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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/38693-8.txt b/38693-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..914a9e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/38693-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7110 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Watchers, by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason + +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 Watchers + A Novel + +Author: A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason + +Release Date: January 27, 2012 [EBook #38693] +[Last updated: August 11, 2013] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WATCHERS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://www.archive.org/details/watchersnovel00masorich + + + + + + + THE WATCHERS + + + + + + + THE + + WATCHERS + + A Novel + + + BY + + A. E. W. MASON + + AUTHOR OF "THE COURTSHIP OF MORRICE + BUCKLER," ETC. + + + + + NEW YORK + + FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY + + PUBLISHERS + + + + + + + _Copyright, 1899_. + + _By Frederick A. Stokes Company_. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAP. + + I. TELLS OF A DOOR AJAR AND OF A LAD WHO STOOD BEHIND IT. + + II. DICK PARMITER'S STORY. + + III. OF THE MAGICAL INFLUENCE OF A MAP. + + IV. DESCRIBES THE REMARKABLE MANNER IN WHICH CULLEN MAYLE + LEFT TRESCO. + + V. THE ADVENTURE IN THE WOOD. + + VI. MY FIRST NIGHT UPON TRESCO. + + VII. TELLS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT IN CULLEN MAYLE'S + BEDROOM. + + VIII. HELEN MAYLE. + + IX. TELLS OF A STAIN UPON A WHITE FROCK AND A LOST KEY. + + X. IN WHICH I LEARN SOMETHING FROM AN ILL-PAINTED PICTURE. + + XI. OUR PLANS MISCARRY UPON CASTLE DOWN. + + XII. I FIND AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND. + + XIII. IN THE ABBEY GROUNDS. + + XIV. IN WHICH PETER TORTUE EXPLAINS HIS INTERVENTION ON MY + BEHALF. + + XV. THE LOST KEY IS FOUND. + + XVI. AN UNSATISFACTORY EXPLANATION. + + XVII. CULLEN MAYLE COMES HOME. + + XVIII. MY PERPLEXITIES ARE EXPLAINED. + + XIX. THE LAST. + + + + + + THE WATCHERS + + + + + CHAPTER I + + TELLS OF A DOOR AJAR AND OF A LAD WHO + STOOD BEHIND IT + + +I had never need to keep any record either of the date or place. It +was the fifteenth night of July, in the year 1758, and the place was +Lieutenant Clutterbuck's lodging at the south corner of Burleigh +Street, Strand. The night was tropical in its heat, and though every +window stood open to the Thames, there was not a man, I think, who did +not long for the cool relief of morning, or step out from time to time +on to the balcony and search the dark profundity of sky for the first +flecks of grey. I cannot be positive about the entire disposition of +the room: but certainly Lieutenant Clutterbuck was playing at ninepins +down the middle with half a dozen decanters and a couple of silver +salvers; and Mr. Macfarlane, a young gentleman of a Scottish regiment, +was practising a game of his own. + +He carried the fire-irons and Lieutenant Clutterbuck's sword under his +arm, and walked solidly about the floor after a little paper ball +rolled up out of a news sheet, which he hit with one of these +instruments, selecting now the poker, now the tongs or the sword with +great deliberation, and explaining his selection with even greater +earnestness; there was besides a great deal of noise, which seemed to +be a quality of the room rather than the utterance of any particular +person; and I have a clear recollection that everything, from the +candles to the glasses on the tables and the broken tobacco pipes on +the floor, was of a dazzling and intolerable brightness. This +brightness distressed me particularly, because just opposite to where +I sat a large mirror hung upon the wall between two windows. On each +side was a velvet hollow of gloom, in the middle this glittering oval. +Every ray of light within the room seemed to converge upon its +surface. I could not but look at it--for it did not occur to me to +move away to another chair--and it annoyed me exceedingly. Besides, +the mirror was inclined forward from the wall, and so threw straight +down at me a reflection of Lieutenant Clutterbuck's guests, as they +flung about the room beneath it. + +Thus I saw a throng of flushed young exuberant faces, and in the +background, continually peeping between them, my own, very white and +drawn and thin and a million years old. That, too, annoyed me very +much, and then by a sheer miracle, as it seemed to me, the mirror +splintered and cracked and dropped in fragments on to the floor, +until there was only hanging on the wall the upper rim, a thin +curve of glass like a bright sickle. I remember that the noise and +hurley-burley suddenly ceased, as though morning had come unawares +upon a witches' carnival and that all the men present stood like +statues and appeared to stare at me. Lieutenant Clutterbuck broke the +silence, or rather tore it, with a great loud laugh which crumpled up +his face. He said something about "Old Steve Berkeley," and smacked +his hand upon my shoulder, and shouted for another glass, which he +filled and placed at my elbow, for my own had disappeared. + +I had no time to drink from it, however, for just as I was raising it +to my lips Mr. Macfarlane's paper ball dropped from the ceiling into +the liquor. + +"Bunkered, by God!" cried Mr. Macfarlane, amidst a shout of laughter. + +I looked at Macfarlane with some reserve. + +"I don't understand," I began. + +"Don't move, man!" cried he, as he forced me back into my chair, and +dropping the fire-irons with a clatter on to the floor, he tried to +scoop the ball out of the glass with the point of Clutterbuck's +sword-sheath. He missed the glass; the sheath caught me full on the +knuckles; I opened my hand and---- + +"Sir, you have ruined my game," said Mr. Macfarlane, with considerable +heat. + +"And a good thing too," said I, "for a sillier game I never saw in all +my life." + +"Gentlemen," cried Lieutenant Clutterbuck, though he did not +articulate the word with his customary precision; but his intentions +were undoubtedly pacific. He happened to be holding the last of his +decanters in his hand, and he swung it to and fro. "Gentlemen," he +repeated, and as if to keep me company, he let the decanter slip out +of his hand. It fell on the floor and split with a loud noise. "Well," +said he, solemnly, "I have dropped a brooch," and he fumbled at his +cravat. + +Another peal of laughter went up; and while it was still ringing, a +man--what his name was I cannot remember, even if I ever knew it; I +saw him for the first time that evening, and I have only once seen him +since, but he was certainly--more sober than the rest--stooped over my +chair and caught me by the arm. + +"Steve," said he, with a chuckle,--and from this familiarity to a new +acquaintance I judge he was not so sober after all,--"do you notice +the door?" + +The door was in the corner of the room to my right. I looked towards +it: the brass handle shone like a gold ball in the sun. I looked back +at my companion, and, shaking my arm free, I replied coldly: + +"I see it. It is a door, a mere door. But I do not notice it. It is +not indeed noteworthy." + +"It is unlatched," said my acquaintance, with another chuckle. + +"I suppose it is not the only door in the world in that predicament." + +"But it was latched a moment ago," and with his forefinger he gently +poked me in the ribs. + +"Then someone has turned the handle," said I, drawing myself away. + +"A most ingenious theory," said he, quite unabashed by my reserve, +"and the truth. Someone _has_ turned the handle. Now who?" He winked +with an extreme significance. "My dear sir, who?" + +I looked round the room. Mr. Macfarlane had resumed his game. Two +gentlemen in a corner through all the din were earnestly playing putt +with the cards. They had, however, removed their wigs, and their +shaven heads gleamed unpleasantly. Others by the window were +vociferating the chorus of a drinking song. Lieutenant Clutterbuck +alone was near to the door. I was on the point of pronouncing his name +when he lurched towards it, and instantly the door was closed. + +"It was someone outside," said I. + +"Precisely. Steve, you are not so devoid of sense as your friends +would have me believe," continued my companion. "Now, who will be +Lieutenant Clutterbuck's timorous visitor?" He drew his watch from +his fob: "We may hazard a guess at the sex, I think, but for the +rest---- Is it some fine lady from St. James's who has come in her +chair at half-past one of the morning to keep an appointment which her +careless courtier has forgotten?" + +"Hardly," I returned. "For your fine lady would hurry back to her +chair with all the speed her petticoats allowed. She would not stay +behind the door, which, I see, has again been opened." + +The familiar stranger laid his hand upon my shoulder and held me back +in my chair at arm's length from him. + +"They do you wrong, my dear Steve," said he, gravely, "who say your +brains are addled with drink. Your"--his tongue stumbled over a long +word which I judged to be "ratiocination"--"is admirable. Never was +logician more precise. It is not a fine lady from St. James's. It will +be a flower-girl from Drury Lane, and may I be eternally as drunk as I +am to-night, if we do not have her into the room." + +With that he crossed the room, and seizing the handle suddenly swung +the door open. The next instant he stepped back. The door was in a +line with the wall against which my chair was placed, and besides it +opened towards me so that I could not see what it was that so amazed +him. + +"Here's the strangest flower-girl from Drury Lane that ever I saw," +said he, and Lieutenant Clutterbuck turning about cried: + +"By all that's wonderful, it's Dick Parmiter," and a lad of fifteen +years, with a red fisherman's bonnet upon his head and a blue jersey +on his back, stepped hesitatingly into the room. + +"Well, Dick, what's the news from Scilly?" continued Clutterbuck. "And +what's brought you to London? Have you come to see the king in his +golden crown? Has Captain Hathaway lost his _Diodorus Siculus_ and +sent you to town to buy him another? Come, out with it!" + +Dick shifted from one foot to another; he took his cap from his head +and twisted it in his hands; and he looked from one to another of +Lieutenant Clutterbuck's guests who had now crowded about the lad and +were plying him with questions. But he did not answer the questions. +No doubt the noise and the lights, and the presence of these +glittering gentlemen confused the lad, who was more used to the lonely +beaches of the islands and the companionable murmurs of the sea. At +last he plucked up the courage to say, with a glance of appeal to +Lieutenant Clutterbuck: + +"I have news to tell, but I would sooner tell it to you alone." + +His appeal was received with a chorus of protestations, and "Where are +your manners, Dick," cried Clutterbuck, "that you tell my friends flat +to their faces they cannot keep a secret?" + +"Are we women?" asked Mr. Macfarlane. + +"Out with your story," cried another. + +Dick Parmiter shrank back and turned his eyes towards the door, but +one man shut it to and leaned his shoulders against the panels, while +the others caught at the lad's hesitation as at a new game, and +crowded about him as though he was some rare curiosity brought by a +traveller from outlandish parts. + +"He shall tell his story," cried Clutterbuck. "It is two years since I +was stationed at the Scilly Islands, two years since I dined in the +mess-room of Star Castle with Captain Hathaway of his Majesty's +Invalids, and was bored to death with his dissertations on _Diodorus +Siculus_. Two years! The boy must have news of consequence. There is +no doubt trouble with the cray fish, or Adam Mayle has broken the head +of the collector of the Customs House----" + +"Adam Mayle is dead. He was struck down by paralysis and never moved +till he died," interrupted Dick Parmiter. + +The news sobered Clutterbuck for an instant. "Dead!" said he, gaping +at the boy. "Dead!" he repeated, and so flung back to his noise and +laughter, though there was a ring of savagery in it very strange to +his friends. "Well, more brandy will pay revenue, and fewer ships will +come ashore, and very like there'll be quiet upon Tresco----" + +"No," interrupted Parmiter again, and Clutterbuck turned upon him with +a flush of rage. + +"Well, tell your story and have done with it!" + +"To you," said the boy, looking from one to other of the faces about +him. + +"No, to all," cried Clutterbuck. The drink, and a certain anger of +which we did not know the source, made him obstinate. "You shall tell +it to us all, or not at all. Bring that table, forward, Macfarlane! +You shall stand on the table Dick, like a preacher in his pulpit," he +sneered, "and put all the fine gentlemen to shame, with a story of the +rustic virtues." + +The table was dragged from the corner into the middle of the room. The +boy protested, and made for the door. But he was thrust back, seized +and lifted struggling on to the table, where he was set upon his feet. + +"Harmony, gentlemen, harmony!" cried Clutterbuck, flapping his hand +upon the mantelshelf. "Take your seats, and no whispering in the side +boxes, if you please. For I can promise you a play which needs no +prologue to excuse it." + +It was a company in which a small jest passed easily for a high stroke +of wit. They applauded Lieutenant Clutterbuck's sally, and drew up +their chairs round the table and sat looking upwards towards the boy, +with a great expectation of amusement, just as people watch a +bear-baiting at a fair. For my part I had not moved, and it was no +doubt for that reason that Parmiter looked for help towards me. + +"When all's said, Clutterbuck," I began, "you and your friends are a +pack of bullies. The boy's a good boy, devil take me if he isn't." + +The boy upon the table looked his gratitude for the small mercy of my +ineffectual plea, and I should have proceeded to enlarge upon it had I +not noticed a very astonishing thing. For Parmiter lifted his arm high +up above his head as though to impress upon me his gratitude, and his +arm lengthened out and grew until it touched the ceiling. Then it +dwindled and shrank until again it was no more than a boy's arm on a +boy's shoulder. I was so struck with this curious phenomenon that I +broke off my protest on his behalf, and mentioned to those about me +what I had seen, asking whether they had remarked it too, and +inquiring to what cause, whither of health or malady, they were +disposed to attribute so sudden a growth and contraction. + +However, Lieutenant Clutterbuck's guests were only disposed that night +to make light of any subject however important or scientific. For some +laughed in my face, others more polite, shrugged their shoulders with +a smile, and the stranger who had spoken to me before clapped his hand +in the small of my back as I leaned forward, and shouted some ill-bred +word that, though might he die of small-pox if he had ever met me +before, he would have known me from a thousand by the tales he had +heard. However, before I could answer him fitly, and indeed, while I +was still pondering the meaning of his words. Lieutenant Clutterbuck +clapped his hands for silence, and Dick Parmiter, seeing no longer any +hope of succour, perforce began to tell his story. + +It was a story of a youth that sat in the stocks of a Sunday morning +and disappeared thereafter from the islands; of a girl named Helen; of +a negro who slept and slept, and of men watching a house with a great +tangled garden that stood at the edge of the sea. Cullen Mayle, +Parmiter called the youth who had sat in the stocks, son to that Adam +whose death had so taken Lieutenant Clutterbuck with surprise. But I +could not make head or tail of the business. For one thing I have +always been very fond of flowers, and quite unaccountably the polished +floor of the room blossomed into a parterre of roses, so that my +attention was distracted by this curious and pleasing event. + +For another, Parmiter's story was continually interrupted by intricate +questions intended to confuse him, his evident anxiety was made the +occasion of much amusement by those seated about the table, and he was +induced on one excuse and another to go back to the beginning again +and again and relate once more what he had already told. But I +remember that he spoke with a high intonation, and rather quickly and +with a broad accent, and that even then I was extremely sensible of +the unfamiliar parts from which he came. His words seemed to have +preserved a smell of the sea, and through them I seemed to hear very +clearly the sound of waves breaking upon a remote beach--near in a +word to that granite house with the tangled garden where the men +watched and watched. + +Then the boy's story ceased, and the next thing I heard was a sound of +sobbing. I looked up, and there was Dick Parmiter upon the table, +crying like a child. Over against him sat Lieutenant Clutterbuck, with +a face sour and dark. + +"I'll not stir a foot or lift a finger," said he, swearing an oath, +"no, not if God comes down and bids me." + +And upon that the boy weakened of a sudden, swayed for an instant upon +his feet, and dropped in a huddle upon the table. His swoon put every +one to shame except Clutterbuck; everyone busied himself about the +boy, dabbing his forehead with wet handkerchiefs, and spilling brandy +over his face in attempts to pour it into his mouth--every one except +Clutterbuck, who never moved nor changed in a single line of his face, +from his fixed expression of anger. Dick Parmiter recovered from his +swoon and sat up: and his first look was towards the lieutenant, whose +face softened for an instant with I know not what memories of days +under the sun in a fishing boat amongst the islands. + +"Dick, you are over-tired. It's a long road from the Scillies to +London. Very like, too, you are hungry," and Dick nodded "yes" to each +sentence. "Well, Dick, you shall eat here, if there's any food in my +larder, and you shall sleep here when you have eaten." + +"Is that all?" asked Parmiter, simply, and Clutterbuck's face turned +hard again as a stone. + +"Every word," said he. + +The boy slipped off the table and began to search on the ground. His +cap had fallen from his hand when he fell down in his swoon. He picked +it up from beneath a chair. He did not look any more at Clutterbuck; +he made no appeal to anyone in the room; but though his legs still +faltered from weakness, he walked silently out of the door, and in a +little we heard his footsteps upon the stone stairs and the banisters +creaking, as though he clung to them, while he descended, for support. + +"Good God, Clutterbuck!" cried Macfarlane "he's but a boy." + +"With no roof to his head," said another. + +"And fainting for lack of a meal," said a third. + +"He shall have both," I cried, "if he will take them from me," and I +ran out of the door. + +"Dick," I cried down the hollow of the staircase, "Dick Parmiter," but +no answer was returned, save my own cry coming back to me up the well +of the stairs. Clutterbuck's rooms were on the highest floor of the +house; the stone stairs stretched downwards flight after flight +beneath me. There was no sound anywhere upon them; the boy had gone. I +came back to the room. Lieutenant Clutterbuck sat quite still in his +chair. The morning was breaking; a cold livid light crept through the +open windows, touched his hands, reached his face and turned it white. + +"Good-night," he said, without so much as a look. + +His eyes were bent upon memories to which we had no clue. We left him +sitting thus and went down into the street, when we parted. I saw no +roses blossoming in the streets as I walked home, but as I looked in +my mirror at my lodging I noticed again that my face was drawn and +haggard and a million years old. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + DICK PARMITER'S STORY + + +I woke up at mid-day, and lay for awhile in my bed anticipating +wearily the eight limping hours to come before the evening fell, and +wondering how I might best escape them. From that debate my thoughts +drifted to the events of the night before, and I recollected with a +sudden thrill of interest, rare enough to surprise me, the coming of +Dick Parmiter, and his treatment at Clutterbuck's hands and his +departure. I thought of his long journey to London along strange +roads. I could see him tramping the dusty miles, each step leading him +farther from that small corner of the world with which alone he was +familiar. I imagined him now sleeping beneath a hedge, now perhaps, by +some rare fortune, in one of Russell's waggons with the Falmouth +mails, which at nightfall he had overtaken, and from which at daybreak +he would descend with a hurried word of thanks to get the quicker on +his way; I pictured him pressing through the towns with a growing fear +at his heart, because of their turmoil and their crowds; and I thought +of him as hungering daily more and more for the sea which he had left +behind, like a sheep-dog which one has taken from the sheep and shut +up within the walls of a city. The boy's spirit appealed to me. It was +new, it was admirable; and I dressed that day with an uncommon +alertness and got me out to Clutterbuck's lodgings. + +I found the lieutenant in bed with a tankard of small ale at his +bedside. He looked me over with astonishment. + +"I wish I could carry my liquor as well as you do," said he, taking a +pull at the tankard. + +"Has the boy come back?" I asked. + +"What, Dick?" said he. "No, nor will not." And changing the subject, +"If you will wait, Steve, I will make a shift to get up." + +I went into his parlour. The room had been put into some sort of +order; but the shattered remnant of the mirror still hung between the +windows, and it too spoke to me of Dick's journey. I imagined him +coming to the great city at the fall of night, and seeking out his way +through its alleys and streets to Lieutenant Clutterbuck's lodgings. I +could see him on the stairs pausing to listen to the confusion within +the rooms, and in the passage opening and closing the door as he +hesitated whether to go in or no. I became all at once very curious to +know what the errand was which had pushed him so far from his home, +and I cudgelled my brains to recollect his story. But I could remember +only the youth Cullen Mayle, who had sat in the stocks on a Sunday +morning, and the girl Helen, and a negro who slept and slept, and a +house with a desolate tangled garden by the sea, and men watching the +house. But what bound these people and the house in a common history, +as to that I was entirely in the dark. + +"Steve," said Clutterbuck--I had not remarked his entrance--"you look +glum as a November morning. Is it a sore head? or is it the sight of +your mischievous handiwork?" and he pointed to the mirror. + +"It's neither one nor the other," said I. "It's just the recollection +of that boy fumbling under the table for his cap, and dragging himself +silently out of the room, with all England to tramp and despair to +sustain him." + +"That boy!" cried Clutterbuck, with great exasperation. "Curse you, +Berkeley. That boy's a maggot, and has crept into your brains. We'll +talk no more of him, if you please." He took a pack of cards from a +corner cupboard, and, tossing them on the table, "Here, choose your +game I'll play what you will, and for what stakes you will, so long as +you hold your tongue." + +It was plain that I should learn nothing by pressing my curiosity upon +him. I must go another way to work. But chance and Lieutenant +Clutterbuck served my turn without any provocation from myself. + +I chose the game of picquet, and Clutterbuck shuffled and cut the +cards; whereupon I dealt them. Clutterbuck looked at his hand +fretfully, and then cried out: + +"I have no hand for picquet, but I have very good putt cards." + +I glanced through the cards I held. + +"Make it putt, then," said I. "I will wager what you will my hand is +the better;" and Clutterbuck broke into a laugh and tossed his cards +upon the table. + +"You have two kings and an ace," said he, "I know very well; but I +have two kings and a deuce, and mine are the better." + +"It is a bite," said I. + +"And an ingenious one," he returned. "It was Cullen Mayle who taught +it to us in the mess at Star Castle. For packing the cards or knapping +the dice I never came across his equal. Yet we could never detect him, +and in the end not a soul in the garrison would play with him for +crooked pins." + +"Cullen Mayle," said I; "that was Adam's son." + +Clutterbuck had sunk into something of a reverie, and spoke rather to +himself than to me. + +"They were the strangest pair," he continued; "you would never take +them for father and son, and I myself was always amazed to think there +was any relationship between them. I have seen them sitting side by +side on the settle in the kitchen of the 'Palace Inn' at Tresco. Adam, +an old bulky fellow, with a mulberry face and yellow angry eyes, and +his great hands and feet twisted out of all belief. His stories were +all of wild doings on the Guinea coast. Cullen, on the other hand, was +a stripling with a soft face like a girl's, exquisite in his dress, +urbane in his manners. He had a gentle word and an attentive ear for +each newcomer to the fire, and a white protesting hand for the oaths +with which Adam salted his speech. Yet they were both of the same +vindictive, turbulent spirit, only Cullen was the more dangerous. + +"I have watched the gannets often through an afternoon in Hell Bay +over at Brehar. They would circle high up in the air where no fish +could see them, and then slant their wings and drop giddily with the +splash of a stone upon their prey. They always put me in mind of +Cullen Mayle. He struck mighty quick and out of the sky. I cannot +remember, during all the ten years I lived at the Scillies, that any +man crossed Cullen Mayle, though unwittingly, but some odd accident +crippled him. He was the more dangerous of the pair. With Adam it was +a word and a blow. With Cullen a word and another and another, and all +of them soft, and the blow held over for a secret occasion. But it +fell. If ever you come across Cullen Mayle, Berkeley, take care of +your words and your deeds, for he strikes out of the sky and mighty +quick." + +This Clutterbuck said with an extreme earnestness, leaning forward to +me as he spoke. And even now I can but put it down to his earnestness +that a shiver took me at the words; for nothing was more unlikely than +that I should ever come to grips with Cullen Mayle, and the next +moment I answered Clutterbuck lightly. + +"Yet he sat in the stocks in the end," said I, with as much +indifference as I could counterfeit; for I was afraid lest any display +of eagerness might close his lips. Lieutenant Clutterbuck, however, +was hardly aware that he was being questioned. He laughed with a +certain pleasure. + +"Yes. A schooner, with a cargo of brandy, came ashore on Tresco. +Cullen and the Tresco men saved the cargo and hid it away, and when +the collector came over with his men from the Customs House upon St. +Mary's, Cullen drove him back to his boats with a broken head. Cullen +broke old Captain Hathaway's patience at the same time. Hathaway took +off his silver spectacles at last and shut up his _Diodorus Siculus_ +with a bang; and so Cullen Mayle sat in the stocks before the Customs +House on the Sunday morning. He left the islands that night. That was +two years and a month ago." + +"And what had Dick Parmiter to do with Cullen Mayle?" said I. + +"Dick?" said he. "Oh, Dick was Cullen Mayle's henchman. But it seems +that Dick has transferred his allegiance to----" And he stopped +abruptly. His face soured as he stopped. + +"To the girl Helen?" said I, quite forgetting my indifference. + +"Yes!" cried Clutterbuck, savagely, "to the girl Helen. He is fifteen +years old is Dick. But at fifteen years a lad is ripe to be one of +Cupid's April fools." And after that he would say no more. + +His last words, however, and, more than his words, the tone in which +he spoke, had given me the first definite clue of the many for which +my curiosity searched. It was certainly on behalf of the girl, whom I +only knew as Helen, that Dick had undertaken his arduous errand, and +it was no less certain that just for that reason Lieutenant +Clutterbuck had refused to meddle in the matter. I recognised that I +should get no advantage from persisting, but I kept close to his side +that day waiting upon opportunity. + +We dined together at Locket's, by Charing Cross; we walked together to +the "Cocoa Tree" in St. James's Street, and passed an hour or so with +a dice-box. Clutterbuck was very silent for the most part. He handled +the dice-box with indifference; and, since he was never the man to +keep his thoughts for any long time to himself, I had no doubt that +some time that day I should learn more. Indeed, very soon after we +left the "Cocoa Tree" I thought the whole truth was coming out; for he +stopped in St. James's Park, close to the Mall, which at that moment +was quiet and deserted. We could hear a light wind rippling through +the leaves of the poplars, and a faint rumble of carriages lurching +over the stones of Pall Mall. + +"It is very like the sound of the sea on a still morning of summer," +said he, looking at me with a vacant eye, and I wondered whether he +was thinking of a tangled garden raised above a beach of sand, +wherein, maybe, he had walked, and not alone on some such day as this +two years ago. + +We crossed the water to the Spring Gardens at Vauxhall, where we +supped. I was now fallen into as complete a silence and abstraction as +Clutterbuck himself, for I was clean lost in conjectures, I knew +something now of Adam Mayle and his son Cullen, but as to Helen I was +in the dark. Was her name Mayle too? Was she wife to Cullen? The sight +of Clutterbuck's ill-humour inclined me to that conjecture; but I was +wrong, for as the attendants were putting out the lights in the garden +I ventured upon the question. To my surprise, Clutterbuck answered me +with a smile. + +"Sure," said he, "you are the most pertinacious fellow. What's come to +you, who were content to drink your liquor and sit on one side while +the world went by? No, she was not wife to Cullen Mayle, nor sister. +She was a waif of the sea. Adam Mayle picked her up from the rocks a +long while since. It was the only action that could be counted to his +credit since he came out of nowhere and leased the granite house of +Tresco. A barque--a Venetian vessel, it was thought, from Marseilles, +in France, for a great deal of Castile soap, and almonds and oil was +washed ashore afterwards--drove in a northwesterly gale on to the +Golden Bar reef. The reef runs out from St. Helen's Island, opposite +Adam Mayle's window. Adam put out his lugger and crossed the sound, +but before he could reach St. Helen's the ship went down into fourteen +fathoms of water. He landed on St. Helen's, however, and amongst the +rocks where the reef joins the land he came across a sailor, who lay +in the posture of death, and yet wailed like a hungry child. The +sailor was dead, but within his jacket, buttoned up on his breast, was +a child of four years or so. Adam took her home. No one ever claimed +her, so he kept her, and called her Helen from the island on which she +was wrecked. That was a long time since, for the girl must be twenty." + +"Is she French?" I asked. + +"French, or Venetian, or Spanish, or what you will," he cried. "It +matters very little what country a woman springs from. I have no doubt +that a Hottentot squaw will play you the same tricks as a woman of +fashion, and with as demure a countenance. Well, it seems we are to go +to bed sober;" and we went each to his lodging. + +For my part, I lay awake for a long time, seeking to weave into some +sort of continuous story what I had heard that day from Lieutenant +Clutterbuck and the scraps which I remembered of Parmiter's talk. But +old Adam Mayle, who was dead; Cullen, the gannet who struck from the +skies; and even Helen, the waif of the sea--these were at this time no +more to me than a showman's puppets; marionettes of sawdust and wood, +that faced this way and that way according as I pulled the strings. +The one being who had life was the boy Parmiter, with his jersey and +his red fisherman's bonnet; and I very soon turned to conjecturing how +he fared upon his journey. + +Had he money to help him forward? Had he fallen in with a kindly +carrier? How far had he travelled? I had no doubt that, whether he had +money or no, he would reach his journey's end. His spirit was evident +in the resolve to travel to London, in his success, and in the +concealment of any weakness until the favour he asked for had been +refused. + +I bought next morning one of the new maps of the Great West Road and +began to pick off the stages of his journey. This was the second day +since he had started. He would not travel very fast, having no good +news to lighten his feet. I reckoned that he would have reached the +"Golden Farmer," and I made a mark at that name on the map. Every day +for a week I kept in this way an imagined tally of his progress, +following him from county to county; and at the end of the week, +coming out in the evening from my lodging at the corner of St. James's +Street, I ran plump into the arms of the gentleman I had met at +Clutterbuck's, and whose name I did not know. But his familiarity was +all gone from him. He bowed to me stiffly, and would have passed on, +but I caught him by the arm. + +"Sir," said I, "you will remember a certain night when I had the +honour of your acquaintance." + +"Mr. Berkeley," he returned with a smile, "I remember very much better +the dreadful morning which followed it." + +"You will not, at all events, have forgotten the boy whom you +discovered outside the door, and if you can repeat the story which he +told, or some portion of it, I shall be obliged to you." + +He looked at his watch. + +"I have still half an hour to spare," said he; and he led the way to +the "Groom Porters." The night was young, but not so young but what +the Bassett-table was already full. We sat down together in a dark +corner of the room, and my companion told me what he remembered of +Parmiter's story. + +It appeared that Cullen Mayle had quarrelled with his father on that +Sunday night after he had sat in the stocks and had left the house. He +had never returned. A year ago Adam Mayle had died, bequeathing his +fortune, which was considerable, and most of it placed in the African +Company, to his adopted daughter Helen. She, however, declared that +she had no right to it, that it was not hers, and that she would hold +it in trust until such time as Cullen should come back to claim it. + +He did not come back, as has been said; but eight months later Dick +Parmiter, on an occasion when he had crossed in his father's fishing +boat to Cornwall, had discovered upon Penzance Quay a small crowd of +loiterers, and on the ground amongst them, with his back propped +against a wall, a negro asleep. A paper was being passed from hand to +hand among the group, and in the end it came to Dick Parmiter. Upon +the paper was written Adam Mayle's name and the place of his +residence, Tresco, in the Scilly Islands; and Dick at once recognised +that the writing was in Cullen Mayle's hand. He pushed to the front of +the group, and stooping down, shook the negro by the shoulder. The +negro drowsily opened his eyes. + +"You come from Mr. Cullen Mayle?" said Dick. + +"Yes," said the negro, speaking in English and quite clearly. + +"You have a message from him?" + +"Yes." + +"What is it?" asked Dick; and he put a number of questions eagerly. +But in the midst of them, and while still looking at Dick, the negro +closed his eyes deliberately and fell asleep. + +"See," cried a sailor, an oldish white-haired man, with a French +accent; "that is the way with him. He came aboard with us at the port +of London as wide awake as you or I. Bound for Penzance he was, and +the drowsiness took him the second day out. At first he would talk a +little; but each day he slept more and more, until now he will say no +more than a 'Yes' or a 'No.' Why, he will fall asleep over his +dinner." + +Dick shook the negro again. + +"Do you wish to cross to Tresco?" + +"Yes," said the negro. + +Dick carried him back to Scilly and brought him to the house on +Tresco, where Helen Mayle now lived alone. But no news could be got +from him. He would answer "Yes" or "No" and eat his meals; but when it +came to a question of his message or Cullen Mayle's whereabouts he +closed his eyes and fell asleep. Helen judged that somewhere Cullen +was in great need and distress, and because she held his money, and +could do nothing to succour him, she was thrown into an extreme +trouble. There was some reason why he could not come to Scilly in +person, and here at her hand was the man sent to tell the reason; but +he could not because of his mysterious malady. More than once he tried +with a look of deep sadness in his eyes, as though he was conscious of +his helplessness, but he never got beyond the first word. His eyelids +closed while his mouth was still open to speak, and at once he was +asleep. His presence made a great noise amongst the islands; from +Brehar, from St. Mary's, and from St. Martin's the people sailed over +to look at him. But Helen, knowing Cullen Mayle and fearing the nature +of his misadventure, had bidden Parmiter to let slip no hint that he +had come on Cullen's account. + +So the negro stayed at Tresco and spread a great gloom throughout the +house. They watched him day by day as he slept. Cullen's need might be +immediate; it might be a matter of crime; it might be a matter of life +and death. The gloom deepened into horror, and Helen and her few +servants, and Dick, who was much in the house, fell into so lively an +apprehension that the mere creaking of a door would make them start, a +foot crunching on the sand outside sent them flying to the window. So +for a month, until Dick Parmiter, coming over the hill from New +Grimsby harbour at night, had a lantern flashed in his face, and when +close to the house saw a man spring up from the gorse and watch him as +he passed. From that night the house was continually spied upon, and +Helen walked continually from room to room wringing her hands in sheer +distraction at her helplessness. She feared that they were watching +for Cullen; she feared, too, that Cullen, receiving no answer to his +message, would come himself and fall into their hands. She dared +hardly conjecture for what reason they were watching, since she knew +Cullen. For a week these men watched, five of them, who kept their +watches as at sea; and then Dick, taking his courage in his hands, and +bethinking him of Lieutenant Clutterbuck, who had been an assiduous +visitor at the house on Tresco, had crossed over to St. Mary's and +learned from old Captain Hathaway where he now lived. He had said +nothing of his purpose to Helen, partly from a certain shyness at +speaking to her upon a topic of some delicacy, and partly lest he +should awaken her hopes and perhaps only disappoint them. But he had +begged a passage in a ship that was sailing to Cornwall, and, crossing +thither secretly, had made his way in six weeks to London. + +This is the story which my acquaintance repeated to me as we sat in +the "Groom Porters." + +"And Clutterbuck refused to meddle in the matter," said I. "Poor lad!" + +I was thinking of Dick, but my companion mistook my meaning, for he +glanced thoughtfully at me for a second. + +"I think you are very right to pity him," he said; "although, Mr. +Berkeley, if you will pardon me, I am a trifle surprised to hear that +sentiment from you. It is indeed a sodden, pitiful, miserable dog's +life that Clutterbuck leads. To pass the morning over his toilette, to +loiter through the afternoon in a boudoir, and to dispose of the +evening so that he may be drunk before midnight! He would be much +better taking the good air into his lungs and setting his wits to +unknot that tangle amongst those islands in the sea. But I have +overstayed my time. If you can persuade him to that, you will be doing +him no small service;" and politely taking his leave, he went out of +the room. + +I sat for some while longer in the corner. I could not pretend that +he had spoken anything but truth, but I found his words none the less +bitter on that account. A pitiful dog's life for Lieutenant +Clutterbuck, who was at the most twenty-four years of age! What, then, +was it for me, who had seven years the better of Lieutenant +Clutterbuck, or rather, I should say, seven years the worse? I was +thirty-one that very month, and Clutterbuck's sodden, pitiful life had +been mine for the last seven years. An utter disgust took hold of me +as I repeated over and over to myself my strange friend's words. I +looked at the green cloth and the yellow candles, and the wolfish +faces about the cloth. The candles had grown soft with the heat of the +night, and were bent out of their shape, so that the grease dropped in +great blots upon the cloth, and the air was close with an odour of +stale punch. I got up from my corner and went out into the street, +and stood by the water in St. James's Park, If only some such +summons had come to me when I was twenty-four as had now come to +Clutterbuck!--well, very likely I should have turned a deaf ear to +it, even as he had done! And--and, at all events, I was thirty-one and +the summons had not come to me, and there was an end of the matter. +To-morrow I should go back to the green cloth and not trouble my +head about the grease blots; but to-night, since Clutterbuck was +twenty-four, I would try to do him that small service of which the +stranger spoke, and so setting out at a round pace I made my way to +Clutterbuck's lodging. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + OF THE MAGICAL INFLUENCE OF A MAP + + +I did not, however, find Lieutenant Clutterbuck that night. He was out +of reach, and likely to remain so for some while to come. He had left +his lodgings at mid-day and taken his body-servant with him, and his +landlady had no knowledge of his whereabouts. I thought it probable, +however, that some of his friends might have that knowledge, and I +thereupon hurried to those haunts where of an evening he was an +habitual visitor. The "Hercules Pillars" in Piccadilly, the "Cocoa +Tree" in St. James's Street, the "Spring Gardens" at Vauxhall, +"Barton's" in King Street, the "Spread Eagle" in Covent Garden,--I +hurried from one to the other of these places, and though I came upon +many of Clutterbuck's intimates, not one of them was a whit better +informed than myself. I returned to my lodging late and more +disheartened than I could have believed possible in a matter wherein I +had no particular concern. And, indeed, it was not so much any +conjecture as to what strange tragical events might be happening about +that watched and solitary house in Tresco which troubled me, or even +pity for the girl maddened by her fears, or regret that I had not been +able to do Clutterbuck that slight service which I purposed. But I +took out the map of the Great West Road, and thought of the lad +Parmiter trudging along it, doing a day's work here among the fields, +begging a lift there upon a waggon and slowly working his way down +into the West. I had a very clear picture of him before my eyes. The +day was breaking, I remember, and I blew out the candles and looked +out of the window down the street. The pavement was more silent at +that hour than those country roads on which he might now be walking, +or that hedge under which he might be shaking the dew from off his +clothes. For there the thrush would be calling to the blackbird with +an infinite bustle and noise, and the fields of corn would be +whispering to the fields of wheat. + +I came back again to my map, and while the light broadened, followed +Parmiter from the outset of his journey, through Knightsbridge, along +the Thames, between the pine-trees of Hampshire, past Whitchurch, and +into the county of Devon. The road was unwound before my eyes like a +tape. I saw it slant upwards to the brow of a hill, and dip into the +cup of a valley; here through a boskage of green I saw a flash of +silver where the river ran; there between flat green fields it lay, a +broad white line geometrically straight to the gate of a city; it +curved amongst the churches and houses, but never lost itself in that +labyrinth, aiming with every wind and turn at that other gate, from +which it leaped free at last to the hills. And always on the road I +saw Dick Parmiter, drunk with fatigue, tottering and stumbling down to +the West. + +For awhile he occupied that road alone; but in the end I saw another +traveller a long way behind--a man on horseback, who spurred out from +London and rode with the speed of the wind. For a little I watched +that rider, curious only to discern how far he travelled, and whether +he would pass Dick Parmiter; then, as I saw him drawing nearer and +nearer, devouring the miles which lay between, it came upon me slowly +that he was riding not to pass but to overtake; and at once the fancy +flashed across me that this was Clutterbuck. I gazed at my map upon +the table as one might gaze into a magician's globe. It was no longer +a map; it was the road itself imprisoned in hedges, sunlit, and +chequered with the shadows of trees. I could see the horseman, I could +see the dust spirting up from beneath his horse's hoofs like smoke +from a gun-barrel. Only his hat was pushed down upon his brows because +of the wind made by the speed of his galloping, so that I could not +see his face. But it was Clutterbuck I had no doubt. Whither had he +gone from his lodging? Now I was convinced that I knew. There had been +no need of my night's wanderings from tavern to tavern, had I but +looked at my map before. It was Clutterbuck without a doubt. At some +bend of the road he would turn in his saddle to look backwards, and I +should recognise his face. It was Lieutenant Clutterbuck, taking the +good air into his lungs with a vengeance. He vanished into a forest, +but beyond the forest the road dipped down a bank of grass and lay +open to the eye. I should see him in a second race out, his body bent +over his horse's neck to save him from the swinging boughs. I could +have clapped my hands with sheer pleasure. I wished that my voice +could have reached out to Parmiter, tramping wearily so far beyond; in +my excitement, I believed that it would, and before I knew what I did, +I cried out aloud: + +"Parmiter! Parmiter!" and a voice behind me answered: + +"You must be mad, Berkeley! What in the world has come to you?" + +I sat upright in my chair. The excitement died out of me and left me +chilly. I looked about me; I was in my own lodging at the corner of St +James's Street, outside in the streets the world was beginning to +wake, and the voice which had spoken to me and the hand which was now +laid upon my shoulder were the voice and the hand of Lieutenant +Clutterbuck. + +"What's this?" said he, leaning over my shoulder. "It is a map." + +"Yes," I answered, "it is a mere map, the map of the Great West Road;" +and in my eyes it was no longer any more than a map. + +Clutterbuck, who was holding it in his hand, dropped it with a +movement and an exclamation of anger. Then he looked curiously at me, +stepped over to the sideboard and took up a glass or two which stood +there. The glasses were clean and dry. He looked at me again, his +curiosity had grown into uneasiness; he walked to the opposite side of +the table, and drawing up a chair seated himself face to face with me. + +"I hoped you were drunk," said he. "But it seems you are as sober as a +bishop. Are you daft, then? Has it come to a strait-waistcoat? I come +back late from Twickenham. I stopped at the 'Hercules Pillars.' There I +heard that you had rushed in two hours before in a great flurry and +disorder, crying out that you must speak to me on the instant. The +same story was told to me at the 'Cocoa Trees.' My landlady repeated +it. I conjectured that it must needs be some little affair to be +settled with sharps at six in the morning; and so that you might not +say your friends neglect you, I turn from my bed, and hurry to you at +three o'clock of the morning. I find that you have left your +front-door unlatched for any thief that wills to make his profit of +the house. I come into your room and find you bending over a map in a +great excitement and crying out aloud that damned boy's name. Is he to +trouble my peace until the Judgment Day? Are you daft, eh, Steve?" and +he reached his hand across the table not unkindly, and laid it on my +sleeve. "Are you daft?" + +I was staring again at the map, and did not answer him. He shifted his +hand from my sleeve and took it up and away from my eyes. He looked at +it himself, and then spoke slowly, and in quite a different voice: + +"It is a curious, suggestive thing, the map of a road, when all's +said," he observed slowly. "I'll not deny but what it seizes one's +fancies. Its simple lines and curves call up I know not what pictures +of flowering hedgerows; a little black blot means a village of stone +cottages, very likely overhung with ivy and climbed upon with roses." +He suddenly thrust the map again under my nose, "What do you see upon +the road?" said he. + +"Parmiter," I answered. + +"Of course," he interrupted sharply. "Well, where is Parmiter?" and I +laid a finger on the map. + +"Between Fenny Bridges and Exeter," said he, leaning forward. "He has +made great haste." + +He spoke quite seriously, not questioning my conjecture, but accepting +it as a mere statement of fact. + +"That is a heath?" he asked, pointing to an inch or so where the map +was shaded on each side of the high-road. "Yes, a heath t'other side +of Hartley Row; I know it. There should be a mail-coach there, and the +horses out of the shafts, and one or two men in crape masks and a lady +in a swoon, and the driver stretched in the middle of the road with a +bullet through his crop." + +"I do not see that," I returned. "But here, beyond Axminster----" + +"Well?" + +He leaned yet further forward. + +"There is a forest here." + +"Yes." + +"I saw a man on horseback ride into it between the trees. He has not +as yet emerged from it." + +"Who was he? Did you know him?" + +"I thought I did. But I could not see his face." + +Clutterbuck watched that forest eagerly, and with a queer suspense in +his attitude and even in his breathing. Every now and then he raised +his eyes to mine with a question in them. Each time I shook my head, +and answered: + +"Not yet," and we both again stared at the map. + +Then Clutterbuck whispered quickly: + +"What if his horse had stumbled? What if he is lying there at the +roadside beneath the tree?" He tore himself away from the +contemplation of the map. "The thing's magical!" he cried. "It has +bewitched you, Steve, and by the Lord it has come near to bewitching +me!" + +"I thought the horseman was yourself. Why don't you go?" said I, +pointing to the map. + +Lieutenant Clutterbuck rose impatiently from his chair. + +"There must be an end of this. Once for all I will not go. There is no +reason I should. There is reason why I should not. You do not know in +what you are meddling. You are taken like a schoolboy by an old wife's +tale of a lonely girl trapped in a net. You are too old for such +follies." + +"I was too old a fortnight ago," I returned, "but, by the Lord, these +last days I have grown young again--so young that----" + +I stopped suddenly. Not until this instant had the notion occurred to +me, but it came now, it thrilled through me with a veritable shock. I +leaned back in my chair and stared at Clutterbuck. He understood, for +he in his turn stared at me. + +"The rider!" said he breathlessly, tapping the map with his +forefinger, "the man whose face you did not see!" + +I nodded at him. + +"What if the face were mine?" said I. + +"You could never believe it." + +"I believe that I have even enough youth for that," I cried, and I +bent over the map, trying again to fashion from its plain black and +white my picture of the great high-road, climbing and winding through +a country-side rich with all the colours of the summer. But it was +only a map of lines and curves, nor could I any longer discover the +horseman who spurred along it--though I had now a particular reason to +wish for a view of his face,--or the wood into which he disappeared. + +"Well, has your cavalier galloped into the open yet?" asked +Clutterbuck. + +He spoke with sarcasm, but the sarcasm was forced. It was but a cloak +to cover and excuse the question. + +I shook my head. + +"No, and he will not," said Clutterbuck. + +"Is that so sure?" I asked. "What if the face were mine?" + +"You are serious!" he cried. "You would go a stranger and offer your +unsought aid? It would be an impertinence." + +"Suppose life and death are in the balance, would they weigh +impertinence?" + +"It might be _your_ life and _your_ death!" + +And as he spoke, it seemed to me that all my last seven years rose up +in their shrouds and laughed at him. + +"And what then?" I cried. "Would the world shiver if I died? Would +even a tavern-keeper draw down his blinds? Perhaps some drunkard in +his cups would wish I lived, that he might take my measure in a +drinking-bout. There's my epitaph for you! Good Lord, Clutterbuck, but +I would dearly love to die a clean death! There's that boy Parmiter +tramping down his road. He does a far better thing than I have ever +done. You know! Why talk of it? You know the life I have lived, and +since that boy flung his example in my eyes, upon my word I sicken to +think of it. Twelve years ago, Clutterbuck, I came to London, a cadet +with a cadet's poor portion, but what a wealth of dreams! A fortune +first, if I slaved till I was forty, and then I would set free my soul +and live! The fortune came, and I slaved but six years for it. The +treaty of Aix and a rise of stocks, and there was my fortune. You know +how I have lived since." + +Clutterbuck looked at me curiously. I had never said so much to him or +to any man in this strain. Nor should I have said so much now, but I +was fairly shaken out of my discretion. For a little Clutterbuck sat +silent and motionless. Then he said gently: + +"Shall I tell you why I will not go? Yes, I will tell you," and he +told me the history of that Sunday, two years ago, when Cullen Mayle +sat in the stocks, or at least as much of it as had come within his +knowledge. The events of that day were the beginning of all the +trouble, indeed, but Lieutenant Clutterbuck never knew more of it than +what concerned himself, and as I sat over against him on that July +morning and listened to his story while the world awoke, I had no +suspicion of what the passage of that Sunday hid, or of the +extraordinary consequences which it brought about. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + DESCRIBES THE REMARKABLE MANNER IN WHICH + CULLEN MAYLE LEFT TRESCO + + +"It was my business," he began, "to fetch Cullen Mayle from Tresco +over to St. Mary's where the stocks were set. It was an unpleasant +business, and to me doubly and damnably unpleasant." + +"I understand!" said I, thinking of how he had before spoken to me of +Adam Mayle's adopted daughter. + +"I took a file of Musquets, found the three of them at breakfast, and, +with as much delicacy as I could, explained my errand. Helen alone +showed any distress or consciousness of disgrace. Cullen strolled to +the window, and seeing that I had placed my men securely about the +house and that my boat was ready on the sand not a dozen yards away, +professed himself, with an inimitable indifference, willing to gratify +my wishes; while Adam, so far from manifesting any anger, broke out +into a great roar of laughter. + +"'Cullen, my boy,' he shouted, like a man highly pleased, 'here's a +nasty stumble for your pride. To sit in the stocks of a Sunday +morning, when all the girls can see you as they come from church! To +sit in the stocks like a common drunkard; and you that sets up for a +gentleman! Oh, Cullen, Cullen!' He wagged his head from side to side, +and so brought his fist upon the table with a bang which set all the +plates dancing. 'Devil damn me,' said he, 'if I don't sail to church +at St. Mary's myself and see how you look in your wooden garters.' +Cullen glanced carelessly towards me. 'An unseemly old man,' said he; +and we left Adam still shaking like a monstrous jellyfish, and crossed +back to St. Mary's from Tresco. + +"Sure enough Adam kept his word. They were singing the _Nunc Dimittis_ +in the church when Adam stumped up the aisle. He had brought Helen +with him, and she looked as though she wished the brick floor to open +and let her out of sight. But Adam kept his head erect and showed a +face of an extraordinary good humour. You may be certain that the +parson got the scantiest attention imaginable to his discourse. For +one thing, Adam Mayle had never set foot in St. Mary's Church before, +and for another, every one was agog to see how he would bear himself +afterwards, when he passed on his way to the quay across the little +space before the Customs House. + +"There was a rush to the church door as soon as the benediction was +pronounced, and it happened that I was one of the last to come out of +the porch. The first thing that I saw was Adam walking a little way +apart amongst the gravestones with a stranger, and the next thing, +Helen talking to Dick Parmiter." + +Here I interrupted Clutterbuck, for I was anxious to let no detail +escape me. + +"Had Dick crossed with Adam Mayle from Tresco?" + +"I think not," returned Clutterbuck. "He was not in the church. I do +not know, but I fancy he brought the stranger over to St. Mary's +afterwards." + +"And who was this stranger?" + +"George Glen he called himself, and said he had been quartermaster +with Adam Mayle at Whydah. He was a squat, tarry man, of Adam's age or +thereabouts, and the pair of them walked through the gates and crossed +the fields over to the street of Hugh Town. I made haste to join +Helen," Clutterbuck continued, and explained his words with an +unnecessary confusion. "I mean, I would not have it appear that she +shared in the disgrace which had befallen Cullen Mayle. So I walked +with her, and we followed Adam down the street to the Customs House, +where it seemed every inhabitant was loitering, and where Cullen sat, +with his hat cocked forward over his forehead to shield him from the +sun, entirely at his ease. + +"It was curious to observe the behaviour of the loiterers. Some +affected not to see Cullen at all; some, but those chiefly maidens, +protested that it was a great shame so fine a gentleman should be so +barbarously used. The elders on the other hand answered that he had +come over late to his deserts, while a few, with a ludicrous pretence +of unconsciousness, bowed and smiled at him as though it was the most +natural thing in the world for a man in a laced coat to take the air +in the stocks of a Sunday morning. + +"Into the midst of this group marched Adam Mayle, and came to a halt +before his son. He had composed his face to an unexceptionable +gravity, and as he prodded thoughtfully with his stick at the sole of +Cullen's shoe, + +"'This is the first time,' he said, 'that ever I saw a pair of silk +stockings in the stocks.' + +"'One lives and learns,' replied Cullen, indifferently; and the old +man lifted his nose into the air and said dreamily: + +"'There is a ducking-chair, is there not, at the pier head?' and so +walked on to the steps where his boat was moored. He went down into it +with Mr. Glen, and the two men set about hoisting the sail. I was +still standing on the pier with Helen. + +"'You will come too?' she said with a sort of appeal. 'I do not know +what may happen when Cullen is set free and comes back, I should be +very glad if you would come.'" + +Lieutenant Clutterbuck broke off his story and walked uneasily once or +twice across the room as though he was troubled even now with the +recollection of her appeal and of how she looked when she made it. + +"So I went," he continued suddenly, and with a burst of frankness. +"You see, Steve, she and I were very good friends; I never saw +anything but welcome in her eyes when I crossed over to Tresco, and +the kindliness of her voice had a warmth, and at times a tenderness, +which I hoped meant more than friendship. Indeed, I would have staked +my life she was ignorant of duplicity; and with Cullen she seemed +always at some pains to conceal a repugnance. Well, I was young, I +suppose; I saw with the eyes of youth, which see everything out of its +due proportion. I crossed to Tresco, and while we were seated at +dinner, about two hours later, Cullen Mayle strolled in and took his +chair. Dick Parmiter had waited for him at St. Mary's until such time +as he was set free, and had brought him across the Road. + +"I cannot deny but what Cullen Mayle bore himself very suitably for +the greater part of the time we were at table. Adam's blatant jests +were enough to set any man's teeth on edge, yet Cullen made as though +he did not hear a word of them, and talked politely upon indifferent +topics to us and Mr. Glen. Adam, however, was not to be silenced that +way. His banter became coarse and vindictive; for one thing he had +drunk a deal of liquor, and for another he was exasperated that he +could not provoke his son. I forget what particular joke he roared out +from the head of the table, but I saw Cullen stretch his arm out over +the cloth. + +"'I see what is amiss,' he said, wearily, and took away the brandy +bottle from his father's elbow. He went to the window, and opening it, +emptied the bottle on to the grass beneath the sill. Then he came back +to his seat and said suavely to Mr. Glen: 'My father cannot get the +better of his old habits; he is drunk very early on Sundays--an +unregenerate old put of a fellow as ever I came across.' + +"The quarrel followed close upon the heels of that sentence, and +occupied the afternoon and was renewed at supper. Adam very violent +and blustering; Cullen very cool and composed, and only betraying his +passion by the whiteness of his face. He used no oaths; he sat staring +at his father with his dark sleepy eyes, and languidly accused him of +every crime in the Newgate Calendar, with a great deal of detail as to +time and place, and adding any horrible detail which came into his +mind. The old man was routed at the last. About the middle of supper +he got up from his chair, and going up the stairs shut himself into a +room which he had fitted up as a cabin, and where he was used to sit +of an evening. + +"We were all, as you may guess, inexpressibly relieved when Adam left +the parlour, for here it seemed was the quarrel ended. We counted, +however, without Cullen. He looked for a moment or two at his father's +empty chair, and stood up in his turn. + +"'Here's an old rogue for you,' he said in a gentle voice. 'He has no +more manners than a nasty pig. I'll teach him some,' and he followed +his father up the stairs and into the cabin above. What was said +between them we never heard, but we gathered at the foot of the stairs +in the hall and listened to their voices. The old man bellowed as +though he was in pain, and shook the windows with his noise; Cullen's +voice came to us only as a smooth, continuous murmur. For half an hour +perhaps we stood thus in the hall--interference would have only made +matters worse--and I own that this half hour was not wholly unpleasant +to me. Helen, in a word, was afraid, and more than once her hand was +laid upon my coat-sleeve, and, touching it, ceased to tremble. She +turned to me, it seemed, in that half hour of fear; I was fool enough +to think it. + +"At length we heard a door opening. Cullen negligently came down the +stairs; Adam rushed out after him as far as the head of the stairs, +where he stopped. + +"'Open the door, one of you!' he bawled. 'Kick him out, Clutterbuck, +and we'll see what damned muck-heap his fine manners will lead him +to.' + +"The outcry brought the servants scurrying into the hall. Adam +repeated his order and one of the servants threw open the door. + +"'Will you fetch me my boots?' said Cullen, and sitting down in a +chair he kicked off his shoes. Then he pulled on his boots +deliberately, stood up and felt in his pockets. From one pocket he +drew out five guineas, from a second two, from a third four. These +eleven guineas he held in his open hand. + +"'They belong to you, I think,' he said, softly, poising them in his +palm; and before any one could move a step or indeed guess at his +intention, he raised his arm and flung them with all his force to +where his father stood at the head of the stairs. Two of the guineas +cut the old man in the forehead, and the blood ran down his face; the +rest sparkled and clattered against the panels behind his head, whence +they fell on to the stairs and rolled one by one down into the hall. +No one spoke; no one moved. The brutal violence of the action for the +moment paralysed every one; even Adam stood shaking at the stair head +with his wits wandering. One by one the guineas rolled down the +staircase, leaping from step to step, rattling as they leaped; and for +a long time it seemed, one whirred and sang in a corner as it span +round and settled down upon the boards; and when the coin had ceased +to spin, still no one moved, no one spoke. A murmur of waves breaking +lazily upon the sand, a breath of air stirring a shrub in the garden, +the infinitesimal trumpeting of a gnat, came through the window, +bringing as it were tales of things which lived into a room of +statues. + +"Cullen himself was the first to break the enchantment. He took his +watch from his fob and holding it by the ribbon twirled it backwards +and forwards. It was a big silver watch, and as he twirled it this way +and that, it caught the light, seemed to throw out little sparks of +fire, and flashed with a dazzling brightness. The eyes of the company +were caught by it; they watched it with a keen attention, not knowing +why they watched it; they watched it as it shone and glittered in its +revolutions, almost with a sense of expectation, as though something +of great consequence was to happen from the twirling of that watch. + +"'This, too, is yours,' said Cullen, 'but it was no doubt some dead +sailorman's before you stole it;' and ceasing to twirl the watch he +held it steady by the ribbon. Then he looked round the hall and saw +Helen staring at the watch with a queer intentness. I remember that +her hand was at that moment resting upon my sleeve, and I felt it grow +more rigid. I looked at her; her face was set, her eyes fixed upon +Cullen and his glittering watch. I spoke to her; she did not answer, +she did not hear." + +Clutterbuck interrupted his story and sat moodily lost in his +recollections, and when he resumed it was with great bitterness. + +"I think," he continued, "that when Cullen spoke, he spoke with no +other end than to provoke his father yet more. You must know that the +old man had just one tender spot in his heart. Cullen could have no +other aim but to set his heel on that. + +"'I will come back for you, Helen,' he said, bending his eyes upon her +and making as if there was much love between them; and to everybody's +surprise Helen lifted her eyes slowly from the watch until they met +Cullen's, and kept them there. She did not answer him in words, there +was no need she should, every line of her body expressed obedience. + +"Even Cullen was puzzled by her demeanour. Boy and girl, maid and +youth, they had lived side by side in the house with indifference upon +his part and all the appearance of aversion upon hers. Yet here was +she subdued in an instant at the prospect of his departure! It seemed +that the mere thought that Cullen was henceforth an outcast tore her +secret live and warm from her heart. + +"Cullen was plainly puzzled, as I say, but he was not the man to miss +an advantage in the gratification of his malice. He shot one +triumphant look at his father and spoke again to Helen. + +"'You will wait for me?' + +"Her eyes never wavered from his. + +"'Yes!' she answered. + +"It was a humiliating moment for me as you may imagine. It must have +been more humiliating for Adam. With a hand upon the rail he lumbered +heavily down a couple of the stairs. + +"'No!' he cried, with a dreadful oath and in a voice which was +strangely moved. + +"'But I say yes,' said Cullen, very quietly. The smile had gone from +his face; a new excitement kindled it. He was pitting his will against +his father's. I saw him suddenly draw himself erect. 'Or, better +still, you shall come with me now,' he cried. He reached out his arm +straight from the shoulder towards her. + +"'Come! Come with me now.' + +"His voice rang out dominant like the clang of a trumpet, and to the +consternation of us all, Helen crossed the floor towards him. I tried +to detain her. 'Helen,' I cried, 'you do not know what you are doing. +He will drag you into the gutter.' + +"'Lieutenant Clutterbuck,' said Cullen, 'you are very red in the face. +You cannot expect she will listen to you, for you do not look well +when you are red in the face.' + +"I paid no heed to his gibes. + +"'Helen,' I cried, again. She paid no more heed to my prayers. 'What +will you do? Where will you go?' I asked. + +"'We shall go to London,' answered Cullen, 'where we shall do very +well, and further to the best of our means Lieutenant Clutterbuck's +advancement.' + +"Humiliation and grief had overset my judgment or I should not have +argued at this moment with Cullen Mayle. I flung out at him hotly, and +like a boy. + +"'When you are doing very well in London, Cullen Mayle, Lieutenant +Clutterbuck will not be so far behind you.' + +"'He will indeed be close upon my heels,' returned Cullen as +pleasantly as possible, 'for most likely he will be carrying my +valise.' + +"With that he turned again to Helen, beckoned her to follow him, and +strode towards the open door. She did follow him. Cullen was already +in the doorway; in another second she would have crossed the +threshold. But with a surprising agility Adam Mayle jumped down the +stairs, ran across the hall, and caught the girl in his arms. She did +not struggle to free herself, but she strained steadily towards +Cullen. The old man's arms were strong, however. + +"'Shut the door,' he cried, and I sprang forward and slammed it to. + +"'Lock it! Bolt it!' + +"Adam stood with his arms about the girl until the heavy bar swung +down across the door and dropped into its socket with a clang. Now do +you understand why I will not go down to Tresco? I can give you +another reason if you are not content. When I spoke to Helen two days +later, and taxed her with her passion for Cullen,--would you believe +it?--she was deeply pained and hurt. She would not have it said that +she had so much as thought of following Cullen's fortunes. She +outfaced me as though I had been telling her fairy tales, and not what +my own eyes saw. No, indeed, I will not go down to Tresco! I am not +the traveller who has ridden into your wood upon the Great West Road." + +Lieutenant Clutterbuck took up his hat when he had finished his story, + +"The girl, besides, is not worth a thought," said he. + +"I am not thinking of her," said I. Of Lieutenant Clutterbuck, of +myself, above all of Dick Parmiter, I was thinking, but not at all of +Helen Mayle. I drew the map towards me. Clutterbuck stopped at the +door, came back and again leaned over my shoulder. + +"Has your traveller come out from that wood?" he asked. + +"No," I answered. + +"It is an allegory," said he. "The man who rides down on this business +to the West will, in very truth, enter into a wood from which he will +not get free." + + + + + CHAPTER V + + THE ADVENTURE IN THE WOOD + + +A loud roll of drums beneath my windows, the inspiriting music of +trumpets, the lively measured stamp of feet. The troops with General +Amherst at their head were marching down St. James's Street on their +way to embark for Canada, and the tune to which they marched sang in +my head that day as I rode out of London. The beat of my horse's hoofs +kept time to it, and at Brentford a girl singing in a garden of +apple-trees threw me a snatch of a song to fit to it. + +She sang, and I caught the words up as I rode past. The sparkle of +summer was in the air, and an Indian summer, if you will, at my heart. +I slept that night at Hartley Row, and the next at Down House, and the +third at a little inn some miles beyond Dorchester. A brook danced at +the foot of the house, and sang me to sleep with the song I had heard +at Brentford, and, as I lay in bed, I could see out of my window the +starlight and the quiet fields white with a frost of dew and thickets +of trees very black and still; and towards sunset upon the fourth day, +I suddenly reined in my horse to one side and sat stone-still. To my +left, the road ran straight and level for a long way, and nowhere upon +it was there a living thing; on each side stretched fields and no one +moved in them, and no house was visible. That way I had come, and I +had remarked upon the loneliness. To my right, the road ran forward +into a thick wood, and vanished beneath a roof of overhanging boughs. +It was the aspect of that wood which took my breath away, and it +surprised me because it was familiar. There was a milestone which I +recognised just where the first tree overhung the road; there was a +white gate in the hedge some twenty paces this side of the milestone. +I knew that too. Just behind where I sat there should be three tall +poplars ranged in a line like sentinels, the wood's outposts; I +turned, and in the field behind me, the poplars reached up against the +sky. I had no doubt they would be there, yet the sight of them fairly +startled me. I had seen them--yes, but never in my life had I ridden +along this road before. I had seen them only on the map in my lodging +at St. James's Street. + +The sun dropped down behind the trees, and the earth turned grey. I +sat there in the saddle with I know not what superstitious fancies +upon me. I could not but remember that the traveller had ridden into +the wood, and had not ridden out and down the open bank of grass upon +the other side. "What if his horse has stumbled?" Clutterbuck had +asked. "What if he is lying at the roadside under the trees?" I could +see that picture very clearly, and at last, very clearly too, the +rider's face. I looked backwards down the road with an instinctive +hope that some other traveller might be riding my way in whose company +I might go along. But the long level slip of white was empty. All the +warmth seemed to have gone from the world with the dropping of the +sun. A sad chill twilight crept over the lonely fields. A shiver +caught and shook me; I gathered up the reins and rode slowly among the +trees, where already it was night. + +I rode at first in the centre of the highway, and found the clatter of +my horse's hoofs a very companionable sound. But in a little the +clatter seemed too loud, it was too clear a warning of my approach, it +seemed to me in some way a provocation of danger. I drew to one side +of the road where the leaves had drifted and made a carpet whereon I +rode without noise. But now the silence seemed too eerie--I heard, and +started at, the snapping of every twig. I strained my ears to catch +the noise of creeping footfalls, and I was about to guide my horse +back to the middle of the road, when I turned a corner suddenly, and +saw in front of me in a space where the forest receded and let the sky +through, lights gleaming in a window. + +I set spurs to the horse and galloped up to the door. The house was an +inn; the landlord was already at the threshold, and in a very short +while I was laughing at my fears over my supper in the parlour. + +"Am I your only guest to-night?" I asked. + +"There is one other, sir," returned the landlord as he served me, and +as he spoke I heard a footstep in the passage. The door was pushed +open, and a young man politely bowed to me in the entrance. + +"You have a very pretty piece of horseflesh, sir," said he, as he came +into the room. "I took the liberty of looking it over a minute ago in +the stables." + +"It is not bad," said I. There was never a man in the world who did +not relish praise of his horse, and I warmed to my new acquaintance. +"We are both, it seems, sleeping here to-night, and likely enough we +are travelling the same road to-morrow." + +The young man shook his head. + +"I could wish indeed," said he, "that we might be fellow-travellers, +but though it may well be we follow the same road, we do not, alas, +travel in the same way," and he showed me his boots which were thickly +covered with dust. "My horse fell some half-a-dozen miles from here +and snapped a leg. I must needs walk to-morrow so far as where I trust +to procure another--that is to say," he continued, "if I do not have +to keep my bed, for I have taken a devilish chill this evening," and +drawing up his chair to the empty fireplace, he crouched over an +imaginary fire and shivered. + +Now since he sat in this attitude, I could not but notice his boots, +and I fell to wondering what in the world he had done with his spurs. +For he wore none, and since he had plainly not troubled to repair the +disorder of his dress, it seemed strange that he should have gone to +the pains of removing his spurs. However, I was soon diverted from +this speculation by the distress into which Mr. Featherstone's cold +threw him. Featherstone was his name, as he was polite enough to tell +me in the intervals of coughing, and I told him mine in return. At +last his malady so increased that he called for the landlord, and +bidding him light a great fire in his bedroom said he must needs go to +bed. + +"I trust, however," he continued politely to me, "that you, Mr. +Berkeley, will prove a Samaritan, and keep me company for a while. For +I shall not sleep, upon my word I shall not sleep a wink," and he was +so positive in his assurances that, though I was myself sufficiently +tired, I thought it no more than kindness to fall in with his wishes. + +Accordingly I followed him into his bedroom, where he lay in a great +canopied bed, with a big fire blazing upon the hearth, and a bottle of +rum with a couple of glasses upon a table at the bedside. + +"It is an ague," said he, "which I caught upon the Gambia River, and +from which I have ever since suffered many inconveniences;" he poured +out the rum into the glasses, and wished me with great politeness all +prosperity. + +It was no doubt, also, because he had voyaged on the Gambia River that +he suffered no inconvenience from the heat of the room. But what with +the hot August night, and the blazing fire, and the closed window, I +became at once so drowsy that I could hardly keep my eyes open, and I +wished him good-night. + +"But you will not go," said he. "We are but this moment acquainted, +and to-morrow we shall wave a farewell each to the other. Let us, Mr. +Berkeley, make something of the meanwhile, I beg you." + +I answered him that I did not wish to appear churlish, but that I +should most certainly appear so if I fell asleep while we talked, +which, in spite of myself, I was very likely to do. + +"But I have a bottle of salts here," said he, with a laugh, as he +reached out of bed and fumbled with his coat. "I have a bottle of +salts here which will infallibly persuade you from any thought of +sleep," and he drew out from the pocket of his coat a pack of cards. +"Well, what do you say?" he continued, as I did not move. + +"It is some while since I handled a card," said I slowly. + +"A game of picquet," he suggested. + +"It is a good game," said I. + +He flipped the edges of the cards with his thumb. I drew nearer to the +bed. + +"Well, one game then," said I. + +"To be sure," said he, shuffling the cards. + +"And the stakes must be low." + +"I hate a gambler myself." + +He cut the cards. I sat down on the bedside and dealt them. + +"It is your elder," said I. + +He looked disconsolately at his hand. + +"Upon my word," said he. "Deuce take me if I know what to discard. I +have no hand for picquet at all, though as luck will have it I have +very good putt cards." + +I glanced through my hand. + +"I have better putt cards than you," said I. + +"It is not likely," he returned. + +"I'll make a wager of it," I cried. + +"Your horse," said he, leaning up on his elbow. He spoke a trifle too +eagerly, he sprang up on his elbow a trifle too quickly. I looked +again through my hand, and I laid the cards down on the counterpane. + +"No," said I quietly. "It is very likely you are right: I have two +treys and an ace, but you may have two treys and a deuce." + +"Why, this is purely magical," he exclaimed, with the most natural +burst of laughter imaginable. "Two treys and a deuce! Those are indeed +the cards I hold." + +He fell back again in the bed, and we played our single game of +picquet. He won the game. Indeed, he could not but win it, for I paid +no attention whatever to the cards which I held, or to how I should +draw, or--and this perhaps was my most important omission--to how Mr. +Featherstone shuffled and dealt. The truth is, I had suddenly become +very curious about Mr. Featherstone. I had recalled his great +politeness of manner. I remarked his face, which was of an almost +girlish delicacy. I reflected that here was a man in a great hurry to +travel by the same road as myself, and I remembered how I had learned +that trick by which he had tried to outwit me of my horse. Even as it +was I had all but fallen into the trap. I should most certainly have +done so had not Lieutenant Clutterbuck once explained it to me on a +particular occasion. I remembered that occasion very clearly as I sat +on the bed playing this game of picquet by the light of a single +candle, and I wondered whether I could fit Mr. Featherstone with +another name. + +"I am afraid," said he, "that this is a capote," as I played my last +card. + +"But the loss is trifling," said I, "and I have kept my horse." + +"Very true," said he, whistling softly between his teeth. "You have +kept your horse," and as I wished him good-night, he added, "you will +be careful to shut the door behind you, won't you?" + +But before the words were out of his mouth, he was seized with so +violent a paroxysm of shivering that he could barely stammer out the +end of the sentence. + +"These infernal fevers," said he, with a groan. + +"I notice, however," I returned, "that they are intermittent," and +latching the door as he again requested me, I went off to my own room. + +I could not but wonder what trickery the fire was intended to help, +for until the last fit of the ague had seized him, he had given no +sign of any sickness since he had brought out the cards. However, +there was a more important question to occupy my mind. I had little +doubt that Mr. Featherstone was Cullen Mayle: I had little doubt that +he was hurrying as fast as he could to the Scillies, since he had +received no answer to the message which he sent with the negro. But +should I tell him of the men who watched for his coming, keeping their +watches as at sea? On the one side their presence meant danger to +Cullen Mayle, it could hardly mean anything else; and since it meant +danger he should be warned of it. + +On the other hand, the watchers might have tired of their watching and +given it up as profitless. Besides I was by no means sure in what +light Cullen himself was to be regarded. Was his return to Tresco, a +prospect to be welcomed or deplored? Did he come as a friend to that +distracted girl alone in the lonely house by the sand? I could not +answer these questions. I knew Cullen to be a knave, I knew that the +girl cared for him, and these two items made the sum of my knowledge. +I turned over in my bed and fell asleep, thinking that my course might +be clear to me in the morning. + +And in the morning it was clear. I woke up with a mind made up. I had +a horse; Cullen travelled on foot; since he had come so far on foot, +it was not likely that he had the money to purchase a horse, for the +story of the stumble and the broken leg I entirely disbelieved, and +with the best of reasons. I had travelled myself along that road +yesterday, and I had passed no disabled horse upon the way. I had +therefore the advantage of Cullen. I would journey on without saying a +word to him of my destination. I would on arriving take council with +Dick Parmiter and Helen Mayle and seek to fathom the trouble. I should +still have time to cross back to the mainland and hinder Cullen from +attempting the passage. + +Thus I planned to do, but the plan was never put to the test of +action. For while I was still dressing, a loud hubbub and confusion +filled the house. I opened my door. The noise came from the direction +of Cullen's room. I hastily slipped on my coat and ran down the +passage. I could hear Cullen's voice very loud above the rest, a woman +or two protesting with a shrill indignation and the landlord trying to +make all smooth, though what the bother was about I could not +distinguish. + +It seemed that the whole household was gathered in the room, though +Mr. Featherstone still lay abed. The moment that I appeared in the +doorway, + +"Ah! here's a witness," he cried. "Mr. Berkeley, you were the last to +leave me last night. You closed the door behind you? I was particular +to ask you to close the door?" + +"I remember that very well," said I, "for I was wondering how in the +world you could put up with the door closed and a blazing fire." + +"There!" cried Featherstone turning to the landlord. "You hear? Mr. +Berkeley is a gentleman beyond reproach. He shut the door behind him, +and this morning I find it wide open and my breeches gone. There is a +thief, sir, in your inn, and we travellers must go on our way without +breeches. It is the most inconsiderate theft that ever I heard of." + +"As for the breeches, sir," began the landlord. + +"I don't care a button for them," cried Featherstone. "But there was +money in the breeches' pockets. Fifteen guineas in gold, and a couple +of bills on Mr. Nossiter, the banker at Exeter." + +"The bills can be stopped," said the landlord. "We are but eighteen +miles from Exeter." + +"But how am I to travel those miles; do you expect me to walk there in +my shirt tails. No, I stay here in bed until my breeches are found, +and, burn me, if I don't eat up everything in the house," and +immediately he began to roar out for food. "I will have chops at once, +and there's a great sirloin of beef, and bring me a tankard of small +ale." + +Then he turned again to me, and said pathetically, + +"It is not the breeches I mind, though to be sure I shall cut a +ridiculous figure on the highroad; no, nor the money, though I have +not a stiver left. But I woke up this morning in the sweetest +good-humour, and here am I in a violent passion at nine o'clock in the +morning, and my whole day spoilt. It is so discouraging," and he lay +back upon the pillow as though he would have wept. + +The landlord offered him his Sunday breeches. They were of red cloth, +and a belted earl might wear them without shame. + +"But not without discomfort," grumbled Mr. Featherstone, contemplating +the landlord who was of a large figure. "They will hang about me in +swathes like a petticoat." + +"And as for the fifteen guineas," said I, "my purse is to that amount +at your disposal." + +"That is a very gentlemanly offer, Mr. Berkeley," said he, "from one +stranger to another. But I have a horror of borrowing. I cannot accept +your munificence. No, I will walk in my host's red cloth breeches as +far as Rockbere, which to be sure is no more than twelve miles, quite +penniless, but when I reach my friends, upon my word, I will make such +a noise about this inn as will close its doors, strike me dead and +stiff, if don't." + +His threat had its effect. The landlord, after the usual protestations +that such an incident had never occurred before, that he had searched +the house even to the servants' boxes, and that he could make neither +head nor tail of the business, wound up his harangue with an offer of +five guineas. + +"It is all I have in the house, sir," said he, "and of course I shall +charge you neither for food nor lodging." + +"Of course not," said Mr. Featherstone indignantly. "Well, I must make +the best of it, but oh! I woke up with so happy a disposition towards +the world;" and dismissing the women he got up and dressed. The +landlord fetched the five guineas and his red cloth breeches, which +Featherstone drew on. + +"Was ever a man so vilely travestied?" he said. "Sure, I shall be +taken for a Hollander. That is hard for a person of some elegance," +and he tied his cravat and went grumbling from the room. + +"This is a great misfortune, sir, for me," said my host. "I have lived +honest all my days. There is no one in the house who would steal; on +that I would stake my life. I can make nothing of it." + +"Mr. Featherstone is quite recovered from his ague," said I slowly. I +crossed over to the empty fireplace heaped with the white ashes of the +logs which had blazed there the night before. + +"The fire no doubt did him some benefit." + +"That is precisely what I was thinking," said I, and I knelt down on +the hearth-rug and poked amongst the ashes with the shovel. Suddenly, +the landlord uttered an exclamation and threw up the window. I heard +the clatter of a horse's hoofs upon the road. I got up from my knees +and rushed to the window. As I leaned out Mr. Featherstone rode +underneath and he rode my horse. + +"Stop!" I shouted out. + +"Mr. Berkeley," he cried, airily waving his hand as he rode by, "you +may hold very good putt cards, but you haven't kept your horse." + +"You damned thief!" I yelled, and he turned in his saddle and put out +his tongue. It is, if you think of it, a form of repartee to which +there is no reply. In any case I doubt if I could have made any reply +which would have reached his ears. For he had set the horse to a +gallop and was far down the road. + +I went back to the hearth where the landlord joined me. We both knelt +down and raked away the ashes. + +"What's that?" said I, pointing to something blackened and scorched. +The landlord picked it up. + +"It is a piece of corduroy." + +"And here's a bone button," said I. "The ague was a sham, the fire a +device to rob you. He came here without a penny piece and burnt his +breeches last night. He has robbed you, he has robbed me, and he will +reach the Scilly Islands first. How far is it to Rockbere?" + +"Twelve miles." + +"I must walk those twelve miles?" + +"Yes." + +"Will I get a horse there?" + +"It is doubtful." + +"He has a day's start then at the least." + +So after all, though the horse did not stumble, nor the rider lie +quiet by the roadside, he did not ride out of the forest at a gallop, +and down the green bank into the open space beyond. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + MY FIRST NIGHT UPON TRESCO + + +I walked that day into Rockbere, and taking the advice of the +innkeeper with whom I lodged, I hired a hack and a guide from him the +next morning and struck across country for the sea; for he assured me +that I should most likely find a fishing smack at Topsham whose master +would put me over to the Scillies, and that if the wind did but favour +me I should reach the islands sooner that way than if I had the +quickest horse under me that was ever foaled. It was of the greatest +urgency that I should set foot on Tresco before Cullen Mayle. I had to +risk something to achieve that object, and I risked the wind. It was +in the northeast when I started from Rockbere and suited my purpose +finely if it did but hold; so that I much regretted I was not already +on the sea, and rode in a perpetual fear lest it should change its +quarter. I came to Honiton Clyst that night, and to Topsham the next +day, where I was fortunate enough to find a boat of some thirty tons +and to come to an agreement with its master. He had his crew ready to +his hand; he occupied the morning in provisioning the smack; and we +stood out of the harbour in the evening, and with a steady wind on our +quarter made a good run to the Start Point. Shortly after we passed +the Start the wind veered round into the north, which did us no great +harm, since these boats sail their best on a reach. We reached then +with a soldier's breeze, as the saying is, out to the Eddystone Rock +and the Lizard Point. + +It was directly after we had sighted the Lizard that the wind began to +fall light, and when we were just off the Point it failed us +altogether. I remember that night as well as any other period in the +course of these incidents. I was running a race with Cullen Mayle, and +I was beginning to think that it was not after all only on account of +his peril that it was needful for me to reach Tresco before he did. +These last two days I had been entirely occupied with the stimulation +of that race and the inspiriting companionship of the sea. The waves +foaming away from the bows and bubbling and hissing under the lee of +the boat, the flaws of wind blistering the surface of the water as +they came off the land towards us, making visible their invisible +approach; the responsive spring of the boat, like a horse under the +touch of a spur--these mere commonplaces to my companions had for me +an engrossing enchantment. But on that evening at the Lizard Point the +sea lay under the sunset a smooth, heaving prism of colours; we could +hear nothing but the groaning of the blocks, the creaking of the +boom's collars against the masts; and the night came out from behind +the land very peaceful and solemn, and solemnly the stars shone out in +the sky. All the excitement of the last days died out of me. We swung +up and down with the tide. Now the lights of Falmouth were visible to +us at the bottom of the bay, now the Lizard obscured them from us. I +was brought somehow to think of those last years of mine in London. +They seemed very distant and strange to me in this clean air, and the +pavement of St. James's Street, which I had daily trodden, became an +unacceptable thing. + +About two o'clock of the morning a broad moon rose out of the sea, and +towards daybreak a little ruffing breeze sprang up, and we made a +gentle progress across the bay towards Land's End; but the breeze sank +as the sun came up, and all that day we loitered, gaining a little +ground now and then and losing it again with the turn of the tide. It +was not until the fifth evening that we dropped anchor in the road +between St. Mary's Island and Tresco. + +I waited until it was quite dark, and was then quietly rowed ashore +with my valise in the ship's dinghy. I landed on Tresco near to the +harbour of New Grimsby. It was at New Grimsby that Dick Parmiter +lived, Clutterbuck had told me, and the first thing I had to do was to +find Dick Parmiter without arousing any attention. + +Now on an island like Tresco, sparsely inhabited and with no commerce, +the mere presence of a stranger would assuredly provoke comment. I +walked, therefore, very warily towards the village. One house I saw +with great windows all lighted up, and that I took to be the Palace +Inn, where Adam Mayle and Cullen used to sit side by side on the +settle and surprise the visitors by their unlikeness to one another. +There was a small cluster of cottages about the inn with a lane +straggling between, and further away, round the curve of the little +bay, were two huts close to the sea. + +It would be in one of these that Dick Parmiter lived, and I crept +towards them. There was no light whatever in the first of them, but +the door stood open, and a woman and a man stood talking in the +doorway. I lay down in the grass and crawled towards them, if by any +chance I might hear what they said. For a while I could distinguish +nothing of what they said, but at last the man cried in a clear voice, +"Good-night, Mrs. Grudge," and walked off to the inn. The woman went +in and closed the door. I was sure then that the next cottage was the +one for which I searched. I walked to it; there was a light in the +window and the sound of voices talking. + +I hesitated whether to go in boldly and ask for Dick. But it would be +known the next morning that a stranger had come for Dick; no doubt, +too, Dick's journey to London was known, and the five men watching the +house on Merchant's Point would be straightway upon the alert. Besides +Dick might not have reached home. I walked round the hut unable to +decide what I should do, and as I came to the back of it a light +suddenly glowed in a tiny window there. I cautiously approached the +window and looked through. Dick Parmiter was stripping off his jersey, +and was alone. + +I tapped on the window. Dick raised his head, and then put out the +light, so that I could no longer see into the room; but in a moment +the window was slowly lifted, and the boy's voice whispered: + +"Is that you, Mr. Mayle?" + +I drew a breath of relief. I was ahead of Cullen Mayle, though he had +stolen my horse. + +"No," said I; "but I have come on Cullen Mayle's business." + +The boy leaned out of the window and peered into my face. But voices +were raised in the room beyond this cupboard, and a woman's voice +cried out, "Dick, Dick!" + +"That's mother," said Dick to me. "Wait! I will come out to you." + +He closed the window, and I lay down again in the grass, and waited +there for perhaps an hour. A mist was coming up from the sea and +thickening about the island; the starlight was obscured; wreaths of +smoke, it seemed, came in puffs between myself and the house, and at +last I heard the rustling of feet in the grass. + +"Dick," said I in a whisper, and the lad came to me. + +"I remember you," he said. "You were at Lieutenant Clutterbuck's. Why +have you come?" + +"Upon my word," said I, "I should find it difficult to tell you." + +Indeed, it would have taken me half the night to explain the motives +which had conjoined to this end. + +"And now that you are come, what is it you mean to do?" + +"Dick," I returned, "you ask the most disconcerting questions. You +tramp up to London with a wild story of a house watched----" + +"You come as a friend, then," he broke in eagerly. + +"As your friend, yes." + +Dick sat silent for a moment. + +"I think so," he said at length. + +"And here's a trifle to assure you," I said. "Cullen Mayle is not very +far behind me. You may expect him upon Tresco any morning." + +Dick started to his feet. + +"Are you sure of that? You do not know him. How are you sure?" + +"Clutterbuck described him to me. I overtook him on the road, and +stayed the same night with him at an inn. He robbed me and robbed the +landlord. There was a trick at the cards, too. Not a doubt of it, +Cullen Mayle is close on my heels. Are those five men still watching +the house?" + +"Yes. They are still upon Tresco. They lodge here and there with the +fishermen, and make a pretence to burn kelp or to fish for their +living; but their business is to watch the house, as you will see +to-night. There are six of them now, not five." + +He led me as he spoke towards the "Palace Inn," where a light still +burned in the kitchen. The cottages about the inn, however, were by +this time dark, and we could advance without risk of being seen. Dick +stopped me under the shadow of a wall not ten yards from the inn. A +red blind covered the lower part of the window, but above it I could +see quite clearly into the kitchen. + +"Give me a back," whispered Dick, who reached no higher than my +shoulder. I bent down and Dick climbed on to my shoulders, whence he +too could see the interior of the kitchen. + +"That will go," said he in a little, and slid to the ground. "Can you +see a picture on the wall?" + +"Yes." + +"And a man sitting under the picture--a squat, squabby man with white +hair and small eyes very bright?" + +"Yes." + +"That is the sixth man. He came to Tresco while I was in London. I +found him here when I came back two days ago. But I had seen him +before. He had come to Tresco before. His name is George Glen." + +"George Glen!" said I. "Wait a bit," and I took another look at the +man in the kitchen. "He was quartermaster with Adam Mayle at Whydah, +eh? He is the stranger you brought over to St. Mary's Church on the +day when Cullen Mayle sat in the stocks." + +"Yes," said Dick, and he asked me how I knew. + +"Clutterbuck told me," I replied. + +From the inn we walked some few yards along a lane until we were free +of the cottages, and then leaving the path, mounted inland up a hill +of gorse. Dick gave me on the way an account of his journey homewards +and the difficulties he had surmounted. I paid only an indifferent +attention to his story, for I was wholly occupied with George Glen's +presence upon the island. Glen had come first of all to visit Adam +Mayle, and was now watching for Cullen. What link was there between +his two visits? I was inclined to think that George Glen was the clue +to the whole mystery. In spite of my inattention, I gathered this much +however from Dick. That tramp of his to London was well known +throughout the islands. His mother had given him up for dead when he +went away, and had thrashed him soundly when he returned, but the next +day had made him out a great hero in her talk. She did not know why he +went to London, for Dick had the discretion to hold his tongue upon +that point. + +So much Parmiter had told me when he suddenly stopped and listened. I +could hear nothing, however much I strained my ears, and in a moment +or two Dick began to move on. The mist was very thick about us--I +could not see a yard beyond my nose; but we were now going down hill, +so that I knew we had crossed the ridge of the island and were +descending towards the harbour of New Grimsby and the house under +Merchant's Rock. + +We had descended for perhaps a couple of hundred yards; then Dick +stopped again. He laid a hand upon my arm and dragged me down among +the gorse, which was drenched with the fog. + +"What is it?" said I. + +"Hush," he whispered; and even as he whispered I saw a sort of brown +radiance through the fog a long way to my left. The next instant a +speck of clear light shone out in the heart of this radiance: it was +the flame of a lantern, and it seemed miles away. I raised myself upon +my elbows to watch it. Dick pulled my elbow from beneath me, and +pressed me down flat in the grass; and it was fortunate that he did, +for immediately the lantern loomed out of the fog not a dozen yards +away. I heard it rattle as it swung, and the man who carried it +tramped by so near to me that if I had stretched out my hand I could +have caught him by the ankle and jerked him off his feet. It was the +purest good fortune that he did not detect us, and we lay very still +until the rustle of the footsteps had altogether died away. + +"Is that one of them?" I asked. + +"Yes; William Blads. He lodges with Mrs. Crudge next to our cottage." + +We continued to descend through the gorse for another quarter of an +hour or so until an extraordinary sound at our feet brought us both to +an halt. It was the strangest melancholy screeching sound that ever I +had heard: it was so harsh it pierced the ears; it was so wild and +eerie that I could hardly believe a voice uttered it. It was like a +shrill cry of pain uttered by some live thing that was hardly human. +It startled me beyond words, and the more so because it rose out of +the fog directly at our feet. Dick Parmiter trembled at my side. + +"Quick," he whispered in a shaking voice; "let us go! Oh, let us go!" + +But he could not move for all his moaning. His limbs shook as though +he had the fever; terror chained him there to the ground. Had I not +known the boy under other circumstances, I should have set him down +for a coward. + +I took a step forward. Dick caught hold of my arm and muttered +something, but his voice so wavered and gasped I could not distinguish +what he said. I shook his arm off, and again stepped forward for one, +two, three paces. As I took the third pace the ground suddenly sloped, +my feet slipped on the wet grass; I let go of my valise, and I fell to +my full length upon my back, and slid. And the moment I began to slide +my feet touched nothing. I caught at the grass, and the roots of it +came away in my hands. I turned over on my face. Half my body was now +hanging over the edge. I hung for a second by my waist, and as I felt +my waist slipping, I struck out wildly upon each side with my arms. My +right arm struck against a bush of gorse; I seized hold of it, and it +bent, but it did not break. I lifted a knee carefully, set it on the +edge, and so crawled up the slope again. + +Dick was lying on his face peering down towards me. + +"My God," said he, "I thought you had fallen;" and reaching out his +hands, he caught both my arms as though he was afraid I should slip +again. "Oh, quick," he said, "let us go!" + +And again I heard the shrill screech rise up from that hollow into +which I had so nearly fallen. It was repeated and repeated with a +regular interval between--an interval long enough for Dick to +reiterate his eager prayer. + +"It has begun again," said I. + +"It has never ceased since we first heard it," said Dick, and no doubt +he spoke the truth; only I had been deaf to it from the moment my foot +slipped until now. "Let us go," and picking up my valise he hurried me +away, turning his head as he went, shuddering whenever he heard that +cry. + +"But it may be some one in distress--some one who needs help." + +"No, no," he cried; "it is no one. I will tell you to-morrow." + +We skirted the top of the hollow, and once more descended. The fog +showed no sign of clearing, but Parmiter walked with an assured tread, +and in a little time he began to recover his spirits. + +"We are close to the house," said he. + +"Dick, you are afraid of ghosts," said I; and while I spoke he uttered +a cry and clung to my arm. A second later something brushed past my +hand very quickly. I just saw it for an instant as it flitted past, +and then the darkness swallowed it up. + +Dick blurted out this fable: the souls of dead drowned sailormen kept +nightly tryst on Castle Down. + +"That was no spirit," said I. "Play the man, Dick. Did you ever meet a +spirit that trod with the weight of a body?" + +I could hear the sound of feet rustling the grass beneath us. Dick +listened with his hand to his ear. + +"The tread is very light," said he. + +"That is because it is a woman who treads." + +"No woman would be abroad here in this fog at this time," he +protested. + +"Nevertheless, it was a woman; for I saw her, and her dress brushed +against my hand. It was a woman, and you cried out at her; so that if +there is any one else upon the watch to-night, it is very likely we +shall have him upon our heels." + +That argument sobered him, and we went forward again without speaking +to each other, and only halting now and again to listen. In a very +short while we heard the sea booming upon the beach, and then Dick +stepped forward yet more warily, feeling about with his hands. + +"There should be a fence hereabouts," said he, and the next moment I +fell over it with a great clatter. A loud whistle sounded from the +beach--another whistle answered behind us, and I heard the sound of a +man running up from the sand. We both crouched in the grass close by +the palisade, and again the fog saved us. I heard some one beating +about in the grass with a stick, but he did not come near us, and at +last he turned back to the sea. + +"You see," said Dick, "I told Lieutenant Clutterbuck the truth. The +house is watched." + +"Devil a doubt of it," said I. "Do you go forward and see if you can +get in." + +He came back to me in a little space of time, saying that the door was +barred, and that he could see no light through any chink. He had +stolen all round the house; he had rapped gently here and there at a +window, but there was no one waking. + +"And what are we to do now?" said he. "If I make a clatter and rouse +the house, we shall rouse Cullen's enemies, too." + +"It would not be wise to put them on the alert, the more particularly +since Cullen Mayle may be here to-morrow. I will go back to the +'Palace' Inn, sleep the night there, and come over here boldly in the +morning." And I got up and shouldered my valise again. But Dick +stopped me. + +"I have a better plan than that," said he, "for George Glen is staying +at the 'Palace' Inn. What if you slept in the house here to-night! I +can come over early to-morrow and tell Miss Helen who you are, and why +you have come." + +"But how am I to get into the house, without you rouse the household?" + +"There is a window. It is the window of Cullen Mayle's room. You could +get through it with my help." + +It seemed in many ways the best plan that could be thought of, but +certain words of Clutterbuck's that my meddling at all in the matter +would be nothing but an impertinence came back very forcibly to me. +But I heard Dick Parmiter speaking, and the thought slipped instantly +from my mind. + +"I helped Cullen Mayle through the window, the night his father drove +him from the house," said he, "and----" + +"What's that you say?" I asked eagerly. "The night that Cullen Mayle +was driven from the house, he climbed back into his room!" + +"Yes!" + +"Tell me about it, and be quick!" said I. I had my own reason for +urging him, and I listened with all my attention to every word he +spoke. He told me the sequel of the story which Clutterbuck had +related in my lodging at St. James's Street. + +"I was waiting for him outside here on the beach," said he; "and when +the door was closed behind him, he came straight towards me. 'And +where am I to sleep to-night, Dick?' said he. I told him that he could +have my bed over at New Grimsby, but he refused it. 'I'm damned if I +sleep in a rat-hole,' he said, 'when by putting my pride in my pocket +I can sleep in my own bed; and with my help he clambered on to an +outhouse, and so back into his own room." + +"When did he leave the island, then?" I asked. "The next morning? But +no one saw him go?" + +"No," answered Dick. "I sailed him across the same night. About three +o'clock of the morning he came and tapped softly upon my window, just +as you did to-night. It was that which made me think you were Cullen +come back. He bade me slip out to him without any noise, and together +we carried my father's skiff down to the water. I sailed him across to +St. Mary's. He made me swear never to tell a word of his climbing back +into his room." + +"Oh, he made you swear that?" + +"Yes, he said he would rip my heart out if I broke my oath. Well, I've +kept it till to-night. No one knows but you. I got back to Tresco +before my father had stirred." + +"And Cullen?" + +"A barque put out from St. Mary's to Cornwall with the first of the +ebb in the morning. I suppose he persuaded the captain to take him." + +Parmiter's story set me thinking, and I climbed over the palisade +after him without further objection. He came to a wall of planks; Dick +set himself firmly against it and bent his shoulders. + +"This is an outhouse," said he. "From my shoulders you can reach the +roof. From the roof you can reach the window. You can force the catch +of the window with a knife." + +"It will be an awkward business," said I doubtfully, "if I wake the +house." + +"There is no fear of that," answered Dick. "With any other window I +would not say no. The other rooms are separated only by a thin +panelling of wood, and at one end of the house you can almost hear a +mouse scamper at the other. Mr. Cullen's room, however, is a room +built on, its inner wall is the outer wall of the house, it is the one +room where you could talk secrets and run no risk of being overheard." + +"Very well," said I slowly, for this speech too set me thinking. "I +will risk it. Come over early to-morrow, Dick. I shall cut an awkward +figure without you do," and getting on to his shoulder, I clambered up +on to the roof of the outhouse. He handed my valise to me; I pushed +back the catch of the window with the blade of my knife, lifted it, +threw my leg over the sill and silently drew myself into the room. The +room was very dark, but my eyes were now accustomed to the gloom. I +could dimly discern a great four-poster bed. I shut the window without +noise, set my valise in a corner, drew off my boots and lay down upon +the bed. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + TELLS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT IN + CULLEN MAYLE'S BEDROOM + + +I was very tired, but in spite of my fatigue it was some while before +I fell asleep. Parmiter had thrown a new light upon the business +tonight, and by the help of that light I arrayed afresh my scanty +knowledge. The strangeness of my position, besides, kept me in some +excitement. Here was I quietly abed in a house where I knew no one; +Clutterbuck might well talk about impertinence, and I could not but +wonder what in the world I should find to say if Dick was late in the +morning. Finally, there was the adventure of that night. I felt myself +again slipping down the wet grass and dangling over the precipice. I +heard again that unearthly screeching which had so frightened Dick and +perplexed me, It perplexed me still. I could not for a moment +entertain Dick's supposition of a spirit. This was the middle of the +eighteenth century, you will understand, and I had come fresh from +London. Ghosts and bogies might do very well for the island of Tresco, +but Mr. Berkeley was not to be terrified with any such old-wives' +stories, and so Mr. Berkeley fell asleep. + +At what precise hour the thing happened I do not know. The room was so +dark that I could not have read my watch, even if I had looked at it, +which I did not think to do. But at some time during that night I woke +up quite suddenly with a clear sense that I had been waked up. + +I sat up in my bed with my heart beating very quick; and then with as +a little noise as I could I gathered myself up in the shadow of the +bed-hangings, at the head. The fog was still thick about the house, so +that hardly a glimmer of light came from the window. But there was +some one in the room I knew, for I could hear a rustle as of stealthy +movements. And then straight in front of me between the two posts of +the bed-foot, I saw something white that wavered and swayed this way +and that. Only an hour or so before I had been boasting to myself that +I was London-bred and lived in the middle of the eighteenth century. +But none the less my hair stirred upon my head, and all the moisture +dried up in my throat as I stared at that dim white thing wavering and +swaying between the bed-posts. It was taller than any human being that +I had seen. I remembered the weird screeching sound which I had heard +in the hollow; I think that in my heart I begged Dick Parmiter's +pardon for laughing at his fears; I know that I crouched back among +the hangings and shuddered till the bed shook and shook again. And +then it made a sound, and all the blood in my veins stood still. I +thought that my heart would stop or my brain burst. For the sound was +neither a screech like that which rose from the hollow, nor a groan, +nor any ghostly noise. It was purely human, it was a kecking sound in +the throat, such as one makes who gasps for breath. The white thing +was a live thing of flesh and blood. + +I sprang up on the bed and jumped to the foot of it. It was very dark +in the room, but through the darkness, I could see, on a level with my +face, the face of a woman. Her eyes were open and they stared into +mine. I could see the whites of them; our heads were so near they +almost touched. + +Even then I did not understand. I wondered what it was on which she +stood. I noticed a streak of white which ran straight up towards the +ceiling from behind her head, and I wondered what that was. And then +suddenly her body swung against my legs. She was standing on nothing +whatever! Again the queer gasping coughing noise broke from her lips, +and at last I understood it. It was a gasp of a woman strangling to +death. That white stiff streak above her head--I knew what it was too. +I caught her by the waist and lifted her up till her weight rested +upon my arm. With the other arm I felt about her neck. A thick soft +scarf--silk it seemed to the touch--was knotted tightly round it, and +the end of the scarf ran up to the cross-beam above the bed-posts. The +scarf was the streak of white. + +I fumbled at the knot with my fingers. It was a slip knot, and now +that no weight kept it taut, it loosened easily. I slipped the noose +back over her head and left it dangling. The woman I laid down upon +the bed, where she lay choking and moaning. + +I flung up the window and the cold fog poured into the room. I had no +candle to light and nothing wherewith to light it. But I remembered +that my foot had knocked against a chair to the right of the window, +as I climbed into the room. I groped for the chair and set it to face +the open night. Then I carried the woman to the window and placed her +in the chair, and supported her so that she might not fall. Outside I +could hear the surf booming upon the sand almost within arm's reach, +and the air was brisk with the salt of the sea. + +Such light as there was, glimmered upon the woman's face. I saw that +she was young, little more than a girl indeed, with hair and eyes of +an extreme blackness. She was of a slight figure as I knew from the +ease with which I carried her, but tall. I could not doubt who it was, +for one thing the white dress she wore was of some fine soft fabric, +and even in that light it was easy to see that she was beautiful. + +I held her thus with the cold salt air blowing upon her face, and in a +little, she began to recover. She moved her hands upon her lap, and +finally lifted one and held her throat with it. + +"Very likely there will be some water in the room," said I. "If you +are safe, if you will not fall, I will look for it." + +"Thank you," she murmured. + +My presence occasioned her no surprise and this I thought was no more +than natural at the moment. I took my arm from her waist and groped +about the room for the water-jug. I found it at last and a glass +beside it. These I carried back to the window. + +The girl was still seated on the chair, but she had changed her +attitude. She had leaned her arms upon the sill and her head upon her +arms. I poured out the water from the jug into the tumbler. She did +not raise her head. I spoke to her. She did not answer me. A horrible +fear turned me cold. I knelt down by her side, and setting down the +water gently lifted her head. She did not resist but sank back with a +natural movement into my arms. Her eyes were closed, but she was +breathing. I could feel her breath upon my cheek and it came steadily +and regular. I cannot describe my astonishment; she was in a deep +sleep. + +I pondered for a moment what I should do! Should I wake the household? +Should I explain what had happened and my presence in the house? For +Helen Mayle's sake I must not do that, since Helen Mayle it surely was +whom I held in my arms. + +I propped her securely in the chair, then crossed the room, opened the +door and listened. The house was very still; so far no one had been +disturbed. A long narrow passage stretched in front of me, with doors +upon either side. Remembering what Dick Parmiter had told me, I mean +that every sound reverberated through the house, I crept down the +landing on tiptoe. I had only my stockings upon my feet and I crept +forward so carefully that I could not hear my own footfalls. + +I had taken some twenty paces when the passage opened out to my right. +I put out my hand and touched a balustrade. A few yards farther on the +balustrade ceased; there was an empty space which I took to be the +beginning of the stairs, and beyond the empty space the passage closed +in again. + +I crept forward, and at last at the far end of the house and on the +left hand of the passage I came to that for which I searched, and +which I barely hoped to find--an open door. I held my breath and +listened in the doorway, but there was no sound of any one breathing, +so I stepped into the room. + +The fog was less dense, it hung outside the window a thin white mist +and behind that mist the day was breaking. I looked round the room. It +was a large bedroom, and the bed had not been slept in. A glance at +the toilette with its dainty knick-knacks of silver proved to me that +it was a woman's bedroom. It had two big windows looking out towards +the sea, and as I stood in the dim grey light, I wondered whether it +was from one of those windows that Adam Mayle had looked years before, +and seen the brigantine breaking up upon the Golden Ball Reef. But the +light was broadening with the passage of every minute. With the same +caution which I had observed before I stole back on tiptoe to Cullen +Mayle's room. Helen Mayle was still asleep, and she had not moved from +her posture. I raised her in my arms, and still she did not wake. I +carried her down the passage, through the open door and laid her on +the bed. There was a coverlet folded at the end of the bed and I +spread it over her. She nestled down beneath it and her lips smiled +very prettily, and she uttered a little purring murmur of content; but +this she did in her sleep. She slept with the untroubled sleep of a +child. Her face was pale, but that I took to be its natural +complexion. Her long black eyelashes rested upon her cheeks. There was +no hint of any trouble in her expression, no trace of any passionate +despair. I could hardly believe that this was the girl who had sought +to hang herself, whom I had seen struggling for her breath. + +Yet there was no doubt possible. She had come into the empty +room--empty as she thought, and empty it would have been, had not a +fisher-boy burst one night into Lieutenant Clutterbuck's lodging off +the Strand--when every one slept, and there she had deliberately stood +upon the bed, fastened her noose to the cross-bar and sprang off. +There was no doubt possible. It was her spring from the bed which had +waked me up, and as I returned to Cullen's room, I saw the silk noose +still hanging from the beam. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + HELEN MAYLE + + +A loud rapping on the door roused me. The mist had cleared away, and +out of the open window I could see a long sunlit slope of gorse all +yellow and purple stretching upwards, and over the slope a great space +of blue sky whereon the clouds sailed like racing boats in a strong +breeze. The door was thrust open and Dick Parmiter entered. + +"You keep London hours, sir," said he, standing at the foot of the +bed, and he happened to raise his eyes. "What's that?" he asked. + +_That_ was the silk scarf still dangling from the cross-bar, and the +sight of it brought back to me in a flash my adventure of the night. +With the clear sunlight filling the room and the bright wind chasing +the clouds over the sky, I could hardly believe that it had really +occurred. But the silk scarf hung between the posts. + +"My God," I cried out. "What if I had never waked up!" + +There would have been the sunlight and the wind in the sky as now, +but, facing me, no longer swaying, but still, inert, horrible, I +should have seen--and I clapped my hands over my face, so distinct was +this unspeakable vision to me, and cried out again: "What if I had not +waked up! + +"You have not waked up very early," said Dick, looking at me +curiously, and recovering my self-possession I hasten to explain. + +"I have had dreams, Dick. The strange room! I am barely awake yet." + +It appeared that I was not the only one to keep London hours that +morning. It was close upon mid-day and Dick had not waked me before, +because he had not before had speech with the mistress of the house. +Helen Mayle had risen late. But she knew now of my presence in the +house and what had brought me, and was waiting to offer me her thanks. + +In spite of this news that she was waiting, I made my toilette very +slowly. It would be the most awkward, embarrassing meeting imaginable. +How could one bow and smile and exchange the trivial courtesies with a +girl whom one had saved from that silk noose some eight hours before? +With what countenance would she greet me? Would she resent my +interference? Dick, however, had plainly noticed nothing unusual in +her demeanour; I consoled myself with that reflection. He noticed, +however, something unusual here in my room, for as I tied my cravat +before the mirror I saw that he was curiously looking at the silk +scarf. + +"Perhaps you have seen it before," said I without turning round. Dick +started, then he coloured. + +"I was wondering why it hung there," said he. + +"It _is_ curious," said I calmly, and I stood upon the bed and with +some trouble, for the knots were stiff, I took it down and thrust it +into the pocket of my coat. + +"It is yours?" cried Dick. + +"One silk scarf is very like another," said I, and he coloured again +and was silent. His silence was fortunate, since if he had asked to +what end I had hung it above my bed, I should have been hard put to it +for an answer. + +"I am ready," said I, and we walked along the passage to the +balustrade, and the head of the stairs where I had crept on tiptoe +during the night. + +I noticed certain marks, a few dents, a few scratches on the panels of +the wall at the head of the stairs, and I was glad to notice them, for +they reminded me of the business upon which I had come and of certain +conjectures which Dick had suggested to my mind. It was at the head of +the stairs that Adam Mayle had stood when he drove out his son. The +marks no doubt were the marks of that handful of guineas which Cullen +had flung to splatter and sparkle against the wall behind his father's +head. I was glad to notice them, as I say, for the tragical incident +in which I had borne a share that night had driven Cullen Mayle's +predicament entirely from my thoughts. + +I saw the flutter of a dress at the foot of the stairs, and a face +looked up to mine. It was the face which I had seen on a level with +mine in the black gloom of the night, and as I saw it now in the clear +light of day, I stopped amazed. It wore no expression of +embarrassment, no plea for silence. She met me with a grateful welcome +in her eyes as for one who had come unexpectedly to do her a service, +and perhaps a hint of curiosity as to why I should have come at all. + +"Dick has told me of you," she said, as she held out her hand. "You +are very kind. Until this morning I did not even know the reason of +Dick's journey to London. I was not aware that he had paid a visit to +Lieutenant Clutterbuck." + +There was a trifle of awkwardness in her voice as she pronounced his +name. I could not help feeling and no doubt expressing some +awkwardness as I heard it. Lieutenant Clutterbuck had not hesitated to +accuse her of duplicity; I at all events could not but acknowledge +that she was excellently versed in the woman's arts of concealment. +There was thus a moment's silence before I answered. + +"You will accept me I hope as Lieutenant Clutterbuck's proxy." + +"We had no right," she returned, "to expect any service from +Lieutenant Clutterbuck, much less from----" and she hesitated and +stopped abruptly. + +"From a stranger you would have said," I added. + +"We shall count you a stranger no longer," she said, with a frank +smile, and that I might not be outdone in politeness, I said: + +"If Dick had lacked discretion and told you all that he might have +told, you would understand that the obligation is upon my side. For +whereas I do not know that I can render you any service whatever, I do +know that already you have rendered me a great one." + +"That is very prettily said," she returned, as she walked into the +parlour. + +"Truth at times," I answered lightly as I followed her, "can be as +pretty as the most ingenious lie." + +So that first awkward meeting was past. I took my cue from her +reticence, but without her success. I could not imitate her complete +unconsciousness. It seemed she had no troubles. She sat at the table +in a flow of the highest spirits. Smiles came readily to her lips, and +her eyes laughed in unison. She was pale and the pallor was the more +marked on account of her dark hair and eyes, but the blood came and +went in her cheeks, and gave to her an infinite variety of expression. +I could hardly believe that this voice which was now lively with +contentment was the voice which had uttered that kecking sound in the +night, or that the eyes which now sparkled and flashed were the eyes +which had stared at me through the gloom. No doubt I looked at her +with more curiosity than was convenient; at all events she said, with +a laugh: + +"I would give much to know what picture Dick painted of me, for if I +may judge from your looks, Mr. Berkeley, the likeness is very unlike +to the original." + +I felt my cheeks grow hot, and cast about for a reason to excuse my +curiosity. Her own words suggested the reason. + +"Dick told me," I said, "of a woman in great distress and perplexity, +whose house was watched, who dreaded why it was watched----" + +"And you find a woman on the top of her spirits," she broke in, and +was silent for a little, looking at the cloth. "And very likely," she +continued slowly, "you are disposed to think that you have been misled +and persuaded hither for no more than a trivial purpose." + +"No," I protested. "No such thought occurred to me," and in my anxiety +to free myself from the suspicion of this imputation I broke through +that compact of silence upon which we seemed silently to have agreed. +"I have no reason for pride, God knows, but indeed, Madam, I am not so +utterly despicable as to regret that I came to Tresco and crept into +your house last night. Already,--suppose there was nothing more for +me to do but to wish you a good-morning and betake myself back to +town--already I have every reason to be glad that I came, for if I had +not come----" and I stopped. + +Helen Mayle listened to me with some surprise of manner at the +earnestness with which I spoke and when I stopped so abruptly, she +blushed and her eyes again sought the table. + +"Yes," she said quietly, "Mr. Berkeley, you have guessed the reason of +my good spirits. If you had not come, a woman in great distress and +perplexity would be wandering restlessly about the house, as she did +yesterday." + +Her eyes were still fixed upon the table, or she must have remarked my +astonishment and the pretence would at once and for all have been torn +away from between us. I leaned back in my chair; it was as much as I +could do to stifle an exclamation. If I had not come, a woman's spirit +might be wandering to-day restlessly from room to room, but the +woman--I had the silk scarf in my coat-pocket to assure me she would +not. + +"The distress and perplexity," she continued, "are not done with, but +to-day a hand has been stretched to me out of the dark, and I must +think, to some good end. It could not be otherwise," and she lifted +her eyes to mine. I did not doubt their sincerity. "And--shall I tell +you?" she continued with a frank smile. "I am glad, though I hardly +know why--I am glad that the man who stretched out his hand was quite +unknown to me and himself knew nothing of me, and had not so much as +seen my face. He helps a woman, not _one_ woman. I am more grateful +for that, I take it to be of good augury." And she held her hand to +me. + +I took the hand; I was tempted to let her remain in her +misapprehension. But sooner or later she would learn the truth, and it +seemed to me best that she should learn something of it from me. + +"Madam," I said, "I should account myself happy if I could honestly +agree, but I fear it was not on a woman's account that I travelled +down to Tresco. Dick I think had something to do with it, but chiefly +I came to do myself a service." + +"Well," she answered as she rose and crossed to the window "that may +be. You are here at all events, in the house that is watched" and then +she suddenly called me to her side. "Look," said she, "but keep well +behind the curtain." + +I looked across the water to a brown pile of rocks which was named +Norwithel, and beyond Norwithel over St. Helen's Pool to the island of +St. Helen's. + +"Do you see?" she asked. + +I saw the bare rock, the purple heather of St. Helen's, to the right a +wide shining beach of Tean, and to the left stretching out into the +sea from the end of St. Helen's a low ridge of rocks like a paved +causeway. I pointed to that causeway. + +"That is the Golden Ball Reef," said I. + +"Yes," she answered, "Dick told you the story. You would not see the +reef, but that the tide is low. But it is not that I wanted to show +you. See!" and she stretched out her hand towards the rock pile of +Norwithel. + +I looked there again and at last I saw a man moving on the rocks close +by the sea. + +"He is cutting the weed," said I. + +"That is the pretence," said she. "But so long as he stays there no +one can enter this house without he knows, no one can go out without +he knows." + +"Unless one goes in or out by the door I used." + +"That door is within view of the Castle Down. There will be some man +smoking his pipe, stretched on the grass of the Castle Down." + +"You have never spoken to them?" + +"Yes! They wanted nothing of me. They only watch. I know for whom they +watch. I could learn nothing by questioning them." + +"Have you asked Captain Hathaway's help?" + +Helen smiled. + +"No. What could he do? They do no one any hurt. They stand out of my +way when I pass. And besides--I am afraid. I do not know. If these men +were questioned closely by some one in authority, what story might +they have to tell and what part in that story does Cullen play?" + +I hesitated for a few moments whether to risk the words which were on +my lips. I made an effort and spoke them. + +"You will pardon the question--I have once met Cullen Mayle--and is he +worth all this anxiety?" + +"He had a strange upbringing in this house. There is much to excuse +him in the eyes of any one. And for myself I cannot forget that all +which people say is mine, is more rightly his." + +She spoke very gently about Cullen, as I had indeed expected that she +would, but with sufficient firmness to prove to me that it was not +worth while to continue upon this strain. + +"And the negro?" I asked. "He has not spoken?" + +For answer she led me up the stairs, and into a room which opened upon +the landing. The negro lay in bed and asleep. The flesh had shrivelled +off his bones, his face was thin and peaked, and plainly his days were +numbered. Helen leaned over the bed, spoke to him and pressed upon his +shoulder. The negro opened his eyes. Never in my life had I seen +anything so melancholy as their expression. The conviction of his +helplessness was written upon them and I think too an appeal for +forgiveness that he had not discharged his mission. + +"Speak to him," said Helen. "Perhaps a stranger's voice may rouse him +if only to speak two words." + +I spoke to him as she bade me; a look of intelligence came into the +negro's face; I put a question to him. + +"Why does George Glen watch for Cullen Mayle?"--and before I had +completed the sentence his eyelids closed languidly over his eyes and +he was asleep. I looked at him as he lay there, an emaciated +motionless figure, the white bedclothes against his ebony skin, and as +I thought of his long travels ending so purposelessly in this +captivity of sleep, I was filled with a great pity. Helen uttered a +moan, she turned towards me wringing her hands. + +"And there's our secret," she cried, "the secret which we must know +and which this poor negro burns to tell and it's locked up within him! +Bolts and bars," she burst out, "what puny things they seem! One can +break bolts, one can sever bars, but a secret buried within a man, how +shall one unearth it?" + +It just occurred to me that she stopped with unusual abruptness, but I +was looking at the negro, I was still occupied with pity. + +"Heaven send my journey does not end so vainly as his," I said +solemnly. I turned to Helen and I saw that she was staring at me with +a great astonishment, and concern for which I could not account. + +"I have a conjecture to tell you of," said I, "I do not know that it +is of value." + +"Let us go downstairs," she replied, "and you shall tell me," but she +spoke slowly as though she was puzzled with some other matter. As we +went downstairs I heard Dick Parmiter's voice and could understand the +words he said. I stopped. + +"Where is Dick?" + +"Most likely in the kitchen." + +When we were come to the foot of the stairs I asked where the kitchen +was? + +"At the end of that passage across the hall," she answered. + +Upon that I called Dick. I heard a door open and shut, and Dick came +into the hall. + +"The kitchen door was closed," said I, "I do not know but what my +conjecture may have some value after all." + +Helen Mayle walked into the parlour, Dick followed her. As I crossed +the hall my coat caught on the back of a chair. Whilst I was +disengaging my coat, I noticed that an end of the white scarf was +hanging from my pocket and that the initials "H. M." were embroidered +upon it. I recollected then how Helen Mayle had abruptly ended her +outcry concerning the bolts and bars, and how she had looked at me and +how she had spoken. Had she noticed the scarf? I thrust it back into +my pocket and took care that the flap of the pocket should hide it +completely. Then I, too, went into the parlour. But as I entered the +room I saw then Helen's eyes went at once to my pocket. She had, then, +noticed the scarf. It seemed, however, that she was no longer +perplexed as to how I came by it. But, on the other hand, it was my +turn to be perplexed. For, as she raised her eyes from my pocket, our +glances crossed. It was evident to her that I had detected her look +and understood it. Yet she smiled--without any embarrassment; it was +as though she thought I had stolen her scarf for a favour and she +forgave the theft. And then she blushed. That, however, she was very +ready to do upon all occasions. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + TELLS OF A STAIN UPON A WHITE FROCK, AND + A LOST KEY + + +Helen drew a chair to the table and waited with her hands folded +before her. + +"Dick," said I, turning to the lad, who stood just within the door, +"that oath of yours." + +"I have broken it already," said he. + +"There was never priest in the world who would refuse to absolve you. +The virtue of it lies in the forswearing. Now!" and I turned to Helen. +"But I must speak frankly," I premised. + +She nodded her assent. + +"Very well. I can make a consecutive sort of story, but I may well be +at fault, for my knowledge is scanty, and if I am in error over the +facts, I beg you, Miss Mayle, to correct me. Old Mr. Mayle's talk ran +continually about his wild doings on the Guinea coast, in Africa. +There can be no doubt that he spent some considerable portion of his +life there, and that he managed to scrape together a sufficient +fortune. It is likely, therefore, that he was engaged in the slave +trade, and, to be quite frank, Miss Helen, from what I have gathered +of his manner and style, I am not indisposed to think that he found an +occasional diversion from that pursuit in a little opportune piracy." + +I made the suggestion with some diffidence, for the old man, whatever +his sins, had saved her life, and shown her much affection, of which, +moreover, at his death he had given her very tangible proofs. It was +necessary for me, however, to say it, for I had nothing but suspicion +to go upon, and I looked to her in some way, either by words or +manner, to confirm or confute my suspicions. And it seemed to me that +she confirmed it, for she simply pressed the palms of her hands to her +forehead, and said quietly, + +"You are very frank." + +"There is no other way but frankness, believe me," I returned. "Now +let us come to that Sunday, four years ago, when Cullen Mayle sat in +the stocks and George Glen came to Tresco. It was you who took George +Glen to St. Mary's Church," I turned to Dick Parmiter. + +"Yes," said he. "I was kicking my heels in the sand, close to our +cottage, when he came ashore in a boat. He was most anxious to speak +with Mr. Mayle." + +"So you carried him across to St. Mary's, and he told you, I think, +that he had been quartermaster with Adam Mayle at Whydah, on the +Guinea coast?" + +"Yes." + +"Did he name the ship by any chance?" + +"No." + +"He did once, whilst we were at supper," interrupted Helen, "and I +remember the name very well, for my father turned upon him fiercely +when he spoke it, and Mr. Glen immediately said that he was mistaken +and substituted another name, which I have forgotten. The first name +was the _Royal Fortune_." + +"The _Royal Fortune_," said I, thoughtfully. The name in a measure was +familiar to me; it seemed familiar too in precisely this connection +with the Guinea coast. But I could not be sure. I was anxious to +discover George Glen's business with Adam Mayle, and very likely my +anxiety misled me into imagining clues where there were none. I put +the name away in my mind and went on with my conjecture. + +"Now on that Sunday George Glen met Adam Mayle in the churchyard, you, +Miss Mayle, and Lieutenant Clutterbuck were of the party. Together you +sailed across to Tresco. So that George Glen could have had no private +word with Mr. Mayle." + +"No," Helen Mayle agreed. "There was no opportunity." + +"Nor was there an opportunity all that afternoon and evening, until +Cullen left the house." + +"But after Cullen had gone," said she, "they had their opportunity and +made use of it. I left them together in my father's room. + +"The room fitted up as a cabin, where every word they spoke could be +heard though the door was shut and the eavesdropper need not even +trouble to lay his ear to the keyhole." + +"Yes, that is true," said Helen. "But the servants were in bed, and +there was no one to hear." + +At that Dick gave a start and a jump, and I cried: + +"But there was some one to hear. Tell your story, Dick!" and Dick told +how Cullen Mayle had climbed through the window, and how some hours +after he had waked him up and sworn him to secrecy. + +"Now, do you see?" I continued. "Why should Cullen Mayle have sworn +Dick here to silence unless he had discovered some sort of secret +which might prove of value to himself, unless he had overhead George +Glen talking to Adam Mayle? And there's this besides. Where has Cullen +Mayle been these last two years? I can tell you that." + +"You can?" said Helen. She was leaning across the table, her face all +lighted up with excitement. + +"Yes. There's the negro above stairs for one thing, Cullen's servant. +For another I met Cullen Mayle on the road as I was travelling here. +He counterfeited an ague, which he told me he had caught on the Guinea +coast. The ague was counterfeit, but very likely he has been on the +Guinea coast." + +"Of course," cried Dick. + +"Not a doubt of it," said Helen. + +"So this is my theory. George Glen came to enlist Adam Mayle's help +and Adam Mayle's money, in some voyage to Africa. Cullen Mayle +overheard it, and got the start of George Glen. So here's George Glen +back again upon Tresco, and watching for Cullen Mayle." + +"See!" cried Helen suddenly. "Did I not tell you you were sent here to +a good end?" + +"But we are not out of the wood yet," I protested. "We have to +discover what it was that Glen proposed to Mr. Mayle. How shall we do +that?" + +"How?" repeated Helen, and she looked to me confidently for the +answer. + +"I can think of but one way," said I, "to go boldly to George Glen and +make terms with him." + +"Would he speak, do you think?" + +"Most likely not," I answered, and so in spite of my fine conjecture, +we did not seem to have come any nearer to an issue. We were both of +us silent for some while. The very confidence which Helen displayed +stung me into an activity of thought. Helen herself was sunk in an +abstraction, and in that abstraction she spoke. + +"You are hurt," she said. + +My right hand was resting upon the table. It was cut in one or two +places, and covered with scratches. + +"It is nothing," said I, "I slipped on the hill yesterday night and +cut it with the gorse;" and again we fell to silence. + +"What I am thinking is this," she said, at length. "You overtook +Cullen upon the road, and you reached the islands last night. At any +moment then we may expect his coming." + +"Why, that's true," said I, springing up to my feet. "And if Dick will +sail me across to St. Mary's, we'll make a shift to stop him." + +Helen Mayle rose at that moment from her seat. She was wearing a white +frock, and upon one side of it I noticed for the first time a red +smear or two, as though she had brushed against paint--or blood. I +looked at my hand scratched and torn by the gorse bush. It would have +been bleeding at the time when a woman, coming swiftly past us in the +fog, brushed against it. The woman was certainly hurrying in the +direction of this house. + +"You have told me everything, I suppose," I said--"everything at all +events that it concerns me to know." + +"Everything," she replied. + +We crossed that afternoon to St. Mary's. There was no sign of Cullen +Mayle at Hugh Town. No one had seen him or heard of his coming. He had +not landed upon St. Mary's. I thought it possible that he might not +have touched St. Mary's at all, but rowed ashore to Tresco even as I +had done. But no ship had put into the Road that day but one which +brought Castile soap from Marseilles. We sailed back to Tresco, and +ran the boat's nose into the sand not twenty yards from the door of +the house on Merchant's Point. A man, an oldish, white-haired man, +loitering upon the beach very civilly helped us to run the boat up out +of the water. We thanked him, and he touched his hat and answered with +something of a French accent, which surprised me. But as we walked up +to the house, + +"That's one of the five," Dick explained. "He came on the boat with +the negro to Penzance. Peter Tortue he is called, and he was loitering +there on purpose to get a straight look at you." + +"Well," said I, "it is at all events known that I am here," and going +into the house I found Helen Mayle eagerly waiting for our return. I +told her that Cullen Mayle could not by any means have yet reached the +Scillies, and that we had left word with the harbour master upon St. +Mary's to detain him if he landed; at which she expressed great +relief. + +"And since it is known I am here," I added, "it will be more suitable +if I carry my valise over to New Grimsby and seek a bed at the +'Palace' Inn. I shall besides make the acquaintance of Mr. George +Glen. It is evident that he and his fellows intend no hurt to you, so +that you may sleep in peace." + +"No," said she, bravely enough. "I am not afraid for myself." + +"And you will do that?" + +"What?" she asked. + +"Sleep in peace," said I; and putting my hand into my pocket as if by +accident, I let her see again the corner of her white scarf. Her face +flushed a little as she saw it. + +"Oh, yes," she answered, and to my surprise with the easiest laugh +imaginable. "I shall sleep in peace. You need have no fear." + +I could not understand her. What a passion of despair it must have +needed to string her to that act of death last night! Yet to-day--she +could even allude to it with a laugh. I was lost in perplexity, but I +had this one sure thing to comfort me. She was to-day hopeful, however +much she despaired yesterday. She relied upon me to rescue Cullen from +his peril. I was not sure that I should be doing her the service she +imagined it to be, even if I succeeded. But she loved him, and looked +to me to help her. So that I, too, could sleep in peace without fear +that to-night another scarf would be fetched out to do the office this +one I kept had failed to do. + +I gave Dick my valise to carry across the island, and waited until he +was out of sight before I started. Then I walked to the palisade at +the end of the house. I found a spot where the palisade was broken; +the splintered wood was fresh and clean; it was I who had broken the +palisade last night. From that point I marched straight up the hill +through the gorse, and when I had walked for about twenty minutes I +stopped and looked about me. I struck away to my left, and after a +little I stopped again. I marched up and down that hill, to the right, +to the left, for perhaps the space of an hour, and at last I came upon +that for which I searched--a steep slope where the grass was crushed, +and underneath that slope a sheer descent. On the brink of the +precipice--for that I judged it to be--I saw a broken gorse-bush. I +lay down on my face and carefully crawled down the slope. The roots of +the gorse-bush still held firmly in the ground. I clutched it in my +left hand, dug the nails of my right through the grass into the soil +and leaned over. My precipice was no more than a hollow some twenty +feet deep, and had I slipped yesterday night, I should not have fallen +even those twenty feet; for a sort of low barn was built in the +hollow, with its back leaning against the perpendicular wall. I should +have dropped perhaps ten feet on to the roof of this barn. + +I drew myself up the hill again and sat down. The evening was very +quiet and still. I was near to the summit of the island. Over my left +shoulder I could see the sun setting far away in the Atlantic, and the +waves rippling gold. Beneath me was the house, a long one-storied +building of granite, on the horn of a tiny bay. The windows looked +across the bay; behind the house stretched that tangled garden, and at +the end of the garden rose the Merchant's Rock. As it stood thus in +the evening light, with the smoke curling from its chimneys, and the +sea murmuring at its door, it seemed quite impossible to believe that +any story of turmoil and strife and tragedy could have locality there. +That old buccaneer Adam Mayle, and his soft-voiced son Cullen, whom he +had turned adrift, seemed the figures of a dream and my adventure in +Cullen's room--a hideous nightmare. + +And yet even as I looked footsteps brushed through the grass behind +me, and turning I saw a sailor with a brass telescope under one arm +and a black patch over one eye; who politely passed me the time of day +and went by. He was a big man, with a great beard and hair sprouting +from his ears and nostrils. He was another of the five no doubt, and +though he went by he did not pass out of sight. I waited, hoping that +he would go, for I had a great desire to examine the barn beneath me +more closely. It was from the barn that the unearthly screeching had +risen which had so terrified Dick Parmiter. It was between the barn +and the house that a girl had brushed against my wounded hand and +taken a stain of blood upon her dress. + +The hollow was only a break in the steep slope of the hill. The barn +could easily be approached by descending the hill to the right or the +left, and then turning in. I was anxious to do it, to try the door, to +enter the barn, but I dared not, for the sailor was within sight, and +I had no wish to arouse any suspicions. Helen had told me everything, +she had said--everything which it concerned me to know. But had she? I +found myself asking, as I got to my feet and crossed the hill down +towards New Grimsby. + +The sun had set by this time, a cool twilight took the colour from the +gorse, and numberless small winged things flew and sung about one's +face; all round a grey sea went down to a grey sky, and sea and sky +were merged; and at my feet the lights began to twinkle in the little +fishing village by the sea. I hired a bed at the "Palace" Inn, bade +them prepare me supper and then walked on to Parmiter's cottage for my +valise. + +There was a great hubbub going on within; Dick's voice was explaining, +and a woman's shrill voice overtopped his explanation. The cause of +his offence was twofold. He had not been near the cottage all day, so +that it was thought he had run away again, and the key of the cottage +was gone. It had not been seen since yesterday, and Dick had been +accused of purloining it. I explained to Mrs. Parmiter that it was my +fault Dick had kept away all day, and I made a bargain with her that I +should have the lad as my servant while I stayed upon the island. Dick +shouldered my valise in a state of considerable indignation. + +"What should I steal the key for?" said he. "It only stands in the +door for show. No one locks his door in Tresco. What should I steal +the key for?" and he was within an ace of whimpering. + +"Come, Dick," said I, "you mustn't mind a trifle of a scolding. Why, +you are a hero to everybody in these parts, and to one man at all +events outside them." + +"That doesn't hinder mother from chasing me about with an oar," he +answered. + +"It is the fate of all heroes," said I, "to be barbarously used by +their womenfolk." + +"Then I am damned if I want to be a hero," said Dick, violently. "And +as for the key--of what consequence is it at all if you never lock +your door?" + +"Of no more consequence than your bruises, Dick," said I. + +But I was wrong. You may do many things with a key besides locking a +door. You can slip it down your back to stop your nose bleeding, for +instance; if it's a big key you can weigh a line with it, and perhaps +catch a mackerel for your breakfast. And there's another use for a key +of which I did not at this time know, or I should have been saved from +considerable perplexity and not a little danger. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + IN WHICH I LEARN SOMETHING FROM AN + ILL-PAINTED PICTURE + + +I took my supper in the kitchen of the Palace Inn, with a strong reek +of tobacco to season it, and a succession of gruesome stories to make +it palatable. The company was made up for the most part of fishermen, +who talked always of wrecks upon the western islands and of dead men +drowned. But occasionally a different accent and a different anecdote +of some other corner of the world would make a variation; and doing my +best to pierce the haze of smoke, I recognised the speaker as Peter +Tortue, the Frenchman, or the man with the patch on his eye. George +Glen was there too, tucked away in a corner by the fireplace, but he +said very little. I paid, therefore, but a scanty attention, until, +the talk having slid, as it will, from dead men to their funerals, +some native began to descant upon the magnificence of Adam Mayle's. + +"Ay," said he, drawing a long breath, "there _was_ a funeral, and all +according to orders dictated in writing by the dead man. He was to be +buried by torchlight in the Abbey Grounds. I do remember that! Mortal +heavy he was, and he needed a big coffin." + +"To be sure he would," chimed in another. + +"And he had it too," said a third; "a mortal big coffin. We carried +him right from his house over the shoulder of the island, and down +past the Abbey pond to the graveyard. Five shillings each we had for +carrying him--five shillings counted out by torchlight on a gravestone +as soon as the grave was filled in. It was all written down before he +died." + +Then the first speaker took up the tale again. + +"A queer, strange man was Adam Mayle, and queer strange sights he had +seen. He would sit in that corner just where you be, Mr. Glen, and +tell stories to turn a man cold. Crackers they used to call him on +board ship, so he told us--'Crackers.'" + +"Why Crackers?" asked George Glen. + +"'Cause he was that handy with a marlinspike. A queer man! And that +was a queer notion of his about that stick"; and then he appealed to +his companions, who variously grunted their assent. + +"What about the stick?" asked Glen. + +"You may well ask, Mr. Glen. It was all written down. The stick was to +be buried with him in his coffin. It was an old heavy stick with a +great brass handle. Many's the time he has sat on the settle there +with that stick atween his knees. 'Twas a stick with a sword in't, but +the sword was broken. I remember how he loosened the handle once while +he was talking just as you and I are now, and he held the stick upside +down and the sword fell out on to the ground, just two or three inches +of steel broken off short. He picked it up pretty sharp and rammed it +in again. Well, the stick was to be buried with him, so that if he +woke up when we were carrying him over the hill to the Abbey he might +knock on the lid of his coffin." + +"But I doubt if any one would ha' opened the lid if he had knocked," +said one, with a chuckle, and another nodded his head to the +sentiment. "There was five shillings, you see," he explained, "once +the ground was stamped down on top of him. It wasn't quite human to +expect a body to open the lid." + +"A queer notion--about that stick." + +And so the talk drifted away to other matters. The fishermen took +their leave one by one and tramped heavily to their homes. Peter +Tortue and his companion followed. George Glen alone remained, and he +sat so quiet in his corner that I forgot his presence. Adam Mayle was +the only occupant of the room for me. I could see him sitting on the +settle, with a long pipe between his lips when he was not holding a +mug there, his mulberry face dimly glowing through the puffs of +tobacco, and his voice roaring out those wild stories of the African +coast. That anxiety for a barbaric funeral seemed quite of a piece +with the man as my fancies sketched him. Well, he was lying in the +Abbey grounds, and George Glen sat in his place. + +Mr. Glen came over to me from his corner, and I called for a jug of +rum punch, and invited him to share it, which he willingly did. He was +a little squabby man, but very broad, with a nervous twitting laugh, +and in his manner he was extremely intimate and confidential. He could +hardly finish a sentence without plucking you by the sleeve, and every +commonplace he uttered was pointed with a wink. He knew that I had +been over at the house under Merchant's Rock, and he was clumsily +inquisitive about my business upon Tresco. + +"Why," said I, indifferently, "I take it that I am pretty much in the +same case with you, Mr. Glen." + +At that his jaw dropped a little, and he stared at me utterly +discountenanced that I should be so plain with him. + +"As for me," said he in a little, "it is plain enough. And when +you say"--and here he twitched my sleeve as he leaned across the +table--"'here's old George Glen, that battered about the world in +ships for fifty years, and has come to his moorings in a snug harbor +where rum's cheap, being smuggled or stole', says you--well, I am not +denying you may be right;" and here he winked prodigiously. + +"And that's just what I said," I returned; "for here have I battered +about London, that's worse than the sea, and ages a man twice as +fast----" + +Mr. Glen interrupted me with some astonishment, and, I thought, a +little alarm. + +"Why," says she, "this is no place for the likes of you--a crazy +tumbledown of a tavern. All very well for tarry sailor folk that's +never seen nothing better than forecastle. But you'll sicken of it in +a week. Sure, you have not dropped your anchor here." + +"We'll call it a kedge, Mr. Glen," said I. + +"A kedge, you say," answered Mr. Glen, with a titter, "and a kedge +we'll make it. It's a handy thing to get on board in a hurry." + +He spoke with a wheedling politeness, but very likely a threat +underlay his words. I thought it wise to take no notice of them, but, +rising from my seat, I wished him good night. And there the +conversation would have ended but for a couple of pictures upon the +wall which caught my eye. + +One was the ordinary picture which you may come upon in a hundred +alehouses by the sea: the sailor leaving his cottage for a voyage, his +wife and children clinging about his knees, and in the distance an +impossible ship unfurling her sails upon an impossible ocean. The +second, however, it was, which caught my attention. It was the picture +of a sailor's return. His wife and children danced before him, he was +clad in magnificent garments, and to prove the prosperity of his +voyage he carried in his hand a number of gold watches and chains; and +the artist, whether it was that he had a sense of humour or that he +merely doubted his talents, instead of painting the watches, had cut +holes in the canvas and inserted little discs of bright metal. + +"This is a new way of painting pictures, Mr. Glen," said I. + +Mr. Glen's taste in pictures was crude, and for these he expressed a +quite sentimental admiration. + +"But," I objected, "the artist is guilty of a libel, for he makes the +sailor out to be a sneak-thief." + +Mr. Glen became indignant. + +"Because he comes home with wealth untold?" he asked grandly. + +"No, but because he comes home with watches," said I. + +Whereupon Mr. Glen was at some pains to explain to me that the watches +were merely symbolical. + +"And the picture's true," he added, and fell to pinching my arm. +"There's many a landsman laughs; but sailors, you says, says you, +'comes home with watches in their 'ands more than they can 'old and +sets up for gentle-folk,' says you." + +"Like old Adam Mayle, I adds," said I; and Mr. Glen dropped my arm and +stood a little way off blinking at me. + +"You knew Adam?" he said, in a fierce sort of way. + +"No," I answered. + +"But you know of him?" + +"Yes," said I, slowly, "I know of him, but not as much as you do, Mr. +Glen, who were quartermaster with him at Whydah on the ship _Royal +Fortune_." + +I spoke at random, wondering how he would take the words, and they had +more effect than I had even hoped for. His face turned all of a +mottled colour; he banged his fist upon the table and uttered a +horrible oath, calling upon God to slay him if he had ever set foot on +the deck of a ship named the _Royal Fortune_. + +"And when you says, says you," he added, sidling up to me, "Old George +never see'd a _Royal Fortune_, says you--why, you're saying what's +right and fair, and I thanks you, sir. I thanks you with a true +sailor's 'eart "; at which he would have wrung my hand. But I had no +hand ready for him; I barely heard his words. Whydah--the Guinea +coast--the ship _Royal Fortune!_ The truth came so suddenly upon me +that I had not the wit to keep silence. I could have bitten off my +tongue the next moment. As it was I caught most of the sentence back. +But the beginning of it jumped from my mouth. + +"At last I know"--I began and stopped. + +"What?" said Mr. Glen, with his whole face distorted into an +insinuating grin. But he was standing very close to me and a little +behind my back. + +"That my father thrashed me over twenty years ago," said I, clapping +my hand to my coat tails and springing away from him. + +"And you have never forgotten it," said he. + +"On the contrary," said I, "I have only just remembered it." + +Mr. Glen moved away from the table and walked towards the door. Thus +he disclosed the table to me, and I laughed very contentedly. Mr. Glen +immediately turned. He had reached the door, and he stood in the +doorway biting shreds of skin from his thumb. + +"You are in good spirits," said he, rather surlily. + +"I was never in better," said I. "The motions of inanimate bodies are +invariably instructive." + +I was very willing he should think me half-witted. He went grumbling +up the stairs; I turned me again to the picture of the sailor's +return. Whydah--the Guinea coast--the ship _Royal Fortune!_ It may +have been in some part the man's eagerness to deny all knowledge of +the ship; it was, no doubt, in some part the picture of those gold +watches, which awakened my memories. Watches of just such gold were +dangling for sale on a pedler's stall when first I heard of the ship +_Royal Fortune_. The whole scene came back to me most vividly--the +market-place of an old country town upon a fair day, the carts, the +crowds, the merry-go-rounds, the pedler's stall with the sham gold +watches, and close by the stall a ragged hawker singing a ballad of +the _Royal Fortune_, and selling copies of the ballad--a ballad to +which was added the last confessions of four men hung for piracy at +Cape Coast Castle within the flood-marks. It was well over twenty +years since that day, but I remembered it now with a startling +distinctness. There was a rough woodcut upon the title-page of the +ballad representing four men hanging in chains upon four gibbets. I +had bought one that afternoon, and my father had taken it from me and +thrashed me soundly for reading it. But I had read it! My memory was +quickened now to an almost supernatural clearness. I could almost turn +over the pages in my mind and read it again. All four men--one of them +was named Ashplant, a second Moody--went to the gallows without any +sign of penitence. There was a third so grossly stupid--yes, his name +was Hardy--so stupid that during his last moments he could think of +nothing more important than the executioner's tying his wrists behind +his back, and his last words were before they swung him off to the +effect that he had seen many men hanged, but none with their hands +tied in this way. The fourth--I could not recall his name, but he +swore very heartily, saying that he would rather go to hell than to +heaven, since he would find no pirates in heaven to keep him company, +and that he would give Roberts a salute of thirteen guns at entrance. +There was the story of a sea-fight, too, besides the ballad and the +confessions and it all cost no more than a penny. What a well-spent +penny! The fourth man's name, by-the-bye, was Sutton. + +But the sea-fight! It was fought not many miles from Whydah between +His Majesty's ship _Swallow_ and the _Royal Fortune_; for the _Royal +Fortune_ was sailed by Captain Bartholomew Roberts, the famous pirate +who was killed in this very encounter. How did George Glen or Adam +Mayle or Peter Tortue (for he alone of Glen's assistants was of an age +to have shipped on the _Royal Fortune_) escape? I did not care a +button. I had my thumb on George Glen, and was very well content. + +There was no doubt I had my thumb on the insinuating George. There was +Adam Mayle's fortune, in the first place; there was Adam's look when +George Glen let slip the name of the ship when he first came to +Tresco; there was Glen's consternation this evening when I repeated it +to him, and there was something more than his convincing than his +consternation--a table-knife. + +He had come very close to me when I mentioned the _Royal Fortune_, and +he had stood a little behind me--against the table at which I had +eaten my supper. I had eaten that supper at the opposite side of the +table, and how should a table-knife have crawled across the table and +be now lying so handily on this nearer edge unless George had doubts +of my discretion? Yes, I had my thumb upon him and as I went upstairs +to bed I wondered whether after all Helen would be justified of her +confidence in believing that I had been sent to Tresco to some good +end. Her face was very present to me that night. There was much in her +which I could not understand. There was something, too, to trouble +one, there were concealments, it almost seemed there was a trace of +effrontery--such as Lieutenant Clutterbuck had spoken of; but to-night +I was conscious chiefly that she set her faith in me and my +endeavours. Does the reed always break if you lean upon it? What if a +miracle happened and the reed grew strong because some one--any +one--leaned upon it! I kept that trustful face of hers as I had seen +it in the sunlight, long before my eyes in the darkness of the room. +But it changed, as I knew and feared it would,--it changed to that +appalling face which had stared at me out of the dark. I tried to +drive that picture of her from my thoughts. + +But I could not, until a door creaked gently. I sat up in my bed with +a thought of that knife handy on the table edge to the grasp of George +Glen. I heard a scuffle of shoeless feet draw towards my door, and I +remembered that I had no weapon--not even a knife. The feet stopped at +my door, and I seemed to hear the sound of breathing. The moon had +already sunk, but the night was clear, and I watched the white door +and the white woodwork of the door frame. The door was in the wall on +my right; it was about midway between the head and the foot of my bed, +and it opened inwards and down towards the foot; so that I should +easily see it opening. But suddenly I heard the stair boards creaking. +Whoever it was then, had merely stopped to listen at my door. I fell +back on my bed with a relief so great as to surprise me. I was +surprised, too, to find myself cold with sweat. I determined to buy +myself a knife in the morning, for there was the girl over at +Merchant's Point who looked to me. I had thus again a picture of her +in the sunlight. + +And then I began to wonder at that stealthy descent of the stairs. And +why should any one wish to assure himself I slept? This was a question +to be looked into. I got out of bed very cautiously, as cautiously +opened the door and peered out. + +There was a light burning in the kitchen--a small yellow light as of a +candle, but I could hear no sound. I crept to the head of the stairs +which were steep and led directly to the very threshold of the +kitchen. I lay down on the boards of the landing and stretching my +head down the stairs, looked into the room. + +George Glen had taken the sailor with the watches, down from the wall. +He was seated with the candle at his elbow, and minutely examining the +picture. He looked up towards the stairs, I drew my face quickly back; +but he was gazing in a complete abstraction, and biting his thumb, +very much puzzled. I crept back to bed and in a little I heard him +come shuffling up the stairs. He had been examining that picture to +find a reason for my exclamation. It was a dull-witted thing to do and +I could have laughed at him heartily, only I had already made a +mistake in taking him to be duller-witted than he was. For he was +quick enough, at all events, to entertain suspicions. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + OUR PLANS MISCARRY UPON CASTLE DOWN + + +The next morning, you may be sure, I crossed the hill betimes, and +came down to the house under Merchant's Rock with my good news. I told +her the news with no small elation, and with a like elation she began +to hear it. But as I related what had occurred at the Palace Inn, she +fell into thought, and now smiled with a sort of pride, and now +checked a sigh; and when I came to the knife upon the table's edge she +shuddered. + +"But you are in danger!" she cried. "Every minute you are in danger of +your life, and on my account!" + +"Nay," said I lightly, "you exaggerate. The best of women have that +fault." + +But she did not smile. She laid a hand upon my arm, and said, very +earnestly: + +"I cannot have it. I am very proud you count the risk so little, but +you must go." + +"No," said I, "they must go, and we have the means to make them march. +We have but to inform Captain Hathaway at the Garrison that here are +some of Bartholomew Robert's fry, and we and the world will soon be +quit of them for ever." + +"But we cannot," she exclaimed, "for then it would be known that +my"--she hesitated for a second, or rather she paused, for there was +no hesitation in her voice, as she continued--"my father also was of +the band. It may be justice that it should be known. But I cannot help +it; I guard his memory. Besides, there is Cullen." + +It was to Cullen that she always came in the end, and with such +excuses as a girl might make who was loyal to a man whom she must know +not to be worth her loyalty. The house in which she lived, the money +which she owned were his by right. She dreaded what story these men, +if captured, might have to tell of Cullen--she could not be persuaded +that Glen and his friends had not a motive of vengeance as well as of +gain,--and that story, whatever it was, would never have been enacted, +had not Cullen been driven penniless from Tresco. It did not occur to +her at all that this house was not Cullen's by any right, but belonged +to the scattered sons of many men with whom the ship _Royal Fortune_ +had fallen in. + +She repeated her arguments to me as we walked in the grass-grown +garden at the back of the house. A thick shrubbery of trees grew at +the end of the garden, and behind the trees rose the Merchant's Rock. +On one side the Castle Down rolled up towards the sky, on the other a +hedge closed the garden in, and beneath the hedge was the sea. Over +the hedge I could see the uninhabited island of St. Helen's and the +ruined church upon the summit, and a ship or two in St. Helen's Pool; +and this side of the ships the piled boulders of Norwithel. It was at +Norwithel that I looked as she spoke, and when she had done I +continued: + +"I do not propose that we should tell Captain Hathaway, but I can make +a bargain with Glen. I can find out what he wants, and strike a +bargain with him. We have the upper hand, we can afford to speak +freely. I will make a bargain with him to-night, of which one +condition shall be that he and his party leave Tresco and nowhere +attempt to molest Cullen Mayle." + +But she stopped in front of me. + +"I cannot have it," she said, with energy. "This means danger to you +who propose the bargain." + +"I shall propose it in the inn kitchen," said I. + +"And the knife on the table's edge?" she asked; "that too was in the +inn kitchen. Oh, no! no!" she cried, in a voice of great trouble. +There was great trouble too in her eyes. + +"Madam," I said, gently, "I never thought that this would prove a +schoolboy's game. If I had thought so, I should be this instant +walking down St. James's. But you overrate my peril." + +I saw her draw herself erect. + +"No; it is I who will propose the bargain and make the conditions. It +is I who will charge them with their piracy." + +"How?" I asked. + +"I will go this morning to the Palace Inn." + +"George Glen went out this morning before I rose." + +She looked over to Norwithel. + +"There is no one to-day on Norwithel," said I. + +"I shall find Peter Tortue on the Castle Down." + +"But I crossed the Castle Down this morning----" and I suddenly +stopped. There had been no one watching on the Castle Down. There was +no one anywhere upon the watch to-day. The significance of this +omission struck me then for the first time. + +"What if already we are quit of them!" I cried. "What if that one tiny +word _Royal Fortune_ has sent them at a scamper into hiding?" + +Helen caught something of my excitement. + +"Oh! if it only could be so!" she exclaimed. + +"Most like it _is_ so," I returned. "No man cutting ore-weed upon +Norwithel! No man lounging on the Castle Down! It must be so!" and we +shook hands upon that likelihood as though it was a certainty. We +started guiltily apart the next moment, for a servant came into the +garden with word that Dick Parmiter had sailed round in a boat from +New Grimsby, and was waiting for me. + +"There is something new!" said Helen, clasping her hands over her +heart, and in a second she was all anxiety. I hastened to reassure +her. Dick had come at my bidding, for I was minded to sail over to St. +Mary's, and discover if there was anywhere upon that island a record +of the doings of the _Royal Fortune_. To that end I asked Helen to +give me a letter to the chaplain there, who would be likely to know +more of what happened up and down the world than the natives of the +islands. I was not, however, to allow that I had any particular +interest in the matter, lest the Rev. Mr. Milray should smell a rat as +they say, and on promising to be very exact in this particular and to +return to the house in time for supper, I was graciously given the +letter. + +I found the Rev. Mr. Milray in his parsonage at Old Town, a small, +elderly man, who would talk of nothing but the dampness of his house +since the great wave which swept over this neck of land on the day of +the earthquake at Lisbon. I left him very soon, therefore, and went +about another piece of business. + +I had travelled from London with no more clothes and linen than a +small valise would hold. On setting out, I had not considered, indeed, +that I should be thrown much into the company of a lady, but only that +I was journeying into a rough company of fisher-folk. Yesterday, +however, it had occurred to me that I must make some addition to my +wardrobe and the necessity was yet more apparent to-day. I was +pleased, therefore, to find that Hugh Town was of greater importance +than I had thought it to be. It is much shrunk and dwindled now, but +then ships from all quarters of the world were continually putting in +there, so that they made a trade by themselves, and there was always +for sale a great store of things which had been salved from wrecks. I +was able, therefore, to fit myself out very properly. + +I sailed back to the Palace Inn, dressed with some care, and walked +over to sup at Merchant's Rock--little later perhaps. Helen Mayle was +standing in the hall by the foot of the stairs. I saw her face against +the dark panels as I entered, and it looked very white and strained +with fear. + +"There is no news of Cullen at St. Mary's," I said, to lighten her +fears; and she showed an extravagant relief, before, indeed, she could +barely have heard the words. Her face coloured brightly and then she +began to laugh. Finally she dropped me a curtsey. + +"Shall I lend you some hair-powder?" she asked, whimsically; and when +we were seated at table, "How old are you?" + +"I was thirty and more a month ago," said I, "but I think that I am +now only twenty-two." + +"As much as that?" said she, with a laugh, and grew serious in an +instant. "What did you discover at St. Mary's besides a milliner?" + +"Nothing," said I, "except that the Rev. Milray suffers from the +rheumatics." + +She remained in the same variable disposition during the whole of that +supper, at one moment buoyant on a crest of light-heartedness and her +eyes sparkling like stars, at another sunk into despondency and her +white brows all wrinkled with frowns. But when supper was over she +went to a cabinet, and taking from it a violin, said: + +"Now, I will play to you." + +And she did--out in that tangled garden over the sea. + +"The violin came to the Scillies in a ship that was wrecked upon the +Stevel Rock one Christmas. But the violin will tell you," she said, +with a smile. "My father bought it at St. Mary's and gave it to me, +and an old pilot now dead taught me;" and she swept the bow across the +strings and the music trembled across the water, through the lucent +night, up to the stars, a voice vibrating with infinite wisdom and +infinite passion. + +It seemed to me that I had at last got the truth of her. All my +guesses, my suspicions of something like duplicity, even my +recollection of our first meeting were swept out of my mind. She sat, +her white face gleaming strangely solemn under her black wealth of +hair, her white hand flashing backwards and forwards, and she made the +violin speak. It spoke of all things, things most sad and things most +joyous; it spoke with complete knowledge of the heights and the +depths; it woke new, vague, uncomprehended hungers in one's heart; it +called and called till all one's most sacred memories rose up, as it +were from graves, to answer the summons. It told me, I know, all my +life, from my childhood in the country to the day when I set out with +my cadet's portion to London. It sang with almost a pæan of those +first arduous years--set them to a march,--and then with a great pity +told of those eight wasted years that followed--years littered with +cards, stained with drink; years in which, and there was the +humiliation of it, my fellow-drunkards, my fellow-gamblers had all +been younger than myself--years in which I grew a million years old. +That violin told it all out to me, until I twisted in my chair through +sheer shame, and I looked up and the girl's eyes were fixed upon me. +What it was that compelled me to speak I could never tell, unless it +was the violin. But as she looked at me, and as that violin sobbed out +its notes, I cried in a passionate excuse: + +"You asked me how old I was. Do you know I never was young--I never +had the chance of youth! When the chance came, I had forgotten what +youth can do. That accounts, surely, for those eight years. I was +tired then, and I was never young." + +"Until to-night," she said quietly, and the music quickened. I suppose +that she was right, for I had never spoken so intimately to any one, +whether man or woman; and I cursed myself for a fool, as one does when +one is first betrayed into speaking of one's secret self. + +She took the violin from her shoulder, and the glory of the music died +off the sea, but lingered for a little faintly upon the hills. I rose +up to go and Helen drew a breath and shivered. + +"This afternoon," said I, "a brig went out from the islands through +Crow Sound, bound for Milford. I'll wager the five were on it." + +"But if not?" + +"There's the 'Palace' kitchen." + +"Speak when there are others by, not within hearing, but within reach! +You will? Promise me!" + +I promised readily enough, thinking that I could keep the promise, and +she walked back with me through the house to the door. There is a +little porch at the door, four wooden beams and a slate roof on the +top, and half a dozen stone steps from the porch to the garden. Helen +Mayle stood in the porch, with her violin still in her hand. She +wished me "Good-night" when I was at the bottom of the steps, but a +little afterwards, when I had passed through the gateway of the +palisade and had begun to ascend the hill, she drew the bow sharply +across one of the strings and sent a little chirp of music after me, +which came to my ears, with an extraordinarily friendly sound. The air +was still hereabouts, though from the motion of the clouds there was +some wind in the sky, and the chirp came very clear and pretty. + +It was a few minutes short of ten when I left the house, and I +set off at a good pace, for I was anxious to keep my promise and +make my bargain with George Glen, quietly in a corner, before the +fishing-folk had gone home to bed. A young moon hung above the crest +of the hill, a few white clouds were gathering towards it, and the +gorse at my feet was black as ink. I walked upwards then steadily. I +had walked for perhaps a quarter of an hour, when I heard a low, soft +whistle. It came to me quite as clearly as the chirp of the violin, +but it had not the same friendly sound. It sounded very lonesome, it +set my heart jumping, it brought me to a stop. For I had heard +precisely that whistle on one occasion before, on the night when I +first crossed this hill with Dick Parmiter down to Merchant's Rock. + +The whistle had sounded from below me and from no great distance away. +I turned and looked down the slope, but I could see no one. It was +very lonely and very still. Whoever had whistled lay crouched on the +gorse. And then the whistle sounded again, but this time it came from +above me, higher up the slope. Immediately I dropped to the ground. +The gorse which hid them from me might well hide me from them. A few +paces above me the gorse seemed thicker than it was where I lay. I +crawled laboriously, flat upon my face, till I reached this patch. I +forced myself into it, holding my face well down to keep the thorns +out of my eyes, until the bushes were so close I could crawl no +further. Then I lay still as a mouse, holding my breath, listening +with every nerve. I had eluded them before in just this way, but I got +little comfort from that reflection. There had been a fog on that +night, whereas to-night it was clear. Moreover, they had a more urgent +reason now for persevering in their search. I possessed some dangerous +knowledge about them as they were aware--knowledge, too dangerous; +knowledge which would harden into a weapon in my hand if--if I reached +the Palace Inn alive. + +I lay very still, and in a little I heard the brushing of their feet +through the grass. They were closing down from above, they were +closing up from below; but they did not speak or so much as whisper. I +turned my head sideways, ever so gently, and looked up to the sky. I +saw to my delight that the clouds were over the moon. I buried my face +again in the grass, lest they should detect me by its pallor against +the black gorse. I was very thankful indeed that I had not accepted +that proffered loan of hair-powder--I was dressed in black, too, from +head to foot; I blessed the good fortune which had led me to buy black +stockings at St. Mary's, and, in a word, my hopes began to revive. + +The feet came nearer, and I heard a voice whisper: + +"It was here." The voice was Peter Tortue's, as I knew from the French +accent, and the next instant a stick fell with a heavy thud not a foot +from my head. If only the clouds hung in front of the moon! Round and +about they tramped--the whole five of them. For in a little they began +in low tones to curse, first of all me, and afterwards Peter Tortue, +who had whistled from below. Let them only quarrel amongst themselves, +I thought, and there's a good chance they will forget the reason of +their quarrel. It seemed that they were well on the road to a quarrel +at last; a man, quite young as I judged from his voice, flung himself +down on the grass with an oath. + +"But he is here, close to us," said Peter. "I heard the girl thrum +good-night to him on her fiddle, and then I saw him, and followed him, +and whistled." + +"Well, it is your business, not mine. Yours and George Glen's," the +other returned. I learned later that his name was Nathaniel Roper. "I +was never on no _Royal Fortune_, devil damn me." + +"Whist, you lousy fool"--and this was George Glen speaking. I am sure +he was winking and pinching the fellow's arm,--"we are all in the same +boat whether we've sailed in the _Royal_----" and he stopped. + +All at once there was a dead silence. I have never in my life +experienced anything so horrible as that sudden, complete silence. I +could not see what caused it, for my face was buried in the grass, and +I dared not move. One moment I had a sensation that they were gazing +at my back, and I felt--it is the only way I can express it--I felt +_naked_. Another moment I imagined it to be a ruse to beguile me into +stirring; and it lasted for ever and ever. + +At length one sound--not a voice--broke the silence: the man who had +thrown himself down was getting to his feet. But when he had stood up +he made no further movement; he stood motionless, like the others, and +the silence began again and again it lasted for ever and ever. + +All sorts of tremors began to creep over my body; the muscles of my +back jerked of their own accord. The suspense was driving me mad. I +had to move, I had to see, if only to hinder myself from leaping to my +feet and making a headlong rush. Very slowly I turned my head +sideways; I looked backwards along the ground, until I saw. The moon +had swum out from the clouds, and the five men were standing in +arrested attitudes with their eyes fixed upon something that glittered +very bright upon the ground. I could see it myself through the gorse +glittering and burning white, like a delicate flame, and my heart gave +a great leap within me as I understood what it was. It was a big +silver shoe-buckle that shone in the moonlight, and the shoe-buckle +was on my foot. + +The game was up. I thought that I might as well make a fight of it +at the last, and I jumped to my feet suddenly, with a faint hope that +the suddenness of the movement might startle them and let me through. +But there was to be no fighting for me that night. It is true that +the men all scattered from about me, but a voice a few yards to my +right thundered, "Stand!" and I stood stock-still, obedient as a +charity-school boy. + +For Peter Tortue was standing stock still too, with his right arm +stretched out in a line with his shoulder and the palm of his hand +upturned. On the palm of that hand was balanced a long knife with an +open blade, and the moonlight streaked along that blade in flame, just +as it had burned upon my shoe-buckle. + +George Glen rubbed his hands together. + +"You will lie down, Mr. Berkeley," said he, with his most insinuating +smile. "You will down, 'flat on my face,' says you." + +"But I have only just got up," said I. + +Glen tittered nervously, but no one else showed any appreciation of my +sally. I thought it best to lie down flat on my face. + +"Cross your hands behind your back," said George Glen, and I knew he +was winking. + +"Any little thing like that, I am sure," I murmured, as I obeyed. +"Only too happy," and in a trice I was nothing more than a coil of +rope. It cut into my wrists, it crushed my chest, it snaked round my +legs, it bit my ankles. + +"To be sure," said I, "they mean to send me somewhere by the post." + +Mr. George Glen sniggered and mentioned my destination, which was +impolite, though he mentioned it politely; but Roper thumped me in the +small of the back, and thrust my handkerchief into my mouth. So I had +done better to have kept silence. + +Two of the men lifted me up on their shoulders and staggered up hill. +In a moment or two they descended a small incline, and I saw that I +was being carried into the hollow where the shed stood. Glen pushed at +the door of the shed and it fell open inwards. A great cavern of +blackness gaped at us, and they carried me in and set me down +unceremoniously on the floor. + +"Brisk along with that lantern, Nat Roper," said Glen, and the young +fellow who had flung himself down on the grass struck a light and set +fire to the candle. The shed was divided by a wooden partition, in +which was a rickety door hardly hanging on its hinges. + +"In there!" said Glen, swinging the lantern towards the inner room. My +bearers picked me up again and carried me to the door. One of them +kicked at the door, but it did not yield. + +"It's jammed," said the other, "there's some-thing 'twixt it and the +floor," and raising a great sea boot, he kicked with all his might. + +I heard a metallic clinking, as though a piece of iron was hopping +across the stone floor, and the door flew open. + +They carried me into the inner room and set me down against the +partition. There was no furniture of any sort, not even a bucket to +sit upon; there was no window either, a thatched roof rested upon +heavy beams over my head. They placed the lantern at my feet, four of +them squatted down about me, the fifth went out of the shed to keep +watch. + +It was, after all, not in the inn kitchen of the Palace Inn that any +bargain was to be struck. I could not deny that they had chosen their +place very well. Not a man in Tresco but would give this shed the +widest of berths, and if he saw the glint of this lantern through a +chink, or heard, perhaps, as he was like to do, one loud cry--why, he +would only take to his heels the faster. The ropes, too, made my bones +ache. + +I would have preferred the kitchen at the Palace Inn. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + I FIND AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND + + +Glen bade Roper take the handkerchief from my mouth, and when that was +done his creased face smiled at me over the lantern. + +"About the _Royal Fortune?_" he said smoothly. + +Peter Tortue nodded, and absently cleaned the blade of his knife upon +the thighs of his breeches. There was no reply for me to make, and I +waited. + +"You were over to St. Mary's to-day?" + +"Yes." + +"What did you do there?" + +"I bought a pair of silk stockings and some linen." + +George Glen sniggered like a man that leaves off a serious +conversation to laugh politely at a bad joke. + +"But it's true," I cried. + +"Did you speak of the _Royal Fortune?_" + +"No," and, as luck would have it, I had not--not even to the Rev. Mr. +Milray. + +"Not to a living soul?" + +"No." + +"Did you go up to Star Castle?" + +"No." + +"Did you speak to Captain Hathaway?" + +"No." + +"'There's poor old George,' you said. 'Old George Glen,' says you, +'what was quartermaster with Cap'n Roberts on the _Royal_----'" + +"No," I cried. + +"Did you mention Peter Tortue?" said the Frenchman. + +"No. Would you be sitting here if I had? There would be a company of +soldiers scouring the island for you." + +"That's reasonable," said Tortue, and the rest echoed his words. In a +little there was silence. Tortue set to work again with his knife. It +flashed backwards and forwards, red with the candle light as though it +ran blood. It shone in my eyes and dazzled me, and somehow, there came +back to me a recollection of that hot night in Clutterbuck's rooms +when everything had glittered with an intolerable brightness, and Dick +Parmiter had been set upon the table to tell his story. I was vaguely +wondering what they were all doing at this moment in London, +Clutterbuck, Macfarlane, and the rest, when the questions began again. + +"You came back from St. Mary's to New Grimsby?" + +"Yes." + +"Did you tell Parmiter?" + +"No." + +"From St. Mary's you crossed the island to Merchant's Point?" + +"Yes." + +"Did you tell the girl?" + +Here a lie was obviously needful, and I did not scruple to tell it. + +"No." + +Peter Tortue leaned forward to me with a shrewd glance in his keen +eyes. + +"You are her lover," he said. "You told her." + +I lifted my eyes from his knife, looked him in the eyes, and sustained +his glance. + +"I am not her lover," I said; "that is a damned lie." + +He did not lose his temper, but repeated: + +"You told her," and George Glen looked in again with his whole face +screwed into a wink. + +"You said to her, 'My dear,' says you, 'there's old George,'" and at +that I lost my temper. + +"I said nothing of the kind," I cried. "Am I a parrot that I cannot +open my lips without old George popping out of them? But what's the +use of talking. Do what you will, I have done. If I had betrayed your +secret, do you think I should be walking home alone, and you upon the +island? But I have done. I had a bargain to strike with you, I thought +to find you all at the inn--but I have done." + +To tell the truth, I had no longer any hope of life. Glen, for all his +winks and smiles, would stop short of no cruelty. Peter Tortue quietly +polished his knife upon his thigh. He was a big Brittany man, with +shrewd eyes and an unchanging face. The rest squatted and stared +curiously at me. The light of the lantern fell upon their callous +faces, they were lookers-on at a show, of which perhaps, they had seen +the like before, they were not concerned in this affair of the _Royal +Fortune_ nor how it ended. + +"So you told no one." + +"No one." + +I closed my eyes and leaned back against the partition. I was utterly +helpless in their hands, and I hoped they would be quick. I remember +that I regretted very much I could send no word to the girl at +Merchant's Rock, and that I was very glad she had not delayed her +music till tomorrow night, but both regret and gladness were of a +numbed and languid kind. + +Then Glen asked me another question, and it spurred my will to +alertness. + +"How did you know that I was quartermaster on the _Royal Fortune?_" + +I could not remind him that he had let the ship's name drop from his +lips four years ago. It would be as much as to say that Helen had told +me. It would confess that I had spoken with her of the _Royal +Fortune_. Yet I must answer, and without the least show of hesitation. +I caught at the first plausible reason which occurred to me. I said: +"Cullen Mayle told me," and that answer saved my life. For Glen +remarked, "Yes, he knew," and nodded to Tortue: Tortue lifted the +knife in his hand, and again I closed my eyes. But the next thing I +heard was a snap as the blade shut into the handle, and the next thing +after that Tortue's voice deliberately speaking: + +"George Glen, you never had the brains of a louse. You can smirk and +wriggle, and you're handy with a weapon, but, you never had no +brains." + +I opened my eyes pretty wide at that, and I saw that the three younger +faces were now kindled out of their sluggishness. It was that mention +of Cullen Mayle which had wrought the change. These three took no +particular interest in the _Royal Fortune_, but they had every +interest in the doings of Cullen Mayle, and they now alertly followed +all that Tortue said. George Glen leaned forward. + +"Who's cap'en here, Peter Tortue?" said he. "Was you with us on the +Sierra Leone River? Nat Roper there, Blads, you James Skyrm, speak up, +lads, was he with us?" + +"My son was," said Tortue calmly. + +"And what sort of answer is that? 'Tis lucky for you Cap'en Roberts +isn't aboard this shed. He wouldn't have understood that language, not +he--and he wouldn't have troubled you for an explanation neither. +Here's a fine thing, lads! If a man dies, his father, what's been +lying in the lap of luxury at home, is to have his share. That's a +nice new rule for gentlemen adventurers, and not content with his +share, wants to set up for cap'en. I have a good mind to learn you +modesty, Peter, just as Roberts would have learnt you." + +He was talking quite smoothly, with a grin all over his face, but I +never saw a man that looked so dangerous. Peter Tortue, however, was +in no way discomposed. + +"Why, you blundering fool," he answered, "where would you ha' been but +for me? No, I wasn't on the Sierra Leone River with you, or you +wouldn't be eating your hearts and your pockets empty upon Tresco. No, +I am not your captain, or you wouldn't never have lost track of Cullen +Mayle at Wapping." + +There were four faces now alertly watching Peter Tortue, and the +fourth was mine. It was not merely that my life hung upon his +predominance, but there was the best of chances now that I might get +to the bottom of the mystery of their watching. + +"You talk of Roberts," he continued, "well you're not the only man +that knew Roberts, and would Roberts have let Cullen Mayle slip +through his fingers--at Wapping too? Good Lord, it makes me sick to +look at you, George Glen!" and he turned to Roper, "Who was it found +the track for you; was it him or me?" he cried. "Who was it found the +nigger and sailed from the port o' London to Penzance, ay, and would +ha' found out the nigger's message if he hadn't had the sickness on +him. Was it him or was it me? Why the nigger knowed you all! Would he +ha' sailed to Penzance on that boat if he had seen a face on board +that he had known? not he." + +"That's true," said Roper. + +"Who brought you all to Tresco, eh? Who hindered you from rushing the +house, ay, hindered you in the face of your captain, and a deal you'ld +ha' found if you had rushed the house. A lot he knows, your captain. +P'raps he thought Adam Mayle was the man to leave a polite note on his +mantelshelf, telling us where to look. Who told you to wait for Cullen +Mayle?" + +"We have waited," answered Glen. "How long are we to wait? Where is +Cullen Mayle?" + +Peter Tortue threw up his hands. + +"No wonder you all dry in the sun at the end of it," he cried, "my +word! We haven't got Cullen Mayle, but haven't we got the man as knows +him? What's he doing at Tresco if he wasn't sent by Cullen Mayle who +daren't show his face because we're here? Not worth my share, ain't I? +and you that can't add two and two! See here! Dick Parmiter goes to +London, don't he? He goes after the nigger come; what for, but to find +Cullen Mayle, and say as we're here? He knows where Cullen's to be +found, and down comes the stranger here. And we ha' got him tucked up +comfortable, and we know tricks that Roberts taught us to make him +speak, don't we? And you want to jab a knife into him. You make me +sick, George Glen--fair sick! Suppose you do jab a knife into him, and +bury him here under the stones, do you think the girl'll take it quite +easy and natural? Or will you go down the hill and rush the house? And +then if you please, what'll you all be doing to-morrow? Well, you are +captain, George Glen, but what has your crew to say to this? Come! Am +I to talk to Mr. Berkeley, or will you set your own course, and steer +for execution dock?" + +There was no hesitation in the answer. With one accord they leaned to +Tortue's proposal. + +I could not see that I was in a much better case. Tortue was to put to +me questions, the very questions which I wished to ask, and I was +expected to answer them. I should have to answer them if I was to come +off with my life. The men sat hungrily about me awaiting my answers. +It would not take them long to discover that I was tricking them, that +I had no knowledge whatever about their concerns beyond that one +dangerous item that Glen and Tortue had sailed on the _Royal Fortune_, +and when that discovery was made, why, out of mere resentment they +would let Glen have his way. + +However, I was still alive, and the girl was still at Merchant's +Point. These men were plainly growing impatient of their long stay +upon the island; and once I was out of the way, who was to stand +between them and the girl? + +I summoned my wits together, and ran quickly over my mind what I did +know. I had a few fresh hints from Tortue's arguments to add to my +knowledge. I knew why they were watching for Cullen Mayle. He was to +show them where to look for something. It was that something about +which Glen had talked to Adam Mayle the night Cullen was driven away; +Cullen had overheard, and he had gone out in search of it to the +Sierra Leone River. Glen and his companions had done likewise. It was +in some degree apparent now what that something was: namely, treasure +of some sort from the Royal Fortune, and buried on the banks of the +Sierra Leone River. They had not found it, and their presence here, +and certain words, told me why. Adam Mayle had been first with them. + +So much I could venture to think of. For the rest I must wait upon the +questions; and, fortunately for me. Glen was a man of much garrulity. + +"You spoke of a bargain," said Tortue. "What do you propose?" + +"Halves!" said I, as bold as brass. + +There was an outcry against the proposal, and it mightily relieved me, +for it proved to me I was right. It was treasure they were after, but +of what kind? I had now to puzzle my brains over that. Was it specie? +Hardly, I thought, for Adam Mayle would not have hidden money upon +Tresco. Was it a treasure of jewels, then? + +"Halves," said George Glen with a titter. "A very good proposal, Mr. +Berkeley, by daylight, with a company of soldiers within call." + +Jewels, I thought: yes, jewels--jewels that might be recognized, +jewels that Adam Mayle would keep hidden to himself so long as there +was no pressing need to dispose of them. + +"As it is," continued Glen, "we take all, but we give you your life. +That's a fair offer." + +"Yes, that's fair," said Roper. + +I hazarded it. + +"Very well," said I. "You can find your jewels for yourselves." + +I expected an explosion of wrath; I met with only mute surprise. + +"Jewels!" said Roper at length. + +"Well, isn't the cross thick with them?" said Tortue to Roper. + +"It wouldn't be of much use to us without," sniggered Glen. "Lord, but +that was a clever stroke of Roberts'--the cleverest thing he ever +done. Right under the guns of the African Comp'ny's fort she lay in +Sierra Leone harbour--a Portuguese ship of twenty guns. At a quarter +to eleven there was her crew, as many as might be--we could hear 'em +singing and laughing as we pulled across the water to 'em--and at ten +minutes past three there wasn't a mother's son of them all alive; and +no noise, mind you. Rich she was, too. Sugar--we had run short of +sugar for our punch, and welcome it was--sugar, skins, tobacco, ninety +thousand moidors, and this cross with the diamonds for the King of +Portugal. Roberts himself said he had never seen stones like it, and +he was a good judge of stones was Roberts. He was quick, too. Why, +we had that cross on the dinghy and were well up the Sierra Leone +River before daybreak, just the three of us--Roberts, me, and Adam +Mayle--Kennedy he called himself then, being a gentleman born and with +more sense than the rest of us. He buried the cross, two days sail up +the Sierra Leone River, and Roberts made a chart of its bearings. He +gave it to me on the deck of the _Royal Fortune_ when he was mortally +wounded, and I kept it all the time we were in prison. I showed it to +Adam Mayle when we escaped, but we had no means to get at it--at +least, I hadn't. Adam, he was a gentleman born, and had got his +savings placed all safe in his own name." + +I hoped Glen would go on in this strain until my slip was forgotten. I +was, besides, acquiring information. But Roper cut him short. + +"It was a cross--it wasn't jewels," said he, suspiciously; and +suddenly Tortue interrupted. + +"'Halves' was what you said, I think," he remarked, rather quickly, +and I could almost have believed that he was trying to cover up my +mistake. I took advantage of his interruption as quickly as he had +made it. + +"Half for you, half for Cullen," said I; and immediately Tortue flung +out in an extravagant passion. He threatened me, he threatened Cullen, +he opened his knife and gesticulated, he cursed, until I began to +wonder: was he acting? Was this anger a pretence to divert attention +finally from my unlucky guess? I could not be sure. I could conceive +no reason for such a pretence. But certainly, whether he intended it +or not, he brought about that result; for his companions began to fear +he would make an end of me before they had got the information where +the cross was hid, and so busied themselves with appeasing him. He +permitted himself at the last to be appeased, and George Glen took up +the argument. + +"Look you here, Mr. Berkeley," said he, "we're reasonable men, and +it's no more than fair you should be reasonable too, seeing as how you +are uncomfortably placed. That was took up by Adam Mayle, and he never +meant his son to finger it. 'A damned ungrateful, supercilious whelp,' +says he to me in the lad's own bedroom; yes, in his own bedroom"--for, +as may be imagined, I had started. Here was the explanation of how +Cullen discovered George Glen's business. I hoisted myself up against +the partition as well as I could. How I prayed that Glen would go on! +He was sufficiently garrulous, if only he was not interrupted, and he +was arguing for all of them. "'A damned ungrateful, supercilious +whelp,' he said; 'and George,' said he, as I read out the chart, 'I'd +sooner let the cross rot to pieces in the Sierra Leone mud than fetch +it home for him to have a share of. I've enough for myself and the +girl. I'll not stir a finger,' says he, 'and if it was here now I'd +have it buried with me.' Those were his very words, which he spoke to +me not half an hour after he had driven Cullen from the house, and in +the lad's own bedroom, where we couldn't be overheard." + +"But you were overheard," said I, "Cullen Mayle overheard you." Glen +jumped on to his feet, his mouth dropped, he stood staring at me in a +daze, and then he thumped one fist down into the palm of the other. + +"By God it's true," he said, "he was in the curtains." + +"He was in bed," said I. + +"By God it's true," repeated Glen, and he sat down again on the floor. +"So that's how Cullen Mayle found out. I was mightily astonished to +find him at Sierra Leone on the same business as ourselves. But it's +true. I remember there was a noise, and I cried out, 'What's that?' +with a sort of jump, and Adam he says, pleasant like, 'It's the +hangman, George;' but it wasn't, it was Cullen Mayle." + +I think that every one laughed as Glen ended, except myself. I could +even at that moment, but be sensible what a strange picture it made; +those two old ruffians sitting over against each other in the bedroom, +and Cullen waked up from his sleep in bed to lie quiet and overhear +them. + +"So you see, it isn't reasonable Cullen should have half since his +father never meant him to have any," he continued. + +"But without Cullen you would get nothing at all," said I. + +"Why not since we have you?"--and then I made a slip--I answered: "But +Cullen Mayle told me where the cross is." + +"But Cullen Mayle doesn't know," said Roper, "else would he have gone +hunting to Sierra Leone for it?" + +"Told him where to look for the plan, he means." Tortue interrupted +again. This time I could not mistake. He glanced at me with too much +significance. For some reason, he was standing my friend. + +"Of course," said I, "where to look for the plan." + +So it was a plan they needed, a plan of the spot where Adam Mayle had +buried the cross. Where could that plan be, in what unlikely place +would Adam have hid it? + +I ran over my mind the rooms, and the furniture of the house. There +was no bureau, no secretaire. But I had to make up my mind. This last +slip had awakened my captor's suspicions. The faces about me menaced +me. + +"Well, where is the plan?" + +I thought over all that Glen had said to-night--was a clue to be got +there? + +"I haven't it," said I, to gain time. + +"But where are we to look for it?" again asked Roper, and he put his +hand in his coat-pocket. + +"Speak up," said Tortue, and I read his meaning in the glance of his +eyes. He meant--"Name some spot, any spot!" But I knew! It had come +upon me like an inspiration, I had no shadow of doubt where that plan +was. I said: + +"Where are you to look for the plan? Glen has told you. Adam Mayle +would rather have had the cross buried with him than that Cullen +should have it. He couldn't have the treasure buried with him, but he +could and did the plan. Look in Adam Mayle's grave. You will find a +stick with a brass handle to it--a sword stick, but the sword's broken +off short. In the hollow of that stick you'll find the plan." Tortue +nodded at me with approval. The rest jumped up from the ground. + +"We have time to-night," said Roper, and stretching out a hand he +pulled my watch from my fob. "It is eleven o'clock," and he put the +watch in his own pocket. "Where's Adam Mayle buried?" asked another. + +"In the Abbey Grounds," said I. + +"But we want spades," objected Tortue, "we want a pick." + +"They are here," said Glen, with an evil smile, "we had them ready," +and he grinned at me. "Mr. Berkeley comes with us, I think," said he +smoothly, "untie his legs." + +"Yes," said Roper with an oath. He was in a heat of excitement. "And +if he has told us wrong, good God, we'll bury him with Adam Mayle." + +But I had no doubt that I was right. I remembered what Clutterbuck had +told me of Adam's vindictiveness. He would hide that plan if he could, +and he could have chosen no surer place. No doubt he would have +destroyed that plan when he knew that he was dying, but he was struck +down with paralysis, and could not stir a finger. He could only order +the stick to be buried with him. + +They unfastened my legs. Roper blew out the lantern, and we went out +of the shed, on to the hillside. Glen despatched Blads upon some +errand, and the man hurried up the hill towards New Grimsby. Glen +leisurely walked along the slope of the hill. I followed him, and the +rest behind me. The moon had gone down, and the night, though clear +enough, was dark. We walked on for about five minutes, until some one +treading close upon my heels suddenly tripped me up. My hands were +still tied behind my back, so that I could not save myself from a +fall. But Tortue picked me up, and as he did so whispered in my ear: + +"Is the plan there?" + +I answered, "Yes." + +I would have staked my life upon it; in fact, I was staking my life +upon it. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + IN THE ABBEY GROUNDS + + +We kept along the ridge of hill towards the east of the island, and +met no one, nor, indeed, were we likely to do. I could look down on +either side to the sea. I saw the cottages on the shore of New Grimsby +harbour on the one side, and on the other the house at Merchant's +Point, and the half-dozen houses scattered on the grass at Old +Grimsby, that went by the name of Dolphin Town, and nowhere was there +a twinkle of light. + +Tresco was in bed. + +We descended a little to our left, and rounded the shoulder of the +hill at the eastern end of the island, through a desolate moorland of +gorse; but once we had rounded the shoulder, we were in an instant +amongst trees of luxuriant foliage, and in a hollow sheltered from the +winds. The Abbey ruins stood up from a small plateau in the bosom of +the trees, its broken arches and columns showing very dismal against +the sky, and everywhere fragments of crumbling wall cropped up +unexpected through the grass. + +The burial ground was close to an eel pond, which glimmered below, +nearer to the sea, and a path overgrown with weeds wound downwards to +the graves. + +I could not tell in which corner Adam Mayle was buried, so Roper was +sent forward with the lantern to look amongst the headstones. For half +an hour he searched; the flame of the candle danced from grave to +grave as though it were the restless soul of some sinner buried there. +The men who remained with me grew impatient, for opposite to us, +across the road, lay St. Mary's and the harbour of Hugh Town; and on +this clear night the speck of light in the Abbey grounds would be +visible at a great distance. I was beginning to wonder whether Adam +had a headstone at all to mark his resting-place, when a cry came +upwards to our ears and the lantern was swung aloft in the air. + +One loud, unanimous shout answered that cry. + +"Come," shouted Glen, and seizing hold of the end of the rope where it +went round my chest, he began to run down the path. The others jostled +and tumbled after him in an extreme excitement. All discretion was +tossed to the winds. They laughed, shouted, and leaped while they ran +as though they already had the cross in their keeping. What with Glen +tugging at the end in front and the others pushing and thrusting at me +from behind, it was more than I could do to keep my feet. Twice I fell +forward on my knees and brought them to a stop. Glen turned upon me in +a fury. + +"Loose his hands then, George," said Tortue. + +"No," returned George, with an oath, and he plucked on the rope until +somehow I stumbled on to my feet, and we all set to running again. + +Things were taking on an ugly look for me. Those men were growing ten +times more savage since the grave had been discovered; they were in a +heat of excitement. In their movements, in their faces, in their +words, a violent ferocity was evident. They had made their bargain +with me, but would they keep it once they had the plan in their hands? +I had no doubt their arrangements were made for an instant departure +from the islands. One could not be a day upon Tresco without hearing +some hint of the luggers which did a great smuggling trade between +Scilly and the port of Roscoff in Brittany. No doubt Glen and Tortue +had made their account with one of these to carry them into France. I +was the more sure of this when Blads returned. I could not but think +he had been sent so that a boat might be ready, and it seemed unlikely +they would leave me alive behind them when the mere scruple of a +bargain only held their hands. + +We were now come to the grave. It had a headstone but no slab to cover +it; only a boulder from the seashore by which Adam had lived was with +a pretty fancy imposed upon the mound. + +Roper hung the lantern on to a knob of the headstone; and already Glen +had snatched the pick and thrust it under the boulder. It needed but +one heave upon the pick, and the boulder tottered and rolled from the +grave with a crash. It stopped quite close to my feet. I looked at it, +then I looked at the grave, and from the grave to the sailors. But +they had noticed nothing; they were already digging furiously at the +grave. In their excitement they had noticed nothing; even Tortue was +kneeling in the lantern-light watching the gleam of the spades, +sensible of nothing but that each shovelful cast up on the side +brought them by a shovelful nearer to their prize. And they dug with +such furious speed, taking each his turn, each anticipating his turn! +For before one man had stepped, dripping with sweat from the trench, +another had leaped in, and the spade fell from one man's grasp into +the palm of another. Once a spade jarred upon a piece of rock, and the +man who drove it into the earth cursed. I had a sudden flutter of hope +that the spade was broken, and that by so much the issue would be +delayed, but the digger resumed his work. I looked over to St. Mary's, +but the town was quiet; one light gleamed, it was only the light at +the head of the jetty. And even in Tresco such infinitesimal chance of +interruption as there had ever been had disappeared. For the men had +ceased even from their oaths. There was not even a whisper to be +shared amongst them; there was no sound but the laboured sound of +their breathing. They worked in silence. + +I had no longer any hope. I saw now and again Roper, as he slapped +down a spadeful of earth beside me, look with a grim significant smile +at me, and perhaps his fellow would catch the look and imitate it. I +noticed that George Glen, as he took down the lantern from time to +time and held it over the trench, would flash it towards me; and he, +too, would smile and perhaps wink at Roper in the trench. The winks +and smiles were easy as print to read. They were agreeing between +themselves: the unspoken word was going round; they did not mean to +keep their part of the bargain, and when they left the Abbey grounds +the mound upon Adam's grave would be a foot higher than when they +entered them. + +But this unspoken understanding had no longer any power to frighten +me. I tried to catch Peter Tortue's attention; I shuffled a foot +upon the ground; but he paid no heed. He was on all fours by the +grave-side peering into the trench, and I dared not call to him. I +wanted to contradict what I had said outside the shed upon the +hillside. I wanted to whisper to him: + +"The plan you search for is not there." + +If they were meaning to break their part of the bargain it mattered +very little, for I was unable to keep mine. + +I had suspected that from the moment the boulder was uprooted; I knew +it a moment after the lantern was hung upon the headstone. The stone +had rested on that grave for two years, yet at the fresh pressure of +the pick it had given and swayed and rolled from its green pedestal. +It had tumbled at my feet, and there was not even a clot of earth or a +pebble clinging to it. Moreover, on the grave itself there was grass +where it had rested. For all its weight, it had not settled into the +ground or so much as worn the herbage. Yet it had rested there two +years! + +The lantern was hung upon the headstone, and its light showed to me +that close to the ground the headstone had been chipped. It was as +though some one had swung a pick and by mistake had struck the edge of +the headstone. Moreover, whoever had swung the pick had swung it +recently. For whereas the face of the granite was dull and +weatherbeaten, this chipped edge sparkled like quartz. + +The aspect of the grave itself confirmed me. Some pains had been taken +to replace the sods of grass upon the top, but all about the mound, +wherever the lantern-light fell, I could see lumps of fresh clay. + +The grave had been opened, and recently--I did not stop then to +consider by whom--and secretly. It could have been opened but for the +one reason. There would be no plan there for Glen to find. + +Roper uttered an exclamation and stopped digging. His spade had struck +something hard. Glen lowered the lantern into the trench, and the +light struck up on to his face and the face of the diggers. + +I hazarded a whisper to Tortue, and certainly no one else heard it, +but neither did Tortue. Roper struck his spade in with renewed vigour, +and a stifled cry which burst at the same moment from the five mouths +told me the coffin-lid was disclosed. I whispered again the louder: + +"Tortue! Tortue!" and with no better result. + +The pick was handed down at Roper's call. I _spoke_ now, and at last +he heard. He turned his head across his shoulder towards me, but he +only motioned me to silence. The pick rang upon wood, and now I +called: + +"Tortue! Tortue!" + +Still no one but Tortue heard. This time, however, he rose from his +knees and came to me. Glen looked up for an instant. + +"See that he is fast!" he said, and so looked back into the grave. + +"What is it?" asked Tortue. + +"The plan has gone. Loose my hands!" + +I could no longer see Roper; he had stooped down below the lip of the +trench. + +"Gone!" said Tortue. "How?" + +"Some one has been here before you, but within this last week, I'll +swear. Loose my hands." + +"Some one!" he exclaimed savagely. "Who? who?" and he shook me by the +arms. + +"I do not know." + +"Swear it." + +"I do. Loose my hands." + +"Remember it is I who save you." + +His knife was already out of his pocket; he had already muffled it in +his coat and opened it; he was making a pretence to see whether the +end was still fast. I could feel the cold blade between the rope and +my wrist, when, with a shout. Roper stood erect, the stick in one +hand, a sheet of paper flourishing in the other. + +He drew himself out of the trench and spread the paper out on a pile +of clay at the graveside. Glen held his lantern close to it. There +were four streaming faces bent over that paper. I felt a tug at my +wrists and the cord slacken as the knife cut through it. + +"Take the rope with you," whispered Tortue. + +The next moment there were five faces bent over that paper. + +"On St. Helen's Island," cried Glen. + +"Let me see!" exclaimed Tortue, leaning over his shoulder. +"Three--what's that?--chains. Three chains east by the compass of the +east window in the south aisle of the church." + +And that was the last I heard. I stepped softly back into the darkness +for a few paces, and then I ran at the top of my speed westwards +towards New Grimsby, freeing my arms from the rope as I ran. Once I +turned to look back. They were still gathered about that plan; their +faces, now grown small, were clustered under the light of the lantern, +and Tortue, with his flashing knife-blade, was pointing out upon the +paper the position of the treasure. Ten minutes later I was well up +the top of the hill. I saw a lugger steal round the point from New +Grimsby and creep up in the shadow towards the Abbey grounds. + +I spent that night in the gorse high up on the Castle Down. I had no +mind to be caught in a trap at the Palace Inn. + +From the top of the down, about an hour later, I saw the lugger come +round the Lizard Point of Tresco and beat across to St. Helen's. As +the day broke she pushed out from St. Helen's, and reaching past the +Golden Ball into the open sea, put her tiller up and ran by the +islands to the south. + +There was no longer any need for me to hide among the gorse. I went +down to the Palace Inn. No one was as yet astir, and the door, of +course, was unlocked. I crept quietly up to my room and went to bed. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + IN WHICH PETER TORTUE EXPLAINS HIS + INTERVENTION ON MY BEHALF + + +As will be readily understood, when I woke up the next morning I was +sensible at once of a great relief. My anxieties and misadventures of +last night were well paid for after all. I could look at my swollen +wrists and say that without any hesitation, the watchers had departed +from their watching, and what if they had carried away the King of +Portugal's great jewelled cross? Helen Mayle had no need of it, +indeed, her great regret now was that she could not get rid of what +she had; and as for Cullen, to tell the truth, I did not care a snap +of the fingers whether he found a fortune or must set to work to make +one. Other men had been compelled to do it--better men too, deuce take +him! We were well quit of George Glen and his gang, though the price +of the quittance was heavy. I would get up at once, run across to +Merchant's Point, and tell Helen Mayle---- My plans came to a sudden +stop. Tell Helen Mayle precisely what? That Adam Mayle's grave had +been rifled? + +I lay staring up at the ceiling as I debated that question, and +suddenly it slipped from my mind. That grave had been rifled before, +and quite recently. I was as certain of that in the sober light of the +morning as I had been during the excitement of last night. Why? It was +not for the chart of the treasure, since the chart had been left. And +by whom? So after all, here was I, who had waked up in the best of +spirits too, with the world grown comfortable, confronted with +questions as perplexing as a man could wish for. It was, as Cullen +Mayle had said, at the inn near Axminster, most discouraging. And I +turned over in bed and tried to go to sleep, that I might drive them +from my mind. I should have succeeded too, but just as I was in a doze +there came a loud rapping at the door, and Dick Parmiter danced into +the room. + +"They are gone, Mr. Berkeley," he cried. + +"I know," I grumbled; "I saw them go," and stretched out my arms and +yawned. + +"Why, you have hurt your wrist," Dick exclaimed. + +"No," said I, "it was George Glen's shake of the hand." + +"They are gone," repeated Dick, gleefully, "all of them except Peter +Tortue." + +"What's that?" I cried, sitting up in the bed. + +"All of them except Peter Tortue." + +"To be sure," said I, scratching my head. + +Now what in the world had Peter Tortue remained behind for? For no +harm, that was evident, since I owed my life to his good offices last +night. I was to remember that it was he who saved me. I was, then, to +make some return. But what return? + +I threw my pillow at Parmiter's head. + +"Deuce take you, Dicky! My bed was not such a plaguey restful place +before that it needed you to rumple it further. Well, since I mayn't +sleep late i' the morning like a gentleman, I'll get up." + +I tried to put together some sort of plausible explanation which would +serve for Helen Mayle while I was dressing. But I could not hit upon +one, and besides Parmiter made such a to-do over brushing my clothes +this morning that that alone was enough to drive all reasoning out of +one's head. + +"Dick," said I as he handed me my coat, "you have had, if my memory +serves me, some experience of womenfolk." + +Dick nodded his head in a mournful fashion. + +"Mother!" said he. + +"Precisely," said I. "Now, here's a delicate question. Do you always +tell womenfolk the truth?" + +"No," said he, stoutly. + +"Do you tell them--shall we say quibbles,--then?" + +"Quibbles?" said Dick, opening his mouth. + +"It is not a fruit, Dicky," said I, "so you need not keep it open. By +quibbles I mean lies. Do you tell your womenfolk lies, when the truth +is not good for them to know?" + +"No," said Dick, as steadily as before, "for they finds you out." + +"Precisely," I agreed. "But since you neither tell the truth nor tell +lies, what in the world do you do?" + +"Well," answered Dick, "I say that it's a secret which mother isn't to +know for a couple of days." + +"I see. And when the couple of days has gone? + +"Then mother has forgotten all about the secret." + +I reflected for a moment or two. + +"Dick." + +"Yes." + +"Did you ever try that plan with Miss Helen?" + +"No," said he, shaking his head. + +"I will," said I, airily, "or something like it." + +"Something like it would be best," said Dick. + +The story which I told to Helen was not after all very like it. I +said: + +"The watchers have gone and gone for ever. They were here not for any +revenge, but for their profit. There was a treasure in St. Helen's +which Cullen Mayle was to show them the way to--if they could catch +him and force him. They had some claim to it--I showed them the way." + +"You?" she exclaimed. "How?" + +"That I cannot tell you," said I. "I would beg you not to ask, but to +let my silence content you. I could not tell you the truth and I do +not think that I could invent a story to suit the occasion which would +not ring false. The consequence is the one thing which concerns us, +and there is no doubt of it. The watchers did not watch for an +opportunity of revenge and they are gone." + +"Very well," she said. "I was right after all, you see. The hand +stretched out of the dark has done this service. For it is your doing +that they are gone?" + +I did not answer and she laughed a little and continued, "But I will +not ask you. I will make shift to be content with your silence. Did +Dick Parmiter come with you this morning?" + +"Yes," I answered with a laugh, "but he was not with me last night." + +Helen laughed again. + +"Ah," she cried! "So it was your doing, and I have not asked you." +Then she grew serious of a sudden. "But since they are gone"--she +exclaimed, in a minute, her whole face alight with her thought--"since +they are gone, Cullen may come and come in safety." + +"Oh! yes, Cullen may come," I answered, perhaps a trifle roughly. +"Cullen will be safe and may come. Indeed, I wonder that he was not +here before this. He stole my horse upon the road and yet could not +reach here first. I trudged a-foot, Cullen bestrode my horse and yet +Tresco still pines for him. It is very strange unless he has a keen +nose for danger." + +My behaviour very likely was not the politest imaginable, but then +Helen's was no better. For although she displayed no anger at my rough +words--I should not have cared a scrape of her wheezy fiddle if she +had, but she did not, she merely laughed in my face with every +appearance of enjoyment. I drew myself up very stiff. Here were all +the limits of courtesy clearly over-stepped, but I at all events would +not follow her example, nor allow her one glimpse of any exasperation +which I might properly feel. + +"Shall I go out and search for him in the highways and hedges?" I +asked with severity. + +"It would be magnanimous," said she biting her lip, and then her +manner changed. "He rode your horse," she cried, "and yet he has +fallen behind. He will be hurt then! Some accident has befallen him!" + +"Or he has wagered my horse at some roadside inn and lost! It was a +good horse, too." + +She caught hold of my arm in some agitation. + +"Oh! be serious!" she prayed. + +"Serious quotha!" said I, drawing away from her hand with much +dignity. "Let me assure you, madam, that the loss of a horse is a +very serious affair, that the stealing of a horse is a very serious +affair----" + +"Well, well, I will buy it from you, saddle and stirrup and all," she +interrupted. + +"Madam," said I, when I could get my speech. "There is no more to be +said." + +"Heaven be praised!" said she. "And now it may be, you will condescend +to listen to me. What am I to do? Suppose that he is hurt! Suppose +that he is in trouble! Suppose that he still waits for my answer to +his message! Suppose in a word that he does not come! What can I do? +He may go hungering for a meal." + +I did not think the contingency probable, but Helen was now speaking +with so much sincerity of distress that I could not say as much. + +"Unless he comes to Tresco I am powerless. It is true I have +bequeathed everything to him, but then I am young," she said, with a +most melancholy look in her big dark eyes. "Neither am I sickly." + +"I will go back along the road and search for him," and this I spoke +with sincerity. She looked at me curiously. + +"Will you do that?" she asked in a doubtful voice, as though she did +not know whether to be pleased or sorry. + +"Yes," said I, and a servant knocked at the door, and told me Parmiter +wished to speak with me. I found the lad on the steps of the porch, +and we walked down to the beach. + +"What is it?" I asked. + +"The Frenchman," said he, with a frightened air. + +"Peter Tortue?" + +"Yes." + +I led him further along the beach lest any of the windows of the house +should be open towards us, and any one by the open window. + +"Where is he?" + +Dick pointed up the hill. + +"At the shed?" I asked. + +"Yes. He was lying in wait on the hillside, and ran down when he saw +that I was alone. He stays in the shed for you, and you are to go to +him alone." + +"Amongst the dead sailor-men?" said I, with a laugh. But the words +were little short of blasphemy to Dick Parmiter. "Well, I was there +last night, and no harm came to me." + +"You were there last night?" cried Dick. "Then you will not go?" + +"But I will," said I. "I am curious to hear what Tortue has to say to +me. You may take my word for it, Dick, there's no harm in Peter +Tortue. I shall be back within the hour. Hush! not a word of this!" +for I saw Helen Mayle coming from the house towards us. I told her +that I was called away, and would return. + +"Do you take Dick with you?" she asked, with too much indifference. +She held a big hat of straw by the ribbons and swung it to and fro. +She did that also with too much indifference. + +"No," said I, "I leave him behind. Make of him what you can. He cannot +tell what he does not know." + +The sum of Dick's knowledge, I thought, amounted to no more than +this--that I had last night visited the shed, in spite of the dead +sailor-men. I forgot for the moment that he was in my bedroom when I +rose that morning. + +The door of the shed was fastened on the inside; I rapped with my +knuckles, and Tortue's voice asked who was there. When I told him, he +unbarred the door. + +"There is no one behind you?" said he, peering over my shoulder. + +"Nay! Do you fear that I have brought the constables to take you? You +may live in Tresco till you die if you will. What! Should I betray +you, whose life you saved only last night?" + +Peter opened the door wide. + +"A night!" said he, with a shrug of the shoulders. "One can forget +more than that in a night, if one is so minded." + +I followed him into the shed. Here and there, through the chinks in +the boards, a gleam of light slipped through. Outside it was noonday, +within it was a sombre evening. I passed through the door of the +partition into the inner room. The rafters above were lost in +darkness, and before my eyes were accustomed to the gloom I stumbled +over a slab of stone which had been lifted from its place in the +floor. I turned to Tortue, who was just behind me, and he nodded in +answer to my unspoken question. The spade and the pick had stood in +that corner to the left, and this slab of stone had been removed in +readiness. The darkness of the shed struck cold upon me all at once, +as I thought of why that slab had been removed. I looked about me much +as a man may look about his bedroom the day after he has been saved +from his grave by the surgeon's knife. Everything stands as it did +yesterday--this chair in this corner, that table just upon that +pattern of the carpet, but it is all very strange and unfamiliar. It +was against that board in the partition that I leaned my back; there +sat George Glen with his evil smile, here Tortue polished his knife. + +"Let us go out into the sunlight, for God's sake!" said I, and my foot +struck against a piece of iron, which went tinkling across the stone +floor. I picked it up. "They are gone," said I, with a shiver, "and +there's an end of them. But this shed is a nightmarish sort of place +for me. For God's sake, let us get into the sun!" + +"Yes, they are gone," said Tortue, "but they would have stayed if they +dared, if I hadn't set you free, for they went without the cross." + +I was still holding that piece of iron in my hand. By the feel of it, +it was a key, and I slipped it into my pocket quite unconsciously, for +Tortue's words took me aback with surprise. + +"Without the jewelled cross? But you had the plan," said I, as I +stepped into the open. "I heard you describe the spot--three chains in +a line east of the east window in the south aisle of the church." + +"There was no trace of the cross." + +"It was true then!" I exclaimed. "I was sure of it, even after Roper +had found the stick and the plan. It was true--that grave had been +rifled before." + +"Why should the plan have been put back, then?" + +"God knows! I don't." + +"Besides, if the grave had been rifled, the spot of ground on St. +Helen's Island had not. There had been no spade at work there." + +"Are you sure of that?" + +"Yes." + +"And you followed out the directions?" + +"To the letter. Three chains east by the compass of the eastern window +in the south aisle of St. Helen's Church, and four feet deep! We dug +five and six feet deep. There was nothing, nor had the ground been +disturbed." + +"I cannot understand it. Why should Adam Mayle have been at such pains +to hide the plan? Was it a grim joke to be played on Cullen?" + +There was no means of answering the problem, and I set it aside. + +"After all, they are gone," said I. "That is the main thing." + +"All except me," said Tortue. + +"Yes. Why have you stayed?" + +Tortue threw himself on the ground and chewed at a stalk of grass. + +"I saved your life last night," said he. + +"I know. Why did you do it? Why did you cover my mistakes in that +shed? Why did you cut the rope?" + +"Because you could serve my turn. The cross!" he exclaimed, with a +flourish. "I do not want the cross." He looked at me steadily for an +instant with his shrewd eyes. "I want a man to nail on the cross, and +you can help me to him. Where is Cullen Mayle?" + +The words startled me all the more because there was no violence in +the voice which spoke them--only a cold, deliberate resolution. I was +nevermore thankful for the gift of ignorance than upon this occasion. +I could assure him quite honestly, + +"I do not know." + +"But last night you knew." + +"I spoke of many things last night of which I had no knowledge--the +cross, the plan----" + +"You knew where the plan was. Flesh! but you knew that!" + +"I guessed." + +"Guess, then, where Cullen Mayle is, and I'll be content." + +"I have no hint to prompt a guess." Tortue gave no sign of anger at my +answer. He sat upon the grass, and looked with a certain sadness at +the shed. + +"It does not, after all, take much more than a night to forget," said +he. + +"I am telling you the truth, Tortue," said I, earnestly. "I do not +know. I never met Cullen Mayle but once, and that was at a roadside +inn. He stole my horse upon that occasion, so that I have no reason to +bear him any goodwill." + +"But because of him you came down to Tresco?" said Tortue quickly. + +"No." + +Tortue looked at me doubtfully. Then he looked at the house, and + +"Ah! It was because of the girl." + +"No! No!" I answered vehemently. I could not explain to him why I had +come, and fortunately he did not ask for an explanation. He just +nodded his head, and stood up without another word. + +"I do not forget," said I pointing to the shed. "And if you should be +in any need----" But I got no further in my offer of help; for he +turned upon me suddenly, and anger at last had got the upper hand with +him. + +"Money, is it not?" he cried, staring down at me with his eyes ablaze. +"Ay, that's the way with gentlefolk! You would give me as much as a +guinea no doubt--a whole round gold guinea. Yes, I am in need," and +with a violent movement he clasped his hands together. "Virgin Mary, +but I am in need of Cullen Mayle, and you offer me a guinea!" and then +hunching his shoulders he strode off over the hill. + +So Helen Mayle's instinct was right. Out of the five men there was one +who waited for Cullen's coming with another object than to secure the +diamond cross. Would he continue to wait? I could not doubt that he +would, when I thought upon his last vehement burst of passion. Tortue +would wait upon Tresco, until, if Cullen did not come himself, some +word of Cullen's whereabouts dropped upon his ear. It was still +urgent, therefore, that Cullen Mayle should be warned, and if I was to +go away in search of him, Helen must be warned too. + +I walked back again towards Merchant's Point with this ill news heavy +upon my mind, and as I came over the lip of the hollow, I saw Helen +waiting by the gate in the palisade. She saw me at the same moment, +and came up towards me at a run. + +"Is there more ill-news?" I asked myself. "Or has Cullen Mayle +returned?" and I ran quickly down to her. + +"Has he come?" I asked, for she came to a stop in front of me with her +face white and scared. + +"Who?" said she absently, as she looked me over. + +"Cullen Mayle," I answered. + +"Oh, Cullen," she said, and it struck me as curious that this was the +first time I had heard her speak his name with indifference. + +"Because he must not show himself here. There is a reason! There is a +danger still!" + +"A danger," she said, in a loud cry, and then "Oh! I shall never +forgive myself!" + +"For what?" + +She caught hold of my arm. + +"See?" she said. "Your coat-sleeve is frayed. It was a rope did that +last night. No use to deny it. Dick told me. He saw that a rope too +had seared your wrists. Tell me! What happened last night? I must +know!" + +"You promised not to ask," said I, moving away from her. + +"Well, I break my promise," said she. "But I must know," and she +turned and kept pace with me, down the hill, through the house into +the garden. During that time she pleaded for an answer in an extreme +agitation, and I confess that her agitation was a sweet flattery to +me. I was inclined to make the most of it, for I could not tell how +she would regard the story of my night's adventures. It was I after +all who caused old Adam Mayle's bones to be disturbed; and I +understood that it was really on that account that I had shrunk from +telling her. She had a right to know, no doubt. Besides there was this +new predicament of Tortue's stay. I determined to make a clean breast +of the matter. She listened very quietly without an exclamation or a +shudder; only her face lost even the little colour which it had, and a +look of horror widened in her eyes. I told her of my capture on the +hillside, of Tortue's intervention, of the Cross and the stick in the +coffin. I drew a breath and described that scene in the Abbey grounds, +and how I escaped; and still she said no word and gave no sign. I told +her of their futile search upon St. Helen's, and how I had witnessed +their departure from the top of the Castle Down. Still she walked by +my side silent, and wrapped in horror. I faltered through this last +incident of Tortue's stay and came to a lame finish, amongst the trees +at the end of the garden. We turned and walked the length of the +garden to the house. + +"I know," I said. "When I guessed the stick held the plan, I should +have held my tongue. But I did not think of that. It was not easy to +think at all just at that time, and I must needs be quick. They spoke +of attacking the house, and I dreaded that.... I should not have been +able to give you any warning.... I should not have been able to give +you any help ... for, you see, the slab of stone was already removed +in the shed." + +"Oh, don't!" she cried out, and pressed her hands to her temples. "I +shall never forgive myself. Think! A week ago you and I were +strangers. It cannot be right that you should go in deadly peril +because of me." + +"Madam," said I, greatly relieved, "you make too much of a thing of no +great consequence. I hope to wear my life lightly." + +"Always?" said she quickly, as she stopped and looked at me. + +I stopped, too, and looked at her. + +"I think so," said I, but without the same confidence. "Always." + +She had a disconcerting habit of laughing when there was no occasion +whatever for laughter. She fell into that habit now, and I hastened to +recall her to Tortue's embarrassing presence on the island. + +"Of course," said I, "a word to the Governor at Star Castle and we are +rid of him. But he stood between me and my death, and he trusts to my +silence." + +"We must keep that silence," she answered. + +"Yet he waits for Cullen Mayle, and--it will not be well if those two +men meet." + +"Why does he wait? Do you know that, too?" + +I did not know, as I told her, though I had my opinion, of which I did +not tell her. + +"The great comfort is this. Tortue did not make one upon that +expedition to the Sierra Leone River, but his son did. Tortue only +fell in with George Glen and his gang at an ale-house in Wapping, and +_after_--that is the point--after Glen had lost track of Cullen Mayle. +Tortue, therefore, has never seen Cullen, does not know him. We have +an advantage there. So should he come to Tresco, while I go back along +the road to search for him, you must make your profit of that +advantage." + +She stopped again. + +"You will go, then?" + +"Why, yes." + +She shook her head, reflectively. + +"It is not right," she said. + +"I am going chiefly," said I, "because I wish to recover my horse." + +She always laughed when I mentioned that horse, and her laughter +always made me angry. + +"Do you doubt I have a horse?" I asked. "Or rather _had_ a horse? +Because Cullen Mayle stole it, stole it deliberately from under my +nose--a very valuable horse which I prized even beyond its value--and +he stole it." + +The girl was in no way impressed by my wrath, and she said, +pleasantly: + +"I am glad you said that. I am glad to know that with it all, you are +mean like other men." + +"Madam," I returned, "when Cullen Mayle stole my horse, and rode away +upon it, he put out his tongue at me. I made no answer. Nor do I make +any answer to the remark which you have this moment addressed to me." + +"Oh, sir!" said she, "here are fine words, and here's a curtsey to +match them;" and spreading out her frock with each hand, she sank +elaborately to the very ground. + +We walked for some while longer in the garden, without speech, and the +girl's impertinence gradually slipped out of my mind. The sea murmured +lazily upon the other side of the hedge, and I had full in view St. +Helen's Island and the ruined church upon its summit. The south aisle +of the church pointed towards the house, and through the tracery of a +rude window I could see the sky. + +"I wonder who in the world can have visited the Abbey burial-ground +and rifled that grave?" + +The question perplexed me more and more, and I wondered whether Helen +could throw light upon it. So I asked her, but she bent her brows in a +frown, and in a little she answered: + +"No, I can think of no one." + +I held out my hand to her. "This is good-bye," said I. + +"You go to-day?" she asked, but did not take my hand. + +"Yes, if I can find a ship to take me. I go to St. Helen's first. Can +I borrow your boat; Dick will bring it back. I want to see that east +window in the aisle." + +A few more words were said, and I promised to return, whether I found +Cullen Mayle or not. And I did return, but sooner than I expected, for +I returned that afternoon. + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + THE LOST KEY IS FOUND + + +It happened in this way. I took Dick Parmiter with me and sailed +across to St. Helen's. We beached the boat on the sand near to the +well and quarantine hut, and climbed up eastwards till we came to the +hole which Glen's party had dug. The ground sloped away from the +church in this direction; and as I stood on the edge of the hole with +my face towards the side of the aisle, I could just see over the grass +the broken cusp of the window. It was exactly opposite to me. + +It occurred to me, however, that Glen had measured the distance wrong. +So I sent Dick in the boat across to Tresco to borrow a measure, and +while he was away I examined the ground there around; but it was all +covered with grass and bracken, which evidently had not been +disturbed. Here and there were bushes of brambles, but, as I was at +pains to discover, no search for the cross had been made beneath them. + +In the midst of my search Dick came back to me with a tape measure, +and we set to work from the window of the church. The measure was for +a few yards, so that when we had run it out to its full length, +keeping ever in the straight line, it was necessary to fix some sort +of mark in the ground, and start afresh from that; and for a mark I +used a big iron key which I had in my pocket. Three chains brought us +exactly to the hole which had been dug, and holding the key in my +hand, I said: + +"They made no mistake. It is plain the plan was carelessly drawn." + +And Dick said to me: "That's the key of our cottage." + +I handed it to him to make sure. He turned it over in his hand. + +"Yes," said he, "that's the key;" and he added reproachfully, with no +doubt a lively recollection of his mother's objurgations: "So you had +it all the time." + +"I found it this morning, Dick," said I. + +"Where?" + +"In the shed on the Castle Down. Now, how the deuce did it get there? +The dead sailormen had no use for keys." + +"It's very curious," said Dick. + +"Very curious and freakish," said I, and I sat down on the grass to +think the matter out. + +"Let me see, your mother missed it in the morning after I came to +Tresco." + +"That's three days ago." And I could hardly believe the boy. It seemed +to me that months had passed. But he was right. + +"Yes, three days ago. Your mother missed it in the morning. It is +likely, then, that it was taken from the lock of the door the night +before." + +"That would be the night," said Dick, suspiciously, "when you tapped +on my window." + +"The night, in fact, when I first landed on Tresco. Wait a little." + +Dick sat still upon the grass, and I took the key from his hand into +mine. There were many questions which at that moment perplexed +me--that hideous experience in Cullen Mayle's bedroom, the rifling of +Adam Mayle's grave, the replacing of the plan in it and the +disappearance of the cross, and I was in that state of mind when +everything new and at all strange presented itself as a possible clue +to the mystery. It seemed to me that the key which I held was very +much more than a mere rusty iron key of a door that was never locked. +I felt that it was the key to the door of the mystery which baffled +me, and that feeling increased in me into a solid conviction as I held +it in my hand. I seemed to see the door opening, and opening very +slowly. The chamber beyond the door was dark, but my eyes would grow +accustomed to the darkness if only I did not turn them aside. As it +was, even now I began to see dim, shadowy things which, uncomprehended +though they were, struck something of a thrill into my blood, and +something of a chill, too. + +"The night that I landed upon Tresco," I said, "we crossed the Castle +Down, I nearly fell on to the roof of the shed, where all the dead +sailormen were screeching in unison." + +"Yes!" said Dick, in a low voice, and I too looked around me to see +that we were not overheard. Dick moved a little nearer to me with an +uneasy working of his shoulders. + +"Do you remember the woman who passed us?" I asked. + +"You said it was a woman." + +"And it was." + +I had the best of reasons to be positive upon that point. I had +scratched my hand in the gorse and I had seen the blood of my +scratches the next day on the dress of the woman who had brushed +against me as she passed. That woman was Helen Mayle. Had she come +from the shed? What did she need with the key? + +"Is that shed ever used?" I asked. + +"Not now." + +"Whom does it belong to?" + +He nodded over towards Merchant's Rock. + +"Then Adam Mayle used it?" + +"Cullen Mayle used it." + +"Cullen!" + +I sprang up to my feet and walked away; and walked back; and walked +away again. The shadowy things were indeed becoming visible; my eyes +were growing indeed accustomed to the darkness; and, indeed, the door +was opening. Should I close, slam it to, lock it again and never open +it? For I was afraid. + +But if I did shut it and lock it I should come back to it perpetually, +I should be perpetually fingering the lock. No; I would open the door +wide and see what was within the room. I came back to Dick. + +"What did Cullen Mayle use it for?" + +"He was in league with the Brittany smugglers. Brandy, wine, and lace +were landed on the beach of a night and carried up to the shed." + +"Were they safe there?" + +Dick laughed. Here he was upon firm ground, and he answered with some +pride: + +"When Cullen Mayle lived here, the collector of customs daren't for +his life have landed on Tresco in daylight." + +"And at night the dead sailormen kept watch." + +"There wasn't a man who would go near the shed." + +"So Cullen Mayle would not have needed a key to lock the shed?" + +"No, indeed!" and another laugh. + +"Could he have needed a key for any other purpose? Dick, we will go +slowly, very slowly," and I sat for some while hesitating with a great +fear very cold at my heart. That door was opening fast. Should I push +it open, wide? With one bold thrust of the hand I could do it--if I +would. But should I see clearly into the room--so clearly that I could +not mistake a single thing I saw. No, I would go on, gently forcing +the door back, and all the while accustoming my vision to the gloom. + +"Has that shed been used since Cullen Mayle was driven away?" + +"No." + +"You are certain? Oh, be certain, very certain, before you speak." + +Dick looked at me in surprise, as well he might; for I have no doubt +my voice betrayed something of the fear and pain I felt. + +"I am certain." + +"Well, then, have you, has any one heard these dead sailormen making +merry--God save the mark--since that shed has been disused?" + +Dick thought with considerable effort before he answered. But it did +not matter; I was certain what his answer would be. + +"I have never heard them," he said. + +"Nor have met others who have?" + +"No," said he, after a second deliberation, "I don't remember any one +who has." + +"From the time Cullen Mayle left Tresco to the night when we crossed +the Down to Merchant's Rock? There's one thing more. Cullen was in +league with the Brittany smugglers. He would be in league, then, with +smugglers from Penzance, who would put him over to Tresco secretly, if +he needed it?" + +"He was very good friends with all smugglers," said Dick. + +"Then," said I, rising from the ground, "we will sail back, Dick, to +Tresco, and have another look into that shed." + +I made him steer the boat eastwards and land behind the point of the +old Grimsby Harbour, on which the Block House stands, and out of sight +of Merchant's Point. It was not that I did not wish to be seen by any +one in that house. But--but--well, I did not wish at that moment to +land near it--to land where a voice now grown familiar might call to +me. + +From the Block House we struck up through Dolphin Town on to the empty +hill, and so came to the shed. I pushed open the door and went in. +Dick followed me timidly. + +The floor was of stone. I had been thinking of that as we sailed +across from St. Helen's. I had been thinking, too, that when I was +carried into the inner room the door of the partition was jambed +against the floor, that Roper had kicked it open, and that, as it +yielded, I had heard some iron thing spring from beneath it and jingle +across the floor. That iron thing was, undoubtedly, the key which I +held in my hand. + +I placed it again under the door. There was a fairly strong wind +blowing. I told Dick to set the outer door wide open to the wind, +which he did. And immediately the inner door began to swing backwards +and forwards in the draught. But it dragged the key with it, and it +dragged the key over the stone floor. The shed was filled with a +harsh, shrill, rasping sound, which set one's fingernails on edge. I +set my hand to the door and swung it more quickly backwards and +forwards. The harsh sound rose to a hideous inhuman grating screech. + +"There are your dead sailormen, Dick," said I. "It was Cullen +Mayle who took the key from your door on the night I landed on +Tresco--Cullen Mayle, who had my horse to carry him on the road and +smuggler friends at Penzance to carry him over the sea. It was Cullen +Mayle who was in this shed that night, and used his old trick to scare +people from his hiding-place. It was Cullen Mayle who was first in the +Abbey burial ground. No doubt Cullen Mayle has that cross. And it was +Cullen Mayle whom the woman---- But, there, enough." + +The door was wide open now, and this key had opened it. I could see +everything clearly. My eyes were, indeed, now accustomed to the +gloom--so accustomed that, as I stepped from the shed, all the +sunlight seemed struck out of the world. + +It was all clear. Helen Mayle had come up to the shed that night. She +had told Cullen of the stick in the coffin--yes, she must have done +that. She told him of the men who watched. What more had passed +between them I could not guess, but she had come back with despair in +her heart, and, in the strength of her despair, had walked late at +night into his room--with that silk noose in her hand. + +That she loved him--that was evident. But why could she not have been +frank with me? Cullen had spoken with her, had been warned by her, had +left the island since. Why had she kept up this pretence of anxiety on +his account, of fear that he was in distress, of dread lest he return +unwitting of his peril and fall into Glen's hand? Clutterbuck's word +"duplicity" came stinging back to me. + +I sent Dick away to sail the boat back to Merchant's Point, and lay +for a long while on the open hillside, while the sun sank and evening +came. It was only yesterday that she had played in her garden upon the +violin. I had felt that I knew her really for the first time as she +sat with her pale face gleaming purely through the darkness. Why could +she not have been frank to me? The question assailed me; I cried it +out. Surely there was some answer, an answer which would preserve my +picture of her in her tangled garden, untarnished within my memories. +Surely, surely! And how could such deep love mate with duplicity? + +I put the scarf into my pocket, and crossed the hill again and came +down to Merchant's Point. I could not make up my mind to go in. How +could I speak of that night when I slept in Cullen Mayle's bedroom? I +lay now upon the gorse watching the bright windows. Now I went down to +the sea and its kindly murmurings. And at last, about ten o'clock of +the night, a white figure came slowly from the porch and stood beside +me. + +"You have been here--how long?--I have watched you," she said very +gently. "What is it? Why didn't you come in?" + +I took both her hands in mine and looked into her eyes. + +"Will you be frank with me if I do?" + +"Why, yes," she said, and her face was all wonder and all concern. +"You hurt me--no, not your hands, but your distrust." + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + AN UNSATISFACTORY EXPLANATION + + +We went into the house, but no farther than the hall. For the moment +we were come there she placed herself in front of me. I remember that +the door of the house was never shut, and through the opening I could +see a shoulder of the hill and the stars above it, and hear the long +roar of the waves upon the beach. + +"We are good friends, I hope, you and I," she said. "Plain speech is +the privilege of such friendship. Speak, then, as though you were +speaking to a man. Wherein have I not been frank with you?" + +There must be, I thought, some explanation which would free her from +all suspicion of deceit. Else, how could she speak with so earnest a +tongue or look with eyes so steady? + +"As man to man, then," I answered, "I am grieved I was not told that +Cullen Mayle had come secretly to Tresco and had thence escaped." + +"Cullen!" she said, in a wondering voice. "He was on Tresco! Where?" + +I constrained myself to answer patiently. + +"In the Abbey grounds, on St. Helen's Island, and--" I paused, +thinking, nay hoping, that even at this eleventh hour she would speak, +she would explain. But she kept silence, nor did her eyes ever waver +from my face. + +--"And," I continued, "on Castle Down." + +"There!" she exclaimed, and added, thoughtfully, "Yes, there he would +be safe. But when was Cullen upon Tresco? When?" + +So the deception was to be kept up. + +"On the night," I answered, "when I first came to Merchant's Point." + +She looked at me for a little without a word, and I could imagine that +it was difficult for her to hit upon an opportune rejoinder. There was +one question, however, which might defer her acknowledgments of her +concealments, and, to be sure, she asked it: + +"How do you know that?" and before I could answer, she added another, +which astonished me by its assurance. "When did you find out?" + +I told her, I trust with patience, of the key and the various steps by +which I had found out. "And as to when," I said, "it was this +afternoon." + +At that she gave a startled cry, and held out a trembling hand towards +me. + +"Had you known," she cried, "had you known only yesterday that Cullen +had come and had safely got him back, you would have been spared all +you went through last night!" + +"What I went through last night!" I exclaimed, passionately. "Oh, that +is of small account to me, and I beg you not to suffer it to trouble +your peace. But--I do not say had I known yesterday, I say had I been +_told_ yesterday--I should have been spared a very bitter +disappointment." + +"I do not understand," she said, and again she put out her hand +towards me and drew it in and stretched it out again with an +appearance of distress to which even at that moment I felt myself +softening. However, I took no heed of the hand. "In some way you blame +me, but I do not understand." + +"You would, perhaps, find it easier to understand if you were at the +pains to remember that on the night I landed upon Tresco, I came over +Castle Down and past the shed to Merchant's Point." + +"Well?" and she spoke with more coldness, as though her pride made her +stubborn in defiance. No doubt she was unaware that I was close to her +that night. It remained for me to reveal that, and God knows I did it +with no sense of triumph, but only a great sadness. + +"As I stood in the darkness a little this side of the shed, a girl +hurried down the hill from it. She was dressed in white, so that I +could make no mistake. On the other hand, my dark coat very likely +made me difficult to see. The girl passed me, and so closely that her +frock brushed against my hand. Now, can you name the girl?" + +She looked at me with the same stubbornness. + +"No," she said, "I cannot." + +"On the other hand," said I, "I can. One circumstance enables me to be +certain. I slipped on the grass that night, and catching hold of a +bush of gorse pricked my hand." + +"Yes, I remember that." + +"I pricked my hand a minute or two before the girl passed me. As I +say, she brushed against my hand, which was bleeding, and the next day +I saw the blood smirched upon a white frock--and who wore it, do you +think?" + +"I did," she answered. + +"Ah! Then you own it. You will own too that I have some cause of +discontentment in that you have played with me, whose one thought was +to serve you like an honest gentleman." + +And at that the stubbornness, the growing resentment at my questions, +died clean out of her face. + +"You would have!" she cried eagerly. "You would indeed have cause for +more than discontent had I played with you. But you do not mean that. +You cannot think that I would use any trickeries with you. Oh! take +back your words! For indeed they hurt me. You are mistaken here. I +wore the frock, but it was not I who was on Castle Down that night. It +was not I who brushed past you----" + +"And the stain?" I asked. + +"How it came there I do not know," she said. "But this I do know,--it +was not your hand that marked it. I never knew that Cullen was on +Tresco. I never saw him, much less spoke to him. You will believe +that? No! Why should I have kept it secret if I had?" and her head +drooped as she saw that still I did not believe. + +There was silence between us. She stood without changing her attitude, +her head bent, her hands nervously clasping and unclasping. The wind +came through the open door into the hall. Once in the silence Helen +caught her breath; it was as though she checked a sob; and gradually a +thought came into my mind which would serve to explain her +silence--which would, perhaps, justify it--which, at all events, made +of it a mistaken act of kindness. So I spoke with all gentleness--and +with a little remorse, too, for the harshness I had shown: + +"You said we were good friends, you hoped; and, for my part, I can say +that the words were aptly chosen. I am your friend--your good +_friend_. You will understand? I want you also to understand that it +was not even so much as friendship which brought me down to Tresco. It +was Dick's sturdy example, it was my utter weariness, and some spark +of shame Dick kindled in me. I was living, though upon my soul +_living_ is not the word, in one tiresome monotony of disgraceful +days. I had made my fortune, and in the making had somehow unlearnt +how fitly to enjoy it." + +"But this I know," interrupted Helen, now lifting her face to me. + +"I never told you." + +"But my violin told me. Do you remember? I wanted to know you through +and through, to the heart's core. So I took my violin and played to +you in the garden. And your face spoke in answer. So I knew you." + +It was strange. This confession she made with a blush and a great deal +of confusion--a confession of a trick if you will, but a trick to +which no one could object, by which anyone might be flattered. But +that other more serious duplicity she could deny with an unwavering +assurance! + +"You know then," I went on. "It makes it easier for me. I want you to +understand then that it was to serve myself I came, and I do verily +believe that I have served myself better than I have served you. Why, +I did not even know what you were like. I did not inquire of +Clutterbuck, he drew no picture of you to persuade me to my journey. +Thus then there is no reason why you should be silent concerning +Cullen out of any consideration for me." + +She looked at me in perplexity. My hint had not sufficed. I must make +myself more clear. + +"I have no doubt," I continued, "that you have seen. No doubt I might +have been more circumspect. No doubt I have betrayed myself this last +day. But, believe me, you are under no debt to me. If I can bring +Cullen Mayle back to you, I will not harbour a thought of jealousy." + +Did she understand? I could not be sure. But I saw her whole face +brighten and smile--it was as though a glory shone upon it--and her +figure straighten with a sort of pride. Did she understand at the last +that she need practise no concealments? But she said nothing, she +waited for me to say what more I had to say. Well, I could make the +matter yet more plain. + +"Besides," I said, "I knew--I knew very well before I set out from +London, Clutterbuck told me. So that it is my own fault, you see, if +when I came here I took no account of what he told me. And even so, +believe me, I do not regret the fault." + +"Lieutenant Clutterbuck!" she exclaimed, with something almost of +alarm. "He told you what?" + +"He told me of a night very like this. You were standing in this hall, +very likely as you stand now, and the door was open and the breeze and +the sound of the sea came through the open door as it does now. Only +where I stand Cullen Mayle stood, asking you to follow him out through +the world. And you would have followed, you did indeed begin to +follow----" + +So far I had got when she broke in passionately, with her eyes afire! + +"It is not true! How can men speak such lies? Lieutenant Clutterbuck! +I know--he told me the same story. It would have been much easier, so +much franker, had he said outright he was tired of his--friendship for +me and wished an end to it. I should have liked him the better had he +been so frank. But that he should tell you the same story. Oh! it is +despicable--and you believe it?" she challenged me. "You believe that +story. You believe, too, I went to a trysting with Cullen on Castle +Down, the night you came, and kept it secret from you and let you run +the peril of your life. You will have it, in a word, whatever I may +say or do," and she wrung her hands with a queer helplessness. "You +will have it that I love him. Pity, a sense of injustice, a feeling +that I wrongly possess what is rightly his--these things you will not +allow can move me. No, I must love him." + +"Have I not proof you do?" I answered. "Not from Clutterbuck, but from +yourself. Have I not proof into what despair your love could throw +you?" And I took from my pocket the silk scarf. "Where did I get +this?" + +She took it from my hands, while her face softened. She drew it +through her fingers, and a smile parted her lips. She raised her eyes +to me with a certain shyness, and she answered shyly: + +"Yet you say you were not curious to know anything of me in London +before you started to the West." + +The answer was no answer at all. I repeated my question: + +"How do I come to have that scarf?" + +"I can but guess," she said; "I did not know that Lieutenant +Clutterbuck possessed it. But it could be no one else. You asked it of +Lieutenant Clutterbuck in London." + +For a moment I could not believe that I had heard a right. I stared at +her. It was impossible that any woman could carry effrontery to so +high a pitch. But she repeated her words. + +"Lieutenant Clutterbuck gave it to you no doubt in London, and--will +you tell me?--I should like to know. Did you ask him for it?" + +Should I strip away this pretence? Should I compel her to own where I +found it and how I came by it? But it seemed not worth while. I turned +on my heel without a word, and went straight out through the open door +and on to the hillside. + +And so this was the second night which I spent in the gorse of Castle +Down. One moment I was hot to go back to London and speak to no woman +for the rest of my days. The next I was all for finding Cullen Mayle +and heaping coals of fire upon Helen's head. The coals of fire carried +the day in the end. + +As morning broke I walked down to the Palace Inn fully resolved. I +would search for Cullen Mayle until I found him. I would bring him +back. I would see him married to Helen from a dark corner in St. +Mary's Church, and when the pair were properly unhappy and miserable, +as they would undoubtedly become--I was very sorry, but miserable they +would be--why then I would send her a letter. The writing in the +letter should be "Ha! ha!"--not a word more, not even a signature, but +just "Ha! ha!" on a blank sheet of paper. + +But, as I have said, I had grown very young these last few days. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + CULLEN MAYLE COMES HOME + + +The search was entirely unsuccessful. Through the months of November +and December I travelled hither and thither, but I had no hint as to +Cullen Mayle's whereabouts; and towards the end of the year I took +passage in a barque bound for St. Mary's, where I landed the day +before Christmas and about the fall of the dusk. It was my intention +to cross over that night to Tresco and report my ill-success, which I +was resolved to do with a deal of stateliness. I was also curious to +know whether Peter Tortue was still upon the island. + +But as I walked along the street of Hugh Town to the "Dolphin" Inn, by +the Customs House, a band of women dancing and shouting, with voices +extraordinarily hoarse, swept round the corner. I fell plump amongst +them, and discovered they were men masquerading as women. Moreover, +they stopped me, and were for believing that I was a woman +masquerading as a man; and, indeed, when they had let me go I did come +upon a party of girls dressed up for sea captains and the like, who +swaggered, counterfeiting a manly walk, and drawing their hangers upon +one another with a great show of spirit. + +The reason of these transformations was explained to me at the +"Dolphin." It seems that they call this sort of amusement "a +goose-dancing," and the young people exercise it in these islands at +Christmas time. I was told that it would be impossible for me to hire +a boatman to put me over to Tresco that night; so I made the best of +the matter, and to pass the time stepped out again into the street, +which was now lighted up with many torches and crowded with +masqueraders. They went dancing and singing from house to house; the +women paid their addresses with an exaggeration of courtly manners to +the men, who, dressed in the most uncouth garments that could be +devised, received them with a droll shyness and modesty, and +altogether, what with liquor and music, the festival went with a deal +of noise and spirit. But in the midst of it one of these false women, +with a great bonnet pulled forward over her face, clapped a hand upon +my shoulder and said in my ear: + +"Mr. Berkeley, I hope you have been holding better putt cards of +late;" and would have run on, but I caught him by the arm. + +"Mr. Featherstone," said I, "you stole my horse; I have a word to say +to you." + +"I have not the time to listen," said he, wrenching his arm free as he +flung himself into the thick of the crowd. I kept close upon his +heels, however, which he perceived, and drawing into a corner he +suddenly turned round upon me. + +"Your horse is dead," said he. "I very much regret it; but I will pay +you, for I have but now come into an inheritance. I will pay you for +it to-morrow." + +"I did not follow you to speak of the horse, or to Mr. Featherstone at +all, but to Mr. Cullen Mayle." + +"You know me?" he exclaimed, looking about him lest the name should +have been overheard. + +"And have news for you," I added. "Will you follow me to the +'Dolphin?'" + +I went back to the inn, secured from my host a room where we could be +private, and went out to the door. Cullen Mayle was waiting; he +followed me quickly in, hiding his face so that no one could recognise +him, and when the door was shut-- + +"How in the world did you come to know of my name?" said he. "I cannot +think, but I shall be obliged if you will keep it secret for a day or +so, for I am not sure but what I may have some inconvenient friends +among these islands." + +"Those inconvenient friends are all gone but one," said I. + +"You know that too," he exclaimed. "Indeed, Mr. Berkeley, you seem to +be very well acquainted with my affairs; but I cannot regret it, since +you give me such comforting news. Only one of my inconvenient friends +left! Why, I am a match for one--I think I may say so without +vaunting--so it seems I can come to Tresco and take up my +inheritance." + +With that he began briskly to unhook the cotton dress which he had put +on over his ordinary clothes. + +"Inheritance!" said I. "You mentioned the word before. I do not +understand." + +"Oh," said he, "it is a long story and a melancholy. My father drove +me from the house, and bequeathed his fortune to an adopted daughter." + +"Yes," said I quickly, "I know that too." + +"Indeed!" and he stopped his toilette to stare at me. "Perhaps you are +aware then that Helen Mayle, conscious of my father's injustice, +bequeathed it again to me." + +"Yes, but--but--you spoke of an immediate inheritance." + +"Ah," said he, coolly, "there is something, then, I can inform you of. +Helen Mayle is dead." + +"What's that?" I cried, and started to my feet. I did not understand. +I was like a man struck by a bullet, aware dimly that some hurt has +come to him, but not yet conscious of the pain, not yet sensible of +the wound. + +"Hush!" said Cullen Mayle, and untying a string at his waist he let +his dress fall about his feet. "It is most sad. Not for the world +would I have come into this inheritance at such a cost. You knew Helen +Mayle, perhaps?" he asked, with a shrewd glance at me. "A girl very +staunch, very true, who would never forget a _friend_." He emphasised +that word "friend" and made it of a greater significance. "Indeed, I +am not sure, but I must think it was because she could not forget +a--friend that, alas! she died." + +I was standing stupefied. I heard the words he spoke, but gave +them at this moment no meaning. I was trying to understand the one +all-important fact. + +"Dead!" I babbled. "Helen Mayle--dead!" + +"Yes, and in the strangest, pitiful way. I cannot think of it, without +the tears come into my eyes. The news came to me but lately, and you +will perhaps excuse me on that account." His voice broke as he spoke; +there were tears, too, in his eyes. I wondered, in a dull way, whether +after all he had really cared for her. "But how comes it that you knew +her?" he asked. + +I sat down upon a chair and told him--of Dick Parmiter's coming to +London, of my journey into the West. I told him how I had come to +recognise him at the inn; and as I spoke the comprehension of Helen's +death crept slowly into my mind, so that I came to a stop and could +speak no more. + +"You were on your way to Tresco," said he, "when we first met. Then +you know that she is dead?" + +"No," I answered. "When did she die?" + +"On the sixth of October," said he. + +I do not think that I should have paid great heed to his words, but +something in his voice--an accent of alarm--roused me. I lifted my +eyes and saw that he was watching me with a singular intentness. + +"The sixth of October," I repeated vaguely, and then I broke into a +laugh, so harsh and hysterical that it seemed quite another voice than +mine. "Your news is false," I cried; "she is not dead! Why, I did not +leave Tresco till the end of October, and she was alive then and no +sign of any malady. The sixth of October! No, indeed, she did not die +upon that day." + +"Are you sure?" he exclaimed. + +"Sure?" said I. "I have the best of reasons to be sure; for it was on +the sixth of October that I first set foot in Tresco," and at once +Cullen Mayle sprang up and shook me by the hand. + +"Here is the bravest news," he said. His whole face was alight; he +could not leave hold of my hand. "Mr. Berkeley, I may thank God that I +spoke to you to-night. 'Helen!'"--and he lingered upon the name. "Upon +my word, it would take little more to unman me. So you landed on the +sixth of October. But are you sure of the date?" he asked with +earnestness. "I borrowed your horse but a few days before. You would +hardly have travelled so quickly." + +"I travelled by sea with a fair wind," said I. "It was the sixth of +October. Could I forget it? Why, that very night I crossed Castle Down +to Merchant's Point; that very night I entered the house. Dick +Parmiter showed me a way. I crept into the house, and slept in your +bedroom----" + +I had spoken so far without a notion of the disclosure to which my +words were leading me. I was not looking at Cullen Mayle, but on to +the ground, else very likely I might have read it upon his face. But +now in an instant the truth of the matter was clear to me. For as I +said, "I slept in your bedroom," he uttered one loud cry, leapt to his +feet, and stood over against me, very still and quiet. I had +sufficient wit not to raise my head and betray this new piece of +knowledge. That sad and pitiful death on the sixth of October, of +which he had heard with so deep a pain--he had never heard it, he had +_planned_ it, and the plan miscarried. He knew why, now, and so was +standing in front of me very still and quiet. He had seen Helen that +night on Castle Down; there, no doubt, she had told him how in her +will she had disposed of her inheritance; and he had persuaded her, +working on her generosity--with what prepared speeches of despair!--to +that strange, dark act which it had been my good fortune to interrupt. +It was clear to me. The very choice of that room, wherein alone +secrecy was possible, made it clear. He had suggested to her the whole +cunning plan; and a moment ago I had almost been deceived to believe +his expressions of distress sincere! + +"I told you I was nearly unmanned," I heard him say; "and you see even +so I underrated the strength of my relief, so that the mere surprise +of your ingenious shift to get a lodging took my breath away." + +He resumed his seat, and I, having now composed my face, raised it +full to him. I have often wondered since whether, as he stood above +me, motionless and silent during those few moments, I was in any +danger. + +"Yes," said I, "it was no doubt surprising." + +This, however, was not the only surprise I was to cause Cullen Mayle +that night. + +He proposed immediately that we should cross to Tresco together, and +on my objecting that we should get no one to carry us over-- + +"Oh," said he, "I have convenient friends in Scilly as well as +inconvenient." He looked out of the window. "The tide is high, and +washes the steps at the back of the inn. Do you wait here upon the +steps. I will have a boat there in less than half an hour;" and on the +word he hooked up his dress again and got him out of the inn. + +I waited upon the steps as he bade me. Behind me were the lights and +the uproar of the street; in front, the black water and the cool +night; and still further, out of sight, the island of Tresco, the +purple island of bracken and gorse, resonant with the sea. + +In a little I heard a ripple of water, and the boat swam to the steps. +I was careful as we sailed across the road to say nothing to Cullen +Mayle which would provoke his suspicion. I did not even allow him to +see I was aware that he himself had been upon Tresco on the sixth of +October. It was not difficult for me to keep silence. For as the water +splashed and seethed under the lee of the boat, and Tresco drew +nearer, I had to consider what I should do in the light of my new +knowledge. It would have been so much easier had only Helen been frank +with me. + +Tresco dimly loomed up out of the darkness. + +"By the way," said Cullen Mayle, who had been silent too, "you said +that one of the watchers had remained. It will be George Glen, I +suppose." + +"No," I answered. "It is a Frenchman, Peter Tortue," and by the mere +mention of the name I surprised Cullen Mayle again that evening. It is +true that this time he uttered no exclamation, and did not start from +his seat. But the boat shot up into the wind and got into irons, as +the saying is, so that I knew his hand had left the tiller. But he +said nothing until we were opposite to the Blockhouse, and then he +asked in a low trembling voice: + +"Did you say Peter Tortue?" + +"Yes." + +There was another interval of silence. Then he put another question +and in the same tone of awe: + +"A young fellow, less than my years----" + +"No. The young fellow's father," said I. "A man of sixty years. I +think I should be wary of him." + +"Why?" + +"He said, 'I am looking, not for the cross, but for a man to nail upon +the cross,' and he meant his words, every syllable." + +Again we fell to silence, and so crossed the Old Grimsby Harbour and +rounded its northern point. The lights of the house were in view at +last. They shot out across the darkness in thin lines of light and +wavered upon the black water lengthening and shortening with the +slight heave of the waves. When they shortened, I wondered whether +they beckoned me to the house; when they lengthened out, were they +fingers which pointed to us to be gone? + +"Since you know so much, Mr. Berkeley," whispered Cullen Mayle, +"perhaps you can tell me whether Glen secured the cross." + +"No, he failed in that." + +"I felt sure he would," said Cullen with a chuckle, and he ran the +boat aground, not on the sand before the house but on the bank beneath +the garden hedge. We climbed through the hedge; two windows blazed +upon the night, and in the room sat Helen Mayle close by the fire, her +violin on a table at her side and the bow swinging in her hand. I +stepped forward and rapped at the window. She walked across the room +and set her face to the pane, shutting out the light from her eyes +with her hands. She saw us standing side by side. Instantly she drew +down the blinds and came to the door, and over the grass towards us. +She came first to me with her hand outstretched. + +"It is you," she said gently, and the sound of her voice was wonderful +in my ears. I had taken her hand before I was well aware what I did. + +"Yes," said I. + +"You have come back. I never thought you would. But you have come." + +"I have brought back Cullen Mayle," said I, as indifferently as I +could, and so dropped her hand. She turned to Cullen then. + +"Quick," she said. "You must come in." + +We went inside the door. + +"It is some years since I trod these flags," said Cullen. "Well, I am +glad to come home, though it is only as an outcast; and indeed, Helen, +I have not the right even to call it home." + +It was as cruel a remark as he could well have made, seeing at what +pains the girl had been, and still was, to restore that home to him. +That it hurt her I knew very well, for I heard her, in the darkness of +the passage, draw in her breath through her clenched teeth. Cullen +walked along the passage and through the hall. + +"Lock the door," Helen said to me, and I did lock it. "Now drop the +bar." + +When that was done we walked together into the hall, where she +stopped. + +"Look at me," she said, "please!" and I obeyed her. + +"You have come back," she repeated. "You do not, then, any longer +believe that I deceived you?" + +"There is a reason why I have come back," I answered. It was a reason +which I could not give to her. I was resolved not to suffer her to lie +at the mercy of Cullen Mayle. Fortunately, she did not think to ask me +to be particular about the reason. But she beat her hands once or +twice together, and-- + +"You still believe it, then!" she cried. "With these two months to +search and catch and hold the truth, you still hold me in the same +contempt as when you turned your back on me and walked out through +that door?" + +"No, no!" I exclaimed. "Contempt! That never entered into any thought +I ever had of you. Make sure of that!" + +"Yet you believe I tricked you. How can you believe that, and yet +spare me your contempt!" + +"I am no philosopher. It is the truth I tell you," I answered, simply; +and the face of Cullen Mayle appeared at the doorway of the parlour, +so that no more was said. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + MY PERPLEXITIES ARE EXPLAINED + + +There is no need for me to tell at any length the conversation that +passed between the three of us that night. Cullen Mayle spoke frankly +of his journey to the Sierra Leone River. + +"Mr. Berkeley," he said, "already knows so much, that I doubt it would +not be of any avail to practise mysteries with him. And besides there +is no need, for, if I mistake not, Mr. Berkeley can keep a secret as +well as any man." + +He spoke very politely, but with a keen eye on me to notice whether I +should show any confusion or change colour. But I made as though I +attached no significance to his words beyond mere urbanity. He told us +how he made his passage to the Guinea Coast as a sailor before the +mast, and then fell in with George Glen. It seemed prudent to +counterfeit a friendly opinion that the cross would be enough for all. +But when they discovered the cross was gone from its hiding place, he +took the first occasion to give them the slip. + +"For I had no doubt that my father had been beforehand," said he. "Had +I possessed more wisdom, I might have known as much when I heard him +from my bed refuse his assistance to George Glen, and so saved myself +an arduous and a perilous adventure. For my father, was he never so +rich, was not the man to turn his back on the King of Portugal's +cross." + +Of his father, Cullen spoke with good nature and a certain hint of +contempt; and he told us much which he had learned from George Glen. +"He went by the name of Kennedy," said Cullen, "but they called him +'Crackers' for the most part. He was not on the _Royal Fortune_ at the +time when Roberts was killed, so that he was never taken prisoner with +the rest, nor did he creep out of Cape Corse Castle like George Glen." + +"Then he was never tried or condemned," said Helen, who plainly found +some relief in that thought. + +"No!" answered Cullen, with a chuckle. "But why? He played +rob-thief--a good game, but it requires a skilled player. I would +never have believed Adam had the skill. Roberts put him in command of +a sloop called the _Ranger_, which he had taken in the harbour of +Bahia, and when he put out to sea on that course which brought him +into conjunction with the _Swallow_, he left the _Ranger_ behind in +Whydah Bay. And what does Adam do but haul up his anchor as soon as +Roberts was out of sight, and, being well content with his earnings, +make sail for Maryland, where the company was disbanded. I would I had +known that on the day we quarrelled. Body o' me, but I would have made +the old man quiver. Well, Adam came home to England, settled at +Bristol, where he married, and would no doubt have remained there till +his death, had he not fallen in with one of his old comrades on the +quay. That frightened him, so he come across to Tresco, thinking to be +safe. And safe he was for twenty years, until George Glen nosed him +out." + +Thereupon, Cullen, from relating his adventures, turned to questions +asking for word of this man and that whom he had known before he went +away. These questions of course he put to Helen, and not once did he +let slip a single allusion to the meeting he had had with her in the +shed on Castle Down. For that silence on his part I was well prepared; +the man was versed in secrecy. But Helen showed a readiness no whit +inferior; she never hesitated, never caught a word back. They spoke +together as though the last occasion when they had met was the night, +now four years and a half ago, when Adam Mayle stood at the head of +the stairs and drove his son from the house. One thing in particular I +learned from her, the negro had died a month ago. + +It was my turn when the gossip of the islands had been exhausted, and +I had to tell over again of my capture by Glen and the manner of my +escape. I omitted, however, all mention of an earlier visitant to the +Abbey burial grounds, and it was to this omission that I owed a +confirmation of my conviction that Cullen Mayle was the visitant. For +when I came to relate how George Glen and his band sailed away towards +France without the cross, he said: + +"If I could find that cross, I might perhaps think I had some right to +it. It is yours, Helen, to be sure, by law, and----" + +She interrupted him, as she was sure to do, with a statement that the +cross and everything else was for him to dispose of as he thought fit. +But he was magnanimous to a degree. + +"The cross, Helen, nothing but the cross, if I can find it. I have a +thought which may help me to it. 'Three chains east of the east window +in south aisle of St. Helen's Church.' Those were the words, I think." + +"Yes," said I. + +"And Glen measured the distance correctly?" + +"To an inch." + +"Well, what if--it is a mere guess, but a likely one, I presume to +think,--what if the chains were Cornish chains? There would be a +difference of a good many feet, a difference of which George Glen +would be unaware. You see I trust you, Mr. Berkeley. I fancy that I +can find that cross upon St. Helen's Island." + +"I have no doubt you will," said I. + +Cullen rose from his chair. + +"It grows late, Helen," said he, "and I have kept you from your sleep +with my gossiping." He turned to me. "But, Mr. Berkeley, you perhaps +will join me in a pipe and a glass of rum? My father had a good store +of rum, which in those days I despised, but I have learnt the taste +for it." + +His proposal suited very well with my determination to keep a watch +that night over Helen's safety, and I readily agreed. + +"You will sleep in your old room, Cullen," she said, "and you, Mr. +Berkeley, in the room next to it;" and that arrangement suited me very +well. Helen wished us both good-night, and left us together. + +We went up into Mayle's cabin and Cullen mixed the rum, which I only +sipped. So it was not the rum. I cannot, in fact, remember at all +feeling any drowsiness or desire to sleep. I think if I had felt that +desire coming over me I should have shaken it off; it would have +warned me to keep wide awake. But I was not sensible of it at all; and +I remember very vividly the last thing of which I was conscious. That +was Cullen Mayle's great silver watch which he held by a ribbon and +twirled this way and that as he chatted to me. He spun it with great +quickness, so that it flashed in the light of the candle like a +mirror, and at once held and tired the eyes. I was conscious of this, +I say, and of nothing more until gradually I understood that some one +was shaking me by the shoulders and rousing me from sleep. I opened my +eyes and saw that it was Helen Mayle who had disturbed me. + +It took me a little time to collect my wits. I should have fallen +asleep again had she not hindered me; but at last I was sufficiently +roused to realise that I was still in the cabin, but that Cullen Mayle +had gone. A throb of anger at my weakness in so letting him steal a +march quickened me and left me wide awake. Helen Mayle was however in +the room, plainly then she had suffered no harm by my negligence. She +was at this moment listening with her ear close to the door, so that I +could not see her face. + +"What has happened?" I asked, and she flung up her hand with an +imperative gesture to be silent. + +After listening for a minute or so longer she turned towards me, and +the aspect of her face filled me with terror. + +"In God's name what has happened, Helen?" I whispered. For never have +I seen such a face, so horror-stricken--no, and I pray that I never +may again, though the face be a stranger's and not one of which I +carried an impression in my heart. + +Yet she spoke with a natural voice. + +"You took so long to wake!" said she. + +"What o'clock is it?" I asked. + +"Three. Three of the morning; but speak low, or rather listen! Listen, +and while you listen look at me, so that I may know." She seated +herself on a chair close to mine, and leant forward, speaking in a +whisper. "On the night of the sixth of October I went to the shed on +Castle Down and had word with Cullen Mayle. Returning I passed you, +brushed against you. So much you have maintained before. But listen, +listen! That night you climbed into Cullen's bedroom and fell asleep, +and you woke up in the dark middle of the night." + +"Stop! stop!" I whispered, and seized her hands in mine. Horror was +upon me now, and a hand of ice crushing down my heart. I did not +reason or argue at that moment. I knew--her face told me--she had been +after all ignorant of what she had done that night. "Stop; not a word +more--there is no truth in it." + +"Then there is truth in it," she answered, "for you know what I have +not yet told you. It is true, then--your waking up--the silk noose! My +God! my God!" and all the while she spoke in a hushed whisper, which +made her words ten times more horrible, and sat motionless as stone. +There was not even a tremor in the hands I held; they lay like ice in +mine. + +"How do you know?" I said. "But I would have spared you this! You did +not know, and I doubted you. Of course--of course you did not know. +Good God! Why could not this secret have lain hid in me? I would have +spared you the knowledge of it. I would have carried it down safe with +me into my grave." + +Her face hardened as I spoke. She looked down and saw that I held her +hands; she plucked them free. + +"You would have kept the secret safe," she said, steadily. "You liar! +You told it this night to Cullen Mayle." + +Her words struck me like a blow in the face. I leaned back in my +chair. She kept her eyes upon my face. + +"I--told it--to Cullen Mayle?" I repeated. + +She nodded her head. + +"To-night?" + +"Here in this room. My door was open. I overheard." + +"I did not know I told him," I exclaimed; and she laughed horribly and +leaned back in the chair. + +All at once I understood, and the comprehension wrapped me in horror. +The horror passed from me to her, though as yet she did not +understand. She looked as though the world yawned wide beneath her +feet. "Oh!" she moaned, and, "Hush!" said I, and I leaned forward +towards her. "I did not know, just as you did not know that you went +to the shed on Castle Down, that you brushed against me as you +returned,--just as you did not know of what happened thereafter." + +She put her hands to her head and shivered. + +"Just as you did not know that four years ago when Cullen Mayle was +turned from the door, he bade you follow him, and you obeyed," I +continued. "This is Cullen Mayle's work--devil's work. He spun his +watch to dazzle you four years ago; he did the same to-night, and made +me tell him why his plan miscarried. Plan!" and at last I understood. +I rose to my feet; she did the same. "Yes, plan! You told him you had +bequeathed everything to him. He knew that tonight when I met him at +St. Mary's. How did he know it unless you told him on Castle Down? +He bade you go home, enter his room, where no one would hear you, +and--don't you see? Helen! Helen!" + +I took her in my arms, and she put her hands upon my shoulders and +clung to them. + +"I have heard of such things in London," said I. "Some men have this +power to send you to sleep and make you speak or forget at their +pleasure; and some have more power than this, for they can make you do +when you have waked up what they have bidden you to do while you +slept, and afterwards forget the act;" and suddenly Helen started away +from me, and raised her finger. + +We both stood and listened. + +"I can hear nothing," I whispered. + +She looked over her shoulder to the door. I motioned her not to move. +I walked noiselessly to the door, and noiselessly turned the handle. I +opened the door for the space of an inch; all was quiet in the house. + +"Yet I heard a voice," she said, and the next moment I heard it too. + +The candles were alight. I crossed the room and squashed them with the +palm of my hand. I was not a moment too soon, for even as I did so I +heard the click of a door handle, and then a creak of the hinges, and +a little afterwards--footsteps. + +A hand crept into mine; we waited in the darkness, holding our breath. +The footsteps came down the passage to the door behind which we stood +and passed on. I expected that they would be going towards the room in +which Helen slept. I waited for them to cease that I might follow and +catch Cullen Mayle, damned by some bright proof in his hand of a +murderous intention. But they did not cease; they kept on and on. +Surely he must have reached the room. At last the footsteps ceased. I +opened the door cautiously and heard beneath me in the hall a key turn +in a lock. + +A great hope sprang up in me. Suppose that since his plan had failed, +and since Tortue waited for him on Tresco, he had given up! Suppose +that he was leaving secretly, and for good and all! If that +supposition could be true! I prayed that it might be true, and as if +in answer to my prayer I saw below me where the hall door should be a +thin slip of twilight. This slip broadened and broadened. The murmur +of the waves became a roar. The door was opening--no, now it was +shutting again; the twilight narrowed to a slip and disappeared +altogether. + +"Listen," said I, and we heard footsteps on the stone tiles of the +porch. + +"Oh, he is gone!" said Helen, in an indescribable accent of relief. + +"Yes, gone," said I. "See, the door of his room is open." + +I ran down the passage and entered the room. Helen followed close +behind me. + +"He is gone," I repeated. The words sounded too pleasant to be true. I +approached the bed and flung aside the curtains. I stooped forward +over the bed. + +"Helen," I cried, and aloud, "out of the room! Quick! Quick!" + +For the words _were_ too pleasant to be true. I flung up my arm to +keep her back. But I was too late. She had already seen. She had +approached the bed, and in the dim twilight she had seen. She uttered +a piercing scream, and fell against me in a dead swoon. + +For the man who had descended the stairs and unlocked the door was not +Cullen Mayle. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + THE LAST + + +Mesmer at this date was a youth of twenty-four, but the writings of +Van Helmont and Wirdig and G. Maxwell had already thrown more than a +glimmering of light upon the reciprocal action of bodies upon each +other, and had already demonstrated the existence of a universal +magnetic force by which the human will was rendered capable of +influencing the minds of others. It was not, however, till seventeen +years later--in the year 1775, to be precise--that Mesmer published +his famous letter to the Academies of Europe. And by a strange chance +it was in the same year that I secured a further confirmation of his +doctrines and at the same time an explanation of the one matter +concerned with this history of which I was still in ignorance. In a +word, I learned at last how young Peter Tortue came by his death. + +I did not learn it from his father. That implacable man I never saw +after the night when we listened to his footsteps descending the +stairs in the darkness. He was gone the next morning from the islands, +nor was any trace of him, for all the hue and cry, discovered for a +long while--not, indeed, for ten years, when my son, who was then a +lad of eight, while playing one day among the rocks of Peninnis Head +on St. Mary's, dropped clean out of my sight, or rather out of Helen's +sight, for I was deep in a book, and did not raise my head until a cry +from my wife startled me. + +We ran to the loose pile of boulders where the boy had vanished, and +searched and called for a few minutes without any answer. But in the +end a voice answered us, and from beneath our feet. It was the boy's +voice sure enough, but it sounded hollow, as though it came from the +bowels of the earth. By following the sound we discovered at last +between the great boulders an interstice, which would just allow a man +to slip below ground. This slit went down perpendicularly for perhaps +fifteen or twenty feet, but there were sure footholds and one could +disappear in a second. At the bottom of this hole was a little cave, +very close and dark, in which one could sit or crouch. + +On the floor of this cave I picked up a knife, and, bringing it to the +light, I recognised the carved blade, which I had seen Tortue once +polish upon his thigh in the red light of a candle. The cave, upon +inquiry, was discovered to be well known amongst the smugglers, though +it was kept a secret by them, and they called it by the curious name +of Issachum-Pucchar. + +This discovery was made in the year of 1768, and seven years later I +chanced to be standing upon the quay at Leghorn when a vessel from +Oporto, laden with wine and oil, dropped anchor in the harbour, and +her master came ashore. I recognised him at once, although the years +had changed him. It was Nathaniel Roper. I followed him up into the +town, where he did his business with the shipping agent and thence +repaired to a tavern. I entered the tavern, and sitting down over +against him at the same table, begged him to oblige me by drinking a +glass at my expense, which he declared himself ready to do. "But I +cannot tell why you should want to drink with me rather than another," +said he. + +"Oh! as to that," said I, "we are old acquaintances." + +He answered, with an oath or two, that he could not lay his tongue to +the occasion of our meeting. + +"You swear very fluently and well," said I. "But you swore yet more +fluently, I have no doubt, that morning you sailed away from St. +Helen's Island without the Portuguese King's cross." + +His face turned the colour of paper, he half rose from his chair and +sat down again. + +"I was never on Tresco," he stammered. + +"Who spoke of Tresco, my friend?" said I, with a laugh. "I made +mention of St. Helen's. Yet you were upon Tresco. Have you forgotten? +The shed on Castle Down? The Abbey burial ground?" and then he knew +me, though for awhile he protested that he did not. + +But I persuaded him in the end that I meant no harm to him. + +"You were at Sierra Leone with Cullen, maybe," said I. "Tell me how +young Peter Tortue came by his death?" and he told me the story which +he had before told to old Peter in an alehouse at Wapping. + +Peter, it appeared, had not been able to hold his tongue at Sierra +Leone. It became known through his chattering that Glen's company and +Cullen Mayle were going up the river in search of treasure, and it was +decided for the common good to silence him lest he should grow more +particular, and relate what the treasure was and how it came to be +buried on the bank of that river. George Glen was for settling the +matter with the stab of a knife, but Cullen Mayle would have none of +such rough measures. + +"I know a better and more delicate way," said he, "a way very amusing +too. You shall all laugh to-morrow;" and calling Peter Tortue to him, +he betook himself with the whole party to the house of an old +buccaneering fellow, John Leadstone, who kept the best house in the +settlement, and lived a jovial life in safety, being on very good +terms with any pirate who put in. He had, indeed, two or three brass +guns before his door, which he was wont to salute the appearance of a +black flag with. To his house then the whole gang repaired, and while +they were making merry, Cullen Mayle addressed himself with an arduous +friendliness to Peter Tortue, taking his watch from his fob and +bidding the Frenchman admire it. For a quarter of an hour he busied +himself in this way, and then of a sudden in a stern commanding voice +he said: + +"Stand up in the centre of the room," which Peter Tortue obediently +did. + +"Now," continued Cullen, with a chuckle to his companions, "I'll show +you a trick that will tickle you. Peter," and he turned toward him. +"Peter," and he spoke in the softest, friendliest voice, "you talk too +much. I'll clap a gag on your mouth, you stinking offal! To-morrow +night, my friend, at ten o'clock by my watch, when we are lying in our +boat upon the river, you will fall asleep. Do you hear that?" + +"Yes," said Peter Tortue, gazing at Mayle. + +"At half-past ten, as you sleep, you will feel cramped for room, and +you will dangle a leg over the side of the boat in the river. Do you +hear that?" + +"Yes!" + +"Very well," said Cullen. "That will learn you to hold your tongue. +Now come back to your chair." + +Peter obeyed him again. + +"When you wake up," added Cullen, "you will continue to talk of my +watch which you so much admire. You will not be aware that any time +has passed since you spoke of it before. You can wake up now." + +He made some sort of motion with his hands and Peter, whose eyes had +all this time been open, said: + +"I'll buy a watch as like that as a pea to a pea. First thing I will, +as soon as I handle my share." + +Cullen Mayle laughed, but he was the only one of that company that +did. The rest rather shrank from him as from something devilish, at +which, however, he only laughed the louder, being as it seemed +flattered by their fear. + +The next day the six men started up the river in a long-boat which +they borrowed of Leadstone, and sailed all that day until evening when +the tide began to fall. + +Thereupon Cullen, who held the tiller, steered the boat out of the +channel of the river and over the mudbanks, which at high tide were +covered to the depth of some feet. + +Here all was forest: the great tree-trunks, entwined with all manner +of creeping plants, stood up from the smooth oily water, and the roof +of branches over head made it already night. + +"I have lost my way," said Cullen. "It will not be safe to try to +regain the channel until the tide rises. It falls very quickly here, +Leadstone tells me, and we should get stuck upon some mudbank. Let us +look for a pool where we may lie until the tide rises in the morning." + +Accordingly they took their oars and pulled in and out amongst the +trees, while Cullen Mayle sounded with the boathook for a greater +depth of water. The tide fell rapidly; bushes of undergrowth scraped +the boat's side, and then Mayle's boathook went down and touched no +bottom. + +"This will do," said he. + +It was nine o'clock by his watch at this time, and the crew without +any fire or light made their supper in the boat as best they could. +Meanwhile the tide still sank; banks of mud rose out of the black +water; the forest stirred, and was filled with a horrible rustling +sound, of fish flapping and crabs crawling and scuttering in the +slime; and on the pool on which the boat lay every now and then a +ripple would cross the water as though a faint wind blew, and a broad +black snout would show, and a queer lugubrious cough echo out amongst +the tree-trunks. + +"Crocodiles, Peter," said Cullen gaily, and he clapped Tortue on the +shoulder. "It would not be prudent to take a bath in the pool. Hand +the lantern over, Glen!" and when he had the lantern in his hand he +looked at his watch. + +"Five minutes to ten," said he. "Well, it is not so long to wait." + +"Four hours," grumbled Tortue, who was thinking of the tide. + +"No, only five minutes, my friend," Cullen corrected him, softly; and +sure enough in five minutes Peter stretched himself and complained +that he was sleepy. + +Cullen laughed with a gentle enjoyment and whistled a tune between his +teeth. But the others waited in a sort of paralysis of horror and +amazement. Even these hardened men were struck with a cold fear. The +suggestions of the place, too, had their effect. Above them was a +black roof of leaves, the close air was foul with the odour of things +decaying and things decayed, and everywhere about them was perpetually +heard the crawling and pattering of the obscene things which lived in +the mud. + +Peter Tortue stirred in his sleep, and Cullen held up the face of his +watch in the light of the lantern so that all in the boat might see. +It was half-past ten. Peter lifted his leg over the side and let it +fall with a splash in the water. It dangled there for about five +minutes, and then the man uttered a loud scream and clutched at the +thwart, but the next instant he was dragged over the boat's side. + +Roper told me this story, and the horror of it lived again upon his +face as he spoke. + +"Well," said I, "the father took his revenge. He stabbed Cullen Mayle +to the heart as he lay in bed. There is one thing more I would like to +know. Can you remember the paper with the directions of the spot where +the cross was buried?" + +"Yes," said he; "am I likely to forget it?" + +"Could you write them out again, word for word and line for line, as +they were written?" + +"Yes," said he. + +I called for a sheet of paper and a pen and ink, and set them before +Roper, and he wrote the directions laboriously, and handed the paper +back to me. There were only two lines with which I was concerned, and +they ran in this order: + + +"The S aisle of St. Helen's Church. Three chains east by the compass +of the east window." + + +"Are you sure you have made no mistake?" I asked. "This is a facsimile +of the paper which you took from the hollow of the stick. Look again!" + +I gave it back to him and he scratched his head over it for a little. +Then he wrote the directions again upon a second sheet of paper, and +when he had written, tore off a corner of the paper. + +"Ah!" said I, "that is what I thought." He handed it to me again, and +it ran now:-- + + +"The S aisle of S. Helen's Church. Three chains +east by the compass of the east window." + + +On that corner which had been torn a word had been written. I knew the +word. It would be "Cornish." I knew, too, who had torn off the corner. + +The cross still lies then three Cornish chains east of that window, or +should do so. We at all events have not disturbed it, for we do not +wish to have continually before our eyes a reminder of those days when +the sailors watched the house at Merchant's Point. Even as it is, I +start up too often from my sleep in the dark night and peer forward +almost dreading again to see the flutter of white at the foot of the +bed, and to hear again the sound of some one choking. + + + + THE END. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Watchers, by +A. E. W. 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A Novel.</title> +<meta name="Author" content="A. E. W. Mason"> + +<meta name="Publisher" content="Frederick A. Stokes Company"> +<meta name="Date" content="1899"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +body {margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; background-color:#FFFFFF;} + + + +p.normal {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify;} +.center {margin: auto; text-align:center; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} +.stage {margin-left:10%} + + +p.right {text-align:right; margin-right:20%;} + +p.continue {text-indent: 0in; margin-top:9pt;} +.text10 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} +.text20 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:20%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} + + +.poem0 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 0%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + +.poem1 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 2em; + margin-right: 10%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + +.poem2 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + +.poem3 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 30%; + margin-right: 30%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + + + + + +figcenter {margin:auto; text-align:center; margin-top:9pt;} + +.t0 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0em; margin-right:0px;} +.t1 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:1em; margin-right:0px;} +.t2 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0px;} +.t3 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:3em; margin-right:0px;} +.t4 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:4em; margin-right:0px;} +.t5 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:5em; margin-right:0px;} +.t6 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:6em; margin-right:0px;} +.t7 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:7em; margin-right:0px;} +.t8 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:8em; margin-right:0px;} +.t9 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:9em; margin-right:0px;} +.t10 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10em; margin-right:0px;} +.t11 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:11em; margin-right:0px;} +.t12 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:12em; margin-right:0px;} +.t13 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:13em; margin-right:0px;} +.t14 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:14em; margin-right:0px;} +.t15 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:15em; margin-right:0px;} +.t16 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:16em; margin-right:0px;} + + +.quote {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify; font-size:90%; margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:36pt} +.ctrquote {text-align: center; font-size:90%; margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:36pt} + +.dateline {text-align:right; font-size:90%; margin-right:10%; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 {text-align: center;} + +span.sc {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:110%;} +span.sc2 {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:90%;} + +hr.W10 {width:10%; color:black; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} + +hr.W20 {width:20%; color:black; margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt} + +hr.W50 {width:50%; color:black;} +hr.W90 {width:90%; color:black;} + +p.hang1 {margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em;} +p.hang2 {margin-left:3em; text-indent:0em;} + + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Watchers, by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason + +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 Watchers + A Novel + +Author: A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason + +Release Date: January 27, 2012 [EBook #38693] +[Last updated: August 11, 2013] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WATCHERS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + + +</pre> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br> + +1. Page scan source:<br> +http://www.archive.org/details/watchersnovel00masorich</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>THE WATCHERS</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>THE</h1> + +<h1>WATCHERS</h1> + +<h3>A Novel</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h3>A. E. W. MASON</h3> + +<h5>AUTHOR OF "THE COURTSHIP OF MORRICE +BUCKLER," ETC.</h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>NEW YORK</h4> + +<h3>FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY</h3> + +<h5>PUBLISHERS</h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4><i>Copyright, 1899</i>.<br> + +<i>By Frederick A. Stokes Company</i>.</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table cellpadding="10" style="width:90%; margin-left:5%; font-weight:bold"> +<colgroup><col style="width:10%; text-align:right; vertical-align:top"><col style="width:90%"></colgroup> +<tr> +<td><span class="sc2">Chap.</span></td> +<td> </td> +</tr><tr> +<td>I.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_01" href="#div1_01">TELLS OF A DOOR AJAR AND OF A LAD WHO STOOD BEHIND IT.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>II.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_02" href="#div1_02">DICK PARMITER'S STORY.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>III.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_03" href="#div1_03">OF THE MAGICAL INFLUENCE OF A MAP.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>IV.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_04" href="#div1_04">DESCRIBES THE REMARKABLE MANNER IN WHICH CULLEN MAYLE +LEFT TRESCO.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>V.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_05" href="#div1_05">THE ADVENTURE IN THE WOOD.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>VI.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_06" href="#div1_06">MY FIRST NIGHT UPON TRESCO.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>VII.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_07" href="#div1_07">TELLS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT IN CULLEN MAYLE'S +BEDROOM.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>VIII.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_08" href="#div1_08">HELEN MAYLE.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>IX.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_09" href="#div1_09">TELLS OF A STAIN UPON A WHITE FROCK AND A LOST KEY.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>X.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_10" href="#div1_10">IN WHICH I LEARN SOMETHING FROM AN ILL-PAINTED PICTURE.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XI.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_11" href="#div1_11">OUR PLANS MISCARRY UPON CASTLE DOWN.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XII.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_12" href="#div1_12">I FIND AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XIII.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_13" href="#div1_13">IN THE ABBEY GROUNDS.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XIV.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_14" href="#div1_14">IN WHICH PETER TORTUE EXPLAINS HIS INTERVENTION ON MY +BEHALF.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XV.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_15" href="#div1_15">THE LOST KEY IS FOUND.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XVI.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_16" href="#div1_16">AN UNSATISFACTORY EXPLANATION.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XVII.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_17" href="#div1_17">CULLEN MAYLE COMES HOME.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XVIII.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_18" href="#div1_18">MY PERPLEXITIES ARE EXPLAINED.</a></p></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>XIX.</td> +<td><p class="hang1"><a name="div1Ref_19" href="#div1_19">THE LAST.</a></p></td> +</tr></table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>THE WATCHERS</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_01" href="#div1Ref_01">TELLS OF A DOOR AJAR AND OF A LAD WHO +STOOD BEHIND IT</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I had never need to keep any record either of the date or place. It +was the fifteenth night of July, in the year 1758, and the place was +Lieutenant Clutterbuck's lodging at the south corner of Burleigh +Street, Strand. The night was tropical in its heat, and though every +window stood open to the Thames, there was not a man, I think, who did +not long for the cool relief of morning, or step out from time to time +on to the balcony and search the dark profundity of sky for the first +flecks of grey. I cannot be positive about the entire disposition of +the room: but certainly Lieutenant Clutterbuck was playing at ninepins +down the middle with half a dozen decanters and a couple of silver +salvers; and Mr. Macfarlane, a young gentleman of a Scottish regiment, +was practising a game of his own.</p> + +<p class="normal">He carried the fire-irons and Lieutenant Clutterbuck's sword under his +arm, and walked solidly about the floor after a little paper ball +rolled up out of a news sheet, which he hit with one of these +instruments, selecting now the poker, now the tongs or the sword with +great deliberation, and explaining his selection with even greater +earnestness; there was besides a great deal of noise, which seemed to +be a quality of the room rather than the utterance of any particular +person; and I have a clear recollection that everything, from the +candles to the glasses on the tables and the broken tobacco pipes on +the floor, was of a dazzling and intolerable brightness. This +brightness distressed me particularly, because just opposite to where +I sat a large mirror hung upon the wall between two windows. On each +side was a velvet hollow of gloom, in the middle this glittering oval. +Every ray of light within the room seemed to converge upon its +surface. I could not but look at it--for it did not occur to me to +move away to another chair--and it annoyed me exceedingly. Besides, +the mirror was inclined forward from the wall, and so threw straight +down at me a reflection of Lieutenant Clutterbuck's guests, as they +flung about the room beneath it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus I saw a throng of flushed young exuberant faces, and in the +background, continually peeping between them, my own, very white and +drawn and thin and a million years old. That, too, annoyed me very +much, and then by a sheer miracle, as it seemed to me, the mirror +splintered and cracked and dropped in fragments on to the floor, +until there was only hanging on the wall the upper rim, a thin +curve of glass like a bright sickle. I remember that the noise and +hurley-burley suddenly ceased, as though morning had come unawares +upon a witches' carnival and that all the men present stood like +statues and appeared to stare at me. Lieutenant Clutterbuck broke the +silence, or rather tore it, with a great loud laugh which crumpled up +his face. He said something about "Old Steve Berkeley," and smacked +his hand upon my shoulder, and shouted for another glass, which he +filled and placed at my elbow, for my own had disappeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had no time to drink from it, however, for just as I was raising it +to my lips Mr. Macfarlane's paper ball dropped from the ceiling into +the liquor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bunkered, by God!" cried Mr. Macfarlane, amidst a shout of laughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked at Macfarlane with some reserve.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't understand," I began.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't move, man!" cried he, as he forced me back into my chair, and +dropping the fire-irons with a clatter on to the floor, he tried to +scoop the ball out of the glass with the point of Clutterbuck's +sword-sheath. He missed the glass; the sheath caught me full on the +knuckles; I opened my hand and----</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sir, you have ruined my game," said Mr. Macfarlane, with considerable +heat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And a good thing too," said I, "for a sillier game I never saw in all +my life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gentlemen," cried Lieutenant Clutterbuck, though he did not +articulate the word with his customary precision; but his intentions +were undoubtedly pacific. He happened to be holding the last of his +decanters in his hand, and he swung it to and fro. "Gentlemen," he +repeated, and as if to keep me company, he let the decanter slip out +of his hand. It fell on the floor and split with a loud noise. "Well," +said he, solemnly, "I have dropped a brooch," and he fumbled at his +cravat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Another peal of laughter went up; and while it was still ringing, a +man--what his name was I cannot remember, even if I ever knew it; I +saw him for the first time that evening, and I have only once seen him +since, but he was certainly--more sober than the rest--stooped over my +chair and caught me by the arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Steve," said he, with a chuckle,--and from this familiarity to a new +acquaintance I judge he was not so sober after all,--"do you notice +the door?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The door was in the corner of the room to my right. I looked towards +it: the brass handle shone like a gold ball in the sun. I looked back +at my companion, and, shaking my arm free, I replied coldly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see it. It is a door, a mere door. But I do not notice it. It is +not indeed noteworthy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is unlatched," said my acquaintance, with another chuckle.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose it is not the only door in the world in that predicament."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it was latched a moment ago," and with his forefinger he gently +poked me in the ribs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then someone has turned the handle," said I, drawing myself away.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A most ingenious theory," said he, quite unabashed by my reserve, +"and the truth. Someone <i>has</i> turned the handle. Now who?" He winked +with an extreme significance. "My dear sir, who?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked round the room. Mr. Macfarlane had resumed his game. Two +gentlemen in a corner through all the din were earnestly playing putt +with the cards. They had, however, removed their wigs, and their +shaven heads gleamed unpleasantly. Others by the window were +vociferating the chorus of a drinking song. Lieutenant Clutterbuck +alone was near to the door. I was on the point of pronouncing his name +when he lurched towards it, and instantly the door was closed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was someone outside," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Precisely. Steve, you are not so devoid of sense as your friends +would have me believe," continued my companion. "Now, who will be +Lieutenant Clutterbuck's timorous visitor?" He drew his watch from +his fob: "We may hazard a guess at the sex, I think, but for the +rest---- Is it some fine lady from St. James's who has come in her +chair at half-past one of the morning to keep an appointment which her +careless courtier has forgotten?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hardly," I returned. "For your fine lady would hurry back to her +chair with all the speed her petticoats allowed. She would not stay +behind the door, which, I see, has again been opened."</p> + +<p class="normal">The familiar stranger laid his hand upon my shoulder and held me back +in my chair at arm's length from him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They do you wrong, my dear Steve," said he, gravely, "who say your +brains are addled with drink. Your"--his tongue stumbled over a long +word which I judged to be "ratiocination"--"is admirable. Never was +logician more precise. It is not a fine lady from St. James's. It will +be a flower-girl from Drury Lane, and may I be eternally as drunk as I +am to-night, if we do not have her into the room."</p> + +<p class="normal">With that he crossed the room, and seizing the handle suddenly swung +the door open. The next instant he stepped back. The door was in a +line with the wall against which my chair was placed, and besides it +opened towards me so that I could not see what it was that so amazed +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here's the strangest flower-girl from Drury Lane that ever I saw," +said he, and Lieutenant Clutterbuck turning about cried:</p> + +<p class="normal">"By all that's wonderful, it's Dick Parmiter," and a lad of fifteen +years, with a red fisherman's bonnet upon his head and a blue jersey +on his back, stepped hesitatingly into the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, Dick, what's the news from Scilly?" continued Clutterbuck. "And +what's brought you to London? Have you come to see the king in his +golden crown? Has Captain Hathaway lost his <i>Diodorus Siculus</i> and +sent you to town to buy him another? Come, out with it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick shifted from one foot to another; he took his cap from his head +and twisted it in his hands; and he looked from one to another of +Lieutenant Clutterbuck's guests who had now crowded about the lad and +were plying him with questions. But he did not answer the questions. +No doubt the noise and the lights, and the presence of these +glittering gentlemen confused the lad, who was more used to the lonely +beaches of the islands and the companionable murmurs of the sea. At +last he plucked up the courage to say, with a glance of appeal to +Lieutenant Clutterbuck:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have news to tell, but I would sooner tell it to you alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">His appeal was received with a chorus of protestations, and "Where are +your manners, Dick," cried Clutterbuck, "that you tell my friends flat +to their faces they cannot keep a secret?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are we women?" asked Mr. Macfarlane.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Out with your story," cried another.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick Parmiter shrank back and turned his eyes towards the door, but +one man shut it to and leaned his shoulders against the panels, while +the others caught at the lad's hesitation as at a new game, and +crowded about him as though he was some rare curiosity brought by a +traveller from outlandish parts.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He shall tell his story," cried Clutterbuck. "It is two years since I +was stationed at the Scilly Islands, two years since I dined in the +mess-room of Star Castle with Captain Hathaway of his Majesty's +Invalids, and was bored to death with his dissertations on <i>Diodorus +Siculus</i>. Two years! The boy must have news of consequence. There is +no doubt trouble with the cray fish, or Adam Mayle has broken the head +of the collector of the Customs House----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Adam Mayle is dead. He was struck down by paralysis and never moved +till he died," interrupted Dick Parmiter.</p> + +<p class="normal">The news sobered Clutterbuck for an instant. "Dead!" said he, gaping +at the boy. "Dead!" he repeated, and so flung back to his noise and +laughter, though there was a ring of savagery in it very strange to +his friends. "Well, more brandy will pay revenue, and fewer ships will +come ashore, and very like there'll be quiet upon Tresco----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," interrupted Parmiter again, and Clutterbuck turned upon him with +a flush of rage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, tell your story and have done with it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To you," said the boy, looking from one to other of the faces about +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, to all," cried Clutterbuck. The drink, and a certain anger of +which we did not know the source, made him obstinate. "You shall tell +it to us all, or not at all. Bring that table, forward, Macfarlane! +You shall stand on the table Dick, like a preacher in his pulpit," he +sneered, "and put all the fine gentlemen to shame, with a story of the +rustic virtues."</p> + +<p class="normal">The table was dragged from the corner into the middle of the room. The +boy protested, and made for the door. But he was thrust back, seized +and lifted struggling on to the table, where he was set upon his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Harmony, gentlemen, harmony!" cried Clutterbuck, flapping his hand +upon the mantelshelf. "Take your seats, and no whispering in the side +boxes, if you please. For I can promise you a play which needs no +prologue to excuse it."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a company in which a small jest passed easily for a high stroke +of wit. They applauded Lieutenant Clutterbuck's sally, and drew up +their chairs round the table and sat looking upwards towards the boy, +with a great expectation of amusement, just as people watch a +bear-baiting at a fair. For my part I had not moved, and it was no +doubt for that reason that Parmiter looked for help towards me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When all's said, Clutterbuck," I began, "you and your friends are a +pack of bullies. The boy's a good boy, devil take me if he isn't."</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy upon the table looked his gratitude for the small mercy of my +ineffectual plea, and I should have proceeded to enlarge upon it had I +not noticed a very astonishing thing. For Parmiter lifted his arm high +up above his head as though to impress upon me his gratitude, and his +arm lengthened out and grew until it touched the ceiling. Then it +dwindled and shrank until again it was no more than a boy's arm on a +boy's shoulder. I was so struck with this curious phenomenon that I +broke off my protest on his behalf, and mentioned to those about me +what I had seen, asking whether they had remarked it too, and +inquiring to what cause, whither of health or malady, they were +disposed to attribute so sudden a growth and contraction.</p> + +<p class="normal">However, Lieutenant Clutterbuck's guests were only disposed that night +to make light of any subject however important or scientific. For some +laughed in my face, others more polite, shrugged their shoulders with +a smile, and the stranger who had spoken to me before clapped his hand +in the small of my back as I leaned forward, and shouted some ill-bred +word that, though might he die of small-pox if he had ever met me +before, he would have known me from a thousand by the tales he had +heard. However, before I could answer him fitly, and indeed, while I +was still pondering the meaning of his words. Lieutenant Clutterbuck +clapped his hands for silence, and Dick Parmiter, seeing no longer any +hope of succour, perforce began to tell his story.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a story of a youth that sat in the stocks of a Sunday morning +and disappeared thereafter from the islands; of a girl named Helen; of +a negro who slept and slept, and of men watching a house with a great +tangled garden that stood at the edge of the sea. Cullen Mayle, +Parmiter called the youth who had sat in the stocks, son to that Adam +whose death had so taken Lieutenant Clutterbuck with surprise. But I +could not make head or tail of the business. For one thing I have +always been very fond of flowers, and quite unaccountably the polished +floor of the room blossomed into a parterre of roses, so that my +attention was distracted by this curious and pleasing event.</p> + +<p class="normal">For another, Parmiter's story was continually interrupted by intricate +questions intended to confuse him, his evident anxiety was made the +occasion of much amusement by those seated about the table, and he was +induced on one excuse and another to go back to the beginning again +and again and relate once more what he had already told. But I +remember that he spoke with a high intonation, and rather quickly and +with a broad accent, and that even then I was extremely sensible of +the unfamiliar parts from which he came. His words seemed to have +preserved a smell of the sea, and through them I seemed to hear very +clearly the sound of waves breaking upon a remote beach--near in a +word to that granite house with the tangled garden where the men +watched and watched.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the boy's story ceased, and the next thing I heard was a sound of +sobbing. I looked up, and there was Dick Parmiter upon the table, +crying like a child. Over against him sat Lieutenant Clutterbuck, with +a face sour and dark.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll not stir a foot or lift a finger," said he, swearing an oath, +"no, not if God comes down and bids me."</p> + +<p class="normal">And upon that the boy weakened of a sudden, swayed for an instant upon +his feet, and dropped in a huddle upon the table. His swoon put every +one to shame except Clutterbuck; everyone busied himself about the +boy, dabbing his forehead with wet handkerchiefs, and spilling brandy +over his face in attempts to pour it into his mouth--every one except +Clutterbuck, who never moved nor changed in a single line of his face, +from his fixed expression of anger. Dick Parmiter recovered from his +swoon and sat up: and his first look was towards the lieutenant, whose +face softened for an instant with I know not what memories of days +under the sun in a fishing boat amongst the islands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dick, you are over-tired. It's a long road from the Scillies to +London. Very like, too, you are hungry," and Dick nodded "yes" to each +sentence. "Well, Dick, you shall eat here, if there's any food in my +larder, and you shall sleep here when you have eaten."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that all?" asked Parmiter, simply, and Clutterbuck's face turned +hard again as a stone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Every word," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy slipped off the table and began to search on the ground. His +cap had fallen from his hand when he fell down in his swoon. He picked +it up from beneath a chair. He did not look any more at Clutterbuck; +he made no appeal to anyone in the room; but though his legs still +faltered from weakness, he walked silently out of the door, and in a +little we heard his footsteps upon the stone stairs and the banisters +creaking, as though he clung to them, while he descended, for support.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good God, Clutterbuck!" cried Macfarlane "he's but a boy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"With no roof to his head," said another.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And fainting for lack of a meal," said a third.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He shall have both," I cried, "if he will take them from me," and I +ran out of the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dick," I cried down the hollow of the staircase, "Dick Parmiter," but +no answer was returned, save my own cry coming back to me up the well +of the stairs. Clutterbuck's rooms were on the highest floor of the +house; the stone stairs stretched downwards flight after flight +beneath me. There was no sound anywhere upon them; the boy had gone. I +came back to the room. Lieutenant Clutterbuck sat quite still in his +chair. The morning was breaking; a cold livid light crept through the +open windows, touched his hands, reached his face and turned it white.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-night," he said, without so much as a look.</p> + +<p class="normal">His eyes were bent upon memories to which we had no clue. We left him +sitting thus and went down into the street, when we parted. I saw no +roses blossoming in the streets as I walked home, but as I looked in +my mirror at my lodging I noticed again that my face was drawn and +haggard and a million years old.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_02" href="#div1Ref_02">DICK PARMITER'S STORY</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I woke up at mid-day, and lay for awhile in my bed anticipating +wearily the eight limping hours to come before the evening fell, and +wondering how I might best escape them. From that debate my thoughts +drifted to the events of the night before, and I recollected with a +sudden thrill of interest, rare enough to surprise me, the coming of +Dick Parmiter, and his treatment at Clutterbuck's hands and his +departure. I thought of his long journey to London along strange +roads. I could see him tramping the dusty miles, each step leading him +farther from that small corner of the world with which alone he was +familiar. I imagined him now sleeping beneath a hedge, now perhaps, by +some rare fortune, in one of Russell's waggons with the Falmouth +mails, which at nightfall he had overtaken, and from which at daybreak +he would descend with a hurried word of thanks to get the quicker on +his way; I pictured him pressing through the towns with a growing fear +at his heart, because of their turmoil and their crowds; and I thought +of him as hungering daily more and more for the sea which he had left +behind, like a sheep-dog which one has taken from the sheep and shut +up within the walls of a city. The boy's spirit appealed to me. It was +new, it was admirable; and I dressed that day with an uncommon +alertness and got me out to Clutterbuck's lodgings.</p> + +<p class="normal">I found the lieutenant in bed with a tankard of small ale at his +bedside. He looked me over with astonishment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish I could carry my liquor as well as you do," said he, taking a +pull at the tankard.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Has the boy come back?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What, Dick?" said he. "No, nor will not." And changing the subject, +"If you will wait, Steve, I will make a shift to get up."</p> + +<p class="normal">I went into his parlour. The room had been put into some sort of +order; but the shattered remnant of the mirror still hung between the +windows, and it too spoke to me of Dick's journey. I imagined him +coming to the great city at the fall of night, and seeking out his way +through its alleys and streets to Lieutenant Clutterbuck's lodgings. I +could see him on the stairs pausing to listen to the confusion within +the rooms, and in the passage opening and closing the door as he +hesitated whether to go in or no. I became all at once very curious to +know what the errand was which had pushed him so far from his home, +and I cudgelled my brains to recollect his story. But I could remember +only the youth Cullen Mayle, who had sat in the stocks on a Sunday +morning, and the girl Helen, and a negro who slept and slept, and a +house with a desolate tangled garden by the sea, and men watching the +house. But what bound these people and the house in a common history, +as to that I was entirely in the dark.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Steve," said Clutterbuck--I had not remarked his entrance--"you look +glum as a November morning. Is it a sore head? or is it the sight of +your mischievous handiwork?" and he pointed to the mirror.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's neither one nor the other," said I. "It's just the recollection +of that boy fumbling under the table for his cap, and dragging himself +silently out of the room, with all England to tramp and despair to +sustain him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That boy!" cried Clutterbuck, with great exasperation. "Curse you, +Berkeley. That boy's a maggot, and has crept into your brains. We'll +talk no more of him, if you please." He took a pack of cards from a +corner cupboard, and, tossing them on the table, "Here, choose your +game I'll play what you will, and for what stakes you will, so long as +you hold your tongue."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was plain that I should learn nothing by pressing my curiosity upon +him. I must go another way to work. But chance and Lieutenant +Clutterbuck served my turn without any provocation from myself.</p> + +<p class="normal">I chose the game of picquet, and Clutterbuck shuffled and cut the +cards; whereupon I dealt them. Clutterbuck looked at his hand +fretfully, and then cried out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have no hand for picquet, but I have very good putt cards."</p> + +<p class="normal">I glanced through the cards I held.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Make it putt, then," said I. "I will wager what you will my hand is +the better;" and Clutterbuck broke into a laugh and tossed his cards +upon the table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have two kings and an ace," said he, "I know very well; but I +have two kings and a deuce, and mine are the better."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a bite," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And an ingenious one," he returned. "It was Cullen Mayle who taught +it to us in the mess at Star Castle. For packing the cards or knapping +the dice I never came across his equal. Yet we could never detect him, +and in the end not a soul in the garrison would play with him for +crooked pins."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cullen Mayle," said I; "that was Adam's son."</p> + +<p class="normal">Clutterbuck had sunk into something of a reverie, and spoke rather to +himself than to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They were the strangest pair," he continued; "you would never take +them for father and son, and I myself was always amazed to think there +was any relationship between them. I have seen them sitting side by +side on the settle in the kitchen of the 'Palace Inn' at Tresco. Adam, +an old bulky fellow, with a mulberry face and yellow angry eyes, and +his great hands and feet twisted out of all belief. His stories were +all of wild doings on the Guinea coast. Cullen, on the other hand, was +a stripling with a soft face like a girl's, exquisite in his dress, +urbane in his manners. He had a gentle word and an attentive ear for +each newcomer to the fire, and a white protesting hand for the oaths +with which Adam salted his speech. Yet they were both of the same +vindictive, turbulent spirit, only Cullen was the more dangerous.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have watched the gannets often through an afternoon in Hell Bay +over at Brehar. They would circle high up in the air where no fish +could see them, and then slant their wings and drop giddily with the +splash of a stone upon their prey. They always put me in mind of +Cullen Mayle. He struck mighty quick and out of the sky. I cannot +remember, during all the ten years I lived at the Scillies, that any +man crossed Cullen Mayle, though unwittingly, but some odd accident +crippled him. He was the more dangerous of the pair. With Adam it was +a word and a blow. With Cullen a word and another and another, and all +of them soft, and the blow held over for a secret occasion. But it +fell. If ever you come across Cullen Mayle, Berkeley, take care of +your words and your deeds, for he strikes out of the sky and mighty +quick."</p> + +<p class="normal">This Clutterbuck said with an extreme earnestness, leaning forward to +me as he spoke. And even now I can but put it down to his earnestness +that a shiver took me at the words; for nothing was more unlikely than +that I should ever come to grips with Cullen Mayle, and the next +moment I answered Clutterbuck lightly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yet he sat in the stocks in the end," said I, with as much +indifference as I could counterfeit; for I was afraid lest any display +of eagerness might close his lips. Lieutenant Clutterbuck, however, +was hardly aware that he was being questioned. He laughed with a +certain pleasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. A schooner, with a cargo of brandy, came ashore on Tresco. +Cullen and the Tresco men saved the cargo and hid it away, and when +the collector came over with his men from the Customs House upon St. +Mary's, Cullen drove him back to his boats with a broken head. Cullen +broke old Captain Hathaway's patience at the same time. Hathaway took +off his silver spectacles at last and shut up his <i>Diodorus Siculus</i> +with a bang; and so Cullen Mayle sat in the stocks before the Customs +House on the Sunday morning. He left the islands that night. That was +two years and a month ago."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what had Dick Parmiter to do with Cullen Mayle?" said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dick?" said he. "Oh, Dick was Cullen Mayle's henchman. But it seems +that Dick has transferred his allegiance to----" And he stopped +abruptly. His face soured as he stopped.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To the girl Helen?" said I, quite forgetting my indifference.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes!" cried Clutterbuck, savagely, "to the girl Helen. He is fifteen +years old is Dick. But at fifteen years a lad is ripe to be one of +Cupid's April fools." And after that he would say no more.</p> + +<p class="normal">His last words, however, and, more than his words, the tone in which +he spoke, had given me the first definite clue of the many for which +my curiosity searched. It was certainly on behalf of the girl, whom I +only knew as Helen, that Dick had undertaken his arduous errand, and +it was no less certain that just for that reason Lieutenant +Clutterbuck had refused to meddle in the matter. I recognised that I +should get no advantage from persisting, but I kept close to his side +that day waiting upon opportunity.</p> + +<p class="normal">We dined together at Locket's, by Charing Cross; we walked together to +the "Cocoa Tree" in St. James's Street, and passed an hour or so with +a dice-box. Clutterbuck was very silent for the most part. He handled +the dice-box with indifference; and, since he was never the man to +keep his thoughts for any long time to himself, I had no doubt that +some time that day I should learn more. Indeed, very soon after we +left the "Cocoa Tree" I thought the whole truth was coming out; for he +stopped in St. James's Park, close to the Mall, which at that moment +was quiet and deserted. We could hear a light wind rippling through +the leaves of the poplars, and a faint rumble of carriages lurching +over the stones of Pall Mall.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is very like the sound of the sea on a still morning of summer," +said he, looking at me with a vacant eye, and I wondered whether he +was thinking of a tangled garden raised above a beach of sand, +wherein, maybe, he had walked, and not alone on some such day as this +two years ago.</p> + +<p class="normal">We crossed the water to the Spring Gardens at Vauxhall, where we +supped. I was now fallen into as complete a silence and abstraction as +Clutterbuck himself, for I was clean lost in conjectures, I knew +something now of Adam Mayle and his son Cullen, but as to Helen I was +in the dark. Was her name Mayle too? Was she wife to Cullen? The sight +of Clutterbuck's ill-humour inclined me to that conjecture; but I was +wrong, for as the attendants were putting out the lights in the garden +I ventured upon the question. To my surprise, Clutterbuck answered me +with a smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sure," said he, "you are the most pertinacious fellow. What's come to +you, who were content to drink your liquor and sit on one side while +the world went by? No, she was not wife to Cullen Mayle, nor sister. +She was a waif of the sea. Adam Mayle picked her up from the rocks a +long while since. It was the only action that could be counted to his +credit since he came out of nowhere and leased the granite house of +Tresco. A barque--a Venetian vessel, it was thought, from Marseilles, +in France, for a great deal of Castile soap, and almonds and oil was +washed ashore afterwards--drove in a northwesterly gale on to the +Golden Bar reef. The reef runs out from St. Helen's Island, opposite +Adam Mayle's window. Adam put out his lugger and crossed the sound, +but before he could reach St. Helen's the ship went down into fourteen +fathoms of water. He landed on St. Helen's, however, and amongst the +rocks where the reef joins the land he came across a sailor, who lay +in the posture of death, and yet wailed like a hungry child. The +sailor was dead, but within his jacket, buttoned up on his breast, was +a child of four years or so. Adam took her home. No one ever claimed +her, so he kept her, and called her Helen from the island on which she +was wrecked. That was a long time since, for the girl must be twenty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is she French?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"French, or Venetian, or Spanish, or what you will," he cried. "It +matters very little what country a woman springs from. I have no doubt +that a Hottentot squaw will play you the same tricks as a woman of +fashion, and with as demure a countenance. Well, it seems we are to go +to bed sober;" and we went each to his lodging.</p> + +<p class="normal">For my part, I lay awake for a long time, seeking to weave into some +sort of continuous story what I had heard that day from Lieutenant +Clutterbuck and the scraps which I remembered of Parmiter's talk. But +old Adam Mayle, who was dead; Cullen, the gannet who struck from the +skies; and even Helen, the waif of the sea--these were at this time no +more to me than a showman's puppets; marionettes of sawdust and wood, +that faced this way and that way according as I pulled the strings. +The one being who had life was the boy Parmiter, with his jersey and +his red fisherman's bonnet; and I very soon turned to conjecturing how +he fared upon his journey.</p> + +<p class="normal">Had he money to help him forward? Had he fallen in with a kindly +carrier? How far had he travelled? I had no doubt that, whether he had +money or no, he would reach his journey's end. His spirit was evident +in the resolve to travel to London, in his success, and in the +concealment of any weakness until the favour he asked for had been +refused.</p> + +<p class="normal">I bought next morning one of the new maps of the Great West Road and +began to pick off the stages of his journey. This was the second day +since he had started. He would not travel very fast, having no good +news to lighten his feet. I reckoned that he would have reached the +"Golden Farmer," and I made a mark at that name on the map. Every day +for a week I kept in this way an imagined tally of his progress, +following him from county to county; and at the end of the week, +coming out in the evening from my lodging at the corner of St. James's +Street, I ran plump into the arms of the gentleman I had met at +Clutterbuck's, and whose name I did not know. But his familiarity was +all gone from him. He bowed to me stiffly, and would have passed on, +but I caught him by the arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sir," said I, "you will remember a certain night when I had the +honour of your acquaintance."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Berkeley," he returned with a smile, "I remember very much better +the dreadful morning which followed it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will not, at all events, have forgotten the boy whom you +discovered outside the door, and if you can repeat the story which he +told, or some portion of it, I shall be obliged to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at his watch.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have still half an hour to spare," said he; and he led the way to +the "Groom Porters." The night was young, but not so young but what +the Bassett-table was already full. We sat down together in a dark +corner of the room, and my companion told me what he remembered of +Parmiter's story.</p> + +<p class="normal">It appeared that Cullen Mayle had quarrelled with his father on that +Sunday night after he had sat in the stocks and had left the house. He +had never returned. A year ago Adam Mayle had died, bequeathing his +fortune, which was considerable, and most of it placed in the African +Company, to his adopted daughter Helen. She, however, declared that +she had no right to it, that it was not hers, and that she would hold +it in trust until such time as Cullen should come back to claim it.</p> + +<p class="normal">He did not come back, as has been said; but eight months later Dick +Parmiter, on an occasion when he had crossed in his father's fishing +boat to Cornwall, had discovered upon Penzance Quay a small crowd of +loiterers, and on the ground amongst them, with his back propped +against a wall, a negro asleep. A paper was being passed from hand to +hand among the group, and in the end it came to Dick Parmiter. Upon +the paper was written Adam Mayle's name and the place of his +residence, Tresco, in the Scilly Islands; and Dick at once recognised +that the writing was in Cullen Mayle's hand. He pushed to the front of +the group, and stooping down, shook the negro by the shoulder. The +negro drowsily opened his eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You come from Mr. Cullen Mayle?" said Dick.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said the negro, speaking in English and quite clearly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have a message from him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" asked Dick; and he put a number of questions eagerly. +But in the midst of them, and while still looking at Dick, the negro +closed his eyes deliberately and fell asleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">"See," cried a sailor, an oldish white-haired man, with a French +accent; "that is the way with him. He came aboard with us at the port +of London as wide awake as you or I. Bound for Penzance he was, and +the drowsiness took him the second day out. At first he would talk a +little; but each day he slept more and more, until now he will say no +more than a 'Yes' or a 'No.' Why, he will fall asleep over his +dinner."</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick shook the negro again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you wish to cross to Tresco?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said the negro.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick carried him back to Scilly and brought him to the house on +Tresco, where Helen Mayle now lived alone. But no news could be got +from him. He would answer "Yes" or "No" and eat his meals; but when it +came to a question of his message or Cullen Mayle's whereabouts he +closed his eyes and fell asleep. Helen judged that somewhere Cullen +was in great need and distress, and because she held his money, and +could do nothing to succour him, she was thrown into an extreme +trouble. There was some reason why he could not come to Scilly in +person, and here at her hand was the man sent to tell the reason; but +he could not because of his mysterious malady. More than once he tried +with a look of deep sadness in his eyes, as though he was conscious of +his helplessness, but he never got beyond the first word. His eyelids +closed while his mouth was still open to speak, and at once he was +asleep. His presence made a great noise amongst the islands; from +Brehar, from St. Mary's, and from St. Martin's the people sailed over +to look at him. But Helen, knowing Cullen Mayle and fearing the nature +of his misadventure, had bidden Parmiter to let slip no hint that he +had come on Cullen's account.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the negro stayed at Tresco and spread a great gloom throughout the +house. They watched him day by day as he slept. Cullen's need might be +immediate; it might be a matter of crime; it might be a matter of life +and death. The gloom deepened into horror, and Helen and her few +servants, and Dick, who was much in the house, fell into so lively an +apprehension that the mere creaking of a door would make them start, a +foot crunching on the sand outside sent them flying to the window. So +for a month, until Dick Parmiter, coming over the hill from New +Grimsby harbour at night, had a lantern flashed in his face, and when +close to the house saw a man spring up from the gorse and watch him as +he passed. From that night the house was continually spied upon, and +Helen walked continually from room to room wringing her hands in sheer +distraction at her helplessness. She feared that they were watching +for Cullen; she feared, too, that Cullen, receiving no answer to his +message, would come himself and fall into their hands. She dared +hardly conjecture for what reason they were watching, since she knew +Cullen. For a week these men watched, five of them, who kept their +watches as at sea; and then Dick, taking his courage in his hands, and +bethinking him of Lieutenant Clutterbuck, who had been an assiduous +visitor at the house on Tresco, had crossed over to St. Mary's and +learned from old Captain Hathaway where he now lived. He had said +nothing of his purpose to Helen, partly from a certain shyness at +speaking to her upon a topic of some delicacy, and partly lest he +should awaken her hopes and perhaps only disappoint them. But he had +begged a passage in a ship that was sailing to Cornwall, and, crossing +thither secretly, had made his way in six weeks to London.</p> + +<p class="normal">This is the story which my acquaintance repeated to me as we sat in +the "Groom Porters."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Clutterbuck refused to meddle in the matter," said I. "Poor lad!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I was thinking of Dick, but my companion mistook my meaning, for he +glanced thoughtfully at me for a second.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think you are very right to pity him," he said; "although, Mr. +Berkeley, if you will pardon me, I am a trifle surprised to hear that +sentiment from you. It is indeed a sodden, pitiful, miserable dog's +life that Clutterbuck leads. To pass the morning over his toilette, to +loiter through the afternoon in a boudoir, and to dispose of the +evening so that he may be drunk before midnight! He would be much +better taking the good air into his lungs and setting his wits to +unknot that tangle amongst those islands in the sea. But I have +overstayed my time. If you can persuade him to that, you will be doing +him no small service;" and politely taking his leave, he went out of +the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">I sat for some while longer in the corner. I could not pretend that +he had spoken anything but truth, but I found his words none the less +bitter on that account. A pitiful dog's life for Lieutenant +Clutterbuck, who was at the most twenty-four years of age! What, then, +was it for me, who had seven years the better of Lieutenant +Clutterbuck, or rather, I should say, seven years the worse? I was +thirty-one that very month, and Clutterbuck's sodden, pitiful life had +been mine for the last seven years. An utter disgust took hold of me +as I repeated over and over to myself my strange friend's words. I +looked at the green cloth and the yellow candles, and the wolfish +faces about the cloth. The candles had grown soft with the heat of the +night, and were bent out of their shape, so that the grease dropped in +great blots upon the cloth, and the air was close with an odour of +stale punch. I got up from my corner and went out into the street, +and stood by the water in St. James's Park, If only some such +summons had come to me when I was twenty-four as had now come to +Clutterbuck!--well, very likely I should have turned a deaf ear to +it, even as he had done! And--and, at all events, I was thirty-one and +the summons had not come to me, and there was an end of the matter. +To-morrow I should go back to the green cloth and not trouble my +head about the grease blots; but to-night, since Clutterbuck was +twenty-four, I would try to do him that small service of which the +stranger spoke, and so setting out at a round pace I made my way to +Clutterbuck's lodging.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_03" href="#div1Ref_03">OF THE MAGICAL INFLUENCE OF A MAP</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I did not, however, find Lieutenant Clutterbuck that night. He was out +of reach, and likely to remain so for some while to come. He had left +his lodgings at mid-day and taken his body-servant with him, and his +landlady had no knowledge of his whereabouts. I thought it probable, +however, that some of his friends might have that knowledge, and I +thereupon hurried to those haunts where of an evening he was an +habitual visitor. The "Hercules Pillars" in Piccadilly, the "Cocoa +Tree" in St. James's Street, the "Spring Gardens" at Vauxhall, +"Barton's" in King Street, the "Spread Eagle" in Covent Garden,--I +hurried from one to the other of these places, and though I came upon +many of Clutterbuck's intimates, not one of them was a whit better +informed than myself. I returned to my lodging late and more +disheartened than I could have believed possible in a matter wherein I +had no particular concern. And, indeed, it was not so much any +conjecture as to what strange tragical events might be happening about +that watched and solitary house in Tresco which troubled me, or even +pity for the girl maddened by her fears, or regret that I had not been +able to do Clutterbuck that slight service which I purposed. But I +took out the map of the Great West Road, and thought of the lad +Parmiter trudging along it, doing a day's work here among the fields, +begging a lift there upon a waggon and slowly working his way down +into the West. I had a very clear picture of him before my eyes. The +day was breaking, I remember, and I blew out the candles and looked +out of the window down the street. The pavement was more silent at +that hour than those country roads on which he might now be walking, +or that hedge under which he might be shaking the dew from off his +clothes. For there the thrush would be calling to the blackbird with +an infinite bustle and noise, and the fields of corn would be +whispering to the fields of wheat.</p> + +<p class="normal">I came back again to my map, and while the light broadened, followed +Parmiter from the outset of his journey, through Knightsbridge, along +the Thames, between the pine-trees of Hampshire, past Whitchurch, and +into the county of Devon. The road was unwound before my eyes like a +tape. I saw it slant upwards to the brow of a hill, and dip into the +cup of a valley; here through a boskage of green I saw a flash of +silver where the river ran; there between flat green fields it lay, a +broad white line geometrically straight to the gate of a city; it +curved amongst the churches and houses, but never lost itself in that +labyrinth, aiming with every wind and turn at that other gate, from +which it leaped free at last to the hills. And always on the road I +saw Dick Parmiter, drunk with fatigue, tottering and stumbling down to +the West.</p> + +<p class="normal">For awhile he occupied that road alone; but in the end I saw another +traveller a long way behind--a man on horseback, who spurred out from +London and rode with the speed of the wind. For a little I watched +that rider, curious only to discern how far he travelled, and whether +he would pass Dick Parmiter; then, as I saw him drawing nearer and +nearer, devouring the miles which lay between, it came upon me slowly +that he was riding not to pass but to overtake; and at once the fancy +flashed across me that this was Clutterbuck. I gazed at my map upon +the table as one might gaze into a magician's globe. It was no longer +a map; it was the road itself imprisoned in hedges, sunlit, and +chequered with the shadows of trees. I could see the horseman, I could +see the dust spirting up from beneath his horse's hoofs like smoke +from a gun-barrel. Only his hat was pushed down upon his brows because +of the wind made by the speed of his galloping, so that I could not +see his face. But it was Clutterbuck I had no doubt. Whither had he +gone from his lodging? Now I was convinced that I knew. There had been +no need of my night's wanderings from tavern to tavern, had I but +looked at my map before. It was Clutterbuck without a doubt. At some +bend of the road he would turn in his saddle to look backwards, and I +should recognise his face. It was Lieutenant Clutterbuck, taking the +good air into his lungs with a vengeance. He vanished into a forest, +but beyond the forest the road dipped down a bank of grass and lay +open to the eye. I should see him in a second race out, his body bent +over his horse's neck to save him from the swinging boughs. I could +have clapped my hands with sheer pleasure. I wished that my voice +could have reached out to Parmiter, tramping wearily so far beyond; in +my excitement, I believed that it would, and before I knew what I did, +I cried out aloud:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Parmiter! Parmiter!" and a voice behind me answered:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must be mad, Berkeley! What in the world has come to you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I sat upright in my chair. The excitement died out of me and left me +chilly. I looked about me; I was in my own lodging at the corner of St +James's Street, outside in the streets the world was beginning to +wake, and the voice which had spoken to me and the hand which was now +laid upon my shoulder were the voice and the hand of Lieutenant +Clutterbuck.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's this?" said he, leaning over my shoulder. "It is a map."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," I answered, "it is a mere map, the map of the Great West Road;" +and in my eyes it was no longer any more than a map.</p> + +<p class="normal">Clutterbuck, who was holding it in his hand, dropped it with a +movement and an exclamation of anger. Then he looked curiously at me, +stepped over to the sideboard and took up a glass or two which stood +there. The glasses were clean and dry. He looked at me again, his +curiosity had grown into uneasiness; he walked to the opposite side of +the table, and drawing up a chair seated himself face to face with me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hoped you were drunk," said he. "But it seems you are as sober as a +bishop. Are you daft, then? Has it come to a strait-waistcoat? I come +back late from Twickenham. I stopped at the 'Hercules Pillars.' There I +heard that you had rushed in two hours before in a great flurry and +disorder, crying out that you must speak to me on the instant. The +same story was told to me at the 'Cocoa Trees.' My landlady repeated +it. I conjectured that it must needs be some little affair to be +settled with sharps at six in the morning; and so that you might not +say your friends neglect you, I turn from my bed, and hurry to you at +three o'clock of the morning. I find that you have left your +front-door unlatched for any thief that wills to make his profit of +the house. I come into your room and find you bending over a map in a +great excitement and crying out aloud that damned boy's name. Is he to +trouble my peace until the Judgment Day? Are you daft, eh, Steve?" and +he reached his hand across the table not unkindly, and laid it on my +sleeve. "Are you daft?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I was staring again at the map, and did not answer him. He shifted his +hand from my sleeve and took it up and away from my eyes. He looked at +it himself, and then spoke slowly, and in quite a different voice:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a curious, suggestive thing, the map of a road, when all's +said," he observed slowly. "I'll not deny but what it seizes one's +fancies. Its simple lines and curves call up I know not what pictures +of flowering hedgerows; a little black blot means a village of stone +cottages, very likely overhung with ivy and climbed upon with roses." +He suddenly thrust the map again under my nose, "What do you see upon +the road?" said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Parmiter," I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course," he interrupted sharply. "Well, where is Parmiter?" and I +laid a finger on the map.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Between Fenny Bridges and Exeter," said he, leaning forward. "He has +made great haste."</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke quite seriously, not questioning my conjecture, but accepting +it as a mere statement of fact.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is a heath?" he asked, pointing to an inch or so where the map +was shaded on each side of the high-road. "Yes, a heath t'other side +of Hartley Row; I know it. There should be a mail-coach there, and the +horses out of the shafts, and one or two men in crape masks and a lady +in a swoon, and the driver stretched in the middle of the road with a +bullet through his crop."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not see that," I returned. "But here, beyond Axminster----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He leaned yet further forward.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is a forest here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I saw a man on horseback ride into it between the trees. He has not +as yet emerged from it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who was he? Did you know him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thought I did. But I could not see his face."</p> + +<p class="normal">Clutterbuck watched that forest eagerly, and with a queer suspense in +his attitude and even in his breathing. Every now and then he raised +his eyes to mine with a question in them. Each time I shook my head, +and answered:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not yet," and we both again stared at the map.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then Clutterbuck whispered quickly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"What if his horse had stumbled? What if he is lying there at the +roadside beneath the tree?" He tore himself away from the +contemplation of the map. "The thing's magical!" he cried. "It has +bewitched you, Steve, and by the Lord it has come near to bewitching +me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thought the horseman was yourself. Why don't you go?" said I, +pointing to the map.</p> + +<p class="normal">Lieutenant Clutterbuck rose impatiently from his chair.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There must be an end of this. Once for all I will not go. There is no +reason I should. There is reason why I should not. You do not know in +what you are meddling. You are taken like a schoolboy by an old wife's +tale of a lonely girl trapped in a net. You are too old for such +follies."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was too old a fortnight ago," I returned, "but, by the Lord, these +last days I have grown young again--so young that----"</p> + +<p class="normal">I stopped suddenly. Not until this instant had the notion occurred to +me, but it came now, it thrilled through me with a veritable shock. I +leaned back in my chair and stared at Clutterbuck. He understood, for +he in his turn stared at me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The rider!" said he breathlessly, tapping the map with his +forefinger, "the man whose face you did not see!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I nodded at him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What if the face were mine?" said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You could never believe it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I believe that I have even enough youth for that," I cried, and I +bent over the map, trying again to fashion from its plain black and +white my picture of the great high-road, climbing and winding through +a country-side rich with all the colours of the summer. But it was +only a map of lines and curves, nor could I any longer discover the +horseman who spurred along it--though I had now a particular reason to +wish for a view of his face,--or the wood into which he disappeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, has your cavalier galloped into the open yet?" asked +Clutterbuck.</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke with sarcasm, but the sarcasm was forced. It was but a cloak +to cover and excuse the question.</p> + +<p class="normal">I shook my head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, and he will not," said Clutterbuck.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that so sure?" I asked. "What if the face were mine?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are serious!" he cried. "You would go a stranger and offer your +unsought aid? It would be an impertinence."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Suppose life and death are in the balance, would they weigh +impertinence?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It might be <i>your</i> life and <i>your</i> death!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And as he spoke, it seemed to me that all my last seven years rose up +in their shrouds and laughed at him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what then?" I cried. "Would the world shiver if I died? Would +even a tavern-keeper draw down his blinds? Perhaps some drunkard in +his cups would wish I lived, that he might take my measure in a +drinking-bout. There's my epitaph for you! Good Lord, Clutterbuck, but +I would dearly love to die a clean death! There's that boy Parmiter +tramping down his road. He does a far better thing than I have ever +done. You know! Why talk of it? You know the life I have lived, and +since that boy flung his example in my eyes, upon my word I sicken to +think of it. Twelve years ago, Clutterbuck, I came to London, a cadet +with a cadet's poor portion, but what a wealth of dreams! A fortune +first, if I slaved till I was forty, and then I would set free my soul +and live! The fortune came, and I slaved but six years for it. The +treaty of Aix and a rise of stocks, and there was my fortune. You know +how I have lived since."</p> + +<p class="normal">Clutterbuck looked at me curiously. I had never said so much to him or +to any man in this strain. Nor should I have said so much now, but I +was fairly shaken out of my discretion. For a little Clutterbuck sat +silent and motionless. Then he said gently:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shall I tell you why I will not go? Yes, I will tell you," and he +told me the history of that Sunday, two years ago, when Cullen Mayle +sat in the stocks, or at least as much of it as had come within his +knowledge. The events of that day were the beginning of all the +trouble, indeed, but Lieutenant Clutterbuck never knew more of it than +what concerned himself, and as I sat over against him on that July +morning and listened to his story while the world awoke, I had no +suspicion of what the passage of that Sunday hid, or of the +extraordinary consequences which it brought about.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_04" href="#div1Ref_04">DESCRIBES THE REMARKABLE MANNER IN WHICH +CULLEN MAYLE LEFT TRESCO</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"It was my business," he began, "to fetch Cullen Mayle from Tresco +over to St. Mary's where the stocks were set. It was an unpleasant +business, and to me doubly and damnably unpleasant."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I understand!" said I, thinking of how he had before spoken to me of +Adam Mayle's adopted daughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I took a file of Musquets, found the three of them at breakfast, and, +with as much delicacy as I could, explained my errand. Helen alone +showed any distress or consciousness of disgrace. Cullen strolled to +the window, and seeing that I had placed my men securely about the +house and that my boat was ready on the sand not a dozen yards away, +professed himself, with an inimitable indifference, willing to gratify +my wishes; while Adam, so far from manifesting any anger, broke out +into a great roar of laughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Cullen, my boy,' he shouted, like a man highly pleased, 'here's a +nasty stumble for your pride. To sit in the stocks of a Sunday +morning, when all the girls can see you as they come from church! To +sit in the stocks like a common drunkard; and you that sets up for a +gentleman! Oh, Cullen, Cullen!' He wagged his head from side to side, +and so brought his fist upon the table with a bang which set all the +plates dancing. 'Devil damn me,' said he, 'if I don't sail to church +at St. Mary's myself and see how you look in your wooden garters.' +Cullen glanced carelessly towards me. 'An unseemly old man,' said he; +and we left Adam still shaking like a monstrous jellyfish, and crossed +back to St. Mary's from Tresco.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sure enough Adam kept his word. They were singing the <i>Nunc Dimittis</i> +in the church when Adam stumped up the aisle. He had brought Helen +with him, and she looked as though she wished the brick floor to open +and let her out of sight. But Adam kept his head erect and showed a +face of an extraordinary good humour. You may be certain that the +parson got the scantiest attention imaginable to his discourse. For +one thing, Adam Mayle had never set foot in St. Mary's Church before, +and for another, every one was agog to see how he would bear himself +afterwards, when he passed on his way to the quay across the little +space before the Customs House.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There was a rush to the church door as soon as the benediction was +pronounced, and it happened that I was one of the last to come out of +the porch. The first thing that I saw was Adam walking a little way +apart amongst the gravestones with a stranger, and the next thing, +Helen talking to Dick Parmiter."</p> + +<p class="normal">Here I interrupted Clutterbuck, for I was anxious to let no detail +escape me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Had Dick crossed with Adam Mayle from Tresco?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think not," returned Clutterbuck. "He was not in the church. I do +not know, but I fancy he brought the stranger over to St. Mary's +afterwards."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And who was this stranger?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"George Glen he called himself, and said he had been quartermaster +with Adam Mayle at Whydah. He was a squat, tarry man, of Adam's age or +thereabouts, and the pair of them walked through the gates and crossed +the fields over to the street of Hugh Town. I made haste to join +Helen," Clutterbuck continued, and explained his words with an +unnecessary confusion. "I mean, I would not have it appear that she +shared in the disgrace which had befallen Cullen Mayle. So I walked +with her, and we followed Adam down the street to the Customs House, +where it seemed every inhabitant was loitering, and where Cullen sat, +with his hat cocked forward over his forehead to shield him from the +sun, entirely at his ease.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was curious to observe the behaviour of the loiterers. Some +affected not to see Cullen at all; some, but those chiefly maidens, +protested that it was a great shame so fine a gentleman should be so +barbarously used. The elders on the other hand answered that he had +come over late to his deserts, while a few, with a ludicrous pretence +of unconsciousness, bowed and smiled at him as though it was the most +natural thing in the world for a man in a laced coat to take the air +in the stocks of a Sunday morning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Into the midst of this group marched Adam Mayle, and came to a halt +before his son. He had composed his face to an unexceptionable +gravity, and as he prodded thoughtfully with his stick at the sole of +Cullen's shoe,</p> + +<p class="normal">"'This is the first time,' he said, 'that ever I saw a pair of silk +stockings in the stocks.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'One lives and learns,' replied Cullen, indifferently; and the old +man lifted his nose into the air and said dreamily:</p> + +<p class="normal">"'There is a ducking-chair, is there not, at the pier head?' and so +walked on to the steps where his boat was moored. He went down into it +with Mr. Glen, and the two men set about hoisting the sail. I was +still standing on the pier with Helen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You will come too?' she said with a sort of appeal. 'I do not know +what may happen when Cullen is set free and comes back, I should be +very glad if you would come.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Lieutenant Clutterbuck broke off his story and walked uneasily once or +twice across the room as though he was troubled even now with the +recollection of her appeal and of how she looked when she made it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So I went," he continued suddenly, and with a burst of frankness. +"You see, Steve, she and I were very good friends; I never saw +anything but welcome in her eyes when I crossed over to Tresco, and +the kindliness of her voice had a warmth, and at times a tenderness, +which I hoped meant more than friendship. Indeed, I would have staked +my life she was ignorant of duplicity; and with Cullen she seemed +always at some pains to conceal a repugnance. Well, I was young, I +suppose; I saw with the eyes of youth, which see everything out of its +due proportion. I crossed to Tresco, and while we were seated at +dinner, about two hours later, Cullen Mayle strolled in and took his +chair. Dick Parmiter had waited for him at St. Mary's until such time +as he was set free, and had brought him across the Road.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot deny but what Cullen Mayle bore himself very suitably for +the greater part of the time we were at table. Adam's blatant jests +were enough to set any man's teeth on edge, yet Cullen made as though +he did not hear a word of them, and talked politely upon indifferent +topics to us and Mr. Glen. Adam, however, was not to be silenced that +way. His banter became coarse and vindictive; for one thing he had +drunk a deal of liquor, and for another he was exasperated that he +could not provoke his son. I forget what particular joke he roared out +from the head of the table, but I saw Cullen stretch his arm out over +the cloth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I see what is amiss,' he said, wearily, and took away the brandy +bottle from his father's elbow. He went to the window, and opening it, +emptied the bottle on to the grass beneath the sill. Then he came back +to his seat and said suavely to Mr. Glen: 'My father cannot get the +better of his old habits; he is drunk very early on Sundays--an +unregenerate old put of a fellow as ever I came across.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The quarrel followed close upon the heels of that sentence, and +occupied the afternoon and was renewed at supper. Adam very violent +and blustering; Cullen very cool and composed, and only betraying his +passion by the whiteness of his face. He used no oaths; he sat staring +at his father with his dark sleepy eyes, and languidly accused him of +every crime in the Newgate Calendar, with a great deal of detail as to +time and place, and adding any horrible detail which came into his +mind. The old man was routed at the last. About the middle of supper +he got up from his chair, and going up the stairs shut himself into a +room which he had fitted up as a cabin, and where he was used to sit +of an evening.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We were all, as you may guess, inexpressibly relieved when Adam left +the parlour, for here it seemed was the quarrel ended. We counted, +however, without Cullen. He looked for a moment or two at his father's +empty chair, and stood up in his turn.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Here's an old rogue for you,' he said in a gentle voice. 'He has no +more manners than a nasty pig. I'll teach him some,' and he followed +his father up the stairs and into the cabin above. What was said +between them we never heard, but we gathered at the foot of the stairs +in the hall and listened to their voices. The old man bellowed as +though he was in pain, and shook the windows with his noise; Cullen's +voice came to us only as a smooth, continuous murmur. For half an hour +perhaps we stood thus in the hall--interference would have only made +matters worse--and I own that this half hour was not wholly unpleasant +to me. Helen, in a word, was afraid, and more than once her hand was +laid upon my coat-sleeve, and, touching it, ceased to tremble. She +turned to me, it seemed, in that half hour of fear; I was fool enough +to think it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"At length we heard a door opening. Cullen negligently came down the +stairs; Adam rushed out after him as far as the head of the stairs, +where he stopped.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Open the door, one of you!' he bawled. 'Kick him out, Clutterbuck, +and we'll see what damned muck-heap his fine manners will lead him +to.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The outcry brought the servants scurrying into the hall. Adam +repeated his order and one of the servants threw open the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Will you fetch me my boots?' said Cullen, and sitting down in a +chair he kicked off his shoes. Then he pulled on his boots +deliberately, stood up and felt in his pockets. From one pocket he +drew out five guineas, from a second two, from a third four. These +eleven guineas he held in his open hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'They belong to you, I think,' he said, softly, poising them in his +palm; and before any one could move a step or indeed guess at his +intention, he raised his arm and flung them with all his force to +where his father stood at the head of the stairs. Two of the guineas +cut the old man in the forehead, and the blood ran down his face; the +rest sparkled and clattered against the panels behind his head, whence +they fell on to the stairs and rolled one by one down into the hall. +No one spoke; no one moved. The brutal violence of the action for the +moment paralysed every one; even Adam stood shaking at the stair head +with his wits wandering. One by one the guineas rolled down the +staircase, leaping from step to step, rattling as they leaped; and for +a long time it seemed, one whirred and sang in a corner as it span +round and settled down upon the boards; and when the coin had ceased +to spin, still no one moved, no one spoke. A murmur of waves breaking +lazily upon the sand, a breath of air stirring a shrub in the garden, +the infinitesimal trumpeting of a gnat, came through the window, +bringing as it were tales of things which lived into a room of +statues.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cullen himself was the first to break the enchantment. He took his +watch from his fob and holding it by the ribbon twirled it backwards +and forwards. It was a big silver watch, and as he twirled it this way +and that, it caught the light, seemed to throw out little sparks of +fire, and flashed with a dazzling brightness. The eyes of the company +were caught by it; they watched it with a keen attention, not knowing +why they watched it; they watched it as it shone and glittered in its +revolutions, almost with a sense of expectation, as though something +of great consequence was to happen from the twirling of that watch.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'This, too, is yours,' said Cullen, 'but it was no doubt some dead +sailorman's before you stole it;' and ceasing to twirl the watch he +held it steady by the ribbon. Then he looked round the hall and saw +Helen staring at the watch with a queer intentness. I remember that +her hand was at that moment resting upon my sleeve, and I felt it grow +more rigid. I looked at her; her face was set, her eyes fixed upon +Cullen and his glittering watch. I spoke to her; she did not answer, +she did not hear."</p> + +<p class="normal">Clutterbuck interrupted his story and sat moodily lost in his +recollections, and when he resumed it was with great bitterness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think," he continued, "that when Cullen spoke, he spoke with no +other end than to provoke his father yet more. You must know that the +old man had just one tender spot in his heart. Cullen could have no +other aim but to set his heel on that.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I will come back for you, Helen,' he said, bending his eyes upon her +and making as if there was much love between them; and to everybody's +surprise Helen lifted her eyes slowly from the watch until they met +Cullen's, and kept them there. She did not answer him in words, there +was no need she should, every line of her body expressed obedience.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Even Cullen was puzzled by her demeanour. Boy and girl, maid and +youth, they had lived side by side in the house with indifference upon +his part and all the appearance of aversion upon hers. Yet here was +she subdued in an instant at the prospect of his departure! It seemed +that the mere thought that Cullen was henceforth an outcast tore her +secret live and warm from her heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cullen was plainly puzzled, as I say, but he was not the man to miss +an advantage in the gratification of his malice. He shot one +triumphant look at his father and spoke again to Helen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You will wait for me?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Her eyes never wavered from his.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes!' she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was a humiliating moment for me as you may imagine. It must have +been more humiliating for Adam. With a hand upon the rail he lumbered +heavily down a couple of the stairs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'No!' he cried, with a dreadful oath and in a voice which was +strangely moved.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'But I say yes,' said Cullen, very quietly. The smile had gone from +his face; a new excitement kindled it. He was pitting his will against +his father's. I saw him suddenly draw himself erect. 'Or, better +still, you shall come with me now,' he cried. He reached out his arm +straight from the shoulder towards her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Come! Come with me now.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"His voice rang out dominant like the clang of a trumpet, and to the +consternation of us all, Helen crossed the floor towards him. I tried +to detain her. 'Helen,' I cried, 'you do not know what you are doing. +He will drag you into the gutter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Lieutenant Clutterbuck,' said Cullen, 'you are very red in the face. +You cannot expect she will listen to you, for you do not look well +when you are red in the face.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"I paid no heed to his gibes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Helen,' I cried, again. She paid no more heed to my prayers. 'What +will you do? Where will you go?' I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'We shall go to London,' answered Cullen, 'where we shall do very +well, and further to the best of our means Lieutenant Clutterbuck's +advancement.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Humiliation and grief had overset my judgment or I should not have +argued at this moment with Cullen Mayle. I flung out at him hotly, and +like a boy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'When you are doing very well in London, Cullen Mayle, Lieutenant +Clutterbuck will not be so far behind you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'He will indeed be close upon my heels,' returned Cullen as +pleasantly as possible, 'for most likely he will be carrying my +valise.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"With that he turned again to Helen, beckoned her to follow him, and +strode towards the open door. She did follow him. Cullen was already +in the doorway; in another second she would have crossed the +threshold. But with a surprising agility Adam Mayle jumped down the +stairs, ran across the hall, and caught the girl in his arms. She did +not struggle to free herself, but she strained steadily towards +Cullen. The old man's arms were strong, however.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Shut the door,' he cried, and I sprang forward and slammed it to.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Lock it! Bolt it!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Adam stood with his arms about the girl until the heavy bar swung +down across the door and dropped into its socket with a clang. Now do +you understand why I will not go down to Tresco? I can give you +another reason if you are not content. When I spoke to Helen two days +later, and taxed her with her passion for Cullen,--would you believe +it?--she was deeply pained and hurt. She would not have it said that +she had so much as thought of following Cullen's fortunes. She +outfaced me as though I had been telling her fairy tales, and not what +my own eyes saw. No, indeed, I will not go down to Tresco! I am not +the traveller who has ridden into your wood upon the Great West Road."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lieutenant Clutterbuck took up his hat when he had finished his story,</p> + +<p class="normal">"The girl, besides, is not worth a thought," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not thinking of her," said I. Of Lieutenant Clutterbuck, of +myself, above all of Dick Parmiter, I was thinking, but not at all of +Helen Mayle. I drew the map towards me. Clutterbuck stopped at the +door, came back and again leaned over my shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Has your traveller come out from that wood?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is an allegory," said he. "The man who rides down on this business +to the West will, in very truth, enter into a wood from which he will +not get free."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_05" href="#div1Ref_05">THE ADVENTURE IN THE WOOD</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A loud roll of drums beneath my windows, the inspiriting music of +trumpets, the lively measured stamp of feet. The troops with General +Amherst at their head were marching down St. James's Street on their +way to embark for Canada, and the tune to which they marched sang in +my head that day as I rode out of London. The beat of my horse's hoofs +kept time to it, and at Brentford a girl singing in a garden of +apple-trees threw me a snatch of a song to fit to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">She sang, and I caught the words up as I rode past. The sparkle of +summer was in the air, and an Indian summer, if you will, at my heart. +I slept that night at Hartley Row, and the next at Down House, and the +third at a little inn some miles beyond Dorchester. A brook danced at +the foot of the house, and sang me to sleep with the song I had heard +at Brentford, and, as I lay in bed, I could see out of my window the +starlight and the quiet fields white with a frost of dew and thickets +of trees very black and still; and towards sunset upon the fourth day, +I suddenly reined in my horse to one side and sat stone-still. To my +left, the road ran straight and level for a long way, and nowhere upon +it was there a living thing; on each side stretched fields and no one +moved in them, and no house was visible. That way I had come, and I +had remarked upon the loneliness. To my right, the road ran forward +into a thick wood, and vanished beneath a roof of overhanging boughs. +It was the aspect of that wood which took my breath away, and it +surprised me because it was familiar. There was a milestone which I +recognised just where the first tree overhung the road; there was a +white gate in the hedge some twenty paces this side of the milestone. +I knew that too. Just behind where I sat there should be three tall +poplars ranged in a line like sentinels, the wood's outposts; I +turned, and in the field behind me, the poplars reached up against the +sky. I had no doubt they would be there, yet the sight of them fairly +startled me. I had seen them--yes, but never in my life had I ridden +along this road before. I had seen them only on the map in my lodging +at St. James's Street.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sun dropped down behind the trees, and the earth turned grey. I +sat there in the saddle with I know not what superstitious fancies +upon me. I could not but remember that the traveller had ridden into +the wood, and had not ridden out and down the open bank of grass upon +the other side. "What if his horse has stumbled?" Clutterbuck had +asked. "What if he is lying at the roadside under the trees?" I could +see that picture very clearly, and at last, very clearly too, the +rider's face. I looked backwards down the road with an instinctive +hope that some other traveller might be riding my way in whose company +I might go along. But the long level slip of white was empty. All the +warmth seemed to have gone from the world with the dropping of the +sun. A sad chill twilight crept over the lonely fields. A shiver +caught and shook me; I gathered up the reins and rode slowly among the +trees, where already it was night.</p> + +<p class="normal">I rode at first in the centre of the highway, and found the clatter of +my horse's hoofs a very companionable sound. But in a little the +clatter seemed too loud, it was too clear a warning of my approach, it +seemed to me in some way a provocation of danger. I drew to one side +of the road where the leaves had drifted and made a carpet whereon I +rode without noise. But now the silence seemed too eerie--I heard, and +started at, the snapping of every twig. I strained my ears to catch +the noise of creeping footfalls, and I was about to guide my horse +back to the middle of the road, when I turned a corner suddenly, and +saw in front of me in a space where the forest receded and let the sky +through, lights gleaming in a window.</p> + +<p class="normal">I set spurs to the horse and galloped up to the door. The house was an +inn; the landlord was already at the threshold, and in a very short +while I was laughing at my fears over my supper in the parlour.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Am I your only guest to-night?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is one other, sir," returned the landlord as he served me, and +as he spoke I heard a footstep in the passage. The door was pushed +open, and a young man politely bowed to me in the entrance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have a very pretty piece of horseflesh, sir," said he, as he came +into the room. "I took the liberty of looking it over a minute ago in +the stables."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not bad," said I. There was never a man in the world who did +not relish praise of his horse, and I warmed to my new acquaintance. +"We are both, it seems, sleeping here to-night, and likely enough we +are travelling the same road to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">The young man shook his head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I could wish indeed," said he, "that we might be fellow-travellers, +but though it may well be we follow the same road, we do not, alas, +travel in the same way," and he showed me his boots which were thickly +covered with dust. "My horse fell some half-a-dozen miles from here +and snapped a leg. I must needs walk to-morrow so far as where I trust +to procure another--that is to say," he continued, "if I do not have +to keep my bed, for I have taken a devilish chill this evening," and +drawing up his chair to the empty fireplace, he crouched over an +imaginary fire and shivered.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now since he sat in this attitude, I could not but notice his boots, +and I fell to wondering what in the world he had done with his spurs. +For he wore none, and since he had plainly not troubled to repair the +disorder of his dress, it seemed strange that he should have gone to +the pains of removing his spurs. However, I was soon diverted from +this speculation by the distress into which Mr. Featherstone's cold +threw him. Featherstone was his name, as he was polite enough to tell +me in the intervals of coughing, and I told him mine in return. At +last his malady so increased that he called for the landlord, and +bidding him light a great fire in his bedroom said he must needs go to +bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I trust, however," he continued politely to me, "that you, Mr. +Berkeley, will prove a Samaritan, and keep me company for a while. For +I shall not sleep, upon my word I shall not sleep a wink," and he was +so positive in his assurances that, though I was myself sufficiently +tired, I thought it no more than kindness to fall in with his wishes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Accordingly I followed him into his bedroom, where he lay in a great +canopied bed, with a big fire blazing upon the hearth, and a bottle of +rum with a couple of glasses upon a table at the bedside.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is an ague," said he, "which I caught upon the Gambia River, and +from which I have ever since suffered many inconveniences;" he poured +out the rum into the glasses, and wished me with great politeness all +prosperity.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was no doubt, also, because he had voyaged on the Gambia River that +he suffered no inconvenience from the heat of the room. But what with +the hot August night, and the blazing fire, and the closed window, I +became at once so drowsy that I could hardly keep my eyes open, and I +wished him good-night.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you will not go," said he. "We are but this moment acquainted, +and to-morrow we shall wave a farewell each to the other. Let us, Mr. +Berkeley, make something of the meanwhile, I beg you."</p> + +<p class="normal">I answered him that I did not wish to appear churlish, but that I +should most certainly appear so if I fell asleep while we talked, +which, in spite of myself, I was very likely to do.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I have a bottle of salts here," said he, with a laugh, as he +reached out of bed and fumbled with his coat. "I have a bottle of +salts here which will infallibly persuade you from any thought of +sleep," and he drew out from the pocket of his coat a pack of cards. +"Well, what do you say?" he continued, as I did not move.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is some while since I handled a card," said I slowly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A game of picquet," he suggested.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a good game," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">He flipped the edges of the cards with his thumb. I drew nearer to the +bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, one game then," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure," said he, shuffling the cards.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the stakes must be low."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hate a gambler myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">He cut the cards. I sat down on the bedside and dealt them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is your elder," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked disconsolately at his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Upon my word," said he. "Deuce take me if I know what to discard. I +have no hand for picquet at all, though as luck will have it I have +very good putt cards."</p> + +<p class="normal">I glanced through my hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have better putt cards than you," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not likely," he returned.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll make a wager of it," I cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your horse," said he, leaning up on his elbow. He spoke a trifle too +eagerly, he sprang up on his elbow a trifle too quickly. I looked +again through my hand, and I laid the cards down on the counterpane.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," said I quietly. "It is very likely you are right: I have two +treys and an ace, but you may have two treys and a deuce."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, this is purely magical," he exclaimed, with the most natural +burst of laughter imaginable. "Two treys and a deuce! Those are indeed +the cards I hold."</p> + +<p class="normal">He fell back again in the bed, and we played our single game of +picquet. He won the game. Indeed, he could not but win it, for I paid +no attention whatever to the cards which I held, or to how I should +draw, or--and this perhaps was my most important omission--to how Mr. +Featherstone shuffled and dealt. The truth is, I had suddenly become +very curious about Mr. Featherstone. I had recalled his great +politeness of manner. I remarked his face, which was of an almost +girlish delicacy. I reflected that here was a man in a great hurry to +travel by the same road as myself, and I remembered how I had learned +that trick by which he had tried to outwit me of my horse. Even as it +was I had all but fallen into the trap. I should most certainly have +done so had not Lieutenant Clutterbuck once explained it to me on a +particular occasion. I remembered that occasion very clearly as I sat +on the bed playing this game of picquet by the light of a single +candle, and I wondered whether I could fit Mr. Featherstone with +another name.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am afraid," said he, "that this is a capote," as I played my last +card.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the loss is trifling," said I, "and I have kept my horse."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very true," said he, whistling softly between his teeth. "You have +kept your horse," and as I wished him good-night, he added, "you will +be careful to shut the door behind you, won't you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">But before the words were out of his mouth, he was seized with so +violent a paroxysm of shivering that he could barely stammer out the +end of the sentence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"These infernal fevers," said he, with a groan.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I notice, however," I returned, "that they are intermittent," and +latching the door as he again requested me, I went off to my own room.</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not but wonder what trickery the fire was intended to help, +for until the last fit of the ague had seized him, he had given no +sign of any sickness since he had brought out the cards. However, +there was a more important question to occupy my mind. I had little +doubt that Mr. Featherstone was Cullen Mayle: I had little doubt that +he was hurrying as fast as he could to the Scillies, since he had +received no answer to the message which he sent with the negro. But +should I tell him of the men who watched for his coming, keeping their +watches as at sea? On the one side their presence meant danger to +Cullen Mayle, it could hardly mean anything else; and since it meant +danger he should be warned of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the other hand, the watchers might have tired of their watching and +given it up as profitless. Besides I was by no means sure in what +light Cullen himself was to be regarded. Was his return to Tresco, a +prospect to be welcomed or deplored? Did he come as a friend to that +distracted girl alone in the lonely house by the sand? I could not +answer these questions. I knew Cullen to be a knave, I knew that the +girl cared for him, and these two items made the sum of my knowledge. +I turned over in my bed and fell asleep, thinking that my course might +be clear to me in the morning.</p> + +<p class="normal">And in the morning it was clear. I woke up with a mind made up. I had +a horse; Cullen travelled on foot; since he had come so far on foot, +it was not likely that he had the money to purchase a horse, for the +story of the stumble and the broken leg I entirely disbelieved, and +with the best of reasons. I had travelled myself along that road +yesterday, and I had passed no disabled horse upon the way. I had +therefore the advantage of Cullen. I would journey on without saying a +word to him of my destination. I would on arriving take council with +Dick Parmiter and Helen Mayle and seek to fathom the trouble. I should +still have time to cross back to the mainland and hinder Cullen from +attempting the passage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus I planned to do, but the plan was never put to the test of +action. For while I was still dressing, a loud hubbub and confusion +filled the house. I opened my door. The noise came from the direction +of Cullen's room. I hastily slipped on my coat and ran down the +passage. I could hear Cullen's voice very loud above the rest, a woman +or two protesting with a shrill indignation and the landlord trying to +make all smooth, though what the bother was about I could not +distinguish.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed that the whole household was gathered in the room, though +Mr. Featherstone still lay abed. The moment that I appeared in the +doorway,</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! here's a witness," he cried. "Mr. Berkeley, you were the last to +leave me last night. You closed the door behind you? I was particular +to ask you to close the door?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I remember that very well," said I, "for I was wondering how in the +world you could put up with the door closed and a blazing fire."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There!" cried Featherstone turning to the landlord. "You hear? Mr. +Berkeley is a gentleman beyond reproach. He shut the door behind him, +and this morning I find it wide open and my breeches gone. There is a +thief, sir, in your inn, and we travellers must go on our way without +breeches. It is the most inconsiderate theft that ever I heard of."</p> + +<p class="normal">"As for the breeches, sir," began the landlord.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't care a button for them," cried Featherstone. "But there was +money in the breeches' pockets. Fifteen guineas in gold, and a couple +of bills on Mr. Nossiter, the banker at Exeter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The bills can be stopped," said the landlord. "We are but eighteen +miles from Exeter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But how am I to travel those miles; do you expect me to walk there in +my shirt tails. No, I stay here in bed until my breeches are found, +and, burn me, if I don't eat up everything in the house," and +immediately he began to roar out for food. "I will have chops at once, +and there's a great sirloin of beef, and bring me a tankard of small +ale."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he turned again to me, and said pathetically,</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not the breeches I mind, though to be sure I shall cut a +ridiculous figure on the highroad; no, nor the money, though I have +not a stiver left. But I woke up this morning in the sweetest +good-humour, and here am I in a violent passion at nine o'clock in the +morning, and my whole day spoilt. It is so discouraging," and he lay +back upon the pillow as though he would have wept.</p> + +<p class="normal">The landlord offered him his Sunday breeches. They were of red cloth, +and a belted earl might wear them without shame.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But not without discomfort," grumbled Mr. Featherstone, contemplating +the landlord who was of a large figure. "They will hang about me in +swathes like a petticoat."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And as for the fifteen guineas," said I, "my purse is to that amount +at your disposal."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is a very gentlemanly offer, Mr. Berkeley," said he, "from one +stranger to another. But I have a horror of borrowing. I cannot accept +your munificence. No, I will walk in my host's red cloth breeches as +far as Rockbere, which to be sure is no more than twelve miles, quite +penniless, but when I reach my friends, upon my word, I will make such +a noise about this inn as will close its doors, strike me dead and +stiff, if don't."</p> + +<p class="normal">His threat had its effect. The landlord, after the usual protestations +that such an incident had never occurred before, that he had searched +the house even to the servants' boxes, and that he could make neither +head nor tail of the business, wound up his harangue with an offer of +five guineas.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is all I have in the house, sir," said he, "and of course I shall +charge you neither for food nor lodging."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course not," said Mr. Featherstone indignantly. "Well, I must make +the best of it, but oh! I woke up with so happy a disposition towards +the world;" and dismissing the women he got up and dressed. The +landlord fetched the five guineas and his red cloth breeches, which +Featherstone drew on.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Was ever a man so vilely travestied?" he said. "Sure, I shall be +taken for a Hollander. That is hard for a person of some elegance," +and he tied his cravat and went grumbling from the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is a great misfortune, sir, for me," said my host. "I have lived +honest all my days. There is no one in the house who would steal; on +that I would stake my life. I can make nothing of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Featherstone is quite recovered from his ague," said I slowly. I +crossed over to the empty fireplace heaped with the white ashes of the +logs which had blazed there the night before.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The fire no doubt did him some benefit."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is precisely what I was thinking," said I, and I knelt down on +the hearth-rug and poked amongst the ashes with the shovel. Suddenly, +the landlord uttered an exclamation and threw up the window. I heard +the clatter of a horse's hoofs upon the road. I got up from my knees +and rushed to the window. As I leaned out Mr. Featherstone rode +underneath and he rode my horse.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stop!" I shouted out.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Berkeley," he cried, airily waving his hand as he rode by, "you +may hold very good putt cards, but you haven't kept your horse."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You damned thief!" I yelled, and he turned in his saddle and put out +his tongue. It is, if you think of it, a form of repartee to which +there is no reply. In any case I doubt if I could have made any reply +which would have reached his ears. For he had set the horse to a +gallop and was far down the road.</p> + +<p class="normal">I went back to the hearth where the landlord joined me. We both knelt +down and raked away the ashes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's that?" said I, pointing to something blackened and scorched. +The landlord picked it up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a piece of corduroy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And here's a bone button," said I. "The ague was a sham, the fire a +device to rob you. He came here without a penny piece and burnt his +breeches last night. He has robbed you, he has robbed me, and he will +reach the Scilly Islands first. How far is it to Rockbere?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Twelve miles."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must walk those twelve miles?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will I get a horse there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is doubtful."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He has a day's start then at the least."</p> + +<p class="normal">So after all, though the horse did not stumble, nor the rider lie +quiet by the roadside, he did not ride out of the forest at a gallop, +and down the green bank into the open space beyond.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_06" href="#div1Ref_06">MY FIRST NIGHT UPON TRESCO</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I walked that day into Rockbere, and taking the advice of the +innkeeper with whom I lodged, I hired a hack and a guide from him the +next morning and struck across country for the sea; for he assured me +that I should most likely find a fishing smack at Topsham whose master +would put me over to the Scillies, and that if the wind did but favour +me I should reach the islands sooner that way than if I had the +quickest horse under me that was ever foaled. It was of the greatest +urgency that I should set foot on Tresco before Cullen Mayle. I had to +risk something to achieve that object, and I risked the wind. It was +in the northeast when I started from Rockbere and suited my purpose +finely if it did but hold; so that I much regretted I was not already +on the sea, and rode in a perpetual fear lest it should change its +quarter. I came to Honiton Clyst that night, and to Topsham the next +day, where I was fortunate enough to find a boat of some thirty tons +and to come to an agreement with its master. He had his crew ready to +his hand; he occupied the morning in provisioning the smack; and we +stood out of the harbour in the evening, and with a steady wind on our +quarter made a good run to the Start Point. Shortly after we passed +the Start the wind veered round into the north, which did us no great +harm, since these boats sail their best on a reach. We reached then +with a soldier's breeze, as the saying is, out to the Eddystone Rock +and the Lizard Point.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was directly after we had sighted the Lizard that the wind began to +fall light, and when we were just off the Point it failed us +altogether. I remember that night as well as any other period in the +course of these incidents. I was running a race with Cullen Mayle, and +I was beginning to think that it was not after all only on account of +his peril that it was needful for me to reach Tresco before he did. +These last two days I had been entirely occupied with the stimulation +of that race and the inspiriting companionship of the sea. The waves +foaming away from the bows and bubbling and hissing under the lee of +the boat, the flaws of wind blistering the surface of the water as +they came off the land towards us, making visible their invisible +approach; the responsive spring of the boat, like a horse under the +touch of a spur--these mere commonplaces to my companions had for me +an engrossing enchantment. But on that evening at the Lizard Point the +sea lay under the sunset a smooth, heaving prism of colours; we could +hear nothing but the groaning of the blocks, the creaking of the +boom's collars against the masts; and the night came out from behind +the land very peaceful and solemn, and solemnly the stars shone out in +the sky. All the excitement of the last days died out of me. We swung +up and down with the tide. Now the lights of Falmouth were visible to +us at the bottom of the bay, now the Lizard obscured them from us. I +was brought somehow to think of those last years of mine in London. +They seemed very distant and strange to me in this clean air, and the +pavement of St. James's Street, which I had daily trodden, became an +unacceptable thing.</p> + +<p class="normal">About two o'clock of the morning a broad moon rose out of the sea, and +towards daybreak a little ruffing breeze sprang up, and we made a +gentle progress across the bay towards Land's End; but the breeze sank +as the sun came up, and all that day we loitered, gaining a little +ground now and then and losing it again with the turn of the tide. It +was not until the fifth evening that we dropped anchor in the road +between St. Mary's Island and Tresco.</p> + +<p class="normal">I waited until it was quite dark, and was then quietly rowed ashore +with my valise in the ship's dinghy. I landed on Tresco near to the +harbour of New Grimsby. It was at New Grimsby that Dick Parmiter +lived, Clutterbuck had told me, and the first thing I had to do was to +find Dick Parmiter without arousing any attention.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now on an island like Tresco, sparsely inhabited and with no commerce, +the mere presence of a stranger would assuredly provoke comment. I +walked, therefore, very warily towards the village. One house I saw +with great windows all lighted up, and that I took to be the Palace +Inn, where Adam Mayle and Cullen used to sit side by side on the +settle and surprise the visitors by their unlikeness to one another. +There was a small cluster of cottages about the inn with a lane +straggling between, and further away, round the curve of the little +bay, were two huts close to the sea.</p> + +<p class="normal">It would be in one of these that Dick Parmiter lived, and I crept +towards them. There was no light whatever in the first of them, but +the door stood open, and a woman and a man stood talking in the +doorway. I lay down in the grass and crawled towards them, if by any +chance I might hear what they said. For a while I could distinguish +nothing of what they said, but at last the man cried in a clear voice, +"Good-night, Mrs. Grudge," and walked off to the inn. The woman went +in and closed the door. I was sure then that the next cottage was the +one for which I searched. I walked to it; there was a light in the +window and the sound of voices talking.</p> + +<p class="normal">I hesitated whether to go in boldly and ask for Dick. But it would be +known the next morning that a stranger had come for Dick; no doubt, +too, Dick's journey to London was known, and the five men watching the +house on Merchant's Point would be straightway upon the alert. Besides +Dick might not have reached home. I walked round the hut unable to +decide what I should do, and as I came to the back of it a light +suddenly glowed in a tiny window there. I cautiously approached the +window and looked through. Dick Parmiter was stripping off his jersey, +and was alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">I tapped on the window. Dick raised his head, and then put out the +light, so that I could no longer see into the room; but in a moment +the window was slowly lifted, and the boy's voice whispered:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that you, Mr. Mayle?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I drew a breath of relief. I was ahead of Cullen Mayle, though he had +stolen my horse.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," said I; "but I have come on Cullen Mayle's business."</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy leaned out of the window and peered into my face. But voices +were raised in the room beyond this cupboard, and a woman's voice +cried out, "Dick, Dick!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's mother," said Dick to me. "Wait! I will come out to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">He closed the window, and I lay down again in the grass, and waited +there for perhaps an hour. A mist was coming up from the sea and +thickening about the island; the starlight was obscured; wreaths of +smoke, it seemed, came in puffs between myself and the house, and at +last I heard the rustling of feet in the grass.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dick," said I in a whisper, and the lad came to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I remember you," he said. "You were at Lieutenant Clutterbuck's. Why +have you come?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Upon my word," said I, "I should find it difficult to tell you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Indeed, it would have taken me half the night to explain the motives +which had conjoined to this end.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now that you are come, what is it you mean to do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dick," I returned, "you ask the most disconcerting questions. You +tramp up to London with a wild story of a house watched----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You come as a friend, then," he broke in eagerly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As your friend, yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick sat silent for a moment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think so," he said at length.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And here's a trifle to assure you," I said. "Cullen Mayle is not very +far behind me. You may expect him upon Tresco any morning."</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick started to his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you sure of that? You do not know him. How are you sure?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Clutterbuck described him to me. I overtook him on the road, and +stayed the same night with him at an inn. He robbed me and robbed the +landlord. There was a trick at the cards, too. Not a doubt of it, +Cullen Mayle is close on my heels. Are those five men still watching +the house?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. They are still upon Tresco. They lodge here and there with the +fishermen, and make a pretence to burn kelp or to fish for their +living; but their business is to watch the house, as you will see +to-night. There are six of them now, not five."</p> + +<p class="normal">He led me as he spoke towards the "Palace Inn," where a light still +burned in the kitchen. The cottages about the inn, however, were by +this time dark, and we could advance without risk of being seen. Dick +stopped me under the shadow of a wall not ten yards from the inn. A +red blind covered the lower part of the window, but above it I could +see quite clearly into the kitchen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give me a back," whispered Dick, who reached no higher than my +shoulder. I bent down and Dick climbed on to my shoulders, whence he +too could see the interior of the kitchen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That will go," said he in a little, and slid to the ground. "Can you +see a picture on the wall?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And a man sitting under the picture--a squat, squabby man with white +hair and small eyes very bright?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is the sixth man. He came to Tresco while I was in London. I +found him here when I came back two days ago. But I had seen him +before. He had come to Tresco before. His name is George Glen."</p> + +<p class="normal">"George Glen!" said I. "Wait a bit," and I took another look at the +man in the kitchen. "He was quartermaster with Adam Mayle at Whydah, +eh? He is the stranger you brought over to St. Mary's Church on the +day when Cullen Mayle sat in the stocks."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said Dick, and he asked me how I knew.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Clutterbuck told me," I replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">From the inn we walked some few yards along a lane until we were free +of the cottages, and then leaving the path, mounted inland up a hill +of gorse. Dick gave me on the way an account of his journey homewards +and the difficulties he had surmounted. I paid only an indifferent +attention to his story, for I was wholly occupied with George Glen's +presence upon the island. Glen had come first of all to visit Adam +Mayle, and was now watching for Cullen. What link was there between +his two visits? I was inclined to think that George Glen was the clue +to the whole mystery. In spite of my inattention, I gathered this much +however from Dick. That tramp of his to London was well known +throughout the islands. His mother had given him up for dead when he +went away, and had thrashed him soundly when he returned, but the next +day had made him out a great hero in her talk. She did not know why he +went to London, for Dick had the discretion to hold his tongue upon +that point.</p> + +<p class="normal">So much Parmiter had told me when he suddenly stopped and listened. I +could hear nothing, however much I strained my ears, and in a moment +or two Dick began to move on. The mist was very thick about us--I +could not see a yard beyond my nose; but we were now going down hill, +so that I knew we had crossed the ridge of the island and were +descending towards the harbour of New Grimsby and the house under +Merchant's Rock.</p> + +<p class="normal">We had descended for perhaps a couple of hundred yards; then Dick +stopped again. He laid a hand upon my arm and dragged me down among +the gorse, which was drenched with the fog.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush," he whispered; and even as he whispered I saw a sort of brown +radiance through the fog a long way to my left. The next instant a +speck of clear light shone out in the heart of this radiance: it was +the flame of a lantern, and it seemed miles away. I raised myself upon +my elbows to watch it. Dick pulled my elbow from beneath me, and +pressed me down flat in the grass; and it was fortunate that he did, +for immediately the lantern loomed out of the fog not a dozen yards +away. I heard it rattle as it swung, and the man who carried it +tramped by so near to me that if I had stretched out my hand I could +have caught him by the ankle and jerked him off his feet. It was the +purest good fortune that he did not detect us, and we lay very still +until the rustle of the footsteps had altogether died away.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that one of them?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; William Blads. He lodges with Mrs. Crudge next to our cottage."</p> + +<p class="normal">We continued to descend through the gorse for another quarter of an +hour or so until an extraordinary sound at our feet brought us both to +an halt. It was the strangest melancholy screeching sound that ever I +had heard: it was so harsh it pierced the ears; it was so wild and +eerie that I could hardly believe a voice uttered it. It was like a +shrill cry of pain uttered by some live thing that was hardly human. +It startled me beyond words, and the more so because it rose out of +the fog directly at our feet. Dick Parmiter trembled at my side.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quick," he whispered in a shaking voice; "let us go! Oh, let us go!"</p> + +<p class="normal">But he could not move for all his moaning. His limbs shook as though +he had the fever; terror chained him there to the ground. Had I not +known the boy under other circumstances, I should have set him down +for a coward.</p> + +<p class="normal">I took a step forward. Dick caught hold of my arm and muttered +something, but his voice so wavered and gasped I could not distinguish +what he said. I shook his arm off, and again stepped forward for one, +two, three paces. As I took the third pace the ground suddenly sloped, +my feet slipped on the wet grass; I let go of my valise, and I fell to +my full length upon my back, and slid. And the moment I began to slide +my feet touched nothing. I caught at the grass, and the roots of it +came away in my hands. I turned over on my face. Half my body was now +hanging over the edge. I hung for a second by my waist, and as I felt +my waist slipping, I struck out wildly upon each side with my arms. My +right arm struck against a bush of gorse; I seized hold of it, and it +bent, but it did not break. I lifted a knee carefully, set it on the +edge, and so crawled up the slope again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick was lying on his face peering down towards me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My God," said he, "I thought you had fallen;" and reaching out his +hands, he caught both my arms as though he was afraid I should slip +again. "Oh, quick," he said, "let us go!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And again I heard the shrill screech rise up from that hollow into +which I had so nearly fallen. It was repeated and repeated with a +regular interval between--an interval long enough for Dick to +reiterate his eager prayer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It has begun again," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It has never ceased since we first heard it," said Dick, and no doubt +he spoke the truth; only I had been deaf to it from the moment my foot +slipped until now. "Let us go," and picking up my valise he hurried me +away, turning his head as he went, shuddering whenever he heard that +cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it may be some one in distress--some one who needs help."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, no," he cried; "it is no one. I will tell you to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">We skirted the top of the hollow, and once more descended. The fog +showed no sign of clearing, but Parmiter walked with an assured tread, +and in a little time he began to recover his spirits.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We are close to the house," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dick, you are afraid of ghosts," said I; and while I spoke he uttered +a cry and clung to my arm. A second later something brushed past my +hand very quickly. I just saw it for an instant as it flitted past, +and then the darkness swallowed it up.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick blurted out this fable: the souls of dead drowned sailormen kept +nightly tryst on Castle Down.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That was no spirit," said I. "Play the man, Dick. Did you ever meet a +spirit that trod with the weight of a body?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I could hear the sound of feet rustling the grass beneath us. Dick +listened with his hand to his ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The tread is very light," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is because it is a woman who treads."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No woman would be abroad here in this fog at this time," he +protested.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nevertheless, it was a woman; for I saw her, and her dress brushed +against my hand. It was a woman, and you cried out at her; so that if +there is any one else upon the watch to-night, it is very likely we +shall have him upon our heels."</p> + +<p class="normal">That argument sobered him, and we went forward again without speaking +to each other, and only halting now and again to listen. In a very +short while we heard the sea booming upon the beach, and then Dick +stepped forward yet more warily, feeling about with his hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There should be a fence hereabouts," said he, and the next moment I +fell over it with a great clatter. A loud whistle sounded from the +beach--another whistle answered behind us, and I heard the sound of a +man running up from the sand. We both crouched in the grass close by +the palisade, and again the fog saved us. I heard some one beating +about in the grass with a stick, but he did not come near us, and at +last he turned back to the sea.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You see," said Dick, "I told Lieutenant Clutterbuck the truth. The +house is watched."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Devil a doubt of it," said I. "Do you go forward and see if you can +get in."</p> + +<p class="normal">He came back to me in a little space of time, saying that the door was +barred, and that he could see no light through any chink. He had +stolen all round the house; he had rapped gently here and there at a +window, but there was no one waking.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what are we to do now?" said he. "If I make a clatter and rouse +the house, we shall rouse Cullen's enemies, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It would not be wise to put them on the alert, the more particularly +since Cullen Mayle may be here to-morrow. I will go back to the +'Palace' Inn, sleep the night there, and come over here boldly in the +morning." And I got up and shouldered my valise again. But Dick +stopped me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have a better plan than that," said he, "for George Glen is staying +at the 'Palace' Inn. What if you slept in the house here to-night! I +can come over early to-morrow and tell Miss Helen who you are, and why +you have come."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But how am I to get into the house, without you rouse the household?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is a window. It is the window of Cullen Mayle's room. You could +get through it with my help."</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed in many ways the best plan that could be thought of, but +certain words of Clutterbuck's that my meddling at all in the matter +would be nothing but an impertinence came back very forcibly to me. +But I heard Dick Parmiter speaking, and the thought slipped instantly +from my mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I helped Cullen Mayle through the window, the night his father drove +him from the house," said he, "and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's that you say?" I asked eagerly. "The night that Cullen Mayle +was driven from the house, he climbed back into his room!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell me about it, and be quick!" said I. I had my own reason for +urging him, and I listened with all my attention to every word he +spoke. He told me the sequel of the story which Clutterbuck had +related in my lodging at St. James's Street.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was waiting for him outside here on the beach," said he; "and when +the door was closed behind him, he came straight towards me. 'And +where am I to sleep to-night, Dick?' said he. I told him that he could +have my bed over at New Grimsby, but he refused it. 'I'm damned if I +sleep in a rat-hole,' he said, 'when by putting my pride in my pocket +I can sleep in my own bed; and with my help he clambered on to an +outhouse, and so back into his own room."</p> + +<p class="normal">"When did he leave the island, then?" I asked. "The next morning? But +no one saw him go?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," answered Dick. "I sailed him across the same night. About three +o'clock of the morning he came and tapped softly upon my window, just +as you did to-night. It was that which made me think you were Cullen +come back. He bade me slip out to him without any noise, and together +we carried my father's skiff down to the water. I sailed him across to +St. Mary's. He made me swear never to tell a word of his climbing back +into his room."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, he made you swear that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, he said he would rip my heart out if I broke my oath. Well, I've +kept it till to-night. No one knows but you. I got back to Tresco +before my father had stirred."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Cullen?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A barque put out from St. Mary's to Cornwall with the first of the +ebb in the morning. I suppose he persuaded the captain to take him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Parmiter's story set me thinking, and I climbed over the palisade +after him without further objection. He came to a wall of planks; Dick +set himself firmly against it and bent his shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is an outhouse," said he. "From my shoulders you can reach the +roof. From the roof you can reach the window. You can force the catch +of the window with a knife."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will be an awkward business," said I doubtfully, "if I wake the +house."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no fear of that," answered Dick. "With any other window I +would not say no. The other rooms are separated only by a thin +panelling of wood, and at one end of the house you can almost hear a +mouse scamper at the other. Mr. Cullen's room, however, is a room +built on, its inner wall is the outer wall of the house, it is the one +room where you could talk secrets and run no risk of being overheard."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well," said I slowly, for this speech too set me thinking. "I +will risk it. Come over early to-morrow, Dick. I shall cut an awkward +figure without you do," and getting on to his shoulder, I clambered up +on to the roof of the outhouse. He handed my valise to me; I pushed +back the catch of the window with the blade of my knife, lifted it, +threw my leg over the sill and silently drew myself into the room. The +room was very dark, but my eyes were now accustomed to the gloom. I +could dimly discern a great four-poster bed. I shut the window without +noise, set my valise in a corner, drew off my boots and lay down upon +the bed.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_07" href="#div1Ref_07">TELLS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT IN +CULLEN MAYLE'S BEDROOM</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I was very tired, but in spite of my fatigue it was some while before +I fell asleep. Parmiter had thrown a new light upon the business +tonight, and by the help of that light I arrayed afresh my scanty +knowledge. The strangeness of my position, besides, kept me in some +excitement. Here was I quietly abed in a house where I knew no one; +Clutterbuck might well talk about impertinence, and I could not but +wonder what in the world I should find to say if Dick was late in the +morning. Finally, there was the adventure of that night. I felt myself +again slipping down the wet grass and dangling over the precipice. I +heard again that unearthly screeching which had so frightened Dick and +perplexed me, It perplexed me still. I could not for a moment +entertain Dick's supposition of a spirit. This was the middle of the +eighteenth century, you will understand, and I had come fresh from +London. Ghosts and bogies might do very well for the island of Tresco, +but Mr. Berkeley was not to be terrified with any such old-wives' +stories, and so Mr. Berkeley fell asleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">At what precise hour the thing happened I do not know. The room was so +dark that I could not have read my watch, even if I had looked at it, +which I did not think to do. But at some time during that night I woke +up quite suddenly with a clear sense that I had been waked up.</p> + +<p class="normal">I sat up in my bed with my heart beating very quick; and then with as +a little noise as I could I gathered myself up in the shadow of the +bed-hangings, at the head. The fog was still thick about the house, so +that hardly a glimmer of light came from the window. But there was +some one in the room I knew, for I could hear a rustle as of stealthy +movements. And then straight in front of me between the two posts of +the bed-foot, I saw something white that wavered and swayed this way +and that. Only an hour or so before I had been boasting to myself that +I was London-bred and lived in the middle of the eighteenth century. +But none the less my hair stirred upon my head, and all the moisture +dried up in my throat as I stared at that dim white thing wavering and +swaying between the bed-posts. It was taller than any human being that +I had seen. I remembered the weird screeching sound which I had heard +in the hollow; I think that in my heart I begged Dick Parmiter's +pardon for laughing at his fears; I know that I crouched back among +the hangings and shuddered till the bed shook and shook again. And +then it made a sound, and all the blood in my veins stood still. I +thought that my heart would stop or my brain burst. For the sound was +neither a screech like that which rose from the hollow, nor a groan, +nor any ghostly noise. It was purely human, it was a kecking sound in +the throat, such as one makes who gasps for breath. The white thing +was a live thing of flesh and blood.</p> + +<p class="normal">I sprang up on the bed and jumped to the foot of it. It was very dark +in the room, but through the darkness, I could see, on a level with my +face, the face of a woman. Her eyes were open and they stared into +mine. I could see the whites of them; our heads were so near they +almost touched.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even then I did not understand. I wondered what it was on which she +stood. I noticed a streak of white which ran straight up towards the +ceiling from behind her head, and I wondered what that was. And then +suddenly her body swung against my legs. She was standing on nothing +whatever! Again the queer gasping coughing noise broke from her lips, +and at last I understood it. It was a gasp of a woman strangling to +death. That white stiff streak above her head--I knew what it was too. +I caught her by the waist and lifted her up till her weight rested +upon my arm. With the other arm I felt about her neck. A thick soft +scarf--silk it seemed to the touch--was knotted tightly round it, and +the end of the scarf ran up to the cross-beam above the bed-posts. The +scarf was the streak of white.</p> + +<p class="normal">I fumbled at the knot with my fingers. It was a slip knot, and now +that no weight kept it taut, it loosened easily. I slipped the noose +back over her head and left it dangling. The woman I laid down upon +the bed, where she lay choking and moaning.</p> + +<p class="normal">I flung up the window and the cold fog poured into the room. I had no +candle to light and nothing wherewith to light it. But I remembered +that my foot had knocked against a chair to the right of the window, +as I climbed into the room. I groped for the chair and set it to face +the open night. Then I carried the woman to the window and placed her +in the chair, and supported her so that she might not fall. Outside I +could hear the surf booming upon the sand almost within arm's reach, +and the air was brisk with the salt of the sea.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such light as there was, glimmered upon the woman's face. I saw that +she was young, little more than a girl indeed, with hair and eyes of +an extreme blackness. She was of a slight figure as I knew from the +ease with which I carried her, but tall. I could not doubt who it was, +for one thing the white dress she wore was of some fine soft fabric, +and even in that light it was easy to see that she was beautiful.</p> + +<p class="normal">I held her thus with the cold salt air blowing upon her face, and in a +little, she began to recover. She moved her hands upon her lap, and +finally lifted one and held her throat with it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very likely there will be some water in the room," said I. "If you +are safe, if you will not fall, I will look for it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you," she murmured.</p> + +<p class="normal">My presence occasioned her no surprise and this I thought was no more +than natural at the moment. I took my arm from her waist and groped +about the room for the water-jug. I found it at last and a glass +beside it. These I carried back to the window.</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl was still seated on the chair, but she had changed her +attitude. She had leaned her arms upon the sill and her head upon her +arms. I poured out the water from the jug into the tumbler. She did +not raise her head. I spoke to her. She did not answer me. A horrible +fear turned me cold. I knelt down by her side, and setting down the +water gently lifted her head. She did not resist but sank back with a +natural movement into my arms. Her eyes were closed, but she was +breathing. I could feel her breath upon my cheek and it came steadily +and regular. I cannot describe my astonishment; she was in a deep +sleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">I pondered for a moment what I should do! Should I wake the household? +Should I explain what had happened and my presence in the house? For +Helen Mayle's sake I must not do that, since Helen Mayle it surely was +whom I held in my arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">I propped her securely in the chair, then crossed the room, opened the +door and listened. The house was very still; so far no one had been +disturbed. A long narrow passage stretched in front of me, with doors +upon either side. Remembering what Dick Parmiter had told me, I mean +that every sound reverberated through the house, I crept down the +landing on tiptoe. I had only my stockings upon my feet and I crept +forward so carefully that I could not hear my own footfalls.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had taken some twenty paces when the passage opened out to my right. +I put out my hand and touched a balustrade. A few yards farther on the +balustrade ceased; there was an empty space which I took to be the +beginning of the stairs, and beyond the empty space the passage closed +in again.</p> + +<p class="normal">I crept forward, and at last at the far end of the house and on the +left hand of the passage I came to that for which I searched, and +which I barely hoped to find--an open door. I held my breath and +listened in the doorway, but there was no sound of any one breathing, +so I stepped into the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">The fog was less dense, it hung outside the window a thin white mist +and behind that mist the day was breaking. I looked round the room. It +was a large bedroom, and the bed had not been slept in. A glance at +the toilette with its dainty knick-knacks of silver proved to me that +it was a woman's bedroom. It had two big windows looking out towards +the sea, and as I stood in the dim grey light, I wondered whether it +was from one of those windows that Adam Mayle had looked years before, +and seen the brigantine breaking up upon the Golden Ball Reef. But the +light was broadening with the passage of every minute. With the same +caution which I had observed before I stole back on tiptoe to Cullen +Mayle's room. Helen Mayle was still asleep, and she had not moved from +her posture. I raised her in my arms, and still she did not wake. I +carried her down the passage, through the open door and laid her on +the bed. There was a coverlet folded at the end of the bed and I +spread it over her. She nestled down beneath it and her lips smiled +very prettily, and she uttered a little purring murmur of content; but +this she did in her sleep. She slept with the untroubled sleep of a +child. Her face was pale, but that I took to be its natural +complexion. Her long black eyelashes rested upon her cheeks. There was +no hint of any trouble in her expression, no trace of any passionate +despair. I could hardly believe that this was the girl who had sought +to hang herself, whom I had seen struggling for her breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet there was no doubt possible. She had come into the empty +room--empty as she thought, and empty it would have been, had not a +fisher-boy burst one night into Lieutenant Clutterbuck's lodging off +the Strand--when every one slept, and there she had deliberately stood +upon the bed, fastened her noose to the cross-bar and sprang off. +There was no doubt possible. It was her spring from the bed which had +waked me up, and as I returned to Cullen's room, I saw the silk noose +still hanging from the beam.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_08" href="#div1Ref_08">HELEN MAYLE</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A loud rapping on the door roused me. The mist had cleared away, and +out of the open window I could see a long sunlit slope of gorse all +yellow and purple stretching upwards, and over the slope a great space +of blue sky whereon the clouds sailed like racing boats in a strong +breeze. The door was thrust open and Dick Parmiter entered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You keep London hours, sir," said he, standing at the foot of the +bed, and he happened to raise his eyes. "What's that?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>That</i> was the silk scarf still dangling from the cross-bar, and the +sight of it brought back to me in a flash my adventure of the night. +With the clear sunlight filling the room and the bright wind chasing +the clouds over the sky, I could hardly believe that it had really +occurred. But the silk scarf hung between the posts.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My God," I cried out. "What if I had never waked up!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There would have been the sunlight and the wind in the sky as now, +but, facing me, no longer swaying, but still, inert, horrible, I +should have seen--and I clapped my hands over my face, so distinct was +this unspeakable vision to me, and cried out again: "What if I had not +waked up!</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have not waked up very early," said Dick, looking at me +curiously, and recovering my self-possession I hasten to explain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have had dreams, Dick. The strange room! I am barely awake yet."</p> + +<p class="normal">It appeared that I was not the only one to keep London hours that +morning. It was close upon mid-day and Dick had not waked me before, +because he had not before had speech with the mistress of the house. +Helen Mayle had risen late. But she knew now of my presence in the +house and what had brought me, and was waiting to offer me her thanks.</p> + +<p class="normal">In spite of this news that she was waiting, I made my toilette very +slowly. It would be the most awkward, embarrassing meeting imaginable. +How could one bow and smile and exchange the trivial courtesies with a +girl whom one had saved from that silk noose some eight hours before? +With what countenance would she greet me? Would she resent my +interference? Dick, however, had plainly noticed nothing unusual in +her demeanour; I consoled myself with that reflection. He noticed, +however, something unusual here in my room, for as I tied my cravat +before the mirror I saw that he was curiously looking at the silk +scarf.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps you have seen it before," said I without turning round. Dick +started, then he coloured.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was wondering why it hung there," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It <i>is</i> curious," said I calmly, and I stood upon the bed and with +some trouble, for the knots were stiff, I took it down and thrust it +into the pocket of my coat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is yours?" cried Dick.</p> + +<p class="normal">"One silk scarf is very like another," said I, and he coloured again +and was silent. His silence was fortunate, since if he had asked to +what end I had hung it above my bed, I should have been hard put to it +for an answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am ready," said I, and we walked along the passage to the +balustrade, and the head of the stairs where I had crept on tiptoe +during the night.</p> + +<p class="normal">I noticed certain marks, a few dents, a few scratches on the panels of +the wall at the head of the stairs, and I was glad to notice them, for +they reminded me of the business upon which I had come and of certain +conjectures which Dick had suggested to my mind. It was at the head of +the stairs that Adam Mayle had stood when he drove out his son. The +marks no doubt were the marks of that handful of guineas which Cullen +had flung to splatter and sparkle against the wall behind his father's +head. I was glad to notice them, as I say, for the tragical incident +in which I had borne a share that night had driven Cullen Mayle's +predicament entirely from my thoughts.</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw the flutter of a dress at the foot of the stairs, and a face +looked up to mine. It was the face which I had seen on a level with +mine in the black gloom of the night, and as I saw it now in the clear +light of day, I stopped amazed. It wore no expression of +embarrassment, no plea for silence. She met me with a grateful welcome +in her eyes as for one who had come unexpectedly to do her a service, +and perhaps a hint of curiosity as to why I should have come at all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dick has told me of you," she said, as she held out her hand. "You +are very kind. Until this morning I did not even know the reason of +Dick's journey to London. I was not aware that he had paid a visit to +Lieutenant Clutterbuck."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a trifle of awkwardness in her voice as she pronounced his +name. I could not help feeling and no doubt expressing some +awkwardness as I heard it. Lieutenant Clutterbuck had not hesitated to +accuse her of duplicity; I at all events could not but acknowledge +that she was excellently versed in the woman's arts of concealment. +There was thus a moment's silence before I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will accept me I hope as Lieutenant Clutterbuck's proxy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We had no right," she returned, "to expect any service from +Lieutenant Clutterbuck, much less from----" and she hesitated and +stopped abruptly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"From a stranger you would have said," I added.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We shall count you a stranger no longer," she said, with a frank +smile, and that I might not be outdone in politeness, I said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"If Dick had lacked discretion and told you all that he might have +told, you would understand that the obligation is upon my side. For +whereas I do not know that I can render you any service whatever, I do +know that already you have rendered me a great one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is very prettily said," she returned, as she walked into the +parlour.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Truth at times," I answered lightly as I followed her, "can be as +pretty as the most ingenious lie."</p> + +<p class="normal">So that first awkward meeting was past. I took my cue from her +reticence, but without her success. I could not imitate her complete +unconsciousness. It seemed she had no troubles. She sat at the table +in a flow of the highest spirits. Smiles came readily to her lips, and +her eyes laughed in unison. She was pale and the pallor was the more +marked on account of her dark hair and eyes, but the blood came and +went in her cheeks, and gave to her an infinite variety of expression. +I could hardly believe that this voice which was now lively with +contentment was the voice which had uttered that kecking sound in the +night, or that the eyes which now sparkled and flashed were the eyes +which had stared at me through the gloom. No doubt I looked at her +with more curiosity than was convenient; at all events she said, with +a laugh:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I would give much to know what picture Dick painted of me, for if I +may judge from your looks, Mr. Berkeley, the likeness is very unlike +to the original."</p> + +<p class="normal">I felt my cheeks grow hot, and cast about for a reason to excuse my +curiosity. Her own words suggested the reason.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dick told me," I said, "of a woman in great distress and perplexity, +whose house was watched, who dreaded why it was watched----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you find a woman on the top of her spirits," she broke in, and +was silent for a little, looking at the cloth. "And very likely," she +continued slowly, "you are disposed to think that you have been misled +and persuaded hither for no more than a trivial purpose."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I protested. "No such thought occurred to me," and in my anxiety +to free myself from the suspicion of this imputation I broke through +that compact of silence upon which we seemed silently to have agreed. +"I have no reason for pride, God knows, but indeed, Madam, I am not so +utterly despicable as to regret that I came to Tresco and crept into +your house last night. Already,--suppose there was nothing more for +me to do but to wish you a good-morning and betake myself back to +town--already I have every reason to be glad that I came, for if I had +not come----" and I stopped.</p> + +<p class="normal">Helen Mayle listened to me with some surprise of manner at the +earnestness with which I spoke and when I stopped so abruptly, she +blushed and her eyes again sought the table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," she said quietly, "Mr. Berkeley, you have guessed the reason of +my good spirits. If you had not come, a woman in great distress and +perplexity would be wandering restlessly about the house, as she did +yesterday."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her eyes were still fixed upon the table, or she must have remarked my +astonishment and the pretence would at once and for all have been torn +away from between us. I leaned back in my chair; it was as much as I +could do to stifle an exclamation. If I had not come, a woman's spirit +might be wandering to-day restlessly from room to room, but the +woman--I had the silk scarf in my coat-pocket to assure me she would +not.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The distress and perplexity," she continued, "are not done with, but +to-day a hand has been stretched to me out of the dark, and I must +think, to some good end. It could not be otherwise," and she lifted +her eyes to mine. I did not doubt their sincerity. "And--shall I tell +you?" she continued with a frank smile. "I am glad, though I hardly +know why--I am glad that the man who stretched out his hand was quite +unknown to me and himself knew nothing of me, and had not so much as +seen my face. He helps a woman, not <i>one</i> woman. I am more grateful +for that, I take it to be of good augury." And she held her hand to +me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I took the hand; I was tempted to let her remain in her +misapprehension. But sooner or later she would learn the truth, and it +seemed to me best that she should learn something of it from me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Madam," I said, "I should account myself happy if I could honestly +agree, but I fear it was not on a woman's account that I travelled +down to Tresco. Dick I think had something to do with it, but chiefly +I came to do myself a service."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," she answered as she rose and crossed to the window "that may +be. You are here at all events, in the house that is watched" and then +she suddenly called me to her side. "Look," said she, "but keep well +behind the curtain."</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked across the water to a brown pile of rocks which was named +Norwithel, and beyond Norwithel over St. Helen's Pool to the island of +St. Helen's.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you see?" she asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw the bare rock, the purple heather of St. Helen's, to the right a +wide shining beach of Tean, and to the left stretching out into the +sea from the end of St. Helen's a low ridge of rocks like a paved +causeway. I pointed to that causeway.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is the Golden Ball Reef," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," she answered, "Dick told you the story. You would not see the +reef, but that the tide is low. But it is not that I wanted to show +you. See!" and she stretched out her hand towards the rock pile of +Norwithel.</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked there again and at last I saw a man moving on the rocks close +by the sea.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is cutting the weed," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is the pretence," said she. "But so long as he stays there no +one can enter this house without he knows, no one can go out without +he knows."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Unless one goes in or out by the door I used."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That door is within view of the Castle Down. There will be some man +smoking his pipe, stretched on the grass of the Castle Down."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have never spoken to them?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! They wanted nothing of me. They only watch. I know for whom they +watch. I could learn nothing by questioning them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you asked Captain Hathaway's help?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Helen smiled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. What could he do? They do no one any hurt. They stand out of my +way when I pass. And besides--I am afraid. I do not know. If these men +were questioned closely by some one in authority, what story might +they have to tell and what part in that story does Cullen play?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I hesitated for a few moments whether to risk the words which were on +my lips. I made an effort and spoke them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will pardon the question--I have once met Cullen Mayle--and is he +worth all this anxiety?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He had a strange upbringing in this house. There is much to excuse +him in the eyes of any one. And for myself I cannot forget that all +which people say is mine, is more rightly his."</p> + +<p class="normal">She spoke very gently about Cullen, as I had indeed expected that she +would, but with sufficient firmness to prove to me that it was not +worth while to continue upon this strain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the negro?" I asked. "He has not spoken?"</p> + +<p class="normal">For answer she led me up the stairs, and into a room which opened upon +the landing. The negro lay in bed and asleep. The flesh had shrivelled +off his bones, his face was thin and peaked, and plainly his days were +numbered. Helen leaned over the bed, spoke to him and pressed upon his +shoulder. The negro opened his eyes. Never in my life had I seen +anything so melancholy as their expression. The conviction of his +helplessness was written upon them and I think too an appeal for +forgiveness that he had not discharged his mission.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Speak to him," said Helen. "Perhaps a stranger's voice may rouse him +if only to speak two words."</p> + +<p class="normal">I spoke to him as she bade me; a look of intelligence came into the +negro's face; I put a question to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why does George Glen watch for Cullen Mayle?"--and before I had +completed the sentence his eyelids closed languidly over his eyes and +he was asleep. I looked at him as he lay there, an emaciated +motionless figure, the white bedclothes against his ebony skin, and as +I thought of his long travels ending so purposelessly in this +captivity of sleep, I was filled with a great pity. Helen uttered a +moan, she turned towards me wringing her hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And there's our secret," she cried, "the secret which we must know +and which this poor negro burns to tell and it's locked up within him! +Bolts and bars," she burst out, "what puny things they seem! One can +break bolts, one can sever bars, but a secret buried within a man, how +shall one unearth it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">It just occurred to me that she stopped with unusual abruptness, but I +was looking at the negro, I was still occupied with pity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Heaven send my journey does not end so vainly as his," I said +solemnly. I turned to Helen and I saw that she was staring at me with +a great astonishment, and concern for which I could not account.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have a conjecture to tell you of," said I, "I do not know that it +is of value."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let us go downstairs," she replied, "and you shall tell me," but she +spoke slowly as though she was puzzled with some other matter. As we +went downstairs I heard Dick Parmiter's voice and could understand the +words he said. I stopped.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is Dick?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Most likely in the kitchen."</p> + +<p class="normal">When we were come to the foot of the stairs I asked where the kitchen +was?</p> + +<p class="normal">"At the end of that passage across the hall," she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">Upon that I called Dick. I heard a door open and shut, and Dick came +into the hall.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The kitchen door was closed," said I, "I do not know but what my +conjecture may have some value after all."</p> + +<p class="normal">Helen Mayle walked into the parlour, Dick followed her. As I crossed +the hall my coat caught on the back of a chair. Whilst I was +disengaging my coat, I noticed that an end of the white scarf was +hanging from my pocket and that the initials "H. M." were embroidered +upon it. I recollected then how Helen Mayle had abruptly ended her +outcry concerning the bolts and bars, and how she had looked at me and +how she had spoken. Had she noticed the scarf? I thrust it back into +my pocket and took care that the flap of the pocket should hide it +completely. Then I, too, went into the parlour. But as I entered the +room I saw then Helen's eyes went at once to my pocket. She had, then, +noticed the scarf. It seemed, however, that she was no longer +perplexed as to how I came by it. But, on the other hand, it was my +turn to be perplexed. For, as she raised her eyes from my pocket, our +glances crossed. It was evident to her that I had detected her look +and understood it. Yet she smiled--without any embarrassment; it was +as though she thought I had stolen her scarf for a favour and she +forgave the theft. And then she blushed. That, however, she was very +ready to do upon all occasions.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_09" href="#div1Ref_09">TELLS OF A STAIN UPON A WHITE FROCK, AND +A LOST KEY</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Helen drew a chair to the table and waited with her hands folded +before her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dick," said I, turning to the lad, who stood just within the door, +"that oath of yours."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have broken it already," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There was never priest in the world who would refuse to absolve you. +The virtue of it lies in the forswearing. Now!" and I turned to Helen. +"But I must speak frankly," I premised.</p> + +<p class="normal">She nodded her assent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well. I can make a consecutive sort of story, but I may well be +at fault, for my knowledge is scanty, and if I am in error over the +facts, I beg you, Miss Mayle, to correct me. Old Mr. Mayle's talk ran +continually about his wild doings on the Guinea coast, in Africa. +There can be no doubt that he spent some considerable portion of his +life there, and that he managed to scrape together a sufficient +fortune. It is likely, therefore, that he was engaged in the slave +trade, and, to be quite frank, Miss Helen, from what I have gathered +of his manner and style, I am not indisposed to think that he found an +occasional diversion from that pursuit in a little opportune piracy."</p> + +<p class="normal">I made the suggestion with some diffidence, for the old man, whatever +his sins, had saved her life, and shown her much affection, of which, +moreover, at his death he had given her very tangible proofs. It was +necessary for me, however, to say it, for I had nothing but suspicion +to go upon, and I looked to her in some way, either by words or +manner, to confirm or confute my suspicions. And it seemed to me that +she confirmed it, for she simply pressed the palms of her hands to her +forehead, and said quietly,</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are very frank."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no other way but frankness, believe me," I returned. "Now +let us come to that Sunday, four years ago, when Cullen Mayle sat in +the stocks and George Glen came to Tresco. It was you who took George +Glen to St. Mary's Church," I turned to Dick Parmiter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said he. "I was kicking my heels in the sand, close to our +cottage, when he came ashore in a boat. He was most anxious to speak +with Mr. Mayle."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you carried him across to St. Mary's, and he told you, I think, +that he had been quartermaster with Adam Mayle at Whydah, on the +Guinea coast?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did he name the ship by any chance?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He did once, whilst we were at supper," interrupted Helen, "and I +remember the name very well, for my father turned upon him fiercely +when he spoke it, and Mr. Glen immediately said that he was mistaken +and substituted another name, which I have forgotten. The first name +was the <i>Royal Fortune</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>Royal Fortune</i>," said I, thoughtfully. The name in a measure was +familiar to me; it seemed familiar too in precisely this connection +with the Guinea coast. But I could not be sure. I was anxious to +discover George Glen's business with Adam Mayle, and very likely my +anxiety misled me into imagining clues where there were none. I put +the name away in my mind and went on with my conjecture.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now on that Sunday George Glen met Adam Mayle in the churchyard, you, +Miss Mayle, and Lieutenant Clutterbuck were of the party. Together you +sailed across to Tresco. So that George Glen could have had no private +word with Mr. Mayle."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," Helen Mayle agreed. "There was no opportunity."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor was there an opportunity all that afternoon and evening, until +Cullen left the house."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But after Cullen had gone," said she, "they had their opportunity and +made use of it. I left them together in my father's room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The room fitted up as a cabin, where every word they spoke could be +heard though the door was shut and the eavesdropper need not even +trouble to lay his ear to the keyhole."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, that is true," said Helen. "But the servants were in bed, and +there was no one to hear."</p> + +<p class="normal">At that Dick gave a start and a jump, and I cried:</p> + +<p class="normal">"But there was some one to hear. Tell your story, Dick!" and Dick told +how Cullen Mayle had climbed through the window, and how some hours +after he had waked him up and sworn him to secrecy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, do you see?" I continued. "Why should Cullen Mayle have sworn +Dick here to silence unless he had discovered some sort of secret +which might prove of value to himself, unless he had overhead George +Glen talking to Adam Mayle? And there's this besides. Where has Cullen +Mayle been these last two years? I can tell you that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You can?" said Helen. She was leaning across the table, her face all +lighted up with excitement.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. There's the negro above stairs for one thing, Cullen's servant. +For another I met Cullen Mayle on the road as I was travelling here. +He counterfeited an ague, which he told me he had caught on the Guinea +coast. The ague was counterfeit, but very likely he has been on the +Guinea coast."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course," cried Dick.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not a doubt of it," said Helen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So this is my theory. George Glen came to enlist Adam Mayle's help +and Adam Mayle's money, in some voyage to Africa. Cullen Mayle +overheard it, and got the start of George Glen. So here's George Glen +back again upon Tresco, and watching for Cullen Mayle."</p> + +<p class="normal">"See!" cried Helen suddenly. "Did I not tell you you were sent here to +a good end?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But we are not out of the wood yet," I protested. "We have to +discover what it was that Glen proposed to Mr. Mayle. How shall we do +that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"How?" repeated Helen, and she looked to me confidently for the +answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can think of but one way," said I, "to go boldly to George Glen and +make terms with him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Would he speak, do you think?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Most likely not," I answered, and so in spite of my fine conjecture, +we did not seem to have come any nearer to an issue. We were both of +us silent for some while. The very confidence which Helen displayed +stung me into an activity of thought. Helen herself was sunk in an +abstraction, and in that abstraction she spoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are hurt," she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">My right hand was resting upon the table. It was cut in one or two +places, and covered with scratches.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is nothing," said I, "I slipped on the hill yesterday night and +cut it with the gorse;" and again we fell to silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What I am thinking is this," she said, at length. "You overtook +Cullen upon the road, and you reached the islands last night. At any +moment then we may expect his coming."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, that's true," said I, springing up to my feet. "And if Dick will +sail me across to St. Mary's, we'll make a shift to stop him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Helen Mayle rose at that moment from her seat. She was wearing a white +frock, and upon one side of it I noticed for the first time a red +smear or two, as though she had brushed against paint--or blood. I +looked at my hand scratched and torn by the gorse bush. It would have +been bleeding at the time when a woman, coming swiftly past us in the +fog, brushed against it. The woman was certainly hurrying in the +direction of this house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have told me everything, I suppose," I said--"everything at all +events that it concerns me to know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Everything," she replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">We crossed that afternoon to St. Mary's. There was no sign of Cullen +Mayle at Hugh Town. No one had seen him or heard of his coming. He had +not landed upon St. Mary's. I thought it possible that he might not +have touched St. Mary's at all, but rowed ashore to Tresco even as I +had done. But no ship had put into the Road that day but one which +brought Castile soap from Marseilles. We sailed back to Tresco, and +ran the boat's nose into the sand not twenty yards from the door of +the house on Merchant's Point. A man, an oldish, white-haired man, +loitering upon the beach very civilly helped us to run the boat up out +of the water. We thanked him, and he touched his hat and answered with +something of a French accent, which surprised me. But as we walked up +to the house,</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's one of the five," Dick explained. "He came on the boat with +the negro to Penzance. Peter Tortue he is called, and he was loitering +there on purpose to get a straight look at you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," said I, "it is at all events known that I am here," and going +into the house I found Helen Mayle eagerly waiting for our return. I +told her that Cullen Mayle could not by any means have yet reached the +Scillies, and that we had left word with the harbour master upon St. +Mary's to detain him if he landed; at which she expressed great +relief.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And since it is known I am here," I added, "it will be more suitable +if I carry my valise over to New Grimsby and seek a bed at the +'Palace' Inn. I shall besides make the acquaintance of Mr. George +Glen. It is evident that he and his fellows intend no hurt to you, so +that you may sleep in peace."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," said she, bravely enough. "I am not afraid for myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you will do that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What?" she asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sleep in peace," said I; and putting my hand into my pocket as if by +accident, I let her see again the corner of her white scarf. Her face +flushed a little as she saw it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, yes," she answered, and to my surprise with the easiest laugh +imaginable. "I shall sleep in peace. You need have no fear."</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not understand her. What a passion of despair it must have +needed to string her to that act of death last night! Yet to-day--she +could even allude to it with a laugh. I was lost in perplexity, but I +had this one sure thing to comfort me. She was to-day hopeful, however +much she despaired yesterday. She relied upon me to rescue Cullen from +his peril. I was not sure that I should be doing her the service she +imagined it to be, even if I succeeded. But she loved him, and looked +to me to help her. So that I, too, could sleep in peace without fear +that to-night another scarf would be fetched out to do the office this +one I kept had failed to do.</p> + +<p class="normal">I gave Dick my valise to carry across the island, and waited until he +was out of sight before I started. Then I walked to the palisade at +the end of the house. I found a spot where the palisade was broken; +the splintered wood was fresh and clean; it was I who had broken the +palisade last night. From that point I marched straight up the hill +through the gorse, and when I had walked for about twenty minutes I +stopped and looked about me. I struck away to my left, and after a +little I stopped again. I marched up and down that hill, to the right, +to the left, for perhaps the space of an hour, and at last I came upon +that for which I searched--a steep slope where the grass was crushed, +and underneath that slope a sheer descent. On the brink of the +precipice--for that I judged it to be--I saw a broken gorse-bush. I +lay down on my face and carefully crawled down the slope. The roots of +the gorse-bush still held firmly in the ground. I clutched it in my +left hand, dug the nails of my right through the grass into the soil +and leaned over. My precipice was no more than a hollow some twenty +feet deep, and had I slipped yesterday night, I should not have fallen +even those twenty feet; for a sort of low barn was built in the +hollow, with its back leaning against the perpendicular wall. I should +have dropped perhaps ten feet on to the roof of this barn.</p> + +<p class="normal">I drew myself up the hill again and sat down. The evening was very +quiet and still. I was near to the summit of the island. Over my left +shoulder I could see the sun setting far away in the Atlantic, and the +waves rippling gold. Beneath me was the house, a long one-storied +building of granite, on the horn of a tiny bay. The windows looked +across the bay; behind the house stretched that tangled garden, and at +the end of the garden rose the Merchant's Rock. As it stood thus in +the evening light, with the smoke curling from its chimneys, and the +sea murmuring at its door, it seemed quite impossible to believe that +any story of turmoil and strife and tragedy could have locality there. +That old buccaneer Adam Mayle, and his soft-voiced son Cullen, whom he +had turned adrift, seemed the figures of a dream and my adventure in +Cullen's room--a hideous nightmare.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet even as I looked footsteps brushed through the grass behind +me, and turning I saw a sailor with a brass telescope under one arm +and a black patch over one eye; who politely passed me the time of day +and went by. He was a big man, with a great beard and hair sprouting +from his ears and nostrils. He was another of the five no doubt, and +though he went by he did not pass out of sight. I waited, hoping that +he would go, for I had a great desire to examine the barn beneath me +more closely. It was from the barn that the unearthly screeching had +risen which had so terrified Dick Parmiter. It was between the barn +and the house that a girl had brushed against my wounded hand and +taken a stain of blood upon her dress.</p> + +<p class="normal">The hollow was only a break in the steep slope of the hill. The barn +could easily be approached by descending the hill to the right or the +left, and then turning in. I was anxious to do it, to try the door, to +enter the barn, but I dared not, for the sailor was within sight, and +I had no wish to arouse any suspicions. Helen had told me everything, +she had said--everything which it concerned me to know. But had she? I +found myself asking, as I got to my feet and crossed the hill down +towards New Grimsby.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sun had set by this time, a cool twilight took the colour from the +gorse, and numberless small winged things flew and sung about one's +face; all round a grey sea went down to a grey sky, and sea and sky +were merged; and at my feet the lights began to twinkle in the little +fishing village by the sea. I hired a bed at the "Palace" Inn, bade +them prepare me supper and then walked on to Parmiter's cottage for my +valise.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a great hubbub going on within; Dick's voice was explaining, +and a woman's shrill voice overtopped his explanation. The cause of +his offence was twofold. He had not been near the cottage all day, so +that it was thought he had run away again, and the key of the cottage +was gone. It had not been seen since yesterday, and Dick had been +accused of purloining it. I explained to Mrs. Parmiter that it was my +fault Dick had kept away all day, and I made a bargain with her that I +should have the lad as my servant while I stayed upon the island. Dick +shouldered my valise in a state of considerable indignation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What should I steal the key for?" said he. "It only stands in the +door for show. No one locks his door in Tresco. What should I steal +the key for?" and he was within an ace of whimpering.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come, Dick," said I, "you mustn't mind a trifle of a scolding. Why, +you are a hero to everybody in these parts, and to one man at all +events outside them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That doesn't hinder mother from chasing me about with an oar," he +answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is the fate of all heroes," said I, "to be barbarously used by +their womenfolk."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I am damned if I want to be a hero," said Dick, violently. "And +as for the key--of what consequence is it at all if you never lock +your door?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of no more consequence than your bruises, Dick," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I was wrong. You may do many things with a key besides locking a +door. You can slip it down your back to stop your nose bleeding, for +instance; if it's a big key you can weigh a line with it, and perhaps +catch a mackerel for your breakfast. And there's another use for a key +of which I did not at this time know, or I should have been saved from +considerable perplexity and not a little danger.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_10" href="#div1Ref_10">IN WHICH I LEARN SOMETHING FROM AN +ILL-PAINTED PICTURE</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I took my supper in the kitchen of the Palace Inn, with a strong reek +of tobacco to season it, and a succession of gruesome stories to make +it palatable. The company was made up for the most part of fishermen, +who talked always of wrecks upon the western islands and of dead men +drowned. But occasionally a different accent and a different anecdote +of some other corner of the world would make a variation; and doing my +best to pierce the haze of smoke, I recognised the speaker as Peter +Tortue, the Frenchman, or the man with the patch on his eye. George +Glen was there too, tucked away in a corner by the fireplace, but he +said very little. I paid, therefore, but a scanty attention, until, +the talk having slid, as it will, from dead men to their funerals, +some native began to descant upon the magnificence of Adam Mayle's.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay," said he, drawing a long breath, "there <i>was</i> a funeral, and all +according to orders dictated in writing by the dead man. He was to be +buried by torchlight in the Abbey Grounds. I do remember that! Mortal +heavy he was, and he needed a big coffin."</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure he would," chimed in another.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And he had it too," said a third; "a mortal big coffin. We carried +him right from his house over the shoulder of the island, and down +past the Abbey pond to the graveyard. Five shillings each we had for +carrying him--five shillings counted out by torchlight on a gravestone +as soon as the grave was filled in. It was all written down before he +died."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the first speaker took up the tale again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A queer, strange man was Adam Mayle, and queer strange sights he had +seen. He would sit in that corner just where you be, Mr. Glen, and +tell stories to turn a man cold. Crackers they used to call him on +board ship, so he told us--'Crackers.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why Crackers?" asked George Glen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Cause he was that handy with a marlinspike. A queer man! And that +was a queer notion of his about that stick"; and then he appealed to +his companions, who variously grunted their assent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What about the stick?" asked Glen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You may well ask, Mr. Glen. It was all written down. The stick was to +be buried with him in his coffin. It was an old heavy stick with a +great brass handle. Many's the time he has sat on the settle there +with that stick atween his knees. 'Twas a stick with a sword in't, but +the sword was broken. I remember how he loosened the handle once while +he was talking just as you and I are now, and he held the stick upside +down and the sword fell out on to the ground, just two or three inches +of steel broken off short. He picked it up pretty sharp and rammed it +in again. Well, the stick was to be buried with him, so that if he +woke up when we were carrying him over the hill to the Abbey he might +knock on the lid of his coffin."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I doubt if any one would ha' opened the lid if he had knocked," +said one, with a chuckle, and another nodded his head to the +sentiment. "There was five shillings, you see," he explained, "once +the ground was stamped down on top of him. It wasn't quite human to +expect a body to open the lid."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A queer notion--about that stick."</p> + +<p class="normal">And so the talk drifted away to other matters. The fishermen took +their leave one by one and tramped heavily to their homes. Peter +Tortue and his companion followed. George Glen alone remained, and he +sat so quiet in his corner that I forgot his presence. Adam Mayle was +the only occupant of the room for me. I could see him sitting on the +settle, with a long pipe between his lips when he was not holding a +mug there, his mulberry face dimly glowing through the puffs of +tobacco, and his voice roaring out those wild stories of the African +coast. That anxiety for a barbaric funeral seemed quite of a piece +with the man as my fancies sketched him. Well, he was lying in the +Abbey grounds, and George Glen sat in his place.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Glen came over to me from his corner, and I called for a jug of +rum punch, and invited him to share it, which he willingly did. He was +a little squabby man, but very broad, with a nervous twitting laugh, +and in his manner he was extremely intimate and confidential. He could +hardly finish a sentence without plucking you by the sleeve, and every +commonplace he uttered was pointed with a wink. He knew that I had +been over at the house under Merchant's Rock, and he was clumsily +inquisitive about my business upon Tresco.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why," said I, indifferently, "I take it that I am pretty much in the +same case with you, Mr. Glen."</p> + +<p class="normal">At that his jaw dropped a little, and he stared at me utterly +discountenanced that I should be so plain with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As for me," said he in a little, "it is plain enough. And when +you say"--and here he twitched my sleeve as he leaned across the +table--"'here's old George Glen, that battered about the world in +ships for fifty years, and has come to his moorings in a snug harbor +where rum's cheap, being smuggled or stole', says you--well, I am not +denying you may be right;" and here he winked prodigiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And that's just what I said," I returned; "for here have I battered +about London, that's worse than the sea, and ages a man twice as +fast----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Glen interrupted me with some astonishment, and, I thought, a +little alarm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why," says she, "this is no place for the likes of you--a crazy +tumbledown of a tavern. All very well for tarry sailor folk that's +never seen nothing better than forecastle. But you'll sicken of it in +a week. Sure, you have not dropped your anchor here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We'll call it a kedge, Mr. Glen," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A kedge, you say," answered Mr. Glen, with a titter, "and a kedge +we'll make it. It's a handy thing to get on board in a hurry."</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke with a wheedling politeness, but very likely a threat +underlay his words. I thought it wise to take no notice of them, but, +rising from my seat, I wished him good night. And there the +conversation would have ended but for a couple of pictures upon the +wall which caught my eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">One was the ordinary picture which you may come upon in a hundred +alehouses by the sea: the sailor leaving his cottage for a voyage, his +wife and children clinging about his knees, and in the distance an +impossible ship unfurling her sails upon an impossible ocean. The +second, however, it was, which caught my attention. It was the picture +of a sailor's return. His wife and children danced before him, he was +clad in magnificent garments, and to prove the prosperity of his +voyage he carried in his hand a number of gold watches and chains; and +the artist, whether it was that he had a sense of humour or that he +merely doubted his talents, instead of painting the watches, had cut +holes in the canvas and inserted little discs of bright metal.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is a new way of painting pictures, Mr. Glen," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Glen's taste in pictures was crude, and for these he expressed a +quite sentimental admiration.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But," I objected, "the artist is guilty of a libel, for he makes the +sailor out to be a sneak-thief."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Glen became indignant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because he comes home with wealth untold?" he asked grandly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, but because he comes home with watches," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whereupon Mr. Glen was at some pains to explain to me that the watches +were merely symbolical.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the picture's true," he added, and fell to pinching my arm. +"There's many a landsman laughs; but sailors, you says, says you, +'comes home with watches in their 'ands more than they can 'old and +sets up for gentle-folk,' says you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Like old Adam Mayle, I adds," said I; and Mr. Glen dropped my arm and +stood a little way off blinking at me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You knew Adam?" he said, in a fierce sort of way.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you know of him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said I, slowly, "I know of him, but not as much as you do, Mr. +Glen, who were quartermaster with him at Whydah on the ship <i>Royal +Fortune</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">I spoke at random, wondering how he would take the words, and they had +more effect than I had even hoped for. His face turned all of a +mottled colour; he banged his fist upon the table and uttered a +horrible oath, calling upon God to slay him if he had ever set foot on +the deck of a ship named the <i>Royal Fortune</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And when you says, says you," he added, sidling up to me, "Old George +never see'd a <i>Royal Fortune</i>, says you--why, you're saying what's +right and fair, and I thanks you, sir. I thanks you with a true +sailor's 'eart "; at which he would have wrung my hand. But I had no +hand ready for him; I barely heard his words. Whydah--the Guinea +coast--the ship <i>Royal Fortune!</i> The truth came so suddenly upon me +that I had not the wit to keep silence. I could have bitten off my +tongue the next moment. As it was I caught most of the sentence back. +But the beginning of it jumped from my mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"At last I know"--I began and stopped.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What?" said Mr. Glen, with his whole face distorted into an +insinuating grin. But he was standing very close to me and a little +behind my back.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That my father thrashed me over twenty years ago," said I, clapping +my hand to my coat tails and springing away from him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you have never forgotten it," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"On the contrary," said I, "I have only just remembered it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Glen moved away from the table and walked towards the door. Thus +he disclosed the table to me, and I laughed very contentedly. Mr. Glen +immediately turned. He had reached the door, and he stood in the +doorway biting shreds of skin from his thumb.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are in good spirits," said he, rather surlily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was never in better," said I. "The motions of inanimate bodies are +invariably instructive."</p> + +<p class="normal">I was very willing he should think me half-witted. He went grumbling +up the stairs; I turned me again to the picture of the sailor's +return. Whydah--the Guinea coast--the ship <i>Royal Fortune!</i> It may +have been in some part the man's eagerness to deny all knowledge of +the ship; it was, no doubt, in some part the picture of those gold +watches, which awakened my memories. Watches of just such gold were +dangling for sale on a pedler's stall when first I heard of the ship +<i>Royal Fortune</i>. The whole scene came back to me most vividly--the +market-place of an old country town upon a fair day, the carts, the +crowds, the merry-go-rounds, the pedler's stall with the sham gold +watches, and close by the stall a ragged hawker singing a ballad of +the <i>Royal Fortune</i>, and selling copies of the ballad--a ballad to +which was added the last confessions of four men hung for piracy at +Cape Coast Castle within the flood-marks. It was well over twenty +years since that day, but I remembered it now with a startling +distinctness. There was a rough woodcut upon the title-page of the +ballad representing four men hanging in chains upon four gibbets. I +had bought one that afternoon, and my father had taken it from me and +thrashed me soundly for reading it. But I had read it! My memory was +quickened now to an almost supernatural clearness. I could almost turn +over the pages in my mind and read it again. All four men--one of them +was named Ashplant, a second Moody--went to the gallows without any +sign of penitence. There was a third so grossly stupid--yes, his name +was Hardy--so stupid that during his last moments he could think of +nothing more important than the executioner's tying his wrists behind +his back, and his last words were before they swung him off to the +effect that he had seen many men hanged, but none with their hands +tied in this way. The fourth--I could not recall his name, but he +swore very heartily, saying that he would rather go to hell than to +heaven, since he would find no pirates in heaven to keep him company, +and that he would give Roberts a salute of thirteen guns at entrance. +There was the story of a sea-fight, too, besides the ballad and the +confessions and it all cost no more than a penny. What a well-spent +penny! The fourth man's name, by-the-bye, was Sutton.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the sea-fight! It was fought not many miles from Whydah between +His Majesty's ship <i>Swallow</i> and the <i>Royal Fortune</i>; for the <i>Royal +Fortune</i> was sailed by Captain Bartholomew Roberts, the famous pirate +who was killed in this very encounter. How did George Glen or Adam +Mayle or Peter Tortue (for he alone of Glen's assistants was of an age +to have shipped on the <i>Royal Fortune</i>) escape? I did not care a +button. I had my thumb on George Glen, and was very well content.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no doubt I had my thumb on the insinuating George. There was +Adam Mayle's fortune, in the first place; there was Adam's look when +George Glen let slip the name of the ship when he first came to +Tresco; there was Glen's consternation this evening when I repeated it +to him, and there was something more than his convincing than his +consternation--a table-knife.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had come very close to me when I mentioned the <i>Royal Fortune</i>, and +he had stood a little behind me--against the table at which I had +eaten my supper. I had eaten that supper at the opposite side of the +table, and how should a table-knife have crawled across the table and +be now lying so handily on this nearer edge unless George had doubts +of my discretion? Yes, I had my thumb upon him and as I went upstairs +to bed I wondered whether after all Helen would be justified of her +confidence in believing that I had been sent to Tresco to some good +end. Her face was very present to me that night. There was much in her +which I could not understand. There was something, too, to trouble +one, there were concealments, it almost seemed there was a trace of +effrontery--such as Lieutenant Clutterbuck had spoken of; but to-night +I was conscious chiefly that she set her faith in me and my +endeavours. Does the reed always break if you lean upon it? What if a +miracle happened and the reed grew strong because some one--any +one--leaned upon it! I kept that trustful face of hers as I had seen +it in the sunlight, long before my eyes in the darkness of the room. +But it changed, as I knew and feared it would,--it changed to that +appalling face which had stared at me out of the dark. I tried to +drive that picture of her from my thoughts.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I could not, until a door creaked gently. I sat up in my bed with +a thought of that knife handy on the table edge to the grasp of George +Glen. I heard a scuffle of shoeless feet draw towards my door, and I +remembered that I had no weapon--not even a knife. The feet stopped at +my door, and I seemed to hear the sound of breathing. The moon had +already sunk, but the night was clear, and I watched the white door +and the white woodwork of the door frame. The door was in the wall on +my right; it was about midway between the head and the foot of my bed, +and it opened inwards and down towards the foot; so that I should +easily see it opening. But suddenly I heard the stair boards creaking. +Whoever it was then, had merely stopped to listen at my door. I fell +back on my bed with a relief so great as to surprise me. I was +surprised, too, to find myself cold with sweat. I determined to buy +myself a knife in the morning, for there was the girl over at +Merchant's Point who looked to me. I had thus again a picture of her +in the sunlight.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then I began to wonder at that stealthy descent of the stairs. And +why should any one wish to assure himself I slept? This was a question +to be looked into. I got out of bed very cautiously, as cautiously +opened the door and peered out.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a light burning in the kitchen--a small yellow light as of a +candle, but I could hear no sound. I crept to the head of the stairs +which were steep and led directly to the very threshold of the +kitchen. I lay down on the boards of the landing and stretching my +head down the stairs, looked into the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">George Glen had taken the sailor with the watches, down from the wall. +He was seated with the candle at his elbow, and minutely examining the +picture. He looked up towards the stairs, I drew my face quickly back; +but he was gazing in a complete abstraction, and biting his thumb, +very much puzzled. I crept back to bed and in a little I heard him +come shuffling up the stairs. He had been examining that picture to +find a reason for my exclamation. It was a dull-witted thing to do and +I could have laughed at him heartily, only I had already made a +mistake in taking him to be duller-witted than he was. For he was +quick enough, at all events, to entertain suspicions.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_11" href="#div1Ref_11">OUR PLANS MISCARRY UPON CASTLE DOWN</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The next morning, you may be sure, I crossed the hill betimes, and +came down to the house under Merchant's Rock with my good news. I told +her the news with no small elation, and with a like elation she began +to hear it. But as I related what had occurred at the Palace Inn, she +fell into thought, and now smiled with a sort of pride, and now +checked a sigh; and when I came to the knife upon the table's edge she +shuddered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you are in danger!" she cried. "Every minute you are in danger of +your life, and on my account!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nay," said I lightly, "you exaggerate. The best of women have that +fault."</p> + +<p class="normal">But she did not smile. She laid a hand upon my arm, and said, very +earnestly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot have it. I am very proud you count the risk so little, but +you must go."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," said I, "they must go, and we have the means to make them march. +We have but to inform Captain Hathaway at the Garrison that here are +some of Bartholomew Robert's fry, and we and the world will soon be +quit of them for ever."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But we cannot," she exclaimed, "for then it would be known that +my"--she hesitated for a second, or rather she paused, for there was +no hesitation in her voice, as she continued--"my father also was of +the band. It may be justice that it should be known. But I cannot help +it; I guard his memory. Besides, there is Cullen."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was to Cullen that she always came in the end, and with such +excuses as a girl might make who was loyal to a man whom she must know +not to be worth her loyalty. The house in which she lived, the money +which she owned were his by right. She dreaded what story these men, +if captured, might have to tell of Cullen--she could not be persuaded +that Glen and his friends had not a motive of vengeance as well as of +gain,--and that story, whatever it was, would never have been enacted, +had not Cullen been driven penniless from Tresco. It did not occur to +her at all that this house was not Cullen's by any right, but belonged +to the scattered sons of many men with whom the ship <i>Royal Fortune</i> +had fallen in.</p> + +<p class="normal">She repeated her arguments to me as we walked in the grass-grown +garden at the back of the house. A thick shrubbery of trees grew at +the end of the garden, and behind the trees rose the Merchant's Rock. +On one side the Castle Down rolled up towards the sky, on the other a +hedge closed the garden in, and beneath the hedge was the sea. Over +the hedge I could see the uninhabited island of St. Helen's and the +ruined church upon the summit, and a ship or two in St. Helen's Pool; +and this side of the ships the piled boulders of Norwithel. It was at +Norwithel that I looked as she spoke, and when she had done I +continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not propose that we should tell Captain Hathaway, but I can make +a bargain with Glen. I can find out what he wants, and strike a +bargain with him. We have the upper hand, we can afford to speak +freely. I will make a bargain with him to-night, of which one +condition shall be that he and his party leave Tresco and nowhere +attempt to molest Cullen Mayle."</p> + +<p class="normal">But she stopped in front of me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot have it," she said, with energy. "This means danger to you +who propose the bargain."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall propose it in the inn kitchen," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the knife on the table's edge?" she asked; "that too was in the +inn kitchen. Oh, no! no!" she cried, in a voice of great trouble. +There was great trouble too in her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Madam," I said, gently, "I never thought that this would prove a +schoolboy's game. If I had thought so, I should be this instant +walking down St. James's. But you overrate my peril."</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw her draw herself erect.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; it is I who will propose the bargain and make the conditions. It +is I who will charge them with their piracy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will go this morning to the Palace Inn."</p> + +<p class="normal">"George Glen went out this morning before I rose."</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked over to Norwithel.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no one to-day on Norwithel," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall find Peter Tortue on the Castle Down."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I crossed the Castle Down this morning----" and I suddenly +stopped. There had been no one watching on the Castle Down. There was +no one anywhere upon the watch to-day. The significance of this +omission struck me then for the first time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What if already we are quit of them!" I cried. "What if that one tiny +word <i>Royal Fortune</i> has sent them at a scamper into hiding?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Helen caught something of my excitement.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! if it only could be so!" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Most like it <i>is</i> so," I returned. "No man cutting ore-weed upon +Norwithel! No man lounging on the Castle Down! It must be so!" and we +shook hands upon that likelihood as though it was a certainty. We +started guiltily apart the next moment, for a servant came into the +garden with word that Dick Parmiter had sailed round in a boat from +New Grimsby, and was waiting for me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is something new!" said Helen, clasping her hands over her +heart, and in a second she was all anxiety. I hastened to reassure +her. Dick had come at my bidding, for I was minded to sail over to St. +Mary's, and discover if there was anywhere upon that island a record +of the doings of the <i>Royal Fortune</i>. To that end I asked Helen to +give me a letter to the chaplain there, who would be likely to know +more of what happened up and down the world than the natives of the +islands. I was not, however, to allow that I had any particular +interest in the matter, lest the Rev. Mr. Milray should smell a rat as +they say, and on promising to be very exact in this particular and to +return to the house in time for supper, I was graciously given the +letter.</p> + +<p class="normal">I found the Rev. Mr. Milray in his parsonage at Old Town, a small, +elderly man, who would talk of nothing but the dampness of his house +since the great wave which swept over this neck of land on the day of +the earthquake at Lisbon. I left him very soon, therefore, and went +about another piece of business.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had travelled from London with no more clothes and linen than a +small valise would hold. On setting out, I had not considered, indeed, +that I should be thrown much into the company of a lady, but only that +I was journeying into a rough company of fisher-folk. Yesterday, +however, it had occurred to me that I must make some addition to my +wardrobe and the necessity was yet more apparent to-day. I was +pleased, therefore, to find that Hugh Town was of greater importance +than I had thought it to be. It is much shrunk and dwindled now, but +then ships from all quarters of the world were continually putting in +there, so that they made a trade by themselves, and there was always +for sale a great store of things which had been salved from wrecks. I +was able, therefore, to fit myself out very properly.</p> + +<p class="normal">I sailed back to the Palace Inn, dressed with some care, and walked +over to sup at Merchant's Rock--little later perhaps. Helen Mayle was +standing in the hall by the foot of the stairs. I saw her face against +the dark panels as I entered, and it looked very white and strained +with fear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no news of Cullen at St. Mary's," I said, to lighten her +fears; and she showed an extravagant relief, before, indeed, she could +barely have heard the words. Her face coloured brightly and then she +began to laugh. Finally she dropped me a curtsey.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shall I lend you some hair-powder?" she asked, whimsically; and when +we were seated at table, "How old are you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was thirty and more a month ago," said I, "but I think that I am +now only twenty-two."</p> + +<p class="normal">"As much as that?" said she, with a laugh, and grew serious in an +instant. "What did you discover at St. Mary's besides a milliner?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing," said I, "except that the Rev. Milray suffers from the +rheumatics."</p> + +<p class="normal">She remained in the same variable disposition during the whole of that +supper, at one moment buoyant on a crest of light-heartedness and her +eyes sparkling like stars, at another sunk into despondency and her +white brows all wrinkled with frowns. But when supper was over she +went to a cabinet, and taking from it a violin, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, I will play to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">And she did--out in that tangled garden over the sea.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The violin came to the Scillies in a ship that was wrecked upon the +Stevel Rock one Christmas. But the violin will tell you," she said, +with a smile. "My father bought it at St. Mary's and gave it to me, +and an old pilot now dead taught me;" and she swept the bow across the +strings and the music trembled across the water, through the lucent +night, up to the stars, a voice vibrating with infinite wisdom and +infinite passion.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed to me that I had at last got the truth of her. All my +guesses, my suspicions of something like duplicity, even my +recollection of our first meeting were swept out of my mind. She sat, +her white face gleaming strangely solemn under her black wealth of +hair, her white hand flashing backwards and forwards, and she made the +violin speak. It spoke of all things, things most sad and things most +joyous; it spoke with complete knowledge of the heights and the +depths; it woke new, vague, uncomprehended hungers in one's heart; it +called and called till all one's most sacred memories rose up, as it +were from graves, to answer the summons. It told me, I know, all my +life, from my childhood in the country to the day when I set out with +my cadet's portion to London. It sang with almost a pæan of those +first arduous years--set them to a march,--and then with a great pity +told of those eight wasted years that followed--years littered with +cards, stained with drink; years in which, and there was the +humiliation of it, my fellow-drunkards, my fellow-gamblers had all +been younger than myself--years in which I grew a million years old. +That violin told it all out to me, until I twisted in my chair through +sheer shame, and I looked up and the girl's eyes were fixed upon me. +What it was that compelled me to speak I could never tell, unless it +was the violin. But as she looked at me, and as that violin sobbed out +its notes, I cried in a passionate excuse:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You asked me how old I was. Do you know I never was young--I never +had the chance of youth! When the chance came, I had forgotten what +youth can do. That accounts, surely, for those eight years. I was +tired then, and I was never young."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Until to-night," she said quietly, and the music quickened. I suppose +that she was right, for I had never spoken so intimately to any one, +whether man or woman; and I cursed myself for a fool, as one does when +one is first betrayed into speaking of one's secret self.</p> + +<p class="normal">She took the violin from her shoulder, and the glory of the music died +off the sea, but lingered for a little faintly upon the hills. I rose +up to go and Helen drew a breath and shivered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This afternoon," said I, "a brig went out from the islands through +Crow Sound, bound for Milford. I'll wager the five were on it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But if not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's the 'Palace' kitchen."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Speak when there are others by, not within hearing, but within reach! +You will? Promise me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I promised readily enough, thinking that I could keep the promise, and +she walked back with me through the house to the door. There is a +little porch at the door, four wooden beams and a slate roof on the +top, and half a dozen stone steps from the porch to the garden. Helen +Mayle stood in the porch, with her violin still in her hand. She +wished me "Good-night" when I was at the bottom of the steps, but a +little afterwards, when I had passed through the gateway of the +palisade and had begun to ascend the hill, she drew the bow sharply +across one of the strings and sent a little chirp of music after me, +which came to my ears, with an extraordinarily friendly sound. The air +was still hereabouts, though from the motion of the clouds there was +some wind in the sky, and the chirp came very clear and pretty.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a few minutes short of ten when I left the house, and I +set off at a good pace, for I was anxious to keep my promise and +make my bargain with George Glen, quietly in a corner, before the +fishing-folk had gone home to bed. A young moon hung above the crest +of the hill, a few white clouds were gathering towards it, and the +gorse at my feet was black as ink. I walked upwards then steadily. I +had walked for perhaps a quarter of an hour, when I heard a low, soft +whistle. It came to me quite as clearly as the chirp of the violin, +but it had not the same friendly sound. It sounded very lonesome, it +set my heart jumping, it brought me to a stop. For I had heard +precisely that whistle on one occasion before, on the night when I +first crossed this hill with Dick Parmiter down to Merchant's Rock.</p> + +<p class="normal">The whistle had sounded from below me and from no great distance away. +I turned and looked down the slope, but I could see no one. It was +very lonely and very still. Whoever had whistled lay crouched on the +gorse. And then the whistle sounded again, but this time it came from +above me, higher up the slope. Immediately I dropped to the ground. +The gorse which hid them from me might well hide me from them. A few +paces above me the gorse seemed thicker than it was where I lay. I +crawled laboriously, flat upon my face, till I reached this patch. I +forced myself into it, holding my face well down to keep the thorns +out of my eyes, until the bushes were so close I could crawl no +further. Then I lay still as a mouse, holding my breath, listening +with every nerve. I had eluded them before in just this way, but I got +little comfort from that reflection. There had been a fog on that +night, whereas to-night it was clear. Moreover, they had a more urgent +reason now for persevering in their search. I possessed some dangerous +knowledge about them as they were aware--knowledge, too dangerous; +knowledge which would harden into a weapon in my hand if--if I reached +the Palace Inn alive.</p> + +<p class="normal">I lay very still, and in a little I heard the brushing of their feet +through the grass. They were closing down from above, they were +closing up from below; but they did not speak or so much as whisper. I +turned my head sideways, ever so gently, and looked up to the sky. I +saw to my delight that the clouds were over the moon. I buried my face +again in the grass, lest they should detect me by its pallor against +the black gorse. I was very thankful indeed that I had not accepted +that proffered loan of hair-powder--I was dressed in black, too, from +head to foot; I blessed the good fortune which had led me to buy black +stockings at St. Mary's, and, in a word, my hopes began to revive.</p> + +<p class="normal">The feet came nearer, and I heard a voice whisper:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was here." The voice was Peter Tortue's, as I knew from the French +accent, and the next instant a stick fell with a heavy thud not a foot +from my head. If only the clouds hung in front of the moon! Round and +about they tramped--the whole five of them. For in a little they began +in low tones to curse, first of all me, and afterwards Peter Tortue, +who had whistled from below. Let them only quarrel amongst themselves, +I thought, and there's a good chance they will forget the reason of +their quarrel. It seemed that they were well on the road to a quarrel +at last; a man, quite young as I judged from his voice, flung himself +down on the grass with an oath.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But he is here, close to us," said Peter. "I heard the girl thrum +good-night to him on her fiddle, and then I saw him, and followed him, +and whistled."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, it is your business, not mine. Yours and George Glen's," the +other returned. I learned later that his name was Nathaniel Roper. "I +was never on no <i>Royal Fortune</i>, devil damn me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whist, you lousy fool"--and this was George Glen speaking. I am sure +he was winking and pinching the fellow's arm,--"we are all in the same +boat whether we've sailed in the <i>Royal</i>----" and he stopped.</p> + +<p class="normal">All at once there was a dead silence. I have never in my life +experienced anything so horrible as that sudden, complete silence. I +could not see what caused it, for my face was buried in the grass, and +I dared not move. One moment I had a sensation that they were gazing +at my back, and I felt--it is the only way I can express it--I felt +<i>naked</i>. Another moment I imagined it to be a ruse to beguile me into +stirring; and it lasted for ever and ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">At length one sound--not a voice--broke the silence: the man who had +thrown himself down was getting to his feet. But when he had stood up +he made no further movement; he stood motionless, like the others, and +the silence began again and again it lasted for ever and ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">All sorts of tremors began to creep over my body; the muscles of my +back jerked of their own accord. The suspense was driving me mad. I +had to move, I had to see, if only to hinder myself from leaping to my +feet and making a headlong rush. Very slowly I turned my head +sideways; I looked backwards along the ground, until I saw. The moon +had swum out from the clouds, and the five men were standing in +arrested attitudes with their eyes fixed upon something that glittered +very bright upon the ground. I could see it myself through the gorse +glittering and burning white, like a delicate flame, and my heart gave +a great leap within me as I understood what it was. It was a big +silver shoe-buckle that shone in the moonlight, and the shoe-buckle +was on my foot.</p> + +<p class="normal">The game was up. I thought that I might as well make a fight of it +at the last, and I jumped to my feet suddenly, with a faint hope that +the suddenness of the movement might startle them and let me through. +But there was to be no fighting for me that night. It is true that +the men all scattered from about me, but a voice a few yards to my +right thundered, "Stand!" and I stood stock-still, obedient as a +charity-school boy.</p> + +<p class="normal">For Peter Tortue was standing stock still too, with his right arm +stretched out in a line with his shoulder and the palm of his hand +upturned. On the palm of that hand was balanced a long knife with an +open blade, and the moonlight streaked along that blade in flame, just +as it had burned upon my shoe-buckle.</p> + +<p class="normal">George Glen rubbed his hands together.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will lie down, Mr. Berkeley," said he, with his most insinuating +smile. "You will down, 'flat on my face,' says you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I have only just got up," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">Glen tittered nervously, but no one else showed any appreciation of my +sally. I thought it best to lie down flat on my face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cross your hands behind your back," said George Glen, and I knew he +was winking.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Any little thing like that, I am sure," I murmured, as I obeyed. +"Only too happy," and in a trice I was nothing more than a coil of +rope. It cut into my wrists, it crushed my chest, it snaked round my +legs, it bit my ankles.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure," said I, "they mean to send me somewhere by the post."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. George Glen sniggered and mentioned my destination, which was +impolite, though he mentioned it politely; but Roper thumped me in the +small of the back, and thrust my handkerchief into my mouth. So I had +done better to have kept silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Two of the men lifted me up on their shoulders and staggered up hill. +In a moment or two they descended a small incline, and I saw that I +was being carried into the hollow where the shed stood. Glen pushed at +the door of the shed and it fell open inwards. A great cavern of +blackness gaped at us, and they carried me in and set me down +unceremoniously on the floor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Brisk along with that lantern, Nat Roper," said Glen, and the young +fellow who had flung himself down on the grass struck a light and set +fire to the candle. The shed was divided by a wooden partition, in +which was a rickety door hardly hanging on its hinges.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In there!" said Glen, swinging the lantern towards the inner room. My +bearers picked me up again and carried me to the door. One of them +kicked at the door, but it did not yield.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's jammed," said the other, "there's some-thing 'twixt it and the +floor," and raising a great sea boot, he kicked with all his might.</p> + +<p class="normal">I heard a metallic clinking, as though a piece of iron was hopping +across the stone floor, and the door flew open.</p> + +<p class="normal">They carried me into the inner room and set me down against the +partition. There was no furniture of any sort, not even a bucket to +sit upon; there was no window either, a thatched roof rested upon +heavy beams over my head. They placed the lantern at my feet, four of +them squatted down about me, the fifth went out of the shed to keep +watch.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was, after all, not in the inn kitchen of the Palace Inn that any +bargain was to be struck. I could not deny that they had chosen their +place very well. Not a man in Tresco but would give this shed the +widest of berths, and if he saw the glint of this lantern through a +chink, or heard, perhaps, as he was like to do, one loud cry--why, he +would only take to his heels the faster. The ropes, too, made my bones +ache.</p> + +<p class="normal">I would have preferred the kitchen at the Palace Inn.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_12" href="#div1Ref_12">I FIND AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Glen bade Roper take the handkerchief from my mouth, and when that was +done his creased face smiled at me over the lantern.</p> + +<p class="normal">"About the <i>Royal Fortune?</i>" he said smoothly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Peter Tortue nodded, and absently cleaned the blade of his knife upon +the thighs of his breeches. There was no reply for me to make, and I +waited.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were over to St. Mary's to-day?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What did you do there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I bought a pair of silk stockings and some linen."</p> + +<p class="normal">George Glen sniggered like a man that leaves off a serious +conversation to laugh politely at a bad joke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it's true," I cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you speak of the <i>Royal Fortune?</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," and, as luck would have it, I had not--not even to the Rev. Mr. +Milray.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not to a living soul?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you go up to Star Castle?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you speak to Captain Hathaway?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'There's poor old George,' you said. 'Old George Glen,' says you, +'what was quartermaster with Cap'n Roberts on the <i>Royal</i>----'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you mention Peter Tortue?" said the Frenchman.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. Would you be sitting here if I had? There would be a company of +soldiers scouring the island for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's reasonable," said Tortue, and the rest echoed his words. In a +little there was silence. Tortue set to work again with his knife. It +flashed backwards and forwards, red with the candle light as though it +ran blood. It shone in my eyes and dazzled me, and somehow, there came +back to me a recollection of that hot night in Clutterbuck's rooms +when everything had glittered with an intolerable brightness, and Dick +Parmiter had been set upon the table to tell his story. I was vaguely +wondering what they were all doing at this moment in London, +Clutterbuck, Macfarlane, and the rest, when the questions began again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You came back from St. Mary's to New Grimsby?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you tell Parmiter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"From St. Mary's you crossed the island to Merchant's Point?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you tell the girl?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Here a lie was obviously needful, and I did not scruple to tell it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">Peter Tortue leaned forward to me with a shrewd glance in his keen +eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are her lover," he said. "You told her."</p> + +<p class="normal">I lifted my eyes from his knife, looked him in the eyes, and sustained +his glance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not her lover," I said; "that is a damned lie."</p> + +<p class="normal">He did not lose his temper, but repeated:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You told her," and George Glen looked in again with his whole face +screwed into a wink.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You said to her, 'My dear,' says you, 'there's old George,'" and at +that I lost my temper.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I said nothing of the kind," I cried. "Am I a parrot that I cannot +open my lips without old George popping out of them? But what's the +use of talking. Do what you will, I have done. If I had betrayed your +secret, do you think I should be walking home alone, and you upon the +island? But I have done. I had a bargain to strike with you, I thought +to find you all at the inn--but I have done."</p> + +<p class="normal">To tell the truth, I had no longer any hope of life. Glen, for all his +winks and smiles, would stop short of no cruelty. Peter Tortue quietly +polished his knife upon his thigh. He was a big Brittany man, with +shrewd eyes and an unchanging face. The rest squatted and stared +curiously at me. The light of the lantern fell upon their callous +faces, they were lookers-on at a show, of which perhaps, they had seen +the like before, they were not concerned in this affair of the <i>Royal +Fortune</i> nor how it ended.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you told no one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No one."</p> + +<p class="normal">I closed my eyes and leaned back against the partition. I was utterly +helpless in their hands, and I hoped they would be quick. I remember +that I regretted very much I could send no word to the girl at +Merchant's Rock, and that I was very glad she had not delayed her +music till tomorrow night, but both regret and gladness were of a +numbed and languid kind.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then Glen asked me another question, and it spurred my will to +alertness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How did you know that I was quartermaster on the <i>Royal Fortune?</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not remind him that he had let the ship's name drop from his +lips four years ago. It would be as much as to say that Helen had told +me. It would confess that I had spoken with her of the <i>Royal +Fortune</i>. Yet I must answer, and without the least show of hesitation. +I caught at the first plausible reason which occurred to me. I said: +"Cullen Mayle told me," and that answer saved my life. For Glen +remarked, "Yes, he knew," and nodded to Tortue: Tortue lifted the +knife in his hand, and again I closed my eyes. But the next thing I +heard was a snap as the blade shut into the handle, and the next thing +after that Tortue's voice deliberately speaking:</p> + +<p class="normal">"George Glen, you never had the brains of a louse. You can smirk and +wriggle, and you're handy with a weapon, but, you never had no +brains."</p> + +<p class="normal">I opened my eyes pretty wide at that, and I saw that the three younger +faces were now kindled out of their sluggishness. It was that mention +of Cullen Mayle which had wrought the change. These three took no +particular interest in the <i>Royal Fortune</i>, but they had every +interest in the doings of Cullen Mayle, and they now alertly followed +all that Tortue said. George Glen leaned forward.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who's cap'en here, Peter Tortue?" said he. "Was you with us on the +Sierra Leone River? Nat Roper there, Blads, you James Skyrm, speak up, +lads, was he with us?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My son was," said Tortue calmly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what sort of answer is that? 'Tis lucky for you Cap'en Roberts +isn't aboard this shed. He wouldn't have understood that language, not +he--and he wouldn't have troubled you for an explanation neither. +Here's a fine thing, lads! If a man dies, his father, what's been +lying in the lap of luxury at home, is to have his share. That's a +nice new rule for gentlemen adventurers, and not content with his +share, wants to set up for cap'en. I have a good mind to learn you +modesty, Peter, just as Roberts would have learnt you."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was talking quite smoothly, with a grin all over his face, but I +never saw a man that looked so dangerous. Peter Tortue, however, was +in no way discomposed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, you blundering fool," he answered, "where would you ha' been but +for me? No, I wasn't on the Sierra Leone River with you, or you +wouldn't be eating your hearts and your pockets empty upon Tresco. No, +I am not your captain, or you wouldn't never have lost track of Cullen +Mayle at Wapping."</p> + +<p class="normal">There were four faces now alertly watching Peter Tortue, and the +fourth was mine. It was not merely that my life hung upon his +predominance, but there was the best of chances now that I might get +to the bottom of the mystery of their watching.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You talk of Roberts," he continued, "well you're not the only man +that knew Roberts, and would Roberts have let Cullen Mayle slip +through his fingers--at Wapping too? Good Lord, it makes me sick to +look at you, George Glen!" and he turned to Roper, "Who was it found +the track for you; was it him or me?" he cried. "Who was it found the +nigger and sailed from the port o' London to Penzance, ay, and would +ha' found out the nigger's message if he hadn't had the sickness on +him. Was it him or was it me? Why the nigger knowed you all! Would he +ha' sailed to Penzance on that boat if he had seen a face on board +that he had known? not he."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's true," said Roper.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who brought you all to Tresco, eh? Who hindered you from rushing the +house, ay, hindered you in the face of your captain, and a deal you'ld +ha' found if you had rushed the house. A lot he knows, your captain. +P'raps he thought Adam Mayle was the man to leave a polite note on his +mantelshelf, telling us where to look. Who told you to wait for Cullen +Mayle?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"We have waited," answered Glen. "How long are we to wait? Where is +Cullen Mayle?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Peter Tortue threw up his hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No wonder you all dry in the sun at the end of it," he cried, "my +word! We haven't got Cullen Mayle, but haven't we got the man as knows +him? What's he doing at Tresco if he wasn't sent by Cullen Mayle who +daren't show his face because we're here? Not worth my share, ain't I? +and you that can't add two and two! See here! Dick Parmiter goes to +London, don't he? He goes after the nigger come; what for, but to find +Cullen Mayle, and say as we're here? He knows where Cullen's to be +found, and down comes the stranger here. And we ha' got him tucked up +comfortable, and we know tricks that Roberts taught us to make him +speak, don't we? And you want to jab a knife into him. You make me +sick, George Glen--fair sick! Suppose you do jab a knife into him, and +bury him here under the stones, do you think the girl'll take it quite +easy and natural? Or will you go down the hill and rush the house? And +then if you please, what'll you all be doing to-morrow? Well, you are +captain, George Glen, but what has your crew to say to this? Come! Am +I to talk to Mr. Berkeley, or will you set your own course, and steer +for execution dock?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no hesitation in the answer. With one accord they leaned to +Tortue's proposal.</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not see that I was in a much better case. Tortue was to put to +me questions, the very questions which I wished to ask, and I was +expected to answer them. I should have to answer them if I was to come +off with my life. The men sat hungrily about me awaiting my answers. +It would not take them long to discover that I was tricking them, that +I had no knowledge whatever about their concerns beyond that one +dangerous item that Glen and Tortue had sailed on the <i>Royal Fortune</i>, +and when that discovery was made, why, out of mere resentment they +would let Glen have his way.</p> + +<p class="normal">However, I was still alive, and the girl was still at Merchant's +Point. These men were plainly growing impatient of their long stay +upon the island; and once I was out of the way, who was to stand +between them and the girl?</p> + +<p class="normal">I summoned my wits together, and ran quickly over my mind what I did +know. I had a few fresh hints from Tortue's arguments to add to my +knowledge. I knew why they were watching for Cullen Mayle. He was to +show them where to look for something. It was that something about +which Glen had talked to Adam Mayle the night Cullen was driven away; +Cullen had overheard, and he had gone out in search of it to the +Sierra Leone River. Glen and his companions had done likewise. It was +in some degree apparent now what that something was: namely, treasure +of some sort from the Royal Fortune, and buried on the banks of the +Sierra Leone River. They had not found it, and their presence here, +and certain words, told me why. Adam Mayle had been first with them.</p> + +<p class="normal">So much I could venture to think of. For the rest I must wait upon the +questions; and, fortunately for me. Glen was a man of much garrulity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You spoke of a bargain," said Tortue. "What do you propose?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Halves!" said I, as bold as brass.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was an outcry against the proposal, and it mightily relieved me, +for it proved to me I was right. It was treasure they were after, but +of what kind? I had now to puzzle my brains over that. Was it specie? +Hardly, I thought, for Adam Mayle would not have hidden money upon +Tresco. Was it a treasure of jewels, then?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Halves," said George Glen with a titter. "A very good proposal, Mr. +Berkeley, by daylight, with a company of soldiers within call."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jewels, I thought: yes, jewels--jewels that might be recognized, +jewels that Adam Mayle would keep hidden to himself so long as there +was no pressing need to dispose of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As it is," continued Glen, "we take all, but we give you your life. +That's a fair offer."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, that's fair," said Roper.</p> + +<p class="normal">I hazarded it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well," said I. "You can find your jewels for yourselves."</p> + +<p class="normal">I expected an explosion of wrath; I met with only mute surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jewels!" said Roper at length.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, isn't the cross thick with them?" said Tortue to Roper.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It wouldn't be of much use to us without," sniggered Glen. "Lord, but +that was a clever stroke of Roberts'--the cleverest thing he ever +done. Right under the guns of the African Comp'ny's fort she lay in +Sierra Leone harbour--a Portuguese ship of twenty guns. At a quarter +to eleven there was her crew, as many as might be--we could hear 'em +singing and laughing as we pulled across the water to 'em--and at ten +minutes past three there wasn't a mother's son of them all alive; and +no noise, mind you. Rich she was, too. Sugar--we had run short of +sugar for our punch, and welcome it was--sugar, skins, tobacco, ninety +thousand moidors, and this cross with the diamonds for the King of +Portugal. Roberts himself said he had never seen stones like it, and +he was a good judge of stones was Roberts. He was quick, too. Why, +we had that cross on the dinghy and were well up the Sierra Leone +River before daybreak, just the three of us--Roberts, me, and Adam +Mayle--Kennedy he called himself then, being a gentleman born and with +more sense than the rest of us. He buried the cross, two days sail up +the Sierra Leone River, and Roberts made a chart of its bearings. He +gave it to me on the deck of the <i>Royal Fortune</i> when he was mortally +wounded, and I kept it all the time we were in prison. I showed it to +Adam Mayle when we escaped, but we had no means to get at it--at +least, I hadn't. Adam, he was a gentleman born, and had got his +savings placed all safe in his own name."</p> + +<p class="normal">I hoped Glen would go on in this strain until my slip was forgotten. I +was, besides, acquiring information. But Roper cut him short.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was a cross--it wasn't jewels," said he, suspiciously; and +suddenly Tortue interrupted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Halves' was what you said, I think," he remarked, rather quickly, +and I could almost have believed that he was trying to cover up my +mistake. I took advantage of his interruption as quickly as he had +made it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Half for you, half for Cullen," said I; and immediately Tortue flung +out in an extravagant passion. He threatened me, he threatened Cullen, +he opened his knife and gesticulated, he cursed, until I began to +wonder: was he acting? Was this anger a pretence to divert attention +finally from my unlucky guess? I could not be sure. I could conceive +no reason for such a pretence. But certainly, whether he intended it +or not, he brought about that result; for his companions began to fear +he would make an end of me before they had got the information where +the cross was hid, and so busied themselves with appeasing him. He +permitted himself at the last to be appeased, and George Glen took up +the argument.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look you here, Mr. Berkeley," said he, "we're reasonable men, and +it's no more than fair you should be reasonable too, seeing as how you +are uncomfortably placed. That was took up by Adam Mayle, and he never +meant his son to finger it. 'A damned ungrateful, supercilious whelp,' +says he to me in the lad's own bedroom; yes, in his own bedroom"--for, +as may be imagined, I had started. Here was the explanation of how +Cullen discovered George Glen's business. I hoisted myself up against +the partition as well as I could. How I prayed that Glen would go on! +He was sufficiently garrulous, if only he was not interrupted, and he +was arguing for all of them. "'A damned ungrateful, supercilious +whelp,' he said; 'and George,' said he, as I read out the chart, 'I'd +sooner let the cross rot to pieces in the Sierra Leone mud than fetch +it home for him to have a share of. I've enough for myself and the +girl. I'll not stir a finger,' says he, 'and if it was here now I'd +have it buried with me.' Those were his very words, which he spoke to +me not half an hour after he had driven Cullen from the house, and in +the lad's own bedroom, where we couldn't be overheard."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you were overheard," said I, "Cullen Mayle overheard you." Glen +jumped on to his feet, his mouth dropped, he stood staring at me in a +daze, and then he thumped one fist down into the palm of the other.</p> + +<p class="normal">"By God it's true," he said, "he was in the curtains."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He was in bed," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"By God it's true," repeated Glen, and he sat down again on the floor. +"So that's how Cullen Mayle found out. I was mightily astonished to +find him at Sierra Leone on the same business as ourselves. But it's +true. I remember there was a noise, and I cried out, 'What's that?' +with a sort of jump, and Adam he says, pleasant like, 'It's the +hangman, George;' but it wasn't, it was Cullen Mayle."</p> + +<p class="normal">I think that every one laughed as Glen ended, except myself. I could +even at that moment, but be sensible what a strange picture it made; +those two old ruffians sitting over against each other in the bedroom, +and Cullen waked up from his sleep in bed to lie quiet and overhear +them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you see, it isn't reasonable Cullen should have half since his +father never meant him to have any," he continued.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But without Cullen you would get nothing at all," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not since we have you?"--and then I made a slip--I answered: "But +Cullen Mayle told me where the cross is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But Cullen Mayle doesn't know," said Roper, "else would he have gone +hunting to Sierra Leone for it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Told him where to look for the plan, he means." Tortue interrupted +again. This time I could not mistake. He glanced at me with too much +significance. For some reason, he was standing my friend.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course," said I, "where to look for the plan."</p> + +<p class="normal">So it was a plan they needed, a plan of the spot where Adam Mayle had +buried the cross. Where could that plan be, in what unlikely place +would Adam have hid it?</p> + +<p class="normal">I ran over my mind the rooms, and the furniture of the house. There +was no bureau, no secretaire. But I had to make up my mind. This last +slip had awakened my captor's suspicions. The faces about me menaced +me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, where is the plan?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I thought over all that Glen had said to-night--was a clue to be got +there?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I haven't it," said I, to gain time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But where are we to look for it?" again asked Roper, and he put his +hand in his coat-pocket.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Speak up," said Tortue, and I read his meaning in the glance of his +eyes. He meant--"Name some spot, any spot!" But I knew! It had come +upon me like an inspiration, I had no shadow of doubt where that plan +was. I said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where are you to look for the plan? Glen has told you. Adam Mayle +would rather have had the cross buried with him than that Cullen +should have it. He couldn't have the treasure buried with him, but he +could and did the plan. Look in Adam Mayle's grave. You will find a +stick with a brass handle to it--a sword stick, but the sword's broken +off short. In the hollow of that stick you'll find the plan." Tortue +nodded at me with approval. The rest jumped up from the ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We have time to-night," said Roper, and stretching out a hand he +pulled my watch from my fob. "It is eleven o'clock," and he put the +watch in his own pocket. "Where's Adam Mayle buried?" asked another.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In the Abbey Grounds," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But we want spades," objected Tortue, "we want a pick."</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are here," said Glen, with an evil smile, "we had them ready," +and he grinned at me. "Mr. Berkeley comes with us, I think," said he +smoothly, "untie his legs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said Roper with an oath. He was in a heat of excitement. "And +if he has told us wrong, good God, we'll bury him with Adam Mayle."</p> + +<p class="normal">But I had no doubt that I was right. I remembered what Clutterbuck had +told me of Adam's vindictiveness. He would hide that plan if he could, +and he could have chosen no surer place. No doubt he would have +destroyed that plan when he knew that he was dying, but he was struck +down with paralysis, and could not stir a finger. He could only order +the stick to be buried with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">They unfastened my legs. Roper blew out the lantern, and we went out +of the shed, on to the hillside. Glen despatched Blads upon some +errand, and the man hurried up the hill towards New Grimsby. Glen +leisurely walked along the slope of the hill. I followed him, and the +rest behind me. The moon had gone down, and the night, though clear +enough, was dark. We walked on for about five minutes, until some one +treading close upon my heels suddenly tripped me up. My hands were +still tied behind my back, so that I could not save myself from a +fall. But Tortue picked me up, and as he did so whispered in my ear:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is the plan there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I answered, "Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">I would have staked my life upon it; in fact, I was staking my life +upon it.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_13" href="#div1Ref_13">IN THE ABBEY GROUNDS</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">We kept along the ridge of hill towards the east of the island, and +met no one, nor, indeed, were we likely to do. I could look down on +either side to the sea. I saw the cottages on the shore of New Grimsby +harbour on the one side, and on the other the house at Merchant's +Point, and the half-dozen houses scattered on the grass at Old +Grimsby, that went by the name of Dolphin Town, and nowhere was there +a twinkle of light.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tresco was in bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">We descended a little to our left, and rounded the shoulder of the +hill at the eastern end of the island, through a desolate moorland of +gorse; but once we had rounded the shoulder, we were in an instant +amongst trees of luxuriant foliage, and in a hollow sheltered from the +winds. The Abbey ruins stood up from a small plateau in the bosom of +the trees, its broken arches and columns showing very dismal against +the sky, and everywhere fragments of crumbling wall cropped up +unexpected through the grass.</p> + +<p class="normal">The burial ground was close to an eel pond, which glimmered below, +nearer to the sea, and a path overgrown with weeds wound downwards to +the graves.</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not tell in which corner Adam Mayle was buried, so Roper was +sent forward with the lantern to look amongst the headstones. For half +an hour he searched; the flame of the candle danced from grave to +grave as though it were the restless soul of some sinner buried there. +The men who remained with me grew impatient, for opposite to us, +across the road, lay St. Mary's and the harbour of Hugh Town; and on +this clear night the speck of light in the Abbey grounds would be +visible at a great distance. I was beginning to wonder whether Adam +had a headstone at all to mark his resting-place, when a cry came +upwards to our ears and the lantern was swung aloft in the air.</p> + +<p class="normal">One loud, unanimous shout answered that cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come," shouted Glen, and seizing hold of the end of the rope where it +went round my chest, he began to run down the path. The others jostled +and tumbled after him in an extreme excitement. All discretion was +tossed to the winds. They laughed, shouted, and leaped while they ran +as though they already had the cross in their keeping. What with Glen +tugging at the end in front and the others pushing and thrusting at me +from behind, it was more than I could do to keep my feet. Twice I fell +forward on my knees and brought them to a stop. Glen turned upon me in +a fury.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Loose his hands then, George," said Tortue.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," returned George, with an oath, and he plucked on the rope until +somehow I stumbled on to my feet, and we all set to running again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Things were taking on an ugly look for me. Those men were growing ten +times more savage since the grave had been discovered; they were in a +heat of excitement. In their movements, in their faces, in their +words, a violent ferocity was evident. They had made their bargain +with me, but would they keep it once they had the plan in their hands? +I had no doubt their arrangements were made for an instant departure +from the islands. One could not be a day upon Tresco without hearing +some hint of the luggers which did a great smuggling trade between +Scilly and the port of Roscoff in Brittany. No doubt Glen and Tortue +had made their account with one of these to carry them into France. I +was the more sure of this when Blads returned. I could not but think +he had been sent so that a boat might be ready, and it seemed unlikely +they would leave me alive behind them when the mere scruple of a +bargain only held their hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">We were now come to the grave. It had a headstone but no slab to cover +it; only a boulder from the seashore by which Adam had lived was with +a pretty fancy imposed upon the mound.</p> + +<p class="normal">Roper hung the lantern on to a knob of the headstone; and already Glen +had snatched the pick and thrust it under the boulder. It needed but +one heave upon the pick, and the boulder tottered and rolled from the +grave with a crash. It stopped quite close to my feet. I looked at it, +then I looked at the grave, and from the grave to the sailors. But +they had noticed nothing; they were already digging furiously at the +grave. In their excitement they had noticed nothing; even Tortue was +kneeling in the lantern-light watching the gleam of the spades, +sensible of nothing but that each shovelful cast up on the side +brought them by a shovelful nearer to their prize. And they dug with +such furious speed, taking each his turn, each anticipating his turn! +For before one man had stepped, dripping with sweat from the trench, +another had leaped in, and the spade fell from one man's grasp into +the palm of another. Once a spade jarred upon a piece of rock, and the +man who drove it into the earth cursed. I had a sudden flutter of hope +that the spade was broken, and that by so much the issue would be +delayed, but the digger resumed his work. I looked over to St. Mary's, +but the town was quiet; one light gleamed, it was only the light at +the head of the jetty. And even in Tresco such infinitesimal chance of +interruption as there had ever been had disappeared. For the men had +ceased even from their oaths. There was not even a whisper to be +shared amongst them; there was no sound but the laboured sound of +their breathing. They worked in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had no longer any hope. I saw now and again Roper, as he slapped +down a spadeful of earth beside me, look with a grim significant smile +at me, and perhaps his fellow would catch the look and imitate it. I +noticed that George Glen, as he took down the lantern from time to +time and held it over the trench, would flash it towards me; and he, +too, would smile and perhaps wink at Roper in the trench. The winks +and smiles were easy as print to read. They were agreeing between +themselves: the unspoken word was going round; they did not mean to +keep their part of the bargain, and when they left the Abbey grounds +the mound upon Adam's grave would be a foot higher than when they +entered them.</p> + +<p class="normal">But this unspoken understanding had no longer any power to frighten +me. I tried to catch Peter Tortue's attention; I shuffled a foot +upon the ground; but he paid no heed. He was on all fours by the +grave-side peering into the trench, and I dared not call to him. I +wanted to contradict what I had said outside the shed upon the +hillside. I wanted to whisper to him:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The plan you search for is not there."</p> + +<p class="normal">If they were meaning to break their part of the bargain it mattered +very little, for I was unable to keep mine.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had suspected that from the moment the boulder was uprooted; I knew +it a moment after the lantern was hung upon the headstone. The stone +had rested on that grave for two years, yet at the fresh pressure of +the pick it had given and swayed and rolled from its green pedestal. +It had tumbled at my feet, and there was not even a clot of earth or a +pebble clinging to it. Moreover, on the grave itself there was grass +where it had rested. For all its weight, it had not settled into the +ground or so much as worn the herbage. Yet it had rested there two +years!</p> + +<p class="normal">The lantern was hung upon the headstone, and its light showed to me +that close to the ground the headstone had been chipped. It was as +though some one had swung a pick and by mistake had struck the edge of +the headstone. Moreover, whoever had swung the pick had swung it +recently. For whereas the face of the granite was dull and +weatherbeaten, this chipped edge sparkled like quartz.</p> + +<p class="normal">The aspect of the grave itself confirmed me. Some pains had been taken +to replace the sods of grass upon the top, but all about the mound, +wherever the lantern-light fell, I could see lumps of fresh clay.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grave had been opened, and recently--I did not stop then to +consider by whom--and secretly. It could have been opened but for the +one reason. There would be no plan there for Glen to find.</p> + +<p class="normal">Roper uttered an exclamation and stopped digging. His spade had struck +something hard. Glen lowered the lantern into the trench, and the +light struck up on to his face and the face of the diggers.</p> + +<p class="normal">I hazarded a whisper to Tortue, and certainly no one else heard it, +but neither did Tortue. Roper struck his spade in with renewed vigour, +and a stifled cry which burst at the same moment from the five mouths +told me the coffin-lid was disclosed. I whispered again the louder:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tortue! Tortue!" and with no better result.</p> + +<p class="normal">The pick was handed down at Roper's call. I <i>spoke</i> now, and at last +he heard. He turned his head across his shoulder towards me, but he +only motioned me to silence. The pick rang upon wood, and now I +called:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tortue! Tortue!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Still no one but Tortue heard. This time, however, he rose from his +knees and came to me. Glen looked up for an instant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"See that he is fast!" he said, and so looked back into the grave.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" asked Tortue.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The plan has gone. Loose my hands!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I could no longer see Roper; he had stooped down below the lip of the +trench.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gone!" said Tortue. "How?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Some one has been here before you, but within this last week, I'll +swear. Loose my hands."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Some one!" he exclaimed savagely. "Who? who?" and he shook me by the +arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Swear it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do. Loose my hands."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Remember it is I who save you."</p> + +<p class="normal">His knife was already out of his pocket; he had already muffled it in +his coat and opened it; he was making a pretence to see whether the +end was still fast. I could feel the cold blade between the rope and +my wrist, when, with a shout. Roper stood erect, the stick in one +hand, a sheet of paper flourishing in the other.</p> + +<p class="normal">He drew himself out of the trench and spread the paper out on a pile +of clay at the graveside. Glen held his lantern close to it. There +were four streaming faces bent over that paper. I felt a tug at my +wrists and the cord slacken as the knife cut through it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take the rope with you," whispered Tortue.</p> + +<p class="normal">The next moment there were five faces bent over that paper.</p> + +<p class="normal">"On St. Helen's Island," cried Glen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me see!" exclaimed Tortue, leaning over his shoulder. +"Three--what's that?--chains. Three chains east by the compass of the +east window in the south aisle of the church."</p> + +<p class="normal">And that was the last I heard. I stepped softly back into the darkness +for a few paces, and then I ran at the top of my speed westwards +towards New Grimsby, freeing my arms from the rope as I ran. Once I +turned to look back. They were still gathered about that plan; their +faces, now grown small, were clustered under the light of the lantern, +and Tortue, with his flashing knife-blade, was pointing out upon the +paper the position of the treasure. Ten minutes later I was well up +the top of the hill. I saw a lugger steal round the point from New +Grimsby and creep up in the shadow towards the Abbey grounds.</p> + +<p class="normal">I spent that night in the gorse high up on the Castle Down. I had no +mind to be caught in a trap at the Palace Inn.</p> + +<p class="normal">From the top of the down, about an hour later, I saw the lugger come +round the Lizard Point of Tresco and beat across to St. Helen's. As +the day broke she pushed out from St. Helen's, and reaching past the +Golden Ball into the open sea, put her tiller up and ran by the +islands to the south.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no longer any need for me to hide among the gorse. I went +down to the Palace Inn. No one was as yet astir, and the door, of +course, was unlocked. I crept quietly up to my room and went to bed.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_14" href="#div1Ref_14">IN WHICH PETER TORTUE EXPLAINS HIS +INTERVENTION ON MY BEHALF</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">As will be readily understood, when I woke up the next morning I was +sensible at once of a great relief. My anxieties and misadventures of +last night were well paid for after all. I could look at my swollen +wrists and say that without any hesitation, the watchers had departed +from their watching, and what if they had carried away the King of +Portugal's great jewelled cross? Helen Mayle had no need of it, +indeed, her great regret now was that she could not get rid of what +she had; and as for Cullen, to tell the truth, I did not care a snap +of the fingers whether he found a fortune or must set to work to make +one. Other men had been compelled to do it--better men too, deuce take +him! We were well quit of George Glen and his gang, though the price +of the quittance was heavy. I would get up at once, run across to +Merchant's Point, and tell Helen Mayle---- My plans came to a sudden +stop. Tell Helen Mayle precisely what? That Adam Mayle's grave had +been rifled?</p> + +<p class="normal">I lay staring up at the ceiling as I debated that question, and +suddenly it slipped from my mind. That grave had been rifled before, +and quite recently. I was as certain of that in the sober light of the +morning as I had been during the excitement of last night. Why? It was +not for the chart of the treasure, since the chart had been left. And +by whom? So after all, here was I, who had waked up in the best of +spirits too, with the world grown comfortable, confronted with +questions as perplexing as a man could wish for. It was, as Cullen +Mayle had said, at the inn near Axminster, most discouraging. And I +turned over in bed and tried to go to sleep, that I might drive them +from my mind. I should have succeeded too, but just as I was in a doze +there came a loud rapping at the door, and Dick Parmiter danced into +the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are gone, Mr. Berkeley," he cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know," I grumbled; "I saw them go," and stretched out my arms and +yawned.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, you have hurt your wrist," Dick exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," said I, "it was George Glen's shake of the hand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are gone," repeated Dick, gleefully, "all of them except Peter +Tortue."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's that?" I cried, sitting up in the bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"All of them except Peter Tortue."</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure," said I, scratching my head.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now what in the world had Peter Tortue remained behind for? For no +harm, that was evident, since I owed my life to his good offices last +night. I was to remember that it was he who saved me. I was, then, to +make some return. But what return?</p> + +<p class="normal">I threw my pillow at Parmiter's head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Deuce take you, Dicky! My bed was not such a plaguey restful place +before that it needed you to rumple it further. Well, since I mayn't +sleep late i' the morning like a gentleman, I'll get up."</p> + +<p class="normal">I tried to put together some sort of plausible explanation which would +serve for Helen Mayle while I was dressing. But I could not hit upon +one, and besides Parmiter made such a to-do over brushing my clothes +this morning that that alone was enough to drive all reasoning out of +one's head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dick," said I as he handed me my coat, "you have had, if my memory +serves me, some experience of womenfolk."</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick nodded his head in a mournful fashion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother!" said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Precisely," said I. "Now, here's a delicate question. Do you always +tell womenfolk the truth?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," said he, stoutly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you tell them--shall we say quibbles,--then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quibbles?" said Dick, opening his mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not a fruit, Dicky," said I, "so you need not keep it open. By +quibbles I mean lies. Do you tell your womenfolk lies, when the truth +is not good for them to know?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," said Dick, as steadily as before, "for they finds you out."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Precisely," I agreed. "But since you neither tell the truth nor tell +lies, what in the world do you do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," answered Dick, "I say that it's a secret which mother isn't to +know for a couple of days."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see. And when the couple of days has gone?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then mother has forgotten all about the secret."</p> + +<p class="normal">I reflected for a moment or two.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dick."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you ever try that plan with Miss Helen?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," said he, shaking his head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will," said I, airily, "or something like it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Something like it would be best," said Dick.</p> + +<p class="normal">The story which I told to Helen was not after all very like it. I +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The watchers have gone and gone for ever. They were here not for any +revenge, but for their profit. There was a treasure in St. Helen's +which Cullen Mayle was to show them the way to--if they could catch +him and force him. They had some claim to it--I showed them the way."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You?" she exclaimed. "How?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That I cannot tell you," said I. "I would beg you not to ask, but to +let my silence content you. I could not tell you the truth and I do +not think that I could invent a story to suit the occasion which would +not ring false. The consequence is the one thing which concerns us, +and there is no doubt of it. The watchers did not watch for an +opportunity of revenge and they are gone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well," she said. "I was right after all, you see. The hand +stretched out of the dark has done this service. For it is your doing +that they are gone?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not answer and she laughed a little and continued, "But I will +not ask you. I will make shift to be content with your silence. Did +Dick Parmiter come with you this morning?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," I answered with a laugh, "but he was not with me last night."</p> + +<p class="normal">Helen laughed again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah," she cried! "So it was your doing, and I have not asked you." +Then she grew serious of a sudden. "But since they are gone"--she +exclaimed, in a minute, her whole face alight with her thought--"since +they are gone, Cullen may come and come in safety."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! yes, Cullen may come," I answered, perhaps a trifle roughly. +"Cullen will be safe and may come. Indeed, I wonder that he was not +here before this. He stole my horse upon the road and yet could not +reach here first. I trudged a-foot, Cullen bestrode my horse and yet +Tresco still pines for him. It is very strange unless he has a keen +nose for danger."</p> + +<p class="normal">My behaviour very likely was not the politest imaginable, but then +Helen's was no better. For although she displayed no anger at my rough +words--I should not have cared a scrape of her wheezy fiddle if she +had, but she did not, she merely laughed in my face with every +appearance of enjoyment. I drew myself up very stiff. Here were all +the limits of courtesy clearly over-stepped, but I at all events would +not follow her example, nor allow her one glimpse of any exasperation +which I might properly feel.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shall I go out and search for him in the highways and hedges?" I +asked with severity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It would be magnanimous," said she biting her lip, and then her +manner changed. "He rode your horse," she cried, "and yet he has +fallen behind. He will be hurt then! Some accident has befallen him!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Or he has wagered my horse at some roadside inn and lost! It was a +good horse, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">She caught hold of my arm in some agitation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! be serious!" she prayed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Serious quotha!" said I, drawing away from her hand with much +dignity. "Let me assure you, madam, that the loss of a horse is a +very serious affair, that the stealing of a horse is a very serious +affair----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, well, I will buy it from you, saddle and stirrup and all," she +interrupted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Madam," said I, when I could get my speech. "There is no more to be +said."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Heaven be praised!" said she. "And now it may be, you will condescend +to listen to me. What am I to do? Suppose that he is hurt! Suppose +that he is in trouble! Suppose that he still waits for my answer to +his message! Suppose in a word that he does not come! What can I do? +He may go hungering for a meal."</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not think the contingency probable, but Helen was now speaking +with so much sincerity of distress that I could not say as much.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Unless he comes to Tresco I am powerless. It is true I have +bequeathed everything to him, but then I am young," she said, with a +most melancholy look in her big dark eyes. "Neither am I sickly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will go back along the road and search for him," and this I spoke +with sincerity. She looked at me curiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will you do that?" she asked in a doubtful voice, as though she did +not know whether to be pleased or sorry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said I, and a servant knocked at the door, and told me Parmiter +wished to speak with me. I found the lad on the steps of the porch, +and we walked down to the beach.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Frenchman," said he, with a frightened air.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Peter Tortue?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">I led him further along the beach lest any of the windows of the house +should be open towards us, and any one by the open window.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is he?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick pointed up the hill.</p> + +<p class="normal">"At the shed?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. He was lying in wait on the hillside, and ran down when he saw +that I was alone. He stays in the shed for you, and you are to go to +him alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Amongst the dead sailor-men?" said I, with a laugh. But the words +were little short of blasphemy to Dick Parmiter. "Well, I was there +last night, and no harm came to me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were there last night?" cried Dick. "Then you will not go?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I will," said I. "I am curious to hear what Tortue has to say to +me. You may take my word for it, Dick, there's no harm in Peter +Tortue. I shall be back within the hour. Hush! not a word of this!" +for I saw Helen Mayle coming from the house towards us. I told her +that I was called away, and would return.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you take Dick with you?" she asked, with too much indifference. +She held a big hat of straw by the ribbons and swung it to and fro. +She did that also with too much indifference.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," said I, "I leave him behind. Make of him what you can. He cannot +tell what he does not know."</p> + +<p class="normal">The sum of Dick's knowledge, I thought, amounted to no more than +this--that I had last night visited the shed, in spite of the dead +sailor-men. I forgot for the moment that he was in my bedroom when I +rose that morning.</p> + +<p class="normal">The door of the shed was fastened on the inside; I rapped with my +knuckles, and Tortue's voice asked who was there. When I told him, he +unbarred the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no one behind you?" said he, peering over my shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nay! Do you fear that I have brought the constables to take you? You +may live in Tresco till you die if you will. What! Should I betray +you, whose life you saved only last night?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Peter opened the door wide.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A night!" said he, with a shrug of the shoulders. "One can forget +more than that in a night, if one is so minded."</p> + +<p class="normal">I followed him into the shed. Here and there, through the chinks in +the boards, a gleam of light slipped through. Outside it was noonday, +within it was a sombre evening. I passed through the door of the +partition into the inner room. The rafters above were lost in +darkness, and before my eyes were accustomed to the gloom I stumbled +over a slab of stone which had been lifted from its place in the +floor. I turned to Tortue, who was just behind me, and he nodded in +answer to my unspoken question. The spade and the pick had stood in +that corner to the left, and this slab of stone had been removed in +readiness. The darkness of the shed struck cold upon me all at once, +as I thought of why that slab had been removed. I looked about me much +as a man may look about his bedroom the day after he has been saved +from his grave by the surgeon's knife. Everything stands as it did +yesterday--this chair in this corner, that table just upon that +pattern of the carpet, but it is all very strange and unfamiliar. It +was against that board in the partition that I leaned my back; there +sat George Glen with his evil smile, here Tortue polished his knife.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let us go out into the sunlight, for God's sake!" said I, and my foot +struck against a piece of iron, which went tinkling across the stone +floor. I picked it up. "They are gone," said I, with a shiver, "and +there's an end of them. But this shed is a nightmarish sort of place +for me. For God's sake, let us get into the sun!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, they are gone," said Tortue, "but they would have stayed if they +dared, if I hadn't set you free, for they went without the cross."</p> + +<p class="normal">I was still holding that piece of iron in my hand. By the feel of it, +it was a key, and I slipped it into my pocket quite unconsciously, for +Tortue's words took me aback with surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Without the jewelled cross? But you had the plan," said I, as I +stepped into the open. "I heard you describe the spot--three chains in +a line east of the east window in the south aisle of the church."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There was no trace of the cross."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was true then!" I exclaimed. "I was sure of it, even after Roper +had found the stick and the plan. It was true--that grave had been +rifled before."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why should the plan have been put back, then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"God knows! I don't."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Besides, if the grave had been rifled, the spot of ground on St. +Helen's Island had not. There had been no spade at work there."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you sure of that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you followed out the directions?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To the letter. Three chains east by the compass of the eastern window +in the south aisle of St. Helen's Church, and four feet deep! We dug +five and six feet deep. There was nothing, nor had the ground been +disturbed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot understand it. Why should Adam Mayle have been at such pains +to hide the plan? Was it a grim joke to be played on Cullen?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no means of answering the problem, and I set it aside.</p> + +<p class="normal">"After all, they are gone," said I. "That is the main thing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All except me," said Tortue.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. Why have you stayed?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Tortue threw himself on the ground and chewed at a stalk of grass.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I saved your life last night," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know. Why did you do it? Why did you cover my mistakes in that +shed? Why did you cut the rope?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because you could serve my turn. The cross!" he exclaimed, with a +flourish. "I do not want the cross." He looked at me steadily for an +instant with his shrewd eyes. "I want a man to nail on the cross, and +you can help me to him. Where is Cullen Mayle?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The words startled me all the more because there was no violence in +the voice which spoke them--only a cold, deliberate resolution. I was +nevermore thankful for the gift of ignorance than upon this occasion. +I could assure him quite honestly,</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But last night you knew."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I spoke of many things last night of which I had no knowledge--the +cross, the plan----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You knew where the plan was. Flesh! but you knew that!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I guessed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Guess, then, where Cullen Mayle is, and I'll be content."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have no hint to prompt a guess." Tortue gave no sign of anger at my +answer. He sat upon the grass, and looked with a certain sadness at +the shed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It does not, after all, take much more than a night to forget," said +he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am telling you the truth, Tortue," said I, earnestly. "I do not +know. I never met Cullen Mayle but once, and that was at a roadside +inn. He stole my horse upon that occasion, so that I have no reason to +bear him any goodwill."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But because of him you came down to Tresco?" said Tortue quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">Tortue looked at me doubtfully. Then he looked at the house, and</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! It was because of the girl."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! No!" I answered vehemently. I could not explain to him why I had +come, and fortunately he did not ask for an explanation. He just +nodded his head, and stood up without another word.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not forget," said I pointing to the shed. "And if you should be +in any need----" But I got no further in my offer of help; for he +turned upon me suddenly, and anger at last had got the upper hand with +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Money, is it not?" he cried, staring down at me with his eyes ablaze. +"Ay, that's the way with gentlefolk! You would give me as much as a +guinea no doubt--a whole round gold guinea. Yes, I am in need," and +with a violent movement he clasped his hands together. "Virgin Mary, +but I am in need of Cullen Mayle, and you offer me a guinea!" and then +hunching his shoulders he strode off over the hill.</p> + +<p class="normal">So Helen Mayle's instinct was right. Out of the five men there was one +who waited for Cullen's coming with another object than to secure the +diamond cross. Would he continue to wait? I could not doubt that he +would, when I thought upon his last vehement burst of passion. Tortue +would wait upon Tresco, until, if Cullen did not come himself, some +word of Cullen's whereabouts dropped upon his ear. It was still +urgent, therefore, that Cullen Mayle should be warned, and if I was to +go away in search of him, Helen must be warned too.</p> + +<p class="normal">I walked back again towards Merchant's Point with this ill news heavy +upon my mind, and as I came over the lip of the hollow, I saw Helen +waiting by the gate in the palisade. She saw me at the same moment, +and came up towards me at a run.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is there more ill-news?" I asked myself. "Or has Cullen Mayle +returned?" and I ran quickly down to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Has he come?" I asked, for she came to a stop in front of me with her +face white and scared.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who?" said she absently, as she looked me over.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cullen Mayle," I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Cullen," she said, and it struck me as curious that this was the +first time I had heard her speak his name with indifference.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because he must not show himself here. There is a reason! There is a +danger still!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A danger," she said, in a loud cry, and then "Oh! I shall never +forgive myself!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"For what?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She caught hold of my arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"See?" she said. "Your coat-sleeve is frayed. It was a rope did that +last night. No use to deny it. Dick told me. He saw that a rope too +had seared your wrists. Tell me! What happened last night? I must +know!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You promised not to ask," said I, moving away from her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I break my promise," said she. "But I must know," and she +turned and kept pace with me, down the hill, through the house into +the garden. During that time she pleaded for an answer in an extreme +agitation, and I confess that her agitation was a sweet flattery to +me. I was inclined to make the most of it, for I could not tell how +she would regard the story of my night's adventures. It was I after +all who caused old Adam Mayle's bones to be disturbed; and I +understood that it was really on that account that I had shrunk from +telling her. She had a right to know, no doubt. Besides there was this +new predicament of Tortue's stay. I determined to make a clean breast +of the matter. She listened very quietly without an exclamation or a +shudder; only her face lost even the little colour which it had, and a +look of horror widened in her eyes. I told her of my capture on the +hillside, of Tortue's intervention, of the Cross and the stick in the +coffin. I drew a breath and described that scene in the Abbey grounds, +and how I escaped; and still she said no word and gave no sign. I told +her of their futile search upon St. Helen's, and how I had witnessed +their departure from the top of the Castle Down. Still she walked by +my side silent, and wrapped in horror. I faltered through this last +incident of Tortue's stay and came to a lame finish, amongst the trees +at the end of the garden. We turned and walked the length of the +garden to the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know," I said. "When I guessed the stick held the plan, I should +have held my tongue. But I did not think of that. It was not easy to +think at all just at that time, and I must needs be quick. They spoke +of attacking the house, and I dreaded that.... I should not have been +able to give you any warning.... I should not have been able to give +you any help ... for, you see, the slab of stone was already removed +in the shed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, don't!" she cried out, and pressed her hands to her temples. "I +shall never forgive myself. Think! A week ago you and I were +strangers. It cannot be right that you should go in deadly peril +because of me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Madam," said I, greatly relieved, "you make too much of a thing of no +great consequence. I hope to wear my life lightly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Always?" said she quickly, as she stopped and looked at me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I stopped, too, and looked at her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think so," said I, but without the same confidence. "Always."</p> + +<p class="normal">She had a disconcerting habit of laughing when there was no occasion +whatever for laughter. She fell into that habit now, and I hastened to +recall her to Tortue's embarrassing presence on the island.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course," said I, "a word to the Governor at Star Castle and we are +rid of him. But he stood between me and my death, and he trusts to my +silence."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We must keep that silence," she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yet he waits for Cullen Mayle, and--it will not be well if those two +men meet."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why does he wait? Do you know that, too?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not know, as I told her, though I had my opinion, of which I did +not tell her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The great comfort is this. Tortue did not make one upon that +expedition to the Sierra Leone River, but his son did. Tortue only +fell in with George Glen and his gang at an ale-house in Wapping, and +<i>after</i>--that is the point--after Glen had lost track of Cullen Mayle. +Tortue, therefore, has never seen Cullen, does not know him. We have +an advantage there. So should he come to Tresco, while I go back along +the road to search for him, you must make your profit of that +advantage."</p> + +<p class="normal">She stopped again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will go, then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head, reflectively.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not right," she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am going chiefly," said I, "because I wish to recover my horse."</p> + +<p class="normal">She always laughed when I mentioned that horse, and her laughter +always made me angry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you doubt I have a horse?" I asked. "Or rather <i>had</i> a horse? +Because Cullen Mayle stole it, stole it deliberately from under my +nose--a very valuable horse which I prized even beyond its value--and +he stole it."</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl was in no way impressed by my wrath, and she said, +pleasantly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am glad you said that. I am glad to know that with it all, you are +mean like other men."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Madam," I returned, "when Cullen Mayle stole my horse, and rode away +upon it, he put out his tongue at me. I made no answer. Nor do I make +any answer to the remark which you have this moment addressed to me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, sir!" said she, "here are fine words, and here's a curtsey to +match them;" and spreading out her frock with each hand, she sank +elaborately to the very ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">We walked for some while longer in the garden, without speech, and the +girl's impertinence gradually slipped out of my mind. The sea murmured +lazily upon the other side of the hedge, and I had full in view St. +Helen's Island and the ruined church upon its summit. The south aisle +of the church pointed towards the house, and through the tracery of a +rude window I could see the sky.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wonder who in the world can have visited the Abbey burial-ground +and rifled that grave?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The question perplexed me more and more, and I wondered whether Helen +could throw light upon it. So I asked her, but she bent her brows in a +frown, and in a little she answered:</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I can think of no one."</p> + +<p class="normal">I held out my hand to her. "This is good-bye," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You go to-day?" she asked, but did not take my hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, if I can find a ship to take me. I go to St. Helen's first. Can +I borrow your boat; Dick will bring it back. I want to see that east +window in the aisle."</p> + +<p class="normal">A few more words were said, and I promised to return, whether I found +Cullen Mayle or not. And I did return, but sooner than I expected, for +I returned that afternoon.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_15" href="#div1Ref_15">THE LOST KEY IS FOUND</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">It happened in this way. I took Dick Parmiter with me and sailed +across to St. Helen's. We beached the boat on the sand near to the +well and quarantine hut, and climbed up eastwards till we came to the +hole which Glen's party had dug. The ground sloped away from the +church in this direction; and as I stood on the edge of the hole with +my face towards the side of the aisle, I could just see over the grass +the broken cusp of the window. It was exactly opposite to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">It occurred to me, however, that Glen had measured the distance wrong. +So I sent Dick in the boat across to Tresco to borrow a measure, and +while he was away I examined the ground there around; but it was all +covered with grass and bracken, which evidently had not been +disturbed. Here and there were bushes of brambles, but, as I was at +pains to discover, no search for the cross had been made beneath them.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the midst of my search Dick came back to me with a tape measure, +and we set to work from the window of the church. The measure was for +a few yards, so that when we had run it out to its full length, +keeping ever in the straight line, it was necessary to fix some sort +of mark in the ground, and start afresh from that; and for a mark I +used a big iron key which I had in my pocket. Three chains brought us +exactly to the hole which had been dug, and holding the key in my +hand, I said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"They made no mistake. It is plain the plan was carelessly drawn."</p> + +<p class="normal">And Dick said to me: "That's the key of our cottage."</p> + +<p class="normal">I handed it to him to make sure. He turned it over in his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said he, "that's the key;" and he added reproachfully, with no +doubt a lively recollection of his mother's objurgations: "So you had +it all the time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I found it this morning, Dick," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"In the shed on the Castle Down. Now, how the deuce did it get there? +The dead sailormen had no use for keys."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's very curious," said Dick.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very curious and freakish," said I, and I sat down on the grass to +think the matter out.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me see, your mother missed it in the morning after I came to +Tresco."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's three days ago." And I could hardly believe the boy. It seemed +to me that months had passed. But he was right.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, three days ago. Your mother missed it in the morning. It is +likely, then, that it was taken from the lock of the door the night +before."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That would be the night," said Dick, suspiciously, "when you tapped +on my window."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The night, in fact, when I first landed on Tresco. Wait a little."</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick sat still upon the grass, and I took the key from his hand into +mine. There were many questions which at that moment perplexed +me--that hideous experience in Cullen Mayle's bedroom, the rifling of +Adam Mayle's grave, the replacing of the plan in it and the +disappearance of the cross, and I was in that state of mind when +everything new and at all strange presented itself as a possible clue +to the mystery. It seemed to me that the key which I held was very +much more than a mere rusty iron key of a door that was never locked. +I felt that it was the key to the door of the mystery which baffled +me, and that feeling increased in me into a solid conviction as I held +it in my hand. I seemed to see the door opening, and opening very +slowly. The chamber beyond the door was dark, but my eyes would grow +accustomed to the darkness if only I did not turn them aside. As it +was, even now I began to see dim, shadowy things which, uncomprehended +though they were, struck something of a thrill into my blood, and +something of a chill, too.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The night that I landed upon Tresco," I said, "we crossed the Castle +Down, I nearly fell on to the roof of the shed, where all the dead +sailormen were screeching in unison."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes!" said Dick, in a low voice, and I too looked around me to see +that we were not overheard. Dick moved a little nearer to me with an +uneasy working of his shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you remember the woman who passed us?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You said it was a woman."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And it was."</p> + +<p class="normal">I had the best of reasons to be positive upon that point. I had +scratched my hand in the gorse and I had seen the blood of my +scratches the next day on the dress of the woman who had brushed +against me as she passed. That woman was Helen Mayle. Had she come +from the shed? What did she need with the key?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that shed ever used?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whom does it belong to?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded over towards Merchant's Rock.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then Adam Mayle used it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cullen Mayle used it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cullen!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I sprang up to my feet and walked away; and walked back; and walked +away again. The shadowy things were indeed becoming visible; my eyes +were growing indeed accustomed to the darkness; and, indeed, the door +was opening. Should I close, slam it to, lock it again and never open +it? For I was afraid.</p> + +<p class="normal">But if I did shut it and lock it I should come back to it perpetually, +I should be perpetually fingering the lock. No; I would open the door +wide and see what was within the room. I came back to Dick.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What did Cullen Mayle use it for?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He was in league with the Brittany smugglers. Brandy, wine, and lace +were landed on the beach of a night and carried up to the shed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Were they safe there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick laughed. Here he was upon firm ground, and he answered with some +pride:</p> + +<p class="normal">"When Cullen Mayle lived here, the collector of customs daren't for +his life have landed on Tresco in daylight."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And at night the dead sailormen kept watch."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There wasn't a man who would go near the shed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So Cullen Mayle would not have needed a key to lock the shed?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, indeed!" and another laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Could he have needed a key for any other purpose? Dick, we will go +slowly, very slowly," and I sat for some while hesitating with a great +fear very cold at my heart. That door was opening fast. Should I push +it open, wide? With one bold thrust of the hand I could do it--if I +would. But should I see clearly into the room--so clearly that I could +not mistake a single thing I saw. No, I would go on, gently forcing +the door back, and all the while accustoming my vision to the gloom.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Has that shed been used since Cullen Mayle was driven away?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are certain? Oh, be certain, very certain, before you speak."</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick looked at me in surprise, as well he might; for I have no doubt +my voice betrayed something of the fear and pain I felt.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am certain."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, then, have you, has any one heard these dead sailormen making +merry--God save the mark--since that shed has been disused?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Dick thought with considerable effort before he answered. But it did +not matter; I was certain what his answer would be.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have never heard them," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor have met others who have?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," said he, after a second deliberation, "I don't remember any one +who has."</p> + +<p class="normal">"From the time Cullen Mayle left Tresco to the night when we crossed +the Down to Merchant's Rock? There's one thing more. Cullen was in +league with the Brittany smugglers. He would be in league, then, with +smugglers from Penzance, who would put him over to Tresco secretly, if +he needed it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He was very good friends with all smugglers," said Dick.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then," said I, rising from the ground, "we will sail back, Dick, to +Tresco, and have another look into that shed."</p> + +<p class="normal">I made him steer the boat eastwards and land behind the point of the +old Grimsby Harbour, on which the Block House stands, and out of sight +of Merchant's Point. It was not that I did not wish to be seen by any +one in that house. But--but--well, I did not wish at that moment to +land near it--to land where a voice now grown familiar might call to +me.</p> + +<p class="normal">From the Block House we struck up through Dolphin Town on to the empty +hill, and so came to the shed. I pushed open the door and went in. +Dick followed me timidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">The floor was of stone. I had been thinking of that as we sailed +across from St. Helen's. I had been thinking, too, that when I was +carried into the inner room the door of the partition was jambed +against the floor, that Roper had kicked it open, and that, as it +yielded, I had heard some iron thing spring from beneath it and jingle +across the floor. That iron thing was, undoubtedly, the key which I +held in my hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">I placed it again under the door. There was a fairly strong wind +blowing. I told Dick to set the outer door wide open to the wind, +which he did. And immediately the inner door began to swing backwards +and forwards in the draught. But it dragged the key with it, and it +dragged the key over the stone floor. The shed was filled with a +harsh, shrill, rasping sound, which set one's fingernails on edge. I +set my hand to the door and swung it more quickly backwards and +forwards. The harsh sound rose to a hideous inhuman grating screech.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There are your dead sailormen, Dick," said I. "It was Cullen +Mayle who took the key from your door on the night I landed on +Tresco--Cullen Mayle, who had my horse to carry him on the road and +smuggler friends at Penzance to carry him over the sea. It was Cullen +Mayle who was in this shed that night, and used his old trick to scare +people from his hiding-place. It was Cullen Mayle who was first in the +Abbey burial ground. No doubt Cullen Mayle has that cross. And it was +Cullen Mayle whom the woman---- But, there, enough."</p> + +<p class="normal">The door was wide open now, and this key had opened it. I could see +everything clearly. My eyes were, indeed, now accustomed to the +gloom--so accustomed that, as I stepped from the shed, all the +sunlight seemed struck out of the world.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was all clear. Helen Mayle had come up to the shed that night. She +had told Cullen of the stick in the coffin--yes, she must have done +that. She told him of the men who watched. What more had passed +between them I could not guess, but she had come back with despair in +her heart, and, in the strength of her despair, had walked late at +night into his room--with that silk noose in her hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">That she loved him--that was evident. But why could she not have been +frank with me? Cullen had spoken with her, had been warned by her, had +left the island since. Why had she kept up this pretence of anxiety on +his account, of fear that he was in distress, of dread lest he return +unwitting of his peril and fall into Glen's hand? Clutterbuck's word +"duplicity" came stinging back to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I sent Dick away to sail the boat back to Merchant's Point, and lay +for a long while on the open hillside, while the sun sank and evening +came. It was only yesterday that she had played in her garden upon the +violin. I had felt that I knew her really for the first time as she +sat with her pale face gleaming purely through the darkness. Why could +she not have been frank to me? The question assailed me; I cried it +out. Surely there was some answer, an answer which would preserve my +picture of her in her tangled garden, untarnished within my memories. +Surely, surely! And how could such deep love mate with duplicity?</p> + +<p class="normal">I put the scarf into my pocket, and crossed the hill again and came +down to Merchant's Point. I could not make up my mind to go in. How +could I speak of that night when I slept in Cullen Mayle's bedroom? I +lay now upon the gorse watching the bright windows. Now I went down to +the sea and its kindly murmurings. And at last, about ten o'clock of +the night, a white figure came slowly from the porch and stood beside +me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have been here--how long?--I have watched you," she said very +gently. "What is it? Why didn't you come in?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I took both her hands in mine and looked into her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will you be frank with me if I do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, yes," she said, and her face was all wonder and all concern. +"You hurt me--no, not your hands, but your distrust."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_16" href="#div1Ref_16">AN UNSATISFACTORY EXPLANATION</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">We went into the house, but no farther than the hall. For the moment +we were come there she placed herself in front of me. I remember that +the door of the house was never shut, and through the opening I could +see a shoulder of the hill and the stars above it, and hear the long +roar of the waves upon the beach.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We are good friends, I hope, you and I," she said. "Plain speech is +the privilege of such friendship. Speak, then, as though you were +speaking to a man. Wherein have I not been frank with you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There must be, I thought, some explanation which would free her from +all suspicion of deceit. Else, how could she speak with so earnest a +tongue or look with eyes so steady?</p> + +<p class="normal">"As man to man, then," I answered, "I am grieved I was not told that +Cullen Mayle had come secretly to Tresco and had thence escaped."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cullen!" she said, in a wondering voice. "He was on Tresco! Where?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I constrained myself to answer patiently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In the Abbey grounds, on St. Helen's Island, and--" I paused, +thinking, nay hoping, that even at this eleventh hour she would speak, +she would explain. But she kept silence, nor did her eyes ever waver +from my face.</p> + +<p class="normal">--"And," I continued, "on Castle Down."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There!" she exclaimed, and added, thoughtfully, "Yes, there he would +be safe. But when was Cullen upon Tresco? When?"</p> + +<p class="normal">So the deception was to be kept up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"On the night," I answered, "when I first came to Merchant's Point."</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at me for a little without a word, and I could imagine that +it was difficult for her to hit upon an opportune rejoinder. There was +one question, however, which might defer her acknowledgments of her +concealments, and, to be sure, she asked it:</p> + +<p class="normal">"How do you know that?" and before I could answer, she added another, +which astonished me by its assurance. "When did you find out?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I told her, I trust with patience, of the key and the various steps by +which I had found out. "And as to when," I said, "it was this +afternoon."</p> + +<p class="normal">At that she gave a startled cry, and held out a trembling hand towards +me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Had you known," she cried, "had you known only yesterday that Cullen +had come and had safely got him back, you would have been spared all +you went through last night!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What I went through last night!" I exclaimed, passionately. "Oh, that +is of small account to me, and I beg you not to suffer it to trouble +your peace. But--I do not say had I known yesterday, I say had I been +<i>told</i> yesterday--I should have been spared a very bitter +disappointment."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not understand," she said, and again she put out her hand +towards me and drew it in and stretched it out again with an +appearance of distress to which even at that moment I felt myself +softening. However, I took no heed of the hand. "In some way you blame +me, but I do not understand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You would, perhaps, find it easier to understand if you were at the +pains to remember that on the night I landed upon Tresco, I came over +Castle Down and past the shed to Merchant's Point."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?" and she spoke with more coldness, as though her pride made her +stubborn in defiance. No doubt she was unaware that I was close to her +that night. It remained for me to reveal that, and God knows I did it +with no sense of triumph, but only a great sadness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As I stood in the darkness a little this side of the shed, a girl +hurried down the hill from it. She was dressed in white, so that I +could make no mistake. On the other hand, my dark coat very likely +made me difficult to see. The girl passed me, and so closely that her +frock brushed against my hand. Now, can you name the girl?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at me with the same stubbornness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," she said, "I cannot."</p> + +<p class="normal">"On the other hand," said I, "I can. One circumstance enables me to be +certain. I slipped on the grass that night, and catching hold of a +bush of gorse pricked my hand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I remember that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I pricked my hand a minute or two before the girl passed me. As I +say, she brushed against my hand, which was bleeding, and the next day +I saw the blood smirched upon a white frock--and who wore it, do you +think?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did," she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! Then you own it. You will own too that I have some cause of +discontentment in that you have played with me, whose one thought was +to serve you like an honest gentleman."</p> + +<p class="normal">And at that the stubbornness, the growing resentment at my questions, +died clean out of her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You would have!" she cried eagerly. "You would indeed have cause for +more than discontent had I played with you. But you do not mean that. +You cannot think that I would use any trickeries with you. Oh! take +back your words! For indeed they hurt me. You are mistaken here. I +wore the frock, but it was not I who was on Castle Down that night. It +was not I who brushed past you----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the stain?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How it came there I do not know," she said. "But this I do know,--it +was not your hand that marked it. I never knew that Cullen was on +Tresco. I never saw him, much less spoke to him. You will believe +that? No! Why should I have kept it secret if I had?" and her head +drooped as she saw that still I did not believe.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was silence between us. She stood without changing her attitude, +her head bent, her hands nervously clasping and unclasping. The wind +came through the open door into the hall. Once in the silence Helen +caught her breath; it was as though she checked a sob; and gradually a +thought came into my mind which would serve to explain her +silence--which would, perhaps, justify it--which, at all events, made +of it a mistaken act of kindness. So I spoke with all gentleness--and +with a little remorse, too, for the harshness I had shown:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You said we were good friends, you hoped; and, for my part, I can say +that the words were aptly chosen. I am your friend--your good +<i>friend</i>. You will understand? I want you also to understand that it +was not even so much as friendship which brought me down to Tresco. It +was Dick's sturdy example, it was my utter weariness, and some spark +of shame Dick kindled in me. I was living, though upon my soul +<i>living</i> is not the word, in one tiresome monotony of disgraceful +days. I had made my fortune, and in the making had somehow unlearnt +how fitly to enjoy it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But this I know," interrupted Helen, now lifting her face to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I never told you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But my violin told me. Do you remember? I wanted to know you through +and through, to the heart's core. So I took my violin and played to +you in the garden. And your face spoke in answer. So I knew you."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was strange. This confession she made with a blush and a great deal +of confusion--a confession of a trick if you will, but a trick to +which no one could object, by which anyone might be flattered. But +that other more serious duplicity she could deny with an unwavering +assurance!</p> + +<p class="normal">"You know then," I went on. "It makes it easier for me. I want you to +understand then that it was to serve myself I came, and I do verily +believe that I have served myself better than I have served you. Why, +I did not even know what you were like. I did not inquire of +Clutterbuck, he drew no picture of you to persuade me to my journey. +Thus then there is no reason why you should be silent concerning +Cullen out of any consideration for me."</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at me in perplexity. My hint had not sufficed. I must make +myself more clear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have no doubt," I continued, "that you have seen. No doubt I might +have been more circumspect. No doubt I have betrayed myself this last +day. But, believe me, you are under no debt to me. If I can bring +Cullen Mayle back to you, I will not harbour a thought of jealousy."</p> + +<p class="normal">Did she understand? I could not be sure. But I saw her whole face +brighten and smile--it was as though a glory shone upon it--and her +figure straighten with a sort of pride. Did she understand at the last +that she need practise no concealments? But she said nothing, she +waited for me to say what more I had to say. Well, I could make the +matter yet more plain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Besides," I said, "I knew--I knew very well before I set out from +London, Clutterbuck told me. So that it is my own fault, you see, if +when I came here I took no account of what he told me. And even so, +believe me, I do not regret the fault."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lieutenant Clutterbuck!" she exclaimed, with something almost of +alarm. "He told you what?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He told me of a night very like this. You were standing in this hall, +very likely as you stand now, and the door was open and the breeze and +the sound of the sea came through the open door as it does now. Only +where I stand Cullen Mayle stood, asking you to follow him out through +the world. And you would have followed, you did indeed begin to +follow----"</p> + +<p class="normal">So far I had got when she broke in passionately, with her eyes afire!</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not true! How can men speak such lies? Lieutenant Clutterbuck! +I know--he told me the same story. It would have been much easier, so +much franker, had he said outright he was tired of his--friendship for +me and wished an end to it. I should have liked him the better had he +been so frank. But that he should tell you the same story. Oh! it is +despicable--and you believe it?" she challenged me. "You believe that +story. You believe, too, I went to a trysting with Cullen on Castle +Down, the night you came, and kept it secret from you and let you run +the peril of your life. You will have it, in a word, whatever I may +say or do," and she wrung her hands with a queer helplessness. "You +will have it that I love him. Pity, a sense of injustice, a feeling +that I wrongly possess what is rightly his--these things you will not +allow can move me. No, I must love him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have I not proof you do?" I answered. "Not from Clutterbuck, but from +yourself. Have I not proof into what despair your love could throw +you?" And I took from my pocket the silk scarf. "Where did I get +this?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She took it from my hands, while her face softened. She drew it +through her fingers, and a smile parted her lips. She raised her eyes +to me with a certain shyness, and she answered shyly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yet you say you were not curious to know anything of me in London +before you started to the West."</p> + +<p class="normal">The answer was no answer at all. I repeated my question:</p> + +<p class="normal">"How do I come to have that scarf?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can but guess," she said; "I did not know that Lieutenant +Clutterbuck possessed it. But it could be no one else. You asked it of +Lieutenant Clutterbuck in London."</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment I could not believe that I had heard a right. I stared at +her. It was impossible that any woman could carry effrontery to so +high a pitch. But she repeated her words.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lieutenant Clutterbuck gave it to you no doubt in London, and--will +you tell me?--I should like to know. Did you ask him for it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Should I strip away this pretence? Should I compel her to own where I +found it and how I came by it? But it seemed not worth while. I turned +on my heel without a word, and went straight out through the open door +and on to the hillside.</p> + +<p class="normal">And so this was the second night which I spent in the gorse of Castle +Down. One moment I was hot to go back to London and speak to no woman +for the rest of my days. The next I was all for finding Cullen Mayle +and heaping coals of fire upon Helen's head. The coals of fire carried +the day in the end.</p> + +<p class="normal">As morning broke I walked down to the Palace Inn fully resolved. I +would search for Cullen Mayle until I found him. I would bring him +back. I would see him married to Helen from a dark corner in St. +Mary's Church, and when the pair were properly unhappy and miserable, +as they would undoubtedly become--I was very sorry, but miserable they +would be--why then I would send her a letter. The writing in the +letter should be "Ha! ha!"--not a word more, not even a signature, but +just "Ha! ha!" on a blank sheet of paper.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, as I have said, I had grown very young these last few days.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_17" href="#div1Ref_17">CULLEN MAYLE COMES HOME</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The search was entirely unsuccessful. Through the months of November +and December I travelled hither and thither, but I had no hint as to +Cullen Mayle's whereabouts; and towards the end of the year I took +passage in a barque bound for St. Mary's, where I landed the day +before Christmas and about the fall of the dusk. It was my intention +to cross over that night to Tresco and report my ill-success, which I +was resolved to do with a deal of stateliness. I was also curious to +know whether Peter Tortue was still upon the island.</p> + +<p class="normal">But as I walked along the street of Hugh Town to the "Dolphin" Inn, by +the Customs House, a band of women dancing and shouting, with voices +extraordinarily hoarse, swept round the corner. I fell plump amongst +them, and discovered they were men masquerading as women. Moreover, +they stopped me, and were for believing that I was a woman +masquerading as a man; and, indeed, when they had let me go I did come +upon a party of girls dressed up for sea captains and the like, who +swaggered, counterfeiting a manly walk, and drawing their hangers upon +one another with a great show of spirit.</p> + +<p class="normal">The reason of these transformations was explained to me at the +"Dolphin." It seems that they call this sort of amusement "a +goose-dancing," and the young people exercise it in these islands at +Christmas time. I was told that it would be impossible for me to hire +a boatman to put me over to Tresco that night; so I made the best of +the matter, and to pass the time stepped out again into the street, +which was now lighted up with many torches and crowded with +masqueraders. They went dancing and singing from house to house; the +women paid their addresses with an exaggeration of courtly manners to +the men, who, dressed in the most uncouth garments that could be +devised, received them with a droll shyness and modesty, and +altogether, what with liquor and music, the festival went with a deal +of noise and spirit. But in the midst of it one of these false women, +with a great bonnet pulled forward over her face, clapped a hand upon +my shoulder and said in my ear:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Berkeley, I hope you have been holding better putt cards of +late;" and would have run on, but I caught him by the arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Featherstone," said I, "you stole my horse; I have a word to say +to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have not the time to listen," said he, wrenching his arm free as he +flung himself into the thick of the crowd. I kept close upon his +heels, however, which he perceived, and drawing into a corner he +suddenly turned round upon me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your horse is dead," said he. "I very much regret it; but I will pay +you, for I have but now come into an inheritance. I will pay you for +it to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did not follow you to speak of the horse, or to Mr. Featherstone at +all, but to Mr. Cullen Mayle."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You know me?" he exclaimed, looking about him lest the name should +have been overheard.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And have news for you," I added. "Will you follow me to the +'Dolphin?'"</p> + +<p class="normal">I went back to the inn, secured from my host a room where we could be +private, and went out to the door. Cullen Mayle was waiting; he +followed me quickly in, hiding his face so that no one could recognise +him, and when the door was shut--</p> + +<p class="normal">"How in the world did you come to know of my name?" said he. "I cannot +think, but I shall be obliged if you will keep it secret for a day or +so, for I am not sure but what I may have some inconvenient friends +among these islands."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Those inconvenient friends are all gone but one," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You know that too," he exclaimed. "Indeed, Mr. Berkeley, you seem to +be very well acquainted with my affairs; but I cannot regret it, since +you give me such comforting news. Only one of my inconvenient friends +left! Why, I am a match for one--I think I may say so without +vaunting--so it seems I can come to Tresco and take up my +inheritance."</p> + +<p class="normal">With that he began briskly to unhook the cotton dress which he had put +on over his ordinary clothes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Inheritance!" said I. "You mentioned the word before. I do not +understand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh," said he, "it is a long story and a melancholy. My father drove +me from the house, and bequeathed his fortune to an adopted daughter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said I quickly, "I know that too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed!" and he stopped his toilette to stare at me. "Perhaps you are +aware then that Helen Mayle, conscious of my father's injustice, +bequeathed it again to me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, but--but--you spoke of an immediate inheritance."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah," said he, coolly, "there is something, then, I can inform you of. +Helen Mayle is dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's that?" I cried, and started to my feet. I did not understand. +I was like a man struck by a bullet, aware dimly that some hurt has +come to him, but not yet conscious of the pain, not yet sensible of +the wound.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush!" said Cullen Mayle, and untying a string at his waist he let +his dress fall about his feet. "It is most sad. Not for the world +would I have come into this inheritance at such a cost. You knew Helen +Mayle, perhaps?" he asked, with a shrewd glance at me. "A girl very +staunch, very true, who would never forget a <i>friend</i>." He emphasised +that word "friend" and made it of a greater significance. "Indeed, I +am not sure, but I must think it was because she could not forget +a--friend that, alas! she died."</p> + +<p class="normal">I was standing stupefied. I heard the words he spoke, but gave +them at this moment no meaning. I was trying to understand the one +all-important fact.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dead!" I babbled. "Helen Mayle--dead!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, and in the strangest, pitiful way. I cannot think of it, without +the tears come into my eyes. The news came to me but lately, and you +will perhaps excuse me on that account." His voice broke as he spoke; +there were tears, too, in his eyes. I wondered, in a dull way, whether +after all he had really cared for her. "But how comes it that you knew +her?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">I sat down upon a chair and told him--of Dick Parmiter's coming to +London, of my journey into the West. I told him how I had come to +recognise him at the inn; and as I spoke the comprehension of Helen's +death crept slowly into my mind, so that I came to a stop and could +speak no more.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were on your way to Tresco," said he, "when we first met. Then +you know that she is dead?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I answered. "When did she die?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"On the sixth of October," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">I do not think that I should have paid great heed to his words, but +something in his voice--an accent of alarm--roused me. I lifted my +eyes and saw that he was watching me with a singular intentness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The sixth of October," I repeated vaguely, and then I broke into a +laugh, so harsh and hysterical that it seemed quite another voice than +mine. "Your news is false," I cried; "she is not dead! Why, I did not +leave Tresco till the end of October, and she was alive then and no +sign of any malady. The sixth of October! No, indeed, she did not die +upon that day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you sure?" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sure?" said I. "I have the best of reasons to be sure; for it was on +the sixth of October that I first set foot in Tresco," and at once +Cullen Mayle sprang up and shook me by the hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here is the bravest news," he said. His whole face was alight; he +could not leave hold of my hand. "Mr. Berkeley, I may thank God that I +spoke to you to-night. 'Helen!'"--and he lingered upon the name. "Upon +my word, it would take little more to unman me. So you landed on the +sixth of October. But are you sure of the date?" he asked with +earnestness. "I borrowed your horse but a few days before. You would +hardly have travelled so quickly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I travelled by sea with a fair wind," said I. "It was the sixth of +October. Could I forget it? Why, that very night I crossed Castle Down +to Merchant's Point; that very night I entered the house. Dick +Parmiter showed me a way. I crept into the house, and slept in your +bedroom----"</p> + +<p class="normal">I had spoken so far without a notion of the disclosure to which my +words were leading me. I was not looking at Cullen Mayle, but on to +the ground, else very likely I might have read it upon his face. But +now in an instant the truth of the matter was clear to me. For as I +said, "I slept in your bedroom," he uttered one loud cry, leapt to his +feet, and stood over against me, very still and quiet. I had +sufficient wit not to raise my head and betray this new piece of +knowledge. That sad and pitiful death on the sixth of October, of +which he had heard with so deep a pain--he had never heard it, he had +<i>planned</i> it, and the plan miscarried. He knew why, now, and so was +standing in front of me very still and quiet. He had seen Helen that +night on Castle Down; there, no doubt, she had told him how in her +will she had disposed of her inheritance; and he had persuaded her, +working on her generosity--with what prepared speeches of despair!--to +that strange, dark act which it had been my good fortune to interrupt. +It was clear to me. The very choice of that room, wherein alone +secrecy was possible, made it clear. He had suggested to her the whole +cunning plan; and a moment ago I had almost been deceived to believe +his expressions of distress sincere!</p> + +<p class="normal">"I told you I was nearly unmanned," I heard him say; "and you see even +so I underrated the strength of my relief, so that the mere surprise +of your ingenious shift to get a lodging took my breath away."</p> + +<p class="normal">He resumed his seat, and I, having now composed my face, raised it +full to him. I have often wondered since whether, as he stood above +me, motionless and silent during those few moments, I was in any +danger.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said I, "it was no doubt surprising."</p> + +<p class="normal">This, however, was not the only surprise I was to cause Cullen Mayle +that night.</p> + +<p class="normal">He proposed immediately that we should cross to Tresco together, and +on my objecting that we should get no one to carry us over--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh," said he, "I have convenient friends in Scilly as well as +inconvenient." He looked out of the window. "The tide is high, and +washes the steps at the back of the inn. Do you wait here upon the +steps. I will have a boat there in less than half an hour;" and on the +word he hooked up his dress again and got him out of the inn.</p> + +<p class="normal">I waited upon the steps as he bade me. Behind me were the lights and +the uproar of the street; in front, the black water and the cool +night; and still further, out of sight, the island of Tresco, the +purple island of bracken and gorse, resonant with the sea.</p> + +<p class="normal">In a little I heard a ripple of water, and the boat swam to the steps. +I was careful as we sailed across the road to say nothing to Cullen +Mayle which would provoke his suspicion. I did not even allow him to +see I was aware that he himself had been upon Tresco on the sixth of +October. It was not difficult for me to keep silence. For as the water +splashed and seethed under the lee of the boat, and Tresco drew +nearer, I had to consider what I should do in the light of my new +knowledge. It would have been so much easier had only Helen been frank +with me.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tresco dimly loomed up out of the darkness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"By the way," said Cullen Mayle, who had been silent too, "you said +that one of the watchers had remained. It will be George Glen, I +suppose."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I answered. "It is a Frenchman, Peter Tortue," and by the mere +mention of the name I surprised Cullen Mayle again that evening. It is +true that this time he uttered no exclamation, and did not start from +his seat. But the boat shot up into the wind and got into irons, as +the saying is, so that I knew his hand had left the tiller. But he +said nothing until we were opposite to the Blockhouse, and then he +asked in a low trembling voice:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you say Peter Tortue?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was another interval of silence. Then he put another question +and in the same tone of awe:</p> + +<p class="normal">"A young fellow, less than my years----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. The young fellow's father," said I. "A man of sixty years. I +think I should be wary of him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He said, 'I am looking, not for the cross, but for a man to nail upon +the cross,' and he meant his words, every syllable."</p> + +<p class="normal">Again we fell to silence, and so crossed the Old Grimsby Harbour and +rounded its northern point. The lights of the house were in view at +last. They shot out across the darkness in thin lines of light and +wavered upon the black water lengthening and shortening with the +slight heave of the waves. When they shortened, I wondered whether +they beckoned me to the house; when they lengthened out, were they +fingers which pointed to us to be gone?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Since you know so much, Mr. Berkeley," whispered Cullen Mayle, +"perhaps you can tell me whether Glen secured the cross."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, he failed in that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I felt sure he would," said Cullen with a chuckle, and he ran the +boat aground, not on the sand before the house but on the bank beneath +the garden hedge. We climbed through the hedge; two windows blazed +upon the night, and in the room sat Helen Mayle close by the fire, her +violin on a table at her side and the bow swinging in her hand. I +stepped forward and rapped at the window. She walked across the room +and set her face to the pane, shutting out the light from her eyes +with her hands. She saw us standing side by side. Instantly she drew +down the blinds and came to the door, and over the grass towards us. +She came first to me with her hand outstretched.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is you," she said gently, and the sound of her voice was wonderful +in my ears. I had taken her hand before I was well aware what I did.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have come back. I never thought you would. But you have come."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have brought back Cullen Mayle," said I, as indifferently as I +could, and so dropped her hand. She turned to Cullen then.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quick," she said. "You must come in."</p> + +<p class="normal">We went inside the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is some years since I trod these flags," said Cullen. "Well, I am +glad to come home, though it is only as an outcast; and indeed, Helen, +I have not the right even to call it home."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was as cruel a remark as he could well have made, seeing at what +pains the girl had been, and still was, to restore that home to him. +That it hurt her I knew very well, for I heard her, in the darkness of +the passage, draw in her breath through her clenched teeth. Cullen +walked along the passage and through the hall.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lock the door," Helen said to me, and I did lock it. "Now drop the +bar."</p> + +<p class="normal">When that was done we walked together into the hall, where she +stopped.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look at me," she said, "please!" and I obeyed her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have come back," she repeated. "You do not, then, any longer +believe that I deceived you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is a reason why I have come back," I answered. It was a reason +which I could not give to her. I was resolved not to suffer her to lie +at the mercy of Cullen Mayle. Fortunately, she did not think to ask me +to be particular about the reason. But she beat her hands once or +twice together, and--</p> + +<p class="normal">"You still believe it, then!" she cried. "With these two months to +search and catch and hold the truth, you still hold me in the same +contempt as when you turned your back on me and walked out through +that door?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, no!" I exclaimed. "Contempt! That never entered into any thought +I ever had of you. Make sure of that!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yet you believe I tricked you. How can you believe that, and yet +spare me your contempt!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am no philosopher. It is the truth I tell you," I answered, simply; +and the face of Cullen Mayle appeared at the doorway of the parlour, +so that no more was said.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_18" href="#div1Ref_18">MY PERPLEXITIES ARE EXPLAINED</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">There is no need for me to tell at any length the conversation that +passed between the three of us that night. Cullen Mayle spoke frankly +of his journey to the Sierra Leone River.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Berkeley," he said, "already knows so much, that I doubt it would +not be of any avail to practise mysteries with him. And besides there +is no need, for, if I mistake not, Mr. Berkeley can keep a secret as +well as any man."</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke very politely, but with a keen eye on me to notice whether I +should show any confusion or change colour. But I made as though I +attached no significance to his words beyond mere urbanity. He told us +how he made his passage to the Guinea Coast as a sailor before the +mast, and then fell in with George Glen. It seemed prudent to +counterfeit a friendly opinion that the cross would be enough for all. +But when they discovered the cross was gone from its hiding place, he +took the first occasion to give them the slip.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For I had no doubt that my father had been beforehand," said he. "Had +I possessed more wisdom, I might have known as much when I heard him +from my bed refuse his assistance to George Glen, and so saved myself +an arduous and a perilous adventure. For my father, was he never so +rich, was not the man to turn his back on the King of Portugal's +cross."</p> + +<p class="normal">Of his father, Cullen spoke with good nature and a certain hint of +contempt; and he told us much which he had learned from George Glen. +"He went by the name of Kennedy," said Cullen, "but they called him +'Crackers' for the most part. He was not on the <i>Royal Fortune</i> at the +time when Roberts was killed, so that he was never taken prisoner with +the rest, nor did he creep out of Cape Corse Castle like George Glen."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then he was never tried or condemned," said Helen, who plainly found +some relief in that thought.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No!" answered Cullen, with a chuckle. "But why? He played +rob-thief--a good game, but it requires a skilled player. I would +never have believed Adam had the skill. Roberts put him in command of +a sloop called the <i>Ranger</i>, which he had taken in the harbour of +Bahia, and when he put out to sea on that course which brought him +into conjunction with the <i>Swallow</i>, he left the <i>Ranger</i> behind in +Whydah Bay. And what does Adam do but haul up his anchor as soon as +Roberts was out of sight, and, being well content with his earnings, +make sail for Maryland, where the company was disbanded. I would I had +known that on the day we quarrelled. Body o' me, but I would have made +the old man quiver. Well, Adam came home to England, settled at +Bristol, where he married, and would no doubt have remained there till +his death, had he not fallen in with one of his old comrades on the +quay. That frightened him, so he come across to Tresco, thinking to be +safe. And safe he was for twenty years, until George Glen nosed him +out."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thereupon, Cullen, from relating his adventures, turned to questions +asking for word of this man and that whom he had known before he went +away. These questions of course he put to Helen, and not once did he +let slip a single allusion to the meeting he had had with her in the +shed on Castle Down. For that silence on his part I was well prepared; +the man was versed in secrecy. But Helen showed a readiness no whit +inferior; she never hesitated, never caught a word back. They spoke +together as though the last occasion when they had met was the night, +now four years and a half ago, when Adam Mayle stood at the head of +the stairs and drove his son from the house. One thing in particular I +learned from her, the negro had died a month ago.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was my turn when the gossip of the islands had been exhausted, and +I had to tell over again of my capture by Glen and the manner of my +escape. I omitted, however, all mention of an earlier visitant to the +Abbey burial grounds, and it was to this omission that I owed a +confirmation of my conviction that Cullen Mayle was the visitant. For +when I came to relate how George Glen and his band sailed away towards +France without the cross, he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"If I could find that cross, I might perhaps think I had some right to +it. It is yours, Helen, to be sure, by law, and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">She interrupted him, as she was sure to do, with a statement that the +cross and everything else was for him to dispose of as he thought fit. +But he was magnanimous to a degree.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The cross, Helen, nothing but the cross, if I can find it. I have a +thought which may help me to it. 'Three chains east of the east window +in south aisle of St. Helen's Church.' Those were the words, I think."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Glen measured the distance correctly?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To an inch."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, what if--it is a mere guess, but a likely one, I presume to +think,--what if the chains were Cornish chains? There would be a +difference of a good many feet, a difference of which George Glen +would be unaware. You see I trust you, Mr. Berkeley. I fancy that I +can find that cross upon St. Helen's Island."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have no doubt you will," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">Cullen rose from his chair.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It grows late, Helen," said he, "and I have kept you from your sleep +with my gossiping." He turned to me. "But, Mr. Berkeley, you perhaps +will join me in a pipe and a glass of rum? My father had a good store +of rum, which in those days I despised, but I have learnt the taste +for it."</p> + +<p class="normal">His proposal suited very well with my determination to keep a watch +that night over Helen's safety, and I readily agreed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will sleep in your old room, Cullen," she said, "and you, Mr. +Berkeley, in the room next to it;" and that arrangement suited me very +well. Helen wished us both good-night, and left us together.</p> + +<p class="normal">We went up into Mayle's cabin and Cullen mixed the rum, which I only +sipped. So it was not the rum. I cannot, in fact, remember at all +feeling any drowsiness or desire to sleep. I think if I had felt that +desire coming over me I should have shaken it off; it would have +warned me to keep wide awake. But I was not sensible of it at all; and +I remember very vividly the last thing of which I was conscious. That +was Cullen Mayle's great silver watch which he held by a ribbon and +twirled this way and that as he chatted to me. He spun it with great +quickness, so that it flashed in the light of the candle like a +mirror, and at once held and tired the eyes. I was conscious of this, +I say, and of nothing more until gradually I understood that some one +was shaking me by the shoulders and rousing me from sleep. I opened my +eyes and saw that it was Helen Mayle who had disturbed me.</p> + +<p class="normal">It took me a little time to collect my wits. I should have fallen +asleep again had she not hindered me; but at last I was sufficiently +roused to realise that I was still in the cabin, but that Cullen Mayle +had gone. A throb of anger at my weakness in so letting him steal a +march quickened me and left me wide awake. Helen Mayle was however in +the room, plainly then she had suffered no harm by my negligence. She +was at this moment listening with her ear close to the door, so that I +could not see her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What has happened?" I asked, and she flung up her hand with an +imperative gesture to be silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">After listening for a minute or so longer she turned towards me, and +the aspect of her face filled me with terror.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In God's name what has happened, Helen?" I whispered. For never have +I seen such a face, so horror-stricken--no, and I pray that I never +may again, though the face be a stranger's and not one of which I +carried an impression in my heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet she spoke with a natural voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You took so long to wake!" said she.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What o'clock is it?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Three. Three of the morning; but speak low, or rather listen! Listen, +and while you listen look at me, so that I may know." She seated +herself on a chair close to mine, and leant forward, speaking in a +whisper. "On the night of the sixth of October I went to the shed on +Castle Down and had word with Cullen Mayle. Returning I passed you, +brushed against you. So much you have maintained before. But listen, +listen! That night you climbed into Cullen's bedroom and fell asleep, +and you woke up in the dark middle of the night."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stop! stop!" I whispered, and seized her hands in mine. Horror was +upon me now, and a hand of ice crushing down my heart. I did not +reason or argue at that moment. I knew--her face told me--she had been +after all ignorant of what she had done that night. "Stop; not a word +more--there is no truth in it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then there is truth in it," she answered, "for you know what I have +not yet told you. It is true, then--your waking up--the silk noose! My +God! my God!" and all the while she spoke in a hushed whisper, which +made her words ten times more horrible, and sat motionless as stone. +There was not even a tremor in the hands I held; they lay like ice in +mine.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How do you know?" I said. "But I would have spared you this! You did +not know, and I doubted you. Of course--of course you did not know. +Good God! Why could not this secret have lain hid in me? I would have +spared you the knowledge of it. I would have carried it down safe with +me into my grave."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her face hardened as I spoke. She looked down and saw that I held her +hands; she plucked them free.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You would have kept the secret safe," she said, steadily. "You liar! +You told it this night to Cullen Mayle."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her words struck me like a blow in the face. I leaned back in my +chair. She kept her eyes upon my face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I--told it--to Cullen Mayle?" I repeated.</p> + +<p class="normal">She nodded her head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To-night?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here in this room. My door was open. I overheard."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did not know I told him," I exclaimed; and she laughed horribly and +leaned back in the chair.</p> + +<p class="normal">All at once I understood, and the comprehension wrapped me in horror. +The horror passed from me to her, though as yet she did not +understand. She looked as though the world yawned wide beneath her +feet. "Oh!" she moaned, and, "Hush!" said I, and I leaned forward +towards her. "I did not know, just as you did not know that you went +to the shed on Castle Down, that you brushed against me as you +returned,--just as you did not know of what happened thereafter."</p> + +<p class="normal">She put her hands to her head and shivered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just as you did not know that four years ago when Cullen Mayle was +turned from the door, he bade you follow him, and you obeyed," I +continued. "This is Cullen Mayle's work--devil's work. He spun his +watch to dazzle you four years ago; he did the same to-night, and made +me tell him why his plan miscarried. Plan!" and at last I understood. +I rose to my feet; she did the same. "Yes, plan! You told him you had +bequeathed everything to him. He knew that tonight when I met him at +St. Mary's. How did he know it unless you told him on Castle Down? +He bade you go home, enter his room, where no one would hear you, +and--don't you see? Helen! Helen!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I took her in my arms, and she put her hands upon my shoulders and +clung to them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have heard of such things in London," said I. "Some men have this +power to send you to sleep and make you speak or forget at their +pleasure; and some have more power than this, for they can make you do +when you have waked up what they have bidden you to do while you +slept, and afterwards forget the act;" and suddenly Helen started away +from me, and raised her finger.</p> + +<p class="normal">We both stood and listened.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can hear nothing," I whispered.</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked over her shoulder to the door. I motioned her not to move. +I walked noiselessly to the door, and noiselessly turned the handle. I +opened the door for the space of an inch; all was quiet in the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yet I heard a voice," she said, and the next moment I heard it too.</p> + +<p class="normal">The candles were alight. I crossed the room and squashed them with the +palm of my hand. I was not a moment too soon, for even as I did so I +heard the click of a door handle, and then a creak of the hinges, and +a little afterwards--footsteps.</p> + +<p class="normal">A hand crept into mine; we waited in the darkness, holding our breath. +The footsteps came down the passage to the door behind which we stood +and passed on. I expected that they would be going towards the room in +which Helen slept. I waited for them to cease that I might follow and +catch Cullen Mayle, damned by some bright proof in his hand of a +murderous intention. But they did not cease; they kept on and on. +Surely he must have reached the room. At last the footsteps ceased. I +opened the door cautiously and heard beneath me in the hall a key turn +in a lock.</p> + +<p class="normal">A great hope sprang up in me. Suppose that since his plan had failed, +and since Tortue waited for him on Tresco, he had given up! Suppose +that he was leaving secretly, and for good and all! If that +supposition could be true! I prayed that it might be true, and as if +in answer to my prayer I saw below me where the hall door should be a +thin slip of twilight. This slip broadened and broadened. The murmur +of the waves became a roar. The door was opening--no, now it was +shutting again; the twilight narrowed to a slip and disappeared +altogether.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Listen," said I, and we heard footsteps on the stone tiles of the +porch.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, he is gone!" said Helen, in an indescribable accent of relief.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, gone," said I. "See, the door of his room is open."</p> + +<p class="normal">I ran down the passage and entered the room. Helen followed close +behind me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is gone," I repeated. The words sounded too pleasant to be true. I +approached the bed and flung aside the curtains. I stooped forward +over the bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Helen," I cried, and aloud, "out of the room! Quick! Quick!"</p> + +<p class="normal">For the words <i>were</i> too pleasant to be true. I flung up my arm to +keep her back. But I was too late. She had already seen. She had +approached the bed, and in the dim twilight she had seen. She uttered +a piercing scream, and fell against me in a dead swoon.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the man who had descended the stairs and unlocked the door was not +Cullen Mayle.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_19" href="#div1Ref_19">THE LAST</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Mesmer at this date was a youth of twenty-four, but the writings of +Van Helmont and Wirdig and G. Maxwell had already thrown more than a +glimmering of light upon the reciprocal action of bodies upon each +other, and had already demonstrated the existence of a universal +magnetic force by which the human will was rendered capable of +influencing the minds of others. It was not, however, till seventeen +years later--in the year 1775, to be precise--that Mesmer published +his famous letter to the Academies of Europe. And by a strange chance +it was in the same year that I secured a further confirmation of his +doctrines and at the same time an explanation of the one matter +concerned with this history of which I was still in ignorance. In a +word, I learned at last how young Peter Tortue came by his death.</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not learn it from his father. That implacable man I never saw +after the night when we listened to his footsteps descending the +stairs in the darkness. He was gone the next morning from the islands, +nor was any trace of him, for all the hue and cry, discovered for a +long while--not, indeed, for ten years, when my son, who was then a +lad of eight, while playing one day among the rocks of Peninnis Head +on St. Mary's, dropped clean out of my sight, or rather out of Helen's +sight, for I was deep in a book, and did not raise my head until a cry +from my wife startled me.</p> + +<p class="normal">We ran to the loose pile of boulders where the boy had vanished, and +searched and called for a few minutes without any answer. But in the +end a voice answered us, and from beneath our feet. It was the boy's +voice sure enough, but it sounded hollow, as though it came from the +bowels of the earth. By following the sound we discovered at last +between the great boulders an interstice, which would just allow a man +to slip below ground. This slit went down perpendicularly for perhaps +fifteen or twenty feet, but there were sure footholds and one could +disappear in a second. At the bottom of this hole was a little cave, +very close and dark, in which one could sit or crouch.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the floor of this cave I picked up a knife, and, bringing it to the +light, I recognised the carved blade, which I had seen Tortue once +polish upon his thigh in the red light of a candle. The cave, upon +inquiry, was discovered to be well known amongst the smugglers, though +it was kept a secret by them, and they called it by the curious name +of Issachum-Pucchar.</p> + +<p class="normal">This discovery was made in the year of 1768, and seven years later I +chanced to be standing upon the quay at Leghorn when a vessel from +Oporto, laden with wine and oil, dropped anchor in the harbour, and +her master came ashore. I recognised him at once, although the years +had changed him. It was Nathaniel Roper. I followed him up into the +town, where he did his business with the shipping agent and thence +repaired to a tavern. I entered the tavern, and sitting down over +against him at the same table, begged him to oblige me by drinking a +glass at my expense, which he declared himself ready to do. "But I +cannot tell why you should want to drink with me rather than another," +said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! as to that," said I, "we are old acquaintances."</p> + +<p class="normal">He answered, with an oath or two, that he could not lay his tongue to +the occasion of our meeting.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You swear very fluently and well," said I. "But you swore yet more +fluently, I have no doubt, that morning you sailed away from St. +Helen's Island without the Portuguese King's cross."</p> + +<p class="normal">His face turned the colour of paper, he half rose from his chair and +sat down again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was never on Tresco," he stammered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who spoke of Tresco, my friend?" said I, with a laugh. "I made +mention of St. Helen's. Yet you were upon Tresco. Have you forgotten? +The shed on Castle Down? The Abbey burial ground?" and then he knew +me, though for awhile he protested that he did not.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I persuaded him in the end that I meant no harm to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were at Sierra Leone with Cullen, maybe," said I. "Tell me how +young Peter Tortue came by his death?" and he told me the story which +he had before told to old Peter in an alehouse at Wapping.</p> + +<p class="normal">Peter, it appeared, had not been able to hold his tongue at Sierra +Leone. It became known through his chattering that Glen's company and +Cullen Mayle were going up the river in search of treasure, and it was +decided for the common good to silence him lest he should grow more +particular, and relate what the treasure was and how it came to be +buried on the bank of that river. George Glen was for settling the +matter with the stab of a knife, but Cullen Mayle would have none of +such rough measures.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know a better and more delicate way," said he, "a way very amusing +too. You shall all laugh to-morrow;" and calling Peter Tortue to him, +he betook himself with the whole party to the house of an old +buccaneering fellow, John Leadstone, who kept the best house in the +settlement, and lived a jovial life in safety, being on very good +terms with any pirate who put in. He had, indeed, two or three brass +guns before his door, which he was wont to salute the appearance of a +black flag with. To his house then the whole gang repaired, and while +they were making merry, Cullen Mayle addressed himself with an arduous +friendliness to Peter Tortue, taking his watch from his fob and +bidding the Frenchman admire it. For a quarter of an hour he busied +himself in this way, and then of a sudden in a stern commanding voice +he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stand up in the centre of the room," which Peter Tortue obediently +did.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now," continued Cullen, with a chuckle to his companions, "I'll show +you a trick that will tickle you. Peter," and he turned toward him. +"Peter," and he spoke in the softest, friendliest voice, "you talk too +much. I'll clap a gag on your mouth, you stinking offal! To-morrow +night, my friend, at ten o'clock by my watch, when we are lying in our +boat upon the river, you will fall asleep. Do you hear that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said Peter Tortue, gazing at Mayle.</p> + +<p class="normal">"At half-past ten, as you sleep, you will feel cramped for room, and +you will dangle a leg over the side of the boat in the river. Do you +hear that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well," said Cullen. "That will learn you to hold your tongue. +Now come back to your chair."</p> + +<p class="normal">Peter obeyed him again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When you wake up," added Cullen, "you will continue to talk of my +watch which you so much admire. You will not be aware that any time +has passed since you spoke of it before. You can wake up now."</p> + +<p class="normal">He made some sort of motion with his hands and Peter, whose eyes had +all this time been open, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll buy a watch as like that as a pea to a pea. First thing I will, +as soon as I handle my share."</p> + +<p class="normal">Cullen Mayle laughed, but he was the only one of that company that +did. The rest rather shrank from him as from something devilish, at +which, however, he only laughed the louder, being as it seemed +flattered by their fear.</p> + +<p class="normal">The next day the six men started up the river in a long-boat which +they borrowed of Leadstone, and sailed all that day until evening when +the tide began to fall.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thereupon Cullen, who held the tiller, steered the boat out of the +channel of the river and over the mudbanks, which at high tide were +covered to the depth of some feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here all was forest: the great tree-trunks, entwined with all manner +of creeping plants, stood up from the smooth oily water, and the roof +of branches over head made it already night.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have lost my way," said Cullen. "It will not be safe to try to +regain the channel until the tide rises. It falls very quickly here, +Leadstone tells me, and we should get stuck upon some mudbank. Let us +look for a pool where we may lie until the tide rises in the morning."</p> + +<p class="normal">Accordingly they took their oars and pulled in and out amongst the +trees, while Cullen Mayle sounded with the boathook for a greater +depth of water. The tide fell rapidly; bushes of undergrowth scraped +the boat's side, and then Mayle's boathook went down and touched no +bottom.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This will do," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was nine o'clock by his watch at this time, and the crew without +any fire or light made their supper in the boat as best they could. +Meanwhile the tide still sank; banks of mud rose out of the black +water; the forest stirred, and was filled with a horrible rustling +sound, of fish flapping and crabs crawling and scuttering in the +slime; and on the pool on which the boat lay every now and then a +ripple would cross the water as though a faint wind blew, and a broad +black snout would show, and a queer lugubrious cough echo out amongst +the tree-trunks.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Crocodiles, Peter," said Cullen gaily, and he clapped Tortue on the +shoulder. "It would not be prudent to take a bath in the pool. Hand +the lantern over, Glen!" and when he had the lantern in his hand he +looked at his watch.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Five minutes to ten," said he. "Well, it is not so long to wait."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Four hours," grumbled Tortue, who was thinking of the tide.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, only five minutes, my friend," Cullen corrected him, softly; and +sure enough in five minutes Peter stretched himself and complained +that he was sleepy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Cullen laughed with a gentle enjoyment and whistled a tune between his +teeth. But the others waited in a sort of paralysis of horror and +amazement. Even these hardened men were struck with a cold fear. The +suggestions of the place, too, had their effect. Above them was a +black roof of leaves, the close air was foul with the odour of things +decaying and things decayed, and everywhere about them was perpetually +heard the crawling and pattering of the obscene things which lived in +the mud.</p> + +<p class="normal">Peter Tortue stirred in his sleep, and Cullen held up the face of his +watch in the light of the lantern so that all in the boat might see. +It was half-past ten. Peter lifted his leg over the side and let it +fall with a splash in the water. It dangled there for about five +minutes, and then the man uttered a loud scream and clutched at the +thwart, but the next instant he was dragged over the boat's side.</p> + +<p class="normal">Roper told me this story, and the horror of it lived again upon his +face as he spoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," said I, "the father took his revenge. He stabbed Cullen Mayle +to the heart as he lay in bed. There is one thing more I would like to +know. Can you remember the paper with the directions of the spot where +the cross was buried?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said he; "am I likely to forget it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Could you write them out again, word for word and line for line, as +they were written?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">I called for a sheet of paper and a pen and ink, and set them before +Roper, and he wrote the directions laboriously, and handed the paper +back to me. There were only two lines with which I was concerned, and +they ran in this order:</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The S aisle of St. Helen's Church. Three chains east by the compass +of the east window."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Are you sure you have made no mistake?" I asked. "This is a facsimile +of the paper which you took from the hollow of the stick. Look again!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I gave it back to him and he scratched his head over it for a little. +Then he wrote the directions again upon a second sheet of paper, and +when he had written, tore off a corner of the paper.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah!" said I, "that is what I thought." He handed it to me again, and +it ran now:--</p> +<br> +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The S aisle of S. Helen's Church. Three <span style="letter-spacing:10pt"> </span>chains +east by the compass of the east window."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">On that corner which had been torn a word had been written. I knew the +word. It would be "Cornish." I knew, too, who had torn off the corner.</p> + +<p class="normal">The cross still lies then three Cornish chains east of that window, or +should do so. We at all events have not disturbed it, for we do not +wish to have continually before our eyes a reminder of those days when +the sailors watched the house at Merchant's Point. Even as it is, I +start up too often from my sleep in the dark night and peer forward +almost dreading again to see the flutter of white at the foot of the +bed, and to hear again the sound of some one choking.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>THE END.</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Watchers, by +A. E. W. 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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 Watchers + A Novel + +Author: A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason + +Release Date: January 27, 2012 [EBook #38693] +[Last updated: August 11, 2013] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WATCHERS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://www.archive.org/details/watchersnovel00masorich + + + + + + + THE WATCHERS + + + + + + + THE + + WATCHERS + + A Novel + + + BY + + A. E. W. MASON + + AUTHOR OF "THE COURTSHIP OF MORRICE + BUCKLER," ETC. + + + + + NEW YORK + + FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY + + PUBLISHERS + + + + + + + _Copyright, 1899_. + + _By Frederick A. Stokes Company_. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAP. + + I. TELLS OF A DOOR AJAR AND OF A LAD WHO STOOD BEHIND IT. + + II. DICK PARMITER'S STORY. + + III. OF THE MAGICAL INFLUENCE OF A MAP. + + IV. DESCRIBES THE REMARKABLE MANNER IN WHICH CULLEN MAYLE + LEFT TRESCO. + + V. THE ADVENTURE IN THE WOOD. + + VI. MY FIRST NIGHT UPON TRESCO. + + VII. TELLS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT IN CULLEN MAYLE'S + BEDROOM. + + VIII. HELEN MAYLE. + + IX. TELLS OF A STAIN UPON A WHITE FROCK AND A LOST KEY. + + X. IN WHICH I LEARN SOMETHING FROM AN ILL-PAINTED PICTURE. + + XI. OUR PLANS MISCARRY UPON CASTLE DOWN. + + XII. I FIND AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND. + + XIII. IN THE ABBEY GROUNDS. + + XIV. IN WHICH PETER TORTUE EXPLAINS HIS INTERVENTION ON MY + BEHALF. + + XV. THE LOST KEY IS FOUND. + + XVI. AN UNSATISFACTORY EXPLANATION. + + XVII. CULLEN MAYLE COMES HOME. + + XVIII. MY PERPLEXITIES ARE EXPLAINED. + + XIX. THE LAST. + + + + + + THE WATCHERS + + + + + CHAPTER I + + TELLS OF A DOOR AJAR AND OF A LAD WHO + STOOD BEHIND IT + + +I had never need to keep any record either of the date or place. It +was the fifteenth night of July, in the year 1758, and the place was +Lieutenant Clutterbuck's lodging at the south corner of Burleigh +Street, Strand. The night was tropical in its heat, and though every +window stood open to the Thames, there was not a man, I think, who did +not long for the cool relief of morning, or step out from time to time +on to the balcony and search the dark profundity of sky for the first +flecks of grey. I cannot be positive about the entire disposition of +the room: but certainly Lieutenant Clutterbuck was playing at ninepins +down the middle with half a dozen decanters and a couple of silver +salvers; and Mr. Macfarlane, a young gentleman of a Scottish regiment, +was practising a game of his own. + +He carried the fire-irons and Lieutenant Clutterbuck's sword under his +arm, and walked solidly about the floor after a little paper ball +rolled up out of a news sheet, which he hit with one of these +instruments, selecting now the poker, now the tongs or the sword with +great deliberation, and explaining his selection with even greater +earnestness; there was besides a great deal of noise, which seemed to +be a quality of the room rather than the utterance of any particular +person; and I have a clear recollection that everything, from the +candles to the glasses on the tables and the broken tobacco pipes on +the floor, was of a dazzling and intolerable brightness. This +brightness distressed me particularly, because just opposite to where +I sat a large mirror hung upon the wall between two windows. On each +side was a velvet hollow of gloom, in the middle this glittering oval. +Every ray of light within the room seemed to converge upon its +surface. I could not but look at it--for it did not occur to me to +move away to another chair--and it annoyed me exceedingly. Besides, +the mirror was inclined forward from the wall, and so threw straight +down at me a reflection of Lieutenant Clutterbuck's guests, as they +flung about the room beneath it. + +Thus I saw a throng of flushed young exuberant faces, and in the +background, continually peeping between them, my own, very white and +drawn and thin and a million years old. That, too, annoyed me very +much, and then by a sheer miracle, as it seemed to me, the mirror +splintered and cracked and dropped in fragments on to the floor, +until there was only hanging on the wall the upper rim, a thin +curve of glass like a bright sickle. I remember that the noise and +hurley-burley suddenly ceased, as though morning had come unawares +upon a witches' carnival and that all the men present stood like +statues and appeared to stare at me. Lieutenant Clutterbuck broke the +silence, or rather tore it, with a great loud laugh which crumpled up +his face. He said something about "Old Steve Berkeley," and smacked +his hand upon my shoulder, and shouted for another glass, which he +filled and placed at my elbow, for my own had disappeared. + +I had no time to drink from it, however, for just as I was raising it +to my lips Mr. Macfarlane's paper ball dropped from the ceiling into +the liquor. + +"Bunkered, by God!" cried Mr. Macfarlane, amidst a shout of laughter. + +I looked at Macfarlane with some reserve. + +"I don't understand," I began. + +"Don't move, man!" cried he, as he forced me back into my chair, and +dropping the fire-irons with a clatter on to the floor, he tried to +scoop the ball out of the glass with the point of Clutterbuck's +sword-sheath. He missed the glass; the sheath caught me full on the +knuckles; I opened my hand and---- + +"Sir, you have ruined my game," said Mr. Macfarlane, with considerable +heat. + +"And a good thing too," said I, "for a sillier game I never saw in all +my life." + +"Gentlemen," cried Lieutenant Clutterbuck, though he did not +articulate the word with his customary precision; but his intentions +were undoubtedly pacific. He happened to be holding the last of his +decanters in his hand, and he swung it to and fro. "Gentlemen," he +repeated, and as if to keep me company, he let the decanter slip out +of his hand. It fell on the floor and split with a loud noise. "Well," +said he, solemnly, "I have dropped a brooch," and he fumbled at his +cravat. + +Another peal of laughter went up; and while it was still ringing, a +man--what his name was I cannot remember, even if I ever knew it; I +saw him for the first time that evening, and I have only once seen him +since, but he was certainly--more sober than the rest--stooped over my +chair and caught me by the arm. + +"Steve," said he, with a chuckle,--and from this familiarity to a new +acquaintance I judge he was not so sober after all,--"do you notice +the door?" + +The door was in the corner of the room to my right. I looked towards +it: the brass handle shone like a gold ball in the sun. I looked back +at my companion, and, shaking my arm free, I replied coldly: + +"I see it. It is a door, a mere door. But I do not notice it. It is +not indeed noteworthy." + +"It is unlatched," said my acquaintance, with another chuckle. + +"I suppose it is not the only door in the world in that predicament." + +"But it was latched a moment ago," and with his forefinger he gently +poked me in the ribs. + +"Then someone has turned the handle," said I, drawing myself away. + +"A most ingenious theory," said he, quite unabashed by my reserve, +"and the truth. Someone _has_ turned the handle. Now who?" He winked +with an extreme significance. "My dear sir, who?" + +I looked round the room. Mr. Macfarlane had resumed his game. Two +gentlemen in a corner through all the din were earnestly playing putt +with the cards. They had, however, removed their wigs, and their +shaven heads gleamed unpleasantly. Others by the window were +vociferating the chorus of a drinking song. Lieutenant Clutterbuck +alone was near to the door. I was on the point of pronouncing his name +when he lurched towards it, and instantly the door was closed. + +"It was someone outside," said I. + +"Precisely. Steve, you are not so devoid of sense as your friends +would have me believe," continued my companion. "Now, who will be +Lieutenant Clutterbuck's timorous visitor?" He drew his watch from +his fob: "We may hazard a guess at the sex, I think, but for the +rest---- Is it some fine lady from St. James's who has come in her +chair at half-past one of the morning to keep an appointment which her +careless courtier has forgotten?" + +"Hardly," I returned. "For your fine lady would hurry back to her +chair with all the speed her petticoats allowed. She would not stay +behind the door, which, I see, has again been opened." + +The familiar stranger laid his hand upon my shoulder and held me back +in my chair at arm's length from him. + +"They do you wrong, my dear Steve," said he, gravely, "who say your +brains are addled with drink. Your"--his tongue stumbled over a long +word which I judged to be "ratiocination"--"is admirable. Never was +logician more precise. It is not a fine lady from St. James's. It will +be a flower-girl from Drury Lane, and may I be eternally as drunk as I +am to-night, if we do not have her into the room." + +With that he crossed the room, and seizing the handle suddenly swung +the door open. The next instant he stepped back. The door was in a +line with the wall against which my chair was placed, and besides it +opened towards me so that I could not see what it was that so amazed +him. + +"Here's the strangest flower-girl from Drury Lane that ever I saw," +said he, and Lieutenant Clutterbuck turning about cried: + +"By all that's wonderful, it's Dick Parmiter," and a lad of fifteen +years, with a red fisherman's bonnet upon his head and a blue jersey +on his back, stepped hesitatingly into the room. + +"Well, Dick, what's the news from Scilly?" continued Clutterbuck. "And +what's brought you to London? Have you come to see the king in his +golden crown? Has Captain Hathaway lost his _Diodorus Siculus_ and +sent you to town to buy him another? Come, out with it!" + +Dick shifted from one foot to another; he took his cap from his head +and twisted it in his hands; and he looked from one to another of +Lieutenant Clutterbuck's guests who had now crowded about the lad and +were plying him with questions. But he did not answer the questions. +No doubt the noise and the lights, and the presence of these +glittering gentlemen confused the lad, who was more used to the lonely +beaches of the islands and the companionable murmurs of the sea. At +last he plucked up the courage to say, with a glance of appeal to +Lieutenant Clutterbuck: + +"I have news to tell, but I would sooner tell it to you alone." + +His appeal was received with a chorus of protestations, and "Where are +your manners, Dick," cried Clutterbuck, "that you tell my friends flat +to their faces they cannot keep a secret?" + +"Are we women?" asked Mr. Macfarlane. + +"Out with your story," cried another. + +Dick Parmiter shrank back and turned his eyes towards the door, but +one man shut it to and leaned his shoulders against the panels, while +the others caught at the lad's hesitation as at a new game, and +crowded about him as though he was some rare curiosity brought by a +traveller from outlandish parts. + +"He shall tell his story," cried Clutterbuck. "It is two years since I +was stationed at the Scilly Islands, two years since I dined in the +mess-room of Star Castle with Captain Hathaway of his Majesty's +Invalids, and was bored to death with his dissertations on _Diodorus +Siculus_. Two years! The boy must have news of consequence. There is +no doubt trouble with the cray fish, or Adam Mayle has broken the head +of the collector of the Customs House----" + +"Adam Mayle is dead. He was struck down by paralysis and never moved +till he died," interrupted Dick Parmiter. + +The news sobered Clutterbuck for an instant. "Dead!" said he, gaping +at the boy. "Dead!" he repeated, and so flung back to his noise and +laughter, though there was a ring of savagery in it very strange to +his friends. "Well, more brandy will pay revenue, and fewer ships will +come ashore, and very like there'll be quiet upon Tresco----" + +"No," interrupted Parmiter again, and Clutterbuck turned upon him with +a flush of rage. + +"Well, tell your story and have done with it!" + +"To you," said the boy, looking from one to other of the faces about +him. + +"No, to all," cried Clutterbuck. The drink, and a certain anger of +which we did not know the source, made him obstinate. "You shall tell +it to us all, or not at all. Bring that table, forward, Macfarlane! +You shall stand on the table Dick, like a preacher in his pulpit," he +sneered, "and put all the fine gentlemen to shame, with a story of the +rustic virtues." + +The table was dragged from the corner into the middle of the room. The +boy protested, and made for the door. But he was thrust back, seized +and lifted struggling on to the table, where he was set upon his feet. + +"Harmony, gentlemen, harmony!" cried Clutterbuck, flapping his hand +upon the mantelshelf. "Take your seats, and no whispering in the side +boxes, if you please. For I can promise you a play which needs no +prologue to excuse it." + +It was a company in which a small jest passed easily for a high stroke +of wit. They applauded Lieutenant Clutterbuck's sally, and drew up +their chairs round the table and sat looking upwards towards the boy, +with a great expectation of amusement, just as people watch a +bear-baiting at a fair. For my part I had not moved, and it was no +doubt for that reason that Parmiter looked for help towards me. + +"When all's said, Clutterbuck," I began, "you and your friends are a +pack of bullies. The boy's a good boy, devil take me if he isn't." + +The boy upon the table looked his gratitude for the small mercy of my +ineffectual plea, and I should have proceeded to enlarge upon it had I +not noticed a very astonishing thing. For Parmiter lifted his arm high +up above his head as though to impress upon me his gratitude, and his +arm lengthened out and grew until it touched the ceiling. Then it +dwindled and shrank until again it was no more than a boy's arm on a +boy's shoulder. I was so struck with this curious phenomenon that I +broke off my protest on his behalf, and mentioned to those about me +what I had seen, asking whether they had remarked it too, and +inquiring to what cause, whither of health or malady, they were +disposed to attribute so sudden a growth and contraction. + +However, Lieutenant Clutterbuck's guests were only disposed that night +to make light of any subject however important or scientific. For some +laughed in my face, others more polite, shrugged their shoulders with +a smile, and the stranger who had spoken to me before clapped his hand +in the small of my back as I leaned forward, and shouted some ill-bred +word that, though might he die of small-pox if he had ever met me +before, he would have known me from a thousand by the tales he had +heard. However, before I could answer him fitly, and indeed, while I +was still pondering the meaning of his words. Lieutenant Clutterbuck +clapped his hands for silence, and Dick Parmiter, seeing no longer any +hope of succour, perforce began to tell his story. + +It was a story of a youth that sat in the stocks of a Sunday morning +and disappeared thereafter from the islands; of a girl named Helen; of +a negro who slept and slept, and of men watching a house with a great +tangled garden that stood at the edge of the sea. Cullen Mayle, +Parmiter called the youth who had sat in the stocks, son to that Adam +whose death had so taken Lieutenant Clutterbuck with surprise. But I +could not make head or tail of the business. For one thing I have +always been very fond of flowers, and quite unaccountably the polished +floor of the room blossomed into a parterre of roses, so that my +attention was distracted by this curious and pleasing event. + +For another, Parmiter's story was continually interrupted by intricate +questions intended to confuse him, his evident anxiety was made the +occasion of much amusement by those seated about the table, and he was +induced on one excuse and another to go back to the beginning again +and again and relate once more what he had already told. But I +remember that he spoke with a high intonation, and rather quickly and +with a broad accent, and that even then I was extremely sensible of +the unfamiliar parts from which he came. His words seemed to have +preserved a smell of the sea, and through them I seemed to hear very +clearly the sound of waves breaking upon a remote beach--near in a +word to that granite house with the tangled garden where the men +watched and watched. + +Then the boy's story ceased, and the next thing I heard was a sound of +sobbing. I looked up, and there was Dick Parmiter upon the table, +crying like a child. Over against him sat Lieutenant Clutterbuck, with +a face sour and dark. + +"I'll not stir a foot or lift a finger," said he, swearing an oath, +"no, not if God comes down and bids me." + +And upon that the boy weakened of a sudden, swayed for an instant upon +his feet, and dropped in a huddle upon the table. His swoon put every +one to shame except Clutterbuck; everyone busied himself about the +boy, dabbing his forehead with wet handkerchiefs, and spilling brandy +over his face in attempts to pour it into his mouth--every one except +Clutterbuck, who never moved nor changed in a single line of his face, +from his fixed expression of anger. Dick Parmiter recovered from his +swoon and sat up: and his first look was towards the lieutenant, whose +face softened for an instant with I know not what memories of days +under the sun in a fishing boat amongst the islands. + +"Dick, you are over-tired. It's a long road from the Scillies to +London. Very like, too, you are hungry," and Dick nodded "yes" to each +sentence. "Well, Dick, you shall eat here, if there's any food in my +larder, and you shall sleep here when you have eaten." + +"Is that all?" asked Parmiter, simply, and Clutterbuck's face turned +hard again as a stone. + +"Every word," said he. + +The boy slipped off the table and began to search on the ground. His +cap had fallen from his hand when he fell down in his swoon. He picked +it up from beneath a chair. He did not look any more at Clutterbuck; +he made no appeal to anyone in the room; but though his legs still +faltered from weakness, he walked silently out of the door, and in a +little we heard his footsteps upon the stone stairs and the banisters +creaking, as though he clung to them, while he descended, for support. + +"Good God, Clutterbuck!" cried Macfarlane "he's but a boy." + +"With no roof to his head," said another. + +"And fainting for lack of a meal," said a third. + +"He shall have both," I cried, "if he will take them from me," and I +ran out of the door. + +"Dick," I cried down the hollow of the staircase, "Dick Parmiter," but +no answer was returned, save my own cry coming back to me up the well +of the stairs. Clutterbuck's rooms were on the highest floor of the +house; the stone stairs stretched downwards flight after flight +beneath me. There was no sound anywhere upon them; the boy had gone. I +came back to the room. Lieutenant Clutterbuck sat quite still in his +chair. The morning was breaking; a cold livid light crept through the +open windows, touched his hands, reached his face and turned it white. + +"Good-night," he said, without so much as a look. + +His eyes were bent upon memories to which we had no clue. We left him +sitting thus and went down into the street, when we parted. I saw no +roses blossoming in the streets as I walked home, but as I looked in +my mirror at my lodging I noticed again that my face was drawn and +haggard and a million years old. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + DICK PARMITER'S STORY + + +I woke up at mid-day, and lay for awhile in my bed anticipating +wearily the eight limping hours to come before the evening fell, and +wondering how I might best escape them. From that debate my thoughts +drifted to the events of the night before, and I recollected with a +sudden thrill of interest, rare enough to surprise me, the coming of +Dick Parmiter, and his treatment at Clutterbuck's hands and his +departure. I thought of his long journey to London along strange +roads. I could see him tramping the dusty miles, each step leading him +farther from that small corner of the world with which alone he was +familiar. I imagined him now sleeping beneath a hedge, now perhaps, by +some rare fortune, in one of Russell's waggons with the Falmouth +mails, which at nightfall he had overtaken, and from which at daybreak +he would descend with a hurried word of thanks to get the quicker on +his way; I pictured him pressing through the towns with a growing fear +at his heart, because of their turmoil and their crowds; and I thought +of him as hungering daily more and more for the sea which he had left +behind, like a sheep-dog which one has taken from the sheep and shut +up within the walls of a city. The boy's spirit appealed to me. It was +new, it was admirable; and I dressed that day with an uncommon +alertness and got me out to Clutterbuck's lodgings. + +I found the lieutenant in bed with a tankard of small ale at his +bedside. He looked me over with astonishment. + +"I wish I could carry my liquor as well as you do," said he, taking a +pull at the tankard. + +"Has the boy come back?" I asked. + +"What, Dick?" said he. "No, nor will not." And changing the subject, +"If you will wait, Steve, I will make a shift to get up." + +I went into his parlour. The room had been put into some sort of +order; but the shattered remnant of the mirror still hung between the +windows, and it too spoke to me of Dick's journey. I imagined him +coming to the great city at the fall of night, and seeking out his way +through its alleys and streets to Lieutenant Clutterbuck's lodgings. I +could see him on the stairs pausing to listen to the confusion within +the rooms, and in the passage opening and closing the door as he +hesitated whether to go in or no. I became all at once very curious to +know what the errand was which had pushed him so far from his home, +and I cudgelled my brains to recollect his story. But I could remember +only the youth Cullen Mayle, who had sat in the stocks on a Sunday +morning, and the girl Helen, and a negro who slept and slept, and a +house with a desolate tangled garden by the sea, and men watching the +house. But what bound these people and the house in a common history, +as to that I was entirely in the dark. + +"Steve," said Clutterbuck--I had not remarked his entrance--"you look +glum as a November morning. Is it a sore head? or is it the sight of +your mischievous handiwork?" and he pointed to the mirror. + +"It's neither one nor the other," said I. "It's just the recollection +of that boy fumbling under the table for his cap, and dragging himself +silently out of the room, with all England to tramp and despair to +sustain him." + +"That boy!" cried Clutterbuck, with great exasperation. "Curse you, +Berkeley. That boy's a maggot, and has crept into your brains. We'll +talk no more of him, if you please." He took a pack of cards from a +corner cupboard, and, tossing them on the table, "Here, choose your +game I'll play what you will, and for what stakes you will, so long as +you hold your tongue." + +It was plain that I should learn nothing by pressing my curiosity upon +him. I must go another way to work. But chance and Lieutenant +Clutterbuck served my turn without any provocation from myself. + +I chose the game of picquet, and Clutterbuck shuffled and cut the +cards; whereupon I dealt them. Clutterbuck looked at his hand +fretfully, and then cried out: + +"I have no hand for picquet, but I have very good putt cards." + +I glanced through the cards I held. + +"Make it putt, then," said I. "I will wager what you will my hand is +the better;" and Clutterbuck broke into a laugh and tossed his cards +upon the table. + +"You have two kings and an ace," said he, "I know very well; but I +have two kings and a deuce, and mine are the better." + +"It is a bite," said I. + +"And an ingenious one," he returned. "It was Cullen Mayle who taught +it to us in the mess at Star Castle. For packing the cards or knapping +the dice I never came across his equal. Yet we could never detect him, +and in the end not a soul in the garrison would play with him for +crooked pins." + +"Cullen Mayle," said I; "that was Adam's son." + +Clutterbuck had sunk into something of a reverie, and spoke rather to +himself than to me. + +"They were the strangest pair," he continued; "you would never take +them for father and son, and I myself was always amazed to think there +was any relationship between them. I have seen them sitting side by +side on the settle in the kitchen of the 'Palace Inn' at Tresco. Adam, +an old bulky fellow, with a mulberry face and yellow angry eyes, and +his great hands and feet twisted out of all belief. His stories were +all of wild doings on the Guinea coast. Cullen, on the other hand, was +a stripling with a soft face like a girl's, exquisite in his dress, +urbane in his manners. He had a gentle word and an attentive ear for +each newcomer to the fire, and a white protesting hand for the oaths +with which Adam salted his speech. Yet they were both of the same +vindictive, turbulent spirit, only Cullen was the more dangerous. + +"I have watched the gannets often through an afternoon in Hell Bay +over at Brehar. They would circle high up in the air where no fish +could see them, and then slant their wings and drop giddily with the +splash of a stone upon their prey. They always put me in mind of +Cullen Mayle. He struck mighty quick and out of the sky. I cannot +remember, during all the ten years I lived at the Scillies, that any +man crossed Cullen Mayle, though unwittingly, but some odd accident +crippled him. He was the more dangerous of the pair. With Adam it was +a word and a blow. With Cullen a word and another and another, and all +of them soft, and the blow held over for a secret occasion. But it +fell. If ever you come across Cullen Mayle, Berkeley, take care of +your words and your deeds, for he strikes out of the sky and mighty +quick." + +This Clutterbuck said with an extreme earnestness, leaning forward to +me as he spoke. And even now I can but put it down to his earnestness +that a shiver took me at the words; for nothing was more unlikely than +that I should ever come to grips with Cullen Mayle, and the next +moment I answered Clutterbuck lightly. + +"Yet he sat in the stocks in the end," said I, with as much +indifference as I could counterfeit; for I was afraid lest any display +of eagerness might close his lips. Lieutenant Clutterbuck, however, +was hardly aware that he was being questioned. He laughed with a +certain pleasure. + +"Yes. A schooner, with a cargo of brandy, came ashore on Tresco. +Cullen and the Tresco men saved the cargo and hid it away, and when +the collector came over with his men from the Customs House upon St. +Mary's, Cullen drove him back to his boats with a broken head. Cullen +broke old Captain Hathaway's patience at the same time. Hathaway took +off his silver spectacles at last and shut up his _Diodorus Siculus_ +with a bang; and so Cullen Mayle sat in the stocks before the Customs +House on the Sunday morning. He left the islands that night. That was +two years and a month ago." + +"And what had Dick Parmiter to do with Cullen Mayle?" said I. + +"Dick?" said he. "Oh, Dick was Cullen Mayle's henchman. But it seems +that Dick has transferred his allegiance to----" And he stopped +abruptly. His face soured as he stopped. + +"To the girl Helen?" said I, quite forgetting my indifference. + +"Yes!" cried Clutterbuck, savagely, "to the girl Helen. He is fifteen +years old is Dick. But at fifteen years a lad is ripe to be one of +Cupid's April fools." And after that he would say no more. + +His last words, however, and, more than his words, the tone in which +he spoke, had given me the first definite clue of the many for which +my curiosity searched. It was certainly on behalf of the girl, whom I +only knew as Helen, that Dick had undertaken his arduous errand, and +it was no less certain that just for that reason Lieutenant +Clutterbuck had refused to meddle in the matter. I recognised that I +should get no advantage from persisting, but I kept close to his side +that day waiting upon opportunity. + +We dined together at Locket's, by Charing Cross; we walked together to +the "Cocoa Tree" in St. James's Street, and passed an hour or so with +a dice-box. Clutterbuck was very silent for the most part. He handled +the dice-box with indifference; and, since he was never the man to +keep his thoughts for any long time to himself, I had no doubt that +some time that day I should learn more. Indeed, very soon after we +left the "Cocoa Tree" I thought the whole truth was coming out; for he +stopped in St. James's Park, close to the Mall, which at that moment +was quiet and deserted. We could hear a light wind rippling through +the leaves of the poplars, and a faint rumble of carriages lurching +over the stones of Pall Mall. + +"It is very like the sound of the sea on a still morning of summer," +said he, looking at me with a vacant eye, and I wondered whether he +was thinking of a tangled garden raised above a beach of sand, +wherein, maybe, he had walked, and not alone on some such day as this +two years ago. + +We crossed the water to the Spring Gardens at Vauxhall, where we +supped. I was now fallen into as complete a silence and abstraction as +Clutterbuck himself, for I was clean lost in conjectures, I knew +something now of Adam Mayle and his son Cullen, but as to Helen I was +in the dark. Was her name Mayle too? Was she wife to Cullen? The sight +of Clutterbuck's ill-humour inclined me to that conjecture; but I was +wrong, for as the attendants were putting out the lights in the garden +I ventured upon the question. To my surprise, Clutterbuck answered me +with a smile. + +"Sure," said he, "you are the most pertinacious fellow. What's come to +you, who were content to drink your liquor and sit on one side while +the world went by? No, she was not wife to Cullen Mayle, nor sister. +She was a waif of the sea. Adam Mayle picked her up from the rocks a +long while since. It was the only action that could be counted to his +credit since he came out of nowhere and leased the granite house of +Tresco. A barque--a Venetian vessel, it was thought, from Marseilles, +in France, for a great deal of Castile soap, and almonds and oil was +washed ashore afterwards--drove in a northwesterly gale on to the +Golden Bar reef. The reef runs out from St. Helen's Island, opposite +Adam Mayle's window. Adam put out his lugger and crossed the sound, +but before he could reach St. Helen's the ship went down into fourteen +fathoms of water. He landed on St. Helen's, however, and amongst the +rocks where the reef joins the land he came across a sailor, who lay +in the posture of death, and yet wailed like a hungry child. The +sailor was dead, but within his jacket, buttoned up on his breast, was +a child of four years or so. Adam took her home. No one ever claimed +her, so he kept her, and called her Helen from the island on which she +was wrecked. That was a long time since, for the girl must be twenty." + +"Is she French?" I asked. + +"French, or Venetian, or Spanish, or what you will," he cried. "It +matters very little what country a woman springs from. I have no doubt +that a Hottentot squaw will play you the same tricks as a woman of +fashion, and with as demure a countenance. Well, it seems we are to go +to bed sober;" and we went each to his lodging. + +For my part, I lay awake for a long time, seeking to weave into some +sort of continuous story what I had heard that day from Lieutenant +Clutterbuck and the scraps which I remembered of Parmiter's talk. But +old Adam Mayle, who was dead; Cullen, the gannet who struck from the +skies; and even Helen, the waif of the sea--these were at this time no +more to me than a showman's puppets; marionettes of sawdust and wood, +that faced this way and that way according as I pulled the strings. +The one being who had life was the boy Parmiter, with his jersey and +his red fisherman's bonnet; and I very soon turned to conjecturing how +he fared upon his journey. + +Had he money to help him forward? Had he fallen in with a kindly +carrier? How far had he travelled? I had no doubt that, whether he had +money or no, he would reach his journey's end. His spirit was evident +in the resolve to travel to London, in his success, and in the +concealment of any weakness until the favour he asked for had been +refused. + +I bought next morning one of the new maps of the Great West Road and +began to pick off the stages of his journey. This was the second day +since he had started. He would not travel very fast, having no good +news to lighten his feet. I reckoned that he would have reached the +"Golden Farmer," and I made a mark at that name on the map. Every day +for a week I kept in this way an imagined tally of his progress, +following him from county to county; and at the end of the week, +coming out in the evening from my lodging at the corner of St. James's +Street, I ran plump into the arms of the gentleman I had met at +Clutterbuck's, and whose name I did not know. But his familiarity was +all gone from him. He bowed to me stiffly, and would have passed on, +but I caught him by the arm. + +"Sir," said I, "you will remember a certain night when I had the +honour of your acquaintance." + +"Mr. Berkeley," he returned with a smile, "I remember very much better +the dreadful morning which followed it." + +"You will not, at all events, have forgotten the boy whom you +discovered outside the door, and if you can repeat the story which he +told, or some portion of it, I shall be obliged to you." + +He looked at his watch. + +"I have still half an hour to spare," said he; and he led the way to +the "Groom Porters." The night was young, but not so young but what +the Bassett-table was already full. We sat down together in a dark +corner of the room, and my companion told me what he remembered of +Parmiter's story. + +It appeared that Cullen Mayle had quarrelled with his father on that +Sunday night after he had sat in the stocks and had left the house. He +had never returned. A year ago Adam Mayle had died, bequeathing his +fortune, which was considerable, and most of it placed in the African +Company, to his adopted daughter Helen. She, however, declared that +she had no right to it, that it was not hers, and that she would hold +it in trust until such time as Cullen should come back to claim it. + +He did not come back, as has been said; but eight months later Dick +Parmiter, on an occasion when he had crossed in his father's fishing +boat to Cornwall, had discovered upon Penzance Quay a small crowd of +loiterers, and on the ground amongst them, with his back propped +against a wall, a negro asleep. A paper was being passed from hand to +hand among the group, and in the end it came to Dick Parmiter. Upon +the paper was written Adam Mayle's name and the place of his +residence, Tresco, in the Scilly Islands; and Dick at once recognised +that the writing was in Cullen Mayle's hand. He pushed to the front of +the group, and stooping down, shook the negro by the shoulder. The +negro drowsily opened his eyes. + +"You come from Mr. Cullen Mayle?" said Dick. + +"Yes," said the negro, speaking in English and quite clearly. + +"You have a message from him?" + +"Yes." + +"What is it?" asked Dick; and he put a number of questions eagerly. +But in the midst of them, and while still looking at Dick, the negro +closed his eyes deliberately and fell asleep. + +"See," cried a sailor, an oldish white-haired man, with a French +accent; "that is the way with him. He came aboard with us at the port +of London as wide awake as you or I. Bound for Penzance he was, and +the drowsiness took him the second day out. At first he would talk a +little; but each day he slept more and more, until now he will say no +more than a 'Yes' or a 'No.' Why, he will fall asleep over his +dinner." + +Dick shook the negro again. + +"Do you wish to cross to Tresco?" + +"Yes," said the negro. + +Dick carried him back to Scilly and brought him to the house on +Tresco, where Helen Mayle now lived alone. But no news could be got +from him. He would answer "Yes" or "No" and eat his meals; but when it +came to a question of his message or Cullen Mayle's whereabouts he +closed his eyes and fell asleep. Helen judged that somewhere Cullen +was in great need and distress, and because she held his money, and +could do nothing to succour him, she was thrown into an extreme +trouble. There was some reason why he could not come to Scilly in +person, and here at her hand was the man sent to tell the reason; but +he could not because of his mysterious malady. More than once he tried +with a look of deep sadness in his eyes, as though he was conscious of +his helplessness, but he never got beyond the first word. His eyelids +closed while his mouth was still open to speak, and at once he was +asleep. His presence made a great noise amongst the islands; from +Brehar, from St. Mary's, and from St. Martin's the people sailed over +to look at him. But Helen, knowing Cullen Mayle and fearing the nature +of his misadventure, had bidden Parmiter to let slip no hint that he +had come on Cullen's account. + +So the negro stayed at Tresco and spread a great gloom throughout the +house. They watched him day by day as he slept. Cullen's need might be +immediate; it might be a matter of crime; it might be a matter of life +and death. The gloom deepened into horror, and Helen and her few +servants, and Dick, who was much in the house, fell into so lively an +apprehension that the mere creaking of a door would make them start, a +foot crunching on the sand outside sent them flying to the window. So +for a month, until Dick Parmiter, coming over the hill from New +Grimsby harbour at night, had a lantern flashed in his face, and when +close to the house saw a man spring up from the gorse and watch him as +he passed. From that night the house was continually spied upon, and +Helen walked continually from room to room wringing her hands in sheer +distraction at her helplessness. She feared that they were watching +for Cullen; she feared, too, that Cullen, receiving no answer to his +message, would come himself and fall into their hands. She dared +hardly conjecture for what reason they were watching, since she knew +Cullen. For a week these men watched, five of them, who kept their +watches as at sea; and then Dick, taking his courage in his hands, and +bethinking him of Lieutenant Clutterbuck, who had been an assiduous +visitor at the house on Tresco, had crossed over to St. Mary's and +learned from old Captain Hathaway where he now lived. He had said +nothing of his purpose to Helen, partly from a certain shyness at +speaking to her upon a topic of some delicacy, and partly lest he +should awaken her hopes and perhaps only disappoint them. But he had +begged a passage in a ship that was sailing to Cornwall, and, crossing +thither secretly, had made his way in six weeks to London. + +This is the story which my acquaintance repeated to me as we sat in +the "Groom Porters." + +"And Clutterbuck refused to meddle in the matter," said I. "Poor lad!" + +I was thinking of Dick, but my companion mistook my meaning, for he +glanced thoughtfully at me for a second. + +"I think you are very right to pity him," he said; "although, Mr. +Berkeley, if you will pardon me, I am a trifle surprised to hear that +sentiment from you. It is indeed a sodden, pitiful, miserable dog's +life that Clutterbuck leads. To pass the morning over his toilette, to +loiter through the afternoon in a boudoir, and to dispose of the +evening so that he may be drunk before midnight! He would be much +better taking the good air into his lungs and setting his wits to +unknot that tangle amongst those islands in the sea. But I have +overstayed my time. If you can persuade him to that, you will be doing +him no small service;" and politely taking his leave, he went out of +the room. + +I sat for some while longer in the corner. I could not pretend that +he had spoken anything but truth, but I found his words none the less +bitter on that account. A pitiful dog's life for Lieutenant +Clutterbuck, who was at the most twenty-four years of age! What, then, +was it for me, who had seven years the better of Lieutenant +Clutterbuck, or rather, I should say, seven years the worse? I was +thirty-one that very month, and Clutterbuck's sodden, pitiful life had +been mine for the last seven years. An utter disgust took hold of me +as I repeated over and over to myself my strange friend's words. I +looked at the green cloth and the yellow candles, and the wolfish +faces about the cloth. The candles had grown soft with the heat of the +night, and were bent out of their shape, so that the grease dropped in +great blots upon the cloth, and the air was close with an odour of +stale punch. I got up from my corner and went out into the street, +and stood by the water in St. James's Park, If only some such +summons had come to me when I was twenty-four as had now come to +Clutterbuck!--well, very likely I should have turned a deaf ear to +it, even as he had done! And--and, at all events, I was thirty-one and +the summons had not come to me, and there was an end of the matter. +To-morrow I should go back to the green cloth and not trouble my +head about the grease blots; but to-night, since Clutterbuck was +twenty-four, I would try to do him that small service of which the +stranger spoke, and so setting out at a round pace I made my way to +Clutterbuck's lodging. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + OF THE MAGICAL INFLUENCE OF A MAP + + +I did not, however, find Lieutenant Clutterbuck that night. He was out +of reach, and likely to remain so for some while to come. He had left +his lodgings at mid-day and taken his body-servant with him, and his +landlady had no knowledge of his whereabouts. I thought it probable, +however, that some of his friends might have that knowledge, and I +thereupon hurried to those haunts where of an evening he was an +habitual visitor. The "Hercules Pillars" in Piccadilly, the "Cocoa +Tree" in St. James's Street, the "Spring Gardens" at Vauxhall, +"Barton's" in King Street, the "Spread Eagle" in Covent Garden,--I +hurried from one to the other of these places, and though I came upon +many of Clutterbuck's intimates, not one of them was a whit better +informed than myself. I returned to my lodging late and more +disheartened than I could have believed possible in a matter wherein I +had no particular concern. And, indeed, it was not so much any +conjecture as to what strange tragical events might be happening about +that watched and solitary house in Tresco which troubled me, or even +pity for the girl maddened by her fears, or regret that I had not been +able to do Clutterbuck that slight service which I purposed. But I +took out the map of the Great West Road, and thought of the lad +Parmiter trudging along it, doing a day's work here among the fields, +begging a lift there upon a waggon and slowly working his way down +into the West. I had a very clear picture of him before my eyes. The +day was breaking, I remember, and I blew out the candles and looked +out of the window down the street. The pavement was more silent at +that hour than those country roads on which he might now be walking, +or that hedge under which he might be shaking the dew from off his +clothes. For there the thrush would be calling to the blackbird with +an infinite bustle and noise, and the fields of corn would be +whispering to the fields of wheat. + +I came back again to my map, and while the light broadened, followed +Parmiter from the outset of his journey, through Knightsbridge, along +the Thames, between the pine-trees of Hampshire, past Whitchurch, and +into the county of Devon. The road was unwound before my eyes like a +tape. I saw it slant upwards to the brow of a hill, and dip into the +cup of a valley; here through a boskage of green I saw a flash of +silver where the river ran; there between flat green fields it lay, a +broad white line geometrically straight to the gate of a city; it +curved amongst the churches and houses, but never lost itself in that +labyrinth, aiming with every wind and turn at that other gate, from +which it leaped free at last to the hills. And always on the road I +saw Dick Parmiter, drunk with fatigue, tottering and stumbling down to +the West. + +For awhile he occupied that road alone; but in the end I saw another +traveller a long way behind--a man on horseback, who spurred out from +London and rode with the speed of the wind. For a little I watched +that rider, curious only to discern how far he travelled, and whether +he would pass Dick Parmiter; then, as I saw him drawing nearer and +nearer, devouring the miles which lay between, it came upon me slowly +that he was riding not to pass but to overtake; and at once the fancy +flashed across me that this was Clutterbuck. I gazed at my map upon +the table as one might gaze into a magician's globe. It was no longer +a map; it was the road itself imprisoned in hedges, sunlit, and +chequered with the shadows of trees. I could see the horseman, I could +see the dust spirting up from beneath his horse's hoofs like smoke +from a gun-barrel. Only his hat was pushed down upon his brows because +of the wind made by the speed of his galloping, so that I could not +see his face. But it was Clutterbuck I had no doubt. Whither had he +gone from his lodging? Now I was convinced that I knew. There had been +no need of my night's wanderings from tavern to tavern, had I but +looked at my map before. It was Clutterbuck without a doubt. At some +bend of the road he would turn in his saddle to look backwards, and I +should recognise his face. It was Lieutenant Clutterbuck, taking the +good air into his lungs with a vengeance. He vanished into a forest, +but beyond the forest the road dipped down a bank of grass and lay +open to the eye. I should see him in a second race out, his body bent +over his horse's neck to save him from the swinging boughs. I could +have clapped my hands with sheer pleasure. I wished that my voice +could have reached out to Parmiter, tramping wearily so far beyond; in +my excitement, I believed that it would, and before I knew what I did, +I cried out aloud: + +"Parmiter! Parmiter!" and a voice behind me answered: + +"You must be mad, Berkeley! What in the world has come to you?" + +I sat upright in my chair. The excitement died out of me and left me +chilly. I looked about me; I was in my own lodging at the corner of St +James's Street, outside in the streets the world was beginning to +wake, and the voice which had spoken to me and the hand which was now +laid upon my shoulder were the voice and the hand of Lieutenant +Clutterbuck. + +"What's this?" said he, leaning over my shoulder. "It is a map." + +"Yes," I answered, "it is a mere map, the map of the Great West Road;" +and in my eyes it was no longer any more than a map. + +Clutterbuck, who was holding it in his hand, dropped it with a +movement and an exclamation of anger. Then he looked curiously at me, +stepped over to the sideboard and took up a glass or two which stood +there. The glasses were clean and dry. He looked at me again, his +curiosity had grown into uneasiness; he walked to the opposite side of +the table, and drawing up a chair seated himself face to face with me. + +"I hoped you were drunk," said he. "But it seems you are as sober as a +bishop. Are you daft, then? Has it come to a strait-waistcoat? I come +back late from Twickenham. I stopped at the 'Hercules Pillars.' There I +heard that you had rushed in two hours before in a great flurry and +disorder, crying out that you must speak to me on the instant. The +same story was told to me at the 'Cocoa Trees.' My landlady repeated +it. I conjectured that it must needs be some little affair to be +settled with sharps at six in the morning; and so that you might not +say your friends neglect you, I turn from my bed, and hurry to you at +three o'clock of the morning. I find that you have left your +front-door unlatched for any thief that wills to make his profit of +the house. I come into your room and find you bending over a map in a +great excitement and crying out aloud that damned boy's name. Is he to +trouble my peace until the Judgment Day? Are you daft, eh, Steve?" and +he reached his hand across the table not unkindly, and laid it on my +sleeve. "Are you daft?" + +I was staring again at the map, and did not answer him. He shifted his +hand from my sleeve and took it up and away from my eyes. He looked at +it himself, and then spoke slowly, and in quite a different voice: + +"It is a curious, suggestive thing, the map of a road, when all's +said," he observed slowly. "I'll not deny but what it seizes one's +fancies. Its simple lines and curves call up I know not what pictures +of flowering hedgerows; a little black blot means a village of stone +cottages, very likely overhung with ivy and climbed upon with roses." +He suddenly thrust the map again under my nose, "What do you see upon +the road?" said he. + +"Parmiter," I answered. + +"Of course," he interrupted sharply. "Well, where is Parmiter?" and I +laid a finger on the map. + +"Between Fenny Bridges and Exeter," said he, leaning forward. "He has +made great haste." + +He spoke quite seriously, not questioning my conjecture, but accepting +it as a mere statement of fact. + +"That is a heath?" he asked, pointing to an inch or so where the map +was shaded on each side of the high-road. "Yes, a heath t'other side +of Hartley Row; I know it. There should be a mail-coach there, and the +horses out of the shafts, and one or two men in crape masks and a lady +in a swoon, and the driver stretched in the middle of the road with a +bullet through his crop." + +"I do not see that," I returned. "But here, beyond Axminster----" + +"Well?" + +He leaned yet further forward. + +"There is a forest here." + +"Yes." + +"I saw a man on horseback ride into it between the trees. He has not +as yet emerged from it." + +"Who was he? Did you know him?" + +"I thought I did. But I could not see his face." + +Clutterbuck watched that forest eagerly, and with a queer suspense in +his attitude and even in his breathing. Every now and then he raised +his eyes to mine with a question in them. Each time I shook my head, +and answered: + +"Not yet," and we both again stared at the map. + +Then Clutterbuck whispered quickly: + +"What if his horse had stumbled? What if he is lying there at the +roadside beneath the tree?" He tore himself away from the +contemplation of the map. "The thing's magical!" he cried. "It has +bewitched you, Steve, and by the Lord it has come near to bewitching +me!" + +"I thought the horseman was yourself. Why don't you go?" said I, +pointing to the map. + +Lieutenant Clutterbuck rose impatiently from his chair. + +"There must be an end of this. Once for all I will not go. There is no +reason I should. There is reason why I should not. You do not know in +what you are meddling. You are taken like a schoolboy by an old wife's +tale of a lonely girl trapped in a net. You are too old for such +follies." + +"I was too old a fortnight ago," I returned, "but, by the Lord, these +last days I have grown young again--so young that----" + +I stopped suddenly. Not until this instant had the notion occurred to +me, but it came now, it thrilled through me with a veritable shock. I +leaned back in my chair and stared at Clutterbuck. He understood, for +he in his turn stared at me. + +"The rider!" said he breathlessly, tapping the map with his +forefinger, "the man whose face you did not see!" + +I nodded at him. + +"What if the face were mine?" said I. + +"You could never believe it." + +"I believe that I have even enough youth for that," I cried, and I +bent over the map, trying again to fashion from its plain black and +white my picture of the great high-road, climbing and winding through +a country-side rich with all the colours of the summer. But it was +only a map of lines and curves, nor could I any longer discover the +horseman who spurred along it--though I had now a particular reason to +wish for a view of his face,--or the wood into which he disappeared. + +"Well, has your cavalier galloped into the open yet?" asked +Clutterbuck. + +He spoke with sarcasm, but the sarcasm was forced. It was but a cloak +to cover and excuse the question. + +I shook my head. + +"No, and he will not," said Clutterbuck. + +"Is that so sure?" I asked. "What if the face were mine?" + +"You are serious!" he cried. "You would go a stranger and offer your +unsought aid? It would be an impertinence." + +"Suppose life and death are in the balance, would they weigh +impertinence?" + +"It might be _your_ life and _your_ death!" + +And as he spoke, it seemed to me that all my last seven years rose up +in their shrouds and laughed at him. + +"And what then?" I cried. "Would the world shiver if I died? Would +even a tavern-keeper draw down his blinds? Perhaps some drunkard in +his cups would wish I lived, that he might take my measure in a +drinking-bout. There's my epitaph for you! Good Lord, Clutterbuck, but +I would dearly love to die a clean death! There's that boy Parmiter +tramping down his road. He does a far better thing than I have ever +done. You know! Why talk of it? You know the life I have lived, and +since that boy flung his example in my eyes, upon my word I sicken to +think of it. Twelve years ago, Clutterbuck, I came to London, a cadet +with a cadet's poor portion, but what a wealth of dreams! A fortune +first, if I slaved till I was forty, and then I would set free my soul +and live! The fortune came, and I slaved but six years for it. The +treaty of Aix and a rise of stocks, and there was my fortune. You know +how I have lived since." + +Clutterbuck looked at me curiously. I had never said so much to him or +to any man in this strain. Nor should I have said so much now, but I +was fairly shaken out of my discretion. For a little Clutterbuck sat +silent and motionless. Then he said gently: + +"Shall I tell you why I will not go? Yes, I will tell you," and he +told me the history of that Sunday, two years ago, when Cullen Mayle +sat in the stocks, or at least as much of it as had come within his +knowledge. The events of that day were the beginning of all the +trouble, indeed, but Lieutenant Clutterbuck never knew more of it than +what concerned himself, and as I sat over against him on that July +morning and listened to his story while the world awoke, I had no +suspicion of what the passage of that Sunday hid, or of the +extraordinary consequences which it brought about. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + DESCRIBES THE REMARKABLE MANNER IN WHICH + CULLEN MAYLE LEFT TRESCO + + +"It was my business," he began, "to fetch Cullen Mayle from Tresco +over to St. Mary's where the stocks were set. It was an unpleasant +business, and to me doubly and damnably unpleasant." + +"I understand!" said I, thinking of how he had before spoken to me of +Adam Mayle's adopted daughter. + +"I took a file of Musquets, found the three of them at breakfast, and, +with as much delicacy as I could, explained my errand. Helen alone +showed any distress or consciousness of disgrace. Cullen strolled to +the window, and seeing that I had placed my men securely about the +house and that my boat was ready on the sand not a dozen yards away, +professed himself, with an inimitable indifference, willing to gratify +my wishes; while Adam, so far from manifesting any anger, broke out +into a great roar of laughter. + +"'Cullen, my boy,' he shouted, like a man highly pleased, 'here's a +nasty stumble for your pride. To sit in the stocks of a Sunday +morning, when all the girls can see you as they come from church! To +sit in the stocks like a common drunkard; and you that sets up for a +gentleman! Oh, Cullen, Cullen!' He wagged his head from side to side, +and so brought his fist upon the table with a bang which set all the +plates dancing. 'Devil damn me,' said he, 'if I don't sail to church +at St. Mary's myself and see how you look in your wooden garters.' +Cullen glanced carelessly towards me. 'An unseemly old man,' said he; +and we left Adam still shaking like a monstrous jellyfish, and crossed +back to St. Mary's from Tresco. + +"Sure enough Adam kept his word. They were singing the _Nunc Dimittis_ +in the church when Adam stumped up the aisle. He had brought Helen +with him, and she looked as though she wished the brick floor to open +and let her out of sight. But Adam kept his head erect and showed a +face of an extraordinary good humour. You may be certain that the +parson got the scantiest attention imaginable to his discourse. For +one thing, Adam Mayle had never set foot in St. Mary's Church before, +and for another, every one was agog to see how he would bear himself +afterwards, when he passed on his way to the quay across the little +space before the Customs House. + +"There was a rush to the church door as soon as the benediction was +pronounced, and it happened that I was one of the last to come out of +the porch. The first thing that I saw was Adam walking a little way +apart amongst the gravestones with a stranger, and the next thing, +Helen talking to Dick Parmiter." + +Here I interrupted Clutterbuck, for I was anxious to let no detail +escape me. + +"Had Dick crossed with Adam Mayle from Tresco?" + +"I think not," returned Clutterbuck. "He was not in the church. I do +not know, but I fancy he brought the stranger over to St. Mary's +afterwards." + +"And who was this stranger?" + +"George Glen he called himself, and said he had been quartermaster +with Adam Mayle at Whydah. He was a squat, tarry man, of Adam's age or +thereabouts, and the pair of them walked through the gates and crossed +the fields over to the street of Hugh Town. I made haste to join +Helen," Clutterbuck continued, and explained his words with an +unnecessary confusion. "I mean, I would not have it appear that she +shared in the disgrace which had befallen Cullen Mayle. So I walked +with her, and we followed Adam down the street to the Customs House, +where it seemed every inhabitant was loitering, and where Cullen sat, +with his hat cocked forward over his forehead to shield him from the +sun, entirely at his ease. + +"It was curious to observe the behaviour of the loiterers. Some +affected not to see Cullen at all; some, but those chiefly maidens, +protested that it was a great shame so fine a gentleman should be so +barbarously used. The elders on the other hand answered that he had +come over late to his deserts, while a few, with a ludicrous pretence +of unconsciousness, bowed and smiled at him as though it was the most +natural thing in the world for a man in a laced coat to take the air +in the stocks of a Sunday morning. + +"Into the midst of this group marched Adam Mayle, and came to a halt +before his son. He had composed his face to an unexceptionable +gravity, and as he prodded thoughtfully with his stick at the sole of +Cullen's shoe, + +"'This is the first time,' he said, 'that ever I saw a pair of silk +stockings in the stocks.' + +"'One lives and learns,' replied Cullen, indifferently; and the old +man lifted his nose into the air and said dreamily: + +"'There is a ducking-chair, is there not, at the pier head?' and so +walked on to the steps where his boat was moored. He went down into it +with Mr. Glen, and the two men set about hoisting the sail. I was +still standing on the pier with Helen. + +"'You will come too?' she said with a sort of appeal. 'I do not know +what may happen when Cullen is set free and comes back, I should be +very glad if you would come.'" + +Lieutenant Clutterbuck broke off his story and walked uneasily once or +twice across the room as though he was troubled even now with the +recollection of her appeal and of how she looked when she made it. + +"So I went," he continued suddenly, and with a burst of frankness. +"You see, Steve, she and I were very good friends; I never saw +anything but welcome in her eyes when I crossed over to Tresco, and +the kindliness of her voice had a warmth, and at times a tenderness, +which I hoped meant more than friendship. Indeed, I would have staked +my life she was ignorant of duplicity; and with Cullen she seemed +always at some pains to conceal a repugnance. Well, I was young, I +suppose; I saw with the eyes of youth, which see everything out of its +due proportion. I crossed to Tresco, and while we were seated at +dinner, about two hours later, Cullen Mayle strolled in and took his +chair. Dick Parmiter had waited for him at St. Mary's until such time +as he was set free, and had brought him across the Road. + +"I cannot deny but what Cullen Mayle bore himself very suitably for +the greater part of the time we were at table. Adam's blatant jests +were enough to set any man's teeth on edge, yet Cullen made as though +he did not hear a word of them, and talked politely upon indifferent +topics to us and Mr. Glen. Adam, however, was not to be silenced that +way. His banter became coarse and vindictive; for one thing he had +drunk a deal of liquor, and for another he was exasperated that he +could not provoke his son. I forget what particular joke he roared out +from the head of the table, but I saw Cullen stretch his arm out over +the cloth. + +"'I see what is amiss,' he said, wearily, and took away the brandy +bottle from his father's elbow. He went to the window, and opening it, +emptied the bottle on to the grass beneath the sill. Then he came back +to his seat and said suavely to Mr. Glen: 'My father cannot get the +better of his old habits; he is drunk very early on Sundays--an +unregenerate old put of a fellow as ever I came across.' + +"The quarrel followed close upon the heels of that sentence, and +occupied the afternoon and was renewed at supper. Adam very violent +and blustering; Cullen very cool and composed, and only betraying his +passion by the whiteness of his face. He used no oaths; he sat staring +at his father with his dark sleepy eyes, and languidly accused him of +every crime in the Newgate Calendar, with a great deal of detail as to +time and place, and adding any horrible detail which came into his +mind. The old man was routed at the last. About the middle of supper +he got up from his chair, and going up the stairs shut himself into a +room which he had fitted up as a cabin, and where he was used to sit +of an evening. + +"We were all, as you may guess, inexpressibly relieved when Adam left +the parlour, for here it seemed was the quarrel ended. We counted, +however, without Cullen. He looked for a moment or two at his father's +empty chair, and stood up in his turn. + +"'Here's an old rogue for you,' he said in a gentle voice. 'He has no +more manners than a nasty pig. I'll teach him some,' and he followed +his father up the stairs and into the cabin above. What was said +between them we never heard, but we gathered at the foot of the stairs +in the hall and listened to their voices. The old man bellowed as +though he was in pain, and shook the windows with his noise; Cullen's +voice came to us only as a smooth, continuous murmur. For half an hour +perhaps we stood thus in the hall--interference would have only made +matters worse--and I own that this half hour was not wholly unpleasant +to me. Helen, in a word, was afraid, and more than once her hand was +laid upon my coat-sleeve, and, touching it, ceased to tremble. She +turned to me, it seemed, in that half hour of fear; I was fool enough +to think it. + +"At length we heard a door opening. Cullen negligently came down the +stairs; Adam rushed out after him as far as the head of the stairs, +where he stopped. + +"'Open the door, one of you!' he bawled. 'Kick him out, Clutterbuck, +and we'll see what damned muck-heap his fine manners will lead him +to.' + +"The outcry brought the servants scurrying into the hall. Adam +repeated his order and one of the servants threw open the door. + +"'Will you fetch me my boots?' said Cullen, and sitting down in a +chair he kicked off his shoes. Then he pulled on his boots +deliberately, stood up and felt in his pockets. From one pocket he +drew out five guineas, from a second two, from a third four. These +eleven guineas he held in his open hand. + +"'They belong to you, I think,' he said, softly, poising them in his +palm; and before any one could move a step or indeed guess at his +intention, he raised his arm and flung them with all his force to +where his father stood at the head of the stairs. Two of the guineas +cut the old man in the forehead, and the blood ran down his face; the +rest sparkled and clattered against the panels behind his head, whence +they fell on to the stairs and rolled one by one down into the hall. +No one spoke; no one moved. The brutal violence of the action for the +moment paralysed every one; even Adam stood shaking at the stair head +with his wits wandering. One by one the guineas rolled down the +staircase, leaping from step to step, rattling as they leaped; and for +a long time it seemed, one whirred and sang in a corner as it span +round and settled down upon the boards; and when the coin had ceased +to spin, still no one moved, no one spoke. A murmur of waves breaking +lazily upon the sand, a breath of air stirring a shrub in the garden, +the infinitesimal trumpeting of a gnat, came through the window, +bringing as it were tales of things which lived into a room of +statues. + +"Cullen himself was the first to break the enchantment. He took his +watch from his fob and holding it by the ribbon twirled it backwards +and forwards. It was a big silver watch, and as he twirled it this way +and that, it caught the light, seemed to throw out little sparks of +fire, and flashed with a dazzling brightness. The eyes of the company +were caught by it; they watched it with a keen attention, not knowing +why they watched it; they watched it as it shone and glittered in its +revolutions, almost with a sense of expectation, as though something +of great consequence was to happen from the twirling of that watch. + +"'This, too, is yours,' said Cullen, 'but it was no doubt some dead +sailorman's before you stole it;' and ceasing to twirl the watch he +held it steady by the ribbon. Then he looked round the hall and saw +Helen staring at the watch with a queer intentness. I remember that +her hand was at that moment resting upon my sleeve, and I felt it grow +more rigid. I looked at her; her face was set, her eyes fixed upon +Cullen and his glittering watch. I spoke to her; she did not answer, +she did not hear." + +Clutterbuck interrupted his story and sat moodily lost in his +recollections, and when he resumed it was with great bitterness. + +"I think," he continued, "that when Cullen spoke, he spoke with no +other end than to provoke his father yet more. You must know that the +old man had just one tender spot in his heart. Cullen could have no +other aim but to set his heel on that. + +"'I will come back for you, Helen,' he said, bending his eyes upon her +and making as if there was much love between them; and to everybody's +surprise Helen lifted her eyes slowly from the watch until they met +Cullen's, and kept them there. She did not answer him in words, there +was no need she should, every line of her body expressed obedience. + +"Even Cullen was puzzled by her demeanour. Boy and girl, maid and +youth, they had lived side by side in the house with indifference upon +his part and all the appearance of aversion upon hers. Yet here was +she subdued in an instant at the prospect of his departure! It seemed +that the mere thought that Cullen was henceforth an outcast tore her +secret live and warm from her heart. + +"Cullen was plainly puzzled, as I say, but he was not the man to miss +an advantage in the gratification of his malice. He shot one +triumphant look at his father and spoke again to Helen. + +"'You will wait for me?' + +"Her eyes never wavered from his. + +"'Yes!' she answered. + +"It was a humiliating moment for me as you may imagine. It must have +been more humiliating for Adam. With a hand upon the rail he lumbered +heavily down a couple of the stairs. + +"'No!' he cried, with a dreadful oath and in a voice which was +strangely moved. + +"'But I say yes,' said Cullen, very quietly. The smile had gone from +his face; a new excitement kindled it. He was pitting his will against +his father's. I saw him suddenly draw himself erect. 'Or, better +still, you shall come with me now,' he cried. He reached out his arm +straight from the shoulder towards her. + +"'Come! Come with me now.' + +"His voice rang out dominant like the clang of a trumpet, and to the +consternation of us all, Helen crossed the floor towards him. I tried +to detain her. 'Helen,' I cried, 'you do not know what you are doing. +He will drag you into the gutter.' + +"'Lieutenant Clutterbuck,' said Cullen, 'you are very red in the face. +You cannot expect she will listen to you, for you do not look well +when you are red in the face.' + +"I paid no heed to his gibes. + +"'Helen,' I cried, again. She paid no more heed to my prayers. 'What +will you do? Where will you go?' I asked. + +"'We shall go to London,' answered Cullen, 'where we shall do very +well, and further to the best of our means Lieutenant Clutterbuck's +advancement.' + +"Humiliation and grief had overset my judgment or I should not have +argued at this moment with Cullen Mayle. I flung out at him hotly, and +like a boy. + +"'When you are doing very well in London, Cullen Mayle, Lieutenant +Clutterbuck will not be so far behind you.' + +"'He will indeed be close upon my heels,' returned Cullen as +pleasantly as possible, 'for most likely he will be carrying my +valise.' + +"With that he turned again to Helen, beckoned her to follow him, and +strode towards the open door. She did follow him. Cullen was already +in the doorway; in another second she would have crossed the +threshold. But with a surprising agility Adam Mayle jumped down the +stairs, ran across the hall, and caught the girl in his arms. She did +not struggle to free herself, but she strained steadily towards +Cullen. The old man's arms were strong, however. + +"'Shut the door,' he cried, and I sprang forward and slammed it to. + +"'Lock it! Bolt it!' + +"Adam stood with his arms about the girl until the heavy bar swung +down across the door and dropped into its socket with a clang. Now do +you understand why I will not go down to Tresco? I can give you +another reason if you are not content. When I spoke to Helen two days +later, and taxed her with her passion for Cullen,--would you believe +it?--she was deeply pained and hurt. She would not have it said that +she had so much as thought of following Cullen's fortunes. She +outfaced me as though I had been telling her fairy tales, and not what +my own eyes saw. No, indeed, I will not go down to Tresco! I am not +the traveller who has ridden into your wood upon the Great West Road." + +Lieutenant Clutterbuck took up his hat when he had finished his story, + +"The girl, besides, is not worth a thought," said he. + +"I am not thinking of her," said I. Of Lieutenant Clutterbuck, of +myself, above all of Dick Parmiter, I was thinking, but not at all of +Helen Mayle. I drew the map towards me. Clutterbuck stopped at the +door, came back and again leaned over my shoulder. + +"Has your traveller come out from that wood?" he asked. + +"No," I answered. + +"It is an allegory," said he. "The man who rides down on this business +to the West will, in very truth, enter into a wood from which he will +not get free." + + + + + CHAPTER V + + THE ADVENTURE IN THE WOOD + + +A loud roll of drums beneath my windows, the inspiriting music of +trumpets, the lively measured stamp of feet. The troops with General +Amherst at their head were marching down St. James's Street on their +way to embark for Canada, and the tune to which they marched sang in +my head that day as I rode out of London. The beat of my horse's hoofs +kept time to it, and at Brentford a girl singing in a garden of +apple-trees threw me a snatch of a song to fit to it. + +She sang, and I caught the words up as I rode past. The sparkle of +summer was in the air, and an Indian summer, if you will, at my heart. +I slept that night at Hartley Row, and the next at Down House, and the +third at a little inn some miles beyond Dorchester. A brook danced at +the foot of the house, and sang me to sleep with the song I had heard +at Brentford, and, as I lay in bed, I could see out of my window the +starlight and the quiet fields white with a frost of dew and thickets +of trees very black and still; and towards sunset upon the fourth day, +I suddenly reined in my horse to one side and sat stone-still. To my +left, the road ran straight and level for a long way, and nowhere upon +it was there a living thing; on each side stretched fields and no one +moved in them, and no house was visible. That way I had come, and I +had remarked upon the loneliness. To my right, the road ran forward +into a thick wood, and vanished beneath a roof of overhanging boughs. +It was the aspect of that wood which took my breath away, and it +surprised me because it was familiar. There was a milestone which I +recognised just where the first tree overhung the road; there was a +white gate in the hedge some twenty paces this side of the milestone. +I knew that too. Just behind where I sat there should be three tall +poplars ranged in a line like sentinels, the wood's outposts; I +turned, and in the field behind me, the poplars reached up against the +sky. I had no doubt they would be there, yet the sight of them fairly +startled me. I had seen them--yes, but never in my life had I ridden +along this road before. I had seen them only on the map in my lodging +at St. James's Street. + +The sun dropped down behind the trees, and the earth turned grey. I +sat there in the saddle with I know not what superstitious fancies +upon me. I could not but remember that the traveller had ridden into +the wood, and had not ridden out and down the open bank of grass upon +the other side. "What if his horse has stumbled?" Clutterbuck had +asked. "What if he is lying at the roadside under the trees?" I could +see that picture very clearly, and at last, very clearly too, the +rider's face. I looked backwards down the road with an instinctive +hope that some other traveller might be riding my way in whose company +I might go along. But the long level slip of white was empty. All the +warmth seemed to have gone from the world with the dropping of the +sun. A sad chill twilight crept over the lonely fields. A shiver +caught and shook me; I gathered up the reins and rode slowly among the +trees, where already it was night. + +I rode at first in the centre of the highway, and found the clatter of +my horse's hoofs a very companionable sound. But in a little the +clatter seemed too loud, it was too clear a warning of my approach, it +seemed to me in some way a provocation of danger. I drew to one side +of the road where the leaves had drifted and made a carpet whereon I +rode without noise. But now the silence seemed too eerie--I heard, and +started at, the snapping of every twig. I strained my ears to catch +the noise of creeping footfalls, and I was about to guide my horse +back to the middle of the road, when I turned a corner suddenly, and +saw in front of me in a space where the forest receded and let the sky +through, lights gleaming in a window. + +I set spurs to the horse and galloped up to the door. The house was an +inn; the landlord was already at the threshold, and in a very short +while I was laughing at my fears over my supper in the parlour. + +"Am I your only guest to-night?" I asked. + +"There is one other, sir," returned the landlord as he served me, and +as he spoke I heard a footstep in the passage. The door was pushed +open, and a young man politely bowed to me in the entrance. + +"You have a very pretty piece of horseflesh, sir," said he, as he came +into the room. "I took the liberty of looking it over a minute ago in +the stables." + +"It is not bad," said I. There was never a man in the world who did +not relish praise of his horse, and I warmed to my new acquaintance. +"We are both, it seems, sleeping here to-night, and likely enough we +are travelling the same road to-morrow." + +The young man shook his head. + +"I could wish indeed," said he, "that we might be fellow-travellers, +but though it may well be we follow the same road, we do not, alas, +travel in the same way," and he showed me his boots which were thickly +covered with dust. "My horse fell some half-a-dozen miles from here +and snapped a leg. I must needs walk to-morrow so far as where I trust +to procure another--that is to say," he continued, "if I do not have +to keep my bed, for I have taken a devilish chill this evening," and +drawing up his chair to the empty fireplace, he crouched over an +imaginary fire and shivered. + +Now since he sat in this attitude, I could not but notice his boots, +and I fell to wondering what in the world he had done with his spurs. +For he wore none, and since he had plainly not troubled to repair the +disorder of his dress, it seemed strange that he should have gone to +the pains of removing his spurs. However, I was soon diverted from +this speculation by the distress into which Mr. Featherstone's cold +threw him. Featherstone was his name, as he was polite enough to tell +me in the intervals of coughing, and I told him mine in return. At +last his malady so increased that he called for the landlord, and +bidding him light a great fire in his bedroom said he must needs go to +bed. + +"I trust, however," he continued politely to me, "that you, Mr. +Berkeley, will prove a Samaritan, and keep me company for a while. For +I shall not sleep, upon my word I shall not sleep a wink," and he was +so positive in his assurances that, though I was myself sufficiently +tired, I thought it no more than kindness to fall in with his wishes. + +Accordingly I followed him into his bedroom, where he lay in a great +canopied bed, with a big fire blazing upon the hearth, and a bottle of +rum with a couple of glasses upon a table at the bedside. + +"It is an ague," said he, "which I caught upon the Gambia River, and +from which I have ever since suffered many inconveniences;" he poured +out the rum into the glasses, and wished me with great politeness all +prosperity. + +It was no doubt, also, because he had voyaged on the Gambia River that +he suffered no inconvenience from the heat of the room. But what with +the hot August night, and the blazing fire, and the closed window, I +became at once so drowsy that I could hardly keep my eyes open, and I +wished him good-night. + +"But you will not go," said he. "We are but this moment acquainted, +and to-morrow we shall wave a farewell each to the other. Let us, Mr. +Berkeley, make something of the meanwhile, I beg you." + +I answered him that I did not wish to appear churlish, but that I +should most certainly appear so if I fell asleep while we talked, +which, in spite of myself, I was very likely to do. + +"But I have a bottle of salts here," said he, with a laugh, as he +reached out of bed and fumbled with his coat. "I have a bottle of +salts here which will infallibly persuade you from any thought of +sleep," and he drew out from the pocket of his coat a pack of cards. +"Well, what do you say?" he continued, as I did not move. + +"It is some while since I handled a card," said I slowly. + +"A game of picquet," he suggested. + +"It is a good game," said I. + +He flipped the edges of the cards with his thumb. I drew nearer to the +bed. + +"Well, one game then," said I. + +"To be sure," said he, shuffling the cards. + +"And the stakes must be low." + +"I hate a gambler myself." + +He cut the cards. I sat down on the bedside and dealt them. + +"It is your elder," said I. + +He looked disconsolately at his hand. + +"Upon my word," said he. "Deuce take me if I know what to discard. I +have no hand for picquet at all, though as luck will have it I have +very good putt cards." + +I glanced through my hand. + +"I have better putt cards than you," said I. + +"It is not likely," he returned. + +"I'll make a wager of it," I cried. + +"Your horse," said he, leaning up on his elbow. He spoke a trifle too +eagerly, he sprang up on his elbow a trifle too quickly. I looked +again through my hand, and I laid the cards down on the counterpane. + +"No," said I quietly. "It is very likely you are right: I have two +treys and an ace, but you may have two treys and a deuce." + +"Why, this is purely magical," he exclaimed, with the most natural +burst of laughter imaginable. "Two treys and a deuce! Those are indeed +the cards I hold." + +He fell back again in the bed, and we played our single game of +picquet. He won the game. Indeed, he could not but win it, for I paid +no attention whatever to the cards which I held, or to how I should +draw, or--and this perhaps was my most important omission--to how Mr. +Featherstone shuffled and dealt. The truth is, I had suddenly become +very curious about Mr. Featherstone. I had recalled his great +politeness of manner. I remarked his face, which was of an almost +girlish delicacy. I reflected that here was a man in a great hurry to +travel by the same road as myself, and I remembered how I had learned +that trick by which he had tried to outwit me of my horse. Even as it +was I had all but fallen into the trap. I should most certainly have +done so had not Lieutenant Clutterbuck once explained it to me on a +particular occasion. I remembered that occasion very clearly as I sat +on the bed playing this game of picquet by the light of a single +candle, and I wondered whether I could fit Mr. Featherstone with +another name. + +"I am afraid," said he, "that this is a capote," as I played my last +card. + +"But the loss is trifling," said I, "and I have kept my horse." + +"Very true," said he, whistling softly between his teeth. "You have +kept your horse," and as I wished him good-night, he added, "you will +be careful to shut the door behind you, won't you?" + +But before the words were out of his mouth, he was seized with so +violent a paroxysm of shivering that he could barely stammer out the +end of the sentence. + +"These infernal fevers," said he, with a groan. + +"I notice, however," I returned, "that they are intermittent," and +latching the door as he again requested me, I went off to my own room. + +I could not but wonder what trickery the fire was intended to help, +for until the last fit of the ague had seized him, he had given no +sign of any sickness since he had brought out the cards. However, +there was a more important question to occupy my mind. I had little +doubt that Mr. Featherstone was Cullen Mayle: I had little doubt that +he was hurrying as fast as he could to the Scillies, since he had +received no answer to the message which he sent with the negro. But +should I tell him of the men who watched for his coming, keeping their +watches as at sea? On the one side their presence meant danger to +Cullen Mayle, it could hardly mean anything else; and since it meant +danger he should be warned of it. + +On the other hand, the watchers might have tired of their watching and +given it up as profitless. Besides I was by no means sure in what +light Cullen himself was to be regarded. Was his return to Tresco, a +prospect to be welcomed or deplored? Did he come as a friend to that +distracted girl alone in the lonely house by the sand? I could not +answer these questions. I knew Cullen to be a knave, I knew that the +girl cared for him, and these two items made the sum of my knowledge. +I turned over in my bed and fell asleep, thinking that my course might +be clear to me in the morning. + +And in the morning it was clear. I woke up with a mind made up. I had +a horse; Cullen travelled on foot; since he had come so far on foot, +it was not likely that he had the money to purchase a horse, for the +story of the stumble and the broken leg I entirely disbelieved, and +with the best of reasons. I had travelled myself along that road +yesterday, and I had passed no disabled horse upon the way. I had +therefore the advantage of Cullen. I would journey on without saying a +word to him of my destination. I would on arriving take council with +Dick Parmiter and Helen Mayle and seek to fathom the trouble. I should +still have time to cross back to the mainland and hinder Cullen from +attempting the passage. + +Thus I planned to do, but the plan was never put to the test of +action. For while I was still dressing, a loud hubbub and confusion +filled the house. I opened my door. The noise came from the direction +of Cullen's room. I hastily slipped on my coat and ran down the +passage. I could hear Cullen's voice very loud above the rest, a woman +or two protesting with a shrill indignation and the landlord trying to +make all smooth, though what the bother was about I could not +distinguish. + +It seemed that the whole household was gathered in the room, though +Mr. Featherstone still lay abed. The moment that I appeared in the +doorway, + +"Ah! here's a witness," he cried. "Mr. Berkeley, you were the last to +leave me last night. You closed the door behind you? I was particular +to ask you to close the door?" + +"I remember that very well," said I, "for I was wondering how in the +world you could put up with the door closed and a blazing fire." + +"There!" cried Featherstone turning to the landlord. "You hear? Mr. +Berkeley is a gentleman beyond reproach. He shut the door behind him, +and this morning I find it wide open and my breeches gone. There is a +thief, sir, in your inn, and we travellers must go on our way without +breeches. It is the most inconsiderate theft that ever I heard of." + +"As for the breeches, sir," began the landlord. + +"I don't care a button for them," cried Featherstone. "But there was +money in the breeches' pockets. Fifteen guineas in gold, and a couple +of bills on Mr. Nossiter, the banker at Exeter." + +"The bills can be stopped," said the landlord. "We are but eighteen +miles from Exeter." + +"But how am I to travel those miles; do you expect me to walk there in +my shirt tails. No, I stay here in bed until my breeches are found, +and, burn me, if I don't eat up everything in the house," and +immediately he began to roar out for food. "I will have chops at once, +and there's a great sirloin of beef, and bring me a tankard of small +ale." + +Then he turned again to me, and said pathetically, + +"It is not the breeches I mind, though to be sure I shall cut a +ridiculous figure on the highroad; no, nor the money, though I have +not a stiver left. But I woke up this morning in the sweetest +good-humour, and here am I in a violent passion at nine o'clock in the +morning, and my whole day spoilt. It is so discouraging," and he lay +back upon the pillow as though he would have wept. + +The landlord offered him his Sunday breeches. They were of red cloth, +and a belted earl might wear them without shame. + +"But not without discomfort," grumbled Mr. Featherstone, contemplating +the landlord who was of a large figure. "They will hang about me in +swathes like a petticoat." + +"And as for the fifteen guineas," said I, "my purse is to that amount +at your disposal." + +"That is a very gentlemanly offer, Mr. Berkeley," said he, "from one +stranger to another. But I have a horror of borrowing. I cannot accept +your munificence. No, I will walk in my host's red cloth breeches as +far as Rockbere, which to be sure is no more than twelve miles, quite +penniless, but when I reach my friends, upon my word, I will make such +a noise about this inn as will close its doors, strike me dead and +stiff, if don't." + +His threat had its effect. The landlord, after the usual protestations +that such an incident had never occurred before, that he had searched +the house even to the servants' boxes, and that he could make neither +head nor tail of the business, wound up his harangue with an offer of +five guineas. + +"It is all I have in the house, sir," said he, "and of course I shall +charge you neither for food nor lodging." + +"Of course not," said Mr. Featherstone indignantly. "Well, I must make +the best of it, but oh! I woke up with so happy a disposition towards +the world;" and dismissing the women he got up and dressed. The +landlord fetched the five guineas and his red cloth breeches, which +Featherstone drew on. + +"Was ever a man so vilely travestied?" he said. "Sure, I shall be +taken for a Hollander. That is hard for a person of some elegance," +and he tied his cravat and went grumbling from the room. + +"This is a great misfortune, sir, for me," said my host. "I have lived +honest all my days. There is no one in the house who would steal; on +that I would stake my life. I can make nothing of it." + +"Mr. Featherstone is quite recovered from his ague," said I slowly. I +crossed over to the empty fireplace heaped with the white ashes of the +logs which had blazed there the night before. + +"The fire no doubt did him some benefit." + +"That is precisely what I was thinking," said I, and I knelt down on +the hearth-rug and poked amongst the ashes with the shovel. Suddenly, +the landlord uttered an exclamation and threw up the window. I heard +the clatter of a horse's hoofs upon the road. I got up from my knees +and rushed to the window. As I leaned out Mr. Featherstone rode +underneath and he rode my horse. + +"Stop!" I shouted out. + +"Mr. Berkeley," he cried, airily waving his hand as he rode by, "you +may hold very good putt cards, but you haven't kept your horse." + +"You damned thief!" I yelled, and he turned in his saddle and put out +his tongue. It is, if you think of it, a form of repartee to which +there is no reply. In any case I doubt if I could have made any reply +which would have reached his ears. For he had set the horse to a +gallop and was far down the road. + +I went back to the hearth where the landlord joined me. We both knelt +down and raked away the ashes. + +"What's that?" said I, pointing to something blackened and scorched. +The landlord picked it up. + +"It is a piece of corduroy." + +"And here's a bone button," said I. "The ague was a sham, the fire a +device to rob you. He came here without a penny piece and burnt his +breeches last night. He has robbed you, he has robbed me, and he will +reach the Scilly Islands first. How far is it to Rockbere?" + +"Twelve miles." + +"I must walk those twelve miles?" + +"Yes." + +"Will I get a horse there?" + +"It is doubtful." + +"He has a day's start then at the least." + +So after all, though the horse did not stumble, nor the rider lie +quiet by the roadside, he did not ride out of the forest at a gallop, +and down the green bank into the open space beyond. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + MY FIRST NIGHT UPON TRESCO + + +I walked that day into Rockbere, and taking the advice of the +innkeeper with whom I lodged, I hired a hack and a guide from him the +next morning and struck across country for the sea; for he assured me +that I should most likely find a fishing smack at Topsham whose master +would put me over to the Scillies, and that if the wind did but favour +me I should reach the islands sooner that way than if I had the +quickest horse under me that was ever foaled. It was of the greatest +urgency that I should set foot on Tresco before Cullen Mayle. I had to +risk something to achieve that object, and I risked the wind. It was +in the northeast when I started from Rockbere and suited my purpose +finely if it did but hold; so that I much regretted I was not already +on the sea, and rode in a perpetual fear lest it should change its +quarter. I came to Honiton Clyst that night, and to Topsham the next +day, where I was fortunate enough to find a boat of some thirty tons +and to come to an agreement with its master. He had his crew ready to +his hand; he occupied the morning in provisioning the smack; and we +stood out of the harbour in the evening, and with a steady wind on our +quarter made a good run to the Start Point. Shortly after we passed +the Start the wind veered round into the north, which did us no great +harm, since these boats sail their best on a reach. We reached then +with a soldier's breeze, as the saying is, out to the Eddystone Rock +and the Lizard Point. + +It was directly after we had sighted the Lizard that the wind began to +fall light, and when we were just off the Point it failed us +altogether. I remember that night as well as any other period in the +course of these incidents. I was running a race with Cullen Mayle, and +I was beginning to think that it was not after all only on account of +his peril that it was needful for me to reach Tresco before he did. +These last two days I had been entirely occupied with the stimulation +of that race and the inspiriting companionship of the sea. The waves +foaming away from the bows and bubbling and hissing under the lee of +the boat, the flaws of wind blistering the surface of the water as +they came off the land towards us, making visible their invisible +approach; the responsive spring of the boat, like a horse under the +touch of a spur--these mere commonplaces to my companions had for me +an engrossing enchantment. But on that evening at the Lizard Point the +sea lay under the sunset a smooth, heaving prism of colours; we could +hear nothing but the groaning of the blocks, the creaking of the +boom's collars against the masts; and the night came out from behind +the land very peaceful and solemn, and solemnly the stars shone out in +the sky. All the excitement of the last days died out of me. We swung +up and down with the tide. Now the lights of Falmouth were visible to +us at the bottom of the bay, now the Lizard obscured them from us. I +was brought somehow to think of those last years of mine in London. +They seemed very distant and strange to me in this clean air, and the +pavement of St. James's Street, which I had daily trodden, became an +unacceptable thing. + +About two o'clock of the morning a broad moon rose out of the sea, and +towards daybreak a little ruffing breeze sprang up, and we made a +gentle progress across the bay towards Land's End; but the breeze sank +as the sun came up, and all that day we loitered, gaining a little +ground now and then and losing it again with the turn of the tide. It +was not until the fifth evening that we dropped anchor in the road +between St. Mary's Island and Tresco. + +I waited until it was quite dark, and was then quietly rowed ashore +with my valise in the ship's dinghy. I landed on Tresco near to the +harbour of New Grimsby. It was at New Grimsby that Dick Parmiter +lived, Clutterbuck had told me, and the first thing I had to do was to +find Dick Parmiter without arousing any attention. + +Now on an island like Tresco, sparsely inhabited and with no commerce, +the mere presence of a stranger would assuredly provoke comment. I +walked, therefore, very warily towards the village. One house I saw +with great windows all lighted up, and that I took to be the Palace +Inn, where Adam Mayle and Cullen used to sit side by side on the +settle and surprise the visitors by their unlikeness to one another. +There was a small cluster of cottages about the inn with a lane +straggling between, and further away, round the curve of the little +bay, were two huts close to the sea. + +It would be in one of these that Dick Parmiter lived, and I crept +towards them. There was no light whatever in the first of them, but +the door stood open, and a woman and a man stood talking in the +doorway. I lay down in the grass and crawled towards them, if by any +chance I might hear what they said. For a while I could distinguish +nothing of what they said, but at last the man cried in a clear voice, +"Good-night, Mrs. Grudge," and walked off to the inn. The woman went +in and closed the door. I was sure then that the next cottage was the +one for which I searched. I walked to it; there was a light in the +window and the sound of voices talking. + +I hesitated whether to go in boldly and ask for Dick. But it would be +known the next morning that a stranger had come for Dick; no doubt, +too, Dick's journey to London was known, and the five men watching the +house on Merchant's Point would be straightway upon the alert. Besides +Dick might not have reached home. I walked round the hut unable to +decide what I should do, and as I came to the back of it a light +suddenly glowed in a tiny window there. I cautiously approached the +window and looked through. Dick Parmiter was stripping off his jersey, +and was alone. + +I tapped on the window. Dick raised his head, and then put out the +light, so that I could no longer see into the room; but in a moment +the window was slowly lifted, and the boy's voice whispered: + +"Is that you, Mr. Mayle?" + +I drew a breath of relief. I was ahead of Cullen Mayle, though he had +stolen my horse. + +"No," said I; "but I have come on Cullen Mayle's business." + +The boy leaned out of the window and peered into my face. But voices +were raised in the room beyond this cupboard, and a woman's voice +cried out, "Dick, Dick!" + +"That's mother," said Dick to me. "Wait! I will come out to you." + +He closed the window, and I lay down again in the grass, and waited +there for perhaps an hour. A mist was coming up from the sea and +thickening about the island; the starlight was obscured; wreaths of +smoke, it seemed, came in puffs between myself and the house, and at +last I heard the rustling of feet in the grass. + +"Dick," said I in a whisper, and the lad came to me. + +"I remember you," he said. "You were at Lieutenant Clutterbuck's. Why +have you come?" + +"Upon my word," said I, "I should find it difficult to tell you." + +Indeed, it would have taken me half the night to explain the motives +which had conjoined to this end. + +"And now that you are come, what is it you mean to do?" + +"Dick," I returned, "you ask the most disconcerting questions. You +tramp up to London with a wild story of a house watched----" + +"You come as a friend, then," he broke in eagerly. + +"As your friend, yes." + +Dick sat silent for a moment. + +"I think so," he said at length. + +"And here's a trifle to assure you," I said. "Cullen Mayle is not very +far behind me. You may expect him upon Tresco any morning." + +Dick started to his feet. + +"Are you sure of that? You do not know him. How are you sure?" + +"Clutterbuck described him to me. I overtook him on the road, and +stayed the same night with him at an inn. He robbed me and robbed the +landlord. There was a trick at the cards, too. Not a doubt of it, +Cullen Mayle is close on my heels. Are those five men still watching +the house?" + +"Yes. They are still upon Tresco. They lodge here and there with the +fishermen, and make a pretence to burn kelp or to fish for their +living; but their business is to watch the house, as you will see +to-night. There are six of them now, not five." + +He led me as he spoke towards the "Palace Inn," where a light still +burned in the kitchen. The cottages about the inn, however, were by +this time dark, and we could advance without risk of being seen. Dick +stopped me under the shadow of a wall not ten yards from the inn. A +red blind covered the lower part of the window, but above it I could +see quite clearly into the kitchen. + +"Give me a back," whispered Dick, who reached no higher than my +shoulder. I bent down and Dick climbed on to my shoulders, whence he +too could see the interior of the kitchen. + +"That will go," said he in a little, and slid to the ground. "Can you +see a picture on the wall?" + +"Yes." + +"And a man sitting under the picture--a squat, squabby man with white +hair and small eyes very bright?" + +"Yes." + +"That is the sixth man. He came to Tresco while I was in London. I +found him here when I came back two days ago. But I had seen him +before. He had come to Tresco before. His name is George Glen." + +"George Glen!" said I. "Wait a bit," and I took another look at the +man in the kitchen. "He was quartermaster with Adam Mayle at Whydah, +eh? He is the stranger you brought over to St. Mary's Church on the +day when Cullen Mayle sat in the stocks." + +"Yes," said Dick, and he asked me how I knew. + +"Clutterbuck told me," I replied. + +From the inn we walked some few yards along a lane until we were free +of the cottages, and then leaving the path, mounted inland up a hill +of gorse. Dick gave me on the way an account of his journey homewards +and the difficulties he had surmounted. I paid only an indifferent +attention to his story, for I was wholly occupied with George Glen's +presence upon the island. Glen had come first of all to visit Adam +Mayle, and was now watching for Cullen. What link was there between +his two visits? I was inclined to think that George Glen was the clue +to the whole mystery. In spite of my inattention, I gathered this much +however from Dick. That tramp of his to London was well known +throughout the islands. His mother had given him up for dead when he +went away, and had thrashed him soundly when he returned, but the next +day had made him out a great hero in her talk. She did not know why he +went to London, for Dick had the discretion to hold his tongue upon +that point. + +So much Parmiter had told me when he suddenly stopped and listened. I +could hear nothing, however much I strained my ears, and in a moment +or two Dick began to move on. The mist was very thick about us--I +could not see a yard beyond my nose; but we were now going down hill, +so that I knew we had crossed the ridge of the island and were +descending towards the harbour of New Grimsby and the house under +Merchant's Rock. + +We had descended for perhaps a couple of hundred yards; then Dick +stopped again. He laid a hand upon my arm and dragged me down among +the gorse, which was drenched with the fog. + +"What is it?" said I. + +"Hush," he whispered; and even as he whispered I saw a sort of brown +radiance through the fog a long way to my left. The next instant a +speck of clear light shone out in the heart of this radiance: it was +the flame of a lantern, and it seemed miles away. I raised myself upon +my elbows to watch it. Dick pulled my elbow from beneath me, and +pressed me down flat in the grass; and it was fortunate that he did, +for immediately the lantern loomed out of the fog not a dozen yards +away. I heard it rattle as it swung, and the man who carried it +tramped by so near to me that if I had stretched out my hand I could +have caught him by the ankle and jerked him off his feet. It was the +purest good fortune that he did not detect us, and we lay very still +until the rustle of the footsteps had altogether died away. + +"Is that one of them?" I asked. + +"Yes; William Blads. He lodges with Mrs. Crudge next to our cottage." + +We continued to descend through the gorse for another quarter of an +hour or so until an extraordinary sound at our feet brought us both to +an halt. It was the strangest melancholy screeching sound that ever I +had heard: it was so harsh it pierced the ears; it was so wild and +eerie that I could hardly believe a voice uttered it. It was like a +shrill cry of pain uttered by some live thing that was hardly human. +It startled me beyond words, and the more so because it rose out of +the fog directly at our feet. Dick Parmiter trembled at my side. + +"Quick," he whispered in a shaking voice; "let us go! Oh, let us go!" + +But he could not move for all his moaning. His limbs shook as though +he had the fever; terror chained him there to the ground. Had I not +known the boy under other circumstances, I should have set him down +for a coward. + +I took a step forward. Dick caught hold of my arm and muttered +something, but his voice so wavered and gasped I could not distinguish +what he said. I shook his arm off, and again stepped forward for one, +two, three paces. As I took the third pace the ground suddenly sloped, +my feet slipped on the wet grass; I let go of my valise, and I fell to +my full length upon my back, and slid. And the moment I began to slide +my feet touched nothing. I caught at the grass, and the roots of it +came away in my hands. I turned over on my face. Half my body was now +hanging over the edge. I hung for a second by my waist, and as I felt +my waist slipping, I struck out wildly upon each side with my arms. My +right arm struck against a bush of gorse; I seized hold of it, and it +bent, but it did not break. I lifted a knee carefully, set it on the +edge, and so crawled up the slope again. + +Dick was lying on his face peering down towards me. + +"My God," said he, "I thought you had fallen;" and reaching out his +hands, he caught both my arms as though he was afraid I should slip +again. "Oh, quick," he said, "let us go!" + +And again I heard the shrill screech rise up from that hollow into +which I had so nearly fallen. It was repeated and repeated with a +regular interval between--an interval long enough for Dick to +reiterate his eager prayer. + +"It has begun again," said I. + +"It has never ceased since we first heard it," said Dick, and no doubt +he spoke the truth; only I had been deaf to it from the moment my foot +slipped until now. "Let us go," and picking up my valise he hurried me +away, turning his head as he went, shuddering whenever he heard that +cry. + +"But it may be some one in distress--some one who needs help." + +"No, no," he cried; "it is no one. I will tell you to-morrow." + +We skirted the top of the hollow, and once more descended. The fog +showed no sign of clearing, but Parmiter walked with an assured tread, +and in a little time he began to recover his spirits. + +"We are close to the house," said he. + +"Dick, you are afraid of ghosts," said I; and while I spoke he uttered +a cry and clung to my arm. A second later something brushed past my +hand very quickly. I just saw it for an instant as it flitted past, +and then the darkness swallowed it up. + +Dick blurted out this fable: the souls of dead drowned sailormen kept +nightly tryst on Castle Down. + +"That was no spirit," said I. "Play the man, Dick. Did you ever meet a +spirit that trod with the weight of a body?" + +I could hear the sound of feet rustling the grass beneath us. Dick +listened with his hand to his ear. + +"The tread is very light," said he. + +"That is because it is a woman who treads." + +"No woman would be abroad here in this fog at this time," he +protested. + +"Nevertheless, it was a woman; for I saw her, and her dress brushed +against my hand. It was a woman, and you cried out at her; so that if +there is any one else upon the watch to-night, it is very likely we +shall have him upon our heels." + +That argument sobered him, and we went forward again without speaking +to each other, and only halting now and again to listen. In a very +short while we heard the sea booming upon the beach, and then Dick +stepped forward yet more warily, feeling about with his hands. + +"There should be a fence hereabouts," said he, and the next moment I +fell over it with a great clatter. A loud whistle sounded from the +beach--another whistle answered behind us, and I heard the sound of a +man running up from the sand. We both crouched in the grass close by +the palisade, and again the fog saved us. I heard some one beating +about in the grass with a stick, but he did not come near us, and at +last he turned back to the sea. + +"You see," said Dick, "I told Lieutenant Clutterbuck the truth. The +house is watched." + +"Devil a doubt of it," said I. "Do you go forward and see if you can +get in." + +He came back to me in a little space of time, saying that the door was +barred, and that he could see no light through any chink. He had +stolen all round the house; he had rapped gently here and there at a +window, but there was no one waking. + +"And what are we to do now?" said he. "If I make a clatter and rouse +the house, we shall rouse Cullen's enemies, too." + +"It would not be wise to put them on the alert, the more particularly +since Cullen Mayle may be here to-morrow. I will go back to the +'Palace' Inn, sleep the night there, and come over here boldly in the +morning." And I got up and shouldered my valise again. But Dick +stopped me. + +"I have a better plan than that," said he, "for George Glen is staying +at the 'Palace' Inn. What if you slept in the house here to-night! I +can come over early to-morrow and tell Miss Helen who you are, and why +you have come." + +"But how am I to get into the house, without you rouse the household?" + +"There is a window. It is the window of Cullen Mayle's room. You could +get through it with my help." + +It seemed in many ways the best plan that could be thought of, but +certain words of Clutterbuck's that my meddling at all in the matter +would be nothing but an impertinence came back very forcibly to me. +But I heard Dick Parmiter speaking, and the thought slipped instantly +from my mind. + +"I helped Cullen Mayle through the window, the night his father drove +him from the house," said he, "and----" + +"What's that you say?" I asked eagerly. "The night that Cullen Mayle +was driven from the house, he climbed back into his room!" + +"Yes!" + +"Tell me about it, and be quick!" said I. I had my own reason for +urging him, and I listened with all my attention to every word he +spoke. He told me the sequel of the story which Clutterbuck had +related in my lodging at St. James's Street. + +"I was waiting for him outside here on the beach," said he; "and when +the door was closed behind him, he came straight towards me. 'And +where am I to sleep to-night, Dick?' said he. I told him that he could +have my bed over at New Grimsby, but he refused it. 'I'm damned if I +sleep in a rat-hole,' he said, 'when by putting my pride in my pocket +I can sleep in my own bed; and with my help he clambered on to an +outhouse, and so back into his own room." + +"When did he leave the island, then?" I asked. "The next morning? But +no one saw him go?" + +"No," answered Dick. "I sailed him across the same night. About three +o'clock of the morning he came and tapped softly upon my window, just +as you did to-night. It was that which made me think you were Cullen +come back. He bade me slip out to him without any noise, and together +we carried my father's skiff down to the water. I sailed him across to +St. Mary's. He made me swear never to tell a word of his climbing back +into his room." + +"Oh, he made you swear that?" + +"Yes, he said he would rip my heart out if I broke my oath. Well, I've +kept it till to-night. No one knows but you. I got back to Tresco +before my father had stirred." + +"And Cullen?" + +"A barque put out from St. Mary's to Cornwall with the first of the +ebb in the morning. I suppose he persuaded the captain to take him." + +Parmiter's story set me thinking, and I climbed over the palisade +after him without further objection. He came to a wall of planks; Dick +set himself firmly against it and bent his shoulders. + +"This is an outhouse," said he. "From my shoulders you can reach the +roof. From the roof you can reach the window. You can force the catch +of the window with a knife." + +"It will be an awkward business," said I doubtfully, "if I wake the +house." + +"There is no fear of that," answered Dick. "With any other window I +would not say no. The other rooms are separated only by a thin +panelling of wood, and at one end of the house you can almost hear a +mouse scamper at the other. Mr. Cullen's room, however, is a room +built on, its inner wall is the outer wall of the house, it is the one +room where you could talk secrets and run no risk of being overheard." + +"Very well," said I slowly, for this speech too set me thinking. "I +will risk it. Come over early to-morrow, Dick. I shall cut an awkward +figure without you do," and getting on to his shoulder, I clambered up +on to the roof of the outhouse. He handed my valise to me; I pushed +back the catch of the window with the blade of my knife, lifted it, +threw my leg over the sill and silently drew myself into the room. The +room was very dark, but my eyes were now accustomed to the gloom. I +could dimly discern a great four-poster bed. I shut the window without +noise, set my valise in a corner, drew off my boots and lay down upon +the bed. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + TELLS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT IN + CULLEN MAYLE'S BEDROOM + + +I was very tired, but in spite of my fatigue it was some while before +I fell asleep. Parmiter had thrown a new light upon the business +tonight, and by the help of that light I arrayed afresh my scanty +knowledge. The strangeness of my position, besides, kept me in some +excitement. Here was I quietly abed in a house where I knew no one; +Clutterbuck might well talk about impertinence, and I could not but +wonder what in the world I should find to say if Dick was late in the +morning. Finally, there was the adventure of that night. I felt myself +again slipping down the wet grass and dangling over the precipice. I +heard again that unearthly screeching which had so frightened Dick and +perplexed me, It perplexed me still. I could not for a moment +entertain Dick's supposition of a spirit. This was the middle of the +eighteenth century, you will understand, and I had come fresh from +London. Ghosts and bogies might do very well for the island of Tresco, +but Mr. Berkeley was not to be terrified with any such old-wives' +stories, and so Mr. Berkeley fell asleep. + +At what precise hour the thing happened I do not know. The room was so +dark that I could not have read my watch, even if I had looked at it, +which I did not think to do. But at some time during that night I woke +up quite suddenly with a clear sense that I had been waked up. + +I sat up in my bed with my heart beating very quick; and then with as +a little noise as I could I gathered myself up in the shadow of the +bed-hangings, at the head. The fog was still thick about the house, so +that hardly a glimmer of light came from the window. But there was +some one in the room I knew, for I could hear a rustle as of stealthy +movements. And then straight in front of me between the two posts of +the bed-foot, I saw something white that wavered and swayed this way +and that. Only an hour or so before I had been boasting to myself that +I was London-bred and lived in the middle of the eighteenth century. +But none the less my hair stirred upon my head, and all the moisture +dried up in my throat as I stared at that dim white thing wavering and +swaying between the bed-posts. It was taller than any human being that +I had seen. I remembered the weird screeching sound which I had heard +in the hollow; I think that in my heart I begged Dick Parmiter's +pardon for laughing at his fears; I know that I crouched back among +the hangings and shuddered till the bed shook and shook again. And +then it made a sound, and all the blood in my veins stood still. I +thought that my heart would stop or my brain burst. For the sound was +neither a screech like that which rose from the hollow, nor a groan, +nor any ghostly noise. It was purely human, it was a kecking sound in +the throat, such as one makes who gasps for breath. The white thing +was a live thing of flesh and blood. + +I sprang up on the bed and jumped to the foot of it. It was very dark +in the room, but through the darkness, I could see, on a level with my +face, the face of a woman. Her eyes were open and they stared into +mine. I could see the whites of them; our heads were so near they +almost touched. + +Even then I did not understand. I wondered what it was on which she +stood. I noticed a streak of white which ran straight up towards the +ceiling from behind her head, and I wondered what that was. And then +suddenly her body swung against my legs. She was standing on nothing +whatever! Again the queer gasping coughing noise broke from her lips, +and at last I understood it. It was a gasp of a woman strangling to +death. That white stiff streak above her head--I knew what it was too. +I caught her by the waist and lifted her up till her weight rested +upon my arm. With the other arm I felt about her neck. A thick soft +scarf--silk it seemed to the touch--was knotted tightly round it, and +the end of the scarf ran up to the cross-beam above the bed-posts. The +scarf was the streak of white. + +I fumbled at the knot with my fingers. It was a slip knot, and now +that no weight kept it taut, it loosened easily. I slipped the noose +back over her head and left it dangling. The woman I laid down upon +the bed, where she lay choking and moaning. + +I flung up the window and the cold fog poured into the room. I had no +candle to light and nothing wherewith to light it. But I remembered +that my foot had knocked against a chair to the right of the window, +as I climbed into the room. I groped for the chair and set it to face +the open night. Then I carried the woman to the window and placed her +in the chair, and supported her so that she might not fall. Outside I +could hear the surf booming upon the sand almost within arm's reach, +and the air was brisk with the salt of the sea. + +Such light as there was, glimmered upon the woman's face. I saw that +she was young, little more than a girl indeed, with hair and eyes of +an extreme blackness. She was of a slight figure as I knew from the +ease with which I carried her, but tall. I could not doubt who it was, +for one thing the white dress she wore was of some fine soft fabric, +and even in that light it was easy to see that she was beautiful. + +I held her thus with the cold salt air blowing upon her face, and in a +little, she began to recover. She moved her hands upon her lap, and +finally lifted one and held her throat with it. + +"Very likely there will be some water in the room," said I. "If you +are safe, if you will not fall, I will look for it." + +"Thank you," she murmured. + +My presence occasioned her no surprise and this I thought was no more +than natural at the moment. I took my arm from her waist and groped +about the room for the water-jug. I found it at last and a glass +beside it. These I carried back to the window. + +The girl was still seated on the chair, but she had changed her +attitude. She had leaned her arms upon the sill and her head upon her +arms. I poured out the water from the jug into the tumbler. She did +not raise her head. I spoke to her. She did not answer me. A horrible +fear turned me cold. I knelt down by her side, and setting down the +water gently lifted her head. She did not resist but sank back with a +natural movement into my arms. Her eyes were closed, but she was +breathing. I could feel her breath upon my cheek and it came steadily +and regular. I cannot describe my astonishment; she was in a deep +sleep. + +I pondered for a moment what I should do! Should I wake the household? +Should I explain what had happened and my presence in the house? For +Helen Mayle's sake I must not do that, since Helen Mayle it surely was +whom I held in my arms. + +I propped her securely in the chair, then crossed the room, opened the +door and listened. The house was very still; so far no one had been +disturbed. A long narrow passage stretched in front of me, with doors +upon either side. Remembering what Dick Parmiter had told me, I mean +that every sound reverberated through the house, I crept down the +landing on tiptoe. I had only my stockings upon my feet and I crept +forward so carefully that I could not hear my own footfalls. + +I had taken some twenty paces when the passage opened out to my right. +I put out my hand and touched a balustrade. A few yards farther on the +balustrade ceased; there was an empty space which I took to be the +beginning of the stairs, and beyond the empty space the passage closed +in again. + +I crept forward, and at last at the far end of the house and on the +left hand of the passage I came to that for which I searched, and +which I barely hoped to find--an open door. I held my breath and +listened in the doorway, but there was no sound of any one breathing, +so I stepped into the room. + +The fog was less dense, it hung outside the window a thin white mist +and behind that mist the day was breaking. I looked round the room. It +was a large bedroom, and the bed had not been slept in. A glance at +the toilette with its dainty knick-knacks of silver proved to me that +it was a woman's bedroom. It had two big windows looking out towards +the sea, and as I stood in the dim grey light, I wondered whether it +was from one of those windows that Adam Mayle had looked years before, +and seen the brigantine breaking up upon the Golden Ball Reef. But the +light was broadening with the passage of every minute. With the same +caution which I had observed before I stole back on tiptoe to Cullen +Mayle's room. Helen Mayle was still asleep, and she had not moved from +her posture. I raised her in my arms, and still she did not wake. I +carried her down the passage, through the open door and laid her on +the bed. There was a coverlet folded at the end of the bed and I +spread it over her. She nestled down beneath it and her lips smiled +very prettily, and she uttered a little purring murmur of content; but +this she did in her sleep. She slept with the untroubled sleep of a +child. Her face was pale, but that I took to be its natural +complexion. Her long black eyelashes rested upon her cheeks. There was +no hint of any trouble in her expression, no trace of any passionate +despair. I could hardly believe that this was the girl who had sought +to hang herself, whom I had seen struggling for her breath. + +Yet there was no doubt possible. She had come into the empty +room--empty as she thought, and empty it would have been, had not a +fisher-boy burst one night into Lieutenant Clutterbuck's lodging off +the Strand--when every one slept, and there she had deliberately stood +upon the bed, fastened her noose to the cross-bar and sprang off. +There was no doubt possible. It was her spring from the bed which had +waked me up, and as I returned to Cullen's room, I saw the silk noose +still hanging from the beam. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + HELEN MAYLE + + +A loud rapping on the door roused me. The mist had cleared away, and +out of the open window I could see a long sunlit slope of gorse all +yellow and purple stretching upwards, and over the slope a great space +of blue sky whereon the clouds sailed like racing boats in a strong +breeze. The door was thrust open and Dick Parmiter entered. + +"You keep London hours, sir," said he, standing at the foot of the +bed, and he happened to raise his eyes. "What's that?" he asked. + +_That_ was the silk scarf still dangling from the cross-bar, and the +sight of it brought back to me in a flash my adventure of the night. +With the clear sunlight filling the room and the bright wind chasing +the clouds over the sky, I could hardly believe that it had really +occurred. But the silk scarf hung between the posts. + +"My God," I cried out. "What if I had never waked up!" + +There would have been the sunlight and the wind in the sky as now, +but, facing me, no longer swaying, but still, inert, horrible, I +should have seen--and I clapped my hands over my face, so distinct was +this unspeakable vision to me, and cried out again: "What if I had not +waked up! + +"You have not waked up very early," said Dick, looking at me +curiously, and recovering my self-possession I hasten to explain. + +"I have had dreams, Dick. The strange room! I am barely awake yet." + +It appeared that I was not the only one to keep London hours that +morning. It was close upon mid-day and Dick had not waked me before, +because he had not before had speech with the mistress of the house. +Helen Mayle had risen late. But she knew now of my presence in the +house and what had brought me, and was waiting to offer me her thanks. + +In spite of this news that she was waiting, I made my toilette very +slowly. It would be the most awkward, embarrassing meeting imaginable. +How could one bow and smile and exchange the trivial courtesies with a +girl whom one had saved from that silk noose some eight hours before? +With what countenance would she greet me? Would she resent my +interference? Dick, however, had plainly noticed nothing unusual in +her demeanour; I consoled myself with that reflection. He noticed, +however, something unusual here in my room, for as I tied my cravat +before the mirror I saw that he was curiously looking at the silk +scarf. + +"Perhaps you have seen it before," said I without turning round. Dick +started, then he coloured. + +"I was wondering why it hung there," said he. + +"It _is_ curious," said I calmly, and I stood upon the bed and with +some trouble, for the knots were stiff, I took it down and thrust it +into the pocket of my coat. + +"It is yours?" cried Dick. + +"One silk scarf is very like another," said I, and he coloured again +and was silent. His silence was fortunate, since if he had asked to +what end I had hung it above my bed, I should have been hard put to it +for an answer. + +"I am ready," said I, and we walked along the passage to the +balustrade, and the head of the stairs where I had crept on tiptoe +during the night. + +I noticed certain marks, a few dents, a few scratches on the panels of +the wall at the head of the stairs, and I was glad to notice them, for +they reminded me of the business upon which I had come and of certain +conjectures which Dick had suggested to my mind. It was at the head of +the stairs that Adam Mayle had stood when he drove out his son. The +marks no doubt were the marks of that handful of guineas which Cullen +had flung to splatter and sparkle against the wall behind his father's +head. I was glad to notice them, as I say, for the tragical incident +in which I had borne a share that night had driven Cullen Mayle's +predicament entirely from my thoughts. + +I saw the flutter of a dress at the foot of the stairs, and a face +looked up to mine. It was the face which I had seen on a level with +mine in the black gloom of the night, and as I saw it now in the clear +light of day, I stopped amazed. It wore no expression of +embarrassment, no plea for silence. She met me with a grateful welcome +in her eyes as for one who had come unexpectedly to do her a service, +and perhaps a hint of curiosity as to why I should have come at all. + +"Dick has told me of you," she said, as she held out her hand. "You +are very kind. Until this morning I did not even know the reason of +Dick's journey to London. I was not aware that he had paid a visit to +Lieutenant Clutterbuck." + +There was a trifle of awkwardness in her voice as she pronounced his +name. I could not help feeling and no doubt expressing some +awkwardness as I heard it. Lieutenant Clutterbuck had not hesitated to +accuse her of duplicity; I at all events could not but acknowledge +that she was excellently versed in the woman's arts of concealment. +There was thus a moment's silence before I answered. + +"You will accept me I hope as Lieutenant Clutterbuck's proxy." + +"We had no right," she returned, "to expect any service from +Lieutenant Clutterbuck, much less from----" and she hesitated and +stopped abruptly. + +"From a stranger you would have said," I added. + +"We shall count you a stranger no longer," she said, with a frank +smile, and that I might not be outdone in politeness, I said: + +"If Dick had lacked discretion and told you all that he might have +told, you would understand that the obligation is upon my side. For +whereas I do not know that I can render you any service whatever, I do +know that already you have rendered me a great one." + +"That is very prettily said," she returned, as she walked into the +parlour. + +"Truth at times," I answered lightly as I followed her, "can be as +pretty as the most ingenious lie." + +So that first awkward meeting was past. I took my cue from her +reticence, but without her success. I could not imitate her complete +unconsciousness. It seemed she had no troubles. She sat at the table +in a flow of the highest spirits. Smiles came readily to her lips, and +her eyes laughed in unison. She was pale and the pallor was the more +marked on account of her dark hair and eyes, but the blood came and +went in her cheeks, and gave to her an infinite variety of expression. +I could hardly believe that this voice which was now lively with +contentment was the voice which had uttered that kecking sound in the +night, or that the eyes which now sparkled and flashed were the eyes +which had stared at me through the gloom. No doubt I looked at her +with more curiosity than was convenient; at all events she said, with +a laugh: + +"I would give much to know what picture Dick painted of me, for if I +may judge from your looks, Mr. Berkeley, the likeness is very unlike +to the original." + +I felt my cheeks grow hot, and cast about for a reason to excuse my +curiosity. Her own words suggested the reason. + +"Dick told me," I said, "of a woman in great distress and perplexity, +whose house was watched, who dreaded why it was watched----" + +"And you find a woman on the top of her spirits," she broke in, and +was silent for a little, looking at the cloth. "And very likely," she +continued slowly, "you are disposed to think that you have been misled +and persuaded hither for no more than a trivial purpose." + +"No," I protested. "No such thought occurred to me," and in my anxiety +to free myself from the suspicion of this imputation I broke through +that compact of silence upon which we seemed silently to have agreed. +"I have no reason for pride, God knows, but indeed, Madam, I am not so +utterly despicable as to regret that I came to Tresco and crept into +your house last night. Already,--suppose there was nothing more for +me to do but to wish you a good-morning and betake myself back to +town--already I have every reason to be glad that I came, for if I had +not come----" and I stopped. + +Helen Mayle listened to me with some surprise of manner at the +earnestness with which I spoke and when I stopped so abruptly, she +blushed and her eyes again sought the table. + +"Yes," she said quietly, "Mr. Berkeley, you have guessed the reason of +my good spirits. If you had not come, a woman in great distress and +perplexity would be wandering restlessly about the house, as she did +yesterday." + +Her eyes were still fixed upon the table, or she must have remarked my +astonishment and the pretence would at once and for all have been torn +away from between us. I leaned back in my chair; it was as much as I +could do to stifle an exclamation. If I had not come, a woman's spirit +might be wandering to-day restlessly from room to room, but the +woman--I had the silk scarf in my coat-pocket to assure me she would +not. + +"The distress and perplexity," she continued, "are not done with, but +to-day a hand has been stretched to me out of the dark, and I must +think, to some good end. It could not be otherwise," and she lifted +her eyes to mine. I did not doubt their sincerity. "And--shall I tell +you?" she continued with a frank smile. "I am glad, though I hardly +know why--I am glad that the man who stretched out his hand was quite +unknown to me and himself knew nothing of me, and had not so much as +seen my face. He helps a woman, not _one_ woman. I am more grateful +for that, I take it to be of good augury." And she held her hand to +me. + +I took the hand; I was tempted to let her remain in her +misapprehension. But sooner or later she would learn the truth, and it +seemed to me best that she should learn something of it from me. + +"Madam," I said, "I should account myself happy if I could honestly +agree, but I fear it was not on a woman's account that I travelled +down to Tresco. Dick I think had something to do with it, but chiefly +I came to do myself a service." + +"Well," she answered as she rose and crossed to the window "that may +be. You are here at all events, in the house that is watched" and then +she suddenly called me to her side. "Look," said she, "but keep well +behind the curtain." + +I looked across the water to a brown pile of rocks which was named +Norwithel, and beyond Norwithel over St. Helen's Pool to the island of +St. Helen's. + +"Do you see?" she asked. + +I saw the bare rock, the purple heather of St. Helen's, to the right a +wide shining beach of Tean, and to the left stretching out into the +sea from the end of St. Helen's a low ridge of rocks like a paved +causeway. I pointed to that causeway. + +"That is the Golden Ball Reef," said I. + +"Yes," she answered, "Dick told you the story. You would not see the +reef, but that the tide is low. But it is not that I wanted to show +you. See!" and she stretched out her hand towards the rock pile of +Norwithel. + +I looked there again and at last I saw a man moving on the rocks close +by the sea. + +"He is cutting the weed," said I. + +"That is the pretence," said she. "But so long as he stays there no +one can enter this house without he knows, no one can go out without +he knows." + +"Unless one goes in or out by the door I used." + +"That door is within view of the Castle Down. There will be some man +smoking his pipe, stretched on the grass of the Castle Down." + +"You have never spoken to them?" + +"Yes! They wanted nothing of me. They only watch. I know for whom they +watch. I could learn nothing by questioning them." + +"Have you asked Captain Hathaway's help?" + +Helen smiled. + +"No. What could he do? They do no one any hurt. They stand out of my +way when I pass. And besides--I am afraid. I do not know. If these men +were questioned closely by some one in authority, what story might +they have to tell and what part in that story does Cullen play?" + +I hesitated for a few moments whether to risk the words which were on +my lips. I made an effort and spoke them. + +"You will pardon the question--I have once met Cullen Mayle--and is he +worth all this anxiety?" + +"He had a strange upbringing in this house. There is much to excuse +him in the eyes of any one. And for myself I cannot forget that all +which people say is mine, is more rightly his." + +She spoke very gently about Cullen, as I had indeed expected that she +would, but with sufficient firmness to prove to me that it was not +worth while to continue upon this strain. + +"And the negro?" I asked. "He has not spoken?" + +For answer she led me up the stairs, and into a room which opened upon +the landing. The negro lay in bed and asleep. The flesh had shrivelled +off his bones, his face was thin and peaked, and plainly his days were +numbered. Helen leaned over the bed, spoke to him and pressed upon his +shoulder. The negro opened his eyes. Never in my life had I seen +anything so melancholy as their expression. The conviction of his +helplessness was written upon them and I think too an appeal for +forgiveness that he had not discharged his mission. + +"Speak to him," said Helen. "Perhaps a stranger's voice may rouse him +if only to speak two words." + +I spoke to him as she bade me; a look of intelligence came into the +negro's face; I put a question to him. + +"Why does George Glen watch for Cullen Mayle?"--and before I had +completed the sentence his eyelids closed languidly over his eyes and +he was asleep. I looked at him as he lay there, an emaciated +motionless figure, the white bedclothes against his ebony skin, and as +I thought of his long travels ending so purposelessly in this +captivity of sleep, I was filled with a great pity. Helen uttered a +moan, she turned towards me wringing her hands. + +"And there's our secret," she cried, "the secret which we must know +and which this poor negro burns to tell and it's locked up within him! +Bolts and bars," she burst out, "what puny things they seem! One can +break bolts, one can sever bars, but a secret buried within a man, how +shall one unearth it?" + +It just occurred to me that she stopped with unusual abruptness, but I +was looking at the negro, I was still occupied with pity. + +"Heaven send my journey does not end so vainly as his," I said +solemnly. I turned to Helen and I saw that she was staring at me with +a great astonishment, and concern for which I could not account. + +"I have a conjecture to tell you of," said I, "I do not know that it +is of value." + +"Let us go downstairs," she replied, "and you shall tell me," but she +spoke slowly as though she was puzzled with some other matter. As we +went downstairs I heard Dick Parmiter's voice and could understand the +words he said. I stopped. + +"Where is Dick?" + +"Most likely in the kitchen." + +When we were come to the foot of the stairs I asked where the kitchen +was? + +"At the end of that passage across the hall," she answered. + +Upon that I called Dick. I heard a door open and shut, and Dick came +into the hall. + +"The kitchen door was closed," said I, "I do not know but what my +conjecture may have some value after all." + +Helen Mayle walked into the parlour, Dick followed her. As I crossed +the hall my coat caught on the back of a chair. Whilst I was +disengaging my coat, I noticed that an end of the white scarf was +hanging from my pocket and that the initials "H. M." were embroidered +upon it. I recollected then how Helen Mayle had abruptly ended her +outcry concerning the bolts and bars, and how she had looked at me and +how she had spoken. Had she noticed the scarf? I thrust it back into +my pocket and took care that the flap of the pocket should hide it +completely. Then I, too, went into the parlour. But as I entered the +room I saw then Helen's eyes went at once to my pocket. She had, then, +noticed the scarf. It seemed, however, that she was no longer +perplexed as to how I came by it. But, on the other hand, it was my +turn to be perplexed. For, as she raised her eyes from my pocket, our +glances crossed. It was evident to her that I had detected her look +and understood it. Yet she smiled--without any embarrassment; it was +as though she thought I had stolen her scarf for a favour and she +forgave the theft. And then she blushed. That, however, she was very +ready to do upon all occasions. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + TELLS OF A STAIN UPON A WHITE FROCK, AND + A LOST KEY + + +Helen drew a chair to the table and waited with her hands folded +before her. + +"Dick," said I, turning to the lad, who stood just within the door, +"that oath of yours." + +"I have broken it already," said he. + +"There was never priest in the world who would refuse to absolve you. +The virtue of it lies in the forswearing. Now!" and I turned to Helen. +"But I must speak frankly," I premised. + +She nodded her assent. + +"Very well. I can make a consecutive sort of story, but I may well be +at fault, for my knowledge is scanty, and if I am in error over the +facts, I beg you, Miss Mayle, to correct me. Old Mr. Mayle's talk ran +continually about his wild doings on the Guinea coast, in Africa. +There can be no doubt that he spent some considerable portion of his +life there, and that he managed to scrape together a sufficient +fortune. It is likely, therefore, that he was engaged in the slave +trade, and, to be quite frank, Miss Helen, from what I have gathered +of his manner and style, I am not indisposed to think that he found an +occasional diversion from that pursuit in a little opportune piracy." + +I made the suggestion with some diffidence, for the old man, whatever +his sins, had saved her life, and shown her much affection, of which, +moreover, at his death he had given her very tangible proofs. It was +necessary for me, however, to say it, for I had nothing but suspicion +to go upon, and I looked to her in some way, either by words or +manner, to confirm or confute my suspicions. And it seemed to me that +she confirmed it, for she simply pressed the palms of her hands to her +forehead, and said quietly, + +"You are very frank." + +"There is no other way but frankness, believe me," I returned. "Now +let us come to that Sunday, four years ago, when Cullen Mayle sat in +the stocks and George Glen came to Tresco. It was you who took George +Glen to St. Mary's Church," I turned to Dick Parmiter. + +"Yes," said he. "I was kicking my heels in the sand, close to our +cottage, when he came ashore in a boat. He was most anxious to speak +with Mr. Mayle." + +"So you carried him across to St. Mary's, and he told you, I think, +that he had been quartermaster with Adam Mayle at Whydah, on the +Guinea coast?" + +"Yes." + +"Did he name the ship by any chance?" + +"No." + +"He did once, whilst we were at supper," interrupted Helen, "and I +remember the name very well, for my father turned upon him fiercely +when he spoke it, and Mr. Glen immediately said that he was mistaken +and substituted another name, which I have forgotten. The first name +was the _Royal Fortune_." + +"The _Royal Fortune_," said I, thoughtfully. The name in a measure was +familiar to me; it seemed familiar too in precisely this connection +with the Guinea coast. But I could not be sure. I was anxious to +discover George Glen's business with Adam Mayle, and very likely my +anxiety misled me into imagining clues where there were none. I put +the name away in my mind and went on with my conjecture. + +"Now on that Sunday George Glen met Adam Mayle in the churchyard, you, +Miss Mayle, and Lieutenant Clutterbuck were of the party. Together you +sailed across to Tresco. So that George Glen could have had no private +word with Mr. Mayle." + +"No," Helen Mayle agreed. "There was no opportunity." + +"Nor was there an opportunity all that afternoon and evening, until +Cullen left the house." + +"But after Cullen had gone," said she, "they had their opportunity and +made use of it. I left them together in my father's room. + +"The room fitted up as a cabin, where every word they spoke could be +heard though the door was shut and the eavesdropper need not even +trouble to lay his ear to the keyhole." + +"Yes, that is true," said Helen. "But the servants were in bed, and +there was no one to hear." + +At that Dick gave a start and a jump, and I cried: + +"But there was some one to hear. Tell your story, Dick!" and Dick told +how Cullen Mayle had climbed through the window, and how some hours +after he had waked him up and sworn him to secrecy. + +"Now, do you see?" I continued. "Why should Cullen Mayle have sworn +Dick here to silence unless he had discovered some sort of secret +which might prove of value to himself, unless he had overhead George +Glen talking to Adam Mayle? And there's this besides. Where has Cullen +Mayle been these last two years? I can tell you that." + +"You can?" said Helen. She was leaning across the table, her face all +lighted up with excitement. + +"Yes. There's the negro above stairs for one thing, Cullen's servant. +For another I met Cullen Mayle on the road as I was travelling here. +He counterfeited an ague, which he told me he had caught on the Guinea +coast. The ague was counterfeit, but very likely he has been on the +Guinea coast." + +"Of course," cried Dick. + +"Not a doubt of it," said Helen. + +"So this is my theory. George Glen came to enlist Adam Mayle's help +and Adam Mayle's money, in some voyage to Africa. Cullen Mayle +overheard it, and got the start of George Glen. So here's George Glen +back again upon Tresco, and watching for Cullen Mayle." + +"See!" cried Helen suddenly. "Did I not tell you you were sent here to +a good end?" + +"But we are not out of the wood yet," I protested. "We have to +discover what it was that Glen proposed to Mr. Mayle. How shall we do +that?" + +"How?" repeated Helen, and she looked to me confidently for the +answer. + +"I can think of but one way," said I, "to go boldly to George Glen and +make terms with him." + +"Would he speak, do you think?" + +"Most likely not," I answered, and so in spite of my fine conjecture, +we did not seem to have come any nearer to an issue. We were both of +us silent for some while. The very confidence which Helen displayed +stung me into an activity of thought. Helen herself was sunk in an +abstraction, and in that abstraction she spoke. + +"You are hurt," she said. + +My right hand was resting upon the table. It was cut in one or two +places, and covered with scratches. + +"It is nothing," said I, "I slipped on the hill yesterday night and +cut it with the gorse;" and again we fell to silence. + +"What I am thinking is this," she said, at length. "You overtook +Cullen upon the road, and you reached the islands last night. At any +moment then we may expect his coming." + +"Why, that's true," said I, springing up to my feet. "And if Dick will +sail me across to St. Mary's, we'll make a shift to stop him." + +Helen Mayle rose at that moment from her seat. She was wearing a white +frock, and upon one side of it I noticed for the first time a red +smear or two, as though she had brushed against paint--or blood. I +looked at my hand scratched and torn by the gorse bush. It would have +been bleeding at the time when a woman, coming swiftly past us in the +fog, brushed against it. The woman was certainly hurrying in the +direction of this house. + +"You have told me everything, I suppose," I said--"everything at all +events that it concerns me to know." + +"Everything," she replied. + +We crossed that afternoon to St. Mary's. There was no sign of Cullen +Mayle at Hugh Town. No one had seen him or heard of his coming. He had +not landed upon St. Mary's. I thought it possible that he might not +have touched St. Mary's at all, but rowed ashore to Tresco even as I +had done. But no ship had put into the Road that day but one which +brought Castile soap from Marseilles. We sailed back to Tresco, and +ran the boat's nose into the sand not twenty yards from the door of +the house on Merchant's Point. A man, an oldish, white-haired man, +loitering upon the beach very civilly helped us to run the boat up out +of the water. We thanked him, and he touched his hat and answered with +something of a French accent, which surprised me. But as we walked up +to the house, + +"That's one of the five," Dick explained. "He came on the boat with +the negro to Penzance. Peter Tortue he is called, and he was loitering +there on purpose to get a straight look at you." + +"Well," said I, "it is at all events known that I am here," and going +into the house I found Helen Mayle eagerly waiting for our return. I +told her that Cullen Mayle could not by any means have yet reached the +Scillies, and that we had left word with the harbour master upon St. +Mary's to detain him if he landed; at which she expressed great +relief. + +"And since it is known I am here," I added, "it will be more suitable +if I carry my valise over to New Grimsby and seek a bed at the +'Palace' Inn. I shall besides make the acquaintance of Mr. George +Glen. It is evident that he and his fellows intend no hurt to you, so +that you may sleep in peace." + +"No," said she, bravely enough. "I am not afraid for myself." + +"And you will do that?" + +"What?" she asked. + +"Sleep in peace," said I; and putting my hand into my pocket as if by +accident, I let her see again the corner of her white scarf. Her face +flushed a little as she saw it. + +"Oh, yes," she answered, and to my surprise with the easiest laugh +imaginable. "I shall sleep in peace. You need have no fear." + +I could not understand her. What a passion of despair it must have +needed to string her to that act of death last night! Yet to-day--she +could even allude to it with a laugh. I was lost in perplexity, but I +had this one sure thing to comfort me. She was to-day hopeful, however +much she despaired yesterday. She relied upon me to rescue Cullen from +his peril. I was not sure that I should be doing her the service she +imagined it to be, even if I succeeded. But she loved him, and looked +to me to help her. So that I, too, could sleep in peace without fear +that to-night another scarf would be fetched out to do the office this +one I kept had failed to do. + +I gave Dick my valise to carry across the island, and waited until he +was out of sight before I started. Then I walked to the palisade at +the end of the house. I found a spot where the palisade was broken; +the splintered wood was fresh and clean; it was I who had broken the +palisade last night. From that point I marched straight up the hill +through the gorse, and when I had walked for about twenty minutes I +stopped and looked about me. I struck away to my left, and after a +little I stopped again. I marched up and down that hill, to the right, +to the left, for perhaps the space of an hour, and at last I came upon +that for which I searched--a steep slope where the grass was crushed, +and underneath that slope a sheer descent. On the brink of the +precipice--for that I judged it to be--I saw a broken gorse-bush. I +lay down on my face and carefully crawled down the slope. The roots of +the gorse-bush still held firmly in the ground. I clutched it in my +left hand, dug the nails of my right through the grass into the soil +and leaned over. My precipice was no more than a hollow some twenty +feet deep, and had I slipped yesterday night, I should not have fallen +even those twenty feet; for a sort of low barn was built in the +hollow, with its back leaning against the perpendicular wall. I should +have dropped perhaps ten feet on to the roof of this barn. + +I drew myself up the hill again and sat down. The evening was very +quiet and still. I was near to the summit of the island. Over my left +shoulder I could see the sun setting far away in the Atlantic, and the +waves rippling gold. Beneath me was the house, a long one-storied +building of granite, on the horn of a tiny bay. The windows looked +across the bay; behind the house stretched that tangled garden, and at +the end of the garden rose the Merchant's Rock. As it stood thus in +the evening light, with the smoke curling from its chimneys, and the +sea murmuring at its door, it seemed quite impossible to believe that +any story of turmoil and strife and tragedy could have locality there. +That old buccaneer Adam Mayle, and his soft-voiced son Cullen, whom he +had turned adrift, seemed the figures of a dream and my adventure in +Cullen's room--a hideous nightmare. + +And yet even as I looked footsteps brushed through the grass behind +me, and turning I saw a sailor with a brass telescope under one arm +and a black patch over one eye; who politely passed me the time of day +and went by. He was a big man, with a great beard and hair sprouting +from his ears and nostrils. He was another of the five no doubt, and +though he went by he did not pass out of sight. I waited, hoping that +he would go, for I had a great desire to examine the barn beneath me +more closely. It was from the barn that the unearthly screeching had +risen which had so terrified Dick Parmiter. It was between the barn +and the house that a girl had brushed against my wounded hand and +taken a stain of blood upon her dress. + +The hollow was only a break in the steep slope of the hill. The barn +could easily be approached by descending the hill to the right or the +left, and then turning in. I was anxious to do it, to try the door, to +enter the barn, but I dared not, for the sailor was within sight, and +I had no wish to arouse any suspicions. Helen had told me everything, +she had said--everything which it concerned me to know. But had she? I +found myself asking, as I got to my feet and crossed the hill down +towards New Grimsby. + +The sun had set by this time, a cool twilight took the colour from the +gorse, and numberless small winged things flew and sung about one's +face; all round a grey sea went down to a grey sky, and sea and sky +were merged; and at my feet the lights began to twinkle in the little +fishing village by the sea. I hired a bed at the "Palace" Inn, bade +them prepare me supper and then walked on to Parmiter's cottage for my +valise. + +There was a great hubbub going on within; Dick's voice was explaining, +and a woman's shrill voice overtopped his explanation. The cause of +his offence was twofold. He had not been near the cottage all day, so +that it was thought he had run away again, and the key of the cottage +was gone. It had not been seen since yesterday, and Dick had been +accused of purloining it. I explained to Mrs. Parmiter that it was my +fault Dick had kept away all day, and I made a bargain with her that I +should have the lad as my servant while I stayed upon the island. Dick +shouldered my valise in a state of considerable indignation. + +"What should I steal the key for?" said he. "It only stands in the +door for show. No one locks his door in Tresco. What should I steal +the key for?" and he was within an ace of whimpering. + +"Come, Dick," said I, "you mustn't mind a trifle of a scolding. Why, +you are a hero to everybody in these parts, and to one man at all +events outside them." + +"That doesn't hinder mother from chasing me about with an oar," he +answered. + +"It is the fate of all heroes," said I, "to be barbarously used by +their womenfolk." + +"Then I am damned if I want to be a hero," said Dick, violently. "And +as for the key--of what consequence is it at all if you never lock +your door?" + +"Of no more consequence than your bruises, Dick," said I. + +But I was wrong. You may do many things with a key besides locking a +door. You can slip it down your back to stop your nose bleeding, for +instance; if it's a big key you can weigh a line with it, and perhaps +catch a mackerel for your breakfast. And there's another use for a key +of which I did not at this time know, or I should have been saved from +considerable perplexity and not a little danger. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + IN WHICH I LEARN SOMETHING FROM AN + ILL-PAINTED PICTURE + + +I took my supper in the kitchen of the Palace Inn, with a strong reek +of tobacco to season it, and a succession of gruesome stories to make +it palatable. The company was made up for the most part of fishermen, +who talked always of wrecks upon the western islands and of dead men +drowned. But occasionally a different accent and a different anecdote +of some other corner of the world would make a variation; and doing my +best to pierce the haze of smoke, I recognised the speaker as Peter +Tortue, the Frenchman, or the man with the patch on his eye. George +Glen was there too, tucked away in a corner by the fireplace, but he +said very little. I paid, therefore, but a scanty attention, until, +the talk having slid, as it will, from dead men to their funerals, +some native began to descant upon the magnificence of Adam Mayle's. + +"Ay," said he, drawing a long breath, "there _was_ a funeral, and all +according to orders dictated in writing by the dead man. He was to be +buried by torchlight in the Abbey Grounds. I do remember that! Mortal +heavy he was, and he needed a big coffin." + +"To be sure he would," chimed in another. + +"And he had it too," said a third; "a mortal big coffin. We carried +him right from his house over the shoulder of the island, and down +past the Abbey pond to the graveyard. Five shillings each we had for +carrying him--five shillings counted out by torchlight on a gravestone +as soon as the grave was filled in. It was all written down before he +died." + +Then the first speaker took up the tale again. + +"A queer, strange man was Adam Mayle, and queer strange sights he had +seen. He would sit in that corner just where you be, Mr. Glen, and +tell stories to turn a man cold. Crackers they used to call him on +board ship, so he told us--'Crackers.'" + +"Why Crackers?" asked George Glen. + +"'Cause he was that handy with a marlinspike. A queer man! And that +was a queer notion of his about that stick"; and then he appealed to +his companions, who variously grunted their assent. + +"What about the stick?" asked Glen. + +"You may well ask, Mr. Glen. It was all written down. The stick was to +be buried with him in his coffin. It was an old heavy stick with a +great brass handle. Many's the time he has sat on the settle there +with that stick atween his knees. 'Twas a stick with a sword in't, but +the sword was broken. I remember how he loosened the handle once while +he was talking just as you and I are now, and he held the stick upside +down and the sword fell out on to the ground, just two or three inches +of steel broken off short. He picked it up pretty sharp and rammed it +in again. Well, the stick was to be buried with him, so that if he +woke up when we were carrying him over the hill to the Abbey he might +knock on the lid of his coffin." + +"But I doubt if any one would ha' opened the lid if he had knocked," +said one, with a chuckle, and another nodded his head to the +sentiment. "There was five shillings, you see," he explained, "once +the ground was stamped down on top of him. It wasn't quite human to +expect a body to open the lid." + +"A queer notion--about that stick." + +And so the talk drifted away to other matters. The fishermen took +their leave one by one and tramped heavily to their homes. Peter +Tortue and his companion followed. George Glen alone remained, and he +sat so quiet in his corner that I forgot his presence. Adam Mayle was +the only occupant of the room for me. I could see him sitting on the +settle, with a long pipe between his lips when he was not holding a +mug there, his mulberry face dimly glowing through the puffs of +tobacco, and his voice roaring out those wild stories of the African +coast. That anxiety for a barbaric funeral seemed quite of a piece +with the man as my fancies sketched him. Well, he was lying in the +Abbey grounds, and George Glen sat in his place. + +Mr. Glen came over to me from his corner, and I called for a jug of +rum punch, and invited him to share it, which he willingly did. He was +a little squabby man, but very broad, with a nervous twitting laugh, +and in his manner he was extremely intimate and confidential. He could +hardly finish a sentence without plucking you by the sleeve, and every +commonplace he uttered was pointed with a wink. He knew that I had +been over at the house under Merchant's Rock, and he was clumsily +inquisitive about my business upon Tresco. + +"Why," said I, indifferently, "I take it that I am pretty much in the +same case with you, Mr. Glen." + +At that his jaw dropped a little, and he stared at me utterly +discountenanced that I should be so plain with him. + +"As for me," said he in a little, "it is plain enough. And when +you say"--and here he twitched my sleeve as he leaned across the +table--"'here's old George Glen, that battered about the world in +ships for fifty years, and has come to his moorings in a snug harbor +where rum's cheap, being smuggled or stole', says you--well, I am not +denying you may be right;" and here he winked prodigiously. + +"And that's just what I said," I returned; "for here have I battered +about London, that's worse than the sea, and ages a man twice as +fast----" + +Mr. Glen interrupted me with some astonishment, and, I thought, a +little alarm. + +"Why," says she, "this is no place for the likes of you--a crazy +tumbledown of a tavern. All very well for tarry sailor folk that's +never seen nothing better than forecastle. But you'll sicken of it in +a week. Sure, you have not dropped your anchor here." + +"We'll call it a kedge, Mr. Glen," said I. + +"A kedge, you say," answered Mr. Glen, with a titter, "and a kedge +we'll make it. It's a handy thing to get on board in a hurry." + +He spoke with a wheedling politeness, but very likely a threat +underlay his words. I thought it wise to take no notice of them, but, +rising from my seat, I wished him good night. And there the +conversation would have ended but for a couple of pictures upon the +wall which caught my eye. + +One was the ordinary picture which you may come upon in a hundred +alehouses by the sea: the sailor leaving his cottage for a voyage, his +wife and children clinging about his knees, and in the distance an +impossible ship unfurling her sails upon an impossible ocean. The +second, however, it was, which caught my attention. It was the picture +of a sailor's return. His wife and children danced before him, he was +clad in magnificent garments, and to prove the prosperity of his +voyage he carried in his hand a number of gold watches and chains; and +the artist, whether it was that he had a sense of humour or that he +merely doubted his talents, instead of painting the watches, had cut +holes in the canvas and inserted little discs of bright metal. + +"This is a new way of painting pictures, Mr. Glen," said I. + +Mr. Glen's taste in pictures was crude, and for these he expressed a +quite sentimental admiration. + +"But," I objected, "the artist is guilty of a libel, for he makes the +sailor out to be a sneak-thief." + +Mr. Glen became indignant. + +"Because he comes home with wealth untold?" he asked grandly. + +"No, but because he comes home with watches," said I. + +Whereupon Mr. Glen was at some pains to explain to me that the watches +were merely symbolical. + +"And the picture's true," he added, and fell to pinching my arm. +"There's many a landsman laughs; but sailors, you says, says you, +'comes home with watches in their 'ands more than they can 'old and +sets up for gentle-folk,' says you." + +"Like old Adam Mayle, I adds," said I; and Mr. Glen dropped my arm and +stood a little way off blinking at me. + +"You knew Adam?" he said, in a fierce sort of way. + +"No," I answered. + +"But you know of him?" + +"Yes," said I, slowly, "I know of him, but not as much as you do, Mr. +Glen, who were quartermaster with him at Whydah on the ship _Royal +Fortune_." + +I spoke at random, wondering how he would take the words, and they had +more effect than I had even hoped for. His face turned all of a +mottled colour; he banged his fist upon the table and uttered a +horrible oath, calling upon God to slay him if he had ever set foot on +the deck of a ship named the _Royal Fortune_. + +"And when you says, says you," he added, sidling up to me, "Old George +never see'd a _Royal Fortune_, says you--why, you're saying what's +right and fair, and I thanks you, sir. I thanks you with a true +sailor's 'eart "; at which he would have wrung my hand. But I had no +hand ready for him; I barely heard his words. Whydah--the Guinea +coast--the ship _Royal Fortune!_ The truth came so suddenly upon me +that I had not the wit to keep silence. I could have bitten off my +tongue the next moment. As it was I caught most of the sentence back. +But the beginning of it jumped from my mouth. + +"At last I know"--I began and stopped. + +"What?" said Mr. Glen, with his whole face distorted into an +insinuating grin. But he was standing very close to me and a little +behind my back. + +"That my father thrashed me over twenty years ago," said I, clapping +my hand to my coat tails and springing away from him. + +"And you have never forgotten it," said he. + +"On the contrary," said I, "I have only just remembered it." + +Mr. Glen moved away from the table and walked towards the door. Thus +he disclosed the table to me, and I laughed very contentedly. Mr. Glen +immediately turned. He had reached the door, and he stood in the +doorway biting shreds of skin from his thumb. + +"You are in good spirits," said he, rather surlily. + +"I was never in better," said I. "The motions of inanimate bodies are +invariably instructive." + +I was very willing he should think me half-witted. He went grumbling +up the stairs; I turned me again to the picture of the sailor's +return. Whydah--the Guinea coast--the ship _Royal Fortune!_ It may +have been in some part the man's eagerness to deny all knowledge of +the ship; it was, no doubt, in some part the picture of those gold +watches, which awakened my memories. Watches of just such gold were +dangling for sale on a pedler's stall when first I heard of the ship +_Royal Fortune_. The whole scene came back to me most vividly--the +market-place of an old country town upon a fair day, the carts, the +crowds, the merry-go-rounds, the pedler's stall with the sham gold +watches, and close by the stall a ragged hawker singing a ballad of +the _Royal Fortune_, and selling copies of the ballad--a ballad to +which was added the last confessions of four men hung for piracy at +Cape Coast Castle within the flood-marks. It was well over twenty +years since that day, but I remembered it now with a startling +distinctness. There was a rough woodcut upon the title-page of the +ballad representing four men hanging in chains upon four gibbets. I +had bought one that afternoon, and my father had taken it from me and +thrashed me soundly for reading it. But I had read it! My memory was +quickened now to an almost supernatural clearness. I could almost turn +over the pages in my mind and read it again. All four men--one of them +was named Ashplant, a second Moody--went to the gallows without any +sign of penitence. There was a third so grossly stupid--yes, his name +was Hardy--so stupid that during his last moments he could think of +nothing more important than the executioner's tying his wrists behind +his back, and his last words were before they swung him off to the +effect that he had seen many men hanged, but none with their hands +tied in this way. The fourth--I could not recall his name, but he +swore very heartily, saying that he would rather go to hell than to +heaven, since he would find no pirates in heaven to keep him company, +and that he would give Roberts a salute of thirteen guns at entrance. +There was the story of a sea-fight, too, besides the ballad and the +confessions and it all cost no more than a penny. What a well-spent +penny! The fourth man's name, by-the-bye, was Sutton. + +But the sea-fight! It was fought not many miles from Whydah between +His Majesty's ship _Swallow_ and the _Royal Fortune_; for the _Royal +Fortune_ was sailed by Captain Bartholomew Roberts, the famous pirate +who was killed in this very encounter. How did George Glen or Adam +Mayle or Peter Tortue (for he alone of Glen's assistants was of an age +to have shipped on the _Royal Fortune_) escape? I did not care a +button. I had my thumb on George Glen, and was very well content. + +There was no doubt I had my thumb on the insinuating George. There was +Adam Mayle's fortune, in the first place; there was Adam's look when +George Glen let slip the name of the ship when he first came to +Tresco; there was Glen's consternation this evening when I repeated it +to him, and there was something more than his convincing than his +consternation--a table-knife. + +He had come very close to me when I mentioned the _Royal Fortune_, and +he had stood a little behind me--against the table at which I had +eaten my supper. I had eaten that supper at the opposite side of the +table, and how should a table-knife have crawled across the table and +be now lying so handily on this nearer edge unless George had doubts +of my discretion? Yes, I had my thumb upon him and as I went upstairs +to bed I wondered whether after all Helen would be justified of her +confidence in believing that I had been sent to Tresco to some good +end. Her face was very present to me that night. There was much in her +which I could not understand. There was something, too, to trouble +one, there were concealments, it almost seemed there was a trace of +effrontery--such as Lieutenant Clutterbuck had spoken of; but to-night +I was conscious chiefly that she set her faith in me and my +endeavours. Does the reed always break if you lean upon it? What if a +miracle happened and the reed grew strong because some one--any +one--leaned upon it! I kept that trustful face of hers as I had seen +it in the sunlight, long before my eyes in the darkness of the room. +But it changed, as I knew and feared it would,--it changed to that +appalling face which had stared at me out of the dark. I tried to +drive that picture of her from my thoughts. + +But I could not, until a door creaked gently. I sat up in my bed with +a thought of that knife handy on the table edge to the grasp of George +Glen. I heard a scuffle of shoeless feet draw towards my door, and I +remembered that I had no weapon--not even a knife. The feet stopped at +my door, and I seemed to hear the sound of breathing. The moon had +already sunk, but the night was clear, and I watched the white door +and the white woodwork of the door frame. The door was in the wall on +my right; it was about midway between the head and the foot of my bed, +and it opened inwards and down towards the foot; so that I should +easily see it opening. But suddenly I heard the stair boards creaking. +Whoever it was then, had merely stopped to listen at my door. I fell +back on my bed with a relief so great as to surprise me. I was +surprised, too, to find myself cold with sweat. I determined to buy +myself a knife in the morning, for there was the girl over at +Merchant's Point who looked to me. I had thus again a picture of her +in the sunlight. + +And then I began to wonder at that stealthy descent of the stairs. And +why should any one wish to assure himself I slept? This was a question +to be looked into. I got out of bed very cautiously, as cautiously +opened the door and peered out. + +There was a light burning in the kitchen--a small yellow light as of a +candle, but I could hear no sound. I crept to the head of the stairs +which were steep and led directly to the very threshold of the +kitchen. I lay down on the boards of the landing and stretching my +head down the stairs, looked into the room. + +George Glen had taken the sailor with the watches, down from the wall. +He was seated with the candle at his elbow, and minutely examining the +picture. He looked up towards the stairs, I drew my face quickly back; +but he was gazing in a complete abstraction, and biting his thumb, +very much puzzled. I crept back to bed and in a little I heard him +come shuffling up the stairs. He had been examining that picture to +find a reason for my exclamation. It was a dull-witted thing to do and +I could have laughed at him heartily, only I had already made a +mistake in taking him to be duller-witted than he was. For he was +quick enough, at all events, to entertain suspicions. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + OUR PLANS MISCARRY UPON CASTLE DOWN + + +The next morning, you may be sure, I crossed the hill betimes, and +came down to the house under Merchant's Rock with my good news. I told +her the news with no small elation, and with a like elation she began +to hear it. But as I related what had occurred at the Palace Inn, she +fell into thought, and now smiled with a sort of pride, and now +checked a sigh; and when I came to the knife upon the table's edge she +shuddered. + +"But you are in danger!" she cried. "Every minute you are in danger of +your life, and on my account!" + +"Nay," said I lightly, "you exaggerate. The best of women have that +fault." + +But she did not smile. She laid a hand upon my arm, and said, very +earnestly: + +"I cannot have it. I am very proud you count the risk so little, but +you must go." + +"No," said I, "they must go, and we have the means to make them march. +We have but to inform Captain Hathaway at the Garrison that here are +some of Bartholomew Robert's fry, and we and the world will soon be +quit of them for ever." + +"But we cannot," she exclaimed, "for then it would be known that +my"--she hesitated for a second, or rather she paused, for there was +no hesitation in her voice, as she continued--"my father also was of +the band. It may be justice that it should be known. But I cannot help +it; I guard his memory. Besides, there is Cullen." + +It was to Cullen that she always came in the end, and with such +excuses as a girl might make who was loyal to a man whom she must know +not to be worth her loyalty. The house in which she lived, the money +which she owned were his by right. She dreaded what story these men, +if captured, might have to tell of Cullen--she could not be persuaded +that Glen and his friends had not a motive of vengeance as well as of +gain,--and that story, whatever it was, would never have been enacted, +had not Cullen been driven penniless from Tresco. It did not occur to +her at all that this house was not Cullen's by any right, but belonged +to the scattered sons of many men with whom the ship _Royal Fortune_ +had fallen in. + +She repeated her arguments to me as we walked in the grass-grown +garden at the back of the house. A thick shrubbery of trees grew at +the end of the garden, and behind the trees rose the Merchant's Rock. +On one side the Castle Down rolled up towards the sky, on the other a +hedge closed the garden in, and beneath the hedge was the sea. Over +the hedge I could see the uninhabited island of St. Helen's and the +ruined church upon the summit, and a ship or two in St. Helen's Pool; +and this side of the ships the piled boulders of Norwithel. It was at +Norwithel that I looked as she spoke, and when she had done I +continued: + +"I do not propose that we should tell Captain Hathaway, but I can make +a bargain with Glen. I can find out what he wants, and strike a +bargain with him. We have the upper hand, we can afford to speak +freely. I will make a bargain with him to-night, of which one +condition shall be that he and his party leave Tresco and nowhere +attempt to molest Cullen Mayle." + +But she stopped in front of me. + +"I cannot have it," she said, with energy. "This means danger to you +who propose the bargain." + +"I shall propose it in the inn kitchen," said I. + +"And the knife on the table's edge?" she asked; "that too was in the +inn kitchen. Oh, no! no!" she cried, in a voice of great trouble. +There was great trouble too in her eyes. + +"Madam," I said, gently, "I never thought that this would prove a +schoolboy's game. If I had thought so, I should be this instant +walking down St. James's. But you overrate my peril." + +I saw her draw herself erect. + +"No; it is I who will propose the bargain and make the conditions. It +is I who will charge them with their piracy." + +"How?" I asked. + +"I will go this morning to the Palace Inn." + +"George Glen went out this morning before I rose." + +She looked over to Norwithel. + +"There is no one to-day on Norwithel," said I. + +"I shall find Peter Tortue on the Castle Down." + +"But I crossed the Castle Down this morning----" and I suddenly +stopped. There had been no one watching on the Castle Down. There was +no one anywhere upon the watch to-day. The significance of this +omission struck me then for the first time. + +"What if already we are quit of them!" I cried. "What if that one tiny +word _Royal Fortune_ has sent them at a scamper into hiding?" + +Helen caught something of my excitement. + +"Oh! if it only could be so!" she exclaimed. + +"Most like it _is_ so," I returned. "No man cutting ore-weed upon +Norwithel! No man lounging on the Castle Down! It must be so!" and we +shook hands upon that likelihood as though it was a certainty. We +started guiltily apart the next moment, for a servant came into the +garden with word that Dick Parmiter had sailed round in a boat from +New Grimsby, and was waiting for me. + +"There is something new!" said Helen, clasping her hands over her +heart, and in a second she was all anxiety. I hastened to reassure +her. Dick had come at my bidding, for I was minded to sail over to St. +Mary's, and discover if there was anywhere upon that island a record +of the doings of the _Royal Fortune_. To that end I asked Helen to +give me a letter to the chaplain there, who would be likely to know +more of what happened up and down the world than the natives of the +islands. I was not, however, to allow that I had any particular +interest in the matter, lest the Rev. Mr. Milray should smell a rat as +they say, and on promising to be very exact in this particular and to +return to the house in time for supper, I was graciously given the +letter. + +I found the Rev. Mr. Milray in his parsonage at Old Town, a small, +elderly man, who would talk of nothing but the dampness of his house +since the great wave which swept over this neck of land on the day of +the earthquake at Lisbon. I left him very soon, therefore, and went +about another piece of business. + +I had travelled from London with no more clothes and linen than a +small valise would hold. On setting out, I had not considered, indeed, +that I should be thrown much into the company of a lady, but only that +I was journeying into a rough company of fisher-folk. Yesterday, +however, it had occurred to me that I must make some addition to my +wardrobe and the necessity was yet more apparent to-day. I was +pleased, therefore, to find that Hugh Town was of greater importance +than I had thought it to be. It is much shrunk and dwindled now, but +then ships from all quarters of the world were continually putting in +there, so that they made a trade by themselves, and there was always +for sale a great store of things which had been salved from wrecks. I +was able, therefore, to fit myself out very properly. + +I sailed back to the Palace Inn, dressed with some care, and walked +over to sup at Merchant's Rock--little later perhaps. Helen Mayle was +standing in the hall by the foot of the stairs. I saw her face against +the dark panels as I entered, and it looked very white and strained +with fear. + +"There is no news of Cullen at St. Mary's," I said, to lighten her +fears; and she showed an extravagant relief, before, indeed, she could +barely have heard the words. Her face coloured brightly and then she +began to laugh. Finally she dropped me a curtsey. + +"Shall I lend you some hair-powder?" she asked, whimsically; and when +we were seated at table, "How old are you?" + +"I was thirty and more a month ago," said I, "but I think that I am +now only twenty-two." + +"As much as that?" said she, with a laugh, and grew serious in an +instant. "What did you discover at St. Mary's besides a milliner?" + +"Nothing," said I, "except that the Rev. Milray suffers from the +rheumatics." + +She remained in the same variable disposition during the whole of that +supper, at one moment buoyant on a crest of light-heartedness and her +eyes sparkling like stars, at another sunk into despondency and her +white brows all wrinkled with frowns. But when supper was over she +went to a cabinet, and taking from it a violin, said: + +"Now, I will play to you." + +And she did--out in that tangled garden over the sea. + +"The violin came to the Scillies in a ship that was wrecked upon the +Stevel Rock one Christmas. But the violin will tell you," she said, +with a smile. "My father bought it at St. Mary's and gave it to me, +and an old pilot now dead taught me;" and she swept the bow across the +strings and the music trembled across the water, through the lucent +night, up to the stars, a voice vibrating with infinite wisdom and +infinite passion. + +It seemed to me that I had at last got the truth of her. All my +guesses, my suspicions of something like duplicity, even my +recollection of our first meeting were swept out of my mind. She sat, +her white face gleaming strangely solemn under her black wealth of +hair, her white hand flashing backwards and forwards, and she made the +violin speak. It spoke of all things, things most sad and things most +joyous; it spoke with complete knowledge of the heights and the +depths; it woke new, vague, uncomprehended hungers in one's heart; it +called and called till all one's most sacred memories rose up, as it +were from graves, to answer the summons. It told me, I know, all my +life, from my childhood in the country to the day when I set out with +my cadet's portion to London. It sang with almost a paean of those +first arduous years--set them to a march,--and then with a great pity +told of those eight wasted years that followed--years littered with +cards, stained with drink; years in which, and there was the +humiliation of it, my fellow-drunkards, my fellow-gamblers had all +been younger than myself--years in which I grew a million years old. +That violin told it all out to me, until I twisted in my chair through +sheer shame, and I looked up and the girl's eyes were fixed upon me. +What it was that compelled me to speak I could never tell, unless it +was the violin. But as she looked at me, and as that violin sobbed out +its notes, I cried in a passionate excuse: + +"You asked me how old I was. Do you know I never was young--I never +had the chance of youth! When the chance came, I had forgotten what +youth can do. That accounts, surely, for those eight years. I was +tired then, and I was never young." + +"Until to-night," she said quietly, and the music quickened. I suppose +that she was right, for I had never spoken so intimately to any one, +whether man or woman; and I cursed myself for a fool, as one does when +one is first betrayed into speaking of one's secret self. + +She took the violin from her shoulder, and the glory of the music died +off the sea, but lingered for a little faintly upon the hills. I rose +up to go and Helen drew a breath and shivered. + +"This afternoon," said I, "a brig went out from the islands through +Crow Sound, bound for Milford. I'll wager the five were on it." + +"But if not?" + +"There's the 'Palace' kitchen." + +"Speak when there are others by, not within hearing, but within reach! +You will? Promise me!" + +I promised readily enough, thinking that I could keep the promise, and +she walked back with me through the house to the door. There is a +little porch at the door, four wooden beams and a slate roof on the +top, and half a dozen stone steps from the porch to the garden. Helen +Mayle stood in the porch, with her violin still in her hand. She +wished me "Good-night" when I was at the bottom of the steps, but a +little afterwards, when I had passed through the gateway of the +palisade and had begun to ascend the hill, she drew the bow sharply +across one of the strings and sent a little chirp of music after me, +which came to my ears, with an extraordinarily friendly sound. The air +was still hereabouts, though from the motion of the clouds there was +some wind in the sky, and the chirp came very clear and pretty. + +It was a few minutes short of ten when I left the house, and I +set off at a good pace, for I was anxious to keep my promise and +make my bargain with George Glen, quietly in a corner, before the +fishing-folk had gone home to bed. A young moon hung above the crest +of the hill, a few white clouds were gathering towards it, and the +gorse at my feet was black as ink. I walked upwards then steadily. I +had walked for perhaps a quarter of an hour, when I heard a low, soft +whistle. It came to me quite as clearly as the chirp of the violin, +but it had not the same friendly sound. It sounded very lonesome, it +set my heart jumping, it brought me to a stop. For I had heard +precisely that whistle on one occasion before, on the night when I +first crossed this hill with Dick Parmiter down to Merchant's Rock. + +The whistle had sounded from below me and from no great distance away. +I turned and looked down the slope, but I could see no one. It was +very lonely and very still. Whoever had whistled lay crouched on the +gorse. And then the whistle sounded again, but this time it came from +above me, higher up the slope. Immediately I dropped to the ground. +The gorse which hid them from me might well hide me from them. A few +paces above me the gorse seemed thicker than it was where I lay. I +crawled laboriously, flat upon my face, till I reached this patch. I +forced myself into it, holding my face well down to keep the thorns +out of my eyes, until the bushes were so close I could crawl no +further. Then I lay still as a mouse, holding my breath, listening +with every nerve. I had eluded them before in just this way, but I got +little comfort from that reflection. There had been a fog on that +night, whereas to-night it was clear. Moreover, they had a more urgent +reason now for persevering in their search. I possessed some dangerous +knowledge about them as they were aware--knowledge, too dangerous; +knowledge which would harden into a weapon in my hand if--if I reached +the Palace Inn alive. + +I lay very still, and in a little I heard the brushing of their feet +through the grass. They were closing down from above, they were +closing up from below; but they did not speak or so much as whisper. I +turned my head sideways, ever so gently, and looked up to the sky. I +saw to my delight that the clouds were over the moon. I buried my face +again in the grass, lest they should detect me by its pallor against +the black gorse. I was very thankful indeed that I had not accepted +that proffered loan of hair-powder--I was dressed in black, too, from +head to foot; I blessed the good fortune which had led me to buy black +stockings at St. Mary's, and, in a word, my hopes began to revive. + +The feet came nearer, and I heard a voice whisper: + +"It was here." The voice was Peter Tortue's, as I knew from the French +accent, and the next instant a stick fell with a heavy thud not a foot +from my head. If only the clouds hung in front of the moon! Round and +about they tramped--the whole five of them. For in a little they began +in low tones to curse, first of all me, and afterwards Peter Tortue, +who had whistled from below. Let them only quarrel amongst themselves, +I thought, and there's a good chance they will forget the reason of +their quarrel. It seemed that they were well on the road to a quarrel +at last; a man, quite young as I judged from his voice, flung himself +down on the grass with an oath. + +"But he is here, close to us," said Peter. "I heard the girl thrum +good-night to him on her fiddle, and then I saw him, and followed him, +and whistled." + +"Well, it is your business, not mine. Yours and George Glen's," the +other returned. I learned later that his name was Nathaniel Roper. "I +was never on no _Royal Fortune_, devil damn me." + +"Whist, you lousy fool"--and this was George Glen speaking. I am sure +he was winking and pinching the fellow's arm,--"we are all in the same +boat whether we've sailed in the _Royal_----" and he stopped. + +All at once there was a dead silence. I have never in my life +experienced anything so horrible as that sudden, complete silence. I +could not see what caused it, for my face was buried in the grass, and +I dared not move. One moment I had a sensation that they were gazing +at my back, and I felt--it is the only way I can express it--I felt +_naked_. Another moment I imagined it to be a ruse to beguile me into +stirring; and it lasted for ever and ever. + +At length one sound--not a voice--broke the silence: the man who had +thrown himself down was getting to his feet. But when he had stood up +he made no further movement; he stood motionless, like the others, and +the silence began again and again it lasted for ever and ever. + +All sorts of tremors began to creep over my body; the muscles of my +back jerked of their own accord. The suspense was driving me mad. I +had to move, I had to see, if only to hinder myself from leaping to my +feet and making a headlong rush. Very slowly I turned my head +sideways; I looked backwards along the ground, until I saw. The moon +had swum out from the clouds, and the five men were standing in +arrested attitudes with their eyes fixed upon something that glittered +very bright upon the ground. I could see it myself through the gorse +glittering and burning white, like a delicate flame, and my heart gave +a great leap within me as I understood what it was. It was a big +silver shoe-buckle that shone in the moonlight, and the shoe-buckle +was on my foot. + +The game was up. I thought that I might as well make a fight of it +at the last, and I jumped to my feet suddenly, with a faint hope that +the suddenness of the movement might startle them and let me through. +But there was to be no fighting for me that night. It is true that +the men all scattered from about me, but a voice a few yards to my +right thundered, "Stand!" and I stood stock-still, obedient as a +charity-school boy. + +For Peter Tortue was standing stock still too, with his right arm +stretched out in a line with his shoulder and the palm of his hand +upturned. On the palm of that hand was balanced a long knife with an +open blade, and the moonlight streaked along that blade in flame, just +as it had burned upon my shoe-buckle. + +George Glen rubbed his hands together. + +"You will lie down, Mr. Berkeley," said he, with his most insinuating +smile. "You will down, 'flat on my face,' says you." + +"But I have only just got up," said I. + +Glen tittered nervously, but no one else showed any appreciation of my +sally. I thought it best to lie down flat on my face. + +"Cross your hands behind your back," said George Glen, and I knew he +was winking. + +"Any little thing like that, I am sure," I murmured, as I obeyed. +"Only too happy," and in a trice I was nothing more than a coil of +rope. It cut into my wrists, it crushed my chest, it snaked round my +legs, it bit my ankles. + +"To be sure," said I, "they mean to send me somewhere by the post." + +Mr. George Glen sniggered and mentioned my destination, which was +impolite, though he mentioned it politely; but Roper thumped me in the +small of the back, and thrust my handkerchief into my mouth. So I had +done better to have kept silence. + +Two of the men lifted me up on their shoulders and staggered up hill. +In a moment or two they descended a small incline, and I saw that I +was being carried into the hollow where the shed stood. Glen pushed at +the door of the shed and it fell open inwards. A great cavern of +blackness gaped at us, and they carried me in and set me down +unceremoniously on the floor. + +"Brisk along with that lantern, Nat Roper," said Glen, and the young +fellow who had flung himself down on the grass struck a light and set +fire to the candle. The shed was divided by a wooden partition, in +which was a rickety door hardly hanging on its hinges. + +"In there!" said Glen, swinging the lantern towards the inner room. My +bearers picked me up again and carried me to the door. One of them +kicked at the door, but it did not yield. + +"It's jammed," said the other, "there's some-thing 'twixt it and the +floor," and raising a great sea boot, he kicked with all his might. + +I heard a metallic clinking, as though a piece of iron was hopping +across the stone floor, and the door flew open. + +They carried me into the inner room and set me down against the +partition. There was no furniture of any sort, not even a bucket to +sit upon; there was no window either, a thatched roof rested upon +heavy beams over my head. They placed the lantern at my feet, four of +them squatted down about me, the fifth went out of the shed to keep +watch. + +It was, after all, not in the inn kitchen of the Palace Inn that any +bargain was to be struck. I could not deny that they had chosen their +place very well. Not a man in Tresco but would give this shed the +widest of berths, and if he saw the glint of this lantern through a +chink, or heard, perhaps, as he was like to do, one loud cry--why, he +would only take to his heels the faster. The ropes, too, made my bones +ache. + +I would have preferred the kitchen at the Palace Inn. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + I FIND AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND + + +Glen bade Roper take the handkerchief from my mouth, and when that was +done his creased face smiled at me over the lantern. + +"About the _Royal Fortune?_" he said smoothly. + +Peter Tortue nodded, and absently cleaned the blade of his knife upon +the thighs of his breeches. There was no reply for me to make, and I +waited. + +"You were over to St. Mary's to-day?" + +"Yes." + +"What did you do there?" + +"I bought a pair of silk stockings and some linen." + +George Glen sniggered like a man that leaves off a serious +conversation to laugh politely at a bad joke. + +"But it's true," I cried. + +"Did you speak of the _Royal Fortune?_" + +"No," and, as luck would have it, I had not--not even to the Rev. Mr. +Milray. + +"Not to a living soul?" + +"No." + +"Did you go up to Star Castle?" + +"No." + +"Did you speak to Captain Hathaway?" + +"No." + +"'There's poor old George,' you said. 'Old George Glen,' says you, +'what was quartermaster with Cap'n Roberts on the _Royal_----'" + +"No," I cried. + +"Did you mention Peter Tortue?" said the Frenchman. + +"No. Would you be sitting here if I had? There would be a company of +soldiers scouring the island for you." + +"That's reasonable," said Tortue, and the rest echoed his words. In a +little there was silence. Tortue set to work again with his knife. It +flashed backwards and forwards, red with the candle light as though it +ran blood. It shone in my eyes and dazzled me, and somehow, there came +back to me a recollection of that hot night in Clutterbuck's rooms +when everything had glittered with an intolerable brightness, and Dick +Parmiter had been set upon the table to tell his story. I was vaguely +wondering what they were all doing at this moment in London, +Clutterbuck, Macfarlane, and the rest, when the questions began again. + +"You came back from St. Mary's to New Grimsby?" + +"Yes." + +"Did you tell Parmiter?" + +"No." + +"From St. Mary's you crossed the island to Merchant's Point?" + +"Yes." + +"Did you tell the girl?" + +Here a lie was obviously needful, and I did not scruple to tell it. + +"No." + +Peter Tortue leaned forward to me with a shrewd glance in his keen +eyes. + +"You are her lover," he said. "You told her." + +I lifted my eyes from his knife, looked him in the eyes, and sustained +his glance. + +"I am not her lover," I said; "that is a damned lie." + +He did not lose his temper, but repeated: + +"You told her," and George Glen looked in again with his whole face +screwed into a wink. + +"You said to her, 'My dear,' says you, 'there's old George,'" and at +that I lost my temper. + +"I said nothing of the kind," I cried. "Am I a parrot that I cannot +open my lips without old George popping out of them? But what's the +use of talking. Do what you will, I have done. If I had betrayed your +secret, do you think I should be walking home alone, and you upon the +island? But I have done. I had a bargain to strike with you, I thought +to find you all at the inn--but I have done." + +To tell the truth, I had no longer any hope of life. Glen, for all his +winks and smiles, would stop short of no cruelty. Peter Tortue quietly +polished his knife upon his thigh. He was a big Brittany man, with +shrewd eyes and an unchanging face. The rest squatted and stared +curiously at me. The light of the lantern fell upon their callous +faces, they were lookers-on at a show, of which perhaps, they had seen +the like before, they were not concerned in this affair of the _Royal +Fortune_ nor how it ended. + +"So you told no one." + +"No one." + +I closed my eyes and leaned back against the partition. I was utterly +helpless in their hands, and I hoped they would be quick. I remember +that I regretted very much I could send no word to the girl at +Merchant's Rock, and that I was very glad she had not delayed her +music till tomorrow night, but both regret and gladness were of a +numbed and languid kind. + +Then Glen asked me another question, and it spurred my will to +alertness. + +"How did you know that I was quartermaster on the _Royal Fortune?_" + +I could not remind him that he had let the ship's name drop from his +lips four years ago. It would be as much as to say that Helen had told +me. It would confess that I had spoken with her of the _Royal +Fortune_. Yet I must answer, and without the least show of hesitation. +I caught at the first plausible reason which occurred to me. I said: +"Cullen Mayle told me," and that answer saved my life. For Glen +remarked, "Yes, he knew," and nodded to Tortue: Tortue lifted the +knife in his hand, and again I closed my eyes. But the next thing I +heard was a snap as the blade shut into the handle, and the next thing +after that Tortue's voice deliberately speaking: + +"George Glen, you never had the brains of a louse. You can smirk and +wriggle, and you're handy with a weapon, but, you never had no +brains." + +I opened my eyes pretty wide at that, and I saw that the three younger +faces were now kindled out of their sluggishness. It was that mention +of Cullen Mayle which had wrought the change. These three took no +particular interest in the _Royal Fortune_, but they had every +interest in the doings of Cullen Mayle, and they now alertly followed +all that Tortue said. George Glen leaned forward. + +"Who's cap'en here, Peter Tortue?" said he. "Was you with us on the +Sierra Leone River? Nat Roper there, Blads, you James Skyrm, speak up, +lads, was he with us?" + +"My son was," said Tortue calmly. + +"And what sort of answer is that? 'Tis lucky for you Cap'en Roberts +isn't aboard this shed. He wouldn't have understood that language, not +he--and he wouldn't have troubled you for an explanation neither. +Here's a fine thing, lads! If a man dies, his father, what's been +lying in the lap of luxury at home, is to have his share. That's a +nice new rule for gentlemen adventurers, and not content with his +share, wants to set up for cap'en. I have a good mind to learn you +modesty, Peter, just as Roberts would have learnt you." + +He was talking quite smoothly, with a grin all over his face, but I +never saw a man that looked so dangerous. Peter Tortue, however, was +in no way discomposed. + +"Why, you blundering fool," he answered, "where would you ha' been but +for me? No, I wasn't on the Sierra Leone River with you, or you +wouldn't be eating your hearts and your pockets empty upon Tresco. No, +I am not your captain, or you wouldn't never have lost track of Cullen +Mayle at Wapping." + +There were four faces now alertly watching Peter Tortue, and the +fourth was mine. It was not merely that my life hung upon his +predominance, but there was the best of chances now that I might get +to the bottom of the mystery of their watching. + +"You talk of Roberts," he continued, "well you're not the only man +that knew Roberts, and would Roberts have let Cullen Mayle slip +through his fingers--at Wapping too? Good Lord, it makes me sick to +look at you, George Glen!" and he turned to Roper, "Who was it found +the track for you; was it him or me?" he cried. "Who was it found the +nigger and sailed from the port o' London to Penzance, ay, and would +ha' found out the nigger's message if he hadn't had the sickness on +him. Was it him or was it me? Why the nigger knowed you all! Would he +ha' sailed to Penzance on that boat if he had seen a face on board +that he had known? not he." + +"That's true," said Roper. + +"Who brought you all to Tresco, eh? Who hindered you from rushing the +house, ay, hindered you in the face of your captain, and a deal you'ld +ha' found if you had rushed the house. A lot he knows, your captain. +P'raps he thought Adam Mayle was the man to leave a polite note on his +mantelshelf, telling us where to look. Who told you to wait for Cullen +Mayle?" + +"We have waited," answered Glen. "How long are we to wait? Where is +Cullen Mayle?" + +Peter Tortue threw up his hands. + +"No wonder you all dry in the sun at the end of it," he cried, "my +word! We haven't got Cullen Mayle, but haven't we got the man as knows +him? What's he doing at Tresco if he wasn't sent by Cullen Mayle who +daren't show his face because we're here? Not worth my share, ain't I? +and you that can't add two and two! See here! Dick Parmiter goes to +London, don't he? He goes after the nigger come; what for, but to find +Cullen Mayle, and say as we're here? He knows where Cullen's to be +found, and down comes the stranger here. And we ha' got him tucked up +comfortable, and we know tricks that Roberts taught us to make him +speak, don't we? And you want to jab a knife into him. You make me +sick, George Glen--fair sick! Suppose you do jab a knife into him, and +bury him here under the stones, do you think the girl'll take it quite +easy and natural? Or will you go down the hill and rush the house? And +then if you please, what'll you all be doing to-morrow? Well, you are +captain, George Glen, but what has your crew to say to this? Come! Am +I to talk to Mr. Berkeley, or will you set your own course, and steer +for execution dock?" + +There was no hesitation in the answer. With one accord they leaned to +Tortue's proposal. + +I could not see that I was in a much better case. Tortue was to put to +me questions, the very questions which I wished to ask, and I was +expected to answer them. I should have to answer them if I was to come +off with my life. The men sat hungrily about me awaiting my answers. +It would not take them long to discover that I was tricking them, that +I had no knowledge whatever about their concerns beyond that one +dangerous item that Glen and Tortue had sailed on the _Royal Fortune_, +and when that discovery was made, why, out of mere resentment they +would let Glen have his way. + +However, I was still alive, and the girl was still at Merchant's +Point. These men were plainly growing impatient of their long stay +upon the island; and once I was out of the way, who was to stand +between them and the girl? + +I summoned my wits together, and ran quickly over my mind what I did +know. I had a few fresh hints from Tortue's arguments to add to my +knowledge. I knew why they were watching for Cullen Mayle. He was to +show them where to look for something. It was that something about +which Glen had talked to Adam Mayle the night Cullen was driven away; +Cullen had overheard, and he had gone out in search of it to the +Sierra Leone River. Glen and his companions had done likewise. It was +in some degree apparent now what that something was: namely, treasure +of some sort from the Royal Fortune, and buried on the banks of the +Sierra Leone River. They had not found it, and their presence here, +and certain words, told me why. Adam Mayle had been first with them. + +So much I could venture to think of. For the rest I must wait upon the +questions; and, fortunately for me. Glen was a man of much garrulity. + +"You spoke of a bargain," said Tortue. "What do you propose?" + +"Halves!" said I, as bold as brass. + +There was an outcry against the proposal, and it mightily relieved me, +for it proved to me I was right. It was treasure they were after, but +of what kind? I had now to puzzle my brains over that. Was it specie? +Hardly, I thought, for Adam Mayle would not have hidden money upon +Tresco. Was it a treasure of jewels, then? + +"Halves," said George Glen with a titter. "A very good proposal, Mr. +Berkeley, by daylight, with a company of soldiers within call." + +Jewels, I thought: yes, jewels--jewels that might be recognized, +jewels that Adam Mayle would keep hidden to himself so long as there +was no pressing need to dispose of them. + +"As it is," continued Glen, "we take all, but we give you your life. +That's a fair offer." + +"Yes, that's fair," said Roper. + +I hazarded it. + +"Very well," said I. "You can find your jewels for yourselves." + +I expected an explosion of wrath; I met with only mute surprise. + +"Jewels!" said Roper at length. + +"Well, isn't the cross thick with them?" said Tortue to Roper. + +"It wouldn't be of much use to us without," sniggered Glen. "Lord, but +that was a clever stroke of Roberts'--the cleverest thing he ever +done. Right under the guns of the African Comp'ny's fort she lay in +Sierra Leone harbour--a Portuguese ship of twenty guns. At a quarter +to eleven there was her crew, as many as might be--we could hear 'em +singing and laughing as we pulled across the water to 'em--and at ten +minutes past three there wasn't a mother's son of them all alive; and +no noise, mind you. Rich she was, too. Sugar--we had run short of +sugar for our punch, and welcome it was--sugar, skins, tobacco, ninety +thousand moidors, and this cross with the diamonds for the King of +Portugal. Roberts himself said he had never seen stones like it, and +he was a good judge of stones was Roberts. He was quick, too. Why, +we had that cross on the dinghy and were well up the Sierra Leone +River before daybreak, just the three of us--Roberts, me, and Adam +Mayle--Kennedy he called himself then, being a gentleman born and with +more sense than the rest of us. He buried the cross, two days sail up +the Sierra Leone River, and Roberts made a chart of its bearings. He +gave it to me on the deck of the _Royal Fortune_ when he was mortally +wounded, and I kept it all the time we were in prison. I showed it to +Adam Mayle when we escaped, but we had no means to get at it--at +least, I hadn't. Adam, he was a gentleman born, and had got his +savings placed all safe in his own name." + +I hoped Glen would go on in this strain until my slip was forgotten. I +was, besides, acquiring information. But Roper cut him short. + +"It was a cross--it wasn't jewels," said he, suspiciously; and +suddenly Tortue interrupted. + +"'Halves' was what you said, I think," he remarked, rather quickly, +and I could almost have believed that he was trying to cover up my +mistake. I took advantage of his interruption as quickly as he had +made it. + +"Half for you, half for Cullen," said I; and immediately Tortue flung +out in an extravagant passion. He threatened me, he threatened Cullen, +he opened his knife and gesticulated, he cursed, until I began to +wonder: was he acting? Was this anger a pretence to divert attention +finally from my unlucky guess? I could not be sure. I could conceive +no reason for such a pretence. But certainly, whether he intended it +or not, he brought about that result; for his companions began to fear +he would make an end of me before they had got the information where +the cross was hid, and so busied themselves with appeasing him. He +permitted himself at the last to be appeased, and George Glen took up +the argument. + +"Look you here, Mr. Berkeley," said he, "we're reasonable men, and +it's no more than fair you should be reasonable too, seeing as how you +are uncomfortably placed. That was took up by Adam Mayle, and he never +meant his son to finger it. 'A damned ungrateful, supercilious whelp,' +says he to me in the lad's own bedroom; yes, in his own bedroom"--for, +as may be imagined, I had started. Here was the explanation of how +Cullen discovered George Glen's business. I hoisted myself up against +the partition as well as I could. How I prayed that Glen would go on! +He was sufficiently garrulous, if only he was not interrupted, and he +was arguing for all of them. "'A damned ungrateful, supercilious +whelp,' he said; 'and George,' said he, as I read out the chart, 'I'd +sooner let the cross rot to pieces in the Sierra Leone mud than fetch +it home for him to have a share of. I've enough for myself and the +girl. I'll not stir a finger,' says he, 'and if it was here now I'd +have it buried with me.' Those were his very words, which he spoke to +me not half an hour after he had driven Cullen from the house, and in +the lad's own bedroom, where we couldn't be overheard." + +"But you were overheard," said I, "Cullen Mayle overheard you." Glen +jumped on to his feet, his mouth dropped, he stood staring at me in a +daze, and then he thumped one fist down into the palm of the other. + +"By God it's true," he said, "he was in the curtains." + +"He was in bed," said I. + +"By God it's true," repeated Glen, and he sat down again on the floor. +"So that's how Cullen Mayle found out. I was mightily astonished to +find him at Sierra Leone on the same business as ourselves. But it's +true. I remember there was a noise, and I cried out, 'What's that?' +with a sort of jump, and Adam he says, pleasant like, 'It's the +hangman, George;' but it wasn't, it was Cullen Mayle." + +I think that every one laughed as Glen ended, except myself. I could +even at that moment, but be sensible what a strange picture it made; +those two old ruffians sitting over against each other in the bedroom, +and Cullen waked up from his sleep in bed to lie quiet and overhear +them. + +"So you see, it isn't reasonable Cullen should have half since his +father never meant him to have any," he continued. + +"But without Cullen you would get nothing at all," said I. + +"Why not since we have you?"--and then I made a slip--I answered: "But +Cullen Mayle told me where the cross is." + +"But Cullen Mayle doesn't know," said Roper, "else would he have gone +hunting to Sierra Leone for it?" + +"Told him where to look for the plan, he means." Tortue interrupted +again. This time I could not mistake. He glanced at me with too much +significance. For some reason, he was standing my friend. + +"Of course," said I, "where to look for the plan." + +So it was a plan they needed, a plan of the spot where Adam Mayle had +buried the cross. Where could that plan be, in what unlikely place +would Adam have hid it? + +I ran over my mind the rooms, and the furniture of the house. There +was no bureau, no secretaire. But I had to make up my mind. This last +slip had awakened my captor's suspicions. The faces about me menaced +me. + +"Well, where is the plan?" + +I thought over all that Glen had said to-night--was a clue to be got +there? + +"I haven't it," said I, to gain time. + +"But where are we to look for it?" again asked Roper, and he put his +hand in his coat-pocket. + +"Speak up," said Tortue, and I read his meaning in the glance of his +eyes. He meant--"Name some spot, any spot!" But I knew! It had come +upon me like an inspiration, I had no shadow of doubt where that plan +was. I said: + +"Where are you to look for the plan? Glen has told you. Adam Mayle +would rather have had the cross buried with him than that Cullen +should have it. He couldn't have the treasure buried with him, but he +could and did the plan. Look in Adam Mayle's grave. You will find a +stick with a brass handle to it--a sword stick, but the sword's broken +off short. In the hollow of that stick you'll find the plan." Tortue +nodded at me with approval. The rest jumped up from the ground. + +"We have time to-night," said Roper, and stretching out a hand he +pulled my watch from my fob. "It is eleven o'clock," and he put the +watch in his own pocket. "Where's Adam Mayle buried?" asked another. + +"In the Abbey Grounds," said I. + +"But we want spades," objected Tortue, "we want a pick." + +"They are here," said Glen, with an evil smile, "we had them ready," +and he grinned at me. "Mr. Berkeley comes with us, I think," said he +smoothly, "untie his legs." + +"Yes," said Roper with an oath. He was in a heat of excitement. "And +if he has told us wrong, good God, we'll bury him with Adam Mayle." + +But I had no doubt that I was right. I remembered what Clutterbuck had +told me of Adam's vindictiveness. He would hide that plan if he could, +and he could have chosen no surer place. No doubt he would have +destroyed that plan when he knew that he was dying, but he was struck +down with paralysis, and could not stir a finger. He could only order +the stick to be buried with him. + +They unfastened my legs. Roper blew out the lantern, and we went out +of the shed, on to the hillside. Glen despatched Blads upon some +errand, and the man hurried up the hill towards New Grimsby. Glen +leisurely walked along the slope of the hill. I followed him, and the +rest behind me. The moon had gone down, and the night, though clear +enough, was dark. We walked on for about five minutes, until some one +treading close upon my heels suddenly tripped me up. My hands were +still tied behind my back, so that I could not save myself from a +fall. But Tortue picked me up, and as he did so whispered in my ear: + +"Is the plan there?" + +I answered, "Yes." + +I would have staked my life upon it; in fact, I was staking my life +upon it. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + IN THE ABBEY GROUNDS + + +We kept along the ridge of hill towards the east of the island, and +met no one, nor, indeed, were we likely to do. I could look down on +either side to the sea. I saw the cottages on the shore of New Grimsby +harbour on the one side, and on the other the house at Merchant's +Point, and the half-dozen houses scattered on the grass at Old +Grimsby, that went by the name of Dolphin Town, and nowhere was there +a twinkle of light. + +Tresco was in bed. + +We descended a little to our left, and rounded the shoulder of the +hill at the eastern end of the island, through a desolate moorland of +gorse; but once we had rounded the shoulder, we were in an instant +amongst trees of luxuriant foliage, and in a hollow sheltered from the +winds. The Abbey ruins stood up from a small plateau in the bosom of +the trees, its broken arches and columns showing very dismal against +the sky, and everywhere fragments of crumbling wall cropped up +unexpected through the grass. + +The burial ground was close to an eel pond, which glimmered below, +nearer to the sea, and a path overgrown with weeds wound downwards to +the graves. + +I could not tell in which corner Adam Mayle was buried, so Roper was +sent forward with the lantern to look amongst the headstones. For half +an hour he searched; the flame of the candle danced from grave to +grave as though it were the restless soul of some sinner buried there. +The men who remained with me grew impatient, for opposite to us, +across the road, lay St. Mary's and the harbour of Hugh Town; and on +this clear night the speck of light in the Abbey grounds would be +visible at a great distance. I was beginning to wonder whether Adam +had a headstone at all to mark his resting-place, when a cry came +upwards to our ears and the lantern was swung aloft in the air. + +One loud, unanimous shout answered that cry. + +"Come," shouted Glen, and seizing hold of the end of the rope where it +went round my chest, he began to run down the path. The others jostled +and tumbled after him in an extreme excitement. All discretion was +tossed to the winds. They laughed, shouted, and leaped while they ran +as though they already had the cross in their keeping. What with Glen +tugging at the end in front and the others pushing and thrusting at me +from behind, it was more than I could do to keep my feet. Twice I fell +forward on my knees and brought them to a stop. Glen turned upon me in +a fury. + +"Loose his hands then, George," said Tortue. + +"No," returned George, with an oath, and he plucked on the rope until +somehow I stumbled on to my feet, and we all set to running again. + +Things were taking on an ugly look for me. Those men were growing ten +times more savage since the grave had been discovered; they were in a +heat of excitement. In their movements, in their faces, in their +words, a violent ferocity was evident. They had made their bargain +with me, but would they keep it once they had the plan in their hands? +I had no doubt their arrangements were made for an instant departure +from the islands. One could not be a day upon Tresco without hearing +some hint of the luggers which did a great smuggling trade between +Scilly and the port of Roscoff in Brittany. No doubt Glen and Tortue +had made their account with one of these to carry them into France. I +was the more sure of this when Blads returned. I could not but think +he had been sent so that a boat might be ready, and it seemed unlikely +they would leave me alive behind them when the mere scruple of a +bargain only held their hands. + +We were now come to the grave. It had a headstone but no slab to cover +it; only a boulder from the seashore by which Adam had lived was with +a pretty fancy imposed upon the mound. + +Roper hung the lantern on to a knob of the headstone; and already Glen +had snatched the pick and thrust it under the boulder. It needed but +one heave upon the pick, and the boulder tottered and rolled from the +grave with a crash. It stopped quite close to my feet. I looked at it, +then I looked at the grave, and from the grave to the sailors. But +they had noticed nothing; they were already digging furiously at the +grave. In their excitement they had noticed nothing; even Tortue was +kneeling in the lantern-light watching the gleam of the spades, +sensible of nothing but that each shovelful cast up on the side +brought them by a shovelful nearer to their prize. And they dug with +such furious speed, taking each his turn, each anticipating his turn! +For before one man had stepped, dripping with sweat from the trench, +another had leaped in, and the spade fell from one man's grasp into +the palm of another. Once a spade jarred upon a piece of rock, and the +man who drove it into the earth cursed. I had a sudden flutter of hope +that the spade was broken, and that by so much the issue would be +delayed, but the digger resumed his work. I looked over to St. Mary's, +but the town was quiet; one light gleamed, it was only the light at +the head of the jetty. And even in Tresco such infinitesimal chance of +interruption as there had ever been had disappeared. For the men had +ceased even from their oaths. There was not even a whisper to be +shared amongst them; there was no sound but the laboured sound of +their breathing. They worked in silence. + +I had no longer any hope. I saw now and again Roper, as he slapped +down a spadeful of earth beside me, look with a grim significant smile +at me, and perhaps his fellow would catch the look and imitate it. I +noticed that George Glen, as he took down the lantern from time to +time and held it over the trench, would flash it towards me; and he, +too, would smile and perhaps wink at Roper in the trench. The winks +and smiles were easy as print to read. They were agreeing between +themselves: the unspoken word was going round; they did not mean to +keep their part of the bargain, and when they left the Abbey grounds +the mound upon Adam's grave would be a foot higher than when they +entered them. + +But this unspoken understanding had no longer any power to frighten +me. I tried to catch Peter Tortue's attention; I shuffled a foot +upon the ground; but he paid no heed. He was on all fours by the +grave-side peering into the trench, and I dared not call to him. I +wanted to contradict what I had said outside the shed upon the +hillside. I wanted to whisper to him: + +"The plan you search for is not there." + +If they were meaning to break their part of the bargain it mattered +very little, for I was unable to keep mine. + +I had suspected that from the moment the boulder was uprooted; I knew +it a moment after the lantern was hung upon the headstone. The stone +had rested on that grave for two years, yet at the fresh pressure of +the pick it had given and swayed and rolled from its green pedestal. +It had tumbled at my feet, and there was not even a clot of earth or a +pebble clinging to it. Moreover, on the grave itself there was grass +where it had rested. For all its weight, it had not settled into the +ground or so much as worn the herbage. Yet it had rested there two +years! + +The lantern was hung upon the headstone, and its light showed to me +that close to the ground the headstone had been chipped. It was as +though some one had swung a pick and by mistake had struck the edge of +the headstone. Moreover, whoever had swung the pick had swung it +recently. For whereas the face of the granite was dull and +weatherbeaten, this chipped edge sparkled like quartz. + +The aspect of the grave itself confirmed me. Some pains had been taken +to replace the sods of grass upon the top, but all about the mound, +wherever the lantern-light fell, I could see lumps of fresh clay. + +The grave had been opened, and recently--I did not stop then to +consider by whom--and secretly. It could have been opened but for the +one reason. There would be no plan there for Glen to find. + +Roper uttered an exclamation and stopped digging. His spade had struck +something hard. Glen lowered the lantern into the trench, and the +light struck up on to his face and the face of the diggers. + +I hazarded a whisper to Tortue, and certainly no one else heard it, +but neither did Tortue. Roper struck his spade in with renewed vigour, +and a stifled cry which burst at the same moment from the five mouths +told me the coffin-lid was disclosed. I whispered again the louder: + +"Tortue! Tortue!" and with no better result. + +The pick was handed down at Roper's call. I _spoke_ now, and at last +he heard. He turned his head across his shoulder towards me, but he +only motioned me to silence. The pick rang upon wood, and now I +called: + +"Tortue! Tortue!" + +Still no one but Tortue heard. This time, however, he rose from his +knees and came to me. Glen looked up for an instant. + +"See that he is fast!" he said, and so looked back into the grave. + +"What is it?" asked Tortue. + +"The plan has gone. Loose my hands!" + +I could no longer see Roper; he had stooped down below the lip of the +trench. + +"Gone!" said Tortue. "How?" + +"Some one has been here before you, but within this last week, I'll +swear. Loose my hands." + +"Some one!" he exclaimed savagely. "Who? who?" and he shook me by the +arms. + +"I do not know." + +"Swear it." + +"I do. Loose my hands." + +"Remember it is I who save you." + +His knife was already out of his pocket; he had already muffled it in +his coat and opened it; he was making a pretence to see whether the +end was still fast. I could feel the cold blade between the rope and +my wrist, when, with a shout. Roper stood erect, the stick in one +hand, a sheet of paper flourishing in the other. + +He drew himself out of the trench and spread the paper out on a pile +of clay at the graveside. Glen held his lantern close to it. There +were four streaming faces bent over that paper. I felt a tug at my +wrists and the cord slacken as the knife cut through it. + +"Take the rope with you," whispered Tortue. + +The next moment there were five faces bent over that paper. + +"On St. Helen's Island," cried Glen. + +"Let me see!" exclaimed Tortue, leaning over his shoulder. +"Three--what's that?--chains. Three chains east by the compass of the +east window in the south aisle of the church." + +And that was the last I heard. I stepped softly back into the darkness +for a few paces, and then I ran at the top of my speed westwards +towards New Grimsby, freeing my arms from the rope as I ran. Once I +turned to look back. They were still gathered about that plan; their +faces, now grown small, were clustered under the light of the lantern, +and Tortue, with his flashing knife-blade, was pointing out upon the +paper the position of the treasure. Ten minutes later I was well up +the top of the hill. I saw a lugger steal round the point from New +Grimsby and creep up in the shadow towards the Abbey grounds. + +I spent that night in the gorse high up on the Castle Down. I had no +mind to be caught in a trap at the Palace Inn. + +From the top of the down, about an hour later, I saw the lugger come +round the Lizard Point of Tresco and beat across to St. Helen's. As +the day broke she pushed out from St. Helen's, and reaching past the +Golden Ball into the open sea, put her tiller up and ran by the +islands to the south. + +There was no longer any need for me to hide among the gorse. I went +down to the Palace Inn. No one was as yet astir, and the door, of +course, was unlocked. I crept quietly up to my room and went to bed. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + IN WHICH PETER TORTUE EXPLAINS HIS + INTERVENTION ON MY BEHALF + + +As will be readily understood, when I woke up the next morning I was +sensible at once of a great relief. My anxieties and misadventures of +last night were well paid for after all. I could look at my swollen +wrists and say that without any hesitation, the watchers had departed +from their watching, and what if they had carried away the King of +Portugal's great jewelled cross? Helen Mayle had no need of it, +indeed, her great regret now was that she could not get rid of what +she had; and as for Cullen, to tell the truth, I did not care a snap +of the fingers whether he found a fortune or must set to work to make +one. Other men had been compelled to do it--better men too, deuce take +him! We were well quit of George Glen and his gang, though the price +of the quittance was heavy. I would get up at once, run across to +Merchant's Point, and tell Helen Mayle---- My plans came to a sudden +stop. Tell Helen Mayle precisely what? That Adam Mayle's grave had +been rifled? + +I lay staring up at the ceiling as I debated that question, and +suddenly it slipped from my mind. That grave had been rifled before, +and quite recently. I was as certain of that in the sober light of the +morning as I had been during the excitement of last night. Why? It was +not for the chart of the treasure, since the chart had been left. And +by whom? So after all, here was I, who had waked up in the best of +spirits too, with the world grown comfortable, confronted with +questions as perplexing as a man could wish for. It was, as Cullen +Mayle had said, at the inn near Axminster, most discouraging. And I +turned over in bed and tried to go to sleep, that I might drive them +from my mind. I should have succeeded too, but just as I was in a doze +there came a loud rapping at the door, and Dick Parmiter danced into +the room. + +"They are gone, Mr. Berkeley," he cried. + +"I know," I grumbled; "I saw them go," and stretched out my arms and +yawned. + +"Why, you have hurt your wrist," Dick exclaimed. + +"No," said I, "it was George Glen's shake of the hand." + +"They are gone," repeated Dick, gleefully, "all of them except Peter +Tortue." + +"What's that?" I cried, sitting up in the bed. + +"All of them except Peter Tortue." + +"To be sure," said I, scratching my head. + +Now what in the world had Peter Tortue remained behind for? For no +harm, that was evident, since I owed my life to his good offices last +night. I was to remember that it was he who saved me. I was, then, to +make some return. But what return? + +I threw my pillow at Parmiter's head. + +"Deuce take you, Dicky! My bed was not such a plaguey restful place +before that it needed you to rumple it further. Well, since I mayn't +sleep late i' the morning like a gentleman, I'll get up." + +I tried to put together some sort of plausible explanation which would +serve for Helen Mayle while I was dressing. But I could not hit upon +one, and besides Parmiter made such a to-do over brushing my clothes +this morning that that alone was enough to drive all reasoning out of +one's head. + +"Dick," said I as he handed me my coat, "you have had, if my memory +serves me, some experience of womenfolk." + +Dick nodded his head in a mournful fashion. + +"Mother!" said he. + +"Precisely," said I. "Now, here's a delicate question. Do you always +tell womenfolk the truth?" + +"No," said he, stoutly. + +"Do you tell them--shall we say quibbles,--then?" + +"Quibbles?" said Dick, opening his mouth. + +"It is not a fruit, Dicky," said I, "so you need not keep it open. By +quibbles I mean lies. Do you tell your womenfolk lies, when the truth +is not good for them to know?" + +"No," said Dick, as steadily as before, "for they finds you out." + +"Precisely," I agreed. "But since you neither tell the truth nor tell +lies, what in the world do you do?" + +"Well," answered Dick, "I say that it's a secret which mother isn't to +know for a couple of days." + +"I see. And when the couple of days has gone? + +"Then mother has forgotten all about the secret." + +I reflected for a moment or two. + +"Dick." + +"Yes." + +"Did you ever try that plan with Miss Helen?" + +"No," said he, shaking his head. + +"I will," said I, airily, "or something like it." + +"Something like it would be best," said Dick. + +The story which I told to Helen was not after all very like it. I +said: + +"The watchers have gone and gone for ever. They were here not for any +revenge, but for their profit. There was a treasure in St. Helen's +which Cullen Mayle was to show them the way to--if they could catch +him and force him. They had some claim to it--I showed them the way." + +"You?" she exclaimed. "How?" + +"That I cannot tell you," said I. "I would beg you not to ask, but to +let my silence content you. I could not tell you the truth and I do +not think that I could invent a story to suit the occasion which would +not ring false. The consequence is the one thing which concerns us, +and there is no doubt of it. The watchers did not watch for an +opportunity of revenge and they are gone." + +"Very well," she said. "I was right after all, you see. The hand +stretched out of the dark has done this service. For it is your doing +that they are gone?" + +I did not answer and she laughed a little and continued, "But I will +not ask you. I will make shift to be content with your silence. Did +Dick Parmiter come with you this morning?" + +"Yes," I answered with a laugh, "but he was not with me last night." + +Helen laughed again. + +"Ah," she cried! "So it was your doing, and I have not asked you." +Then she grew serious of a sudden. "But since they are gone"--she +exclaimed, in a minute, her whole face alight with her thought--"since +they are gone, Cullen may come and come in safety." + +"Oh! yes, Cullen may come," I answered, perhaps a trifle roughly. +"Cullen will be safe and may come. Indeed, I wonder that he was not +here before this. He stole my horse upon the road and yet could not +reach here first. I trudged a-foot, Cullen bestrode my horse and yet +Tresco still pines for him. It is very strange unless he has a keen +nose for danger." + +My behaviour very likely was not the politest imaginable, but then +Helen's was no better. For although she displayed no anger at my rough +words--I should not have cared a scrape of her wheezy fiddle if she +had, but she did not, she merely laughed in my face with every +appearance of enjoyment. I drew myself up very stiff. Here were all +the limits of courtesy clearly over-stepped, but I at all events would +not follow her example, nor allow her one glimpse of any exasperation +which I might properly feel. + +"Shall I go out and search for him in the highways and hedges?" I +asked with severity. + +"It would be magnanimous," said she biting her lip, and then her +manner changed. "He rode your horse," she cried, "and yet he has +fallen behind. He will be hurt then! Some accident has befallen him!" + +"Or he has wagered my horse at some roadside inn and lost! It was a +good horse, too." + +She caught hold of my arm in some agitation. + +"Oh! be serious!" she prayed. + +"Serious quotha!" said I, drawing away from her hand with much +dignity. "Let me assure you, madam, that the loss of a horse is a +very serious affair, that the stealing of a horse is a very serious +affair----" + +"Well, well, I will buy it from you, saddle and stirrup and all," she +interrupted. + +"Madam," said I, when I could get my speech. "There is no more to be +said." + +"Heaven be praised!" said she. "And now it may be, you will condescend +to listen to me. What am I to do? Suppose that he is hurt! Suppose +that he is in trouble! Suppose that he still waits for my answer to +his message! Suppose in a word that he does not come! What can I do? +He may go hungering for a meal." + +I did not think the contingency probable, but Helen was now speaking +with so much sincerity of distress that I could not say as much. + +"Unless he comes to Tresco I am powerless. It is true I have +bequeathed everything to him, but then I am young," she said, with a +most melancholy look in her big dark eyes. "Neither am I sickly." + +"I will go back along the road and search for him," and this I spoke +with sincerity. She looked at me curiously. + +"Will you do that?" she asked in a doubtful voice, as though she did +not know whether to be pleased or sorry. + +"Yes," said I, and a servant knocked at the door, and told me Parmiter +wished to speak with me. I found the lad on the steps of the porch, +and we walked down to the beach. + +"What is it?" I asked. + +"The Frenchman," said he, with a frightened air. + +"Peter Tortue?" + +"Yes." + +I led him further along the beach lest any of the windows of the house +should be open towards us, and any one by the open window. + +"Where is he?" + +Dick pointed up the hill. + +"At the shed?" I asked. + +"Yes. He was lying in wait on the hillside, and ran down when he saw +that I was alone. He stays in the shed for you, and you are to go to +him alone." + +"Amongst the dead sailor-men?" said I, with a laugh. But the words +were little short of blasphemy to Dick Parmiter. "Well, I was there +last night, and no harm came to me." + +"You were there last night?" cried Dick. "Then you will not go?" + +"But I will," said I. "I am curious to hear what Tortue has to say to +me. You may take my word for it, Dick, there's no harm in Peter +Tortue. I shall be back within the hour. Hush! not a word of this!" +for I saw Helen Mayle coming from the house towards us. I told her +that I was called away, and would return. + +"Do you take Dick with you?" she asked, with too much indifference. +She held a big hat of straw by the ribbons and swung it to and fro. +She did that also with too much indifference. + +"No," said I, "I leave him behind. Make of him what you can. He cannot +tell what he does not know." + +The sum of Dick's knowledge, I thought, amounted to no more than +this--that I had last night visited the shed, in spite of the dead +sailor-men. I forgot for the moment that he was in my bedroom when I +rose that morning. + +The door of the shed was fastened on the inside; I rapped with my +knuckles, and Tortue's voice asked who was there. When I told him, he +unbarred the door. + +"There is no one behind you?" said he, peering over my shoulder. + +"Nay! Do you fear that I have brought the constables to take you? You +may live in Tresco till you die if you will. What! Should I betray +you, whose life you saved only last night?" + +Peter opened the door wide. + +"A night!" said he, with a shrug of the shoulders. "One can forget +more than that in a night, if one is so minded." + +I followed him into the shed. Here and there, through the chinks in +the boards, a gleam of light slipped through. Outside it was noonday, +within it was a sombre evening. I passed through the door of the +partition into the inner room. The rafters above were lost in +darkness, and before my eyes were accustomed to the gloom I stumbled +over a slab of stone which had been lifted from its place in the +floor. I turned to Tortue, who was just behind me, and he nodded in +answer to my unspoken question. The spade and the pick had stood in +that corner to the left, and this slab of stone had been removed in +readiness. The darkness of the shed struck cold upon me all at once, +as I thought of why that slab had been removed. I looked about me much +as a man may look about his bedroom the day after he has been saved +from his grave by the surgeon's knife. Everything stands as it did +yesterday--this chair in this corner, that table just upon that +pattern of the carpet, but it is all very strange and unfamiliar. It +was against that board in the partition that I leaned my back; there +sat George Glen with his evil smile, here Tortue polished his knife. + +"Let us go out into the sunlight, for God's sake!" said I, and my foot +struck against a piece of iron, which went tinkling across the stone +floor. I picked it up. "They are gone," said I, with a shiver, "and +there's an end of them. But this shed is a nightmarish sort of place +for me. For God's sake, let us get into the sun!" + +"Yes, they are gone," said Tortue, "but they would have stayed if they +dared, if I hadn't set you free, for they went without the cross." + +I was still holding that piece of iron in my hand. By the feel of it, +it was a key, and I slipped it into my pocket quite unconsciously, for +Tortue's words took me aback with surprise. + +"Without the jewelled cross? But you had the plan," said I, as I +stepped into the open. "I heard you describe the spot--three chains in +a line east of the east window in the south aisle of the church." + +"There was no trace of the cross." + +"It was true then!" I exclaimed. "I was sure of it, even after Roper +had found the stick and the plan. It was true--that grave had been +rifled before." + +"Why should the plan have been put back, then?" + +"God knows! I don't." + +"Besides, if the grave had been rifled, the spot of ground on St. +Helen's Island had not. There had been no spade at work there." + +"Are you sure of that?" + +"Yes." + +"And you followed out the directions?" + +"To the letter. Three chains east by the compass of the eastern window +in the south aisle of St. Helen's Church, and four feet deep! We dug +five and six feet deep. There was nothing, nor had the ground been +disturbed." + +"I cannot understand it. Why should Adam Mayle have been at such pains +to hide the plan? Was it a grim joke to be played on Cullen?" + +There was no means of answering the problem, and I set it aside. + +"After all, they are gone," said I. "That is the main thing." + +"All except me," said Tortue. + +"Yes. Why have you stayed?" + +Tortue threw himself on the ground and chewed at a stalk of grass. + +"I saved your life last night," said he. + +"I know. Why did you do it? Why did you cover my mistakes in that +shed? Why did you cut the rope?" + +"Because you could serve my turn. The cross!" he exclaimed, with a +flourish. "I do not want the cross." He looked at me steadily for an +instant with his shrewd eyes. "I want a man to nail on the cross, and +you can help me to him. Where is Cullen Mayle?" + +The words startled me all the more because there was no violence in +the voice which spoke them--only a cold, deliberate resolution. I was +nevermore thankful for the gift of ignorance than upon this occasion. +I could assure him quite honestly, + +"I do not know." + +"But last night you knew." + +"I spoke of many things last night of which I had no knowledge--the +cross, the plan----" + +"You knew where the plan was. Flesh! but you knew that!" + +"I guessed." + +"Guess, then, where Cullen Mayle is, and I'll be content." + +"I have no hint to prompt a guess." Tortue gave no sign of anger at my +answer. He sat upon the grass, and looked with a certain sadness at +the shed. + +"It does not, after all, take much more than a night to forget," said +he. + +"I am telling you the truth, Tortue," said I, earnestly. "I do not +know. I never met Cullen Mayle but once, and that was at a roadside +inn. He stole my horse upon that occasion, so that I have no reason to +bear him any goodwill." + +"But because of him you came down to Tresco?" said Tortue quickly. + +"No." + +Tortue looked at me doubtfully. Then he looked at the house, and + +"Ah! It was because of the girl." + +"No! No!" I answered vehemently. I could not explain to him why I had +come, and fortunately he did not ask for an explanation. He just +nodded his head, and stood up without another word. + +"I do not forget," said I pointing to the shed. "And if you should be +in any need----" But I got no further in my offer of help; for he +turned upon me suddenly, and anger at last had got the upper hand with +him. + +"Money, is it not?" he cried, staring down at me with his eyes ablaze. +"Ay, that's the way with gentlefolk! You would give me as much as a +guinea no doubt--a whole round gold guinea. Yes, I am in need," and +with a violent movement he clasped his hands together. "Virgin Mary, +but I am in need of Cullen Mayle, and you offer me a guinea!" and then +hunching his shoulders he strode off over the hill. + +So Helen Mayle's instinct was right. Out of the five men there was one +who waited for Cullen's coming with another object than to secure the +diamond cross. Would he continue to wait? I could not doubt that he +would, when I thought upon his last vehement burst of passion. Tortue +would wait upon Tresco, until, if Cullen did not come himself, some +word of Cullen's whereabouts dropped upon his ear. It was still +urgent, therefore, that Cullen Mayle should be warned, and if I was to +go away in search of him, Helen must be warned too. + +I walked back again towards Merchant's Point with this ill news heavy +upon my mind, and as I came over the lip of the hollow, I saw Helen +waiting by the gate in the palisade. She saw me at the same moment, +and came up towards me at a run. + +"Is there more ill-news?" I asked myself. "Or has Cullen Mayle +returned?" and I ran quickly down to her. + +"Has he come?" I asked, for she came to a stop in front of me with her +face white and scared. + +"Who?" said she absently, as she looked me over. + +"Cullen Mayle," I answered. + +"Oh, Cullen," she said, and it struck me as curious that this was the +first time I had heard her speak his name with indifference. + +"Because he must not show himself here. There is a reason! There is a +danger still!" + +"A danger," she said, in a loud cry, and then "Oh! I shall never +forgive myself!" + +"For what?" + +She caught hold of my arm. + +"See?" she said. "Your coat-sleeve is frayed. It was a rope did that +last night. No use to deny it. Dick told me. He saw that a rope too +had seared your wrists. Tell me! What happened last night? I must +know!" + +"You promised not to ask," said I, moving away from her. + +"Well, I break my promise," said she. "But I must know," and she +turned and kept pace with me, down the hill, through the house into +the garden. During that time she pleaded for an answer in an extreme +agitation, and I confess that her agitation was a sweet flattery to +me. I was inclined to make the most of it, for I could not tell how +she would regard the story of my night's adventures. It was I after +all who caused old Adam Mayle's bones to be disturbed; and I +understood that it was really on that account that I had shrunk from +telling her. She had a right to know, no doubt. Besides there was this +new predicament of Tortue's stay. I determined to make a clean breast +of the matter. She listened very quietly without an exclamation or a +shudder; only her face lost even the little colour which it had, and a +look of horror widened in her eyes. I told her of my capture on the +hillside, of Tortue's intervention, of the Cross and the stick in the +coffin. I drew a breath and described that scene in the Abbey grounds, +and how I escaped; and still she said no word and gave no sign. I told +her of their futile search upon St. Helen's, and how I had witnessed +their departure from the top of the Castle Down. Still she walked by +my side silent, and wrapped in horror. I faltered through this last +incident of Tortue's stay and came to a lame finish, amongst the trees +at the end of the garden. We turned and walked the length of the +garden to the house. + +"I know," I said. "When I guessed the stick held the plan, I should +have held my tongue. But I did not think of that. It was not easy to +think at all just at that time, and I must needs be quick. They spoke +of attacking the house, and I dreaded that.... I should not have been +able to give you any warning.... I should not have been able to give +you any help ... for, you see, the slab of stone was already removed +in the shed." + +"Oh, don't!" she cried out, and pressed her hands to her temples. "I +shall never forgive myself. Think! A week ago you and I were +strangers. It cannot be right that you should go in deadly peril +because of me." + +"Madam," said I, greatly relieved, "you make too much of a thing of no +great consequence. I hope to wear my life lightly." + +"Always?" said she quickly, as she stopped and looked at me. + +I stopped, too, and looked at her. + +"I think so," said I, but without the same confidence. "Always." + +She had a disconcerting habit of laughing when there was no occasion +whatever for laughter. She fell into that habit now, and I hastened to +recall her to Tortue's embarrassing presence on the island. + +"Of course," said I, "a word to the Governor at Star Castle and we are +rid of him. But he stood between me and my death, and he trusts to my +silence." + +"We must keep that silence," she answered. + +"Yet he waits for Cullen Mayle, and--it will not be well if those two +men meet." + +"Why does he wait? Do you know that, too?" + +I did not know, as I told her, though I had my opinion, of which I did +not tell her. + +"The great comfort is this. Tortue did not make one upon that +expedition to the Sierra Leone River, but his son did. Tortue only +fell in with George Glen and his gang at an ale-house in Wapping, and +_after_--that is the point--after Glen had lost track of Cullen Mayle. +Tortue, therefore, has never seen Cullen, does not know him. We have +an advantage there. So should he come to Tresco, while I go back along +the road to search for him, you must make your profit of that +advantage." + +She stopped again. + +"You will go, then?" + +"Why, yes." + +She shook her head, reflectively. + +"It is not right," she said. + +"I am going chiefly," said I, "because I wish to recover my horse." + +She always laughed when I mentioned that horse, and her laughter +always made me angry. + +"Do you doubt I have a horse?" I asked. "Or rather _had_ a horse? +Because Cullen Mayle stole it, stole it deliberately from under my +nose--a very valuable horse which I prized even beyond its value--and +he stole it." + +The girl was in no way impressed by my wrath, and she said, +pleasantly: + +"I am glad you said that. I am glad to know that with it all, you are +mean like other men." + +"Madam," I returned, "when Cullen Mayle stole my horse, and rode away +upon it, he put out his tongue at me. I made no answer. Nor do I make +any answer to the remark which you have this moment addressed to me." + +"Oh, sir!" said she, "here are fine words, and here's a curtsey to +match them;" and spreading out her frock with each hand, she sank +elaborately to the very ground. + +We walked for some while longer in the garden, without speech, and the +girl's impertinence gradually slipped out of my mind. The sea murmured +lazily upon the other side of the hedge, and I had full in view St. +Helen's Island and the ruined church upon its summit. The south aisle +of the church pointed towards the house, and through the tracery of a +rude window I could see the sky. + +"I wonder who in the world can have visited the Abbey burial-ground +and rifled that grave?" + +The question perplexed me more and more, and I wondered whether Helen +could throw light upon it. So I asked her, but she bent her brows in a +frown, and in a little she answered: + +"No, I can think of no one." + +I held out my hand to her. "This is good-bye," said I. + +"You go to-day?" she asked, but did not take my hand. + +"Yes, if I can find a ship to take me. I go to St. Helen's first. Can +I borrow your boat; Dick will bring it back. I want to see that east +window in the aisle." + +A few more words were said, and I promised to return, whether I found +Cullen Mayle or not. And I did return, but sooner than I expected, for +I returned that afternoon. + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + THE LOST KEY IS FOUND + + +It happened in this way. I took Dick Parmiter with me and sailed +across to St. Helen's. We beached the boat on the sand near to the +well and quarantine hut, and climbed up eastwards till we came to the +hole which Glen's party had dug. The ground sloped away from the +church in this direction; and as I stood on the edge of the hole with +my face towards the side of the aisle, I could just see over the grass +the broken cusp of the window. It was exactly opposite to me. + +It occurred to me, however, that Glen had measured the distance wrong. +So I sent Dick in the boat across to Tresco to borrow a measure, and +while he was away I examined the ground there around; but it was all +covered with grass and bracken, which evidently had not been +disturbed. Here and there were bushes of brambles, but, as I was at +pains to discover, no search for the cross had been made beneath them. + +In the midst of my search Dick came back to me with a tape measure, +and we set to work from the window of the church. The measure was for +a few yards, so that when we had run it out to its full length, +keeping ever in the straight line, it was necessary to fix some sort +of mark in the ground, and start afresh from that; and for a mark I +used a big iron key which I had in my pocket. Three chains brought us +exactly to the hole which had been dug, and holding the key in my +hand, I said: + +"They made no mistake. It is plain the plan was carelessly drawn." + +And Dick said to me: "That's the key of our cottage." + +I handed it to him to make sure. He turned it over in his hand. + +"Yes," said he, "that's the key;" and he added reproachfully, with no +doubt a lively recollection of his mother's objurgations: "So you had +it all the time." + +"I found it this morning, Dick," said I. + +"Where?" + +"In the shed on the Castle Down. Now, how the deuce did it get there? +The dead sailormen had no use for keys." + +"It's very curious," said Dick. + +"Very curious and freakish," said I, and I sat down on the grass to +think the matter out. + +"Let me see, your mother missed it in the morning after I came to +Tresco." + +"That's three days ago." And I could hardly believe the boy. It seemed +to me that months had passed. But he was right. + +"Yes, three days ago. Your mother missed it in the morning. It is +likely, then, that it was taken from the lock of the door the night +before." + +"That would be the night," said Dick, suspiciously, "when you tapped +on my window." + +"The night, in fact, when I first landed on Tresco. Wait a little." + +Dick sat still upon the grass, and I took the key from his hand into +mine. There were many questions which at that moment perplexed +me--that hideous experience in Cullen Mayle's bedroom, the rifling of +Adam Mayle's grave, the replacing of the plan in it and the +disappearance of the cross, and I was in that state of mind when +everything new and at all strange presented itself as a possible clue +to the mystery. It seemed to me that the key which I held was very +much more than a mere rusty iron key of a door that was never locked. +I felt that it was the key to the door of the mystery which baffled +me, and that feeling increased in me into a solid conviction as I held +it in my hand. I seemed to see the door opening, and opening very +slowly. The chamber beyond the door was dark, but my eyes would grow +accustomed to the darkness if only I did not turn them aside. As it +was, even now I began to see dim, shadowy things which, uncomprehended +though they were, struck something of a thrill into my blood, and +something of a chill, too. + +"The night that I landed upon Tresco," I said, "we crossed the Castle +Down, I nearly fell on to the roof of the shed, where all the dead +sailormen were screeching in unison." + +"Yes!" said Dick, in a low voice, and I too looked around me to see +that we were not overheard. Dick moved a little nearer to me with an +uneasy working of his shoulders. + +"Do you remember the woman who passed us?" I asked. + +"You said it was a woman." + +"And it was." + +I had the best of reasons to be positive upon that point. I had +scratched my hand in the gorse and I had seen the blood of my +scratches the next day on the dress of the woman who had brushed +against me as she passed. That woman was Helen Mayle. Had she come +from the shed? What did she need with the key? + +"Is that shed ever used?" I asked. + +"Not now." + +"Whom does it belong to?" + +He nodded over towards Merchant's Rock. + +"Then Adam Mayle used it?" + +"Cullen Mayle used it." + +"Cullen!" + +I sprang up to my feet and walked away; and walked back; and walked +away again. The shadowy things were indeed becoming visible; my eyes +were growing indeed accustomed to the darkness; and, indeed, the door +was opening. Should I close, slam it to, lock it again and never open +it? For I was afraid. + +But if I did shut it and lock it I should come back to it perpetually, +I should be perpetually fingering the lock. No; I would open the door +wide and see what was within the room. I came back to Dick. + +"What did Cullen Mayle use it for?" + +"He was in league with the Brittany smugglers. Brandy, wine, and lace +were landed on the beach of a night and carried up to the shed." + +"Were they safe there?" + +Dick laughed. Here he was upon firm ground, and he answered with some +pride: + +"When Cullen Mayle lived here, the collector of customs daren't for +his life have landed on Tresco in daylight." + +"And at night the dead sailormen kept watch." + +"There wasn't a man who would go near the shed." + +"So Cullen Mayle would not have needed a key to lock the shed?" + +"No, indeed!" and another laugh. + +"Could he have needed a key for any other purpose? Dick, we will go +slowly, very slowly," and I sat for some while hesitating with a great +fear very cold at my heart. That door was opening fast. Should I push +it open, wide? With one bold thrust of the hand I could do it--if I +would. But should I see clearly into the room--so clearly that I could +not mistake a single thing I saw. No, I would go on, gently forcing +the door back, and all the while accustoming my vision to the gloom. + +"Has that shed been used since Cullen Mayle was driven away?" + +"No." + +"You are certain? Oh, be certain, very certain, before you speak." + +Dick looked at me in surprise, as well he might; for I have no doubt +my voice betrayed something of the fear and pain I felt. + +"I am certain." + +"Well, then, have you, has any one heard these dead sailormen making +merry--God save the mark--since that shed has been disused?" + +Dick thought with considerable effort before he answered. But it did +not matter; I was certain what his answer would be. + +"I have never heard them," he said. + +"Nor have met others who have?" + +"No," said he, after a second deliberation, "I don't remember any one +who has." + +"From the time Cullen Mayle left Tresco to the night when we crossed +the Down to Merchant's Rock? There's one thing more. Cullen was in +league with the Brittany smugglers. He would be in league, then, with +smugglers from Penzance, who would put him over to Tresco secretly, if +he needed it?" + +"He was very good friends with all smugglers," said Dick. + +"Then," said I, rising from the ground, "we will sail back, Dick, to +Tresco, and have another look into that shed." + +I made him steer the boat eastwards and land behind the point of the +old Grimsby Harbour, on which the Block House stands, and out of sight +of Merchant's Point. It was not that I did not wish to be seen by any +one in that house. But--but--well, I did not wish at that moment to +land near it--to land where a voice now grown familiar might call to +me. + +From the Block House we struck up through Dolphin Town on to the empty +hill, and so came to the shed. I pushed open the door and went in. +Dick followed me timidly. + +The floor was of stone. I had been thinking of that as we sailed +across from St. Helen's. I had been thinking, too, that when I was +carried into the inner room the door of the partition was jambed +against the floor, that Roper had kicked it open, and that, as it +yielded, I had heard some iron thing spring from beneath it and jingle +across the floor. That iron thing was, undoubtedly, the key which I +held in my hand. + +I placed it again under the door. There was a fairly strong wind +blowing. I told Dick to set the outer door wide open to the wind, +which he did. And immediately the inner door began to swing backwards +and forwards in the draught. But it dragged the key with it, and it +dragged the key over the stone floor. The shed was filled with a +harsh, shrill, rasping sound, which set one's fingernails on edge. I +set my hand to the door and swung it more quickly backwards and +forwards. The harsh sound rose to a hideous inhuman grating screech. + +"There are your dead sailormen, Dick," said I. "It was Cullen +Mayle who took the key from your door on the night I landed on +Tresco--Cullen Mayle, who had my horse to carry him on the road and +smuggler friends at Penzance to carry him over the sea. It was Cullen +Mayle who was in this shed that night, and used his old trick to scare +people from his hiding-place. It was Cullen Mayle who was first in the +Abbey burial ground. No doubt Cullen Mayle has that cross. And it was +Cullen Mayle whom the woman---- But, there, enough." + +The door was wide open now, and this key had opened it. I could see +everything clearly. My eyes were, indeed, now accustomed to the +gloom--so accustomed that, as I stepped from the shed, all the +sunlight seemed struck out of the world. + +It was all clear. Helen Mayle had come up to the shed that night. She +had told Cullen of the stick in the coffin--yes, she must have done +that. She told him of the men who watched. What more had passed +between them I could not guess, but she had come back with despair in +her heart, and, in the strength of her despair, had walked late at +night into his room--with that silk noose in her hand. + +That she loved him--that was evident. But why could she not have been +frank with me? Cullen had spoken with her, had been warned by her, had +left the island since. Why had she kept up this pretence of anxiety on +his account, of fear that he was in distress, of dread lest he return +unwitting of his peril and fall into Glen's hand? Clutterbuck's word +"duplicity" came stinging back to me. + +I sent Dick away to sail the boat back to Merchant's Point, and lay +for a long while on the open hillside, while the sun sank and evening +came. It was only yesterday that she had played in her garden upon the +violin. I had felt that I knew her really for the first time as she +sat with her pale face gleaming purely through the darkness. Why could +she not have been frank to me? The question assailed me; I cried it +out. Surely there was some answer, an answer which would preserve my +picture of her in her tangled garden, untarnished within my memories. +Surely, surely! And how could such deep love mate with duplicity? + +I put the scarf into my pocket, and crossed the hill again and came +down to Merchant's Point. I could not make up my mind to go in. How +could I speak of that night when I slept in Cullen Mayle's bedroom? I +lay now upon the gorse watching the bright windows. Now I went down to +the sea and its kindly murmurings. And at last, about ten o'clock of +the night, a white figure came slowly from the porch and stood beside +me. + +"You have been here--how long?--I have watched you," she said very +gently. "What is it? Why didn't you come in?" + +I took both her hands in mine and looked into her eyes. + +"Will you be frank with me if I do?" + +"Why, yes," she said, and her face was all wonder and all concern. +"You hurt me--no, not your hands, but your distrust." + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + AN UNSATISFACTORY EXPLANATION + + +We went into the house, but no farther than the hall. For the moment +we were come there she placed herself in front of me. I remember that +the door of the house was never shut, and through the opening I could +see a shoulder of the hill and the stars above it, and hear the long +roar of the waves upon the beach. + +"We are good friends, I hope, you and I," she said. "Plain speech is +the privilege of such friendship. Speak, then, as though you were +speaking to a man. Wherein have I not been frank with you?" + +There must be, I thought, some explanation which would free her from +all suspicion of deceit. Else, how could she speak with so earnest a +tongue or look with eyes so steady? + +"As man to man, then," I answered, "I am grieved I was not told that +Cullen Mayle had come secretly to Tresco and had thence escaped." + +"Cullen!" she said, in a wondering voice. "He was on Tresco! Where?" + +I constrained myself to answer patiently. + +"In the Abbey grounds, on St. Helen's Island, and--" I paused, +thinking, nay hoping, that even at this eleventh hour she would speak, +she would explain. But she kept silence, nor did her eyes ever waver +from my face. + +--"And," I continued, "on Castle Down." + +"There!" she exclaimed, and added, thoughtfully, "Yes, there he would +be safe. But when was Cullen upon Tresco? When?" + +So the deception was to be kept up. + +"On the night," I answered, "when I first came to Merchant's Point." + +She looked at me for a little without a word, and I could imagine that +it was difficult for her to hit upon an opportune rejoinder. There was +one question, however, which might defer her acknowledgments of her +concealments, and, to be sure, she asked it: + +"How do you know that?" and before I could answer, she added another, +which astonished me by its assurance. "When did you find out?" + +I told her, I trust with patience, of the key and the various steps by +which I had found out. "And as to when," I said, "it was this +afternoon." + +At that she gave a startled cry, and held out a trembling hand towards +me. + +"Had you known," she cried, "had you known only yesterday that Cullen +had come and had safely got him back, you would have been spared all +you went through last night!" + +"What I went through last night!" I exclaimed, passionately. "Oh, that +is of small account to me, and I beg you not to suffer it to trouble +your peace. But--I do not say had I known yesterday, I say had I been +_told_ yesterday--I should have been spared a very bitter +disappointment." + +"I do not understand," she said, and again she put out her hand +towards me and drew it in and stretched it out again with an +appearance of distress to which even at that moment I felt myself +softening. However, I took no heed of the hand. "In some way you blame +me, but I do not understand." + +"You would, perhaps, find it easier to understand if you were at the +pains to remember that on the night I landed upon Tresco, I came over +Castle Down and past the shed to Merchant's Point." + +"Well?" and she spoke with more coldness, as though her pride made her +stubborn in defiance. No doubt she was unaware that I was close to her +that night. It remained for me to reveal that, and God knows I did it +with no sense of triumph, but only a great sadness. + +"As I stood in the darkness a little this side of the shed, a girl +hurried down the hill from it. She was dressed in white, so that I +could make no mistake. On the other hand, my dark coat very likely +made me difficult to see. The girl passed me, and so closely that her +frock brushed against my hand. Now, can you name the girl?" + +She looked at me with the same stubbornness. + +"No," she said, "I cannot." + +"On the other hand," said I, "I can. One circumstance enables me to be +certain. I slipped on the grass that night, and catching hold of a +bush of gorse pricked my hand." + +"Yes, I remember that." + +"I pricked my hand a minute or two before the girl passed me. As I +say, she brushed against my hand, which was bleeding, and the next day +I saw the blood smirched upon a white frock--and who wore it, do you +think?" + +"I did," she answered. + +"Ah! Then you own it. You will own too that I have some cause of +discontentment in that you have played with me, whose one thought was +to serve you like an honest gentleman." + +And at that the stubbornness, the growing resentment at my questions, +died clean out of her face. + +"You would have!" she cried eagerly. "You would indeed have cause for +more than discontent had I played with you. But you do not mean that. +You cannot think that I would use any trickeries with you. Oh! take +back your words! For indeed they hurt me. You are mistaken here. I +wore the frock, but it was not I who was on Castle Down that night. It +was not I who brushed past you----" + +"And the stain?" I asked. + +"How it came there I do not know," she said. "But this I do know,--it +was not your hand that marked it. I never knew that Cullen was on +Tresco. I never saw him, much less spoke to him. You will believe +that? No! Why should I have kept it secret if I had?" and her head +drooped as she saw that still I did not believe. + +There was silence between us. She stood without changing her attitude, +her head bent, her hands nervously clasping and unclasping. The wind +came through the open door into the hall. Once in the silence Helen +caught her breath; it was as though she checked a sob; and gradually a +thought came into my mind which would serve to explain her +silence--which would, perhaps, justify it--which, at all events, made +of it a mistaken act of kindness. So I spoke with all gentleness--and +with a little remorse, too, for the harshness I had shown: + +"You said we were good friends, you hoped; and, for my part, I can say +that the words were aptly chosen. I am your friend--your good +_friend_. You will understand? I want you also to understand that it +was not even so much as friendship which brought me down to Tresco. It +was Dick's sturdy example, it was my utter weariness, and some spark +of shame Dick kindled in me. I was living, though upon my soul +_living_ is not the word, in one tiresome monotony of disgraceful +days. I had made my fortune, and in the making had somehow unlearnt +how fitly to enjoy it." + +"But this I know," interrupted Helen, now lifting her face to me. + +"I never told you." + +"But my violin told me. Do you remember? I wanted to know you through +and through, to the heart's core. So I took my violin and played to +you in the garden. And your face spoke in answer. So I knew you." + +It was strange. This confession she made with a blush and a great deal +of confusion--a confession of a trick if you will, but a trick to +which no one could object, by which anyone might be flattered. But +that other more serious duplicity she could deny with an unwavering +assurance! + +"You know then," I went on. "It makes it easier for me. I want you to +understand then that it was to serve myself I came, and I do verily +believe that I have served myself better than I have served you. Why, +I did not even know what you were like. I did not inquire of +Clutterbuck, he drew no picture of you to persuade me to my journey. +Thus then there is no reason why you should be silent concerning +Cullen out of any consideration for me." + +She looked at me in perplexity. My hint had not sufficed. I must make +myself more clear. + +"I have no doubt," I continued, "that you have seen. No doubt I might +have been more circumspect. No doubt I have betrayed myself this last +day. But, believe me, you are under no debt to me. If I can bring +Cullen Mayle back to you, I will not harbour a thought of jealousy." + +Did she understand? I could not be sure. But I saw her whole face +brighten and smile--it was as though a glory shone upon it--and her +figure straighten with a sort of pride. Did she understand at the last +that she need practise no concealments? But she said nothing, she +waited for me to say what more I had to say. Well, I could make the +matter yet more plain. + +"Besides," I said, "I knew--I knew very well before I set out from +London, Clutterbuck told me. So that it is my own fault, you see, if +when I came here I took no account of what he told me. And even so, +believe me, I do not regret the fault." + +"Lieutenant Clutterbuck!" she exclaimed, with something almost of +alarm. "He told you what?" + +"He told me of a night very like this. You were standing in this hall, +very likely as you stand now, and the door was open and the breeze and +the sound of the sea came through the open door as it does now. Only +where I stand Cullen Mayle stood, asking you to follow him out through +the world. And you would have followed, you did indeed begin to +follow----" + +So far I had got when she broke in passionately, with her eyes afire! + +"It is not true! How can men speak such lies? Lieutenant Clutterbuck! +I know--he told me the same story. It would have been much easier, so +much franker, had he said outright he was tired of his--friendship for +me and wished an end to it. I should have liked him the better had he +been so frank. But that he should tell you the same story. Oh! it is +despicable--and you believe it?" she challenged me. "You believe that +story. You believe, too, I went to a trysting with Cullen on Castle +Down, the night you came, and kept it secret from you and let you run +the peril of your life. You will have it, in a word, whatever I may +say or do," and she wrung her hands with a queer helplessness. "You +will have it that I love him. Pity, a sense of injustice, a feeling +that I wrongly possess what is rightly his--these things you will not +allow can move me. No, I must love him." + +"Have I not proof you do?" I answered. "Not from Clutterbuck, but from +yourself. Have I not proof into what despair your love could throw +you?" And I took from my pocket the silk scarf. "Where did I get +this?" + +She took it from my hands, while her face softened. She drew it +through her fingers, and a smile parted her lips. She raised her eyes +to me with a certain shyness, and she answered shyly: + +"Yet you say you were not curious to know anything of me in London +before you started to the West." + +The answer was no answer at all. I repeated my question: + +"How do I come to have that scarf?" + +"I can but guess," she said; "I did not know that Lieutenant +Clutterbuck possessed it. But it could be no one else. You asked it of +Lieutenant Clutterbuck in London." + +For a moment I could not believe that I had heard a right. I stared at +her. It was impossible that any woman could carry effrontery to so +high a pitch. But she repeated her words. + +"Lieutenant Clutterbuck gave it to you no doubt in London, and--will +you tell me?--I should like to know. Did you ask him for it?" + +Should I strip away this pretence? Should I compel her to own where I +found it and how I came by it? But it seemed not worth while. I turned +on my heel without a word, and went straight out through the open door +and on to the hillside. + +And so this was the second night which I spent in the gorse of Castle +Down. One moment I was hot to go back to London and speak to no woman +for the rest of my days. The next I was all for finding Cullen Mayle +and heaping coals of fire upon Helen's head. The coals of fire carried +the day in the end. + +As morning broke I walked down to the Palace Inn fully resolved. I +would search for Cullen Mayle until I found him. I would bring him +back. I would see him married to Helen from a dark corner in St. +Mary's Church, and when the pair were properly unhappy and miserable, +as they would undoubtedly become--I was very sorry, but miserable they +would be--why then I would send her a letter. The writing in the +letter should be "Ha! ha!"--not a word more, not even a signature, but +just "Ha! ha!" on a blank sheet of paper. + +But, as I have said, I had grown very young these last few days. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + CULLEN MAYLE COMES HOME + + +The search was entirely unsuccessful. Through the months of November +and December I travelled hither and thither, but I had no hint as to +Cullen Mayle's whereabouts; and towards the end of the year I took +passage in a barque bound for St. Mary's, where I landed the day +before Christmas and about the fall of the dusk. It was my intention +to cross over that night to Tresco and report my ill-success, which I +was resolved to do with a deal of stateliness. I was also curious to +know whether Peter Tortue was still upon the island. + +But as I walked along the street of Hugh Town to the "Dolphin" Inn, by +the Customs House, a band of women dancing and shouting, with voices +extraordinarily hoarse, swept round the corner. I fell plump amongst +them, and discovered they were men masquerading as women. Moreover, +they stopped me, and were for believing that I was a woman +masquerading as a man; and, indeed, when they had let me go I did come +upon a party of girls dressed up for sea captains and the like, who +swaggered, counterfeiting a manly walk, and drawing their hangers upon +one another with a great show of spirit. + +The reason of these transformations was explained to me at the +"Dolphin." It seems that they call this sort of amusement "a +goose-dancing," and the young people exercise it in these islands at +Christmas time. I was told that it would be impossible for me to hire +a boatman to put me over to Tresco that night; so I made the best of +the matter, and to pass the time stepped out again into the street, +which was now lighted up with many torches and crowded with +masqueraders. They went dancing and singing from house to house; the +women paid their addresses with an exaggeration of courtly manners to +the men, who, dressed in the most uncouth garments that could be +devised, received them with a droll shyness and modesty, and +altogether, what with liquor and music, the festival went with a deal +of noise and spirit. But in the midst of it one of these false women, +with a great bonnet pulled forward over her face, clapped a hand upon +my shoulder and said in my ear: + +"Mr. Berkeley, I hope you have been holding better putt cards of +late;" and would have run on, but I caught him by the arm. + +"Mr. Featherstone," said I, "you stole my horse; I have a word to say +to you." + +"I have not the time to listen," said he, wrenching his arm free as he +flung himself into the thick of the crowd. I kept close upon his +heels, however, which he perceived, and drawing into a corner he +suddenly turned round upon me. + +"Your horse is dead," said he. "I very much regret it; but I will pay +you, for I have but now come into an inheritance. I will pay you for +it to-morrow." + +"I did not follow you to speak of the horse, or to Mr. Featherstone at +all, but to Mr. Cullen Mayle." + +"You know me?" he exclaimed, looking about him lest the name should +have been overheard. + +"And have news for you," I added. "Will you follow me to the +'Dolphin?'" + +I went back to the inn, secured from my host a room where we could be +private, and went out to the door. Cullen Mayle was waiting; he +followed me quickly in, hiding his face so that no one could recognise +him, and when the door was shut-- + +"How in the world did you come to know of my name?" said he. "I cannot +think, but I shall be obliged if you will keep it secret for a day or +so, for I am not sure but what I may have some inconvenient friends +among these islands." + +"Those inconvenient friends are all gone but one," said I. + +"You know that too," he exclaimed. "Indeed, Mr. Berkeley, you seem to +be very well acquainted with my affairs; but I cannot regret it, since +you give me such comforting news. Only one of my inconvenient friends +left! Why, I am a match for one--I think I may say so without +vaunting--so it seems I can come to Tresco and take up my +inheritance." + +With that he began briskly to unhook the cotton dress which he had put +on over his ordinary clothes. + +"Inheritance!" said I. "You mentioned the word before. I do not +understand." + +"Oh," said he, "it is a long story and a melancholy. My father drove +me from the house, and bequeathed his fortune to an adopted daughter." + +"Yes," said I quickly, "I know that too." + +"Indeed!" and he stopped his toilette to stare at me. "Perhaps you are +aware then that Helen Mayle, conscious of my father's injustice, +bequeathed it again to me." + +"Yes, but--but--you spoke of an immediate inheritance." + +"Ah," said he, coolly, "there is something, then, I can inform you of. +Helen Mayle is dead." + +"What's that?" I cried, and started to my feet. I did not understand. +I was like a man struck by a bullet, aware dimly that some hurt has +come to him, but not yet conscious of the pain, not yet sensible of +the wound. + +"Hush!" said Cullen Mayle, and untying a string at his waist he let +his dress fall about his feet. "It is most sad. Not for the world +would I have come into this inheritance at such a cost. You knew Helen +Mayle, perhaps?" he asked, with a shrewd glance at me. "A girl very +staunch, very true, who would never forget a _friend_." He emphasised +that word "friend" and made it of a greater significance. "Indeed, I +am not sure, but I must think it was because she could not forget +a--friend that, alas! she died." + +I was standing stupefied. I heard the words he spoke, but gave +them at this moment no meaning. I was trying to understand the one +all-important fact. + +"Dead!" I babbled. "Helen Mayle--dead!" + +"Yes, and in the strangest, pitiful way. I cannot think of it, without +the tears come into my eyes. The news came to me but lately, and you +will perhaps excuse me on that account." His voice broke as he spoke; +there were tears, too, in his eyes. I wondered, in a dull way, whether +after all he had really cared for her. "But how comes it that you knew +her?" he asked. + +I sat down upon a chair and told him--of Dick Parmiter's coming to +London, of my journey into the West. I told him how I had come to +recognise him at the inn; and as I spoke the comprehension of Helen's +death crept slowly into my mind, so that I came to a stop and could +speak no more. + +"You were on your way to Tresco," said he, "when we first met. Then +you know that she is dead?" + +"No," I answered. "When did she die?" + +"On the sixth of October," said he. + +I do not think that I should have paid great heed to his words, but +something in his voice--an accent of alarm--roused me. I lifted my +eyes and saw that he was watching me with a singular intentness. + +"The sixth of October," I repeated vaguely, and then I broke into a +laugh, so harsh and hysterical that it seemed quite another voice than +mine. "Your news is false," I cried; "she is not dead! Why, I did not +leave Tresco till the end of October, and she was alive then and no +sign of any malady. The sixth of October! No, indeed, she did not die +upon that day." + +"Are you sure?" he exclaimed. + +"Sure?" said I. "I have the best of reasons to be sure; for it was on +the sixth of October that I first set foot in Tresco," and at once +Cullen Mayle sprang up and shook me by the hand. + +"Here is the bravest news," he said. His whole face was alight; he +could not leave hold of my hand. "Mr. Berkeley, I may thank God that I +spoke to you to-night. 'Helen!'"--and he lingered upon the name. "Upon +my word, it would take little more to unman me. So you landed on the +sixth of October. But are you sure of the date?" he asked with +earnestness. "I borrowed your horse but a few days before. You would +hardly have travelled so quickly." + +"I travelled by sea with a fair wind," said I. "It was the sixth of +October. Could I forget it? Why, that very night I crossed Castle Down +to Merchant's Point; that very night I entered the house. Dick +Parmiter showed me a way. I crept into the house, and slept in your +bedroom----" + +I had spoken so far without a notion of the disclosure to which my +words were leading me. I was not looking at Cullen Mayle, but on to +the ground, else very likely I might have read it upon his face. But +now in an instant the truth of the matter was clear to me. For as I +said, "I slept in your bedroom," he uttered one loud cry, leapt to his +feet, and stood over against me, very still and quiet. I had +sufficient wit not to raise my head and betray this new piece of +knowledge. That sad and pitiful death on the sixth of October, of +which he had heard with so deep a pain--he had never heard it, he had +_planned_ it, and the plan miscarried. He knew why, now, and so was +standing in front of me very still and quiet. He had seen Helen that +night on Castle Down; there, no doubt, she had told him how in her +will she had disposed of her inheritance; and he had persuaded her, +working on her generosity--with what prepared speeches of despair!--to +that strange, dark act which it had been my good fortune to interrupt. +It was clear to me. The very choice of that room, wherein alone +secrecy was possible, made it clear. He had suggested to her the whole +cunning plan; and a moment ago I had almost been deceived to believe +his expressions of distress sincere! + +"I told you I was nearly unmanned," I heard him say; "and you see even +so I underrated the strength of my relief, so that the mere surprise +of your ingenious shift to get a lodging took my breath away." + +He resumed his seat, and I, having now composed my face, raised it +full to him. I have often wondered since whether, as he stood above +me, motionless and silent during those few moments, I was in any +danger. + +"Yes," said I, "it was no doubt surprising." + +This, however, was not the only surprise I was to cause Cullen Mayle +that night. + +He proposed immediately that we should cross to Tresco together, and +on my objecting that we should get no one to carry us over-- + +"Oh," said he, "I have convenient friends in Scilly as well as +inconvenient." He looked out of the window. "The tide is high, and +washes the steps at the back of the inn. Do you wait here upon the +steps. I will have a boat there in less than half an hour;" and on the +word he hooked up his dress again and got him out of the inn. + +I waited upon the steps as he bade me. Behind me were the lights and +the uproar of the street; in front, the black water and the cool +night; and still further, out of sight, the island of Tresco, the +purple island of bracken and gorse, resonant with the sea. + +In a little I heard a ripple of water, and the boat swam to the steps. +I was careful as we sailed across the road to say nothing to Cullen +Mayle which would provoke his suspicion. I did not even allow him to +see I was aware that he himself had been upon Tresco on the sixth of +October. It was not difficult for me to keep silence. For as the water +splashed and seethed under the lee of the boat, and Tresco drew +nearer, I had to consider what I should do in the light of my new +knowledge. It would have been so much easier had only Helen been frank +with me. + +Tresco dimly loomed up out of the darkness. + +"By the way," said Cullen Mayle, who had been silent too, "you said +that one of the watchers had remained. It will be George Glen, I +suppose." + +"No," I answered. "It is a Frenchman, Peter Tortue," and by the mere +mention of the name I surprised Cullen Mayle again that evening. It is +true that this time he uttered no exclamation, and did not start from +his seat. But the boat shot up into the wind and got into irons, as +the saying is, so that I knew his hand had left the tiller. But he +said nothing until we were opposite to the Blockhouse, and then he +asked in a low trembling voice: + +"Did you say Peter Tortue?" + +"Yes." + +There was another interval of silence. Then he put another question +and in the same tone of awe: + +"A young fellow, less than my years----" + +"No. The young fellow's father," said I. "A man of sixty years. I +think I should be wary of him." + +"Why?" + +"He said, 'I am looking, not for the cross, but for a man to nail upon +the cross,' and he meant his words, every syllable." + +Again we fell to silence, and so crossed the Old Grimsby Harbour and +rounded its northern point. The lights of the house were in view at +last. They shot out across the darkness in thin lines of light and +wavered upon the black water lengthening and shortening with the +slight heave of the waves. When they shortened, I wondered whether +they beckoned me to the house; when they lengthened out, were they +fingers which pointed to us to be gone? + +"Since you know so much, Mr. Berkeley," whispered Cullen Mayle, +"perhaps you can tell me whether Glen secured the cross." + +"No, he failed in that." + +"I felt sure he would," said Cullen with a chuckle, and he ran the +boat aground, not on the sand before the house but on the bank beneath +the garden hedge. We climbed through the hedge; two windows blazed +upon the night, and in the room sat Helen Mayle close by the fire, her +violin on a table at her side and the bow swinging in her hand. I +stepped forward and rapped at the window. She walked across the room +and set her face to the pane, shutting out the light from her eyes +with her hands. She saw us standing side by side. Instantly she drew +down the blinds and came to the door, and over the grass towards us. +She came first to me with her hand outstretched. + +"It is you," she said gently, and the sound of her voice was wonderful +in my ears. I had taken her hand before I was well aware what I did. + +"Yes," said I. + +"You have come back. I never thought you would. But you have come." + +"I have brought back Cullen Mayle," said I, as indifferently as I +could, and so dropped her hand. She turned to Cullen then. + +"Quick," she said. "You must come in." + +We went inside the door. + +"It is some years since I trod these flags," said Cullen. "Well, I am +glad to come home, though it is only as an outcast; and indeed, Helen, +I have not the right even to call it home." + +It was as cruel a remark as he could well have made, seeing at what +pains the girl had been, and still was, to restore that home to him. +That it hurt her I knew very well, for I heard her, in the darkness of +the passage, draw in her breath through her clenched teeth. Cullen +walked along the passage and through the hall. + +"Lock the door," Helen said to me, and I did lock it. "Now drop the +bar." + +When that was done we walked together into the hall, where she +stopped. + +"Look at me," she said, "please!" and I obeyed her. + +"You have come back," she repeated. "You do not, then, any longer +believe that I deceived you?" + +"There is a reason why I have come back," I answered. It was a reason +which I could not give to her. I was resolved not to suffer her to lie +at the mercy of Cullen Mayle. Fortunately, she did not think to ask me +to be particular about the reason. But she beat her hands once or +twice together, and-- + +"You still believe it, then!" she cried. "With these two months to +search and catch and hold the truth, you still hold me in the same +contempt as when you turned your back on me and walked out through +that door?" + +"No, no!" I exclaimed. "Contempt! That never entered into any thought +I ever had of you. Make sure of that!" + +"Yet you believe I tricked you. How can you believe that, and yet +spare me your contempt!" + +"I am no philosopher. It is the truth I tell you," I answered, simply; +and the face of Cullen Mayle appeared at the doorway of the parlour, +so that no more was said. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + MY PERPLEXITIES ARE EXPLAINED + + +There is no need for me to tell at any length the conversation that +passed between the three of us that night. Cullen Mayle spoke frankly +of his journey to the Sierra Leone River. + +"Mr. Berkeley," he said, "already knows so much, that I doubt it would +not be of any avail to practise mysteries with him. And besides there +is no need, for, if I mistake not, Mr. Berkeley can keep a secret as +well as any man." + +He spoke very politely, but with a keen eye on me to notice whether I +should show any confusion or change colour. But I made as though I +attached no significance to his words beyond mere urbanity. He told us +how he made his passage to the Guinea Coast as a sailor before the +mast, and then fell in with George Glen. It seemed prudent to +counterfeit a friendly opinion that the cross would be enough for all. +But when they discovered the cross was gone from its hiding place, he +took the first occasion to give them the slip. + +"For I had no doubt that my father had been beforehand," said he. "Had +I possessed more wisdom, I might have known as much when I heard him +from my bed refuse his assistance to George Glen, and so saved myself +an arduous and a perilous adventure. For my father, was he never so +rich, was not the man to turn his back on the King of Portugal's +cross." + +Of his father, Cullen spoke with good nature and a certain hint of +contempt; and he told us much which he had learned from George Glen. +"He went by the name of Kennedy," said Cullen, "but they called him +'Crackers' for the most part. He was not on the _Royal Fortune_ at the +time when Roberts was killed, so that he was never taken prisoner with +the rest, nor did he creep out of Cape Corse Castle like George Glen." + +"Then he was never tried or condemned," said Helen, who plainly found +some relief in that thought. + +"No!" answered Cullen, with a chuckle. "But why? He played +rob-thief--a good game, but it requires a skilled player. I would +never have believed Adam had the skill. Roberts put him in command of +a sloop called the _Ranger_, which he had taken in the harbour of +Bahia, and when he put out to sea on that course which brought him +into conjunction with the _Swallow_, he left the _Ranger_ behind in +Whydah Bay. And what does Adam do but haul up his anchor as soon as +Roberts was out of sight, and, being well content with his earnings, +make sail for Maryland, where the company was disbanded. I would I had +known that on the day we quarrelled. Body o' me, but I would have made +the old man quiver. Well, Adam came home to England, settled at +Bristol, where he married, and would no doubt have remained there till +his death, had he not fallen in with one of his old comrades on the +quay. That frightened him, so he come across to Tresco, thinking to be +safe. And safe he was for twenty years, until George Glen nosed him +out." + +Thereupon, Cullen, from relating his adventures, turned to questions +asking for word of this man and that whom he had known before he went +away. These questions of course he put to Helen, and not once did he +let slip a single allusion to the meeting he had had with her in the +shed on Castle Down. For that silence on his part I was well prepared; +the man was versed in secrecy. But Helen showed a readiness no whit +inferior; she never hesitated, never caught a word back. They spoke +together as though the last occasion when they had met was the night, +now four years and a half ago, when Adam Mayle stood at the head of +the stairs and drove his son from the house. One thing in particular I +learned from her, the negro had died a month ago. + +It was my turn when the gossip of the islands had been exhausted, and +I had to tell over again of my capture by Glen and the manner of my +escape. I omitted, however, all mention of an earlier visitant to the +Abbey burial grounds, and it was to this omission that I owed a +confirmation of my conviction that Cullen Mayle was the visitant. For +when I came to relate how George Glen and his band sailed away towards +France without the cross, he said: + +"If I could find that cross, I might perhaps think I had some right to +it. It is yours, Helen, to be sure, by law, and----" + +She interrupted him, as she was sure to do, with a statement that the +cross and everything else was for him to dispose of as he thought fit. +But he was magnanimous to a degree. + +"The cross, Helen, nothing but the cross, if I can find it. I have a +thought which may help me to it. 'Three chains east of the east window +in south aisle of St. Helen's Church.' Those were the words, I think." + +"Yes," said I. + +"And Glen measured the distance correctly?" + +"To an inch." + +"Well, what if--it is a mere guess, but a likely one, I presume to +think,--what if the chains were Cornish chains? There would be a +difference of a good many feet, a difference of which George Glen +would be unaware. You see I trust you, Mr. Berkeley. I fancy that I +can find that cross upon St. Helen's Island." + +"I have no doubt you will," said I. + +Cullen rose from his chair. + +"It grows late, Helen," said he, "and I have kept you from your sleep +with my gossiping." He turned to me. "But, Mr. Berkeley, you perhaps +will join me in a pipe and a glass of rum? My father had a good store +of rum, which in those days I despised, but I have learnt the taste +for it." + +His proposal suited very well with my determination to keep a watch +that night over Helen's safety, and I readily agreed. + +"You will sleep in your old room, Cullen," she said, "and you, Mr. +Berkeley, in the room next to it;" and that arrangement suited me very +well. Helen wished us both good-night, and left us together. + +We went up into Mayle's cabin and Cullen mixed the rum, which I only +sipped. So it was not the rum. I cannot, in fact, remember at all +feeling any drowsiness or desire to sleep. I think if I had felt that +desire coming over me I should have shaken it off; it would have +warned me to keep wide awake. But I was not sensible of it at all; and +I remember very vividly the last thing of which I was conscious. That +was Cullen Mayle's great silver watch which he held by a ribbon and +twirled this way and that as he chatted to me. He spun it with great +quickness, so that it flashed in the light of the candle like a +mirror, and at once held and tired the eyes. I was conscious of this, +I say, and of nothing more until gradually I understood that some one +was shaking me by the shoulders and rousing me from sleep. I opened my +eyes and saw that it was Helen Mayle who had disturbed me. + +It took me a little time to collect my wits. I should have fallen +asleep again had she not hindered me; but at last I was sufficiently +roused to realise that I was still in the cabin, but that Cullen Mayle +had gone. A throb of anger at my weakness in so letting him steal a +march quickened me and left me wide awake. Helen Mayle was however in +the room, plainly then she had suffered no harm by my negligence. She +was at this moment listening with her ear close to the door, so that I +could not see her face. + +"What has happened?" I asked, and she flung up her hand with an +imperative gesture to be silent. + +After listening for a minute or so longer she turned towards me, and +the aspect of her face filled me with terror. + +"In God's name what has happened, Helen?" I whispered. For never have +I seen such a face, so horror-stricken--no, and I pray that I never +may again, though the face be a stranger's and not one of which I +carried an impression in my heart. + +Yet she spoke with a natural voice. + +"You took so long to wake!" said she. + +"What o'clock is it?" I asked. + +"Three. Three of the morning; but speak low, or rather listen! Listen, +and while you listen look at me, so that I may know." She seated +herself on a chair close to mine, and leant forward, speaking in a +whisper. "On the night of the sixth of October I went to the shed on +Castle Down and had word with Cullen Mayle. Returning I passed you, +brushed against you. So much you have maintained before. But listen, +listen! That night you climbed into Cullen's bedroom and fell asleep, +and you woke up in the dark middle of the night." + +"Stop! stop!" I whispered, and seized her hands in mine. Horror was +upon me now, and a hand of ice crushing down my heart. I did not +reason or argue at that moment. I knew--her face told me--she had been +after all ignorant of what she had done that night. "Stop; not a word +more--there is no truth in it." + +"Then there is truth in it," she answered, "for you know what I have +not yet told you. It is true, then--your waking up--the silk noose! My +God! my God!" and all the while she spoke in a hushed whisper, which +made her words ten times more horrible, and sat motionless as stone. +There was not even a tremor in the hands I held; they lay like ice in +mine. + +"How do you know?" I said. "But I would have spared you this! You did +not know, and I doubted you. Of course--of course you did not know. +Good God! Why could not this secret have lain hid in me? I would have +spared you the knowledge of it. I would have carried it down safe with +me into my grave." + +Her face hardened as I spoke. She looked down and saw that I held her +hands; she plucked them free. + +"You would have kept the secret safe," she said, steadily. "You liar! +You told it this night to Cullen Mayle." + +Her words struck me like a blow in the face. I leaned back in my +chair. She kept her eyes upon my face. + +"I--told it--to Cullen Mayle?" I repeated. + +She nodded her head. + +"To-night?" + +"Here in this room. My door was open. I overheard." + +"I did not know I told him," I exclaimed; and she laughed horribly and +leaned back in the chair. + +All at once I understood, and the comprehension wrapped me in horror. +The horror passed from me to her, though as yet she did not +understand. She looked as though the world yawned wide beneath her +feet. "Oh!" she moaned, and, "Hush!" said I, and I leaned forward +towards her. "I did not know, just as you did not know that you went +to the shed on Castle Down, that you brushed against me as you +returned,--just as you did not know of what happened thereafter." + +She put her hands to her head and shivered. + +"Just as you did not know that four years ago when Cullen Mayle was +turned from the door, he bade you follow him, and you obeyed," I +continued. "This is Cullen Mayle's work--devil's work. He spun his +watch to dazzle you four years ago; he did the same to-night, and made +me tell him why his plan miscarried. Plan!" and at last I understood. +I rose to my feet; she did the same. "Yes, plan! You told him you had +bequeathed everything to him. He knew that tonight when I met him at +St. Mary's. How did he know it unless you told him on Castle Down? +He bade you go home, enter his room, where no one would hear you, +and--don't you see? Helen! Helen!" + +I took her in my arms, and she put her hands upon my shoulders and +clung to them. + +"I have heard of such things in London," said I. "Some men have this +power to send you to sleep and make you speak or forget at their +pleasure; and some have more power than this, for they can make you do +when you have waked up what they have bidden you to do while you +slept, and afterwards forget the act;" and suddenly Helen started away +from me, and raised her finger. + +We both stood and listened. + +"I can hear nothing," I whispered. + +She looked over her shoulder to the door. I motioned her not to move. +I walked noiselessly to the door, and noiselessly turned the handle. I +opened the door for the space of an inch; all was quiet in the house. + +"Yet I heard a voice," she said, and the next moment I heard it too. + +The candles were alight. I crossed the room and squashed them with the +palm of my hand. I was not a moment too soon, for even as I did so I +heard the click of a door handle, and then a creak of the hinges, and +a little afterwards--footsteps. + +A hand crept into mine; we waited in the darkness, holding our breath. +The footsteps came down the passage to the door behind which we stood +and passed on. I expected that they would be going towards the room in +which Helen slept. I waited for them to cease that I might follow and +catch Cullen Mayle, damned by some bright proof in his hand of a +murderous intention. But they did not cease; they kept on and on. +Surely he must have reached the room. At last the footsteps ceased. I +opened the door cautiously and heard beneath me in the hall a key turn +in a lock. + +A great hope sprang up in me. Suppose that since his plan had failed, +and since Tortue waited for him on Tresco, he had given up! Suppose +that he was leaving secretly, and for good and all! If that +supposition could be true! I prayed that it might be true, and as if +in answer to my prayer I saw below me where the hall door should be a +thin slip of twilight. This slip broadened and broadened. The murmur +of the waves became a roar. The door was opening--no, now it was +shutting again; the twilight narrowed to a slip and disappeared +altogether. + +"Listen," said I, and we heard footsteps on the stone tiles of the +porch. + +"Oh, he is gone!" said Helen, in an indescribable accent of relief. + +"Yes, gone," said I. "See, the door of his room is open." + +I ran down the passage and entered the room. Helen followed close +behind me. + +"He is gone," I repeated. The words sounded too pleasant to be true. I +approached the bed and flung aside the curtains. I stooped forward +over the bed. + +"Helen," I cried, and aloud, "out of the room! Quick! Quick!" + +For the words _were_ too pleasant to be true. I flung up my arm to +keep her back. But I was too late. She had already seen. She had +approached the bed, and in the dim twilight she had seen. She uttered +a piercing scream, and fell against me in a dead swoon. + +For the man who had descended the stairs and unlocked the door was not +Cullen Mayle. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + THE LAST + + +Mesmer at this date was a youth of twenty-four, but the writings of +Van Helmont and Wirdig and G. Maxwell had already thrown more than a +glimmering of light upon the reciprocal action of bodies upon each +other, and had already demonstrated the existence of a universal +magnetic force by which the human will was rendered capable of +influencing the minds of others. It was not, however, till seventeen +years later--in the year 1775, to be precise--that Mesmer published +his famous letter to the Academies of Europe. And by a strange chance +it was in the same year that I secured a further confirmation of his +doctrines and at the same time an explanation of the one matter +concerned with this history of which I was still in ignorance. In a +word, I learned at last how young Peter Tortue came by his death. + +I did not learn it from his father. That implacable man I never saw +after the night when we listened to his footsteps descending the +stairs in the darkness. He was gone the next morning from the islands, +nor was any trace of him, for all the hue and cry, discovered for a +long while--not, indeed, for ten years, when my son, who was then a +lad of eight, while playing one day among the rocks of Peninnis Head +on St. Mary's, dropped clean out of my sight, or rather out of Helen's +sight, for I was deep in a book, and did not raise my head until a cry +from my wife startled me. + +We ran to the loose pile of boulders where the boy had vanished, and +searched and called for a few minutes without any answer. But in the +end a voice answered us, and from beneath our feet. It was the boy's +voice sure enough, but it sounded hollow, as though it came from the +bowels of the earth. By following the sound we discovered at last +between the great boulders an interstice, which would just allow a man +to slip below ground. This slit went down perpendicularly for perhaps +fifteen or twenty feet, but there were sure footholds and one could +disappear in a second. At the bottom of this hole was a little cave, +very close and dark, in which one could sit or crouch. + +On the floor of this cave I picked up a knife, and, bringing it to the +light, I recognised the carved blade, which I had seen Tortue once +polish upon his thigh in the red light of a candle. The cave, upon +inquiry, was discovered to be well known amongst the smugglers, though +it was kept a secret by them, and they called it by the curious name +of Issachum-Pucchar. + +This discovery was made in the year of 1768, and seven years later I +chanced to be standing upon the quay at Leghorn when a vessel from +Oporto, laden with wine and oil, dropped anchor in the harbour, and +her master came ashore. I recognised him at once, although the years +had changed him. It was Nathaniel Roper. I followed him up into the +town, where he did his business with the shipping agent and thence +repaired to a tavern. I entered the tavern, and sitting down over +against him at the same table, begged him to oblige me by drinking a +glass at my expense, which he declared himself ready to do. "But I +cannot tell why you should want to drink with me rather than another," +said he. + +"Oh! as to that," said I, "we are old acquaintances." + +He answered, with an oath or two, that he could not lay his tongue to +the occasion of our meeting. + +"You swear very fluently and well," said I. "But you swore yet more +fluently, I have no doubt, that morning you sailed away from St. +Helen's Island without the Portuguese King's cross." + +His face turned the colour of paper, he half rose from his chair and +sat down again. + +"I was never on Tresco," he stammered. + +"Who spoke of Tresco, my friend?" said I, with a laugh. "I made +mention of St. Helen's. Yet you were upon Tresco. Have you forgotten? +The shed on Castle Down? The Abbey burial ground?" and then he knew +me, though for awhile he protested that he did not. + +But I persuaded him in the end that I meant no harm to him. + +"You were at Sierra Leone with Cullen, maybe," said I. "Tell me how +young Peter Tortue came by his death?" and he told me the story which +he had before told to old Peter in an alehouse at Wapping. + +Peter, it appeared, had not been able to hold his tongue at Sierra +Leone. It became known through his chattering that Glen's company and +Cullen Mayle were going up the river in search of treasure, and it was +decided for the common good to silence him lest he should grow more +particular, and relate what the treasure was and how it came to be +buried on the bank of that river. George Glen was for settling the +matter with the stab of a knife, but Cullen Mayle would have none of +such rough measures. + +"I know a better and more delicate way," said he, "a way very amusing +too. You shall all laugh to-morrow;" and calling Peter Tortue to him, +he betook himself with the whole party to the house of an old +buccaneering fellow, John Leadstone, who kept the best house in the +settlement, and lived a jovial life in safety, being on very good +terms with any pirate who put in. He had, indeed, two or three brass +guns before his door, which he was wont to salute the appearance of a +black flag with. To his house then the whole gang repaired, and while +they were making merry, Cullen Mayle addressed himself with an arduous +friendliness to Peter Tortue, taking his watch from his fob and +bidding the Frenchman admire it. For a quarter of an hour he busied +himself in this way, and then of a sudden in a stern commanding voice +he said: + +"Stand up in the centre of the room," which Peter Tortue obediently +did. + +"Now," continued Cullen, with a chuckle to his companions, "I'll show +you a trick that will tickle you. Peter," and he turned toward him. +"Peter," and he spoke in the softest, friendliest voice, "you talk too +much. I'll clap a gag on your mouth, you stinking offal! To-morrow +night, my friend, at ten o'clock by my watch, when we are lying in our +boat upon the river, you will fall asleep. Do you hear that?" + +"Yes," said Peter Tortue, gazing at Mayle. + +"At half-past ten, as you sleep, you will feel cramped for room, and +you will dangle a leg over the side of the boat in the river. Do you +hear that?" + +"Yes!" + +"Very well," said Cullen. "That will learn you to hold your tongue. +Now come back to your chair." + +Peter obeyed him again. + +"When you wake up," added Cullen, "you will continue to talk of my +watch which you so much admire. You will not be aware that any time +has passed since you spoke of it before. You can wake up now." + +He made some sort of motion with his hands and Peter, whose eyes had +all this time been open, said: + +"I'll buy a watch as like that as a pea to a pea. First thing I will, +as soon as I handle my share." + +Cullen Mayle laughed, but he was the only one of that company that +did. The rest rather shrank from him as from something devilish, at +which, however, he only laughed the louder, being as it seemed +flattered by their fear. + +The next day the six men started up the river in a long-boat which +they borrowed of Leadstone, and sailed all that day until evening when +the tide began to fall. + +Thereupon Cullen, who held the tiller, steered the boat out of the +channel of the river and over the mudbanks, which at high tide were +covered to the depth of some feet. + +Here all was forest: the great tree-trunks, entwined with all manner +of creeping plants, stood up from the smooth oily water, and the roof +of branches over head made it already night. + +"I have lost my way," said Cullen. "It will not be safe to try to +regain the channel until the tide rises. It falls very quickly here, +Leadstone tells me, and we should get stuck upon some mudbank. Let us +look for a pool where we may lie until the tide rises in the morning." + +Accordingly they took their oars and pulled in and out amongst the +trees, while Cullen Mayle sounded with the boathook for a greater +depth of water. The tide fell rapidly; bushes of undergrowth scraped +the boat's side, and then Mayle's boathook went down and touched no +bottom. + +"This will do," said he. + +It was nine o'clock by his watch at this time, and the crew without +any fire or light made their supper in the boat as best they could. +Meanwhile the tide still sank; banks of mud rose out of the black +water; the forest stirred, and was filled with a horrible rustling +sound, of fish flapping and crabs crawling and scuttering in the +slime; and on the pool on which the boat lay every now and then a +ripple would cross the water as though a faint wind blew, and a broad +black snout would show, and a queer lugubrious cough echo out amongst +the tree-trunks. + +"Crocodiles, Peter," said Cullen gaily, and he clapped Tortue on the +shoulder. "It would not be prudent to take a bath in the pool. Hand +the lantern over, Glen!" and when he had the lantern in his hand he +looked at his watch. + +"Five minutes to ten," said he. "Well, it is not so long to wait." + +"Four hours," grumbled Tortue, who was thinking of the tide. + +"No, only five minutes, my friend," Cullen corrected him, softly; and +sure enough in five minutes Peter stretched himself and complained +that he was sleepy. + +Cullen laughed with a gentle enjoyment and whistled a tune between his +teeth. But the others waited in a sort of paralysis of horror and +amazement. Even these hardened men were struck with a cold fear. The +suggestions of the place, too, had their effect. Above them was a +black roof of leaves, the close air was foul with the odour of things +decaying and things decayed, and everywhere about them was perpetually +heard the crawling and pattering of the obscene things which lived in +the mud. + +Peter Tortue stirred in his sleep, and Cullen held up the face of his +watch in the light of the lantern so that all in the boat might see. +It was half-past ten. Peter lifted his leg over the side and let it +fall with a splash in the water. It dangled there for about five +minutes, and then the man uttered a loud scream and clutched at the +thwart, but the next instant he was dragged over the boat's side. + +Roper told me this story, and the horror of it lived again upon his +face as he spoke. + +"Well," said I, "the father took his revenge. He stabbed Cullen Mayle +to the heart as he lay in bed. There is one thing more I would like to +know. Can you remember the paper with the directions of the spot where +the cross was buried?" + +"Yes," said he; "am I likely to forget it?" + +"Could you write them out again, word for word and line for line, as +they were written?" + +"Yes," said he. + +I called for a sheet of paper and a pen and ink, and set them before +Roper, and he wrote the directions laboriously, and handed the paper +back to me. There were only two lines with which I was concerned, and +they ran in this order: + + +"The S aisle of St. Helen's Church. Three chains east by the compass +of the east window." + + +"Are you sure you have made no mistake?" I asked. "This is a facsimile +of the paper which you took from the hollow of the stick. Look again!" + +I gave it back to him and he scratched his head over it for a little. +Then he wrote the directions again upon a second sheet of paper, and +when he had written, tore off a corner of the paper. + +"Ah!" said I, "that is what I thought." He handed it to me again, and +it ran now:-- + + +"The S aisle of S. Helen's Church. Three chains +east by the compass of the east window." + + +On that corner which had been torn a word had been written. I knew the +word. It would be "Cornish." I knew, too, who had torn off the corner. + +The cross still lies then three Cornish chains east of that window, or +should do so. We at all events have not disturbed it, for we do not +wish to have continually before our eyes a reminder of those days when +the sailors watched the house at Merchant's Point. Even as it is, I +start up too often from my sleep in the dark night and peer forward +almost dreading again to see the flutter of white at the foot of the +bed, and to hear again the sound of some one choking. + + + + THE END. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Watchers, by +A. E. W. 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