie above it like a cloud. +Some think they come from the great poppies which grow in the marshy +fields of the lowlands; others say from the dark pools in the gorges of +the hills. However it may be, those that remain on the island fall into +a trance while the vapour is there. A strange thing! Some never wake +from it; some lose their senses; the negroes alone seem able to live +through it. The vapours arise quite suddenly; we ring the alarm-bell to +send the people to the ships. + +"January 15th.--We returned to the island to-day. How blind and selfish +some people are! I do believe that Aunt Rachel is content to live on +this dreadful place. She is infatuated with Edmond. 'I am anchored +securely in a home: she says. 'The house under the sea is a young man's +romantic fancy.' The rest is meaningless to her--a man's whim. 'I +cannot dissipate my fortune on Ken's Island.' Aunt Rachel was always a +miser. + +"February 2d.--This morning Edmond came to me for that which he calls +'an understanding.' His affection distresses me. Oh, it might all be so +different if I would but say 'yes.' And what prevents me--the voices I +have heard on the reef; or is it because I know--I know? + +"February 9th.--I am on the island again and the sun is shining. What I +have suffered none shall ever know. I prefer Edmond Czerny's anger to +his love. We understand each other now. + +"February 21st.--My message to the sea remains unanswered. Will it be +forever? + +"March 3d.--If Jasper Begg should come to me, how would they receive +him? How could he help me? I do not know--and yet my woman's heart says +'Come!' + +"April 4th.--There has been a short recurrence of the sleep-time. A +ship struck upon the reef, and the crew rowed ashore to the island. I +saw them last night in the moonlight, from my windows. They fell one by +one at the border of the wood and slept. You could count their bodies +in the clear white light. I tried to shut the sight from my eyes, but +it followed me to my bed-room! + +"May 3d.--I whispered my message to the sea again, but am alone--God +knows how much alone!" + +I folded up the paper and looked at the others. Peter Bligh's pipe had +gone out and lay idle in his hand. Dolly Venn was still curled at my +feet. Seth Barker I do not believe had budged an inch the whole time I +was reading. The story gripped them like a vice--and who shall wonder +at that? For, mark you, it might yet be our story. + +"Peter," said I, "you have heard what Mme. Czerny says, and you know +now as much as I do. I am waiting for your notion." + +He picked up his pipe and began to fill it again. + +"Captain," says he, "what notions can I have which wouldn't be in any +sane head? This island's a death-trap, and the sooner we're off it the +better for our healths. What's happened to the ship, the Lord only +knows! At a guess I would say that an accident's overtook her. Why +should a man leave his shipmates if it isn't by an accident? Mister +Jacob is not the one to go psalm-singing when he knows we're short of +victuals and cooped up here like rats in a trap! Not he, as I'm a +living man! Then an accident's overtook him; he doesn't come, because +he can't come, which, as my old father used to say, was the best of +reasons. Putting two and two together, I should speak for sailing away +without him, which is plain reason anyway." + +"We walking on the sea, the likes of which the parson talks about?" +chimed in Seth Barker. + +"If you haven't got a boat," says Dolly Venn, "I don't see how you are +to make one out of seaweed! Perhaps Mister Jacob will come back +tomorrow." + +"And perhaps we sha'n't be hungry before that same time!" added Peter +Bligh; "aye, that's it, captain, where's the dinner to come from?" + +I thought upon it a minute, and then I said to them: + +"If Dolly Venn heard a bell ringing last night that's the danger-bell +of which Miss Ruth speaks. We cannot go down to the island, for doesn't +she say it's death to be caught there? We cannot stop up here or we +shall die of hunger. If there's a man among you that can point to a +middle course, I shall be glad to hear him. We have got to do +something, lads, that's sure!" + +They stared at me wonderingly; none of them could answer it. We were +between the devil and the deep sea, and in our hearts I think we began +to say that if the ship did not come before many hours had passed, four +of her crew, at least, would cease to care whether she came or stopped. + + +CHAPTER XI + +LIGHTS UNDER THE SEA + +The day fell powerfully hot, with scarce a breath of wind and a Pacific +sun beating fiercely on the barren rocks. What shelter was to be had we +got in the low cave behind the platform; but our eyes were rarely +turned away from the sea, and many a time we asked each other what kept +Clair-de-Lune or why the ship was missing. That the old man had some +good reason I made certain from the beginning; but the ship was a +greater matter. Either she was powerless to help us or Mister Jacob had +mistaken his orders. I knew not what to think. It was enough to be +trapped there on that bit of a rock and to tell each other that, +sleep-time or sun-time, we should be dead men if no help came to us. + +"Belike the Frenchman's took with the fog and is doing a bit of a doze +on his own account," said Peter Bligh, gloomily, towards three bells in +the afternoon watch--and little enough that wasn't gloomy he'd spoken +that day. "Well, sleep won't fill my canteen anyway! I could manage a +rump-steak, thank you, captain, and not particular about the onions!" + +They laughed at his notion of it, and Seth Barker sympathetically +pegged his belt up one. I was more sorry for little Dolly Venn than any +of them, though his pluck was wonderful to see. + +"Are you hungry, Dolly, lad?" I asked him, by-and-bye. Foolish question +that it was, he answered me with a boy's bright laugh and something +which could make light of it: + +"It's good for the constitution to fast, sir," he said, bravely; "our +curate used to tell us so when I went to church. We shall all be +saints--and Mr. Peter will have a halo if this goes on long enough!" + +Now, Peter Bligh didn't take to that notion at all, and he called out, +savagely: + +"To blazes with your halos! Is it Christianity to rob an honest man of +his victuals? Give me a round of top-side and leave me out of the +stained-glass window! I'm not taking any, lad--my features isn't +regular, as my poor----" + +"Peter, Peter," said I, bringing him to, "so it's top-side to-day? +It was duck and green peas yesterday, Peter; but it won't be that +to-night, not by a long way!" + +"If we sit on this rock long enough," chimed in Seth Barker, who was +over-patient for his size, "some on us will be done like a rasher. I +wouldn't make any complaint, captain; but I take leave to say it isn't +wisdom." + +I had meant to say as much myself, but Peter Bligh was in before me, +and so I let him speak. + +"Fog or no fog," cries he, "I'm for the shore presently, and that's +sure and certain. It ain't no handsome vulture that I'm going to feed +anyway! I don't doubt that you'll come with me, captain. Why, you could +play 'God save the King' on me and hear every note! I'm a toonful drum, +that's what I am----" + +"Be what you like, but don't ask us to dance to your music," said I, +perhaps a little nettled; "as for going down, of course we shall, +Peter. Do you suppose I'm the one to die up here like a rat in a trap? +Not so, I do assure you. Give me twilight and a clear road, and I'll +show you the way quick enough!" + +I could see that they were pleased, and Dolly Venn spoke up for them. + +"You won't go alone, sir?" asked he. + +"Indeed, and I shall, Dolly, and come back the same way. Don't you fear +for me, my lad," said I; "I've been in a fog before in my life, and out +of it, too, though I never loved them overmuch. If there's danger down +below, one man has eyes enough to see it. It would be a mortal waste +and pity that four should pay what one can give. But I won't forget +that you are hungry, and if there's roast duck about, Peter Bligh shall +have a wing, I promise him." + +Well, they all sat up at this; and Peter Bligh, very solemnly crossing +his fingers after the Italian fashion, swore, as seamen will, that we'd +all go together, good luck or bad, the devil or the deep sea. Seth +Barker was no less determined upon it; and as for Dolly Venn, I believe +he'd have cried like a child if he'd been left behind. In the end I +gave way to them, and it was agreed that we should all set out +together, for better or worse, when the right time came. + +"Your way, lads, not mine," said I; and pleased, too, at their +affection. "As you wish it, so shall it be; and that being agreed upon +I'll trouble Peter Bligh for his tobacco, for mine's low. We'll dine +this night, fog or no fog. 'Twould want to be something sulphurous, I'm +thinking, to put Peter off his grub. Aye, Peter, isn't that so? What +would you say now to an Irish stew with a bit of bacon in it, and a +glass of whisky to wash it down? Would fogs turn you back?" + +"No, nor Saint Patrick himself, with a shillelagh in his hand. I'm +mortal empty, captain; and no man's more willing to leave this same +bird's nest though he had all the sulphur out of Vesuvius on his +diagram! We'll go down at sunset, by your leave, and God send us safely +back again!" + +The others echoed my "Amen," and for an hour or more we all sat dozing +in the heat of the angry day. Once, I think towards seven bells of the +watch, Dolly Venn pointed out the funnels of a steamer on the northern +horizon; but the loom of the smoke was soon lost, and from that time +until six o'clock of the afternoon I do not think twenty words were to +be heard on the rock. We were just waiting, waiting, like weary men who +have a big work to do and are anxious to do it; and no sooner had the +sun gone down and a fresh breeze of night begun to blow, than we jumped +to our feet and told each other that the time had come. + +"Do you, Peter, take the ladder and let Seth Barker steady the end of +it," said I. "The road's tricky enough, and precious little dinner +you'll get at the bottom of a thousand-foot chasm! If there's men on +the island, we shall know that soon enough. They cannot do more than +murder us, and murder has merits when starvation's set against it. Come +on, my lads," said I, "and keep a weather-eye open." + +This I said, and willingly they heard me; no gladder party ever went +down a hillside than we four, whom hunger drove on and thirst made +brave. Dangerous places, which we should have crossed with wary feet at +any other time, now found us reckless and hasty. + +We bridged the chasms with the ladder, and slid down it as though it +had been a rope. The bird's nest, where five days ago we'd first found +shelter from the islanders, detained us now no longer than would +suffice for thirsty men to bathe their faces and their hands in the +brook which gushed out from the hillside, and to drink a draught which +they remembered to their dying day. Aye, refreshing it was, more than +words can tell, and such strength it gave us that, if there had been a +hundred men on the mountain path; I do believe our steps would still +have been set for the bungalow. For we were about to learn the truth. +Curiosity is a good wind, even when you're hungry. + +Now, there was a place on the headland, three hundred feet above the +valley, perhaps, whereat the hill path turned and, for the first time, +the island was plainly to be seen. Here at this place we stopped all +together and began to spy out the woods through which we had raced for +our lives six days ago. The sun had but just set then, and, short as +the twilight is in these parts, there was enough of it for us to make a +good observation and to be sure of many things. What I think struck us +all at the first was the absence of any fog such as we had heard about +both from the Frenchman and Ruth Bellenden's diary. A bluish vapour, it +is true, appeared to steam up from the woods and to loom in hazy clouds +above the lower marshland. But of fog in the proper sense there was not +a trace; and although I began to find the air a little heavy to +breathe, and a curious stupidness, for which I could not altogether +account, troubled my head, nevertheless I made sure that the story of +sleep-time was, in the main, a piece of nonsense and that we should +soon prove it to be so. Nor were the others behind me in this. + +"It is no fog I see which would slow me down a knot!" said Peter Bligh, +when the island came into view; "to think that a man should go without +his dinner for yon peat smoke! Surely, captain, they are simple in +these parts and easy at the bogeys. 'Twill be roast duck, after +all--and, may-be, the sage thrown in!" + +This was all well said, but Dolly Venn, quicker with his eyes, remarked +a stranger fact. + +"There's no one about, sir, that I can see," said he, wisely, "and no +lights in the houses either. I wonder where all the people are? It's +curious that we shouldn't see some one." + +He put it as a kind of question; but before I could answer him Seth +Barker chimed in with his deep voice, and pointed towards the distant +reef: + +"They've lit up the sea, that's what they've done," said he. + +"By thunder, they have!" cries Peter Bligh, in his astonishment; "and +generous about it, too. Saw any one such a thing as that?" + +He indicated the distant reef, which seemed, as I bear witness, ablaze +with lights. And not only the reef, mark you, but the sea about it, a +cable's length, it may be, to the north and the south, shone like a +pool of fire, yellow and golden, and sometimes with a rare and +beautiful green light when the darkness deepened. Such a spectacle I +shall never see again if I sail a thousand ships! That luscious green +of the rolling seas, the spindrift tossed in crystals of light, foam +running on the rocks, but foam like the water of jewels, a dazzling +radiance--aye, a very carpet of quivering gold. Of this had they made +the northern channel. How it was done, what cleverness worked it, it +needed greater brains than mine to say. I was for all the world like a +man struck dumb with the beauty of something which pleases and awes him +in the same breath. + +"Lights under the sea, and people living there! It's enough to make a +man doubt his senses," said I. "And yet the thing's true, lads: we're +sane men and waking; it isn't a story-book. You can prove it for +yourselves." + +"Aye, and men going in and out like landsmen to their houses," cried +Peter, almost breathless; "it's a fearsome sight, captain, a fearsome +sight, upon my word." + +The rest of us said nothing. We were just a little frightened group +that stared open-mouthed upon a seeming miracle. If we regarded the +things we saw with a seaman's reverence, let no one make complaint of +that. The spectacle was one to awe any man; nor might we forget that +those who appeared to live below the sea lived there, as Ruth Bellenden +had told us, because the island was a death-trap. We were in the trap +and none to show us the road out. + +"Peter," said I, suddenly, for I wished to turn their thoughts away +from it, "are you forgetting it's dinner-time?" + +"I clean forgot, captain, by all that's holy," said he. + +"And not feeling very hungry, either," exclaims Dolly Venn, who had +begun to cough in the steaming vapour, which we laughed at. I was +anxious about the lad already, and it didn't comfort me to hear Seth +Barker breathing like an ox and telling me that it should be clearer in +the valley. + +I said, "Yes, it might be," and all together we began to march again. A +sharp walk carried us from the hill path through the tangle of bushes +into the woods wherefrom danger first had come to us. The night had set +in by this time and a clear moon was showing in the sky. Rare and +beautiful, I must say, that moonlight was, shimmering through the hazy +blue vapour and coming down almost as a carpet of violet between the +broad green leaves. No scene that I have witnessed upon the stage of a +theatre was more pleasing to my eyes than that silent forest with its +lawns of grass and its patches of wonderful, fantastic light, and its +strange silence, and the loneliness of which it seemed to speak. So +awesome was it that I do not wonder we went a considerable way in +silence. We were afraid, perhaps, to tell each other what we thought. +When Peter Bligh cried out at last, we started at the sound of his +voice as though a stranger hailed us. + +"Yonder," cried he, in a voice grown deep and husky; "yonder, captain, +what do you make of that? Is it living men or dead, or do my eyes +deceive me?" + +I stopped short at his words and the others halted with me. We were in +a deep glen by this time; and all the surrounding woodland was shut +from our sight. Great trees spread their branches like a canopy above +us; the grass was soft and downy to the feet; the bewitching violet +light gave unnatural yet wonderful colours to the flowery bushes about +us. No fairy glen could have showed a heart more wonderful; and yet, I +say, we four stood on the borders of it, with white faces and blinking +eyes, and thoughts which none would change even with his own brother. + +Why did he do it, you ask? Ah, I'll tell you why. + +There were three men sleeping in the glen, and the face of one was +plainly to be seen. He lay upon his back, his hands clenched, his limbs +stiff, his eyes wide open as though some fearsome apparition had come +to him and was not to be passed by. Of the others, one had dropped face +downward and lay huddled up at the tree's foot; but the third was in a +natural attitude and I do believe that he was dead. For a long time we +stood there watching them--for he whose eyes were to be seen uttered +every now and then a dismal cry in his sleep, and the second began to +talk like a man in a delirium. Spanish he spoke, and that is a tongue I +do not understand. But the words told of agony if ever words did, and I +turned away from the scene at last as a man who couldn't bear to hear +them. + +"They're sleeping," said I, "and little good to wake them, if Miss Ruth +speaks true. Come on, lads--the shore's our road and short's the time +to get there." + +Peter Bligh reeled dizzily in his walk and began to talk +incoherently--a thing I had never heard him do before in all his life. + +"They're sleeping, aye, and what's the waking to be? Is it the madhouse +or the ground? She spoke of the madhouse, and who'll deny, with reason? +There was air for a man in the heights and no parlour plants. I walked +forty miles to Cardiff Fair and didn't dance like this. Take bread when +you've no meat, and, by thunder, I'll fill your glasses." + +Well, he gabbled on so, and not one of us gave him a hearing. I had my +arm linked in Dolly Venn's, for he was weak and hysterical, and I +feared he'd go under. Seth Barker, a strong man always, crashed through +the underwood like an elephant stampeding. The woods, I said, could +show us no more awesome sight than we had happed upon in the hollow; +but there I was wrong, for we hadn't tracked a quarter of a mile when +we stumbled suddenly upon the gardens of the bungalow, and there, lying +all together, were five young girls I judged to be natives, for they +had the shape of Pacific Islanders, and, seen in that strange light, +were as handsome and taking as European women. Asleep they were, you +couldn't doubt it; but, unlike the white men, they lay so still that +they might have been dead, while nothing but their smiling faces told +of life and breathing. They, at least, did not appear to suffer, and +that was something for our consolation. + +"Look yonder, Dolly lad, and 'tell me what you see," said I, though, +truth to tell, every word spoken was like a knife through my chest; +"three young women sleeping as though they were in their own beds. +Isn't that a sight to keep a man up? If they can go through with it, +why not we--great men that have the sea's good health in them? Bear up, +my boy, well find a haven presently." + +I didn't believe it, that goes without saying, nor, for that matter, +did he. But wild horses wouldn't have dragged the truth from him. He +was always a rare plucky one, was little Dolly Venn, and he behaved as +such that night. + +"Better leave me? sir," he said; "I'm dead weight in the boat. Do you +go to the beach, and perhaps the ship will come back. You've been +very kind to me, Mister Begg, so kind, and now it's 'good-bye,' just +'good-bye' and a long good-night." + +"Aye," said I, "and a sharp appetite for breakfast in the morning. Did +you ever hear that I was a bit of a strong man, Dolly? Well, you see, I +can pick you up as though you were a feather, and now that I have got +you into my arms I'm going to carry you--why, where do you think?--into +Ruth Bellenden's house, of course." + +He said nothing, but lay in my arms like a child. Peter Bligh had +fallen headlong by the gate of the bungalow, and Seth Barker was about +raving. I had trouble to make him understand my words; but he took them +at last and did as I told him. + +"Open that door--with the bludgeon if you can't do it otherwise. But +open it, man, open it!" + +He drew himself up erect and dealt a blow upon the door which might +have brought down a factory chimney. I ran into the house with Dolly +Venn in my arms, and as I ran I called to Barker, for God's sake, to +help Mister Bligh. There would be no one in the house, I said, and +nothing to be got by whispers. We ran a race with death, and for the +moment had turned the corner before him. + +"Get Mister Bligh to the house and bar up the door after you. The fog +will fill it in five minutes, and what then? Do you hear me, Seth +Barker--do you hear me?" + +I asked the question plainly enough; but it was not Seth Barker who +replied to it. You shall judge of my feelings when a bright light +flashed suddenly in my face and a pleasant voice, coming out of +nowhere, said, quite civilly: + +"The door, by all means, if you have any; regard for your lives or +mine!" + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE DANCING MADNESS + +It was a great surprise to me that here should have been one of Edmond +Czerny's men left in the bungalow; and when I heard his voice I stood +for a full minute, uncertain whether to go on or to draw back. The +light of the lamp was very bright; I had Dolly Venn in my arms, +remember, and it was all Seth Barker's work to bring in Mister Bligh, +so that no one will wonder at my hesitation, or the questions I put to +myself as to how many men were in the house with the stranger, or what +business kept him there when the island was a death-trap. These +questions, however, the man answered for himself before many minutes +had passed; and, moreover, a seaman's instinct seemed to tell me that +he was a friend. + +"Walk right in here," he cried, opening a door behind him and showing +me a room I had not entered when I visited Mme. Czerny. "Walk right in +and don't gather daisies on the way. You've been on a pleasure cruise +in the fog, I suppose--well, that's a sailor all the time--just all the +time." + +He opened the door, I say, upon this, and when we had followed him into +the room he shut it as quickly. It was not a very large apartment, but +I noticed at once that the windows were blocked and curtained, and that +half the space was lumbered up with great machines which seemed made up +of glass bowls and jars; while a flame of gas was roaring out of an +iron tube, and a current of delicious fresh air blowing upon our faces. +Whatever we were in for, whether friendship or the other thing, a man +could breathe here, and that was something to be thankful for. + +"We were caught in the woods and ran for it," said I, thinking in time +to make my explanations; "it may have been a fool's errand, but it has +brought us to a wise man's door. You know what the lad's trouble is, or +you wouldn't be in this house, sir. I'll thank you for any kindness to +him." + +He turned a pleasant face towards me and bade me lay Dolly on the sofa +near the flaming burner. Peter Bligh was sitting on a chair, swearing, +I fear, as much as he was coughing. Seth Barker, who had the lungs of a +bull, looked as though he had found good grass. The fog wasn't made, I +do believe, which would harm him. As for the doctor himself, he seemed +like a perplexed man who has time for one smile and no more. + +"The lad will be all right in five minutes," said he, seriously; "there +is air enough here, we being five men, for," he appeared to pause, and +then he added, "for just three days. After that--why, yes, we'll begin +to think after that." + +I did not know what to say to him, nor, I am sure, did the others. +Dolly Venn had already opened his eyes and lay back, white and +bloodless, on the sofa. A hissing sound of escaping gas was in the +room. I breathed so freely that a sense of excitement, almost of +intoxication, came upon me. The doctor moved about quietly and +methodically, now looking to his burners, now at the machines. Five +minutes came and went before he put another question. + +"What kept you from the shelter?" he asked, at last. I knew then that +he believed us to be Edmond Czerny's men; and I made up my mind +instantly what to do. + +"Prudence kept us, doctor," said I (for doctor plainly he was); +"prudence, the same sense that turns a fly from a spider's web. It is +fair that you should know the story. We haven't come to Ken's Island +because we are Edmond Czerny's friends; nor will he call us that. Ask +Mme. Czerny the next time you meet her, and she'll tell you what +brought us here. You are acting well towards us and confidence is your +due, so I say that the day when Edmond Czerny finds us on this shore +will be a bad one for him or a bad one for us, as the case may be. Let +it begin with that, and afterwards we shall sail in open water." + +I said all this just naturally, not wishing him to think that I feared +Edmond Czerny nor was willing to hoist false colours. Enemy or friend, +I meant to be honest with him. It was some surprise to me, I must say, +when he went on quietly with his work, moving from place to place, now +at the gas-burner, now at his machine, just for all the world as though +this visitation had not disturbed him. When he spoke it was to ask a +question about Miss Ruth. + +"Mme. Czerny," said he, quietly; "there is a Mme. Czerny, then?" + +Now, if he had struck me with his hand I could not have been more +surprised at his ignorance. Just think of it--here was a man left +behind on Ken's Island when all the riffraff there had fled to some +shelter on the sea; a man working quietly, I was sure, to discover what +he could of the gases which poisoned us; a man in Mistress Ruth's own +house who did not even know her name. Nothing more wonderful had I +heard that night. And the way he put the question, raising his eyebrows +a little, and looking up over his long, white apron! + +"Not heard of Mme. Czerny!" cried I, in astonishment, "not heard of +her--why, what shore do you hail from, then? Don't you know that she's +his wife, doctor--his wife?" + +He turned to his bottles and went on arranging them. He was speaking +and acting now at the same time. + +"I came ashore with Prince Czerny when he landed here three days ago. +He did not speak of his wife. There are others in America who would be +interested in the news--young ladies, I think." + +He paused for a little while, and then he said quietly: + +"You would be friends of the Princess's, no doubt?" + +"Princess be jiggered," said I; "that is to say, God forgive me, for I +love Miss Ruth better than my own sister. He's no more a prince than +you are, though that's a liberty, seeing that I don't know your name, +doctor. He's just Edmond Czerny, a Hungarian musician, who caught a +young girl's fancy in the South, and is making her suffer for it here +in the Pacific. Why, just think of it. A young American girl----" + +He stopped me abruptly, swinging round on his heel and showing the +first spark of animation he had as yet been guilty of. + +"An American girl?" cried he. + +"As true as the Gospels, an American girl. She was the daughter of +Rupert Bellenden, who made his money on the Western American Railroad. +If you remember the Elbe going down, you won't ask what became of him. +His son, Kenrick Bellenden, is in America now. I'd give my fortune, +doctor, to let him know how it fares with his sister on this cursed +shore. That's why my own ship sails for 'Frisco this day--at least, I +hope and believe so, for otherwise she's at the bottom of the sea." + +I told the story with some heat, for amazement is the enemy of a slow +tongue; but my excitement was not shared by him, and for some minutes +afterwards he stood like a man in a reverie. + +"You came in your own ship!" he exclaimed next. "Why, yes, you would +not have walked. Did Mme. Czerny ask you here?" + +"It was a promise to her," said I. "She left the money with her lawyers +for me to bring a ship to Ken's Island twelve months after her +marriage. That promise I kept, doctor, and here I am and here are my +shipmates, and God knows what is to be the end of it and the end of +us!" + +He agreed to that with one of those expressive nods which spared him a +deal of talk. By-and-bye, without referring to the matter any more, he +turned suddenly to Peter Bligh and exclaimed: + +"Halloa, my man, and what's the matter with you?" + +Now, Peter Bligh sat up as stiff as a board and answered directly. + +"Hunger, doctor, that's the matter with me! If you'll add thirst to it, +you've about named my complaint." + +"Fog out of your lungs, eh?" + +"Be sure and it is. I could dance at a fair and not be particular +about the women. Put me alongside a beef-steak and you shall see some +love-making. Aye, doctor, I'll never get my bread as a living skeleton, +the saints be good to me, my hold's too big for that!" + +It was like Mister Bligh, and amused the stranger very much. Just as if +to answer Peter, the doctor crossed the room and opened a big cupboard +by the window, which I saw to be full of victuals. + +"I forget to eat, myself, when the instruments hustle me," said he, +thoughtfully; "that's a bad habit, anyway. Suppose you display your +energy by setting supper. There are tinned things here and eggs, I +believe. You'll find firewood and fresh meat in the kitchen yonder. +Here's something to keep the fog out of your lungs while you get it." + + +[Illustation: We were all sitting at the supper-table.] + + +He tossed a respirator across the table, and Peter Bligh was away to +the kitchen before you could count two. It was a relief to have +something to do, and right quickly our fellows did it. We were all +(except little Dolly Venn, who wanted his strength yet) sitting at the +supper table when half an hour had passed and eating like men who had +fasted for a month. To-morrow troubled the seamen but little. It did +not trouble Peter Bligh or Seth Barker that night, I witness. + +A strange scene, you will admit, and one not readily banished from the +memory. For my part, I see that room, I see that picture many a time in +the night watches on my ship or in the dreaming moments of a seaman's +day. The great machines of glass and brass rise up again about me as +they rose that night. I watch the face of the American doctor, sharp +and clear-cut and boyish, with the one black curl across the forehead. +I see Peter Bligh bent double over the table, little Dolly Venn's eyes +looking up bravely at me as he tries to tell us that all is well with +him. The same curious sensations of doubt and uncertainty come again to +plague me. What escape was there from that place? What escape from the +island? Who was to help us in our plight? Who was to befriend little +Ruth Bellenden now? Would the ship ever come back? Was she above or +below the sea? Would the sleep-time endure long, and should we live +through it? Ah! that was the thing to ask them. More especially to ask +this clever man, whose work I made sure it was to answer the question. + +"We thank you, doctor," I said to him, at one time; "we owe our lives +to you this night. We sha'n't forget that, be sure of it." + +"I'll never eat a full meal again but I'll remember the name of +Doctor--Doctor--which reminds me that I don't know your name, sir," +added Peter Bligh, clumsily. The doctor smiled at his humour. + +"Dr. Duncan Gray, if it's anything to remember. Ask for Duncan Gray, of +Chicago, and one man in a thousand will tell you that he makes it his +business to write about poisons, not knowing anything of them. Why, +yes, poison brought me here and poison will move me on again; at least +I begin to imagine it. Poison, you see, holds the aces." + +"It's a fearsome place, truly," said I, "and wonderful that Europe +knows so little about it. I've seen Ken's Island on the charts any time +these fifteen years, but never a whisper have I heard of sleep-time or +sun-time or any other death-talk such as I've heard these last three +days. You'll be here, doctor, no doubt, to ascertain the truth of it? +If my common sense did not tell me as much, the machinery would. It's a +great thing to be a man of your kind, and I'd give much if my education +had led me that way. But I was only at a country grammar school, and +what I couldn't get in at one end the master never could at the other. +Aye, I'd give much to know what you know this night!" + +He smiled a little queerly at the compliment, I thought, and turned it +off with a word. + +"I begin to know how little I know, and that's a good start," said he. +"Possibly Ken's Island will make that little less. The master of Ken's +Island is generously sending me to Nature's university. I think that I +understand why he permitted me to come here. Why, yes, it was smart, +and the man who first set curiosity going about Prince Czerny in +Chicago is well out of Prince Czerny's way. I must reckon all this up, +Captain--Captain----" + +"Jasper Begg," said I, "at one time master of Ruth Bellenden's yacht, +the Manhattan." + +"And Peter Bligh, his mate, who is a Christian man when the victuals +are right." + +Seth Barker said nothing, but I named him and spoke about Dolly Venn. +We five, I think, began to know each other better from that time, and +to fall together as comrades in a common misfortune. Parlous as our +plight was, we had food and drink and tobacco for our pipes afterwards; +and a seaman needs little more than that to make him happy. Indeed, we +should have passed the night well enough, forgetting all that had gone +before and must come after, but for a weird reminder at the hour of +midnight, which compelled us to recollect our strange situation and all +that it betided. + +Comfortable we were, I say, for Dr. Gray had found fine berths for us +all: Dolly on the sofa, his skipper in an arm-chair, Peter Bligh and +Seth Barker on rugs by the window, and he himself in a hammock slung +across the kitchen door. We had said "good-night" to one another and +were settling off to sleep, when there came a weird, wild calf from the +grounds without; and so dismal was it and so like the cries of men in +agony that we all sprang to our feet and stood, with every faculty +waking, to listen to the horrible outcry. For a moment no man moved, so +full of terror were those sounds; but the doctor, coming first to his +senses, strode towards the window and pulled the heavy curtain back +from it. Then, in the dazzling light, that wonderful gold-blue light +which hovered in mist-clouds about the gardens of the bungalow, I saw a +spectacle which froze my very blood. Twenty men and women, perhaps, +some of them Europeans, some natives, some dressed in seamen's dress, +some in rags, some quite naked, were dancing a wild, fantastic, +maddening dance which no foaming Dervish could have surpassed, aye, or +imitated, in his cruellest moments. Whirling round and round, extending +their arms to the sky, sometimes casting themselves headlong on the +ground, biting the earth with savage lips, tearing their flesh with +knives, one or two falling stone-dead before our very eyes, these poor +people in their delirium cried like animals, and filled the whole woods +with their melancholic wailing. For ten minutes, it may be, the fit +endured; then one by one they sank to the earth in the most fearful +contortions of limb and face and body, and, a great silence coming upon +the house, we saw them there in that cold, clear light, outposts of the +death which Ken's Island harboured. + +We saw the thing, we knew its dreadful truth, yet many minutes passed +before one among us opened his lip. The spell was still on us--a spell +of dread and fear I pray that few men may know. + +"The laughing fever," exclaimed the doctor, at last, letting the +curtain fall back with trembling hand. "Yes, I have heard of that +somewhere." + +And then he said, pointing to the lamp upon the table: + +"Three days, my friends, three days between us and that!" + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE STORM + +You have been informed that Dr. Gray promised us three days' security +in the bungalow, and I will now tell you how it came about that we +quitted the house next morning, and set out anew upon the strangest +errand of them all. + +There's an old saying among seamen that the higher the storm the deeper +the sleep, and this, may-be, is true, if you speak of a ship and of an +English crew upon her. It takes something more than a capful of wind to +blow sleep from a sailor's eyes; and though you were to tell him that +the Judgment was for to-morrow, I do believe he would take his four +hours off all the same. But at Ken's Island things went differently; +and two, at least, of our party knew little sleep that night. Again and +again I turned on my bed to see Dr. Gray busy before his furnace and to +hear Peter Bligh snoring as though he'd crack the window-glass. +Nevertheless, sleep came to me slowly, and when I slept I dreamed of +the island and all the strange things which had happened there since +first we set foot upon it. Many sounds and shapes were present in my +dream, and the sweet figure of Ruth Bellenden with them all. I saw her +brave and patient in the gardens of the bungalow; the words which she +had spoken, "For God's sake come back to me!" troubled my ears like the +music of the sea. Sometimes, as dreams will, the picture was but a +vague shadow, and would send me hither and thither, now to the high +seas and an English port, again to the island and the bay wherein I +first landed. I remember, more than all, a dream which carried me to +the water's edge, with my hand in hers, and showed me a great storm and +inky clouds looming above the reef and the lightning playing vividly, +and a tide rising so swiftly that it threatened to engulf us and flood +the very land on which we stood. And then I awoke, and the dawn-light +was in the room and Dr. Gray himself stood watching by the window. + +"Yes," he said, as though answering some remark of mine, "we shall have +a storm--and soon." + +"You do not say so!" cried I; "why, that's my dream! I must have heard +the thunder in my sleep." + +He drew the curtain back to show me the angry sky, which gave promise +of thunder and of a hurricane to follow; the air of the room seemed +heavy as that of a prison-house. In the gardens outside a shimmer of +yellow light reminded me of a London fog as once I breathed it by +Temple Bar. No longer could you distinguish the trees or the bushes or +even the mass of the woods beyond the gate. From time to time the loom +of the cloud would lift, and a beam of sunlight strike through it, +revealing a golden path and a bewitching vision of grass and roses all +drooping in the heat. Then the ray was lost again, and the yellow +vapour steamed up anew. + +"A storm undoubtedly," said the doctor, at last, "and a bad one, too. +We should learn something from this, captain. Why, yes, it looks +easy--after the storm the wind." + +"And the wind will clear Ken's Island of fog," cried I. "Ah, of course, +it will. We shall breathe just now and go about like sane men. I am +younger for hearing it, doctor." + +He said, "Yes, it was good news," and then put some sticks into the +grate and began to make a fire. The others still slept heavily. Little +Dolly Venn muttered in his sleep a name I thought I had heard before, +and, truth to tell, it was something like "Rosamunda." The doctor +himself was as busy as a housemaid. + +"Yes," he continued, presently, "we should be pretty well through with +the sleep-time, and after that, waking. Does anything occur to you?" + +I sat up in the chair and looked at him closely. His own manner of +speech was catching. + +"Why, yes," said I, "something does occur. For one thing, we may have +company." + +He lit a match and watched the wood blazing up the chimney. A bit of +fire is always a cheerful thing, and it did me good to see it that +morning. + +"Czerny has more than a hundred men," said he, after some reflection. +"We are four and one, which makes five; five exactly." + +Now, this was the first time he had confessed to anything which might +let a man know where his sympathies lay. Friend or enemy, yesterday +taught me nothing about him. I learnt afterwards that he had once known +Kenrick Bellenden in Philadelphia. I think he was glad to have four +comrades with him on Ken's Island. + +"If you mean thereby, doctor, that you'd join us," was my reply, "you +couldn't tell me better news. You know why I came here and you know why +I stay. It may mean much to Mme. Czerny to have such a friend as you. +What can be done by five men on this cursed shore shall be done, I +swear; but I am glad that you are with us--very glad." + +I really meant it, and spoke from my heart: but he was not a +demonstrative man, and he rarely answered one directly as one might +have wished. On this occasion, I remember, he went about his work for a +little while before he spoke again; and it was not until the coffee was +boiling on the hob that he came across to me and, seating himself on +the arm of my chair, asked, abruptly: + +"Do you know what fool's errand brought me to this place?" + +"I have imagined it," said I. "You wanted to know the truth about the +sleep-time." + +He laughed that queer little laugh which expressed so much when you +heard it. + +"No," said he, "I do not care a dime either way! I just came along to +advertise myself. Ken's Island and its secrets are my newspaper. When I +go back to New York people will say, 'That's the specialist, Duncan +Gray, who wrote about narcotics and their uses.' They'll come and see +me because the newspapers tell them to. We advertise or die, nowadays, +captain, and the man who gets a foothold up above must take some risks. +I took them when I shipped with Edmond Czerny." + +It was an honest story, and I liked the man the better for it. No word +of mine intervened before he went on with it. + +"Luck put me in the way of the thing," he continued, the mood being on +him now and my silence helping him; "I met Czerny's skipper in 'Frisco, +and he was a talker. There's nothing more dangerous than a loose +tongue. The man said that his master was the second human being to set +foot on Ken's Archipelago. I knew that it was not true. A hundred years +ago Jacob Hoyt, a Dutchman, was marooned on this place and lived to +tell the story of it. The record lies in the library at Washington; +I've read it." + +He said this with a low chuckle, like a man in possession of a secret +which might be of great value to him. I did not see the point of it at +the time, but I saw it later, as you shall hear. + +"Yes," he rattled on, "Edmond Czerny holds a full hand, but I may yet +draw fours. He's a clever man, too, and a deep one. We'll see who's +the deeper, and we will begin soon, Captain Begg--very soon. The +sleep-time's through, I guess, and this means waking." + +Now, this was spoken of the storm without, and a heavy clap of thunder, +breaking at that moment, pointed his words as nothing else could have +done. I had many questions yet to ask him, such as how it was that he +persuaded Czerny to take him aboard (though a man who knew so much +would have been a dangerous customer to leave behind), but the rolling +sounds awoke the others, and Peter Bligh, jumping up half asleep, asked +if any one knocked. + +"I thought it was the devil with the hot water--and bedad it is!" cries +he. "Is the house struck, or am I dreaming it, doctor? It's a fearsome +sound, truly." + +Peter meant it as a bit of his humour, I do believe; but little he knew +how near the truth his guess was. The storm, which had threatened us +since dawn, now burst with a splendour I have never seen surpassed. A +very sheet of raging fire opened up the livid sky. The crashing thunder +shook the timbers of the house until you might have thought that the +very roof was coming in. In the gardens themselves, leaping into your +view and passing out of it again as a picture shuttered by light, great +trees were split and broken, the woods fired, the gravel driven up in a +shower of pelting hail. I have seen storms in my life a-many, but never +one so loud and so angry as the storm of that ebbing sleep-time. There +were moments when a whirlwind of terrible sounds seemed to envelop us, +and the very heavens might have been rolling asunder. We said that the +bungalow could not stand, and we were right. + +Now, this was a bad prophecy; but the fulfilment came more swiftly and +more surely than any of us had looked for. Indeed, Dolly Venn was +scarce upon his feet, and the sleep hardly out of Seth Barker's eyes, +when the room in which we stood was all filled by a scathing flame of +crimson light, and, a whirlwind of fire sweeping about us, it seemed to +wither and burn everything in its path and to scorch our very limbs as +it passed them by. To this there succeeded an overpowering stench of +sulphur, and ripping sounds as of wood bursting in splinters, and beams +falling, and the crackling of timber burning. Not a man among us, I +make sure, but knew full well the meaning of those signals or what they +called him to do. The bungalow was struck; life lay in the fog without, +in the death-fog we had twice escaped. + +"She's burning--she's burning, by----!" cried Seth Barker, running +wildly for the door; and to his voice was added that of Duncan Gray, +who roared: + +"My lead, my lead--stand back, for your lives!" + +He threw a muffler round his neck and ran out from the stricken +bungalow. The whole westward wing of the house was now alight. Great +clouds of crimson flame wrestled with the looming fog above us; they +illumined all the garden about as with the light of ten thousand fiery +lamps. Suffocating smoke, burning breezes, floating sparks, leaping +tongues of flame drove us on. Cries you heard, one naming the heights +for a haven, another clamouring for the beach, one answering with an +oath, another, it may be, with a prayer; but no man keeping his wits or +shaping a true course. What would have happened but for the holding fog +and the sulphurous air we breathed, I make no pretence to say; but +Nature stopped us at last, and, panting and exhausted, we came to a +halt in the woods, and asked each other in the name of reason what we +should do next. + +"The sea!" cries Peter Bligh, forgetting his courage (a rare thing for +him to do); "show me the sea or I'm a dead man!" + +To whom Seth Barker answers: + +"If there's breath, it's on the hills; we'll surely die here." + +And little Dolly, he said: + +"I cannot run another step, sir; I'm beat--dead beat!" + +For my part I had no word for them; it remained for Doctor Gray to lead +again. + +"I will show you the road," cried he, "if you will take it." + +"And why not?" I asked him. "Why not, doctor?" + +"Because," he answered, very slowly, "it's the road to Edmond Czerny's +house." + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A WHITE POOL--AND AFTERWARDS + +We must have been a third of a mile from the shore when the doctor +spoke, and three hundred yards, perhaps, from the pool in the glens. It +is true that the storm seemed to clear the air; but not as we had +expected, nor as fair argument led us to hope. Wind there was, hot and +burning on the face; but it brought no cool breath in its path, and did +but roll up the fog in banks of grey and dirty cloud. While at one +minute you would see the wood, green and grassy, as in the evening +light, at another you could scarce distinguish your neighbour or mark +his steps. To me, it appeared that the island dealt out life and death +on either hand; first making a man leap with joy because he could +breathe again; then sending him gasping to the earth with all his +senses reeling and his brain on fire. Any shelter, I said, would be +paradise to men in the bond of that death-grip. Sleep itself, the +island's sleep, could have been no worse than the agony we suffered. + +"Doctor," I cried, as I ran panting up to him, "Edmond Czerny's house +or another--show us the way, here and now! We cannot fare worse; you +know that. Lead on and we follow, wherever it is." + +The others said, "Aye, aye, lead on and we follow." Desperation was +their lot now; the madman's haste, the driven man's hope. There, in +that fearful hollow, lives were ebbing away like the sea on a shallow +beach. They fought for air, for breath, for light, for life. I can see +Peter Bligh to this day as he staggers to his feet and cries, wildly: + +"The mouth of blazes would be a Sunday parlour to this! Lead on, +doctor, I am dying here!" + +So he spoke; and, the others lurching up again, we began to race +through the wood to a place where the fog lay lighter and the mists had +left. Wonderful sights met our eyes--aye, more wonderful than any words +of mine could picture for you. In the air above flocks of birds wheeled +dizzily as though the very sky was on fire. Round and round, round and +round, they darkened the heaven like some great wheel revolving; while, +ever and anon, a beautiful creature would close its wings and swoop to +death upon the dewy grass. Other animals, terrified cattle, wild dogs, +creatures from the heights and creatures from the valleys, all huddled +together in their fear, raised doleful cries which no ear could shut +out. The trees themselves were burnt and blackened by the storm, the +glens as dark as night, the heaven above one canopy of fiery cloud and +stagnant vapour. + +Now, I knew no more than the dead what Duncan Gray meant when he said +that he would lead us to Czerny's house. A boat I felt sure he did not +possess, or he would have spoken of it; nor did he mean that we should +swim, for no man could have lived in the surf about the reefs. His +steps, moreover, were not carrying him towards the beach, but to that +vile pool in the ravine wherein a man had died on the night we came to +Ken's Island. This pool I saw again as we ran on towards the headland; +and so still and quiet it seemed, such a pretty lake among the hills, +that no man would have guessed the terror below its waters or named the +secret of it. Nevertheless, it recalled to me our first night's work, +and how little we could hope from any man in Czerny's house; and this I +had in my mind when the doctor halted at last before the mouth of an +open pit at the very foot of the giant headland. He was blown with +running, and the sweat dropped from his forehead like water. The place +itself was the most awesome I have ever entered. On either hand, so +close to us that the arms outstretched could have touched them, were +two mighty walls, which towered up as though to the very sky beyond the +vapour. A black pit lay before us; the fog and the burning wind in the +woods we had left. Silence was here--the awful silence of night and +solitude. No eye could fathom the depths or search the heights. What +lay beyond, I might not say. The doctor had led us to this wilderness, +and he must speak. + +"See here," he cried, mopping the sweat from his face and rolling up +his shirt-sleeves, like a man who has good work to do, "the road's down +yonder, and we need a light to strike it. Give me your hand, one of +you, while I fetch up the lantern. A Dutchman didn't write of Ken's +Island for nothing. I guess he knew we were coming his way." + +He stretched out a hand to me with the words, and I held it surely +while he bent over the pit and groped for the lantern he spoke of. + +"Three days ago," said he, "I ran a picnic here all to myself. It is as +well to find new lodgings if the old don't suit. I left my lantern +behind me, and this it is, I reckon." + +He pulled up from the depths a gauze lantern such as miners use, and, +lighting it, he showed us the heart of the pit. It was a deep hole, 30 +feet down, perhaps, and strewn with rubbish and fragments of the iron +rocks. But what was worth more to us, aye, than a barrel of gold, was +the sweet, fresh air which came to us through a tunnel's mouth as by a +siphon from the open sea herself; and, blowing freshly on our faces, +sent us quickly down towards it with glad cries and the spirits of men +who have broken a prison gate. + +"The sea, the sea, by all that's holy!" cries Peter Bligh. "Oh, doctor, +I breathe, I breathe, as I am a Christian man, I breathe!" + +We tumbled down into the pit headlong and sat there for many minutes +wondering if, indeed, the death were passed or if we must face it again +in the minutes to come. There before us, once we had passed the +tunnel's mouth, stood a vast, domed hall which, I declare, men might +have cut and not Nature in the depths of that strange cavern. + +Open to the day through great apertures high up in the face of the +cliff, a soft glow like the light which comes through the windows of a +church streamed upon the rocky floor and showed us the wonders of that +awesome place. Room upon room, we saw, cave upon cave; some round like +the mosques a Turk can build, others lofty and grand as any cathedral; +some pretty as women's dens, all decked with jewels and ornament of +jasper and walls of the blackest jet. These things I saw; these rooms I +passed through. A magician might have conjured them up; and yet he was +no magician, but only Duncan Gray, the man I knew for the first time +yesterday, but already called a comrade. + +"Doctor," I said, "it is a house of miracles, truly! But where to +now--aye, that's the question; where to?" + +He sat upon a stone, and we grouped ourselves about him. Peter Bligh +took out a pipe from his pocket and was not forbidden to light it. +There was a distant sound in the cave like that of water rushing, and +once another sound to which I could give no meaning. The doctor himself +was still thinking deeply, as though hazarding a guess as to our +position. + +"Boys," he said, "I'll tell you the whole story. This place was +discovered by Hoyt, a Dutchman. If Czerny had read his book, he would +know of it; but he hasn't. I took the trouble to walk in because I +thought it might be useful when he turned nasty. It is going to be +that, as you can see. Follow through to the end of it, and you are in +Czerny's house. Will you go there or hold back? It's for you to say." + +I filled my pipe, as Peter had done, and, breathing free for the first +time for some hours, I tried to speak up for the others. + +"A sailor's head tells me that there is a road from here to the reef; +is that true?" asked I at last; "is it true, doctor?" + +He put on his glasses and looked at me with those queer, clever eyes of +his. I believe to this day that our dilemma almost pleased him. + +"A sailor's head guesses right first time," was his answer. "There is a +road under the sea from here to Czerny's doorstep. I'm waiting to know +if it's on or back. You know the risks and are not children. Say that +you turn it up and we'll all go back together, or stay here as wisdom +dictates. But it's for you to speak----" + +We answered him all together, though Peter Bligh was the first he +heard. + +"The lodgings here being free and no charge for extras," said Peter, +sagely. + +And Dolly Venn, he said: + +"We are five, at any rate. I don't suppose they would murder us. After +all, Edmond Czerny is a gentleman." + +"Who shoots the poor sailormen that's wrecked on his shore;" put in +Seth Barker, doggedly. + +"He'd be of the upper classes, no doubt;" added Peter Bligh; "he'll see +that we don't sleep in damp sheets! Aye, 'tis the devil of a man, +surely!" + +Doctor Gray heard them patiently--more patiently than I did--and then +went on again: + +"If you stop here, you starve; if you go on--well, you take your luck. +Should the fog lift up yonder, you'll be having Czerny back again. It's +a rule-of-three sum, gentlemen. For my part, I say 'go on and take your +luck,' but I won't speak for you unless you are willing." + +"None more willing," cried I, coming to a resolution on the spot. +"Forward let it be, and luck go with us. We'd be fools to die like rats +in a trap when there's light and food not a mile away. And cowards, +too, boys--cowards!" I added. + +The others said: "Aye, aye, we're no cowards!" And all being of one +mind we set out together through that home of wonders. Edmond Czerny's +house we sought, and thither this iron road would carry us. A path more +beautiful no man has trodden. From this time the great, church-like +grottos gave place to lower roofs and often black-dark openings. By +here and there we dived into tunnels wondrously cut by some forgotten +river of fire in the ages long ago, and, emerging again, we entered a +wilderness of ravines wherefrom even the sky was to be seen and the +cliffs towering majestically above us. Then, at last, we left the +daylight altogether, and going downward as to the heart of the earth I +knew that the land lay behind us and that the sea flowed above our +heads. + +Reader of a plain seaman's story, can you come with me on such a +journey as I and four stout hearts made on that unforgotten day? Can +you picture, as I picture now, that dark and lonesome cavern, with the +sea beating upon its roof and the air coming salt and humid to the +tongue, and the echo of distant breakers in your ears, and always the +night and the doubt of it? Can you follow me from grotto to grotto and +labyrinth to labyrinth, stumbling often by the way, catching at the +lantern's dancing rays, calling one to the other, "All's well--lead +on"? Aye, I doubt that you can. These things must be seen with a man's +own eyes, heard with his own ears, to be understood and made real to +him. To me that scene lives as though yesterday had brought it. I see +the doctor with his impatient step. I see Peter Bligh stumbling after +him. I hear little Dolly Venn's manly voice; I help Seth Barker over +the rocks. And these four stand side by side with me on the white +pool's edge. The danger comes again. The fear, the loathing, are +unforgotten. + +I speak of fear and loathing and of dread white pool, and you will ask +me why and how we came thereto. And so I say that the water lay, +may-be, a third of a mile from the land, in a clear, transparent basin +of some quartz or mica, or other shining mineral, so that it gave out +crystal lights even to the darkness, and the arched grotto which held +it was all aglow, as though with hidden fires. A silent pool it was, we +said, and our path seemed to end upon its brink; but even as we stood +asking for a road, all the still water began to heave and foam, and, a +great creature rising up from the depths, the lantern showed us a +monster devil-fish, and we fell back one upon the other with affrighted +cries. Nor let any man charge us with that. A situation more perilous I +have never been in, and never shall. The fish's terrible suckers +searching all the rocks, the frightful eye of the brute, the rushing +water, the half-light worse than darkness, might well have driven back +a stronger man than I. And upon the top of that was the thought that by +such lay the road to safety. We must pass the grotto, or perish of +starvation. + +Now, the first fright of this encounter was done with in a minute or +two, and when it was plain to us that the devil-fish was stuck in the +pool which some tide of the sea fed, perhaps, and that his suckers +could not reach the higher part of the rock, we began to speak of it +rationally, and to plan a way of going over. I was for emptying our +revolvers into the fish straight away; but the doctor would have none +of it, fearing the report, and, remembering what he had read in the +Dutchman's book, he came out with another notion. + +"Hoyt went over the rocks," said he, calmly, while we still drew back +from the pool affrighted, our hearts in our boots I make sure, and not +one of us that did not begin to think of the fog again when he saw the +devil-fish struggling to be free. "It's not a sweet road, but better +than none at all. Keep behind me, boys, and mind you don't slip or +you'll find something worse than sharks. Now for it, and luck go with +us." + +With this he began to clamber round the edge of the pool, but so high +up that it did not seem possible for the fish to touch him. There was +good foothold on the jagged hunks of rock, and a man might have gone +across safely enough but for the thought of that which was below him. +For my part, I say that my eyes followed him as you may follow a walker +on a tight-wire. One false step would send him flying down to a death I +would not name, and that false step he appeared to make. My God! I see +it all so clearly now. The slip, the frantic clutch at the rocks, the +great tentacle which shot out and gripped his leg, and then the flash +of my own revolver fired five times at the terrible eyes below me. + +There were loud cries in the cave, the wild shouts of terrified men, +the smoke of pistols, the foaming and splashing of water, all the signs +of panic which may follow a fellow-creature about to die. That the +devil-fish had caught the doctor with one of his tentacles you could +not doubt; that he would drag him down into that horrid stomach, I +myself surely believed. Never was a fight for life a more awful thing +to see. On the one hand a brave man gripping the rocks with hands and +foot until the crags cut his very flesh; on the other that ghoul-like +horror seeking to wind other claws about its prey and to drag it +towards its gaping mouth. What miracle could save him, God alone knew; +and yet he was saved. A swift act of his own, brave and wonderful, +struck the sucker from the limb and set him free. Aye, what a mind to +think of it! What other man, I ask, would have let go his hold of the +rocks when hold meant so much to him and that fish swam below? +Nevertheless, the doctor did so. I see it now--the quick turn--the +knife drawn from its sheath--the severed tentacle cut clean as a cork, +the devil-fish itself drawing back to the depths of the crimson pool. +And then once more I am asking the doctor if he is hurt; and he is +answering me, cheerily, "Not much, captain, not much," and we four are +following after him as white as women, I do believe, our nerves +unstrung, our hearts quaking as we crossed the dreadful pit. + +Well, we went over well enough, shirk it as we might. The bullets which +sent the devil-fish to the bottom sent him there to die, for all I +knew. The pool itself was red with blood by this time, and the waters +settling down again. I could see nothing of the fish as I crossed over; +and Seth Barker, who came last and, like a true seaman, had forgotten +his fear already, swung the lantern down to the water's edge, but +discovered nothing. The doctor himself, excited as you might expect, +and limping with his hurt, simply said, "Well over, lads, well over"; +and then, taking the lantern from Seth Barker's hands, he would not +wait to answer our curiosity, but pushed on through the tunnel. + +"It's not every man who has a back-door with a watch-dog like that," +said he, as he went; "Edmond Czerny, may-be, does not know his luck; +I'll tell him of it when we're through. It won't be a long while now, +boys, and I'm glad of it. My foot informs me it's there, and I shall +have to leave a card on it just now." + +"Then the sooner you let us look at it the better, doctor," said I. +"Aye, but you were nearly gone. My heart was in my throat all the time +you stood there." + +"Which is no place for a man's heart to be," said he, brightly; +"especially at the door of Edmond Czerny's house." + +He stood a moment and bade me listen. We were in an open place of the +tunnel then, and a ray of light striking down from some lamp above us +revealed an iron ladder and a wooden trap above it. The sea I could +hear beating loudly upon the reef; but with the sea's voice came +others, and they were human. + +"Yes," said the doctor, quietly, "we are in the house all right, and +God knows when we shall get out of it again!" + +And then, with a cry of pain, he fell fainting at my feet. + + +CHAPTER XV + +AN INTERLUDE, DURING WHICH WE READ IN RUTH BELLENDEN'S DIARY AGAIN * + + * The editor has thought it well to give at this point the + above extract from Ruth Bellenden's diary, as permitting some + insight into the events which transpired on Ken's Island after + Jasper Begg's discovery and Edmond Czerny's return. + +May 5TH.--My message to the sea has been heard. Jasper Begg is on Ken's +Island. All that this means to me, all that it may mean, I dare not +think. A great burden seems lifted from my shoulders. I have found a +friend and he is near me. + +May 6th.--I have seen Jasper to-night, and he has gone away again. He +is not changed, I think. It is the same honest, English face, the same +cheery English voice. I have always said that Jasper is one of the +handsomest Englishmen I have ever seen. And just as on my own yacht, so +here on Ken's Island, the true English gentleman speaks to me. For +Jasper is that above all things, one of Nature's gentlemen, whom the +rough world will never disguise nor the sea life change. He would be +thirty-five years of age now, I remember, but he has not lost his +boyish face, and there is the same shy reticence which he never could +conquer. He has come here according to his promise. A ship lies in the +offing, and he would have me go to it. How little he knows of my true +condition in this dreadful place. How may a woman go when a hundred +watch her every hour? + +May 7th.--Clair-de-Lune, the Frenchman, came to the bungalow very early +this morning to tell me of certain things which happened on the island +last night. It seems that Jasper is still here, and that the storm has +driven away his ship. I do not know whether to be sorry or glad. He +cannot help me--he cannot!--and yet a friend is here. I take new +courage at that. If a woman can aid a brave man to win her liberty, I +am that woman and Jasper is the man. Yesterday I was alone; but to-day +I am alone no longer, and a friend is at my side, and he has heard me. +His ship will come back, I say. It is an ecstasy to dream like this! + +May 10th.--I have spent four anxious days--more anxious, I think, than +any in my life. The ship has not returned, and Jasper Begg is still a +fugitive in the hills. There are three of his companions with him, and +we send them food every day. What will be the end of it all? I am more +closely watched than ever since this was known. I fear the worst for my +friends, and yet I am powerless to help them. + +May 10th (later).--My husband, who has now returned from San Francisco, +knows that Jasper is here and speaks of it. I fear these moods of +confidence and kindness. "Your friend has come," Edmond says; "but why +am I not to know of it? Why is he frightened of me? Why does he skulk +like a thief? Let him show himself at this house and state his +business; I shall not eat him!" Edmond, I believe, has moments when he +tries to persuade himself that he is a good man. They are dangerous +moments, if all a man's better instincts are dead and forgotten. + +May 11th.--Clair-de-Lune, Edmond tells me, has been sent to the lower +reef. I do not ask him why. It was he who helped my friends in the +hills. Is it all real or did I dream it? Jasper Begg, the one man who +befriended me, left to die as so many have been left on this unpitying +shore! It cannot be--it cannot be! All that I had hoped and planned +must be forgotten now. And yet there were those who remembered Ruth +Bellenden and came here for love of her, as she will remember them, for +love's sake. + + +[Illustration: The drawing-room is a cave whose walls are of jewels.] + + +May 13th.--The alarm bell rang on the island last night and we left in +great haste for the shelter. The dreadful mists were already rising +fast when I went down through the woods to the beach. The people fled +wildly to the lower reef. It is not three months since the sleep-time, +and its renewal was unlooked for. To-night I do not think of my own +safety, but of those we are leaving on the heights. What is to become +of Jasper, my friend--who will help him? I think of Jasper before any +other now. Does he, I wonder, so think of me? + +May 13th (later).--The House Under the Sea is built inside the reef +which ties about a mile away on the northern side of the island. There +can be nothing like it in the world. Hundreds of years ago, perhaps, +this lonely rock, rising out of the water, was the mouth of some great +volcano. To-day it is the door of our house, and when you enter it you +find that the rocks below have been hollowed out by Nature in a manner +so wonderful that a great house lies there with stone-cold rooms and +immense corridors and pits seeming to go to the heart of the world. +None but a man with my husband's romantic craving would have discovered +such a place, or built himself therein a house so wonderful. For +imagine a suite of rooms above which the tides surge--rooms lighted by +tunnels in the solid rock and covered over with strongest glasses which +the sea cannot break. Imagine countless electric lamps lighting this +labyrinth until it seems sometimes like a fairy palace. Say that your +drawing-room is a cave, whose walls are of jewels and whose floor is of +jasper. Night and day you hear the sea, the moaning winds, the breaking +billows. It is another world here, like to nothing that any man has +seen or ever will see. The people of a city could live in this place +and yet leave room for others. My own rooms are the first you come to; +lofty as a church, dim as one, yet furnished with all that a woman +could desire. Yes, indeed, all I can desire. In my dressing-room are +gowns from Dousé's and hats from Alphonsine's, jewels from the Rue de +la Paix, furs from Canada--all there to call back my life of two short +years ago, that laughing life of Paris and the cities when I was free, +and all the world my own, and only my girlhood to regret! Now I +remember it all as one bright day in years of gathering night. +Everything that I want, my husband says, shall be mine. I ask for +liberty, but that is denied to me. It is too late to speak of promises +or to believe. If I would condone it all; if I would but say to Edmond, +"Yes, your life shall be my life, your secrets shall be mine; go, get +riches, I will never ask you how." If I would say to him, "I will shut +out from my memory all that I have seen on this island; I will forget +the agony of those who have died here; I will never hear again the +cries of drowning people, will never see hands outstretched above the +waves, or the dead that come in on the dreadful tides; I will forget +all this, and say, 'I love you, I believe in you'"--ah, how soon would +liberty be won! But I am dumb; I cannot answer. I shall die on Ken's +Island, saying, "God help those who perish here!" + +May 14th.--Three days have passed in the shelter, and Clair-de-Lune, +who comes to me every day, brings no good news of Jasper. "He is on +the heights," he says; "if food were there he might live through the +sleep-time." My husband knows that he is there, but does not speak of +it. Yesterday, about sunset, I went up to the gallery on the reef, +where the island is visible, and I saw the fog lying about it like a +pall. It is an agony to know that those dear to you are suffering, +perhaps dying, there! I cannot hide my eyes from others; they read my +story truly. "Your friends will be clever if they come to Ken's Island +again," my husband says. I do not answer him. I shall never answer him +again. + +May 15th.--There was a terrible storm on the island last night, and we +all went up to the gallery to see the lightning play about the heights +and run in rivulets of fire through the dark clouds above the woods. A +weird spectacle, but one I shall never forget. The very sky seemed to +burn at times. We could distinguish the heart of the thicket clearly, +and poor people running madly to and fro there as though vainly seeking +a shelter from the fire. They tell me to-day that the bungalow is +burnt; I do not know whether to be sorry or glad. I am thinking of my +friends. I am thinking of Jasper, thinking of him always. + +May 16th.--I learn that there was a stranger left behind in the +bungalow, a Doctor Gray, of San Francisco. He landed with Edmond last +week, and is here for scientific reasons. My husband says that he does +not like him; but allowed him, nevertheless, to come. He was in the +bungalow making experiments when the lightning struck the house and +destroyed it. It is feared that he must have perished in the fire. My +husband tells me this to-night and is pleased to say it. But what of +Jasper, my friend; what of him? + + +May 16th.--I was passing through the great hall of the house to-night, +going to my bed-room, when something happened which made my very heart +stand still. I thought that I heard a sound in the shadows, and +imagining it to be one of the servants, I asked, "Who is there?" No one +answered me; and, becoming frightened, I was about to run on, when a +hand touched my own, and, turning round quickly, I found myself face to +face with Jasper himself, and knew that he had come to save me! + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ROSAMUNDA AND THE IRON DOORS + +We had no notion that the doctor had come by any serious hurt, and when +he fell in a dead faint we stood as men struck by an unseen hand. Light +we still had, for the rolling lantern continued to burn; but the wits +of us, save the wits of one, were completely gone, and three sillier +fellows never gaped about an ailing man. Dolly Venn alone--trained +ashore to aid the wounded--kept his head through the trouble and made +use of his learning. The half of a minute was not to be counted before +he had bared an ugly wound and showed us, not only a sucker still +adhering to the crimson flesh, but a great, gaping cut which the +doctor's own knife had made when he severed the fish's tentacle. + +"You, Seth Barker, hold up that lantern," says he to the carpenter, as +bold as brass and as ready as a crack physician at a guinea a peep; +"give me some linen, one of you--and please be quick about it. I'll +trouble you for a knife, Mister Peter, and a slice of your shirt, if +you don't mind!" + +Now, he had only to say this and I do believe that all four of us began +to tear up our linen and to make ourselves as naked as Adam when they +discharged him from Eden; but Peter Bligh, he was first with it, and he +had out his clasp-knife and cut a length of his Belfast shift before +you could say "Jack Robinson." + +"'Tis unlikely that I'll match it in these parts, and I've worn it to +my mother's memory," says he while he did it; "but 'tis yours, Dolly, +lad, and welcome. And what now?" asks he. + +"Be quiet, Mister Peter," says Dolly, sharply; "that's what next. Be +quiet and nurse the doctor's leg, and do please keep that lantern +steady." + +Well, big men as we were, we kept quiet for the asking, as ignorance +always will when skill is at the helm. Very prettily, I must say, and +very neatly did Dolly begin to bind the wound, and to cut the suckers +from their hold. The rest of us stood about and looked on and made +believe we were very useful. It was an odd thing to tell ourselves that +a man, who had been hale and hearty five minutes before, might now be +going out on the floor of that hovel. I knew little of Duncan Gray, but +what little I did know I liked beyond the ordinary; and every time that +Dolly took a twist on his bandage or fingered the wound with the +tenderness of a woman, I said, "Well done, lad, well done; we'll save +him yet." And this the boy himself believed. + +"It's only a cut," said he, "and if there's no poison, he'll be well +enough in a week. But he won't be able to stand, that's certain. I'd +give ten pounds for an antiseptic, I really would!" + +I knew what he meant all right; but the others didn't, and Peter Bligh, +he must come in with his foolishness. + +"They're mortal rare in these parts," said he; "I've come across many +things in the Pacific, but anyskeptics isn't one of 'em. May-be he'll +not need 'em, Dolly. We was twenty-four men down on the Ohio with +yellow-jack, and not an ounce of anyskeptics did I swallow! And here I +am, hale and hearty, as you'll admit." + +"And talking loud," said Seth Barker, "talking very loud, gentlemen!" + +It was wisdom, upon my word, for not one of us, I swear (until Seth +Barker spoke), had remembered where we were or what was like to come +afterwards. Voices we had heard, human voices above us, when first we +entered the cellar; and now, when the warning was uttered, we stood +dumb for some minutes and heard them again. + +"Douse the glim--douse it," cries Peter, in a big whisper; "they're +coming down, or I'm a Dutchman!" + +He turned the lantern and blew it out as he spoke. The rest of us +crouched down and held our breath. For ten seconds, perhaps, we heard +the deep, rough voices of men in the rooms above us. Then the trap-door +opened suddenly, and a beam of light fell upon the pavement not five +yards from where we stood. At the same moment a shaggy head peered +through the aperture, and a man cast a quick glance downward to the +cellar. + +"No," said the man, as though speaking to some one behind him, "it's +been took, as I told you." + +To which the other voice answered: + +"Well more blarmed fool you for not corking good rum when you see it!" + +They closed the trap upon the words, and we breathed once more. The +lesson they had taught us could not be forgotten. We were sobered men +when we lighted the lantern with one of Seth Barker's matches, and +turned it again on the doctor's face. + +"In whispers, if you please," said I, "as few as you like. We are in a +tight place, my lads, and talk won't get us out of it. It's the doctor +first and ourselves afterwards, remember." + +Dr. Gray, truly, was a little better by this time, and sitting up like +a dazed man, he looked first at Dolly Venn and then at his foot, and +last of all at the strange place in which he lay. + +"Why, yes," he exclaimed at last, "I remember; a cut and a fool who +walked on it. It serves me right, and the end is better than the +beginning." + +"The lad did it," said I; "he was always a wonder with linen and the +scissors, was Dolly Venn." + +"To say nothing of a square foot of my shirt," put in Peter Bligh, +obstinately. "'Tis worth while getting a bit of a cut, doctor, just to +see Dolly Venn sew it up again." + +The doctor laughed with us, for he knew a seaman's manner and the light +talk which follows even the gravest mishap aboard a ship. That our men +meant well towards him he could not doubt; and his next duty was to +tell us as much. + +"You are good fellows," said he, "and I'm much obliged to you, Master +Dolly. If you will put your hand inside my coat, you will find a +brandy-flask there, and I'll drink your health. Don't worry your heads +about me, but think of yourselves. One of you, remember, must go and +see Czerny now; I think it had better be you, captain." + +I said yes, I would go willingly; and added, "when the right time +comes." The time was not yet, I knew--when men walked above our heads +and were waking. But when it came I would not hold back for my +shipmates' sake. + +We had a few biscuits among us, which prudent men had put in their +pockets after last night's meal; and, my own flask being full of water, +we sat down in the darkness of the cellar and made such a meal as we +could. Minute by minute now it became more plain to me that I must do +as Duncan Gray said, and go up to find Czerny himself. Food we had +none, save the few biscuits in our hands; salt was the water in the +crimson pool behind us. Beyond that were the caverns and the fog. It +was just all or nothing; the plain challenge to the master of this +place, "Give us shelter and food" or the sleep which knows no waking. +Do you wonder that I made up my mind to risk all on a journey which, +were it for life or death, would carry us, at last, beyond the doubt +and uncertainty? + +We passed the afternoon sleeping and dozing, as tired men might. Voices +we heard from time to time; the moan of the sea was always with us--a +strange, wild song, long-drawn and rolling, as though the water played +above our very heads in the gentle sport of a Pacific calm. At a +dwelling more remarkable than the one we were about to enter no man has +knocked or will knock in all the years to come. We were like human +animals which burrow in a rocky bank a mile from any land. There were +mysteries and wonders above, I made sure; and there was always the +doubt, such doubt as comes to men who go to a merciless enemy and say, +"Give us bread." + +Now, I left my comrades at ten o'clock that night, when all sounds had +died away above and the voice of the sea growing angrier told me that +my steps would not be heard. + +"I shall go to Czerny, lads," said I, at the moment of leaving them, +"and he will hear the story. I'll do my best for good shipmates, trust +me; and if I do not come back--well, you'll know that I cannot. Good +night, old comrades. We've sailed many a sea together and we'll sail +many another yet, God willing." + +They all cried "Aye, aye, sir!" and pressed my hand with that affection +I knew they bore me. Little Dolly Venn, indeed, pleaded hard to +accompany me; but it seemed plain that, if life were to be risked, one +alone should risk it; and, putting him off kindly, I mounted the ladder +and raised the trap. + +I was in Edmond Czerny's house, and I was alone. + +* * * + +Now, I had opened the trap, half believing I might find myself in some +room, perhaps in the kitchen of the house. Men would be there, I said, +and Czerny's watch-dogs ready with their questions. But this was not a +true picture; and while there were arc lamps everywhere, the place was +not a room at all, but a circular cavern, with rude apertures in the +wall and curtains hung across in lieu of doors. This was not a little +perplexing, as you will see; and my path was not made more straight +when I heard voices in some room near by, but could not locate them nor +tell which of the doors to avoid. + +For a long time I stood, uncertain how to act. In the end I put my head +round the first curtain at a venture, and drew it back as quickly. +There were men in that place, half-naked men, grouped about the door of +a furnace whose red light flashed dazzlingly upon walls and ceiling and +gave its tenants the aspect of crimson devils. What the furnace meant +or why it was built, I was soon to learn; for presently one of the men +gave an order, and upon this an engine started, and a whirr of fans and +the sucking of a distant pump answered to the signal. "Air," said I to +myself; "they are pumping air from above." + +The men had not seen me, so quick was I, and so soft with the leather +curtain; and going tiptoe across the cave I stumbled at hazard upon a +door I had not observed before. It was nothing more than a big and +jagged opening in the rock, but it showed me a flight of stairs beyond +it, and twinkling lamps beyond that again. This, I said, must surely be +the road to the sea, for the stairs led upward, and Czerny, as common +sense put it, would occupy the higher rooms. So I did not hesitate any +more about it, but treading the stairway with a cat's foot I went +straight on, and presently struck so fine a corridor that at any other +time I might well have spent an hour in wonder. Lamps were here--scores +of them, in wrought-iron chandeliers. Doors you saw with almost every +step you took--aye, and more than doors--for there were figures in the +light and shadow; men passing to and fro; glimpses of open rooms and +tables spread for cards, and bottles by them; and wild men of all +countries, some sleeping, some quarrelling, some singing, some busy in +kitchen and workshop. By here and there, these men met me in the +corridor, and I drew back into the dark places and let them go by. They +did not remark my presence, or if they did, made nothing of it. After +all, I was a seaman, dressed as other seamen were. Why should they +notice me when there were a hundred such in Czerny's house? I began to +see that a man might go with less risk because of their numbers than if +they had been but a handful. + +"I shall find Czerny, after all," said I to myself, "and have it out +with him. When he has spoken it will be time enough to ask, What next?" + +It was a little consoling to say this, and I went on with more +confidence. Passing down the whole length of the corridor, I reached a +pair of iron doors at last, and found them fast shut and bolted against +me. There was no branch road that I could make out, nor any indication +of the way in which I must open the doors. A man cannot walk through +sheer iron for the asking, nor blow it open with a wish; and there I +stood in the passage like a messenger who has struck upon an empty +house, but is not willing to leave it. See Czerny that night I must, +even if it came to declaring myself to the rogues who occupied the +rooms near by, and whose voices I could still hear. I had no mind to +knock at the door; and, truth to tell, such a thing never came into my +head, so full it was of other schemes. Indeed, I was just telling +myself that it was neck or nothing, when what should happen but that +the great iron door swung open, and the little French girl, Rosamunda, +herself stepped out. Staggered at the sight of me, as well she might be +(for the electric lamp will hide no face), she just piped one pretty +little cry and then fell to saying: + +"Oh, Captain Begg, Captain Begg, what do you want in this house?" + +"My dear," says I, speaking to her with a seaman's liberty, "I want a +good many things, as most sailors do in this world. What's behind that +door, now, and where may you have come from? Tell me as much, and +you'll be doing me a bigger kindness than you think." + +She didn't reply to this at once, but asked a question, as little girls +will when they are thinking of somebody. + +"Where are the others?" cried she; "why do you come alone? Where is the +little one, Mister--Mister----" + +"Dolly Venn," said I; "ah, that's the boy! Well, he's all right, my +dear, and if he'd known that we were meeting, he'd have sent his love. +You'll find him down yonder, in the cellar beyond the engine-house. +Show me the way to Mister Czerny's door, and we'll soon have him out of +there. He's come a long way, and it's all for the pleasure of seeing +you--of course it is." The talk pleased her, but giving her no time to +think about it, I went on: + +"Mister Czerny, now, he would be living by here, I suppose?" + +She said, "Yes, yes." His rooms were through the great hall which lay +beyond the doors; but she looked so startled at the idea of my going +there, and she listened so plainly for the sound of any voices, that I +read up her apprehensions at a glance and saw that she did not wish me +to go on because she was afraid. + +"Where is your old friend, the Frenchman?" I asked her on an impulse; +"what part of this queer house does he sling his hammock in?" + +She changed colour at this, and plainly showed her trouble. + +"Oh, Mister Begg," says she, "Clair-de-Lune has been punished for +helping you on Ken's Island. He is not allowed to leave his room now. +Mister Czerny is very angry, and will not see him. How can you think of +coming here--oh, how can you do it?" + +"It's easy enough," said I, lightly, "if you don't miss the turning and +go straight on. Never fear for me, young lady; I shall pull through all +right; and when I do your friend goes with me, be sure of it. I won't +forget old Clair-de-Lune, not I! Now, just show me the road to the +governor's door, and then run away and tell Dolly Venn. He'll be +precious glad to see you, as true as Scripture." + +Well, she stood for a little while, hesitating about it, and then she +said, as though she had just remembered it: + +"Benno Regnarte is the guard, but he has gone away to have his supper. +I borrowed the key and came through. If you go in, he will not question +you. The governor may be on his yacht, or he may be in his room. I do +not know. How foolish it all is--how foolish, Captain Begg! They may +never let you go away again!" + +"Being so fond of my company," cried I, gaily. "Well, we'll see about +it, my dear. Just you run off to Dolly Venn and leave me to do the +rest. Sailors get out where other people stick, you know. We'll have a +try, for the luck's sake." + +I held her little hand in mine for a minute and gave it a hearty +squeeze. She was the picture of prettiness in a print gown and a big +Spanish shawl wrapped about her baby face. That she was truly alarmed, +and rightly so, I knew well; but what could I do? It was Czerny or the +pit. I chose Czerny. + +Now, she had opened the iron door for me to pass by, and without +another word to her I crossed the threshold and stood in Czerny's very +dwelling-house. Thereafter, I was in a vast hall, in a beautiful place +for all the world like a temple; with a gallery running round about it, +and lamps swinging from the gallery, and an organ built high up in a +niche above the far end, and doors of teak giving off all round, and a +great oak fire-place such as you see in English houses; and all round +the dome of this wonderful room great brass-bound windows, upon which +the sea thundered and the foam sprayed. Softly lighted, carpeted with +mats of rare straw, furnished as any mansion of the rich, it seemed to +me, I do confess, a very wonder of the earth that such a place should +lie beneath the breakers of the Pacific Ocean. And yet there it was +before my eyes, and I could hear the sea-song high above me, and the +lamps shone upon my face; and, as though to tell me truly that here my +journey ended, whom should I espy at the door of one of the rooms but +little Ruth Bellenden herself, the woman I had crossed the world to +serve. + + +CHAPTER XVII + +IN WHICH JASPER BEGG ENTERS THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA + +I drew back into a patch of shadow and waited for her to come up to me. +Others might be with her and the moment inopportune for our encounter. +She walked with slow steps. Care had written its story upon her sweet +face. I saw that she was alone, and I put out my hand and touched her +upon the arm. + +"Miss Ruth," said I, so soft that I wonder she heard me--"Miss Ruth, +it's Jasper Begg. Don't you know me?" + +She turned swiftly, but did not cry out. One wild look she cast about +the half, with one swift glance she made sure of every door, and then, +and only then, she answered me. + +"Jasper, Jasper! Is it really Jasper Begg?" she cried, with a look of +joy and gratitude I never shall forget. + +Now, she had asked a woman's natural question; but I shall always say +that there never were wits quicker than Ruth Bellenden's; and hardly +were the useless words out of her mouth than she drew back to the room +she had left; and when I had entered it after her she closed the door +and listened a little while for any sounds. When none came to trouble +her she advanced a step, and so we two stood face to face at last, in +as pretty a place as all London, or all Europe for that matter, could +show you. + +Let me try to picture that scene for you as it comes to me when I write +of it and seek to bring it back to my memory. A trim, well-kept cabin, +such I call her room--a boudoir the French would name it--all hung +round with pale rose silk, and above that again an artist's pictures +upon a wall of cream. Little tables stood everywhere and women's +knick-knacks upon them; there were deep chairs which invited you to +sit, covered in silks and satins, and cushioned so that a big man might +be afraid of them. + +Upon the mantel-shelf a clock from Paris swung a jewelled pendulum, and +candlesticks matched it on either side. A secretaire, littered over +with papers and bright with silver ornaments, had its back to the +seaward wall; a round window, cut in the rock above it, stood hidden by +curtains of the richest brocade. The carpet, I said, was from Turkey; +the mats from Persia. In the grate the wood-fire glowed warmingly. Ruth +Bellenden herself, the mistress of the room, capped the whole, and she +was gowned in white, with rubies and diamonds strung about her stately +neck, and all that air of proud command I had admired so much in +the days bygone. Aye, such a scene, believe me, as a grand London +drawing-room might show you any night of London's months you care to +name, and yet so different from that. And I, a plain sailor, found +myself thrust forward there to my confusion, yet feeling, despite it +all, that the woman I spoke to was woman at heart, as I was man. A few +days ago I had come to her to say, "You have need of me." To-night it +was her lot to answer me with my own words. + +"Jasper," she said, her hand still on the switch of the lamp, "what +miracle brings you to this place?" + +"No miracle, Miss Ruth," said I, "but a plain road, and five men's +necessity. We were dying on Ken's Island and we found a path under the +sea. It was starvation one way, surrender the other; I am here to tell +Mr. Czerny everything and to trust my life to him." + +Now, she heard me almost with angry surprise; and coming forward into +the light she stood before me with clasped hands and heated face. + +"No," she said, and her "No" was a thing for a man to hear. "No, no; +you shall never tell my husband that. And, oh, Jasper!" she cried upon +it, "how ill you look--how changed!" + +"My looks don't tell the truth," said I, not wishing to speak of +myself; "I am up and down like a barometer in the tropics. The plain +fact is, Miss Ruth, that the ship's gone, clean gone! I gave Mister +Jacob the sure order to stand by us for three days, and that he didn't +do. It means, then, that he couldn't. I greatly fear some accident has +overtaken him; but he'll come back yet as I'm a living man!" + +She heard me like one dazed: her eyes were everywhere about the room, +as though seeking something she could not find. Presently she opened +the door with great caution, and was gone a minute or more. When she +returned she had a flask of spirits and some biscuits in her hand, and +this time, I noticed, she locked the door after her. + +"Edmond is sleeping; they have sent Aunt Rachel to Tokio," she almost +whispered; "Benno, our servant, is to be trusted. I heard that you were +starving in the hills; but how could I help--how could I, Jasper? It +was madness for you to come here, and yet I am glad--so glad! And oh," +she says, "we'll find a way; we'll find a way yet, Jasper!" + +I poured some brandy from the flask, for I had need of it, and gulped +it down at a draught. Her vivacity was always a thing to charm a man; +as a girl she had the laughter and the spirits of ten. + +"What shall we do, Jasper?" she kept on saying, "what shall we do next? +Oh, to think that it's you, to think that it is Jasper Begg in this +strange house!" she kept crying; "and no way out of it, no safety +anywhere! Jasper, what shall we do--what shall we do next?" + +"We shall tell your husband, Miss Ruth," said I, "and leave the last +word with him. Why, think of it, five men cast adrift on his shore, and +they to starve. Is he devil or man that he refuses them food and drink? +I'll not believe it until I hear it. The lowest in humanity would never +do such a thing! Aye, you are judging him beyond ordinary when you +believe it. So much I make bold to say!" + +I turned to the fire, and began to warm my fingers at it, while she, for +her part, drew up one of the silk-covered chairs, and sat with her +pretty head resting in a tired way between her little hands. All our +talk up to this time had been broken fragments; but this I judged the +time for a just explanation, and she was not less willing. + +"Jasper," says she of a sudden, "have you read what I wrote in the +book?" + +"To the last line," said I. + +"And, reading it, you will ask Edmond to help you?" + +"Miss Ruth," said I, "how shall one man judge another? Ships come to +this shore, and are wrecked on it. Now and then, perchance, there is +foul play among the hands. Are you sure that your husband has any part +in it--are you sure he's as bad as you think him?" + +Well, instead of answering me, she stood up suddenly and let her dress +fall by the shoulder-knots. I saw the white flesh beneath bruised and +wealed, as though a whip had cut it, and I knew that this was her +witness to her story. What was in my heart at such a sight I would have +no man know; but my fingers closed about the pistol I carried, and my +tongue would speak no word. + +"Why do you compel me to speak?" she went on, meanwhile. "Am I to tell +of all the things I have seen and suffered on this dreadful place in +the year--can it be only that?--the long, weary year I have lived here? +Do you believe, Jasper, that a man can fill his house with gold as this +is filled--this wild house so far from the world--and fill it honestly? +Shall I say, 'Yes, I have misjudged him,' the man who has shot my +servant here in this room and left me with the dead? Shall I say that +he is a good man because sometimes, when he has ceased to kill and +torture those who serve him, he acts as other men? Oh, I could win much +if I could say that; I could win, perhaps, all that a woman desires. +But I shall never speak--never; I shall live as I am living until I am +old, when nothing matters!" + +It was a very bitter and a very surprising thing for me to hear her +speak in this way. Trouble I knew she must have suffered on Ken's +Island; but this was a story beyond all imagination. And what could I +say to her, what comfort give her--I, a rough-hearted sailor, who, +nevertheless, would have cut off my own right hand if that could have +served her? Indeed, to be truthful, I had nothing to say, and there we +were for many minutes, she upon one side of the fire and I upon the +other, as two that gazed into the reddening embers and would have found +some old page of our life therein recorded. + +"Miss Ruth," said I at last, and I think she knew what I meant, "I +would have given much not to have heard this thing to-night; but as it +is spoken--if it were twenty times as bad for me and those with me--I +am glad we came to Ken's Island. The rest you will anticipate and there +is no need for me to talk about it. The day that sees me sail away will +find a cabin-passenger aboard my ship. Her name I will not mention, for +it is known to you. Aye, by all a man's promise she shall sail with me +or I will never tread a ship's deck again." + +It was earnestly meant, and that, I am sure, Miss Ruth knew, for she +put her hand upon mine, and, though she made no mention of what I had +said, there was a look in her eyes which I was glad to see there. Her +next question surprised me altogether. + +"Jasper," she asked, with something of a smile, "do you remember when I +was married?" + +"Remember it!" cried I; and I am sure she must have seen the blood rush +up to my face. "Why, of course, I remember it! How should a man forget +a thing like that?" + +"Yes," she went on, and neither looked at the other now, "I was a girl +then, and all the world was my playground. Every day was a flower to +pick; the night was music and laughter. How I used to people the world +my hopes created--such romantic figures they were, such nonsense! When +Edmond Czerny met me at Nice, I think he understood me. Oh, the castles +we built in the air, the romantic heights we scaled, the passionate +folly with which we deceived ourselves! 'The world is for you and I,' +he said, 'in each other's hearts'; and I, Jasper, believed him, just +because I had not learnt to be a woman. His own story fascinated me; I +cannot tell how much. He had been in all countries; he knew many +cities; he could talk as no man I had ever met. Perhaps, if he had not +been so clever, it would have been different. All the other men I knew, +all except one, perhaps----!" + +"There was one, then," said I, and my meaning she could not mistake. + +But she turned her face from me and would not name the man. + +"Yes," she went on, without noticing it, "there was one; but I was a +child and did not understand. The others did not interest me. Their +king was a cook; their temple the Casino. And then Edmond spoke of his +island home; I was to be the mistress of it, and we were to be apart +from all the world there. I did not ask him, as others might have asked +him, 'What has your life been? Why do you love me?' I was glad to +escape from it all, that little world of chatter and unreality, and I +said, 'I will be your wife.' We left Europe together and went first to +San Francisco. Life was still in a garden of roses. If I would awake +sometimes to ask myself a question, I could not answer it. I was the +child of romance, but my world was empty. Then one day we came to Ken's +Island, and I saw all its wonders, and I said, 'Yes, we will visit here +every year and dream that it is our kingdom.' I did not know the truth; +what woman would have guessed it?" + +"You learnt it, Miss Ruth, nevertheless," said I, for her story was +just what I myself had imagined it to be. "You were not long on Ken's +Island before you knew the truth." + +"A month," she said, quietly. "I was a month here, and then a ship was +wrecked. My husband went out with the others; and from the terrace +before my windows I saw--ah, God! what did I not see? Then Edmond +returned and was angry with the servant who had permitted me to see. He +shot him in this room before my face. He knew that his secret was mine, +he knew that I would not share it. The leaves of the rose had fallen. +Ah! Jasper, what weeks of terror, of greed, of tears--and now you--you +in this house to end it all!" + +I sat for a long while preoccupied with my own thoughts and quite +unable to speak to her. All that she had told me was no surprise, no +new thing; but I believe it brought home to me for the first time the +danger of my presence in that house, and all that discovery meant to +the four shipmates who waited for me down below in the cavern. + +For if this man Czerny--a madman, as I always say--had shot down a +servant before this gentle girl, what would he do to me and the others, +sworn enemies of his, who could hang him in any city where they might +find him; who could, with one word, give his dastardly secret to the +world; who could, with a cry, destroy this treasure-house, rock-built +though it might be? What hope of mercy had we from such a man? And I +was sitting there, it might be, within twenty paces of the room in +which he slept; Miss Ruth's hand lay in my own. What hope for her or +for me, I ask again? Will you wonder that I said, "None; just none! A +thousand times none"! The island itself might well be a mercy beside +such a hell as this. + +"Miss Ruth," said I, coming to myself at last, "how little I thought +when you went up to the great cathedral in Nice a short year ago that +such a sunny day would end so badly! It is one of the world's +lotteries; just that and nothing more. Edmond Czerny is no sane man, +as his acts prove. Some day you will blot it all out of your life as +a page torn and forgotten. That your husband loved you in Nice, I do +believe; and so much being true, he may come to reason again, and +reason would give you liberty. If not, there are others who will +try--while they live. He must be a rich man, a very rich man, +must Edmond Czerny. God alone knows why he should sink to such an +employment as this." + +"He has sunk to it," she said, quickly, "because gold is fed by the +love of gold. Oh, yes, he is a rich man, richer than you and I can +understand. And yet even my own little fortune must be cast upon the +pile. A month ago he compelled me to sign a paper which gives up to him +everything I have in the world. He has no more use for me, Jasper; none +at all! He has sent my only living relative away from me. When you go +back to England they will tell you that I am dead. And it will be +true--true; oh, I know that it will be true." + +She had come to a very low state, I make sure, to utter such a word as +this, and it was a sorry thing for me to hear. To console her when I +myself was in a parlous plight was just as though one drowning man +should hold out his hand to another. To-morrow I myself might be flung +into that very ocean whose breakers I could hear rolling over the glass +of the curtained windows. And what of little Ruth then? + +That question I did not answer. Words were on my lips--such words as a +driven man may speak--when there came to us from the sea without the +boom of a distant gun, and, Miss Ruth springing to her feet, I heard a +great bell clang in the house and the rush of men and the pattering of +steps; and together, the woman I loved and I, we stood with beating +hearts and white faces, and told each other that a ship was on the +rocks and that Edmond Czerny's devils were loose. + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +CHANCE OPENS A GATE FOR JASPER BEGG, AND HE PASSES THROUGH + +The devils were out; never once did I doubt it. The alarm bell ringing +loudly in the corridor, the tramp of feet as of an army marching, the +cry of man to man proclaimed the fact beyond any cavil. If the clang of +arms and the loud word of command had found me unwilling to believe +that sailors must die that night on the reef to the southward side, the +voice of Edmond Czerny himself, crying by the very door behind which I +stood, would have answered the question for good and all. For Czerny I +heard, I would have staked my life on it--Czerny, whom last I had seen +at Nice on the morning of his marriage. + +"To the work, to the work!" I heard him shouting; "let Steinvertz come +to me. There is a ship on the Caskets--a ship, do you hear?" + +His voice was hoarse and high-pitched, like the voice of a man half mad +with delirium. Those that answered him spoke in terms not less +measured. Had a pack of wild hounds been slipped suddenly to its prey, +no howls more terrifying could have been heard than those which echoed +in that house of mystery. And then, upon the top of the clamour, as +though to mark the meaning of it, came silence, a silence so awesome +that I could hear myself breathing. + +"They've left the house, then," I said to Miss Ruth in a whisper; +"that's something to be glad about!" + +She passed the remark by and, seating herself in a chair, she buried +her face in her hands. I could hear her muttering "God help them--God +help them!" and I knew that she spoke of those dying out on the +dangerous reef. For the time being she seemed to have forgotten my +presence; but, after a spell, she looked up suddenly and answered the +question. + +"Yes," she said; "my husband will be on the yacht. He has not the +courage to be anywhere else. You and I are quite alone now, Jasper." + +My fingers closed tight about my seaman's cap, and I went to the door +and unlocked it. Strong and clear in my head, and not to be denied, was +something which seemed to set my brain on fire. "My God," I said, "what +does it mean?" Was it chance or madness that I should pass it by? + +"There would be men below at the furnaces and others standing to +guard," I put it to her; "how many in all do you make out that a man +might chance to meet if he went below just now, Miss Ruth?" + +She became very calm at the words, I thought, and stood up that she +might take my words more readily. + +"Jasper!" she exclaimed, "what are you going to do, Jasper?" + +"God knows," said I. "Tell me how many men there are in this house." + +She stood and thought about it. The flushed face told the story of her +hopes. Neither of us would speak all that came leaping to our tongues. + +"There would be five, I think, in the engine-house and six for the +guards," she said, and I could almost see her counting them; "the lower +gate is the second in the corridor. There is a ladder there, and--oh, +Jasper, what do you mean?" she asked again. + +"Mean?" said I; "why this: that it is time my shipmates shared your +hospitality. Aye, we'll bring them along," says I, "Seth Barker and the +others. And then," says I, coming quite close to her, "the luck being +with us, we'll shut the doors. Do you say there are two of them?" + +She said that there were two; one for the men, a small gate on the +reef; the other for Czerny--they called it the great gate. "And, oh," +she cried, while her very gladness seemed to thrill me through--"oh, if +you could, if you could, Jasper--!" + +"Whether I can or no the night will prove," said I, more quietly than +before. "One thing is sure, Miss Ruth, that I am going to try. It's +worth the trying, indeed it is. Do you find your own room and know +nothing at all about it. The work below is men's work, and there are +men, thank God, to do it." + +You say that it was a boast; aye, perhaps it was that, yet what a +boast! For think of it. Here at the very moment when it appeared that +our lives were at Czerny's mercy, at this very moment when we must look +to his cruel hand for succour or sleep in the death-pit of the island, +there comes this message from the sea and the devils go out. There is +not a sound in the house, and I know that my comrades are waiting for +my word. I have three brave men behind me; the peril fires my blood so +that, man or devil against me, I care nothing for either. Was it a +boast for a man to stake all on a throw at such an hour? Not so, truly, +but just what any English seaman would have done, saying, "All or +nothing, the day or the night," as chance should decide for him. + +Now, my hand was upon the key when I told little Ruth that it was men's +work, and without waiting to hear her wise displeasure I opened the +door and stepped out into the silent hall. One man alone kept watch +there, and he was in the shadows, so that I could not see his face or +tell if he were armed. I knew that this man was the first between me +and my liberty, and without a moment's hesitation I crossed the hall; +and aware of all the risks I took, understanding that a word of mine +might bring the guard down from the sea, I clapped a pistol to the +sentry's head and let him know my pleasure. + +"Open that gate, Benno Regnarte!" said I. + +He was a short man, burly, with curly hair, and not an unpleasant face. +So quick had I come upon him, so strange, perhaps, he thought it that I +named him at hazard, that he fell back against the iron and stood there +gaping like one who had seen a bogey in the dark. Never, I believe, in +all this world was a seaman so frightened. He could not speak or utter +a sound, or even raise his hand. He just stood there like a shivering +fool. + +"Benno Regnarte, open that gate!" I repeated, seeing that I had the +name all right; "I'll give you half a minute." + +The threat brought him to his senses. Without a word, a sign, a sound, +he opened the iron doors and waited for me to go through. + +"Now," said I, "give me those keys and march on. And by the heaven +above me, if you open your lips far enough for a fly to go in, I'll +shoot you dead where you stand!" + +He gave me the keys with a hand that trembled so that he nearly dropped +them. In spite of my injunction he mumbled something, and I was not +unwilling to hear it. + +"I am the friend of Mme. Czerny," said he, cringingly; "trust me, +signor, for God's sake trust me!" + +"When you earn the trust," said I, grimly; "now march, and remember!" + +I let him go through, and then locked the iron doors behind me. Miss +Ruth, at least, must be protected from the rogues below. The lamps in +the corridor were still burning, and, by here and there, I thought that +I saw figures in the shadows. But no man hailed me, and when I came to +the great dormitory which, at first passing, was full of seamen, I +found the door of it open and no more than six or seven men still about +its tables. If they heard me come up they suspected nothing. I shall +always say that the brightest idea of that night was the one which came +to me while I stood by the open door and counted the devils that Czerny +had left to guard his house. For what should I do, upon the oddest +impulse, but put my hand round the door very quietly and, closing it +without noise, turn the key first in the lock and then in my pocket. + +"Six," said I to the man before me; "and you make seven. How many more +in this place now, Benno Regnarte?" + +He held up his hands and began to count. + +"In the engine-room one, two, three," he said; "upon the ladder hereby +two; at the great door two more. Seven men altogether, signor. Your +party will be more than that?" + +I laughed at his notion, and, seeing that the man still shivered with +fear and was not to be counted, I went straight ahead to the greater +work I had to do. Already the alarm was raised in the room behind me, +and men were beating with their fists upon the iron door. It was ten to +one that their cries must be heard and one of the sentinels called from +the sea; but, miracle if you will, or greed of plunder if that is the +better term, none came; none answered that heavy knocking. And I--why, +I was at the cavern's head by that time, and, opening the trap, I had +spoken to my shipmates. + +"Up you come, every one of you--up for your lives!" cried I. "Do you, +Seth Barker, lift the doctor, and let Peter Bligh follow after. There's +no time to lose, lads--no time at all." + +I took them by surprise, be sure of it. That opening trap, the light +flashing down upon them, the message when they had begun to despair of +any message, the call to action--aye, how they leaped up to answer me +with ready words! + +"To God be the glory!" cries Peter Bligh, and I can hear him now. "To +God be the glory! 'It was the captain's voice,' says I, before ever you +spake a word." + +"And oh, aren't we sick of it--just sick of it!" chimes in Dolly Venn +as he climbs the ladder like a cat and stands willingly at my side. + +I pressed his hand, and showed him the revolver I carried. + +"Whip it out, lad, whip it out," said I; "we've work to do to-night for +ourselves and another. Oh, I count on you all, Dolly, as I never +counted before!" + +He would have said something to this, I make sure, but the others came +through the trap while I spoke, and four more astonished men never +stood in a cavern to ask, "What next?" + +"The ladder to the reef side," said I, putting their surprise by and +turning to the Italian in whose hands our lives might lie; "can men +hold the top of it, or is it best taken by the sea?" + +He answered me with a dramatic gesture and a face which spoke his +warning. + +"At the rockside it is straight; they shoot you from the top, captain. +No man go up there from this place. They fire guns, make noise." + +"And the report will call the others," said I. "So be it; but we'll +close that door, anyway." + +It was Greek to the others, and they gaped at the words. From the room +which I had locked loud shouts were to be heard and heavy blows upon +the iron panels. That such cries would call men from the sea presently, +I knew well. We had but a few minutes in which to act, and they were +precious beyond all words. The gate must be shut though a hundred lay +concealed in the rooms of mystery about us. On our part we staked all +on chance; we threw the glove blindly to fortune. And, remember, I +alone knew anything of that house in which we stood; that house, above +which the sea ever rolled her crested breakers and lifted her eerie +chantry. My shipmates were but astonished strangers, not willing to go +back, yet half afraid of that which lay before them. The bright lights +in the caverns, the dark doors opening into darkness, and upon these +the great corridor, so vast, so gloomy, so mysterious, were to them new +pictures in a wonderland the like to which they had never seen before +and will never see again. + +"What place is this, and where is the best parlour?" asks Peter Bligh, +his clumsy head blundering to a question even at such a time. "'Tis +laid out for a small and early, and crowns to be broken," says he. +"Have you took it furnished, or are there neighbours, sir? 'Tis a queer +house entirely." + +I cut him short and turned to the doctor. + +"What news of the foot, sir?" I asked him; "how are you feeling now?" + +He replied light-heartedly enough, wishful, I could see, to make light +of it. + +"Like a man who has bought a wooden leg and prefers the old one," said +he; asking at the same time, "What's the course, captain, and why do we +follow it?" + +"The course," said I, "is to Mme. Czerny's boudoir, and a good couch to +lie upon. Do you two get on as fast as you can and leave us to the +parley. It's coming, sure enough, and lame men won't help the argument. +We'll need your help by-and-bye, doctor, when the heads are broken." + +I made the guess at hazard, little knowing how near the truth it was to +prove. We were almost at the head of the first stairway by this time, +and the uproar in the corridor might have awakened the seven sleepers. +Impossible, I said, that such a warning should not bring in men from +the sea, sentinels who would ask by whose hand the key had been turned; +but the danger lay behind us in the shadows where we had not looked for +it. Aye, the three in the engine-house, how came I to forget them? They +were atop of us before the doctor was out of hearing, and a great +hulking German, his face smeared with soot and a bar of iron in his +hands, caught me by the shoulder and swung me round almost before I had +done speaking. + +"Who, in thunder, are you?" asks he. It was a question which had to be +answered. + +Now, I had picked up a wrinkle or two about "rough-and-tumbles" in the +years I traded to Yokohama, and though my heart was in my mouth and it +was plain to me that this was the crisis of the night, when a single +unlucky stroke or misspoken word might undo all that chance had done +for us, I nevertheless kept my wits about me, and letting the man turn +me round as he willed I presently caught his arm between both of mine +and almost broke the bone of it. Upon which he lifted up a cry you +might have heard at the sword-fish reef, and writhing down I struck him +with all my force and he fell insensible. + +"Seven and one makes eight," said I, and a man might forgive himself +for boasting at such a time; for, mark you, but two were left to deal +with, and while one was making for little Dolly Venn, Peter Bligh had +the throat of the other in such a grip that his friends might well have +said, "God help him!" + +"Hold him, Peter, hold him!" cried I, my blood fired and my tongue set +loose; but there was no need to be anxious for Mister Bligh, I do +assure you. + +"He'll need new teeth to-morrow, and plenty of 'em!" says he, shaking +the man as a dog shakes a rat. "Aye, go on, captain, the fun's +beginning here." + +I waited to hear no more, but ran at the man who closed with little +Dolly Venn. "Dolly's is the need," said I; though in that I was +mistaken, as you shall see presently. And I do declare it was a picture +to watch that bit of a lad dancing round a hulking Dutchman, and +hitting the wind out of him as though he had been a cushion. Grunt? The +lubber grunted like a pig, and every time he stopped for want of breath +in come Master Dolly again with a lightning one which shook him like a +thunder-bolt. No "set-to" that I have seen in all my life ever pleased +me half as much; and what with crying and laughing by turns, and +singing out "Bravo, Dolly!" and dancing round the pair of them, the +sweat ran off me like rain, and I, and not little Dolly Venn, might +have been doing for the Dutchman in the shadows of that corridor. + +In the end, believe me, this foreign bully turned tail and ran like a +whipped cur. It was all I could do to keep the lad from his heels. + +"Next time, Dolly," cried I, holding him back roughly, "next time, lad; +we have better work to do, much better work to do. Here's Peter needing +a box for his goods--and a pretty big one, too. Is it over, Peter? Will +he be talking any more?" I asked Mister Bligh. + +He answered me by pointing to a figure on the floor beside him, stark +and motionless and very still. Peter had played his part, indeed; I +knew that the gate of Czerny's house was open. + +"All together, lads," said I, leading them on now with a light heart; +"all together and out of the shadows, if you please. We've another gate +to close, and then--as God's above me, I do believe we have bested +Edmond Czerny this night!" + +It was something to say, a thought to thrill a man, and yet I would not +dwell upon it, remembering all that lay between us and Miss Ruth's +freedom--all that must be done in the doubtful hours before us. + +"The iron ladder by which the men come in," I asked of the Italian, +suddenly, "where is that, Regnarte?" + +Now, this man had been very frightened during the brawl at the +stairs-head; but, seeing the stuff we were made of, and being willing +all along to join with us (for I learned afterwards that he nursed a +private spite against Czerny), he replied to me very readily: + +"The ladder is the second door, captain; yet why, since no man can go +up? I tell you that two hold it, and they have guns. You cannot go, +captain! What good the key when men have guns?" + +"We'll see about that," said I. And cocking my pistol I strode to the +door he indicated. + +It was an iron door, opening inward to a small apartment cut out of the +solid rock. For a while I could see nothing when I entered the little +cavern--it laid bare; but, becoming used to the dim light presently, I +took a few steps forward, and looking up I saw a rocky chimney and an +orifice far up and the stars glimmering in the grey-blue sky above me. +This, then, was the second gate to Czerny's house, I said; the seagate +by which his men passed in. Here, as yonder where Miss Ruth's apartment +lay, the reef lifted itself above the highest tides; here was the gate +we must shut if the night were to be won. And who would dare it with +armed men on the threshold, and a ladder for foothold, and the +knowledge on our part that one word of the truth would dig a grave for +recompense? And yet it had to be dared; a man must go up that night for +a woman's sake. + +Well, I took off my boots at the ladder's foot, and thrusting my pistol +into my waist-belt I spoke a warning word to Peter Bligh. + +"This," said I, taking from Regnarte the key I needed, "this opens the +iron doors you will meet down yonder. If misfortune happens to me, go +straight through and take my place. Hold the rooms as long as you can +and let your judgment do the rest. Belike Mister Jacob will come back +with the ship. I wish to God I could think so!" I added. + +He nodded his head, and but half understanding what I was about he +watched me anxiously when I put my naked foot with wary step on the +ladder and began to go up. I saw him for a moment, a comrade's figure +in the dim light of the cavern, and then thinking only of my purpose, +and of what it would mean to one who waited for me, I clenched my teeth +and began my journey. Below me were the little cave and the glimmer of +a distant lamp, shipmates crying "God speed!" the hidden house, the +mystery; above me that dark funnel of the rock and the sky, which +seemed to beckon me upward to freedom and the sea. + +If danger lay there I could not espy it nor detect its presence. Not a +sound came from the open trap, no figures were to be seen, no spoken +voice to be heard. The moaning waves upon the iron reef, the echo of +gunshots in the silence of the night, alone spoke of life and being and +the open sea without. And I went up like a cat, rung by rung, my hand +hot upon the iron, the thought in my head that madness sent me and that +I might never see another day. + +No man appeared at the orifice, I say; the gate might have been +unguarded for any sentinel I could espy. Nevertheless, I knew that the +Italian spoke the truth, and that his reckoning was good. Edmond Czerny +was no fool to leave a sea-gate open to all the world. Somewhere on the +foothold of the rocks men were lurking, I made sure. That they heard +nothing of their friends' outcry in the corridor below, that they did +not answer it, was a thing I had not, at the first, understood; but it +became plain when the chimney I climbed shut out every sound but that +of the breaking seas, and gave intervals of silence so great that a man +might have heard a ticking watch. No, truly, it was no wonder that they +had not gone down nor heard that loud alarm, for they hungered for the +wreck; for pillage and plunder, and all the gruesome sights Ken's +Island that night could show them; and this hunger kept them at the +water's edge, hounds kennelled when others were free, unwilling idlers +on a harvest day. God knows, they paid a price for that when the good +time came. + +Now, at the ladder's head, everything was as I had seen it in the +mind's picture; and even before I made the top fresh spray would shower +upon my face, while the sea sounded as though its waves were breaking +almost at my very ears. Unchallenged and, for all I could make out, +unwatched, I grew bolder step by step, until at last I touched the +topmost rung; and, looking over, I saw the white crests of the breakers +and the pinnacles of the reef and the distant island under its loom of +gold-blue fog. Halted there, with one hand swung free and my good +pistol ready, I peered intently into the night--a sentinel watching +sentinels, a spy upon those that should have spied. And standing so I +saw the men, and they saw me; and quickened to the act by the sudden +danger, I swung over the first half of the trap which shut the chimney +in, and made ready to close the second with all the deftness I could +command. + +There were two men at the sea's edge, and they did not hear me, I +believe, until the first door of that trap was down. Perchance, even +then, they thought that a comrade played a jest upon them, and that +this was all in the night's work, for one of them coming up leisurely +peered into the hole and put a question to me in the German tongue. +This man, my heart beating like a piston, and my nerves all strung up, +I struck down with the butt-end of my pistol, and, as God is my +witness, I swung over the trap and shot the bolts and locked the great +padlock before the other could move hand or foot. For the foreigner +fell, without a cry, headlong into the sea which played at his very +feet. + +"Shut--shut, by thunder!" cried I to those below, and gladder words a +seaman never spoke to comrades waiting for him. "One gate more and the +night is ours, lads!" + +They heard me in astonishment. Remember how new this place of mystery +was to them; how little I had told them of that which I do. If they +followed me like the brave men that they were, set it down to the +affection they bore me, and the belief that I led them on no child's +errand. So much must have occurred to them as we gained the upper house +and shut the iron doors behind us. The way lay to the sea again, the +road most dear to the heart of every sailor. Let the main gate of +Czerny's house be closed and all was won, indeed. + +Aye, and you shall stand with me as, mounting a broad stairway beyond +Miss Ruth's own door, I found myself out upon a great plateau of rock, +and beheld the silent ocean spread out like a silver carpet before my +grateful eyes, and knew that the house was ours--that house the like to +which no man has built or will build during the ages. + + +CHAPTER XIX + +WHICH SHOWS THAT A MAN WHO THINKS OF BIG THINGS SOMETIMES FORGETS THE +LITTLE ONES + +I was the first to be out on the rock, but Peter Bligh was close upon +my heels, and, wonderful to tell, the Italian almost as quick as any of +us. To what gate of the sea the staircase was carrying me I knew no +more than the others. The time was gone by when anything in Czerny's +house could surprise me; and when at the stairs' head we found that +which looked for all the world like a great port-hole with a swing door +of steel to shut it, I climbed through it without hesitation, and so +stood in God's fresh air for the first time for nearly three days. + +That this was the main gate to the sea I had all along surmised, and +now proved surely. No sooner was I through the door than all the world +seemed to spread out again before my eyes--the distant island, the +shimmering sea, the blue sky shut to us through such long hours. The +rock itself, where we gained foothold, lifted itself clear and dry +above the breakers at my feet. There were steps leading down to the +water's edge, a still pool wherein boats were warped, other crags of +the reef defying the tides; these and the silence of the night +everywhere; but of men I saw nothing. The bloody fight we had +anticipated, blow for blow, and ringing alarm, the struggle for +foothold on the rock, the challenge to Czerny's men--such things did +not befall. We stood unchallenged on the plateau, and we stood alone. + +I said that it was a miracle, and yet the Lord knows it was no miracle +at all. + +Let me try and describe this place for you that you may understand our +situation more clearly, and how it befell that such a simple +circumstance brought about such a strange turn of fortune. We had come +up from the heart of the reef, as you know, and the staircase led out +to a gate of steel opening in the face of a rocky crag, which stood +well above the level even of the storm-seas. A lower plateau (unwashed +by the sea) stood below the gate, and other crags jutted out of the sea +and showed windows to the western sun. I made a bit of a map of the +land and water thereby to keep it in my memory: and such as it is it +will enable any one easily to get the position truly. If one places +himself at the main gate of this house of wonders and puts Czerny's +crew by the sword-fish reef, all will be plain to him. + +The island lay perhaps a mile to the southward; and nearer to us, at a +cable's length as I reckoned it, a group of rocky pinnacles in the open +sea marked the door we had shut and the ladder by which Czerny's men +went in to shelter. But the oddest thing of all was this, that the main +gate to this house of wonders should be left unguarded at an hour so +critical. Dark as it was, with only the soft grey light of a summer's +night shimmering on sea and land, nevertheless the mere fact that we +had passed unchallenged told me that we were alone. For why should two +men let three pass up and raise no alarm when alarm might mean so much? + +Could they not have struck us down as we came out, one by one, firing +their guns to call comrades from the sea, and bringing a hundred more +atop of us to end our chances there and then? Of course they could; and +yet it was not done. No man hailed us; we had the breaking seas at our +feet, the fresh air in our lungs, the spindrift wet upon our faces. And +who was the more surprised, I at finding the gate unguarded or my +comrades to discover that there was such a gate at all, the Lord only +knows. Like three who stumbled upon a precipice we halted there at the +sea's edge, and looked at one another to ask if such great good fortune +could, indeed, be ours. + +I have told you before that the Italian was at our heels when we gained +the rock, and it was to him now that I addressed my question. + +"You said there were two at the gate, Regnarte. Where are they, then, +and what keeps them?" + +He cracked his bony fingers many times, and began to gabble away +vociferously in his own language--a tongue I like the sound of, but +which no right-minded man should talk. When he came to some calmness +and to a sane man's speech, he pointed to the pinnacles of the lesser +gate and began to make the truth clear to me. + +"You come lucky, sir, you come lucky, true! Hafmitz gone yonder; he and +mate, too; he go to see why other men cry out!" + +I saw it like a flash. The alarm had been given at the other end of the +reef, and the two that should have guarded this, had put out in their +boat to see what the matter was. If a man had wished to believe that +Providence guided him that night, he could not have found a +circumstance to help him farther on the road. I make no pretence to be +what folks call a religious man, doing my duty without the hymn-books; +but I believe, and always shall believe, that there was something more +than mere chance on our way in all that venture, and so I set it down +here once and for all. The fingers of the white man's God pointed the +road for us; and we took it, fair or crooked let it prove to be. + +"Luck! Luck's no word for it, my lads," said I. "If a man told such a +thing ashore, who'd believe him? And yet it's true--true, as your own +eyes tell you." + +They had not found their tongues yet and none of them uttered a +syllable. The wonders they had seen: that house of mystery lying like a +palace of the story-books far down below the rolling Pacific; the +surprise of it all; the picture of lights and rooms and of a woman's +face; and now this plateau of rock with breakers at their feet and the +island mists for their horizon; and, in the far distance, away upon the +sword-fish reef, sights and sounds which quickened every pulse--who +shall blame them if they could answer me never a word? They simply +halted there and gazed spellbound across the shimmering water. I alone +knew how far we stood from the end where safety lay. + +Now, Peter Bligh was the first to give up his star-gazing; and, shaking +himself like a great dog, he turned to me with a word of that common +sense which he can speak sometimes. + +"'Tis a miracle, truly, and a couple of doors to it," cried he, like +one thinking keenly. "Nevertheless, I make bold to say that if they +have a key to yonder hatch we are undone entirely, captain." + +I sat upon a crag of the rock and tried to think of it all. Czerny's +men would return in an hour, or two at the most, and the truth would be +out. They would come--the seamen to the lesser gate, the others to this +door of steel by which we sat--and, finding that knocking did not open, +they would take such measures as they thought fit to blast the doors. A +gun well fired might do as much if gun could be trained upon the reef. +Once let them inside and it needed no clever tongue to say how it would +fare with us or with those we sought to protect. No man, I said, would +live to tell that story, or to carry the history of Edmond Czerny's +life to a distant city. All that lay between us and life was this door +of steel shutting like a port-hole in the solid rock. And could we hold +it against, it might be one, it might be three hundred men? That was a +question the night must answer. + +"Regnarte," I said, upon an impulse, "you have guns in this house?" + +He held up his fingers and opened them many times to express a great +number. + +"One, two, three hundred guns," said he. "Excellency has them all; but +here one gun much bigger than that. You seamen, you shall know how to +fire him, captain. Excellency say that no man take the gate while that +gun there. Ah! the leg on the other boot now!" + +Now he cracked his fingers all the time he said this, and shook his +keys and danced about the plateau like a madman. For a while I could +make neither head nor tail of what he meant; but presently he turned as +though he would go down to the cabins again, and, standing upon the +very threshold of the staircase, he showed me what I had never seen or +should have looked for in twenty years--the barrel of a quick-firing +gun and the steel turret which defended it. + +"'Tis a pom-pom, or I'm a heathen nigger!" cries Peter Bligh, half mad +at the sight of it. "A pom-pom, and a shield about it. The glory to +Saint Patrick that shows me the wonder!" + +And Dolly Venn, catching hold of my hand in like excitement, he says: + +"Oh, Mr. Begg, oh, what luck, what luck at last!" + +I crossed the plateau and saw the thing with my own eyes. It was a +modern Krupp quick-firing gun, well kept, well fitted, well placed +behind a shield of steel which might defend those who worked it against +a hundred. Those who set it upon the rock so set it that not only the +near sea but the second gate could be covered by its fire. It would +sweep the water with a hail of lead, and leave unseen those that did +the work. And the irony of it was chiefly this, that Edmond Czerny, +seeking to defend the door of his house against all the world, now shut +it upon himself. + +"Yes," said I, at last, and I spoke almost like a man drunk with +excitement; "give me shell for that, and we'll hold the gate against +five hundred!" + +The hope of it set every nerve in my body twitching; sweat, I say, +began to roll down my face like rain. + +"You have a magazine in this place," I continued, turning upon the +Italian in a way that surprised him; "you have arms in this house and +shot for that gun. Where are they, man, where are they?" + +He stood stock-still with fright, and stammered out a broken reply. + +"Excellency has the key, captain--I show you! Don't be angry, captain!" + +He turned to enter the house again, and I followed him, as eager a man +as ever hunted for that which might take a fellow-creature's life. + +"Do you, Peter and Dolly, keep a watch here," said I, indicating the +place, "while I go below with this man. We must hold the gate, lads, +hold it with our lives! If the two yonder come back, be sure you close +their mouths. You understand, Peter--close their mouths!" + +"Aye, I understand, captain!" said he, very quietly. "They'll not sing +hymns when I've done with them!" + +I followed the Italian down the stairs, and we made for the great hall +again. Many lights were burning there, and the figures of women passed +in and out of the splendid rooms. At the far corner, opposite Miss +Ruth's own apartment, the Italian came to a halt and began to gabble +again. + +"Excellency live here, sir," said he; "the gun-room--you go right +through to him; but Excellency, he have the key. Me only doorman. I +speak true, sir!" + +I opened the door of the room he indicated, and feeling upon the wall +switched on a lamp. It was the palace of a place, with great book-racks +all round it, and arm-chairs as long as beds in every corner, and +instruments and tables and pretty ornaments enough to furnish a +mansion; but for none of these things had I eyes that night. Yonder, at +the end of the room, a curtain opened above a door of iron; and through +that door I saw at a glance the way to the gun-room lay. Ah, how my +head tried to grapple with the trouble! The keys--where lay the keys? +What chance or miracle would show me those? Was the key on Czerny's +person or here in one of the drawers about? How much would I have paid +to have been told that truly! But how to open it! + +Now the Italian watched me with curious eyes as I went up to the door +and drew the curtain back from it. A quick glance round the room did +not show me what common sense was seeking--an iron safe in which +Czerny's keys might lie. That he would keep the key of the armoury in +the room, unless it were on his person, I had no doubt; and argument +began to tell me that, after all, a safe might not be necessary. If +alarm came it would come from the sea; or from the lower doors, which +were locked against his devil's crew. I began to say that the keys +would be in a drawer or bureau, and I was going to ransack every piece +of furniture, when--and this seemed beyond all reason--I saw something +shining bright upon a little table in the corner, and crossing the room +I picked up the very thing for which a man might have offered the half +of his fortune. + +"Heaven above!" said I, "if this is it--if this is it----" + +And why should it not have been? News of the wreck had come to the +house like a sudden alarm leaping up in the night; the keys, which I +held with greedy fingers, might they not have been in Czerny's hands +when the bell clanged loudly through the startled corridors? I saw him, +forgetful in his very greed, serving out rifles to his willing men, +running up at hazard to be sure of the truth, leaving behind him that +which might open his house to the world forever. And in my hand the +fruit of his alarm was lying. + +Ah, Heaven! it was the truth, and the door opened at my touch, and arms +for a hundred men glittered in the dim light about me. + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FIRST ATTACK IS MADE BY CZERNY'S MEN + +We carried the shot to the stairs' head, each man working as though his +own life were the price of willing labour. If Miss Ruth had tidings of +the great good fortune the night had sent to us, she would neither stay +our hands with questions nor wait for idle answers. For a moment I saw +her, a figure to haunt a man, looking out from the door of her own +room; but a long hour passed before I changed a word with her or knew +if that which we had done would win her consent. Now, indeed, was Ruth +Bellenden at the parting of the ways, and of all in Czerny's house her +lot must have been the hardest to bear. She had blotted the page of her +old life that night and it never would be rewritten. None the less, a +woman's courage could show me a bright face and all that girlish +gentleness which was her truest charm. Never once would she speak of +her own trouble, but always lightly of ours; so that we three--little +Ruth, Dr. Gray, and Jasper Begg--might have been friends met upon any +common adventure, and not at the crisis of that desperate endeavour. +And so I think it will befall in all the perilous days, that what is +written in the story-books about loud exclamations and pale faces and +all the rest of it is the property of the story-teller, and that in +plain truth you find none of these things, but just silent actors and +simple talk, and no more noise of the difficulty than the common day +will bring. This, at least, is my memory of that never-to-be-forgotten +night. To-morrow might give us life or death--a grave beneath the seas +or mastership of that house of mystery; though of this no word passed +between us, but briefly we gave each other the news and asked it in +return. + +"Captain," says the doctor, he being the first to speak, "they tell me +you've struck a gun-store. Is it true or false?" + +I told him that it was true, and making light of it--for I did not wish +Miss Ruth to be upset before there was good reason--I named another +thing. + +"Yes," said I, "we shall defend ourselves if there's need, and give a +good account, I hope. For the rest, we'll take it as we find it. I am +trusting that Mister Czerny will listen to common sense and not risk +bloodshed. If he does, the blame be on his own head, for I shall do my +best to make it easy for him." + +"I know you will--I know you will, Jasper," says little Ruth, closing +her hand upon mine, and not caring much what the doctor thought of it, +I'll be bound; "we can do no more than our duty, each of us. Mine is +very hard, but I shall not turn from it--never, while I know that duty +says, 'Go on!'" + +"That I'm sure you won't, Miss Ruth," was my answer to her; "if ever +duty justified man or woman it justifies you and I this night. Let us +begin with that and all the rest is easy. What we are doing is done as +much for the sake of our fellow-men as for ourselves. We work for a +good end--to let the world know what Ken's Island harbours and to keep +our fellow-men from such a place. Accomplish that much, and right and +humanity owe us something, though it's not for me to speak of it, nor +is this the time. My business is to hold this house against the devils +who are pillaging the ship yonder. The sea-gate I can take care of, +Miss Ruth. It's what's below in the pit that I fear." + +She listened with a curiosity which drank in every word and yet was not +satiated. Nevertheless, I believe but half of my story was plain to +her. And who blames her for that? Was not it enough for such a bit of a +girl to say, "My friends are with me. I trust them. They will win my +liberty." The arguments were for the men--for Mister Gray and me, who +sought a road in the darkness, but could not find one. + +"Two doors to this house, captain," says the doctor, after a little +while, "and one of them shut. So much I understand. Are you sure that +the cavern below is empty, or do you still count men in it?" + +"'Tis just neither way," said I, "and that's the worst of it, doctor. +The sea's to be held while the shell lasts and perhaps afterwards; but +if there are men down below, why, then it's another matter. I'm staking +all on a throw. What more can I do?" + +He leaned back upon the sofa and appeared to think of it. Presently he +said: + +"Captain, a man doesn't shoot with his foot, does he?" + +And then, not waiting for me to answer, he goes on: + +"Why, no; he shoots with his hand. Just you plant me in the passage and +give me a gun. I'll keep the door for you--by Jove, I will!" + +Now, I saw that this promise frightened Miss Ruth more than she would +say, for it was the first time that it occurred to her that men might +come out of the pit. But she was just the one to turn it with a laugh, +and crying, "What folly! what folly!" she called out at the same time +for little Rosamunda, and began to think of that which I had clean +forgotten. + +"Jasper," says she, "you will never make a general--never, never! Why, +where's your commissariat? Would you starve your crew and think nothing +of it? Oh, we shall feed Mister Bligh, and then it will be easy," says +she, prettily. + +I made no objection to this, for it was evident that she wished to +conceal her fears from us; but I knew that the doctor was wise, and +before I left him there was a rifle at his side and twenty rounds to go +with it. + + +[Illustration: "If there is any sound at the door, fire that gun."] + + +"If there's any sound at the door of the corridor--as much as a +scratch," said I, "fire that gun. I shall be with you before the +smoke's lifted, and you will need me, doctor--indeed, you will!" + +I left him upon this and went up, more anxious than I would have +confessed, to my shipmates at the gate. I found them standing together +in the moonlight, which shone clear and golden upon a gentle sea, and +gave points of fire to the rocky headlands of Ken's Island. So still it +was, such a scene of wonder and of beauty, that but for the words which +greeted me, and the dark figures peering across the water, and +something very terrible on the distant reef, I might have believed +myself keeping a lonely watch in the glory of a summer's night. That +delusion the East denied. I knew the truth even before Mister Bligh +named it. + +"They've fired the ship, captain--fired the ship!" says he, with just +anger. "Aye, Heaven do to them as they've done to those poor creatures! +Did man ever hear of such a villainy--to fire a good ship in her +misfortune? It would be a sin against an honest rope to hang such a +crew as that!" + +I stepped forward to the water's edge that I might see the thing more +clearly. Looming up upon that fair horizon were wreathing clouds of +smoke and crimson flames, and in the heart of it all the outline of the +ship these fiends had doomed. No picture ever painted could present +that woful scene or describe its magnificence as we saw it from the +watch-tower of the reef. It was, indeed, as though the very heavens +were on fire, while the sea all about the burning hull shone like a +pool of molten gold in which strange shapes moved and the shadows of +living things were to be seen. Now licking the quivering masts, now +blown aside in tongue-shaped jets, the lambent flame spurted from every +crack and crevice, leaped up from every port-hole of that splendid +steamer. I saw that her minutes were numbered, and I said that before +the dawn broke she would sink, a mass of embers, into the hissing +breakers. + +"Good Lord, Mister Bligh!" cried I, the seaman's habit coming to me at +the dreadful spectacle, "was ever such a thing heard of? And the poor +people aboard--what of them now? What haven may they look for?" + +"They've put the men ashore, sir," said Dolly Venn, hardly able to +speak for his anxiety. "I saw two boat-loads go across to the bay while +Mister Bligh was piling the ammunition. They've sent them to die on the +island. And we so helpless that we must just look on like schoolgirls. +Oh! I'd give all I've got to be over yonder with a hundred bluejackets +at my elbow. Think of it, sir! Just a hundred, and cutlasses in their +hands." + +"Aye," said I, "and a tree for every rogue that rows a boat yonder. +Well, my lad, thinking's no good this night, nor can you get the +bluejackets by whistling. We haven't all served our time in a Queen's +ship, Dolly, and we're just plain seamen; but we'll try and speak a +word to Edmond Czerny by-and-bye, or I'll never speak another. Now, +help me with your young eyes, will you, and tell me if that's a ship's +gig yonder, or if it isn't----" + +He said that it was a ship's gig, and he pointed out that which I had +not seen before--a steam yacht lying off to the east of us and waiting +for some of her crew to go aboard. Edmond Czerny would be on deck +there, I thought, watching the hounds he had sent to the work; and if +that spectacle of death and destruction did not gratify him, then +nothing would in all the world. And surely such a sight even he had not +beheld in all his years. That shimmering molten sea, the island +catching the reflected lights and making its own pictures of them; the +distant forests, whose trees lifted fiery branches and leaves of flame; +the mist-clouds raining blood and gold, the burning steamer, the great +arena of fire-flecked sea and the small-boats swimming upon it--what +more of delight or devilry could Ken's Island give this vulture of the +deep? + +So much the night would show us as Providence willed and good hearts +might determine. + +Now, I have told you that little Dolly Venn had served in the Naval +Reserve and knew more of gunnery than the most of us. To this, I bear +witness, we owed much that night. + +"You've got a skipper's part, Dolly, lad," said I, "and yon gig begins +the trouble, if my eyes don't deceive me. Why, she's coming in here, +lad, straight to this very door, just as fast as oars can bring her. +And there's more to follow--a fleet of them, as any lubber could tell +you." + +"'Tis like a fête and gala on the old stinking Liffey," says Peter +Bligh, peering with me across the busy sea. "A dozen boats, and every +one of them full. I'd give something to see Mister Jacob to-night; +indeed, and I would, captain. We are over few for such an 'out and +home' as this." + +It was rare to see Peter Bligh serious, but he had the right to be that +night, and I was the last to blame him. Consider our situation and ask +what others would have felt, placed as we were--four willing men upon a +bit of craggy rock rising sheer out of a thousand fathom sea, and +commanded to hold the gate for our lives and for another life more +precious against all the riff-raff that Ken's Island could send against +us. Out on the shimmering sea I counted twelve boats with my own eyes, +and knew that every one of them was full of cut-throats. In the half of +an hour or sooner that devil's crew would knock at our gate and demand +to come in. Whatever way we answered them, however clever we might be, +was it reason to suppose that we could hold the rock against such odds, +hold it until help came when help was so distant? I say that it was +not. By all the chances, by every right reason, we should have been cut +down where we stood, and our bodies swimming in the sea before the sun +shone again on Ken's Island and its mysteries. And if this truth was +present in my mind, how should it be absent from the minds of the +others? Brave faces they showed me, bright words they spoke; but I knew +what these concealed. We stood together for a woman's sake; we knew +what the price might be and made no complaint of it. + +"We are over few, Peter," said I, "but over few is better than many +when the heart is right. Just you drink up that grog and put yourself +where there is not so much of your precious body in the moonlight. It +will be Dolly's place at the gun, and mine to help him. There is this +in my mind, Peter, that we've no right to shoot fellow-creatures unless +they call upon us so to do. When the gig comes up I'll give them a fair +challenge before the volley's fired. After that it's up and at them, +for Miss Ruth's sake. You will not forget, Peter, that if we can hold +this place until help comes, belike we'll carry Miss Ruth to Europe and +shut down this devil's den forever. If that's not work good enough to +put heart into a man, I don't know what is. Aye, my lads," said I to +them all, "tell yourselves that you are here and acting for the sake of +one who did you many a kindness in the old time; and mind you shoot +straight," says I, "and don't go wasting honest lead when there's +carrion waiting for it." + +They answered "Aye, aye!" and Dolly, leaping up to the gun, began to +give his orders just for all the world as though he skippered the ship +and I was but a passenger. + +"We'll put Regnarte in front," says he, "so that we can keep an eye on +him. Let Peter hail them from where he's standing now; the rock covers +him, captain, and the shield will take care of you and me. And oh?" +says he, "I do wish it would begin--for my fingers are just itching!" + +"Let them itch, lad, let them itch," was my answer; "here's the gig by +the point, and they won't trouble you with that complaint long. Do you, +Peter, give them a hail when I cry, 'Now!' If they stop, well and good; +if they come on--why, you won't be asking them to walk right in!" says +I. + +He took my meaning and set to work like the brave man that he was. Very +deliberately and carefully I saw him slip out of his coat and fold it +up neatly at his feet. He had a rifle in his hand and a pile of +ammunition on the floor, and now he opened his Remington and began to +fill it. For my part, I stood by the gun's shield, and from that place, +covered by a ring of steel, I looked out across the awaking sea. +Impatience, doubt, hope, fear--these I forgot in the minutes which +passed while the gig crept slowly across that silver pool. The silence +was so great that a man might almost breathe it. Slow, to be sure, she +was; and every man who has waited at a post of danger knows what it +means to see a strange sail creeping up to you foot by foot, and to be +asking yourself a dozen times over whether she be friend or enemy, a +welcome consort or a rogue disguised. But there is an end to all +things, even to the minutes of such suspense; and I bear witness that I +never heard sweeter music than the ringing hail which Mister Bligh sent +across the still sea to the eight men in the gig, and to any other his +message might concern. + +"Ahoy!" cries he, "and what may you be wanting, my hearties, and what +flag do you sail under?" + +Now, if ever a hail out of the night surprised eight men, this was the +occasion and this the scene of it. They had come back from the pillaged +ship believing that the sea-gate of the house stood open to them and +that friends held it in all security. And here upon the threshold a +strange voice hails them; they are asked a question which turns every +ear towards the rock, sends every man's hand to the gun beside him. +Instantly, their own vile deeds accusing them, they cry, "Discovery!" +They tell each other, I make sure, that Czerny's house is in the +possession of strangers. They are stark mad with curiosity, and unable +for a spell to say a word to us. + +They would not speak a word, I say; their oars were still, their boat +drifted lazily to the drowsy tide. If they peered with all their eyes a +the rock from which the voice came, but little consolation had they of +the spectacle. The shadows spoke no truth, the gate hid the unknown; +they could read no message there. Neither willing to go back nor to +advance, they sat gaping in the boat. How could they know what anxious +ears and itching hands waited for their reply? + +A voice at last, crying harshly across the ripple of the water, broke +the spell and set every tongue free again. Aye, it was good to hear +them speak. + +"Bob Williams," cries the voice. "What ho! my ancient! I guess that's +you, Bob Williams." + +"And I guess it isn't," roars Peter Bligh, half mad, like a true +Irishman, at the thought of a fight. "It isn't Bob Williams, and be +derned to you! Are you going ashore to Ken's Island or will you swim +awhile? It's good water for bathing," says he, "and no charge for the +machine. Aye," says he, "by the look of you cold water would not hurt +your skins." + +Well, they had nothing to say to this; but we could hear them parleying +among themselves. And presently; another longboat pulling up to them, +the two together drifted in the open and then, without a word, began to +row away to the lesser reef, whose gate I had shut not an hour ago. +This I saw with very great alarm; for it came to me in an instant that +if they could force the trap--and there were enough of them to do that, +seeing that they had rifles in their hands--the whole of the lower +rooms would swarm with their fellows presently, and I did not doubt +that the house would be taken. + +"Dolly," cried I, appealing to the lad, when, the Lord knows, my own +head should have been the one to lead, "Dolly," cried I, "they'll force +the gate--and what then, Dolly----?" + +He had leapt up when the ship moved off, and now, drawing me back, with +nervous fingers he began to show me what a man-of-war had taught him. + +"No, sir, no," says he, wildly, "no, it's not that. Help me and I'll +tell you--and oh, Mister Begg, don't you see that this gun was put here +to cover that very place?" says he. + +Well, I had seen it, though in the stress of recent events it had +slipped my memory; and yet it would have been as plain as the nose on +the face to any gunner, even to the youngest. For if Czerny must hold +his house against the world, how should he hold it with one door of two +open to the sea? That devilish gun, swung there on a peak of the rock, +could sweep the waters, turn where you might. It was going to sweep the +lesser gate to-night. + +"Round with her and quick about it," cries Dolly Venn, and never a +gladder cry have I heard him utter. "They're coming ashore, captain. +They are on the rock already." + +I stood up to make sure of it, and saw four men leap from the gig to +the rock which it was life or death for us to hold. And to Dolly I +said: + +"Let go, lad; let go, in Heaven's name!" + +He stood to the gun; and clear above all other sounds of the night the +sharp reports rang out. That peaceful, sleeping sea awoke to an hour +the like to which Ken's Island will never know again. We cast the glove +to Edmond Czerny and powder spake our message. Henceforth it was his +day or ours, life or death, the gallows or the sea. + +There were four men upon the rock when the gun began to spurt its vomit +of shot across the sea, and two of them fell almost with the first +report. I saw a third dragging himself across the crags and pressing a +hand madly against every stone as though to quench some burning flame; +a fourth crouched down and began to cry to his fellows in the boats for +mercy's sake to put in for him; but before they could lift a hand or +ship an oar the fire was among them; and skimming the waves for a +moment, then carrying beyond them, it caught them as a hail of burning +steel at last and shut their lips forever. Aye, how shall I tell you of +it truly--the worming, tortured men, the gaping wounds they showed, the +madness which sent them headlong into the sea, the sagging boat dipping +beneath them, the despair, the terror, when death came like a +whirlwind? These things I shut from my eyes; I would not see them. +The sharp reports, the words of agony, the oaths, the ferocious +threats--they came and went as a storm upon the wind. And afterwards +when silence fell, and I beheld the silver sea, the island wreathed +in mists, ships' boats in the distance like dots upon the water, the +ebbing flames where the steamer burned, the woods wherein honest seamen +suffered in the death-trance from which but few would waken, I turned +to my comrades and, hand linked in hand, I said, "Well done!" + + +CHAPTER XXI + +WHICH BRINGS IN THE DAY AND WHAT BEFELL THEREIN + +It was just after dawn that Miss Ruth came up from her room below and +found me at my lonely post on the plateau of the watch-tower rock. +Dolly Venn was fast asleep by that time, and Peter Bligh and the +carpenter no less willing for a spell of rest. I had sent them to their +beds when it was plain to me that, whatever might come after, the night +had nothing more in store for us; and though heavy with sleep myself I +put it by for duty's sake. + +Now, I was watching all alone, my rifle between my knees and my eyes +upon the breaking skies, when I heard a quick step behind me, and, +turning round, I saw Miss Ruth herself, and felt her gentle hand upon +my shoulder. + +"I couldn't sleep, Jasper," said she, a little sadly I thought. "You +are not angry with me for being here, Jasper?" + +It blew cold with the dawn, and I was glad to see that she had wrapped +her head in a warm white woollen shawl--for these little things stick +in a man's memory--and that her dress was such as a woman might wear in +that bleak place. She had dark rings about her eyes--which I have +always said could look at you as the eyes of no other woman in all the +world; and I began to think how odd it was that we two, whom fortune +had cast out to this lonely rock together, should have said so little +to each other, spoken such rare words since the ship put me ashore at +the gate of her island home. + +"Miss Ruth," said I, "it's small wonder what you tell me. This night is +never to be forgotten by you and I, surely. Sometimes, even now, I +think that I am dreaming it all. Why, look at it. Not two months ago I +was in London hiring a ship from Philips, Westbury, and Co. You, I +believed, were away in the Pacific, where all things beautiful should +be. I saw you, Miss Ruth, in an island home, happy and contented, as it +was the wish of us all that you should be. There were never lighter +hearts on a quarterdeck than those which set out to do your bidding. +'It's Miss Ruth's fancy,' we told ourselves, 'that her friends should +bring a message from the West, and be ready to serve her if she has the +mind to employ them.' What other need could we think of? Be sure no +whisper of this devil's house or of yonder island where honest men will +die to-day was heard by any man among us. We came to do your bidding as +you had asked us. It was for you to say 'go' or 'stay.' We never +thought what the truth would be--even now it seems to me a horrid +nightmare which a man remembers when he is waking." + +She drew a little closer to me, and stood gazing wistfully across the +westward seas, beyond which lay home and liberty. Perchance her +thoughts were away to the pretty town of Nice, where she had given her +love to the man who had betrayed her, and had dreamed, as young girls +will, of all that marriage and afterwards might mean to her. + +"If it were only that, Jasper," she said, slowly, "just a dream and +nothing more! But we know that it is not. Ah, think, if these things +mean so much to you, what they have meant to me. I came away from +Europe believing that heaven would open at my feet. I said that a good +man loved me, and I gave myself heart and soul to him. Just a silly +little girl I was, who never asked questions, and trusted--yes, trusted +all who said they loved her. And then the truth, and a weary woman to +hear it! From little things which I would not see, it came speaking to +me in greater things which I dare not pass by, until I knew--knew the +best and the worst of it! And all my castles came tumbling down, and +the picture was shut out, and I thought it was forever. The message I +spoke to the sea would never be answered, or would be answered when I +no longer lived to hear it spoken. Do you blame a woman's weakness? Was +I wrong to believe that you would forget the promise?" + +"I never forgot it, Miss Ruth," was my answer, "never for a moment. +'May-be,' said I to Peter Bligh, 'she'll laugh when I go ashore; +may-be--but it is a thousand to one against that--she'll have need of +me.' When I saw Ken's Island looming off my port-bow, why I said, 'It's +just such a picture of a place as a rich man would pitch upon for an +island home. It's a garden land,' said I, 'a sunny haven in this good +Pacific sea.' Judge how far I was from the truth, Miss Ruth, how little +I knew of this prison-house that, God helping me, shall stand open to +the world before many days have come and gone." + +She was silent for a spell, for her eyes were searching the distant +island, and she seemed to be scanning its fog-bound heights and misty +valleys as though to read that secret of the night of which I hoped no +man had told her. + +"The ship that came ashore last night, Jasper?" she asked, of a sudden. +"What have they done to the ship?" + +I put my hand upon her arm and led her forward to the sea's edge, +whence we could espy both the sword-fish reef and the ashes of her +bungalow at the island's heart. The day had broken by this time, quick +and beautiful as ever in the Pacific Ocean. Sunny waves rolled up to +our very feet. There were glittering caps of rock gleaming above the +island of death. Czerny's yacht lay, the picture of a ship, eastward in +the offing. The longboats, twelve of them, and each loaded with its +devil's crew, drifted round and round the master's ship; but never a +man that went aboard from them. + +"The ship," said I, "is where many a good ship has gone before: a +thousand fathoms down by yonder cruel reef. As for those that sailed +her, they live or die on Ken's Island, mistress. Last night in my watch +I heard them crying like wild beasts that hunger drives. Those who do +not sleep to-day herd together on yonder beach. I counted nine of them +not half an hour since." + +She tried to see with me, looking across the water; and presently she +said: + +"There are men there and women, too--oh, Jasper, think of it, women!" + +"Ah!" said I, "I have been thinking of it for an hour or more, ever +since I first made a signal to them. So much comes of being a seaman, +who can speak to folks when others are dumb. If they read my message +aright, they'll not stay on Ken's Island to sleep, be sure of it; but I +doubt that they'll dare it, Miss Ruth. Poor souls; their need is sore, +indeed!" + +"And our own, Jasper," says she, "is our own less? You are brave men, +and you have all a woman's trust and gratitude; but, Jasper, when my +husband comes, what will you say to him? They are a hundred and we are +but five, shut up in this prison of the sea! We may live here forever +and no help come to us. We may even die here, Jasper. There are things +I will not either name or think of. But, oh, Jasper," says she, "if we +could save those poor people!" + +It was always thus with her--nine thoughts for others and not the half +of one for herself. What she meant by the things she would not name or +speak of, I could hardly guess; but it was in my head that she meant to +indicate the corridors below and that unknown danger which iron doors +shut down. I had been a clearer-headed man that morning if I could have +put away from me my doubt of what the depths were hiding from us. But I +hid it from her always. A truce of self-deception shut out the question +as one we neither cared to hear nor answer. + +"Miss Ruth," said I, speaking very slowly, "those people have a boat, +for you can see it on yon sands. Let them find the courage to float it, +and it is even possible that Dolly Venn and I can do the rest. We +should be thirteen men then, and glad of the number. I won't hide it +from you that we are a pitiful handful to face such a horde as lingers +yonder. Why, think of it. Your husband keeps them off the yacht, that's +clear to a child's eye. What harbour, then, is open to them? The +island--yes, there's that! They can go and sleep the death-sleep on the +island, as many an honest man before them. But they will have something +to say to Czerny first if I know anything of their quality! Our plight +is bad enough; but I wouldn't be in your husband's shoes to-day for all +the money in London City. We may pull through--there would be rasher +promises than that; but Edmond Czerny will never see a white man's town +again--no, not if he lives a hundred years!" + +"It would be justice, God's justice," said she, very slowly; "there is +that in the world always, Jasper. Whatever may be in store for me, I +should like to think that I had done my duty as you are doing yours." + +"We won't talk of that;" said I; "the day is dark, but the sunshine +follows after. Some day, in some home across the sea, we'll tell each +other how we held Ken's Island against a hundred. It may be that, dear +friend; God knows, it may be that!" + +* * * + +It was five o'clock in the morning by my watch when I signalled for the +second time to the people on the beach, and half-past five when first +they answered me. Until that time I had not wished to awake Dolly Venn +or Mister Bligh; but now when it began to come to me that I might, +indeed, save these poor driven folks and add to the garrison which held +the house, sleep was banished from my eyes and I had the strength and +heart of ten. No longer could I doubt that my signals were seen and +read by some sailor on that distant shore. Driven out, as they must +have been, by the awful fogs which loomed over Ken's Island, gasping +for their lives at the water's edge, who shall blame their hesitation +or exclaim upon that delay? Over the sea they beheld a white flag +waving. Was it the flag which friend or foe had raised? There, from +that craggy rock, help was offered them. Could they believe such good +fortune, those who seemed to have but minutes to live? + +Well, Dolly Venn came up to me, and Peter Bligh, half awake from sleep; +and all standing together (Seth Barker keeping watch below) I told them +how we stood and pointed out that which might follow after. + +"There'll be no attack from Czerny's men with the light," said I; "for +so much is plain reason. If there's murder done out yonder, look for it +on Czerny's yacht when his friends would go aboard. Why, see, lads, +there are a hundred and twenty men, at the lowest reckoning, drifting +yonder in open boats. Who's to feed them, who's to house them? They can +go ashore on Ken's Island and dance to the sleep-music; but they are +not the sort to do that, from what we've seen of them! No, they'll have +it out with Edmond Czerny; they'll want to know the reason why! And let +the wind blow more than a capful," said I, "and by the Lord above me +not a man among them will see to-morrow's sun! Does that put heart into +you, Peter, or does it not? There are folks to save over there, Peter +Bligh," says I, "and we'll save them yet!" His reply was an earnest +"God grant it!" and from that moment the sleep left his eyes, and +standing by my side, as he had stood many a day on the bridge of the +Southern Cross, he began to read the signals and to interpret them +aloud as the old-time duty prompted him. + +"Eight men and a woman, and one long-boat," says he; "sickness among +them and no arms. 'Tis to know if they shall put off now or wait for +the dark. You'll be answering that, captain." + +"Let them come, let them come," said I; "how's the dark to help them? +Will they live a day in the fogs we know of? And what sort of a port is +Ken's Island in the sleep-time for any Christian man? If Czerny murders +them on the high seas, so much the more against him when his day comes. +Let them come, Peter, and the Lord help them, poor wretches!" + +I was using my arms with every word, and trying to make my meaning +clear to the poor folks on the beach. So far they had been content to +answer me with questions; but now, all at once, they ceased to signal, +and a black object riding above the surf told me that they had risked +all and were afloat, be the danger what it might. At the same moment a +sharp cry from Dolly Venn turned my eyes to Czerny's yacht; and I saw +his devils rowing their boats for the open water of the bay, and I knew +that murder was in their minds, and that the hour had come when every +veil was to be cast aside and their purpose declared against all +humanity. + +"Clear the gun and stand by," was my order to the others; "we'll give +them something to take home with them, and it sha'n't be pippins! Can +you range them, Dolly, or must you wait? There's no time to lose, my +lad, if honest lives are to be saved this day." + +He went to work without a word, charging his magazine and training the +gun eastwards towards the advancing boats. If he did not fire at once, +it was because he doubted his range; and here was his difficulty, that +by sweeping round to the east and coming at the refugees upon a new +course, Czerny's lot might yet cheat us and do the infernal work they +intended. Indeed, the poor people in the longboat were just racing for +their lives; and whether we could help them or whether they must perish +time alone would show. Yard by yard, painfully, laboriously, they +pushed towards the rock; yard by yard the devil's crew were bearing +down upon them. And still Dolly kept his shot; the gun had nothing to +say to them. No crueller sight you could plan or imagine. It was as +though we were permitting poor driven people to be slaughtered before +our very eyes. + +"Fire, Dolly, lad!" cried I, at last--"fire, for pity's sake! Will you +see them die before our very eyes?" + +His fingers trembled upon the gun. He had all the heart to do it; but +still he would not fire. + +"I can't," says he, half mad at his confession; "the gun won't do +it--it's cruel, captain--cruel to see it--they're half a mile out of +range. And the others dropping their oars. Look at that. A man's down, +and another is trying to take his place----" + +It was true as I live. From some cause or other, I could only surmise, +the longboat lay drifting with the tide and one of Czerny's boats, far +ahead of its fellows, was almost atop of her. + +"They're done!" cries Peter Bligh, with an oath, "done entirely. God +rest their souls. They'll never make the rock----" + +We believed it surely. The refugees were done; the pirates had +unsheathed their knives for the butcher's work. I saw no human help +could save them; and saying it a voice from the open door behind me +gave the lie to Peter Bligh, and named a miracle. + +"'Tis the others that need your prayers, Mister Bligh--Czerny's lot are +sinking sure----" + +I looked round and found Seth Barker at my elbow. His orders had been +to watch the gate of the corridor below. I asked him what brought him +there, and he told me something which sent my heart into my mouth. + +"There's knocking down below and strange voices, sir. No danger, says +Mister Gray, but a fact you should know of. Belike they'll pass on, +sir, and please God they'll leave the engine for their own sakes." + +"Does Mister Gray say that?" asked I. "Does he fear for the engine?" + +"If it stops, we're all dead men for want of breath, the doctor says." + +"Then it sha'n't stop," said I, "for here's a man that will open the +trap if two or twenty stand below." + +He had quickened my pulse with his tale, for the truth of it I could +not deny; and it seemed to me that danger began to close in upon us, +turn where we might, and that the outcome must be the worst, the very +worst a man could picture. If I had any satisfaction, any consolation +of that wearing hour, it was the sight I beheld out there upon the +hither sea, where Czerny's boat drifted upon its prey--yet so drifted +that a child might have said, "She's done with; she's sinking." + +"Flushed, by all that's wonderful," cries Peter Bligh, with a +tremendous oath; "aye, down to oblivion, and an honest man's curse go +with you. The rogue's done, my lads; she's done for, certain." + +We stood close together and watched the scene with burning eyes. Dolly +Venn chattered away about a shot that must have struck the boat last +night and burst her seams. I cared nothing for the reasons, but took +the facts as the sea showed them to me. Be the cause what it might, +those who would have dealt out death to the refugees were going down to +eternity now, their arms in their hands, their mad desire still to be +read in every gesture. When the truth came swift upon them, when the +seas began to break right in across their beam, then, I say, they +leaped up mad with fear, and then only forgot their prey. For think +what that must have meant to them, the very boat sinking beneath them; +their comrades far away; the waves lapping their feet; the sure +knowledge that they must die, every man of them within hail of those +very woods wherein so many had perished for their pleasure. Aye, it +came upon them swiftly enough, and the good boat, making a brave effort +to battle with the swell, went down headlong anon, and the cries of +twelve drowning men echoed even in the distant island's hills. That +which had been a placid sea with two ships' boats was still a placid +sea though but one boat swam there. I beheld horrible faces looking +upward through the blinding spindrift; I saw arms thrust out above the +foam-flecked waters; I witnessed all that fearful struggle for life and +air and the sun's bright light; and then, aye, then the scene changed +awfully, and silence came upon all, and the sun was still shining, and +the untroubled deep lapped gently at our feet. + +* * * + +The twelve had perished; but the nine were saved. Stand awe-struck as +we might, seeing the hand of God in this deliverance, the truth of it +remained to put new heart into us and to hide that scene from our eyes. +There, pursued no longer, was the island boat. Glad voices hailed us, +wan figures stood up to clasp our hands; we lifted a woman to the +rocks; we ran hither, thither, for help and comfort for them. But nine +in all, they were our human salvage, our prize, our treasure of honest +lives. And we had snatched them from the brigand crew, and henceforth +they would stand with us, shoulder to shoulder, until the day were won +or lost and Ken's Island gave up its mysteries, or gathered us for that +last great sleep-time from which there is no waking. + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTY HOURS + +It was near about midday on a Saturday that we saved the poor folks +from the island, and not long after midnight on the Monday that our +troubles came to a head. I like to call these the "sixty hours"; and as +what I have to write of them is written, as it were, from watch to +watch, so swiftly did things happen, I will try to make a diary of it +that you may follow me more closely. + +_Saturday, May 27th. At midday._ + +There are nine people rescued from the ship, and one of these a girl, +Isabel, the daughter of Captain Nepeen, of the American navy. Her +father is with her, a tall, stately man, very quiet and orderly, and +quite ready to take a man's duty in the house. Of the others, the most +part are American seamen, for this was an ocean-going steamer, Silver +Bell, trading from American ports to Yokohama. All are very astonished +at the things they have seen and heard both in this house and upon +Ken's Island; but they are too ill to take much part in them, and the +young lady lies still in a dead trance. Doctor Gray says that he will +save her; but another man, knowing less, might think that she was dead. + +_The same day. At four o'clock._ + +They waked me from sleep at this hour to tell me that the men in the +caverns below were beating upon the iron doors of the corridor, and +appeared likely to force their way up to our part of the house. Captain +Nepeen brought the news himself, and had a long talk with me. I found +him a cultured man, and one who got a grip of things sooner than I had +expected. + +"Mr. Begg," he said, "it is plain that we have fallen into the hands of +a very great scoundrel. I cannot imagine what kind of intellect has +made use of this extraordinary place, but I can very plainly divine the +purpose. It is for you and me to answer to civilization and justice. We +must begin at once, Captain Begg, without any loss of time," says he. + +I answered him a little sharply, perhaps, being not over-pleased that +he should make so light of my own part in the matter. + +"Sir," said I, "what a seaman can do I have done already, or you would +not be here to speak of it. Let that go by. The news that you bring +won't wait for civilities. It must be plain to you that if we are to +stand a siege in this house, we must hold every gate of it. There are +men in the galleries below; Heaven knows how many of them. I would name +that first and let the rest come after." + +He was put about at this, and made haste to express a gratitude I had +not looked for. His naval training prompted him to habits of authority. +I could see that he was itching to be up and acting, and I knew that he +needn't wait long for that. + +"Indeed," says he, warmly, "we owe our lives to you, as many a good +seaman will owe it in the days to come. I should have spoken of that +first. The wonders of this place drive other thoughts from a man's +head. We were half dead when we saw your signal, captain. What has +become of my fellow-passengers and the rest of the crew, God alone +knows. They put us ashore on the island after the ship was taken last +night, and nine of us, as you see, are here to tell the story. I have +heard the tradition of Ken's Island from the Japanese, but I never +believed a word of it before yesterday. Now I know that it is true. My +fellow-passengers are there, dead or dying, and at sundown I am +certainly going ashore to do what I can for them." + +"You are a brave man, Captain Nepeen," said I, "a very brave man. Where +you go I follow. We cannot leave poor seamen to perish, cost us what it +may. Yet I would not hide it from you that it is a big business, and +that the man who goes to Ken's Island to-night may never return. We are +now fourteen in this house, and our first duty is to leave it safe for +those who trust us. With your help, Captain Nepeen, we'll answer the +scum down below," said I. + +He assented very heartily and began to speak of the arms that we had +and of the manner of employing them. His fellows, I learned, were +bivouacked in the great hall, and these he waked first while I was +getting the sleep out of my eyes and asking myself, "What next?" The +room in which I lay was Czerny's own room; and now in the daylight the +sea played cool and green upon the arched windows and showed to me such +sights on the rocks without as I had never dreamed of in the darker +hours. What genius had pitched upon such a house under the waves? I +asked. What spirit of evil breathed upon this dreadful place? What +craving for solitude sent this master-mind here to the bed of the +Pacific Ocean, where it could spy upon these uncanny secrets, watching +the still green water, face to face with devilish shapes butting upon +the glass, the friend of the horrid creatures which slimed upon the +windows and crawled to their rocky haunts, or fought claw to claw in +the sight of their enemy, man? Desperate as the plight was, I must +stand a minute before the crystal panes and watch that changing +spectacle of the sea's own wonders. The very water was so near that +I thought I had but to stretch out a hand to touch it. The weird, +wild things that crept over the rocks, surely they would enter this +room presently! And Czerny could live here, cheek by jowl with +these fearsome mysteries! Again I say that man knows little of his +fellow-man, of his better nature or his worse. + +_The same day. At five o'clock._ + +We open the lower doors and go down into the galleries. Seven men are +with me and each carries a musket. The quest is not so much for those +shut down in the pit as for the life which they may send up to us. +Doctor Gray has put it in a word, and it is true. The great engine, +which draws the air from the sea's brink and drives it out in +life-giving currents through the corridors of Czerny's house, that +engine alone stands between us and eternity this day. If those below +have kept that engine going until this time, it is for their own +safety's sake. Rob them of food and drink, and what security have we +that they will continue at the task? And yet, the deed be my witness, +it was a perilous journey. No man in our company could say surely how +many of Czerny's crew he would find in the black labyrinth we must +face. No man could speak of the hidden mysteries lurking in passage or +cavern, far from the sea-gate and the sun's light. We were going into +the unknown; and we went with timorous steps, each asking himself, +"Shall I live to see the day again?" each saying to the other, "Stand +close!" + +Now, the knocking had ceased when we opened the gates, and we stood for +a little while peering down into that corridor, which I have named +already as the backbone of the lower house. Lighted it was, the lamps +still burning, its barred doors shut, its branching passages suggesting +a hive of rocky nests which might harbour an army of desperadoes. No +sound came up to us from below save the sound of the engine throbbing, +throbbing, as it fanned a breath of life and drove it upwards to us +fresh and sweet upon our faces. Whoever lurked in that abyss feared to +show himself or to cry a truce. We were hedged about by black mystery, +and, rifle in hand, we set out to learn the truth. + +There were lamps in the corridor, but in the passages branching from it +no light save that which streamed down, green and silvery, from the +windows which shut the still sea out. Oftentimes the seven with me +would draw all close together, awed by the fantastic spectacle these +glimpses of the sea's heart showed to them. At other times the nearer +alarm would set them quaking, and crying "Hist!" they would listen for +steps in the silence or other sounds than that of the engine's pulse +and the whirring fans. The very stillness, I think, made them afraid. +The horrors of the windows--above all, that horror of the nameless +fish--could frighten a man as no spectre of God's earth above. If I had +accustomed myself in part to these new sensations, if Czerny's house +seemed to me rather a refuge than a terror, none the less there were +moments when my step halted and my eyes were glued upon the sights I +saw. For here it would be a monstrous shark lying still in a glassy +pool; or there a very army of ferocious crabs, their eyes outstanding, +their claws crushing prey, their great shells shaped like fungi of the +deep; or going on a little way again I stopped before a giant porthole +and discovered a devil-fish and his nest in the deep and said that +nothing like to it had been heard or told of. Here lies a great basin +scooped out of the coral rock, and the green water is focused in it +until it looks like a prism, and everywhere, in nook and crevice, the +deadly tentacles, the frightful eyes of these unnameable creatures seem +to twist and stare, and threaten us. Such fish we counted, hundreds of +them, at the windows of the second cavern we entered; and, drawing back +from it affrighted, we went on like men who fear to speak of that which +they have seen. + +"A madman's house; it could not be anything else," says Captain Nepeen, +as pale as any ghost; "unless I had seen it with my own eyes, Mr. Begg, +no story that ever was written would make me believe it. And yet it is +true, as Heaven is above us, it is true." + +"No doubt of that," said I, "a madman's house, captain, and madmen to +people it. But of that we'll speak by-and-bye; for the shadows may +listen. Keep your gun ready; there will be others about besides +ourselves. Here's the first of them--stone-dead, by the Lord!" + +They all came to a stand at my words, and saw that which my eyes +discovered for them--the figure of a dead man, lying full and plain to +be seen in the lamp's glare, and so fallen that no one might ask you +how he had died. + +"One," said I, "and that which killed him left behind! He's been struck +down as he ran. There's the knife that did it, lads!" + +A young seaman among us shuddered when he saw the knife still sticking +in the dead man's side. The rest of us drew the body out of the light +and went on again with wary steps. We were near the great dormitory at +this time, the door of which I myself had locked; but it was open now +and the lock broken. Lamps still burned in that vast room; food lay +still upon its tables; but the story of it was to be read at every +step. Chests overturned, chairs smashed, a litter of clothes upon the +floor, broken bottles, an empty pistol, great marks upon the door where +iron had indented it, bore witness to the struggle for light and +freedom. The prisoners had fled, but life was the price of liberty. I +took one swift glance round this broken prison, and then led my +comrades out of it. + +"The birds have flown and one of them is winged," said I. "There are +five more to take, and the shadows hide them! Come on, my lads, or +they'll say that eight were scared by five, and that's no tale to tell +of honest seamen!" + +I spoke up to encourage them, for, truth to tell, the dark and the +mystery were playing strange tricks with my nerves. As we penetrated +deeper into that labyrinth I could start at every shadow and see a +figure in every cranny. The men that the dark patches harboured, where +were they? Their eyes might be watching every step we took, their +pistols covering our bodies as we hurried on to the depths. And yet no +sound was heard, the great engine throbbed always; the cool, sweet air +blew fresh upon our faces. + +Now, the first voice spoke at the head of the engine-room stairs, from +an open cavern which no lamp illumined. I had just called out to +Captain Nepeen to follow me to the engine-room, and was bidding the +others wait at the stairs-head, when a shot came flashing out of the +darkness, and in the flame of the gun's light I saw a great hulking +figure, and recognised it instantly. It was that of Kess Denton, the +yellow man, whom I had left senseless at the door of Ruth Bellenden's +bungalow more than twenty days ago. A giant figure, the head bandaged, +the arms and chest naked, a rifle gripped in both hands, this phantom +of the darkness showed itself for an instant and then vanished with an +echoing laugh which mocked and angered us. At the same moment the young +seaman who had shuddered before the dead, fell headlong in the passage, +and with one loud cry gave up his life. + +And this was the first man who died for little Ruth Bellenden's sake. + +We swung about on our heels as the report rang out and fired a blazing +volley into the darkness of the cavern. What other men lingered there, +how many of the driven ghouls who haunted the labyrinth received that +hail of lead, I shall never know nor care to ask. Groans answered our +shots; there were cries of pain, the curses of the wounded, the +derisive laughter of those that escaped. But little by little the +sounds died away, echoing in other and distant galleries, or coming to +us as whispered voices, speaking from places remote, and leaving to us +at last a silence utter and profound. + +We were masters of the bout and the engine was ours. + +"Captain Nepeen," said I, "do you and three others go back to the +stairs-head and hold it until I come. If they are afraid to face us +here, they'll never face us at all. Why, look at it. Seven men out in +the light, as fair a target as a woman might ask for, and they show us +their heels. Go back and hold the gate, and I and those with me will +answer for the engine. Time afterwards to hunt the vermin out." + +He took my order unwillingly, I could see. A greater devil for a fight +than that smooth-faced American sailor I shall never meet in all my +days. Keen as a hound after quarry, he would have hunted out the +vermin, I do believe, if the path had led down to the mouth of Hades +itself. + +"You will not go alone, captain," cried he, "that's plain madness." + +"I take two to my call," said I, "and leave you the rest." + +"But what--aren't you afraid, man?" + +"Afraid! Of whom?" said I. "Of an old man--but that's too far ahead. +I'll speak of it when I come up, captain. Perhaps it's only my own +idea. But it's good enough to go on with." + +He had still something to say, and, looking first into the black +cavern, which we had filled with shot, and then down the stairs towards +the engine-room, he went on presently: + +"You take a big risk and I hope you'll get out of it. How many do you +expect to find below? + +"One," said I, quickly, "and he a friend. It's a strange story, +captain, and wonderful, too. But it will wait." + +I was at the door of the engine-room before he could answer me, and +pulling back the leather curtain I put my own idea to the proof. Just +as forty hours ago, so now that gloomy cavern shimmered with the +crimson light which the giant furnaces cast upon its rocky roof. Now, +as then, leather-clad figures moved before its molten fires. There were +the mighty boilers, the pumping engine, the throbbing cylinders, the +shining cranks; but the man who staggered towards me in the white +light, the man who uttered a glad cry of recognition, the man who fell +at last at my feet, imploring me for the love of mercy to bring him +food and drink, that man was no enemy. + +He was Clair-de-Lune, the old Frenchman, and I had but to look at him +twice to see that he was the neighbour of death. + +"Clair-de-Lune, old comrade!" I cried, "you! We owe our lives to +_you_, then! By thunder, you shame us all!" + +He was pale as death; the sweat ran in streams down upon his naked +breast; his words came like a torrent when he tried to tell me all. + +"Three days in prison, and no man come to me," he said, pathetically; +"then I hear your voice. I say it is Captain Begg. I am glad, monsieur, +because it is a friend. I break the door of my prison and would come up +to you; but no, there is no one in the house; all gone. I say that my +friends die if I do not serve them. There are lads with me; but they +are honest. Ah, Captain Begg, food and drink, for the love of Christ!" + +He fainted in thy arms, and I carried him from the place. Again, in all +providence, I and those dear to me had been saved by the fidelity of +one of the oddest of God's creatures. + +_The same day. At eight o'clock._ + +I have begun to believe that the Italian is right, and that Czerny left +no more than eight men in the lower house. No attack has been made upon +the Americans we put in charge of the engine, nor is there any news of +those mutineers who fled from us this morning, save that which comes +from two of them, very pitiful creatures, broken-down and starving, who +have surrendered their arms and begged for food. The others, they say, +will come in presently, when the big man, whom they call Kess Denton, +will let them. They protest that their comrades are but four, and two +of them wounded grievously. I no longer feel any anxiety about that +which is below, and I have told Miss Ruth as much. She has now been two +hours with Captain Nepeen. Her way of life draws her sympathetically +towards that brave and gentle man. It must be so. The world has put a +great gulf between the simple seaman and those whom fortune shelters at +her heart. A plain sailor has his duty to do; the world would laugh at +him if he forgot it because the years have taught him to worship a +woman's step and to seek that goal of life to which her hand may lead +him. + +_An hour later._ + +We are to go ashore with the dark to see if we can save any of the +refugees marooned on the island. It is a desperate chance and may cost +good men's lives. I do not forbid it, for I have lived and suffered on +Ken's Island myself. If there are living men there now--it may be +women, too--held in that trance of death from which they must awake to +madness or never wake again, the commonest instinct of pity says to me, +"Go." I have consulted Doctor Gray, and he is doubtful of the venture. +"Mind what you are doing, I beg of you," he says. "Are there not women +to save in this house?" Miss Ruth overhears him and draws me aside, +and, putting her hand upon my arm winningly, she lifts her pretty face +to mine and says, "Jasper, you will save them!" + +I am going ashore, and Captain Nepeen goes with me. + +_At ten o'clock._ + +We put off a boat at ten o'clock and rowed straight for the open beach. +It was a gloriously clear night, with a heaven of blazing stars and a +sea like flowing silver. The ship's boats made so many black shapes, +like ocean drift in the pools of light; and Czerny's yacht, speaking of +that dread Presence, lay as an evil omen in the anchorage to the +northward. Ken's Island itself was uplifted like some mountain of the +sea, snowcapped in its dazzling peaks, harbouring its wayward forests +and lovely glens and fresh meadows which the moon's light frosted. And +over all was that thin veil of the fog, a steaming blue vapour flecked +with the richest hues; now drifting in clouds of changing tints, now +spreading into fantastic creations and phantom cities, pillars of +translucent yellow flame, banks of darker cloud as though a storm were +gathering. Sounds of the night came to us from that dismal island; we +heard the lowing of the kine, the sea-bird's hoot, ever and anon the +terrible human cry which spoke of a soul in agony. And with these were +mingled grimmer sounds, like very music of the storm: the echo of +distant gunshots fired by Czerny's men at the anchored yacht which +refused them harbourage. + +There were four with me in the boat, and Captain Nepeen was one of +them. I had set Peter Bligh at the tiller, and Seth Barker and an +American seaman to pull the oars. We spoke rare words, for even a +whisper would carry across that night-bound sea. There were rifles in +our hands; good hope at our hearts. Perchance, even yet, we should +awake some fellow-creature from the nameless sleep in the woods whose +beauty veiled the living death. + +Now, I say that Czerny's men were firing rifle-shots at the anchored +schooner, and that sound was a true chantey for our ears. What eyes +would they have for us when their salvation lay aboard the yacht? We +were nothing to them; the ship was all. And, be sure, we did not go +unwatched or helpless. Behind us, at the gate we had left, our gun +showed its barrel like the fang of a slipped hound. Cunning hands were +there, brave fellows who followed us in their hearts, while we crossed +the basin swiftly and drew near the terrible shore. If we had seen the +sun for the last time, then so be it, we said. It is not a seaman's way +to cry at danger. His word is "must," and in a sure purpose lies his +salvation. + +We made the island at the westward end that we might have a clear sheet +of water between Czerny's boats and our own; and we so set our course +that our gun could sweep the intervening seas if any eye detected us. +The land was low-lying towards the west and marshy; yet, strange to be +told, the fog lay light upon it. It had been planned between us that +Captain Nepeen and I should go ashore while the others held the boat. +We carried revolvers in our hands, but no other arms. The death-fog was +our true defence; and against that each man wore the respirator that +Duncan Gray had made for him. Sleep might be our lot, but it would come +upon us slowly. + +"It will be straight for the woods, captain," said I, "and all our +heart go with us. Your friends, who were put ashore last night, will +never stray far from the beach, believe me. We'll search the foreshore +and leave the rest to chance. As for going under, we sha'n't think of +that. It would never do to begin by being afraid of it." + +He answered readily enough that he had never thought of such a thing. + +"Where you lead, there I follow, Captain Begg," said he. "I shall not +be far behind you, rely upon it." + +"And me not far from the shore when it's 'bout ship and home again," +chimes in Peter Bligh. "God go with you, captain, for you are a brave +man entirely!" + +I laughed at their notion of it, and went a little way up the beach. +The respirator about my mouth, charged with some chemical substance I +did not know the use of, permitted me to breathe at first with some +ease. And what was more extraordinary was this, that while in the woods +the fog had seemed to suffocate me, here it was exhilarating; bracing a +man's steps so that he seemed to walk on air; exalting him so that his +mind was on fire and his head full of the wildest notions. No coward +that ever lived would have known a moment's fear under the stimulation +of that clear blue vapour. I bear witness, and there are others to bear +witness with me, that a whole world of strange figures and wonderful +places opened up to our eyes when we began to push ashore and to leave +the sandy beach behind us. And that was but the beginning of it, for +more fearful things were to follow after. + +I will try to describe for you both the place and the scene, that you +may realize my sensation, and follow me truly in this, my third journey +to Ken's Island. Imagine, if you can, an undulating stretch of lush +grass and pasture-land, a glorious meadow flooded with the clear, cold +light; arched over with a heaven of stars; bordered about by heavy +woods; dipping to the sea on two sides and extending shimmering sands +to the breaking swell on the third. Say that a hot blue fog quivers in +the air above this meadow-land, and is breathed in at every breath you +take. Conceive a mind so played upon by this vapour that the meadows +and the woods beyond the meadows are gradually lost to view, and a +wonder-world quickly takes their place. Do this, and you may follow me +more surely to a phantom city of majestic temples hewn out of a golden +rock and lifting upward until they seem to touch the very skies; you +may peer with me into abysses so profound that no eye can fathom their +jewelled depths; you may pass up before walls built wholly of gems most +precious; you may sleep in woods beneath trees silvered over with +light; search countless valleys rich in unknown flowers. And the city +is peopled with an unnumbered multitude of moving figures, the sensuous +figures of young girls all glittering in gold and jewels; the shapes of +an army of giants in blackest armour; and there are animals that no eye +has seen before, and beasts more terrible than the brain can conceive. + +Say, too, that this deadly vapour of the island so stimulates the +faculties that earth no longer binds a man nor heaven imprisons him. +Say that he can rise above the spheres to unknown worlds, can, span the +seas, and bridge the mountains. Depict him, as it were, throwing off +his human shape and seeing the abodes of men so far below him, so puny, +so infinitely small that he begins to realize eternity. Cast him down +from these visions suddenly and in their place set up black woods and +the utter darkness of nature impenetrable. Let the exaltation leave +him, the sights fade utterly, the dismal abyss of the nether world +close him in. Awake him from these again and let him reel up and +stagger on and believe that he is sinking down to the eternal sleep. +Such sensations Ken's Island will give him until at last he shall fall; +and lying trance-bound for the rain to beat upon his face, or the sun +to scorch him, or the moon to look down upon his dreams, he shall lie +and know that the world is there, and that nevermore may he have part +or lot in it. + +I have set down this account of my own experiences on the island that +you may compare it with the books of others who have since visited this +wonderful place; but I would not have you think that I, and the brave +man who stood at my side, forgot that human errand which put us ashore +in those dismal swamps; or hung back to speak of our own sensations +while others might need us so sorely. If we passed from delirium to +sanity, from the height of hysterical imagination to the depths of +despair and gloom, none the less the faculty of action remained, the +impulse which cried, "Straight on," and left us willing still to dare +the worst if thereby a fellow-creature might be saved. Burning as our +brains were, heavy the limbs, we could still push on across the +meadows, search with our eyes for those poor people we had come out to +save. How long this power of action would remain to us, what supreme +misfortune would end our journey at last, throwing us, it might be, to +the grass, there to sleep and end it all, we would not so much as +consider. Good men were perishing on Ken's Island, and every instinct +said, "You, Jasper Begg, and you, James Nepeen, hold out a hand to +them." + +"Do you see anything, captain?" I asked my companion again and again; +"we should be near them now. Do you hear any sound?" + +He answered me, gasping for his breath: + +"Not a whisper." + +"Yonder," I would go on, "yonder by the little wood; they landed there. +Can you get as far, captain?" + +"I'll try, by Heaven!" said he, between his teeth. + +"They'll not be far from the wood," said I, "that's common sense. Shut +your eyes to all the things you see and don't think about it. It's an +awful place, captain. No living man can picture its fellow." + +I waited for him to come up to me, and so placed myself that his eyes, +I hoped, might turn seaward and not up towards the woods where such +weird sights were to be seen. For this place, the angle of the great +pasture-land where it met the forest, was occupied by sleeping cattle, +white, and still, and frigid, so that all the scene, glimmering in the +moonlight, might have been cut out of some great block of marble; and +cows and sheep, and trees and hills, all chiselled by the hand of +Death. That a living thing should be speaking and moving there seemed +almost an outrage upon the marvellous beauty of that field of sleep. +The imagination reeled before this all-conquering trance, this glory of +nature spellbound. It were as though a man must throw himself to the +earth, do what he would, and surrender to the spell of it. And that, +perchance, we had done, and the end had been there and then, but for a +woman's cry, rising so dolefully in the woods that every impulse was +awakened by it and all our resolutions retaken. + +"Did you hear that?" I cried to him, wildly; "a woman's voice, and near +by, too! You'll not turn back now, Captain Nepeen!" + +"Not for a fortune!" said he, bravely; "it would be Gertrude Dolling, +the purser's sister; we cannot leave her!" + +The desire was like a draught of wine to him. He had been near falling, +I make sure, but now, steadying himself for an instant upon my arm, he +set off running at all his speed, and I at his heels, we crossed the +intervening grass and were in the wood. There we found the purser's +sister, stumbling blindly to and fro, like a woman robbed of sight, +while children were clinging to her dress and crying pitifully because +she did not heed them. + +It was an odd scene, and many must come and go before I forget it. Dark +as the wood might be by day, the moonlight seemed to fill every glade +of it, showing us the gnarled trunks and the flowering bushes, the +silent pools and the grassy dells. And in the midst of this sylvan +rest, remote from men, a lonely thicket of the great Pacific Ocean, was +this figure of civilization, a young girl decked out in white, with a +pretty hat that Paris might have sent her, and little children, in +their sailors' clothes, clinging trustingly, as children will in +confidence to a woman's protecting hand. No surprise was it to me then, +nor is it a surprise now, that the girl neither saw nor heard us. The +trance had gripped her surely; the first delirium of exaltation had +robbed her of sight and sense and even knowledge of the children. That +doleful wailing song of hers was the first chant of madness. Her steps +were undirected, now carrying her to the wood's heart, now away from it +a little way towards the sea's beach. My order, twice given, that she +should stand and wait for us was never answered; I do not even think +that she felt my hand upon her shoulder. But she fell at last, limp and +shuddering, into my arms, and I picked her up and turned towards the +sea. + +"The children to you, and straight ahead," said I to the captain; "run +for your life, and for the lives of these little ones. It will be +something to save them, captain." + +He answered me with a word that was almost a groan; but stooped to his +task, nevertheless. He knew that it was a race for their lives and +ours. + +I had the burden in my arms, I say, and no feather's weight was less to +me in the hope of my salvation and of those we strove for. The way lay +straight down, through a ravine of the low cliffs to the beach we had +left and the good boat awaiting us there. Nothing, it seemed, but a +craven will could stand henceforth between us and God's fresh air that +night. And yet how wrong that reckoning was! There were a dozen of +Czerny's men halloaing wildly on the cliff-side when we came out of the +wood; and almost before we had marked them, they were after us headlong +like devils mad in wine. + +Now these men, as we learned afterwards, driven by hunger and thirst to +the point of raving, had come ashore that very evening; it may be to +rifle the stores on the island; it may be in that spirit of sheer +madness which sometimes drives a seaman on. Twenty in all when they +landed, there were eight asleep already when we encountered them; and +lying on the cliff's side, some with arms and heads overhanging, some +shuddering in the fearful sleep, one at least bolt upright against the +rock with his arms outstretched as though he were crucified, they +dotted that dell like figures upon a battle-field. The rest of them, a +sturdy twelve, fired by the dancing madness, brandishing their knives, +uttering the most awful imprecations, ran on the cliff's head above us, +and seemed to be making straight for the cove where our boat lay. And +that is why we said that the race was for life or death. + +There are moments in his life when a man must decide "aye" or "nay" +without checking his step to do so. As things stood, the outlook could +not have been blacker while we ran through the ravine to the water's +edge. Behind, in the wood, lay the dancing death; before us these +madmen with their gleaming knives, their unearthly yells, their reeling +gait and fearful gesticulations. We had to choose between them, the +sleep in the lonely glen, or the race downward to the shore; and we +chose the latter, believing, I think, that the end must be the same, +turn where we would. + +"Keep your course, keep your course!" I cried to the captain as we ran +on. "Hold to it, for your life--it's our only chance!" + +He set one of the children on the sand, and, bidding the little one run +on ahead, he drew his revolver and stood shoulder to shoulder with me. + +"A straight barrel and mark your men," cried he, very quietly; "it's a +cool head that wins this game. We have ten shots and the butts will do +for two. You will make that twelve if you add it up, captain." + +His coolness surprised me, but it was not to be wondered at. Never from +the first had I heard this man utter one word which complained of our +situation or of its difficulty. To Captain James Nepeen a tight corner +was a pleasure-ground; and now with these yelling devils all round him, +and the vapour steaming in the woods behind, and the sea shimmering +like a haven that would beckon us to salvation, he could yet wear that +cynical smile of his, and go with lighter step, and bear himself like +the true seaman that he was. Of all that I have ever sailed with I +would name him first as a true comrade in peril or adversity. To his +skill I owed my life that night. + +"One," said he, suddenly, when a great head showed itself on the cliff +above us and was instantly drawn back. So quick had he been, so wild +did the aim appear, that when a body rolled presently down the grassy +bank and lay stark before us I could not believe that a bullet had done +its work. + +"One," cried he again, triumphantly--"and one from twelve leaves +eleven. Ha, that's your bird, captain, and a big one!" + + +[Illustration: Another man fell with a loud cry.] + + +I had pulled my trigger, prompted by his example, and another man from +the cliff above lifted his arms and fell with a loud cry. And this was +the astonishing thing, that though we two were caged in a ravine like +rats in a trap, and had shot two of the devils stone-dead, no answering +shot was fired from above, no rifle levelled at us. + +"No arms," cries the captain, presently; "and most of them half drunk. +We're going through this, Mister Begg, right through, I assure you!" + +Well, I began to believe it; nevertheless, there were men on the shore +before us, halloaing madmen, with clasp-knives in their hands and +murder in their faces. Clear in the moonlight you could see them; the +still air sent up their horrid imprecations. Those men we must pass, I +said, if we would reach the boat. And we passed them. It seems a +miracle even when I write of it. + +Now, we had halted at the foot of the ravine and were just prepared to +go headlong for the six, believing, it may be, that one at least of us +must fall, when they fired a shot, not from the gun at the watch-tower +gate, but from Czerny's own yacht away in the offing; and coming plump +down upon the sand, not a cable's length from our own boat, a shell +burst with a thunderous explosion, and scattering in fragments of +steel, it scared the mutineers as no rifle could have done. Roaring out +like stricken bulls, cursing their master in all tongues, they began to +storm the cliff-side nimbly and to run for the shelter of the woods; +but some fell and rolled backward to the sand, some turned on their own +knives and lay dead at the gully's foot; while those who gained the +summit stood all together, and wailing their doleful song they yelled +defiance at Czerny's ship. + +But we--we made the boat; and falling half-dead in it, we thrust it +from the beach and heard our comrades' voices again. + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE END OF THE SIXTY HOURS + +_The same night. Off Ken's Island. Half-past twelve o'clock._ + +We have not returned to the watch-tower rock, nor can we bring +ourselves to that while there is any hope left to us of helping those +whom Czerny marooned on the dangerous shore. Our gig drifts lazily in a +pool of the whitest moonlight. We can still make out the ship's boats +lying about Czerny's yacht, and the angry crews which man them. From +the beach itself rises up the mutineers' wail of agony, like a wild +beast's cry, at one time loud and ferocious, then dying away in a +long-drawn cry, which haunts the ear. Ever and anon, as the mood takes +them, the gunners on Czerny's yacht let fly at us with their erring +shells; but they smite the air or hurt the water, or drop the bounding +fire on the shimmering spread of sand beyond us. Perhaps it is that +this employment occupies the minds of the longboats' crews and keeps +them from reckoning with the master who has befooled them. They, at +least, are at the crisis of their peril. Afloat there on a gentle swell +they must know that any hour may bring a changing wind and a breaking +sea, and a shore rockbound and unattainable. They are playing with +chance, and chance will turn upon them presently. Let them make for the +island where the laughing woods say "Come!" and the heralds of sleep +will touch them upon the foreheads, and raving, dreaming, they will +fall at last, just victims of the island visions. Say that their brute +intelligences do not yet understand this; but hunger and thirst will +teach them ere the dawn, and then reckoning must come! + +All this I foresaw as we let the boat drift by the sandy bays, and +spake, one to another, of to-morrow and that which it must bring. +Whatever our own misfortune might be, that of Czerny's men was worse a +hundredfold. For the moment it amused them to see the shells plunging +and hissing in the sea about us; for the moment the desire to be quit +of us made them forget how it stood with them and what must come after. +But the reckoning would be sure. Let a capful of wind come scudding +across that glassy sea, and all the riches in the world would not buy +Edmond Czerny's life of these sea-wolves who sought it. + +"They'll stand by until they know the worst, and then nothing will hold +them," I said to my comrades. "If they think they can get aboard the +yacht, they'll do so and make for some safe port. If not, they'll try +to rush the house. Assume that they are driven hard enough and no gun +will keep them off. Let ten or twenty go down, the rest will come in. I +am thinking that we should get back to the house, lads, and not leave +it to younger heads. We've done what we could here, and it's plainly +useless to go on with it!" + +They were all with me in this, none more so than Captain Nepeen, who, +up to this time, had been for the shore and the friends who might be +found there. + +"At least we have made every prudent effort; and there are others to +think of," said he. "If they had a gunner worth a groat, we should not +be where we are, captain. You must allow something to chance and a +lucky shot. They may get home even yet. I will not ask you what that +would mean, for you are a seaman and you know." + +His words, I think, recalled us to the danger. No hope of rescue +rewarded our eyes when we scanned the black woods and the lonely +fore-shore of the forbidden land. Dark and terrible in the moonlight, +like some mighty beacon of evil rising up above that sleeping sea, it +seemed to say to us, "Go, turn back; remember those who count upon +you." And we pulled from it reluctantly out into the broad sea, and +breathed a full breath as we left its vapours and its fetid shores. + +Three shots were fired at us while we crossed the open channel, and one +fell so close that we could see the cleavage of the water and feel the +silver spray upon our heated faces. This quickened our oars, you may be +sure, and set our course true and straight for the house, whose iron +gate stood up like a fortress of the deep and opened its rocky shelter +to us. Clair-de-Lune was there, too, halted and motionless by the sea's +brink; Dolly Venn stood at his side; and once I thought that I saw Miss +Ruth herself peering across the lapping wavelets and watching us with a +woman's anxious eyes. + +Nor did we go unobserved by those who had so much to gain if mischance +should befall us in that last endeavour. Like pirates' junks, slipping +from a sheltered creek, the devils in the longboats espied us in the +moonlight and began to row towards us and to hail us with those wild +shouts which yesterday we had heard even in the House Under the Sea. +Yet, I witness, they did not affright us. We knew that sure eyes +watched them from the reef; no lads' playing at the length of a +watchdog's chain, kept more surely from the dog's teeth than those +night-birds from the gun's range. Shots they fired--wild, reckless +shots, skimming the water, peppering the sky, whistling in the clear +air above us. But the boats drew no nearer, and it seemed that we must +touch our haven unharmed, when the American seaman, stretching out his +arms in a gesture fearful to think of, and ceasing to row with horrid +suddenness, fell backward without any word and lay, a dying man, before +us. + +They had shot him through the heart; and he was the second who fell for +Ruth Bellenden's sake. + +_Sunday morning. Five o'clock._ + +I have known little sleep for the last thirty hours, nor can I sleep at +the crisis of our misfortunes. It is a still grey morning, with heavy +cloud in the East, and lapping rhythmical waves beating upon the +windows of the house as though anon a gale must blow and all this +torrid silence be swept away. + +I cannot conceal it from myself what a gale would mean to us; how it +must scatter the open boats, drifting there at the mercy of a Pacific +sea; how, perchance, it might even lift the fog from Ken's Island and +show us sunny fields and sylvan woods, a harbourage of delight to which +all might flock with leaping hearts. And yet, says reason, if it so +befall that you yourselves may go ashore to yonder island, what logic +shall keep Czerny's men from the same good anchorage? They are as +twenty to one against you. If there are houses there, and stores for +the sun-time, who will shut them to this horde of desperadoes? Aye, the +head reels to think of it; the hours pass slowly; to-morrow we shall +know. + +Now, I have thought of all this, and yet there are other things in my +mind, and they jostle one with the other, the sweet and the bitter, the +good and the bad, until it seems to me that I no longer get at the +heart of it, but am as a man drifting without a chart, set free on some +unknown sea whose very channels I may not fathom. Three hours ago when +I came ashore and lifted the dead man out, and sent the sleeping girl +to shelter, Ruth Bellenden's hand was the first to touch my own, her +word the first my ear would catch. So clear it was, such music to a man +to hear that girlish voice asking of his welfare as a thing most dear +to her, that all the night vanished at the words, and Ken's Island was +lost to my sight, and only the memory of the olden time and of my +life's great hope remained to me. + +"Jasper!" she said, "it was not you--oh, Jasper, it was not you, then!" + +I stepped from the boat, and, taking her hand in mine, I drew her a +little nearer to me; then, fearful of myself, I let go her hand again +and told her the simple truth. + +"Miss Ruth," said I, "it is yon poor fellow. I will not say 'Thank +God!' for what right have I to serve you before him? He did his duty; +help me to do mine." + +She turned away and gazed out over the sea to the yacht still +thundering its cannon and ploughing with its wasted shot the +unoffending sea. Deep thoughts were in her mind, I make sure, a torture +of doubt, and hope, and trepidation. And I--I watched her as though all +my will was in her keeping, and there, on the lonely rock, was the +heart of the world I would have lived and died in. + +"You cannot forbid me to be glad, Jasper," she said, presently; "you +have given me the right. I saw you on the shore. Oh! my heart went with +you, and I think that I counted the minutes, and I said, 'He will never +come; he is sleeping.' And then I said, 'It is Jasper's voice.' I saw +you stand up in the boat and afterwards there were the shadows. Jasper, +there cannot be shadows always; the sun must shine sometimes." + +She held my hand again and touched it with her cheek. I think that I +forgot all the place about, the sea and the men, the distant shore and +the island's shape, the still night and the dawn to come; and knowing +nothing save that Ruth, little Ruth, was by my side, I went into +dreamland and said, "It shall be forever." + +_Monday. At six o'clock._ + +I cannot sleep and I have come to keep watch on the rock. Old +Clair-de-Lune is with me, but silence is in the house below, where some +sleep and some are seeking sleep. Of all who can discuss our future +bravely, none speaks better sense than this simple old man; and if he +rebukes my own confidence he rebukes it justly. I ask him when the +sleep-time will pass and the sun-time come. He shakes his head, he will +not prophesy. + +"God forbid that it should pass," says he. "They will go ashore to the +island, and we--we perish," says he. "Pray that it shall not be, +captain. We have food for three week--month; but what come after? You +pick up by ship, you say. But not so. When your ship come here the +devils set trap, and all is wreck and burn and steal! They take your +ship and you perish, you starve. Ah, monsieur, pray that the sun-time +do not come." + +I lay back upon the rock and thought of it. This old man, surety, was +right. Let the fog drift from Ken's Island, the woods awake, life stir +again, and how stood we--where was our benefit? + +"It is a fearful position," said I, "and Heaven alone knows what the +end of it will be. That something has happened to Mister Jacob and my +ship I can no longer doubt, Clair-de-Lune. The Southern Cross is on the +rocks, be sure of it, and good men with her. Take it that they are +picked up and set on the American coast. What then? Who finds the money +for another steamer? It is not to be thought of: we must dismiss it +from our minds. You say that we have food for three weeks, and the +condensers down below will give us water. But it won't be three weeks +before we are in or out of it, my friend. If we are starving, others +are starving--those out yonder by Czerny's yacht. He'll give them food +to-day; but how long will they drift like cattle for the rain to beat +on? Your sense will tell you that they won't drift long, but will be +asking questions and wanting their answers. Aye, Clair-de-Lune, we'll +listen with all our ears when that begins!" + +He had a glass with him and he began to scan the yacht very closely and +the ship's boats about it. I had not noticed that there was an unusual +stir in the anchorage, but he remarked it now and drew his own +conclusions. + +"They give rogue man arms and cutlass, captain; he go overboard too. I +see them pass from boat to boat. Ah, there he is, the bread and the +biscuit. They get breakfast and then come here, captain. What else you +look for? They not lie there all the days. They too much devil for +that. We few and little; they big and strong. Why shall they not take +the house? Some die, but other mans remain. Czerny he say to them, +'Great much price if you kill the English captain.' He know that all +his money is locked up down here. Why shall he not come, captain?" + +I could not tell him why. My own glasses showed me the things he made +mention of and others beside. Arms, I saw, were being passed down from +the yacht to the small boats clustered about it. There was no sunlight +to glisten upon the bright barrels of the rifles, but I could +distinguish them nevertheless; and cutlasses were handed from boat to +boat--a good fifty of them I counted, and there were more to come. What +the meaning of it was a child might have told you. Truce prevailed +between master and man in their common desire of possession. The last +great attack was to be made upon us--the rock to be rushed. Even a +woman would have divined as much. + +"Clair-de-Lune," said I, "the end is coming at last; and it won't be +very long. We're dealing with a remarkable man, and it is not to be +supposed that he'll sail away and leave us here without one good blow +for it. Aye, it's a great mind altogether, and there's the plain truth. +Who else but the cleverest would have thought of this place, and come +here like a human vulture to feed upon ships and men? There have been +many Edmond Czernys in the world; but this man I name chief among them, +and others will name him also. We set ourselves against a hand in a +million; stiff backs we need to wrestle with that; but we'll do it, old +comrade, we'll see it through yet!" + +It was a wild boast, yet, God knows, a well meant one. Perhaps, if he +had pushed me to the confession, I would have told him that I was far +from believing my own prophecies, and that, in truth, I realized, as he +did, the perilous hazard of our position and all that defeat might mean +to us. Just as he knew, so did I know that before the night came down +dead men might lie on the rocks about me and be engulfed in that sea +which beat so gently upon the lonely shore; that living men from the +boats yonder would swarm in the galleries below, and women's cries be +heard, and something follow which even I dare not contemplate. The +dreadful truth, perhaps, kept our tongues away from it; we talked of +other things, of Czerny and his house, and of what we would do if the +best should befall. + +"He wonderful man," old Clair-de-Lune went on, standing, like some old +Neptune of the sea, bolt upright on the pinnacle of rock; "wonderful +man, and none like him! Thirteen year ago he first find this place, and +thirteen year he wreck the ships. I know, for there was a day when he +tell me much and I listen. He say, 'Make great fortune and no trouble +to earn him. If sailor man drown, more fool he.' All the years back, +hundreds of years, ships perish on Ken's Island. Czerny he hear the +story in Japan, and he come to see the place for himself. They say he +once sleep through the fog and mad afterwards. He no longer have right +or wrong or care about the world. He come to Ken's Island and grow +rich. Then his engineers find this rock. Once, long time ago, it have +been part of the island, captain. The--what you say?--volocano, he +shoot fire into the sea; but that was before the peoples. Czerny, he go +down into the rock and he discover great cavern and little cavern, and +he say, 'I live here in the sleep-time.' Plenty of money make fine +house. He shut out the sea wherever he would come in; he build great +windows in the rock; his _mécanicien_, he put up engine and draw air +from the skies. Long year Czerny live here alone. Then one day come +madame--ah, captain, I was sorry when I saw madame come! 'She will +suffer here,' I said; she have suffered much already. Czerny is not as +other men. If madame say to him, 'You good man; you and I live here +always,' then she have everything, she go where she will, she become +the master. But I say when I see her, 'No, never she will not say that. +She good woman.' And then I fear for her, captain; I fear greatly. I +did not know she have the English friend who will save her." + +He turned to me wistfully, and I read in his eyes of that deep +affection which little Ruth Bellenden has never failed to win from all +who know and learn to love her. + +_Monday. At three o'clock._ + +We held a council of war in the great hall at this hour, and came upon +a plan to meet the supreme attack which must be made upon us tonight. +We are all of one mind, that Czerny will seek to rush the house under +cover of the darkness, and in this the sunless day must help him. We +cannot look for any moon or brightness of the stars which shall aid our +eyes when the sun has set. It will be a dark night, cloudy and, +perhaps, tempestuous. If the storm should break and nature be our ally, +then the worst is done with already and the end is sure. But we have no +right to hope for that. We must face the situation like thinking men, +prepared for any eventuality. + +Now, I had slept a little at the height of the day, and the first news +that they brought to me when I waked was of the surrender of the two +that remained in the caverns below, and of the fidelity of the other +four of Czerny's men who already had joined us. So far as I can make +out there may be but one living man in the lower story of the house, +and for him and his goodwill we care nothing. + +The rest of the crowd we fought, seeing, perhaps, that fortune goes +with us so far, will themselves stand on fortune's side and serve us +faithfully. That much, at least, I put to my fellows as we sat round +the table in the hall and made those plans which reason dictated. + +"They'll serve," said I, "as long as we are on the winning side. We'll +put them in the engine room, where they'll keep the fires going for +their own sakes. If they so much as look false, then shoot them down. +It is in my mind, Captain Nepeen," said I, "that we'll have need of +such a man as you, and three good fellows with you, at the lesser gate. +You should find cover on the rocks while we hold the near sea for you. +If Czerny gets a foothold there and beats that door in, I need not tell +you how it will go with us. For the rest, I leave two men at the +stairs-head and two in this hall to be at Miss Ruth's call. Peter Bligh +and Dolly Venn go up with me to work the gun. If they rush it--well, +twenty there won't keep them back with rifles. But I count upon the +coward's part, and I say that a man will think twice about dying for +such as Czerny and his ambitions. Let that be in all your minds, and +remember--for God's sake remember--what you are fighting for." + +"For women's honour and good men's lives," said Captain Nepeen, +quietly. "Yes; that's the stake, gentlemen. I don't think we need say +any more to nerve our arms and clear our eyes. We fight for all that is +most dear to honest men. If we fail, let us at least fail like true +seamen who answer 'Here' when duty has called." + +_At six o'clock._ + +We all dined together at this time in the large dining-room near by +Miss Ruth's boudoir. An odder contrast than that between this fine room +below and the still, desolate sea above, no mind could imagine. For, on +the one hand, were the insignia of civilization--luxury, display, the +splendid apartment, the well-dressed women, the table decked out with +fine linen and silver, the windows showing the sea-depths and all their +wondrous quivering life; on the other hand, the black shapes of night +and death, the menace of the boats, the anchored yacht, the darkening +skies, the looming island. We sat down fourteen souls, that might have +met in some great country house, and there have gathered in friendship +and frivolity. Never in all my life had I seen Miss Ruth so full of +vivacity or girlish charm. Her laughter was like the music of bells; +the jest, the kindly word was for every man; and yet sometimes I, at +her side, could look deep into those grey-blue eyes to read a truer +story there. And in the babble of the talk she would whisper some +treasured word to me, or touch my hand with her own, or say, "Jasper, +it must be well, it must be well with us!" Of that which lay above in +the darkening East, no man spoke or appeared to think. There was ruby +wine in our glasses; the little French girls capered about us like +nymphs from the sea; we spoke of the old time, of sunny days in the +blue Mediterranean, of wilder days off the English shores, of our homes +so distant and our hopes so high; but never once of the night or that +which must befall. + +_Monday. At eleven o'clock._ + +We have now been at our stations for two hours and nothing has +transpired. I have Clair-de-Lune with me at the great sea-gate, and +Dolly Venn and Seth Barker are at the gun. The night is so dark that +the best trained eye can distinguish little either on sea or land. +Ken's Island itself is now but a blur of black on a cloud-veiled +horizon. We have shut off every light in the house itself; the reef +runs no longer beneath the sea like a vein of golden light, nor do the +windows cast aureoles upon the sleeping water. What breeze there is +comes in hot gusts like breath from heated waters. We cannot see +Czerny's yacht nor espy any of his boats near or afar; but we crouch +together in the shelter of the rocks, and there is water near to our +hand, and food if we seek it, and the ammunition piled, and the barrels +of the rifles outstanding, and the figures with their unspoken +thoughts, their hopes, their fears of the dreadful dawn that must be. +Whence out of the night shall the danger come? Shall it come leaping +and brandishing knives, a veiled army springing up from the shadows, or +shall it come by stealth, boat by boat, now upon this quarter, now upon +that, outposts seeking to flank us, deadly shots fired we know not +where? I cannot tell you. The comrades at my side ask again and again, +"Do you see anything, captain?" I answer, "Nothing!" It is the truth. + +_Monday. At midnight._ + +We are still upon the rock and the shadows engulf us. The lad at my +side, sick with waiting, has curled himself up upon a bed of stone and +is half asleep; Seth Barker leans against a crag like some figure hewn +out of granite; old Clair-de-Lune is all hunched up as a bundle. +Nevertheless, masterly eyes scan the lapping waters. Will the night +never speak to us? Will the day bring waiting? Ah, no! not that! A shot +rings out clear on the still night air; a flash of fire leaps across +the sea. We spring to our feet; we cry, "Ready!" The sixty hours are +over and the end is near! + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE SECOND ATTACK ON CZERNY'S HOUSE + +The shot was fired and answered at the lower gate. We had looked for +that; for that we had been waiting during the watching hours. They +would attack the lesser reef, we said, and our own good men, standing +sentinels, would flash the news of it to us, and the gun would do the +rest. Dark as it was, the blackest hour the island had given us, +nevertheless by daylight we had trained our barrels upon the reef, and +now took aim in all confidence. Twice we whistled shrilly to warn our +men; twice we heard their answering voices. Then the gun belched forth +its hail of shot and the challenge was thrown down. + +"Give it to them, Dolly!" I cried, my brain afire at the call of +action; "for every honest seaman's sake, give it to them, lad! We'll +tell of this to-morrow--aye, Dolly, we'll tell a great story yet!" + +He answered me with a boy's glad cry; I do believe it was like a game +to him. + +"Pass here, pass here!" he kept crying; "we have them every time! In +with the shot, Seth--in with it! Don't keep them waiting! Oh, captain, +what a night!" + +The others said nothing; even Peter Bligh's tongue was still in that +surpassing moment. The doubt of it defied words. We knew nothing, nor +could we do aught but leave our fortune to the darkness of the night. +The rogues who fell, the rogues who stood, the boats that came on, the +boats that withdrew, of these we were ignorant. All was hidden from our +eyes; the veil of the night cloaked from us the work we had done. If +men cried in agony, if groans mocked angry boasts, if we heard the +splashing of the oars, the hoarse command, the vile blasphemy, the rest +was in imagination's keeping. The outposts of Czerny's crew, we said, +had tried to rush the gate where our own men watched; but our own were +behind the steel doors now and the gun's hail swept the barren rock. +The dawn would show us the harvest we had reaped. + +Now, the volleys rolled their thunder right away to the hills of Ken's +Island, and the whistling of the bullets was like the singing of unseen +birds above our heads; there were oases of red flame in the waste of +blackness; we heard oaths and cries, commands roared hoarsely across +the water, voices triumphant and voices that were stilled; and then +came the first great silence. Whatever had befallen on the rock, those +who sought to force the lesser gate were, for the moment, driven back. +Even little Dolly, mad at the gun like one whom no reason could +restrain, heard me at last and obeyed my command. + +"Cease firing, lad!" roared I, "cease firing! Would you shoot the sea? +Yonder's the captain's whistle. It means that the danger's nearer. Aye, +stand by, lads," I said, "and look out for it." + +We swung the gun round so that it faced the basin before us, and, +rifles ready, we peered again in the lowering darkness. About me now I +could hear the deep breathing of my comrades and see their crouching +figures and say that every nerve was tautened, every faculty awakened. +Shielded by the night, those hidden boats were creeping up to us foot +by foot. Whatever had been done at the lesser gate had been done as a +ruse, I did not doubt. Czerny's goal was the greater door we held so +desperately, his desire the full possession, the mastery of the house +wherein lay life and treasure and lasting security. + +I counted twenty, no man speaking, and then I raised my voice. Dimly, +in the shadows, I made out the shape of a longboat drifting to the +brink; and to Dolly I said: + +"Let go--in God's name, let go, lad!" + +He stood to the gun with a cry of defiance and blazed into the +darkness. The drifting boat lurched and sagged and turned her beam to +the seas. I could distinguish the faces of men, ferocious and +threatening, as they peered upward to the rock; I saw other boats +looming over the dark water; I heard the ringing command, "In at them! +To hell with them!" and then, I think, for many minutes together I +fired wildly at the figures before me, swung round now to this side, +now to that; was unconscious of the bullets splintering the rock or of +the lead shower pouring on us. The battle raged; we were at the heart +of it. What should a man remember then but those who counted upon him? + +Now, you have imagined this picture, and you seem to stand with me upon +that split of rock, that defiant crag in the great Pacific Ocean, with +the darkness of heaven above and the darkness of the sea below, with +the belching guns and the spitting rifles, the yells of agony and the +crouching figures, the hearts beating high and the sweating faces; and +just as the outcome was hidden from me and I knew not from minute to +minute whether it were life or death to us, so will you share the +meaning of that suspense and all the terror of it. From every side now +the rain of shot was poured in upon us, the unceasing torrent came; +above, below, ringing upon the iron shield, scattering deadly +fragments, ploughing the waters, it fell like a wave impotent, a broken +sea whose spindrift even could not harm us. For a good ring of steel +fenced us about; we held the turret, and we laughed at the madness +below. + +"Round with the gun!" I would cry, again and again; "round with her, +Dolly. Let them have it everywhere. No favours this night, my lad; full +measure and overflowing--let them have it, for Miss Ruth's sake!" + +His joyous "Aye, aye, sir!" was a thing to hear. No sailor of the old +time, black with powder, mad on a slippery deck, fought, I swear, as we +four in that shelter of the turret. Clear as in the sun's day were the +waves about us while the crimson flame leaped out. Crouched all +together, the sweat upon our foreheads, smoke in our eyes, the wild +delight of it quickening us, we blazed at the enemy unseen; we said +that right was with us. + +There were, as far as I could make out, six boats set to the attack +upon the great gate, and seventy or eighty men manning them. Acting +together on such a plan as a master-mind had laid down for them, they +tried to rush the rock from four points of the compass, trusting, it +may be, that one boat, at least, would land its crew upon the plateau. +And in this they were successful. Pour shot upon them as we might, +search every quarter with the flying shells, nevertheless one boat +touched the rock in spite of us, one crew leaped up in frenzy towards +the turret. So sudden it was, so unlooked for, that great demoniacal +figures seemed upon us even while we said that the seas were clear. +Whirling their knives, yelling one to the other, some slipping on the +slimy weed, others, more sure in foothold, making for the turret's +height, the mutineers fell upon us like a hurricane and so beat us down +that my heart sank away from me, and I said that the house was lost and +little Ruth Bellenden their prey at last. + +"Stand by the gun--by the gun to the last, if you love your life!" I +cried to Dolly Venn. "Do you, Peter, old comrade, follow me; I am going +to clear the rock. You will help me to do that, Peter?" + +"Help you, captain! Aye," roared he, "if it was the ould divil himself +in a travelling caravan, I'd help you!" + +He swung his rifle by the barrel as he spoke the words and, bringing it +down crash, he cleaved the skull of a great ruffian whose face was +already glowering down from the turret's rim. Nothing, I swear, in all +that night was more wonderful than the _sang-froid_ of this great +Irishman (as he would call himself in fighting moods) or the merry +words which he could find for us even then in the very crisis of it, +when hope seemed gone and the worst upon us. For Peter knew well what I +was about when I leapt from the turret and charged down upon the +mutineers. A dozen men, perchance, had gained foothold on the rock. We +must drive them back, he said, stand face to face with them, let the +odds be what they might. + +"God strengthen my arm this hour and show me the bald places!" cries +he, leaping to the ground and whirling his musket like a demon. Seth +Barker, do not doubt, was on his heels--trust the carpenter to be where +danger was! I could hear him grunting even above that awful din. He +fought like ten, and wherever he swung his musket there he left death +behind him. + +So follow us as we leap from the turret, and hurl ourselves upon that +astonished crew. Black as the place was, tremulous the light, +nevertheless the cabined space, the open plateau, was our salvation. I +saw figures before me; faces seemed to look into my own; and as a +battle-axe of old time, so my rifle's butt would fall upon them. Heaven +knows I had the strength of three and I used it with three's agility, +now shooting them down, now hitting wildly, thrust here, thrust there, +bullets singing about my ears, haunting cries everywhere. Aye, how they +went under! What music it was, those crashing blows upon head and +breast, the loud report, the gurgling death-rattle, the body thrown +into the sea, the pitiful screams for mercy! And yet the greater +wonder, perhaps, that we lived to tell of it. Twelve against three; yet +a craven twelve, remember, who feared to die and yet must fight to +live! And to nerve our arms a woman's honour, and to guide us aright, +the watchword: "Home!" + +I fought my way to the water's edge, and then turned round to see what +the others were doing. There were two upon Peter Bligh at that moment, +but one fell headlong as I took a step towards them; and the other's +driving-knife fell on empty air, and the man himself, struck full +between the eyes, rolled dead into the lapping sea. + +"Well done, Peter, well done!" I cried, wildly; and then, as though it +were an answer to my boasts, something fell upon my shoulder like a +great weight dropped from above, and I went down headlong upon the +rock. Turning as I fell, I clutched a human throat, and, closing my +fingers upon it, he and I, the man out of the darkness and the fool who +had forgotten his eyes, went reeling over and over like wild beasts +that seek a hold and would tear and bite when the moment comes. Aye, +how I held him, how near his eyes seemed to mine, what gasping sounds +he uttered, how his feet fought for foothold on the rock, how his hand +felt for the knife at his girdle! And I had him always, had him surely; +and seeking to force himself upward, the slippery rock gave him no +foothold, and he slipped at last from my very fingers, and some great +fish, hidden from me, drew him down to the water and I saw the waves +close above his mouth. Henceforth there were but three men left at the +gate of Czerny's house. They were three who, even at that time, could +thank God because the peril was turned. + +* * * + +We beat the twelve off, as I have told you, and for an hour at least no +fresh attack was made on the rock. The sharpest eye now could not +detect boats in the darkness; the sharpest ear could not distinguish +the muffled splash of oars. We lay all together in the turret, and very +methodically, as seamen will, we stanched our wounds and asked, "What +next?" That we had some hurt of such an affray goes without saying. My +own shoulder was bruised and aching; the blood still trickled down +Peter Bligh's honest face from the knife-wound that had gashed his +forehead; Seth Barker pressed his hand to a jagged side and said that +it was nothing. But for these scratches we cared little, and when our +comrades hailed us from the lesser gate, their "All's well!" made us +glad men indeed. In spite of it all, one of us, at least, I witness, +could tell himself, "It is possible--by Heaven, it is possible--that we +shall see the day!" That we had beaten off the first attack was not to +be doubted. Wherever the mutineers had gone to, they no longer rowed in +the loom of the gate. And yet I knew that the time must be short; day +would not serve them nor the morning light. The dark must decide it. + +"They will come again, Peter, and it will be before the dawn," said I, +when one thing and another had been mentioned and no word of their +misfortune. "It's beyond expectation to suppose anything else. If this +house is to be taken, they must take it in the dark. And more than +that, lads," said I, "it was a foolish thing for us to go among +them as we did and to fight it out down yonder. We are safer in the +turret--safer, by a long way!" + +"I thought so all the time, sir," answered Dolly Venn, wisely. "They +can never get below if you cover the door; and I can keep the sea. It's +lucky Czerny loopholed this place, anyway. If ever I meet him I shall +quote poetry: 'He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel.' It would +about make him mad, captain!" + +"Aye," says Peter Bligh, "poetry is well enough, as my poor old father +used to say; but poetry never reefed a to'gallon sail in a hurricane +and isn't going to begin this night. It's thick heads you need, lad, +and good, sound sense inside of 'em! As for what the captain says, I do +hold it, truly. But, Lord! I'm like a boy at a fair when the crowns are +cracking, and angels themselves wouldn't keep me back!" + +"You'd affright them, Mister Bligh," puts in, Seth Barker, "you'd +affright them--asking your pardon--with your landgwich!" + +"What!" cries Peter, as though in amazement; "did I say things that +oughtn't to be said? Well, you surprise me, Barker, you do surprise +me!" + +Well, I was glad to hear them talk like this, for jest is better than +the coward's "if"; and men who can face death with a laugh will win +life before your craven any day. But for the prone figures on the +rock, looking up with their sightless eyes, or huddled in cleft and +cranny--but for them, I say, and distant voices on the sea, and the +black shape of Ken's Island, we four might have been merry comrades in +a ship's cabin, smoking a pipe in the morning watch and looking gladly +for dawn and a welcome shore. That this content could long endure was, +beyond all question, impossible. Nevertheless, when next we started up +and gripped our rifles and cried "Stand by!" it was not any alarm from +the sea that brought us to our feet, but a sudden shout from the house +below, a rifle-shot echoing in the depths, a woman's voice, and then +a man's rejoinder, a figure appearing without any warning at the +stairs-head, the figure of a huge man, vast and hulking, with long +yellow hair, and fists clenched and arms outstretched--a man who took +one scared look round him and then leaped wildly into the sea. Now +this, you may imagine, was the most surprising event of all that +eventful night. So quickly did it come upon us, so little did we look +for it, that when Kess Denton, the yellow man, stood at the open gate +and uttered a loud and piercing yell of defiance, not one among us +could lift a rifle, not one thought of plan or action. There the fellow +was, laughing like a maniac. Why he came, whence he came, no man could +tell. But he leaped into the seas and the night engulfed him, and only +his mocking laugh told us that he lived. + +"Kess Denton!" cried I, my head dazed and my words coming in a torrent; +"Kess Denton. Then there's mischief below, lads--mischief, I swear!" + +Clair-de-Lune answered me--old Clair-de-Lune, standing in a blaze of +light; for they had switched on the lamps below, and the vein of the +reef stood out suddenly like some silver monster breathing on the +surface of the sea. Clair-de-Lune answered me, I say, and his words +were the most terrible I had heard since first I came to Ken's Island. + +"The water is in!" he cried, "the water is in the house!" + +I saw it as in a flash. This man we had neglected to hunt from the +caverns below, striking at us in the supreme moment, had opened trap or +window and let the sea pour in the labyrinth below. The water was +flooding Czerny's house. + +"Now!" I cried, "you don't mean that Clair-de-Lune? Then what of the +engine-room? How will it fare with Captain Nepeen?" + +Doctor Gray stood behind the old Frenchman, and, limping up to my side, +he leaned against the rock and began to speak of it very coolly. + +"The water is in," he said, "but it will not flood the higher rooms, +for they are above sea-level. We are saving what provisions we can, and +the men below are all right. As for Nepeen, we must get him off in a +boat somehow. It is the water I am thinking of, captain; what are we +going to do for water?" + +I sat upon the rock at his side and buried my face in my hands. All +that terrible day seemed to culminate in this overwhelming misfortune. +Driven on the one hand by the sea, on the other by these devils of the +darkness, doomed, it might be, to hunger and thirst on that desolate +rock, four good comrades cut off from us by the sea's intervening, the +very shadows full of dangers, what hope had we, what hope of that brave +promise spoken to little Ruth but three short hours ago? + +"Doctor," I said at last, "if we are not at the bottom of it now, we +never shall be. But we are men, and we will act as men should. Let the +women stand together in the great hall until the sea drives them out. +If water is our need, I am ashore to Ken's Island to-morrow to get it. +As for Nepeen, we have a boat and we have hands to man it; we'll fetch +Captain Nepeen, doctor," said I. + +He nodded his head and appeared to be thinking deeply. Old +Clair-de-Lune was the next to utter a sensible thing. + +"The man flood the house," said he, "but no sure he get to ship. If he +drown, Czerny know nothing. I say turn out the lamp--wait!" + +"As true a word as the night has spoken," said I; "if Kess Denton does +not reach the boats, they won't hear the story. We'll keep it close +enough, lads, and Captain Nepeen will learn it soon enough. Do you +whistle, Dolly, and get an answer. I hope to God it is all well with +them still." + +He whistled across the sea, and after a long minute of waiting a +distant voice cried, "All's well!" For the hour at least our comrades +were safe. Should we say the same of them when daylight came? + +* * * + +The dark fell with greater intensity as the dawn drew near. I thought +that it typified our own black hour, when it seemed that fate had +nothing left for us but a grave beneath the seas, or the eternal sleep +on the island shore. + +* * * + +Another hour passed, and the dawn was nearer. I did not know then +(though I know now) what kept Czerny's crew in the shadows, or why we +heard nothing of them. Once, indeed, in the far distance where the +yacht lay anchored, gunshots were fired, and were answered from some +boat lying southward by the island; but no other message of the night +was vouchsafed to us, no other omen to be heard. In the gloom of the +darkened house women watched, men kept the vigil and prayed for the +day. Would the light never come; would that breaking East never speed +its joyous day? Ah! who could tell? Who, in the agony of waiting, ever +thinks aright or draws the truthful picture? + +There was no new attack, I say, nor any sure news from the caverns +below. From time to time men went to the stairs-head and watched the +seas washing green and slimy in the corridors, or spoke of them beating +upon the very steps of the great hall and threatening to rise up and up +until they engulfed us all and conquered even the citadel we held. +Nevertheless, iron gates held them back. Not vainly had Czerny's +master-mind foreseen such a misfortune as this. Those tremendous doors +which divided the upper house from its fellow were stronger than any +sluice-gates, more sure against the water's advance. We held the upper +house; it was ours while we could breathe in it or find life's +sustenance there. + +Now, I saw little Ruth in the hour of dawn and she stood with us for a +little while at the open gate and there spoke so brightly of to-morrow, +so lightly of this hour, that she helped us to forget, and made men of +us once more. + +"They will not come again to-night, Jasper," she said; "I feel, I know +it! Why should they wait? Something has happened, and something spells +'Good luck.' Oh, yes, I have felt that for the last hour. Things must +be worse before they mend, and they are mending now. The gale will come +at dawn and we shall all go ashore, you and I together, Jasper!" + +"Miss Ruth," said I, "that would be the happiest day in all my life. +You bring the dawn always, wherever you go, the good sunlight and God's +blue sky! It has been day for me while I heard your voice and said that +I might serve you!" + +She would not answer me; but, as though to give my words their meaning, +we had watched but a little while longer on the rock when suddenly out +of the East the grey light winged over to us, and, spreading its +wonder-rays upon the seas, it rolled the black veil back and showed us +height and valley, sea and land, the white-capped breakers and the dim +heaven beyond them. Many a dawn have I watched and waited for on the +heart of the desolate sea, but never one which carried to me such a +message as then it spake, the joy of action and release, the tight of +life and hope, the clarion call, uplifting, awakening! For I knew that +in day our salvation lay, and that the terrible night was forever +passed; and every faculty being quickened, the mind alert, the eyes no +longer veiled, I stretched out my arms to the sun and said, "Thank +God!" + +* * * + +It was day, and the fresh sea answered its appeal. Coming quickly as +day will in the great Pacific, we had scarce seen that great rim of the +East lift itself above the sparkling water when all the scene was +opened to us, the picture of ships and water and wave-washed reef made +clear as in some scene of stageland. As with one tongue, realizing a +mighty truth, we cried, "The ship is gone; the ship has sailed!" + +It was true, all true. Where at sundown there had been a yacht anchored +in the offing, now at daybreak no yacht was to be seen. Darkness, which +had been the ally of Czerny's men, had helped the man himself to flee +from them to an unknown haven where their vengeance should not reach +him. By night had he fled, and by day would he mock his creatures. +Drifting there in the open boats, the rising seas beginning to wash in +upon them, hunger and thirst their portion, the rebels were at no pains +to hide their secret from us. We knew that they had been called back by +these overwhelming tidings of the master-trick, and we asked what heart +the rogues would have now to sell their lives for the man who betrayed +them? Would they not look to us for the satisfaction the chief rogue +denied to them? We, as they, were left helpless in that woful place. +Before us, as before them, lay the peril of hunger and of thirst, the +death-sleep or the greater mercy. And who should ask them to accept it +without a last supreme attempt, a final assault, which should mend all +or end all? Driven to the last point, to the last point would they go +to grasp that foothold of the seas and to drive us from the rock +whereon life might yet be had. + +"Lads," I said, "the story is there as the man has written it. We have +no quarrel with yon poor devils nor they with us; but they will find +one. We cannot help them; they cannot help us. We'll wait for the +end--just wait for it." + +I spoke with a confidence which time did not justify. Just as the dawn +had put new life into us, so it had steeled the hearts of this derelict +crew and nerved it for any desperate act. For long we watched the +rogues rowing hither, thither; now in the island's shadows, now coming +towards us, but never once raising a rifle or uttering a threat. In the +end they came all together, waving a sail upon a pole; and while they +appeared to row for the lesser gate they accompanied the act with soft +words and a protest of their honesty. + +"'Tis after a truce they are," says Peter Bligh, presently, "and that's +a poor thing, any-way. My poor father used to say, 'Knock 'em on the +head first and sign the papers afterwards.' He was a kind-hearted +gentleman, and did a lot of good in the world!" + +"He must have done, Peter," said I; "he must have done a power of good, +hearing the little you say about him. 'Tis a pity the old gentleman +isn't here this day to preach his kindness to yonder rogues. They look +in need of a friendly hand; indeed, they do." + +Well, the laugh was turned on Peter; but, as a matter of fact, he spoke +sense, and I understood as well as he did the risk of parley with the +wreckers, even though they did not seem to have any fight left in +them--a fact which old Clair-de-Lune was the first to observe. + +"They not fire gun this morning," says the old man. "All starve hungry. +Czerny gone. What for they fight? They no stomach left." + +"Meaning they've no heart in them," puts in Doctor Gray, at his side. +"Aye, that's true, and a bit of human nature, too. You cannot fight +every day any more than you can make love every day. It comes and goes +like a fever. They had their square meal last night, and they are not +taking any this morning. I should not be afraid of them if I were you, +captain." + +"I never was," said I, bluntly; "I never was, doctor. There's not +enough on my conscience for that. But I do believe you speak truly. +Making love is more in their line this watch. Ask Dolly Venn there. +From what I saw between him and little Rosamunda down below, lie's an +authority on that point. Eh, Dolly, lad," said I to him, "you could +make love every day, couldn't you?" + +The lad flushed all over his face at the charge, and Peter Bligh, he +said something about "Love one another" being in the Bible, "which must +mean many of 'em, and not one in particular," says he. And what with +the laugh and the jest, and the new confidence which the sight of those +poor driven devils put into us, we came all together to the sea's edge, +and, scarcely cocking a rifle at them, we hailed the longboats and got +their story. + +"Ahoy, there! And what port d'you think you're making for?" cries Peter +Bligh, in a voice that might have split the waters. + +They replied to him, standing up in the boat and stretching out their +sunburnt, hairy arms to us: + +"Water!--water, mate, for the love of God!" + +"And how do you know," cries Peter back to them, "how do you know that +we've water for ourselves?" + +"Why, Barebones saw to that," says one of them, no doubt meaning Czerny +thereby; "Barebones saw to that, though precious little of it the +lubber drank!" + +"He's off, is Barebones," says another; "oh, trust Barebones! +Bones-and-Biscuits puts to sea last night, 'cause he's a duty to +perform in 'Frisco, he 'as. Trust Bones-and-Biscuits to turn up +righteous when the trumpet blows!" + +And another, said he: + +"I wish I had his black head under my boot this minute! My mouth's all +sand and my throat is stuck! Aye, mates," says he, "you'll moisten my +poor tongue--same as is wrote in the Scriptures!" + +There were other entreaties; some of them spoke to us in French, the +most part in German. Of the boats that were left, two had rowed away +for the lesser gate, but five drifted about our rock and drew so close +that we could have tossed a biscuit to them. Never have I seen a crowd +of faces more repulsive or jowls so repellent. Iron-limbed men, fat +Germans, sleek Frenchmen, Greeks, niggers, some armed with rifles, some +with fearsome knives, they squatted all together in the open boats and +roared together for pity and release. Then, for the first time, I was +able to see how cruelly Czerny's gun had dealt with them in the +darkness of the night. It was horrible to see the bloody limbs, the +open wounds, the matted hair, the gaping faces of these creatures of a +desperado's mad ambition. The boats themselves were splintered and +hacked as though heavy hatches had beaten them. I could wonder no +longer that they called the truce; and yet, knowing why they called it, +what was I to do? Let them set foot on the plateau, and we, but a +handful at the best, might be swept into the sea like flies from a +wall. I say that I was at my wits' end. Every merciful instinct urged +me to give them water; every prudent voice cried, "Beat them off." + +"If there's fight in that lot, I'm as black as yonder nigger!" said +Peter Bligh, when he looked at them a little while, very +contemptuously. "Not a kick to-day among the lot of them, by Jericho! +But you cannot give them water, captain," he goes on, "for you've +little to give." + +Clair-de-Lune, thinking deeper, was, nevertheless, for a stem refusal. + +"Keep them off, captain, that's my advice," says he. "They very +desperate, dangerous men. They drink water, then cut throat. Make ear +deaf and say cistern all empty. They think you die, and they wait, but +come aboard--no, by thunder!" + +Now, I knew that this was reason, and when Doctor Gray and Captain +Nepeen added their words to the Frenchman's I stepped down to the +water's edge and made my answer. + +"I'll give you water willingly, men, if you'll show me where it is to +be found," said I; "but we cannot give what we haven't got, and that's +common sense! We're dry here, and if it's bad luck for one it's bad +luck for all. The glass says rain," I went on; "we'll wait for it +together and have done with all this nonsense." + +They heard me to the end; but ignorant, perhaps, of my meaning they +continued to whine, "Water, water," and when I must repeat that we +had no water, one of them, leaping up in the boat, fired his rifle +point-blank at Captain Nepeen, who fell without a word stone-dead at +my side. + +"Great God!" said I, "they've shot the captain dead." + +The suddenness of it was awful; just a gun flashing, a gasping cry, an +honest man leaping up and falling lifeless. And then something that +would never move or speak again. The crews themselves, I do believe, +were as dazed by it as we were. They could have shot us, I witness, +where we stood, every man of us, but, in God's mercy, they never +thought of that; and turning on their own man, they tore the rifle from +his hand and, striking him down with a musket, they sent him headlong +into the sea. + +"Witness we've no part in it!" they roared. "Jake Bilbow did it, and he +was always a bad 'un! You won't charge fifty with one man's deed! To +hell with the arms, mate--we've no need of 'em!" + +Well, we heard them in amazement. Not a man had moved among us; the +body was untouched at our feet. From the boats themselves ruffians were +casting their rifles pell-mell into the sea. Never at the wildest +hazard would I have named this for the end of it. They cast their +rifles into the sea and rowed unarmed about us. To the end of it, I +think, they feared the gun with a fear that was nameless and lasting, +nor did they know that the turret was empty--how should they? + +It was a swift change; to me it seemed as though the day had conjured +up this wonder. None the less, the perplexity of it remained, nor could +I choose a course even under these new circumstances. Of water I had +none to give; our own circumstances, indeed, were little better than +that of these unhappy creatures in the boats about me. The sea flooded +the house below us; the great engine no longer throbbed; our women were +huddled together at the stairs-head, seeking air and light; the fogs +loom heavy on Ken's Island; no ship's sail brought hope to our horizon. +What should I say, then, to the mutineers, how answer them? I could but +protest: "We are as you; we must face it together." + +* * * + +Now, I have told you that both the greater and the lesser gates of +Czerny's house were hewn in the pinnacles of rock rising up above the +highest tides, and offering there a foothold and an anchorage; but you +must not think that these were the only caps of the reef which thrust +themselves out to the sea. For there were others, rounded domes of +tide-washed rock, treacherous ledges, little craggy steeples, sloping +shelves, which low water gave up to the sun and where a man might walk +dry-shod. To such strange places the longboats turned when we would +have none of them. Convinced, may-be, that our own case was no better +than theirs, the men, in desperation, and cramped with long confinement +in the boats, now pushed their bows into the swirling waters; and +following each other, as sheep will follow a leader, they climbed out +upon the barren rocks and lay there in a state of dejection defying +words. Nor had we any heart to turn upon them and drive them off. +Little did the new day we desired so ardently bring to us. The sky, +gloomy above the blackening, angry seas, was like a mock upon our +bravest hopes. Let a few hours pass and the night would come again. +This was but an interlude in which man could ask of man, "What next?" +We feared to speak to the women lest they should know the truth. + +The men crawled upon the sea-washed rocks, I say, and there the +judgment of God came upon them. So awful was the scene my eyes were +soon to behold that I take up my pen with hesitation even now to write +of it; and as I write some figure of the shadows comes before me and +seems to say, "You cannot speak of it! It is of the past, forgotten!" +And, certainly, if I could make it clear to you how Czerny's men were +forever driven off from the gate of the house that Czerny built, if I +could make it clear to you and leave the thing untold, that would I do +right gladly. But the end was not of my seeking; in all honesty I can +say that if it had been in my power I would have helped those wretched +creatures, have dealt out pity to them and carried them to the shore; +but it was written otherwise; a higher Power decreed it; we could but +stand, trembling and helpless, before that enthralling justice. + +They climbed on the rocks, forty or fifty of them, may-be, and lying in +all attitudes, some stretched out full length, some with their arms in +the flowing tide, some huddled close as though for warmth, they +appeared to surrender themselves to the inevitable and to accept the +worst; when, rising up out of the near sea, the first octopus showed +himself, and a great tentacle, sliding over the rock, drew one of the +mutineers screaming to the depths. Thereafter, in an instant, the whole +terror was upon them. Leaping up together, they uttered piercing cries, +turned upon each other in their agony, hurled themselves into the sea, +to reach the boats again. God! how few of them touched the befriending +prows! The whole water about the reef was now alive with the devilish +creatures; a hundred arms, crushing, sucking, swept the unsheltered +rocks and drew the victims down. So near were they, some of them, that +I could see their staring eyes and distorted limbs as, in the fishes' +embracing grip, they were drawn under to the gaping mouths or pressed +close to that jellied mass which must devour them. The sea itself +heaved and splashed as though to be the moving witness of that horrible +attack; foam rushed up to our feet; a blinding spray was in the air; +eyes protruded even in the green water; great shapes wormed and +twisted, rending one another, covering the whole reef with their filthy +slime, sending blinding fountains to the highest pinnacles, or sinking +down when their prey was taken to the depths where no eye could follow +them. What sounds of pain, what resounding screams, rent the air in +those fearful minutes! I draw the veil upon it. For all the gold that +the sea washes to-day in Czerny's house, I could not look upon such a +picture again. For death can be a gentle thing; but there is a death no +man may speak of. + +* * * + +At twelve o'clock the clouds broke and the rain began to fall upon a +rising sea. The vapours still lay thick upon Ken's Island, but the wind +was driving them, and they rolled away in misty clouds westward to the +dark horizon. + +I went below to little Ruth, and in broken words I told her all my +story. + +"Little Ruth, the night is passed, the day is breaking! Ah, little +Ruth!" + +She fell into my arms, sobbing. The sleep-time was past, indeed; the +hour of our deliverance at hand. + + +CHAPTER XXV + +IN WHICH THE SUN-TIME COMES AGAIN + +I have told you the story of Ken's Island, but there are some things +you will need to know, and of these I will now make mention. Let me +speak of them in order as they befell. + +And first I should record that we found the body of Edmond Czerny, cold +and dead, by that pool in the woods where so many have slept the +dreadful sleep. Clair-de-Lune stumbled upon it as we went joyously +through the sunny thickets and, halting abruptly, his startled cry drew +me to the place. And then I saw the thing, and knew that between him +and me the secret lay, and that here was God's justice written in words +no man might mistake. + +For a long time we rested there, looking down upon that grim figure in +its bed of leaves, and watching the open eyes seeking that bright +heaven whose warmth they never would feel again. As in life, so in +death, the handsome face carried the brand of the evil done, and spoke +of the ungoverned passions which had wrecked so wonderful a genius. +There have been few such men as Edmond Czerny since the world began; +there will be few while the world endures. Greatly daring, a man of +boundless ambitions, the moral nature obliterated, the greed of money +becoming, in the end, like some burning disease, this man, I said, +might have achieved much if the will had bent to humanity's laws. And +now he had reaped as he sowed. The cloak that covered him was the cloak +of the Hungarian regiment whose code of honour drove him out of Europe. +The diamond ring upon the finger was the very ring that little Ruth had +given him on their wedding-day. The agony he had suffered was such as +many a good seaman had endured since the wreckers came to Ken's Island. +And now the story was told: the man was dead. + +"It must have been last night," I said, at length, to Clair-de-Lune. +"His own men put him ashore and seized the ship. Fortune has strange +chances, but who would have named such a chance as this? The rogues +turned upon him at last, you can't doubt it. And he died in his +sleep--a merciful death." + +The old man shook his head very solemnly. + +"I know not," said he, slowly; "remember how rare that the island give +mercy! We will not ask how he died, captain. I see some-thing, but I +forget it. Let us leave him to the night." + +He began to cover the body with branches and boughs; and anon, marking +the place, that we might return to it to-morrow, we went on again +through the woods, as men in a reverie. Our schemes and plans, our +hopes and fears, the terrible hours, the unforgotten days, aye, if we +could have seen that the end of them would have been this!--the gift of +a verdurous island, and the ripe green pastures, and the woods +awakening and all the glory of the sun-time reborn! For so the shadow +was lifted from us that for a little while our eyes could not see the +light; and, unbelieving, we asked, "Is this the truth?" + +* * * + +I did not tell little Ruth the story of the woods; but there were +whispered words and looks aside, and she was clever enough to +understand them. Before the day was out I think she knew; but she would +not speak of it, nor would I. For why should we call false sorrow upon +that bright hour? Was not the world before us, the awakening glory of +Ken's Island at our feet? Just as in the dark days all Nature had +withered and bent before the death-giving vapours, so now did Nature +answer the sun's appeal; and every freshet bubbling over, every wood +alive with the music of the birds, the meadows green and golden, the +hills all capped with their summer glory, she proclaimed the reign of +Nature's God. No sight more splendid ever greeted the eyes of +shipwrecked men or welcomed them to a generous shore. Hand-in-hand with +little Ruth I passed from thicket to thicket of the woods, and seemed +to stand in Paradise itself! And she--ah, who shall read a woman's +thoughts at such an hour as that! Let me be content to see her as she +was; her face grown girlish in that great release, her eyes sparkling +in a new joy of being, her step so light that no blade of grass could +have been bruised thereby. Let me hear her voice again while she lifts +her face to mine and asks me that question which even now I hear +sometimes: + +"Jasper, Jasper! is it real? How can I believe it, Jasper? Shall we see +our home again--you and I? Oh, tell me that it is true, Jasper--say it +often, often, or I shall forget!" + +We were in a high place of the woods just then, and we stood to look +down upon the lower valley where the rocks showed their rare green +mosses, and every crag lifted strange flowers to the sun, and little +rivulets ran down with bubbling sounds. Away on the open veldt the +doll-like houses were to be seen, and the ashes of her bungalow. And +there, I say, all the scene enchanting me, and the memory of the bygone +days blotted from my mind, and no future to be thought of but that +which should give me forever the right to befriend this little figure +of my dreams, I said: + +"It is true, little Ruth--God knows how true--that a man loves you with +all his heart, and he has loved you all through these weary months. +Just a simple fellow he is, with no fine ways and small knowledge of +the world; but he waits for you to tell him that you will lift him up +and make him worthy----" + +She silenced me with a quick, glad cry, and, winding both her arms +about my neck, she hid her face from me. + +"My friend! Jasper, dear Jasper, you shall not say that! Ah, were you +so blind that you have not known it from the first?" + +Her words were like the echo of some sweet music in my ears. Little +Ruth, my beloved, had called me "friend." To my life's end would I +claim that name most precious. + +* * * + +We were picked up by the American war-ship Hatteras ten days after the +sleep-time passed. I left the island as I found it--its secrets hidden, +its mysteries unfathomed. What vapour rises up there--whether it be, as +Doctor Gray would have it, from the bog of decaying vegetation, which +breathes fever to the south; whether it be this marsh fog steaming up +when the plants die down; or whether it be a subtler cloud given out by +the very earth itself--this question, I say, let the learned dispute. I +have done with it forever; and never, to my life's end, shall I see its +heights and its valleys again. The world calls me; I go to my home. +Ruth, little Ruth, whom I have loved, is at my side. For us it shall be +sun-time always; the night and the dreadful sleep are no more. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA*** + + +******* This file should be named 29462-8.txt or 29462-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/4/6/29462 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The House Under the Sea</p> +<p> A Romance</p> +<p>Author: Sir Max Pemberton</p> +<p>Release Date: July 20, 2009 [eBook #29462]<br /> +Most recently updated: November 9, 2014</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<div id="title"> + +<h1>THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA</h1> + +<p><span class="italic">A ROMANCE</span></p> + +BY + +<h2>MAX PEMBERTON</h2> + +<p>Author of Kronstadt, The Phantom Army, Etc.</p> + +<p><img class="cover" src="images/cover.jpg" height="700" width="450" alt="Cover" /></p> + +<p><span class="italic">ILLUSTRATED</span></p> + +<p>NEW YORK +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY +1902</p> + +<p>Copyright, 1902 +By MAX PEMBERTON</p> + +<p><span class="italic">All rights reserved</span></p> + +<p><span class="italic">Published September, 1902</span></p> + +<p><a name="frontis"> </a></p> + +<p><img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" height="587" width="448" alt="Shall we go, or stay?" /></p> + +<p>"Shall we go, or stay?"</p> + +</div> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<ul> +<li>I.—<a href="#chapter_01">IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES KNOWN THE PURPOSE OF HIS VOYAGE TO THE +PACIFIC OCEAN, AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT HE COMMISSIONED THE STEAM-SHIP SOUTHERN CROSS THROUGH +PHILIPS, WESTBURY, AND CO.</a></li> + +<li>II.—<a href="#chapter_02">WE GO ASHORE AND LEARN STRANGE THINGS</a></li> + +<li>III.—<a href="#chapter_03">IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES UP HIS MIND WHAT TO DO</a></li> + +<li>IV.—<a href="#chapter_04">WE GO ABOARD, BUT RETURN AGAIN</a></li> + +<li>V.—<a href="#chapter_05">STRANGE SIGHTS ASHORE, AND WHAT WE SAW OF THEM</a></li> + +<li>VI.—<a href="#chapter_06">JASPER BEGG MEETS HIS OLD MISTRESS, AND IS WATCHED</a></li> + +<li>VII.—<a href="#chapter_07">IN WHICH HELP COMES FROM THE LAST QUARTER WE HAD EXPECTED IT</a></li> + +<li>VIII.—<a href="#chapter_08">THE BIRD'S NEST IN THE HILLS</a></li> + +<li>IX.—<a href="#chapter_09">WE LOOK OUT FOR THE SOUTHERN CROSS</a></li> + +<li>X.—<a href="#chapter_10">WE ARE SURELY CAGED ON KEN'S ISLAND</a></li> + +<li>XI.—<a href="#chapter_11">LIGHTS UNDER THE SEA</a></li> + +<li>XII.—<a href="#chapter_12">THE DANCING MADNESS</a></li> + +<li>XIII.—<a href="#chapter_13">THE STORM</a></li> + +<li>XIV.—<a href="#chapter_14">A WHITE POOL—AND AFTERWARDS</a></li> + +<li>XV.—<a href="#chapter_15">AN INTERLUDE, DURING WHICH WE READ IN RUTH BELLENDEN'S DIARY AGAIN</a></li> + +<li>XVI.—<a href="#chapter_16">ROSAMUNDA AND THE IRON DOORS</a></li> + +<li>XVII.—<a href="#chapter_17">IN WHICH JASPER BEGG ENTERS THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA</a></li> + +<li>XVIII.—<a href="#chapter_18">CHANCE OPENS A GATE FOR JASPER BEGG, AND HE PASSES THROUGH</a></li> + +<li>XIX.—<a href="#chapter_19">WHICH SHOWS THAT A MAN WHO THINKS OF BIG THINGS SOMETIMES FORGETS +THE LITTLE ONES</a></li> + +<li>XX.—<a href="#chapter_20">THE FIRST ATTACK IS MADE BY CZERNY'S MEN</a></li> + +<li>XXI.—<a href="#chapter_21">WHICH BRINGS IN THE DAY AND WHAT BEFELL THEREIN</a></li> + +<li>XXII.—<a href="#chapter_22">THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTY HOURS</a></li> + +<li>XXIII.—<a href="#chapter_23">THE END OF THE SIXTY HOURS</a></li> + +<li>XXIV.—<a href="#chapter_24">THE SECOND ATTACK ON CZERNY'S HOUSE</a></li> + +<li>XXV.—<a href="#chapter_25">IN WHICH THE SUN-TIME COMES AGAIN</a></li> + +</ul> + +<h3>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h3> + +<ul> + +<li><a href="#frontis">"Shall we go or stay?"</a></li> + +<li><a href="#f-054">Like dancers at a stage play.</a></li> + +<li><a href="#f-094">A picturesque old figure standing there.</a></li> + +<li><a href="#f-100">She looked at me with her big, questioning eyes.</a></li> + +<li><a href="#f-138">We were all sitting at the supper table.</a></li> + +<li><a href="#f-172">The drawing-room is a cave whose walls are of jewels.</a></li> + +<li><a href="#f-237">"If there is a sound at the door, fire that gun."</a></li> + +<li><a href="#f-292">Another man fell with a loud cry.</a></li> + +</ul> + +<p class="fh1">THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_01"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<h4 style="text-align: justify">IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES KNOWN THE PURPOSE OF HIS VOYAGE TO THE +PACIFIC OCEAN, AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT HE COMMISSIONED THE STEAM-SHIP +SOUTHERN CROSS THROUGH PHILIPS, WESTBURY, AND CO.</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">Many</span> gentlemen have asked me to write the story of Ken's Island, and in +so far as my ability goes, that I will now do. A plain seaman by +profession, one who has had no more education than a Kentish grammar +school can give him, I, Jasper Begg, find it very hard to bring to +other people's eyes the wonderful things I have seen or to make all +this great matter clear as it should be clear for a right +understanding. But what I know of it, I will here set down; and I do +not doubt that the newspapers and the writers will do the rest.</p> + +<p>Now, it was upon the third day of May in the year 1899, at four bells +in the first dog watch, that Harry Doe, our boatswain, first sighted +land upon our port-bow, and so made known to me that our voyage was +done. We were fifty-three days out from Southampton then; and for +fifty-three days not a man among the crew of the Southern Cross had +known our proper destination, or why his skipper, Jasper Begg, had +shipped him to sail for the Pacific Ocean. A pleasure voyage, the +papers said; and some remembered that I had been in and out of private +yachts ever since I ran away from school and booked with Skipper Higg, +who sailed Lord Kanton's schooner from the Solent; but others asked +themselves what pleasure took a yacht's skipper beyond the Suez, and +how it came about that a poor man like Jasper Begg found the money to +commission a 500-ton tramp through Philips, Westbury, and Co., and to +deal liberally with any shipmate who had a fancy for the trip. These +questions I meant to answer in my own time. A hint here and there of a +lady in whose interest the voyage was undertaken kept the crew quiet, +if it did not please its curiosity. Mister Jacob, my first officer, and +Peter Bligh (who came to me because he said I was the only man who kept +him away from the drink) guessed something if they knew little. They +had both served under me in Ruth Bellenden's yacht; neither had +forgotten that Ruth Bellenden's husband sailed eastward for the wedding +trip. If they put their heads together and said that Ruth Bellenden's +affairs and the steam-ship Southern Cross were not to be far apart at +the end of it, I don't blame them. It was my business to hold my tongue +until the land was sighted, and so much I did for Ruth Bellenden's +sake.</p> + +<p>Well, it was the third day of May, at four bells in the first dog +watch, when Harry Doe, the boatswain, sighted land on the port-bow, and +came abaft with the other hands to hear what I had got to say to him. +Mr. Jacob was in his bunk then, he being about to take the first watch, +and Peter Bligh, who walked the bridge, had rung down for half-speed by +the time I came out with my glass for the first view of the distant +island. We were then, I must tell you at a rough reckoning, in +longitude 150 east of Greenwich, by about 30 north; and my first +thought was that we might have sighted the Ganges group, as many a ship +sailing from 'Frisco to Japan; but when I had looked at the land a +little while, and especially at a low spur of rocks to the northward, I +knew that this was truly the Ken Archipelago, and that our voyage was +done.</p> + +<p>"Lads," I said, "yonder is your port. Good weather and good luck, and +we'll put about for home before three days have passed."</p> + +<p>Now, they set up a great cheer at this; and Peter Bligh, whose years go +to fat, wiped his brow like a man who has got rid of a great load and +is very pleased to have done with it.</p> + +<p>"Thank you for that," said he. "I hope I do my duty in all weathers, +Mr. Begg, but this sunshine do wear a man sadly. Will you stop her, +sir, or shall we go dead slow?"</p> + +<p>"Dead slow, if you please, Mister Pugh," said I; "the chart gives two +thousand fathoms about the reef. We should have water enough, and water +is a good thing, as I believe you know."</p> + +<p>"When there's nothing else, I can manage to make shift with it—and +feel a better man, sir," he added, as an after-thought. But I was +already busy with my glass and that was not the hour for light talk. +Yonder upon the port-bow a group of islands shaped on our horizon as +shadows upon a glassy sea. I could espy a considerable cliff-land +rising to the southward, and north of that the rocky spur of which I +have made mention. The sun was setting behind us in a sky of orange and +crimson, and it was wonderful to see the playful lights now giving +veins of gold to the dark mass of the higher rocks, or washing over the +shadows as a running water of flame. I have seen many beautiful sights +upon the sea, in storm or tempest, God's weather or the devil's; but I +shall never forget that sunset which brought me to Ken's Island on as +strange an errand as ever commissioned a ship. The deep blue of the +sky, the vastness of the horizon, the setting sun, the island's shaping +out of the deep: these, and the curiosity which kept the glass ever at +my eye, made an hour which a man might fear to tell of. True, I have +sighted many a strange land in my time and have put up my glass for +many an unknown shore; but yonder lay the home of Ruth Bellenden, and +to-morrow's sun would tell me how it fared with her. I had sailed from +England to learn as much.</p> + +<p>Now, Mr. Jacob, the first officer, had come up to the bridge while I +was searching the shore for an anchorage, and he, who always was a +prudent man, spoke up at once for laying to and leaving our business, +whatever it was, until the morning.</p> + +<p>"You'll lose the light in ten minutes, and yon's a port I do not like +the look of," said he. "Better go about, sir. Reefs don't get out of +the way, even for a lady."</p> + +<p>"Mister Jacob," said I, for, little man that he was, he had a big wit +in his own way, "the lady would be very glad to get out of the way of +the reef, I'm thinking. However, that's for the morning. Here's Peter +Bligh as pleased as any school-boy at the sight of land. Tell him that +he isn't going ashore to-night, and he'll thank you nicely. Eh, Peter, +are you, too, of Jacob's mind? Is it sea or shore, a glass in my cabin +or what the natives will sell you in the log-cabins over yonder?" + +Peter Bligh shut up his glass with a snap.</p> + +<p>"I know the liquor, Mr. Begg," said he; "as the night is good to me, +I'm of Mister Jacob's way of thinking. A sound bed and a clear head, +and a fair wind for the morning—you'll see little of any woman, black +or white, on yonder rock to-night."</p> + +<p>Jacob—his little eyes twinkling, as they always did at his own +jokes—muttered the old proverb about choosing a wife by candle-light; but +before any one could hear him a beacon shone out across the sea from +some reef behind the main island I had noticed, and all eyes were +turned anxiously to that. It was a queer place, truly, to set up a +light, and I don't wonder that the men remarked it.</p> + +<p>"An odd kind of a lantern to help poor mariners," said Mister Jacob, +sagely. "Being kind to it, sir, I should say that it's not more than a +mile too much to the northward."</p> + +<p>"Lay your course by that, and a miracle won't carry you by the reef," +added Peter Bligh, sagaciously; "in my country, which is partly +Ireland, sir, we put up notice-boards for the boys that ride bicycles: +'This Hill is Dangerous.' Faith, in ould Oireland, they put 'em up at +the bottom of the hills, which is useful entirely."</p> + +<p>Some of the crew, grouped about the ladder's foot, laughed at this; +others began to mutter among themselves as though the beacon troubled +them, and they did not like it. A seaman's the most superstitious +creature that walks the earth or sails on the sea, as all the world +knows. I could see the curiosity, which had followed my men from +Southampton, was coming to a head here about twelve thousand miles from +home.</p> + +<p>"Lads," cried I, quick to take the point up, "Mister Bligh says that +an Irishman built yon light, and he knows, being a bit of a one +himself. We're not going in by it, anyway, so you can ask questions +to-morrow. There's a hundred pounds to be divided among you for your good +behaviour outward, and there'll be another hundred when we make Calshot +Light. To-night we'll find good sea-room, and leave their beacon to the +lumber-heads that put it up. I thank you, lads, for honest work in an +honest ship. Ask the purser for an extra tot of grog, and say the +skipper told you to."</p> + +<p>They gave a hearty "Aye, aye, sir," to this, and without more ado we +put the ship about and went dead slow against a stiff tide setting east +by north-east. For my part, I reckoned this the time to tell my +officers what my intentions were, and when I had called them into the +cabin, leaving our "fourth"—a mere lad, but a good one—upon the +bridge, I ordered Joe, the steward, to set the decanters upon the +table. Mister Jacob, as usual, put on his glasses (which he always did +in room or cabin, just as though he would read a book), but Peter Bligh +sat with his cap between his knees and as foolish an expression upon +his face as I have ever seen.</p> + +<p>"Now, gentlemen," I said, "no good talking in this world was ever done +upon a dusty table, so we'll have a glass round and then to business. +Mr. Bligh, I'm sure, will make no objection to that."</p> + +<p>"Faith, and I know when to obey my superior officer, captain. A glass +round, and after <span class="nobr">that———"</span></p> + +<p>"Peter, Peter," said I, "'tis the 'after that' which sends many a good +hulk to the bottom."</p> + +<p>"Not meaning to apply the term to Peter Bligh, but by way of what the +landsmen call 'silime,'" said Mister Jacob.</p> + +<p>"'Simile' you mean, Mister Jacob. Well, it's all the same, and neither +here nor there in the matter of a letter. The fact is, gentlemen, I +wish you to know why I have sailed this ship to Ken's Archipelago, and +under what circumstances I shall sail her home again."</p> + +<p>They pricked up their ears at this, Peter turning his cap nervously in +his hands and Mister Jacob being busy with his glasses as he loves to +be.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I went on, "you have behaved like true shipmates and spoken +never a word which a man might not fairly speak. And now it's my duty +to be open with you. Well, to cut it short, my lads, I've sailed to the +Pacific because my mistress, Ruth Bellenden, asked me."</p> + +<p>They had known as much, I imagine, from the start; but while Mister +Jacob pretended to be very much surprised, honest Peter raised his +glass and drank to Mistress Ruth's good health.</p> + +<p>"God bless her," he said, "and may the day come when I ship along o' +such a one again. Aye, you would have come out for her sake, +captain—no other, I'm sure!"</p> + +<p>"She being Ruth Bellenden no longer, but the wife of a gentleman with a +name none but a foreigner can spell," added Mister Jacob; and then he +went on: "Well, you surprise me very much, captain—very much indeed. +Matrimony is a choppy sea and queer things swim in it. But this—this I +had not looked to hear."</p> + +<p>I knew that this was only Mister Jacob's way, and continued my story.</p> + +<p>"It was a promise to her upon her wedding day. Ten thousand pounds she +left with her lawyers for this very purpose. 'My husband has strange +ideas; I may not share them,' were her words to me. 'If his yacht +should not be at the islands when I wish to visit Europe again, I +should like you to find me a vessel in its place. I trust you, Jasper +Begg,' she said; 'you will sail for Ken's Archipelago twelve months +from today, and you will come to my house there, as you used to do in +the old time, for orders. Perhaps I shall send you home again, perhaps +I may like to have a yacht of my own once more. Who knows? I am quite +alone in the world,' she said, laughing, 'though my brother is alive. +And the Pacific Ocean is a long way from London—oh, such a long way,' +she said, or something of that sort."</p> + +<p>"Aye, and right, too. A derned long way she meant, I don't doubt, if +what was in her mind came out," puts in Peter at this.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Bligh," said I, "be pleased to hold your tongue until your opinion +is asked. What I am telling you is a confidence which you two, and no +others, share with me. To-morrow, as soon as daylight, I shall row +ashore and ask to see Mme. Czerny, as I suppose I must call little Ruth +now. If she says, 'Go home again,' very well, home we go with good +wages in our pockets. If she says 'Stay,' there's not a man on board +this ship that will not stay willingly—she being married to a +foreigner, which all the world knows is not the same as being married +to an <span class="nobr">Englishman———"</span></p> + +<p>"To say nothing of an Irishman," said Peter Bligh, whose mother was +from Dublin and whose father was named sometimes for a man of +Rotherhithe and at other times put down to any country which it suited +Peter to boast about.</p> + +<p>"Edmond Czerny was a Hungarian," said I, "and he played the fiddle +wonderful. What mad idea took him for a honeymoon to Ken's Island, the +Lord only knows. They say he was many years in America. I know nothing +about him, save that he had a civil tongue and manners to catch a young +girl's fancy. She was only twenty-two when she married him, Mister +Jacob."</p> + +<p>"Old enough to know better—quite old enough to know better. Not that I +would say anything against Ruth Bellenden, not a word. It's the woman's +part to play the capers, sir, and we poor mortal men to be took by +them. Howsomever, since there was a fiddle in it, I've nothing more to +say."</p> + +<p>We laughed at Mister Jacob's notion, and Peter Bligh said what it was +in my heart to say:</p> + +<p>"Saving that if Ruth Bellenden needs a friend, she'll find twenty-six +aboard this ship, to say nothing of the cook's boy and the dog. You've +a nice mind, Mister Jacob, but you've a deal to larn when it comes to +women. My poor old father, who hailed from +<span class="nobr">Shoreham———"</span></p> + +<p>"It was Newport yesterday, Peter."</p> + +<p>"Aye, so it were—so it were. But, Newport or Shoreham, he'd a precious +good notion of the sex, and what he said I'll stand by. 'Get 'em on +their feet to the music,' says he, 'and you can lead 'em anywheres.' +'Tis Gospel truth that, Mister Jacob."</p> + +<p>"But a man had better mind his steps," said I. "For my part, I +shouldn't be surprised if Ruth Bellenden's husband gave us the cold +shoulder to-morrow and sent us about our business. However, the sea's +free to all men, lads, and the morn will show. By your leave we'll have +a bit of supper and after that turn in. We shall want all our wits +about us when daylight comes." + +They agreed to this, and without further parley we went on deck and +heard what the lad "Dolly" Venn had to tell us. It was full dark now +and the islands were hidden from our view. The beacon shone with a +steady white glare which, under the circumstances, was almost uncanny. +I asked the lad if he had sighted any ships in towards the land or if +signals had been made. He answered me that no ship had passed in or out +nor any rocket been fired. "And I do believe, sir," he said, "that we +shall find the harbour on the far sight of yonder height."</p> + +<p>"The morning will show us, lad," said I; "go down to your supper, for I +mean to take this watch myself." + +They left me on the bridge. The wind had fallen until it was scarce +above a moan in the shrouds. I stood watching the beacon as a man who +watches the window light of one who has been dear to him.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_02"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> + +<h4>WE GO ASHORE AND LEARN STRANGE THINGS</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">I have</span> told how it came about that +I sailed for Ken's Island, and now I shall tell what happened when I +went ashore to find Ruth Bellenden.</p> + +<p>We put off from the ship at six bells in the morning watch. Dolly Venn, +who was rated as fourth officer, was with me in the launch, and Harry +Doe, the boatswain, at the tiller. I left Mister Jacob on the bridge, +and gave him my orders to stand in-shore as near as might be, and to +look for my coming at sunset—no later. "Whatever passes," said I, "the +night will find me on board again. I trust to bring you good news, +Mister Jacob—the best news."</p> + +<p>"Which would be that we were to 'bout ship and home again," says he; +and that I did not contradict.</p> + +<p>Now, we were to the westward of the island when we put off, and neither +my glass nor the others showed any good landing there. As the launch +drew in towards the cliffs I began to get the lie of the place more +clearly; and especially of what I call the mainland, which was +wonderfully fresh and green in the sunlight and seemed to have some of +the tropic luxuriance of more southern islands. About four miles long, +I judged it to be, from the high black rock to which it rose at the +southward point, to the low dog's-nosed reef which defended it to the +north. Trees I could see, palms and that kind, and ripe green grasses +on a stretch of real down-like land; but the cliffs themselves were +steep and unpromising, and the closer we drew the less I liked the look +of it.</p> + +<p>"Dolly, my lad," I said at last, "you were the wise one, after all. +Yon's no shore for an honest man; he being made like a man and not like +an eagle. Let's try the starboard tack and see what luck will send us."</p> + +<p>We headed the launch almost due south, and began to round the headland. +The men were elated, they didn't know at what; Dolly Venn had a boy's +delight in the difficulty.</p> + +<p>"An ugly shore, sir," he said, pleased at my compliment. "A very ugly +shore. It would be a bad night which found a ship in these parts and no +better light than the fool's beacon we saw yesterday."</p> + +<p>"As true as the parson's word," said I, "but, ugly or beautiful, I'll +be up on those heights before twelve o'clock if I have to swim ashore. +And speaking of that," said I, "there are men up yonder, or I'm a +Dutchman!" + +Well, he clapped his glass to his eye and searched the green grass land +as I had done; but the light was overstrong and the cliff quickly shut +the view from us, so that we found ourselves presently in the loom of +vast black rocks, with the tide running like a whirlpool, and a great +sword-fish reef a mile from the shore, perhaps, to catch any fool that +didn't want sea room. I took the tiller myself from this point, and +standing well out I brought the launch round gingerly enough, but the +water was deep and good once we were on the lee side; and no sooner did +we head north again than I espied the cove and knew where Ruth +Bellenden had gone ashore.</p> + +<p>"It's there, lad," said I, "yonder, where the sand sparkles. There'll +be a way up the cliff and good anchorage. No one but an Irishman would +buy an island without a harbour; you tell Mr. Bligh that when we go +aboard again."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Bligh says he's only Irish on the mother's side, sir; that's what +makes him bighearted towards the women. He'll be dying to come ashore +if there are any petticoats hereabouts."</p> + +<p>"They haven't much use for that same garment on the Pacific Islands," +said I. "Peter can marry cheap here, if it's the milliners' bills he's +minding—but I doubt, lad, from the look of it, whether we'll find a +jewel in this port. It's a wild-looking place, to be sure it is."</p> + +<p>Indeed, and it was. Viewed from the eastward sea, I call Ken's Island +the most fearsome place I have come across in all my fifteen years +afloat. Vast cliffs, black and green and crystal, rose up sheer from +the water in precipices for all the world like mighty steps. By here +and there, as the ground sloped away to the northward, there were +forests of teak (at least, I judged them to be that), pretty woods with +every kind of palm, green valleys and grassy pastures. The sands of the +cove were white as snow, and shone like so many precious stones pounded +up to make a sea beach. On the north side only was there +barrenness—for that seemed but a tongue of low land and black rock thrust +straight out into the sea. But elsewhere it was a spectacle to impress +a man; and I began, perhaps, to admit that Edmond Czerny had more than +a crank's whim in his mind when he took little Ruth Bellenden to such a +shore for her honeymoon. He had a fancy for wild places, said I, and +this was the very spot for him. But Miss Ruth, who had always been one +for the towns and cities and the bright things of life—what did she +think of it? I should learn that, if she were ashore yonder.</p> + +<p>Now, we put straight in to the cove where the silver sand was, and no +sooner was I ashore than I espied a rickety wooden ladder rising almost +straight up to the cliff's head, which hereabouts was no more than +sixty feet high. Neither man nor beast was on the beach, nor did I make +out any sign of human habitation whatever. It was just a little sandy +bay, lone and desolate; but directly I slipped out of the launch I +discovered footprints leading to the ladder's foot, and I knew that men +had gone up before me, that very morning it must be, seeing that the +tide had ebbed and the sand was still wet. At another time I might have +asked myself why nobody came out to meet us, and why there was no +lookout for the island to hail a strange ship in the offing; but I was +too eager to go ashore, and, for that matter, had my feet on the sand +almost before the launch grounded.</p> + +<p>"Do you, Dolly, come up with me," said I; "the others will stand by to +anchor until we come down again. If it's not in an hour, lads, go back +and get your dinners; but look for me at sunset anyway, for I've no +mind to sleep ashore, and that you may be sure of."</p> + +<p>They took the orders and pushed the launch off. Dolly and I ran up the +crazy ladder and found ourselves at the cliff's head, but no better off +in the matter of seeing than we had been before. True, the launch +looked far down, like a toy ship in a big basin of blue water; we could +distinguish the sword-fish reef, as the lad called it, and other reefs +to the east and north, but the place we stood on was shut in by a black +wood of teak and blue ebony, and, save for the rustling of the great +leaves, we couldn't hear a sound. As for the path through the +plantation, that was covered with long, rank grass, and some pit or +other—I don't know what it was—gave a pungent, heavy odour which +didn't suit a seaman's lungs. I was set against the place from the +first—didn't like it, and told the lad as much.</p> + +<p>"Dolly," said I, "the sooner we have a ship's planking under our feet +again the better for our constitutions. If there's a house in this +locality, the ladder is the road to it, unless one of Peter Bligh's +countrymen built it. Put your best foot foremost, my lad. We'll dine +early if we don't lunch late."</p> + +<p>With this I struck the path through the wood and went straight on, not +listening to the lad's chatter nor making any myself. The shade was +welcome enough; there were pretty places for those that had eyes to see +them—waterfalls splashing down from the moss-grown rocks above; little +pools, dark and wonderfully blue; here and there a bit of green, which +might have been the lawn of a country house. But of dwelling or of +people I saw nothing, and to what the boy fancied that he saw I paid no +heed.</p> + +<p>"You're dreaming it, young gentleman," said I, "for look now, who +should be afraid of two unarmed seamen, and why should any honest man +be ashamed to show his face? If there are men peeping behind the trees, +well, let them peep, and good luck go with them. It doesn't trouble me, +and I don't suppose it will take your appetite away. You aren't afraid +of them, surely?"</p> + +<p>It was an unkind thing to have said, and the lad rightly turned upon +me.</p> + +<p>"Why, sir," cried he, "I would never be afraid while I was with you."</p> + +<p>"Proudly put, my boy, and a compliment I won't forget. What sort of men +did you say that they were?"</p> + +<p>"One was old, with a goat's beard. He wore ragged breeches and a +seaman's blouse. I saw him directly we entered the wood. The others +were up in the hills above the waterfall. They carried rifles."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Dolly," exclaimed I. "Put them in Prussian blue at once, +and fly the German ensign. Rifles in a place like this—and two unarmed +strangers against them! Why should the rogues hide their beautiful +faces? If they would know all about us, what's to prevent them? Do we +look like highwaymen or honest fellows? Be sure, my lad, that the young +lady I am going to see wouldn't have any blacklegs about her house. +Ruth Bellenden's too clever for that. She'd send them about their +business quick enough, as she's sent many a one when I was the skipper +of her yacht. Did they tell you that, Dolly—that your skipper used to +sail the smartest schooner-yacht that ever flew the +<span class="nobr">ensign———"</span></p> + +<p>The boy looked up at me and admitted frankly that he knew something.</p> + +<p>"They said the young lady owned the Manhattan, sir. I never asked much +about it. The men were fond of her, I believe."</p> + +<p>"Adored her, lad. She was the daughter of Rupert Bellenden, who made a +mint of money by building the Western American Railroad, and afterwards +in the steel way. He was drowned at sea when the Elbe went down. His +son got the business, but the daughter took the house and fortune—at +least, the best part of it. She was always a rare one for the sea, and +owned a biggish boat in her father's time. When he died she bought the +Manhattan, more's the pity, for it carried her to Mediterranean ports, +and there she took up with the fiddler. He was a Chevalier or +something, and could look a woman through and through. What money he +had was made, the Lord knows where, not out of fiddling, I'll be bound, +for his was no music to set the tongue lilting. He'd been in the +Pacific a while, they say, and was a Jack-of-all-trades in America. +That's how he came across these islands, you may imagine—slap in the +sea-way to Yokohama as they are. There's been many a good ship ashore +on Ken's Island, lad, believe me, and there'll be many another. 'Tis no +likely place to bring a young wife to, and none but a madman would have +done it."</p> + +<p>I told him all this just in a natural way, as one man speaking to +another of something which troubled his mind. Not that he made much of +it—how should he?—for there were a hundred things to look at, and his +eyes were here and there and everywhere; now up at the great black +rocks above us; now peering into a deep gorge, over which a little +wooden bridge carried us, just for all the world like a scaffold thrown +from tree to tree of the wood. It was a rare picture, I admit, and when +we came out of the thicket at last and saw the lower island spread +before us like a chart, with its fields of crimson flowers, its +waterfalls, its bits of pasture, and its blue seas beyond, a man might +well have stood to tell himself that Nature never made a fairer place. +For my part, I began to believe again that Edmond Czerny knew what he +was about when he built a house for Miss Ruth on such a spot; and I was +just about to tell the lad as much when a man came running up the path +and, hailing us in a loud voice, asked us where the devil we were going +to—or something not more civil. And, at this, I brought to and looked +him up and down and answered him as a seaman should.</p> + +<p>"To the devil yourself," said I; "what's that to do with you, and what +may your name happen to be?"</p> + +<p>He was a big man, dressed in blue serge, with a peak cap and a seaman's +blouse. He had a long brown beard and a pock-marked face, and he +carried a spy-glass under his arm. He had come up from the grassy +valley below—and there I first saw the roof of a low bungalow, and the +gardens about it. That was Ruth's home, I said, and this fellow was one +of Czerny's yacht hands.</p> + +<p>"Not so fast, not so fast," cried he; "do you know that this is private +land, and you've no business ashore here?"</p> + +<p>"Why," says I, "haven't we come ashore to see you, my beauty, and +doesn't the spectacle reward us? 'Bout ship," says I, "and have done +with it. My business is with your mistress, whom I knew before your +brother was hanged at 'Frisco."</p> + +<p>He swore a big oath at this, and, I do believe, was half of the mind to +try which was the better man; but when he had looked down at the +gardens of the bungalow, and a white figure was plainly to be seen +there, he seemed to think better of it, and changed his tone entirely.</p> + +<p>"Avast," cries he, with a bit of a laugh, "you're one of the right +sort, and no mistaking that! And where would you be from, and what +would you be wanting here?" he asks, grown civil as a bagman with a bit +of ribbon to sell.</p> + +<p>"Shipmate," says I, "if I'm one of the right sort, my port's +Southampton and my flag's the ensign. Take me down to Mme. Czerny, whom +I see among the flower-beds yonder, and you shall know enough about me +in five minutes to bring the tears to your beautiful eyes. And come," +says I, chaffing him, "are there any girls in this bit of a paradise? +If so," says I, "I should call 'em lucky when I look at you."</p> + +<p>Well, he took it sourly enough, but I could see he was mighty curious +to hear more about me, and as we went down a winding path to the +bungalow in the valley he put many questions to me, and I tried to +answer them civilly. Like all seamen he had no silent wits of his own, +and every word he thought, that he must speak.</p> + +<p>"The guv'nor's not here," he said; "gone to 'Frisco. Lucky for you, for +he don't like strangers. Aye," he goes on, "he's a wonderful man for +his own way; to be sure he is. You'll be aboard and away before sunset, +or you might see him. Take my advice and put about. The shore's +unwholesome," says he.</p> + +<p>"By the looks of you," says I, "you've nothing more than jaundice, and +that I can put up with. As for your guv'nor, I remember him well when +he and I did the light fandango together in European ports. He was +always a wonder with the fiddle. My mistress could lead him like a +pug-dog. I don't doubt she's a bit of a hand at it still."</p> + +<p>Now, this set him thinking, and he put two and two together, I suppose, +and knew pretty well who I was.</p> + +<p>"You'll be Jasper Begg that sailed the lady's yacht Manhattan?" says +he. "Well, I've heard of you often, and from her own lips. She'll be +pleased to see you, right enough—though what the guv'nor might say is +another matter. You see," he went on, "this same island is a paradise, +sure as thunder; but it's lonely for women-kind, and your mistress, she +don't take to it kindly. Not that she's complaining, or anything of +that sort. A lady who has rings for her fingers and bells for her toes, +and all real precious, same as any duchess might wear, she don't +complain long. Why, my guv'nor could make his very teeth out of diamonds +and not miss 'em, come to that! But his missus is always plaguing him +to take her to Europe, and that game. As if he don't want a wife in his +own home, and not in another man's, which is sense, Mister Begg, though +it is spoke by a plain seaman."</p> + +<p>I said, "Aye, aye," and held my tongue, knowing that he would go on +with it. We were almost down at the house now, and the cliffs stood +like a great cloud of solid rock, above which a loom of smoke was +floating. Dolly walked at my heels like a patient dog. My own feelings +are not for me to tell. I was going to see Ruth Bellenden again. Why, +she was there in yonder garden, and nothing between us but this great +hulking yellow boy, who took to buttonholing me as a parson buttonholes +his churchwarden when he wants a new grate in his drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"Now," says he, standing before me as one who had half a mind to block +the road, "you be advised by me, Mister Begg, and cut this job short. +Don't you be listening to a woman's parley, for it's all nonsense. I've +done wrong to let you ashore, perhaps—perhaps I haven't; but, ashore +or afloat, it's my business to see that the guv'nor's orders is carried +out, and carried out they will be, one man or twenty agen 'em. Do you +take a plain word or do you not, Mister Begg?"</p> + +<p>"I take whatever's going, and don't trouble about the sugar," says I; +and then, putting him aside, I lifted the latch of the garden gate, and +went in and saw Miss Ruth.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_03"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER III</h3> + +<h4>IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES UP HIS MIND WHAT TO DO</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">Now</span>, she was sitting in the garden, +in a kind of arbour built of +leaves, and near by her was her relative, the rats'-tailed old lady we +used to call Aunt Rachel. The pair didn't see me as I passed in, but a +Chinese servant gave "Good-day" to the yellow man we'd picked up coming +down; and, at that, Miss Ruth—for so I call her, not being able to get +Mme. Czerny into my head—Miss Ruth, I say, stood up, and, the colour +tumbling into her cheeks like the tide into an empty pool, she stood +for all the world as though she were struck dumb and unable to say a +word to any man. I, meanwhile, fingered my hat and looked foolish; for +it was an odd kind of job to have come twelve thousand miles upon, and +what to say to her with the hulking seaman at my elbow, the Lord +forgive me if I knew.</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," says I at last, "I'm here according to orders, and the +ship's here, and we're waiting for you to go +<span class="nobr">aboard———"</span></p> + +<p>Well, she seemed to hear me like one who did not catch the meaning of +it. I saw her put her hand to her throat as though something were +choking her, and the old lady, the one we called Aunt Rachel, cried, +"God bless me," two or three times together. But the yellow man was the +next to speak, and he crossed right over to our Miss Ruth's side, and +talked in her ear in a voice you could have heard up at the hills.</p> + +<p>"You'll not be going aboard to-day, lady. Why, what would the master +have to say, he coming home from foreign parts and you not ashore to +meet him? You didn't say nothing about any ship, not as I can remember, +and mighty pleased the guv'nor will be when he knows about it. Shall I +tell this party he'd better be getting aboard again, eh, ma'am? Don't +you think as he'd better be getting aboard again?"</p> + +<p>He shouted this out for all the world like a man hailing from one ship +to another. I don't know what put it into my head, but I knew from that +moment that my mistress was afraid, aye, deadly afraid, as it is given +few to fear in this life. Not that she spoke of it, or showed it by any +sign a stranger might have understood; but there was a look in her eyes +which was clear to me; "and by my last word," said I to myself, "I'll +know the truth this day, though there be one or a hundred yellow boys!" +None the less, I held my tongue as a wise man should, and what I said +was spoken to the party with the beard.</p> + +<p>"You've a nice soft voice for a nightingale, that you have," says I; +"if you'd let yourself out for a fog-horn to the Scilly Isles, you'd go +near to make your fortune! Is the young lady deaf that you want to bawl +like a harbour-master? Easy, my man," says I, "you'll hurt your +beautiful throat."</p> + +<p>Well, he turned round savage enough, but my mistress, who had stood all +the while like a statue, spoke now for the first time, and holding out +both her hands to me, she cried:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Captain Begg, Captain Begg, is it you at last, to walk right here +like this? I can't believe it," she said; "I really can't believe it!"</p> + +<p>"Why, that's so," said I, catching her American accent, which was the +prettiest thing you ever heard; "I'm on the way to 'Frisco, and I put +in here according to my promise. My ship's out yonder, Miss Ruth, and +there's some aboard that knows you—Peter Bligh and Mister Jacob; and +this one, this is little Dolly Venn," said I, presenting him, "though +he'll grow bigger by-and-bye."</p> + +<p>With this I pushed the boy forward, and he, all silly and blushing as +sailors will be when they see a pretty woman above their station—he +took her hand and heaved it like a pump-handle; while old Aunt Rachel, +the funny old woman in the glasses, she began to talk a lot of nonsense +about seamen, as she always did, and for a minute or two we might have +been a party of friends met at a street corner.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad to find you well, Captain Begg," said she. "Such a dangerous +life, too, the mariner's. I always pity you poor fellows when you climb +the rattlesnakes on winter's nights."</p> + +<p>"Ratlins, you mean, ma'am," said I, "though for that matter, a syllable +or two don't count either way. And I hope you're not poorly, ma'am, on +this queer shore."</p> + +<p>"I like the island," says she, solemn and stiff-like; "my dear nephew +is an eccentric, but we must take our bread as we find it on this +earth, Mister Begg, and thankful for it too. Poor Ruth, now, she is +dreadfully distressed and unhappy; but I tell her it will all come +right in the end. Let her be patient a little while and she will have +her own way. She wants for nothing here—she has every comfort. If her +husband chooses such a home for her, she must submit. It is our duty to +submit to our husbands, captain, as the catechism teaches us."</p> + +<p>"Aye, when you've got 'em," thought I, but I nodded my head to the old +lady, and turned to my mistress, who was now speaking to me.</p> + +<p>"You'll lunch here; why, yes, captain—you mustn't find us +inhospitable, even if you leave us at once. Mr. Denton, will you please +to tell them that Captain Begg lunches with me—as soon as possible?"</p> + +<p>She turned to the yellow man to give him the order; but there was no +mistaking the look which passed between them, saying on her side: +"Allow me to do this," on his, "You will suffer for it afterwards." But +he went up to the veranda of the house right enough, and while he was +bawling to the cook, I spoke the first plain word to Mme. Czerny.</p> + +<p>"Mistress," I said, "the ship's there—shall we go or stay?"</p> + +<p>I had meant it to be the plain truth between us; on her part the +confession whether she needed me or did not; on mine the will to serve +her whatever might happen to me. To my dying day, I shall never forget +her answer.</p> + +<p>"Go," she said, so low that it was little more than a whisper, "but, +oh, for God's sake, Jasper Begg, come back to me again."</p> + +<p>I nodded my head and turned the talk. The man Denton, the one with the +yellow beard (rated as Kess Denton on the island), was back at my side +almost before she had finished. The old lady began to talk about +"curling-spikes" and "blue Saint Peters," and how much the anchor +weighed, and all that sort of blarney which she thought ship-shape and +suited to a poor sailor-man's understanding. I told her a story of a +shark that swallowed a missionary and his hymn-book, and always swam +round our ship at service times afterwards—and that kept her thinking +a bit. As for little Dolly Venn, he couldn't keep his eyes off Miss +Ruth—and I didn't wonder, for mine went that way pretty often. Aye, +she had changed, too, in those twelve months that had passed since last +I saw her, the prettiest bride that ever held out a finger for a ring +in the big church at Nice. Her cheeks were all fallen away and flushed +with a colour which was cruelly unhealthy to see. The big blue eyes, +which I used to see full of laughter and a young girl's life, were +ringed round with black, and pitiful when they looked at you. The hair +parted above the forehead, as it always was, and brought down in curls +above her little ears, didn't seem to me so full of golden threads as +it used to be. But it was good to hear her plucky talk, there at the +dinner-table, when she chattered away like some sweet-singing bird, and +Dolly couldn't turn away his eyes, and the yellow boy stood, sour and +savage, behind her chair, and threw out hints for me to sheer off which +might have moved the Bass Rock. Not that he need have troubled himself, +for I had made up my mind already what to do; and no sooner was the +food stowed away than I up and spoke about the need of getting on +again, and such like. And with that I said "Good-bye" to Mistress Ruth +and "Good-bye" to the old woman, and had a shot left in my locker for +the yellow boy, which I don't doubt pleased him mightily.</p> + +<p>"Good luck to you," says I; "if you'd a wisp of your hair, I'd put it +in my locket and think of you sometimes. When you want anything from +London you just shout across the sea and we'll be hearing you. +Deadman's Horn is nothing to you," said I; "you'd scare a ship out of +the sea, if you wasn't gentle to her."</p> + +<p>Mind you, I said all this as much to put him off as anything else, for +I'd been careful enough to blab no word about the Southern Cross being +Miss Ruth's very own ship, nor about her orders that we should call at +Ken's Island; and I knew that when a man's angry at what you say to him +he doesn't think much of two and two making four, but as often as not +makes them eight or ten. May-be, said I, he'll make it out that I'm on +a tramp bound for 'Frisco and have touched here on the way—and +certainly he won't look for my coming back again once he sees our smoke +on the sky-line. Nor was I wrong. My mistress was to tell me that much +before twelve hours had passed.</p> + +<p>And so it was that I said "Good-bye" to her, she standing at the +garden-gate with a brave smile upon her pretty face, and the yellow man +behind her like a savage dog that is afraid to bite, but has all the +mind to. At the valley's head I turned about, and she was still there, +looking up wistfully to the hills we trod. Thrice I waved my hand to +her, and thrice she answered, and then together, the lad and I, we +entered the dark wood and saw her no more.</p> + +<p>"Your best leg forward, lad," said I to him, "and mum's the word. +There's work to do on the ship, and work ashore for a woman's sake. Are +you game for that, Dolly—are you game, my boy?"</p> + +<p>Well, he didn't answer me. Some one up in the black gorge above fired a +rifle just as I spoke; and the bullet came singing down like a bird on +the wing. Not a soul could I see, not a sound could I hear when the +rolling echoes had passed away. It was just the silence of the thicket +and of the great precipices which headed it—a silence which might +freeze a man's heart because the danger which threatened him was +hidden.</p> + +<p>"Crouch low to the rocks, lad, and go easy," cried I, when my wits came +back again; "that's a tongue it doesn't do to quarrel with. The dirty +skunks—to fire on unarmed men! But we'll return it, Dolly; as I live +I'll fire a dozen for every one they send us."</p> + +<p>"Return it, sir," says he; "but aren't you going aboard?"</p> + +<p>"Aye," says I, "and coming back again like drift on an open sea. Now +let me see you skip across that bridge, and no mistake about it."</p> + +<p>He darted across the chasm's bridge like a chamois. I followed him +quick and clumsy. If my heart was in my mouth—well, let that pass. Not +for my own sake did I fear mortal man that day, but for the sake of a +woman whose very life I believed to be in danger.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_04"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3> + +<h4>WE GO ABOARD, BUT RETURN AGAIN</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">We</span> made the ship safely when twenty +minutes were passed, and ten minutes later, Mister Jacob and Peter Bligh +were in my cabin with me.</p> + +<p>"Lads," I said, for it was not a day when a man picked his talk; +"lads," said I, "this ship goes full steam ahead for 'Frisco, and +you'll be wanting to know the reason why. Well, that's right and +proper. Let me tell you that she's steaming to 'Frisco because it's the +shortest way to Ken's Island."</p> + +<p>They looked queer at this, but my manner kept them silent. Every man +aboard the Southern Cross had heard the gun fired up in the hills, and +every one knew that Dolly Venn and the skipper had raced for their +lives to the water's edge. "What next?" they asked; and I meant to tell +them.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, "the shortest way to Ken's Island, and no mistake about +it. For what does a man do when he sees some one in a house and the +front door's slammed in his face? Why, he goes to the back door +certainly, and for choice when the night's dark and the blinds are +down. That's what I'm going to do this night, lads, for the sake of a +bit of a girl you and I would sail far to serve."</p> + +<p>They said, "Aye, aye," and drew their chairs closer. The men had been +piped down to dinner, but Peter Bligh forgot his, and that was +extraordinary peculiar in him. Mister Jacob took snuff as though it +were chocolate powder, and the whole of a man spoke from his little +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Listen," said I, beginning to tell them what you know already, "here +have we sailed twelve thousand miles at Ruth Bellenden's order, and how +does she receive us? Why, with a nod she might give a neighbour going +by in the <span class="nobr">street———"</span></p> + +<p>"They not being on speaking terms except in church," put in Peter +Bligh.</p> + +<p>"Or she wishing him to get on with his business," said Mister Jacob, +"and not to gossip when there was work to do."</p> + +<p>"Be that as it may," I ran on, "the facts are as plain to me as eight +bells for noon. Ruth Bellenden's married to a foreigner who's next door +to a madman. Why, look at it—what was the only word she had the time +or the chance to say? 'For God's sake, come back, Jasper Begg,' says +she. And what am I going to do upon that, gentlemen? Why, I'm going +back, so help me heaven, this very night to learn her trouble."</p> + +<p>"And to bring her aboard where she could tell it on a fair course, so +to speak. You'll do that, sir?"</p> + +<p>"The night will show what I shall do, Mister Jacob. Was there ever such +a story? A man to marry the best creature that ever put on a pretty +bonnet, and to carry her to a god-forsaken shore like this! And to +ill-treat her there! Aye, that's it. If ever a woman's eyes spoke to me of +hard treatment, it was Ruth Bellenden's this morning. She's some +trouble, lads, some dreadful trouble. She doesn't even speak of it to +me. The yellow boy I've made mention of stood by her all the time. We +talked like two that pass by on the ocean. Who'll gainsay that it was +an unnatural thing? No mortal man can, with reason!"</p> + +<p>"Aye, there's precious little reason in it, by what I make out, +captain. You'll know more when the young lady's aboard +<span class="nobr">here———"</span></p> + +<p>"And the yellow boy's head has a bump on the top of it, like the knob +what used to hang down from my mother's chandelay—but that's idle +talking. What time do you put her about to go ashore, sir?"</p> + +<p>I was glad to see them coming to it like this, and I fell to the plan +without further parley.</p> + +<p>"A fair question and a fair answer," said I; "this ship goes about at +eight bells, Peter. To Mister Jacob here I trust the safety of the good +fellows who go ashore with me. If we can bring the mistress aboard +to-night, well and good, we've done the best day's work we ever set our +hands to. If not, that work must rest until tomorrow night, or the +night after or the night after that. Eight days from now if it happens +that nothing is heard from the land and no news of us, well, the course +is plain. In that case it will be full steam ahead to 'Frisco, and from +there a cable to Kenrick Bellenden, and the plain intimation that his +sister has pretty bad need of him on Ken's Island."</p> + +<p>"And of an American warship, if one is forthcoming."</p> + +<p>"It may be, Mister Jacob; it may be that, though the devils ashore +there are the only ones that could tell you that. But you're a man of +understanding, and your part will be done. I rely upon you as between +shipmates."</p> + +<p>He took a pinch of snuff, and flapping his coat-tails (for he was +always rigged out in the naval officer way) he answered what I wished.</p> + +<p>"As between shipmates, I will do my duty," said he.</p> + +<p>"I knew it; I've known it from the beginning," said I. "What's left +when you've done is the shore part, and that's not so easy. Peter +Bligh's coming, and I couldn't well leave Dolly on board. Give me our +hulking carpenter, Seth Barker, and I'll lighten the ship no more. +We're short-handed as it is. And, besides, if four won't serve, then +forty would be no better. What we can do yonder, wits, and not +revolvers, must bring about. But I'll not go with sugar-sticks, you +take my word for it, and any man that points a gun at me will wish he'd +gone shooting sheep."</p> + +<p>"Aye, aye, to that," cried Peter, who was ever a man for a fight; "the +shooting first and the civil words after. That's sense and no blarney. +When my poor father was tried at Swansea, his native place, for hitting +an Excise man with a <span class="nobr">ham———"</span></p> + +<p>"Mr. Bligh," cried I, "'tis not with hams you'll be hitting folks +yonder, take my word for it. This job may find us on a child's errand +or it may find us doing men's work. Eight bells on the first watch will +tell the whole of the story. Until that time I shall hold my tongue +about it, but I don't go ashore as I go to a picnic, and I don't make a +boast about what I may presently cry out about."</p> + +<p>Well, they were both of my way of thinking, and when we'd talked a +little more about it, and I'd opened the arm-chest and looked over the +few guns and pistols we'd got there, and we'd called the lad Dolly down +and promised him that he should come with us, and the men had been +given to understand that the skipper was to go ashore by-and-bye on an +important business, Peter and the others went to their dinner and I +took my turn on the bridge. The swell was running strongly then, and +the wind blew fresh from the north-east. We'd lost all sight of the +island, and spoke but one ship, a small mail steamer from Santa Cruz +bound for the Yellow Sea, which signalled us "All well" at six bells in +the afternoon watch. From that time I went dead slow and began to bring +the Southern Cross about. The work was begun that very hour, I always +say.</p> + +<p>Now, I've told all this, short and brief, and with no talk of my own +about it. The thing had come so sudden, I knew so little of Ruth +Bellenden's trouble or of what had befallen her on the island, that I +was like a man in the dark groping blindly, yet set on hearing the +truth. As for the crew, well, you may be sure that Dolly Venn had put +his side of the story about, and when they knew that my mistress was +ashore there and in some danger, I believe they'd have put me in irons +if I'd so much as spoken of going back.</p> + +<p>Risky it was, so much I won't deny; but who wouldn't risk more than his +own paltry skin to save a woman in trouble, and she, so to speak, a +shipmate? There was not a man aboard, stake my life, who wouldn't have +gone to the land willingly for Ruth Bellenden's sake though he'd been +told, sure and certain, that Ken's Island must be his grave. And we'd +always the ship, mind you, and the knowledge that she would go to +'Frisco to get us help. A fool's hope, I say now. For how could we know +that the Southern Cross would be at the bottom of the sea, a thousand +fathoms down, before the week was run? We couldn't know it; yet that +was what happened, and that is why no help came to us.</p> + +<p>We had put the ship about at six bells in the afternoon watch, but it +was eight bells in the second dog (the night being too clear for my +liking and a full moon showing bright in the sky) that we sighted Ken's +Island for the second time, and for the second time prepared to go +ashore. The longboat was ready by this time, her barrels full of water +and her lockers full of biscuit. Such arms as we were to carry were +partly stowed in water-proof sheeting—the rifles, and the cartridges +for them; but the revolvers we carried, and a good Sheffield knife a +man, which we weren't going to cut potatoes with. For the rest, I made +them put in a few stout blankets, and more rations than might have +served for such a trip. "Good beginnings make good endings," said I; +"what we haven't need of, lads, we can carry aboard again. The +longboat's back won't ache, be sure of it."</p> + +<p>All this, I say, was done when the moon showed us the island like a +great barren rock rising up sheer from the sea. And when it was done, +Mister Jacob called my attention to something which in the hurry of +shore-going I might never have seen at all or thought about. It was +nothing less than this—that their fool's beacon was out to-night, and +all the sea about it as black as ink. Whoever set up the light, then, +did not use it for a seaman's benefit, but for his own whim. I reckoned +up the situation at a glance, and even at that early stage I began to +know the terrible meaning of it.</p> + +<p>"Mister Jacob," said I, "those that keep that beacon are either fools +or knaves."</p> + +<p>"Or both, sir," said he.</p> + +<p>"Which one is the own brother to the other. Aye, captain, 'tis lucky +ye've the parish lantern, as my poor father used to say +<span class="nobr">when———"</span></p> + +<p>But Peter Bligh never finished it that night. The words were still in +his mouth when a rocket shot up over the sea and bursting in a cloud of +gold-blue sparks, cast a weird, cold light upon rock and reef and all +that troubled sea. And as the rocket fell our big carpenter, Seth +Barker, standing aft by the hatch, cries out,</p> + +<p>"Ship ashore! Ship ashore, <span class="nobr">by———!"</span></p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_05"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER V</h3> + +<h4>STRANGE SIGHTS ASHORE, AND WHAT WE SAW OF THEM</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">Now</span>, when Seth Barker cried out that +a ship was ashore on the dangerous +reefs to the northward of the main island, it is not necessary to tell +you what we, a crew of British seamen, were called upon to do. The +words were scarcely spoken before I had given the order, "Stand by the +boats," and sent every man to his station. Excited the hands were, that +I will not deny; excited and willing enough to tell you about it if +you'd asked them; but no man among them opened his lips, and while they +stood there, anxious and ready, I had my glass to my eye and tried to +make out the steamer and what had befallen her. Nor was Mister Jacob +behind me, but he and Peter Bligh at my side, we soon knew the truth +and made up our minds about it.</p> + +<p>"There's a ship on the reef, sure enough, and by the cut of her she's +the Santa Cruz we spoke this afternoon," said Mr. Jacob, and added, "a +dangerous shore, sir, a dangerous shore."</p> + +<p>"But full of kind-hearted people that fire their guns at poor +shipwrecked mariners," put in Peter Bligh. I wouldn't believe him at +first, but there was no denying it, awful truth that it was, when a few +minutes had passed.</p> + +<p>"Good God," cried I, "it can't be so, Peter, and yet that's a rifle's +tongue, or I've lost my hearing."</p> + +<p>Well, we all stood together and listened as men listen for some poor +creature's death-cry, or the sounds which come in the stillness of the +night to affright and unnerve us. Sure enough, you couldn't have +counted ten before the report of guns was heard distinctly above the +distant roar of breakers; while flashes of crimson light, playing about +the reef, seemed to tell the whole story without another word from me.</p> + +<p>"Those devils ashore are shooting the crew," cried I; "did man ever +hear such bloody work? I'll have a reckoning for this, if it takes me +twenty years. Lower away the boats, lads; I'm going to dance to that +music."</p> + +<p>They swung the two longboats out on the davits, and the port crew were +in their seats, when Mister Jacob touched my arm and questioned my +order—a thing I haven't known him to do twice in ten years.</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon, sir," said he, "but there's no boat that will help the +Santa Cruz to-night."</p> + +<p>"And why, Mister Jacob—why do you say that?"</p> + +<p>"Because she's gone where neither you nor I wish to go yet awhile, +Mister Begg."</p> + +<p>I stood as though he had shot me, and clapping my glass to my eye I +took another look towards the northern reef and the ship that was +stranded there. But no ship was to be seen. She had disappeared in a +twinkling; the sea had swallowed her up. And over the water, as an +eerie wail, lasting and doleful, came the death-cries of those who +perished with her.</p> + +<p>"God rest their poor souls and punish them that sent them there," said +Peter Bligh fervently; but Mister Jacob was still full of his prudent +talk.</p> + +<p>"We're four miles out, and the moon will be gone in ten minutes, sir. +You couldn't make the reef if you tried, and if you could, you'd find +none living. This sea would best the biggest boat that ever a ship +carried—it will blow harder in an hour, and what then? We've friends +of our own to serve, and the door that Providence opens we've no right +to shut. I say nothing against humanity, Captain Begg, but I wouldn't +hunt the dead in the water when I could help the living ashore."</p> + +<p>I saw his point in a moment, and had nothing to say against it. No +small boat could have lived in the reefs about the northern end of the +island with the sea that was running that night. If the devils who +fired down upon the poor fellows of the Santa Cruz were still watching +like vultures for human meat, fair argument said, the main island would +be free of them for us to go ashore as we pleased. A better opportunity +might not be found for a score of months. I never blame myself, least +of all now, when I know Ruth Bellenden's story, that I listened that +night to the clearheaded wisdom of Anthony Jacob.</p> + +<p>"You're right, as always, Mister Jacob. I've no call to take these good +fellows on a fool's errand. And it's going to blow hard, as you say. +We'll take in one of the boats, and those that are for the shore will +make haste to get aboard the other."</p> + +<p>This I said to him, but to the men I put it in a few seaman's words.</p> + +<p>"Lads," I said, "no boat that Southampton ever built could swim in +yonder tide where it makes between the reefs. We'd like to help +shipmates, but the chance is not ours. There's another little shipmate +ashore there that needs our help pretty badly. I'm going in for her +sake, and there's not a man of you that will not do his duty by the +ship when I'm gone. Aye, you'll stand by Mister Jacob, lads, I may tell +him that?"</p> + +<p>They gave me a rousing cheer, which was a pretty foolish thing to have +done, and it took all my voice to silence them. Lucky for us, there was +a cloud over the moon now, and darkness like a black vapour upon the +sea. Not a lamp burned on the Southern Cross; not a cabin window but +had its curtain. What glow came from her funnel was not more than a +hazy red light over the waters; and when five of us (for we took Harry +Doe to stand by ashore) stepped into the longboat, and set her head due +west for the land, we lost the steamer in five minutes—and, God knows, +we were never to see her again on the high seas or off.</p> + +<p>Now, I have said that the wind had begun to blow fresh since sunset, +and at two bells in the first watch, the time we left the ship, the sea +ran high, and it was not oversafe even in the longboat to be cruising +for a shore we knew so little about. I have always accounted it more +good luck than good seamanship which brought us to the cove at last, +and set us all, wet but cheerful, on the dry, white sand about the +ladder's foot. There was shelter in the bay both for man and ship, and +when we'd dragged the longboat up on the beach we gave Harry Doe his +orders and left him to his duty.</p> + +<p>"If there's danger fire your gun," said I—"once, if you wish to call +us; twice, if you think we should stand off. But you won't do that +unless things are at the worst, and I'm hoping for the best, when you +won't do it at all."</p> + +<p>He answered, "Aye, aye," in a whisper which was like a bear's growl; +and we four, Peter Bligh, Seth Barker, and the lad Dolly, besides +myself, climbed the ladder like cats and stood at the cliff's head. To +say that our hearts were in our mouths would not be strict truth, for I +never feared any man, beast, or devil yet; and I wasn't going to begin +that night—nor were the others more ready, that I will answer for +them. But remembering the things we had seen on the reef, the words +which Ruth Bellenden had spoken to me, and that which happened to the +lad and myself last time we came ashore; remembering this, it's not to +be wondered at that our hearts beat a bit quicker, and that our hands +went now and again to the pistols we carried. For, just think of +it—there we were at nine o'clock of a dark night, in a thick wood, with +the trees making ghosts about us, and the path as narrow as a ship's +plank, and no knowledge who walked the woods with us, nor any true +reckoning of our circumstance. What man wouldn't have held his tongue +at such a time, or argued with himself that it might end badly, and he +never see the sun again? Not Jasper Begg, as I bear witness.</p> + +<p>Now, I put myself at the head of our fellows and, the better to find +the track, I went down on my hands and my knees like a four-footed +thing, and signalling to those behind with a bosun's whistle, I led +them well enough through the wood to the wicker-basket bridge; and +would have gone on from there straight down to the house but for +something which happened at the clearing of the thicket, just as I +stood up to bid the men go over. Startling it was, to be sure, and +enough to give any man a turn; nor did I wonder that Peter Bligh should +have cried out as he did when first he clapped eyes upon it.</p> + +<p>"Holy Mother of Music," says he, "'tis the angels singing, or I'm a +dirty nigger!"</p> + +<p>"Hold your tongue," says I, in a whisper; "are you afraid of two young +women, then?"</p> + +<p>"Of three," says he, "which being odd is lucky. When my poor +<span class="nobr">father———"</span></p> + +<p>"To hell with your father," says I; "hold your tongue and wait."</p> + +<p>He lay low at this, and the rest of us gaped, open-mouthed, as though +we were staring at a fairy-book. There, before us, coming down from the +black rocks above, leaping from step to step of the stone, were three +young girls; but, aye, the queerest sort that ever tantalized a man +with their prettiness. You may well ask, the night being inky dark, how +we managed to see them at all; but let me tell you that they carried +good rosin torches in their hands, and the wild light, all gold and +crimson against the rocks, shone as bright as a ship's flare and as +far. Never have I seen such a thing, I say, and never shall. There were +the three of them, like young deer on a bleak hillside, singing and +laughing and leaping down, and, what's more, speaking to each other in +an odd lingo, with here a word of French and there a word of German, +and after that something that was beyond me and foreign to my +understanding.</p> + +<p>"God be good to me—saw man ever such a sight? And the dress of 'em, +the dress of 'em," whispers Peter Bligh. But I clapped my hand upon his +mouth and stopped him that time.</p> + +<p>"The dress is all right," said I; "what I'm wondering is how three of +that sort came in such a place as this. And well born too, well born, +or I don't know the meaning of the term!"</p> + +<p>They were pretty creatures and their dress was like the rest of them. +Short skirts all looped and filled with flowers, toggery above cut out +of some white skin, with caps to match and their hair falling in big +ramping curls about it—they were for all the world like the dancers +you see at a stage play and just as active. And to hear their voices, +sweet and musical, floating from ravine to ravine like a choir singing +in a place of echoes, aye that was something you might not soon forget. +But what they were doing in such a place, or how they came there, the +Lord above alone knew, and not a plain seaman like Jasper Begg.</p> + +<p><a name="f-054"> </a></p> +<p><img src="images/f-054.jpg" height="700" width="398" alt="Like dancers at a stage play" /></p> + +<p class="pictitle">Like dancers at a stage play.</p> + +<p>"What are they saying, Peter—what do you make of it?" I asked him, +under my breath.</p> + +<p>"'Tis the French lingo," says he, foolish-like, "and if it's not that, +'tis the German—leastwise no Christian man that I know of could +distinguish between 'em."</p> + +<p>"Peter," says I, "that's what you learn in the asylum. 'Tis no more the +French lingo than your own. Why, hearken to it."</p> + +<p>Well, he listened, and soon we heard a pretty echo from the valley, for +they'd gone down towards the gardens now; and one word repeated often +had as nice a touch of music as I remember hearing. It was just this: +"Rosamunda—munda—munda," and you can't think how fresh the young +voice sounded in that lonely place, or what a chill it gave a man when +he remembered the devils over at the reef and what they'd done to the +crew of the Santa Cruz. I do believe to this day that our fellows +imagined they'd seen nothing more nor less than an apparition out of +the black rocks above them; and it wasn't until I'd spoken to them in +good honest English that I got them to go on again.</p> + +<p>"Flesh or spirit, that's not a lot to whiten a man's gills," cried I; +"why, thunder, Peter Bligh, you're big enough to put 'em all in your +pocket, and soft enough they'd lie when they got there. Do you mean to +tell me," I asked him, "that four hale and strong men are to be +frightened out of their wits by three pretty girls?—and you a +religious man, too, Peter! Why, I'm ashamed of you, that I am, lads, +right down ashamed of you!"</p> + +<p>They plucked up at this, and Peter he made haste to excuse himself.</p> + +<p>"If they was Christian men with knives in their hands," says he, "I'd +put up a bit of a prayer, and trust to the Lord to shoot 'em; but them +three's agen all reason, at this time of night in such a lone place."</p> + +<p>"Go on with you, Peter," chimes in Dolly Venn; "three ripping little +girls, and don't I wish they'd ask me in to tea! Why, look, they're +down by the house now, and somebody with them, though whether it's a +man or a woman I really don't pretend to say."</p> + +<p>"I'm derned if I don't think it's a lion," says Seth Barker, asking my +pardon for the liberty.</p> + +<p>We all stood still at this, for we were on the hillside just above the +house now; and down on the fair grass-way below us we espied the three +little girls with their torches still burning, and they as deep in talk +with a stranger as a man might have been with his own mother. A more +remarkable human being than the one these little ladies had happened +upon I don't look to see again the world around. Man or lion—God +forgive me if I know what to call him. He'd hair enough, shaggy hair +curling about his shoulders, to have stuffed a feather bed. His dress +was half man's, half woman's. He'd a tattered petticoat about his legs, +a seaman's blouse for his body, and a lady's shawl above that upon his +shoulders—his legs were bare as a barked tree, and what boots he had +should have been in the rag-shop. More wonderful still was it to see +the manner of the young ladies towards him—for I shall always call +them that—they petted him and fondled him, and one put a mock crown of +roses on his head. Then, with that pretty song of theirs, +"Rosamunda—munda—munda," they all ran off together towards the +northern shore and left us in the darkness, as surprised a party of men as +you'll readily meet with.</p> + +<p>"Well," says Peter Bligh, and he was the first among us to speak, +"yon's a nice shipmate to speak on a quiet road. So help me thunder, +but I wouldn't pass round the tin for him in a beauty show, no, not +much! Did ye see the hair of him, captain—did ye see the hair?"</p> + +<p>"And the girls kissing him as though he were Apollo," cries Dolly Venn, +who, I don't doubt, would have done the kissing willingly himself. But +I hushed their talk, and without more ado I went straight down to Ruth +Bellenden's house. All the strange things we'd seen and heard, the +uncanny sights, the firing on the reef, the wild man ashore, the little +girls from the hills—all these, I say, began to tell me my mistress's +story as a written book might never have done. "She's need of me," I +said, "sore need; and by God's help I'll bring her out of this place +before to-morrow's sun."</p> + +<p>For how should I know what long days must pass before I was to leave +Ken's Island again?</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_06"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3> + +<h4>JASPER BEGG MEETS HIS OLD MISTRESS, AND IS WATCHED</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">I had</span> made up my mind to take every +proper precaution before going up +to the house where my mistress lived; and with caution in my head I +left Seth Barker, the carpenter, up on the hill path, while I set Peter +Bligh at the gate of the garden, and posted Dolly Venn round at the +northern side, where the men who had looted the Santa Cruz might be +looked for with any others that I had no knowledge of. When this was +done, and they understood that they were to fire a gun if the need +arose, I opened the wicket-gate and crept up the grass path for all the +world like an ill-visaged fellow who had no true business there. Not a +sound could I hear in all that place; not a dog barked, nor a human +voice spoke. Even the wind came fitful and gusty about the sheltered +house; and so quiet was it between the squalls that my own footfall +almost could scare me. For, you see, a whisper spoken at the wrong time +might have undone all—a clumsy step have cost us more than a man cared +to count. We were but four, and, for all I know, there might have been +four hundred on Ken's Island. You don't wonder therefore, if I asked +myself at times whether to-morrow's sun would find us living or what +our misfortune might spell for one I had come so far to serve.</p> + +<p>It was very dark in the garden, as I have told you, but two of the +windows in the house were lighted up and two golden rings of light +thrown out upon the soft grass I trod. I stood a long time debating +which window to knock open—for it was a fearful lottery, I must +say—and when I'd turned it over and over in my head, and now made out that +it was this window and now plumped for the other, I took up a pebble at +last and cast it upon the pane nearest to the door—for that seemed to +me the more likely room, and I'd nothing else but common sense to guide +me. You may judge of my feelings when no notice was taken of my signal +except by a dog, which began to yap like a pup and to make such a scare +that I thought every window and every door must be opened that very +instant and as many men out on top of me. I said, surely, that it was +all up with Jasper Begg that journey; but odd to tell it, the dog gave +over at last, and no one showed himself, neither was there any whistle +from my company; and I was just making ready to throw another stone +when the second light was turned out all of a sudden and, the long +window being opened, Ruth Bellenden—or, to be more correct, Mme. +Czerny—herself came out into the garden, and stood looking round about +as though she knew that I was there and had been waiting for me. When +at last she saw me she didn't speak or make any sign, but going about +to the house again she held the window open for me, and I passed into +the dark room with her, and there held her hand in mine, I do believe +as though I would never let it go again.</p> + +<p>"Jasper," says she, in a whisper that was pretty as the south wind in +springtime; "Jasper Begg, how could it be any one else! Oh, we must +light a candle, Jasper Begg," says she, "or we shall lose ourselves in +the dark."</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," said I, "light or dark, I'm here according to my orders, +and the ship's here, and as I said to you before the yellow boy to-day, +we're waiting for our mistress to go aboard."</p> + +<p>She had her back to me when I said this, and was busy enough drawing +the curtains and lighting the lamp again. The light showed me that she +wore a rich black gown with fluffy stuff over it, and a bit of a +sparkle in the way of diamonds like a band across her parted hair. The +face was deceiving, now lighted up by one of the old smiles, now hard +set as one who had suffered much for her years. But there was nothing +over-womanish in her talk, and we two thrashed it out there, just the +same as if Ken's Island wasn't full of devils, and the lives of me and +my men worth what a spin of the coin might buy them at.</p> + +<p>"You mustn't call me Miss Ruth," says she, when she turned from the +lamp and tidied up her writing on the table; "of course you know that, +Jasper Begg. And you at my wedding, too—is it really not more than +twelve long months ago?"</p> + +<p>A sigh passed her lips, such a sigh as tells a woman's story better +than all the books; and in that moment the new look came upon her face, +the look I had seen when the yellow man changed words with her in the +morning.</p> + +<p>"It's thirteen months three weeks since you went up with Mr. Czerny to +the cathedral at Nice," was my next word; "the days go slow on this +out-of-the-way shore, I'll be bound—until our friends come, Miss Ruth, +until we're sure they haven't forgotten us."</p> + +<p>I had a meaning in this, and be sure she took it. Not that she answered +me out and away as I wished; for she put on the pretty air of wife and +mistress who wouldn't tell any of her husband's secrets.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," she said, very slowly, "the days are long and the nights +longer, and, of course, my husband is much away from here."</p> + +<p>I nodded my head and drew the chair she'd offered me close to the +table. On her part she was looking at the clock as though she wished +that the hands of it might stand still. I read it that we hadn't much +time to lose, and what we had was no time for fair words.</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," says I, without more parley, "from what I've seen to-night +I don't doubt that any honest man would be glad to get as far as he +could from Ken's Island and its people at the first opportunity. You'll +pardon what a plain seaman is going to say, and count him none the less +a friend for saying it. When you left money in the banker's hands to +commission a ship and bring her to this port, your words to me were, 'I +may have need of you.' Miss Ruth, you have need of me—I should be no +more than a fool if I couldn't see that. You have sore need of me, and +if you won't say so for yourself, I take leave to say it for you."</p> + +<p>She raised a hand as though she would not hear me—but I was on a clear +course now, and I held to it in spite of her.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, "you've need of your friends to-night, and it's a lucky +wind that brought them to this shore. What has passed, Miss Ruth, in +these months you speak of, it's not for me to ask or inquire. I have +eyes in my head, and they show me what I would give my fortune not to +see. You're unhappy here, Miss Ruth—you're not treated well."</p> + +<p>I waited for her to speak; but not a word would she say. White she was, +as a flower from her own garden, and once or twice she shivered as +though the cold had struck her. I was just going on to speak again, +when what should happen but that her little head went down on the table +and she began to sob as though her heart would break.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jasper Begg, how I have suffered, how I have suffered!" said she, +between her sobs; and what could I do, what could any man do who would +kiss the ground a woman walks upon but has no right or title to? Why, +hold his tongue, of course, though it hurt him cruelly to do any such +thing.</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," said I, very foolish, "please don't think of that now. I'm +here to help you, the ship's here, we're waiting for you to go aboard."</p> + +<p>She dried her tears and tried to look up at me with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm just a child, just a child again, Jasper," cries she; "a year +ago I thought myself a woman, but that's all passed. And I shall never +go away on your ship, Jasper Begg—never, never. I shall die on Ken's +Island as so many have died."</p> + +<p>I stood up at this and pointed to the clock.</p> + +<p>"Little friend," I said, "if you'll put a cloak about your shoulders and +leave this house with me I'll have you safe aboard the Southern Cross +in twenty minutes by that clock, as God is my witness."</p> + +<p>It was no boast—for that I could have done as any seaman knows; and +you may well imagine that I stood as a man struck dumb when I had her +answer.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," she said, "you could put me on board your boat, Captain +Jasper, if every step I took was not watched; if every crag had not its +sentinel; if there were not a hundred to say 'Go back—go back to your +home.' Oh, how can you know, how can you guess the things I fear and +dread in this awful place? You, perhaps, because the ship is waiting +will be allowed to return to it again. But I, never, never again to my +life's end."</p> + +<p>A terrible look crossed her face as she said this, and with one swift +movement she opened a drawer in the locker where she did her writing, +and took from it a little book which she thrust, like a packet, into my +hands.</p> + +<p>"Read," she said, with startling earnestness, "read that when you are +at sea again. I never thought that any other eyes but mine would see +it; but you, Jasper, you shall read it. It will tell you what I myself +could never tell. Read it as you sail away from here, and then say how +you will come back to help the woman who needs your help so sorely."</p> + +<p>I thrust the book into my pocket, but was not to be put off like that.</p> + +<p>"Read it I will, every line," said I; "but you don't suppose that +Jasper Begg is about to sail away and leave you in this plight, Miss +Ruth! He'd be a pretty sort of Englishman to do that, and it's not in +his constitution, I do assure you!"</p> + +<p>She laughed at my earnestness, but recollecting how we stood and what +had befallen since sunset, she would hear no more of it.</p> + +<p>"You don't understand; oh, you don't understand!" she cried, very +earnestly; "there's danger here, danger even now while you and I are +talking. Those who have gone out to the wreck will be coming home +again; they must not find you in this house, Jasper Begg, must not, +must not! For my sake, go as you came. Tell all that thought of me how +I thank them. Some day, perhaps, you will learn how to help me. I am +grateful to you, Jasper—you know that I am grateful."</p> + +<p>She held out both her hands to me, and they lay in mine, and I was +trying to speak a real word from my heart to her when there came a low, +shrill whistle from the garden-gate, and I knew that Peter Bligh had +seen something and was calling me.</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," says I, "that's old Peter Bligh and his danger signal. +There'll be some one about, little friend, or he wouldn't do it."</p> + +<p>Well, she never said a word. I saw a shadow cross her face, and +believed she was about to faint. Nor will any one be surprised at that +when I say that the door behind us had been opened while we talked, and +there stood Kess Denton, the yellow man, watching us like a hound that +would bite presently.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_07"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3> + +<h4>IN WHICH HELP COMES FROM THE LAST QUARTER WE HAD EXPECTED IT</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">Now</span>, no sooner did I see the yellow +man than my mind was fully made up, +and I determined what harbour to make for. "If you're there, my lad," +said I to myself, "the others are not far behind you. You've seen me +come in, and it's your intention to prevent me going out again. To be +caught like a rat in a trap won't serve Ruth Bellenden, and it won't +serve me. I'm for the open, Kess Denton," said I, "and no long while +about it, either."</p> + +<p>This I said, but I didn't mean to play the startled kitten, and without +any token of surprise or such-like I turned round to Miss Ruth and gave +her "good-evening."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry you're not coming aboard, Mme. Czerny," says I; "we weigh in +an hour, and it will be a month or more before I call in again. But you +sha'n't wait long for the news if I can help it; and as for your +brother, Mr. Kenrick, I'll trust to hear from him at 'Frisco and to +tell you what he thinks on my return. Good-night, madame," said I, "and +the best of health and prosperity."</p> + +<p>I held out my hand, and she shook it like one who didn't know what she +was doing. The yellow man came a step nearer and said, "Halloa, my +hearty." I nodded my head to him and he put his hand on my shoulder. +Poor fool, he thought I was a child, perhaps, and to be treated as one; +but I have learnt a thing or two about taking care of myself in Japan, +and you couldn't have counted two before I had his arm twisted under +mine, and he gave a yell that must have been heard up in the hills.</p> + +<p>"If you cry out like that, you'll ruin your beautiful voice," said I; +"hasn't any one ever asked you to sing hymns in a choir? Well, I'm +surprised. Good-night, my boy; I shall be coming back for your picture +before many days have passed."</p> + +<p>Upon this, I stepped towards the door, and thought that I had done with +him; but no sooner was I out in the garden than something went singing +by my ear, and upon that a second dose with two reports which echoed in +the hills like rolling thunder. No written music vas necessary to tell +me the kind of tune it was, and I swung round on my heel and gripped +the man by the throat almost before the echoes of the shot had died +away.</p> + +<p>"Kess Denton," said I, "if you will have it, you shall!" and with that +I wrenched the pistol from his grasp and struck him a blow over the +head that sent him down without a word.</p> + +<p>"One," said I, to myself, "one that helped to make little Ruth +Bellenden suffer;" and with that I set off running and never looked to +the right of me nor to the left until I saw Peter Bligh at the gate and +heard his honest voice.</p> + +<p>"Is it you—is it you yourself, Mr. Begg? Thank God for that!" cries +he, and it was no longer in a whisper; "there's men in the hills, and +Seth Barker whistling fit to crack his lips. Is the young lady coming +aboard, sir? No?—well, I'm not surprised, neither, though this shore +do seem a queerish sort of <span class="nobr">place———"</span></p> + +<p>I cut him short, and Dolly Venn running round from his place in the +garden I asked him for his news. The thing now was to find a road to +the sea. What could be done for Ruth Bellenden that night was over and +passed. Our chance lay on the deck of the Southern Cross, and after +that at 'Frisco.</p> + +<p>"What have you seen, Dolly Venn—be quick, lad, for we can't linger?" +was my question to him so soon as he was within hail. He answered me by +pointing to the trees which border the garden on the eastward side.</p> + +<p>"The wood is full of armed men, sir. Two of them nearly trod upon me +while I was lying there. They carry rifles, and seem to be Germans—I +couldn't be sure of that, sir."</p> + +<p>"Germans or chimpanzees, we're going by them this night. Where's Seth +Barker—why doesn't he come down? Does he think we can pass by the +hill-road?—the wooden block! Call him, one of you."</p> + +<p>They were about to do this when Seth Barker himself came panting down +the hillpath, and, what was more remarkable, he carried an uncouth sort +of bludgeon in his hand. I could see that there had been a bit of a +rough and tumble on the way, but it wasn't the time for particulars.</p> + +<p>"Come aboard, sir," says he, breathing heavy; "the gangway's blocked, +but I give one of 'em a bit of a knock with his own shillelagh, and +that's all right."</p> + +<p>"Is there any more up there?" I asked quickly.</p> + +<p>"May be a dozen, may be more. They're up on the heights looking for you +to go up, captain."</p> + +<p>"Aye," said I, "pleasant company, no doubt. Well, we must strike +eastward somehow, lads, and the sooner the better. We'll hold to the +valley a bit and see where that leads us. Do you, Seth Barker, keep +that bit of a shillelagh ready, and, if any one asks you a question, +don't you wait to answer it."</p> + +<p>Now, I had resolved to try and get down to the sea by the valley road +and, once upon the shore, to signal Harry Doe, if possible, and, if not +him, then the ship herself as a last resource. Any road seemed to me +better than this trap of a house with armed men all about it and a +pistol bullet ready for any stranger that lingered. "Aboard the ship," +said I, "we'll show them a clean pair of heels to 'Frisco and, after +that, ask the American Government what it can do for Ruth Bellenden and +for her husband." We were four against a hundred, perhaps, and +desperate men against us. If we got out of the scrape with our skins, +we should be as lucky a lot as ever sailed the Northern Pacific Ocean. +But should we—could we? Why, it was a thousand to one against it!</p> + +<p>I said this when we plunged into the wood; and yet I will bear witness +that I got more excitement than anything else out of that venture, and +I don't believe the others got less. There we were, the four of us, +trampling through the brushwood, crushing down the bushes, now lying +low, now up a-running—and not a man that wouldn't have gone through it +twice for Ruth Bellenden's sake. If so be that the night was to cost us +our lives, well, crying wouldn't help it—and those that were against +us were flesh and blood, all said and done, and no spirits to scare a +man. To that I set it down that we went on headlong and desperate. As +for the thicket itself, it was full of men—I could see their figures +between the trees. We must have passed twenty of them in the darkness +before one came out, plump on our path and cried out to us to halt.</p> + +<p>"Hold, hold," shouts he; "is it you, Bob Williams?"</p> + +<p>"It's Bob Williams, right enough," says I, and with that I gave him one +between the eyes, and down he went like a felled ox. The man who was +with him, stumbling up against Seth Barker, had a touch of the +shillelagh which was like a rock falling upon a fly. He just gave one +shuddering groan and fell backwards, clutching the branches. Little +Dolly Venn laughed aloud in his excitement, elbowed Peter Bligh who +gave a real Irish "hurrugh"; but the darkness had swallowed it all up +in a minute, and we were on again, heading for the shore like those +that run a race for their very lives.</p> + +<p>"Do you see any road, Peter Bligh?" asked I, for my breath was coming +short now; "do you see any road, man?"</p> + +<p>"The devil a one, sir, and me weighing fourteen stone!"</p> + +<p>"You'll weigh less when we get down, Peter."</p> + +<p>"And drink more, the saints be praised!"</p> + +<p>"Was that a rifle-shot or a stone from the hills?" I asked them a +moment later. Dolly Venn answered me this time.</p> + +<p>"A rifle-shot, captain. They'll be shooting one another, then—it's +ripping, ripping!"</p> + +<p>"Look out, lad, or it'll be dripping!" cried I; "don't you see there's +water ahead?"</p> + +<p>I cried the warning to him and stood stock-still upon the borders of as +black a pool as I remember to have seen in any country. The road had +carried us to the foot of the hills, almost to the chasm which the +wicker-bridge spanned; and we could make out that same bridge far above +us like a black rope in the twilight. The water itself was covered with +some clinging plants, and full of winding, ugly snakes which caused the +whole pool to shine with a kind of uncanny light; while an overpowering +odour, deadly and stifling, steamed up from it, and threatened to choke +a man. What was worse than this was a close thicket bordering the pond +on three sides, so that we must either swim for it or turn back the way +we came. The latter course was not to be thought of. Already I could +hear footsteps, and boughs snapping and breaking not many yards from +where we stood. To cross the pond might have struck the bravest man +alive with terror. I'd have sooner forfeited my life time over than +have touched one of those slimy snakes I could see wriggling over the +leaves to the bottom of the still water. What else to do I had no more +notion than the dead. "It's the end, Jasper Begg," said I to myself, +"the end of you and your venture." But of Ruth Bellenden I wouldn't +think. How could I, when I knew the folks that were abroad on Ken's +Island?</p> + +<p>I will just ask any traveller to stand with me where I stood that night +and to say if these words are overmuch for the plight, or if I have +spoken of it with moderation. A night as black as ink, mind you; my +company in the heart of a wood with big teak trees all round us, and +cliffs on our right hand towering up to the sky like mountains. Before +us a pool of inky water, all worming with odd lights and lines of blue +fire, like flakes of phosphorus on a bath, and alive with the hissing +of hundreds of snakes. Upon our left hand a scrubby thicket and a marsh +beneath it, I make sure; Czerny's devils, who had shot the poor folks +on the Santa Cruz, at our heels, and we but four against the lot of +them. Would any man, I ask, have believed that he could walk into such +a trap and get out of it unharmed? If so, it wasn't Jasper Begg, nor +Peter Bligh, nor little Dolly Venn, nor Seth Barker with the bludgeon +in his hand. They'd as good as given it up when we came to the pool and +stood there like hunting men that have lost all hope.</p> + +<p>"Done, by all that's holy!" says Peter Bligh, drawing back from the +pond as from some horrid pit. "Snakes I have seen, nateral and +unnateral, but them yonder give me the +<span class="nobr">creeps———"</span></p> + +<p>"Creeps or no creeps, the others will be up here in five minutes, and +what are you going to do then, Peter Bligh, what then?" asks I, for as +I'm a living man I didn't know which way to turn from it.</p> + +<p>Seth Barker was the one that answered me.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to knock some nails in, by your leave," says he, and with +that he stood very still and bade us listen. The whole wood was full of +the sound of "halloaing" now. Far and wide I heard question and answer, +and a lingering yodle such as the Swiss boys make on the mountains. It +couldn't be many minutes, I said, before the first man was out on our +trail; and there I was right, for one of them came leaping out of the +wood straight into Peter Bligh's arms before I'd spoken another word. +Poor devil—it was the last good-night for him in this world—for Peter +passes him on, so to speak, and he went headlong into the pond without +any one knowing how he got there. A more awful end I hope I may never +hear of, and yet, God knows, he brought it on himself. As for Peter +Bligh, the shock set him sobbing like a woman. It was all my work to +get him on again.</p> + +<p>"No fault of ours," said I; "we're here for a woman's sake, and if +there's man's work to do, we'll do it, lads. Take my advice and you'll +turn straight back and run for it. Better a tap on the head than a cry +in yonder pool."</p> + +<p>They replied fearsomely—the strain was telling upon them badly. That +much I learnt from their husky voices and the way they kept close to +me, as though I could protect them. Seth Barker, especially, big man +that he was, began to mutter to himself in the wildest manner possible; +while little Dolly burst into whistling from time to time in a way that +made me crazy.</p> + +<p>"That's right, lad," cried I, "tell them you're here, and ask after +the health of their womenfolk. You've done with this world, I see, and +made it straight for the next. If you've a match in your pocket, strike +it to keep up their spirits."</p> + +<p>Well, he stopped short, and I was ashamed of myself a minute after for +speaking so to a mere lad whose life was before him and who'd every +right to be afraid.</p> + +<p>"Come," said I, more kindly, "keep close to me, Dolly, and if you don't +know where I am, why, put out your hand and touch me. I've been in +worse scrapes than this, my boy, and I'll lead you out of it somehow. +After all, we've ship over yonder and Mister Jacob isn't done with yet. +Keep up your heart, then, and put your best leg forward."</p> + +<p>Now, this was spoken to put courage into him—not that I believed what +I said, but because he and the others counted upon me, and my own +feelings had to go under somehow. For the matter of that, it looked all +Lombard Street to a China orange against us when we took the woodland +path again; and so I believe it would have been but for something which +came upon us like a thunder-flash, and changed all our despair to a +desperate hope. And to this something Peter Bligh was the first to call +our attention.</p> + +<p>"Is it fireflies or lanterns?" cries he all at once, bringing out the +words like a pump might have done; "yonder on the hillside, shipmates— +is it fireflies or lanterns?"</p> + +<p>I stood to look, and while I stood Seth Barker named the thing.</p> + +<p>"It's lanterns," cries he; "lanterns, sure and certain, captain."</p> + +<p>"And the three ripping little girls carrying them," puts in Dolly Venn.</p> + +<p>"'Tis no woman ever born that would hunt down four poor sailor-men," +cries Peter Bligh.</p> + +<p>"To say nothing of the he-lion they was a-fondling of"—from Seth +Barker.</p> + +<p>"Lads," said I, in my turn, "this is the unlooked for, and I, for one, +don't mean to pass it by. I'm going to ask those young ladies for a +short road to the hills—and not lose any time about it either."</p> + +<p>They all said "Aye, aye," and we ran forward together. The halloaing in +the wood was closing in about us now; you could hear voices wherever +you turned an ear. As for the lanterns, they darted from bush to bush +like glow-worms on a summer's night, so that I made certain they would +dodge us after all. My heart was low down enough, be sure of it, when I +lost view of those guiding stars altogether, and found myself face to +face with the last figure I might have asked for if you'd given me the +choice of a hundred.</p> + +<p>For what should happen but that the weird being, whom Seth Barker had +called the "he-lion," the old fellow in petticoats, whom the little +girls made such a fuss of, he, I say, appeared of a sudden right in the +path before us, and, holding up a lantern warningly, he hailed us with +a word which told us that he was our friend—the very last I would have +named for that in all the island.</p> + +<p>"Jasper Begg," cried he, in a voice that I'd have known for a +Frenchman's anywhere, "follow Clair-de-Lune—follow—follow!"</p> + +<p>He turned to the bushes behind him, and, seeming to dive between them, +we found him, when we followed, flat on his stomach, the lantern out, +and he running like a dog up a winding path before him. He was leading +us to the heights, I said; and when I remembered the great bare peaks +and steeple-like rocks, upstanding black and gloomy under the starry +sky, I began to believe that this wild man was right and that in the +hills our safety lay.</p> + +<p>But of that we had yet to learn, and for all we knew to the contrary it +might have been a trap.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_08"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII</h3> + +<h4>THE BIRD'S NEST IN THE HILLS</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">There</span> had been a great sound of +"halloaing" and firing in the woods +when we raced through them for our lives; but it was all still and cold +on the mountain-side, and you could hear even a stone falling or the +drip of water as it oozed from the black rocks to the silent pools +below. What light there was came down through the craggy gorge; and it +was not until we had climbed up and up for a good half-hour or more +that we began to hear the sea-breeze whistling among the higher peaks +like wild music which the spirits might have made. As for the path +itself, it was oftentimes but a ledge against the wall of some sheer +height; and none, I think, but seamen could have followed it, surely. +Even I remembered where I was, and feared to look down sometimes; but +danger bridges many a perilous road, and what with the silence and the +fresh breezes and the thought that we might live through the night, +after all, I believe I could have hugged the wild old man who led us +upward so unflinchingly.</p> + +<p>I say that he went on unflinchingly, and surely no goat could have +climbed quicker than he did. Now standing over an abyss which made you +silly to look down into; now pulling himself up by bush or branch; at +other times scrambling over loose shale as though he had neither hands +nor knees to cut, he might well have scared the coolest who had met him +without warning on such a road. As for the four men he had saved from +the devils in the thickets below, I don't believe there was one of them +who didn't trust him from the first. The sea is a sure school for +knowing men and their humours. If this old Frenchman chose to put a +petticoat about his legs, and to wear a lion's mane down his back, we +liked him all the better for that. What we had seen of the young girls' +behaviour towards him made up for that which we did not know about him. +He must have had a tender place somewhere in his heart, or three young +women wouldn't fondle him like a dog. Like a ship out of the night had +he crossed our path; and his port must be our port, since we knew no +other. That's why, I say, we followed him over the dangerous road like +children follow a master. He was leading us to some good haven—I had +no doubt of it. The thing that remained to tell was, had we the +strength and the breath to reach it?</p> + +<p>You may imagine that it was no light thing to run such a race as we had +run, and to be asked to climb a mountain on the top of it. For my part, +I was so dead tired that every step up the hillside was like a knife in +my side; and as for Peter Bligh, I wonder he didn't go rolling down to +the rocks, so hard did he breathe and so heavy he was. But men will do +wonders to save their necks, and that is how it is that we went up and +still up, through the black ravine, to the blue peaks above. Aye, a +fearsome place we had come to now, with terrible gorges, and wild +shapes of rocks, like dead men's faces leering out of the darkness. The +wind howled with a human voice, the desolation of all the earth seemed +here. And yet the old man must push on—up, up, as though he would +touch the very sky.</p> + +<p>"The Lord be good to me," cried Peter Bligh, at last; "I can go no +farther if it's a million a mile! Oh, Mister Begg, for the love of God, +clap a rope about the wild man's legs."</p> + +<p>I pushed him on over a sloping peak of shale, and told him to hold his +tongue.</p> + +<p>"Will you lie in the pool, then? Where's your courage, man? Another +hundred yards and you shall stop to breathe. There's the old lion +himself waiting for us, and a big bill of thanks he has against us, to +be sure."</p> + +<p>I said no more, but climbed the steep to the Frenchman's side, and +found him waiting on the bank of that which seemed to be a great +cup-like hole, black and bottomless and the last place you'd have picked +for a camp on all the hillside. Dolly Venn was already there, and Seth +Barker, lying on the stones and panting like a great dog. Old +Clair-de-Lune alone was fresh and ready, and able in his broken English +to tell us what he wished.</p> + +<p>"Messieurs," he said, "speak not long but go down. I myself am shipmate +too. Ah, messieurs, you do wise to follow me. Down there no dog bark. I +show you the ladder, and all be well. To-morrow you speak your ship—go +home. For me, never again—I die here with the children, messieurs; +none shall come for old Clair-de-Lune, none, never at no time—but you, +you I save for the shipmates' <span class="nobr">sake———"</span></p> + +<p>It was odd talk, but no time to argue about it. I saw a ladder thrust +up out of the pit, and when the old man went down I followed without +hesitation. A lantern lighted in the darkness showed me a hollow nest +20 feet deep, perhaps, and carpeted over with big brown leaves and rugs +spread out; and in one corner that which was not unlike a bed. +Moreover, there was a little stove in the place and upon one side an +awning stretched against the rain; while cooking pots and pans and +other little things made it plain at a glance that this was the man's +own refuge in the mountains, and that here, at least, some part of his +life was spent. No further witness to his honesty could be asked for. +He had brought us to his own home. It was time to speak of thanks.</p> + +<p>"What you've done for us neither me nor mine will ever forget," said I, +warmly. "Here's a seaman's hand and a seaman's thanks. Should the day +come when we can do a like turn to you, be sure I'll be glad to hear of +it; and if it came that you had the mind to go aboard with us—aye, and +the young ladies, too—why, you'll find no one more willing than Jasper +Begg."</p> + +<p>We shook hands, and he set the lantern down upon the floor. Peter Bligh +was lying on his back now, crying to a calendar of saints to help him; +Seth Barker breathed like a winded horse; little Dolly Venn stood +against the wall of the pit with his head upon his arm, like a runner +after a race; the old Frenchman drew the ladder down and made all snug +as a ship is made for the night.</p> + +<p>"No one come here," he said, "no one find the way. You sleep, and +to-morrow you signal ship to go down where I show. For me and mine, not +so. This is my home; I am stranger in my own country. No one remember +Clair-de-Lune. Twelve years I live here—five times I sleep the +dreadful sleep which the island make—five times I live where others +die. Why go home, messieurs, if you not have any? I not go; but you, +you hasten because of the sleep."</p> + +<p>We all pricked up our ears at this curious saying, and Dolly Venn, he +whipped out a question before I could—indeed, he spoke the French +tongue very prettily; and for about five minutes the two of them went +at it hammer and tongs like two old women at charring.</p> + +<p>"What does he mean by sleep-time, lad?" I asked in between their +argument. "Why shouldn't a man sleep on Ken's Island? What nonsense +will he talk next?"</p> + +<p>I'd forgotten that the old man spoke English too, but he turned upon me +quickly to remind me of the fact.</p> + +<p>"No nonsense, monsieur, as many a one has found—no nonsense at all, +but very dreadful thing. Three, four time by the year it come; three, +four time it go. All men sleep if they not go away—you sleep if you +not go away. Ah, the good God send you to the ship before that day."</p> + +<p>He did his best to put it clearly, but he might as well have talked +Chinese. Dolly, who understood his lingo, made a brave attempt, but did +not get much farther.</p> + +<p>"He says that this island is called by the Japanese the Island of +Sleep. Two or three times every year there comes up from the marshes a +poisonous fog which sends you into a trance from which you don't +recover, sometimes for months. It can't be true, sir, and yet that's +what he says."</p> + +<p>"True or untrue, Dolly," said I, in a low voice, "we'll not give it the +chance. It's a fairy tale, of course, though it doesn't sound very +pretty when you hear it."</p> + +<p>"Nor is that music any more to my liking," exclaimed Peter Bligh, at +this point, meaning that we should listen to a couple of gunshots +fired, not in the woods far down below us, but somewhere, as it seemed, +on the sea-beach we had failed to make.</p> + +<p>"That would be Harry Doe warning us," cried I.</p> + +<p>"And meaning that it was dangerous for us to go down."</p> + +<p>"He'll have put off and saved the longboat, anyway. We'll hail him at +dawn, and see where the ship is."</p> + +<p>They heard me in silence. The tempest roaring in the peaks above that +weird, wild place; our knowledge of the men on the island below; the +old Frenchman's strange talk—no wonder that our eyes were wide open +and sleep far from them.</p> + +<p>Dawn, indeed, we waited for as those who are passing through the +terrible night. I think sometimes that, if we had known what was in +store for us, we should have prayed to God that we might not see the +day.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_09"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3> + +<h4>WE LOOK OUT FOR THE SOUTHERN CROSS</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">The</span> wind blew a hurricane all that +night, and was still a full gale +when dawn broke. To say that no man among us slept is to put down a +very obvious thing. The roaring of the breakers on the reefs below us, +the showers of stones which the heights rained down, the dreadful +noises like wild human voices in the hills, drove sleep far from any +man's eyes. And more than that, there was the ship to think of. What +had become of the ship? Where did she lie? When should we see her +again? Aye, how often we asked each other that question when the blast +thundered and the lightning seemed to open the very heavens, and the +spindrift was blown clean over the heights to fall like a salt spray +upon our faces. Was it well with the ship or ill? Mister Jacob we knew +to be a good seaman, none better. With him the decision lay to run for +the open water or to risk everything for our sakes. If he made up his +mind that the safety of the Southern Cross demanded sea-room he would +take it, and let to-morrow look after itself. But I was anxious, none +the less; for, if the ship were gone, "God help us on Ken's Island," I +said.</p> + +<p>Now, the old Frenchman was the first to be moving when the day came, +and no sooner did all the higher peaks show us a glimmer of the +dawn-light—very beautiful and awesome to look upon—than he +set up the ladder and began to show us the way to the mountain-top.</p> + +<p>"You make signal; you fetch ship. Sailormen go down where landman +afraid. Little boat come in; shipmate go out. Old Clair-de-Lune he +know. Ah, messieurs, the wind is very dreadful to-day—what you call +harriken. Other day, all quite easy plan—but this day not so, great +water, all white—no go, no man."</p> + +<p>It was queer talk, and we might have laughed at him if we'd have +forgotten that he saved our lives last night and was waiting to save +them again this morning. But you don't laugh at a friend, talk as he +may, and for that matter we were all too excited to think of any such +thing, and we made haste to scramble up out of the pit and to follow +him to the heights where the truth should be known—the best of it or +the worst. For the path or its dangerous places we cared nothing now. +The rocks, upstanding all about us, shut in the view as some great +basin cut in the mountain's heart. You could see the black sky above +and the bottomless chasms below—but of the water nothing. Imagine, +then, how we raced for the summit: now up on our feet, now on all-fours +like dogs; now calling, man to man, to hasten; now saying that haste +wouldn't help us. And no wonder—no wonder our hearts beat high and our +hands were unsteady, for beyond the basin we should find the sea, and +the view might show us life or death.</p> + +<p>Old Clair-de-Lune was the first to be up, but I was close upon his +heels, and Dolly Venn not far behind me. Who spoke the first word I +don't rightly recollect; but I hadn't been on the heights more than ten +seconds when I knew why it was spoken, and what the true meaning of it +might be.</p> + +<p>The ship was gone!</p> + +<p>All the eyes in the wide world could not have found her on that angry +sea below us, or anywhere on the black and looming horizon beyond. The +night had taken her. The ship was gone. Hope as we might, speak up as +we might, tell each other this story or tell each other that—the one +sure fact remained that the Southern Cross had steamed away from Ken's +Island and left us to our fates.</p> + +<p>"He'll be running for sea-room, and come in when the gale falls," said +Peter Bligh, when we had stood all together a little while, as +crestfallen a lot as the Pacific Ocean could show that day; "trust +Mister Jacob to be cautious—he's a Scotchman, and would think first of +the ship. A precious lot of good his wages would do him if the ship +were down in sixty fathoms and he inside her!"</p> + +<p>"That's true," cried Dolly Venn, "though your poor old father didn't +say it, Mister Bligh. The ship's gone, but she'll come back again." And +then to me he said, very earnestly, "Oh, she must come back, captain."</p> + +<p>"Aye, lad," said I, "let her ride out the gale, and she'll put back +right enough. Mister Jacob isn't the one to desert friends. He'll have +learned from Harry Doe how it stands with us, and he'll just say, +''Bout ship'; that's what Mr. Jacob will say. I've no fear of it at +all. I'm only wondering what sort of shore-play is to keep us amused +until we sight the ship again."</p> + +<p>Well, they looked doleful enough; but not a man among them complained. +'Tis that way with seamen all the world over. Put them face to face +with death and some will laugh, and some will curse, and some talk +nonsense; but never a man wears his heart upon his sleeve or tells you +that he's afraid. And so it was that morning. They understood, I do +believe, as well as I did, what the consequences of the gale might be. +They were no fools, to imagine that a man could get from Ken's Island +to San Francisco in any cockleshell the beach might show him. But none +of them talked about it; none charged me with it; they just put their +hands in their pockets like brave fellows who had made up their minds +already to a very bad job; and be sure I was not the one to give a +different turn to it. The ship had gone; the Lord only knew when she +would come back again. It was not for me to be crying like a child for +that which neither I nor any man could make good.</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "the ship's gone, sure enough, and hard words won't +bring her back again. What Mister Jacob can do for his friends, that, I +know, will be done. We must leave it to him and look after ourselves +far as this place is concerned. You won't forget that the crew +downstairs will be ready enough to ask after our health and spirits if +we give them a look in, and my word is for lying-to here until night +comes or the ship is sighted. It must be a matter of hours, anyway. The +gale's abating; a landsman would know as much as that."</p> + +<p>They said, "Aye, aye," to it, and Peter Bligh put in a word of his +humour.</p> + +<p>"The ship's gone, sure enough," said he; "but that's more than you can +say for my appetite! Bear or dog, I'm not particular, captain; but a +good steak of something would come handy, and the sooner the better. +'Twere enough to bring tears to a man's eyes to think of all the good +grub that's gone aboard with Harry Doe. Aye, 'tis a wonderful thing is +hunger, and the gift of the Lord along with good roast beef and pork +sausages. May-be you find yourself a bit peckish, captain?"</p> + +<p>I answered "Yes," though that was far from the truth, for what with +watching through the night and thinking about the ship and little Ruth +Bellenden's loneliness in this place of mystery, and far worse than +mystery, I'd forgotten all about meal-times, and never once had asked +myself where breakfast was to come from. But now the long faces of my +shipmates brought me to a remembrance of it, and when little Dolly Venn +cried, "Oh, captain, I am so hungry!" I began to realize what a parlous +plight we were in and what a roundabout road we must tread to get out +of it. Lucky for us, the old Frenchman, who had stood all this time +like a statue gazing out over the desolate sea, now bobbed up again, +good Samaritan that he was, and catching Master Dolly's complaint, he +spoke of breakfast on his own account.</p> + +<p>"Ah! you hungry, you thirst, messieurs; sailor-man always like that. +Your ship gone? Never mind, he shall come back again, to-day, to-morrow, +one, two, three day—pray God it be not longer, shipmate, pray +God!"</p> + +<p><a name="f-094"> </a></p> +<p><img src="images/f-094.jpg" height="669" width="448" alt="A picturesque old figure standing there" /></p> + +<p class="pictitle">A picturesque old figure standing there.</p> + +<p>I thought him a fine, picturesque old figure, standing there on the +headland with his long hair streaming in the wind like a woman's, and +his brawny arms outstretched as though he would call the ship back to +us from the lonely ocean. Truth to tell, the place was one to fill any +man with awe. Far as the eye could see, the great waste was white with +the foam of its breaking seas; the headland itself stood up a thousand +feet like some mighty fortress commanding all the deep. Far below us +were the green valleys of the island, the woods we had raced through +last night; pastures with little white houses dotted about on them; the +bungalow itself wherein Ruth Bellenden lived. No picture from the +gallery of a high tower could have been more beautiful than that +strange land with the wild reefs lying about it and the rollers +cascading over them, and the black glens above which we stood, and the +great circle of the water like some measureless basin which the whole +earth bounded. I did not wonder that old Clair-de-Lune was silent when +he looked down upon a scene so grand. It seemed a crime to speak of +food and drink in such a place; and yet it was of these that Peter +Bligh must go on talking.</p> + +<p>"We'll do the prayin', shipmate, if you'll do the cookin'," cried he, +hopefully; "as for that—you speak like a wise man. 'Tis wonderful easy +to pray on a full stomach! There isn't a hunger or a thirst this side +of 'Frisco which I would not pray out of this same island if you'll be +pleased to bring 'em along. Weigh anchor, my man," says he, "and we'll +pipe down to dinner."</p> + +<p>Well, the old man laughed at his manner of putting it, and, without +further ado, we all went down to the bird's nest in the hollow, and +there we lighted a fire in the shelter of the pit, and old Clair-de-Lune +going away in search of rations, he returned presently with +victuals enough to feed a missionary, and more than that, as pretty a +trio to serve them as any seaman could hope for. For what should happen +but that the three young girls we'd seen yesterday in the woods came +romping up the hill together; and one bringing a great can for the +coffee, and another a basket of luscious fruit, and a third some new-made +bread and biscuit—they ran down the ladder to us and began to +talk in their pretty language, and now and then in English which did +not need much understanding.</p> + +<p>"I am Rosamunda," says one.</p> + +<p>And the second, she says:</p> + +<p>"I am Sylvia—Sylvia—Sylvia."</p> + +<p>And the third, she chimes in with:</p> + +<p>"I am Celestine, and I have brought you bread."</p> + +<p>And they all stood together, shy and natural, looking now at one, now +at another of us; but most often, I thought, at little Dolly Venn, who +had a way of making them understand which an older man might have +envied.</p> + +<p>"And wonderful pretty names, too, young ladies, though a seaman doesn't +often hear the likes of 'em," cries Peter Bligh, gallant enough, as all +Irishmen are. "They're all Pollies in our parts, and it do come easier +to the tongue and more convenient if you know many of 'em. Whereby did +you hitch up names like those?" asks he; "which, askin' your pardon, +seem to me to be took out of a picture-book."</p> + +<p>They giggled at this; but old Clair-de-Lune, who was mighty proud of +them, and justly, answered Peter Bligh as though the question were +serious.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur, in my own country I am artiste; I play the drama, the +comedy, the tragedy. Clair-de-Lune they call me at the theatre. To the +daughters of my master I give the artiste's name—why not? Better the +good name than the bad name! It was long year ago, shipmate; the Belle +Ile was wrecked on these reef; the maitre is drowned, but I and the +young ladies are save. We come, we go, none interfere. The Governor is +angry, we hide in the hill; the Governor laugh, we go down to the +valley. When the sleep-time comes, we go to the house under the sea: +you shall find him a dangerous time, but we hide far down. None +frighten Clair-de-Lune; they frighten of him. He become the father +according to his best."</p> + +<p>It was touching, I must say, to hear this old man's broken story; and +prettier still to see the affectionate eyes with which these little +girls watched every movement of one to whom, I am sure, they were +beholden for all that they got out of Ken's Island. For the rest, the +tale was plain enough. The father had been wrecked and drowned on the +sword-fish reef; the servant had saved the children and himself from +the ship, and his own natural cleverness had done the rest. No one +interfered with him, he said; and this was true. I verily believe that +the devils in the valley below believed that he and the children with +him were nothing more or less than spirits.</p> + +<p>I say his story was plain, and yet there was something in it which was +Greek to me. He had named a house under the sea, and what that meant, +or how any man could build such a house, lay beyond my understanding. I +should have asked a question about it there and then, and have sought +light on the matter if it hadn't been that the food was already cooked, +and, the others being mighty anxious, we sat down to steaming coffee +and broiled kid's flesh and good bread and sweet fruit, and I was very +willing to keep my curiosity. Once, it is true, the young girl who +called herself "Rosamunda" came and sat by my side and wished to talk +to me; but, prettily as she spoke our tongue, her measure of it was +limited, and we did not get very far, in spite of good intentions.</p> + +<p>"Do you like the island, do you like living here?" I asked her.</p> + +<p>She answered me with a doubting shake of her pretty head.</p> + +<p>"In the sun-months, yes, I like it; but not in the sleep-time. You will +go away before the sleep-time, monsieur?"</p> + +<p>"Really, young lady," said I, "it seems to me that it depends upon +Mister Jacob and the ship. But, supposing I cannot go away—what then? +How does the sleep-time concern me?"</p> + +<p>"You must not stay," she said, quickly; "for us it is different; we—we +live in the house under the sea, but no stranger may live there—the +Governor would not permit it. On the island all things sleep. If you do +not go to the house under the sea—ah, monsieur, but you will sail +away, you will sail in your ship."</p> + +<p>She put it very childishly, the same cock-and-bull story that the old +Frenchman had been at last night. What to make of it, I knew no more +than the dead. Here we seemed to be on as fair an island as the whole +Pacific might show you; and yet these odd folk could talk of sun-months +and sleep-time, and other stuff which might have been written in a +fairy-book. Do you wonder that I laughed at them and treated it as any +sane man, not given to fables, would have done?</p> + +<p>"Sleep-time or sun-time, I'll be away before then, please God, +mademoiselle," said I; "do not fear for Jasper Begg, who was always +fond of his bed and won't grumble overmuch, be it sleep or waking. For +the rest, we'll take our chance, as others must do here, I fancy. Mme. +Czerny, for instance—do you know Mme. Czerny, young lady?"</p> + +<p>She nodded her head and said that she did.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, we know Mme. Czerny; she is the Governor's wife. I think she +is unhappy, Monsieur Captain. In the sun-months I see her, but in the +sleep-time she lives in the house under the sea, and no one knows. You +are her friend, perhaps; you would know that she is unhappy?"</p> + +<p>I knew it well enough; but I wished to lead this little talker on, and +so I said I did not.</p> + +<p>"Unhappy, young lady! Why should she be unhappy?"</p> + +<p>I asked it naturally, as though I was very surprised; but you could not +deceive Mlle. Rosamunda. A more artful little witch never played at +fairies in a wood.</p> + +<p>"If she is not unhappy, why have you come here, Monsieur Captain? You +come to help her—oh, I know! And you say that you do not."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so, young lady; perhaps I do—that I will tell you by-and-bye. +But I am curious about the Governor. What sort of a man is he, and +where does he happen to be at this particular moment? I'm sure you +could say something nice about him if you tried."</p> + +<p><a name="f-100"> </a></p> +<p><img src="images/f-100.jpg" height="589" width="448" alt="She looked at me with +her big, questioning eyes" /></p> + +<p class="pictitle">She looked at me with her big, questioning eyes.</p> + +<p>She looked at me with her big, questioning eyes, as though the question +were but half understood. Presently she said:</p> + +<p>"You laugh at me. M. Czerny has gone away to the world. Of course he +would go. He has gone in the ship. What shall I tell you about him? +That he is kind, cruel; that we love him, hate him? Every one knows +that; every one has told you. He is the Governor and we are his people +who must obey: When he comes back he will ask you to obey him too, and +you must say 'yes.' That will be at the sleep-time: eight, nine, ten +days. But why do you ask, Monsieur Captain? Has not Mme. Czerny said it +because you are her friend? I know that you tease me. Sailors love to +tease little girls, and you are no better than the other ones."</p> + +<p>She cast down her eyes at this, and looked for all the world the taking +little coquette that she was. Her odd speech told me something, enough +at least to put a hundred questions into my head and as many useless +answers. The Governor was away. The island alternately hated and feared +him. The sleep-time, whatever it was, might be looked for in ten days' +time. We must be away and on board the ship by then or something +dreadful would happen to us. Ruth Bellenden's unhappiness was known +even to these little girls, and they surmised, as the others had +surmised, that we were on shore to help her. For the rest, the men on +Ken's Island, I imagined, would hunt us night and day until we were +taken. Nor was I mistaken in that. We'd scarcely finished our meal when +there was the sound of a gunshot far down in the valley, and, old +Clair-de-Lune jumping up at the report, we were all on our feet in an +instant to speak of the danger.</p> + +<p>"Halloa, popguns," cries Peter Bligh, in his Irish way; "what for now +would any man be firing popguns at this time of the morning?"</p> + +<p>"It's to ask after your health, Peter," said I, when we'd listened +awhile, "what else should a man be firing after, unless he takes you +for a rabbit? Will you run down and thank him kindly?"</p> + +<p>He hitched up his breeches and pulled out his briar-pipe.</p> + +<p>"If this is track-running, take down my number. I'm through with it, +gentlemen, being not so young as I was."</p> + +<p>A gunshot, fired out at sea, cut short his talk. Old Clair-de-Lune, +nipping up the ladder, bade us follow him, while to the girls he cried, +"<span class="italic">Allez-vous en!</span>" All our quiet talk and content +were gone in an instant. I never answered little Dolly Venn when he asked +me, "Do you think there's danger, sir?" but, running up the hill after the +Frenchman, I helped him to carry the ladder we'd dragged out of the +pit, for I knew he'd need of it.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Clair-de-Lune? Why are they firing?" I asked him, as he +ran.</p> + +<p>"Governor home," was his answer—"Governor home. Great danger, +<span class="italic">capitaine</span>."</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_10"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER X</h3> + +<h4>WE ARE SURELY CAGED ON KEN'S ISLAND</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">We</span> ran up the hill, I say, as men who +raced for their lives. The little +girls, snatching up their bags and baskets, exchanged a quick word with +Clair-de-Lune and then hurried off towards the bungalow. Our own path +lay over difficult rocks and steep slopes and chasms fearful to see. Of +these our leader made nothing, and we went on, up and up, until at last +the road carried us right round the highest peak, on whose very walls +we walked like chamois on a mountain crag. It was here, on a narrow +ledge high above the sea, that the Frenchman stopped for the first +time.</p> + +<p>"Shipmates," said he, when he had got his breath, "journey done, all +finish, you safe here, you rest. I go down to see Governor; but come +back again, come back again, messieurs, with bread and meat."</p> + +<p>Well, I don't think one of us had the voice to answer him. The place +itself—the ledge above the sea and the little low, cramped cave behind +it—occupied all our thoughts. Here, in truth, a man might lie safely +enough—yet in what a situation. The very door of the house opened upon +an abyss a thousand feet above the rocks below. We had the sea before +our eyes, the sea beneath us, the sea for our distant horizon. Day and +night the breakers thundered on the sword-fish reef; the wind moaned in +the mighty eaves of those tremendous crags. We were like men placed +suddenly on a steeple's side and left there to live or fall, as fortune +went.</p> + +<p>I tell you this, plain and straightforwardly, because five days passed +on that awful ledge, and, except for one day, there is nothing but a +seaman's talk of question and answer and idle hope to set down on these +pages. If every hour of the day found one of us with eyes which yearned +for our lost ship, with hearts grown heavy in waiting and +disappointment—that was his affair, and of no concern to others. Be +sure we didn't confess, one to the other, the thought in our heads or +the future we must live through. We had come to Ken's Island to help +little Ruth Bellenden, and this fearful plight was the result of +it—ship gone, the island full of devils that would have cut our throats +for nothing and thought themselves well paid—no knowledge, not the +smallest, of any way of escape—food short and likely to be shorter. +Friends we had, true friends. Night and morning Clair-de-Lune and the +little girls found their way up to us with bread and meat and the news +that was passing. It was on the fifth day that they came no more, and +I, at least, knew that they would never come again.</p> + +<p>"Lads," I said, "one of two things has happened. Either they've been +watched and followed, or the time of which they made mention has come. +I trust the old Frenchman as I would trust my own brother. He knows how +it will fare with five men left on a lonely rock without food or drink. +If he doesn't come up here today, it's because he daren't come or +because he's ordered elsewhere."</p> + +<p>They turned it over in their minds, and Dolly Venn spoke next.</p> + +<p>"Last night in my watch I heard a bell ringing, sir. At first I thought +it was fancy—the sea beating on the rocks or the wind moaning in the +hills; but I got the ladder and went down the hill, and then I heard it +distinctly, and saw lights burning brightly on the reef far out to the +north. There were boats passing, I'm sure, and what was so wonderful +that I didn't like to speak about it, the whole of the sea about the +reef shone yellow as though a great lantern were burning far down below +its heart. I could make out the figures of men walking on the rocks, +and when the moon shone the figures disappeared as though they went +straight down into the solid rock. You may not believe it, captain, but +I'm quite sure of what I say, and if Clair-de-Lune does not come +to-night, I ask you to go down the hillside with me and to see for +yourself."</p> + +<p>Now, the lad spoke in a kind of wonder-dream, and knowing how far from +his true nature such a thing was, it did not surprise me that the +others listened to him with that ready ear which seamen are quick to +lend to any fairy tale. Superstitious they were, or sailors they never +would have been; and here was the very stuff to set them all ears, like +children about a bogey. Nor will I deny that Dolly Venn's tale was +marvellous enough to make a fable. Had it been told to me under any +other circumstances, my reply would have been: "Dolly, my lad, since +when have you taken to sleep-walking?" But I said nothing of the kind, +for I had that in my pocket which told me it was true; and what I knew +I deemed it right that the others should know also.</p> + +<p>"When a man sees something which strikes him as extraordinary," said I, +"he must first ask himself if it is Nature or otherwise. There are lots +of things in this world beyond our experience, but true for all that. +Ken's Island may be rated as one of them. The old Frenchman speaks of a +sleep-time and a sun-time. Lads, I do believe he tells the truth. If +you ask me why—well, the why is here, in these papers Ruth Bellenden +gave me five days ago."</p> + +<p>I took the packet from my pocket, and turned the pages of them again as +I had turned them—aye, fifty times—in the days which had passed. +Thumbed and dirty as they were (for a seaman's pocket isn't lined with +silk); thumbed and dirty, I say, and crumpled out of shape, they were +the first bit of Ruth Bellenden's writing that ever I called my own, +and precious to me beyond any book.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I went on, "this is the story of Ken's Island, and Ruth +Bellenden wrote it. Ten months almost from this day she landed here. +What has passed between Edmond Czerny and her in that time God alone +knows! She isn't one to make complaint, be sure of it. She has suffered +much, as a good woman always must suffer when she is linked to a bad +man. If these papers do not say so plainly, they say it by implication. +And, concerning that, I'll ask you a question. What is Edmond Czerny +here for? The answer's in a word. He is here for the money he gets out +of the wreckage of ships!"</p> + +<p>It was no great surprise to them, I venture, though surprise I meant it +to be. They had guessed something the night we came ashore, and seamen +aren't as stupid as some take them for. Nevertheless, they picked up +their ears at my words, and Peter Bligh, filling his pipe, slowly, +said, after a bit:</p> + +<p>"Yes, it wouldn't be for parlour games, captain!"</p> + +<p>The others were too curious to put in their word, and so I went on:</p> + +<p>"He's here for wreckage and the money it brings him. I'll leave it to +you to say what's done to those that sailed the ships. There are words +in this paper which make a man's blood run cold. If they are to be +repeated, they shall be spoken where Edmond Czerny can hear them, and +those that judge him. What we are concerned about at this moment is +Ken's Island and its story. You've heard the old Frenchman, Clair-de-Lune, +speak of sleep-time and sun-time. As God is in heaven, he spoke +the truth!"</p> + +<p>They none of them answered me. Down below us the sea shimmered in the +morning light. We sat on a ledge a thousand feet above it, and, save +for the lapping waves on the reef, not a sound of life, not even a bird +on the wing, came nigh us. You could have heard a pin drop when I went +on.</p> + +<p>"Sleep-time and sun-time, is it fable or truth? Ruth Bellenden says its +truth. I'll read you her <span class="nobr">words———"</span></p> + +<p>Peter Bligh said, "Ah," and struck a match. Seth Barker, the carpenter, +sat for all the world like a child, with his great mouth wide open and +his eyes full of wonder. Dolly Venn was curled up at my feet like a +dog. I opened the papers and began to read to them:</p> + +<p>"On the 14th of August, three weeks after the ship brought us to Ken's +Island, I was awakened at four o'clock in the morning by an alarm-bell +ringing somewhere in the island. The old servant, she whom they called +'Mother Meg,' came into my room in great haste to tell me to get up. +When I was dressed my husband entered and laughingly said that we must +go on board the yacht at once. I was perplexed and a little cross about +it; but when we were rowed out to the ship, I found that all the white +people were leaving the island in boats and being rowed to those rocks +which lie upon the northward side. Edmond tells me that there are +dangerous seasons in this beautiful place, when the whole island is +unfit for human habitation and all must leave it, sometimes for a week, +sometimes for a month."</p> + +<p>I put the paper down and turned another page of it.</p> + +<p>"That, you see," said I, "is written on the 14th of August, before she +knew the true story or what the dangerous time might mean. Passing on, +I find another entry on September 21st, and that makes it clearer:</p> + +<p>"There is here a wonderful place they call 'The House Under the Sea.' +It is built for those who cannot escape the sleep-time otherwise. I am +to go there when my husband sails for Europe. I have asked to accompany +him and am refused. There are less delicate ways of reminding a woman +that she has lost her liberty.</p> + +<p>"November 13th.—I have again asked Edmond to permit me to accompany +him to London. He answers that he has his reasons. There is a way of +speaking to a woman she can never forget. My husband spoke in that way +this morning.</p> + +<p>"December 12th.—I know Edmond's secret, and he knows that I know it! +Shall I tell it to the winds and the waves? Who else will listen? Let +me ask of myself courage. I can neither think nor act to-night.</p> + +<p>"December 25th.—Christmas Day! I am alone. A year ago—but what shall +it profit to remember a year ago? I am in a prison-house beneath the +sea, and the waves beat against my windows with their moaning cry, +'Never, never again—never again!' At night, when the tide has fallen, +I open my window and send a message to the sea. Will any hear it? I +dare not hope.</p> + +<p>"January 1st.—My husband has returned from his cruise. He is to go to +Europe to see after my affairs. Will he tell them, I wonder, that Ruth +Bellenden is dead?</p> + +<p>"January 8th.—The sleep-time has now lasted for nine weeks. They tell +me that vapours rise up from the land and lie above it like a cloud. +Some think they come from the great poppies which grow in the marshy +fields of the lowlands; others say from the dark pools in the gorges of +the hills. However it may be, those that remain on the island fall into +a trance while the vapour is there. A strange thing! Some never wake +from it; some lose their senses; the negroes alone seem able to live +through it. The vapours arise quite suddenly; we ring the alarm-bell to +send the people to the ships.</p> + +<p>"January 15th.—We returned to the island to-day. How blind and selfish +some people are! I do believe that Aunt Rachel is content to live on +this dreadful place. She is infatuated with Edmond. 'I am anchored +securely in a home: she says. 'The house under the sea is a young man's +romantic fancy.' The rest is meaningless to her—a man's whim. 'I +cannot dissipate my fortune on Ken's Island.' Aunt Rachel was always a +miser.</p> + +<p>"February 2d.—This morning Edmond came to me for that which he calls +'an understanding.' His affection distresses me. Oh, it might all be so +different if I would but say 'yes.' And what prevents me—the voices I +have heard on the reef; or is it because I know—I know?</p> + +<p>"February 9th.—I am on the island again and the sun is shining. What I +have suffered none shall ever know. I prefer Edmond Czerny's anger to +his love. We understand each other now.</p> + +<p>"February 21st.—My message to the sea remains unanswered. Will it be +forever?</p> + +<p>"March 3d.—If Jasper Begg should come to me, how would they receive +him? How could he help me? I do not know—and yet my woman's heart says +'Come!'</p> + +<p>"April 4th.—There has been a short recurrence of the sleep-time. A +ship struck upon the reef, and the crew rowed ashore to the island. I +saw them last night in the moonlight, from my windows. They fell one by +one at the border of the wood and slept. You could count their bodies +in the clear white light. I tried to shut the sight from my eyes, but +it followed me to my bed-room!</p> + +<p>"May 3d.—I whispered my message to the sea again, but am alone—God +knows how much alone!"</p> + +<p>I folded up the paper and looked at the others. Peter Bligh's pipe had +gone out and lay idle in his hand. Dolly Venn was still curled at my +feet. Seth Barker I do not believe had budged an inch the whole time I +was reading. The story gripped them like a vice—and who shall wonder +at that? For, mark you, it might yet be our story.</p> + +<p>"Peter," said I, "you have heard what Mme. Czerny says, and you know +now as much as I do. I am waiting for your notion."</p> + +<p>He picked up his pipe and began to fill it again.</p> + +<p>"Captain," says he, "what notions can I have which wouldn't be in any +sane head? This island's a death-trap, and the sooner we're off it the +better for our healths. What's happened to the ship, the Lord only +knows! At a guess I would say that an accident's overtook her. Why +should a man leave his shipmates if it isn't by an accident? Mister +Jacob is not the one to go psalm-singing when he knows we're short of +victuals and cooped up here like rats in a trap! Not he, as I'm a +living man! Then an accident's overtook him; he doesn't come, because +he can't come, which, as my old father used to say, was the best of +reasons. Putting two and two together, I should speak for sailing away +without him, which is plain reason anyway."</p> + +<p>"We walking on the sea, the likes of which the parson talks about?" +chimed in Seth Barker.</p> + +<p>"If you haven't got a boat," says Dolly Venn, "I don't see how you are +to make one out of seaweed! Perhaps Mister Jacob will come back +tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"And perhaps we sha'n't be hungry before that same time!" added Peter +Bligh; "aye, that's it, captain, where's the dinner to come from?"</p> + +<p>I thought upon it a minute, and then I said to them:</p> + +<p>"If Dolly Venn heard a bell ringing last night that's the danger-bell +of which Miss Ruth speaks. We cannot go down to the island, for doesn't +she say it's death to be caught there? We cannot stop up here or we +shall die of hunger. If there's a man among you that can point to a +middle course, I shall be glad to hear him. We have got to do +something, lads, that's sure!"</p> + +<p>They stared at me wonderingly; none of them could answer it. We were +between the devil and the deep sea, and in our hearts I think we began +to say that if the ship did not come before many hours had passed, four +of her crew, at least, would cease to care whether she came or stopped.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_11"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3> + +<h4>LIGHTS UNDER THE SEA</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">The</span> day fell powerfully hot, with scarce +a breath of wind and a Pacific +sun beating fiercely on the barren rocks. What shelter was to be had we +got in the low cave behind the platform; but our eyes were rarely +turned away from the sea, and many a time we asked each other what kept +Clair-de-Lune or why the ship was missing. That the old man had some +good reason I made certain from the beginning; but the ship was a +greater matter. Either she was powerless to help us or Mister Jacob had +mistaken his orders. I knew not what to think. It was enough to be +trapped there on that bit of a rock and to tell each other that, sleep-time +or sun-time, we should be dead men if no help came to us.</p> + +<p>"Belike the Frenchman's took with the fog and is doing a bit of a doze +on his own account," said Peter Bligh, gloomily, towards three bells in +the afternoon watch—and little enough that wasn't gloomy he'd spoken +that day. "Well, sleep won't fill my canteen anyway! I could manage a +rump-steak, thank you, captain, and not particular about the onions!"</p> + +<p>They laughed at his notion of it, and Seth Barker sympathetically +pegged his belt up one. I was more sorry for little Dolly Venn than any +of them, though his pluck was wonderful to see.</p> + +<p>"Are you hungry, Dolly, lad?" I asked him, by-and-bye. Foolish question +that it was, he answered me with a boy's bright laugh and something +which could make light of it:</p> + +<p>"It's good for the constitution to fast, sir," he said, bravely; "our +curate used to tell us so when I went to church. We shall all be +saints—and Mr. Peter will have a halo if this goes on long enough!"</p> + +<p>Now, Peter Bligh didn't take to that notion at all, and he called out, +savagely:</p> + +<p>"To blazes with your halos! Is it Christianity to rob an honest man of +his victuals? Give me a round of top-side and leave me out of the +stained-glass window! I'm not taking any, lad—my features isn't +regular, as my <span class="nobr">poor———"</span></p> + +<p>"Peter, Peter," said I, bringing him to, "so it's top-side to-day? It +was duck and green peas yesterday, Peter; but it won't be that to-night, +not by a long way!"</p> + +<p>"If we sit on this rock long enough," chimed in Seth Barker, who was +over-patient for his size, "some on us will be done like a rasher. I +wouldn't make any complaint, captain; but I take leave to say it isn't +wisdom."</p> + +<p>I had meant to say as much myself, but Peter Bligh was in before me, +and so I let him speak.</p> + +<p>"Fog or no fog," cries he, "I'm for the shore presently, and that's +sure and certain. It ain't no handsome vulture that I'm going to feed +anyway! I don't doubt that you'll come with me, captain. Why, you could +play 'God save the King' on me and hear every note! I'm a toonful drum, +that's what I <span class="nobr">am———"</span></p> + +<p>"Be what you like, but don't ask us to dance to your music," said I, +perhaps a little nettled; "as for going down, of course we shall, +Peter. Do you suppose I'm the one to die up here like a rat in a trap? +Not so, I do assure you. Give me twilight and a clear road, and I'll +show you the way quick enough!"</p> + +<p>I could see that they were pleased, and Dolly Venn spoke up for them.</p> + +<p>"You won't go alone, sir?" asked he.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, and I shall, Dolly, and come back the same way. Don't you fear +for me, my lad," said I; "I've been in a fog before in my life, and out +of it, too, though I never loved them overmuch. If there's danger down +below, one man has eyes enough to see it. It would be a mortal waste +and pity that four should pay what one can give. But I won't forget +that you are hungry, and if there's roast duck about, Peter Bligh shall +have a wing, I promise him."</p> + +<p>Well, they all sat up at this; and Peter Bligh, very solemnly crossing +his fingers after the Italian fashion, swore, as seamen will, that we'd +all go together, good luck or bad, the devil or the deep sea. Seth +Barker was no less determined upon it; and as for Dolly Venn, I believe +he'd have cried like a child if he'd been left behind. In the end I +gave way to them, and it was agreed that we should all set out +together, for better or worse, when the right time came.</p> + +<p>"Your way, lads, not mine," said I; and pleased, too, at their +affection. "As you wish it, so shall it be; and that being agreed upon +I'll trouble Peter Bligh for his tobacco, for mine's low. We'll dine +this night, fog or no fog. 'Twould want to be something sulphurous, I'm +thinking, to put Peter off his grub. Aye, Peter, isn't that so? What +would you say now to an Irish stew with a bit of bacon in it, and a +glass of whisky to wash it down? Would fogs turn you back?"</p> + +<p>"No, nor Saint Patrick himself, with a shillelagh in his hand. I'm +mortal empty, captain; and no man's more willing to leave this same +bird's nest though he had all the sulphur out of Vesuvius on his +diagram! We'll go down at sunset, by your leave, and God send us safely +back again!"</p> + +<p>The others echoed my "Amen," and for an hour or more we all sat dozing +in the heat of the angry day. Once, I think towards seven bells of the +watch, Dolly Venn pointed out the funnels of a steamer on the northern +horizon; but the loom of the smoke was soon lost, and from that time +until six o'clock of the afternoon I do not think twenty words were to +be heard on the rock. We were just waiting, waiting, like weary men who +have a big work to do and are anxious to do it; and no sooner had the +sun gone down and a fresh breeze of night begun to blow, than we jumped +to our feet and told each other that the time had come.</p> + +<p>"Do you, Peter, take the ladder and let Seth Barker steady the end of +it," said I. "The road's tricky enough, and precious little dinner +you'll get at the bottom of a thousand-foot chasm! If there's men on +the island, we shall know that soon enough. They cannot do more than +murder us, and murder has merits when starvation's set against it. Come +on, my lads," said I, "and keep a weather-eye open."</p> + +<p>This I said, and willingly they heard me; no gladder party ever went +down a hillside than we four, whom hunger drove on and thirst made +brave. Dangerous places, which we should have crossed with wary feet at +any other time, now found us reckless and hasty.</p> + +<p>We bridged the chasms with the ladder, and slid down it as though it +had been a rope. The bird's nest, where five days ago we'd first found +shelter from the islanders, detained us now no longer than would +suffice for thirsty men to bathe their faces and their hands in the +brook which gushed out from the hillside, and to drink a draught which +they remembered to their dying day. Aye, refreshing it was, more than +words can tell, and such strength it gave us that, if there had been a +hundred men on the mountain path; I do believe our steps would still +have been set for the bungalow. For we were about to learn the truth. +Curiosity is a good wind, even when you're hungry.</p> + +<p>Now, there was a place on the headland, three hundred feet above the +valley, perhaps, whereat the hill path turned and, for the first time, +the island was plainly to be seen. Here at this place we stopped all +together and began to spy out the woods through which we had raced for +our lives six days ago. The sun had but just set then, and, short as +the twilight is in these parts, there was enough of it for us to make a +good observation and to be sure of many things. What I think struck us +all at the first was the absence of any fog such as we had heard about +both from the Frenchman and Ruth Bellenden's diary. A bluish vapour, it +is true, appeared to steam up from the woods and to loom in hazy clouds +above the lower marshland. But of fog in the proper sense there was not +a trace; and although I began to find the air a little heavy to +breathe, and a curious stupidness, for which I could not altogether +account, troubled my head, nevertheless I made sure that the story of +sleep-time was, in the main, a piece of nonsense and that we should +soon prove it to be so. Nor were the others behind me in this.</p> + +<p>"It is no fog I see which would slow me down a knot!" said Peter Bligh, +when the island came into view; "to think that a man should go without +his dinner for yon peat smoke! Surely, captain, they are simple in +these parts and easy at the bogeys. 'Twill be roast duck, after all— +and, may-be, the sage thrown in!"</p> + +<p>This was all well said, but Dolly Venn, quicker with his eyes, remarked +a stranger fact.</p> + +<p>"There's no one about, sir, that I can see," said he, wisely, "and no +lights in the houses either. I wonder where all the people are? It's +curious that we shouldn't see some one."</p> + +<p>He put it as a kind of question; but before I could answer him Seth +Barker chimed in with his deep voice, and pointed towards the distant +reef:</p> + +<p>"They've lit up the sea, that's what they've done," said he.</p> + +<p>"By thunder, they have!" cries Peter Bligh, in his astonishment; "and +generous about it, too. Saw any one such a thing as that?"</p> + +<p>He indicated the distant reef, which seemed, as I bear witness, ablaze +with lights. And not only the reef, mark you, but the sea about it, a +cable's length, it may be, to the north and the south, shone like a +pool of fire, yellow and golden, and sometimes with a rare and +beautiful green light when the darkness deepened. Such a spectacle I +shall never see again if I sail a thousand ships! That luscious green +of the rolling seas, the spindrift tossed in crystals of light, foam +running on the rocks, but foam like the water of jewels, a dazzling +radiance—aye, a very carpet of quivering gold. Of this had they made +the northern channel. How it was done, what cleverness worked it, it +needed greater brains than mine to say. I was for all the world like a +man struck dumb with the beauty of something which pleases and awes him +in the same breath.</p> + +<p>"Lights under the sea, and people living there! It's enough to make a +man doubt his senses," said I. "And yet the thing's true, lads: we're +sane men and waking; it isn't a story-book. You can prove it for +yourselves."</p> + +<p>"Aye, and men going in and out like landsmen to their houses," cried +Peter, almost breathless; "it's a fearsome sight, captain, a fearsome +sight, upon my word."</p> + +<p>The rest of us said nothing. We were just a little frightened group +that stared open-mouthed upon a seeming miracle. If we regarded the +things we saw with a seaman's reverence, let no one make complaint of +that. The spectacle was one to awe any man; nor might we forget that +those who appeared to live below the sea lived there, as Ruth Bellenden +had told us, because the island was a death-trap. We were in the trap +and none to show us the road out.</p> + +<p>"Peter," said I, suddenly, for I wished to turn their thoughts away +from it, "are you forgetting it's dinner-time?"</p> + +<p>"I clean forgot, captain, by all that's holy," said he.</p> + +<p>"And not feeling very hungry, either," exclaims Dolly Venn, who had +begun to cough in the steaming vapour, which we laughed at. I was +anxious about the lad already, and it didn't comfort me to hear Seth +Barker breathing like an ox and telling me that it should be clearer in +the valley.</p> + +<p>I said, "Yes, it might be," and all together we began to march again. A +sharp walk carried us from the hill path through the tangle of bushes +into the woods wherefrom danger first had come to us. The night had set +in by this time and a clear moon was showing in the sky. Rare and +beautiful, I must say, that moonlight was, shimmering through the hazy +blue vapour and coming down almost as a carpet of violet between the +broad green leaves. No scene that I have witnessed upon the stage of a +theatre was more pleasing to my eyes than that silent forest with its +lawns of grass and its patches of wonderful, fantastic light, and its +strange silence, and the loneliness of which it seemed to speak. So +awesome was it that I do not wonder we went a considerable way in +silence. We were afraid, perhaps, to tell each other what we thought. +When Peter Bligh cried out at last, we started at the sound of his +voice as though a stranger hailed us.</p> + +<p>"Yonder," cried he, in a voice grown deep and husky; "yonder, captain, +what do you make of that? Is it living men or dead, or do my eyes +deceive me?"</p> + +<p>I stopped short at his words and the others halted with me. We were in +a deep glen by this time; and all the surrounding woodland was shut +from our sight. Great trees spread their branches like a canopy above +us; the grass was soft and downy to the feet; the bewitching violet +light gave unnatural yet wonderful colours to the flowery bushes about +us. No fairy glen could have showed a heart more wonderful; and yet, I +say, we four stood on the borders of it, with white faces and blinking +eyes, and thoughts which none would change even with his own brother.</p> + +<p>Why did he do it, you ask? Ah, I'll tell you why.</p> + +<p>There were three men sleeping in the glen, and the face of one was +plainly to be seen. He lay upon his back, his hands clenched, his limbs +stiff, his eyes wide open as though some fearsome apparition had come +to him and was not to be passed by. Of the others, one had dropped face +downward and lay huddled up at the tree's foot; but the third was in a +natural attitude and I do believe that he was dead. For a long time we +stood there watching them—for he whose eyes were to be seen uttered +every now and then a dismal cry in his sleep, and the second began to +talk like a man in a delirium. Spanish he spoke, and that is a tongue I +do not understand. But the words told of agony if ever words did, and I +turned away from the scene at last as a man who couldn't bear to hear +them.</p> + +<p>"They're sleeping," said I, "and little good to wake them, if Miss Ruth +speaks true. Come on, lads—the shore's our road and short's the time +to get there."</p> + +<p>Peter Bligh reeled dizzily in his walk and began to talk +incoherently—a thing I had never heard him do before in all his life.</p> + +<p>"They're sleeping, aye, and what's the waking to be? Is it the madhouse +or the ground? She spoke of the madhouse, and who'll deny, with reason? +There was air for a man in the heights and no parlour plants. I walked +forty miles to Cardiff Fair and didn't dance like this. Take bread when +you've no meat, and, by thunder, I'll fill your glasses."</p> + +<p>Well, he gabbled on so, and not one of us gave him a hearing. I had my +arm linked in Dolly Venn's, for he was weak and hysterical, and I +feared he'd go under. Seth Barker, a strong man always, crashed through +the underwood like an elephant stampeding. The woods, I said, could +show us no more awesome sight than we had happed upon in the hollow; +but there I was wrong, for we hadn't tracked a quarter of a mile when +we stumbled suddenly upon the gardens of the bungalow, and there, lying +all together, were five young girls I judged to be natives, for they +had the shape of Pacific Islanders, and, seen in that strange light, +were as handsome and taking as European women. Asleep they were, you +couldn't doubt it; but, unlike the white men, they lay so still that +they might have been dead, while nothing but their smiling faces told +of life and breathing. They, at least, did not appear to suffer, and +that was something for our consolation.</p> + +<p>"Look yonder, Dolly lad, and 'tell me what you see," said I, though, +truth to tell, every word spoken was like a knife through my chest; +"three young women sleeping as though they were in their own beds. +Isn't that a sight to keep a man up? If they can go through with it, +why not we—great men that have the sea's good health in them? Bear up, +my boy, well find a haven presently."</p> + +<p>I didn't believe it, that goes without saying, nor, for that matter, +did he. But wild horses wouldn't have dragged the truth from him. He +was always a rare plucky one, was little Dolly Venn, and he behaved as +such that night.</p> + +<p>"Better leave me? sir," he said; "I'm dead weight in the boat. Do you +go to the beach, and perhaps the ship will come back. You've been very +kind to me, Mister Begg, so kind, and now it's 'good-bye,' just 'good-bye' +and a long good-night."</p> + +<p>"Aye," said I, "and a sharp appetite for breakfast in the morning. Did +you ever hear that I was a bit of a strong man, Dolly? Well, you see, I +can pick you up as though you were a feather, and now that I have got +you into my arms I'm going to carry you—why, where do you think?—into +Ruth Bellenden's house, of course."</p> + +<p>He said nothing, but lay in my arms like a child. Peter Bligh had +fallen headlong by the gate of the bungalow, and Seth Barker was about +raving. I had trouble to make him understand my words; but he took them +at last and did as I told him.</p> + +<p>"Open that door—with the bludgeon if you can't do it otherwise. But +open it, man, open it!"</p> + +<p>He drew himself up erect and dealt a blow upon the door which might +have brought down a factory chimney. I ran into the house with Dolly +Venn in my arms, and as I ran I called to Barker, for God's sake, to +help Mister Bligh. There would be no one in the house, I said, and +nothing to be got by whispers. We ran a race with death, and for the +moment had turned the corner before him.</p> + +<p>"Get Mister Bligh to the house and bar up the door after you. The fog +will fill it in five minutes, and what then? Do you hear me, Seth +Barker—do you hear me?"</p> + +<p>I asked the question plainly enough; but it was not Seth Barker who +replied to it. You shall judge of my feelings when a bright light +flashed suddenly in my face and a pleasant voice, coming out of +nowhere, said, quite civilly:</p> + +<p>"The door, by all means, if you have any; regard for your lives or +mine!"</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_12"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XII</h3> + +<h4>THE DANCING MADNESS</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">It</span> was a great surprise to me that +here should have been one of Edmond +Czerny's men left in the bungalow; and when I heard his voice I stood +for a full minute, uncertain whether to go on or to draw back. The +light of the lamp was very bright; I had Dolly Venn in my arms, +remember, and it was all Seth Barker's work to bring in Mister Bligh, +so that no one will wonder at my hesitation, or the questions I put to +myself as to how many men were in the house with the stranger, or what +business kept him there when the island was a death-trap. These +questions, however, the man answered for himself before many minutes +had passed; and, moreover, a seaman's instinct seemed to tell me that +he was a friend.</p> + +<p>"Walk right in here," he cried, opening a door behind him and showing +me a room I had not entered when I visited Mme. Czerny. "Walk right in +and don't gather daisies on the way. You've been on a pleasure cruise +in the fog, I suppose—well, that's a sailor all the time—just all the +time."</p> + +<p>He opened the door, I say, upon this, and when we had followed him into +the room he shut it as quickly. It was not a very large apartment, but +I noticed at once that the windows were blocked and curtained, and that +half the space was lumbered up with great machines which seemed made up +of glass bowls and jars; while a flame of gas was roaring out of an +iron tube, and a current of delicious fresh air blowing upon our faces. +Whatever we were in for, whether friendship or the other thing, a man +could breathe here, and that was something to be thankful for.</p> + +<p>"We were caught in the woods and ran for it," said I, thinking in time +to make my explanations; "it may have been a fool's errand, but it has +brought us to a wise man's door. You know what the lad's trouble is, or +you wouldn't be in this house, sir. I'll thank you for any kindness to +him."</p> + +<p>He turned a pleasant face towards me and bade me lay Dolly on the sofa +near the flaming burner. Peter Bligh was sitting on a chair, swearing, +I fear, as much as he was coughing. Seth Barker, who had the lungs of a +bull, looked as though he had found good grass. The fog wasn't made, I +do believe, which would harm him. As for the doctor himself, he seemed +like a perplexed man who has time for one smile and no more.</p> + +<p>"The lad will be all right in five minutes," said he, seriously; "there +is air enough here, we being five men, for," he appeared to pause, and +then he added, "for just three days. After that—why, yes, we'll begin +to think after that."</p> + +<p>I did not know what to say to him, nor, I am sure, did the others. +Dolly Venn had already opened his eyes and lay back, white and +bloodless, on the sofa. A hissing sound of escaping gas was in the +room. I breathed so freely that a sense of excitement, almost of +intoxication, came upon me. The doctor moved about quietly and +methodically, now looking to his burners, now at the machines. Five +minutes came and went before he put another question.</p> + +<p>"What kept you from the shelter?" he asked, at last. I knew then that +he believed us to be Edmond Czerny's men; and I made up my mind +instantly what to do.</p> + +<p>"Prudence kept us, doctor," said I (for doctor plainly he was); +"prudence, the same sense that turns a fly from a spider's web. It is +fair that you should know the story. We haven't come to Ken's Island +because we are Edmond Czerny's friends; nor will he call us that. Ask +Mme. Czerny the next time you meet her, and she'll tell you what +brought us here. You are acting well towards us and confidence is your +due, so I say that the day when Edmond Czerny finds us on this shore +will be a bad one for him or a bad one for us, as the case may be. Let +it begin with that, and afterwards we shall sail in open water."</p> + +<p>I said all this just naturally, not wishing him to think that I feared +Edmond Czerny nor was willing to hoist false colours. Enemy or friend, +I meant to be honest with him. It was some surprise to me, I must say, +when he went on quietly with his work, moving from place to place, now +at the gas-burner, now at his machine, just for all the world as though +this visitation had not disturbed him. When he spoke it was to ask a +question about Miss Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Mme. Czerny," said he, quietly; "there is a Mme. Czerny, then?"</p> + +<p>Now, if he had struck me with his hand I could not have been more +surprised at his ignorance. Just think of it—here was a man left +behind on Ken's Island when all the riffraff there had fled to some +shelter on the sea; a man working quietly, I was sure, to discover what +he could of the gases which poisoned us; a man in Mistress Ruth's own +house who did not even know her name. Nothing more wonderful had I +heard that night. And the way he put the question, raising his eyebrows +a little, and looking up over his long, white apron!</p> + +<p>"Not heard of Mme. Czerny!" cried I, in astonishment, "not heard of +her—why, what shore do you hail from, then? Don't you know that she's +his wife, doctor—his wife?"</p> + +<p>He turned to his bottles and went on arranging them. He was speaking +and acting now at the same time.</p> + +<p>"I came ashore with Prince Czerny when he landed here three days ago. +He did not speak of his wife. There are others in America who would be +interested in the news—young ladies, I think."</p> + +<p>He paused for a little while, and then he said quietly:</p> + +<p>"You would be friends of the Princess's, no doubt?"</p> + +<p>"Princess be jiggered," said I; "that is to say, God forgive me, for I +love Miss Ruth better than my own sister. He's no more a prince than +you are, though that's a liberty, seeing that I don't know your name, +doctor. He's just Edmond Czerny, a Hungarian musician, who caught a +young girl's fancy in the South, and is making her suffer for it here +in the Pacific. Why, just think of it. A young American +<span class="nobr">girl———"</span></p> + +<p>He stopped me abruptly, swinging round on his heel and showing the +first spark of animation he had as yet been guilty of.</p> + +<p>"An American girl?" cried he.</p> + +<p>"As true as the Gospels, an American girl. She was the daughter of +Rupert Bellenden, who made his money on the Western American Railroad. +If you remember the Elbe going down, you won't ask what became of him. +His son, Kenrick Bellenden, is in America now. I'd give my fortune, +doctor, to let him know how it fares with his sister on this cursed +shore. That's why my own ship sails for 'Frisco this day—at least, I +hope and believe so, for otherwise she's at the bottom of the sea."</p> + +<p>I told the story with some heat, for amazement is the enemy of a slow +tongue; but my excitement was not shared by him, and for some minutes +afterwards he stood like a man in a reverie.</p> + +<p>"You came in your own ship!" he exclaimed next. "Why, yes, you would +not have walked. Did Mme. Czerny ask you here?"</p> + +<p>"It was a promise to her," said I. "She left the money with her lawyers +for me to bring a ship to Ken's Island twelve months after her +marriage. That promise I kept, doctor, and here I am and here are my +shipmates, and God knows what is to be the end of it and the end of us!"</p> + +<p>He agreed to that with one of those expressive nods which spared him a +deal of talk. By-and-bye, without referring to the matter any more, he +turned suddenly to Peter Bligh and exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Halloa, my man, and what's the matter with you?"</p> + +<p>Now, Peter Bligh sat up as stiff as a board and answered directly.</p> + +<p>"Hunger, doctor, that's the matter with me! If you'll add thirst to it, +you've about named my complaint."</p> + +<p>"Fog out of your lungs, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Be sure and it is. I could dance at a fair and not be particular about +the women. Put me alongside a beef-steak and you shall see some love-making. +Aye, doctor, I'll never get my bread as a living skeleton, the +saints be good to me, my hold's too big for that!"</p> + +<p>It was like Mister Bligh, and amused the stranger very much. Just as if +to answer Peter, the doctor crossed the room and opened a big cupboard +by the window, which I saw to be full of victuals.</p> + +<p>"I forget to eat, myself, when the instruments hustle me," said he, +thoughtfully; "that's a bad habit, anyway. Suppose you display your +energy by setting supper. There are tinned things here and eggs, I +believe. You'll find firewood and fresh meat in the kitchen yonder. +Here's something to keep the fog out of your lungs while you get it."</p> + +<p><a name="f-138"> </a></p> +<p><img src="images/f-138.jpg" height="624" width="448" alt="We were all sitting at the supper table" /></p> + +<p class="pictitle">We were all sitting at the supper-table.</p> + +<p>He tossed a respirator across the table, and Peter Bligh was away to +the kitchen before you could count two. It was a relief to have +something to do, and right quickly our fellows did it. We were all +(except little Dolly Venn, who wanted his strength yet) sitting at the +supper table when half an hour had passed and eating like men who had +fasted for a month. To-morrow troubled the seamen but little. It did +not trouble Peter Bligh or Seth Barker that night, I witness.</p> + +<p>A strange scene, you will admit, and one not readily banished from the +memory. For my part, I see that room, I see that picture many a time in +the night watches on my ship or in the dreaming moments of a seaman's +day. The great machines of glass and brass rise up again about me as +they rose that night. I watch the face of the American doctor, sharp +and clear-cut and boyish, with the one black curl across the forehead. +I see Peter Bligh bent double over the table, little Dolly Venn's eyes +looking up bravely at me as he tries to tell us that all is well with +him. The same curious sensations of doubt and uncertainty come again to +plague me. What escape was there from that place? What escape from the +island? Who was to help us in our plight? Who was to befriend little +Ruth Bellenden now? Would the ship ever come back? Was she above or +below the sea? Would the sleep-time endure long, and should we live +through it? Ah! that was the thing to ask them. More especially to ask +this clever man, whose work I made sure it was to answer the question.</p> + +<p>"We thank you, doctor," I said to him, at one time; "we owe our lives +to you this night. We sha'n't forget that, be sure of it."</p> + +<p>"I'll never eat a full meal again but I'll remember the name of +Doctor—Doctor—which reminds me that I don't know your name, +sir," added Peter Bligh, clumsily. The doctor smiled at his humour.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Duncan Gray, if it's anything to remember. Ask for Duncan Gray, of +Chicago, and one man in a thousand will tell you that he makes it his +business to write about poisons, not knowing anything of them. Why, +yes, poison brought me here and poison will move me on again; at least +I begin to imagine it. Poison, you see, holds the aces."</p> + +<p>"It's a fearsome place, truly," said I, "and wonderful that Europe +knows so little about it. I've seen Ken's Island on the charts any time +these fifteen years, but never a whisper have I heard of sleep-time or +sun-time or any other death-talk such as I've heard these last three +days. You'll be here, doctor, no doubt, to ascertain the truth of it? +If my common sense did not tell me as much, the machinery would. It's a +great thing to be a man of your kind, and I'd give much if my education +had led me that way. But I was only at a country grammar school, and +what I couldn't get in at one end the master never could at the other. +Aye, I'd give much to know what you know this night!"</p> + +<p>He smiled a little queerly at the compliment, I thought, and turned it +off with a word.</p> + +<p>"I begin to know how little I know, and that's a good start," said he. +"Possibly Ken's Island will make that little less. The master of Ken's +Island is generously sending me to Nature's university. I think that I +understand why he permitted me to come here. Why, yes, it was smart, +and the man who first set curiosity going about Prince Czerny in +Chicago is well out of Prince Czerny's way. I must reckon all this up, +<span class="nobr">Captain—Captain———"</span></p> + +<p>"Jasper Begg," said I, "at one time master of Ruth Bellenden's yacht, +the Manhattan."</p> + +<p>"And Peter Bligh, his mate, who is a Christian man when the victuals +are right."</p> + +<p>Seth Barker said nothing, but I named him and spoke about Dolly Venn. +We five, I think, began to know each other better from that time, and +to fall together as comrades in a common misfortune. Parlous as our +plight was, we had food and drink and tobacco for our pipes afterwards; +and a seaman needs little more than that to make him happy. Indeed, we +should have passed the night well enough, forgetting all that had gone +before and must come after, but for a weird reminder at the hour of +midnight, which compelled us to recollect our strange situation and all +that it betided.</p> + +<p>Comfortable we were, I say, for Dr. Gray had found fine berths for us +all: Dolly on the sofa, his skipper in an arm-chair, Peter Bligh and +Seth Barker on rugs by the window, and he himself in a hammock slung +across the kitchen door. We had said "good-night" to one another and +were settling off to sleep, when there came a weird, wild calf from the +grounds without; and so dismal was it and so like the cries of men in +agony that we all sprang to our feet and stood, with every faculty +waking, to listen to the horrible outcry. For a moment no man moved, so +full of terror were those sounds; but the doctor, coming first to his +senses, strode towards the window and pulled the heavy curtain back +from it. Then, in the dazzling light, that wonderful gold-blue light +which hovered in mist-clouds about the gardens of the bungalow, I saw a +spectacle which froze my very blood. Twenty men and women, perhaps, +some of them Europeans, some natives, some dressed in seamen's dress, +some in rags, some quite naked, were dancing a wild, fantastic, +maddening dance which no foaming Dervish could have surpassed, aye, or +imitated, in his cruellest moments. Whirling round and round, extending +their arms to the sky, sometimes casting themselves headlong on the +ground, biting the earth with savage lips, tearing their flesh with +knives, one or two falling stone-dead before our very eyes, these poor +people in their delirium cried like animals, and filled the whole woods +with their melancholic wailing. For ten minutes, it may be, the fit +endured; then one by one they sank to the earth in the most fearful +contortions of limb and face and body, and, a great silence coming upon +the house, we saw them there in that cold, clear light, outposts of the +death which Ken's Island harboured.</p> + +<p>We saw the thing, we knew its dreadful truth, yet many minutes passed +before one among us opened his lip. The spell was still on us—a spell +of dread and fear I pray that few men may know.</p> + +<p>"The laughing fever," exclaimed the doctor, at last, letting the +curtain fall back with trembling hand. "Yes, I have heard of that +somewhere."</p> + +<p>And then he said, pointing to the lamp upon the table:</p> + +<p>"Three days, my friends, three days between us and that!"</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_13"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIII</h3> + +<h4>THE STORM</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">You</span> have been informed that Dr. Gray +promised us three days' security +in the bungalow, and I will now tell you how it came about that we +quitted the house next morning, and set out anew upon the strangest +errand of them all.</p> + +<p>There's an old saying among seamen that the higher the storm the deeper +the sleep, and this, may-be, is true, if you speak of a ship and of an +English crew upon her. It takes something more than a capful of wind to +blow sleep from a sailor's eyes; and though you were to tell him that +the Judgment was for to-morrow, I do believe he would take his four +hours off all the same. But at Ken's Island things went differently; +and two, at least, of our party knew little sleep that night. Again and +again I turned on my bed to see Dr. Gray busy before his furnace and to +hear Peter Bligh snoring as though he'd crack the window-glass. +Nevertheless, sleep came to me slowly, and when I slept I dreamed of +the island and all the strange things which had happened there since +first we set foot upon it. Many sounds and shapes were present in my +dream, and the sweet figure of Ruth Bellenden with them all. I saw her +brave and patient in the gardens of the bungalow; the words which she +had spoken, "For God's sake come back to me!" troubled my ears like the +music of the sea. Sometimes, as dreams will, the picture was but a +vague shadow, and would send me hither and thither, now to the high +seas and an English port, again to the island and the bay wherein I +first landed. I remember, more than all, a dream which carried me to +the water's edge, with my hand in hers, and showed me a great storm and +inky clouds looming above the reef and the lightning playing vividly, +and a tide rising so swiftly that it threatened to engulf us and flood +the very land on which we stood. And then I awoke, and the dawn-light +was in the room and Dr. Gray himself stood watching by the window.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, as though answering some remark of mine, "we shall have +a storm—and soon."</p> + +<p>"You do not say so!" cried I; "why, that's my dream! I must have heard +the thunder in my sleep."</p> + +<p>He drew the curtain back to show me the angry sky, which gave promise +of thunder and of a hurricane to follow; the air of the room seemed +heavy as that of a prison-house. In the gardens outside a shimmer of +yellow light reminded me of a London fog as once I breathed it by +Temple Bar. No longer could you distinguish the trees or the bushes or +even the mass of the woods beyond the gate. From time to time the loom +of the cloud would lift, and a beam of sunlight strike through it, +revealing a golden path and a bewitching vision of grass and roses all +drooping in the heat. Then the ray was lost again, and the yellow +vapour steamed up anew.</p> + +<p>"A storm undoubtedly," said the doctor, at last, "and a bad one, too. +We should learn something from this, captain. Why, yes, it looks +easy—after the storm the wind."</p> + +<p>"And the wind will clear Ken's Island of fog," cried I. "Ah, of course, +it will. We shall breathe just now and go about like sane men. I am +younger for hearing it, doctor."</p> + +<p>He said, "Yes, it was good news," and then put some sticks into the +grate and began to make a fire. The others still slept heavily. Little +Dolly Venn muttered in his sleep a name I thought I had heard before, +and, truth to tell, it was something like "Rosamunda." The doctor +himself was as busy as a housemaid.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he continued, presently, "we should be pretty well through with +the sleep-time, and after that, waking. Does anything occur to you?"</p> + +<p>I sat up in the chair and looked at him closely. His own manner of +speech was catching.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," said I, "something does occur. For one thing, we may have +company."</p> + +<p>He lit a match and watched the wood blazing up the chimney. A bit of +fire is always a cheerful thing, and it did me good to see it that +morning.</p> + +<p>"Czerny has more than a hundred men," said he, after some reflection. +"We are four and one, which makes five; five exactly."</p> + +<p>Now, this was the first time he had confessed to anything which might +let a man know where his sympathies lay. Friend or enemy, yesterday +taught me nothing about him. I learnt afterwards that he had once known +Kenrick Bellenden in Philadelphia. I think he was glad to have four +comrades with him on Ken's Island.</p> + +<p>"If you mean thereby, doctor, that you'd join us," was my reply, "you +couldn't tell me better news. You know why I came here and you know why +I stay. It may mean much to Mme. Czerny to have such a friend as you. +What can be done by five men on this cursed shore shall be done, I +swear; but I am glad that you are with us—very glad."</p> + +<p>I really meant it, and spoke from my heart: but he was not a +demonstrative man, and he rarely answered one directly as one might +have wished. On this occasion, I remember, he went about his work for a +little while before he spoke again; and it was not until the coffee was +boiling on the hob that he came across to me and, seating himself on +the arm of my chair, asked, abruptly:</p> + +<p>"Do you know what fool's errand brought me to this place?"</p> + +<p>"I have imagined it," said I. "You wanted to know the truth about the +sleep-time."</p> + +<p>He laughed that queer little laugh which expressed so much when you +heard it.</p> + +<p>"No," said he, "I do not care a dime either way! I just came along to +advertise myself. Ken's Island and its secrets are my newspaper. When I +go back to New York people will say, 'That's the specialist, Duncan +Gray, who wrote about narcotics and their uses.' They'll come and see +me because the newspapers tell them to. We advertise or die, nowadays, +captain, and the man who gets a foothold up above must take some risks. +I took them when I shipped with Edmond Czerny."</p> + +<p>It was an honest story, and I liked the man the better for it. No word +of mine intervened before he went on with it.</p> + +<p>"Luck put me in the way of the thing," he continued, the mood being on +him now and my silence helping him; "I met Czerny's skipper in 'Frisco, +and he was a talker. There's nothing more dangerous than a loose +tongue. The man said that his master was the second human being to set +foot on Ken's Archipelago. I knew that it was not true. A hundred years +ago Jacob Hoyt, a Dutchman, was marooned on this place and lived to +tell the story of it. The record lies in the library at Washington; +I've read it."</p> + +<p>He said this with a low chuckle, like a man in possession of a secret +which might be of great value to him. I did not see the point of it at +the time, but I saw it later, as you shall hear.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he rattled on, "Edmond Czerny holds a full hand, but I may yet +draw fours. He's a clever man, too, and a deep one. We'll see who's the +deeper, and we will begin soon, Captain Begg—very soon. The +sleep-time's through, I guess, and this means waking."</p> + +<p>Now, this was spoken of the storm without, and a heavy clap of thunder, +breaking at that moment, pointed his words as nothing else could have +done. I had many questions yet to ask him, such as how it was that he +persuaded Czerny to take him aboard (though a man who knew so much +would have been a dangerous customer to leave behind), but the rolling +sounds awoke the others, and Peter Bligh, jumping up half asleep, asked +if any one knocked.</p> + +<p>"I thought it was the devil with the hot water—and bedad it is!" cries +he. "Is the house struck, or am I dreaming it, doctor? It's a fearsome +sound, truly."</p> + +<p>Peter meant it as a bit of his humour, I do believe; but little he knew +how near the truth his guess was. The storm, which had threatened us +since dawn, now burst with a splendour I have never seen surpassed. A +very sheet of raging fire opened up the livid sky. The crashing thunder +shook the timbers of the house until you might have thought that the +very roof was coming in. In the gardens themselves, leaping into your +view and passing out of it again as a picture shuttered by light, great +trees were split and broken, the woods fired, the gravel driven up in a +shower of pelting hail. I have seen storms in my life a-many, but never +one so loud and so angry as the storm of that ebbing sleep-time. There +were moments when a whirlwind of terrible sounds seemed to envelop us, +and the very heavens might have been rolling asunder. We said that the +bungalow could not stand, and we were right.</p> + +<p>Now, this was a bad prophecy; but the fulfilment came more swiftly and +more surely than any of us had looked for. Indeed, Dolly Venn was +scarce upon his feet, and the sleep hardly out of Seth Barker's eyes, +when the room in which we stood was all filled by a scathing flame of +crimson light, and, a whirlwind of fire sweeping about us, it seemed to +wither and burn everything in its path and to scorch our very limbs as +it passed them by. To this there succeeded an overpowering stench of +sulphur, and ripping sounds as of wood bursting in splinters, and beams +falling, and the crackling of timber burning. Not a man among us, I +make sure, but knew full well the meaning of those signals or what they +called him to do. The bungalow was struck; life lay in the fog without, +in the death-fog we had twice escaped.</p> + +<p>"She's burning—she's burning, by<span class="nobr">———!"</span> +cried Seth Barker, running +wildly for the door; and to his voice was added that of Duncan Gray, +who roared:</p> + +<p>"My lead, my lead—stand back, for your lives!"</p> + +<p>He threw a muffler round his neck and ran out from the stricken +bungalow. The whole westward wing of the house was now alight. Great +clouds of crimson flame wrestled with the looming fog above us; they +illumined all the garden about as with the light of ten thousand fiery +lamps. Suffocating smoke, burning breezes, floating sparks, leaping +tongues of flame drove us on. Cries you heard, one naming the heights +for a haven, another clamouring for the beach, one answering with an +oath, another, it may be, with a prayer; but no man keeping his wits or +shaping a true course. What would have happened but for the holding fog +and the sulphurous air we breathed, I make no pretence to say; but +Nature stopped us at last, and, panting and exhausted, we came to a +halt in the woods, and asked each other in the name of reason what we +should do next.</p> + +<p>"The sea!" cries Peter Bligh, forgetting his courage (a rare thing for +him to do); "show me the sea or I'm a dead man!"</p> + +<p>To whom Seth Barker answers:</p> + +<p>"If there's breath, it's on the hills; we'll surely die here."</p> + +<p>And little Dolly, he said:</p> + +<p>"I cannot run another step, sir; I'm beat—dead beat!"</p> + +<p>For my part I had no word for them; it remained for Doctor Gray to lead +again.</p> + +<p>"I will show you the road," cried he, "if you will take it."</p> + +<p>"And why not?" I asked him. "Why not, doctor?"</p> + +<p>"Because," he answered, very slowly, "it's the road to Edmond Czerny's +house."</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_14"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIV</h3> + +<h4>A WHITE POOL—AND AFTERWARDS</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">We</span> must have been a third of a mile +from the shore when the doctor +spoke, and three hundred yards, perhaps, from the pool in the glens. It +is true that the storm seemed to clear the air; but not as we had +expected, nor as fair argument led us to hope. Wind there was, hot and +burning on the face; but it brought no cool breath in its path, and did +but roll up the fog in banks of grey and dirty cloud. While at one +minute you would see the wood, green and grassy, as in the evening +light, at another you could scarce distinguish your neighbour or mark +his steps. To me, it appeared that the island dealt out life and death +on either hand; first making a man leap with joy because he could +breathe again; then sending him gasping to the earth with all his +senses reeling and his brain on fire. Any shelter, I said, would be +paradise to men in the bond of that death-grip. Sleep itself, the +island's sleep, could have been no worse than the agony we suffered.</p> + +<p>"Doctor," I cried, as I ran panting up to him, "Edmond Czerny's house +or another—show us the way, here and now! We cannot fare worse; you +know that. Lead on and we follow, wherever it is."</p> + +<p>The others said, "Aye, aye, lead on and we follow." Desperation was +their lot now; the madman's haste, the driven man's hope. There, in +that fearful hollow, lives were ebbing away like the sea on a shallow +beach. They fought for air, for breath, for light, for life. I can see +Peter Bligh to this day as he staggers to his feet and cries, wildly:</p> + +<p>"The mouth of blazes would be a Sunday parlour to this! Lead on, +doctor, I am dying here!"</p> + +<p>So he spoke; and, the others lurching up again, we began to race +through the wood to a place where the fog lay lighter and the mists had +left. Wonderful sights met our eyes—aye, more wonderful than any words +of mine could picture for you. In the air above flocks of birds wheeled +dizzily as though the very sky was on fire. Round and round, round and +round, they darkened the heaven like some great wheel revolving; while, +ever and anon, a beautiful creature would close its wings and swoop to +death upon the dewy grass. Other animals, terrified cattle, wild dogs, +creatures from the heights and creatures from the valleys, all huddled +together in their fear, raised doleful cries which no ear could shut +out. The trees themselves were burnt and blackened by the storm, the +glens as dark as night, the heaven above one canopy of fiery cloud and +stagnant vapour.</p> + +<p>Now, I knew no more than the dead what Duncan Gray meant when he said +that he would lead us to Czerny's house. A boat I felt sure he did not +possess, or he would have spoken of it; nor did he mean that we should +swim, for no man could have lived in the surf about the reefs. His +steps, moreover, were not carrying him towards the beach, but to that +vile pool in the ravine wherein a man had died on the night we came to +Ken's Island. This pool I saw again as we ran on towards the headland; +and so still and quiet it seemed, such a pretty lake among the hills, +that no man would have guessed the terror below its waters or named the +secret of it. Nevertheless, it recalled to me our first night's work, +and how little we could hope from any man in Czerny's house; and this I +had in my mind when the doctor halted at last before the mouth of an +open pit at the very foot of the giant headland. He was blown with +running, and the sweat dropped from his forehead like water. The place +itself was the most awesome I have ever entered. On either hand, so +close to us that the arms outstretched could have touched them, were +two mighty walls, which towered up as though to the very sky beyond the +vapour. A black pit lay before us; the fog and the burning wind in the +woods we had left. Silence was here—the awful silence of night and +solitude. No eye could fathom the depths or search the heights. What +lay beyond, I might not say. The doctor had led us to this wilderness, +and he must speak.</p> + +<p>"See here," he cried, mopping the sweat from his face and rolling up +his shirt-sleeves, like a man who has good work to do, "the road's down +yonder, and we need a light to strike it. Give me your hand, one of +you, while I fetch up the lantern. A Dutchman didn't write of Ken's +Island for nothing. I guess he knew we were coming his way."</p> + +<p>He stretched out a hand to me with the words, and I held it surely +while he bent over the pit and groped for the lantern he spoke of.</p> + +<p>"Three days ago," said he, "I ran a picnic here all to myself. It is as +well to find new lodgings if the old don't suit. I left my lantern +behind me, and this it is, I reckon."</p> + +<p>He pulled up from the depths a gauze lantern such as miners use, and, +lighting it, he showed us the heart of the pit. It was a deep hole, 30 +feet down, perhaps, and strewn with rubbish and fragments of the iron +rocks. But what was worth more to us, aye, than a barrel of gold, was +the sweet, fresh air which came to us through a tunnel's mouth as by a +siphon from the open sea herself; and, blowing freshly on our faces, +sent us quickly down towards it with glad cries and the spirits of men +who have broken a prison gate.</p> + +<p>"The sea, the sea, by all that's holy!" cries Peter Bligh. "Oh, doctor, +I breathe, I breathe, as I am a Christian man, I breathe!"</p> + +<p>We tumbled down into the pit headlong and sat there for many minutes +wondering if, indeed, the death were passed or if we must face it again +in the minutes to come. There before us, once we had passed the +tunnel's mouth, stood a vast, domed hall which, I declare, men might +have cut and not Nature in the depths of that strange cavern.</p> + +<p>Open to the day through great apertures high up in the face of the +cliff, a soft glow like the light which comes through the windows of a +church streamed upon the rocky floor and showed us the wonders of that +awesome place. Room upon room, we saw, cave upon cave; some round like +the mosques a Turk can build, others lofty and grand as any cathedral; +some pretty as women's dens, all decked with jewels and ornament of +jasper and walls of the blackest jet. These things I saw; these rooms I +passed through. A magician might have conjured them up; and yet he was +no magician, but only Duncan Gray, the man I knew for the first time +yesterday, but already called a comrade.</p> + +<p>"Doctor," I said, "it is a house of miracles, truly! But where to +now—aye, that's the question; where to?"</p> + +<p>He sat upon a stone, and we grouped ourselves about him. Peter Bligh +took out a pipe from his pocket and was not forbidden to light it. +There was a distant sound in the cave like that of water rushing, and +once another sound to which I could give no meaning. The doctor himself +was still thinking deeply, as though hazarding a guess as to our +position.</p> + +<p>"Boys," he said, "I'll tell you the whole story. This place was +discovered by Hoyt, a Dutchman. If Czerny had read his book, he would +know of it; but he hasn't. I took the trouble to walk in because I +thought it might be useful when he turned nasty. It is going to be +that, as you can see. Follow through to the end of it, and you are in +Czerny's house. Will you go there or hold back? It's for you to say."</p> + +<p>I filled my pipe, as Peter had done, and, breathing free for the first +time for some hours, I tried to speak up for the others.</p> + +<p>"A sailor's head tells me that there is a road from here to the reef; +is that true?" asked I at last; "is it true, doctor?"</p> + +<p>He put on his glasses and looked at me with those queer, clever eyes of +his. I believe to this day that our dilemma almost pleased him.</p> + +<p>"A sailor's head guesses right first time," was his answer. "There is a +road under the sea from here to Czerny's doorstep. I'm waiting to know +if it's on or back. You know the risks and are not children. Say that +you turn it up and we'll all go back together, or stay here as wisdom +dictates. But it's for you to +<span class="nobr">speak———"</span></p> + +<p>We answered him all together, though Peter Bligh was the first he +heard.</p> + +<p>"The lodgings here being free and no charge for extras," said Peter, +sagely.</p> + +<p>And Dolly Venn, he said:</p> + +<p>"We are five, at any rate. I don't suppose they would murder us. After +all, Edmond Czerny is a gentleman."</p> + +<p>"Who shoots the poor sailormen that's wrecked on his shore;" put in +Seth Barker, doggedly.</p> + +<p>"He'd be of the upper classes, no doubt;" added Peter Bligh; "he'll see +that we don't sleep in damp sheets! Aye, 'tis the devil of a man, +surely!"</p> + +<p>Doctor Gray heard them patiently—more patiently than I did—and then +went on again:</p> + +<p>"If you stop here, you starve; if you go on—well, you take your luck. +Should the fog lift up yonder, you'll be having Czerny back again. It's +a rule-of-three sum, gentlemen. For my part, I say 'go on and take your +luck,' but I won't speak for you unless you are willing."</p> + +<p>"None more willing," cried I, coming to a resolution on the spot. +"Forward let it be, and luck go with us. We'd be fools to die like rats +in a trap when there's light and food not a mile away. And cowards, +too, boys—cowards!" I added.</p> + +<p>The others said: "Aye, aye, we're no cowards!" And all being of one +mind we set out together through that home of wonders. Edmond Czerny's +house we sought, and thither this iron road would carry us. A path more +beautiful no man has trodden. From this time the great, church-like +grottos gave place to lower roofs and often black-dark openings. By +here and there we dived into tunnels wondrously cut by some forgotten +river of fire in the ages long ago, and, emerging again, we entered a +wilderness of ravines wherefrom even the sky was to be seen and the +cliffs towering majestically above us. Then, at last, we left the +daylight altogether, and going downward as to the heart of the earth I +knew that the land lay behind us and that the sea flowed above our +heads.</p> + +<p>Reader of a plain seaman's story, can you come with me on such a +journey as I and four stout hearts made on that unforgotten day? Can +you picture, as I picture now, that dark and lonesome cavern, with the +sea beating upon its roof and the air coming salt and humid to the +tongue, and the echo of distant breakers in your ears, and always the +night and the doubt of it? Can you follow me from grotto to grotto and +labyrinth to labyrinth, stumbling often by the way, catching at the +lantern's dancing rays, calling one to the other, "All's well—lead +on"? Aye, I doubt that you can. These things must be seen with a man's +own eyes, heard with his own ears, to be understood and made real to +him. To me that scene lives as though yesterday had brought it. I see +the doctor with his impatient step. I see Peter Bligh stumbling after +him. I hear little Dolly Venn's manly voice; I help Seth Barker over +the rocks. And these four stand side by side with me on the white +pool's edge. The danger comes again. The fear, the loathing, are +unforgotten.</p> + +<p>I speak of fear and loathing and of dread white pool, and you will ask +me why and how we came thereto. And so I say that the water lay, may-be, +a third of a mile from the land, in a clear, transparent basin of +some quartz or mica, or other shining mineral, so that it gave out +crystal lights even to the darkness, and the arched grotto which held +it was all aglow, as though with hidden fires. A silent pool it was, we +said, and our path seemed to end upon its brink; but even as we stood +asking for a road, all the still water began to heave and foam, and, a +great creature rising up from the depths, the lantern showed us a +monster devil-fish, and we fell back one upon the other with affrighted +cries. Nor let any man charge us with that. A situation more perilous I +have never been in, and never shall. The fish's terrible suckers +searching all the rocks, the frightful eye of the brute, the rushing +water, the half-light worse than darkness, might well have driven back +a stronger man than I. And upon the top of that was the thought that by +such lay the road to safety. We must pass the grotto, or perish of +starvation.</p> + +<p>Now, the first fright of this encounter was done with in a minute or +two, and when it was plain to us that the devil-fish was stuck in the +pool which some tide of the sea fed, perhaps, and that his suckers +could not reach the higher part of the rock, we began to speak of it +rationally, and to plan a way of going over. I was for emptying our +revolvers into the fish straight away; but the doctor would have none +of it, fearing the report, and, remembering what he had read in the +Dutchman's book, he came out with another notion.</p> + +<p>"Hoyt went over the rocks," said he, calmly, while we still drew back +from the pool affrighted, our hearts in our boots I make sure, and not +one of us that did not begin to think of the fog again when he saw the +devil-fish struggling to be free. "It's not a sweet road, but better +than none at all. Keep behind me, boys, and mind you don't slip or +you'll find something worse than sharks. Now for it, and luck go with +us."</p> + +<p>With this he began to clamber round the edge of the pool, but so high +up that it did not seem possible for the fish to touch him. There was +good foothold on the jagged hunks of rock, and a man might have gone +across safely enough but for the thought of that which was below him. +For my part, I say that my eyes followed him as you may follow a walker +on a tight-wire. One false step would send him flying down to a death I +would not name, and that false step he appeared to make. My God! I see +it all so clearly now. The slip, the frantic clutch at the rocks, the +great tentacle which shot out and gripped his leg, and then the flash +of my own revolver fired five times at the terrible eyes below me.</p> + +<p>There were loud cries in the cave, the wild shouts of terrified men, +the smoke of pistols, the foaming and splashing of water, all the signs +of panic which may follow a fellow-creature about to die. That the +devil-fish had caught the doctor with one of his tentacles you could +not doubt; that he would drag him down into that horrid stomach, I +myself surely believed. Never was a fight for life a more awful thing +to see. On the one hand a brave man gripping the rocks with hands and +foot until the crags cut his very flesh; on the other that ghoul-like +horror seeking to wind other claws about its prey and to drag it +towards its gaping mouth. What miracle could save him, God alone knew; +and yet he was saved. A swift act of his own, brave and wonderful, +struck the sucker from the limb and set him free. Aye, what a mind to +think of it! What other man, I ask, would have let go his hold of the +rocks when hold meant so much to him and that fish swam below? +Nevertheless, the doctor did so. I see it now—the quick turn—the +knife drawn from its sheath—the severed tentacle cut clean as a cork, +the devil-fish itself drawing back to the depths of the crimson pool. +And then once more I am asking the doctor if he is hurt; and he is +answering me, cheerily, "Not much, captain, not much," and we four are +following after him as white as women, I do believe, our nerves +unstrung, our hearts quaking as we crossed the dreadful pit.</p> + +<p>Well, we went over well enough, shirk it as we might. The bullets which +sent the devil-fish to the bottom sent him there to die, for all I +knew. The pool itself was red with blood by this time, and the waters +settling down again. I could see nothing of the fish as I crossed over; +and Seth Barker, who came last and, like a true seaman, had forgotten +his fear already, swung the lantern down to the water's edge, but +discovered nothing. The doctor himself, excited as you might expect, +and limping with his hurt, simply said, "Well over, lads, well over"; +and then, taking the lantern from Seth Barker's hands, he would not +wait to answer our curiosity, but pushed on through the tunnel.</p> + +<p>"It's not every man who has a back-door with a watch-dog like that," +said he, as he went; "Edmond Czerny, may-be, does not know his luck; +I'll tell him of it when we're through. It won't be a long while now, +boys, and I'm glad of it. My foot informs me it's there, and I shall +have to leave a card on it just now."</p> + +<p>"Then the sooner you let us look at it the better, doctor," said I. +"Aye, but you were nearly gone. My heart was in my throat all the time +you stood there."</p> + +<p>"Which is no place for a man's heart to be," said he, brightly; +"especially at the door of Edmond Czerny's house."</p> + +<p>He stood a moment and bade me listen. We were in an open place of the +tunnel then, and a ray of light striking down from some lamp above us +revealed an iron ladder and a wooden trap above it. The sea I could +hear beating loudly upon the reef; but with the sea's voice came +others, and they were human.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the doctor, quietly, "we are in the house all right, and +God knows when we shall get out of it again!"</p> + +<p>And then, with a cry of pain, he fell fainting at my feet.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_15"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XV</h3> + +<h4>AN INTERLUDE, DURING WHICH WE READ IN RUTH BELLENDEN'S DIARY AGAIN *</h4> + +<hr /> + +<p>* The editor has thought it well to give at this point the above +extract from Ruth Bellenden's diary, as permitting some insight into +the events which transpired on Ken's Island after Jasper Begg's +discovery and Edmond Czerny's return.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="firstword">May 5TH.</span>—My message to the +sea has been heard. Jasper Begg is on Ken's +Island. All that this means to me, all that it may mean, I dare not +think. A great burden seems lifted from my shoulders. I have found a +friend and he is near me.</p> + +<p>May 6th.—I have seen Jasper to-night, and he has gone away again. He +is not changed, I think. It is the same honest, English face, the same +cheery English voice. I have always said that Jasper is one of the +handsomest Englishmen I have ever seen. And just as on my own yacht, so +here on Ken's Island, the true English gentleman speaks to me. For +Jasper is that above all things, one of Nature's gentlemen, whom the +rough world will never disguise nor the sea life change. He would be +thirty-five years of age now, I remember, but he has not lost his +boyish face, and there is the same shy reticence which he never could +conquer. He has come here according to his promise. A ship lies in the +offing, and he would have me go to it. How little he knows of my true +condition in this dreadful place. How may a woman go when a hundred +watch her every hour?</p> + +<p>May 7th.—Clair-de-Lune, the Frenchman, came to the bungalow very early +this morning to tell me of certain things which happened on the island +last night. It seems that Jasper is still here, and that the storm has +driven away his ship. I do not know whether to be sorry or glad. He +cannot help me—he cannot!—and yet a friend is here. I take new +courage at that. If a woman can aid a brave man to win her liberty, I +am that woman and Jasper is the man. Yesterday I was alone; but to-day +I am alone no longer, and a friend is at my side, and he has heard me. +His ship will come back, I say. It is an ecstasy to dream like this!</p> + +<p>May 10th.—I have spent four anxious days—more anxious, I think, than +any in my life. The ship has not returned, and Jasper Begg is still a +fugitive in the hills. There are three of his companions with him, and +we send them food every day. What will be the end of it all? I am more +closely watched than ever since this was known. I fear the worst for my +friends, and yet I am powerless to help them.</p> + +<p>May 10th (later).—My husband, who has now returned from San Francisco, +knows that Jasper is here and speaks of it. I fear these moods of +confidence and kindness. "Your friend has come," Edmond says; "but why +am I not to know of it? Why is he frightened of me? Why does he skulk +like a thief? Let him show himself at this house and state his +business; I shall not eat him!" Edmond, I believe, has moments when he +tries to persuade himself that he is a good man. They are dangerous +moments, if all a man's better instincts are dead and forgotten.</p> + +<p>May 11th.—Clair-de-Lune, Edmond tells me, has been sent to the lower +reef. I do not ask him why. It was he who helped my friends in the +hills. Is it all real or did I dream it? Jasper Begg, the one man who +befriended me, left to die as so many have been left on this unpitying +shore! It cannot be—it cannot be! All that I had hoped and planned +must be forgotten now. And yet there were those who remembered Ruth +Bellenden and came here for love of her, as she will remember them, for +love's sake.</p> + +<p><a name="f-172"> </a></p> +<p><img src="images/f-172.jpg" height="700" width="449" alt="The drawing-room is a cave +whose walls are of jewels" /></p> + +<p class="pictitle">The drawing-room is a cave whose walls are of jewels.</p> + +<p>May 13th.—The alarm bell rang on the island last night and we left in +great haste for the shelter. The dreadful mists were already rising +fast when I went down through the woods to the beach. The people fled +wildly to the lower reef. It is not three months since the sleep-time, +and its renewal was unlooked for. To-night I do not think of my own +safety, but of those we are leaving on the heights. What is to become +of Jasper, my friend—who will help him? I think of Jasper before any +other now. Does he, I wonder, so think of me?</p> + +<p>May 13th (later).—The House Under the Sea is built inside the reef +which ties about a mile away on the northern side of the island. There +can be nothing like it in the world. Hundreds of years ago, perhaps, +this lonely rock, rising out of the water, was the mouth of some great +volcano. To-day it is the door of our house, and when you enter it you +find that the rocks below have been hollowed out by Nature in a manner +so wonderful that a great house lies there with stone-cold rooms and +immense corridors and pits seeming to go to the heart of the world. +None but a man with my husband's romantic craving would have discovered +such a place, or built himself therein a house so wonderful. For +imagine a suite of rooms above which the tides surge—rooms lighted by +tunnels in the solid rock and covered over with strongest glasses which +the sea cannot break. Imagine countless electric lamps lighting this +labyrinth until it seems sometimes like a fairy palace. Say that your +drawing-room is a cave, whose walls are of jewels and whose floor is of +jasper. Night and day you hear the sea, the moaning winds, the breaking +billows. It is another world here, like to nothing that any man has +seen or ever will see. The people of a city could live in this place +and yet leave room for others. My own rooms are the first you come to; +lofty as a church, dim as one, yet furnished with all that a woman +could desire. Yes, indeed, all I can desire. In my dressing-room are +gowns from Dousé's and hats from Alphonsine's, jewels from the Rue de +la Paix, furs from Canada—all there to call back my life of two short +years ago, that laughing life of Paris and the cities when I was free, +and all the world my own, and only my girlhood to regret! Now I +remember it all as one bright day in years of gathering night. +Everything that I want, my husband says, shall be mine. I ask for +liberty, but that is denied to me. It is too late to speak of promises +or to believe. If I would condone it all; if I would but say to Edmond, +"Yes, your life shall be my life, your secrets shall be mine; go, get +riches, I will never ask you how." If I would say to him, "I will shut +out from my memory all that I have seen on this island; I will forget +the agony of those who have died here; I will never hear again the +cries of drowning people, will never see hands outstretched above the +waves, or the dead that come in on the dreadful tides; I will forget +all this, and say, 'I love you, I believe in you'"—ah, how soon would +liberty be won! But I am dumb; I cannot answer. I shall die on Ken's +Island, saying, "God help those who perish here!"</p> + +<p>May 14th.—Three days have passed in the shelter, and Clair-de-Lune, +who comes to me every day, brings no good news of Jasper. "He is on the +heights," he says; "if food were there he might live through the +sleep-time." My husband knows that he is there, but does not speak of it. +Yesterday, about sunset, I went up to the gallery on the reef, where +the island is visible, and I saw the fog lying about it like a pall. It +is an agony to know that those dear to you are suffering, perhaps +dying, there! I cannot hide my eyes from others; they read my story +truly. "Your friends will be clever if they come to Ken's Island +again," my husband says. I do not answer him. I shall never answer him +again.</p> + +<p>May 15th.—There was a terrible storm on the island last night, and we +all went up to the gallery to see the lightning play about the heights +and run in rivulets of fire through the dark clouds above the woods. A +weird spectacle, but one I shall never forget. The very sky seemed to +burn at times. We could distinguish the heart of the thicket clearly, +and poor people running madly to and fro there as though vainly seeking +a shelter from the fire. They tell me to-day that the bungalow is +burnt; I do not know whether to be sorry or glad. I am thinking of my +friends. I am thinking of Jasper, thinking of him always.</p> + +<p>May 16th.—I learn that there was a stranger left behind in the +bungalow, a Doctor Gray, of San Francisco. He landed with Edmond last +week, and is here for scientific reasons. My husband says that he does +not like him; but allowed him, nevertheless, to come. He was in the +bungalow making experiments when the lightning struck the house and +destroyed it. It is feared that he must have perished in the fire. My +husband tells me this to-night and is pleased to say it. But what of +Jasper, my friend; what of him?</p> + +<p>May 16th.—I was passing through the great hall of the house to-night, +going to my bed-room, when something happened which made my very heart +stand still. I thought that I heard a sound in the shadows, and +imagining it to be one of the servants, I asked, "Who is there?" No one +answered me; and, becoming frightened, I was about to run on, when a +hand touched my own, and, turning round quickly, I found myself face to +face with Jasper himself, and knew that he had come to save me!</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_16"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVI</h3> + +<h4>ROSAMUNDA AND THE IRON DOORS</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">We</span> had no notion that the doctor had +come by any serious hurt, and when +he fell in a dead faint we stood as men struck by an unseen hand. Light +we still had, for the rolling lantern continued to burn; but the wits +of us, save the wits of one, were completely gone, and three sillier +fellows never gaped about an ailing man. Dolly Venn alone—trained +ashore to aid the wounded—kept his head through the trouble and made +use of his learning. The half of a minute was not to be counted before +he had bared an ugly wound and showed us, not only a sucker still +adhering to the crimson flesh, but a great, gaping cut which the +doctor's own knife had made when he severed the fish's tentacle.</p> + +<p>"You, Seth Barker, hold up that lantern," says he to the carpenter, as +bold as brass and as ready as a crack physician at a guinea a peep; +"give me some linen, one of you—and please be quick about it. I'll +trouble you for a knife, Mister Peter, and a slice of your shirt, if +you don't mind!"</p> + +<p>Now, he had only to say this and I do believe that all four of us began +to tear up our linen and to make ourselves as naked as Adam when they +discharged him from Eden; but Peter Bligh, he was first with it, and he +had out his clasp-knife and cut a length of his Belfast shift before +you could say "Jack Robinson."</p> + +<p>"'Tis unlikely that I'll match it in these parts, and I've worn it to +my mother's memory," says he while he did it; "but 'tis yours, Dolly, +lad, and welcome. And what now?" asks he.</p> + +<p>"Be quiet, Mister Peter," says Dolly, sharply; "that's what next. Be +quiet and nurse the doctor's leg, and do please keep that lantern +steady."</p> + +<p>Well, big men as we were, we kept quiet for the asking, as ignorance +always will when skill is at the helm. Very prettily, I must say, and +very neatly did Dolly begin to bind the wound, and to cut the suckers +from their hold. The rest of us stood about and looked on and made +believe we were very useful. It was an odd thing to tell ourselves that +a man, who had been hale and hearty five minutes before, might now be +going out on the floor of that hovel. I knew little of Duncan Gray, but +what little I did know I liked beyond the ordinary; and every time that +Dolly took a twist on his bandage or fingered the wound with the +tenderness of a woman, I said, "Well done, lad, well done; we'll save +him yet." And this the boy himself believed.</p> + +<p>"It's only a cut," said he, "and if there's no poison, he'll be well +enough in a week. But he won't be able to stand, that's certain. I'd +give ten pounds for an antiseptic, I really would!"</p> + +<p>I knew what he meant all right; but the others didn't, and Peter Bligh, +he must come in with his foolishness.</p> + +<p>"They're mortal rare in these parts," said he; "I've come across many +things in the Pacific, but anyskeptics isn't one of 'em. May-be he'll +not need 'em, Dolly. We was twenty-four men down on the Ohio with +yellow-jack, and not an ounce of anyskeptics did I swallow! And here I +am, hale and hearty, as you'll admit."</p> + +<p>"And talking loud," said Seth Barker, "talking very loud, gentlemen!"</p> + +<p>It was wisdom, upon my word, for not one of us, I swear (until Seth +Barker spoke), had remembered where we were or what was like to come +afterwards. Voices we had heard, human voices above us, when first we +entered the cellar; and now, when the warning was uttered, we stood +dumb for some minutes and heard them again.</p> + +<p>"Douse the glim—douse it," cries Peter, in a big whisper; "they're +coming down, or I'm a Dutchman!"</p> + +<p>He turned the lantern and blew it out as he spoke. The rest of us +crouched down and held our breath. For ten seconds, perhaps, we heard +the deep, rough voices of men in the rooms above us. Then the trap-door +opened suddenly, and a beam of light fell upon the pavement not five +yards from where we stood. At the same moment a shaggy head peered +through the aperture, and a man cast a quick glance downward to the +cellar.</p> + +<p>"No," said the man, as though speaking to some one behind him, "it's +been took, as I told you."</p> + +<p>To which the other voice answered:</p> + +<p>"Well more blarmed fool you for not corking good rum when you see it!"</p> + +<p>They closed the trap upon the words, and we breathed once more. The +lesson they had taught us could not be forgotten. We were sobered men +when we lighted the lantern with one of Seth Barker's matches, and +turned it again on the doctor's face.</p> + +<p>"In whispers, if you please," said I, "as few as you like. We are in a +tight place, my lads, and talk won't get us out of it. It's the doctor +first and ourselves afterwards, remember."</p> + +<p>Dr. Gray, truly, was a little better by this time, and sitting up like +a dazed man, he looked first at Dolly Venn and then at his foot, and +last of all at the strange place in which he lay.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," he exclaimed at last, "I remember; a cut and a fool who +walked on it. It serves me right, and the end is better than the +beginning."</p> + +<p>"The lad did it," said I; "he was always a wonder with linen and the +scissors, was Dolly Venn."</p> + +<p>"To say nothing of a square foot of my shirt," put in Peter Bligh, +obstinately. "'Tis worth while getting a bit of a cut, doctor, just to +see Dolly Venn sew it up again."</p> + +<p>The doctor laughed with us, for he knew a seaman's manner and the light +talk which follows even the gravest mishap aboard a ship. That our men +meant well towards him he could not doubt; and his next duty was to +tell us as much.</p> + +<p>"You are good fellows," said he, "and I'm much obliged to you, Master +Dolly. If you will put your hand inside my coat, you will find a +brandy-flask there, and I'll drink your health. Don't worry your heads +about me, but think of yourselves. One of you, remember, must go and +see Czerny now; I think it had better be you, captain."</p> + +<p>I said yes, I would go willingly; and added, "when the right time +comes." The time was not yet, I knew—when men walked above our heads +and were waking. But when it came I would not hold back for my +shipmates' sake.</p> + +<p>We had a few biscuits among us, which prudent men had put in their +pockets after last night's meal; and, my own flask being full of water, +we sat down in the darkness of the cellar and made such a meal as we +could. Minute by minute now it became more plain to me that I must do +as Duncan Gray said, and go up to find Czerny himself. Food we had +none, save the few biscuits in our hands; salt was the water in the +crimson pool behind us. Beyond that were the caverns and the fog. It +was just all or nothing; the plain challenge to the master of this +place, "Give us shelter and food" or the sleep which knows no waking. +Do you wonder that I made up my mind to risk all on a journey which, +were it for life or death, would carry us, at last, beyond the doubt +and uncertainty?</p> + +<p>We passed the afternoon sleeping and dozing, as tired men might. Voices +we heard from time to time; the moan of the sea was always with us—a +strange, wild song, long-drawn and rolling, as though the water played +above our very heads in the gentle sport of a Pacific calm. At a +dwelling more remarkable than the one we were about to enter no man has +knocked or will knock in all the years to come. We were like human +animals which burrow in a rocky bank a mile from any land. There were +mysteries and wonders above, I made sure; and there was always the +doubt, such doubt as comes to men who go to a merciless enemy and say, +"Give us bread."</p> + +<p>Now, I left my comrades at ten o'clock that night, when all sounds had +died away above and the voice of the sea growing angrier told me that +my steps would not be heard.</p> + +<p>"I shall go to Czerny, lads," said I, at the moment of leaving them, +"and he will hear the story. I'll do my best for good shipmates, trust +me; and if I do not come back—well, you'll know that I cannot. Good +night, old comrades. We've sailed many a sea together and we'll sail +many another yet, God willing."</p> + +<p>They all cried "Aye, aye, sir!" and pressed my hand with that affection +I knew they bore me. Little Dolly Venn, indeed, pleaded hard to +accompany me; but it seemed plain that, if life were to be risked, one +alone should risk it; and, putting him off kindly, I mounted the ladder +and raised the trap.</p> + +<p>I was in Edmond Czerny's house, and I was alone.</p> + +<p class="dinkus">* * *</p> + +<p>Now, I had opened the trap, half believing I might find myself in some +room, perhaps in the kitchen of the house. Men would be there, I said, +and Czerny's watch-dogs ready with their questions. But this was not a +true picture; and while there were arc lamps everywhere, the place was +not a room at all, but a circular cavern, with rude apertures in the +wall and curtains hung across in lieu of doors. This was not a little +perplexing, as you will see; and my path was not made more straight +when I heard voices in some room near by, but could not locate them nor +tell which of the doors to avoid.</p> + +<p>For a long time I stood, uncertain how to act. In the end I put my head +round the first curtain at a venture, and drew it back as quickly. +There were men in that place, half-naked men, grouped about the door of +a furnace whose red light flashed dazzlingly upon walls and ceiling and +gave its tenants the aspect of crimson devils. What the furnace meant +or why it was built, I was soon to learn; for presently one of the men +gave an order, and upon this an engine started, and a whirr of fans and +the sucking of a distant pump answered to the signal. "Air," said I to +myself; "they are pumping air from above."</p> + +<p>The men had not seen me, so quick was I, and so soft with the leather +curtain; and going tiptoe across the cave I stumbled at hazard upon a +door I had not observed before. It was nothing more than a big and +jagged opening in the rock, but it showed me a flight of stairs beyond +it, and twinkling lamps beyond that again. This, I said, must surely be +the road to the sea, for the stairs led upward, and Czerny, as common +sense put it, would occupy the higher rooms. So I did not hesitate any +more about it, but treading the stairway with a cat's foot I went +straight on, and presently struck so fine a corridor that at any other +time I might well have spent an hour in wonder. Lamps were here—scores +of them, in wrought-iron chandeliers. Doors you saw with almost every +step you took—aye, and more than doors—for there were figures in the +light and shadow; men passing to and fro; glimpses of open rooms and +tables spread for cards, and bottles by them; and wild men of all +countries, some sleeping, some quarrelling, some singing, some busy in +kitchen and workshop. By here and there, these men met me in the +corridor, and I drew back into the dark places and let them go by. They +did not remark my presence, or if they did, made nothing of it. After +all, I was a seaman, dressed as other seamen were. Why should they +notice me when there were a hundred such in Czerny's house? I began to +see that a man might go with less risk because of their numbers than if +they had been but a handful.</p> + +<p>"I shall find Czerny, after all," said I to myself, "and have it out +with him. When he has spoken it will be time enough to ask, What next?"</p> + +<p>It was a little consoling to say this, and I went on with more +confidence. Passing down the whole length of the corridor, I reached a +pair of iron doors at last, and found them fast shut and bolted against +me. There was no branch road that I could make out, nor any indication +of the way in which I must open the doors. A man cannot walk through +sheer iron for the asking, nor blow it open with a wish; and there I +stood in the passage like a messenger who has struck upon an empty +house, but is not willing to leave it. See Czerny that night I must, +even if it came to declaring myself to the rogues who occupied the +rooms near by, and whose voices I could still hear. I had no mind to +knock at the door; and, truth to tell, such a thing never came into my +head, so full it was of other schemes. Indeed, I was just telling +myself that it was neck or nothing, when what should happen but that +the great iron door swung open, and the little French girl, Rosamunda, +herself stepped out. Staggered at the sight of me, as well she might be +(for the electric lamp will hide no face), she just piped one pretty +little cry and then fell to saying:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Captain Begg, Captain Begg, what do you want in this house?"</p> + +<p>"My dear," says I, speaking to her with a seaman's liberty, "I want a +good many things, as most sailors do in this world. What's behind that +door, now, and where may you have come from? Tell me as much, and +you'll be doing me a bigger kindness than you think."</p> + +<p>She didn't reply to this at once, but asked a question, as little girls +will when they are thinking of somebody.</p> + +<p>"Where are the others?" cried she; "why do you come alone? Where is the +little one, <span class="nobr">Mister—Mister———"</span></p> + +<p>"Dolly Venn," said I; "ah, that's the boy! Well, he's all right, my +dear, and if he'd known that we were meeting, he'd have sent his love. +You'll find him down yonder, in the cellar beyond the engine-house. +Show me the way to Mister Czerny's door, and we'll soon have him out of +there. He's come a long way, and it's all for the pleasure of seeing +you—of course it is." The talk pleased her, but giving her no time to +think about it, I went on:</p> + +<p>"Mister Czerny, now, he would be living by here, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>She said, "Yes, yes." His rooms were through the great hall which lay +beyond the doors; but she looked so startled at the idea of my going +there, and she listened so plainly for the sound of any voices, that I +read up her apprehensions at a glance and saw that she did not wish me +to go on because she was afraid.</p> + +<p>"Where is your old friend, the Frenchman?" I asked her on an impulse; +"what part of this queer house does he sling his hammock in?"</p> + +<p>She changed colour at this, and plainly showed her trouble.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mister Begg," says she, "Clair-de-Lune has been punished for +helping you on Ken's Island. He is not allowed to leave his room now. +Mister Czerny is very angry, and will not see him. How can you think of +coming here—oh, how can you do it?"</p> + +<p>"It's easy enough," said I, lightly, "if you don't miss the turning and +go straight on. Never fear for me, young lady; I shall pull through all +right; and when I do your friend goes with me, be sure of it. I won't +forget old Clair-de-Lune, not I! Now, just show me the road to the +governor's door, and then run away and tell Dolly Venn. He'll be +precious glad to see you, as true as Scripture."</p> + +<p>Well, she stood for a little while, hesitating about it, and then she +said, as though she had just remembered it:</p> + +<p>"Benno Regnarte is the guard, but he has gone away to have his supper. +I borrowed the key and came through. If you go in, he will not question +you. The governor may be on his yacht, or he may be in his room. I do +not know. How foolish it all is—how foolish, Captain Begg! They may +never let you go away again!"</p> + +<p>"Being so fond of my company," cried I, gaily. "Well, we'll see about +it, my dear. Just you run off to Dolly Venn and leave me to do the +rest. Sailors get out where other people stick, you know. We'll have a +try, for the luck's sake."</p> + +<p>I held her little hand in mine for a minute and gave it a hearty +squeeze. She was the picture of prettiness in a print gown and a big +Spanish shawl wrapped about her baby face. That she was truly alarmed, +and rightly so, I knew well; but what could I do? It was Czerny or the +pit. I chose Czerny.</p> + +<p>Now, she had opened the iron door for me to pass by, and without +another word to her I crossed the threshold and stood in Czerny's very +dwelling-house. Thereafter, I was in a vast hall, in a beautiful place +for all the world like a temple; with a gallery running round about it, +and lamps swinging from the gallery, and an organ built high up in a +niche above the far end, and doors of teak giving off all round, and a +great oak fire-place such as you see in English houses; and all round +the dome of this wonderful room great brass-bound windows, upon which +the sea thundered and the foam sprayed. Softly lighted, carpeted with +mats of rare straw, furnished as any mansion of the rich, it seemed to +me, I do confess, a very wonder of the earth that such a place should +lie beneath the breakers of the Pacific Ocean. And yet there it was +before my eyes, and I could hear the sea-song high above me, and the +lamps shone upon my face; and, as though to tell me truly that here my +journey ended, whom should I espy at the door of one of the rooms but +little Ruth Bellenden herself, the woman I had crossed the world to +serve.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_17"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVII</h3> + +<h4>IN WHICH JASPER BEGG ENTERS THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">I drew</span> back into a patch of shadow +and waited for her to come up to me. +Others might be with her and the moment inopportune for our encounter. +She walked with slow steps. Care had written its story upon her sweet +face. I saw that she was alone, and I put out my hand and touched her +upon the arm.</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," said I, so soft that I wonder she heard me—"Miss Ruth, +it's Jasper Begg. Don't you know me?"</p> + +<p>She turned swiftly, but did not cry out. One wild look she cast about +the half, with one swift glance she made sure of every door, and then, +and only then, she answered me.</p> + +<p>"Jasper, Jasper! Is it really Jasper Begg?" she cried, with a look of +joy and gratitude I never shall forget.</p> + +<p>Now, she had asked a woman's natural question; but I shall always say +that there never were wits quicker than Ruth Bellenden's; and hardly +were the useless words out of her mouth than she drew back to the room +she had left; and when I had entered it after her she closed the door +and listened a little while for any sounds. When none came to trouble +her she advanced a step, and so we two stood face to face at last, in +as pretty a place as all London, or all Europe for that matter, could +show you.</p> + +<p>Let me try to picture that scene for you as it comes to me when I write +of it and seek to bring it back to my memory. A trim, well-kept cabin, +such I call her room—a boudoir the French would name it—all hung +round with pale rose silk, and above that again an artist's pictures +upon a wall of cream. Little tables stood everywhere and women's knick-knacks +upon them; there were deep chairs which invited you to sit, +covered in silks and satins, and cushioned so that a big man might be +afraid of them.</p> + +<p>Upon the mantel-shelf a clock from Paris swung a jewelled pendulum, and +candlesticks matched it on either side. A secretaire, littered over +with papers and bright with silver ornaments, had its back to the +seaward wall; a round window, cut in the rock above it, stood hidden by +curtains of the richest brocade. The carpet, I said, was from Turkey; +the mats from Persia. In the grate the wood-fire glowed warmingly. Ruth +Bellenden herself, the mistress of the room, capped the whole, and she +was gowned in white, with rubies and diamonds strung about her stately +neck, and all that air of proud command I had admired so much in the +days bygone. Aye, such a scene, believe me, as a grand London drawing-room +might show you any night of London's months you care to name, and +yet so different from that. And I, a plain sailor, found myself thrust +forward there to my confusion, yet feeling, despite it all, that the +woman I spoke to was woman at heart, as I was man. A few days ago I had +come to her to say, "You have need of me." To-night it was her lot to +answer me with my own words.</p> + +<p>"Jasper," she said, her hand still on the switch of the lamp, "what +miracle brings you to this place?"</p> + +<p>"No miracle, Miss Ruth," said I, "but a plain road, and five men's +necessity. We were dying on Ken's Island and we found a path under the +sea. It was starvation one way, surrender the other; I am here to tell +Mr. Czerny everything and to trust my life to him."</p> + +<p>Now, she heard me almost with angry surprise; and coming forward into +the light she stood before me with clasped hands and heated face.</p> + +<p>"No," she said, and her "No" was a thing for a man to hear. "No, no; +you shall never tell my husband that. And, oh, Jasper!" she cried upon +it, "how ill you look—how changed!"</p> + +<p>"My looks don't tell the truth," said I, not wishing to speak of +myself; "I am up and down like a barometer in the tropics. The plain +fact is, Miss Ruth, that the ship's gone, clean gone! I gave Mister +Jacob the sure order to stand by us for three days, and that he didn't +do. It means, then, that he couldn't. I greatly fear some accident has +overtaken him; but he'll come back yet as I'm a living man!"</p> + +<p>She heard me like one dazed: her eyes were everywhere about the room, +as though seeking something she could not find. Presently she opened +the door with great caution, and was gone a minute or more. When she +returned she had a flask of spirits and some biscuits in her hand, and +this time, I noticed, she locked the door after her.</p> + +<p>"Edmond is sleeping; they have sent Aunt Rachel to Tokio," she almost +whispered; "Benno, our servant, is to be trusted. I heard that you were +starving in the hills; but how could I help—how could I, Jasper? It +was madness for you to come here, and yet I am glad—so glad! And oh," +she says, "we'll find a way; we'll find a way yet, Jasper!"</p> + +<p>I poured some brandy from the flask, for I had need of it, and gulped +it down at a draught. Her vivacity was always a thing to charm a man; +as a girl she had the laughter and the spirits of ten.</p> + +<p>"What shall we do, Jasper?" she kept on saying, "what shall we do next? +Oh, to think that it's you, to think that it is Jasper Begg in this +strange house!" she kept crying; "and no way out of it, no safety +anywhere! Jasper, what shall we do—what shall we do next?"</p> + +<p>"We shall tell your husband, Miss Ruth," said I, "and leave the last +word with him. Why, think of it, five men cast adrift on his shore, and +they to starve. Is he devil or man that he refuses them food and drink? +I'll not believe it until I hear it. The lowest in humanity would never +do such a thing! Aye, you are judging him beyond ordinary when you +believe it. So much I make bold to say!"</p> + +<p>I turned to the fire, and began to warm my fingers at it, while she, for +her part, drew up one of the silk-covered chairs, and sat with her +pretty head resting in a tired way between her little hands. All our +talk up to this time had been broken fragments; but this I judged the +time for a just explanation, and she was not less willing.</p> + +<p>"Jasper," says she of a sudden, "have you read what I wrote in the +book?"</p> + +<p>"To the last line," said I.</p> + +<p>"And, reading it, you will ask Edmond to help you?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," said I, "how shall one man judge another? Ships come to +this shore, and are wrecked on it. Now and then, perchance, there is +foul play among the hands. Are you sure that your husband has any part +in it—are you sure he's as bad as you think him?"</p> + +<p>Well, instead of answering me, she stood up suddenly and let her dress +fall by the shoulder-knots. I saw the white flesh beneath bruised and +wealed, as though a whip had cut it, and I knew that this was her +witness to her story. What was in my heart at such a sight I would have +no man know; but my fingers closed about the pistol I carried, and my +tongue would speak no word.</p> + +<p>"Why do you compel me to speak?" she went on, meanwhile. "Am I to tell +of all the things I have seen and suffered on this dreadful place in +the year—can it be only that?—the long, weary year I have lived here? +Do you believe, Jasper, that a man can fill his house with gold as this +is filled—this wild house so far from the world—and fill it honestly? +Shall I say, 'Yes, I have misjudged him,' the man who has shot my +servant here in this room and left me with the dead? Shall I say that +he is a good man because sometimes, when he has ceased to kill and +torture those who serve him, he acts as other men? Oh, I could win much +if I could say that; I could win, perhaps, all that a woman desires. +But I shall never speak—never; I shall live as I am living until I am +old, when nothing matters!"</p> + +<p>It was a very bitter and a very surprising thing for me to hear her +speak in this way. Trouble I knew she must have suffered on Ken's +Island; but this was a story beyond all imagination. And what could I +say to her, what comfort give her—I, a rough-hearted sailor, who, +nevertheless, would have cut off my own right hand if that could have +served her? Indeed, to be truthful, I had nothing to say, and there we +were for many minutes, she upon one side of the fire and I upon the +other, as two that gazed into the reddening embers and would have found +some old page of our life therein recorded.</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," said I at last, and I think she knew what I meant, "I +would have given much not to have heard this thing to-night; but as it +is spoken—if it were twenty times as bad for me and those with me—I +am glad we came to Ken's Island. The rest you will anticipate and there +is no need for me to talk about it. The day that sees me sail away will +find a cabin-passenger aboard my ship. Her name I will not mention, for +it is known to you. Aye, by all a man's promise she shall sail with me +or I will never tread a ship's deck again."</p> + +<p>It was earnestly meant, and that, I am sure, Miss Ruth knew, for she +put her hand upon mine, and, though she made no mention of what I had +said, there was a look in her eyes which I was glad to see there. Her +next question surprised me altogether.</p> + +<p>"Jasper," she asked, with something of a smile, "do you remember when I +was married?"</p> + +<p>"Remember it!" cried I; and I am sure she must have seen the blood rush +up to my face. "Why, of course, I remember it! How should a man forget +a thing like that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she went on, and neither looked at the other now, "I was a girl +then, and all the world was my playground. Every day was a flower to +pick; the night was music and laughter. How I used to people the world +my hopes created—such romantic figures they were, such nonsense! When +Edmond Czerny met me at Nice, I think he understood me. Oh, the castles +we built in the air, the romantic heights we scaled, the passionate +folly with which we deceived ourselves! 'The world is for you and I,' +he said, 'in each other's hearts'; and I, Jasper, believed him, just +because I had not learnt to be a woman. His own story fascinated me; I +cannot tell how much. He had been in all countries; he knew many +cities; he could talk as no man I had ever met. Perhaps, if he had not +been so clever, it would have been different. All the other men I knew, +all except one, perhaps———!"</p> + +<p>"There was one, then," said I, and my meaning she could not mistake.</p> + +<p>But she turned her face from me and would not name the man.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she went on, without noticing it, "there was one; but I was a +child and did not understand. The others did not interest me. Their +king was a cook; their temple the Casino. And then Edmond spoke of his +island home; I was to be the mistress of it, and we were to be apart +from all the world there. I did not ask him, as others might have asked +him, 'What has your life been? Why do you love me?' I was glad to +escape from it all, that little world of chatter and unreality, and I +said, 'I will be your wife.' We left Europe together and went first to +San Francisco. Life was still in a garden of roses. If I would awake +sometimes to ask myself a question, I could not answer it. I was the +child of romance, but my world was empty. Then one day we came to Ken's +Island, and I saw all its wonders, and I said, 'Yes, we will visit here +every year and dream that it is our kingdom.' I did not know the truth; +what woman would have guessed it?"</p> + +<p>"You learnt it, Miss Ruth, nevertheless," said I, for her story was +just what I myself had imagined it to be. "You were not long on Ken's +Island before you knew the truth."</p> + +<p>"A month," she said, quietly. "I was a month here, and then a ship was +wrecked. My husband went out with the others; and from the terrace +before my windows I saw—ah, God! what did I not see? Then Edmond +returned and was angry with the servant who had permitted me to see. He +shot him in this room before my face. He knew that his secret was mine, +he knew that I would not share it. The leaves of the rose had fallen. +Ah! Jasper, what weeks of terror, of greed, of tears—and now you—you +in this house to end it all!"</p> + +<p>I sat for a long while preoccupied with my own thoughts and quite +unable to speak to her. All that she had told me was no surprise, no +new thing; but I believe it brought home to me for the first time the +danger of my presence in that house, and all that discovery meant to +the four shipmates who waited for me down below in the cavern.</p> + +<p>For if this man Czerny—a madman, as I always say—had shot down a +servant before this gentle girl, what would he do to me and the others, +sworn enemies of his, who could hang him in any city where they might +find him; who could, with one word, give his dastardly secret to the +world; who could, with a cry, destroy this treasure-house, rock-built +though it might be? What hope of mercy had we from such a man? And I +was sitting there, it might be, within twenty paces of the room in +which he slept; Miss Ruth's hand lay in my own. What hope for her or +for me, I ask again? Will you wonder that I said, "None; just none! A +thousand times none"! The island itself might well be a mercy beside +such a hell as this.</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," said I, coming to myself at last, "how little I thought +when you went up to the great cathedral in Nice a short year ago that +such a sunny day would end so badly! It is one of the world's +lotteries; just that and nothing more. Edmond Czerny is no sane man, as +his acts prove. Some day you will blot it all out of your life as a +page torn and forgotten. That your husband loved you in Nice, I do +believe; and so much being true, he may come to reason again, and +reason would give you liberty. If not, there are others who will +try—while they live. He must be a rich man, a very rich man, must Edmond +Czerny. God alone knows why he should sink to such an employment as +this."</p> + +<p>"He has sunk to it," she said, quickly, "because gold is fed by the +love of gold. Oh, yes, he is a rich man, richer than you and I can +understand. And yet even my own little fortune must be cast upon the +pile. A month ago he compelled me to sign a paper which gives up to him +everything I have in the world. He has no more use for me, Jasper; none +at all! He has sent my only living relative away from me. When you go +back to England they will tell you that I am dead. And it will be +<span class="nobr">true—true;</span> oh, I know that it will be +true."</p> + +<p>She had come to a very low state, I make sure, to utter such a word as +this, and it was a sorry thing for me to hear. To console her when I +myself was in a parlous plight was just as though one drowning man +should hold out his hand to another. To-morrow I myself might be flung +into that very ocean whose breakers I could hear rolling over the glass +of the curtained windows. And what of little Ruth then?</p> + +<p>That question I did not answer. Words were on my lips—such words as a +driven man may speak—when there came to us from the sea without the +boom of a distant gun, and, Miss Ruth springing to her feet, I heard a +great bell clang in the house and the rush of men and the pattering of +steps; and together, the woman I loved and I, we stood with beating +hearts and white faces, and told each other that a ship was on the +rocks and that Edmond Czerny's devils were loose.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_18"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII</h3> + +<h4>CHANCE OPENS A GATE FOR JASPER BEGG, AND HE PASSES THROUGH</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">The</span> devils were out; never once did I +doubt it. The alarm bell ringing +loudly in the corridor, the tramp of feet as of an army marching, the +cry of man to man proclaimed the fact beyond any cavil. If the clang of +arms and the loud word of command had found me unwilling to believe +that sailors must die that night on the reef to the southward side, the +voice of Edmond Czerny himself, crying by the very door behind which I +stood, would have answered the question for good and all. For Czerny I +heard, I would have staked my life on it—Czerny, whom last I had seen +at Nice on the morning of his marriage.</p> + +<p>"To the work, to the work!" I heard him shouting; "let Steinvertz come +to me. There is a ship on the Caskets—a ship, do you hear?"</p> + +<p>His voice was hoarse and high-pitched, like the voice of a man half mad +with delirium. Those that answered him spoke in terms not less +measured. Had a pack of wild hounds been slipped suddenly to its prey, +no howls more terrifying could have been heard than those which echoed +in that house of mystery. And then, upon the top of the clamour, as +though to mark the meaning of it, came silence, a silence so awesome +that I could hear myself breathing.</p> + +<p>"They've left the house, then," I said to Miss Ruth in a whisper; +"that's something to be glad about!"</p> + +<p>She passed the remark by and, seating herself in a chair, she buried +her face in her hands. I could hear her muttering "God help them—God +help them!" and I knew that she spoke of those dying out on the +dangerous reef. For the time being she seemed to have forgotten my +presence; but, after a spell, she looked up suddenly and answered the +question.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said; "my husband will be on the yacht. He has not the +courage to be anywhere else. You and I are quite alone now, Jasper."</p> + +<p>My fingers closed tight about my seaman's cap, and I went to the door +and unlocked it. Strong and clear in my head, and not to be denied, was +something which seemed to set my brain on fire. "My God," I said, "what +does it mean?" Was it chance or madness that I should pass it by?</p> + +<p>"There would be men below at the furnaces and others standing to +guard," I put it to her; "how many in all do you make out that a man +might chance to meet if he went below just now, Miss Ruth?"</p> + +<p>She became very calm at the words, I thought, and stood up that she +might take my words more readily.</p> + +<p>"Jasper!" she exclaimed, "what are you going to do, Jasper?"</p> + +<p>"God knows," said I. "Tell me how many men there are in this house."</p> + +<p>She stood and thought about it. The flushed face told the story of her +hopes. Neither of us would speak all that came leaping to our tongues.</p> + +<p>"There would be five, I think, in the engine-house and six for the +guards," she said, and I could almost see her counting them; "the lower +gate is the second in the corridor. There is a ladder there, and—oh, +Jasper, what do you mean?" she asked again.</p> + +<p>"Mean?" said I; "why this: that it is time my shipmates shared your +hospitality. Aye, we'll bring them along," says I, "Seth Barker and the +others. And then," says I, coming quite close to her, "the luck being +with us, we'll shut the doors. Do you say there are two of them?"</p> + +<p>She said that there were two; one for the men, a small gate on the +reef; the other for Czerny—they called it the great gate. "And, oh," +she cried, while her very gladness seemed to thrill me through—"oh, if +you could, if you could, Jasper—!"</p> + +<p>"Whether I can or no the night will prove," said I, more quietly than +before. "One thing is sure, Miss Ruth, that I am going to try. It's +worth the trying, indeed it is. Do you find your own room and know +nothing at all about it. The work below is men's work, and there are +men, thank God, to do it."</p> + +<p>You say that it was a boast; aye, perhaps it was that, yet what a +boast! For think of it. Here at the very moment when it appeared that +our lives were at Czerny's mercy, at this very moment when we must look +to his cruel hand for succour or sleep in the death-pit of the island, +there comes this message from the sea and the devils go out. There is +not a sound in the house, and I know that my comrades are waiting for +my word. I have three brave men behind me; the peril fires my blood so +that, man or devil against me, I care nothing for either. Was it a +boast for a man to stake all on a throw at such an hour? Not so, truly, +but just what any English seaman would have done, saying, "All or +nothing, the day or the night," as chance should decide for him.</p> + +<p>Now, my hand was upon the key when I told little Ruth that it was men's +work, and without waiting to hear her wise displeasure I opened the +door and stepped out into the silent hall. One man alone kept watch +there, and he was in the shadows, so that I could not see his face or +tell if he were armed. I knew that this man was the first between me +and my liberty, and without a moment's hesitation I crossed the hall; +and aware of all the risks I took, understanding that a word of mine +might bring the guard down from the sea, I clapped a pistol to the +sentry's head and let him know my pleasure.</p> + +<p>"Open that gate, Benno Regnarte!" said I.</p> + +<p>He was a short man, burly, with curly hair, and not an unpleasant face. +So quick had I come upon him, so strange, perhaps, he thought it that I +named him at hazard, that he fell back against the iron and stood there +gaping like one who had seen a bogey in the dark. Never, I believe, in +all this world was a seaman so frightened. He could not speak or utter +a sound, or even raise his hand. He just stood there like a shivering +fool.</p> + +<p>"Benno Regnarte, open that gate!" I repeated, seeing that I had the +name all right; "I'll give you half a minute."</p> + +<p>The threat brought him to his senses. Without a word, a sign, a sound, +he opened the iron doors and waited for me to go through.</p> + +<p>"Now," said I, "give me those keys and march on. And by the heaven +above me, if you open your lips far enough for a fly to go in, I'll +shoot you dead where you stand!"</p> + +<p>He gave me the keys with a hand that trembled so that he nearly dropped +them. In spite of my injunction he mumbled something, and I was not +unwilling to hear it.</p> + +<p>"I am the friend of Mme. Czerny," said he, cringingly; "trust me, +signor, for God's sake trust me!"</p> + +<p>"When you earn the trust," said I, grimly; "now march, and remember!"</p> + +<p>I let him go through, and then locked the iron doors behind me. Miss +Ruth, at least, must be protected from the rogues below. The lamps in +the corridor were still burning, and, by here and there, I thought that +I saw figures in the shadows. But no man hailed me, and when I came to +the great dormitory which, at first passing, was full of seamen, I +found the door of it open and no more than six or seven men still about +its tables. If they heard me come up they suspected nothing. I shall +always say that the brightest idea of that night was the one which came +to me while I stood by the open door and counted the devils that Czerny +had left to guard his house. For what should I do, upon the oddest +impulse, but put my hand round the door very quietly and, closing it +without noise, turn the key first in the lock and then in my pocket.</p> + +<p>"Six," said I to the man before me; "and you make seven. How many more +in this place now, Benno Regnarte?"</p> + +<p>He held up his hands and began to count.</p> + +<p>"In the engine-room one, two, three," he said; "upon the ladder hereby +two; at the great door two more. Seven men altogether, signor. Your +party will be more than that?"</p> + +<p>I laughed at his notion, and, seeing that the man still shivered with +fear and was not to be counted, I went straight ahead to the greater +work I had to do. Already the alarm was raised in the room behind me, +and men were beating with their fists upon the iron door. It was ten to +one that their cries must be heard and one of the sentinels called from +the sea; but, miracle if you will, or greed of plunder if that is the +better term, none came; none answered that heavy knocking. And I—why, +I was at the cavern's head by that time, and, opening the trap, I had +spoken to my shipmates.</p> + +<p>"Up you come, every one of you—up for your lives!" cried I. "Do you, +Seth Barker, lift the doctor, and let Peter Bligh follow after. There's +no time to lose, lads—no time at all."</p> + +<p>I took them by surprise, be sure of it. That opening trap, the light +flashing down upon them, the message when they had begun to despair of +any message, the call to action—aye, how they leaped up to answer me +with ready words!</p> + +<p>"To God be the glory!" cries Peter Bligh, and I can hear him now. "To +God be the glory! 'It was the captain's voice,' says I, before ever you +spake a word."</p> + +<p>"And oh, aren't we sick of it—just sick of it!" chimes in Dolly Venn +as he climbs the ladder like a cat and stands willingly at my side.</p> + +<p>I pressed his hand, and showed him the revolver I carried.</p> + +<p>"Whip it out, lad, whip it out," said I; "we've work to do to-night for +ourselves and another. Oh, I count on you all, Dolly, as I never +counted before!"</p> + +<p>He would have said something to this, I make sure, but the others came +through the trap while I spoke, and four more astonished men never +stood in a cavern to ask, "What next?"</p> + +<p>"The ladder to the reef side," said I, putting their surprise by and +turning to the Italian in whose hands our lives might lie; "can men +hold the top of it, or is it best taken by the sea?"</p> + +<p>He answered me with a dramatic gesture and a face which spoke his +warning.</p> + +<p>"At the rockside it is straight; they shoot you from the top, captain. +No man go up there from this place. They fire guns, make noise."</p> + +<p>"And the report will call the others," said I. "So be it; but we'll +close that door, anyway."</p> + +<p>It was Greek to the others, and they gaped at the words. From the room +which I had locked loud shouts were to be heard and heavy blows upon +the iron panels. That such cries would call men from the sea presently, +I knew well. We had but a few minutes in which to act, and they were +precious beyond all words. The gate must be shut though a hundred lay +concealed in the rooms of mystery about us. On our part we staked all +on chance; we threw the glove blindly to fortune. And, remember, I +alone knew anything of that house in which we stood; that house, above +which the sea ever rolled her crested breakers and lifted her eerie +chantry. My shipmates were but astonished strangers, not willing to go +back, yet half afraid of that which lay before them. The bright lights +in the caverns, the dark doors opening into darkness, and upon these +the great corridor, so vast, so gloomy, so mysterious, were to them new +pictures in a wonderland the like to which they had never seen before +and will never see again.</p> + +<p>"What place is this, and where is the best parlour?" asks Peter Bligh, +his clumsy head blundering to a question even at such a time. "'Tis +laid out for a small and early, and crowns to be broken," says he. +"Have you took it furnished, or are there neighbours, sir? 'Tis a queer +house entirely."</p> + +<p>I cut him short and turned to the doctor.</p> + +<p>"What news of the foot, sir?" I asked him; "how are you feeling now?"</p> + +<p>He replied light-heartedly enough, wishful, I could see, to make light +of it.</p> + +<p>"Like a man who has bought a wooden leg and prefers the old one," said +he; asking at the same time, "What's the course, captain, and why do we +follow it?"</p> + +<p>"The course," said I, "is to Mme. Czerny's boudoir, and a good couch to +lie upon. Do you two get on as fast as you can and leave us to the +parley. It's coming, sure enough, and lame men won't help the argument. +We'll need your help by-and-bye, doctor, when the heads are broken."</p> + +<p>I made the guess at hazard, little knowing how near the truth it was to +prove. We were almost at the head of the first stairway by this time, +and the uproar in the corridor might have awakened the seven sleepers. +Impossible, I said, that such a warning should not bring in men from +the sea, sentinels who would ask by whose hand the key had been turned; +but the danger lay behind us in the shadows where we had not looked for +it. Aye, the three in the engine-house, how came I to forget them? They +were atop of us before the doctor was out of hearing, and a great +hulking German, his face smeared with soot and a bar of iron in his +hands, caught me by the shoulder and swung me round almost before I had +done speaking.</p> + +<p>"Who, in thunder, are you?" asks he. It was a question which had to be +answered.</p> + +<p>Now, I had picked up a wrinkle or two about "rough-and-tumbles" in the +years I traded to Yokohama, and though my heart was in my mouth and it +was plain to me that this was the crisis of the night, when a single +unlucky stroke or misspoken word might undo all that chance had done +for us, I nevertheless kept my wits about me, and letting the man turn +me round as he willed I presently caught his arm between both of mine +and almost broke the bone of it. Upon which he lifted up a cry you +might have heard at the sword-fish reef, and writhing down I struck him +with all my force and he fell insensible.</p> + +<p>"Seven and one makes eight," said I, and a man might forgive himself +for boasting at such a time; for, mark you, but two were left to deal +with, and while one was making for little Dolly Venn, Peter Bligh had +the throat of the other in such a grip that his friends might well have +said, "God help him!"</p> + +<p>"Hold him, Peter, hold him!" cried I, my blood fired and my tongue set +loose; but there was no need to be anxious for Mister Bligh, I do +assure you.</p> + +<p>"He'll need new teeth to-morrow, and plenty of 'em!" says he, shaking +the man as a dog shakes a rat. "Aye, go on, captain, the fun's +beginning here."</p> + +<p>I waited to hear no more, but ran at the man who closed with little +Dolly Venn. "Dolly's is the need," said I; though in that I was +mistaken, as you shall see presently. And I do declare it was a picture +to watch that bit of a lad dancing round a hulking Dutchman, and +hitting the wind out of him as though he had been a cushion. Grunt? The +lubber grunted like a pig, and every time he stopped for want of breath +in come Master Dolly again with a lightning one which shook him like a +thunder-bolt. No "set-to" that I have seen in all my life ever pleased +me half as much; and what with crying and laughing by turns, and +singing out "Bravo, Dolly!" and dancing round the pair of them, the +sweat ran off me like rain, and I, and not little Dolly Venn, might +have been doing for the Dutchman in the shadows of that corridor.</p> + +<p>In the end, believe me, this foreign bully turned tail and ran like a +whipped cur. It was all I could do to keep the lad from his heels.</p> + +<p>"Next time, Dolly," cried I, holding him back roughly, "next time, lad; +we have better work to do, much better work to do. Here's Peter needing +a box for his goods—and a pretty big one, too. Is it over, Peter? Will +he be talking any more?" I asked Mister Bligh.</p> + +<p>He answered me by pointing to a figure on the floor beside him, stark +and motionless and very still. Peter had played his part, indeed; I +knew that the gate of Czerny's house was open.</p> + +<p>"All together, lads," said I, leading them on now with a light heart; +"all together and out of the shadows, if you please. We've another gate +to close, and then—as God's above me, I do believe we have bested +Edmond Czerny this night!"</p> + +<p>It was something to say, a thought to thrill a man, and yet I would not +dwell upon it, remembering all that lay between us and Miss Ruth's +freedom—all that must be done in the doubtful hours before us.</p> + +<p>"The iron ladder by which the men come in," I asked of the Italian, +suddenly, "where is that, Regnarte?"</p> + +<p>Now, this man had been very frightened during the brawl at the +stairs-head; but, seeing the stuff we were made of, and being willing all +along to join with us (for I learned afterwards that he nursed a +private spite against Czerny), he replied to me very readily:</p> + +<p>"The ladder is the second door, captain; yet why, since no man can go +up? I tell you that two hold it, and they have guns. You cannot go, +captain! What good the key when men have guns?"</p> + +<p>"We'll see about that," said I. And cocking my pistol I strode to the +door he indicated.</p> + +<p>It was an iron door, opening inward to a small apartment cut out of the +solid rock. For a while I could see nothing when I entered the little +cavern—it laid bare; but, becoming used to the dim light presently, I +took a few steps forward, and looking up I saw a rocky chimney and an +orifice far up and the stars glimmering in the grey-blue sky above me. +This, then, was the second gate to Czerny's house, I said; the seagate +by which his men passed in. Here, as yonder where Miss Ruth's apartment +lay, the reef lifted itself above the highest tides; here was the gate +we must shut if the night were to be won. And who would dare it with +armed men on the threshold, and a ladder for foothold, and the +knowledge on our part that one word of the truth would dig a grave for +recompense? And yet it had to be dared; a man must go up that night for +a woman's sake.</p> + +<p>Well, I took off my boots at the ladder's foot, and thrusting my pistol +into my waist-belt I spoke a warning word to Peter Bligh.</p> + +<p>"This," said I, taking from Regnarte the key I needed, "this opens the +iron doors you will meet down yonder. If misfortune happens to me, go +straight through and take my place. Hold the rooms as long as you can +and let your judgment do the rest. Belike Mister Jacob will come back +with the ship. I wish to God I could think so!" I added.</p> + +<p>He nodded his head, and but half understanding what I was about he +watched me anxiously when I put my naked foot with wary step on the +ladder and began to go up. I saw him for a moment, a comrade's figure +in the dim light of the cavern, and then thinking only of my purpose, +and of what it would mean to one who waited for me, I clenched my teeth +and began my journey. Below me were the little cave and the glimmer of +a distant lamp, shipmates crying "God speed!" the hidden house, the +mystery; above me that dark funnel of the rock and the sky, which +seemed to beckon me upward to freedom and the sea.</p> + +<p>If danger lay there I could not espy it nor detect its presence. Not a +sound came from the open trap, no figures were to be seen, no spoken +voice to be heard. The moaning waves upon the iron reef, the echo of +gunshots in the silence of the night, alone spoke of life and being and +the open sea without. And I went up like a cat, rung by rung, my hand +hot upon the iron, the thought in my head that madness sent me and that +I might never see another day.</p> + +<p>No man appeared at the orifice, I say; the gate might have been +unguarded for any sentinel I could espy. Nevertheless, I knew that the +Italian spoke the truth, and that his reckoning was good. Edmond Czerny +was no fool to leave a sea-gate open to all the world. Somewhere on the +foothold of the rocks men were lurking, I made sure. That they heard +nothing of their friends' outcry in the corridor below, that they did +not answer it, was a thing I had not, at the first, understood; but it +became plain when the chimney I climbed shut out every sound but that +of the breaking seas, and gave intervals of silence so great that a man +might have heard a ticking watch. No, truly, it was no wonder that they +had not gone down nor heard that loud alarm, for they hungered for the +wreck; for pillage and plunder, and all the gruesome sights Ken's +Island that night could show them; and this hunger kept them at the +water's edge, hounds kennelled when others were free, unwilling idlers +on a harvest day. God knows, they paid a price for that when the good +time came.</p> + +<p>Now, at the ladder's head, everything was as I had seen it in the +mind's picture; and even before I made the top fresh spray would shower +upon my face, while the sea sounded as though its waves were breaking +almost at my very ears. Unchallenged and, for all I could make out, +unwatched, I grew bolder step by step, until at last I touched the +topmost rung; and, looking over, I saw the white crests of the breakers +and the pinnacles of the reef and the distant island under its loom of +gold-blue fog. Halted there, with one hand swung free and my good +pistol ready, I peered intently into the night—a sentinel watching +sentinels, a spy upon those that should have spied. And standing so I +saw the men, and they saw me; and quickened to the act by the sudden +danger, I swung over the first half of the trap which shut the chimney +in, and made ready to close the second with all the deftness I could +command.</p> + +<p>There were two men at the sea's edge, and they did not hear me, I +believe, until the first door of that trap was down. Perchance, even +then, they thought that a comrade played a jest upon them, and that +this was all in the night's work, for one of them coming up leisurely +peered into the hole and put a question to me in the German tongue. +This man, my heart beating like a piston, and my nerves all strung up, +I struck down with the butt-end of my pistol, and, as God is my +witness, I swung over the trap and shot the bolts and locked the great +padlock before the other could move hand or foot. For the foreigner +fell, without a cry, headlong into the sea which played at his very +feet.</p> + +<p>"Shut—shut, by thunder!" cried I to those below, and gladder words a +seaman never spoke to comrades waiting for him. "One gate more and the +night is ours, lads!"</p> + +<p>They heard me in astonishment. Remember how new this place of mystery +was to them; how little I had told them of that which I do. If they +followed me like the brave men that they were, set it down to the +affection they bore me, and the belief that I led them on no child's +errand. So much must have occurred to them as we gained the upper house +and shut the iron doors behind us. The way lay to the sea again, the +road most dear to the heart of every sailor. Let the main gate of +Czerny's house be closed and all was won, indeed.</p> + +<p>Aye, and you shall stand with me as, mounting a broad stairway beyond +Miss Ruth's own door, I found myself out upon a great plateau of rock, +and beheld the silent ocean spread out like a silver carpet before my +grateful eyes, and knew that the house was ours—that house the like to +which no man has built or will build during the ages.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_19"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIX</h3> + +<h4>WHICH SHOWS THAT A MAN WHO THINKS OF BIG THINGS SOMETIMES FORGETS THE +LITTLE ONES</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">I was</span> the first to be out on the rock, +but Peter Bligh was close upon +my heels, and, wonderful to tell, the Italian almost as quick as any of +us. To what gate of the sea the staircase was carrying me I knew no +more than the others. The time was gone by when anything in Czerny's +house could surprise me; and when at the stairs' head we found that +which looked for all the world like a great port-hole with a swing door +of steel to shut it, I climbed through it without hesitation, and so +stood in God's fresh air for the first time for nearly three days.</p> + +<p>That this was the main gate to the sea I had all along surmised, and +now proved surely. No sooner was I through the door than all the world +seemed to spread out again before my eyes—the distant island, the +shimmering sea, the blue sky shut to us through such long hours. The +rock itself, where we gained foothold, lifted itself clear and dry +above the breakers at my feet. There were steps leading down to the +water's edge, a still pool wherein boats were warped, other crags of +the reef defying the tides; these and the silence of the night +everywhere; but of men I saw nothing. The bloody fight we had +anticipated, blow for blow, and ringing alarm, the struggle for +foothold on the rock, the challenge to Czerny's men—such things did +not befall. We stood unchallenged on the plateau, and we stood alone.</p> + +<p>I said that it was a miracle, and yet the Lord knows it was no miracle +at all.</p> + +<p>Let me try and describe this place for you that you may understand our +situation more clearly, and how it befell that such a simple +circumstance brought about such a strange turn of fortune. We had come +up from the heart of the reef, as you know, and the staircase led out +to a gate of steel opening in the face of a rocky crag, which stood +well above the level even of the storm-seas. A lower plateau (unwashed +by the sea) stood below the gate, and other crags jutted out of the sea +and showed windows to the western sun. I made a bit of a map of the +land and water thereby to keep it in my memory: and such as it is it +will enable any one easily to get the position truly. If one places +himself at the main gate of this house of wonders and puts Czerny's +crew by the sword-fish reef, all will be plain to him.</p> + +<p>The island lay perhaps a mile to the southward; and nearer to us, at a +cable's length as I reckoned it, a group of rocky pinnacles in the open +sea marked the door we had shut and the ladder by which Czerny's men +went in to shelter. But the oddest thing of all was this, that the main +gate to this house of wonders should be left unguarded at an hour so +critical. Dark as it was, with only the soft grey light of a summer's +night shimmering on sea and land, nevertheless the mere fact that we +had passed unchallenged told me that we were alone. For why should two +men let three pass up and raise no alarm when alarm might mean so much?</p> + +<p>Could they not have struck us down as we came out, one by one, firing +their guns to call comrades from the sea, and bringing a hundred more +atop of us to end our chances there and then? Of course they could; and +yet it was not done. No man hailed us; we had the breaking seas at our +feet, the fresh air in our lungs, the spindrift wet upon our faces. And +who was the more surprised, I at finding the gate unguarded or my +comrades to discover that there was such a gate at all, the Lord only +knows. Like three who stumbled upon a precipice we halted there at the +sea's edge, and looked at one another to ask if such great good fortune +could, indeed, be ours.</p> + +<p>I have told you before that the Italian was at our heels when we gained +the rock, and it was to him now that I addressed my question.</p> + +<p>"You said there were two at the gate, Regnarte. Where are they, then, +and what keeps them?"</p> + +<p>He cracked his bony fingers many times, and began to gabble away +vociferously in his own language—a tongue I like the sound of, but +which no right-minded man should talk. When he came to some calmness +and to a sane man's speech, he pointed to the pinnacles of the lesser +gate and began to make the truth clear to me.</p> + +<p>"You come lucky, sir, you come lucky, true! Hafmitz gone yonder; he and +mate, too; he go to see why other men cry out!"</p> + +<p>I saw it like a flash. The alarm had been given at the other end of the +reef, and the two that should have guarded this, had put out in their +boat to see what the matter was. If a man had wished to believe that +Providence guided him that night, he could not have found a +circumstance to help him farther on the road. I make no pretence to be +what folks call a religious man, doing my duty without the hymn-books; +but I believe, and always shall believe, that there was something more +than mere chance on our way in all that venture, and so I set it down +here once and for all. The fingers of the white man's God pointed the +road for us; and we took it, fair or crooked let it prove to be.</p> + +<p>"Luck! Luck's no word for it, my lads," said I. "If a man told such a +thing ashore, who'd believe him? And yet it's true—true, as your own +eyes tell you."</p> + +<p>They had not found their tongues yet and none of them uttered a +syllable. The wonders they had seen: that house of mystery lying like a +palace of the story-books far down below the rolling Pacific; the +surprise of it all; the picture of lights and rooms and of a woman's +face; and now this plateau of rock with breakers at their feet and the +island mists for their horizon; and, in the far distance, away upon the +sword-fish reef, sights and sounds which quickened every pulse—who +shall blame them if they could answer me never a word? They simply +halted there and gazed spellbound across the shimmering water. I alone +knew how far we stood from the end where safety lay.</p> + +<p>Now, Peter Bligh was the first to give up his star-gazing; and, shaking +himself like a great dog, he turned to me with a word of that common +sense which he can speak sometimes.</p> + +<p>"'Tis a miracle, truly, and a couple of doors to it," cried he, like +one thinking keenly. "Nevertheless, I make bold to say that if they +have a key to yonder hatch we are undone entirely, captain."</p> + +<p>I sat upon a crag of the rock and tried to think of it all. Czerny's +men would return in an hour, or two at the most, and the truth would be +out. They would come—the seamen to the lesser gate, the others to this +door of steel by which we sat—and, finding that knocking did not open, +they would take such measures as they thought fit to blast the doors. A +gun well fired might do as much if gun could be trained upon the reef. +Once let them inside and it needed no clever tongue to say how it would +fare with us or with those we sought to protect. No man, I said, would +live to tell that story, or to carry the history of Edmond Czerny's +life to a distant city. All that lay between us and life was this door +of steel shutting like a port-hole in the solid rock. And could we hold +it against, it might be one, it might be three hundred men? That was a +question the night must answer.</p> + +<p>"Regnarte," I said, upon an impulse, "you have guns in this house?"</p> + +<p>He held up his fingers and opened them many times to express a great +number.</p> + +<p>"One, two, three hundred guns," said he. "Excellency has them all; but +here one gun much bigger than that. You seamen, you shall know how to +fire him, captain. Excellency say that no man take the gate while that +gun there. Ah! the leg on the other boot now!"</p> + +<p>Now he cracked his fingers all the time he said this, and shook his +keys and danced about the plateau like a madman. For a while I could +make neither head nor tail of what he meant; but presently he turned as +though he would go down to the cabins again, and, standing upon the +very threshold of the staircase, he showed me what I had never seen or +should have looked for in twenty years—the barrel of a quick-firing +gun and the steel turret which defended it.</p> + +<p>"'Tis a pom-pom, or I'm a heathen nigger!" cries Peter Bligh, half mad +at the sight of it. "A pom-pom, and a shield about it. The glory to +Saint Patrick that shows me the wonder!"</p> + +<p>And Dolly Venn, catching hold of my hand in like excitement, he says:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Begg, oh, what luck, what luck at last!"</p> + +<p>I crossed the plateau and saw the thing with my own eyes. It was a +modern Krupp quick-firing gun, well kept, well fitted, well placed +behind a shield of steel which might defend those who worked it against +a hundred. Those who set it upon the rock so set it that not only the +near sea but the second gate could be covered by its fire. It would +sweep the water with a hail of lead, and leave unseen those that did +the work. And the irony of it was chiefly this, that Edmond Czerny, +seeking to defend the door of his house against all the world, now shut +it upon himself.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, at last, and I spoke almost like a man drunk with +excitement; "give me shell for that, and we'll hold the gate against +five hundred!"</p> + +<p>The hope of it set every nerve in my body twitching; sweat, I say, +began to roll down my face like rain.</p> + +<p>"You have a magazine in this place," I continued, turning upon the +Italian in a way that surprised him; "you have arms in this house and +shot for that gun. Where are they, man, where are they?"</p> + +<p>He stood stock-still with fright, and stammered out a broken reply.</p> + +<p>"Excellency has the key, captain—I show you! Don't be angry, captain!"</p> + +<p>He turned to enter the house again, and I followed him, as eager a man +as ever hunted for that which might take a fellow-creature's life.</p> + +<p>"Do you, Peter and Dolly, keep a watch here," said I, indicating the +place, "while I go below with this man. We must hold the gate, lads, +hold it with our lives! If the two yonder come back, be sure you close +their mouths. You understand, Peter—close their mouths!"</p> + +<p>"Aye, I understand, captain!" said he, very quietly. "They'll not sing +hymns when I've done with them!"</p> + +<p>I followed the Italian down the stairs, and we made for the great hall +again. Many lights were burning there, and the figures of women passed +in and out of the splendid rooms. At the far corner, opposite Miss +Ruth's own apartment, the Italian came to a halt and began to gabble +again.</p> + +<p>"Excellency live here, sir," said he; "the gun-room—you go right +through to him; but Excellency, he have the key. Me only doorman. I +speak true, sir!"</p> + +<p>I opened the door of the room he indicated, and feeling upon the wall +switched on a lamp. It was the palace of a place, with great book-racks +all round it, and arm-chairs as long as beds in every corner, and +instruments and tables and pretty ornaments enough to furnish a +mansion; but for none of these things had I eyes that night. Yonder, at +the end of the room, a curtain opened above a door of iron; and through +that door I saw at a glance the way to the gun-room lay. Ah, how my +head tried to grapple with the trouble! The keys—where lay the keys? +What chance or miracle would show me those? Was the key on Czerny's +person or here in one of the drawers about? How much would I have paid +to have been told that truly! But how to open it!</p> + +<p>Now the Italian watched me with curious eyes as I went up to the door +and drew the curtain back from it. A quick glance round the room did +not show me what common sense was seeking—an iron safe in which +Czerny's keys might lie. That he would keep the key of the armoury in +the room, unless it were on his person, I had no doubt; and argument +began to tell me that, after all, a safe might not be necessary. If +alarm came it would come from the sea; or from the lower doors, which +were locked against his devil's crew. I began to say that the keys +would be in a drawer or bureau, and I was going to ransack every piece +of furniture, when—and this seemed beyond all reason—I saw something +shining bright upon a little table in the corner, and crossing the room +I picked up the very thing for which a man might have offered the half +of his fortune.</p> + +<p>"Heaven above!" said I, "if this is it—if this is +<span class="nobr">it———"</span></p> + +<p>And why should it not have been? News of the wreck had come to the +house like a sudden alarm leaping up in the night; the keys, which I +held with greedy fingers, might they not have been in Czerny's hands +when the bell clanged loudly through the startled corridors? I saw him, +forgetful in his very greed, serving out rifles to his willing men, +running up at hazard to be sure of the truth, leaving behind him that +which might open his house to the world forever. And in my hand the +fruit of his alarm was lying.</p> + +<p>Ah, Heaven! it was the truth, and the door opened at my touch, and arms +for a hundred men glittered in the dim light about me.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_20"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XX</h3> + +<h4>THE FIRST ATTACK IS MADE BY CZERNY'S MEN</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">We</span> carried the shot to the stairs' head, +each man working as though his +own life were the price of willing labour. If Miss Ruth had tidings of +the great good fortune the night had sent to us, she would neither stay +our hands with questions nor wait for idle answers. For a moment I saw +her, a figure to haunt a man, looking out from the door of her own +room; but a long hour passed before I changed a word with her or knew +if that which we had done would win her consent. Now, indeed, was Ruth +Bellenden at the parting of the ways, and of all in Czerny's house her +lot must have been the hardest to bear. She had blotted the page of her +old life that night and it never would be rewritten. None the less, a +woman's courage could show me a bright face and all that girlish +gentleness which was her truest charm. Never once would she speak of +her own trouble, but always lightly of ours; so that we three—little +Ruth, Dr. Gray, and Jasper Begg—might have been friends met upon any +common adventure, +and not at the crisis of that desperate endeavour. And so I think it +will befall in all the perilous days, that what is written in the +story-books about loud exclamations and pale faces and all the rest of +it is the property of the story-teller, and that in plain truth you +find none of these things, but just silent actors and simple talk, and +no more noise of the difficulty than the common day will bring. This, +at least, is my memory of that never-to-be-forgotten night. To-morrow +might give us life or death—a grave beneath the seas or mastership of +that house of mystery; though of this no word passed between us, but +briefly we gave each other the news and asked it in return.</p> + +<p>"Captain," says the doctor, he being the first to speak, "they tell me +you've struck a gun-store. Is it true or false?"</p> + +<p>I told him that it was true, and making light of it—for I did not wish +Miss Ruth to be upset before there was good reason—I named another +thing.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, "we shall defend ourselves if there's need, and give a +good account, I hope. For the rest, we'll take it as we find it. I am +trusting that Mister Czerny will listen to common sense and not risk +bloodshed. If he does, the blame be on his own head, for I shall do my +best to make it easy for him."</p> + +<p>"I know you will—I know you will, Jasper," says little Ruth, closing +her hand upon mine, and not caring much what the doctor thought of it, +I'll be bound; "we can do no more than our duty, each of us. Mine is +very hard, but I shall not turn from it—never, while I know that duty +says, 'Go on!'"</p> + +<p>"That I'm sure you won't, Miss Ruth," was my answer to her; "if ever +duty justified man or woman it justifies you and I this night. Let us +begin with that and all the rest is easy. What we are doing is done as +much for the sake of our fellow-men as for ourselves. We work for a +good end—to let the world know what Ken's Island harbours and to keep +our fellow-men from such a place. Accomplish that much, and right and +humanity owe us something, though it's not for me to speak of it, nor +is this the time. My business is to hold this house against the devils +who are pillaging the ship yonder. The sea-gate I can take care of, +Miss Ruth. It's what's below in the pit that I fear."</p> + +<p>She listened with a curiosity which drank in every word and yet was not +satiated. Nevertheless, I believe but half of my story was plain to +her. And who blames her for that? Was not it enough for such a bit of a +girl to say, "My friends are with me. I trust them. They will win my +liberty." The arguments were for the men—for Mister Gray and me, who +sought a road in the darkness, but could not find one.</p> + +<p>"Two doors to this house, captain," says the doctor, after a little +while, "and one of them shut. So much I understand. Are you sure that +the cavern below is empty, or do you still count men in it?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis just neither way," said I, "and that's the worst of it, doctor. +The sea's to be held while the shell lasts and perhaps afterwards; but +if there are men down below, why, then it's another matter. I'm staking +all on a throw. What more can I do?"</p> + +<p>He leaned back upon the sofa and appeared to think of it. Presently he +said:</p> + +<p>"Captain, a man doesn't shoot with his foot, does he?"</p> + +<p>And then, not waiting for me to answer, he goes on:</p> + +<p>"Why, no; he shoots with his hand. Just you plant me in the passage and +give me a gun. I'll keep the door for you—by Jove, I will!"</p> + +<p>Now, I saw that this promise frightened Miss Ruth more than she would +say, for it was the first time that it occurred to her that men might +come out of the pit. But she was just the one to turn it with a laugh, +and crying, "What folly! what folly!" she called out at the same time +for little Rosamunda, and began to think of that which I had clean +forgotten.</p> + +<p>"Jasper," says she, "you will never make a general—never, never! Why, +where's your commissariat? Would you starve your crew and think nothing +of it? Oh, we shall feed Mister Bligh, and then it will be easy," says +she, prettily.</p> + +<p>I made no objection to this, for it was evident that she wished to +conceal her fears from us; but I knew that the doctor was wise, and +before I left him there was a rifle at his side and twenty rounds to go +with it.</p> + +<p><a name="f-237"> </a></p> +<p><img src="images/f-237.jpg" height="543" width="448" alt="If there is any sound +at the door, fire that gun" /></p> + +<p class="pictitle">"If there is any sound at the door, fire that gun."</p> + +<p>"If there's any sound at the door of the corridor—as much as a +scratch," said I, "fire that gun. I shall be with you before the +smoke's lifted, and you will need me, doctor—indeed, you will!"</p> + +<p>I left him upon this and went up, more anxious than I would have +confessed, to my shipmates at the gate. I found them standing together +in the moonlight, which shone clear and golden upon a gentle sea, and +gave points of fire to the rocky headlands of Ken's Island. So still it +was, such a scene of wonder and of beauty, that but for the words which +greeted me, and the dark figures peering across the water, and +something very terrible on the distant reef, I might have believed +myself keeping a lonely watch in the glory of a summer's night. That +delusion the East denied. I knew the truth even before Mister Bligh +named it.</p> + +<p>"They've fired the ship, captain—fired the ship!" says he, with just +anger. "Aye, Heaven do to them as they've done to those poor creatures! +Did man ever hear of such a villainy—to fire a good ship in her +misfortune? It would be a sin against an honest rope to hang such a +crew as that!"</p> + +<p>I stepped forward to the water's edge that I might see the thing more +clearly. Looming up upon that fair horizon were wreathing clouds of +smoke and crimson flames, and in the heart of it all the outline of the +ship these fiends had doomed. No picture ever painted could present +that woful scene or describe its magnificence as we saw it from the +watch-tower of the reef. It was, indeed, as though the very heavens +were on fire, while the sea all about the burning hull shone like a +pool of molten gold in which strange shapes moved and the shadows of +living things were to be seen. Now licking the quivering masts, now +blown aside in tongue-shaped jets, the lambent flame spurted from every +crack and crevice, leaped up from every port-hole of that splendid +steamer. I saw that her minutes were numbered, and I said that before +the dawn broke she would sink, a mass of embers, into the hissing +breakers.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord, Mister Bligh!" cried I, the seaman's habit coming to me at +the dreadful spectacle, "was ever such a thing heard of? And the poor +people aboard—what of them now? What haven may they look for?"</p> + +<p>"They've put the men ashore, sir," said Dolly Venn, hardly able to +speak for his anxiety. "I saw two boat-loads go across to the bay while +Mister Bligh was piling the ammunition. They've sent them to die on the +island. And we so helpless that we must just look on like schoolgirls. +Oh! I'd give all I've got to be over yonder with a hundred bluejackets +at my elbow. Think of it, sir! Just a hundred, and cutlasses in their +hands."</p> + +<p>"Aye," said I, "and a tree for every rogue that rows a boat yonder. +Well, my lad, thinking's no good this night, nor can you get the +bluejackets by whistling. We haven't all served our time in a Queen's +ship, Dolly, and we're just plain seamen; but we'll try and speak a +word to Edmond Czerny by-and-bye, or I'll never speak another. Now, +help me with your young eyes, will you, and tell me if that's a ship's +gig yonder, or if it <span class="nobr">isn't———"</span></p> + +<p>He said that it was a ship's gig, and he pointed out that which I had +not seen before—a steam yacht lying off to the east of us and waiting +for some of her crew to go aboard. Edmond Czerny would be on deck +there, I thought, watching the hounds he had sent to the work; and if +that spectacle of death and destruction did not gratify him, then +nothing would in all the world. And surely such a sight even he had not +beheld in all his years. That shimmering molten sea, the island +catching the reflected lights and making its own pictures of them; the +distant forests, whose trees lifted fiery branches and leaves of flame; +the mist-clouds raining blood and gold, the burning steamer, the great +arena of fire-flecked sea and the small-boats swimming upon it—what +more of delight or devilry could Ken's Island give this vulture of the +deep?</p> + +<p>So much the night would show us as Providence willed and good hearts +might determine.</p> + +<p>Now, I have told you that little Dolly Venn had served in the Naval +Reserve and knew more of gunnery than the most of us. To this, I bear +witness, we owed much that night.</p> + +<p>"You've got a skipper's part, Dolly, lad," said I, "and yon gig begins +the trouble, if my eyes don't deceive me. Why, she's coming in here, +lad, straight to this very door, just as fast as oars can bring her. +And there's more to follow—a fleet of them, as any lubber could tell +you."</p> + +<p>"'Tis like a fête and gala on the old stinking Liffey," says Peter +Bligh, peering with me across the busy sea. "A dozen boats, and every +one of them full. I'd give something to see Mister Jacob to-night; +indeed, and I would, captain. We are over few for such an 'out and +home' as this."</p> + +<p>It was rare to see Peter Bligh serious, but he had the right to be that +night, and I was the last to blame him. Consider our situation and ask +what others would have felt, placed as we were—four willing men upon a +bit of craggy rock rising sheer out of a thousand fathom sea, and +commanded to hold the gate for our lives and for another life more +precious against all the riff-raff that Ken's Island could send against +us. Out on the shimmering sea I counted twelve boats with my own eyes, +and knew that every one of them was full of cut-throats. In the half of +an hour or sooner that devil's crew would knock at our gate and demand +to come in. Whatever way we answered them, however clever we might be, +was it reason to suppose that we could hold the rock against such odds, +hold it until help came when help was so distant? I say that it was +not. By all the chances, by every right reason, we should have been cut +down where we stood, and our bodies swimming in the sea before the sun +shone again on Ken's Island and its mysteries. And if this truth was +present in my mind, how should it be absent from the minds of the +others? Brave faces they showed me, bright words they spoke; but I knew +what these concealed. We stood together for a woman's sake; we knew +what the price might be and made no complaint of it.</p> + +<p>"We are over few, Peter," said I, "but over few is better than many +when the heart is right. Just you drink up that grog and put yourself +where there is not so much of your precious body in the moonlight. It +will be Dolly's place at the gun, and mine to help him. There is this +in my mind, Peter, that we've no right to shoot fellow-creatures unless +they call upon us so to do. When the gig comes up I'll give them a fair +challenge before the volley's fired. After that it's up and at them, +for Miss Ruth's sake. You will not forget, Peter, that if we can hold +this place until help comes, belike we'll carry Miss Ruth to Europe and +shut down this devil's den forever. If that's not work good enough to +put heart into a man, I don't know what is. Aye, my lads," said I to +them all, "tell yourselves that you are here and acting for the sake of +one who did you many a kindness in the old time; and mind you shoot +straight," says I, "and don't go wasting honest lead when there's +carrion waiting for it."</p> + +<p>They answered "Aye, aye!" and Dolly, leaping up to the gun, began to +give his orders just for all the world as though he skippered the ship +and I was but a passenger.</p> + +<p>"We'll put Regnarte in front," says he, "so that we can keep an eye on +him. Let Peter hail them from where he's standing now; the rock covers +him, captain, and the shield will take care of you and me. And oh?" +says he, "I do wish it would begin—for my fingers are just itching!"</p> + +<p>"Let them itch, lad, let them itch," was my answer; "here's the gig by +the point, and they won't trouble you with that complaint long. Do you, +Peter, give them a hail when I cry, 'Now!' If they stop, well and good; +if they come on—why, you won't be asking them to walk right in!" says +I.</p> + +<p>He took my meaning and set to work like the brave man that he was. Very +deliberately and carefully I saw him slip out of his coat and fold it +up neatly at his feet. He had a rifle in his hand and a pile of +ammunition on the floor, and now he opened his Remington and began to +fill it. For my part, I stood by the gun's shield, and from that place, +covered by a ring of steel, I looked out across the awaking sea. +Impatience, doubt, hope, fear—these I forgot in the minutes which +passed while the gig crept slowly across that silver pool. The silence +was so great that a man might almost breathe it. Slow, to be sure, she +was; and every man who has waited at a post of danger knows what it +means to see a strange sail creeping up to you foot by foot, and to be +asking yourself a dozen times over whether she be friend or enemy, a +welcome consort or a rogue disguised. But there is an end to all +things, even to the minutes of such suspense; and I bear witness that I +never heard sweeter music than the ringing hail which Mister Bligh sent +across the still sea to the eight men in the gig, and to any other his +message might concern.</p> + +<p>"Ahoy!" cries he, "and what may you be wanting, my hearties, and what +flag do you sail under?"</p> + +<p>Now, if ever a hail out of the night surprised eight men, this was the +occasion and this the scene of it. They had come back from the pillaged +ship believing that the sea-gate of the house stood open to them and +that friends held it in all security. And here upon the threshold a +strange voice hails them; they are asked a question which turns every +ear towards the rock, sends every man's hand to the gun beside him. +Instantly, their own vile deeds accusing them, they cry, "Discovery!" +They tell each other, I make sure, that Czerny's house is in the +possession of strangers. They are stark mad with curiosity, and unable +for a spell to say a word to us.</p> + +<p>They would not speak a word, I say; their oars were still, their boat +drifted lazily to the drowsy tide. If they peered with all their eyes a +the rock from which the voice came, but little consolation had they of +the spectacle. The shadows spoke no truth, the gate hid the unknown; +they could read no message there. Neither willing to go back nor to +advance, they sat gaping in the boat. How could they know what anxious +ears and itching hands waited for their reply?</p> + +<p>A voice at last, crying harshly across the ripple of the water, broke +the spell and set every tongue free again. Aye, it was good to hear +them speak.</p> + +<p>"Bob Williams," cries the voice. "What ho! my ancient! I guess that's +you, Bob Williams."</p> + +<p>"And I guess it isn't," roars Peter Bligh, half mad, like a true +Irishman, at the thought of a fight. "It isn't Bob Williams, and be +derned to you! Are you going ashore to Ken's Island or will you swim +awhile? It's good water for bathing," says he, "and no charge for the +machine. Aye," says he, "by the look of you cold water would not hurt +your skins."</p> + +<p>Well, they had nothing to say to this; but we could hear them parleying +among themselves. And presently; another longboat pulling up to them, +the two together drifted in the open and then, without a word, began to +row away to the lesser reef, whose gate I had shut not an hour ago. +This I saw with very great alarm; for it came to me in an instant that +if they could force the trap—and there were enough of them to do that, +seeing that they had rifles in their hands—the whole of the lower +rooms would swarm with their fellows presently, and I did not doubt +that the house would be taken.</p> + +<p>"Dolly," cried I, appealing to the lad, when, the Lord knows, my own +head should have been the one to lead, "Dolly," cried I, "they'll force +the gate—and what then, +<span class="nobr">Dolly———?"</span></p> + +<p>He had leapt up when the ship moved off, and now, drawing me back, with +nervous fingers he began to show me what a man-of-war had taught him.</p> + +<p>"No, sir, no," says he, wildly, "no, it's not that. Help me and I'll +tell you—and oh, Mister Begg, don't you see that this gun was put here +to cover that very place?" says he.</p> + +<p>Well, I had seen it, though in the stress of recent events it had +slipped my memory; and yet it would have been as plain as the nose on +the face to any gunner, even to the youngest. For if Czerny must hold +his house against the world, how should he hold it with one door of two +open to the sea? That devilish gun, swung there on a peak of the rock, +could sweep the waters, turn where you might. It was going to sweep the +lesser gate to-night.</p> + +<p>"Round with her and quick about it," cries Dolly Venn, and never a +gladder cry have I heard him utter. "They're coming ashore, captain. +They are on the rock already."</p> + +<p>I stood up to make sure of it, and saw four men leap from the gig to +the rock which it was life or death for us to hold. And to Dolly I +said:</p> + +<p>"Let go, lad; let go, in Heaven's name!"</p> + +<p>He stood to the gun; and clear above all other sounds of the night the +sharp reports rang out. That peaceful, sleeping sea awoke to an hour +the like to which Ken's Island will never know again. We cast the glove +to Edmond Czerny and powder spake our message. Henceforth it was his +day or ours, life or death, the gallows or the sea.</p> + +<p>There were four men upon the rock when the gun began to spurt its vomit +of shot across the sea, and two of them fell almost with the first +report. I saw a third dragging himself across the crags and pressing a +hand madly against every stone as though to quench some burning flame; +a fourth crouched down and began to cry to his fellows in the boats for +mercy's sake to put in for him; but before they could lift a hand or +ship an oar the fire was among them; and skimming the waves for a +moment, then carrying beyond them, it caught them as a hail of burning +steel at last and shut their lips forever. Aye, how shall I tell you of +it truly—the worming, tortured men, the gaping wounds they showed, the +madness which sent them headlong into the sea, the sagging boat dipping +beneath them, the despair, the terror, when death came like a +whirlwind? These things I shut from my eyes; I would not see them. The +sharp reports, the words of agony, the oaths, the ferocious +threats—they came and went as a storm upon the wind. And afterwards when +silence fell, and I beheld the silver sea, the island wreathed in +mists, ships' boats in the distance like dots upon the water, the +ebbing flames where the steamer burned, the woods wherein honest seamen +suffered in the death-trance from which but few would waken, I turned +to my comrades and, hand linked in hand, I said, "Well done!"</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_21"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXI</h3> + +<h4>WHICH BRINGS IN THE DAY AND WHAT BEFELL THEREIN</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">It</span> was just after dawn that Miss Ruth came up from her room below and +found me at my lonely post on the plateau of the watch-tower rock. +Dolly Venn was fast asleep by that time, and Peter Bligh and the +carpenter no less willing for a spell of rest. I had sent them to their +beds when it was plain to me that, whatever might come after, the night +had nothing more in store for us; and though heavy with sleep myself I +put it by for duty's sake.</p> + +<p>Now, I was watching all alone, my rifle between my knees and my eyes +upon the breaking skies, when I heard a quick step behind me, and, +turning round, I saw Miss Ruth herself, and felt her gentle hand upon +my shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't sleep, Jasper," said she, a little sadly I thought. "You +are not angry with me for being here, Jasper?"</p> + +<p>It blew cold with the dawn, and I was glad to see that she had wrapped +her head in a warm white woollen shawl—for these little things stick +in a man's memory—and that her dress was such as a woman might wear in +that bleak place. She had dark rings about her eyes—which I have +always said could look at you as the eyes of no other woman in all the +world; and I began to think how odd it was that we two, whom fortune +had cast out to this lonely rock together, should have said so little +to each other, spoken such rare words since the ship put me ashore at +the gate of her island home.</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," said I, "it's small wonder what you tell me. This night is +never to be forgotten by you and I, surely. Sometimes, even now, I +think that I am dreaming it all. Why, look at it. Not two months ago I +was in London hiring a ship from Philips, Westbury, and Co. You, I +believed, were away in the Pacific, where all things beautiful should +be. I saw you, Miss Ruth, in an island home, happy and contented, as it +was the wish of us all that you should be. There were never lighter +hearts on a quarterdeck than those which set out to do your bidding. +'It's Miss Ruth's fancy,' we told ourselves, 'that her friends should +bring a message from the West, and be ready to serve her if she has the +mind to employ them.' What other need could we think of? Be sure no +whisper of this devil's house or of yonder island where honest men will +die to-day was heard by any man among us. We came to do your bidding as +you had asked us. It was for you to say 'go' or 'stay.' We never +thought what the truth would be—even now it seems to me a horrid +nightmare which a man remembers when he is waking."</p> + +<p>She drew a little closer to me, and stood gazing wistfully across the +westward seas, beyond which lay home and liberty. Perchance her +thoughts were away to the pretty town of Nice, where she had given her +love to the man who had betrayed her, and had dreamed, as young girls +will, of all that marriage and afterwards might mean to her.</p> + +<p>"If it were only that, Jasper," she said, slowly, "just a dream and +nothing more! But we know that it is not. Ah, think, if these things +mean so much to you, what they have meant to me. I came away from +Europe believing that heaven would open at my feet. I said that a good +man loved me, and I gave myself heart and soul to him. Just a silly +little girl I was, who never asked questions, and trusted—yes, trusted +all who said they loved her. And then the truth, and a weary woman to +hear it! From little things which I would not see, it came speaking to +me in greater things which I dare not pass by, until I knew—knew the +best and the worst of it! And all my castles came tumbling down, and +the picture was shut out, and I thought it was forever. The message I +spoke to the sea would never be answered, or would be answered when I +no longer lived to hear it spoken. Do you blame a woman's weakness? Was +I wrong to believe that you would forget the promise?"</p> + +<p>"I never forgot it, Miss Ruth," was my answer, "never for a moment. +'May-be,' said I to Peter Bligh, 'she'll laugh when I go ashore; +<span class="nobr">may-be—but</span> it is a thousand to one against +<span class="nobr">that—she'll</span> have need of me.' +When I saw Ken's Island looming off my port-bow, why I said, 'It's just +such a picture of a place as a rich man would pitch upon for an island +home. It's a garden land,' said I, 'a sunny haven in this good Pacific +sea.' Judge how far I was from the truth, Miss Ruth, how little I knew +of this prison-house that, God helping me, shall stand open to the +world before many days have come and gone."</p> + +<p>She was silent for a spell, for her eyes were searching the distant +island, and she seemed to be scanning its fog-bound heights and misty +valleys as though to read that secret of the night of which I hoped no +man had told her.</p> + +<p>"The ship that came ashore last night, Jasper?" she asked, of a sudden. +"What have they done to the ship?"</p> + +<p>I put my hand upon her arm and led her forward to the sea's edge, +whence we could espy both the sword-fish reef and the ashes of her +bungalow at the island's heart. The day had broken by this time, quick +and beautiful as ever in the Pacific Ocean. Sunny waves rolled up to +our very feet. There were glittering caps of rock gleaming above the +island of death. Czerny's yacht lay, the picture of a ship, eastward in +the offing. The longboats, twelve of them, and each loaded with its +devil's crew, drifted round and round the master's ship; but never a +man that went aboard from them.</p> + +<p>"The ship," said I, "is where many a good ship has gone before: a +thousand fathoms down by yonder cruel reef. As for those that sailed +her, they live or die on Ken's Island, mistress. Last night in my watch +I heard them crying like wild beasts that hunger drives. Those who do +not sleep to-day herd together on yonder beach. I counted nine of them +not half an hour since."</p> + +<p>She tried to see with me, looking across the water; and presently she +said:</p> + +<p>"There are men there and women, too—oh, Jasper, think of it, women!"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said I, "I have been thinking of it for an hour or more, ever +since I first made a signal to them. So much comes of being a seaman, +who can speak to folks when others are dumb. If they read my message +aright, they'll not stay on Ken's Island to sleep, be sure of it; but I +doubt that they'll dare it, Miss Ruth. Poor souls; their need is sore, +indeed!"</p> + +<p>"And our own, Jasper," says she, "is our own less? You are brave men, +and you have all a woman's trust and gratitude; but, Jasper, when my +husband comes, what will you say to him? They are a hundred and we are +but five, shut up in this prison of the sea! We may live here forever +and no help come to us. We may even die here, Jasper. There are things +I will not either name or think of. But, oh, Jasper," says she, "if we +could save those poor people!"</p> + +<p>It was always thus with her—nine thoughts for others and not the half +of one for herself. What she meant by the things she would not name or +speak of, I could hardly guess; but it was in my head that she meant to +indicate the corridors below and that unknown danger which iron doors +shut down. I had been a clearer-headed man that morning if I could have +put away from me my doubt of what the depths were hiding from us. But I +hid it from her always. A truce of self-deception shut out the question +as one we neither cared to hear nor answer.</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," said I, speaking very slowly, "those people have a boat, +for you can see it on yon sands. Let them find the courage to float it, +and it is even possible that Dolly Venn and I can do the rest. We +should be thirteen men then, and glad of the number. I won't hide it +from you that we are a pitiful handful to face such a horde as lingers +yonder. Why, think of it. Your husband keeps them off the yacht, that's +clear to a child's eye. What harbour, then, is open to them? The +island—yes, there's that! They can go and sleep the death-sleep on the +island, as many an honest man before them. But they will have something +to say to Czerny first if I know anything of their quality! Our plight +is bad enough; but I wouldn't be in your husband's shoes to-day for all +the money in London City. We may pull through—there would be rasher +promises than that; but Edmond Czerny will never see a white man's town +again—no, not if he lives a hundred years!"</p> + +<p>"It would be justice, God's justice," said she, very slowly; "there is +that in the world always, Jasper. Whatever may be in store for me, I +should like to think that I had done my duty as you are doing yours."</p> + +<p>"We won't talk of that;" said I; "the day is dark, but the sunshine +follows after. Some day, in some home across the sea, we'll tell each +other how we held Ken's Island against a hundred. It may be that, dear +friend; God knows, it may be that!"</p> + +<p class="dinkus">* * *</p> + +<p>It was five o'clock in the morning by my watch when I signalled for the +second time to the people on the beach, and half-past five when first +they answered me. Until that time I had not wished to awake Dolly Venn +or Mister Bligh; but now when it began to come to me that I might, +indeed, save these poor driven folks and add to the garrison which held +the house, sleep was banished from my eyes and I had the strength and +heart of ten. No longer could I doubt that my signals were seen and +read by some sailor on that distant shore. Driven out, as they must +have been, by the awful fogs which loomed over Ken's Island, gasping +for their lives at the water's edge, who shall blame their hesitation +or exclaim upon that delay? Over the sea they beheld a white flag +waving. Was it the flag which friend or foe had raised? There, from +that craggy rock, help was offered them. Could they believe such good +fortune, those who seemed to have but minutes to live?</p> + +<p>Well, Dolly Venn came up to me, and Peter Bligh, half awake from sleep; +and all standing together (Seth Barker keeping watch below) I told them +how we stood and pointed out that which might follow after.</p> + +<p>"There'll be no attack from Czerny's men with the light," said I; "for +so much is plain reason. If there's murder done out yonder, look for it +on Czerny's yacht when his friends would go aboard. Why, see, lads, +there are a hundred and twenty men, at the lowest reckoning, drifting +yonder in open boats. Who's to feed them, who's to house them? They can +go ashore on Ken's Island and dance to the sleep-music; but they are +not the sort to do that, from what we've seen of them! No, they'll have +it out with Edmond Czerny; they'll want to know the reason why! And let +the wind blow more than a capful," said I, "and by the Lord above me +not a man among them will see to-morrow's sun! Does that put heart into +you, Peter, or does it not? There are folks to save over there, Peter +Bligh," says I, "and we'll save them yet!" + +His reply was an earnest "God grant it!" and from that moment the sleep +left his eyes, and standing by my side, as he had stood many a day on +the bridge of the Southern Cross, he began to read the signals and to +interpret them aloud as the old-time duty prompted him.</p> + +<p>"Eight men and a woman, and one long-boat," says he; "sickness among +them and no arms. 'Tis to know if they shall put off now or wait for +the dark. You'll be answering that, captain."</p> + +<p>"Let them come, let them come," said I; "how's the dark to help them? +Will they live a day in the fogs we know of? And what sort of a port is +Ken's Island in the sleep-time for any Christian man? If Czerny murders +them on the high seas, so much the more against him when his day comes. +Let them come, Peter, and the Lord help them, poor wretches!"</p> + +<p>I was using my arms with every word, and trying to make my meaning +clear to the poor folks on the beach. So far they had been content to +answer me with questions; but now, all at once, they ceased to signal, +and a black object riding above the surf told me that they had risked +all and were afloat, be the danger what it might. At the same moment a +sharp cry from Dolly Venn turned my eyes to Czerny's yacht; and I saw +his devils rowing their boats for the open water of the bay, and I knew +that murder was in their minds, and that the hour had come when every +veil was to be cast aside and their purpose declared against all +humanity.</p> + +<p>"Clear the gun and stand by," was my order to the others; "we'll give +them something to take home with them, and it sha'n't be pippins! Can +you range them, Dolly, or must you wait? There's no time to lose, my +lad, if honest lives are to be saved this day."</p> + +<p>He went to work without a word, charging his magazine and training the +gun eastwards towards the advancing boats. If he did not fire at once, +it was because he doubted his range; and here was his difficulty, that +by sweeping round to the east and coming at the refugees upon a new +course, Czerny's lot might yet cheat us and do the infernal work they +intended. Indeed, the poor people in the longboat were just racing for +their lives; and whether we could help them or whether they must perish +time alone would show. Yard by yard, painfully, laboriously, they +pushed towards the rock; yard by yard the devil's crew were bearing +down upon them. And still Dolly kept his shot; the gun had nothing to +say to them. No crueller sight you could plan or imagine. It was as +though we were permitting poor driven people to be slaughtered before +our very eyes.</p> + +<p>"Fire, Dolly, lad!" cried I, at last—"fire, for pity's sake! Will you +see them die before our very eyes?"</p> + +<p>His fingers trembled upon the gun. He had all the heart to do it; but +still he would not fire.</p> + +<p>"I can't," says he, half mad at his confession; "the gun won't do +it—it's cruel, captain—cruel to see it—they're half a +mile out of range. And the others dropping their oars. Look at that. A man's down, and +another is trying to take his <span class="nobr">place———"</span></p> + +<p>It was true as I live. From some cause or other, I could only surmise, +the longboat lay drifting with the tide and one of Czerny's boats, far +ahead of its fellows, was almost atop of her.</p> + +<p>"They're done!" cries Peter Bligh, with an oath, "done entirely. God +rest their souls. They'll never make the <span class="nobr">rock———"</span></p> + +<p>We believed it surely. The refugees were done; the pirates had +unsheathed their knives for the butcher's work. I saw no human help +could save them; and saying it a voice from the open door behind me +gave the lie to Peter Bligh, and named a miracle.</p> + +<p>"'Tis the others that need your prayers, Mister Bligh—Czerny's lot are +sinking <span class="nobr">sure———"</span></p> + +<p>I looked round and found Seth Barker at my elbow. His orders had been +to watch the gate of the corridor below. I asked him what brought him +there, and he told me something which sent my heart into my mouth.</p> + +<p>"There's knocking down below and strange voices, sir. No danger, says +Mister Gray, but a fact you should know of. Belike they'll pass on, +sir, and please God they'll leave the engine for their own sakes."</p> + +<p>"Does Mister Gray say that?" asked I. "Does he fear for the engine?"</p> + +<p>"If it stops, we're all dead men for want of breath, the doctor says."</p> + +<p>"Then it sha'n't stop," said I, "for here's a man that will open the +trap if two or twenty stand below."</p> + +<p>He had quickened my pulse with his tale, for the truth of it I could +not deny; and it seemed to me that danger began to close in upon us, +turn where we might, and that the outcome must be the worst, the very +worst a man could picture. If I had any satisfaction, any consolation +of that wearing hour, it was the sight I beheld out there upon the +hither sea, where Czerny's boat drifted upon its prey—yet so drifted +that a child might have said, "She's done with; she's sinking."</p> + +<p>"Flushed, by all that's wonderful," cries Peter Bligh, with a +tremendous oath; "aye, down to oblivion, and an honest man's curse go +with you. The rogue's done, my lads; she's done for, certain."</p> + +<p>We stood close together and watched the scene with burning eyes. Dolly +Venn chattered away about a shot that must have struck the boat last +night and burst her seams. I cared nothing for the reasons, but took +the facts as the sea showed them to me. Be the cause what it might, +those who would have dealt out death to the refugees were going down to +eternity now, their arms in their hands, their mad desire still to be +read in every gesture. When the truth came swift upon them, when the +seas began to break right in across their beam, then, I say, they +leaped up mad with fear, and then only forgot their prey. For think +what that must have meant to them, the very boat sinking beneath them; +their comrades far away; the waves lapping their feet; the sure +knowledge that they must die, every man of them within hail of those +very woods wherein so many had perished for their pleasure. Aye, it +came upon them swiftly enough, and the good boat, making a brave effort +to battle with the swell, went down headlong anon, and the cries of +twelve drowning men echoed even in the distant island's hills. That +which had been a placid sea with two ships' boats was still a placid +sea though but one boat swam there. I beheld horrible faces looking +upward through the blinding spindrift; I saw arms thrust out above the +foam-flecked waters; I witnessed all that fearful struggle for life and +air and the sun's bright light; and then, aye, then the scene changed +awfully, and silence came upon all, and the sun was still shining, and +the untroubled deep lapped gently at our feet.</p> + +<p class="dinkus">* * *</p> + +<p>The twelve had perished; but the nine were saved. Stand awe-struck as +we might, seeing the hand of God in this deliverance, the truth of it +remained to put new heart into us and to hide that scene from our eyes. +There, pursued no longer, was the island boat. Glad voices hailed us, +wan figures stood up to clasp our hands; we lifted a woman to the +rocks; we ran hither, thither, for help and comfort for them. But nine +in all, they were our human salvage, our prize, our treasure of honest +lives. And we had snatched them from the brigand crew, and henceforth +they would stand with us, shoulder to shoulder, until the day were won +or lost and Ken's Island gave up its mysteries, or gathered us for that +last great sleep-time from which there is no waking.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_22"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXII</h3> + +<h4>THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTY HOURS</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">It</span> was near about midday on a Saturday that we saved the poor folks +from the island, and not long after midnight on the Monday that our +troubles came to a head. I like to call these the "sixty hours"; and +as what I have to write of them is written, as it were, from watch to +watch, so swiftly did things happen, I will try to make a diary of it +that you may follow me more closely.</p> + +<p><span class="italic">Saturday, May 27th. At midday.</span></p> + +<p>There are nine people rescued from the ship, and one of these a girl, +Isabel, the daughter of Captain Nepeen, of the American navy. Her +father is with her, a tall, stately man, very quiet and orderly, and +quite ready to take a man's duty in the house. Of the others, the most +part are American seamen, for this was an ocean-going steamer, Silver +Bell, trading from American ports to Yokohama. All are very astonished +at the things they have seen and heard both in this house and upon +Ken's Island; but they are too ill to take much part in them, and the +young lady lies still in a dead trance. Doctor Gray says that he will +save her; but another man, knowing less, might think that she was dead.</p> + +<p><span class="italic">The same day. At four o'clock.</span></p> + +<p>They waked me from sleep at this hour to tell me that the men in the +caverns below were beating upon the iron doors of the corridor, and +appeared likely to force their way up to our part of the house. Captain +Nepeen brought the news himself, and had a long talk with me. I found +him a cultured man, and one who got a grip of things sooner than I had +expected.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Begg," he said, "it is plain that we have fallen into the hands of +a very great scoundrel. I cannot imagine what kind of intellect has +made use of this extraordinary place, but I can very plainly divine the +purpose. It is for you and me to answer to civilization and justice. We +must begin at once, Captain Begg, without any loss of time," says he.</p> + +<p>I answered him a little sharply, perhaps, being not over-pleased that +he should make so light of my own part in the matter.</p> + +<p>"Sir," said I, "what a seaman can do I have done already, or you would +not be here to speak of it. Let that go by. The news that you bring +won't wait for civilities. It must be plain to you that if we are to +stand a siege in this house, we must hold every gate of it. There are +men in the galleries below; Heaven knows how many of them. I would name +that first and let the rest come after."</p> + +<p>He was put about at this, and made haste to express a gratitude I had +not looked for. His naval training prompted him to habits of authority. +I could see that he was itching to be up and acting, and I knew that he +needn't wait long for that.</p> + +<p>"Indeed," says he, warmly, "we owe our lives to you, as many a good +seaman will owe it in the days to come. I should have spoken of that +first. The wonders of this place drive other thoughts from a man's +head. We were half dead when we saw your signal, captain. What has +become of my fellow-passengers and the rest of the crew, God alone +knows. They put us ashore on the island after the ship was taken last +night, and nine of us, as you see, are here to tell the story. I have +heard the tradition of Ken's Island from the Japanese, but I never +believed a word of it before yesterday. Now I know that it is true. My +fellow-passengers are there, dead or dying, and at sundown I am +certainly going ashore to do what I can for them."</p> + +<p>"You are a brave man, Captain Nepeen," said I, "a very brave man. Where +you go I follow. We cannot leave poor seamen to perish, cost us what it +may. Yet I would not hide it from you that it is a big business, and +that the man who goes to Ken's Island to-night may never return. We are +now fourteen in this house, and our first duty is to leave it safe for +those who trust us. With your help, Captain Nepeen, we'll answer the +scum down below," said I.</p> + +<p>He assented very heartily and began to speak of the arms that we had +and of the manner of employing them. His fellows, I learned, were +bivouacked in the great hall, and these he waked first while I was +getting the sleep out of my eyes and asking myself, "What next?" The +room in which I lay was Czerny's own room; and now in the daylight the +sea played cool and green upon the arched windows and showed to me such +sights on the rocks without as I had never dreamed of in the darker +hours. What genius had pitched upon such a house under the waves? I +asked. What spirit of evil breathed upon this dreadful place? What +craving for solitude sent this master-mind here to the bed of the +Pacific Ocean, where it could spy upon these uncanny secrets, watching +the still green water, face to face with devilish shapes butting upon +the glass, the friend of the horrid creatures which slimed upon the +windows and crawled to their rocky haunts, or fought claw to claw in +the sight of their enemy, man? Desperate as the plight was, I must +stand a minute before the crystal panes and watch that changing +spectacle of the sea's own wonders. The very water was so near that I +thought I had but to stretch out a hand to touch it. The weird, wild +things that crept over the rocks, surely they would enter this room +presently! And Czerny could live here, cheek by jowl with these +fearsome mysteries! Again I say that man knows little of his +fellow-man, of his better nature or his worse.</p> + +<p><span class="italic">The same day. At five o'clock.</span></p> + +<p>We open the lower doors and go down into the galleries. Seven men are +with me and each carries a musket. The quest is not so much for those +shut down in the pit as for the life which they may send up to us. +Doctor Gray has put it in a word, and it is true. The great engine, +which draws the air from the sea's brink and drives it out in life-giving +currents through the corridors of Czerny's house, that engine +alone stands between us and eternity this day. If those below have kept +that engine going until this time, it is for their own safety's sake. +Rob them of food and drink, and what security have we that they will +continue at the task? And yet, the deed be my witness, it was a +perilous journey. No man in our company could say surely how many of +Czerny's crew he would find in the black labyrinth we must face. No man +could speak of the hidden mysteries lurking in passage or cavern, far +from the sea-gate and the sun's light. We were going into the unknown; +and we went with timorous steps, each asking himself, "Shall I live to +see the day again?" each saying to the other, "Stand close!"</p> + +<p>Now, the knocking had ceased when we opened the gates, and we stood for +a little while peering down into that corridor, which I have named +already as the backbone of the lower house. Lighted it was, the lamps +still burning, its barred doors shut, its branching passages suggesting +a hive of rocky nests which might harbour an army of desperadoes. No +sound came up to us from below save the sound of the engine throbbing, +throbbing, as it fanned a breath of life and drove it upwards to us +fresh and sweet upon our faces. Whoever lurked in that abyss feared to +show himself or to cry a truce. We were hedged about by black mystery, +and, rifle in hand, we set out to learn the truth.</p> + +<p>There were lamps in the corridor, but in the passages branching from it +no light save that which streamed down, green and silvery, from the +windows which shut the still sea out. Oftentimes the seven with me +would draw all close together, awed by the fantastic spectacle these +glimpses of the sea's heart showed to them. At other times the nearer +alarm would set them quaking, and crying "Hist!" they would listen for +steps in the silence or other sounds than that of the engine's pulse +and the whirring fans. The very stillness, I think, made them afraid. +The horrors of the windows—above all, that horror of the nameless +fish—could frighten a man as no spectre of God's earth above. If I had +accustomed myself in part to these new sensations, if Czerny's house +seemed to me rather a refuge than a terror, none the less there were +moments when my step halted and my eyes were glued upon the sights I +saw. For here it would be a monstrous shark lying still in a glassy +pool; or there a very army of ferocious crabs, their eyes outstanding, +their claws crushing prey, their great shells shaped like fungi of the +deep; or going on a little way again I stopped before a giant porthole +and discovered a devil-fish and his nest in the deep and said that +nothing like to it had been +heard or told of. Here lies a great basin scooped out of the coral +rock, and the green water is focused in it until it looks like a prism, +and everywhere, in nook and crevice, the deadly tentacles, the +frightful eyes of these unnameable creatures seem to twist and stare, +and threaten us. Such fish we counted, hundreds of them, at the windows +of the second cavern we entered; and, drawing back from it affrighted, +we went on like men who fear to speak of that which they have seen.</p> + +<p>"A madman's house; it could not be anything else," says Captain Nepeen, +as pale as any ghost; "unless I had seen it with my own eyes, Mr. Begg, +no story that ever was written would make me believe it. And yet it is +true, as Heaven is above us, it is true."</p> + +<p>"No doubt of that," said I, "a madman's house, captain, and madmen to +people it. But of that we'll speak by-and-bye; for the shadows may +listen. Keep your gun ready; there will be others about besides +ourselves. Here's the first of them—stone-dead, by the Lord!"</p> + +<p>They all came to a stand at my words, and saw that which my eyes +discovered for them—the figure of a dead man, lying full and plain to +be seen in the lamp's glare, and so fallen that no one might ask you +how he had died.</p> + +<p>"One," said I, "and that which killed him left behind! He's been struck +down as he ran. There's the knife that did it, lads!"</p> + +<p>A young seaman among us shuddered when he saw the knife still sticking +in the dead man's side. The rest of us drew the body out of the light +and went on again with wary steps. We were near the great dormitory at +this time, the door of which I myself had locked; but it was open now +and the lock broken. Lamps still burned in that vast room; food lay +still upon its tables; but the story of it was to be read at every +step. Chests overturned, chairs smashed, a litter of clothes upon the +floor, broken bottles, an empty pistol, great marks upon the door where +iron had indented it, bore witness to the struggle for light and +freedom. The prisoners had fled, but life was the price of liberty. I +took one swift glance round this broken prison, and then led my +comrades out of it.</p> + +<p>"The birds have flown and one of them is winged," said I. "There are +five more to take, and the shadows hide them! Come on, my lads, or +they'll say that eight were scared by five, and that's no tale to tell +of honest seamen!"</p> + +<p>I spoke up to encourage them, for, truth to tell, the dark and the +mystery were playing strange tricks with my nerves. As we penetrated +deeper into that labyrinth I could start at every shadow and see a +figure in every cranny. The men that the dark patches harboured, where +were they? Their eyes might be watching every step we took, their +pistols covering our bodies as we hurried on to the depths. And yet no +sound was heard, the great engine throbbed always; the cool, sweet air +blew fresh upon our faces.</p> + +<p>Now, the first voice spoke at the head of the engine-room stairs, from +an open cavern which no lamp illumined. I had just called out to +Captain Nepeen to follow me to the engine-room, and was bidding the +others wait at the stairs-head, when a shot came flashing out of the +darkness, and in the flame of the gun's light I saw a great hulking +figure, and recognised it instantly. It was that of Kess Denton, the +yellow man, whom I had left senseless at the door of Ruth Bellenden's +bungalow more than twenty days ago. A giant figure, the head bandaged, +the arms and chest naked, a rifle gripped in both hands, this phantom +of the darkness showed itself for an instant and then vanished with an +echoing laugh which mocked and angered us. At the same moment the young +seaman who had shuddered before the dead, fell headlong in the passage, +and with one loud cry gave up his life.</p> + +<p>And this was the first man who died for little Ruth Bellenden's sake.</p> + +<p>We swung about on our heels as the report rang out and fired a blazing +volley into the darkness of the cavern. What other men lingered there, +how many of the driven ghouls who haunted the labyrinth received that +hail of lead, I shall never know nor care to ask. Groans answered our +shots; there were cries of pain, the curses of the wounded, the +derisive laughter of those that escaped. But little by little the +sounds died away, echoing in other and distant galleries, or coming to +us as whispered voices, speaking from places remote, and leaving to us +at last a silence utter and profound.</p> + +<p>We were masters of the bout and the engine was ours.</p> + +<p>"Captain Nepeen," said I, "do you and three others go back to the +stairs-head and hold it until I come. If they are afraid to face us +here, they'll never face us at all. Why, look at it. Seven men out in +the light, as fair a target as a woman might ask for, and they show us +their heels. Go back and hold the gate, and I and those with me will +answer for the engine. Time afterwards to hunt the vermin out."</p> + +<p>He took my order unwillingly, I could see. A greater devil for a fight +than that smooth-faced American sailor I shall never meet in all my +days. Keen as a hound after quarry, he would have hunted out the +vermin, I do believe, if the path had led down to the mouth of Hades +itself.</p> + +<p>"You will not go alone, captain," cried he, "that's plain madness."</p> + +<p>"I take two to my call," said I, "and leave you the rest."</p> + +<p>"But what—aren't you afraid, man?"</p> + +<p>"Afraid! Of whom?" said I. "Of an old man—but that's too far ahead. +I'll speak of it when I come up, captain. Perhaps it's only my own +idea. But it's good enough to go on with."</p> + +<p>He had still something to say, and, looking first into the black +cavern, which we had filled with shot, and then down the stairs towards +the engine-room, he went on presently:</p> + +<p>"You take a big risk and I hope you'll get out of it. How many do you +expect to find below?</p> + +<p>"One," said I, quickly, "and he a friend. It's a strange story, +captain, and wonderful, too. But it will wait."</p> + +<p>I was at the door of the engine-room before he could answer me, and +pulling back the leather curtain I put my own idea to the proof. Just +as forty hours ago, so now that gloomy cavern shimmered with the +crimson light which the giant furnaces cast upon its rocky roof. Now, +as then, leather-clad figures moved before its molten fires. There were +the mighty boilers, the pumping engine, the throbbing cylinders, the +shining cranks; but the man who staggered towards me in the white +light, the man who uttered a glad cry of recognition, the man who fell +at last at my feet, imploring me for the love of mercy to bring him +food and drink, that man was no enemy.</p> + +<p>He was Clair-de-Lune, the old Frenchman, and I had but to look at him +twice to see that he was the neighbour of death.</p> + +<p>"Clair-de-Lune, old comrade!" I cried, "you! We owe our lives to +<span class="italic">you</span>, then! By thunder, you shame us all!"</p> + +<p>He was pale as death; the sweat ran in streams down upon his naked +breast; his words came like a torrent when he tried to tell me all.</p> + +<p>"Three days in prison, and no man come to me," he said, pathetically; +"then I hear your voice. I say it is Captain Begg. I am glad, monsieur, +because it is a friend. I break the door of my prison and would come up +to you; but no, there is no one in the house; all gone. I say that my +friends die if I do not serve them. There are lads with me; but they +are honest. Ah, Captain Begg, food and drink, for the love of Christ!"</p> + +<p>He fainted in thy arms, and I carried him from the place. Again, in all +providence, I and those dear to me had been saved by the fidelity of +one of the oddest of God's creatures.</p> + +<p><span class="italic">The same day. At eight o'clock.</span></p> + +<p>I have begun to believe that the Italian is right, and that Czerny left +no more than eight men in the lower house. No attack has been made upon +the Americans we put in charge of the engine, nor is there any news of +those mutineers who fled from us this morning, save that which comes +from two of them, very pitiful creatures, broken-down and starving, who +have surrendered their arms and begged for food. The others, they say, +will come in presently, when the big man, whom they call Kess Denton, +will let them. They protest that their comrades are but four, and two +of them wounded grievously. I no longer feel any anxiety about that +which is below, and I have told Miss Ruth as much. She has now been two +hours with Captain Nepeen. Her way of life draws her sympathetically +towards that brave and gentle man. It must be so. The world has put a +great gulf between the simple seaman and those whom fortune shelters at +her heart. A plain sailor has his duty to do; the world would laugh at +him if he forgot it because the years have taught him to worship a +woman's step and to seek that goal of life to which her hand may lead +him.</p> + +<p><span class="italic">An hour later.</span></p> + +<p>We are to go ashore with the dark to see if we can save any of the +refugees marooned on the island. It is a desperate chance and may cost +good men's lives. I do not forbid it, for I have lived and suffered on +Ken's Island myself. If there are living men there now—it may be +women, too—held in that trance of death from which they must awake to +madness or never wake again, the commonest instinct of pity says to me, +"Go." I have consulted Doctor Gray, and he is doubtful of the venture. +"Mind what you are doing, I beg of you," he says. "Are there not women +to save in this house?" Miss Ruth overhears him and draws me aside, +and, putting her hand upon my arm winningly, she lifts her pretty face +to mine and says, "Jasper, you will save them!"</p> + +<p>I am going ashore, and Captain Nepeen goes with me.</p> + +<p><span class="italic">At ten o'clock.</span></p> + +<p>We put off a boat at ten o'clock and rowed straight for the open beach. +It was a gloriously clear night, with a heaven of blazing stars and a +sea like flowing silver. The ship's boats made so many black shapes, +like ocean drift in the pools of light; and Czerny's yacht, speaking of +that dread Presence, lay as an evil omen in the anchorage to the +northward. Ken's Island itself was uplifted like some mountain of the +sea, snowcapped in its dazzling peaks, harbouring its wayward forests +and lovely glens and fresh meadows which the moon's light frosted. And +over all was that thin veil of the fog, a steaming blue vapour flecked +with the richest hues; now drifting in clouds of changing tints, now +spreading into fantastic creations and phantom cities, pillars of +translucent yellow flame, banks of darker cloud as though a storm were +gathering. Sounds of the night came to us from that dismal island; we +heard the lowing of the kine, the sea-bird's hoot, ever and anon the +terrible human cry which spoke of a soul in agony. And with these were +mingled grimmer sounds, like very music of the storm: the echo of +distant gunshots fired by Czerny's men at the anchored yacht which +refused them harbourage.</p> + +<p>There were four with me in the boat, and Captain Nepeen was one of +them. I had set Peter Bligh at the tiller, and Seth Barker and an +American seaman to pull the oars. We spoke rare words, for even a +whisper would carry across that night-bound sea. There were rifles in +our hands; good hope at our hearts. Perchance, even yet, we should +awake some fellow-creature from the nameless sleep in the woods whose +beauty veiled the living death.</p> + +<p>Now, I say that Czerny's men were firing rifle-shots at the anchored +schooner, and that sound was a true chantey for our ears. What eyes +would they have for us when their salvation lay aboard the yacht? We +were nothing to them; the ship was all. And, be sure, we did not go +unwatched or helpless. Behind us, at the gate we had left, our gun +showed its barrel like the fang of a slipped hound. Cunning hands were +there, brave fellows who followed us in their hearts, while we crossed +the basin swiftly and drew near the terrible shore. If we had seen the +sun for the last time, then so be it, we said. It is not a seaman's way +to cry at danger. His word is "must," and in a sure purpose lies his +salvation.</p> + +<p>We made the island at the westward end that we might have a clear sheet +of water between Czerny's boats and our own; and we so set our course +that our gun could sweep the intervening seas if any eye detected us. +The land was low-lying towards the west and marshy; yet, strange to be +told, the fog lay light upon it. It had been planned between us that +Captain Nepeen and I should go ashore while the others held the boat. +We carried revolvers in our hands, but no other arms. The death-fog was +our true defence; and against that each man wore the respirator that +Duncan Gray had made for him. Sleep might be our lot, but it would come +upon us slowly.</p> + +<p>"It will be straight for the woods, captain," said I, "and all our +heart go with us. Your friends, who were put ashore last night, will +never stray far from the beach, believe me. We'll search the foreshore +and leave the rest to chance. As for going under, we sha'n't think of +that. It would never do to begin by being afraid of it."</p> + +<p>He answered readily enough that he had never thought of such a thing.</p> + +<p>"Where you lead, there I follow, Captain Begg," said he. "I shall not +be far behind you, rely upon it."</p> + +<p>"And me not far from the shore when it's 'bout ship and home again," +chimes in Peter Bligh. "God go with you, captain, for you are a brave +man entirely!"</p> + +<p>I laughed at their notion of it, and went a little way up the beach. +The respirator about my mouth, charged with some chemical substance I +did not know the use of, permitted me to breathe at first with some +ease. And what was more extraordinary was this, that while in the woods +the fog had seemed to suffocate me, here it was exhilarating; bracing a +man's steps so that he seemed to walk on air; exalting him so that his +mind was on fire and his head full of the wildest notions. No coward +that ever lived would have known a moment's fear under the stimulation +of that clear blue vapour. I bear witness, and there are others to bear +witness with me, that a whole world of strange figures and wonderful +places opened up to our eyes when we began to push ashore and to leave +the sandy beach behind us. And that was but the beginning of it, for +more fearful things were to follow after.</p> + +<p>I will try to describe for you both the place and the scene, that you +may realize my sensation, and follow me truly in this, my third journey +to Ken's Island. Imagine, if you can, an undulating stretch of lush +grass and pasture-land, a glorious meadow flooded with the clear, cold +light; arched over with a heaven of stars; bordered about by heavy +woods; dipping to the sea on two sides and extending shimmering sands +to the breaking swell on the third. Say that a hot blue fog quivers in +the air above this meadow-land, and is breathed in at every breath you +take. Conceive a mind so played upon by this vapour that the meadows +and the woods beyond the meadows are gradually lost to view, and a +wonder-world quickly takes their place. Do this, and you may follow me +more surely to a phantom city of majestic temples hewn out of a golden +rock and lifting upward until they seem to touch the very skies; you +may peer with me into abysses so profound that no eye can fathom their +jewelled depths; you may pass up before walls built wholly of gems most +precious; you may sleep in woods beneath trees silvered over with +light; search countless valleys rich in unknown flowers. And the city +is peopled with an unnumbered multitude of moving figures, the sensuous +figures of young girls all glittering in gold and jewels; the shapes of +an army of giants in blackest armour; and there are animals that no eye +has seen before, and beasts more terrible than the brain can conceive.</p> + +<p>Say, too, that this deadly vapour of the island so stimulates the +faculties that earth no longer binds a man nor heaven imprisons him. +Say that he can rise above the spheres to unknown worlds, can, span the +seas, and bridge the mountains. Depict him, as it were, throwing off +his human shape and seeing the abodes of men so far below him, so puny, +so infinitely small that he begins to realize eternity. Cast him down +from these visions suddenly and in their place set up black woods and +the utter darkness of nature impenetrable. Let the exaltation leave +him, the sights fade utterly, the dismal abyss of the nether world +close him in. Awake him from these again and let him reel up and +stagger on and believe that he is sinking down to the eternal sleep. +Such sensations Ken's Island will give him until at last he shall fall; +and lying trance-bound for the rain to beat upon his face, or the sun +to scorch him, or the moon to look down upon his dreams, he shall lie +and know that the world is there, and that nevermore may he have part +or lot in it.</p> + +<p>I have set down this account of my own experiences on the island that +you may compare it with the books of others who have since visited this +wonderful place; but I would not have you think that I, and the brave +man who stood at my side, forgot that human errand which put us ashore +in those dismal swamps; or hung back to speak of our own sensations +while others might need us so sorely. If we passed from delirium to +sanity, from the height of hysterical imagination to the depths of +despair and gloom, none the less the faculty of action remained, the +impulse which cried, "Straight on," and left us willing still to dare +the worst if thereby a fellow-creature might be saved. Burning as our +brains were, heavy the limbs, we could still push on across the +meadows, search with our eyes for those poor people we had come out to +save. How long this power of action would remain to us, what supreme +misfortune would end our journey at last, throwing us, it might be, to +the grass, there to sleep and end it all, we would not so much as +consider. Good men were perishing on Ken's Island, and every instinct +said, "You, Jasper Begg, and you, James Nepeen, hold out a hand to +them."</p> + +<p>"Do you see anything, captain?" I asked my companion again and again; +"we should be near them now. Do you hear any sound?"</p> + +<p>He answered me, gasping for his breath:</p> + +<p>"Not a whisper."</p> + +<p>"Yonder," I would go on, "yonder by the little wood; they landed there. +Can you get as far, captain?"</p> + +<p>"I'll try, by Heaven!" said he, between his teeth.</p> + +<p>"They'll not be far from the wood," said I, "that's common sense. Shut +your eyes to all the things you see and don't think about it. It's an +awful place, captain. No living man can picture its fellow."</p> + +<p>I waited for him to come up to me, and so placed myself that his eyes, +I hoped, might turn seaward and not up towards the woods where such +weird sights were to be seen. For this place, the angle of the great +pasture-land where it met the forest, was occupied by sleeping cattle, +white, and still, and frigid, so that all the scene, glimmering in the +moonlight, might have been cut out of some great block of marble; and +cows and sheep, and trees and hills, all chiselled by the hand of +Death. That a living thing should be speaking and moving there seemed +almost an outrage upon the marvellous beauty of that field of sleep. +The imagination reeled before this all-conquering trance, this glory of +nature spellbound. It were as though a man must throw himself to the +earth, do what he would, and surrender to the spell of it. And that, +perchance, we had done, and the end had been there and then, but for a +woman's cry, rising so dolefully in the woods that every impulse was +awakened by it and all our resolutions retaken.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear that?" I cried to him, wildly; "a woman's voice, and near +by, too! You'll not turn back now, Captain Nepeen!"</p> + +<p>"Not for a fortune!" said he, bravely; "it would be Gertrude Dolling, +the purser's sister; we cannot leave her!"</p> + +<p>The desire was like a draught of wine to him. He had been near falling, +I make sure, but now, steadying himself for an instant upon my arm, he +set off running at all his speed, and I at his heels, we crossed the +intervening grass and were in the wood. There we found the purser's +sister, stumbling blindly to and fro, like a woman robbed of sight, +while children were clinging to her dress and crying pitifully because +she did not heed them.</p> + +<p>It was an odd scene, and many must come and go before I forget it. Dark +as the wood might be by day, the moonlight seemed to fill every glade +of it, showing us the gnarled trunks and the flowering bushes, the +silent pools and the grassy dells. And in the midst of this sylvan +rest, remote from men, a lonely thicket of the great Pacific Ocean, was +this figure of civilization, a young girl decked out in white, with a +pretty hat that Paris might have sent her, and little children, in +their sailors' clothes, clinging trustingly, as children will in +confidence to a woman's protecting hand. No surprise was it to me then, +nor is it a surprise now, that the girl neither saw nor heard us. The +trance had gripped her surely; the first delirium of exaltation had +robbed her of sight and sense and even knowledge of the children. That +doleful wailing song of hers was the first chant of madness. Her steps +were undirected, now carrying her to the wood's heart, now away from it +a little way towards the sea's beach. My order, twice given, that she +should stand and wait for us was never answered; I do not even think +that she felt my hand upon her shoulder. But she fell at last, limp and +shuddering, into my arms, and I picked her up and turned towards the +sea.</p> + +<p>"The children to you, and straight ahead," said I to the captain; "run +for your life, and for the lives of these little ones. It will be +something to save them, captain."</p> + +<p>He answered me with a word that was almost a groan; but stooped to his +task, nevertheless. He knew that it was a race for their lives and +ours.</p> + +<p>I had the burden in my arms, I say, and no feather's weight was less to +me in the hope of my salvation and of those we strove for. The way lay +straight down, through a ravine of the low cliffs to the beach we had +left and the good boat awaiting us there. Nothing, it seemed, but a +craven will could stand henceforth between us and God's fresh air that +night. And yet how wrong that reckoning was! There were a dozen of +Czerny's men halloaing wildly on the cliff-side when we came out of the +wood; and almost before we had marked them, they were after us headlong +like devils mad in wine.</p> + +<p>Now these men, as we learned afterwards, driven by hunger and thirst to +the point of raving, had come ashore that very evening; it may be to +rifle the stores on the island; it may be in that spirit of sheer +madness which sometimes drives a seaman on. Twenty in all when they +landed, there were eight asleep already when we encountered them; and +lying on the cliff's side, some with arms and heads overhanging, some +shuddering in the fearful sleep, one at least bolt upright against the +rock with his arms outstretched as though he were crucified, they +dotted that dell like figures upon a battle-field. The rest of them, a +sturdy twelve, fired by the dancing madness, brandishing their knives, +uttering the most awful imprecations, ran on the cliff's head above us, +and seemed to be making straight for the cove where our boat lay. And +that is why we said that the race was for life or death.</p> + +<p>There are moments in his life when a man must decide "aye" or "nay" +without checking his step to do so. As things stood, the outlook could +not have been blacker while we ran through the ravine to the water's +edge. Behind, in the wood, lay the dancing death; before us these +madmen with their gleaming knives, their unearthly yells, their reeling +gait and fearful gesticulations. We had to choose between them, the +sleep in the lonely glen, or the race downward to the shore; and we +chose the latter, believing, I think, that the end must be the same, +turn where we would.</p> + +<p>"Keep your course, keep your course!" I cried to the captain as we ran +on. "Hold to it, for your life—it's our only chance!"</p> + +<p>He set one of the children on the sand, and, bidding the little one run +on ahead, he drew his revolver and stood shoulder to shoulder with me.</p> + +<p>"A straight barrel and mark your men," cried he, very quietly; "it's a +cool head that wins this game. We have ten shots and the butts will do +for two. You will make that twelve if you add it up, captain."</p> + +<p>His coolness surprised me, but it was not to be wondered at. Never from +the first had I heard this man utter one word which complained of our +situation or of its difficulty. To Captain James Nepeen a tight corner +was a pleasure-ground; and now with these yelling devils all round him, +and the vapour steaming in the woods behind, and the sea shimmering +like a haven that would beckon us to salvation, he could yet wear that +cynical smile of his, and go with lighter step, and bear himself like +the true seaman that he was. Of all that I have ever sailed with I +would name him first as a true comrade in peril or adversity. To his +skill I owed my life that night.</p> + +<p>"One," said he, suddenly, when a great head showed itself on the cliff +above us and was instantly drawn back. So quick had he been, so wild +did the aim appear, that when a body rolled presently down the grassy +bank and lay stark before us I could not believe that a bullet had done +its work.</p> + +<p>"One," cried he again, triumphantly—"and one from twelve leaves +eleven. Ha, that's your bird, captain, and a big one!"</p> + +<p><a name="f-292"> </a></p> +<p><img src="images/f-292.jpg" height="635" width="448" alt="Another man fell +with a loud cry" /></p> +<p class="pictitle">Another man fell with a loud cry.</p> + +<p>I had pulled my trigger, prompted by his example, and another man from +the cliff above lifted his arms and fell with a loud cry. And this was +the astonishing thing, that though we two were caged in a ravine like +rats in a trap, and had shot two of the devils stone-dead, no answering +shot was fired from above, no rifle levelled at us.</p> + +<p>"No arms," cries the captain, presently; "and most of them half drunk. +We're going through this, Mister Begg, right through, I assure you!"</p> + +<p>Well, I began to believe it; nevertheless, there were men on the shore +before us, halloaing madmen, with clasp-knives in their hands and +murder in their faces. Clear in the moonlight you could see them; the +still air sent up their horrid imprecations. Those men we must pass, I +said, if we would reach the boat. And we passed them. It seems a +miracle even when I write of it.</p> + +<p>Now, we had halted at the foot of the ravine and were just prepared to +go headlong for the six, believing, it may be, that one at least of us +must fall, when they fired a shot, not from the gun at the watch-tower +gate, but from Czerny's own yacht away in the offing; and coming plump +down upon the sand, not a cable's length from our own boat, a shell +burst with a thunderous explosion, and scattering in fragments of +steel, it scared the mutineers as no rifle could have done. Roaring out +like stricken bulls, cursing their master in all tongues, they began to +storm the cliff-side nimbly and to run for the shelter of the woods; +but some fell and rolled backward to the sand, some turned on their own +knives and lay dead at the gully's foot; while those who gained the +summit stood all together, and wailing their doleful song they yelled +defiance at Czerny's ship.</p> + +<p>But we—we made the boat; and falling half-dead in it, we thrust it +from the beach and heard our comrades' voices again.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_23"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXIII</h3> + +<h4>THE END OF THE SIXTY HOURS</h4> + +<p><span class="italic">The same night. Off Ken's Island. Half-past +twelve o'clock.</span></p> + +<p>We have not returned to the watch-tower rock, nor can we bring +ourselves to that while there is any hope left to us of helping those +whom Czerny marooned on the dangerous shore. Our gig drifts lazily in a +pool of the whitest moonlight. We can still make out the ship's boats +lying about Czerny's yacht, and the angry crews which man them. From +the beach itself rises up the mutineers' wail of agony, like a wild +beast's cry, at one time loud and ferocious, then dying away in a +long-drawn cry, which haunts the ear. Ever and anon, as the mood takes them, +the gunners on Czerny's yacht let fly at us with their erring shells; +but they smite the air or hurt the water, or drop the bounding fire on +the shimmering spread of sand beyond us. Perhaps it is that this +employment occupies the minds of the longboats' crews and keeps them +from reckoning with the master who has befooled them. They, at least, +are at the crisis of their peril. Afloat there on a gentle swell they +must know that any hour may bring a changing wind and a breaking sea, +and a shore rockbound and unattainable. They are playing with chance, +and chance will turn upon them presently. Let them make for the island +where the laughing woods say "Come!" and the heralds of sleep will +touch them upon the foreheads, and raving, dreaming, they will fall at +last, just victims of the island visions. Say that their brute +intelligences do not yet understand this; but hunger and thirst will +teach them ere the dawn, and then reckoning must come!</p> + +<p>All this I foresaw as we let the boat drift by the sandy bays, and +spake, one to another, of to-morrow and that which it must bring. +Whatever our own misfortune might be, that of Czerny's men was worse a +hundredfold. For the moment it amused them to see the shells plunging +and hissing in the sea about us; for the moment the desire to be quit +of us made them forget how it stood with them and what must come +after. But the reckoning would be sure. Let a capful of wind come +scudding across that glassy sea, and all the riches in the world would +not buy Edmond Czerny's life of these sea-wolves who sought it.</p> + +<p>"They'll stand by until they know the worst, and then nothing will hold +them," I said to my comrades. "If they think they can get aboard the +yacht, they'll do so and make for some safe port. If not, they'll try +to rush the house. Assume that they are driven hard enough and no gun +will keep them off. Let ten or twenty go down, the rest will come in. I +am thinking that we should get back to the house, lads, and not leave +it to younger heads. We've done what we could here, and it's plainly +useless to go on with it!"</p> + +<p>They were all with me in this, none more so than Captain Nepeen, who, +up to this time, had been for the shore and the friends who might be +found there.</p> + +<p>"At least we have made every prudent effort; and there are others to +think of," said he. "If they had a gunner worth a groat, we should not +be where we are, captain. You must allow something to chance and a +lucky shot. They may get home even yet. I will not ask you what that +would mean, for you are a seaman and you know."</p> + +<p>His words, I think, recalled us to the danger. No hope of rescue +rewarded our eyes when we scanned the black woods and the lonely +fore-shore of the forbidden land. Dark and terrible in the moonlight, like +some mighty beacon of evil rising up above that sleeping sea, it seemed +to say to us, "Go, turn back; remember those who count upon you." And +we pulled from it reluctantly out into the broad sea, and breathed a +full breath as we left its vapours and its fetid shores.</p> + +<p>Three shots were fired at us while we crossed the open channel, and one +fell so close that we could see the cleavage of the water and feel the +silver spray upon our heated faces. This quickened our oars, you may be +sure, and set our course true and straight for the house, whose iron +gate stood up like a fortress of the deep and opened its rocky shelter +to us. Clair-de-Lune was there, too, halted and motionless by the sea's +brink; Dolly Venn stood at his side; and once I thought that I saw Miss +Ruth herself peering across the lapping wavelets and watching us with a +woman's anxious eyes.</p> + +<p>Nor did we go unobserved by those who had so much to gain if mischance +should befall us in that last endeavour. Like pirates' junks, slipping +from a sheltered creek, the devils in the longboats espied us in the +moonlight and began to row towards us and to hail us with those wild +shouts which yesterday we had heard even in the House Under the Sea. +Yet, I witness, they did not affright us. We knew that sure eyes +watched them from the reef; no lads' playing at the length of a +watchdog's chain, kept more surely from the dog's teeth than those +night-birds from the gun's range. Shots they fired—wild, reckless +shots, skimming the water, peppering the sky, whistling in the clear +air above us. But the boats drew no nearer, and it seemed that we must +touch our haven unharmed, when the American seaman, stretching out his +arms in a gesture fearful to think of, and ceasing to row with horrid +suddenness, fell backward without any word and lay, a dying man, before +us.</p> + +<p>They had shot him through the heart; and he was the second who fell for +Ruth Bellenden's sake.</p> + +<p><span class="italic">Sunday morning. Five o'clock.</span></p> + +<p>I have known little sleep for the last thirty hours, nor can I sleep at +the crisis of our misfortunes. It is a still grey morning, with heavy +cloud in the East, and lapping rhythmical waves beating upon the +windows of the house as though anon a gale must blow and all this +torrid silence be swept away.</p> + +<p>I cannot conceal it from myself what a gale would mean to us; how it +must scatter the open boats, drifting there at the mercy of a Pacific +sea; how, perchance, it might even lift the fog from Ken's Island and +show us sunny fields and sylvan woods, a harbourage of delight to which +all might flock with leaping hearts. And yet, says reason, if it so +befall that you yourselves may go ashore to yonder island, what logic +shall keep Czerny's men from the same good anchorage? They are as +twenty to one against you. If there are houses there, and stores for +the sun-time, who will shut them to this horde of desperadoes? Aye, the +head reels to think of it; the hours pass slowly; to-morrow we shall +know.</p> + +<p>Now, I have thought of all this, and yet there are other things in my +mind, and they jostle one with the other, the sweet and the bitter, the +good and the bad, until it seems to me that I no longer get at the +heart of it, but am as a man drifting without a chart, set free on some +unknown sea whose very channels I may not fathom. Three hours ago when +I came ashore and lifted the dead man out, and sent the sleeping girl +to shelter, Ruth Bellenden's hand was the first to touch my own, her +word the first my ear would catch. So clear it was, such music to a man +to hear that girlish voice asking of his welfare as a thing most dear +to her, that all the night vanished at the words, and Ken's Island was +lost to my sight, and only the memory of the olden time and of my +life's great hope remained to me.</p> + +<p>"Jasper!" she said, "it was not you—oh, Jasper, it was not you, +then!"</p> + +<p>I stepped from the boat, and, taking her hand in mine, I drew her a +little nearer to me; then, fearful of myself, I let go her hand again +and told her the simple truth.</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," said I, "it is yon poor fellow. I will not say 'Thank +God!' for what right have I to serve you before him? He did his duty; +help me to do mine."</p> + +<p>She turned away and gazed out over the sea to the yacht still +thundering its cannon and ploughing with its wasted shot the +unoffending sea. Deep thoughts were in her mind, I make sure, a torture +of doubt, and hope, and trepidation. And I—I watched her as though all +my will was in her keeping, and there, on the lonely rock, was the +heart of the world I would have lived and died in.</p> + +<p>"You cannot forbid me to be glad, Jasper," she said, presently; "you +have given me the right. I saw you on the shore. Oh! my heart went with +you, and I think that I counted the minutes, and I said, 'He will never +come; he is sleeping.' And then I said, 'It is Jasper's voice.' I saw +you stand up in the boat and afterwards there were the shadows. Jasper, +there cannot be shadows always; the sun must shine sometimes."</p> + +<p>She held my hand again and touched it with her cheek. I think that I +forgot all the place about, the sea and the men, the distant shore and +the island's shape, the still night and the dawn to come; and knowing +nothing save that Ruth, little Ruth, was by my side, I went into +dreamland and said, "It shall be forever."</p> + +<p><span class="italic">Monday. At six o'clock.</span></p> + +<p>I cannot sleep and I have come to keep watch on the rock. Old +Clair-de-Lune is with me, but silence is in the house below, where some sleep +and some are seeking sleep. Of all who can discuss our future bravely, +none speaks better sense than this simple old man; and if he rebukes my +own confidence he rebukes it justly. I ask him when the sleep-time will +pass and the sun-time come. He shakes his head, he will not prophesy.</p> + +<p>"God forbid that it should pass," says he. "They will go ashore to the +island, and we—we perish," says he. "Pray that it shall not be, +captain. We have food for three week—month; but what come after? You +pick up by ship, you say. But not so. When your ship come here the +devils set trap, and all is wreck and burn and steal! They take your +ship and you perish, you starve. Ah, monsieur, pray that the sun-time +do not come."</p> + +<p>I lay back upon the rock and thought of it. This old man, surety, was +right. Let the fog drift from Ken's Island, the woods awake, life stir +again, and how stood we—where was our benefit?</p> + +<p>"It is a fearful position," said I, "and Heaven alone knows what the +end of it will be. That something has happened to Mister Jacob and my +ship I can no longer doubt, Clair-de-Lune. The Southern Cross is on the +rocks, be sure of it, and good men with her. Take it that they are +picked up and set on the American coast. What then? Who finds the money +for another steamer? It is not to be thought of: we must dismiss it +from our minds. You say that we have food for three weeks, and the +condensers down below will give us water. But it won't be three weeks +before we are in or out of it, my friend. If we are starving, others +are starving—those out yonder by Czerny's yacht. He'll give them food +to-day; but how long will they drift like cattle for the rain to beat +on? Your sense will tell you that they won't drift long, but will be +asking questions and wanting their answers. Aye, Clair-de-Lune, we'll +listen with all our ears when that begins!"</p> + +<p>He had a glass with him and he began to scan the yacht very closely and +the ship's boats about it. I had not noticed that there was an unusual +stir in the anchorage, but he remarked it now and drew his own +conclusions.</p> + +<p>"They give rogue man arms and cutlass, captain; he go overboard too. I +see them pass from boat to boat. Ah, there he is, the bread and the +biscuit. They get breakfast and then come here, captain. What else you +look for? They not lie there all the days. They too much devil for +that. We few and little; they big and strong. Why shall they not take +the house? Some die, but other mans remain. Czerny he say to them, +'Great much price if you kill the English captain.' He know that all +his money is locked up down here. Why shall he not come, captain?"</p> + +<p>I could not tell him why. My own glasses showed me the things he made +mention of and others beside. Arms, I saw, were being passed down from +the yacht to the small boats clustered about it. There was no sunlight +to glisten upon the bright barrels of the rifles, but I could +distinguish them nevertheless; and cutlasses were handed from boat to +boat—a good fifty of them I counted, and there were more to come. What +the meaning of it was a child might have told you. Truce prevailed +between master and man in their common desire of possession. The last +great attack was to be made upon us—the rock to be rushed. Even a +woman would have divined as much.</p> + +<p>"Clair-de-Lune," said I, "the end is coming at last; and it won't be +very long. We're dealing with a remarkable man, and it is not to be +supposed that he'll sail away and leave us here without one good blow +for it. Aye, it's a great mind altogether, and there's the plain truth. +Who else but the cleverest would have thought of this place, and come +here like a human vulture to feed upon ships and men? There have been +many Edmond Czernys in the world; but this man I name chief among them, +and others will name him also. We set ourselves against a hand in a +million; stiff backs we need to wrestle with that; but we'll do it, old +comrade, we'll see it through yet!"</p> + +<p>It was a wild boast, yet, God knows, a well meant one. Perhaps, if he +had pushed me to the confession, I would have told him that I was far +from believing my own prophecies, and that, in truth, I realized, as he +did, the perilous hazard of our position and all that defeat might mean +to us. Just as he knew, so did I know that before the night came down +dead men might lie on the rocks about me and be engulfed in that sea +which beat so gently upon the lonely shore; that living men from the +boats yonder would swarm in the galleries below, and women's cries be +heard, and something follow which even I dare not contemplate. The +dreadful truth, perhaps, kept our tongues away from it; we talked of +other things, of Czerny and his house, and of what we would do if the +best should befall.</p> + +<p>"He wonderful man," old Clair-de-Lune went on, standing, like some old +Neptune of the sea, bolt upright on the pinnacle of rock; "wonderful +man, and none like him! Thirteen year ago he first find this place, and +thirteen year he wreck the ships. I know, for there was a day when he +tell me much and I listen. He say, 'Make great fortune and no trouble +to earn him. If sailor man drown, more fool he.' All the years back, +hundreds of years, ships perish on Ken's Island. Czerny he hear the +story in Japan, and he come to see the place for himself. They say he +once sleep through the fog and mad afterwards. He no longer have right +or wrong or care about the world. He come to Ken's Island and grow +rich. Then his engineers find this rock. Once, long time ago, it have +been part of the island, captain. The—what you say?—volocano, he +shoot fire into the sea; but that was before the peoples. Czerny, he go +down into the rock and he discover great cavern and little cavern, and +he say, 'I live here in the sleep-time.' Plenty of money make fine +house. He shut out the sea wherever he would come in; he build great +windows in the rock; his <span class="italic">mécanicien</span>, +he put up engine and draw air +from the skies. Long year Czerny live here alone. Then one day come +madame—ah, captain, I was sorry when I saw madame come! 'She will +suffer here,' I said; she have suffered much already. Czerny is not as +other men. If madame say to him, 'You good man; you and I live here +always,' then she have everything, she go where she will, she become +the master. But I say when I see her, 'No, never she will not say that. +She good woman.' And then I fear for her, captain; I fear greatly. I +did not know she have the English friend who will save her."</p> + +<p>He turned to me wistfully, and I read in his eyes of that deep +affection which little Ruth Bellenden has never failed to win from all +who know and learn to love her.</p> + +<p><span class="italic">Monday. At three o'clock.</span></p> + +<p>We held a council of war in the great hall at this hour, and came upon +a plan to meet the supreme attack which must be made upon us tonight. +We are all of one mind, that Czerny will seek to rush the house under +cover of the darkness, and in this the sunless day must help him. We +cannot look for any moon or brightness of the stars which shall aid our +eyes when the sun has set. It will be a dark night, cloudy and, +perhaps, tempestuous. If the storm should break and nature be our ally, +then the worst is done with already and the end is sure. But we have no +right to hope for that. We must face the situation like thinking men, +prepared for any eventuality.</p> + +<p>Now, I had slept a little at the height of the day, and the first news +that they brought to me when I waked was of the surrender of the two +that remained in the caverns below, and of the fidelity of the other +four of Czerny's men who already had joined us. So far as I can make +out there may be but one living man in the lower story of the house, +and for him and his goodwill we care nothing.</p> + +<p>The rest of the crowd we fought, seeing, perhaps, that fortune goes +with us so far, will themselves stand on fortune's side and serve us +faithfully. That much, at least, I put to my fellows as we sat round +the table in the hall and made those plans which reason dictated.</p> + +<p>"They'll serve," said I, "as long as we are on the winning side. We'll +put them in the engine room, where they'll keep the fires going for +their own sakes. If they so much as look false, then shoot them down. +It is in my mind, Captain Nepeen," said I, "that we'll have need of +such a man as you, and three good fellows with you, at the lesser gate. +You should find cover on the rocks while we hold the near sea for you. +If Czerny gets a foothold there and beats that door in, I need not tell +you how it will go with us. For the rest, I leave two men at the +stairs-head and two in this hall to be at Miss Ruth's call. Peter Bligh +and Dolly Venn go up with me to work the gun. If they rush it—well, +twenty there won't keep them back with rifles. But I count upon the +coward's part, and I say that a man will think twice about dying for +such as Czerny and his ambitions. Let that be in all your minds, and +remember—for God's sake remember—what you are fighting for."</p> + +<p>"For women's honour and good men's lives," said Captain Nepeen, +quietly. "Yes; that's the stake, gentlemen. I don't think we need say +any more to nerve our arms and clear our eyes. We fight for all that is +most dear to honest men. If we fail, let us at least fail like true +seamen who answer 'Here' when duty has called."</p> + +<p><span class="italic">At six o'clock.</span></p> + +<p>We all dined together at this time in the large dining-room near by +Miss Ruth's boudoir. An odder contrast than that between this fine room +below and the still, desolate sea above, no mind could imagine. For, on +the one hand, were the insignia of civilization—luxury, display, the +splendid apartment, the well-dressed women, the table decked out with +fine linen and silver, the windows showing the sea-depths and all their +wondrous quivering life; on the other hand, the black shapes of night +and death, the menace of the boats, the anchored yacht, the darkening +skies, the looming island. We sat down fourteen souls, that might have +met in some great country house, and there have gathered in friendship +and frivolity. Never in all my life had I seen Miss Ruth so full of +vivacity or girlish charm. Her laughter was like the music of bells; +the jest, the kindly word was for every man; and yet sometimes I, at +her side, could look deep into those grey-blue eyes to read a truer +story there. And in the babble of the talk she would whisper some +treasured word to me, or touch my hand with her own, or say, "Jasper, +it must be well, it must be well with us!" Of that which lay above in +the darkening East, no man spoke or appeared to think. There was ruby +wine in our glasses; the little French girls capered about us like +nymphs from the sea; we spoke of the old time, of sunny days in the +blue Mediterranean, of wilder days off the English shores, of our homes +so distant and our hopes so high; but never once of the night or that +which must befall.</p> + +<p><span class="italic">Monday. At eleven o'clock.</span></p> + +<p>We have now been at our stations for two hours and nothing has +transpired. I have Clair-de-Lune with me at the great sea-gate, and +Dolly Venn and Seth Barker are at the gun. The night is so dark that +the best trained eye can distinguish little either on sea or land. +Ken's Island itself is now but a blur of black on a cloud-veiled +horizon. We have shut off every light in the house itself; the reef +runs no longer beneath the sea like a vein of golden light, nor do the +windows cast aureoles upon the sleeping water. What breeze there is +comes in hot gusts like breath from heated waters. We cannot see +Czerny's yacht nor espy any of his boats near or afar; but we crouch +together in the shelter of the rocks, and there is water near to our +hand, and food if we seek it, and the ammunition piled, and the barrels +of the rifles outstanding, and the figures with their unspoken +thoughts, their hopes, their fears of the dreadful dawn that must be. +Whence out of the night shall the danger come? Shall it come leaping +and brandishing knives, a veiled army springing up from the shadows, or +shall it come by stealth, boat by boat, now upon this quarter, now upon +that, outposts seeking to flank us, deadly shots fired we know not +where? I cannot tell you. The comrades at my side ask again and again, +"Do you see anything, captain?" I answer, "Nothing!" It is the truth.</p> + +<p><span class="italic">Monday. At midnight.</span></p> + +<p>We are still upon the rock and the shadows engulf us. The lad at my +side, sick with waiting, has curled himself up upon a bed of stone and +is half asleep; Seth Barker leans against a crag like some figure hewn +out of granite; old Clair-de-Lune is all hunched up as a bundle. +Nevertheless, masterly eyes scan the lapping waters. Will the night +never speak to us? Will the day bring waiting? Ah, no! not that! A shot +rings out clear on the still night air; a flash of fire leaps across +the sea. We spring to our feet; we cry, "Ready!" The sixty hours are +over and the end is near!</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_24"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXIV</h3> + +<h4>THE SECOND ATTACK ON CZERNY'S HOUSE</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">The</span> shot was fired and answered at +the lower gate. We had looked for +that; for that we had been waiting during the watching hours. They +would attack the lesser reef, we said, and our own good men, standing +sentinels, would flash the news of it to us, and the gun would do the +rest. Dark as it was, the blackest hour the island had given us, +nevertheless by daylight we had trained our barrels upon the reef, and +now took aim in all confidence. Twice we whistled shrilly to warn our +men; twice we heard their answering voices. Then the gun belched forth +its hail of shot and the challenge was thrown down.</p> + +<p>"Give it to them, Dolly!" I cried, my brain afire at the call of +action; "for every honest seaman's sake, give it to them, lad! We'll +tell of this to-morrow—aye, Dolly, we'll tell a great story yet!"</p> + +<p>He answered me with a boy's glad cry; I do believe it was like a game +to him.</p> + +<p>"Pass here, pass here!" he kept crying; "we have them every time! In +with the shot, Seth—in with it! Don't keep them waiting! Oh, captain, +what a night!"</p> + +<p>The others said nothing; even Peter Bligh's tongue was still in that +surpassing moment. The doubt of it defied words. We knew nothing, nor +could we do aught but leave our fortune to the darkness of the night. +The rogues who fell, the rogues who stood, the boats that came on, the +boats that withdrew, of these we were ignorant. All was hidden from our +eyes; the veil of the night cloaked from us the work we had done. If +men cried in agony, if groans mocked angry boasts, if we heard the +splashing of the oars, the hoarse command, the vile blasphemy, the rest +was in imagination's keeping. The outposts of Czerny's crew, we said, +had tried to rush the gate where our own men watched; but our own were +behind the steel doors now and the gun's hail swept the barren rock. +The dawn would show us the harvest we had reaped.</p> + +<p>Now, the volleys rolled their thunder right away to the hills of Ken's +Island, and the whistling of the bullets was like the singing of unseen +birds above our heads; there were oases of red flame in the waste of +blackness; we heard oaths and cries, commands roared hoarsely across +the water, voices triumphant and voices that were stilled; and then +came the first great silence. Whatever had befallen on the rock, those +who sought to force the lesser gate were, for the moment, driven back. +Even little Dolly, mad at the gun like one whom no reason could +restrain, heard me at last and obeyed my command.</p> + +<p>"Cease firing, lad!" roared I, "cease firing! Would you shoot the sea? +Yonder's the captain's whistle. It means that the danger's nearer. Aye, +stand by, lads," I said, "and look out for it."</p> + +<p>We swung the gun round so that it faced the basin before us, and, +rifles ready, we peered again in the lowering darkness. About me now I +could hear the deep breathing of my comrades and see their crouching +figures and say that every nerve was tautened, every faculty awakened. +Shielded by the night, those hidden boats were creeping up to us foot +by foot. Whatever had been done at the lesser gate had been done as a +ruse, I did not doubt. Czerny's goal was the greater door we held so +desperately, his desire the full possession, the mastery of the house +wherein lay life and treasure and lasting security.</p> + +<p>I counted twenty, no man speaking, and then I raised my voice. Dimly, +in the shadows, I made out the shape of a longboat drifting to the +brink; and to Dolly I said:</p> + +<p>"Let go—in God's name, let go, lad!"</p> + +<p>He stood to the gun with a cry of defiance and blazed into the +darkness. The drifting boat lurched and sagged and turned her beam to +the seas. I could distinguish the faces of men, ferocious and +threatening, as they peered upward to the rock; I saw other boats +looming over the dark water; I heard the ringing command, "In at them! +To hell with them!" and then, I think, for many minutes together I +fired wildly at the figures before me, swung round now to this side, +now to that; was unconscious of the bullets splintering the rock or of +the lead shower pouring on us. The battle raged; we were at the heart +of it. What should a man remember then but those who counted upon him?</p> + +<p>Now, you have imagined this picture, and you seem to stand with me upon +that split of rock, that defiant crag in the great Pacific Ocean, with +the darkness of heaven above and the darkness of the sea below, with +the belching guns and the spitting rifles, the yells of agony and the +crouching figures, the hearts beating high and the sweating faces; and +just as the outcome was hidden from me and I knew not from minute to +minute whether it were life or death to us, so will you share the +meaning of that suspense and all the terror of it. From every side now +the rain of shot was poured in upon us, the unceasing torrent came; +above, below, ringing upon the iron shield, scattering deadly +fragments, ploughing the waters, it fell like a wave impotent, a broken +sea whose spindrift even could not harm us. For a good ring of steel +fenced us about; we held the turret, and we laughed at the madness +below.</p> + +<p>"Round with the gun!" I would cry, again and again; "round with her, +Dolly. Let them have it everywhere. No favours this night, my lad; full +measure and overflowing—let them have it, for Miss Ruth's sake!"</p> + +<p>His joyous "Aye, aye, sir!" was a thing to hear. No sailor of the old +time, black with powder, mad on a slippery deck, fought, I swear, as we +four in that shelter of the turret. Clear as in the sun's day were the +waves about us while the crimson flame leaped out. Crouched all +together, the sweat upon our foreheads, smoke in our eyes, the wild +delight of it quickening us, we blazed at the enemy unseen; we said +that right was with us.</p> + +<p>There were, as far as I could make out, six boats set to the attack +upon the great gate, and seventy or eighty men manning them. Acting +together on such a plan as a master-mind had laid down for them, they +tried to rush the rock from four points of the compass, trusting, it +may be, that one boat, at least, would land its crew upon the plateau. +And in this they were successful. Pour shot upon them as we might, +search every quarter with the flying shells, nevertheless one boat +touched the rock in spite of us, one crew leaped up in frenzy towards +the turret. So sudden it was, so unlooked for, that great demoniacal +figures seemed upon us even while we said that the seas were clear. +Whirling their knives, yelling one to the other, some slipping on the +slimy weed, others, more sure in foothold, making for the turret's +height, the mutineers fell upon us like a hurricane and so beat us down +that my heart sank away from me, and I said that the house was lost and +little Ruth Bellenden their prey at last.</p> + +<p>"Stand by the gun—by the gun to the last, if you love your life!" I +cried to Dolly Venn. "Do you, Peter, old comrade, follow me; I am going +to clear the rock. You will help me to do that, Peter?"</p> + +<p>"Help you, captain! Aye," roared he, "if it was the ould divil himself +in a travelling caravan, I'd help you!"</p> + +<p>He swung his rifle by the barrel as he spoke the words and, bringing it +down crash, he cleaved the skull of a great ruffian whose face was +already glowering down from the turret's rim. Nothing, I swear, in all +that night was more wonderful than the <span class="italic">sang-froid</span> +of this great Irishman (as he would call himself in fighting moods) or the merry +words which he could find for us even then in the very crisis of it, +when hope seemed gone and the worst upon us. For Peter knew well what I +was about when I leapt from the turret and charged down upon the +mutineers. A dozen men, perchance, had gained foothold on the rock. We +must drive them back, he said, stand face to face with them, let the +odds be what they might.</p> + +<p>"God strengthen my arm this hour and show me the bald places!" cries +he, leaping to the ground and whirling his musket like a demon. Seth +Barker, do not doubt, was on his heels—trust the carpenter to be where +danger was! I could hear him grunting even above that awful din. He +fought like ten, and wherever he swung his musket there he left death +behind him.</p> + +<p>So follow us as we leap from the turret, and hurl ourselves upon that +astonished crew. Black as the place was, tremulous the light, +nevertheless the cabined space, the open plateau, was our salvation. I +saw figures before me; faces seemed to look into my own; and as a +battle-axe of old time, so my rifle's butt would fall upon them. Heaven +knows I had the strength of three and I used it with three's agility, +now shooting them down, now hitting wildly, thrust here, thrust there, +bullets singing about my ears, haunting cries everywhere. Aye, how they +went under! What music it was, those crashing blows upon head and +breast, the loud report, the gurgling death-rattle, the body thrown +into the sea, the pitiful screams for mercy! And yet the greater +wonder, perhaps, that we lived to tell of it. Twelve against three; yet +a craven twelve, remember, who feared to die and yet must fight to +live! And to nerve our arms a woman's honour, and to guide us aright, +the watchword: "Home!"</p> + +<p>I fought my way to the water's edge, and then turned round to see what +the others were doing. There were two upon Peter Bligh at that moment, +but one fell headlong as I took a step towards them; and the other's +driving-knife fell on empty air, and the man himself, struck full +between the eyes, rolled dead into the lapping sea.</p> + +<p>"Well done, Peter, well done!" I cried, wildly; and then, as though it +were an answer to my boasts, something fell upon my shoulder like a +great weight dropped from above, and I went down headlong upon the +rock. Turning as I fell, I clutched a human throat, and, closing my +fingers upon it, he and I, the man out of the darkness and the fool who +had forgotten his eyes, went reeling over and over like wild beasts +that seek a hold and would tear and bite when the moment comes. Aye, +how I held him, how near his eyes seemed to mine, what gasping sounds +he uttered, how his feet fought for foothold on the rock, how his hand +felt for the knife at his girdle! And I had him always, had him surely; +and seeking to force himself upward, the slippery rock gave him no +foothold, and he slipped at last from my very fingers, and some great +fish, hidden from me, drew him down to the water and I saw the waves +close above his mouth. Henceforth there were but three men left at the +gate of Czerny's house. They were three who, even at that time, could +thank God because the peril was turned.</p> + +<p class="dinkus">* * *</p> + +<p>We beat the twelve off, as I have told you, and for an hour at least no +fresh attack was made on the rock. The sharpest eye now could not +detect boats in the darkness; the sharpest ear could not distinguish +the muffled splash of oars. We lay all together in the turret, and very +methodically, as seamen will, we stanched our wounds and asked, "What +next?" That we had some hurt of such an affray goes without saying. My +own shoulder was bruised and aching; the blood still trickled down +Peter Bligh's honest face from the knife-wound that had gashed his +forehead; Seth Barker pressed his hand to a jagged side and said that +it was nothing. But for these scratches we cared little, and when our +comrades hailed us from the lesser gate, their "All's well!" made us +glad men indeed. In spite of it all, one of us, at least, I witness, +could tell himself, "It is possible—by Heaven, it is possible—that we +shall see the day!" That we had beaten off the first attack was not to +be doubted. Wherever the mutineers had gone to, they no longer rowed in +the loom of the gate. And yet I knew that the time must be short; day +would not serve them nor the morning light. The dark must decide it.</p> + +<p>"They will come again, Peter, and it will be before the dawn," said I, +when one thing and another had been mentioned and no word of their +misfortune. "It's beyond expectation to suppose anything else. If this +house is to be taken, they must take it in the dark. And more than +that, lads," said I, "it was a foolish thing for us to go among them as +we did and to fight it out down yonder. We are safer in the turret— +safer, by a long way!"</p> + +<p>"I thought so all the time, sir," answered Dolly Venn, wisely. "They +can never get below if you cover the door; and I can keep the sea. It's +lucky Czerny loopholed this place, anyway. If ever I meet him I shall +quote poetry: 'He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel.' It would +about make him mad, captain!"</p> + +<p>"Aye," says Peter Bligh, "poetry is well enough, as my poor old father +used to say; but poetry never reefed a to'gallon sail in a hurricane +and isn't going to begin this night. It's thick heads you need, lad, +and good, sound sense inside of 'em! As for what the captain says, I do +hold it, truly. But, Lord! I'm like a boy at a fair when the crowns are +cracking, and angels themselves wouldn't keep me back!"</p> + +<p>"You'd affright them, Mister Bligh," puts in, Seth Barker, "you'd +affright them—asking your pardon—with your landgwich!"</p> + +<p>"What!" cries Peter, as though in amazement; "did I say things that +oughtn't to be said? Well, you surprise me, Barker, you do surprise me!"</p> + +<p>Well, I was glad to hear them talk like this, for jest is better than +the coward's "if"; and men who can face death with a laugh will win +life before your craven any day. But for the prone figures on the rock, +looking up with their sightless eyes, or huddled in cleft and +cranny—but for them, I say, and distant voices on the sea, and the black shape +of Ken's Island, we four might have been merry comrades in a ship's +cabin, smoking a pipe in the morning watch and looking gladly for dawn +and a welcome shore. That this content could long endure was, beyond +all question, +impossible. Nevertheless, when next we started up and gripped our +rifles and cried "Stand by!" it was not any alarm from the sea that +brought us to our feet, but a sudden shout from the house below, a +rifle-shot echoing in the depths, a woman's voice, and then a man's +rejoinder, a figure appearing without any warning at the stairs-head, +the figure of a huge man, vast and hulking, with long yellow hair, and +fists clenched and arms outstretched—a man who took one scared look +round him and then leaped wildly into the sea. Now this, you may +imagine, was the most surprising event of all that eventful night. So +quickly did it come upon us, so little did we look for it, that when +Kess Denton, the yellow man, stood at the open gate and uttered a loud +and piercing yell of defiance, not one among us could lift a rifle, not +one thought of plan or action. There the fellow was, laughing like a +maniac. Why he came, whence he came, no man could tell. But he leaped +into the seas and the night engulfed him, and only his mocking laugh +told us that he lived.</p> + +<p>"Kess Denton!" cried I, my head dazed and my words coming in a torrent; +"Kess Denton. Then there's mischief below, lads—mischief, I swear!"</p> + +<p>Clair-de-Lune answered me—old Clair-de-Lune, standing in a blaze of +light; for they had switched on the lamps below, and the vein of the +reef stood out suddenly like some silver monster breathing on the +surface of the sea. Clair-de-Lune answered me, I say, and his words +were the most terrible I had heard since first I came to Ken's Island.</p> + +<p>"The water is in!" he cried, "the water is in the house!"</p> + +<p>I saw it as in a flash. This man we had neglected to hunt from the +caverns below, striking at us in the supreme moment, had opened trap or +window and let the sea pour in the labyrinth below. The water was +flooding Czerny's house.</p> + +<p>"Now!" I cried, "you don't mean that Clair-de-Lune? Then what of the +engine-room? How will it fare with Captain Nepeen?"</p> + +<p>Doctor Gray stood behind the old Frenchman, and, limping up to my side, +he leaned against the rock and began to speak of it very coolly.</p> + +<p>"The water is in," he said, "but it will not flood the higher rooms, +for they are above sea-level. We are saving what provisions we can, and +the men below are all right. As for Nepeen, we must get him off in a +boat somehow. It is the water I am thinking of, captain; what are we +going to do for water?"</p> + +<p>I sat upon the rock at his side and buried my face in my hands. All +that terrible day seemed to culminate in this overwhelming misfortune. +Driven on the one hand by the sea, on the other by these devils of the +darkness, doomed, it might be, to hunger and thirst on that desolate +rock, four good comrades cut off from us by the sea's intervening, the +very shadows full of dangers, what hope had we, what hope of that brave +promise spoken to little Ruth but three short hours ago?</p> + +<p>"Doctor," I said at last, "if we are not at the bottom of it now, we +never shall be. But we are men, and we will act as men should. Let the +women stand together in the great hall until the sea drives them out. +If water is our need, I am ashore to Ken's Island to-morrow to get it. +As for Nepeen, we have a boat and we have hands to man it; we'll fetch +Captain Nepeen, doctor," said I.</p> + +<p>He nodded his head and appeared to be thinking deeply. Old Clair-de-Lune +was the next to utter a sensible thing.</p> + +<p>"The man flood the house," said he, "but no sure he get to ship. If he +drown, Czerny know nothing. I say turn out the lamp—wait!"</p> + +<p>"As true a word as the night has spoken," said I; "if Kess Denton does +not reach the boats, they won't hear the story. We'll keep it close +enough, lads, and Captain Nepeen will learn it soon enough. Do you +whistle, Dolly, and get an answer. I hope to God it is all well with +them still."</p> + +<p>He whistled across the sea, and after a long minute of waiting a +distant voice cried, "All's well!" For the hour at least our comrades +were safe. Should we say the same of them when daylight came?</p> + +<p class="dinkus">* * *</p> + +<p>The dark fell with greater intensity as the dawn drew near. I thought +that it typified our own black hour, when it seemed that fate had +nothing left for us but a grave beneath the seas, or the eternal sleep +on the island shore.</p> + +<p class="dinkus">* * *</p> + +<p>Another hour passed, and the dawn was nearer. I did not know then +(though I know now) what kept Czerny's crew in the shadows, or why we +heard nothing of them. Once, indeed, in the far distance where the +yacht lay anchored, gunshots were fired, and were answered from some +boat lying southward by the island; but no other message of the night +was vouchsafed to us, no other omen to be heard. In the gloom of the +darkened house women watched, men kept the vigil and prayed for the +day. Would the light never come; would that breaking East never speed +its joyous day? Ah! who could tell? Who, in the agony of waiting, ever +thinks aright or draws the truthful picture?</p> + +<p>There was no new attack, I say, nor any sure news from the caverns +below. From time to time men went to the stairs-head and watched the +seas washing green and slimy in the corridors, or spoke of them beating +upon the very steps of the great hall and threatening to rise up and up +until they engulfed us all and conquered even the citadel we held. +Nevertheless, iron gates held them back. Not vainly had Czerny's +master-mind foreseen such a misfortune as this. Those tremendous doors +which divided the upper house from its fellow were stronger than any +sluice-gates, more sure against the water's advance. We held the upper +house; it was ours while we could breathe in it or find life's +sustenance there.</p> + +<p>Now, I saw little Ruth in the hour of dawn and she stood with us for a +little while at the open gate and there spoke so brightly of to-morrow, +so lightly of this hour, that she helped us to forget, and made men of +us once more.</p> + +<p>"They will not come again to-night, Jasper," she said; "I feel, I know +it! Why should they wait? Something has happened, and something spells +'Good luck.' Oh, yes, I have felt that for the last hour. Things must +be worse before they mend, and they are mending now. The gale will come +at dawn and we shall all go ashore, you and I together, Jasper!"</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth," said I, "that would be the happiest day in all my life. +You bring the dawn always, wherever you go, the good sunlight and God's +blue sky! It has been day for me while I heard your voice and said that +I might serve you!"</p> + +<p>She would not answer me; but, as though to give my words their meaning, +we had watched but a little while longer on the rock when suddenly out +of the East the grey light winged over to us, and, spreading its +wonder-rays upon the seas, it rolled the black veil back and showed us +height and valley, sea and land, the white-capped breakers and the dim +heaven beyond them. Many a dawn have I watched and waited for on the +heart of the desolate sea, but never one which carried to me such a +message as then it spake, the joy of action and release, the tight of +life and hope, the clarion call, uplifting, awakening! For I knew that +in day our salvation lay, and that the terrible night was forever +passed; and every faculty being quickened, the mind alert, the eyes no +longer veiled, I stretched out my arms to the sun and said, "Thank +God!"</p> + +<p class="dinkus">* * *</p> + +<p>It was day, and the fresh sea answered its appeal. Coming quickly as +day will in the great Pacific, we had scarce seen that great rim of the +East lift itself above the sparkling water when all the scene was +opened to us, the picture of ships and water and wave-washed reef made +clear as in some scene of stageland. As with one tongue, realizing a +mighty truth, we cried, "The ship is gone; the ship has sailed!"</p> + +<p>It was true, all true. Where at sundown there had been a yacht anchored +in the offing, now at daybreak no yacht was to be seen. Darkness, which +had been the ally of Czerny's men, had helped the man himself to flee +from them to an unknown haven where their vengeance should not reach +him. By night had he fled, and by day would he mock his creatures. +Drifting there in the open boats, the rising seas beginning to wash in +upon them, hunger and thirst their portion, the rebels were at no pains +to hide their secret from us. We knew that they had been called back by +these overwhelming tidings of the master-trick, and we asked what heart +the rogues would have now to sell their lives for the man who betrayed +them? Would they not look to us for the satisfaction the chief rogue +denied to them? We, as they, were left helpless in that woful place. +Before us, as before them, lay the peril of hunger and of thirst, the +death-sleep or the greater mercy. And who should ask them to accept it +without a last supreme attempt, a final assault, which should mend all +or end all? Driven to the last point, to the last point would they go +to grasp that foothold of the seas and to drive us from the rock +whereon life might yet be had.</p> + +<p>"Lads," I said, "the story is there as the man has written it. We have +no quarrel with yon poor devils nor they with us; but they will find +one. We cannot help them; they cannot help us. We'll wait for the +end—just wait for it."</p> + +<p>I spoke with a confidence which time did not justify. Just as the dawn +had put new life into us, so it had steeled the hearts of this derelict +crew and nerved it for any desperate act. For long we watched the +rogues rowing hither, thither; now in the island's shadows, now coming +towards us, but never once raising a rifle or uttering a threat. In the +end they came all together, waving a sail upon a pole; and while they +appeared to row for the lesser gate they accompanied the act with soft +words and a protest of their honesty.</p> + +<p>"'Tis after a truce they are," says Peter Bligh, presently, "and that's +a poor thing, any-way. My poor father used to say, 'Knock 'em on the +head first and sign the papers afterwards.' He was a kind-hearted +gentleman, and did a lot of good in the world!"</p> + +<p>"He must have done, Peter," said I; "he must have done a power of good, +hearing the little you say about him. 'Tis a pity the old gentleman +isn't here this day to preach his kindness to yonder rogues. They look +in need of a friendly hand; indeed, they do."</p> + +<p>Well, the laugh was turned on Peter; but, as a matter of fact, he spoke +sense, and I understood as well as he did the risk of parley with the +wreckers, even though they did not seem to have any fight left in +<span class="nobr">them—a</span> fact which old Clair-de-Lune was the +first to observe.</p> + +<p>"They not fire gun this morning," says the old man. "All starve hungry. +Czerny gone. What for they fight? They no stomach left."</p> + +<p>"Meaning they've no heart in them," puts in Doctor Gray, at his side. +"Aye, that's true, and a bit of human nature, too. You cannot fight +every day any more than you can make love every day. It comes and goes +like a fever. They had their square meal last night, and they are not +taking any this morning. I should not be afraid of them if I were you, +captain."</p> + +<p>"I never was," said I, bluntly; "I never was, doctor. There's not +enough on my conscience for that. But I do believe you speak truly. +Making love is more in their line this watch. Ask Dolly Venn there. +From what I saw between him and little Rosamunda down below, lie's an +authority on that point. Eh, Dolly, lad," said I to him, "you could +make love every day, couldn't you?"</p> + +<p>The lad flushed all over his face at the charge, and Peter Bligh, he +said something about "Love one another" being in the Bible, "which must +mean many of 'em, and not one in particular," says he. And what with +the laugh and the jest, and the new confidence which the sight of those +poor driven devils put into us, we came all together to the sea's edge, +and, scarcely cocking a rifle at them, we hailed the longboats and got +their story.</p> + +<p>"Ahoy, there! And what port d'you think you're making for?" cries Peter +Bligh, in a voice that might have split the waters.</p> + +<p>They replied to him, standing up in the boat and stretching out their +sunburnt, hairy arms to us:</p> + +<p>"Water!—water, mate, for the love of God!"</p> + +<p>"And how do you know," cries Peter back to them, "how do you know that +we've water for ourselves?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Barebones saw to that," says one of them, no doubt meaning Czerny +thereby; "Barebones saw to that, though precious little of it the +lubber drank!"</p> + +<p>"He's off, is Barebones," says another; "oh, trust Barebones! +Bones-and-Biscuits puts to sea last night, 'cause he's a duty to perform in +'Frisco, he 'as. Trust Bones-and-Biscuits to turn up righteous when the +trumpet blows!"</p> + +<p>And another, said he:</p> + +<p>"I wish I had his black head under my boot this minute! My mouth's all +sand and my throat is stuck! Aye, mates," says he, "you'll moisten my +poor tongue—same as is wrote in the Scriptures!"</p> + +<p>There were other entreaties; some of them spoke to us in French, the +most part in German. Of the boats that were left, two had rowed away +for the lesser gate, but five drifted about our rock and drew so close +that we could have tossed a biscuit to them. Never have I seen a crowd +of faces more repulsive or jowls so repellent. Iron-limbed men, fat +Germans, sleek Frenchmen, Greeks, niggers, some armed with rifles, some +with fearsome knives, they squatted all together in the open boats and +roared together for pity and release. Then, for the first time, I was +able to see how cruelly Czerny's gun had dealt with them in the +darkness of the night. It was horrible to see the bloody limbs, the +open wounds, the matted hair, the gaping faces of these creatures of a +desperado's mad ambition. The boats themselves were splintered and +hacked as though heavy hatches had beaten them. I could wonder no +longer that they called the truce; and yet, knowing why they called it, +what was I to do? Let them set foot on the plateau, and we, but a +handful at the best, might be swept into the sea like flies from a +wall. I say that I was at my wits' end. Every merciful instinct urged +me to give them water; every prudent voice cried, "Beat them off."</p> + +<p>"If there's fight in that lot, I'm as black as yonder nigger!" said +Peter Bligh, when he looked at them a little while, very +contemptuously. "Not a kick to-day among the lot of them, by Jericho! +But you cannot give them water, captain," he goes on, "for you've +little to give."</p> + +<p>Clair-de-Lune, thinking deeper, was, nevertheless, for a stem refusal.</p> + +<p>"Keep them off, captain, that's my advice," says he. "They very +desperate, dangerous men. They drink water, then cut throat. Make ear +deaf and say cistern all empty. They think you die, and they wait, but +come aboard—no, by thunder!"</p> + +<p>Now, I knew that this was reason, and when Doctor Gray and Captain +Nepeen added their words to the Frenchman's I stepped down to the +water's edge and made my answer.</p> + +<p>"I'll give you water willingly, men, if you'll show me where it is to +be found," said I; "but we cannot give what we haven't got, and that's +common sense! We're dry here, and if it's bad luck for one it's bad +luck for all. The glass says rain," I went on; "we'll wait for it +together and have done with all this nonsense."</p> + +<p>They heard me to the end; but ignorant, perhaps, of my meaning they +continued to whine, "Water, water," and when I must repeat that we had +no water, one of them, leaping up in the boat, fired his rifle point-blank +at Captain Nepeen, who fell without a word stone-dead at my side.</p> + +<p>"Great God!" said I, "they've shot the captain dead."</p> + +<p>The suddenness of it was awful; just a gun flashing, a gasping cry, an +honest man leaping up and falling lifeless. And then something that +would never move or speak again. The crews themselves, I do believe, +were as dazed by it as we were. They could have shot us, I witness, +where we stood, every man of us, but, in God's mercy, they never +thought of that; and turning on their own man, they tore the rifle from +his hand and, striking him down with a musket, they sent him headlong +into the sea.</p> + +<p>"Witness we've no part in it!" they roared. "Jake Bilbow did it, and he +was always a bad 'un! You won't charge fifty with one man's deed! To +hell with the arms, mate—we've no need of 'em!"</p> + +<p>Well, we heard them in amazement. Not a man had moved among us; the +body was untouched at our feet. From the boats themselves ruffians were +casting their rifles pell-mell into the sea. Never at the wildest +hazard would I have named this for the end of it. They cast their +rifles into the sea and rowed unarmed about us. To the end of it, I +think, they feared the gun with a fear that was nameless and lasting, +nor did they know that the turret was empty—how should they?</p> + +<p>It was a swift change; to me it seemed as though the day had conjured +up this wonder. None the less, the perplexity of it remained, nor could +I choose a course even under these new circumstances. Of water I had +none to give; our own circumstances, indeed, were little better than +that of these unhappy creatures in the boats about me. The sea flooded +the house below us; the great engine no longer throbbed; our women were +huddled together at the stairs-head, seeking air and light; the fogs +loom heavy on Ken's Island; no ship's sail brought hope to our horizon. +What should I say, then, to the mutineers, how answer them? I could but +protest: "We are as you; we must face it together."</p> + +<p class="dinkus">* * *</p> + +<p>Now, I have told you that both the greater and the lesser gates of +Czerny's house were hewn in the pinnacles of rock rising up above the +highest tides, and offering there a foothold and an anchorage; but you +must not think that these were the only caps of the reef which thrust +themselves out to the sea. For there were others, rounded domes of +tide-washed rock, treacherous ledges, little craggy steeples, sloping +shelves, which low water gave up to the sun and where a man might walk +dry-shod. To such strange places the longboats turned when we would +have none of them. Convinced, may-be, that our own case was no better +than theirs, the men, in desperation, and cramped with long confinement +in the boats, now pushed their bows into the swirling waters; and +following each other, as sheep will follow a leader, they climbed out +upon the barren rocks and lay there in a state of dejection defying +words. Nor had we any heart to turn upon them and drive them off. +Little did the new day we desired so ardently bring to us. The sky, +gloomy above the blackening, angry seas, was like a mock upon our +bravest hopes. Let a few hours pass and the night would come again. +This was but an interlude in which man could ask of man, "What next?" +We feared to speak to the women lest they should know the truth.</p> + +<p>The men crawled upon the sea-washed rocks, I say, and there the +judgment of God came upon them. So awful was the scene my eyes were +soon to behold that I take up my pen with hesitation even now to write +of it; and as I write some figure of the shadows comes before me and +seems to say, "You cannot speak of it! It is of the past, forgotten!" +And, certainly, if I could make it clear to you how Czerny's men were +forever driven off from the gate of the house that Czerny built, if I +could make it clear to you and leave the thing untold, that would I do +right gladly. But the end was not of my seeking; in all honesty I can +say that if it had been in my power I would have helped those wretched +creatures, have dealt out pity to them and carried them to the shore; +but it was written otherwise; a higher Power decreed it; we could but +stand, trembling and helpless, before that enthralling justice.</p> + +<p>They climbed on the rocks, forty or fifty of them, may-be, and lying in +all attitudes, some stretched out full length, some with their arms in +the flowing tide, some huddled close as though for warmth, they +appeared to surrender themselves to the inevitable and to accept the +worst; when, rising up out of the near sea, the first octopus showed +himself, and a great tentacle, sliding over the rock, drew one of the +mutineers screaming to the depths. Thereafter, in an instant, the whole +terror was upon them. Leaping up together, they uttered piercing cries, +turned upon each other in their agony, hurled themselves into the sea, +to reach the boats again. God! how few of them touched the befriending +prows! The whole water about the reef was now alive with the devilish +creatures; a hundred arms, crushing, sucking, swept the unsheltered +rocks and drew the victims down. So near were they, some of them, that +I could see their staring eyes and distorted limbs as, in the fishes' +embracing grip, they were drawn under to the gaping mouths or pressed +close to that jellied mass which must devour them. The sea itself +heaved and splashed as though to be the moving witness of that horrible +attack; foam rushed up to our feet; a blinding spray was in the air; +eyes protruded even in the green water; great shapes wormed and +twisted, rending one another, covering the whole reef with their filthy +slime, sending blinding fountains to the highest pinnacles, or sinking +down when their prey was taken to the depths where no eye could follow +them. What sounds of pain, what resounding screams, rent the air in +those fearful minutes! I draw the veil upon it. For all the gold that +the sea washes to-day in Czerny's house, I could not look upon such a +picture again. For death can be a gentle thing; but there is a death no +man may speak of.</p> + +<p class="dinkus">* * *</p> + +<p>At twelve o'clock the clouds broke and the rain began to fall upon a +rising sea. The vapours still lay thick upon Ken's Island, but the wind +was driving them, and they rolled away in misty clouds westward to the +dark horizon.</p> + +<p>I went below to little Ruth, and in broken words I told her all my +story.</p> + +<p>"Little Ruth, the night is passed, the day is breaking! Ah, little +Ruth!"</p> + +<p>She fell into my arms, sobbing. The sleep-time was past, indeed; the +hour of our deliverance at hand.</p> + +<div class="chaptername"><a name="chapter_25"></a> </div> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXV</h3> + +<h4>IN WHICH THE SUN-TIME COMES AGAIN</h4> + +<p><span class="firstword">I have</span> told you the story of Ken's +Island, but there are some things +you will need to know, and of these I will now make mention. Let me +speak of them in order as they befell.</p> + +<p>And first I should record that we found the body of Edmond Czerny, cold +and dead, by that pool in the woods where so many have slept the +dreadful sleep. Clair-de-Lune stumbled upon it as we went joyously +through the sunny thickets and, halting abruptly, his startled cry drew +me to the place. And then I saw the thing, and knew that between him +and me the secret lay, and that here was God's justice written in words +no man might mistake.</p> + +<p>For a long time we rested there, looking down upon that grim figure in +its bed of leaves, and watching the open eyes seeking that bright +heaven whose warmth they never would feel again. As in life, so in +death, the handsome face carried the brand of the evil done, and spoke +of the ungoverned passions which had wrecked so wonderful a genius. +There have been few such men as Edmond Czerny since the world began; +there will be few while the world endures. Greatly daring, a man of +boundless ambitions, the moral nature obliterated, the greed of money +becoming, in the end, like some burning disease, this man, I said, +might have achieved much if the will had bent to humanity's laws. And +now he had reaped as he sowed. The cloak that covered him was the cloak +of the Hungarian regiment whose code of honour drove him out of Europe. +The diamond ring upon the finger was the very ring that little Ruth had +given him on their wedding-day. The agony he had suffered was such as +many a good seaman had endured since the wreckers came to Ken's Island. +And now the story was told: the man was dead.</p> + +<p>"It must have been last night," I said, at length, to Clair-de-Lune. +"His own men put him ashore and seized the ship. Fortune has strange +chances, but who would have named such a chance as this? The rogues +turned upon him at last, you can't doubt it. And he died in his +sleep—a merciful death."</p> + +<p>The old man shook his head very solemnly.</p> + +<p>"I know not," said he, slowly; "remember how rare that the island give +mercy! We will not ask how he died, captain. I see some-thing, but I +forget it. Let us leave him to the night."</p> + +<p>He began to cover the body with branches and boughs; and anon, marking +the place, that we might return to it to-morrow, we went on again +through the woods, as men in a reverie. Our schemes and plans, our +hopes and fears, the terrible hours, the unforgotten days, aye, if we +could have seen that the end of them would have been this!—the gift of +a verdurous island, and the ripe green pastures, and the woods +awakening and all the glory of the sun-time reborn! For so the shadow +was lifted from us that for a little while our eyes could not see the +light; and, unbelieving, we asked, "Is this the truth?"</p> + +<p class="dinkus">* * *</p> + +<p>I did not tell little Ruth the story of the woods; but there were +whispered words and looks aside, and she was clever enough to +understand them. Before the day was out I think she knew; but she would +not speak of it, nor would I. For why should we call false sorrow upon +that bright hour? Was not the world before us, the awakening glory of +Ken's Island at our feet? Just as in the dark days all Nature had +withered and bent before the death-giving vapours, so now did Nature +answer the sun's appeal; and every freshet bubbling over, every wood +alive with the music of the birds, the meadows green and golden, the +hills all capped with their summer glory, she proclaimed the reign of +Nature's God. No sight more splendid ever greeted the eyes of +shipwrecked men or welcomed them to a generous shore. Hand-in-hand with +little Ruth I passed from thicket to thicket of the woods, and seemed +to stand in Paradise itself! And she—ah, who shall read a woman's +thoughts at such an hour as that! Let me be content to see her as she +was; her face grown girlish in that great release, her eyes sparkling +in a new joy of being, her step so light that no blade of grass could +have been bruised thereby. Let me hear her voice again while she lifts +her face to mine and asks me that question which even now I hear +sometimes:</p> + +<p>"Jasper, Jasper! is it real? How can I believe it, Jasper? Shall we see +our home again—you and I? Oh, tell me that it is true, Jasper—say it +often, often, or I shall forget!"</p> + +<p>We were in a high place of the woods just then, and we stood to look +down upon the lower valley where the rocks showed their rare green +mosses, and every crag lifted strange flowers to the sun, and little +rivulets ran down with bubbling sounds. Away on the open veldt the +doll-like houses were to be seen, and the ashes of her bungalow. And +there, I say, all the scene enchanting me, and the memory of the bygone +days blotted from my mind, and no future to be thought of but that +which should give me forever the right to befriend this little figure +of my dreams, I said:</p> + +<p>"It is true, little Ruth—God knows how true—that a man loves you with +all his heart, and he has loved you all through these weary months. +Just a simple fellow he is, with no fine ways and small knowledge of +the world; but he waits for you to tell him that you will lift him up +and make him <span class="nobr">worthy———"</span></p> + +<p>She silenced me with a quick, glad cry, and, winding both her arms +about my neck, she hid her face from me.</p> + +<p>"My friend! Jasper, dear Jasper, you shall not say that! Ah, were you +so blind that you have not known it from the first?"</p> + +<p>Her words were like the echo of some sweet music in my ears. Little +Ruth, my beloved, had called me "friend." To my life's end would I +claim that name most precious.</p> + +<p class="dinkus">* * *</p> + +<p>We were picked up by the American war-ship Hatteras ten days after the +sleep-time passed. I left the island as I found it—its secrets hidden, +its mysteries unfathomed. What vapour rises up there—whether it be, as +Doctor Gray would have it, from the bog of decaying vegetation, which +breathes fever to the south; whether it be this marsh fog steaming up +when the plants die down; or whether it be a subtler cloud given out by +the very earth itself—this question, I say, let the learned dispute. I +have done with it forever; and never, to my life's end, shall I see its +heights and its valleys again. The world calls me; I go to my home. +Ruth, little Ruth, whom I have loved, is at my side. For us it shall be +sun-time always; the night and the dreadful sleep are no more.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 29462-h.txt or 29462-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/4/6/29462">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/4/6/29462</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The House Under the Sea + A Romance + + +Author: Sir Max Pemberton + + + +Release Date: July 20, 2009 [eBook #29462] +Most recently updated: November 9, 2014 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA*** + + +E-text prepared by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 29462-h.htm or 29462-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29462/29462-h/29462-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29462/29462-h.zip) + + + + + +THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA + +A ROMANCE + +BY + +MAX PEMBERTON + +Author of Kronstadt, The Phantom Army, Etc. + + + +ILLUSTRATED + +NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1902 + + +Copyright, 1902 By MAX PEMBERTON + +All rights reserved + +Published September, 1902 + + + +[Illustration: "Shall we go, or stay?"] + + + +CONTENTS + +I.--IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES KNOWN THE PURPOSE OF HIS VOYAGE TO THE +PACIFIC OCEAN, AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT HE COMMISSIONED THE +STEAM-SHIP SOUTHERN CROSS THROUGH PHILIPS, WESTBURY, AND CO. + +II.--WE GO ASHORE AND LEARN STRANGE THINGS + +III.--IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES UP HIS MIND WHAT TO DO + +IV.--WE GO ABOARD, BUT RETURN AGAIN + +V.--STRANGE SIGHTS ASHORE, AND WHAT WE SAW OF THEM + +VI.--JASPER BEGG MEETS HIS OLD MISTRESS, AND IS WATCHED + +VII.--IN WHICH HELP COMES FROM THE LAST QUARTER WE HAD EXPECTED IT + +VIII.--THE BIRD'S NEST IN THE HILLS + +IX.--WE LOOK OUT FOR THE SOUTHERN CROSS + +X.--WE ARE SURELY CAGED ON KEN'S ISLAND + +XI.--LIGHTS UNDER THE SEA + +XII.--THE DANCING MADNESS + +XIII.--THE STORM + +XIV.--A WHITE POOL--AND AFTERWARDS + +XV.--AN INTERLUDE, DURING WHICH WE READ IN RUTH BELLENDEN'S DIARY AGAIN + +XVI.--ROSAMUNDA AND THE IRON DOORS + +XVII.--IN WHICH JASPER BEGG ENTERS THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA + +XVIII.--CHANCE OPENS A GATE FOR JASPER BEGG, AND HE PASSES THROUGH + +XIX.--WHICH SHOWS THAT A MAN WHO THINKS OF BIG THINGS SOMETIMES FORGETS +THE LITTLE ONES + +XX.--THE FIRST ATTACK IS MADE BY CZERNY'S MEN + +XXI.--WHICH BRINGS IN THE DAY AND WHAT BEFELL THEREIN + +XXII.--THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTY HOURS + +XXIII.--THE END OF THE SIXTY HOURS + +XXIV.--THE SECOND ATTACK ON CZERNY'S HOUSE + +XXV.--IN WHICH THE SUN-TIME COMES AGAIN + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +"Shall we go or stay?" + +Like dancers at a stage play. + +A picturesque old figure standing there. + +She looked at me with her big, questioning eyes. + +We were all sitting at the supper table. + +The drawing-room is a cave whose walls are of jewels. + +"If there is a sound at the door, fire that gun." + +Another man fell with a loud cry. + + + +THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA + + +CHAPTER I + +IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES KNOWN THE PURPOSE OF HIS VOYAGE TO THE +PACIFIC OCEAN, AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT HE COMMISSIONED THE +STEAM-SHIP SOUTHERN CROSS THROUGH PHILIPS, WESTBURY, AND CO. + +Many gentlemen have asked me to write the story of Ken's Island, and in +so far as my ability goes, that I will now do. A plain seaman by +profession, one who has had no more education than a Kentish grammar +school can give him, I, Jasper Begg, find it very hard to bring to +other people's eyes the wonderful things I have seen or to make all +this great matter clear as it should be clear for a right +understanding. But what I know of it, I will here set down; and I do +not doubt that the newspapers and the writers will do the rest. + +Now, it was upon the third day of May in the year 1899, at four bells +in the first dog watch, that Harry Doe, our boatswain, first sighted +land upon our port-bow, and so made known to me that our voyage was +done. We were fifty-three days out from Southampton then; and for +fifty-three days not a man among the crew of the Southern Cross had +known our proper destination, or why his skipper, Jasper Begg, had +shipped him to sail for the Pacific Ocean. A pleasure voyage, the +papers said; and some remembered that I had been in and out of private +yachts ever since I ran away from school and booked with Skipper Higg, +who sailed Lord Kanton's schooner from the Solent; but others asked +themselves what pleasure took a yacht's skipper beyond the Suez, and +how it came about that a poor man like Jasper Begg found the money to +commission a 500-ton tramp through Philips, Westbury, and Co., and to +deal liberally with any shipmate who had a fancy for the trip. These +questions I meant to answer in my own time. A hint here and there of a +lady in whose interest the voyage was undertaken kept the crew quiet, +if it did not please its curiosity. Mister Jacob, my first officer, and +Peter Bligh (who came to me because he said I was the only man who kept +him away from the drink) guessed something if they knew little. They +had both served under me in Ruth Bellenden's yacht; neither had +forgotten that Ruth Bellenden's husband sailed eastward for the wedding +trip. If they put their heads together and said that Ruth Bellenden's +affairs and the steam-ship Southern Cross were not to be far apart at +the end of it, I don't blame them. It was my business to hold my tongue +until the land was sighted, and so much I did for Ruth Bellenden's +sake. + +Well, it was the third day of May, at four bells in the first dog +watch, when Harry Doe, the boatswain, sighted land on the port-bow, and +came abaft with the other hands to hear what I had got to say to him. +Mr. Jacob was in his bunk then, he being about to take the first watch, +and Peter Bligh, who walked the bridge, had rung down for half-speed by +the time I came out with my glass for the first view of the distant +island. We were then, I must tell you at a rough reckoning, in +longitude 150 east of Greenwich, by about 30 north; and my first +thought was that we might have sighted the Ganges group, as many a ship +sailing from 'Frisco to Japan; but when I had looked at the land a +little while, and especially at a low spur of rocks to the northward, I +knew that this was truly the Ken Archipelago, and that our voyage was +done. + +"Lads," I said, "yonder is your port. Good weather and good luck, and +we'll put about for home before three days have passed." + +Now, they set up a great cheer at this; and Peter Bligh, whose years go +to fat, wiped his brow like a man who has got rid of a great load and +is very pleased to have done with it. + +"Thank you for that," said he. "I hope I do my duty in all weathers, +Mr. Begg, but this sunshine do wear a man sadly. Will you stop her, +sir, or shall we go dead slow?" + +"Dead slow, if you please, Mister Pugh," said I; "the chart gives two +thousand fathoms about the reef. We should have water enough, and water +is a good thing, as I believe you know." + +"When there's nothing else, I can manage to make shift with it--and +feel a better man, sir," he added, as an after-thought. But I was +already busy with my glass and that was not the hour for light talk. +Yonder upon the port-bow a group of islands shaped on our horizon as +shadows upon a glassy sea. I could espy a considerable cliff-land +rising to the southward, and north of that the rocky spur of which I +have made mention. The sun was setting behind us in a sky of orange and +crimson, and it was wonderful to see the playful lights now giving +veins of gold to the dark mass of the higher rocks, or washing over the +shadows as a running water of flame. I have seen many beautiful sights +upon the sea, in storm or tempest, God's weather or the devil's; but I +shall never forget that sunset which brought me to Ken's Island on as +strange an errand as ever commissioned a ship. The deep blue of the +sky, the vastness of the horizon, the setting sun, the island's shaping +out of the deep: these, and the curiosity which kept the glass ever at +my eye, made an hour which a man might fear to tell of. True, I have +sighted many a strange land in my time and have put up my glass for +many an unknown shore; but yonder lay the home of Ruth Bellenden, and +to-morrow's sun would tell me how it fared with her. I had sailed from +England to learn as much. + +Now, Mr. Jacob, the first officer, had come up to the bridge while I +was searching the shore for an anchorage, and he, who always was a +prudent man, spoke up at once for laying to and leaving our business, +whatever it was, until the morning. + +"You'll lose the light in ten minutes, and yon's a port I do not like +the look of," said he. "Better go about, sir. Reefs don't get out of +the way, even for a lady." + +"Mister Jacob," said I, for, little man that he was, he had a big wit +in his own way, "the lady would be very glad to get out of the way of +the reef, I'm thinking. However, that's for the morning. Here's Peter +Bligh as pleased as any school-boy at the sight of land. Tell him that +he isn't going ashore to-night, and he'll thank you nicely. Eh, Peter, +are you, too, of Jacob's mind? Is it sea or shore, a glass in my cabin +or what the natives will sell you in the log-cabins over yonder?" Peter +Bligh shut up his glass with a snap. + +"I know the liquor, Mr. Begg," said he; "as the night is good to me, +I'm of Mister Jacob's way of thinking. A sound bed and a clear head, +and a fair wind for the morning--you'll see little of any woman, black +or white, on yonder rock to-night." + +Jacob--his little eyes twinkling, as they always did at his own +jokes--muttered the old proverb about choosing a wife by candle-light; +but before any one could hear him a beacon shone out across the sea +from some reef behind the main island I had noticed, and all eyes were +turned anxiously to that. It was a queer place, truly, to set up a +light, and I don't wonder that the men remarked it. + +"An odd kind of a lantern to help poor mariners," said Mister Jacob, +sagely. "Being kind to it, sir, I should say that it's not more than a +mile too much to the northward." + +"Lay your course by that, and a miracle won't carry you by the reef," +added Peter Bligh, sagaciously; "in my country, which is partly +Ireland, sir, we put up notice-boards for the boys that ride bicycles: +'This Hill is Dangerous.' Faith, in ould Oireland, they put 'em up at +the bottom of the hills, which is useful entirely." + +Some of the crew, grouped about the ladder's foot, laughed at this; +others began to mutter among themselves as though the beacon troubled +them, and they did not like it. A seaman's the most superstitious +creature that walks the earth or sails on the sea, as all the world +knows. I could see the curiosity, which had followed my men from +Southampton, was coming to a head here about twelve thousand miles from +home. + +"Lads," cried I, quick to take the point up, "Mister Bligh says that an +Irishman built yon light, and he knows, being a bit of a one himself. +We're not going in by it, anyway, so you can ask questions to-morrow. +There's a hundred pounds to be divided among you for your good +behaviour outward, and there'll be another hundred when we make Calshot +Light. To-night we'll find good sea-room, and leave their beacon to the +lumber-heads that put it up. I thank you, lads, for honest work in an +honest ship. Ask the purser for an extra tot of grog, and say the +skipper told you to." + +They gave a hearty "Aye, aye, sir," to this, and without more ado we +put the ship about and went dead slow against a stiff tide setting east +by north-east. For my part, I reckoned this the time to tell my +officers what my intentions were, and when I had called them into the +cabin, leaving our "fourth"--a mere lad, but a good one--upon the +bridge, I ordered Joe, the steward, to set the decanters upon the +table. Mister Jacob, as usual, put on his glasses (which he always did +in room or cabin, just as though he would read a book), but Peter Bligh +sat with his cap between his knees and as foolish an expression upon +his face as I have ever seen. + +"Now, gentlemen," I said, "no good talking in this world was ever done +upon a dusty table, so we'll have a glass round and then to business. +Mr. Bligh, I'm sure, will make no objection to that." + +"Faith, and I know when to obey my superior officer, captain. A glass +round, and after that----" + +"Peter, Peter," said I, "'tis the 'after that' which sends many a good +hulk to the bottom." + +"Not meaning to apply the term to Peter Bligh, but by way of what the +landsmen call 'silime,'" said Mister Jacob. + +"'Simile' you mean, Mister Jacob. Well, it's all the same, and neither +here nor there in the matter of a letter. The fact is, gentlemen, I +wish you to know why I have sailed this ship to Ken's Archipelago, and +under what circumstances I shall sail her home again." + +They pricked up their ears at this, Peter turning his cap nervously in +his hands and Mister Jacob being busy with his glasses as he loves to +be. + +"Yes," I went on, "you have behaved like true shipmates and spoken +never a word which a man might not fairly speak. And now it's my duty +to be open with you. Well, to cut it short, my lads, I've sailed to the +Pacific because my mistress, Ruth Bellenden, asked me." + +They had known as much, I imagine, from the start; but while Mister +Jacob pretended to be very much surprised, honest Peter raised his +glass and drank to Mistress Ruth's good health. + +"God bless her," he said, "and may the day come when I ship along +o' such a one again. Aye, you would have come out for her sake, +captain--no other, I'm sure!" + +"She being Ruth Bellenden no longer, but the wife of a gentleman with a +name none but a foreigner can spell," added Mister Jacob; and then he +went on: "Well, you surprise me very much, captain--very much indeed. +Matrimony is a choppy sea and queer things swim in it. But this--this I +had not looked to hear." + +I knew that this was only Mister Jacob's way, and continued my story. + +"It was a promise to her upon her wedding day. Ten thousand pounds she +left with her lawyers for this very purpose. 'My husband has strange +ideas; I may not share them,' were her words to me. 'If his yacht +should not be at the islands when I wish to visit Europe again, I +should like you to find me a vessel in its place. I trust you, Jasper +Begg,' she said; 'you will sail for Ken's Archipelago twelve months +from today, and you will come to my house there, as you used to do in +the old time, for orders. Perhaps I shall send you home again, perhaps +I may like to have a yacht of my own once more. Who knows? I am quite +alone in the world,' she said, laughing, 'though my brother is alive. +And the Pacific Ocean is a long way from London--oh, such a long way,' +she said, or something of that sort." + +"Aye, and right, too. A derned long way she meant, I don't doubt, if +what was in her mind came out," puts in Peter at this. + +"Mr. Bligh," said I, "be pleased to hold your tongue until your opinion +is asked. What I am telling you is a confidence which you two, and no +others, share with me. To-morrow, as soon as daylight, I shall row +ashore and ask to see Mme. Czerny, as I suppose I must call little Ruth +now. If she says, 'Go home again,' very well, home we go with good +wages in our pockets. If she says 'Stay,' there's not a man on board +this ship that will not stay willingly--she being married to a +foreigner, which all the world knows is not the same as being married +to an Englishman----" + +"To say nothing of an Irishman," said Peter Bligh, whose mother was +from Dublin and whose father was named sometimes for a man of +Rotherhithe and at other times put down to any country which it suited +Peter to boast about. + +"Edmond Czerny was a Hungarian," said I, "and he played the fiddle +wonderful. What mad idea took him for a honeymoon to Ken's Island, the +Lord only knows. They say he was many years in America. I know nothing +about him, save that he had a civil tongue and manners to catch a young +girl's fancy. She was only twenty-two when she married him, Mister +Jacob." + +"Old enough to know better--quite old enough to know better. Not that I +would say anything against Ruth Bellenden, not a word. It's the woman's +part to play the capers, sir, and we poor mortal men to be took by +them. Howsomever, since there was a fiddle in it, I've nothing more to +say." + +We laughed at Mister Jacob's notion, and Peter Bligh said what it was +in my heart to say: + +"Saving that if Ruth Bellenden needs a friend, she'll find twenty-six +aboard this ship, to say nothing of the cook's boy and the dog. You've +a nice mind, Mister Jacob, but you've a deal to larn when it comes to +women. My poor old father, who hailed from Shoreham----" + +"It was Newport yesterday, Peter." + +"Aye, so it were--so it were. But, Newport or Shoreham, he'd a precious +good notion of the sex, and what he said I'll stand by. 'Get 'em on +their feet to the music,' says he, 'and you can lead 'em anywheres.' +'Tis Gospel truth that, Mister Jacob." + +"But a man had better mind his steps," said I. "For my part, I +shouldn't be surprised if Ruth Bellenden's husband gave us the cold +shoulder to-morrow and sent us about our business. However, the sea's +free to all men, lads, and the morn will show. By your leave we'll have +a bit of supper and after that turn in. We shall want all our wits +about us when daylight comes." They agreed to this, and without further +parley we went on deck and heard what the lad "Dolly" Venn had to tell +us. It was full dark now and the islands were hidden from our view. The +beacon shone with a steady white glare which, under the circumstances, +was almost uncanny. I asked the lad if he had sighted any ships in +towards the land or if signals had been made. He answered me that no +ship had passed in or out nor any rocket been fired. "And I do believe, +sir," he said, "that we shall find the harbour on the far sight of +yonder height." + +"The morning will show us, lad," said I; "go down to your supper, for I +mean to take this watch myself." They left me on the bridge. The wind +had fallen until it was scarce above a moan in the shrouds. I stood +watching the beacon as a man who watches the window light of one who +has been dear to him. + + +CHAPTER II + +WE GO ASHORE AND LEARN STRANGE THINGS + +I have told how it came about that I sailed for Ken's Island, and now I +shall tell what happened when I went ashore to find Ruth Bellenden. + +We put off from the ship at six bells in the morning watch. Dolly Venn, +who was rated as fourth officer, was with me in the launch, and Harry +Doe, the boatswain, at the tiller. I left Mister Jacob on the bridge, +and gave him my orders to stand in-shore as near as might be, and to +look for my coming at sunset--no later. "Whatever passes," said I, "the +night will find me on board again. I trust to bring you good news, +Mister Jacob--the best news." + +"Which would be that we were to 'bout ship and home again," says he; +and that I did not contradict. + +Now, we were to the westward of the island when we put off, and neither +my glass nor the others showed any good landing there. As the launch +drew in towards the cliffs I began to get the lie of the place more +clearly; and especially of what I call the mainland, which was +wonderfully fresh and green in the sunlight and seemed to have some of +the tropic luxuriance of more southern islands. About four miles long, +I judged it to be, from the high black rock to which it rose at the +southward point, to the low dog's-nosed reef which defended it to the +north. Trees I could see, palms and that kind, and ripe green grasses +on a stretch of real down-like land; but the cliffs themselves were +steep and unpromising, and the closer we drew the less I liked the look +of it. + +"Dolly, my lad," I said at last, "you were the wise one, after all. +Yon's no shore for an honest man; he being made like a man and not like +an eagle. Let's try the starboard tack and see what luck will send us." + +We headed the launch almost due south, and began to round the headland. +The men were elated, they didn't know at what; Dolly Venn had a boy's +delight in the difficulty. + +"An ugly shore, sir," he said, pleased at my compliment. "A very ugly +shore. It would be a bad night which found a ship in these parts and no +better light than the fool's beacon we saw yesterday." + +"As true as the parson's word," said I, "but, ugly or beautiful, I'll +be up on those heights before twelve o'clock if I have to swim ashore. +And speaking of that," said I, "there are men up yonder, or I'm a +Dutchman!" Well, he clapped his glass to his eye and searched the green +grass land as I had done; but the light was overstrong and the cliff +quickly shut the view from us, so that we found ourselves presently in +the loom of vast black rocks, with the tide running like a whirlpool, +and a great sword-fish reef a mile from the shore, perhaps, to catch +any fool that didn't want sea room. I took the tiller myself from this +point, and standing well out I brought the launch round gingerly +enough, but the water was deep and good once we were on the lee side; +and no sooner did we head north again than I espied the cove and knew +where Ruth Bellenden had gone ashore. + +"It's there, lad," said I, "yonder, where the sand sparkles. There'll +be a way up the cliff and good anchorage. No one but an Irishman would +buy an island without a harbour; you tell Mr. Bligh that when we go +aboard again." + +"Mr. Bligh says he's only Irish on the mother's side, sir; that's what +makes him bighearted towards the women. He'll be dying to come ashore +if there are any petticoats hereabouts." + +"They haven't much use for that same garment on the Pacific Islands," +said I. "Peter can marry cheap here, if it's the milliners' bills he's +minding--but I doubt, lad, from the look of it, whether we'll find a +jewel in this port. It's a wild-looking place, to be sure it is." + +Indeed, and it was. Viewed from the eastward sea, I call Ken's Island +the most fearsome place I have come across in all my fifteen years +afloat. Vast cliffs, black and green and crystal, rose up sheer from +the water in precipices for all the world like mighty steps. By here +and there, as the ground sloped away to the northward, there were +forests of teak (at least, I judged them to be that), pretty woods with +every kind of palm, green valleys and grassy pastures. The sands of the +cove were white as snow, and shone like so many precious stones pounded +up to make a sea beach. On the north side only was there barrenness-- +for that seemed but a tongue of low land and black rock thrust straight +out into the sea. But elsewhere it was a spectacle to impress a man; +and I began, perhaps, to admit that Edmond Czerny had more than a +crank's whim in his mind when he took little Ruth Bellenden to such a +shore for her honeymoon. He had a fancy for wild places, said I, and +this was the very spot for him. But Miss Ruth, who had always been one +for the towns and cities and the bright things of life--what did she +think of it? I should learn that, if she were ashore yonder. Now, we +put straight in to the cove where the silver sand was, and no sooner +was I ashore than I espied a rickety wooden ladder rising almost +straight up to the cliff's head, which hereabouts was no more than +sixty feet high. Neither man nor beast was on the beach, nor did I make +out any sign of human habitation whatever. It was just a little sandy +bay, lone and desolate; but directly I slipped out of the launch I +discovered footprints leading to the ladder's foot, and I knew that men +had gone up before me, that very morning it must be, seeing that the +tide had ebbed and the sand was still wet. At another time I might have +asked myself why nobody came out to meet us, and why there was no +lookout for the island to hail a strange ship in the offing; but I was +too eager to go ashore, and, for that matter, had my feet on the sand +almost before the launch grounded. + +"Do you, Dolly, come up with me," said I; "the others will stand by to +anchor until we come down again. If it's not in an hour, lads, go back +and get your dinners; but look for me at sunset anyway, for I've no +mind to sleep ashore, and that you may be sure of." + +They took the orders and pushed the launch off. Dolly and I ran up the +crazy ladder and found ourselves at the cliff's head, but no better off +in the matter of seeing than we had been before. True, the launch +looked far down, like a toy ship in a big basin of blue water; we could +distinguish the sword-fish reef, as the lad called it, and other reefs +to the east and north, but the place we stood on was shut in by a black +wood of teak and blue ebony, and, save for the rustling of the great +leaves, we couldn't hear a sound. As for the path through the +plantation, that was covered with long, rank grass, and some pit or +other--I don't know what it was--gave a pungent, heavy odour which +didn't suit a seaman's lungs. I was set against the place from the +first--didn't like it, and told the lad as much. + +"Dolly," said I, "the sooner we have a ship's planking under our feet +again the better for our constitutions. If there's a house in this +locality, the ladder is the road to it, unless one of Peter Bligh's +countrymen built it. Put your best foot foremost, my lad. We'll dine +early if we don't lunch late." + +With this I struck the path through the wood and went straight on, not +listening to the lad's chatter nor making any myself. The shade was +welcome enough; there were pretty places for those that had eyes to see +them--waterfalls splashing down from the moss-grown rocks above; little +pools, dark and wonderfully blue; here and there a bit of green, which +might have been the lawn of a country house. But of dwelling or of +people I saw nothing, and to what the boy fancied that he saw I paid no +heed. + +"You're dreaming it, young gentleman," said I, "for look now, who +should be afraid of two unarmed seamen, and why should any honest man +be ashamed to show his face? If there are men peeping behind the trees, +well, let them peep, and good luck go with them. It doesn't trouble me, +and I don't suppose it will take your appetite away. You aren't afraid +of them, surely?" + +It was an unkind thing to have said, and the lad rightly turned upon +me. + +"Why, sir," cried he, "I would never be afraid while I was with you." + +"Proudly put, my boy, and a compliment I won't forget. What sort of men +did you say that they were?" + +"One was old, with a goat's beard. He wore ragged breeches and a +seaman's blouse. I saw him directly we entered the wood. The others +were up in the hills above the waterfall. They carried rifles." + +"Come, come, Dolly," exclaimed I. "Put them in Prussian blue at once, +and fly the German ensign. Rifles in a place like this--and two unarmed +strangers against them! Why should the rogues hide their beautiful +faces? If they would know all about us, what's to prevent them? Do we +look like highwaymen or honest fellows? Be sure, my lad, that the young +lady I am going to see wouldn't have any blacklegs about her house. +Ruth Bellenden's too clever for that. She'd send them about their +business quick enough, as she's sent many a one when I was the skipper +of her yacht. Did they tell you that, Dolly--that your skipper used to +sail the smartest schooner-yacht that ever flew the ensign----" + +The boy looked up at me and admitted frankly that he knew something. + +"They said the young lady owned the Manhattan, sir. I never asked much +about it. The men were fond of her, I believe." + +"Adored her, lad. She was the daughter of Rupert Bellenden, who made a +mint of money by building the Western American Railroad, and afterwards +in the steel way. He was drowned at sea when the Elbe went down. His +son got the business, but the daughter took the house and fortune--at +least, the best part of it. She was always a rare one for the sea, and +owned a biggish boat in her father's time. When he died she bought the +Manhattan, more's the pity, for it carried her to Mediterranean ports, +and there she took up with the fiddler. He was a Chevalier or +something, and could look a woman through and through. What money he +had was made, the Lord knows where, not out of fiddling, I'll be bound, +for his was no music to set the tongue lilting. He'd been in the +Pacific a while, they say, and was a Jack-of-all-trades in America. +That's how he came across these islands, you may imagine--slap in the +sea-way to Yokohama as they are. There's been many a good ship ashore +on Ken's Island, lad, believe me, and there'll be many another. 'Tis no +likely place to bring a young wife to, and none but a madman would have +done it." + +I told him all this just in a natural way, as one man speaking to +another of something which troubled his mind. Not that he made much of +it--how should he?--for there were a hundred things to look at, and his +eyes were here and there and everywhere; now up at the great black +rocks above us; now peering into a deep gorge, over which a little +wooden bridge carried us, just for all the world like a scaffold thrown +from tree to tree of the wood. It was a rare picture, I admit, and when +we came out of the thicket at last and saw the lower island spread +before us like a chart, with its fields of crimson flowers, its +waterfalls, its bits of pasture, and its blue seas beyond, a man might +well have stood to tell himself that Nature never made a fairer place. +For my part, I began to believe again that Edmond Czerny knew what he +was about when he built a house for Miss Ruth on such a spot; and I was +just about to tell the lad as much when a man came running up the path +and, hailing us in a loud voice, asked us where the devil we were going +to--or something not more civil. And, at this, I brought to and looked +him up and down and answered him as a seaman should. + +"To the devil yourself," said I; "what's that to do with you, and what +may your name happen to be?" + +He was a big man, dressed in blue serge, with a peak cap and a seaman's +blouse. He had a long brown beard and a pock-marked face, and he +carried a spy-glass under his arm. He had come up from the grassy +valley below--and there I first saw the roof of a low bungalow, and the +gardens about it. That was Ruth's home, I said, and this fellow was one +of Czerny's yacht hands. + +"Not so fast, not so fast," cried he; "do you know that this is private +land, and you've no business ashore here?" + +"Why," says I, "haven't we come ashore to see you, my beauty, and +doesn't the spectacle reward us? 'Bout ship," says I, "and have done +with it. My business is with your mistress, whom I knew before your +brother was hanged at 'Frisco." + +He swore a big oath at this, and, I do believe, was half of the mind to +try which was the better man; but when he had looked down at the +gardens of the bungalow, and a white figure was plainly to be seen +there, he seemed to think better of it, and changed his tone entirely. + +"Avast," cries he, with a bit of a laugh, "you're one of the right +sort, and no mistaking that! And where would you be from, and what +would you be wanting here?" he asks, grown civil as a bagman with a bit +of ribbon to sell. + +"Shipmate," says I, "if I'm one of the right sort, my port's +Southampton and my flag's the ensign. Take me down to Mme. Czerny, whom +I see among the flower-beds yonder, and you shall know enough about me +in five minutes to bring the tears to your beautiful eyes. And come," +says I, chaffing him, "are there any girls in this bit of a paradise? +If so," says I, "I should call 'em lucky when I look at you." + +Well, he took it sourly enough, but I could see he was mighty curious +to hear more about me, and as we went down a winding path to the +bungalow in the valley he put many questions to me, and I tried to +answer them civilly. Like all seamen he had no silent wits of his own, +and every word he thought, that he must speak. + +"The guv'nor's not here," he said; "gone to 'Frisco. Lucky for you, for +he don't like strangers. Aye," he goes on, "he's a wonderful man for +his own way; to be sure he is. You'll be aboard and away before sunset, +or you might see him. Take my advice and put about. The shore's +unwholesome," says he. + +"By the looks of you," says I, "you've nothing more than jaundice, and +that I can put up with. As for your guv'nor, I remember him well when +he and I did the light fandango together in European ports. He was +always a wonder with the fiddle. My mistress could lead him like a +pug-dog. I don't doubt she's a bit of a hand at it still." + +Now, this set him thinking, and he put two and two together, I suppose, +and knew pretty well who I was. + +"You'll be Jasper Begg that sailed the lady's yacht Manhattan?" says +he. "Well, I've heard of you often, and from her own lips. She'll be +pleased to see you, right enough--though what the guv'nor might say is +another matter. You see," he went on, "this same island is a paradise, +sure as thunder; but it's lonely for women-kind, and your mistress, she +don't take to it kindly. Not that she's complaining, or anything of +that sort. A lady who has rings for her fingers and bells for her toes, +and all real precious, same as any duchess might wear, she don't +complain long. Why, my guv'nor could make his very teeth out of diamonds +and not miss 'em, come to that! But his missus is always plaguing him +to take her to Europe, and that game. As if he don't want a wife in his +own home, and not in another man's, which is sense, Mister Begg, though +it is spoke by a plain seaman." + +I said, "Aye, aye," and held my tongue, knowing that he would go on +with it. We were almost down at the house now, and the cliffs stood +like a great cloud of solid rock, above which a loom of smoke was +floating. Dolly walked at my heels like a patient dog. My own feelings +are not for me to tell. I was going to see Ruth Bellenden again. Why, +she was there in yonder garden, and nothing between us but this great +hulking yellow boy, who took to buttonholing me as a parson buttonholes +his churchwarden when he wants a new grate in his drawing-room. + +"Now," says he, standing before me as one who had half a mind to block +the road, "you be advised by me, Mister Begg, and cut this job short. +Don't you be listening to a woman's parley, for it's all nonsense. I've +done wrong to let you ashore, perhaps--perhaps I haven't; but, ashore +or afloat, it's my business to see that the guv'nor's orders is carried +out, and carried out they will be, one man or twenty agen 'em. Do you +take a plain word or do you not, Mister Begg?" + +"I take whatever's going, and don't trouble about the sugar," says I; +and then, putting him aside, I lifted the latch of the garden gate, and +went in and saw Miss Ruth. + + +CHAPTER III + +IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES UP HIS MIND WHAT TO DO + +Now, she was sitting in the garden, in a kind of arbour built of +leaves, and near by her was her relative, the rats'-tailed old lady we +used to call Aunt Rachel. The pair didn't see me as I passed in, but a +Chinese servant gave "Good-day" to the yellow man we'd picked up coming +down; and, at that, Miss Ruth--for so I call her, not being able to get +Mme. Czerny into my head--Miss Ruth, I say, stood up, and, the colour +tumbling into her cheeks like the tide into an empty pool, she stood +for all the world as though she were struck dumb and unable to say a +word to any man. I, meanwhile, fingered my hat and looked foolish; for +it was an odd kind of job to have come twelve thousand miles upon, and +what to say to her with the hulking seaman at my elbow, the Lord +forgive me if I knew. + +"Miss Ruth," says I at last, "I'm here according to orders, and the +ship's here, and we're waiting for you to go aboard----" + +Well, she seemed to hear me like one who did not catch the meaning of +it. I saw her put her hand to her throat as though something were +choking her, and the old lady, the one we called Aunt Rachel, cried, +"God bless me," two or three times together. But the yellow man was the +next to speak, and he crossed right over to our Miss Ruth's side, and +talked in her ear in a voice you could have heard up at the hills. + +"You'll not be going aboard to-day, lady. Why, what would the master +have to say, he coming home from foreign parts and you not ashore to +meet him? You didn't say nothing about any ship, not as I can remember, +and mighty pleased the guv'nor will be when he knows about it. Shall I +tell this party he'd better be getting aboard again, eh, ma'am? Don't +you think as he'd better be getting aboard again?" + +He shouted this out for all the world like a man hailing from one ship +to another. I don't know what put it into my head, but I knew from that +moment that my mistress was afraid, aye, deadly afraid, as it is given +few to fear in this life. Not that she spoke of it, or showed it by any +sign a stranger might have understood; but there was a look in her eyes +which was clear to me; "and by my last word," said I to myself, "I'll +know the truth this day, though there be one or a hundred yellow boys!" +None the less, I held my tongue as a wise man should, and what I said +was spoken to the party with the beard. + +"You've a nice soft voice for a nightingale, that you have," says I; +"if you'd let yourself out for a fog-horn to the Scilly Isles, you'd go +near to make your fortune! Is the young lady deaf that you want to bawl +like a harbour-master? Easy, my man," says I, "you'll hurt your +beautiful throat." + +Well, he turned round savage enough, but my mistress, who had stood all +the while like a statue, spoke now for the first time, and holding out +both her hands to me, she cried: + +"Oh, Captain Begg, Captain Begg, is it you at last, to walk right here +like this? I can't believe it," she said; "I really can't believe it!" + +"Why, that's so," said I, catching her American accent, which was the +prettiest thing you ever heard; "I'm on the way to 'Frisco, and I put +in here according to my promise. My ship's out yonder, Miss Ruth, and +there's some aboard that knows you--Peter Bligh and Mister Jacob; and +this one, this is little Dolly Venn," said I, presenting him, "though +he'll grow bigger by-and-bye." + +With this I pushed the boy forward, and he, all silly and blushing as +sailors will be when they see a pretty woman above their station--he +took her hand and heaved it like a pump-handle; while old Aunt Rachel, +the funny old woman in the glasses, she began to talk a lot of nonsense +about seamen, as she always did, and for a minute or two we might have +been a party of friends met at a street corner. + +"I'm glad to find you well, Captain Begg," said she. "Such a dangerous +life, too, the mariner's. I always pity you poor fellows when you climb +the rattlesnakes on winter's nights." + +"Ratlins, you mean, ma'am," said I, "though for that matter, a syllable +or two don't count either way. And I hope you're not poorly, ma'am, on +this queer shore." + +"I like the island," says she, solemn and stiff-like; "my dear nephew +is an eccentric, but we must take our bread as we find it on this +earth, Mister Begg, and thankful for it too. Poor Ruth, now, she is +dreadfully distressed and unhappy; but I tell her it will all come +right in the end. Let her be patient a little while and she will have +her own way. She wants for nothing here--she has every comfort. If her +husband chooses such a home for her, she must submit. It is our duty to +submit to our husbands, captain, as the catechism teaches us." + +"Aye, when you've got 'em," thought I, but I nodded my head to the old +lady, and turned to my mistress, who was now speaking to me. + +"You'll lunch here; why, yes, captain--you mustn't find us +inhospitable, even if you leave us at once. Mr. Denton, will you please +to tell them that Captain Begg lunches with me--as soon as possible?" + +She turned to the yellow man to give him the order; but there was no +mistaking the look which passed between them, saying on her side: +"Allow me to do this," on his, "You will suffer for it afterwards." But +he went up to the veranda of the house right enough, and while he was +bawling to the cook, I spoke the first plain word to Mme. Czerny. + +"Mistress," I said, "the ship's there--shall we go or stay?" + +I had meant it to be the plain truth between us; on her part the +confession whether she needed me or did not; on mine the will to serve +her whatever might happen to me. To my dying day, I shall never forget +her answer. + +"Go," she said, so low that it was little more than a whisper, "but, +oh, for God's sake, Jasper Begg, come back to me again." + +I nodded my head and turned the talk. The man Denton, the one with the +yellow beard (rated as Kess Denton on the island), was back at my side +almost before she had finished. The old lady began to talk about +"curling-spikes" and "blue Saint Peters," and how much the anchor +weighed, and all that sort of blarney which she thought ship-shape and +suited to a poor sailor-man's understanding. I told her a story of a +shark that swallowed a missionary and his hymn-book, and always swam +round our ship at service times afterwards--and that kept her thinking +a bit. As for little Dolly Venn, he couldn't keep his eyes off Miss +Ruth--and I didn't wonder, for mine went that way pretty often. Aye, +she had changed, too, in those twelve months that had passed since last +I saw her, the prettiest bride that ever held out a finger for a ring +in the big church at Nice. Her cheeks were all fallen away and flushed +with a colour which was cruelly unhealthy to see. The big blue eyes, +which I used to see full of laughter and a young girl's life, were +ringed round with black, and pitiful when they looked at you. The hair +parted above the forehead, as it always was, and brought down in curls +above her little ears, didn't seem to me so full of golden threads as +it used to be. But it was good to hear her plucky talk, there at the +dinner-table, when she chattered away like some sweet-singing bird, and +Dolly couldn't turn away his eyes, and the yellow boy stood, sour and +savage, behind her chair, and threw out hints for me to sheer off which +might have moved the Bass Rock. Not that he need have troubled himself, +for I had made up my mind already what to do; and no sooner was the +food stowed away than I up and spoke about the need of getting on +again, and such like. And with that I said "Good-bye" to Mistress Ruth +and "Good-bye" to the old woman, and had a shot left in my locker for +the yellow boy, which I don't doubt pleased him mightily. + +"Good luck to you," says I; "if you'd a wisp of your hair, I'd put it +in my locket and think of you sometimes. When you want anything from +London you just shout across the sea and we'll be hearing you. +Deadman's Horn is nothing to you," said I; "you'd scare a ship out of +the sea, if you wasn't gentle to her." + +Mind you, I said all this as much to put him off as anything else, for +I'd been careful enough to blab no word about the Southern Cross being +Miss Ruth's very own ship, nor about her orders that we should call at +Ken's Island; and I knew that when a man's angry at what you say to him +he doesn't think much of two and two making four, but as often as not +makes them eight or ten. May-be, said I, he'll make it out that I'm on +a tramp bound for 'Frisco and have touched here on the way--and +certainly he won't look for my coming back again once he sees our smoke +on the sky-line. Nor was I wrong. My mistress was to tell me that much +before twelve hours had passed. + +And so it was that I said "Good-bye" to her, she standing at the +garden-gate with a brave smile upon her pretty face, and the yellow man +behind her like a savage dog that is afraid to bite, but has all the +mind to. At the valley's head I turned about, and she was still there, +looking up wistfully to the hills we trod. Thrice I waved my hand to +her, and thrice she answered, and then together, the lad and I, we +entered the dark wood and saw her no more. + +"Your best leg forward, lad," said I to him, "and mum's the word. +There's work to do on the ship, and work ashore for a woman's sake. Are +you game for that, Dolly--are you game, my boy?" + +Well, he didn't answer me. Some one up in the black gorge above fired a +rifle just as I spoke; and the bullet came singing down like a bird on +the wing. Not a soul could I see, not a sound could I hear when the +rolling echoes had passed away. It was just the silence of the thicket +and of the great precipices which headed it--a silence which might +freeze a man's heart because the danger which threatened him was +hidden. + +"Crouch low to the rocks, lad, and go easy," cried I, when my wits came +back again; "that's a tongue it doesn't do to quarrel with. The dirty +skunks--to fire on unarmed men! But we'll return it, Dolly; as I live +I'll fire a dozen for every one they send us." + +"Return it, sir," says he; "but aren't you going aboard?" + +"Aye," says I, "and coming back again like drift on an open sea. Now +let me see you skip across that bridge, and no mistake about it." + +He darted across the chasm's bridge like a chamois. I followed him +quick and clumsy. If my heart was in my mouth--well, let that pass. Not +for my own sake did I fear mortal man that day, but for the sake of a +woman whose very life I believed to be in danger. + + +CHAPTER IV + +WE GO ABOARD, BUT RETURN AGAIN + +We made the ship safely when twenty minutes were passed, and ten +minutes later, Mister Jacob and Peter Bligh were in my cabin with me. + +"Lads," I said, for it was not a day when a man picked his talk; +"lads," said I, "this ship goes full steam ahead for 'Frisco, and +you'll be wanting to know the reason why. Well, that's right and +proper. Let me tell you that she's steaming to 'Frisco because it's the +shortest way to Ken's Island." + +They looked queer at this, but my manner kept them silent. Every man +aboard the Southern Cross had heard the gun fired up in the hills, and +every one knew that Dolly Venn and the skipper had raced for their +lives to the water's edge. "What next?" they asked; and I meant to tell +them. + +"Yes," said I, "the shortest way to Ken's Island, and no mistake about +it. For what does a man do when he sees some one in a house and the +front door's slammed in his face? Why, he goes to the back door +certainly, and for choice when the night's dark and the blinds are +down. That's what I'm going to do this night, lads, for the sake of a +bit of a girl you and I would sail far to serve." + +They said, "Aye, aye," and drew their chairs closer. The men had been +piped down to dinner, but Peter Bligh forgot his, and that was +extraordinary peculiar in him. Mister Jacob took snuff as though it +were chocolate powder, and the whole of a man spoke from his little +eyes. + +"Listen," said I, beginning to tell them what you know already, "here +have we sailed twelve thousand miles at Ruth Bellenden's order, and how +does she receive us? Why, with a nod she might give a neighbour going +by in the street----" + +"They not being on speaking terms except in church," put in Peter +Bligh. + +"Or she wishing him to get on with his business," said Mister Jacob, +"and not to gossip when there was work to do." + +"Be that as it may," I ran on, "the facts are as plain to me as eight +bells for noon. Ruth Bellenden's married to a foreigner who's next door +to a madman. Why, look at it--what was the only word she had the time +or the chance to say? 'For God's sake, come back, Jasper Begg,' says +she. And what am I going to do upon that, gentlemen? Why, I'm going +back, so help me heaven, this very night to learn her trouble." + +"And to bring her aboard where she could tell it on a fair course, so +to speak. You'll do that, sir?" + +"The night will show what I shall do, Mister Jacob. Was there ever such +a story? A man to marry the best creature that ever put on a pretty +bonnet, and to carry her to a god-forsaken shore like this! And to +ill-treat her there! Aye, that's it. If ever a woman's eyes spoke to +me of hard treatment, it was Ruth Bellenden's this morning. She's some +trouble, lads, some dreadful trouble. She doesn't even speak of it to +me. The yellow boy I've made mention of stood by her all the time. We +talked like two that pass by on the ocean. Who'll gainsay that it was +an unnatural thing? No mortal man can, with reason!" + +"Aye, there's precious little reason in it, by what I make out, +captain. You'll know more when the young lady's aboard here----" + +"And the yellow boy's head has a bump on the top of it, like the knob +what used to hang down from my mother's chandelay--but that's idle +talking. What time do you put her about to go ashore, sir?" + +I was glad to see them coming to it like this, and I fell to the plan +without further parley. + +"A fair question and a fair answer," said I; "this ship goes about at +eight bells, Peter. To Mister Jacob here I trust the safety of the good +fellows who go ashore with me. If we can bring the mistress aboard +to-night, well and good, we've done the best day's work we ever set our +hands to. If not, that work must rest until tomorrow night, or the +night after or the night after that. Eight days from now if it happens +that nothing is heard from the land and no news of us, well, the course +is plain. In that case it will be full steam ahead to 'Frisco, and from +there a cable to Kenrick Bellenden, and the plain intimation that his +sister has pretty bad need of him on Ken's Island." + +"And of an American warship, if one is forthcoming." + +"It may be, Mister Jacob; it may be that, though the devils ashore +there are the only ones that could tell you that. But you're a man of +understanding, and your part will be done. I rely upon you as between +shipmates." + +He took a pinch of snuff, and flapping his coat-tails (for he was +always rigged out in the naval officer way) he answered what I wished. + +"As between shipmates, I will do my duty," said he. + +"I knew it; I've known it from the beginning," said I. "What's left +when you've done is the shore part, and that's not so easy. Peter +Bligh's coming, and I couldn't well leave Dolly on board. Give me our +hulking carpenter, Seth Barker, and I'll lighten the ship no more. +We're short-handed as it is. And, besides, if four won't serve, then +forty would be no better. What we can do yonder, wits, and not +revolvers, must bring about. But I'll not go with sugar-sticks, you +take my word for it, and any man that points a gun at me will wish he'd +gone shooting sheep." + +"Aye, aye, to that," cried Peter, who was ever a man for a fight; "the +shooting first and the civil words after. That's sense and no blarney. +When my poor father was tried at Swansea, his native place, for hitting +an Excise man with a ham----" + +"Mr. Bligh," cried I, "'tis not with hams you'll be hitting folks +yonder, take my word for it. This job may find us on a child's errand +or it may find us doing men's work. Eight bells on the first watch will +tell the whole of the story. Until that time I shall hold my tongue +about it, but I don't go ashore as I go to a picnic, and I don't make a +boast about what I may presently cry out about." + +Well, they were both of my way of thinking, and when we'd talked a +little more about it, and I'd opened the arm-chest and looked over the +few guns and pistols we'd got there, and we'd called the lad Dolly down +and promised him that he should come with us, and the men had been +given to understand that the skipper was to go ashore by-and-bye on an +important business, Peter and the others went to their dinner and I +took my turn on the bridge. The swell was running strongly then, and +the wind blew fresh from the north-east. We'd lost all sight of the +island, and spoke but one ship, a small mail steamer from Santa Cruz +bound for the Yellow Sea, which signalled us "All well" at six bells in +the afternoon watch. From that time I went dead slow and began to bring +the Southern Cross about. The work was begun that very hour, I always +say. + +Now, I've told all this, short and brief, and with no talk of my own +about it. The thing had come so sudden, I knew so little of Ruth +Bellenden's trouble or of what had befallen her on the island, that I +was like a man in the dark groping blindly, yet set on hearing the +truth. As for the crew, well, you may be sure that Dolly Venn had put +his side of the story about, and when they knew that my mistress was +ashore there and in some danger, I believe they'd have put me in irons +if I'd so much as spoken of going back. + +Risky it was, so much I won't deny; but who wouldn't risk more than his +own paltry skin to save a woman in trouble, and she, so to speak, a +shipmate? There was not a man aboard, stake my life, who wouldn't have +gone to the land willingly for Ruth Bellenden's sake though he'd been +told, sure and certain, that Ken's Island must be his grave. And we'd +always the ship, mind you, and the knowledge that she would go to +'Frisco to get us help. A fool's hope, I say now. For how could we know +that the Southern Cross would be at the bottom of the sea, a thousand +fathoms down, before the week was run? We couldn't know it; yet that +was what happened, and that is why no help came to us. + +We had put the ship about at six bells in the afternoon watch, but it +was eight bells in the second dog (the night being too clear for my +liking and a full moon showing bright in the sky) that we sighted Ken's +Island for the second time, and for the second time prepared to go +ashore. The longboat was ready by this time, her barrels full of water +and her lockers full of biscuit. Such arms as we were to carry were +partly stowed in water-proof sheeting--the rifles, and the cartridges +for them; but the revolvers we carried, and a good Sheffield knife a +man, which we weren't going to cut potatoes with. For the rest, I made +them put in a few stout blankets, and more rations than might have +served for such a trip. "Good beginnings make good endings," said I; +"what we haven't need of, lads, we can carry aboard again. The +longboat's back won't ache, be sure of it." + +All this, I say, was done when the moon showed us the island like a +great barren rock rising up sheer from the sea. And when it was done, +Mister Jacob called my attention to something which in the hurry of +shore-going I might never have seen at all or thought about. It was +nothing less than this--that their fool's beacon was out to-night, and +all the sea about it as black as ink. Whoever set up the light, then, +did not use it for a seaman's benefit, but for his own whim. I reckoned +up the situation at a glance, and even at that early stage I began to +know the terrible meaning of it. + +"Mister Jacob," said I, "those that keep that beacon are either fools +or knaves." + +"Or both, sir," said he. + +"Which one is the own brother to the other. Aye, captain, 'tis lucky +ye've the parish lantern, as my poor father used to say when----" + +But Peter Bligh never finished it that night. The words were still in +his mouth when a rocket shot up over the sea and bursting in a cloud of +gold-blue sparks, cast a weird, cold light upon rock and reef and all +that troubled sea. And as the rocket fell our big carpenter, Seth +Barker, standing aft by the hatch, cries out, + +"Ship ashore! Ship ashore, by----!" + + +CHAPTER V + +STRANGE SIGHTS ASHORE, AND WHAT WE SAW OF THEM + +Now, when Seth Barker cried out that a ship was ashore on the dangerous +reefs to the northward of the main island, it is not necessary to tell +you what we, a crew of British seamen, were called upon to do. The +words were scarcely spoken before I had given the order, "Stand by the +boats," and sent every man to his station. Excited the hands were, that +I will not deny; excited and willing enough to tell you about it if +you'd asked them; but no man among them opened his lips, and while they +stood there, anxious and ready, I had my glass to my eye and tried to +make out the steamer and what had befallen her. Nor was Mister Jacob +behind me, but he and Peter Bligh at my side, we soon knew the truth +and made up our minds about it. + +"There's a ship on the reef, sure enough, and by the cut of her she's +the Santa Cruz we spoke this afternoon," said Mr. Jacob, and added, "a +dangerous shore, sir, a dangerous shore." + +"But full of kind-hearted people that fire their guns at poor +shipwrecked mariners," put in Peter Bligh. I wouldn't believe him at +first, but there was no denying it, awful truth that it was, when a few +minutes had passed. + +"Good God," cried I, "it can't be so, Peter, and yet that's a rifle's +tongue, or I've lost my hearing." + +Well, we all stood together and listened as men listen for some poor +creature's death-cry, or the sounds which come in the stillness of the +night to affright and unnerve us. Sure enough, you couldn't have +counted ten before the report of guns was heard distinctly above the +distant roar of breakers; while flashes of crimson light, playing about +the reef, seemed to tell the whole story without another word from me. + +"Those devils ashore are shooting the crew," cried I; "did man ever +hear such bloody work? I'll have a reckoning for this, if it takes me +twenty years. Lower away the boats, lads; I'm going to dance to that +music." + +They swung the two longboats out on the davits, and the port crew were +in their seats, when Mister Jacob touched my arm and questioned my +order--a thing I haven't known him to do twice in ten years. + +"Beg pardon, sir," said he, "but there's no boat that will help the +Santa Cruz to-night." + +"And why, Mister Jacob--why do you say that?" + +"Because she's gone where neither you nor I wish to go yet awhile, +Mister Begg." + +I stood as though he had shot me, and clapping my glass to my eye I +took another look towards the northern reef and the ship that was +stranded there. But no ship was to be seen. She had disappeared in a +twinkling; the sea had swallowed her up. And over the water, as an +eerie wail, lasting and doleful, came the death-cries of those who +perished with her. + +"God rest their poor souls and punish them that sent them there," said +Peter Bligh fervently; but Mister Jacob was still full of his prudent +talk. + +"We're four miles out, and the moon will be gone in ten minutes, sir. +You couldn't make the reef if you tried, and if you could, you'd find +none living. This sea would best the biggest boat that ever a ship +carried--it will blow harder in an hour, and what then? We've friends +of our own to serve, and the door that Providence opens we've no right +to shut. I say nothing against humanity, Captain Begg, but I wouldn't +hunt the dead in the water when I could help the living ashore." + +I saw his point in a moment, and had nothing to say against it. No +small boat could have lived in the reefs about the northern end of the +island with the sea that was running that night. If the devils who +fired down upon the poor fellows of the Santa Cruz were still watching +like vultures for human meat, fair argument said, the main island would +be free of them for us to go ashore as we pleased. A better opportunity +might not be found for a score of months. I never blame myself, least +of all now, when I know Ruth Bellenden's story, that I listened that +night to the clearheaded wisdom of Anthony Jacob. + +"You're right, as always, Mister Jacob. I've no call to take these good +fellows on a fool's errand. And it's going to blow hard, as you say. +We'll take in one of the boats, and those that are for the shore will +make haste to get aboard the other." + +This I said to him, but to the men I put it in a few seaman's words. + +"Lads," I said, "no boat that Southampton ever built could swim in +yonder tide where it makes between the reefs. We'd like to help +shipmates, but the chance is not ours. There's another little shipmate +ashore there that needs our help pretty badly. I'm going in for her +sake, and there's not a man of you that will not do his duty by the +ship when I'm gone. Aye, you'll stand by Mister Jacob, lads, I may tell +him that?" + +They gave me a rousing cheer, which was a pretty foolish thing to have +done, and it took all my voice to silence them. Lucky for us, there was +a cloud over the moon now, and darkness like a black vapour upon the +sea. Not a lamp burned on the Southern Cross; not a cabin window but +had its curtain. What glow came from her funnel was not more than a +hazy red light over the waters; and when five of us (for we took Harry +Doe to stand by ashore) stepped into the longboat, and set her head due +west for the land, we lost the steamer in five minutes--and, God knows, +we were never to see her again on the high seas or off. + +Now, I have said that the wind had begun to blow fresh since sunset, +and at two bells in the first watch, the time we left the ship, the sea +ran high, and it was not oversafe even in the longboat to be cruising +for a shore we knew so little about. I have always accounted it more +good luck than good seamanship which brought us to the cove at last, +and set us all, wet but cheerful, on the dry, white sand about the +ladder's foot. There was shelter in the bay both for man and ship, and +when we'd dragged the longboat up on the beach we gave Harry Doe his +orders and left him to his duty. + +"If there's danger fire your gun," said I--"once, if you wish to call +us; twice, if you think we should stand off. But you won't do that +unless things are at the worst, and I'm hoping for the best, when you +won't do it at all." + +He answered, "Aye, aye," in a whisper which was like a bear's growl; +and we four, Peter Bligh, Seth Barker, and the lad Dolly, besides +myself, climbed the ladder like cats and stood at the cliff's head. To +say that our hearts were in our mouths would not be strict truth, for I +never feared any man, beast, or devil yet; and I wasn't going to begin +that night--nor were the others more ready, that I will answer for +them. But remembering the things we had seen on the reef, the words +which Ruth Bellenden had spoken to me, and that which happened to the +lad and myself last time we came ashore; remembering this, it's not to +be wondered at that our hearts beat a bit quicker, and that our hands +went now and again to the pistols we carried. For, just think of +it--there we were at nine o'clock of a dark night, in a thick wood, +with the trees making ghosts about us, and the path as narrow as a +ship's plank, and no knowledge who walked the woods with us, nor any +true reckoning of our circumstance. What man wouldn't have held his +tongue at such a time, or argued with himself that it might end badly, +and he never see the sun again? Not Jasper Begg, as I bear witness. + +Now, I put myself at the head of our fellows and, the better to find +the track, I went down on my hands and my knees like a four-footed +thing, and signalling to those behind with a bosun's whistle, I led +them well enough through the wood to the wicker-basket bridge; and +would have gone on from there straight down to the house but for +something which happened at the clearing of the thicket, just as I +stood up to bid the men go over. Startling it was, to be sure, and +enough to give any man a turn; nor did I wonder that Peter Bligh should +have cried out as he did when first he clapped eyes upon it. + +"Holy Mother of Music," says he, "'tis the angels singing, or I'm a +dirty nigger!" + +"Hold your tongue," says I, in a whisper; "are you afraid of two young +women, then?" + +"Of three," says he, "which being odd is lucky. When my poor +father----" + +"To hell with your father," says I; "hold your tongue and wait." + +He lay low at this, and the rest of us gaped, open-mouthed, as though +we were staring at a fairy-book. There, before us, coming down from the +black rocks above, leaping from step to step of the stone, were three +young girls; but, aye, the queerest sort that ever tantalized a man +with their prettiness. You may well ask, the night being inky dark, how +we managed to see them at all; but let me tell you that they carried +good rosin torches in their hands, and the wild light, all gold and +crimson against the rocks, shone as bright as a ship's flare and as +far. Never have I seen such a thing, I say, and never shall. There were +the three of them, like young deer on a bleak hillside, singing and +laughing and leaping down, and, what's more, speaking to each other in +an odd lingo, with here a word of French and there a word of German, +and after that something that was beyond me and foreign to my +understanding. + +"God be good to me--saw man ever such a sight? And the dress of 'em, +the dress of 'em," whispers Peter Bligh. But I clapped my hand upon his +mouth and stopped him that time. + +"The dress is all right," said I; "what I'm wondering is how three of +that sort came in such a place as this. And well born too, well born, +or I don't know the meaning of the term!" + +They were pretty creatures and their dress was like the rest of them. +Short skirts all looped and filled with flowers, toggery above cut out +of some white skin, with caps to match and their hair falling in big +ramping curls about it--they were for all the world like the dancers +you see at a stage play and just as active. And to hear their voices, +sweet and musical, floating from ravine to ravine like a choir singing +in a place of echoes, aye that was something you might not soon forget. +But what they were doing in such a place, or how they came there, the +Lord above alone knew, and not a plain seaman like Jasper Begg. + + +[Illustration: Like dancers at a stage play.] + + +"What are they saying, Peter--what do you make of it?" I asked him, +under my breath. + +"'Tis the French lingo," says he, foolish-like, "and if it's not that, +'tis the German--leastwise no Christian man that I know of could +distinguish between 'em." + +"Peter," says I, "that's what you learn in the asylum. 'Tis no more the +French lingo than your own. Why, hearken to it." + +Well, he listened, and soon we heard a pretty echo from the valley, for +they'd gone down towards the gardens now; and one word repeated often +had as nice a touch of music as I remember hearing. It was just this: +"Rosamunda--munda--munda," and you can't think how fresh the young +voice sounded in that lonely place, or what a chill it gave a man when +he remembered the devils over at the reef and what they'd done to the +crew of the Santa Cruz. I do believe to this day that our fellows +imagined they'd seen nothing more nor less than an apparition out of +the black rocks above them; and it wasn't until I'd spoken to them in +good honest English that I got them to go on again. + +"Flesh or spirit, that's not a lot to whiten a man's gills," cried I; +"why, thunder, Peter Bligh, you're big enough to put 'em all in your +pocket, and soft enough they'd lie when they got there. Do you mean to +tell me," I asked him, "that four hale and strong men are to be +frightened out of their wits by three pretty girls?--and you a +religious man, too, Peter! Why, I'm ashamed of you, that I am, lads, +right down ashamed of you!" + +They plucked up at this, and Peter he made haste to excuse himself. + +"If they was Christian men with knives in their hands," says he, "I'd +put up a bit of a prayer, and trust to the Lord to shoot 'em; but them +three's agen all reason, at this time of night in such a lone place." + +"Go on with you, Peter," chimes in Dolly Venn; "three ripping little +girls, and don't I wish they'd ask me in to tea! Why, look, they're +down by the house now, and somebody with them, though whether it's a +man or a woman I really don't pretend to say." + +"I'm derned if I don't think it's a lion," says Seth Barker, asking my +pardon for the liberty. + +We all stood still at this, for we were on the hillside just above the +house now; and down on the fair grass-way below us we espied the three +little girls with their torches still burning, and they as deep in talk +with a stranger as a man might have been with his own mother. A more +remarkable human being than the one these little ladies had happened +upon I don't look to see again the world around. Man or lion--God +forgive me if I know what to call him. He'd hair enough, shaggy hair +curling about his shoulders, to have stuffed a feather bed. His dress +was half man's, half woman's. He'd a tattered petticoat about his legs, +a seaman's blouse for his body, and a lady's shawl above that upon his +shoulders--his legs were bare as a barked tree, and what boots he had +should have been in the rag-shop. More wonderful still was it to +see the manner of the young ladies towards him--for I shall always +call them that--they petted him and fondled him, and one put a mock +crown of roses on his head. Then, with that pretty song of theirs, +"Rosamunda--munda--munda," they all ran off together towards the +northern shore and left us in the darkness, as surprised a party of +men as you'll readily meet with. + +"Well," says Peter Bligh, and he was the first among us to speak, +"yon's a nice shipmate to speak on a quiet road. So help me thunder, +but I wouldn't pass round the tin for him in a beauty show, no, not +much! Did ye see the hair of him, captain--did ye see the hair?" + +"And the girls kissing him as though he were Apollo," cries Dolly Venn, +who, I don't doubt, would have done the kissing willingly himself. But +I hushed their talk, and without more ado I went straight down to Ruth +Bellenden's house. All the strange things we'd seen and heard, the +uncanny sights, the firing on the reef, the wild man ashore, the little +girls from the hills--all these, I say, began to tell me my mistress's +story as a written book might never have done. "She's need of me," I +said, "sore need; and by God's help I'll bring her out of this place +before to-morrow's sun." + +For how should I know what long days must pass before I was to leave +Ken's Island again? + + +CHAPTER VI + +JASPER BEGG MEETS HIS OLD MISTRESS, AND IS WATCHED + +I had made up my mind to take every proper precaution before going up +to the house where my mistress lived; and with caution in my head I +left Seth Barker, the carpenter, up on the hill path, while I set Peter +Bligh at the gate of the garden, and posted Dolly Venn round at the +northern side, where the men who had looted the Santa Cruz might be +looked for with any others that I had no knowledge of. When this was +done, and they understood that they were to fire a gun if the need +arose, I opened the wicket-gate and crept up the grass path for all the +world like an ill-visaged fellow who had no true business there. Not a +sound could I hear in all that place; not a dog barked, nor a human +voice spoke. Even the wind came fitful and gusty about the sheltered +house; and so quiet was it between the squalls that my own footfall +almost could scare me. For, you see, a whisper spoken at the wrong time +might have undone all--a clumsy step have cost us more than a man cared +to count. We were but four, and, for all I know, there might have been +four hundred on Ken's Island. You don't wonder therefore, if I asked +myself at times whether to-morrow's sun would find us living or what +our misfortune might spell for one I had come so far to serve. + +It was very dark in the garden, as I have told you, but two of the +windows in the house were lighted up and two golden rings of light +thrown out upon the soft grass I trod. I stood a long time debating +which window to knock open--for it was a fearful lottery, I must +say--and when I'd turned it over and over in my head, and now made out +that it was this window and now plumped for the other, I took up a +pebble at last and cast it upon the pane nearest to the door--for that +seemed to me the more likely room, and I'd nothing else but common +sense to guide me. You may judge of my feelings when no notice was +taken of my signal except by a dog, which began to yap like a pup and +to make such a scare that I thought every window and every door must +be opened that very instant and as many men out on top of me. I said, +surely, that it was all up with Jasper Begg that journey; but odd to +tell it, the dog gave over at last, and no one showed himself, neither +was there any whistle from my company; and I was just making ready to +throw another stone when the second light was turned out all of a +sudden and, the long window being opened, Ruth Bellenden--or, to be +more correct, Mme. Czerny--herself came out into the garden, and stood +looking round about as though she knew that I was there and had been +waiting for me. When at last she saw me she didn't speak or make any +sign, but going about to the house again she held the window open for +me, and I passed into the dark room with her, and there held her hand +in mine, I do believe as though I would never let it go again. + +"Jasper," says she, in a whisper that was pretty as the south wind in +springtime; "Jasper Begg, how could it be any one else! Oh, we must +light a candle, Jasper Begg," says she, "or we shall lose ourselves in +the dark." + +"Miss Ruth," said I, "light or dark, I'm here according to my orders, +and the ship's here, and as I said to you before the yellow boy to-day, +we're waiting for our mistress to go aboard." + +She had her back to me when I said this, and was busy enough drawing +the curtains and lighting the lamp again. The light showed me that she +wore a rich black gown with fluffy stuff over it, and a bit of a +sparkle in the way of diamonds like a band across her parted hair. The +face was deceiving, now lighted up by one of the old smiles, now hard +set as one who had suffered much for her years. But there was nothing +over-womanish in her talk, and we two thrashed it out there, just the +same as if Ken's Island wasn't full of devils, and the lives of me and +my men worth what a spin of the coin might buy them at. + +"You mustn't call me Miss Ruth," says she, when she turned from the +lamp and tidied up her writing on the table; "of course you know that, +Jasper Begg. And you at my wedding, too--is it really not more than +twelve long months ago?" + +A sigh passed her lips, such a sigh as tells a woman's story better +than all the books; and in that moment the new look came upon her face, +the look I had seen when the yellow man changed words with her in the +morning. + +"It's thirteen months three weeks since you went up with Mr. Czerny to +the cathedral at Nice," was my next word; "the days go slow on this +out-of-the-way shore, I'll be bound--until our friends come, Miss Ruth, +until we're sure they haven't forgotten us." + + +I had a meaning in this, and be sure she took it. Not that she answered +me out and away as I wished; for she put on the pretty air of wife and +mistress who wouldn't tell any of her husband's secrets. + +"Why, yes," she said, very slowly, "the days are long and the nights +longer, and, of course, my husband is much away from here." + +I nodded my head and drew the chair she'd offered me close to the +table. On her part she was looking at the clock as though she wished +that the hands of it might stand still. I read it that we hadn't much +time to lose, and what we had was no time for fair words. + +"Miss Ruth," says I, without more parley, "from what I've seen to-night +I don't doubt that any honest man would be glad to get as far as he +could from Ken's Island and its people at the first opportunity. You'll +pardon what a plain seaman is going to say, and count him none the less +a friend for saying it. When you left money in the banker's hands to +commission a ship and bring her to this port, your words to me were, 'I +may have need of you.' Miss Ruth, you have need of me--I should be no +more than a fool if I couldn't see that. You have sore need of me, and +if you won't say so for yourself, I take leave to say it for you." + +She raised a hand as though she would not hear me--but I was on a clear +course now, and I held to it in spite of her. + +"Yes," I said, "you've need of your friends to-night, and it's a lucky +wind that brought them to this shore. What has passed, Miss Ruth, in +these months you speak of, it's not for me to ask or inquire. I have +eyes in my head, and they show me what I would give my fortune not to +see. You're unhappy here, Miss Ruth--you're not treated well." + +I waited for her to speak; but not a word would she say. White she was, +as a flower from her own garden, and once or twice she shivered as +though the cold had struck her. I was just going on to speak again, +when what should happen but that her little head went down on the table +and she began to sob as though her heart would break. + +"Oh, Jasper Begg, how I have suffered, how I have suffered!" said she, +between her sobs; and what could I do, what could any man do who would +kiss the ground a woman walks upon but has no right or title to? Why, +hold his tongue, of course, though it hurt him cruelly to do any such +thing. + +"Miss Ruth," said I, very foolish, "please don't think of that now. I'm +here to help you, the ship's here, we're waiting for you to go aboard." + +She dried her tears and tried to look up at me with a smile. + +"Oh, I'm just a child, just a child again, Jasper," cries she; "a year +ago I thought myself a woman, but that's all passed. And I shall never +go away on your ship, Jasper Begg--never, never. I shall die on Ken's +Island as so many have died." + +I stood up at this and pointed to the clock. + +"Little friend," I said, "if you'll put a cloak about your shoulders +and leave this house with me I'll have you safe aboard the Southern +Cross in twenty minutes by that clock, as God is my witness." + +It was no boast--for that I could have done as any seaman knows; and +you may well imagine that I stood as a man struck dumb when I had her +answer. + +"Why, yes," she said, "you could put me on board your boat, Captain +Jasper, if every step I took was not watched; if every crag had not its +sentinel; if there were not a hundred to say 'Go back--go back to your +home.' Oh, how can you know, how can you guess the things I fear and +dread in this awful place? You, perhaps, because the ship is waiting +will be allowed to return to it again. But I, never, never again to my +life's end." + +A terrible look crossed her face as she said this, and with one swift +movement she opened a drawer in the locker where she did her writing, +and took from it a little book which she thrust, like a packet, into my +hands. + +"Read," she said, with startling earnestness, "read that when you are +at sea again. I never thought that any other eyes but mine would see +it; but you, Jasper, you shall read it. It will tell you what I myself +could never tell. Read it as you sail away from here, and then say how +you will come back to help the woman who needs your help so sorely." + +I thrust the book into my pocket, but was not to be put off like that. + +"Read it I will, every line," said I; "but you don't suppose that +Jasper Begg is about to sail away and leave you in this plight, Miss +Ruth! He'd be a pretty sort of Englishman to do that, and it's not in +his constitution, I do assure you!" + +She laughed at my earnestness, but recollecting how we stood and what +had befallen since sunset, she would hear no more of it. + +"You don't understand; oh, you don't understand!" she cried, very +earnestly; "there's danger here, danger even now while you and I are +talking. Those who have gone out to the wreck will be coming home +again; they must not find you in this house, Jasper Begg, must not, +must not! For my sake, go as you came. Tell all that thought of me how +I thank them. Some day, perhaps, you will learn how to help me. I am +grateful to you, Jasper--you know that I am grateful." + +She held out both her hands to me, and they lay in mine, and I was +trying to speak a real word from my heart to her when there came a low, +shrill whistle from the garden-gate, and I knew that Peter Bligh had +seen something and was calling me. + +"Miss Ruth," says I, "that's old Peter Bligh and his danger signal. +There'll be some one about, little friend, or he wouldn't do it." + +Well, she never said a word. I saw a shadow cross her face, and +believed she was about to faint. Nor will any one be surprised at that +when I say that the door behind us had been opened while we talked, and +there stood Kess Denton, the yellow man, watching us like a hound that +would bite presently. + + +CHAPTER VII + +IN WHICH HELP COMES FROM THE LAST QUARTER WE HAD EXPECTED IT + +Now, no sooner did I see the yellow man than my mind was fully made up, +and I determined what harbour to make for. "If you're there, my lad," +said I to myself, "the others are not far behind you. You've seen me +come in, and it's your intention to prevent me going out again. To be +caught like a rat in a trap won't serve Ruth Bellenden, and it won't +serve me. I'm for the open, Kess Denton," said I, "and no long while +about it, either." + +This I said, but I didn't mean to play the startled kitten, and without +any token of surprise or such-like I turned round to Miss Ruth and gave +her "good-evening." + +"I'm sorry you're not coming aboard, Mme. Czerny," says I; "we weigh in +an hour, and it will be a month or more before I call in again. But you +sha'n't wait long for the news if I can help it; and as for your +brother, Mr. Kenrick, I'll trust to hear from him at 'Frisco and to +tell you what he thinks on my return. Good-night, madame," said I, "and +the best of health and prosperity." + +I held out my hand, and she shook it like one who didn't know what she +was doing. The yellow man came a step nearer and said, "Halloa, my +hearty." I nodded my head to him and he put his hand on my shoulder. +Poor fool, he thought I was a child, perhaps, and to be treated as one; +but I have learnt a thing or two about taking care of myself in Japan, +and you couldn't have counted two before I had his arm twisted under +mine, and he gave a yell that must have been heard up in the hills. + +"If you cry out like that, you'll ruin your beautiful voice," said I; +"hasn't any one ever asked you to sing hymns in a choir? Well, I'm +surprised. Good-night, my boy; I shall be coming back for your picture +before many days have passed." + +Upon this, I stepped towards the door, and thought that I had done with +him; but no sooner was I out in the garden than something went singing +by my ear, and upon that a second dose with two reports which echoed in +the hills like rolling thunder. No written music vas necessary to tell +me the kind of tune it was, and I swung round on my heel and gripped +the man by the throat almost before the echoes of the shot had died +away. + +"Kess Denton," said I, "if you will have it, you shall!" and with that +I wrenched the pistol from his grasp and struck him a blow over the +head that sent him down without a word. + +"One," said I, to myself, "one that helped to make little Ruth +Bellenden suffer;" and with that I set off running and never looked to +the right of me nor to the left until I saw Peter Bligh at the gate and +heard his honest voice. + +"Is it you--is it you yourself, Mr. Begg? Thank God for that!" cries +he, and it was no longer in a whisper; "there's men in the hills, and +Seth Barker whistling fit to crack his lips. Is the young lady coming +aboard, sir? No?--well, I'm not surprised, neither, though this shore +do seem a queerish sort of place----" + +I cut him short, and Dolly Venn running round from his place in the +garden I asked him for his news. The thing now was to find a road to +the sea. What could be done for Ruth Bellenden that night was over and +passed. Our chance lay on the deck of the Southern Cross, and after +that at 'Frisco. + +"What have you seen, Dolly Venn--be quick, lad, for we can't linger?" +was my question to him so soon as he was within hail. He answered me by +pointing to the trees which border the garden on the eastward side. + +"The wood is full of armed men, sir. Two of them nearly trod upon me +while I was lying there. They carry rifles, and seem to be Germans--I +couldn't be sure of that, sir." + +"Germans or chimpanzees, we're going by them this night. Where's Seth +Barker--why doesn't he come down? Does he think we can pass by the +hill-road?--the wooden block! Call him, one of you." + +They were about to do this when Seth Barker himself came panting down +the hillpath, and, what was more remarkable, he carried an uncouth sort +of bludgeon in his hand. I could see that there had been a bit of a +rough and tumble on the way, but it wasn't the time for particulars. + +"Come aboard, sir," says he, breathing heavy; "the gangway's blocked, +but I give one of 'em a bit of a knock with his own shillelagh, and +that's all right." + +"Is there any more up there?" I asked quickly. + +"May be a dozen, may be more. They're up on the heights looking for you +to go up, captain." + +"Aye," said I, "pleasant company, no doubt. Well, we must strike +eastward somehow, lads, and the sooner the better. We'll hold to the +valley a bit and see where that leads us. Do you, Seth Barker, keep +that bit of a shillelagh ready, and, if any one asks you a question, +don't you wait to answer it." + +Now, I had resolved to try and get down to the sea by the valley road +and, once upon the shore, to signal Harry Doe, if possible, and, if not +him, then the ship herself as a last resource. Any road seemed to me +better than this trap of a house with armed men all about it and a +pistol bullet ready for any stranger that lingered. "Aboard the ship," +said I, "we'll show them a clean pair of heels to 'Frisco and, after +that, ask the American Government what it can do for Ruth Bellenden and +for her husband." We were four against a hundred, perhaps, and +desperate men against us. If we got out of the scrape with our skins, +we should be as lucky a lot as ever sailed the Northern Pacific Ocean. +But should we--could we? Why, it was a thousand to one against it! + +I said this when we plunged into the wood; and yet I will bear witness +that I got more excitement than anything else out of that venture, and +I don't believe the others got less. There we were, the four of us, +trampling through the brushwood, crushing down the bushes, now lying +low, now up a-running--and not a man that wouldn't have gone through it +twice for Ruth Bellenden's sake. If so be that the night was to cost us +our lives, well, crying wouldn't help it--and those that were against +us were flesh and blood, all said and done, and no spirits to scare a +man. To that I set it down that we went on headlong and desperate. As +for the thicket itself, it was full of men--I could see their figures +between the trees. We must have passed twenty of them in the darkness +before one came out, plump on our path and cried out to us to halt. + +"Hold, hold," shouts he; "is it you, Bob Williams?" + +"It's Bob Williams, right enough," says I, and with that I gave him one +between the eyes, and down he went like a felled ox. The man who was +with him, stumbling up against Seth Barker, had a touch of the +shillelagh which was like a rock falling upon a fly. He just gave one +shuddering groan and fell backwards, clutching the branches. Little +Dolly Venn laughed aloud in his excitement, elbowed Peter Bligh who +gave a real Irish "hurrugh"; but the darkness had swallowed it all up +in a minute, and we were on again, heading for the shore like those +that run a race for their very lives. + +"Do you see any road, Peter Bligh?" asked I, for my breath was coming +short now; "do you see any road, man?" + +"The devil a one, sir, and me weighing fourteen stone!" + +"You'll weigh less when we get down, Peter." + +"And drink more, the saints be praised!" + +"Was that a rifle-shot or a stone from the hills?" I asked them a +moment later. Dolly Venn answered me this time. + +"A rifle-shot, captain. They'll be shooting one another, then--it's +ripping, ripping!" + +"Look out, lad, or it'll be dripping!" cried I; "don't you see there's +water ahead?" + +I cried the warning to him and stood stock-still upon the borders of as +black a pool as I remember to have seen in any country. The road had +carried us to the foot of the hills, almost to the chasm which the +wicker-bridge spanned; and we could make out that same bridge far above +us like a black rope in the twilight. The water itself was covered with +some clinging plants, and full of winding, ugly snakes which caused the +whole pool to shine with a kind of uncanny light; while an overpowering +odour, deadly and stifling, steamed up from it, and threatened to choke +a man. What was worse than this was a close thicket bordering the pond +on three sides, so that we must either swim for it or turn back the way +we came. The latter course was not to be thought of. Already I could +hear footsteps, and boughs snapping and breaking not many yards from +where we stood. To cross the pond might have struck the bravest man +alive with terror. I'd have sooner forfeited my life time over than +have touched one of those slimy snakes I could see wriggling over the +leaves to the bottom of the still water. What else to do I had no more +notion than the dead. "It's the end, Jasper Begg," said I to myself, +"the end of you and your venture." But of Ruth Bellenden I wouldn't +think. How could I, when I knew the folks that were abroad on Ken's +Island? + +I will just ask any traveller to stand with me where I stood that night +and to say if these words are overmuch for the plight, or if I have +spoken of it with moderation. A night as black as ink, mind you; my +company in the heart of a wood with big teak trees all round us, and +cliffs on our right hand towering up to the sky like mountains. Before +us a pool of inky water, all worming with odd lights and lines of blue +fire, like flakes of phosphorus on a bath, and alive with the hissing +of hundreds of snakes. Upon our left hand a scrubby thicket and a marsh +beneath it, I make sure; Czerny's devils, who had shot the poor folks +on the Santa Cruz, at our heels, and we but four against the lot of +them. Would any man, I ask, have believed that he could walk into such +a trap and get out of it unharmed? If so, it wasn't Jasper Begg, nor +Peter Bligh, nor little Dolly Venn, nor Seth Barker with the bludgeon +in his hand. They'd as good as given it up when we came to the pool and +stood there like hunting men that have lost all hope. + +"Done, by all that's holy!" says Peter Bligh, drawing back from the +pond as from some horrid pit. "Snakes I have seen, nateral and +unnateral, but them yonder give me the creeps----" + +"Creeps or no creeps, the others will be up here in five minutes, and +what are you going to do then, Peter Bligh, what then?" asks I, for as +I'm a living man I didn't know which way to turn from it. + +Seth Barker was the one that answered me. + +"I'm going to knock some nails in, by your leave," says he, and with +that he stood very still and bade us listen. The whole wood was full of +the sound of "halloaing" now. Far and wide I heard question and answer, +and a lingering yodle such as the Swiss boys make on the mountains. It +couldn't be many minutes, I said, before the first man was out on our +trail; and there I was right, for one of them came leaping out of the +wood straight into Peter Bligh's arms before I'd spoken another word. +Poor devil--it was the last good-night for him in this world--for Peter +passes him on, so to speak, and he went headlong into the pond without +any one knowing how he got there. A more awful end I hope I may never +hear of, and yet, God knows, he brought it on himself. As for Peter +Bligh, the shock set him sobbing like a woman. It was all my work to +get him on again. + +"No fault of ours," said I; "we're here for a woman's sake, and if +there's man's work to do, we'll do it, lads. Take my advice and you'll +turn straight back and run for it. Better a tap on the head than a cry +in yonder pool." + +They replied fearsomely--the strain was telling upon them badly. That +much I learnt from their husky voices and the way they kept close to +me, as though I could protect them. Seth Barker, especially, big man +that he was, began to mutter to himself in the wildest manner possible; +while little Dolly burst into whistling from time to time in a way that +made me crazy. + +"That's right, lad," cried I, "tell them you're here, and ask after the +health of their womenfolk. You've done with this world, I see, and made +it straight for the next. If you've a match in your pocket, strike it +to keep up their spirits." + +Well, he stopped short, and I was ashamed of myself a minute after for +speaking so to a mere lad whose life was before him and who'd every +right to be afraid. + +"Come," said I, more kindly, "keep close to me, Dolly, and if you don't +know where I am, why, put out your hand and touch me. I've been in +worse scrapes than this, my boy, and I'll lead you out of it somehow. +After all, we've ship over yonder and Mister Jacob isn't done with yet. +Keep up your heart, then, and put your best leg forward." + +Now, this was spoken to put courage into him--not that I believed what +I said, but because he and the others counted upon me, and my own +feelings had to go under somehow. For the matter of that, it looked all +Lombard Street to a China orange against us when we took the woodland +path again; and so I believe it would have been but for something which +came upon us like a thunder-flash, and changed all our despair to a +desperate hope. And to this something Peter Bligh was the first to call +our attention. + +"Is it fireflies or lanterns?" cries he all at once, bringing out +the words like a pump might have done; "yonder on the hillside, +shipmates--is it fireflies or lanterns?" + +I stood to look, and while I stood Seth Barker named the thing. + +"It's lanterns," cries he; "lanterns, sure and certain, captain." + +"And the three ripping little girls carrying them," puts in Dolly Venn. + +"'Tis no woman ever born that would hunt down four poor sailor-men," +cries Peter Bligh. + +"To say nothing of the he-lion they was a-fondling of"--from Seth +Barker. + +"Lads," said I, in my turn, "this is the unlooked for, and I, for one, +don't mean to pass it by. I'm going to ask those young ladies for a +short road to the hills--and not lose any time about it either." + +They all said "Aye, aye," and we ran forward together. The halloaing in +the wood was closing in about us now; you could hear voices wherever +you turned an ear. As for the lanterns, they darted from bush to bush +like glow-worms on a summer's night, so that I made certain they would +dodge us after all. My heart was low down enough, be sure of it, when I +lost view of those guiding stars altogether, and found myself face to +face with the last figure I might have asked for if you'd given me the +choice of a hundred. + +For what should happen but that the weird being, whom Seth Barker had +called the "he-lion," the old fellow in petticoats, whom the little +girls made such a fuss of, he, I say, appeared of a sudden right in the +path before us, and, holding up a lantern warningly, he hailed us with +a word which told us that he was our friend--the very last I would have +named for that in all the island. + +"Jasper Begg," cried he, in a voice that I'd have known for a +Frenchman's anywhere, "follow Clair-de-Lune--follow--follow!" + +He turned to the bushes behind him, and, seeming to dive between them, +we found him, when we followed, flat on his stomach, the lantern out, +and he running like a dog up a winding path before him. He was leading +us to the heights, I said; and when I remembered the great bare peaks +and steeple-like rocks, upstanding black and gloomy under the starry +sky, I began to believe that this wild man was right and that in the +hills our safety lay. + +But of that we had yet to learn, and for all we knew to the contrary it +might have been a trap. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE BIRD'S NEST IN THE HILLS + +There had been a great sound of "halloaing" and firing in the woods +when we raced through them for our lives; but it was all still and cold +on the mountain-side, and you could hear even a stone falling or the +drip of water as it oozed from the black rocks to the silent pools +below. What light there was came down through the craggy gorge; and it +was not until we had climbed up and up for a good half-hour or more +that we began to hear the sea-breeze whistling among the higher peaks +like wild music which the spirits might have made. As for the path +itself, it was oftentimes but a ledge against the wall of some sheer +height; and none, I think, but seamen could have followed it, surely. +Even I remembered where I was, and feared to look down sometimes; but +danger bridges many a perilous road, and what with the silence and the +fresh breezes and the thought that we might live through the night, +after all, I believe I could have hugged the wild old man who led us +upward so unflinchingly. + +I say that he went on unflinchingly, and surely no goat could have +climbed quicker than he did. Now standing over an abyss which made you +silly to look down into; now pulling himself up by bush or branch; at +other times scrambling over loose shale as though he had neither hands +nor knees to cut, he might well have scared the coolest who had met him +without warning on such a road. As for the four men he had saved from +the devils in the thickets below, I don't believe there was one of them +who didn't trust him from the first. The sea is a sure school for +knowing men and their humours. If this old Frenchman chose to put a +petticoat about his legs, and to wear a lion's mane down his back, we +liked him all the better for that. What we had seen of the young girls' +behaviour towards him made up for that which we did not know about him. +He must have had a tender place somewhere in his heart, or three young +women wouldn't fondle him like a dog. Like a ship out of the night had +he crossed our path; and his port must be our port, since we knew no +other. That's why, I say, we followed him over the dangerous road like +children follow a master. He was leading us to some good haven--I had +no doubt of it. The thing that remained to tell was, had we the +strength and the breath to reach it? + +You may imagine that it was no light thing to run such a race as we had +run, and to be asked to climb a mountain on the top of it. For my part, +I was so dead tired that every step up the hillside was like a knife in +my side; and as for Peter Bligh, I wonder he didn't go rolling down to +the rocks, so hard did he breathe and so heavy he was. But men will do +wonders to save their necks, and that is how it is that we went up and +still up, through the black ravine, to the blue peaks above. Aye, a +fearsome place we had come to now, with terrible gorges, and wild +shapes of rocks, like dead men's faces leering out of the darkness. The +wind howled with a human voice, the desolation of all the earth seemed +here. And yet the old man must push on--up, up, as though he would +touch the very sky. + +"The Lord be good to me," cried Peter Bligh, at last; "I can go no +farther if it's a million a mile! Oh, Mister Begg, for the love of God, +clap a rope about the wild man's legs." + +I pushed him on over a sloping peak of shale, and told him to hold his +tongue. + +"Will you lie in the pool, then? Where's your courage, man? Another +hundred yards and you shall stop to breathe. There's the old lion +himself waiting for us, and a big bill of thanks he has against us, to +be sure." + +I said no more, but climbed the steep to the Frenchman's side, and +found him waiting on the bank of that which seemed to be a great +cup-like hole, black and bottomless and the last place you'd have +picked for a camp on all the hillside. Dolly Venn was already there, +and Seth Barker, lying on the stones and panting like a great dog. +Old Clair-de-Lune alone was fresh and ready, and able in his broken +English to tell us what he wished. + +"Messieurs," he said, "speak not long but go down. I myself am shipmate +too. Ah, messieurs, you do wise to follow me. Down there no dog bark. I +show you the ladder, and all be well. To-morrow you speak your ship--go +home. For me, never again--I die here with the children, messieurs; +none shall come for old Clair-de-Lune, none, never at no time--but you, +you I save for the shipmates' sake----" + +It was odd talk, but no time to argue about it. I saw a ladder thrust +up out of the pit, and when the old man went down I followed without +hesitation. A lantern lighted in the darkness showed me a hollow nest +20 feet deep, perhaps, and carpeted over with big brown leaves and rugs +spread out; and in one corner that which was not unlike a bed. +Moreover, there was a little stove in the place and upon one side an +awning stretched against the rain; while cooking pots and pans and +other little things made it plain at a glance that this was the man's +own refuge in the mountains, and that here, at least, some part of his +life was spent. No further witness to his honesty could be asked for. +He had brought us to his own home. It was time to speak of thanks. + +"What you've done for us neither me nor mine will ever forget," said I, +warmly. "Here's a seaman's hand and a seaman's thanks. Should the day +come when we can do a like turn to you, be sure I'll be glad to hear of +it; and if it came that you had the mind to go aboard with us--aye, and +the young ladies, too--why, you'll find no one more willing than Jasper +Begg." + +We shook hands, and he set the lantern down upon the floor. Peter Bligh +was lying on his back now, crying to a calendar of saints to help him; +Seth Barker breathed like a winded horse; little Dolly Venn stood +against the wall of the pit with his head upon his arm, like a runner +after a race; the old Frenchman drew the ladder down and made all snug +as a ship is made for the night. + +"No one come here," he said, "no one find the way. You sleep, and +to-morrow you signal ship to go down where I show. For me and mine, +not so. This is my home; I am stranger in my own country. No one +remember Clair-de-Lune. Twelve years I live here--five times I sleep +the dreadful sleep which the island make--five times I live where +others die. Why go home, messieurs, if you not have any? I not go; +but you, you hasten because of the sleep." + +We all pricked up our ears at this curious saying, and Dolly Venn, he +whipped out a question before I could--indeed, he spoke the French +tongue very prettily; and for about five minutes the two of them went +at it hammer and tongs like two old women at charring. + +"What does he mean by sleep-time, lad?" I asked in between their +argument. "Why shouldn't a man sleep on Ken's Island? What nonsense +will he talk next?" + +I'd forgotten that the old man spoke English too, but he turned upon me +quickly to remind me of the fact. + +"No nonsense, monsieur, as many a one has found--no nonsense at all, +but very dreadful thing. Three, four time by the year it come; three, +four time it go. All men sleep if they not go away--you sleep if you +not go away. Ah, the good God send you to the ship before that day." + +He did his best to put it clearly, but he might as well have talked +Chinese. Dolly, who understood his lingo, made a brave attempt, but did +not get much farther. + +"He says that this island is called by the Japanese the Island of +Sleep. Two or three times every year there comes up from the marshes a +poisonous fog which sends you into a trance from which you don't +recover, sometimes for months. It can't be true, sir, and yet that's +what he says." + +"True or untrue, Dolly," said I, in a low voice, "we'll not give it the +chance. It's a fairy tale, of course, though it doesn't sound very +pretty when you hear it." + +"Nor is that music any more to my liking," exclaimed Peter Bligh, at +this point, meaning that we should listen to a couple of gunshots +fired, not in the woods far down below us, but somewhere, as it seemed, +on the sea-beach we had failed to make. + +"That would be Harry Doe warning us," cried I. + +"And meaning that it was dangerous for us to go down." + +"He'll have put off and saved the longboat, anyway. We'll hail him at +dawn, and see where the ship is." + +They heard me in silence. The tempest roaring in the peaks above that +weird, wild place; our knowledge of the men on the island below; the +old Frenchman's strange talk--no wonder that our eyes were wide open +and sleep far from them. + +Dawn, indeed, we waited for as those who are passing through the +terrible night. I think sometimes that, if we had known what was in +store for us, we should have prayed to God that we might not see the +day. + + +CHAPTER IX + +WE LOOK OUT FOR THE SOUTHERN CROSS + +The wind blew a hurricane all that night, and was still a full gale +when dawn broke. To say that no man among us slept is to put down a +very obvious thing. The roaring of the breakers on the reefs below us, +the showers of stones which the heights rained down, the dreadful +noises like wild human voices in the hills, drove sleep far from any +man's eyes. And more than that, there was the ship to think of. What +had become of the ship? Where did she lie? When should we see her +again? Aye, how often we asked each other that question when the blast +thundered and the lightning seemed to open the very heavens, and the +spindrift was blown clean over the heights to fall like a salt spray +upon our faces. Was it well with the ship or ill? Mister Jacob we knew +to be a good seaman, none better. With him the decision lay to run for +the open water or to risk everything for our sakes. If he made up his +mind that the safety of the Southern Cross demanded sea-room he would +take it, and let to-morrow look after itself. But I was anxious, none +the less; for, if the ship were gone, "God help us on Ken's Island," I +said. + +Now, the old Frenchman was the first to be moving when the day came, +and no sooner did all the higher peaks show us a glimmer of the +dawn-light--very beautiful and awesome to look upon--than he set up +the ladder and began to show us the way to the mountain-top. + +"You make signal; you fetch ship. Sailormen go down where landman +afraid. Little boat come in; shipmate go out. Old Clair-de-Lune he +know. Ah, messieurs, the wind is very dreadful to-day--what you call +harriken. Other day, all quite easy plan--but this day not so, great +water, all white--no go, no man." + +It was queer talk, and we might have laughed at him if we'd have +forgotten that he saved our lives last night and was waiting to save +them again this morning. But you don't laugh at a friend, talk as he +may, and for that matter we were all too excited to think of any such +thing, and we made haste to scramble up out of the pit and to follow +him to the heights where the truth should be known--the best of it or +the worst. For the path or its dangerous places we cared nothing now. +The rocks, upstanding all about us, shut in the view as some great +basin cut in the mountain's heart. You could see the black sky above +and the bottomless chasms below--but of the water nothing. Imagine, +then, how we raced for the summit: now up on our feet, now on all-fours +like dogs; now calling, man to man, to hasten; now saying that haste +wouldn't help us. And no wonder--no wonder our hearts beat high and our +hands were unsteady, for beyond the basin we should find the sea, and +the view might show us life or death. + +Old Clair-de-Lune was the first to be up, but I was close upon his +heels, and Dolly Venn not far behind me. Who spoke the first word I +don't rightly recollect; but I hadn't been on the heights more than ten +seconds when I knew why it was spoken, and what the true meaning of it +might be. + +The ship was gone! + +All the eyes in the wide world could not have found her on that angry +sea below us, or anywhere on the black and looming horizon beyond. The +night had taken her. The ship was gone. Hope as we might, speak up as +we might, tell each other this story or tell each other that--the one +sure fact remained that the Southern Cross had steamed away from Ken's +Island and left us to our fates. + +"He'll be running for sea-room, and come in when the gale falls," said +Peter Bligh, when we had stood all together a little while, as +crestfallen a lot as the Pacific Ocean could show that day; "trust +Mister Jacob to be cautious--he's a Scotchman, and would think first of +the ship. A precious lot of good his wages would do him if the ship +were down in sixty fathoms and he inside her!" + +"That's true," cried Dolly Venn, "though your poor old father didn't +say it, Mister Bligh. The ship's gone, but she'll come back again." And +then to me he said, very earnestly, "Oh, she must come back, captain." + +"Aye, lad," said I, "let her ride out the gale, and she'll put back +right enough. Mister Jacob isn't the one to desert friends. He'll have +learned from Harry Doe how it stands with us, and he'll just say, +''Bout ship'; that's what Mr. Jacob will say. I've no fear of it at +all. I'm only wondering what sort of shore-play is to keep us amused +until we sight the ship again." + +Well, they looked doleful enough; but not a man among them complained. +'Tis that way with seamen all the world over. Put them face to face +with death and some will laugh, and some will curse, and some talk +nonsense; but never a man wears his heart upon his sleeve or tells you +that he's afraid. And so it was that morning. They understood, I do +believe, as well as I did, what the consequences of the gale might be. +They were no fools, to imagine that a man could get from Ken's Island +to San Francisco in any cockleshell the beach might show him. But none +of them talked about it; none charged me with it; they just put their +hands in their pockets like brave fellows who had made up their minds +already to a very bad job; and be sure I was not the one to give a +different turn to it. The ship had gone; the Lord only knew when she +would come back again. It was not for me to be crying like a child for +that which neither I nor any man could make good. + +"Well," said I, "the ship's gone, sure enough, and hard words won't +bring her back again. What Mister Jacob can do for his friends, that, I +know, will be done. We must leave it to him and look after ourselves +far as this place is concerned. You won't forget that the crew +downstairs will be ready enough to ask after our health and spirits if +we give them a look in, and my word is for lying-to here until night +comes or the ship is sighted. It must be a matter of hours, anyway. The +gale's abating; a landsman would know as much as that." + +They said, "Aye, aye," to it, and Peter Bligh put in a word of his +humour. + +"The ship's gone, sure enough," said he; "but that's more than you can +say for my appetite! Bear or dog, I'm not particular, captain; but a +good steak of something would come handy, and the sooner the better. +'Twere enough to bring tears to a man's eyes to think of all the good +grub that's gone aboard with Harry Doe. Aye, 'tis a wonderful thing is +hunger, and the gift of the Lord along with good roast beef and pork +sausages. May-be you find yourself a bit peckish, captain?" + +I answered "Yes," though that was far from the truth, for what with +watching through the night and thinking about the ship and little Ruth +Bellenden's loneliness in this place of mystery, and far worse than +mystery, I'd forgotten all about meal-times, and never once had asked +myself where breakfast was to come from. But now the long faces of my +shipmates brought me to a remembrance of it, and when little Dolly Venn +cried, "Oh, captain, I am so hungry!" I began to realize what a parlous +plight we were in and what a roundabout road we must tread to get out +of it. Lucky for us, the old Frenchman, who had stood all this time +like a statue gazing out over the desolate sea, now bobbed up again, +good Samaritan that he was, and catching Master Dolly's complaint, he +spoke of breakfast on his own account. + +"Ah! you hungry, you thirst, messieurs; sailor-man always like +that. Your ship gone? Never mind, he shall come back again, to-day, +to-morrow, one, two, three day--pray God it be not longer, shipmate, +pray God!" + + +[Illustration: A picturesque old figure standing there.] + + +I thought him a fine, picturesque old figure, standing there on the +headland with his long hair streaming in the wind like a woman's, and +his brawny arms outstretched as though he would call the ship back to +us from the lonely ocean. Truth to tell, the place was one to fill any +man with awe. Far as the eye could see, the great waste was white with +the foam of its breaking seas; the headland itself stood up a thousand +feet like some mighty fortress commanding all the deep. Far below us +were the green valleys of the island, the woods we had raced through +last night; pastures with little white houses dotted about on them; the +bungalow itself wherein Ruth Bellenden lived. No picture from the +gallery of a high tower could have been more beautiful than that +strange land with the wild reefs lying about it and the rollers +cascading over them, and the black glens above which we stood, and the +great circle of the water like some measureless basin which the whole +earth bounded. I did not wonder that old Clair-de-Lune was silent when +he looked down upon a scene so grand. It seemed a crime to speak of +food and drink in such a place; and yet it was of these that Peter +Bligh must go on talking. + +"We'll do the prayin', shipmate, if you'll do the cookin'," cried he, +hopefully; "as for that--you speak like a wise man. 'Tis wonderful easy +to pray on a full stomach! There isn't a hunger or a thirst this side +of 'Frisco which I would not pray out of this same island if you'll be +pleased to bring 'em along. Weigh anchor, my man," says he, "and we'll +pipe down to dinner." + +Well, the old man laughed at his manner of putting it, and, without +further ado, we all went down to the bird's nest in the hollow, +and there we lighted a fire in the shelter of the pit, and old +Clair-de-Lune going away in search of rations, he returned presently +with victuals enough to feed a missionary, and more than that, as +pretty a trio to serve them as any seaman could hope for. For what +should happen but that the three young girls we'd seen yesterday in +the woods came romping up the hill together; and one bringing a great +can for the coffee, and another a basket of luscious fruit, and a +third some new-made bread and biscuit--they ran down the ladder to us +and began to talk in their pretty language, and now and then in +English which did not need much understanding. + +"I am Rosamunda," says one. + +And the second, she says: + +"I am Sylvia--Sylvia--Sylvia." + +And the third, she chimes in with: + +"I am Celestine, and I have brought you bread." + +And they all stood together, shy and natural, looking now at one, now +at another of us; but most often, I thought, at little Dolly Venn, who +had a way of making them understand which an older man might have +envied. + +"And wonderful pretty names, too, young ladies, though a seaman doesn't +often hear the likes of 'em," cries Peter Bligh, gallant enough, as all +Irishmen are. "They're all Pollies in our parts, and it do come easier +to the tongue and more convenient if you know many of 'em. Whereby did +you hitch up names like those?" asks he; "which, askin' your pardon, +seem to me to be took out of a picture-book." + +They giggled at this; but old Clair-de-Lune, who was mighty proud of +them, and justly, answered Peter Bligh as though the question were +serious. + +"Monsieur, in my own country I am artiste; I play the drama, the +comedy, the tragedy. Clair-de-Lune they call me at the theatre. To the +daughters of my master I give the artiste's name--why not? Better the +good name than the bad name! It was long year ago, shipmate; the Belle +Ile was wrecked on these reef; the maitre is drowned, but I and the +young ladies are save. We come, we go, none interfere. The Governor is +angry, we hide in the hill; the Governor laugh, we go down to the +valley. When the sleep-time comes, we go to the house under the sea: +you shall find him a dangerous time, but we hide far down. None +frighten Clair-de-Lune; they frighten of him. He become the father +according to his best." + +It was touching, I must say, to hear this old man's broken story; and +prettier still to see the affectionate eyes with which these little +girls watched every movement of one to whom, I am sure, they were +beholden for all that they got out of Ken's Island. For the rest, the +tale was plain enough. The father had been wrecked and drowned on the +sword-fish reef; the servant had saved the children and himself from +the ship, and his own natural cleverness had done the rest. No one +interfered with him, he said; and this was true. I verily believe that +the devils in the valley below believed that he and the children with +him were nothing more or less than spirits. + +I say his story was plain, and yet there was something in it which was +Greek to me. He had named a house under the sea, and what that meant, +or how any man could build such a house, lay beyond my understanding. I +should have asked a question about it there and then, and have sought +light on the matter if it hadn't been that the food was already cooked, +and, the others being mighty anxious, we sat down to steaming coffee +and broiled kid's flesh and good bread and sweet fruit, and I was very +willing to keep my curiosity. Once, it is true, the young girl who +called herself "Rosamunda" came and sat by my side and wished to talk +to me; but, prettily as she spoke our tongue, her measure of it was +limited, and we did not get very far, in spite of good intentions. + +"Do you like the island, do you like living here?" I asked her. + +She answered me with a doubting shake of her pretty head. + +"In the sun-months, yes, I like it; but not in the sleep-time. You will +go away before the sleep-time, monsieur?" + +"Really, young lady," said I, "it seems to me that it depends upon +Mister Jacob and the ship. But, supposing I cannot go away--what then? +How does the sleep-time concern me?" + +"You must not stay," she said, quickly; "for us it is different; we--we +live in the house under the sea, but no stranger may live there--the +Governor would not permit it. On the island all things sleep. If you do +not go to the house under the sea--ah, monsieur, but you will sail +away, you will sail in your ship." + +She put it very childishly, the same cock-and-bull story that the old +Frenchman had been at last night. What to make of it, I knew no more +than the dead. Here we seemed to be on as fair an island as the whole +Pacific might show you; and yet these odd folk could talk of sun-months +and sleep-time, and other stuff which might have been written in a +fairy-book. Do you wonder that I laughed at them and treated it as any +sane man, not given to fables, would have done? + +"Sleep-time or sun-time, I'll be away before then, please God, +mademoiselle," said I; "do not fear for Jasper Begg, who was always +fond of his bed and won't grumble overmuch, be it sleep or waking. For +the rest, we'll take our chance, as others must do here, I fancy. Mme. +Czerny, for instance--do you know Mme. Czerny, young lady?" + +She nodded her head and said that she did. + +"Yes, yes, we know Mme. Czerny; she is the Governor's wife. I think she +is unhappy, Monsieur Captain. In the sun-months I see her, but in the +sleep-time she lives in the house under the sea, and no one knows. You +are her friend, perhaps; you would know that she is unhappy?" + +I knew it well enough; but I wished to lead this little talker on, and +so I said I did not. + +"Unhappy, young lady! Why should she be unhappy?" + +I asked it naturally, as though I was very surprised; but you could not +deceive Mlle. Rosamunda. A more artful little witch never played at +fairies in a wood. + +"If she is not unhappy, why have you come here, Monsieur Captain? You +come to help her--oh, I know! And you say that you do not." + +"Perhaps so, young lady; perhaps I do--that I will tell you by-and-bye. +But I am curious about the Governor. What sort of a man is he, and +where does he happen to be at this particular moment? I'm sure you +could say something nice about him if you tried." + + + +[Illustration: She looked at me with her big, questioning eyes.] + + +She looked at me with her big, questioning eyes, as though the question +were but half understood. Presently she said: + +"You laugh at me. M. Czerny has gone away to the world. Of course he +would go. He has gone in the ship. What shall I tell you about him? +That he is kind, cruel; that we love him, hate him? Every one knows +that; every one has told you. He is the Governor and we are his people +who must obey: When he comes back he will ask you to obey him too, and +you must say 'yes.' That will be at the sleep-time: eight, nine, ten +days. But why do you ask, Monsieur Captain? Has not Mme. Czerny said it +because you are her friend? I know that you tease me. Sailors love to +tease little girls, and you are no better than the other ones." + +She cast down her eyes at this, and looked for all the world the taking +little coquette that she was. Her odd speech told me something, enough +at least to put a hundred questions into my head and as many useless +answers. The Governor was away. The island alternately hated and feared +him. The sleep-time, whatever it was, might be looked for in ten days' +time. We must be away and on board the ship by then or something +dreadful would happen to us. Ruth Bellenden's unhappiness was known +even to these little girls, and they surmised, as the others had +surmised, that we were on shore to help her. For the rest, the men on +Ken's Island, I imagined, would hunt us night and day until we were +taken. Nor was I mistaken in that. We'd scarcely finished our meal when +there was the sound of a gunshot far down in the valley, and, old +Clair-de-Lune jumping up at the report, we were all on our feet in an +instant to speak of the danger. + +"Halloa, popguns," cries Peter Bligh, in his Irish way; "what for now +would any man be firing popguns at this time of the morning?" + +"It's to ask after your health, Peter," said I, when we'd listened +awhile, "what else should a man be firing after, unless he takes you +for a rabbit? Will you run down and thank him kindly?" + +He hitched up his breeches and pulled out his briar-pipe. + +"If this is track-running, take down my number. I'm through with it, +gentlemen, being not so young as I was." + +A gunshot, fired out at sea, cut short his talk. Old Clair-de-Lune, +nipping up the ladder, bade us follow him, while to the girls he cried, +"_Allez-vous en!_" All our quiet talk and content were gone in an +instant. I never answered little Dolly Venn when he asked me, "Do you +think there's danger, sir?" but, running up the hill after the +Frenchman, I helped him to carry the ladder we'd dragged out of the +pit, for I knew he'd need of it. + +"What is it, Clair-de-Lune? Why are they firing?" I asked him, as he +ran. + +"Governor home," was his answer--"Governor home. Great danger, +_capitaine_." + + +CHAPTER X + +WE ARE SURELY CAGED ON KEN'S ISLAND + +We ran up the hill, I say, as men who raced for their lives. The little +girls, snatching up their bags and baskets, exchanged a quick word with +Clair-de-Lune and then hurried off towards the bungalow. Our own path +lay over difficult rocks and steep slopes and chasms fearful to see. Of +these our leader made nothing, and we went on, up and up, until at last +the road carried us right round the highest peak, on whose very walls +we walked like chamois on a mountain crag. It was here, on a narrow +ledge high above the sea, that the Frenchman stopped for the first +time. + +"Shipmates," said he, when he had got his breath, "journey done, all +finish, you safe here, you rest. I go down to see Governor; but come +back again, come back again, messieurs, with bread and meat." + +Well, I don't think one of us had the voice to answer him. The place +itself--the ledge above the sea and the little low, cramped cave behind +it--occupied all our thoughts. Here, in truth, a man might lie safely +enough--yet in what a situation. The very door of the house opened upon +an abyss a thousand feet above the rocks below. We had the sea before +our eyes, the sea beneath us, the sea for our distant horizon. Day and +night the breakers thundered on the sword-fish reef; the wind moaned in +the mighty eaves of those tremendous crags. We were like men placed +suddenly on a steeple's side and left there to live or fall, as fortune +went. + +I tell you this, plain and straightforwardly, because five days passed +on that awful ledge, and, except for one day, there is nothing but a +seaman's talk of question and answer and idle hope to set down on these +pages. If every hour of the day found one of us with eyes which yearned +for our lost ship, with hearts grown heavy in waiting and +disappointment--that was his affair, and of no concern to others. Be +sure we didn't confess, one to the other, the thought in our heads or +the future we must live through. We had come to Ken's Island to help +little Ruth Bellenden, and this fearful plight was the result of +it--ship gone, the island full of devils that would have cut our +throats for nothing and thought themselves well paid--no knowledge, +not the smallest, of any way of escape--food short and likely to be +shorter. Friends we had, true friends. Night and morning Clair-de-Lune +and the little girls found their way up to us with bread and meat and +the news that was passing. It was on the fifth day that they came no +more, and I, at least, knew that they would never come again. + +"Lads," I said, "one of two things has happened. Either they've been +watched and followed, or the time of which they made mention has come. +I trust the old Frenchman as I would trust my own brother. He knows how +it will fare with five men left on a lonely rock without food or drink. +If he doesn't come up here today, it's because he daren't come or +because he's ordered elsewhere." + +They turned it over in their minds, and Dolly Venn spoke next. + +"Last night in my watch I heard a bell ringing, sir. At first I thought +it was fancy--the sea beating on the rocks or the wind moaning in the +hills; but I got the ladder and went down the hill, and then I heard it +distinctly, and saw lights burning brightly on the reef far out to the +north. There were boats passing, I'm sure, and what was so wonderful +that I didn't like to speak about it, the whole of the sea about the +reef shone yellow as though a great lantern were burning far down below +its heart. I could make out the figures of men walking on the rocks, +and when the moon shone the figures disappeared as though they went +straight down into the solid rock. You may not believe it, captain, +but I'm quite sure of what I say, and if Clair-de-Lune does not come +to-night, I ask you to go down the hillside with me and to see for +yourself." + +Now, the lad spoke in a kind of wonder-dream, and knowing how far from +his true nature such a thing was, it did not surprise me that the +others listened to him with that ready ear which seamen are quick to +lend to any fairy tale. Superstitious they were, or sailors they never +would have been; and here was the very stuff to set them all ears, like +children about a bogey. Nor will I deny that Dolly Venn's tale was +marvellous enough to make a fable. Had it been told to me under any +other circumstances, my reply would have been: "Dolly, my lad, since +when have you taken to sleep-walking?" But I said nothing of the kind, +for I had that in my pocket which told me it was true; and what I knew +I deemed it right that the others should know also. + +"When a man sees something which strikes him as extraordinary," said I, +"he must first ask himself if it is Nature or otherwise. There are lots +of things in this world beyond our experience, but true for all that. +Ken's Island may be rated as one of them. The old Frenchman speaks of a +sleep-time and a sun-time. Lads, I do believe he tells the truth. If +you ask me why--well, the why is here, in these papers Ruth Bellenden +gave me five days ago." + +I took the packet from my pocket, and turned the pages of them again as +I had turned them--aye, fifty times--in the days which had passed. +Thumbed and dirty as they were (for a seaman's pocket isn't lined with +silk); thumbed and dirty, I say, and crumpled out of shape, they were +the first bit of Ruth Bellenden's writing that ever I called my own, +and precious to me beyond any book. + +"Yes," I went on, "this is the story of Ken's Island, and Ruth +Bellenden wrote it. Ten months almost from this day she landed here. +What has passed between Edmond Czerny and her in that time God alone +knows! She isn't one to make complaint, be sure of it. She has suffered +much, as a good woman always must suffer when she is linked to a bad +man. If these papers do not say so plainly, they say it by implication. +And, concerning that, I'll ask you a question. What is Edmond Czerny +here for? The answer's in a word. He is here for the money he gets out +of the wreckage of ships!" + +It was no great surprise to them, I venture, though surprise I meant it +to be. They had guessed something the night we came ashore, and seamen +aren't as stupid as some take them for. Nevertheless, they picked up +their ears at my words, and Peter Bligh, filling his pipe, slowly, +said, after a bit: + +"Yes, it wouldn't be for parlour games, captain!" + +The others were too curious to put in their word, and so I went on: + +"He's here for wreckage and the money it brings him. I'll leave it to +you to say what's done to those that sailed the ships. There are words +in this paper which make a man's blood run cold. If they are to be +repeated, they shall be spoken where Edmond Czerny can hear them, +and those that judge him. What we are concerned about at this moment +is Ken's Island and its story. You've heard the old Frenchman, +Clair-de-Lune, speak of sleep-time and sun-time. As God is in heaven, +he spoke the truth!" + +They none of them answered me. Down below us the sea shimmered in the +morning light. We sat on a ledge a thousand feet above it, and, save +for the lapping waves on the reef, not a sound of life, not even a bird +on the wing, came nigh us. You could have heard a pin drop when I went +on. + +"Sleep-time and sun-time, is it fable or truth? Ruth Bellenden says its +truth. I'll read you her words----" + +Peter Bligh said, "Ah," and struck a match. Seth Barker, the carpenter, +sat for all the world like a child, with his great mouth wide open and +his eyes full of wonder. Dolly Venn was curled up at my feet like a +dog. I opened the papers and began to read to them: + +"On the 14th of August, three weeks after the ship brought us to Ken's +Island, I was awakened at four o'clock in the morning by an alarm-bell +ringing somewhere in the island. The old servant, she whom they called +'Mother Meg,' came into my room in great haste to tell me to get up. +When I was dressed my husband entered and laughingly said that we must +go on board the yacht at once. I was perplexed and a little cross about +it; but when we were rowed out to the ship, I found that all the white +people were leaving the island in boats and being rowed to those rocks +which lie upon the northward side. Edmond tells me that there are +dangerous seasons in this beautiful place, when the whole island is +unfit for human habitation and all must leave it, sometimes for a week, +sometimes for a month." + +I put the paper down and turned another page of it. + +"That, you see," said I, "is written on the 14th of August, before she +knew the true story or what the dangerous time might mean. Passing on, +I find another entry on September 21st, and that makes it clearer: + +"There is here a wonderful place they call 'The House Under the Sea.' +It is built for those who cannot escape the sleep-time otherwise. I am +to go there when my husband sails for Europe. I have asked to accompany +him and am refused. There are less delicate ways of reminding a woman +that she has lost her liberty. + +"November 13th.--I have again asked Edmond to permit me to accompany +him to London. He answers that he has his reasons. There is a way of +speaking to a woman she can never forget. My husband spoke in that way +this morning. + +"December 12th.--I know Edmond's secret, and he knows that I know it! +Shall I tell it to the winds and the waves? Who else will listen? Let +me ask of myself courage. I can neither think nor act to-night. + +"December 25th.--Christmas Day! I am alone. A year ago--but what shall +it profit to remember a year ago? I am in a prison-house beneath the +sea, and the waves beat against my windows with their moaning cry, +'Never, never again--never again!' At night, when the tide has fallen, +I open my window and send a message to the sea. Will any hear it? I +dare not hope. + +"January 1st.--My husband has returned from his cruise. He is to go to +Europe to see after my affairs. Will he tell them, I wonder, that Ruth +Bellenden is dead? + +"January 8th.--The sleep-time has now lasted for nine weeks. They tell +me that vapours rise up from the land and lie above it like a cloud. +Some think they come from the great poppies which grow in the marshy +fields of the lowlands; others say from the dark pools in the gorges of +the hills. However it may be, those that remain on the island fall into +a trance while the vapour is there. A strange thing! Some never wake +from it; some lose their senses; the negroes alone seem able to live +through it. The vapours arise quite suddenly; we ring the alarm-bell to +send the people to the ships. + +"January 15th.--We returned to the island to-day. How blind and selfish +some people are! I do believe that Aunt Rachel is content to live on +this dreadful place. She is infatuated with Edmond. 'I am anchored +securely in a home: she says. 'The house under the sea is a young man's +romantic fancy.' The rest is meaningless to her--a man's whim. 'I +cannot dissipate my fortune on Ken's Island.' Aunt Rachel was always a +miser. + +"February 2d.--This morning Edmond came to me for that which he calls +'an understanding.' His affection distresses me. Oh, it might all be so +different if I would but say 'yes.' And what prevents me--the voices I +have heard on the reef; or is it because I know--I know? + +"February 9th.--I am on the island again and the sun is shining. What I +have suffered none shall ever know. I prefer Edmond Czerny's anger to +his love. We understand each other now. + +"February 21st.--My message to the sea remains unanswered. Will it be +forever? + +"March 3d.--If Jasper Begg should come to me, how would they receive +him? How could he help me? I do not know--and yet my woman's heart says +'Come!' + +"April 4th.--There has been a short recurrence of the sleep-time. A +ship struck upon the reef, and the crew rowed ashore to the island. I +saw them last night in the moonlight, from my windows. They fell one by +one at the border of the wood and slept. You could count their bodies +in the clear white light. I tried to shut the sight from my eyes, but +it followed me to my bed-room! + +"May 3d.--I whispered my message to the sea again, but am alone--God +knows how much alone!" + +I folded up the paper and looked at the others. Peter Bligh's pipe had +gone out and lay idle in his hand. Dolly Venn was still curled at my +feet. Seth Barker I do not believe had budged an inch the whole time I +was reading. The story gripped them like a vice--and who shall wonder +at that? For, mark you, it might yet be our story. + +"Peter," said I, "you have heard what Mme. Czerny says, and you know +now as much as I do. I am waiting for your notion." + +He picked up his pipe and began to fill it again. + +"Captain," says he, "what notions can I have which wouldn't be in any +sane head? This island's a death-trap, and the sooner we're off it the +better for our healths. What's happened to the ship, the Lord only +knows! At a guess I would say that an accident's overtook her. Why +should a man leave his shipmates if it isn't by an accident? Mister +Jacob is not the one to go psalm-singing when he knows we're short of +victuals and cooped up here like rats in a trap! Not he, as I'm a +living man! Then an accident's overtook him; he doesn't come, because +he can't come, which, as my old father used to say, was the best of +reasons. Putting two and two together, I should speak for sailing away +without him, which is plain reason anyway." + +"We walking on the sea, the likes of which the parson talks about?" +chimed in Seth Barker. + +"If you haven't got a boat," says Dolly Venn, "I don't see how you are +to make one out of seaweed! Perhaps Mister Jacob will come back +tomorrow." + +"And perhaps we sha'n't be hungry before that same time!" added Peter +Bligh; "aye, that's it, captain, where's the dinner to come from?" + +I thought upon it a minute, and then I said to them: + +"If Dolly Venn heard a bell ringing last night that's the danger-bell +of which Miss Ruth speaks. We cannot go down to the island, for doesn't +she say it's death to be caught there? We cannot stop up here or we +shall die of hunger. If there's a man among you that can point to a +middle course, I shall be glad to hear him. We have got to do +something, lads, that's sure!" + +They stared at me wonderingly; none of them could answer it. We were +between the devil and the deep sea, and in our hearts I think we began +to say that if the ship did not come before many hours had passed, four +of her crew, at least, would cease to care whether she came or stopped. + + +CHAPTER XI + +LIGHTS UNDER THE SEA + +The day fell powerfully hot, with scarce a breath of wind and a Pacific +sun beating fiercely on the barren rocks. What shelter was to be had we +got in the low cave behind the platform; but our eyes were rarely +turned away from the sea, and many a time we asked each other what kept +Clair-de-Lune or why the ship was missing. That the old man had some +good reason I made certain from the beginning; but the ship was a +greater matter. Either she was powerless to help us or Mister Jacob had +mistaken his orders. I knew not what to think. It was enough to be +trapped there on that bit of a rock and to tell each other that, +sleep-time or sun-time, we should be dead men if no help came to us. + +"Belike the Frenchman's took with the fog and is doing a bit of a doze +on his own account," said Peter Bligh, gloomily, towards three bells in +the afternoon watch--and little enough that wasn't gloomy he'd spoken +that day. "Well, sleep won't fill my canteen anyway! I could manage a +rump-steak, thank you, captain, and not particular about the onions!" + +They laughed at his notion of it, and Seth Barker sympathetically +pegged his belt up one. I was more sorry for little Dolly Venn than any +of them, though his pluck was wonderful to see. + +"Are you hungry, Dolly, lad?" I asked him, by-and-bye. Foolish question +that it was, he answered me with a boy's bright laugh and something +which could make light of it: + +"It's good for the constitution to fast, sir," he said, bravely; "our +curate used to tell us so when I went to church. We shall all be +saints--and Mr. Peter will have a halo if this goes on long enough!" + +Now, Peter Bligh didn't take to that notion at all, and he called out, +savagely: + +"To blazes with your halos! Is it Christianity to rob an honest man of +his victuals? Give me a round of top-side and leave me out of the +stained-glass window! I'm not taking any, lad--my features isn't +regular, as my poor----" + +"Peter, Peter," said I, bringing him to, "so it's top-side to-day? +It was duck and green peas yesterday, Peter; but it won't be that +to-night, not by a long way!" + +"If we sit on this rock long enough," chimed in Seth Barker, who was +over-patient for his size, "some on us will be done like a rasher. I +wouldn't make any complaint, captain; but I take leave to say it isn't +wisdom." + +I had meant to say as much myself, but Peter Bligh was in before me, +and so I let him speak. + +"Fog or no fog," cries he, "I'm for the shore presently, and that's +sure and certain. It ain't no handsome vulture that I'm going to feed +anyway! I don't doubt that you'll come with me, captain. Why, you could +play 'God save the King' on me and hear every note! I'm a toonful drum, +that's what I am----" + +"Be what you like, but don't ask us to dance to your music," said I, +perhaps a little nettled; "as for going down, of course we shall, +Peter. Do you suppose I'm the one to die up here like a rat in a trap? +Not so, I do assure you. Give me twilight and a clear road, and I'll +show you the way quick enough!" + +I could see that they were pleased, and Dolly Venn spoke up for them. + +"You won't go alone, sir?" asked he. + +"Indeed, and I shall, Dolly, and come back the same way. Don't you fear +for me, my lad," said I; "I've been in a fog before in my life, and out +of it, too, though I never loved them overmuch. If there's danger down +below, one man has eyes enough to see it. It would be a mortal waste +and pity that four should pay what one can give. But I won't forget +that you are hungry, and if there's roast duck about, Peter Bligh shall +have a wing, I promise him." + +Well, they all sat up at this; and Peter Bligh, very solemnly crossing +his fingers after the Italian fashion, swore, as seamen will, that we'd +all go together, good luck or bad, the devil or the deep sea. Seth +Barker was no less determined upon it; and as for Dolly Venn, I believe +he'd have cried like a child if he'd been left behind. In the end I +gave way to them, and it was agreed that we should all set out +together, for better or worse, when the right time came. + +"Your way, lads, not mine," said I; and pleased, too, at their +affection. "As you wish it, so shall it be; and that being agreed upon +I'll trouble Peter Bligh for his tobacco, for mine's low. We'll dine +this night, fog or no fog. 'Twould want to be something sulphurous, I'm +thinking, to put Peter off his grub. Aye, Peter, isn't that so? What +would you say now to an Irish stew with a bit of bacon in it, and a +glass of whisky to wash it down? Would fogs turn you back?" + +"No, nor Saint Patrick himself, with a shillelagh in his hand. I'm +mortal empty, captain; and no man's more willing to leave this same +bird's nest though he had all the sulphur out of Vesuvius on his +diagram! We'll go down at sunset, by your leave, and God send us safely +back again!" + +The others echoed my "Amen," and for an hour or more we all sat dozing +in the heat of the angry day. Once, I think towards seven bells of the +watch, Dolly Venn pointed out the funnels of a steamer on the northern +horizon; but the loom of the smoke was soon lost, and from that time +until six o'clock of the afternoon I do not think twenty words were to +be heard on the rock. We were just waiting, waiting, like weary men who +have a big work to do and are anxious to do it; and no sooner had the +sun gone down and a fresh breeze of night begun to blow, than we jumped +to our feet and told each other that the time had come. + +"Do you, Peter, take the ladder and let Seth Barker steady the end of +it," said I. "The road's tricky enough, and precious little dinner +you'll get at the bottom of a thousand-foot chasm! If there's men on +the island, we shall know that soon enough. They cannot do more than +murder us, and murder has merits when starvation's set against it. Come +on, my lads," said I, "and keep a weather-eye open." + +This I said, and willingly they heard me; no gladder party ever went +down a hillside than we four, whom hunger drove on and thirst made +brave. Dangerous places, which we should have crossed with wary feet at +any other time, now found us reckless and hasty. + +We bridged the chasms with the ladder, and slid down it as though it +had been a rope. The bird's nest, where five days ago we'd first found +shelter from the islanders, detained us now no longer than would +suffice for thirsty men to bathe their faces and their hands in the +brook which gushed out from the hillside, and to drink a draught which +they remembered to their dying day. Aye, refreshing it was, more than +words can tell, and such strength it gave us that, if there had been a +hundred men on the mountain path; I do believe our steps would still +have been set for the bungalow. For we were about to learn the truth. +Curiosity is a good wind, even when you're hungry. + +Now, there was a place on the headland, three hundred feet above the +valley, perhaps, whereat the hill path turned and, for the first time, +the island was plainly to be seen. Here at this place we stopped all +together and began to spy out the woods through which we had raced for +our lives six days ago. The sun had but just set then, and, short as +the twilight is in these parts, there was enough of it for us to make a +good observation and to be sure of many things. What I think struck us +all at the first was the absence of any fog such as we had heard about +both from the Frenchman and Ruth Bellenden's diary. A bluish vapour, it +is true, appeared to steam up from the woods and to loom in hazy clouds +above the lower marshland. But of fog in the proper sense there was not +a trace; and although I began to find the air a little heavy to +breathe, and a curious stupidness, for which I could not altogether +account, troubled my head, nevertheless I made sure that the story of +sleep-time was, in the main, a piece of nonsense and that we should +soon prove it to be so. Nor were the others behind me in this. + +"It is no fog I see which would slow me down a knot!" said Peter Bligh, +when the island came into view; "to think that a man should go without +his dinner for yon peat smoke! Surely, captain, they are simple in +these parts and easy at the bogeys. 'Twill be roast duck, after +all--and, may-be, the sage thrown in!" + +This was all well said, but Dolly Venn, quicker with his eyes, remarked +a stranger fact. + +"There's no one about, sir, that I can see," said he, wisely, "and no +lights in the houses either. I wonder where all the people are? It's +curious that we shouldn't see some one." + +He put it as a kind of question; but before I could answer him Seth +Barker chimed in with his deep voice, and pointed towards the distant +reef: + +"They've lit up the sea, that's what they've done," said he. + +"By thunder, they have!" cries Peter Bligh, in his astonishment; "and +generous about it, too. Saw any one such a thing as that?" + +He indicated the distant reef, which seemed, as I bear witness, ablaze +with lights. And not only the reef, mark you, but the sea about it, a +cable's length, it may be, to the north and the south, shone like a +pool of fire, yellow and golden, and sometimes with a rare and +beautiful green light when the darkness deepened. Such a spectacle I +shall never see again if I sail a thousand ships! That luscious green +of the rolling seas, the spindrift tossed in crystals of light, foam +running on the rocks, but foam like the water of jewels, a dazzling +radiance--aye, a very carpet of quivering gold. Of this had they made +the northern channel. How it was done, what cleverness worked it, it +needed greater brains than mine to say. I was for all the world like a +man struck dumb with the beauty of something which pleases and awes him +in the same breath. + +"Lights under the sea, and people living there! It's enough to make a +man doubt his senses," said I. "And yet the thing's true, lads: we're +sane men and waking; it isn't a story-book. You can prove it for +yourselves." + +"Aye, and men going in and out like landsmen to their houses," cried +Peter, almost breathless; "it's a fearsome sight, captain, a fearsome +sight, upon my word." + +The rest of us said nothing. We were just a little frightened group +that stared open-mouthed upon a seeming miracle. If we regarded the +things we saw with a seaman's reverence, let no one make complaint of +that. The spectacle was one to awe any man; nor might we forget that +those who appeared to live below the sea lived there, as Ruth Bellenden +had told us, because the island was a death-trap. We were in the trap +and none to show us the road out. + +"Peter," said I, suddenly, for I wished to turn their thoughts away +from it, "are you forgetting it's dinner-time?" + +"I clean forgot, captain, by all that's holy," said he. + +"And not feeling very hungry, either," exclaims Dolly Venn, who had +begun to cough in the steaming vapour, which we laughed at. I was +anxious about the lad already, and it didn't comfort me to hear Seth +Barker breathing like an ox and telling me that it should be clearer in +the valley. + +I said, "Yes, it might be," and all together we began to march again. A +sharp walk carried us from the hill path through the tangle of bushes +into the woods wherefrom danger first had come to us. The night had set +in by this time and a clear moon was showing in the sky. Rare and +beautiful, I must say, that moonlight was, shimmering through the hazy +blue vapour and coming down almost as a carpet of violet between the +broad green leaves. No scene that I have witnessed upon the stage of a +theatre was more pleasing to my eyes than that silent forest with its +lawns of grass and its patches of wonderful, fantastic light, and its +strange silence, and the loneliness of which it seemed to speak. So +awesome was it that I do not wonder we went a considerable way in +silence. We were afraid, perhaps, to tell each other what we thought. +When Peter Bligh cried out at last, we started at the sound of his +voice as though a stranger hailed us. + +"Yonder," cried he, in a voice grown deep and husky; "yonder, captain, +what do you make of that? Is it living men or dead, or do my eyes +deceive me?" + +I stopped short at his words and the others halted with me. We were in +a deep glen by this time; and all the surrounding woodland was shut +from our sight. Great trees spread their branches like a canopy above +us; the grass was soft and downy to the feet; the bewitching violet +light gave unnatural yet wonderful colours to the flowery bushes about +us. No fairy glen could have showed a heart more wonderful; and yet, I +say, we four stood on the borders of it, with white faces and blinking +eyes, and thoughts which none would change even with his own brother. + +Why did he do it, you ask? Ah, I'll tell you why. + +There were three men sleeping in the glen, and the face of one was +plainly to be seen. He lay upon his back, his hands clenched, his limbs +stiff, his eyes wide open as though some fearsome apparition had come +to him and was not to be passed by. Of the others, one had dropped face +downward and lay huddled up at the tree's foot; but the third was in a +natural attitude and I do believe that he was dead. For a long time we +stood there watching them--for he whose eyes were to be seen uttered +every now and then a dismal cry in his sleep, and the second began to +talk like a man in a delirium. Spanish he spoke, and that is a tongue I +do not understand. But the words told of agony if ever words did, and I +turned away from the scene at last as a man who couldn't bear to hear +them. + +"They're sleeping," said I, "and little good to wake them, if Miss Ruth +speaks true. Come on, lads--the shore's our road and short's the time +to get there." + +Peter Bligh reeled dizzily in his walk and began to talk +incoherently--a thing I had never heard him do before in all his life. + +"They're sleeping, aye, and what's the waking to be? Is it the madhouse +or the ground? She spoke of the madhouse, and who'll deny, with reason? +There was air for a man in the heights and no parlour plants. I walked +forty miles to Cardiff Fair and didn't dance like this. Take bread when +you've no meat, and, by thunder, I'll fill your glasses." + +Well, he gabbled on so, and not one of us gave him a hearing. I had my +arm linked in Dolly Venn's, for he was weak and hysterical, and I +feared he'd go under. Seth Barker, a strong man always, crashed through +the underwood like an elephant stampeding. The woods, I said, could +show us no more awesome sight than we had happed upon in the hollow; +but there I was wrong, for we hadn't tracked a quarter of a mile when +we stumbled suddenly upon the gardens of the bungalow, and there, lying +all together, were five young girls I judged to be natives, for they +had the shape of Pacific Islanders, and, seen in that strange light, +were as handsome and taking as European women. Asleep they were, you +couldn't doubt it; but, unlike the white men, they lay so still that +they might have been dead, while nothing but their smiling faces told +of life and breathing. They, at least, did not appear to suffer, and +that was something for our consolation. + +"Look yonder, Dolly lad, and 'tell me what you see," said I, though, +truth to tell, every word spoken was like a knife through my chest; +"three young women sleeping as though they were in their own beds. +Isn't that a sight to keep a man up? If they can go through with it, +why not we--great men that have the sea's good health in them? Bear up, +my boy, well find a haven presently." + +I didn't believe it, that goes without saying, nor, for that matter, +did he. But wild horses wouldn't have dragged the truth from him. He +was always a rare plucky one, was little Dolly Venn, and he behaved as +such that night. + +"Better leave me? sir," he said; "I'm dead weight in the boat. Do you +go to the beach, and perhaps the ship will come back. You've been +very kind to me, Mister Begg, so kind, and now it's 'good-bye,' just +'good-bye' and a long good-night." + +"Aye," said I, "and a sharp appetite for breakfast in the morning. Did +you ever hear that I was a bit of a strong man, Dolly? Well, you see, I +can pick you up as though you were a feather, and now that I have got +you into my arms I'm going to carry you--why, where do you think?--into +Ruth Bellenden's house, of course." + +He said nothing, but lay in my arms like a child. Peter Bligh had +fallen headlong by the gate of the bungalow, and Seth Barker was about +raving. I had trouble to make him understand my words; but he took them +at last and did as I told him. + +"Open that door--with the bludgeon if you can't do it otherwise. But +open it, man, open it!" + +He drew himself up erect and dealt a blow upon the door which might +have brought down a factory chimney. I ran into the house with Dolly +Venn in my arms, and as I ran I called to Barker, for God's sake, to +help Mister Bligh. There would be no one in the house, I said, and +nothing to be got by whispers. We ran a race with death, and for the +moment had turned the corner before him. + +"Get Mister Bligh to the house and bar up the door after you. The fog +will fill it in five minutes, and what then? Do you hear me, Seth +Barker--do you hear me?" + +I asked the question plainly enough; but it was not Seth Barker who +replied to it. You shall judge of my feelings when a bright light +flashed suddenly in my face and a pleasant voice, coming out of +nowhere, said, quite civilly: + +"The door, by all means, if you have any; regard for your lives or +mine!" + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE DANCING MADNESS + +It was a great surprise to me that here should have been one of Edmond +Czerny's men left in the bungalow; and when I heard his voice I stood +for a full minute, uncertain whether to go on or to draw back. The +light of the lamp was very bright; I had Dolly Venn in my arms, +remember, and it was all Seth Barker's work to bring in Mister Bligh, +so that no one will wonder at my hesitation, or the questions I put to +myself as to how many men were in the house with the stranger, or what +business kept him there when the island was a death-trap. These +questions, however, the man answered for himself before many minutes +had passed; and, moreover, a seaman's instinct seemed to tell me that +he was a friend. + +"Walk right in here," he cried, opening a door behind him and showing +me a room I had not entered when I visited Mme. Czerny. "Walk right in +and don't gather daisies on the way. You've been on a pleasure cruise +in the fog, I suppose--well, that's a sailor all the time--just all the +time." + +He opened the door, I say, upon this, and when we had followed him into +the room he shut it as quickly. It was not a very large apartment, but +I noticed at once that the windows were blocked and curtained, and that +half the space was lumbered up with great machines which seemed made up +of glass bowls and jars; while a flame of gas was roaring out of an +iron tube, and a current of delicious fresh air blowing upon our faces. +Whatever we were in for, whether friendship or the other thing, a man +could breathe here, and that was something to be thankful for. + +"We were caught in the woods and ran for it," said I, thinking in time +to make my explanations; "it may have been a fool's errand, but it has +brought us to a wise man's door. You know what the lad's trouble is, or +you wouldn't be in this house, sir. I'll thank you for any kindness to +him." + +He turned a pleasant face towards me and bade me lay Dolly on the sofa +near the flaming burner. Peter Bligh was sitting on a chair, swearing, +I fear, as much as he was coughing. Seth Barker, who had the lungs of a +bull, looked as though he had found good grass. The fog wasn't made, I +do believe, which would harm him. As for the doctor himself, he seemed +like a perplexed man who has time for one smile and no more. + +"The lad will be all right in five minutes," said he, seriously; "there +is air enough here, we being five men, for," he appeared to pause, and +then he added, "for just three days. After that--why, yes, we'll begin +to think after that." + +I did not know what to say to him, nor, I am sure, did the others. +Dolly Venn had already opened his eyes and lay back, white and +bloodless, on the sofa. A hissing sound of escaping gas was in the +room. I breathed so freely that a sense of excitement, almost of +intoxication, came upon me. The doctor moved about quietly and +methodically, now looking to his burners, now at the machines. Five +minutes came and went before he put another question. + +"What kept you from the shelter?" he asked, at last. I knew then that +he believed us to be Edmond Czerny's men; and I made up my mind +instantly what to do. + +"Prudence kept us, doctor," said I (for doctor plainly he was); +"prudence, the same sense that turns a fly from a spider's web. It is +fair that you should know the story. We haven't come to Ken's Island +because we are Edmond Czerny's friends; nor will he call us that. Ask +Mme. Czerny the next time you meet her, and she'll tell you what +brought us here. You are acting well towards us and confidence is your +due, so I say that the day when Edmond Czerny finds us on this shore +will be a bad one for him or a bad one for us, as the case may be. Let +it begin with that, and afterwards we shall sail in open water." + +I said all this just naturally, not wishing him to think that I feared +Edmond Czerny nor was willing to hoist false colours. Enemy or friend, +I meant to be honest with him. It was some surprise to me, I must say, +when he went on quietly with his work, moving from place to place, now +at the gas-burner, now at his machine, just for all the world as though +this visitation had not disturbed him. When he spoke it was to ask a +question about Miss Ruth. + +"Mme. Czerny," said he, quietly; "there is a Mme. Czerny, then?" + +Now, if he had struck me with his hand I could not have been more +surprised at his ignorance. Just think of it--here was a man left +behind on Ken's Island when all the riffraff there had fled to some +shelter on the sea; a man working quietly, I was sure, to discover what +he could of the gases which poisoned us; a man in Mistress Ruth's own +house who did not even know her name. Nothing more wonderful had I +heard that night. And the way he put the question, raising his eyebrows +a little, and looking up over his long, white apron! + +"Not heard of Mme. Czerny!" cried I, in astonishment, "not heard of +her--why, what shore do you hail from, then? Don't you know that she's +his wife, doctor--his wife?" + +He turned to his bottles and went on arranging them. He was speaking +and acting now at the same time. + +"I came ashore with Prince Czerny when he landed here three days ago. +He did not speak of his wife. There are others in America who would be +interested in the news--young ladies, I think." + +He paused for a little while, and then he said quietly: + +"You would be friends of the Princess's, no doubt?" + +"Princess be jiggered," said I; "that is to say, God forgive me, for I +love Miss Ruth better than my own sister. He's no more a prince than +you are, though that's a liberty, seeing that I don't know your name, +doctor. He's just Edmond Czerny, a Hungarian musician, who caught a +young girl's fancy in the South, and is making her suffer for it here +in the Pacific. Why, just think of it. A young American girl----" + +He stopped me abruptly, swinging round on his heel and showing the +first spark of animation he had as yet been guilty of. + +"An American girl?" cried he. + +"As true as the Gospels, an American girl. She was the daughter of +Rupert Bellenden, who made his money on the Western American Railroad. +If you remember the Elbe going down, you won't ask what became of him. +His son, Kenrick Bellenden, is in America now. I'd give my fortune, +doctor, to let him know how it fares with his sister on this cursed +shore. That's why my own ship sails for 'Frisco this day--at least, I +hope and believe so, for otherwise she's at the bottom of the sea." + +I told the story with some heat, for amazement is the enemy of a slow +tongue; but my excitement was not shared by him, and for some minutes +afterwards he stood like a man in a reverie. + +"You came in your own ship!" he exclaimed next. "Why, yes, you would +not have walked. Did Mme. Czerny ask you here?" + +"It was a promise to her," said I. "She left the money with her lawyers +for me to bring a ship to Ken's Island twelve months after her +marriage. That promise I kept, doctor, and here I am and here are my +shipmates, and God knows what is to be the end of it and the end of +us!" + +He agreed to that with one of those expressive nods which spared him a +deal of talk. By-and-bye, without referring to the matter any more, he +turned suddenly to Peter Bligh and exclaimed: + +"Halloa, my man, and what's the matter with you?" + +Now, Peter Bligh sat up as stiff as a board and answered directly. + +"Hunger, doctor, that's the matter with me! If you'll add thirst to it, +you've about named my complaint." + +"Fog out of your lungs, eh?" + +"Be sure and it is. I could dance at a fair and not be particular +about the women. Put me alongside a beef-steak and you shall see some +love-making. Aye, doctor, I'll never get my bread as a living skeleton, +the saints be good to me, my hold's too big for that!" + +It was like Mister Bligh, and amused the stranger very much. Just as if +to answer Peter, the doctor crossed the room and opened a big cupboard +by the window, which I saw to be full of victuals. + +"I forget to eat, myself, when the instruments hustle me," said he, +thoughtfully; "that's a bad habit, anyway. Suppose you display your +energy by setting supper. There are tinned things here and eggs, I +believe. You'll find firewood and fresh meat in the kitchen yonder. +Here's something to keep the fog out of your lungs while you get it." + + +[Illustation: We were all sitting at the supper-table.] + + +He tossed a respirator across the table, and Peter Bligh was away to +the kitchen before you could count two. It was a relief to have +something to do, and right quickly our fellows did it. We were all +(except little Dolly Venn, who wanted his strength yet) sitting at the +supper table when half an hour had passed and eating like men who had +fasted for a month. To-morrow troubled the seamen but little. It did +not trouble Peter Bligh or Seth Barker that night, I witness. + +A strange scene, you will admit, and one not readily banished from the +memory. For my part, I see that room, I see that picture many a time in +the night watches on my ship or in the dreaming moments of a seaman's +day. The great machines of glass and brass rise up again about me as +they rose that night. I watch the face of the American doctor, sharp +and clear-cut and boyish, with the one black curl across the forehead. +I see Peter Bligh bent double over the table, little Dolly Venn's eyes +looking up bravely at me as he tries to tell us that all is well with +him. The same curious sensations of doubt and uncertainty come again to +plague me. What escape was there from that place? What escape from the +island? Who was to help us in our plight? Who was to befriend little +Ruth Bellenden now? Would the ship ever come back? Was she above or +below the sea? Would the sleep-time endure long, and should we live +through it? Ah! that was the thing to ask them. More especially to ask +this clever man, whose work I made sure it was to answer the question. + +"We thank you, doctor," I said to him, at one time; "we owe our lives +to you this night. We sha'n't forget that, be sure of it." + +"I'll never eat a full meal again but I'll remember the name of +Doctor--Doctor--which reminds me that I don't know your name, sir," +added Peter Bligh, clumsily. The doctor smiled at his humour. + +"Dr. Duncan Gray, if it's anything to remember. Ask for Duncan Gray, of +Chicago, and one man in a thousand will tell you that he makes it his +business to write about poisons, not knowing anything of them. Why, +yes, poison brought me here and poison will move me on again; at least +I begin to imagine it. Poison, you see, holds the aces." + +"It's a fearsome place, truly," said I, "and wonderful that Europe +knows so little about it. I've seen Ken's Island on the charts any time +these fifteen years, but never a whisper have I heard of sleep-time or +sun-time or any other death-talk such as I've heard these last three +days. You'll be here, doctor, no doubt, to ascertain the truth of it? +If my common sense did not tell me as much, the machinery would. It's a +great thing to be a man of your kind, and I'd give much if my education +had led me that way. But I was only at a country grammar school, and +what I couldn't get in at one end the master never could at the other. +Aye, I'd give much to know what you know this night!" + +He smiled a little queerly at the compliment, I thought, and turned it +off with a word. + +"I begin to know how little I know, and that's a good start," said he. +"Possibly Ken's Island will make that little less. The master of Ken's +Island is generously sending me to Nature's university. I think that I +understand why he permitted me to come here. Why, yes, it was smart, +and the man who first set curiosity going about Prince Czerny in +Chicago is well out of Prince Czerny's way. I must reckon all this up, +Captain--Captain----" + +"Jasper Begg," said I, "at one time master of Ruth Bellenden's yacht, +the Manhattan." + +"And Peter Bligh, his mate, who is a Christian man when the victuals +are right." + +Seth Barker said nothing, but I named him and spoke about Dolly Venn. +We five, I think, began to know each other better from that time, and +to fall together as comrades in a common misfortune. Parlous as our +plight was, we had food and drink and tobacco for our pipes afterwards; +and a seaman needs little more than that to make him happy. Indeed, we +should have passed the night well enough, forgetting all that had gone +before and must come after, but for a weird reminder at the hour of +midnight, which compelled us to recollect our strange situation and all +that it betided. + +Comfortable we were, I say, for Dr. Gray had found fine berths for us +all: Dolly on the sofa, his skipper in an arm-chair, Peter Bligh and +Seth Barker on rugs by the window, and he himself in a hammock slung +across the kitchen door. We had said "good-night" to one another and +were settling off to sleep, when there came a weird, wild calf from the +grounds without; and so dismal was it and so like the cries of men in +agony that we all sprang to our feet and stood, with every faculty +waking, to listen to the horrible outcry. For a moment no man moved, so +full of terror were those sounds; but the doctor, coming first to his +senses, strode towards the window and pulled the heavy curtain back +from it. Then, in the dazzling light, that wonderful gold-blue light +which hovered in mist-clouds about the gardens of the bungalow, I saw a +spectacle which froze my very blood. Twenty men and women, perhaps, +some of them Europeans, some natives, some dressed in seamen's dress, +some in rags, some quite naked, were dancing a wild, fantastic, +maddening dance which no foaming Dervish could have surpassed, aye, or +imitated, in his cruellest moments. Whirling round and round, extending +their arms to the sky, sometimes casting themselves headlong on the +ground, biting the earth with savage lips, tearing their flesh with +knives, one or two falling stone-dead before our very eyes, these poor +people in their delirium cried like animals, and filled the whole woods +with their melancholic wailing. For ten minutes, it may be, the fit +endured; then one by one they sank to the earth in the most fearful +contortions of limb and face and body, and, a great silence coming upon +the house, we saw them there in that cold, clear light, outposts of the +death which Ken's Island harboured. + +We saw the thing, we knew its dreadful truth, yet many minutes passed +before one among us opened his lip. The spell was still on us--a spell +of dread and fear I pray that few men may know. + +"The laughing fever," exclaimed the doctor, at last, letting the +curtain fall back with trembling hand. "Yes, I have heard of that +somewhere." + +And then he said, pointing to the lamp upon the table: + +"Three days, my friends, three days between us and that!" + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE STORM + +You have been informed that Dr. Gray promised us three days' security +in the bungalow, and I will now tell you how it came about that we +quitted the house next morning, and set out anew upon the strangest +errand of them all. + +There's an old saying among seamen that the higher the storm the deeper +the sleep, and this, may-be, is true, if you speak of a ship and of an +English crew upon her. It takes something more than a capful of wind to +blow sleep from a sailor's eyes; and though you were to tell him that +the Judgment was for to-morrow, I do believe he would take his four +hours off all the same. But at Ken's Island things went differently; +and two, at least, of our party knew little sleep that night. Again and +again I turned on my bed to see Dr. Gray busy before his furnace and to +hear Peter Bligh snoring as though he'd crack the window-glass. +Nevertheless, sleep came to me slowly, and when I slept I dreamed of +the island and all the strange things which had happened there since +first we set foot upon it. Many sounds and shapes were present in my +dream, and the sweet figure of Ruth Bellenden with them all. I saw her +brave and patient in the gardens of the bungalow; the words which she +had spoken, "For God's sake come back to me!" troubled my ears like the +music of the sea. Sometimes, as dreams will, the picture was but a +vague shadow, and would send me hither and thither, now to the high +seas and an English port, again to the island and the bay wherein I +first landed. I remember, more than all, a dream which carried me to +the water's edge, with my hand in hers, and showed me a great storm and +inky clouds looming above the reef and the lightning playing vividly, +and a tide rising so swiftly that it threatened to engulf us and flood +the very land on which we stood. And then I awoke, and the dawn-light +was in the room and Dr. Gray himself stood watching by the window. + +"Yes," he said, as though answering some remark of mine, "we shall have +a storm--and soon." + +"You do not say so!" cried I; "why, that's my dream! I must have heard +the thunder in my sleep." + +He drew the curtain back to show me the angry sky, which gave promise +of thunder and of a hurricane to follow; the air of the room seemed +heavy as that of a prison-house. In the gardens outside a shimmer of +yellow light reminded me of a London fog as once I breathed it by +Temple Bar. No longer could you distinguish the trees or the bushes or +even the mass of the woods beyond the gate. From time to time the loom +of the cloud would lift, and a beam of sunlight strike through it, +revealing a golden path and a bewitching vision of grass and roses all +drooping in the heat. Then the ray was lost again, and the yellow +vapour steamed up anew. + +"A storm undoubtedly," said the doctor, at last, "and a bad one, too. +We should learn something from this, captain. Why, yes, it looks +easy--after the storm the wind." + +"And the wind will clear Ken's Island of fog," cried I. "Ah, of course, +it will. We shall breathe just now and go about like sane men. I am +younger for hearing it, doctor." + +He said, "Yes, it was good news," and then put some sticks into the +grate and began to make a fire. The others still slept heavily. Little +Dolly Venn muttered in his sleep a name I thought I had heard before, +and, truth to tell, it was something like "Rosamunda." The doctor +himself was as busy as a housemaid. + +"Yes," he continued, presently, "we should be pretty well through with +the sleep-time, and after that, waking. Does anything occur to you?" + +I sat up in the chair and looked at him closely. His own manner of +speech was catching. + +"Why, yes," said I, "something does occur. For one thing, we may have +company." + +He lit a match and watched the wood blazing up the chimney. A bit of +fire is always a cheerful thing, and it did me good to see it that +morning. + +"Czerny has more than a hundred men," said he, after some reflection. +"We are four and one, which makes five; five exactly." + +Now, this was the first time he had confessed to anything which might +let a man know where his sympathies lay. Friend or enemy, yesterday +taught me nothing about him. I learnt afterwards that he had once known +Kenrick Bellenden in Philadelphia. I think he was glad to have four +comrades with him on Ken's Island. + +"If you mean thereby, doctor, that you'd join us," was my reply, "you +couldn't tell me better news. You know why I came here and you know why +I stay. It may mean much to Mme. Czerny to have such a friend as you. +What can be done by five men on this cursed shore shall be done, I +swear; but I am glad that you are with us--very glad." + +I really meant it, and spoke from my heart: but he was not a +demonstrative man, and he rarely answered one directly as one might +have wished. On this occasion, I remember, he went about his work for a +little while before he spoke again; and it was not until the coffee was +boiling on the hob that he came across to me and, seating himself on +the arm of my chair, asked, abruptly: + +"Do you know what fool's errand brought me to this place?" + +"I have imagined it," said I. "You wanted to know the truth about the +sleep-time." + +He laughed that queer little laugh which expressed so much when you +heard it. + +"No," said he, "I do not care a dime either way! I just came along to +advertise myself. Ken's Island and its secrets are my newspaper. When I +go back to New York people will say, 'That's the specialist, Duncan +Gray, who wrote about narcotics and their uses.' They'll come and see +me because the newspapers tell them to. We advertise or die, nowadays, +captain, and the man who gets a foothold up above must take some risks. +I took them when I shipped with Edmond Czerny." + +It was an honest story, and I liked the man the better for it. No word +of mine intervened before he went on with it. + +"Luck put me in the way of the thing," he continued, the mood being on +him now and my silence helping him; "I met Czerny's skipper in 'Frisco, +and he was a talker. There's nothing more dangerous than a loose +tongue. The man said that his master was the second human being to set +foot on Ken's Archipelago. I knew that it was not true. A hundred years +ago Jacob Hoyt, a Dutchman, was marooned on this place and lived to +tell the story of it. The record lies in the library at Washington; +I've read it." + +He said this with a low chuckle, like a man in possession of a secret +which might be of great value to him. I did not see the point of it at +the time, but I saw it later, as you shall hear. + +"Yes," he rattled on, "Edmond Czerny holds a full hand, but I may yet +draw fours. He's a clever man, too, and a deep one. We'll see who's +the deeper, and we will begin soon, Captain Begg--very soon. The +sleep-time's through, I guess, and this means waking." + +Now, this was spoken of the storm without, and a heavy clap of thunder, +breaking at that moment, pointed his words as nothing else could have +done. I had many questions yet to ask him, such as how it was that he +persuaded Czerny to take him aboard (though a man who knew so much +would have been a dangerous customer to leave behind), but the rolling +sounds awoke the others, and Peter Bligh, jumping up half asleep, asked +if any one knocked. + +"I thought it was the devil with the hot water--and bedad it is!" cries +he. "Is the house struck, or am I dreaming it, doctor? It's a fearsome +sound, truly." + +Peter meant it as a bit of his humour, I do believe; but little he knew +how near the truth his guess was. The storm, which had threatened us +since dawn, now burst with a splendour I have never seen surpassed. A +very sheet of raging fire opened up the livid sky. The crashing thunder +shook the timbers of the house until you might have thought that the +very roof was coming in. In the gardens themselves, leaping into your +view and passing out of it again as a picture shuttered by light, great +trees were split and broken, the woods fired, the gravel driven up in a +shower of pelting hail. I have seen storms in my life a-many, but never +one so loud and so angry as the storm of that ebbing sleep-time. There +were moments when a whirlwind of terrible sounds seemed to envelop us, +and the very heavens might have been rolling asunder. We said that the +bungalow could not stand, and we were right. + +Now, this was a bad prophecy; but the fulfilment came more swiftly and +more surely than any of us had looked for. Indeed, Dolly Venn was +scarce upon his feet, and the sleep hardly out of Seth Barker's eyes, +when the room in which we stood was all filled by a scathing flame of +crimson light, and, a whirlwind of fire sweeping about us, it seemed to +wither and burn everything in its path and to scorch our very limbs as +it passed them by. To this there succeeded an overpowering stench of +sulphur, and ripping sounds as of wood bursting in splinters, and beams +falling, and the crackling of timber burning. Not a man among us, I +make sure, but knew full well the meaning of those signals or what they +called him to do. The bungalow was struck; life lay in the fog without, +in the death-fog we had twice escaped. + +"She's burning--she's burning, by----!" cried Seth Barker, running +wildly for the door; and to his voice was added that of Duncan Gray, +who roared: + +"My lead, my lead--stand back, for your lives!" + +He threw a muffler round his neck and ran out from the stricken +bungalow. The whole westward wing of the house was now alight. Great +clouds of crimson flame wrestled with the looming fog above us; they +illumined all the garden about as with the light of ten thousand fiery +lamps. Suffocating smoke, burning breezes, floating sparks, leaping +tongues of flame drove us on. Cries you heard, one naming the heights +for a haven, another clamouring for the beach, one answering with an +oath, another, it may be, with a prayer; but no man keeping his wits or +shaping a true course. What would have happened but for the holding fog +and the sulphurous air we breathed, I make no pretence to say; but +Nature stopped us at last, and, panting and exhausted, we came to a +halt in the woods, and asked each other in the name of reason what we +should do next. + +"The sea!" cries Peter Bligh, forgetting his courage (a rare thing for +him to do); "show me the sea or I'm a dead man!" + +To whom Seth Barker answers: + +"If there's breath, it's on the hills; we'll surely die here." + +And little Dolly, he said: + +"I cannot run another step, sir; I'm beat--dead beat!" + +For my part I had no word for them; it remained for Doctor Gray to lead +again. + +"I will show you the road," cried he, "if you will take it." + +"And why not?" I asked him. "Why not, doctor?" + +"Because," he answered, very slowly, "it's the road to Edmond Czerny's +house." + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A WHITE POOL--AND AFTERWARDS + +We must have been a third of a mile from the shore when the doctor +spoke, and three hundred yards, perhaps, from the pool in the glens. It +is true that the storm seemed to clear the air; but not as we had +expected, nor as fair argument led us to hope. Wind there was, hot and +burning on the face; but it brought no cool breath in its path, and did +but roll up the fog in banks of grey and dirty cloud. While at one +minute you would see the wood, green and grassy, as in the evening +light, at another you could scarce distinguish your neighbour or mark +his steps. To me, it appeared that the island dealt out life and death +on either hand; first making a man leap with joy because he could +breathe again; then sending him gasping to the earth with all his +senses reeling and his brain on fire. Any shelter, I said, would be +paradise to men in the bond of that death-grip. Sleep itself, the +island's sleep, could have been no worse than the agony we suffered. + +"Doctor," I cried, as I ran panting up to him, "Edmond Czerny's house +or another--show us the way, here and now! We cannot fare worse; you +know that. Lead on and we follow, wherever it is." + +The others said, "Aye, aye, lead on and we follow." Desperation was +their lot now; the madman's haste, the driven man's hope. There, in +that fearful hollow, lives were ebbing away like the sea on a shallow +beach. They fought for air, for breath, for light, for life. I can see +Peter Bligh to this day as he staggers to his feet and cries, wildly: + +"The mouth of blazes would be a Sunday parlour to this! Lead on, +doctor, I am dying here!" + +So he spoke; and, the others lurching up again, we began to race +through the wood to a place where the fog lay lighter and the mists had +left. Wonderful sights met our eyes--aye, more wonderful than any words +of mine could picture for you. In the air above flocks of birds wheeled +dizzily as though the very sky was on fire. Round and round, round and +round, they darkened the heaven like some great wheel revolving; while, +ever and anon, a beautiful creature would close its wings and swoop to +death upon the dewy grass. Other animals, terrified cattle, wild dogs, +creatures from the heights and creatures from the valleys, all huddled +together in their fear, raised doleful cries which no ear could shut +out. The trees themselves were burnt and blackened by the storm, the +glens as dark as night, the heaven above one canopy of fiery cloud and +stagnant vapour. + +Now, I knew no more than the dead what Duncan Gray meant when he said +that he would lead us to Czerny's house. A boat I felt sure he did not +possess, or he would have spoken of it; nor did he mean that we should +swim, for no man could have lived in the surf about the reefs. His +steps, moreover, were not carrying him towards the beach, but to that +vile pool in the ravine wherein a man had died on the night we came to +Ken's Island. This pool I saw again as we ran on towards the headland; +and so still and quiet it seemed, such a pretty lake among the hills, +that no man would have guessed the terror below its waters or named the +secret of it. Nevertheless, it recalled to me our first night's work, +and how little we could hope from any man in Czerny's house; and this I +had in my mind when the doctor halted at last before the mouth of an +open pit at the very foot of the giant headland. He was blown with +running, and the sweat dropped from his forehead like water. The place +itself was the most awesome I have ever entered. On either hand, so +close to us that the arms outstretched could have touched them, were +two mighty walls, which towered up as though to the very sky beyond the +vapour. A black pit lay before us; the fog and the burning wind in the +woods we had left. Silence was here--the awful silence of night and +solitude. No eye could fathom the depths or search the heights. What +lay beyond, I might not say. The doctor had led us to this wilderness, +and he must speak. + +"See here," he cried, mopping the sweat from his face and rolling up +his shirt-sleeves, like a man who has good work to do, "the road's down +yonder, and we need a light to strike it. Give me your hand, one of +you, while I fetch up the lantern. A Dutchman didn't write of Ken's +Island for nothing. I guess he knew we were coming his way." + +He stretched out a hand to me with the words, and I held it surely +while he bent over the pit and groped for the lantern he spoke of. + +"Three days ago," said he, "I ran a picnic here all to myself. It is as +well to find new lodgings if the old don't suit. I left my lantern +behind me, and this it is, I reckon." + +He pulled up from the depths a gauze lantern such as miners use, and, +lighting it, he showed us the heart of the pit. It was a deep hole, 30 +feet down, perhaps, and strewn with rubbish and fragments of the iron +rocks. But what was worth more to us, aye, than a barrel of gold, was +the sweet, fresh air which came to us through a tunnel's mouth as by a +siphon from the open sea herself; and, blowing freshly on our faces, +sent us quickly down towards it with glad cries and the spirits of men +who have broken a prison gate. + +"The sea, the sea, by all that's holy!" cries Peter Bligh. "Oh, doctor, +I breathe, I breathe, as I am a Christian man, I breathe!" + +We tumbled down into the pit headlong and sat there for many minutes +wondering if, indeed, the death were passed or if we must face it again +in the minutes to come. There before us, once we had passed the +tunnel's mouth, stood a vast, domed hall which, I declare, men might +have cut and not Nature in the depths of that strange cavern. + +Open to the day through great apertures high up in the face of the +cliff, a soft glow like the light which comes through the windows of a +church streamed upon the rocky floor and showed us the wonders of that +awesome place. Room upon room, we saw, cave upon cave; some round like +the mosques a Turk can build, others lofty and grand as any cathedral; +some pretty as women's dens, all decked with jewels and ornament of +jasper and walls of the blackest jet. These things I saw; these rooms I +passed through. A magician might have conjured them up; and yet he was +no magician, but only Duncan Gray, the man I knew for the first time +yesterday, but already called a comrade. + +"Doctor," I said, "it is a house of miracles, truly! But where to +now--aye, that's the question; where to?" + +He sat upon a stone, and we grouped ourselves about him. Peter Bligh +took out a pipe from his pocket and was not forbidden to light it. +There was a distant sound in the cave like that of water rushing, and +once another sound to which I could give no meaning. The doctor himself +was still thinking deeply, as though hazarding a guess as to our +position. + +"Boys," he said, "I'll tell you the whole story. This place was +discovered by Hoyt, a Dutchman. If Czerny had read his book, he would +know of it; but he hasn't. I took the trouble to walk in because I +thought it might be useful when he turned nasty. It is going to be +that, as you can see. Follow through to the end of it, and you are in +Czerny's house. Will you go there or hold back? It's for you to say." + +I filled my pipe, as Peter had done, and, breathing free for the first +time for some hours, I tried to speak up for the others. + +"A sailor's head tells me that there is a road from here to the reef; +is that true?" asked I at last; "is it true, doctor?" + +He put on his glasses and looked at me with those queer, clever eyes of +his. I believe to this day that our dilemma almost pleased him. + +"A sailor's head guesses right first time," was his answer. "There is a +road under the sea from here to Czerny's doorstep. I'm waiting to know +if it's on or back. You know the risks and are not children. Say that +you turn it up and we'll all go back together, or stay here as wisdom +dictates. But it's for you to speak----" + +We answered him all together, though Peter Bligh was the first he +heard. + +"The lodgings here being free and no charge for extras," said Peter, +sagely. + +And Dolly Venn, he said: + +"We are five, at any rate. I don't suppose they would murder us. After +all, Edmond Czerny is a gentleman." + +"Who shoots the poor sailormen that's wrecked on his shore;" put in +Seth Barker, doggedly. + +"He'd be of the upper classes, no doubt;" added Peter Bligh; "he'll see +that we don't sleep in damp sheets! Aye, 'tis the devil of a man, +surely!" + +Doctor Gray heard them patiently--more patiently than I did--and then +went on again: + +"If you stop here, you starve; if you go on--well, you take your luck. +Should the fog lift up yonder, you'll be having Czerny back again. It's +a rule-of-three sum, gentlemen. For my part, I say 'go on and take your +luck,' but I won't speak for you unless you are willing." + +"None more willing," cried I, coming to a resolution on the spot. +"Forward let it be, and luck go with us. We'd be fools to die like rats +in a trap when there's light and food not a mile away. And cowards, +too, boys--cowards!" I added. + +The others said: "Aye, aye, we're no cowards!" And all being of one +mind we set out together through that home of wonders. Edmond Czerny's +house we sought, and thither this iron road would carry us. A path more +beautiful no man has trodden. From this time the great, church-like +grottos gave place to lower roofs and often black-dark openings. By +here and there we dived into tunnels wondrously cut by some forgotten +river of fire in the ages long ago, and, emerging again, we entered a +wilderness of ravines wherefrom even the sky was to be seen and the +cliffs towering majestically above us. Then, at last, we left the +daylight altogether, and going downward as to the heart of the earth I +knew that the land lay behind us and that the sea flowed above our +heads. + +Reader of a plain seaman's story, can you come with me on such a +journey as I and four stout hearts made on that unforgotten day? Can +you picture, as I picture now, that dark and lonesome cavern, with the +sea beating upon its roof and the air coming salt and humid to the +tongue, and the echo of distant breakers in your ears, and always the +night and the doubt of it? Can you follow me from grotto to grotto and +labyrinth to labyrinth, stumbling often by the way, catching at the +lantern's dancing rays, calling one to the other, "All's well--lead +on"? Aye, I doubt that you can. These things must be seen with a man's +own eyes, heard with his own ears, to be understood and made real to +him. To me that scene lives as though yesterday had brought it. I see +the doctor with his impatient step. I see Peter Bligh stumbling after +him. I hear little Dolly Venn's manly voice; I help Seth Barker over +the rocks. And these four stand side by side with me on the white +pool's edge. The danger comes again. The fear, the loathing, are +unforgotten. + +I speak of fear and loathing and of dread white pool, and you will ask +me why and how we came thereto. And so I say that the water lay, +may-be, a third of a mile from the land, in a clear, transparent basin +of some quartz or mica, or other shining mineral, so that it gave out +crystal lights even to the darkness, and the arched grotto which held +it was all aglow, as though with hidden fires. A silent pool it was, we +said, and our path seemed to end upon its brink; but even as we stood +asking for a road, all the still water began to heave and foam, and, a +great creature rising up from the depths, the lantern showed us a +monster devil-fish, and we fell back one upon the other with affrighted +cries. Nor let any man charge us with that. A situation more perilous I +have never been in, and never shall. The fish's terrible suckers +searching all the rocks, the frightful eye of the brute, the rushing +water, the half-light worse than darkness, might well have driven back +a stronger man than I. And upon the top of that was the thought that by +such lay the road to safety. We must pass the grotto, or perish of +starvation. + +Now, the first fright of this encounter was done with in a minute or +two, and when it was plain to us that the devil-fish was stuck in the +pool which some tide of the sea fed, perhaps, and that his suckers +could not reach the higher part of the rock, we began to speak of it +rationally, and to plan a way of going over. I was for emptying our +revolvers into the fish straight away; but the doctor would have none +of it, fearing the report, and, remembering what he had read in the +Dutchman's book, he came out with another notion. + +"Hoyt went over the rocks," said he, calmly, while we still drew back +from the pool affrighted, our hearts in our boots I make sure, and not +one of us that did not begin to think of the fog again when he saw the +devil-fish struggling to be free. "It's not a sweet road, but better +than none at all. Keep behind me, boys, and mind you don't slip or +you'll find something worse than sharks. Now for it, and luck go with +us." + +With this he began to clamber round the edge of the pool, but so high +up that it did not seem possible for the fish to touch him. There was +good foothold on the jagged hunks of rock, and a man might have gone +across safely enough but for the thought of that which was below him. +For my part, I say that my eyes followed him as you may follow a walker +on a tight-wire. One false step would send him flying down to a death I +would not name, and that false step he appeared to make. My God! I see +it all so clearly now. The slip, the frantic clutch at the rocks, the +great tentacle which shot out and gripped his leg, and then the flash +of my own revolver fired five times at the terrible eyes below me. + +There were loud cries in the cave, the wild shouts of terrified men, +the smoke of pistols, the foaming and splashing of water, all the signs +of panic which may follow a fellow-creature about to die. That the +devil-fish had caught the doctor with one of his tentacles you could +not doubt; that he would drag him down into that horrid stomach, I +myself surely believed. Never was a fight for life a more awful thing +to see. On the one hand a brave man gripping the rocks with hands and +foot until the crags cut his very flesh; on the other that ghoul-like +horror seeking to wind other claws about its prey and to drag it +towards its gaping mouth. What miracle could save him, God alone knew; +and yet he was saved. A swift act of his own, brave and wonderful, +struck the sucker from the limb and set him free. Aye, what a mind to +think of it! What other man, I ask, would have let go his hold of the +rocks when hold meant so much to him and that fish swam below? +Nevertheless, the doctor did so. I see it now--the quick turn--the +knife drawn from its sheath--the severed tentacle cut clean as a cork, +the devil-fish itself drawing back to the depths of the crimson pool. +And then once more I am asking the doctor if he is hurt; and he is +answering me, cheerily, "Not much, captain, not much," and we four are +following after him as white as women, I do believe, our nerves +unstrung, our hearts quaking as we crossed the dreadful pit. + +Well, we went over well enough, shirk it as we might. The bullets which +sent the devil-fish to the bottom sent him there to die, for all I +knew. The pool itself was red with blood by this time, and the waters +settling down again. I could see nothing of the fish as I crossed over; +and Seth Barker, who came last and, like a true seaman, had forgotten +his fear already, swung the lantern down to the water's edge, but +discovered nothing. The doctor himself, excited as you might expect, +and limping with his hurt, simply said, "Well over, lads, well over"; +and then, taking the lantern from Seth Barker's hands, he would not +wait to answer our curiosity, but pushed on through the tunnel. + +"It's not every man who has a back-door with a watch-dog like that," +said he, as he went; "Edmond Czerny, may-be, does not know his luck; +I'll tell him of it when we're through. It won't be a long while now, +boys, and I'm glad of it. My foot informs me it's there, and I shall +have to leave a card on it just now." + +"Then the sooner you let us look at it the better, doctor," said I. +"Aye, but you were nearly gone. My heart was in my throat all the time +you stood there." + +"Which is no place for a man's heart to be," said he, brightly; +"especially at the door of Edmond Czerny's house." + +He stood a moment and bade me listen. We were in an open place of the +tunnel then, and a ray of light striking down from some lamp above us +revealed an iron ladder and a wooden trap above it. The sea I could +hear beating loudly upon the reef; but with the sea's voice came +others, and they were human. + +"Yes," said the doctor, quietly, "we are in the house all right, and +God knows when we shall get out of it again!" + +And then, with a cry of pain, he fell fainting at my feet. + + +CHAPTER XV + +AN INTERLUDE, DURING WHICH WE READ IN RUTH BELLENDEN'S DIARY AGAIN * + + * The editor has thought it well to give at this point the + above extract from Ruth Bellenden's diary, as permitting some + insight into the events which transpired on Ken's Island after + Jasper Begg's discovery and Edmond Czerny's return. + +May 5TH.--My message to the sea has been heard. Jasper Begg is on Ken's +Island. All that this means to me, all that it may mean, I dare not +think. A great burden seems lifted from my shoulders. I have found a +friend and he is near me. + +May 6th.--I have seen Jasper to-night, and he has gone away again. He +is not changed, I think. It is the same honest, English face, the same +cheery English voice. I have always said that Jasper is one of the +handsomest Englishmen I have ever seen. And just as on my own yacht, so +here on Ken's Island, the true English gentleman speaks to me. For +Jasper is that above all things, one of Nature's gentlemen, whom the +rough world will never disguise nor the sea life change. He would be +thirty-five years of age now, I remember, but he has not lost his +boyish face, and there is the same shy reticence which he never could +conquer. He has come here according to his promise. A ship lies in the +offing, and he would have me go to it. How little he knows of my true +condition in this dreadful place. How may a woman go when a hundred +watch her every hour? + +May 7th.--Clair-de-Lune, the Frenchman, came to the bungalow very early +this morning to tell me of certain things which happened on the island +last night. It seems that Jasper is still here, and that the storm has +driven away his ship. I do not know whether to be sorry or glad. He +cannot help me--he cannot!--and yet a friend is here. I take new +courage at that. If a woman can aid a brave man to win her liberty, I +am that woman and Jasper is the man. Yesterday I was alone; but to-day +I am alone no longer, and a friend is at my side, and he has heard me. +His ship will come back, I say. It is an ecstasy to dream like this! + +May 10th.--I have spent four anxious days--more anxious, I think, than +any in my life. The ship has not returned, and Jasper Begg is still a +fugitive in the hills. There are three of his companions with him, and +we send them food every day. What will be the end of it all? I am more +closely watched than ever since this was known. I fear the worst for my +friends, and yet I am powerless to help them. + +May 10th (later).--My husband, who has now returned from San Francisco, +knows that Jasper is here and speaks of it. I fear these moods of +confidence and kindness. "Your friend has come," Edmond says; "but why +am I not to know of it? Why is he frightened of me? Why does he skulk +like a thief? Let him show himself at this house and state his +business; I shall not eat him!" Edmond, I believe, has moments when he +tries to persuade himself that he is a good man. They are dangerous +moments, if all a man's better instincts are dead and forgotten. + +May 11th.--Clair-de-Lune, Edmond tells me, has been sent to the lower +reef. I do not ask him why. It was he who helped my friends in the +hills. Is it all real or did I dream it? Jasper Begg, the one man who +befriended me, left to die as so many have been left on this unpitying +shore! It cannot be--it cannot be! All that I had hoped and planned +must be forgotten now. And yet there were those who remembered Ruth +Bellenden and came here for love of her, as she will remember them, for +love's sake. + + +[Illustration: The drawing-room is a cave whose walls are of jewels.] + + +May 13th.--The alarm bell rang on the island last night and we left in +great haste for the shelter. The dreadful mists were already rising +fast when I went down through the woods to the beach. The people fled +wildly to the lower reef. It is not three months since the sleep-time, +and its renewal was unlooked for. To-night I do not think of my own +safety, but of those we are leaving on the heights. What is to become +of Jasper, my friend--who will help him? I think of Jasper before any +other now. Does he, I wonder, so think of me? + +May 13th (later).--The House Under the Sea is built inside the reef +which ties about a mile away on the northern side of the island. There +can be nothing like it in the world. Hundreds of years ago, perhaps, +this lonely rock, rising out of the water, was the mouth of some great +volcano. To-day it is the door of our house, and when you enter it you +find that the rocks below have been hollowed out by Nature in a manner +so wonderful that a great house lies there with stone-cold rooms and +immense corridors and pits seeming to go to the heart of the world. +None but a man with my husband's romantic craving would have discovered +such a place, or built himself therein a house so wonderful. For +imagine a suite of rooms above which the tides surge--rooms lighted by +tunnels in the solid rock and covered over with strongest glasses which +the sea cannot break. Imagine countless electric lamps lighting this +labyrinth until it seems sometimes like a fairy palace. Say that your +drawing-room is a cave, whose walls are of jewels and whose floor is of +jasper. Night and day you hear the sea, the moaning winds, the breaking +billows. It is another world here, like to nothing that any man has +seen or ever will see. The people of a city could live in this place +and yet leave room for others. My own rooms are the first you come to; +lofty as a church, dim as one, yet furnished with all that a woman +could desire. Yes, indeed, all I can desire. In my dressing-room are +gowns from Douse's and hats from Alphonsine's, jewels from the Rue de +la Paix, furs from Canada--all there to call back my life of two short +years ago, that laughing life of Paris and the cities when I was free, +and all the world my own, and only my girlhood to regret! Now I +remember it all as one bright day in years of gathering night. +Everything that I want, my husband says, shall be mine. I ask for +liberty, but that is denied to me. It is too late to speak of promises +or to believe. If I would condone it all; if I would but say to Edmond, +"Yes, your life shall be my life, your secrets shall be mine; go, get +riches, I will never ask you how." If I would say to him, "I will shut +out from my memory all that I have seen on this island; I will forget +the agony of those who have died here; I will never hear again the +cries of drowning people, will never see hands outstretched above the +waves, or the dead that come in on the dreadful tides; I will forget +all this, and say, 'I love you, I believe in you'"--ah, how soon would +liberty be won! But I am dumb; I cannot answer. I shall die on Ken's +Island, saying, "God help those who perish here!" + +May 14th.--Three days have passed in the shelter, and Clair-de-Lune, +who comes to me every day, brings no good news of Jasper. "He is on +the heights," he says; "if food were there he might live through the +sleep-time." My husband knows that he is there, but does not speak of +it. Yesterday, about sunset, I went up to the gallery on the reef, +where the island is visible, and I saw the fog lying about it like a +pall. It is an agony to know that those dear to you are suffering, +perhaps dying, there! I cannot hide my eyes from others; they read my +story truly. "Your friends will be clever if they come to Ken's Island +again," my husband says. I do not answer him. I shall never answer him +again. + +May 15th.--There was a terrible storm on the island last night, and we +all went up to the gallery to see the lightning play about the heights +and run in rivulets of fire through the dark clouds above the woods. A +weird spectacle, but one I shall never forget. The very sky seemed to +burn at times. We could distinguish the heart of the thicket clearly, +and poor people running madly to and fro there as though vainly seeking +a shelter from the fire. They tell me to-day that the bungalow is +burnt; I do not know whether to be sorry or glad. I am thinking of my +friends. I am thinking of Jasper, thinking of him always. + +May 16th.--I learn that there was a stranger left behind in the +bungalow, a Doctor Gray, of San Francisco. He landed with Edmond last +week, and is here for scientific reasons. My husband says that he does +not like him; but allowed him, nevertheless, to come. He was in the +bungalow making experiments when the lightning struck the house and +destroyed it. It is feared that he must have perished in the fire. My +husband tells me this to-night and is pleased to say it. But what of +Jasper, my friend; what of him? + + +May 16th.--I was passing through the great hall of the house to-night, +going to my bed-room, when something happened which made my very heart +stand still. I thought that I heard a sound in the shadows, and +imagining it to be one of the servants, I asked, "Who is there?" No one +answered me; and, becoming frightened, I was about to run on, when a +hand touched my own, and, turning round quickly, I found myself face to +face with Jasper himself, and knew that he had come to save me! + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ROSAMUNDA AND THE IRON DOORS + +We had no notion that the doctor had come by any serious hurt, and when +he fell in a dead faint we stood as men struck by an unseen hand. Light +we still had, for the rolling lantern continued to burn; but the wits +of us, save the wits of one, were completely gone, and three sillier +fellows never gaped about an ailing man. Dolly Venn alone--trained +ashore to aid the wounded--kept his head through the trouble and made +use of his learning. The half of a minute was not to be counted before +he had bared an ugly wound and showed us, not only a sucker still +adhering to the crimson flesh, but a great, gaping cut which the +doctor's own knife had made when he severed the fish's tentacle. + +"You, Seth Barker, hold up that lantern," says he to the carpenter, as +bold as brass and as ready as a crack physician at a guinea a peep; +"give me some linen, one of you--and please be quick about it. I'll +trouble you for a knife, Mister Peter, and a slice of your shirt, if +you don't mind!" + +Now, he had only to say this and I do believe that all four of us began +to tear up our linen and to make ourselves as naked as Adam when they +discharged him from Eden; but Peter Bligh, he was first with it, and he +had out his clasp-knife and cut a length of his Belfast shift before +you could say "Jack Robinson." + +"'Tis unlikely that I'll match it in these parts, and I've worn it to +my mother's memory," says he while he did it; "but 'tis yours, Dolly, +lad, and welcome. And what now?" asks he. + +"Be quiet, Mister Peter," says Dolly, sharply; "that's what next. Be +quiet and nurse the doctor's leg, and do please keep that lantern +steady." + +Well, big men as we were, we kept quiet for the asking, as ignorance +always will when skill is at the helm. Very prettily, I must say, and +very neatly did Dolly begin to bind the wound, and to cut the suckers +from their hold. The rest of us stood about and looked on and made +believe we were very useful. It was an odd thing to tell ourselves that +a man, who had been hale and hearty five minutes before, might now be +going out on the floor of that hovel. I knew little of Duncan Gray, but +what little I did know I liked beyond the ordinary; and every time that +Dolly took a twist on his bandage or fingered the wound with the +tenderness of a woman, I said, "Well done, lad, well done; we'll save +him yet." And this the boy himself believed. + +"It's only a cut," said he, "and if there's no poison, he'll be well +enough in a week. But he won't be able to stand, that's certain. I'd +give ten pounds for an antiseptic, I really would!" + +I knew what he meant all right; but the others didn't, and Peter Bligh, +he must come in with his foolishness. + +"They're mortal rare in these parts," said he; "I've come across many +things in the Pacific, but anyskeptics isn't one of 'em. May-be he'll +not need 'em, Dolly. We was twenty-four men down on the Ohio with +yellow-jack, and not an ounce of anyskeptics did I swallow! And here I +am, hale and hearty, as you'll admit." + +"And talking loud," said Seth Barker, "talking very loud, gentlemen!" + +It was wisdom, upon my word, for not one of us, I swear (until Seth +Barker spoke), had remembered where we were or what was like to come +afterwards. Voices we had heard, human voices above us, when first we +entered the cellar; and now, when the warning was uttered, we stood +dumb for some minutes and heard them again. + +"Douse the glim--douse it," cries Peter, in a big whisper; "they're +coming down, or I'm a Dutchman!" + +He turned the lantern and blew it out as he spoke. The rest of us +crouched down and held our breath. For ten seconds, perhaps, we heard +the deep, rough voices of men in the rooms above us. Then the trap-door +opened suddenly, and a beam of light fell upon the pavement not five +yards from where we stood. At the same moment a shaggy head peered +through the aperture, and a man cast a quick glance downward to the +cellar. + +"No," said the man, as though speaking to some one behind him, "it's +been took, as I told you." + +To which the other voice answered: + +"Well more blarmed fool you for not corking good rum when you see it!" + +They closed the trap upon the words, and we breathed once more. The +lesson they had taught us could not be forgotten. We were sobered men +when we lighted the lantern with one of Seth Barker's matches, and +turned it again on the doctor's face. + +"In whispers, if you please," said I, "as few as you like. We are in a +tight place, my lads, and talk won't get us out of it. It's the doctor +first and ourselves afterwards, remember." + +Dr. Gray, truly, was a little better by this time, and sitting up like +a dazed man, he looked first at Dolly Venn and then at his foot, and +last of all at the strange place in which he lay. + +"Why, yes," he exclaimed at last, "I remember; a cut and a fool who +walked on it. It serves me right, and the end is better than the +beginning." + +"The lad did it," said I; "he was always a wonder with linen and the +scissors, was Dolly Venn." + +"To say nothing of a square foot of my shirt," put in Peter Bligh, +obstinately. "'Tis worth while getting a bit of a cut, doctor, just to +see Dolly Venn sew it up again." + +The doctor laughed with us, for he knew a seaman's manner and the light +talk which follows even the gravest mishap aboard a ship. That our men +meant well towards him he could not doubt; and his next duty was to +tell us as much. + +"You are good fellows," said he, "and I'm much obliged to you, Master +Dolly. If you will put your hand inside my coat, you will find a +brandy-flask there, and I'll drink your health. Don't worry your heads +about me, but think of yourselves. One of you, remember, must go and +see Czerny now; I think it had better be you, captain." + +I said yes, I would go willingly; and added, "when the right time +comes." The time was not yet, I knew--when men walked above our heads +and were waking. But when it came I would not hold back for my +shipmates' sake. + +We had a few biscuits among us, which prudent men had put in their +pockets after last night's meal; and, my own flask being full of water, +we sat down in the darkness of the cellar and made such a meal as we +could. Minute by minute now it became more plain to me that I must do +as Duncan Gray said, and go up to find Czerny himself. Food we had +none, save the few biscuits in our hands; salt was the water in the +crimson pool behind us. Beyond that were the caverns and the fog. It +was just all or nothing; the plain challenge to the master of this +place, "Give us shelter and food" or the sleep which knows no waking. +Do you wonder that I made up my mind to risk all on a journey which, +were it for life or death, would carry us, at last, beyond the doubt +and uncertainty? + +We passed the afternoon sleeping and dozing, as tired men might. Voices +we heard from time to time; the moan of the sea was always with us--a +strange, wild song, long-drawn and rolling, as though the water played +above our very heads in the gentle sport of a Pacific calm. At a +dwelling more remarkable than the one we were about to enter no man has +knocked or will knock in all the years to come. We were like human +animals which burrow in a rocky bank a mile from any land. There were +mysteries and wonders above, I made sure; and there was always the +doubt, such doubt as comes to men who go to a merciless enemy and say, +"Give us bread." + +Now, I left my comrades at ten o'clock that night, when all sounds had +died away above and the voice of the sea growing angrier told me that +my steps would not be heard. + +"I shall go to Czerny, lads," said I, at the moment of leaving them, +"and he will hear the story. I'll do my best for good shipmates, trust +me; and if I do not come back--well, you'll know that I cannot. Good +night, old comrades. We've sailed many a sea together and we'll sail +many another yet, God willing." + +They all cried "Aye, aye, sir!" and pressed my hand with that affection +I knew they bore me. Little Dolly Venn, indeed, pleaded hard to +accompany me; but it seemed plain that, if life were to be risked, one +alone should risk it; and, putting him off kindly, I mounted the ladder +and raised the trap. + +I was in Edmond Czerny's house, and I was alone. + +* * * + +Now, I had opened the trap, half believing I might find myself in some +room, perhaps in the kitchen of the house. Men would be there, I said, +and Czerny's watch-dogs ready with their questions. But this was not a +true picture; and while there were arc lamps everywhere, the place was +not a room at all, but a circular cavern, with rude apertures in the +wall and curtains hung across in lieu of doors. This was not a little +perplexing, as you will see; and my path was not made more straight +when I heard voices in some room near by, but could not locate them nor +tell which of the doors to avoid. + +For a long time I stood, uncertain how to act. In the end I put my head +round the first curtain at a venture, and drew it back as quickly. +There were men in that place, half-naked men, grouped about the door of +a furnace whose red light flashed dazzlingly upon walls and ceiling and +gave its tenants the aspect of crimson devils. What the furnace meant +or why it was built, I was soon to learn; for presently one of the men +gave an order, and upon this an engine started, and a whirr of fans and +the sucking of a distant pump answered to the signal. "Air," said I to +myself; "they are pumping air from above." + +The men had not seen me, so quick was I, and so soft with the leather +curtain; and going tiptoe across the cave I stumbled at hazard upon a +door I had not observed before. It was nothing more than a big and +jagged opening in the rock, but it showed me a flight of stairs beyond +it, and twinkling lamps beyond that again. This, I said, must surely be +the road to the sea, for the stairs led upward, and Czerny, as common +sense put it, would occupy the higher rooms. So I did not hesitate any +more about it, but treading the stairway with a cat's foot I went +straight on, and presently struck so fine a corridor that at any other +time I might well have spent an hour in wonder. Lamps were here--scores +of them, in wrought-iron chandeliers. Doors you saw with almost every +step you took--aye, and more than doors--for there were figures in the +light and shadow; men passing to and fro; glimpses of open rooms and +tables spread for cards, and bottles by them; and wild men of all +countries, some sleeping, some quarrelling, some singing, some busy in +kitchen and workshop. By here and there, these men met me in the +corridor, and I drew back into the dark places and let them go by. They +did not remark my presence, or if they did, made nothing of it. After +all, I was a seaman, dressed as other seamen were. Why should they +notice me when there were a hundred such in Czerny's house? I began to +see that a man might go with less risk because of their numbers than if +they had been but a handful. + +"I shall find Czerny, after all," said I to myself, "and have it out +with him. When he has spoken it will be time enough to ask, What next?" + +It was a little consoling to say this, and I went on with more +confidence. Passing down the whole length of the corridor, I reached a +pair of iron doors at last, and found them fast shut and bolted against +me. There was no branch road that I could make out, nor any indication +of the way in which I must open the doors. A man cannot walk through +sheer iron for the asking, nor blow it open with a wish; and there I +stood in the passage like a messenger who has struck upon an empty +house, but is not willing to leave it. See Czerny that night I must, +even if it came to declaring myself to the rogues who occupied the +rooms near by, and whose voices I could still hear. I had no mind to +knock at the door; and, truth to tell, such a thing never came into my +head, so full it was of other schemes. Indeed, I was just telling +myself that it was neck or nothing, when what should happen but that +the great iron door swung open, and the little French girl, Rosamunda, +herself stepped out. Staggered at the sight of me, as well she might be +(for the electric lamp will hide no face), she just piped one pretty +little cry and then fell to saying: + +"Oh, Captain Begg, Captain Begg, what do you want in this house?" + +"My dear," says I, speaking to her with a seaman's liberty, "I want a +good many things, as most sailors do in this world. What's behind that +door, now, and where may you have come from? Tell me as much, and +you'll be doing me a bigger kindness than you think." + +She didn't reply to this at once, but asked a question, as little girls +will when they are thinking of somebody. + +"Where are the others?" cried she; "why do you come alone? Where is the +little one, Mister--Mister----" + +"Dolly Venn," said I; "ah, that's the boy! Well, he's all right, my +dear, and if he'd known that we were meeting, he'd have sent his love. +You'll find him down yonder, in the cellar beyond the engine-house. +Show me the way to Mister Czerny's door, and we'll soon have him out of +there. He's come a long way, and it's all for the pleasure of seeing +you--of course it is." The talk pleased her, but giving her no time to +think about it, I went on: + +"Mister Czerny, now, he would be living by here, I suppose?" + +She said, "Yes, yes." His rooms were through the great hall which lay +beyond the doors; but she looked so startled at the idea of my going +there, and she listened so plainly for the sound of any voices, that I +read up her apprehensions at a glance and saw that she did not wish me +to go on because she was afraid. + +"Where is your old friend, the Frenchman?" I asked her on an impulse; +"what part of this queer house does he sling his hammock in?" + +She changed colour at this, and plainly showed her trouble. + +"Oh, Mister Begg," says she, "Clair-de-Lune has been punished for +helping you on Ken's Island. He is not allowed to leave his room now. +Mister Czerny is very angry, and will not see him. How can you think of +coming here--oh, how can you do it?" + +"It's easy enough," said I, lightly, "if you don't miss the turning and +go straight on. Never fear for me, young lady; I shall pull through all +right; and when I do your friend goes with me, be sure of it. I won't +forget old Clair-de-Lune, not I! Now, just show me the road to the +governor's door, and then run away and tell Dolly Venn. He'll be +precious glad to see you, as true as Scripture." + +Well, she stood for a little while, hesitating about it, and then she +said, as though she had just remembered it: + +"Benno Regnarte is the guard, but he has gone away to have his supper. +I borrowed the key and came through. If you go in, he will not question +you. The governor may be on his yacht, or he may be in his room. I do +not know. How foolish it all is--how foolish, Captain Begg! They may +never let you go away again!" + +"Being so fond of my company," cried I, gaily. "Well, we'll see about +it, my dear. Just you run off to Dolly Venn and leave me to do the +rest. Sailors get out where other people stick, you know. We'll have a +try, for the luck's sake." + +I held her little hand in mine for a minute and gave it a hearty +squeeze. She was the picture of prettiness in a print gown and a big +Spanish shawl wrapped about her baby face. That she was truly alarmed, +and rightly so, I knew well; but what could I do? It was Czerny or the +pit. I chose Czerny. + +Now, she had opened the iron door for me to pass by, and without +another word to her I crossed the threshold and stood in Czerny's very +dwelling-house. Thereafter, I was in a vast hall, in a beautiful place +for all the world like a temple; with a gallery running round about it, +and lamps swinging from the gallery, and an organ built high up in a +niche above the far end, and doors of teak giving off all round, and a +great oak fire-place such as you see in English houses; and all round +the dome of this wonderful room great brass-bound windows, upon which +the sea thundered and the foam sprayed. Softly lighted, carpeted with +mats of rare straw, furnished as any mansion of the rich, it seemed to +me, I do confess, a very wonder of the earth that such a place should +lie beneath the breakers of the Pacific Ocean. And yet there it was +before my eyes, and I could hear the sea-song high above me, and the +lamps shone upon my face; and, as though to tell me truly that here my +journey ended, whom should I espy at the door of one of the rooms but +little Ruth Bellenden herself, the woman I had crossed the world to +serve. + + +CHAPTER XVII + +IN WHICH JASPER BEGG ENTERS THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA + +I drew back into a patch of shadow and waited for her to come up to me. +Others might be with her and the moment inopportune for our encounter. +She walked with slow steps. Care had written its story upon her sweet +face. I saw that she was alone, and I put out my hand and touched her +upon the arm. + +"Miss Ruth," said I, so soft that I wonder she heard me--"Miss Ruth, +it's Jasper Begg. Don't you know me?" + +She turned swiftly, but did not cry out. One wild look she cast about +the half, with one swift glance she made sure of every door, and then, +and only then, she answered me. + +"Jasper, Jasper! Is it really Jasper Begg?" she cried, with a look of +joy and gratitude I never shall forget. + +Now, she had asked a woman's natural question; but I shall always say +that there never were wits quicker than Ruth Bellenden's; and hardly +were the useless words out of her mouth than she drew back to the room +she had left; and when I had entered it after her she closed the door +and listened a little while for any sounds. When none came to trouble +her she advanced a step, and so we two stood face to face at last, in +as pretty a place as all London, or all Europe for that matter, could +show you. + +Let me try to picture that scene for you as it comes to me when I write +of it and seek to bring it back to my memory. A trim, well-kept cabin, +such I call her room--a boudoir the French would name it--all hung +round with pale rose silk, and above that again an artist's pictures +upon a wall of cream. Little tables stood everywhere and women's +knick-knacks upon them; there were deep chairs which invited you to +sit, covered in silks and satins, and cushioned so that a big man might +be afraid of them. + +Upon the mantel-shelf a clock from Paris swung a jewelled pendulum, and +candlesticks matched it on either side. A secretaire, littered over +with papers and bright with silver ornaments, had its back to the +seaward wall; a round window, cut in the rock above it, stood hidden by +curtains of the richest brocade. The carpet, I said, was from Turkey; +the mats from Persia. In the grate the wood-fire glowed warmingly. Ruth +Bellenden herself, the mistress of the room, capped the whole, and she +was gowned in white, with rubies and diamonds strung about her stately +neck, and all that air of proud command I had admired so much in +the days bygone. Aye, such a scene, believe me, as a grand London +drawing-room might show you any night of London's months you care to +name, and yet so different from that. And I, a plain sailor, found +myself thrust forward there to my confusion, yet feeling, despite it +all, that the woman I spoke to was woman at heart, as I was man. A few +days ago I had come to her to say, "You have need of me." To-night it +was her lot to answer me with my own words. + +"Jasper," she said, her hand still on the switch of the lamp, "what +miracle brings you to this place?" + +"No miracle, Miss Ruth," said I, "but a plain road, and five men's +necessity. We were dying on Ken's Island and we found a path under the +sea. It was starvation one way, surrender the other; I am here to tell +Mr. Czerny everything and to trust my life to him." + +Now, she heard me almost with angry surprise; and coming forward into +the light she stood before me with clasped hands and heated face. + +"No," she said, and her "No" was a thing for a man to hear. "No, no; +you shall never tell my husband that. And, oh, Jasper!" she cried upon +it, "how ill you look--how changed!" + +"My looks don't tell the truth," said I, not wishing to speak of +myself; "I am up and down like a barometer in the tropics. The plain +fact is, Miss Ruth, that the ship's gone, clean gone! I gave Mister +Jacob the sure order to stand by us for three days, and that he didn't +do. It means, then, that he couldn't. I greatly fear some accident has +overtaken him; but he'll come back yet as I'm a living man!" + +She heard me like one dazed: her eyes were everywhere about the room, +as though seeking something she could not find. Presently she opened +the door with great caution, and was gone a minute or more. When she +returned she had a flask of spirits and some biscuits in her hand, and +this time, I noticed, she locked the door after her. + +"Edmond is sleeping; they have sent Aunt Rachel to Tokio," she almost +whispered; "Benno, our servant, is to be trusted. I heard that you were +starving in the hills; but how could I help--how could I, Jasper? It +was madness for you to come here, and yet I am glad--so glad! And oh," +she says, "we'll find a way; we'll find a way yet, Jasper!" + +I poured some brandy from the flask, for I had need of it, and gulped +it down at a draught. Her vivacity was always a thing to charm a man; +as a girl she had the laughter and the spirits of ten. + +"What shall we do, Jasper?" she kept on saying, "what shall we do next? +Oh, to think that it's you, to think that it is Jasper Begg in this +strange house!" she kept crying; "and no way out of it, no safety +anywhere! Jasper, what shall we do--what shall we do next?" + +"We shall tell your husband, Miss Ruth," said I, "and leave the last +word with him. Why, think of it, five men cast adrift on his shore, and +they to starve. Is he devil or man that he refuses them food and drink? +I'll not believe it until I hear it. The lowest in humanity would never +do such a thing! Aye, you are judging him beyond ordinary when you +believe it. So much I make bold to say!" + +I turned to the fire, and began to warm my fingers at it, while she, for +her part, drew up one of the silk-covered chairs, and sat with her +pretty head resting in a tired way between her little hands. All our +talk up to this time had been broken fragments; but this I judged the +time for a just explanation, and she was not less willing. + +"Jasper," says she of a sudden, "have you read what I wrote in the +book?" + +"To the last line," said I. + +"And, reading it, you will ask Edmond to help you?" + +"Miss Ruth," said I, "how shall one man judge another? Ships come to +this shore, and are wrecked on it. Now and then, perchance, there is +foul play among the hands. Are you sure that your husband has any part +in it--are you sure he's as bad as you think him?" + +Well, instead of answering me, she stood up suddenly and let her dress +fall by the shoulder-knots. I saw the white flesh beneath bruised and +wealed, as though a whip had cut it, and I knew that this was her +witness to her story. What was in my heart at such a sight I would have +no man know; but my fingers closed about the pistol I carried, and my +tongue would speak no word. + +"Why do you compel me to speak?" she went on, meanwhile. "Am I to tell +of all the things I have seen and suffered on this dreadful place in +the year--can it be only that?--the long, weary year I have lived here? +Do you believe, Jasper, that a man can fill his house with gold as this +is filled--this wild house so far from the world--and fill it honestly? +Shall I say, 'Yes, I have misjudged him,' the man who has shot my +servant here in this room and left me with the dead? Shall I say that +he is a good man because sometimes, when he has ceased to kill and +torture those who serve him, he acts as other men? Oh, I could win much +if I could say that; I could win, perhaps, all that a woman desires. +But I shall never speak--never; I shall live as I am living until I am +old, when nothing matters!" + +It was a very bitter and a very surprising thing for me to hear her +speak in this way. Trouble I knew she must have suffered on Ken's +Island; but this was a story beyond all imagination. And what could I +say to her, what comfort give her--I, a rough-hearted sailor, who, +nevertheless, would have cut off my own right hand if that could have +served her? Indeed, to be truthful, I had nothing to say, and there we +were for many minutes, she upon one side of the fire and I upon the +other, as two that gazed into the reddening embers and would have found +some old page of our life therein recorded. + +"Miss Ruth," said I at last, and I think she knew what I meant, "I +would have given much not to have heard this thing to-night; but as it +is spoken--if it were twenty times as bad for me and those with me--I +am glad we came to Ken's Island. The rest you will anticipate and there +is no need for me to talk about it. The day that sees me sail away will +find a cabin-passenger aboard my ship. Her name I will not mention, for +it is known to you. Aye, by all a man's promise she shall sail with me +or I will never tread a ship's deck again." + +It was earnestly meant, and that, I am sure, Miss Ruth knew, for she +put her hand upon mine, and, though she made no mention of what I had +said, there was a look in her eyes which I was glad to see there. Her +next question surprised me altogether. + +"Jasper," she asked, with something of a smile, "do you remember when I +was married?" + +"Remember it!" cried I; and I am sure she must have seen the blood rush +up to my face. "Why, of course, I remember it! How should a man forget +a thing like that?" + +"Yes," she went on, and neither looked at the other now, "I was a girl +then, and all the world was my playground. Every day was a flower to +pick; the night was music and laughter. How I used to people the world +my hopes created--such romantic figures they were, such nonsense! When +Edmond Czerny met me at Nice, I think he understood me. Oh, the castles +we built in the air, the romantic heights we scaled, the passionate +folly with which we deceived ourselves! 'The world is for you and I,' +he said, 'in each other's hearts'; and I, Jasper, believed him, just +because I had not learnt to be a woman. His own story fascinated me; I +cannot tell how much. He had been in all countries; he knew many +cities; he could talk as no man I had ever met. Perhaps, if he had not +been so clever, it would have been different. All the other men I knew, +all except one, perhaps----!" + +"There was one, then," said I, and my meaning she could not mistake. + +But she turned her face from me and would not name the man. + +"Yes," she went on, without noticing it, "there was one; but I was a +child and did not understand. The others did not interest me. Their +king was a cook; their temple the Casino. And then Edmond spoke of his +island home; I was to be the mistress of it, and we were to be apart +from all the world there. I did not ask him, as others might have asked +him, 'What has your life been? Why do you love me?' I was glad to +escape from it all, that little world of chatter and unreality, and I +said, 'I will be your wife.' We left Europe together and went first to +San Francisco. Life was still in a garden of roses. If I would awake +sometimes to ask myself a question, I could not answer it. I was the +child of romance, but my world was empty. Then one day we came to Ken's +Island, and I saw all its wonders, and I said, 'Yes, we will visit here +every year and dream that it is our kingdom.' I did not know the truth; +what woman would have guessed it?" + +"You learnt it, Miss Ruth, nevertheless," said I, for her story was +just what I myself had imagined it to be. "You were not long on Ken's +Island before you knew the truth." + +"A month," she said, quietly. "I was a month here, and then a ship was +wrecked. My husband went out with the others; and from the terrace +before my windows I saw--ah, God! what did I not see? Then Edmond +returned and was angry with the servant who had permitted me to see. He +shot him in this room before my face. He knew that his secret was mine, +he knew that I would not share it. The leaves of the rose had fallen. +Ah! Jasper, what weeks of terror, of greed, of tears--and now you--you +in this house to end it all!" + +I sat for a long while preoccupied with my own thoughts and quite +unable to speak to her. All that she had told me was no surprise, no +new thing; but I believe it brought home to me for the first time the +danger of my presence in that house, and all that discovery meant to +the four shipmates who waited for me down below in the cavern. + +For if this man Czerny--a madman, as I always say--had shot down a +servant before this gentle girl, what would he do to me and the others, +sworn enemies of his, who could hang him in any city where they might +find him; who could, with one word, give his dastardly secret to the +world; who could, with a cry, destroy this treasure-house, rock-built +though it might be? What hope of mercy had we from such a man? And I +was sitting there, it might be, within twenty paces of the room in +which he slept; Miss Ruth's hand lay in my own. What hope for her or +for me, I ask again? Will you wonder that I said, "None; just none! A +thousand times none"! The island itself might well be a mercy beside +such a hell as this. + +"Miss Ruth," said I, coming to myself at last, "how little I thought +when you went up to the great cathedral in Nice a short year ago that +such a sunny day would end so badly! It is one of the world's +lotteries; just that and nothing more. Edmond Czerny is no sane man, +as his acts prove. Some day you will blot it all out of your life as +a page torn and forgotten. That your husband loved you in Nice, I do +believe; and so much being true, he may come to reason again, and +reason would give you liberty. If not, there are others who will +try--while they live. He must be a rich man, a very rich man, +must Edmond Czerny. God alone knows why he should sink to such an +employment as this." + +"He has sunk to it," she said, quickly, "because gold is fed by the +love of gold. Oh, yes, he is a rich man, richer than you and I can +understand. And yet even my own little fortune must be cast upon the +pile. A month ago he compelled me to sign a paper which gives up to him +everything I have in the world. He has no more use for me, Jasper; none +at all! He has sent my only living relative away from me. When you go +back to England they will tell you that I am dead. And it will be +true--true; oh, I know that it will be true." + +She had come to a very low state, I make sure, to utter such a word as +this, and it was a sorry thing for me to hear. To console her when I +myself was in a parlous plight was just as though one drowning man +should hold out his hand to another. To-morrow I myself might be flung +into that very ocean whose breakers I could hear rolling over the glass +of the curtained windows. And what of little Ruth then? + +That question I did not answer. Words were on my lips--such words as a +driven man may speak--when there came to us from the sea without the +boom of a distant gun, and, Miss Ruth springing to her feet, I heard a +great bell clang in the house and the rush of men and the pattering of +steps; and together, the woman I loved and I, we stood with beating +hearts and white faces, and told each other that a ship was on the +rocks and that Edmond Czerny's devils were loose. + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +CHANCE OPENS A GATE FOR JASPER BEGG, AND HE PASSES THROUGH + +The devils were out; never once did I doubt it. The alarm bell ringing +loudly in the corridor, the tramp of feet as of an army marching, the +cry of man to man proclaimed the fact beyond any cavil. If the clang of +arms and the loud word of command had found me unwilling to believe +that sailors must die that night on the reef to the southward side, the +voice of Edmond Czerny himself, crying by the very door behind which I +stood, would have answered the question for good and all. For Czerny I +heard, I would have staked my life on it--Czerny, whom last I had seen +at Nice on the morning of his marriage. + +"To the work, to the work!" I heard him shouting; "let Steinvertz come +to me. There is a ship on the Caskets--a ship, do you hear?" + +His voice was hoarse and high-pitched, like the voice of a man half mad +with delirium. Those that answered him spoke in terms not less +measured. Had a pack of wild hounds been slipped suddenly to its prey, +no howls more terrifying could have been heard than those which echoed +in that house of mystery. And then, upon the top of the clamour, as +though to mark the meaning of it, came silence, a silence so awesome +that I could hear myself breathing. + +"They've left the house, then," I said to Miss Ruth in a whisper; +"that's something to be glad about!" + +She passed the remark by and, seating herself in a chair, she buried +her face in her hands. I could hear her muttering "God help them--God +help them!" and I knew that she spoke of those dying out on the +dangerous reef. For the time being she seemed to have forgotten my +presence; but, after a spell, she looked up suddenly and answered the +question. + +"Yes," she said; "my husband will be on the yacht. He has not the +courage to be anywhere else. You and I are quite alone now, Jasper." + +My fingers closed tight about my seaman's cap, and I went to the door +and unlocked it. Strong and clear in my head, and not to be denied, was +something which seemed to set my brain on fire. "My God," I said, "what +does it mean?" Was it chance or madness that I should pass it by? + +"There would be men below at the furnaces and others standing to +guard," I put it to her; "how many in all do you make out that a man +might chance to meet if he went below just now, Miss Ruth?" + +She became very calm at the words, I thought, and stood up that she +might take my words more readily. + +"Jasper!" she exclaimed, "what are you going to do, Jasper?" + +"God knows," said I. "Tell me how many men there are in this house." + +She stood and thought about it. The flushed face told the story of her +hopes. Neither of us would speak all that came leaping to our tongues. + +"There would be five, I think, in the engine-house and six for the +guards," she said, and I could almost see her counting them; "the lower +gate is the second in the corridor. There is a ladder there, and--oh, +Jasper, what do you mean?" she asked again. + +"Mean?" said I; "why this: that it is time my shipmates shared your +hospitality. Aye, we'll bring them along," says I, "Seth Barker and the +others. And then," says I, coming quite close to her, "the luck being +with us, we'll shut the doors. Do you say there are two of them?" + +She said that there were two; one for the men, a small gate on the +reef; the other for Czerny--they called it the great gate. "And, oh," +she cried, while her very gladness seemed to thrill me through--"oh, if +you could, if you could, Jasper--!" + +"Whether I can or no the night will prove," said I, more quietly than +before. "One thing is sure, Miss Ruth, that I am going to try. It's +worth the trying, indeed it is. Do you find your own room and know +nothing at all about it. The work below is men's work, and there are +men, thank God, to do it." + +You say that it was a boast; aye, perhaps it was that, yet what a +boast! For think of it. Here at the very moment when it appeared that +our lives were at Czerny's mercy, at this very moment when we must look +to his cruel hand for succour or sleep in the death-pit of the island, +there comes this message from the sea and the devils go out. There is +not a sound in the house, and I know that my comrades are waiting for +my word. I have three brave men behind me; the peril fires my blood so +that, man or devil against me, I care nothing for either. Was it a +boast for a man to stake all on a throw at such an hour? Not so, truly, +but just what any English seaman would have done, saying, "All or +nothing, the day or the night," as chance should decide for him. + +Now, my hand was upon the key when I told little Ruth that it was men's +work, and without waiting to hear her wise displeasure I opened the +door and stepped out into the silent hall. One man alone kept watch +there, and he was in the shadows, so that I could not see his face or +tell if he were armed. I knew that this man was the first between me +and my liberty, and without a moment's hesitation I crossed the hall; +and aware of all the risks I took, understanding that a word of mine +might bring the guard down from the sea, I clapped a pistol to the +sentry's head and let him know my pleasure. + +"Open that gate, Benno Regnarte!" said I. + +He was a short man, burly, with curly hair, and not an unpleasant face. +So quick had I come upon him, so strange, perhaps, he thought it that I +named him at hazard, that he fell back against the iron and stood there +gaping like one who had seen a bogey in the dark. Never, I believe, in +all this world was a seaman so frightened. He could not speak or utter +a sound, or even raise his hand. He just stood there like a shivering +fool. + +"Benno Regnarte, open that gate!" I repeated, seeing that I had the +name all right; "I'll give you half a minute." + +The threat brought him to his senses. Without a word, a sign, a sound, +he opened the iron doors and waited for me to go through. + +"Now," said I, "give me those keys and march on. And by the heaven +above me, if you open your lips far enough for a fly to go in, I'll +shoot you dead where you stand!" + +He gave me the keys with a hand that trembled so that he nearly dropped +them. In spite of my injunction he mumbled something, and I was not +unwilling to hear it. + +"I am the friend of Mme. Czerny," said he, cringingly; "trust me, +signor, for God's sake trust me!" + +"When you earn the trust," said I, grimly; "now march, and remember!" + +I let him go through, and then locked the iron doors behind me. Miss +Ruth, at least, must be protected from the rogues below. The lamps in +the corridor were still burning, and, by here and there, I thought that +I saw figures in the shadows. But no man hailed me, and when I came to +the great dormitory which, at first passing, was full of seamen, I +found the door of it open and no more than six or seven men still about +its tables. If they heard me come up they suspected nothing. I shall +always say that the brightest idea of that night was the one which came +to me while I stood by the open door and counted the devils that Czerny +had left to guard his house. For what should I do, upon the oddest +impulse, but put my hand round the door very quietly and, closing it +without noise, turn the key first in the lock and then in my pocket. + +"Six," said I to the man before me; "and you make seven. How many more +in this place now, Benno Regnarte?" + +He held up his hands and began to count. + +"In the engine-room one, two, three," he said; "upon the ladder hereby +two; at the great door two more. Seven men altogether, signor. Your +party will be more than that?" + +I laughed at his notion, and, seeing that the man still shivered with +fear and was not to be counted, I went straight ahead to the greater +work I had to do. Already the alarm was raised in the room behind me, +and men were beating with their fists upon the iron door. It was ten to +one that their cries must be heard and one of the sentinels called from +the sea; but, miracle if you will, or greed of plunder if that is the +better term, none came; none answered that heavy knocking. And I--why, +I was at the cavern's head by that time, and, opening the trap, I had +spoken to my shipmates. + +"Up you come, every one of you--up for your lives!" cried I. "Do you, +Seth Barker, lift the doctor, and let Peter Bligh follow after. There's +no time to lose, lads--no time at all." + +I took them by surprise, be sure of it. That opening trap, the light +flashing down upon them, the message when they had begun to despair of +any message, the call to action--aye, how they leaped up to answer me +with ready words! + +"To God be the glory!" cries Peter Bligh, and I can hear him now. "To +God be the glory! 'It was the captain's voice,' says I, before ever you +spake a word." + +"And oh, aren't we sick of it--just sick of it!" chimes in Dolly Venn +as he climbs the ladder like a cat and stands willingly at my side. + +I pressed his hand, and showed him the revolver I carried. + +"Whip it out, lad, whip it out," said I; "we've work to do to-night for +ourselves and another. Oh, I count on you all, Dolly, as I never +counted before!" + +He would have said something to this, I make sure, but the others came +through the trap while I spoke, and four more astonished men never +stood in a cavern to ask, "What next?" + +"The ladder to the reef side," said I, putting their surprise by and +turning to the Italian in whose hands our lives might lie; "can men +hold the top of it, or is it best taken by the sea?" + +He answered me with a dramatic gesture and a face which spoke his +warning. + +"At the rockside it is straight; they shoot you from the top, captain. +No man go up there from this place. They fire guns, make noise." + +"And the report will call the others," said I. "So be it; but we'll +close that door, anyway." + +It was Greek to the others, and they gaped at the words. From the room +which I had locked loud shouts were to be heard and heavy blows upon +the iron panels. That such cries would call men from the sea presently, +I knew well. We had but a few minutes in which to act, and they were +precious beyond all words. The gate must be shut though a hundred lay +concealed in the rooms of mystery about us. On our part we staked all +on chance; we threw the glove blindly to fortune. And, remember, I +alone knew anything of that house in which we stood; that house, above +which the sea ever rolled her crested breakers and lifted her eerie +chantry. My shipmates were but astonished strangers, not willing to go +back, yet half afraid of that which lay before them. The bright lights +in the caverns, the dark doors opening into darkness, and upon these +the great corridor, so vast, so gloomy, so mysterious, were to them new +pictures in a wonderland the like to which they had never seen before +and will never see again. + +"What place is this, and where is the best parlour?" asks Peter Bligh, +his clumsy head blundering to a question even at such a time. "'Tis +laid out for a small and early, and crowns to be broken," says he. +"Have you took it furnished, or are there neighbours, sir? 'Tis a queer +house entirely." + +I cut him short and turned to the doctor. + +"What news of the foot, sir?" I asked him; "how are you feeling now?" + +He replied light-heartedly enough, wishful, I could see, to make light +of it. + +"Like a man who has bought a wooden leg and prefers the old one," said +he; asking at the same time, "What's the course, captain, and why do we +follow it?" + +"The course," said I, "is to Mme. Czerny's boudoir, and a good couch to +lie upon. Do you two get on as fast as you can and leave us to the +parley. It's coming, sure enough, and lame men won't help the argument. +We'll need your help by-and-bye, doctor, when the heads are broken." + +I made the guess at hazard, little knowing how near the truth it was to +prove. We were almost at the head of the first stairway by this time, +and the uproar in the corridor might have awakened the seven sleepers. +Impossible, I said, that such a warning should not bring in men from +the sea, sentinels who would ask by whose hand the key had been turned; +but the danger lay behind us in the shadows where we had not looked for +it. Aye, the three in the engine-house, how came I to forget them? They +were atop of us before the doctor was out of hearing, and a great +hulking German, his face smeared with soot and a bar of iron in his +hands, caught me by the shoulder and swung me round almost before I had +done speaking. + +"Who, in thunder, are you?" asks he. It was a question which had to be +answered. + +Now, I had picked up a wrinkle or two about "rough-and-tumbles" in the +years I traded to Yokohama, and though my heart was in my mouth and it +was plain to me that this was the crisis of the night, when a single +unlucky stroke or misspoken word might undo all that chance had done +for us, I nevertheless kept my wits about me, and letting the man turn +me round as he willed I presently caught his arm between both of mine +and almost broke the bone of it. Upon which he lifted up a cry you +might have heard at the sword-fish reef, and writhing down I struck him +with all my force and he fell insensible. + +"Seven and one makes eight," said I, and a man might forgive himself +for boasting at such a time; for, mark you, but two were left to deal +with, and while one was making for little Dolly Venn, Peter Bligh had +the throat of the other in such a grip that his friends might well have +said, "God help him!" + +"Hold him, Peter, hold him!" cried I, my blood fired and my tongue set +loose; but there was no need to be anxious for Mister Bligh, I do +assure you. + +"He'll need new teeth to-morrow, and plenty of 'em!" says he, shaking +the man as a dog shakes a rat. "Aye, go on, captain, the fun's +beginning here." + +I waited to hear no more, but ran at the man who closed with little +Dolly Venn. "Dolly's is the need," said I; though in that I was +mistaken, as you shall see presently. And I do declare it was a picture +to watch that bit of a lad dancing round a hulking Dutchman, and +hitting the wind out of him as though he had been a cushion. Grunt? The +lubber grunted like a pig, and every time he stopped for want of breath +in come Master Dolly again with a lightning one which shook him like a +thunder-bolt. No "set-to" that I have seen in all my life ever pleased +me half as much; and what with crying and laughing by turns, and +singing out "Bravo, Dolly!" and dancing round the pair of them, the +sweat ran off me like rain, and I, and not little Dolly Venn, might +have been doing for the Dutchman in the shadows of that corridor. + +In the end, believe me, this foreign bully turned tail and ran like a +whipped cur. It was all I could do to keep the lad from his heels. + +"Next time, Dolly," cried I, holding him back roughly, "next time, lad; +we have better work to do, much better work to do. Here's Peter needing +a box for his goods--and a pretty big one, too. Is it over, Peter? Will +he be talking any more?" I asked Mister Bligh. + +He answered me by pointing to a figure on the floor beside him, stark +and motionless and very still. Peter had played his part, indeed; I +knew that the gate of Czerny's house was open. + +"All together, lads," said I, leading them on now with a light heart; +"all together and out of the shadows, if you please. We've another gate +to close, and then--as God's above me, I do believe we have bested +Edmond Czerny this night!" + +It was something to say, a thought to thrill a man, and yet I would not +dwell upon it, remembering all that lay between us and Miss Ruth's +freedom--all that must be done in the doubtful hours before us. + +"The iron ladder by which the men come in," I asked of the Italian, +suddenly, "where is that, Regnarte?" + +Now, this man had been very frightened during the brawl at the +stairs-head; but, seeing the stuff we were made of, and being willing +all along to join with us (for I learned afterwards that he nursed a +private spite against Czerny), he replied to me very readily: + +"The ladder is the second door, captain; yet why, since no man can go +up? I tell you that two hold it, and they have guns. You cannot go, +captain! What good the key when men have guns?" + +"We'll see about that," said I. And cocking my pistol I strode to the +door he indicated. + +It was an iron door, opening inward to a small apartment cut out of the +solid rock. For a while I could see nothing when I entered the little +cavern--it laid bare; but, becoming used to the dim light presently, I +took a few steps forward, and looking up I saw a rocky chimney and an +orifice far up and the stars glimmering in the grey-blue sky above me. +This, then, was the second gate to Czerny's house, I said; the seagate +by which his men passed in. Here, as yonder where Miss Ruth's apartment +lay, the reef lifted itself above the highest tides; here was the gate +we must shut if the night were to be won. And who would dare it with +armed men on the threshold, and a ladder for foothold, and the +knowledge on our part that one word of the truth would dig a grave for +recompense? And yet it had to be dared; a man must go up that night for +a woman's sake. + +Well, I took off my boots at the ladder's foot, and thrusting my pistol +into my waist-belt I spoke a warning word to Peter Bligh. + +"This," said I, taking from Regnarte the key I needed, "this opens the +iron doors you will meet down yonder. If misfortune happens to me, go +straight through and take my place. Hold the rooms as long as you can +and let your judgment do the rest. Belike Mister Jacob will come back +with the ship. I wish to God I could think so!" I added. + +He nodded his head, and but half understanding what I was about he +watched me anxiously when I put my naked foot with wary step on the +ladder and began to go up. I saw him for a moment, a comrade's figure +in the dim light of the cavern, and then thinking only of my purpose, +and of what it would mean to one who waited for me, I clenched my teeth +and began my journey. Below me were the little cave and the glimmer of +a distant lamp, shipmates crying "God speed!" the hidden house, the +mystery; above me that dark funnel of the rock and the sky, which +seemed to beckon me upward to freedom and the sea. + +If danger lay there I could not espy it nor detect its presence. Not a +sound came from the open trap, no figures were to be seen, no spoken +voice to be heard. The moaning waves upon the iron reef, the echo of +gunshots in the silence of the night, alone spoke of life and being and +the open sea without. And I went up like a cat, rung by rung, my hand +hot upon the iron, the thought in my head that madness sent me and that +I might never see another day. + +No man appeared at the orifice, I say; the gate might have been +unguarded for any sentinel I could espy. Nevertheless, I knew that the +Italian spoke the truth, and that his reckoning was good. Edmond Czerny +was no fool to leave a sea-gate open to all the world. Somewhere on the +foothold of the rocks men were lurking, I made sure. That they heard +nothing of their friends' outcry in the corridor below, that they did +not answer it, was a thing I had not, at the first, understood; but it +became plain when the chimney I climbed shut out every sound but that +of the breaking seas, and gave intervals of silence so great that a man +might have heard a ticking watch. No, truly, it was no wonder that they +had not gone down nor heard that loud alarm, for they hungered for the +wreck; for pillage and plunder, and all the gruesome sights Ken's +Island that night could show them; and this hunger kept them at the +water's edge, hounds kennelled when others were free, unwilling idlers +on a harvest day. God knows, they paid a price for that when the good +time came. + +Now, at the ladder's head, everything was as I had seen it in the +mind's picture; and even before I made the top fresh spray would shower +upon my face, while the sea sounded as though its waves were breaking +almost at my very ears. Unchallenged and, for all I could make out, +unwatched, I grew bolder step by step, until at last I touched the +topmost rung; and, looking over, I saw the white crests of the breakers +and the pinnacles of the reef and the distant island under its loom of +gold-blue fog. Halted there, with one hand swung free and my good +pistol ready, I peered intently into the night--a sentinel watching +sentinels, a spy upon those that should have spied. And standing so I +saw the men, and they saw me; and quickened to the act by the sudden +danger, I swung over the first half of the trap which shut the chimney +in, and made ready to close the second with all the deftness I could +command. + +There were two men at the sea's edge, and they did not hear me, I +believe, until the first door of that trap was down. Perchance, even +then, they thought that a comrade played a jest upon them, and that +this was all in the night's work, for one of them coming up leisurely +peered into the hole and put a question to me in the German tongue. +This man, my heart beating like a piston, and my nerves all strung up, +I struck down with the butt-end of my pistol, and, as God is my +witness, I swung over the trap and shot the bolts and locked the great +padlock before the other could move hand or foot. For the foreigner +fell, without a cry, headlong into the sea which played at his very +feet. + +"Shut--shut, by thunder!" cried I to those below, and gladder words a +seaman never spoke to comrades waiting for him. "One gate more and the +night is ours, lads!" + +They heard me in astonishment. Remember how new this place of mystery +was to them; how little I had told them of that which I do. If they +followed me like the brave men that they were, set it down to the +affection they bore me, and the belief that I led them on no child's +errand. So much must have occurred to them as we gained the upper house +and shut the iron doors behind us. The way lay to the sea again, the +road most dear to the heart of every sailor. Let the main gate of +Czerny's house be closed and all was won, indeed. + +Aye, and you shall stand with me as, mounting a broad stairway beyond +Miss Ruth's own door, I found myself out upon a great plateau of rock, +and beheld the silent ocean spread out like a silver carpet before my +grateful eyes, and knew that the house was ours--that house the like to +which no man has built or will build during the ages. + + +CHAPTER XIX + +WHICH SHOWS THAT A MAN WHO THINKS OF BIG THINGS SOMETIMES FORGETS THE +LITTLE ONES + +I was the first to be out on the rock, but Peter Bligh was close upon +my heels, and, wonderful to tell, the Italian almost as quick as any of +us. To what gate of the sea the staircase was carrying me I knew no +more than the others. The time was gone by when anything in Czerny's +house could surprise me; and when at the stairs' head we found that +which looked for all the world like a great port-hole with a swing door +of steel to shut it, I climbed through it without hesitation, and so +stood in God's fresh air for the first time for nearly three days. + +That this was the main gate to the sea I had all along surmised, and +now proved surely. No sooner was I through the door than all the world +seemed to spread out again before my eyes--the distant island, the +shimmering sea, the blue sky shut to us through such long hours. The +rock itself, where we gained foothold, lifted itself clear and dry +above the breakers at my feet. There were steps leading down to the +water's edge, a still pool wherein boats were warped, other crags of +the reef defying the tides; these and the silence of the night +everywhere; but of men I saw nothing. The bloody fight we had +anticipated, blow for blow, and ringing alarm, the struggle for +foothold on the rock, the challenge to Czerny's men--such things did +not befall. We stood unchallenged on the plateau, and we stood alone. + +I said that it was a miracle, and yet the Lord knows it was no miracle +at all. + +Let me try and describe this place for you that you may understand our +situation more clearly, and how it befell that such a simple +circumstance brought about such a strange turn of fortune. We had come +up from the heart of the reef, as you know, and the staircase led out +to a gate of steel opening in the face of a rocky crag, which stood +well above the level even of the storm-seas. A lower plateau (unwashed +by the sea) stood below the gate, and other crags jutted out of the sea +and showed windows to the western sun. I made a bit of a map of the +land and water thereby to keep it in my memory: and such as it is it +will enable any one easily to get the position truly. If one places +himself at the main gate of this house of wonders and puts Czerny's +crew by the sword-fish reef, all will be plain to him. + +The island lay perhaps a mile to the southward; and nearer to us, at a +cable's length as I reckoned it, a group of rocky pinnacles in the open +sea marked the door we had shut and the ladder by which Czerny's men +went in to shelter. But the oddest thing of all was this, that the main +gate to this house of wonders should be left unguarded at an hour so +critical. Dark as it was, with only the soft grey light of a summer's +night shimmering on sea and land, nevertheless the mere fact that we +had passed unchallenged told me that we were alone. For why should two +men let three pass up and raise no alarm when alarm might mean so much? + +Could they not have struck us down as we came out, one by one, firing +their guns to call comrades from the sea, and bringing a hundred more +atop of us to end our chances there and then? Of course they could; and +yet it was not done. No man hailed us; we had the breaking seas at our +feet, the fresh air in our lungs, the spindrift wet upon our faces. And +who was the more surprised, I at finding the gate unguarded or my +comrades to discover that there was such a gate at all, the Lord only +knows. Like three who stumbled upon a precipice we halted there at the +sea's edge, and looked at one another to ask if such great good fortune +could, indeed, be ours. + +I have told you before that the Italian was at our heels when we gained +the rock, and it was to him now that I addressed my question. + +"You said there were two at the gate, Regnarte. Where are they, then, +and what keeps them?" + +He cracked his bony fingers many times, and began to gabble away +vociferously in his own language--a tongue I like the sound of, but +which no right-minded man should talk. When he came to some calmness +and to a sane man's speech, he pointed to the pinnacles of the lesser +gate and began to make the truth clear to me. + +"You come lucky, sir, you come lucky, true! Hafmitz gone yonder; he and +mate, too; he go to see why other men cry out!" + +I saw it like a flash. The alarm had been given at the other end of the +reef, and the two that should have guarded this, had put out in their +boat to see what the matter was. If a man had wished to believe that +Providence guided him that night, he could not have found a +circumstance to help him farther on the road. I make no pretence to be +what folks call a religious man, doing my duty without the hymn-books; +but I believe, and always shall believe, that there was something more +than mere chance on our way in all that venture, and so I set it down +here once and for all. The fingers of the white man's God pointed the +road for us; and we took it, fair or crooked let it prove to be. + +"Luck! Luck's no word for it, my lads," said I. "If a man told such a +thing ashore, who'd believe him? And yet it's true--true, as your own +eyes tell you." + +They had not found their tongues yet and none of them uttered a +syllable. The wonders they had seen: that house of mystery lying like a +palace of the story-books far down below the rolling Pacific; the +surprise of it all; the picture of lights and rooms and of a woman's +face; and now this plateau of rock with breakers at their feet and the +island mists for their horizon; and, in the far distance, away upon the +sword-fish reef, sights and sounds which quickened every pulse--who +shall blame them if they could answer me never a word? They simply +halted there and gazed spellbound across the shimmering water. I alone +knew how far we stood from the end where safety lay. + +Now, Peter Bligh was the first to give up his star-gazing; and, shaking +himself like a great dog, he turned to me with a word of that common +sense which he can speak sometimes. + +"'Tis a miracle, truly, and a couple of doors to it," cried he, like +one thinking keenly. "Nevertheless, I make bold to say that if they +have a key to yonder hatch we are undone entirely, captain." + +I sat upon a crag of the rock and tried to think of it all. Czerny's +men would return in an hour, or two at the most, and the truth would be +out. They would come--the seamen to the lesser gate, the others to this +door of steel by which we sat--and, finding that knocking did not open, +they would take such measures as they thought fit to blast the doors. A +gun well fired might do as much if gun could be trained upon the reef. +Once let them inside and it needed no clever tongue to say how it would +fare with us or with those we sought to protect. No man, I said, would +live to tell that story, or to carry the history of Edmond Czerny's +life to a distant city. All that lay between us and life was this door +of steel shutting like a port-hole in the solid rock. And could we hold +it against, it might be one, it might be three hundred men? That was a +question the night must answer. + +"Regnarte," I said, upon an impulse, "you have guns in this house?" + +He held up his fingers and opened them many times to express a great +number. + +"One, two, three hundred guns," said he. "Excellency has them all; but +here one gun much bigger than that. You seamen, you shall know how to +fire him, captain. Excellency say that no man take the gate while that +gun there. Ah! the leg on the other boot now!" + +Now he cracked his fingers all the time he said this, and shook his +keys and danced about the plateau like a madman. For a while I could +make neither head nor tail of what he meant; but presently he turned as +though he would go down to the cabins again, and, standing upon the +very threshold of the staircase, he showed me what I had never seen or +should have looked for in twenty years--the barrel of a quick-firing +gun and the steel turret which defended it. + +"'Tis a pom-pom, or I'm a heathen nigger!" cries Peter Bligh, half mad +at the sight of it. "A pom-pom, and a shield about it. The glory to +Saint Patrick that shows me the wonder!" + +And Dolly Venn, catching hold of my hand in like excitement, he says: + +"Oh, Mr. Begg, oh, what luck, what luck at last!" + +I crossed the plateau and saw the thing with my own eyes. It was a +modern Krupp quick-firing gun, well kept, well fitted, well placed +behind a shield of steel which might defend those who worked it against +a hundred. Those who set it upon the rock so set it that not only the +near sea but the second gate could be covered by its fire. It would +sweep the water with a hail of lead, and leave unseen those that did +the work. And the irony of it was chiefly this, that Edmond Czerny, +seeking to defend the door of his house against all the world, now shut +it upon himself. + +"Yes," said I, at last, and I spoke almost like a man drunk with +excitement; "give me shell for that, and we'll hold the gate against +five hundred!" + +The hope of it set every nerve in my body twitching; sweat, I say, +began to roll down my face like rain. + +"You have a magazine in this place," I continued, turning upon the +Italian in a way that surprised him; "you have arms in this house and +shot for that gun. Where are they, man, where are they?" + +He stood stock-still with fright, and stammered out a broken reply. + +"Excellency has the key, captain--I show you! Don't be angry, captain!" + +He turned to enter the house again, and I followed him, as eager a man +as ever hunted for that which might take a fellow-creature's life. + +"Do you, Peter and Dolly, keep a watch here," said I, indicating the +place, "while I go below with this man. We must hold the gate, lads, +hold it with our lives! If the two yonder come back, be sure you close +their mouths. You understand, Peter--close their mouths!" + +"Aye, I understand, captain!" said he, very quietly. "They'll not sing +hymns when I've done with them!" + +I followed the Italian down the stairs, and we made for the great hall +again. Many lights were burning there, and the figures of women passed +in and out of the splendid rooms. At the far corner, opposite Miss +Ruth's own apartment, the Italian came to a halt and began to gabble +again. + +"Excellency live here, sir," said he; "the gun-room--you go right +through to him; but Excellency, he have the key. Me only doorman. I +speak true, sir!" + +I opened the door of the room he indicated, and feeling upon the wall +switched on a lamp. It was the palace of a place, with great book-racks +all round it, and arm-chairs as long as beds in every corner, and +instruments and tables and pretty ornaments enough to furnish a +mansion; but for none of these things had I eyes that night. Yonder, at +the end of the room, a curtain opened above a door of iron; and through +that door I saw at a glance the way to the gun-room lay. Ah, how my +head tried to grapple with the trouble! The keys--where lay the keys? +What chance or miracle would show me those? Was the key on Czerny's +person or here in one of the drawers about? How much would I have paid +to have been told that truly! But how to open it! + +Now the Italian watched me with curious eyes as I went up to the door +and drew the curtain back from it. A quick glance round the room did +not show me what common sense was seeking--an iron safe in which +Czerny's keys might lie. That he would keep the key of the armoury in +the room, unless it were on his person, I had no doubt; and argument +began to tell me that, after all, a safe might not be necessary. If +alarm came it would come from the sea; or from the lower doors, which +were locked against his devil's crew. I began to say that the keys +would be in a drawer or bureau, and I was going to ransack every piece +of furniture, when--and this seemed beyond all reason--I saw something +shining bright upon a little table in the corner, and crossing the room +I picked up the very thing for which a man might have offered the half +of his fortune. + +"Heaven above!" said I, "if this is it--if this is it----" + +And why should it not have been? News of the wreck had come to the +house like a sudden alarm leaping up in the night; the keys, which I +held with greedy fingers, might they not have been in Czerny's hands +when the bell clanged loudly through the startled corridors? I saw him, +forgetful in his very greed, serving out rifles to his willing men, +running up at hazard to be sure of the truth, leaving behind him that +which might open his house to the world forever. And in my hand the +fruit of his alarm was lying. + +Ah, Heaven! it was the truth, and the door opened at my touch, and arms +for a hundred men glittered in the dim light about me. + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FIRST ATTACK IS MADE BY CZERNY'S MEN + +We carried the shot to the stairs' head, each man working as though his +own life were the price of willing labour. If Miss Ruth had tidings of +the great good fortune the night had sent to us, she would neither stay +our hands with questions nor wait for idle answers. For a moment I saw +her, a figure to haunt a man, looking out from the door of her own +room; but a long hour passed before I changed a word with her or knew +if that which we had done would win her consent. Now, indeed, was Ruth +Bellenden at the parting of the ways, and of all in Czerny's house her +lot must have been the hardest to bear. She had blotted the page of her +old life that night and it never would be rewritten. None the less, a +woman's courage could show me a bright face and all that girlish +gentleness which was her truest charm. Never once would she speak of +her own trouble, but always lightly of ours; so that we three--little +Ruth, Dr. Gray, and Jasper Begg--might have been friends met upon any +common adventure, and not at the crisis of that desperate endeavour. +And so I think it will befall in all the perilous days, that what is +written in the story-books about loud exclamations and pale faces and +all the rest of it is the property of the story-teller, and that in +plain truth you find none of these things, but just silent actors and +simple talk, and no more noise of the difficulty than the common day +will bring. This, at least, is my memory of that never-to-be-forgotten +night. To-morrow might give us life or death--a grave beneath the seas +or mastership of that house of mystery; though of this no word passed +between us, but briefly we gave each other the news and asked it in +return. + +"Captain," says the doctor, he being the first to speak, "they tell me +you've struck a gun-store. Is it true or false?" + +I told him that it was true, and making light of it--for I did not wish +Miss Ruth to be upset before there was good reason--I named another +thing. + +"Yes," said I, "we shall defend ourselves if there's need, and give a +good account, I hope. For the rest, we'll take it as we find it. I am +trusting that Mister Czerny will listen to common sense and not risk +bloodshed. If he does, the blame be on his own head, for I shall do my +best to make it easy for him." + +"I know you will--I know you will, Jasper," says little Ruth, closing +her hand upon mine, and not caring much what the doctor thought of it, +I'll be bound; "we can do no more than our duty, each of us. Mine is +very hard, but I shall not turn from it--never, while I know that duty +says, 'Go on!'" + +"That I'm sure you won't, Miss Ruth," was my answer to her; "if ever +duty justified man or woman it justifies you and I this night. Let us +begin with that and all the rest is easy. What we are doing is done as +much for the sake of our fellow-men as for ourselves. We work for a +good end--to let the world know what Ken's Island harbours and to keep +our fellow-men from such a place. Accomplish that much, and right and +humanity owe us something, though it's not for me to speak of it, nor +is this the time. My business is to hold this house against the devils +who are pillaging the ship yonder. The sea-gate I can take care of, +Miss Ruth. It's what's below in the pit that I fear." + +She listened with a curiosity which drank in every word and yet was not +satiated. Nevertheless, I believe but half of my story was plain to +her. And who blames her for that? Was not it enough for such a bit of a +girl to say, "My friends are with me. I trust them. They will win my +liberty." The arguments were for the men--for Mister Gray and me, who +sought a road in the darkness, but could not find one. + +"Two doors to this house, captain," says the doctor, after a little +while, "and one of them shut. So much I understand. Are you sure that +the cavern below is empty, or do you still count men in it?" + +"'Tis just neither way," said I, "and that's the worst of it, doctor. +The sea's to be held while the shell lasts and perhaps afterwards; but +if there are men down below, why, then it's another matter. I'm staking +all on a throw. What more can I do?" + +He leaned back upon the sofa and appeared to think of it. Presently he +said: + +"Captain, a man doesn't shoot with his foot, does he?" + +And then, not waiting for me to answer, he goes on: + +"Why, no; he shoots with his hand. Just you plant me in the passage and +give me a gun. I'll keep the door for you--by Jove, I will!" + +Now, I saw that this promise frightened Miss Ruth more than she would +say, for it was the first time that it occurred to her that men might +come out of the pit. But she was just the one to turn it with a laugh, +and crying, "What folly! what folly!" she called out at the same time +for little Rosamunda, and began to think of that which I had clean +forgotten. + +"Jasper," says she, "you will never make a general--never, never! Why, +where's your commissariat? Would you starve your crew and think nothing +of it? Oh, we shall feed Mister Bligh, and then it will be easy," says +she, prettily. + +I made no objection to this, for it was evident that she wished to +conceal her fears from us; but I knew that the doctor was wise, and +before I left him there was a rifle at his side and twenty rounds to go +with it. + + +[Illustration: "If there is any sound at the door, fire that gun."] + + +"If there's any sound at the door of the corridor--as much as a +scratch," said I, "fire that gun. I shall be with you before the +smoke's lifted, and you will need me, doctor--indeed, you will!" + +I left him upon this and went up, more anxious than I would have +confessed, to my shipmates at the gate. I found them standing together +in the moonlight, which shone clear and golden upon a gentle sea, and +gave points of fire to the rocky headlands of Ken's Island. So still it +was, such a scene of wonder and of beauty, that but for the words which +greeted me, and the dark figures peering across the water, and +something very terrible on the distant reef, I might have believed +myself keeping a lonely watch in the glory of a summer's night. That +delusion the East denied. I knew the truth even before Mister Bligh +named it. + +"They've fired the ship, captain--fired the ship!" says he, with just +anger. "Aye, Heaven do to them as they've done to those poor creatures! +Did man ever hear of such a villainy--to fire a good ship in her +misfortune? It would be a sin against an honest rope to hang such a +crew as that!" + +I stepped forward to the water's edge that I might see the thing more +clearly. Looming up upon that fair horizon were wreathing clouds of +smoke and crimson flames, and in the heart of it all the outline of the +ship these fiends had doomed. No picture ever painted could present +that woful scene or describe its magnificence as we saw it from the +watch-tower of the reef. It was, indeed, as though the very heavens +were on fire, while the sea all about the burning hull shone like a +pool of molten gold in which strange shapes moved and the shadows of +living things were to be seen. Now licking the quivering masts, now +blown aside in tongue-shaped jets, the lambent flame spurted from every +crack and crevice, leaped up from every port-hole of that splendid +steamer. I saw that her minutes were numbered, and I said that before +the dawn broke she would sink, a mass of embers, into the hissing +breakers. + +"Good Lord, Mister Bligh!" cried I, the seaman's habit coming to me at +the dreadful spectacle, "was ever such a thing heard of? And the poor +people aboard--what of them now? What haven may they look for?" + +"They've put the men ashore, sir," said Dolly Venn, hardly able to +speak for his anxiety. "I saw two boat-loads go across to the bay while +Mister Bligh was piling the ammunition. They've sent them to die on the +island. And we so helpless that we must just look on like schoolgirls. +Oh! I'd give all I've got to be over yonder with a hundred bluejackets +at my elbow. Think of it, sir! Just a hundred, and cutlasses in their +hands." + +"Aye," said I, "and a tree for every rogue that rows a boat yonder. +Well, my lad, thinking's no good this night, nor can you get the +bluejackets by whistling. We haven't all served our time in a Queen's +ship, Dolly, and we're just plain seamen; but we'll try and speak a +word to Edmond Czerny by-and-bye, or I'll never speak another. Now, +help me with your young eyes, will you, and tell me if that's a ship's +gig yonder, or if it isn't----" + +He said that it was a ship's gig, and he pointed out that which I had +not seen before--a steam yacht lying off to the east of us and waiting +for some of her crew to go aboard. Edmond Czerny would be on deck +there, I thought, watching the hounds he had sent to the work; and if +that spectacle of death and destruction did not gratify him, then +nothing would in all the world. And surely such a sight even he had not +beheld in all his years. That shimmering molten sea, the island +catching the reflected lights and making its own pictures of them; the +distant forests, whose trees lifted fiery branches and leaves of flame; +the mist-clouds raining blood and gold, the burning steamer, the great +arena of fire-flecked sea and the small-boats swimming upon it--what +more of delight or devilry could Ken's Island give this vulture of the +deep? + +So much the night would show us as Providence willed and good hearts +might determine. + +Now, I have told you that little Dolly Venn had served in the Naval +Reserve and knew more of gunnery than the most of us. To this, I bear +witness, we owed much that night. + +"You've got a skipper's part, Dolly, lad," said I, "and yon gig begins +the trouble, if my eyes don't deceive me. Why, she's coming in here, +lad, straight to this very door, just as fast as oars can bring her. +And there's more to follow--a fleet of them, as any lubber could tell +you." + +"'Tis like a fete and gala on the old stinking Liffey," says Peter +Bligh, peering with me across the busy sea. "A dozen boats, and every +one of them full. I'd give something to see Mister Jacob to-night; +indeed, and I would, captain. We are over few for such an 'out and +home' as this." + +It was rare to see Peter Bligh serious, but he had the right to be that +night, and I was the last to blame him. Consider our situation and ask +what others would have felt, placed as we were--four willing men upon a +bit of craggy rock rising sheer out of a thousand fathom sea, and +commanded to hold the gate for our lives and for another life more +precious against all the riff-raff that Ken's Island could send against +us. Out on the shimmering sea I counted twelve boats with my own eyes, +and knew that every one of them was full of cut-throats. In the half of +an hour or sooner that devil's crew would knock at our gate and demand +to come in. Whatever way we answered them, however clever we might be, +was it reason to suppose that we could hold the rock against such odds, +hold it until help came when help was so distant? I say that it was +not. By all the chances, by every right reason, we should have been cut +down where we stood, and our bodies swimming in the sea before the sun +shone again on Ken's Island and its mysteries. And if this truth was +present in my mind, how should it be absent from the minds of the +others? Brave faces they showed me, bright words they spoke; but I knew +what these concealed. We stood together for a woman's sake; we knew +what the price might be and made no complaint of it. + +"We are over few, Peter," said I, "but over few is better than many +when the heart is right. Just you drink up that grog and put yourself +where there is not so much of your precious body in the moonlight. It +will be Dolly's place at the gun, and mine to help him. There is this +in my mind, Peter, that we've no right to shoot fellow-creatures unless +they call upon us so to do. When the gig comes up I'll give them a fair +challenge before the volley's fired. After that it's up and at them, +for Miss Ruth's sake. You will not forget, Peter, that if we can hold +this place until help comes, belike we'll carry Miss Ruth to Europe and +shut down this devil's den forever. If that's not work good enough to +put heart into a man, I don't know what is. Aye, my lads," said I to +them all, "tell yourselves that you are here and acting for the sake of +one who did you many a kindness in the old time; and mind you shoot +straight," says I, "and don't go wasting honest lead when there's +carrion waiting for it." + +They answered "Aye, aye!" and Dolly, leaping up to the gun, began to +give his orders just for all the world as though he skippered the ship +and I was but a passenger. + +"We'll put Regnarte in front," says he, "so that we can keep an eye on +him. Let Peter hail them from where he's standing now; the rock covers +him, captain, and the shield will take care of you and me. And oh?" +says he, "I do wish it would begin--for my fingers are just itching!" + +"Let them itch, lad, let them itch," was my answer; "here's the gig by +the point, and they won't trouble you with that complaint long. Do you, +Peter, give them a hail when I cry, 'Now!' If they stop, well and good; +if they come on--why, you won't be asking them to walk right in!" says +I. + +He took my meaning and set to work like the brave man that he was. Very +deliberately and carefully I saw him slip out of his coat and fold it +up neatly at his feet. He had a rifle in his hand and a pile of +ammunition on the floor, and now he opened his Remington and began to +fill it. For my part, I stood by the gun's shield, and from that place, +covered by a ring of steel, I looked out across the awaking sea. +Impatience, doubt, hope, fear--these I forgot in the minutes which +passed while the gig crept slowly across that silver pool. The silence +was so great that a man might almost breathe it. Slow, to be sure, she +was; and every man who has waited at a post of danger knows what it +means to see a strange sail creeping up to you foot by foot, and to be +asking yourself a dozen times over whether she be friend or enemy, a +welcome consort or a rogue disguised. But there is an end to all +things, even to the minutes of such suspense; and I bear witness that I +never heard sweeter music than the ringing hail which Mister Bligh sent +across the still sea to the eight men in the gig, and to any other his +message might concern. + +"Ahoy!" cries he, "and what may you be wanting, my hearties, and what +flag do you sail under?" + +Now, if ever a hail out of the night surprised eight men, this was the +occasion and this the scene of it. They had come back from the pillaged +ship believing that the sea-gate of the house stood open to them and +that friends held it in all security. And here upon the threshold a +strange voice hails them; they are asked a question which turns every +ear towards the rock, sends every man's hand to the gun beside him. +Instantly, their own vile deeds accusing them, they cry, "Discovery!" +They tell each other, I make sure, that Czerny's house is in the +possession of strangers. They are stark mad with curiosity, and unable +for a spell to say a word to us. + +They would not speak a word, I say; their oars were still, their boat +drifted lazily to the drowsy tide. If they peered with all their eyes a +the rock from which the voice came, but little consolation had they of +the spectacle. The shadows spoke no truth, the gate hid the unknown; +they could read no message there. Neither willing to go back nor to +advance, they sat gaping in the boat. How could they know what anxious +ears and itching hands waited for their reply? + +A voice at last, crying harshly across the ripple of the water, broke +the spell and set every tongue free again. Aye, it was good to hear +them speak. + +"Bob Williams," cries the voice. "What ho! my ancient! I guess that's +you, Bob Williams." + +"And I guess it isn't," roars Peter Bligh, half mad, like a true +Irishman, at the thought of a fight. "It isn't Bob Williams, and be +derned to you! Are you going ashore to Ken's Island or will you swim +awhile? It's good water for bathing," says he, "and no charge for the +machine. Aye," says he, "by the look of you cold water would not hurt +your skins." + +Well, they had nothing to say to this; but we could hear them parleying +among themselves. And presently; another longboat pulling up to them, +the two together drifted in the open and then, without a word, began to +row away to the lesser reef, whose gate I had shut not an hour ago. +This I saw with very great alarm; for it came to me in an instant that +if they could force the trap--and there were enough of them to do that, +seeing that they had rifles in their hands--the whole of the lower +rooms would swarm with their fellows presently, and I did not doubt +that the house would be taken. + +"Dolly," cried I, appealing to the lad, when, the Lord knows, my own +head should have been the one to lead, "Dolly," cried I, "they'll force +the gate--and what then, Dolly----?" + +He had leapt up when the ship moved off, and now, drawing me back, with +nervous fingers he began to show me what a man-of-war had taught him. + +"No, sir, no," says he, wildly, "no, it's not that. Help me and I'll +tell you--and oh, Mister Begg, don't you see that this gun was put here +to cover that very place?" says he. + +Well, I had seen it, though in the stress of recent events it had +slipped my memory; and yet it would have been as plain as the nose on +the face to any gunner, even to the youngest. For if Czerny must hold +his house against the world, how should he hold it with one door of two +open to the sea? That devilish gun, swung there on a peak of the rock, +could sweep the waters, turn where you might. It was going to sweep the +lesser gate to-night. + +"Round with her and quick about it," cries Dolly Venn, and never a +gladder cry have I heard him utter. "They're coming ashore, captain. +They are on the rock already." + +I stood up to make sure of it, and saw four men leap from the gig to +the rock which it was life or death for us to hold. And to Dolly I +said: + +"Let go, lad; let go, in Heaven's name!" + +He stood to the gun; and clear above all other sounds of the night the +sharp reports rang out. That peaceful, sleeping sea awoke to an hour +the like to which Ken's Island will never know again. We cast the glove +to Edmond Czerny and powder spake our message. Henceforth it was his +day or ours, life or death, the gallows or the sea. + +There were four men upon the rock when the gun began to spurt its vomit +of shot across the sea, and two of them fell almost with the first +report. I saw a third dragging himself across the crags and pressing a +hand madly against every stone as though to quench some burning flame; +a fourth crouched down and began to cry to his fellows in the boats for +mercy's sake to put in for him; but before they could lift a hand or +ship an oar the fire was among them; and skimming the waves for a +moment, then carrying beyond them, it caught them as a hail of burning +steel at last and shut their lips forever. Aye, how shall I tell you of +it truly--the worming, tortured men, the gaping wounds they showed, the +madness which sent them headlong into the sea, the sagging boat dipping +beneath them, the despair, the terror, when death came like a +whirlwind? These things I shut from my eyes; I would not see them. +The sharp reports, the words of agony, the oaths, the ferocious +threats--they came and went as a storm upon the wind. And afterwards +when silence fell, and I beheld the silver sea, the island wreathed +in mists, ships' boats in the distance like dots upon the water, the +ebbing flames where the steamer burned, the woods wherein honest seamen +suffered in the death-trance from which but few would waken, I turned +to my comrades and, hand linked in hand, I said, "Well done!" + + +CHAPTER XXI + +WHICH BRINGS IN THE DAY AND WHAT BEFELL THEREIN + +It was just after dawn that Miss Ruth came up from her room below and +found me at my lonely post on the plateau of the watch-tower rock. +Dolly Venn was fast asleep by that time, and Peter Bligh and the +carpenter no less willing for a spell of rest. I had sent them to their +beds when it was plain to me that, whatever might come after, the night +had nothing more in store for us; and though heavy with sleep myself I +put it by for duty's sake. + +Now, I was watching all alone, my rifle between my knees and my eyes +upon the breaking skies, when I heard a quick step behind me, and, +turning round, I saw Miss Ruth herself, and felt her gentle hand upon +my shoulder. + +"I couldn't sleep, Jasper," said she, a little sadly I thought. "You +are not angry with me for being here, Jasper?" + +It blew cold with the dawn, and I was glad to see that she had wrapped +her head in a warm white woollen shawl--for these little things stick +in a man's memory--and that her dress was such as a woman might wear in +that bleak place. She had dark rings about her eyes--which I have +always said could look at you as the eyes of no other woman in all the +world; and I began to think how odd it was that we two, whom fortune +had cast out to this lonely rock together, should have said so little +to each other, spoken such rare words since the ship put me ashore at +the gate of her island home. + +"Miss Ruth," said I, "it's small wonder what you tell me. This night is +never to be forgotten by you and I, surely. Sometimes, even now, I +think that I am dreaming it all. Why, look at it. Not two months ago I +was in London hiring a ship from Philips, Westbury, and Co. You, I +believed, were away in the Pacific, where all things beautiful should +be. I saw you, Miss Ruth, in an island home, happy and contented, as it +was the wish of us all that you should be. There were never lighter +hearts on a quarterdeck than those which set out to do your bidding. +'It's Miss Ruth's fancy,' we told ourselves, 'that her friends should +bring a message from the West, and be ready to serve her if she has the +mind to employ them.' What other need could we think of? Be sure no +whisper of this devil's house or of yonder island where honest men will +die to-day was heard by any man among us. We came to do your bidding as +you had asked us. It was for you to say 'go' or 'stay.' We never +thought what the truth would be--even now it seems to me a horrid +nightmare which a man remembers when he is waking." + +She drew a little closer to me, and stood gazing wistfully across the +westward seas, beyond which lay home and liberty. Perchance her +thoughts were away to the pretty town of Nice, where she had given her +love to the man who had betrayed her, and had dreamed, as young girls +will, of all that marriage and afterwards might mean to her. + +"If it were only that, Jasper," she said, slowly, "just a dream and +nothing more! But we know that it is not. Ah, think, if these things +mean so much to you, what they have meant to me. I came away from +Europe believing that heaven would open at my feet. I said that a good +man loved me, and I gave myself heart and soul to him. Just a silly +little girl I was, who never asked questions, and trusted--yes, trusted +all who said they loved her. And then the truth, and a weary woman to +hear it! From little things which I would not see, it came speaking to +me in greater things which I dare not pass by, until I knew--knew the +best and the worst of it! And all my castles came tumbling down, and +the picture was shut out, and I thought it was forever. The message I +spoke to the sea would never be answered, or would be answered when I +no longer lived to hear it spoken. Do you blame a woman's weakness? Was +I wrong to believe that you would forget the promise?" + +"I never forgot it, Miss Ruth," was my answer, "never for a moment. +'May-be,' said I to Peter Bligh, 'she'll laugh when I go ashore; +may-be--but it is a thousand to one against that--she'll have need of +me.' When I saw Ken's Island looming off my port-bow, why I said, 'It's +just such a picture of a place as a rich man would pitch upon for an +island home. It's a garden land,' said I, 'a sunny haven in this good +Pacific sea.' Judge how far I was from the truth, Miss Ruth, how little +I knew of this prison-house that, God helping me, shall stand open to +the world before many days have come and gone." + +She was silent for a spell, for her eyes were searching the distant +island, and she seemed to be scanning its fog-bound heights and misty +valleys as though to read that secret of the night of which I hoped no +man had told her. + +"The ship that came ashore last night, Jasper?" she asked, of a sudden. +"What have they done to the ship?" + +I put my hand upon her arm and led her forward to the sea's edge, +whence we could espy both the sword-fish reef and the ashes of her +bungalow at the island's heart. The day had broken by this time, quick +and beautiful as ever in the Pacific Ocean. Sunny waves rolled up to +our very feet. There were glittering caps of rock gleaming above the +island of death. Czerny's yacht lay, the picture of a ship, eastward in +the offing. The longboats, twelve of them, and each loaded with its +devil's crew, drifted round and round the master's ship; but never a +man that went aboard from them. + +"The ship," said I, "is where many a good ship has gone before: a +thousand fathoms down by yonder cruel reef. As for those that sailed +her, they live or die on Ken's Island, mistress. Last night in my watch +I heard them crying like wild beasts that hunger drives. Those who do +not sleep to-day herd together on yonder beach. I counted nine of them +not half an hour since." + +She tried to see with me, looking across the water; and presently she +said: + +"There are men there and women, too--oh, Jasper, think of it, women!" + +"Ah!" said I, "I have been thinking of it for an hour or more, ever +since I first made a signal to them. So much comes of being a seaman, +who can speak to folks when others are dumb. If they read my message +aright, they'll not stay on Ken's Island to sleep, be sure of it; but I +doubt that they'll dare it, Miss Ruth. Poor souls; their need is sore, +indeed!" + +"And our own, Jasper," says she, "is our own less? You are brave men, +and you have all a woman's trust and gratitude; but, Jasper, when my +husband comes, what will you say to him? They are a hundred and we are +but five, shut up in this prison of the sea! We may live here forever +and no help come to us. We may even die here, Jasper. There are things +I will not either name or think of. But, oh, Jasper," says she, "if we +could save those poor people!" + +It was always thus with her--nine thoughts for others and not the half +of one for herself. What she meant by the things she would not name or +speak of, I could hardly guess; but it was in my head that she meant to +indicate the corridors below and that unknown danger which iron doors +shut down. I had been a clearer-headed man that morning if I could have +put away from me my doubt of what the depths were hiding from us. But I +hid it from her always. A truce of self-deception shut out the question +as one we neither cared to hear nor answer. + +"Miss Ruth," said I, speaking very slowly, "those people have a boat, +for you can see it on yon sands. Let them find the courage to float it, +and it is even possible that Dolly Venn and I can do the rest. We +should be thirteen men then, and glad of the number. I won't hide it +from you that we are a pitiful handful to face such a horde as lingers +yonder. Why, think of it. Your husband keeps them off the yacht, that's +clear to a child's eye. What harbour, then, is open to them? The +island--yes, there's that! They can go and sleep the death-sleep on the +island, as many an honest man before them. But they will have something +to say to Czerny first if I know anything of their quality! Our plight +is bad enough; but I wouldn't be in your husband's shoes to-day for all +the money in London City. We may pull through--there would be rasher +promises than that; but Edmond Czerny will never see a white man's town +again--no, not if he lives a hundred years!" + +"It would be justice, God's justice," said she, very slowly; "there is +that in the world always, Jasper. Whatever may be in store for me, I +should like to think that I had done my duty as you are doing yours." + +"We won't talk of that;" said I; "the day is dark, but the sunshine +follows after. Some day, in some home across the sea, we'll tell each +other how we held Ken's Island against a hundred. It may be that, dear +friend; God knows, it may be that!" + +* * * + +It was five o'clock in the morning by my watch when I signalled for the +second time to the people on the beach, and half-past five when first +they answered me. Until that time I had not wished to awake Dolly Venn +or Mister Bligh; but now when it began to come to me that I might, +indeed, save these poor driven folks and add to the garrison which held +the house, sleep was banished from my eyes and I had the strength and +heart of ten. No longer could I doubt that my signals were seen and +read by some sailor on that distant shore. Driven out, as they must +have been, by the awful fogs which loomed over Ken's Island, gasping +for their lives at the water's edge, who shall blame their hesitation +or exclaim upon that delay? Over the sea they beheld a white flag +waving. Was it the flag which friend or foe had raised? There, from +that craggy rock, help was offered them. Could they believe such good +fortune, those who seemed to have but minutes to live? + +Well, Dolly Venn came up to me, and Peter Bligh, half awake from sleep; +and all standing together (Seth Barker keeping watch below) I told them +how we stood and pointed out that which might follow after. + +"There'll be no attack from Czerny's men with the light," said I; "for +so much is plain reason. If there's murder done out yonder, look for it +on Czerny's yacht when his friends would go aboard. Why, see, lads, +there are a hundred and twenty men, at the lowest reckoning, drifting +yonder in open boats. Who's to feed them, who's to house them? They can +go ashore on Ken's Island and dance to the sleep-music; but they are +not the sort to do that, from what we've seen of them! No, they'll have +it out with Edmond Czerny; they'll want to know the reason why! And let +the wind blow more than a capful," said I, "and by the Lord above me +not a man among them will see to-morrow's sun! Does that put heart into +you, Peter, or does it not? There are folks to save over there, Peter +Bligh," says I, "and we'll save them yet!" His reply was an earnest +"God grant it!" and from that moment the sleep left his eyes, and +standing by my side, as he had stood many a day on the bridge of the +Southern Cross, he began to read the signals and to interpret them +aloud as the old-time duty prompted him. + +"Eight men and a woman, and one long-boat," says he; "sickness among +them and no arms. 'Tis to know if they shall put off now or wait for +the dark. You'll be answering that, captain." + +"Let them come, let them come," said I; "how's the dark to help them? +Will they live a day in the fogs we know of? And what sort of a port is +Ken's Island in the sleep-time for any Christian man? If Czerny murders +them on the high seas, so much the more against him when his day comes. +Let them come, Peter, and the Lord help them, poor wretches!" + +I was using my arms with every word, and trying to make my meaning +clear to the poor folks on the beach. So far they had been content to +answer me with questions; but now, all at once, they ceased to signal, +and a black object riding above the surf told me that they had risked +all and were afloat, be the danger what it might. At the same moment a +sharp cry from Dolly Venn turned my eyes to Czerny's yacht; and I saw +his devils rowing their boats for the open water of the bay, and I knew +that murder was in their minds, and that the hour had come when every +veil was to be cast aside and their purpose declared against all +humanity. + +"Clear the gun and stand by," was my order to the others; "we'll give +them something to take home with them, and it sha'n't be pippins! Can +you range them, Dolly, or must you wait? There's no time to lose, my +lad, if honest lives are to be saved this day." + +He went to work without a word, charging his magazine and training the +gun eastwards towards the advancing boats. If he did not fire at once, +it was because he doubted his range; and here was his difficulty, that +by sweeping round to the east and coming at the refugees upon a new +course, Czerny's lot might yet cheat us and do the infernal work they +intended. Indeed, the poor people in the longboat were just racing for +their lives; and whether we could help them or whether they must perish +time alone would show. Yard by yard, painfully, laboriously, they +pushed towards the rock; yard by yard the devil's crew were bearing +down upon them. And still Dolly kept his shot; the gun had nothing to +say to them. No crueller sight you could plan or imagine. It was as +though we were permitting poor driven people to be slaughtered before +our very eyes. + +"Fire, Dolly, lad!" cried I, at last--"fire, for pity's sake! Will you +see them die before our very eyes?" + +His fingers trembled upon the gun. He had all the heart to do it; but +still he would not fire. + +"I can't," says he, half mad at his confession; "the gun won't do +it--it's cruel, captain--cruel to see it--they're half a mile out of +range. And the others dropping their oars. Look at that. A man's down, +and another is trying to take his place----" + +It was true as I live. From some cause or other, I could only surmise, +the longboat lay drifting with the tide and one of Czerny's boats, far +ahead of its fellows, was almost atop of her. + +"They're done!" cries Peter Bligh, with an oath, "done entirely. God +rest their souls. They'll never make the rock----" + +We believed it surely. The refugees were done; the pirates had +unsheathed their knives for the butcher's work. I saw no human help +could save them; and saying it a voice from the open door behind me +gave the lie to Peter Bligh, and named a miracle. + +"'Tis the others that need your prayers, Mister Bligh--Czerny's lot are +sinking sure----" + +I looked round and found Seth Barker at my elbow. His orders had been +to watch the gate of the corridor below. I asked him what brought him +there, and he told me something which sent my heart into my mouth. + +"There's knocking down below and strange voices, sir. No danger, says +Mister Gray, but a fact you should know of. Belike they'll pass on, +sir, and please God they'll leave the engine for their own sakes." + +"Does Mister Gray say that?" asked I. "Does he fear for the engine?" + +"If it stops, we're all dead men for want of breath, the doctor says." + +"Then it sha'n't stop," said I, "for here's a man that will open the +trap if two or twenty stand below." + +He had quickened my pulse with his tale, for the truth of it I could +not deny; and it seemed to me that danger began to close in upon us, +turn where we might, and that the outcome must be the worst, the very +worst a man could picture. If I had any satisfaction, any consolation +of that wearing hour, it was the sight I beheld out there upon the +hither sea, where Czerny's boat drifted upon its prey--yet so drifted +that a child might have said, "She's done with; she's sinking." + +"Flushed, by all that's wonderful," cries Peter Bligh, with a +tremendous oath; "aye, down to oblivion, and an honest man's curse go +with you. The rogue's done, my lads; she's done for, certain." + +We stood close together and watched the scene with burning eyes. Dolly +Venn chattered away about a shot that must have struck the boat last +night and burst her seams. I cared nothing for the reasons, but took +the facts as the sea showed them to me. Be the cause what it might, +those who would have dealt out death to the refugees were going down to +eternity now, their arms in their hands, their mad desire still to be +read in every gesture. When the truth came swift upon them, when the +seas began to break right in across their beam, then, I say, they +leaped up mad with fear, and then only forgot their prey. For think +what that must have meant to them, the very boat sinking beneath them; +their comrades far away; the waves lapping their feet; the sure +knowledge that they must die, every man of them within hail of those +very woods wherein so many had perished for their pleasure. Aye, it +came upon them swiftly enough, and the good boat, making a brave effort +to battle with the swell, went down headlong anon, and the cries of +twelve drowning men echoed even in the distant island's hills. That +which had been a placid sea with two ships' boats was still a placid +sea though but one boat swam there. I beheld horrible faces looking +upward through the blinding spindrift; I saw arms thrust out above the +foam-flecked waters; I witnessed all that fearful struggle for life and +air and the sun's bright light; and then, aye, then the scene changed +awfully, and silence came upon all, and the sun was still shining, and +the untroubled deep lapped gently at our feet. + +* * * + +The twelve had perished; but the nine were saved. Stand awe-struck as +we might, seeing the hand of God in this deliverance, the truth of it +remained to put new heart into us and to hide that scene from our eyes. +There, pursued no longer, was the island boat. Glad voices hailed us, +wan figures stood up to clasp our hands; we lifted a woman to the +rocks; we ran hither, thither, for help and comfort for them. But nine +in all, they were our human salvage, our prize, our treasure of honest +lives. And we had snatched them from the brigand crew, and henceforth +they would stand with us, shoulder to shoulder, until the day were won +or lost and Ken's Island gave up its mysteries, or gathered us for that +last great sleep-time from which there is no waking. + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTY HOURS + +It was near about midday on a Saturday that we saved the poor folks +from the island, and not long after midnight on the Monday that our +troubles came to a head. I like to call these the "sixty hours"; and as +what I have to write of them is written, as it were, from watch to +watch, so swiftly did things happen, I will try to make a diary of it +that you may follow me more closely. + +_Saturday, May 27th. At midday._ + +There are nine people rescued from the ship, and one of these a girl, +Isabel, the daughter of Captain Nepeen, of the American navy. Her +father is with her, a tall, stately man, very quiet and orderly, and +quite ready to take a man's duty in the house. Of the others, the most +part are American seamen, for this was an ocean-going steamer, Silver +Bell, trading from American ports to Yokohama. All are very astonished +at the things they have seen and heard both in this house and upon +Ken's Island; but they are too ill to take much part in them, and the +young lady lies still in a dead trance. Doctor Gray says that he will +save her; but another man, knowing less, might think that she was dead. + +_The same day. At four o'clock._ + +They waked me from sleep at this hour to tell me that the men in the +caverns below were beating upon the iron doors of the corridor, and +appeared likely to force their way up to our part of the house. Captain +Nepeen brought the news himself, and had a long talk with me. I found +him a cultured man, and one who got a grip of things sooner than I had +expected. + +"Mr. Begg," he said, "it is plain that we have fallen into the hands of +a very great scoundrel. I cannot imagine what kind of intellect has +made use of this extraordinary place, but I can very plainly divine the +purpose. It is for you and me to answer to civilization and justice. We +must begin at once, Captain Begg, without any loss of time," says he. + +I answered him a little sharply, perhaps, being not over-pleased that +he should make so light of my own part in the matter. + +"Sir," said I, "what a seaman can do I have done already, or you would +not be here to speak of it. Let that go by. The news that you bring +won't wait for civilities. It must be plain to you that if we are to +stand a siege in this house, we must hold every gate of it. There are +men in the galleries below; Heaven knows how many of them. I would name +that first and let the rest come after." + +He was put about at this, and made haste to express a gratitude I had +not looked for. His naval training prompted him to habits of authority. +I could see that he was itching to be up and acting, and I knew that he +needn't wait long for that. + +"Indeed," says he, warmly, "we owe our lives to you, as many a good +seaman will owe it in the days to come. I should have spoken of that +first. The wonders of this place drive other thoughts from a man's +head. We were half dead when we saw your signal, captain. What has +become of my fellow-passengers and the rest of the crew, God alone +knows. They put us ashore on the island after the ship was taken last +night, and nine of us, as you see, are here to tell the story. I have +heard the tradition of Ken's Island from the Japanese, but I never +believed a word of it before yesterday. Now I know that it is true. My +fellow-passengers are there, dead or dying, and at sundown I am +certainly going ashore to do what I can for them." + +"You are a brave man, Captain Nepeen," said I, "a very brave man. Where +you go I follow. We cannot leave poor seamen to perish, cost us what it +may. Yet I would not hide it from you that it is a big business, and +that the man who goes to Ken's Island to-night may never return. We are +now fourteen in this house, and our first duty is to leave it safe for +those who trust us. With your help, Captain Nepeen, we'll answer the +scum down below," said I. + +He assented very heartily and began to speak of the arms that we had +and of the manner of employing them. His fellows, I learned, were +bivouacked in the great hall, and these he waked first while I was +getting the sleep out of my eyes and asking myself, "What next?" The +room in which I lay was Czerny's own room; and now in the daylight the +sea played cool and green upon the arched windows and showed to me such +sights on the rocks without as I had never dreamed of in the darker +hours. What genius had pitched upon such a house under the waves? I +asked. What spirit of evil breathed upon this dreadful place? What +craving for solitude sent this master-mind here to the bed of the +Pacific Ocean, where it could spy upon these uncanny secrets, watching +the still green water, face to face with devilish shapes butting upon +the glass, the friend of the horrid creatures which slimed upon the +windows and crawled to their rocky haunts, or fought claw to claw in +the sight of their enemy, man? Desperate as the plight was, I must +stand a minute before the crystal panes and watch that changing +spectacle of the sea's own wonders. The very water was so near that +I thought I had but to stretch out a hand to touch it. The weird, +wild things that crept over the rocks, surely they would enter this +room presently! And Czerny could live here, cheek by jowl with +these fearsome mysteries! Again I say that man knows little of his +fellow-man, of his better nature or his worse. + +_The same day. At five o'clock._ + +We open the lower doors and go down into the galleries. Seven men are +with me and each carries a musket. The quest is not so much for those +shut down in the pit as for the life which they may send up to us. +Doctor Gray has put it in a word, and it is true. The great engine, +which draws the air from the sea's brink and drives it out in +life-giving currents through the corridors of Czerny's house, that +engine alone stands between us and eternity this day. If those below +have kept that engine going until this time, it is for their own +safety's sake. Rob them of food and drink, and what security have we +that they will continue at the task? And yet, the deed be my witness, +it was a perilous journey. No man in our company could say surely how +many of Czerny's crew he would find in the black labyrinth we must +face. No man could speak of the hidden mysteries lurking in passage or +cavern, far from the sea-gate and the sun's light. We were going into +the unknown; and we went with timorous steps, each asking himself, +"Shall I live to see the day again?" each saying to the other, "Stand +close!" + +Now, the knocking had ceased when we opened the gates, and we stood for +a little while peering down into that corridor, which I have named +already as the backbone of the lower house. Lighted it was, the lamps +still burning, its barred doors shut, its branching passages suggesting +a hive of rocky nests which might harbour an army of desperadoes. No +sound came up to us from below save the sound of the engine throbbing, +throbbing, as it fanned a breath of life and drove it upwards to us +fresh and sweet upon our faces. Whoever lurked in that abyss feared to +show himself or to cry a truce. We were hedged about by black mystery, +and, rifle in hand, we set out to learn the truth. + +There were lamps in the corridor, but in the passages branching from it +no light save that which streamed down, green and silvery, from the +windows which shut the still sea out. Oftentimes the seven with me +would draw all close together, awed by the fantastic spectacle these +glimpses of the sea's heart showed to them. At other times the nearer +alarm would set them quaking, and crying "Hist!" they would listen for +steps in the silence or other sounds than that of the engine's pulse +and the whirring fans. The very stillness, I think, made them afraid. +The horrors of the windows--above all, that horror of the nameless +fish--could frighten a man as no spectre of God's earth above. If I had +accustomed myself in part to these new sensations, if Czerny's house +seemed to me rather a refuge than a terror, none the less there were +moments when my step halted and my eyes were glued upon the sights I +saw. For here it would be a monstrous shark lying still in a glassy +pool; or there a very army of ferocious crabs, their eyes outstanding, +their claws crushing prey, their great shells shaped like fungi of the +deep; or going on a little way again I stopped before a giant porthole +and discovered a devil-fish and his nest in the deep and said that +nothing like to it had been heard or told of. Here lies a great basin +scooped out of the coral rock, and the green water is focused in it +until it looks like a prism, and everywhere, in nook and crevice, the +deadly tentacles, the frightful eyes of these unnameable creatures seem +to twist and stare, and threaten us. Such fish we counted, hundreds of +them, at the windows of the second cavern we entered; and, drawing back +from it affrighted, we went on like men who fear to speak of that which +they have seen. + +"A madman's house; it could not be anything else," says Captain Nepeen, +as pale as any ghost; "unless I had seen it with my own eyes, Mr. Begg, +no story that ever was written would make me believe it. And yet it is +true, as Heaven is above us, it is true." + +"No doubt of that," said I, "a madman's house, captain, and madmen to +people it. But of that we'll speak by-and-bye; for the shadows may +listen. Keep your gun ready; there will be others about besides +ourselves. Here's the first of them--stone-dead, by the Lord!" + +They all came to a stand at my words, and saw that which my eyes +discovered for them--the figure of a dead man, lying full and plain to +be seen in the lamp's glare, and so fallen that no one might ask you +how he had died. + +"One," said I, "and that which killed him left behind! He's been struck +down as he ran. There's the knife that did it, lads!" + +A young seaman among us shuddered when he saw the knife still sticking +in the dead man's side. The rest of us drew the body out of the light +and went on again with wary steps. We were near the great dormitory at +this time, the door of which I myself had locked; but it was open now +and the lock broken. Lamps still burned in that vast room; food lay +still upon its tables; but the story of it was to be read at every +step. Chests overturned, chairs smashed, a litter of clothes upon the +floor, broken bottles, an empty pistol, great marks upon the door where +iron had indented it, bore witness to the struggle for light and +freedom. The prisoners had fled, but life was the price of liberty. I +took one swift glance round this broken prison, and then led my +comrades out of it. + +"The birds have flown and one of them is winged," said I. "There are +five more to take, and the shadows hide them! Come on, my lads, or +they'll say that eight were scared by five, and that's no tale to tell +of honest seamen!" + +I spoke up to encourage them, for, truth to tell, the dark and the +mystery were playing strange tricks with my nerves. As we penetrated +deeper into that labyrinth I could start at every shadow and see a +figure in every cranny. The men that the dark patches harboured, where +were they? Their eyes might be watching every step we took, their +pistols covering our bodies as we hurried on to the depths. And yet no +sound was heard, the great engine throbbed always; the cool, sweet air +blew fresh upon our faces. + +Now, the first voice spoke at the head of the engine-room stairs, from +an open cavern which no lamp illumined. I had just called out to +Captain Nepeen to follow me to the engine-room, and was bidding the +others wait at the stairs-head, when a shot came flashing out of the +darkness, and in the flame of the gun's light I saw a great hulking +figure, and recognised it instantly. It was that of Kess Denton, the +yellow man, whom I had left senseless at the door of Ruth Bellenden's +bungalow more than twenty days ago. A giant figure, the head bandaged, +the arms and chest naked, a rifle gripped in both hands, this phantom +of the darkness showed itself for an instant and then vanished with an +echoing laugh which mocked and angered us. At the same moment the young +seaman who had shuddered before the dead, fell headlong in the passage, +and with one loud cry gave up his life. + +And this was the first man who died for little Ruth Bellenden's sake. + +We swung about on our heels as the report rang out and fired a blazing +volley into the darkness of the cavern. What other men lingered there, +how many of the driven ghouls who haunted the labyrinth received that +hail of lead, I shall never know nor care to ask. Groans answered our +shots; there were cries of pain, the curses of the wounded, the +derisive laughter of those that escaped. But little by little the +sounds died away, echoing in other and distant galleries, or coming to +us as whispered voices, speaking from places remote, and leaving to us +at last a silence utter and profound. + +We were masters of the bout and the engine was ours. + +"Captain Nepeen," said I, "do you and three others go back to the +stairs-head and hold it until I come. If they are afraid to face us +here, they'll never face us at all. Why, look at it. Seven men out in +the light, as fair a target as a woman might ask for, and they show us +their heels. Go back and hold the gate, and I and those with me will +answer for the engine. Time afterwards to hunt the vermin out." + +He took my order unwillingly, I could see. A greater devil for a fight +than that smooth-faced American sailor I shall never meet in all my +days. Keen as a hound after quarry, he would have hunted out the +vermin, I do believe, if the path had led down to the mouth of Hades +itself. + +"You will not go alone, captain," cried he, "that's plain madness." + +"I take two to my call," said I, "and leave you the rest." + +"But what--aren't you afraid, man?" + +"Afraid! Of whom?" said I. "Of an old man--but that's too far ahead. +I'll speak of it when I come up, captain. Perhaps it's only my own +idea. But it's good enough to go on with." + +He had still something to say, and, looking first into the black +cavern, which we had filled with shot, and then down the stairs towards +the engine-room, he went on presently: + +"You take a big risk and I hope you'll get out of it. How many do you +expect to find below? + +"One," said I, quickly, "and he a friend. It's a strange story, +captain, and wonderful, too. But it will wait." + +I was at the door of the engine-room before he could answer me, and +pulling back the leather curtain I put my own idea to the proof. Just +as forty hours ago, so now that gloomy cavern shimmered with the +crimson light which the giant furnaces cast upon its rocky roof. Now, +as then, leather-clad figures moved before its molten fires. There were +the mighty boilers, the pumping engine, the throbbing cylinders, the +shining cranks; but the man who staggered towards me in the white +light, the man who uttered a glad cry of recognition, the man who fell +at last at my feet, imploring me for the love of mercy to bring him +food and drink, that man was no enemy. + +He was Clair-de-Lune, the old Frenchman, and I had but to look at him +twice to see that he was the neighbour of death. + +"Clair-de-Lune, old comrade!" I cried, "you! We owe our lives to +_you_, then! By thunder, you shame us all!" + +He was pale as death; the sweat ran in streams down upon his naked +breast; his words came like a torrent when he tried to tell me all. + +"Three days in prison, and no man come to me," he said, pathetically; +"then I hear your voice. I say it is Captain Begg. I am glad, monsieur, +because it is a friend. I break the door of my prison and would come up +to you; but no, there is no one in the house; all gone. I say that my +friends die if I do not serve them. There are lads with me; but they +are honest. Ah, Captain Begg, food and drink, for the love of Christ!" + +He fainted in thy arms, and I carried him from the place. Again, in all +providence, I and those dear to me had been saved by the fidelity of +one of the oddest of God's creatures. + +_The same day. At eight o'clock._ + +I have begun to believe that the Italian is right, and that Czerny left +no more than eight men in the lower house. No attack has been made upon +the Americans we put in charge of the engine, nor is there any news of +those mutineers who fled from us this morning, save that which comes +from two of them, very pitiful creatures, broken-down and starving, who +have surrendered their arms and begged for food. The others, they say, +will come in presently, when the big man, whom they call Kess Denton, +will let them. They protest that their comrades are but four, and two +of them wounded grievously. I no longer feel any anxiety about that +which is below, and I have told Miss Ruth as much. She has now been two +hours with Captain Nepeen. Her way of life draws her sympathetically +towards that brave and gentle man. It must be so. The world has put a +great gulf between the simple seaman and those whom fortune shelters at +her heart. A plain sailor has his duty to do; the world would laugh at +him if he forgot it because the years have taught him to worship a +woman's step and to seek that goal of life to which her hand may lead +him. + +_An hour later._ + +We are to go ashore with the dark to see if we can save any of the +refugees marooned on the island. It is a desperate chance and may cost +good men's lives. I do not forbid it, for I have lived and suffered on +Ken's Island myself. If there are living men there now--it may be +women, too--held in that trance of death from which they must awake to +madness or never wake again, the commonest instinct of pity says to me, +"Go." I have consulted Doctor Gray, and he is doubtful of the venture. +"Mind what you are doing, I beg of you," he says. "Are there not women +to save in this house?" Miss Ruth overhears him and draws me aside, +and, putting her hand upon my arm winningly, she lifts her pretty face +to mine and says, "Jasper, you will save them!" + +I am going ashore, and Captain Nepeen goes with me. + +_At ten o'clock._ + +We put off a boat at ten o'clock and rowed straight for the open beach. +It was a gloriously clear night, with a heaven of blazing stars and a +sea like flowing silver. The ship's boats made so many black shapes, +like ocean drift in the pools of light; and Czerny's yacht, speaking of +that dread Presence, lay as an evil omen in the anchorage to the +northward. Ken's Island itself was uplifted like some mountain of the +sea, snowcapped in its dazzling peaks, harbouring its wayward forests +and lovely glens and fresh meadows which the moon's light frosted. And +over all was that thin veil of the fog, a steaming blue vapour flecked +with the richest hues; now drifting in clouds of changing tints, now +spreading into fantastic creations and phantom cities, pillars of +translucent yellow flame, banks of darker cloud as though a storm were +gathering. Sounds of the night came to us from that dismal island; we +heard the lowing of the kine, the sea-bird's hoot, ever and anon the +terrible human cry which spoke of a soul in agony. And with these were +mingled grimmer sounds, like very music of the storm: the echo of +distant gunshots fired by Czerny's men at the anchored yacht which +refused them harbourage. + +There were four with me in the boat, and Captain Nepeen was one of +them. I had set Peter Bligh at the tiller, and Seth Barker and an +American seaman to pull the oars. We spoke rare words, for even a +whisper would carry across that night-bound sea. There were rifles in +our hands; good hope at our hearts. Perchance, even yet, we should +awake some fellow-creature from the nameless sleep in the woods whose +beauty veiled the living death. + +Now, I say that Czerny's men were firing rifle-shots at the anchored +schooner, and that sound was a true chantey for our ears. What eyes +would they have for us when their salvation lay aboard the yacht? We +were nothing to them; the ship was all. And, be sure, we did not go +unwatched or helpless. Behind us, at the gate we had left, our gun +showed its barrel like the fang of a slipped hound. Cunning hands were +there, brave fellows who followed us in their hearts, while we crossed +the basin swiftly and drew near the terrible shore. If we had seen the +sun for the last time, then so be it, we said. It is not a seaman's way +to cry at danger. His word is "must," and in a sure purpose lies his +salvation. + +We made the island at the westward end that we might have a clear sheet +of water between Czerny's boats and our own; and we so set our course +that our gun could sweep the intervening seas if any eye detected us. +The land was low-lying towards the west and marshy; yet, strange to be +told, the fog lay light upon it. It had been planned between us that +Captain Nepeen and I should go ashore while the others held the boat. +We carried revolvers in our hands, but no other arms. The death-fog was +our true defence; and against that each man wore the respirator that +Duncan Gray had made for him. Sleep might be our lot, but it would come +upon us slowly. + +"It will be straight for the woods, captain," said I, "and all our +heart go with us. Your friends, who were put ashore last night, will +never stray far from the beach, believe me. We'll search the foreshore +and leave the rest to chance. As for going under, we sha'n't think of +that. It would never do to begin by being afraid of it." + +He answered readily enough that he had never thought of such a thing. + +"Where you lead, there I follow, Captain Begg," said he. "I shall not +be far behind you, rely upon it." + +"And me not far from the shore when it's 'bout ship and home again," +chimes in Peter Bligh. "God go with you, captain, for you are a brave +man entirely!" + +I laughed at their notion of it, and went a little way up the beach. +The respirator about my mouth, charged with some chemical substance I +did not know the use of, permitted me to breathe at first with some +ease. And what was more extraordinary was this, that while in the woods +the fog had seemed to suffocate me, here it was exhilarating; bracing a +man's steps so that he seemed to walk on air; exalting him so that his +mind was on fire and his head full of the wildest notions. No coward +that ever lived would have known a moment's fear under the stimulation +of that clear blue vapour. I bear witness, and there are others to bear +witness with me, that a whole world of strange figures and wonderful +places opened up to our eyes when we began to push ashore and to leave +the sandy beach behind us. And that was but the beginning of it, for +more fearful things were to follow after. + +I will try to describe for you both the place and the scene, that you +may realize my sensation, and follow me truly in this, my third journey +to Ken's Island. Imagine, if you can, an undulating stretch of lush +grass and pasture-land, a glorious meadow flooded with the clear, cold +light; arched over with a heaven of stars; bordered about by heavy +woods; dipping to the sea on two sides and extending shimmering sands +to the breaking swell on the third. Say that a hot blue fog quivers in +the air above this meadow-land, and is breathed in at every breath you +take. Conceive a mind so played upon by this vapour that the meadows +and the woods beyond the meadows are gradually lost to view, and a +wonder-world quickly takes their place. Do this, and you may follow me +more surely to a phantom city of majestic temples hewn out of a golden +rock and lifting upward until they seem to touch the very skies; you +may peer with me into abysses so profound that no eye can fathom their +jewelled depths; you may pass up before walls built wholly of gems most +precious; you may sleep in woods beneath trees silvered over with +light; search countless valleys rich in unknown flowers. And the city +is peopled with an unnumbered multitude of moving figures, the sensuous +figures of young girls all glittering in gold and jewels; the shapes of +an army of giants in blackest armour; and there are animals that no eye +has seen before, and beasts more terrible than the brain can conceive. + +Say, too, that this deadly vapour of the island so stimulates the +faculties that earth no longer binds a man nor heaven imprisons him. +Say that he can rise above the spheres to unknown worlds, can, span the +seas, and bridge the mountains. Depict him, as it were, throwing off +his human shape and seeing the abodes of men so far below him, so puny, +so infinitely small that he begins to realize eternity. Cast him down +from these visions suddenly and in their place set up black woods and +the utter darkness of nature impenetrable. Let the exaltation leave +him, the sights fade utterly, the dismal abyss of the nether world +close him in. Awake him from these again and let him reel up and +stagger on and believe that he is sinking down to the eternal sleep. +Such sensations Ken's Island will give him until at last he shall fall; +and lying trance-bound for the rain to beat upon his face, or the sun +to scorch him, or the moon to look down upon his dreams, he shall lie +and know that the world is there, and that nevermore may he have part +or lot in it. + +I have set down this account of my own experiences on the island that +you may compare it with the books of others who have since visited this +wonderful place; but I would not have you think that I, and the brave +man who stood at my side, forgot that human errand which put us ashore +in those dismal swamps; or hung back to speak of our own sensations +while others might need us so sorely. If we passed from delirium to +sanity, from the height of hysterical imagination to the depths of +despair and gloom, none the less the faculty of action remained, the +impulse which cried, "Straight on," and left us willing still to dare +the worst if thereby a fellow-creature might be saved. Burning as our +brains were, heavy the limbs, we could still push on across the +meadows, search with our eyes for those poor people we had come out to +save. How long this power of action would remain to us, what supreme +misfortune would end our journey at last, throwing us, it might be, to +the grass, there to sleep and end it all, we would not so much as +consider. Good men were perishing on Ken's Island, and every instinct +said, "You, Jasper Begg, and you, James Nepeen, hold out a hand to +them." + +"Do you see anything, captain?" I asked my companion again and again; +"we should be near them now. Do you hear any sound?" + +He answered me, gasping for his breath: + +"Not a whisper." + +"Yonder," I would go on, "yonder by the little wood; they landed there. +Can you get as far, captain?" + +"I'll try, by Heaven!" said he, between his teeth. + +"They'll not be far from the wood," said I, "that's common sense. Shut +your eyes to all the things you see and don't think about it. It's an +awful place, captain. No living man can picture its fellow." + +I waited for him to come up to me, and so placed myself that his eyes, +I hoped, might turn seaward and not up towards the woods where such +weird sights were to be seen. For this place, the angle of the great +pasture-land where it met the forest, was occupied by sleeping cattle, +white, and still, and frigid, so that all the scene, glimmering in the +moonlight, might have been cut out of some great block of marble; and +cows and sheep, and trees and hills, all chiselled by the hand of +Death. That a living thing should be speaking and moving there seemed +almost an outrage upon the marvellous beauty of that field of sleep. +The imagination reeled before this all-conquering trance, this glory of +nature spellbound. It were as though a man must throw himself to the +earth, do what he would, and surrender to the spell of it. And that, +perchance, we had done, and the end had been there and then, but for a +woman's cry, rising so dolefully in the woods that every impulse was +awakened by it and all our resolutions retaken. + +"Did you hear that?" I cried to him, wildly; "a woman's voice, and near +by, too! You'll not turn back now, Captain Nepeen!" + +"Not for a fortune!" said he, bravely; "it would be Gertrude Dolling, +the purser's sister; we cannot leave her!" + +The desire was like a draught of wine to him. He had been near falling, +I make sure, but now, steadying himself for an instant upon my arm, he +set off running at all his speed, and I at his heels, we crossed the +intervening grass and were in the wood. There we found the purser's +sister, stumbling blindly to and fro, like a woman robbed of sight, +while children were clinging to her dress and crying pitifully because +she did not heed them. + +It was an odd scene, and many must come and go before I forget it. Dark +as the wood might be by day, the moonlight seemed to fill every glade +of it, showing us the gnarled trunks and the flowering bushes, the +silent pools and the grassy dells. And in the midst of this sylvan +rest, remote from men, a lonely thicket of the great Pacific Ocean, was +this figure of civilization, a young girl decked out in white, with a +pretty hat that Paris might have sent her, and little children, in +their sailors' clothes, clinging trustingly, as children will in +confidence to a woman's protecting hand. No surprise was it to me then, +nor is it a surprise now, that the girl neither saw nor heard us. The +trance had gripped her surely; the first delirium of exaltation had +robbed her of sight and sense and even knowledge of the children. That +doleful wailing song of hers was the first chant of madness. Her steps +were undirected, now carrying her to the wood's heart, now away from it +a little way towards the sea's beach. My order, twice given, that she +should stand and wait for us was never answered; I do not even think +that she felt my hand upon her shoulder. But she fell at last, limp and +shuddering, into my arms, and I picked her up and turned towards the +sea. + +"The children to you, and straight ahead," said I to the captain; "run +for your life, and for the lives of these little ones. It will be +something to save them, captain." + +He answered me with a word that was almost a groan; but stooped to his +task, nevertheless. He knew that it was a race for their lives and +ours. + +I had the burden in my arms, I say, and no feather's weight was less to +me in the hope of my salvation and of those we strove for. The way lay +straight down, through a ravine of the low cliffs to the beach we had +left and the good boat awaiting us there. Nothing, it seemed, but a +craven will could stand henceforth between us and God's fresh air that +night. And yet how wrong that reckoning was! There were a dozen of +Czerny's men halloaing wildly on the cliff-side when we came out of the +wood; and almost before we had marked them, they were after us headlong +like devils mad in wine. + +Now these men, as we learned afterwards, driven by hunger and thirst to +the point of raving, had come ashore that very evening; it may be to +rifle the stores on the island; it may be in that spirit of sheer +madness which sometimes drives a seaman on. Twenty in all when they +landed, there were eight asleep already when we encountered them; and +lying on the cliff's side, some with arms and heads overhanging, some +shuddering in the fearful sleep, one at least bolt upright against the +rock with his arms outstretched as though he were crucified, they +dotted that dell like figures upon a battle-field. The rest of them, a +sturdy twelve, fired by the dancing madness, brandishing their knives, +uttering the most awful imprecations, ran on the cliff's head above us, +and seemed to be making straight for the cove where our boat lay. And +that is why we said that the race was for life or death. + +There are moments in his life when a man must decide "aye" or "nay" +without checking his step to do so. As things stood, the outlook could +not have been blacker while we ran through the ravine to the water's +edge. Behind, in the wood, lay the dancing death; before us these +madmen with their gleaming knives, their unearthly yells, their reeling +gait and fearful gesticulations. We had to choose between them, the +sleep in the lonely glen, or the race downward to the shore; and we +chose the latter, believing, I think, that the end must be the same, +turn where we would. + +"Keep your course, keep your course!" I cried to the captain as we ran +on. "Hold to it, for your life--it's our only chance!" + +He set one of the children on the sand, and, bidding the little one run +on ahead, he drew his revolver and stood shoulder to shoulder with me. + +"A straight barrel and mark your men," cried he, very quietly; "it's a +cool head that wins this game. We have ten shots and the butts will do +for two. You will make that twelve if you add it up, captain." + +His coolness surprised me, but it was not to be wondered at. Never from +the first had I heard this man utter one word which complained of our +situation or of its difficulty. To Captain James Nepeen a tight corner +was a pleasure-ground; and now with these yelling devils all round him, +and the vapour steaming in the woods behind, and the sea shimmering +like a haven that would beckon us to salvation, he could yet wear that +cynical smile of his, and go with lighter step, and bear himself like +the true seaman that he was. Of all that I have ever sailed with I +would name him first as a true comrade in peril or adversity. To his +skill I owed my life that night. + +"One," said he, suddenly, when a great head showed itself on the cliff +above us and was instantly drawn back. So quick had he been, so wild +did the aim appear, that when a body rolled presently down the grassy +bank and lay stark before us I could not believe that a bullet had done +its work. + +"One," cried he again, triumphantly--"and one from twelve leaves +eleven. Ha, that's your bird, captain, and a big one!" + + +[Illustration: Another man fell with a loud cry.] + + +I had pulled my trigger, prompted by his example, and another man from +the cliff above lifted his arms and fell with a loud cry. And this was +the astonishing thing, that though we two were caged in a ravine like +rats in a trap, and had shot two of the devils stone-dead, no answering +shot was fired from above, no rifle levelled at us. + +"No arms," cries the captain, presently; "and most of them half drunk. +We're going through this, Mister Begg, right through, I assure you!" + +Well, I began to believe it; nevertheless, there were men on the shore +before us, halloaing madmen, with clasp-knives in their hands and +murder in their faces. Clear in the moonlight you could see them; the +still air sent up their horrid imprecations. Those men we must pass, I +said, if we would reach the boat. And we passed them. It seems a +miracle even when I write of it. + +Now, we had halted at the foot of the ravine and were just prepared to +go headlong for the six, believing, it may be, that one at least of us +must fall, when they fired a shot, not from the gun at the watch-tower +gate, but from Czerny's own yacht away in the offing; and coming plump +down upon the sand, not a cable's length from our own boat, a shell +burst with a thunderous explosion, and scattering in fragments of +steel, it scared the mutineers as no rifle could have done. Roaring out +like stricken bulls, cursing their master in all tongues, they began to +storm the cliff-side nimbly and to run for the shelter of the woods; +but some fell and rolled backward to the sand, some turned on their own +knives and lay dead at the gully's foot; while those who gained the +summit stood all together, and wailing their doleful song they yelled +defiance at Czerny's ship. + +But we--we made the boat; and falling half-dead in it, we thrust it +from the beach and heard our comrades' voices again. + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE END OF THE SIXTY HOURS + +_The same night. Off Ken's Island. Half-past twelve o'clock._ + +We have not returned to the watch-tower rock, nor can we bring +ourselves to that while there is any hope left to us of helping those +whom Czerny marooned on the dangerous shore. Our gig drifts lazily in a +pool of the whitest moonlight. We can still make out the ship's boats +lying about Czerny's yacht, and the angry crews which man them. From +the beach itself rises up the mutineers' wail of agony, like a wild +beast's cry, at one time loud and ferocious, then dying away in a +long-drawn cry, which haunts the ear. Ever and anon, as the mood takes +them, the gunners on Czerny's yacht let fly at us with their erring +shells; but they smite the air or hurt the water, or drop the bounding +fire on the shimmering spread of sand beyond us. Perhaps it is that +this employment occupies the minds of the longboats' crews and keeps +them from reckoning with the master who has befooled them. They, at +least, are at the crisis of their peril. Afloat there on a gentle swell +they must know that any hour may bring a changing wind and a breaking +sea, and a shore rockbound and unattainable. They are playing with +chance, and chance will turn upon them presently. Let them make for the +island where the laughing woods say "Come!" and the heralds of sleep +will touch them upon the foreheads, and raving, dreaming, they will +fall at last, just victims of the island visions. Say that their brute +intelligences do not yet understand this; but hunger and thirst will +teach them ere the dawn, and then reckoning must come! + +All this I foresaw as we let the boat drift by the sandy bays, and +spake, one to another, of to-morrow and that which it must bring. +Whatever our own misfortune might be, that of Czerny's men was worse a +hundredfold. For the moment it amused them to see the shells plunging +and hissing in the sea about us; for the moment the desire to be quit +of us made them forget how it stood with them and what must come after. +But the reckoning would be sure. Let a capful of wind come scudding +across that glassy sea, and all the riches in the world would not buy +Edmond Czerny's life of these sea-wolves who sought it. + +"They'll stand by until they know the worst, and then nothing will hold +them," I said to my comrades. "If they think they can get aboard the +yacht, they'll do so and make for some safe port. If not, they'll try +to rush the house. Assume that they are driven hard enough and no gun +will keep them off. Let ten or twenty go down, the rest will come in. I +am thinking that we should get back to the house, lads, and not leave +it to younger heads. We've done what we could here, and it's plainly +useless to go on with it!" + +They were all with me in this, none more so than Captain Nepeen, who, +up to this time, had been for the shore and the friends who might be +found there. + +"At least we have made every prudent effort; and there are others to +think of," said he. "If they had a gunner worth a groat, we should not +be where we are, captain. You must allow something to chance and a +lucky shot. They may get home even yet. I will not ask you what that +would mean, for you are a seaman and you know." + +His words, I think, recalled us to the danger. No hope of rescue +rewarded our eyes when we scanned the black woods and the lonely +fore-shore of the forbidden land. Dark and terrible in the moonlight, +like some mighty beacon of evil rising up above that sleeping sea, it +seemed to say to us, "Go, turn back; remember those who count upon +you." And we pulled from it reluctantly out into the broad sea, and +breathed a full breath as we left its vapours and its fetid shores. + +Three shots were fired at us while we crossed the open channel, and one +fell so close that we could see the cleavage of the water and feel the +silver spray upon our heated faces. This quickened our oars, you may be +sure, and set our course true and straight for the house, whose iron +gate stood up like a fortress of the deep and opened its rocky shelter +to us. Clair-de-Lune was there, too, halted and motionless by the sea's +brink; Dolly Venn stood at his side; and once I thought that I saw Miss +Ruth herself peering across the lapping wavelets and watching us with a +woman's anxious eyes. + +Nor did we go unobserved by those who had so much to gain if mischance +should befall us in that last endeavour. Like pirates' junks, slipping +from a sheltered creek, the devils in the longboats espied us in the +moonlight and began to row towards us and to hail us with those wild +shouts which yesterday we had heard even in the House Under the Sea. +Yet, I witness, they did not affright us. We knew that sure eyes +watched them from the reef; no lads' playing at the length of a +watchdog's chain, kept more surely from the dog's teeth than those +night-birds from the gun's range. Shots they fired--wild, reckless +shots, skimming the water, peppering the sky, whistling in the clear +air above us. But the boats drew no nearer, and it seemed that we must +touch our haven unharmed, when the American seaman, stretching out his +arms in a gesture fearful to think of, and ceasing to row with horrid +suddenness, fell backward without any word and lay, a dying man, before +us. + +They had shot him through the heart; and he was the second who fell for +Ruth Bellenden's sake. + +_Sunday morning. Five o'clock._ + +I have known little sleep for the last thirty hours, nor can I sleep at +the crisis of our misfortunes. It is a still grey morning, with heavy +cloud in the East, and lapping rhythmical waves beating upon the +windows of the house as though anon a gale must blow and all this +torrid silence be swept away. + +I cannot conceal it from myself what a gale would mean to us; how it +must scatter the open boats, drifting there at the mercy of a Pacific +sea; how, perchance, it might even lift the fog from Ken's Island and +show us sunny fields and sylvan woods, a harbourage of delight to which +all might flock with leaping hearts. And yet, says reason, if it so +befall that you yourselves may go ashore to yonder island, what logic +shall keep Czerny's men from the same good anchorage? They are as +twenty to one against you. If there are houses there, and stores for +the sun-time, who will shut them to this horde of desperadoes? Aye, the +head reels to think of it; the hours pass slowly; to-morrow we shall +know. + +Now, I have thought of all this, and yet there are other things in my +mind, and they jostle one with the other, the sweet and the bitter, the +good and the bad, until it seems to me that I no longer get at the +heart of it, but am as a man drifting without a chart, set free on some +unknown sea whose very channels I may not fathom. Three hours ago when +I came ashore and lifted the dead man out, and sent the sleeping girl +to shelter, Ruth Bellenden's hand was the first to touch my own, her +word the first my ear would catch. So clear it was, such music to a man +to hear that girlish voice asking of his welfare as a thing most dear +to her, that all the night vanished at the words, and Ken's Island was +lost to my sight, and only the memory of the olden time and of my +life's great hope remained to me. + +"Jasper!" she said, "it was not you--oh, Jasper, it was not you, then!" + +I stepped from the boat, and, taking her hand in mine, I drew her a +little nearer to me; then, fearful of myself, I let go her hand again +and told her the simple truth. + +"Miss Ruth," said I, "it is yon poor fellow. I will not say 'Thank +God!' for what right have I to serve you before him? He did his duty; +help me to do mine." + +She turned away and gazed out over the sea to the yacht still +thundering its cannon and ploughing with its wasted shot the +unoffending sea. Deep thoughts were in her mind, I make sure, a torture +of doubt, and hope, and trepidation. And I--I watched her as though all +my will was in her keeping, and there, on the lonely rock, was the +heart of the world I would have lived and died in. + +"You cannot forbid me to be glad, Jasper," she said, presently; "you +have given me the right. I saw you on the shore. Oh! my heart went with +you, and I think that I counted the minutes, and I said, 'He will never +come; he is sleeping.' And then I said, 'It is Jasper's voice.' I saw +you stand up in the boat and afterwards there were the shadows. Jasper, +there cannot be shadows always; the sun must shine sometimes." + +She held my hand again and touched it with her cheek. I think that I +forgot all the place about, the sea and the men, the distant shore and +the island's shape, the still night and the dawn to come; and knowing +nothing save that Ruth, little Ruth, was by my side, I went into +dreamland and said, "It shall be forever." + +_Monday. At six o'clock._ + +I cannot sleep and I have come to keep watch on the rock. Old +Clair-de-Lune is with me, but silence is in the house below, where some +sleep and some are seeking sleep. Of all who can discuss our future +bravely, none speaks better sense than this simple old man; and if he +rebukes my own confidence he rebukes it justly. I ask him when the +sleep-time will pass and the sun-time come. He shakes his head, he will +not prophesy. + +"God forbid that it should pass," says he. "They will go ashore to the +island, and we--we perish," says he. "Pray that it shall not be, +captain. We have food for three week--month; but what come after? You +pick up by ship, you say. But not so. When your ship come here the +devils set trap, and all is wreck and burn and steal! They take your +ship and you perish, you starve. Ah, monsieur, pray that the sun-time +do not come." + +I lay back upon the rock and thought of it. This old man, surety, was +right. Let the fog drift from Ken's Island, the woods awake, life stir +again, and how stood we--where was our benefit? + +"It is a fearful position," said I, "and Heaven alone knows what the +end of it will be. That something has happened to Mister Jacob and my +ship I can no longer doubt, Clair-de-Lune. The Southern Cross is on the +rocks, be sure of it, and good men with her. Take it that they are +picked up and set on the American coast. What then? Who finds the money +for another steamer? It is not to be thought of: we must dismiss it +from our minds. You say that we have food for three weeks, and the +condensers down below will give us water. But it won't be three weeks +before we are in or out of it, my friend. If we are starving, others +are starving--those out yonder by Czerny's yacht. He'll give them food +to-day; but how long will they drift like cattle for the rain to beat +on? Your sense will tell you that they won't drift long, but will be +asking questions and wanting their answers. Aye, Clair-de-Lune, we'll +listen with all our ears when that begins!" + +He had a glass with him and he began to scan the yacht very closely and +the ship's boats about it. I had not noticed that there was an unusual +stir in the anchorage, but he remarked it now and drew his own +conclusions. + +"They give rogue man arms and cutlass, captain; he go overboard too. I +see them pass from boat to boat. Ah, there he is, the bread and the +biscuit. They get breakfast and then come here, captain. What else you +look for? They not lie there all the days. They too much devil for +that. We few and little; they big and strong. Why shall they not take +the house? Some die, but other mans remain. Czerny he say to them, +'Great much price if you kill the English captain.' He know that all +his money is locked up down here. Why shall he not come, captain?" + +I could not tell him why. My own glasses showed me the things he made +mention of and others beside. Arms, I saw, were being passed down from +the yacht to the small boats clustered about it. There was no sunlight +to glisten upon the bright barrels of the rifles, but I could +distinguish them nevertheless; and cutlasses were handed from boat to +boat--a good fifty of them I counted, and there were more to come. What +the meaning of it was a child might have told you. Truce prevailed +between master and man in their common desire of possession. The last +great attack was to be made upon us--the rock to be rushed. Even a +woman would have divined as much. + +"Clair-de-Lune," said I, "the end is coming at last; and it won't be +very long. We're dealing with a remarkable man, and it is not to be +supposed that he'll sail away and leave us here without one good blow +for it. Aye, it's a great mind altogether, and there's the plain truth. +Who else but the cleverest would have thought of this place, and come +here like a human vulture to feed upon ships and men? There have been +many Edmond Czernys in the world; but this man I name chief among them, +and others will name him also. We set ourselves against a hand in a +million; stiff backs we need to wrestle with that; but we'll do it, old +comrade, we'll see it through yet!" + +It was a wild boast, yet, God knows, a well meant one. Perhaps, if he +had pushed me to the confession, I would have told him that I was far +from believing my own prophecies, and that, in truth, I realized, as he +did, the perilous hazard of our position and all that defeat might mean +to us. Just as he knew, so did I know that before the night came down +dead men might lie on the rocks about me and be engulfed in that sea +which beat so gently upon the lonely shore; that living men from the +boats yonder would swarm in the galleries below, and women's cries be +heard, and something follow which even I dare not contemplate. The +dreadful truth, perhaps, kept our tongues away from it; we talked of +other things, of Czerny and his house, and of what we would do if the +best should befall. + +"He wonderful man," old Clair-de-Lune went on, standing, like some old +Neptune of the sea, bolt upright on the pinnacle of rock; "wonderful +man, and none like him! Thirteen year ago he first find this place, and +thirteen year he wreck the ships. I know, for there was a day when he +tell me much and I listen. He say, 'Make great fortune and no trouble +to earn him. If sailor man drown, more fool he.' All the years back, +hundreds of years, ships perish on Ken's Island. Czerny he hear the +story in Japan, and he come to see the place for himself. They say he +once sleep through the fog and mad afterwards. He no longer have right +or wrong or care about the world. He come to Ken's Island and grow +rich. Then his engineers find this rock. Once, long time ago, it have +been part of the island, captain. The--what you say?--volocano, he +shoot fire into the sea; but that was before the peoples. Czerny, he go +down into the rock and he discover great cavern and little cavern, and +he say, 'I live here in the sleep-time.' Plenty of money make fine +house. He shut out the sea wherever he would come in; he build great +windows in the rock; his _mecanicien_, he put up engine and draw air +from the skies. Long year Czerny live here alone. Then one day come +madame--ah, captain, I was sorry when I saw madame come! 'She will +suffer here,' I said; she have suffered much already. Czerny is not as +other men. If madame say to him, 'You good man; you and I live here +always,' then she have everything, she go where she will, she become +the master. But I say when I see her, 'No, never she will not say that. +She good woman.' And then I fear for her, captain; I fear greatly. I +did not know she have the English friend who will save her." + +He turned to me wistfully, and I read in his eyes of that deep +affection which little Ruth Bellenden has never failed to win from all +who know and learn to love her. + +_Monday. At three o'clock._ + +We held a council of war in the great hall at this hour, and came upon +a plan to meet the supreme attack which must be made upon us tonight. +We are all of one mind, that Czerny will seek to rush the house under +cover of the darkness, and in this the sunless day must help him. We +cannot look for any moon or brightness of the stars which shall aid our +eyes when the sun has set. It will be a dark night, cloudy and, +perhaps, tempestuous. If the storm should break and nature be our ally, +then the worst is done with already and the end is sure. But we have no +right to hope for that. We must face the situation like thinking men, +prepared for any eventuality. + +Now, I had slept a little at the height of the day, and the first news +that they brought to me when I waked was of the surrender of the two +that remained in the caverns below, and of the fidelity of the other +four of Czerny's men who already had joined us. So far as I can make +out there may be but one living man in the lower story of the house, +and for him and his goodwill we care nothing. + +The rest of the crowd we fought, seeing, perhaps, that fortune goes +with us so far, will themselves stand on fortune's side and serve us +faithfully. That much, at least, I put to my fellows as we sat round +the table in the hall and made those plans which reason dictated. + +"They'll serve," said I, "as long as we are on the winning side. We'll +put them in the engine room, where they'll keep the fires going for +their own sakes. If they so much as look false, then shoot them down. +It is in my mind, Captain Nepeen," said I, "that we'll have need of +such a man as you, and three good fellows with you, at the lesser gate. +You should find cover on the rocks while we hold the near sea for you. +If Czerny gets a foothold there and beats that door in, I need not tell +you how it will go with us. For the rest, I leave two men at the +stairs-head and two in this hall to be at Miss Ruth's call. Peter Bligh +and Dolly Venn go up with me to work the gun. If they rush it--well, +twenty there won't keep them back with rifles. But I count upon the +coward's part, and I say that a man will think twice about dying for +such as Czerny and his ambitions. Let that be in all your minds, and +remember--for God's sake remember--what you are fighting for." + +"For women's honour and good men's lives," said Captain Nepeen, +quietly. "Yes; that's the stake, gentlemen. I don't think we need say +any more to nerve our arms and clear our eyes. We fight for all that is +most dear to honest men. If we fail, let us at least fail like true +seamen who answer 'Here' when duty has called." + +_At six o'clock._ + +We all dined together at this time in the large dining-room near by +Miss Ruth's boudoir. An odder contrast than that between this fine room +below and the still, desolate sea above, no mind could imagine. For, on +the one hand, were the insignia of civilization--luxury, display, the +splendid apartment, the well-dressed women, the table decked out with +fine linen and silver, the windows showing the sea-depths and all their +wondrous quivering life; on the other hand, the black shapes of night +and death, the menace of the boats, the anchored yacht, the darkening +skies, the looming island. We sat down fourteen souls, that might have +met in some great country house, and there have gathered in friendship +and frivolity. Never in all my life had I seen Miss Ruth so full of +vivacity or girlish charm. Her laughter was like the music of bells; +the jest, the kindly word was for every man; and yet sometimes I, at +her side, could look deep into those grey-blue eyes to read a truer +story there. And in the babble of the talk she would whisper some +treasured word to me, or touch my hand with her own, or say, "Jasper, +it must be well, it must be well with us!" Of that which lay above in +the darkening East, no man spoke or appeared to think. There was ruby +wine in our glasses; the little French girls capered about us like +nymphs from the sea; we spoke of the old time, of sunny days in the +blue Mediterranean, of wilder days off the English shores, of our homes +so distant and our hopes so high; but never once of the night or that +which must befall. + +_Monday. At eleven o'clock._ + +We have now been at our stations for two hours and nothing has +transpired. I have Clair-de-Lune with me at the great sea-gate, and +Dolly Venn and Seth Barker are at the gun. The night is so dark that +the best trained eye can distinguish little either on sea or land. +Ken's Island itself is now but a blur of black on a cloud-veiled +horizon. We have shut off every light in the house itself; the reef +runs no longer beneath the sea like a vein of golden light, nor do the +windows cast aureoles upon the sleeping water. What breeze there is +comes in hot gusts like breath from heated waters. We cannot see +Czerny's yacht nor espy any of his boats near or afar; but we crouch +together in the shelter of the rocks, and there is water near to our +hand, and food if we seek it, and the ammunition piled, and the barrels +of the rifles outstanding, and the figures with their unspoken +thoughts, their hopes, their fears of the dreadful dawn that must be. +Whence out of the night shall the danger come? Shall it come leaping +and brandishing knives, a veiled army springing up from the shadows, or +shall it come by stealth, boat by boat, now upon this quarter, now upon +that, outposts seeking to flank us, deadly shots fired we know not +where? I cannot tell you. The comrades at my side ask again and again, +"Do you see anything, captain?" I answer, "Nothing!" It is the truth. + +_Monday. At midnight._ + +We are still upon the rock and the shadows engulf us. The lad at my +side, sick with waiting, has curled himself up upon a bed of stone and +is half asleep; Seth Barker leans against a crag like some figure hewn +out of granite; old Clair-de-Lune is all hunched up as a bundle. +Nevertheless, masterly eyes scan the lapping waters. Will the night +never speak to us? Will the day bring waiting? Ah, no! not that! A shot +rings out clear on the still night air; a flash of fire leaps across +the sea. We spring to our feet; we cry, "Ready!" The sixty hours are +over and the end is near! + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE SECOND ATTACK ON CZERNY'S HOUSE + +The shot was fired and answered at the lower gate. We had looked for +that; for that we had been waiting during the watching hours. They +would attack the lesser reef, we said, and our own good men, standing +sentinels, would flash the news of it to us, and the gun would do the +rest. Dark as it was, the blackest hour the island had given us, +nevertheless by daylight we had trained our barrels upon the reef, and +now took aim in all confidence. Twice we whistled shrilly to warn our +men; twice we heard their answering voices. Then the gun belched forth +its hail of shot and the challenge was thrown down. + +"Give it to them, Dolly!" I cried, my brain afire at the call of +action; "for every honest seaman's sake, give it to them, lad! We'll +tell of this to-morrow--aye, Dolly, we'll tell a great story yet!" + +He answered me with a boy's glad cry; I do believe it was like a game +to him. + +"Pass here, pass here!" he kept crying; "we have them every time! In +with the shot, Seth--in with it! Don't keep them waiting! Oh, captain, +what a night!" + +The others said nothing; even Peter Bligh's tongue was still in that +surpassing moment. The doubt of it defied words. We knew nothing, nor +could we do aught but leave our fortune to the darkness of the night. +The rogues who fell, the rogues who stood, the boats that came on, the +boats that withdrew, of these we were ignorant. All was hidden from our +eyes; the veil of the night cloaked from us the work we had done. If +men cried in agony, if groans mocked angry boasts, if we heard the +splashing of the oars, the hoarse command, the vile blasphemy, the rest +was in imagination's keeping. The outposts of Czerny's crew, we said, +had tried to rush the gate where our own men watched; but our own were +behind the steel doors now and the gun's hail swept the barren rock. +The dawn would show us the harvest we had reaped. + +Now, the volleys rolled their thunder right away to the hills of Ken's +Island, and the whistling of the bullets was like the singing of unseen +birds above our heads; there were oases of red flame in the waste of +blackness; we heard oaths and cries, commands roared hoarsely across +the water, voices triumphant and voices that were stilled; and then +came the first great silence. Whatever had befallen on the rock, those +who sought to force the lesser gate were, for the moment, driven back. +Even little Dolly, mad at the gun like one whom no reason could +restrain, heard me at last and obeyed my command. + +"Cease firing, lad!" roared I, "cease firing! Would you shoot the sea? +Yonder's the captain's whistle. It means that the danger's nearer. Aye, +stand by, lads," I said, "and look out for it." + +We swung the gun round so that it faced the basin before us, and, +rifles ready, we peered again in the lowering darkness. About me now I +could hear the deep breathing of my comrades and see their crouching +figures and say that every nerve was tautened, every faculty awakened. +Shielded by the night, those hidden boats were creeping up to us foot +by foot. Whatever had been done at the lesser gate had been done as a +ruse, I did not doubt. Czerny's goal was the greater door we held so +desperately, his desire the full possession, the mastery of the house +wherein lay life and treasure and lasting security. + +I counted twenty, no man speaking, and then I raised my voice. Dimly, +in the shadows, I made out the shape of a longboat drifting to the +brink; and to Dolly I said: + +"Let go--in God's name, let go, lad!" + +He stood to the gun with a cry of defiance and blazed into the +darkness. The drifting boat lurched and sagged and turned her beam to +the seas. I could distinguish the faces of men, ferocious and +threatening, as they peered upward to the rock; I saw other boats +looming over the dark water; I heard the ringing command, "In at them! +To hell with them!" and then, I think, for many minutes together I +fired wildly at the figures before me, swung round now to this side, +now to that; was unconscious of the bullets splintering the rock or of +the lead shower pouring on us. The battle raged; we were at the heart +of it. What should a man remember then but those who counted upon him? + +Now, you have imagined this picture, and you seem to stand with me upon +that split of rock, that defiant crag in the great Pacific Ocean, with +the darkness of heaven above and the darkness of the sea below, with +the belching guns and the spitting rifles, the yells of agony and the +crouching figures, the hearts beating high and the sweating faces; and +just as the outcome was hidden from me and I knew not from minute to +minute whether it were life or death to us, so will you share the +meaning of that suspense and all the terror of it. From every side now +the rain of shot was poured in upon us, the unceasing torrent came; +above, below, ringing upon the iron shield, scattering deadly +fragments, ploughing the waters, it fell like a wave impotent, a broken +sea whose spindrift even could not harm us. For a good ring of steel +fenced us about; we held the turret, and we laughed at the madness +below. + +"Round with the gun!" I would cry, again and again; "round with her, +Dolly. Let them have it everywhere. No favours this night, my lad; full +measure and overflowing--let them have it, for Miss Ruth's sake!" + +His joyous "Aye, aye, sir!" was a thing to hear. No sailor of the old +time, black with powder, mad on a slippery deck, fought, I swear, as we +four in that shelter of the turret. Clear as in the sun's day were the +waves about us while the crimson flame leaped out. Crouched all +together, the sweat upon our foreheads, smoke in our eyes, the wild +delight of it quickening us, we blazed at the enemy unseen; we said +that right was with us. + +There were, as far as I could make out, six boats set to the attack +upon the great gate, and seventy or eighty men manning them. Acting +together on such a plan as a master-mind had laid down for them, they +tried to rush the rock from four points of the compass, trusting, it +may be, that one boat, at least, would land its crew upon the plateau. +And in this they were successful. Pour shot upon them as we might, +search every quarter with the flying shells, nevertheless one boat +touched the rock in spite of us, one crew leaped up in frenzy towards +the turret. So sudden it was, so unlooked for, that great demoniacal +figures seemed upon us even while we said that the seas were clear. +Whirling their knives, yelling one to the other, some slipping on the +slimy weed, others, more sure in foothold, making for the turret's +height, the mutineers fell upon us like a hurricane and so beat us down +that my heart sank away from me, and I said that the house was lost and +little Ruth Bellenden their prey at last. + +"Stand by the gun--by the gun to the last, if you love your life!" I +cried to Dolly Venn. "Do you, Peter, old comrade, follow me; I am going +to clear the rock. You will help me to do that, Peter?" + +"Help you, captain! Aye," roared he, "if it was the ould divil himself +in a travelling caravan, I'd help you!" + +He swung his rifle by the barrel as he spoke the words and, bringing it +down crash, he cleaved the skull of a great ruffian whose face was +already glowering down from the turret's rim. Nothing, I swear, in all +that night was more wonderful than the _sang-froid_ of this great +Irishman (as he would call himself in fighting moods) or the merry +words which he could find for us even then in the very crisis of it, +when hope seemed gone and the worst upon us. For Peter knew well what I +was about when I leapt from the turret and charged down upon the +mutineers. A dozen men, perchance, had gained foothold on the rock. We +must drive them back, he said, stand face to face with them, let the +odds be what they might. + +"God strengthen my arm this hour and show me the bald places!" cries +he, leaping to the ground and whirling his musket like a demon. Seth +Barker, do not doubt, was on his heels--trust the carpenter to be where +danger was! I could hear him grunting even above that awful din. He +fought like ten, and wherever he swung his musket there he left death +behind him. + +So follow us as we leap from the turret, and hurl ourselves upon that +astonished crew. Black as the place was, tremulous the light, +nevertheless the cabined space, the open plateau, was our salvation. I +saw figures before me; faces seemed to look into my own; and as a +battle-axe of old time, so my rifle's butt would fall upon them. Heaven +knows I had the strength of three and I used it with three's agility, +now shooting them down, now hitting wildly, thrust here, thrust there, +bullets singing about my ears, haunting cries everywhere. Aye, how they +went under! What music it was, those crashing blows upon head and +breast, the loud report, the gurgling death-rattle, the body thrown +into the sea, the pitiful screams for mercy! And yet the greater +wonder, perhaps, that we lived to tell of it. Twelve against three; yet +a craven twelve, remember, who feared to die and yet must fight to +live! And to nerve our arms a woman's honour, and to guide us aright, +the watchword: "Home!" + +I fought my way to the water's edge, and then turned round to see what +the others were doing. There were two upon Peter Bligh at that moment, +but one fell headlong as I took a step towards them; and the other's +driving-knife fell on empty air, and the man himself, struck full +between the eyes, rolled dead into the lapping sea. + +"Well done, Peter, well done!" I cried, wildly; and then, as though it +were an answer to my boasts, something fell upon my shoulder like a +great weight dropped from above, and I went down headlong upon the +rock. Turning as I fell, I clutched a human throat, and, closing my +fingers upon it, he and I, the man out of the darkness and the fool who +had forgotten his eyes, went reeling over and over like wild beasts +that seek a hold and would tear and bite when the moment comes. Aye, +how I held him, how near his eyes seemed to mine, what gasping sounds +he uttered, how his feet fought for foothold on the rock, how his hand +felt for the knife at his girdle! And I had him always, had him surely; +and seeking to force himself upward, the slippery rock gave him no +foothold, and he slipped at last from my very fingers, and some great +fish, hidden from me, drew him down to the water and I saw the waves +close above his mouth. Henceforth there were but three men left at the +gate of Czerny's house. They were three who, even at that time, could +thank God because the peril was turned. + +* * * + +We beat the twelve off, as I have told you, and for an hour at least no +fresh attack was made on the rock. The sharpest eye now could not +detect boats in the darkness; the sharpest ear could not distinguish +the muffled splash of oars. We lay all together in the turret, and very +methodically, as seamen will, we stanched our wounds and asked, "What +next?" That we had some hurt of such an affray goes without saying. My +own shoulder was bruised and aching; the blood still trickled down +Peter Bligh's honest face from the knife-wound that had gashed his +forehead; Seth Barker pressed his hand to a jagged side and said that +it was nothing. But for these scratches we cared little, and when our +comrades hailed us from the lesser gate, their "All's well!" made us +glad men indeed. In spite of it all, one of us, at least, I witness, +could tell himself, "It is possible--by Heaven, it is possible--that we +shall see the day!" That we had beaten off the first attack was not to +be doubted. Wherever the mutineers had gone to, they no longer rowed in +the loom of the gate. And yet I knew that the time must be short; day +would not serve them nor the morning light. The dark must decide it. + +"They will come again, Peter, and it will be before the dawn," said I, +when one thing and another had been mentioned and no word of their +misfortune. "It's beyond expectation to suppose anything else. If this +house is to be taken, they must take it in the dark. And more than +that, lads," said I, "it was a foolish thing for us to go among +them as we did and to fight it out down yonder. We are safer in the +turret--safer, by a long way!" + +"I thought so all the time, sir," answered Dolly Venn, wisely. "They +can never get below if you cover the door; and I can keep the sea. It's +lucky Czerny loopholed this place, anyway. If ever I meet him I shall +quote poetry: 'He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel.' It would +about make him mad, captain!" + +"Aye," says Peter Bligh, "poetry is well enough, as my poor old father +used to say; but poetry never reefed a to'gallon sail in a hurricane +and isn't going to begin this night. It's thick heads you need, lad, +and good, sound sense inside of 'em! As for what the captain says, I do +hold it, truly. But, Lord! I'm like a boy at a fair when the crowns are +cracking, and angels themselves wouldn't keep me back!" + +"You'd affright them, Mister Bligh," puts in, Seth Barker, "you'd +affright them--asking your pardon--with your landgwich!" + +"What!" cries Peter, as though in amazement; "did I say things that +oughtn't to be said? Well, you surprise me, Barker, you do surprise +me!" + +Well, I was glad to hear them talk like this, for jest is better than +the coward's "if"; and men who can face death with a laugh will win +life before your craven any day. But for the prone figures on the +rock, looking up with their sightless eyes, or huddled in cleft and +cranny--but for them, I say, and distant voices on the sea, and the +black shape of Ken's Island, we four might have been merry comrades in +a ship's cabin, smoking a pipe in the morning watch and looking gladly +for dawn and a welcome shore. That this content could long endure was, +beyond all question, impossible. Nevertheless, when next we started up +and gripped our rifles and cried "Stand by!" it was not any alarm from +the sea that brought us to our feet, but a sudden shout from the house +below, a rifle-shot echoing in the depths, a woman's voice, and then +a man's rejoinder, a figure appearing without any warning at the +stairs-head, the figure of a huge man, vast and hulking, with long +yellow hair, and fists clenched and arms outstretched--a man who took +one scared look round him and then leaped wildly into the sea. Now +this, you may imagine, was the most surprising event of all that +eventful night. So quickly did it come upon us, so little did we look +for it, that when Kess Denton, the yellow man, stood at the open gate +and uttered a loud and piercing yell of defiance, not one among us +could lift a rifle, not one thought of plan or action. There the fellow +was, laughing like a maniac. Why he came, whence he came, no man could +tell. But he leaped into the seas and the night engulfed him, and only +his mocking laugh told us that he lived. + +"Kess Denton!" cried I, my head dazed and my words coming in a torrent; +"Kess Denton. Then there's mischief below, lads--mischief, I swear!" + +Clair-de-Lune answered me--old Clair-de-Lune, standing in a blaze of +light; for they had switched on the lamps below, and the vein of the +reef stood out suddenly like some silver monster breathing on the +surface of the sea. Clair-de-Lune answered me, I say, and his words +were the most terrible I had heard since first I came to Ken's Island. + +"The water is in!" he cried, "the water is in the house!" + +I saw it as in a flash. This man we had neglected to hunt from the +caverns below, striking at us in the supreme moment, had opened trap or +window and let the sea pour in the labyrinth below. The water was +flooding Czerny's house. + +"Now!" I cried, "you don't mean that Clair-de-Lune? Then what of the +engine-room? How will it fare with Captain Nepeen?" + +Doctor Gray stood behind the old Frenchman, and, limping up to my side, +he leaned against the rock and began to speak of it very coolly. + +"The water is in," he said, "but it will not flood the higher rooms, +for they are above sea-level. We are saving what provisions we can, and +the men below are all right. As for Nepeen, we must get him off in a +boat somehow. It is the water I am thinking of, captain; what are we +going to do for water?" + +I sat upon the rock at his side and buried my face in my hands. All +that terrible day seemed to culminate in this overwhelming misfortune. +Driven on the one hand by the sea, on the other by these devils of the +darkness, doomed, it might be, to hunger and thirst on that desolate +rock, four good comrades cut off from us by the sea's intervening, the +very shadows full of dangers, what hope had we, what hope of that brave +promise spoken to little Ruth but three short hours ago? + +"Doctor," I said at last, "if we are not at the bottom of it now, we +never shall be. But we are men, and we will act as men should. Let the +women stand together in the great hall until the sea drives them out. +If water is our need, I am ashore to Ken's Island to-morrow to get it. +As for Nepeen, we have a boat and we have hands to man it; we'll fetch +Captain Nepeen, doctor," said I. + +He nodded his head and appeared to be thinking deeply. Old +Clair-de-Lune was the next to utter a sensible thing. + +"The man flood the house," said he, "but no sure he get to ship. If he +drown, Czerny know nothing. I say turn out the lamp--wait!" + +"As true a word as the night has spoken," said I; "if Kess Denton does +not reach the boats, they won't hear the story. We'll keep it close +enough, lads, and Captain Nepeen will learn it soon enough. Do you +whistle, Dolly, and get an answer. I hope to God it is all well with +them still." + +He whistled across the sea, and after a long minute of waiting a +distant voice cried, "All's well!" For the hour at least our comrades +were safe. Should we say the same of them when daylight came? + +* * * + +The dark fell with greater intensity as the dawn drew near. I thought +that it typified our own black hour, when it seemed that fate had +nothing left for us but a grave beneath the seas, or the eternal sleep +on the island shore. + +* * * + +Another hour passed, and the dawn was nearer. I did not know then +(though I know now) what kept Czerny's crew in the shadows, or why we +heard nothing of them. Once, indeed, in the far distance where the +yacht lay anchored, gunshots were fired, and were answered from some +boat lying southward by the island; but no other message of the night +was vouchsafed to us, no other omen to be heard. In the gloom of the +darkened house women watched, men kept the vigil and prayed for the +day. Would the light never come; would that breaking East never speed +its joyous day? Ah! who could tell? Who, in the agony of waiting, ever +thinks aright or draws the truthful picture? + +There was no new attack, I say, nor any sure news from the caverns +below. From time to time men went to the stairs-head and watched the +seas washing green and slimy in the corridors, or spoke of them beating +upon the very steps of the great hall and threatening to rise up and up +until they engulfed us all and conquered even the citadel we held. +Nevertheless, iron gates held them back. Not vainly had Czerny's +master-mind foreseen such a misfortune as this. Those tremendous doors +which divided the upper house from its fellow were stronger than any +sluice-gates, more sure against the water's advance. We held the upper +house; it was ours while we could breathe in it or find life's +sustenance there. + +Now, I saw little Ruth in the hour of dawn and she stood with us for a +little while at the open gate and there spoke so brightly of to-morrow, +so lightly of this hour, that she helped us to forget, and made men of +us once more. + +"They will not come again to-night, Jasper," she said; "I feel, I know +it! Why should they wait? Something has happened, and something spells +'Good luck.' Oh, yes, I have felt that for the last hour. Things must +be worse before they mend, and they are mending now. The gale will come +at dawn and we shall all go ashore, you and I together, Jasper!" + +"Miss Ruth," said I, "that would be the happiest day in all my life. +You bring the dawn always, wherever you go, the good sunlight and God's +blue sky! It has been day for me while I heard your voice and said that +I might serve you!" + +She would not answer me; but, as though to give my words their meaning, +we had watched but a little while longer on the rock when suddenly out +of the East the grey light winged over to us, and, spreading its +wonder-rays upon the seas, it rolled the black veil back and showed us +height and valley, sea and land, the white-capped breakers and the dim +heaven beyond them. Many a dawn have I watched and waited for on the +heart of the desolate sea, but never one which carried to me such a +message as then it spake, the joy of action and release, the tight of +life and hope, the clarion call, uplifting, awakening! For I knew that +in day our salvation lay, and that the terrible night was forever +passed; and every faculty being quickened, the mind alert, the eyes no +longer veiled, I stretched out my arms to the sun and said, "Thank +God!" + +* * * + +It was day, and the fresh sea answered its appeal. Coming quickly as +day will in the great Pacific, we had scarce seen that great rim of the +East lift itself above the sparkling water when all the scene was +opened to us, the picture of ships and water and wave-washed reef made +clear as in some scene of stageland. As with one tongue, realizing a +mighty truth, we cried, "The ship is gone; the ship has sailed!" + +It was true, all true. Where at sundown there had been a yacht anchored +in the offing, now at daybreak no yacht was to be seen. Darkness, which +had been the ally of Czerny's men, had helped the man himself to flee +from them to an unknown haven where their vengeance should not reach +him. By night had he fled, and by day would he mock his creatures. +Drifting there in the open boats, the rising seas beginning to wash in +upon them, hunger and thirst their portion, the rebels were at no pains +to hide their secret from us. We knew that they had been called back by +these overwhelming tidings of the master-trick, and we asked what heart +the rogues would have now to sell their lives for the man who betrayed +them? Would they not look to us for the satisfaction the chief rogue +denied to them? We, as they, were left helpless in that woful place. +Before us, as before them, lay the peril of hunger and of thirst, the +death-sleep or the greater mercy. And who should ask them to accept it +without a last supreme attempt, a final assault, which should mend all +or end all? Driven to the last point, to the last point would they go +to grasp that foothold of the seas and to drive us from the rock +whereon life might yet be had. + +"Lads," I said, "the story is there as the man has written it. We have +no quarrel with yon poor devils nor they with us; but they will find +one. We cannot help them; they cannot help us. We'll wait for the +end--just wait for it." + +I spoke with a confidence which time did not justify. Just as the dawn +had put new life into us, so it had steeled the hearts of this derelict +crew and nerved it for any desperate act. For long we watched the +rogues rowing hither, thither; now in the island's shadows, now coming +towards us, but never once raising a rifle or uttering a threat. In the +end they came all together, waving a sail upon a pole; and while they +appeared to row for the lesser gate they accompanied the act with soft +words and a protest of their honesty. + +"'Tis after a truce they are," says Peter Bligh, presently, "and that's +a poor thing, any-way. My poor father used to say, 'Knock 'em on the +head first and sign the papers afterwards.' He was a kind-hearted +gentleman, and did a lot of good in the world!" + +"He must have done, Peter," said I; "he must have done a power of good, +hearing the little you say about him. 'Tis a pity the old gentleman +isn't here this day to preach his kindness to yonder rogues. They look +in need of a friendly hand; indeed, they do." + +Well, the laugh was turned on Peter; but, as a matter of fact, he spoke +sense, and I understood as well as he did the risk of parley with the +wreckers, even though they did not seem to have any fight left in +them--a fact which old Clair-de-Lune was the first to observe. + +"They not fire gun this morning," says the old man. "All starve hungry. +Czerny gone. What for they fight? They no stomach left." + +"Meaning they've no heart in them," puts in Doctor Gray, at his side. +"Aye, that's true, and a bit of human nature, too. You cannot fight +every day any more than you can make love every day. It comes and goes +like a fever. They had their square meal last night, and they are not +taking any this morning. I should not be afraid of them if I were you, +captain." + +"I never was," said I, bluntly; "I never was, doctor. There's not +enough on my conscience for that. But I do believe you speak truly. +Making love is more in their line this watch. Ask Dolly Venn there. +From what I saw between him and little Rosamunda down below, lie's an +authority on that point. Eh, Dolly, lad," said I to him, "you could +make love every day, couldn't you?" + +The lad flushed all over his face at the charge, and Peter Bligh, he +said something about "Love one another" being in the Bible, "which must +mean many of 'em, and not one in particular," says he. And what with +the laugh and the jest, and the new confidence which the sight of those +poor driven devils put into us, we came all together to the sea's edge, +and, scarcely cocking a rifle at them, we hailed the longboats and got +their story. + +"Ahoy, there! And what port d'you think you're making for?" cries Peter +Bligh, in a voice that might have split the waters. + +They replied to him, standing up in the boat and stretching out their +sunburnt, hairy arms to us: + +"Water!--water, mate, for the love of God!" + +"And how do you know," cries Peter back to them, "how do you know that +we've water for ourselves?" + +"Why, Barebones saw to that," says one of them, no doubt meaning Czerny +thereby; "Barebones saw to that, though precious little of it the +lubber drank!" + +"He's off, is Barebones," says another; "oh, trust Barebones! +Bones-and-Biscuits puts to sea last night, 'cause he's a duty to +perform in 'Frisco, he 'as. Trust Bones-and-Biscuits to turn up +righteous when the trumpet blows!" + +And another, said he: + +"I wish I had his black head under my boot this minute! My mouth's all +sand and my throat is stuck! Aye, mates," says he, "you'll moisten my +poor tongue--same as is wrote in the Scriptures!" + +There were other entreaties; some of them spoke to us in French, the +most part in German. Of the boats that were left, two had rowed away +for the lesser gate, but five drifted about our rock and drew so close +that we could have tossed a biscuit to them. Never have I seen a crowd +of faces more repulsive or jowls so repellent. Iron-limbed men, fat +Germans, sleek Frenchmen, Greeks, niggers, some armed with rifles, some +with fearsome knives, they squatted all together in the open boats and +roared together for pity and release. Then, for the first time, I was +able to see how cruelly Czerny's gun had dealt with them in the +darkness of the night. It was horrible to see the bloody limbs, the +open wounds, the matted hair, the gaping faces of these creatures of a +desperado's mad ambition. The boats themselves were splintered and +hacked as though heavy hatches had beaten them. I could wonder no +longer that they called the truce; and yet, knowing why they called it, +what was I to do? Let them set foot on the plateau, and we, but a +handful at the best, might be swept into the sea like flies from a +wall. I say that I was at my wits' end. Every merciful instinct urged +me to give them water; every prudent voice cried, "Beat them off." + +"If there's fight in that lot, I'm as black as yonder nigger!" said +Peter Bligh, when he looked at them a little while, very +contemptuously. "Not a kick to-day among the lot of them, by Jericho! +But you cannot give them water, captain," he goes on, "for you've +little to give." + +Clair-de-Lune, thinking deeper, was, nevertheless, for a stem refusal. + +"Keep them off, captain, that's my advice," says he. "They very +desperate, dangerous men. They drink water, then cut throat. Make ear +deaf and say cistern all empty. They think you die, and they wait, but +come aboard--no, by thunder!" + +Now, I knew that this was reason, and when Doctor Gray and Captain +Nepeen added their words to the Frenchman's I stepped down to the +water's edge and made my answer. + +"I'll give you water willingly, men, if you'll show me where it is to +be found," said I; "but we cannot give what we haven't got, and that's +common sense! We're dry here, and if it's bad luck for one it's bad +luck for all. The glass says rain," I went on; "we'll wait for it +together and have done with all this nonsense." + +They heard me to the end; but ignorant, perhaps, of my meaning they +continued to whine, "Water, water," and when I must repeat that we +had no water, one of them, leaping up in the boat, fired his rifle +point-blank at Captain Nepeen, who fell without a word stone-dead at +my side. + +"Great God!" said I, "they've shot the captain dead." + +The suddenness of it was awful; just a gun flashing, a gasping cry, an +honest man leaping up and falling lifeless. And then something that +would never move or speak again. The crews themselves, I do believe, +were as dazed by it as we were. They could have shot us, I witness, +where we stood, every man of us, but, in God's mercy, they never +thought of that; and turning on their own man, they tore the rifle from +his hand and, striking him down with a musket, they sent him headlong +into the sea. + +"Witness we've no part in it!" they roared. "Jake Bilbow did it, and he +was always a bad 'un! You won't charge fifty with one man's deed! To +hell with the arms, mate--we've no need of 'em!" + +Well, we heard them in amazement. Not a man had moved among us; the +body was untouched at our feet. From the boats themselves ruffians were +casting their rifles pell-mell into the sea. Never at the wildest +hazard would I have named this for the end of it. They cast their +rifles into the sea and rowed unarmed about us. To the end of it, I +think, they feared the gun with a fear that was nameless and lasting, +nor did they know that the turret was empty--how should they? + +It was a swift change; to me it seemed as though the day had conjured +up this wonder. None the less, the perplexity of it remained, nor could +I choose a course even under these new circumstances. Of water I had +none to give; our own circumstances, indeed, were little better than +that of these unhappy creatures in the boats about me. The sea flooded +the house below us; the great engine no longer throbbed; our women were +huddled together at the stairs-head, seeking air and light; the fogs +loom heavy on Ken's Island; no ship's sail brought hope to our horizon. +What should I say, then, to the mutineers, how answer them? I could but +protest: "We are as you; we must face it together." + +* * * + +Now, I have told you that both the greater and the lesser gates of +Czerny's house were hewn in the pinnacles of rock rising up above the +highest tides, and offering there a foothold and an anchorage; but you +must not think that these were the only caps of the reef which thrust +themselves out to the sea. For there were others, rounded domes of +tide-washed rock, treacherous ledges, little craggy steeples, sloping +shelves, which low water gave up to the sun and where a man might walk +dry-shod. To such strange places the longboats turned when we would +have none of them. Convinced, may-be, that our own case was no better +than theirs, the men, in desperation, and cramped with long confinement +in the boats, now pushed their bows into the swirling waters; and +following each other, as sheep will follow a leader, they climbed out +upon the barren rocks and lay there in a state of dejection defying +words. Nor had we any heart to turn upon them and drive them off. +Little did the new day we desired so ardently bring to us. The sky, +gloomy above the blackening, angry seas, was like a mock upon our +bravest hopes. Let a few hours pass and the night would come again. +This was but an interlude in which man could ask of man, "What next?" +We feared to speak to the women lest they should know the truth. + +The men crawled upon the sea-washed rocks, I say, and there the +judgment of God came upon them. So awful was the scene my eyes were +soon to behold that I take up my pen with hesitation even now to write +of it; and as I write some figure of the shadows comes before me and +seems to say, "You cannot speak of it! It is of the past, forgotten!" +And, certainly, if I could make it clear to you how Czerny's men were +forever driven off from the gate of the house that Czerny built, if I +could make it clear to you and leave the thing untold, that would I do +right gladly. But the end was not of my seeking; in all honesty I can +say that if it had been in my power I would have helped those wretched +creatures, have dealt out pity to them and carried them to the shore; +but it was written otherwise; a higher Power decreed it; we could but +stand, trembling and helpless, before that enthralling justice. + +They climbed on the rocks, forty or fifty of them, may-be, and lying in +all attitudes, some stretched out full length, some with their arms in +the flowing tide, some huddled close as though for warmth, they +appeared to surrender themselves to the inevitable and to accept the +worst; when, rising up out of the near sea, the first octopus showed +himself, and a great tentacle, sliding over the rock, drew one of the +mutineers screaming to the depths. Thereafter, in an instant, the whole +terror was upon them. Leaping up together, they uttered piercing cries, +turned upon each other in their agony, hurled themselves into the sea, +to reach the boats again. God! how few of them touched the befriending +prows! The whole water about the reef was now alive with the devilish +creatures; a hundred arms, crushing, sucking, swept the unsheltered +rocks and drew the victims down. So near were they, some of them, that +I could see their staring eyes and distorted limbs as, in the fishes' +embracing grip, they were drawn under to the gaping mouths or pressed +close to that jellied mass which must devour them. The sea itself +heaved and splashed as though to be the moving witness of that horrible +attack; foam rushed up to our feet; a blinding spray was in the air; +eyes protruded even in the green water; great shapes wormed and +twisted, rending one another, covering the whole reef with their filthy +slime, sending blinding fountains to the highest pinnacles, or sinking +down when their prey was taken to the depths where no eye could follow +them. What sounds of pain, what resounding screams, rent the air in +those fearful minutes! I draw the veil upon it. For all the gold that +the sea washes to-day in Czerny's house, I could not look upon such a +picture again. For death can be a gentle thing; but there is a death no +man may speak of. + +* * * + +At twelve o'clock the clouds broke and the rain began to fall upon a +rising sea. The vapours still lay thick upon Ken's Island, but the wind +was driving them, and they rolled away in misty clouds westward to the +dark horizon. + +I went below to little Ruth, and in broken words I told her all my +story. + +"Little Ruth, the night is passed, the day is breaking! Ah, little +Ruth!" + +She fell into my arms, sobbing. The sleep-time was past, indeed; the +hour of our deliverance at hand. + + +CHAPTER XXV + +IN WHICH THE SUN-TIME COMES AGAIN + +I have told you the story of Ken's Island, but there are some things +you will need to know, and of these I will now make mention. Let me +speak of them in order as they befell. + +And first I should record that we found the body of Edmond Czerny, cold +and dead, by that pool in the woods where so many have slept the +dreadful sleep. Clair-de-Lune stumbled upon it as we went joyously +through the sunny thickets and, halting abruptly, his startled cry drew +me to the place. And then I saw the thing, and knew that between him +and me the secret lay, and that here was God's justice written in words +no man might mistake. + +For a long time we rested there, looking down upon that grim figure in +its bed of leaves, and watching the open eyes seeking that bright +heaven whose warmth they never would feel again. As in life, so in +death, the handsome face carried the brand of the evil done, and spoke +of the ungoverned passions which had wrecked so wonderful a genius. +There have been few such men as Edmond Czerny since the world began; +there will be few while the world endures. Greatly daring, a man of +boundless ambitions, the moral nature obliterated, the greed of money +becoming, in the end, like some burning disease, this man, I said, +might have achieved much if the will had bent to humanity's laws. And +now he had reaped as he sowed. The cloak that covered him was the cloak +of the Hungarian regiment whose code of honour drove him out of Europe. +The diamond ring upon the finger was the very ring that little Ruth had +given him on their wedding-day. The agony he had suffered was such as +many a good seaman had endured since the wreckers came to Ken's Island. +And now the story was told: the man was dead. + +"It must have been last night," I said, at length, to Clair-de-Lune. +"His own men put him ashore and seized the ship. Fortune has strange +chances, but who would have named such a chance as this? The rogues +turned upon him at last, you can't doubt it. And he died in his +sleep--a merciful death." + +The old man shook his head very solemnly. + +"I know not," said he, slowly; "remember how rare that the island give +mercy! We will not ask how he died, captain. I see some-thing, but I +forget it. Let us leave him to the night." + +He began to cover the body with branches and boughs; and anon, marking +the place, that we might return to it to-morrow, we went on again +through the woods, as men in a reverie. Our schemes and plans, our +hopes and fears, the terrible hours, the unforgotten days, aye, if we +could have seen that the end of them would have been this!--the gift of +a verdurous island, and the ripe green pastures, and the woods +awakening and all the glory of the sun-time reborn! For so the shadow +was lifted from us that for a little while our eyes could not see the +light; and, unbelieving, we asked, "Is this the truth?" + +* * * + +I did not tell little Ruth the story of the woods; but there were +whispered words and looks aside, and she was clever enough to +understand them. Before the day was out I think she knew; but she would +not speak of it, nor would I. For why should we call false sorrow upon +that bright hour? Was not the world before us, the awakening glory of +Ken's Island at our feet? Just as in the dark days all Nature had +withered and bent before the death-giving vapours, so now did Nature +answer the sun's appeal; and every freshet bubbling over, every wood +alive with the music of the birds, the meadows green and golden, the +hills all capped with their summer glory, she proclaimed the reign of +Nature's God. No sight more splendid ever greeted the eyes of +shipwrecked men or welcomed them to a generous shore. Hand-in-hand with +little Ruth I passed from thicket to thicket of the woods, and seemed +to stand in Paradise itself! And she--ah, who shall read a woman's +thoughts at such an hour as that! Let me be content to see her as she +was; her face grown girlish in that great release, her eyes sparkling +in a new joy of being, her step so light that no blade of grass could +have been bruised thereby. Let me hear her voice again while she lifts +her face to mine and asks me that question which even now I hear +sometimes: + +"Jasper, Jasper! is it real? How can I believe it, Jasper? Shall we see +our home again--you and I? Oh, tell me that it is true, Jasper--say it +often, often, or I shall forget!" + +We were in a high place of the woods just then, and we stood to look +down upon the lower valley where the rocks showed their rare green +mosses, and every crag lifted strange flowers to the sun, and little +rivulets ran down with bubbling sounds. Away on the open veldt the +doll-like houses were to be seen, and the ashes of her bungalow. And +there, I say, all the scene enchanting me, and the memory of the bygone +days blotted from my mind, and no future to be thought of but that +which should give me forever the right to befriend this little figure +of my dreams, I said: + +"It is true, little Ruth--God knows how true--that a man loves you with +all his heart, and he has loved you all through these weary months. +Just a simple fellow he is, with no fine ways and small knowledge of +the world; but he waits for you to tell him that you will lift him up +and make him worthy----" + +She silenced me with a quick, glad cry, and, winding both her arms +about my neck, she hid her face from me. + +"My friend! Jasper, dear Jasper, you shall not say that! Ah, were you +so blind that you have not known it from the first?" + +Her words were like the echo of some sweet music in my ears. Little +Ruth, my beloved, had called me "friend." To my life's end would I +claim that name most precious. + +* * * + +We were picked up by the American war-ship Hatteras ten days after the +sleep-time passed. I left the island as I found it--its secrets hidden, +its mysteries unfathomed. What vapour rises up there--whether it be, as +Doctor Gray would have it, from the bog of decaying vegetation, which +breathes fever to the south; whether it be this marsh fog steaming up +when the plants die down; or whether it be a subtler cloud given out by +the very earth itself--this question, I say, let the learned dispute. I +have done with it forever; and never, to my life's end, shall I see its +heights and its valleys again. The world calls me; I go to my home. +Ruth, little Ruth, whom I have loved, is at my side. For us it shall be +sun-time always; the night and the dreadful sleep are no more. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA*** + + +******* This file should be named 29462.txt or 29462.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/4/6/29462 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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